It’s not about Red or Ash and definitely not about Pokemon (duh).

With the production of Mighty No. 9 almost coming to a close and its release coming soon, Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune announces that he now working for a brand new project, again based on the Mega Man franchise, named Red Ash. Deemed as the spiritual successor to Mega Man Legends, Red Ash puts the players in a post-apocalyptic world which, as a result of robot warfare, drives humanity into the brink of extinction, but somehow manages to survive by dwelling in ruins of forgotten tech. While things look seemingly back to normal, Great Slope, the city which serves as the game’s main setting, is driven to panic knowing that a huge mecha-citadel, called “KalKanon”, is on a crash course towards the city, which in turn drives the geniuses of Great Slope to create The Peacemaker, a huge weapon designed to blow up the robot sky high before reaching the city.

Concept art for KalKanon (right) and Peacemaker (left).

With the promise of the robot’s destruction well underway, our story then goes into the boots of Beck who, together with Tyger and Call, plans to infiltrate KalKanon in search of treasure and what is called as the “Legendary Legacy”. From design, Beck looks to be this game’s “Mega Man” equipped with an ability to make “his left arm be interchanged with different types of tools and weapons, allowing him to adapt to any situation or terrain”. Revolving around the RPG genre, Red Ash looks to feature mechanics like item upgrades, and NPC interaction, while also giving a much more mischievous sense of freedom for the players. As of writing this article, the development team aims for the goal of $ 800,000 to help fund the development and has already reached roughly 35% of its goal. Red Ash is slated to release on the PC platform, with ports to consoles and hand-helds to hopefully come after.