A few nights ago, the GR crew headed into San Francisco to see what NIS America has been up to. They weren't showing off too much, but there were a few new items of note to talk about.
First, a new iOS app called Character Chowdown, a game-like application designed to help teach players how to read Japanese characters (katakana, hiragana, and kanji). The main visual we were shown was of Laharl fighting off mushroom-y bad guys to each character that fit the word that needed to be found.
Beyond the complete lack of sound effects, voices, and music, which could be supplemented by a player's personal library, not much else was said about the title, except that NISA is planning on a Spring 2013 release.
Next was Disgaea D-2: A Brighter Darkness for a PS3/PSN release in Fall 2013. Except for a trailer and reassurance that the focus is back on Laharl, Etna, and Flonne, nothing concrete was shown or talked about. The Item World and Dark Assembly are said to be back, along with some streamlining and simplifications of the interface so new players can jump in more easily. It should still be Disgaea, though, so that's nice to hear.
The Guided Fate Paradox was displayed, and said to be a sort of spiritual successor to 2010's ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman. A roguelike RPG with NIS's love of gazillions of personalization options, the games has a story that centers around a young student who lucks into winning a lottery to become God, then is charged with fulfilling people's wishes. Players will run around randomly-generated dungeons collecting floods of loot, be able to equip new gear they acquire on the fly, and even temporarily unlock his "God" form to deal massive damage. GFP is slated for a Fall 2013 release.
Time and Eternity, a fully-animated action/JRPG is scheduled for a Summer 2013 release. It was the only game that was actually on display for us to play, so I was able to write a full preview that can be found here (please include link to preview).
