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Sakaguchi interview

I like how he is so sure of his games aswell. Lost Oddessy looks like it actually might work. I mean it has the badass character down pat. But then again so did Shadowhearts and it sold nowhere near aswell as it. Perhaps the Japanese setting will maker the difference.
 
It's to bad both games will have there sales limited because they are on Xbox 360. I mean, I'm sure they'll do fine in U.S. but in Japan the Xbox brand is dead.
 
"Each [new console] has weaknesses and strengths. However, these are all considered next generation hardware, so they all surpass certain levels, so it doesn't really matter for us as game producers. The performance and specifications are sufficient for us."


translation : Xbox 360 not the most poweful console but we got alot of cash to make the games so there... :lol


just kidding :D
 
Didn't know that Lost Odyssey's art is being made by Vagabond's author. Very interesting, I'm wondering if it will have its own manga series too, like Blue Dragon.
 
The_Sorrow said:
It's to bad both games will have there sales limited because they are on Xbox 360. I mean, I'm sure they'll do fine in U.S. but in Japan the Xbox brand is dead.
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I think it's fair to give MS a second chance. They have a lot stronger lineup than the Xbox, and some surprises yet to be announced.

Sure, if they don't succeed this time, you can write them off, but I think it's too early to say they will fail this time. I certainly don't think sales will be limited because of the platform. If people want the games, they will buy the hardware - that's how the industry works.
 
Jonnyram said:
I think it's fair to give MS a second chance. They have a lot stronger lineup than the Xbox, and some surprises yet to be announced.

Sure, if they don't succeed this time, you can write them off, but I think it's too early to say they will fail this time. I certainly don't think sales will be limited because of the platform. If people want the games, they will buy the hardware - that's how the industry works.
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Great point. Japanese gamers didnt not buy the xbox because its an american console, it just didnt have any games they wanted to play.

Sales 101 is to actually have a commodity to sell.
 
Ryudo said:
Great point. Japanese gamers didnt not buy the xbox because its an american console, it just didnt have any games they wanted to play.

Sales 101 is to actually have a commodity to sell.
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Also, it was ugly. The new design fixes that too.
 
Really interesting interview - the more I read about these games, the more and more I want them. Do we know of any sort of release date for them?
 
""Basically, the main character has been living for 1000 years. He never dies, and that's the biggest mystery. In this world, there are magical powers. The Industrial Revolution takes place, and because of the Revolution a lot of political and worldwide drama and big events happen."

That right there just got me seriously interested in Lost Odyssey. That means we're bound to see REALLY cool gadgets, buildings, guns and shiny metal stages that I loved so much in traditional rpgs.

Also the music in the trailer was simply awesome and with Nobuo Uematsu as the composer this game is bound to have an amazing production value.
 
Jonnyram said:
I think it's fair to give MS a second chance. They have a lot stronger lineup than the Xbox, and some surprises yet to be announced.
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I think it's fair for us non-Japanese people to give the console a 2nd chance but I really really don't see the Japanese giving MS a 2nd chance. Whenever I talk to people out here away from Tokyo (aka, the non-hardcore gamer; aka. the people who make up 80% of sales) they've already written off MS as dead. They're all busy talking about the PS3 at school and when I mention the X360 they're like "huh? There is a new xbox coming out?" and they kinda giggle.

Sure the hardcore gamers that buy Famitsu and know what's up will get a X360; but that's such a small % of the overall Japanese game buying consumers that I really don't see MS getting anywhere this time; I just see poor sales for all the X360 games in Japan.

And the fact that Sakaguchi's 2 games are buy the Blinx team and the Feelplus team sure as heck don't help. I mean I buy almost every Jpn rpg, and even I'm gonna be careful about getting real impressions before putting down money on these two. Good music and character designs won't save a horrible game.
 
Bebpo said:
And the fact that Sakaguchi's 2 games are buy the Blinx team and the Azumi PS2 team sure as heck don't help.
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Blue Dragon is being done by the Blinx developers (Artoon). Lost Odyssey is being developed by FeelPlus. Azumi was developed by Gargoyle Mechanics.
 
