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Famitsu info on Atlus new fantasy RPG Project Re Fantasy (Studio Zero, Hashino)

duckroll

Member
Hmmm catching up on the JP reporting of the Famitsu interview news. It sounds like Atlus is structuring quite a bit. Soejima is now part of a newly established "Atlus Artwork Team" where he will continue to work on Persona as well as tackle new challenges. It sounds like Atlus wants to aggressively expand their output to not just continue to deliver new entries in successful franchises like Persona, but also to make brand new games. This mentality seems to be a result of them joining a huge group company like Sega Sammy and wanting to work together with Sega to contribute to the success of the group.

The message I get from the interview is that Atlus knows they have strong fan capital and that they have the potential to do even more than they already have, so they're challenging their own limits. Hopefully it works out in the end!
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
This will be a Switch game.


Im ok with this

Switch gonna be the new Vita for Japanese games

Im pretty hyped about it.


Im sure PS4 will continue to bring all the high end stuff

Don't say that before it happens. Especially considering this seems pretty high end with the restructuring for a brand new team.

The assumption that devs are all coding for an unreleased platform that generally speaking is not guaranteed success is pretty baseless IMO.

Most handheld devs on japan will stay on 3DS and vita for a couple more years.
 

Eolz

Member
Hmmm catching up on the JP reporting of the Famitsu interview news. It sounds like Atlus is structuring quite a bit. Soejima is now part of a newly established "Atlus Artwork Team" where he will continue to work on Persona as well as tackle new challenges. It sounds like Atlus wants to aggressively expand their output to not just continue to deliver new entries in successful franchises like Persona, but also to make brand new games. This mentality seems to be a result of them joining a huge group company like Sega Sammy and wanting to work together with Sega to contribute to the success of the group.

The message I get from the interview is that Atlus knows they have strong fan capital and that they have the potential to do even more than they already have, so they're challenging their own limits. Hopefully it works out in the end!

Won't lie, it makes me fear a bit for their future productions. Could easily fall into the trap of making their games too similar, be it in terms of art, tropes and/or gameplay.
Of course won't happen for the games that are pretty different, but Persona, SMT (look at apocalypse) and this RPG could end up being more about different settings than other stuff like it was in the past.
 

Oregano

Member
Don't say that before it happens. Especially considering this seems pretty high end with the restructuring for a brand new team.

The assumption that devs are all coding for an unreleased platform that generally speaking is not guaranteed success is pretty baseless IMO.

Most handheld devs on japan will stay on 3DS and vita for a couple more years.

I don't think this is a Switch game but you are saying that as if developers don't work on systems before they are released which is obviously bollocks.

There's always big projects in development for systems this early.
 

duckroll

Member
If the Switch doesn't bomb in Japan, this will probably be a Switch game. I mean, I really don't see a future for Japan where big third party titles that don't have exclusive agreements, don't end up being PS4 and Switch.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I don't think this is a Switch game but you are saying that as if developers don't work on systems before they are released which is obviously bollocks.

There's always big projects in development for systems this early.

I'm not saying devs don't code for unreleased platforms or that this will not at some point be a Switch game along with PS4 and maybe PC.

I'm pushing back against the notion that Atlus's current plans are based specifically on this game being a Switch dedicated project or excluive. They are not so foolhardy to base their expectations on an unreleased product in that manner.

They didn't even account for P5 on PS4 until PS4 was already released, and by the time P5 was released, it sold by far the most on that platform.
 

sense

Member
If the Switch doesn't bomb in Japan, this will probably be a Switch game. I mean, I really don't see a future for Japan where big third party titles that don't have exclusive agreements, don't end up being PS4 and Switch.
Let's just hope that all their games come to PS4 and switch going forward. I would like to play smt games on PS4
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
In my opinion, Atlus has always considered the PS4 very carefully during the development of Persona 5.

Even though they said that the PS4 version was just based on the PS3 version they had already been working on?

I mean, the game was in development in some capacity since right after Catherine, i dunno if they could have PS4 in mind considering such a huge delay from their original time table of 2014 either. I mean PS4 porting and dev time had to play a significant portion of that as well.
 
Let's just hope that all their games come to PS4 and switch going forward. I would like to play smt games on PS4

At the very least this game should be a safe bet for the PS4 given that Hashino mentioned that it's being built for fans of console games. P5 shows that there's a rather large userbase of their fans on the platform, so it's safe for them.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Having Atlus's games on dual platforms in PS4 and Switch(or triple if they ever bother to go to PC) should also hold down the fort in regards to userbase both in Japan and western markets.

Which is going to be extremely critical when 3DS and vita die down, considering i dont expect Sony to be making a new handheld anytime soon, and development costs are going to sky rocket for those who never entered console development specifically because of the issues and costs associated with HD development.

