Bad news for Star Ocean 4 in English Release

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/02/10/star-ocean-4-english-version-dumps-anime-for-cg/

SO yeah, Star Ocean 4 is dumping anime visuals for lameass CGs. I uh threw a email at Square enix's contact information. . .

Whatever I'm unhappy.

It's not on my must to buy list anymore to just maybe just maybe thats all.

FUCK.
My chances of ever owning one of those new systems that can even play SO4 is extremely low, but that is still bad news.

this is one of the main reasons why i want to learn japanese @_@ In most cases, japanese seiyuu outclass english dubbers (MOST especially star ocean games, oh god, the dubbers suck so badly, i switch off the sound everytime i play any star ocean game).

Well I'm thinking of ordering Japanese Copy of the game and then try to figure out how to play it if it's region locked. I'll have to hope they'll sell a strategy guide for it.

Boo! :x

I think you're over-exaggerating things. It's sad that the 2D portraits are gone, but it just seems to be relatively minor aesthetics. It's not like Tales of Hearts where all the cutscenes that were in 2D originally were changed to 3D.

Apparently they aren't aware that people who play rpgs are most likely to be anime fans as well (regardless of nationality). Oh well, I don't have a 360 so it doesn't concern me.

It's true that the more niche JRPGs like Persona and Disgaea are largely played by people who are anime fans, but the more popular ones tend to distance themselves from being all that Japanese. Final Fantasy probably being the most obvious example of that. Anime styles may attract more hardcore fans but it's a total turn-off for the average person, same as Japanese voices in games.

The same goes for any game, actually, not just JRPGs. Look at how much more popular games like Soul Calibur and Tekken are than games like King of Fighters. Hardcore fighting game fans will generally prefer KOF to SC and Tekken but they're just a drop in the ocean of "casual gamers". SC goes for a European feel and Tekken, while having a Japanese name and a good amount of Japanese characters, feels very western compared to KOF which has 2D anime graphics, anime portraits and anime cutscenes (well, stills with text at the bottom).

Hmm...

While I DO see the logic of that viewpoint, I would like to point out that KoF and SC/Tekken are completely different genre of fighting games. KoF is a 2D fighter, and SC/Tekken are 3D fighters. Different genres attract different people, not so much the different localization aspects of the games.

Hell, I'm a biased as hell anime fan, and I prefer SC to KoF, simply because I like moving in more then one direction.

Well, this continues the tradition of being able to count good localizations on your fingertips.

Thank you for contacting SQUARE ENIX Customer Support,

We appreciate your feedback. We apologize that the announcement you are referring to does not meet your expectations. Your information will be forwarded to my superiors. We do cherish the support and opinion from our customers and look forward to hearing your remarks regarding our upcoming games.

Thanks,
Anthony P- SQUARE ENIX Customer Support
www.square-enix.com

Is the reply I got in the email. Quick, everyone bomb them with your emails saying you wanna anime visuals <.<And><

"So far, it appears only the interface will be suffering this treatment; replacing the entire character designs with properly effete CG designs probably exceeds their localisation budget, although we have to wonder whether they would try given the chance."



This better be all they're doing to the game, if they remove the anime visuals like in the image I just attached to here bit above, i'm not buying the game for sure in immediate future, I'd probably cave in years later ><

So it's out now, anyone had a chance to play it yet? Do we know what's in and out as far as the anime style artwork goes?

On that note, how's the game in general? I saw a video that made me realize the voice-acting is probably going to be obnoxious. (but then, what JRPG doesn't have a nasty english dub?) No spoilers please, but better, worse or even to SO3 so far?

I just got the game and the lack of anime artwork is kinda disapointing... the game is completely english dub with no option for jap, and the main character's voice actor isnt that good in my oppinion... but if you dont really care about that stuff its still a good rpg, if you liked SO3 then id recomend getting this game, I give it a 8.5/10

on a side note has anyone else noticed that ingame text in recent rpgs seem to be geting smaller O_o? (i need a new tv -_-)

I just got it as well, about 12 hours in. I gotta say I like it so far, but I'm not a picky gamer. I would have preferred the anime style dialogue pictures, but I'll live. I don't mind the main character's English voice. The only voice I really dislike is the little girl's voice (which I gladly used the option to individually turn off her battle mode voice).

Someone said there wasn't enough room on the disc for jap and eng voice acting, but I would at least love a download-able jap package (like they did for Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, I think, or was it Lost Odyssey?).

Disgaea 3 has that problem. It has something to do with the text meant for HD TVs being shown on SDs.

I will murder everyone of these english voice actors in this game....MURDER I TELL U!

I had this problem with Mass Effect too, I literally couldn't read some of it on the T.V. in my room, so I eventually just gave up and moved my 360 to the living room which has a NICE HD t.v., I LOVE gaming on it, but it limits when I'm able to play since everyone else in the house loves that tv too. :/

I'm probably gonna pick this up on my way home from class today. I wonder if they could be convinced to have the anime dialogue boxes as downloadable content in the future? Maybe we should shoot them some emails. ;)

Oh, and the Japanese dialogue thing, they apparently really didn't have room for it. I was reading in a review that the 3rd disc has so much crap on it, you actually have to change discs to go back to some earlier areas of the game. ;>.>

So, no anime visuals in dialog boxes?! That really sucks. What does the dialog box looks like now? Just text? Or replaced by the CGs?

horrible. i was looking forward to SO4 cuz SOTET3 was like the best game ever. damn

Those cute little emotion displaying anime pics got replaced by god awful 3d models. ~_~ Fuck, even the text font is worse. The worst part is you can TELL what kind of emotions you'd be seeing on their faces if the anime pics were still in, but it all looks the same with the 3d models.

AARRGGHH just as I feared ><

I would live with cgs on battlemode and stat screen but, dude, dialog texts too? ! =/ oh well. I won't be immediately buying star ocean 4 right now, maybe like later, really reallly later.