Solatorobo: Red the Hunter announced for North America and Europe

[Vlcice]

"Stair" is a really weird one, for sure.

Now that I take a look at them, it looks like all the transliterations in Solatorobo are identical to the ones that were in the French version of Tail Concerto. My guess would be that NoE used those names since that was the only version of the game released in PAL territories, and Xseed didn't change them to align them with the Atlus release. It would also explain "Théria", which would be the proper way to represent that name in French, but not necessarily English.

I remembered there being a few name transliterations on the Japanese site's filenames/at text, but I can't seem to find most characters' names now that I look for them, so I was probably wrong. (Only characters like Panta and Russel.) It has been 14 years, I guess. ;)

As for Atlus's transliterations, I remember something that REALLY bugged me was that they transliterated the place names differently from the map screen, so the text popup was different from the same word written in English right underneath it...

[Nz17]

I have been playing "Sola to Robo" some more and I must say...

*spoiler warning*

*You have been warned...*

*Abandon hope all ye who read beyond here.*

...that I totally called Elh being a girl. From moment one I've been saying, "That's a girl." But the game and other people have been telling me, "No, um, Elh's a male." However from the first bit of artwork of the game I saw, even before I knew her name, I thought she was a girl. Each additional wallpaper and bit of art confirmed this further in my mind. And when I heard her voice spoken, I further believed this. However I gave the benefit of the doubt to those who told me otherwise. After all, voice actresses often voice young characters regardless of gender.

And then a few chapters in... the comedic cut-scene tells the revelation! I was all like, "I called it, I called it! I reign supreme, ah yeah!"

Seriously though - the character is colored purplish-grey, she wears a dress, she has earrings, her eyes are big and tear up in the opening animated movie, her body language is feminine, the VA is a woman, and she clings to Red like a girl looking for a protector. The only thing that was giving doubt to me was the game's continuous assurance through the characters that she was a boy. Well I showed them! ;)

Though cut-scenes like that have been done before in games, anime, et cetera, (Mega Man Legends 2, anyone?) I still think it was fairly funny.

Aussie2B, I'm guessing that in the Japanese version of the game Elh used masculine words like "boku" and such which made the characters believe what they did?

[Vlcice]

So wait, you kept making a big deal about importing the PAL version to get it early, but didn't play more than about 2 hours over the course of the past 3 months? ;)

[Nz17]

So wait, you kept making a big deal about importing the PAL version to get it early, but didn't play more than about 2 hours over the course of the past 3 months? ;)

Exactly. :) Truthfully though, I have been completing every side quest as soon as it has been available so it is more than two hours of playtime thus far. Plus it took something like twenty days for the game to be shipped to my old apartment so that time has to be figured into the equation.

Then again, they actually have been a rather hectic past few months so I haven't had much time for any DS games. Long story short, I got access back to my powerful desktop computer and a Wii so my time has been mainly spent either working on Digital Press projects (Web site stuff mainly), PC gaming like Team Fortress 2 and Recettear, and Wii games like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Super Mario Galaxy. When you spend as much time away from these platforms as I did last year, you tend to try to make up for lost time. :-P

But dang it, I WAS STILL RIGHT ABOUT ELH! ;)

[Aussie2B]

I honestly didn't know that there was any confusion over Elh's gender until the US version came out, haha. I barely know any Japanese, so the vast majority of the dialogue went over my head. I do know many pronouns, but I don't remember if Elh uses "boku" or not. I don't recall seeing anything really masculine and harsh, though, like Red's "temee". I chalk it up to clueless kids. It's so painfully obvious that Elh is female that I don't know how anyone could seriously believe otherwise.

[Wraith Storm]

My brother got this for me for Christmas. I just recently finished Insecticide on the DS and decided now would be a good time to delve into this little gem.

I am a few hours in and am completely blown away. I love everything about this game so far. The music is REALLY good, the characters have personality and are memorable, the dialog is charming, and the presentation from menus and cut scenes to the immersive world and breath taking graphics are top notch.

I can't wait to put more time into this game. There are not many new games out there that I REALLY enjoy these days so when a gem like this comes around I fully embrace it!

[Kitsune Sniper]

DUN

DUN

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN

http://gamekyo.com/blognews_article275996.html

Edit: Looks like we have a sequel. :P

[Tupin]

I honestly thought there would never be a sequel. Hopefully this one will be easier to find, I didn't see Solatorobo in any store.

[SEGA_Queen]

I found a link to the twitter page where the info is coming from:

http://twitter.com/#!/nobuteruyuki


After reading though the posts, I highly suspect this whole thing is a hoax. Here's why:

1) If it really is Nobuteru Yûki posting these leaks, wouldn't he be writing them in Japanese?

2) With some flash carts, you can display pictures on your DS. So it's possible to make a fake screenshot, and use the flash cart to make it look like it's legit.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, that looks like massive BS.

Yuuki probably wouldn't tweet in English, and he'd DEFINITELY have more than 34 followers. I mean, he's the creator of Escaflowne for crying out loud. He's a pretty prominent figure in anime and games, and he's been around for a long time. And there's no way that he'd be allowed to release this information. He's just the character designer. He's not some employee of CyberConnect2. He can't say anything about any project he works on until the publisher gives him the go-ahead, which would in all likelihood come after they've made their own announcements.

Those images look totally fake too. I mean, the last two pictures on his Twitter are just images from Solatorobo (check the wallpapers section of the US site) with "Solatorobo 2" slapped on them.

But anyway, CyberConnect2 already announced a new project awhile back, one that seems like it's called "Strelka Stories", which has anthropomorphic characters. It doesn't look like a direct sequel, but it seems like it very well could be another entry in the Little Tail Bronx franchise.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Aww, I was hoping it would be a real sequel. :(

[xelement5x]

Just an FYI, this game has dropped to $20 on Amazon and it looks like it is still the collectors edition with sleeve and soundtrack. I'm anxiously awaiting my copy already :)

[Flashback2012]

Just an FYI, this game has dropped to $20 on Amazon and it looks like it is still the collectors edition with sleeve and soundtrack. I'm anxiously awaiting my copy already :)

I was just about to post the same thing, except sub Gamestop for Amazon. I realize it's buyer beware for those guys but I was in their stores today and saw the new copies marked down to $20. Happy Hunting!

[xelement5x]

Just got my copy from Amazon the other day so I can confirm that they're still including the sleeve/soundtrack. I'm guessing this is also the first/only print run so that's why they're still stocking them.

[Nz17]

Hey, check this out - a postmortem of Sola-to-Robo on Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6697/

[Ryudo]

Hey, check this out - a postmortem of Sola-to-Robo on Gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6697/

I found nothing wrong with the game. Another reason I really loved it as it had elements of Mega Man Legends series