On July 29, PS3 title Hyperdimension Neptunia was released in Japan. Late last week, Record of Agarest War 2 hit Japan. Hey, wait a sec... There's something familiar, and it's not just the game covers.
Both titles were developed by Idea Factory and Compile Heart. While Hyperdimension Neptunia is a role-playing send up of the Japanese game industry, Record of Agarest War 2 is not. It is the second in a "soul breeding" of role-playing games.
Idea Factory? Seems like the developers ran out of ideas, because the exact same character appears as a boss in both games.
Sure, it's not uncommon for characters to appear in multiple titles — Dragon Quest, for example. But those are often titles in the same series, and this seems to be a case of two small development studios reusing assets. No biggie! As small Japanese developers continue to struggle, better to reuse than have them go to waste, or worse, go out of business.