/vr/ - Retro Games

Gaball Screen

https://youtu.be/L_CbnBrUYiw

Vangers is pretty fucking trippy

>>9176523
Maybe not weird, but the setting of Final Fantasy I has this ethereal quality that I really liked. At first glance it's a generic fantasy world built out of familiar D&D tropes but if you look at the plot (and use your childhood/autistic imagination to fill in the blanks), the setting develops this subtle post-apocalyptic character as the game progresses.

Let's start from the top. Corneria is a fully functional civilization/kingdom, ruled by a king. Stable, safe, with soldiers at the gates to keep monsters and bandits out. The worst problem facing them is that their princess was kidnapped, and although the bridge to the rest of the continent has been destroyed, nobody seems to mind.

Pravoka is a lawless sleazy port town that has been taken over by pirates, with no government to restore order. Why hasn't anyone tried to oust the pirates so the citizens can live in peace? Why hasn't the King of Corneria intervened? Then there's Elfheim - itself hidden deep in the forest, which I'll touch on later - which has the ongoing crisis with Astos attempting to seize power from the prince - Astos himself being based out of the ruins of what was once another human kingdom before it was destroyed and left to rot.

Melmond is facing a famine/dust bowl and half the town is in ruins - if it wasn't for the Light Warriors the inhabitants would starve to death if the monsters don't finish them off first. Again, where is the King and his men? Some sort of force to protect the people? They're probably in the graves you see scattered throughout Melmond.

It makes you wonder why nobody had repaired the bridge before the Light Warriors arrived: Maybe Corneria - so far depicted as the last functional kingdom in the world - had decided that the world was in such awful shape that the only way for their people to survive was to close themselves off the from the outside world as it crumbled.

So basically every single Windows 3.1 "multimedia" "game" that were just having fun with these new fangled CD things.

>>9176920
We're almost halfway through the game at this point and so far we went from:
>Functional generic high fantasy kingdom
>Lawless hellhole
>Town/civilization actively being threatened by evil forces*
>Destroyed kingdom (the Western Keep)
>Comfy dwarves*
>Town that is in the process of being destroyed

Before we get to Crescent Lake, every single town/area was in worse shape than the one before, with Corneria being the only full-fledged kingdom whose general population isn't facing some sort of crisis. Final Fantasy I has so far depicted a world where civilization is collapsing, with the most settlements being besieged in some way, and traditional high fantasy kingdoms being the exception instead of the rule. Chaos and the Four Fiends are destroying the world, and so far they're doing a pretty good job. Considering the absolute state of each town we see, what will we see next?

Crescent lake is a nice change of pace. This town was peaceful before the events of the game, but now faces mortal danger because of Kary's reawakening/Mount Gulg erupting. Should note that like Elfheim it's also rather remote, being far away from the nearest port, surrounded by a lake and mountains.

We beat Kary and get the airship - a mind blowing plot twist for a 1990 fantasy game - and can now explore the two northern continents, which is when you can really start to feel the whole "post apocalyptic/dark age" setting sink in. Despite being just as large as the Southern continent, the two Northern continents are practically depopulated - having only three settlements between them and zero ports. Eerie, considering that Onrak used to be a thriving maritime kingdom.

*Dwarves and Elves (as well as dragons and mermaids) have been traditionally depicted as being insular and isolating themselves from mainstream human society, as they are depicted as being in FFI (Elves deep in the forest, Dwarves in the mountain, dragons in their island caves).

>>9176523
wat dis?

>>9176920
>>9177094
Play Elnard (7th Saga, the original japanese version or patched to restore the original balancing). It has that same weirdly desolate atmosphere as FF1.

Phantasy Star 3 kinda had it too.

>>9177094
What was happening to Melmond and Crescent Lake already happened in the North 200 and 1000 years ago respectively. While most of the settlements in the Southern continent are in danger, all settlements in the north are the isolated remnants of societies that have already been annihilated. It makes you think, how many "Western keeps" have been lost to the deserts and forests of the northern continents?

Onrak is, like Crescent Lake, doing sort of okay, but the citizens still mention that they're the dying remnant of a greater civilization that was destroyed by Kraken 200 years ago, and the last mermaids are facing extinction. Gaia is so remote that it's impossible to reach without technology that's been lost for 1000 years, and Lufenia is the last speck of an advanced civilization, implied to be just as remote if not more so that Gaia, since you can't talk to them until you rediscover a lost language.

