The year was 2013, and our then-four man team (and some amazing volunteers) at Muteki were just finishing almost two years of work on Dragon Fantasy: Book II. We had finally made the glorious 16-bit style JRPG we set out to make when we were teenagers. Only it wasn’t done.

Sometimes when you pour everything you’ve got into a game for years on end until your only options are to ship or die, it’s hard to really see what you’ve got. And what we had was a good game, but it was buried under a pile of rough edges.

Fast forward to 2015. Years had gone by, new jobs had been found, yet we still weren’t able to move on because we hadn’t really accomplished what we set out to do with Dragon Fantasy.

The solution was clear: time to get back to work. We put in time on our nights and weekends for a year to fix the game that had been our childhood dream. We even got some help from our very good friends over at Choice Provisions where Adam (writer, designer, lead programmer, numerous other hats worn) now works! And today, I’m proud to announce that Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome of Ice will be coming to PS4 on March 22nd, 2016.

Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome of Ice is best described as the director’s cut of the game previously titled Dragon Fantasy: Book II. We fixed dozens of bugs. We improved the storytelling. We re-tuned all of the battles in the game. And then we added a few new features and even a new boss fight for good measure.

Do you like more of a challenge? Crank that new difficulty slider all the way up. You’ll have to pick each command carefully in battle or risk certain defeat. Prefer to breeze through the game? Turn it back down. You can do it whenever you want.

Are you more of a completionist? We added a new in-game bestiary to help you track which monsters you’ve defeated and captured.

Need help finishing your bounty hunts? The Thieve’s Guild has established outposts in every major town in the game to help you collect your earnings.

With Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome of Ice on PS4 we’re able to finally release the game as we wanted to the first time around. And if you’re a fan of retro-JRPGs, we’re sure you’ll love it.

To head off a few of the obvious questions:

Is this some evil money grab to get more cash from the people that already bought the games, just to get a better version?

Nope! This game will be included in the original cross buy deal, so if you bought Dragon Fantasy: Book II on PS3 or PS Vita, you get this version too. Enjoy.

Why the new title?

We reworked the story so that you can comfortably play through this game without ever having played previous games in the series, and wanted to make sure the game stood out on its own. Plus, it sounds cooler!

Any other questions? Leave them in the comments. I’ll be around to answer them!