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wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

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BurningCourage posted:

What if we (me) don't own computers powerful enough to run that well? :smith:

I probably worded my endorsement a little strongly.

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My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007
This Japanese moonspeak apparently says that Tales Studio is in trouble financially. Might explain why they're porting Phantasia for the nth time. (Warning: site contains high concentrations of anime)

Mill Village
Jul 27, 2007

That doesn't explain why Namco refuses to bring the games out here. :(

I knew this was going to happen, though. The sales of the games have been declining since Abyss was released.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

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I thought Abyss didn't sell that well internationally. Did the Japanese sales make up for that? I'd thought that of the 3d Tales Symphonia still held the top spot for total worldwide sales (adding together both versions).

Honestly I'm not sure why they're porting Phantasia again. If I was there my move would be to put the PS2 improvements to Symphonia into the GCN version and release it on the Wii - especially if I thought I could use the existing dub and get the voice actors back briefly to record dialog for the new bits.

Either that or put Symphonia PS2 and Abyss on the PSN with HD and progressive scan support.

My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007
From what I gather sales of the games in Japan have been declining ever since Tempest was released. It was soon after that that Namco really started milking the series in Japan and people just got tired of it. Plus I feel the mothership-and-escort model for the games was a bad idea, since all it seems to have resulted in is a million ports and mediocre (from the opinions of the people who played them) spinoffs such as Tales of VS. Plus, making all those spinoffs that didn't sell well would have drained vital money they needed to pour into the main games. Perhaps if they didn't follow this strategy then Graces wouldn't have been so buggy.

edit:Someone has thrown up what seems to be a working patch for Graces now. It looks kind of iffy (abbreviations, huge spaces between words etc) and has only translated the menus so far, but it seems to work, but I can't help but be a little suspicious. Unfortunately it's based off of the buggy version of Graces and not the fixed version that Namco put out.

editedit: Duckroll at Neogaf got someone to translate the above article and it's supposed to be only a balance sheet which doesn't particularly state anything good or bad. I wouldn't be surprised if they were getting worried though, if Graces really did as poo poo as I heard it did. I think Namco's failure to really capitalise on Symphonia's success has had a knock-on effect on how the rest of the series did in the West.

My Crab is Fight fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Jun 19, 2010

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
I hope they pull out of it, having pretty much just Final Fantasies and Dragon Quests to get my JRPG fix would suck. I am no expert on what does or does not sell in Japan in relation to Tales, but I do agree that they should concentrate more on just the mothership titles.

Lakitu7
Jul 10, 2001

Watch for spinys
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/06/20/tales-studio-near-bankruptcy-tales-series-doomed/ (has :nws: ads)
http://kotaku.com/5568531/end-of-story-for-tails-studio

Other sites are picking up the story now.

ConanThe3rd
Mar 27, 2009
I'd be more sympathetic if I didn't have to import almost all of their games.

I've only tried Legendia today. I dunno if it goes tits up later, but by god it's a good start. Why was this and "The Abyss" blocked from European Release whilst Dawn of The New World gets a pass?

ConanThe3rd fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Jun 21, 2010

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
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Crablettes: Eaten

Jesus christ the sankaku complex guys seem to hate absolutely everything.

Honestly my dream scenario at this point is Atlus buying Tales Studio. No idea if they can afford it though.

My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007

ConanThe3rd posted:

I'd be more sympathetic if I didn't have to import almost all of their games.

I've only tried Legendia today. I dunno if it goes tits up later, but by god it's a good start. Why was this and "The Abyss" blocked from European Release whilst Dawn of The New World gets a pass?

I like to think that DoTNW was riding off of Symphonia's success on the Gamecube, and being marketed as a sequel to it probably helped. For the other games, at the time Namco Bandai had no European publisher for console games and nobody was willing to take Abyss and Legendia over. I ended up importing both.

Ice Blue
Mar 20, 2002

Sorry, I get paid to shoot paintballs, honey, not the breeze.

ConanThe3rd posted:

I'd be more sympathetic if I didn't have to import almost all of their games.

I've only tried Legendia today. I dunno if it goes tits up later, but by god it's a good start. Why was this and "The Abyss" blocked from European Release whilst Dawn of The New World gets a pass?
I've heard Legendia is one of the worse Tales games.

