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Akira Game for PS2?
Deltan writes: "Akira fans rejoice! According to ICV2.com a game based on the classic Japanese animated film Akira is being developed by AIA for release in August, soon after the Akira remastered Video and DVD are released."
(user inserts game CD)
(Neo-Tokyo blows up)
Rendered Kaneda: Tatsuo!
Rendered Tatsuo: Kaneda!
(user inserts second game CD)
(Neo-Tokyo blows up)
(with apologies to whoever came up with the world's shortest Akira plot summary originally)
Chris
I didn't think the translation of Akira was that poor (no more than normal). The objection I have is to the choice of voice actors for some of the characters. For example, that one green kid who floats around in the bubble (his name escapes me) does not have a wierd scratchy monster voice in the Japanese version, he has the voice of a regular 8-year-old child -- which you might expect. Why the wierd voice? Because he's green? What does that have to do with the plot?
That, and it drives me nuts how the American voice actors insist on putting stress on the wrong syllable in Japanese names. kah-NE-da, and tet-SU-o. Aaarrrggghhh!!
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
Small correction. There are six comic books, each about as thick as a D battery. The english version only gives you about 1/4 of the story :)
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
will we have a video game version of "Ledgend of the Overfiend"?
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
Actually, my SO remarked the other day that the she was disappointed with the Dragons of Pern RPG because it didn't look like Michael Whalen's cover interpretations. Whatever...
When you are translating between mediums, things can not be equal. Notice I did not say "will" not... they *can* not be the same. And they shouldn't - otherwise, why bother with the translation? In this game (I assume), your hero can die, and the person behind the controls will have any of a wide range of motivation. As you put it:
You shoud be able to pop peoples' heads like when Yamato took on Tetsuo; Clubing people's heads off from the back of a bike. shooting half a person's face off and let them slide into raw sewage. The list goes on and on and none of it will be in the game.
And it should *not* be in the game. Just as there are big chunks of very very *good* and important plot, dialogue and scenes that will not be in the film version of Lord of the Rings. And it really dosen't have as much to do with time or money constrains as it does with the simple reality that the qualities that make a good video game are not the same as the qualities that make a good manga. The qualities that make a good series of books are not the same qualities that make a good series of movies.
As an example: Ian Holm is a great actor - I'm looking forward to his interpretation of Bilbo during his birthday and the turning over of the ring. And that is exactly what it will be; an interpretation. And I'm satisfied to pay my $6.50, sit back, and enjoy the show.
Please for the love of GOD stop trying to make great things shitty. Go away. Die.
Hey! Here's an idea - widen your mind. I thought Akira (the movie) sucked. And the manga wasn't all that hot either. Sure it was better than the movie, but it wasn't as good as Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita manga. But you know what? That's my opinion, and I realize that.
One of my favorite movies is End of Evangelion. I recently was dragged along to see the sex comedy Tomcats... I hated it. But I did recommend it wholeheartedly to a friend of mine; he hated End of Evangelion, he thought it was stupid. But neither of us like "better" things... we just like different things.
And be ready... there will probably be the following phrase uttered by plenty of people: "Yeah, I saw Akira, even tried the manga, but didn't like 'em. But the video game was pretty cool". And they won't be wrong... they will just have a different opinion.
Imagine that.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
The PlayStation Ghost in the Shell has cut scenes that look like they are lifted right from side scenes cut from the movie. The exact same style of animation, the exact same voices.
It's a damn shame, IMHO - the manga had the Major as a sexually active practical joker with a serious problem with authority (typical Masamume Shirow character). Even though the visuals and setting of the game are based more on the manga (the fuchikomas are in it with their creepy baby faces and giddy humor, yeah!), the characters are based on the movie version. Meaning - excellent voice acting.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Akira was released on the Amiga, too. Truly dreadful by all accounts so that probably explains why no-one remembers it :)
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
There are only two things that are worth getting horizontal over in life: having sex, and riding those motorcycles from Akira. If the game doesn't let me be able to ride those things, then I ain't buyin it. Those were just about the sweetest pieces of personal hardware I've ever seen on the big screen, and that's saying alot considering stuff like Major Kusanagi's inviso-suit-thingy and the various flavors of body armor that pops up consistenly in anime. They just looked so freakin cool!
- Rev.You could have:
But seriously, this game will suck, just like the Gundam games and movie adaptations in general always have...
+++ ATH0 +++
Right around the time the movie version of Akira made its initial sweep through the States, the NES cart of Akira was [quietly] released. What a load of drek that was.... unless _you_ enjoy slowly moseying through the movie script in a Myst-like fashion.
ROM images of the cart exist.
Just get four friends to stand around you and wheeze loudly. "Tuhh tuhh... WHEE-huhhh! Tuhh tuhh... WHEE-huhhh, WHEE-huhhh!"
I wonder if I beat the game will I understand the ending?
G.H.
Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
So how are they going to do this?
Oh, of course - flashy graphics, incomprehensible (or arguably non-existant) plotline, strange things suddenly pop up for reasons never explained. And lots of shit blowing up.
Tell the truth - did _anyone_ understand that film? And if so, how?
Grab.
The computer graphics community has been heavily interested in all kinds of non-photorealistic rendering. Quake3 model shaders and Jet Grind Radio might be two of the most popular video game uses, but its been used for at least the past 10 years.
Still, Jet Grind Radio is a really cool game. Highly recommended. Its worth buying a Dreamcast for. If this Akira game does NPR as well as Jet Grind did it, then it should be a very beautiful game, graphics wise.
It must have the following ingredients:
1) Cel shading. Jet Set Radio rules, but now everyone and their dog has to code the same technique.
2) Any beat-em-up or third-person shooter section must do a bullet-time thing at one point.
