With every new bit of information that slips out about Solatorobo, I find myself more and more annoyed that no U.S. release has been announced yet. The box art, excerpted above, was the final straw for me. They got Nobuteru Yuuki to do the art, which means this is definitively a sequel (or at least successor) to long-forgotten PlayStation gem Tail Concerto. Tail Concerto, of course, was an Atlus-published game that was pretty much the closest anyone ever came to capturing the essence of Mega Man Legends (and to an even bigger degree, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne).
By the Transitive Property of Totally Sweet Niche Games, this means Solatorobo is the closest we’re going to see to a new Legends game until Keiji Inafune commits to actually making the real thing rather than offering up empty promises and insincere platitudes. Obviously, this means it needs to come to America. Post-haste.
So, I’m thinking about taking out a business loan to license and localize and publish this game in the U.S. A couple thousand dollars should do the trick, right?
I’ll pitch in $1.
Even if it never shows up here, you can always just import the Australian version.
http://www.siliconera.com/2010/07/26/solarobo-heading-to-the-land-down-under/
Did you deliberately misspell Inafune’s name as “In-Fun,” as in “Not Fun”? That’s a low blow.
I remember the old PlayStation Underground demo discs back in the day and each one had an import demo. I definitely played the crap out of the Tail Concerto, but never got the chance to play the full game. A retro gaming shop in my area has it. Might pick it up.
tch… furries
It was not a deliberate misspelling, but I regret nothing.
So how badly do I need to investigate Tail Concerto? Never heard of it until now.
It’s always a pleasure to see Nobuteru Yûki doing something.
I wish I could get over the furries.
“Even if it never shows up here, you can always just import the Australian version.”
WAIT WHAT
oh the OFLC has rated it. Well, that’s hardly conclusive.
Completely agreed. I saw the announcement for this, and was like “Sweet!”. Even with the furries.
Everyone that played the original knows that it’s all innocent fun, and it was undeniably the closest thing to Mega Man Legends outside of… well… Mega Man Legends. And Tron Bonne.
It’s a short but fun little romp, and is still one of the better platformers for the PSX.
“tch… furries”
took the words right out of my mouth. Back in Tail Concerto’s time, the man-animal stuff was rather innocent, but in this day and age its no different than fap material. The only way it could be worse is if that were Sonic Hedgehog instead of a fox.
Yeah, I feel pretty bad for anyone who sees this and says OMG FURRIEZ. The first game was nothing of the sort, drawing from the classic cartoon tradition of innocent, funny, talking animals a la Warner Bros., and this looks to do likewise. I swear, some of you people probably read Spiegelman’s Maus and can only think of OMG NAZI CATSUITZ. Kitty-Goebels yiffing with kitty-Hitler or some such.
[I’m in Australia] Heh.. usually with niche games the only way we get them is if someone imports them somewhere. Hell, that was how I got A Boy and His Blob. I tell you what Parish, if you want this game and it doesn’t get a US release I’ll volunteer to pre-order it for you and send it over. More than happy to.
what do you mean by ‘you people’? lol
If I never had the misfortune of being exposed to an internet full of really screwed up people corrupting and perverting these innocent, funny, talking animals into their ideal sexual partners, I wouldn’t have the sickening feeling most of the people buying Solatorobo will get it because it has a fox on the cover and they want to shove the game into their boxers so he can be closer to their dangly parts.
the “OMG FURRIEZ >:O” reflex is the product of just how out of control this has become. Think less Spiegelman, more Sodom and Gamorrah.
Insulting the game just because there are screwed up people on the internet is stupidly retarded. It’s like me not breathing because hey, murderers breathe the same air. Worst. argument. ever.
BTW, what other games has this artist worked on? Didn’t he work on SkyGunner?
Tail Concerto’s art style was amazing. So, so far away from furry.
I didn’t know about this game, but that piece of art made me smile.
Nobuteru Yuuki designed the characters for an obscure indie game called “Chrono Cross.”
I said “you people” because I was in a good mood and “you kneejerk buttheads” seemed inappropriately harsh at the time.
Ah, I see; I’ll have to play Chrono Cross in the future. BTW, what platform is this game on? PSP?
Chrono Cross! That’s what the human in the picture reminded me of. He’s got Serge’s jawline.
Is this going to be an RPG?
We’ll all be thinking back to this post in 10 years time, when GameSpite has become an established and (mostly) respectable game publishing studio, that seems to most to have begun with the very odd but well-meaning publishing of Solatorobo.
Yûki also designed the characters for Seiken Densetsu 3 (and Legend of Mana, I guess).
I was about to comment that the artwork reminded me of Serge and Lynx… had no idea it was the same character designer. Guess the resemblance is more than just a coincidence.
Chrono Cross, SD3, Legend of Mana, and this? Man, why didn’t someone tell me earlier that Nobuteru Yuuki is one of my favorite designers? I clearly spend too much time looking at directors and musicians in my game credits and not enough at the artists.
Eh? SD3 was Yuuki, but Legend of Mana? I don’t think that’s right. The game’s official art looks nothing like his style.
Er, yeah, I was just repeating what Nicola said, but now that I think about it… Okay, yeah, looking it up, the Legend of Mana designs were Shinichi Kameoka (who also does stuff at Brownie Brown, and worked on Sword of Mana, which makes a lot more sense).
Now that I’m poking around online I also see that Yuuki did the animation character designs for Lodoss War, Megazone 23, Alita, Paradise Kiss, and Escaflowne. Not bad. (Though most of those are adaptations of existing manga designs, of course.)
Legend of Mana didn’t seem right to me, either; I was taking Wikipedia’s word for it. My bad!
And yeah, I originally got to know him through Escaflowne.
I remember playing the Tail Concerto demo over and over but never had the game. The limited edition of this game looks nice. Make it happen! I’ll buy a copy.
I absolutely adored Tail Concerto. I, too will be peeved if this doesn’t come over to these shores.
What’s so good about Tail Concerto? I’ve barely ever heard of it until now. All I know is that it’s a platformer (2d or 3D) with Mega Man Legends esque art style.
“tch… furries”
This coming from the guy that brought back Rocket Knight?
This game is so freaking hot. I’ll be importing it and buying the US version when Namco Bandai pulls its head out of its arse and announces a North American release.