Support NeoGAF

[Hatsuu]

I guess this is due to the widescreen hackery, but it was pretty funny.

Yeah, I did a playthrough of the game just to find all the instances of character models standing where they shouldn't. In 4:3, you obviously couldn't see where they were, but in widescreen, all that shows. Olivier was in a toootally different place before and he just insta-warped to his intro spot when the camera turned toward him. Hopefully all of those were caught. Sara did a lovely job fixing them.

In the opening tutorial where Estelle is being dragged off by Schera and yelling at Joshua, it makes it look like she was outside, but in widescreen, they were just...kind of standing in the doorway very clearly. Lots of moments like that.


Also, for the doubled-up video thing people keep seeing, Sara seems to believe that's actually not the game, but a codec issue. She's not sure why it's so widespread and she'll look into it, but like said, she seems pretty sure that it's not the game.

 

[Robobandit]

Also, for the doubled-up video thing people keep seeing, Sara seems to believe that's actually not the game, but a codec issue. She's not sure why it's so widespread and she'll look into it, but like said, she seems pretty sure that it's not the game.

If it was a codec issue, I wouldn't expect running in windowed mode to clear it up (but it does) and the video would look the same in windows media player.

Windows media player will play both avi files perfectly in windowed mode or fullscreen mode.

Codec is just mpeg1/mpeg2.. so it shouldn't be anything weird.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

Yeah, I did a playthrough of the game just to find all the instances of character models standing where they shouldn't. In 4:3, you obviously couldn't see where they were, but in widescreen, all that shows. Olivier was in a toootally different place before and he just insta-warped to his intro spot when the camera turned toward him. Hopefully all of those were caught. Sara did a lovely job fixing them.

In the opening tutorial where Estelle is being dragged off by Schera and yelling at Joshua, it makes it look like she was outside, but in widescreen, they were just...kind of standing in the doorway very clearly. Lots of moments like that.


Also, for the doubled-up video thing people keep seeing, Sara seems to believe that's actually not the game, but a codec issue. She's not sure why it's so widespread and she'll look into it, but like said, she seems pretty sure that it's not the game.

A lot of people on 4chan seem to think its the cause of a filter included with the CCCP codec pack.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

I played 1-2 more hours and aside of the video problems(which don't matter cause it's just the logo and opening so whatever) everything has been going perfectly.

I also replaced the VA with the JP one and changed the battle theme to the BEST version of Sophisticated Fight.

 

[Robobandit]

A lot of people on 4chan seem to think its the cause of a filter included with the CCCP codec pack.

I don't have that codec pack installed. I'm using a fresh install of Windows 8.1 Pro with no codec packs installed.

 

[Eusis]

Going to want to look into .ogg conversion just to test that out. I have the SnK Zanmai via iTunes, so hopefully that's a nice enough quality for this.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Going to want to look into .ogg conversion just to test that out. I have the SnK Zanmai via iTunes, so hopefully that's a nice enough quality for this.

I used Audacity, the program is Free and easy to use.

 

[MoogPaul]

The game looks great. So much more detail in the field and background than I remember. Character models look a little muddy, but there is definately at least 50% chance that that issue could be on my side. I have noticed a small number of pops in the music.
A small issue where the menu loads up strange where there is no curser. I'm assuming it has something to do with me playing with a gamepad. Possible the gamepad and mouse fighting for control?
Regardless, nothing too serious bug wise. Considering the length of the game (I think I was around 65/70 hours on my psp) and speed of the patches, I expect things to smoothen out before I finish. I've enjoyed the couple hours I was able to put into it today. It's so weird how many XSeed published Falcom games I have on my pc now. Weird and wonderful.

 

[PixyJunket]

Holy crap the text in this is tiny.

I was hoping to play on my TV but my eyes just couldn't deal with it (and they're all super lasiked up too).

 

[BennyBlanco]

I have to say this is a bad port. Can't read the text on my TV. Random crashes before I get the chance to make a 1st save. Can't use fullscreen. Can't use my 360 controller without 3rd party software. Just feels like amateur hour. Maybe I'll pick this up on Vita when it's on sale again. Not trying to be harsh, just calling a spade a spade. I was hyped to play this too.

