NIS America and Nippon Ichi Software recently announced Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, and now the strategy-RPG has its first trailer. Look for this entry to hit PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam around the world in 2025, and che?ck out a snapshot of the adventure to come below.

Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero follows a gifted young girl named Marona, who has the ability to speak to Phantoms. While sailing across t?he oceanic world of Ivoire, a fleet of ghost ships attack and force Marona and her friend Apricot to leap into action. Together, they work to assemble the crew of legend that once famously defeated these nefarious spirits. 

Using Marona's unique skills, you'll be able to recruit Phantoms and combine them with objects, Gadgets, and even Marona herself. Phantom Brave's combat takes place on a gridless battlefield upon which you can put your recruited Phantoms to work. There's also a character creation feature, random dungeon exploration for additional leveling, and other concepts straight out of NIS's Disgaea series. 

Phantoms of future past

If you're keen on exploring previous adventures, NIS America has a limited time discount in place to celebrate the announcement of The Lost Hero. Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle is included in Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 1 along with Soul Nomad & the World Eaters, and the bundle is currently $9.99 on the Nintendo eShop through July 7.  There's also an 80 percent discount on Phantom Brave PC on Steam until July 11. 

The post Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero reveals debut trailer ahea?d o??f 2025 launch appeared first on Destructoid.

An interview with Shunsuke Minowa

Two-thousand and three was an absolute banger of a year for the video game industry. In that 12-month span, players got their hands on some absolute classics of the medium. Games like Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Tony Hawk’s Underground, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Beyond Good & Evil, Warcraft III, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, to name a few. Several franchises that are still going strong today got their start that year. Franchises like Disgaea. Arguably the first title people think of when they think of Nippon Ichi Software, Inc., Disgaea: Hour of Darkness landed on the PlayStation 2 in Japan in January 2003 and in North America that August. It had the unfortunate timing of launching the same day as Soulcalibur 2 and less than two weeks before Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in North America.

Both titles would ultimately suck all the air out of the room, but Hour of Darkness managed to strike a chord with players. IGN named it the “Best Game No One Played�/a> during its yearly awards. And while it wasn’t the first title Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. released in the West, it was the first to establish the developer as a niche favorite outside of Japan. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness helped the company get its foot in the door. At the end of 2003, it established NIS America. It would no longer rely on established publishers to localize its games. NIS America would quickly become one of the most frequent publishers of AA and single-A games from small Japanese developers. Some titles were more successful than others, but the company’s crown jewel would always be the Disgaea series. With each release garnering solid reviews, it seemed like there was ??no stopping Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. or its prized IP.

But the company’s luck to a turn for the worse in 2019. That year, it released Disgaea RPG for mobile devices. The launch was anything but successful. On its first day, the game went into emergency maintenance mode. The maintenance nightmare ended up lasting months before the game was officially relaunched that November. A worldwide version wouldn’t hit app stores until 2021. The global version shut down for good earlier this month.

In 2021, Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. and NIS America released Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny. Like with Disgaea RPG, its debut didn’t live up to expectations. Reviews were muddled, an anomaly for a mainline entry in the franchise. The reception of that game was something Shunsuke Minowa, director of Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless, didn??'t shy ?away from in an interview with Destructoid.

�em>Disgaea 6 had two distinctions in that it was the first 3D game [of the series] and had fewer systems than previous entries to allow it to be a good starting point for new players,�he said. “The end result received mixed reception upon release. Due to this, we wanted to quickly get Disgaea 7 into players�hands and create a game that we knew they would love.�/p>

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCWjdX2GRwM

Minowa has the difficult task of righting the ship of the Disgaea series. A long-time Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. employee, Vows of the Virtueless marks his first time directing a Disgaea game after previously working as a programmer on Disgaea 5. Less than six months after the release of Disgaea 6 in Japan, development on its sequel started. It was a fast turnaround for the developer. While previous Disgaea games were released steadily every two to three years, there was a nearly six-year gap between the fifth and sixth entries in the series. At the start of development, Minowa and his team focused on player feedback from D6.

“With Disgaea 6, we tried various things to simplify existing systems in order to let new players acclimate themselves more easily,�he said. “One of those was the auto-battle feature. In a sense, we did accomplish this goal with this feature, however this feature removed one of the main joys of the series, which is actually playing through the stages. Through this, we lost a key aspect of Disgaea.�/p>

He continued, “We had already started development from around June of 2021 and took into account all player feedback from Disgaea 6, including topics like the amount of generic character classes, the reimplementing weapon skills, and whether to remove auto-battle or find a way to improve it. What we learned from Disgaea 6’s feedback is that we should never remove elements from the series that make Disgaea what it is. We used these things as a base and aimed to create a “back to basics�title that was appropriate for the series�20th anniversary.�/p>

[caption id="attachment_381725" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via NIS America[/caption]

This “back to basics�approach is at the heart of the story of Disgaea 7. Players can expect a largely scaled-back adventure when compared to the previous two titles. Disgaea 5 and 6 featured various Netherworlds in their narratives, but the decision was made at the beginning of development to just focus on one for Vows of the Virtueless, the Netherworld of Hinomoto.

As Minowa explained, “When we started to come up with what that setting would be, we looked over all of the different generic class characters and noticed that one referenced the word 'Bushido.' We thought about what that meant and how it could be the base for an interesting setting. After that we realized that this setting would work well with our goal of going back to basics, so we thought of a storyline of ‘reclaiming Bushido�and that turned into the setting of a ‘historical Japanese-inspired Netherworld without Bushido.’�/p>

Though the focus on a single Netherworld might feel like pared-down ambition, Shunsuke and his team are breaking new ground with the series and its protagonists Fuji and Pirilika. A lot of the pre-re??lease advertising for the game has focused on the character Fuji, so much so that you might think he's the? main character. But that's not the case.

“In the beginning stages of Disgaea 7, and for the first time in series�history, the female lead Pirilika drives the plot and Fuji is there as a support character. However, Fuji also has his own motivations and as the plot progresses, each of their stories begin to interweave. This is one of the special points of Disgaea 7’s story.�/p>

[caption id="attachment_381722" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via NIS America[/caption]

Minowa said the two characters were not looked at as “protagonist�and “heroine,�but rather as equal partners who are there to support each other through what should be a comedic and occasionally bonkers adventure. Of course, the two heroes of the tale will not be alone. There are at least seven featured characters in Vows of the Virtueless and 45 generic character classes, which is a massive step up from its predecessor. Four of these character classes are new, including Maiko, who is effective against male enemies, Bandit, who can help locate treasure and rare items, Zombie Maiden, who ge?ts more powerful as allies die, and Big Eye, a demon held in high regard by other demons.

“Of the new characters, I particularly like the Big Eye as it is a character type that has not been in previous Disgaeas. It is also a large monster type but maintains a good visual balance, so I’m very satisfied overall with how it turned out.�/p>

Minowa said he also has an affinity for Maiko and hopes players will build her up for end-game runs. If you’re the type of player who keeps on grinding long after the final villain is no more, the new Item Reincarnation feature is bound to eat up a lot of your time. Minowa describes this as one of the core systems for Disgaea 7 and is essentially a powered-up version? of?? the series-staple Item World.

“In the Disgaea series, if you equip hand weapons, the character’s ability to counterattack is increased, if you equip shoes, their movement range is increased, so each item has its own characteristics. With Item Reincarnation, once you are finished powering up the item in the Item World, you can use Item Reincarnation to further augment its strengths and randomly have rare abilities carried over. In this way, items can be made even more powerful.�/p>

[caption id="attachment_381726" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot via NIS America[/caption]

Item Reincarnation isn’t the only way to gain an advantage on the battlefield. A new addition to Disgaea 7 is Jumbification, which basically turns a character or enemy into a kaiju. Character?s undergoing Jumbification can attack anywhere on the field of battle, and each character has a unique ability for this mode that affects the entire field. As a lifelong kaiju fan, this is obviously the feature I’m most excited about.

