And with this game, I get the impression the GBA has been pushed a bit too far. This probably should have been released on the DS instead.
Yes, I actually got it. Well, it is still my favorite in the series. Unfortunatly, the port job wasn't exactly the best. First of all, graphically it is nearly identical to the original. No additional graphics in the least, as I predicted as the updated graphics in IV and V were about the same quality as FF6 originally was (even with the tiling taken into mind, as it's done VERY well). Unfortunatly, they couldn't even keep up the old graphical quality, so improving it was out of the question. The sound is sometimes different, not better, and in some cases worse in fact (various sound effects are reduced from sounding pretty much exactly as they should (train sounds) to some unintelligable "BZZT" sound effect. The special effects are a little off too. Aside from slowdown, the worst yet in these GBA ports (FFIV had some, but I barely noticed it, and FFV, as far as I can tell, doesn't really have any), there's also poorly executed ones. The "Banisher" effect no longer takes pieces of the enemy away in it's beams of light, the enemy just vanishes and the beams of light just go up empty handed. Oh, riding chocobos and the airships is pathetically slow.
Further, the extras lack some of the extras included in the PS version of the game, like the colloseum, but the beastiary does work better, basically slowly unlocked as they are encountered like in the others.
I haven't beaten it yet, so I can't say anything of the other extras. I expect the dungeon to be interesting at least.
What I can say is the translation has been redone. Now, the original SNES version got it almost spot on, so there's not much to change, but they did alter enough to give it a somewhat different feel. For the better, I think. They did, oddly enough, keep a lot of it like the original translation. Character names, I understand, but they also sort of kept other things I'd rather they translated correctly as well. All in all I think it would have been best if they had either put this on the DS or PSP.
I'm not particularly bothered by the slowdown. I don't think it's as bad as you make it to be.
I also think the new translation is fantastic, and that's partially because the original translation was exceedingly bad, to the point where several character exchanges made no sense. I'm not so thrilled with the renamed enemies (goodbye Ralph the Armored Death Dog :().
All in all, in the ways that count, it's superior to the original, and I'm just far enough that I'm able to find some of the extras (I just got the Falcon in the World of Ruin).
Wow, you've been rushing through that. Where do you get the time? Well, I guess beating the game is pretty much an "any time you feel like it" thing at this point.
Better translation, and extra gameplay, but visually and audially, it's worse. That's basically what I'm saying basically. I'm still playing through it though.
From what I've seen, the script is a bit less censored, but there might be some additional visual censorship (in both versions, not just the US one)... isn't that what they did with FF4-GBA?
Anyway, I won't be getting it. ... of course, I don't really own any of the normal FF games so that's not really saying much... :) Even if I did want to play it, the translated rom is better -- no cut screen lines to fit it on a GBA screen, uncensored graphics and script, etc... of course there is that legality issue, but when the thing is just plain better... still won't get me to actually play the game though. (owning a legal version would be good too? Sure, but for a game I'm not going to really play either way anyway? Doesn't seem worth the $30. :))
If I was to get more GBA games, it'd be either Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2, Mazes of Fate, or Scurge: Hive.
Celes apparently just sorta falls to the ground, what's up with that? Apparently, it was censored by Japan, not us. I have no idea why. They do MUCH worse stuff to characters than a little punch to the gut, IN THAT VERY GAME!
Oh, Weltall, I'd say that "exceedingly bad" is a major overstatement. FF6 was one of the GOOD translations from the SNES era, from the same guy who later translated Chrono Trigger. Not as good as translations are these days (FF8 and onward is where translations actually started looking professional if you ask me, even FF7 had some noticably poor scripting here and there).
Quote:Celes apparently just sorta falls to the ground, what's up with that?
When originally she was chained to the wall, I believe... no chains allowed now!
