Having been successful with prior titles such as Disgaea, Disgaea 2, La Pucelle Tactics, Makai Kingdom,Phantom Brave, and the recently crowned IGN's game of the month - GrimGrimoire, NIS is now bringing more Strategy-RPG goodness to the owners of PS2. The game is scheduled for a US release later this year.

PS2 is far from dead!

Nippon Ichi Software has firmly established itself as a leading name in 2D strategy RPGs ever since the success of Disgaea years ago. Disgaea was released by Atlus, but since then, NIS has established an American division and has localized titles from Gust (Atelier Iris series, Ar tonelico), Idea Factory (Generation of Chaos), and Vanillaware (Grim Grimoire) as well as its own. The latest Strategy RPG to come down the pike is Soul Nomad & the World Eaters (aka Soul Cradle: Sekai wo Kurau Mono in Japan) for the PlayStation 2 console.

The game certainly looks like an NIS title with its 2D sprites featuring clever character designs and grid based environments for battles. The trailer shows plenty of fast action with lots of cool spell effects, slick sprite animations, and party-based battling. The screen shots show vibrant colors and the promise of many scenes showing off the cool character art. The enemy sprites are very impressive, often towering above the cute little heroes... or is that anti-heroes? Many NIS SRPGs have dabbled with the idea of playing as a villain or anti-hero, and Soul Nomad takes that idea to the next level. Not only are you an anti-hero, but you get to do anti-hero things like raid towns, attack townspeople, steal from shops, and do all manner of villainy. Be careful, though, because not all townspeople are weaklings and you may be able to recruit them into your army. For all you console RPG fans who have wished they could play an RPG as a villain and do things like raid towns, steal from shops, and terrorize villagers, this is your game.

The premise of the game's story is that three powerful golems have been resurrected and are hellbent on destroying the world once again. Said golems are far more powerful than even the most hardened of heroes to battle. So what's a hero to do? Bargain with an evil overlord for a share of his power of course! The evil overlord Gig was sealed in a dark sword by a wizard many moons ago and your avatar is a young man who possesses that sword. The hero has agreed to give his soul over to Gig a little bit at a time. The more the hero calls upon Gig's dark powers, the less human and more uncontrollable and demonic he becomes. However, Gig's powers are awesome; according the NIS press release, within the first 20 minutes of the game Gig's power can allow the hero to decimate the final boss. So how far will you go? You do not stand a chance against the golems without the use of Gig's power, but using it will cause you to lose your soul to him. The press release does not say how the villainous gameplay (i.e. raiding towns, stealing from shops/people, terrorizing villagers) ties into the story, but given that this is a Nippon Ichi title, the tale should be an interesting one.

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mettaur via rpgfan.com »