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STEAM | December 2015 - _ Diretide Greetings and Happy Holidailies

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zkylon

zkylewd
finished tales from the boredlands

easily one of my favorite games of the year and my favorite telltale game to date

just a really solid, memorable story filled with genuinely lovable characters and fun twists and turns, it's just great

i'd love for a better interface tho, just walking around and interacting with crap felt wonky with that fake cursor and i kept getting into moments where i didn't realize i was supposed to do something, etc. i'm also not a big fan of qtes, specially these that are just like mostly there so that it's not just long cutscenes you're watching

but it's a great game anyways, def gonna get a high spot on my goty list

wWcGZA6l.jpg


Save me SteamGAF, what the heck am I not seeing here? How do I progress?
you can blue the middle hex in the rightmost {2} and from there start clearing the other {2} and the {5}. the middle hex is a blue because there has to be two next to the {2} and since they have to be together and there's only 3 hexes, for sure the middle one has to be one

you can then figure out where the other blue is in that {2} because of the -3- next to it since again there has to be 3 but they can't be together so as a rule since there are 4 hexes next to it the first and the last must be blues too

start from there, see where it takes u
 

Spirited

Mine is pretty and pink
I had mostly DD coffee and Red Bull at school, although I tended to procrastinate, so reading multiple chapters the night before an exam was common.

I felt like shit nonstop.

You're not alone in this, I only drink copious amounts of coffee instead.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I feel like the Final Fantasy VI port has always got a bit of a bad rep. Sure they could have put a lot more effort into the game, especially the art direction, but the end result is pretty solid.

I know it gets some shit for being ugly, so I took a screenshot of the famous Opera House scene and blew it up in Photoshop using the built-in "nearest neighbor" scaling which is used to preserve hard edges when upscaling which is what we want to do here for optimal effect (since it's sprite-based graphics). So I scaled it up to 1280 x 953 then cropped the top and bottom so that the end result is 1280x720 - which I believe is the resolution the iOS version renders at, the PC version might(?) be higher, not sure.

Then I got a screenshot of essentially the same screen but this time from the iOS release, sized at 1280x720. This is the side-by-side result:


As you can see, they obviously upscaled things like the backgrounds (notice the pillars and tiles on the floor, etc) but those character models needed to be completely replaced if they were going to be represented in high definition. Some people think they went too "cartoony" with them, but the fact is they simply went back to Amano's original character art and incorporated more of that into each character's design. Based on these designs, those characters probably would have looked like that (or similar) had the original hardware been able to handle that much detail.

The people calling for the "original sprites" are kind of silly to me. Look at those incredibly pixelated sprites in the first photo and tell me honestly that you want to play an entire 40 hour RPG using straight-up upscaled SNES sprites.

BONUS EDIT: a lot of people are looking for the game to look something like this:


This is the same SNES image source, run through waifu2x then scaled using bicubic resampling. This gives the game a much more "painted look" based on the original pixel graphics. I suppose it's a matter of personal preference.
 

Dr Dogg

Member
FFVI's character sprites are only 64 pixels tall. They are never going to look good on modern resolution displays unless you user a nearest neighbour interpolation. And sadly that isn't considered when most devs will use bilinear scaling for added flexibility for any resolution. And if you want to preserve how the SNES version looked you need to keep it to a 4:3 aspect ratio, adjust the pixel aspect ratio from NTSC non square pixels to square pixels and then only scale buy a multiple of the SNES' internal precropped resolution of 256x224. Anything else any you're butchering the image.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
I feel like the Final Fantasy VI port has always got a bit of a bad rep. Sure they could have put a lot more effort into the game, especially the art direction, but the end result is pretty solid.

I know it gets some shit for being ugly, so I took a screenshot of the famous Opera House scene and blew it up in Photoshop using the built-in "nearest neighbor" scaling which is used to preserve hard edges when upscaling which is what we want to do here for optimal effect (since it's sprite-based graphics). So I scaled it up to 1280 x 953 then cropped the top and bottom so that the end result is 1280x720 - which I believe is the resolution the iOS version renders at, the PC version might(?) be higher, not sure.