3) Please, oh please let us ride Kaneda's bike!
4) Mind numbing cut-scenes taken straight from the film, or (more likely) drawn by the game artists in a noticibly inferior style.
5) There is about as much chance of us not seeing that big railgun as there is of there not being one in Doom3.
any other suggestions? (and please, lets hope lens flares have finally died a death)
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
(ok, so this is semi-offtopic, as its about the DVD not the game. Still, mirko asked, so its only fair)
I think there will be a European (Region 2) release as well as the US Region 1 one. These will almost certainly both be Region encoded, as multiple companies are involved with the distribution rights globally, if memory serves.
Anyway, if you've not got your machine region chipped then do it now; missing out on imports is just too much hassle to do without. After that, try someone like Play 247 or Movietyme USA if you don't want to do the importing from the US. You'll be wanting the limited edition tin from the US anyway if you're a fan.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Anyway, back to the point - Jet Set Radio uses a (then innovative) cel-shading technique to make its 3d characters look like 2d hand-drawn animated ones, and so is ideal for a game based on an animated film such as Akira. If you've only got a PC but own Quake 3 then try one of the models inspired by this idea over on Polycount: Honey was the first one I saw that experimented with this technique.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
So at least we are going to have a DVD version of Akira ? ;-)
I heard it here as a rumour then as news but I wouldn't believe it (Well, I would but erm...).
No my question is the following:
We all bought it in VHS, we all bought the comic.
So, will it still be Region1 or will the guys releasing it understand that it may not risk to appear in a Theater in Europe and thus they can release it Region-Free?
Basically I have two choices in the former case: Buy it in the US or Wait for a friend to DivX-ize it for me.
I just hope the relevant guy will catch this: I may get it illegally if you region-lock it.
Now, about the game, well... erm great!
--
Trolling using another account since 2005.
How many of you are anime fans? Of those, how many of us really care about Yet Another Anime To Game Conversion?
:-)
Well, I would think that most of the people who even clicked on the subject, considering it was actually pretty clear what the topic was.
If you're in here posting and you're not interested, then you're probably just trolling.
Actually, the Akira figures have been out for quite a while now. In fact, Kaneda and his motorcycle have been protecting the routers from the forces of evil for almost a year now. ?:^)
/*drunk.. fix later*/
The new release has a truly astounding translation. I have never fully understood the plot of Akira, havig seen it many, many times. The new translation reveals Akira to be similar to Ghost in the Shell, both movies having extremely cogent, powerful philosophical/spiritual underpinnings. one key aspect which is brought out by the new translations is that Tetsuo's character is actually partially responsible for what happens to him. It is his resentment that causes the Akira power to go haywire, and the rest of the experimental subjects act to defuse the situation they know will arise from his abuse of this power.
There's a bunch more, but I would highly, highly recomend anyone who enjoyed the original dubed version to check out what the movie can be like when the translation actually has some coherence...it's amazing.
From what I remember of the Akira game for the Amiga, it was complete rubbish. I'm sure they can improve on that, even if it does end up as a mix of NeoTokyo Road Rash and Nursery DOOM.
However, I also remember seeing Akira for the first time on BBC2, subtitled with a decent, rich translation of the story. The subsequent Manga Video release did a hatchet job on the subtitles, very much in the "We get signal! What!" style. So: please oh please oh please let the Akira rerelease have a decent translation. As good as, if not better, than the BBC version.
Does my bum look big in this?
What ever. You all suck. The game industry sucks. No one even has the right to clean Otomo Katsuhiro's boots. Like any ameriKan who isn't on lots of meth is going to take the time to draw ever last fricken circuit and pebble and oil spot and rip and tear. This is going to suck worse and physically hurt me more then the last attempt at making a Dune movie. A) None of you have said anything worth reading about this. B) No one working in the game industry has the balls to make this game. 1. It should have a find the artery sub-game for Tetsuo's little stint with the clowns when he was shotting 1000ml of pure Heroin and shotting bowling balls at people. 2. You shoud be able to pop peoples' heads like when Yamato took on Tetsuo; Clubing people's heads off from the back of a bike. shooting half a person's face off and let them slide into raw sewage. The list goes on and on and none of it will be in the game. Did I forget tits. Lots of tits. Rape murder and all the things that make Neo-Tokyo rotten. C) No one in the game indutry has the time to make this game. 1. Needs to be the best motor cycle game ever. 2. Needs to be the best super power game ever. a. OH GOD NOT ANOTHER DBZ! b. I want to be able to take down buildings. c. I want to stop tank shells. 3. Needs graphics the likes of which god has never seen. a. NOT CELL SHADING! 4. Shenmue x10 as far as things to do. 5. More political then any game before. 6. Better than Descent with the hover bike. 7. Sound track? Yeah right. 8. FMV? don't make me puke. 9. THEY DRAW PEOPLE OUT OF FOCUS IN THE MOVIE! YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO SEE THAT KIND OF ATTENTION?! Basically anything that makes this Movie cool is going to be removed by some guy who hasn't a friken clue. Look at the Lord of the Rings movie! The trailer makes the whole movie look like it was filmed in Terry Brooks cover-art'o-vision. Please for the love of GOD stop trying to make great things shitty. Go away. Die.
Before Akira fans start salivating, note that most anime videogames haven't been that great.
Remember Vampire Hunter D, Dragon Ball Z: Final Bout, Gundam Wing: Battle Assault?
Of course, GameSpot ranks these games a bit higher than they deserve, IMHO.
Also there was a Gundam Wing game being developed for the PS2 launch, and it suddenly disappeared.
Christopher N Emmick
Christopher N Emmick
A good man, a better nerd.