PS1 RPG Returns 27 Years Later With New Release Today

A PS1 RPG from 1999, a 27-year-old game, has returned with a new release today. The new release, a straight port of the classic RPG, is available on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 for $20. Unfortunately, while the new re-release is available to those in North America and Europe, these same users may have trouble playing it because the new re-release is Japanese-only, which is odd because it has been localized in the past.

More precisely, developer Hamster has announced that the newest release in its Console Archives series is Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess, the 1999 PS1 exclusive RPG from developer Nippon Ichi Software. As the name implies, this is the second game in the Rhapsody series, which itself dates back to 1998 and was revived in 2023/2024 after 20 years dormant. As you may know, until 2023, when the game was released on PC worldwide, Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess was exclusive to Japan. Suffice it to say, not many have played it in the West, hence why this release is only in Japanese, and an English release wasn’t even attempted. Those who want to play the English version will need to cop the Marl Kingdom Chronicles version, which does not cost $15, but $50.

32-Bit RPG

For those who know Japanese and will be able to check out this new release, but don’t know anything about it, it’s a pretty unique RPG by old-school RPG standards. The musical RPG is set 12 years after the events of the first game, and follows the story of Kururu, a daughter born to Cornet and Prince Ferdinand, on her journey to find the perfect prince to marry.

As noted, this is just a port of the original game, but with a couple of quality-of-life features. To this end, there are now customizable button layouts, rapid-fire settings, multiple save points, screen layout adjustments, and a rewind function. There is also an option to have a CRT filter to provide the more nostalgic experience of the original.

Does the game hold up in 2026? Not overly. RPGs from this era have aged better than games from most other genres, but it’s very dated. To this end, unless you have nostalgia for the original, there isn’t much reason to go back in time to 1999 and play this one, especially without having played the first game first. That said, while many of the comments on the trailer above lament the fact that the RPG is returning untranslated, like many Hamster PS1 re-releases, the like-to-dislike ratio is 86 to 1, so clearly old-school gamers are excited to see this classic return, even if it is in a limited fashion. Meanwhile, if this forgotten PS1 game doesn’t tickle your fancy, another just returned to the PlayStation Store yesterday that is even more nostalgic.