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Trails of Cold Steel (Sen no Kiseki) coming to PS3, Vita in North America, Fall 2015

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yami4ct

Member
I think Aeana or another mod mentioned that XSEED was working on this because Falcom pressured them to do it, it seems s/he was right:



http://forum.marvelous-usa.com/index.php?showtopic=28163

I had concerns about them going this route at first, but once I read the blog post the reasoning was incurably clear and well done. The Crossbell games and 3rd exist on platforms that are either dead (PSP) and ageless (PC). Since at least one of the Sen platforms is very quickly edging out of relevance, and the games are only tangentially related, it makes sense to get them out of the way first. This seems especially important given that Sen 3 seems inevitable. The Crossbell and 3d games can wait, Sen really can't. I'm confident we'll see most of these games make it out over here eventually, so this seems like a really smart and proactive way to make sure XSEED doesn't end up in the same situation they did with SC. A game that many fans wanted, but couldn't be put out because its main platform was dead and in the ground.
 

Aeana

Member
It was the right choice. Keeping current with the series allows the games to keep up on current platforms and remain as attractive as possible. Selling well enough allows the series to continue to see western releases and having the current games without the zero arc is better than not having the games at all. These games are deliberately designed so that you can pick up at the beginning of nearly any arc. Playing all of the game gives you a more complete understanding and may let you pick up on references that others may not, but anything truly vital will be new to the main characters as well. Being an unflinching purist is not good business sense and XSEED needed to see that.

Yep. Falcom decided that they want everybody to be caught up with the series so it can become a global series and not just a Japan-centric one. That's why they pushed for the simultaneous Chinese and Korean releases, and I'm sure they would've preferred to have a simultaneous English release as well if it were at all possible. SC was still in the oven, though, so they'd either have to go with a different company or pressure XSEED to get it done. It's uncharacteristic for Falcom to be pushy about things; indeed, they have been very laid-back about licensing for basically their entire history, resulting in some pretty iffy productions by other companies in their name. It's clear that Kondo sees the potential here, though, and he's absolutely right. Getting the Sen games out while their platforms are still relevant is the key to securing growth of the series for the future.
 

yami4ct

Member
Yep. Falcom decided that they want everybody to be caught up with the series so it can become a global series and not just a Japan-centric one. That's why they pushed for the simultaneous Chinese and Korean releases, and I'm sure they would've preferred to have a simultaneous English release as well if it were at all possible. SC was still in the oven, though, so they'd either have to go with a different company or pressure XSEED to get it done. It's uncharacteristic for Falcom to be pushy about things; indeed, they have been very laid-back about licensing for basically their entire history, resulting in some pretty iffy productions by other companies in their name. It's clear that Kondo sees the potential here, though, and he's absolutely right. Getting the Sen games out while their platforms are still relevant is the key to securing growth of the series for the future.

I'm curious, does this likely mean we'll see PC as a standard (IE Launch or close to launch) Trails platform going forward? If Falcom really wants the Trails series to continue in the West, it seems like the PC audience is ready to eat it up just going by the reaction to FC's Steam release.
 
I'm sending them my energy as we speak, energy in form of pre-orders for everything they are releasing.

Except OneeChanbara.... just no.

I've even got that preordered.

I'm contemplating about the PS3 one right now. There's no chance ill play it on ps3 but it shows support. Might buy another copy or two on Vita and gift or something.
 
I'm curious, does this likely mean we'll see PC as a standard (IE Launch or close to launch) Trails platform going forward?

That is indeed the question. I don't think Falcom has anyone who's familiar with working natively on PC anymore these days. In my dream world, they either add PC back to their internal build matrix or they get chummy with a decent external team who does a PC port for Japanese/Chinese/Korean/English release.
 

yami4ct

Member
That is indeed the question. I don't think Falcom has anyone who's familiar with working natively on PC anymore these days. In my dream world, they either add PC back to their internal build matrix or they get chummy with a decent external team who does a PC port for Japanese/Chinese/Korean/English release.

I prefer playing these games on a handheld, but I definitely realize PC is the most sustainable platform for this series in the West going forward. I hope we see Falcom take PC seriously as it gives much better odds of seeing these continue to come over into the future.
 

