Bismarck aggro.
Bismarck aggro.
As mentioned, Tales of Eternia Online. Also latency would be an issue for doing combos unless near a server, since it's essentially a frame-sensitive 2D fighter, and you have to decide if the server or the client determines the frames. Dungeon Fighter Online is a thing again, and has some similar issues if far from the server when doing PVP. In Japan, where fiber is everywhere? Yeah, they could pull it off, but may not get the population needed to sustain it. ToEO, I see as mainly having failed because it was PC-only, at a time that home PCs were really uncommon as a gaming platform in that country. I tried to get into it, but it was hard on an XP system with my knowledge of Japanese at the time, and lag in Alaska would have been killer. It also turned out that my laptop didn't meet the graphics requirement, and it was shut down by the time I got a PC desktop.
Yeah, I have no doubt lag would be the greatest possible offender. Though even what short clip was shared, the fights being instanced with the graphics being retro-2D are, as I implied, not how I'd go about it. But if the game's that old, I suppose I can understand the graphics. Otherwise, there are online fighters, even if as simple as Smash. So maybe we'll get there someday, but I wouldn't argue at against America's net structure being improved.
Almost 10 years at this point. Note that the style of the game was pretty spot on when compared to Tales of Eternia (offline). I definitely didn't have any complaints about that. I think most people got what they were looking for in that sense. I just don't think that there was much overlap in Japan with the type of person who played PC MMORPGs and people who played games in the series. Might still not be.
Video of the original game, for reference.
Yeah, ToEO was out in what, 2004? Died in 2006 IIRC. ToE for PS1 came out in the US in 2001, and I think in Japan in 2000. Tales games on PS2 were still 2D until Legendia in 2006 or so, which was after Destiny 2, Rebirth, and I think Destiny Remake (maybe Director's Cut). Tales were mostly 2D at that time period. Japan had widespread broadband via fiber-optic DSL around that year, so local instancing of fights wouldn't have needed to be done, and lag wouldn't be an issue inside the country.
Symphonia was the first 3-D Tales actually, and came out in 2003.
I know, but not on PlayStation systems. The PS2 version was what, 2005 or 2006? They certainly weren't mass-producing them until Legendia onwards.
Ah, missed that you said PS2. Legendia was mostly a flop, sales wise, though. Despite being on the PS2, Japan's bread and butter console of the time, it still only sold about 10% more than Symphonia (GC) in Japan. If you consider GC Symphonia to be a semi-flop for Japan figures, I don't think they had a real success in 3-D until Abyss.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Eternia_Online
Oh wow. Released March 2006, offline in March 2007. Had a run of just over a year. I do remember trying to get into the beta test while I was in trade school in 2005 now that I look back. My 2004 laptop couldn't handle it, and I couldn't figure out account registration after the FFXIOnline.com guide to typing a Japanese address was taken down that I used for FFXI in 2002.