My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007
I didn't think it was awful, but the team working on it (the Soul Calibur team I believe, or at least key members from it were working on Legendia) took a back-to-basics approach with the battle system which ended up backfiring, as well as turning every dungeon into a long crawl and forgetting to include multiplayer support. The throws for Senel were a nice idea but they all look similar. Also the way you actually learned new techniques was irritating as hell.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten

BurningCourage posted:

forgetting to include multiplayer support

:smithicide: WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?

Anyway I hope the series ends up unfucked somehow, with a publisher willing to bring stuff to North America/Europe. Nothing else is really quite the same in the Action-RPG category (there's Diablo-clones, Deus Ex-clones like Fallout 3 and Mass Effect, not much else).

My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007
One other oddity of Legendia was that in battles the buffer for inputs was massive, to the point where you could mash out a combo involving three normal attacks and an arte or two as fast as possible and the entire thing would come out, even if you stop pressing buttons. It actually made battles a little harder to control than they should have been.

Mokinokaro
Sep 11, 2001

At the end of everything, hold onto anything



Fun Shoe

wdarkk posted:

Jesus christ the sankaku complex guys seem to hate absolutely everything.

Except they're giant PS3 fanboys and kept mocking 360 owners as beta testers for Namco games.

The worst thing about Legendia is the fact the 2nd half of the bloody game isn't even voiced.

Ice Blue
Mar 20, 2002

Sorry, I get paid to shoot paintballs, honey, not the breeze.

Mokinokaro posted:

Except they're giant PS3 fanboys and kept mocking 360 owners as beta testers for Namco games.

The worst thing about Legendia is the fact the 2nd half of the bloody game isn't even voiced.
I took their beta testing thing as less of a bite on 360 players but a sting at how Namco pretty obviously planned Vesperia to come out with a second iteration with extra content.

At least according to one of their articles, the 360 version seems to have better visuals (more color and higher resolution).

What I want to know is if Symphonia fans had a similar reaction to the Symphonia rerelease on PS2. Sure it kinda sucks the 360 version doesn't get the full experience but it's pretty standard for Tales games I thought. Plus it makes sense that the later version would get more content after Microsoft paid for time exclusivity. It's not like the game would have sold very well as a 360 exclusive in Japan.

Ice Blue fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Jun 22, 2010

Xythar
Dec 22, 2004

echoes of a contemporary nation

Mokinokaro posted:

Except they're giant PS3 fanboys and kept mocking 360 owners as beta testers for Namco games.

The entire site is one massive troll and everything they post is designed to rile people up and get more pageviews, hth.

I mean look what we got here, a balance sheet. Until some kind of reputable news source (eg not SC or kotaku) does some kind of report on it I wouldn't jump to any conclusions.

'Course, any time Tales Studio want to make a few extra bucks by actually releasing their games elsewhere in the world would be welcome.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
Crablettes: Eaten

Ice Blue posted:

What I want to know is if Symphonia fans had a similar reaction to the Symphonia rerelease on PS2.

I know I did. The 30fps bit would be annoying but I could deal if it meant giving Raine some sweet super moves. Tales Studio could make some money putting Symphonia PS2 edition on the PSN store with English subtitles or the GCN audio (I don't think any of the added text is voiced). I'd buy that - especially if they added HD support.

Jesus I should run Tales Studio, I'd do a better job.

FSLink
Nov 6, 2009

wdarkk posted:

I know I did. The 30fps bit would be annoying but I could deal if it meant giving Raine some sweet super moves. Tales Studio could make some money putting Symphonia PS2 edition on the PSN store with English subtitles or the GCN audio (I don't think any of the added text is voiced). I'd buy that - especially if they added HD support.

Jesus I should run Tales Studio, I'd do a better job.

The 30FPS thing even happens in battles and the load times on the disk were pretty horrendous (2nd to Abyss). The extras were a bit nice, but man, playing the GC version is so much more fun with the battles being fluid and feeling speedy.
The textures were worse in the PS2 version as well, so it was a slow muddy mess of a port. Having a few extra artes and a few Mystic Artes you hardly ever got to see due to Symphonia having some stupid requirements for it (Good luck ever seeing Presea's 2nd one in normal gameplay) doesn't make up for the FPS cut to me.

Mokinokaro posted:

The worst thing about Legendia is the fact the 2nd half of the bloody game isn't even voiced.
The official reason for that is apparently the lead localization dude only got the information as "Character Quests", so naturally he thought it'd be extras and a good candidate to cut some voices from.
Unfortunately that turned out to be the 2nd half of the game.

