Interesting. I’ll need to check that out.
I do know that MMX4 was delayed due to in-house issues. Given how easily and quickly MMX5 and MMX6 were released, if Sony did have issues, they gave them up after the 4th title.
Badass. I didn’t know there was an English version on the way. Awesome! Now I don’t have to justify on English sites, how I know Fefnir, Leviathan, and Harpuia died during MMZ4 - and how their remains (along with Weil, Zero, Omega, and X) are the basis of the Biometal… since they were all located in at the same crash site. Oops… series spoiler.
Giggles I actually found it hard to get the new scenes they added it. And after playing both the Chinese version and the Korean version, I have come to this conclusion… Korea got ripped off. The extra scenes are not there, the begining of the story doesn’t even have narriration, The graphics are very, VERY different, and you can’t press ctrl to skip over the text, unless you already read it (Which is a pain after I finished the game twice, and went for a different ending. I mean, do I really need to read about lumberjacking? Actually… I can’t even read Korean text… so meh…), and you can’t tell what the dresses will look like on your daughter, unless you buy them, where in the Chinese version, you can get a preview of it.
Strangely enough, the Korean version of the game was released to PC first, before any other PM4 games, and was in a special limited edition packet, which included a music CD, and some other goodies. The Chinese Version of PM4: Final, it came with a full color instruction manual, and even a guide book to get all the endings and scenes! (And I got it for $15 on sale at Playasia.com… lucky me! It also comes with the PM4 Omake game, that the Korean version lacked, and was on a DVDRom… not to mention cost me $60 less!)
And for my first ending in PM4: Final… she married Christina… -_-; If you meet with a friend too much, I think, you’ll end up marrying her.
And did I mention that there was MORE voice actting in the Chinese version, than the Korean? (It’s very, very close to the Japanese PM4 PC version…)
Okay… enough of me ranting… does anyone know where I can get the Chinese fonts for my Chinese version of the game? Anyone? I’m tired of seeing just blocks…
-Nicole Wagner
PS: Forgive my spelling errors… I am suffering from a terrible flu like virus, and do not want to have to back track to fix it… too much energy… bah… I wasted enough, already…
Korea got PM4 before anyone else: some argue the game series is more popular there than in Japan. For that reason I suppose, it has features missing or lacking that were in the later Chinese and PS2 release. My assumption is the Korean publisher released the “beta version” rather than waiting for the gold version to be complete so they could get it out sooner. However I’m told the Korean developers are the ones who made the PC Windows version - so they might have had the complete version at their release, but Gainax added more to the PS2 version in their embarrisment that they were out done.
So I don’t think the Koreans got ripped off… they just were first.
Hmmm… seems PlayAsia restocked the title and is selling it for $20 (without shipping).
However, this is the CHINESE VERSION that’s being sold. I repeat: this is NOT in Japanese. The screenshots are misleading (they just used the ones from the Japanese version).
This title contains everything the Japanese version had, so if you can read Chinese - or are REALLY good at Kanji - it might be worth a gander. Price is way cheaper than the $90 it costs for the Japanese edition too.
I believe there were a few attempts early on, but Gainax is very closed when it comes to EVA. They have a working contract with ADV and that’s it.
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The money may be the problem ultimately more than first experience. An entire generation has grown and anime is much more well known in the US than during the age of DOS.
I still think however, it has more to do with the Chinese and Korean distributors than Gainax itself. The licensing cost is highly unlikely to be the same as trying to port an Evangelion game (and even if it is, they probably would be more willing to negotiate).
Just because they have some series that are popular, does not mean they don’t want to make more of them popular and get a larger share of the market. It is that move which is occuring right now with lesser known titles in mainstream video-game market with the recent advertising blitz for lesser known games as the uber popular ones have reached virtual saturation levels on all major markets around the globe.
True, it would require more work, but the market share is also much greater and more able to offset costs.
That is not a finite limit. Before the Biohazard port people said 64mb was their limit.
Now as to 128 mb, a lot of that will be stripped when you reduce size to 256x192. Take out some movies or shrink their playing time or remake an opening (it’s not that hard…just need permission). Take out some or all audio files and add commpression and you can easily get it under 128.
And it won’t be a US company doing this likely. A DS port would be Japanese first almost certainly. Very few games are ported first to the US and then Japan, except sports games. Therefore, the US company would only be worrying about translation and editing some artwork on screens if they already took out the audio. Since Nintendo doesn’t have the same policy for the US with audio, it is certainly possible for them even if they keep the audio to let it stay with Japanese if they think dubbing won’t net them more profit than it will cost to hire english VA.
No, you’re right. However PM3 and PM2 refine won’t (neither would pm1 refine, but after playing 1 and 2…2 has everything 1 has…except the number of outfits for your daughter). If you look at ports for the DS, most of them are from older games. I don’t think a port of PM4 or PM5 is likely, but PM3 or even PM2 is.
