Victor Ireland + Sunsoft = Profit?

[Shiva Indis]

Absolutely. Another of the handful of things I remember about it was noticing that I'd been fighting the same boss for 45 mins. I shouldn't have won that fight, but that dragon-man really skewed the curve.

Let's see... I remember being intrigued by the first-half-of-the-game villain who sadly never got developed very well. I remember thinking that I would have given up on the last dungeon if I didn't have a strategy guide. Wow, that's it.

[Silver Phoenix]

Yes, the boss battles were infuriatingly long and very hard at times. It drove me crazy with how often enemies would block attacks or status rape you. I think more 2D designed rpgs in HD need to be made, even if they add 3D elements.

I really miss traditional 2D turn-based rpgs. I don't need to press multiple buttons and button mash like a crappy fighting game during battles. At least Grandia stayed traditional with adding new elements unlike most rpgs these days. I never played Grandia 3 though, and I think they changed the battle system to make it more action oriented.

[Aaron]

I feel exactly the same way. There is such a void in the video game market for 2d HD RPGS. There are plenty of TRPGS with 2d sprites but I just really enjoy the style of art that gets used in completely 2d rpgs. And now with such a range of colors available it's a shame that someone hasn't really made some good RPGS.

But about Albert Odyssey's boss battles, I think I would enjoy having to fight a boss for 45 minutes. I can't tell you how disappointing it is to fight a boss for 5 minutes and beat them handedly. I remember trying to show my friend the ending for Lunar 2. Fighting Zophar in all 3 forms was epic. It took me somewhere from 45-60 minutes to beat him. I loved it.

But I also think that having to press a combination of buttons to do a super attack is fun, as long as its not over played.

[Silver Phoenix]

Even Final Fantasy 6 incorporated Street Fighter like moves for Sabin's attacks but some were a pain to execute. I don't want to have to do that for every single character. Final Fantasy 13 is incorporating button and movement combinations it seems, and I'm worried about how it will play.

Epic boss battles are great when done well. Fighting the same form for an hour is boring and frustrating. I'm also disappointed that there isn't more of a payoff when you destroy enemies or bosses in an rpg. I want some massive explosions or expressive destruction instead of just vanishing or blipping off the screen. I always hated that.

[Kizyr]

Even Final Fantasy 6 incorporated Street Fighter like moves for Sabin's attacks but some were a pain to execute. I don't want to have to do that for every single character. Final Fantasy 13 is incorporating button and movement combinations it seems, and I'm worried about how it will play.

FF6 was kind of fun with Sabin's moves, and Tales of Phantasia had an accessory you could equip that would let you do any of Cless's techniques using Street Fighter-style button combinations (normally you can only pre-load like 4 at a time). But yeah, it works well only when done in a limited fashion.

Epic boss battles are great when done well. Fighting the same form for an hour is boring and frustrating. I'm also disappointed that there isn't more of a payoff when you destroy enemies or bosses in an rpg. I want some massive explosions or expressive destruction instead of just vanishing or blipping off the screen. I always hated that.

Albert Odyssey's epic boss battles ended up being about finding a particular sustainable strategy, and just hammering it out for like half an hour (maybe slight exaggeration). They really were unduly long and got rather boring after the first few minutes.

Long boss battles, especially when they happen with every other battle, always get boring. They're only good if it's supposed to be an epic fight, and even then only near the end of the game, or really major plot points. (And, at that point, it shouldn't just be about hammering away at a really high HP total, but about getting inventive with your own strategy to survive and take down your opponent.) KF

[Silver Phoenix]

Which is why I never bothered with Ultimate Weapons in Final Fantasy 7. If something has a million or multi-million hit-points then I sure as hell don't want to waste my life trying to kill it.

There's nothing fun about being on the verge of death during an extremely long battle and just barely surviving. To some people it may be more rewarding, but it's not an enjoyable experience hoping that the next hit/spell doesn't wipe out my entire party. Equally annoying is excessive grinding in the hopes that it makes a difference.

[Lunar Eclipse]

Which is why I never bothered with Ultimate Weapons in Final Fantasy 7. If something has a million or multi-million hit-points then I sure as hell don't want to waste my life trying to kill it.

There's nothing fun about being on the verge of death during an extremely long battle and just barely surviving. To some people it may be more rewarding, but it's not an enjoyable experience hoping that the next hit/spell doesn't wipe out my entire party. Equally annoying is excessive grinding in the hopes that it makes a difference.

