Gloria Union

Gloria Union (subtitle "Twin Fates in Blue Ocean") is a tactical role-playing game for the PlayStation Portable, developed by Sting Entertainment and published by Atlus. It is a spinoff to Yggdra Union, and including Yggdra Unison and Blaze Union is the fourth installment in the Union subseries to Dept. Heaven. It was unveiled in Famitsu magazine at the end of March 2011 and will be released in June.[1].
As this game does not take place on the same continent as the other three games in the Union subseries, what connections Gloria Union has to the rest of them are currently unknown.
Contents
1 Story
2 Characters
3 Gameplay
4 Development
5 External links
6 Notes
[edit]Story

Thousands of years ago, a great kingdom called Yuforia flourished making use of a power source known as "Will".
Through the centuries, Yuforia developed many customs based on the use of Will, but when one day they realized that their civilization would soon come to an end, they poured all their Will into a crystal in order to leave a record of their culture behind. After this, Yuforia sank to the bottom of the ocean.
In the present day, with the ocean now taking up over half of the world, the seas became populated with many pirates. Those pirates, hearing the legend of the crystal, began to search the ocean for clues to its whereabouts.
Among those pirates was one young boy dreaming of greatness[2].
[edit]Characters

This incomplete list is frequently updated to include new information.
Ishut (イシュト Ishuto?)
Voiced by: Hiro Shimono
The protagonist, a hot-blooded youth who dreams of becoming a famous pirate. He wields a blade nearly the size of his body, and travels with his childhood friend Pinger in search of treasure. Put kindly, he is naive; more frankly, he is immature and bad at making judgments. Ishut is not particularly good at dealing with his own emotions. His unit class is "Innocent"[2].
Pinger (ピンガー Pingaa?)
Voiced by: Emiri Katou
A cait sith and Ishut's childhood friend, she has a pair of black cat ears and tail. Despite being much calmer and more intelligent than Ishut, she still follows his lead rather than vice versa, calling him "Aniki". She enjoys making cat puns, and tends to end her sentences with meowing noises. Her unit class is based off the Ax Battler generic units[2].
[edit]Gameplay



Overworld screenshot of an early battlefield featuring Ishut and Pinger. Note the time/weather display.
Like Blaze Union before it, Gloria Union inherits the same card system, turn-based movement, and real-time union combat used in Yggdra Union; it also keeps the Ax Battler class which debuted in Blaze Union.
However, Gloria Union also introduces a number of new cards and classes, and released screenshots have included a weather display. Further details about the weather system are still unknown at this time.
Problems with Blaze Union's battle display (such as character statistics being hidden behind speech bubbles during Skill usage) have also been rectified, with Skill-relevant statistics now being displayed at the top of the screen during use[3].
[edit]Development

Gloria Union shares its producer and many other team members with Blaze Union, although Radiant Historia's Hiroshi Konishi and Dokapon Kingdom's Eiko Tameshige are handling the character art for this release rather than Rui Kousaki or Satoko Kiyuduki[1].
Much like Blaze Union before it, Gloria's development was kept secret until its unveiling, unlike Gungnir, which JaJa discussed in its early stages on his blog. 2011 is the third year in which two Sting games have been released in directly consecutive months; 2009 saw the release of Hexyz Force in November and Yggdra Unison in December, and in 2010 the PSP version of Knights in the Nightmare (April) was followed by Blaze Union that May.
[edit]External links

(Japanese) Official Website
[edit]Notes

^ a b c "Gloria Union", a new Union title headed for the PSP!, Famitsu, posted 31 March 2011; retrieved 8 April 2011
^ a b c Gloria Union official site, retrieved 8 March 2011
^ "Gloria Union", a new Union title headed for the PSP!, Famitsu, screenshot of Ishut battling a Sailor unit, posted 31 March 2011; retrieved 8 April 2011