PSA: NIS America's PSP re-releases half price on PSN

by Randy Nelson { Oct 1st 2009 at 5:30AM }

As we reported earlier this month, NIS America is making several of its previously UMD-only PSP games available for download from the US PlayStation Store late tonight / early tomorrow morning to coincide with the launch of PSP Go.

For a period of one week, Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, Dragoneer's Aria, Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman!, Mana Khemia: Student Alliance and Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? will be available at 50% off their normal cost -- a welcome offer, given that many digital titles on the store are keeping pricing parity with their retail UMD equivalents.

NIS is also asking visitors to the PlayStation Blog whether they want to see a UMD release of Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! by means of a poll that currently has the "ayes" and "nays" running nearly neck-and-neck.

Tags: bladedancer, deals, digital-distribution, disgaea, dragoneersaria, holy-invasion-of-privacy-badman, manakhemia, nis, nis-america, playstation-store, prinny, psn, psp-go

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

PN04 @ Oct 1st 2009 6:03AM

Dammit people get up in that and drop more AYE! votes!

dgknight500 @ Oct 1st 2009 6:26AM

Bought Disgaea 2 and Badman... I have Prinny and Disgaea 1 but I'm heavily considering if I should buy them again...

John Z @ Oct 1st 2009 6:32AM

I'm really conflicted about the whole "digital-only" thing, and while this is just a convenient place for me to vent my spleen on it, it's kind of related anyway. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the idea of digital distribution, and I support it when it makes sense to (XBLA, PS1 Classics, WiiWare/DSiWare). What has me worried, though, is the lack of a manual for some of these old games. It's not as big of an issue as, say, resellability (in fact, I like the fact that I can't resell a digdist game-- it's mine "forever", for a value of "forever" equal to "the life of the service/machine", and after going through the ordeal of selling off my entire collection when I went broke and then painstakingly re-collecting everything, anything to prevent that is welcome in my books, YMMV), but it is a particular sore spot for me, and I think NISA's stuff is the perfect exemplar.

If you've bought an NISA game lately (or an Atlus game, for that matter) you probably got something with it. For example, Phantom Brave Wii came with an art disc (which I thought was the coolest thing ever, compared to an easily-lost or damaged artbook), Persona PSP came with a soundtrack, etc. etc. Even without those extras, you got the manual, which (along with the kinda-important instructions on how to play) contains artwork and the occasional hint here and there. It's really of minimal importance, but it's a very nice touch and it's a part of the game's presentation.

In my opinion, online manuals are like plain macaroni. They get the job done, but they're kind of bare-bones. Even the most basic paper manuals, like the ones in Ubisoft's games, are this way (don't get me started on companies which half-ass their manuals). If a company spices up their manual, even just a little bit, it goes a long way to make the game appear to have had that much more effort put into it. Even if the company just puts a little extra art or something into the online manual (if possible), that's a good start.

In my defense, though, I did vote "yes" for a Badman UMD.

Filthy Assistant @ Oct 1st 2009 8:30AM

PS1 Classics come with what's essentially a pdf manual you can access at any time by holding the PS button down and selecting "view manual". It's a really nice feature that I wish would be more widespread. I don't know if you get them with PSP games though, I haven't bought any since my launch PSP's analog nub broke off long ago and it only has the 32mb memory card it came with.

Asg @ Oct 1st 2009 10:44AM

Thought you should know that most downloadable PSP games have the manual built in. If you go to the file and hit triangle, the bottom option is for the software manual. I think the file is a full color scan of the original instruction manual so that should be exactly what you're looking for.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 1st 2009 8:39AM

the PSP Go isn't ALL bad people....look at the GOODNESS that comes from it!!!

Orion @ Oct 1st 2009 9:03AM

Or you could just keep your 2000 or 3000, get the cheap PSN games when they're cheap, but then just otherwise get dirt cheap UMD games....

It's not like the Go is doing anything my PSP can't do. I can go buy GT tonight, too on PSP.

