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Ys VIII: Localization Update, PC release delayed to 2018
- Thread starter Pix
- Start date
How did they blunder akiba's beat? I haven't played it but from all accounts the localization is very good, its just that the game isn't.
I personally love Falcom's old games like Xanadu Next but i can see why they are not huge sellers those games are very niche and they look really really old by today's standards.
Well, aside from KKK Witches, I've seen some examples of overly liberal localization here and there. Akiba's Trip also had a similar reaction until more critical discussions showed it ranged from fine to great, so maybe "blunder" doesn't describe the Akiba's Beat localization accurately. The game itself looks very disappointing, however, and I bet 50 mira it didn't sell to XSEED's expectations...or even close.
Obligatory picture:
In all seriousness: I love the Ys series a lot and it's pretty sad to see that the localization of Ys VIII was handled so badly. It's good that they're trying to fix it (of course I do have to agree that thinking it could be done in just 2 months was kinda illusional on their part).
I'm actually glad that I didn't have the money to grab it day 1 on the PS4. Now I will just wait for localization patch and then gladly buy it. It's a bit sad to see that this is holding back the PC release, since Ys is originally a PC series.
In all seriousness: I love the Ys series a lot and it's pretty sad to see that the localization of Ys VIII was handled so badly. It's good that they're trying to fix it (of course I do have to agree that thinking it could be done in just 2 months was kinda illusional on their part).
I'm actually glad that I didn't have the money to grab it day 1 on the PS4. Now I will just wait for localization patch and then gladly buy it. It's a bit sad to see that this is holding back the PC release, since Ys is originally a PC series.
probably didnt, but XSEED gambled on it and started localizing it nearly in step with the japanese release, expecting a much better game than they were given.
Hmm, yeah, I really want to take bets on what was the worse Bad-Bet Expensive Localization of this year: Akiba's Beat, or Valkyria Revolution?
Really hard to discern IMO. They've both got a lot of the same circumstances going for them.
I mean, they did port Valkyria Revolution on Xbox One for the West for some reason. Couldn't have been cheap.
I was pretty satisfied with NISA's handling of Danganronpa v3 (I don't recall it being free of errors, but that happens sometimes) so it was really shocking to me when I saw some of the howlers that made it into Ys...
What a mess, really. They rushed it, and consequently now they've having to spend more time patching it up.
Shame too, I've really enjoyed what I've played of it gameplay wise. I think I'm around Chapter/Act 4 or so. I've been put off completing it though considering this update might be coming.
Shame too, I've really enjoyed what I've played of it gameplay wise. I think I'm around Chapter/Act 4 or so. I've been put off completing it though considering this update might be coming.
Yeah, they definitely favoured DRV3's localisation over Ys VIII's. I'm not saying that either of them should've had a better localisation than the other, but this kinda treatment on the latest game of a 30-year-old iconic series of a pionner of the Japanese RPG only shows NISA's lack of care and respect towards the game itself, the fanbase, and Falcom themselves.
Is there more stuff like this?Obligatory picture:
In all seriousness: I love the Ys series a lot and it's pretty sad to see that the localization of Ys VIII was handled so badly. It's good that they're trying to fix it (of course I do have to agree that thinking it could be done in just 2 months was kinda illusional on their part).
I'm actually glad that I didn't have the money to grab it day 1 on the PS4. Now I will just wait for localization patch and then gladly buy it. It's a bit sad to see that this is holding back the PC release, since Ys is originally a PC series.
I always thought Xseed was very overrated on the P front in terms of the quality of their programming, so I was happy of the change.
I am disappointed in how NI hasn't been able to put out a decent port yet, but at least they were aware of their issues before release and is working to actually releaze a functional product,
I am disappointed in how NI hasn't been able to put out a decent port yet, but at least they were aware of their issues before release and is working to actually releaze a functional product,
XSEED's ports have consistently been well-made and packed with quality-of-life features. How is this a better situation when the port was so bad initially that it had to be delayed several months only a day before the originally scheduled release?
I don't have pictures, but this album misses some really good/bad ones, like the winning lines "In a strangely curious way, I find myself curious to meet her" and "There might even be information that you all might be able to find precisely because it's you", as well as a comically poor name romanization that would be wrong in any context but just happens to screw up a reference to the Trails series.
"Viceman"
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Obligatory picture:
In all seriousness: I love the Ys series a lot and it's pretty sad to see that the localization of Ys VIII was handled so badly. It's good that they're trying to fix it (of course I do have to agree that thinking it could be done in just 2 months was kinda illusional on their part).
I'm actually glad that I didn't have the money to grab it day 1 on the PS4. Now I will just wait for localization patch and then gladly buy it. It's a bit sad to see that this is holding back the PC release, since Ys is originally a PC series.
