/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.997141]

Hey, I was thinking about starting a youtube channel for gaming shows, and one show I've been thinking about doing is called "Bad End", which focuses on short-lived development studios that made games that are beloved by people now, or maybe just devs who still exist but fell off the map. I was thinking about focusing on Quintet for the first episode. Quintet made Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, SoulBlazer, and Terranigma
After that they made an "interesting" psx game called The Granstream Saga, And then nothing much else. I was thinking about covering the individual games and then talking about how the granstream saga has similar themes to their previous games but ultimately fails to live up to their old stuff. does that sound like something you'd watch?
Also Illusion of Gaia, Soul Blazer, and Terranigma all make up a loose trilogy and I was going to touch on that as well

[Anonymous No.997145]

I would certainly watch this. Taking on obscure games and developers for one of the more popular of the older systems seems like a very good idea.

I say go ahead and do it, then post some links and ask for feedback.

[Anonymous No.997152]

As long as you do in-depth research and are able to provide interesting facts and thoughtful reasoning behind whatever conclusions you reach, sure.

Something like Game Sack or Pat the NES Punk without the awful attempts at humor.

[Anonymous No.997157]

>>997145
Thanks for the input, man! Also I'm going to try and keep it as informative as possible, and keep the humor to those who do it best (gamegrumps amirite??). Are there any devs you guys would like to see covered? I was thinking maybe westwood or bullfrog for the second one. Ohhh Bullfrog would be fun to research

[Anonymous No.997158]

>>997152
Yeah I was actually looking partially to gamesack for inspiration, but ignoring the "funny" bits. I hear you guys on the poor humor thing, I won't crack a single joke unless it doesn't detract from the overall video quality, is thoughtful, and executed well. The last thing I want is my own "mineycrafta"

[Anonymous No.997171]

>>997157

I would love to see something on good games EA made before they went apeshit with burocratic shenanigans. Like Future Cop L.A.P.D. and Dungeon Keeper (ties in with your Bullfrog research). ;)

[Anonymous No.997191]

You might try tackling on FTL Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL_Games

[Anonymous No.997208]

>>997141
Sierra Entertainment.

Did I win?

[Anonymous No.997338]

>>997208
>>997191
I'm already well aware of sierra, it's hard not to be exposed to their legacy. I'll be sure and check out FTL games, too.

[Anonymous No.997408]

>no robotrek

[Anonymous No.997423]

>>997408
I was just hitting the big names everyone will recognize. I'll cover every game they made like robotrek but the heaven and earth trilogy is obviously the big star here

[Anonymous No.997481]

>>997141
>After that they made an "interesting" psx game called The Granstream Saga, And then nothing much else. I was thinking about covering the individual games and then talking about how the granstream saga has similar themes to their previous games but ultimately fails to live up to their old stuff. does that sound like something you'd watch?
You're giving it the wrong focus, but if you do reasearch it you'd arrive to the same conclusion. Quintet made many games after the SNES era. Solo Crisis, Code R, Brightis, and Planet Laika. They also were brought in to help other companies after that.

Quintet's downfall was breaking their relationship with Enix and switching to Sega. The Saturn flopped and then they no longer had a fixed (nevermind worldwide) publisher. Their games were still very experimental, so stuff like Planet Laika had no chance to be translated. Granstream Saga was the most formulaic thing they made after Terranigma, which is probably why it made it overseas.

As far as I know, Miyazaki (Quintet's founder, president and main director/writer) ultimately dissolved the company circa 2009, when he became the president of Giga Factory. I could be wrong on the "dissolved" part, but he certainly does't work there anymore, and without him it wouldn't be the same anyway.

If you DO make an episode, make it informative. Your no joke policy sounds great. But you should also be thorough. Be extremely aware that English sources regarding Quintet and its demise are pretty much useless; you'll need to read Japanese sources to get a much clearer picture of them.

If it sounds too hard, you could try starting with the other suggestions you have in this thread. You'd have much more readily available sources, so it'd be a lot easier. Quintet could be a later episode.

[Anonymous No.997495]

>>997141

Quintet would be a great opener. If you show gameplay and maybe examples of themes that ran through their games, cutting between footage of examples as you explain them that would be great. Like you said, the trilogy has some connections that worth exploring.

