Games you still refer to by their Japanese name?

[UnDubious]

The OG NES Final Fantasy III - not the DS remake - is great, by far the best NES FF. Best gameplay, best adventure. They didn't skip it because it was "bad", they skipped it because by the time FF1 came out West FF IV was just a year away. No time to catch up.
Calling SMT "Revelations" would be absolute madness, I don't know who would do that. But I agree with "Yakuza" - in the end, the name you've been familiar for the longest will just always seem more "right" unless it was blatantly wrong (like FF 2 and 3).

 

[RageBurner]

Another example I can think of is Fire Emblem: Fate's Japanese title:
View attachment 44140

Fire Emblem if. I like both if and Fates as the title, but "if" seems to imply a question of sorts, whereas "Fates" implies a matter of predetermined destiny. Really neat stuff.


Additionally, the Switch's codename as NX has stuck with me back when the rumors of the system began those few years ago. I like the use of X as "Cross" in Japan. The codename tells us quite a bit about the system in that way.

Good point, I never thought about it.
Should have been Fire Emblem: Crossroads or something to convey the same idea.

 

[MasterEn]

@Bakuma1997 i played ff3 all the way to the end. most people would have stopped because of the constant job changing that you have to do early on. it stops around the final third, but you almost always need someone with magic, specifically toad and mini. 2 bosses require a specific job, scholar, which has next to no capabilities in combat, it is only so you can see what element that the boss is weak to, who will change his weakness on his next turn after being hit with his weakness. in the 3d version, the scholar has access to magic, but not in the nes version. they have next to no armor or weapons. if you got it early, it could be viable. you get about 10 minutes before this boss who requires it.
garuda almost requires you to use the dragoon job exclusively to fight him. not a bad thing since it's a good job, just requires a bit of time to get over the job sickness in the 3d ver and job money in the nes version. you'll get enough money to cover the armor and weapons in the meantime.
but most flaws of the game can be dismissed by either just getting all of the equipment in that you can carry and checking out each job when obtained and spending about half an hour making adjustments.
the biggest flaw is at the end. 2 dungeons, with only one save point, and there is an optional dungeon inside the final dungeon with several bosses and 2 shops in there. you can heal up there if i remember correctly, leaving should boot you back outside [hopefully in front of the crystal tower, i don't remember clearly, it's been over 10 years since i last played].
you have 6 bosses to fight at the minimum with 4 other bosses guarding the ribbon accessory, with only whatever you brought in to fight the enemies to heal your team with. and if you didn't know that the black belt class was the one with the best hp growth, you'll be screwed in the final battle in all versions because the final boss spams an area attack every round in the nes version and has 4 attacks per round in the 3d version. they can be mixed up and used in any order. each attack can deal 1,500 points of damage per hit. my characters were around 2,300 hp. and level 60, the same as the final boss.
about 45 hours, and i have to restart so i can get some actual hp on my characters to just survive some of the attacks.
hopefully you had a better time with the game than i did, if you played it.

 

[Bakuma1997]

@MasterEn I will admit i cheated with Savestates, in hindsight that tunneled my vision, even then the PSP version adds features that made it more bearable (Like Suspend Save) but i agree with you, personally my way to beat it was to just stick to WM/RM/WM/BB for the rest of the game and only swap when getting the "Mash A to Win" classes Ninja and Sage, still a good time, now that i have the redux patch, i hope it goes smoother the next time i play it

 

[RageBurner]

