Great! Play it with a good friend once you get it, and you'll have tons of fun!Originally Posted by LordsOfSkulls
This game looks amazing, and I keep hearing positive things about it. I've actually got it in my collection, but I kind of forgot about it after I'd bought it. Perhaps I'll start on it one of these days.
It is great, and the endings are all very different.Great! Play it with a good friend once you get it, and you'll have tons of fun!
This game looks amazing, and I keep hearing positive things about it. I've actually got it in my collection, but I kind of forgot about it after I'd bought it. Perhaps I'll start on it one of these days.
Uh, I don't know why you're compelled to conjecture about the cancellation of Disaster Report 4.
Your assertion about Raw Danger is hardly applicable. The game was released in 2007, Katrina was in 2005. And Japanese markets and cultural sensitivities are not the same as American sentiments.
Staying on topic, Raw Danger is a fantastic hidden gem on PS2.
Last edited by Koa Zo; 02-21-2013 at 11:15 AM.
It's at times like this that I wish I had a backwards compatible PS3.
The fourth game in the series was in fact canceled because of the 2011 tsunami and subsequent events in Fukushima. It's sort of like Propeller Arena's cancellation, though Irem was doing just fine and wasn't looking for an excuse to stop major development.
But yeah, I should play that series.
Yeah, that series actually looks quite promising! I'm thinking of ordering the first game once I get a reply from the seller.
Need PAL versions though, and sadly the first game has got the awkward title "S.O.S The Final Escape" in Europe. And the second game seems to be a bit rare here, actually.
Considering I'm not even the one that mentioned them in the first place, I hardly see what I did wrong. You brought them up and I simply posted my thoughts. I'm not sure why my reply warranted your attitude, but I'll reply just the same here. In light of Irem closing up shop in videogaming shortly after Disaster Report 4 was cancelled, I hardly see reason to believe that they cancelled it out of the goodness of their hearts.
Furthermore, Katrina was hardly a distant memory for those affected and the aftermath of the event was still almost a daily news item in 2007. If they're so sensitive about people's feeling's that have been affected by a natural disaster with some unintentional parallels to one featured in a videogame, why would they allow it to be released over here? Furthermore, if we're going to buy that Disaster Report 4 was cancelled shortly before a release that spring because of what happened (Despite even the head producer admitting his failings in regard to the project and delays... the game had been supposed to release almost to the day the disaster happened), why not at least release it overseas?
Sorry, I have little doubt it was a project at a dead end for a failing company that they didn't envision being able to rescue and saw an opportunity to get out from under it while creating some goodwill at the same time when their full departure from videogaming had yet to be decided. That said, I enjoyed the first two and wish I had the opportunity to enjoy the PSP and PS3 releases. Technically they're far from masterpieces but their uniqueness wins out and I enjoyed both of them.
Last edited by Leo_A; 11-25-2015 at 11:26 AM.
So I just played a little over an hour of Shadow of Memories/Destiny, and I've got to say, this is really interesting so far! I really look forward to playing more of it tomorrow.
Recently discovered a game called Siren (or Forbidden Siren to Europeans) which is pretty fun, pretty unique survival horror game. It does have a frustration factor though (of the "you might want to keep a FAQ handy because the game is obtuse" kind).
I don't think you quite understand the distinction between localization and development/publishing of a game in its home country/intended market. To the Japanese, Katrina was a very distant memory when Raw Danger was being developed and released, if it even had much impact in Japan at any point. There's no way they'd stop development or release over that. As for the US release, Irem didn't even have a US branch at the time, did they? As best as I can tell, their games were being released by third party publishers in the US, like Atlus and Agetec. Irem merely provided the license to Agetec to release Raw Danger. They get paid for it, provide whatever resources they need to, and then Agetec takes care of the rest and reaps in the profits of US sales. It's not really in Irem's place to question a company interested in licensing a game on if it's a good idea to release it in the localizer's territory. If it's bad taste and sells poorly, that's Agetec's problem, not Irem's. Irem gets the same money either way (although if royalties are involved, they may get less, but that still doesn't really hurt them much as long as the contract is set up well).
Now as for Disaster Report 4, Irem was developing the game solely for Japan, just like all the others in the series. If Agetec or another company happened to want to license it for release in other territories, then that's extra icing on the cake, but it's no guarantee. Given that the earthquake happened in their own home country and to the target audience of the game, it's understandable that they'd want to alter the game, delay release, or cancel release. Unfortunately, they went with the worst option (for us, at least). Releasing it elsewhere wasn't a viable option because, like I explained, they weren't localizing their own games with a US branch, and even if a third party was interested in licensing it, that company would get nearly all of the profits, not Irem. The profits for them wouldn't remotely compare to what they'd get selling the game in Japan, so it may have been most cost effective to scrap everything. There's also the possibility, of course, that no foreign publisher showed any interest.
