Today the crowdfunding campaign for Muv-Luv Tactics: Nightmare of Kalidasa has been launched.
The campaign, which is available on the Japanese platform Campfire, aims to gather 60 million yen in pledges by December 27 2024. That’s approximately $389,000 at the current exchange rate.
Pledges including the game start at 5,000 yen, which is approximately $32. They go all the way to 500,000 yen.
The game, which was announced back in August at Comiket and then detailed last month, mixes visual novel-style storytelling with tactics RPG gameplay (or simulation RPG, as it’s called in Japan)
One of the most relevant elements of the game is the fact that Muv-Luv’s creator Kouki Yoshimune returns under the spotlight, handling the setting and overall supervision. The writing will be by Takaaki Suzuki, who worked on the Muv-Luv Alternative anime, on top of Strike Witches, Date a Live, Girls und Panzer, Violet Evergarden, and More.
The development team includes many tactics RPG and JRPG veterans, led by director Yoshiki Kashiwatani, who worked on Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and more.
Front Mission and Arc the Lad creator Toshiro Tsuchida will serve as producer and supervisor, and will also work on game design.
Muv-Luv Tactics: Nightmare of Kalidasa will place the player in the role of a platoon commander enlisted with the United Nations, tasked with leading a squad of TSF (Tactical Surface Fighter) mecha in the desperate battle for humanity’s survival against the BETA aliens.
While the story will be narrated with a style familiar to visual novel fans, the gameplay will be divided into three parts including briefing, deployment (which also involves mecha customization and equipment), and battle on a 3D map leading four TSF units.
The game will launch for PC with the following requirements:
Minimum requirements: 720p, graphics option “minimum”, 30FPS
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-3570 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200
Memory: 8GB
Graphics: GeForce GTX 970 4GB / Radeon RX 570 4GB
Recommended requirements: 1080p or higher, graphics option “highest”, 60FPS or higher
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 / AMD Ryzen 5 3500
Memory: 12GB
Graphics: GeForce GTX 1660 6GB / Radeon RX 5600XT 6GB
Muv-Luv Tactics: Nightmare of Kalidasa is also set to pave the way for the future of the Muv-Luv franchise, which will include Muv-Luv Resonative, the sequel to the Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After, Duty: Lost Arcadia set on the European front, and Muv-Luv Integrate, a direct sequel of the popular Muv-Luv Alternative set several years afterward.
If the name Muv-Luv doesn’t ring a bell, it’s a franchise created by âge mostly focused on sci-fi visual novels that debuted in Japan in 2003.
The original game for PC (which actually includes two visual novels, Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited) was then followed by Muv-Luv Alternative completing the original trilogy in 2006. It’s considered by many one of the best visual novels of all time.
The trilogy was then ported to several platforms including PS3, Xbox 360, PS Vita, Steam, and recently Nintendo Switch. It was also localized in English in 2016 following a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Several additional visual novels have expanded the franchise’s universe, on top of games from different genres like the action RPG Project MIKHAIL: A Muv-Luv War Story and the recent mobile game Muv-Luv Dimensions.
Incidentally, the enhanced edition of another of âge’s most popular visual novels, Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien, which is widely considered Muv-Luv’s prequel, has just been released on Steam localized in English for the first time.
Full disclosure: the author of this article backed Muv-Luv Tactics: Nightmare of Kalidasa’s crowdfunding campaign.