Then I got a screenshot of essentially the same screen but this time from the iOS release, sized at 1280x720. This is the side-by-side result:



As you can see, they obviously upscaled things like the backgrounds (notice the pillars and tiles on the floor, etc) but those character models needed to be completely replaced if they were going to be represented in high definition. Some people think they went too "cartoony" with them, but the fact is they simply went back to Amano's original character art and incorporated more of that into each character's design. Based on these designs, those characters probably would have looked like that (or similar) had the original hardware been able to handle that much detail.

The people calling for the "original sprites" are kind of silly to me. Look at those incredibly pixelated sprites in the first photo and tell me honestly that you want to play an entire 40 hour RPG using straight-up upscaled SNES sprites.
i don't think you've done it right, the picture you've upscaled was probably compressed because neighrest neighbor doesn't work like that on proper pixelart pictures

here's a quick screen i found on google that i've upscaled from 480x320 to 1280 (uploaded on copy so no extra compression from imgur or whatever)


sure it doesn't look great because those are some giant ass pixels but i do prefer that look since the sprites just look better
 

Jawmuncher

Member
i don't think you've done it right, the picture you've upscaled was probably compressed because neighrest neighbor doesn't work like that on proper pixelart pictures

here's a quick screen i found on google that i've upscaled from 480x320 to 1280 (uploaded on copy so no extra compression from imgur or whatever)



sure it doesn't look great because those are some giant ass pixels but i do prefer that look since the sprites just look better

That just looks like a mess.
 
The people calling for the "original sprites" are kind of silly to me. Look at those incredibly pixelated sprites in the first photo and tell me honestly that you want to play an entire 40 hour RPG using straight-up upscaled SNES sprites.

I want to play an entire 40 hour RPG using straight-up upscaled SNES sprites.


i don't think you've done it right, the picture you've upscaled was probably compressed because neighrest neighbor doesn't work like that on proper pixelart pictures

here's a quick screen i found on google that i've upscaled from 480x320 to 1280 (uploaded on copy so no extra compression from imgur or whatever)



sure it doesn't look great because those are some giant ass pixels but i do prefer that look since the sprites just look better

I'm with you.
 

fertygo

Member
Will buy FFVI after I got my paycheck using help from people here, because frigging S-E not sold these mobile port at asian steamstore
 

Annubis

Member
too long; but did read

The big problem is that there is 0 art direction in the IOS version. The character sprites are done in one style while the backgrounds in another one, and yet another one for the enemies and the towns are in 3D. It's just an artistic clusterfuck.

That said, I really can't excuse this level of poor skill:
RpeH2xd.png


I'll take waifu2x over this any day simply because it is terrible. I'm not even talking about personal preference here, it is just horribly done.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
That just looks like a mess.

just pointing out that the example jshackles gave is incorrect because nearest neighbor isn't supposed to be a blurry compressed mess like in the picture he uploaded

also both those new sprites and resampling look hideous so what can you do
 

Eila

Member
The backgrounds look ok in this one, but the character sprites are horrible. There's plenty of "retro" games on PC that look just fine, why does FF VI have to look like shit again?
 

zkylon

zkylewd
The backgrounds look ok in this one, but the character sprites are horrible. There's plenty of "retro" games on PC that look just fine, why does FF VI have to look like shit again?
because retro games are developed with hi res screens in mind while ff6 was meant for some tiny ass resolution

it makes a huge difference at the time of making the sprites and tilesets
 

Grief.exe

Member

My main problem with the FFVI port is the lack of cohesion in design. The enemy sprites look good, the backgrounds look good, but then the sprites completely clash with everything. I doubt they were designed in conjunction with the game at all since they are so poorly done.

Also, your upscaled SNES screenshot looks very blurry, when correctly upscaled SNES games can still look very sharp.
 

Dr Dogg

Member
FFVIII has some really odd tricks you'd never pick up on displayed on an old SD CRT tv. Some of the background characters you interact with in aren't actually modeled at all and just either a sprite or in a couple of instances added to the prerendered background. Fine on a PS One but on PC at anything approaching 1368x766 and they start to stand out like a sore thumb let alone approaching more conventional resolutions.

The big problem is that there is 0 art direction in the IOS version. The character sprites are done in one style while the backgrounds in another one, and yet another one for the enemies and the towns are in 3D. It's just an artistic clusterfuck.

