One of the surprise hits of 2015 was HeatPot Games’ Hero Emblems ($2.99), a match-3 RPG. Why was it a surprise hit? Well, at that point, we had match-3 games coming out of our ears, and even the ones that boasted RPG elements on the back of the box never felt like true RPG games where you were invested in the story and characters and made meaningful upgrade choices and progression. They were just match-3 games with XP bars to fill up. Not true with Hero Emblems, which had a colorful cast of characters that exhibited actual personalities. The other big surprising thing was that Hero Emblems was a paid game with no IAP, which is practically unheard of in the world of match-3 games. The difficulty balance was a bit off at times, but at least you knew it wasn’t purposely that way in order to nudge you towards spending money. Hero Emblems truly was (and still is!) fantastic, and not only did we love it in our original review but it was one of my personal favorites of 2015 as well. With Tokyo Game Show kicking off this week, HeatPot has unveiled their long-hinted at sequel to Hero Emblems with the following trailer.

There aren’t a ton of details about Hero Emblems 2 yet, but just from that trailer you can see that the sequel will feature more of the fantastic music and lush illustrated environments of the first game. I can also spot some new characters and enemies in tow. HeatPot will be showcasing an in-progress version of Hero Emblems 2 at Tokyo Game Show this week, and with our own Shaun Musgrave attending the show we should hopefully get a glimpse of it in action. Otherwise look for more details to be released in the game’s upcoming forum thread in the weeks and months to come before Hero Emblems 2 arrives sometime in 2017.