Sega Lord X reviews the Street Fighter II Champion Edition PC Engine port.
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Messages - kazekirifx

#1
Definitely worth putting at the top of your backlog, NightWolve. It's a nice little treat of a game. And if you only want to do one playthrough, it only takes a few hours playtime at most. There's plenty more to do though if you're interested in unlocking other play modes.
#2
Quote from: GaijinD on 05/30/2018, 10:09 PMBackers get download codes if they backed at at least $28. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a snafu with the console codes, so they haven't all gone out yet.
Yeah. It's so sad that some of them probably ended up just buying the game again in order to play it sooner.
#3
So is anyone playing this great new 8-bit Castlevania-style game ?
It's really a great loveletter to Castlevania 3 and I highly recommend it.

My brothers and I made a Youtube review if anyone wants to know more of my thoughts.
I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the game.
#4
If anyone's interested, I participated in this video on Seiken Densetsu 3 recently.
This video helped me realize again how much I need a better mic. Just ordered one today.

-Mr. Jakes (kazekirifx)
#5
Last Jedi just made so many questionable plot choices which can't be taken back, and didn't pay off on any of  the intriguing questions Force Awakens set up. I don't care at all about seeing ep. 9 now since almost all the characters I care about are dead (and even most of their nameless comrades for that matter), and the rules and themes of the world now hardly make any sense.

Then again, I was pretty bothered when the Republic was destroyed in Force Awakens, and then they immediately cut to scenes of Rey and BB-8 lost in the woods. I was thinking, "Doesn't anyone else care that probably trillions of people and the seat of power they fought to take back in the original trilogy was just obliterated?" What are they even fighting for anymore?

Of course Last Jedi was a beautifully shot movie with amazing action and effects, and Mark Hammill's performance was excellent. Guess that's all that matters, right?
#6
Better late to the party than never, NightWolve. Hope you enjoy the videos.
#7
Hey guys. I finally got around to making a new video in this series.

This time I am covering an impressive shmup that was released late in the PC-88's life (1991). I'd be really interested to hear what my fellow turbo folks think of this game.

IMG
#8
Thanks for the kind words, guys. It really means a lot to us. I'll keep the videos coming.
#9
Quote from: MisterCrash on 09/16/2017, 12:15 PMOn the PC88 music CD, the Falcom selections are samples from the Perfect Collection albums, which had always confused me. It sounds like the system was designed to allow exactly that.
That "PC88 Music CD" is kind of misleading. The main purpose of it was just a CD to be packaged with the 8801MC so that you'd have a music CD to play on it. Not really to be a collection of PC88 music (which most, but not all of it, is).
#10
Quote from: guest on 09/15/2017, 05:10 PMHow exactly does the floppy game use CD audio?  Did it use the PC Engine CD game or something else?  I've got a lot of Popful Mail stuff and have never seen an expansion "audio" CD for something like that outside of like the Soundbox that was released by Falcom. 
The Falcom games let you choose which track to use to replace each track, so you can use any CD you want. You can replace the soundtrack with Abba for all it cares. So if you use a Falcom arranged soundtrack CD for the particular game you just have to set it to use the right track numbers. You can even use the PCE games with no problem at all if you want. I have done this with Legend of Heroes II when I was playing through the game on PC-88. The PCE game disc is the best arranged version of it available.

For the Koei games, you can't change the track numbers, so you have to use the "Soundware" official soundtracks released by Koei or you'll just get whatever is on the corresponding track on the CD you use.

Quote from: turboswimbz on 09/15/2017, 08:37 PMAs an aside, I find you very easy to understand but sometimes your voice over sounds a bit "Stiff?, rehearsed? off the emotion?" ehh no those aren't right.
Yeah. I know. I use pre-written scripts. I do my best, but I'm not really a natural at this stuff. I tried doing some of it without a script for my first video, but the result was a lot worse. (Lots of ummms... and uhhs...) I may not be the best talker, but I do my best. Maybe I will get better. My only consolation is that there are quite a few youtubers I watch who I think are even worse.


