/v/ - Video Games

>>15947275

That's why the second game didn't sell so well I guess. It felt like they casualised the second game.

This sounds like a monkey's paw wish just waiting to happen.

>>15947282

What's the worst that could happen?

>>15947268

>Trusting modern square enix

I wanted to see a Mischief Makers 2, but not anymore.

wait

actraiser is part of the soul blazer series?

i have to play it now

>>15947281

>>15947275

Simple really. Get yourself the ActRaiser japanese rom and compare it to the english rom you played.

The platforming is harder and the city building is clunkier. So clunky in fact, it probably received bad feedback from the japanese players at the time.

>>15947314

Soul Blazer is a prequel to ActRaiser.

And it's called the ActRaiser series.

>>15947281

>Casualized

The platform combat was crazy hard, at a time when platform combat was the big fad. The city building was an empty picture show and for some reason they couldn't figure out how to make a better one. Terranigma is the only game that matters. Sadly they still never made the city BUILDING mechanics properly again, and the one time they did it the whole thing was just "shoot the mindless baddies and use your magic to clear more land."

If you want to play a city building game get a Mac emulator and Sim City 2000. A lot of DOS games were also on Mac Classic but in the mid 1990s DOS was pure shit and Mac hadn't been poz'd by the return of Steve Jobs yet.

Are there any city building RPGs with actual city mechanics? Sim City released their source code so you'd think people would figure it out by now.

>>15947312

That was published by Enix in Japan. Treasure still owns the IP.

>>15947328

Oh, guess I'm in the clear then. I guess a better example is Chrono Trigger

and snes page of coolroms is down

>>15947334

You could still get them on emuparadise. You just need to get the greasemonkey/tampermonkey extension and put in the workaround script so that you can download the games in the hidden workaround link on the page.

https://gist.github.com/Eptun/3fdcc84552e75e452731cd4621c535e9/raw/d1dcc00185085ce10df8bebcc2a640fd01ef9058/emuparadise.eptun.user.js

Only played ActRaiser. If they took out the city building after that, what exactly links all these games together?

>>15947268

I didn't finish Terraniga but played all of Soul Blazer and Gaia. I fucking loved those games. Is Terranigma as good?

>>15947329

Something like Sin & Punishment is where they don't own the IP, since it was co-developed with Nintendo.

>>15947344

yes

althought near the ending the game seems to lose a bit of its charm

>>15947342

Soul Blazer is a prequel while also being the beginning of the spinoff gaia trilogy. Spinoffs can differ in gameplay and other aspects.

>>15947344

Best of the series.

>>15947337

already downloaded it in other site

>>15947345

Yeah, I know that much.

>>15947342

Your character is a Chosen One by God/Gaia/The Master and your job is to destroy the Devil/Dark Gaia/Deathtoll. Other than that, the games vary a lot in their mechanics and plot specifics.

Soul Blazer recently got a fan-retranslation patch. Doesn't seem to like the existing ROM I have of the game though.

>>15947362

>fan-retranslation patch

Why thogut?

as far as i remeber the game was localized

>>15947365

Probably taking out the censorship to religious references in the US version, like changing the name of God to the Master and the Devil to Deathtoll.

>>15947275

http://gaming.moe/?p=331

>>15947373

Oh yeah that right

Illusion of gaia had this problem as well

>>15947387

I remember in Illusion of gaia they mistranslated "Leviathan" as "Riverson". I wonder how can a translator fail so badly at katakana

>>15947373

I'm sure ActRaiser was the worst offender by its plot: a literal god who gets power from its followers. Crystalis and Zelda III pale in comparison.

>>15947325

I wish I had the brains to understand the strategy behind SimCity. In ActRaiser the purpose is very clear: make your followers reproduce and prospair in order to level up, help them with quests to get more combat spells.

Everything was very simple but comfyness compensated it.

