March 13, 2008

Tales of the Awesome

Hells yes. This is my copy of Tales of the Abyss, signed by none other than Yoshito Higuchi, director of Tales of Symphonia and chief director of Tales of the Abyss and the upcoming Tales of Vesperia:

My incredibly awesome partner Hiroko was coordinating some interviews with the Tales guys earlier today, and she graciously pulled Higuchi-san aside and asked him to sign it for me, knowing how much of a fan I am of the game. Abyss is my favorite of all the Tales games released thus far (it's Higuchi-san's favorite, too), and was one of the first major titles Hiroko and I worked on after we started up our localization company 8-4 back in 2005. That summer was a total nightmare for us (we worked on Tales of the Abyss, Rogue Galaxy, and Baten Kaitos Origins...at the same time), but in the end, all three games turned out well, and I look back on those days fondly.

I'm pretty confident Tales of Vesperia is gonna be fantastic, but in the meantime, if you like RPGs and haven't played Tales of the Abyss yet, try it out! If you can deal with slightly excessive load times (I usually can't, but Abyss was so good I kept at it all the way through), I think you'll find it's easily one of the best RPGs on PS2.

Posted by john tv at 01:54 AM

February 27, 2008

Soma Bringer

Something tells me this is going to be hot:

Soma Bringer, developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. It's out tomorrow here in Japan. It's a three-player action/RPG that looks to be inspired by the likes of Diablo II and Secret of Mana. You can get a bunch more info on the game at the official NeoGAF thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=245778 (props to duckroll for putting that together)

Having worked on four Monolith games over the years (Xenosaga Episodes I-III and Baten Kaitos Origins), I'm intimately familiar with the kind of care and attention to detail they put into their work, and needless to say, I've become a big fan. Tetsuya Takahashi, brainchild behind Xenogears and the Xenosaga series and an (IMO) incredibly talented and ambitious guy, produced this game, and Yasunori Mitsuda, one of the best game musicians on the planet, did the entire soundtrack. Soraya Saga, another key member of the Xenosaga team, penned the scenario. What more needs to be said? All signs point to awesome.

I'm extremely busy at work right now on some pretty exciting projects for 2008, but I know the very moment I get a minute to breathe I'll be digging into this baby full-force. Any of you with any interest in seeing it get released in the US, please be sure to drop NOA a line and let them know you want it! If they're too busy to localize it, tell 'em 8-4 would be happy to lend a hand... ;)

Posted by john tv at 10:21 PM

January 29, 2008

View to a Kill

I recently moved to a new apartment. This is the view from my bedroom. After serving four years in my prison-esque former home, I am finally living large, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Today I purchased a 52" Bravia KDL-52X5000B for the living room. It arrives this Thursday -- the morning Smash Bros. Brawl releases, one day before LOST season 4 begins, and three days before Super Bowl XLII (go Giants). It's gonna be an amazing weekend. :)

Work is good, too. We're working on some pretty exciting stuff for 2008. I wish I could say more about that, but as always, lips must remain sealed until games are in stores...

How are you all doing?

Posted by john tv at 02:12 AM

January 04, 2008

Dragon Quest IV: Completely Destroyed

I spent most of my free gaming time these past six weeks playing through the new DS remake of Dragon Quest IV, and late last night, I finally completed it. I mean, really completed it. As in:

- Finished the post-game bonus chapter and got the "happy ending"
- Found every monster in the game and completed the monster picture book
- Got all of the small medal prizes in the game (found 69 small medals in all)
- Got all of the casino prizes I actually cared about
- Brought the immigrant town to its final form and completed all related sub-quests
- Got the two bonus immigrant town citizens from Jump Festa 2008 (Hassan from DQ6 and Setia from DQ Swords)
- Got all of (new party member)'s best equipment in chapter 6
- Defeated the bonus dungeon bosses in under 10 turns to get the final immigrant town citizen

In short, I went nuts with this game. And I loved every minute of it. :)

My final stats (translations below the photos):

1. After completing the game once and getting the normal ending:

Clear time: 31:43
Total battles: 1,127
Defeated enemies: 3,010
Total gold: 140,636
Battles won: 1,096
Battles lost: 7
Battles fled: 22
Biggest hit: 332
Hero's level: 35
Rank: "Celestial Wielder"

2. After completing chapter 6 and getting the happy ending:

Clear time: 43:17
Total battles: 1,897
Defeated enemies: 4,814
Total gold: 334,485
Battles won: 1,861
Battles lost: 8
Battles fled: 26
Biggest hit: 395
Hero's level: 51
Rank: "Thanks for playing to the end!"

3. My final stats, just before powering off for good:

Total playtime: 43:54
Total battles: 1,901
Defeated enemies: 4,824
Total gold: 336,987
Battles won: 1,865
Battles lost: 8
Battles fled: 26
Biggest hit: 395
Undiscovered monsters: 0
Rank: "Grand Monster King"

It's been a while since I've really sunk my teeth into a game like this, but Dragon Quest gets me every time. It's by far my favorite RPG series -- I can only pray they never make an MMO version, or I'm going to be in real trouble...

BTW, Happy New Year everyone!

Posted by john tv at 01:03 AM