Nippon Ichi and its US publisher NIS America have long been strong supporters of Sony’s formats, with a plentiful supply of games appearing on the PSone and PlayStation 2, with titles also appearing early on the PlayStation Portable and even the PlayStation 3. Now, however, it is Nintendo’s turn to finally get some of the developers role-playing games, with the Nintendo DS seemingly the format of choice. One particular effort is a new Intellectual Property called ‘A Witch’s Tale’, which was only recently revealed.

A Witch’s Tale is a new action role-playing game that lets gamers draw magic runes using the stylus on the DS touch-screen, as well as use the same approach for casting offensive style spells. The touch-pen is definitely the order of the day in Nippon Ichi’s DS game, with combat being focused on the innovative control input method. Players can use the lower screen to make their character run, stab and swipe at things, as well as for the casting of deadly spells. It seems the game is being classed as a ‘fairytale with a twist’ and centres around an ancient, 1,000-year-old legend about a tribe of powerful magic-doers who back then lived underneath the world we know today. When they tried to invade and take full control, a mystical young girl called Alice turned their magic against them to seal them away forever…or so people thought. It seems that the Witch Queen has actually been fully active in the underground, building up her strength to make a major impact upon her return. The lower screen is where players get to see a close-up view of your friendly Witch, whilst the top one is used to see the layout of the surrounding land. A Witch’s Tale also includes a card collecting feature that has gamers tracking down special playing cards so that they can eventually unlock secret ‘Black Jack’ battles.

A Witch’s Tale is Nippon Ichi’s first action RPG for the Nintendo DS and is to be released across North America in October 2008. A teaser trailer for the game can be seen below:

In a busy year for the developer, both Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness are also planned for release.