Competing with well-established and popular franchises is no small feat, and even the most innovative new game needs some favorable reviews to stake its claim among fan favorites.

In an interview with Famitsu (as translated by Siliconera), Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda confirmed that the game will be themed around “setsunasa“, the Japanese word for sadness or sorrow.

Project Setsuna is a new IP in development at Square’s Tokyo RPG Factory studio, and Matsuda said he hopes to turn the game into a larger IP should the first outing prove successful enough. With a launch some time next year, Square Enix will gauge the results of its launch, and make a decision to build it further into a big IP, or shelve it as a new property.

“Cultivating a new IP is very important”, he told Weekly Famitsu. Matsuda said. “Having been looking at the game industry up until now, it’s quite common to see [a video game series] take the form of a trilogy”. Project Setsuna was announced during E3 with nothing to show for it other than few pictures that seemed more like concept art.

The “Law of Third Titles” might just hold some weight in the video game community as a whole, too. They’ll be small-scale challenges up until the second title, and if it grows to the point where we expect the third title to be a big hit, then we’ll increase the scale. “If the third title is successful then all is well”, he added. After a fairly successful first two entries, The Witcher 3 exploded onto the scene in May, and is an early contender for 2015 Game of the Year.