I honestly strongly suggest a separate spoiler thread and ban all story talk from here, keep it only for generic importing talks and impressions. Otherwise this is sure to burn quite some people interested in the Western release, spoiler tags or not.
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Tales of Zestiria Import Thread - Turning Legends Into Hope
- Thread starter Rpgmonkey
- Start date
Just spoiler tag all story related things. It's not hard. The separate spoiler thread is not going to get as much traction and managing two threads breaks the pace of the import thread. Just spoiler all story related things. And people, try not to spoiler stuff on here due to streams. It's fine if you're playing it but be considerate of importers please.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Was my previous post spoilery? Sorry I was thinking about putting it in tags but it was more of an off hand comment.
Even hinting at it just seems to ruin it. Do you even own the game?
There's no way for us to know if your response relates to something in the tag without reading the tag.
I really don't want to make a big deal about spoilers. I tend to think people whine about that too much as it is. But most people here don't even have the game yet, and those who will actually be playing the Japanese version are starting to be scared off.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I understand. I don't have the game by the way, I'm just excited for it after seeing the beginning bits from yesterday.
I'm not sure how much left there is to discuss in an import OT if there's gonna be a separate spoiler thread.
Although yes, spoilers should always be marked on a new game. How is this even in need of a reminder. :|
Even remaster threads generally mark spoilers. For a while, anyway.
edit: Actually, I retract that first statement. Spoiler thread is totally warranted. Spoiler-free gameplay/mechanics/import discussion OT <--- ---> story discussion for people who have finished the game.
Although yes, spoilers should always be marked on a new game. How is this even in need of a reminder. :|
Even remaster threads generally mark spoilers. For a while, anyway.
edit: Actually, I retract that first statement. Spoiler thread is totally warranted. Spoiler-free gameplay/mechanics/import discussion OT <--- ---> story discussion for people who have finished the game.
Everything except story?
There is the graphics, music, game play and staff talk for details, as well as generic impressions and feelings by importers, comparing the game with past Tales ones etc.
But considering how big a focus the story in games appears to be for many gamers nowadays I guess I can see how it's hard to separate that. =P
Edit: You just had to edit that while I write, eh? =S
And this is why if you don't have the game people really shouldn't be saying anything.
No, I'm watching several Twitch and Nico live streams in the hope of getting the staff listing sometime soon as always.
Lol. As always you're such a staffwhore lol.
Yeah, there's no faster way than this. =V
Staff listing will be very interesting as it's the first Tales completely done at BN Studios, probably plenty grunts working on all the new shiny monster models. Also I need to know if there's anything behind the odd lack of press credits for Udo; he was mentioned ("confirmed") once by Baba but was never credited among the other staff in typical press articles, so we don't know his exact role yet.
Fake edit: I see my impression of
heavy
Curious about Udo's role as well. He was on Xillia 2 support design team, wasn't he? I wonder if he's doing battle design, battle programming or both this time around. I would think he worked on the former.
Having him as support design again would be shocking since what we've seen so far is very referencial of his previous work and suits his kind design philosophy so well. I expect him to have a major direct influence over this. Not juts a consultancy job.
Having him as support design again would be shocking since what we've seen so far is very referencial of his previous work and suits his kind design philosophy so well. I expect him to have a major direct influence over this. Not juts a consultancy job.
I agree. Well, I'd expect him being the lead planner as he was for Graces, but that begs the question why one such wouldn't be mentioned among the directors and scenario writers.
Another interesting info (which the staff listing likely won't shed much light on) was the mention in the video interview with Sakuraba that he worked on the soundtrack for 14 months (which I hope nobody interprets as him having worked on it non-stop in that time =P). He usually starts working only late into the development, so this made me think that Zestiria was originally planed for release a year earlier. So if there turns out to be not much of an overlap with the Xillia staff this may point to a 'next Tales' sooner than expected, and we may have two groups again, something I'd actually welcome.
Another interesting info (which the staff listing likely won't shed much light on) was the mention in the video interview with Sakuraba that he worked on the soundtrack for 14 months (which I hope nobody interprets as him having worked on it non-stop in that time =P). He usually starts working only late into the development, so this made me think that Zestiria was originally planed for release a year earlier. So if there turns out to be not much of an overlap with the Xillia staff this may point to a 'next Tales' sooner than expected, and we may have two groups again, something I'd actually welcome.
dakkumauji
Member
That would be pretty interesting and makes it hopeful that they had more time on developing this game which means we're more likely to get bonus stuff (cameo battles, post-game stuff, Bamco Island, etc) that Xillia 1 was really lacking on.
Maybe has to do with company culture or marketing at Bamco. It's easier to promote a game on figures related to production, story or just the director when it comes to RPGs.
I'd like to think this was due to the desire of having a more polished product... but we'll see.
I don't see this happening, seems like all the efforts since the Tales Studio merging with NB has been to centralize all the talent relevant to tales into one team. And seeing how they struggled with production in the recent entries I can see why that would be a good thing.
But maybe it's my bias talking since I want Tales of to have more spaced releases and be more polished, finished and well rounded games.
Well, for past games it was usually only the producer and director, so the scenario writers being listed as game info was already a change. Then again BN for some time showed more complete credits with one person mentioned for every area of expertise in their trailers, this had been reduced again.
Of course a company would do that for that purpose. The point is, they didn't plan this from the start. Shiina seems to have joined later as well if the rather late announcement of his involvement is any indication.
Disagree on both points, aside from new works like the group doing mocaps pretty much all necessary talent was at Tales Studio already. Superfluous staff like art directors didn't even join BN studios. And what we assume was a serious struggle during the development of the Xillia games was while all the restructuring happened (aside from the legal technicalities the staff's working place also physically relocated within Tokyo during that time).
haven't watched any of the streams, but i remember one of the older videos of gameplay looked pretty sloppy in the transition from world to battle... like your party is kind of dropped on the map.
