Didn't Zestiria have some performance issues due to this, though? If we need battle zones for rock-solid 60 fps then I'd prefer that.
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Star Ocean 5 screens (Now in "HD"!)
- Thread starter SolidSnakex
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Didn't Zestiria have some performance issues due to this, though? If we need battle zones for rock-solid 60 fps then I'd prefer that.
SolidSnakex
Member
Well, Tales games before Zestiria had performance problems as well. The Xillia games could drop in framerate when a lot of effects were happening. So I don't think Zestiria's performance was due to not having battle zones.
sigh... why couldnt they go with the art style from their tech demo
I prefer the female character from this, and male character from SO5.
Because ...
The SO5 that's currently in development doesn't interest me at all because it's ... too predictable. Just by looking at these screenshots you can be certain that tri-ace isn't even going to try to do something unusual or remotely unexpected for the genre. It's going to be JRPG numero 1542 featuring the usual cast of cool, sexy, kawai and strange teenage characters (and a mascot) saving the world, some quirky dialogs, a cringeworthy story, and hopefully a combat system that's barely 'fun' enough too compensate all that and scores mixed/75% reviews on gamerankings/metacritics.
Reading this thread, I'm sure there is an audience in the west that prefers this art&game design direction because they find characters that don't look like christmas tree decoration bland as shit and generic.
But personally, I'd rather have bland, realistic looking spacemarines with proper voice acting, facial animations, narrative and dialogues that are on the same level as 'the last of us' because that's what really gives 'character' to videogame characters, not their looks.
Actually regardless of them playing similar plenty of the cods feel diffrent. The tone, storytelling, and setting have a huge impact.I had in mind art style, that's what we are talking about, no?
edited: I don't agree with you again. Aesthetics or art style have nothing to do with games feeling samey, it's gameplay that does that. You kindly show me how CoD suddenly switched to anime, for that different feel
Call of duty 2's WW2 setting and low key storytelling is way diffrent then the overly gritty and violent World at War for instance.
You should watch that 2hr Call of Duty single player anayalsis. They may play all the same, but they are all diffrent.
Tales already plays fine. A Tales taking place in a radicly diffrent setting with a way diffrent aesthetic will no doubt feel fresh and far diffrent from the Tales game which to me at this point all blend together. All with similar and bland anime character designs which hardly sit in contrast to whatever anime looks like now. Without a style of its own. All featuring boring ass generic fantasy worlds(except Xillia 2) with problems where if I swticed a couple of verbs and adjectives they would probably fit each game.
A Tales that ran against this would be very exciting. Though I guess Namco and its fans are fine with it being unambtious comfort food.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
M°°nblade;160984420 said:
It's a good thing that none of those qualities are exclusive to each other.
I was talking about the witch's outfit
Well, from my experience, they partially are a good indication of what to expect.
You can squeeze as much emotion from these botox dollfaces as you can squeeze water from a stone.
Dice//
Banned
sigh... why couldnt they go with the art style from their tech demo
Probably because (as I have mentioned earlier) that people might mistake it for Xenoblade Chronicles X or PSO. Keep in mind though... I personally would want more. That's just me. I honestly don't care but I imagine that they are also trying to get the most sales out of that game as possible too.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I guess that will force Clair to give Adray grandchildren lol
Yeah I'm surprised people didn't get that, wouldn't be part of the selling point of SO is multiple endings?
The real question here is why the narrative, dialogues an characterizations of a genre that sells itself as a story-driven single player experience, are as shitty as those of an online shooter campaign mode.
I hope for the better but expect the same criticism and lol-worthy youtube compilations as SO4 recieved.
AlbionHero
Banned
I'm not a big fan of the idea of seamless battles. Maybe I'm just old school, but I've always loved going to a separate arena with dedicated music, victory poses, etc in RPGs. In a game like Kingdom Hearts it doesn't really feel the same and it sounds like thats what they're going for here.
AlbionHero
Banned
M°°nblade;160984420 said:
I'm sure there is an audience that would rather have a realistic and serious looking game, but they have plenty of Western games made for them to begin with. Whats so wrong with allowing a few anime esque games to exist that actually have some budget behind them?
Eudaemonium
Member
*coughbreathoffirecough*
I'm fine with SO doing its thing, I just hope the remaining female character designs are better than the fetish witch and she of the focus-tested face. And that they aren't like... 8, or worse, look 8 when they're not.
But I mean the fact they focus-tested the heroine's face doesn't give any hope that the remaining female character will not be some level of uncomfortable.