Whether or not Disgaea 7 is able to correct the course for the series remains to be seen. The game was released in Japan this past January, less than two years after Disgaea 6 dropped in the country, selling 50,000 copies within a few days and scoring 8’s across the board from the reviewers at Famitsu. I’ve read a few Reddit posts from English-speaking players who’ve got their hands on the game, praising the changes the developers made. If this does restore the Disgaea name, it’ll be quite an accomplishment for Minowa and?? his team given how quickly they put this thing together.

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless releases on October 3 in North America and October 6 in Europe on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS?4, and PS5.

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Hit the books ahead of launch

Would-be wizard generals will get a chance to test out GrimGrimoire for themselves today. Vanillaware and NIS America are releasing a demo for GrimGrimoire OnceMore, for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

Set in a magical school, GrimGrimoire OnceMore follows the very eventful early days of Lillet Blan. As things get bad, she'll event?ually have to put her schooling to use in the form of side-scrolling strategy warfare using fami??liars and grimoires.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO4B3IEaCJU

OnceMore is a remaster of Vanillaware's original GrimGrimoire, a 2007 PlayStation 2 strate??gy game. An??d it looks like the developer's putting together a pretty solid list of improvements to the original experience.

An altered screen ratio and updated resolution help on the graphics side. Grand Magic spells, an added Skill Tree, and the Tactical Notebook all serve to offer more to do on the gameplay side of things, too. And a new Gallery features illustrations from Vanillaware staff, with over 90 images created for GrimGrimoire and OnceMore.

Cast a spell on you

This isn't the first time Vanillaware's brought forward one of its earlier hits to modern systems. The absolutely superb Odin Sphere Leifthrasir put the action-RPG back in the conver?sation. (Side note: I do hope that eventually gets a Switch or Steam port.)

Meanwhile, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim made a fairly big impact for Vanillaware. With that in mind, it's neat to see them going back to the vault and pulling out a piece of the studio's history that feels linked, if only by the strategy genre. Today's GrimGrimoire demo should give players an id??ea of just how it's evolved over the years, ??and a taste of what's to come from the remaster.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore ??hits PS4, PS5, and Nintendo ?Switch on April 4, 2023.

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Even more hell to pay this fall

The animated, lively strategy RPG series Disgaea's latest entry is coming to the west this fall. NIS America announced today that Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless is coming to PC, Switch, PlayStation 5, an?d PS4 in the west this fall.

In this latest entry, the realm of Hinomoto has fallen under the control of a tyranni?cal force. Fuji, an "empathy-averse warrior gone astray," and his compatriots will have to ba??nd together and take it all back turn-by-turn, square-by-square.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLlk74apf2Q

A bunch of new features are in store for the latest Disgaea, including a special feature called "Jumbificiatio??n." This apparently makes ch?aracters really, really big. I certainly hope that won't affect my nightmares at all.

Additionally, Item Reincarnation looks to a??dd even more reason to grind and upgrade. The A.I. auto-battle function is also seeing an update, which should be great for all those times you don't want to issue commands yourself.

A demonic strategy

The Disgaea series has always offered a signature blend of stylized, cartoon-y devils and immense replayability. Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless certainly looks to have more of both. The improved auto-battle options especially seem like a boon, given how much of my experience with Disgaea was grinding to make the numbers go up.

This newest Disgaea is already out in Japan, having released on January 26. But it looks like those in the west hopefully won't have to wait longer until this fall, and there are special editions on the NIS store for those who really want to c?elebrate a new entry. It will also have both English and Japanese audio available, for those who like the option.

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless a?rri?ves on PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch in the west this fall.

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A horrible night to have a curse

I wasn’t expecting a third Yomawari game. The first two games were two years apart, so I expected that they’d either remain at that pace or the series would simply end. Five years later, we have Yomawari: Lost in the Dark, and there hasn’t been a step missed. You almost wouldn’t believe this is five years removed from Yomawari: Midnight Shadows because the art and graphics are almos?t identical, and it features the same incremental tweaks that you’d expect.

And that’s for better or worse.

Yomawari might be my favorite horror game series around, and it’s not because the gameplay is exciting. Holy crap, it definitely isn’t. However, as far as horror games go, Yomawari knows how to do storytelling in a way that takes advantage of the interactive medium and incorporates its aesthetic. Sure, they’re not necessarily fun to play, but it’s a small price to pay for their wonderful narratives.

Nonetheless, if there’s one thing I hoped for in going into Yomawari: Lost in the Dark, it was that it would get its gameplay on a level that matches the tale??nt demonstrated everywhere else. Well, small steps, I suppose.

Yomawari: Lost in the Dark (PC [Reviewed], PS4, Switch)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Released: October 25, 2022
MSRP: $39.99

Since I feel that narrative is the ultimate reason to play Yomawari: Lost in the Dark, I’m going to try really hard to avoid spoilers. As you do in previous titles, you play as a young girl who has something bad happen to her in the opening moments of the game, then attempts to set things right. After the bad things happ?en, she’s told she is cursed, and the only way to undo the curse is to gather all her lost memories before 6a.m.

Whew! That was really difficult.

As was central to the previous two titles, this mostly involves wandering around the girl’s hometown in the dead of night armed with nothing more than a flashlight. The town is open and non-linear. You search for items that the girl strains to remember anything about, you’re then given a brief cutscene showing wh?ere she may have lost something. This lifts a fog wall somewhere in the world where you can now proceed into. Each area has its own problem and backstory?, which you must solve or navigate in order to find the girl’s lost memory.

[embed]//youtu.be/QUv_KN1V88w[/embed]

Always trust the dogs

The approach to storytelling will be familiar to anyone who played through the first two titles. Much of what Yomawari: Lost in the Dark tells you is obfuscated in one way or another. There’s no exposition, so little pieces are fed to you, and they’re o??ften vague or unreliable. By the end of the game, as with the previous titles, you’re generally given enough pieces to put together a picture, but it’s anything but clear.

To me, the titles tend to be coming-of-age stories told through a horror filter, which is perfect. It may be about responsibilities or the pain of letting go, but the most pessimistic views of the world are used to frame it. Yomawari: Lost in the Dark continues this sort of storytelling and does so with the sam??e deftness. It really doesn’t miss a ?beat.

On the other hand, I found the subject matter focused on in Yomawari: Lost in the Dark to not be as satisfying as the previous two games. To put it strangely: it’s less dark. It’s no less of a horror game, but here, the protagonist is mainly just learning lessons of courage, whereas the previous girls had to make sacrifices. Another way to put it is that Midnight Shadows set the bar too high, and it’s maybe not surprising that Lost in the Dark falls a smidge short.

Your eyes... Give them to me

Then there’s the actual gameplay, which I’m a little mixed on. While the exploration and light puzzle-solving of the Yomawari games are retained here, the action bits have been refocused. It’s largely a game of avoidance, which the previous games also had, but this time, it’s almost entirely that. Each of the game’s memories comes with a little part at the end where you run from something, and you have to follow specific dance moves to get to the end. The dance steps aren’t necessarily going to be well communicated, and if you die, you often get sent to the beginning of whatever scene you were in. In Yomawari: Night Alone, I actually found myself rage-quitting one of these parts, and I never got to that point in Yomawari: Lost in the Dark, but if y?ou’re looki??ng for any major refinement, you’re not going to find it.

What you will find is a lot of the same shortcomings. Much of the world is actually empty, leaving only what’s illuminated by your flashlight and the sounds of the night. From an atmospheric perspective, this works fine. However, the monsters are all just annoyances. You have to avoid them, and while this was partially done with the horror-proven hiding method in previous games, in Yomawari: Lost in the Dark, you cover your eyes. This has the advantage of allowi?ng you to remain mobile while hiding from enemies, it also means that you move about as slowly as a frozen glop of meringue.

You will find something more important than me

Everything that made the first two Yomawari games special are here. The only problem is that nothing was added on top. This isn’t Yomawari: Plus One; it’s Yomawari: Another One. I wouldn’t even say it’s Yomawari: The Best One.

