THQ to publish Mystic Heroes

Koei's Mystic Heroes, which looked so impressive at E3 earlier this year, will be published in Europe by THQ on Nintendo GameCube. The game will hit retail on November 29th, just in time for the Christmas rush. Rather like From Software's Lost Kingdoms, the game is built around a system or rune attacks, with four elements, each of which has strengths and weaknesses, to use in battle. There are more than 70 runes in the game's story and survival modes, and with as much as 300 square metres of ground on-screen and occupied by enemies at any given time, you're going to need to learn their strengths and quirks with great haste. And as with Lost Kingdoms, each stage culminates in a climactic boss encounter.

Hopefully Mystic Heroes will fare a little better than Lost Kingdoms, which became tedious fairly quickly. If there's a strong storyline and reward structure to back it up, there seems no reason why the game can't succeed.

To celebrate the game's announcement and the naming of its official release date in Europe, THQ has been kind enough to furnish us with a selection of shots from the game, which you can find here.