Last month, Idea Factory and Compile Heart released JRPG Varnir of the Dragon Star exclusively for PS4 in Japan with no word on a western release. That changed today though, as Idea Factory revealed during a press event today that the game is coming with a slight name change. It is now known as Dragon Star Varnir, and will be releasing for PS4 in North America and Europe next Spring.
Dragon Star Varnir follows a knight named Zephy who must team up with two witches that he was originally sworn to hunt in order to stop and evil empire and a nefarious witch. Witches are discriminated against in the game’s world because they are deemed cursed for being able to give birth to dragons, but Zephy learns to work alongside them after being given magical powers after drinking dragon blood.
Fortunately, Idea Factory confirmed that the western release of the game will include both Japanese and English audio, so the game can be experienced like it was originally intended. In terms of gameplay, Dragon Star Varnir is much more vertically oriented than the typical JRPG. Players can position their parties at different tiers in order to activate new attacks or effects. After attacking enough, characters can transform to unlock a new suite of abilities and “devour the element” of enemy dragons to progress on their skill tree.
Dragon’s blood gained from winning battles must also be fed to witches in order to keep them alive. If players don’t feed them, they will go crazy, but if they are fed too much, the witches will permanently transform into dragons. While the witches can be sacrificed in these ways for ultra-powerful items, it will impact Dragon Star Varnir’s ending. While no gameplay or screenshots in English were shown alongside this announcement, nothing seems to be changing with the western release.
You can check out the sole piece of key art and announcement trailer for the western release below. Dragon Star Varnir is releasing in North America and Europe for PS4 in Spring 2019. Idea Factory also announced today that Death end re;Quest will be releasing next February, kicking off the Japanese publisher’s 2019 lineup.