Quote:Oh, Weltall, I'd say that "exceedingly bad" is a major overstatement. FF6 was one of the GOOD translations from the SNES era, from the same guy who later translated Chrono Trigger. Not as good as translations are these days (FF8 and onward is where translations actually started looking professional if you ask me, even FF7 had some noticably poor scripting here and there).
From what I know, I would say that it was about as good as you possibly could have hoped for. Censorship was going to be a given; alchohol and sexual references were of course going to be gone, as was other stuff for the sake of shorter sentences (since English uses more letters to write things than Japanese often does, I guess -- had to fit it into the rom?). So given those facts, Woolsey did a decent job... of course, that doesn't mean that when given a better alternative (the FF6 rom translation patch that accurately translates the original script with no cuts and since it's running off of the FF6 rom has no censorship either), it doesn't match up... this one is mostly better than the original English release (the script has been improved), but some censorship remains, so the translation patch is still the most accurate version. Not that I would have expected anything different, after how censorship in games has gotten stronger both in the US and in Japan... though of course, in the US the censorship is aimed at sexual content first, violence second, while in Japan, like Europe, it's the other way around.
The one thing I've noticed so far is the old man's "cider" is still there, though the "Cafe" is now a "Pub" as it should be.
As for chains, there never really were any chains on Celes, she just had her hands raised. They apparently couldn't spare the space for a "locked up" sprite. I'm saying the guard doesn't punch her to knock her out, she just collapses, which doesn't really make sense and I don't really understand why they did that anyway. Of all the things... Apparently the slow torture of the espers and poisoning an entire village and showing various other violent attacks were fine, but THAT was inexcusable?
Yeah, it was strange that the beating was removed, but it's no big deal.
I'm not exactly rushing through the game, it's just that I've already beaten it several dozen times, so there's not a whole lot of challenge involved.
My qualms with the translation don't have to do with censorship, they have to do with the fact that the original translation has several instances of text and dialogue that make no sense whatsoever. Examples:
1. The note Cid leaves for Celes on the bluffs at the beginning of the World of Ruin. FFIII's note actually encourages Celes to leap to her death. The corrected translation is completely different, stating that the other inhabitants of the island leaped to their deaths because of despair, not as a thrill-seeking leap of faith as Ted Woolsey's translation infers.
2. The conversation between Cid, Kefka, Celes and Locke in the Magitek Factory is nonsense in FFIII. Cid states that Celes is 'fomenting rebellion' and it makes Locke go nuts and doubt Celes. and the reaction makes little sense when you consider that Celes has joined the anti-Imperial rebellion and that her actions in Vector can easily be construed as 'fomenting rebellion', so why on earth would Locke be upset about it?
Now it states that Celes is allegedly a spy planted within the Returners, and that small change altered the entire context of the conversation.
3. The scene at the end of Maduin's flashback, in the reflecting pool. In the orginal, the script makes it seem like Madonna (Madeleine?) willingly hands over Terra to Gestahl and suddenly realizes what a boner that decision was. The new translation makes it clear that Terra was taken against Mom's will. The old translation was just really ridiculous here as well.
For 1, I got that impression anyway, but you know, I remember the "perked em right up" line there. I guess that it was just too obvious for me not to realize that and I just sorta forgot the line later... Maybe it was Cid himself saying so many died "of despair". Yeah, bad move there, but I saw through it.
For 2, I have no idea what you are talking about. The magitech factory conversation stated exactly that Celes was a supposed traitor from my memory. I don't recall that... is that even a word?
On 3, yeah that's a big one I read about some time ago myself. Either way the story works though. Both are pretty depressing.
Anyway, I'm not talking difficulty, I'm just talking about time here. Then again, every time I go through the game I go for utter perfection (all possible everythings), so maybe that's why it takes me longer, but more than that, I get easily distracted and can't be bothered to even entertain myself a lot of the time.
