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[Steam] Zestiria tier 3 PO reward has unlocked (100%), PO now to get free Symphonia

If you have Tales of Zestiria pre-ordered, Symphonia is now in your library:

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Pretty sweet.
 

Kasumin

Member
Do you rally want to use Altus as an example when persona 5 got delays until summer 16?

I'll take Persona 5 being delayed over rushed Tales games that just get an upgraded version or cash-in sequel later. Xillia definitely needed a delay going by how the final product turned out.

Like that oft-quoted statement from Miyamoto: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

Xillia gets crapped on in Tales threads all the time here, but no one ever talks about how the game was rushed. They just say it's a bad game. But there's reasons behind it failing to deliver. So let me get this straight: when a game is rushed we complain about the game's flaws. When a dev delays a game, we cry fowl because??? I get that we want games on time, but the reality of the industry is different. I respect a dev way more for being willing to say that a game won't be done on time (depending on the situation) than just tossing out a rushed game and expecting people to pay a full $60 for it.

I don't know why people flip out when a game gets delayed, anyway. I'm fine with giving the dev the time they need to refine the game. There are so many other games to play in the mean time. I don't see it as an insult or a sign of developer incompetence. I see rushing games, rather, as a sign of developer incompetence. Considering what we know about the game industry and how crunch time is now just an accepted fact of life, why are we angry about delays? I don't get it.

The game was initially PS3-only. You should be thankful Namco Bandai is even creating new versions for PS4 and PC so that you can play it. Those version did not exist even in Japan, which is the series main market.

Also, 30 fps =/= half-assed development. Considering what they were trying to achieve, it was far too much for what the PS3 was capable of. Thus the game was capped at 30 fps and it still suffered from some heavy drops. To achieve 60 fps, they would have to sacrifice a lot of things, to the point this would be a completely different game (better or worse, it still up to debate).

Be happy that you are even receiving the game in your platform of choice. Namco could localize only the PS3 version and call it a day. They are already going further porting this to two platforms.

It's better to play at 30 fps than not playing or at 60 fps and broken.

Oh geez, the "you should be thankful!" line. Yeah, no. I wonder if Japanese fans had just shut up and accepted the game as it was on the PS3, if we'd even gotten ports at all. Namco clearly had an interest in avoiding the backlash they got in Japan.

Considering what they were trying to achieve? I'm so confused. People keep using the PS3 as a scapegoat for Zestiria's issues when Namco had, what, 2 original PS3 titles and 2 ported ones under their belt at that point? How come Square Enix still gets crap for messing up their first HD title, FFXIII, when they openly admitted to afterward, but when Namco screws up a game it's all, "Oh, but they tried their best. They really did!"

Yeah, I'm not willing to accept that excuse. What were they trying to do with Zestiria? Seamless battles? As I've explained before, the series really doesn't need seamless battles. Graces had pretty much nailed down that problem. And if they want to do truly seamless, then they need to take out the results screen (a series tradition). They can't have it both ways. Or are you talking about their large, empty world? Xenoblade pulled that off on the Wii (with a far more interesting and explorable world, at that) and I don't recall that game having nearly as many technical issues.

It's not the 30 fps I care about. It's the larger context in which Namco has shown to be investing less and less in the Tales series. And as many people have pointed out, the series has been getting worse and worse since Vesperia.

Why is it that in so many of these threads, where any other RPG publisher would get torn to shreds, Namco gets the kiddy glove treatment? They don't even provide their fans with good explanations for problems like Square Enix does. They don't delay games that could use more time in development. We just get crap like this:

6CUE07G.jpg
 

Datschge

Member
Tales always got the fast food treatment on all fronts. At this point I think it's clear that anything good coming out of the series is not due but despite that treatment.

I know Sakuraba is meh on Tales, but knowing what he's capable of when he isn't limited, I'm always a bit baffled by the Go Shiina hype. Sakuraba himself said in an interview that he has limits set on what he can do when he composes for Tales games. Not to say Go Shiina's not good, but I don't think he's the be all end all.
Well, Sakuraba is a freelancer so he's paid by the amount of stuff he does, and for Tales this appears to regularly mean 80-100 tracks for the lowest budget possible. His other works don't even come close to that number of tracks, so my impression is that they keep him around for the series as there likely aren't many other composers willing and capable to fulfill the kind of requests on short notice that Tales keeps having for whatever reason.

Shiina on the other hand is an employee of Bandai Namco Studios so he appears to be able to spend as much time as he wants. The number of tracks and playing time of Shiina's music on the OST doesn't reflect that used in the game for that matter. As usual for OST releases of music by Shiina he specially remade the tracks for that purpose, often shortening, mixing or expanding them and leaving some out altogether.

I wish Tales finally got a bigger music budget. Seeing as it still hasn't really happened with Zestiria (which instead introduced aural inconsistencies thanks to the two composers diverting styles and directions) I guess one last hope could be Shiina taking over orchestration for Sakuraba's pieces in a future Tales game, similarly to how Kameoka and Mitsuda handled it for Kid Icarus Uprising.
 

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
Did you actualy bother to read what I said or not? I'm talking about Zestiria. There's zero confirmation on what framerate Symphonia will be.

I think if Symphonia is based on the PS3 which is based of the PS2 version it will be 30fps. Hopefully Namco clarifies things instead of staying quiet about it.
 

Kasumin

Member
Tales always got the fast food treatment on all fronts. At this point I think it's clear that anything good coming out of the series is not due but despite that treatment.


Well, Sakuraba is a freelancer so he's paid by the amount of stuff he does, and for Tales this appears to regularly mean 80-100 tracks for the lowest budget possible. His other works don't even come close to that number of tracks, so my impression is that they keep him around for the series as there likely aren't many other composers willing and capable to fulfill the kind of requests on short notice that Tales keeps having for whatever reason.

Shiina on the other hand is an employee of Bandai Namco Studios so he appears to be able to spend as much time as he wants. The number of tracks and playing time of Shiina's music on the OST doesn't reflect that used in the game for that matter. As usual for OST releases of music by Shiina he specially remade the tracks for that purpose, often shortening, mixing or expanding them and leaving some out altogether.

I wish Tales finally got a bigger music budget. Seeing as it still hasn't really happened with Zestiria (which instead introduced aural inconsistencies thanks to the two composers diverting styles and directions) I guess one last hope could be Shiina taking over orchestration for Sakuraba's pieces in a future Tales game, similarly to how Kameoka and Mitsuda handled it for Kid Icarus Uprising.

Ohhh, I see! That explains a lot. I'm guessing that hiring Sakuraba works out to having Go Shiina work on the entire soundtrack? So even in the music they're not giving the series the budget it needs. It's stuff like this that drives me nuts with Tales games. They have the potential to be so much better than they are! It's the publisher that's limiting them.
 

Datschge

Member
Ohhh, I see! That explains a lot. I'm guessing that hiring Sakuraba works out to having Go Shiina work on the entire soundtrack? So even in the music they're not giving the series the budget it needs. It's stuff like this that drives me nuts with Tales games. They have the potential to be so much better than they are! It's the publisher that's limiting them.
The irritating part is that now with Tales Studio closed the publisher (Bandai Namco Entertainment) and the developer (Bandai Namco Studios) are essentially the same (they are both in the same building). But Zestiria being the first ground up new Tales game developed there suddenly contains more outsourcing than ever before in the series. I guess the (now actually) internal staff is too important to work solely Tales. =D
We'll have to see how they go about Berseria, but as is it does seem they don't want to change the "ingredients" (or lack thereof) of the series. It's all so deliberate at this point.
 
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