If Michael Bay kills off the Xbox, I’m going to be laughing my ass off. (Probably not, but still, this is funny.)
Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
- Thread starter RySenkari
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Its probably just a dark age for Xbox kinda like what we have OTL with the Xbone.
Considering that the Xbox survived both the Red Ring of Death and the early days of the Xbox One I think they’ll be able to survive this Dark Age.
RROD happened when the price gap between it and the competition was $100-200 (depending what model you wanted of each) and it was offering more exciting exclusives along with better versions of multiplats, so it was more of a financial hit than a public perception hit. As for the XB1, they course corrected just in time to stay relevant. Because XB IOTL has almost always been a money sink for MS, with the only real reason they do this is to stay relevant. If they don't have that relevance ITTL and are still losing money, it may be harder for them to justify keeping XB around.
To be honest I don't think the XBox One has ever really course corrected properly. It is basically just the PS4 but swap Horizon: Zero Dawn, the Uncharted games, Spiderman, The Last Guardian, the Shadow of the Colossus Remake, The Last of Us and... (there are more but you can't probably see the problem already) for Halo, which is a series that was last good on the Xbox 360, and Forza. Letting Mass Effect go multi-platform and losing the Fable series were probably the worst business decisions Microsoft has ever made with regards to the Xbox and it has really shown this generation.
teg
When I said course corrected, I meant getting rid of Don Mattrick. And the thing with that is they could immediately reverse the DRM, Kinect requirement, and used game restrictions. Focusing on games is a different story. They were left with very little talent, and we've seen them acquire more recently. But stuff like that takes time, which is why I think they spent the majority of 8th gen focusing so hard on backwards compatibility and services. Because in terms of those, XB kicks Playstation's ass, yet it's still not enough. I feel 9th gen will be when we see if MS's course correction actually pays off.
And Microsoft didn't decide to let Mass Effect go multiplat. Everything was pointing to them being ready to buy Bioware or cut a deal to have them develop more games before EA swooped in and outright bought them.
Sorry if I'm bothering you but two things...
One: Can I post my ideas for Norfolk Southern steam when the time comes?
Two: What do you two think of this game idea? https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-games-never-made.428848/page-8#post-17687801
One: Can I post my ideas for Norfolk Southern steam when the time comes?
Two: What do you two think of this game idea? https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-games-never-made.428848/page-8#post-17687801
Remind me, but is there a third Conker game?
If so, what's the newest Conker title?
If so, what's the newest Conker title?
Sure, you're welcome to post your Norfolk Southern ideas.
As for Mario 128, I like the Fire Flower returning, but the game seems a bit short and I'm not too keen on Peach's brother. Seems like a game that would be weaker than Super Mario 64. Still a success, but probably would have a reception like Sunshine got IOTL.
Conker will get a third game in 2009 for the Sapphire.
Well...Rockstar is obviously doing excellent since it just released Grand Theft Auto II, and they have a number of other medium-sized franchises here and there. Bully 2 is coming in 2010.
As for their subsidiary list.... I'd need some time to think about it, I wouldn't be able to produce a list off the top of my head.
Of course, I did rush the description of my game somewhat. I did imagine something better than what I likely described.
Would anyone have any objection to me making up a theoretical (Japanese) songlist for this game? Konami's rhythm games are kind of a speciality of mine.
BONUS: Pop'n'Music TwinBeat Tracklist
pop'n music TwinBeat (JP, iTwin, 2007)
This effectively replaces OTL's games pop'n music portable and pop'n music (Wii). Much of its KONAMI Original songlist originates from the arcade game pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE, as with portable, but has the alternative 5-button "shake'n swing" mode from pop'n Wii. Additional are included from previous games in the series, as this was the series debut on the iTwin after producing console versions of pop'n 1-14 for other systems. The songlist additionally includes several anime and J-Pop songs.
Licensed songs include:
[GENRE] Title / Artist
[ALIPRO] 愛と誠 / ALI PROJECT *1
[AUDIO TAPE] Diamonds / (cover) *1 *2
[BEBOP] Tank! / (cover)
[DIGIMON] Butter-FLY / (cover) *3
[ELECTRICAL PARADE] BAROQUE HOEDOWN / (cover)
[EVA] 残酷な天使のテーゼ / (cover)
[GET WILD] GET WILD / NMR *1
[HEAVEN POP] 学園天国 / (cover) *1 *2
[HIGHSO] IN THE MOOD / (cover)
[HOKUTO] 愛をとりもどせ!! / (cover)
[J-REVIVAL] JAM / TAKA with Junpei&三上 *1 *2
[JOUKYOU RAP] 俺ら東京さ行ぐだ(I'LL GO TO TOKYO!) / ノーボトム! *1
[KARMA] カルマ / (cover)
[NANA] GLAMOROUS SKY / (cover) *1 *2
[ONE PIECE] ウィーアー! / (cover)
[POMPOKOLIN] 踊るポンポコリン / (cover) *1
[PRODUCE] CHOO CHOO TRAIN / (cover) *1 *2
[SHOUTEN] 笑点テーマ / (cover) *1
[SUPER EURO BEAT] NIGHT OF FIRE / NIKO *2
[TOUCH] タッチ / (cover)
KONAMI Original Music (default):
[ADVENTURE] ポップン大冒険メドレー / ポップン探検隊
[ANCIENT EURO] In The Ruins / good-cool feat.CHiCO
[BOYS R&B] Always / Shoichiro Hirata feat.RayZY
[CASTLEVANIA] 悪魔城ドラキュラメドレー ～ハイブリッド・ヴァージョン～ / 山根ミチル
[CONTINENTAL] 走り続けて / 秋桜
[DISCO REVOLUTION] SHAKE'N SWING'N POP'N MUSIC! / seiya-murai *4
[ELEKI] 純愛ロマンス --PART 2-- / ko-saku
[FUTURE FUSION] ∞space / m@sumi
[GARAGE HOUSE] together 4ever / Sota Fujimori feat.yoshiko
[GIRLHOOD] ロクブテ / 水玉フミッパーズ
[HAWAIAN PUNK] フリフリハワイワン！ / YUU&NAHO from Cawaii!
