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What's next for tri-Ace?
- Thread starter Lime
- Start date
Talking to a friend at Square Enix... I'm not sure Tri-Ace is long for this world.
They don't have the staff to deliver on one game at a time, let alone two.
It sounds like the company that acquired them "streamlined" (Read: hollowed out) them out of being able to deliver on their project goals.
From what I was told, Star Ocean 5 was basically their last chance, and they blew it. The game they released was a fraction of what they promised they'd deliver, and Square lost faith in them and just shipped the bare minimum they could.
They don't have the staff to deliver on one game at a time, let alone two.
It sounds like the company that acquired them "streamlined" (Read: hollowed out) them out of being able to deliver on their project goals.
From what I was told, Star Ocean 5 was basically their last chance, and they blew it. The game they released was a fraction of what they promised they'd deliver, and Square lost faith in them and just shipped the bare minimum they could.
CamHostage
Member
Damn that sounds terrible.
I already thought they were dead pre-2015 before EA and SO5 were announced. The announcement gave me hope that they'd return with something decent or good and start making RPGs again, but unfortunately both ended up really disappointing. And now they are back to the life support, I take it from your post.
Star Ocean: Anamnesis and the SO3 port tells me that at the very least Square Enix are still willing to work with tri-Ace in some capacity.
At least you guys will keep the spirit of Tri-Ace alive with Indivisible. It bums the hell out to hear that because Tri-Ace was one of my favorite game devs that made games with deep gameplay systems. I loved the hell out of Resonance of Fate, Star Ocean 2 , and Valkyrie Profile 2. I hope more of their older games come out on PS4.
A similar fate happened to Mistwalker where mobile games have been super profitable for them that they haven't had a reason to return to consoles. Heck Matsuno hasn't made a game in ages and I don't think we're ever going to get another Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. The days of the smaller, ambitious JRPGs are over although the 3DS has been delivering on that front.
Kayo Police
Member
Kill Star Ocean already, Give us VP.
Ravi's post really soured any hopes whatsoever for tri-ace to recover. It sounds terrible and honestly I have no idea why they would commit to 2 concurrent console projects like Exist Archive and Star Ocean 5 when they cannot execute and deliver on the promised project goals. It sounds like terrible executive decision-making to spread yourselves so thin if/when this was your final chance.
For what it's worth, SO: Anamnesis is doing relatively better according to Square Enix's latest report.
Ouch, this is beyond bad.((
For what it's worth, SO: Anamnesis is doing relatively better according to Square Enix's latest report.
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
What happened to SO5? It feels incredibly unfinished. :/
Does that even have anything to do with tri-Ace themselves?
Pinko Marx
Banned
What will happen to VP
Wow. RIP Tri-Ace. Hopefully they can give me VP2 HD remastered before they get completely crippled.
According to a Dengeki interview, Star Ocean 5's development started in 2013. Google translated:
So around 2-3 years of development time. But this was 2 years before Nepro acquired tri-Ace, so I'm not sure why they would have been hollowed out. Kobayashi's statement in my OP also says that the company is in much better health after Nepro.
Exist Archive also had 2 years of development time:
So I'm not sure what tri-Ace and/or Square Enix were expecting with such short time for two concurrent console JRPGs. 2-3 years for Star Ocean 5, 2 years for Exist Archive - and it shows in both titles.
Was it shitty? I thought it was a low rent game which was pretty good? I still haven't played it because I heard the Vita version performed badly. No PS4 yet.
Drilbit777
Member
Dont make a shitty star ocean game.
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
It's incredibly repetitive, and a lot of the dungeons are reused/recolors. Monsters are mostly recolored.
Persona 4?
Some Nobody
Junior Member
Oh man, this looked so great. >< I had so much hope they'd reboot Star Ocean into something that lived up to the name, but instead we got 5.
