I’m currently in the process of enjoying Trine 2. It’s a neat puzzle platformer that I don’t think will ever gain any sort of mainstream traction, but I’m glad that it exists. After putting in a few hours into it, I realized that the game was published by Atlus.
Atlus may not have the name brand recognition of Nintendo, EA, or Activision, but they’ve won a spot in my heart over the years for publishing niche games that most other publishers wouldn’t give a chance. Some of the awesome games that come to mind when I think of Atlus includes the Trauma Center series, River City Ransom, Demon’s Souls, and In Third Person’s 2011 game of the year, Catherine. I had no idea going into it that Trine 2 was them as well, but I’m not surprised in the least.
Thank you Atlus, for your commitment to publishing games that other major publishers may not deem commercially viable. If it weren’t for them, a number of franchises we know and love may never have seen the light of day.
In Third Person 
Isn’t Atlus great? I believe their objective with a lot of releases is go being those niche titles to North America, and I, too, thank them dearly. Persona 3? One of the best RPGs ever.
Admittedly, I have never played a Persona game, but I started paying serious attention to them when they put out Trauma Center: Under the Knife on the DS. Then I realized they had put out a bunch of other cool niche games I’d played before, and have paid a bit more attention to their releases since. I’m not always a fan of everything they put out, but I truly respect the vision. The next game from them that I’m looking forward to is Persona 4 Arena. Even though from what I’ve heard it’s really good, I’m fairly certain that Atlus would be the only major publisher to give this one a chance in the West.
Yeah, I’m looking forward to that one too (even though I haven’t played Persona 4 yet). It looks fresh and exciting, that’s for sure.