We need more fans.

This board is for general discussion of Lunar. Especially things such as Lunar merchandise, general discussions about the story that span more than one game, etc.
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jay_are
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We need more fans.

Post by jay_are »

I think there aren't enough Lunar fans out there.
Most of my friends still haven't even played the game even if I offered them my discs!
They either feel guilty using my discs in fear of scratching them, or they have busy lives now.
Another problem is that when they see how many versions of Lunar 1 there are, they get confused as to which version would be better for them and even get discouraged by the fear of picking up a version they won't like as much...
(SCD and PS1 fans are split sometimes)

However... getting someone to play this game may be easier today than ever before in history!!
Being on the app store, you have the ability to GIFT this app to any Apple ID your friend uses.
I don't think even the PSN store has this option, and the iOS port of Lunar is really darn good... with graphics, gameplay and SFX from the PS1 game, mixed with high quality music and voices from the PSP game, I think this game represents the Lunar series really well for a phone port... and so many people have phones already. All we need is to get the game in those phones.

I am going to gift this game to a few of my friends and see how that goes.
If it goes well, I would be willing to gift 2 or 3 more to people from this forum that may not have the game yet.
Problem is that since it's a phone game, it may crash a lot depending on the user's device, though for me it's been near perfect. The best deal would be if we could gift the PSP version in that case, but whatever.

If a lot of generous people do this, there should be a noticeable increase of fans...
Seeing how things have been for the Suikoden II re-release, Majora's Mask 3D and many more games, it's clear to me that we have to spread the word to revive the series. All we have to do is hope we get Lunar 2 and I would personally do the gifting for that game as well. I'm very sure it won't be a repeat of Dragon Song's failure, as proven by how well received the PSP and iOS ports were.

The BEST possible thing that could happen though, is if GameArts ported Lunar 1 and 2 to Steam.
That's the best possible platform for this nowadays, and their game Dokuro is already available on Steam, that could lead to good things...

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Aaron
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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Aaron »

What Lunar needs more than fans is for it not to be owned by Game Arts. I'm secretly hoping Game Arts will go belly up. Then someone else can swoop in and buy the IP and do what they want with it.

Game Arts helped ruin the franchise with all their get rich quick schemes. They should have progressed the games and made new story lines. Think about it...there is no rival to Final Fantasy. And there wont be. Square-Soft is arguably going out of touch with western audiences. Lunar could have been a huge influence in the in industry but they let the best thing they have sit and do nothing.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by brit »

I don’t think it’s that Lunar doesn’t have many fans, but that the fans it does have are just getting older. That and I don’t think a lot of people really play JRPG’s much anymore unless it’s Zelda, Tales, or Final Fantasy. Which is sad to say, but then again I don’t think we get a lot of them localized like we did back during the PS1 days. I mean half of my games for that system were all Japanese first. OoO’’

Anyways Jay, I’ve done the same thing as you, offering my games to my friends to play however they always turn them down. I think it’s just because of the multi-discs and the fact that they’ve sold or traded in older systems. Which means if they want to play they gotta do it at my place, which I would be okay with. But I think having to come back for days to play is bothersome, plus we all have jobs and already have a hard time scheduling anime and game days. (We used to do weekends and during highschool we would hang out for a good week in the summer time just marathoning games and animes.)

My bestfriend does know a bit about Lunar, however I think she’s only seen me play some of Lunar Legend. -_- But she is much better than my other friends. She actually knows the character names, designs and the music for Silver Star Story. XD She also really likes Luna. I personally think she would have no problem playing it on her phone, since she’s on there all the time anyways. So maybe for her birthday in July I’ll send it to her. ^-^

My old job from a few months back also had a fan. The one assistant manager and I on shifts would get to talking about older games and current games (I talked him into buying a ps3). When I mentioned my collection of Lunar he almost lit up telling me how much he played it (EBC) back in the day, but sold it a long time ago. I think he wouldn’t mind playing SSST on the phone either, since he’s never played the first game. I just can’t remember if he had an iphone, that and I’m not sure if he’d have the time since he’s got two little baby girls and a new job. D;

I kind of wish SSST would be added to the playstore too. I have a galaxy s5 but can’t play it there, so I use my iPad (however that never leaves my house so it’s kind of dumb since I can just pop in the originals). Even still I would re-buy it if they added it.

