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Alundra and Arc the Lad on PSN 10.12.2010, $5.99 apiece

T

Teknoman

Member
SabinFigaro said:
I absolutely adored Alundra back in the day. I would place it on a similar level as some of the 2D Zelda entries, and I encourage everyone who enjoys adventure games to download it. I recall a lot of frustration searching out the Life Vessels and Gilded Falcons, but it's quite rewarding to play through and explore every last corner of the world. The soundtrack is also a personal favourite, with very subdued and haunting themes.

I still kick myself for missing out on Arc the Lad, but it looks like I'll get my second chance. I'm still not sold on a second copy of Alundra, but I would gladly pay $5.99 to guarantee some future releases.

By the way, who owns the rights to Thunder Force? I'd love to see TFV on PSN, and I'd kill for TFIV (aka Lightening Force) on the VC.
Click to expand...

Everyone needs to play TFV if only for the boss intros/battles.
 
L

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
vireland said:
It's more a question of "is it worth the effort"? It's a complete pain in the butt to get older titles licensed and ready for PSN. If they only sell 5,000 or 10,000 or something, it's hardly worth it after everyone takes their cut. If we're selling 20 or 30k units (which is completely reasonable for an RPG at these prices and with the PS3 installed base), and up, it makes sense to keep grinding away at the other titles we're working on and maybe even get some PS1 content that was never localized translated for first-time release. There are lots of possibilities, but they all hinge on sales of these first few titles, since they don't get a whole lot better than this. If these won't sell for $5.99, nothing will.
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Whats the timeframe you'd hope ta get said sales in? Cause that sounds like wayyy alot! An how come ya only mention the PS3 install base are these games not PSP-compatible o.o?

btw ya oughta advertise each of these games on the PS Blog. If possible time it so the post is next tuesday and is the last one before the PS Store update. Don't stop there neither! I remember the old WD site had wallpapers an other assets for your games so try and get them on the store or linked to in future PS Blog posts! Keep up the good fight!
 
L

Lumpy Onion

Member
Great to hear they are coming so soon. I just played through Arc The Lad a week ago so I will only be buying Alundra. Arc The Lad 1 is really worth playing if you want to appreciate Arc the Lad 2 more.

ATL 2 is without a doubt one of my top ten favorite RPGs. The hunts you can take, the insane amount of sidequests, the great boss fights, etc. And some of the storyline events were downright chilling. Especially the first five minutes of ATL 2. Damn!
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
How well do PSN PSone games do anyway? I'd like to know how Grandia and Suikoden did.
 
M

May16

Member
So is "Arc the Lad" in this case the whole collection with the three games, or does "Arc the Lad" mean the most literal, as in, actual just the first game?
 
0

0 HP

Member
every WD release was gold, even shining wisdom (auto fire controller). new stuff would be so much better though.

i have 2 questions if vic sees this/wants to answer them:

whats the story with this game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Law ... would you recommend it?

and is goemon done for good?
 
K

kevm3

Member
Will grab Alundra. Will think about grabbing Arc the Lad. I actually beat the 1st one and went through that huge dungeon with overpowered Arc. Got pretty far in the second one but never beat it for some reason. Should be some quality entertainment for the PSP though.
 
A

AranhaHunter

Banned
Count of Monte Sawed-Off said:
His old company, Working Designs, translated and released the games in the US, along with many others. Chronos, Dragon Quests and Xenogears would be a Sony and SE thing.

edit: Will get Alundra, never played it. Still have the Arc the Lad discs.
Click to expand...

Ahhh ok, I see they brought Lunar so that might be a possibility.

vireland said:
It's more a question of "is it worth the effort"? It's a complete pain in the butt to get older titles licensed and ready for PSN. If they only sell 5,000 or 10,000 or something, it's hardly worth it after everyone takes their cut. If we're selling 20 or 30k units (which is completely reasonable for an RPG at these prices and with the PS3 installed base), and up, it makes sense to keep grinding away at the other titles we're working on and maybe even get some PS1 content that was never localized translated for first-time release. There are lots of possibilities, but they all hinge on sales of these first few titles, since they don't get a whole lot better than this. If these won't sell for $5.99, nothing will.
Click to expand...