Quote from: turboswimbz on 09/15/2017, 08:37 PMas a side note:  Was the MC at the time worth it for the average consumer in Japan or were these more of a novelity at the end of the 88's life? 
It wasn't overly expensive compared to other PC-88's, so if you were looking for a PC-88 at the time because you wanted to use the existing software for it or whatever, it wasn't a bad deal. It sold far less than more popular models that were released back in the system's heyday, though like the mKIISR. If one wanted to buy a PC to last, though, in 1989 Japan, the PC-98 would have been a much better choice as it was definitely taking over the market at the time.
#11
I played the Vita version way back when it was released in Japan. I thought it was excellent. One of the best Ys games in a very long time. One of the best games I've played in a very long time, in fact.
#12
Quote from: Keith Courage on 09/14/2017, 09:46 PMI happen to have one of those odd ball white PC Engine CD drives that only says CD-Rom on the top with no "2" after it in my possession. I don't have any of the hardware you had it pictured with. Just the CD drive only. It looks so weird.
Yep. That would be the one that originally came with this PC, but I believe it was not the only way to get it. Was also sold separately if I'm not mistaken.
#13
This isn't exactly Obey, but I posted this shot on Instagram a while back. NEC PC-8801MC with the beer Boku Beer Kimi Beer Zoku Yorimichi from Yona Yona.

PC-8801MC.jpg
#14
Very nice stuff. Subscribed!
#15
Man that looks perfect. I have this disc, but mine just has the open window on the back as it originally did, of course.
#16
OK. Let me answer some of these wonderful replies I'm getting here.

First of all, Esteban, I'll paste the response I put on youtube, then also respond to your additions.

(2) He seems to be the PC-88 mascot used in the late 80's. He appears in a lot of ads for the PC-8801FE and PC-8801MC, which is why I used him in this video. Yeah, having a mascot to sell products was pretty popular in Japan through the 80's and 90's. It still is for some products.

(3) Sound effects were from Popful Mail for PC-88. Build up music is Legend of Heroes II, "Fanfare" music is Pyramid Sorcerian for PC-88VA.

(4) Unless there's some really weird key combination that needs to be pressed, the background doesn't seem to be changeable.

(5) No idea. Media Center seems like a good guess.

And on your "tangent rant", I agree completely. I am definitely in the "recapturing the experience" camp. Having original hardware and software is the most important to me. Having them in perfect condition is not a top priority at all. As long as it works, it feels genuine enough to me. Sure, you could argue that if I'd used this system back when it was newer it would not look all yellowed like it does now, but I would still say that having original and working hardware/software is still the most important to me, not pristine condition ones.

(6) Yes I am planning to make more. I have at least a few more PC-88 vids planned for the near future.

Quote from: guest on 09/14/2017, 11:25 AMI remember vaguely that the Game Preservation Society had a uber rare PC88MC CD game... doesn't seem like the CD option was popular at all, or at least that's the impression I have given the # of CD games... do you know how many floppy games use CD audio as a bonus?

loosely related tangent: Nobunaga's Ambition on the PC Engine uses chiptunes but weirdly has beautiful orchestra renditions of the classic themes on the very same CD. I wonder if there's a version of the game for the PC88 that can play the music off the PC Engine disc haha.
The "uber rare" PC-8801 CD game is probably "Dios". I'd love to get my hands on that one too. I own the other game "Mirrors", which is not as hard to find.

I can't give an exact number of floppy games that use CD music. Most Falcom and Koei games from the very late 80's and on do. The Falcom games I believe are Legend of Heroes 1 and 2 and Popful Mail. That might be all of them. I think there were at least 4 or 5 Koei games. No idea on why Nobunaga's Ambition for PCE contains the soundtrack. The Koei games are all designed to use the official "Soundware" CD's released by Koei. Unlike the Falcom titles, you can't adjust which tracks play for which parts of the game, so you have to use the official music CDs.