Mr.Jeff

Member
That is indeed the question. I don't think Falcom has anyone who's familiar with working natively on PC anymore these days. In my dream world, they either add PC back to their internal build matrix or they get chummy with a decent external team who does a PC port for Japanese/Chinese/Korean/English release.
While I have nothing to dispute your comments, I wonder how they managed to take the Chinese version of Zero on the PC and fiddle with it to get a Japanese version; whether it was an internal team or if they had an external team manage it for them.
 

Psxphile

Member
Preordered the PS3 version, will probably cancel and re-preorder if a limited/collector's is announced (depending on the contents!).

While I have nothing to dispute your comments, I wonder how they managed to take the Chinese version of Zero on the PC and fiddle with it to get a Japanese version; whether it was an internal team or if they had an external team manage it for them.

Chinese Zero was just the PSP game emulated, wasn't it (like Ys Seven)? Probably with some rudimentary resolution options and other basic PC trappings? Did it even have support for keyboard/mouse like Falcom's previous PC offerings? I can't imagine some assets would have looked all that great when viewed in a higher resolution than 480x272.

I guess what I'm asking is: did they overhaul the chinese version to look better given better hardware (higher res 2D artwork, etc.) or was it just a straight conversion to japanese PC?
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
I think Aeana or another mod mentioned that XSEED was working on this because Falcom pressured them to do it, it seems s/he was right:



http://forum.marvelous-usa.com/index.php?showtopic=28163

There is an incredible amount of sensibility in the decision for these future releases and I'm surprised that certain individuals are going all fire & pitchfork on it. I know it's a completely different universe and the situation is far more novel, but I don't see anyone jumping up and down demanding the Gagharv trilogy to come out before everything else based upon the premise of "but what about the other games!?"

At the end of the day people are trying to run a business as best as they see fit - conveniently this sentiment also includes the original company.
 
There is an incredible amount of sensibility in the decision for these future releases and I'm surprised that certain individuals are going all fire & pitchfork on it. I know it's a completely different universe and the situation is far more novel, but I don't see anyone jumping up and down demanding the Gagharv trilogy to come out before everything else based upon the premise of "but what about the other games!?"

At the end of the day people are trying to run a business as best as they see fit - conveniently this sentiment also includes the original company.

Other than them not being story related to the others, the other issue with those releasing would probably come down to Namco and whether or not they still have the rights to them over here. It's hard enough to get them to say anything about their higher tier games, let alone notice that PC exists as a platform, since that would be the only platform the earlier LoH games could sell on now. Think people just assume at this point that those games are dead in the water and never expect them to see any more releases on anything.

I'd honestly like to know the details on them and why a rerelease has never happened if Xseed knows anything about it or has questioned Namco about them. Not that I would expect them to do anything with the trilogy, considering everything else they have to work on, just kinda wondering what the chance of them ever seeing the light of day again would be.
 

Mr.Jeff

Member
Namco would only really have the rights for the their translation of the PSP games I would have thought while everything else would have remained under Falcom's control.

If they wanted to release the PC games, I'd have thought it would have been a harder sell that then Sora trilogy since they look even more dated.

All based on spurious guesswork.
 
Any reason to get the PS3 version over Vita? Does it run better or something?

It should look better simply by having access to higher output resolution and larger textures, and initially there was a performance difference (but has since been resolved through a patch). You could, in theory, also get both and make use of cross-save.
 

creid

Member
If Persona 5 and/or FFXV really are launching in NA this fall, I hope XSEED is reeeeal careful with the release date they pick for Cold Steel. I think the closer the release dates fall, the tougher sell Cold Steel will be.
 
I think there is potential to sell a LE that includes both versions.
I'd buy it

I'm not sure that makes much sense as a product. People who buy LEs are those that aren't going to wait until a year after release to buy the first game at the same time as the second one.
 

kswiston

Member
If Persona 5 and/or FFXV really are launching in NA this fall, I hope XSEED is reeeeal careful with the release date they pick for Cold Steel. I think the closer the release dates fall, the tougher sell Cold Steel will be.

Persona 5 is not big enough to matter that much unless they were launched the same week or something. Final Fantasy XV is almost certainly not coming out this year in the west. When has Square Enix ever been coy about a release date?
 
