Masamune Shirow's popular "Appleseed" novels will soon be receiving a massively multiplayer online counterpart, courtesy of Bandai and M2. Interestingly enough, Appleseed the Online will play through one's internet browsers. This means that, beyond a simple browser, there are no system requirements whatsoever.

Appleseed the Online will follow Shirow's story up until the conclusion of the fourth book; following that, the content will be game-exclusive. Gameplay-wise, players will be able to join one of three different countries: Olympus, Poseidon, or Titan. Following this, players will select and complete missions to further the aims of their nation inside the "utopian" city Olympus. However, since this is a browser-only game, the mechanics will be quite different than those of most RPGs. To clarify, players will be able to perform a total of seven "actions" per day, with experience being tallied and distributed after all seven actions have been completed. These actions -- of which there are over 100 -- range from "battle training" to "attack the enemy base." Each action only takes a few minutes, which makes this title ideal for those gamers without a wealth of spare time.

The free beta testing for Appleseed the Online will begin sometime in mid-September. No releases of any kind have been announced yet.