Quote from: SignOfZeta on 09/14/2017, 03:11 PMI can't believe you don't know this guy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susumu_Matsushita
Thanks. Didn't realize he was drawn by the same guy. Still wonder if the PC-8801 mascot guy had a name or anything. I presume he probably did, at least internally.

Quote from: MisterCrash on 09/14/2017, 07:31 PMI'd seen that little furry guy before on a music CD:

http://vgmdb.net/album/10427
That music CD was originally included with this PC. Look on the bottom left of the cover. "PC-8801MC".
#17
Quote from: guest on 09/14/2017, 10:40 AMCan it use the other CD drive?
It can only use the original PCE CD drive. The TG CD drive should work too.

Quote from: guest on 09/14/2017, 10:40 AMI'd be bummed if I'd spent 30,000 yen extra on the drive and only had 4 titles (2 really) to play on it (plus musics)
Yeah. No kidding. But I guess software developers were not interested in developing PC-88 games in a format that only a small portion of the userbase had a drive for. Guess that's just how the cookie crumbles.
#18
Hey guys. For those who haven't checked out my PC-88 thread on the Chit Chat board, I want to show you an interesting PC which NEC released in 1989 and which I own. Interestingly enough, this machine can use the same CD drive that the PCE does as a CD rom drive.

I've made a youtube video about it in my ongoing series about games for NEC's old computers "PC-88 Paradise". Your feedback on my humble video would be much appreciated!

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#19
OK. I finally made the video I've been wanting to make ever since I started this series. This one is all about the particular PC-88 hardware which I own. It should be especially interesting to you Turbo folks since it uses part of the PCE hardware as an add-on.
Please check out the video. I'm dying to know what you guys think.
#20
Quote from: Michirin9801 on 08/30/2017, 01:03 AMI can tell you're getting better at making videos too ^^
LOL. Yeah. It's been a trial by fire learning Adobe Premiere, but I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Throwing together that damn Sonic video was good practice.

I still feel that "Star Trader" is my best work, though. (Third video I ever put together.)
#21
Hey guys. Sorry this video took so long for me to put together. It took me a while to learn to play this game, capture all the game footage, and edit it all together into a somewhat coherent video. It was fun to do a game that wasn't made by Falcom this time. I've got plenty more PC-88 games in my collection by Falcom and others that I'm still looking forward to covering in the future. Anyway, for now I'm dying to know how you guys like this game and my video!

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#22
All right, I know I keep teasing my next PC-88 video, and it really is very close to done. Unfortunately I had to work on this click-baity Sonic Mania video we had to make this week. Check it out if you're interested. I plan to have my video on "Wibarm" for PC-88 up very soon though.

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#23
Thanks for watching, you guys. I replied to some of your individual comments on youtube (for those who left them there). I already stated my personal opinions on the games in the video, but it's nice to see some love for Shubibinman 2 from some of you. I stand by my opinion that 3 is the best.

Zero for SFC is a pretty good game too. Those who haven't checked it out yet should give it a go. We should have our video about it up in the near future, so I hope you'll watch that one too once it's done.
#24
I also made a separate thread in the PCE Supergrafx section, but I'll also mention here that I just put up a video on the Shubibinman series.

IMG

I am also in the middle of making a PC-88 video, and hope to have it up soon.
#25
I did a review of the 3 Shubibinman games for PCE for our Youtube Channel "Basement Brothers". We'll have a second video up eventually covering Shubibinman Zero for Super Famicom.

If any of you would be kind enough to give it a view, I'd love to hear feedback from my fellow turbo addicts!

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#26
Yeah. Right on.

I am working on one PCE and one PC-88 at the moment. Sorry for the long long delay in making any new content.
#27
Quote from: elmer on 06/27/2017, 12:55 PMYep, I've got the original Japanese Xanadu Next, and recently applied the translation patch to it so that I can finally play it.

