Mamoru-kun Has Been Cursed - Western PS3 Release

[Friendly]

G-rev's 2008 arcade game "Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta!" is getting a western release, under a slightly altered name, which we don't know yet.
http://www.siliconera.com/2013/01/24/ma ... -the-west/

No further details are known at this time, but presumably it won't be a direct port of the arcade game but the enhanced PS3 version from 2011, which features a "wide mode".

EDIT 5/31:
The imbeciles responsible for the English localization decided to call it "Marmorukun Curse". In case you are wondering why, their reasoning behind this seemingly strange choice is explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTUl9A3dN70

[KAI]

2 moe 4 da west.

[Skykid]

There's a thread for the game here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=15645

[Jeneki]

I picked up the 360 version, and didn't feel like double-dipping import pricing for the PS3 version. However I would buy a domestic PS3 version, just because.

[ncc]

I played the import briefly a little over a year ago. I don't remember much. What's the quick and dirty general opinion on it? Good/bad/meh?

[DMC]

I've had a slight crush on Mamoru-kun, so I look forward to a western release in case it includes PAL.

The general opinion seems to be that it's average, perhaps slightly above.

[honorless]

I could be wrong, but I really doubt the game's title is now "Mamoru-kun No Longer Cursed". That's just a punny headline.

...The article itself is frustratingly empty, too. No timeline. No publisher. No mention of whether they know it's coming for NA or EU or both. Ugh.

[DMC]

What could be the american publisher? RSG is the most likely one for Pal I assume.

[Friendly]

I could be wrong, but I really doubt the game's title is now "Mamoru-kun No Longer Cursed". That's just a punny headline.

Yeah, could be, but the article says

Mamoru-kun Has Been Cursed is being localized under a slightly different name

I'll update the topic once we know more.

[Jeneki]

Think of it this way: If Mamoru-kun gets a PS3 western release, then we can say that every single disc-based shmup for PS3 has been released outside Japan. See how much Sony loves us? Obviously this proves it's the best shmup console in history!

[Lord Satori]

Think of it this way: If Mamoru-kun gets a PS3 western release, then we can say that every single disc-based shmup for PS3 has been released outside Japan. See how much Sony loves us? Obviously this proves it's the best shmup console in history!

oh boy, get ready for the hate...

This game does look good though. I might check it out.

[Squire Grooktook]

Off the top of my head, it looks kinda like a bullet hell Pocky and Rocky.

[KAI]

a slightly different name

Mobile Light Force 3 ~ Martin has been cursed

[Nana]

a slightly different name

Mobile Light Force 3 ~ Martin has been cursed

Fucking yes

I would buy ten copies if this were to happen

[Jeneki]

Heck yea! Preorders should come with extra slip covers for Mobile Light Force 4-99, to stick over my other games.

[Lord Satori]

They're probably going to just remove the 'kun' at the end or something. I'm not sure why you'd think they'd change it from Mamoru-kun is Cursed to Mamoru-kun No Longer Cursed. Of course other games have had botched translations before, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did...

[BIL]

Martin has been cursed

Brilliant.

[adversity1]

So I've been meaning to make this post for awhile and this is probably a good thread for it: I think it's time that we un-cursed Mamoru-kun.

When the 360 version of the game was released with the Limited Edition INH DVD, which showed off a superplayer absolutely abusing the infinite re-spawning enemy trick on the sky stage, most people such as Japanese scorers and the few who paid attention to the game in the west including myself wrote off the game as broken for scoring. However once the PS3 version was released I got back into the game since it was such a step up from the 360 version, and started checking the leaderboards. What I immediately noticed was a massive scoring difference between the arcade superplay video/Arcadia scores and the top scores of the 360 and PS3 versions.

Here are the current standings:

• Arcade:
  Ｇ.Ｍ.Ｃ..Ｚ. - 906.613.640 - ALL - Fururu

• Xbox360
  1. 201,791,990 - Fururu
  2. 108,542,100 - Fururu
  3. 43,949,200 - Nowa

• PS3
  1. 117,467,910 - Nowa
  2. 42,893,640 - Fururu
  3. 24,100,200 - Nowa

So even the top Xbox360 score is less than 1/4th of the top Arcade score. Since the infinite respawn trick is not massively hard to pull off (you need to die once in World 1, once in Mission 1, then choose the Sky stage), if it could still be done in the Xbox360 or PS3 versions, we would see scores as high as or higher than the arcade top scores on the leaderboards. But we don't.

I wanted a second opinion, so I asked Fixed Armbar, the Strania record holder if he knew anything about the scoring being fixed in the console versions. He pointed me to the second audio commentary on the superplay DVD where Grev's Maruyama and Gulchi's Saito go into detail about why the infinite respawn bug occurs, and how they took it out of the console versions (right around the part where the player starts abusing the infinite enemies on the DVD). Apparently the parameter which controlled how the rank variables influenced enemy spawning was tuned a certain way for the location test, and that was left in by accident in the full arcade release for this stage only.

