Before NIS America’s press conference we sat down with Sohei Niikawa to talk about Disgaea Dimension 2. It’s a new entry in the long running strategy RPG series and the first direct sequel. Niikawa spoke to Siliconera about Disgaea Dimension 2: A Brighter Darkness, The Witch and the Hundred Knights, and his thoughts on Vita.

Why did you want to make a direct sequel to Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness?

Sohei Niikawa, President of Nippon Ichi Software: [Laughs] This January marks the 10th anniversary of the Disgaea series, so we thought about what’s the best way to make our fans happy? What’s the best way to give back to our fans? We realized that using the most popular characters from the series up to now – Laharl, Flonne, and Etna – they want to make a game using them as the main characters again. That’s where that idea came from.

Has Laharl’s personality changed from Disgaea to Disgaea Dimension 2?

Not at all! [Laughs.]

Can you tell us about the new characters like Laharl’s sister, Sicily? And the Barbara?

I don’t want to say too much because that will kind of spoil the all of the events in game. But, like I said, Sicily comes out in this game as Laharl’s little sister, something we don’t know yet. The other characters as well, that you’ve mentioned the rebels and stuff like that. They each have their own secrets. Everything is not as it seems. But to me, I’m really looking forward for fans to see the girl Laharl. I think everyone’s going to be surprised and enjoy it.

Will we see more sequel to other Disgaea titles?

I want to consider everything. Of course, it’s going to depend on how fans in Japan, and then how fans overseas interact with this sequel itself. But I’m definitely not ruling out of having Disgaea 1 D3 or maybe Disgaea 3 D2 . Everything is on the table depending on the fans’ response.

We’ve seen female Heavy Knight and the male Healer. What new classes and monster will be present in D2?

The new classes… hmm… there are the ones you talked about. For new monsters, there’s a new one called, I don’t know if localization has been determined yet, but in Japanese it’s called [roughly "Sea Angel" in English]. What’s it based on is something that lives in the sea. It has a wispy tail and flippers. It’s really cute. I really like it.

Will Disgaea Dimension 2 has online features like Disgaea 4?

There isn’t anything like PvP, maps, and other features from the previous game, but there will be a lot of DLC for fans to enjoy.

How is The Witch and the Hundred Knights doing? Is it coming out anytime soon?

The first thing I want to say in regards to this is, I’m sorry. But we’re making it! It’s being made. I feel like the development has finally reached a point where they are about ready to finally release it for sale.

How did Zillions of Enemy X get started? Also, are you going to bring it to America?

The original concept is a trading card game, like Magic the Gathering. We are going to announce it this month in Japan more details about the game as well as what is the game about and when you can expect it on sale.

As the president, I’d really like to see this game in America, and in the West as well. But as NIS America, the more professional side of things, I wonder if it is a viable choice to make. It depends on what the producers feel like the game can be successful or not.

Sony announced they will drop the price of PlayStation Vita in Japan. What are your future plans for Vita support? Is NIS thinking about making new titles or porting existing games to Vita?

I think Sony made the right move lowering the price. The reason being even in Japan, the Vita is not selling really well. In order to get people interested, and to get system out there, I think lowering the price is a very good idea. That being said, the second component, maybe a larger component is software.

Yes. We will definitely develop games for Vita in the future. Right now we are gauging the fan base’s needs about what kind of titles do they want for Vita. And base on that, looking at that, what kind of game that we come up with. We will most likely develop titles for it, based on that.

We noticed Nippon Ichi is a PS4 developer. Are you working any titles for PlayStation 4 currently?

It was announced yesterday that Nippon Ichi is one of the developers for it. We are thinking about titles right now.

Are there any new features of PS4 that NIS want to utilize when developing a game?

Not particularly. There are still things with the PS3 that haven’t done or been seen yet that we want to try. I also want to see what the PS4 is capable of and we’ll start thinking from there.