Star Ocean 4 Coming To US, Now With 100% Less Anime
In an attempt at what I can only assume is to try and make the the game more appealing to Western audiences, Square-Enix has removed all traces of anime from Star Ocean: The Last Hope. In the Japanese version, anime style character portraits appear on the battle screen, in menus, and accompanying dialog boxes. In the US version however the battle screen portraits have been replaced with CG ones, the menus use a darker color palette along with CG character images, and the portraits during dialog have been completely removed.
Personally, I'm mixed on how I feel about it. On the one hand, I think the anime style is more expressive. On the other hand, the in-game characters are CG, so it makes for a more consistent visual style. I am going to miss the character portraits during dialog, since that was a JRPG convention that I've always enjoyed and felt adds a lot of personality to the conversations. I'm also generally put-off by the fact that Square-Enix is changing the game to appeal to a broader Western audience that will still ignore the game. Face it, the only people that are going to buy Star Ocean: The Last Hope are the people who are already fans of JRPGs, and those are the people who would actually appreciate the anime style.
Different Region, Different Star Ocean: The Last Hope Interface [Siliconera]
NaviFairy
Posted to Video Games on 10 February 2009
· Comments (18)
Other stuff like this: anime, cgi, Square Enix, Star Ocean 4, xenophobia
Don't forget that Star Ocean DOES have a following. It's not as big as Final Fantasy, but they're just as loyal.
That last point is the really big one here... these little minor changes aren't going to make someone who normally only buys Madden and Halo suddenly care about Star Ocean.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an elitist and I'm glad those casual players are there to help keep the industry profitable as a whole, but there's no point trying to dilute the games for the hardcore when the casual players won't care no matter what. They aren't putting anime portraits in Madden, so why bother taking them out of Star Ocean?
How very strange. I would have never in a hundred years thought that anime elements would have been anything other than a selling point in a Japanese RPG. Squeenix, if you really want to make your game appeal to people who might not otherwise give a damn, how about you call it something less twinklymagic than "Star Ocean"?
I'm raging.
Pointless change is pointless and seemingly only made to cause wank.
Tsk tsk, SE+tA.
I disagree with the main point here about people who would play regardless like the art style. Personally, I do not many japanese animation art styles; however I enjoy the RPG game mechanics.
Please don't assume your opinions are prevelant.
Yeah i agree the change is pointless. How could they try to appeal to western audiences by taking out the anime?
Most people who like JRPGs already like anime.
I think this shows how little Squeenix and Japanese game developers in general understand about their western audience... they're grasping at straws here -_-
I'm not pleased by this decision. I was hyped for this game, but now I'll spend the money on Suikoden Tierkreis instead and wait until this game drops below ~35$.
Too bad, SE. Better luck next time. :3
Has it been confirmed that they're actually REMOVING all the anime images and such, or is it possible that it will be an option in the options menu, kinda like some games have the option of turning on Japanese VA with English subtitles?
Well I personally think that it is kind of sad, this reminds me of 4kids translations where they try to take out anything Japanese related. Though that was a bit more 'severe' then this isn't star ocean a Japanese game? So why would anime be such a 'shocker'? I too think it is pointless.
I am not even sure about being even interested in this game thanks to Star Ocean 3. That game sucked, period. The last great star ocean game was star ocean 2 at least for me.
I dunno...I kinda like the new versions better. Not that there's anything wrong with the original work. Meh...I can see why hardcore fans might be disappointed, but with so much serious crap going wrong everywhere, hardly seems like something to get "enraged" over.
I'm similarly torn on the matter.
... on the one hand, the characters are CG, so I would expect the pictures of those characters to also be CG.... it makes sense.
... but on the other hand, changing it would make me feel like im not seeing the game as it was intended to be seen...
Its like watching dubbed anime...
Grrr. I'm with my buddy PigLatinHaiku up there - this should be a menu item. Make the default portrait be the CGI for those "OMG anime sucks lolz" crowd - and give the option for folks who like their portraits hand-drawn.
Not to mention...what about the damn FANS that have been with this series since Second Story? They're used to the Anime type style so why screw them over to try and get 10 more people to play?
This is just as bad as them changing Gyoro and Ururun in Star Ocean: Second Story to Creepy and Wheepy in Star Ocean: Second Evolution. Yes, let's translate the names into the literal terms! Always good!
Like crappy subtitles that change Seto Kaiba to Seto Seahorse.
I know a thing or two about Symbology and Vendeeni ... my tastes are more Atlus than Square ... but still, I'm in the target audience. :)
I'll play devil's advocate and say that while I love these games, I prefer the localized art. Anime ... meh ... like dentistry, I accept its existence.
I think this was fueled but successes of FPS and fallout titles. Because it CG it now cool to show this game at a frat house.
horrible pigeon holing this change. But I am most likely right.
What is the point of this?
These is a little girl in a pink dress......
The characters are already fainfully typical anime style, in game or not, so I fail to see how this will change anything. Seems like they are wasting their time.
I would but this game either way as I love the star ocean series (the second story was my personal favourite). The menu that they made for europe and america is much nicer, the menu for the original is not as nice and it honestly bothered me so I'm glad they changed the menu's.