Earth Seeker
Cover art
Developer(s)Crafts & Meister[1][2][3][4][5][6]
Kadokawa Shoten[1][6][7]
Publisher(s)Enterbrain[7][6]
Composer(s)Yoshino Aoki
Tetsuya Shibata
Platform(s)Wii
Release
  • JP: 23 June 2011
Genre(s)Role-playing game
Mode(s)Single-player

Earth Seeker[lower-alpha 1] is an action role-playing game developed by Crafts & Meister and published by Enterbrain. It was released in Japan in 2011 for the Nintendo Wii, and to date, has not been released in any other regions.

Gameplay

Due to a space fleet crash landing, artifacts from Earth's heritage are scattered throughout another planet.[5][4][1][6] In this action RPG, the player works with their companions to battle monsters while recovering those artifacts. The player starts by preparing for battle and accepting quests in town[4] Uoon leaving, the player can fight monsters while exploring the game world. Exploration, battles, and finishing quests lead to acquiring artifacts.

The player may bring up to 6 guardians with them as companions. Guardians can equip weapons from monsters, or made from raw materials, and can wield energy balls of fire, water, wind, and lightning[5][7]. While the player character does not have a level, guardians level up by repeatedly battling. Players have the chance to contract high level guardians by offering them gifts such as sake.[5][7] During battle guardians will assist the player by dealing damage to enemies over time.[4]

During battles movement and evasion are conducted in real time.[4] As the player moves they can lock onto enemies to keep the camera focused on their target.[7] For guardians and the player character to perform commands the player must press the A button to stop time,[4][7][6] and open the command menu to select the command(s) they will use.[7] Each command consumes action cartridges,[4][7] which are displayed on the bottom of the screen, and can be recovered over time, and/or restored with items.[7] Additionally, each command has four power levels that can be used, with higher power levels consuming more action cartridges.[7] The player may continue to execute commands so long as they have not exhausted their supply of action cartridges.[7]

Plot

As a nearby black hole was causing Earth to collapse before mankind's eyes,[1][4] they built thousands of enormous spaceships,[4][1][7] packed up everything from Earth,[5][7][6] and escaped into the cosmos. However, on their voyage they were hit by a mysterious gamma burst[4] in another star system, and all life on board the ships was wiped out.[4][1] Still, the ships' computers continued searching for a habitable planet to migrate to,[4][1] and eventually found one. At the time of landing, the planet's atmosphere and the materials from Earth reacted to one another causing the severely damaged ships to crash land,[4] and the onboard artifacts from earth to be scattered throughout the planet.[5][4][1][6] The ships' computers executed the Earth Life Restoration Program, but due to the damages they had sustained, they created an ecosystem of bizarre monsters[5][7][6] and nature. Since then, 1000 years have passed,[4][7] and a new population of people born from the Earth Life Restoration Program, the Earthsiders, aims to restore Earth and its population, as an adventure on this peculiar planet begins to unfold.[4]

Characters

  • Ferris, playable character; she appears calm, but is a surprisingly short tempered girl.
  • Marti, playable character; she gives off the presence of not letting people get close to her, but her true nature is very kind.  
  • Shanren, playable character; she has a cunning and seductive personality. When the player finishes certain events in the game she becomes playable. Throughout the adventure she is able to cook, heal, and give herself temporary status buffs.
  • Grand Elder Rosa, 800 years ago she became the first born female Earthsider. She always rides a mobile life support device.
  • Alute, she works in Pangea's development room as a mechanic, and is a mechanics enthusiast who isn't the type to wear makeup.
  • Bertha, she is a kind mannered woman who works in the artifact information room.

Setting

The Earth Life Restoration Program fertilized, and artificially birthed frozen and preserved egg cells, producing new human life, though few men exist. This group, the "Earthsiders", is working to collect Earth's artifacts under Grand Elder Rosa's supervision.

At the beginning it was thought that creatures known as "Guardians" may be native inhabitants of the planet, but they were actually created by the Earth Life Restoration Program. While communication with them through language is cut off, by offering them their favorite sake[5][7] they will accompany the player on their adventures.

