The History of Kartia
Built by the Megami Tensei team, launched through a video rental chain, and never followed up.
Kartia was developed inside Atlus by R&D1, the studio behind Megami Tensei, and produced by Kouji Okada, one of that series' creators. The director was Kenichi Mishima, the designer Shirō Takashima, and the scenario was written by Kazunori Sakai, with music by Kenichi Tsuchiya and Masaki Kurokawa. It was the studio's first strategy RPG outside the Megami Tensei line: a new world, a new system, and a famous guest artist.
It reached Japan first, as Rebus, on 26 March 1998. America got it in an unusual two-step that August, and Europe followed in June 1999 under Konami. It sold respectably, reviewed well, and then stopped: no sequel, no spin-off series, and only one re-release, a Japan-only digital edition in 2011.
BEFORE RELEASE
1997 to March 1998The Famitsu unveiling
Famitsu was covering the game by December 1997, including the interview that explained the name: Rebus, in the old Roman tongue, means combination. The whole game is built on combining written words.
Amano signs on
Yoshitaka Amano, the Final Fantasy illustrator, was hired for character design, a major signing for Atlus. His portraits anchor the game's identity to this day.
A new-sensation RPG
Atlus sold it in Japan as a shin kankaku RPG, a new-sensation RPG. Japanese reference works note dryly that whatever the label, the game underneath is a thoroughbred simulation RPG.
THE LAUNCH
1998 to 1999Rebus · 26 March 1998
The Japanese release, on a single PlayStation disc, SLPS 01343.
Blockbuster first · 7 August 1998
Atlus USA released Kartia as a Blockbuster Video rental exclusive, ten days before retail. The rental copies wear a plainer cover, with the title in flat blue instead of foil, and carry their own disc number, PSRM-010600.
American retail · 17 August 1998
The retail release followed on 17 August 1998, with the foil-lettered cover most collectors know.
Best edition and Europe · 1999
A budget Best edition followed in Japan on 4 February 1999. Europe's version, retitled Legend of Kartia and published by Konami, arrived in June 1999.
THE NUMBERS
What it sold117,594 copies in Japan
The recorded Japanese total: a solid result for an original strategy RPG from Atlus in 1998.
60,000 copies in the United States
The recorded American total, modest next to the genre's giants that year. The gap between the two numbers is the short version of why Kartia is a cult game in English.
THE LONG SILENCE
1999 to todayGame Archives · 2011
On 12 October 2011 the game returned as a digital Game Archives release on the Japanese PlayStation Network. It has never been sold digitally in English.
No sequel, ever
Atlus never made a Kartia 2, a remake, or a remaster. When the studio's strategy itch returned, it went back to Megami Tensei. Kartia remains a single, self-contained world.