Compile Heart goes casual, creates a Nintendo DS puzzle series

I’m still waiting for Conspiracy Entertainment to release Octomania (their first US release) and surprisingly it won’t be Compile Heart’s last puzzle game. Later this year Japan gets the first titles in their Puzzle Mate Nintendo DS puzzle series. Currently, there are three games in the series: Puzzle Mate: Number Mate, Puzzle Mate: Crossword Mate and Puzzle Mate: Oekaki Mate. All of them share a common mascot, the clown on the left hand side and they will arrive in Japan on April 17.

Perhaps, more interesting to note is how Compile Heart, a relatively small publisher, is shifting gears towards the causal crowd with the Puzzle Mate series and the three DS cart series with the Phoenix manga. These projects are quite different than their previous works like Rouge Hearts Dungeon and Agarest Senki.