Cross Edge

[MadL]

Thought I'd start a new thread for this, now that NIS America's started a website (http://nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/) for the game.

US release date's set for May 2009. Anyone played the Japanese version yet? Any good? Should I be worried that the website creators seem to think info on costume changes is more important than info on the combat system?

[HitokiriShadow]

Apparently there are some name changes for certain characters. Characters for a game they've already released here themselves. Ugh. They sound like somewhat minor changes, but it pisses me off in principle and because I have to read one thing and hear another. I just don't understand why NISA is doing this. They did it in Mana Khemia and they are doing it here, and it makes no sense. They aren't Americanizing them, or making them more or less exotic, or doing it to any sort of rhyme or reason. It's completely nonsensical.

But as much as that annoys me, I'll still get it. It takes a hell of a lot for me to simply not buy a game/manga/anime I have an interest in because of this kind of thing.

Anyway, that aside, I'm interested in the game and have my copy preordered despite knowing nothing about it other than the characters involved.

[ADC]

It does bother me that NISA keeps going in and changing names for no good reason — I still don't understand how changing Philomel's name to "Jess" made Mana Khemia better — but I won't let it stop me from buying the game. It's fairly well known around the forums that I'll switch the voices off regardless of VA competence because I read faster than they talk, and because I have yet to play a game in which I felt the voice acting made the game genuinely better.

[grgspunk]

Considering their screwups in Ar Tonelico 2 and Rhapsody DS, I'm going to have to wait for someone else's input. I've wasted enough money blind-buying with them.

NISA's localization/testing quality has been dropping lately... What the hell is going on with them?

[Ty]

Word is NISA shaking up their QC team is the reason why the game is delayed. There seems to be some hope that they've learned their lesson from AT2.

I'm just glad it's on PS3 so I may actually play it.

[Isuzu Inugami]

Word is NISA shaking up their QC team is the reason why the game is delayed. There seems to be some hope that they've learned their lesson from AT2.

I remember hearing something about the Japanese side being very displeased when they found out about the botched localization for AT2.

Should I be worried that the website creators seem to think info on costume changes is more important than info on the combat system?

Why, you almost make it sound as if the combat system were more important that costume changes!

Costume changes, man!

Costume changes!

Screw gameplay, I can have Felicia as a Nun! :P

[cxt217]

Word is NISA shaking up their QC team is the reason why the game is delayed. There seems to be some hope that they've learned their lesson from AT2.

I'm just glad it's on PS3 so I may actually play it.

I am the exact opposite - I dislike the fact that it is on the PS3. The PS3 has ranked dead last on my list of current gen game systems, and it will be a long time (And a couple price drops.) before I buy one. So it is going to be a long time before I play Cross Edge.

What really irritated me about NIS is that the Gust games they have localized - the names already have Romanizations for them, courtesy of Gust. Some may be impractical, but Gust is unusually through about such things compared to other Japanese game developers, so there was no need to mass changes.

C.T.

[Ty]

I wasn't referring to their choice of current gen systems, I meant PS3 vs. PS2. NIS and their brethren have been really hesitant to move away from PS2, and with good reason considering its install base. I, however, no longer have a home for my PS2 in my current A/V setup after changing some things, so having it land on PS3 was a very good thing for me personally.

[Ty]

RPGamer has an interview (http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps3/xedge/xedgeinterview.html) with NIS America about the game on their feature page.

[ADC]

I wasn't referring to their choice of current gen systems, I meant PS3 vs. PS2. NIS and their brethren have been really hesitant to move away from PS2, and with good reason considering its install base. I, however, no longer have a home for my PS2 in my current A/V setup after changing some things, so having it land on PS3 was a very good thing for me personally.
I think what will determine whether it was a good idea to put it on the PS3 is simply the graphics. If they were really interested in a current system with an huge install base, they'd have put it on the Wii (or even the DS). But there's no way to know whether they made the right choice until we actually see the game in action.

One thing I do know, however, is that they can't continue to ride the PS2. Mana Khemia very gently showed the limitations of the system with its frequent disc-thrashing and occasional framerate hiccoughs (and this game was hardly a technical marvel and wasn't bug-riddled); Ar tonelico II provided another example, albeit by accident, with the memory-overrun bug that apparently doesn't happen on EE+GS-equipped PS3s. When I say the Wii would have been a better option for either game, it's not because I'm a Nintendo fanboy. (They won't let me into their club because I never owned an N64 nor GBC.) It's that they were making games which pushed the PS2 to and beyond its capabilities.

Any of all, I hope Xedge (as the youngsters call it these days) is an huge success for NIS, and that it's a technological tour de force on the PS3. But I hope that more because I want to see the remaining holdouts (particularly NIS and Atlus) bring their games development up to the current generation's standard.

[grgspunk]

I remember hearing something about the Japanese side being very displeased when they found out about the botched localization for AT2.

Did you happen to get that from this GF topic?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946194&topic=48332464

I don't know, but I wouldn't take the words of some random poster who claims to have insider info at face value if I were you...

[LordGeo]

I remember hearing something about the Japanese side being very displeased when they found out about the botched localization for AT2.

Did you happen to get that from this GF topic?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946194&topic=48332464

I don't know, but I wouldn't take the words of some random poster who claims to have insider info at face value if I were you...

Well, RPGamer has an interview (http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps3/xedge/xedgeinterview.html) with Nao Zook from NIS America, and this came up:

"What assurances are being taken with Cross Edge to make sure that the game receives the best localization possible?
Nao: We made sure that we had enough localization time and debugging period. As everybody knows, we wanted to release the game in early spring, but due to quality assurance we decided to move it back to May. We felt that publishing a high-quality game is more important than releasing the game earlier but with a lower quality. We are confident about the localization process for this game, and we hope you can all enjoy it."

So the delay was partially due to giving the game the best localization possible... Name changes aside.

The only problem with that line, though, is that it doesn't explain what happened with Rhapsaody DS, Ar Tornelico II and, to a certain extent, Mana Khemia PSP. Does NIS America truly consider those 3 games to be "high-quality"?

[HitokiriShadow]

The only problem with that line, though, is that it doesn't explain what happened with Rhapsaody DS, Ar Tornelico II and, to a certain extent, Mana Khemia PSP. Does NIS America truly consider those 3 games to be "high-quality"?

There's no problem with that line at all (and its PR, so it doesn't mean much anyway). If they've stepped up their QC procedures and are putting more care into producing a quality product (regardless of whether their Japanese parents scolded them or not), the infamous problems with Ar Tonelico 2 were almost certainly a big factor in that. Rhapsody DS came out several months ago, so that would have been before Ar Tonelico 2 and any supposed changes in their QC policy. Mana Khemia just came out, but I hear the Japanese version also had loading issues, so that may not be NISA's fault.

[grgspunk]

I remember hearing something about the Japanese side being very displeased when they found out about the botched localization for AT2.

Did you happen to get that from this GF topic?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946194&topic=48332464

I don't know, but I wouldn't take the words of some random poster who claims to have insider info at face value if I were you...

Well, RPGamer has an interview (http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/ps3/xedge/xedgeinterview.html) with Nao Zook from NIS America, and this came up:

"What assurances are being taken with Cross Edge to make sure that the game receives the best localization possible?
Nao: We made sure that we had enough localization time and debugging period. As everybody knows, we wanted to release the game in early spring, but due to quality assurance we decided to move it back to May. We felt that publishing a high-quality game is more important than releasing the game earlier but with a lower quality. We are confident about the localization process for this game, and we hope you can all enjoy it."

