Quintet Appreciation Thread

[Anonymous No.6115753]

Is Lively City the greatest RPG town theme of all time? All I have to do is put this on and I am instantly in a better mood.

https://youtu.be/6L4Z-OIkseY

[Anonymous No.6115774]

I'm not a fan of Quintet's RPGs (I'd rather play the ActRaiser games), but I really like how ambitous their stories are. I think I never saw a plot similar to Terranigma in another 16-bit JRPG.

[Anonymous No.6116010]

I played all the way through Illusion of Gaia and still have no idea what the plot was. Fun gameplay and good music though

[Anonymous No.6116018]

>>6115753
It's so damn good. Rediscovered this track last year, and I've really been enjoying it.

[Anonymous No.6116086]

>>6115753
>Illusion of Gaia
You know when you'd have a snow day and you were bored just hanging around the house, so you call your friend a couple of streets over and see if he wants to play, so then you go over and he's playing a video game, and you watch him for a bit and then you go out sledding and have a snowball fight or whatever, then you go back inside and decide that game was pretty cool, so you watch him play a bit more, and then pretty soon it's time for dinner so you call your mom and ask if you can eat over just so you can watch him play some more while you eat Hamburger Helper, and then he finally gets to a point in the game where something major happens, and you're not really sure what to think of it because you didn't play the game from the beginning, but he saves and quits so you go home under the streetlights and think about the game and when you get back you look through some recent Nintendo Powers thinking you saw something about it and now you're obsessed with this game and you tell your mom you think you want it for Christmas even though you had no idea it even existed a week ago?

That's the kind of game Illusion of Gaia reminds me of.

[Anonymous No.6116087]

But that's not https://youtu.be/ZSRzijVlfeM

[Anonymous No.6116090]

>>6116086
Boomer kino

[Anonymous No.6116387]

>>6116086
Damn man this is so similar to an experience I had, an older neighbor had this when it was new, he was in his teens and I was around 11 or so and I would go over and watch him play it and the music and graphics and everything just had me totally enthralled. I wouls go over and watch him play it until he beat it. I had a Genesis as a kid so I didn't get it till years later but its one of my favorite memories of that era.

Kino as fuck description of a simpler time.

[Anonymous No.6116409]

>>6115774
Maybe it was just the translation but while Terranigma's plot is amazing in concept with tons of memorable moments, the script felt like it could've used at least one more revision since there are quite a lot of "you do this/go there because", padding and suspension of disbelieve moments later on.
Like having to awaken the wind so that the birds can fly again which does nothing in the grand scheme and gets contradicted by you reaching the cave by, you know, a goddamn flying bird or one of the worst roadblocks ever in form of the guy in front of the Great Lake Caverns who requires traveling across both American continents and a tower of mermaids in order to move and then he turns out to be just a ghost.
Hell, as far as I remember Ark himself doesn't even have any real business with Beruga and its only revealed to you, the player, during the cutscene with Wong and Royd that he is the mastermind behind Wong - the biggest reason for Ark why he's travelling to Mosque and Beruga's lab meanwhile is because that's the only other place with a landing strip.

[Anonymous No.6116446]

How is there still no restoration patch for the Illusion of Gaia trilogy? A lot was censored, changed, or altered in the originals, and with the fact these games are pretty popular it's odd there's no effort to retranslate the games or at least add back the cut content.

[Anonymous No.6116478]

>>6116446
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!
do it!

[Anonymous No.6117540]

>>6116010
Some of the writing was lacking in general like how Freedan, the guy you play as for like half of the game, has only like two lines of dialog barely any backstory and never really gets acknowledged by anyone.

[Anonymous No.6117583]

>>6115753
I personally like chilling out with Alundra a lot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62HoIMZ8xAE

[Anonymous No.6117612]

>>6115753
>>6117583
ah shit you fucker you got me all remembering these chill sounds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_2H1Idhgik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPrm1nrkZ3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcShnNNk0L8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYrZ9wYGq3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eU0tRBHnE0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJE6SSX-aw

[Anonymous No.6117679]

>>6116446
This is a very good point. I'm sad now.

[Anonymous No.6117743]

>>6116446
Someone started one for Soul Blazer and released it, but had no translators. He planned on redoing Illusion of Gaia with some translation notes from a non-EOP who noted mistakes. Terranigma has no restoration patch for the cut Quintet puzzle yet.

[Anonymous No.6117749]

>>6115753
The guys who made the pivotal YS 1&2 went on to do the Quintet games.
They were just phenomenal developers. Shame they dropped off the map.

