Siliconera spoke with NIS's Jack Niida about the DS versions of Disgaea and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, both of which happen to be out this week. Much of the interview focuses on the voice acting in the two games, which we imagine is somewhat of an important issue for the otaku who comprise the majority of the Nippon Ichi audience. There's more to read, as well, about Rhapsody's battle system and new characters in Disgaea, among other things.
Rhapsody will use the original Japanese songs from the PlayStation game, along with new tracks recorded by the original cast. The voice acting outside of songs will be in English. The English musical tracks will not be present due to space concerns. The script is also pulled from the PlayStation release, but the English text has been cleaned up!
As for Disgaea, the same seems to be true. Niida told Siliconera that "All the voice acting is there, but unfortunately, we had to compromise on the dual language and English musical songs."
Not only are there dozens -- well, almost two dozen -- games slated for release in the U.S. this week, but included in the list are a few particularly interesting titles. Kirby Super Star Ultra, though announced some time ago, comes seemingly out of nowhere after some recent wacky promotions, and My Japanese Coach finally makes it to shelves (we hope).
Remember the crazy ad in Nintendo Power (pictured above) that "hinted" at a DS redesign? (You should; we only posted about it two days ago, silly rabbits.) It turns out that the poor Photoshop job is nothing to speculate about, as NIS America only "placed screenshots on a DS backing to emphasize the platform, and edited them for effect." Now, we never took Marketing 101, but that seems like somewhat misleading advertising to us.
NIS America's marketing guru Nao Zook apologized for any confusion that the picture may have caused, stating that there is no widescreen DS in the works (to her or the company's knowledge). So, you can rest assured (or at least hold your breath until E3) that you won't have to pony up the cash for yet another DS.
Some are awful, some are amazing. Yes, the DS has precisely one gazillion "concept" models floating around the place, from fans who want their own particular quirks included with the inevitablepossible redesign of the handheld. Nintendo Power has featured this image with an advertisement for Disgaea DS and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, and although it looks pretty cool, it's extraordinarily doubtful that one of the most talked-about rumors in the history of the DS has just awkwardly been confirmed via this image. Bogus, but neat!
It's pretty much the same thing as the DS Lite now, only with bigger screens. Which is more or less exactly what the DS needs -- the rest is spot on. The fact that the bottom screen is misaligned with the top screen lends evidence to some guy taking one too many coffee breaks during his Photoshop training. Looks rad, not official -- redesign will probably come soon anyway. Watch this space for all E3 Nintendo revelations!
Update: Just as we thought, Nintendo denied that this widescreen DS is a representation of a new unit, stating this is "purely rumor and speculation."
The release date for one of Nippon Ichi's SRPG remakes has been announced, and another one officially backed up, by a somewhat unexpected source. Atlus announced yesterday that they would handle the distribution for three of NIS America's upcoming games, including Disgaea DS and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. Before the American branch of NIS was founded, Atlus published the company's games, including, appropriately enough, the original releases of both Rhapsody and Disgaea. The games will be their own worst competition, being released simultaneously on September 23.
The American boxarts for both games have also been revealed. While the Rhapsody art (found after the break) is a simplified version of the original, Disgaea uses a different piece of artwork and a baffling "CAUTION: PLAYERS XING" road sign.
Nippon Ichi seems determined to show us as much of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure while it still can. Impress Watch now has an update of 69 screens (some of which we have seen previously, but plenty of which are new) and pieces of character art, which follows other screenshot-heavy previews here and here. At this rate, recreating a flip book of the entire game by the time it hits Japan in August might not be out of the question.
Actually ... holy crap, that's a great idea. While we head out to the store for scissors and glue sticks, check out the latest avalanche of images at the "Source" link below.
NIS is including extra stuff with the DS version of Rhapsody, in addition to the inevitable Etna/Prinny cameos that will ensure that PS2-era NIS nerds will desire this PS1-era NIS remake. Cornet's trumpet-playing has been expanded into a minigame in which Cornet plays trumpet in the town square to earn Imotium chips from the townspeople. This takes the form of a minigame in which you blow into the microphone in time with an onscreen indicator.
Other new stuff includes a "Kansatsu Notes" feature, in which not only does the game provide a database of information about its characters and monsters, but the main characters offer commentary as well. Dengeki has posted tons of screens of these modes and other parts of Rhapsody.
In an interview with RPGamer, NIS America's Jack Niida bluntly confirmed a U.S. release of the remake of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. RPGamer asked him if the game was coming out, and he said "Rhapsody ~A Musical Adventure~ is coming to the Nintendo DS here in North America." This is the only time in history that just asking about an unannounced game resulted in a definitive answer.
There's no date yet, but the Japanese version isn't out until August, so we'd expect the holidays at the earliest. Localization and voice recording take time (unless they're using the existing English script), and getting Disgaea DS out will probably take priority for NIS. We'll find out more about the company's plans on the 6th, when NIS will hold a press event. Niida promises "surprise announcements," which could be anything from Jigsaw World (fairly likely) to The Combini (pretty much no chance) to non-DS stuff.
Nippon Ichi's DS Rhapsody remake, Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime: Tenshi ga Kanaderu Uta(The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom: Love Song Played by an Angel) promises the same kind of idiosyncratic, low-difficulty tactical RPG combat seen in the PlayStation version, including Cornet's dessert-based Reward attacks (as seen in this screenshot).
It also promises musical interludes in lieu of traditional cutscenes, because that's Rhapsody's whole gimmick, really. This time, however, the perspective of the battles has changed, though the genre is apparently the same: while battles were originally presented in an isometric view with visible grids, they seem to be a more Final Fantasy-like side view now. Check out GAME Watch for a ton of screens!
For our very lucky brothers and sisters living in Japan, this one's for you. Dated for this August is the release of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Nippon Ichi's SRPG. This has little weight with those of us living outside of the country, who're forced to wait until SRPGs are localized. We know, it's just horrible.
Spencer over at Siliconera is of the mind that the title could wash up on North American shores come the end of the year, however. So for those of you looking to throw down in a very careful and meticulously plotted manner, cross your fingers. You just might get your wish.
After announcing its plans to release five new games for the DS, Nippon Ichi Software has finally revealed screenshots and details for our two most anticipated titles of the bunch -- Disgaea: Prince of the Demon World and the Red Moon and Jigsaw World. NIS also mentioned Rhapsody: In Musical Adventure, likely a port of the PlayStation SRPG.
According to Jeux-France, as with the PSP's Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, this DS release will be an adaptation of the original PlayStation 2 game, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Though we're not sure yet how much new content will be thrown into the DS remake, we would be happy just to get some polished touchscreen controls and online support (not too hopeful on the latter feature, however). Run past the break for the scanned pages!
Siliconera spoke with NIS's Jack Niida about the DS versions of Disgaea and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, both of which happen to be out this week. Much of the interview focuses on the voice acting in the two games, which we imagine is somewhat of an important issue for the otaku who comprise the majority of the Nippon Ichi audience. There's more to read, as well, about Rhapsody's battle system and new characters in Disgaea, among other things.
NIS is including extra stuff with the DS version of 
Nippon Ichi's DS Rhapsody remake, 
For our very lucky brothers and sisters living in Japan, this one's for you. Dated for this August is the release of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, 
