Yes and no, MS (an American company...) did take a chance on him. The Last Story was a budget rounding error. Square has sort of brought him back into the fold, but not really in any meaningful way on a game dev side (as far as I'm aware?)
And yes, his indie game flopped eventually, like many indie games
My point here is that even though Sakaguchi's resume is more impressive than Kaga's, his post-bigcorp career hasn't exactly been roses. Kaga's audacity in trying to recreate the FE magic for not-Nintendo isn't the sole reason he's had to languish outside the industry, that's just a thing that -- unfortunately -- happens.
Nah, this is not true for Xenosaga. Xenosaga was without a doubt written, designed, announced, and marketed as the true reboot of the Xenogears saga. Not only did the story and timeline share too many similarities with Perfect Works, but actual character designs from Xenogears appeared in Xenosaga, some with the same name. It's no coincidence, and the announcement trailer for Xenosaga contained scenes which leaned heavily on these character references - which shows the intent all the more because many of these scenes didn't make it into Episode 1, and were reworked into Episode 2 and Episode 3 instead. Yet that was the stuff they wanted fans to see first and to get excited about. The battle system in Xenosaga is also clearly an evolution of Xenogears', and so was the exploration maps where you swapped between human and mecha to solve puzzles and to hit switches.The Xeno games dont look or play the same at all.
Like, they share some themes and take from the same pool of references but is nowhere near the same as the Fire Emblem/Emblem SagaTear Ring Saga case.
Hey aren't you the one who do the detailed piece of this game back in the old place?
All those games underperformed so why would anyone want to give him another substantial budget for a console game when those resources are better spent elsewhere? (As much as I want TtLS2)
Also Terra Battle was not just a cute lil indie game, it was a mobile strategy game with some names attached to it, you know, like those that are making BANK in Japan but the team was unable to keep people engaged... TWICE.
Poor him.
Do you have any source? First time I've heard about the fight with FE6 director (was that during FE6 development as FE64?).The blood split was pretty bad. To be honest, from what I understood there was actually a power struggle between him and Narihiro (the director of FE6 and pretty much the one who controls the Fire Emblem ip now and Kaga was forced out). The other night thing is he took Hirota with him, so they did go after him very hard.
His indie game was free and very much a fun project and nothing else.
Do you have any source? First time I've heard about the fight with FE6 director (was that during FE6 development as FE64?).
Well this went up on youtube last week. It's looking great; I cannot wait to play it. Good to see controller support (which I don't believe a demo had?)
(Apologies if there is a more recent thread; I could not find one).
Well this went up on youtube last week. It's looking great; I cannot wait to play it. Good to see controller support (which I don't believe a demo had?)
(Apologies if there is a more recent thread; I could not find one).
This is an old conversation, I realize, but yeah, there was some intensely bad blood. Bad enough that Kaga was already in the process of forming his own external studio before he even resigned from Intelligent Systems. It did not help Kaga's case after the fact at all, of course, that his first game upon leaving IS was a blatant FE clone for the PlayStation that in early drafts was supposedly going to directly connect to established FE lore.Not a written source perse but It's been mentioned to me by a friend of mine who I trust.
Narihiro does allude to it a bit in the 25th anniversary discussion of FE, but doesn't outright confirm it (specifically mentioning how Fe4 was very hard to develop). There is a translated article of that one floating around.
Narihiro is iirc the founder of Intelligent Systems, but I don't think he's the current president.
It's a game that was released for free in Japan made in SRPG Studio. And regardless of the ease of porting it (or not), I think the last thing that Kaga would ever want for Vestaria Saga is for it to put him back in Nintendo and Intelligent Systems's crosshairs. It's a passion project for him that he's doing because he wants to, not for the purpose of releasing it as a commercial product.This thread popping out just reminds me of this game lol.
