Takeshi Arakawa: Some Dissidia changes are due to cultural differences

Posted Aug 8, 2009 at 9:05AM by Karl B. Listed in: Interviews, News, Titles, Games Tags: Australia, Europe, Google, Japan, North America, Yoshinori Kitase
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Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1


When Dissidia: Final Fantasy comes to the US and Europe, it'll be a somewhat different beast than what was unleashed in Japan late last year. There's a new Arcade Mode, more cutscenes, and gameplay has been tweaked further for balance.

Another thing receiving an overhaul is the game's tutorial, which has been cut down to a mere 10 minutes compared to the longer one found in the Japanese version. According to producer Takeshi Arakawa, this was done in consideration for the different sensibilities of non-Japanese gamers.

Speaking to German site PlayStationPortable.de, Arakawa explained that since Japanese gamers have an RPG culture, long tutorials that can last up to an hour don't even faze them. Gamers in other regions, however, might not be so patient.

Arakawa also mentioned that playing from start to finish would take around 40 hours in the Japanese version, but this has been shortened to around ten hours for the international release. That's just gameplay time, though. Content-wise, players will still need to sink more than 40 hours into Dissidia to see everything it has to offer.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy will be released in North America on August 25, in Europe on September 4, and in Australia on September 3.



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Via PlayStation Portable.de

 
 
 

Comments [refresh]

by triac - 2009-08-08 05:26
» .

Then they should also add blood, gore, big guns, heavy metal music and Jet Packs (that would finally explain why they can fly)...

by kaoken - 2009-08-08 05:40
» Great

I'm liking the new changes especially more balanced gameplay. I could care less for the story mode, I mean when was the last time a fighting game had a good story mode anyways?

by NickyP - 2009-08-08 06:35
» Oh, great.

So Japan is basically saying us Americans have ADD problems and can't read an indepth tutorial, nor spend more than 10 hours to beat a game.



When I read the title stating they changed things for "cultural differences", I had first thought they would take out loli action and whatnot. But instead, they just edited it to be quicker because we're stupid. Nice.

by truk - 2009-08-08 06:59
» tutorials

those are only made for babies and women. real men dont use tutorials! ARRGGHHH!! MUSCLES!

by kaoken - 2009-08-08 07:14
» no

That's not what they're saying. They are saying because people are busy and time is short, ie fast food.

by UltimaArmorX - 2009-08-08 07:31
» Release is the day before school starts (for some).

How about that for a marketing strat?

by m3rox - 2009-08-08 07:48
» .

They aren't marketing to you, they're marketing to big kids.

by kupomogli - 2009-08-08 07:50
» So did they reduce the storyline?

If so, it's probably because because Square is too cheap to localize and pay voice actors for the entire thing.



Extremely *****ed up if we get the gimped version.

by kaoken - 2009-08-08 07:58
» No

It's not gimped, just from the demo alone I think it's a lot better. I predict they are going to release an EX version in Japan with the new changes from the US version.

by kaoken - 2009-08-08 08:03
» Also

The article even states that they added more cut scenes.

by kupomogli - 2009-08-08 08:26
» What if

They added more cutscenes and they removed others to shorten it.

by BattleFeverC - 2009-08-08 08:47
» Honestly

I think it's time that Japanese game companies realize that most of the US fans that the game is being marketed to want the original game that Japanese gamers got to play (but in English), I mean they made us wait almost a whole year so that they could give us a simplified version. I think it's wrong to assume and therefore underestimate us and say that we're not open to so called "cultural differences".

by gr8tlegend - 2009-08-08 10:03
» yea I thought

when they said cultural differences I thought dialong, outfits, E.T.C cuz sometimes the Japanese are a lttle pervy . lol I love it . yea that fast food ,adhd-add, comment was offensive but true i get tired of tutorial's that last 2 long or cut scene's u can't skip but u've seen a thousand times. i.e crisis core

by Tsunaki - 2009-08-08 11:09
» Yeah but...

still can't wait for Soul Calibur though...

by Freya - 2009-08-08 11:51
» sigh

Sucks. I rather have the Japanese version then. No point if you're going to shorten it cause some American players don't have the patience.

by kupomogli - 2009-08-08 12:16
» Yeah, I mean seriously

Take a little bit of common sense. They state beating the Japanese version will take 40 hours(I don't think it took me that long.) But then they state it will only take 10 hours to beat the international version.



