Tales developer tidbits

[Cless]

Apparently from a Gemaga interview. From Yoshizumi:

- The Tales of Wii battle system has innovations that will, apparently, greatly impress people. "Please look forward to it"
- Tales of isn't selling well in the West in comparison to Japan. He wishes American and European would play it more.
- For his next project on an HD system, he would want to make it very detailed, with a painting-like style to it.

My response:
- The Tales of Wii battle system has innovations that will, apparently, greatly impress people. "Please look forward to it"
So maybe it'll be the first 3D battle system with Team Destiny-like experimentation?

- Tales of isn't selling well in the West in comparison to Japan. He wishes American and European would play it more.
Atlus thrives on sales like these, and Vesperia itself has already performed better than most of them. Expecting sales at least like in Japan is a fallacy. Stop setting your sights so high. JRPGs with bright anime graphics are a hard sell here.

And maybe if you'd actually release more of the titles in Europe, you could still make a little bit more money off of the localization.

- For his next project on an HD system, he would want to make it very detailed, with a painting-like style to it.
HD Tales isn't dead after Vesperia!? Woohoo!

[Dimentionalist]

- The Tales of Wii battle system has innovations that will, apparently, greatly impress people. "Please look forward to it"
So maybe it'll be the first 3D battle system with Team Destiny-like experimentation?

I certainly hope this is the case. Vesperia's battles were basically Abyss' polished to near-perfection, but I couldn't help but think that they could've innovated a little more. That's always what I liked about the TD games, and I'm excited to see where the 3D games will go in the near future.

That said, I'm also looking forward to the next HD Tales.

[ForceCube]

I certainly hope this is the case. Vesperia's battles were basically Abyss' polished to near-perfection, but I couldn't help but think that they could've innovated a little more. That's always what I liked about the TD games, and I'm excited to see where the 3D games will go in the near future.

QFT. That's one of the reasons I look forward to TD games so much more, they always have something new to show, whether in battles or in world exploration overall. I just loved the way they explored the concept of "broken but fun" in Hearts and still made it that the game doesn't feel broken at all... to be quite honest, I guess I've been secretly wishing they make a 3D Tales all this time, just to see how they'd use the benefits of a 3D battlefield to make battles even more innovative.

As for it being 3D... IMO, if they used cel shading it'd be pretty neat, and probably would still retain the 2D charm I love the series so much for (which is the main reason I can't get into TS games lately... but it's just me, don't kill me).

[Craymel]

Maybe they can make the next hd tales 2d Woops! drool on the keyboard! It be nice if they put more detail in their cell shaded games. I have to say vesperia seems to be lacking it a bit.

[Datschge]

- For his next project on an HD system, he would want to make it very detailed, with a painting-like style to it.
HD Tales isn't dead after Vesperia!? Woohoo!

According to some rumor in some Japanese game magazine (may have been Gemaga as well, can't find atm) NBGI is preparing 6 Tales games with at least one for each currently active gaming platform for next year.

I mean was there really any doubt?

[Craymel]

6!? Holy shit namco slow it down. Focus on making one game really good instead of making 6 okay ones

[Kajitani-Eizan]

yeah, seriously. they need to slow their pace a bit.

but vesperia did innovate a little. a much, MUCH better implementation of AD skills, a nice implementation of shields/"penetrate rest" that they attached to random cool skills (e.g. step away), fatal strikes, WHOAMG overlimit...

here's an idea, though. they should give you more shortcuts. instead of the useless "reject item use" button (just disable the AI from using items), make it so holding L1 gives you different shortcuts. so, you get 8 shortcuts. good for letting you equip more artes for your controlled character AND letting you have a few slots to command other characters.

[Yetika]

Yeah, I'd like to see them slow down a bit, especially to better focus on quality control to help eliminate tediously unenjoyable "features" like the aforementioned Reject Item Use problem.

- Tales of isn't selling well in the West in comparison to Japan. He wishes American and European would play it more.
Atlus thrives on sales like these, and Vesperia itself has already performed better than most of them. Expecting sales at least like in Japan is a fallacy. Stop setting your sights so high. JRPGs with bright anime graphics are a hard sell here.

And maybe if you'd actually release more of the titles in Europe, you could still make a little bit more money off of the localization.

It would also help if they actually did some visible advertising to give the series some exposure, instead of effectively relying on word-of-mouth and gamer-focused websites that the general public don't bother with (ie. Preaching to the choir).

Still, I'd really like to see more Tales games reach Europe and Australia, it's not fair that my country (Australia) nearly always misses out because so many Tales games don't reach these shores (We got ToS, ToP-GBA, ToE-PSP, and RM1). We're still waiting for Vesperia to get released here, for crying out loud!

[gyozilla]

Trying to make up for sales with selections...

Well, they're probably rightfully worried if they spend a crap load of time developing one single game and then not making bank on it. That kinda experience might steer you to keep making half a dozen games a year too just to stay recognized/competitive (and slowly drive the series into the ground).

[Kajitani-Eizan]

but they never do that anymore... except maybe way back in the beginning, when they did like, ToD and ToD2. ... oh wait, that got them mega crazy sales.

i mean, even fans of the tales series can't keep up with their insane platform spread, insane number of games a year, etc. at least square can probably count on FF fans to snap up whatever they release. didn't FFX --> FFXII take like 5-6 years? even if you count X-2, that's still a huge gap. nothing like tales.

and then once they produce a good game, holy shit, localize it! and if you localize it, holy shit, advertise it! sell it in every english-speaking country! your costs are already practically taken care of, why would you not?

[Joseph]

As long as Team Symphonia make one decent or really good 3D console entry every two or three years, I'm happy. As far as I'm concerned, everything else doesn't exist.

[Datschge]

As long as Team Destiny members make one really good 2D entry at least every two years, I'm happy.

Adapted to my POV.

[Magicpaint]

I definitely prefer Team Destiny games over Team Symphonia and would go for TD IF I had to choose, but I'd rather not, since they're both great.

What I'd rather is they quit playing around with low quality spin-offs and outsourced efforts, now that would make me happy.

[Kevassa]

I think one of the main problems for tales is that it hasnt set on a single console.
Unlike PS2 where you would always know for sure there were Tales there (except for ToS, meh =D)

[Joseph]

Adapted to my POV.

Fair enough. I'm coming from the perspective of someone only has access to the localized games, so I find it difficult to identify with the fans who freak out over saturation or stagnation. Is anyone really surprised that the portable Tales are being churned out at a factory-like pace? That's standard operating procedure for franchises on Nintendo portables. (See: Castlevania, Mega Man Zero, Pokemon, etc. etc.)

If Namco's planning 6 games for the next two years, big whup. The duality of this franchise (distinct 3D and 2D engines) lends itself to branching projects and teams. As long as three of those are solid 3D/2D console releases, then what's there to complain about?

[Lanyn]

If Namco's planning 6 games for the next two years, big whup. The duality of this franchise (distinct 3D and 2D engines) lends itself to branching projects and teams. As long as three of those are solid 3D/2D console releases, then what's there to complain about?

Because unless I'm greatly mistaken, Bamco doesn't have the personnel or the resources to produce 3 solid Tales games in one year, much less 6. It's called biting off more than you can chew and things typically end up being disasterous for all parties involved.