4th October 2004, 8:55 AM
It wasn't designed to "take advantage" of anything. It was designed ONLY as a PS1 game, with nothing in mind for the PS2.
However, the PS2 has features that can be applied TO PS1 games. Fast loading for example loads the game faster than it would have loaded on a PS1. Texture smoothing, as you would imagine, smoothes textures. Games don't have to be designed for these features at all. You just need to turn them on in the PS2 menu before putting the PS1 game in the system (each and every time too, the system won't save these settings). Texture smoothing has NO effect on 2D games by the way. FF8, FF9, Metal Gear Solid, Xenogears, and Final Fantasy Tactics, just to name a few (even with hand drawn sprites, they get smoothed since they are applied as textures in those last two games I mentioned), all look GREAT with this applied. FF7, having VERY few textures beyond color shading :D, has a negligable effect with texture smoothing. Fast Loading is good for ALMOST any game you can think of. There ARE a few however that glitch when you use these modes. Metal Gear Solid for example will fail to load a number of textures when you use fast loading. I've been able to see through things that should have been solid thanks to that glitch. Since MGS has fast loading anyway, it's best to leave it off. Chrono Cross has skippy FMVs when it's enabled. Castlevania: SOTN doesn't load at all when fast loading is on. The PS2 will load any of these games perfectly when no special modes are on, but with them on, it's another story.
Anyway, the only game I have that actually has problems on the PS2 is Legend of Legaia. Even with all modes off, the battle sequences suffer some noticable slowdown. It's the game that makes me keep my PS1 around.
Oh yes, fast loading is GREAT for the various Final Fantasy collections to make up for the added load times (namely FF5, FF6, and CT. FF4, and Final Fantasy Origins have no noticable load times and thus aren't helped by fast loading).
However, the PS2 has features that can be applied TO PS1 games. Fast loading for example loads the game faster than it would have loaded on a PS1. Texture smoothing, as you would imagine, smoothes textures. Games don't have to be designed for these features at all. You just need to turn them on in the PS2 menu before putting the PS1 game in the system (each and every time too, the system won't save these settings). Texture smoothing has NO effect on 2D games by the way. FF8, FF9, Metal Gear Solid, Xenogears, and Final Fantasy Tactics, just to name a few (even with hand drawn sprites, they get smoothed since they are applied as textures in those last two games I mentioned), all look GREAT with this applied. FF7, having VERY few textures beyond color shading :D, has a negligable effect with texture smoothing. Fast Loading is good for ALMOST any game you can think of. There ARE a few however that glitch when you use these modes. Metal Gear Solid for example will fail to load a number of textures when you use fast loading. I've been able to see through things that should have been solid thanks to that glitch. Since MGS has fast loading anyway, it's best to leave it off. Chrono Cross has skippy FMVs when it's enabled. Castlevania: SOTN doesn't load at all when fast loading is on. The PS2 will load any of these games perfectly when no special modes are on, but with them on, it's another story.
Anyway, the only game I have that actually has problems on the PS2 is Legend of Legaia. Even with all modes off, the battle sequences suffer some noticable slowdown. It's the game that makes me keep my PS1 around.
Oh yes, fast loading is GREAT for the various Final Fantasy collections to make up for the added load times (namely FF5, FF6, and CT. FF4, and Final Fantasy Origins have no noticable load times and thus aren't helped by fast loading).
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)