Earlier in the week, Rocket Company opened up the Medarot 8 website. While it’s far from complete, it does shed some new details on the upcoming 3DS game, as well as its related products. As always, the game will ship in two versions, Kabuto and Kuwagata, with slight variations in content between the two. The mascot Medarot for this release are Metabee and Rokusho.

In terms of in-game content, much of what’s stated was previously revealed in the Famitsu announcement. Medarot 8 acts as a reboot to the franchise with overhauled visuals and gameplay systems to entice new players. The game stars Salt, a young boy who lost his father to Medarot crime and aims to become a detective. His superior at the Laurel Detective Agency is Anise, who is renowned for her intellect and data management skills. This plays into the game’s overall mystery/detective motif as it’s brought to life by 428: In a Blockaded Shibuya and Ace Attorney‘s Yukinori Kitajima. While it’s not known how different the duo will be, it appears that Metabee and Rokusho will have different personalities than previous depictions.

The website is currently devoid of any details regarding gameplay changes, but a more in depth look at Famitsu’s magazine article reveals some information. The battles will still consist of the franchise’s typical 3-on-3 relay system with the goal of destroying the leader’s head. The distinction between Strike/Berserk and Shoot/Snipe actions appears to be gone (simplified to “close range” or “shooting”), and in its place it looks like each part will have an “attack response” parameter to decide whether you can defend/evade after using it. Medalias, small gems that allow your Medarot to gain useful abilities, return alongside Medarot 7‘s Medal leveling system which sees Medal levels determined by the sum of the individual skill totals. Medal levels are capped by an overall Medarotter level.

Character art for the project will be handled by Shinto Kamichi, who is new to the series. Franchise regular Horuma Rin will design the 200 Medarot in the game. Additionally, he will be creating a four chapter manga series distributed online through NicoNico Seiga starting July 1st. A teaser for it can be seen here.

NicoNico Seiga will also play host to the Orimeda robot design contest, where three fans will have their Medarot design featured in the game as DLC. Ten second place winners will get T-Shirts as prizes, and everybody who enters will receive a Star Medal, as well as a download code for Medarot 2‘s Strike Enemy music track for use in the game. The deadline for the contest is August 3rd. You can view entries here. This is the first Medarot design contest held since 2003.

The first run bonus for Medarot 8 is a soundtrack CD. The discs contain all of the new music produced for the game, as well as new arrangements for select tracks from classic Medarot titles. Much like the Medarot Dual soundtrack, the track list will differ entirely depending on the version of the game you buy. Each disc will contain 51 songs. The album and disc art were drawn by Horuma Rin. A sample from Medarot 5‘s Beat the Diamonds (exclusive to Kabuto) and Medarot 4‘s Do or Die (exclusive to Kuwagata) are embedded below:

http://www.medarotsha.jp/meda8/special/Beat_The_Diamonds.mp3

http://www.medarotsha.jp/meda8/special/DO_OR_DIE.mp3

Lastly, the Medarot Presents Medarotch app for iOS and Android has been updated to version 1.10. This adds 20 new Medarot to collect, new missions, compatibility with the most recent Twitter version, and a visual change to link to Medarot 8 content.

Rocket Company will publish Medarot 8: Kabuto Ver./Kuwagata Ver. on August 28th for 6,264yen.

Via: Medarotsha (2)(3)(4), 7110armor, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes.

Thanks, Kimbles!