Star Ocean 4: English Version Dumps Anime for CG

Fail. This kinda reminds me of how in the english release of persona 1 they changed the character designs and shit, like man, they need to do that.

Doesn't SE realize that the majority of the people that play their games like anime aswell? It's not like removing the anime aspect from the game is going to attract a new audience.

I doubt any new CG was made for the english ui. Since the english ui is just using renders of the current character models that the game uses.

So I dont see the issue.

That's too bad. But the CG looks nice so it's not a huge loss.

You'd figure they would look at the success of Persona 3 an 4, and see that western gamers do not mind, and in some cases even prefer the anime styling. I'll still probably end up buying it if it's good on the PS3, but this is idea was just a giant waste of time. I highly doubt people would have looked at this game and said, "ANIMU PORTRAITS?! Fuck this."

You have to wonder what they are thinking...

if Namco can work with the anime characters and the fans love it why do SE have to erase one of the good part about the game?

They had no problem having anime characters in the PSP remake so why now?

fuck that subs are soo much better

Ah bastardization what fun it is....oh wait I meant localization.

Sorry I wont paly a RPG with US voice work unless tis a crappy US RPG and even then the vocie will be turned off.

Heres a thought save on localization costs and do not dub it only sub it.

Tsk. US residents couldn't care less if it had cartoon themes or not; look at how SO3 sold. The only reason Vesperia didn't sell well there is because of the massive clusterf*** Namco pulled with the game overseas.

*Sigh* The extent to which precedent has taken over our subculture is becoming ridiculous. So many people refusing to even give a game a chance just because it goes against "principle." This whole ideal was originally created out of our will to defy the norm, despising popular things and hailing only those that our niche will accept. This has gotten so bad that some of the people I know do the reverse out of spite, for example one who would always choose the Japanese audio track now chooses the English track simply to defy those who are doing the defying without any regard to the actual quality of the track in question.

It is disappointing that the industry doesn't even seem to try to get to know their audience and make ignorant changes to their products for the sake of localization but in most cases the changes make for little more than a mild irritant.

I still look forward to SO4, I'm sure it will be just as good, if not better than the previous SO releases. The new battle system does indeed look quite amazing. The little CG avatars are not that bad, I think the CG and graphics in this game are beautiful. I would much prefer Anime avatars over the CG, but in my opinion the original Anime portraits didn't look all that great to begin with. (Not that the CG ones are any better) On the positive side the localized menu looks a lot shinier than the original. Granted that could just be a little menu magic with a possible color adjuster in the menu options...

As far as the English only audio track goes, I think I'll live. I haven't yet heard the English dub of the game but if it is representative of the last 3 Star Oceans, I can't imagine they'll be any good. I think that developers should include all available audio tracks in their titles, it is quite a selling point these days.

Perhaps the acting won't be so bad? There have been a number of decent English dubs recently. I particularly enjoyed the voices chosen for Tales of Vesperia. While I still prefer a few of the Japanese Seiyu, I can't say I disliked any of the English choices. Some characters like Yuri and Karol I believe sounded better in English. Of course, this is a matter of preference. Japan is just as imperfect as any other country in this world, it has bad voice actors too, just like America. Similarly America has it's own (although somewhat small) share of good voice actors.

In conclusion, we should all ditch the bandwagon make our own decisions, life is better that way, trust me.

ugh how disappointing, first no dual audio now this...
Way to screw up a game for half of the Star ocean fans.

There must be a little squenix imp in my room plotting from my utterances, how best to keep me from buying this game.

wtf teh japanese one is ten times better. How many times are stupid video game companies gonna make the same fucking mistakes.

if everyone took the time to quit bitching and moaning, and actually play the game, who knows, ya might find ya like it

So much for 'best of both worlds'.

Do you guys know that the ps3 game actually have both the CG AND 2D interface. As well as English AND Japanese voices + subtitles in like 5 diffrent languages including English.

I actually have to say, the Western visuals in the menu system actually look better.

Which is weird, I normally like it the other way around

which is my point to have choice either Anime or CG and either Jap or Eng dub who cares if they make it on 4 - 5 or 6 dvd dual layers who cares if they make you pay for the extra stuff i wouldn't mind spending more money if it meant getting a better game overall, even with CG in no way was it made to be without Anime feel its got tons of Anime style scenes between the protagonist and the female heroine she slaps him and calls him a perv enough times lol that originated from Anime and manga and Jap games so why not make the overall experience selectable to be full Anime with Anime portraits too?