So despite that awful scoring DVD, the game itself is very much intact in its home release. I can't quite explain the large difference betwen the 1st and 3rd place scores above, it is possible that some other rank trick has been found, but at the very least there is still a ton to explore in this game and I think Arcade Mode is a lot of fun.

I'm writing a FAQ on it which I hope to have ready in a few weeks since there's little info about the game on the net.

[BIL]

Very interesting, thanks for the investigative report adversity. I'll have to give the game a second look.

[EmperorIng]

Considering all the talk about the score bug on this forum, I had sort of written off the game myself (only slightly though).

I'm glad to see a second chance though - maybe with the PS3 release there can be some sort of revival of interest!

[adversity1]

Looks like it was UFO interactive that picked this up.

http://www.facebook.com/UFOinteractive?fref=ts





Hopefully people in the states will support this when it comes out. Just finished my strategy topic on the game as well, so if you're curious about it, take a look.

[BulletMagnet]

Here's hoping this turns out better than Illvelo did (or didn't, as the case may be).

[HydrogLox]

Here's hoping this turns out better than Illvelo did (or didn't, as the case may be).

From what I can tell UFO interactive has never published for the PS3 (the PS3 version of Way of the Samurai 3 was published by Agetec) and their last Xbox 360 STG was Raiden IV which didn't exactly fly off retail shelves. Considering what we know about minimum NA Xbox 360 print runs, it makes you wonder whether if it is only a matter of time before somebody "wakes up" at UFO interactive and "pulls an Illvelo".

[denpanosekai]

If what they say is true ("We're getting back to our roots...") then there's a slight change they'll also pick up Caladrius. I already have Mamoru-Kun PS3 but I'll buy it again to send a message.

Don't forget that the PS3 is entering its EOL shortly (in North American at least) and that's usually when Sony relaxes a bunch of their publishing rules. We've seen it with PS1, PS2 and we're seeing it with PSP right now. Hopefully Microsoft will also ease up on minimum print runs once they announce their next console.

[HydrogLox]

Don't forget that the PS3 is entering its EOL shortly (in North American at least) and that's usually when Sony relaxes a bunch of their publishing rules.

Fair enough. But UFO interactive has avoided Sony for so long that one has to wonder if there is something else going on ...

We're seeing it with PSP right now.

This cannot counter-balance that PSP releases are virtually invisible in North America through most major retail channels as all the PSP shelf-space has been consumed by PS Vita systems, accessories, and games. So anything released now has to be aimed at PSP-devotees who actively monitor PSP releases and are willing to go out of their way to acquire what they want.

Hopefully Microsoft will also ease up on minimum print runs once they announce their next console.

I wouldn't hold my breath. Microsoft hasn't announced their next hardware platform yet - because of the success of the Xbox-live Gold service they may be allowing themselves some breathing room in spite of the PS4 announcement. And even when they do announce the next platform they probably can't be bothered with milking the current generation to the last dregs. Their philosophy seems to be based on the notion that money can be most effective made on the people who are willing to spend their money on the next big thing. So once their "next big thing" emerges all their effort goes into that. The "last big thing" is only kept on minimum life support for long enough to prevent the existing user base from moving to a competing product or service while keeping them around until they finally migrate to Microsoft's "next big thing". Microsoft's end-of-life support policies for their PC OS and software products is kept somewhat reasonable because of their reliance on business customers who don't follow every little fad. The consumer-end (like gaming) of Microsoft tends to be much more ruthless when ushering its market into the next generation.

[denpanosekai]

As for the PSP I had a specific example in mind (Class of Heroes 2 getting a physical release) but you're right, it's nothing like the golden PS1 EOL era.

[Last_Dancer]

This game pretty much destroys all the Nonsense-talk about the necessarity of Region-locking. It was regionfree on PS3, region-locked on 360, but PS3 version gets localized.

Double dipping, game was fun.

[HydrogLox]

but PS3 version gets localized.

The siliconera article does not specify which version will be published. It was assumed that it would be the PS3 version as that was the latest version and because PS3 releases don't seem to have unreasonable minimum print quantities. However UFO interactive has never published a PS3 title (though they have 3 PSN entries) - so Mamoru-kun may be slated for a NTSC-U region( locked) Xbox 360 release - just like Raiden IV was (that is, until somebody decides that this is an altogether Illvelo-style, bad idea). So far they have simply used graphical assets from the packaging of the 2011 PS3 release - that doesn't necessarily mean that their release will be for the PS3. Destructoid claims that it will be a PS3 release - but they are simply making their own inferences based other facts.

EDIT: If it's a PS3 release it will likely be PSN-only - so that could very well happen.

[Jeneki]

I'd prefer the PS3 version anyway, as it has an extra game mode (wide).

[xgunnBlaze]

Lol Last Dancer...

I think the PS3 version is definitely going to be the one to be localized, just like Under Defeat HD. I personally hope that both PS3 and 360 versions get localized. It can't cost them that much to port the new mode over to 360, can it? Also more people need to play shooting games.