Has anyone seen the Xenosaga II trailer?
- Thread starter Legion
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gpara uploaded a tiny tiny bit of the trailer captured from a cam at the conference
http://www.gpara.com/movie/20030722.htm
http://www.gpara.com/movie/20030722.htm
looks good. Anyone have more shots or trailers?
later,
later,
zurich said:Do you think Xenosaga is making money for Monolith/Namco? RPG's aren't cheap, especially not 60-70 hour ones being developed in episodes
Namco recently announced that the sales numbers of Xenosaga Episode I are approaching 1 million worldwide. Oh, and BTW, at the end of Namco´s financial year Xenosaga sold 200k units in NA alone. I don´t know about Europe, though.
Supposedly Namco is predicting a total of a million copies worldwide after Xenosaga: Episode 1 Reloaded is released. For those that don't know, this is a Japan-only rerelease which has some needed features, like being able to go back and see in-game movies you've seen. It also has some not-so-needed features, like "fan service" costumes for KOS-MOS and Momo.
From what I heard, Episode Two might be an improvement over Episode One. The mech battles are going to be more meaningful (rather than worthless), and the story will be more "spread out" over longer game play. And Jin Uzuki, the Citan-like guy will be playable! Here's some more links to pics, but the impress game watch link posted by maskrider is the best. The last is to the Epi 1 remake, the first three to Epi 2.
http://www.gameforms.com/games/ps2/xenosaga2/media/media1/
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/xeno/xenosaga2/xenosaga2.html
http://rpgfan.com/news/2003/1751.html
http://rpgfan.com/news/2003/1740.html
It also has some not-so-needed features, like "fan service" costumes for KOS-MOS and Momo. From what I heard, Episode Two might be an improvement over Episode One. The mech battles are going to be more meaningful (rather than worthless), and the story will be more "spread out" over longer game play. And Jin Uzuki, the Citan-like guy will be playable! Here's some more links to pics, but the impress game watch link posted by maskrider is the best. The last is to the Epi 1 remake, the first three to Epi 2.
http://www.gameforms.com/games/ps2/xenosaga2/media/media1/
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/xeno/xenosaga2/xenosaga2.html
http://rpgfan.com/news/2003/1751.html
http://rpgfan.com/news/2003/1740.html
Zurich, that depends by your definition of "successful." By Xenogears standards, it did poorly. (It's length certainly deserves a potion of the blame.) From what I've heard, it sounds as if MonoSoft/Namco still expects profit after all sales (including the "remake") are factored in. The question is will it be enough for Namco...
However, one thing to keep in mind is that the console RPG market now relative to the PSOne days has become much more polarized. A few titles like FFX-2 can sell 5 million copies while others linger in obscurity. Remember back 5 years ago and recall how many RPGs were on PSOne versus how many on there are on PS2 today? (with virtually none on gcube or xbox) For just one obvious example, Square has so far in the States only released FFX, KH, and now Un-Saga on PS2 RPG-wise with few titles in the development pipe, whereas at this time period on PSOne they already had about 6-7 RPG releases here with many more upcoming. Some of this is due to the horiffic erosion of the Japanese economy and the decay of that market; some is due to spiraling development costs which will only get worse as long as Moore's little law holds. If Xenosaga can survive, I will be very impressed.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that the console RPG market now relative to the PSOne days has become much more polarized. A few titles like FFX-2 can sell 5 million copies while others linger in obscurity. Remember back 5 years ago and recall how many RPGs were on PSOne versus how many on there are on PS2 today? (with virtually none on gcube or xbox) For just one obvious example, Square has so far in the States only released FFX, KH, and now Un-Saga on PS2 RPG-wise with few titles in the development pipe, whereas at this time period on PSOne they already had about 6-7 RPG releases here with many more upcoming. Some of this is due to the horiffic erosion of the Japanese economy and the decay of that market; some is due to spiraling development costs which will only get worse as long as Moore's little law holds. If Xenosaga can survive, I will be very impressed.
Well I checked Magic Box for some numbers.
XenoGears didn't show up at all on the Japanese platinum chart, meaning it was under 1 million sold there.
PSX Squaresoft Xenogears 239,000
PS2 Namco Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht 245,000
Those are for North America in the Platinum chart "honourable mention".
So it would seem that XenoSaga I is atleast on par with XenoGears? However, given the huge cost to make an RPG of this size compared to the PSOne days, I still don't know if its doing well.
I'm not criticizing the game, just the strange episodic format that Monolith/Namco choose, and its general viability (IMO, it won't finish).
XenoGears didn't show up at all on the Japanese platinum chart, meaning it was under 1 million sold there.
PSX Squaresoft Xenogears 239,000
PS2 Namco Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht 245,000
Those are for North America in the Platinum chart "honourable mention".
So it would seem that XenoSaga I is atleast on par with XenoGears? However, given the huge cost to make an RPG of this size compared to the PSOne days, I still don't know if its doing well.
I'm not criticizing the game, just the strange episodic format that Monolith/Namco choose, and its general viability (IMO, it won't finish).
marconelly!
Veteran
One million with medium sized advertising it had... I think that's some nice profit unless it was one of the most expensive games ever made (read Shenmue), which I don't think it was.
No, what I meant to say was that XS1 was going to hit a million after the remake is released (or at least that is what Namco has said). While it has done well here relative to XG, in Japan the sales were much worse. You're right about XG Japan sales; it got close to a million but not quite there. Of course, XS1, even if it sells more than XG, cost far more to make.
Not sure I agree. You could argue that any series which transpires in the same fictional meta-universe (unlike the FF series for example) is "episodic." There really isn't a rigorous distinction here. The best definition would be that an episodic series is one where the dev promises sequels. After all, did LOK:Soul Reaver feel like a self-enclosed narrative (what of it was there)?
notAFanB said:
Not sure I agree. You could argue that any series which transpires in the same fictional meta-universe (unlike the FF series for example) is "episodic." There really isn't a rigorous distinction here. The best definition would be that an episodic series is one where the dev promises sequels.
After all, did LOK:Soul Reaver feel like a self-enclosed narrative (what of it was there)?zurich said:
Xenosaga is not an episodic game exactly. Episode II will be the last you see of KOSMOS, Jr and Shion. The next game will be set several thousand years ofter those events (Xenogears was Episode 5 and IMO if Monolith (in Square back then) didn´t a big fat "Episode V" thing at the end, we wouldn´t have found out), and the rest of the games will be similar to it.
And hey, look at how much money 100k copies can make, after seeing that, I´m sure Namco made a pretty profit from the game.
Almasy said:
Actually, Takahashi is not following the Xenogears Perfect Works he established in 1997 but rather a modified version of it. One example: In XG the Anima Relics which are the "channelers" of Zohar's energy are created by Deus upon the crash of the Eldridge. In XS the "Zohar emulators" are already present, before the Eldridge has even been built. Testuya Takahashi has also stated that Kos-Mos and chaos will be present in the entire series (although "not neccessarily in their current form" whatever that means). :?
