What once was lost in localisation

It's the last of four back-to-back presentations. Tales series producer Hideo Baba, who has a knack for turning his alotted 15 minutes into 20 minutes is finally leaving the room. In steps Hiroshi Matsuyama, CEO and founder of CyberConnect2, and Noriaki Niino, Namco Bandai producer on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle. They are both dressed for the occasion.

Niino is wearing a striped shirt and an elegant tie sporting skulls. It's the signature tie of Yoshikage Kira, the main villain of the fourth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga. Niino later explains that his wearing the tie, not because he wants to be a killer, but because all characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure whether good or evil have a human side to them. Matsuyama on the other hand has gone all out dressing up as Rohan Kishibe, one of the central characters of the same chapter - sporting a headband, earrings and full costume. As they reach the end of the room they strike their respective stands. There is complete silence.

None of the journalists in the room have any clue what this is all about. Afterall, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is virtually unknown in Europe. My only previous encounter with the fiction is Capcom's old PlayStation and Dreamcast title that more recently got a HD-makeover on PS3 and Xbox 360. The translator chimes in we should feel free to take pictures. The awkwardness slowly passes and the presentation kicks off.

The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga started 26 years ago in Japan running in Weekly Shonen Jump and later Ultra Jump. Created by Hirohiko Araki it follows the Joestar family history and it's distinct style sets it apart from a lot of other manga and anime franchises. It's very popular in Japan and naturally there is also an anime based on the manga.

It's easy to see why JoJo's Bizarre Adventure hasn't been a huge hit outside of Japan. It's simply a little too strange. The focus on outfits and fashion. Vampires. But it's difficult to deny the merit of the art and it clearly comes across in the game. A massive hit in Japan selling half a million copies and scoring the coveted 40/40 from Weekly Famitsu - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle appealed to both fighting game fans and fans of the manga. It mixes elements of many different fighting games, part Street Fighter, part BlazBlue, part Dead or Alive - it's dynamic and the way the separate parts provides characters with very different playstyles ensures a lot of diversity.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Gallery

Matsuyama is confident in his white and blue outfit: "I want this to be next big fighting game franchise for the next ten years," he says noting that there hasn't been a lot of big fighting game franchises established in the last ten years. If any.

"Please spread the word," says Niino. A sentiment that carries across the entire event gets repeated more than once. There's a humility there. This was the fourth presentation and the Japanese anime screams from the trailers echo in my head. The noise level is indicative of a country where retail stores each have jingles that run non-stop through an entire day. You have to raise your voice really high to be heard, and with every scream the next one needs to be even louder to register.

There has been a definite shift in the industry over the last decade. Where Japan once ruled supreme they are now playing catch up with Europe and North America. Sure there is still plenty to be excited about in the Japanese gaming industry, but they have clearly been marginalised and pushed to the side. An effect that has been exaggerated thanks to the decline of the home market and the way handhelds dominate the charts. Nothing illustrates this better than Sony's decision to launch PlayStation 4 in Japan three months after North American and Europen premieres. We asked all producers on the tour about this and while it was clear they were somewhat uncomfortable answering a direct question about first party hardware they did admit that it felt a little odd.

Tales series producer Hideo Baba felt it wasn't his place to comment on first-party strategy, but noted that's it's too bad for Japanese gamers that Sony opted to focus on the over seas market first.

"It would be great to be able to get it at the same time as North America and Europe," says JoJo's Hiroshi Matsuyama. But at the same time for the Japanese market I don't think it's really crucial to have it day and date with the rest of the world. I think the Japanese market how they function is not as many people stay over night in front of the shop to get it day one. It takes a lot of time for the new platforms to really sink in and catch on its popularity. So I think whether it's released in November or whether it's released in February it won't make that much of a difference."

"It's a little bit late, so I'm a little bit curious about it," says Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z producer Kunio Hashimoto. "Of course, we are still looking forward to it, and maybe when those consoles release in Japan maybe we hope we announce something from our company maybe. Maybe not."

Saint Seiya is another mainstay in Japanese culture. Created in 1986 the original manga ran in Shonen Jump - an anime was created and more recently the end of the manga was also turned into animation. The fiction revolves around five "saints" who were powerful "cloths" (armour) and have the ability to wield a mysterious energy called "cosmo". It is heavily based on Greek mythology. During the tour it was said Saint Seiya or Knights of the Zodiac as it's called in some places is very popular in places like South America and France. Reaching out in the network I also found out it's popular in Portugal.

"I personally feel that the fans, especially in Europe, are expanding," says producer Ryo Mito. "So we were getting many voices from fans asking for some requests in the game. A bit more effort to satisfy the fans from Europe or even South America."

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is developed by genre veterans Dimps. A team originally made up of former SNK and Capcom employees that helped co-develop Street Fighter X Tekken and Street Fighter IV as well as a number of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai titles. It's a straight forward fighting game, but the fiction provides one twist. Cosmo. The mystical energy can be absorbed with successful attacks or simply by standing still and pressing a button. As Cosmo allows for more powerful attacks this results in some odd situations where one or both player may opt to stand still and charge - you're vulernable to attacks, but perhaps it's worth the risk.

