Ray Nakazato has had his fair share of jobs, from the early days of programming PC games in Japan, to his time at Broderbund, then EA Japan, Capcom, and Microsoft Game Studios, all the way through to his current position as president of FeelPlus studio, working on Lost Odyssey with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.
Nakazato was a speaker at GDC Prime this year, and Gamasutra took the opportunity to interview him extensively about his past and present experience. He offers a refreshingly honest perspective on all aspects of the Japanese industry, speaking plainly about subjects most developers shy away from, diminish the importance of, or dodge entirely. These subjects range from the Japanese perception of the PS3 and 360 and the future of game technology in the region, to the status of notable industry figures such as Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil), Yukio Futatsugi (Panzer Dragoon), and Yasumi Matsuno (Final Fantasy XII).
They also spoke at length about Lost Odyssey, including a few new gameplay details, the problems with Ninety-Nine Nights, and, in brief, a canceled 360 project from Game Republic's Yoshiki Okamoto.
17 years later, it still stands out.
Two of the few games I still own for Xbox360 . I have Magna Carta 2 , Last Remnant but also have the PS4 version so I may have got rid of it and I have the DS version of Blue Dragon. I think and a few others but I forget what they are since I don’t dust them off. that’s about it.
Another one I still havent got to try is infinite undiscovery. I read it was pretty linear but I usually fk with tri ace(star oceans are great).
Really my only issue with lost odyssey was the level cap they hit you with throughout the game. I enjoy just relaxing and doing some grinding every once in awhile. Could've atleast given the option. Other then that. Excellent game.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The 360 imo had atleast half or more that Gen of being the better jrpg system. I bought one earlier then I normally would have for some, and Alan wake. Japanese devs really got in their feelings that Gen and dropped the ball(thanks Phil phish, cocky ass ign, etc)
You'd be better off playing Lost Odyssey on an XBO or Series X as no disc swapping and it looks and plays much better. Same with Blue Dragon. I still keep my 360 hooked up for games not on the bc list. for everything else, I use the series x now. Just last night I installed arkham origins as there is no 8th gen version like asylum/city.
I love having bc on xbox one/series hardware.
Darth
When I bought the the Xbox one off a couple worker. That was the first thing indid. Bought blue dragon and lost odyssey. Been waiting to catch infinite undiscovery on sale but I forget to check.
I used to own the 360 versions but I bought these digital. I'd like to track down the 360 ones again but no huge deal. I was actually playing through lost odyssey waiting for starfield to drop.
The game was indeed amazing. Great characters, gameplay and story!
But the dream sequences penned by Shigematsu were sublime.
I still remember many of these stories and I have integrated in the past in my D&D campaign many years ago.
Microsoft should have just kept pumping money into these guys. Same with a lot of the other studios... the blundered hard.
Lost Odysee deserved a franchise even though development wasn't smooth
Am I the only one who doesn't wanna see every good game get sequel after sequel? It was a great game, but sometimes it's better to just make a one off and then create a new universe. Sadly that costs a lot more money and publishers don't wanna risk it, but I would definitely prefer it
I'm fine with sequels in jrpgs, even in the vain of ff sequels, all new stories and characters. It does get old in other genres though sometimes. For the most part I just game by game basis it all.
They could have done it like Final Fantasy, kept the title name and just start with a new world/characters, it's not like the creator isn't familar with that.
Idk, Japan never bit for Xbox despite their best efforts around this era. Mistwalker never exploded either, despite future partnerships with Nintendo whichhad a much better chance at success
It's not like it has had any competition since 2007. Would really like to own the short stories from it in book form.
360 had some amazing JRPGs in it's early days, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, Tales of Vesperia off the top of my head were all amazing games.
The problem with most MS games on 360 was they didn’t make the games they paid for them and that makes you less money in the long run and isn’t something you can continue to do especially with declining sales of consoles. MS should have been starting and growing studios from the beginning but they went for paid games and it leaves them without the knowledge and culture of making games.
Not to mention killing the Japanese market that had all sorts of crazy and fun releases up until 2009-2010. They could have gained momentum on Nintendo and kept that going into the Xbox One era, but decided to "unify" efforts and that all but ended their presents in the country. Now, PS4's outsell the Xbox Series S three years into the new system's life cycle, and the 2/3DS at one point was doing the same.
It’s quite hard to believe, but Lost Odyssey turns fifteen years old today. A curious product of the time, it has arguably only got better with age - and not just because of what it is, but also what it represents.
The short stories that Kaim collects/remembers are truly emotional. I remember one in particular made my eyes water.
If you've never played this, try to hunt down an original copy, or emulate it. This game was a gem.
I wish there was a remaster. This and Last Story. Sad these games were released on the...wrong platforms...
Considering all the early tech issues Unreal Engine 3 had combined with Japanese developers working with a foreign language engine Lost Odyssey on the PS3 would have been a tech disaster if it had used UE3.
Lost Odyssey's long load times and framerate drops are evidence of just how hard it was working with early builds of UE3, it's a miracle Lost Odyssey turned out as well as it did.
In a perfect world Lost Odyssey would have launched on the PS3 but I doubt Sony or anyone else would have funded the project if Microsoft didn't.
It wouldve sold better thats for sure and maybe dude wouldnt be doing mobile games now
These JRPGs stand up on their own.
lots of Big names and has worked under some big developers. He is right about one thing, Japanese is starting to lag behind in high-end entertaining games. "The gaming industry is global, so as long as the global industry is healthy, it should be fine. But if you consider the Japanese economy with the Japanese industry only, it's a concern."
They really should start thinking on a global scale, when developing new titles. Not so much abandoning Classic Japanese games but taking a step out the BOX is not going to kill ya.
Developers licensing western/European game engines is a good sign of a first step, like Square and others have done. If Japanese games starts to play/enjoy more western/european games, then I can see a major shift in their gaming culture, which will also help MS and their game console, over there. As well as our games.
"Now, you'll find a lot of interesting and fun games coming from North America and Europe, but because of that experience that we have from the early 1990s, people tend to stay away from Western games.
I think there's a market for Western games in Japan, so I tried hard to bring those in. But still, pro-sports games are not popular in Japan. Somehow, they prefer Konami's Winning Eleven soccer sim series over EA's FIFA series, and they prefer Japanese-developed baseball sims as well. We have our own feeling for baseball, and American baseball games are very different. It’s really hard. "
Now I can understand how tough it is to crack the Japanese game market with Western/European offerings. I mean EA is the only true successful western company over there, and thats saying a lot for such a huge Developer. I always knew there is more to this then "Japanese not liking Western Products." It's all about their gaming culture.
On a series note, they need to step up their game...take it from CAPCOM. If they continue to go down that path, the rest of the world will surpas Japan in gaming big time. Well just a matter of time.
All I know is Lost Odyssey is looking to be a good RPG, I can't say anything great since I don't know much. Just look at the people working on the game, and "Lost Odyssey is using Unreal Engine 3 as well".