Takenobu Mitsuyoshi as "The voice of SEGA" in the Japanese version...

[Virtua Sanus]

The latest Famitsu mentions that in the upcoming Wii U and PlayStation 3 Japanese releases of the game. What does it mean?!?

Takenobu is the most prolific musician under SEGA, to the point I am sure everyone reading this has heard at least a few of his songs, not including the ones in this game! Let's Go Away from Daytona USA is probably his most immediately memorable, but he has had his hands in just about every IP SEGA has ever worked on.

So by that wording I am wondering... Is he going to be the announcer in the Japanese version...?! That would be the most incredible addition to this game, and I am not even joking. My question to SUMO is if this is something the English PC and console versions could potentially get as an option? SEGA Superstars Tennis had three different announcers, so it is not out of the question.

Listen to him singing the Space Harrier theme 1:50 into this video and just try to hold back your opinion that he should just add lyrics to every song in Transformed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO7V3K8ueMI

Before Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing came out I was thinking how great it would be if the announcer was Takenobu or had an option for someone like Seaman, could be pretty awesome!

[solus]

What are the lyrics to that song o.o

[Virtua Sanus]

The Japanese version has other new additions, looks like puyos are going to replace the blowfish based on this image. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgY8pvlCQAAGq7P.png:large

I do really like the game, but my biggest issue with it being a big SEGA crossover thing is that the items were all basically original and just kind of cheapen the experience a bit IMO, even with how clever and well designed they were. I hope all of these additions either replace what is in the PC version or can be toggled. I would be willing to pay for this content, but I am sure I am one of the few who would.

Originally posted by infamous'Cynic:

What are the lyrics to that song o.o

A few people in the comments have their own translations, but they all seem a bit different. I will try my hand at translating it tomorrow.

[Cinnamon Buns]

It would be criminal for this new content not to be brought over to the West. The game is still clearly profitable for SEGA as they keep releasing new characters and content, so it's a no-brainer for a business perspective. I'd easily shell out like five bucks or even more for a presentation overhaul like that.

[S0L]

I'd actually love to put the Japanese commentary into the game, but there are some issues...

1. It only covers console content and doesn't cover the extra characters in the PC version (this actually goes for the character voices too as some of these are now also Japanese).

2. It's pretty hefty, we'd be looking at a major update to do so (800MB+).

3. SEGA would have to ask us to do it and fund the development. It's their game at the end of the day, we can't just sneak things in :P

The UI went through some more drastic changes to add in Japanese, just in terms of placement and more. Many strings in Japanese are shorter, so that means increasing font sizes, we'd likely have to have different UI setup altogether to fetch this back to PC. It's doable, but it'd take time.

Why do you think the Japanese version has took so long :P

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S0L
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[Ganba the Nesoberi]

Originally posted by S0L:

(this actually goes for the character voices too as some of these are now also Japanese)

In the off-chance that at minimum the Japanese character voices get brought into the Western release as an option, it'd be interesting to have individual client-side voice toggles for each of the characters that do have them, ala recent Capcom fighters[s23.postimg.org].

[Virtua Sanus]

Solid reponse S0L, I was imagining that Takenobu would have never had recorded dialog for the PC exclusive characters. Surprised Danica is in the Japanese game at all to be honest though.

Instead of the full commentary, maybe Takenobu Mitsuyoshi could be added in as an optional voice for just the weapons or something? I am grasping at straws here, but I really want him to be in this version of the game. I mean, just the concept of him as the announcer is incredible to me, I can even picturing the crowd cheering being replaced with him singing for the character instead, hah!

Other Japanese character voices do not mean too much to me (maybe just Sonic's), but I would really enjoy an update that replaces the blowfish with the garbage puyo if nothing else. I understand some would miss it, so making it either an optional download or selectable in the menu would be understandable.

What are some of the other major changes outside of the menu, or can you even discuss that yet?