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The X Button - Voyage to Neptunia


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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 863
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 12:33 pm Reply with quote
Can't say am surprised with what's happening with Unsung Tales. So many warning signs with that kickstarter. Pretty obvious they had no clue what they were doing at all.

The Neptunia series could be good if IF actually put some money into them. The games are so cheap and recycle so many assets from each game. That and the "jokes" are mostly just cheap references for the most part.
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Dessa



Joined: 14 Jul 2004
Posts: 4438
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 12:36 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Mega Drive/Sega Genesis is reticent and well-read. That may seem odd when you recall that the Sega Genesis was a loud and brash success in America, but don't forget that its Mega Drive equivalent wasn't popular in Japan.


This is a bit misleading. While yes, the system called Mega Drive in Japan was released in the US as the Sega Genesis, the characters of Mega Drive and Genesis are not the same character.

Mega Drive:


Genesis:


They're not even voiced by the same person. Heck, even Mega Drive 2 is her own character (although not the model 3, so I think the model 3 might be a US/Genesis-only model)!



Maybe it would be more accurate to say "Mega Drive (based on the system known as Genesis in the US)," instead of just putting both names, implying the name for the character is interchangeable.
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R. Kasahara



Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 646
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:12 pm Reply with quote
I was hoping my favorite girls-as-consoles series would get a mention, but I guess it's too obscure >_>; That would be the MS Paint-esque 4koma P.S. Three-san, briefly localized by 8-4 as P.S. Triple on the old 1UP site, and also as a pair of iPhone apps. In that series, consoles and handhelds are idol singers and game publishers are producers.

The PS3 is very talented but struggling, the Wii is the most popular idol, and the 360 is a US import who loves violence (at one point, her older sister, who represents the original Xbox, gives her a plush chainsaw). DS, PSP, and other consoles/handhelds are represented as well (including the best anthropomorphized Dreamcast design I've ever seen). Meanwhile, Sega is the most prominent publisher in the series; she wears a leather jacket and is frequently seen eating (one of my favorite strips has her setting two teacups next to each other and calling the pair "Mega"). Koei's stand-in is constantly pushing Musou, and Capcom's dies a lot.

Anyway, I loved it so much that I bought the apps (which are no longer available) and imported all four of the print collections and the two anthology doujinshi that the mangaka, IKa, released, even though I can't read much Japanese. The translations that were posted on 1UP are long gone, but I hope someone saved them. The official site's gone too, but at least it's preserved via the Wayback Machine, and IKa, who does other game-related manga, still has their blog going.

I still need to see Hi-sCool! Seha Girls, but the character designs haven't really clicked with me, thanks in large part to P.S. Three-san.


Last edited by R. Kasahara on Thu Feb 11, 2016 3:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Mega Man's Creator Speaks...: Cut Man was originally the planned protagonist? Wow, I wonder how the series would have gone if that had actually happened. I'm imagining that they would have made Cut Man utter horribly corny cut puns in the localized versions of the games like he did in the U.S. cartoon series. XD

Project X Zone 2: I have to make something clear. The game and anime references Xiaomu makes in the English dialog are not in the original Japanese version. They were added to spice up her otaku factor even more for U.S. fans and I think it's a good move. She makes references to Akira, Gunsmith Cats, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, Evangelion, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Tales of Symphonia and Contra (and this is all just from the demo). In the Japanese version, Xiaomu does the usual Japanese wordplay puns that she did before and only vaguely references anime tropes. The U.S. Namco branch decided that for the English release, they should be more blatant about it so that gamers would get a smile out of her comments, but I imagine translation purists may find it annoying that she didn't say any of this originally.

Actually Todd, it's funny you mentioned Burning Rangers at the beginning of the article because one chapter in PXZ2 namedrops it outright (unfortunately, no one from the game shows up, but music from the game does get used for the stage) and the stage itself requires you to put out fires...by stepping on them. Yeah, let's not use ice weapons or spells guys, let's just have the characters be stupid and step into huge swathes of flames to put them out. That'll go over well. XD
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5887
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 3:22 pm Reply with quote
Snakes don't have "tales" Todd Surprised
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lucio542



Joined: 11 Apr 2015
Posts: 262
Location: Brasil
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 3:52 pm Reply with quote
I really need an ps4 to play this last neptunia game.........
yes i am a fanboy of the game i assume .
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Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 5:36 pm Reply with quote
I just have to know one thing.