[HIP ROCK 4] 路男 / Des-ROW・組ユナイテッド
[HYPER CHINESE POP] 桃花恋情 / TËЯRA
[MARINE CRUISE] The Seven Ocean / Hajime
[NADESHIKO ROCK] 凛として咲く花の如く / 紅色リトマス
[NATSUYASUMI] / なつやすみのぼうけん / 5年3組アンサンブルクラブ
[Nu-SOUL] My Own Swan / Redshift
[ONLINE LOVE POP] 恋のミラクル☆ / るるるSYSTEM
[PERCUSSIVE 2] 西麻布水道曲 / サイモンマン
[PINKISH] つぼみ / パーキッツ
[SEISYUN ROCK] 儚きは我が決意 / 臨界点パニック
[SHY POP] ネガイゴト / 肥塚良彦
[SYMPHONIC TALE] 駕篭の鳥 / Naya~n交響楽団 with 坂本頼光
[URBAN MELLOW POP] Psychology / SENAX
[VENEZIANI] Canal Grande / Q-Mex
[WELLFARE] つばめ / あさき *5
*6
Returning Songs (default):
[ANIME HEROINE] 魔法の扉 (スペース@マコのテーマ) / a.s.a
[FANTASY] monde des songe / Bikke
[GRADIUS] GRADIUS -FULL SPEED- / Mr.T
[HIGH SPEED LOVE SONG] High School Love / DJ Yoshitaka feat.DWP
[HIP ROCK] 大見解 / Des-ROW・組
[J-TEKNO] Quick Master / act deft
[MEGANE ROCK] ポップミュージック論 / ギラギラメガネ団
[MELO CORE] H@ppy Choice / good-cool feat.すわひでお
[TWEE POP] 777 / EeL
[WINTER DANCE] White Eve / さな
Mimi and Nyami's Expedition
Earth Zone
[GRINDING ROCK] Maximal Edge / 千本松 仁 *7
[GROUND TECHNO] QUICK RESULT / AKIRA YAMAOKA
[NAMARA JAZZ] One Phrase Blues / 小野秀幸
[PROPOSE REMIX] ふたりのマニフェスト (Circle of the afternoon MIX) / DJ SIMON
[WORLD HOUSE] THE SAFARI / Lion MUSASHI *8
Boss Song
[UNDERGROUND EXPEDITION] スーパーモグー / ぶちパンダ
Water Zone
[CLIONE TECHNO] CLIO / co-ping
[CUTE LIGHT BOSSA] ワールド・オブ・バブル / Dormir *7
[EU-TECH] STEAM AND DREAM / V.C.O. *8
[NEJI ROCK] 螺子之人 / あさき
[ORBITALIC TECHNO] Flow / Scotty D. revisits U1 *9
[RUIN] 空言の海 / 音々
Boss Song
[ELE FLOOD WAVE] Aqua / Akino
Wind Zone
[A.I. KIDS] さんぽのうた / V.C.O.+ALT
[CELTIC WIND] Caring Dance / 猫叉Master
[CURE] 緑の風 / ナヤ〜ン
[LOVE POP] 大好きだよ / KUMIKO
[TRIP HOP] Summer Vacation (CU mix) / OutPhase *8
[WINDY DANCE] FU-FA / Sana+MIKI-CHANG+Shoichiro
Boss Song
[NEO EURO RAVE] King of TORNADO / NAOKI underground *7 *10
Fire Zone
[FORKLORE] アンデスの太陽 / Mutsuhiko Izumi
[GAMELAN TRANCE] Gamelan de Couple / TOMOSUKE
[HYPER HINDI BEAT] exotic ethnic / Reven-G *8
[LATIN REMIX] El pais del sol (GIVE ME MORE SALSA MIX) / Berimbau'66
[MELODIC EURO HOUSE] Burnin'Luv (Over The Beat Mix) / dj REMO-CON (Y&Co) *7
[SKA] ska a go go / THE BALD HEADS
Boss Song
[LOUD MIXTURE RAGGA] Soul on Fire / L.E.D.-G VS GUHROOVY fw NO+CHIN
After clearing all four above zones, the next two are available.
World of Light
[ALTERNATIVE ROCK] Prince on a Star / 日野友香
[ANTHEM TRANCE REMIX] Votum stellarum -forest #25 RMX- / iconoclasm
[J-EUROBEAT] 月光 / Tatsh feat.星野奏子 *8
[KALEIDO FUSION] 万華鏡 / Jimmy Weckl *8
[MYTHOTRONICA] Polis / Toshiji Kato
[SUPER LOVIN' SPEED] Light♡of♡my♡life / jun feat.TAHiRiH *7
Boss Song
[IDM] ZETA～素数の世界と超越者～ / Zektbach
World of Dark
[DARKNESS 3] Quiet / フレディ波多江とエレハモニカ
[DREAMGAZER] Little Prayer / 土岐麻子 *11
[ORATORIO] Apocalypse ~memento mori~ / Zektbach
[ROCOCO TEK] BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS / SPARKER *8
[TRANCE CORE] Lysander / DJ YOSHITAKA *7 *12
[VISUAL REMIX] WHITE BIRDS (Mirage Mix) / T-Bone
Boss Song
[KINDAI-ZECCHOU-ONGAKU] 天庭 / 閣下
After clearing the boss songs of World of Light and Dark, the final boss.
