Let's get this party started. The FF Collection letters continue to trickle in. Most of them cover the same ground we've gone over before, or will be replied to privately. By and large, though, it's been a pretty quiet day on the letters front, with little in the way of flames or massive debates. Heaven forfend, I may even let it continue for a little while. I can't be pissed off and hefting napalm all the time, y'know. :) The perfect console system of the future thread turned out to be fairly lame, to be quite honest. A few serious ones, a lot of silly ones, and only one truly inspired one, which scarcely hit on the topic at all. Ah well. You all tried your best to work with the lame topic of discussion I cooked up, and I admire you all for it. Next time I hand out an assignment for letters, I'll try to make it a less half-assed. Oh, and my quote for the day is this: "I think I'm going to scream like a little fairy." Isn't your life feel fulfilled now? | FF Collection ignorance | Will the stand alone version of ff6 be released in the United States? Is itdifferent than the one included in the the final fantasy collection? Thanx. Raymond |
Good question. Since FFIV is cut from the package, Square could probably include the expanded version of FFVI in there if they wanted to. However, I'm afraid I just can't answer that for certain, since Square's officially denying the FFC US release leak at the moment. Sp I guess we'll have to wait and see. | Dream machine, first act | The perfect console gaming system? I'd have to say one that could levitate,you could mold into any shape, and had an exterior like a dry erase board.This way I could have it float around shaped like a potato with insane thingswritten all over it. Isn't that what life is all about? And it'd be calledThe Flying Mutatable Game Experience. The sales pitch would be: "Don't likethe game you're playing? Then play with the system!" If I were on crack I'dbuy it. Don't you wish that after losing in Tetris or a fighting game on thefinal boss you could write curses all over the system as opposed to beatingit? And if you did kick it there'd be an imprint of your foot. And while onthe subject of beating the console, I have an alternative system. Make onesuper padded and tough so that I could pick it up and throw it across the roomwithout worrying about breaking it. And I could punch it when I lose. There. |
That'd be nifty. Sort of an electronic version of one of those sock 'em blow-up clowns that you beat the hell out of, and they always rebound, no worse for wear. Still, I generally don't throw around my consoles much. I did, however, end up putting some foam padding on my NES controller back when I was playing Battletoads. I hate that game. I really do. It simply does not compare to true NES classics like Demon Sword, Dragon Warrior IV, or River City Ransom. Hoo-ah. Now those are games. Hey, you think Rescue: The Embassy Mission counts as "intelligent"? It had strategy... sort of. Whaddya think? It'd make a kick-arse Vault entry, it seems to me. | Memory limits | Why can't companies just put an option for subtitles down in the options menu for a game (kind of like a laserdisc or dvd)? I'm sure that those who prefer stuff dubbed won't be completely disgusted by the option simply being there, and I'm sure more than a few will switch it on from time to time and laugh at the "funny voices". It shouldn't take up too much space, especially with CDs being used now. The only reason I can think of is the little bit of extra effort needed to deal with timing and stuff like that, but that shouldn't be more than a minor bit of work (especially with a game like Xenogears, where there were only two significant cut-scenes - beginning and end). Tenchu had a password for this; why can't it be a regular option? -Tom Servo |
First of all, it adds to the cost. Royalties need to be paid to all voice actors, Japanese or English, and Japanese voice actors often have rather substantial prices tied to their vocal cords. Having a sub and a dub is, then, effectively double the cost of one or the other. Another issue is that of space. Xenogears is the exception in the voice acting game. Those games that do have FMV and voice acting tend to have a lot of it, and consequently, there's simply not enough room on the CD for two voice tracks. To take an example, Magic Knight Rayearth, which had lots of speech in it, used up all but a fraction of the CD's storage capacity. Something like 400k of free space remained. The Japanese voice couldn't be preserved if they wanted to. A game system with a DVD drive wouldn't have the storage space problems, of course. The cost for two sets of voices would remain, though. How a DVD-based game system will impact the gaming and translation business remains to be seen. | Dream machine, second art | Well, let's see... it would support games that run on AI programsthat become more/less intelligent as the player interacts with them.This could also be used in conjunction with the system's EEG port, whichcould be connected before retiring for the evening. Seperate dreamswould be saved to files that could be viewed later, and be reenteredlater as a game, or deleted. (Dreamcast, indeed) This console would also support holographic gaming in two forms.The first would be a "stage" where all the gaming takes place. Fullrotation of the field would be possible (even when connected to thebackwards compatible rom when you put in Xenogears...). The second wouldbe an addon, consisting of an 8'X 8' "field" that is supported on alimited range platform. The room would generate the image of the game(rendered or photorealistic), and