Record of Agarest War (Xbox 360/PS3)

[Rebel Ninja]

Just thought I would create a thread for this game. I was wondering what people's opinions and expectations are on this game? This includes people who already have either the Japanese versions or the Euro version on PS3.

[Elixir]

The only thing Idea Factory games have going for them is the art and soundtrack. The gameplay is absolutely atrocious and the graphics are very mediocre.

I think they would be better off making them for PSP.

[Rebel Ninja]

I've got spectral force 3 and I only played it for about an hour I found the presentation and gameplay pretty dull. So is agarest senki basically like spectral force 3 gameplay wise? Also I have enjoyed other srpg's in the past such as Final Fantasy tactics.

[Elixir]

I put 40 or so hours into Spectral Force 3 but I skipped the entire story (I still have no idea what it was about) because the voice acting was terrible. If you didn't like that, you probably won't like Agarest, since they're all cut from the same cloth. Also see Cross Edge, which basically forces you to grind for hours on end before progressing to the next area.

I'd recommend Cross Edge out of all of them but seriously, it's just picking the best mediocre game out of a handful of mediocre games. I dunno, you might like Agarest, since I haven't played it. I think there's a demo on the JP PS3 marketplace.

[BulletMagnet]

I haven't played this, but I can't help but be at least a little curious thanks to its...er, unique gimmick. Weird that the US PS3 version will be download-only, while the 360 version will be disc-based...at least both will have the extra content from the re-release version from Japan. I'd need to know more about how the thing actually plays before saying much more - hopefully an English-language demo will be released.

[Cuilan]

Weird that the US PS3 version will be download-only, while the 360 version will be disc-based...

SCEA's policy is that localizations of retail PS3 games must have full English text and (if present) voice. If the publisher decides to leave the Japanese voices in and not add English voices, SCEA won't allow them to sell it at retail. That's why the US PS3 version of this game is digital-only, and also why the PS3 version of Battle Fantasia was never sold in the US. Thankfully, Microsoft does not have this restriction.

[Cthulhu]

The only thing Idea Factory games have going for them is the art and soundtrack. The gameplay is absolutely atrocious and the graphics are very mediocre.

I think they would be better off making them for PSP.

I haven't played an Idea Factory game in a long, long time, but that's pretty much how I felt and pretty much what I've always heard. As neat as it is that they're releasing this here at all, I have no intention of buying it.

[Ganelon]

Idea Factory should just start over. It seems their reputation has already been tarnished everywhere. Give up Generation and Spectral and begin anew with a quality game. That said, I'll still get the 360 US version; if anybody takes the trouble to bring a 2D RPG over, I'll give them money.

[Rebel Ninja]

I sent Aksys an email a few weeks ago asking about the region coding on the 360 release. They said while (to no surprise) it would be locked for PAL they would be looking to have it unlocked for NTSC-J, so hopefully those of us in Europe who do have a Japanese console can still get a chance to play this if we do choose to.

[Rebel Ninja]

New uh...... trailer.

http://kotaku.com/5437327/north-america ... -shameless

Seems the release date is the 27th of April 2010 judging by the end of the trailer.

[Lordstar]

Weird that the US PS3 version will be download-only, while the 360 version will be disc-based...

SCEA's policy is that localizations of retail PS3 games must have full English text and (if present) voice. If the publisher decides to leave the Japanese voices in and not add English voices, SCEA won't allow them to sell it at retail. That's why the US PS3 version of this game is digital-only, and also why the PS3 version of Battle Fantasia was never sold in the US. Thankfully, Microsoft does not have this restriction.

on the flip side to that it would be very unlikley that MS would let this be a download due to its size since they like to put limits on these things of reicent.

[Lordstar]

I sent Aksys an email a few weeks ago asking about the region coding on the 360 release. They said while (to no surprise) it would be locked for PAL they would be looking to have it unlocked for NTSC-J, so hopefully those of us in Europe who do have a Japanese console can still get a chance to play this if we do choose to.

uugh! I get why people would do this becuase they dont want to hinder any possible sales for it in the EU but there must be a point where you have to ask does anyone really want to publish a game in the EU which is XX years old in usa. Hopefully the 'expriment' which cave did with futari1.5 will open up the door to future companies deciding its not self suicide to just make stuff without region lock.

[system11]

I sent Aksys an email a few weeks ago asking about the region coding on the 360 release. They said while (to no surprise) it would be locked for PAL they would be looking to have it unlocked for NTSC-J, so hopefully those of us in Europe who do have a Japanese console can still get a chance to play this if we do choose to.

Did they give any justification for the region lock? I can't see one at all, given that the game is out on PS3 and therefore region free in one form already.

This is why licensing games for localisation sucks hard - Europe always gets screwed.

[ZOM]

Weird that the US PS3 version will be download-only, while the 360 version will be disc-based...