World of Nothing
[NIENTE] neu / 少年ラジオ
Notes
*1 This licensed song was cut and replaced for the Western release
*2 This licensed song has not appeared in any mainline pop'n music game OTL, but existed in another BEMANI game previously
*3 The cover of Butter-FLY was meant for pop'n 15 OTL, but delays meant it was put in pop'n 17. TTL it meets the deadline
*4 This song was made for pop'n music Wii OTL. Naturally, it gets brought forward
*5 OTL, this song was heavily reworked for Asaki's album many years later. TTL's version is much closer to the reworked version
*6 Mostly as OTL's arcade title. Two songs got dropped from the list: ギターケンドー is a victim of the butterflies, whereas THE MAN FROM FAR EAST is dropped because its game of origin (Mitsumete Knight) is basically unheard of TTL. ADVENTURE and CASTLEVANIA replace them
*7 Song is original to TTL
*8 Crossover that did not happen OTL
*9 This was in the Wind Zone OTL
*10 Instead of writing the song DOUBLE TORNARD for DDR Hottest Party, Naoki writes this. This also replaces Caring Dance as the "boss" of Wind Zone, which is just a regular song now
*11 This gets crossed over earlier than OTL
*12 DJ YOSHITAKA gets enlisted to bring his soon-to-develop beatmania IIDX / jubeat style to pop'n music earlier than OTL. Think a more basic version of his song Evans
This effectively replaces OTL's games pop'n music portable and pop'n music (Wii). Much of its KONAMI Original songlist originates from the arcade game pop'n music 15 ADVENTURE, as with portable, but has the alternative 5-button "shake'n swing" mode from pop'n Wii. Additional are included from previous games in the series, as this was the series debut on the iTwin after producing console versions of pop'n 1-14 for other systems. The songlist additionally includes several anime and J-Pop songs.
Licensed songs include:
[GENRE] Title / Artist
[ALIPRO] 愛と誠 / ALI PROJECT *1
[AUDIO TAPE] Diamonds / (cover) *1 *2
[BEBOP] Tank! / (cover)
[DIGIMON] Butter-FLY / (cover) *3
[ELECTRICAL PARADE] BAROQUE HOEDOWN / (cover)
[EVA] 残酷な天使のテーゼ / (cover)
[GET WILD] GET WILD / NMR *1
[HEAVEN POP] 学園天国 / (cover) *1 *2
[HIGHSO] IN THE MOOD / (cover)
[HOKUTO] 愛をとりもどせ!! / (cover)
[J-REVIVAL] JAM / TAKA with Junpei&三上 *1 *2
[JOUKYOU RAP] 俺ら東京さ行ぐだ(I'LL GO TO TOKYO!) / ノーボトム! *1
[KARMA] カルマ / (cover)
[NANA] GLAMOROUS SKY / (cover) *1 *2
[ONE PIECE] ウィーアー! / (cover)
[POMPOKOLIN] 踊るポンポコリン / (cover) *1
[PRODUCE] CHOO CHOO TRAIN / (cover) *1 *2
[SHOUTEN] 笑点テーマ / (cover) *1
[SUPER EURO BEAT] NIGHT OF FIRE / NIKO *2
[TOUCH] タッチ / (cover)
KONAMI Original Music (default):
[ADVENTURE] ポップン大冒険メドレー / ポップン探検隊
[ANCIENT EURO] In The Ruins / good-cool feat.CHiCO
[BOYS R&B] Always / Shoichiro Hirata feat.RayZY
[CASTLEVANIA] 悪魔城ドラキュラメドレー ～ハイブリッド・ヴァージョン～ / 山根ミチル
[CONTINENTAL] 走り続けて / 秋桜
[DISCO REVOLUTION] SHAKE'N SWING'N POP'N MUSIC! / seiya-murai *4
[ELEKI] 純愛ロマンス --PART 2-- / ko-saku
[FUTURE FUSION] ∞space / m@sumi
[GARAGE HOUSE] together 4ever / Sota Fujimori feat.yoshiko
[GIRLHOOD] ロクブテ / 水玉フミッパーズ
[HAWAIAN PUNK] フリフリハワイワン！ / YUU&NAHO from Cawaii!
[HIP ROCK 4] 路男 / Des-ROW・組ユナイテッド
[HYPER CHINESE POP] 桃花恋情 / TËЯRA
[MARINE CRUISE] The Seven Ocean / Hajime
[NADESHIKO ROCK] 凛として咲く花の如く / 紅色リトマス
[NATSUYASUMI] / なつやすみのぼうけん / 5年3組アンサンブルクラブ
[Nu-SOUL] My Own Swan / Redshift
[ONLINE LOVE POP] 恋のミラクル☆ / るるるSYSTEM
[PERCUSSIVE 2] 西麻布水道曲 / サイモンマン
[PINKISH] つぼみ / パーキッツ
[SEISYUN ROCK] 儚きは我が決意 / 臨界点パニック
[SHY POP] ネガイゴト / 肥塚良彦
[SYMPHONIC TALE] 駕篭の鳥 / Naya~n交響楽団 with 坂本頼光
[URBAN MELLOW POP] Psychology / SENAX
[VENEZIANI] Canal Grande / Q-Mex
[WELLFARE] つばめ / あさき *5
*6
Returning Songs (default):
[ANIME HEROINE] 魔法の扉 (スペース@マコのテーマ) / a.s.a
[FANTASY] monde des songe / Bikke
[GRADIUS] GRADIUS -FULL SPEED- / Mr.T
[HIGH SPEED LOVE SONG] High School Love / DJ Yoshitaka feat.DWP
[HIP ROCK] 大見解 / Des-ROW・組
[J-TEKNO] Quick Master / act deft
[MEGANE ROCK] ポップミュージック論 / ギラギラメガネ団
[MELO CORE] H@ppy Choice / good-cool feat.すわひでお
[TWEE POP] 777 / EeL
[WINTER DANCE] White Eve / さな
Mimi and Nyami's Expedition
Earth Zone
[GRINDING ROCK] Maximal Edge / 千本松 仁 *7
[GROUND TECHNO] QUICK RESULT / AKIRA YAMAOKA
[NAMARA JAZZ] One Phrase Blues / 小野秀幸
[PROPOSE REMIX] ふたりのマニフェスト (Circle of the afternoon MIX) / DJ SIMON
[WORLD HOUSE] THE SAFARI / Lion MUSASHI *8
Boss Song
[UNDERGROUND EXPEDITION] スーパーモグー / ぶちパンダ
Water Zone
[CLIONE TECHNO] CLIO / co-ping
[CUTE LIGHT BOSSA] ワールド・オブ・バブル / Dormir *7
[EU-TECH] STEAM AND DREAM / V.C.O. *8
[NEJI ROCK] 螺子之人 / あさき
[ORBITALIC TECHNO] Flow / Scotty D. revisits U1 *9
[RUIN] 空言の海 / 音々
Boss Song
[ELE FLOOD WAVE] Aqua / Akino
Wind Zone
[A.I. KIDS] さんぽのうた / V.C.O.+ALT
[CELTIC WIND] Caring Dance / 猫叉Master
[CURE] 緑の風 / ナヤ〜ン
[LOVE POP] 大好きだよ / KUMIKO
[TRIP HOP] Summer Vacation (CU mix) / OutPhase *8
[WINDY DANCE] FU-FA / Sana+MIKI-CHANG+Shoichiro
Boss Song
[NEO EURO RAVE] King of TORNADO / NAOKI underground *7 *10
Fire Zone
[FORKLORE] アンデスの太陽 / Mutsuhiko Izumi
[GAMELAN TRANCE] Gamelan de Couple / TOMOSUKE
[HYPER HINDI BEAT] exotic ethnic / Reven-G *8
[LATIN REMIX] El pais del sol (GIVE ME MORE SALSA MIX) / Berimbau'66
[MELODIC EURO HOUSE] Burnin'Luv (Over The Beat Mix) / dj REMO-CON (Y&Co) *7
[SKA] ska a go go / THE BALD HEADS
Boss Song
[LOUD MIXTURE RAGGA] Soul on Fire / L.E.D.-G VS GUHROOVY fw NO+CHIN
After clearing all four above zones, the next two are available.
