Tsumuji Message Board

Direct link here Tsumuji is due out in Japan on February 25th, 2010. Check out more screens at the official website.

Is it a Zelda clone? Yes. Is that a bad thing? We don't think so. EA Japan's Tsumuji will seem instantly familiar to anyone who have played any of the "Celda" games on DS/Gamecube. The art is not just reminiscent of Nintendo's classic: the main character looks nearly the same! (Granted, he wears a red tunic, not a green one.)The story begins with generic JRPG convention #1: our hero wakes up in a small remote village. Inexplicably, the game wants you to throw a rock at your mom's precious china. It's easy, too. Just simply tap on a faraway item to throw a rock at it. None to pleased about losing a valuable treasure, your mom punishes you by giving you money to buy a delicious meat dinner (seriously). Your character takes the money and lifts it in the air in a motion that should be familiar to most Nintendo fans.Beyond the presentation, most of the gameplay will also be more-than-reminiscent of the DS Zelda games. Your character is controlled entirely through the stylus: simply drag the stylus to where you want your character to go and click on people/items you want to interact with.

Unlike other publishers, EA isn't waiting for Tokyo Game Show to start to reveal their big news. High atop the Mori Tower in Tokyo's luxurious Roppongi Hills, EA Japan has announced a brand new original game. Tsumuji, aka Whirlwind, is a DS-exclusive being produced in Japan.We're reminded a lot of Celda. The trailer has a big-eyed character running around a top-down field that's reminiscent of A Link to the Past. There will be towns to visit, dungeons to crawl. Like the DS Zelda games, all the action is controlled by the stylus.We'll be getting hands-on with this game, and a whole slew of other EA titles: Dead Space Extraction, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Dante's Inferno, Left4Dead 2 and more. Stay tuned for the rest of our pre-TGS coverage.