Last night publisher NIS America revealed their fall lineup, and for the first time in memory there was a lack of PlayStation support. Instead the company, known for its charming RPGs and affection for hand-drawn anime art over 3D cutscenes, revealed a major push into the Nintendo DS market. Makes sense, seeing as neither PS3 nor PSP have the same kind of pull as DS at this point. So, what do level-grinding RPG fanatics have to look forward to?

A Witch’s Tale (DS, October 2008)

A joint effort between NIS America and Hitmaker, A Witch’s Tale will be their first action-RPG, expected on shelves around Halloween. Not coincidentally, the game sports a very fun, gothy atmosphere reminiscent of everyone’s favorite rubber-and-candy-scented holiday. Not much else to go on right now (strange for a game releasing in a few months, no?) but we did hear it’ll have some kind of touch-screen spell casting. By watching this trailer, you will effectively know everything we do.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (DS, September 2008)

AclassicRPG from the original PlayStation days gets another shot at success with this simplified DS port. Battle menus have been streamlined, a map on the top screen makes it easer to get around and new playable characters have been added. The original featured full-on musical numbers where story cutscenes would normally fit – wonder if they’ll make the cut on DS?

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3, August 26)

Disgaea games are known for their incredible length and insanely over-the-top battles (level 9999, a million damage etc), so we’re not surprised to see tons of all-new crazy ways to obliterate enemies in part three. The trailer below accurately summarizes the additions, but doesn’t bother pointing out that this PS3 exclusive looks a hell of a lot like a PS2 game… from two years ago. Oh, we’ll play the piss out of it, but surely there’s a way to spice up the sprites, eh?

Also on the way this year arePuchi Puchi VirusandDisgaea DS.

Jun 6, 2008