KOEI bringing Nippon Ichi games to UK

By Robert Purchese Published 28 April, 2009

Ar Tonelico 2! Prinny! Cross Edge!

KOEI has signed a deal to bring NIS America games Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of the Metafalica, Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero? and Cross Edge to the UK.

Ar Tonelico 2, an RPG sim for PS2, arrives here on 29th May. The game lets players dive into the minds of their team-mates in order to solve their psychological problems and issues, a bit like Trisha does on daytime telly. The game launched earlier this year in the US and enjoys a solid 70 per cent on Metacritic.

PSP game Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero follows on 26th June. This 2D side-scrolling adventure spin-off in the Disgaea series only gives players 1000 lives (1000 hits) to finish the game with, which apparently makes things very difficult indeed. Prinny has also launched in the US, which is where we imported a copy from to review.

Cross Edge launches last on 10th July, and is a PS3 turn-based RPG where characters from lots of famous franchises punch each other in the face. Cross Edge is a collaboration between Capcom, Nippon Ichi, Namco Bandai, Gust and Idea Factory, which means characters from Darkstalkers, Disgaea, Ar Tonelico, Spectral Souls, Atelier Marie and Mana-Khemia 2 are all present.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • menage #1 3 years ago

    I love you Koei!

  • Fernando #2 3 years ago

    wonder why koei was interested all of a sudden? maybe because they were jealous square enix were picking up all the other niche rpgs? ;)

  • locus2k1 #3 3 years ago

    woo hoo!!

  • VicViper #4 3 years ago

    Cross Edge? Awsome, but if "Prinny, can I really be the hero?" gets a better special edition for the UK than the premium one the states got I'll be regreting importing. On that note the game is very very hard

  • el_pollo_diablo #5 3 years ago

    "Metafalica"

    Is that a real title? Sweet mercy.

  • chrisno21 #6 3 years ago

    Considering Ar Tonelico 1 never saw a release (despite me having it on order with Shopto for about 2years), this surprises me.

  • Junker87 #7 3 years ago

    @chrisno21

    Actually, Ar Tonelico 1 did see a release in Europe. Although only in France and Italy in very small amounts. Presumably due to 505 Games being a very small publisher. Or so I've heard, anyway...
    Edited by 1 at 28/04/09 @ 16:03

  • neonemesis #8 3 years ago

    I love Koei, seriously. They might pump out game after game of Dynasty Warriors but as a PS2 publisher, they've been pretty good recently. I'll definitely be getting AT2 despite having not played the first one. Perhaps I can find a rare euro copy if I feel like paying the small fortune it'll doubtlessly cost from ebay. I can't import you see.

    Is anywhere taking preorders for these games? Play.com maybe?

  • NonniR #9 3 years ago

    @neonemesis. Well .. Amazon.co.uk is taking pre-orders. I should know since I preordered Ar Tonelico 2 and Cross Edge from there earlier today .P

    Also, awesome news.

  • Kon #10 3 years ago

    Great news. I want all three games and now I don't have to bother importing. Well done KOEI.

    Now please don't forget to have someone go to the trouble of removing the game ending bug before the final boss that was reported in the US version of Ar 2.