Still, if you enjoyed the first couple of titles, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by Yomawari: Lost in the Dark. It’s a solid continuation of the series, even if it doesn’t hit the heights of Midnight Shadows. The whole trilogy is a unique take on horror, tying in childhood and dumping a whole barrel of relat?able sadness. The greatest success the series has had is not ??just presenting the misery to the player but making them be an active part of it. So, I hope you’re ready to be miserable.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Yomawari: Lost in the Dark appeared first on Destructoid.

More NIS classics are on their way

[Update: Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 will launch on August 30 in North America and September 2 in Europe. NIS also shared a "spotlight" trailer for La Pucelle: Ragnarok.]

Another batch of classic NIS games is coming to modern consoles. Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 packs together Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and, for the first time in the west, La Pucelle: Ragnarok.

The news was revealed during today's New Game+ Expo as the "one more thing" of the showcase. The two games will come packed together in a single collection on August 30, for both Nintendo Switch and PC. You can check out some gameplay of the Prinny Presents below:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvjA2itWTnM

This is the third Prinny Presents that NIS America has put together from its back catalog of classics. The first contained Phantom Brave and Soul Nomad, while the second is due out this May and has Makai Kingdom: Reclaimed and Rebound and ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman.

Since these Prinny collections dive into the history of NIS, it's a fitting selection to have both the roots of Disgaea in Rhapsody and the never-made-it-over entry of La Pucelle: Ragnarok. For those who wa??nt to maintain a play??able archive of NIS games, it seems like a pretty solid two-pack.

The games will feature some sharper graphics and image optimization for Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, and Ragnarok will have extra content, a new voice cast, and quick travel. Plus,? for the collectors, the physical version will have a soundtrack and art book at retail.

Even as NIS America keeps rolling out new games like the most recent Disgaea entry, these Prinny Presents are a fun way of commemorating the long history of strategy and RPG from the studio. No firm date has been set yet for the Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 pack.

The post Prinny Presents Vol. 3 brings La Pucelle: Ragnarok to ???North America this August appeared first on Destructoid.

Magic and Mystery are part of her history

Anybody who knows me well knows that I wish I was an Aloof Gothic Witch. So it stands to reason that I've been rendered spellbound by Nippon Ichi Software's incoming remaster GrimGrimoire OnceMore �currently in development for PS4 and Nintendo Switch at fine cult st??udio Vanillaware.

As we have previously reported, GrimGrimoire OnceMore is an amusingly titled remaster of the underplayed 2007 PS2 release GrimGrimoire, a strategy adventure title that sees clumsy witch-in-training Lillet Blan tasked with rescuing her fellow students and faculty members from the chains of a frustrating time loop, which has been cast upon the school by a no-good sorcerer looking to steal the Philosopher's Ston?e.

Check out ??a brand new trailer for the remaster below.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN2b6eDXOWA

The original GrimGrimoire was written and directed by George Kamitani, who modern gaming fans will recognize as the brains behind the excellent fantasy adventure Dragon's Crown. In addition, GrimGrimoire's beautiful character art is the work of another Dragon's Crown alumni, Kouichi Maenou. While ?the title would receiv??e critical plaudits for its fun storytelling, strategic gameplay, and attractive aesthetic, it would unfortunately not find success at the cash registers, putting an end to further adventures for Lillet and her pals.

The remaster promises higher-resolution, widescreen visuals, brand new mechanics and skill tree options, rebalanced difficulty and save systems, and even a newly recorded voice track, all of which will hopefully help GrimGrimoire to find a brand new audience, some 15 years on from its original release. Unfortunately, Nippon Ichi Software is still to confirm a western localization, but NIS America has really gone above and beyond in recent years when it comes to bringing the publisher's titles westward in? recent years, so keep those fingers crossed... A?fter all, I'd look cute af in those Victorian button-up boots.

GrimGrimoire OnceMore will lau??nch in Japan on July 28 f??or PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

The post I’m spellbound with curiosity for GrimGrimoire OnceMore appeared first on Destructoid.

(Very) early prep for NIS America's big day

2023 will see NIS America celebrate its 20th anniversary, and that's 20 years of bizarre teaser websites and video games about murderous kids. As it prepares for a new decade of localization and importation, the studio/publisher has gifted itself a fresh new website, complete with an accompanying logo.

The new branding isn't a whole lot different from NIS America's previous logo, retaining the sweeping sumi-e "ink wash" effect, referencing Japan's traditional art style. The coloured tones have been ??removed, however, replaced with thicker lettering and the removal of the word "America" entirely. The new website is similarly toned, with a heavy monochromatic emphasis.

The new logo, which comes into effect immediately, will be used to brand all NIS America produc?ts going forward. It admittedly seems a bit early in the day to be preparing for the anniversary, (which is some *checks notes* 21 months away), but clearly NIS is eager to get its new look embedded in the industry psyche as it ventures into its next decade of business.

The post NIS America reveal??s new logo ahead of 20th anniversary appeared first on Destructoid.

A Short Game about Killing

Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) has finally unveiled the strange title that it has been teasing for the past week, pulling back the curtain on Tantei Bokumetsu, (or Detective Elimination), which will launch in Japan on PS4 and Nintendo Switc??h May 27.

As revealed in the newest issue of Weekly Famitsu, Tantei Bokumetsu sees 14 top detectives - each an expert in his or her particular field - gathered together on a remote island and tasked with ascertaining the identity of the killer that lurks among them. Players will explore the island for clues and interrogate the suspects while hopefully keeping their own name off of the kill list. Sounds pretty freakin' familiar...

While NIS has launched a new website and Twitter for Tantei Bokumetsu, it is yet to release a full trailer or any gameplay footage. There is no word as to whether this latest tale of friendship and fatality will receive an English localization, but given NIS dedication to its western fanbase, it remains a possibility.

NIS announces Tantei Bokumetsu for PS4, Switch [Gematsu / Ryokutya2089]

The post NIS reveals murder mystery Tantei Bokumetsu, coming to PS4 ?and Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

One more ride on the merry-go-round

[Update: NIS has added a second, equally bizarre video featuring a pair of plush-headed weirdos and what appears to be a stack?? of dead bodies. The plot thickens, though the iconography is business? as usual for NIS and its catalogue of dark Japanese releases.]

Always fans of a good mystery, the scamps at Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) are at it again, with the appearance of a strange and creepy new website that is teasing a new title.

The site itself features several red hands clawing toward its central video embed. Playing the video results in some old-school fairground-style music, along with a stuttering image with what appears to be brief glimpses of a corridor of sorts. A warning about flashing images is accompanied by a button-eyed bear, who isn't supposed to be possessed at this hour. A matching Twitter account titled "Bokumetsu" was also launched, featuring silhouettes of a large cast of characters. Cur?ious.

Given that NIS are key publishers o?f some Japan's most weird and eccentric titles, the video could be teasing an anime franchise sequel, a visual novel spin-off, or an entirely new IP. Either way, we'll be sure to let you ??know when NIS finally shows its hand.

Probably so?mething to do with school? kids and alternate dimensions and death, right?

The post (Update) ?What is this strange Nippon Ichi Software ?site teasing? appeared first on Destructoid.

Pants on fire

Several days ago, a question came across my Twitter feed asking me to name an average game I absolutely adore. It was difficult for me to answer because I don't very much consider any game I adore to be average. Breath of the Wild's not average, Overwatch is not average, hell, I even consider Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon to be an above-aver??age experience, Metacriti??c score be damned.

I ende??d up not answering the question because there just wasn't a game that came to mind. Nothing fit that criterion for me. Nothing...until now.

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (PlayStation 4 [reviewed], Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher NIS America
Released: February 12, 2019
MSRP: $39.99

The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince leans hard in the fairytale aesthetics right from its opening moments. It starts with a slow, though whimsical, text-driven cutscene that sets up the world, the characters, and the building blocks of a story about growth and the lengths we go to protect the people we care about. The story takes place in a shrouded forest overrun with monsters and ruled over by a witch. Most people don't dare venture into the thicket, fearful of what lurks in the shadows, but the titular prince of this story doesn't fear the unkn?own. In fact, it's one unknown that lures him deep into the w??oods. A voice, singing its soul out straight to the moon, serenades him nightly. That voice belongs to a massive wolf, who comes to appreciate the prince as her audience. As monsters and humans are eternal enemies, she doesn't reveal her true form to him, keeping her figure obscured by the cliff she perches on.