Back to more fans… I know I personally am trying to spam up the tumblr tags with edits and gif sets to try and get more people into it. However most of those posts don’t even hit 30 notes and the people who like and reblog always seem to be the same people (who I love btw, please don’t stop reblogging). Another issue is the tags are hard to search through since if you just put Lunar you get a mix from shoes to sailor moon and if you do Lunar series you get some book series. :/ The main tags I’ve seen fans tagging though are: lunar games, lunar series, and the actual game names like silver star story, eternal blue, etc… I also created two new tags for Hiro/Lucia and Alex/Luna. Hircia and Luex (though Luex can be a bit risqué. There’s some adult content in that tag from time to time…OoO Hircia is safe though.)

I’m also trying to make a lunar themed town in my Animal Crossing New Leaf game. I named it Burg and have been making my own custom qr codes for wall décor and clothing that I will be sharing.

--
As for what I think Lunar needs besides fans… I’d personally love to see them do a HD collection which will include the PS1 games, but I think everyone is kind of sick of remakes and ports. Though I’d take remakes of Eternal Blue anyday. <3

A new game in the franchise would be lovely and the way to go as long as it’s done right and nothing like Dragon Song. Not that I hated everything about the game.

I mean with SSH they had so much in the prologue. I’d love to see the full story there and see how the four heroes really journeyed. And I know a lot of fans really like the thought of them so why not follow up on it? They gave us a gilmpse when they could have done much more.

I think if they could pull that game off with new graphics on a good system then maybe if it’s a hit they could then remake SSS and EB. I think SSH didn’t sell well in my area because a lot of people didn’t have a psp, out of all of my college friends I was literally the only one who had one and the store only had 3 copies. *cough* They also made the game too easy. D; *cough*

I also think in a new game the ingame artstyle should be similar to the Tales games and Eternal Sonata to give the anime feel. I feel like that style seems to draw me in, like I love how the CG looks in today’s game but when I’m playing a game with anime cutscenes they need to look it. (games that all look the same to me are: Tales of Xillia (+), Eternal Sonata, Arc Rise Fantasia, and Fragile Dreams. All anime themed games that similar battle style and appearances)

I’d personally love to have the party running around beside you as well like they did in FF XIII – having conversations that add into the game storyline or the character in general. The older games all kind of had it in the towns, but they were just there playing follow the leader. I think it would be interesting to see them running around and doing their own things in towns and such. However when you're on the map only have one.

Anyways, I think I’ve rambled long enough. @__@

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Leo
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Re: We need more fans.

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Aaron wrote:What Lunar needs more than fans is for it not to be owned by Game Arts. I'm secretly hoping Game Arts will go belly up. Then someone else can swoop in and buy the IP and do what they want with it.

Game Arts helped ruin the franchise with all their get rich quick schemes. They should have progressed the games and made new story lines. Think about it...there is no rival to Final Fantasy. And there wont be. Square-Soft is arguably going out of touch with western audiences. Lunar could have been a huge influence in the in industry but they let the best thing they have sit and do nothing.
I doubt it would even feel like Lunar without Game Arts making it. I'd lose my God damn mind if SquareEnix got a hold of the IP..

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Re: We need more fans.

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brit wrote:but that the fans it does have are just getting older
Doesnt matter much! One of my oldest friends plays Minecraft, A LOT, a game even kids play XD.
So if an adult can find that game appealing AND dedicate LOTS of time to it, then there's no excuse on age.
If there's time to build cities, there should be time for a good RPG.
brit wrote:Anyways Jay, I’ve done the same thing as you, offering my games to my friends to play however they always turn them down.
=(
Sad life. Well, during the GBA times, quite a few people got my Lunar Legend and at least 2 of them beat it!
I'm very sure if Lunar 2 had existed on GBA, that would have been at least 3 purchases besides mine =D
During the PSP times, it was slightly different... those same friends dont have a PSP today. 1 of my friend has Lunar for it, and my other friend that has a PSP doesn't use it.
brit wrote:I kind of wish SSST would be added to the playstore too.
That's another thing I wish happened too. But if we had to choose... PC is best. Less errors, smooth framerate, easier to play on bigger screens!
brit wrote:Back to more fans… I know I personally am trying to spam up the tumblr tags with edits and gif sets to try and get more people into it.
You're a hero =D
I once saw a meme turned into Lunar 2, and it was funny, got a lot of views and comments too. Maybe some people could do that!
brit wrote:I mean with SSH they had so much in the prologue. I’d love to see the full story there and see how the four heroes really journeyed.
Having a prologue is a good idea, buuuuuut..................... SSH's prologue needs work.
1. It's too similar to how Lunar 1 ends. I want to see new ideas and things we havent already seen.
2. That dialogue is anything except epic. UGHHHHH
3. The part of Alex as a kid, i liked that more than the battle with Dyne, and its because that little bit seemed more fresh and new.
brit wrote:They also made the game too easy. D;
Yes it was, sadly. Beating the monsters in the forest without Laike, fighting Mel, and that extra forest with the bath place, were the only 3 parts i remember having some challenge fun... but they're all optional ;__;
I want the game to PUSH ME TO MY LIMITS, like EB SCD.
Leo wrote:I doubt it would even feel like Lunar without Game Arts making it.
Depends who gets it! I have faith that people who get ahold of the IP would know good and well what they're going to work with. At this point I dont even care if its radically different than Lunar, as long as they make a great game.
Imagine that Trails in the Sky had been called Lunar. I would have been happy even if the universe has nothing to do with it.
Imagine they had a game as awesome as Chrono Trigger, but without a name, and then named it Lunar at the end. Would that be sad? Maybe. Would it do the series good? Oh yeah it would!
Leo wrote:I'd lose my God damn mind if SquareEnix got a hold of the IP..
BAHAHAHAHAHA awesome xD
I'm gonna print this quote and frame it.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Leo »

