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[Takao]

Do they even have experience with anything as text-heavy as an RPG? The only releases of theirs I'm familiar with are shooting games.

They released Monster Rancher DS, but I think Tecmo Koei may have localized that.

There've been a lot of posts about how Atlus can do this, Atlus can do that. But it seems to me that their metric of success has jumped above a lot of niche titles that in past years would have been shoe-ins for localization...hence the total silence on P2EP.

Demon's Souls was a huge hit for Atlus, and it seemed they were more focused on trying to replicate that than stick with what they were known for. Hence all those janky WRPG no one wanted.

 

[kuroshiki]

Whoa. I never heard of this game. But I will gladly pay the money to tight-budget small time publisher who is doing gutsy move.

day one if the price is within $20.

 

[Eusis]

Demon's Souls was a huge hit for Atlus, and it seemed they were more focused on trying to replicate that than stick with what they were known for. Hence all those janky WRPG no one wanted.

It'd probably have worked out better if Index bankrolled Dark Souls instead of Namco, assuming they even had the funds for it. Might've been a problem for international release, but then I guess Namco would step in for non-NA/Japan.

 

[Takao]

It'd probably have worked out better if Index bankrolled Dark Souls instead of Namco, assuming they even had the funds for it. Might've been a problem for international release, but then I guess Namco would step in for non-NA/Japan.

I'm fairly certain From was going to publish Dark Souls by themselves in Japan no matter what. Scamco just offered a better bid for international publishing rights on both it and AC5 I suppose.

 

[DiscoJer]

UFO is a VERY low budget publisher. There is zero marketing money allotted to this game, same as every other game they've put out, and it's likely they're only bothering with it because they have a prior relationship with Starfish. (They also published Heavenly Guardian.)

Do they even have experience with anything as text-heavy as an RPG? The only releases of theirs I'm familiar with are shooting games.

They released some action RPGs for PSP, Warriors of the Lost Empire (aka Lost Regnum in Japan) and Dungeon Maker II, some years ago.

 

[Eusis]

I'm fairly certain From was going to publish Dark Souls by themselves in Japan no matter what. Scamco just offered a better bid for international publishing rights on both it and AC5 I suppose.

I got the impression Namco likely helped fund the game, but yeah. Guess it's just a matter of bigger publishers pushing out smaller ones, which is a shame because Dark Souls probably would've done more for them than most of those western games they grabbed did.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I think it's also been MUCH harder to sell some of these niche games, not to mention the exchange rate means that for their parent company they HAVE to push more to make the same profits as before anyway. Although it is kind of curious how Atlus seems to be the most reluctant to jump onto digital, it seems like a lot of releases would be more practical that way.

I recall hearing that Atlus USA took a while to put their PSN stuff on sale due to Atlus JP's reluctance, and it finally paid off. Hopefully that changes their tune a bit.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Budget would be a difference I suppose. That and this particular example here is not exactly a title that a very large market would go after in the first place. Even less than the general niche titles that Atlus releases. Even within Japan itself it has not that large of a following, which is why Starfish in general always does low print numbers of their games at start. Atlus in general is a known name which is why people will run out to support. Its a lot harder for a newer company to try and get that sort of pull from the consumers with no developed fanbase of its own.

The first Elminage title is going to be a bit of a hard sell cept to the real hardcore fans of Wizardry in general. Esp with how the dungeon map looks. Its quite ugly to be honest and unless you are a fan of the genre can see a lot of "new gamers" getting turned off by it and generally the difficulty and lack of hand holding the game has. Or what they would complain as archaic gameplay design.



My guess is that the original is cheaper to license. Though is quite the gamble, since the original game is far from being a looker. Plus there were small improvements made to the later games. But for something this niche I suppose its the only logical choice to test the waters with...

Yeah, there's clunk, unergonomicalness, bad aethstetics and then there's "unfamiliar" and isn't sequencial and obvious about mechanics.

They released Monster Rancher DS, but I think Tecmo Koei may have localized that.



Demon's Souls was a huge hit for Atlus, and it seemed they were more focused on trying to replicate that than stick with what they were known for. Hence all those janky WRPG no one wanted.

Yeah, they've had a MUCH better track record with their non-WRPG non-Japanese titles.

 

[Parakeetman]

Yeah, there's clunk, unergonomicalness, bad aethstetics and then there's "unfamiliar" and isn't sequencial and obvious about mechanics.

Which is basically why its really only a game for fans of Wizardry. As those folks already know what to do / not do from the get go. Anyone else its going to be a serious baptism by fire and not something a lot of "modern gamers" have patience for these days. Esp if they dont have something shiny and pretty to stare at all the while.

Though truthfully its for the fans is who the game is made for, which is why in general the mechanics have not changed all that much besides some slight improvements here and there. Which is a good thing. Seeing as how when they went off the tracks with the latest spinoff game it got panned pretty hard.

