Thank you for the soundtrack goodie^^

[Terro]

I do love soundtracks! I was hoping for an artbook, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards for this game. Although I do have a question about the CD: will it be packed in similar to how Atlus does theirs: have it in an artsy hard paper sleeve, with a box around it? Or some other way?

[Lumina]

I'm actually excited that it's a soundtrack, I'll be tossing it on my ipod with all of my other game music. :)

About the packaging, unless there have been any changes Tom was saying he thinks it will be a separate item.

[Terro]

Haven't seen soundtracks done as a seperate item for a while now! I think the last one I recall was from Fragile. Usually now it's boxed up like Atlus's DS games or when we found out Ys Chronicles will be boxed with the soundtrack, or Atlus sticking it on the case of the PS360 game, and adding another layer of plastic around it.

I think "first print copies" does hint to it being packed to it, somehow... I still think games dropped the seperate OST deal, because of issues with people ever even GETTING the item. I've heard of stories from people getting the game they preordered from Gamestop to find out that they didn't get the item in/ran out/etc.

[Wyrdwad]

Yeah, to be honest, that was just a guess on my part... and it turns out I was wrong! It will indeed be boxed in with the game, a la our first-print versions of Ys I & II Chronicles on the PSP.

I also know that you can expect the soundtrack itself (which is, BTW, quite complete -- it contains all the same tracks as the soundtrack CD packaged with the Japanese version) to have some very nice packaging. It may even be our nicest CD packaging yet...

-Tom

[reyvard]

I have a question for wyrdwad or anyone who know about japanese goodie stuff : why we rarely have bonus dvd or drama cd in our USA / european versions or less the goodies that BACONBACONBACON people have in collector edition ( don't get wrong I'm not speaking especially about xseed but all companies who looks after localisation for rpg games )

[Ryos]

I have a question for wyrdwad or anyone who know about japanese goodie stuff : why we rarely have bonus dvd or drama cd in our USA / european versions or less the goodies that BACONBACONBACON people have in collector edition ( don't get wrong I'm not speaking especially about xseed but all companies who looks after localisation for rpg games )

Anything like that has to be licensed with all the actors involved, which tends to be extraordinarily expensive for something most folks wouldn't bother listening to.

[Terro]

I also know that you can expect the soundtrack itself (which is, BTW, quite complete -- it contains all the same tracks as the soundtrack CD packaged with the Japanese version) to have some very nice packaging. It may even be our nicest CD packaging yet...


THIS is awesome!! Right now, I can only afford to preorder and buy games that come with extra limited goodies, making these games priority over regular editions, which I could pick up later. Now, Solatorobo is getting my preorder in^^ I'm glad, since I was wanting to pick this up sooner than later! can't wait!

[reyvard]

ah thanks for the answer , I actually don't knew that it could be so expensive , anyway it's not for only for ys games but thanks for ys and liberl map ( I turned she to see now estelle and joshua )!

[Shizuka]

Loved it, now I really want this game.

[Wyrdwad]

In addition to what Ryos said, extras like that (drama CDs especially) would require TONS of extra translating, and most likely tons of voice-work as well (unless we were to like... create video accompaniment for the audio readings and subtitle them? But that would be pretty expensive and time-consuming too!).

In the end, it just seems smarter to focus that time, energy and money on translating and recording dialogue for new games, you know? ;)

-Tom

[Vlcice]

I want to give my thanks too :D I already have the soundtrack that came with the Japanese collector's edition, but still nice to have.

[Nephlabobo]

All I want to know is who is offering the soundtrack for Canada, because Amazon are xenophobic BACONBACONBACONBACONs and won't ship games outside of their respective countries. (No U.S. or UK games to Canada - it's crap)

[Lumina]

XSEED has actually been really good with Canada for the most part, I've only ever really had two issues buying their stuff here.