Is the english translation done? Any chance of the game coming to consoles?
afaik TLS didnt underperform in the U.S, no idea about japan tho which probably mattered more at the time.All those games underperformed so why would anyone want to give him another substantial budget for a console game when those resources are better spent elsewhere? (As much as I want TtLS2)
Also Terra Battle was not just a cute lil indie game, it was a mobile strategy game with some names attached to it, you know, like those that are making BANK in Japan but the team was unable to keep people engaged... TWICE.
Poor him.
It's a game that was released for free in Japan made in SRPG Studio. And regardless of the ease of porting it (or not), I think the last thing that Kaga would ever want for Vestaria Saga is for it to put him back in Nintendo and Intelligent Systems's crosshairs. It's a passion project for him that he's doing because he wants to, not for the purpose of releasing it as a commercial product.
There's a deep, ugly legal history between Nintendo/IS and Kaga. Nintendo/IS intially sued the publisher of Kaga's TearRing Saga for it being an infringement of copyright, and the whole affair stretched on for years to the point that by the time the appeals process ended and Nintendo was awarded a settlement, TearRing Saga 2 was about to release (with a ton of structural differences to differentiate it from Fire Emblem as much as possible while remaining an SRPG of a similar nature). And when an official book on Fire Emblem was released for the 25th anniversary of the franchise, Kaga went completely unmentioned despite being the franchise's creator and creative lead for so many years.I would think Ninty probably dont care much again such small release there when their 3H is coming soon.
But who knows kek. Some old grumpy guys can hold grudge there.
I just wanted to play the game in english without the being attached on ma laptop kek. Also pliz do some balance as i remember getting stuck halfway of the game due to it being too hard.
XSEED has actually said that at the time, The Last Story was the most successful game they ever published in North America. I'm sure it helped them that NOE had already done the localization work, but that's how it worked out for them.afaik TLS didnt underperform in the U.S, no idea about japan tho which probably mattered more at the time.
There's a deep, ugly legal history between Nintendo/IS and Kaga. Nintendo/IS intially sued the publisher of Kaga's TearRing Saga for it being an infringement of copyright, and the whole affair stretched on for years to the point that by the time the appeals process ended and Nintendo was awarded a settlement, TearRing Saga 2 was about to release (with a ton of structural differences to differentiate it from Fire Emblem as much as possible while remaining an SRPG of a similar nature). And when an official book on Fire Emblem was released for the 25th anniversary of the franchise, Kaga went completely unmentioned despite being the franchise's creator and creative lead for so many years.
Maybe things have cooled, to a point, but I don't think Kaga wants to go about poking the sleeping dragon.
Vestaria Saga was released for free. It's not a commercial product. There's no financial stake in it for Kaga, so there's nothing for Nintendo or IS to even theoretically get angry about regardless of any lore or design similarities. But doing anything to turn it into a commercial product that would benefit him would likely make heads turn real quick. If anyone were to port it to console, Kaga would probably need to absolve himself of any connection to the game just for it to pass Nintendo's licensee approval process.Yeah probably it goes really bad blood split there. But isnt Tearing Saga case is different from Vestaria here?
Vestaria dont have any lore that come from FE at all right? While Tearing literally started by using FE lore kek.
Vestaria Saga was released for free. It's not a commercial product. There's no financial stake in it for Kaga, so there's nothing for Nintendo or IS to even theoretically get angry about regardless of any lore or design similarities. But doing anything to turn it into a commercial product that would benefit him would likely make heads turn real quick. If anyone were to port it to console, Kaga would probably need to absolve himself of any connection to the game just for it to pass Nintendo's licensee approval process.
It really was a dark career turn for him. And all of the drama sparked just a few years before Fire Emblem finally saw international recognition and release. Though, if Kaga were still makin FE games at the time, the first game that would have theoretically seen an official localization would have been vastly different.Such sad fate to happen to Kaga. While i dont like FE4 for its map design, i still believe FE4 shows how a great story and lore can be build for FE series and that is his golden boy.
To think he end up into his current state now is sad.
But doing anything to turn it into a commercial product that would benefit him would likely make heads turn real quick. If anyone were to port it to console, Kaga would probably need to absolve himself of any connection to the game just for it to pass Nintendo's licensee approval process.
