SF Neo project manager speaks his mind

General Chatter
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Copied and pasted from www.RPGFan.com:

[quote]In an exclusive interview with RPGFan, Sega’s Shining Force and Sakura Taisen project manager Tadashi Takezaki outlined his company’s current and future plans regarding Shining Force.

When asked about the decision to turn Shining Force Neo into an action RPG, Takezaki explained that to play the remake of the original Shining Force, Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon on the current generation of hardware, the Game Boy Advance capabilities were sufficient. However, if one wants to create a PlayStation 2 game, one has to make use of that console’s capabilities. After the development team had done some trial-and-error tests to find out the genre most suitable for the hardware, it turned out to be a more action-oriented title like Shining Force Neo.

He however mentioned that it was also possible that Sega would create a new Shining Force strategy RPG at some point in the future. In this case, the battle system of previous installments would have to be enhanced.

For Shining Force Neo, the company projects sales of 200,000 copies in Japan. In the future, the company aims to turn Shining Force into a series capable of selling 500,000 copies per installment.

While noting he would like American and European fans to enjoy Shining Force Neo as well, Takezaki acknowledged that Sega had not decided on a release outside Japan so far.

Shining Force Neo will be available on March 24th in Japan.

Look forward to the full interview with Tadashi Takezaki later this month, as part of our Exclusive Interview feature.[/quote]

I’ve made my feelings on this subject all too clear elsewhere:

If the SF Neo project manager wanted to find a good example of a 3D Strategy/RPG to build on, he needn’t have looked any further than Riglord Saga and Shining Force 3 for the Sega Saturn (games both published by none other than Sega). The Riglord Saga battle system, which is basically a top-down 3D derivative of the traditional Shining Force battle system only with a camera that zooms in on characters as they strike instead of switching screens to a pseudo-third person perspective and zooms out again when the time comes to move characters around, would have been the perfect foundation for any new PS2 Strategy/RPG.

In my opinion, a 3D SF Strategy/RPG is no more unsuitable for the PS2 than Riglord Saga was for the Saturn.

Does anyone here share my sentiments?

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As i’ve mentioned before in a previous site, Sega obviously think that the PS2 audience isn’t patient and smart enough to play an SRPG.
The last SRPG from Sega was CASTLE JACK ONLINE on various Mobile phones in Japan so Sega has n’t abandoned the genre.

From what this guy has said and the recent revelation that Neverland(makers of Lufia) was doing half of the development on this title,Sega is
trying to make an RPG that will appeal to the mainstream japanese audience.

Is this the age old Sega problem of the management out of touch and messing things up as opposed to the in touch and more focused sega development teams? I thought Sammy was meant to have sort this crap out.

They going about this all wrong. I’m more intrested in SHINING WIND and SHINING ROAD and this mysterious RPG that Nagoshi san mentioned.

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:anjou_angry:

I’d be interested it hearing what kind of “tests” that they took exactly. Because I never had a problem playing Shining Force III my Saturn; why shouldn’t the same rules apply on the PS2? All Sega needed to do was enhance the battle system, the graphics, and add a whole new storyline and we could have been playing one of the greatest games ever made. And there are plenty of ways in which the existing battle system could have been enhanced, all it takes is a little creativity. Even if they needed to change some major features in order to move the series forward, I fail to see why they couldn’t have created a game that actually did the Shining Force name justice… a game where you actually control a “force”, none of this Star Wars rubbish!

I don’t think Amusement Vision cares about Shining Force fans. At all.

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For argument’s sake, if Shining Force Neo were to flop, do you think that Sega would finally get the message? Why would fans of this series suddenly want to play as a force of three?

This is depressing. Maybe we should just all go buy ourselves a GameCube for Fire Emblem.

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Maybe. On the other hand, Sega might decide that the series is no longer profitable and abandon it all together. I don’t know which would be worse to be honest; I guess I’ll find out once (if) I finally play Shining Force Neo.

It’s very tempting, I must say. If Shining Wind or Shining Road is a SRPG we might still have some hope of receiving that game we all want, but I’m not holding my breath.

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Strategy/RPGs will work on the PS2. Goodness knows that’s all Nippon Ichi ever seems to do (Disgaea, Phantom Brave, Makai Kingdom, etc.). I’m not really sure what he means by “the genre most suitable for the hardware” either or even why that should apply. (What if the most suitable genre was a sports game. Would we have Shining Football?)

Sadly, if Shining Force Neo flops I think it’s more likely the series will retire than be given another shot. :anjou_disappointment:

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Yeah, I’m guessing what he actually means is “action RPGs sell better than SRPGs on PS2”, but is saying so in a way that isn’t quite as offensive to fans of the old Force style. “Most suitable for the market” might have been a better way to put it.

I really hope turn based games don’t go away forever, especially SRPGs. Action games aren’t the only types of games that can be enjoyable… there’s something about careful organising your units over a series of turns which can not be pulled off in action game, ever, no matter how many moves you can master. If that core gameplay has gone from the series forever then I think we can kiss goodbye to what makes Shining Force Shining Force…

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Well the thing is that Sega is in the middle of phase two of resurrecting
the SHINING FORCE SERIES and NEO is their most important aspect of this as it’s considered the main title in the franchise.

While it’s true that there’s two Shining games on the ps2 there’s also
three on the GBA. I don’t think Sega is going to restrict the franchise to just one home system console. Maybe they plan on releasing an SRPG Force game on another system other than PS2.

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Takezaki’s comments are meant for all the whiny Sega gamers who’ve been complaining about the lack of a strategy/RPG (namely us), to try to justify their decision. Too bad they’re hilariously silly.

If taking advantage of the PlayStation 2 hardware was so important, then explain Shining Tears, Sega. Uh oh… big gaping hole alert!

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Haha, very true!

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Check out the current results of GameFAQs’ latest poll:

What’s your favorite type of strategy game?

Real-Time 30.76% 11661
Turn-Based 25.27% 9581
I like them both equally 37.8% 14329
I hate them both equally 6.17% 2338

Doesn’t that prove that there is still a market for turn based strategy games?

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I really can’t understand why Sega would resurrect this series from the dead only to recreate it. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel betrayed by Sega. If there’s any justice in the world, Shining Force Neo will crash on the launch pad; Sega deserves to suffer the consequences of its betrayal.

Sigh. I’m officially abandoning all hope of ever playing another true Shining Force game for a home console.

On the bright side, nobody knows what the Panzer team is working on at the moment…

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Except UK Resistance…

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http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/03/15/news_6120488.html

Just thought this should go under the most recent Shining Force related topic.

I wonder how a game such as Shining Tears will translate to the cell phone platform. My biggest question is, why is Sega even venturing into this market with this type of game? Seems like a strange move to me, but truth be told with their current trends I guess its not surprising.