NIS America Gives Us An Overview Of Rhapsody DS And Disgaea DS

If you weren’t already aware Disgaea DS and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure come out on the Nintendo DS tomorrow in North America. These will be NIS America’s first Nintendo DS games. At the last minute I caught up with Jack Niida, the Marketing Manager over at NIS America, who took a few questions for the development team about both of the games. One of the issues I wanted to address was the amount of voice acting, a prominent feature in both Rhapsody and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.

Music is been a key component of Rhapsody. Were you able to keep the songs and voice acting from the PS1 version intact?

Jack Niida, Marketing Manager at NIS America: For the voice acting, we were able to keep all the files, but for the songs, we had to limit it to Japanese version only. What happened was that the DS version included new music tracks and we could not get the original voice actors back. Therefore, we either had to change all the voice actors for all the characters or keep the V/O, but use the Japanese music tracks. Many of our fans loved the original actors, so we just could not replace everybody with new actors.

The first difference I noticed was Kururu immediately playable. What kind of skills and attacks does she have?

Jack Niida, Marketing Manager at NIS America: Kururu has a unique weapon attack using a “Harisen”. Some hardcore gamers who are accustomed to Japanese comedy might know what a harisen is, but for those who don’t know it’s a big paper fan looking thing to hit people’s head with.

The combat system has changed quite a bit too and the hybrid SRPG grid is gone. Why was Rhapsody simplified into a more traditional RPG?

NIS Development Team: Originally Rhapsody was meant to be a game for a wide audience, but the SRPG style did not appeal to the general gamers too well. So for the DS version we made changes so that even the most casual gamers could simply pick up and enjoy.

Would you say Rhapsody DS is easier than the original PS1 game?

NIS Development Team: Yes, the battle system has been changed from the SRPG style to the classic RPG style. With a simple battle menu and quick game play, it should be fun and enjoyable game.

Did you use the existing translation for Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure or was the script altered?

NIS America Localization Team: We used the original translations and corrected some of the grammatical and spelling bugs.

We’ve been over this with Rhapsody, the DS has limited cartridge space. How much voice acting were you able to cram in Disgaea DS?

Jack Niida, Marketing Manager at NIS America: All the voice acting is there, but unfortunately, we had to compromise on the dual language and English musical songs.

One of the new story features is Prinny Commentary on the top screen. Where did this idea come from and what’s your favorite Prinny commentary?

Souhei Niikawa, Producer of Disgaea series: When we were planning to release the DS version, I thought it would be interesting to put the Prinny commentaries in just to mock the characters. In Disgaea there are a lot of ridiculous scenes that might not make too much sense, so I wanted a “boké” or a comedic character chime in on the moment.

Can you tell us about Disgaea DS’s multiplayer modes. Are they different from the PSP version?

NIS Development Team: Disgaea DS has the same multi-player mode as the PSP version. We did want to put new contents in but even just converting the game to the DS version was pushing the DS card’s capacity limits, so we couldn’t pull it off.

Nintendo Wi-Fi support would have been a strong selling point for the DS version. How come it wasn’t added in?

NIS Development Team: It was a feature that was considered, but due to lack of time and manpower, we just couldn’t pull it off.

For fans of the series, there are brand new characters like Lord Zetta. What kind of attacks does he use?

NIS Development Team: Since Lord Zetta is a book he doesn’t really have any real physical attacks like punch or a lick. Instead he has an amazing laser beam that shoots our of his eyes. It’s a funny looking move, so please look forward to it.

What about Plenair? I heard she attacks with a flurry of rabbits.

Jack Niida, Marketing Manager at NIS America: Yes, Plenair has a rabbit attack that’s like the Prinny Bomb move by Etna. It’s an awesome skill, so try to figure out how you unlock Plenair.

Images courtesy of NIS America.