[AC] [PS2] Arcana Heart

[CosMind]

Arcana Heart was released for the PS2 in the U.S. last week. If you've yet to snatch yourself a copy, then quit stalling. You can grab it for only 30 bones at most online retailers. And, I'm sure a little investigation may lead you to scoring it for even cheaper.

[Jedah]

Is there any hope for a PAL release? Atlus treats PAL territories comparatively well compared to other small publishers.

[icycalm]

No idea about a PAL release, but here are some changes that seem to have been done to the US version:

I don't own the japanese version and I don't have the english version in my hands yet but I'm hearing from people who have got there copies and owned the japanese that there used to be japapense vocal dailogue in story mode and at the versus screen, while the japanese voices remain during battles, for some frustrating reason they appear to be missing from story mode and the versus screen. Whats more they haven't been replaced with english voices, they've just been taken out of the game for no apparent reason.

On some other boards I visit this is already causing quite a stir of anger and annoyance, any one know why this was done? What possible reason could there be to remove voices, especially for such a niche game like this whose target audience is the kind whose most likely to enjoy the japanese voices? I can understand replacing them with english voices but to remove them with out intent to replace seems completely absurd and unless theres a good reason behind why it was done that I'm not seeing its very VERY foolish as it will turn off alot of gamers who expect to atleast receive as much content as the original japanese contains.

They didn't just remove, they added an altered other little things. During the activation of the love arcana the homing bars cover more of the love arcana's breast area, also during the love arcanas super and in her sprite form they added a brownish/tan to her upper body skin color palette. I'm not sure if this was in the JP ps2 version but if you check the link for the love arcana under the "The Arcana Heart Encyclopedia for Newcomers", you'll see what I mean if you compare the U.S. version to those screenshots towards the bottom.

http://www.atlus.com/new_forum/viewtopic.php?t=974


And here is a more or less official Atlus USA statement:

It does kind of suck that people weren't told about this in advance, and I'm sorry to people who are aggrieved on that count. But Atlus never makes cuts like this without a reason, and in this case it was because if you leave cutscene voices or voices deemed important to understanding of a game in a foreign language with no English-language option, you stand a very good chance of having your game rejected. Of course there are one or two exceptions (Yakuza 2 springs to mind... assuming it's even still coming out) but they're very difficult to get. Facing the choice between bringing it with no voices or not bringing it, we made the hard choice. It's not going down well with fans, and I understand why, but there was a reason.

(I'm not even sure I should be posting this, but it's Friday evening and I'd hate to see the hate fester all weekend.)

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... tcount=126


On a personal note, I am happy that I finally recently received my Arcana Heart Full! kit from Fujita, brand-new for 45,000 yen. Considering that even the Japanese version of the port is butchered (no progressive scan, for a game which one of its major draws are the high-res sprites), I had to get the PCB sooner or later. (Though I have to get the port too at some point, for the extra shit.)

The problem is that I am now watching vids of Arcana Heart 2, which is fan-fucking-tastic, and some of my enjoyment from playing the original is overshadowed by my intense desire for the sequel.

Oh well!

[Morzas]

Fucking SCEA.

[icycalm]

Yeah, their arbitrary localization standards are annoying, but whenever I begin to get pissed about stuff like this I just remind myself of the bad old days, when ports of arcade games were so different to the original versions that they were practically brand-new games, and I say what the hell.

It has gotten to the point where people bitch even when a port is BETTER than the arcade version in some ways. (E.g. the Mushi port, which reportedly had some of the slowdown removed -- arguably, an improvement.)

[chamchamtrigger]

I picked up a copy not too long ago (I saw a review of the game at the main sight and decided to take your word for it since I haven't been let down yet). I have to say that I'm really having trouble trying to find a character and combination that suits me right now. That's not a criticism, but actually a praise. The game really is as deep as you said it is. I've had to take away a lot of my GGXX/SF3 practice just to try and finally choose a combination. I'm not even that far into fully understanding the system yet >.<. I don't really look at any videos until I've studied the game myself, since I like to learn things on my own.

The fact that a 2 is going to come out, and I haven't played much of this game yet is kinda daunting though.