/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1725368]

Let's talk about Quintet's creation trilogy.

Startin with the truth and undeniable facts:

Terranigma > Illusion of Gaia/Time > Soulblazer

[Anonymous No.1725370]

[Anonymous No.1725374]

Does it matter what order they're played in?

[Anonymous No.1725376]

>>1725374
If therer are any connections between the games they're so weak I never noticed any.

The games are generally referred to as "creation trilogy" because each game deal with the genesis and origins of our world in one way or another.

I play Soublazer only briefly so I can't say much about it, but IoG and Terranigma go so far to use actual locations of our world, Terranigma actually does use this specific world. With the same contintental layout countries and places. To the degree that they're relevant to the story I mean. You pass through Europe but only important places can be visited.

[Anonymous No.1725379]

Can't have a thread that mentions Terranigma and not post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NFmgQqLmSo

[Anonymous No.1725390]

Shouldn't it be a tetralogy? I heard Granstream Saga shares a lot of similarities and connections with the SNES games.

[Anonymous No.1725391]

>>1725379
>being my nigga.

Nerratigma beeds noth a remake and a sequel.

[Anonymous No.1725397]

>>1725379
>Underworld

Overworld theme is better.

Crysta theme is best.

[Anonymous No.1725509]

>>1725390
Was that even by Quintet? I thought the studio got disbanded shortly after Terranigma was finished.

[Anonymous No.1725512]

>>1725397
I'll raise you one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43FM-ZzlNKs

[Anonymous No.1725515]

>>1725509
Kind of.

>Before Quintet finally kicked the bucket, they squeezed out a very much ignored final chapter to their loosely knit Soul Blazer franchise. No longer under Enix's reign, the game was published in Japan by Sony and developed by a house known as Shade. Shade was Kouji Yokota's own private development studio, consisting of must of the same staff who made ActRaiser, Robotrek and the Soul Blazer games. In essence, Shade is Quintet. In Japan, it was a highly anticipated title that debuted at #1, successfully bumping Final Fantasy VII off the top spot where it had been for months.

[Anonymous No.1725552]

>>1725379
That's cool and all, but the Europe theme was always my favorite. Crysta is pretty good too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmLx7jc5KMA

[Anonymous No.1725554]

>>1725515
If their games were so popular how come Quintet was disbanded in the first place?

Seems like an awkward situation to be more popular than you are succesful.

[Anonymous No.1725557]

>>1725552
Sorry anon, but guaranteed goosebump music incoming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcPS2BQ9EHA

[Anonymous No.1725560]

>>1725368
For me its
Illusion of Time>Terranigma>>>Soulblazer

I played illusion first and have the most memories of that game. I actually let my friend borrow illusion for his Terranigma cart. He moved away like 2 weeks later and im now left with his game and my IoT box/manual.

Peter if you're out their i want my game back.

[Anonymous No.1725727]

>>1725509
>>1725515
I thought they hadn't actually disbanded and are still a company, they just switched to shadow developing for other companies. Quintet has appeared in a few game credits.

[Anonymous No.1725745]

>>1725727
They appeared in Ar Tonelico in 2006, that's about it. They're probably dead now, maybe.

[Anonymous No.1725821]

Here's the info I've gathered on Quintet.

>>1725554
Quintet's big mistake was to break their partnership with Enix. Since its inception in 1989, Enix published all Quintet games until the end of the SFC era. For reasons that haven't really been made clear, Quintet and Enix parted ways then, and Quintet banked on alliances with both Sega and Sony to get their games published during the fifth gen. Now, as you may know, Enix never actually developed anything, and instead worked closely with a few outsourcing teams. But with Sega and Sony the situation was completely different, as both had in-house teams and the competition for getting published was larger.

It's also worth noting that Quintet had no franchises to speak of. Yes, the so-called creation series are loosely related thematically, but since ActRaiser 2 Quintet always refused to make sequels from their games. And while their Quintet games were experimental for sure, once they broke loose from Enix their game concepts were almost surreal (see Solo Crisis or Planet Laika). Sadly, as we all know, that's bad for video game business.

In the end Quintet ended up going bankrupt according to Ando Hiroyuki (https://twitter.com/drunkenAndo/status/198081167390543872).).

