Namco has been letting U.S. Tales fans down

[Tedius Zanarukando]

I am disappointed with the regional decision record of the Tales video game franchise, as well as the Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem video game franchises.  Too many Tales games have been marketed exclusively in Japan.  Namco has tricked us with a bad localization of the GBA version, just to turn us away from later versions.  They told lies about the U.S. audience. 

Sadly, Sony of America has made a policy against localizing games containing sprite based characters.  This has got to change.

[Leroy]

False, false and false.

[Cless]

I guess I'll have to pull out this awful screenshot again.

[AHPD]

Like the Norma's Skit in Tales of Legendia: Money Money Money! I Love Money...
Looks like the Tales of series are not selling good... Then no Localization of Japanese Tales of for us Americans...

About the Screenshot... Explain for me someone. I haven't understand it yet...

[Leroy]

The screenshot is countering the stupid rumor that Sony won't allow 2D games to be released in the US. I can't fathom the mental incapacity that would allow someone to see the number of 2D games released on both the PS1 and PS2 and STILL insist on spreading that false rumor; it just.. it just baffles my mind.

[Hoa Dao]

Lawls ... I haven't heard the "Sony no like 2D on its system" thing in a long time. *pokes Atelier Iris*

[Kogahazan]

Sony's generous when it comes to NIS America... The only other non-NIS 2D game I can think of is Shining Tears from Sega... I can't really think of anything other than that at the moment...

[Hoa Dao]

Come to think of it, it is mostly NIS America ... Shining Tears used sprites? oO ...

Well there has to be others. >.<  I can't think of any .. >.< ...  There were plenty on the PS1 though oO o.o ....

[Kiko]

No, it's just that anything 2D-like is seen as archaic and dated, and thus the big company people don't think that it'l rack in good sales. And well, it's true to a very very certain extent.

The casual gamer and general public would rather see something wow their eyes and deal simplistic fun for a few minutes. Keep in mind that RPGs are already a genre not taken well by the general crowd if there's no Final Fantasy in it's name or Square in the label, or doesn't have any anime-type things on the boxart. Then there's the fact that the Tales of games are just now getting some recognition, and the Legendia's the latest game to make it here and is already questionable in how good it is, so people still only just hearing about the series would take it that Symphonia was great, Legendia wasn't so great, Abyss might wow them, but that doesn't tell them we have a stable series that's been great and fun all along.

Couple this with the fact that this generation of games is nearing it's end, and that newer games for this gen are already being reduced in price to squeeze out more sales and that drives the profit guesses down some more.

I mean, believe it or not, the GameFAQs boards is a great way to see how the general public feels about a game, because once it moves out of import-only status, other people curious about it start posting and asking the same questions over and over and voicing their opinions that could be hurtful to devoted fans, but could be what the average person would think if it's getting repeated so much. (Like people always posting is X-RPG better than FFXII coming out in the same month)

It's the 2D-ness, which constitutes as old these days and other issues combined that make the profit projections low, and make companies think twice about bringing it over.

Oh, and then it's SCEA, they'll give companies a harder time of bringing a game over here depending on the game and whatnot, SNK has said themselves that SCEA likes to give them a hard time in bringing their 2D fighting games over here if they're not bundled into reduced price compilations. So they moved over to the Xbox.

NIS had a very very lucky shot though.

[Luminax]

Greetings guys, I'm a newcomer and one of the fans of Tales Of series. Well about the "No US, you can't get our Tales Of stuffs!" would be partly due to the many mishaps concerning translations and naming and the way they handled the game in general, is it not? one of the POWER of Tales Of series have always been the Seiyuus, yet they cut that in Tales Of Destiny, starting with the OP song, the World-Map "chats", the many hidden secret stuffs, and much mistranslations(like how they make Dymlos sounds like an idiotic hotheaded Swordian). Another one would be Tales Of "Destiny II" which totally re-do the whole dubbing(which I hate, to the extreme extent), and even CHANGED the name! Would that be not why Namco rethink about porting/exporting some of its Tales Of titles ?

[Kogahazan]

Another one would be Tales Of "Destiny II" which totally re-do the whole dubbing(which I hate, to the extreme extent), and even CHANGED the name!

I don't really disagree with anything else you said, hence why I only quoted that part of your whole post. For changing Eternia's title, they had a reason. It's not like they wouldn't have kept it if they could, it's just that they had no choice. Something about Eternia being the copyrighted name of the world of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Silly reason, but a legitimate one.

[Goshi]

Too many Tales games have been marketed exclusively in Japan.

Tales isn't quite has popular here as it is in Japan. Namco are just going for where the money is headed, which isn't in the Tales series here in America. Tales is just as popular as Final Fantasy in Japan.

Namco has tricked us with a bad localization of the GBA version, just to turn us away from later versions.

Namco just took the back water route into releasing the game. I'm pretty sure they just rushed through it too. They did not make it to ruin their profit.

Sadly, Sony of America has made a policy against localizing games containing sprite based characters.

There's a policy on that? Still if it is true than Sony are just giving me more excuses to hate them, from their stance to modding systems to their stance on homebrew and so forth.

[Leroy]

Greetings guys, I'm a newcomer and one of the fans of Tales Of series. Well about the "No US, you can't get our Tales Of stuffs!" would be partly due to the many mishaps concerning translations and naming and the way they handled the game in general, is it not? one of the POWER of Tales Of series have always been the Seiyuus, yet they cut that in Tales Of Destiny, starting with the OP song, the World-Map "chats", the many hidden secret stuffs, and much mistranslations(like how they make Dymlos sounds like an idiotic hotheaded Swordian). Another one would be Tales Of "Destiny II" which totally re-do the whole dubbing(which I hate, to the extreme extent), and even CHANGED the name! Would that be not why Namco rethink about porting/exporting some of its Tales Of titles ?

Sorry, NONE of these things will ever, EVER affect the sales of Tales in the US. It might agitate a small subset of people that sit on their computers all day watching Japanese cartoons, but that's it. Seriously, if you really, really think extremely minor things like changing the opening song or changing the title are detriment to the sales here, you're absolutely insane.

[Leroy]

Tales isn't quite has popular here as it is in Japan. Namco are just going for where the money is headed, which isn't in the Tales series here in America. Tales is just as popular as Final Fantasy in Japan.

Whoa, common sense? On this board?

Though, Tales is still nowhere near Final Fantasy in Japan.

There's a policy on that? Still if it is true than Sony are just giving me more excuses to hate them, from their stance to modding systems to their stance on homebrew and so forth.

Eh, looks like I spoke too soon. Did you read the rest of the thread or at least see the giant picture Cless posted? About modding, do you really think a company is going to openly allow a method that will allow people to steal all their games? You really think so? As far as homebrew goes, Sony openly sold development PS1s and they offer Linux kits for the PS2, what more can they do?

[Azu]

If it's 3D, will buy Americans say.

[Goshi]

Whoa, common sense? On this board?

I'm the epitome of common sense. Also I know that Tales isn't close to Final Fantasy in Japan but its pretty close up there.

Eh, looks like I spoke too soon. Did you read the rest of the thread or at least see the giant picture Cless posted? About modding, do you really think a company is going to openly allow a method that will allow people to steal all their games? You really think so? As far as homebrew goes, Sony openly sold development PS1s and they offer Linux kits for the PS2, what more can they do?

They're the only company as far as I know who seemed way too concerned about this stuff. The others are aware of i but just don't take drastic measures like Sony did. I'm aware of the posted image, but I was just stating about that policy with the typical "Rhetorical Question"

Uh... yeah >_>