Sega RPGs

[MasterEn]

Now that's more like it, appreciated :)
I also found this Resurfaced Interview Sees Skies Of Arcadia Translator Admit Localization Team “Rewrote A Lot Of The Dialog Completely”

i saw this interview on another website, but it was lacking pictures to go along with it.

 

[Sayo]

i usually check reddit for info on stuff in video games like lists or where to find something in a game. i don't personally care about the opinions that they have there. i've seen and heard quite a bit of proof of it being an echo chamber for some groups. i take what i need and go about my business.

That's probably the best way to go on about it.

 

[Riveler]

Panzer Dragoon Saga as one of the Best RPG made by Sega I've ever played. I'm willing to play it again but my old TV is broken now and I can't find a place to fix it. The new TVs make the image terrible.

My first RPG ever was Dark Savior (Saturn) and I enjoyed the game so much that I've finished it in just one go. Luckily the game has 5 different stories and I had more fun later.

After that I played Phantasy Star 3, Shining in the Darkness (Genesis), Shining the Holy Ark and one of my Favorite: Shining Force III scenario 1.

 

[Eclipse14]

How well does Panzer Dragoon Saga emulate these days? I've been meaning to play that for a long time.

It's hard for me to comment about this because everybody has different setups, and likewise unique experiences. I'm running stuff from a full-blown gaming laptop, for example, on top of being adept at RetroArch usage.

Core used was Beetle Saturn, and I didn't really see anything wrong throughout my run (I made a full playthrough on my channel between August-November 2023, in honor of its 25th anniversary of release). I have heard Saturn emulation has gotten better in recent years, but I have to stress again that everyone does things differently.

 

[ThirdEidolon]

View attachment 14787
It pains me that we never got a sequel or even a remake or modern re-release for whats arguably one of the most impressive games SEGA ever made.
Don't even get me started on the fact that apparently the Western localization is really bad and a lot of the translated dialogue is anything but a translation, more like localizers trying to be witty.

Or any kind of release whatsoever, that wasn't completely and totally fucked in every way.
Yeah, it's unfortunate it never got localized.

 

[UnDubious]

Most underrated/overlooked Sega RPG is Magic Knight Rayheart on the Saturn. You don't have to like the manga or anime (I don't), it's a great retro action RPG by the some of the same team as Phantasy Star IV. The director of this game also produced Skies of Arcadia after.

 

[Viviana Santos]

Rent a Hero is quite underrated in my opinion. I really like this game and I think it's quite unique compared to other fourth generation RPGs. The game is basically an Action RPG where the battle system is basically a Fighting game. The Dreamcast and Xbox remake is also very good.

 

[middler]

Dont forget about: Sword of Vermilion

Not the best game ever but a decent SEGA RPG

 

[Yousef]

View attachment 14862View attachment 14863Rent a Hero is quite underrated in my opinion. I really like this game and I think it's quite unique compared to other fourth generation RPGs. The game is basically an Action RPG where the battle system is basically a Fighting game. The Dreamcast and Xbox remake is also very good.

Dont forget about:

View attachment 14995

Not the best game ever but a decent SEGA RPG

Both amazing thanks for mentioning these guys I almost forgot them ?

 

[Lena CE]

View attachment 14787
It pains me that we never got a sequel or even a remake or modern re-release for whats arguably one of the most impressive games SEGA ever made.
Don't even get me started on the fact that apparently the Western localization is really bad and a lot of the translated dialogue is anything but a translation, more like localizers trying to be witty.

Calling it a localization is a bit of a stretch. The localization team for that game has flat-out admitted that after translating a draft of the plot from JP they ad-libbed almost all of the dialogue. They kept characters consistent with their JP originals and the plot is the same, but the things being said are usually pretty different even if you would never guess it while playing.

If they ever do remaster the game I would like to get a more direct localization even if I have tons of love and nostalgia for the original script. Definitely a game I recommend replaying the JP version of if you get the chance because the comparison is super fun to do!