I mean how much *****ing ***** did you cut to bring the international version down that much? Did they remove the world map in story mode and it's nothing but battle after battle? Did they remove a ***** ton of story? First they say they added more now they say the game cuts down to 10 hours to beat the game. I cancelled my preorder because of that.

by Izuna - 2009-08-08 13:37
» Arcade Mode

Have you played DOA or Soul Caliber? I think what they are doing with the Story Mode is make the story play out wit just battles like other fighting games. This makes sense, the majority of popular fighting games does this and to be honest it is a better way of telling a story. The whole world map RPG element could be a secondary mode.

by truk - 2009-08-08 13:48
» honestly

do you want to read a damn tutorial for an hr? what is this school? when i play video games i do it to have fun.

by su43berkut17 - 2009-08-08 14:30
» Localization

Localization is fine when the original context is conserved! I think Dissidia will conserve it essence but I've got some very very bad examples of localization such as Ace Combat 3! the japanese version was incredible and the story was worth it! In the US version they cut everything! no story, no paths to choose, nothing! That was so mean!

by aten - 2009-08-08 17:34
» hah

"So Japan is basically saying us Americans have ADD problems and can't read an indepth tutorial, nor spend more than 10 hours to beat a game."



its true. and



"do you want to read a damn tutorial for an hr? what is this school?"



this proves it.

by yaoitaru - 2009-08-08 19:02
» lol

Japan STILL thinks westerners are dumb apes with ADD. Remember Final Fantasy 5?

by lolwut? - 2009-08-08 20:30
» Well...

They might have cut out the world map in story mode, or just added an arcade story mode, but they also said it lasts longer then 10 hours to turn over every secret.



It could be like what they did to the us naruto games for the psp

by Kotonoha - 2009-08-08 23:18
» -

Good thing I'm learning Japanese

by rpgsuperfan - 2009-08-08 23:26
» Disappointing but not surprising.

Ugh... this is just disgusting. Square has lost all touch with their western fans. LEAVE THE GAMEPLAY ALONE AND FIX YOUR AWFUL WRITING. It's not that Americans can't be patient, it's that we have no reason to be patient for your angsty whiny ***** characters. I don't want more accurate translations, I want the localized translations we used to get, without all your crappy weeaboo forced drama.



It's also really insulting that you think we can't handle a longer game. I doubt you're going to convince any FPS junkies to buy your games in the first place.

by kupomogli - 2009-08-09 00:55
» Who cares about other fighters

In a single player mode, other fighters story modes suck. You play through boring as hell battle after battle that aren't any fun and gives you story in between.



I liked the World Map mode on Dissidia. It actually cut away from the battles and made it more enjoyable of an experience. The Dissidia AI is either too easy or too hard(on level 9 blocking everything so you have to actually block first if you want to attack, boring as *****.) So the World Map actually made the game better than most fighters.



I had to force myself to play through the boring as ***** SC4 story modes. I usually only played online. On SF4 before Championship mode came out, I was in the 500's on ranking(now its near impossible to find someone playing ranking.) I still haven't beaten the game with all the characters solely because of how boring it is. I've finished more hard trials with characters than beating the game because even Very Hard is a joke because of the retarded computer.



Basically. Any story mode where you play against nothing but computer opponents is boring as hell. Which is why all the additions to Dissidia made it much better.

by Rayn389 - 2009-08-09 03:45
» you all are getting so mad...

Actually in fact I think what they are saying is we dont need as much in the way of tutorials we just need a basic explaination and we can figure out the rest naturally...without the use of a never ending story long tutorial!

by terryspanky - 2009-08-09 04:49
» Hope it can be undub back to japanese..

I like japanese games but I can't finish them because I can't understand it and naruto for example, I haven't played a single game of it in english becaue of lousy voice acting..

by mike_jmg - 2009-08-09 06:10
» nah

what we really need is japanese games being released in english as well



I can't remember how much time it took me to beat the japanese version but I can tell you I don't want to go through every character's story all over again, maybe this will shorten all the rubish I had to went through to finish the game and get my favorite character up to lvl 100.



Then we'll be ready for the best thing this game has to offer, multiplayer

by truk - 2009-08-10 10:32
» @ aten

why spend an hr explaining something that can be done in mins? that's just stupid and inefficient. what does a tutorial add to the game? absolutely nothing. doesnt add to the story and doesn't add to the experience.



so enjoy your tutorial, loser

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