My impressions with Sapphire

[SuperDeadite]

Well, after rumaging through Den Den Town, I finally bit the bullet and
aquired a mint and complete copy of this infamous game.  I'm sure its been
done before, but here's my thoughts after about 3 days of non-stop playing.

As far as shooters go, Sapphire is quite good, its certainly not the best shooter
on the PC-Engine.  However it is a lot of fun to play.  The levels are all nicely
varied, with some really nifty ideas.  I love the level inside the pyramid with the fake
flashlight effects and the maze like scrolling.  In fact I love all the levels, the developers
really went all out in regards to style.  I've heard many people say Sapphire is too easy
and I'd have to disagree.  Yes if you put the game on easy and crank up the continues it is
a joke.  But I can't get close to 1 crediting it on Normal yet, and Hard should give any shooter
vet a nice challenge. 

As expected, graphically the game is a wonderous treat to behold.  Sapphire uses just about
every sprite trick in the book, then spices it up with some great animations, scalling, and
morphing effects all made possible by the beastly RAM boost of the Arcade Card.  Yes the
game "cheats" with pre-rendered polygons, but they look good so who cares?

The music, oh how I love the music! It's all done by T's and the music is simply perfect.  Every
track fits the levels' themes.  Compared to other T's Music games it manages to holds its own. 
Just hearing the title screen's music is enough to get me to play it again, and the standard boss
track just makes me want to kick some ass.  No problems here.

So what it comes down to is that Sapphire is a great shooter.  Sure, its not the best game out
there, but what Sapphire has is pure heart and soul.  Every thing about the game is oozing with
polish, glitter, atmosphere, and pure style.  I don't think the developers were really trying to make
"the best shooter," I think they just wanted to create a game thats easy to love.  I'd say they
certainly succeded as I already love this game to the core.  It just has that spirit the makes me
keep comming back.  This is something I'll always be able to pull out when I just want to have fun. 
Hell the game doesn't even save your scores, cause its just not the focus here.

So is it worth the price tag? Well thats not something I can answer for you.  It comes down to what
you want in a game.  Some people will probably never feel "the pull" of this game like I do, but if you
don't base your expectations on the entrance fee, this game is a treat.  Its simply a roller-coaster
ride of shooter bliss and pure old-school fun.  I chose to forget the price and just accept Sapphire for
what it is, a very enjoyable shooter and nothing more.

[termis]

Agreed with most of your observations.  It's a great show-off piece for the PC Engine along SF2:CE.

Music is great, but I HATE the squeaky blue weapon sounds - ugh.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Nice post SD - I have to agree with your observations.  You're spot on correct with the price of Sapphire; you pay for the rarity, not the game.

[gundarN]

Owning it makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

[nat]

It's worth the price if you pick up an "aftermarket" (cough) copy. I bought one brand new not that long ago for $40.

Comes with a manual, and even a reproduction registration card.

If you just want the game to play for fun, what's the difference?

[gundarN]

If you just want the game to play for fun, what's the difference?

It doesn't make me feel a warm and fuzzy.

[termis]

I have no shame in admitting that I download this one.

I'm more of a player than a collector myself, though.

[Seldane]

Downloading is the only way to go in cases like this. The only way to go...

[Keranu]

Am I the only person who enjoyed the sound effects in Sapphire?

[gundarN]

I'm more of a player than a collector myself, though.

I like to collect the games I play. Sapphire is one of them.
I would never buy an expensive game when I know it's crap, just to have it in my collection.

[Joe Redifer]

Am I the only person who enjoyed the sound effects in Sapphire?

Did you enjoy each and every one of them in both quality and volume compared to the music?

[Tatsujin]

If you just want the game to play for fun, what's the difference?

not much big difference to catch up an ISO on the net and make your own (cough) copy.

[SuperDeadite]

Am I the only person who enjoyed the sound effects in Sapphire?

Did you enjoy each and every one of them in both quality and volume compared to the music?

At first I thought the sound effects were a bit odd.  But then I realized that each ship has
its own unique sound effect for all three different colors, so thats 12 seperate sound effects.  Sure
some of them are better then others, but I don't think I could create that many variations of
shooting sounds myself.  Even if I did, some of them would probably sound a bit lame.  I'm
glad the developers went with originality as opposed to reusing the same ones for everything.