jay_are wrote:
Leo wrote:I doubt it would even feel like Lunar without Game Arts making it.
Depends who gets it! I have faith that people who get ahold of the IP would know good and well what they're going to work with. At this point I dont even care if its radically different than Lunar, as long as they make a great game.
Imagine that Trails in the Sky had been called Lunar. I would have been happy even if the universe has nothing to do with it.
Imagine they had a game as awesome as Chrono Trigger, but without a name, and then named it Lunar at the end. Would that be sad? Maybe. Would it do the series good? Oh yeah it would!
Leo wrote:I'd lose my God damn mind if SquareEnix got a hold of the IP..
BAHAHAHAHAHA awesome xD
I'm gonna print this quote and frame it.
I hate the idea of a Lunar being made by some other company. I don't want a different person writing the story. It would be like someone with plenty of money made their own Lunar fan-game and it made its way to consoles. I'd prefer the series be left alone rather than it being the Lunar version of another type of game someone else likes as well.

If you took CT and reskinned it to look like Lunar ala Mario 2/Doki Doki Panic, I'd check out the ROM but I wouldn't want it to be considered official. I'm still trying to wash the taste of Dragon Song out of my mouth.

Perhaps Lunar is simply done aside from remakes? Some of you who may know can correct me/help me out but I seem to recall there being a quote about how each storyteller has a single story to tell and their other works are usually just reinterpretations of that story.

The remakes have been lackluster too. They managed to shrink it down from the PS1 versions even more. I wish they'd get away from that idea and remake TSS. I want the same team that made SSSC to remake the original and keep the story the way things went down originally. They could name it Lunar: The Silver Star Redux

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by jay_are »

Leo wrote:I hate the idea of a Lunar being made by some other company. I don't want a different person writing the story.
Oh no no, believe me, I get that. If we could get the original team (Studio Alex?) to make the games, that would be the best.
It's just that at this point, no one talks about it. It seems like Studio Alex is inaccessible now because according to what i've heard, they were on a mission in outer space where they found a black hole. While the ship's personnel analyzed the black hole, they got stuck in it and disappeared from existence.
For all we know, Studio Alex is still making Lunar games, billions of years in the future, light years away from earth!
Leo wrote:It would be like someone with plenty of money made their own Lunar fan-game and it made its way to consoles.
Leo wrote:I'm still trying to wash the taste of Dragon Song out of my mouth.
It doesn't have to be that bad. Dragon Song didn't give a good impression, but why was that?
It wasn't because the game was about something totally different than what Lunar is. In fact, the story was very Lunar-ish. It was about Althena and the Dragons. Even if it's a lowish SSS rehash, thats still not it. Maybe a small reason, but not the main one.
Wasn't it the broken, super slow gameplay and bad battle graphics?
Leo wrote:If you took CT and reskinned it to look like Lunar ...
Ok think about it this way. Take the gameplay, level progression system, balanced difficulty and graphic style of chrono trigger, but change the story events, places, music and characters to Lunar DS...
I promise you it would have been well received. Still not as amazing as Lunar 1 and 2, cause the story is still a lowish SSS rehash, but it would have been generally well received.
Leo wrote:Perhaps Lunar is simply done aside from remakes?
Maybe, but maybe not. We never know ;)
Leo wrote:I wish they'd get away from that idea and remake TSS
Would be amazing really! I THINK they were planning to do this for iPhone, as there's a liiiiiittle bit of proof that TSS had been worked on at some point.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Imperial Knight »

