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[Eric C]

Star Odyssey (Blue Almanac in Japan) for the SEGA Genesis is finally being released in ENGLISH!

People might remember this game being advertised in EGM in the early 90s before it was mysteriously canceled.

CLICK FOR BIGGER IMAGES


Super Fighter Team have acquired the rights to Star Odyssey, rewrote the "Engrish" script, and fixed many bugs that Sages Creation left in before it was canceled.

I don't know much about it other than it's an early 90s JRPG for the Genesis.

Yes it's presumably going to be released on a Genesis cartridge. Super Fighter Team has previously released Chinese RPGs Beggar Prince in 2006, and The Legend of Wukong in 2008 both on cartridge. Star Odyssey would be Super Fighter Teams first Japanese RPG and is supposed to be released some time in early 2011.

more info at http://www.starodysseygame.com/

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE


Also CLICK HERE for a

video of the Japanese version of the game.

 

[Drkirby]

They would be better off trying to put it on some Digital Download Service.

 

[Eric C]

They would be better off trying to put it on some Digital Download Service.

Possibly. I assume they might have some issues trying to officially get an emu to run the games on some of the DD services. Or maybe some other issue that I'm not thinking of.

But whatever they're doing seems to be successful enough for them. They seem to be earning enough money from each release to hire a programmer, a translator and officially buy the rights for each subsequent game they plan to publish.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

That is freaking amazing.

The boxart is badass too.

 

[DiscoJer]

But whatever they're doing seems to be successful enough for them. They seem to be earning enough money from each release to hire a programmer, a translator and officially buy the rights for each subsequent game they plan to publish.

It's interesting though, I've seen a couple publishers say that doing so (on a DD platform) wouldn't be profitable, but something like this is.

For instance:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=24440020&postcount=24

I mentioned this in the Arc/Alundra thread today. The first two sold well enough to continue doing ones that are already localized or require no localization, but the sales definitely aren't close to robust enough to encourage us to go back and pick up unlocalized gems (I have a list!) from the original Playstation and do them up. I'm not saying we won't GET to that level of sales, just that we're not there yet. So we're pushing promotion in other ways to try to get the word out and drum up support so we can do this "next step".

On the page, it seems like they do runs of 1,500 carts (at least their first game). I would guess that PSN sales are at least that, based on what (little) I know of PSP Mini sales.

Then again, their second game is $48, so I'm guessing the profit margin is a bit better than the $4 or so bucks a company sees on a $6 game back title on PSN.

Incidentally, there should be nothing stopping these being released bundled with an emulator on PSN as Minis. Another company did so with 4 arcade games (separately). But I guess those didn't sell enough to warrant any more. Which I guess answers that question...

 

[Eric C]

On the page, it seems like they do runs of 1,500 carts (at least their first game). I would guess that PSN sales are at least that, based on what (little) I know of PSP Mini sales.

I think 1500 is the total Beggar Prince sold.

*I think* Beggar Prince had 3 separate production runs
1st 300
2cd 600
3rd 600

Then again, their second game is $48, so I'm guessing the profit margin is a bit better than the $4 or so bucks a company sees on a $6 game back title on PSN.

I'm not sure how much profit they make. They claim making cartridges in such limited production runs is very expensive though.

For comparison, Water Melon Development are making a totally brand new Genesis RPG Pier Solar. Before it sold out while still in the pre-order phase, they were selling it for $35(Including worldwide shipping) and claimed to be selling the cartridge and music CD at cost.


But yes $48 plus additional shipping for a Genesis game is not cheap!

By the time I found out about Beggar Prince it was already out of print. So I don't have it, even if I would've wanted it.
Legend of Wukong doesn't really interest me.
Star Odyssey I'd have to learn more about the game and story before I decide if I want to buy it or not. But at least it's a game I'd heard of before.

But I do have Pier Solar pre-ordered though.

Incidentally, there should be nothing stopping these being released bundled with an emulator on PSN as Minis. Another company did so with 4 arcade games (separately). But I guess those didn't sell enough to warrant any more. Which I guess answers that question...

