It has been announced that Kan Naito is developing a new NES / Famicom RPG called Lady Stalker 2D, and that it will feature character designs created by the late Yoshitaka Tamaki, who sadly passed away in 2023.
Both Naito and Tamaki worked at Climax Entertainment on titles such as Shining in the Darkness (1991), Landstalker (1992) and Lady Stalker (1995), the latter title being the inspiration behind this new effort.
The original Lady Stalker was a rare Super Famicom release for the studio, which had traditionally been allied with Sega.
Its origins come from the fact that Naito, Tamaki and Hiroyuki Takahashi all worked at Enix prior to establishing Climax, and had wanted to create a spin-off from Dragon Quest IV starring Princess Alena. When this was rejected, the idea was revisited as Lady Stalker, with Taito handling publishing duties.
The Lady Stalker 2D cartridge will feature LEDs that illuminate in time with on-screen commands, and a Famicom-compatible console is also under development.
A crowdfunding campaign is planned for later this year.