In a surprise move, longtime Neptunia developer announced they are handing off work on a new game, titled Brave Neptunia, to Quebec-based Artisan Studios. Artisan's website, which lists the next title as Brave Neptune, has little news on the upcoming game. The only information posted is a link to Compile Heart's temporary website, which is equally devoid of info. Thankfully, the video below does shed some light on what sort of game Brave Neptunia might be. As Artisan is in the business of creating high-quality 2D animation, I would expect Brave Neptunia to be a 2D RPG and they mention making use of the original art for Neptunia at high resolution. Whether it'll be turn-based or action is hard to say at this time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZbBKT0MpTE
A user on Twitter also noted that the original website had logos for the Switch, Xbox One, PS4, and Steam. Those logos appear to have been scrubbed from the game page as of writing, but the user also noted that more information will come in the April 26th issue of Dengeki PS.
If the website for Artisan Studios seems a little barren, it may well be because Artisan was only founded last year, if their Twitter is any indication. For what its worth, the team did appear at Tokyo Game Show last year, and Game Director Julien Bourgeois's Twitter bio reports that he was employed at Parisian developer Kobojo once upon a time. Kobojo worked on Zodiac: Orcanon Odyssey, a Japanese RPG for smartphones, among other games. At the very least, at least some of the team at Artisan Studios has experience working with Japanese developers.
Still, it is nonetheless surprising that Compile Heart decided to partner with an unknown studio for the next title in their flagship series. Compile Heart working with external developers for Neptunia games is nothing new, working with Sting on Hyperdevotion Noire, and Tamsoft on Cyberdimension Neptunia. With any luck, we'll know what Compile Heart's partnership with Artisan Studios looks like soon.
