Special Feature: NIS America Showcase 2019
It’s become customary for NIS America to hold a showcase for their titles in the first quarter of the year, something they continued this year with the NIS America Showcase 2019. But it was clear this one would be different from previous showcases when it was announced. It happened at a different time this year, at noon (Eastern Time) during a work day instead of in the evening on a Thursday or Friday.
Also, instead of the event being held in a venue that nailed the feel of someone’s basement, this one was prerecorded with segments filmed in NIS’ Japanese and American offices. They included introductions from NISA’s Erin Kim and David Errigo Jr., and featured trailers and interviews from Japanese development staffers (with English subtitles) for all the games included. It’s a pity the Japanese interview segments contained volume issues throughout, but the English ones sounded fine.
The stream mainly focused on games NISA previously announced, understandable considering how many they have on their schedule. One of the biggest was The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, which the company announced in January to nigh-audible groans from Falcom fans who remember the initial localization snafus from Ys VIII (also from Falcom) too well. But they’ve assured their audience that the game will be in good hands, since localization team members who worked on the previous games at XSeed are contributing to it. The game will release for PlayStation 4 sometime this fall.
Nippon Ichi Software’s Japanese staff also discussed two upcoming games. The first was The Princess Guide, a localization of Your Four Knight Princess Training Story that released in Japan just over a year ago. It’s an action RPG where the protagonist trains four princesses to fight against invasions of enemies into their homeland, which is due for release on March 26th for PS4 and Switch. NISA is also localizing their parent company’s Lapis X Labyrinth, a 2D “dungeon-diving action RPG” where four playable female characters search dungeons for loot and battle enemies by stacking on top of each other. This will release for PS4 and Switch on May 28th.
RPG Maker MV is another previously announced NISA title coming soon, where players will be able to make their own classic-style Japanese RPG quests and share them with others. The game’s showing on the stream followed a report that Japanese version publisher Kadokawa Games cancelled the Xbox One version, which applied worldwide. It will release for PS4 and Switch sometime this year.
A good section of the stream was dedicated to The Caligula Effect: Overdose, the enhanced port of the original The Caligula Effect released on Vita. This version was redone in Unreal Engine 4 and includes a brand-new scenario, new endings, and an alternate story route. The game will release for PS4, Switch, and PC on March 12, which is tomorrow. Like the original version localized by Atlus USA, only Japanese voices will be included, with English subtitles. Let’s just hope the game is better than the anime adaptation.
NISA will handle the Switch version of Neo Atlas 1469 in western territories, following its PC release from Arc System Works. Here, players will control a trading company master who plays a significant part in shaping the world of 1469 by finding undiscovered land. It will release physically and digitally on April 9th.
The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is coming to PS4, and NISA streamed an introductory video from Digital Eclipse’s Frank Cifaldi. The company handled the great emulation work for the 24 classic games included, all of which originally released from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Unlike the Switch version, where several games were released as downloadable content after the original collection arrived, every game will be included on the disc. It will release on March 19th, a week from tomorrow.
In addition to the previously-announced games above, three titles were confirmed here — though only one was a complete surprise. NISA is localizing The Alliance Alive HD Remastered, a remaster of a 3DS JRPG from FuRyu that released in Japan in 2017 and came west from Atlus USA last year. The game was received well, but didn’t get as much attention thanks to being a late 3DS release; but a remaster due for release on multiple platforms could catch more eyes. This announcement wasn’t a surprise thanks to NISA’s name being listed as a publishing partner on FuRyu’s info page alongside the game when it was confirmed in Japan last week, but it was nonetheless nice to see. It will release in western territories in the same season as the Japanese version in fall 2019, though whether it will arrive in major worldwide regions at nearly the same precise date remains to be seen.
The biggest surprise announcement was for Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen, a remake of the original Utawarerumono strategy RPG. It follows the story of — stop me if you’ve heard this one — an amnesiac man who awakens in a mysterious town with no memories, and is taken in by friendly villagers. They give him the name Hakuoro, who helps fight when the village is attacked by a neighboring nation. There’s already concern about the localization, as the character was referred to as “Hakuowlo” in Atlus USA’s release of the other titles, which will hopefully be fixed when the game arrives on PS4 and Vita (!!) in 2020 (!!!). The Vita version will be digital-only, but it’s still remarkable to see a publisher support the platform for such a late release.
The final title announced was Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers, a localization of the 90s-style 3D JRPG with a unique art style announced in Japan late last year. It follows the story of a young girl name Sherry, who lives in the town of Clocknee in 1999. But the lives of the town’s inhabitants are upended when time suddenly halts due to an unexplained occurrence. Sherry teams up with her friend Pegreo and robot Isaac to search for the solution to the town’s problem by travelling through time. It will release for PS4 and Switch this fall physically and digitally, well after the Japanese release this Thursday.
NISA’s attempt at a “Nintendo Direct” style show went a hell of a lot better than Square Enix’s at E3 last year, despite a heavy amount of talking. It wouldn’t be a problem if they did shows like this from here on, though they should work on having an equal amount of discussing and showing.
If you want to watch the presentation, feel free to do so here. Individual trailers have also been uploaded to NISA’s YouTube channel.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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I sure hope they aren’t once again biting off more than they can chew. Also just watching the trailers for some weird reason i can watch the livestream without being bored. On a more serious note hell, they are on fire. I’m happy for those who want them.
I’ll be quite frank though I honestly find it hard to care for any of those titles save for destiny connect….Here a controversial opinion I dont care for trails 3 or falcom in general really…its just They’re games are everything a Generic JRPG is and shouldn’t be, maybe I’m being harsh… but I dunno, is it wrong to ask for subversion or innovation?
NISA’s had some localization issues lately, but yeah, taking on too much could be the issue. I’m glad they’re keeping themselves busy, but it’s the quality of the work that matters most here.
Falcom’s titles are a lot of fun despite their generic themes. The Trails series is tough to get into thanks to how many games you need to play to understand everything, not to mention they’re long. I recommend trying out an Ys game, though.
True that, With their own titles I’d say they’re pretty good but with others I suppose its another story but we’ll see in due time when they’re released.
Gameplay wise, yeah I’m sure they are but for me Its the story beat that matters, I confess to trying out Cold steel but I couldnt stomach it, admittedly a few hours isnt enough to judge it but yeah I just cant force myself to enjoy it, but more power to those that do. Im not going to discourage others over my preference lol. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll give that Ys8 game a try eventually, my backlog is ever growing.