Update 11/08/24 at 2:00 a.m.: The Cornet Espoir character clip has been released.
Nippon Ichi Software has announced Cladun X3 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Switch. It will launch on February 27, 2025 in Japan for 7,200 yen.
Here is the announcement trailer:
Get the first details below.
■ Specifications
- Title: Cladun X3
- Genre: Pixel art action RPG with endless freedom
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch
- Release Date: February 27, 2025
- Players: One
- Price: 7,200 yen (7,920 yen with tax)
- Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software
- Head of Development: Shinichi Ikeda
- Illustrator: Mota
- CERO Rating: A (all ages)
- Official Website: nippon1.jp
- Official Hashtag: #クラダン, #クラダンX3
■ Story
Arcanus Cella—a miniature world that connects that various worlds, dungeons, and eras.
This place, which has existed since ancient times, is said to be accessible only to chosen villains.
Today, a new villain has once again been summoned to Arcanus Cella…
■ System
● To Become the Strongest, Challenge the Dungeons that Await in Arcanus Cella
One day, you are suddenly brought to Arcanus Cella, joining many other villains. Upon arriving, you and the others are told that you must play a death game for the sake of “world peace.”
To survive this dangerous death game, you must grow stronger. Train, gather items, and venture into the mysterious dungeon connected to Arcanus Cella in order to become the strongest villain.
Cladun X3 is a highly customizable and dynamic pixel art action RPG with a focus on hack-and-slash gameplay. Utilize a variety of weapons, magic, and actions to fend off the monsters monsters and traps that await you, and clear the dungeons!
● Utilize Various Weapons and Actions to Overcome Vicious Monsters and Dangerous Traps
The dungeons are teeming with vicious monsters and brimming with dangerous traps.
Monsters will attack you in real-time in the dungeons. Utilize a range of actions—attack, magic, dashing, jumping, sliding, defending with a shield, flying, and shifting—to swiftly and precisely defeat monsters and progress through the dungeon.
—How you choose to fight is up to you: deploy a magical barrier to nullify damage, or leap into fire to set yourself ablaze and deal heavy damage to ice-type monsters.
There are six equippable weapon types: sword, blunt weapon, staff, spear, bow, and dagger. Each weapon has its own specialties in terms of attack range and abilities, with skills that vary depending on your class.
—Blunt weapons can be used to destroy certain walls in dungeons, while the staff enables mid-to-long range attribute attacks and speeds up casting times. Each weapon type has unique actions that can be used to navigate the dungeon.
Various actions can also be used to bypass traps, such as sliding under laser beams, jumping over floor traps, or using charging enemies to destroy walls. The key to clearing dungeons is instantly determining the right action to proceed safely.
—Traps can be dodged by sliding or flying, but they can also be skillfully utilized to defeat enemies in one fell swoop.
You will find various equipment and items in the dungeon. Search for treasure chests to acquire powerful weapons and equipment to strengthen your character.
—Even equipment with the same name may have different quality levels or special effects due to titles attached to them.
● Classes
In Cladun X3, you can choose from 10 different classes. Each class has different stats, preferred weapons, and “Magic Circles” that they can learn.
Warrior
- An all-purpose and easy-to-use class recommended for beginners.
- Can learn sword, blunt weapon, and spear skills.
- Specializes in close-range attacks.
- Can learn many of the simple Magic Circles from previous entries in the series.
WizardA magic class recommended for beginners.Can learn attack magic and specializes in long-range attacks.Can learn many Magic Circles focused on buffing skills and magic.Can suppress Sorcery Outbursts.
Ranger
- A class recommended for intermediate to advanced players.
- Can learn bow and dagger skills, as well as support magic.
- Excels at traversing sticky terrain, grasslands, and fiery terrain.
- Can learn Magic Circles that offer adaptable performance, such as changing stats or switching weapons based on certain terrain.
Merchant
- A tricky class recommended for intermediate to advanced players.
- Can learn job skills focused on money, such as those to “retain money even when defeated” and “attract money scattered around the map.”
- Can learn Magic Circles that instantly increases stats while money is scattered around the map.
