Ben-DutkaCurrently, only Japanese fans have access to the full available content for White Knight Chronicles II .
And a lot of North American and European RPG aficionados have a problem with that.
The community has come together to present those in charge – D3 Publisher, Level-5, and Sony – with a petition that asks for delivery of all the extra content that has not been received in the US or Europe. The fans have sent a copy of the petition in PDF and CD-ROM format to various bosses at the aforementioned companies, and they're hoping for a response.
The fans contend that there's no reason to limit this extra content to Japan, as WKCII hasn't sold more than 7,000 copies in the Land of the Rising Sun in the last two years. So with relatively similar sales numbers across all major territories territories (270,000 in Japan, 260,000 elsewhere) why shouldn't everyone get the content they crave? Hopefully, the guys on the receiving end of this petition – including SCEA president Jack Tretton, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, and Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino – will acquiesce to what appears to be a reasonable request.
Good luck, guys!
Related Game(s): White Knight Chronicles II
Only 7,000 copies sold in Japan??? That is a really sad number… I hope Ni No Kuni doesn't do those numbers too 'cause if it does it'll be the end of RPG's for good…
Last edited by Yukian on 12/2/2012 10:52:33 PM
Not quite…
Only 7000 copies sold during 2011/2012 – the game launched in 2010. In Japan and total sales lifetime sales (as of Oct 2012 according to VG Chartz) in Japan were 270,000.
In the West the game launched in 2011. June 2011 in Europe and September 2011 in North America. Outside Japan the game has sold approximately 260,000 copies (as of October 2012), with approximately 95,000 of those copies sold during 2012.
All numbers are courtesy of VGChartz.
The problem is that Japanese gamers received a bunch of new quests and other things during 2011 and through 2012, even though their total sales are more or less the same as elsewhere, and even though the sales during 2011/2012 have been very limited. It seems that the development and support of WKC2 content in Japan has been financed through the revenue generated by the Western released of WKC2. According to the information at VGChartz less than 100 copies of WKC2 sold in Japan during 2012, and yet they continued to receive new content and support for the game there. It's crystal clear that the only revenue driving that continued support is being generated by Western sales of the game.
It looks like Japan is doing pretty well, but yikes on the other regions combined. This game deserves waaay more than 500k sales. Then again I've never played the first one, and have only played it with WKC2 updates. Perhaps it would attract more if WKC1 was what WKC2 is? I heard battles way too slow in WKC1. And of course the Reviews probably played a big part of it, but I'm surprised RPG enthusiasts around the world would be affected by such judgements. This is at least a very decent RPG at least. I know I bought it cause I'm a RPG fan, otherwise I'd go with the reviews and ignore it. Glad I did the latter.
Anyway, I heard some rumors on youtube on a WKC3. How true is that you think?
A friend of mine who is/was resident in Japan mentioned that once before too, but I've heard nothing good about it since. I think the overall sales were too disappointing. WKC1 sold over 1 million copies, WKC2 only managed half that – more or less.
As for the sales numbers, it's not uncommon for JRPGs to sell better in Japan, but then it's also not uncommon for JRPGs to sell better in the West as some of the recent Atelier games seem to have. I think in the end we have top remember that a JRPG is a JRPG because it's Japanese so it should not be a surprise that such games sell better in their home market. The FF series of games may be something of an exception there.
That said, with modern consoles, development tools and better software design, making a JRPG and localizing it to other languages is not the same level of effort that it once was. If companies do more to treat consumers in the West as well as they do the ones in their 'home' market, they might have more success.
Then again, WKC2 was mauled by critics unfairly, it was a major improvement over the previous installation in almost every respect. The previous game was still good, and did have a slower pace, more like that traditional tur based JRPG kind of pace. Not truly turn based though. WKC2 accelerates combat, it's at least twice as fast in play, a few other things were smoothed out as well, making the game that much slicker over all. But some critics apparently reviewed WKC2 by looking at WKC1 and ignoring any improvements.
Sad to say, but I think many gamers no longer take the time to read honest reviews or research things, and take reviews at their face value – aka the review score.
Thank you for running this Ben. There are a lot of appreciative people who will read this.
What kinds of content are we missing?
There is a 10 part series of story quests that feature the player avatar, there are numerous quests for Guild Ranks higher than 26, there are at least half a dozen sets of armor, new weapons and new gear for the Incorruptus, and a whole new area for the avatar story quests. There are even items that are listed in the official game strategy guide that was sold here, that are not yet released because they are in the quests we have yet to see. There is also a new patch to raise the maximum level to 90 and maximum guild rank to 50, along with some countermeasures to detect and block hacked saves from being used.
Wow Highlander. Just wow. Thanks for the know. I didn't realize we've been missing THAT much.
I wonder if we threw money into petitions would they be more willing to do stuff?
yes
It is awesome you are running this! Thank you. WKC has become one of my favorite PS3 games…any forum to bring attention to the cause is huge!