So the delay was partially due to giving the game the best localization possible... Name changes aside.

The only problem with that line, though, is that it doesn't explain what happened with Rhapsaody DS, Ar Tornelico II and, to a certain extent, Mana Khemia PSP. Does NIS America truly consider those 3 games to be "high-quality"?

Honestly, I really don't know. To make matters worse, they said the exact thing about their delay of AT2 in an earlier interview, despite what was actually released.

[ADC]

Honestly, I really don't know. To make matters worse, they said the exact thing about their delay of AT2 in an earlier interview, despite what was actually released.
The difference is, AtII was delayed by two weeks; Xedge is being delayed by two months. The other difference is, NISA has to have gotten the message about product quality. They have to know that fans are running out of patience. And I can tell you this right now: If Xedge is buggy or broken, it's the last NISA game I buy. Between Atlus and Square Enix, my plate's pretty much constantly full anyway. Toss in a Nintendo game here, a Capcom game there, and a Konami if IGA pulls his head out of his ass and does a better job than Ecclesia, and I can let NISA go without regrets.

Back on topic: Etna in a PE swimsuit! (If only it were Flonne …)

[superdry]

I agree with you ADC, but I'll still probably buy games released by NISA since, at least, they are willing to bring certain niche RPG games here (I'm patiently waiting for Mana Khemia 2 and Sakura Taisen V). And, I do hope they decided to localize Atelier Rorona after it's released in Japan.

Anywho, I love sprite based games, but it's always weird to see such games released on the PS3 or even the 360 for that matter.

[Nork22]

Really hesistant about the game for a couple of reasons. I've played the Japanese demo a while back and to me, it look like another N1 game, and it just feels like I'm playing a PS2 game (much like Disgaea 3). The other reasons to worry is simply of the bad rep NISA is getting. Wanted to buy AT2, but with the reviews mentioning this major glitch, I skip the game altogether.

But I'll be damn if Lilith in a Goth-loli costume, Aurica in a miko costume or Shurelia in a sailor fuku is tempting enough.

[Fencedude]

Anywho, I love sprite based games, but it's always weird to see such games released on the PS3 or even the 360 for that matter.

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.

Maybe I'll just have to wait till Banpresto deigns to make that PS3 SRW they've been rumoring for years.

[ADC]

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.
What's Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, chopped liver? :P Either way, I think the reason they don't do awesome sprites on the HD systems is that the amount of detail you put into a 720p game makes the amount of work on the art somewhat time-prohibitive. Even on the 480i/p systems, there's a definite preference for 3D graphics, and I'm sure it's because it's easier and faster that way. (Not to mention that, when your 3D game looks like shit because your art department sucks, you can blame your game's shortcomings on the limitations of the hardware. As in, "Our new game, World War II First Person Shooter #3794, is a horrendous mess of drab greens, browns, and grays that makes characters blend in with their surroundings because the Playstation 3 is incapable of processing the precise shade of green we were looking for to make the soldiers really pop out of the scenery.") It's not like back in the day when a moving sprite was 32x32 pixels and you just squinted your eyes and did your best to make that amorphous blob of color look like a knight.

[Nork22]

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.

Should be a fighting game fan than as BlazBlue shows exactly how to draw sprites that are not remnants of the last gen. :)

[superdry]

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.

Should be a fighting game fan than as BlazBlue shows exactly how to draw sprites that are not remnants of the last gen. :)

Besides BlazBlue, KoF XII looks amazing. But, my previous comment still stands...still kinda weird in this day and age seeing sprites on the PS3 or 360, but it's good some developers are still doing such games.

[Ty]

Anywho, I love sprite based games, but it's always weird to see such games released on the PS3 or even the 360 for that matter.

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.

Maybe I'll just have to wait till Banpresto deigns to make that PS3 SRW they've been rumoring for years.

This is how feel as well. The sprites in CrossEdge still look like they could've been done on the SNES, even if the backgrounds and animations are well beyond PS2 level now. I think all the Japanese developers stick with this sprite look because their core audience seems to just expect it for some reason. I'd love to see some really high-res, high color depth sprite artwork in these games. Considering the anime art style it seems like a no-brainer to me really.

[DiGiKerot]

This is how feel as well. The sprites in CrossEdge still look like they could've been done on the SNES, even if the backgrounds and animations are well beyond PS2 level now. I think all the Japanese developers stick with this sprite look because their core audience seems to just expect it for some reason. I'd love to see some really high-res, high color depth sprite artwork in these games. Considering the anime art style it seems like a no-brainer to me really.

It's probably less to do with expectation than it is to do with cost - most of the studios making these kind of games are neither large, nor expecting to sell a significant number of games.

The problem with jumping to higher definition sprites is simply that it's harder to do whilst still making them look good - It's really not all that difficult to create a half-decent looking sprite at the kind of resolution most of these game run at. Time consuming, sure, but not hard. At higher resolution, your artists actually have to be able to draw well and do it consistently, because any oddities in your art or animation is going to suddenly become very obvious. HD sprite work tends to need a lot more in terms of the number of frames of used to not look odd as well.

This is pretty much why for that Warioland game on the Wii Nintendo ended up contracting all the sprite work to Production IG, and why SNK are tracing over 3D renders for the new King of Fighters games - you either need the skill set of actual animators to get this stuff to look good, or you need to cheat.

[Isuzu Inugami]

I remember hearing something about the Japanese side being very displeased when they found out about the botched localization for AT2.Did you happen to get that from this GF topic?

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=946194&topic=48332464

I don't know, but I wouldn't take the words of some random poster who claims to have insider info at face value if I were you...

Hah! I don't remember. Probably. I guess we'll have to wait and see. :P

[cxt217]

I wasn't referring to their choice of current gen systems, I meant PS3 vs. PS2. NIS and their brethren have been really hesitant to move away from PS2, and with good reason considering its install base. I, however, no longer have a home for my PS2 in my current A/V setup after changing some things, so having it land on PS3 was a very good thing for me personally.

As a technical matter, I have no problems with the PS3, though some of my friends do. The PS2 was due for a replacement and the technical problems
mentioned earlier with the system being pushed as far as it could, and then some, is obvious. And the PS3's capability are shiny enough that I do have interest in it.

My biggest gripe with the PS3 has to do with how Sony handled it (Essentially trying to bloc obsolescence all the PS2 games by fiat.). Since virtually all of my console games are PS2 right now, and I have seen less than 5 games on the PS3 that interest me enough to want to buy them - I am sorry, but there is no way any time soon I am shelling a couple hundred dollars at the retail level for a system that can not play most of my collection, with few replacement (And yes, I am one of those who want Atelier Rorona licensed for NA release.).

For me, the PS3 is a complement, not a replacement for the PS2. And as a complement, not a replacement, I will not buy a PS3 even if I like a few of the games on it, until it drops in price again and again.

C.T.

[Fencedude]

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.

What's Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, chopped liver? :P

I'm not what you would call a big fighting game fan.

[LordGeo]

You know, it really seems that with the power available to them, they should be able to do something really awesome with sprite based graphics on a next-gen system. But I have yet to see something truly astounding.

What's Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, chopped liver? :P

I'm not what you would call a big fighting game fan.

And while HD Remix does look really nice, you do have to remember that it's still using the same animations as the original Super II Turbo... The amazing animations that SFII Third Strike and even the Guilty Gear series had, as well as future games like BlazBlue and King of Fighters XII, are nowhere to be found in HD Remix.

