Lab Zero has had a good 3.5 years with Skullgirls, giving it updates and new characters for far longer than could be reasonably expected while successfully managing a loyal fan community.  It's time for something new and different, though, and that means a complete change in genre to action-RPG.  Indivisible landed on Indiegogo on Monday, complete with downloadable prototype, and it's a really nice base to build an RPG from.

The basic description of Indivisible is "Metroid meets Valkyrie Profile", which isn't a bad starting point at all.  The prototype shows off how these two systems fit together, with level exploration based on abilities found in the dungeon and the RPG-style combat taking place instantly when a monster is touched.  Like Valkyrie Profile, you'll have a party of four members and each face button corresponds to one character.  Each one has three attacks to choose from with varying effects, from strong hits to ones that target multiple enemies at once, and they're chosen by pressing up or down on the stick or leaving it alone for the standard attack.  The battle flows in real time, and you can have your characters attack singly or in groups to set up combos.  Basically, it's Lab Zero using their fighting game experience to create an RPG combat engine, and it's already a lot of fun to knock monsters around.

The prototype's dungeons aren't particularly inspired but, as should be apparent, this is a test of the systems so think of it more as a playground than actual level.  The game description in particular says a lot of things I like to hear about RPGs, such as a 20-30 hour play time barring side quests, and character art that's avoiding the ridiculous level of over-design that's made so many RPGs look silly.  (When character design makes me think "Saturn-era Game Arts", that's a good thing.)  Plus Lab Zero managed to get Hiroki Kakuta, best known as the composer of Secret of Mana, to do the soundtrack, and they've got all three tracks from the prototype available to listen to at the campaign page.  If for no other reason than to hear new music from a legendary game composer who's still at the top of his game, head on over to the Indivisible Indiegogo page and give it a look.  It's well worth the download of the prototype, too.

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3607085/type/dlg/sid/UUhgUeUpU42304/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE6zS6Z9FGQ