>>1725745 is right, Ar Tonelico is about the only reference to "a" Quintet post-2002. They are most definitely disbanded. Their website was shut down on 2008, and hadn't been updated in 6 years. Their last message in 2002 was that they couldn't give out information regarding their situation/products, written as an explanation for shutting down their boards.

Quintet members have worked in other games since 2002, but they haven't mentioned "Quintet" as a company again. While it's never been said, I think it's obvious that their bankruptcy problems manifested in 2002, and rather than making them public they kept it secret, Japanese style, while trying to address them internally. Evidently, that didn't work, and now Quintet is gone.

[Anonymous No.1725839]

>tfw Royd looks like he's going to be an asshole rival character but turns out to be a total bro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe9xpsexUUA

[Anonymous No.1725942]

>>1725839
With a name like Royd you'd think he'd be a lot more buff!

[Anonymous No.1725951]

>>1725821
Quintet's founder was Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, who started out as the scenario writer for the first two Ys games at Nihon Falcom. He went on to create Quintet alongside Masaya Hashimoto, Ys' programmer. During the fourth gen, Miyazaki wrote all the Quintet games except Robotrek (I think), and Hashimoto did the programming. They assembled a small team and in fact "Quintet" is a reference to what they perceived to be the five aspects of game design: event planning, programming, graphics, music, and producing.

Now, apparently Tomoyoshi Miyazaki became president of Giga Factory in 2009. So with both this and the bankruptcy issue in mind, I think it's very, very unlikely that Quintet will ever be back. It was such a small team that it'd be hard for its members to recover from their unpaid bankruptcy.

>>1725509
It may as well be so for western gamers, since only Granstream Saga made it overseas after Enix stopped publishing Quintet games.

Granstream Saga is a PS1 action RPG, the first fully 3D one. Like >>1725390 points out, some people say it's related to Soul Blazer and its thematic successors, but I don't think so. The similarities are very brief and only show up at the very last second. I think it's just an original game.

Solo Crisis is a Saturn strategy game based on terrain manipulation. It plays like Shining Force but you create hills and storms to win. Here's how it plays like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VngTphaNPZg

Code R is a Saturn racing/adventure game. You have anime cutscenes and a story mode, and then you race. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxRTcncT_b4

Planet Laika is truly the most bizarre one of the bunch, being a PS1 arcade/RPG/adventure/puzzle hybrid featuring a protagonist with three different personalities, each with different abilities. Battles play like the Agahnim's volley and all characters have dog faces. Yup. I couldn't find gameplay videos for it, just the opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sD5UaODDKk

[Anonymous No.1727228]

Loved SoulBlazer and IllusionOfGaia, but I gotta disagree on Terranigma. Game was shit, bros.

I found IllusionOfGaia annoying at various points as stupid plot lines unfolded, but it was still fun over all. And I could enjoy it, even as a jaded and cynical teen with some emotional baggage.

But Terranigma is fucking vapid. It is all cosmetic fluff and smooth animations with no challenge and a god-awful, insipid plot. Towards the end, I thought there might be a bit of redemption. And then a black kid on a skateboard with his own theme song comes rolling into view to "help" defeat the final stage. Fuck me.

[Anonymous No.1727502]

>>1725374
No

[Anonymous No.1727514]

>>1727228
>And then a black kid on a skateboard with his own theme song comes rolling into view to "help" defeat the final stage.

Does this really happen? I never got that far.

[Anonymous No.1727529]

>>1725951
Really good info, thanks!

[Anonymous No.1727546]

>>1727514
During the next-to-last dungeon, all of Ark's friends show up and help Ark get through. Perel, who is indeed a black kid on a skateboard, helps disable dungeon's the alarm system. Like most of Ark's friends, he gets his own theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0qE0NtGnDM

I don't know what's so special about him showing up for >>1727228, considering three more people do so as well (and there are two more characters that help you psychically, too).

>>1727228
>and a god-awful, insipid plot.
I disagree strongly with this. For me, it easily has the best plot from all three games. The symbology, themes and events were miles better than anything before, and the overall story was a lot more cohesive as well. To me, Illusion of Gaia feels more of a stepping stone for Quintet on the way to what would become Terranigma's story. But to each their own.

