MoonPrince (thuey@UCDAVIS.EDU)
Sat, 26 Sep 1998 10:35:21 -0700
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 10:35:21 -0700 From: MoonPrince <thuey@UCDAVIS.EDU> Subject: Re: My Thoughts of ST vs ST2
> Hey MP, this message is quite long ^_^
Gomen ne =) I think my response now is equally as long...
Sakura Taisen no spoiler
> 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.
True true. I'm not saying that easy battles take away from waht
Sakura Taisen was. I was basically comparing ST vs ST2 for my own
amusement.
> > - 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.
I dunno. I remember watching the opening and it was really...
bland. I mean, yeah... the colors were pale. I remember how there were
only a few colors on screen at one time. Like how the background was
yellow and stuff like that. I just know that when I popped in ST2 for the
first time, I was like "Man, this is how the first one should have been"
but I know that ST2 had a bigger budget since ST became so popular.
Still, even when I played the game the first time(ie late Feb), i
noticed the quality of animation wasn't as good as I'd have hoped.
Spoilers below
> 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.
True, but everytime I fight him, I lose at least half my party
killing him. Never happened anywhere else.
> Hehe, it IS SAKURA Taisen. (okay, okay, they are written differently)
only cuz the katakana Sakura is open to interpretation...
> 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.
Really? Well, yeah, you're right in that its a taste issue. Of
the Sakura Vocal, I liked Hanasaku Otome a lot as well. I also liked the
two duets. My fav song on the CD is Ai Yueni which is weird because not
too many people I know are fond of it and because it differs from the
stuff I normally like.
However, in Sakura 2 Vocal, I can honestly listen to it w/o
skipping a track. I really didn't like half(or more?) the songs in ST
Vocal. But in Sakura 2, some are a little boring... I think tracks 2+3
shouldn't have been placed together. The Kouran and Maria songs aren't
bad, but they're a little boring. But my favs on this CD go to Haru ga
Kuru, Aishi no Jean Paul, and esp. Kiseki no Kane which is an awesome
song. Some I talked to also mentioned that the difference in music
between ST Voc and ST2 Voc is great. ST Voc sounded like synthesizer
music while ST 2 Voc was better composed.
> > 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
Well, I must say that I am rather impatient. I initially didn't
want a thing to do with video games once they went to the CD format.
Having played the PSX a great deal in the beginning, I was reminded time
and time again how much I hated load time. When I eventually picked up my
Saturn, I had to deal with it, but I don't think the games I own have much
load time. But I have to say that the 5 second pause between supers in
ST2 was so annoying that I avoided supers if I could. Later when I
replayed Sakura Taisen, I realized how fast the ST was in comparison.
Sakura Taisen 2 Spoilers
> > - Sure ST2 has combined normal hits, but they were nowhere as amusing
>
> 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.
I was under the impression that there were no critical hits for
Sakura Taisen 2 koubu... If there was, I really don't recall it. I
remember the big cannon you mention, but wasn't that the standard attack
for the 2nd set of mechs(or was it 3rd?)? At any rate, I always
remembered the assisted attacks replacing the "critical" attacks of ST.
> And the other friend of mine was a completely lost as to why we had such
> confidence in there going to be ST3.
Sega's going to throw away their #1 license of all time? I don't
think so... Heck, with a fan-disc here and there(like upcoming Teigeki
Graph), I don't see Sakura Taisen dying until Sega itself goes under. I
would be willing to bet everything I have that we'll be seeing Sakura 3 on
the DC.
> I've only got 3 endings for ST2 (Sumire, Iris and Orihime) But I think the
> endings are cornier than ST......
true! I thought Sakura's ending was horribly corny in ST2. I've
gotten only hers and Orihime btw. I didn't think Orihime's was that
bad... a lot better than Sakura's... but it seems like these endings don't
conclude/prelude anything as Sakura Taisen's endings do.
> 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 ^_^
Really? I could played Trump Taisen forever! Well, I haven't
gotten it in the One Long Day option but a variant on Deuces is cool. I
found both Sakura's mini game + Orihime's mini game very amusing. My
housemates and I played both of these for hours competing for score.
Simple yet fun. I haven't gotten Reni's, Kanna's or Maria's yet.
> 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 ^_^
The supers in ST2? Nah... i didn't think ANY of them were that
cool looking. Why? Because really.. they all looked the same. IMO, the
ST supers had more personality. In ST2, every FMV for the supers were the
same, w/different color koubu, and different background.
But i agree that red/sega do deserve credit for making a better
sequel.
-mp