Does Firewatch support the Southpaw dual stick control setup?
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 7:07 pm Reply with quote
I thought there'd be at least a mention of Burning Rangers getting a course in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed called Burning Depths, set in the undersea lab stage. Richard Jacques even remixed the theme song for that course. Didn't really spark any interest in the game for the Saturn though. But I think it was chosen specifically because it was unexpected. (I tried to get Neptunia into SASRT when SEGA started asking for nominations, but I arrived too late. There's always next time.)

Projects not bearing fruit is one risk of backing things on crowdfunding. It's a risk backers must be aware of, but that shouldn't stop people from backing projects, because there are plenty of projects out there that WILL yield something (more so than those that won't, from what I've seen). It's also just that: A risk. There's a chance you won't get anything from it, but there's also a chance that you'll get something great out of it.

While I'm sure someone like Matsuno can be trusted, I have noticed some signs that someone with a crowdfunding project cannot. Most recently, for instance, I wanted to back something but chose not to because the guy managing the whole thing went unusually quiet once the campaign actually began. He did not reply to people who asked him questions and, a few days in, seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, with about $15,000 put in out of the $18,000 goal. I'll bet other people couldn't trust him either.
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Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 9:48 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:
Project X Zone 2: I have to make something clear. The game and anime references Xiaomu makes in the English dialog are not in the original Japanese version. They were added to spice up her otaku factor even more for U.S. fans and I think it's a good move. She makes references to Akira, Gunsmith Cats, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, Evangelion, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Tales of Symphonia and Contra (and this is all just from the demo). In the Japanese version, Xiaomu does the usual Japanese wordplay puns that she did before and only vaguely references anime tropes. The U.S. Namco branch decided that for the English release, they should be more blatant about it so that gamers would get a smile out of her comments, but I imagine translation purists may find it annoying that she didn't say any of this originally.


At least they keep the references to actual related things a Japanese character would say. If this was Funimation or NIS they would be making GamerGate and Skyrim jokes with no regards to how immersion breaking it would be

-

I generally don't support Kickstarters for this exact reason. There's way too many scammers and incompetent people in charge of them. I've always held the notion that there's probably a reason these people are resorting to Kickstarter and no professional company wants to work with them. And even if a product does come out of it I've yet to see or play one that amounted to more than simply average.

-Stuart Smith
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 10:43 pm Reply with quote
What about other crowdfunding servicesthan Kickstarter?
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3629
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:12 pm Reply with quote
belvadeer wrote:

Project X Zone 2: I have to make something clear. The game and anime references Xiaomu makes in the English dialog are not in the original Japanese version. They were added to spice up her otaku factor even more for U.S. fans and I think it's a good move. She makes references to Akira, Gunsmith Cats, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, Evangelion, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Tales of Symphonia and Contra (and this is all just from the demo). In the Japanese version, Xiaomu does the usual Japanese wordplay puns that she did before and only vaguely references anime tropes. The U.S. Namco branch decided that for the English release, they should be more blatant about it so that gamers would get a smile out of her comments, but I imagine translation purists may find it annoying that she didn't say any of this originally.


Did she? I think I recall an akira reference, but I was rolling through the demo to get the saves for the full game, so maybe I just missed them all...
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MajorZero



Joined: 29 Jul 2010
Posts: 359
PostPosted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:06 am Reply with quote
Stuart Smith wrote:
I've always held the notion that there's probably a reason these people are resorting to Kickstarter and no professional company wants to work with them.

Not really, a lot of projects which got funded through Kickstarter were considered too risky for any publisher to work with. I think Kickstarter video of Wasteland 2 illustrated it perfectly, no publisher wanted to work on isometric post-apocalyptic CRPG. Same with Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun, Tides of Numenera etc. You just need to research creators behind the project and see if they're real deal or not.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:54 am Reply with quote
Stuart Smith wrote:
At least they keep the references to actual related things a Japanese character would say. If this was Funimation or NIS they would be making GamerGate and Skyrim jokes with no regards to how immersion breaking it would be


NIS? The worst I've seen from them is making the characters say "What was this game rated again?" or poking fun at themselves like "That's way out of NISA's budget, dood." in stuff like Atelier Iris 3, Ar tonelico and Trinity Universe. I guess I must be out of the loop, but in what game did they make an immersion-breaking reference?

