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We weren't trying to be rude, but I think we might have come across as such since we were more than eager to move past the Snowboard Kids talk and onto our favorite, Trauma Center: Under the Knife. We told Bill how much we loved it and that we both thought it was one of the best, if not the best use of the DS' touch screen to date. He smiled and fumbled from pride to PR mode, explaining that there were to be 35+ stages, taking players through stages ranging from extracting glass fragments out of a patient's arm, as shown in the playable demo on the Nintendo floor, all the way to handling a mysterious plague that falls upon a small town. He said that while the game was fun for pick-up-and-play, as we were testament to, the more advanced levels put the pressure on bigtime, with success depending on more precise movement and quicker execution. He was proud to say that as fun as the game was, it succeeded in getting the player involved in saving the patient's life, especially during the increasingly intense later levels.
Now of course, when a patient's life is in your hands, you've got a devil on each shoulder. The arcade gamer in you along with the princess rescuer in you wants to save their life, but the new school of mischief making would lead you to wonder... well, just exactly what kind of fun could be had at the patient's expense. Jared seemed especially enthusiastic to hear this one, but Bill quickly doused the hellfire in Jared's eyes by explaining that the game wasn't designed to be abused. While the patient's life is in your hands as the surgeon, the frame is cut so that the surgery you are performing is upclose, and the only vitals at your disposal are those right in front of you. So you can all forget about stabbing someone's eye out while removing glass from a thigh. From what we saw, it didn't look like there would be much chance to, say, steal the wrong organ out of someone's body, because most of the operation going on was very accident-related and thus centered on doctoring up wounds rather than scheduled surgery. The demo out on the floor was nowhere near the final copy according to Bill, and apparently the storyline as shown to the E3 crowd was a quick, rough translation from the Japanese version so that it could be playable at the convention.
We wondered about the actual final translation, and specifically about how true to the origin Atlus was planning on making the American version. Our own Editor-In-Chief Steven DeSiena had made sure that we asked specifically if, during the translation period, certain content would be intentionally edited or censored because it either wouldn't make sense to American audiences or would drive up the ESRB rating. Bill responded that they would rather take a higher rating than change anything too drastically, and that they tried to remain as true to the original as a translation can be. It was just the answer we'd hoped for, because you don't hear that too often, whether in games or even movies that are translated from another country into the American market. It was refreshing to hear that Atlus is more about authenticity than trying to meld itself to fit into a box, and also that they aren't afraid of whatever rating their work receives, which in Trauma Center's case would likely be a "Teen", according to Bill.
At that point we moved on to another major point that our forum goers wanted answered. We then asked about why Shin Megami and so many other games that Atlus publishes for American audiences (the very games struck from the topic when we made it clear we were a Nintendo-only site) didn't make it to GameCube, but were instead published exclusively for a PlayStation 2 or Xbox release. On this point Bill didn't indulge any fanboy disaster fantasies by revealing some worldwide anti-Nintendo scheme on Atlus's part, because it was something much simpler. He said that since Atlus is a game publisher and not a developer, they aren't the ones deciding what system to market. The choice is left up to the developer of the game to decide what console their games would be playable on, and Atlus basically shops around to find the kind of games they want to bring to a new audience after that decision has already been made and the game has already been coded for one system or another. So while Atlus tries to bring the most interesting games available to us Cubers, they still have to shop within the pool of games that are either already developed or being developed for the system, often led by the actions of Atlus of Japan. From there the Irvine, California based Atlus of America can check samples, build some opinions on the games, research licensing options, and all that other boring junk they have to go through in order to bring more fun to the gamers.
Satisfied with that response, though a little disappointed that we couldn't simply put Mr. Alexander in a choke hold and make him publish every game we wanted, we moved on to another question from Steven about the possibility of a Chunsoft's Homeland release in America. We were met with a completely blank stare, at which point Jared had to re-read his poorly-handwritten notes in varied pronunciations. Eventually everyone just started laughing, because Bill didn't have a clue what we were talking about and neither did we. He very plainly stated that he didn't have any more a clue what game we were talking about than we did, and that while about 75% of the Atlus of Japan titles find their way to American soil, not all of Atlus of Japan's games even come to the American headquarters to try out. So... sorry Steve.
Another title that forumgoers were curious about seeing in the future was a Super Dodgeball Advance sequel. Bill perked up a bit at the mention of a game from Earth, and while he reminded us that he only had the option to publish a game after it was developed and open for publishing, Atlus would be very interested in publishing the game if and when the opportunity comes.
