Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

Good news (especially for PSP fans) has arrived with the announcement that Japanese-owned publisher KOEI, who have an increasingly significant presence in the UK and Europe, have signed a deal with NIS to enable the distribution of the latter's developed games outside of their current reach. Thanks to Australia's continuing status as a member of the "PAL territories" umbrella - something we rarely have cause to give thanks for - this deal makes it much more likely that we'll see some of NIS' universally lengthily titled releases, like Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? and possibly even *deep breath* Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman: What Did I Do to Deserve This?, both PSP exclusives.

As well as the two afore-mentioned titles, which I'm going to go to great lengths (ha!) to avoid typing again, KOEI's initial agreement also covers two other quite neat-looking titles. The first is probably only of interest to hardcore JRPG fans, being a PS2-only sequel to Ar Tonelico, a strange little game that has you using the power of song to achieve victory and entering your party member's psyche to sort out their pyschological problems, a gimmick FFVII fans would no doubt have appreciated. The other announced title has a slightly broader appeal, being a Playstation 3 beat-'em-up featuring characters from a range of different franchises including Capcom, NamcoBandai, and Idea Factory called Cross Edge.

The KOEI/NIS partnership is a win for both companies, and for gamers too, as niche titles get a chance at broader distribution; hopefully we'll receive confirmation of Australian distribution and some more information on NIS' lineup shortly.