The first 10 minutes: Star Ocean 4

Commented on 2009-02-20 12:04:38

I like the idea of a sci fi RPG I loved the XenoSaga series, but alot about this game looks so generic it puts me off somtimes. Edge Maverick what the hell were they thinking. Plus after a disapiontment both Last Reminant and Infinate Undiscovery my faith in Square Enix making a good RPG this gen is very much non exsisant. So far only good JRPG I know of this gen has been Lost Odssesy

In reply to

BlimBlim

Commented on 2009-02-20 12:13:10 In reply to Jollipop

Posted by Jollipop

The character models in cutscsnes and some of the shader effects are really nice as is there lighting, I am a little disappointed thats its not all 1280x720 but you hardly notice it half the time, after seeing videos of the later stuff with so many effects going on it's pretty obvious why they halved the resolution in battle.

Yeah like I said the lighting is good, something that's not so common with Japanese games these days. But I didn't mention the rather average grass pop-in in the field and a few more stuff.
As for the resolution being cut in half, I'm sorry but I still don't understand why it was so important for these guys to go to 60 fps during battles. It's not like it's a twitch shooter, it's a fucking ARPG where 1/60 doesn't matter in the slightest. So I'm going to keep whining about it ;)

In reply to

2PintsOfInsulin

Commented on 2009-02-20 12:36:19 In reply to Jollipop

94" Screen? Where do you live? In a cinema?!!

Whine away Blim, it's what we're here for!!!

:o)

In reply to

jesuschrist

Commented on 2009-02-20 12:37:37 In reply to vspectra06

Posted by vspectra06

How bad is the aliasing? It looked fine in some image grabs.

http://kwopog.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p1niRjSMcdr0...

That is amazing.

In reply to

Jollipop

Commented on 2009-02-20 13:30:41 In reply to hiscore

Posted by hiscore

It's good that BlimBlim mentions about the graphics. The rather 'low' comments in his direction proove that many people anno 2009 are used to some form of degraded graphics and are willing to ignore this technical aspect. This is what lazy devs want you to think: "It doesn't matter, it's all about gameplay". Yes, gameplay is alpha and omega, I agree on that. But consider this: would you buy a car with only 3 wheels, would you buy a house without windows? Is it so weird than that people like BlimBlim REPORT this to the public. Isn't it in fact a duty to inform people as complete as possible. Whether you don't care about bad graphics or not, BlimBlim cares about informing you of ALL aspects of the game. That's why Gamersyde has become what it is.

Yea and these consoles have limitations, obviously Tri-Ace felt that 60 fps was the way to go (not sure why), the battle does look great and is very fluid, no slow down what so ever so far, you have to weigh up which is more important to you 60 fps or 720@30fps.

I don't see the big deal personally, everything else besides the battles is in 720p (or 700p I think, hence the black borders round the image)

In reply to

[quote=hiscore]It's good that BlimBlim mentions about the graphics. The rather 'low' comments in his direction proove that many people anno 2009 are used to some form of degraded graphics and are willing to ignore this technical aspect. This is what lazy devs want you to think: "It doesn't matter, it's all about gameplay". Yes, gameplay is alpha and omega, I agree on that. But consider this: would you buy a car with only 3 wheels, would you buy a house without windows? Is it so weird than that people like BlimBlim REPORT this to the public. Isn't it in fact a duty to inform people as complete as possible. Whether you don't care about bad graphics or not, BlimBlim cares about informing you of ALL aspects of the game. That's why Gamersyde has become what it is.[/quote]

Yea and these consoles have limitations, obviously Tri-Ace felt that 60 fps was the way to go (not sure why), the battle does look great and is very fluid, no slow down what so ever so far, you have to weigh up which is more important to you 60 fps or 720@30fps.

I don't see the big deal personally, everything else besides the battles is in 720p (or 700p I think, hence the black borders round the image)

vspectra06

Commented on 2009-02-20 15:18:59 In reply to BlimBlim

Posted by BlimBlim

As for the resolution being cut in half, I'm sorry but I still don't understand why it was so important for these guys to go to 60 fps during battles. It's not like it's a twitch shooter, it's a fucking ARPG where 1/60 doesn't matter in the slightest. So I'm going to keep whining about it ;)

Wait until you've played through most of it. Some of the later battles get extremely hectic.

In reply to

BlimBlim

Commented on 2009-02-20 15:26:09 In reply to vspectra06

Posted by vspectra06

Wait until you've played through most of it. Some of the later battles get extremely hectic.

I'm sure they do, but as for requiring a 1/60 of a second reaction time? No. Never!

In reply to

Jollipop

Commented on 2009-02-20 15:33:37 In reply to BlimBlim

Posted by BlimBlim

I'm sure they do, but as for requiring a 1/60 of a second reaction time? No. Never!

What about sight outs they take a certain amount of precission to time correctly, although im not sure if 1/60 of a second :S

In reply to

BlimBlim

Commented on 2009-02-20 17:21:55 In reply to Jollipop

Posted by Jollipop

What about sight outs they take a certain amount of precission to time correctly, although im not sure if 1/60 of a second :S

Bullshit, there is no way in hell anything in this game REQUIRES 60 fps. It's a nice bonus to have for sure, but not when it's done by lowering the graphical fidelity of the game.