If Persona 5 and/or FFXV really are launching in NA this fall, I hope XSEED is reeeeal careful with the release date they pick for Cold Steel. I think the closer the release dates fall, the tougher sell Cold Steel will be.

hahahahahahhahahahaha

oh god. FFXV might be a freaking 2017 game, so let's not worry about that.
 
If Persona 5 and/or FFXV really are launching in NA this fall, I hope XSEED is reeeeal careful with the release date they pick for Cold Steel. I think the closer the release dates fall, the tougher sell Cold Steel will be.

Lmao there is 0% chance that game is coming out this year, would honestly say the same for Persona here in the West. If you really want titles to look out for that could impact sales depending on release date, I'd look more at Disgaea 5 or Tales (probably Xenoblade X too) which are also going to be releasing in the Fall.
 

creid

Member
Lmao there is 0% chance that game is coming out this year, would honestly say the same for Persona here in the West. If you really want titles to look out for that could impact sales depending on release date, I'd look more at Disgaea 5 or Tales (probably Xenoblade X too) which are also going to be releasing in the Fall.
Hmm, I guess I haven't been keeping up with info on XV, not sure how I got Fall 2015 in my head. I still think Persona has the potential to completely overshadow ToCS, and they are probably gunning for similar audiences. Xenoblade X could certainly have an impact as well, but I don't see that being nearly as popular as P5.
 

Tohsaka

Member
Hmm, I guess I haven't been keeping up with info on XV, not sure how I got Fall 2015 in my head. I still think Persona has the potential to completely overshadow ToCS, and they are probably gunning for similar audiences. Xenoblade X could certainly have an impact as well, but I don't see that being nearly as popular as P5.

I think Persona 5 will probably release after this, so it shouldn't be much of an issue. Xenoblade is on another platform, too.
 

kswiston

Member
The audience for a Trails game is also buying a lot more than 1-2 JRPGs a year. We are talking about the absolute core of that fanbase. Persona 5 released in the same week might be an issue, but as long as there were 3-4 weeks between them, I don't think that XSEED would see an impact.
 

wyrdwad

XSEED Localization Specialist
Other than them not being story related to the others, the other issue with those releasing would probably come down to Namco and whether or not they still have the rights to them over here. It's hard enough to get them to say anything about their higher tier games, let alone notice that PC exists as a platform, since that would be the only platform the earlier LoH games could sell on now. Think people just assume at this point that those games are dead in the water and never expect them to see any more releases on anything.

I'd honestly like to know the details on them and why a rerelease has never happened if Xseed knows anything about it or has questioned Namco about them. Not that I would expect them to do anything with the trilogy, considering everything else they have to work on, just kinda wondering what the chance of them ever seeing the light of day again would be.

Gagharv on PC? We've talked about it. I know Brittany and I would both really like for that to happen, but they are pretty old games that would be tough to get running up to modern specs and would look and sound pretty dated compared to other, more recent PC titles, so they'd be kind of a hard sell.

Still, they're great games, and you've got at least two people here pushing for them, so... maybe someday! (When we have fewer than 6 million other games on our plate.) ;)

-Tom
 
Kondo's been hinting at remaking the Gagharv trilogy for a loooooooong time, starting with Shiroko Majo of course. I know the Heroes of Legend people (responsible for Nayuta no Kiseki and currently working on a non-machine translated patch for Zero no Kiseki) are thinking of doing the original Gagharv trilogy also. Having both originals and remakes to play would be great if Falcom and the romhackers can put out. At that point it'll be a matter of platform (Kondo should know we like to play old Falcom PC games) and porting difficulty.
 

Doombear

Member
I'm sending them my energy as we speak, energy in form of pre-orders for everything they are releasing.

Except OneeChanbara.... just no.

My energy heading their way too! Preorder has been preordered!


Tom, you're a saint.

Wow, just caught up myself and I couldn't agree more. I applaud your cool head, Tom. Unsurprised though as you have always carried yourself with poise in every thread I have found you in. And you made me buy Brandish. All by yourself. Thank you.
 

