E3 Preview: Knights in the Nightmare PSP

One of the more unusual announcements late last year was Atlus' port of the DS game Knights in the Nightmare over to PSP. While strategy role-playing games are nothing new to Sony's handheld, the obvious lack of a touch screen made the transition seem dubious at best.

In the DS version of Knights in the Nightmare, you control and command the units by dragging a wisp over the touch screen. Atlus' answer to this focuses on the PSP's control nub. While that seems like a bad idea at first, it definitely works. The wisp's relatively unimpeded speed and movement totally shocked me.

As for other controls, Atlus has located new option icons in each corner of the screen (pictured above). It is fairly effortless to access these in combat.

Now for the bad news: If you're hoping to catch a new copy of Knights in the Nightmare with all the great goodies that the DS version featured, you're out of luck. Atlus isn't planning to release the PSP game with the pack-in soundtrack or special-edition box.

The upside is that you get an extra character. Princess Yggdra from Yggdra Union has a whole new take on the story and is available from the beginning. I really like this current trend with Atlus' ports -- the upcoming PSP release of Persona 3 features a new female character who adventures through a dramatically changed story.

Overall, I liked what I saw and can't wait to get my hand on the finished product in the near future.

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Ryan A. Rubis

June 18, 2010

I'm pretty hyped about this. Still don't know how the analog nub would work versus standard touch controls, but I trust in Sting to get this port right.

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Suriel Vazquez

The weapon icons at the corners of the screen is definitely something that'll make controlling the game with the wisp bit easier.

I actually thoughtthat the touch screen was the cause of the some the mishaps I had while playing the game. With the analog, you'll know exactly what you're selecting. You're sacrificing speed for accuracy, which may not end up being so bad, provided the game doesn't too fast for the PSP to handle.

Also, I'm jealous.