For the month of October:
Shadow of the Colossus - 93,995 copies sold
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 50,164 copies sold
Shining Force Neo - 10,013 copies sold
That is all.
Lol. I was under the impression that hack ‘n’ slash RPGs had more mass market appeal than turn-based simulation RPGs.
Sega basically made the same mistake as Interplay (Fallout 3 would have sold so well), and has paid the price for its stupidity.
What’s hilarious about this situation is that strategy/RPGs are currently the flavor of the moment. A shame that Sega couldn’t be a part of it. I wonder if Shining Force Neo will manage to surpass Shining Force 3’s US sales figures by the end of November? I suppose we shall find out in December!
Neos just got lost in the glut of other (superior) RPGs available on the PS2. With sales like that though I doubt it’ll turn up here in the UK - I certainly haven’t seen anything in the trade magazines.
Fire Emblems figures are probably greater than they should be - not in relation to Neo - because there’s nothing out on Cube recently anyway, and definitely not all that many RPGs on it either!
Great news about SotC though! Makes me smile that for all the mainstream gamers that choke the charts with flippin GTA, something like that can still do well.
The fans who liked SF Neo are grasping at straws in my opinion. We aren’t likely to see Shining Force IV ever now thanks to this almighty screw up, and SF Neo is all they have left to hold onto.
I really doubt the people at Sega of Europe have anything better to do than localise SF Neo. I suppose they could already be working on localising Phantasy Star Universe in the major European territories ahead of time (not unheard of). With Spartan and the newest Football Manager game selling so well, SoE hasn’t been in a stronger position.
Gee, Geoffery Duke,it’s almost you want SHINING FORCE to fail 
Sega meant to be releasing a SRPG of SHINING FORCE at one point but hopefully this kills any chance of another NEO.
Sega really should have called SF Neo something else and released it alongside a new Shining Force Strategy/RPG. That way, SF’s momentum in Japan would have carried SF Neo much like the highly anticipated Fallout 3 was carrying Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Fans would have bought the latter to support the former.
SF Neo’s name gave the impression that it was meant to usurp the much-loved older Force games in the series, which didn’t exactly lend a helping hand in furthering its cause. In the very least, the fool overseeing the series should have announced that we’d see SF IV very soon so as to stave off these false impressions… if indeed they were false. However, as it stands, SF Neo looks like it was attempting to clone a popular gameplay format of the moment in a bid to have a slice of that pie for itself whilst named as such to set it apart in the vain hopes of cashing in on SF’s name recognition.
What a wasted opportunity. Even each scenario of Shining Force 3 alone outside SF Neo in Japan. What does that prove? SF Neo is the equivalent of Sega turning Panzer Dragoon into a first person shooter. From business stand-point, it might be a good idea if that brand has some market penetration, but from a conceptual point of view, it makes no sense whatsoever.
Shining Force means army of light in Japan in case anyone was wondering. There were no Jedi powers in the original games.
it is a downright disgrase how sega has now raped the shining force name, shining force has always had class games but this one just screws it all up, horrible!!
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]Shining Force means army of light in Japan in case anyone was wondering. There were no Jedi powers in the original games.
[/quote]
Jedi powers? I may have missed something posting before work but what do you mean? Nothing springs to mind from NEO (which is what I assume you’re referring to).
Also, in Japanese, “Shining Force” is spelt as “Shining Force” (as close to as you can get, anyway) - where do you get this “army of light” business from?
^It’s a genuine question, don’t hate me ^^~
Shining = light, Force = army. No Japanese required!
Least with Neo being crap my mate can’t torment me that it’s not coming out on Gamecube…yet…not matter how many times I tell him it’s crap…he continues to go on.
Jedi powers…I haven’t played the game but I presume that he means some of the characters have rubbishy attacks that seem to involve a force push or something =P
It’s not coming on the Gamecube although i wouldn’t be suprised if a SHINING FORCE title appears on the 'cube at one point. Co, developed by Camelot…
May not happen but lets face it what’s inhouse Sega’s actual involvement in this series revival? SHINING TEARS was done by Nextech. NEO was done by Neverland and the SHINING SOUL games were done by Salamander. Sega’s only involvement is porting the original titles to other new platforms and publishing them.Amusement Vision appears to be FAR too busy to actually do the series themselves and they have the staff that many fans beleive will do the games justice after camelot. If Sega is just farming out each installement to other developers for certain platforms then they should just get Camelot to produce the nintendo version. A) because it will probably be an exclusive title for nintendo which would make them happy and since sega and nintendo are chums now they wouldn’t mind lending Camelot to do the job and B) it would sell,a lot.
