2015 video game
Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky[3] is a role-playing video game developed and published by Spike Chunsoft, with assistance from tri-Ace, for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 video game consoles. It was released in Japan in December 2015 and worldwide in October 2016.[2]
Gameplay
The game is a side scrolling role-playing video game. Many journalists considered it a spiritual sequel to the Valkyrie Profile series of games also by tri-Ace.[4][5][6]
Story
The player follows twelve youths who are killed by an explosion in modern-day Tokyo[7] and find themselves on the fantasy-like planet of Protolexa.[5] There are three different endings, based on the player's actions over the course of the game, and some actions affect the game's new game plus mode.[8]
Development
The game was first announced in July 2015, as a collaboration between Spike Chunsoft and tri-Ace in a fourteen-page article in Weekly Famitsu.[9] The game was developed by much of the same tri-Ace staff that had worked on the first Valkyrie Profile game, with assistance from Spike Chunsoft staff as well.[6] Other key staff for the game include character designer Mino Taro of Konami's Love Plus series, and music composer Motoi Sakuraba, composer for tri-Ace's Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean series.[9][10][11] Although it was originally scheduled for release on November 26, 2015,[4] the game was delayed to its final release date, December 17.[7] Shortly after the game's Japanese release, Spike Chunsoft announced downloadable content collaborations some of tri-Ace's other games, including Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean 5 games.[12] The collaborations, released in March 2016, consisted of character costumes based on character's from the two aforementioned titles, along with a costume to dress up as Monokuma, the primary antagonist from Spike Chunsoft's Danganronpa series of video games.[13]
Until April 2016, no information had been announced in regards to an English language release of the game.[12][13] NIS America, a frequent publisher for Spike Chunsoft games in English (Danganronpa 1, Danganronpa 2, Danganronpa Another Episode), gave a "no comment" response when asked about localizing the title.[6] Aksys Games acquired the rights to localize Exist Archive and released it in North America on October 18, 2016.[2] Aksys Games released the game in Europe as a digital-only release on September 8.[14]
Reception
Famitsu gave both the Vita and PS4 versions of the game a 33/40 rating, with the four reviewers giving the title scores of 8/8/8/9.[17] The game sold 37,398 copies in its opening week in Japan, with 17,414 copies sold for PlayStation 4 and 19,984 copies sold for PlayStation Vita.[18]