One night, after hearing her sing so lovely, the prince decides its time to meet this songstress and climbs up the cliff. The wolf, afraid of what he'll think, tries to block his eyes but ends up inadvertently blinding him instead. Seeking to make right all she has done wrong, the wolf goes to the witch of the woods a??nd asks to be given the form of a human princess. The witch agrees,? taking the wolf's voice as collateral, beginning a journey that will see the princess guide the blind prince through the treacherous dangers of the forest.

Everything you just read is covered in the opening to Liar Princess. Before you even take control of a character, you're given well over 10 minutes of exposition and story, setting up the roughly five-hour adventure at hand. It can feel overly long, as do many of the picturebook cuts??cenes that litter the campaign, but its verbosity is necessary as the story is the main draw here. This is fantastic news if you're in the mood for a fanciful fairytale, but not so much if you're looking for a challenging game.

Liar Princess is can best be described as a puzzle-platformer escort mission. The princess, who can change from her human form to her wolf form with the press of a button, mus??t take the hand of the prince and guide him through each stage, protecting him from other monsters and using his abilities to solve the puzzles that stand in their way. As a wolf, she can attack and fall from great heights without worrying about damage. As a human, she takes one hit or falls from too high and it's back to the last checkpoint. The same goes for the prince. Let him get hit and you have to restart back a bit in the level.

Initially, the prince is helpless and useless beyond standing on switches, but he eventually adds the ability to carry objects to his repertoire as well as walk short distances on his own. Most significant is his ability to carry a torch, which allows the duo to light up darkened paths and clearly see the danger in front of them. There is a lot of potential for experimentation with this set-up, his talents and her shapeshifting ability, but Liar Princess&nb?sp;fails to adequately mix the two until ??the absolute final level.

Outside of one bizarre -- and quite frankly, out of place -- brainteaser, none of the puzzles found in the levels present any sort of challenge. Most are just different variations of the same press-the-switch puzzle. Combat is similarly simple, as the wolf is invincible and can kill most any monster in three hits. Liar Princess never quite makes for a compelling puzzle-platformer nor does it establish itself as a proper action-platformer. It exists in a strange middle ground, one that could be i?mmediately forgettable if not for ev??erything else that makes this game what it is.

Two years ago, I reviewed A Rose in the Twilight, another NIS joint, and called it visually spectacular. Liar Princess is another stunner. Its world is impeccably designed, the main characters are a delight, and some of the creatures that ??creep through the copses are drawn in ways I've never seen before. Levels make extensive use of the foreground and background as well as lighting for dramatic effect. Even if I didn't always enjoy playing this game, and there were times I was just going through the motions, I never once took my eyes off the screen as I was completely captivated by the world Nippon Ichi Software created. That level of enthrallment extends to the soundtrack, which elegantly portrays the right mood and emotions for every leve?l and cutscene.

As wonderful as the art and soundtrack are, and for as much as I enjoy the story, they can't quite save what is otherwise a pretty standard puzzle-platformer. The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince only ever comes close to meeting its potential in the final stage of the game, and that's not an exaggeration. Every time it flirts with some creative concepts, it quickly retreats to?? its quotidian comfort zone. I personally love this game because I enjoy a good fairytale, but unlike the titular prince, I'm not so blind I can't s??ee everything that's wrong with it.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince appeared first on Destructoid.

Can I be the hero?

Nippon Ichi, the company behind the cult classic Disgaea, announced in a stream this morning that the original game would be getting an HD Remake for its 15th anniversary. For those unfamiliar, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness came out in 2003 on the PS2 and has been ported to a plethora of systems (with the most recent being a really subpar PC port in 2016). Which platforms this remake will be on is anyone's guess, as the company didn't have anything to show ??off.

They did state that the remake will be ready for a summer 2018 launch and seeing as how the last entry in the series (Disgaea 5) made its way to PS4 and Switch, I think it is safe to assume those two platforms are on? the table. I wish there was more to report, but what are you gonna do?

If?? anything, I hope this new version features more Prinny. He needs some extra love.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Is Getting An HD Remake For Its 15th Anniversar??y [Siliconera]

The post The o??riginal Disgaea is getting an HD Remake, dood! appeared first on Destructoid.

Localization of Dana

As the days drew closer to release, Ys VIII was sadly delayed on PC for some unforeseen reason. Developer Nihon Falcom apologized and even offered refunds to angry fans to make up for the last minute change of plans. There was a bigger problem with the entirety of Ys VIII, though, and that was with the localization.

So to give the PC version the best possible chance, publisher NIS America delayed the port to coincide with the brand new localization patch for the PS4 and Vita versions of the game. Thankfully, the wait won't be much longer as Lacrimosa of Dana is head??ing to PC? on January 30, 2018. The new localization will also be available on the same day for console users.

This new script includes re-written NPC dialog, renamed locations and even re-recorded lines for the voiced segments. It should be a suitable replacement f??or naming an area "Big Hole" in the original version. PC users will also get the bonus of some free DLC for the first week of release. From launch until February 6, you'll be able to download a five-track soundtrack sampler, a mini-digital art book, a costume for Laxia and a booster pack with items for Adol.

Seeing as how I've only ever played the Ys games on PC, I'm definitely excited to finally get my hands on this. VIII looks suitably amazing and our own review? was incredibly positive, so hopefully the port is finally up to snuff and free of issues.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa Of Dana Debuts On PCs On January 30, 2018 [Siliconera]

The post YS VIII’s PC port and new localization will release at the end of the month appeared first on Destructoid.

A beautiful tale of friendship and death

Yomawari: Midnight Shadows begins with a simple instruction: "Focus only on this screen. From this point on, do not divert your eyes from this screen." My initial response was something like, "Suuuuure, okay, game." Six hours later, I realized I never did look away from the screen. Yomawari is undoubtedly horror-filled, but both Night Alone and Midnight Shadows are beautiful to look at, ?with gameplay that's so engrossing I felt the need to focus on every detail.

Like its predecessor, Midnight Shadows begins with a morbid shock. Within the first few minutes, you're given a clear indication of what you're?? in for. Nippon Ichi has delivered another isometric horror adventur?e that's equal parts gruesome and lovely.

Yomawari: Midnight Shadows (PS4 [reviewed], PS Vita, PC [tested])
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Release: October 24, 2017 (US), October 27, 2017 (EU)
MSRP: $29.99

This is a new story rather than a continuation of the previous game, but it still involves chibi girls and cute doggos. You play as Haru, who's looking for her missing best bud Yui. The night is dark and the town is filled with terrifying ghosts, but she's determined to find Yui anyway. Armed with her trusty flashlight and a few pebbles, she sets out into the *spooky voice* midnight shadows.

Sound plays an important role in both Yomawari games. The soundtrack is practically nonexi??stent, which is the perfect setup for scares involving ghost shrieks or other sudden loud noises. The silence is punctuated by nighttime sounds -- the chirps of insects, the hum of streetlights, the soft mews of stray cats, the crunch of leaves underfoot -- and these little audial details add so much to the atmosphere. Mostly, though, you hear Haru's heartbeat as if it were your own echoing in your ears. If a ghost is nearby, Haru's heart will begin to beat. The closer you get to it, the faster her heart beats until you finally spot it wi??th your flashlight. Then you must decide how to get around it or escape if it gives chase.

Escaping involves figuring out h??ow each different ghost works and utilizing your surroundings. Sometimes you need to run, prompting Haru's run meter to deplete as she sweats and panics. Other times you'll hide behind bushes or signs, waiting for your pounding heart to subside as the ghost floats away. ??You'll pick up random items that you can use as distractions for some spirits, allowing you to sneak past them. Some will simply block your path, forcing you to retrace your steps.

Each new chapter is separated by a brief sequence in which you play as Yui, giving an indication of where she's located before switching back to Haru in her room preparing to continue her search. Upon leaving Haru's house, you're given a new location to head toward, but some areas will be blocked off by obstacles, enormous ghosts, or enemies that are too strong to tackle. You must determine the correct route, filling in more of the map as you go, while making your way past a variety of apparitions. You'll run into some light puzzles, and collectibles are scattered throughout the t?own. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the collectibles and the mystery behind who dropped them, adding to the cute but menacing air the game has perfected.

