First look at Gamevil’s latest RPG: Hybrid Eternal Whisper

One of the pleasant experiences of going to shows such as E3 and Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference is the chance to put faces to names.

Gamevil US's president Kyu Lee certainly gave us plenty of opportunities as we meet up at E3 and throughout WWDC.

For those of you who haven't heard of Gamevil, it's one of the larger Korean publishers, which as well as doing a cracking trade in mobile games is now releasing onto the App Store, both in Korea and the rest of the world.

The highly-rated role-playing game Zenonia is a recent example of the quality of its work.

But, being a Korean company, one RPG a year just ain't enough, which is why we got a sneak peek at Hybrid Eternal Whisper. That's currently a working title, and as it's being ported from its original mobile version to iPhone and iPod touch there should be plenty of time to consider whether this sounds too much like an advert for an ecologically friendly car or not.

Unusually for an RPG, it takes a 2D side-scrolling perspective (actually it's a 2.5D plus sprites engine), the main reason being the battle-focused gameplay happens in real-time and is akin to a beat-'em-up in terms of the gesture moves you pull off to knock the enemies' health bars down to zero.

Lee explained that compared to the traditional item collection and levelling up of Zenonia, this will be more skill-based. There will be all the usual RPG trimmings however, with the character development and plot twists adding up to a massive 150 levels and 40 hours of gameplay.

Whether the concept of Viewtiful Joe meets Final Fantasy will prove as popular outside its domestic setting is another question entirely.