HD Remix, graphically, is essentially the same game with a fresh coat of paint... But considering that the original game is still fun to play to this day that is not really a bad thing.

[Kaikou]

Does one need to be familiar with the characters to fully enjoy the story in this game?

I've not really played any of the past games, so all the characters will be fresh faces.

[MadL]

Considering their screwups in Ar Tonelico 2 and Rhapsody DS, I'm going to have to wait for someone else's input. I've wasted enough money blind-buying with them.

NISA's localization/testing quality has been dropping lately... What the hell is going on with them?

NISA's localization of Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? seems to be pretty good (been fine to me so far from what I've played, and I don't think I've heard complaints), so hopefully they've got their quality control issues under control. But I can certainly understand the hesitance.

[grgspunk]

Considering their screwups in Ar Tonelico 2 and Rhapsody DS, I'm going to have to wait for someone else's input. I've wasted enough money blind-buying with them.

NISA's localization/testing quality has been dropping lately... What the hell is going on with them?

NISA's localization of Prinny: Can I Be the Hero? seems to be pretty good (been fine to me so far from what I've played, and I don't think I've heard complaints), so hopefully they've got their quality control issues under control. But I can certainly understand the hesitance.

Yeah. That tells me that they are actually capable of making a good localization. Even before any of this happened, everyone familiar with their games would notice that they'd usually put less effort into non-Disgaea games than their Disgaea-related ones. They just really need to focus more on their efforts localizing non-Disgaea games right now. I can only pray they won't mess with the voices here like they did with AT2. That pissed me off more than the Raki bug.

Anyways, how exactly is the battle system like for this game?

[LordGeo]

Yeah. That tells me that they are actually capable of making a good localization. Even before any of this happened, everyone familiar with their games would notice that they'd usually put less effort into non-Disgaea games than their Disgaea-related ones. They just really need to focus more on their efforts localizing non-Disgaea games right now. I can only pray they won't mess with the voices here like they did with AT2. That pissed me off more than the Raki bug.

Anyways, how exactly is the battle system like for this game?

Well, from the interview with RPGamer, this was said:
"All of the original Japanese voices are included, and we also recorded over half of the total voiced lines into English."

It's not a really well-put line, but it seems to indicate that the Japanese audio is fully intact but the English dub only covers roughly half of the dialogue... Which is odd. Wouldn't you dub it all? Certainly a Blu-Ray disc should have more than enough space for both languages fully dubbed.

As for the battle system, there seem to be a lot of comparisons with Valkyrie Profile in that each character is assigned to a button and focuses a lot on combo attacks.

The main thing I'm wondering about is how the whole "Yuuto Kannagi-York Neely" issue will be handled. Will people who use the Japanese audio just have to deal with seeing "York" written everytime "Yuuto" is spoken, or is there some sort of script changing done when you select an audio? It's just really confusing that the company is changing the main character's name while at the same time touting that the game will retain all of the Japanese audio for those who want to use it... I can understand name changing if it's dub-only, but it just baffles me when it's a dual-audio (or maybe 1.5-audio in this case) game.

[ADC]

The main thing I'm wondering about is how the whole "Yuuto Kannagi-York Neely" issue will be handled. Will people who use the Japanese audio just have to deal with seeing "York" written everytime "Yuuto" is spoken, or is there some sort of script changing done when you select an audio? It's just really confusing that the company is changing the main character's name while at the same time touting that the game will retain all of the Japanese audio for those who want to use it... I can understand name changing if it's dub-only, but it just baffles me when it's a dual-audio (or maybe 1.5-audio in this case) game.
If it's handled like Mana Khemia, the dialog box will be labeled "York" every time. Generating separate visual assets and adding additional programming would probably be prohibitively expensive considering the limited utility of the work, and that's true even before taking into account the debugging process.

Assuming, of course, that NISA has a debugging process. ;)

[LordGeo]

The main thing I'm wondering about is how the whole "Yuuto Kannagi-York Neely" issue will be handled. Will people who use the Japanese audio just have to deal with seeing "York" written everytime "Yuuto" is spoken, or is there some sort of script changing done when you select an audio? It's just really confusing that the company is changing the main character's name while at the same time touting that the game will retain all of the Japanese audio for those who want to use it... I can understand name changing if it's dub-only, but it just baffles me when it's a dual-audio (or maybe 1.5-audio in this case) game.
If it's handled like Mana Khemia, the dialog box will be labeled "York" every time. Generating separate visual assets and adding additional programming would probably be prohibitively expensive considering the limited utility of the work, and that's true even before taking into account the debugging process.

Assuming, of course, that NISA has a debugging process. ;)

Yeah, that's what I'm expecting as well. Either way, I don't have a PS3 right now nor am I planning on getting one soon... Though I really do want to play this game. But I still have to finish up Chaos Wars first anyway, which I'm close to finishing.

Also, the official website (www.nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/) got updated today with videos, some new character synopses and a fairly in-depth description of how the battle system works. And, if you look closely enough, Morrigan's artwork in the characters section is showing a little something... No wonder the ESRB rating for it warns about "Partial Nudity".

[HitokiriShadow]

It's not a really well-put line, but it seems to indicate that the Japanese audio is fully intact but the English dub only covers roughly half of the dialogue... Which is odd. Wouldn't you dub it all? Certainly a Blu-Ray disc should have more than enough space for both languages fully dubbed.


Dubbing is expensive. They have a certain budget to work with and they aren't a huge company and the games they make aren't exactly going to be big hits (except Disgaea, but only relatively speaking). So they choose lines they deem to be more important and just dub those. The characters involved also have something to do with it. They may only get VAs for certain characters, so scenes that involve a minor character they didn't get a VA for won't get dubbed at all. I recall hearing that something like that happened in Mana Khemia, that any scene with a certain character simply didn't get dubbed.

[grgspunk]

It's not a really well-put line, but it seems to indicate that the Japanese audio is fully intact but the English dub only covers roughly half of the dialogue... Which is odd. Wouldn't you dub it all? Certainly a Blu-Ray disc should have more than enough space for both languages fully dubbed.


Dubbing is expensive. They have a certain budget to work with and they aren't a huge company and the games they make aren't exactly going to be big hits (except Disgaea, but only relatively speaking). So they choose lines they deem to be more important and just dub those. The characters involved also have something to do with it. They may only get VAs for certain characters, so scenes that involve a minor character they didn't get a VA for won't get dubbed at all. I recall hearing that something like that happened in Mana Khemia, that any scene with a certain character simply didn't get dubbed.

Yeah it seems odd, but that was the case with MK (PS2). But at least the Japanese track was actually complete in that one. AT2 had a similar case where they didn't voice every line English, but in that instance, they cut out all the Japanese voices that they didn't voice in English: Dub and sub fans alike got screwed over with that one, especially since they decided to not include voices for key scenes, such as the opening scene, when they were voiced in the original.

That's why I'm really nervous about their word.

[LordGeo]

It's not a really well-put line, but it seems to indicate that the Japanese audio is fully intact but the English dub only covers roughly half of the dialogue... Which is odd. Wouldn't you dub it all? Certainly a Blu-Ray disc should have more than enough space for both languages fully dubbed.