In reply to

Megido

Commented on 2009-02-20 17:23:46

60 fps is pretty important in fighters and racing games. Like good luck timing a just frame with uneven frame rate. Not that i'd imagine that this game requires anything like that, but hey...there are games that do :)

In reply to

Jollipop

Commented on 2009-02-20 18:30:37 In reply to BlimBlim

Posted by BlimBlim

Bullshit, there is no way in hell anything in this game REQUIRES 60 fps. It's a nice bonus to have for sure, but not when it's done by lowering the graphical fidelity of the game.

I'm not saying it as a fact lol

There is probably some reason why they did it though, its too early to say either way.

In reply to

sappel

Commented on 2009-02-20 18:46:39

I think this game looks terrible, both graphics and style.. imo enough reason for me to not buy this game.. especially since JRPG's have weak stories and repetitive gameplay.

In reply to

moroboshi

Commented on 2009-02-20 18:49:37

Button mashing 'action' battles and forced US dubbing make this a no buy for me.

The only truly great J-RPG this gen, in my opinion, is Lost Odyssey.

In reply to

vspectra06

Commented on 2009-02-20 19:00:52 In reply to BlimBlim

Posted by BlimBlim

I'm sure they do, but as for requiring a 1/60 of a second reaction time? No. Never!

I'll have to play it to see if it even matters. The half HD resolution is pretty disappointing for battles though. I think they could have made other sacrifices like turn off real-time shadows and self-shadows.

In reply to

nepton

Commented on 2009-02-20 19:11:14

the problem is not jaggies or resolution, its the weird looking colours and the lifeless environments. it just looks odd. but the game seems to be pretty good in other areas tho :)

In reply to

jackdoe

Commented on 2009-02-20 19:16:51

The aliasing is due to the sub HD resolution the game uses. However, I'm more interested in whether the story is any good and whether you can switch the voice acting from the atrocious English dub to a hopefully more listenable Japanese track.

In reply to

nepton

Commented on 2009-02-20 19:20:51

There is no japanese track in the game, no. Wich sucks, I'm with you...

In reply to

jackdoe

Commented on 2009-02-20 19:44:03 In reply to nepton

Posted by nepton

There is no japanese track in the game, no. Wich sucks, I'm with you...

Yeah, just read about that in the IGN review. What the hell? The VA is completely atrocious (Infinite Undiscovery's seems to be leaps and bounds ahead of it, and its coming from the same dev team).

In reply to

TonyTops

Commented on 2009-02-20 20:06:32

according to B3D

"1248 x 702 No AA (field) 882 x 496 No AA (battle)"

and in doing so, sets a new record for the lowest resolution in a current gen game, congrats tri-ace, a blurry mess is you

In reply to

Krilekk

Commented on 2009-02-20 20:45:17

Wow, that sucks. It's time Microsoft forces developers to use true 720p for each and every game.

In reply to

TonyTops

Commented on 2009-02-20 21:13:13

no need for that (although battle res is f**king unacceptable), just think how bad the ps3 port is going to be if the engine is this bad on 360

In reply to

Baleur

Commented on 2009-02-20 21:22:33 In reply to vspectra06

Posted by vspectra06

Wait until you've played through most of it. Some of the later battles get extremely hectic.

How can people fail to understand what fps is? Frames per second.
Its all about the image, nothing else. Its the number of times the image renders per second, thats it.

If there are hectic battles, your controls still respond the exact same way during low fps, the only difference is that the screen is slower to display it. Framerate doesnt delay your control inputs lol.
Heck in some games, low fps actually slows the game speed down (they do that to prevent chugginess), in that case your hectic battles would become slightly easier :P

In reply to

Megido

Commented on 2009-02-20 21:26:27

Baleur: errr...if the frame rate is low precise input will be harder because syncing your button presses with what's going on on the screen is difficult, this is especially hard if the frame rate is varying a lot. Though in most action games and stuff like this the difference between 60 and 30 would probably not be noticeable, or at the very least have almost no impact at all on the gameplay. But hey, the fans are grasping at straws here, so ofc 60fps is freaking mandatory in a jrpg ;)

In reply to

Corellianrogue

Commented on 2009-02-20 22:05:02

The low-res battle graphics are disappointing (were they like that in earlier videos? Maybe they had a problem with the battles at the last minute and were bound to the release date so lowering the resolution was the only quick fix?) but I still think the rest looks good. Anyway, it's sold over 130,000 on its first day in Japan! Yay!

In reply to

jackdoe

Commented on 2009-02-20 22:06:11 In reply to Megido

Posted by Megido

Baleur: errr...if the frame rate is low precise input will be harder because syncing your button presses with what's going on on the screen is difficult, this is especially hard if the frame rate is varying a lot. Though in most action games and stuff like this the difference between 60 and 30 would probably not be noticeable, or at the very least have almost no impact at all on the gameplay. But hey, the fans are grasping at straws here, so ofc 60fps is freaking mandatory in a jrpg ;)

Lol. FFVIII ran at a sub 30 fps framerate and was quite playable.

In reply to

The first 10 minutes: Star Ocean 4

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The First 10 minutes: Japanese version part 3

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