Perhaps I need to give it another try, but it just didn't click with me when I started playing it.
I can totally see why Xanadu Next wouldn't click with someone. Especially now that it's so old. In order to enjoy it, you have to be ready to enjoy a pretty dry RPG with a very simple story and characters (if you could even call them characters). For me, it helps having played the original Xanadu PC-88 game, and imagining that this is supposed to be some sort of 3D follow-up to it (which it is). It probably also helped a lot that I payed full price for it and got it on the release date, so I had to try to play it (sunk cost).

The original Xanadu theme music is there, and the dungeons manage to look kind of old-school Falcomy, despite being in 3D. But the gameplay itself is based on Western realtime RPG's like Diablo. Move with the mouse and click an enemy to attack. Later patches allowed you to use a gamepad for a more normal ARPG experience, which I found a bit easier to play so I switched to this partway through the game. I felt a bit like I was missing out on what the original gameplay was supposed to be that way though.

Not a great or amazing game by any means, but enjoyable enough if you're willing to give it some time and attention. It was released when Falcom was still kind coming out of their "confused" period (late 90's to early 2000's), when they didn't have a lot of good sellers and they didn't seem to know what to make. They tried a lot of things before finding what stuck (new Ys and Legend of Heroes games).
#28
If you want to play Vita games on the cheap, and don't mind not being able to play portable, I think you can still get a Playstation TV for not very much. I played through all of Ys VIII on Playstation TV since I'm not a very big fan of playing portable.

The thing about the Trails games is that they are all a huge time sink. The constant story to read makes it take a long time, even if you don't want to do all the optional quests and everything. I like to play through each one once on Normal mode, doing all the quests I happen to find. There are crazy people I've seen lately on the Falcom subreddit and Falcom Fangroup on Facebook who like to play through the game multiple times and clear Nightmare mode and get 100% completion. I can only shake my head and wish that I too was supported by my parents and lived in their basement without a job, and somehow also was able to purchase video games.
#29
Quote from: Michirin9801 on 06/26/2017, 09:01 PMThe one post 2000s Falcom game I did play was the DS port of Legacy of Ys Books 1 and 2, which I didn't like very much, it just feels off in a way, you know what I mean? And the graphics are kind of horrible...
That's probably because the DS port wasn't done by Falcom themselves. I haven't played it, but I heard it used Ys Eternal as a basis. Back in the day, I played Ys Eternal and Complete on PC, and it felt like a pretty "pure" Falcom experience.

Gurumin was.... all right. It feels really dated now.

Ys seven I thought was OK. The music is pretty good.

For PSP games, you should probably try the first Trails in the Sky game. People either love it and call it a modern day "Lunar The Silver Star" or hate it for being too long-winded with the dialog (a Falcom trademark nowadays).

The "modern" (though very dated now) Ys game everyone loves is Oath in Felghana (the Ys 3 remake). The action, music, everything is quite excellent. There's a PSP version, but the PC version available on Steam is better.

The most recent game I can't recommend enough is Ys VIII. I loved it. You'll need either a Vita or PS4 to play it, but I highly recommend you do so. Story, action, characters... everything was great. The music was decent enough, as you would expect from any Ys game. And it is by far the longest Ys game ever made. Just play it.
#30
Quote from: elmer on 06/25/2017, 11:00 PMwas wondering if there was anything left of the old Falcom "Legend of Xanadu" style in the modern games.

It really doesn't look like there is ... which makes me rather sad.
LOL. Yeah. There really isn't a lot of "Legend of Xanadu" in Falcom's modern games. You might want to try "Xanadu Next" if you want a game that is supposed to be kind of a tribute to the original "Xanadu" game (for PC-88 and other 80's PC's), but still doesn't have anything to do with Legend of Xanadu.

