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Valkyria Chronicles |OT| Beautiful art meets genre-redefining gameplay

RpgN

Junior Member
Heads up guys, there are some leaked numbers on the NPD thread, life to date numbers until January 2009. They look legit, but it's not 100% confirmed. Valkyria Chronicles is supposed to have sold 74k in the US so far, what do you guys think?
 
RpgN said:
Heads up guys, there are some leaked numbers on the NPD thread, life to date numbers until January 2009. They look legit, but it's not 100% confirmed. Valkyria Chronicles is supposed to have sold 74k in the US so far, what do you guys think?

If true, I would hope Sega decides to port this to the 360. I own the PS3 version but I'm all in favor for a 360 port. If that were to happen, I'd hope it be able to help fund a sequel.
 

Paracelsus

Member
Dr. Acid Avatar said:
If true, I would hope Sega decides to port this to the 360.

Valkyria Chronicles wasn't the only number leaked. There were also all the other major Jrpgs released on X360 (but SO4).

Yeah, a porting would be totally useless.
 

Pachael

Member
Paracelsus said:
Valkyria Chronicles wasn't the only number leaked. There were also all the other major Jrpgs released on X360 (but SO4).

Yeah, a porting would be totally useless.

At this point porting would make as much sense as Overworks did for Skies of Arcadia, almost pointless. I think Sega should be more worried about whether there's still a franchise at the end of the day (they're probably crossing their fingers the anime/manga do well - it's their only hope).

Hard cold facts:
http://garaph.info/softwareindividual.php?gameid=2861
Garaph sales (JP) = 142k

Best case is 300k worldwide.

The good news is that it did better than either of the Yakuza titles in the States, and that the team are quite talented in their work, but this might be it for the franchise, as per my post earlier in the thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13371564&postcount=290
Pachael said:
In previous posts I have been quite pessimistic on VC statewide for a number of reasons, particularly the 'getting lost in a series of large releases', but I hope it becomes a bit of a sleeper hit. If it sells < 100K then it's all over :(
 

klee123

Member
Dr. Acid Avatar said:
If true, I would hope Sega decides to port this to the 360.


It won't do shit considering how badly the jrpgs on 360 have done in the US besides LO.


It's confirmed now, besides FF, jrpgs are a lost cause in US.
 
Just gave the demo a whirl. I liked it. I'll have to look more into it.

Not $60 liked it, but if I can find it for around $40 or so I may pick it up.

Paracelsus said:
Valkyria Chronicles wasn't the only number leaked. There were also all the other major Jrpgs released on X360 (but SO4).

Yeah, a porting would be totally useless.

Why? Lets say it got another 150k sales lifetime on the 360. Given the genre, I'd say they'd take that. Might even make some money.
 
gregor7777 said:
Just gave the demo a whirl. I liked it. I'll have to look more into it.

Not $60 liked it, but if I can find it for around $40 or so I may pick it up.



Why? Lets say it got another 150k sales lifetime on the 360. Given the genre, I'd say they'd take that. Might even make some money.

Yes, but consider that their engine was built from the ground up for the PS3... trying to shoehorn that onto the 360 most likely would not have good results.

Also, the full game is far, far better than the demo. It is easily worth the $60, imho.
 
Robobandit said:
Yes, but consider that their engine was built from the ground up for the PS3... trying to shoehorn that onto the 360 most likely would not have good results.

Careful, there. :lol That's not the company line around here.


Robobandit said:
Also, the full game is far, far better than the demo. It is easily worth the $60, imho.

Perhaps. Single player games need to do a whole hell of a lot for me to drop $60. I can just wait and get it for $40, and pick up another $20 single player game for the same amount I would have spent on VC at full price.
 

Quixzlizx

Member
gregor7777 said:
Just gave the demo a whirl. I liked it. I'll have to look more into it.

Not $60 liked it, but if I can find it for around $40 or so I may pick it up.



