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tri-Ace acquired by Nepro Japan, becomes dedicated smartphone/tablet mobile dev

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Dark_castle

Junior Member
Goodacre0081 said:
we'll never get an Infinite Undiscovery 2 ;)

Pjh28BR.gif
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Legit dissapointment.

I loved Infinite Undiscovery, Valkyrie's Profile series and Star Ocean 2.
 
S

Some Nobody

Junior Member
Kagari said:
You had one job, Square Enix and/or Sega...
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Exactly.

Y'know, tri-ace is actually one of my favorite developers, most of their last-gen creations aside. I'm legit annoyed by this. Tablet games aren't going to matter to me for the next few years, and tri-ace definitely isn't a company who's battle systems belong anywhere near touch screens.
 
S

Steroyd

Member
nampad said:
I can see JRPGs working well on mobile so I am not that sad about it. Would prefer them working on my favorite platform though.
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Tri Ace usually do Action RPG's, which I would have a problem with, with touch based controls, turn based RPG's are fine mechanically on mobile, I just don't trust companies not to follow the general shitty sensibilities of mobile games unfortunately.
 
L

Lucreto

Member
Sad news, I loved Star Ocean 1 and 2 and Resonance of Fate.

I hope Square Enix continue the series with a new developer.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Cyrano said:
Well, if they don't have majority control, most of those things wouldn't normally apply (at least initially), especially if Nepro wants to refocus the entire company to work on mobile and tablet games. I half-suspect some people will simply leave, other than those deeply embedded in the company. Granted, I know Japan's economy isn't great right now (and I'm not deeply embedded in Japanese game dev culture) so I may be barking up the wrong tree.

10% stake per person may be reasonable but given they were majority holders by themselves seems like they're expecting the new owners to take on a lot of responsibility that isn't just money-related (and it seems like Nepro wants to do this?).
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I don't they're selling just because they want to make money from it. They're selling because this is an opportunity for the studio to have a financially stable owner. Maybe they know that they won't be able to sign many development contracts to keep the company going moving forward? Also, keep in mind that they might not be deliberately holding out on those shares either. Why would Nepro pay more than they need to? This could be the agreement they reached, since Nepro was willing to pay [x] amount for control of the company, and they retain token shares (which are probably pretty much worthless at this point) as a sign of goodwill.
 
C

Cyrano

Member
duckroll said:
I don't they're selling just because they want to make money from it. They're selling because this is an opportunity for the studio to have a financially stable owner. Maybe they know that they won't be able to sign many development contracts to keep the company going moving forward? Also, keep in mind that they might not be deliberately holding out on those shares either. Why would Nepro pay more than they need to? This could be the agreement they reached, since Nepro was willing to pay [x] amount for control of the company, and they retain token shares (which are probably pretty much worthless at this point) as a sign of goodwill.
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Ah, I hadn't thought about Nepro simply only offering so much (which I feel a bit silly for not thinking about). Makes sense that those terms would be the result bargaining and part of it being standard business practice. I also see they made a game called Chronos Ring for mobile fairly recently - curious how successful that game was given I can't find much info about it (well, much info that's in English).

tri-Ace, I will miss your whacky games.
 
S

Shizuka

Member
grandjedi6 said:
I mean those hopes should have already been dead when Sega announced they weren't publishing anything in the west anymore that wasnt PC, mobile or Sonic. But otherwise... Yes. You typically need the original developer to input your localization code into the game.
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This keeps getting worse and worse, specially after those Radiata Stories images.
 
D

duckroll

Member
I wonder if Takayuki Suguro is still at tri-Ace. He hasn't been involved with anything that I can see since Beyond the Labyrinth. Valkyrie Profile 2 -> Resonance of Fate -> Beyond the Labyrinth -> ????. He didn't help with design or planning on Phantasy Star Nova either. If he's gone, I wonder where he went... hopefully somewhere where he can direct another RPG soon. :p
 
C

Celine

Member
ezekial45 said:
>_<

So what about the IPs for Valkyria Chronicles Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean? Does Nepro Japan own them now?
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Why would it?
The original publisher (Enix) owns the IPs.
So I'm pretty sure that if SE wanted they could do new games for those series.