● Set Up Your Party and Power Them Up! Magic Circles are the Key to Character Development
Magic Circles are a unique party formation system from the Cladun series, enabling a party of multiple characters to function in an action RPG where the player only controls one character.
The player-controlled character—the “main character”—is positioned at the center, while the “sub characters” placed around them provide support and boost their power.
—Placing special items in the Magic Circle activates the sub characters, allowing you to enhance the main character as much as you like.
There are over 200 types of Magic Circles, with some being four times larger than those in previous entries. Certain Magic Circles can support a party of up to 16 characters. New effect spaces have also been added, expanding the variety of power-up combinations.
In battle, sub characters in the Magic Circle act as shields, absorbing damage in place of the main character. As long as the sub characters stay alive, the main character won’t take any damage.
New Magic Circles are learned each time you level up, and the Magic Circles learned differ based on your class. For example, a wizard will learn Magic Circles that specialize in using magic, while a Merchant will learn Magic Circles that allows them to use money.
● Formidable Foes and Treasures Await in the Ever-Changing Random Dungeons (Ran-geons)
The Ran-geon is a 100-level random dungeon separate from the main story dungeons.
Each time you enter the Ran-geon, its layout changes. You’ll need to find either the “gate” to the next level or the “exit” to escape.
Every time you pass through one of the five randomly appearing gates, the monster levels increase, and elements like item drop rates are randomly changed.
If luck is on your side, you will enter a fever state, where items drop with every defeated enemy. But if you are unlucky, monster levels could exceed 1,000, turning your search for the exit into a nightmare…
Try out Ran-geons when you get stuck in the main story and need to level up, or want to dig up rare items to become stronger, or when you want to take on a challenge where life and death is on the line.
—Depending on the gate you enter, all of the enemies may become suddenly stronger, or your HP and SP may fully recover, making this dungeon a fun gamble. If you are not careful, you could be wiped out entirely!
Additionally, Cladun X3 offers a new type of Ran-geon called “Map-geons,” which can be generated using the “Magic Map.” Magic Maps can be obtained randomly by clearing the lowest level of a Map-geon, and can be shared with other players through the network.
● Challenge Dungeons with Your Own Customized Character
In Cladun X3, the main character that the player controls, as well as the sub characters that form your party, and the graphics for the characters’ weapons and armor can all be customized by the player, allowing you to challenge dungeons with characters all your own.
—Players can fully customize their characters’ appearance using pixel art.
—Use the “draw” tool to create original weapons and armor. With the introduction of flying in this game, you can now also draw wings.
—Your lovingly crafted customized characters will fight and explore as you play.
—The weapons they use and magic they learn is up to you.
—You can even recreate your favorite characters in the game.
The customization does not stop at character creation. Cladun X3 offers an enhanced music editor that allows you to create original background music. Since pink noise is also supported, you can also create rhythm instruments and sound effects. Tone definition, envelope definition, and macros are also supported, allowing you to create an even wider range of music.
—The possibilities are endless, like creating a theme song for your customized character.
● Share Your Custom Characters and Maps With Other Players<?strong>
With the new “network” function, you can create a town map that matches your custom characters and share it with other players. Not only can you create your own town graphics on the town map, you can play your own background music, place characters, and create the world to your heart’s content. After you have created your city map, be sure to share it with other players!
By creating and sharing a town map, other players can explore it and receive the Magic Map you have placed. By exchanging Magic Maps with everyone, you may be able to encounter a rare dungeon that you would never see by playing the game alone.
—Even players who choose not to create maps can enjoy exploring maps created by other players and collecting Magic Maps in “Auto Mode.”
In the Switch version, touch controls are supported for some features like the draw tool and map editing, allowing players to enjoy drawing even without the use of a controller.
■ Box Art
■ Playable at Tokyo Game Show 2024
A demo of Cladun X3 will be playable at Tokyo Game Show 2024 from September 26 to 29 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. Players will be able to use various weapons and action to clear the Ran-geon exclusive to Tokyo Game Show 2024, which is filled with vicious monsters and dangerous traps.
