purseowner
Member
Given this is now a makeshift OT of sorts, anyone know how long the game is on average?
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Akiba's Beat - Review Thread
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richard4481
Member
purseowner
Member
Bloody hell.
Acquiescence
Member
That's one of the worst crimes a game can commit nowadays - taking a campaign of reasonable longevity and bloating it out to obscene proportions. Is this really an 80 hour game?! Geez.
Not sure about 80 hours, but the game has a shitload of padding from what I've played so far. It makes you go back into the same dungeons multiple times for each one and has you run all the way back to the end for contrived reasons and sends you on wild goose chases to several locations when one would suffice. It's just a lot of tedious shit that you know they threw in only to make the game longer. I think only 0.1% of people beat the last chapter according to the trophy list, so I doubt most of the reviewers even bothered finishing the game.
I did one review and I didn't make it to the end. Something very, very rare for me.
I think I played around 30 hours before having to quit in order to keep me sane. In all this time, I can think of very few moments where I actually had fun, but most of it was a true slog.
I don't blame you for not finishing it. I'm only bothering to because this is the second game in a row that I regret buying (Caligula being the last one), and I don't want to leave this one unfinished too before I move on again. I have a really high tolerance for mediocre JRPGs but I really didn't care for Caligula or this one. At least Akiba is 60FPS, though, compared to the sub-30 at all times in Caligula.
Should've brought over Uppers or Net High. At least those are good games.
I don't know why but this post is making me laugh pretty hard. I had the same problem with another game...
From what I heard, Uppers is a rather mediocre mashing game, and XSEED said themselves that localizing Net High was basically impossible.
GoldenDarkness
Banned
The 80 hours is an outright BS lie. On normal it took just over 30 hours to beat the main story and ALL character side events. The in game timer doesn't stop when the PS4 is in rest mode....I'm guessing he is counting rest mode time lol.
Yeah, it doesn't stop when you hit pause either unfortunately. I think I'm on chapter 14, I'll probably finish it today or tomorrow.
Nachtfalke
Member
Wasn't there any OT for the game?
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
purseowner
Member
Wasn't there any OT for the game?
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
Yikes.
Yeah, this turned into a makeshift OT for it, although the game's so utterly dull that I myself only bothered putting a few hours into it.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
I'm not convinced by these bullets, given that XSEED survived the last scrape with death (around 2011 when their PSP releases, especially Trails in the Sky, were getting pirated to oblivion). Akiba's Beat certainly bombed, but there's only so much money you can throw at a large English dub, all at a flat rate for most if not all the voice actors. "Advertising", in this case, was still damn cheap for XSEED even if it's more than they usually bother with; I wish they would market better on Twitter and Facebook since that would be effective without costing much even if they hired/contracted a social media specialist.
The comments below about them being ashamed of SK, too, reflect more about Tom (maybe Britanny) than the XSEED staff which actually works on localizing Marvelous JP games most of the time, as Ryan and a few others have always been enthusiastic. I find it legitimately stupid that XSEED skipped one of their parent company's games (Valkyrie Drive, which gave PQube its start instead) in the first place, so maybe suffering from Akiba's Beat and getting more criticism than usual (on top of more competition for releases from Akys, NISA, and now PQube) will force them to take some risks and adapt. But I don't think the company's in financial trouble, not yet, since one large game bombing doesn't counteract all the profit they've made off inexpensive Steam releases so far.
I can't defend XSEED's poor LEs. Marvelous Europe's always bested them here. But the regular 4chan posters making these arguments hyperbolize a good deal and love to sperg about localization employees sperging, so it's best to take some of this with a grain of salt. Right now I'd be happy to explain XSEED's situation more thoroughly.
GKSilKamina
Member
Kinda bummed (but not surprised) to see all these lackluster review scores. Akiba's Trip wasn't a masterpiece, but it was stupidly entertaining in how shameless and ridiculous it was. Going to be giving this one a pass.
Also I hope XSEED isn't in trouble. I haven't bought much from them lately but they're still one of my favorite publishers.
Also I hope XSEED isn't in trouble. I haven't bought much from them lately but they're still one of my favorite publishers.
Sumio Mondo
Member
What I wonder is why they skipped Uppers. Wouldn't have been a hit or anything but I think the SK fanbase would have turned out for it due to producer and the developer is a well known beat 'em up dev in Japan and the game just looked really solid overall. Shame they skipped that, would have really liked to play it on my Vita. :/
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
You can go on Steam right now and see Fate/EXTELLA charting on Top Sellers...on the front page, which I've never seen an XSEED release do. EXTELLA's arguably a poor game as well, but it's making XSEED ridiculous cash on launch, more than even I expected. They're gonna be awright.