 

[Aeana]

Holy crap the text in this is tiny.

I was hoping to play on my TV but my eyes just couldn't deal with it (and they're all super lasiked up too).

Yeah, it'd have been nice to get a larger text option. I can't play it from my couch for the same reason.

I have to say this is a bad port. Can't read the text on my TV. Random crashes before I get the chance to make a 1st save. Can't use fullscreen. Can't use my 360 controller without 3rd party software. Just feels like amateur hour. Maybe I'll pick this up on Vita when it's on sale again. Not trying to be harsh, just calling a spade a spade. I was hyped to play this too.

The bugs are being worked out. They already fixed the crashing due to high resolution fonts with the latest update on Steam, although if you're on GOG you'll probably still have to wait a bit. As for the 360 controller thing, the game is 10 years old, from before 360 controllers or xinput was a thing. Perhaps Sara could've found a way to add extra button mappings, but she's just one person working with ancient code. Control issues aside -- because I don't expect these will be addressed other than the s-break bug, which I'm sure will be -- I'm sure it'll all be working smoothly within a couple of days.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

I have to say this is a bad port. Can't read the text on my TV. Random crashes before I get the chance to make a 1st save. Can't use fullscreen. Can't use my 360 controller without 3rd party software. Just feels like amateur hour. Maybe I'll pick this up on Vita when it's on sale again. Not trying to be harsh, just calling a spade a spade. I was hyped to play this too.

The PC version is the original one, the PSP version is the port. Everything will be fixed pretty soon, I've been playing for several hours no with no crashes at all, even if I'm not sure what can be done about the text.

Also, the game auto saves all the time, you can check those saves in the save list page 0. Go to load game and press left, there will be some auto saves there.

 

[devious.one]

Finally starting to get AoE stuff. Feels good.

 

[BennyBlanco]

The PC version is the original one, the PSP version is the port. Everything will be fixed pretty soon, I've been playing for several hours no with no crashes at all, even if I'm not sure what can be done about the text.

Well, whatever it is, it's borderline broken and unplayable. I never heard anyone complain about the PSP version. The no trigger support is something that was common for ports of early 360 games, I thought we were past that in the year of our lord 2014. I'm glad that this exists as a fan of JRPGs and Steam, but this isn't a product that should be out there for people to spend money on as is.

 

[Aeana]

Actually, after reading that tumblr post about the technical details, I was under the impression that the non-HD font option would look like the left one here:

And I think that would've been good enough. It's disappointing that it's just a blurrier version of the HD font at the same size in reality.

Well, whatever it is, it's borderline broken and unplayable. I never heard anyone complain about the PSP version. The no trigger support is something that was common for ports of early 360 games, I thought we were past that in the year of our lord 2014. I'm glad that this exists as a fan of JRPGs and Steam, but this isn't a product that should be out there for people to spend money on as is.

I've been playing it all day since the high resolution font glitch was fixed, so I don't agree with your assessment about it being unplayable. In fact, I'd wager most people playing it here are not having any major issues at the moment provided they're on Steam and not GOG.

 

[PixyJunket]

Actually, after reading that tumblr post about the technical details, I was under the impression that the non-HD font option would look like the left one here:

http://media.tumblr.com/deeb1686152bf69cff031fad72e4cd46/tumblr_inline_n98mlbQsrg1siwbnr.png

And I think that would've been good enough. It's disappointing that it's just a blurrier version of the HD font at the same size in reality.

I just tested that option myself, bummer.

I'm actually feeling some slight strain thanks to my two hour session, so I'm just going to have to play this at my desk for now (yeuch).

Hopefully they can consider some font options once they get the serious issues ironed out.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

New patch hit steam abour 20 minutes ago, I wonder what Sara fixed this time around.

Well, whatever it is, it's borderline broken and unplayable. I never heard anyone complain about the PSP version. The no trigger support is something that was common for ports of early 360 games, I thought we were past that in the year of our lord 2014. I'm glad that this exists as a fan of JRPGs and Steam, but this isn't a product that should be out there for people to spend money on as is.

Which version are you using? The Steam version is already patched and working pretty well for me.

