LogFAQs > #976712525

Solar_Crimson posted...

We absolutely had not seen 2D gaming at its fullest potential once 3D gaming started taking off. It didn't matter how gorgeous or fluid the 2D game was; if it wasn't 3D, then it was "outdated". It wasn't just the general audience; even some big companies felt so at the time, too (such as Sony of America and SEGA of America).

To this day I still blame bernie stolar (who had a part in setting up SCEA before he left to shit up the sega saturn's localized releases over at sega) for laying the groundwork for sony of america's goofy policies when it comes to what games they will accept for localization that carried on as far as the PSP. (Breath of fire 3 and tales of eternia psp being passed up for NA release when sony's EU branch had no problem with the games released there).

No one ever outright said it but I swear stuff like tales of rebirth, tales of destiny PS2 and tales of destiny 2 (actual destiny 2) got skipped over because of the games using sprites with a 3D background and it took disgaea 1's break out PS2 success to finally get sony's american branch to knock it off with the 2D sprite hate.

We barely got mega man X4 on the PS1 localized back in the day (bernie stolar only really wanted 3D games to show off the power of the playstation) and they only really relented in the end because sega pre-stolar had no problem with X4 and sony did not want the PS1's game library looking too lacking in comparison.

Here is a old neogaf topic talking about some of the games that got skipped over for localization in north america because of their weird 2D thing. Only certain games like mortal kombat trilogy was made an exception, and konami probably had to bargain for something like symphony of the night being localized using metal gear solid.
https://www.neogaf.com/threads/did-scea-hinder-the-release-of-2d-games-during-the-ps1-era.931915/