Uppers didn't even get a Japanese release, however. It got pulled because Marvelous fans/beta testers really didn't like the game on its own merits, even considering it wasn't finished yet. XSEED couldn't do anything about this either, and it's not certain if SK fans would have turned out for a game that has fan-service but still not as much as usual.
Kresnik258
Member
Err... it did release?
http://www.play-asia.com/uppers/13/709bh9
Wasn't there any OT for the game?
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
Can't say I believe this. I mean I believe the game bombed, but not so much that it would cripple XSEED like this.
I agree with you about XSEED's future though. I do still love them, but I can't say I'm thrilled about their current direction. And given the Steamspy numbers we've seen, I'm not sure consumers in general are thrilled either
StereoVsn
Gold Member
Wasn't there any OT for the game?
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
Hopefully this is not all true. However, Akiba's Beat did not look good and seemed like a let down from Akiba's Trip, which at least was pretty fun to play. I can't believe they went all in on something that mediocre.
Edit: Everyone buy Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel on Steam. Releasing on August 2nd. Unlike Akiba's Beat, it's actually a good game.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/538680/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_of_Cold_Steel/
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
XSEED's had its slumps before FWIW. They'll hopefully adapt to conditions, assume new worsts about the Steam market, and build upon a lot of recent feedback to improve both console and PC releases. There's no making up for their negligence towards recent Vita stuff, so I bet they'll doing as much Switch work as possible (which Marvelous JP's done so far with Fate/Extella).Err... it did release?
http://www.play-asia.com/uppers/13/709bh9
My mistake, though what about the game getting pulled later?
I agree with you about XSEED's future though. I do still love them, but I can't say I'm thrilled about their current direction. And given the Steamspy numbers we've seen, I'm not sure consumers in general are thrilled either
Kresnik258
Member
Uppers was just delayed and they polished a bit and added that bird from Senran Kagura. It still released a few months later.
re. XSEED - I'm sure they'll be fine. I mean realistically they can probably just keep going on their Steam porting (they're doing a hell of a lot better than Ghostlight in that regard at least).
I mean, I have to admit I'm a somewhat bitter Vita fan with the way they've treated it since 2015 - skipping Luminous Ark; Net High; Tokyo Xanadu; Uppers and Valkyrie Drive was just too much, and while I'm sure they'll make up for it on Switch - that's not really what I'm after. I do hope they return in full force to consoles soon at least.
anymore? Was your last role playing game on SNES?
Toadthemushroom
Member
Wasn't there any OT for the game?
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
Thanks for sharing.
It doesn't surprise me either, XSEED seems more interested in promoting and posting about their Falcom games on social media and the like than their own Marvelous titles, which is worrying.
I get why - they have some die hard Falcom fans and the games are special - but it feels like poor business sense at times.
I think NISA does a really good job at creating a brand around their games, it all comes together with the amount of effort they spend pushing their own "first party" titles from NIS, their blog, and their store with extremely early Pre-orders. I can't see there being XSEED and Aksys loyalists (to name other publishers of similar games) but I can see it being a thing with NISA.
michaelius
Banned
Hatsuu seems to be a huge fan of them.
GhostTrick
Banned
Depends on which games. Senran Kagura did fairly well. So did Fate Extella for now.
And their Steam games keep selling. Even if newer releases like Xanadu Next and Trails 3rd underperformed for now, back catalog keeps selling.
Yeesh, I just started this game a couple nights ago and after a few hours my opinion was positive; The dub so far has been fun and it feels like a slightly janky love child of Tokyo Mirage Session's aesthetic with Pre-Tales of Graces style game-play (
),
So I kind of have to ask what goes wrong?
which for the record is a good thing
So I kind of have to ask what goes wrong?
The game doesn't respect the player's time at all. You're constantly going back into the same dungeons over and over for arbitrary reasons, making the game much longer than it should be. There's lots of superfluous dialogue where the characters say things that's already been said before, having to chase people down over and over, etc. Myself and others have posted other things wrong with it earlier in the thread.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Wonder how EXTELLA will do on Steam. You wouldn't have really known that the PC and Switch versions even existed if you look at XSEED's social media presence - overwhelmingly posts about their Falcom titles despite the disparity in release dates (same with this summer's Senran Kagura game).
GhostTrick
Banned
It had a peak of 3k players at the same time, so higher than Senran Kagura.
But yeah, it doesnt help that XSeed announced the port this month only.
