It's official: Ash II is out! It's a joint collaboration between Konami and SRRN: we developed it, showed it to Konami, and they loved it enough to publish it for us. We're pretty thrilled with the result, so let me take some time to explain the game itself, its pricing strategy (Gold vs. Silver vs. a-yet-unannounced Bronze), and other "various and sundry" (thanks Dan) things behind the curtain of silence we've maintained.

 
First things first: Ash II picks up immediately after Ash. It is a direct sequel: every main character from the first game appears in the second. There are also 5 new cast members, each of whom play a pretty pivotal role in the game (and one of them is hidden, so good luck unlocking him!) And while the game does heavily reference the first game, you do not need to play Ash to enjoy Ash II--there's plenty of in-game exposition that summarizes the events of the first story. (For those of you that have played Ash, though, we've put in a ton of references and secrets that we think you'll really appreciate.)
 
Our goal with Ash II was essentially to retain Ash's strengths (the story, the character depth, and the humor) and fix its largest anachronisms (random battles, lack of map/journal, licensed art). As you hopefully have seen, the game is brilliantly HD: we have a phenomenal art team who made the game truly beautiful. Next, we completely eliminated random battles. This resulted in a LOT of far-reaching changes, so Ash II actually plays significantly differently than Ash I. Finally, we have a map and a journal system! No more guessing where to go after a long break; we straight up tell you. Woo! We also added a slew of achievements for OpenFeint and GameCenter, and incorporated some non-essential DLC in case you feel like being totally overpowered. Our goal is NOT to make you have to buy the DLC to finish the game (we've balanced the game under the assumption that you don't have any) but we figured if you feel like having some extra fun, who are we to deny you?
 
The pricing strategy is, to be totally honest, an experiment, as is the game's general roll-out. Ash II is the biggest game we've ever made: the game spans four times the locations of Ash I, has over twice as many main characters, and multiple endings. It's also the most ambitious: we plan on releasing the game on Android (and porting Ash I to Android, too!). Because of this, we wanted to try something different with its release. I think we've all, as gamers, been frustrated with the total lack of truly "episodic" content in games. Most people start a project and just don't finish it, or take an incredibly long time between episodes. Ash II's story lends itself incredibly well to episodic telling (there are two parallel storylines that intertwine as the game proceeds), so we thought: "Hey, maybe we can actually pull this off." We pitched it to Konami and they gave us their full support. 
 
When you have an episodic game, there's a few different ways you can monetize it. Konami and we collectively decided on three ways: a Gold Edition, a Silver Edition, and a Bronze Edition (not yet released). The Gold edition entitles you to all future chapters, and retails for $4.99. You'll never pay to unlock any story content that's within the main storyline. The Silver Edition retails for $2.99, and entitles you to the first two chapters for free. Additional chapters will be 50% their retail price. This is for people not as familiar with the Ash universe, and so want to take some time to see if they enjoy the game before buying everything outright. Finally, the Bronze Edition will be free. It will give you a portion of Chapter 1 to play through, with the rest of the game unlockable by purchasing additional chapters.
 
So, that's Ash II. We really, really hope you enjoy it. We're pretty psyched!