Ignition to Publish Muramasa, Nostalgia, and Possibly Spectral Force Genesis?

When you think of JRPG publishers in North America, a few names typically come to mind. Square Enix and Atlus are probably the fan favorites, while companies like XSEED and NIS America regularly keep themselves busy with RPGs from time to time. Hell, even companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Sega, and Namco Bandai, who publish a variety of different titles occassionally come through and give us an RPG or two.

One name that you may not be as familiar with is Ignition Entertainment. Having established themselves with titles from other genres, Ignition stepped into the JRPG scene earlier this year with Mistwalker and AQ Interactive's Blue Dragon Plus for the DS. Though the game carries Mistwalker's Blue Dragon franchise, the game was generally dismissed by fans in both North America and Japan, and I personally thought Ignition would have washed its hands of JRPGs.

Not so, however, as Ignition has stepped up to bring at least two more JRPGs to North American shores.

First up is Vanillaware and Marvelous' 2D side-scrolling action-RPG, Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Initially slated to be published by XSEED, Ignition stepped up to take the project immediately after XSEED announced that it would no longer have anything to do with it. Some of you pointed this out to me a while back, and I know it's probably old news by now.

Their second confirmed project is RED, Matrix, and Tecmo's DS RPG, Wind of Nostalgeo, which has been renamed simply to Nostalgia for North America. For the forgetful, Nostalgia (Wind of Nostalgeo) is set in an alternate 19th century Europe, and is heavily focused on airships, drawing comparisons to Sega's Skies of Arcadia.

Finally, according to an ESRB leak, Ingition will also be handling the localization of Spectral Force Genesis, Idea Factory's DS entry into their Spectral Force series. Ignition has yet to confirm or deny any connection to this title.

With more and more JRPGs being handled by international arms of the original publisher, there hasn't been as much room for new publishers on the scene. It's nice to see Ignition pick up some slack, and we wish them the best of luck in their RPG publishing endeavors.

Both Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Nostalgia are set for North America release on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS (respectively) sometime this September. Spectral Force Genesis is still unconfirmed.

[RPGamer]
[Destructoid]
[ESRB]
[Ignition Entertainment]