What Is Working With TOSE Like?

By Spencer . May 1, 2009 . 6:04pm

What Is Working With TOSE Like?

TOSE is always lurking in the shadows, secretly developing games. Their portfolio includes Super Princess Peach, The Legend of Starfy, and tons Square Enix ports like Chrono Trigger. This year TOSE is taking care of Active Life: Extreme Challenge for Namco Bandai and we asked the US producer how TOSE did.

 

Active Life: Extreme Challenge is a sequel to Active Life: Outdoor Challenge which came out on the Wii last year. Namco Bandai Games Japan is leading the project, but they aren’t developing it in house. After Namco Bandai Games America suggested an extreme sports theme to increase appeal overseas the project was handed to TOSE.

 

“TOSE is a great, great developer,” Chester Vergara, Associate Producer lauded. “We had a game in our hands within months without seeing any sort of prototype.” The build at Namco Bandai’s Editor’s Day where journalists tried furiously stomped on a mat to base jump was near final. I asked Vergara how long TOSE worked on the project. “About six months,” he replied.

 

“The way games are made in Japan are way different than how we’re used to making games here,” Vergara explains. “Here we’re really heavy on art. There [in Japan] they are heavy on programming and tech. We didn’t see the game until later on and they had a full game before we knew it. It was quite a surprise for us to see that TOSE was really, really good with their design and implementation and they needed no direction whatsoever from us or NBGI.”


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  • Hero of Legend

    h.a.n.d developed the original!

  • RavenSchwann

    …whats with the tree? @_@; I don't get these kinds of games though, so I won't say anything else x3

  • lostinblue

    Well, taking Starfy aside I don't like TOSE, most of their games I played (final fantasy games for the GBA, Tales of Phantasia GBA, FFT PSP) were watered down badly ported games, and they pulled that ridiculously crappy game named Dead Rising Wii, who seems like if they were attempting to do Dead Rising on the N64.

    Sure they get the job done, and when they're doing them from the ground they even, have quality sometimes but… damn.

  • lostinblue

    they stole the tree from Paper Mario! lol

  • lostinblue

    h.a.n.d. rocks, after purchasing Chocobo's Dungeon and being blown away (I wasn't expecting much) I've got to say I'm a fan of theirs. I might even take a peek at their DS kingdom hearts game, and this is coming from someone who loads the darn thing (KH1/2=button masher)

  • MadMirko

    I can't help but be impressed by TOSE.

    You have to take into account what they get to work with when they are contracted, and why they are even used by companies like Square Enix. They hire TOSE when they don't feel like spending whatever it would cost to develop (most often a port) in-house, but still expect a product worthy of the company name and / or the franchise.

    Like you said, TOSE is very well capable of making quality software, but their most stand-out quality is their ability to make decent to good games with resources that would not suffice for any other company to even begin working.

  • Shuyin

    h.a.n.d. developed Flower, Sun and Rain for Suda and FSR wasn't exactly a game with good graphics, nor was it bug-free.

    Also, if you are to believe some rumors, h.a.n.d. is also responsible for some bugs that delayd KH DS several times.

  • lostinblue

    well, at least they're taking the time to fix them. Even Nintendo's HAL had big bugs in the past that made games like Kirby be delayed a few months… Hell, even Level-5 with Dragon Quest IX.

    No such game without bugs.

    And Flower Sun and Rain rocks too, one of the best Suda51 games.

  • lostinblue

    well, at least they're taking the time to fix them. Even Nintendo's HAL had big bugs in the past that made games like Kirby be delayed a few months… Hell, even Level-5 with Dragon Quest IX.

    No such game without bugs.

    And Flower Sun and Rain rocks too, one of the best Suda51 games.

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