What would you do if you won a lottery, and the grand prize was godhood? This rather silly question sets up the premise of Nippon Ichi Software's spiritual successor to the PSP roguelike, Zettai Hero Project: Unlosing Ranger vs Darkdeath Evilman. Behind closed doors, NIS America showed off some of the basics, offering the essence of a roguelike challenge for home consoles.

In The Guided Fate Paradox, the player takes on the responsibility of being a god by changing the fates of mortals by going into dungeons and beating up monsters. The game shares an engine and fundamental art style with Disgaea D2, but it uses very different concepts in its gameplay.

Like ZHP, Paradox's dungeons are randomly generated, filled with traps, monsters, and more treasure than you can possibly carry. Like ZHP, the protagonist's equipment actively changes his sprite and abilities — even when you equip odd items like tank treads to run down enemies. Also like ZHP, the game isn't easy and actively encourages going into the challenges again and again. This is all while you deal with limited resources, including a constantly ticking hunger gauge, to keep you from dallying too much.

Paradox has several new concepts. Your character has an angelic assistant, who joins you in the dungeon and can be issued commands. You may find shops inside the dungeons, so you can buy items. Gameplay also moves faster than it did in ZHP.

Naturally, there's a strong story to back up the gameplay. NISA's representatives pointed out that there would be several themes on the nature of free will, and some religious overtones will be somewhat explored. Of course, there's no shortage of NIS humor involved, either.

The Guided Fate Paradox for the PS3 is scheduled to hit store shelves sometime this autumn — shortly after Disgaea D2 does.