Aeana

Member
Yeah, it sounds like the ED3 remake may be closer than we think based on a recent interview. I'm pretty excited about the idea of it.
 

Shengar

Member
Kondo's been hinting at remaking the Gagharv trilogy for a loooooooong time, starting with Shiroko Majo of course. I know the Heroes of Legend people (responsible for Nayuta no Kiseki and currently working on a non-machine translated patch for Zero no Kiseki) are thinking of doing the original Gagharv trilogy also. Having both originals and remakes to play would be great if Falcom and the romhackers can put out. At that point it'll be a matter of platform (Kondo should know we like to play old Falcom PC games) and porting difficulty.

I wonder if the strong sales of Falcom game on Steam will make Kondo to have future games developed with PC port later in mind, and this resulting Kondo to hire more human resources that could put more effort for the PC, again.
 

Shouta

Member
So I have the biggest, most important question that I don't think has been asked yet.




Are the empty chest messages happening?

Didn't they go back and patch that out of the JP release?

On that note, I hope Xseed pushes to get the most recent patch onto the disc versions of Cold Steel. That'd be SOOOO good.
 
Didn't they go back and patch that out of the JP release?

On that note, I hope Xseed pushes to get the most recent patch onto the disc versions of Cold Steel. That'd be SOOOO good.

Did the patches change the game much?

I'm still waiting for the Vita TV patch for Memories of Celceta....
 

Shouta

Member
Patches fix bugs and add new functionality to the games. Not sure about Cold Steel 1 but Cold Steel 2 added things like new shortcuts, removed a few annoying things, and even content for the end of the game that wasn't there in the initial release.
 
I wonder if the strong sales of Falcom game on Steam will make Kondo to have future games developed with PC port later in mind, and this resulting Kondo to hire more human resources that could put more effort for the PC, again.
We'll have to wait and see. Falcom pushing for Kiseki in occidental markets is a sign that we might at least get the Gagharv remakes for PC, especially since much of Gagharv's old audience played on PC as well. Hopefully they're aware of what happened the last time Gagharv was localized for the U.S.
 

Hatsuu

XSEED
Will XSEED release a post mortem article on SC? Really would be interesting to know the ups and downs of localizing such a huge game.
We'll have more blogs, yeah. I won't be writing any blogs specifically to SC, though. Our PC programmer has some stories she'd like to share, and I know Jess is eager to write more on the localization side.


Are there plans to (try to) release it simultaneously or is Europe going to have to wait? Brandish took quite a while..
No, I don't think a simultaneous launch is possible. Europe is a lot harder compared to NA--multiple rating systems, all with different rules, and SCEE is a bit tougher as well. We'll try and keep them as close as we can, but I'm not really sure about Europe's window being Summer or Fall yet.

Falcom saving us from XSeed's indecisiveness when it comes to this series.
I wouldn't really call it indecisiveness (with me, anyway, lol). I want to work on the games until I drop dead.


Gagharv on PC? We've talked about it. I know Brittany and I would both really like for that to happen, but they are pretty old games that would be tough to get running up to modern specs and would look and sound pretty dated compared to other, more recent PC titles, so they'd be kind of a hard sell.

Still, they're great games, and you've got at least two people here pushing for them, so... maybe someday! (When we have fewer than 6 million other games on our plate.) ;)

-Tom
Yeah, gimme all the Falcom games. I don't need sleep.


So I have the biggest, most important question that I don't think has been asked yet.
Are the empty chest messages happening?
If you're into the empty chest messages, I'm gonna straight recommend the PC version over the PSP version. Due to how SC was programmed, there isn't a single "text box" programmed for each and every treasure chest. There are multiple ones, but we basically found this out in QA when I laughed at a phrase in a treasure chest...then found that phrase like forty more times in other chests. And there's no way for us to change that for the PSP version (we changed the phrase throughout to be less obnoxious, btw), but Sara says she can actually fix that very easily for the PC version. So there will be more chest phrases in the PC version--a lot more.


Didn't they go back and patch that out of the JP release? On that note, I hope Xseed pushes to get the most recent patch onto the disc versions of Cold Steel. That'd be SOOOO good.
All patches that were put in both Cold Steel I and II will be in our versions out of the box.
 
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