sensors mounted at key points of theroom would monitor the players movements, and respond by moving theplatform accordingly. *NOTE*-- I chose this to be an addon due to theseriousness of the broken neck lawsuits that may be associated with it,and the fact that addons have a serious problem with assuming profitsover development costs. A spell check/editor that would read three hours into gameplay fromcurrent position. With the option to view dialogue for contextinfo while still avoiding spoilers. Or possibly an onboard translationprogram... complete with footnotes on cultural references. An optional catheter and morphine production node for those longnights after the release of a your fave title (or whatever reason onemay find suitable). GameAxe-This handy little feature would allow the player who hasbeen put in a situation such that his/her "X"item is taken by character"Cat Shit", and given away to the baddies, the opportunity to slay thatcharacter on the spot. *NOTE*-- This may cause developmnent points tosuffer... Save frequently. It wouldn't play anything from the Twisted Metal series. A scanner that would allow 3D rendering of say the player's mugshot, and have it placed on a character. -Aside- "Yes Rinoa, i reallywas faking my inability to dance", as she gazes deeply into my eyes... And with probably the greatest amount of importance on the consoleof the future; a thumbprint scan that would prohibit one'swife/girlfriend from cutting the power off. Happiness, nash |
Nash, that is a beautiful, impossible, crack-induced work of art. Make one of those things for me and I'll supply you with angel dust for the rest of your natural life. | PocketStation not required | Becasue of Sony's atrocious judgement in thier decision not to releases Soul Hackers in the US, I'm considering importing the game when it comes out on the PSX in Japan. Not just for Soul Hackers, but for a chance to get a peek at Persona 2... Though I'm probably setting myself up for dissapointment when Sony snubs it as well. Will a Pocketstation be a necessity to play the game, or is it simply an extra feature? I'm guessing it won't be a necessity, since to Saturn version didn't have Pocketstation. I'm still unclear as to exactly what the pocketstation addition is supposed to do in Soul Hackers. Could you clarify? --Tony Patino |
The PocketStation is a nifty little tool that is not necessary to play and complete any game it uses. It can help you, but it's not required for any game. So don't worry about it. The PocketStation's use in Soul Hackers sort of mystifies me, to be perfectly honest. It seems to be a way for you to teach little critters/pets/monsters skills and abilities, for use in the game itself. I know that's not really any help, but I'm afraid my knowledge of Japanese RPGs I've never played is kinda limited. Sorry. Anyone able to help us both out here? | Dream machine, conclusion | My ideal system: Something by Sega, except with an American branch thatdoes more than sit around and smoke pot all day. - AJ |
Ooooooh. I can feel the burn, can't you? Ouch ouch ouch, that's gotta sting, doesn't it? Ten points to AJ for the nastiest, unprovoked snipe of the day. | Tales of visual shorthand | Just beat Tales of Destiny and it really was a charming game. Randomencounter rate was way, way, way too high though. Could barely go fiveseconds without fighting. Reading that interview though brought tomind another great exchange in ToD. It goes something like this:(occurs when Stahn and Rutee first meet and are trapped in energyfields) Rutee: "Is your head just an ornament" Stahn: "Look who's talking! I don't need verbal abuse from someonesuspended in midair!" But anyway, on to the question. In ToD, do you know what that littleblack thingee that sometimes pops up besides the characters head indialogue balloons is supposed to be? It looks like a black lightbulband appears when the characters are annoyed. Regardless, thetranslation of ToD really saved the game for me. It wouldn't have beennearly as charming if it had been done ala ff tactics or ff7. Tewkman |
Yeah, Tales of Destiny did have a sort of quirky charm, didn't it? The constant battles really grated on me, though. I mean, I can handle high encounter rates. I can handle block-pushing puzzles. But when I'm doing constant combat while pushing and pulling blocks around to hit switches, I start to get pissed off. When puzzles appear, I want the random encounters scaled back so I can concentrate on the conundrum. Still, the dialogue was really snappy, wasn't it? Those black lightbulb/sweat drop are a sort of visual shorthand for annoyance or embarassment. It's visual lingo from Japanese comic art. An American equivalent would be, say, Charlie Brown-style flying sweat drops being equated with anxiety. Get the idea? And, sadly, I've been unable to find any hard data about Tales of Destiny's sales in the US. Namco's playing this one close to their vest, I'm afraid. Sorry.
Closing comments A quick thought before we go. Please, everyone, do not send me email attachments. Some of them are quite cool, admittedly, but it's very jarring to be hurriedly downloading my email to browse before I head out for a while, and suddenly see a 2 MB file whirring away. My ISP doesn't like it much either. If you have something you really, really want to show me, please send me a link to it, or at least a "hey, I wanna send you - and it's X KB large, can I send it?" note. I'll probably say yes, but at least then I'll know what the massive file I'm receiving is. Massive mystery email worries me. Just give me warning, everything will be hunky dory.
- The Double Agent | | | |