If there are any more female characters. We have 3 already, each fulfilling some basic female party member trope. The days of Chisato are long gone.
AlbionHero
Banned
Star Ocean 3 and 4 both have 5 playable female characters, so I'd expect a few more. And Star Ocean series has always relied heavy on a balanced male/female roster.
Absolutely nothing as long as they are enjoyable to play. It's just that I'm disappointed even harder after being remembered of that tech demo and my once held expectations. Thanks HoodWinked.
There are plenty of Western games, but realistic JRPG's ... are as rare as anime esque JRPG's are.
SniperHunter
Banned
sigh... why couldnt they go with the art style from their tech demo
would be amazing if SO5 looked like this without the shitty yellow filter.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
I don't hate the girl from SO5 like some do, but I like the tech demo girl as well. The male face just horrified me though.
Yeah, I'm with you there. Battle arenas just feel right to me in JRPGs.
That'd be great, especially if we can choose a pool to recruit from like the older games.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
M°°nblade;160987291 said:
I think there's some confirmation bias at work here because you can undoubtedly find plenty of games with a realistic aesthetic featuring lackluster stories and characters.
A lack of emotive faces more has to do with the technical aspect of development than with writing. It varies wildly from developer to developer.
Take Xenoblade Chronicles for example. Despite featuring less technically impressive character models than SO4, it had very emotive facial animations, such that emotion was reasonably carried across in cutscenes (see any cutscene where Shulk goes apeshit on something).
Afterwards, you can compare to Star Ocean 4, which despite having more detailed models had severely reduced facial animation in comparison. The range of facial expressions did not extend beyond brow furrowing and basic up and down lip movements for dialogue.
I think it's disingenuous to present the situation as a false dichotomy, where you have realism and a certain bundle of positive qualities versus stylized with a bundle of negative qualities when that is not how the challenge of game development is presented and worked upon by developers.
threelights
Member
So now we are at the point that if tri-Ace used an artstyle and design that "panders" to a western fanbase that tri-Ace barely has, the game would miraculously have a story on the level of The Last of Us.
Yup. Can't wait for more news on this game.
Yup. Can't wait for more news on this game.
Yeah, the following image should rather be applied to the audience than the developer. It's not like the SO is undefined in its choices of aesthetics and stories. And it's nobody's fault that everyone grows older but SO as a series is a shonen IP.
M°°nblade;160984420 said:
Pretty interesting they acknowledged their target audience (SO fans) are now in their 20s and so the main character is appropriately older. The female character designs aren't exactly promising, but it could be interesting to see if the tone is a bit...older as well.
I'm fine with both seemless transitions and battle areas.
What I don't like is when they only do it halfway like in Talses of Zestiria.
Final Fantasy XII taught me otherwise.
The faster I'm in and out of battle the better.
And a fast forward function is godly.
Dice//
Banned
Personally speaking; I feel there's a ton of that big-eyed level 100 anime level stuff coming out that sometimes I find it more refreshing when it isn't. I mean really, think of the Final Fantasy series, as is I'm surprised its stuck with such realistic models.
It feels like, once again, Xenoblade is going for a very hybrid look between J and W RPG where almost everything besides the character faces and perhaps some of the fantasy element (and Nopon) look....pretty Western-esque in some respects. I'm curious if this is at all part of its appeal in the West though, a W game with a J feel (or vice versa).
But anyways. It's not like the rest of the Star Ocean series hasn't done hardcore anime styles before; I guess it's their own prerogative whether they wanted to keep it looking like "Shounen Anime Sundays" or try a new look. Personally, I prefer the look of tri-Ace's other games like Valkyrie Profile and Resonance of Fate which neither abandoned an anime aesthetic but didn't take it to "an 11" like SO5 is with "out there" designs and a clashing realism+anime aesthetic that's just somewhat juxtaposing and awkward to look at (Here's a realistic environment...and a girl with no nose!). Furthermore the anime-like writing and aesthetic of the 4th game did no favours for itself and has become universally panned for it; here's hoping the 5th game manages a smoother transition.
But hey, there's little agreement in this thread anyways.
threelights
Member
This is it for me too.
I wouldn't mind battle arenas if the transition between battle and exploration are almost non-existent (something like .Hack//G.U.)
Put me in this camp. The male is SO5 looks fine, but the female from here looks better
Vincent Grayson
Member
Yeah. I have a hard time not seeing separate battle zones, separate world maps, and frankly, complex menus to decide actions as things which all exist only because we didn't have a better way to do them yet.