This is a 2004 game, I'm also playing with a 360 controller and I know it's not amazing but it works.

 

[ambientmystic]

Hopefully they can consider some font options once they get the serious issues ironed out.

I just got the game (against my better judgement, lol), and I'm really disliking the font.

I find that the fonts on the PSP version of the game look nicer and wider, why couldn't they have used those? Are they proprietary Sony fonts?

Anyway, fingers crossed that I won't get any crashes.

 

[Hatsuu]

Actually, after reading that tumblr post about the technical details, I was under the impression that the non-HD font option would look like the left one here:

And I think that would've been good enough. It's disappointing that it's just a blurrier version of the HD font at the same size in reality.



I've been playing it all day since the high resolution font glitch was fixed, so I don't agree with your assessment about it being unplayable. In fact, I'd wager most people playing it here are not having any major issues at the moment provided they're on Steam and not GOG.

That's the old font, which was actually much harder to read than the current one. I mean, it took up more space, but the letters themselves were a bit thinner (and they were uglier, too boot). If we chose a thicker font, we'd just get complaints that it was ugly like we normally get, so we chose a nicer looking one this time that we found to still be legible. Hard to ever win with the look of the text in general, but we went through a little over a dozen choices before settling for this one since it was legible and nice looking for those who were playing at the time. Weird that some are having trouble reading it on their TV though.

Anyway, if there were different options, we'd have to severely cut limits in places like the Bracer Notebook just to accommodate all of them. I did those limits line by line twice to make sure they were using the whole space. They don't work like the dialogue text. There also a lot of weird wrap-around issues in other places we experienced throughout the game with bigger fonts we tested out.

edit: Reading this again, I think it came off a bit harsher than I intended. It's admittedly a little frustrating, but I really didn't mean my explanation in a harsh way. Sorry if it sounded like it!

 

[Aeana]

That's the old font, which was actually much harder to read than the current one. I mean, it took up more space, but the letters themselves were a bit thinner (and they were uglier, too boot). If we chose a thicker font, we'd just get complaints that it was ugly like we normally get, so we chose a nicer looking one this time that we found to still be legible. Hard to ever win with the look of the text in general, but we went through a little over a dozen choices before settling for this one since it was legible and nice looking for those who were playing at the time. Weird that some are having trouble reading it on their TV though.

Anyway, if there were different options, we'd have to severely cut limits in places like the Bracer Notebook just to accommodate all of them. I did those limits line by line twice to make sure they were using the whole space. They don't work like the dialogue text. There also a lot of weird wrap-around issues in other places we experienced throughout the game with bigger fonts we tested out.

It's just too small to be legible from the distance most people have their TVs (i.e., 5-8 feet), nothing particularly to do with the font itself.

 

[desmax]

Great hiding spot, the Capua Family will never find them

 

[Aeana]

The latest update fixes the s-break bug! You can now select the red spheres with left/right on a gamepad and also with arrow keys on the keyboard.

 

[Eyothrie]

The latest update fixes the s-break bug! You can now select the red spheres with left/right on a gamepad and also with arrow keys on the keyboard.

Very nice! I'm now going to map my right stick's left and right to camera rotation.

 

[desmax]

The latest update fixes the s-break bug! You can now select the red spheres with left/right on a gamepad and also with arrow keys on the keyboard.

Oh, that's cool. Having to use the keyboard for them was kinda annoying

 

[Chrono Helix]

Watashi no namae wa Esuteru desu. Bureisaa ni naritai desu wa. Yo Ro Shi Ku.

(Recorded by me, but pitch-shifted to sound more feminine.)

(Enjoy your nightmares.)

-Tom

Something like this?

 

[StarCreator]

That's the old font, which was actually much harder to read than the current one. I mean, it took up more space, but the letters themselves were a bit thinner (and they were uglier, too boot). If we chose a thicker font, we'd just get complaints that it was ugly like we normally get, so we chose a nicer looking one this time that we found to still be legible. Hard to ever win with the look of the text in general, but we went through a little over a dozen choices before settling for this one since it was legible and nice looking for those who were playing at the time. Weird that some are having trouble reading it on their TV though.

