Elminage Original [PSP/PSVc] releases on 11/20

[cj iwakura]

I made an informative thread for it, so I'll share it here.



Developer: Starfish

Publisher: UFO Interactive

Music By: Hitoshi Sakimoto & Baslscape [!]

Platform: PSP/PSN/Vita(Yes, VITA COMPATIBLE ON DAY 1)

Genre: [strike]Masochism[/strike] Dungeon Crawler

Originally made in: 2008(!) [PS2]

US Release Date: 11/20/12 [PSP Remake]
Pricing: TBA(Probably $15 or so)


It's a miracle this game's coming out at all. The PSP's going out with guns blazing, and in its death throes, we're getting the first game in a surprisingly long, storied series.


Elminage Original is a PSP remake/port of 2008's "The Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of Gods".



It was also remade for the DS, which odder still, has not been localized.



Then there's Elminage II,



III,



and the latest, Gothic.




So yeah, uh, WTF is Elminage?

I'm glad you asked!


So like with most Japanese dungeon crawlers, the guys at Starfish love them some Wizardry.

That's kind of a pricey license though, so...


They just made their own game with Wizardry mechanics and slapped a different name on it. Easy money.


Either it's really popular, or Starfish are really stubborn, but who's complaining?

Story

In the world of Elminage Original, six rings harbor the powers of the gods. The world has been protected by a barrier created by 5 of the rings since before anyone remembers. When a dark priestess shatters the barrier and scatters the rings, the once peaceful world is now threatened by the dark creatures emerging as the barrier fades.

Word spread among adventurers that a monumental reward was in store for the ones that can gather all the rings and call forth the barrier once again. So the adventure begins…

Screens










Trailer


Reviews

Ha ha, yeah right.
(But seriously if someone actually does one, it'll go here.)

[Ed Oscuro]

As somebody once said: "creepy + sexy + ? = awesome"

Suckers!

Title looks interesting, I'll pick up a copy in hopes of the others getting released.

[Ganelon]

Gothic isn't the latest anymore. That dubious honor—dubious because the recent games have a lot of unnecessary changes—belongs to Ibun.

Anyway, for those who think this series is a poor man's Wizardry, realize that Starfish created the well-respected Wizardry Empire series before it ditched the license to go homegrown, but with nearly identical mechanics.

I'll definitely pick up the localization sometime. In particular, anyone who supports serious artwork in JP games should support this game.

[Hagane]

Who is (are?) the cover artist(s)?

[Ganelon]

Takeshi Miyauchi (http://hw001.wh.qit.ne.jp/p3801/)

It doesn't appear he's worked on any games outside of Starfish's serious stuff, but I like his Elminage art much more than the anime in modern JP games.

[KAI]

Music By: Hitoshi Sakimoto & Baslscape [!]

Re-used, not their best job.
Without Namiki and Kamikura, Basiscape is going down.

[cj iwakura]

Gothic isn't the latest anymore. That dubious honor—dubious because the recent games have a lot of unnecessary changes—belongs to Ibun.

Anyway, for those who think this series is a poor man's Wizardry, realize that Starfish created the well-respected Wizardry Empire series before it ditched the license to go homegrown, but with nearly identical mechanics.

I'll definitely pick up the localization sometime. In particular, anyone who supports serious artwork in JP games should support this game.

What is Ibun, PSP? Never heard of it.


And I love the cover art, II's is probably my favorite. Reminds me of Brandish.

[Jonathan Ingram]

What is Ibun, PSP? Never heard of it.

The most recent entry in the series. Came out a couple of months ago.

[Hagane]

Takeshi Miyauchi (http://hw001.wh.qit.ne.jp/p3801/)

It doesn't appear he's worked on any games outside of Starfish's serious stuff, but I like his Elminage art much more than the anime in modern JP games.

Thanks, I didn't know him.

[cj iwakura]

On the store now, $14.99. Word is the localization is kind of... buggy. I should have impressions soon.

[cj iwakura]

Oh yeah, is it ever. Incomplete lines of text, Engrish('Friend is need'), I've also heard of random kanji appearing.

Shame, I think this is chalked up to bad/rushed programming, because some of the WRITING is enjoyable, I think.

The game itself is wonderful. Pure Wizardry goodness. Great music, swift battle system, not too hard, not too easy.

[cj iwakura]

So uh, holy crap.




I'm as shocked as you.

UFO:
Hi Everyone! The Elminage Original Patch 1.01 is LIVE!
Download now on the PSN!

Patch Notes:
-Localization fixes throughout entire game.
-UI bugs fixed.
-Added custom BGM selection during gameplay.



Yeah.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, I can hopefully strike off one of the reasons I had for keeping away for Elminage Original, if the localization fix is comprehensive enough.

[Ganelon]

Great decision on UFO's part. I decided to buy the US version after it first announced the patch. Best of luck to Western gamers getting Elminage II.

[evil_ash_xero]

I don't know what the hell this is, but those covers are my kind of thing.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I've had the itch to playing a FPS Dungeon crawler, that's partly why I bought a PSP, however UK PSN lacks Unchained (Blades?) and Class of Heroes, only Elminage is on there.

