As we all enter 2023 with high hopes for what’s on the horizon, Nippon Ichi Software would like to invite you to celebrate its 30th Anniversary with some exciting news! This milestone means a great deal to us, and with it we are thrilled to announce Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless and Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, both of which will be releasing this year on PlayStation consoles!

While Nippon Ichi Software has released an extensive and acclaimed catalog of role-playing games over the past 30 years, perhaps none are as iconic as Disgaea. With the release of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness on the PS2 in 2003, the series also celebrates its 20th anniversary, alongside both NIS America and the dood of Disgaea himself, Prinny! With all this in mind, it seems only fitting that Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless releases in Fall later this year, bringing with it a cast of delightfully devilish characters and several new features that make it the biggest release in the series to date.

2023 also marks the 25th anniversary of Rhapsody! Starting with the release of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure on the PlayStation® in 1998, this series is known for its charming characters and whimsical music. With Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, we couldn’t be happier to continue the story by bringing both Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom to the West for the first time.

Thanks to all of you who have supported Nippon Ichi Software during these past 30 years! We hope you’re looking forward to these new titles as much as we are, and we’re excited to share some details about them with you.

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Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless

The demonic realm of Hinomoto is changing and the days of noble warriors are numbered. Bushido, the moral code for the values, ethics, and lifestyle practiced by the inhabitants, has been replaced by the Hinomoto Code of Destruction. Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless tells the story of lazy warrior Fuji and bushido fangirl Pirilika, as they find unlikely allies in each other in their fight against a tyrannical regime while discovering the true meaning of honor and redemption.

Releasing on both PS4 and PS5, this title brings several features both new and familiar.

Character Classes: Disgaea 7 contains over 40 character classes, including four new additions: Maiko, Bandit, Zombie Maiden, and Big Eye.

Over the last few months, we’ve been sharing glimpses of Horizon Call of the Mountain, an upcoming PlayStation VR2 adventure launching on 22 February. Today, we wanted to spend some time getting to know Ryas, the character you will play, as you experience a new story in the world of Horizon. 

The Carja Sundom is still reeling from the bloody Red Raids, a brutal campaign of attacks and ritual sacrifice inflicted by the Carja on their neighboring tribes. These raids, which devastated countless lives, were ended when the Mad Sun-King Jiran was overthrown by his son Avad. 

The aftershocks of Jiran’s rule splintered the Carja tribe, with those grateful for an end to his rule remaining in the Sundom, and soldiers loyal to the slain leader forcing their way into the citadel at Sunfall, reforming as the Carja in Shadow. 

The protagonist of Horizon Call of the Mountain, Ryas, was one such soldier. Having played a key role in the abduction of young Prince Itamen from his home in Meridian, Ryas seeks to atone and regain his honor. 

After allowing himself to be captured and imprisoned by the Carja, Ryas was spared execution. Now, he has been recruited by Sun-King Avad and Blameless Marad. A master climber, archer, and hunter, Ryas must earn his freedom in exchange for investigating a new threat. Guerrilla’s Studio Narrative Director, Ben McCaw, offered us further insight: “Ryas ended up on the wrong side for the right reasons. His family was torn apart, and ultimately, he was incarcerated. This is the story of how he tries to come back from that.”

Ryas has a dangerous adventure ahead of him, and while he may be the only one who can do the job, he won’t do it alone. Along the way, players will meet new characters and be reunited with familiar ones, though his past has affected these relationships, explains Ben. “Having fought for the Shadow Carja, Ryas’ relationship with these characters is at best adversarial. He needs to make inroads and amends if he hopes to be accepted.” 

Take Hami, for example, a stalwart soldier for the Carja Sundom who was spared the horrors of the Red Raids thanks to her posting as a Border Guard. Even she is unable to forgive or forget the atrocities caused by the Shadow Carja, having lost many friends and comrades to the conflict. Known for her sharp wits and quick temper, Hami resents the task of escorting Ryas. Her hatred for what Ryas represents is just one of the challenges he will face. 

With Horizon Call of the Mountain, players will be able to experience the world of Horizon from a new perspective, through both Ryas as a compelling new protagonist and the PS VR2 headset. With haptic feedback, intelligent eye tracking, and an ultra-wide field of view, the player becomes incredibly immersed, and Call of the Mountain puts them right at the most thrilling peaks of the Sundom and beyond. 

