Sword Art Online Re Hollow Fragment Vs God Eater Resurrection

The 2d in a series of manufactures I'm writing, looking at the output of a number of Vita-supporting companies from launch through to the nowadays day. I'll be examining what the games they released were; (if the information is available) how well they sold; (in cases of them being ports) how well they ran; as well as a brief look at games which perhaps should accept come to the console either in the westward or in general.

Next up on the list is Bandai-Namco – a massive supporter of the console in Nihon who accept fabricated great strides in the west too (especially post-2014), yet have made a number of bizarre decisions regarding certain titles which managed to catch the ire of fans.

(Disclaimer: This commodity was edited on 25/09/17 to include developments since the date of publication)

Launch & 2012 – the Namco of Bandai-Namco

Formed by the merger of Bandai (a company focused on anime-licenced properties) and Namco (a videogames company with a storied history that includes Pac-Homo also equally diversity of early 3D games on the original PlayStation), the company largely manages to keep its two divisions separate and interestingly – their first year support mostly came from the Namco side, which is in stark dissimilarity to the support they offered for Vita in its latter years being more than Bandai-focused.

They were in that location for the console's launch with two titles, both of which take a long-standing analogousness with the PlayStation brand (and games were from the Namco side of the company –Ridge Racer and Touch my Katamari) . While remaining visually impressive titles to show off the Vita'southward capabilities, both had issues in recycling content from previous releases which meant they felt somewhat dried for long-time fans. Indeed,Ridge Racer featured an even bigger problem of lacking content in full general, instead existence delivered by a bizarre DLC strategy which rubbed people up the incorrect way (not me though!). Sales suffered as a result –Ridge Racermanaging just 17k first week andKatamari 10k on Media Create (Japanese sales tracker), although western sales were likely higher due to beingness caught upwards in the launch rush.

The Namco back up continued following the launch when Tales of Innocence R released in Nippon in Jan 2012. A remake of a DS-exclusive entry in the series, the game featured basic 3D graphics and mostly felt depression-budget in terms of presentation, only managed to achieve respectable outset calendar week sales of 54k while reaching a lifetime amount of 105k in the region; just oddly it never made the jump to western stores in spite of the company re-committing to the franchise around the same time with games similarTales of Graces f andTales of Xillia. In my opinion, the company really missed a trick leaving this in Nihon given Vita'south dearth of RPGs during 2012; combined with Vita fans longing for another feel subsequently finishingPersona 4 Golden.

All the same, by June 2012 we'd gotten our first Bandai-side game in Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED Battle Destiny –the first in a string ofGundam titles to reach the handheld. While this i stayed Nihon-only too, information technology was less surprising as the franchise has an incredibly patchy history in the west. The game managed to sell a decent 40k for its first week with lifetime sales of 95k in the region and was a technical showcase amongst anime tie-ins on Vita, maintaining decent performance and graphical fidelity – more often than not down to its developer Artdink who would get on to develop multiple Vita titles.

The year was capped off with a port of AKB/149 Love Election, a continuation of the series of FMV dating sims from the PSP that as well came to the PS3. The game opened to 35k in Nippon, merely this was a fairly poor effect as the franchise was regularly opening to more 200k on PSP – equally such the series stalled following this release.

Information technology was definitely an interesting year for Bandai-Namco – they supported the panel fairly well, merely it wasn't really with any franchises that they continued to release following the launch year; and indeed the Namco side of the company would quickly drop the Vita birthday after 2013.

2013 – Bandai take over

Compared to 2012, 2013 was all about Bandai, with multiple anime games coming to Vita. Still, Namco were still there and the visitor every bit a whole released numerous games throughout the year.

Chief among these was Tales of Hearts R in March in Japan –  following on fromInnocence R'southward pb in 2012 of bringing DS entries into the series into total 3D on the Vita. This one sold very similarly to its predecessor – a 55k first week in Nippon, although the lower amount of 91k lifetime. This time, however, the game constitute its way w – although only in 2022 (which I'll touch on later in this article).

March besides saw the release of Ane Piece Pirate Warriors 2 , the first in the popular anime/manga serial on the Vita and a sequel to the PS3-exclusive previous entry. The game was fairly impressive in terms of functioning, featuring lovely anime-style graphics and decent performance on the handheld and was rewarded with impressive sales in its abode country – a 60k opening with more than 127k lifetime sales.