Yea, not sure I'm feeling the battle system being "seamless". It just seems a bit more limited compared to transitioning into a dedicated battle screen. As bad as the rest of SO4 was, the battle system was the one saving grace. I would have preferred they kept it like that. Oh well, we'll see.
I don't think they assume pre-teens played the original SO1 and SO2. But I'm sure they noticed the silliness level of SO4 was generally deemed overdone and shonen with some few more mature aspects do well. Still wouldn't expect a better (i.e. more mature) story than in SO1-3.
whats the issue of it being seamless, if it doesnt affect SO battle gameplay besides a screen transition what is the big deal
Personally speaking; I feel there's a ton of that big-eyed level 100 anime level stuff coming out that sometimes I find it more refreshing when it isn't. I mean really, think of the Final Fantasy series, as is I'm surprised its stuck with such realistic models.
It feels like, once again, Xenoblade is going for a very hybrid look between J and W RPG where almost everything besides the character faces and perhaps some of the fantasy element (and Nopon) look....pretty Western-esque in some respects. I'm curious if this is at all part of its appeal in the West though, a W game with a J feel (or vice versa).
But anyways. It's not like the rest of the Star Ocean series hasn't done hardcore anime styles before; I guess it's their own prerogative whether they wanted to keep it looking like "Shounen Anime Sundays" or try a new look. Personally, I prefer the look of tri-Ace's other games like Valkyrie Profile and Resonance of Fate which neither abandoned an anime aesthetic but didn't take it to "an 11" like SO5 is with "out there" designs and a clashing realism+anime aesthetic that's just somewhat juxtaposing and awkward to look at (Here's a realistic environment...and a girl with no nose!). Furthermore the anime-like writing and aesthetic of the 4th game did no favours for itself and has become universally panned for it; here's hoping the 5th game manages a smoother transition.
But hey, there's little agreement in this thread anyways.
I think the main thing to take away is that there's a place for all sorts of styles around. You can have 'realistic' style, you can have full blown anime style(complete with cell shading!) and you can have the in between look.
The issue i think is, there are so little amount of games coming out of Japan on this level anyway in the JRPG space, there's very little to choose from in terms of variety. You have the FF realistic style, you have the Compile heart moeblobs, you have the Atlus distinct cell shaded style.
What we need are more entrances in the mid tier console JRPG space to begin with, so there's something for everyone. But....as we know, the market just isn't how it once was at all.
Femmeworth
Banned
The tech demo had egregious boob armor. (Which fits either aesthetic and doesn't really go against your point.)
and
is like
I'm aware both are tri-ace and therefore Japanese, but in terms of aesthetic [dot dot dot]
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
One thing people forget is that SO in-game models at least aren't chibified. Their looks gives a nice impression that they are at least to scale with their official art, unlike other games like say, Tales. This is also true to VP2 and RoF.
Tales isn't chibified...at least not the recent ones.
Yeah, the last truly chibi Tales was Symphonia, other than that Tales continuously progressed toward more realistic proportions since Eternia, with only Destiny PS2 and Hearts DS making steps back (the latter out of necessity due to limited screen space). Since Xillia Tales uses realistic proportions.
Bobby Boulders
Member
I've asked about this in another jrpg thread, but maybe this is a more appropriate place. What's the general consensus on the Star Ocean series as a whole? I've never played any of them, but with the announcement of this one, I'm intrigued. Which entry is a good starting point? I seem to remember seeing the PS2 title (Till The End Of Time) being all over the place in gaming mags when it came out.
There is a recent thread that discusses the SO series as a whole: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1029790
threelights
Member
In the thread linked above people discussed how good SO is. But to answer the other stuff, a good starting point can either be SO1, 2 or 3 really (the stories are not connected beyond a few references).
I would personally say that you should play all three (preferably in order), but basically it goes:
SO1 - most dated, but not bad at all. Feels the closest to a Tales game (got a PSP remake that changed a lot the gameplay systems)
SO2 - best story, one of the best gameplay in the series, and just overall the most consistently good game (also got a PSP version, and imo is the best way to play this game)
SO3 - good story until it reaches it's "twist" (which is something a lot of people hate), the gameplay is very in-depth and has a lot of customization and breaking potential (very fun battle system too). Visually it looks the worst imo, but you can get used to it.
SO4 - veeeery anime-ish story (people here hate it a lot), afaik it dropped a bunch of things from previous games, but the battle system is still fun, so there's that.
So yeah, start on the one that appeals to you the most =P
Bobby Boulders
Member
Awesome thanks!
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