Says Ben McCaw, “We took the Horizon experience and built it from the ground up for VR. And for this, we felt we needed a new protagonist. As a master climber, hunter, and explorer, Ryas offers the perfect viewpoint of the sweeping vistas and dangerous wilds of Horizon.”

For more information on Horizon Call of the Mountain, please visit here.

Since the launch of PlayStation 5 just over two years ago, we’ve introduced incredible games like God of War Ragnarök, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Forbidden West and Returnal, which showcase the boundless creativity of our development community and the extraordinary experiences they’ve been able to build on our platform.

To all our fans: thank you for your patience as we navigated unprecedented demand for the PS5 console amid global challenges. If you’re looking to purchase a PS5 console, you should now have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally.

For players in the U.S., U.K, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, be sure to check direct.playstation.com to purchase a PS5 console, games, and accessories directly from PlayStation. PS5 products are also available at participating retailers globally.

“Live from PS5” highlights immersive game worlds

Today, we are celebrating our PS5 community and inviting more players to join the fun with our new spot, “Live from PS5.” The best games often make us feel as if we are being transported into amazing worlds filled with adventure, riveting action, and memorable moments. With PS5 features like high-fidelity 4K visuals, haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, 3D audio and lightning-fast loading, developers are creating game worlds that feel more immersive than ever. This new spot hints at the breadth of extraordinary experiences taking place in the PS5 universe through the style of a live news channel. See if you can spot all the game references:

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Keep your eyes peeled on our social channels and this webpage for some fun celebrations of fan-favorite PS5 games over the coming weeks. You might even see content from popular creators on social media, breaking news from within PS5 game worlds.

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Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS, or download here

Howdy! This week the team dives into the frights and delights of Dead Space, featuring an interview with Motive’s Roman Campos-Oriola (Creative Director) and Philippe Ducharme (Senior Producer).

Stuff We Talked About

• DualSense Edge controller
• Season: A Letter to the Future
• PowerWash Simulator
• Forspoken
• Dead Space (interview begins at 19:32)

The Cast

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Last week, we asked you to highlight Lightsabers from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which is available as a PlayStation Plus Monthly Game for January. Here are this week’s highlights:

Mannitugames shares Cal raising his blue lightsaber against the Second Sister’s red lightsaber.

bombeard shares Cal raising a yellow lightsaber in a dark cavern.

coalabr14 shares Cal poised to strike with a double sided green lightsaber.

Undead0117 shares a detailed look at a blue lightsaber’s handle.

justinphotomode shares Cal clashing with another character wielding a red lightsaber in both hands

MdeavorVP shares Cal balancing with a double sided purple lightsaber.

Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? 

THEME: The Last of Us Part I
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on February 1, 2023

Next week, we’re headed back to the world of The Last of Us Part I. Share spine-tingling moments using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

With the release of God of War (2018), we were absolutely amazed by how many people wanted to cosplay characters from the game – even those we didn’t have the chance to make guides for.

With the God of War Ragnarök cosplay guides, we wanted to make as many as we could to help provide resources for all our fans who want to take on creating our characters.

We’re happy to share that we’ve added ten additional characters from Lúnda’s workshops notes to the God of War Ragnarök cosplay page: Freya, Thor, Angrboda, Brok & Sindri, Týr, Thrúd, Heimdall, Odin, and Gná. 

Each guide contains character renders, close-ups of detailed pieces, and shots of their weapons/accessories. You’ll also find in the pages additional lore details handcrafted by our writers here at Santa Monica Studio and more sketches from B is for Boy artist Romina Tempest.

After you’ve taken a look at the new guides, make sure you check out the interview with Lead Character Artists Dela Longfish below on how the team approached creating the designs for Freya, Thor, and Angrboda. 

Community cosplay partners

In addition to the new guides, we’ve once again partnered with members of our extremely talented cosplay community to provide resources and tips on creating three of the characters from the updated guides – Freya, Angrboda, and Thor.

