Decline Tri-Ace bought by Nepro Japan and will only develop mobile games.

[StaticSpine]

The Japanese studio is known for developing a variety of RPGs, such as Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Resonance of Fate, Valkyrie Profile and Phantasy Star Nova.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/20/star-ocean-developer-tri-ace-purchased-by-mobile-company

 

[Echo Mirage]

I guess that means no Valkrie Profile Hrist then.

 

[Abu Antar]

When I first saw the news

 

[spekkio]

 

[Whisky]

They've been shit for two generations now.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yeah, tri-ace hasn't been on my radar for a long time. They used to do awesome shit (Star Ocean 2 is probably one of the most impressive games on the PSX) but the first Valkyrie Profile was the last thing they made that actually impressed me.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Even if they were shitty, becoming a mobile developer is a harsh fate. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even Capcom.

 

[Abu Antar]

Resonance of fate has fucking great gameplay. While Star Ocean 4 is a steaming pile of crap in many areas, gameplay was not one of them.

 

[Rahdulan]

I guess that means no Valkrie Profile Hrist then.

You mean Lightning Returns?

 

[Ayreos]

After The Last Hope they got what they deserved! Finally, the garbage they now produce can be directly published on and relegated to the inescapable Void of bathroom players.

 

[Whisky]

Yeah, tri-ace hasn't been on my radar for a long time. They used to do awesome shit (Star Ocean 2 is probably one of the most impressive games on the PSX) but the first Valkyrie Profile was the last thing they made that actually impressed me.

Maybe I feel a little sad now.

I did like them during the PSX era a lot...

Star Ocean 3 ruined them in so many ways.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I was really excited when SO3 came out. Playing it was a huge dissapointment, I barely got anywhere before putting it down. The pacing was awful, the characters were dumb, the combat was too slow to be ignored and not skillful enough to be interesting. Never even looked at SO4 as a result.

 

[Archibald]

While their later output has been sharp decline these fuckers still made Valkyrie Profile, sad news. I hope we won't see Valkyrie Profile: Hrist as some card game on mobile

 

[SCO]

Valkyrie profile shoehorned a idiotic romance into the plot and that triggered me out of considering it a good game.

 

[Athelas]

Damn, Japanese developers are really going down the shitter. That being said...

 

[Ayreos]

the combat was too slow to be ignored and not skillful enough to be interesting. Never even looked at SO4 as a result.

SO2 Breathtaking fast-paced combat.

Spoiler

http://youtu.be/mmYsFQn3fOY?t=19s

SO3 "...too slow to be ignored and not skillful enough to be interesting" combat.

Spoiler

http://youtu.be/5rkfEXIDUtQ?t=36s

It's a joke, both combat systems are unadulterated pure spam at higher levels. To me SO3's was in fact a direct improvement of the previous combat systems, with useful blocking and counter mechanics. Its story also delivered one of the best twists in jRPG history. Even if you don't agree with that SO3 was at the very least a polished game, unlike the train-wreck of a sequel.[/MEDIA][/spoiler]

 

[Archibald]

I haven't played SO3 so I have no horse here, but I think its kinda suspicious that SO2 video is against random mobs that are way lower level than player (doing 0 damage) while SO3 video is a fight against, if I'm not mistaken, secret boss.

 

[Ayreos]

I haven't played SO3 so I have no horse here, but I think its kinda suspicious that SO2 video is against random mobs that are way lower level than player (doing 0 damage) while SO3 video is a fight against, if I'm not mistaken, secret boss.

Of course, that's why i said that it's a joke, and that both systems are actually equally intense at high levels!

Edit: Frankly, i would go as far as saying they're virtually the same system, with SO3 being perhaps slightly faster at low levels, and the game difficulty higher, on average. I certainly died more in SO3 than SO2, at least.

 

[CryptRat]

Valkyrie profile shoehorned a idiotic romance into the plot and that triggered me out of considering it a good game.

Actually reading that several times i have even never considered playing the game.

I really enjoyed Resonance of fate. SO3 and SO4 and Infinite Undiscovery were good enough for me to reach the end of the games, but nothing memorable.

I briefly tried Radiata stories and will maybe return to it someday.

Considering all this, these news are not the saddest ever, but there are still sad news.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I don't know much about SO2's plot, but iirc the big twist is

Spoiler

it's a vieo game!

which is a pretty shitty twist compared to SO2 actually destroying an entire planet populated by people.

And even on normal, combat got difficult/interesting fairly quick in SO2. The lacour tournament is pretty nasty, as are a number of boss battles or even random encounters on the first disk. I literally can't remember anything about SO3 combat- what the characters did, what the enemies were, nothing. I didn't play far (up until some sort of cave with I think a hydra monster or something I was sent to fight or get past or something?) but it took a while to get even that far and the only thing I recall is trying to get the chain thing (because there's nothing else to do while fighting) and failing because it breaks basically any time you get hit, which is impossible to avoid. Maybe there was a good game in there somewhere but I don't have the patience for that shit these days, when I've got a pile of unplayed games that grab my interest right off the bat.

 

[Ayreos]

Amazingly, i could say almost the exact same thing about SO2! Not only was that tournament easy, but if i remember correctly it used the trite "unwinnable final tournament fight" trope! Well, of course tastes be tastes.

I still don't understand how blowing up a planet is a more meaningful event than

Spoiler

realizing that all your reality, with everyone living in it, the entire universe, is actually a virtual reality simulation created by a population from another dimension, to which even thermodynamic laws do not apply in the same way! It's something like the difference between finding out someone nuked a foreign capital and that you, in fact, aren't actually real... Personally, the latter would freak me out much more! Let alone make me think more...