Well I've slowly worked my way to the continent of teh floating. There's an evil emporer who completely screwed us with "peace talks", all my allies outside playable characters are either dead or missing (and presumed dead), and oh yes, that same emporer has countless summoned monster magical rocks and, lest I forget, is on a flying fortress that is basically an entire continent, which itself is connected to another world, and he now has control of the 3 gods who created magic in the first place (before using it to wage holy wars against each other like gods tend to do). He can merely wish my death and it will be done. I've got a gambling albino who likes to throw coins, a kid who paints, a pervert, and some stuffed animal that dances. Bring it ON!
I'm working my way through the Dragon's Den quest. It's been pretty easy so far, though the Red Dragon in particular is quite tricky. Not too hard yet though most of my characters have 7000+ HP by this point so there's not much out there that can threaten me.
One thing you should know: You can save the game after beating Kefka, and you get to keep any and all extremely powerful weapons you might manage to steal from the third part of the three pre-Kefka tower bosses. Much ass will be kicked when you have two Ultima Weapons AND a new Ragnarok sword.
Well that is VERY nice information to know. By extension, I assume any items I use I get to LOSE, so I'll keep that in mind too.
If I can permanently get a Ragnarok sword, I think that changes everything in regards to the ragnarok "sword or stone?" question. I always picked the sword before, since I could convert it into a better one and could learn Ultima using the Paladin Shield instead, having the best of both, but now I think Metamorph will be my friend. Too bad this beastiary doesn't have anything in the way of a list of possible metamorph results for all the creatures. Oh well, neither did the beastiary in Anthology. Oddly enough, the beastiary is incomplete. There are creatures I know I fought, as I find them repeatedly on the veldt, which do not appear, at all, in the beastiary. For example, the doberman, a monster you only get to fight one time in the whole game. That is when you are invading the camp east of Doma and you see this one chest in a tent and you can hit it, kick it, or let it alone. One of them gets you attacked by dogs, which are doberman.
Oh, definitely keep the Ragnarok Esper. You do keep all your stolen goodies after beating Kefka! Plus, you can go back and beat him over and over again and get extras. There's not a hell of a lot of point to doing this, except the Dragon's Den. The final Dragon, Kaiser, is allegedly extremely difficult to kill. There's also the Soul Shrine which I have not yet accessed. It lets you fight every monster in the game, regardless of whether you've beaten it or not, and you get everything. Bosses, dragons, Kefka...
Also, there are some enemies that don't appear in the bestiary. Doberman is one. The enemies in the Narshe Security puzzle thing also don't appear, along with a handful of others.
So anyway I'm running for my life because the source of all magic has been adjusted (twice, Shadow is at least partly to blame for the new shape of the world, at least the details where all those devils are), and I realize something. Why does that one clowny boss decide to cast "condemned" on you? I'm ALREADY sentenced to death in a few seconds, it's not like condemned is going to make me rush twice as fast.
I finally found a video of that really old SGI graphical demo of what the N64 could do to FF6.
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Keep in mind that this is OLD so this was pretty impressive at the time, which is to say flat lighting and a near total lack of textures was impressive, and that was FF7! Anyway, it kinda makes me wonder what would have happened if Square had decided to delay FF7 for a year and release a 3D remake of FF6 on the PS1 instead... Maybe we'd be seeing this huge focus on new stuff for FF6 instead of FF7 due to that game being the system's first killer app.
I've seen that before. I don't think there was ever going to be a 3D remake of the game, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want one.
I'm glad I'll be going in halfsies with Toven and getting a PSP, so I can keep paying Squeenix my hard-earned money for re-releases of games I've owned for over a decade.
And in all actually, I intend very little sarcasm there, believe it or not.
Also, just because I know some of you have wanted to see them, here are the FMVs they added to the PS1 version. Of all the remake FMVs, these are my favorite (FFIV is my least favorite).
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This ending FMV does contain spoilers, obviously...
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The last one on the disk was sort of a mix of the previous two but with genuine lyrics for the opera music. This one was only seen in the bonus menu and is apparently some sort of Japanese commercial for the game, which says how even an advertisement can have good taste.