One of my favorite things about both Yomawari games, and half the reason I can't divert my eyes, is the creative ghost designs. I was fascinated by all the different beings I encountered and the ways they tried to impede my progress. Whether it's a seemingly harmless spectral boy chasing his ball into the street, a shrieking Ringu-esque girl dropping into your path, or a giant creature chasing you with a pair of scissors, ev?ery spirit is i??????????????????????????maginatively designed and executed.

Atmospheric visuals add another layer of engagement to the game. Midnight Shadows lives up to its name by playing on real-life irrational fears, such as the idea that walking too close to a manhole cover could lead to a hand popping out and grabbing your ankle. I was exploring an overgrown area when a spiderweb popped up onscreen as though I had walked through it, hinder??ing my ability to see for a bit as my heart rate increased. Visuals and audio combine to create an experience that is both eerie and fun -- this is a game filled with dichotomies. 

Although Midnight Shadows is more polished than Night Alone in most respects, its save system is a bit of a joke. You'll find coins scattered throughout town, which you can then use at shrines to save your progress. I never had trouble finding coins, I was always holding the max amount of them, and some were even lying right next to the shrines. Once I got used to the town's ?layout, I rarely felt like there was any risk involved in taking a previously unexplored path because I could save often and keep all my items if I died. This only added to the annoyance of retracing my steps rather than making each resurrection at a shrine a fresh challenge. Those issues knock a few points off an otherwise brilliant little game with about six to eight solid hours of palpable tension.

If you enjoyed Yomawari: Night Alone, you'll love Midnight Shadows. It keeps the creative elements of its predecessor intact while expanding on some of its finer points. If you haven't played Night Alone, you can still jump into Midnight Shadows?? and experience the same surprises as the original, both scary and cute.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Yomawari: Midnight Shadows appeared first on Destructoid.

This isn't a prank

Ever since the strategy RPG Makai Kingdom came into existence, we were introduce??d to an extra character named Asagi, the main heroine of an upcoming game. Instead of receiving her own project, she continued to make cameo appearances in a majority of Nippon Ichi Software's titles. Of course, her predicament became a running gag.

Right when things seemed hopeless for Asagi, the company gave her the chance to shine. Unfortunately, her title, Makai Wars, is on Android and iOS??. Since the game went from a PSP project to a PS3 title before its mobile form, the whole thing feels like a cruel joke.

Based on Makai Wars' first screenshot, it might become the Fire Emblem Heroes of the Disgaea series. If the franchise's priceless humor is present, I could see Asagi's situation being one of the title's highlig?hts. In the meantime, we'll have to see if this thing will actually come out. Either way, it's going to be awhile before we recover fr?om this news since the wait was too long.

Makai Wars announced for iOS, Android [Gematsu]

The post After 12 years, NIS’ Asagi is finally the star of her own game appeared first on Destructoid.

Dood!

Sohei Niikawa, president of Nippon Ichi Software and the creator of Disgaea, recently took to Reddit to perform an Ask Me Anything. In addition, Toshihiro Beppu, the localization ?director for NIS America, was there to assist him. During the AMA, he talked more about the franchise, the localization for it in the West, and other topics.

When asked about more Disgaea on the Nintendo Switch, in particular the next game, president Niikama responded with "Most likely..." While not necessarily a confirmation, the further comments suggest that Disgaea 5 Complete did fairly well, which is no surprise given the number of pre-orders outside of Japan, and that the company would launch the new game on Switch day one alongside other console versions. Interest was also shown in making a Disgaea amiibo, however what character Sohei wished for was not mentioned. That being said, if it's not P??rinny, you've made the wrong choice.

There were further talks about what the company was looking into regarding the franchise. It was explicitly confirmed that more Disgaea would be coming soon to PC. Whatever game is next wasn't confirmed, but it was made clear they don't intend to stop after the next one. The president also mentioned the possibility of Prinny 3 wasn't off the table, however the company needs to believe it can sell at least 100,000 copies before giving it the green light. The ever infamous vaporware Makai Wars was also brought ?up, jokingly teased for the 25th anniversary of the company next year.

The biggest piece of information however was the company's view on what the biggest difficulty is when localizing for Western audiences, and if t??he company keeps those in mind when developing games. The following response was provided from both men.

The post NIS president talks Disgaea in AMA, teases next game ?for Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

Sounds like a minor delay

During the PS2 days, the Culdcept franchise was one those things that caught my eye, since the idea of having a board game with creature cards sounded interesting. Unfortunately, other titles grabbed my attention so I missed out on ?playing this series.

Thanks to NIS bringing the series' latest game, Culdcept Revolt, to the West, I might get to fix this little problem of mine. Speaking of which, it turns out that the title has been delayed to Oct. 3 for North America and Oct. 6 in Europe. Luckily, this situation ?isn't too bad since Aug. 29 and Sept. 1 were the original launch dates for the two regions.

According to Siliconera, NIS' reasoning for the delay was because they wanted "to accommodate the manufacturing and production of the game." On the bright side, we received a new trailer that talks about the board game's cards. Based on the stuff I heard about the 3DS title, Culdcept Revolt is giving me a bit of a Dokapon Kingdom vibe; however, I doubt tha??t it wil??l turn your best friends into your worst enemies.

Card And B??oard Game Hybrid Culdcept Revolt Gets Delayed Until T??he First Week Of October [Siliconera]

The post Culdcept Revolt gets pushed back to October 2017 appeared first on Destructoid.

Do-it-yourself

Every other week, it seems like there is at least one game that comes out that?? was made from one of those readily available game development software that lets almost anyone make a game. The game creation software of choice is usually either Unity or Game Maker but once in a while there is a game made using a very unlikely piece of software.

That unlikely software is RPG Maker, which unbeknownst to many, has been used to make some pretty notable RPG titles and now it's on the 3DS for the developer on the go. Will this lead to the creation of the next great RPG? Is it even good?? enough to make stuff? Join me on this quest, brave soul.

RPG Maker Fes (3DS)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software America
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software America
Released: June 23, 2017 (EU), June 27, 2017 (NA)
MSRP: $39.99

RPG Maker Fes is part of a long running series of RPG creation games which first debuted on the Super Famicom in 1995. More of a creative software than an actual game, RPG Maker provides users a framework and tools to create their very own Japanese-styled role playing game. The RPG Maker series is also on the PC, where its much more robust offerings over the console versions has led to the creation of commercially-released games, among these few releases are the critically praised story-driven To the Moon and Japanese horror game Corpse Party.

Seeking to streamline the process of RPG creation by its PC cousin, RPG Maker Fes is much more accessible and on one of the most popular portable gaming consoles that can fit in your pocket. While nowhere close to the RPG game making software as the PC version, this version for the Nintendo 3DS is no slouch. RPG Maker Fes still offers a lot of depth and tweaking for those wanting to get really into it, and creators crazy clever enough to learn everything at their disposal can accomplish ??pretty amazing things.

The best new feature of RPG Maker Fes is that it allows creators to easily upload their creations online and thanks to a free RPG Maker Fes player app for 3DS, any 3DS owne??r can download and play the creations for free. This is a brilliant move that can build a community around the game and improve content through user feedback. Hopefully, this will teache kids (and childish adults) that game development is not easy.

For those wanting to jump in thinking they can make the next great RPG, those people may want to hold onto their armored horses just yet. RPG Maker Fes is not an automatic RPG generator where you check off some boxes and hit ‘go’ to instantly make a top-down 2D Japanese RPG. It’s a very much a set of tools in a neat software pack?age that requires a lot of time and effort on the part of t??he creator to make something substantial.

Aspiring RPG designers might find themselves going in blind, since RPG Maker Fes does not offer?? a guide or tutorial in the game for its many tools. Most Japanese games that require a lot of investment on the player's part will often have some sort of database of info or tutorial handily available in some menu tucked inside the game but there is nothing of the sort here. I don't know if its a transla??tion or text space issue but there are tool tips in the menus but they are a bit vague and are not at all helpful with explaining the tools.

