Stage 008 of Warning a Huge Podcast is here, and as usual it's excellent. There's a lot of talk on localisation, and it was interesting to discover that Casey and Nick worked alongside Jeremy Blaustein on Suikoden 2. One of the most interesting aspects was answering a reader's letter on why Japan is no longer top dog in the industry. Could it be due to a lack of new blood and the old guard keeping too tight a reign on things? Some excellent discussion within.
//Stage 008
//Main Topic: Comment of You Special
//Now Playing: 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
//Subtopics: Kayopolice`s big surprise, Japan is hot for girls who are boys, take your LovePlus+ girlfriend on a hot springs vacation, could Monster Hunter Portable 3rd go head-to-head with Nintendo 3DS, Atlus is dead, Atlus is not dead, Kamurocho may be dead, the hot reveal of… SaGa 3 remake for DS, Japanese developers keep saying Japanese development is dead, Final Fantasy XIV open beta is kinda dead (and the game wants to tell you how long you can play), SquareEnix trying harder for the Black Ops localization in Japan, Xbox 360 gets more shooting love (but Takahashi Meijin doesn`t like where the genre now is), SWERY is busy with Lord of Arcana – one of many Monster Hunter clones coming to Japan this year, Dead Rising 2: Case 0 shows Japan too much panty, Yun & Yang look to be confirmed for SSFIV (while Nick dreams of Elena and shidoshi begs for Poison), Zettai Zetsumei 4 features amazing advancements in graphic fidelity and toilet mechanics, we answer a metric ton of question you`ve asked us, and then we talk (very) briefly about upcoming releases and sales numbers.
As usual, another great podcast from these guys. I think it is interesting to discuss how the Japanese developers have fallen from grace since the advent of this console generation. The younger guys in the companies are too busy bowing their heads to Miyamoto and Inafune instead of having their voices heard. I am sure they have hot ideas that will never see the light of day simply because they do not have the seniority backing them. Every game needs to sell a shit load of copies according to Inafune, but look at him wasting Capcom's money with his horrible Dead Rising movie. No wonder the doujin scene is where we see the most Japanese creativity these days.
ReplyDeleteI bit the bullet and finally downloaded the podcast a week ago. I have to say, I have enjoyed it a great deal. I am currently going back through the older podcasts and I went ahead and imported a game for my DS.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised to say it, but I think you're having an effect on me, Sketcz.
Who cares about Elena? Karin. Now.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned Phantasy Star Portable. Why the HELL hasn't Sega brought over remakes of the original Phantasy Star games? If Sega wants a piece of the nostalgia pie, then they're shooting themselves in the foot by not localizing these games for Westerners to enjoy! The higher-ups must be high on something(does Japan ever do drugs) to not bring it here. My ideal release would feature such additions as:
ReplyDelete-HD graphics
-Ported to Steam, XBLA, WiiWare(yes, I'm serious) and PSN.
-Extra gameplay features and bonus levels/dungeons.
-The option to let your characters use the original Japanese names.
-A totally revamped localization on par with stuff by Nintendo, WD, or Ted Woolsey
-Redesigned dungeons, since they were annoying mazes with dead ends.