RPG Insanity

While browsing the Wii U eshop, I noticed something interesting. Natsume was involved in bringing Alphadia Genesis to the Wii U.

Natsume was not involved in Kemco's other two Wii U RPG ports, Revenant Saga and Asdivine Hearts. Natsume wasn't involved in any of Kemco's 3DS RPG ports either, not even the 3DS port of Alphadia.

Natsume was involved in the Kemco ports of End of Aspiration/End of Serenity and Fantasy Chronicles/Mystic Chronicles on the PSP/Vita/Vita TV digital store. I know Natsume did an extensive text retranslation for Mystic Chronicles. I don't know whether Natsume retranslated the text for End of Serenity (other than giving it a new title); that game's story/text is somewhat limited and I'm not sure there's much Natsume could have done with it anyway.

Curiously, Alphadia Genesis on the PC, PS4, Switch, etc. does not have Natsume's name attached to it. A quick internet search didn't turn up any evidence or claims that Natsume retranslated Alphadia Genesis.

It seems that Natsume had a brief partnership with Kemco, spanning console ports on three games... I suspect that since the consoles (Wii U and PSP) didn't have a high install base, low sales of the three ports induced Natsume to part ways with Kemco.

This might be a good thing for consumers; one thing I've noticed about Natsume's three Kemco ports is that they never seem to go on digital sale. They're always $15 each, when some of Kemco's console ports are less than $15 base price or go on digital sale for up to 50% off.

EDIT: Apparently Natsume does put Wii U Alphadia Genesis on sale sometimes, but I've never seen its PSP/Vita/Vita TV games Mystic Chronicles and End of Serenity on sale.

Just see it too. Natsume was part of publishing.

The only thing i can confirmed is Marvelous is part of Alphadia Genesis PC port, which is also possible (but not confirmed) that they also involved in PS4 port since Marvelous port but KEMCO and/or EXE-CREATE forgot to put Marvelous logo on the game.

 

[quote=42312]I suspect that since the consoles (Wii U and PSP) didn’t have a high install base, low sales of the three ports induced Natsume to part ways with Kemco.[/quote]

Yeah, you can't expect people will buy a game with a price of $15 without sale. I mean, KEMCO-EXECREATE only have lower base/non-popular, plus western JRPG community members that doesn't like KEMCO games because of how it work plus the graphics.

 

"one thing I’ve noticed about Natsume’s three Kemco ports is that they never seem to go on digital sale."

One of the mistake why Natsume fall in the 3 games. Game is bit pricey, for the year the game ported.

The console verions of KEMCO's titles are harder for people to drop money on because of the $15 price tag. I think they would've gotten more sales at $9.99 or something. For some titles, $15 is 2-3x the price of the android version and the price doesn't drop as much as the android version when on sale.

Kemco's 3DS ports have a $9.99 base price in the US, and I think the 3DS port of Symphony of Eternity is a little cheaper. Some of their early Switch ports are $12.99, and some of their early PC ports are $9.99-$12.99 but nearly all of their current PS4/Switch ports developed by Exe-Create and Hit Point are $14.99 base price.

Kemco's RPG ports developed by Rideon (Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom, Marenian Tavern Story) are $19.99 base price, and their ports of games by other developers have a base price of up to $29.99 (Raging Loop, RPG Golf Legends, Citizens Unite: Earth x Space).

The $14.99 base price for RPG ports is especially grating when observing a few games that have been ported to both the 3DS and the Switch/PS4. Asdivine Cross, Bonds of the Skies, Chronus Arc, Dragon Lapis, Dragon Sinker, and Justice Chronicles are all $9.99 on the 3DS and $14.99 on the Switch/PS4, plus their Switch/PS4 versions sell paid DLC when their 3DS versions have no paid DLC or in-game purchases.

On the positive side, the PS4/Switch port of Fernz Gate has all the bonus dungeons that were in-app purchases for the mobile version included in the base price. So far, I haven't seen any Kemco console ports gate dungeons behind paid DLC; their paid DLC is limited to stuff that speeds up grinding, powers up the party, or controls the encounter rate.

I have yet to encounter a Kemco RPG port where I felt like I needed to buy any paid DLC. This is with the caveat that I almost always play Kemco games on Normal difficulty, or Easy difficulty if Normal is too grueling (Revenant Dogma).

I recently reached the True End of the Wii U version of Alphadia Genesis. I noticed that Natsume's localization team is mentioned in the credits. Presumably, this means that Natsume was involved with the English localization of the Wii U version, as well as publishing it.

The game's English text was localized effectively, with virtually no grammatical errors or typos. There wasn't even any over-reliance on stock English phrases that mar inferior localizations of Kemco games (such as characters saying "as quick as we can" over and over in the 3DS port of Justice Chronicles).

The story of Alphadia Genesis is a cliche-ridden mess, with characters whose personalities are so sharply self-contradictory that it crushes suspension of disbelief, but that's not the fault of Natsume's localization team. You just can't fix a bad story.

At least the gameplay is pretty fun. The gameplay is bog-standard Exe-Create template, but still enjoyable enough that I want to fight the postgame optional bosses.