Dubbing is expensive. They have a certain budget to work with and they aren't a huge company and the games they make aren't exactly going to be big hits (except Disgaea, but only relatively speaking). So they choose lines they deem to be more important and just dub those. The characters involved also have something to do with it. They may only get VAs for certain characters, so scenes that involve a minor character they didn't get a VA for won't get dubbed at all. I recall hearing that something like that happened in Mana Khemia, that any scene with a certain character simply didn't get dubbed.

I did also think about budget. It's an understandable reason... Though it really makes me wonder how much dialogue actually is in the Japanese voice-track: Either NIS America had only the bare minimum dubbed into English (all battle audio and only the most important story scenes, probably) or Compile Heart/Idea Factory put a hell of a lot of Japanese dialogue into X Edge...

[HitokiriShadow]

Yeah it seems odd, but that was the case with MK (PS2). But at least the Japanese track was actually complete in that one. AT2 had a similar case where they didn't voice every line English, but in that instance, they cut out all the Japanese voices that they didn't voice in English: Dub and sub fans alike got screwed over with that one, especially since they decided to not include voices for key scenes, such as the opening scene, when they were voiced in the original.

That's why I'm really nervous about their word.

Ugh. I hadn't heard about that yet.

[Fencedude]

Also, the official website (www.nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/) got updated today with videos, some new character synopses and a fairly in-depth description of how the battle system works. And, if you look closely enough, Morrigan's artwork in the characters section is showing a little something... No wonder the ESRB rating for it warns about "Partial Nudity".

*actually bothers to look this time*

OOOHHHHH This is that big crossover game that was annouced! I totally forgot about it.

I'm totally getting this.

Edit: And there is something sublimely hilarious about Felicia in a bathing suit. Isn't she like...technically naked all the time anyway?

[Senku]

"DLC page coming soon!"

Wasn't there a ton of DLC for this game at the JP store? I wonder what we'll get; and at what cost.

[HitokiriShadow]

I like the part in Lilith's bio where it states that she is subconsciously attracted to Morrigan.

I've always liked the DarkStalkers character designs but I've never bothered to play any of the games since I'm not a big fighting game player. One of the reasons I'm very interested in this game is that gives me a way to actually play a game with Lilith, Morrigan, and Felicia in it. Hopefully it will be good.

[Fencedude]

I like the part in Lilith's bio where it states that she is subconsciously attracted to Morrigan.

I've always liked the DarkStalkers character designs but I've never bothered to play any of the games since I'm not a big fighting game player. One of the reasons I'm very interested in this game is that gives me a way to actually play a game with Lilith, Morrigan, and Felicia in it. Hopefully it will be good.

Indeed, I've always liked the Darkstalkers characters, but never had a chance to "interact" with them very much.

Morrigan and Lilith particularly have always been very relevant to my interests. Felicia's right on the border of having just a bit too much fur to make me really comfortable with her design.

[Ty]

The battle system gives me pause. It seems like a cross between Xenogears and Valkyrie Profile from the way they describe it. I can't help but feel these Japanese developers think that each time they make a new game they have to include more button pressing, more gimmicks, more over the top combos and other comlicated stuff when a lot of it doesn't improve the game. It just makes it more tiring and frustrating to play. But, I'm saying all that when I haven't seen how this game plays so it's just an assumption and the ramblings of a cranky lazy old gamer right now.

Ever time I play an RPG these days I look at all the extra components of the battle system and think "they could take half of this crap out and it wouldn't affect the gameplay at all" so I hope Cross Edge isn't as needlessly complicated as it appears to be at first glance.

[Isuzu Inugami]

Edit: And there is something sublimely hilarious about Felicia in a bathing suit. Isn't she like...technically naked all the time anyway?

I can never tell if that's an outfit, or if she's strategically furry.

Heh, I clicked on the bathing suit and was like, What? I see less of her now!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this, but I suppose I ought to get back to Ar Tonelico first.

[HitokiriShadow]

If this Interview (http://www.rpgamer.com/features/2009/nisapowwow.html) is to be believed (see second question), its the game developers we should be blaming for buggy games, not NIS America.

They also mention memory size when responding to the issue of providing dual language voice overs. That seems like a plausible explanation for why Mana Khemia PSP only has English voices (which is what I assumed anyway), but I doubt that's the reason for only dubbing half the lines in English since space is unlikely to be an issue for Cross Edge.

They have this to say about name changes:
We usually try to keep the original Japanese names. However, when we feel that the original Japanese names are too complicated or too hard to pronounce, or if the name doesn't make sense in English the way it does in Japanese, we tend to rename the characters for our own audience.Yeah, "Philomele" is so hard to pronounce. It's so hard, they even kept it as her last name. They just called her "Philo/Firo" most of the time anyway. I'm not seeing what's so hard about "Yoruto". These's aren't terribly complicated names to begin with, NISA's games are practically laser-guided at anime fans, and many RPGs, Japanese originated or otherwise, have had plenty of names far more complicated that this stuff. If we can handle "Sephiroth", we can handle "Philomele" and "Yoruto".

[Nork22]

They also mention memory size when responding to the issue of providing dual language voice overs. That seems like a plausible explanation for why Mana Khemia PSP only has English voices (which is what I assumed anyway), but I doubt that's the reason for only dubbing half the lines in English since space is unlikely to be an issue for Cross Edge.

If NISA admits to it being the budget for only dubbing half of the dialogue then yes, I'll give them credit for that. But saying memory size? Basing on the fact that this game would hardly fill up a single layer BD disc, it's rather insulting. Heck, I bet you can throw in 3 full language option into said game and there would still be some space left.

[HitokiriShadow]

I should have been clear, they were not talking about any specific game in that interview, it was a general interview and they didn't give specific examples of the games they were talking about. If they used that as an excuse for Cross Edge though, I'd probably call BS on it, especially since this isn't exactly Metal Gear Solid 4 when it comes to the visuals. I'm skeptical that they can use that as an excuse for a lot of their PS2 games as well, but its at least more plausible there and I don't know enough about how much space the games use or the voices would take up to argue it.

[grgspunk]

If this Interview (http://www.rpgamer.com/features/2009/nisapowwow.html) is to be believed (see second question), its the game developers we should be blaming for buggy games, not NIS America.

As far as glitches are concerned, a lot of the heat that NISA gets are from glitches that weren't even in the Japanese versions of their games (such as the game-freezing Raki glitch in AT2). Plus, it IS their responsibility to play through the game and verify the glitches are fixed...

[Senku]

They have this to say about name changes:
We usually try to keep the original Japanese names. However, when we feel that the original Japanese names are too complicated or too hard to pronounce, or if the name doesn't make sense in English the way it does in Japanese, we tend to rename the characters for our own audience.

???

What?

Don't they know that their audience could care less about how the character's name makes sense in English? Don't they know that same audience frequently pronounces those Oh-so-hard Japanese names on a daily basis? Who do they think are buying these games? I'm seeing more and more why NISA have been severely lacking lately.

[Mateo_home]

???

What?

Don't they know that their audience could care less about how the character's name makes sense in English? Don't they know that same audience frequently pronounces those Oh-so-hard Japanese names on a daily basis? Who do they think are buying these games? I'm seeing more and more why NISA have been severely lacking lately.

It's rather sad they made this decision. Japanese or even European names aren't even that hard to pronounce once you get it down. But this is my theory on the real reason for it.

