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Post by bonesnapdeez on Feb 10, 2019 20:29:25 GMT -5
Radical Dreamers is a woke ass game. Love the dank creepy atmosphere, and I appreciate that it's a true adventure game rather than a visual novel. It's better than Chrono Cross, which isn't saying much I guess.
I have a reproduction cart of the game. I'd like to get repro carts for those fan-translated satellite type releases. I have Radical Dreamers and BS Zelda. Still want the Phantasy Star II Text Adventures and a few others.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 10, 2019 21:19:27 GMT -5
Kinda, yeah. It has elements of Cross, but Cross is the one that was made canon. Don't know that I think it's better than Cross, however; I dug that back when I played it, convoluted plot and all. (And boy, is it convoluted. I'm pretty sure it might be worse than Kingdom Hearts.)
Anyway, another fan translation down! I figured I would enjoy Hyper Iria... but it was just a'ight. I mean, it looks pretty decent, and for a licensed game it's phenomenal, but it also feels pretty sluggish. Short, too; maybe 1.5 hours total. It's made easier in that as far as I can tell, you have unlimited continues, and the checkpointing is pretty forgiving. I'd say it's a 6/10 for me.
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Post by Ex on Feb 10, 2019 21:42:30 GMT -5
There's a cluster of "board game RPG" type things on the Famicom. Sugoro Quest is legitimately cool, and I'm not a big Technos fan. Hyaku no Sekai no Monogatari looks interesting, but typically goes for about $90. Ooof. The first Itadaki Street is pretty entertaining and adorable. Not fully fan-translated from what I recall, though. RPG Jinsei Game just had a fan translation drop 8 days ago. Looks intriguing. Other Famicom board games worth mentioning:
Wily & Light's RockBoard: That's Paradise!!Railroad BaronAnd two more not-Famicom digital board games in the realm of English fan trans... Battle of Kingdom (Game Boy) Culdcept DS
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Post by toei on Feb 11, 2019 3:41:21 GMT -5
XeogredThe main connection was Masato Kato, who was the main story writer for all three games (and directed the latter two). He was not the director for Trigger, of course, and neither Yuji Horii nor Sakaguchi were involved with Dreamers or Cross. Considering how different they feel, and how much weaker Kato's other games are compared to CT, I'm tempted to say Horii and Sakaguchi were the most important forces behind the game; it really does feel like a mix between their two creative style. You have Horii's charm and attention to details with Sakaguchi's dramatic flair. But on their own, Horii's focus on the little things sometimes means the bigger picture is lacking, while Sakaguchi's dramatic stories can devolve into corny melodrama; by working together, they managed to rein in their weaknesses and let their strengths come through. The other connection is Yasunori Mitsuda, of course, who composed music for all three. As to whether Radical Dreamers is a prototype for Chrono Cross, I don't think it was conceived that way, at least not on Square's side. It was likely just a side-project to them, being that it was exclusive to the Satellaview System. Satellaview games had to be downloaded on a rewritable cartridge, usually to be replaced by the next game the user downloaded, and the whole thing was a niche service, so the new releases were typically more like mini-games or episodic releases than full-fledged SNES games. In that context, a text adventure was a natural way to provide more depth while keeping the game small, and its development quick and inexpensive. Sega had done the same with its series of Phantasy Star 2 text adventures on their MegaNet modem service 5 or 6 years before. Masato Kato may have intended to write a proper Chrono sequel all along, though, or maybe he just re-used some of the content when he finally did.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 11, 2019 8:48:10 GMT -5
That's the info I was looking for. I forget Sakaguchi was involved with CT. I'm a fan of Cross unlike most, but yeah really can't deny how crazy different it is compared to CT. Both Cross and Radical Dreamers seem like a completely different series outside of some references and cameos to CT here and there.
This actually finally clears up why I've always felt that Chrono Cross' writing and some character interactions are similar to Xenogears, looks like Masato Kato was involved in both. Of course, Tetsuya Takahashi has a huge hand and influence in Xenogears though and most of Monolith-Soft's work, which I greatly enjoy.
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Post by Ex on Feb 11, 2019 10:29:10 GMT -5
I'm a fan of Cross unlike most I haven't beaten Radical Dreamers (no interest personally), but I have beaten Chrono Trigger (in 1998) and Chrono Cross (in 2008). I think they are both good games. That said for my own gaming preferences neither blew me away. I would give CT an 8/10*, and CC a 7/10. In no way is CC as bad as some say it is. From a graphical standpoint if nothing else CC's very impressive for a PS1 game. *The issues I remember with CT were I didn't care for its characters or plot. And I thought a few of its scenario designs were less than stellar. For an RPG those are important aspects that can sway someone's enjoyment. Graphically/aurally/mechanically CT is completely solid. It's an above average JRPG. All that said, when I played the game I was super depressed, that could have hampered my resonance with its writing for sure. I plan to replay CT for our "Brand New Déjà Vu" month this year here at Club Retro. Maybe the second time around will raise, or lower, my opinion further.
Anyway last night I reached the second disc of Ace Combat 3, which means I'm at least halfway done now. I also put another hour into For the Frog the Bell Tolls; continuing to have a good time with it. My plan is to beat three games for this theme, thankfully the first two have been winners thus far.
Edit: I'll throw in some screenshots: AC3: FtFtBT:
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Post by toei on Feb 11, 2019 10:57:39 GMT -5
I don't hate Chrono Cross, either, but it's just a decent PSX RPG with a story that turns to nonsense towards the end, while Chrono Trigger is an all-time classic.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 11, 2019 16:30:09 GMT -5
Sampled a second of Rudras today... only to encounter some weird issues with SNES9x. I wonder if this is why some stuff like Super Mario All-Stars wasn't running too well... So basically the picture will get fuzzy whenever dialogue and text pops up. I thought maybe it was the patch/rom with the translation just doing something funky, however ZSNES doesn't mess up like this at all. I don't know how else to explain it... the game and everything just looked very noticeably fuzzy and off, then I quickly noticed it happens when text shows up. Any guesses what might be causing that? Even weirder is that the fuzzyness is not captured in screenshots... they look normal. Here's my settings if you guys think anything should be changed? EDIT: Was able to replicate it with simple copy/print screens: Hopefully you guys see it. The image even pulls slightly to the right when the blurryness happens, it's very jarring. I noticed the menu's in Secret of Mana look weird too and might test that in ZSNES. Alright, I fixed it! "Blend Hi-Res Images" was the problem. Turning that off fixed it.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 11, 2019 19:33:26 GMT -5
Yeah, Rudra uses that high resolution mode when text boxes pop up.
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Post by Xeogred on Feb 11, 2019 20:29:59 GMT -5
What is the Hi-Res stuff? Is this emulator material or some tech from the actual games? I played maybe an hour of Sion's scenario and I'm definitely digging it. Any tips on the Mantras? I found a treasure box that said "BRA?AM" for raising STR... so, I'm not sure if that means it wants me to figure out what the "?" is, or that's a text/translation error. I enscribed a few spells trying to figure it out though. I'm guessing the "Void" ones are failures but I can't tell if you can completely delete stuff from the list or not.
Amazing graphics as always courtesy of mid 90's Square Soft! Digging the music too.
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