Ephemeral Fantasia Guitar Bundle So Rare There is no Info?

[Lawfer]

So I have been trying to gain info on the Ephemeral Fantasia Bundle that came out exclusively in Japan in 2000.

Unfortunally there is literally no picture of it on the internet, like zero.

The bundle consisted of the game with a special Ephemeral Phantasia guitar controller.

Ephemeral Fantasia is a game from Konami who also made the Guitar Freaks controllers.

Anybody got a pictures or product number code?

[Blair]

I remember reading about that in a game review magazine years ago, but I don't think there was any pictures. if you use the game's Japanese name on some Japanese auction sites you might be able to find more information.

[Lawfer]

I remember reading about that in a game review magazine years ago, but I don't think there was any pictures. if you use the game's Japanese name on some Japanese auction sites you might be able to find more information.

I tried, years ago and now too and came up with nothing.

Japan did have quite a bit of bundles with games + accesories exclusives, such as the Final Fantasy X-2 Gun Controller bundle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW0CkpFP-s8

Or the Operator's Side Microphone Bundle:



But this? It's like it never even existed!

Did Konami only make 5 copies or something?

[Blair]

games media people aren't the most "accurate" of reporters (vast majority of them also have fairly shallow knowledge when it comes to games and gaming hardware), it could be that during some interviews with staff or company reps they were told about a guitar controller. that might never have made it out of the prototype stage. if anyone had laid their eyes on it might it only have existed at a booth in something like an E3 or Tokyo game show. perhaps something that was shown behind closed doors. there have been completely finished games by big companies like Nintendo shown off at press events that end up never getting released. (vast majority of them still haven't even seen the light of day since)

it's also possible that somebody misunderstood or mistranslated something about the possibility of a guitar controller and as I said games media folks don't usually investigate or confirm and will just parrot and repeat something that they heard among their peers as a lot of them know each other outside of work.

it also wasn't a very popular game, even though it had a pretty neat concept and decent review scores. nobody was very much excited about it when it came out. also like a lot of early PS2 games it had problems with interlaced flicker (or at least I remember reading reports of people getting pretty bad headaches from the game back when everybody was playing on CRTs, shadow hearts 1 also has a similar issue) that might've been fixed in later releases or revisions released outside of Japan (similar to tekken tag tournament getting a filter and antialiasing upgrade for its US release)

[Lawfer]

games media people aren't the most "accurate" of reporters (vast majority of them also have fairly shallow knowledge when it comes to games and gaming hardware),

Oh no I actually know for a fact that it exists, in 2000 I was in an import store at the time when they received a copy of the bundle.

it also wasn't a very popular game, even though it had a pretty neat concept and decent review scores. nobody was very much excited about it when it came out.

Yeah I know, this is why it's not going for alot on ebay. It just wasn't a popular JRPG, it's the same thing with the 2 Arc the Lad PS2 games and the Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter game.

[Blair]

Oh no I actually know for a fact that it exists, in 2000 I was in an import store at the time when they received a copy of the bundle.

that makes sense, I remember seeing a long box somewhere but I always thought it was just a mockup. you might want to put in a request on the buy/sell section. somebody might have one in a collection somewhere.

Spoiler

back cover of the Japanese version has something about the guitar but it doesn't look like the instrument from the game. was the accessory just a regular guitar freaks guitar? or was it supposed to be modeled on the one inside the game? (is the code to use the controller still part of the American and European releases? or is it a Japanese only exclusive feature?)

Yeah I know, this is why it's not going for alot on ebay. It just wasn't a popular JRPG, it's the same thing with the 2 Arc the Lad PS2 games and the Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter game.

yeah probably has something to do with how people label games that are just merely good, adequate, or mediocre as "bad games" it also didn't help that Final Fantasy was kind of the Call of Duty of its era when it came to RPG's, so anything that wasn't named Final Fantasy or have the square soft logo didn't fair particularly well with reviewers and audiences. even if the game was actually pretty good or at least unique. (I also think the trend of overly critical reviews killed Japanese gaming in the West,) a lot of people also expected everything called an RPG to have the same massive budget and production values. even back then for most Japanese studios that wasn't possible.