Tales of Symphonia

[Steve Badguy]

Don't worry guys, Tales of Symphonia is indeed coming to the U.S.

[Frogacuda]

Originally posted by Steve Badguy
Don't worry guys, Tales of Symphonia is indeed coming to the U.S.

SO IT IS WRITTEN AND SO IT SHALL BE DONE!

You heard the man, Namco! Get crackin'!

Seriously, Source?

[Will]

Hey those scans look pretty good, I wouldn't call it the best cel shading so far(Wind Waker holds that) but it's really nice. I hope this one hits US shores.

[Frogacuda]

Originally posted by Will
Hey those scans look pretty good, I wouldn't call it the best cel shading so far(Wind Waker holds that) but it's really nice.

Wind Waker looks nice, but the Cel shader's not very advanced at all. I'm not sure I would even call it cel shading. It really's just a threshold adjustment on the lightness.

Auto Modelista has the most advanced cel shader I've seen, but ToS is certaily pulling off something impressive.

[Frogacuda]

The Official Site is open

And some hi-res shots
[thumbnail]http://ipillest.homestead.com/files/tales1.jpg[/thumbnail]
[thumbnail]http://ipillest.homestead.com/files/tales2.jpg[/thumbnail]

[RedCoKid]

Originally posted by ferricide
if i were running namco i'd never even consider bringing over venus and braves; namco isn't atlus where they have to scrape for b-grade games just to get by -- their localization department has more important (and, then again, more interesting IMO) things to be doing with its time.

1) Quit saying that about V&B!
2) What the heck is Namco USA doing otherwise? Soul Calibur 2? Wow. There's so much to translate there.

[Frogacuda]

Originally posted by Rose4256
2) What the heck is Namco USA doing otherwise? Soul Calibur 2? Wow. There's so much to translate there.

And yet it still takes them 9 months, and they'll probably fuck it up. Namco's localization resources go far beyond limited to nearly non-existent. Even half assed badly done hackjobs like the ToD and ToE localizations were outsourced (appearently to a pack of hobos).

I thought this might intrest some. I placed the PS2 Tales of Destiny 2 next to Tales of Symphonia. I'm impressed how much of the visual style has held up. It doesn't quite have that feel of the hand painted games, but it's commendably close.

[Will]

Originally posted by Frogacuda
Wind Waker looks nice, but the Cel shader's not very advanced at all. I'm not sure I would even call it cel shading. It really's just a threshold adjustment on the lightness.

Auto Modelista has the most advanced cel shader I've seen, but ToS is certaily pulling off something impressive.

Even if it isn't advanced, its still the best looking cel shaded game out there. I dunno you seem to have some sort of precedent on what's cel shaded or not like if something doesn't have the black lines around it it isn't REALLY cel shaded.

I'm sure you've seen the Tower of the Gods dungeon which really accentuates the shading really well as the night time levels. What I think Tales of Symphonia does very well is represent the artwork on the characters in 3D and retaining nearly every aspect. The way I see it there are many ways to 'cel shade' but certain styles look better than others in which I think WW does it the best so far.

[Frogacuda]

Originally posted by Will
Even if it isn't advanced, its still the best looking cel shaded game out there. I dunno you seem to have some sort of precedent on what's cel shaded or not like if something doesn't have the black lines around it it isn't REALLY cel shaded.

I'm sure you've seen the Tower of the Gods dungeon which really accentuates the shading really well as the night time levels. What I think Tales of Symphonia does very well is represent the artwork on the characters in 3D and retaining nearly every aspect. The way I see it there are many ways to 'cel shade' but certain styles look better than others in which I think WW does it the best so far.

That's totally fair. But I still wouldn't say it has the best cel shader like you did. It's really not the cel shader making it look good, it's the style and art overall. The cel shader itself is incredibly crude.

Like I demonstrated 2 posts up, what I like about the look of ToS is how whell it jives with the style of the previous games.

[ferricide]

Originally posted by Frogacuda
And do you mean to tell me Ninja Assault is a begger potential seller than ToD2?

nope. but moving along you hit the nail on the head...

Originally posted by Frogacuda
Alot of this just has to do with the fact that despite being a company devoted to localizing the games of its japanese parent, Namco has virtually no localization resources, and they have to job out games like ToE and Xenosaga to other companies, so anything text heavy automatically gets the axe unless they think it' going to be a hit. That's really the core of the problem.

exactly. they have absolutely no capacity to handle RPG translations in house, moreover marketing felt the genre was valueless (despite the successes of other companies with it.) i still think the ToD2 wouldn't've set the world on fire in the US.

FWIW, most US branches of japanese companies farm out the raw translation work. in fact, i'm having trouble thinking of a company besides squaresoft that has a full internal localization staff.

Originally posted by Frogacuda
And yet it still takes them 9 months, and they'll probably fuck it up.

you're, again, confusing the marketing department with the localization department. the localization department doesn't pick its projects (this isn't just namco.) marketing picks the projects, they set the dates. sure, localization has an input into it, but they surely didn't say 'we need 6 months to translate soul calibur.'

Originally posted by Frogacuda
Namco's localization resources go far beyond limited to nearly non-existent. Even half assed badly done hackjobs like the ToD and ToE localizations were outsourced (appearently to a pack of hobos).

imo the text translation in ToE is good stuff. the voice sucks, but that's again cos of the marketing department allocating a certain budget and time frame for the dubbing. xenosaga's is infinitely better, and was probably infinitely more expensive too.

i'm still not convinced that ToD2 for PS2 is great but i'm looking forward to finding out for myself.