Anyway, if there were different options, we'd have to severely cut limits in places like the Bracer Notebook just to accommodate all of them. I did those limits line by line twice to make sure they were using the whole space. They don't work like the dialogue text. There also a lot of weird wrap-around issues in other places we experienced throughout the game with bigger fonts we tested out.

edit: Reading this again, I think it came off a bit harsher than I intended. It's admittedly a little frustrating, but I really didn't mean my explanation in a harsh way. Sorry if it sounded like it!

I think while not much can be done with full screen menus and the like, an optimal solution would be to blow up the dialogue windows to near the same relative size they were on the PSP version. They don't seem to take a lot of screen real estate as is and could stand to be scaled up a bit. No idea if that's technically feasible though.

 

[Tetsuo9]

I find it weird that people see the text too small. I play at around 6 feet from my TV and it looks just fine for me in 1080p and fullsceen.

Maybe lowering the resolution could help for some people?

 

[jb1234]

Played about an hour today and experienced no bugs whatsoever. They even fixed the S-Break bug!

My gripe at this point is that the battles are a real slog. They're slow, bulky and the music is irritating.

 

[StarCreator]

I find it weird that people see the text too small. I play at around 6 feet from my TV and it looks just fine for me in 1080p and fullsceen.

Maybe lowering the resolution could help for some people?

Do the dialogue windows change relative size with output resolution?

 

[Aeana]

Played about an hour today and experienced no bugs whatsoever. They even fixed the S-Break bug!

My gripe at this point is that the battles are a real slog. They're slow, bulky and the music is irritating.

You're free to replace any of the music you like. They're just .ogg files in the game directory.

 

[desmax]

Played about an hour today and experienced no bugs whatsoever. They even fixed the S-Break bug!

My gripe at this point is that the battles are a real slog. They're slow, bulky and the music is irritating.

Well, Artes makes it a lot faster (And there 100% chance of running from battles, if you don't feel like doing them); just remember to work on your orbments from time to time

 

[ambientmystic]

My gripe at this point is that the battles are a real slog. They're slow, bulky and the music is irritating.

Yeah, I kinda miss fast forwarding through trash mob battles which I thoroughly abused in the PSP version lol.

 

[Aeana]

There's no need at all to fight every enemy you come across. If you do, it won't be long before you're only gaining 1-3 exp per fight. Feel free to run by enemies. With the information quartz equipped, it's really easy to see them from afar and get around them for the most part, unless it's a particularly narrow path.

 

[LowParry]

I find myself liking windowed mode in 1440 x 900. I only played like the first 10 minutes to get out of the intro so I'm moving around. Man it's so damn good to see this type of game with all the Ys time I've put in. Love love love it. Is there any best texture filtering option? Full screen makes the characters all blurred which is why I went windowed. Just curious if that filter has a better option. And someone said there's an option for JA voices? Tell me more. Unless the EN voices are decent, I'll roll with that.

 

[li bur]

So the verdict is to wait? I plan to get this in GOG for my laptop since I plan to play this on a trip. Any info on when the patch will be out for the GOG?

 

[desmax]

So the verdict is to wait? I plan to get this in GOG for my laptop since I plan to play this on a trip. Any info on when the patch will be out for the GOG?

GOG version seems to work fine, really.

Got some crashes with the High-Res font, but turning them off makes it work properly; and anyway, I've turn them on again on the start of chapter 1, and I haven't got any problem with them
(And that video problem didn't happen here)

 

[LuuKyK]

So this game has a main character named Estelle, there is a family called Capua... It sure will be awkward to start playing this right after finishing Tales of Vesperia. lol

 

[Riposte]

Is it possible to access the hard difficulty before beating the game through modding or a save file?

Also the controller config seems really limited.

 

[Feep]

Over two hours in (running around

Spoiler

a mine

) and I am now genuinely bored. Does this pick up soon?

 

[Dice//]

Over two hours in (running around

Spoiler

a mine

) and I am now genuinely bored. Does this pick up soon?

Chapter 0 [Prologue?] is really not that great. It's that first few pages in a book that's more about building things up for later... Or something. Bad analogy. But uh at least give it till the next chapter, it's alll uphill from there.

