The PlayStation Portable seems to be doing very well lately.  It, along with its counterpart the Nintendo DS, seems to be a haven for quirky RPGs of all sorts coming out of Japan.  If you like music and like RPGs, perhaps the latest JRPG announcement for the PSP might pique your interest.

NIS recently announced that Princess Antiphona’s Hymn: Angel’s Score Op.A will hit the hand-held in Japan in October.  Unfortunately, I have not played similar music-RPG fusion titles, like the PS1 and DS game Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (published by Atlus, unsurprisingly), but the more I read about it, the more interesting it sounds.  A lot of people might find a game that has musical numbers in its cut scenes a bit…off.  And it is, for American gamers.  But, not in Japan, where previous musical RPGs have garnered a huge following.

I’m reminded of the musical numbers in various episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  I thought they were odd at first, but it didn’t take long and I realized how well they fit into the idiosyncratic nature of the series overall.  Then, I think of something like that in an anime-style RPG and a smile spread across my face.

Here’s hoping Nippon Ichi intends to localize Princess Antiphona (for short) for a North American release sometime in the future.