But of course stranger things have happened…
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]Sega really should have called SF Neo something else and released it alongside a new Shining Force Strategy/RPG. That way, SF’s momentum in Japan would have carried SF Neo much like the highly anticipated Fallout 3 was carrying Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Fans would have bought the latter to support the former.
[/quote]
You know what’s strange about this statement? It’s exactly what Sega is doing with RYU GA GOTUKU at the moment. They have the Japanese publishing rights for The Getaway:Black Monday which is a taster for their own crime game to the japanese public. Since both games will be released a couple of weeks from eachother.
I’m thinking that Sega is producing Shining games to fit in what they think that audience of a particular platform would be intrested in. if SHINING FORCE 4 reaches on Gamecube i bet it will be a SRPG since Sega seems to be releasing SHINING FORCE on multiple platforms but all having their own unique versions of thhe games and not a port.
I have played the game you see and I can’t think of any attack that reminedd me of that. There’s your standard ice, fire, holy spells and whatever but nothing particularly Jedi-like.
Yes I can see that but that isn’t specifically implied by the Japanese title of the series any more than it is in the English one.
Jedi powers? I may have missed something posting before work but what do you mean? Nothing springs to mind from NEO (which is what I assume you’re referring to).
Also, in Japanese, “Shining Force” is spelt as “Shining Force” (as close to as you can get, anyway) - where do you get this “army of light” business from?
^It’s a genuine question, don’t hate me ^^~[/quote]
I was referring to the “Force Arts”.
Army of Light is the term used to describe the force in the Japanese text. This comes straight from a number of translations. There’s a Babelfish translation of a character biography here (scroll down to Rick’s post at SFC).
The next time you’re at Shining Force Central you can confirm this with Aspartate who speaks and reads Chinese, English and Japanese. I remember having some great debates with her regarding the English translation of Shining The Holy Ark, which according to her relayed the history of the vandals in quite a misleading light when compared to the original script (i.e. there’s more than one greater vandal; the vandal clan didn’t originate from a single greater one).
You know what’s strange about this statement? It’s exactly what Sega is doing with RYU GA GOTUKU at the moment. They have the Japanese publishing rights for The Getaway:Black Monday which is a taster for their own crime game to the japanese public. Since both games will be released a couple of weeks from eachother.
I’m thinking that Sega is producing Shining games to fit in what they think that audience of a particular platform would be intrested in. if SHINING FORCE 4 reaches on Gamecube i bet it will be a SRPG since Sega seems to be releasing SHINING FORCE on multiple platforms but all having their own unique versions of thhe games and not a port.[/quote]
You know, I have so little optimism for the future of this series that if Sega were to make SF IV, I doubt it would see the light of day here, especially now that Sega of America is so convinced that SF Neo is the next step in SF’s evolution. Sega was supposed to be better than that.
This point in time (as the current generation consoles go out with a bang) was the perfect window of opportunity for Sega to release Shining Force IV. Too bad SF Neo squandered it so thoughtlessly. I hope the developers at Neverland are proud of themselves.
Also… the level of detail expected from next gen games will be so great that a simulation/RPG no doubt wouldn’t be viable on any of the new consoles. As development costs rise, we’ll just continue to see more games with only the most popular of tried and true gameplay formats, only this time with a next generation facelift. So to cut a long story short, this series probably won’t come to life on any next generation platform; such games have no place in a market molded around the fickle whims of casual players.
[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]I was referring to the “Force Arts”.
Army of Light is the term used to describe the force in the Japanese text. This comes straight from a number of translations. There’s a Babelfish translation of a character biography here (scroll down to Rick’s post at SFC).
[/quote]
Ah I see. Force Arts is just a fancy name for permant stat boosts/customisation, you know - not a Wookie in sight
I haven’t played thorugh SF in Japanese, I wasn’t aware of the reference.
I’m never going to post back at SFC - there’s too many egos and the whole “We hate NEO more than taxes/slavery/robbing old people” just got to me, and I decided I didn’t want to be a part of that any more. Little, rational debates about it I can handle 
You know what’s strange about this statement? It’s exactly what Sega is doing with RYU GA GOTUKU at the moment. They have the Japanese publishing rights for The Getaway:Black Monday which is a taster for their own crime game to the japanese public. Since both games will be released a couple of weeks from eachother.