Honestly, I don't think I'd care that much about which company was making a hypothetical new Lunar game as I would the people behind it. That is, I'd rather have Kei Shigema and other Lunar veterans involved with another company than a Lunar made by a bunch of series newcomers working for Game Arts.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Leo »

Imperial Knight wrote:Honestly, I don't think I'd care that much about which company was making a hypothetical new Lunar game as I would the people behind it. That is, I'd rather have Kei Shigema and other Lunar veterans involved with another company than a Lunar made by a bunch of series newcomers working for Game Arts.
This is what I'm getting at. I want the same creative minds to make it or I don't want it at all.

As for why I'd hate SquareEnix to get it, look at the hell they've done to Final Fantasy! I haven't loved or even been happy with an FF since 9. FFX was awful and it never recovered from there. I have no more faith in the series.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by jay_are »

Leo wrote: I want the same creative minds to make it or I don't want it at all.
Hm I have a question...
What if Victor Ireland acquired the series one day after years of secretly working on getting it?
I'm like 100% sure he'd love to do that. He would probably work hard to get as many of the original team together as possible.
How does that sound?
Leo wrote:I haven't loved or even been happy with an FF since 9
This is funny. I had lost hope in FF before 9.
FF7 was the one that ruined it all for me.
Now, FF7 is a great game, i give it an 8/10. Compared to a looot of RPGs that came out before it, it deserves a high spot.
But it felt sad to me. It was a transition to 3D. It was obvious that they focused more on graphics than anything else in the game, and that really doesnt sit well with me AT ALL. Videogame graphics are important, but everything else should be created in balance, not have a ruined story with great graphics, for example. The story, characters and gameplay didnt justify it to me, all that work they made back then to create the game. Only for something that in the end doesn't feel as epic as 4, 5 or 6.

And what did they do? MORE GRAPHICS.
FF8 was a disaster. More focus on graphics, and a failed attempt at characters. After seeing FF 4, 5 and 6, I'm offended and embarrassed by FF8's characters.

But Square just pushed those graphics even more for FF9, and it was a disaster too. All these weird characters, unfunny jokes and pointless villain... it made me miss FF8.

FF10 was kinda bad too, but to me it felt like an improved game overall, it had things and details never seen before in the series, for the good or for the bad. I gave up on the series after I finished this one. There are a million better or more productive things to do in life than play 10-2.

At this point, practically ANY other RPG like for NES or SNES felt more like a real Final Fantasy.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Aaron »

Victor Ireland strikes me as a clear choice to help collaborate on developing a new Lunar in America. I don't think he has ever made a game from scratch, but if this were to happen I would love for Victor Ireland to be involved in the script and the story.

There really isn't any reason for to have this attachment to a disbanded team of developers in Japan. In the right hands, meaning a passionate, committed, lore-knowing project heads delegating people to create things would do wonders.

Lunar needs new people. Lunar needs a blood transfusion. All the old people are dead (figuratively).

Maybe if they ever develop a new Lunar they should hire some creative consultants from this site to help with keeping Lunar feeling like Lunar. The most obvious thing is to keep the world the same as Lunar 2. There is plenty of opportunity to add new things in forests, deserts, islands...or even an entire world; the Blue Star.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Imperial Knight »

I don't think it would be impossible, or even especially improbable, that a new team could make a quality Lunar game, but my concern would be that one of the following things would happen:

1) "Lunar in name only," i.e., a cheap cash-in.

2) A "fanboyish" production that tries to capture the magic of the originals, but fails by trying too hard to imitate what they did.

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Re: We need more fans.

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Aaron wrote:Victor Ireland strikes me as a clear choice to help collaborate on developing a new Lunar in America. I don't think he has ever made a game from scratch, but if this were to happen I would love for Victor Ireland to be involved in the script and the story.

There really isn't any reason for to have this attachment to a disbanded team of developers in Japan. In the right hands, meaning a passionate, committed, lore-knowing project heads delegating people to create things would do wonders.

Lunar needs new people. Lunar needs a blood transfusion. All the old people are dead (figuratively).

