Also I just realized from your gaf name now that you're the same guy I think...) I asked a bunch of Ys and LOH questions ten years ago in a forum focused on Falcom game series (mainly Ys and LOH).
That was most likely me, yes.
Cool. I've only played TitS and a bunch of the Ys games so I'll have to look into them.
Come to think of it, Falcom's first two runaway successes in Japan, Dragon Slayer and Xanadu, were dungeon-crawlers as well. It's in their BLOOD, yo!
With games like Rune Factory 4 and Unchained blades (and whatever else I might be missing), games that were released by you in NA but not in Europe, is a digital only, european version that dumps the game as it is (I mean no further translations just what it needs to get approved for classification) something actually possible?
You answer will probably be that I have to ask Marvelous for Rune Factory. What about Unchained Blades, though? IIRC you weren't that happy with its sales, thus skipping the sequel, but is a European release completely out of the question?
Sadly, the developer for Rune Factory is now defunct, so I'm pretty sure that one is completely out of the question at this point.
As for Unchained Blades, that is also a no, I'm afraid, for reasons I'm not really at liberty to go into. Sorry I can't be more specific!
Yo wyrdwad, any chance XSEED can get Samurai Jam released in the US?
As others have noted, we've already said we won't be working on this one, but just to give you an idea why (and note that this isn't an official explanation, but just my own take on it from having played the game for several hours as a fan):
The game itself is fantastic, but it's only about 10% rhythm game, 90% visual novel. The sheer amount of text in it (not to mention voice, should the Japanese voices not be licensable) is actually kind of staggering (I wouldn't be surprised if it approached Trails in the Sky levels). In addition, the way the text is written on the screen would make localization really difficult, as it's all vertically-oriented in custom-sized long, thin text boxes squeezed between character portraits. In order to display it in English, the text boxes would need to be reoriented to display horizontally, which would involve moving all the character portraits, and this would pretty much have to be done individually for every single screen of text in the entire game.
And then once all of that had been cut through, the game would be released and people would buy it under the assumption that it's a rhythm game only to find themselves playing a really kickass visual novel... with occasional rhythm game interludes.
On PSP.
So yeah, it's one of those games that I highly recommend people play if they can read Japanese, as it truly is engaging -- but localization-wise, I think it would simply kill us. Straight up.
Kinda curious about Brandish. Is it similiar to Wizadry?
Kind of. It definitely plays a little bit like a first-person dungeon crawler, except in third-person, and with action-oriented combat (not turn-based).
It's pretty unique, to the point where I think your best bet would be to watch Falcom's trailer -- I think that does a great job of showing off what the game is all about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qle-OdVvOoI
AKIBAS TRIP: Undead & Undressed
Is that like Kenka Bancho Badass Rumble?
Sort of, but with more stripping.
And more of an otaku/nerd spin than a yanki/punk spin.
I described it in detail here, so check it out if you're interested in learning more:
http://forum.marvelous-usa.com/index.php?showtopic=27428&st=300#entry853534
When is Dinosaur going to be brought over Tom?
Man, I hope I get to work on that some day! That game has a script I would looooooove to translate and/or edit.
-Tom
