Nick1984
'What a knucklehead!'
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Post by Nick1984 on Mar 10, 2012 22:15:53 GMT
I'm pretty surprised there was never a sequel, but it seems it was nowhere near as popular as Virtua Fighter and Fighting Vipers in the West compared to Japan.
Out of all the classic fighting games I think Last Bronx is the one I'd most like a sequel to, I wasn't much for Fighting Vipers 2, Virtua Fighter has nowhere else to go unless they implement VF3 style stages, and all the other 90s franchises (bar Toshinden) are still going today.
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Post by grolt on Mar 10, 2012 23:01:02 GMT
I bought Last Bronx when it first came out and at the time was really impressed with the graphics and loved the idea of weapon-based combat in a 3D realm. My problem with the game is not the gameplay, but more with just the no-frills presentation. Compared to Virtua Fighter or Fighting Vipers this game lacks a lot of personality - none of the characters are really all that memorable, at least on the scaled down release we got here in English-speaking countries. I believe some artwork (or is it the manual itself?) references this second disc that never did end up coming out here. It's a shame because I'm sure it would have brought a lot more depth to the characters and to the game itself. As is though, the game is pretty empty. None of those nice FMVs we were used to, pretty much no English localization, fairly repetitive urban backgrounds, etc. A game like Soul Calibur demonstrated how amazing the weapon-based fighter could be when care was put into characterization, story and different gameplay modes, but as it is Last Bronx has always felt to me a game that should be better than what it is. It still plays well and I can get into it, but it just doesn't rile me up or entertain me the way most of SEGA's fighters do.
Case in point: Despite being a game I played a lot back in the day, I have absolutely no clue who any of the characters are now based only on looking at the names.
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Post by Anthaemia. on Mar 11, 2012 1:19:56 GMT
Compared with the rest of the world, Last Bronx was actually quite popular in Japan, which probably explains why they got a series of radio drama albums, a live action movie, action figures, graphic novels, individual players guides for each character... and so on - you get the point. Then again, the reason we weren't treated to most of these is because, like the second disc, it was simply too much hard work to translate for such a limited market!
You see, even before it came out over here, poor Last Bronx was already a very distant second place to the massively-hyped Soul Edge (or Soul Blade, as it was known in PAL territories). The additional disc helped flesh out the characters scenarios and background significantly, though at least the localisation team managed to include a condensed version of the training mode. However, you're definitely right in so much as the overseas editions were quite sparse in contrast with the original Japanese release.
As for any complaints about the urban theme, I believe this was a key part of the game's overall success in its native country, where fans crowded around the arcade machine to see fights happening in real environments, such as Haneda Airport, the Rainbow Bridge or a rooftop overlooking the iconic Tokyo skyline. Naturally, this particular aspect would be lost elsewhere, as culturally these landmarks weren't seen as significant to most people. Even the video sequences had less appeal to western audiences in general, since the global anime boom had yet to really happen.
In typical fashion, I'll end this post with a little nugget of information about this underrated and ridiculously difficult fighter. In the original release, you might have noticed the subtitle Tokyo Bangaichi. However, did you also spot the splash of blood underneath the main logo text? At one point during the development process, AM3 supposedly toyed with the idea of including blood, though in the end they settled for motion blurred weapons.
I'd once heard this particular instance of censorship was because Sega was already concerned about the rating of Last Bronx, and let's not forget the negotiations that had to be made before the BBFC allowed nunchuks - an illegal weapon in the UK - to be featured over here. Meanwhile, you may also remember that Soul Blade wasn't quite as lucky. Incredibly, Sega Europe somehow convinced the BBFC that Last Bronx didn't intend to depict realistic combat, and yet was far less fantastical than Namco's rival effort. Go figure.
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Aydan
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Post by Aydan on Mar 11, 2012 1:40:06 GMT
okay I'll get back on topic.
I like this character because he is cool. diz gaem is awsum. bai.
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ando88
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Post by ando88 on Mar 17, 2012 13:40:10 GMT
There was a sequel planned for the Dreamcast, but it died with the system. Tragic stuff.
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Nick1984
'What a knucklehead!'
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Post by Nick1984 on Mar 17, 2012 16:43:14 GMT
First I've heard of a sequel, I'd have thought it would've been considered for the arcades before Dreamcast.
Also I can't believe they got away with the 'fantasy' excuse for including nunchucks while Soul Blade didn't.
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NeoGeoNinja
Shadow Warrior
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Post by NeoGeoNinja on Mar 17, 2012 18:57:51 GMT
Also I can't believe they got away with the 'fantasy' excuse for including nunchucks while Soul Blade didn't. YEAH, ESPECIALLY AS... Last Bronx was set in a more modern time frame/setting vs Soul Edge's feudal Japan/medieval setting?!
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Post by Anthaemia. on Mar 17, 2012 19:05:59 GMT
There was indeed a Last Bronx 2 briefly mentioned on websites along with quite a few other games that did later see the light of day (including Gunvalkyrie, The House Of The Dead III and Jet Set Radio Future, plus the early concept for what later became Sonic Heroes), so I've no doubt such a sequel was at least considered around that period. However, development team AM3 was absorbed back into Sega long before a Dreamcast sequel would have gone into production, and I honestly don't know who might have been responsible for this project - Hitmaker, perhaps?
As for the excuse pitched to the BBFC, I found it quite ironic that Sega Europe convinced a rethink on the ratings front because their product was intended to be fantastical, yet at the same time was based in real locations around Tokyo. On the other hand, as I said before, the logo's blood splatter and subtitle were removed. Also, I believe one of the many reasons we didn't get the second disc is because some of the character plot development content was seen as too gritty for the 15 certification Sega was aiming to receive...
For example, any hints of Nagi's lesbianity are seriously toned down, especially compared with the original Japanese version. In fact, I seem to recall the only significant mention of this particular storyline angle being a reference to her youth and foolishness as the reason she ever had a relationship with Kurosawa. Now that I think about it, wasn't there once a leak on some really old Saturn forum online about the specific details of Sega's negotiations from this era, including how it managed to ensure the Saturn was the only console to get an uncut version of Duke Nukem 3D? SSM may even have covered this to some degree, although I might be wrong.
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