Zitat:
We've heard there are some significant differences between the Japanese and American versions of Rogue Galaxy. Please tell us about them.
Akihiro Hino: First of all, Rogue Galaxy is... we’ve made the most number of changes compared to any of the titles we’ve ever worked on. The first and foremost change that we’ve made is actually an additional scenario for the US version, as well as an entire world, which we’ve never done before. Not only that, even the stages that were in the Japanese version - we’ve actually made a number of changes visually so they look very different from the Japanese version. And sheer volume-wise - we’ve increased features like new costumes for all the characters, as well as more items and even... the live chat system, where your companions will offer suggestions (on what they should do) during the battle... that has been expanded for the US version as well.
Hino: But the biggest change we made to the game is the game balance. With the Japanese version, we felt that some parts left something to be desired, and that was just truly limited by the development time; we just ran out of time. For the US version, we wanted to basically make a complete version, to realize our original vision of what we originally planned out.
Another improvement we made is to Insectron, which is a mini-game where you collect insects from throughout the galaxy, and you can raise them and grow them and enter them into this tournament called Insectron Tournament. For the Japanese version, it was a single-player experience. But for the US, we actually added a versus mode where users will be able to load their characters into a memory card and play against their friends, or you can actually generate a password which actually has all your insects’ profiles, and either online or whatever you can actually share that information so other people can play against your Insectrons. So with the US version, we incorporated the user comments and opinions we had for the Japanese version, as well as (those of) the staff, (and) what we wanted to do to create this perfect version for the US.
You mentioned earlier that a lot of the stages look completely different. Were the visual changes made with Japanese input in mind, or were they tailored to an American audience?
Hino: It wasn’t really so much to cater to the American audience so much as some of these stages, these dungeons, were so expansive that after a while... [they] started to look a little tedious and monotonous. So in order to avoid that for the US, we wanted to change up the visuals as much as we can throughout the stage, so that as the players explore these areas, there’s always something new.
Nun, bin ja mal gespannt, wie man die Monotonie aus den Dungeons rauszunehmen gedenkt....
