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How Solatorobo Got A Green Light From Namco Bandai

By Spencer . February 8, 2012 . 5:05pm

How Solatorobo Got A Green Light From Namco BandaiWhen CyberConnect2 isn’t making the next Naruto game or Haseo’s latest adventure, they create titles with anthropomorphic dogs. Tail Concerto for PsOne was CyberConnect2′s first game and they released and Bandai published it in Japan.

 

They pitched Tail Concerto 2 to Bandai afterwards, but since the first game didn’t meet sales expectations it wasn’t picked up. So, how did CyberConnect2 get Namco Bandai to publish Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, which is essentially a spiritual sequel?

 

"To overcome the weak points with Tail Concerto, we created massive amounts of assets, generating multiple concept documents, each time refining the world and settings to create a game with a very deep story and a detailed world view that even a mature audience could enjoy, and eventually were able to get the green light from our client," Takayuki Isobe, director of Solatorobo: Red the Hunter, wrote in an enlightening postmortem on Gamasutura.

 

Isobe also mentioned they ran focus tests with elementary school age kids to see what wasn’t obvious for younger children and how they continued to refine the Little Tail Bronx world so there were plenty of assets to use. Hopefully, enough assets to make another game.


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  • Spirit Macardi

    As far as I’m concerned, CC2 is run by freakin’ magicians since Namco doesn’t even continue some of their internally developed series.

    I’m so glad they did though, since Solatorobo is an incredible game. It’s easily my favorite game on DS due to its fun gameplay and beautifully told story. Plus, what other game lets you harpoon giant hermit crabs that use sunken battleships as shells?

  • Bunzi

    How did this game sell, by the way? Will a sequel, similar game ever be a thing in the future?

    • http://twitter.com/FaithlessMr Bruno Silva

       While VGchartz is flawed, it’s the only thing we can rely on for that info:

      http://www.vgchartz.com/game/44138/solatorobo-red-the-hunter/

      It didn’t sell amazingly well, but I think the sales were satisfactory. I think the Europe sales are that bad because the game is uber rare here in Europe, I don’t think many of the online retailers got this, and even in stores it’s pretty hard to find a new copy of this game.

    • RaikageV

      Actually there will be a sequel (if the source isn’t fake).
      Check this: http://twitter.com/#!/NobuteruYuki

  • Ladius

    Solatorbo was great, I hope they’re able to make another game in the same vein. That said, a more developed battle system would be welcome this time.

  • James Beatty

    I loved this game. It was amazing :P The ending was a bit odd but great overall. :P
    It’s in almost every way better than Tail Concerto and i really want to see a sequel soon on my 3DS :P

  • http://www.hamstapowah.com/ Zaron

    “Isobe also mentioned they ran focus tests with elementary school age kids to see what wasn’t obvious for younger children”

    This explains why I was told how to put a box on a switch about five different times.

    Love the game, hate how the first half is basically all hand-holding. :/

  • Novac

    I was hoping to hear about a sequel:(
    Solarotobo is an amazing game.

  • RaikageV

    Solatorobo is definitely one of the best DS games out there.
    However, there were some things that could be improved.
    I wonder how the sequel will be like.

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