Finally beat the Tower Knight at Boletaria Palace. I beat him without knowing I had a knew area unlocked after beating the Phalanx. Now, I have to go beat stages that I should've beaten before I beat the Tower Knight. D:

@Slappy: Steal Princess was pretty bad...I wish I hadn't bought it at release. My World, My Way is decent, but far from a must-have...which explains why the developer went under right after releasing it.

I wonder if it hurts the feelings of the folks at From Software that Atlus is mistakeningly being given credit for thier games (Demon's Souls, 3D Dot Heroes).

From Software isn't even a developer owned by Atlus. It's its own organisation, and sometimes it works with rival publishers. It's like giving credit to New Zealand for Spain's win in the World Cup.

Unfortunately that happens all the time, since Atlus - or whoever is publishing the game - has first dibs on getting their logo on the box. People will often mistake the publisher for the developer, especially if the publisher also has their own in-house development teams. Sometimes I don't even see the developer's logo on the cover, when I know it's made by a third party.

Yeah, it's tragic (especially with From Software - by far the most underrated developer around these days). People really need to understand the difference between a publisher (the business and money side of the industry) and the developer (the creative people that actually make the games),

Atlus has some fine development teams that it owns, and it deserves all credit for those. However, it has nothing to do with From Software's games, other than providing the cash to make sure people can play it.

Totally agreed that people need to understand the distinction between developer and publisher.

Actually I doubt it hurts their feelings (From Software's specifically). Being humble and not receiving recognition is an integral part of Japanese culture. It's only natural for the higher-ups who fund, distribute and market the product to receive the recognition. Sure, it doesn't sit well with us; but I think they'd be pretty much resigned to their fate on that matter.

On a more positive note! Any Persona fans here? Lemme hear you say YEAH! Anyways, if you haven't read any of hiimdaisy's Persona 4 comics, they're some of the funniest comics I have ever read. It's basically a humorous retelling of the full story. SPOILER WARNING naturally. Go read part 1 now or else. She's also done MGS and Phoenix Wright comics too. :]

From Software does have it rough (assuming a more Western approach, when in reality it's probably more like what HolyMackerel said), especially since they pretty much never self-publish in America (I think I've seen their logo on the front of a box like...once? MAYBE twice...). Wikipedia has a lovely list of games they've developed. The VAST majority of titles throughout the 90's up until about 2003-ish were published in America by Agetec, resulting in me being familiar with them under THAT brand at the time. And now it's Atlus publishing all their best work, so it's only natural that Atlus gets the recognition for it.

I'm pretty sure From Software (even those cases with the name on the front of the box) has no publishing capabilities of its own whatsoever. In other words, it always sells its games to outside publishers.

I remember being really upset that Gold Star Mountain was canned, I was really pumped for that game back in the day.

Wow, even I didn't realise they were behind the Tenchu games... I like what I've played of those, although I never have owned one.

While I don't give credit to Atlus for From Software games, I will say this - Atlus is a remarkable publishing business. It's really difficult to be successful off niche markets - moreso than mainstream games. You need to know your market, and know which games to publish - as you need a remarkable conversion rate (ie you need much closer to 100% of your target audience buying the game, with mainstream games you can have more people ignore individual titles). Atlus has got this right time after time.

According to Wikipedia, From Software self-publishes a number of games in Japan, including 3D Dot Game Heroes (Demon's Souls was from Sony, however). Of course, this info, being from Wikipedia, could be inaccurate...I dunno.

Boy, are you right about Atlus' business prowess, though. It never ceases to amaze me how they stay in business releasing so many niche titles. XSeed is pretty similar in that respect, though they haven't yet reached the same level of popularity. I watch both companies pretty closely because they release product that appeals to me. I suppose that's the power of a niche, though...keep at it, and people will know to pay attention to you to get their fix.

Be interesting to see how Atlus manages to survive in the digital world, though. It's show very little capability in that space, and it's be able to be a successful publisher in that space takes a lot more than just releasing titles to the masses.

I would just like thank you all for keeping this thread a live.XD

the only atlas game i own is TC NB, but I would want to play a SMT game soon, might get strange journey or Devil Survivor

@WaltzElf: I think they could do all right digitally if they'd release the same types of games as they do at retail. Droplitz ain't exactly standard Atlus fare, for example.

@Waltz.... I do agree with you completely with From Software and Atlus being seperated by dev/pub aspect. I think the one thing that can be said about Atlus, is that no matter if its published by Atlus or developed inhouse by Atlus they will always be a niche market, therein where you find your so called Atlus fans or as Atlus themselves call them Atlus Faithfuls. If its says Atlus on the box, you can bet your butt your in for one heck of a hard/frustrating time lol.

EDIT.... another thing Waltz is that a lot of From Softwares development with Armored Core and Tenchu has been pretty much horrible. Some horrible rating and well deserved ones for sure. Stay way the heck away from Tenchu on the DS, PSP and Wii especially as they are all nearing unplayable.

Ive dropped a good bit of time into Super Robot Taisen OG Saga Endless Frontier and the game just plain oozes greatness. The combat system is amazing and the characters, art style, themes, controls, etc are all spot on. The musical score is nothing less than fantastic. Im seriously thinking, too early to call, but possibly a new favorite game for the DS topping the uber creative Contact.

I also snatched Izuna 2 Legend of the Unemployed Ninja. Havent tried it and wont until I finish SRTOGSEF and Draglade.

Haha, there's irony in that last post. Atlus can't do well in the digital world - it won't exist much longer.

I reported it on my blog - but it's also up at http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-08-31-atlus-dissol...

It's sad, but hard to be surprised. Atlus took genuine risks - and risky business models only need one or two things to go slighly wrong for a parent company to shy away from further risks.

R.I.P Atlus

@WaltzElf: The link you posted doesn't work, and I was unable to find the intended article in a search of the site either. I DID find some news regarding that of which you speak elsewhere, and it seems we're still very unclear on what this actually means. It's being dissolved, but the brand name will still be used and the developers aren't being forced to stop their current projects. In other words, it's too soon to panic.

Im still sad either way Atlus has always been one of my favorite dev/publishers. Ive heard it said many times that Atlus is a love letter to the hardcore gamers and they truly are just that. Completing a game with Atlus on the cover is a testament to itself. As Im sure that now whatever is happening with Atlus is going on its going to become even harded to find there games so I dropped by 2 Gamestops today on my way to get my copy of Other M and got a few Atlus titles.

Hammerin Hero PSP
Knights in the Knightmare DS
YS 7 PSP
Luminous Arc DS

I also tried to get Persona for PSP but they couldnt locate the UMD, but I will get it and Persona 3 as well as a few others when I get my hands on them very soon, as this weekend Im going to do some shopping for Atlus titles.

What that means is once the current projects are finished, the Atlus brand will cease to exist. It doesn't mean any games will stop being published - again, Atlus is a publisher, not a developer - but the From Softwares and Ghostlights will need to find a new label to get their games to market.

If nothing else, this will be proof that Atlus wasn't the miracle game provider that everyone attributes them to be. They just moved other people's boxes for them.

Still sucks!

It sucks because it's proof that the games industry isn't quite ready to have a large publisher of niche titles. The movie industry has them, but the games industry just cant support that niche level of consumer properly yet.

I imagine an "Atlus" like publisher 10 years down the track will have better fortunes.