Mmmmm Nice...."wings"

At this year's NIS America press event Thursday, March 29, the company unveiled GrimGrimoire for the PlayStation 2. GrimGrimoire, at first glance, looks like the typical 2D Strategy RPG Nippon Ichi Software is known for. Looks can be deceiving, however, as upon playing, it is discovered that GrimGrimoire is actually a 2D "Real-time strategy RPG" similar to the Starcraft or Warcraft series. GrimGrimoire was co-developed by Vanillaware of Princess Crown fame, and Nippon Ichi, and it is being localized and published by NIS America.

One day your "assets" can be this nice too

With GrimGrimoire, NIS is aiming to attract a much broader audience than with their previous titles. As such, it is seeking to create the "Disney of the RTS world." Currently scheduled for release this summer, GrimGrimoire has beautiful hand drawn, fully animated 2D animations between each battle sequence, much in the style of NIS America's previous titles.

Set in a world where science is replaced by magic, and youths attend wizardry schools to learn the art of magic, GrimGrimoire will have players filling the role of young magician Lillet Blan, who has been admitted to the most prestigious and mystical magic school, the Tower of Silver Star. On the fifth day of school, however, everyone mysteriously vanished. Lillet awakens the next day to find out she is once again living out the first day of school with her memories still intact. This gives her the opportunity to solve the mystery behind the disappearances and try to prevent the tragedy from occurring again.

But does it have a prototypical androgynous male?

The start of each battle sequence will be familiar to any RTS players. Players begin by creating and sending your resource gatherers, in this case Elves, to a crystal to begin harvesting mana. Once players have enough mana back at their base they will be able to summon more elves, fairies, unicorns, or a plethora of other fantasy creatures to help you defeat your opponents. There will be four magic types in GrimGrimoire for players to master; Glamour, Necromancy, Sorcery, and Alchemy, with each type having a strength and weakness to another type.

GrimGrimoire is shaping up to be a unique take on what has become a stale genre. NIS America is hoping to draw in new players, particularly fans of this typically PC genre, with this release. Stay tuned to RPG Land for future news of GrimGrimoire and other NIS games. GrimGrimoire is set for release in June of this year.
-Michael Wayland