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[Volcynika]

Aw, LKS delay.

 

[grandjedi6]

No, Little King's Story is not releasing on January 6th. We were shooting for a February release date, but good chance that it will be delayed past that right now.

Well if there was any doubt that Xseed was the new Atlus...

 

[Volcynika]

Well if there was any doubt that Xseed was the new Atlus...

At least it's not due to an artbook problem!

 

[mrkapawutzis]

I asked him about porting the PSP version of Brandish and his response was...

We're big fans of Falcom so we're always keeping an eye on their titles (though being able to bring them over is another matter, of course).

Appreciate the heads-up though.

 

[radiantdreamer]

I've chatted with Ken before. He's a really really nice guy, and XSEED definitely does it for the fans.

I chatted with him when I told him us Canadians got screwed over by the cheap photocopy manual and covers. He immediately got on it and provided me with a new US print edition of the manual and cover, and also went on the boards to announce that they were doing this for anyone that got ripped off.

He asked me to send him my manuals to sample, and in return, he let me pick a game of my choice for all the help.

We went on to talk about localization stuff, and he told me a bit more about XSEED, how big the company is, and how they go about hiring voice actors.

When I mentioned that I wasn't impressed with the voice acting in Brave Story, he pointed out that the Japanese version didn't have any voice acting at all, and they added it in to please the fans.

He mentioned that he himself did some voice acting for some minor roles, as sometimes it's difficult to find talent at the right time.

All in all, Ken's a great guy, and so is XSEED. Do what you can to support them. They're certainly not as big as Working Designs, but they do care about their customers!

 

[GhaleonQ]

Well if there was any doubt that Xseed was the new Atlus...

Now, are we to take this as a negative sign? It seems like this one's been delayed an awful lot (along with the Japanese version).

 

[Calints Neos]

Any chance of Super Robot Taisen OGS(Banpresto,PS2)?

 

[jaundicejuice]

Looks like Little King Story did get delayed, both IGN and Videogamesplus.ca have Little King's Story listed for a May 2009 release now. Kinda sucks but it saves me from a dilemma of what to purchase in February. Now it's just Retro Game Challenge and Dragon Quest V.

I've chatted with Ken before. He's a really really nice guy, and XSEED definitely does it for the fans.

I chatted with him when I told him us Canadians got screwed over by the cheap photocopy manual and covers. He immediately got on it and provided me with a new US print edition of the manual and cover, and also went on the boards to announce that they were doing this for anyone that got ripped off.

He asked me to send him my manuals to sample, and in return, he let me pick a game of my choice for all the help.

We went on to talk about localization stuff, and he told me a bit more about XSEED, how big the company is, and how they go about hiring voice actors.

When I mentioned that I wasn't impressed with the voice acting in Brave Story, he pointed out that the Japanese version didn't have any voice acting at all, and they added it in to please the fans.

He mentioned that he himself did some voice acting for some minor roles, as sometimes it's difficult to find talent at the right time.

All in all, Ken's a great guy, and so is XSEED. Do what you can to support them. They're certainly not as big as Working Designs, but they do care about their customers!

That's just outright awesome customer service right there. I want to reward and encourage such behaviour by buying games like Little King's Story and Retro Game Challenge. Everything I've seen and read about Xseed makes them look like this kick ass little company.

 

[MoogPaul]

I'd be interested to find out if they have any interest in Fragile if namco isn't bringing it over.

 

[nincompoop]

Asked about Nights PS2...

Afraid that we can't pursue a PS2 port of an older game that's already released a newer version on Wii, we need to concentrate most of our efforts on newer titles.

Appreciate the suggestion though.

Ken @ XSEED Games

cry.gif

 

[radiantdreamer]

I think you guys need to keep in mind that XSEED can only localize games that aren't under tight grasp from the original developer/publisher.

Games like Nights 2, and Namco X Capcom have next to zero possibility of being localized here by XSEED. Take a look at their existing line-up to get a better idea of what's more in the realm of possibility. They seem really hooked up to MMV, so you're more likely to see game properties from their JP division get localized here.

While Ken is a nice and courteous guy, he's also a very busy guy. Don't just ask him ANYTHING.

 

[Emotions]

Scamco is very tight in letting their Ip's handled by other publishers except for the rare case of the Flight Plan releases here and there.... But they won't let their internal games being handled by other publishers. I bet they would only let big companies such as Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft to publish them. But Nintendo can't even release their other interesting games overseas IE. Soma Bringer, Disaster,GLory of Heracles, Card Hero..... Let alone picking up Tales of Innocence, Tales of Hearts , Sky Crawlers or Fragile...... Unfortunately.