Considering how "The Making of Fire Emblem", among its numerous other faults, does its damnedest to avoid crediting Kaga's contribution to founding the series (regardless of how one feels about the individual games), I wouldn't bet on Vestaria hitting the Switch. If we know what he's been up to, Nintendo execs almost certainly do.Not that Vestaria would come to consoles — there are probably bigger difficulties with that prospect, unfortunately — but this seems like a bit of a stretch, especially given that he's already using an abbreviated pseudonym.
Kaga and that infamous legal battle were in an entirely different era of Nintendo. I find it difficult to believe they would bat the slightest eyelash at this modest independent project of his.
Yeah, just because there's been a changing of the guard at Nintendo over the years doesn't mean that the decision-makers there would welcome a Kaga game to the Switch. There's enough evidence that the bad blood is still present.Considering how "The Making of Fire Emblem", among its numerous other faults, does its damnedest to avoid crediting Kaga's contribution to founding the series (regardless of how one feels about the individual games), I wouldn't bet on Vestaria hitting the Switch. If we know what he's been up to, Nintendo execs almost certainly do.
Considering how "The Making of Fire Emblem", among its numerous other faults, does its damnedest to avoid crediting Kaga's contribution to founding the series (regardless of how one feels about the individual games), I wouldn't bet on Vestaria hitting the Switch. If we know what he's been up to, Nintendo execs almost certainly do.
Specifically the last paragraph, how true is that? Seems like he definitely wants to make a series out of this Vestaria Saga. Will it all be free?Despite his apparent retirement, Kaga announced in May 2015 that he was at work on an independently produced strategy RPG called Vestaria Saga: The Seven Sacred Rings using SapphireSoft's tool SRPG Studio. The game, later renamed to Vestaria Saga: Knight of the Fallen Kingdom and the Star Vestal, and was released as a free download on September 5, 2016 and was well received by fans. Amidst minor but vocal fan controversy surrounding the game's relationship to Fire Emblem, Kaga announced via Twitter that the game was simply a fun project not intended to compete with the Fire Emblem series. In September 2017, Kaga announced that work was underway to try and get the game officially localized into English, and in May 2018, a planned Summer 2018 release was announced.
Kaga also announced through his blog that Vestaria Saga's story would have to be split between multiple games due to its length, announcing at least four subsequent entries in the series to be released in the future: two main-story games and two side-story games. One side-story game, Vestaria Saga Gaiden: The Sacred Sword of Silverbirch, was planned for a Summer 2018 release, but it was pushed back to 2019 due to the workload. The main-story games are currently on hiatus as the development team takes a break. It is unclear whether these subsequent games are also planned to be officially localized into English.
It really was a dark career turn for him. And all of the drama sparked just a few years before Fire Emblem finally saw international recognition and release. Though, if Kaga were still makin FE games at the time, the first game that would have theoretically seen an official localization would have been vastly different.
What is the sequel like?And honestly for the worse.
Fire Emblem is basically good despite Kaga's influence because we saw what he was like without Nintendo keeping him reigned in and the resulting game TearRing Saga is a trainwreck.
TearRing Saga is a game where the mechanically optimal choice to to get a character kisnapped into sex slavery, and then rerecruit her as dancer later. It's a game with frankly busted mechanics like units that are basically useless because they have crappy stats and horrible growths and then other units that are stupid overpowered, terrible pacing, dumb traps that can take away units without warning, and generally unfair and unfun stage design. Oh and this undercurrent of creepiness. (Kaga's incest obsession knows no bounds)
I didn't play that one because it didn't have a fan translation.
Surprised that Kaga's name is being used publicly again, considering he was hiding behind the plausible-deniability of an alias before now.
Any bets on how long until Nintendo takes notice and sends the Lawyer Brigade in to stir shit with this game? Given their vendetta against former employees.
It really was a dark career turn for him. And all of the drama sparked just a few years before Fire Emblem finally saw international recognition and release. Though, if Kaga were still makin FE games at the time, the first game that would have theoretically seen an official localization would have been vastly different.