Im still confused why SCEA didn't publish the game… Anyway I don't play WKC2 I can certainly understand fans feeling cheated! Level 5 should of said all regions would not get the dlc. Its dlc how hard could it be for all regions to receive it. I felt shafted by Quantic Dream and Sony when promised dlc for Heavy Rain was cancelled because of Move.
Quests in an RPG like WKC2 are exactly the same in all languages, the only difference is that there are resource files that contain the text for the quest in each of the target languages. So the effort to localize such material is limited to that translation – which let's face it, doesn't have to be perfect. It's therefore not exactly expensive to localize this content – ESPECIALLY as most of the un-released gear and some of the quests are already on the game discs in varying degrees of translation.
… And on top of that, Highlander, they could even have made an event out of it and let the fans translate the texts! Just imagine how that would have been received by the fans!
Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) has made a portal, Launchpad, where translations are done in a systematic fashion. All users across the world can contribute by translating to their languages. This service is used by thousands of applications in the Ubuntu repository, and the translations has proven to be of high quality. Much the same effect as Wikipedia. There's something about throwing enough people at a challenge and it *will* be solved. 🙂
Although translating from Japanese probably is one of the harder tasks out there, surely it would have been worth a shot and that web service could then later be used on other projects too.
Last edited by Beamboom on 12/3/2012 1:48:44 AM
That's pretty interesting Boom.
I wish the community lots of luck, it's a great game and the somewhat lackluster battle system is much more involved and exciting when online and collaborating with other humans.
The sales everywhere are probably thanks to the overall poor reviewing skills currently biased against JRPGs.
I agree
yeah thats not fair to the rest of us around the world why only japan gets more content then the other nations? just so unfair that they get the only added content and U.s.a and rest of the world suffers just not right everyone should get the same content not just 1 country i'm how would they feel if we get a extra content and they don't just not fair am i right?
Hopefully, somebody will see this and care enough to do something about. I find it ridiculous that stuff like this still happens. It's not '87 anymore when gamers were, for the most part, blissfully ignorant of what they were missing out on. It's bad enough that not all games get localized to a non-Japanese audience, but keeping extra content for a game that already has an audience is absurd.
I bought the game recently and have been playing it. I'm having a lot of fun with it and have invested a lot of hours. I just wish I hadn't started so late because a big part of the game is online. For now I'm just solo :(.
Do you know about Highlanders guild? Join them!
NekomimisFTW! we're top 10 and I just opened up more than 40 membership spots by letting some retired players go.
Awesome! If I may, I'll be applying soon. Seriously though, I'm enjoying this game more than FFXIII by a long shot. Online sounds like a fun thing to be part of, and no monthly fees either.
I need to start getting on WKC1/2, I have been away too long.
daus,
I'm also just playing the game now. I'm mid-50s level and up to the end stage in the story. Feel free to message me if you need help. I haven't done any online quests yet, but I'd be willing to join you if you want.
PSN: Fane1024
It's funny, I bought wkc2 a while ago, but hadn't finished Wkc 1….so I pushed hard to finish 1 so I could start 2…and that's as far as I got, I love the games, but I just need to get back into it again…
I just want all of us in the NA and Eu to get the content we paid for.
I still need to get this gem. I will wait for a game of the year Ed.
HMMMM, why don't they give their Japanese add-ons to "Monkey Paw, since MP loves doing localization of Japanese games, for the NA market.
I remember being amped for this series, even downloaded trailers from JAP PSN. I may snag WCK2 for cheap (it comes with the first one right?). I'm only interested in the single play. I'm sort of turned off by the grinding I heard the game has.
There is a lot of grinding post story. Most of that is done online, and you can do it one of two ways, run the same three quests dozens and dozens of times, or play with a group and just play whatever quest comes along. You can power grind through the GRs if you want, you will get the desired GR in fewer days, but at the cost of treating the game like a chore, not a game.
Most of the folks I play with ranked up by taking the scenic route ad playing quests as they came up – as did I.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 12/3/2012 11:08:41 AM
Sensei,
I've basically finished the game with minimal grinding, though I do tend to scour every corner and so probably have killed more mobs than someone who runs through levels more quickly. I'm just over 100 hours, but a ton of that time was spent in towns and menus binding items, etc.
And, yes, it does come with WKC1. It plays like one game; there isn't even really an end game when you finish part 1.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 12/4/2012 4:40:34 AM
umm WKC2 is 20 bucks now (and ye it comes with the first one) not gonna get much cheaper than that lol.
As for the lack of content.. Id LOVE to see it myself but unfortunately these petitions hardly ever work. The thing is 90% of the missing content is actually ON the EU disc but not the US disc.. so its already translated basically.. but due to the PSN outage that kinda slowed things down for D3 in the US and thus the lack of having it on the US disc already and the fact that the game would be "broken" if EU unlocked the content but US couldnt/didnt.. but they now claim that that content is only meant to be exclusive to japan… ok if that WERE true why is it on the EU disc right? Sounds like PR/damage control to me.