I loved ActRaiser's city building, but I hated the fucking hidden mechanics to it. You have to build the city in a certain way to get the maximum level for your character, which boiled downs to following a certain path and avoiding bridges, since they went towards your building meter and provided no population.

>>15947365

Localized does not imply a good script.

>>15947415

Oh and then there is the music

>>15947415

>>15947447

This game is indeed a masterpiece and so is its OST.

>tfw that scene with the goats on the mountain

>>15947447

Darkside Field is my personal favorite. Also, it blew me away scrolling through the map of the underworld.

>>15947454

Thanks for the info

I always felt that Enix games were all graphics while Square was all gameplay (or what passed for it at the time). Briefly after their merger they made some very good games, but a few gens later they crashed with no survivors

>>15947483

Do you think there could be a new ActRaiser/Gaia game without fuckups?

>>15947513

heh

i woldnt count on it

>>15947391

Localization teams were never known for their attention to detail or their respect for other cultures. Back in those days, I'm certain it was common to hire people to these teams who didn't know or didn't care in the slightest about Japan or its culture; add onto that the fear of religious references that corporations wanted to remove due to sensitivities, removing or changing gore color, and censorship of sensitive themes, and sometimes it would be easier to rewrite shit entirely rather than try to do the walk on rice paper.

Then, there's also the problem with timeframes. Chrono Trigger is a great example. (https://chrono.fandom.com/wiki/Ted_Woolsey), since they gave the guy 30 days to create an English transcript and didn't give him a really strong translation team. He had to memorize scenarios and use drafts of players' guides to create a working script, and there was still quite a bit of room to play around with.

>Ozzie, Flea, and Slash were originally Vinegar, Mayonne, and Soiso (Vinegar, Mayonnaise, and Soy Sauce)

>Frog originally spoke in a disciplined tone, much like an honorable warrior, rather than an Olde English knight

It's really interesting stuff, but it all ultimately boils down to how much money the publishing company is willing to spend and how much respect they and the localization team have for the originating culture.

>>15947337

No wonder why that site is still up, those sneaky fuckers.

>>15947685

I wonder why?

>>15947447

>>15947460

I assume it's the ActRaiser trilogy (1,2 & Soul Blazer) with the Gaia duology (Illusion of Gaia & Terranigma) being spiritual successors to Soul Blazer.

>>15947483

Reminder that Enix was almost always just a publisher for companies like Chunsoft, Tri-Ace, Quintet, etc, as opposed to both development and self-publishing like Square. Don't attribute games to people that didn't actually make them.

>>15947599

Kind of funny how the DS version restores Frog back to what he should have been (thus fixing the logic issue of him being the only character speaking Ye Olde English), yet a lot of fans hate the improved accuracy for "killing the charm".

>>15948030

Isn't Quintet defunct?

Who owns Actraiser/Gaia now?

>>15948030

>yet a lot of fans hate the improved accuracy for "killing the charm"

This is why localization is and will always be shit, because that is what most people want. Learn Japanese.

>>15948185

This. Learning moon was the best thing I've ever done regarding games. Always remove the middleman.

>>15948185

I'm not wasting five years learning a language so you don't have to regret doing the same just before Soyny started censoring the Japanese versions too.

>>15948197

>caring about modern games

They can't censor the games that already exist, faggot.

>>15948169

Most likely defunct. I think Square-Enix owns the rights to their games under inheritance from the merger with Enix, but aside from a Wii VC rerelease of ActRaiser, they've refused to do anything with Quintet's games. Overall I think Square, especially the western branch, has a real dislike of Enix' old offerings having been competition, and unless a game sees a remake, fat fucking chance of them making them more available.

>>15948232

I assume the rights to the Quintet games are on limbo. This is why roms and emulation exists.

>>15948239

So nobody has the rights to these games?

>>15947540

does it really matter tho? finished them both back in the day without guide etc

also remembering renting soul blazer over a weekend as wee lad with hardly any english knowledge and proceed to nolife it to beat it. good times.