I love Sakaguchi Final Fantasy and I love Inoue anything... so Lost Odyssey is a guaranteed first morning purchase for me, no doubt. Same goes for Blue Dragon.

Can't wait!! I hope Mistwalker kicks ass. :)
 
sangreal said:
Blue Dragon is being done by the Blinx developers (Artoon). Lost Odyssey is being developed by FeelPlus. Azumi was developed by Gargoyle Mechanics.
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Ah, my bad. FeelPlus is the the Cavia guys right? I don't know if that's better or worse than Gargoyle Mechanics ^^;
 
Bebpo said:
I think it's fair for us non-Japanese people to give the console a 2nd chance but I really really don't see the Japanese giving MS a 2nd chance. Whenever I talk to people out here away from Tokyo (aka, the non-hardcore gamer; aka. the people who make up 80% of sales) they've already written off MS as dead. They're all busy talking about the PS3 at school and when I mention the X360 they're like "huh? There is a new xbox coming out?" and they kinda giggle.

Sure the hardcore gamers that buy Famitsu and know what's up will get a X360; but that's such a small % of the overall Japanese game buying consumers that I really don't see MS getting anywhere this time; I just see poor sales for all the X360 games in Japan.

And the fact that Sakaguchi's 2 games are buy the Blinx team and the Azumi PS2 team sure as heck don't help. I mean I buy almost every Jpn rpg, and even I'm gonna be careful about getting real impressions before putting down money on these two. Good music and character designs won't save a horrible game.
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Glass half empty? Sakaguchi's games aren't going to all of a sudden suck ass because he's developing for MS, and if the Japanese won't buy his games that's their loss. MS is onviously doing everything in its power to ensure, that this time, there are few if any mistakes in Japan. If it so happens that the Japanese still aren't interested then MS problems aren't hardware or software related but based on social biases and there's little to nothing at all they can do about that.
 
Pseudo judo said:
Glass half empty? Sakaguchi's games aren't going to all of a sudden suck ass because he's developing for MS, and if the Japanese won't buy his games that's their loss. MS is onviously doing everything in its power to ensure, that this time, there are few if any mistakes in Japan. If it so happens that the Japanese still aren't interested then MS problems aren't hardware or software related but based on social biases and there's little to nothing at all they can do about that.
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You do realize that Sakaguchi hasn't had hands-on development in a game since oh, Final Fantasy V?
In fact, we don't even know how much he is involved in these two projects. For all we know, he could just be the producer.
 
Bebpo said:
Ah, my bad. FeelPlus is the the Cavia guys right? I don't know if that's better or worse than Gargoyle Mechanics ^^;
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FeelPlus is a subsidiary of Cavia, yeah. I'm not sure what games they've done before. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Cavia's parent company owns Artoon.
 
Pseudo judo said:
Glass half empty? Sakaguchi's games aren't going to all of a sudden suck ass because he's developing for MS, and if the Japanese won't buy his games that's their loss. MS is onviously doing everything in its power to ensure, that this time, there are few if any mistakes in Japan. If it so happens that the Japanese still aren't interested then MS problems aren't hardware or software related but based on social biases and there's little to nothing at all they can do about that.
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Like Pellham said, we don't know how much Sakaguchi is actually doing with these games. If he's just producing them and the actual development team sucks than I don't see how they will end up being great games?

A producer isn't even a director; You think if Kojima just 'produced' the MGS games they would all be great? The reason why the MGS games are so great is because he actually directs the game, writes the story/scripts (with others), edits the cutscenes, designs a lot of the gameplay...etc...plus Kojima makes sure to have an allstar development team who can code and make excellent games.