"The voices from fans have actually changed my mind to put more effort in to the international versions," adds Ryo Mito.

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers Gallery

We had talked to Ryo Mito once before (on the subject of Saint Seiya: Sanctuary Battle) at Namco Bandai's annual pre-TGS event. The rather informal press junket at the Tokyo headquarters of the publisher typically allows Western press access to both familiar faces like Tekken's Harada-san and representatives of what could be described as the more obscure portions of their line-up. In fact out of the five producers present during the Manga Tour it was only JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All Star Battle producer Noriki Niino that we had not interviewed previously. The rest we had met at the pre-TGS events and in the case of Hideo Baba our roads first crossed paths in Leipzig at the precursor to Gamescom - Games Convention.

Something that couldn't by any stretch of the imagination be described as obscure is Dragon Ball Z. But if you're not into Dragon Ball Z, then the games in the longrunning series probably haven't caught your attention. A shame as they have been getting better over time, but Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z adds something that could either result in complete mayhem in a good way or in a bad way as it will see teams of four players fight other teams of four players. It's like Powerstone times two and it's something you won't experience elsewhere. Regardless of the outcome it's an intriguing proposition.

"Team versus team is going to give it more excitement," says producer Kunio Hashimoto. "And think about 8 players in the same field and battling melee it's going to be chaotic. But also it's going to reproduce some more DBZ-like actions as the team co-ops and battles. This gives it more excitment and dynamic visuals in this game."

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z Gallery

The only game that doesn't have its origins in a manga (there are mangas based on it, but those came later) on the tour is Tales of Symphonia Chronicles - the two game compilation that's coming out on PlayStation 3 on February 28. Over the years I've met series producer Hideo Baba many times, for games like Tales of Vesperia and Eternal Sonata. This however is a return to the roots. As Tales of Symphonia - the breakthrough game of the series in Western territories (originally released on Gamecube in 2003) celebrates its ten year anniversary it's being packaged with its sequel Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World (Wii, 2007) and given a HD paintjob. The visuals naturally reveal its origins, but it's a release that will appeal to longtime JRPG fans. One big positive is that the Blu-Ray disc will allow for the Japanese voices to be included.

"Basically there are two core features in the Tales series," says Baba. "The first one is storyline, which has a big theme. The basic theme for every Tales of game is co-existence. In addition to co-existence we add a unique, different theme in each title. And we need to make the character attractive and have an important role in the storyline to describe the theme. The character needs to invoke sympathy from the fans. This is the first core feature in the Tales of series. The second core feature is the unique battle system."

The Tales series first saw the light of day on Super Nintendo in 1995 with Tales of Phantasia. It's a mainstay on the JRPG scene even if it's not anywhere near as popular as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. It's wasn't until Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube (2004) that the series reached Europe. Symphonia holds a special place place in the history of the Tales series, not just for this reason, and it's easy to see why this game gets singled out for a special anniversary edition.

Tales of Symphonia Chronicles Gallery - Tales of Symphonia

Tales of Symphonia Chronicles Gallery - Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Hideo Baba is very enthusiastic and not as reserved as many other Japanese producers. He's very happy to be in Europe to promote his titles - Tales of Xillia 2 got a quick mention admidst all the Symphonia nostalgia. Tales of Xillia and its sequel is something of a return to old form as European fans will have to wait until later in 2014 for the release (originally released in Japan on November 1, 2012), but localisation of RPGs naturally require more work. These days there aren't as many traditional JRPGs made, something Baba noted:

The JRPG has been losing the power compared to ten or twenty years ago... even in Japan," says Baba. "There are just a few titles released in Japan. So I think this is the time to promote the Tales series, not only in Japan, but also in the Western countries."

He may very well be correct in that assessment. The traditional JRPG is in short supply, but at the same time Japanese RPGs are covering more ground from the action and co-op centric Monster Hunter, Phantasy Star and God Eater titles, to the challenging Dark Souls and games like Dragon's Crown and recent Final Fantasy titles. But there aren't a lot of traditional JRPGs released these days.

Tales of Xillia 2 Gallery

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, Tales of Symphonia Chronicles and Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers all come with rather extravagant collector's editions mimicking those in Japan. In fact, Chronicles gets the added bonus of the soundtrack compared to Japan. This level of fan service was almost unheard of 10 years ago (with some notable exceptions), and now we're getting it for re-releases and anime fighting games. Great news for fans and a great way for Namco Bandai reward and help build the fanbase of each franchise.

Another sign that Namco Bandai are treating their manga game fanbase more seriously than before is the fact that they are shipping over five high profile producer for this kind of press tour. In to be perfectly honest the body count doesn't stop at five. In addition to the producers, there were four translators that were part of the entourage. Add in executives, PR personel, and all things told there were 14 people touring Europe with stops in several capitals across the continent. It takes more than you'd think to spread the word.

You can look forward to GRTV interviews on all of the titles mentioned in the article above over the next couple of weeks as well as recordings of the presentations of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Tales of Symphonia Chronicles/Tales of Xillia 2.