Abyss tanking in US apparently not the end of English Tales

[Cless]

Naysayers can shut the hell up now.

Just got an email about a survey from Namco regarding upcoming Tales installments.

Hi Tales Fan!

We need your valuable help with a short survey about the Tales franchise and RPGs in general. The survey should only take about 20-30 minutes. Your input will help NAMCO BANDAI Games decide on the future direction of upcoming Tales games.

Take the survey here.

Thanks again for your support!

- Your friends at NAMCO BANDAI Games

You are receiving this email because you previously signed up to receive updates on games in the Tales franchise. To unsubscribe from future Tales mailings, please click here.

I dunno if they want to limit this survey to newsletter subscribers or what but I'll just leave that link out.

[supersonic1453]

Could you pm me the link?  I just signed up for the newsletter, which I did not know existed before.

[Cless]

...and the survey is broken on the 6th question, so it can't be completed. Sucks, cause it looks like it took someone a long time to piece together. It's incredibly thorough from what I was able to see of it... they even ask if you've purchased/played the entire lineup of imported Tales games and ask you to select which ones.

Overall I'm given the impression Namco won't be using graphic dimensions as criteria for what comes over anymore. I'm expecting ToDr to make it over more than ever now.

[Leroy]

I think the whole bombing/tanking discussion is way over stated anyway. Namco should damn well know the US RPG market and should know what to expect when your game isn't Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts. I'm sure the recent games at least met their expectations given the market.

Overall I'm given the impression Namco won't be using graphic dimensions as criteria for what comes over anymore. I'm expecting ToDr to make it over more than ever now.

Awesome. Good vibes, man. I hope you are right.

[EvilMan_89]

WTH. i subscribed. i never got one of those mails....

[supersonic1453]

Overall I'm given the impression Namco won't be using graphic dimensions as criteria for what comes over anymore. I'm expecting ToDr to make it over more than ever now.

I really hope so.  I'm all for Japanese and everything, but nothing beats total understanding of what you're doing in a game.  Plus, it'll be interesting to hear Stahn and everyone in English.

[throughhim413]

Maybe if we're lucky things'll be like Abyss and someone will make an undubbed version of ToDr.  That would be beautiful.

[Cyllya]

Why are they sending it out via the newsletter? Who reads newsletters? Especially this newsletter, which I have not known to give news in a timely fashion....

Hmmm, I found a link on the Namco forums... For anyone curious, until the part with all the pictures, it's a translation of the usual Japanese survey they do every year or so. Then it shows pictures of character sprites/models from some various games (ToA, ToS, ToDr [I think], ToL [I think], and Xenosaga) to ask which art style you like best in terms of character proportions. Then it shows a picture of Stahn, Farah, and Veigue, a picture of Lloyd, Tear, and Cless, and a picture of Senel, Norma, and Shirley, to ask which character designer you like best. (Dudes. Daigo Okumura. C'mon.) Then it shows ToL, ToS, and ToR world map to ask which camera angle you prefer. Then it shows screens from non-FMV cutscenes of ToDr and ToS, to ask you which camera angle allows you to feel more emotionally involved. That's as far as I can get due to #6 being messed up.

Overall I'm given the impression Namco won't be using graphic dimensions as criteria for what comes over anymore. I'm expecting ToDr to make it over more than ever now.

Finally. That was a rather out-dated mode of thought.

Maybe if we're lucky things'll be like Abyss and someone will make an undubbed version of ToDr.  That would be beautiful.

Gak, how can you stand English text + Japanese voice when you know some Japanese?  That's as bad as it all being in English but the text and voice worded differently!

Well, I guess I'd be able to tolerate it if Namco wanted to save some time/money by not dubbing it.

[wizeards]

It'll be so great if in the future, Namco export the original version of the game in the US by modifying only the subtitle. This kind of thing is the costless way to import japonese games in the USA and they can sell games only be internet so that means only more $$$ for Namco and  more for every american customers.   

[Leroy]

Eh, you think they'd make more money by selling it online only and then only to anime fans due to the Japanese voice acting? That doesn't make sense. RPGs are already a fairly niche sell, so let's make it even harder! I'd have to imagine that they probably couldn't even get a license to publish it in straight Japanese; if they needed to go cheap it'd probably have to be via stripping the voices out. Also, don't they have to pay to use the Japanese voices? With the number of high-profile voice actors in the Tales games, if there's a license fee for that I'd imagine it'd probably cost MORE than recording English dialog for the game.

[Kogahazan]

...and the survey is broken on the 6th question, so it can't be completed.

Oh good, I thought I was the only one...

[supersonic1453]

Sorry Cyllya,  I like Fujishima's designs the best.

I don't care for that undub stuff either.  One, I've liked all the Tales dubs, and two, I like it to be either all or nothing.

[Cyllya]

Eh, you think they'd make more money by selling it online only and then only to anime fans due to the Japanese voice acting? That doesn't make sense. RPGs are already a fairly niche sell, so let's make it even harder! I'd have to imagine that they probably couldn't even get a license to publish it in straight Japanese; if they needed to go cheap it'd probably have to be via stripping the voices out. Also, don't they have to pay to use the Japanese voices? With the number of high-profile voice actors in the Tales games, if there's a license fee for that I'd imagine it'd probably cost MORE than recording English dialog for the game.

Yeah, I don't get that online-only idea. o_O; But as for the voices, I'm guessing they do indeed have to pay extra liscensing costs or royalties or something to the Japanese actors to use their voices in another version of the game, but they'd have to pay that to the English actors too (they're high-profile too, remember), plus the time and cost of actually recording the voices.

With Tales being a niche series (besides the fluke that is ToS), and the anime game niche crowd always griping about the lack of Japanese voices, I'd imagine Japanese-only voice wouldn't decrease sales much. What they'd lose in "WTF, they're talking in gibberish???" people, they'd gain in Japanophiles.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ToD the second-highest selling Tales in the US?

[Azu]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Buy the import if you want Japanese voices. If you can't read Japanese, oh well. Read a FAQ.

[Dimentionalist]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ToD the second-highest selling Tales in the US?

I'm pretty sure it was. It sold around 50k. I'll look for a link...


Nonetheless, this is an interesting bit of news.

EDIT: Just finished the survey. Pretty fun... you can get around the question 6 thing if you check one the horizontal options each. And they messed up on the section on the Narikiris.

Naysayers can shut the hell up now.

*cough*VEGHESTHER*cough*

[gyozilla]

Um, yea, please don't credit Namco Bandai US for the survey when it's just a translation of the Japanese ones that are put out far more frequently (and way less discreet than through newsletters). Only it's also translated sloppily. Who makes a survey where you can check all 5 options of "Are you interested in RPGs?" Yes, I'm Not Interested and Very Interested, but really I Don't Know! C'mon.

Hopefully they're not riding much on these surveys, cause they're not gonna get responses. You can sorta bypass the error page if you understand the nature of javascript (surveymonkey's awesome system). ie Going back a page and hit Next and had to skip 2 pages, but I've sorta sent mine in.

...Undubs. The only REAL use for those is if you understand Japanese and want to learn and appreciate the localization process: to hear what's being said originally and read the localized effort. Anything beyond that is pretty superficial.

Also, don't they have to pay to use the Japanese voices? With the number of high-profile voice actors in the Tales games, if there's a license fee for that I'd imagine it'd probably cost MORE than recording English dialog for the game.

That seems contradictory to what happened to ToD PS1, but I guess you can argue there just wasn't that much voice work in that game after chats were cut (even though that's because implementing subtitles took too much programming work and then having to translate some 200 chats).