I would say that modern day Falcom retains its traditional style mostly in the way of story, world-building, and music (to some extent). The main reason I still love them is because they are one of the only (if not the only) small Japanese game developers from the 80's/90's that still exists in its original small company form. Falcom was never bought out like so many other small developers from the time, and never grew to the point of unrecognition like Capcom, Konami, Sega, etc.did. Falcom is still a small company, still in its original HQ location, and many of the original developers are still there (like Mieko Ishikawa). Almost to their detriment, they refuse to collaborate with other developers or use other companies' 3D game engines and things like that.

In recent years, their "Trails" subseries of Legend of Heroes has developed quite a huge following in Japan, and I think they have expanded the company a bit. I hope this will not dramatically change the company philosophy, but so far it looks like we have nothing to fear.
#31
Well, the LD-S9 I have is pretty good. And while still expensive, it doesn't cost nearly as much nowadays as I bought mine for. Bought a used one for around $1,000, telling myself it was an "investment", and I'd better get one while I still can. LOL. They go for like half that much now. Heheh... sniff  :(
#32
Today I added a short review of the Falcom PS4 game Tokyo Xanadu eX+ if anyone's interested.

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I am planning another short PC-88 video soon. Sorry for the wait.
#33
Quote from: elmer on 06/19/2017, 05:37 PMAs I said on your brother's thread on AtariAge ... I'm really looking forward to him getting to NGH-007 (ASO II).
I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of the Neo Geo reviews too, but he's really struggling to get many views now. Quite a shame. Lots of people would probably enjoy watching those reviews, even if they don't have a Neo Geo or aren't planning on buying one. It's probably not going to be worth his time in the long run if he continues to get views only in the low 100's.
#34
Well, no new PC-88 video yet, but I wanted to mention some general channel updates in case anyone's interested.

We did a podcast on E3 recently.
My brother has been trying to review every Neo Geo game in order of NGH number.
We also did a review of the Wonder Boy 3 remake a while back, for all you TG16 "Dragon's Curse" fans.
I have some more videos on the way, so stay tuned.
#35
Quote from: Gypsy on 05/14/2017, 11:01 PMAnd yeah I thought it was quite funny, gives the video personality. Did they give a reason for disliking it so much?
Well, to be fair they said they "didn't like it" not "hate", but whatevs. They said they would have preferred a shorter review of the game without the attempts at humor and without covering the full plot of the game. Fair criticism as I knew when making it that not everyone would like either of those. I hope those who don't care to watch the whole thing will skip through the video and take away what ever they want from it. I hope to do some shorter videos in the future on games that I feel less personally invested in. Star Trader is kind of a special game to me in some ways.
#36
Quote from: Gypsy on 05/14/2017, 09:53 PMEdit: Lmao you voicing the characters was hilarious.
I really appreciate hearing that since a user on another forum already told me they hated it.

By the way, I just noticed your avatar is from one of Whispered's album covers. That's a coincidence since I am going to see them live in Tokyo this weekend! LOL. Fun melo-death band indeed.
#37
I've finally got the second video up!

The game is Star Trader by Falcom. Please check it out. Your honest feedback will be greatly appreciated.

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Please give it a like on youtube and share with your friends if you find it educational and/or entertaining! :)
#38
Quote from: Sarumaru on 05/08/2017, 05:36 PMWow very cool channel dudes! And you guys have been at for 8 years?? Makes me wish I had found this channel sooner :D great stuffsss
Technically the channel has existed for that long, but until last month we only had raw footage of some arcade games up. We recently decided we wanted to start doing properly edited videos and are trying to leverage or existing subscriber base to get some views.

As you can see, we are still very small and unknown so if you would share our videos with any other people you know who would enjoy them that would be much appreciated!