Why? Lets say it got another 150k sales lifetime on the 360. Given the genre, I'd say they'd take that. Might even make some money.

Why are you here?
 
Snaku said:
Would downgrading it visually and putting it on Wii/PS2 be worthwhile for Sega?

Who knows...I can say at first blush a lot of what I liked about it was the visuals. Gameplay seemed cool too, which would transfer, but like I said I only played the demo.

Not sure if it does anything in the full game that culdn't be done on a lesser platform.

Certainly not if it's a Dead Rising Wii type port.

Quixzlizx said:
Because I bought the game and I enjoy playing it :)

Hmmm, so this thread is only for people who've purchased the game, and not those who are thinking of buying? Didn't know it worked like that.

goddam PS3 threads are hard to stomach sometimes. I know most of you are cool, but WTF is it with some people?
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Katana_Strikes said:
No, but a PSP version would.
But if they can make a PSP version, they can easily do a Wii version as well. How would that NOT be more worthwhile doing both? I can see an argument for why a PS2 version won't.
 

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
klee123 said:
It won't do shit considering how badly the jrpgs on 360 have done in the US besides LO.


It's confirmed now, besides FF, jrpgs are a lost cause in US.

You forgot Kingdom Hearts but otherwise thats been confirmed for a really long ass time, like since the PS1 days.
 

Paracelsus

Member
XiaNaphryz said:
But if they can make a PSP version, they can easily do a Wii version as well. How would that NOT be more worthwhile doing both? I can see an argument for why a PS2 version won't.

Gimme Motion Plus Valkyria Chronicles with hard EX from the start and I'll double dip at day one.
 

Quixzlizx

Member
gregor7777 said:
Hmmm, so this thread is only for people who've purchased the game, and not those who are thinking of buying? Didn't know it worked like that.

goddam PS3 threads are hard to stomach sometimes. I know most of you are cool, but WTF is it with some people?

Actually, you said that you liked the demo, but aren't buying the game. And then you started talking about a port. Are you thinking that a port will retail at $40? Buy the game and support it, and I wouldn't care less if you asked Sega to port it to iPhone. I own a 360 and buy the 360-only JRPGS. And I'd probably buy a copy of the 360 version of Valkyria if they did port it just to support HD SRPGs with great gameplay (it's not a long list).


Anyway, I just A-ranked Mission 7. I don't think it was that difficult, just very long. If you don't have a perfect
turn 9
, you have to start from scratch :( (well, I do... saving mid-battle is the SRPG equivalent of training wheels!)
 
Quixzlizx said:
Actually, you said that you liked the demo, but aren't buying the game. And then you started talking about a port. Are you thinking that a port will retail at $40? Buy the game and support it, and I wouldn't care less if you asked Sega to port it to iPhone. I own a 360 and buy the 360-only JRPGS. And I'd probably buy a copy of the 360 version of Valkyria if they did port it just to support HD SRPGs with great gameplay (it's not a long list).

Pretty sure I didn't bring up talk of a port...

And seeing how one is unlikely, I'll be buying the PS3 version. Just not until it drops in price, or I get rich. One of the two...

And no, I don't believe in paying more of my hard earned money than I need to support the development of similar games.
 

Llyranor

Member
Well, it's less about supporting the devs than it is about the game being impossible to find at a decent price down the line when it becomes mighty rare.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
RpgN said:
Heads up guys, there are some leaked numbers on the NPD thread, life to date numbers until January 2009. They look legit, but it's not 100% confirmed. Valkyria Chronicles is supposed to have sold 74k in the US so far, what do you guys think?

That is terrible to say the least.

It just reconfirms that the game was a total bomb in the West. Maybe if they took out the anime style and used a gritty style it would have sold more.

Dr. Acid Avatar said:
If true, I would hope Sega decides to port this to the 360. I own the PS3 version but I'm all in favor for a 360 port. If that were to happen, I'd hope it be able to help fund a sequel.