You get the warp cube from a literal robot - again a pretty big plot twist back then - and then enter the Sky Castle, depicted as a literal space station complete with killer robots. I could sense some pretty strong Naussica/castle in the sky influence, it's an absolute shame that the later releases depicted the sky castle as a literal castle instead of a space station. Anyway we all know what happens in the game after that, but at that point the worldbuilding is complete: Final Fantasy I isn't depicting a world where civilization is collapsing - it's depicting a world where civilization has ALREADY collapsed, with the few remaining human (and non-hostile fantasy creature) settlements being almost entirely remote outposts, with those that aren't hidden deep in mountains or forests being besieged in some way. This is the Four Fiends' world, and humanity is on its' way out, despite the futile efforts of a few small settlements barely clinging to life.

>>9177139
Yeah that was huge and rambly, what I'm trying to get at is that I think the worldbuilding of FFI was unique and interesting despite being generic at a glance, and that the way the setting revealed itself as the game progressed, supported by the gameplay itself, was pretty neat.

>>9177129
there's patches for this game? part of why ive avoided playing it seriously is how broken it is.
Love its world but havent dug deep due to its borked game. got links to these patches?

>>9177156
are there updated version of ff1 I can play? the nes version is a bit hard to get thru and I really legit would like to experience this defeated world again. Played it years ago but I cant do the nes version again. Warmech was my first clue something was off about this world. its a conquered planet makes sense

>>9177176
I played with one many years ago that restored the Japanese balancing, but there seems to be quite a few on RHDN now. I think this is probably it:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/264/
There's also this, but it seems to have come later:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6362/
And lastly, it seems somebody is also working on just putting the English test in the Japanese original, so maybe you'd rather just wait for that.
https://twitter.com/slidelljohn1/status/1542820255172550658

>>9177202
Not him, but is it worth playing? (I've played tons of super nes rpgs already)

>>9177185
FF1 Pixel Remaster

>>9177216
Patched/jp ver? Yes. It's got a pretty unique atmosphere, solid balance, the party members are neat, the music is nice.

The only thing I could really say is "bad" about it is that at a glance the setting seems rather generic. But the washed out palettes, melancholy atmosphere, enemy/party member designs cancelled that out for me. It IS quite light on story, however. Definitely more of a gameplay JRPG. Another way it's unique is that you can choose how many party members you have, so you can 2man or probably even solo it with the right character.

I'd say if they didn't botch the localization so bad, it would be remembered as a top 20 or so SNES JRPG for a lot of people. It's nothing amazing, but it's quite unique and has a cool atmosphere.

>>9177272
Allright anon, I'll give it a try.
Looks like there are two different patches, which would you recommend?

>>9177291
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/264/
90% sure this is the one I played back in the day. Sounds mostly faithful to the original balancing.

>>9177310
Thanks for your dedication, anon. I'll begin a game next week.

>>9177202
>>9177310
The original guy that asked. THanks anon i'll grab the patch and get it setup and if I dont put some time into inindo i'll start this up.
>>9177226
sweet i'll look around for it.

>>9177185
Plenty. PS1, GBA, Pixel remaster...

>>9177698
Wonderswan and PSP, too.

Realms of the Haunting

>>9176743
"Welcome to 3D Dinosaur Adventure. Get ready. Put your 3D glasses on."

>>9177139
I appreciate your insight anon.

>>9176523
name of the game?

>>9178119
Thanks anon. I try.

>>9178231
The Museum Of Anything Goes

>>9177110
The Museum Of Anything Goes

>>9178425
>>9178426
thanks

>>9176743
I was just thinking about this game the other day.

>>9176820
Made by actual ayylmaos.

>>9176920
>>9177094
>ywn leave the Chaos Temple and explore the world map of FF1 2000 years ago
:C

>>9180251
That would be pure kino
Someone tell Square

>>9180715
Brb splitting Square off from Enix so both can have actual talent and creativity again and not just make worthless garbage every year

>>9180732
POOPA

>>9179050
based

>>9177139
Beautiful. Wish you had a website, I'd love to read more game synopses in this style

The Stalker

>>9181120
Thanks anon, I like doing write ups. Any particular games that you'd like me to take a look at? Just analyses of the settings/atmosphere?

>>9176743
Not to mention 3D Body, Undersea Adventure, Speed, etc.

Harvester

Also pretty atmospheric, despite being stylised:
>Bete Grise
>M.STAIN (picrel)
>OK/NORMAL
>No Players Online

>>9176523
S.C.A.R.A.B. on PC, it was like this weird robot/mech Egyptian gods arena shooter. I only ever played the demo but it always sticks in my mind for some reason.

https://youtu.be/i19EbHiaxVc

>>9182740
I wonder what sorts of video games the ancient Egyptians would make.

>>9183153
Crusader kings basically.

>>9182558
>Do it faggot