Former Capcom Boss Inafune Prepping A PS3 RPG

Sure, we've got a few promising RPGs on the horizon. But you know, JRPG fans could use a few more.

We love the looks of White Knight Chronicles 2, but what might former Capcom boss Keiji Inafune be working on...?

The outspoken designer shocked everyone when he left Capcom last year (thus ending a 23-year tenure) and now, Bloomberg has hinted at his new project: a role-playing game for the PlayStation 3. Inafune said he's working on such a project and while we have no other information, the game should launch in Japan as early as August. Now, this is interesting not only because we're talking about an RPG, but also because of Inafune's recent past.

You may recall that he publicly called out Japanese developers and unfortunately, that included his employer. One of his more memorable quotes really incited a whole lot of angry discussion: "I look around the Tokyo Game Show, and everyone's making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind. I want to make games that travel overseas, but Capcom hasn't taken globalization seriously."

To some, the drive of certain Japanese developers to target Western markets has failed miserably, and a common belief is that they should've stuck with what they do best. But it seems Inafune doesn't necessarily side with this theory...so let's check out this new game and see what's what.

Tags: capcom, keiji inafune, ps3 rpg,

5/25/2011 8:48:32 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (32 posts)

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Kiryu
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 9:46:40 PM
Reply

This the man who made the Onimusha Series.
PS3 Exclusive RPG will be awesome.

9 up, 0 down

SayWord
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 9:49:01 PM

I hope its turn based!

6 up, 3 down

Karosso
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 9:38:04 AM

Me loves some Onimusha :) HD remake please!

0 up, 0 down

SayWord
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 9:49:29 PM
Reply

Better come to north america.

3 up, 1 down

sirbob6
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 9:54:06 PM
Reply

Color me intrigued.

1 up, 0 down

Douchebaguette
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 10:04:49 PM
Reply

I see what's happened now. A short while ago some Demon decided to swap Inafune's & Kojima's Souls. Thaaat explaaains everything.

=O

0 up, 1 down

Pandacastro
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 10:14:18 PM
Reply

I thought he hated ps3?

0 up, 2 down

Dreno
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 10:35:17 PM
Reply

Dear god please let it be an awesome rpg and not westernized one.

Give me something like classic ff's, or something like white knight. Give us a good rpg that will take countless hours away from us. Something we can delve into and never want to leave.

Here's hoping.

5 up, 1 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 3:53:05 AM

Nooo, dear God don't listen to Dren he's been bad anyways. Let this be an awsome western rpg and not a japanese fairytale!

Give me something with a good story like the BioWares, world map size like Fallout, exciting characters I can relate to, a modern framework without loading screens every 100th meters, crafting and loot from the western MMORPGs, something that can unite the old, current and next generation RPGers!

Here's hoping. ;)

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 3:57:34 AM

5 up, 4 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 @ 10:43:31 PM
Reply

I'm all up for any and all RPGs but if his former comments meant that westernization needs to be embraced even further then I don't have much faith in the man. The reason the games at the Tokyo Game Show are behind is that they are just feeble like most other western games.

1 up, 1 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 9:53:28 AM

I've always felt that the faux westernization that some Japanese developers have sought after is the problem. By returning to their core skills and interests and simply creating a great game, the game will appeal to who it appeals to, western or not. I don't know whether Inafune subscribes to that, or if he's entranced by some ideal combination of Doom and Call of Duty. I do hope he's simply in love with making great games regardless of the westernization, that would lead to better games that do not feel like 5 year old retreads of western titles already made.

2 up, 0 down

shadowscorpio
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 12:22:53 AM
Reply

What were some of the past RPGs that Capcom created? For some reason the only one that comes to mind at the moment is Breath of Fire series. For the life of me, I feel that there are more....

Anyhow, if the statement from this man's mouth is that he is thinking to make an RPG for the PS3 then I'm all ears.

1 up, 0 down

___________
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 4:29:09 AM
Reply

meh.

1 up, 5 down

Dreno
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 4:30:46 AM
Reply

@beamboom, id actually be open to pretty much any rpg as long as it was good in my eyes. But the types I lised are just my main preferance. Id be open to playing just about any rpg these days though. They seem rather few and far between this gen.

And I havnt been bad....much

0 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 5:11:59 AM

Well, me too of course. As long as it is good! It's just... So far my experience with japanese rpgs has been less than good. Much less, even. The best one I've tried is Monster Hunter Freedom on the PSP, it had a lot of good things going, but even that one had some *major* flaws giving it a score of around 7 in my book.

But dude, a friendly advice: "Reply". Use it to attach your reply to the thread it belongs to. You find the "Reply" link on the post at the root of the thread.