Those guys are not going to have any other choice but to bank on HD development, or go to mobile.
 

duckroll

Member
Even though they said that the PS4 version was just based on the PS3 version they had already been working on?

I mean, the game was in development in some capacity since right after Catherine, i dunno if they could have PS4 in mind considering such a huge delay from their original time table of 2014 either. I mean PS4 porting and dev time had to play a significant portion of that as well.

Sure. Keep in mind that we are talking about a Japanese developer that generally makes lower end console games and mid to higher end portable games. Assuming there was no PS3 version, do you really expect Persona 5 from the same team as a PS4 exclusive, to really look that different?
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Sure. Keep in mind that we are talking about a Japanese developer that generally makes lower end console games and mid to higher end portable games. Assuming there was no PS3 version, do you really expect Persona 5 from the same team as a PS4 exclusive, to really look that different?

Not really, but mostly because they would have just used the PS3 assets they would have had to have been using prior to canning it on the PS4 version regardless :p

I don't really know what they might have or might have not done differently with a PS4 only version. Perhaps not so many loading screens and more open areas perhaps? The 512MB ram surely kept them disciplined on confined spaces they could more easily plan around. I actually don't think everything would have been the same with a 'built from the ground up' PS4 version however.
 

sense

Member
I always thought the plan would be to release on PS3 first and then port to PS4 a year later but then they noticed PS3 software sales go down dramatically outside Japan and got a nudge from Sony to push for a simultaneous release

Having Atlus's games on dual platforms in PS4 and Switch(or triple if they ever bother to go to PC) should also hold down the fort in regards to userbase both in Japan and western markets.

Which is going to be extremely critical when 3DS and vita die down, considering i dont expect Sony to be making a new handheld anytime soon, and development costs are going to sky rocket for those who never entered console development specifically because of the issues and costs associated with HD development.

Those guys are not going to have any other choice but to bank on HD development, or go to mobile.

I actually think Sony are crazy enough to come out with another handheld in the next year or two
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
Looking at Trails of Cold Steel 3, that looks like a very decent upgrade going from a Vita base upgraded to PS3, to PS4 only. And that's basically a title that shows its budget and scale limits.

I disagree with Duckroll on Atlus being a 'lower tier console dev'. In Japan, they are pretty much right now the second biggest JRPG development house outside of SE, which is really sad considering SE are basically at a level where they can generally compete with western AAA studios at their peak.

Compared to something like Falcom who are actually low tier console devs(trails and ys8 are their first console titles in a long time) Atlus are mid to high tier IMO.

All it proves is that the difference between actual high tier and midhigh range in japan is practically as wide as the ocean. And the low tiers are basically vita devs who port their games to console, just as wide a chasm from low to mid tier.
 
Looking at Trails of Cold Steel 3, that looks like a very decent upgrade going from a Vita base upgraded to PS3, to PS4 only. And that's basically a title that shows its budget and scale limits.

I disagree with Duckroll on Atlus being a 'lower tier console dev'. In Japan, they are pretty much right now the second biggest JRPG development house outside of SE, which is really sad considering SE are basically at a level where they can generally compete with western AAA studios at their peak.

Compared to something like Falcom who are actually low tier console devs(trails and ys8 are their first console titles in a long time) Atlus are mid high tier IMO.

In terms of production values of console games globally, Atlus is definitely low tier.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
In terms of production values of console games globally, Atlus is definitely low tier.

Globally, yes. No argument there, but in Japan, they have way more production values than many other devs.

I know i'm missing some devs like Monolith Soft, which have pretty good standards recently, and CC2, which are also very high up there, and Platinum, but on the whole...

I wouldn't get my hopes too high for Switch as anything but an afterthought given Nintendo's third party history.

To be fair, they managed to get Tokyo Mirage sessions with their partnerships, which i've heard is actually a great game.

I would hope someone ports that to switch so i can finally play it.
 

salromano

Member
I don't see the point of announcing a game without announcing a platform. This industry...

Japanese devs can be weird about that sometimes.

Take Dynasty Warriors 9, which was just announced this weekend. It was a Koei Tecmo / PlayStation live stream and SIE Japan Asia president Atsushi Morita introduced the announcement, yet they didn't announce a platform when it's clearly PS4.

Take Project Awakening from Cygames, which was announced in August as a "high-end console game" from Cygames Osaka, which was a studio established specifically to make a PS4 game, yet they didn't announce a platform when it's clearly PS4.

Take the new God Eater project that was announced worldwide without a platform, which will most definitely come to PS4 and probably PC in the west, but people aren't sure it'll be on PS Vita.

Take Chaos;Child: Love Chu Chu, which was was announced in September only to be confirmed for PS4 and PS Vita in November.

