Return to PopoloCrois: A STORY OF SEASONS Fairytale - Info

[wyrdwad]

On my iPad mini 3, the site's music is not working for me.

Yeah, with the death of Flash, getting looping BGM onto a website that'll work on all browsers and devices is apparently a lot harder than it used to be. Our web designer suggested that for future sites, we don't have looping BGM at all, instead just offering a streaming jukebox feature in the Multimedia section or downloadable MP3s or something -- and I think that's what we'll be doing moving forward.

We can finally get ourselves unstuck from '90s web design practices.

-Tom

[Arcy]

Oh geez, my post as always, landing on the last post on the former page, I'm going to be editing in more website comments as I go through it, so hopefully they won't be missed.

Good to know the music is a Flash issue, I'll check out the browser version the next time I turn on the laptop, which serves as the family computer (so it is sometimes hard for me to get hours in).

[wyrdwad]

Two save files with the Quicksave option acting as a makeshift third? Or are there more savefiles?

Two save slots + quicksave as a makeshift third. 'Fraid that's all there is!

Gameplay page: oh my good Galariel, there's a ton of details and new English screenshots for me to drool over!

Speaking of Galariel, isn't her English voice fantastic? We weren't sure if we were going to be able to duplicate the sing-songy/chanty nature of the Japanese, but then in walks our selected actress for the role and she just absolutely NAILS it. So much emotion... she gave us all chills!

I am going to take my time and devour this manga, but thank you all at XSEED, Marvelous, and Yohsuke Tamori... so, so much thanks for providing the opportunity to read it in English for the first time.

Yeah, I didn't expect them to actually let us translate the manga, but Tamori-sensei and epics seemed thrilled by the idea. We only have the first story to work with, but still, that's 113 pages that they were just A-OK with us releasing online -- and that's nothin' to sneeze at!

-Tom

[Night Owl]

I was in class when this update happened, so I saw it, I just couldn't comment. Also, the music on the website wouldn't play on my iPhone, but I figured that was because it was an iPhone. Works fine once I got to a real laptop browser though. Hm... The more I hear the music, the more I'm sure I'll enjoy the soundtrack. And there are so many characters! Oh if I didn't have work to get done I could probably spend a few hours on that site just exploring and reading things... The site is just really well done! And I'll be sure to read the manga. Might be perfect for that potentially snowy day tomorrow, hm....

And a March 1st release date... I like that date. Personally I was just worried about if it would come out too close to Fates, and I didn't want to be torn about which game to play first.

[Arcy]

Speaking of Galariel, isn't her English voice fantastic? We weren't sure if we were going to be able to duplicate the sing-songy/chanty nature of the Japanese, but then in walks our selected actress for the role and she just absolutely NAILS it. So much emotion... she gave us all chills!

This is exactly why I'm dithering over the number save files, it is so, so rare in dubbing that you get a cast that just nails the (both technical and emotional) delivery perfectly in going from the Japanese seiyuu to the English voice actor, and all the actor choices are incredible. I know you can switch on the fly, but I feel that game stories are such a better/more impactful experience when you pick one at the start and then stick with it!

Having that triple cast is so ridiculously tempting. I think I'm for sure going to go JPN1 on my first file with the black lines (I adore that sort of cel-shaded look, which really helps my bad eyesight out in making things distinct) and ENG without them if I decide to play through a second time.

Having the scenes unlock for rewatching in whatever language you choose may keep me from putting an overwhelming amount of hours in, though. We'll see.

The more I have seen of this game, the happier I am with the outcome. You guys nailed it.

My only minor nitpick on the stream is the audio balance levels - I can't hear the game at all even with my volume cranked, but as it was your guys first stream, that's understandable. I hope you do more!

One question: are you guys putting a full seiyuu/seiyuu/voice actor list in that heavily teased full color manual? Please say yes.

English Peitro sounds a great deal like Cathy Weseluck, and that alone is driving me crazy! (She does video game VA, but her most famous role is probably Spike the dragon from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.) Even if it isn't her, it just speaks to the exceptional quality of the voice actors you guys did get on board!

[wyrdwad]

My only minor nitpick on the stream is the audio balance levels - I can't hear the game at all even with my volume cranked, but as it was your guys first stream, that's understandable. I hope you do more!

Yeah, I noticed that too. It was kind of a minor miracle we were even able to get our 3DS to stream at all (our capture unit was decidedly NOT meant for that, so we had quite the spider web of cords and converters behind the scenes), and I think we were just so grateful to have succeeded in our impossible mission that we wound up getting a little complacent about the audio.

One question: are you guys putting a full seiyuu/seiyuu/voice actor list in that heavily teased full color manual? Please say yes.

Not a complete list, I'm afraid. A partial list, but only of the actors' names -- not which roles they played. And some of the actors' names are pseudonyms, too. It's a weird situation, and I can't really get into why we had to do it this way, but I'm afraid we did.

You can almost consider it a meta-game, though, to try to figure out who's who! Yeah, that's it! And I'll be happy to confirm who voiced what role for you if it's one of the credited actors, but I'm contractually obligated to use pseudonyms if it's one of our actors with a pseudonym, and I'm contractually obligated to neither confirm nor deny ANYTHING for the roles played by uncredited actors.