The one thing I'll say the English team did that was great was take the directive to snuff out all references to alcohol and simply change all mentions to a made-up in universe drink called "loqua". Very silly to have alcohol and tobacco scrubbed from a god damn pirate game but if you gotta do it, just changing it to something like that is a cute compromise imo.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

It's a real shame the Imageepoch RPGs lie abandoned. Stella Glow if in the perfect environment would've been a Sega flagship to fill the pirate shaped holes Skies of Arcadia left (ignore that it's more like Shining Force)

7th Dragon too. Etrian Odyssey really could've used a Persona equivalent to funnel new players to it and 7th Dragon's games were that, had the other 2020 games been localised. I imagine Kodama's passing didn't exactly help this fact either (rest in peace to the goat)

 

[Yousef]

Calling it a localization is a bit of a stretch. The localization team for that game has flat-out admitted that after translating a draft of the plot from JP they ad-libbed almost all of the dialogue. They kept characters consistent with their JP originals and the plot is the same, but the things being said are usually pretty different even if you would never guess it while playing.

If they ever do remaster the game I would like to get a more direct localization even if I have tons of love and nostalgia for the original script. Definitely a game I recommend replaying the JP version of if you get the chance because the comparison is super fun to do.

The one thing I'll say the English team did that was great was take the directive to snuff out alcohol reference and simply change all mentions of alcohol in-game to a made-up in universe drink called "loqua". Very silly to have alcohol and tobacco scrubbed from a god damn pirate game but if you gotta do it, just changing it to something like that is the best way to do it.

This is Historically fascinating

 

[Lena CE]

This is Historically fascinating

Definitely! They had different writers play the role of different characters so as to ensure that each character was written in a unique voice while maintaining at least tiny bits of the quirks each character had in the original script. In the current age of people hating even the tiniest of changes when localizing something it is about as blasphemous as you can get without going full Ghost Stories on the project.

I know it's nostalgia clouding my ability to hate on it as much as I probably would if this happened with a brand new project, but I'm glad that if this had to happen with Arcadia it was at least done by a team that liked the source material and put some effort/heart into it. The one thing that bugged me a lot was how some items and a few minor NPCs got name changed to reference various staff members. It helped make some of the items feel more mysterious and substantial as a kid, but now that I do it comes across as purely ego-driven change. I'm sure the intent was just to have some fun with it and in but it's a really odd thing to do without the original writer's/directors blessing.

For what it is worth we have no idea if the original team even knows about the extent of the localization change or if they gave the unique approach their seal of approval. Doubtful considering how often pre-7th generation localizations felt like they were handled in a vacuum without the original team's involvement in much of anything, but there's a chance Overworks knew. Given how kind most JP devs seem to be at keeping secrets and not badmouthing even the things they dislike all that strongly, we'll likely never get an honest answer if we even get one at all.

_______________________

Anyways to contribute a little more directly to this thread, Skies of Arcadia is probably my favorite Sega RPG next to Shenmue 1 and 2. I do love Yakuza and Phantasy Star franchises but the charm of Dreamcast-era Sega RPGs is unmatched for me.

I do wanna go through and play the Shining series at some point and finally give Sakura Wars a shot though! What are some good titles to start with? Probably destined to start with the Saturn entries for both given my love for that system but if there's a better agreed upon starting point I'm all ears.

 

[bjork]

It's hard for me to comment about this because everybody has different setups, and likewise unique experiences. I'm running stuff from a full-blown gaming laptop, for example, on top of being adept at RetroArch usage.

Core used was Beetle Saturn, and I didn't really see anything wrong throughout my run (I made a full playthrough on my channel between August-November 2023, in honor of its 25th anniversary of release). I have heard Saturn emulation has gotten better in recent years, but I have to stress again that everyone does things differently.

If I might ask, which version of the game did you use? I emulated the US disc 1 about a decade ago in SSF and it was fine, but apparently becomes an issue when it's time to swap discs, and the European version was recommended if someone wanted to still play in english. I never followed up on it, so I'm just curious if that's still the case.

 

[Sayo]

For what it is worth we have no idea if the original team even knows about the extent of the localization change or if they gave the unique approach their seal of approval. Doubtful considering how often pre-7th generation localizations felt like they were handled in a vacuum without the original team's involvement in much of anything, but there's a chance Overworks knew. Given how kind most JP devs seem to be at keeping secrets and not badmouthing even the things they dislike all that strongly, we'll likely never get an honest answer if we even get one at all.

Recently I watched a now deleted interview with Yuji Horii regarding the localization of the latest Dragon Quest remake and he seemed to be quite unaware of a lot of things until recently. I believe it's safe to say that they don't tend to interact with the Western side of things, let alone localization for the most part and it shows. Japanese developers tend to be very protective of their IPs.

