Title: Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3: La Pucelle: Ragnarok / Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: NIS (originals) / Engine Software (Switch ports)
Publisher: NIS (JP) / NIS America (NA and EU)
Release Date: August 30th, 2022 (NA)
File Size: 1GB
Review copy provided by NIS America
And now we get to the 3rd NIS Classics set! Unlike the first two which were by Codeglue, the 3rd was by the returning Engine Software, who of course prior did the Prinny 2-pack, and the prior Falcom console games on Switch (such as Ys VIII, Ys IX, and Cold Steel III among others). How do these fare? Will it make you Ragnarok and roll, or will it make you Rhapsody blue? Let’s find out!
Naturally we’ll start with La Pucelle: Ragnarok. Now the funny thing is, this game was originally localized on PS2 by Mastiff, who some may remember having also localized Falcom’s Gurumin on PSP (and even commissioned the 3DS port which I reviewed). This game got an expanded PSP port several years later (which this is based on), but that never got localized. So, the Ragnarok version is brand-new to folks outside of Japan and also outside of the PS2 Classic release on PS3, is the first re-release otherwise. Neat huh?
Here’s the main town area. (La Pucelle: Ragnarok)
The story stars Prier (pronounced “pree-ay”), Coulotte (“coo-lot”) and Alouette (“ah-loo-ette”), who reside at the Church of the Holy Maiden and are part of a demon hunting squad called La Pucelle (“la poo-cell”). Prier strives to become the maiden of light, but both Prier and Coulotte are training to be proper demon hunters under Alouette specifically. You get your start when you’re all tasked to find out why demons are coming out of a place called the Demon’s Stomach, this is where the tutorial takes place.
Once again, this is Disgaea territory through-and-through. Though there are some touch ups. If your characters are close to one another (beside or behind the attacking character) when beginning battles with enemies, then said group will all be in the battle at once. Each fight is done where all characters only attack once per fight in that turn, and the fight ends when everyone finishes their turn, or one side loses all of their characters. Experience gained when an enemy dies seems to be split among the number of characters in that particular fight, so keep that in mind.
A battle. (La Pucelle: Ragnarok)
Another key mechanic is the purification system. Each of the main characters can use up a turn to purify an enemy. What this does is each time you attempt to purify an enemy, it becomes more and more likely to join your party permanently when defeated in battle. You’ll see under their info box a message on the odds of joining you, you want to see “Decided to Join” which guarantees it before dealing the final blow if you can.
Another thing is that you’ll see these colored lines on the battlefield. These can be purified which can have an effect depending on the color and can even damage enemies when the effect starts a domino effect zooming across the line. Even better, if the lines connect in a full square, any enemy inside the square suffers huge amounts of damage.
Flashback early in the game. I’m not crying, you’re crying. 😥 (La Pucelle: Ragnarok)
Monsters you gain can also be trained via the “Train” menu, and you can increase their happiness level (Level 10 allows them to also purify things) or increase stats. Be warned; increasing stats lowers their happiness, and if it gets to Level 1 or 0, they may run away. Find the right balance and focus on the happiness if it starts getting too low.
A key thing to know is how the story works. In chapters you’re graded at the end on how you did. The first major one sees you going to Monblanc’s castle. The easy thing to do is simply beat him at the end, right? Not so fast, to avoid spoilers, keep an eye in the preceding battlefields, you’ll see a door in the middle that leads to a special room with a cutscene which is very integral to this chapter. It may very well give you a better ending. I didn’t in my run (I found out after) and I got the bad ending for the chapter because of it. You can go to the room after… but let’s just say your bad ending is stuck with you and said outcome… well, you’ll feel bad. Trust me on this one.
I am Dr. Bat! The world’s only Bat dentist! (La Pucelle: Ragnarok)
Visually it’s your typical NIS PS2 era game. Great sprite animation and character designs. The portraits in dialogue look great. The environments (especially outside of fights in some cutscenes) look really nice. It’s good stuff like usual. Audio-wise it’s very good as well. The voice acting of course is in English and Japanese and the cast sound basically perfect. Not all lines are voiced though. I’m not sure if the new stuff in the Ragnarok port got new English voice recordings, since this is after all from the very early 2000’s, so a lot of the old cast may have come and gone since. Who knows. Music’s honestly fantastic, especially some one of the battle themes early on, and the really sad song you hear in cutscenes.