 

[radiantdreamer]

Scamco is very tight in letting their Ip's handled by other publishers except for the rare case of the Flight Plan releases here and there.... But they won't let their internal games being handled by other publishers. I bet they would only let big companies such as Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft to publish them. But Nintendo can't even release their other interesting games overseas IE. Soma Bringer, Disaster,GLory of Heracles, Card Hero..... Let alone picking up Tales of Innocence, Tales of Hearts , Sky Crawlers or Fragile...... Unfortunately.

A rumor I heard, Namco USA and Namco Japan disagree with each other on some things. Namco USA will NEVER localize a 2d game for consoles because of this disagreement.

I don't know what the disagreement is, but it's obviously never been publicized.

It's weird, but true. All localized Namco games since some point in the PS2 generation have been 3d.

 

[Tailzo]

Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan (Sega, PS3)
- I have to assume that Sega is going to bring this over themselves.

Seeing how Kenzan hasn't got a release date outside of Japan yet, Would you be interested if Sega decides not to transelate it themselves?

 

[Hero of Legend]

I've got a big backlog of stuff here:

Asked about if they can gives hints towards any future games ala Ask Capcom, reply:

I'm sorry but I can't comment on Marvelous titles that have yet to be announced for the US by us and Marvelous Entertainment USA. As you stated, Marvelous is showing a lot of love to the Wii so good chance that anything they showed at TGS that we haven't announced for the US yet may make it's way eventually.

Asked about if their workload maybe too much on their shoulders:

In terms of our workload at XSEED, yes, it's pretty staggering how many titles we have this year for a company with just 11 people - it's almost more releases than we have employees. We love games, but we can only take so many consecutive late nights and working weekends... We'll see if we need to add some more team members later in the year.

(Already resolved now) I asked if they knew of anything about Kizuna's troubled situation:

To be honest, I have no idea what's going on with Kizuna now. A lot of publishers had expressed interest in that beautiful looking title, but I haven't heard anything since the whole news about Jaleco getting out of the game business. Sounds like you may know more about it than I do.

Asked more about localization details:

Japanese title names are a tricky situation, we take it on a case by case basis. For example, for a title like "Muramasa: The Demon Blade", we left the very Japanese "Muramasa" in there because it fits in with the theme of the story based on Japanese folklore and there's a ton of untouched Japanese names in the game anyway. But when the Japanese title is kept in solely for the sake of name recognition with the hardcore crowd that's been following the Japanese release, we may sometimes change it to make more sense to a wider audience in the US. This is one of the reasons we changed "Game Center CX" to "Retro Game Challenge" as more casual gamers will instantly know what the game is about, while the hardcore people follow the news closely enough to be aware of the title change (most of the time).

Same goes for the package design - if it makes sense for the US market then we'll keep the Japanese design, but we may also try a different approach as well. For our Victorious Boxers: Revolution package, we used our US-created design, but printed the original Japanese design on the inside so that people could flip it over and see the Japanese design if they preferred after they purchased the game. If you look at any of our past releases, all of our manuals are in full color, no black&white. It costs much more, but we think it's worth it to create a better package and to provide better value to the gamers that support our games. I don't know about other publishers, but we always provide a full color bilingual manual that's packaged within the box to our Canadian customers.

Asked about that connectivity bonus between RF Frontier and RF2:

I'm not really sure what the connectivity between Rune Factory 2 and Rune Factory: Frontier in Japan was, but yes, it makes it a bit tougher to leave in cross-game functionality when the North American publishers are different due to testing, regulations, etc. I think it was more like a bonus feature than anything else, but I'll have to confirm on the status.

Asked about how much money they get from each copy sold:

Can't really disclose what % of the retail price goes to the actual people behind the games, but I can tell you that every single sale counts. Total copies sold are always a great indicator rather than the specific revenue breakout of each game.

Asked about why Little King's Story keeps getting delayed:

Little King's Story has a very accomplished team behind it, they are trying to do a lot of ambitious things with the title and that always adds to the development time. With that said, they are doing everything they can to try to finish the title, but at the same time don't want to compromise any quality while doing it.

Asked about Muramasa's Japanese box and if they'd need to change it:

First time I've seen the Japanese boxfront, but it looks pretty sharp. Don't see why we'd have to change it for the US (other than logos, of course).