1. I had to raise a major stink and go up the Gamestop chain of command to the district manager level to get a copy of the Fragile Dreams preorder CD because they "didn't get any". This is why I'm such an advocate of packed in bonuses, so incompetent workers can't screw it up for the consumer.

2. Gamestop has a really bad system for identifying between standard and limited edition releases in their computers and over many visits to the store they couldn't ever locate the Limited Edition of Trails in their system. I ended up having to order from Amazon.ca to ensure that's what I got.

Honestly, the best thing you can do with Gamestop in Canada is raise hell when you don't get something. Canada wasn't "supposed to" get the KH Cloud outfit for Dissidia Duodecim, or the God Eater Burst preorder DLC, but after waving my stack of preorders at them and complaining that Canada is part of North America too, and that it's rediculous to offer specials in a region within a region they caved and sent me both.

[Chaosblade]

The employees at your local Gamestop must mumble some wonderfully kind words when they see you go in. :p

[Lumina]

Lol yea, I can pretty much see the "oh no.." on their faces when I walk in, but at the very least they know they can't feed me BS because I'll call them on it.

It's pretty sad though really, because I'm not being unreasonable, I just want what I paid for/what was advertised!

[Terro]

As someone who has been in retail for many years (and yes, have worked at Gamestop) it's actually commonplace to not be sent in either enough games to fill preorder (which in case could be them not shipping enough extra games to take care of last minute preorders), or not getting in preorder items at all, or running out. You should've seen thr fiasco over Sgt. Johnson preorder codes for Halo ODST. Wow the soccer moms went crazy when their kids told them that the codes ran out. Whoever made those dlc code cards seriously underestimated how many to print for stores...

As fot Canada the same as North America, no, not always. There's many collectors editions of games that never got sent to Canada. Preorders are the same, as there are many bonuses I never even knew existed until later, even after people preordered them.

Just remember one thing when you come into stores mad because of these issues: the store employes aren't (always) the bad guys. I've always worked at places where managers are thr "we'll do what we can to get it for you" type. Head offices however, wow I've sure seen them do some stupid things sometimes...

[Wyrdwad]

All I want to know is who is offering the soundtrack for Canada, because Amazon are xenophobic BACONBACONBACONBACONs and won't ship games outside of their respective countries. (No U.S. or UK games to Canada - it's crap)

The soundtrack is going to be packed in the box with ALL first-print shipments of the game, so... I guess to answer your question, *we* are! Just go preorder the game, and you'll get your soundtrack with it for sure.

-Tom

[Lumina]

Terro, while what some of what you say is true, I also worked at a Gamestop in my younger years and I know all to well how many employees are unaware of the product they sell and give preorder bonuses away to any customer as swag, or just take them for themselves and then tell customers there aren't any.

The only Limited Edition I've ever seen the US get and not Canada was the Rorona LE, and it was Gamestop's decision to not bring it up to Canada, even though NISA even set the box up to be bilingual.

[Terro]

Well like I said, the employees aren't ALL good with that kind of stuff. I know while on occasion, even though there was only one item preordered or none, they would still send us a few preorder bonuses. However, I made sure to preorder Fragile to get the soundtrack. I remember seeing that there was box that the soundtrack was getting shipped in, (we only got the one) but on my next shift at work, I couldn't find it anywhere in the preorder bonus shelf. My manager (who I was close friends with) said he set it aside for me, but I asked all my other co workers if they took it, thinking no one preordered it, and they all said 'no'. So, one of them lied since I never found it. I went to the next closest location, where they knew me (since I always poked around for RPGs there) and they had the bonus in, even though fortunately no one preordered it. I was lucky to get it there.

So yeah, I totally know how things can be sometimes. That situation was a pain too, but glad I got it because I LOVED the Fragile OST! Since you worked at a GS once, at least you understand things. I was just hoping you weren't someone that pointed the finger to just the employees, since I know ALOT of people don't know how retail works.