Yeah, it really sucks. I don't think I beat the 2nd half of Legendia because the battles dragged on forever, and the story wasn't as engaging without voices.

Arcaeris
Mar 15, 2006
you feed the girls to other girls

:stare:
I've got a Vesperia question.

What the hell are these "burastia" (blastia?) that everyone keeps talking about. Are they supposed to be important, like if I've played a Tales game before? I know that one at the beginning apparently kept that fountain in check, but is there some theme here I missed?

Also, the fact that the game is voiced totally makes up for any lack of furigana. I can just listen for the words I don't know and then it's the same thing.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Arcaeris posted:

I've got a Vesperia question.

What the hell are these "burastia" (blastia?) that everyone keeps talking about. Are they supposed to be important, like if I've played a Tales game before? I know that one at the beginning apparently kept that fountain in check, but is there some theme here I missed?

Also, the fact that the game is voiced totally makes up for any lack of furigana. I can just listen for the words I don't know and then it's the same thing.

They're new plot widgets in Vesperia. They're important to the story and get explained as it goes on.

Hitlersaurus Christ
Oct 14, 2005

Arcaeris posted:

I've got a Vesperia question.

What the hell are these "burastia" (blastia?) that everyone keeps talking about. Are they supposed to be important, like if I've played a Tales game before? I know that one at the beginning apparently kept that fountain in check, but is there some theme here I missed?

Also, the fact that the game is voiced totally makes up for any lack of furigana. I can just listen for the words I don't know and then it's the same thing.

The Tales games are almost all entirely unrelated. Blastia are only in Vesperia. They're explained as the story goes on, but all you really need to know at the point you're at is essentially they're special devices that are used by just about everyone to do various things.

EDIT: Beaten.

Lakitu7
Jul 10, 2001

Watch for spinys
aka basically the same plot role Exspheres had in Symphonia

Xythar
Dec 22, 2004

echoes of a contemporary nation

ImpAtom posted:

They're new plot widgets in Vesperia. They're important to the story and get explained as it goes on.

Haha, "plot widgets" is the best term I've heard yet to explain stuff like exspheres, blastia, aer, fonons, etc. Team Symphonia seems to love that stuff.

WingsOfSteel
Nov 13, 2007

Even Dr. Octopus can learn something from the Internet!

Xythar posted:

Haha, "plot widgets" is the best term I've heard yet to explain stuff like exspheres, blastia, aer, fonons, etc. Team Symphonia seems to love that stuff.

I say the Score is more of Abyss's plot widget than fonons. Fonon magitechnobabble is everywhere, but the Score is the thing the plot really focuses on.

Eddain
May 6, 2007
Man, if Namco is hurting for money so much, they should just release a line of puppy Repede plushies. Instant billions! :colbert:

ConanThe3rd
Mar 27, 2009

Eddain posted:

Man, if Namco is hurting for money so much, they should just release a line of puppy Repede plushies. Instant billions! :colbert:

Or they could release their games such that I could actually buy them in a way that contributes to the sales figures.

Mokinokaro
Sep 11, 2001

At the end of everything, hold onto anything



Fun Shoe

wdarkk posted:

I know I did. The 30fps bit would be annoying but I could deal if it meant giving Raine some sweet super moves. Tales Studio could make some money putting Symphonia PS2 edition on the PSN store with English subtitles or the GCN audio (I don't think any of the added text is voiced). I'd buy that - especially if they added HD support.

Jesus I should run Tales Studio, I'd do a better job.

IIRC, ToS PS2 had a PAL release. So there's already an English version around.

EDIT: Okay maybe not. I don't think a subtitled version would sell that great but if they had the GCN audio I'd buy it.

My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007
I think Tales Studio just need a complete re-organisation. Stop trying to compete with Square-Enix (because it never works) and focus just on niche audiences, like the Atlus model. Also cut down on the endless spin-offs and ports and focus more on the main games, since flooding the market with Tales games is half of what caused their problems in the first place. If that means lower print runs and overall lower budgets then fine, as long as they can start producing quality titles that actually get seen outside of Japan.

Mill Village
Jul 27, 2007

I'd really like the Tales series to follow the Atlus model, especially if it means the games will actually get released in English.

