Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: [1]
1
Site Updates / Re: CHRONO TRIGGER: PROPHET'S GUILE, CT2 Interview
« on: January 17, 2008, 01:13:35 am »
Oops, there's a Prophet's Guile forum? I completely missed that when looking for somewhere to post my copier comments. Should I have posted there?
Enhasa bothered me more than Kajar. Maybe because it's the first real opportunity the player has to interact with the game, and the style of dialogue made me worry about the game as a whole, while by the time I reached Kajar I had seen better writing in the scene with Janus, Gaspar and the Lasher that made me more optimistic.
Yes, they seem to have only mentioned the same Ocean Palace bug as everyone else.
Enhasa bothered me more than Kajar. Maybe because it's the first real opportunity the player has to interact with the game, and the style of dialogue made me worry about the game as a whole, while by the time I reached Kajar I had seen better writing in the scene with Janus, Gaspar and the Lasher that made me more optimistic.
Yes, they seem to have only mentioned the same Ocean Palace bug as everyone else.
2
Site Updates / Re: CHRONO TRIGGER: PROPHET'S GUILE, CT2 Interview
« on: January 17, 2008, 12:21:46 am »
I've had a chance to give the game another test on my SNES. I got as far as Mt. Woe, before losing in a somewhat embarassing manner, and decided since I can't save to just leave it there. Here's what I've found:
- Saving and loading games still isn't working. I tried loading SRMs from Prophet's Guile and the original Chrono Trigger, but neither were recognized.
- There was a sprite positioning error the first time Magus asked for an audience with Queen Zeal. After being told he could enter, he stepped back diagonally back-right instead of straight back and consequently clipped the right side of the door on the way through. My second time through that event, it didn't happen.
- When Magus was being shown the way to his room, there was a Nu standing in front of the wall where the door was hidden. It disappeared shortly before the servant opened the door. ZSNES doesn't appear to show this Nu.
- The music is mixed. Some new songs are fine others have severe problems. I'll go through them in the order of the tracklist as given in the SPC set that came with the patch; I've made recordings of new songs even when they sounded fine.
I seem to have lost my post in the process of typing this up, so let's see if I can get this redone somewhat coherently:
01 Zeal Palace - Sounds fine.
02 Lavos's Theme - Sounds fine.
03 Wind - Sounds fine.
04 Zeal - This is still my favourite song from the game. Sounds fine.
05 Enhasa - As mentioned before, this suffers from bad "mechanical" glitch sounds, though the basic melody is audible. Recording
06 Brink of Time - Sounds fine. Recording
07 Kajar - Sounds fine. Recording
08 I'm not sure if I heard this one.
09 Silent Light - Mostly sounds fine, but I noticed a few subtle divergences between the SNES and ZSNES - not glitches like the others. The volume balancing of instruments seems different; as well, am I just noticing things or is there a longer decay on background instruments on the SNES? (I think it sounds better that way.) Recording
10 Battle 1 - Sounds normal.
11 Boss 1 - Sounds normal.
12 I didn't really notice much about this one, sorry.
13 Grieve - Seems fine. I didn't get a chance to record this song, sorry.
14 Zeal 2 - More mechanical glitching. It destroys the melody in the second half of the song, unfortunately. Recording
15 Mt. Woe - Yet more glitching; it suffers basically the same problems as the others. Recording
17 Cerulean Lake - Seems to play fine, but I'm not really sure what this song is meant to sound like. Recording
I'll also give my impressions of the hack as a whole from what I've played, both answering your questions and a few points on my own:
1. His monologue came across as clichéd to me. Unfortunately, it's hard to express this kind of surprise well without having resource to facial expressions, and Magus's sprite is one of the least expressive in the game.
2. The pattern is nice, but it makes the limitations of the palette a bit too evident by ephasizing the colour banding.
3. It seemed fine.
5. Yes, and this was one of my least favourite things about the hack. He reminds me a bit too strongly of Redd White from Phoenix Wright.
- Following up on that, I also found the dialogue of the people of Enhasa to be similarly overwrought. For lack of a better word, they and the Prophet seem "fanfictiony" - they have that style that seems popular among amateur authors who want to make their characters seem regal, intellectual, or the like. They didn't seem to fit with the rest of the dialogue in the hack. In general, the wide plotting was well done and fit very well into the original game, but the actual dialogue was rough. It could have used at least one round of external copy-editing, preferably by someone from outside the fandom. (I hope this doesn't sound too harsh - I'm not meaning to insult you or your writing, Zeality. Communicating tone over the internet is difficult, and I worry about sounding the wrong way when I'm trying to make constructive criticism.)
