Oh that PlayStation 2. Will not die, that thing. The necromancer forcing it to continue its undead life this time is Japanese SRPG developer Flight Plan, announcing yet another SRPG, Sacred Blaze, for release next February on the little 6th gen console that could.Sacred Blaze puts the player in the role of God descended to the world to guide and save the people from the darkness that has begun to cover it. Recruiting heroes from among the people, the player and his up and coming army must tackle the hordes of monsters that threaten the world.
The game is fully 3D (too bad, as I think their 2D sprite work is much more attractive), but plays in a traditional isometric SRPG fashion.
Sacred Blaze will be available on PlayStation 2 on February 19, 2009 in Japan. There is no word on North American or European release at this time, and I have to honestly say that I can no longer reasonably expect any Japanese PS2 games to make the jump over anymore.
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Really? I actually believe that this has a very good chance of coming here (along with Mana Khemia 2). In the 2008/2009 console landscape, the PS2 has staked out a strong role for itself as the home of lower-budget, niche JRPGs. Certainly this market is still surviving in Japan, and I believe that it will continue to survive here too for some time. It may not be as glamorous, but as long as there is *some* profit to be made in localizing these games, Atlus and NISA will be there to take advantage of it. If Eternal Poison, Dokapon Kingdom, Ar tonelico II, and Persona 4 are all *significant* bombs in the US, then I'll revise my preditiction.
I mean, Chaos Wars, of all things, came out over here. If someone believes there's still a US market for *that*, then I'd say we're in pretty good shape.
I don't know... Atlus first-party titles like Persona and Devil Summoner for sure, but other than that, I'm not too optimistic.
Eternal Poison is the only Flight Plan console title that made it out of Japan (and not the best either - how could Dragon Shadow Spell not make the cut?), so I'm not convinced that Sacred Blaze really has a home here... I'm always interested in being proven wrong though.
I do agree that Atlus and NIS will publish PS2 games forever as long as they're profitable, so Mana Khemia 2 is definitely possible in my mind.
As for Chaos Wars... not even the publisher had much of a hope for it, considering there was no announcement, and it was only available through pre-order from GameStop/EB Games. How can you pre-order something that no one even knew was really coming out or not? Chaos Wars' whole existence in North America is baffling to me.
I bet that if Eternal Poison is any kind of success at all, Atlus USA will pick up Dragon Shadow Spell, do a quickie localization and release it for $29.99. Re:Chain of Memories and Yakuza 2 both came to the US two years late, so it wouldn't be unheard of.
That would definitely be nice. DSS is the one Flight Plan game that I really wanted to come over here.
...DAMN YOU! DON'T GET MY HOPES UP AGAIN LIKE THAT!!
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