Asked about the mistranslated codes in RGC:

Regarding the codes in Retro Game Challenge, I asked our lead editor on the project, Mike, and he's going to address it in his next blog on 1UP. Keep an eye out on his blog, it should be updated soon with that answer.

Asked about their opinion on the sales of RGC at the time:

We've been happy with the sales and enthusiastic response from gamers for Retro Game Challenge, so off to a good start but only time will tell how the overall sales will be. More sales always help, so hopefully word will continue to spread and drive sales even more.

Asked about why MMV USA's website had been lacking in any updates for like, ever:

Good call on the Marvelous Entertainment USA website, you probably want to stick with our XSEED Games (www.xseedgames.com) website for regular updates on our co-published titles.

Asked about how the localization of their games are going:

Localization on all our titles is going smoothly, and Rune Factory: Frontier is scheduled for a March release. We should be announcing the exact date very soon. I'm not that familiar with that title, but all the anime cut-scenes are voiced as well as some voice during conversations, if I remember right.

Another Kizuna status question and who's choice was it to not localize Shiren 3:

I have no idea on what's going on with Kizuna, and not sure if Sega would allow someone else to publish it but it's our decision not to pursue Shiren. There may be a small vocal fanbase for roguelike games, but we would surely lose money on it.

Asked about any possible content cuts in their upcoming games:

No significant cuts in any of our upcoming games that I know of - we always try to keep it as close to the director's original vision as possible.

Asked about if all of their MMV Wii games support 480p, 16:9, etc:

Looks like the MMV Wii games are all shooting for 480p, but they won't know for sure until each game is complete. I believe everything I've seen so far also supports 16:9.

A burning topic, I asked about any possible slowdown in Muramasa ala Odin Sphere:

Know what you're talking about with the slowdown in Odin Sphere, but I'm happy to report that we have yet to see any slowdown in Muramasa (granted, only short playthroughs of the first couple levels or so). Not sure about the exact framerate, but everything's looking really smooth so far.

Asked about all of those pre-order bonuses for MMV's Wii games:

We will be announcing a pre-order bonus for Little King's Story shortly, and will always try to match whatever Japan makes available when possible (sometimes soundtracks can't be done due to licensing issues outside of Japan, etc).

Asked about the layoffs happening at MMV:

Afraid I can't comment on anything that's a Marvelous internal matter, but I can tell you that Yoshifumi Hashimoto is one of their senior game producers. He's the producer of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, and he also created the Rune Factory series as well as Avalon Code. Very talented man, as you can imagine.

Asked about the newly rated Drill Sergeant Mindstrong for Wii:

Yeah, that's some good detective work Spencer at Siliconera did with the ESRB, but Drill Sergeant Mindstrong has nothing to do with Discipline. That's all I can say for now, but the official announcement will be coming within the next couple days so you can see for yourself what the game looks like then.

And I of course reminded him that he said XSEED doesn't do casual games:

Huge difference in costs and risk associated with putting out a game on DS versus making it a download only game. We are much more willing to experiment with downloable games than a packaged product.

Again about the layoffs:

And again, I cannot comment on any internal Marvelous matters, only the stuff that pertains directly to us here at XSEED.

DONE!

 

[Hobbun]

Thanks for the updated info, Hero!

You didn't happen to hear any info on another Wild ARMS game, did you? (prays for 6). I know XSEED doesn't develop them, but they have published the last few.

 

[VerTiGo]

Wait, so what is the news with Kizuna. The game's on my radar but I must've missed any news regarding its publisher in NA, and I do hope it's getting localized.

 

[Busaiku]

We've been happy with the sales and enthusiastic response from gamers for Retro Game Challenge, so off to a good start but only time will tell how the overall sales will be. More sales always help, so hopefully word will continue to spread and drive sales even more.

Seems strange that they're pleased with the numbers, it doesn't seem to be doing so hot.

 

[Dascu]

Drill Sergeant Mindstrong? Never heard of that before.

 

[FateBreaker]

Man you sure ask this guy a lot of questions ....

 

[Akai]

Wait, so what is the news with Kizuna. The game's on my radar but I must've missed any news regarding its publisher in NA, and I do hope it's getting localized.

The producer recently made it sound like plans for localization are in the works, so hopefully that pans out...

 

[Hero of Legend]

Man you sure ask this guy a lot of questions ....