[Anonymous No.6117756]

>>6117749
pretty sure he's in debt to the yakuza making pachinko games forever

[Anonymous No.6117815]

>>6116387
Something about 16 bit music does this to me. Brings me back to a simpler time. Riding bikes outside, eating family dinners, then relaxing on the bed and playing SNES until the wee hours of the day. Games were simple, yet had so much more soul.

[Anonymous No.6118050]

>>6116387
>I had a Genesis as a kid so I didn't get it till years later
Going over to the house of that one friend that has a system you don't was always such an adventure. I remember the kid who lived on the street behind me was the only kid I knew with a Genesis for a while, but he didn't have any fucking good games; he had like, Bubsy and NBA Jam. And then my next door neighbor was the first kid I knew who had an N64, and the only game he had for a year was Killer Instinct. No accounting for taste, I guess.

[Anonymous No.6118203]

>>6118050
>NBA Jam and Bubsy
Damn, that sucks. But you're right, it was an adventure going to people's houses who had systems you didn't, besides game mags you really had no way of knowing what was out there you were missing out on. A year or two later after that I sort of ended up being that kid for some of my other friends, as we live in the rural midwest and I was the only person I ever knew that had a Sega CD. My older brother brought it home to me one day, no idea where he got it, probably stolen. But I remember he brought it with Lethal Enforcers with the light gun, that godawful Bram Stoker's Dracula game and of course Sewer Shark. Later I got Android Assault (I think? Or maybe it was callrd Bari-Arm?), Sonic CD and a few other games. My friends had never seen one so they loved coming over and playing it. Later still my grandma told me she got me a Sega CD game that was clearanced and when I got it I didn't know what to think, "Willy Beamish? Wtf is that?" but I acted happy. It was a free gift after all, wasn't my birthday or anything. My best friend and I ended up falling in love with it, I found out later it was an old DOS adventure game but the CD version had full audio dialog. We were like 12 and it had some curse words and potty humor which we thought was the raddest shit ever and we ended up playing that shit al summer trying to beat it. Got stuck right at the end where you have to save your frog from getting cooked or something. This was before walkthroughs so we just had to figure shit out. We'd get stuck for awhile then try some item on something we never had and would figure it out and it was so exciting every time we did. We still occassionally reminisce about playing it all that summer. Good memories?

[Anonymous No.6118205]

>>6118203
The ? at the end was a typo lol, yes they were good memories

[Anonymous No.6118213]

>>6117749
I know its so mysterious. What happened to them? From what I had read online they changed their name and made like one more RPG (Granstream Saga maybe?) and then went silent. Last project I remember hearing they were credited on was some mobile game and that was years ago. Their studios .jp website is still up but hasn't been updated in years.

I wonder if they know the impact these games they worked on decades ago have had and still continue to have in people?

>>6117756
Is there any truth to that or just joking? It is weird they just fell off the planet

[Anonymous No.6118442]

I cry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acDgcJv7b4Q

[Anonymous No.6118676]

>>6115753
Wonder if SoulBlader/SoulBlazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma will ever get enhanced remakes. Or full-blown uncensored ROMHacks. Have all as ROMs.

[Anonymous No.6118743]

>>6117583
You mean "Everybody Dies And It's All Your Fault: Thee Game?" Yeah, it had some good tunes.

[Anonymous No.6118781]

>>6118442
Me too... me too

[Anonymous No.6118782]

>>6118676
I doubt it because as previously mentioned in the thread the rights holders, Quintet, have vanished off the fucking planet

Now uncensored rom hacks yes, probably. Really surprised there aren't some already.

[Anonymous No.6120449]

>>6115753
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prCKrck5rHg

>We had this game when I was about 4 years old and I would be memorized by this song. Years later my brother got the game again and I this song through the walls of his room and I just laid in bed with my ear pressed against the wall.

>i`ve eat some magic mushrooms with some friends,
>after a few minutes i put this song in the player,
>we`ve heard it and cried like babies

[Anonymous No.6120482]

>>6118743
Alundra does nothing wrong and nothing is his fault tho lmao

[Anonymous No.6120583]

>>6115753
Terranigma > Soul Blazer/Blader > Illusion of Gaia
Illusion of Gaia was terribly boring(also had the most boring soundtrack as well)

[Anonymous No.6120610]

>>6116446
>Gaia trilogy
Cringe. There's no such thing as Gaia in Soul Blazer.
It's Deathtoll(no it's not a localization change that's how he was called in the Japanese)

Also somebody did translate Soul Blazer(although he fucked up the damn weapon names for some reason) but they used the American version not the Japanese one to hack their script in which makes it worthless.

