Chou or CC (senshi@ALL.COM.AU)
Sat, 26 Sep 1998 10:49:53 +1000
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 10:49:53 +1000 From: Chou or CC <senshi@ALL.COM.AU> Subject: Re: My Thoughts of ST vs ST2
MoonPrince wrote:
> This is partly for my own amusement but I was playing Sakura Taisen (now
> on ep 8) for the 4th time(going for Sumire). And I figured I'll just list
> what I think are the advantages/disadvantages of one over the other. Feel
> free to jump in.. any of you. 4 sections- ST(No SPoiler), ST(Spoil),
> ST2(No Spoil), ST2(Spoil)
Hey MP, this message is quite long ^_^
> Sakura Taisen(No Spoiler)
> ______________
>
> + Two different kinds of hits. It was cool to see smoke rising from your
> koubu at times and do something different. Ditto for the enemy.
I though the enermy have something too for critical hits, don't they?
> - Battles are far too easy in general, 8x protect?
Agreed. But I think it was their first attempt. Considering ST was, roughly,
a new genre of game all on its own, they really didn't know what kind of
players are going to get this game. If they make the battle TOO hard, they
might scare away those people buying ST for its love-simulation section.
> - Animation is mediocre at best. Colors are really pale, anime and CG
> seem to clash.
Colour looks good for me, it really looked like I was watching some anime
show. BTW I'm using a Japanese Saturn.
> Sakura Taisen(Spoiler)
> ______________
>
> + Last boss, Aoi Satan, was hard! The only challenge in the entire game.
He wasn't that hard to me, the only annoying thing he has is that sonic-boom
like attack that sweeps all your ppl to the bottom of the screen.
> + Replay value. Initially, I thought it wouldn't be as fun going thru
> a 2nd time... a 3rd time... but when I beat it my 3rd time
> through with Kouran, I think I enjoyed that time more than
> any other. Why? Episode 9... there is a very nice
> Kouran/Oogami scene in that episode... extra stuff like that makes
> me think, "Dang!! I can't believe they programmed this stuff in!"
> Little things you don't notice until you get there.
Definitly ST's strong point. I was relecutant to play Tokimemo for more than
4 girls (out of 12). But ST is definitly worth playing it for all of the
different endings.
> - Although I do like Sakura, the fact that the other Hanagumi members'
> ending isn't nearly as long is discouraging.
Hehe, it IS SAKURA Taisen. (okay, okay, they are written differently)
> Sakura Taisen 2(No Spoiler)
> _______________________
> + Harder battles(Bosses start with charged meters, most have unique
> attacks; Oogami has 3x protect which is reasonable)
> + More strategic battles. 1st time through I didn't bother with the
> Forest/Mountain/Fire/Wind formations, but when I tried them out
> 2nd time through, I realized how much I was missing.
I think they improve the AI quite a lot as well. I especailly like the
episodes where you had to protect certain structures.
> + Slightly better BGM(it's more dramatic) but a HUGE leap in songs. I'm
> still deciding to get the ST Vocal CD or not, but I've had my ST2
> Vocal CD since it was released.
We are running into taste here....But I loved the songs on ST vocal too. The
thing turn out to be I like less songs on the ST vocal, but if I do like that
song, I REALLY loved it. However for ST2 vocal, while I like most of the
songs, I don't love them as much (just slightly less) than the songs I love
for the vocal 1.
BTW, I really loved "Hanasaku Otome" the first time I listen to it, I
instantly hooked up my Saturn with a stereo and recorded it. Afterwards, I
played it over and over again each night before going to bed for a month. ^_^
> +/- Art has changed. I like how the characters are drawn sometimes, but
> a lot of the time, I think the art is just ...whacked. I don't
> like how Sumire looks like. Sakura looks ok sometimes. Maria and
> Kanna are for the most part, fine. Ditto for Kouran. Iris.. I
> get totally freaked when she does the in-your-face-shots
Agreed. Straight away I though Sumire look VERY different. Sakura did look a
bit more mature, though.
> +/- Penalties for dying in battle(your battles are rated) but the reward
> for having minimal losses isn't that great...
Yes it is ^_^. I know people who haven't even got the omake for this!! (Read
spolier section)
> - LOAD TIME. If there was one thing in this game I can not stand, it's
> unreasonable amount of load time. Everything is much slower than
> ST, but in battles when you do your "super"/sure-kill... oh my
> goodness... It was so bad IMO that I avoided using them at all.
> The load time is a huge factor on why I consider ST better than
> ST2.
It wasn't THAT bad, but maybe because I'm used to the PSX :p
> - Sure ST2 has combined normal hits, but they were nowhere as amusing
> as the extra animations in ST. I mean, I loved for instance, when
> Maria would shoot w/her machine gun normally. Then when she has
> her lucky-attack, you see her unload a barrage of bullets as the
> back of her mech unloads smoke from the tension. ST2? The lucky
> attacks just have that little dialog between the two chars.
What about the critical hits for the characters? I'm was mouth-droping when
Maria decided to shoot people with the big cannon she had.
> Sakura Taisen 2(Spoiler)
> + And #1-girl ep #3? Ok, not really but if you do beat the game with
> minimal losses in battles, you'll see an extra episode after the
> ending credits scroll. After Owari, you'll see "Soshite..." But
> as I mentioned above, this reward isn't that great as there isn't
> much to it.
(Link to above)Yes, there wasn't much to it, but it doesn't seem complete
without it. I was discussing with one of my friend about this last episode
and what a good left off it was for ST2 while also a great lead up to ST3 (our
speculation) it was, also about Oogami leaving the country etc. And the other
friend of mine was a completely lost as to why we had such confidence in there
going to be ST3.
> + Endings I think are very similar in length, but none are as long as the
> Sakura ed of ST
I've only got 3 endings for ST2 (Sumire, Iris and Orihime) But I think the
endings are cornier than ST......
> + Better mini-games. While the only game in ST I played was Hanafuda, in
> ST2, the games have amused me and my non-ST-fan friends for hours
I think the mini-games are about the same for ST and ST2. I could also
remember for ST my friends where playing Sakura's sweeping the floor mini-game
and see who could actually reach the end of it first ^_^
> - Last boss wasn't really hard. He looks awesome... love the way the
> thing moves around and stuff. But a little disappointed that he
> didn't kick my butt like Aoi Satan did in ST.
But overall hardness had increased, so it kinda balanced out.
> I'm probably forgetting a lot of things, but that's my preliminary list of
> Sakura vs Sakura 2. I mainly prefer ST because even though it's
> physically not as good(graphics, sound, FMV, strategy, options, etc), it
> was innovative. ST2 is an awesome sequel, don't get me wrong, but it was
> built off of a successful engine. But perhaps if the load time wasn't
> that bad, I would be saying that ST2 is undoubtedly my preference. At any
> rate, what do you guys think?
ST was undoubtly great. But you have to give credit for the Red for bringing
out a sequel that is BETTER than the original. Load time wasn't much of a
problem for me, and I loved the movies for the special attacks cos I get
really into them ^_^
I must say though that I was slightly disappointed witht the endings of ST2,
as I mentioned before some of them are really corny. But overall, I really
can't say which one I prefer better than the other.