Orion @ Oct 1st 2009 9:04AM

PSN* not PSP

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 1st 2009 10:06AM

yea thats what I mean...I'm not saying you have to buy a Go to get these games...just that with the Go they have released a LOT of GOOD games to put on it....and in turn us current PSP owners can still get in on the goodness as well

Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Oct 1st 2009 5:27PM

there is one thing on the go that you can't do on the normal PSP. you can add a 16GB memory stick micro to the 16GB on-board memory. how can you say no to 32GB (well, i did, but that's not the point)?

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Oct 1st 2009 7:29PM

there are 32GB Memory sticks now...but they are like $100+

Arghon @ Oct 1st 2009 8:44AM

I bought Prinny already, and it's a wicked awesome game. But I'm trying to figure out if I should buy Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness while it's on sale. hmmmmm....

luigivincent @ Oct 1st 2009 9:48AM

Trying to decide if I should go for Mana Khemia it always interested me then again I do want strikeforce and Dissidia....

AsherR [Planeteer | Power of The Hoff] @ Oct 1st 2009 10:22AM

Dissidia is on sale on Amazon, but only for today or until they sell out naturally.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox

Shoyz @ Oct 1st 2009 12:20PM

I personally tried Mana Khemia and Dissidia.

Dissidia is great, though it's still just a fighter. It'll become tiring after an hour or two.

Mana Khemia on the other hand is great for long-play times. I literally sat and played the game for hours at a time. Addicting >:

Kyera @ Oct 1st 2009 10:31AM

I was looking at Mana Khemia, but then I noticed the PSP version reviews were in the toilet compared to the PS2 ones because of technical issues. :/

So it looks like Disgaea, Prinny, and Holy Invasion... are the ones for me. Blade Dancer and Dragoneer's Aria seem to have reviewed as fairly 'generic', but I might still get them if they're quite cheap. Not near my PSP to check, sadly.

Jeff @ Oct 1st 2009 11:06AM

I'm about halfway through Mana Khemia and decided to buy the downloadable version at $14.99 this morning to reduce the loading time issue that was raised in many reviews. I've been patient enough over the 30 or so hours I played so far and enjoyed the game nevertheless, but given the option to avoid this problem, I'll gladly sell my UMD at the nearest EB Games. The same thing will most likely happen to Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman, which I tried on a modded psp and noticed quite a difference.

Kyera @ Oct 1st 2009 11:19AM

If the downloadable version does have better loading, can you let me know?

I've always been interested in the series but not interested in hunting down a copy somewhere now and buying another PS2 memory card, so a PSP option appeals to me.

Shoyz @ Oct 1st 2009 12:21PM

I've never played the PS2 version, but the PSP version of Mana Khemia is great.

Van @ Oct 1st 2009 4:59PM

The horrific slowdown problems are coming from people playing it on the UMD. I would highly recommend picking it up in digital version. There are still loading screens but they're extremely short in length.

Jeff @ Oct 2nd 2009 10:04AM

After an hour of play with the DD version, I would say loading times between different locations are cut by 40-50% in general and even more in cutscenes or battles. I'll also need to "retrain" my alchemy skills because the elements' circle now goes a bit faster too. It fully worths investing 14.99$ to enjoy this!

brettjr @ Oct 1st 2009 10:44AM

So when is it suppose to start. Cause even though they were advertised to be 4.99 to 9.99 the worse of the worse is 14.99??

xxxScorpion @ Oct 1st 2009 11:10AM

Don't let the reviews fool you. I've played the game for three days straight, every day almost all day which tells you alot about how addicted to it I am. I find this game relieving because I can't get into most games on PSP for some reason, they just aren't technical enough or too standard RPG or whatnot.

The game sets the focus on alchemy but to do alchemy you have to go gather materials from monsters/gathering spots somewhat reminiscent of the way you might gather on monster hunter. It's by this method that you make weapons, armor, charms, and other materials that you will need even more ingredients for so if you're like me you'll say "Oh I just need one more thing and then I can make this" and such of that nature.

I dunno, I just really like the game. The only faults I have with it at this point in time is that you can't see support members health which might accidentally end up with you sending out a week character during a quick switch and that somethings need to be explained a bit earlier.