A dry company history would be nice, but themes and connections between games gives it a nice personal feel. And of course as much info as you can that isn't commonly known, more unearthed random trivia the better.

Also try to avoid the whole "when I was a kid, I think that, to me it feels like" don't make it one of those vids that's more about the host than the subject, I hate those.

And find out why they took the fun part out of ActRaiser II. Why platform only? AWFUL decision.

Look forward to seeing what you make anon.

[Anonymous No.997493]

>>997481
Dude, thank you so much for the input. And I'm not saying that in a facetious way, you saved me a lot of research and I thank you for that. This is why I still come to this board. Maybe I'll just cover Bullfrog like I mentioned earlier.

I want to make it clear that you guy won't see an episode for a while and that it's in the preliminary stages right now, but I am determined to do this. I've always wanted my own youtube show and to have people watch things that I make so I want to do this as thorough as possible. Like for instance I thought I had a decent grasp on Quintet but this dude just blew me away, you know?

Hopefully this works out well and people like it.

I'm also playing around with ideas for other shows on the channel, I was thinking about picking out a game I like at random and just covering the ins and outs of it if it has a cool story. I was thinking of calling it something like "More than you ever wanted to know about: (insert title of game here)"

I think I'll have decent screen presence too, I'm a handsome young lad and I've been told my sense of humor is intoxicating, which doesn't necessarily mean I'll be cracking jokes, like I mentioned earlier I don't want to be a "motherfucker mike", but I want to create a lighthearted comfortable atmosphere too.

[Anonymous No.997498]

>>997495
Op here, you and I are on the same page man, trust me.

[Anonymous No.997504]

Op again: Basically I noticed a lack of things on youtube that appeal to /vr/ goers. I want to make the show that /vr/ wants to watch.

[Anonymous No.997514]

>>997504

cubex55 has you beat in every possible way, there's not really a point

[Anonymous No.997548]

>>997514
Everyone has done anything you could possibly do better than you ever could, kill yourself

[Anonymous No.997553]

>>997514
I don't see how cubex55 is remotely comparable to what the op wants to do, cubex just does longplays...

[Anonymous No.999381]

>>997553

From somebody who has a semi-successful Youtube channel, my advice to you is to pick one type of video and release maybe 5 or so before adding in other ideas and types of reviews etc.

Generally you're going to bounce early on between editing styles and what not, it becomes terrible when that teething period is applied to 3 or 4 different kinds of video. Once you're settled into a style and format adding in the other ideas will be smoother and ultimately better received from your viewers.

I wish you luck in your endeavours.

*On a personal note I'd love to see some coverage on Irem, they have an interesting history and have had some really influential employees, one need only look at Undercover Cops to see the infancy of Metal Slug's artwork.

[Anonymous No.999387]

>>999381

I quoted the wrong post because I'm a dumbass.

>>997141

[Anonymous No.999391]

>>999381
>From somebody who has a semi-successful Youtube channel

...Jon?

[Anonymous No.999432]

>>997141
I'd watch it, especially if it's pretty professional. I'd be scared you might not get the amount of hits you'd need to make it work without a lot of viral marketing though. It seems like people are too concerned about watching LPs of games that just came out. I get sad when I see an LP of a good old game that's trying to promote it and get people interested in it and it has a lot less views than people screaming over Amnesia.

[Anonymous No.999461]

>>997481

This guy knows what's up. Quintet is a damn mystery, however. Giga Factory died as well and there's simply no way to even track down the founders anymore.

[Anonymous No.999604]

>>999461
Why are game journalists wasting their time posting about the HURR DURR FUNNAY MEMES IN GAEM instead of doing real investigative work like this?

[Anonymous No.999619]

>Furthermore, the "Quintet" name as a company has appeared in the credits for Gust's Atelier Iris series, specifically for item design, and in the credits for Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintet_%28company%29

Does this mean Quintet still "sort of" exists only as basically just doing outsourced work for other games?

[Anonymous No.999654]

Time is but an illusion.

[Anonymous No.999664]

>>999619

You'd be surprised how many prominent companies are reduced to such things, the guys who did Jet Set Radio for instance purely work on the new iteration of Mario&Sonic insertsporthere nowadays.

They need to survive as a company and when they either don't have the funds or if key developers leave their employ it's all they can do to stay afloat.