Welcome to the bureaucracy of voice recording.

English Peitro sounds a great deal like Cathy Weseluck, and that alone is driving me crazy! (She does video game VA, but her most famous role is probably Spike the dragon from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.) Even if it isn't her, it just speaks to the exceptional quality of the voice actors you guys did get on board!

Well, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the voices thus far! And there are lots more where that came from -- lots of characters not featured on the website because they're spoilers, but whose voices are just as good.

-Tom

[Arcy]

Hey, if the only way we got trual audio was at the cost of heavily enforced NDA anonymity, I think we can live with it. I'm sure there's some amount of "this is the only way we could use the Japanese voice tracks" in those agreements as well.

I'm not a very big devotee of voice actors and bad at picking out voices in general (even with the "big names" who sometimes deliberately develop distinct anonymous voices), but I definitely believe in getting the credit for your work, so... as long as the VAs are happy with the arrangements and their salaries, that's what matters the most.

[Bluie]

Hmmm, suppose we really don't need all the info on the front page anymore now that the website is up and is leagues better! :D

I'll edit it accordingly~

[wyrdwad]

Hey, if the only way we got trual audio was at the cost of heavily enforced NDA anonymity, I think we can live with it. I'm sure there's some amount of "this is the only way we could use the Japanese voice tracks" in those agreements as well.

I'm not a very big devotee of voice actors and bad at picking out voices in general (even with the "big names" who sometimes deliberately develop distinct anonymous voices), but I definitely believe in getting the credit for your work, so... as long as the VAs are happy with the arrangements and their salaries, that's what matters the most.

Yeah, just to be clear about that, all the actors were well-compensated and they all seemed to have a lot of fun playing their roles, and to be satisfied with the end result as well. This is purely a legal/bureaucratic thing, and the name omissions or changes were performed with full knowledge and complete approval of the actors in question.

-Tom

[Bluie]

Annnd the front page has now been cleaned up. Ive kept the general info and trailer links, but thats about it.

Theres a large emphasis on visiting the website now instead.


And I am SO HYPE. The website is great(i'm still wandering through it) and i'm in LOVE with the English voicework. Might do a couple playthroughs just so I can get to hear them all! And I'm glad its coming out the beginning of March and not in between, because I have a lot of game releases to pick up that month!

[Arcy]

Some OP silly nitpicking, is okay if you don't feel like editing right away since more new info is coming out all the time.

EU does have an estimated release date if you want to put that in, Q1 2016. I suspect our friends over the pond will have something more solid very soon, though.

Also, maybe add the fact it is eShop only in EU to the PAL release data?

(Date Source: )

PopoloCrois as a manga dates back to 1978, which Tom wrote in the Manga section of the official website, as well as talking about it on the livestream.

(Yes, I'm two years older than PopoloCrois. Haha.)

Bluie, I'm totally with you on needing to hear the whole story at least twice! (Small bias toward the original Japanese VAs because I'm also old!)

Tom, I had no doubts that Marvelous and XSEED (and related studios) treat their VAs and other employees very well, every glimpse I get of your guys day-to-day business life shows one of the happiest bunch of people in the industry that I've ever seen. However, thanks for the detailed response as always!

[Bluie]

Annnnnd fixed. Lemme know if anything else needs fixing.

And I feel the same on the PoPoLo VA bias thing. After watching the anime Ive gotten used to their JPN VAs and a bit attached. Its been ages since I played the PSP PoPoLoCrois, but I almost feel that they're pretty similar to SoS PoPoLo? White Knight, GamiGami, and Pietro all sound similar to the ENG VAs i'm used too while Narcia's sounds pretty different ( I have her "WIND CUTTER!" magic spell voice bit stuck in my mind lol).

And though i'm usually one to switch to the Japanese VA if given the option, I think i'll hold back on it until a second playthrough!

[wyrdwad]

And I feel the same on the PoPoLo VA bias thing. After watching the anime Ive gotten used to their JPN VAs and a bit attached. Its been ages since I played the PSP PoPoLoCrois, but I almost feel that they're pretty similar to SoS PoPoLo? White Knight, GamiGami, and Pietro all sound similar to the ENG VAs i'm used too while Narcia's sounds pretty different ( I have her "WIND CUTTER!" magic spell voice bit stuck in my mind lol).

To the best of my knowledge, every actor we used for these roles was different from the actor used in the PSP version.

...If any of them were the same, at least, they sure didn't say anything about it in the studio!

It was actually a conscious decision on our part, though, to localize this title independently of the PSP game -- it's supposed to be sort of a "rebirth" for the Popolo series, so we felt it would be better to localize everything on its own merits rather than striving to exactly match what came before. As a result, there will be some minor differences in the way things are translated -- GamiGami instead of Gami Gami, Flornel Forest instead of Flonel Forest -- but they should all be pretty insignificant overall, and any connections to previous titles will still be very obvious.

-Tom

[wyrdwad]

New blog is up, detailing some of the game's features! You guys already know most of this, but there are new screenshots too, so give it a look-see if you're interested in seeing a bit more of the game in action.



-Tom

[Bluie]

Woah, didn't know about the cell shading select! Thats really cool!


Edit: This just popped up on the 3DS Reddit



True or nah?