Covnam wrote:
Did she? I think I recall an akira reference, but I was rolling through the demo to get the saves for the full game, so maybe I just missed them all...


Yeah, she says them in both pre- and post-battle comments as well as during regular story conversations, so if you just skipped through the text, you may have very well missed a good portion of them.


Last edited by belvadeer on Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:09 am; edited 1 time in total
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MKVarana



Joined: 05 Jan 2005
Posts: 71
PostPosted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:09 am Reply with quote
R. Kasahara wrote:
I was hoping my favorite girls-as-consoles series would get a mention, but I guess it's too obscure >_>; That would be the MS Paint-esque 4koma P.S. Three-san, briefly localized by 8-4 as P.S. Triple on the old 1UP site, and also as a pair of iPhone apps. In that series, consoles and handhelds are idol singers and game publishers are producers.

The PS3 is very talented but struggling, the Wii is the most popular idol, and the 360 is a US import who loves violence (at one point, her older sister, who represents the original Xbox, gives her a plush chainsaw). DS, PSP, and other consoles/handhelds are represented as well (including the best anthropomorphized Dreamcast design I've ever seen). Meanwhile, Sega is the most prominent publisher in the series; she wears a leather jacket and is frequently seen eating (one of my favorite strips has her setting two teacups next to each other and calling the pair "Mega"). Koei's stand-in is constantly pushing Musou, and Capcom's dies a lot.

Anyway, I loved it so much that I bought the apps (which are no longer available) and imported all four of the print collections and the two anthology doujinshi that the mangaka, IKa, released, even though I can't read much Japanese. The translations that were posted on 1UP are long gone, but I hope someone saved them. The official site's gone too, but at least it's preserved via the Wayback Machine, and IKa, who does other game-related manga, still has their blog going.

I still need to see Hi-sCool! Seha Girls, but the character designs haven't really clicked with me, thanks in large part to P.S. Three-san.


I thought P.S. Three-san sounded familiar to me: Yui Horie voiced Wii-san in the Drama CD. I'll have to pick that up one of these days.
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Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 9:57 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
What about other crowdfunding servicesthan Kickstarter?


Well just crowdfunding in general. Although on some other sites you're apparently allowed to keep the money even if it's not fully funded which seems really shady. Just the fact you can do things like what Tim Schafer or Yogscast did with either huge delays or never producing a product with no repercussions just rubs me the wrong way.

belvadeer wrote:
NIS? The worst I've seen from them is making the characters say "What was this game rated again?" or poking fun at themselves like "That's way out of NISA's budget, dood." in stuff like Atelier Iris 3, Ar tonelico and Trinity Universe. I guess I must be out of the loop, but in what game did they make an immersion-breaking reference?


Neptunia specifically. Lots of American media and internet meme references in those. Admittedly, IFI is not much better.

MajorZero wrote:

Not really, a lot of projects which got funded through Kickstarter were considered too risky for any publisher to work with. I think Kickstarter video of Wasteland 2 illustrated it perfectly, no publisher wanted to work on isometric post-apocalyptic CRPG. Same with Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun, Tides of Numenera etc. You just need to research creators behind the project and see if they're real deal or not.


Those specific examples make sense though. Those games look and feel likely belong in 1997 which may be their intent but it shouldn't be surprising companies don't want to make archaic games like that. And I say this as someone who played a lot of old PC RPGs and hate how watered down and actiony/shooter modern WRPGs are. Essentially, all of them are just 90s games being sold in the present rather than making a modern game with those kind of mechanics. To me it seems like those developers are just stuck in the past rather than wanting to move the genre forward. Imagine Wasteland 2 but with Fallout 4's technology. That's what I want to see, but that's impossible with crowdfunding and why you need big companies. Most people just don't have that kind of money to invest millions.

-Stuart Smith
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