About that GungHo survey
Apr. 19th, 2015 03:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigozealThis one. Assuming it actually counts for something and isn't just a publicity stunt - which ha ha ha ha ha - it means that we're going to be seeing some manner of Lunar title on Steam. Yeah, there are scattered campaigns for stuff like Alisia Dragoon and various Grandia games, but the winner's going to be Lunar, because Lunar is the most recognizable name on that list.
This brings the question to "Which Lunar?", at which point this enterprise becomes problematic. It's undeniably Eternal Blue's turn at bat: the last time it saw the light of day was on the PS1, whereas Silver Star has since gotten rereleases on the GBA, PSP, and iPhone. It'd be weird, though, to launch Lunar on a platform as large and defining as Steam with the second game, one that spoils the first. This means that, regardless of whether or not a version of Eternal Blue is eventually put on Steam, Silver Star is definitely going to be released for the sixth freaking time.
Going back to Silver Star, though, poses its own problems. The PS1 SSS is probably the version of the game that's definitive at this point, but it's also the most familiar version of a very familiar game, which will amplify Silver Star's worn-out-its-welcome factor. TSS, meanwhile, would be an interesting curiosity, but it's a tough sell: it looked rough, almost 8-bitty, even when it was released, and it's a version of the story that's different enough to be confusing and potentially off-putting to those familiar (even if only through internet osmosis) with the SSS version of events. This means that we'll probably end up with Harmony, not the least because everyone nowadays loves everything that comes out of Atlus/Aksys/Xseed unequivocally (and because - let's be honest here - Xseed has successfully tarred John Truitt's excellent performance as Ghaleon with homophobic remarks). This kind of frustrates me: it's certainly not a bad version of SSS, but that Four Heroes prologue does really drastically unbalance the pacing & development of the story (and it no longer serves any purpose, since it existed as a pitch by the Harmony team to make Lunar 3, which it obviously never got to do). We'd also be stuck with the problematic Xseed English voice cast instead of the superior Working Designs one, not to mention Day-Glo Jason Voorhees.
Of course, we'll probably end up getting Dragon Song, because a) ours is a malevolent God, and b) RPG developers are fond of stubbornly attempting to shove ill-received followups to classic properties down players' throats in subsequent rereleases in order to milk some more cash out of them, a la Chrono Cross (with the changes to Trigger's story in the PS1 & DS rereleases) & Final Fantasy X-2.
Personally, since Steam is kind of the game curation platform of record, I'd rather have both the 16-bit and 32-bit versions of SS & EB up on there, partially because putting together a "best incarnation of each game" would result in a split ticket: the 32-bit version of SS is superior presentation-wise (though I'm not partial to some of its story changes), but the 16-bit EB is terrific all-around and more polished than its remake (I have to agree with Akari Funato's complaints about the art direction in the cutscenes - and the aging of Hiro's English voice in the remake throws his character off). I can't deny that I'd also like gamers to have the opportunity to rediscover the 16-bit Lunars, which have long lingered forgotten in the shadow of the remakes. No game company would risk splitting consumer focus like this, though.
Seeing new activity on the Lunar front does make me a little nervous, however - worried that they'll try making a new installment now. I shouldn't be concerned, as Gung Ho is obviously looking only to port existing, already-officially-translated material - there's no option for either of the Magic School games up there. But the Lunar world is kind of in a blessedly settled place: gamewise, it's two chapters of a story (that make a fairly complete whole) and a happy little gaiden, and it got a wonderful manga that's the best of its ilk ever released. No doubt there's more that could be mined from this world, but the people who made the franchise are either deceased (Kei Shigema) or not interested (Akari Funato) or no longer able to produce work up to their old standards (Toshiyuki Kubooka; Nobuyuki Iwadare's work on Harmony was OK but not anything stellar). Revived, it'd be a red-headed stepchild at a studio not currently in the position to channel the proper funds and talent into the project. Let it go.
.
This brings the question to "Which Lunar?", at which point this enterprise becomes problematic. It's undeniably Eternal Blue's turn at bat: the last time it saw the light of day was on the PS1, whereas Silver Star has since gotten rereleases on the GBA, PSP, and iPhone. It'd be weird, though, to launch Lunar on a platform as large and defining as Steam with the second game, one that spoils the first. This means that, regardless of whether or not a version of Eternal Blue is eventually put on Steam, Silver Star is definitely going to be released for the sixth freaking time.
Going back to Silver Star, though, poses its own problems. The PS1 SSS is probably the version of the game that's definitive at this point, but it's also the most familiar version of a very familiar game, which will amplify Silver Star's worn-out-its-welcome factor. TSS, meanwhile, would be an interesting curiosity, but it's a tough sell: it looked rough, almost 8-bitty, even when it was released, and it's a version of the story that's different enough to be confusing and potentially off-putting to those familiar (even if only through internet osmosis) with the SSS version of events. This means that we'll probably end up with Harmony, not the least because everyone nowadays loves everything that comes out of Atlus/Aksys/Xseed unequivocally (and because - let's be honest here - Xseed has successfully tarred John Truitt's excellent performance as Ghaleon with homophobic remarks). This kind of frustrates me: it's certainly not a bad version of SSS, but that Four Heroes prologue does really drastically unbalance the pacing & development of the story (and it no longer serves any purpose, since it existed as a pitch by the Harmony team to make Lunar 3, which it obviously never got to do). We'd also be stuck with the problematic Xseed English voice cast instead of the superior Working Designs one, not to mention Day-Glo Jason Voorhees.
Of course, we'll probably end up getting Dragon Song, because a) ours is a malevolent God, and b) RPG developers are fond of stubbornly attempting to shove ill-received followups to classic properties down players' throats in subsequent rereleases in order to milk some more cash out of them, a la Chrono Cross (with the changes to Trigger's story in the PS1 & DS rereleases) & Final Fantasy X-2.
Personally, since Steam is kind of the game curation platform of record, I'd rather have both the 16-bit and 32-bit versions of SS & EB up on there, partially because putting together a "best incarnation of each game" would result in a split ticket: the 32-bit version of SS is superior presentation-wise (though I'm not partial to some of its story changes), but the 16-bit EB is terrific all-around and more polished than its remake (I have to agree with Akari Funato's complaints about the art direction in the cutscenes - and the aging of Hiro's English voice in the remake throws his character off). I can't deny that I'd also like gamers to have the opportunity to rediscover the 16-bit Lunars, which have long lingered forgotten in the shadow of the remakes. No game company would risk splitting consumer focus like this, though.
Seeing new activity on the Lunar front does make me a little nervous, however - worried that they'll try making a new installment now. I shouldn't be concerned, as Gung Ho is obviously looking only to port existing, already-officially-translated material - there's no option for either of the Magic School games up there. But the Lunar world is kind of in a blessedly settled place: gamewise, it's two chapters of a story (that make a fairly complete whole) and a happy little gaiden, and it got a wonderful manga that's the best of its ilk ever released. No doubt there's more that could be mined from this world, but the people who made the franchise are either deceased (Kei Shigema) or not interested (Akari Funato) or no longer able to produce work up to their old standards (Toshiyuki Kubooka; Nobuyuki Iwadare's work on Harmony was OK but not anything stellar). Revived, it'd be a red-headed stepchild at a studio not currently in the position to channel the proper funds and talent into the project. Let it go.
.