Maybe if they ever develop a new Lunar they should hire some creative consultants from this site to help with keeping Lunar feeling like Lunar. The most obvious thing is to keep the world the same as Lunar 2. There is plenty of opportunity to add new things in forests, deserts, islands...or even an entire world; the Blue Star.
I've heard bad things about Victor Ireland. Someone on another forum had this to say.
"Vic killed his own company as his ridiculous demands and ego (he wanted full control over everything even when it made no sense to) made each release likely to be their last. He treated his employees like trash which has come to light over the years from ex employees. It's amazing that the company lasted it as long as it did under his HORRIBLE leadership and not surprising that it went under when you're aware of what happened behind the scenes. Even when XSEED had the rights to localize the game for PSP, they were willing to work with him and he wanted basically full control and a major share of the profits so XSEED ignored him. He even threatened/discouraged ex WD employees from working on it and bashed any that did.

Outside of games, he used to come to certain forums and basically troll anyone that didn't fully agree with him. Screw that guy and his absurdly large ego."

Of course that's behind the scenes stuff that I don't see. If his input is integral to me liking the games as much as I enjoy the Sega CD and PS1 games, I don't care what kind of guy he is.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Aaron »

Imperial Knight wrote:1) "Lunar in name only," i.e., a cheap cash-in.
Oh you mean like

Lunar on Gameboy Advanced

Lunar Dragon Song

Lunar on PC

Lunar on iOS

Lunar on PSP

all we have had are cheap cash ins.

As for the fanboyish feeling a game can have well thats why you need a new story and a new idea. All the old ones are done.

I didn't know anything about Ireland's ego. I'm not surprised. But frankly I don't care if he's a jerk as long as whatever he makes turns into something worth playing.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Imperial Knight »

To be honest, that's part of the reason why I'm afraid a new Lunar game would be a cheap cash-in.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by jay_are »

Imperial Knight wrote:To be honest, that's part of the reason why I'm afraid a new Lunar game would be a cheap cash-in.
It needs to be something that attracts JRPG fans across the globe. Most JRPG fans are playing PS3 or moving on to PS4 now. So it needs to catch that audience and surprise them with a really good game.
We dont want news like "Oh it had bad sales..." like the PSP port of Lunar SSS.

Whether it's possible or not to create such a game, that's a different story :lol:
But it's clear to me that's what needs to happen.

As for the bad things involving Victor Ireland's reputation, well it's not like everyone else is perfect. I do have some concern over the happiness of the creators that make my games, so whatever truth there is to it, I hope he learned and improved.

However, from my point of view, I see Victor Ireland works hard on things that have only benefited the games I like. Whatever hardship his employees had to endure, they should be proud of that today just like I'm proud about traumatic experiences I had while working or even school, but which makes me proud of the great results it had out of it.
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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Alunissage »

The closure of Working Designs had a lot less to do with Vic and a lot more to do with Sony than that poster is willing to admit. It is, however, true that Vic was not good at delegation.

Lunar PC was a straight port in Japan and a translation (with the US songs!) in Korea, which otherwise would not have gotten any Lunar game at all. The iOS release also brought the game to people who missed the SCD and PSX generations. Genesis/Dragon Song did in fact have new ideas and suffered mainly in the execution. Both handheld SSS games brought in new bits of story, and SSH especially had a lot redone. I don't understand why it's so criticized, tbh (though I've still only played most of it in Japanese).

Leo and Aaron, you both seem to enjoy being highly negative. It doesn't impress anyone, it just makes you sound close-minded and nasty. You don't have to pretend to like things you don't, but as a result your posts are likely to be tuned out as part of general Internet noise.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Leo »

Alunissage wrote:The closure of Working Designs had a lot less to do with Vic and a lot more to do with Sony than that poster is willing to admit. It is, however, true that Vic was not good at delegation.

Lunar PC was a straight port in Japan and a translation (with the US songs!) in Korea, which otherwise would not have gotten any Lunar game at all. The iOS release also brought the game to people who missed the SCD and PSX generations. Genesis/Dragon Song did in fact have new ideas and suffered mainly in the execution. Both handheld SSS games brought in new bits of story, and SSH especially had a lot redone. I don't understand why it's so criticized, tbh (though I've still only played most of it in Japanese).

Leo and Aaron, you both seem to enjoy being highly negative. It doesn't impress anyone, it just makes you sound close-minded and nasty. You don't have to pretend to like things you don't, but as a result your posts are likely to be tuned out as part of general Internet noise.
Considering the posting rate, it's pretty unlikely that anyone will tune out anything new that's typed here. I'm curious about what I'm saying in this thread that makes me closed-minded, though.

