As much as I wish this announcement was for Gust's sequel to the original Mana Khemia, Student Alliance is unfortunately just the PSP port of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revvis.Though Student Alliance is the exact same game as its PS2 original, the port will feature Wi-Fi support for cooperative play (not too sure how that will work at the moment), plus a little bit more content, including more things to synthesize, and all that.
While I didn't think Mana Khemia was the best Atelier game, it was also not the worst. Those who missed the PS2 version, I would definitely encourage you to pick up the PSP port. The rest of us will just have to keep our fingers crossed that Mana Khemia 2 will be announced for North America sooner than later.
You can check out NIS's official press release here.
Mana Khemia: Student Alliance will be available on PSP in North America in January, 2009. It is already available in Japan.