As for CEs, I thought there was more than just Rorona that didn't make it to Canada... I never did understand WHY Gamestop decided not to bring it either, since I heard both Neptune and AT3 got boxed releases. I just know many companies never like to give Canada fair treatment. At least, websites that stream tv shows are getting better, being the same region and all.

[Vlcice]

All I want to know is who is offering the soundtrack for Canada, because Amazon are xenophobic BACONBACONBACONBACONs and won't ship games outside of their respective countries. (No U.S. or UK games to Canada - it's crap)

Try Video Games Plus (http://www.videogamesplus.ca). They're my favourite Canadian game retailer. Fantastic customer support, and their support for preorder/first-run stuff for this kind of game is great - they have an Atlus-specific store, for example. They've already updated the entry for Solatorobo to say that it includes the soundtrack. Shipping within Canada is $2.99.

Edit: I realize that makes me look like a shill. Just a happy customer. ;) They're the ones I preordered Solatorobo with.

[Lumina]

As for CEs, I thought there was more than just Rorona that didn't make it to Canada... I never did understand WHY Gamestop decided not to bring it either, since I heard both Neptune and AT3 got boxed releases. I just know many companies never like to give Canada fair treatment. At least, websites that stream tv shows are getting better, being the same region and all.

Yea I don't get it either. The only potential reason I could think of was they got more preorders for Rorona in the US than they ordered from NISA and they decided to keep them all in the states to fill those preorders first, but who knows really.

What made this worse is that I always order LE NISA titles directly from NISA, but even they weren't offering the boxed LE of Rorona because of an exclusivity deal with Gamestop. The story has a happy ending though because I was able to secure a boxed Rorona LE from another site that somehow had copies of the boxed LE. Plus it seems they listened to fan feedback because as you said, both Neptune and AT3 were available worldwide in the boxed LE format. From what I've seen so far Disgaea 4 and Totori will follow the same trend which makes me really happy.

Anyway, I'm derailing this thread hardcore so I'll shush now!

[AngrySalesMonkey]

Some of the experiences listed in this thread are why we try not to offer separate pre-order bonuses anymore and always try to package it into the box instead. Though we can offer odd-sized things that would be extremely difficult to package into a box (like the Onii dolls for Little King's Story), so many of them end up not getting into the hands of the intended people that it's just not worth it. Really sucks getting mails from people that pre-ordered our games but couldn't get their pre-order bonus for whatever reason, a little bit of us dies each time we hear that.

[Terro]

^ Yeah, I'm really glad guys like you and Atlus changed how preorder bonuses work! I figured reasons like the above is why things changed. I like it better this way AND you usually get a fancy box to go with it^^ Just... as long as you don't go the cheapy route like EA and give us digital codes for the songs -__-' That's just a pain and it never feels like you're actually getting anything extra! I LOVE my soundtracks with pretty art both on the case and on the disk itself!! I have a shelf that's VERY full of preorder bonus soundtracks^^ Fortunately, ones that come in boxes are even easier to store!

[WoottWinds]

The Onii dolls were an interesting ordeal for me personally. I'm not sure if just Amazon did it this way, but they basically had the Onii shrink-wrapped onto the back of the Little King's Story case. When my order came in, the back of the game case and the disc itself had completely warped to the curvature of the Onii. I returned it and had a replacement sent out, got the same problem, returned it again after an hour of explaining it to the sales rep., and got the same thing a third time where luckily the disc had been only slightly warped and was playable after flattening the disc with heavy books. I can definitely see how some extra goodies are indeed packaging challenges...

Anyways, just wanted to offer my thanks for the Solotaorobo soundtrack as well, can't wait to give it a listen and play the game!

[SplatterTrigger]

It seems we all have a tale to tell about Gamestop lol. Anyways XSEED I truly appreciate the inclusion of the soundtrack!

[LunarCharm]

It was exciting enough to learn Solatorobo was being worked on, and the added soundtrack bonus is really great news as well. Thank you, XSEED!