Ken highly encourages them actually, especially suggestions.

And keep in mind that all of those at the oldest date back to the end of January!

Drill Sergeant Mindstrong? Never heard of that before.

It was just rated by the ESRB like yesterday.

Thanks for the updated info, Hero!

You didn't happen to hear any info on another Wild ARMS game, did you? (prays for 6). I know XSEED doesn't develop them, but they have published the last few.

Err, as I realized there's no actual Wild ARMS 6 that's announced, XSEED cannot say anything about unannounced games. As I already said among the top of my newest emails above.

But, I think it's about time I did another suggestion list submission.

Now, PLEASE put your suggestions like this:

Name of Game (Publisher, Platform)

A couple of odd examples (not necessarily Japanese games):

Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo, Wii)
Halo 3 (Microsoft, 360)
Resistance (Sony, PS3)

Clear, neat, gets the point across!

Mind the caps and spaces too.

 

[Scrubking]

Can you see if you can find out what happened with the US distribution of RFF. A lot of places weren't carrying the game like TRU, etc? Thanks.

 

[zigg]

The way you phrased that you asked about layoffs and then he told you who Hashimoto was is severely worrying. Please tell me that was just an unfortunate ordering of words and that they have not lost Hashimoto.

 

[Hero of Legend]

The way you phrased that you asked about layoffs and then he told you who Hashimoto was is severely worrying. Please tell me that was just an unfortunate ordering of words and that they have not lost Hashimoto.

I named him in my e-mail asking about it:

Apparently MMV is also forced to layoff some employees, but luckily it's only around 20 people.

But would you know if anyone who's had a large role in MMV's recent games on the Wii and such are being laid off? Or did these employees have minor roles in the company?

If you can't name anyone specific, please try to find out if everyone who's played a large roles in MMV's games are staying at MMV, that's most important!

Do you know off hand of some of the biggest names at MMV? I know of Yasuhiro Wada who of course created Harvest Moon and is the big cheese of MMV, but I also know of Yoshifumi Hashimoto who produced the Rune Factory series and Muramasa. What exact position at MMV is Hashimoto at?

Back in December 3, 2007, Wada mentioned to Gamasutra that at the time, "the development team is (was) about 45 people. Promotion, sales, production, and the rest are 45. So in all, 90 people."

MMV has a lot of talented people for such a small company consisting of 120 people, and they've shown unmatched support for the Wii. They can't lose any of that talent. :'(

Please see if you can clear this up.

No worries... I hope.

 

[Emotions]

It would be nice if u ask what's the status on Flower, Sun & Rain. Seems it got delayed to June.... I thought it was coming sooner.

 

[Lateraleye]

My question: What's going on with Flower, Sun, and Rain's release date? It was originally February (before the new year), then has since been slipping month by month and now stands at June 16 on Amazon.

EDIT: Heh, beaten.

 

[Hobbun]

Err, as I realized there's no actual Wild ARMS 6 that's announced, XSEED cannot say anything about unannounced games. As I already said among the top of my newest emails above.

I know it was unannounced, but I was asking because I was hoping that maybe they could shed some light on a new one coming out or in the works. But sorry, I missed your mention of that XSEED cannot say anything about unannounced games.

 

[rainking187]

We will be announcing a pre-order bonus for Little King's Story shortly, and will always try to match whatever Japan makes available when possible (sometimes soundtracks can't be done due to licensing issues outside of Japan, etc).

Err...well GameStop.com has been listing the preorder bonus for Little King's Story for a couple of months now, it's a little stress reliever doll.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Another update, I asked about Yuusha30, Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance, and Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga again, and Ken said:

No plans to release Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance as of this time, but stay tuned for other title announcements coming up soon.

Not surprising as it's a redesigned expansion of sorts.

 

[kenji]

Eldar Saga is already confirmed for Europe by Rising Star Games to be released in November 2009, so i don't think XSeed will make you wait much longer

also i'd like to suggest a game

Sorcery Blade (Kemco, WiiWare)

it's this one
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=cYK9ZuzhKWc

could not be something great, but i'd like to play it anyway, considering it's a wiiware game
sure i have a pal wii so i'll need to wait for an european release, but maybe if this comes to US there would be more chances to see it

 

[Hero of Legend]

Eldar Saga is already confirmed for Europe by Rising Star Games to be released in November 2009, so i don't think XSeed will make you wait much longer

also i'd like to suggest a game

Sorcery Blade (Kemco, WiiWare)

it's this one
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=cYK9ZuzhKWc

could not be something great, but i'd like to play it anyway, considering it's a wiiware game
sure i have a pal wii so i'll need to wait for an european release, but maybe if this comes to US there would be more chances to see it

Suggested LONG AGO!

