Japanese RPG Contact

Good news for fans of quirky Japanese RPGs - DS title Contact is to get a Western release later this year.

Apparently it's all about "hunting, cooking, fishing, training, collecting and romance," would you believe. Playing as a young lad named Terry, you meet a Professor whose spaceship has crash landed on a strange planet. The ship's power sources - known as Cells - have become scattered about the place, and it's your job to retrieve them all.

Along the way, you'll have to train animals, collect items and play all manner of mini-games. There's also a bit of real time combat to be done, using something called Decal Attacks. You'll be able to take the game online via Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service, but there's no word of how this'll work just yet.

The game is being produced by Gouichi Suda, director of Killer 7, and the characters have been designed by Atsuko Fukushima of PoPoLoCrois! fame. Take a look at the game's official website to see how it's shaping up.

Contact will be published by Atlus in the US this summer - as yet, there's no confirmation of whether it'll make it over here. However, we do know that the game is being developed by Marvelous Interactive, and UK publisher Rising Star have already brought several of their titles to Europe, so here's hoping.