Well it's still in the top sellers even despite the rather bad price compared to the Switch version.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
They've been giving some decent attention to Fate/EXTELLA, even if Hatsuu was more eager to promote upcoming Trails releases. But Fate games are popular at the moment, so I doubt the meager level of signal-boosting applies to this specific game. XSEED needs to do more than just RT Durante's tech blogs for CS PC.
Top Sellers chart is based on revenue, not copies sold, which no doubt overestimates how many have bought Fate/EXTELLA so far. But it's probably gonna do a decent amount given the players peak.
Top Sellers chart is based on revenue, not copies sold, which no doubt overestimates how many have bought Fate/EXTELLA so far. But it's probably gonna do a decent amount given the players peak.
All the Falcom promoting/ports didn't really seem to work out in their favor since they missed out on licensing the actual new modern games (Ys VIII and Tokyo Xanadu).
Kresnik258
Member
To be honest, I'm kinda glad that happened to them.
It's really weird, because they were there at the forefront of Japanese games on PC with Ys Origin and then they just kinda... sat there and did nothing about it. They had that one PC coder (Sara?) working on porting for them and it was like "she's working on Corpse Party now and it's taking a while so everything else will just have to wait" and "we're just a small team" and then suddenly both Tokyo Xanadu and Ys VIII got away from them (from equally small localization teams) and they seem to have finally gotten their arse into gear with more timely porting (well... sort of).
At least companies like Aksys & NISA were there and have made sure we're getting all the versions of TX and Ys. I can't begin to say how happy I am that Tokyo Xanadu vanilla and Ys VIII vanilla didn't get skipped; I wouldn't have the same faith in XSEED about that.
Anyway, here's H Protagonist's thoughts on the rumor:
https://twitter.com/HProtagonista/status/890299069440172034
https://twitter.com/HProtagonista/status/890299417042968576
https://twitter.com/HProtagonista/status/890300482211778567
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Sara having to recode Corpse Party PC from the ground-up has no bearing on their reluctance and slow entry into the PC port market, considering she's not responsible for any of the new PC ports (right now she's one of the QA testers and mainly works on Zwei: Ilvard Insurrection). And I wouldn't call NISA an equally small team because, let's be honest, that company dwarfs both XSEED and Aksys in size. The only new port I'd call a direct reaction to losing grasp of new localizations is Ys Seven, since Cold Steel and Fate/Extella were no doubt going to get ports thanks to great console sales. And I'd say their Falcom enterprise is still doing okay, at least until they're down to games like Zwei!! and Sorcerian Original which are just too old and fickle to get ready for a niche release.
They were inching towards console-to-PC ports already with Senran Kagura and Little King's Story, so things have simply kicked into overdrive. I think we would have gotten Vita versions of Toxanadu/Ys VIII from XSEED if they'd gotten the gigs, but they passed over the former (according to Tom) and didn't compete hard enough for the latter. Hopefully they've learned some lessons. And that includes diversifying their portfolio and working with partners that don't turn out inexplicably worse sequels like Akiba's Beat. Acquire's recent downgrade baffles me.
They were inching towards console-to-PC ports already with Senran Kagura and Little King's Story, so things have simply kicked into overdrive. I think we would have gotten Vita versions of Toxanadu/Ys VIII from XSEED if they'd gotten the gigs, but they passed over the former (according to Tom) and didn't compete hard enough for the latter. Hopefully they've learned some lessons. And that includes diversifying their portfolio and working with partners that don't turn out inexplicably worse sequels like Akiba's Beat. Acquire's recent downgrade baffles me.
Wasn't there any OT for the game?
Anyway, I just found this picture on Twitter containing a 4chan (?) post about XSEED having financial troubles because of this game. No idea, how valid this is, but it wouldn't surprise my at all.
Quality of the game aside, this game always screamed dead on arrival to me.
I'm also a bit concerned regarding XSEED. I'm not sure how viable their new Steam focus is for the future.
it's possible that they spent a good chunk of change on the game, especially if the dev talked it up big-time after akiba's trip, but i really doubt that the company is on the brink of financial ruin because of the game.
if they're having financial troubles, it might be related to how they need to use their cashflow to buy new/better games from third-parties... but they have a pretty damn good hq in marvelous, and senran and story of seasons does pretty well for them from what i understand.
Same. As much as I like XSEED, I'm sure both games would be dub only if they had licensed them, and there wouldn't have been day one PC ports either.
Kresnik258
Member
That's exactly my point. She's not responsible for the new PC ports since they've had to get other people involved, rather than just "Sara will get round to it eventually and we're only small".