Wow lol...
Is this real? If so is that actually what the JP version says?
I never said it was a better situation, I didn't separate those two thoughts clearly enough. I'm just saying that at least they knew what they had was unacceptable, and kept it from release, while countless others (including XSEED themselves) have released unplayable products on PC that sometimes would take months to fix.
And in terms of XSEED's quality of ports, I disagree. A whole bunch of them have had issues. They are great at translating, but not particularly great at programming. Little King's Story was an awful mess before they got Durante to fix it, and lesser known stuff like Xanadu Next also had a boat load of issues, some of which were never addressed.
The literal meaning is accurate, but the tone is harsher than it should be.
Thank you. I finally understand the Big Hole joke surrounding this game :)
First off, unplayable products? Little King's Story, awful as it was, wasn't unplayable before Durante's fix, and XSEED's commissioned PC ports form this year all perform great with just the most minor of issues remaining. And besides, NISA's the company which decided doing their Ys VIII PC beta test only 2 weeks before launch was a sound idea. They had to receive a lot of really negative complaints about the apparently awful (and relatively unplayable) port quality to put the whole release off. XSEED's taken a lot more time for QA, especially for games like Xanadu Next and Zwei: II which, according to their programmer Sara, were sloppily programmed for anyone to handle outside Falcom. Frankly, more sales for Xanadu Next (because it's a great game people have overlooked for too long) would promote bugfixes for the few remaining minor issues in XSEED's release.
Older games, like all the Trails in the Sky and Ys releases, are largely bug-free now except for edge cases which haven't been reproduced, and they've gotten many understated upgrades to visual quality, readability, and so forth. Corpse Party PC's also much more impressive than people realize because Sara had to basically code a whole PC port from the ground-up instead of working with an outdated and obscure programming language just for one game.
What other ports or PC re-releases would you point out as flawed and apparently won't get fixed for a while? Sara even did some work on Xanadu Next last month before having to work on Zwei: II again. I trust XSEED with all their recent programming just as much as I would with NISA working on their ports of 2D games...not so much 3D judging by Ys VIII.
Mmm, I can see why you'd think that, but it's not the case at all. From my time, I recall multiple instances that we tried to get Kondo-san to come to America for just that purpose (press tours, E3, etc.). He was always too busy. It certainly wasn't for lack of trying or "stinginess" on our part. Same with when we were looking for help into acquiring VO from the relevant Japanese VO rights holders.
Oh come on, Xanadu Next was perfectly serviceable at release. Yes, it had the inevitable edge-case bugs (like every port ever) but those either had quick workarounds and/or were fixed very quickly.
The only two issues I remember that stuck around longer were broken achievements and 1 enemy that exploded when killed but had a faaaar larger explosion radius and that didn't even register as a bug, I just thought that was how it was supposed to be, lol. It also became irrelevant after like half an hour of meeting that enemy as you outleveled it and only took scratches afterwards. I'm not sure if those have been fixed, as I have played through the game in a few weeks after it came out, but it got some patches afterwards, most recently just a few weeks ago.
Little Kings Story was playable but had a somewhat broken 60fps mode and no mouse support (kind of baffling tbh), however they went above and beyond fixing it by getting Durante involved and even he couldn't fix everything, the source code was just that difficult to work with.
Outside of that one game all ports have been between good or fan-fucking-tastic and they regularly go above and beyond with post-launch support. Before 3rd released in May FC and SC got localisation patches and higher quality FMVs. After Cold Steel came out they added turbo mode and DX9 support to the Sky trilogy.
Cold Steel is basically a showcase port and it would be amazing if the default console-to-PC port quality for games would be half as good.
Huh, I thought it would have been due to lack of marketing funds. Good to know, makes me wonder how NISA got him to do so.
Direct professional connections between NIS executives and Kondo, that's how.
I apologize for assuming too much. All these events happening to promote Ys VIII's release, after years of XSEED trying their best to convince him to visit, seems intimidating and suspicious; I've also been under the assumption that XSEED always has to carefully balance what it expends against how much their releases sell. The costs for bringing Kondo over shouldn't be horrific, thankfully, since you'd mainly need to pay for the flight (or part of), hire an interpreter, and have a company liaison ready to handle the tour depending on its scope.
Please, if you can, make as great a case as possible for Kondo to tour the U.S. next time XSEED's working on a major Falcom release. I'd be impressed if he couldn't make time for promoting a release as important to the company as Trails of Cold Steel III since the company wants to make inroads on English-speaking markets.
And if Kondo really is as buddy-buddy with NIS's president as I fear, and that's somehow the tipping point for Falcom to keep giving localization projects to NISA, then my opinion of Falcom would definitely sour. Nepotism isn't cool and neither is disappointing quality of exports as a result.