There was some retranslation project for Illusion of Gaia...not sure if it's still being worked on.

[Anonymous No.6120618]

Soul Blazer's soundtrack by Yukihide Takekawa was so good. Best track in the whole trilogy...probably best track in any quintet game ever and one of the earliest game soundtracks to feature a vocal song in their OST Album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5GznpBjHE4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xigUiN8ejuA

[Anonymous No.6120620]

>>6118676
Soul Blader would have problems with the music.
They would have to pay royalties to Yukihide Takekawa.

[Anonymous No.6120663]

I played Terranigma last year, liked it quite a bit. I played Soul Blazer so long ago I don't remember and Actraiser a few years back, it was fun as fuck.

I came here a few months ago and made some mentions about Terranigma and everyone shat on that game like I mentioned a fucking reddit meme or something. I don't understand really.

[Anonymous No.6120671]

>>6120663
haters gonna hate

nothing you can do about anti-fans

[Anonymous No.6120681]

[Anonymous No.6120717]

>>6120663
Cringey Butthurt American boomers who never got the game back in the 90s.

[Anonymous No.6120721]

>>6120681
Fuck, they just don't make artwork like they used to.

[Anonymous No.6120861]

There's some disconnect between the plot and the subtext.

It's basically a coming of age story that waxes over where we were to where we're going and Will grows up along the way.
But it's also about a Dark God using you as his champion to kill another Dark God on a magic ball of fire that humans once used to shape the world and themselves into God's and Monsters.

Everything in the game is something the ancients created for themselves as some weird byproduct to comet light. That's about it, that's the plot

[Anonymous No.6120882]

>>6120861
death is a new beginning and is the major symbol of change, it is the handing over of the present of those from the past to those from the future, and is also symbolic of the chaos and entropy through which life is given breath and sentience. death, or meaningless chaos, or simply the universe in life's absence, or perhaps existence that isn't endowed with meaning by sentience, is also the source of life in the first place.

here, the comet is chaos, and chaos is growing up and being forced to change, and growing up is being given a world where things are done for you and realizing that you have to become the one who makes decisions and does things in order to be alive, you survive the change, and overcome the personification of chaos, who is also a personification of yourself, and the reward is being able to face your own life and live it

really not that hard to follow m8

[Anonymous No.6121047]

>>6120861
I thought the plot was about Hamlet getting roasted.
The writing in Illusion of Gaia was mediocre. Not sure if it's just the translation.

[Anonymous No.6121271]

>>6118782
Does Quintet hold the rights? I figured S-E owned it.

[Anonymous No.6122040]

>>6115753
I just started illusion of time on an emulator a couple of days ago. I chose the EU version because i assumed the translation was better. Is that accurate?

[Anonymous No.6122376]

Oh yeah their SNES games were perfect gems. Loved their stuff. But after 2002...so even now we don't know wtf happened with them? It's not like they went bankrupt or something but not a single game or news after 2002 just makes no sense.

[Anonymous No.6122451]

>>6122376
I thought they did go out of business.

[Anonymous No.6122460]

>>6122451
They really just up and disappeared huh?

[Anonymous No.6122554]

>>6120663
People on this board used to like Terranigma but we're in a contrarian moment where we are against it rn.

[Anonymous No.6122762]

>>6122554
This. I was going to reply to that anon because I felt like Terranigma was usually well-regarded around here. Usually whenever there's a thread about "best RPG" or "best SNES game" someone always posts terranigma, and people always agree. In fact, it's one of the least-shitposted-about games I can think of.

I bet what happened is that someone on reddit made a thread about it and it got a little surge in popularity, so /vr/ started to hate it out of spite or something. That's always what happens.

[Anonymous No.6123057]

>>6120610
>but they used the American version not the Japanese one to hack their script in which makes it worthless.
The american version of soul blazer changed only some graphical assets but is a net improvement gameplay wise.

>>6122762
That's just dumb.
It's not perfect, but one of the better games on the system, no two ways about it.

[Anonymous No.6123071]

>>6116010
It feels more like they just made a bunch of dungeons and then just made up a loose story to string them all together.

>>6117540
There was also the third character you only got to play as in the penultimate dungeon and the boss rush/final boss.