World of Light
[ALTERNATIVE ROCK] Prince on a Star / 日野友香
[ANTHEM TRANCE REMIX] Votum stellarum -forest #25 RMX- / iconoclasm
[J-EUROBEAT] 月光 / Tatsh feat.星野奏子 *8
[KALEIDO FUSION] 万華鏡 / Jimmy Weckl *8
[MYTHOTRONICA] Polis / Toshiji Kato
[SUPER LOVIN' SPEED] Light♡of♡my♡life / jun feat.TAHiRiH *7
Boss Song
[IDM] ZETA～素数の世界と超越者～ / Zektbach
World of Dark
[DARKNESS 3] Quiet / フレディ波多江とエレハモニカ
[DREAMGAZER] Little Prayer / 土岐麻子 *11
[ORATORIO] Apocalypse ~memento mori~ / Zektbach
[ROCOCO TEK] BRIGHTNESS DARKNESS / SPARKER *8
[TRANCE CORE] Lysander / DJ YOSHITAKA *7 *12
[VISUAL REMIX] WHITE BIRDS (Mirage Mix) / T-Bone
Boss Song
[KINDAI-ZECCHOU-ONGAKU] 天庭 / 閣下
After clearing the boss songs of World of Light and Dark, the final boss.
World of Nothing
[NIENTE] neu / 少年ラジオ
Notes
*1 This licensed song was cut and replaced for the Western release
*2 This licensed song has not appeared in any mainline pop'n music game OTL, but existed in another BEMANI game previously
*3 The cover of Butter-FLY was meant for pop'n 15 OTL, but delays meant it was put in pop'n 17. TTL it meets the deadline
*4 This song was made for pop'n music Wii OTL. Naturally, it gets brought forward
*5 OTL, this song was heavily reworked for Asaki's album many years later. TTL's version is much closer to the reworked version
*6 Mostly as OTL's arcade title. Two songs got dropped from the list: ギターケンドー is a victim of the butterflies, whereas THE MAN FROM FAR EAST is dropped because its game of origin (Mitsumete Knight) is basically unheard of TTL. ADVENTURE and CASTLEVANIA replace them
*7 Song is original to TTL
*8 Crossover that did not happen OTL
*9 This was in the Wind Zone OTL
*10 Instead of writing the song DOUBLE TORNARD for DDR Hottest Party, Naoki writes this. This also replaces Caring Dance as the "boss" of Wind Zone, which is just a regular song now
*11 This gets crossed over earlier than OTL
*12 DJ YOSHITAKA gets enlisted to bring his soon-to-develop beatmania IIDX / jubeat style to pop'n music earlier than OTL. Think a more basic version of his song Evans
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I'd be fine to make the US songlist if someone could suggest about 10-15 TTL Western pop songs that you reckon a company like KONAMI could license for their game
Should I send you my ideas via inbox first? I plan to have this start in 2010.
Fall 2008 (Part 10) - A Second Chance For Working Designs
Lunar: Dragonrise
Lunar: Dragonrise is a JRPG for the Nintendo Sapphire and Apple iTwin. It's the fourth game in the Lunar series of RPGs, and a prequel to the original trilogy, in the same way that OTL's Dragon Song for the DS was a prequel to the original game. However, that's where the similarities between the OTL and TTL games end. Dragonrise, while not quite as polished or as snazzy as a AAA RPG like Final Fantasy, is still a full fledged console game, with primarily cel-shaded graphics but with fully 3-D backgrounds and environments and fully voiced anime cutscenes. The game chronicles the adventures of the first Dragonmaster, a young man named Zeke, and his three companions (unlike the original games which had four playable characters, Dragonrise only has three). It also tells the story of how the first four dragons came to serve humanity and lend their power to the Dragonmaster. Unlike IOTL, in which Althena created the dragons in the series mythology, ITTL, the four dragons were originally members of a large tribe of dragons who opposed humanity because they believed humans to be an anomaly against nature. However, with Althena's help, Zeke and his friends convince the four dragons to lend their services to humankind to stop a terrible evil sorceress named Czarana. However, a faction of dragons led by the Pale Dragon, Vidagos, seeks to destroy humanity as revenge for encroaching upon nature, and the two main stories of the game revolve around Zeke's group of heroes and the dragons who first befriended humanity. Dragonrise features a traditional turn-based combat scheme similar to previous games in the series, but mixes things up a bit with action elements, as the player must move their heroes manually around the battlefield, and all attacks and defenses are timed in some way. There's even the opportunity to save up action points to interrupt an enemy's turn, while certain spells can also have the same effect. Dragonrise is also the first game in the series not to have an overworld map. Instead, areas are linked to other areas by forested or mountain paths, or areas that can be called dungeons in their own right. Some Althena statues can also be used to warp to other Althena statues, enabling the player to move quickly from place to place. Dragonrise features graphics that are somewhat middle of the road for the console they're featured on, and there's not too much difference in appearance between the Sapphire and iTwin versions. Game Arts, being a somewhat moderately sized company, didn't want to pour a huge amount of resources into the game's graphics, instead choosing to spend its money on music and animation. There's a ton of anime cutscenes in the game, around two full hours worth, along with plenty of voice acting. The game's English dub is performed by Los Angeles-area voice actors, and there are some fairly familiar names amongst anime fans, with the protagonist Zeke voiced by Tom Gibis, Zeke's companion/love interest Clarissa voiced by Julie Maddalena, Zeke's headstrong rival turned ally Destin voiced by Michael Reisz, and the brave beast girl Shanna voiced by Amanda Celine Miller (her first voice role ITTL).