One day at NISA, the localization staff finished the day early. The Manager was bored and figured the employees weren't working hard enough. So he/she assigned them so some pointless busy work. And had them take the letters from character's names from games that haven't been released yet and switch them around. But this is just me. I know complaining about it won't change anything. But it's still retarded.:P

[TheLaughingMan]

Holy crap! I didn't even knew about this game. And it's coming over here, plus on PS3. Damn, that so makes my day (or week, month...)! So is there a release date yet?

[MadL]

Holy crap! I didn't even knew about this game. And it's coming over here, plus on PS3. Damn, that so makes my day (or week, month...)! So is there a release date yet?

NISA's website (http://nisamerica.com/games/crossedge/) for the game says May 2009.

[LordGeo]

IGN PS3 has a preview (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/970/970820p1.html) for Cross Edge up now.

Even though he states that the battle system is complicated and confusing to use at first, he does give the game a fairly positive preview and ssay that he would like to try and understand the battle system by playing more.

And, yes, Misha does have over 100,000 HP. From what I hear Cross Edge allows a player to grind all the way up to level 999, so those numbers are probably pathetic compared to what the maxes are.

[Fencedude]

Seems very cool.

[ADC]

IGN PS3 has a preview (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/970/970820p1.html) for Cross Edge up now.
Including a charmingly bad translation error — except that the person writing the preview isn't translating anything! "Queue your first battle"? Let's see … line up your first battle? Uh … maybe just line your first battle? No, Ryan Clements (if that is your real name), it's CUE your first battle! You know, when I was a boy at school, they told me to watch out for its and it's; for there, their, they're; but nobody warned me of the dangers of queue and cue because 99.9 percent of Americans don't use queue in normal language, and the remainder who do are either (a) language snobs like me who use it correctly, or (b) chuckleheads who are trying to sound impressive.

The game looks pretty good, though. I'm interested to see how the combos work in the battle system, if they're really so complicated. (You may have noticed that I don't think Mr Clements is exactly a mental titan, so I'm willing to assume the game's easy enough to play.)

[Isuzu Inugami]

And, yes, Misha does have over 100,000 HP. From what I hear Cross Edge allows a player to grind all the way up to level 999, so those numbers are probably pathetic compared to what the maxes are.

Of course if you're going to include Disgaea characters, you've got to allow for ridiculously high stats. ^^

[Ty]

I'm planning to wait and see how a couple of people here react to the game, but I remain hopeful that it will be accessible to the non-hardcore crowd. The overly complicated stat and combo systems in these games has never really appealed to me, but the general concept and the characters do.

[MadL]

Well, RosenQueen's finally got preorders for Cross Edge available. Their exclusive pre-order bonus appears to be postcards:

RosenQueen Cross Edge preorder (http://rosenqueen.com/catalog/Cross-Edge-Poster-Boy-Set-p-16205.html)

[ADC]

Well, RosenQueen's finally got preorders for Cross Edge available. Their exclusive pre-order bonus appears to be postcards:
RosenQueen Cross Edge preorder (http://rosenqueen.com/catalog/Cross-Edge-Poster-Boy-Set-p-16205.html)
Hm. I think I'll keep my Amazon.com order, save $3, and not have more mathoms in my house.

[HitokiriShadow]

Well, RosenQueen's finally got preorders for Cross Edge available. Their exclusive pre-order bonus appears to be postcards:

RosenQueen Cross Edge preorder (http://rosenqueen.com/catalog/Cross-Edge-Poster-Boy-Set-p-16205.html)

I like my anime/game art postcards, so that's enough for me to get it from RosenQueen. With the shipping method I chose (USPS 1-day priority, $5), it would be about the same as getting it at GameCrazy. I'll just use the $5 I put down for the pre-order towards something else.

[Ty]

Today was the release date. Is anybody planning to pick this up to try over the weekend? I may see if the area Gamestop has it when I'm in town tomorrow.

[HitokiriShadow]

My copy arrived in the mail today but I won't be playing it for at least another month or so.

[Fencedude]

Today was the release date. Is anybody planning to pick this up to try over the weekend? I may see if the area Gamestop has it when I'm in town tomorrow.

I'll be getting it within a week or so, but who knows when I'll find time to play it.

Going on a trip in a week and a half, so hopefully I'll get some handheld backlog cleared up during that.

[MadL]

My copy arrived today; I'll probably try out the beginning, then decide if I keep going now or finish Shin Megami Tensei blah blah blah King Abaddon first.

[untoldsorrow]

My copy arrived today; I'll probably try out the beginning, then decide if I keep going now or finish Shin Megami Tensei blah blah blah King Abaddon first.

I'm on the fence about it. I don't quite enjoy NIS stragedy games too much. Its too overly complicated and gets boring pretty fast. I have to see more reviews and videos of the battle system. If anything I will buy it to support the release because every sale counts for a game like that for the company to consider releasing more titles like it though I doubt it would help.

[Ty]

I'm on the fence about it. I don't quite enjoy NIS stragedy games too much. Its too overly complicated and gets boring pretty fast. I have to see more reviews and videos of the battle system. If anything I will buy it to support the release because every sale counts for a game like that for the company to consider releasing more titles like it though I doubt it would help.

It isn't a strategy game. It's a traditional JRPG with a Xenogears-esque attack system that uses combos. The grid is just for defining front and back row units in much the same way the Suikoden system has front and rear rows.

I wouldn't be so interested if it were a strategy RPG. There are a million of them lately and the developers seem to think making them needlessly complicated is a good substitute for coming up with creative new ideas. I haven't found a JRPG I could sink my teeth into in years and I am hoping this one will do the job.

[boogiecat]

My copy of Cross Edge (http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-4jgc-71-bp-49-en-84-j-70-3a53.html) is coming next week..

[Fencedude]

I haven't found a JRPG I could sink my teeth into in years and I am hoping this one will do the job.

Did you pick up Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier?

[ADC]

My copy's slated to ship June 1 from Amazon.com because I'm too cheap to pay for shipping. ;)

[MadL]

I'm on the fence about it. I don't quite enjoy NIS stragedy games too much. Its too overly complicated and gets boring pretty fast. I have to see more reviews and videos of the battle system. If anything I will buy it to support the release because every sale counts for a game like that for the company to consider releasing more titles like it though I doubt it would help.

It isn't a strategy game. It's a traditional JRPG with a Xenogears-esque attack system that uses combos. The grid is just for defining front and back row units in much the same way the Suikoden system has front and rear rows.

I wouldn't be so interested if it were a strategy RPG. There are a million of them lately and the developers seem to think making them needlessly complicated is a good substitute for coming up with creative new ideas. I haven't found a JRPG I could sink my teeth into in years and I am hoping this one will do the job.

Haven't played the Xenogears games, so I can't compare, but I'm about 30 minutes in, and so far I'd say it's much closer to, say, the Atelier Iris games than an N1 strategy JRPG. This is more of a straight-up JRPG.