I’m sure there will be very dedicated users online that will create extensive guides and tutorials that will greatly help other users after the game's official release. Users can learn still learn their way around the creation tools themselves, as RPG Maker Fes has streamlined the creation interface to fit the small screens of the 3DS. The creation tools are divided into different sections to handle different parts of the game, swapping between them is easy enough.?? Trying to make all the parts of the game to come together requires some learning on the user's end.

Other games that allow custom creation such as LittleBigPlanet and Project Spark have provided content such as single-player story or premade levels to get things started and to enhance the experience as well as add value for consumers but RPG Maker Fes has none out of the box. Fortunately for players, there will be some creations avai?lable for download online that can sh?ow off the muscle of game.

Users don't really 'make' anything in RPG Maker Fes, they use the tools and framework to put the pre-made pieces together to make different parts that form to make an RPG in the end. Building these parts start from the maps, the biggest pieces of the game where everything happens, down to the smallest details such that are invisible to players. Everything that will be needed to build an RPG is available to the user, and perhaps the most original thing that a user can put into a creation in RPG Maker Fes is a story.

Building a map is the second most original thing a creator can make, it relies on how they put the pieces together and with the right skills, can make some pretty impressive stuff from the ??what I've seen. Maps are comprised by a grid and on this grid is where the pieces of different premade tiles can be placed?? to form backgrounds and environments. These tiles range from grass and floors to walls of buildings to even furniture.

Once a map is built, events and encounters are the next step and these are what allows for the major interactions in the game. Events are stuff that happens in the game such as cutscenes, dialogue, music, etc; and this part is the closest thing to programming in RPG Maker Fes with ordering and rigging stuff to work together to bring the RPG to life. Encounters are what governs part where enemies that show up to fight in combat, from the enemy mob composition and location. Combat can?? be optional if you’re trying to make an RPG that is purely a storytelling experience.

From the big stuff such as maps and events, users can tweak to smaller stuff such as characters and other values. Characters include those in your party, NPCs, and enemies; all of which will have premade sprites and portraits available for the user to choose. While these tools let you do a lot and are ver?y much ade?quate for the platform, they’re still not as complex as the PC version, that allows for cool stuff like scripts and original artwork.

RPG Maker Fes ??does favor designers and artists over programmers, but it still takes some logic and planning to effectively implement stuff like ??events to create elaborate things like cutscenes and balancing combat.

While the tools can get you into tweaking small stuff, the visual assets are what can hold creators back. Users are locked into the character sprites and other visual assets that are provided in RPG Maker Fes, even though the 3DS is more than capable taking in image files and would be perfect for creating art using the stylus. This move was likely due to the? game being online and on a Nintendo system to prevent unsavory content from reaching young 3DS users.

This is the kind of software that?? r??equires a lot of time investment, mainly because doing some of the simple stuff can take a bit longer than it should be. The creation interface, while streamlined for the 3DS, works okay but is not the best, it's very much limited by the small low resolution screens.

Zooming out to see a larger view of what you're working on is not an option in the RPG Maker Fes, which makes the whole creating process feel cramp and claustrophobic at times. The larger screen 3DS XL model?s will not help with that since ?those models will just upscale the same screens on the smaller 3DS models.

Scrolling through the pages for the numerous different visual asset tiles (grass, doors, trees, etc) can be a slog due to the small screen size. The tiles?? are also organized in a certain way that doesn't really make much sense with no labels or sections to help quickly find what you need. Typing in dialogue is with a stylus is not the best thing in an age of soft keyboards on smartphones, as well as a character limit less than that of a tweet per dialogue text box and users need to make multiple text boxes to have a continuous flow of text.

I'm not saying that learning your way through the menus is not possible, it's just that RPG Maker Fes does not make it e?asy for creators to use the to??ols and menus. Lots of detailed planning and learning the tools definitely helps creators, which is something that should be done by anyone who is seriously making something worth playing.

In the Japanese release of the RPG Maker Fes, additional character sprites and other visual content were sold as extra DLC. There are no additional packs or other content available as of the writing of this review for the review code. No announcements yet of if or when DLC will be available in the west or cost but it has been mentioned that crossover content from Disgaea and oth?er NISA properties will b??e available in the future.

I looked up some videos of the Japanese version of RPG Maker Fes, and I was blown away by a few brilliant creations. One was a modern day zombie themed game named All Guns Blazing, where all the combat encounters are entirely made by jerry-rigging the event creation system to create an original light turn-based combat system. This is the kind of brilliant stu??ff that users make using existing tools in unintended ways to create something new.

While RPG Maker Fes is not the best at what it does, it certainly is very capable in doing a lot despite of its disadvantages. It also serves as a learning tool to give users interested in game design. There is great potential for user-created content in RPG Maker Fes, but similar to many user-driven games, the quality of the games are entirely at the hands of the?? co??mmunity. 

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: RPG Maker Fes appeared first on Destructoid.

Grindr

I have hit a wall with Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! No, not a progression wall forcing me to grind my way through poorly designed stages just to move on. I hit that hours ago. The wall I am currently at the base of is the “care wall.” I am at the point in Cladun where I j??ust don’t care about this game anymore.

Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku (PlayStation Vita [reviewed], PlayStation 4, Steam) 
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software 
Publisher: NIS America 
Released: June 6, 2017 (NA), June 9, 2017 (EU) 
MSRP: $29.99 (Vita), $39.99 (PS4, PC)

When I wrote my review in progress, I concluded it making note Cladun Returns had yet to really make an impact on me. It wasn’t clicking with my sensibilities, but I held out hope that would change. More than a dozen hours later, nothing has. I am just as ambivalen??t towards it now as I was when I wrote that piece.

Throughout its 10 chapters and nearly endless postgame content, This is Sengoku! tries, and it tries real hard, to connect with me. I should lik??e this game. It has a lon??g list of elements I generally enjoy: action combat, deep RPG mechanics, weapon upgrades, class changes, pretty deep character creator and procedurally generated content, all wrapped in an experience that can be played for five minutes or five hours at a time. All of that I like in other games, but there is just something about its execution here that is so wrong for me.

Let’s start with the action combat. Each chapter in Cladun is five separate sin?gle floor dungeons, crawling with enemies, traps and treasure chests. Combat is slow and hit detection feels off for some of the weapons. When using a spear, I swing at an enemy and completely miss them, only to swing again with both of us in the same spo?ts, hitting them and killing them.

Most of the creatures I encounter can be taken ou??t quite simply, others I need to work to ??bring down. Something like this should make the game more interesting but instead, it is more of a headache. My time against these enemies is spent running around them, hitting them once, waiting for them to turn, and then repeating the process. The difficulty curve is all over the place as well with bosses being taken out in a single hit after having to chip away at the health of a minion I face right before them.

Cladun Returns is extremely retro, so these hits don’t really affect those on the receiving end. Early enemies are pretty simple to figure out, but halfway through the game, I start running into?? creatures that can attack me from the other side of the stage with few options for me to avoid taking damage. Ha??ving boulders wipe me out in seconds makes me want to quit, but instead, I switch over to the Ran-geons.

Ran-geons are randomized dungeons and there are two types in th?e game: Neo & Tri. Neo-geons are 99-floor dungeons with gates that take me?? to the next floor or several above. There are 10 different types of gates and most of these change the drop rate of rare items and the level of the enemies I face. Some change these factors greatly, others not so much. It’s random how much does change.

For instance, when I enter a Gambler Gate, it has the chance to double my item drop rate, but can also raise the enemy level of the next floor by more tha??n five to? six levels. Other, more nefarious gates can do much more damage, including teleporting me to a dungeon floor I have no chance of making it out of alive. If I die in one of these dungeons, my collected gold and XP is cut in half. Exit gates, the only way to get out of a Neo-geon, can be surprisingly rare and more often than not fail to appear when I need it the most.