6. It was a bit too short. I realize this is a short hack, but I would have preferred something a bit more involving. What design is there is well-done and fun, but it feels as though it ended just as I was leaving the introductory room. The boss was slightly anticlimactic as well, since it was essentially no more difficult than the regular enemies. The scene with the Lasher seemed fine, but it didn't really seem to play much of a role. It was better than having Magus leave without nothing happen.
7. The song fit the scene quite well, but see my comment later.
8. Unfortunately. There doesn't seem to be quite enough indication which enemies can be attacked with him running away safely and which will involve his being hit by the enemies.
As well, some general comments:
- It's surprisingly coherent and polished for a fangame; everything seems to fit together quite well. It fits into the plot of the original game nicely, and I can imagine it having happened there. It's certainly a better sequel than Radical Dreamers.
- The choice to include new music and arrangements was a good one, and I enjoyed those ones that worked. The Romancing SaGa songs are noticeably different from Chrono Trigger's in style, however, and they just don't seem to meld properly.
- Saving and loading games still isn't working. I tried loading SRMs from Prophet's Guile and the original Chrono Trigger, but neither were recognized.
- There was a sprite positioning error the first time Magus asked for an audience with Queen Zeal. After being told he could enter, he stepped back diagonally back-right instead of straight back and consequently clipped the right side of the door on the way through. My second time through that event, it didn't happen.
- When Magus was being shown the way to his room, there was a Nu standing in front of the wall where the door was hidden. It disappeared shortly before the servant opened the door. ZSNES doesn't appear to show this Nu.
- The music is mixed. Some new songs are fine others have severe problems. I'll go through them in the order of the tracklist as given in the SPC set that came with the patch; I've made recordings of new songs even when they sounded fine.
I seem to have lost my post in the process of typing this up, so let's see if I can get this redone somewhat coherently:
01 Zeal Palace - Sounds fine.
02 Lavos's Theme - Sounds fine.
03 Wind - Sounds fine.
04 Zeal - This is still my favourite song from the game. Sounds fine.
05 Enhasa - As mentioned before, this suffers from bad "mechanical" glitch sounds, though the basic melody is audible. Recording
06 Brink of Time - Sounds fine. Recording
07 Kajar - Sounds fine. Recording
08 I'm not sure if I heard this one.
09 Silent Light - Mostly sounds fine, but I noticed a few subtle divergences between the SNES and ZSNES - not glitches like the others. The volume balancing of instruments seems different; as well, am I just noticing things or is there a longer decay on background instruments on the SNES? (I think it sounds better that way.) Recording
10 Battle 1 - Sounds normal.
11 Boss 1 - Sounds normal.
12 I didn't really notice much about this one, sorry.
13 Grieve - Seems fine. I didn't get a chance to record this song, sorry.
14 Zeal 2 - More mechanical glitching. It destroys the melody in the second half of the song, unfortunately. Recording
15 Mt. Woe - Yet more glitching; it suffers basically the same problems as the others. Recording
17 Cerulean Lake - Seems to play fine, but I'm not really sure what this song is meant to sound like. Recording
I'll also give my impressions of the hack as a whole from what I've played, both answering your questions and a few points on my own:
1. His monologue came across as clichéd to me. Unfortunately, it's hard to express this kind of surprise well without having resource to facial expressions, and Magus's sprite is one of the least expressive in the game.
2. The pattern is nice, but it makes the limitations of the palette a bit too evident by ephasizing the colour banding.
3. It seemed fine.
5. Yes, and this was one of my least favourite things about the hack. He reminds me a bit too strongly of Redd White from Phoenix Wright.
- Following up on that, I also found the dialogue of the people of Enhasa to be similarly overwrought. For lack of a better word, they and the Prophet seem "fanfictiony" - they have that style that seems popular among amateur authors who want to make their characters seem regal, intellectual, or the like. They didn't seem to fit with the rest of the dialogue in the hack. In general, the wide plotting was well done and fit very well into the original game, but the actual dialogue was rough. It could have used at least one round of external copy-editing, preferably by someone from outside the fandom. (I hope this doesn't sound too harsh - I'm not meaning to insult you or your writing, Zeality. Communicating tone over the internet is difficult, and I worry about sounding the wrong way when I'm trying to make constructive criticism.)
6. It was a bit too short. I realize this is a short hack, but I would have preferred something a bit more involving. What design is there is well-done and fun, but it feels as though it ended just as I was leaving the introductory room. The boss was slightly anticlimactic as well, since it was essentially no more difficult than the regular enemies. The scene with the Lasher seemed fine, but it didn't really seem to play much of a role. It was better than having Magus leave without nothing happen.