Lunar: Dragonrise begins with Zeke in a bad situation that's rapidly getting worse: his village is attacked and destroyed by Czarana, leaving him orphaned and in search of a way to save the land. Desperate, he prays to the goddess Althena for mercy, and gets Clarissa instead, a young shrine maiden who is somewhat klutzy and whose magic is barely enough to start a campfire, let alone stop an evil sorceress. Zeke also meets Destin, who leads an army of soldiers in battle with Czarana's minions and defeats them, winning fame and fortune and showing up Zeke. Zeke does find a good friend in the young White Dragon Quark (who at the time is cute and cat-like in appearance, similar to Nall in The Silver Star), who teaches him some basic dragon magic. Zeke, Quark, and Clarissa are tasked with finding three other dragons by a vision sent from Althena, and this quest to find the dragons is the bulk of the first two thirds of the game. On the way, the group clashes with Destin (and actually fights him as a boss at one point after Zeke is framed for a crime). They also join up with Shanna, who is being kept as a maid by a cruel lord who has been granted power by Czarana. Shanna is the third party member to be permanently recruited, while Destin is the fourth after the party saves him from Czarana with the Blue Dragon's help. Eventually, Zeke secures the help of the Red and Blue Dragons, but must convince the Black Dragon, who is also the younger sister of Vidagos, to lend them her aid as well. Vidagos despises humans because they once hunted his kind, and in fact, humans killed Vidagos' older brother. Vidagos also believes all humans to be in league with Czarana due to the outrageous power she wields to control their minds. It is the Black Dragon's eventual rebellion against Vidagos as she finally joins the heroes that turns Vidagos truly against humanity and sets him on the course to being the game's main villain. Czarana is eventually defeated after Zeke activates the ritual to become a Dragonmaster, but Vidagos chooses that moment, when all of humanity is united in celebration, to launch a massive attack by a powerful dragon army. To make matters worse, Zeke's Dragonmaster powers are largely ineffectual against Vidagos because Vidagos is himself a dragon. Vidagos' dragons lay waste to much of the world, forcing humanity into hiding. It's during this, Zeke's darkest hour, that he turns to Czarana, who survived their climactic battle and claims to have a spell that can contain a dragon's power. Zeke does not wish to learn such a spell, but after Clarissa is taken prisoner by Vidagos (who hopes to take advantage of her psychic connection to Althena to fell the goddess herself, which would completely doom humanity), he allows Czarana to teach it to him. It's the same spell that Ghaleon used to trap Quark and the other dragons in the original Silver Star. During this time, Czarana becomes a guest party member in Clarissa's place, and we learn more of her backstory and why she became a dark sorceress. We learn that Althena is not the completely pure-hearted goddess she is claimed to be, and that she and Czarana were once very close friends and that Czarana was the closest human friend Althena had. However, after Czarana got too powerful, Althena became jealous and tried to weaken her. Czarana lashed out, admittedly a severe overreaction, rebelling against Althena's creation and seeking to exploit humanity's collective power and knowledge to become powerful enough to challenge Althena. It's clear that both Czarana and Althena have made mistakes, and though the game rightfully shows Czarana as being in the wrong, she, much like Ghaleon in the original game, is shown to have a compelling motivation for her actions. Zeke, Czarana, Destin, Shanna, and Quark go to find Vidagos, who has ascended Althena's Tower. They confront him and use the spell, and though its power does not keep Vidagos contained completely, it weakens him enough to allow Zeke to free Clarissa. Zeke, Clarissa, and Czarana forge a new weapon, a sword of light and darkness, that can take down Vidagos for good. They then ascend Vidagos' mountain to take him and his army down forever. After a long and ferocious battle, Vidagos is defeated, but the battle takes a heavy toll: most of dragonkind has been killed in the civil war, leaving the Four Dragons who serve the Dragonmaster as four of the few remaining members of the species. Also, the fate of Czarana, who once again tries to strike against Althena, is a sad one: Zeke sides with Althena, and uses the power of the Dragonmaster to literally banish Czarana from the light of Althena, forcing her and her followers to the Frontier to become the Vile Tribe. Ironically, it's implied that the descendant of Zeke and Clarissa is Ghaleon, who would be the one to bring the Vile Tribe back into the world Althena cast them out of.