@Bakuma1997 i played ff3 all the way to the end. most people would have stopped because of the constant job changing that you have to do early on. it stops around the final third, but you almost always need someone with magic, specifically toad and mini. 2 bosses require a specific job, scholar, which has next to no capabilities in combat, it is only so you can see what element that the boss is weak to, who will change his weakness on his next turn after being hit with his weakness. in the 3d version, the scholar has access to magic, but not in the nes version. they have next to no armor or weapons. if you got it early, it could be viable. you get about 10 minutes before this boss who requires it.
garuda almost requires you to use the dragoon job exclusively to fight him. not a bad thing since it's a good job, just requires a bit of time to get over the job sickness in the 3d ver and job money in the nes version. you'll get enough money to cover the armor and weapons in the meantime.
but most flaws of the game can be dismissed by either just getting all of the equipment in that you can carry and checking out each job when obtained and spending about half an hour making adjustments.
the biggest flaw is at the end. 2 dungeons, with only one save point, and there is an optional dungeon inside the final dungeon with several bosses and 2 shops in there. you can heal up there if i remember correctly, leaving should boot you back outside [hopefully in front of the crystal tower, i don't remember clearly, it's been over 10 years since i last played].
you have 6 bosses to fight at the minimum with 4 other bosses guarding the ribbon accessory, with only whatever you brought in to fight the enemies to heal your team with. and if you didn't know that the black belt class was the one with the best hp growth, you'll be screwed in the final battle in all versions because the final boss spams an area attack every round in the nes version and has 4 attacks per round in the 3d version. they can be mixed up and used in any order. each attack can deal 1,500 points of damage per hit. my characters were around 2,300 hp. and level 60, the same as the final boss.
about 45 hours, and i have to restart so i can get some actual hp on my characters to just survive some of the attacks.
hopefully you had a better time with the game than i did, if you played it.

You make valid points, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game; every FF has you finagling with its systems to find solutions to problems.

FF2 NES is unplayably broken, FF2 Advance isn't. They would have fine tuned things and balanced it out. The reason they didn't release a remake isn't because the game was seen as bad, it's because SE saw the WS failing and didn't bother to finish a port that would have ultimately given everyone a better experience.

Garuda is specifically tailored to teach you to use the job system to solve problems, it was the first iteration of this that allowed free switching so it's not going to be perfect. If I had to guess, the game was made under extreme crunch and that's why balance is bad (there aren't enough spears to sustain Dragoons for example).

I suspect you would have a much better time with rebalance hacks like Neoclassical (It's the one I recommend).

 

[UnDubious]

I don't think I ever used the scholar... you don't have infinite types of spell, you can figure out weaknesses by just throwing things at the boss. It's been many years, though, but yeah, for the most part, I went for the coolest classes and didn't switch around that much. The final stretch was crazy but I survived.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

(whoops accidentally blanked out the words here - my bad, RB)

'Final Fantasy Legend' was special to me in the early years of Game Boy OG due to the depth of breeding results you can get for the initiaLLy-weak monster char classes. does that make it count for a trainer RPG? n the music is profoundLy sorrowfuL af - found out through NES emulation in the late 90's that it was from the Romancing SaGa franchise n not FinaL Fraudasy. was already gettin used to Loco-Lization jackasseries as they were pointed out often in vidgame 'zines

so, hey.
if I wanted to take the plunge into SaGa games - is there a suggested order in which to tackle them? I noticed there's one for WonderSwan but don't even remember if it's translated. any rec' help with this - duLy appreciated youze guys ^_^

 

[RageBurner]

'Final Fantasy Legend' was special to me in the early years of Game Boy OG due to the depth of breeding results you can get for the initiaLLy-weak monster char classes. does that make it count for a trainer RPG? n the music is profoundLy sorrowfuL af - found out through NES emulation in the late 90's that it was from the Romancing SaGa franchise n not FinaL Fraudasy. was already gettin used to Loco-Lization jackasseries as they were pointed out often in vidgame 'zines

so, hey.
if I wanted to take the plunge into SaGa games - is there a suggested order in which to tackle them? I noticed there's one for WonderSwan but don't even remember if it's translated. any rec' help with this - duLy appreciated youze guys ^_^

If the GB originals had colorizations, I'd say go with those, but they don't, so. Saga 1 was remade on the Wonderswan, 2 and 3 on the DS, so those would be my recs.

 

[MasterEn]

You make valid points, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game; every FF has you finagling with its systems to find solutions to problems.

FF2 NES is unplayably broken, FF2 Advance isn't. They would have fine tuned things and balanced it out. The reason they didn't release a remake isn't because the game was seen as bad, it's because SE saw the WS failing and didn't bother to make a port that would have ultimately given everyone a better experience.

