The Japanese version of the upcoming Square Enix RPG Star Ocean: The Last Hope looks almost exactly the same as the western version. The main difference is in the head shots near the character stats at the bottom: Japan gets little anime heads while the English versions get the slightly less anime-looking CG heads.
On the menu screens, vibrant colors and more detailed manga-ish headshots have been changed out with dark tones and full-body CG (as seen in our gallery). A tipster told Siliconera that even the character portraits that accompany the dialogue have been removed. While the previously mentioned items won't matter that much, I hope the latter isn't true. That would suck a little bit of life out of the dialogue, I would think.
I always wonder why companies think that pulling some of the Japanese elements out of a game helps. Especially with this type of game. In fact, I'd say that the target audience would probably appreciate the hand-drawn headshots more. Maybe they think the "cool kids" will appreciate Star Ocean: The Last Hope more.
I got news, Square Enix: they won't.
LAUNCH GALLERY (5 IMAGES)
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
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Contest:
2:20 PM on 02.09.2009
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haha it's a very smart idea though. Anything to actually get westerns to play it.
I've said it once, and I'll say it again. What the hell is the problem with OPTIONS? Is it that hard to just include both? The art assets already exist, so just leaving them in and adding alternatives MUST be easier than replacing them. The fans again suffer for the sake of marketability.
On the plus side, this is just the US release, so no word about how they'll handle it for the EU. And at least these things can be patched ala Naruto and its japanese voice-overs.
Have they learned nothing from Persona? It seems not, because those anime illos give the characters more life during dialogue sessions.
Square still think CG is the end all be all, and can do no wrong.
I hate it when companies release Japanese games and leave their aesthetically pleasing artwork and easy to read menu systems intact.
Srs, as a North American gamer I can't stand games that look good and have menu systems that aren't distracting and difficult to look at. I'm glad we have someone in our corner who's clearly looking out for our best interest!
For a while I was afraid they would really drop the ball on this one. Good looking out SO4 localization team!!!
*thumbs up*
Don't tell me they think Anime-Characters don't appeal to western audience, because that's acutally nonsense!
I personally prefer the CGI pictures and the UI over the Japanese versions.
As a consumer the only power we have to affect any sort of change is by using (or in this case not using) our money.
The only reason reason garbage like this occurs is because western gamers have allowed it to happen. They do stupid shit and we respond by forking over our money anyway.
That being said, removing the expressive portraits during conversations (I'm assuming a system similar to Persona 3 and 4) could hurt the presentation a bit and might make in-game dialogue trickier to understand. The Japanese UI might be easier to read on standard def TVs, too.
Why not give the player a choice? How hard could it be to cram that onto the disk?
Changing the menu and stuff seems so stupid, its something so minor and the anime faces looked a lot better as the CG makes them look like glassed eyed dolls.
@Cowboy
What do you mean losing their touch? They lost that years ago and this is tri-ace who haven't made a good game in years, seems they peaked with the PS1 era.
I wasn't gonna get this in the first place due to tri-ace's record of shit this just assures I won't.
The people who say that the new English interface is better than the Japanese have bad taste. The Japanese menu looks like graphic pop art, which has nothing to do with anime. The English menu looks like a crappy web interface someone would make on deviantart.
Changing the portraits from animated to CG, as far as I can tell from the screenshots, severely alters the tone of the overall product. The animated portraits makes the game seem like a character driven story; one that I would care about. The CG portraits make me think the game is going to be overly sci-fi, because who could possibly care about those characters? The CG might look good in motion, but in stills it looks ridiculous. It pisses me off that a bunch of Japanese folk have decided to make the English version different. I don't see how the new interface and portraits could possibly appeal to more people than the originals.
I pray we have the option to choose the interface, but probably not. Square Enix has failed to publish a good game since Grandia III and I'm starting to wonder why I even care anymore.
JRPGs are dying, not because the genre is antique, but because Japanese companies just can't stop fucking up.
Seriously, anime existed for the sole purpose of creating Cowboy Bebop. After Cowboy Bebop, it should have just committed ritual suicide.
Obviously the best way to do it would be to actually animate the character models to have emotion (or just make the writing better), but we all know that such a step is going way too far.
What? WHAT? I seriously hope that's not true. Not that I want to fap to some slightly risque animu scenes (Although I actually do), but I don't like to be baby sat. Like I said before, I didn't think that publishers were still making these pointless cuts/alterations in this day and age. And in a Squeenix title no less. Have they totally lost it?
I'd prefer the anime heads, but the change won't keep me from buying it.
Now if they would fix the camera placement during battles so you could see what the fuck was going on, that would be something worth talking about.
Super lame.
Man what is with this "OMG SO ANIME" trend? Jesus christ and how can you like one anime and hate every other? Have you even watched anything beyond Cowboy Bebop? There's some good stuff there, really good stuff, seriously your post is one of the dumbest things I've ever read here.
Its even worse that you're willing to ignore Persona 3 and 4(2 of the best RPG's in recent memory) because its "so anime", fuck the story right? You're to insecure to look past an animated face.
@Heavy
That's what I read, one scene in a bathouse with a nude character(not showing anything, you know risque) was cut out and I think some other stuff.
Kyousuke Nanbu - high five for anime defense
Do I want to cancel my order? Just about. I don't even know, I might. If I wanted some CG bullshit I'd pay for any number of other shitty looking sci-fi games. Way to fucking fail, Enix. Fucking. Fail.
hopefully there will be a menu option or something to change it back to anifaces.
If you can reccomend me some anime that doesn't feature 12 year old girls with huge eyes, or a whacky plot created by someone with approximately the same IQ, I would be thrilled to try it. The last anime I remember somewhat enjoying was Fullmetal Alchemist but nothing comes close to shows like Bebop, Neon Genesis, Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin, oh yea, I did really enjoy FLCL.
Don't ask me what it is but over the last couple years I have been getting so turned off by modern anime and it's fanbase that I actually find myself getting sick by some of it, as in this case. I think the anime style can look really cool in some cases but in this case it looks really cartoony and seems like it's appealing to the lowest common deminator. ...and remember, this is from someone who used to watch it all the time as a young teen. I just feel like I've grown up and anime and it's fans in general haven't. Again, it could be just the anime I've been choosing to watch but I'm open for suggestions here.
Kyousuke Nanbu: It sucks to hear they are going to cut some content just because they consider it "risque".
I'm not really too affected, but this reminds me of the "ZOMG IT'S ANIMU IT SUCKS" from the Castlevania DS games...
Actually, as a graphic designer, I'd argue that the flat faces look out of place on the screenshots. They're not trying to hurt gamers' fragile little girl feelings. It's not even a "lol anime is stupid" thing. The people buying the game are most likely anime fans as well, if not familiar enough with it that they're not spiteful towards it (otherwise, if they hated anime, they'd probably steer clear of the game).
Christ almighty, people whine about the stupidest shit sometimes.
And this honestly sucks ass, I don't want that CG shit.