Midnight Wave launches its Kickstarter campaign

Walthall Studios describes their now-in-development title Midnight Wave as a project of what-if's. What if the strategy from Fire Emblem, the combat from Smash Bros, and the meaningful decisions from Mass Effect were mixed together with a cyberpunk story to create a game that used the best elements from each? The result is Midnight Wave, which just began its Kickstarter campaign. The trailer and concept materials do seem to prove out this fusion of genres. The environments are laid out like a grid-based strategy game, but once you engage an enemy unit in combat the view switches to a 2D, brawler-style platform fighting game.

The game takes place in the world of Neo-Nihon, a setting that fuses traditional Japanese culture with cyberpunk elements, and wraps it all in a 32-bit Game Boy Advance art style. The base game features 16 playable, fully customizable characters that have meaningful interactions, so you're getting more of that Fire Emblem flavor there.

Walthall Studios is looking to raise $47,337, and a base pledge of $15 nets you a copy of the game. I've honestly never crowdfunded anything in my life, but I might just have to kick some cash toward Midnight Wave. What Walthall Studios is proposing here is highly ambitious, but the fusion of disparate genres and the setting definitely have me intrigued. You can check out the Kickstarter here, and watch a concept trailer below.