Freya – Ibelinn Cosplay

Cosplay Credit: Ibelinn Cosplay | Photo Credit: Katrix_Media

Representing Freya is none other than Ibelinn Cosplay, who did an enchanting Witch of the Wilds back when God of War (2018) released. We’re thrilled to partner with her to create Freya’s updated design in God of War Ragnarök.

Ibelinn has put together an expert guide on how to plan a cosplay, along with her how-to videos on creating the former Valkyrie Queen – you can see them here.

Angrboda – Kizuki Cosplay

Cosplay Credit: Kizuki Cosplay

To embody the Giantess of Ironwood, we’ve partnered with the wonderful Kizuki Cosplay, who brings a wealth of experience crafting intricate and detailed designs.

Bringing her expert and versatile skills to the creation of her cosplay, Kizuki has created a guide on making a wig for Angrboda, as well as tips on how she approached the other pieces of the costume, which you can see here.

Thor – The Ronin Cosplay

Cosplay Credit: The Ronin Cosplay

To become the God of Thunder, we partnered with The Ronin Cosplay, who has been a longtime pillar of the God of War cosplay community. From Kratos to Sigrun, Ronin has taken on some of the most complex character designs in our games and made them look absolutely incredible.

Ronin has provided us with his expertise in creating the intricate leather pieces for Thor’s armor in his guide, as well as insights into his process with his tips video – check them outRead more

Today marks the apex of a long journey exploring the boundaries of what a strategy game can be. We are bringing our upcoming funky title Backbeat to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. When we started working on the first prototype in the spring of 2020, I knew there was a lot of potential in the project. It was our tiny indie studio’s second title, and we wanted to add some of the things that were cut from our first game, Hexagroove: Tactical DJ — an onboarding system to introduce our mechanics slowly over the course of the game, a story full of colorful characters, and an experience that feels as good as it sounds. Now refining our release candidate for launch this winter, I’m thrilled to have all those things possible on PlayStation.

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When we started designing the foundation for Backbeat, we wanted to carry over some principles from Hexagroove and introduce new ones as well. The game fuses the spatial challenges of a sokoban-style game along with the squad-based resource management of a stealth strategy title. Your challenge is to move a band of four characters through a series of isometric maps within a limited number of turns. How you spend those turns and which paths you choose affect a number of shared resources which grow and shrink over the course of the level. Each of the characters’ timelines are controlled separately but are interdependent. Opening doors and deflecting enemies must be done for the benefit of all four or they will preclude your squad’s successful strut to the stage.

To contrast with the synth-fueled EDM soundtrack of Hexagroove, Backbeat is built on a vast pool of live music riffs, improvisations, and solos recorded from the finest funk masters in Stockholm. Changing direction in the map, interacting with doors, or blowing enemies away with a mighty saxophone all enqueue unique audio clips which are played back together in sequence upon completing a level. This gives your unique solution its own personalized victory song.  Every strum, bang, and toot sounded so good I just had to find a way to help them shine extra bright.  After experimenting with the dev kit, I realized the PlayStation 5’s DualSense wireless controller was the perfect instrument to back up our studio musicians. 

I started by working with our composer Pete Fraser to bring a strong musical element to the most interactive parts of Backbeat: when you crash into something, warp through an oncoming car, manipulate time… I feel these brief moments of interaction, when you

Get ready – the DualSense Edge wireless controller is now available globally starting today. We’re excited for the PlayStation community to experience the all-new, highly customizable controller designed for players to create a personalized gaming experience that adapts to their playstyle. 

Built from the ground up for PS5, the DualSense Edge controller has many customization options available, including swappable stick caps and back buttons, L2/R2 stop sliders, button remapping, the ability to fine-tune stick sensitivity, stick dead zones, and trigger dead zones, and an on-controller user interface to seamlessly create and swap between custom profiles. 

When designing the controller, our team at PlayStation gathered insights from professional gamers and esports players to ensure the DualSense Edge controller is competition ready, incorporating features like a 2.8M (9.1FT) USB braided cable and connector housing that locks the cable to the controller, and a carrying case to store the controller and its components. Players can even charge their controller via USB connection while it’s stored in the carrying case.

For competitive gamers or players who just prefer a personalized controller experience, the DualSense Edge controller is designed to be customized from top to bottom to adapt to each player’s preferences and unique playstyle. For insights to help players get started, let’s dive into the custom profiles I’ve set up on my own DualSense Edge controller to play my favorite games.