Lunar: Dragonrise is released in North America on December 9, 2008, a few months after the game's Japanese release. Critical reviews are quite good, but not great, averaging in the high 7s/low 8s. The game is most highly praised for its excellently animated cutscenes and its storyline, which heavily advances and builds upon the Lunar mythology and has numerous callbacks to popular characters and elements in the series. The gameplay is seen as a bit "boring", playing it too safe compared to other recent Game Arts titles such as Shima: The Endless Traveler, which was rated significantly higher. The game's pacing is said to be somewhat clunky, and ultimately, Dragonrise plays it too "old school" to be considered a truly groundbreaking RPG, with some critics saying that it might have worked better as a handheld game. Still, it's generally financially successful, selling quite well in Japan and also proving itself decently popular in the States, especially on the Apple iTwin, where it sells about twice as many copies as the Sapphire version. The success of the iTwin version of the game in North America convinces Game Arts to localize the Lunar Trilogy, an iTwin-exclusive collection of remastered versions of the original three Lunar games. The trilogy was released in Japan in December 2008, and would come to the North American iTwin in late 2009, though it's a popular import target for North American and European iTwin owners who know Japanese. Of course, North American players have already gotten the Supernova port of the Wave launch title Lunar 3: Green Destiny, which comes to the Supernova as Lunar 3: Green Destiny Legends in nearly identical form to its Wave counterpart. That game was released in North America in November 2008, and sold around 100,000 copies in the territory. The success of their Lunar prequel convinces Game Arts to continue its flagship series, and a proper Lunar 4 would go into development for both the Sapphire and iTwin with an intended release window of 2011/2012.
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Working Designs' move to its San Francisco studio in 2002 was seen as a massive opportunity for the company, and indeed, it helped them land numerous localization jobs in the years afterward, including Tsugunai: Atonement and Lufia: Bride Of Starlight. But the years following saw the jobs dry up, and with them, the company's revenues. Though Working Designs continued to localize numerous niche titles, most of them for the PC, the company saw its fortunes dwindle further. They were attracting more top-tier talent, including actors and programmers that they never could've gotten in Redding, but quality came at a price, and most of their work wasn't bringing in the sales in needed to to keep Working Designs in the black. The company began working on a number of anime localizations, but competition for those was even more fierce, with numerous Los Angeles-based companies and the Texas-based studio Funimation getting the bulk of the contracts on that front, leaving Working Designs out in the cold.
By 2007, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. But then came an opportunity from the unlikeliest of places. Game Arts, who had achieved fame in the West in large part thanks to Working Designs' localizations, was offering the company several new jobs. None of them were related to Lunar, but the company wanted to take a chance with some of its niche projects that otherwise wouldn't see localization, and Victor Ireland, who had the choice between an old grudge and his company remaining fiscally solvent, chose the latter.
"You know, it was hard to forgive them for not coming to us with Lunar 3," said Ireland. "But we were on the verge of going under. Even I was ready to admit that. So when the opportunity from Game Arts came, I mean, it was impossible to turn them down."
Ireland himself admits that he had some growing up to do over the past few years, and credits some new friends for helping him get over some of his old bitterness.
"I have gotten to know a lot of good people here in San Francisco," said Ireland, "and I've learned a lot from them too, not just about the game business but about how to be a better leader, which I think has allowed me to refocus my energy on these new projects we've been taking on."
One of those 'friends' that Ireland most credits with helping to refocus him is Ken Strickland, who currently works as a developer for Ubisoft but who, for a time, had a job as an assistant director at Working Designs during the early San Francisco years.
"Ken's one of the best partners I've ever had, he knows what makes a game good and he knows how to run a team, so I really do credit him with helping to keep Working Designs afloat when we didn't have a lot of new jobs coming in," said Ireland. "Even now, the two of us still talk, we still give each other pointers. Actually, it was me that put the idea in his head to have Ubisoft localize Elvenfall. We weren't in a position to take that game on when it was originally available, we just didn't have the capital, so I suggested to Ken that he put a team together to take up that game and I think that game's going to do awesome."
Ireland has a Supernova RPG project of his own, the first truly major game that Game Arts has trusted Working Designs with since the two companies had their reconciliation. Called Tessera, the game actually plays quite similarly to Elvenfall, but has a heavy element of science fiction to it as well, with dimensional transport playing a major role in the game's plot. It's being localized entirely by Working Designs, and the company is poised to put a massive promotional effort into the game, complete with the company's familiar limited edition treatment.
"Oh yeah, it'll definitely come in a big box with lots of bonus stuff," said Ireland, almost salivating at the idea of releasing another one of the company's patented limited editions, which have been hugely influential on the gaming industry as other companies now look to release special editions of their own, with collectibles given out alongside the game. "We'll have a regular edition too, but what true RPG fan wants that? Come on!"
(...)
Ireland also opened up to us about the current state of the gaming industry, and what companies he'd like to support in the future.
"I love what Apple and Steve Jobs are doing," said Ireland, whose company has already released two titles for the iPod Play. "I despised Sega, but now that Apple owns them, they're all right with me. And Jobs knows how to promote a game machine, for sure. The iTwin is so fun and innovative, and it doesn't need to be as powerful as the other two systems as far as I'm concerned because the kinds of games I do can easily run on it."
Of course, Ireland still supports Nintendo, the company that helped him move his headquarters to San Francisco, but he did express some frustration at how they do business.
"Nintendo, I mean, they're giving up on niche style games in a lot of ways. If you're not Squaresoft or Enix, they won't put any effort into promoting your RPGs. Game Arts might be big enough now to get some promotion, but even then, they have to fight for Nintendo's attention. Nintendo and Square are pretty much joined at the hip."
Ireland had some advice for Squaresoft, who, even though the company is one of his main rivals, he still wants to see succeed to a certain extent.
"Come make games for Apple. Apple is so popular in Japan right now. The first Final Fantasy game that comes out on the iTwin is going to sell millions."