That said, I really can't excuse this level of poor skill:
RpeH2xd.png


I'll take waifu2x over this any day simply because it is terrible. I'm not even talking about personal preference here, it is just horribly done.

One of the issues with these new FF titles is that they were not designed with a fixed platform in mind and ended up begin made to be flexible. Hence the improper scaling of the character sprite in the said shot. If you have control of the rendring resolution you can possibly access the right value where the sprites are not scaled by either the game or your system. From there you have a few tools to get some pretty reasonable results.
FFV Default Config said:
FFV Rescaling Game Correctly From Lower Resolution said:
Of coures that's probably more work than the vast majority are willing to undertake themselves.
 

Eila

Member
because retro games are developed with hi res screens in mind while ff6 was meant for some tiny ass resolution

it makes a huge difference at the time of making the sprites and tilesets

Haha but these sprites are new, not ripped from the old version. The reason it pisses off a lot of people is that they look wrong, just clash on the backgrounds. I have no idea who they put in charge of the game but they did a bad job remastering those sprites in particular. It looks specially bad as the monster sprites don't look that out of place.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Alright true, I just realized the first shot is blurry because when the emulator took the screenshot it was saved it in a compressed format which obviously didn't survive the upscaling well. But I think the point still stands, even with proper upscaling.

Do people really want a ROM file and an emulator that can upscale/stretch? That seems a bit crazy to me, as someone who has played and enjoyed all of the various fixes offered here. I guess nothing is really stopping anyone from picking the game up on PSN and playing it on their 55 inch TV using a PS3.

I will agree that the art direction isn't cohesive, and obviously different teams worked on different stuff and never really... you know... got together about how they wanted it to look. Final Fantasy V on Steam suffered much the same fate. But the game was still amazingly great and I enjoyed every second of it.
 

Arthea

Member
I will be content with FF6 not running like shit and not having pixels of size of a human eyeball as it was last time I tried to play an original, thank you.
As I said many times, I would have preferred a proper remake, no question here, but an original version is hardly better in any way then this port, even if you don't wanna see it, guys, it's simply true.
It could have been better? of course? an original is better this day? hardly, yeah I mean all versions of it, except maybe snes one, although I doubt it's much better to play this day even if you still own snes.
And one more time, there are things they fixed, why we concentrate on graphics all the time?
 

Monooboe

Member
So finally started playing MGSV and daaaaamn it does look great and runs great. Everything maxed and 3440x1440 I get a steady 30. Though I have to say, super weird hearing Kiefer.o_O
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Haha but these sprites are new, not ripped from the old version. The reason it pisses off a lot of people is that they look wrong, just clash on the backgrounds. I have no idea who they put in charge of the game but they did a bad job remastering those sprites in particular. It looks specially bad as the monster sprites don't look that out of place.
ah i get what you mean, and yeah, they definitely messed that up in the remaster

it's just a quality thing tbh, since they redid all the assets for the game it's no longer a resolution thing

Alright true, I just realized the first shot is blurry because when the emulator took the screenshot it was saved it in a compressed format which obviously didn't survive the upscaling well. But I think the point still stands, even with proper upscaling.

Do people really want a ROM file and an emulator that can upscale? That seems a bit crazy to me, as someone who has played and enjoyed all of the various fixes offered here. I guess nothing is really stopping anyone from picking the game up on PSN and playing it on their 55 inch TV using a PS3.

I will agree that the art direction isn't cohesive, and obviously different teams worked on different stuff and never really... you know... got together about how they wanted it to look. Final Fantasy V on Steam suffered much the same fate. But the game was still amazingly great and I enjoyed every second of it.
the way i play these games is i just don't play them full screen, i just do 2x or 3x windowed and it's a good balance of getting just the original sprites but bigger, but not big enough that it looks like a mess of pixels

tho tbh the ideal thing for me would be a 3d remake like in ff4.

i know i'm probably alone but i think these models are super charming


It's been bugging me too but I didn't want to say anything lol.
well u know me

i don't keep many things to myself <3

It's added snow! I'll get around to fixing it when I can get to my avatar's PSD.
i'll send you the doctor's bill
 

Arthea

Member
If the Steam version looked like this:

I would buy in a heartbeat.