I'd be pretty shocked if tri-ace got shuttered, but I'm not at all shocked if they never get the funding (from S-E at least) to do another console game. Their best bet is churning out mobile titles in the hopes that one day Nepro will have enough money to attempt making a console game themselves. Which, admittedly, is unlikely as only Cygames has ever done that well afaik.
Ugh. VP's cool and all, but a Star Ocean actually set in space doing sci-fi stuff? You could turn that into a CoD-like yearly franchise and I could never hear the words "Valkyrie Profile" again in my life. It'd be fine.
DangerMouse
Member
Yeah, I've wanted a SO mostly set in space forever lol.
Yup. I enjoyed them but they would have been so much better with more development time to flesh them out, and SO5 in particular needed more budget, especially for real cutscenes (which I remember he said in an interview would come back if there is an SO6).
Yup. I enjoyed them but they would have been so much better with more development time to flesh them out, and SO5 in particular needed more budget, especially for real cutscenes (which I remember he said in an interview would come back if there is an SO6).
theofficefan99
Junior Member
tri-Ace never learns.
I knew from when SO5 was announced that they took SO4's criticisms the wrong way. The director of SO5 basically just wanted to rehash SO3 without any of its redeeming qualities. And they seemed to always ignore the constant massive complaints towards their games' writing.
It's a shame. Valkyrie Profile 2 was great. RoF is good and the universe has a lot of potential. I really liked Infinite Undiscovery. Star Ocean... a sci-fi JRPG series deserves better gameplay, better writing, and a bigger budget. I wonder where they'd be now if SO4's writing wasn't so atrocious.
I knew from when SO5 was announced that they took SO4's criticisms the wrong way. The director of SO5 basically just wanted to rehash SO3 without any of its redeeming qualities. And they seemed to always ignore the constant massive complaints towards their games' writing.
It's a shame. Valkyrie Profile 2 was great. RoF is good and the universe has a lot of potential. I really liked Infinite Undiscovery. Star Ocean... a sci-fi JRPG series deserves better gameplay, better writing, and a bigger budget. I wonder where they'd be now if SO4's writing wasn't so atrocious.
It's been almost twenty years since the last time they made a really good one.
Maybe they just don't know how anymore
Shuichi Kobayashi and the whole tri-ace youtube stream have been the one promoting the port at least. I don't have access to the credits of the port though, so I'm not sure who actually did it.
Kobayashi and Shinji Hashimoto were also together for the 20 year celebration of Star Ocean last month
Regarding future collaborations, Hashimoto had this to say (google translate):
So at least Square Enix and tri-Ace are on speaking terms, I guess :/
ULTROS!
People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Think of Persona 4 but make the cast not exciting, remove the Persona capturing thing, and the gameplay going stale after 10 minutes.
And instead of the different dungeons you have
Heaven
Though you should try it and see if it's good, since that's the closest product to VP.
Errrr. But both Kobayashi and Hashimoto are Square Enix producers.
Yes, he used to be/is, but the interviews I read last year during the PR tour of SO5 stated that he had to 'move' from SE marketing to become production producer of SO5. Or maybe I just misunderstood the various interview statements last year. At least he's the one involved in all the tri-Ace stuff these days. E.g. the Polygon interview and the Gamespot interview:
Purple Cheeto
Member
Assuming they don't get shuttered they probably end up like every other C-Tier and D-tier developer and make mobile games that most of us never play.
It's kinda obvious that their concepts just don't have the kind of broad appeal to warrant the budgets of a retail console game, especially a retail RPG.
It's kinda obvious that their concepts just don't have the kind of broad appeal to warrant the budgets of a retail console game, especially a retail RPG.
He is literally listed as the Square Enix Producer in the interview you linked.
I guess I over-interpreted his interviews last year (polygon, gamespot, destructoid) when he said he 'moved' and the current marketing streams done for Anamnesis and the SO3 port.
I think SE is certainly done with them. The IPs they worked on don't exactly have much value anyway.
The new studio and IP they're building with Tales of guy probably replaces SO.
