I'm sure most people into JRPGs are at least somewhat familiar with their games, if not the company themselves.
The core members developed Tales of Phantasia for SNES, before splitting from Namco to start their own company.
This new company, tri-Ace went on to establish the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile IPs, among a few others.
I know there's other JRPG fans on this site, so I thought it'd be good to share and start a discussion on the future of the company.
They had something of a rocky time last gen, with virtually all of their games being divisive or poorly received and not being very commercially successful, games like Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, and Resonance of Fate. Their last few games, Frontier Gate, Beyond the Labyrinth, and Phantasy Star Nova, weren't even localized. By that point, they were basically doing cheap work for Sega and Konami, and being Square Enix's code monkeys for the Final Fantasy XIII sequels.
People began to question their future, if they would be able to keep going. Many smaller studios in Japan, especially those focused on console JRPGs, shut down last gen, and I think a lot of people expected tri-Ace to be next on the chopping block. Or, more optimistically, to be bought out and "saved" by a bigger publisher, like Monolith Soft was bought out by Nintendo.
Well, it happened. They were bought out last month. Only... they were bought out by Nepro Japan, a company that makes mobile games. Yeah, it's a fate worse than death.
But according to Doki Doki Kusoge (dat name tho) via NeoGAF, Nepro's intentions are not to reduce tri-Ace to mobile game output. Rather, the goal is to expand their business into console/handheld games (or "consumer products" as DDK translates) while also using the studio to strengthen their own mobile output. So tri-Ace will continue to be code monkeys, only for Nepro now instead of Square Enix, but will apparently also be funded for retail games as well.
Will we see a new Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, or Resonance of Fate? Probably not. Those IPs are likely owned by their publishers. But we may still see something new from tri-Ace on consoles or handheld.
Well, it happened. They were bought out last month. Only... they were bought out by Nepro Japan, a company that makes mobile games. Yeah, it's a fate worse than death.
But according to Doki Doki Kusoge (dat name tho) via NeoGAF, Nepro's intentions are not to reduce tri-Ace to mobile game output. Rather, the goal is to expand their business into console/handheld games (or "consumer products" as DDK translates) while also using the studio to strengthen their own mobile output. So tri-Ace will continue to be code monkeys, only for Nepro now instead of Square Enix, but will apparently also be funded for retail games as well.
Will we see a new Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, or Resonance of Fate? Probably not. Those IPs are likely owned by their publishers. But we may still see something new from tri-Ace on consoles or handheld.
This is good news. Quite frankly things were looking grim, and when I first heard the news I certainly feared the worst - as much as I disliked most of their games, Tri-Aces is a company that seems to learn from their mistakes, which is admirable - but knowing they might still continue doing stuff is reassuring.
This is good news. Quite frankly things were looking grim, and when I first heard the news I certainly feared the worst - as much as I disliked most of their games, Tri-Aces is a company that seems to learn from their mistakes, which is admirable - but knowing they might still continue doing stuff is reassuring.
I would be OK with them focusing on designing battle engines for other games. I think that's something they've always excelled at. Star Ocean 4 had some serious story problems and critical levels of narm, but hell if it wasn't a fun game to play. It had an addictive and rewarding battle system. Most tri-Ace games do.
I guess we'll have to see how much Nepro wants to collaborate with others. There's really not much you can do to "expand" your business into retail games with only a single studio of about 150 staff.
So Anakin kneels before Monster Mash and pledges his loyalty to the graveyard smash.
"Star Ocean 5 announced by Tri-Aces and Square-Enix! Coming to PS3 and PS4!"
"More like Star Ocean 3! Takes place on an uncivilized planet!"
Don't get me wrong, a lot of the other details actually sound really neat, but those two points definitely leave me apprehensive. I'll keep an eye on it, at least...
Forums
Topic: So, tri-Ace.
Posts 1 to 7 of 7
This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.