If you're looking to avoid overly complicated battle systems, though... Again, I just started, so it may be easier once I get the hang of things, but there's a lot to digest up front. There's potentially one attack mapped to each of the PS3's main button, plus you can use R2 to switch to an XP attack - which you can use if you have enough Action Points and SP (which you accumulate as you damage the enemy or your party gets damaged). You can also set up combos using different specific attacks in specific orders by specific characters. Each character has a set number of Action Points that determines how many attacks/item uses/etc. they can perform in a turn. There's also a timer that starts once a character takes their first action; unleashing additional attacks before the timer expires increases potential attack power. Do enough damage, and you can also achieve a Guard Break with either a Burst or Down aspect (depending on the type of attack used), leaving the enemy extra vulnerable. Follow the Guard Break up with an attack similar to the type of Break (Burst/Down), and you can inflict tons of damage. If you inflict more total damage in points on an enemy than its combined total hit points and spell points (or maybe it was action points?), and you get an Overkill, possibly earning rare points. And if the total damage you've inflicted in points equals the product of the height (in centimeters) of your party's two tallest characters divided by 1/3 of the Pantone number of the primary color of the costume your party's oldest character is currently wearing, you unlock a very special outfit for everyone currently in your active party. (Okay, I made the last one up. I think. :))

Got that? Good. :)

Battles are mostly of the traditional random encounter with sudden wipe from the map screen variety, with a warning light to tell you how imminent battle is a la SMT: Devil Summoner.

Otherwise, localization's OK so far (one minor typo in the intro to this point). The English VAs are doing a decent job (though Morrigan's VA seems to be trying a wee bit too hard). Unfortunately, the standard pose they've chosen for Morrigan's dialogue scenes is (IMO) less "sultry" than "caught about to pick her nose". (I'm sure they were going for the seductive touch of finger to lips. They missed.).

Too soon to pass judgment on the game, but I get the feeling this won't be among my all-time favorites. Hopefully things will pick up once some of the other Darkstalkers folks and Etna and the Prinnies show up.

[Ty]

Did you pick up Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier?

Been thinking about it. I've seen the positive discussion here, but I have a hard time picking up the DS these days for some reason. It has to be the tiny screens because I haven't touched the thing since I got my new TV.

I had to charge my PS3 controller last night so I was sitting about 4 feet away while playing Valkyria last night. I had to physically turn my head to see something other than screen in my peripheral vision and it was frickin' awesome. :)

[Ty]

Got that? Good. :)

One question: how are new character outfits unlocked? I hope to hell it isn't through achieving overkill points because I hate stuff like that. I want to see the different outfits without having to work my butt off for it. Yeah, I'm lazy. :P

[MadL]

Got that? Good. :)

One question: how are new character outfits unlocked? I hope to hell it isn't through achieving overkill points because I hate stuff like that. I want to see the different outfits without having to work my butt off for it. Yeah, I'm lazy. :P

(Edit #2: Ah, okay. You earn costumes by collecting soul fragments. I'm assuming (though not positive) these are done by finding the "souls" you search for on the map. So, I guess you don't have to get a special battle achievement like an Overkill, but your square button may get a lot of use.)

Not sure yet - still only around an hour in, so I haven't gotten around to much, and I haven't unlocked any outfits yet. There's an alchemy store run by Marie at "rest stops", where you can use alchemic recipes that you buy or find - as long as you have enough gold and have gathered the proper elements - to synthesize new items. This might be how you get new outfits, or you might earn them in battle. The game hasn't said anything about how to get outfits yet, and the manual just notes that you can obtain them "as you play".

Oh - one other annoyance - in order to find new "events" that lead to battles unlocking new characters or parts of the map or "souls" that give nice items, you have to "search" the area by hitting square. Of course, your search only covers a tiny bit of the map, so a large part of the game so far has been like this:
-1)Move one inch.
-2)Hit square.
-3)Move another inch.
-4)Hit square again.
-5)Random battle.
-6)Repeat.
Now, you get hints as to what part of the map you should be searching, but it still seems like an annoying add-on. Oh, yes - and there are some souls and events that you apparently can't find until your level increases, so you get to do it all over again later on.

BTW - for trophy fans - Cross Edge does seem to have trophies attached to it (at least it loads trophy data every time you put the disc in).

Edit: Speaking of costumes - NISA announced the winners in their "Top 5 Costume" fan vote for Cross Edge:
1. Morrigan - Bartending Clothes
2. Etna - Chinese Dress
3. Morrigan - Yukata
4. Lilith - Bunny
5. Misha - Bathing Suit

RosenQueen also notes that 200 of their original lot of 1000 copies of the Cross Edge Poster Boy Set are left -- I guess that means the game's selling OK.

[LordGeo]

Well, Ryan Clements of IGN PS3 did the review of Cross Edge (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/988/988422p1.html), giving it a 3.5 out of 10. This review seems to have gotten a lot of people angry towards IGN, once again, saying that Clements didn't review it properly and turned it into a rant. Granted, he didn't really bring up any real good points to the game, aside from Morrigan, and I feel that a "proper" review should at least bring up both good and bad, and if there truly is no good then there has to be proof. Also, Clements sais that "Cross Edge sports ten horrible lesions of flawed game design"... But I only counted six in the review, so Clements seems to be grasping at complaints. As for the slowdown being in the game, even when installed, I've read that NISA used the original code and didn't include the patch that Compile Heart released that removes most of the slowdown after installation.

In fact, the comments got so bad that Clements even responded to two posters, mainly in regard to him not being a "true" JRPG fan and for using big words to help him sound smart:
"I actually love JRPGs, to the point of being teased at the office for always playing them. ^_^ And I obviously understood this game. I'm criticizing Cross Edge because it's such a mess of mechanics in comparison to other refined, modern RPGs. And because I'm so loyal to the genre, I actually know a thing or two about how RPGs should feel. This one does not feel good. :-P"

and

"Trust me, I don't use "big words" just to sound smart. I use the words that best describe the situation at hand.

And as I point out in my Closing Comments, there's an extremely important difference between a game being "deep" and a game being "convoluted." I don't assume that you readers want an easy game. I just know that games should be intuitive and polished. One of my favorite games of all time is StarCraft, and that's by no means an "easy" or "simple" game. ^_^

Lastly, let's not aim malicious words at NIS. FIrst of all, NIS didn't even develop this game. The folks at NISA just published it. And even if they did develop Cross Edge, NIS has a lot of fantastic games to its name. Sometimes, some projects just don't turn out well. That's the nature of creative works.

Thanks for all the comments boys and girls! Keep 'em coming."

Yeah, using ":-P" in your posts is REAL professional and shows how much you honestly take criticism.

Anyway, I don't have a PS3 but this game does interest me so I'm wondering what people who have played the game here think of this review. Is this game really so complex or "convoluted" that it's unplayable? Does it truly suck this much? The only other professional review there is right now is from the Official Playstation Magazine, which from what I can tell gave it a 6 out of 10 and really only complaned about its old-school stylings. Granted, I enjoyed UNLIMITED Saga, which is probably one of the most complex and user-unfriendly JRPGs I've ever played, so I really can't see Cross Edge being as complex as US.

[Senku]

It sounds like since the game wasn't "user-friendly" (to him), he didn't even bother actually learning anything. Even one of the captions under a pic of the game reads "Try and figure out this battle system. We dare you." Um... that's one of the main points of the game. Finding the right combination of attacks to inflict the most damage. And his reaction to how much is cost to revive party members is another telling sign that he didn't really know what he was doing.

It sounds like the only thing to worry about would be slow downs, but the game patch shouldn't take too long to appear on the US PSN store. (I would think)

Anyway, I won't be able to order/pick up a copy of Cross Edge till Wednesday.

[MadL]

Anyway, I don't have a PS3 but this game does interest me so I'm wondering what people who have played the game here think of this review. Is this game really so complex or "convoluted" that it's unplayable? Does it truly suck this much? The only other professional review there is right now is from the Official Playstation Magazine, which from what I can tell gave it a 6 out of 10 and really only complaned about its old-school stylings. Granted, I enjoyed UNLIMITED Saga, which is probably one of the most complex and user-unfriendly JRPGs I've ever played, so I really can't see Cross Edge being as complex as US.