Notwithstanding, in a bizarre movement, despite the game coming due west for PS3 in August 2013, information technology remained only in Japan for Vita. This was specially baffling given the game was already translated and would've simply taken an boosted rating to stick the game upwardly on PSN, where it surely would accept nabbed decent sales in Europe where the Vita was maintaining some popularity. This process was repeated in December of 2013 when Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn released for PS3 & Vita in Japan (and once again, the Vita version sold decently with a 52k opening and over 121k lifetime sales), but in 2022 the game came to the westward just for PS3. Despite the company clearly being on board with Vita at this point, it seems there was some conflict with their eastern and western branches regarding the console.

By belatedly 2013, Bandai-Namco were hitting the console difficult in Japan bringing a mix of both big and small-scale titles. To begin with, their anime titles were flourishing – they brought a port of their PS3 hit Gundam Billow to Vita which released aslope a limited edition panel to adequately lukewarm opening sales of 33k, but enough to secure futureGundamsupport. We also saw their first title based on a smaller anime IP – Madoka Magicka: Battle Pentagram , which was developed past Artdink ofSEED Battle Destiny fame. The game ran adequately poorly on Vita and clearly wasn't optimized, but that didn't finish it opening to 26k sales and around 50k lifetime – a decent result for a game made on a shoestring upkeep. Finally, theSuper Robot Wars series finally made an appearance on the console withthe spinoff championship Super Robot Wars: Masou Kishin III – Pride of Justice , which relatively bombed with outset week sales of 19k and lifetime sales of 33k (leading to the last entry in the franchise being PS3-simply).

Most notably, withal, was God Eater two , their sequel to the PSP nail-hit hunting game that cleared more than 266k in Nippon first calendar week and eventually passed more than 456k lifetime. The game was optimized for Vita, looking smashing and running well and released alongside a limited-edition console, as well as the revised PlayStation Television receiver micro-panel. Hardware sales in the region skyrocketed for the week to 88k and the game would remain Vita's all-time-selling in the region untilMinecraft released nearly 2 years later.

Nevertheless, all of these titles remained Japan-simply, again showing the disconnect between Bandai-Namco's Japanese and western branches. While this could be excused for smaller games likeMasou Kishin, there was no real reason for bigger games likeGod Eater or evenMadoka Magicka (which has a dedicated western following) from coming across – although this is a position the visitor would vastly improve in the coming years.

2014 – hitting their stride

Past 2014 the company were at the peak of their game with releasing multiple, successful titles on Vita in both Japan and the west. Although there was noGod Eater game this year (arguably their biggest handheld IP), they still hit the panel difficult with key pieces of support.

The year started strong, with Dragon Ball Z: Boxing of Zin both Nihon and the westward. The championship was developed past Artdink – the company backside the earlier Gundam SEED Battle Destinygame and was seemingly well-optimized for Vita, sporting native resolution graphics and a solid framerate. In its homeland, the game sold fairly poorly – opening at 22k and going on to sell 53k in total, but overseas sales seemed stronger with the game shipping 620k worldwide across all platforms. Still, it was worlds apart from the sales of the later Xenoverse games and would be the first and lastDBZ game on Vita.

Following in Feb, Bandai-Namco released Super Heroine Chronicle –a crossover game featuring various anime characters in aSuper Robot Wars style SRPG. Sales were lukewarm – just a 14k opening in Japan with 30k lifetime sales, although this didn't cease the company post-obit up with a similarly themed game – Super Hero Generation – afterward in October 2014. This saw similarly mild sales opening at 16k and both games stayed Japan-only, presumably due to the licencing nightmare information technology would've been to get the games overseas.

Speaking of crossover games – March would see the release of J-Stars Victory Vs.in Japan. A fighting game featuring a number of Shonen Jump characters, despite moderate disquisitional reception the game was a major sales success in the region shifting 97k copies in its starting time calendar week and more than 170k beyond the course of its life, in addition to extra sales from the PS3 version. It certainly seemed to resonate well with the Vita audience and would eventually find its mode w, although only afterward a lengthy localization process that delayed it well into 2022 (but saw boosted content created for the western release).

Despite their seeming failures with the aforementionedSuper Heroine ChronicleandSuper Hero Generation games, Bandai-Namco did still plow forrad with theirSuper Robot Wars games. Unlike the spinoffMasou Kishinin 2013, they brought the mainline title 3rd Super Robot Wars Z: Jigoku-Hen to Vita and PS3 in April 2022 which – although decreasing in sales from the previous entry – nonetheless had a solid opening of 121k and lifetime numbers of 160k. It would be plenty to ensure the sequel'southward appearance on the console a year later, not somethingMasou Kishin accomplished.

