Jaleco Left The Building, But Ougon no Kizuna Isn’t Dead

By Spencer . February 9, 2009 . 4:23pm

Jaleco Left The Building, But Ougon no Kizuna Isnt Dead Last month Jaleco Holdings sold off their video game business to Game Yarou who “bought” the company in the loosest sense of the term. In reality Game Yarou assumed all of Jaleco’s liabilities. Ouch.

 

Is this decision going to kill Ougon no Kizuna (Bonds of Gold) which is currently in development at Jaleco? Nah. Recently, the Ougon no Kizuna page was updated with character profiles and giant boss battles as a “greatest point”. Also, the product information page lists a product code, price (7,140 yen or US$78), and a spring release window for Japan. Still no word on an international publisher, but a project this big for a small company seems bound to get picked up by someone. Hello XSEED? NIS America? … Agetec?

 

Images courtesy of Jaleco.


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  • lostinblue

    XSeed already said they're interested.

    I'm just glad to know the development wasn't halted in Japan, first things first; first get it on track, polish it, then focus on an international release.

    Shame for Jaleco though, I felt they were taking chances in the lines of the Final Fantasy fairy tale, where the failing company was putting all their might into a quality product in hope that it would save them… except they didn't even last until the release; which is… kinda sad.

  • Ex Procrastinator

    Here's another Nintendo Wii game that will end up selling poorly in Japan. Why bother?

  • lostinblue

    as if same product with same budget and, most likely zero advertisement, would do better anywhere else.

    DS and PSP would be the only alternatives, really.

  • Ishaan

    IIIIIIIIT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!

    Good to know, good to know. Game looks good. Will buy. I just hope it plays well because, well…Spring release date and not one single preview?

  • lostinblue

    and not a single video, too.

  • http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

    I was kind of kidding around with Agetec, but they do have a relationship with Jaleco that other publishers like Atlus don't have.

  • daizyujin

    I just hope it is worth it, the last game I played from Jaleco left a bad taste in my mouth. Dekotora Matsuri. Man, that game was low, it make me want to play Superman 64 again. Ok, maybe not but it was a pretty bad game.

  • EvilAkito

    Phew, I was getting worried. I really didn't care about the Jaleco news, until I was reminded about Kizuna.

  • lostinblue

    I heard their Goblin Commander is good.

    Also, bare in mind that apparently they brought talent from outside for this one, namely:

    - Scenario: Miwa Shouda (script for: FFXII, Saga Frontier, Little King's Story)
    - Director/Programmer: Youichi Kawaguchi (DQVIII's main programmer, Little King's Story, formerly Level-5 employee)

    and the music was appearing to be fine too, although no names were given; before Jaleco gone under, that is.

  • daizyujin

    Ok, well I guess all we can do is wait.

  • Ishaan

    I hate to have to bring this up, but Smash Bros. Brawl had FFVII's scenario writer and look how that turned out. >_>

    That said, taking creative liberties with an original I.P. is probably far easier than with established Nintendo characters, so colour me interested. :)

  • daizyujin

    Yeah, there is only so much you can do with the Nintendo universe of characters though. Some of the designs and such are so different, it makes is pretty hard to come up with much of anything that blends well. To be honest, I was happy with it since I couldn't see it coming out much better no matter who wrote it. Anybody that could come up with a great story to blend Pikachu with Samus would have to have god like powers.

  • Ishaan

    Yeah, I' m really glad Sakurai got as much creative freedom as he did. I recall reading somewhere that his primary condition was that no one would interfere with the development of HIS game. It probably helped that Iwata and Sakurai had been so close prior to them leaving HAL.

    I really, really wish that the worlds you visit hadn't been so generic. For the next Smash Bros. I would love to see a more Kingdom Hearts type approach.

  • lostinblue

    well… if you heard how the guy started writing the argument you'd be thankful it turned out like it did… I recall he started writing it as if they were all on a bus and went to school or something like that.

  • Ishaan

    Yeah, I heard about that. Glad to see Sakurai wasn't standing for any of that nonsense.

  • lostinblue

    found it:

    Sakurai: It wasn’t bad at all and had its own appeal, but it was a bit different than what I had envisioned it would be. It went something like this…”Some of the characters are on a bus on the way to the stadium. Samus is there. Donkey Kong is there and Snake is watching the bus from afar.” It was like that. (laughs) I had envisioned a more serious tone for the story. Something with some misfortunelike a single character escaping total annihilation of his squadron and then fighting back while rounding up his allies. Ultimately, we worked together and successfully organized our ideas into the storyline for the subspace emissary.

    Thank… god…

  • Ishaan

    Samus on a bus…I ask you…

  • Ex Procrastinator

    dude, the nintendo wii is worthless. stop defending it.

  • jarrod

    Pretty much. I could see PSP maybe but then on Wii, Kizuna would have chance of selling outside Japan too. It's really the best choice for Japanese games worldwide besides DS.

  • jarrod

    Town Factory (of Little King's Story fame) is also working on the game btw.

  • lostinblue

    I didn't know that, cheers.

    And I gotta get little king story when it ships too.

  • jarrodand

    Pretty much. I could see PSP maybe but then on Wii, Kizuna would have chance of selling outside Japan too. It's really the best choice for Japanese games worldwide besides DS.

  • jarrodand

    Town Factory (of Little King's Story fame) is also working on the game btw.

  • lostinblue

    I didn't know that, cheers.

    And I gotta get little king story when it ships too.

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