7. The song fit the scene quite well, but see my comment later.
8. Unfortunately. There doesn't seem to be quite enough indication which enemies can be attacked with him running away safely and which will involve his being hit by the enemies.
As well, some general comments:
- It's surprisingly coherent and polished for a fangame; everything seems to fit together quite well. It fits into the plot of the original game nicely, and I can imagine it having happened there. It's certainly a better sequel than Radical Dreamers.
- The choice to include new music and arrangements was a good one, and I enjoyed those ones that worked. The Romancing SaGa songs are noticeably different from Chrono Trigger's in style, however, and they just don't seem to meld properly.
3
Site Updates / Re: CHRONO TRIGGER: PROPHET'S GUILE, CT2 Interview
« on: January 14, 2008, 11:06:42 pm »
I'm afraid I didn't get very far into the game, so the only one I can recall is the Enhasa song I linked to earlier. When I get a chance to return to it, I'll record any other glitchy ones I come across.
The readme mentions that it's a "short" hack - is it short enough that I could get a decent distance (and a good way into the soundtrack) in one sitting, while I'm unable to get the saves working?
The readme mentions that it's a "short" hack - is it short enough that I could get a decent distance (and a good way into the soundtrack) in one sitting, while I'm unable to get the saves working?
4
Site Updates / Re: CHRONO TRIGGER: PROPHET'S GUILE, CT2 Interview
« on: January 14, 2008, 10:50:11 pm »Thanks for the test. I don't think anyone even tried this with the Retranslation, so it's a real treat.
It's no problem; I'm glad to help. If you're planning on updating the hack and need any testing on SNES hardware, I'd be willing to help out.
I haven't tested Prophet's Guile any further, but I just thought I'd add that I've been able to run the original Chrono Trigger and save my game in it; only Prophet's Guile is giving me any trouble. I'm not really sure why that would be, but when I'm able to try loading it again sometime and can replicate the bug, I could post its .SRM if that's any help.
5
Site Updates / Re: CHRONO TRIGGER: PROPHET'S GUILE, CT2 Interview
« on: January 13, 2008, 12:12:21 am »
I don't know if anyone has tested this on real hardware or not, so I thought I'd report my results using a copier. For reference, I have a Game Doctor SF7 with 96M of RAM.
The first thing I noticed is that the save games aren't working. Attempting to save a game will give a glitched-looking saved game for "The Trial" with three level-99 characters and glitched icons. Returning to the savegame menu later, it forgets that I had even tried to save the game and shows three blank save slots. I've been able to save my games in my other games, including other large-size games like Star Ocean, so I know my SF7's BRAM is working properly. It does work in BSNES, however, so it could be a glitch with my SF7 rather than your hack. I haven't had a chance to try the original Chrono Trigger yet, so I'll update this once I've tried that, and I'll see if there's anything else I can do to get the saves working.
I also noticed that the new music doesn't seem to work well. Although the original Chrono Trigger music sounds perfect, the new music has very glitchy-sounding samples. They sound fine in Snes9x, but BSNES has the same glitches as my real SNES. I suspect you may have inadvertantly tuned them to glitches in ZSNES's and Snes9x's SPC emulation. Here's a sample what Enhasa's music sounds like.
I didn't get very far, since it's a bit late and I didn't want to get too involved when I was unable to save. I didn't go past Enhasa for now. I'll test more later and report what I find.
The first thing I noticed is that the save games aren't working. Attempting to save a game will give a glitched-looking saved game for "The Trial" with three level-99 characters and glitched icons. Returning to the savegame menu later, it forgets that I had even tried to save the game and shows three blank save slots. I've been able to save my games in my other games, including other large-size games like Star Ocean, so I know my SF7's BRAM is working properly. It does work in BSNES, however, so it could be a glitch with my SF7 rather than your hack. I haven't had a chance to try the original Chrono Trigger yet, so I'll update this once I've tried that, and I'll see if there's anything else I can do to get the saves working.
I also noticed that the new music doesn't seem to work well. Although the original Chrono Trigger music sounds perfect, the new music has very glitchy-sounding samples. They sound fine in Snes9x, but BSNES has the same glitches as my real SNES. I suspect you may have inadvertantly tuned them to glitches in ZSNES's and Snes9x's SPC emulation. Here's a sample what Enhasa's music sounds like.
I didn't get very far, since it's a bit late and I didn't want to get too involved when I was unable to save. I didn't go past Enhasa for now. I'll test more later and report what I find.
Pages: [1]