NIS has just revealed their contender to the rapidly growing list of jumbo-pixel games entitled Classic Dungeon ~Magic Team Assistance~. The retro themed game for the PSP has a scheduled release date of February 18th in Japan.

Here is the trailer from the game’s recently launched site:

A girl named Putting (?????) (yeah… that will hopefully get changed for the game’s localization) stumbles into a world known as Manoakaz. She is accompanied by her friend since childhood named Souma. Souma, in contrast to Putting, is much more level headed, and simply wants to protect her.

Manoakaz is known for its dungeons, fearsome monsters, and romance! Of course Putting has to explore, dragging anyone along with her. So far a total of 9 allies are confirmed.


Putting	Souma

Despite its simple appearance, the game does feature a fairly innovative and complex battle system.

MAGIC TEAM ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

When the player sets out to enter a dungeon, they select a “main character” as well as a number of support characters. Unlike most games where you would switch characters in the dungeon, you are stuck with whoever you pick as your main (at least for this dungeon). The support characters are equipped along a grid and provide boosts to the main character. They also take a portion of the damage that the main character receives in battle.

This image shows Souma as the main character (center) with his support characters arranged on the grid around him. As Souma levels up more slots will become available. Different charters will have their own unique grids.

When EXP is earned for clearing a dungeon, it is distributed to all characters evenly. When a support character levels up, they earn more DEF and ATK, where main characters earn more HP and SP. This means a well rounded character will spend time in both fields.

AND THE REST

Flonne!

Designing a Flonne sprite

It is possible for the player to design their own character sprites through a simplified paint-like application. Once a character is created, the player can name them and assign them to either main character or support. I am not quite sure how this works in terms of the six different perspectives of a sprite, but I am sure more information will be revealed concerning this system in the future.

Is is also possible for players to ad-hoc-ly team up to complete dungeons. It seems that after the criticism concerning Disgaea 3 on the PS3, nearly all NIS games scheduled for release in 2010 are for the PSP. The upside to this is a lot more opportunities for multi-player!

The last detail concerning the game’s system/presentation is that all music will be 8-bit. This should really help capture the retro feeling the game is trying to establish.

All in all, Classic Dungeon takes the best of hardcore games old and new and combines them into a truly appealing game to both modern and old-school gamers. You can check out the awesome main site for the game here to get a feeling of the world of Manoakaz.