No, the last thing is having Valkyria being released again in any shape or form since we know there is a very small audience for it, whether it is on the PS3 or the 360.

The best thing Sega can do is to rebrand the "franchise" (since it died in one game). Just use the canvas engine, have a grittier style, and fix some of the problems (like the poor script), and release it mutiplatform day one. Hell, forget doing another SPRG again and just use the engine to make a mutiplatform traditional RPG.
 
Llyranor said:
Well, it's less about supporting the devs than it is about the game being impossible to find at a decent price down the line when it becomes mighty rare.

Eh, I'm not a collector so...

If the game gets to what I deem a reasonable price, I'll pick it up.

Anyhow, just wanted to come in and talk about what I thought about the game. I'll leave now.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Ahem, and to clarify the numbers in context of these leaked numbers, it seems like the JRPG genre is just dying in the USA.

Unless your game has Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy in the title.

Multiplatform

Disgaea - 45k (DS), 78k (PSP)
Eternal Sonata - 98k (360), 33k (PS3)

360
Blue Dragon - 189k
Infinite Undiscovery - 110k
Tales of Vesperia - 107k
The Last Remnant - 118k
Lost Odyssey - 348k

PS3

Folklore - 109k
Valkyria Chronicles - 74k

PS2

Final Fantasy X - 2.46m
Final Fantasy XII - 1.85m
Kingdom Hearts 1 - 3.28m
Kingdom Hearts 2 - 2.3m
Kingdom Hearts: RE:Chain of Memories - 312k
Odin Sphere - 149k
Persona 4 - 123k
SMT: Devil Summoner - 43k
SMT: Digital Devil Saga 1 - 51k
SMT: Digital Devil Saga 2 - 43k

PSP

Crisis Core: FF7 - 708k
Star Ocean: First Departure - 69k

DS

The World Ends With You - 172k
Chrono Trigger - 210k
Dragon Quest 4 - 76k
Final Fantasy 4 - 275k
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - 233k
 
Odin Sphere and Persona 4's numbers are extremely surprising.

Anyway I figure that Sega had to know what they were getting into when they made an SRPG. That's a genre that really isn't popular anywhere.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
SolidSnakex said:
Odin Sphere and Persona 4's numbers are extremely surprising.

Anyway I figure that Sega had to know what they were getting into when they made an SRPG. That's a genre that really isn't popular anywhere.

What shocked me with those numbers is just the fact that they are so low.

There could be so many reasons why JRPG's are dying in the states.
1. Lack of centralized platform
2. Audience gravitating towards western RPG's
3. A rejection of Japanese storytelling and character design
4. Lack of innovation in the genre
5. SquareEnix not leading the genre by pushing the mass of Japanese fans unto new console
6. No mainline Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to herald the "next generation" of Japanese RPG's
7. More niche games being released in the USA that would never get released ordinarily
 
Hcoregamer00 said:
What shocked me with those numbers is just the fact that they are so low.

There could be so many reasons why JRPG's are dying in the states.
1. Lack of centralized platform
2. Audience gravitating towards western RPG's
3. A rejection of Japanese storytelling and character design
4. Lack of innovation in the genre
5. SquareEnix not leading the genre by pushing the mass of Japanese fans unto new console
6. No mainline Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to herald the "next generation" of Japanese RPG's
7. More niche games being released in the USA that would never get released ordinarily

If you want a successful JRPG in the US you pretty much have to do three things. You have to make it look like a FF game. It has to be high budget. And it has to have a pretty decent marketing campaign. That's why Lost Odyssey ended up selling the way it did. It was long hyped as being like FF and it looked the part and that's all it needed. The problem is that most JRPG companies can't afford to make a game that costs that much. Of course the flipside of that is that their budgets aren't that big anyway so they really don't rely on the west to help them out in terms of sales. So it works out for them in the end.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Hcoregamer00 said:
What shocked me with those numbers is just the fact that they are so low.