They said they'd look into it, from what I remember.

Should be in the thread, take a look, remember to use Ctrl + F command for easy searching.

 

[kenji]

Suggested LONG AGO!

They said they'd look into it, from what I remember.

Should be in the thread, take a look, remember to use Ctrl + F command for easy searching.

doh! ok, thanks

 

[Dascu]

Hey, HoL, give 'em a ring about that new Wii horror game FEEL.

 

[wrowa]

Hey, HoL, give 'em a ring about that new Wii horror game FEEL.

That game is called Ju-On: Something (forgot the subtitle); where does this "FEEL" hoax come from?

 

[Hero of Legend]

Already did a couple of days ago, still waiting for a responce!

Today's response was from an email sent like 5 days ago.

 

[kenji]

did they already say something about the inazuma eleven series?
damn, i really want to play the wii one

 

[Hero of Legend]

did they already say something about the inazuma eleven series?
damn, i really want to play the wii one

Haven't asked about localizations of that, but they're not the ones to ask about future projects, especially ones that aren't BY them, you're thinking of Level 5.

 

[kenji]

Haven't asked about localizations of that, but they're not the ones to ask about future projects, especially ones that aren't BY them, you're thinking of Level 5.

well, I thought the same thing but I wanted to ask anyway, I just hope someone will bring that game here :/

 

[djtiesto]

Have you asked about Tengai Makyo translations yet? The Apocalypse IV PSP port would be really sweet to get over here...

 

[Hero of Legend]

Have you asked about Tengai Makyo translations yet? The Apocalypse IV PSP port would be really sweet to get over here...

No, but I'll ask them about it.

 

[jaundicejuice]

I wonder if XSEED would publish Demon's Soul in North America. The game has already been largely translated into english, it's easy to import and play through, but it would be cool if it got a NA release.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Hey, Hero of Legend

If you don't mind tacking on a question to your next e-mail, could you inquire about the possibility of the Muramasa poster set that came with the Japanese game also coming to America?

 

[Mechar]

So since the odds for Shiren 3 being localized aren´t that big, is it perhaps more feasable for XSEED to bring over the second Shire DS game, Shiren the Wanderer 2?

And can we perhaps expect the second Retro Game Challenge game to make it here?

 

[Hero of Legend]

Hey, Hero of Legend

If you don't mind tacking on a question to your next e-mail, could you inquire about the possibility of the Muramasa poster set that came with the Japanese game also coming to America?

Already did with the similar question about ARF's bonuses, they said:

We will be announcing a pre-order bonus for Little King's Story shortly, and will always try to match whatever Japan makes available when possible (sometimes soundtracks can't be done due to licensing issues outside of Japan, etc).

They didn't do a thing about Rune Factory Frontier's bonuses so I'm a tad concerned.

But I think the producers said that they themselves weren't ready to bring it over or something, because there's voice work or something?

 

[MidnightScott]

After the Fatal Frame back-and-forth, someone should once again ask Ken if the game is coming to the US and by who >>;

 

[Cheerilee]

Suggested LONG AGO!

They said they'd look into it, from what I remember.

Should be in the thread, take a look, remember to use Ctrl + F command for easy searching.

Looking manually is for suckers. On the upper right of this page, there's a "Search this Thread" button. Very handy for when threads become awesome (like this one).

 

[Hero of Legend]

Reply about Ju-On:

Afraid I can't make any official comment on it as it's was just announced for Japan with no US announcement yet, but it definitely looks like an exciting title.

 

[Kid Marin]

I know that E3 is just around the corner, but could you give us some idea of what might be around the corner for XSEED or the XSEED/Marvelous alliance? Any other secrets you can share with your buddies at RPGamer?

Ken: We have tons of titles that we'll be announcing between now and E3 for various platforms. Though I can't quite spell out any titles yet, I will say that we listen to the requests we get from the gaming community and we've tried very hard to secure some of the games that have been requested. We also have an enhanced remake of a classic PSone RPG in North America that we'll be announcing soon which I think the RPGamer audience will be very interested in...

http://www.rpgamer.com/features/2009/road2e3/kingstoryinterview.html

 

[B.K.]

Wonder what that one is.