But if anything I blame the US publisher… I mean they had a low budget shovelware company handle this.. who release 5 dollar games like ben 10 and icarly.. of course this was gonna happen.. I bet if Bandai/namco (they OWN D3publisher) handled the US publishing themselves we wouldnt be having this discussion
The PSN outage is nothing more than a convenient excuse Duo. The three languages on the NA disc are already on the EU disc as well. There was no need for a separate localization for the US, SCEE already had the work done. Why D3 wasted time and money doing so is beyond me.
what i was saying is that the EU disc already has the avatar content (some of the quests anyway i dont think it has ALL of them) locked but on the disc.. whereas the US disc dont have that content hidden on them, so IF we got it wed actually have to download it whereas the EU would just get a simple unlock patch/code.. so clearly SOMETHING happened as to why the EU discs has that stuff but the US ones dont
True. According to those that have hacked their game disc, the Avatar story is all there, but only half translated, the rest is populated with placeholder text awaiting the rest of the text to be added. But the guts of the quests, the location(s) used and all the items are already there. Most of the items are on the US disc as well, that's why save file modders can use things that have not yet been released and they are visible to all players. There was a recent issue with a malformed modded save causing certain inventory items to be forced into other players inventory (so much for modded saves being safe for other players). The items in question being a female knight armor set called the Angela set. This is – for example – on all our game discs, but not released for use. I know a lot of players online, and most of them would have paid $1 for that new armor design alone. Not sure why D3/Sony/Level 5 have done such a poor job with this game…but they have.
well WKC1 never got all the DLC in the US either and D3 is good at not relasing all DLC in there games.. we never got all the gods eater burst DLC in teh US.. but at least that one was understandabl because the dlc we didnt get consisted of a lot of anime characters from other shows/games that would require them getting licenses to relase out here which they couldnt get.. so at least they have an excuse I can believe with that but the WKC2 one is lame
The last statement that D3 made on DLC is demonstrably false, which just makes it worse. It's like these companies think that the Internet doesn't exist and that we somehow don't know about the other content. 🙁
If they do, it's too late for me. I'm so over this game now. D3 as well
I'll never buy another game from D3, Namco owns D3, and I am seriously considering each purchase from them in future too. Level 5 is not entirely blameless in this, and they use the same partners for Ni No Kuni, a game I was once interested in. However thanks to the bad taste in my mouth from this experience, I am unlikely to buy it – an attitude alarmingly common among WKC2 players. If I were Level 5, I'd be paying more attention to my consumers.
It's frustrating. You defend the game so hardcore only to have them basically prove you wrong on purpose.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 12/4/2012 7:25:13 PM
Daus26 feel free to add me on PSN , I can help you around I still play and always helping errant new players. I can introduce you to a few great guilds if you want to have more options, although I have to admit Highlander's guild is very good, I've helped a few of its members before in random lobbies while farming.
BTW to all off the psx community I've been a long, long long time reader. But this is the article pushed me to join your community, your humble new member oni . WKC2 its a great game I hope we get all that content to enjoy it.
Welcome Onicerberus. I play WKC2 daily, and am easy to find. There are several regulars here at PSXExtreme that still play regularly.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 12/3/2012 4:49:18 PM
Welcome Onicerberus. I play WKC2 daily, and am easy to find, my avatar name is KOSMOS and I am the guild leader of the NekomimisFTW!
onicerberus,
Welcome to the PSXE comment section.
D3/Sony need to give us what we paid for, sick of companies pulling stuff like this. Translations are not that bad these days honestly, fan sites translate Japanese manga every week, only the Avatar quests are text heavy, the rest of the quests just have a few lines and armor/items to do.
Text heavy or not, it's not *that* expensive to hire a translator to translate from Japanese to English and then the other European languages from English.
Since my contact information is on the petition documents that were sent out to the various parties, they will hopefully contact me with any response. I will update Ben on anything that we receive back, and also update people through the WKC2 forum at Neoseeker, the WKC2 page on Facebook, the NekomimisFTW! guild page at Facebook and the in-game message board.
hopefully this does something i 100% support this but i want everyone to look at this
http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/2012/07/23/white-knight-chronicles-2-dlc/
take a good like at the site youll notice every idea posted has more dislikes than likes this is way to much of a coinkydink but its worth looking into because it just might expose sony ^_~
Wow, didn't know there was such a community for WKC. I played the first one – with unsatisfactory results; namely, the slow, clunky, battle system, out-of-place and distant character acting, and just the grind of it all – but intend to get the second one only to finish the series.
I seriously need to play some or any RPGs because its been forever and I heard the game is cheap, $20 cheap. The PS3 has received no love in the RPG department, only lackluster ports of Japans many attempts to capture Xbox gamers.
I tried out the online component for WKC1 and felt it was more of a chore/grind to get anything done and was hoping for a different outcome with the 2nd installment. I must say it's a shame they didn't release the DLC content for NA; the fans would've appreciated it. At least mention released DLC will only be for the JPN region. Problem is, the game didn't sell well in either region, US or JPN – under 500k for mainland sales. They probably believe there is no reason to push out DLC for other regions and save that money for future projects. The end game is still negative backlash and future punishments from fans, I agree.
Last edited by ransomink on 12/7/2012 5:22:34 AM