- The game's maps use a hexagonal grid as opposed to the square grids used in Fire Emblem and Utna Heroes Saga.
- There is no Luck or catch-all Skill statistic. Instead, there are Skill stats for every different weapon type.
- Most units have stat bracketing, which prevents them from getting too far away from their average expected statistics.
- Generally, units are unable to counterattack when they are hit by an attack.
- Attacks at a distance of one space are separated into range 0 and range 1, where the former is a regular melee attack, and the latter is considered a ranged attack. This distinction further restricts when defending units can counterattack.
- Units can become injured or crippled when they are attacked, which makes them vulnerable to being captured.
- Roughly half of all recruitable units start off as mercenaries, which need to be re-hired each chapter. Mercenaries can be recruited permanently by fulfilling certain unit-specific requirements, which often involve raising their hidden Happiness statistic through various actions.
- Most weapons and shields break based on a probability instead of having a static number of uses.
- Instead of there being a Staff weapon type, Dark and Light magic both have status ailment-related spells in addition to damage-dealing spells.
- Horses and wyverns count as equipment. They have their own HP and stat bonuses, and they can be healed and swapped around.
- Swords have two sub-categories: blades and maces, which can only be equipped by those who possess skill allowing them to do so. Blades are heavy but deal good damage, while maces are only used by certain clerical units and often have secondary effects.
- Spears also have two sub-categories: lances and pitchforks. Lances are rarer, can only be used by those with the Lance skill, can only be used when mounted, and cannot counterattack. Pitchforks are essentially novelty weapons, used by some enemies and only one playable character. Most spears of all categories also deal additional damage based on how many spaces the wielder moved before attacking.
- Bows and crossbows are treated as entirely different weapon types. Bows are all 1-2 range, while crossbows are 0-1 range, and they both require arrows as ammunition. Crossbows also have the subcategory of ballistae.
- The capital city of Narvia serves as a hub where the player can prepare units, organize items, acquire food bonuses, hire mercenaries, take on requests from townspeople, and do other various activities.
That looks a lot like Fire Emblem. Sorry but I'd rather play a real Fire Emblem game.
What does this game do to differentiate itself?
That's it?It's not so much that it differentiates itself, it's a game made by the original creator of Fire Emblem.
So I just pulled this from the Fire Emblem fandom Wiki. Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Shouzou_Kaga
Specifically the last paragraph, how true is that? Seems like he definitely wants to make a series out of this Vestaria Saga. Will it all be free?
You get bonus hipster points for claiming that the series was better under Kaga (it wasn't, Kaga Emblem is peak "different, not better") if you play this.That looks a lot like Fire Emblem. Sorry but I'd rather play a real Fire Emblem game.
What does this game do to differentiate itself?
Well this went up on youtube last week. It's looking great; I cannot wait to play it. Good to see controller support (which I don't believe a demo had?)
(Apologies if there is a more recent thread; I could not find one).
That's some hardcore realism. The only thing I don't particularly like is the probability of weapons/shields breaking. Why is that a chance? That'd be another headache to worry about than just whether a unit will crit at 1% or something.Looking at the Fire Emblem wiki I found a "Notable Differences from Fire Emblem" section about Tear Ring Saga's sequel Berwick Saga.
Release date? :-P
Looking at the Fire Emblem wiki I found a "Notable Differences from Fire Emblem" section about Tear Ring Saga's sequel Berwick Saga.
That looks a lot like Fire Emblem. Sorry but I'd rather play a real Fire Emblem game.
What does this game do to differentiate itself?
From the very start of the Vestaria Saga project, when Kaga announced it on his blog, the intention was to make a main story consisting of three games. I can't remember if the side-games were initially in the scope of what he wanted to do or if the ideas for those came later.So I just pulled this from the Fire Emblem fandom Wiki. Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Shouzou_Kaga
Specifically the last paragraph, how true is that? Seems like he definitely wants to make a series out of this Vestaria Saga. Will it all be free?