 

[Eclipse14]

If I might ask, which version of the game did you use? I emulated the US disc 1 about a decade ago in SSF and it was fine, but apparently becomes an issue when it's time to swap discs, and the European version was recommended if someone wanted to still play in english. I never followed up on it, so I'm just curious if that's still the case.

It was the NA version. Disc swapping just needed all 4 discs put into an M3U file, and once one got finished, I had to go into the Disc Control section of the Quick Menu, eject the disc (since the Saturn and Dreamcast both are set to go to their own BIOS menu when the disc tray is opened), run the emulator into the BIOS menu, load the next disc once I'm in there, and wait for it to do its thing.

 

[ConanTheDestroyer]

Played the first Sakura Wars for the first time recently and absolutely loved the characters and the world. Really want to play the rest of the series. Hope Sega releases a collection of these games someday and if not then it might serve as an incentive for me to finally learn Japanese to play these games. Shame the new one didn't get a pc port because it looks really good( really like Kubo's character designs).

 

[bloodywing]

I played Phantasy Star 1 on SMS yesterday. And I actually enjoyed it, besides that it's fucking difficult and the first thing you have to do is to grind.

When I was little there was a girl I had a crush on, and she showed me PS1, and I might have accidentally deleted or overwrote her save game ._. - I am sorry.

 

[Yousef]

I played Phantasy Star 1 on SMS yesterday. And I actually enjoyed it, besides that it's fucking difficult and the first thing you have to do is to grind.

When I was little there was a girl I had a crush on, and she showed me PS1, and I might have accidentally deleted or overwrote her save game ._. - I am sorry.

Haha happens
Big fan of PS1 myself, such a good game!
It’s visually impressive for SMS game, really showed its capabilities
The ost is really nostalgic for me too

Kinda prefer FM tho wont lie

This is still one of my favorite dungeon themes in anything I’ve heard. Genuinely stellar work.

I understand the issue with grind and difficulty. I’m personally used to rpgs of that era. My brain is really 8bit coded for some reason so I didn’t find it hard at all.

Palma also sounds nice. Has a sense of melancholy to it.

After beating the game, battle theme becomes more of a trauma theme for all the times you didn’t save hahaha

 

[Auriiya]

Arcana Strikes, A Japan-Only Saturn RPG From The Studio Behind Sakura Wars, Finally Gets An English Translation

Update: Patch is available now

www.timeextension.com

Arcana strikes

 

[hazys]

Everyone always forgets Shining Force EXA, a very nice-looking ARPG on the PS2. I'm also curious about the JP-only Shining Wind.

 

[UnDubious]

Some people mentioned Rent A Hero, I had a great time with the Dreamcast version. It's basically the precursor to the Yakuza series, along with Shenmue. The Genesis version isn't as fun, but it's still got some cool moments and new ideas for 1991. I wish they had made the sequel/spin-off with the new girl character in the Dreamcast game that they were planning.

 

[homesforgnomes]

Phantasy Star 2 is my favorite. The high difficulty level pairs really well with the setting, where humanity has declined and become weak and incompetent from over-reliance on technology, particularly AI. Even the music (soundfont?) sounds desolate and lonely yet hopeful. I love the characters, too, and the Text Adventures really add to the experience.

Technically 4 is the better "game" overall but 2 has engraved itself on my soul.

 

[UnDubious]

The problem for me with Phantasy Star is that the Japanese RPG genre had not progressed enough overall to really do the first three games justice. 4 is the best because it was made late in the Genesis' life, when they had access to enough ROM space to really tell a story and develop characters, and had learned to keep things moving at a quick pace. 2 could have been on the same level but they let the dungeon design run wild and those dungeons are just too damn long, plus the encounter rate is too high/battles are too slow. It's still a pretty cool game, especially for 1989 (it was competing with NES RPGs, not SNES), and it's got some great story elements. But with PSIV's gameplay speed, pacing, and more fleshed out (but still not overly wordy like modern RPGs) story and character, it could have been a true classic. PS3 is similar, with more time on it and had it come out a year or two later, it would've probably been great instead of just kind of good.

 

[Adrastia]

Definitely Phantasy Star and Shining Force for me. I played these so many times as a kid.

Hello, first post here! ?
I can’t pass up the chance to mention one of my favourite SEGA Action-RPGs.

Maybe it doesn’t have enough RPG elements for some folks, but I love it so i let it slide ?
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I need to actually play the Oasis games all the way through someday.