SCEA's policy is that localizations of retail PS3 games must have full English text and (if present) voice. If the publisher decides to leave the Japanese voices in and not add English voices, SCEA won't allow them to sell it at retail. That's why the US PS3 version of this game is digital-only, and also why the PS3 version of Battle Fantasia was never sold in the US. Thankfully, Microsoft does not have this restriction.

Not really - see RgG3.

[Rebel Ninja]

Information on the LE.

http://kotaku.com/5457448/record-of-aga ... oplay=true

[Khan]

New uh...... trailer.

http://kotaku.com/5437327/north-america ... -shameless

Seems the release date is the 27th of April 2010 judging by the end of the trailer.

hmmmm interesting trailer

[Elixir]

Can someone confirm that this works on JP 360s?

[ncp]

Information on the LE.

http://kotaku.com/5457448/record-of-aga ... oplay=true

That is an awesome trailer.

[professor ganson]

The L.E. looks ridiculous, but I'll probably preorder it all the same. Amazon already has preorders available.

[Julimano]

anyone knows where can I pre order this 'awesome' LE? Amazon will not ship to Brazil

[Elixir]

I emailed Aksys, asking them if they would make it either region free or compatible with Japanese 360s. Their response was "we will try, but we can't guarantee it".

So, 50/50 still.

[Rebel Ninja]

I emailed Aksys, asking them if they would make it either region free or compatible with Japanese 360s. Their response was "we will try, but we can't guarantee it".

So, 50/50 still.

I was gonna post that information as well. I emailed them a few days ago and got that response. Anyway new article from Kotaku.

http://kotaku.com/5458989/theres-more-t ... sex-appeal

[professor ganson]

Anyway new article from Kotaku.

http://kotaku.com/5458989/theres-more-t ... sex-appeal

That was helpful. I already planned to preorder, but now I'm going to make it a priority.

[Rebel Ninja]

This news is a few days old but I thought I'd post it in this thread anyway.

The quote below is from one of the people who work at Aksys.

I am told that it will play on North American and Asian consoles, but "Asian" in this case does not include Japan. I think.

So you can play it on an Asian Console but not a Japanese. Has this been done with any games before? I seem to remember that "Samurai Shodown: Sen" censored the gore on Japanese consoles but not on Asian ones. Still the game itself wasn't locked out from playing on the console.

[njiska]

Weird that the US PS3 version will be download-only, while the 360 version will be disc-based...

SCEA's policy is that localizations of retail PS3 games must have full English text and (if present) voice. If the publisher decides to leave the Japanese voices in and not add English voices, SCEA won't allow them to sell it at retail. That's why the US PS3 version of this game is digital-only, and also why the PS3 version of Battle Fantasia was never sold in the US. Thankfully, Microsoft does not have this restriction.

Well how do you explain Yakuza 3? I mean it has English text, but the original Japanese voices.

[evil_ash_xero]

Hmm...I might put off getting the Japanese DS Platinum Edition. I have the feeling these folks won't censor it(except for the ages, probably).

[Cuilan]

Well how do you explain Yakuza 3? I mean it has English text, but the original Japanese voices.

Perhaps SCEA recently changed their policies. Or maybe they just made an exception for it. A lot of things can happen in 4 months.

[Lordstar]

I emailed Aksys, asking them if they would make it either region free or compatible with Japanese 360s. Their response was "we will try, but we can't guarantee it".

So, 50/50 still.

I know two people in the company and ive been told its pretty much US only on all there games. I asked specificlay about ROA becuase i wanted to secure myself a copy of the LTD and I was told that chances are more likly that the Game would not work. then i asked about the DS port. the Deathsmiles port has little to no chance of being region free.which seems to me like cave want to sell it to someone in the EU. If that is the case i fucking hope someone bites.

[EOJ]

ive been told its pretty much US only on all there games.

Not really. They've released three X360 games so far and only one is locked to the USA (Guilty Gear 2: Overture).

Blazblue is USA + Japan region:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-dh- ... -3h0o.html

Battle Fantasia is also USA + Japan region:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-dh- ... -2zj9.html

They always seem to lock out Europe, so I wouldn't expect any of their upcoming X360 games to be PAL compatible.

[Elixir]

It's pretty sad when I have to tell an Aksys employee that he's wrong.

http://www.aksysgames.com/forums/topic/407/page/2

I'm pretty sure it isn't possible to have an NTSC-J game that won't work with JP 360s. There's different versions of NTSC-J games (Korean, Chinese, Asian English, Japanese) but they're all cut from the same cloth. Fallout 3's Asian version had content removed from the JP version (something to do with a nuke?), which had Japanese people reverse importing, as they did with Borderlands, Gears of War 2, Bioshock 2, Batman: AA and a bunch of other games that didn't get released in Japan until months later.

If this somehow won't work on my JP 360, I'm going to be very disappointed.