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The first book of Muteki’s Dragon Fantasy<\/em> retro role-playing saga<\/a> was all about paying homage to the Final Fantasy<\/em> and Dragon Quest<\/em> greats of the 8-bit era. In an evolutionary step forward, Book II<\/em>, coming to PS3 and Vita later this year, is being modeled in the likeness of a 16-bit JRPG, drawing particular inspiration from SNES classic Chrono Trigger<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dragon Fantasy: Book II<\/em> doesn’t appear to have an Active Time Battle gauge, but the way random encounters have been scrapped in favor of visible enemies and battles that initiate seamlessly from the map without loading to a seperate battle screen, is clearly a pull from Square’s mid-90s masterpiece. <\/p>\n

The nostalgia trip doesn’t stop at Chrono Trigger<\/em> either. Polygon reports<\/a> that the second Dragon Fantasy<\/em> is also introducing a multiplayer mode that will function like that of another Super Nintendo classic. Similar to Secret of Mana<\/em>, other players will be able to seamlessly jump into a single player’s game and immediately take control of one of Odgren’s AI party members. When they’re done, the joining players will be able to drop out as easily as they dropped in, while the main player carries on with the quest. The only difference is modern technology takes this multiplayer mode online, whereas Secret of Mana<\/em> was only capable of local co-op.<\/p>\n

Muteki hasn’t provided any footage of the multiplayer gameplay yet, but you can watch the new E3 trailer underneath to witness the awesome Chrono Triggeriness of Dragon Fantasy: Book II<\/em>‘s evolved combat system.<\/p>\n