I didn't know they'd actually passed on Tokyo Xanadu. Like... what was the logic behind that one? I thought everyone in the studio was mad keen for Falcom.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Another theory is that Aoni Productions, the talent agency Falcom uses to corral their seiyuu casts, just recently re-negotiated their VA contracts with Falcom to make licensing for Western localizers easier, which is why Tokyo Xanadu and Ys VIII had Japanese voices which XSEED's so far skipped or simply been unable to get in realistic or pragmatic terms. Aoni has opened an English Twitter account which supports this idea to some degree, and Tom @ XSEED continues to stress how they seek JP voices for every single release. On the flipside, XSEED has released double as many games with just English dubs as they have games with just Japanese, and they only seem to do one game a year with dual-audio. If both are true, then XSEED's both unlucky (since the negotiations likely happened after Cold Steel II's English release, hinted at in some Kondo interviews where he brings up VA questions) and too unwilling to risk an initial loss to gain disenfranchised fans of dual-audio releases, which just comes across as stingy business.
Apparently Tom and the others weren't as enthusiastic about Toxanadu vs. other Falcom oldies they wanted to focus on, and it didn't interest them on its own merits. But I figured that was a mistake, and here we are. Aksys can at least make the best of a weird situation with Falcom announcing eX+ after their own press release.
Toadthemushroom
Member
Would publishing Devil's Third on Wii U have helped XSEED in any way or was it always going to flop? If I remember correctly NoA ended up publishing it in North America and basically released it quietly with a tiny print run.
Yeah, that'd be completely idiotic if they did pass on it. Tokyo Xanadu is way better than anything they've released recently.
That'd be nice if so. I've been able to undub all the games they've released so far, so it's not a huge deal, but it is an annoyance. Obviously it won't be possible for Sen 3 if XSEED ends up licensing that too since it's PS4 exclusive, so it will be a problem later on if they still are unable to get the Japanese voices for whatever reason. I'm importing the game anyway, but I plan on double dipping if whoever licenses it gets the Japanese voices in the western version.
Kresnik258
Member
Oh yeah, I'm sure they were probably still planning it anyway, I'm just saying I suspect the loss of fairly high-profile games made them kick into a higher gear. Like, the spree of Falcom stuff we've seen from them recently to me suggests they want to make sure they don't miss any more games going forward.
re. Tokyo Xanadu, that's just bizarre. Just kinda cements it as a company-wide decision not to go after Vita exclusives anymore, which I was always very disappointed with (especially considering other companies like IFI seem to have the foresight of "just localize the game and get the PC port done when we get chance").
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Dual VA for Cold Steel III is as possible as XSEED wants it to be, especially if they make it their dual-audio game for 2018 or 2019. I don't know that two previous games in the arc lacking Japanese rules that out for CS III. But yeah, we don't know for sure if XSEED can keep Kiseki, at least past CS III, so long as Falcom keeps going with whoever promises the most loaded release (which Ys VIII's getting from NISA). I think XSEED can match NISA if they really bank on their bid, as they can now do simultaneous console and PC launches with enough prep time.
No, I remember them just not being too into the game no matter what platform it would be on. There's only so much I was able to read into Tom's comments at that point anyway. But I won't deny XSEED got sloppy with Vita.
Infernal Monkey
Member
I keep forgetting that XSEED even exists anymore. Looking at their website, the only upcoming game they have listed is Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash. Even then it seems like they've barely let anyone know they're publishing it.
They used to be my favourite publisher when importing stuff from America. Now it feels like they've just fallen into the same downward spiral as Ghostlight.
They used to be my favourite publisher when importing stuff from America. Now it feels like they've just fallen into the same downward spiral as Ghostlight.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Well, I'm glad to tell you they have many more games coming soon (mainly on PC of course), but that just shows how badly they need to update the website or increase their social media presence in general. People know more about their line-up thanks to Twitter and Facebook than any of their own websites.I keep forgetting that XSEED even exists anymore. Looking at their website, the only upcoming game they have listed is Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash. Even then it seems like they've barely let anyone know they're publishing it.
They used to be my favourite publisher when importing stuff from America. Now it feels like they've just fallen into the same downward spiral as Ghostlight.
Kresnik258
Member
They used to be my favourite publisher when importing stuff from America. Now it feels like they've just fallen into the same downward spiral as Ghostlight.
To be fair, I'm not sure Ghostlight were ever really amazing. It was nice as a UK gamer to be able to get certain games that weren't released over here (and I'm glad they stuck Persona 3 Portable and Trails in the Sky on PSN so I could get them on my Vita) but otherwise, ehh.
Their new direction is funny though. It's like they're just buying whatever they can get the cheapest licence for. I love Lost Dimension mind, easily the best game they've managed to grab.