I would've thought if these titles sold a couple of thousand units each, you'd be in the green...shows how much I know :lol
 
A

Agate

Neo Member
Arc the Lad? cool beans.

Alundra??? F' yeah!!

Never got around to beating that game but it is always great to see it join the PSN's list of PS1 classics. Give us Legend of Dragoon, BoF3, and Xenogears and its officially gold!
 
V

vireland

Member
Lindsay said:
Whats the timeframe you'd hope ta get said sales in? Cause that sounds like wayyy alot! An how come ya only mention the PS3 install base are these games not PSP-compatible o.o?

btw ya oughta advertise each of these games on the PS Blog. If possible time it so the post is next tuesday and is the last one before the PS Store update. Don't stop there neither! I remember the old WD site had wallpapers an other assets for your games so try and get them on the store or linked to in future PS Blog posts! Keep up the good fight!
Click to expand...

My bad - I was talking PSN, so PS3/PSP.

It's not that high a number for an "A" PSone Classics title, and especially not a well-regarded RPG.
 
L

linkboy

Member
I've got the Alundra on disc, so I'll pass, but I really hope more people get to play it.

Alundra is one of my favorite PS1 games.
 
Gameboy415

Gameboy415

Member
I'm definitely going to grab Alundra after I get settled into my new house!

After rummaging through some boxes, I found out that I apparently picked up Alundra 2 years ago. I guess I was waiting to play it until I could track down a copy of the original game and I forgot all about it! :lol
 
Shouta

Shouta

Member
Arc: ToTS is not a bad game, maybe a little worse than the original trilogy as a whole but probably better than Arc 1 as a singular game. That last PS2 game though... awful.

vireland said:
I'm not sure what's going on at Atlus, but I doubt they'd try again after GL V bombed hard. I'd love to give GL I and IV a proper showing, but both would need localization as well, so that's a whole 'nother leverl of PSN classics dedication. You need to buy a LOT of Alundra and Arc. :)
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Mmmm GL on PSN would be fantastic. If you could get GL IV out, that would remove it from my list of games I want to translate if I ever muster up the energy to do it in my free time. :lol
 
V

vireland

Member
0 HP said:
every WD release was gold, even shining wisdom (auto fire controller). new stuff would be so much better though.

i have 2 questions if vic sees this/wants to answer them:

whats the story with this game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Law ... would you recommend it?

and is goemon done for good?
Click to expand...

I haven't given up on Goemon yet.

Miami Law is good if you're expecting a Visual Novel. As a VN fan, I'd give it a solid 7.5. There haven't been a lot of those released here and if you know that/like that you'll have a good time. It does have action vignettes, but the game's focus is the story. In Japan where they dig the visual novel, it scored 8,8,6,7, whereas in the US it was much lower (the average KILLED by a completely ridiculous "2" from Nintendo Power), mostly due to the lack of awareness of the genre.
 
Y

YoungHav

Banned
vireland said:
It's more a question of "is it worth the effort"? It's a complete pain in the butt to get older titles licensed and ready for PSN. If they only sell 5,000 or 10,000 or something, it's hardly worth it after everyone takes their cut. If we're selling 20 or 30k units (which is completely reasonable for an RPG at these prices and with the PS3 installed base), and up, it makes sense to keep grinding away at the other titles we're working on and maybe even get some PS1 content that was never localized translated for first-time release. There are lots of possibilities, but they all hinge on sales of these first few titles, since they don't get a whole lot better than this. If these won't sell for $5.99, nothing will.
Click to expand...
I am definitely buying Alundra since I missed it upon release. I have two questions for you:

1) Why are there a lot of hoops to rerelease these games?
2) Where is Suikoden 2? If I could get a physical copy without donating a kidney I would. It's been a long time since Suikoden 1 went on PSN.
 
