AFAIK, tournaments run 2/3. Seems local random play at some arcades is set to 3/5.
As far as the AP sales thing goes, I don’t wanna go into too much depth about it but P4U will most likely do better in sales than AP in Japan. From what I understand, AP is well-played in Japan, but not covered well. P4U is played more in general and has way more coverage.
As far as a potential localization - it could possibly happen. It’s not like every character is foreign to the US in AP. Many anime fans will recognize characters from Utawarerumono and perhaps some of the ToHeart characters. In the past, games with no precedent have been brought over to the US and localized (PS2 Arcana Heart), though I am not sure how well that did, in terms of sales. For the AH3 localization, they obviously felt the sales of the game would justify their capital venture to localize the game, so I mean, there’s that too.
Long story short for that, don’t count on a localization, but don’t count it out either. It certainly would be nice if AP got a similar deal to AH3, but that is still to be seen at this point.
AP won’t get Persona 4 Arena numbers. They are in 2 completely different leagues just from media recognition alone. That being said Aquapazza can still come out solid since it is a popular japan arcade fighter in its own right as well as the fan bases from several of the featured VN titles will most likely support the game.
Bottom Line: It will do fine in Japan release, but if a localization were to happen in America for example…the numbers would not be so hot just from how “anime” the aesthetics is alone
I mean, it’s pretty obvious that P4U is going to draw bigger numbers than AP. Sorta wasn’t the point.
A fair amount of people are interested in it on the East Coast - hopefully some play of the game will allow it to grow into a bit better numbers over time, but it’s unrealistic at this point to think that it will draw more numbers than P4U, clearly.
As for the “anime” thing, P4U is just as “anime” as AP - it’s just presented differently, lol.
I for one hope AP grows on people, Its an interesting fighter to say the least. What i meant with “anime” (such a loose term)was the presentation on the aesthetics of the characters. I doubt average joe fighter enthusiast would be be pleased with several characters being presented as generic under-age moe school girls. I mean at least with P4U there are more…“practical” choices like a masculine character with a steel chair for example. Like you said they both introduced their “anime” very differently
There are some male characters which are masculine (Hakuoro, Oboro) and one which is bishonen (Arwan), but it’s also much easier to relate and associate with the entire Persona cast.
That’s just one of the main reasons why I usually hate on mainstream games in my local area. No one wants to play anything outside of the normal Capcom & Namco games which really makes me feel bad at times. Regardless of this, I’m still taking this & Persona 4 more seriously like I did with AH3.
The only reason why i am not preordering this game is because i wait a little to see if some one decides to make a localization for this side of the ocean.
I think it’s a licensing nightmare with all the different franchises, and they probably don’t have a reason to work it out for the non-existent NA market.
WOOT! My Rapbox Edition status has changed and Play-Asia is now shipping my order! I hope I get that shit by Saturday. If so, it’ll make up for me not being able to make it to my local tournament!
There are nico streams at pretty much every time in the day. Gonna be regular USA netplay lobby streams, too. Too bad my copy hasn’t shipped yet.
9AM Edit : Copy is shipped. Hype. Also, for the Tamaki players, here you go.
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I don’t doubt that the netcode is horrible, but also i think that we shouldn’t forget that there are way less people playing this game than other titles, s it is not surprise that finding good matches would be harder.