/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.2748010]

Terranigma was released 20 years ago today. So let's have a thread about it, what you liked, what could have been better, what you think happens after its ending, and maybe this time we can also try to solve the mystery of whatever happened to writer/director Tomoyoshi Miyazaki and Quintet itself.

[Anonymous No.2748239]

Loved the story and its dark and weird moments, like that reenactment of a blood ritual with the characters. Magic was pretty shitty and battles could use some more variety, but the locales and dungeons make for it and keep things fresh.
The ending shows that even if you are the hero that doesnt mean you will get a reward.

[Anonymous No.2748315]

> what you liked

- story and atmosphere

- music

- battle system (I just like real time fighting more than round based one. Also, the variety of moves makes it more fun than just mashing buttons)

> what could have been better

- magic.Pretty useless most of the time

- balancing. the official guide actually said that you HAVE to be at Level 25 or higher to beat the Ice Witch. At this point of the game, I am usually at Level 15 or something. They really seem to have fucked up this part, as the Ice Witch still kicks your ass at Level 24. I know that it is possible to beat her at a lower level, but it takes a lot of magic rings and patience

- some of the characters were bland and went nowhere. What was the point of the black skateboard kid?

[Anonymous No.2748328]

[Anonymous No.2748416]

Currently playing Soul Blazer and plan to tackle the rest of the "series" aswell. I how much the translations changed the stories. God was obviously changed to master, but did anything else change, anything important?

[Anonymous No.2748432]

>>2748416
God was changed to Master in ActRaiser (related to the "series" in quotation marks according to the devs). Satan, ActRaiser's antagonist, was changed to Tanzra.

This change carried over to ActRaiser 2, even in the Japanese version. There's a level where a background sign reads "Welcome Master". It also reads "Master" in English in the Japanese version. Not really surprising since the devs talk about working closely with the American branch for localizations, and Act2 was actually commissioned by Enix of America.

For Soul Blazer, God was kept as Master to keep the ActRaiser reference. The game was "Soul Blader" in Japan. Nothing else really changes, except a kinda hilarious graphic edit at the game's end. Without context it's not really a spoiler, but I'm marking it as one just in case you don't want to see stills from the ending cutscene.

Illusion of Gaia has the translation with the most "censorship", but it's not that extensive either. Cannibals are changed to starving peoples, "Leviathan" is "Riverson", and slave trade is referred to as "labor", but it's still really obvious what it's supposed to mean. The title graphics were changed and some unfinished enemies were polished. In interviews, devs talk about how working with ALL localization teams (including EU languages) was the hardest part of Gaia for them, so it seems they were aiming at an international market from the games' conception.

Terranigma has virtually no censorship whatsoever. Only the title changed, it literally means "Creation of Heaven and Earth" in Japanese, but it's also the term used for the Book of Genesis. It would probably be called "Genesis" if it wasn't for, you know, the Sega Genesis. There are also a couple collectibles (I think it's literally two) that you can't get in the localized version, but beyond this everything is uncensored -- there are even references to alcohol, sex, god and the devil, etc.

Have fun with the games, you're in for a real treat.

[Anonymous No.2748436]

>>2748432
I knew that scene looked wonky

[Anonymous No.2748453]

>>2748432
>Cannibals are changed to starving peoples
Ha, wow. First time I hear about that one.
Really changes the mood of that scene.

[Anonymous No.2748502]

>>2748010
The only thing I hated in this game was the leveling system.
Illusion's "leveling" system was pretty damn bland and a bit of a pain sometimes, but it made sure that you kept up with your stats.
Terranigma forces you to grind and doesn't even have a good way to do so. It's just revisiting the same areas over and over until you got to an appropiate level.
In my first playthrough I ended up fighting the last boss while only dealing 1-2 damage and only being able to survive by dodging absolutely everything and relying on the fact that the HP-halving beam rounds up, so I just soaked it in with my last 1 HP.
The succesful run was nearly 2 hours.

Even on a second playthrough I got SICK of trying to grind to clear the game "properly", because the experience gains are just too low.

I love everything else about the game, though.

[Anonymous No.2748959]

>>2748010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JylDHrE_7I
Apparently someone found a commercial for something by a company Miyazaki started in 2008, but it went bankrupt in 2010 and he disappeared again after that.

[Anonymous No.2749865]

>>2748959
Thanks, this is an interesting piece of history. There are more adds if you look for the webpachi channel in YouTube. Really sad that he ended up working for pachinko/gambling games, given how talented he obviously is as a writer (Ys, the Soul Blazer games...)

Though I wonder if he founded Giga Factory or if he merely worked for it. I was under the impression he was appointed for the company instead of founding it.

Any info about the Yakuza/stabbing rumors? I've never read any concrete info on even the rumors themselves, just vague hints at scandals involving Miyazaki.

>>2748502
Leveling is always wonky in games by Hashimoto, including Ys. You have to get to the final boss within JUST the right level limits to have a balanced fight. Too low and you can only deal 1s and 2s, too high and you can beat it in literally two hits.

>>2748315
I'm curious, did you play the game in a language other than English? Because I'm assuming the "Ice Witch" is Bloody Mary, I'm wondering what version calls her that. She's Bloody Mary in Japanese too, if I remember correctly.

>>2748239
>like that reenactment of a blood ritual with the characters
Astarica was my favorite part too, it's just vague enough that it makes for a great surreal mystery regarding how it relates to the overall plot.

[Anonymous No.2749869]

>>2749865
>Any info about the Yakuza/stabbing rumors?
Those were never true, from what I understand they were just wild rumors spread on places like 2ch when no one had any idea what he was up to.

[Anonymous No.2749876]

>>2749869
Figures. But it's weird that even other contemporary devs know about them (Yuzo Koshiro referenced them in Untold History of Japanese Game Developers)...

Do you know what the actual rumors are? I've only ever read about "stabbing", "Yakuza" and "credit", but nothing concrete as to WHAT supposedly happened.

I do know the most likely scenario is that he just retired from the video game industry after his two failed ventures, but I'm still curious.

[Anonymous No.2751437]

>>2748328
Why isn't there a retranslation patch yet for ANY Quintet game outside of ActRaiser 1? While they didn't have a lot of censorship, the writing was literal and often terrible.