There could be so many reasons why JRPG's are dying in the states.

Are you concentrating on console JRPGs? Seems to be a ton of DS JRPGs coming out...
 

Nose Master

Member
klee123 said:
It won't do shit considering how badly the jrpgs on 360 have done in the US besides LO.


It's confirmed now, besides FF, jrpgs are a lost cause in US.

Maybe because they've all been awful besides LO?
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Hcoregamer00 said:
Look at the JRPG sales on the DS, they are as equally bad.

No idea where to see those numbers.

Perhaps it may just be time for the genre to hibernate for awhile.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Kintaro said:
No idea where to see those numbers.

Perhaps it may just be time for the genre to hibernate for awhile.

Look at a couple of posts above.

It is not the genre that needs to hibernate for a while, it seems to me that SE has to get its act together and release Final Fantasy to usher in the new generation of JRPG's.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Hcoregamer00 said:
Look at a couple of posts above.

It is not the genre that needs to hibernate for a while, it seems to me that SE has to get its act together and release Final Fantasy to usher in the new generation of JRPG's.

Okay, well, looking at them, the DS numbers are much better than the 360/PS3 RPG numbers. No surprise there. Except DQ4, a series that's never been popular here. Where's the Tales of Symphonia 2 numbers? Would be interesting to see.

Numbers without context are hard to judge. If RPGs are doing so terrible awful here, Xseed, Atlus and so forth would stop bringing them over and switch to other games more and more. There's not happening yet, so I don't see the need to panic really. Pitting all hopes on Final Fantasy XIII doesn't seem like a smart thing to do IMO.

I think the "problem" here is just that fans are getting older and Japanese RPG makers are still releasing the stuff they used to years ago while PC devs in the West releasing WRPGs that seem light years ahead (when they are not....it's the same stuff release years ago as well. :lol ).

Slightly on topic, but I still need to play Valkyria Chronicles. :lol Not going to pay full price though. My full price game buying days are just about over.
 

Rolf NB

Member
Hcoregamer00 said:
Ahem, and to clarify the numbers in context of these leaked numbers, it seems like the JRPG genre is just dying in the USA.

Unless your game has Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy in the title.

<numbers>
At this rate, Yoichi Wada will be on stage at Sony's E3 conference and say "Remember that weird thing last year? I was just kidding then. We're exclusive worldwide".
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Kintaro said:
I think the "problem" here is just that fans are getting older and Japanese RPG makers are still releasing the stuff they used to years ago while PC devs in the West releasing WRPGs that seem light years ahead (when they are not....it's the same stuff release years ago as well. :lol ).

I pointed it out earlier, but the Japanese developers need to learn a basic thing.

If there is a good idea used in another game STEAL IT and improve upon it. There are so much innovative stuff that is left in one game or franchise.

Examples
Strategy RPG's
-Valkyria Chronicles: Leveling up a class instead of characters, some free movement, very deep development of history, very unique sense of character

Traditional RPG's
-Chrono Trigger: Multiple endings, no transition screen for battles
-Chrono Cross: Branching storyline, automatic "smart" healing after battles, no leveling up
-Final Fantasy X: Sphere grid level system
-Grandia: Dungeon design that rewards exploration, deep cosmology and lore
-Dragon Quest III: Recruit your own party
-Dragon Quest V: Choose your wife and have kids who will carry on the adventure

Action RPG's
-Seiken Densetsu 3: Multiple lead characters, 6 different storylines.
-Phantasy Star Online/Universe: 4 play co-op, custom characters, branching dialogue

Even if they combined some elements and made a JRPG that had a branching storyline, deep history, deep cosmology, multiple endings, etc. You would have one of the best games out there, and it would likely sell fairly well through word of mouth.
 

rpgfan16k

Member
I cannot believe for the life of me that LO, the worst RPG I've played in the past two years, is the best selling JRPG on the 360...seeing VC and ToV so low makes me want to vomit.

at least BD sold nearly 200k. :D
 

MoxManiac

Member
Maybe people are just getting sick of JRPGs? I was big into them during 16bit/psx/ps2 eras but I've lost a ton of enthusiasm for them. Maybe cause i'm getting old, I dunno.

