E3 2008: NIS America
07.15.08 - 9:30 PM

Editor's Note: This story was modified on 07.17.08 to clarify wording. No core content has been changed.

While NIS America wasn't exhibiting at this year's E3, we had a chance to find NIS America's Jack Niida and talk to him about a few of this year's titles. While Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Disgaea DS, and Disgaea 3 were already announced, Jack also confirmed the release of Mana Khemia for the PSP... and two more titles that NIS America will be releasing later on, but won't be announced for a little bit.

Mana Khemia for the PSP will be an enhanced port of the PlayStation 2 version of the title and will include new multiplayer features. Slated for release in September, the title will also be able to install portions of itself to the memory stick for faster loading times. Not much more is known about the PSP iteration of the title, but we should have hands-on with the title a little closer to release.

Rather than skim over Rhapsody and Disgaea for the DS here, I'll just let all of you readers know that we currently have our hands on near-final builds of these games and should have hands-on previews up for both of these titles soon. Both are slated for release in September.

When asked about Makai Wars, Jack mentioned that the title had been put to the side by NIS' Japan branch due to the development of Disgaea 3's downloadable content and an upcoming title that has yet to be announced. As such, gamers shouldn't hold their breath to see this title in the near future.

NIS America as a publishing company is doing well, and they do well maintaining five to six titles released a year. While they have focused mainly on the PS2, they've begun shifting toward the PS3 for their releases. They also have had great success with their titles on the PSP, which Jack owes to the fact that more hardcore gamers own the platform when compared to the DS. He also mentioned that NIS' home branch in Japan was interested in using the Wii's motion capabilities in RPGs in the near future, but mentioned that the Sony family of platforms was still NIS' main focus. He continued on to say that NIS' next title developed for the PS3 will harness more of the power of the platform and shouldn't garner complaints that it looks like a PS2 game, like Disgaea 3 did.

NIS America also discussed with us two upcoming titles seeing American shores that we can't tell you about quite yet. However, we can say that one will be announced sometime before the end of July and is an iteration in a series that NIS fans are familiar with. The second won't even be announced until September or October, but Jack says that, "a lot of the hardcore RPG fans will [enjoy the announcement]," and that the series has been around in Japan for a couple of generations. With that, NIS America leaves readers salivating - keep watch to RPGFan for more about NIS America's titles as they get closer to release.


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John McCarroll