Do you like game music? Then Atlus is about to make you really happy this summer. From now until September 7th, the "Atlus Music User Selection Vol. 2" will be available for download on iTunes. Following the popularity of the first volume, Atlus took a survey in February to decide just what tracks would make it into the second. Here's what's been included. Some of the track titles will be approximate translations.

Level-5's mobile phone development division has come up with some strange stuff. One of the odder titles was KyabaJoppi, or Cabaret Girl. In it, the player-created young lady in a cabaret club who works her wiles on a variety of male clients. A 3DS version was announced last year at the Level-5 Vision event, but it didn't get a mention on this site mainly because it's a character sim/adventure title. Level-5 would beg to differ, and announced a change of name earlier this week. From now on, this game shall be known as Girls RPG - Cinderella Life, which leaves us with something of a quandary. There are plenty of people who are willing to argue what is or is not an RPG these days, but even the most lenient may have some trouble fitting this game into the genre gestalt.

Girls RPG - Cinderella Life is supposed to be out sometime this year for the 3DS.

Nippon Ichi is at it again. Once more, they are porting a title to the PSP. This time, it's Makai Kingdom. Not much seems to have been changed, aside from the obvious technical details. The big addition touted in the Dengeki article has to do with a new scenario, titled "My Daddy's the Strongest Dark Lord." Actually, that title has the symbol -hen attached to the end, so it might actually be a whole new story mode like the Etna version of Disgaea. This is all guessing though, as the details are still unknown, but we do know that this girl's got something to do with it.

Makai Kingdom PSP is scheduled to be in stores on September 22nd, and will include reprints of the official art book and soundtrack with all reserved copies.

In the world of collectible card games, the Pokémon TCG is a long-standing contendor. I don't even play, but I still have at least a hundred cards of my own. Of course, I buy them because the monster cards have proven so useful in grammar exercises involving descriptions, comparisons, or the various conjugations of "to be." The reason I'm mentioning them right now has to do with the following bit of software.

This is Pokémon Card Game Asobikata DS, that Japanese word meaning "How to Play." It comes bundled with the Black/White starter deck, instead of the instructional DVD that used to be included with similar boxes (or so I gather).

Unlike the TCG games for the Game Boy Color, there doesn't seem to be any point to this software besides teaching the fundamentals of play. Judging from the character portraits, it wasn't made by the regular Pokémon staff either. A peek through the copyright information reveals that it was developed by a group called Zener Works on behalf of Creatures Inc.

Twenty years ago, Data East and Crea-Tech released Metal Max upon the world. In a market full of fantasy settings, this game's desolate, post-apocalyptic vision of the future stood out. Unfortunately, at this point the series has seen more remakes than actual games. There have been three Metal Max games in all, the third one released just last year by Kadokawa Publishing. It was apparently very well received, as someone gave the green light to having the second game in the series remade a second time.

Metal Max 2 was originally for the SNES, then ported to the GBA as Metal Max 2 Kai (the kai means "remade"). Now, it's coming out for the Nintendo DS as Metal Max 2 Reloaded. In this installment, the bad guys are a criminal cabal known as the Grapplers who are kidnapping civilians for unknown but nefarious reasons.

While the player can choose between male or female protagonists, the party roster is largely fixed, with specific roles for Hunter, Mechanic, and Soldier. And of course there's always Pochi, the series mascot. He's a cute little Shiba-ken dog with heavy artillery built in.

I'd be more interested in this if I didn't already have the GBA remake sitting on a shelf somewhere in my apartment. I should dig it up sometime... Anyhoo, Metal Max 2: Reloaded will be arriving on the DS later this year.

Japanese cell game companies have a wonderful habit of occasionally making one or more of their products heavily discounted (or even free) for a limited time. From July 5th to July 15th, Kemco is offering five cut-price titles for download on iPhones across Japan. Three of them are RPGs.

First up is Alphadia, a fantasy RPG with the description "Caught in the cogs of Fate." It's been available on the iPhone since January, and normally costs 800 yen. This week, it's 115 yen. We've covered the fourth game in this series previously, but this looks like it might be a remake of the first game of the series.

The next title available is Eve of the Genesis, an RPG that promises fierce battles against an army of ancient machines that has been revived for unknown purposes. Originally priced at 600 yen, it too is only 115 yen until July 15th.

The last RPG on the list is one that we've seen before in Japandemonium. Ayakashigatari. While I can't find a price quote for it right now, it's probably about on par with the other two games mentioned above. It's also 115 yen for a limited time only.

Not much to say right now except that I wish the weather would make up its mind. Rainy season or hot season. It's a simple choice. We should not be having rainy season storms this far into the month of July over here. Shikata nai tsutai.

And that's the news from Hi-no-Kuni,

Your man in Japan,

Gaijin Monogatari