By the way, the next PC-88 Paradise video will hopefully be up very soon and I will let you all know here when it is. I am confident that the next video will be even more educational and entertaining than the last. Look forward to it!
#39
Quote from: munchiaz on 05/03/2017, 04:57 PMAlso i love your intro. "you guys be quite down there!!"
Really glad to hear that. Reactions to that voice so far have been kind of mixed.
#40
Quote from: mitsuman on 04/26/2017, 11:38 AMI'm looking forward to watching your other existing vids, and the future ones as well.
Thanks!
Our videos prior to this one were just gameplay footage, but we plan to do quality content with full narration and editing from now on, so please do follow us. We should have at least one new video up this weekend (though not PC-88 or Turbo-related this time, unfortunately). We will be focusing on consoles, Japanese PC's, and arcade games of the 80's and 90's, and even a few new games which are related too. Hope you enjoy!
#41
Quote from: Michirin9801 on 04/25/2017, 11:14 PMLooking forward to when you cover the Game Arts games ;3
And maybe the Enix ones too, if you'll do them...
Either way, good job ^^
I own some of the Game Arts and Enix games for PC-88, so yeah, they are definitely on the list if I continue this series long enough. I live in Japan and am always searching on Yahoo auctions and Surugaya, so I am always expanding my collection (though to be honest the amount of PC-88 games available nowadays is quite sparse. Some titles almost never appear on the used market).
#42
Can't thank you all enough for watching and subscribing. Really glad you enjoyed the video. I'd better get to work making the next one!
#43
Glad you guys liked the little details. I always worry that those sorts of things will bore the casual viewer. Glad to be among people who think alike here.
#44
Hi everybody. My brothers and I have made a new Youtube channel called "Basement Brothers" and I am making a playlist for some in-depth reviews of games for the NEC PC-8801 under the name "PC-88 Paradise". Please come check us out since we are a new channel and we could use your support sharing, liking, subscribing and commenting.

The first video is a very long and detailed look at Ys 1 for PC-88.

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(As you can see we currently have a number of arcade board footage videos up on our channel. Now that we've changed the channel name we are planning to do more in-depth videos with editing and narration like the Ys video.)

Thanks for your time and feedback!


Update 05/14/2017:

The second video in the series about the Falcom "shooter RPG" game Star Trader is up. Please check it out and give me your feedback!

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Update 08/30/2017:

The third video is the first non-Falcom PC-88 game in the series. Please check it out and let me know what you think

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Update 09/14/2017

The fourth video is an in-depth look at the particular model of PC-88 which I own. This one is especially interesting since it uses part of the PCE hardware as an add-on.

IMG

Update 12/20/2017

I've finally made a new video! This time I am covering an impressive shmup that was released late in the PC-88's life (1991). I'd be really interested to hear what my fellow turbo folks think of this game.

IMG
#45
I love FZK! Can't imagine it running very well on PCE, though. Even on PC-98, you need to have a PC-98 with a pretty fast CPU in it to run it well.

Quote from: Michirin9801 on 04/14/2017, 02:08 PMI mean, have you ever seen a bullet hell on the X68000? I know I haven't, but to be fair, I haven't played nearly enough X68000 games to know...
Does Cho Ren Sha 68k not count as a bullet hell? I'd say it's pretty close at least. The game actually reminds me a bit of FZK.
#46
Off-Topic / Re: Sharp x68000 controllers
04/18/2017, 01:01 AM
Not too many controllers that were made specifically for X68000. All of the controllers I use on my X68000 say either "FM Towns" or "MSX" on them. Genesis -> X68k adapter gets a lot of love from me too.
#47
I have an RGB modded Core Grafx and it has worked great with my Framemeister and HDTV for years. However, recently I have decided to start capturing video for youtube and purchased this capture unit "GV-HDREC" available in Japan which does not require a PC.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B01NBKP6GC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I really like being able to capture HD video without a PC. The unit works amazingly well for capturing contemporary games in 1080p. I would prefer to keep this unit, but unfortunately it is giving me some issues when trying to capture PC Engine video with the Framemeister. It does not seem to support input from the Framemeister with sync mode set to "AUTO". It needs to be turned to "OFF". This causes the output framerate from the framemeister to "jerk" once every few seconds instead of running smoothly like it does when set to "AUTO". I don't find this framerate to be quite acceptable for making good looking youtube videos.

