Random Thoughts on Random RPG News

Etrian Odyssey 4 comes to North America on February 26, 2013. Hurray!

There have been a few interesting tidbits to pop up regarding RPGs that I'm looking forward to over the course of the day, so I figured I'd make this post as a bit of a catch all where I talk / gush about this stuff.  It's all related to handheld RPGs, but we only know that one of them will be seeing a western release, and that's a bit of the news right there.

So, what am I all excited about?  Well, first of all Atlus has finally announced a firm release day for Etrian Odyssey 4.  Up until now we just knew it was coming to the west at some point in 2013, but we didn't know when.  Now we have an answer to that question, or at least people in North America do, and that's February 26th.  With that I say hurray because I've been quite excited about the game since it was announced, and it's nice to finally know exactly when it will be available.  I've not spent anywhere near as much time as I would have liked with the previous games in the series, but I'm not going to make that same mistake with number four.  It will be mine day one.

Idols are coming to 7th Dragon 2020
Part II, and charisma is an important
stat for them.

The other bit of news that caught my attention is that 7th Dragon 2020 Part II is in the works, again for the PSP.  I sincerely doubt that this game will ever see a release outside of Japan given that the first two parts of the series were never localized.  Nonetheless, there seems to be some interesting tidbits trickling out about the game like how there is a character class called an idol, and that its primary stat is charisma.  Even without further details, I find that kinda neat.  I always look at charisma as the stat for opening up extra conversation options, and that's about it.  Hopefully it'll do a little more than that here.

Oh, I should also mention that Phantasy Star Online 2 has a release on the Vita confirmed for Japan next year.  It'll be coming along as a free download as well as a special edition physical version that will run about 5300 yen.  I'm happy to hear that this version of the game is still a thing, especially given how lackluster things have been on the software front for the Vita.  Hopefully the game being free to play will help to generate some more interest in the handheld, and move some units.  Obviously we should be realistic here.  PSO2 is still a pretty niche game, and isn't going to single-handedly save the Vita, but it's still a quality title, and it would be nice if it could contribute to a healthy uptick in sales for the system.

Phantasy Star Online 2 is confirmed for Vita in Japan next
February.  PS - Wired lances are pretty awesome.

Anyway, just some random bits of RPG news that popped up over the last day or so that I thought was pretty interesting and / or exciting.  It's nice to see this stuff, especially in the run-up to Christmas.  I wonder if there will be any more interesting announcements before the end of the year.

7th Dragon: Will We Ever See It in the West?

I first saw this game during a trip
to Japan a few years ago, and have
been fascinated with it ever since.

Sega is one of those companies that leaves a lot of people scratching their heads with some of the business decisions that it makes. I'm not going to start talking about all of them here because that would take a massive blog post unto itself, but I do want to look at some of their recent choices, or I guess lack of choices, in games that they've localized for the West. Really, I just want to rant a bit about how 7th Dragon has never seen a release outside of Japan because it seems like such a waste.

I know it's a bit of a niche game, but it's not like companies such as Atlus, XSEED, and NIS America haven't found ways to turn a profit on such games. Why can't Sega find a way to do the same? From what I've read, some publishers seem to think that the game was too challenging for a Western market. This seems silly, and like an excuse one would have heard in the early 90s as to why a game wasn't coming out here. There are plenty of people who like tough games here, so I find it difficult to believe that challenge would be an issue. According to Hardcore Gaming 101, there may also have been tensions between Kazuya Niinou and Atlus, which prevented Atlus from localizing the game for the West, which is a shame if it's true.

There was a futuristic sequel on the PSP that we never got either.

I'm not going to describe the game in detail here, there's a decent Wikipedia page discussing it, and an absolutely fantastic article describing the RPG at Hardcore Gaming 101, so check those sites out if you want to learn more about the game. I'll just say that it's a really snazzy overhead RPG with a bit of a who's who of JRPG developers involved with it (Kazuya Niinou of Etrian Odyssey fame, Reiko Kodama of Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia, and composer Yuzo Koshiro).

It's probably too late to hope for the DS game to come our way in anything other than a fan made English patch (probably the same for the PSP game), but with recent news that a new install is being shown in an upcoming Famitsu, it's gotten me thinking about the series again, and what a shame it is that it never came to the West. Sad Jejun is sad.