Garuda is specifically tailored to teach you to use the job system to solve problems, it was the first iteration of this that allowed free switching so it's not going to be perfect. If I had to guess, the game was made under extreme crunch and that's why balance is bad (there aren't enough spears to sustain Dragoons for example).

if anything, that might make it worse. there is a nice variety with the jobs, the visuals are good, the music is good. the story is more developed than the previous two games. you have 4 overworlds to explore, lots of dungeons. minus the bullshit of the final boss, each one is interesting and challenging. the rat and garuda are there to make sure that you are checking out the jobs and using them to the fullest extent that you can.
but then, there are weird decisions. some jobs barely have equipment. what if you liked the scholar class? refia looks rather cute in that class. i would have had her as one but it gets next to nothing in terms of support. that was barely addressed in the remake, you get 3 levels of spells, you get none in the nes.
you need toad and mini to progress through the story, taking up 2 spell slots that you might want filled with other spells, and you have spell charges in this game. you either stay stocked up on ethers, which i don't think you find many of in the game until the end. it does encourage strategizing and being prepare, which is a good thing.
there aren't any tents or other ways to heal outside of using an inn, even in the 3d version.
the onion knight job is locked behind the moogle mail system, along with the optional dungeon where you can train your party with enemies that not only drop elixirs, the item everyone makes fun of for being included because no one uses them since you get like 2 in every game. they also drop onion knight gear, and the superboss is located there too. they fixed that in the psp version. just play and the new content is unlocked as long as you check the mail system. i had the ds version so i need another copy of the game and system, and 7 hours of play time on both games to open that stuff up along with getting the ultimate gear.
it makes less sense for them to skip 3 for the wonderswan unless they were releasing the games in a random order, and 3 was last.
i did some checking. the game was too big for the wonderswan to handle, it seems. it used 512 kb cartridge for the nes version. the devs said that it would take a lot of manpower and hours to portal of that over to the wonderswan, which had 16mb as it's size limit for data.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:08 AM

@MasterEn I will admit i cheated with Savestates, in hindsight that tunneled my vision, even then the PSP version adds features that made it more bearable (Like Suspend Save) but i agree with you, personally my way to beat it was to just stick to WM/RM/WM/BB for the rest of the game and only swap when getting the "Mash A to Win" classes Ninja and Sage, still a good time, now that i have the redux patch, i hope it goes smoother the next time i play it

nothing wrong with save states. somecallmejohnny used those in his review of the game. there's nowhere to save in the final stretch.
ninja and sage are considered the only way to beat the nes version. high damage and healing, which is very important when the boss drops 1,500 damage per attack every round.

 

[miguk]

Every time someone still uses the old numbering convention for Final Fantasy games I die a little.
Also absolutely agreed on SMT. I'm glad that localization never stuck. The reason I think they don't translate it properly is because it's both too long and somewhat controversial, possibly.

My theory is that SMT was mainly popular with people playing the old roms, so they just gave them the name that the fanbase knows them by. Once again, the industry requires piracy to make a series successful.

 

[UnDubious]

My theory is that SMT was mainly popular with people playing the old roms, so they just gave them the name that the fanbase knows them by. Once again, the industry requires piracy to make a series successful.

That plus a lot of magazines and specialized sites that were popular in the past would write articles about this "shin megami tensei" series that was big in Japan and had lots of games from early on. Recently I read a magazine preview for the planned US or PAL release of Devil Summoner for the Saturn in 1995 and the writer had a whole explanation of the series and how cool the themes were, etc. So this is something that was being talked about among console RPG enthusiasts even way back then, long before the series took off in the West. It always just sounded fascinating and unique, so it would stick with you more than other random Japan-only RPGs.

 

[opeb]

Kiseki series instead of Trails? Weirdly I only have this habit for Zero and Azure, I think because the words stayed the same compared to Sora vs Sky or Sen vs Cold Steel

 

[UnDubious]

Kiseki series instead of Trails? Weirdly I only have this habit for Zero and Azure, I think because the words stayed the same compared to Sora vs Sky or Sen vs Cold Steel

I do this for Nayuta no Kiseki, or I just call it "Nayuta".

 

[Sir Auriel of Lionel]

Even if the visual novel gets an English release I'll usually refer it by original Japanese since that's probably how I first read it or the reviews for it.

 

[Adrastia]

Final Fantasy II through VI. Not going back to the screwy old names.

Me too. Once I got the PSP games I realised how confusing it really was. It made sense in the SNES days because there were several games we didn't get. But that has changed.

Also in the reverse, Dragon Warrior. Sorry but I keep defaulted to the title I was familiar with as a kid even though it's been officially swapped out for the Dragon Quest and has been for a long time.