Players will be able to use the following Nippon Ichi Software customized character appearances while playing:
- Disgaea – Laharl, Flonne, Etna
- Disgaea 2 – Asagi
- Disgaea 4 – Valvatorez, Desco
- Disgaea 5 – Killia
- Disgaea 7 – Fuji, Pirilika
- Disgaea Series – Prinny (two types), Archer
- Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure – Cornet
- Soul Nomad & the World Eaters – Gig
- Cladun: This is an RPG – Despina
- Blue Roses: The Fairy and Blue Eyed Warriors – Alicia, Roche
- The Witch and the Hundred Knight – Metallia, Visco, Nezaria, Hundred Knight
- Battle Princess of Arcadias – Plume, Uni, Larts
- htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary – Mion
- Yomawari – Little Girl, Spirit
- Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors – Chloe, Shinoa, Tsukasa
- A Rose in the Twilight – Rose
- The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince – Princess
- Lapis x Labyrinth – Maid
- void* tRrLM2(); //Void Terrarium 2 – Toriko, Robot
- Xicatrice – Shiduru Nagamiya
- Bar Stella Abyss – Wanderer
- Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero – Marona
View the first screenshots at the gallery.
Nippon Ichi Software has announced Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 5 and Switch, the latest issue of Weekly Famtisu reveals. It will launch physically on August 29 in Japan for 10,978 yen, and includes a set of original artwork reprints, an art book, the original soundtrack, and a special box.
Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection will feature the full Rhapsody series—Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess, and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom.
In the west, Nippon Ichi Software’s western branch NIS America released a collection called Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles on August 29, 2023 in North America and September 1, 2023 in Europe. However, unlike Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection, Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles only includes Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom, and not Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure.
In Japan, both Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom are already available for PlayStation 5 and Switch as individual digital releases. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is also available for Switch as a digital purchase in Japan, and via Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3 in the west. Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection will mark the first time it is available for PlayStation 5, and the PlayStation 5 version will also be available as an individual digital release for 3,278 yen.
Here is a breakdown of where each game is playable worldwide:
- Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
- PlayStation 5
- West
- To be announced
- Japan
- Standalone digital edition
- Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection
- Switch
- West
- Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3
- Japan
- Standalone digital edition
- Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection
- PC
- Worldwide
- Steam
- Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess
- PlayStation 5 and Switch
- West
- Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles
- Japan
- Standalone digital edition
- Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection
- PC
- Worldwide
- Steam
- Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom
- PlayStation 5 and Switch
- West
- Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles
- Japan
- Standalone digital edition
- Rhapsody: 25th Anniversary Collection
- PC
- Worldwide
- Steam
Thanks, Ryokutya2089.
Nippon Ichi Software has launched the 25th anniversary commemoration website for its Rhapsody series, which consists of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess, and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom.
Rhapsody is a “musical RPG” series featuring scenes in which characters sing and dance. The first entry, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, launched for PlayStation on December 17, 1998 and celebrated its 25th anniversary on December 17, 2023.
As of 2023, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is playable on Switch via Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3, and PC via Steam; and Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom are playable on PlayStation 5 and Switch via Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, as well as PC via Steam.
Two small screenshots of the otherwise lost mobile game, Marl Kingdom i-mode: Happy Hunt, have been found by twitter user Dissidia. The above scans are from Dengeki Playstation Magazine issues #175 and #180, respectively.
Happy Birthday Cornet Espoir!(10/14)
On December 21st 2000, Tenshi no Present: Marl Okoku Monogatari / Angel’s Present: Marl Kingdom Chronicle was released for the Playstation 2. It is the final title in the main Marl Kingdom series and the first game to be released on the Playstation 2 system. It was rereleased for digital download on the Playstation 3 in 2014 as a part of the Playstation 2 Archive collection (Japan only).
Happy 20th Anniversary!
Animated Marl Kingdom “Nyanko” Stickers
Animated Marl Kingdom "Nyanko" Stickers
NIS tweeted that october 14th is cornet espoir from the marl kingdom series’ birthday!