Tri-geons are just three Ran-geons. The layout of these randomized dungeons is quite poor. Gates are often right next to one another and sometimes one can be completely inaccessible. Though the layout changes every time, dungeon floors are often made up of the same puzzle pieces just set in different places. Enemies also don’??t change much until the higher levels, levels I could access more regularly if the game would give me a goddamn exit gate every once in a while so I am not always losing half of my progression. Experience is applied to my character only after I exit a dungeon, which may be the most annoying design choice I find here other than the “Room of 1,000 Warp Points” concept.

There is more to this game, a lot more, but I just don’t care. Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! can be played for hundreds of hours, but these are hours I want to spend with something I actually like. There are a lot of facets here, including quests I can take, a bizarre Fortify feature, an art studio where I can customize characters and gear, a??nd time challenges for each of the dungeons that make up the story mode. Again, all of that I should enjoy, and yet it just does n?othing for me. If you can get into this game — and I recommend you play the demo before you buy — you’ll probably have a lot more fun than I did. Which is to say you’ll have any amount of fun at all.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! appeared first on Destructoid.

Where from? I don't know

It’s been discussed at length that the continued survival of the PlayStation Vita is not to be attributed to the console’s manufacturer but to the niche third-party developers and indies that keep its small but active base engaged with a surprisingly steady? stream of new games. It’s great little system for fans of Japanese games like myself and last year it kept bringing us hit after hit after hit.

One company that refuses to let it die is Nippon Ichi Software. The developer and its publisher, NIS America, are bringing over eight games to the system this year. Hopefully, the other seven are a bit more captivating than Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku!

Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! (PlayStation Vita [reviewed], PlayStation 4, PC)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software 
Publisher: NIS America 
Released: June 6, 2017 (NA), June 9, 2017 (EU) 
MSRP: $39.99 (PS4)

Having never played the original Cladun: This is an RPG due to me not owning a PSP, I initially thought when I volunteered to take on this review that I would be getting myself intro something similar to the Shiren series. Screenshots would lead me to believe this was the case, but I was quickly corrected on that preconceived notion when I landed in my first dungeon and guided my created character past hoards of baddies to the exit gate at the end. Cladun is an action RPG, and my immediate comparison would be with The Legend of Zelda if that game were served up entirely in hors d’o?euvres. Ea??ch bite-sized level can be completed, and is often encouraging me to do so, in less than a minute.

But I’m jumping the gun. Cladun Returns: This is Sengoku! takes place in Arcanus Cella, a world bet?ween worlds where upset souls gather to send me on missions. My character is also dead, but unlike these floating fiery orbs that keep giving me quests to complete, I am ab?le to move around, fight enemies, and generally have a body while most of them do not. The character creator has a wide selection of different avatars to choose from, including a ridiculously goofy looking one that I was immediately drawn to. I speak with these souls and they tell me a story of regret or something similar, and then to free them from this place I must journey through simple dungeons to complete their quest, thus allowing them to move on.

As I stated above, these dungeons are quite small and can be conquered quite quickly though I usually take my time with each one. Dungeons are filled with a multitude of enemies and traps that are invisible from far away but reveal themselves as?? I draw near. Like most other dungeon crawlers this one is heavy on the loot with plenty of chests to unlock in each stage, as well as spinning coins to catch before they disappear.

As an action RPG, the game is always moving. These ??dungeons are alive with creatures that don’t stop just because I do. As I’ve gone ?through the first several chapters of the game, as well as some of the EX Stages that unlock after I save a soul, I’ve had to adjust my approach every time I come across a new enemy.

Th?at’s really nothing new to the genre, but I like that I am being kept on my toes here. Sometimes I stay back and observe an enemy movement pattern, other times I’m just running around and swinging my weapon hoping for the best outcome. So far, my favorite aspect has been the Magic Circles.

When I started the game, I quickly gained the option to ??create more characters of several different classes. While I can only take one character into a dungeon, I can surround them in spirit with other characters using a Magic Circle. Think of any RPG where you can equip gems to a weapon or shield. Some weapons and shields have different slot allotments for the gems and that’s basically what the Magic Circle is, but instead of equipping stones to a tool, I’m equipping people to me.

When I assign a character to the Magic Circle, they now take damage for me depending on where I am attacked. So if I have a circle that surrounds my character on all four sides, getting hit from any direction won’t hurt me until ?the character assigned to that side of the circle has fallen. There are a number of Magic Circles to unlock and I have a handful of them with different placements of the character slots as well as a wide variety of additional slots where I can assign some of the loot I collect. The more circles I unlock, the more complex they become.

Mixing and matching on these Magic Circles has been the most fun I’ve had with the game so far, but that’s not really a compliment. Nothing about Cladun Returns has grabbed me. So far, it’s merely been a serviceable experience. Boss battles haven’t been positive from what I’ve encountered and I’m not quite sure the clashing art style works as well here as I have seen in other games. I have just a few more chapters to go before I dive into post-game content, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed something here?? clicks with me.

_{[This review in progress is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Does midnight have shadows?

Shin Yomawari is westward-bound with a new name, Yomawari: Midnight Shadows. On top of PlayStation 4 and PS Vita releases, it will als?o hit PC this fall in North America and Europe.

I wonder if the name "Midnight Shadows" is related to the gameplay or plot. Right now it sounds like a bunch of dudes were sitting around a table trying to think of a cool name for us easily-bored westerners. "We can't just call it 'New Yomawari,' it's got to be something dark and spooky!" I'll look out for Yomawari: Dark Scary Night next year.

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I like video games

The hit survival horror game from Nippon Ichi Software, Yomawari: Night Alone, is getting a sequel. Teased yesterday in a 360 YouTube video, NIS announced that Shin Yomawari&?nbsp;will release for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita on August 24, 2017 in Japan.

Two young girls named Yui and Haru set out to the mountains to see the neighboring town's summer fireworks but got separated. You'll explore a map twice the size of the one in the first Yomawari as you try to reunite the girls.

I never really gave the first one a chance, thinking the simple indie-style art and chibi anime girl would not make for any horror. Nor did I really care all that much for Yume Nikki. Loo??king at a few minutes of the first on YouTube has changed my mind a bit; it seems there is something there that I m??ay need to give a second look.

Shin Yomawari announced for PS4, PS Vita [Gematsu]

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Fairly normal activity

Rather than explicitly announce and detail the new project, companies in both video games and film sometimes like to take an indirect approach with horror. Not going as far as Cloverfield, Nippon Ichi Software announced a new horror game with a five second teaser. Yes, Five Seconds.

If there is some hidden scare or embedded information I can't see it. Just a short recording of a room at night. Of course no bedroom in horror is complete without a cree?py doll.

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What's under the surface?

Nippon Ichi Software's new title seems to borrow from Minecraft and 3D Dot Game Heroes.

The teaser starts off calmly enough, with characters constructing a nice little house, but then it quickly escalates into an invade?r (?) leaping up into the sky and hurtling back down to obliterate blocks. While the aesthetic looks familiar, I'm not quite so sure how this as-yet-unnamed game will play.

The fact that this is coming out of NIS at ??least h?as me curious.

New Title [NIS]

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Killing time

At the NIS America event in San Francisco, Danganronpa director Kazutaka Kodaka joked that he was jealous of how well Ace Attorney and Persona sell, but I bet there's some truth behind that. His latest Saw meets Ace Attorney adventure, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony,&nbs?p;now has concrete release dates for the west: September 26, 2017 for America and Septemb??er 29, 2017 for Europe.

The game released on January 12, 2017 in Japan, separating the releases by over eight months. That's a bit longer than those Ace Attorney games as well as Persona 5 have taken to be localized but not by a significant amount. At least this gives people like me a chance to get caught up on the s??eries I suppose.

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It's back, dood!

Despite sinking many hours into strategy RPGs (SRPGs) as a kid, I've never had a chance to play the Disgaea series. I've seen buddies? play it and have casually followed the games as an onlooker, but the timing and console exclusivity never panned out for me. Then the first game was ported to the PC not too long ago, and I got really excited! Then I heard that the port was awful, and I got really sad.

Many of the original issues have since been addressed, but needless to say I was quite wary when approaching Disgaea 2 PC. After getting my hands on it?? now for some time, I can definitely say that I hop??e they continue to port the series at a steady pace.