Other than that the tutorials/classes teach you almost everything you need to know and I love it.

I would recommend this game to all RPG lovers. I also love the card based battle system which was also in Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner.

Damian @ Oct 1st 2009 10:54AM

I am annoyed that i cant get Disgaea 2 in Europe, i want to download it but i cant.

esposch @ Oct 1st 2009 12:46PM

All you need to do is type in a US address and set your country to the US!
I used:
1 Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399.

:D

Note that you can only have 1 account activated at a time per PSP - so if you've bought stuff on a Euro account I'd just wait.

rohan @ Oct 1st 2009 11:03AM

Is holy invasion of privacy! badman worth it?
and is there any minis worth picking up?

David Black @ Oct 1st 2009 11:58AM

Badman is pretty difficult but fun and has a lot of humor. I would recommend downloading the demo as the game is not for everyone.

Fieldrunners is an expanded version of the iPhone game and is really great if you like Tower Defense games. Hero of Sparta is a pretty decent hack n slash or God of War clone.

afiq tadza @ Oct 1st 2009 11:52AM

i dont like the idea of digital games...i want to buy mine in physical form and display it. if everything is digital...how is angry video game nerd gonna have his psp title to review 20 years from now? he wont have his game library basement no more....just a hard drive. that would suck!

esposch @ Oct 1st 2009 12:26PM

He'll be able to review it on the PSP5 2nd revision, which will have backwards compatibility so he can play all his games from 2005 on the one convenient console.
And it will have upscaled graphics. :D
The only thing he won't be able to do is physically damage the cartridge, which isn't a very useful feature anyway.
I much prefer digital media for that very reason: everything will be compatible in 20 years time. Imagine if Gameboy games were files linked to an account. You could still play them on your DS today, and there would be no battery failures in Pokemon Gold, and you could play them on a bigger, backlit screen, etc. etc.

afiq tadza @ Oct 1st 2009 12:37PM

to esposch: I guess you're right on that context about compatibility issue, because all the old games will be run on emulators. just hope there no corrupted files issue there eh?

esposch @ Oct 1st 2009 1:06PM

Another good thing about digital distribution is that it doesn't matter if your files get corrupted. On a retail game, your cart/disc gets corrupt (a la Pokemon Gold) and that's it. On a digital copy you can just re-download.

Miku @ Oct 1st 2009 12:56PM

All I have to say is good thing I get paid today! Prinny is a definite buy!

Xeones25 @ Oct 1st 2009 12:57PM

I'm going to be buying Prinny and Badman when I get back to my apartment. The demo for Badman was interesting and I really like platformers.

ECVOICE @ Oct 1st 2009 3:32PM

Here's hoping other companies follow suit and offer discounts on download titles. I generally won't pay much, if any, more for a download than for one I could pick one up used.

Of course the Go is d/l only, but deals like this could encourage some folks to make a switch from earlier PSP models.

Waiting for more deals. =)

c_judicator @ Oct 1st 2009 4:38PM

Prinny, Disgaea2:Dark Hero Days, and Mana Khemia have been bought with my $50 card (Had $5 left over from last time). Prinny is good, although still waiting for when it ramps up to the ball-crushing difficulty though.

Marcus70 @ Oct 1st 2009 5:43PM

$14.99 for Disgaea and $14.99 for Mana Khemia are the correct prices ( originally ~$30 each).

Nao Zook (from NIS America) today posted an update on the PS Blog mentioned the sale price range should have been $4.99 to $14.99 for the weekly sale.

source:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/09/nis-re-releasing-psp-titles-plus-holy-invasion-of-privacy-badman-umd-poll/comment-page-3/#comments

Eddie @ Oct 1st 2009 6:31PM

Sweet I'm gonna buy Prinny and Mana Khemia in digital format just to fix the loading issues, and maybe Disgaea and Badman since they're on sale.

Too bad all my money's going into games or I would have considered a PSP Go, but 5+games and an extra 8GB Memory stick w/current PSP 3000 and 20 UMD's is better for me.