I'd be remiss to not also point out that the target audience is an important factor and can change the usual flow of things. Like with Metal Gear Solid 2, it was developed in Japan, and yet it was still heavily altered because of the 9/11 events in the US. That's because the Metal Gear Solid series does even better in the US than in Japan, and Konami also has its own US branch to localize their own games. Situations like these are the exception, not the norm, though.
We're talking about Irem being so sensitive to the concerns of customers of their products that they'd go to the extreme of cancelling a project that might hit too close to home for those customers, are we not?
I don't think it's unfair to question the reason why it was done when they willingly allowed the previous game to be licensed for publication in a country that had just recently gone through a similar natural disaster as featured in that game, which was on a level of the disaster that Japan themselves experienced a few years later. Nor do I see it as unfair to question why a project that supposedly was virtually finished wasn't released outside of Japan where those sensitivities wouldn't be present. Particularly seems strange when Irem themselves cancelled other videogame projects at the same time and has now exited the gaming business entirely. Makes it hard to believe that there wasn't more to the story with Disaster Report 4's demise than simply being overly sensitive to the feelings of a few customers that might find it disturbing.
Either way, it doesn't matter in the least. Irem's not on trial, it was simply the theory one gamer had on what really happened behind the scenes. For those of you that it bothered, get over it.
Last edited by Leo_A; 11-25-2015 at 08:02 PM.
I'd like very much if we could get back to discussing unknown or unloved PS2 gems, please? Pretty please?
BTW, about "Blood Will Tell" -- wasn't it based on an Osamu Tezuka manga? How close is it?
I think I did I pretty good job of answering those questions and explaining why your comparison here is apples and oranges, but whatever. *shrugs*
It is completely possible that they could've had other motives behind the cancellation, but the fact that Raw Danger saw a US release has no bearing on that.
I actually played this back when it was somewhat new. It's quite creepy, and looks really promising, but I just couldn't get used to the controllers at the time.
Should probably get it and try it again, since this was quite a few years ago.
Not sure if anyone would consider it rare or a gem, but there is a shoot 'em up called Silpheed that I think is pretty damn good. Good gameplay, decent graphics, awesome music. Flew under the radar of most people I know, I only bought it because I was attracted to it's shiny cover.lol
Holy hell, you're not kidding! I decided to give this one (Shining Force Neo) a try since I had it laying around and felt like playing a action game. It's fun, but I've already had to turn the sound down because Meryl is so damn annoying!
Everblue 2
Klonoa 2
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter - unique game, some people hate it tho, but it's one I enjoyed a lot.
Shadow Hearts
Dragon Quest 8 - not rare at all, still one of my favorite RPGs for the PS2.
Good list people; quite a few seem to be NTSC only though [always the bane of the RPG enthusiast].
Anyway, my contribution is Steambot Chronicles, also known as Bumpy Trot. Steampunk GTA ahoy!
"If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made."
While not mentioned here yet and despite not personally thinking it to be hidden (since I'd followed it from very early coverage) I'll give a nod to The Red Star originally by Acclaim Studio Austin and finished by XS Games.
I'd like to say it's a miracle it was commercially released at all since Acclaim went bankrupt near completion of the game and thankfully XS Games picked it up and after 3 years in limbo finally was released in April 2007, admittedly a late release for the system.
The game oozes quality and has great pacing, challenge, and variety. Not only that but it's price has remained quite reasonable since release. If you're a fan of action games, run and guns, and shooters The Red Star should fit right in.
Whaddya mean invalid parameters?!
9,000 gigs of ram and it still can't answer a simple question!
In recent days, Kazuma Kujo has confirmed that development difficulties were the real reason for why Disaster Report 4 was cancelled. Still not sure why I was treated the way that I was in this thread, but there you go. Some entirely innocent speculation on a game that the attacker brought up first, ended up pretty accurate after all.
Happily, this project not only has been resurrected by Kujo and much of the former staff after purchasing the IP with a 2016 PS4 release planned, but they're also apparently working on their own competitor to this project for Namco called Project City: Shrouded in Shadow.
Doesn't look like a bad time to be a fan of this unique franchise that got its start on the PS2.
Last edited by Leo_A; 11-25-2015 at 10:28 PM.
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