The Cheat-Out: Save states are for champs.

[Nemkoon]

I just finished it a couple days ago.
OH WIND TWIST LIKE A TORNADO!
HUNDRED MILLION DEGREES TAKE THAT
I'M GONNA KNOCK YA'LL DOWN AT ONCE! HA, HUAAAAAAH!
It's very fun, First phase of Gaia was fairly difficult (SO MANY TENTACLES) but the 2nd form was such a pushover. Did finish it off with a Heaven and Earth Cut
If I do another playthrough sometime soon I'm actually gonna go do the optional dungeons and try to unlock Time Gate.
Also first game I finished on the Vita lol

[Gypsy]

And to think, Victor Ireland almost got Grandia.

[Elin]

Ocarina plays pretty well on the Cube.



I'm only $750 in to it at the moment.

And hmm, your Japanese is infinitely better than mine so that opens up more games to you. Though most are playable with very limited knowledge of Japanese anyway. I forget are shmups too hard for you? That's mostly what I've been playing. Lots of platformer/adventure games in the mail though.

Oh, might give it a try. In fairness, when I played it it was like... 2004 or something, and my PC was pretty underpowered. Maybe not the best circumstances to play it in.

Hahaha, yeah, it's not exactly a cheap console to get into collecting for. :'D Even in Japan, certain titles can rack up crazy prices. SHMUPs are good! They're hard, but I like the challenge, and I used to play lots. Actually, most genres are fine. Don't think there's anything I really dislike these days~

[toxic]

there is an undub of grandia

[Nemkoon]

So yeah Elin i imported my first game
Super Robot wars D~
Still can't read more than names, attack names, and menus though

[Nemkoon]

there is an undub of grandia

talking legally

[Elin]

And to think, Victor Ireland almost got Grandia.

Yeah, I remember reading that! A shame, actually. History hasn't been very kind to Working Designs, and I can definitely see in hindsight why many people would have been turned off by them. Heck I have my own issues with them, mainly related to the uneven and almost arrogant way that they messed with gameplay balance in the games they localised (tinkering with Silhouette Mirage, a well-received game by arguably the greatest cult developer of 2-D action games in Japan? Seriously?). At the time, though, they were one of the few companies who thought about game localisation in terms of more than just raw, barebones translation, and I think that despite their small size, they were a pretty big influence on the development of the generally more competent localisation houses the industry has today. Given the competition at the time, Grandia would arguably have been best in their hands. Especially given that they had already (mostly) competently handled Lunar and Lunar 2, which are both by the same developer and tonally very close to Grandia. I think the game would be remembered much more fondly in the west had they handled it. As is, it's largely pushed aside in favour of its own sequel and the two Lunar games (neither of which were nearly as well-received in Japan, interestingly enough).

[Elin]

there is an undub of grandia

Oh, cool, didn't know. My little brother was playing it however many years back and there wasn't one available at the time, so I thought maybe it was still the case~ Good to know.

[Gypsy]

Yeah there are even Japanese games that are $300+...

I'm not doing too bad so far. The system was a big part of that amount. $224 got me a region modded core grafx, IFU and CDROM2 system. The rest got 19 games (I think, most are still in the mail as I only have 7 in hand right now). And actually it's more like $690 because I forgot part of some import purchases were Dreamcast games. <3

You know a system is expensive when the WD games are the cheaper US games (Exile Wicked Phenomenon aside...).

I'd recommend all the Soldier games to start. Nice shmups that are, at least for the system, pretty easy.

[Elin]

I just finished it a couple days ago.
OH WIND TWIST LIKE A TORNADO!
HUNDRED MILLION DEGREES TAKE THAT
I'M GONNA KNOCK YA'LL DOWN AT ONCE! HA, HUAAAAAAH!
It's very fun, First phase of Gaia was fairly difficult (SO MANY TENTACLES) but the 2nd form was such a pushover. Did finish it off with a Heaven and Earth Cut
If I do another playthrough sometime soon I'm actually gonna go do the optional dungeons and try to unlock Time Gate.
Also first game I finished on the Vita lol

Haha, yeah, I think second phase of Gaia is more of a story battle, to be honest. The last last bosses in Grandia 2 and Lunar 2 (I think) are similarly nerfed, so kind of Game Arts's thing, I guess. Glad you liked, though~!

