WTF, Namco

[LVUER]

For me, Tales is all about battle (and combo) and 2D graphics... but since recent Tales is 3D, I'm not really hyped about Tales anymore. My favorite Tales is Tales of Eternia.

[gekiganwing]

It's been a year and a half since Tales of Vesperia was localized for North America and Europe. Since then, I don't recall hearing even announcements of localizing other Tales games. Presumably they didn't make enough money... but I don't have any data to back that up.

What got me thinking about this was this article about a recent Namco Bandai game called Enslaved: Odyssey to the West at http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/comment ... o-the-west Apparently this 3D action game on PS3/360, loosely based on Journey to the West, is a serious sales disappointment. I'm not sure why it's not a success... too much competition? Not enough promotion or fan-generated buzz?

[DaFool]

The only Tales that could possibly be localized is the "Next Tales of" 15th anniversary title for PS3. Most of American Namco Bandai's staff have already been laid off (due to poor performance no doubt of their recent titles). They should have localized Vesperia and Graces F but it's too late now. I'm pretty sure Vesperia would have done better than Enslaved because of the long-time fanbase. (Enslaved was a 4-hour long single player action game with no replay value written by a Hollywood screenwriter who couldn't get his story greenlighted so went with a game instead).

I've already resigned myself to the reality that the only high definition JRPGs we'll be getting will be fanbait material from NIS America and Imageepoch. (In fact even Atlus seems to be preferring more 'Western'-looking titles after the success of Demon's Souls. I'm pretty sure Catherine will be localized, but no traditional JRPG in sight)

[gekiganwing]

Amazing coincidence - fan translators just released an English demo of Tales of Graces F (PS3).

Atlus plans to release Radiant Historia in early 2011. But yeah, things are looking bleak for fanboys like me who still like 16/32 bit style RPGs.

[sayuri]

The only Tales that could possibly be localized is the "Next Tales of" 15th anniversary title for PS3. Most of American Namco Bandai's staff have already been laid off (due to poor performance no doubt of their recent titles). They should have localized Vesperia and Graces F but it's too late now. I'm pretty sure Vesperia would have done better than Enslaved because of the long-time fanbase. (Enslaved was a 4-hour long single player action game with no replay value written by a Hollywood screenwriter who couldn't get his story greenlighted so went with a game instead).

I've already resigned myself to the reality that the only high definition JRPGs we'll be getting will be fanbait material from NIS America and Imageepoch. (In fact even Atlus seems to be preferring more 'Western'-looking titles after the success of Demon's Souls. I'm pretty sure Catherine will be localized, but no traditional JRPG in sight)

Please don't crush my dreams T^T

I understand what you mean though. But shouldn't the Vesperia PS3 port be easy to localize? I've never gotten to play Tales which angers me.

[DaFool]

I understand what you mean though. But shouldn't the Vesperia PS3 port be easy to localize? I've never gotten to play Tales which angers me.

The voice actors did mention being called back to record additional lines. But given that nothing became of it, we can safely say it's dropped.

I also never got to play any Tales games since I didn't have a PS2.

If ever I do end up putting custom firmware on my PS3, it would be to play Tales, and I'll point Sony to go blame Namco Bandai. Such a shame since it's already a region-free console with lots of capacity for dual-language (Blu-ray), or if they want to cut costs, they can still release a sub-only download on PSN.

[DaFool]

...and Tales of Graces F is confirmed for localization.

http://www.ataleoftworichards.com/

Hell hath frozen over.

[sayuri]

:O

Y.E.S

I... have no words...

[J. Datie]

Huh. Kinda unexpected. Honestly, I've got mixed feelings about this. Vesperia's (and half the PS3's RPG roster) not-localization is one of the things that encouraged me to start learning Japanese, but then it turns out they were just kidding. Oh, well. Non-Japanese speakers can now have their Tales of Games They Can Understand, and I'll keep importing for ridiculously high prices. Everyone wins.

[konaa]

Aw yeah, a good ol' fashion Namco complaint thread!

Really though, I guess they just don't like money, you know? I'm fairly sure that Symphonia sold well, as did Vesperia. Personally, I've felt that they've been going downhill right from the start. It's still my favourite JRPG series, but the battles are moving away from a fighter/rpg and more to a rpg/brawler. I'd personally love it if Namco embraced the action side. It'd put far less of a focus on levelling and grinding, and put the focus on smart preparation in order to build awesome combos for use in battle - combos that the player their own creativity to make. Like a fighter.

[LVUER]

Now that I think again, this could be an effect of "Japanese game developer" westernization. Since Tales game isn't too hot in western market, they decides to concentrate on games that have more "western" taste.