April would plough out to be a busy calendar month for the company on Vita, as they also released Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragmentin Japan, a sequel to their PSP-exclusive entryInfinity Moment. The game had slightly ropey functioning but sold incredibly well – opening to 145k in the region and shifting more 286k past the end of 2015. However, this wasn't what was notable about the championship, as it would exist their first 'Asian-English' localization, receiving a physical English release in the region and afterward leading to a digital release in the west. It would inflate the already-impressive sales even further, withHollow Fragment clearing 450k sales worldwide on Vita, although the translation received a lot of criticism for using Google Interpret.

Along with bigger titles likeDragon Ball Z andSword Art Online, Bandai-Namco would likewise release a number of smaller anime-licenced games throughout the yr. I Piece Unlimited World Red – a port from the 3DS – made a smooth transition to Vita, looking skillful and running well (although sales were poor in Japan, clearing just 10k in its starting time calendar week and likely not doing much meliorate worldwide). Luckily, their accommodation ofGirls Und Panzer did better, reaching 30k in its first week and 50k by the end of 2015; while their Irregular at Magic Loftier School spinoff opened to 21k in December of the same twelvemonth. They also released a sequel to Gundam Breaker in December 2022 which did much, much meliorate than its predecessor – selling nearly 140k in Nihon from a 57k opening, also equally being a fairly impressive technical port-job.

The end of 2014, however, was marked by the company'southward effort in bringing the much-requested titleTales of Hearts R to the west (which was a fantastic choice). Whether Shahid's #JRPGVita campaign had anything to do with it is unknown but – unlike information technology's predecessorInnocence R – we did really go the title in the west. It certainly was a fairly low-effort release with only Japanese audio and a limited concrete release in N America (pregnant worldwide sales are unknown merely are likely on the lower side), but combined withSword Art Online, it marked the ancestry of Bandai-Namco finally beginning to take gambles on bringing their titles to the west.

2015 – still capable of surprising

While 2022 is very much a yr when we saw entries in all of Bandai-Namco's biggest handheld franchises, they still had a few surprises up their sleeves.

The year started extremely well, with God Eater 2: Rage Burst  releasing in Japan in February – an expanded version of the 2013 game. Despite not reaching the sales highs of the vanilla version, it still cleared 234k first week and 356k lifetime sales in the region, making it 1 of the biggest games on the platform. This wouldn't be the merelyGod Eatergame on Vita in 2022 either, every bit they remastered the PSP game Gods Eater Burst equally God Eater Resurrectionreleased in October of the same year which reached the slightly lower sales amount of 175k.

March and Apr would exist stereo-typically packed for the company in Japan. They released theirI Piece Pirate Warriorsthree-quel which matched the sales of its predecessor on Vita, opening to 54k and clearing 121k past the end of the year. The port was a solid one – non the best musou on the handheld, but running fairly well despite a lot of pop-in. Nosotros also saw their Sword Art Online sequel – Lost Vocal , a departure for the serial focusing on the Alfheim Online arc which swapped dungeon crawling for outdoor flying. The game ran fairly well (developed by the now-regular Artdink) and sold 139k starting time calendar week and 213k past the end of 2015, a slight subtract overHollow Fragment(although this time there was a PS3 version too). Both games came west in the latter part of the year, withLost Song selling 150k beyond North America and Europe and Pirate Warriors 3 clearing 1 million worldwide (both including the PS4 and/or PC versions).

They would also release the final part of thetertiary Super Robot Wars Z duology every bit Tengoku-Henin April, which would see a very modest decrease in sales over its predecessor, but nonetheless pulled adequately impressive numbers (more 160k by the end of 2015). What was near notable during these months, yet, was the release of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth , the latest in the popular monster-collecting anime serial. A bespoke game adult by Media Vision (ofWild Artilleryfame), the title looked gorgeous on the handheld and ran extremely well which was met with sales success in their dwelling country – opening to 76k and selling virtually 150k by the end of 2015. The game would come west in 2016, though as a digital-simply title with an actress PS4 SKU added to accomplish a larger audience.