Disgaea 2 PC (Windows, Mac, Linux)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
Publisher: NIS America, Inc.
Released: January 30, 2017
MSRP: $19.99

My biggest advice is this: turn on the Japanese voices ASAP. Feel free to listen to the English voiceover for a little, but I dare you to make it a few chapters in without changing them. They are downright awful to listen to. I mean, the writing is corny and generally good-humored, but line deliveries feel all wrong and some jokes are ruined by poor execution. Other jokes are ruined by the passage of time, like when one character makes a reference to Punk'd??. To be fair, I'm not ?sure that joke landed a decade ago either.

The ?plot itself is more or less independent of the first game, though there are reoccurring characters. If you've never played the first game you'll be fine jumping into the sequel. Everyone is being turned into monsters courtesy of Overlord Zenon, and it's up to the last human of his town, Adell, to put a stop to it. He meets up with Zenon's daughter, Rozalin, and promises to return her safely if she'll bring Adell to her father so that Adell can kill him. Yeah, it's bizarre.

Everything has a quirky and random approach, though there are definitely some great story moments throughout. One of the game's strengths is its ability to shift between lighthearted and absurd to serious and pragmatic at any given moment (g?enerally at the end of a chapter). Also, if you haven't figured it out yet, this game is "super anime," for lack of a better term, so if that's ??not your bag you will want to look elsewhere.

There are a lot of mechanics to get used to while playing Disgaea 2. The core fighting controls will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played a tactics game before. There are also plenty of design decisions that make Disgaea stand out in the genre, other than its sense of humor. Human characters can use Lift to pick ??up others and even throw them across the map, for example. The interesting part here is that this can keep happening, creating a tower of ten characters at once! This leads to some interesting strategies that involve throwing half the party in ??one direction, usually to destroy something or someone and make the level easier.

Geo Panels, for example, are prime targets on some levels. These triangular prisms rest on colored tiles and apply some sort of buff or debuff to anyone standing on a tile of the same color. If the Geo Panel on the blue square gives +50% attack, then you'd like to be standing on a blue square when attacking and don't want to see the enemy do the same.?? The exciting part comes from destroying these Geo Panels. Doing so creates an explosion on every corresponding colored tile, and if another Geo Panel get destroyed from this, well then we got ourselves a good ole fashioned Geo S??plosion! 

I'll be honest, a lot of this went over my head at first. I struggled with it consistently, but that's mostly because I'm colorblind and it was very difficult to tell what tiles were different colors. Hovering over them does show what effect they give, so I could sort of figure it out, but by and large I just hoped for the best when destroying a Geo Panel. Mo?st people shouldn't have this issue.

Then there's the Item World, which is something I feel could be sold as an independent game on its own; it would fit right in with the modern indie scene. In today's terms, it feels like an SRPG roguelike. Players "enter" an item with the intention of increasing its stats, and go through randomly generated floors to do so. For the more hardcore players, this single mechanic offers up hours and hours of content with a purpose, and since the core mechanics a??re so satisfying, it will rarely feel like a slog.

Even unlocking new character classes has its own mechanic! For monsters, simply?? defeating them in battle allows players to hire them for their squad. For actual classes, players need to go before the council of senators and bribe th??e ones who disagree using items from their inventory. No, I did not make that up. It's a bit of an obtuse mechanic, but at this point there are plenty of online guides to follow to help out. I certainly needed one, and still barely understood what was happening. I guess I'm not cut out for politics.

The entire game feels like it caters more towards the hardcore strategy crowd than anyone else. Many of the gameplay elements feel rather daunting early on and Disgaea 2 as a whole requires quite the time investment. That being said, there are so many ways?? to overcome obstacles that critical thinking and dedication are definitely rewarded.

The transition to the PC platform has been kinder than its predecessor. First of all, unlike the first game, this one is available on Mac and Linux. In general, I've had little to no issues in running the game; it hasn't crashed once on Windows. A lot more attentio??n was given to this release, which?? is evident from the betas that took place before the game's launch.

The mouse controls are definitely wonky, and I wouldn't recommend them unless necessary. One might think that pointer controls for a grid-based strategy game would be great, but it is not. Using the mouse to select a tile is often awkwardly unresponsive. If a tile is on an edge, hovering over it usually selects the tile below it. I've had to pixel-hunt for the correct part of a tile to hover over just to select the damn thing. Luckily it's usually possible to undo most actions until committed, but it's still a frus??trating experience.

There are some PC-specific options included in this release, such as the ability to remap the controls. Unfortunately, this does not extend to extra mouse buttons which means that you'll need to tap some keyboard keys at times or constantly bring up the menu for things like executing actions or ending turns. There are sprite filters but trust me, they look godawful unle?ss you like Vaseline over your eyes. The same goes with the text filter -- use the new one and never look back. The game's textures definitely don't look great on larger monitors but hey, they're over ten years old at this point.

If you're a fan of strategy RPGs and like myself never got into the Disgaea series, do so now. There are hundreds of hours of content in the original Disgaea 2, and the PC release includes extra content of more playable characters. It definitely isn't for everyone, as the anime aesthetic and off-the-walls humor is likely to turn some pe??ople aw??ay.

The voice acting may be terrible, but Disgaea 2 makes up for that with incredibly solid game mechanics. Some of the mechanic interactions may be a bit obtuse??, but there is something to be said for the amount of depth present here. ?I mean, how many games let you throw a tower of people across a map to cause a giant chain-explosion that wipes out literally everyone? And what other title allows you to bribe senators to sway them into letting you summon a "Busty Beauty?" Exactly.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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'Complete Edition' adds some new features

There were several announcements for JRPGs at tonight's Switch event, but one in particular didn't seem to get a lot of hype. Disgaea 5 will be coming out on Nintendo's new platform in a "Complete Edition" that adds several new fe??atures ??to the Strategy Role Playing of the original. 

While the story will be the same as the PS4 version, Disgaea 5 Complete will add eight new side-stories in the post game that feature past Disgaea characters. Seven recruitable characters will be added this way, including favorites like Nisa and Girl Laharl. Complete will also add?? Alliance attacks, a new type of special move that becomes more powerful when you have a strong?? relationship with a character. 

Disgaea seems like a perfect fit for the Switch, since grind-heavy RPGs and portable consoles go together like bacon and eggs. You can see some artwork and screenshots for the Switch version below. Disgaea 5 Complete will launch both digitally and physically this Spring in North America and Europe, and preorders for the standard and limited editions are now available on the NIS America store.

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Saw meets Survivor meets Danganronpa?

Ever wanted to be live or be in a game world? You probably don't want to be in Nippon Ichi's newly announced PS4/PS Vita game Tsuiho Senkyo, which roughly translates as Exile Election. The "election" in the game occurs in a theme park among 12 trapped people who will campaign for one another's death.?? 

Like many Japanese games, this visual novel will feature anime characters inclu?ding a mascot named Alice which is that demonic rabbit-looking thing on the left page. The dude next to it with the Cruella de Vil 'do is your protagonist.

I vote Alice to go first. ?I'm getting real sick of every game trying to have its own "cute" little sidekick mascot, even if it's more ingrained i?n Japanese culture than exorbitant apartment fees. 

New Adventure Game from Nippon Ichi titled Tsuiho Senkyo [Famitsu]

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World's Longest 5 Minutes

The busy folks over at NIS have announced another new game, World’s Longest 5 Minutes, which, well, I've already done the joke in the headline. Mostly because there's ?littl?e else to say.

It is coming to PS Vita in Japan on July 28 and that's all we know for now. There is a very blank teaser site up with a five minute countdown to nothing.

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Now coming in late April

NIS America has postponed the PC release of htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary.

The puzzle game was initially supposed to arrive next Monday, March 14, but is now bein?g delayed until April 25 to give the publisher more time to test the game and iron out any bugs.

Destructoid's resident horror expert Zack Furniss recently took the PC version for a spin, and didn't find many problems wit the port, but it'??s always nice to see publishers take some extra time to ensure every player has a sm??ooth experience, rather than rush games out to market before they're ready.

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