Operation Backlog Completion 2024
Jan 302023
 

So the NIS 30th Anniversary live stream began with the announcement of Disgaea 7 localization, as expected.

The next announcement, however, was quite a surprise.

Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles has been announced for summer 2023 for the Switch, PS5, and PC.

While Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure was re-released last year as part of Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3, this new release is a collection of Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom. This is the first time these two games will have official translations.

(It looks like they’ll be sold individually on Steam.)

The games are cute and look interesting, so I might pick up that NIS Classics collection to try the first Rhapsody before its sequels come out.

The limited edition looks pretty cool, too.

Have you played Rhapsody? Are you excited for its sequels finally coming west?

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Jan 272023
 

According to a new interview from Nintenderos, translated by Persona Central, the next game from Vanillaware is almost ready to go.

Vanillaware first teased this game back in 2019, when they released the prologue for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Prologue was essentially a paid demo with some other bonuses, including a tiny teaser trailer for an unannounced game.

The teaser is incredibly short, and shows a forest setting with a castle in the background before focusing in on a knight facing a group of other knights on horseback.

That’s it, that’s all we have to go on, but we’ll probably hear more about the game soon. In the interview, Vanillaware president George Kamitani says the game teased back then is now finished, and it’s “one of Vanillaware’s biggest productions.” He isn’t the director for that one, but has another project in the early stages that can fully enter development now that the previous project is done.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim was the first Vanillaware title I played, and it was a magnificent game, enough to have me intrigued by this new title based on that alone.

(I did start Muramasa sometime previously, but I never got too far into it.)

I know their games were mostly known for gameplay over story until 13 Sentinels came along, so I can’t assume this mysterious new game will have the same sort of amazing storytelling that captivated me there. Nevertheless, I’m still excited to see what Vanillaware has in store.

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Jan 252023
 

NISA has announced a special live stream to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nippon Ichi Software.

It will be held on January 30 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET and feature new game announcements and merchandise.

Since NISA is holding the live stream, that should mean any new games announced will be localized.

But while NISA handles localization for a lot of series I’m interested in, I don’t think we’ll see news about games like Trails and Ys here. It’s NISA’s stream, but it’s for NIS’s anniversary, so it’ll probably be focused on NIS-developed titles.

With that in mind, I think Disgaea 7 localization has the best chance of being announced. It’s due out tomorrow in Japan, so an event like this a few days later feels like prime time to reveal it. I’ve never gotten into the Disgaea series, but I know it has a lot of fans.

What else could be announced?

It’s probably too soon for another Yomawari title to be announced, although I’d love to see it. Maybe I can hold out hope for some of those visual novels NIS has never localized, like that Jack the Ripper murder mystery I’ve been wishing for ever since it was announced. They’ve also been releasing those NIS Classics collections quickly enough that another one sounds plausible.

Maybe they’ve got some surprising new announcements to be revealed, too. I’ll certainly be tuned in to find out!

What do you hope or expect to see from the NIS 30th anniversary live stream?

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