Lunar Threads

Hmm... maybe that was what I noticed the other day. I think I mentioned it earlier. The battle and background music seemed to slow every now and then. I just assumed I was hearing things today though since I didn't notice it much at all playing this afternoon. So maybe it's just during certain parts? I do really think is was kind of slow in the start when you first get control of Hiro.

For screenshots I'm using my phone (it's a Galaxy S5). It can either do really well or really bad depending on the lightning in my room. ^^''

I did start a side-tumblr blog just for my screencaps. I'm going to try and keep up with it when I'm playing (I just have to crop photos)

http://s5.postimg.org/s5u82vc5j/1201759 ... 2063_o.jpg

I just installed it in my Vita. This is the front of the manual. As expected, it's colorful and nice inside.
But it just makes me wonder... how would they do the manual if they bring the USA version?

Also, that's how bright the Vita's screen is. It's nearly on the lowest setting, AND it has a dark transparent sheet on top (that I use to greatly dim the screen)
And it still shines bright!!! -___________-

I am reminded that Working Designs did a great job introducing the game... because the Japanese version has no voice in the intro! Just text.
Also, there were splash screens for the companies that developed the game, before showing the Lunar 2 titlescreen. Not sure why they were removed in the USA version, I dont mind seeing who created the game. That's how it normally is! Lunar 2 USA just goes straight to the titlescreen. Oh well, at least it saves some seconds.

Well what can I say other than it's an extremely nice feeling to celebrate Lunar 2 officially on today's latest hardware?
GungHo / whoever is responsible of this release was really smart to release Lunar 2 first instead of Lunar 1. Now instead of having enraged fans that we have "too many Lunar 1", we have pleased fans asking "Where's Lunar 1??" despite the fact it's on the PSP digitally (and playable on Vita).

Personally though, I'm only testing the game and probably stop after the first boss or something. When I decide to play through this PSN Lunar 2, it will be with my PSP, because it can connect to an old TV and it will look the exact same as if it was on a PS1 console.

Waaaah!! Nigeru Rubi!!!!

I just want to drop some love and appreciation for everyone who is posting screenshots of the Jap PSN release! I know everyone gets something different out of their experiences, but I get a genuine rush of joy every time I see those familiar visuals... I really appreciate the effort!!!!

Alunissage wrote:I guess so. We don't have Japanese screenshots up and while I did play some of the Saturn game years ago, I either didn't notice then or didn't remember. Have no idea where my notes are now.

Have you had any music slowdown? IIRC, dealing with that was one thing that delayed the WD release, and I do seem to recall noticing it in the Saturn game as well. In battle, I think.

Double confirmations, one good, one sad: yep, WD added the blue text box borders (too bad they couldn't add back the MCD enemy spell names in this sloppy remake), and yep, the PS music slowdown was brutal during the transition from encountering an enemy on the field to the battle screen. Sadly, straight PS re-releases are a lot easier than getting the proper version on PSN, as we've also seen with Grandia I and II. Still, it's nice to see it around!

Temzin wrote:Sadly, straight PS re-releases are a lot easier than getting the proper version on PSN, as we've also seen with Grandia I and II. Still, it's nice to see it around!

...the proper version? something that isn't a straight PS re-release?
What exactly do you mean?

I should clarify: each of the games I listed above was a compromised Playstation 1 or 2 port of a superior original release. So, the ideal scenario would have been to re-release the Saturn version of Grandia I, the DC version of Grandia II, and the Saturn version of Eternal Blue. I suppose it's less work for Gungho to just dump the PS version into PSN, though.

Ahhhh ok, you mean the Saturn Lunars and Grandia / Dreamcast Grandia II.
Of course they wouldn't do that
Emulating the Saturn has never been done before on another console (that I know of). It was done on PC though, and requires great processing power. The Saturn is infamous for being a complicated system to program with...

Your best hopes are a newly developed version of Lunar 2 meant for new systems, but using for example the Saturn version as reference (music and whatever other things it had that the PS1 didnt... IF it did... but keeping PS1's transparent stuff...)
Technically, that would be doing the exact same they did in 1999 when porting to PS1 in the first place, except since it would be on a new system, it wouldn't have technical issues like slowdown (hopefully, unless today's programmers are really incompetent, which happens more often today than it did in the 90s). Sadly this much work would likely not pay off...

