The 18th of December just a got a whole lot more heated in Japan. There are 3 high profile titles slated for release on the handhelds that day.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is the Fighter/RPG hybrid fanservice game thingy for the PSP from Square Enix. It features protagonists and antagonists from FFI-X (and apparently beyond) going head to head.

Tales of Hearts is the latest main title in the Tales series by Namco for the DS. It is a brand new and original title and the first one on a handheld made internally by Tales studio.

This was originally scheduled for the week before but was delayed 1 week andis now competing with Dissidia. Is Namco getting cocky?

Last, we have Suikoden Tierkreis, a sort of side game/spinoff in the Suikoden franchise for the DS by Konami.

I'm a bit surprised by this sudden wave of competition, but that said I think it's pretty obvious what the sales pattern will be here, with no real room for an upset: Dissidia Final Fantasy -> Tales of Hearts -> Suikoden Tierkreis

Dissidia may be a strange departure but it's still going to sell a ton on the PSP just from being a large piece of FF fanservice alone. I don't know if it's bundled or not but knowing Sony's reaction to all the other SE PSP games it should be bundled until there's nothing left to bundle. Tales of Hearts seems to have a lot of buzz surrounding it and I have no doubt that it will outsell Tempest and Innocence, but Tales is a franchise that has proven time and time again that it sells better on home consoles. Suikoden Tierkreis will most likely get the short end of the stick. It's a bit of a wild card though...it's the first original Suikoden title for a handheld so it remains to be seen how the fanbase will react to it. It's also distancing itself a bit from previous titles...it may be able to capture a new audience in the process, but I doubt it.

And to end this post, I thought I'd point out other notable releases on the 18th in Japan (quite a busy day):

• Ragnarok Online DS - I thought about adding this to the list above but it doesn't seem to be quite as high-profile.
• Bleach: Versus Crusade (Wii) - Treasure's approach to a Bleach fighter.
• Sonic World Adventure (Wii) - Sonic Unleashed in Japan. Will easily be swallowed by all the other games. I feel kinda bad for Sonic.
• FIFA 09 (Multi) - Not as big as PES/WE but hey...it'll sell something, right?
• Dance Dance Revolution: Furu Furu Party (Wii) - I have no idea what the differences in any of the DDRs are...
• Let's Tap (Wii) - First title by Prope! Unfortunately it seems destined to be lost in the shuffle. No idea what Sega was thinking...
• Fate/Unlimited Codes (PS2) - No idea what this is but it's got some buzz and should be one of the PS2's last major releases.
• Gundam Musou 2 (PS2/PS3/360) - It's Gundam. In Japan.

yea a lot of those titles should do well, all 3 of those ds games, gundam musou 2. Lets tap and bleach should do pretty well too.

While, I think Suikoden and Tales are both better franchises and deserve better sales. Dissidia: Final Fantasy will easily win on the fact that it has the word Final Fantasy in it.

Dissidia seems to be much more interesting game than ToH and Suikoden Tierkreis, I think it will sell the most out of all handheld games in December.

And it has characters from the most famous FF games, especially Squall & Ultimecia from FF8, and Cloud & Sephiroth from the FF7 huge money cow...

Damn! You made me think Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain was coming to PSP! That would be amazing.

Anyway, awesome.

I like the cover art for Dissidia

Usually I would say the DS games would win in sales, but Dissidia has the power of the Final Fantasy name behind it. It might be close though. This is in terms of sales though. Tales of Hearts is the most appealing to me. Then Sukoiden Tierkreis, and then Final Fantasy Dissidia.

I find Hearts and Tierkreis to be more interesting because they're full blown adventures and not just fanservice games.

Of course, Dissidia is going to sell the most anyway...

Dissidia is going to sell more than those two combined. Suikoden Tierkreis, in particular, looks like it's going to flop, or at least according to pre-order charts I've seen. Seems like not many people are willing to give it a chance since it's not a 'traditional Suikoden game'. For shame.

Last Tales for DS sold 100k in its first week, but since this one will be released during holidays, I expect ~150k or so.

As for Dissidia, I think some people are overestimating that one as well.

Btw, excellent article, Claude.