I’m thinking that Sega is producing Shining games to fit in what they think that audience of a particular platform would be intrested in. if SHINING FORCE 4 reaches on Gamecube i bet it will be a SRPG since Sega seems to be releasing SHINING FORCE on multiple platforms but all having their own unique versions of thhe games and not a port.
You know, I have so little optimism for the future of this series that if Sega were to make SF IV, I doubt it would see the light of day here, especially now that Sega of America is so convinced that SF Neo is the next step in SF’s evolution. Sega was supposed to be better than that.
This point in time (as the current generation consoles go out with a bang) was the perfect window of opportunity for Sega to release Shining Force IV. Too bad SF Neo squandered it so thoughtlessly. I hope the developers at Neverland are proud of themselves.
Also… the level of detail expected from next gen games will be so great that a simulation/RPG no doubt wouldn’t be viable on any of the new consoles. As development costs rise, we’ll just continue to see more games with only the most popular of tried and true gameplay formats, only this time with a next generation facelift. So to cut a long story short, this series probably won’t come to life on any next generation platform; such games have no place in a market molded around the fickle whims of casual players.[/quote]
But in reality NEO is the only SHINING game to have flopped. The others didn’t and remember the SHINING FORCE mobile games are about to be released in japan. the argument is that Sega knows that the fans don’t want an action RPG of SHINING FORCE in future especially since SHINING TEARS outside it in japan. They would have to give a SRPG format of SHINING FORCE a chance because they were the big sellers and were hardly flops as opposed to one SHINING FORCE title that flopped and wasn’t an SRPG. Only a fool in Sega would think that the whole SHINING FORCE series is dead because of the failure of one title that strayed from the formula.Luckly were not talking about Sega circa '95-2000 but Sega of 2005 under Satomi whose made real wise decisions for the company.
Also the reality is that SHINING FORCE is their only other RPG that they can cash in on after PHANTASY STAR to a mainstream audience. The problem as i see it is that this franchise isn’t being given any tight direction by amusement vision who was given control of it. they seem unintrested in the series as a whole and are farming it to anyone while Sonic team has given PHANTASY STAR some tight direction.
i think Sega is looking at the big picture with SHINING FORCE. They want it to be a succesful multiplatform RPG series which so far PHANTASY STAR has reached that claim.Sega is actually in a position that their nearest rivals in role playing games are not in yet(Square) because they are on several platforms. So it’s basically a race against time to get their RPG games out there to viable platforms which is why the NGC would be next since a few RPGs released became really successful. One hiccup won’t stop the series since the SRPG version of SHINING FORCE was put into development ages ago(round the time when TEARS hit big in Japan) so the series is still safe in the terms of getting a new installment.
Uh… according to Hiroyuki Takahashi, Shining Force 3 was the first game in the Shining series to sell really well, as covered by 1up’s interview. The Shining games after Shining Force 3 have all basically been lackluster in sales as well. The Shining Soul games sold like crap, Shining Tears didn’t sell all too well, and Shining Force Neo sold only half of what Sega was shooting for in Japan, and sold only 10% of that in the United States so far.
Shining Force 3 remains the pinnacle of the series. Hell, Sega printed the US release of scenario 1 in limited numbers, and it outsold Shining Force Neo. That’s embarassing.
[quote=“Parn”]Uh… according to Hiroyuki Takahashi, Shining Force 3 was the first game in the Shining series to sell really well, as covered by 1up’s interview. The Shining games after Shining Force 3 have all basically been lackluster in sales as well. The Shining Soul games sold like crap, Shining Tears didn’t sell all too well, and Shining Force Neo sold only half of what Sega was shooting for in Japan, and sold only 10% of that in the United States so far.
Shining Force 3 remains the pinnacle of the series. Hell, Sega printed the US release of scenario 1 in limited numbers, and it outsold Shining Force Neo. That’s embarassing.[/quote]
Also the big diff the Mega Drive games cost next to nothing to make , SEGA could even make money off the Mega CD version thanks to the small development costs.
Not the case with the 32 version never mind Neo (which must have cost loads onthe FMV alone). I don’t the Saturn versions of SF III sold that great apart from the 1st one (SFIII pt3 didn’t sell that great).
I don’t like to see SEGA games flop or them lose money , but they were kind of asking fro trouble with Neo. Just hope after the poor sales this doesn’t mean SEGA will drop the series full stop