But then we want the Sega CD stuff that got lost in the Saturn version, right?
It's best that if they're going to get serious with it, that it be a real new version that connects the Sega CD / Saturn games and has enhancements fit of next gen systems.

My impression was that the Steam re-release of Grandia II was based on the Dreamcast version with HD enhancement.* So GungHo did go with the best version, and in my slow playthrough so far, it plays close to that standard, and is much better than the Playstation 2 version.

*sharp, crisp, clear polygon edges and textures.

The PlayStation version of EBC does have the extra Epilogue dungeons, though, and a few added items. So it'd probably still be considered the "better" one by many players, even with the music quality change.

Was there much of a quality change for Grandia (1)? We have the Saturn game out of curiosity to see whether the music quality difference between Saturn and PS versions extended to that game as well. But I'm not all that familiar with the game myself, and my husband didn't notice any difference -- but it'd been years since he played it on PS.

Good point on the US-only Steam version of Grandia II, Sonic#, which does indeed sound to be very well-done! That US-only release had completely slipped my mind (Steam is pretty sad in Japan for various reasons), since I was thinking of the prior PSN re-release of the PS2 Grandia II port. Once we see the increasingly probable PSN release of the PS version of SSS, four out of the six games in Game Arts' 30th anniversary celebration page will be degraded PS 1 and 2 ports rather than the originals, which is sort of too bad: https://www.gamearts.co.jp/products/game-archives-sp/ As jay_are says, perhaps the Saturn is too much work to bother to emulate, though there's less excuse for PSN Grandia II given that PSN does Dreamcast. Oh well!

Alun, I always heard pretty grim things about the Saturn-to-PS journey for Grandia 1, though I can't recall now if it was just battered audio or actual slowdown or effects. In the end, these Game Arts games still rise above many others even if they're not the best versions they could be, of course.

When Grandia II came out on Steam recently, I saw some comments that the game had some of the same problems as its old PC release still left in there, which I think GungHo patched quickly after.
Don't take this info for granted since I've never played any version of Grandia II, but it MIGHT be that it's the same old PC version, modified and improved to work closer, or same as Dreamcast version. Which is good too.
IF they port Lunar SSS to Steam, it's likely to be the Japanese PC version of old, but improved to match today's hardware.

...Kinda like Final Fantasy VII and VIII on Steam, which are old games modified to run on new hardware.
If not, and they do a new version from scratch, well it will be good all the same ^.^

BUT!!!!!!! I'm hoping they do keep the movie quality JUST as it was in the old PC version.
Note that the iOS and PSP, despite having better quality than PS1 (sorta) have bad blurry versions of those clean PC version movies.
http://s5.postimg.org/q8azkyjif/Lunar_psp_ios_vid.jpg
(note how every line is ghosted)

I can add something about Grandia 1!
If you start a new game on both PS and Saturn versions, you can already see a quality difference if you have the games running one next to each other. The textures in town are messier in PS1.
The battles, crappy as it may be on both, look slightly better on Saturn.
Wish I had pictures...

Hey all, I've created the thread for EBC play-along:
http://lunarthreads.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5774

Was going to try to copy some posts there from here but don't think I can just copy them rather than moving them. So, feel free to repost there!

Do the movies look any better in this PSN re-release of Lunar 2?

A recent Steamdb entry hints Lunar might be coming to steam. A number of these have proven true so fingers crossed.

Also Grandia.

https://steamdb.info/app/289860/subs/

Nobiyuki77 wrote:A recent Steamdb entry hints Lunar might be coming to steam. A number of these have proven true so fingers crossed.

Also Grandia.

https://steamdb.info/app/289860/subs/

Stop getting my hopes up!

Nobiyuki77 wrote:A recent Steamdb entry hints Lunar might be coming to steam. A number of these have proven true so fingers crossed.

Also Grandia.

https://steamdb.info/app/289860/subs/

It's too bad my last PC died (I currently use a Mac laptop), otherwise I'd gladly buy it.