V

vireland

Member
YoungHav said:
I am definitely buying Alundra since I missed it upon release. I have two questions for you:

1) Why are there a lot of hoops to rerelease these games?
2) Where is Suikoden 2? If I could get a physical copy without donating a kidney I would. It's been a long time since Suikoden 1 went on PSN.
Click to expand...

1> This was covered a month or so ago, but I'll recap. The problems come from the fact that initially a number of parties were involved, and with the passage of 10 years (or more in the case of some PS1 games) those companies have changed hands, merged, or disappeared. Following the rights trail is a challenge. Seemingly "simple" licenses become complicated when one party (say a musician) has rights again because a license lapsed. Or maybe 3 parties on a game are willing to license, but the 4th isn't interested or doesn't care. It's a lot of cheerleading and motivational politics, which adds up to time, time, time and money, for a game that sells for $6, divided 3, 4, 5, 6 or more ways (depending on the level of complication in the license) and won't sell 50k units, in all probability. It's an issue of opportunity cost in the end.

2> Dunno the specifics of Suikoden II, but see #1 for possible reasons.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
So I'm guessing its much harder to republish voiced PSone games or PSone games that feature voiced OSTs (like Joanna Hogg's Small Two of Pieces for Xenogears)?
 
V

vireland

Member
ULTROS! said:
So I'm guessing its much harder to republish voiced PSone games or PSone games that feature voiced OSTs (like Joanna Hogg's Small Two of Pieces for Xenogears)?
Click to expand...

Completely depends on the original license terms, which are widely variable.
 
M

mollipen

Member
vireland said:
Miami Law is good if you're expecting a Visual Novel. As a VN fan, I'd give it a solid 7.5.
Click to expand...

That's the exact score I gave it in Play. I liked it, but yeah, the visual novel genre really doesn't get a lot of appreciation over here. Bad translation or not, I also really enjoyed Lux Pain, but it got brutalized by the bigger publications.
 
G

GotchaForce

Member
With all the games coming out around now I was going to hold off on Alundra but seeing Vic in here has pushed it up to a day one purchase. I appreciate all the efforts being put into getting it out, I never got around to playing it back in the day. I hope Konami puts the same effort into putting Suikoden 2 up one day.
 
A

AranhaHunter

Banned
vireland said:
1> This was covered a month or so ago, but I'll recap. The problems come from the fact that initially a number of parties were involved, and with the passage of 10 years (or more in the case of some PS1 games) those companies have changed hands, merged, or disappeared. Following the rights trail is a challenge. Seemingly "simple" licenses become complicated when one party (say a musician) has rights again because a license lapsed. Or maybe 3 parties on a game are willing to license, but the 4th isn't interested or doesn't care. It's a lot of cheerleading and motivational politics, which adds up to time, time, time and money, for a game that sells for $6, divided 3, 4, 5, 6 or more ways (depending on the level of complication in the license) and won't sell 50k units, in all probability. It's an issue of opportunity cost in the end.
Click to expand...

I didn't see the other thread and this interesting and makes sense. Thanks for the info. Also, if my theory is right, Sony probably takes about 30% cut off PSN sales on average (I think I remember reading somewhere that Apple itunes and SE playnow has that 30/70 model, so I assume PSN/XBL follows the same pattern), so that right there is already an obstacle.
 
E

Eric C

Member
ALUNDRA $5.99! I really need a to get myself a PSP.


vireland said:
We talked about this in another thread a month or so ago. Until the PS1 emulation has some kind of Move or lightgun support, the gun games will stay dead, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

RyanDG said:
I guess I'm going to make it my responsibility to organize a mass e-mail/forum uprising over at the Sony website requesting this feature then... There are a handful of decent GunCon games that would be an interesting addition to the PSN store if it was possible to get them to work with the move via emulation. Probably would be too much work for them for the effort, but I've been craving to play some Elemental Gearbolt lately.
Click to expand...