And the volume level is fine because I'd rather listein to the music over the laser blasts anyway 

[Keranu]

Am I the only person who enjoyed the sound effects in Sapphire?

Did you enjoy each and every one of them in both quality and volume compared to the music?

I never really had a problem with any sound effect in the game and tended to enjoy them it seemed. I can't quite comment on the volume as I've only played it in ME and I'm not sure if the SFX to music volume was correct, but the volume settings seemed ok to me in the emulator. Rayxamber III, on the other hand, had a sound effect I just couldn't bare.

[grahf]

Sapphire is a fun game. I like the variety. They managed throw a ton of nice graphical effects in there without making it seem too tacky.Ive been looking to pick up a pressed bootleg to replace my cdr.

[Tatsujin]

sapphire is the definitive PCE tech-demo par excellence. but there're better shmups out there in terms of gameplay (GoT, WoT, Spriggan..). but anyway and beside of that, sapphire is one of my favorite shmups of all time, simply because it's just pure fun to see for what our so beloved system is capable and still can deal even with shmups on 32-bit systems in terms of action, dynamic and special effects.

seriously, all what we can gaze on sapphire was theoratically already possible on the core anno '87, in technical point of view, by side of the hucard-size which was to small at that time. the arcade card can handel 2MB of data, this makes a comparable 16-bit module. so for exapmle, if we put each level separately on a 20Mbit (street figher ce) hucard, we would be able to play sapphire (without T's music of course) on the first white core from '87 without any cut-backs in grafical and technical issues, i'm right? please correct me if i'm wrong with this theory

[termis]

sapphire is the definitive PCE tech-demo par excellence. but there're better shmups out there in terms of gameplay (GoT, WoT, Spriggan..). but anyway and beside of that, sapphire is one of my favorite shmups of all time, simply because it's just pure fun to see for what our so beloved system is capable and still can deal even with shmups on 32-bit systems in terms of action, dynamic and special effects.

seriously, all what we can gaze on sapphire was theoratically already possible on the core anno '87, in technical point of view, by side of the hucard-size which was to small at that time. the arcade card can handel 2MB of data, this makes a comparable 16-bit module. so for exapmle, if we put each level separately on a 20Mbit (street figher ce) hucard, we would be able to play sapphire (without T's music of course) on the first white core from '87 without any cut-backs in grafical and technical issues, i'm right? please correct me if i'm wrong with this theory

That sounds about right to me.  That is pretty impressive indeed.  From crap like Wonder Momo to technical tour-de-force like Spriggan, the PCE sure had a good span.

edit: I meant Sapphire instead of Spriggan, thought Spriggan is a pretty damn good game too.

[Turbo D]

I like wonder momo 

[shubibiman]

The thing with Sapphire's graphics is that they are not consistant. They sometimes look great, some other times, they merely look like crap (I hate this "lion" in level 2). To me, level one is the most beautiful. Still, I agree with most of your points.

[gundarN]

The thing with Sapphire's graphics is that they are not consistant. They sometimes look great, some other times, they merely look like crap (I hate this "lion" in level 2). To me, level one is the most beautiful. Still, I agree with most of your points.

Graphics can range from good to great for sure. The geometric enemies don't seem to sit well with a lot of the sprites. It's not terrible; just a little inconsistent.

[CrackTiger]

The thing with Sapphire's graphics is that they are not consistant. They sometimes look great, some other times, they merely look like crap (I hate this "lion" in level 2). To me, level one is the most beautiful. Still, I agree with most of your points.

Plus some enemies are jagged flat shaded polygons while others are nice detailed hand drawn artwork.

The only explanation I can think of, is that the evil invaders from the future are supposed to all be some kind of simple looking Tron race or something... and the rest of the enemies are just natural occuring creatures from each era that just happen to try to kill you.

Maybe the U.S. accidentally initiated the conflict at one point in time during a space mission and thats why you're attacking a space shuttle at the end of the game? 

I don't see the point of using prerendered polys if they're not going to all be smoothly animated or mixing them with real art. But apparently it was a great idea, since the game has become legendary on its graphics alone.

[grahf]

Well, the trick of course was to make it look like the system was rendering the polygons. If you made them look too fancy, they would loose their wow factor because you knew they were "fake". 

Too bad after all these years we know better.  I still dont find them too out of place though.