Like had get common for the company at this point, a number of cheaply licenced anime titles would release throughout 2015 in Japan. February would come across Captain Globe ; May would see Cross Ange ; September would encounter World Trigger;Oct would run across Tokyo Ghoul ; November would see Girl Friend Beta and December would see Seraph of the End . The games would achieve various levels of success, withEarth Trigger: Borderless Mission selling a respectable 50k by the end of 2015; whileCaptain Earth: Listen Labyrinthsold an abysmal 2k. All the games stayed in Nippon, but certainly marked a period of delivery to the platform from the visitor.

For the rest of the yr, Bandai-Namco had a few surprises. Master among these was a custom-congenital Taiko no Tatsujin game which launched in Japan in July to moderate sales of 46k, but went on to sell more than than 120k within a year. They followed this upward afterward in July with Ray Gigant , a surprise collaboration with Experience Inc. (makers of a number of successful Vita dungeon crawlers includingDemon Gaze). Although the game was a scrap of a sales disaster selling only 14k in 2015, it managed to discover its way overseas in 2022 – although only thank you to the help of an exterior localization team (Acttil), this was even so notable as it showed the company was willing to work with outside teams to bring its games west.

They capped off the year with two releases in Japan in December – Idolm@ster Must Songs was a collaborative title betwixtIdolm@sterandTaiko no Tatsujin which did non perform particularly well in terms of sales; while Mobile Arrange Gundam Extreme Vs. Force was a spin-off title to the popExtreme Vs.series. Despite selling a respectable 137k in Japan, the game was slated by fans for lacking content and being a departure from the gameplay of the previous titles as well as having some wonky 30fps performance – even so the game still received an Asian-English language release in 2016, meaning western fans were notwithstanding able to enjoy the game (it would also be the kickoffGundamgame to release in the west since the PS3 era).

It certainly seemed that attitudes at Bandai-Namco were shifting and games which previously had no chance of coming westward suddenly had a shot, significant as a fan of Vita (a console which they were supporting well in Japan) information technology was a time to go excited about whatever potential announcement.

2016 – an up and downwards year

2016 was a year where Bandai-Namco continued to back up the Vita well in all the ways they'd previously done (western releases; Asian-English localizations; anime cash-ins etc.), just it also marked a slight return to the visitor who made baffling decisions in the by.

As was commonplace at this point, the first few months of the year were a very busy flow for releases on Vita in Japan. They kicked things off with the release of A.West. Phoenix Festa , a game based on the semi-popular harem anime. While information technology but achieved moderate sales of 12k in the region, a worldwide release followed later in the yr which surely helped claw dorsum some sales (and, as previously suggested, marked a very surprising choice in localization, far removed from the Bandai-Namco who would not bring across I Piece Pirate Warriors 2in 2013). They followed this up with Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis , a continuation of their PS3-musou series based on the anime. The Vita version wasn't a smashing technical achievement – featuring enough of pop-in and slowdown – but this didn't deter consumers who bought 22k copies in the first calendar week, helping the game beat the sales of its predecessor across all platforms (although the game stayed Japan-only).

March saw releases in a number of popular franchises – first up was Gundam Breaker three , the latest in the long-running Gunpla serial. Increasing in sales over the previous entry, the game opened to 74k in Japan and – in a first for the sub-serial – received an Asian-English language concrete release following its Japanese launch, which definitely pleased worldwide fans. Unfortunately it wasn't a particularly proficient port, featuring the worst performance of all theBreaker titles, but it was the first in English language. Next upwards in March was Summon Night vi , the first Vita entry in the pop SRPG serial and – different Gundam Billow three – this was an well-made port crafted by the team at Media Vision (who madeDigimon Story) that both looked cute and ran well. Sadly sales weren't the strongest in the region, opening to just 40k on Vita (and a relatively poor 16k on PS4), simply information technology was enough to ensure the game was picked upwards for overseas release by Gaijinworks in 2022 (another external collaborator).

March would also see the release of one of the company'southward virtually controversial Vita titles, however – Digimon Globe: Next Lodge.The game originally released as a Vita-sectional in Japan, opening to a decent 64k (slightly downwards fromCyber Sleuth). However, the release was plagued with problems including terrible texture work and poor operation, meaning the title sold no where near also over time equally the final VitaDigimon game did. To compound matters, Bandai-Namco announced a localization for the title only on PS4 (despite at that place being no PS4 release in Japan), only to correct this to include the Vita version so correct it over again to remove the Vita version. A consummate PR farce that infuriated Vita fans, we ended up not getting the handheld version in the west despite the seemingly potent sales ofCyber Sleuth.