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Quote:I've seen that before. I don't think there was ever going to be a 3D remake of the game, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want one.
I'm glad I'll be going in halfsies with Toven and getting a PSP, so I can keep paying Squeenix my hard-earned money for re-releases of games I've owned for over a decade.
And in all actually, I intend very little sarcasm there, believe it or not.
But there are already three versions of those games available, and the PSP ones are going to be sold separately, unlike the last two sets... ... this is why they're doing this, because they know FF fans will buy them anyway...
Quote:[FFVI intro CG video]
This is why Terra has green hair in the game (unlike her character art and the video), since otherwise she'd look too much like Celes (or any other blond-haired female characters in the game)...
Quote:[FFVI SGI demo video]
I've seen footage of that game before of course, and screenshots and stuff, but I don't remember that long video... I've probably seen it before but I forget at the moment, though. That is the one that spawned "FF N64?" rumors until FF7 was announced for the PSX... it's an understandable assumption to make, given that the N64 is built on SGI technology, but it didn't end up being true thanks to Square wanting to have FMV and save money on liscencing and production fees (by going to CDs), of course. Oh well.
... that (mini)game had mouse gesture controls, right? Wii port! :D
Ryan Wrote:I've seen that before. I don't think there was ever going to be a 3D remake of the game, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want one.
I'm glad I'll be going in halfsies with Toven and getting a PSP, so I can keep paying Squeenix my hard-earned money for re-releases of games I've owned for over a decade.
And in all actually, I intend very little sarcasm there, believe it or not.
Sad truth is, I know the very tone of your post, as I say stuff like that all the time myself! I too insult the very choices I make.
Ryan Wrote:I've seen that before. I don't think there was ever going to be a 3D remake of the game, and honestly, I'm not sure I'd want one.
I know they never really intended it and it was a tech demo. I was just wondering what would have happened if they did do the full remake...
FF3 remade in 3D was interesting anyway and a good example of what we might expect. For one, everything in the game might still be overhead, whereas FF7 introduced all manner of side angles which really added to the presentation.
Edit: I've added two more FMVs to my above post, for those who read it when I had only added one movie.
Quote:Edit: I've added two more FMVs to my above post, for those who read it when I had only added one movie.
We posted at the same time... don't skip my post because of it. :)
Dark Jaguar Wrote:The last one on the disk was sort of a mix of the previous two but with genuine lyrics for the opera music. This one was only seen in the bonus menu and is apparently some sort of Japanese commercial for the game, which says how even an advertisement can have good taste.
Are you sure those are real lyrics, because it doesn't sound like a language I recognize. It's definitely a real person singing, but it might just be jibberish. It was a really good video for a videogame commerical. We'd never see that in the U.S.
You don't recognize Italian? That's what that is, and there's even a translation I found somewhere on the net...
To be honest, I'm not sure if that was actually aired (you'd think they would put in the standard "available on Playstation" notice) or if it was just something they had showing at a Tokyo Game Show type event. It's just marked as "PROMO" in the bonus menu in the PS1 version.
Edit: Come to think of it, ever since that FF6 CGI tech demo, it seems Square Enix has made a hobby out of using the previous game to demo upcoming hardware's capabilities, like when they recreated the dance scene in FF8 to demonstrate the PS2, or the opening FMV from FF7 to demonstrate the PS3, and that's it. So, 3 times.
A Black Falcon Wrote:We posted at the same time... don't skip my post because of it. :)
I didn't skip it, I read it, just not much I had to comment on. Well, there's Terra's hair color. Yeah, Amano's artwork had her blonde but they changed it to green. Not sure if it was to make her stand out from Celes or not, but one other possibility is they wanted her to seem not quite human right from the start. That's what I thought, but then anime came along and I realized that purple, green, pink, blue, and so on are considered NORMAL hair color in Japan. At any rate, the ending FMV with her in Narche makes her hair look green, though that might just be lighting.