As far as gameplay goes...the impression I get sometimes is that the game's original makers were more interested in adding feature upon feature to the game without putting much thought into how they meshed together. "Hey, Atelier fans like alchemy! Let's add that!" "How about an overkill system?" "Great! Add it on!" "Ooh -- we can have characters do attack combos with each other!" "Cool! Let's do that, too!"

True, part of the fun in games is learning how everything works -- it's just that in Cross Edge, there often doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why things operate the way they do. There is the possibility of mapping one attack to each of the four face buttons, but you can't switch attacks to different buttons, even though only the square has any attacks mapped to it early on. Got an extra possible square attack available, and an empty slot in triangle? Too bad, gotta switch out the equipped square attack. Why? Who knows.(Edit: Removed part about getting alchemic recipes to show up in Marie's shop. New possible syntheses do show up as soon as you acquire a recipe book; just forgot what had been in the store before I'd bought the recipe.)

To be fair, while the battle system did seem pretty intimidating at first, it does get easier once you've done a few battles. The game does have a nice touch in that you can have practice battles while switching formations to see where your new party formation will or won't be able to hit.

Resurrection is very expensive - bringing back one or two dead characters will quickly wipe out your bank account - however, one of the characters you acquire early on has a wide-range resurrection spell. It's one of those EX moves that you need to run up SP for, but if you need to resurrect someone, you've probably got enough SP anyway. Once you figure that out, the expensive resurrection problem isn't quite so bad.

Difficulty doesn't seem to scale too smoothly; it tends to jump in fits and starts. I was doing pretty well for a while, then hit an event battle where the enemy outnumbered my party and had at least twice the level of my characters. So expect to do a fair amount of grinding at times. This might annoy people who are trying to collect costumes quickly, because you need to win event battles to unlock more parts of the map, and the souls you need to get to earn costumes are hard to come by. Get ready for a lot of move-an-inch-and-hit-square action.

Okay, enough complaining - on the plus side, both NISA and the original maker seem to be doing a good job keeping the crossover characters in character. Just ran into Etna and the Prinny, and they're actually acting like I'd think they would, not like some weak-sauce pod-person (pod-demon?) version, which I was a little worried about. NISA's kept the usual VA for Etna and the Prinny, too (granted, shouldn't be surprising, but still nice). Too bad the characters original to Cross Edge seem to be various shades of annoying at this point.

So far, this seems to be shaping up to be an average game. Hardly a 3.5, but it's not going to be sitting on my favorites list with titles Disgaea, Valkyria Chronicles, or Persona 4, either.

[Ty]

Well, 3.5 implies the game is broken and I don't think that is fair. It has a ton of elements in the battle system that seem unnecessary and over complicated. They clearly added the "easy" mode option so you could just play the game as a simple button masher and ignore all the added features. I actually think the basic combat flow is pretty cool. It feels fast without being frantic. While you execute an attack with your first character you can swith to another with L1/R1 while that first attack is still executing and be ready to hit the enemy again really fast. If you chain the right techniques from different characters together you get special combos. The problem is there are multiple different types of combos, multiple different types of enemy defense breaks, multiple different status elements attached to ALL of these, and so forth. They could strip half of it out and the game would be better for it, not worse. My biggest complaint so far are the tiny little icons they use to describe what types of combos are what when there is no legend or explanation for them so you're left confused. The other is I cannot find anything anywhere that indicates what a character's weapon range is. They state in the tutorial right at the beginning some units have different ranges and need to be placed in the appropriate grid location, but there is NO information telling you what that range is. Suikoden had a simple S/M/L range that was easy to get. With Xedge you just have to guess I suppose.

I'm really early in the game, but that is what has jumped out at me so far. The translation has been quite odd too. I know enough Japanese now to know they have taken huge liberties and heavily changed the meaning of some of the dialogue for no clear purpose. The main character names were also changed for no apparent reason (I think this was discussed earlier). For what reason do we have a York Neely when the Japanese VA calls himself Yuuto Kannagi? It is the same for the other Xedge specific character to various degrees so far.

[Fencedude]

Interesting, that sounds somewhat like SRWOGSEF's battle system, only amped up in complexity by at least an order of magnitude.

[MadL]

Okay, the "searching for stuff on the map" part of this game is getting old real quick. I'd really like to talk with whoever thought this game needed to feature the thrill of trying to find a lost contact lens, and decided it was necessary to do it for every map in the game multiple times (your ability to search can go up by levels, and you can find souls and events at higher levels you couldn't earlier, so you have to go back to all the previous maps and search all over again. Yay!). And of course, while you're going over the maps with a fine-toothed square-button comb, you're interrupted by random battles -- and if you're doing it in earlier maps, the battles give you next to no experience or gold by now.

It's especially annoying because this is hardly optional; it's how you locate the events that will unlock new characters and parts of the map, as well as souls that give you nice rewards and which you need to free to earn costumes.

[Ty]

There seems to be a "wide area search" that becomes available at some point to speed this process along somewhat.

[MadL]

There seems to be a "wide area search" that becomes available at some point to speed this process along somewhat.

There is...but even that only covers a relatively small bit of the overall map. And since there's no way to tell what you've already searched, you'll still spend a lot of time searching. (Edit: Which is to say that even though you'll probably have a general idea what you've already gone over, if you're anything like me, you'll probably find yourself overlapping searches now and then to make sure you don't miss something.)

Edit #2: I feel I should probably note something about now. For all the griping I've been doing about Cross Edge, I have still been playing it, to the extent where other games are on the back burner and I find I've been staying up a little bit later each night than I'd planned. It's got flaws, but I am enjoying it when all's said and done.

[Draneor]

I know enough Japanese now to know they have taken huge liberties and heavily changed the meaning of some of the dialogue for no clear purpose. The main character names were also changed for no apparent reason (I think this was discussed earlier). For what reason do we have a York Neely when the Japanese VA calls himself Yuuto Kannagi? It is the same for the other Xedge specific character to various degrees so far.

NISA has always taken a very liberal approach to localization, although it has been getting worse as of late.

[boogiecat]

I see some of the changes aren't great..

[Mazinkaizer]

Having played Namco X Capcom and enjoyed a lot (even though i didn't catch much of the story) i have been looking for this one (as well as SRW Endless Frontier). From the demos i watched this game's system seems to be similar to NxC....right ? Question how long is the game, if you play it normally that is ?

[Mazinkaizer]

Well, Ryan Clements of IGN PS3 did the review of Cross Edge (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/988/988422p1.html), giving it a 3.5 out of 10. .

Most of the times i don't pay much attention to people/reviewers opinions, especially PAID reivews (if you know what i mean) since they're bound to vary from one to another. But this guy seems to be writing the review just for the sake of it and i doubt that he is a JRPG fan.....at least until now ?

Oh well, he can write what he wants but it won't stop the game fans from buying it :laugh:

[Leon_Belmont]

Well, Ryan Clements of IGN PS3 did the review of Cross Edge (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/988/988422p1.html), giving it a 3.5 out of 10. .

Most of the times i don't pay much attention to people/reviewers opinions, especially PAID reivews (if you know what i mean) since they're bound to vary from one to another. But this guy seems to be writing the review just for the sake of it and i doubt that he is a JRPG fan.....at least until now ?