Sakaguchi might come in and kick some ass. I hope he does as I'd love a great rpg from him. But from my experience playing games for years, if a game is good or not is like 90% decided by the actually team members (writer, director, battle system designer, town designer, effects guy, etc...) and maybe 10% by the producer. Games take a lot of work to make, and that means a lot of people are responsible for making a great game. I want these two Mistwalker games to be great. Heck when they first announced two Mistwalker games for X360 I was ecstatic at getting a next-generation Japanese rpg possibly in early 2006. But then they had to tell the public that they've assigned two development teams who have a history of making bad games and that killed all the excitement. I don't understand why MS with all the money they have couldn't get some really talented small 3rd party rpg developer like Nautilus, Atlus R&D1, the BoFV guys at Capcom, etc...But no they had to go out of their way and get the bottom of the barrel. As an rpg fan it's really irratating since so much potential may end up being wasted by picking the wrong people >_<
 
I find it amusing how US/ Europe people on both sides are so interested in 360 success or failure.

If 360 wins big in Japan - so what?
If 360 loses big in Japan - so what?

How does it change its US fate?
 
We know that the stories were done by Toriyama & Sakaguchi for BD and Shigematsu for LO. Uematsu is doing the music for both. Toriyama and Inoue are doing the character design for BD and LO respectively. Sakaguchi says, "My position is basically that of a producer...and also as a scenario writer that looks after the game's [gameplay] systems." We also know that all the pre-production was completed before bringing in the developers.

I think Artoon and FeelPlus are mostly just doing the grunt work. Either way, I don't think its fair at all to blame Microsoft for the developer choice as Sakaguchi seems to have chosen them before even talking to Microsoft.

And when I was mulling over creating a game, coincidentally an outside creator said, "let's do it." Not only that, but they thought that two good RPGs can probably be made. From there, I talked with Mr. Maruyama, whom I worked together with previously.
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Borys said:
I find it amusing how US/ Europe people on both sides are so interested in 360 success or failure.

If 360 wins big in Japan - so what?
If 360 loses big in Japan - so what?

How does it change its US fate?
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Good point...I mean, it's not like the 360 doing well in Japan will promise better Japanese 3rd party support, right?
 
Borys said:
I find it amusing how US/ Europe people on both sides are so interested in 360 success or failure.

If 360 wins big in Japan - so what?
If 360 loses big in Japan - so what?

How does it change its US fate?
Click to expand...

It may or may not have an effect on its US fate. If Microsoft can sell the xbox to Japanese developers based on its western potential alone it really isn't that important. If they can't, it becomes very important. Japanese games are still quite popular in the west so their support isn't expendable.
 
Borys said:
I find it amusing how US/ Europe people on both sides are so interested in 360 success or failure.

If 360 wins big in Japan - so what?
If 360 loses big in Japan - so what?

How does it change its US fate?
Click to expand...

Did you read the quote in the interview recently with a bunch of studios about next-gen? One of them said to the extent that they believe in the US both systems will be strong, but in Japan they believe only one system will take the lead and all the Japanese developers will make their Japan games soley for that system.

Sure genre that are popular in the west won't be effected (action games, racing games). But for example rpgs which sell 95% of their units in Japan and barely sell anything in the US...going by the above statement, basically again all the rpgs will be on the PS3 and US X360 owners will again get screwed by a lack of RPGs.

At least if MS gains a solid percentage in Japan companies will still make some big games aimed at the Japanese market like how GC got Tales of Symphonia and Baten Kaitos. It'll be good if MS can get a solid foot in so they can have a well-rounded game lineup that appeals to everyone in the US next time; that's pretty much the reason why we care about their position in Japan.
 
Bebpo said:
Ah, my bad. FeelPlus is the the Cavia guys right? I don't know if that's better or worse than Gargoyle Mechanics ^^;
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the guys at feelplus had a hand in some of Square's best games. Mana series, FF Tactics, Vagrant Story etc.
 
Bebpo said:
I don't understand why MS with all the money they have couldn't get some really talented small 3rd party rpg developer like Nautilus, Atlus R&D1, the BoFV guys at Capcom, etc..
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They tried with Atlus already at least... R&D1 then took their invement to make SMT3 on PS2 while contracting out a throwaway Xbox gaiden game to Nextech dirt cheep. :/

As for Dragon Quarter, I think that was a fluke. Nothing from Studio 3 before or after has even begun to approach it's quality. As far as I'm concerned, they're on level with Artoon really.
 
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