-from an article in the December 2008 issue of GameInformer
Lunar: Dragonrise is a JRPG for the Nintendo Sapphire and Apple iTwin. It's the fourth game in the Lunar series of RPGs, and a prequel to the original trilogy, in the same way that OTL's Dragon Song for the DS was a prequel to the original game. However, that's where the similarities between the OTL and TTL games end. Dragonrise, while not quite as polished or as snazzy as a AAA RPG like Final Fantasy, is still a full fledged console game, with primarily cel-shaded graphics but with fully 3-D backgrounds and environments and fully voiced anime cutscenes. The game chronicles the adventures of the first Dragonmaster, a young man named Zeke, and his three companions (unlike the original games which had four playable characters, Dragonrise only has three). It also tells the story of how the first four dragons came to serve humanity and lend their power to the Dragonmaster. Unlike IOTL, in which Althena created the dragons in the series mythology, ITTL, the four dragons were originally members of a large tribe of dragons who opposed humanity because they believed humans to be an anomaly against nature. However, with Althena's help, Zeke and his friends convince the four dragons to lend their services to humankind to stop a terrible evil sorceress named Czarana. However, a faction of dragons led by the Pale Dragon, Vidagos, seeks to destroy humanity as revenge for encroaching upon nature, and the two main stories of the game revolve around Zeke's group of heroes and the dragons who first befriended humanity. Dragonrise features a traditional turn-based combat scheme similar to previous games in the series, but mixes things up a bit with action elements, as the player must move their heroes manually around the battlefield, and all attacks and defenses are timed in some way. There's even the opportunity to save up action points to interrupt an enemy's turn, while certain spells can also have the same effect. Dragonrise is also the first game in the series not to have an overworld map. Instead, areas are linked to other areas by forested or mountain paths, or areas that can be called dungeons in their own right. Some Althena statues can also be used to warp to other Althena statues, enabling the player to move quickly from place to place. Dragonrise features graphics that are somewhat middle of the road for the console they're featured on, and there's not too much difference in appearance between the Sapphire and iTwin versions. Game Arts, being a somewhat moderately sized company, didn't want to pour a huge amount of resources into the game's graphics, instead choosing to spend its money on music and animation. There's a ton of anime cutscenes in the game, around two full hours worth, along with plenty of voice acting. The game's English dub is performed by Los Angeles-area voice actors, and there are some fairly familiar names amongst anime fans, with the protagonist Zeke voiced by Tom Gibis, Zeke's companion/love interest Clarissa voiced by Julie Maddalena, Zeke's headstrong rival turned ally Destin voiced by Michael Reisz, and the brave beast girl Shanna voiced by Amanda Celine Miller (her first voice role ITTL).
Lunar: Dragonrise begins with Zeke in a bad situation that's rapidly getting worse: his village is attacked and destroyed by Czarana, leaving him orphaned and in search of a way to save the land. Desperate, he prays to the goddess Althena for mercy, and gets Clarissa instead, a young shrine maiden who is somewhat klutzy and whose magic is barely enough to start a campfire, let alone stop an evil sorceress. Zeke also meets Destin, who leads an army of soldiers in battle with Czarana's minions and defeats them, winning fame and fortune and showing up Zeke. Zeke does find a good friend in the young White Dragon Quark (who at the time is cute and cat-like in appearance, similar to Nall in The Silver Star), who teaches him some basic dragon magic. Zeke, Quark, and Clarissa are tasked with finding three other dragons by a vision sent from Althena, and this quest to find the dragons is the bulk of the first two thirds of the game. On the way, the group clashes with Destin (and actually fights him as a boss at one point after Zeke is framed for a crime). They also join up with Shanna, who is being kept as a maid by a cruel lord who has been granted power by Czarana. Shanna is the third party member to be permanently recruited, while Destin is the fourth after the party saves him from Czarana with the Blue Dragon's help. Eventually, Zeke secures the help of the Red and Blue Dragons, but must convince the Black Dragon, who is also the younger sister of Vidagos, to lend them her aid as well. Vidagos despises humans because they once hunted his kind, and in fact, humans killed Vidagos' older brother. Vidagos also believes all humans to be in league with Czarana due to the outrageous power she wields to control their minds. It is the Black Dragon's eventual rebellion against Vidagos as she finally joins the heroes that turns Vidagos truly against humanity and sets him on the course to being the game's main villain. Czarana is eventually defeated after Zeke activates the ritual to become a Dragonmaster, but Vidagos chooses that moment, when all of humanity is united in celebration, to launch a massive attack by a powerful dragon army. To make matters worse, Zeke's Dragonmaster powers are largely ineffectual against Vidagos because Vidagos is himself a dragon. Vidagos' dragons lay waste to much of the world, forcing humanity into hiding. It's during this, Zeke's darkest hour, that he turns to Czarana, who survived their climactic battle and claims to have a spell that can contain a dragon's power. Zeke does not wish to learn such a spell, but after Clarissa is taken prisoner by Vidagos (who hopes to take advantage of her psychic connection to Althena to fell the goddess herself, which would completely doom humanity), he allows Czarana to teach it to him. It's the same spell that Ghaleon used to trap Quark and the other dragons in the original Silver Star. During this time, Czarana becomes a guest party member in Clarissa's place, and we learn more of her backstory and why she became a dark sorceress. We learn that Althena is not the completely pure-hearted goddess she is claimed to be, and that she and Czarana were once very close friends and that Czarana was the closest human friend Althena had. However, after Czarana got too powerful, Althena became jealous and tried to weaken her. Czarana lashed out, admittedly a severe overreaction, rebelling against Althena's creation and seeking to exploit humanity's collective power and knowledge to become powerful enough to challenge Althena. It's clear that both Czarana and Althena have made mistakes, and though the game rightfully shows Czarana as being in the wrong, she, much like Ghaleon in the original game, is shown to have a compelling motivation for her actions. Zeke, Czarana, Destin, Shanna, and Quark go to find Vidagos, who has ascended Althena's Tower. They confront him and use the spell, and though its power does not keep Vidagos contained completely, it weakens him enough to allow Zeke to free Clarissa. Zeke, Clarissa, and Czarana forge a new weapon, a sword of light and darkness, that can take down Vidagos for good. They then ascend Vidagos' mountain to take him and his army down forever. After a long and ferocious battle, Vidagos is defeated, but the battle takes a heavy toll: most of dragonkind has been killed in the civil war, leaving the Four Dragons who serve the Dragonmaster as four of the few remaining members of the species. Also, the fate of Czarana, who once again tries to strike against Althena, is a sad one: Zeke sides with Althena, and uses the power of the Dragonmaster to literally banish Czarana from the light of Althena, forcing her and her followers to the Frontier to become the Vile Tribe. Ironically, it's implied that the descendant of Zeke and Clarissa is Ghaleon, who would be the one to bring the Vile Tribe back into the world Althena cast them out of.