>>15948239

If the rights to Quintet's old games were in limbo, ActRaiser wouldn't have been able to be rereleased anyhow. Yet it was, and remains the only Quintet game (or classic Enix published game, really) to be given such treatment. I think it's more that Square-Enix just doesn't give a fuck.

>>15948297

someone probably has, mentioned as fine print in some legal text transferring assets etc., but figuring that out is probably too much hassle and effort for the people involved so it sits in some cabinet.

I mean the couldn't even be bothered to do it for NOLF, and that remaster was ready to go, basically free money. fuck activision, fuck fox and double fuck warner bros

>>15947268

>Terranigma

This game was forgotten and probably will never be remembered but what it did still lives in those who had the chance to know it. just like Ark

>>15947875

So it's like this

ActRaiser:

>Soul Blazer (prequel)

>Actraiser

>Actraiser 2

Gaia:

>Illusion of Gaia

>Terranigma

>>15948464

>>15948467

>These games will officially never see the light of day again.

>>15947268

>>15947275

>The platforming\city building hybrid

They gutted and dumbed down Actraiser 2 to better sell in the foreign market. It didn't end well. But the first game is still an exceptional and uncommon blend.

>>15948653

it didn't end well because it was always more obscure and 2 being way harder than 1, most people didn't play it for the citybuilding to begin with.

>>15947337

Thank you. Had some JP game files I'd been wanting to download for a while, but couldn't find anywhere else with them at present.

>>15947268

Since when did Soul Blader series have anything to do with Actraiser? First I've ever heard of this.

>>15947275

The city building aspect was extremely fun. There's nothing else much like it.

The only one I've played is Terranigma, and I thought it was so poorly executed that I have no desire to try the others. A thoroughly mediocre game propped up by thirsty autists who are so fixated on atmosphere and storytelling that they can completely disregard shallow, repetitive, and annoying game mechanics.

>>15949228

I personally enjoy the gameplay mechanics.

>>15947268

Those aren't part of a "series" or trilogy etc. Only Actraiser 1 and 2 are.

>>15947314

>actraiser is part of the soul blazer series?

No it's not.

>i have to play it now

You should play them because Quintet are awesome. Also Robotrek.

>>15947342

>what exactly links all these games together?

Nothing except they're made by the same studio so they reuse assets and sound effects.

>>15947344

>Is Terranigma as good?

It's mediocre. Horribly disappointingly inconsistent and mediocre.

>>15947362

>Soul Blazer recently got a fan-retranslation patch.

Absolute waste of time.

>>15947415

>Terranigma is a masterpiece, thematically and gameplay wise.

You need to play more video games. Jesus christ.

>>15950569

While I wouldn’t say mediocre it does feel like wasted opportunity. And when I say wasted I mean enough to create a literal wasteland.

Should have added more soulblazer gimmicks would have really improved the game.

>>15950569

So you're saying that other Quintet games actually are worth playing, despite Terranigma sucking ass?

>>15948662

Read the interview. According to him, he did work on some of the games himself.

What's your favorite music?

Whatever they play in that pyramid level is the shit, sounds like ancient

>>15950619

Terranigma is the best of them all. That nigger just has shit taste.

>>15950851

Terranigma - Darkside Field.

>>15951043

Okay then, Quintet confirmed shitty developer, if that was their best offering.

>>15951086

Or you have shit taste.

>>15951107

What's so great about Terranigma?

>>15951124

Aside from great soundtrack and story, I had a lot of fun playing it.

>>15951052

If that's not bait, Ancient is Yuzo Koshiro's company.

>>15951199

What about the gameplay? Did you not mind the shallow and repetitive combat? The simplistic and linear dungeons? What about the level-up mechanics that are tacked on at best while at worst force you to grind a bit to beat that one boss?

>>15951353

Or the dramatic and "deep" twists in the story that ultimately mean nothing because they take place in a series where reincarnation is a big theme.