I really think for the US / West games like these are far better off on the PC than consoles / portable platforms. Its just how I see it considering the portable culture in the west vs. the east.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Thanks to someone from the Atlus MB:

i grabbed a couple pictures on my psp... enjoy.

Boy is this god-tier artwork.

 

[Augemitbutter]

looks like something you'll get when merging Wizardry: LoLS with SMT.

 

[archnemesis]

Hopefully the dungeons will look a bit more exciting than the ones in Wizardry: The Labyrinth of Lost Souls.

 

[Jucksalbe]

The enemies look really nice. I just don't like how the character portraits look.

 

[dragonlife]

The enemies look really nice. I just don't like how the character portraits look.

That's what I was thinking.

 

[Parakeetman]

Hopefully the dungeons will look a bit more exciting than the ones in Wizardry: The Labyrinth of Lost Souls.

If you took the time to read my posts you would know that No is the answer to that. If graphics are what you care about get ready to cancel your "pre-order". Seriously though I can tell you right now the dungeons are not much to look at. They never are in general with Wizardry type games. The older ones anyways such as this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXhFIJwhPlg&feature=relmfu

The enemies look really nice. I just don't like how the character portraits look.

Thankfully you can just grab your own off the internet / resize them and shove it back onto the PSP. Presto no more "ugly" character portraits.

Whats sad is the original actually had more choices than the latest which seemed to cut it down greatly due to the whole original data load thing.

 

[Parakeetman]

Apologies folks. Am too used to another forum where if you type in another comment it gets added to your previous post, if the board thinks you might double post by accident. D:

*mod delete this double post. moved the quote + comment up to the previous one.

 

[archnemesis]

If you took the time to read my posts you would know that No is the answer to that. If graphics are what you care about get ready to cancel your "pre-order". Seriously though I can tell you right now the dungeons are not much to look at. They never are in general with Wizardry type games. The older ones anyways such as this.

I'm not expecting awesome graphics, but it would be nice with a little variety. Not only is it more pleasing for the eyes, but it also makes the maps less confusing. For instance, the environments in the Etrian Odyssey series are a whole lot more interesting.

 

[michaelius]

atlus can successfully market retail niche games with their goodies, so i don't see why others couldn't. i know it doesn't work with every game, but let's not act like these releases won't be profitable in the future.

Atlus is niche market powerhouse with dedicated fanbase so they know they will sell at least some copies.

 

[Parakeetman]

I'm not expecting awesome graphics, but it would be nice with a little variety. Not only is it more pleasing for the eyes, but it also makes the maps less confusing. For instance, the environments in the Etrian Odyssey series are a whole lot more interesting.

This is more old school as you can see from that vid I put up. If you poke around from there it should give you an impression in general of what to expect from the enviros.

Overall the Elminage games with the dungeons are not lookers by any means. Though what keeps the fans coming back is the hard as nails traditional gameplay. Plus the fact that there is the added bonus of adding in your own music / character portraits since Elminage 3. Character portraits were added into the original PSP and continued on from there.

I forgot if the DS versions had something similar. I never bothered with the feature so dont remember.

 

[Deleted member 20920]

The art looks fantastic...Will definitely buy this XD

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I'm not expecting awesome graphics, but it would be nice with a little variety. Not only is it more pleasing for the eyes, but it also makes the maps less confusing. For instance, the environments in the Etrian Odyssey series are a whole lot more interesting.

I ended up looking at the maps/UI most of the time anyways. I'm just sayin'.

 

[krYlon]

On Amazon Japan quite a few reviewers say that the game is very buggy. Hope this is fixed for the English release.

Did you find many bugs Parakeetman?

 

[RedSwirl]

Art looks great but why do the 3D environments look so bland?

 

[Parakeetman]

On Amazon Japan quite a few reviewers say that the game is very buggy. Hope this is fixed for the English release.

Did you find many bugs Parakeetman?

On amazon I saw that only 7 people wrote a review for the game.

To answer the question not really, but then again its not like Im looking for them directly. Even on the PS2 version and DS one I didnt remember anything like game breaking. On Elminage 2 though I had a freeze.
If you are curious about what kind of bugs do exist heres a JP completionist site for the game which lists bugs they found / were reported to them. Its just one example. But when games have hard core fans they find all sorts of stuff. Reading through these is a good way to help avoid problems. Similar to folks here warning each other of problems with games that they are playing and how to avoid them.

http://spoiler.sakura.ne.jp/srv/el1psp/E694BBE795A52FE38390E382B0.html

Even more "modern" games like EO4 has problems too which can be found the same way, by searching for the completionist info pages and checking their found bug / issues sections. Class of Heroes all of them had weird stuff in it also. But generally as long as its not something as messed up as constant freezes / data loss / getting totally stuck in a loop. I tend to just go on my merry way in game.

Most likely people will get their parties stuck in dungeons more than running into a bug that will totally kill their experience. Fuck you swamp in the first game. Or just keep dying over and over lol