Finished the game - Final Thoughts (gameplay spoilers)

[Nobiyuki77]

... I forgot to buy the Rememberizer. I'm an idiot! >> (or rather, I forgot that in the Japanese version, Ramus doesn't sell it to you at the end! >>)

Things I like:

Graphics: I was really impressed with the look before, and what amazes me is that it never grew weary on me. I think I might have even liked it more as it went along (if that's possible). There was definitely some tender love and care put into the 2-D visuals, and I'm quite happy for that. ^_^ The only issue was that occasionally it was a little hard to read where I could and couldn't go from the isometric angle, but never enough to completely stump me.

Music: Definitely the biggest improvement with this version of the game. It's amazing how better synth and actual instruments can make a world of difference.

Artwork: I really like the new character portraits, though they occasionally look "off" at times. I'm pretty sure Kubooka didn't draw these, but whoever they got did a respectable job of maintaining the look and feel of Lunar's characters.

Things I'm indifferent about:

Dungeons: They don't hold a candle to the original Sega CD or Saturn dungeons, but they do get longer as the game goes on, so that's good.

Difficulty: Starts off insanely easy, then suddenly out of nowhere enemies start actually doing real damage. Bosses may actually knock out one or two of your allies as well. I'd have preferred the rest of the game to be that difficult, but oh well.

Things I didn't like:

The load screens: Erg. Every. Bloody. Screen. ARG!!! They're obviously programmed into the game since I was playing directly off my Memory Stick, erg! Well at least I'm not losing HP when I run...

Mia's Arts Gauge: Any difficulty at the end of the game is completely wiped out by Mia's Arts Gauge if you chose to use it. Thank Althena it's optional.

If Kyle goes first... : Okay, battle order seemed completely weird in this game. It seems like the characters generally go in a certain order, but they pick at random who goes first (whereas in the Saturn/PSX games, you could generally rely on Nash going first, then Jessica, then Alex, then Mia or Kyle). However in this game it seems that, while they'll still go in this order in general, it's random who goes first. HOWEVER, the problem is that it seems whenever Kyle goes, the enemies (and I mean EVERY LAST ENEMY) automatically goes next. So if a round starts, and you're characters are weak, pray that Kyle isn't chosen to go first, or you're pretty much dead in the water, 'cause now it's monster mash time! >>

Overall though, I really liked this a lot! I'm glad they didn't much with this game much. But now I have to go through it again and be sure to get the Rememberizer this time! >> <<

[Alunissage]

The dungeons' length is disappointing, but the ones I've seen so far (which isn't many; I just finished the Cave of Trial) are really beautiful. I mean, they convey the atmosphere of a woods or a cave so much better for having the slightly isometric view and detail. The Cave of Trial in particular impresses me because it's somewhat conical, which actually fits with the shape of Vane, and because there are actually bits of old walls in it, suggesting ruins, which sort of fits with the Vheen manga idea of Vane as a city predating the human existence in it. I seem to recall that "Sub-Vane" was ruins of old Vane in Legend as well.

The portraits do mostly seem a bit off to me; I'm just not used to being able to see more than just the face. What's with all the clasped hands? I do wish they'd at least stuck with the original portraits and just added bodies to them, since the new portraits don't quite match the animations.

Re Mia's Arts move, that was the case in Legend as well; I can't imagine why that wasn't turned down to just one round. Also as in Legend, each of the five main characters has a second Arts Gauge move, though; did you not get any of them?

Re the difficulty, I'm glad to hear it gets harder. I haven't checked many of the monsters' stats against the other games, but I can tell you that for the bosses I checked (up through around the Bronze Dogs), they do have the same stats as in SSSC -- except that they're based on the boss's level rather than Alex's. So if you're below the boss's level the fight will be harder than it was in SSSC, if you're at the same level it'll be the same, and if you're above, it'll be easier. That said, I'm only looking at the stats there; I don't have any way of comparing the efficacy of the various spells. That is, I can't easily compare this game's Sword Dance against that in the other games -- not least because you never see a total damage for that move in this game. :P

I should probably stop now and go explore Vane.

[Nobiyuki77]

From what I played, unless I did it wrong, I didn't encounter any other Arts Gauge moves for the characters. I had one each for the entire game.

[vicdaman]

the extra arts do exist in this version.






After Alex becomes a dragon master go to ramus' shop and buy the althena doll and theif's medal from the bunny girl. extra arts for jessica and kyle. For nash and mia head to Reza and there is a woman in the bazaar that sold healing items before. now she sells the guild emblem and master ribbon.





not sure about alex's.

[Nobiyuki77]

Ah, I did not know that. I just didn't think to look.

[Alunissage]

I thought I'd said more than once that there are two arts moves for each main character in HSS. I haven't tried to find out how to get them, though, as at least one seems to be different from how it was in Legend (you don't get anything from Dross after fighting his pet).

