Time and Eternity features hand drawn animations [UPDATE]

RPGs with anime-inspired visuals are to Japan what brown shooters are to Americans, so on its surface Namco Bandai’s Time and Eternity doesn’t look like anything new. Games like Ni no Kuni and the recent Naruto fighting games seem to have already reached the pinnacle of what anime would look like in a 3D space, but what sets Time and Eternity apart is developer Image Epoch’s choice to actually use hand drawn character animations in 3D environments. This includes walking around outside of battle.

This is certainly an interesting approach and it looks good in screenshots, but how will it look in motion? Unfortunately we’re going to have to wait on that one because I was unable to track down any trailers for the game. As a huge fan of traditional animation I both look forward to seeing this game in action yet dread the possibility of poor execution leading to awkward perspective and misplaced character sprites.

Via Siliconera

[UPDATE]

Now we have a trailer! It looks…well we only got a few snippets of gameplay, but what I saw looks pretty excellent. It’s pretty fresh to see the concept of marriage as prevalent in this game’s story. No US release date has announced, but I’m keeping an eye on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lMUrthh0V4s#!