They managed to recover from this somewhat over the remaining months of the twelvemonth – Apr saw Ane Slice Burning Claret which opened to mild sales in its dwelling region (51k by the time it left the Media Create charts) just saw a worldwide release at the same time and was a generally competent port. Meanwhile, Artdink released their latestMacrossgame – Delta Scramble and although the port ran fairly well for a change, it was distinctly lacking in content compared to their PSP releases in the series (in fact, the 2nd one-half of the anime was only included as free DLC long later the game released!) Sales suffered, with the game opening to just 24k in Japan and no hope of overseas release due to licencing bug.

The latter office of the yr was another mixed bag. The latestSword Fine art Online game – Hollow Realization – saw a nearly simultaneous worldwide release across PS4 & Vita, a first for the franchise. However, fifty-fifty before release the Vita version faced difficulties, with the producer reportedly saying that fans should non buy the Vita version due to operation bug. This was realized upon release, where the game featured arguably worse graphics thanHollow Fragment and a framerate that could drop to single figures in boss fights. Patches were released to try and set the issues but the damage was done – sales reached a serial low of 69k on Vita in Nippon, with the PS4 version thankfully picking up the slack.

Bandai-Namco did, however, manage to end the year on a loftier with the release of SD Gundam G Generation Genesis . The latest in the tactical RPG series featuring super-deformed Gundam, information technology was the outset to feature an Asian-English release in add-on to the standard Japanese version. What made it even more notable was that it was the commencement Vita game to accept a dual-cart release, something that occurred briefly towards the terminate of PSP's life with games similarTrails in the Sky SC, allowing fans to preserve a re-create of the game for the time to come. Sales were positive in Japan at 103k by the end of 2016, with likely plenty of additional sales from the Asian release.

It marked a happy finish to a rather strange year for the company in terms of Vita back up – a twelvemonth where they connected to announce surprise localizations of games which would have never come westward in a bygone era; yet ignored the Vita version of games that required very piddling work to bring beyond, merely like in the earlier years of the handheld'southward life.

2017 & 2022 – to exist continued?

Like many developers, Bandai-Namco seem to exist slowing down their Vita support in 2017, although different Koei-Tecmo, we're still seeing a number of titles appear and released from established franchises both in Japan and overseas.

Chief among these was the newest game in theSuper Robot Warsfranchise – Super Robot Wars V . FollowingSD Gundam'due south pb, the game received a simultaneous Japanese and Asian-English release (some other first for the franchise) and accomplished impressive sales in Japan of 83k in its first week, although combined with the PS4 release information technology marked another downturn from the previous entry (update: the company also released a sequel, Super Robot Wars X , in 2018). They as well releaseda game based on the Twin Star Exorcists anime that appeared to be a re-peel ofRay Gigant and received similarly disappointing sales of just below 5k in its first week, with no signs of a western release on the horizon.

Support for the rest of 2017, nevertheless, was quieter than usual. That's not to say there weren't games released – Accel Give-and-take vs. Sword Fine art Online: Millennium Twilightlanded in March while Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory  has been appear for release in Dec. The sometime game received a rather rapid overseas release (where information technology was slated for terrible operation vastly worse than Lost Song), while the latter was confirmed for a 2022 launch in the westward; making it their showtime NA/EU game confirmed for that year (albeit equally a digital-simply championship – here'south hoping for an Asian-English version).

But otherwise, the year is missing some franchises that have usually shown up similar clockwork on Vita. There's no newGundamorOne Piecegames and the company'south smaller anime-licenced titles seem non-existent. They alleviated this slightly with the announcement of Gintama Ranbu , a tie-in with the popular one-act serial, but information on the game is sparse and so far an English release is confirmed but only on PS4 – perchance a fitting end for the visitor on Vita with another confusing conclusion.

Conclusion

Later writing this commodity, it'southward hard to deny that Bandai-Namco aren't up in that location (or even surpassing) Koei-Tecmo in terms of Vita support. A large amount of titles from launch through to the present day are available in a diversity of genres; franchises and with widely varying budgets.

Nonetheless, their support has been overwhelmingly Japan-focused and although the company take made massive strides in contempo years to brand their games bachelor in English, they withal stumble with odd decisions every at present and again. Despite this, the deviation betwixt their efforts at localization in recent years compared to the start of Vita's life is a night-and-day and as such I'm happy we're seeing announcements well into 2018, making it easy to get excited about the company'southward continuing success on Vita.

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Source: https://kresnik258gaming.wordpress.com/2017/03/20/a-history-of-vita-games-spotlight-on-bandai-namco/