If there is any external studio they would want to partner with for anything, it's probably platinum games.
I will miss VP though, rip.
The new studio and IP they're building with Tales of guy probably replaces SO.
If there is any external studio they would want to partner with for anything, it's probably platinum games.
I will miss VP though, rip.
Honestly, I just want Square Enix to put VP1 and possibly VP2 up on PSN for Vita/PS4 so that the series won't be completely forgotten and/or unavailable. PS1 copies are running at over a $100 on eBay and the flawed PSP port by TOSE Inc. is relegated to the UMD format (and homebrew PSP/Vitas).
And potentially localize Anatomia if that's possible.
Getting past the weirdly obtuse introduction to the battle systems, Resonance of Fate was a great game, and probably the last we will see of that quality from Tri-Ace. It makes me sad.
I wonder how much better RoF would have sold if it hadn't released next to FFXIII. Then again, I doubt tri-Ace wouldn't have been impacted by Sega's change in publishing strategy regardless of how much RoF would have sold.
I hope the game at least gets a PC port like what VC, Bayonetta, and now Vanquish has gotten. At least it's available on PSN.
Agreed, although I'm not bothered with stories as much as many people seem to be, good gameplay is all I need, and tri-Ace is able to deliver that, or maybe was able, not sure how their situation is, I know some key people left.It's a pity, such a waste of talent
I always thought Tri-ace just needed better writers, the systems in all of their games are some of the best in the industry.
Kresnik258
Member
I honestly feel like they were lucky to land the games they did these days.
Phantasy Star Nova was a good gig for them, but they seemed to mess it up. The final game was fine, but all the demos and promotion for it was hamstrung by the game clearly being properly finished in the final stretch.
Then they got Exist Archive which was another great opportunity, but I feel like budget held them back here and they had another bomb.
Star Ocean was like their final chance and I had hoped they'd deliver since they clearly care a great deal about the IP, but it was another missed opportunity.
I hope Ravi's post isn't true and they manage to keep going, but honestly I can see them really struggling to find work going forward.
Phantasy Star Nova was a good gig for them, but they seemed to mess it up. The final game was fine, but all the demos and promotion for it was hamstrung by the game clearly being properly finished in the final stretch.
Then they got Exist Archive which was another great opportunity, but I feel like budget held them back here and they had another bomb.
Star Ocean was like their final chance and I had hoped they'd deliver since they clearly care a great deal about the IP, but it was another missed opportunity.
I hope Ravi's post isn't true and they manage to keep going, but honestly I can see them really struggling to find work going forward.
TRUE ORDER
Member
I want a new Valkyrie Profile...
Yamagishi, the previous Enix producer, stopped producing tri-Ace games for Square Enix after SO4 in 2010 for whatever reason. Kobayashi was marketing director for plenty tri-Ace games at Square Enix and moved up as producer supposedly to be able to produce tri-Ace games as nobody else at Square Enix did so after Yamagishi stopped. None of them all are part of tri-Ace, and tri-Ace did work for Sega, Yahoo, Konami, Level 5, Spike Chunsoft and NTT Docomo since 2010.
From what I was told...
Tri-Ace wanted to make S05, but after S04 Square was understandably wary.
Tri-Ace asked Square what they would want to see in the game, and Square gave them a list of features, etc. Tri-Ace said they could do it.
Fast forward some period of time, and Tri-Ace says they can't deliver the features Square requested after all. So the focus shifts to triage and just stitching what they have together to make it into a shippable product, instead of delaying it.
I guess this explains why the game feels short and unfinished, but the sidequests and unlockable systems feel so overdone for the game they're in.
IdreamofHIME
Member
After that Star Ocean game? Liquidation.
Some Nobody
Junior Member
Without knowing what features they asked for I can't decide whether S-E's requests were reasonable, or even necessary, but ouch. I can only imagine what happened there. Did they overestimate their skills or suffer from a lack of people when they got bought by Nepro?