I did love VC though!
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
MoxManiac said:
Maybe people are just getting sick of JRPGs? I was big into them during 16bit/psx/ps2 eras but I've lost a ton of enthusiasm for them. Maybe cause i'm getting old, I dunno.

I did love VC though!

I personally think it's just this. And there's nothing wrong with that. As for Drinky's points, I also wish WRPG makers would incorporate a lot of the finer presentation points from JRPGs.

BTW, where is your next MMO already? :lol

Did VC get a limited run? Would have figured a price drop by now.
 
The P4 numbers are probably the most surprising for me. I mean the install base is there, the quality of the game is top notch the price was lower budget. The only argument that i can see there is that people really dont care about jrpgs anymore.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Lostconfused said:
The P4 numbers are probably the most surprising for me. I mean the install base is there, the quality of the game is top notch the price was lower budget. The only argument that i can see there is that people really dont care about jrpgs anymore.

That is something I can disagree with. Persona is a Niche as they can be, it was only until P3 and P4 that the franchise went somewhat "mainstream."

Kintaro said:
Did VC get a limited run? Would have figured a price drop by now.

VC had a limited print run, looking at the official sales, I bet that the print run was somewhere between 85k and 100k, since it could be found in some places with lots of abundance, while it is impossible to find in other locations.

Frankly, I am happy there was no price collapse.
 
MoxManiac said:
Maybe people are just getting sick of JRPGs?

That's likely a big part of it. It happens whenever a genre is really big for awhile. Fighters were down somewhat last generation outside of Tekken. Now come this gen and look at how well Soul Calibur 4 and SF4 have done. Neither of them really did anything different to make them suddenly sell well. It's just that people are interested in them again.
 
Hcoregamer00 said:
That is something I can disagree with. Persona is a Niche as they can be, it was only until P3 and P4 that the franchise went somewhat "mainstream."

Well judging by sales pretty much anything other than FF or Kingdom Hearts is niche.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Lostconfused said:
Well judging by sales pretty much anything other than FF or Kingdom Hearts is niche.

No, the Persona series before number 3 was niche, it was just the third game made it less niche.

SolidSnakex said:
That's likely a big part of it. It happens whenever a genre is really big for awhile. Fighters were down somewhat last generation outside of Tekken. Now come this gen and look at how well Soul Calibur 4 and SF4 have done. Neither of them really did anything different to make them suddenly sell well. It's just that people are interested in them again.

Namco flooded the retail with SC4, and it had a pretty huge price collapse.

Also, Soul Calibur 2 sold exceptionally well when it went mutiplatform, but it lost many sales when it went exclusive on the PS2.

JRPG's overall should not be exclusive this gen, Vesperia, Valkyria, and Star Ocean should be mutiplatform day one.
 

RurouniZel

Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Hcoregamer00 said:
What shocked me with those numbers is just the fact that they are so low.

There could be so many reasons why JRPG's are dying in the states.
1. Lack of centralized platform
2. Audience gravitating towards western RPG's
3. A rejection of Japanese storytelling and character design
4. Lack of innovation in the genre
5. SquareEnix not leading the genre by pushing the mass of Japanese fans unto new console
6. No mainline Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to herald the "next generation" of Japanese RPG's
7. More niche games being released in the USA that would never get released ordinarily

I would emphasis those three (especially the first one x 1000) and add it

8) Over saturation of anime causing a burn out on the aesthetic
9) JRPGs trying to do little things to appeal to the Western Market, but not doing it right thus causing a drawback than a draw in.
 
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