VanillaWare's PSP strategy title Grand Knights History has topped the 110,000 unit mark. Producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto released the figure today at the game's official blog, adding that the game has continued to see repeat orders. He did not say if he was referring to sales or shipments.
2D games are great, right? If there is one Japanese developer that has embraced the idea of them and ran with it, it is Vanillaware. The company is committed to the idea of games that are incredibly artistic and totally flat. Just recently, Dragon's Crown came back into the spotlight with a PlayStation 4 release. But what do you need to know about this developer? Let’s go over some of the more important details.
It takes a ton of work to produce 2D graphics lavish enough to strain a contemporary game system. This is in fact George Kamitani's modus operandi, exemplified by both Dragon's Crown and its artbook. If the preface in the artbook is anything to go by, Dragon's Crown is George Kamitani's love letter to gaming as a whole.
The PSP has been winding down in North America over the last few years, and with the Vita on the market, publishers are hesitant to bring over games late in the portable’s life cycle – many of which are RPGs. As an RPG fan, I yearn for and wonder about these games. Maybe an opportunity will arise to bring them digitally to PSN for play on both the PSP and Vita, but until then, I’ve selected eight games that came late in the PSP’s lifespan. Sadly, we will probably always pine for these to release in English.
I would love to see Sol Trigger and Final Fantasy Type-0 come stateside. They both look interesting and Type-0 looks like the first breath of fresh air we would get since 13.
I'm not so sure about them not getting released in other regions. The Vita will eventually get these PSP games and then they'll have a second market to aim for. To me it makes financial sense to release them worldwide.
I don't know if it's a bad thing. Many of these games will be localized, and because the PSP itself is pretty cheap, it's more incentive to pick up the system and get these games.
Some of the games would never have made it West anyway, but with the digital aspect of things picking up- and the Vita promoting such play- developers and publishers may find it worth it to release the game digitally. And even though it might be more promoted for the Vita, it'd still be available for those who have PSPs.
Still waiting to see Type-0 and it's kind of an annoyance that it hasn't been released yet.
Siliconera: Back in May, Xseed announced they would not be able to release Grand Knights History in North America. It’s not like Xseed wasn’t working on Vanillaware’s PSP game, they completed the English text.
Glad to see this game is getting well received, cant wait till it gets localised =)
Vanillaware delivering the quality once again