I love old lightgun games. I REALLY wish Sony would add somesort of Move support for the PS1/PS2 lightgun games.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
May16 said:
So is "Arc the Lad" in this case the whole collection with the three games, or does "Arc the Lad" mean the most literal, as in, actual just the first game?
Click to expand...

It's out of Vic's hands, Sony wants to do them seperately. Stupid, but eh... the cost of all three (and including "Arena" is around $15 total for the "collection" that costed $80-100 in 2000(?), so it's not a bad trade off.

ULTROS! said:
How well do PSN PSone games do anyway? I'd like to know how Grandia and Suikoden did.
Click to expand...

Depends on the game.

Barbie's Horse Adventures (AKA: the shovelware WHY GOD WHY!? WHY HAS CHEN SHAT ON US!?) sells badly, IIRC. Because no one/frequent buyers of the old games wants it.

FF7/8/9 are still selling MONTHLY and in the top-sellers consistantly week after week.

So middle ground titles like Alundra/Arc will do good for a bit and then limp off to okay-sells for the rest of the time.
 
S

Scalpel Knight

Member
Finally, Alundra. Hell yes. It's a beautiful game with great music. I've never played any Arc the Lad game however. Maybe I'll give that a try as well.

Edit: Victor, who owns the rights to WD's IP nowadays? I've been wondering this.
 
C

carlos

Member
Great to hear you haven't forgotten about Goemon, Vic (too bad konami has)

For those asking about Miami Law, it's definitely 7.5 but thanks in part to the localization

Will think about Alundra, I'm not a fan of rebuying games I own (same problem with a maximo rerelease, even if it's in HD)
 
V

vireland

Member
carlos said:
Great to hear you haven't forgotten about Goemon, Vic (too bad konami has)

For those asking about Miami Law, it's definitely 7.5 but thanks in part to the localization
Click to expand...

My single favorite exchange in that game was in the mode you unlocked after the game was done where you had a gun battle of Law vs Law, and your stoned sidekick Al is saying all kinds of funny things, tripping on watching you fight you. :)

Oh, that and where Law is insulting the fat owner of that corrupt business, saying insulting things after everything the guy says. For some reason that still cracks me up.
 
J

JLateralus

Member
Damn... Between these and the PSOne Imports there is actually stuff I want on PSN! Your constant dedication and support are appreciated, Vic.

In for both next week for sure.
 
X

xKilltheMx

Member
Tomba 1 or 2 would make me a happy nerd. Im considering buying Arc and Alundra even though I know nothing about them and dont even like RPG's :lol just to support other good PS1 games coming out.
 
D

Dynamic3

Member
vireland said:
It's more a question of "is it worth the effort"? It's a complete pain in the butt to get older titles licensed and ready for PSN. If they only sell 5,000 or 10,000 or something, it's hardly worth it after everyone takes their cut. If we're selling 20 or 30k units (which is completely reasonable for an RPG at these prices and with the PS3 installed base), and up, it makes sense to keep grinding away at the other titles we're working on and maybe even get some PS1 content that was never localized translated for first-time release. There are lots of possibilities, but they all hinge on sales of these first few titles, since they don't get a whole lot better than this. If these won't sell for $5.99, nothing will.
Click to expand...
Well I'll support the cause then, I've never played Alundra and I loved LttP.
 
Angelcurio

Angelcurio

Member
Well, time to buy a PSN card. Alundra is definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

Now i hope that Lunar and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue are next on your list Victor.
 
D

Dr Frasier Crane

Member
vireland said:
(Sorry, Europe. SCEE is still on the fence on offering Alundra due to Psygnosis being involved because their European version is based on the WD English version. It's a little complicated, but hopefully the strong US PSN sales will help us move them to offer this in Europe as well. As of right now there's no European PSN release.)
]
Click to expand...

As an SCEE peasant of multi-license hell, would it help for me to buy this on a US account? I mean I'd love to see way more RPG classics on PSN and would do anything I could to help (looking at you Suikoden 2 and Vandal Hearts!)
 
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