[Anonymous No.999678]

What really distinguishes shows/features like these is interviews with relevant figures. If you could get an interview, or even get an email response for a few questions from somebody at Quintet, that'd be absolutely fascinating and would set you apart from the competition.

[Anonymous No.999686]

I'd recommend keeping a little bit of attention on this guy if you're interested in Quintet:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748556728/the-untold-history-of-japanese-game-developers/posts/557576
>If you were one of the hundred or so people emailing me about Quintet, we now have Quintet content. I've not solved the mystery of its founders (that may not even be possible given what I've heard), but if my contact(s) agree, there will be some nice insider coverage on their more popular games.

Even though as he said, it may not be possible to find anything out about them, he is going to Japan to interview a lot of devs for his project, so it's possible he might find something out.

[Anonymous No.1000314]

>>997493
I think you should just use your voice. No matter how good looking you are, it's always kind of awkward just watching someone talking in some room. You should talk over gameplay footage and such. That way people will focus on what you're saying and it also looks a lot more professional. Just a suggestion.

I encourage you to talk about their lesser known games. Focusing on the quasi-trilogy is easy, but it's kind of useless for two reasons: everybody can easily play those games (and most of your intended audience probably already has), and the links between them are obvious, not that numerous, and well known already. But if you were to give equal spotlight to, say, Brightis and Planet Laika, your video would be a lot more useful. You'd be covering something that would be new for most viewers.

You're welcome about the Quintet info. They're my favorite developers so I've been tracking down information on them for a long while, I know it's hard to get a good grasp on them, even for Japanese speakers.

>>999619
Earlier this year there was a tweet by Ando Hiroyuki, who worked on Ar Tonelico and Atelier, implying that Quintet utimately went bankrupt: https://twitter.com/drunkenAndo/status/198081167390543872

>>999461
>>999686
It's a long shot, but a gateway to Miyazaki could be Falcom. He wrote both chapters of Ancient Ys Vanished and Wanderers from Ys. With all the recent remakes of those games, maybe he's had recent contact with Falcolm?

[Anonymous No.1000329]

Thanks for enlightening me about Granstream, OP. I love Quintet but somehow I'd never heard of this one. Started playing it last night and it's pretty nice so far.

[Anonymous No.1000365]

>>1000329
I really like Granstream. It certainly is no Terranigma, but it's good on its own. The battles are good, the story has a really insane plot twist later on, and the battles are fun. I also like how the graphics have a style that's aged very well, unlike most pre-rendered PS1 visuals.

And like most Quintet games, Granstream Saga also presents a mystery. IGN reported that its plot was "based on the popular Manga comic book series, Kros". And yet there's not a single shred of information regarding Kros, the game itself has nothing that could make it be called Kros, and the credits say that the story is by Terranigma writers. Was IGN wrong? Wouldn't surprise me, but it's still weird.

[Anonymous No.1000374]

>>1000329
I really like Granstream. It certainly is no Terranigma, but it's good on its own. The story has a really insane plot twist later on and the battles are fun. I also like how the graphics have a style that's aged very well, unlike most pre-rendered PS1 visuals.

And like most Quintet games, Granstream Saga also presents a mystery. IGN reported that its plot was "based on the popular Manga comic book series, Kros". And yet there's not a single shred of information regarding Kros, the game itself has nothing that could make it be called Kros, and the credits say that the story is by the Terranigma writers. Was IGN wrong? Wouldn't surprise me, but it's still weird.

[Anonymous No.1000514]

>>1000314
>I think you should just use your voice. No matter how good looking you are, it's always kind of awkward just watching someone talking in some room. You should talk over gameplay footage and such. That way people will focus on what you're saying and it also looks a lot more professional. Just a suggestion.
Yes, for the love of god don't make it one of those awkward "Guy in his room with a webcam talks about stuff" series. I much prefer gameplay footage or graphics or something.

[Anonymous No.1000519]

>>1000314
>Earlier this year there was a tweet by Ando Hiroyuki, who worked on Ar Tonelico and Atelier, implying that Quintet utimately went bankrupt: https://twitter.com/drunkenAndo/status/198081167390543872

It's too bad the language barrier is so all-pervasive in keeping this mysterious.

[Anonymous No.1002319]

More proof 3D is the debil.