[Anonymous No.6123230]

>>6115753
soul blazer retranslation
WORSE THAN THE ORIGINAL!
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/4115/

[Anonymous No.6123474]

So what's the JoJo RPG like? Should I pick up a ROM?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So7gZGyVgCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKBewynAdg

[Anonymous No.6125081]

>>6120681
Based and highres-pilled

[Anonymous No.6125085]

>>6122040
It's the same English translation as the American versions it just plays slower because it's PAL

[Anonymous No.6125091]

>>6122451
>>6122460
Not sure, as far as I know they never officially went defunct and someone is still paying for their .jp official website hosting because its still up but hasn't been updated in several years

[Anonymous No.6125325]

>>6123230
>Squirrel, the Exchanger CT NUTTY'S SWAP MEET

yikes

[Anonymous No.6126436]

>>6125325
God, I love Katsuya Terada's early art for some weird reason.

[Anonymous No.6126594]

>>6126436
The localization messed plot points and names up, but they got the manual's art more than right. The Japanese art is abysmal.

The reverse holds true for Soul Blazer and Terranigma.

[Anonymous No.6126864]

>>6126436
That weird reason is that it's good.

[Anonymous No.6127612]

>>6123057
>The american version of soul blazer changed only some graphical assets
Which is the most important thing. Fuck that manface Lisa at the end.
Also they changed an entire boss fight.

Gameplay is the same in both versions what are you talking about?

[Anonymous No.6127618]

>>6123230
Somebody should do a better translation and use the Japanese version of the game this time around.

[Anonymous No.6127623]

>>6122376
>>6122451
>>6122460
Something something Director was threatened by Yakuza...

[Anonymous No.6127657]

>>6126594
You're joking right? That shit looks abysmal.
Japanese art is much better and much more fitting with the ingame art.

[Anonymous No.6127746]

>>6120610
>He didn't find the secret dungeon in illusion of Gaia that connects it with Soul Blazer
>Starts his post with a shitty meme catchphrase
Pathetic.

[Anonymous No.6127794]

>>6127623
turns out it takes a lot of money to produce a videogame and this one didn't make a lot of profit

[Anonymous No.6127970]

>>6118213
Are there any email addresses on the site? Might be worth a shot

[Anonymous No.6128752]

>>6127657
Did you see the manual's art?

[Anonymous No.6128912]

>>6127657
Who's that knight girl on the left?

[Anonymous No.6129053]

>>6128912

[Anonymous No.6129215]

>>6126864
While it's definitely well drawn, there's some stuff that's just wacky.
His Final Fantasy designs look like some weird alternative universe version or as if they were drawn after only getting the basic character traits described over the phone.

[Anonymous No.6129282]

>>6129215
They look somewhat based on Amano's interpretations

[Anonymous No.6129290]

>>6128912
I can't tell if you're joking or not. It's Freedan.

[Anonymous No.6129307]

>>6129215
His Zelda work makes me coom in my pants, I fucking love it. He's great, I'd love to have a huge anthology collection from him with all his published work. I hoard that shit like Gollum.

[Anonymous No.6129359]

>>6129215
>as if they were drawn after only getting the basic character traits described over the phone.
This is literally how many artworks were made for japanese and western localizations at the time: a employee from a developer or publisher would describe a game or give artwork by mail, over the phone, etc. and the artists had to work very hard to interpret what they heard and saw.

There's also the cultural shock between the west and Japan in the 80s and 90s. Cute or "artistic" japanese art wasn't "radical" or "mature" enough for western audiences and western art usually didn't have the same appeal as anime and manga in Japan.

[Anonymous No.6129412]

The last thing I heard about Quintet is that their music composer passed away a few/several years ago and that was on here.

[Anonymous No.6129918]

>>6120610
>there’s no Gaia
>you’re guided by a booming voice from the heavens

[Anonymous No.6129924]

