When ToP was finally brought to North America on the GBA, I was ecstatic right up until I popped the cart into my SP and discovered that some evil asshat (who I might do violence to if we ever met) had removed the awesome song from the opening. It has recently come to my attention that the EU English version was handled by a different group - does anyone happen to know if the EU English version of ToP has the opening song intact, or was it a port of the U.S. version?
The EU version isn't handled by a "different group" in the sense that it's an entirely different localization job. There are however some differences from the US release. The English script is still the same as the US version, so it's still got a minor Microsoft spell-checker mistake in play in the infamous Ragnarok->Kangaroo dialog exchange, although this is, fortunately, not present in the other languages, but the menus are slightly tweaked in the EU version (different abbreviations, some minor design changes, and so forth, if memory serves me right) and there's a subtitling system implemented for French, Italian, German, and Spanish (to go with the intro) Yume wa owaranai is also not present in the EU version. You'd have to play the JP version to get that (or go through the trouble of manually putting it back in). Not a big loss, it's by far the most butchered version of the song. The GBA port of the game doesn't exactly shine brightly (other than having a surprisingly direct/literal/faithful translation, although it's a bit on the stiff side). The "evil asshat" that removed the song probably did it to avoid dealing with potential lawsuits. You know, the ones you get if you use someone's property without a valid license. Such as not having the rights to handle any international distribution of it. The instrumental/piano version of it that you can hear in-game at one point (as an easter egg) is however still present. Could of course also have been a marketing decision.
Thanks for letting me know. I wish I was skilled enough to know how to add the song back in. I'm sure it would be simple enough if there was some way to browse the filesystem on the rom and replace the US file with the JP one, but I'm not even sure it would work that way. I'll have to disagree with you on this, if only because the replacement music was completely banal. I'd rather have a shadow of greatness than nothing at all. Was this a famous song apart from Tales of Phantasia? It sounds like you're saying that you expect it may have needed a separate license, but that would seem to not make sense if it was just part of the ToP property.
I'm almost certain it was a licensed track (and not a commissioned one). No idea if YO-MI and Yoshida Yukari are considered big in any way. I've at least heard NOTHING from either of them outside of Yume wa Owaranai (+whatever track was used as the ending tune in the PS1 version of ToP). Japanese productions are almost notoriously known for having a long running tradition of licensing (and/or commissioning) tracks from all sorts of artists, with the final product featuring whatever they could secure; regardless of it being from the A, B, or C list of celebs. In many/most cases, the types of deals/agreements they make for these songs are often limited for use within Japan only and with no rights for international distribution. Sometimes it's also because they're just unavailable to make a proper deal with the record label, other times it saves them a little slump of money not to do so... and, well, it also often happens 'cause the Japanese branches of certain companies couldn't care less for whether or not their international branch (or some other company) evt. makes an international localization/publishing deal for the game (and the moment they do, they still don't really care... unless they're somehow obligated to provide loc support.) Fictive (but likely scenario): Game gets made, has a (cheap) licensed track from a no-name. Game sells 200 000 copies the first month or two. No-name's single is also popular enough for a full studio album to be put into product. English localization is put into pre-production, the 1m30s slump of music needs a new license that suddenly costs x100 of what it did half-a-year earlier... pr. region/country you want to distribute it in. 'Cause no-name is suddenly *insert publication*'s artist of the month or something. It also often happens to be so that the localization process of games axes the vocal tracks and looks into alternatives. Foreign vocal tracks are often considered an unnecessary expense and/or somehow unfit for the target market (of course, for the latter, platform holders sometimes might be calling the shots on that too... I'm lookin' at you, Sony.) And if you think the tune used as a replacement for the vocal theme in the opening is "banal" and absolutely game breaking, I think you might want to just put the game away and never finish it; 'cause ToP GBA uses the game's main world map exploration theme as an alternative. You'll get to hear that tune a lot.
Well, I don't think it can be licensing costs in this case, otherwise I doubt that the track would have been included in the JP GBA version - because if the track was more expensive because the artist suddenly became popular, pretty much anything after the SFC original would by hella expensive. I think (and have always thought) that the likely cause was your other explanation that the localization team just thought North Americans wouldn't like the song if it wasn't in English and didn't want to spend the money to have it re-recorded.
I don't really see the big deal. The song they replaced with is good in it's own right. Plus the GBA soundchip makes everything sound like garbage anyway. I'd understand if it was the PSP version and it was localized with a changed song.
Without any hard facts about the origin of the song, it's hard to tell what the reason is, but in many cases you may abuse something you've licensed --a whole lot-- as long as you make sure you thread carefully (Just look at Activision and how they're making themselves popular with things like Guitar Hero and character likeness) Anyway, Yume wa Owaranai appears in all Japanese ToP releases. Super Famicom (94), PlayStation (98), GBA (2003), and PSP (2006/2010). GBA/SFC uses one version of it, PS1 and PSP uses another version of it. PS1/PSP version was probably somehow commissioned (or initially perfectly timed with a re-recording of the song). Heck, the original song might've even been commissioned too, but with a limitation put on the use of the song by the artist's record label, but whatever agreement they ha for the usage of the song might easily cover reprints/remakes of the game, but no international disitribution. (ToP GBA is by the way mostly based on the SFC version of the game, although with a few minor changes and the character sprites from the PS1 version.)
You're telling me you can honestly watch this: Japanese GBA Intro and then watch this: English GBA Intro And say that the JP one is not categorically better? I don't care if you hate the GBA sound processor - it's a moot point because I'm not comparing GBA sound with non-GBA sound. The JP song is inspiring and it fits perfectly with the opening sequence, whereas the English one is bland and a complete afterthought. It changes the entire tone of the game to something generic and boring. Maybe you're the kind of guy who just skips intros and cinemas, and if that is the case, I can understand why you would be indifferent, but you can't tell me that there is not a clear difference in quality of production between those two. Even if you don't like the JP song, the comparison is not entirely subjective - the JP one is not some crappy midi chiptune.
Sure. It's an afterthought to swap the game's opening tune, but it doesn't change the fact that the tune used in the English version is still the game's main world map theme (aka. "Raising a curtain"), unlike Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny II (Tales of Eternia), Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of Legendia, all of which used original compositions (while Tales of the Abyss and Radiant Mythology used instrumental versions of the JP tune and Vesperia went with an English version of the tune.) Now, what I find funny is how some people make a gigantic deal out of minor, borderline trivial, things like these. Since you mentioned the skipping of intros, do you watch that opening sequence EVERY TIME you start the game? The opening sequence to Tales of Phantasia doesn't exactly contributes with anything but a minor clip-show of various scenes that may or may not occur through out the game... kinda like the intro to an episode of Friends (or *insert any other show that spends 1m00s~2m00s of screentime on a signature opening of some sort*)
