Rhapsody shortly after he joined Nippon Ichi Software in 1996. At the time, the company was working on tabletop and mahjong games. Realizing a potential financial problem within Nippon Ichi, Niikawa devised the scenario and script for Rhapsody. After deciding that the game should contain musical elements, which were influenced by Disney films, Niikawa recruited Tenpei Sato to write the music in May 1998. Having composed and performed musicals in the past, Sato composed the game's musical numbers. The music was recorded at Sato's home studio, where he upgraded it to include ProTools as well as recording booths. Despite the vocal booth at his studio being narrow and the recording sessions taking place during the summer months, Sato admitted that the cast sang their best. When he heard the English versions of the songs, he was able to "hear the styles of Disney and Broadway." Three albums have been released. The first, titled Marl Oukoku no Ningyouhime Original Soundtrack, was released in Japan by A'Zip Music on January 22, 1999, and contains 22 tracks from the game. The second, Marl Oukoku no Ningyouhime: Original Vocal Album, was released by KSS on February 24, 1999 and contains 8 vocal tracks. The third, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure Original Game Soundtrack, was released in North America by Atlus on July 1, 2000 alongside the game. Cornet's voice actress, Kahoru Fujino, admitted she was surprised about the game being a musical RPG. On January 20, 2000, Atlus announced an English localization of the game was scheduled to be released in North America in May 2000. By June 4, the release went gold for a June 17 release. Later that month, however, the release was soon delayed to July 1. Release After the first release of the game, a cheaper edition called The Adventure of Puppet Princess + 1 was published, which featured an art gallery, sound test, and a bonus CD. The North American release of the game had these features, but instead of the bonus CD was a soundtrack CD, with vocal and instrumental songs from the game. The third release (The Adventure of Puppet Princess (PSone Books)), did not come with any extra CD. There was also a Rhapsody calendar released. Nintendo DS version Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure was released for the Nintendo DS on September 23, 2008. The gameplay has been changed significantly, the battles changed to be similar to the