How is the openish world bits? I remember it being the worst part of xilia where they pretty much made every map super boring and huge for no good reason where every room/dungeon felt needlessly large... like how worlds are designed in mmos.
hope the world map is more interesting to navigate.
Is the framerate decent? Xillia had pretty hefty framerate drops with later spells.
How is the openish world bits? I remember it being the worst part of xilia where they pretty much made every map super boring and huge for no good reason where every room/dungeon felt needlessly large... like how worlds are designed in mmos.
hope the world map is more interesting to navigate.
Is the framerate decent? Xillia had pretty hefty framerate drops with later spells.
True, but what would be the advantages of separating this people into 2 teams again right before they jump into next gen development? Last generational shift didn't go very well and they just recovered from all the changes during project Xillia. They'll need all the resources they can get to deliver new Tales smoothly from now on. I am also nostalgic for having Team Destiny staff doing their own thing but I think that we can have Team Destiny style games with the merged setup. Maybe Zestiria proves my point (I really hope it does).
Hm, I see we are talking about two totally different things. Technology and assets (especially now that everything is in 3D anyway, RIP 2D ;_
are shared between teams anyway, what's different is direction and game design choices which is by a comparably few people. The rest of the staff was not split but rather shared as needed. Now that the Tales staff is part of BN Studios with its 1000+ employees resources should be even less of an issue, rather the budgets allocated for the games which for Tales entries I feel have always been on the low end wrt their ambitions.What happened after Destiny Remake/Vesperia is that they gave up the foundations that each of both team's games incrementally built up, and the new replacements were unpolished in their cores (for whatever reason, I'm sure lacking direction and management, faulty design and unfinished technology all played a role to some degree).
I'd like them to get back to the point where changes between games build upon a solid finished foundation but are revolutionary on their own, like it happened system design wise between Destiny 2, Rebirth and Destiny Remake. I feel that's easier achieved with focused teams instead too many cooks (and Higuchi may be free for a new Tales now). With Zestiria it seems they finally built one such foundation that is a viable replacement of the traditional RPG exploration design used up to Vesperia, now let's see different experimental takes upon it.
Schreckstoff
Banned
I honestly would have expected the Tales series to make the jump to 3DS or 3DS and Vita already.
dakkumauji
Member
You mean become mobile games only.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Anyone got any screens of Rose wearing the
costume? I must see it to believe the trolling that Namco has delivered.
Alicia
But that already happened and was deemed failures.
Well, Abyss 3DS did very well on EU, it's out of print and had to be reprinted twice if I recall correctly. And sold a bit better than the PSV Tales. I think a new 3DS Tales may be a chance worth taking, specially if brought overseas where 3DS JRPG do consistently well. If Project X Zone can surpass the pub's expectations I think Tales can do well with ease.
Schreckstoff
Banned
the DS games? I skipped that so I can't speak of them but the Hearts Vita port feels great and Abyss works surprisingly good on 3DS. I imagine if they build a Tales from the ground up for either it'd work.
Tales has been successful enough and Xillia 1 even showed headroom for growth. That should make Tales as a relatively cheap mid-tier franchise plenty profitable, and I'm sure that's why it continued for so long.
The big issue for Tales is not the lack of audience but the audience's refusal to buy major entries on systems outside of a clear dominating console. Portables and mobile are pretty clearly out of question due to that, and as mentioned before in Japan uptake for both PS4 and Wii U is far too slow so far for them to be viable replacements for PS3, which itself is (if far more slowly) on the way out even there.
Abyss 3DS is really old now (one of the last jobs by Tales Studio) and they never bothered to follow it up with anything else until that one mobile to 3DS port recently. Doesn't sound like they have any serious plans at this point.
The two Vita ports are the two worst selling Tales games ever, including any and all spinoffs. And lol no to the bolded, didn't work on DS, didn't work on PSP, they won't try that again.
RyougaSaotome
Member
Yikes some of the responses to spoiler tags on the last page.
Think I'm gonna quietly exit the building for now at least.
Think I'm gonna quietly exit the building for now at least.
I hope it's smooth for Disgaea 5 because if it's not...RIP.
MGS5 this year in Japan should help a bit.
Honestly I fear: They better don't. As soon as the PS3 install base in Japan becomes inactive the console market may as well be dead as I just can't see the still active PS3 players upgrading to PS4 all of the sudden.
I'd hope BN thinks about making the next Tales a simultaneous PS3/PS4 release, that'd allow them to cover the big PS3 install base, allows PS4 to grow what little in Japan, and the Western market won't be lost either.
Provided you don't get fooled by P-A's new shipping interface like I did. :\
But........ I fixed it... in an expensive way. (._. ) :shame
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I think the answer partially lies in the West. It seems Namco kind of recognises this as well. I hope they recognise it enough to provide a PS4 SKU when it comes here otherwise I don't think its not going to do well.
PS3 will be dead by next year though. Best selling ps3 game last year was Dark Souls II with only 340k, Gundam EXVSFB and Sengoku Basara IV sales dropped too. Next one is Zestiria which may end up selling less than Xillia 2 despite being a new main title.
Edit : Gundam is actually first with 367k and Dark Souls II 2nd, still a big drop from the first game's 515k.
Watching MasterLL's stream he instantly moved the camera pretty far away. <3 <3 <3
Camera movements funky in tight places indeed, but the view is fantastic.
Camera movements funky in tight places indeed, but the view is fantastic.
And what do you expect Tales to sell on an install base of around one million currently?
That and Bloodbourne should help the migration to the PS4 and sales of the PS4 in Japan.