I'm baffled that you don't see why SSH catches hell. No overworld and just picking through the list of locations is ridiculous. I hate how Lunar is shrinking with each remake. Will the next one be an E-book? I'm not sure if the Japanese SSH has different voice actors or not but most people don't like when voices are changed.

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Re: We need more fans.

Post by jay_are »

Leo wrote:
Alunissage wrote:I'm baffled that you don't see why SSH catches hell. No overworld and just picking through the list of locations is ridiculous. I hate how Lunar is shrinking with each remake. Will the next one be an E-book? I'm not sure if the Japanese SSH has different voice actors or not but most people don't like when voices are changed.
I at least totally see this.
... But I thought the voices were great. I even tested this!
I showed my brother Luna's boat song many years ago, and he loved it.
Then one day he asked me to play it again, but I sneakily used the PSP version, and he had the same positive reaction!
I confessed it to him later though :lol: but he was impressed. A little mad at me, but impressed how the quality was not noticeably lower on PSP. Nall's voice is too different, and some characters are eh, but I liked Laike's voice. Strangely, I like it more than hearing Dyne in the prologue... *sigh*. Ghaleon was good in the PSP too. I totally didn't like it more than the PS1 version, but it was close enough!
In all fairness, BOTH versions could benefit from improvements here and there still.

No overworld: yes, bad.
No item icons, slow loading, easy difficulty... all of these make the fans complain.
BUT what about that AWESOME art put into every cave, town and battle?
What about those awesome sprites, that while they're not classic, they're beautiful for their bigger size?
The bigger picture expressions on the characters?
What about all of that redone music that has such high quality?
Back in the day, critics always gave thumbs down to the PS1 games for their "dated" look, and it pissed me off so much. At first sight I understand that it looks dated, but once you play the game, you appreciate the beauty. Well with the PSP port, FINALLY no one dares put a finger on the graphics. They look just awesome.
While all these things are basically superficial, they're so nice that I just can't complain. It could have been better if it had overworld, item icons and higher difficulty, but not even ALL THAT much :P the overall experience is still mostly there.

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Alunissage
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Re: We need more fans.

Post by Alunissage »

I really think SSH has the nicest maps of any of the games. I'm not quite as impressed with the sprites, but that's largely because I loved Legend's cute sprites and still do. SSH's are probably the best after that -- I was not a huge fan of SSS's sprites, and my fondness for TSS's is pretty much entirely nostalgia, I admit. (Turquoise-haired Kyle ftw.)

Since I've mainly played the Japanese version, I don't have much knowledge with which to critique the localization. I think the Japanese script was mainly the same as the other versions of SSS. I do admit to completely wincing at the voices (which I mainly heard when playing the iOS game, which I'm maybe a third of the way through), but I know part of that is simply seeing the characters differently from how the XSEED staff did -- I had some correspondence with Jessica there about Luna. And I'm not going to comment on the song lyrics -- but again, these are NA-centric criticisms. (And XSEED did at least learn a first name for Alex's father.) The music remixes were very nice too.

To be honest, picking from a list of locations (which I'd forgotten about) instead of an overworld doesn't strike me as that different from any of the remakes, starting with SSSC. There's so little exploration in all of them, not just because of no random battles on the whole map but because the entire map was smaller. And once you got the Dragon Wings, the only time you wouldn't be selecting a location from a list is the first time you go there, with only a couple of exceptions.

Leo, I was largely thinking of your posts about Pier Solar, I think, but it's certainly a general association I've had with your posts. Oh, and the comments about FF being ruined after [insert number here, as everyone seems to have a different notion]. Not saying you have to like something you don't, but I'm pretty sure the folks who can enjoy good points even when strewn with flaws are happier gamers. I do know the feeling; I had some really trenchant remarks about Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast when it came out that I hung on to for years. I'm a lot more tolerant of multiple versions of stories now, even as I continue to find some choices irritating. I may even watch that movie again and like it someday, a good 20 years later.

And yes, even though the posting rate here is sadly low, I nevertheless find myself skimming over your posts. And I'd rather not, for the same reason that I don't want to refuse to enjoy a game because it does some things badly: it's easy to miss the good with the bad. But I just get tired of reading over-the-top negativity (and yes, that curtails my internet reading quite a bit).

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