Atlus, current holder of the World’s Busiest Developer title, has announced the forthcoming North American release of Knights in the Nightmare, a new pigeonhole-avoiding curio from the creator of unpronounceable GBA strategy-RPG Yggdra Union.

A pseudo-sequel to that underrated gem (which was a bit like Advance Wars only 87 times more complicated), Knights sees you controlling a wisp with your stylus, sliding it across the bottom screen to manouevre it on the top. It’s a bit strategy, a bit bullet-hell shooter, apparently - with you collecting items and having to dodge projectiles simultaneously. It sounds a bit tricky, and Atlus admits there’s a steep learning curve but that there’s a lengthy tutorial which guides you through the weirdness.

Once you’ve got your head around the idea, you’ll be dipping into item-management, troop levelling and strategic planning as well as fast-paced scrapping, bobbing, weaving and collecting. It’s making my head spin just thinking about it - and the video above didn’t really help any in explaining exactly what the chuff it is you’re supposed to be doing. But I digress. There’s a great reward when you finish the game - the chance to play it through again as the game’s antagonist. Nice.

It’s out in the US on June 2nd and has some pretty awesome boxart which can be seen below.  Another one to add to the ‘must import’ list, then…

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 6:32 pm by Chris Schilling
DS, Forthcoming titles, Hardcore-friendly, Inventiveness, Japanese oddities.