I was suprised to read someone's post earlier (can't
remember which list it was on) that GameArts dumped WD
because of continuous delays. The reason shocked me at
first but then made some sense as I remember reading that
Grandia is supposed to be out over here later this year in
the US but WD won't have anything to do with and it'll be
Sony who's bringing it out.
All I can say is...serves 'em right. I can't understand how
a company like that can have continuous delays on games
like that. I constantly joke with my friends and tell them
that whenever they see an initial release for a WD game,
expect it 6 months later. The sad part is, that game will
in fact come out six months later. I wonder what's this
mean for Lunar Eternal Blue for PSX? Will Sony snag it up
or will some other company like Atlus get it?
As it were, GameArts was pretty much WD's bread and butter
line. I half expected them to get the PSX version of
Grandia when I initially heard about it. Someone else
posted that they were interested in translating a
compilated Ys..the very thought of which sends shudders
down my spine. I just couldn't see classic WD "humor"
tainting a vaunted series like Ys. It just ain't right. :)
Lastly, for those that have seen the promo box in EBs and
Babbages for Lunar, did anyone else notice the ESP logo on
the box? I'm assuming it was put there for the sake of Game
Arts, who is a member of that group. I can't see them
allowing WD in considering they produce no games on their
own and only license from other companies. Heck, Crave Ent.
had a better chance of making it in than them (though I
wouldn't want to see them in either) 'cuz at least they
have a game done in house. It ain't the best and totally
rips off Final Fantasy 7 (if you copy, you copy one of the
best I suppose) but at least it's an original product. Ah
well.
The loss of GameArts hurt I'm sure but there's plenty of
fish in the pond left for WD. They were able to snag stuff
like Albert Odyssey, Vay, Alundra, and Elemental Gearbolt
for release so it wouldn't suprise me if they just latched
on to another company for release material. Speaking of
Albert Odyssey, I just started playing that and I'm about 2
hours into it...so far I can't believe how much "comedy"
was put in the game.
Maybe now WD will go back and pursue publishing Arc the Lad
1 and 2. Yeah... (though I wish they did come over here).
Richter