Lance M. Hatami (michio@jps.net)
Sun, 7 Feb 1999 09:21:34 -0700
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Message-ID: <36BDBD89.4865@jps.net> Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 09:21:34 -0700 From: "Lance M. Hatami" <michio@jps.net> Subject: Re: [ot]Re: In support of Sakura Taisen on Gameboy
> >But then again, there is a difference between 2d games and a game like
> >Sakura Taisen where the FMV, songs, and voices are so crutial to the game
> >engine. I guess we don't have much choice but to wait and see on this
> >matter though.
>
> FMVs, songs, and voices aren't as essential to a game's success
> as you may think. They make the game look and sound nice but
> what really makes it(adventure games and such) good or not is
> the game design and how well-written the characters and
> scenarios are, IMO.
I must admit that there is no bad thing about a Gameboy version of
Sakura Taisen. I don't see it as a problem as many people think. Look
at Pocket Monsters. That's a pretty good game that could have better
graphics, but the concept about it and the story, characters, etc. are
all great (otherwise why would so many children love the game so much).
Gameboy lacks the ability to have FMVs and songs, but it can have very
limited voices (Pocket Monsters Pikachu had Pikachu's cry built in).
But then again, Sega was limited in how much voices could be put in. At
some points, I forgot that the game had voices. On the other hand, look
at how great Utena used voices (although it lacked the animation, but
had beautiful stills). If that's how Sakura acted i would be pretty
amazed, although the game would be booted up to 10+ discs.
Characters and scenarios, plus game play all make a game great. That's
why Zelda was so good on the 8-bit Nintendo, even though it's looks are
pretty dated. Plus, animation in Sakura Taisen 2 was not that great.
In some places, it was downright ugly (look at Iris' ending and tell me
that her face and hair do not look odd. At one point, the animator drew
her hair larger than it normally is). Plus, Oogami often falls on the
ugly side in the endings. It may just be Fujishima's new untolerable
drawing style he's taken. After all, Maria is just ugly on the cover of
ST2 and his manga's Beldandy is quickly following boot. I think
Fujishima should just stick on the basic character designing side and
let Matsubara do everything. After all, the cover of one of the game
books of Sakura looked much better than the actual cover of the game.
Oh yeah, don't get me started on the UGLY, POOR animation that was used
in the OAV (hey, I'm an art student, so I notice these things).