For that matter, the magitech armor in amano's artwork, which is what these FMVs (and the game's logo in the title in fact, which was cruelly cut from the US SNES release) are based off of don't have arms, but they have big ol' hunkin' arms in the game itself. And to go on from that, the enemy sprites show multiple models, some with arms and later ones without, more resembling the artwork. Also, Sabin doesn't have a shirt, but I suppose there are multiple reasons why they would do that aside from artwork, or there would be if his chest didn't happen to look the least well done of the CG in that video.
They would repeat this artwork vs in-game stuff with Ayla in Chrono Trigger, who in the FMVs (and the artwork) used a club, but could never use a club nor even had one at any point in the actual game.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:You don't recognize Italian? That's what that is, and there's even a translation I found somewhere on the net...
I'm going to have to listen to it again when I get the chance, because I've been learning Italian for my trip to Europe this summer, and it's a bad sign if I couldn't even recognize the language.
Please do, as I'd like to know if I'm wrong about this and it's actually closer to the Italian SOUNDING stuff in the Mario and Luigi games than an actual language :D.
Though Wikipedia says otherwise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_di_Mezzo_Carattere
Wow, this has had a lot of live performances. I'd say video game music is getting it's proper recognition alright...
Not over here, it isn't. When I start seeing those kinds of live concerts done in America, I'll believe it.
Sadly, I think we're another generation away from that.
Quote:I didn't skip it, I read it, just not much I had to comment on. Well, there's Terra's hair color. Yeah, Amano's artwork had her blonde but they changed it to green. Not sure if it was to make her stand out from Celes or not, but one other possibility is they wanted her to seem not quite human right from the start. That's what I thought, but then anime came along and I realized that purple, green, pink, blue, and so on are considered NORMAL hair color in Japan. At any rate, the ending FMV with her in Narche makes her hair look green, though that might just be lighting.
When you're dealing with the kind of graphics the SNES can do, you can't recreate the concept art directly... all games from that period have big differences between the concept art and the ingame result. Hair color is one of the best ways to tell characters apart, so make them have different colored hair. :) (This is one reason why anime uses different hair colors too -- the designs would often be hard to tell apart if all the characters had black hair...)
Quote:For that matter, the magitech armor in amano's artwork, which is what these FMVs (and the game's logo in the title in fact, which was cruelly cut from the US SNES release) are based off of don't have arms, but they have big ol' hunkin' arms in the game itself. And to go on from that, the enemy sprites show multiple models, some with arms and later ones without, more resembling the artwork. Also, Sabin doesn't have a shirt, but I suppose there are multiple reasons why they would do that aside from artwork, or there would be if his chest didn't happen to look the least well done of the CG in that video.
The guy who did the concept art didn't do the ingame art, so naturally there were differences.
Quote:Not over here, it isn't. When I start seeing those kinds of live concerts done in America, I'll believe it.
Sadly, I think we're another generation away from that.
I wish, but they don't even release the soundtracks here, much less have concerts. :(
Used game stores around here carry a lot of imported sound tracks for games, brand new and somewhat reasonably priced. One time I actually considered buying one of them, but while they provide them, the people at these stores can offer NO information about them. So, barred from internet access while at the place, I am forced to go on memory or write something down (as if I can do that either) so I can see if I'm just getting in-game music or a recreation of some kind, the latter being what I'd be interested in.
I love computer and videogame soundtracks though, and I mean the ingame music, not just recreations... there are definitely some soundtrack CDs that just include the game's music that I'd buy, if the game's music isn't easily copyable from the disc (that is, CD audio or open format audio files put on the CD)...
I've seen a few high-profile games get soundtrack releases in mainstream stores. Halo 2 and GTA: Vice City are two examples.
I like both OSTs and orchestrated remixes.
