Oboro Muramasa Youtouden (Vanillaware)

[Cless]

Rumors abound that a recent Marvelous Wii title is getting an HD console port. Considering that this game was made with high-resolution assets from the beginning leads me to believe it to be the most likely candidate. I'd probably end up dropping my pre-order if that's the case and it's announced before the US version comes out.

Would be absolutely amazing if they did a double pack that included Odin Sphere as well, since that too was made with high-resolution assets).

[pedrocasilva]

I doubt it to be the case. What marvelous said is that they were doing a HD game that isn't Rainy Woods (their long announced HD title), and they also said that it might lead them to bankrupcy. (I don't think a port would ever pose that risk)


let alone porting Odin Sphere as well and giving it for free, now that's wishful thinking (who was also made in HD, and by HD I mean resolutions way above HD, as is the upcoming A Boy and his Blob for the Wii).

Plus, Vanillaware already said they're working on their next title (no platforms announced), porting and resampling assets could take a lot of their workforce. IMO, Bogus.

[Cless]

This information came from a new blog post of someone who apparently attended a Marvelous shareholder meeting. If he isn't bluffing, the text he bolded in the post made it pretty clear in saying that it's a Wii game being ported to PS360, not a new one.

It's not too hard for me to believe because Marvelous has recently been lamenting its Wii sales. If they were going to port one of their titles to an HD console, it would not be hard to believe that it's Muramasa. It'd require the least amount of expenses and effort by far.

Resampling the assets would be extremely trifling. It won't take much to write a computer program to automate the process. They might have already written one for the Wii and just needs some small modifications. High-level code recompilation shouldn't be much of a problem either, as the processors in the HD consoles are far more powerful and could easily handle it even if it isn't heavily optimized. If it's really so bad, they could just throw some of the load on the other cores.

It's not confirmed or denied, but we don't have much more information to go by except old quotes which may or may not apply anymore. It'd be awesome to see it, though.

[pedrocasilva]

It's not too hard for me to believe because Marvelous has recently been lamenting its Wii sales. If they were going to port one of their titles to an HD console, it would not be hard to believe that it's Muramasa. It'd require the least amount of expenses and effort by far.

Resampling the assets would be extremely trifling. It won't take much to write a computer program to automate the process. They might have already written one for the Wii and just needs some small modifications. High-level code recompilation shouldn't be much of a problem either, as the processors in the HD consoles are far more powerful and could easily handle it even if it isn't heavily optimized. If it's really so bad, they could just throw some of the load on the other cores.

It's not confirmed or denied, but we don't have much more information to go by except old quotes which may or may not apply anymore. It'd be awesome to see it, though.

Well, that's different than what I heard. I'm not against the aforementioned port anyway, I'm just saying to don't count on it, over the existing Wii version that is guaranteed.

That and that Odin Sphere to come along as well is pretty much impossible, after all I believe Atlus has spomething to say in Odin Sphere's case (so it couldn't ever be bundled with a marvelous game)


Also, sadly Marvelous is kinda to blame on the low Wii software sales... they only shipped 32k Muramasa's and 36k Arc Rise Fantasia's in japan, who sold out pretty quick (within the first two weeks) I believe stock leads to more sales, just saying. Plus, they don't really advertise their products.

And with the Rising Star sales... I feel for them (that's what I heard them complaining), thing is UK sellers drop the price without asking them. For instance, Little King Story dropped from £32 to £17 in no time, and that's kind of a trend which leads the purchasers to expect it. As a european I can confirm that's happening. People are looking at games like Conduit and Madworld and going "I'll wait for the pricedrop" because they've learned to expect it. (and it's the UK sellers that do them)

[Cless]

I'm pretty skeptical that there's even a significant base interested in the kinds of games that Marvelous publishes on the system to begin with. Perhaps even all home consoles, period.

[pedrocasilva]

^ Sadly I have no means to counter that argument, I don't think it's the games that are hard to get interested with... is their brand value and low advertising investment. But yeah, even, if they were better marketed they wouldn't be, say, million sellers.

I'm doing my part though, so here's hoping. Marvelous deserved to grow as a publisher due to their investment in quality as well as creative freedom they gave their teams.