So yeah Elin i imported my first game
Super Robot wars D~
Still can't read more than names, attack names, and menus though

Wah, cool! Good luck~! It only gets easier the more you play. My Japanese has degraded a little bit over the last however many months (my partner is Korean, so have been focusing on learning that~ ), but do write if you have any questions about grammar and stuff. Happy to be of help if I can.

[Warrior]

The undub of Grandia is another cut & paste halfassed attempt with the battle voices still being in english.

I'm talking to a few "real" undubbers who may do Grandia and Thousand Arms when they feel like it.

[Gypsy]

Yeah, I remember reading that! A shame, actually. History hasn't been very kind to Working Designs, and I can definitely see in hindsight why many people would have been turned off by them. Heck I have my own issues with them, mainly related to the uneven and almost arrogant way that they messed with gameplay balance in the games they localised (tinkering with Silhouette Mirage, a well-received game by arguably the greatest cult developer of 2-D action games in Japan? Seriously?). At the time, though, they were one of the few companies who thought about game localisation in terms of more than just raw, barebones translation, and I think that despite their small size, they were a pretty big influence on the development of the generally more competent localisation houses the industry has today. Given the competition at the time, Grandia would arguably have been best in their hands. Especially given that they had already (mostly) competently handled Lunar and Lunar 2, which are both by the same developer and tonally very close to Grandia. I think the game would be remembered much more fondly in the west had they handled it. As is, it's largely pushed aside in favour of its own sequel and the two Lunar games (neither of which were nearly as well-received in Japan, interestingly enough).

The gameplay tweaks were hit and miss imo. I can't argue about SM but for every instance like that you can name 2-3 of them improving an RPG in little ways that made them more enjoyable.

Sony just whipped their big money penor and seriously outbid them for Grandia unfortunately.

[Nemkoon]

Well currently i'm not even trying to understand the story, just watching robits fight

[Elin]

Yeah there are even Japanese games that are $300+...

I'm not doing too bad so far. The system was a big part of that amount. $224 got me a region modded core grafx, IFU and CDROM2 system. The rest got 19 games (I think, most are still in the mail as I only have 7 in hand right now). And actually it's more like $690 because I forgot part of some import purchases were Dreamcast games. <3

You know a system is expensive when the WD games are the cheaper US games (Exile Wicked Phenomenon aside...).

I'd recommend all the Soldier games to start. Nice shmups that are, at least for the system, pretty easy.

Yeah, isn't there that Sapphire game that sometimes goes for close to $1000? Reminds me of Radiant Silvergun or the English version of Panzer Dragoon Saga. It's okay when the rarer games for a console are ones that are fairly forgettable or disposable, but when you have that combination of a good title and a low print run, things get pricey quickly.

Oh! What'd you get for the Dreamcast? <3 I finished Shenmue for the first time recently following the Shenmue 3 announcement, so the Dreamcast love is strong in me at the moment~~

Cool, will give them a look. :3 Thanks.

[Elin]

The gameplay tweaks were hit and miss imo. I can't argue about SM but for every instance like that you can name 2-3 of them improving an RPG in little ways that made them more enjoyable.

Sony just whipped their big money penor and seriously outbid them for Grandia unfortunately.

Yeah, true enough. When they focused on aesthetic / control-based improvements rather than actually trying to rebalance the difficulty, it was usually to the game's benefit, so maybe being a bit too hard on them. And I thought the difficulty in the English versions of the Lunar games was actually more fun and challenging than the Japanese ones, so there's that~

Yep, basically the same situation as Ignition and Arc Rise Fantasia. Big money penors are to blame for all the world's worst dubbing atrocities, clearly.