I just see no point in buying a CD when I already have the music. If I can't rip it (and it's rare that it's in the right format anyway) I just record it directly from the "sound out" cables.
Recording from the sound out cables... that would require hardware I don't have, I'm sure, and unless the game has a music playback option, you'd get background noise and stuff and would need to find the right place in the game to get each track... just having a soundtrack would be easier...
Dark Jaguar Wrote:Please do, as I'd like to know if I'm wrong about this and it's actually closer to the Italian SOUNDING stuff in the Mario and Luigi games than an actual language :D.
Though Wikipedia says otherwise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_di_Mezzo_Carattere
Well I guess it is Italian, but I didn't recognize any words. I've never heard Italian sung since I started learning it so that might be a reason, but after listening to it twice again I still didn't recognize any words, or even any Italian word endings. Are you sure those are the lyrics from the CD that you linked to in Wikipedia?
That article says it was the Italian version (as opposed to the Japanese or English versions which have been recorded) that was included in the PS1 version.
That said, I attempted to listen to that song while reading the italian lyrics to see if they matched up, and I couldn't recognize a word from that script in the song. It may be the Japanese version. Anyone here good with Japanese, besides the mysteriously vanished Laser Link?
If you could actually understand what words were being said, maybe the language could be figured out... :)
That Wikipedia article suggests that it's Italian, though. Comparing those words to the lyrics, I think it is Italian, but not all of the words there are there or something, and half of it is impossible to understand...
I'll try listening to the actual game FMV, maybe it's a compression issue...
"More like DORK JAGUAR"
I already did!
I MISSED A CUTSCENE! I am FLAWED!
Turns out that after you beat Vargas, WAAAAY back there, if you return to South Figaro and talk with Duncan's unnamed wife, you get a conversation about how she never liked Vargas that much and how she treated Sabin like a son. Never knew that, EVER! Time to RESTART THE GAME COMPLETELY TO REDO a TRULY perfect game!
Sad thing is, months from now, I fully expect I WILL do that. This imperfection will EAT at me.
Haaahahaha! There is a great schizm in the cult of Kefka!
"I hear that some fanatical members of the cult of Kefka insist on spelling Kefka's name with Cs instead of Ks."
And it's a knock at the diehard purists of accurate translations.
In the world of ruin, bosses just come right AT ya! I'd like to register a complaint with the czar of sending Leviathan to ruin my boat trip?
<img src="http://www.johnkwarsick.com/wp-content/Complain.jpg">
That is less than inviting...
Get ahold of Reed Cloaks from the monsters near the Dragon's forest.
With those on, you're practically invincible to Leviathan.
Well I'm not about to take on the new stuff until I clear all the old stuff. It may not be hard, but I just wasn't prepaired for that little attack (I had two characters and both were pretty low on health as I hadn't bothered healing up).
The dragon forest itself contains those awesome economizers (or whatever they've been renamed to). When I can take on the almighty brachosaur, that's what I'll be attempting to claim.
Why wait to get the new Espers? Get them while the bonuses are still useful!
Oh they'll still be useful. I'll probably save levelling to 99 on every single character to after I do some bonus content.
FOX! Trust your instincts!
<img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/chess_enlightenment.png">
Instincts are for hunting buffalo in packs and taking care of the younglings. They don't seem well adapted to ANYTHING we actually do today. Fortunatly, they can be overwritten like any other data in the brain. Fortunatly, the brain doesn't bother checking it's own DNA to rewrite that code right back in. Data only matters if it's accessed.
On another note, instincts didn't get me through Star Fox.
I love video games. All those in game stories about the important of following the heart and instincts and believing in one's self, and the harder games utterly disprove those very lessons in favor of logically disseminating a system and determining the best way to work within it. I never "believed" my way out of 4 simultaneous ultima spells on my level 20 characters, but I sure did strategize my way out of it!
Where are all those stories saying "SCREW your heart, it's just a blood pump!"?