[PS3] I have to buy a PS3 (Disgaea 3)

I'm just going to take a guess here, but I bet those screens aren't actually shots from the PS3 engine. The shots in the original PDF match the PSPs screen resolution exactly. Maybe development started on the PSP then was moved to the PS3?

Also developing games on the PS3 isn't any more expensive than on the other platforms. Yes, cutting edge AAA tiles run in the millions. But these smaller developers have so many development tools available that they should be able to make a game visually on par with many other PS3 titles with a budget similar to say a Wii or even a PS2 game. It really should not cost NIS much more to step up to the next/current/whatever generation with reasonable results.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Qwarky

Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe they'll make use of the PS3 features now?

The PS3 doesn't ONLY do high-def and stock bloom effects, you know. They could include online play (co-op or whatever), downloadable content, something silly making use of the tilt sensor, connect with PSP, etc. Thing is, you don't know yet.

Even if they won't make use of them, it'll still be hi-def Disgaea, which will be enough for quite a lot of fans. Hi-def sprites will/should look great either way.

You bring up a good point and there are other technical aspects they may want to develop that wouldn't be possible or difficult on the PS2. The AI can be improved without having long processing times in between each AI decision as well as opening up the possibility for new algorithms or parallel algorithms.

And while 2D sprite games might not tax the processing power of the PS2, they do have tremendous memory bandwidth and memory storage requirements. Most of the NIS and GUST games are already maxing out the available bandwidth and memory and you can see the result of that from the load hitching present in a lot of their games.

The PS3 will allow NIS to develop bigger levels with more enemies on screen. We might see less enemy cloning and more sprite variety as well since the PS3 has so much more memory than the PS2 had. I wouldn't be so quick to conclude this game could be done on the PS2 just from a few early screenshots.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by evilboris

Given the dev costs of a PS3, this game will probably be a financial disaster for Nippon Ichi. Just consider it: They got 300k on a console that over 100 million people own.

How much will they get on a console that MAY reach 10 million by the time the game is released? Also how many people will have PS3s in Japan at that time? Literally every 5th PS3 owner will have to buy a copy of Disgaea 3 so the game can reach its prequels in popularity.

I'm not even counting the under-usage of hardware issue, since Disgaea 1 looked like a PS1 game as well.

I fully expect NIS to back out from a PS3 release. If they don't, the only thing that can possibly justify a PS3 release (especially considering how disappointing Disgaea 2 was), is a 1080p Etna hentai gallery.

I already went over this. Cost is relative to the project. It's not much more expensive to develop for the PS3 than it is for the PS2 at the level NIS and the other small companies develop at. Upfront SDK costs might be a consideration but those are one time purchases to be used over a long term. Sony might even be giving these smaller companies deals on the development hardware for all we know.

More than anything it sounds like people are upset over having to buy a new console. Well its going to happen eventually so now is a good as time as any.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by RacinReaver

He's not necessarily talking about developmental costs (since we know they have none since they're probably just going to recycle sprites/animations/everything), he's talking about the number of potential buyers that currently exist for the game. There's over ten times as many PS2 owners as PS3, so why would you ever produce exclusively for the PS3 if you can release it instead on the PS2 (which, unlike the GC and XBox is still a thriving system)?

Already went over it. The PS3 offers more than just a graphical increase. The biggest advantage is a huge jump in memory which can greatly expand what is possible in a sprite based game. They may simply have gameplay elements in mind that will require more memory than the PS2 has to offer.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by evilboris

Disgaea 2 already had a ton of gameplay elements, and "gameplay elements" mostly consist of code which is minimal in size. If Disgaea 3 indeed uses that much RAM that a PS3 release is justified, then it better have 5x the animation frames or 3x the resolution - and based on the two shots we have, the latter is unlikely.

Simply increasing the amount/variety of onscreen sprites will directly increase the required memory. A lot of these sRPGs clone the enemy sprites simply to reduce the amount of memory required and the amount of enemies present on maps are usually limited by memory rather than the desires of the developers.

Having the memory space to load multiple sprites for a single character is another possibility and an obvious gameplay element. Consider the possibility of a multi-class job that can change abilities on the fly. Each class for the single job will have a different sprite set. You'd have to load each of those sprite sets into memory for a single character.

Multi-trigger levels is again another possibility where you can afford the memory budget of loading cloned levels of slightly different variations. This allows for more real-time dynamic triggering of events within a map.

These are just examples as I could keep going on and on with the possibilities that open up simply having more memory to work with. I really don't know if NIS actually plans on making use of the PS3 hardware but I'm just trying to point out that even though the PS2 isn't graphically limiting Disgaea, there are many other elements that are being limited by the PS2 hardware.

I was speaking idiomatically.

With the amount of on-screen characters the amount of required memory is likely above what the PS2 and PSP has. Possiblly also above what the Wii has as well but I'm just rough guessing based on what I know about PS2 and PSP Disgaea resource requirements.

But don't anyone that because if it doesn't have life-like textures, bloom and subsurface light scattering then it could be done by any past generation machine.

But I really can't defend NIS on their sprite quality for this game. They are just upscaling SD resolution sprites to HD resolutions and apply a filter. That is highly disappointing.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

All kinds of news today. Announced for a US release in August. Good to see NIS America has a PS3 license now.

How ya doing, buddy?