I've heard that there are some other USB capture devices available in the U.S. which have the same issue. Does anyone know a solution? I have the latest beta firmware installed on the Framemeister. Could it help to try some of the "Sync level" settings on the framemeister?
#48
Quote from: Gypsy on 07/21/2016, 08:18 AMOne thing, and you may not have encountered it yet. How does the game perform with lots of action/enemies on screen? MoC was pretty laggy in my experience and it somewhat detracted from an otherwise pretty fun experience.
I haven't noticed anything major, and nothing has detracted from my enjoyment of the game at all. The graphics, while a lot better than previous Ys games, are still not anything too impressive when compared to most modern games. Very simple models and the aliasing on the polygons is pretty bad. It is a Vita game too, so you might want to wait for the PS4 version if you're worried about frame rate and resolution. Me, I actually wanted the PS4 version, but couldn't wait till next year to play it, so got the Vita version for now. I'll consider whether or not to get the PS4 version as well when it comes out.

Quote from: guest on 07/21/2016, 03:44 PMI want cfw for my PSTV so I can play PSP ISOs.  I'd gladly buy a second one for that, keeping my current one updated for Vita games.
I had a regular Vita and a Japanese Vita TV. I'm keeping the Vita TV on lower firmware so I can use the whitelist hack. What I did in order to play Ys VIII on my TV is buy a U.S. PSTV. They are dirt cheap. So, now I own a total of three Vitas in all. :) Strange since I only own like 10 games.

Quote from: NightWolve on 07/21/2016, 09:09 AMI found it meh, didn't really find anything I liked, but there it goes for others to check out.
To be honest, I am starting to feel a bit "meh" about the soundtrack now as well. It's nice, but I haven't heard any tracks yet that stylistically really scream "Ys!!!" to me. VI and Seven did a better job trying to emulate the trademark Ys sound... though I felt like VI almost tried too hard at times... almost to the point of sounding like a parody of Ys music (though it is still a very good soundtrack). Seven struck a pretty good balance between sounding both old and new to me. I'd really like to hear some more "Ys worship" in the VII soundtrack, and am still hoping it will be present in some of the later tracks I haven't heard yet.
#49
Just received the Vita version yesterday, the day before the release date (directly shipped from Falcom to my address in Tokyo). Initial impressions:

Overall very good and engaging game so far. Game engine has been revamped, and the graphics are much improved over "Memories of Celceta". You can move the camera freely now like in any modern 3D game. Gameplay is still very similar to Memories and Ys Seven, though you now have both dash and jump. Gameplay is 3-character party again, with certain enemies being weak against one of the three characters' attacks. Still lots of crap to pick up on the fields, though I think they improved it a bit by not making the enemy carcasses remain so that you have to hit them again to get more crap like in Memories. (I found that a bit tedious.)

Speaking of crap to collect, they added "fishing" and "cooking" to the game. These are basically two ideas taken directly from their Legend of Heroes series. A bulletin board with optional quests on it is also back again. It's amazing how much Falcom repeats themselves (but we love them for it).

Somewhat new to the series, though, is the layout of the world and progression. You have a hub town that you keep returning to. You find other survivors who were shipwrecked along with Adol at the beginning of the game, and you return them to the hub town which gradually grows as you progress the game. You also gain the ability to access areas you passed by earlier in order to progress the game, so you end up retracing your steps a lot. Luckily, fast travel is unlocked very early in the game.

The music is pretty good so far, at least for the main fields and bosses. One big nitpick for me is that the music during the intro animation is slow and melodramatic instead of rocking. (I mean, come on, this is supposed to be an Ys game, right?)

During the important story bits, the characters are fully voiced. Adol is mostly silent, again, but still says a word or two incidentally when he catches a fish or levels up. I think he talks too much. Adol should be silent.

Overall, though, enjoying the game a lot so far and can't wait to get home and turn it on again tonight.
#50
Blue Breaker