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This sucks. XSEEDs previous localisations were all pretty great so it's a bummer to see things turn to shit so quickly after changing hands
I mean, the marketing kitty is often preeeeetty limited, but sometimes we have two rocks to bang together AND a stick!
No worries. Like I said, I can see why you'd come to that conclusion. None of this stuff is NDA, though, so I'm happy to pop in and clear things up when I can (I definitely have the 'free' time for it now! :D). You're not wrong that we have to very carefully balance our expenditures, but it does hurt when players think it's out of some kind of miserly reason. We really do and have put in everything that we can then some to projects (color manuals(!), extra VO, mail order goodies, those above and beyond touches that Tom does like game historical accounts and the Popolo manga, etc.), but people only seem to focus on or look for negatives. It's a bit disheartening.
However, I do understand your general feelings/points on the marketing stuff, and you can be assured that it's heard up top too. I've definitely been running things where I am with a mind on that, and as you probably inferred from the job opening, they're looking to make some full-time dedicated inroads on that front. Anyway, until my due date (should the kid not come early), I promise to keep laying as many tracks as I can and making sure that word gets out about our stuff (Goooooooo, Zwei!) (And Xanadu Next!).
I think all the specific unique things you've done for recent releases, like that great website for Zwei: II and including that out-of-print Ys VI artbook with XSEED's release of the game (making it a really valuable purchase with or without discount), are great and show how well y'all know the games. Sometimes, though, it feels like this goes to waste since even people interested in a release, who go on to buy it, don't know about the website (but prefer social media) or haven't heard of the included artbook because they don't rely on Steam page descriptions most of the time. I understand, though, that XSEED knows more on the inside about what they can and want to do to get players interested no matter the situation. Expanding the social media front's important and I'm glad the company's trying new things out for size. You have my vote of confidence after all that's happened! Above all, I hope you have a safe delivery.
To be fair, it could be the whole script - the blog update isn't exactly super clear on this.
Hopefully they use the time to fix the mess they made with Culdcept too.
There's some downright inaccurate text in the game.
There's some downright inaccurate text in the game.
"We completed the script for the voiced lines".
I also assume they're utilizing the existing translation (they're more fixing the English than re-translating from Japanese), so it's bound to go quicker than if they had just started from scratch.
That'd mean they would've started working on it before people complained, so no, not happening :V
That's essentially a second editing pass. Good editing can be almost as slow as the initial translation. Rushing this leads to stuff like Big Hole not getting fixed.
That's just my personal opinion, but I think there's more to a PC version of a game than its release date :P
I'm glad they are seemingly putting a lot of work into fixing the translation. I'm ok with NISA getting more work from Falcom so long as they can put in the required effort for their releases. I'd rather XSEED, but it seems like they just aren't big enough to accommodate all of Falcom's releases along with the content from their parent company.
Geez, I knew the localization was bad from playing the demo but I had no idea it got THAT horrible. Playing Ys Seven truly reveals what a difference good localization makes.
It's great that the letter was that polite yet firm. If only all negative fan feedback worked like that...
Also to keep up the theme, BUY XANADU NEXT, its gooooooooooooooooooood.
They probably could have worded that update better, seems like a lot of people are assuming they have rewritten the entire Ys VIII script already, when it seems more like it is just referring to the voice acted script.
They didn't give up Ys by choice, Falcom chose NISA over XSEED. They probably did opt against Tokyo Xanadu, due to the game being Vita exclusive at the time. Had it been PS4+Vita from the outset XSEED likely would have gotten it instead of Aksys.
Trails seems like a bigger question in terms of accommodation, but it probably just depends on how much of a priority it is for XSEED. On average Falcom releases less than two (new) games per year now. XSEED could probably handle that and the Marvelous games, but it would limit what else they could get.
(Personally, there is so little coming out of Japan that I care anything about these days, I wouldn't mind if XSEED did basically nothing but Falcom and Marvelous games, if it could keep them afloat).
They didn't give up Ys by choice, Falcom chose NISA over XSEED. They probably did opt against Tokyo Xanadu, due to the game being Vita exclusive at the time. Had it been PS4+Vita from the outset XSEED likely would have gotten it instead of Aksys.
Trails seems like a bigger question in terms of accommodation, but it probably just depends on how much of a priority it is for XSEED. On average Falcom releases less than two (new) games per year now. XSEED could probably handle that and the Marvelous games, but it would limit what else they could get.
(Personally, there is so little coming out of Japan that I care anything about these days, I wouldn't mind if XSEED did basically nothing but Falcom and Marvelous games, if it could keep them afloat).