Maybe the start up costs for getting on a Sony or Nintendo type platform are too large for such a small company. Don't you have to buy an official dev kit $$$ ?

 

[Augemitbutter]

that's funny, since i just bought the arranged OST some weeks ago :lol

 

[djtiesto]

Fantastic news! Seeing those screens in the early EGMs (I remember even posting about this game on here a few times), and wondering if there were any prototypes available somewhere. A sci-fi RPG reminiscent of my favorite RPG ever, Phantasy Star 2... I'll be getting a copy ASAP!

Wish Super Fighter Team would take on some SNES releases... I wouldn't mind owning carts of rom-translated Live A Live, SD3, Romancing SaGa 3, Bahamut Lagoon, Arabian Nights, etc.

 

[Eric C]

Preview article about Star Odyssey up at Sega-16

Preview: Star Odyssey

Wish Super Fighter Team would take on some SNES releases... I wouldn't mind owning carts of rom-translated Live A Live, SD3, Romancing SaGa 3, Bahamut Lagoon, Arabian Nights, etc.

It looks like they are working on an SNES game. It's not an RPG it's a Platformer/Run and Gun

Nightmare Busters
http://www.nightmarebusters.com/

 

[bernardobri]

Can you actually launch games for those systems in cartridges, using those manufacturer logos and such? Woah...

 

[Busaiku]

Got my interest.
I'll probably buy it to support the cause.

 

[Eric C]

Can you actually launch games for those systems in cartridges, using those manufacturer logos and such? Woah...

They did for the first 2 games.

If you read the article from Sega-16.com I posted a few posts up. Sega of Japan asked them to stop using the official Sega logos.

Preview article about Star Odyssey up at Sega-16

Preview: Star Odyssey

 

[Eric C]

Well SFT just released an updated picture of the boxart so I thought I'd edit my OP to put the new boxart in. The game is still on target for a SPRING 2011 release.

OLD ^

NEW ^
Notice no mention of SEGA, GENESIS or MEGADRIVE on the boxart. Instead it's just a GEN and MD.



With recent shipping announcement of Pier Solar I'm somewhat more interested in Star Odyssey now. Even though Star Odyssey's gameplay looks VERY oldschool. I guess I'm just excited to be talking about NEW Genesis games in 2010 and 2011.:lol

 

[djtiesto]

Bumping this thread... just received an email from Super Fighter Team that Star Odyssey is now available to order! $40 + $8 shipping in the US (or $15 shipping out of country). Just ordered mine

Been waiting for YEARS to play this in English!

 

[airmangataosenai]

I'd never heard of this company before, doing God's work I see.

 

[Palette Swap]

Bumping the thread from its grave because I just read about it in a nice Eurogamer feature. I didn't know about the project before and find it nice they promote it.

I'm kind of on the fence about buying this though, but I probably will.

 

[djtiesto]

Wow, fantastic timing on the bump! Even though I was gonna bump this anyways...

I just received my copy in the mail from Super Fighter Team, and played a bit of the first town/dungeon. Unfortunately with the move I have to make, I won't have much time for a few months to really get into it... definitely want to play it once I'm all settled in my new place.

Anyways, the game is obviously very influenced by Phantasy Star 2. Which in my eyes, is a very good thing, as PS2 is my favorite game of all time. The battles in particular look very nice. Large character and monster sprites, and slight animation on the attacks (though it's no where near as fluid as the PS series animations, mostly your character "sliding" over to the enemy and knifing him, so far). Overworld graphics are fairly plain, but serviceable... every townsperson looks the same which is kinda lame. The encounter rate seemed very reasonable for a game from this era (1990 or so I imagine?), and the townspeople have a very nice amount of dialogue, serving up some excellent (for the era) worldbuilding.

I can't wait to play more, considering I love the Phantasy Star series and am so in love with sci-fi RPGs I suffered through STED's (famicom) relentless difficulty and Mass Effect's battle system and lame dating sim dialogue trees.