As an FPS fan, my setup for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II focuses on precise aim, customized loadouts, and team communication:

• Changeable stick caps and stick sensitivity: I swap out my right stick cap with the High Dome stick cap and pair it with the Precise stick sensitivity preset curve for smoother, more precise aiming.
• L2/R2 stop sliders: I typically set the stop sliders on both the L2 and R2 buttons to the Short or Medium setting for quicker reaction to enemy encounters.
• Back buttons and button mapping: I’ve found it helpful for my own playstyle to map the back buttons to actions like jumping or swapping loadouts, so I can keep my thumbs on the sticks during tense moments. 
• Fn buttons: When communicating with my team, I often use the Fn buttons to adjust the audio balance between the game and chat, so I can alternate between callouts and listening for the enemy team’s movements.

When playing action titles like God of War Ragnarök, I adjust my custom profile to ensure that I have key moves at my fingertips:

• Adjustable stick sensitivity: The Quick preset curve is my preferred stick sensitivity setting for the left and right sticks for fast camera adjustments, movement, and aiming. Occasionally, I swap to a Dynamic preset curve while in-game for sequences where I need to aim carefully and also turn quickly. 
• Back buttons and button mapping: I swap to the Half Dome back buttons as they work well with how I typically grip the controller, allowing me to quickly dodge or recall my axe while simultaneously moving around the map and keeping an eye on enemies.

We’re now just one sleep away from the January 26 release of the first Marvel’s Midnight Sun’s DLC*. You’re likely already aware that “The Good, the Bad, and the Undead” adds Deadpool to the Midnight Suns roster of playable Marvel heroes**, but did you know that it also tells the story of how and why the Merc with a Mouth joined the team? Did you know that he employs a unique En Fuego resource on the battlefield, or that his food truck is parked right outside the Abbey? Read on for more details!

Deadpool has his own Story missions

Deadpool joins the Midnight Suns after crossing paths with the Hunter (and Hydra forces, and vampyres, and Red Skull’s granddaughter Sin) while attempting to stealthily liberate an artifact from the NYC Museum of Art. The story of this botched burglary and subsequent confrontations with vampiric enemies plays out across a series of new missions in which Deadpool, fully aware that he’s appearing in a video game, takes things considerably less seriously than his new allies.

“You should expect Deadpool to regularly break the fourth wall, both in and out of combat,” shares Creative Director Jake Solomon. “It’s like playing the game with a mouthy but lovable friend.”

It’s worth noting that while Deadpool’s storyline is separate from the main campaign, you can include him when assembling a team for any mission once he joins the hero roster. And you should, not only because his wisecracks are brilliantly voiced by Nolan North, but also because…

Deadpool can deal SO much damage!

Deadpool’s unique En Fuego resource has the potential to make him increasingly powerful as a mission progresses. Many of his ability cards incorporate the En Fuego keyword and, providing he has at least one stack of En Fuego, these cards are more powerful and/or have additional effects when played.

“If you can maximize Deadpool’s En Fuego bonus, he becomes a ‘one man Delete key’ for enemies,” says Jake. “Watch him draw an absurd amount of cards, shoot five enemies, and then absolutely destroy the biggest, baddest enemy on the map. All in one turn.”

Deadpool’s En Fuego meter is fueled by KOing enemies using his ability cards, granting him an additional stack of En Fuego after earning a number of KOs. However, Deadpool will lose a stack of En Fuego anytime he takes damage. So, while Deadpool’s innate ability to self-heal a percentage of his health each turn means he doesn’t require a babysitter, teaming up with a tanky hero like Captain Marvel or Captain America who can Taunt enemies away from him helps to maximize his damage output.

Eating at Deadpool’s food truck helps you stay Regular alive

When Deadpool joins the Midnight Suns, the team’s secret Abbey base is upgraded to accommodate his flashy Food Truck in a spot by the pool. Emblazoned with a colorful picture of the man himself astride a bearded unicorn, the truck advertises the “World’s Best Turduckens” but actually delivers something far more useful, if not quite as tasty.

“With Deadpool’s Food Truck upgrade you can di