Eh, the issue with Final Fantasy's recent "ultimate" bosses is more that they don't even bother to balance them for difficulty. Instead, they just give them an ultimate attack or two that can instantly kill a character or take everyone down to one HP or something, which in itself is more annoying than difficult. Then there're some where you have to take the enemy down within a certain number of turns or else he'll just instantly wipe everyone out, which makes it entirely an issue of powering up instead of actual strategy.

[Jasonb12]

It would be cool if we saw a revival or ports of the other 2 games... How is Albert Odyssey, by the way? It's one of the games on my to-get list, but...

[Shiva Indis]

I assume this is why Vic said fans were thinking too small.



God, do I love that cover art... Seriously though, this is pretty exciting.

[Jasonb12]

This gives me more of a reason to buy a Wii! This is great news! This might allow Vic to publish other games he was unable to do before. Think we might get a release of Growlanser finally?

[Silver Phoenix]

We'll see the first game about 5-10 years from now. When I clicked on new games it took me to an Xbox 360 link which I am not excited about in the least. PS3 or Wii for me, but I can't deal with most of Wii's putrid graphics especially on an HDTV.

[CatsWithMatches]

From play.com:

http://www.playmagazine.com/index.php?f ... entid=1979

[Shiva Indis]

This gives Gaijinworks rights to Valis X, the much maligned revival of the Valis series as an eroge, doesn't it? I'm sure it's 100% off the radar, of course.

[Alan_Geitz]

Hey, so long as it's not on the 360, I'm game.
Also, I seriously hope they bring Waku Waku 7 out sometime in the future.

[ShindoW]

I wanted to play Albert Oddyssey but the price tag now adays! Bah. Thats why I didnt get to play Dragon Force either.

[Alunissage]

Man, I need to play DF someday. I have all four disc arts and I've never put any of them into the Saturn. >_<

[Vyse of Arcadia]

I finally got to the point financially where I could go back and actually start purchasing Saturn RPGs. I still don't have Albert Odyssey or Dragon Force, but the day Shining Force III arrived in the mail, my Saturn broke. The disc drive motor is dead, I think; discs won't spin at all.

[Silver Phoenix]

Man, I need to play DF someday. I have all four disc arts and I've never put any of them into the Saturn. >_<

I will keeeeeeel you! I swear I played that game a disgusting amount of time when it was released (13 hours straight one day, yes I'm crazy). I wasn't fortunate enough to have the funds to try and secure all four disc versions, but you need to at least give the game a try. There was a sequel released in Japan that I never played, but apparently it wasn't as good as the first.

As for Shining Force III, I barely touched mine. It was a real bummer that they never released parts II, and III in the US. That is definitely something that needs to be rectified in a localized collection. Hello stupid Sega, instant seller!! I think I just didn't want to invest time in the game when I didn't have the complete set to enjoy, so I just moved on to something else. My Saturn collection would make a lot of people envious, both import and domestic.

[Kizyr]

I finally got to the point financially where I could go back and actually start purchasing Saturn RPGs. I still don't have Albert Odyssey or Dragon Force, but the day Shining Force III arrived in the mail, my Saturn broke. The disc drive motor is dead, I think; discs won't spin at all.

How old is your Saturn?

My US one is actually still running (I got it the week it was released in the US). I did get a Japanese one last year to play the second-third parts of Shining Force III (limited memory didn't let me carry my save over otherwise).

I'm sure there're a few places you could still pick up a new/used Saturn (I got my Japanese one from Mad-Gear LLC in particular, though I'm sure some show up on eBay for cheap). Though someone here with more technical expertise might be able to offer other suggestions, maybe replacing the drive motor perhaps? KF

[Vyse of Arcadia]

I finally got to the point financially where I could go back and actually start purchasing Saturn RPGs. I still don't have Albert Odyssey or Dragon Force, but the day Shining Force III arrived in the mail, my Saturn broke. The disc drive motor is dead, I think; discs won't spin at all.

How old is your Saturn?

I honestly don't know. I purchased it used years after the fact, and I get the feeling that the previous owner didn't take the best care of it. It worked for me for a good three or four years, though.

I actually do plan on buying both another US Saturn and a Japanese Saturn eventually, but it's going to have to wait for a little while.