 

[wyrdwad]

Going to want to look into .ogg conversion just to test that out.

I haven't messed with Audacity, but... do you have WinAmp? If so, you can convert OGG to WAV ridiculously easily. Just go into Preferences with Ctrl-P, click on Output, and choose "NullSoft Disk Writer." Any files you play will now be output to WAV files as opposed to being output to... erm... your speakers.

Works with any format WinAmp can play, and OGGs are playable right out of the gate. Just don't forget to set the output back to DirectSound when you're done so you don't accidentally make huge WAVs out of your entire playlist later on.

-Tom

 

[Aeana]

omg i am tired of this unplayable buggy crap!!!!

Over two hours in (running around

Spoiler

a mine

) and I am now genuinely bored. Does this pick up soon?

It's not going to get interesting enough for you until near the end, I don't think. If you're looking for constant intrigue and omg wtf plot twists at every turn, this is not your game. It has crazy stuff going on, especially in the back end (and some nice stuff toward the end of each chapter), but for much of the game it's a lighthearted globetrotter. If you don't enjoy the world, the characters, and the dialog, then it's not for you.

 

[Dice//]

omg i am tired of this unplayable buggy crap!!!!

I giggled. xD

 

[Feep]

It's not going to get interesting enough for you until near the end, I don't think. If you're looking for constant intrigue and omg wtf plot twists at every turn, this is not your game. It has crazy stuff going on, especially in the back end (and some nice stuff toward the end of each chapter), but for much of the game it's a lighthearted globetrotter. If you don't enjoy the world, the characters, and the dialog, then it's not for you.

I mean, I want *some* intrigue. This is cookie-cutter as hell.

Dialogue is certainly passable-to-good, though both Estelle and Joshua's character archetypes have been done to death.

But I suppose you have some inkling of my tastes. = D

I'll run till the end of Chapter 1, then, I figure.

 

[Aeana]

I mean, I want *some* intrigue. This is cookie-cutter as hell.

Dialogue is certainly passable-to-good, though both Estelle and Joshua's character archetypes have been done to death.

But I suppose you have some inkling of my tastes. = D

I'll run till the end of Chapter 1, then, I figure.

Try to get yourself into the mindset that this game is from 2004. It might help.

 

[Eusis]

I used Audacity, the program is Free and easy to use.

Great, this worked after converting the MP3 to WAV to OGG, thanks.

I haven't messed with Audacity, but... do you have WinAmp? If so, you can convert OGG to WAV ridiculously easily. Just go into Preferences with Ctrl-P, click on Output, and choose "NullSoft Disk Writer." Any files you play will now be output to WAV files as opposed to being output to... erm... your speakers.

Works with any format WinAmp can play, and OGGs are playable right out of the gate. Just don't forget to set the output back to DirectSound when you're done so you don't accidentally make huge WAVs out of your entire playlist later on.

-Tom

I used Winamp... eons ago, and I actually laughed when it came up when searching for a player online to figure out WHICH song (rather than just looking online or, uhh, asking [ED6400 by the way]), but that might've skipped a step if it'd output as OGG. Ah well, thanks anyway.

And now that I got it to work I need to tune the volume down a little bit to match with the game better. And I'm curious if the music had a set point for the OGGs in when to loop, because I swear it looped seamlessly whereas with your own OGG files it acts like a CD track on repeat... kind of like older redbook audio games actually.

 

[Shiokazu]

sara is from here too right?

i just wanted to say: THANK YOU FOR YOUR EFFORTS SARA!

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I'm noticing a ton of little movements in the UI (the orbment stuff). Neat touch; I don't remember the PSP one having it.

Try to get yourself into the mindset that this game is from 2004. It might help.

That is...a really good way of thinking about it. But yeah, it's a careful game, one lived in instead of drove thru until the end.

 

[Aeana]

Are there any plans to patch the GOG version any time soon? Friend of mine is still suffering from the quest update problem, presumably since while that was patched on Steam yesterday, the GOG version hasn't received any updates yet. And he wants the s-break fix too.

 

[Drkirby]

Some of the Text seems to be cut off in the Orbital Shop menu.

Anything I can do to fix that?