Lunar: Dragonrise is released in North America on December 9, 2008, a few months after the game's Japanese release. Critical reviews are quite good, but not great, averaging in the high 7s/low 8s. The game is most highly praised for its excellently animated cutscenes and its storyline, which heavily advances and builds upon the Lunar mythology and has numerous callbacks to popular characters and elements in the series. The gameplay is seen as a bit "boring", playing it too safe compared to other recent Game Arts titles such as Shima: The Endless Traveler, which was rated significantly higher. The game's pacing is said to be somewhat clunky, and ultimately, Dragonrise plays it too "old school" to be considered a truly groundbreaking RPG, with some critics saying that it might have worked better as a handheld game. Still, it's generally financially successful, selling quite well in Japan and also proving itself decently popular in the States, especially on the Apple iTwin, where it sells about twice as many copies as the Sapphire version. The success of the iTwin version of the game in North America convinces Game Arts to localize the Lunar Trilogy, an iTwin-exclusive collection of remastered versions of the original three Lunar games. The trilogy was released in Japan in December 2008, and would come to the North American iTwin in late 2009, though it's a popular import target for North American and European iTwin owners who know Japanese. Of course, North American players have already gotten the Supernova port of the Wave launch title Lunar 3: Green Destiny, which comes to the Supernova as Lunar 3: Green Destiny Legends in nearly identical form to its Wave counterpart. That game was released in North America in November 2008, and sold around 100,000 copies in the territory. The success of their Lunar prequel convinces Game Arts to continue its flagship series, and a proper Lunar 4 would go into development for both the Sapphire and iTwin with an intended release window of 2011/2012.
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Working Designs' move to its San Francisco studio in 2002 was seen as a massive opportunity for the company, and indeed, it helped them land numerous localization jobs in the years afterward, including Tsugunai: Atonement and Lufia: Bride Of Starlight. But the years following saw the jobs dry up, and with them, the company's revenues. Though Working Designs continued to localize numerous niche titles, most of them for the PC, the company saw its fortunes dwindle further. They were attracting more top-tier talent, including actors and programmers that they never could've gotten in Redding, but quality came at a price, and most of their work wasn't bringing in the sales in needed to to keep Working Designs in the black. The company began working on a number of anime localizations, but competition for those was even more fierce, with numerous Los Angeles-based companies and the Texas-based studio Funimation getting the bulk of the contracts on that front, leaving Working Designs out in the cold.
By 2007, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. But then came an opportunity from the unlikeliest of places. Game Arts, who had achieved fame in the West in large part thanks to Working Designs' localizations, was offering the company several new jobs. None of them were related to Lunar, but the company wanted to take a chance with some of its niche projects that otherwise wouldn't see localization, and Victor Ireland, who had the choice between an old grudge and his company remaining fiscally solvent, chose the latter.
"You know, it was hard to forgive them for not coming to us with Lunar 3," said Ireland. "But we were on the verge of going under. Even I was ready to admit that. So when the opportunity from Game Arts came, I mean, it was impossible to turn them down."
Ireland himself admits that he had some growing up to do over the past few years, and credits some new friends for helping him get over some of his old bitterness.
"I have gotten to know a lot of good people here in San Francisco," said Ireland, "and I've learned a lot from them too, not just about the game business but about how to be a better leader, which I think has allowed me to refocus my energy on these new projects we've been taking on."
One of those 'friends' that Ireland most credits with helping to refocus him is Ken Strickland, who currently works as a developer for Ubisoft but who, for a time, had a job as an assistant director at Working Designs during the early San Francisco years.
"Ken's one of the best partners I've ever had, he knows what makes a game good and he knows how to run a team, so I really do credit him with helping to keep Working Designs afloat when we didn't have a lot of new jobs coming in," said Ireland. "Even now, the two of us still talk, we still give each other pointers. Actually, it was me that put the idea in his head to have Ubisoft localize Elvenfall. We weren't in a position to take that game on when it was originally available, we just didn't have the capital, so I suggested to Ken that he put a team together to take up that game and I think that game's going to do awesome."
Ireland has a Supernova RPG project of his own, the first truly major game that Game Arts has trusted Working Designs with since the two companies had their reconciliation. Called Tessera, the game actually plays quite similarly to Elvenfall, but has a heavy element of science fiction to it as well, with dimensional transport playing a major role in the game's plot. It's being localized entirely by Working Designs, and the company is poised to put a massive promotional effort into the game, complete with the company's familiar limited edition treatment.
"Oh yeah, it'll definitely come in a big box with lots of bonus stuff," said Ireland, almost salivating at the idea of releasing another one of the company's patented limited editions, which have been hugely influential on the gaming industry as other companies now look to release special editions of their own, with collectibles given out alongside the game. "We'll have a regular edition too, but what true RPG fan wants that? Come on!"
(...)
Ireland also opened up to us about the current state of the gaming industry, and what companies he'd like to support in the future.
"I love what Apple and Steve Jobs are doing," said Ireland, whose company has already released two titles for the iPod Play. "I despised Sega, but now that Apple owns them, they're all right with me. And Jobs knows how to promote a game machine, for sure. The iTwin is so fun and innovative, and it doesn't need to be as powerful as the other two systems as far as I'm concerned because the kinds of games I do can easily run on it."
Of course, Ireland still supports Nintendo, the company that helped him move his headquarters to San Francisco, but he did express some frustration at how they do business.
"Nintendo, I mean, they're giving up on niche style games in a lot of ways. If you're not Squaresoft or Enix, they won't put any effort into promoting your RPGs. Game Arts might be big enough now to get some promotion, but even then, they have to fight for Nintendo's attention. Nintendo and Square are pretty much joined at the hip."
Ireland had some advice for Squaresoft, who, even though the company is one of his main rivals, he still wants to see succeed to a certain extent.
"Come make games for Apple. Apple is so popular in Japan right now. The first Final Fantasy game that comes out on the iTwin is going to sell millions."
-from an article in the December 2008 issue of GameInformer
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