Monsters were born from the Earth Life Restoration Program. Due to the computers running the program initially sending out fragmented information, giant insects with railguns mounted to them, fusions of shrimp and stag beetles with vacuum cleaners, and other misconfigured life forms were created.[7] They are gathering and guarding Earth's artifacts.

Development

The game was released on the Nintendo Wii[5][4][1][7][2] on June 23, 2011[2][6][7] by Kadokawa Shoten[1][6][4][2] (whose game divisions have since merged into Kadokawa Games[8])with a CERO A age rating.[9][lower-alpha 2] The game was written and produced by Enter Brain,[1][4] and developed by Craft and Meister.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The game's lead designer, Noritaka Funamizu,[5][4][2] previously worked on games such as Street Fighter II and Monster Hunter.[4][2][6] It was originally scheduled to be on released April 7, 2011.[3] Despite companies like XSEED[1][6] and Aksys,[6] and Aksys employee Ben Batemen[6] expressing interest, the game was never officially localized outside of Japan.[11] However an English fan translation was released in February 2020 by Brand Newman and their team.[4][12] Furthermore, an English speaking Facebook group called "Seek for the Earth - Earth Seeker Support" was formed to spread awareness about the game.[6]

Reception

The game was the 20th best selling game of the week in Japan upon its release, selling 4,055 copies.[13] As of 2013, the game had sold 18,769 copies in Japan.[14]

Earth Seeker: Artifact Guardians was a series of four full color comics authored by Yasuyoshi Uetsu. They were first released as a short term serialization in Famitsu Magazine.[15] Afterwards, they were published and distributed online through Famitsu Comic Clear,[15] and in storefronts as part of the free book Earthseeker: Special Guide.

The Earth Seeker: Lost Number Quest series began being serialized by Famitsu Comic Clear in September 2011.[15] It is written by the same author as Earth Seeker: Artifact Guardians.[15]

Odekake! Earth Seeker was simultaneously as a companion DSiWare game for Earth Seeker. In this game players participate in 6 mini-games, including marking maps and making food, to earn items that can be transferred to Earth Seeker on Wii.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Earth Seeker (アースシーカー)
  2. ↑ CERO is a Japanese game ratings board whose role is similar to the ESRB in North America.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 rawmeatcowboy (2020-02-22). "Wii-exclusive RPG "Earth Seeker" gets a full fan-translation". GoNintendo. Archived from the original on 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "『アースシーカー』の発売日が6月23日に決定 - ファミ通.com". m.famitsu.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2022-04-13. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  3. 1 2 3 "Wii用ソフト『アースシーカー』が発売延期 - ファミ通.com". m.famitsu.com (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2022-04-15. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 "Japanese Wii Exclusive Earth Seeker Gets Full English Fan Translation". Siliconera. 2020-02-22. Archived from the original on 2022-04-10. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "New Details on interesting Wii game Earth Seeker". Destructoid. 2010-06-03. Archived from the original on 2022-04-12. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Operation Rainfall | Everything We Know About Earth Seeker". oprainfall. 2012-05-03. Archived from the original on 2022-04-26. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "Earth Seeker". Steam Games. Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
  8. ↑ "Global Publishing Leaders 2014: Kadokawa". PublishersWeekly.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-11. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
  9. ↑ "Earth Seeker". www.play-asia.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-18. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  10. ↑ "Rating System｜CERO (official homepage)". Computer Entertainment Rating Organization. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  11. ↑ "Earth Seeker | RPGFan". Archived from the original on 2023-04-12. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  12. ↑ "Japanese Wii Exclusive Earth Seeker Gets Full English Fan Translation". 22 February 2020. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  13. ↑ "This Week in Sales: The Last Alchemist of Arland". 29 June 2011. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  14. ↑ ファミ通ゲーム白書2013 補完データ編（分冊版） [Famitsu 2013 Game Data Report Compilation] (in Japanese). エンターブレイン. 2013.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "works". uetsu.michikusa.jp. Archived from the original on 2022-08-18. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
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