I have version looking like this three times over and I am still buying the steam version for replaying it, not for +1
like seriously... I understand liking artstyle, but that screenshot looks horrible, imagine it on 42" screen for emphasis.


edited: zky, you can't like that terrible 3D, no one can... that's not possible
 

Jawmuncher

Member
2 for 2 Zky. I really dislike the FF3 and 4 models from the DS games. Only RPG with a similar style I like is Bravely Default. That one looks fine to me.
I think a big part is because due to the lower hardware, they had to sacrifice some things in their looks.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
aren't the load times really bad?

Yeah, but at least you get the cool anime cutscenes.

the way i play these games is i just don't play them full screen, i just do 2x or 3x windowed and it's a good balance of getting just the original sprites but bigger, but not big enough that it looks like a mess of pixels

tho tbh the ideal thing for me would be a 3d remake like in ff4.

i know i'm probably alone but i think these models are super charming

Someone on DeviantArt made Opera house scene characters to look like the 3D remakes and I thought they did a pretty good job. I would have also preferred a 3D remake for this (and V) just because I've played the other versions a few dozen times each.

I imagine Square could do a lot better. But this mobile port really isn't so bad.
 

Locust

Member
I put in a refund request for the 3DR pack around when the bundle started and for Garfield Kart 2 hours before that and they've still not been approved.

People who ask for a lot of refunds must have lower priority in the queue or something :p
 

zkylon

zkylewd
edited: zky, you can't like that terrible 3D, no one can... that's not possible
i like it, it's colorful and low-fi and cutesy which are things i appreciate

i'm not saying it's masterfully crafted art (the super low res textures are biggest culprit), but i quite like how it looks or could look with a bit more work

like jawmunchie says, look at bravely default

video21f-1-web.jpg


isn't this absolutely gorgeous

2 for 2 Zky. I really dislike the FF3 and 4 models from the DS games. Only RPG with a similar style I like is Bravely Default. That one looks fine to me.
I think a big part is because due to the lower hardware, they had to sacrifice some things in their looks.
wait you're saying 2 for 2 in that i'm right or 2 for 2 in that i'm wrong lmao

Someone on DeviantArt made Opera house scene characters to look like the 3D remakes and I thought they did a pretty good job. I would have also preferred a 3D remake for this (and V) just because I've played the other versions a few dozen times each.

I imagine Square could do a lot better. But this mobile port really isn't so bad.
yeah, those look a bit generic but i bet it could be made to look great. that's pretty good already
 

MUnited83

For you.
I have version looking like this three times over and I am still buying the steam version for replaying it, not for +1
like seriously... I understand liking artstyle, but that screenshot looks horrible, imagine it on 42" screen for emphasis.


edited: zky, you can't like that terrible 3D, no one can... that's not possible

FFIV models are nice, I like them too.


Although I'd prefer the 4 Heroes of Light models. And in the mean while, a 4 Heroes of Light port. I love that game.
latest
 

Pachimari

Member
Why are people refunding the 3D Anthology? Is it to get more money? If so, can they buy the anthology on bundlestars again after their refund?
 

Jawmuncher

Member
i like it, it's colorful and low-fi and cutesy which are things i appreciate

i'm not saying it's masterfully crafted art (the super low res textures are biggest culprit), but i quite like how it looks or could look with a bit more work

like jawmunchie says, look at bravely default

video21f-1-web.jpg


isn't this absolutely gorgeous


wait you're saying 2 for 2 in that i'm right or 2 for 2 in that i'm wrong lmao


yeah, those look a bit generic but i bet it could be made to look great. that's pretty good already
You were wrong lol. But at least we agree on BD.

If they're going to go that route, why did they pass up the opportunity to have this as a costume?:

x4ooShD.jpg

It is in the game.
 

Arthea

Member
you both (zky and Bernardo) are just weirdos

yeah, I don't like how t4HoL looks either, that might be one of reasons why I never have finished it, what reminds me... no, no time for this.

From all older FFs late remakes and spinoffs I only liked how FF4 Complete Collection for PSP looks.
 
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