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 5:14:12 AM

0 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 9:25:55 AM

The last AAA jRPG I've played in my eyes was Dragon Quest 8 on PS2.

I know some people love the atelier game and WKC, and I think they are good games still... just not AAA.

Sorry Highlander. ;)

1 up, 0 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 10:00:46 AM

Underdog, the only JRPG this generation that has a shot at AAA status (so far) is White Knight Chronicles 1, I would probably put it in that category, but not at the top. Perhaps you might say it's an "AA and a half" title? Atelier is far, far too much a niche title to ever be considered AAA, although Atelier Totoroi (later this year in the West) and Atelier Meruru (late this year in Japan) develop the Rorona game further, so the quality and depth will increase, however even then It's probably not really an AAA title in the normal sense.

The Atelier games are more mainstream in appeal than many of the other RPGs like HyperDimension Neptunia, Ar Tonelico Qoga and Agarest War. there are others, and Valkyria Chronicles is IMHO a AAA title as well, although strictly speaking it's an SRPG.

With White Knight Chronicles 2, I think that WKC has a decent chance of making AAA quality, but I don't think it will see the more widespread success that it deserves. I have to say though that with all the people that put down money on FFXIII, there have to be literally millions of gamers who want what WKC offers but are simply not buying the game. Don't know why, but they are not.

Last edited by Highlander on 5/26/2011 10:01:32 AM

0 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 1:25:34 PM

Underdog, I believe you touch the very essence of why I have never understood this jcraze: The ps2. I never had one. I know *zero* about any console game prior to the ps3.

And I am of a clear impression that this unconditional love for everything japanese found around here is due to history more than current state of affairs. "You never forget your first love".
And I respect that! Lord knows I'd *not* enjoy games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance as much as I did had it not been that it featured pretty much my entire lineup of childhood heroes. Same goes for every single Marvel movie. History. Associations.
Not only do I respect it, I envy you guys. I've clearly missed something there.

HighLander: I think FF today floats almost entirely on it's successful history. Even I know the FF name well. It's a *huge* brand.
Also, from the outside Final Fantasy *looks* cooler than WKC. WKC has this very "japanese aura" over it, FF has a much broader appeal with its futuristic, more exciting wrapping (imo).

And just for the sake of clarity: I do not have a problem with a game being "japanese" or "exotic" in itself. For example, I *love* the japanese wackyness in Katamari (both the psp and ps3 katamaris being of my all time favorites). Simply love it.
And although I admittedly had a problem connecting with the story of WKC, it was the game mechanics that ultimately was the showstopper for me.

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 1:35:53 PM

1 up, 0 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 1:48:17 PM

Beamboom,

I think that the shadow that the FF franchise casts is a very large one. If you look at JRPG sales, FF was always the juggernaut, most other games really struggled to hit a million, and that was with over 100 million potential PS2 customers available. Even today that shadow is still cast. You'll here people regularly dismissing other JRPGs as nothing because they fail to meet the sales of FFXIII. The truth is that has always been the case (more or less). With JRPGs and other smaller games that cost less to develope, people need to stop waiting for multi-billion dollar sales numbers and look at whether the game was successful for the game maker and publisher. If they made a decent profit off the game, then it was a success for them, even if it never achieves FFXIII numbers.

WKC's system is a little different. Some people dislike it because it's not fully action, and some dislike it because it's not fully turn based. Personally I prefer turn based in games, but found that the WKC system kind of gave a best of both worlds, allowing me to enjoy the rest of the game without being totally alienated by an action based combat system. But, I think that very hybrid nature can leave gamers not sure which it is and getting disappointed when it really is neither one nor the other.

1 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 2:51:51 PM

I believe you are absolutely right when it comes to FF. From my perspective it looks like a giant has fallen - but still cast it's shadow.

Regarding WKC: I'm not so sure it was the battle system itself that was my main problem, though it's part of it. I think the creation of attacks were *awesome* on paper, but poorly executed. And the constant waiting was annoying, I admit that. Also I never really understood *how* I was supposed to refill that special attack bar.
However it's more the smaller things, but many of them, that made me stop playing it. Silly details like the mmo'ish respawning (I know you've referred to mmorpgs with WKC and you are spot on there. However this is *not* a mmo, and that makes a difference), and the repeated looting of the same source before it is empty (resources). I could go on, but to keep it general: It just feels like it's build on a very, very old engine, like some Amiga game with brushed up graphics.
Also I never got comfortable with my character being left out of the story, or that the characters all were essentially just kids... All in all I got a looong list of details like these who isolated do not mean much but adds up to a rather big issue.

