Nippon Ichi Debuts in U.S.

Disgaea was last year's surprise hit, La Pucelle came on the outside last week to favorable reviews, and they've got Phantom Brave coming up later this year – not bad for a company whose first attempt game four years ago went (perhaps rightly) ignored by means of one and all. Nippon Ichi, the company in question, has just lay opened up a U.S. branch to capitalize upon their success, and we spoke to them today about their plans for the future

The main focus of Nippon Ichi Software's (NIS) small space (you couldn't call it a booth exactly – since they just lay opened their offices four weeks ago, they're making do with a closet-sized area inside Atlus' space) was Phantom Brave, their first production. Their part on it is limited, since they're just getting started, and they'll single be publishing the game while Atlus handles the localization and distribution. futurity games, however, will be localized internally as well.

The Japanese branch of Nippon Ichi is a small team, generally up to 37 from the 30 they had last year. Consequently they single focus on one or sum of two units games every year, though NIS says they'd like to publish three or four. The difference will apparently be made up with other Japanese RPG from non-Nippon Ichi developer situating NIS with niche publishers like Mastiff and Natsume. They plan to stick with what they know best, and not deviating abundant from RPGs and strategy RPG admitting they're still looking for their first outside title to localize.

In the meantime, they're keeping busy with Phantom Brave and Makai Wars, Nippon Ichi's just-announced PSP game. We were fortunate enough to diocese early screenshots, which seem to hint at a succeeding part to Disgaea. Not only were there Prinnies clearly visible, on the other hand the name is another ball of thread since Makai Senki Disgaea was the filled Japanese title. The graphical diction was along the lines of pleasing without being striking much every game Nippon Ichi's made for a like reason far – isomorphic polygonal backgrounds with sprites upon top – though since it's popularly running on emulated specs and not actual hardware, they're not ready to release the defences to the public yet. It's apparently locate to be released shortly after the PSP launch in the couple Japan and the U.S., in like manner we'll be keeping an organ of sight out.

Copyright ?© 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in 1UP