The guys over at Blossom Soft today gave us some new information on their DS game, Western Lords. It seems that after a bit of discussions between the team, they have decided to lean towards 3D graphics. The game will still use 2D sprites and elements, but will also feature 3D elements.

Here’s what Elder Prince, Western Lords’ Producer, has to say about the move :

After a whole month of debate in our team -friendly debate - and an entire month of inactivity in our development - not to mention that we worked on other games for cell phones - we’ve decided to come with another new decision. Decisively moving on the DS constantly forces us to make radical changes!

Western will shift 3D. But not entirely though. I wasn’t egoistical enough to give the sack to my 2D animators, so we’ll still use 2D for sprite animations. The game should keep a similar feeling and we’ll recycle some of our old tiles to create textures. The perspective view should be pretty similar to the traditional view we used with 2D in order to make the game consistent with the sprites.

This is an interesting shift to say the least, and we will keep you guys updated as more info on their game makes it’s way to us. Don’t forget to follow their website for more info on the game.

Here’s a last look at the 2D mock ups of the game. We will follow up with the first 3D screenshots as soon as they are available. I wish them the best of luck with their move to 3D on this project!