WA5 get! :D

[aruru]

Went to the mall today to pick up my copy of Wild Arms 5. Got an employee by the name of Gustavo who was pretty friendly (And apparently recognized me from a previous purchase, because he said hello straight away and I KNOW I recognize his face from somewhere - maybe when I bought Persona 3? Or maybe earlier than that, I dunno...) and started talking about how much he wanted to play it, but he's still busy with another game (which title I can't recall now), and that he has a bad habit of leaving games halfway finished ("Haha, just like me!", I said. XD). I told him I was in the same boat, that I was getting WA5 before it became hard to find and was busy with P3 for the time being, and he was like "OH MAN, Persona. I've played the previous games, and I want to play this one SO BAD, but I still have that other game to finish! How is it?" I told him that I haven't had a chance to really dig into the game much, but thus far it's been enjoyable.

He HAS listened to the soundtrack, though, and told me he really wanted to find the complete version. I, being the good little enabler/crack pusher that I am, told him about CDJapan (Speaking of which, I got an email from them today saying that they got my money and are working on getting the items. Yay! Prepare for burninated copies sometime soon, shinkuu! :D). Hopefully he'll remember the URL (didn't have anything to write it down on), though it's a short one and he said he has a good memory for that stuff.


Anyway, WA5. Haven't played it (of course not, I just got back from the store, after all :P), and am not planning to start on it anytime soon as I'm still trying to make time for P3, but I DID open the box to look at the bonus goodie it came with - an artbook detailing the Wild Arms series over the past 10 years (Wow, it's been that long already?). So, I perused its contents.

Dude, XSEED went all out on this - it's small (same size as the game box) and it's softcover, but it's got a whopping 80 pages, and it's all either stuff you'd find in the official artbooks or individual character art. And it's NOT like, a lot of art for WA5 and then little-to-none of the previous games - it's actually really well-balanced out.

And they even remembered the old-style art from the original WA! :D Actually, all the art save for one picture (of Magdalen, who apparently was never in any of the original version's art) was of the original-flavor WA rather than the Alter Code: F version, which while quite welcome (I'm glad they didn't forget the old art in favor of the pretty! I mean, I LOVE the pretty, but there's a certain charm to the old art that's not to be missed.), was a little weird. (I would've liked it even better if they had featured some of both versions of the game rather than just one of them - kind of like a before/after thing.)

Anyway, final veredict on the bonus artbook - while obviously not nearly as great as having the actual artbooks for each game, is still a GORGEOUS and EXCELLENT piece of swag, especially for the price of the game (just $40 on Amazon). Good job, XSEED, good job. :D


Oh, BTW, am I the only one amused by the fact that the designers for the WA5 box AND the designers for the P3 box both went with the (pretty stylish) notion of having just the characters' silouhettes on them, while having different art on the actual games' cases? Coincidence? *dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNN!!!* XD

Comments

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

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I'm getting a bit panicky that my copy of WA5 from Amazon won't be first press (as it ships next week and not this week) and now I'm all twitchy and wondering if I should stop by the store tomorrow to grave a copy from EBGames and cancel my Amazon order and eat the $5 in tax or not.

Although it'll be SO tempting to play WA5 the moment I get bored grinding in P3 though s;dflkas f;asjdfk; which is another reason I want to wait b;alksd a;slkd sa;j but artbook. =(

I only own the WAACF artbook, so having more stuff from the original WA actually is good for me. XD But still yeah! Nice job on it. XSEED has been pretty good in remembering about their customers--their manuals for the Canadian version of Brave Story was mistakenly printed on flimsy paper, so they actually did a pseudo-recall in that owners can get a new version of the manual if they wanted.

I wonder if XSEED will be like the next Working Designs...? Only full of less fail. XD

f;sdlkj;lsd j WA5. x.x

[aruru.livejournal.com]

*enable enable enable* Go for it~~~ You know you want bonus swaaaaag~~~ >D

Oh man, you have the ACF artbook? That's awesome. I want a copy of it SO much - pretty! *_*

I've actually found the original artbook (Fargaia Chronicle) - as well as all the other artbooks - for sale at AnimeBooks.com (http://www.animebooks.com/wildarms.html). *makes grabby hands* Oh man, I want them all! *_* (Actually, I already have the WA3 artbook. It's pretty swanky, but man, how I covet the others! *_*)

They also have the Persona 3 artbook in there (as well as some of the older Persona game stuff) (http://www.animebooks.com/persona1.html), for that matter. Oh man, SO MANY THINGS I WANT, and never enough money! *cry* ;_;


And yeah, I can see XSEED carrying the torch for WD, only better done. Atlus USA too, for that matter - their bonus swag for P3 was great, too! (Hell, it made me go out and get the complete P3 soundtrack - that should prove something! XD)

[arcian.livejournal.com]

Hey, we already have Atlus USA to be the next Working Designs. So maybe XSEED can be the next-next Dread Pirate Roberts WD?

[ruaki.livejournal.com]

Well, I only mention XSEED as the new WD in the fact that, like for WA4, they posted bloopers from the VAs on their site. Really hilarious to listen to. And WD had a long history of doing that sort of thing for their Lunar games. They also were VERY interested in hearing what people would think or want from things like WA5, etc... I guess as former game developers, they have more of a notion of what we'd like to see in games, etc. etc. So they seem pretty in touch with their small fanbase--or at least are really trying too.

Namco's gotten a lot better too. The Tales of games' localizers are so in touch with the fandom that they're all over the forums, and of course, they've been running a lot of contests and free swag getto! type things. (Tokunaga plushie > sample soundtracks or artbooks IMHO XD) Hell, they finally heeded the call of the fandom in finally having the skits VA'd too--Radiant Mythology is the first and hopefully won't be the last. god please bring out the new Symphonia

I think game companies in general are realizing that building up fan loyalty is a great way to get people to buy even the crappiest games. XD

[aruru.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, the WA4 bloopers! I had forgotten you posted those. (I'll listen to them... someday, when I have a faster connection.) Anyway, yeah, that does put them at WD's level... well, minus the fail, that is. XD

The XSEED people used to be game developers? I didn't know that. Any knowledge of where, exactly?

The Tokunaga plushie giveaway was indeed awesome! :D (Mine's unfortunately still packed away, until I find/make some space to display all my plushes/figures. But still, awesome.) Are they running any new swag giveaways now?

They finally put voices in the skits? That's great! They needed to put their voice talent to work more. :D Also, what's this about a new Symphonia? Is it a remake of the GC game, or a sequel?

And yeah, I'm in agreement with you about the building of fan loyalty thing there, especially regarding the smaller companies. I mean, making the public pay attention to their games in the face of juggernauts like Square-Enix and the like is hard enough alone, so showing they care about their customers should help them even out the playing field a little. :)