[Anonymous No.1728097]

>>1727546
I agree with the point on Terranigma's story. Easily the best of all three games.

I also liked the menues in Terranigma the best. The magic box I mean. But that's a minor thing.

[Anonymous No.1728104]

Freedan was way cooler than Shadow.

[Anonymous No.1728168]

Kinda funny how Quintet's games were like the antithesis to Atlus' SMT games.

Quintet's games always deal with the creation of the world and how friendship overcomes obstacles, SMT is always about the final war at the end of times and god is a tremendous dick.

[Anonymous No.1730460]

>>1728104
I think Shadow looks cooler, but Freedan is way more badass. "I am Freedan. I am eternal." He can't possibly be cooler.

>>1728168
This is an excellent observation. Quintet games always feature God as a benevolent force and religion is always positive. Both Actraisers and Soul Blader deal with unnamed monotheism, and in Terranigma Buddhism, Catholicism, and even atheism are all portrayed as good ideologies. Wanting to overcome nature with science is what's wrong, no more and no less.

I like that positive approach way more than SMT. I thought I'd like SMT when I first heard of it, but it really comes across as too edgy for edgy's sake when it comes to its story.

[Anonymous No.1730467]

>>1725368
I can't stand Illusion of Gaia

I used to think Terranigma was the best, but theres a charming simplicity in Soulblazer, and as the progenitor of the series I like a lot of what it did. I like a lot of the concepts in Illusion of Gaia, like transforming into Freedan and the Energy form thing, but I feel like it was so underdeveloped.

I think its probably more Terranigma >= Soulblazer > Illusion of Gaia.

[Anonymous No.1730912]

>>1725368

So after reading this thread I'm very interested in playing Terranigma.

Does anyone have a DDL to the 60Hz patched rom? Interested in playing this on my SD2SNES + CRT for maximum autism.

[Anonymous No.1731168]

the entire trilogy is so fucking bittersweet.

the village of starving people in Illusion of Gaia and how you can interact with them still gets me.

http://youtu.be/oyLJxUahjMY

[Anonymous No.1731232]

>>1725368
What are the proper versions to play for someone who can't read Moonrunes?

[Anonymous No.1731253]

>>1731232
All 3 are in english

Soulblazer and Illusion Of Gaia/Time have US and PAL options. Terranigma is PAL only for english language. You can just modify your american snes if that's what you have by cutting out the two tabs where your cartridges go in. Then you can play PAL and JP releases. Or get another tool to do so.

[Anonymous No.1731280]

>>1731168
>That slave market in that flower city with a back alley
>guy that says something like "See? There's kids your age who live this kind of life (referring to the slaves). Be thankful you're free"
that shit got to me

[Anonymous No.1731312]

Watching Tokyo getting wiped sure was cruel.

And that you could enter the abandoned and contaminated city with that eerie music didn't help.

[Anonymous No.1731326]

Can someone tell me what the appeal of these games is? I played all the way through Illusion of Time just because of everyone on /vr/ saying how good it was, and I found the dialog terrible, the sprites and animations unattractive, the music one-dimensional and repetitive and the storyline seemed so unstructured. Not to mention the tedious gameplay which barely changes through the entire game.

[Anonymous No.1731798]

We all know IoG references many 'real life' places of myths.
One you might not know, which I put the two together myself, is the Final Boss of IoG is also a reference.

Nibiru, of 'Planet X', is the 'real life' equivalent to IoG's Dark Gaia.
It has many connections, such as some people believe Nibiru effects Evolution and the world itself. The theories of Nibiru are scattered horribly, but most believe it's a 'evil entity' of somekind, and sometimes even referred to as godlike. I don't believe the myth, myself. So my overall knowledge of it is extremely limited, but from what I've seen, they appear to be extremely similar.

I've looked online many times in the past and it seems no one has made the connection before. Now that we have a Quintet, I figured it would be a perfect way to spread the idea.

[Anonymous No.1731806]

>>1731798
of=or*
Quintet thread*

Excuse my typos, I've been awake for ~20 hours.

