Marl Kingdom

Marl Kingdom or Marl's Kingdom (マール王国の人形姫, Māru Ōkoku no Ningyō Hime^?, lit. Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom) is a series of RPGs developed by Nippon Ichi Software. The three main games in the series are Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Little Princess: Marl Ōkoku no Ningyō Hime 2, and Tenshi no Present: Marl Ōkoku Monogatari.

The first two games were released on the PlayStation, whereas the latter was for the PlayStation 2. Only Rhapsody was translated to English, and was published by Atlus in 2000. The other two games' scripts have been translated to English by fans.

Like most Nippon Ichi games, the Marl games feature bright, anime influenced graphics. All the games use 2D backgrounds and sprites, with the exception of Tenshi no Present, which has 3D backgrounds with 2D sprites. Each of the games were created by Yoshitsuna Kobayashi and feature the artwork of Yoshiharu Nomura, whereas the music was composed by Tenpei Sato, a regular for handling Nippon Ichi games. Sato described Rhapsody's music as a "complete musical with both solos and choruses" and said "...it was a fun and refreshing experience."

The Marl games, similar to other Nippon Ichi video games, feature goofy senses of humor, tongue-in-cheek melodrama, and quirky casts of heroes and villains. For instance, Cornet, in Rhapsody, attacks enemies with monstrous storms of confectionery foods, while her rival, the seemingly polite Etoile, pulls out machine guns on her enemies. Along with the humor, there is a certain level of girlishness to each game, the plot often focusing on issues of love rather than complex politics and evil demon lords. Each game also features musical numbers.

...
Wikipedia