Portraits are important in rpg's they stick with you throughout the game. This Star ocean 4 game is based off Anime and the characters eyes are huge its trying to pull the gamer into an Anime world regardless of what some people think of CG saying it fits better is wrong it makes me look at the game differently now and in a bad way, the game has no emotion they all feel like robot dolls to me, and to make it worst the Eng dub track have you heard how terrible most of the voices are,

exept for few to name one of them being Welch her voice is sassy and very interesting I can hear her emotions when she speaks, but people like Edge or Lymle the English voices are plain, uninteresting, expressionless, most of them look and sound like creepy doll robots. Whats with lymles slow robot like talk shes supposed to be a kid not a creepy tard baby robot sorry thats how she sounds and I'm afraid she may sound that way to the end of the game? lol

well there's a few more that don't pitch up either, none of them come close to the amazing acting of Welche's voice whoever she is congrats your very skilled. I remember her from Lost Odyssey and some cartoon on TV, her voice has great acting skills. Lost Odyssey had decent Eng dub, usually games are mostly better with Japanese dubbing.

Valkyrie profile 1 on the PSX had great English Dubbing too you know why? Practically all the cast was known popular voice Actors/Actresses and they did a great job pulling it off. Its all about emotions in your voice having a good impressionable voice and pulling it off when your reading lines this is why most of the Japanese dubbing is almost always the best they know how to handle their voices and put many emotions in their voice acting.

My proof is Anime Japanese dubbing majority of us fans watch Anime with Jap dubs, for star ocean games it would of been better if they used Anime full on everything although I will still enjoy it with this CG but not as much as i did star ocean 2 and its Anime style. Sorry for my English if any mistakes, this not meant to start flame or influence people away from the game it is still good game but just not as hot as it could be, shame that.

*Gets shotgun*

Well, this will totally get me a article here... Look for me on Fox news everyone :D

*Drives down to the states*

well nothing new unfortunately as far as im concerned there is no English SO4.... wait for the next glorious step in localization, i predict something similar to this jewel here: http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l320/ohkikaze/Suikoden_US.jpg
i cant type as much as i want to rage...

at least it seems the Asia version will be codefree and has jap voices together with English sub so i will wait for this version and even if hell freezes over before it arrives

There's nothing that can be done actually. According to some smaller publisher, retailers DON'T want any game that has too much anime style, for reasons unknown.

RUINED FOREVER!

At least this isn't like Tales of Hearts where they went out of their way to make a (presumed) "Western Version". The CG characters are in the cuts scenes across the board, and the anime designs were just being used as icons and in menus (as far as I can tell). If anything, using the CG designs is arguably a bit more consistent, since it's used everywhere else in the product. Unlike with Tales, I'm not sure if this is really a "deal-killer" if you look at it rationally (the Quality of the dub may be a different story). In the end, unlike Tales, this is more of a cosmetic localization change as opposed to a complete stylistic change.

That being said, I still wonder whether the game producers may actually be right about the average American mainstream/XBOX 360 gamers (not the hardcore RPG demographic, but the more general audience). Are we so convinced that anime designs are condusive to good sales and review ratings in North America (beyond just our own personal preferences)?

The thing is...if this game sucks in xbox 360 there's no way they gonna make a "fixed" ps3 version...

Will the Japanese version have english subtitles or settings? Or is it just the game Raw.

That's it. This game just been erased out of my must play list. It'll be either undubbed version, or nothing at all.

There IS no english version of Star Ocean 4.

They should just make those an option. Besides, who's most likely going to buy this game???

I prefer the anime version ^^

only the interface ... for now .... please dont let the ero scenes get cut, and id much prefer the anime style portraits.

I like the anime icons for the Japanese, but I also like the english skill sheets...

ah, poor SquareEnix. They will probably lose money over this.

I don't have XBOX so I don;t give a DAMN care about that....

but if I have to choose, I will pick the japanese version considering the fucking horrible english VA and 3D CG design...

And thus why i think anti mas alteration laws should be put in plce dub okay as long as we get the original audio cutting ero NOT OKAY altering style NOT OKAY in short why oh why we do we get the crap also insert apocalymons' various lines from last episodes of U.S. Digimon.

Well it seems they think Americans don't like 2D. Can't remember the last 2D game released that wasn't Megaman. Even our movies are all cgi thanks to Disney/Pixar.

No harm in consistency, I guess, but the new menu background is hideous.

And I still remember how bad the English dub of SO2nd and SOTteoT.

2D >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3D

FAIL

There's definelty should be a choice if you want to play dubbed or original instead of having to buy two diffrent copies.

If not, why can't they do like they did in Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for 360 and drop DLC content with original jap voices.

For free ofc.

Too bad they have to change stuff overall.

I can't decide what this case reminds me of.. Namco's bold but stupid act of giving Xenosaga EpII a full 3D feature with realistic QUALITY new character designs, because they thought realistic 3D characters sell like hotcakes..

...or that time when America used to fear foreign medias in the (late) 80's and (early) 90's that they decided to "localized" the Street Fighter and Rockman game covers and magazine promos..

2D is FTW!!! damn it! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE 2D? Square Enix has made another bad move. The old versions with the 2D faces are much better. Also still the 3D counter parts I haven't grown fond with.

To be fair, it's more consistent to use 3D portraits. That being said, in this case I prefer the aesthetics of the 2D version anyway.

another reason to go back to my japanese studies ...