Oh well, he can write what he wants but it won't stop the game fans from buying it :laugh:

Say what you want but a totally kickass game wouldn't have to deal with this.

[Senku]

Otherwise, localization's OK so far (one minor typo in the intro to this point). The English VAs are doing a decent job (though Morrigan's VA seems to be trying a wee bit too hard). Unfortunately, the standard pose they've chosen for Morrigan's dialogue scenes is (IMO) less "sultry" than "caught about to pick her nose". (I'm sure they were going for the seductive touch of finger to lips. They missed.)

Heh. This was the first thing that stood out to me. They should have lowered that hand an inch or two... unless there's a new moe for nose picking...?

Just started up the game, beat the first couple of tutorial battles and saved. Going through the menu, the first annoyance (for me) I've come across is setting up my formation. The game does not tell you the range of any of the characters. So you have to do trial and error with the practice battle to see how many rows a certain party member can attack. Also, some characters have to be in the middle-line grid; otherwise they won't be able to attack certain enemies. (ex. If I move Morrigan to the Top-line grid, she will be unable to attack enemies in the bottom-line grid, even if she is the closest person to the enemy) But that is it for now. We'll see if the "searching" will get on my nerves.

[MadL]

Just started up the game, beat the first couple of tutorial battles and saved. Going through the menu, the first annoyance (for me) I've come across is setting up my formation. The game does not tell you the range of any of the characters. So you have to do trial and error with the practice battle to see how many rows a certain party member can attack. Also, some characters have to be in the middle-line grid; otherwise they won't be able to attack certain enemies. (ex. If I move Morrigan to the Top-line grid, she will be unable to attack enemies in the bottom-line grid, even if she is the closest person to the enemy) But that is it for now. We'll see if the "searching" will get on my nerves.

If you go to the Equipment menu for a character then select "Skills" (the middle option), you'll get a list of the character's available skills; highlighting a skill and hitting triangle will give you a description of the skill and a chart showing its range (usually, though, I just do the trial-and-error with practice battles). Annoyingly, there doesn't be anything like this that shows the range for EX attacks, so you're stuck with trial-and-error.

[Senku]

Annoyingly, there doesn't be anything like this that shows the range for EX attacks, so you're stuck with trial-and-error.

Didn't even think about the EX attacks not connecting because of position, better go mess with those too.

[MadL]

Annoyingly, there doesn't be anything like this that shows the range for EX attacks, so you're stuck with trial-and-error.

Didn't even think about the EX attacks not connecting because of position, better go mess with those too.

Yep, nothing like setting everything up so you can finish off the enemy with an EX coup de grace...only to discover they're out of range. Had that happen more times than I'd care to admit. :sweat:

Right now, for my default formation I'm going with Prinny and Felicia on physical attack (they can combine for a Snatch combo, which has a chance of swiping nice goodies from the enemy), Misha providing the magical firepower (though I'm trying to rotate Shurelia in now that she's available), and Aurica handling healing duties.

[ADC]

I have a question: Is it supposed to take for damn'd ever to level up in this game? I swear, I must have grinded for an hour and a half today just to get people from level 6 to 7. After scraping through the Prinny fight with everybody dead but Misha, I realized that I'm not a very patient gamer. And why should I be, when games like the FFs and the DQs on the DS have been very quick to level people up?

I hate level grinding. And gil is also pretty thin on the ground, too.

[Ty]

Apparently there is a large enough pool of Japanese gamers who consider this to be "hardcore" to the point where companies like Compile Heart can survive on them. Over here as well it would seen, though we welcome the "challenge" a bit less than they do. I don't necessarily hate griding personally, but it depends upon some things. I was perfectly happy to grind in Etrian Odyssey until that game ceased to be hard, though I honestly don't know why.

[ADC]

Apparently there is a large enough pool of Japanese gamers who consider this to be "hardcore" to the point where companies like Compile Heart can survive on them. Over here as well it would seen, though we welcome the "challenge" a bit less than they do. I don't necessarily hate griding personally, but it depends upon some things. I was perfectly happy to grind in Etrian Odyssey until that game ceased to be hard, though I honestly don't know why.
I think the difference is that EO gave you some tangible benefits for leveling up, like upgrading your skills and things like that. It was kind of neat to watch your people develop. I think Xedge is sort of missing that. Well, I'm sure I'll change my tune once I start acquiring costumes for the girlies, but right now it's a slog.

[ZhenJi]

How does Xedge compare to Mana Khemia?

[ADC]

How does Xedge compare to Mana Khemia?
Pretty much the only similarity is that they're RPGs distributed by NISA. Xedge has only a slight edge on MKh for graphics, thanks to the very pretty high-resolution character graphics in dialog sequences; otherwise, it looks like a Generation 6 game. The XE battle system requires a lot more planning and strategy, even borrowing mildly from elements of TRPGs such as character placement grids and "player turn/enemy turn" structure, while the MKh system is a more traditional conditional turn-based system. Leveling up in XE is based on experience points, whereas MKh relied on alchemy for character development. XE doesn't have the "school" structure to the story progression and is rather more of a traditional "go from point A to point B, grind some EXP and farm some gil, see a story sequence, get totally destroyed by the boss because you didn't grind enough" game. (Isn't it odd that I despise Xenogears yet am apparently obsessed with putting everything in quotation marks?)

And from what I've seen so far, XE is seriously Pamela-deficient. Boo. It does, however, have a few characters from the forthcoming MKh2, which I'm eagerly anticipating. Supposedly that game ships this fall in the States.

[LordGeo]

Well, this game is no longer PS3-exclusive: Introducing Cross Edge Dash (http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/24/compile-heart-porting-cross-edge-to-xbox-360/)!

Now if NIS America brings this version to America then I'll certainly buy it... I do want to play this game, afterall, but I don't want to buy a PS3.

[ADC]

Well, this game is no longer PS3-exclusive: Introducing Cross Edge Dash (http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/24/compile-heart-porting-cross-edge-to-xbox-360/)!
I wonder if they'll try for a little extra monetization by putting the 360 port's features up on PSN. I have no idea how extensible these DLC-enabled games are.

[HitokiriShadow]

Well, this game is no longer PS3-exclusive: Introducing Cross Edge Dash (http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/24/compile-heart-porting-cross-edge-to-xbox-360/)!
I wonder if they'll try for a little extra monetization by putting the 360 port's features up on PSN. I have no idea how extensible these DLC-enabled games are.

They probably will. Disgaea 3 has an insane amount of DLC. It seems like they were announcing several new things to buy for that game every other week for a while. At this point, buying all the DLC for Disgaea 3 probably costs more than the MSRP of the actual game.

[MadL]

More free DLC at the PSN Store this week -- some rare-ish synth elements and equipment, plus a new dungeon unlocks.

[boogiecat]

Its just fine if there's a Xbox 360 port of this game..

[Mateo_home]

Just a heads up. More downloadable content this week. Even a costume pack of costumes you can't get in the game (love Aurica's waitress outfit). They don't even show up in the gallery. The downside: it cost me $3.99.

[ADC]

Just a heads up. More downloadable content this week. Even a costume pack of costumes you can't get in the game (love Aurica's waitress outfit). They don't even show up in the gallery. The downside: it cost me $3.99.
I'd consider it if there were battle sprites showing their costumes. That might be the greatest disappointment I've had in a game this year, including the nasty turn I had when I discovered that levels, equipment, and items don't transfer in Persona 4's NG+.