Out of the whole genre Ive only played Phantasy star 1 and Shining in the Darkness back as a kid and preferred the Japanese style with story and fleshed out characters compared to those on PC that I sampled. I hear that this is quite oldschool, as I've never played any Wizardry I would guess that means it's more PC in it's flavor, lean on story and characterization. Would you recommend this to a noob?

And while I'm here can someone give me an idea as to how often it's safe to swap my PSP between different US / UK accounts without getting flagged and banned by Sony?

[dcharlieJP]

wow - was holding off this due to some of the reported quibbles but , hell, at $14.99 for some dungeon crawling? Time to dive in.

I did -not- ever expect a patch. Hats off

[Ganelon]

I hear that this is quite oldschool, as I've never played any Wizardry I would guess that means it's more PC in it's flavor, lean on story and characterization. Would you recommend this to a noob?

And while I'm here can someone give me an idea as to how often it's safe to swap my PSP between different US / UK accounts without getting flagged and banned by Sony?

If you're itching to get a dungeon crawler, then I would say that Elminage and Elminage II are probably the 2 best ones released in the past decade. Elminage doesn't have much of a story but if you thought that Shining and the Darkness had a decent story, then Elminage certainly trumps that. JP Wiz games are usually more plot and NPC heavy than their western counterparts. PCs in Elminage and most dungeon crawlers are generic so you won't get any development there.

From what I've heard, there's nothing illegal or frowned upon with swapping accounts on the PSP. I've swapped from US to JP accounts at least 20 times without any issues. Plus, to my knowledge, Sony hasn't ever been able to ban folks with PSP CFW. From what I've seen, it's just 1 guy on the internet who's very vocal in claiming that Sony bans accounts for activating too much. That's an awfully low number compared to the thousands who haven't experienced an issue.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

THX for the info on the PSP, that makes me feel much safer about account swapping.

Yeah I wouldn't say Shining Force has a great story, but there's just enough to breath life into the NPCs which I like. Given how you describe Elminage I'm gonna take the plunge when I grab a point card.

[cj iwakura]

Unfortunately, the patch isn't perfect. There's a NEW typo on every menu in shops('Idenftification'), and there's an untranslated line of text for the sound upload('MUSIC[katakana]').

Beyond that, everything looks golden, especially the blacksmith section, which was pretty much unreadable before.


I really do hope this is laying the groundwork for Elminage II's localization.


Does anyone know how sound upload works? I tried an MP3 and it said I didn't have any(I assume that's what the untranslated text said anyway ).

[Ganelon]

Are you trying the sound upload on an actual PSP or on a Vita?

Going through the English localization for the first time myself, there are still a few typos, some non-ideal translations (Birdblow), some missed references (Labor Lord instead of Raver Lord), and some text that cuts off early (can't equip because this character— ) but they're uncommon enough that it's not really an issue. Nobody will confuse the text with an Alexander O. Smith translation or even a standard Atlus localization but it's sufficient to make everything clear.

One odd aspect is that the original score composed by Basiscape has been replaced by the homegrown Starfish music from Elminage III (the first Elminage that Basiscape wasn't affiliated with). I'm assuming this change was made due to rights issues, and it's not really a big deal since the original tunes were far off from Basiscape's usual gold standard. If anything, music has always been the Elminage series' weak point. Although dungeon crawlers may not be known for music, the FC and SFC Wizardry installments (composed by renowned anime composer Kentaro Haneda) and the PCE CD Wiz versions had some great tunes.

[Turrican]

Has anyone got the the chance to compare UFO release with Ghostlight release? The PSN store says the former is double in size than the latter, which makes me think that maybe in Europe it didn't receive patches?

One odd aspect is that the original score composed by Basiscape has been replaced by the homegrown Starfish music from Elminage III

A feedback on this, regarding UFO / Ghostlight (That is, US and EU) would be appreciated as well.

[Rymdröv]

Has anyone got the the chance to compare UFO release with Ghostlight release? The PSN store says the former is double in size than the latter, which makes me think that maybe in Europe it didn't receive patches?

One odd aspect is that the original score composed by Basiscape has been replaced by the homegrown Starfish music from Elminage III

A feedback on this, regarding UFO / Ghostlight (That is, US and EU) would be appreciated as well.

I don't know about the PSN version but the EU UMD release had the same fixes as the patched US PSN release and the music from Elminage III

[cj iwakura]

Are you trying the sound upload on an actual PSP or on a Vita?

Going through the English localization for the first time myself, there are still a few typos, some non-ideal translations (Birdblow), some missed references (Labor Lord instead of Raver Lord), and some text that cuts off early (can't equip because this character— ) but they're uncommon enough that it's not really an issue. Nobody will confuse the text with an Alexander O. Smith translation or even a standard Atlus localization but it's sufficient to make everything clear.

One odd aspect is that the original score composed by Basiscape has been replaced by the homegrown Starfish music from Elminage III (the first Elminage that Basiscape wasn't affiliated with). I'm assuming this change was made due to rights issues, and it's not really a big deal since the original tunes were far off from Basiscape's usual gold standard. If anything, music has always been the Elminage series' weak point. Although dungeon crawlers may not be known for music, the FC and SFC Wizardry installments (composed by renowned anime composer Kentaro Haneda) and the PCE CD Wiz versions had some great tunes.

I honestly didn't know this... but it explains why the OST in Elminage III sounded so familiar. Are there any samples of the original?