Don't expect SE to care for a new VP or SO console game though ;-)
 
S

SatoAilDarko

Member
Nanashrew said:
Requires two playthroughs too since there two different factions (monsters/humans) you can join at certain points in the game which limits who you can get for your team. If you miss a quest at a certain time, you can miss getting a character on your team. It could be frustrating even with a guide or FAQ sheet. Really fun though! I recommend the game.
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Yeah. I'm not sure how much I could enjoy it. If I play with a guide I'm spoiled. If I don't I could miss stuff that will make me not want to go on. I prefer knowing of the few permanently missables in a game. I may still get it, backlog be damned.
 
C

Cyrano

Member
duckroll said:
I wonder if Takayuki Suguro is still at tri-Ace. He hasn't been involved with anything that I can see since Beyond the Labyrinth. Valkyrie Profile 2 -> Resonance of Fate -> Beyond the Labyrinth -> ????. He didn't help with design or planning on Phantasy Star Nova either. If he's gone, I wonder where he went... hopefully somewhere where he can direct another RPG soon. :p
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Wow this guy doesn't seem like he has ever made the same RPG twice. Fascinating.
 
G

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
duckroll said:
I wonder if Takayuki Suguro is still at tri-Ace. He hasn't been involved with anything that I can see since Beyond the Labyrinth. Valkyrie Profile 2 -> Resonance of Fate -> Beyond the Labyrinth -> ????. He didn't help with design or planning on Phantasy Star Nova either. If he's gone, I wonder where he went... hopefully somewhere where he can direct another RPG soon. :p
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I was sorta assuming he left the industry but his linkedin still lists him there: https://jp.linkedin.com/pub/takayuki-suguro/43/711/720

Though who knows how old that is.
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
SatoAilDarko said:
Yeah. I'm not sure how much I could enjoy it. If I play with a guide I'm spoiled. If I don't I could miss stuff that will make me not want to go on. I prefer knowing of the few permanently missables in a game. I may still get it, backlog be damned.
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I'd say to take it leisurely for two playthroughs. The game offers two different stories depending on the path you choose mid-way in the game as well as two different endings. After that you could attempt 100% once you've got your bearings and understand the stories.
 
O

Oregano

Member
duckroll said:
I wonder if Takayuki Suguro is still at tri-Ace. He hasn't been involved with anything that I can see since Beyond the Labyrinth. Valkyrie Profile 2 -> Resonance of Fate -> Beyond the Labyrinth -> ????. He didn't help with design or planning on Phantasy Star Nova either. If he's gone, I wonder where he went... hopefully somewhere where he can direct another RPG soon. :p
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I was going to suggest that they still had one or two console projects still in the works but then I realised that Beyond the Labyrinth is three years old. Did he not work on Judas Code or Chronos Ring?
 
C

Cyrano

Member
duckroll said:
He was previously a game designer at Square Enix too. Worked under Matsuno on FFT and Vagrant Story.
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Yeah I saw that. I always feel conflicted about developers who make games I really enjoyed and ones I got really frustrated with. I didn't find Valkyrie Profile 2 terribly compelling but still think Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics as paragons of their time. Resonance of Fate may have been terribly paced but the characters were so charming I let a lot of it slide simply on how it reveled in being ridiculous.

Beyond the Labyrinth seems like it probably won't be translated, which is a shame. If nothing else, I can say that I never knew what to expect when I played games from tri-Ace and I guess interesting characters like Suguro contributed to a lot of that.
 
Z

Zhao_Yun

Member
What a sad news to wake up to. Tri-Ace games were not loved by everyone but for me they were one of my favorite J-RPG devs out there. I am going to miss them :(
 
M

monpiece

Banned
Too much doom and gloom because the company has been acquired. Tri-Ace was not doing a lot recently, mostly working in occasional outsourced projects. It may happen that they still work on outsourced projects if they are profitable, while focusing on mobile for new projects.

Besides, they may develop interesting games for mobile, not shovelware focused on IAP purchases.
 
S

SonyToo!™

Member
Damn yet another Japanese developer lost to mobile gaming. Gone are the times when the Japanese mainstream played on dedicated hardware. :(
 
iceatcs

iceatcs

Junior Member
monpiece said:
Too much doom and gloom because the company has been acquired. Tri-Ace was not doing a lot recently, mostly working in occasional outsourced projects. It may happen that they still work on outsourced projects if they are profitable, while focusing on mobile for new projects.

Besides, they may develop interesting games for mobile, not shovelware focused on IAP purchases.
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Problem is the console style game can't sell well on mobile. It will need to be free and pick n play, to be popular.

Just say good luck them.
 
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