FSLink
Nov 6, 2009

BurningCourage posted:

I think Tales Studio just need a complete re-organisation. Stop trying to compete with Square-Enix (because it never works) and focus just on niche audiences, like the Atlus model. Also cut down on the endless spin-offs and ports and focus more on the main games, since flooding the market with Tales games is half of what caused their problems in the first place. If that means lower print runs and overall lower budgets then fine, as long as they can start producing quality titles that actually get seen outside of Japan.

Yeah, I agree.
I also hate the platform jumping for their main titles. It wasn't so bad last gen since they mostly stuck to PS2, but this gen is just a mess. You have to own all the consoles and portables if you want to play all the main Tales games. Go multiplatform or stick to one console/portable from now on.

They should also cut down the whole "Team Symphonia" and "Team Destiny" idea. They are already starting to merge, so they're on the right track. It feels weird for stuff like Tales of Vesperia not to have CC which is a great upgrade to the battle system, and on the other side, have Tales of Graces not have simple stuff like renaming party members or scene skip from ToV.

My Crab is Fight
Mar 13, 2007
Also I think it would be cool to see them get really experimental with the battle systems again instead of having every Tales game feature some permuation of free-running or the CC system with the aerial combat. And we might as well have more info and screens on Narikiri Dungeon X.

-Guest characters feature as costumes, Asbel and someone from Idolmaster are confirmed so far, and they both have their own mystic artes.
-Monster capturing is back, probably because some of the Knight of Ratatosk staff are working on it. (I don't think the screenshots linked above show those but it's said on te official Tales board to be back)
-Costumes work on a 1-1-1 upgrade system, there are 10 base costumes and there are intermediate and advanced versions of each of those.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

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Well, I guess I might play it if it gets released in the UniteHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA :argh:

HondaCivet
Oct 16, 2005

And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know


I lucked out and found Tales of the Abyss at a Gamestop. It's growing on me in spite of its technical imperfections. Luke needs a drat haircut though, his freaky red double mullet is scaring me.

By "skits" do you guys mean the little unvoiced conversations you get when you hit the Select button sometimes?

Also, is Tales of Vesperia ever coming out in the US on PS3? In the Wiki article, in April of this year one of the English voice actors said he was doing some voice work for the game so that left me feeling a little optimistic. It was rated pretty well from what I've seen so it'd be nice.

Policenaut
Jul 11, 2008

On the moon... they don't make Neo Kobe Pizza.

Very very recently, Namco of America said that they currently had no plans for localizing it but if the "chance" came up they would be very interested in doing it. Wish I could find that link, I believe it was mentioned somewhere on PlayStation Blog.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

Friends: Protected
World: Saved
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HondaCivet posted:

Also, is Tales of Vesperia ever coming out in the US on PS3? In the Wiki article, in April of this year one of the English voice actors said he was doing some voice work for the game so that left me feeling a little optimistic. It was rated pretty well from what I've seen so it'd be nice.

Probably not, this is part of why I'm starting to feel like Tales Studio has the "George Lucas" virus.

Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"

HondaCivet posted:

I lucked out and found Tales of the Abyss at a Gamestop. It's growing on me in spite of its technical imperfections. Luke needs a drat haircut though, his freaky red double mullet is scaring me.
Keep playing.

quote:

By "skits" do you guys mean the little unvoiced conversations you get when you hit the Select button sometimes?
Yeah, they didn't add voice acting for those in English until Legendia. Vesperia is the only decent game to feature it.

quote:

Also, is Tales of Vesperia ever coming out in the US on PS3? In the Wiki article, in April of this year one of the English voice actors said he was doing some voice work for the game so that left me feeling a little optimistic. It was rated pretty well from what I've seen so it'd be nice.
Doubt it. The game is quite solid without the PS3 upgrades. Do you not have a 360?

HondaCivet
Oct 16, 2005

And then it falls
And then I fall
And then I know


Some Numbers posted:

Doubt it. The game is quite solid without the PS3 upgrades. Do you not have a 360?

Nope, just a PS3 (and PS2 of course). And a Wii, so I could play Symphonia I guess.

wdarkk
Oct 26, 2007

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HondaCivet posted:

Nope, just a PS3 (and PS2 of course). And a Wii, so I could play Symphonia I guess.

Symphonia's pretty good (of course, I would say that).

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Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"

HondaCivet posted:

Nope, just a PS3 (and PS2 of course). And a Wii, so I could play Symphonia I guess.

I would wager that Symphonia would be pretty hard to play after Abyss, because Symphonia has no Free Run.

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