European fans of Nippon Ichi should be pleased to hear that Square Enix has licensed both Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Disgaea DS for European distribution in the coming months.
Rhapsody follows the musical journey of the young trumpetist Cornet as she tries to save the Prince from the marginally evil Marjoly Gang using magical puppets. (It's kind of a weird premise, but the game is definitely endearing). Disgaea DS is the third port of the cult classic SRPG Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, which follows the Prince of Darkness, Laharl, as he attempts to reclaim his rightful overlord-ship of the underworld.
Both titles are DS remakes from their original versions, and both came out last year in North America and Japan.
Again, it's interesting to see Square Enix picking these titles up. I know this is sort of becoming a trend for them, but it's still a little surprising.
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure will be available on Nintendo DS on March 20, 2009, while Disgaea DS will be available on Nintendo DS on April 3, 2009 in Europe. Their official European websites are here:
Late last week, NIS America held a small press event to showcase a few of their upcoming games. Several of their previously announced games were shown including their upcoming PS3 SRPG Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice, and DS remakes Disgaea DS and Rhapsody DS.
Along with these three titles was a "special announcement" that much of the internet (Sword Machine included) speculated was an announcement of Gust and Banpresto's PS2 RPG Ar Tonelico II. Unfortunately for Gust fans, and fortunately for DS RPG fans, the announcement was actually a new DS RPG from Hit Maker (creators of Blade Dancer and Dragoneer's Aria for PSP) titled "A Witch's Tale."
Though details are sparse, the game appears to be heavily Halloween-themed, and has a charming 2D art style about it reminiscent of the Disgaea series (at least, I think so). The game is reportedly an action-RPG that will make use of the DS's stylus to control much of the action, including the ability to draw runes to activate magic spells.
NIS and Hit Maker have yet to release any proper screenshots, but from the trailer it appears that all the locales will be hand drawn 2D. The game is set to hit North America sometime this October. We'll bring you more as we get it.
I've included the trailer from the event below.
Though I'm disappointed that Ar Tonelico II hasn't been announced yet, both A Witch's Tale and Rhapsody DS are looking like buys for me at the moment. What are your thoughts?
RPGamer's Run to the Sun feature has always seemed to me like the biggest waste of one of the best ideas ever. In theory, hitting up all of the major RPG publishers in the bay area with questions and comments from real news-hungry RPG lovers personally seems like it would be the kind of exclusive that almost ANY publication would love to get their hands on. In practice, however, the outcome is decidedly boring. Few, if any company's PR staff are allowed to tell more than what they are already telling the press, and even when the RPGamer staff do get exclusive looks at upcoming and unannounced games, they are often asked not to talk about them until the formal press release.
That being said (and it is completely my own opinion), every now and then some really juicy tidbits squeeze through.
In their visit with NIS America, RPGamer was told not only about the upcoming Disgaea 3 and Disgaea DS (which really aren't news), but were given a confirmation of the DS Rhapsody port for North America, hints about the company's work with Gust titles Ar Tonelico II and Mana Khemia 2, and the date of a new announcement from NIS on June 6 (this Friday)!
Yes, in the above run-on sentance, one game was announced, two hinted, and a teaser... um, teased.
European fans of Nippon Ichi should be pleased to hear that Square Enix has licensed both Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Disgaea DS for European distribution in the coming months.