The list goes on. It doesn't make much sense a lot of the time and is kind of annoying. In this case, I guess you can say it's understandable for them not to be confirming anything given how early in development the title likely is, but at the same time, I feel like if they're targeting a home console release, they'll obviously be on PlayStation 4 and I don't see the harm in them stating that. The only question is if it'll also be on Switch.
 

duckroll

Member
Globally, yes. No argument there, but in Japan, they have way more production values than many other devs.

I know i'm missing some devs like Monolith Soft, which have pretty good standards recently, and CC2, which are also very high up there, and Platinum, but on the whole...

I don't know what you are talking about. Atlus has developed a grand total of 3 console games in the entire PS3/WiiU generation - Catherine, #FE, and Persona 5. That's all. Everything else they developed has been for portable. That is a low-tier console developer. Consoles have not been a priority for Atlus since... 2008? This is why as their strategy changes now, they have to actually recruit aggressively and expand. They are not a developer even built to produce multiple console games at the same time at the moment.
 

Philippo

Member
Hmmm catching up on the JP reporting of the Famitsu interview news. It sounds like Atlus is structuring quite a bit. Soejima is now part of a newly established "Atlus Artwork Team" where he will continue to work on Persona as well as tackle new challenges. It sounds like Atlus wants to aggressively expand their output to not just continue to deliver new entries in successful franchises like Persona, but also to make brand new games. This mentality seems to be a result of them joining a huge group company like Sega Sammy and wanting to work together with Sega to contribute to the success of the group.

The message I get from the interview is that Atlus knows they have strong fan capital and that they have the potential to do even more than they already have, so they're challenging their own limits. Hopefully it works out in the end!

This makes me so excited!
I love that they realize their own potential, and the merger with Sega actually ended up reinvigorating their expansionistic aims.

Clearly shows that there is still energy there in the japanese industry, especially in the JRPG field, hope other devs will follow, even with smaller budgets.
 
I was wondering, why does Atlus have exclusives? I mean, I don't know how P4G would run on the 3DS, but the SMT games would run on Vita for sure?

Excuse me if Nintendo published games like Persona Q or the SMT games on 3DS. Anyway... you could ask the same question for MH, really.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I don't know what you are talking about. Atlus has developed a grand total of 3 console games in the entire PS3/WiiU generation - Catherine, #FE, and Persona 5. That's all. Everything else they developed has been for portable. That is a low-tier console developer. Consoles have not been a priority for Atlus since... 2008? This is why as their strategy changes now, they have to actually recruit aggressively and expand. They are not a developer even built to produce multiple console games at the same time at the moment.

I am not measuring their quality by how many games they have made on certain platforms, but the production value and investment they put into each game. For console titles, there is a far amount of difference between something like a Falcom game ported to PS4 like Ys 8, will be, and a PS3 to PS4 game like P5.
 

Dantis

Member
Red head elf is in three of the concept pieces, seemingly at different ages in all.

I think it's quite possible she's the protagonist.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Red head elf is in three of the concept pieces, seemingly at different ages in all.

I think it's quite possible she's the protagonist.

I only see her in two. And it's just her hair that changes.

The blonde kid definitely looks like protag material.
 
Platforms TBA is really lame.

This game is 2-3 years away at the minimum. Who knows what the platform landscape is going to be like then? Switch could be a massive success or it could bomb, there could be a PS4 successor out, PC might gain popularity in Japan, mobile could have taken over everything even more than it already has, etc. There's no point in limiting your options. Pretty much the only safe thing to assume is that it's not going to be for 3DS, Vita, or Wii U.
 
Juicy rumors about NIS?

What are the NIS rumours? :/
A little while back there was a mass exodus of staff.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=688013

From there was a post by Duckroll that alluded to unsubstantiated rumors of management fuckery.

Yes, because it's something Nippon Ichi probably wouldn't want shareholders to know at the moment. Especially if it's like half their workforce or something.

It seems there was another post around that time (June 23) giving some reasons for the exodus, but it's from someone with a different User ID on 2ch, so who knows if it's true or if it was someone else riding on the same rumor:

He said that the various subsidiaries formed by Nippon Ichi in 2011 (Studio ToOefuf, Counter Stop, and Nora) were actually meant to be measures taken against paying overtime owed to employees, but because of various problems with the management of the subsidiaries, all the employees were absorbed back into the main company eventually. But when the staff were absorbed back, they were told that because they are considered "new" employees, they will get the same basic pay as new hires, so they all left.

If this is true, Nippon Ichi deserves to go under, but I'm not really inclined to spread it as gospel without any sort of confirmation because it would be incredibly unfair if it's just hearsay.

Edit: There, now you have your "scandal" too, but remember, this is NOT confirmed or substantiated.
 
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