[Anonymous No.1731834]

>Illusion of Gaia
I was so pissed when I realized I had to fight that god damn Mummy Queen a SECOND TIME.
Fuck that bitch. God damn. I had no healing items at the end of the game so it was pretty difficult.

[Anonymous No.1731897]

>>1731798
That's pretty cool. I like trivia like that.

[Anonymous No.1732492]

I'm on the same group that prefers IoG to Terranigma.

I don't know if it was because I played Terranigma so much later, but I doubt it. I got around to playing through Soul Blazer about a month before I started Terranigma, and I prefer it.

Ark as a character didn't seem to grow, and was just sort of handed this incredible task to recreate the world and he just sort of...agrees. Also agree with the previous comments that there is very little challenge to the game. Most of it is just figuring where to go to get the world to continue changing once you've revived it all.

It wasn't until the last...two hours or so that I actually started to feel something for the characters. And that ending was harsh beyond anything and everything. That was done well, if anything. Granted the music was excellent. (I still prefer Illusion of Gaia's soundtrack, but that is definitely nostalgia).

Maybe it was the fact that there were several 'main' characters that all had their own goals, needs, wants, etc, but you really got to know them over the course of the story. The dialogue was hokey but it was charming, in its own way.

Maybe Terranigma was over-hyped for me but by the time I played it, I was severely underwhelmed, and would rate it third out of the three.

[Anonymous No.1732595]

Do you guys know of more games, RPGs or whatever, that deal with supernatural stuff like these games do?

I think they all have this wonderful flair of mysticism and religion wrapped in some naive storytelling. Haven't played a game like that in a long while but I'd really like to.

What about that SNES games that deals with evolution? E.V.O. search for Eden?

[Anonymous No.1732639]

>>1731326
>Can someone tell me what the appeal of these games is? I played all the way through Illusion of Time just because of everyone on /vr/ saying how good it was, and I found the dialog terrible, the sprites and animations unattractive, the music one-dimensional and repetitive and the storyline seemed so unstructured. Not to mention the tedious gameplay which barely changes through the entire game.

Back in the 16-bit era before there were a million Zelda games out, we were desperate for adventure games.

Anyway, Terranigma is pretty good, despite having some flaws.

[Anonymous No.1732640]

>>1731834
Please, she's easy. It's the Vampires who are the major pain.

[Anonymous No.1732650]

>>1731326
Time travel back to when you were 13, play it for the first time, and you will love it forever.

[Anonymous No.1732658]

I'm not sure which concept I like more.

IoG's where you have only a handful major bosses, who are all the bigger, or Terranigma's who had a LOT of bosses where only a few were really troublesome (like Bloody Mary).

[Anonymous No.1732886]

>>1732640

and even then, you can cheese the vampires easily as young will spamming his jump attack which gives a million invulnerability frames.

fighting them again as Shadow is a bit of a bitch though.

[Anonymous No.1733516]

>>1725376
Illusion of Gaia uses the same world. It gets put back into its current shape when the Chaos Comet is destroyed.

[Anonymous No.1733521]

>>1732492
I think Ark has an excellent character arc. He really does become humble and responsible.

That said, I still think Illusion of Gaia is the better game. The plot is very human and very much rooted in personal struggles (coming of age, realizing the fallibility of parents and authority figures, confrontation with our own mortality) and in global issues (slavery, starvation, war). I prefer its gameplay mechanics and enjoyed the puzzle aspect of knowing when to change to different forms.

[Anonymous No.1733657]

>>1733521
Reading your post I wonder if that's what made those older games so memorable, bringing life topics like that to a very young audience.

[Anonymous No.1733719]

I feel IoG may be weaker than the others in a lot of fields, but fuck does it have the feels. The raft part, the starving village, the ending, not to mention most of the dungeons being legitimately discomforting and/or radical (like the sky palace)

[Anonymous No.1733736]

>>1733719
I really liked the IoG dungeons. I think it's because they felt so... big? No real idea. They were large places of monsters and puzzles.

Kinda sharing similarities with Zelda there.

Puzzles took a step back in Terranigma, which was a bit of a shame.

[Anonymous No.1736050]

I remember turning into Freedan for the first time.

Felt badass as fuck.