Though it's certain that scads of school-age kids are happily playing Monster Hunter as we speak, Capcom isn't about to rest on its hunting laurels. In fact, they're going big and diverse with the just-announced Gaist Crusher, a "Custom Armor" 3DS game about young heroes crushing giant "Gaist" monsters and equipping "Gaist Gear" made from "Gaimetal". Though Capcom cites the Mega Man series as a major inspiration in addition to Monster Hunter, visually the designs remind me most of a modernized, toyetic Saint Seiya, what with the exposed faces and hair and such.
Of course, I called this thing a "mega-IP" for a reason, and Capcom's backing up their game with a hard push into the multimedia space. Gaist Crusher will come complete with an anime from Studio Pierrot (Naruto), two manga series (running in V Jump and Saikyo Jump), music under the Avex publishing label, and toys by Bandai (whose friends at Namco might well be kicking themselves into gear trying to find a counter to this). Talk about all-in!
It's way easy to look at this super-cynically and write it off as another attempt to snare youngsters into the crushing grip of commercialism, but hey, Custom Armors!
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