[Alunissage]

I've now just gotten to Tamur, and wanted to add a couple of notes on the gameplay.

As Nobi noted, the agility is a bit weird. Whatever random factor is used along with the agility stat to calculate battle order seems to have a very wide range. The situation he described, with Kyle going first and then all the monsters, probably occurs when the other four party members "roll" a very low number which makes them slower than everything else. As I've said, the base stats and equipment stats all seem to be the same, but the calculations using them seem to be a bit different.

Another thing is that enemies seem to drop items very frequently. I am maxed out (99) on Herbs, Star Lights, and Dover Nuts. This is partly because I missed seeing the stairs up to the Blue Dragon's lair and wandered around the entire dungeon again. After a battle with 5 monsters I'd get 2 Herbs and 3 Starlights, or something like that.

I will say that the HP and MP refilling at level up has made me a lot more willing to use magic (as does the frequent Starlight drops). The wildly varying battle order also ensures that all of the party contributes in some fashion, rather than Alex and Kyle or Nash and Mia always wiping out the enemies (and even overlevelled at around 36-37, I did usually need both attacks and magic) because who knew who'd go first? I found it most useful to set one tactic to be Alex, Kyle, and Jessica attacking and Nash and Mia on manual select, and then I'd pick whatever spells were appropriate for that group.

The one complaint I have about the battles (unless you count the agility thing, but it doesn't bother me that much) is that the spells and item usage take so long. The were really fast in SSS, even with the vocals ("Check this out!") in comparison. They're also not very compelling visually since they're only a couple of colors and everything except the caster and the target(s) fades to black during a spell. They're by far the least impressive visuals in the game.

On the other hand, compared to SSS, the physical attacks are very swift. Kyle zooms across the field, and his and Alex's second attacks are backswings from their first attacks, and as such happen immediately. In the only thing that really makes me think of TSS in this game, movement up and down the screen zigzags quite a bit; logically this must be the case with SSS also but if so I never noticed it.

Jessica's end of battle sprite also looks like she's wearing the beads in her hair from her TSS version. Odd.

[Silver Phoenix]

Alun darling, try to get a screen grab of Jessica's end sprite for clarification. Your tv hookup would most likely work best. Btw, how did that work out for you?

As for the nuances in the Japanese SSH, hopefully XSEED can do some programming tweaks if it really is them bringing it over. I am not a fan of the black screen spell animations, and even though they won't change that I just don't care for it. It's not a style they should have went with and basically took the game surroundings out of the equation.

[cj iwakura]

So how many forms does Ghaleon have now?

[fates]

In the demo I liked the black screen spell incantations. However, I thought it was silly for Alex's sword skills to do it too...

[Alunissage]

The items do it also. Very tedious.

SP, I still haven't gotten to try the cord thing. My friend who visited on Saturday in part to play Lunar also brought with him an advance copy of Spirit Tracks and another DS game, so the three of us (the third being my husband) just sat on the couch in a row each playing our own handheld. I'll see what I can do but probably someone else will be faster; I've never grabbed screenshots.

I haven't gotten to Ghaleon, of course (just met Myght) but I'd be surprised if he's much different from SSS.

[Silver Phoenix]

Ooh, black screen item usage... How stupid.

I am on the fence about Spirit Tracks, because I hated Phantom Hourglass. They rectified certain things in ST but I just don't know. Zelda is really my only draw, and some of the better sounding music. The caves still have that same damn music and the same door opening visuals. I'd much rather another Wind Waker type game on a console, just so that it's as pretty as it could be. What is your impression of Spirit Tracks? I take it you were playing the multi-player mode with the three of you?

I can't believe you've forsaken Lunar for a Zelda game! Of course after playing SSS so many times I can't imagine it's as enthralling as the story once was considering it's many reiterations.

[Shiva Indis]

Whatever random factor is used along with the agility stat to calculate battle order seems to have a very wide range. The situation he described, with Kyle going first and then all the monsters, probably occurs when the other four party members "roll" a very low number which makes them slower than everything else.

They roll for initiative! I'm into it, keeps you on your toes. Also, I've noticed what Nobi's talking about. The monsters always seem to get their turn after the character at the end of your lineup, which is a problem when you have Tempest since 1) he goes to the back of the line, and 2) his agility is high. The turn order kept ending up Tempest, then all the enemies, then the other boys.

Ooh, black screen item usage...

When you use equipment as items. Not with herbs and whatnot, thankfully. As far as I've observed anyway. I've rarely needed items in fights.

[Silver Phoenix]

So basically they're just using the spell animation fadeouts when weapons with effects are used.

[Alunissage]

Huh, I wonder where my reply from last night went. I did write clarifying what I meant by item usage; I had only been thinking of using weapons as items because I've almost never had to use anything else in battle.

[Silver Phoenix]

You must have experienced the occasional sluggish server when posting a response, because I've had the same thing happen to me.