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 2:54:20 PM

1 up, 0 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 3:32:04 PM

I think that the MMO thing really is an issue that comes from the influence of games like World of Warcraft. The biggest sin Level 5 committed was attempting to bridge too many things together. They made a JRPG that wants to be, but is not, an MMORPG. The result is a little awkward. The respawning isn't really anything new. Any JRPG I've ever played has either allowed you to revisit locations so you can level grind - and repeatedly kill similar enemies for similar drops. The resource, or harvest points are another element that I've seen in multiple games, you harvest from them and later you can go back again. That's pretty much baked into the genre. Having younger characters is pretty standard in JRPGs, the characters almost always are at the turning point of leaving their youth and entering adulthood, so in general they will be between 16 and 21 years old, or there about. It's just one of those conventions in JRPGs that's more or less universal.

I could explain the combat system, but of course that's not the point. I'm not really trying to persuade you to try the game, if it's not to your taste, it's not to your taste. I'm just discussing the other points you raised about the game in general.

The waiting between attacks - waiting turn, is kind of what makes it turn based. The other aspect of that waiting is that the time spent waiting for your turn depends on the size of the weapon and weight of your armor. So if you are weilding a dagger or bow and wearing really light cloth armor your wait between attacks is really short, but if you're a tank with a two handed Ax you could be waiting for 2-3 seconds vs a bowman waiting as little as half a second. That's actually one of the things they *need* to do better is give the player a bit more information on the speed factors so that you can equip your character knowing how the time between turns is affected by the equipment.

1 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 3:45:35 PM

Respawning: I got no problem with an area getting refilled. It's when they respawn right behind you, out of thin air, the exact same creature I just find to be so stupid.
It's like "ok so we are a computer game and doesn't even try to hide it". It has nothing to do with "role playing" the way I see it. So if they at least could wait until they were out of sight before respawning...!
This is what I mean with "old fashioned", the underlaying engine appears to be very simple in its design.

That being said, I'll give it a second (third?) go someday. Cause the things I liked about it (the towns, the graphics, the size, the "overall RPG feeling") was appealing indeed. I just am afraid that I'll end up getting "stuck in the details" again.

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 3:55:04 PM

1 up, 0 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 5:05:29 PM

Yeah, the pop-in of respawning creatures is an issue. It could be easily remedied by simply not allowing the respawn even while the player is within draw distance. Hey, perhaps it's fixed in WKC2? I suspect not, but you never know...But I totally get the point. I've been hanging around an area too long before when some Treant has respawned more or less on top of me. It would have been more fun it it had simply landed nearby with a huge thud.

0 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Friday, May 27, 2011 @ 2:18:44 AM

"landed nearby with a huge thud" - lol, oh man that would have been *legendary*. An attraction in itself! :D

0 up, 0 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 10:08:05 AM

White Knight Chronicles 2 comes out this summer, and the PSP WKC game also is out this summer, although I don't know if it has a US date, it will be available in Europe, and PSP games - like PS3 games, are essentially region free.

1 up, 0 down

Looking Glass
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 11:52:10 AM
Reply

You've got to be kidding me.

The man outright stated that he hated his job. I'd say that was a pretty good indicator of his intentions.

1 up, 0 down

Dreno
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 1:16:34 PM
Reply

@beamboom I appreciate the friendly advice. And ill do that more often, well when I can ( I do most of my psxe checking from my phone and for some reason not all comments have a reply button. But they. All do have the report button ).

So when I can use the reply button I will. Thanks for tellin me about it. Never noticed it before.

0 up, 0 down

Underdog15
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 1:22:27 PM

The lead message in a thread of responses has a reply button. You cannot reply to replies. you need to reply to the originating poster of that thread to continue the thread. That's why it looks like only some have reply buttons.

3 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 1:44:04 PM

What underdog said.
It's only the original post, the "main" post, the first one in that thread (the "root" as we geeks like to call it ;) ) that has the reply button.

But you are not alone in not noticing how these things work. I guess this is a challenge for whoever it is that is coding the user interface on this site. :)

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 1:49:55 PM

1 up, 0 down

Highlander
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 1:49:00 PM

Well, the coding change would be to include the parent's reply-to link/button on all child posts. I'd have to hope that can be done, but of course as usual, it's often easier to say than do.

Last edited by Highlander on 5/26/2011 1:49:42 PM

0 up, 0 down

Dreno
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 2:39:07 PM

Oh ok. Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

( if all went right, this messag should be my first reply )

HA! Now I'm savvy in the psxe webiste interface. Sweet

0 up, 0 down

Beamboom
Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 2:58:31 PM

Good job, Dreno :)

High: No I don't see how that would be a problem, other than from a pedagogical point of view. But a second alternative would be to add a "add reply" bar at the end of each thread.

Last edited by Beamboom on 5/26/2011 2:59:04 PM

0 up, 0 down

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