Overall this is a very good game and is yet another fine example of NIS’ glory days on PS2, even if it’s still a very similar (or even the exact same) template used in Disgaea, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom, but as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Definite recommendation.
The first town. (Rhapsody)
Now on to Rhapsody! This was uniquely a PS1 game and of its own breed. This actually got a… not so good DS port back in the day (yes Virginia, pre-Switch NIS did SOME stuff on Nintendo systems), but that didn’t turn out so well (quality-wise and apparently there were some unfavorable changes in the western release if I recall) that basically doomed that port to be forgotten.
The story begins with our main heroine Cornet having dreams of meeting her dream prince. Well, her talking puppet friend gets her out of bed and the two begin by immediately recruiting your first puppet to your team. See, Cornet is one of the few who can talk to puppets which are secretly magical beings. The game is also a sort of musical (don’t see that often in gaming) and Cornet plays her trusty trumpet to do the recruiting.
Your first battle. (Rhapsody)
Cornet’s grandpa also fixes puppets and instructs you to go to the forest to retrieve red iridium which is what he needs to do so. This is when you get your taste of the game. You can wander around the small town to talk to the locals, go into every door to check around things and like any good RPG main character, you can just take any money or item that’s around no matter where it was or who’s house it was in (you can get a decent amount of change with this alone). Once in the forest, you can start your first battle.
Unlike other NIS RPGs, this isn’t exactly similar. It’s got a similar TPRG tile thing going on, but it’s FAR smaller scale as the tiny screen is all you get. You just need to move a few squares to make sure you’re in range of the opponent to hit them with a move. Cornet can also power-up her allies with her trumpet. Again, it’s much more simplistic.
*doot*
Visually it’s a really nice-looking 2D game. It’s from the PS1 so it’s 240p in pixel resolution, but you do get a few options in the menu; first of course is the ability to view the pixels as crisp as they were originally made. The second is a so called CRT filter where it’s just scanlines on both axis, but without any blurring or anything you’d get from M2. The 3rd option is this really kooky filter that smears the sprites just like how Backbone Entertainment did with their old Sega Genesis emulations on 360 and PS3. I mean… it’s there if you want it! Can’t complain about options! Plus, these actually do their job and not have to be constantly tended to like in the prior collections. So good on Engine for getting that right.
Audio-wise it’s good. Bizarrely for a musical, there’s VERY minimal voice-acting… but there ARE vocal songs! They sound lovely and are indeed sung in English which obviously took a lot of effort (assuming they’re directly translating the Japanese originals). Music sounds good as well. It’s nice that the game has a more pleasant fantasy setting and not the billionth spooky-themed game that NIS have made for ages afterwards. They should do more of these.
Vaseline filter, my favorite! (Rhapsody)
Overall, this is a really nice collection and definitely much better made than the first two. I don’t know why Codeglue fumbled both of their collections, but it is what it is. By the way, this collection had some issues in La Pucelle: Ragnarok (it’d crash after chapter 9), but apparently that’s been patched, and the game got an unspecified patch even after just recently, so clearly NISA are keeping their eye on the games to keep them in check when needed, which is always good to see. It’d just be nice if they did this before launch (so the physical copies won’t need patching but eh). I definitely recommend this collection. Both games are very different from one another and the novelty of a PS1 game for once being among them is a lovely touch and nice change of pace.
You’ll Love:
+ Both as usual are fun games.
+ Rhapsody is a very welcome change of pace from NIS’ other games in not just theme, but it’s also a rare PS1 game, instead of a PS2 or PSP game.
+ Filters actually work this time in Rhapsody.
+ Rhapsody is a musical (with English songs!), what’s not to love?
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– In a rare twist, La Pucelle: Ragnarok doesn’t have filters, but it does have widescreen (it is the PSP version so it’s not surprising).
– A broken record, but you have to buy both games together on Switch and can’t buy them separately. Dunno why that is, but it is what it is.
8/10
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