"We don't look at why they want to play. We have tools to keep players playing our game, but most fall into one category of scheduled rewards."
Some examples of these "scheduled rewards" are levelling up, getting new weapons, new magic/techniques or advancing the story -- the player wants to beat the boss monster so they can see what happens to Joe when he walks through the next door.
"Sometimes we take this really far," Blow noted. "RPGs are notorious for having relatively empty gameplay, but keeping players hooked with constant fake rewards. This creates 'the treadmill.' Rewards are a way of lying to the player so they feel good and continue to play the game."
He continued, "As long as players are hooked, it doesn't matter how good the core gameplay is. As long as they want to get the nicer sword, they'll still play the game, and as long as they play it's all the same to us as designers. I'm sure at this point, people think I'm needlessly babbling on about this point. But I want to put forth this question, would they still play a game if it took out all the scheduled rewards?"
"I'm not saying that that wouldn't damage a game," added Blow. "It would damage almost any game. But if you strip it and just have the gameplay, does it fall below a certain threshold, is it still something people would want to play? We need to build that kind of discernment about the quality of play."
He clarified, "I'm not saying rewards are bad, I'm saying you can divide them into two categories: some are like foods that are naturally beneficial and can increase your life, but some are like drugs."
Continued Blow, "As game designers, we don't know how to make food, so we resort to drugs all the time. It shows in the discontent at the state of games. Radosh wanted food, but Chrono Trigger was just giving him cheap drugs."

[Anonymous No.6129927]

"The game industry is chasing bigger player base, and we're exploiting them in an unethical way," Blow asserted. "We don't see it as unethical because we refuse to stop and think about the magnitude of what we are doing. You can smoke, have fast food, and play RPGs sometimes. When
you talk about these things at a societal level, it becomes a societal problem."
"The thing I want to get at is I'm not trying to blame players here, what I am saying is, if you're the CEO of McDonald's, you should not feel good about your job, you should feel ashamed. We don't have that in the
games business -- we don't have that sense, because we feel like they're 'just entertainment.' We don't feel like we can do things we can be ashamed of yet," he added.

Blow believes that according to RPGs, the game's rules are its meaning of life. "The meaning of life in RPGs is you're some schmo that doesn't have anything better to do than sit around pressing
a button and killing imaginary monsters," he explained. "It doesn't matter if you're smart or how adept you are, it's just how much time you sink in. You don't need to do anything exceptional, you just need to run the treadmill like everyone else."

"You don't come away from RPGs with that in your head, but that comes through subtly and subconsciously," Blow added. "It's like advertising and brand identity. People identify with their activities, its same thing with games, people are products of their origins and their environments. We're giving them these environments and helping to determine what they're going to be."

[Anonymous No.6129956]

>>6122762
>no US release
>one of the least-shitposted games
Really makes you think

[Anonymous No.6129967]

>>6129359
This, that is the story behind the US Megaman 2 box art with him holding a gun, the artist who did it said they showed him like 5 minutes of gameplay and he said "Hows he shooting those bullet out? Is he holding a rifle or something?" and the rep said "I don't know, maybe it's a pistol" so the guy drew him with a pistol.

[Anonymous No.6129976]

>>6129918
I'm pretty sure that's the Master from Actraiser

[Anonymous No.6129991]

>>6115753
What's that really comfy track that plays when you save but choose not to continue playing?

[Anonymous No.6130003]

>>6129991
https://youtu.be/_CqZv5u8hgE

[Anonymous No.6130025]

>>6129991
Many thanks bro.

[Anonymous No.6131181]

>>6126436
>>6129307
Beautiful combination of anime and Moebius.

[Anonymous No.6131721]

Playing Terranigma for the first time, just booted it up.

[Anonymous No.6132074]

>>6131721
don't develop australia

[Anonymous No.6132121]

>>6132074
It’s too late, we’ve already infiltrated the overworld.

[Anonymous No.6132804]

>>6129991
>uses ending theme for a rarely seen option (you'd shut the snes instead)
the mad lads

[Anonymous No.6132874]

>>6116087
Dat image, wtf. beta had other transformation than shadow?
also game was called Illusion of Time in Europe, got it for 15 Deutsche Mark back in 1996...or so? it came with a guide, very cool. had to sell it all when parents had money problems though...

[Anonymous No.6134012]

>>6132874
I had a look for that image and there doesn’t seem to be any info on it

[Anonymous No.6134569]

>>6127746
It doesn't connect it with Soul Blazer. It's just a cool reference.
Gaia isn't a thing in Soul Blazer so "Gaia Trilogy" is nonsense.

>>6129918
Yeah by the Sky God or God of the Heavens(Tenkuu no Kami) otherwise censored as "The Master" in the international release...not Gaia.

[Anonymous No.6135112]

>>6126436
I like it. At least it's a distinct art style.

[Anonymous No.6135115]

>>6134569
The jeweler is a fairly prominent character throughout the entire game, and it's revealed he's Solid Arm. After you beat him he flat out says the Blazer kicked his ass long ago.
Gaia isn't present in Soul Blazer, no. But I feel the three games are connected, as is ActRaiser.