When they realize they will be watering down stuff, most companies try to add something unique to a port atleast.
Anyway, based on the number of PSP sales, PSP is the last thing to likely have it ported to. It’s not a dead product, but it certainly is dying…mostly because of the $$ and lack of original games…but more because of the $$ (that’s why the Wii is so popular because it cost less $$).
For PC, it would be best, but given a the market in the US, a DS port is likely the best to sell the most copies and thus the best to change Gainax’s outlook on what the US market thinks of the series.
Funny thing about Sony. They don’t always reject a title when it’s proposed: sometimes they say, “make the finished translated product, then we’ll make a choice.” So a studio will translate the game until it’s Gold, pouring time and money into the project, then Sony rejects it in the final board meeting. I can name off quite a few companies that have been screwed like this: not just Working Designs. For a studio that’s making a said game their first attempt, it can be the death knell and spirit breaker - but big ones can suffer if two or three titles in a row get the same treatment.
For a lot of 2D games, Sony will make their release/trash decision after the work is complete: hence a lot of companies not wanting to make the gamble and avoiding 2D ports and going to Nintendo for such things.[/qb]
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They also are less worried about their older systems. Many PS1 ports for early FF games came to the US once the PS2 started selling. I assume Sony will relax their attitude when it comes to ps2 as well.
A bit simpler than that. The PS2 was their main system. They began to hype it for its 3D graphics capabiltiies so they slammed the door on 2D ps2 ports. PS1 ports were still okay (note: there were still exceptions…* looks at his Romance of the Three Kingdoms titles for PS2…all 2D *).
I believe Sony will begin to relax stuff on PS2 after a couple years, once people start making more games for ps3…or the ps3 starts to seriously crumble.
Given that’s it’s an older title it would have a better chance. As said, I think aside from a PC release here in the states, a DS version would be best option and personally I think PM3 is probably the best game for a DS candidate release.
That’s definitely arguable. First there’s the cost of obtaining multiple licenses (at least two of them). Then there’s the DS development license and title permission from Nintendo (not really hard to get but expensive). Following that would be the porting process – then showing the end results to Gainax and Nintendo. Nintendo is notorious for adding more to a title when it comes to the DS (and the Wii I’m told; but I’ve never worked on that) – which usually is for the best, but requires more money and time… blah, blah, blah…
Long story short: it isn’t a good idea to port PM from a seller’s point of view, when there are OTHER titles available which are far more marketable. The investment of money and time would be the same, so why do a game that would make “x” amount of money, when you can get a game that will get “x + x + x” amount of money for the same work?
Of course if you’re a company that WANTS to bring PM on a DS because you’re a fan of it, then it totally throws off the argument of greater profit… but there isn’t a company like that in the US that I know of - unless Peach Princess gets in the DS business.
Well, while Amazon still lists the item as not in stock, I have had reports from multiple sources that Cute Knight Deluxe is on the shelves in the US - Best Buy at least, don’t know where else. Unfortunately I’m not in the country so I can’t see it myself!
So now I guess I have to make my purchase decisions…
It depends upon what the title is and what the company wants to be associated with as well. EA makes plenty of games, but they are known for sports games. When most people just hear the name “EA” that’s the first genre of game that comes to mind (there may be other first things that come to mind, but i won’t get into that…) for most gamers. If you don’t want to be labeled as a certain type of gaming company, especially important for smaller ones than conglomerates, that is also a factor.
There there is the fact that many games are bombs when ported that are hyped and others sneak past and become major hits.
Which, if you’ll look, PM3 is the title i said would be the best option, both for content and (likely) licensing fee (and theoretically less likely to come into major contracting disputes).
US stockholders didn’t have much say in the Emotion Engine process. In fact, the US stockholders didn’t get any significant say during the ENTIRE development cycle of the PS2. Hell… Sony of America itself didn’t get any say. The entire process was handled between Sony of Japan and Toshiba exclusively. Because of this, no third party software company (CAPCOM, Konami, etc) got to see - let alone provide feedback - on the hardware implementation.
The entire context and the time frame of what you’re talking about here, is different from the context and time frame I’m talking about. So the arguments don’t match…
It’s my fault this thing spiraled into this, so I’ll just stop on my end. All I wanted to say, is that a Princess Maker port on a DS is VERY, VERY, VERY unlikely because the hardware issues are messy. That’s my opinion on the matter, and I think I’ve gone to far in trying to justify it, as well as going totally off topic.
EDIT #2
So with that said, I’ll do to this thread, what I always do to threads that I think become counterproductive.
Anyway my point was never that it would be easy. If you got that idea, you were mistaken. Just that a port of PM3…maybe PM1/2R, maybe…would be doable. And with that said:
