If we're talking 3D assets, well, if that somehow becomes a problem-point, then it will only serve the idea that PC gamers are graphics-whores. The most they *need* to be touched up is redoing the LOD'ing so that enemies don't cosplay as characters for a Doom WAD at 5 meters.
Meanwhile, if you don't mind me, I'm going to enjoy some real low-poly goodness in FF7. On my PC.
I don't think asking for better textures and possibly higher poly models than a PSP could handle is evidence that PC players are graphics whores. I've played PSP games supersampled by 2-3x their normal resolution and the results can be quite good, but it's nowhere near as good as making the models to support higher resolutions from the get go.
I don't think asking for better textures and possibly higher poly models than a PSP could handle is evidence that PC players are graphics whores. I've played PSP games supersampled by 2-3x their normal resolution and the results can be quite good, but it's nowhere near as good as making the models to support higher resolutions from the get go.
I don't see anyone complaining that Trails in the Sky and Elminage Gothic's PC ports aren't full on remasters beyond using a few higher-resolution 2D assets - I mean hell, Trails is one of those "You can literally count by hand the total polygons on screen" situations, and ultimately at the end of the day noone really cared. It's simply less of an issue than some people make it out to be.
I can't help but imagine that a port of VC2 would cost less than VC1 was itself, considering how arcane it is to take PS3 CELL code and rebuild it for x86 (and vice-versa). I'd go more in depth with the hypotheticals, but it's a moot point without knowing what kind of budget VC PC had. But as far as I know, porting a PS3 game isn't exactly what I'd call an insignificant investment. Naughty Dog's commentaries on how much of a bitch TLOU:R was to do because of TLOU being a PS3 game only cements this.
I don't see anyone complaining that Trails in the Sky and Elminage Gothic's PC ports aren't full on remasters beyond using a few higher-resolution 2D assets - I mean hell, Trails is one of those "You can literally count by hand the total polygons on screen" situations, and ultimately at the end of the day noone really cared. It's simply less of an issue than some people make it out to be.
Trails in the Sky isn't a port. It was a PC game to begin with; the Steam release is built on the original PC release's source code.
Trails also isn't a sequel to a game with PS3 level graphics. Like it or not, VC1 set a bar that VC2 and VC3 don't even come close to. I have strong doubts people who experienced the game for the first time would just happily pay any price for sequels that look markedly worse than the original game.
So after I finished the game and cleaned up a few ranks, I have suggestions for improvements... that are about 6 years too late.
0) Improve the localization and explanations. Some mission explanations are misleading, and some enemy labels are misleading as well.
In one of the first missions you're told that the radiator is a tank's "weak point", but the tank in this particular mission has crazy bullet resistance... just for this mission. This misleads you into thinking all radiators have high bullet resistance.
Orders that detail things like "Demolition Boost", "Concentrate Fire", "Penetration" have vague descriptions which can be misleading. For instance, using Demolition Boost on a Lancer attacking a tank doesn't really do anything, despite the order detailing "doubling anti-tank power". It's just not clear how these abilities actually work sometimes and it throws you for a loop when the order appears to do nothing at all.
Chapter 7: It is suggested to shoot down the walls to slow down Batomys. However the first wall is already knocked down! It doesn't appear that way, and an indicator + life bar appears when you aim at it, misleaing a player into thinking that it hasn't been knocked down yet.
Chapter 18a: The lance on top of Marmota is classified as a tank (wut) meaning that only lancers and Edelweiss can really damage it (or if you miraculously equipped a shocktroooper with a high armor damaging weapon). Also account for the fact that it's tremendously difficult to angle Edelweiss's shot while not getting blown the fuck out by the lance cannon, and that even a slightly misplaced lancer shot from the ground will miss the "critical" part of the lance. Just all around never explained well and awful.
There's other examples but I'm forgetting them, ugh... but I know there are parts that could've been better explained.
1) Make the PC controls... more built for PCs, improve the M+KB interface, UI and menu options for PC. Examples include dedicated buttons for Orders and Saving, and better presentation of the list of Orders so you don't have to scroll, and so forth.
2) Improve the map during briefing so that enemies are visible, but only enemies that would be visible if I did max deployment. In other words don't get rid of the fog of war, but I should know what a starting position looks like from the vantage point of all my troops on the first turn. That way I don't have to deploy, restart, deploy again. Bundled with this should be an improved topographical view of the map so that obstacles to movement should be clearer.
2.5) Allow me to view a map from a unit's view like always without having to spend CP. In other words, I should be able to select a unit purely for their view without committing to moving or shooting. Sometimes I just want to review the area without relying on the map.
3) Improve the rating system. While scout rushing is actually (mostly) not viable even up to halfway through the game because of the higher interception fire rate and the lack of potentials increasing bullet resistances AND that you don't get orders that help with rushing unless you deliberately grind Skirmishes for them after watching youtube tutorials before you play a map for the first time
Who the hell DOES all of this? TekGryphon?
, the ranking system could still use improvement. There are a decent chunk of missions that don't revolve around base capture, but the fact that NG+ revolves around speeding up scouts is rather lame when there's cool strategies around capturing bases or killing aces and enemy tanks.
4) Improve the AI period. Anything is fine as long as they're not egregiously strong. I did note in some of the Challenges that the AI is a bit more bloodthirsty and will target troops with less HP and chase down downed units. Silly problems like the enemy wasting turns going back and forth shouldn't exist, there should've definitely been more scenarios programmed into the game to account for player action. Something that could've been solved with some more extensive beta testing I feel. One example is non-lancer infantry never aiming for Edelweiss's radiator, thus making the radiator upgrades totally worthless. And perhaps enemy soldiers never taking aim at heads.... though that might cause problems in certain maps...
5) Save scumming in strategy games is nothing new, but there's no real easy solution; no one wants to lose an entire mission's work due to RNG, but the existence of saving during battle makes the RNG meaningless. So I think it would be more fun if there were perhaps in-game uniform or emblem unlocks if you managed to defeat a bunch of missions in a row without saving. Allow the scumming, but increase the reward for not using it.... without affecting the game's overall investments.
tl;dr
Valkyria Chronicles 1 deserves a sequel that acts as a rebooted sequel.
I'm playing VC2 right now and I am not impressed, to put it in the nicest way possible.
Valkyria Chronicles 1 deserves a sequel that acts as a rebooted sequel.
I'm playing VC2 right now and I am not impressed, to put it in the nicest way possible.
VC1 sets things up perfectly for infinite prequels, I think. By focusing on the historcial Darcsen and Valkyria stuff they can use the "chronicle" style of presentation and completely retool how the game plays, all while showing the most interesting stories of the Valkyria Chronicles universe. If they really need to bridge it somehow, make VC0: The First Europan War.
He found someone else who extracted some text files from the game which show placeholders for some interesting items, including:
A mission featuring
Valkyria Alicia
Originally there were going to be Potentials based around being near water, wood or gravel.
There were also potentials called Sniper Hater and Engineer Hater.
There are entries for two DLC Imperial weapons that are unobtainable in the game.
I find this stuff a lot of fun. Too bad I'm not a good code explorer or extractor.
If it wasn't such a massive, herculean effort I would love to fix the subtitles in the game to be more accurate. Knowing my luck I'd try to re-insert extracted lines and my game would endlessly crash.
I just finished the game and I've got to say, what a great ride that was. Great length, interesting story with great characters and intense moments. I really felt in love with it as it was a fun game to play and a great story to experience. I'm really hoping for 2 and 3 to get ported, make it happen SEGA!
I feel like it's a shame, because I really like the characters, I love the art style, I like the idea of the combat, but there is so much trial and error, and so many times it feels like you can only truly be successful if you "game" the system by taking advantage of line of sight and stuff like that.
For example, the only way to beat some more difficult missions with higher ranks is to know exactly where an enemy will be standing and facing at a specific point and then creep up to just where he can't fire on you and then fire at him. I don't know, like I say, I want to like the game, but the gameplay just isn't quite what I want it to be. It just seems a little... hokey, or something I don't know it's hard to describe.
I just finished the game and I've got to say, what a great ride that was. Great length, interesting story with great characters and intense moments. I really felt in love with it as it was a fun game to play and a great story to experience. I'm really hoping for 2 and 3 to get ported, make it happen SEGA!
I feel like it's a shame, because I really like the characters, I love the art style, I like the idea of the combat, but there is so much trial and error, and so many times it feels like you can only truly be successful if you "game" the system by taking advantage of line of sight and stuff like that.
For example, the only way to beat some more difficult missions with higher ranks is to know exactly where an enemy will be standing and facing at a specific point and then creep up to just where he can't fire on you and then fire at him. I don't know, like I say, I want to like the game, but the gameplay just isn't quite what I want it to be. It just seems a little... hokey, or something I don't know it's hard to describe.
This description of the game as just "sneaking up and shooting guys out of sight" is important but is only one small piece of successful strategies in the game. Also aiming an angled shot outside of a soldier's interception fire is hardly gaming the system, since avoiding and mitigating interception fire is the core of the game's back-and-forth system.
Also if you don't like trial and error it would be tough to play any strategy RPG. Most SRPGs live and breathe off trial and error. In this game I often tried a mission, got my ass kicked, retried, got my ass only mildly kicked, then retried again with a finely tuned strategy.
But if you think mission ranks are missing you by or that difficult missions can't be beaten merely because of stealth firing, then you probably haven't played enough of the game yet.
I'll also say this cause it's worth repeating... Don't worry about the ranking system. Prioritizing it is the quickest way to not have fun with the game and make it feel like a slog. You don't need it or the grades. On my first playthrough I didn't get an A-Rank until chapter 9, then after that I didn't get an A-Rank until chapter 18a. I only needed to do a Skirmish once to get enough funds for a much-needed flamethrower upgrade for Chapter 17 and it took a few minutes.
1. New Game or New Game-like conditions.
2. No orders.
3. No class leveling or R&D research.
4. No damage taken.
5. All kills, excepting some normally unkillable story/plot targets.
6. Low turn counts.
7. Reliable strats, or as reliable as possible while meeting low turn count conditions. No RNG reloading for low potential procs like Hard Worker.
8. Skirmishes and reports are played as soon as they're unlocked with appropriate weapons and recruits.
9. Ace and Royal weapons obtained during the story are allowed. DLC weapons are only allowed on DLC missions such as Hard-EX.
This description of the game as just "sneaking up and shooting guys out of sight" is important but is only one small piece of successful strategies in the game. Also aiming an angled shot outside of a soldier's interception fire is hardly gaming the system, since avoiding and mitigating interception fire is the core of the game's back-and-forth system.
Also if you don't like trial and error it would be tough to play any strategy RPG. Most SRPGs live and breathe off trial and error. In this game I often tried a mission, got my ass kicked, retried, got my ass only mildly kicked, then retried again with a finely tuned strategy.
But if you think mission ranks are missing you by or that difficult missions can't be beaten merely because of stealth firing, then you probably haven't played enough of the game yet.
I'll also say this cause it's worth repeating... Don't worry about the ranking system. Prioritizing it is the quickest way to not have fun with the game and make it feel like a slog. You don't need it or the grades. On my first playthrough I didn't get an A-Rank until chapter 9, then after that I didn't get an A-Rank until chapter 18a. I only needed to do a Skirmish once to get enough funds for a much-needed flamethrower upgrade for Chapter 17 and it took a few minutes.
I'm on Chapter 9/10 at this point, can't remember which. I didn't mean to make it sound like that's all the game was, just that those are the parts that annoy me the most. Like I said, I really love the art style and the story/music. It's true that I'm not much of a score-attack / trial and error kind of guy, it's frequently the thing that disappoints me most about certain Japanese games (like the Souls games). It seems like you have to read guides to really figure some of the intentionally obscure aspects of the game. I hope to finish the game.
I'm on Chapter 9/10 at this point, can't remember which. I didn't mean to make it sound like that's all the game was, just that those are the parts that annoy me the most. Like I said, I really love the art style and the story/music. It's true that I'm not much of a score-attack / trial and error kind of guy, it's frequently the thing that disappoints me most about certain Japanese games (like the Souls games). It seems like you have to read guides to really figure some of the intentionally obscure aspects of the game. I hope to finish the game.
I've gotten through the entire game without the use of any outside assistance. There isn't really anything that the game doesn't teach you in some way.
The only outside resource I've ever looked up was when I went to check absolute minimum turn counts in my third run, which is hardly something necessary or something you sound interested in.
Don't worry, I'm already playing VC2 on a PSP that was lent to me and I'm also liking it, even though there's many differences like the portrait changes, cutscenes, classes, etc. I'm not worried about graphics and stuff like that, when playing a game like this is one of the least important things to me. Also, the game is already interesting with the setup of the
Gallian Civil War
which I though was something that would naturally happen considering that it would be normal for some citicens of Gallia not being happy with
Cordelia being Darcsen
. So far so good, and even if I finish it on PSP I would tottally double dip for a PC version, even if it doesn't involve remastering some stuff.
I'm on Chapter 9/10 at this point, can't remember which. I didn't mean to make it sound like that's all the game was, just that those are the parts that annoy me the most. Like I said, I really love the art style and the story/music. It's true that I'm not much of a score-attack / trial and error kind of guy, it's frequently the thing that disappoints me most about certain Japanese games (like the Souls games). It seems like you have to read guides to really figure some of the intentionally obscure aspects of the game. I hope to finish the game.
Understandable, if you don't like to "feel out the map" and fail the first time, this game will be highly unenjoyable. One of the greatest amounts of fun playing this game is coming across an enemy setup that you aren't prepared for but still overcome though.
I don't think there's anything in the game that's so obscure though. Pretty much everything is explained in the first few tutorials that I can think of. Any other extra details like what you're allowed to crouch behind or how grenades interact with tanks are just something you find while beating the first few missions.
Don't worry, I'm already playing VC2 on a PSP that was lent to me and I'm also liking it, even though there's many differences like the portrait changes, cutscenes, classes, etc. I'm not worried about graphics and stuff like that, when playing a game like this is one of the least important things to me. Also, the game is already interesting with the setup of the
Gallian Civil War
which I though was something that would naturally happen considering that it would be normal for some citicens of Gallia not being happy with
Cordelia being Darcsen
. So far so good, and even if I finish it on PSP I would tottally double dip for a PC version, even if it doesn't involve remastering some stuff.
I'm playing it currently as well. The setting is fine, but the characters are atrocious. It's really strange seeing characters that look like adults behaving like children. Coming from Trails in the Sky where I am playing teenagers that act like adults most of the time (lol). I also find it insulting that the introduction cutscene to the main character Avan is shorter than most of the nonsense cutscenes of zero value. I never thought I'd want to skip cutscenes but the dialogue is agonizing to my brain not mentioning that laugh of Avan's that should take rank next to the infamous FFX Tidus laugh. I dunno if dual audio would save me even if I had the option. The military academy and its setting and the background story so far are actually really cool ideas it's just the characters themselves that make it a terrible thing.
The gameplay so far feels roughly the same from VC1 in terms of straight combat, though there are definite small improvements everywhere. I like the idea of base-to-base movement (especially Retreat not costing anything if you're within your base limit). There are some odd design decisions like being able to reassign potentials, which I feel hurts character individuality but I haven't had a chance to explore that yet. Removing Snipers as a consequence of the PSP having shit draw distance and claustrophobic maps is such a sad thing. I also am picking up "materials" and "arms" but I'm not sure what these do yet, haven't been given any prompts to expend them. Nice to know that leveling and upgrades work the same way so far though.
Also I'd definitely say that graphics have never been a problem for me in my long history of gaming but the graphics in VC2 can get so bad that they can affect tactical decisions. Enemies are so blocky and textures are so low quality that they sometimes blend into the environment (especially sandbags and sometimes towers) not to mention mines are a whole lot tougher to see on the ground. The lack of 60fps really burns coming from VC1 and you don't really realize how much you miss it until you lose it, lol.
The addition of deadzones to make up for the PSP's d-pad makes aiming a real pain in the ass and combining that with moving the slow-as-largo camera with the shoulder buttons is just a divinely awful experience. Vehicle controls are supremely terrible and the "slower movement" option is too slow to be useful for them. So far the inputs to this game for all uses are just incredibly awful compared to the first. Even angling a grenade's throw path takes longer than it used to.
I'm only partly into the beginning of the game though so I should probably hold off any more comments until I've played through a more sizable amount. I'm actually beating missions by tanking through bullets with shocktroopers and armored techs and having scouts finish the job but I can only assume the rest of the game will not be that easy.
As for porting VC2 to PC, the possibility is there. However since the 2D characters and backgrounds are drawn at a certain res there would probably have to be letterboxing, which I'm certain would cause an outrage. Forced anti-aliasing would probably only go so far to make the 2D not look like shit unless they convinced players to run it in windowed mode or something. Also the extremely low-res 3D models for soldiers, environments, along with the small maps would be a very tough sell. If they go ahead and remake one part, they'd probably have to remake the whole thing... and I'm pretty sure the whole reason VC2 went to the PSP was to cut down development cost and to chase after the more hardcore Japanese gaming market which is a smaller but more dependable source of revenue. SEGA suddenly wouldn't go back on that for us the small subset of PC gamers. Porting a game is one thing, but re-developing a title is a whole other ballgame of risk and expenditure which I just don't see happening.
tl;dr
Still feeling out VC2, graphics and controls are shit to the point where they hurt gameplay, characters are insufferable but the gameplay itself so far is OK
tl;dr 2
Convincing your fans to buy a sequel of a game that looks way worse than the first game seems like a titanic effort on PC. It couldn't be a straight port which means technical investment. I'd be happy if it happens just because it's nice to have options but recently lots of PC ports happened out of "convenience", instead of "investing in the market".
Yeah, but that's not really comparable because DS2 was still on Xbox 360/PS3, like DS1, which meant the low bar for the graphics is higher than anything the PSP has put out, sans emulation supersampling.
Yeah, but that's not really comparable because DS2 was still on Xbox 360/PS3, like DS1, which meant the low bar for the graphics is higher than anything the PSP has put out, sans emulation supersampling.
Finally getting around to the DLC. Edy's English voice is swell! It's a shame she only got one mission; I wish we had more of this side-character content in the main story or through additional DLC. I loved seeing a different group dynamic in the game.
Also the ending of the mission had me laughing. Anyways, off to Selvaria's
What I wonder is just how much this sold. Since this wasn't a "Major boxed retail" release, we didn't get the pleasure of seeing the sales numbers in that restructuring report.
That, and, just what is this update being worked on? Every few days I see a new update to the QA builds on SteamDB. Now that's a mystery there :V
Probably just going to be bugfixes for what slipped past the first patch, but I'll be damned if mouse-supporting menus are in our future.
Finally getting around to the DLC. Edy's English voice is swell! It's a shame she only got one mission; I wish we had more of this side-character content in the main story or through additional DLC. I loved seeing a different group dynamic in the game.
Also the ending of the mission had me laughing. Anyways, off to Selvaria's
For all the flak VC2 rightly gets, this is one of the things it really improved on. Having personal quests for every soldier really let you get to know and bond with them in a way that was simply impossible in VC1.
What I wonder is just how much this sold. Since this wasn't a "Major boxed retail" release, we didn't get the pleasure of seeing the sales numbers in that restructuring report.
That, and, just what is this update being worked on? Every few days I see a new update to the QA builds on SteamDB. Now that's a mystery there :V
Probably just going to be bugfixes for what slipped past the first patch, but I'll be damned if mouse-supporting menus are in our future.
Given the slow update to the DB, I'd wager it's probably just a lone-man programming effort to clean up the final bugs. For example 60fps tanks still have a bit of trouble going up ramps and hills. Luckily you can still complete the game just fine. SEGA got pretty lucky with the double interception fire rate due to the framerate. It really did change the game for the better.
And yeah, I'd love to see sales data too. I'll satisfy myself with "beat sales predictions and forecasts" but that doesn't say anything about the series and its future.
--
I did some more research into text replacement this weekend to improve the subtitles in the story chapters. There's a lone user trying to hex-edit translate the game into French and he's running into a bunch of issues. Since I can't read French and Google Translate has always been a bit iffy it's hard to follow his programming breakthroughs.
What makes it more aggravating is that there are screenshots of the game with Korean and Russian (?) subtitles in the Steam directory meaning that such a thing is definitely possible. There is just no discoverable documentation. Diving into the code myself with a hex editor and while I can find text, the sentences are randomly scattered throughout the information files meaning that a dedicated translation update would be impossible.
That and some users did restore the original Japanese version into the PC port, so take that as you will. If you're so concerned undoing the woolseyisms, why don't you go ask the Russians what they did to mod the ingame script? Provided they don't charge the small fee of annexing your rightfully owned land in exchange that is.
Anyway, really hope this got sales enough to justify a localization of VC3...
That and some users did restore the original Japanese version into the PC port, so take that as you will. If you're so concerned undoing the woolseyisms, why don't you go ask the Russians what they did to mod the ingame script? Provided they don't charge the small fee of annexing your rightfully owned land in exchange that is.
Anyway, really hope this got sales enough to justify a localization of VC3...
Well, I don't speak Russian. I think trying to communicate with zero knowledge of their language wouldn't do much other than give them a few laughs. I'll just keep cracking away at it and maybe I'll post some requests on forums, boards or (gulp) IRC channels to see if there's an easy way to extract and inject text from these files.
Replacing the English with the Japanese text is easy because they just drop the Japanese files from the PS3 version and overwrite the English ones. A lot of the console formatting for files is pretty much exactly the same on PC so it's as simple as a drag and drop like how most mods work once the actual modification is done on the coding end.
If I want consistent workflow and not have to waste time agonizingly updating lines that are randomly sorted I need to figure out how to extract in a sorted way that makes sense. Not all the text needs to be fixed, mostly just the subtitles for story events. I'll post more progress attempts as I get closer and once I confirm the game doesn't crash if I mess around with the text. It's possible that I'm just making this a lot harder than it really is.
Once I confirm that there's a simple method for finding and replacing text that doesn't compromise the game (like line breaks, text limits or formats in the case of Ace Attorney Investigations 2) then I'll begin recording cutscenes in Japanese and uploading them to my YT in all their 720p glory to officially begin the project (with the old subtitles) so I can get a good vocal reference without having to use the in-game cutscene viewer where you can't pause or rewind.
(I also hope we get a release of VC3 anywhere, whether it's Steam, Vita, PS4, whatever).
Usually you can tweak scripts via hex editing, but then you're stuck with whatever character limits the game has, unless you have a good programmer or two that can help reverse engineer stuff.
Me and my friend are stuck at this stupid mission all day. No matter where I put my Edelweiss and if I hide its radiator, it always oneshot it.
I was enjoying the game a lot until this. I don't think I ever been so frustrated with a game.
Me and my friend are stuck at this stupid mission all day. No matter where I put my Edelweiss and if I hide its radiator, it always oneshot it.
I was enjoying the game a lot until this. I don't think I ever been so frustrated with a game.
Me and my friend are stuck at this stupid mission all day. No matter where I put my Edelweiss and if I hide its radiator, it always oneshot it.
I was enjoying the game a lot until this. I don't think I ever been so frustrated with a game.
Don't block the Batomys movement path or get into its cannon range with Edelweiss ever (Batomys cannon range is shown during the briefing with red half-circles).
I find this slightly funny, as getting Edelweiss blown up is usually not very high on the list of complaints about this mission lol
Good news everyone.
Replacing the English text is very easy in story mode. This applies to cutscenes with talking heads and actual FMV cutscenes (in beautiful fuzzy 720p). No crashes so far to speak of and I have a ton of space to work with in the text boxes without breaking any in-game limits. Also the line break start and end points are very straightforward to see in HEX... I think.
Behold the extent of my maturity as I continue my testing.
Next move is to begin recording of the cutscenes for reference. I plan on doing this using OBS.
Goal of the translation fix process:
0) Improve my own Japanese listening ability
1) Raise Alicia's IQ back to its original level (ok, that is mostly a joke)
2) Fix improper tone and incorrect translation points
Bonus) Improve the description of certain Orders, Potentials and mission objectives
Don't block the Batomys movement path or get into its cannon range with Edelweiss ever (Batomys cannon range is shown during the briefing with red half-circles).
I find this slightly funny, as getting Edelweiss blown up is usually not very high on the list of complaints about this mission lol
Today we were able to flawlessly solve it... using the same tactic we used already yesterday which failed us: leaving the Edelweiss standing still. Today the Batomys didn't fire on it with the rear cannon, while yesterday oneshotted it. We also had no issue whatsoever with Selvaria (I understand that's the main complain on this mission, yes?).
This game is... kinda random sometimes.
Cool game, although there are some little things here and there that annoy me to no end.
Complain about interception fire at 60FPS being an improvement over the PS3 version and they might listen (unless they're taking about frame rates above 60 FPS).
I want to say that the long time for the patch coming might have been a very lengthy discussion between the porting team and the original creators with the porting team arguing that case, but that's wishful thinking.
So the prologue cutscene 1-1 is mostly fine. However I already reached my first very major hurdle (lol). The first line is something I wanted to add a bit to.
"Two powers controlled the continent"
In Japanese, it reads more like
"The continent Europa had divided into Eastern and Western powers."
It's a harmless update and a good testing spot because this requires a line break and exceeds the first line's original capacity.
When I substituted the line, it worked in its display as intended. However, when it went to display the next line it began reading from a piece of my substituted line then the next text pop-ups afterwards were maligned entirely. This is likely because I exceeded the line's length and altered the spots where addresses call for the next text. Feunoir got very far with trying to figure out how the addresses worked (even coming up with a way to figure out how many frames the game allots for text to appear) but I don't think he ever came up with a final solution for substitution despite discovering many techniques for how the game renders text.
This is an extraordinarily huge roadblock. It looks like unless I have officially licensed SEGA software that allowed the creation of these cutscenes and subtitles (some filetypes seem to date back to the Dreamcast era, lol) that there's no way I can replace text as I please. Trying to find rhyme and reason in address calls in all this HEX would be an absolute nightmare unless it was miraculously reverse-engineered so that I could alter the phrase's timing, duration, etc.
The future refused to change...
but I have some bonus stuff. there's actually unused text in the file that is used when the Japanese narrator is speaking, but are not enabled in the game. A bit unusual unless they were considering doing "real" subtitles the first time instead of dubtitles.
So the prologue cutscene 1-1 is mostly fine. However I already reached my first very major hurdle (lol). The first line is something I wanted to add a bit to.
"Two powers controlled the continent"
In Japanese, it reads more like
"The continent Europa had divided into Eastern and Western powers."
It's a harmless update and a good testing spot because this requires a line break and exceeds the first line's original capacity.
When I substituted the line, it worked in its display as intended. However, when it went to display the next line it began reading from a piece of my substituted line then the next text pop-ups afterwards were maligned entirely. This is likely because I exceeded the line's length and altered the spots where addresses call for the next text. Feunoir got very far with trying to figure out how the addresses worked (even coming up with a way to figure out how many frames the game allots for text to appear) but I don't think he ever came up with a final solution for substitution despite discovering many techniques for how the game renders text.
This is an extraordinarily huge roadblock. It looks like unless I have officially licensed SEGA software that allowed the creation of these cutscenes and subtitles (some filetypes seem to date back to the Dreamcast era, lol) that there's no way I can replace text as I please. Trying to find rhyme and reason in address calls in all this HEX would be an absolute nightmare unless it was miraculously reverse-engineered so that I could alter the phrase's timing, duration, etc.
The future refused to change...
but I have some bonus stuff. there's actually unused text in the file that is used when the Japanese narrator is speaking, but are not enabled in the game. A bit unusual unless they were considering doing "real" subtitles the first time instead of dubtitles.
Doesn't this technically make the battle against the Batomys impossible to lose? Or does it manage the climb? Can't say for myself, because I always destroyed that damn thing before it had a chance to reach the incline.
Doesn't this technically make the battle against the Batomys impossible to lose? Or does it manage the climb? Can't say for myself, because I always destroyed that damn thing before it had a chance to reach the incline.
I don't think Batomys moves on the ground like other AI-controlled tanks. I think it just moves based on positioning data. So it moves the same distance regardless of framerate.
Also in regards to the tanks. After the first patch the 60fps tanks can get farther up the hills than before but they still can't get over the steeper ones despite this last patch. Luckily there aren't too many missions with steep hills that tanks have to go up. I can think of like... 3
I've heard stories where localization companies actually hired people who knew some hex editing, modified the executable themselves then sent it back to the original devs for greenlighting.
I've heard stories where localization companies actually hired people who knew some hex editing, modified the executable themselves then sent it back to the original devs for greenlighting.
Turns out that French translator in question actually made a new thread. It appears he managed to make a bit of a breakthrough, but it confirms what I think I fear; I don't think there's a time in this game where you can break the original's text length unless you have the talking head cutscenes, because during those there's no frame timing on text advancement (it's on the player to do that).
If I purely limit myself to making sure I stay within text limits during auto-advancing text cutscenes I may be OK. Since the English version of this game adds a ton of superfluous text most of the time I shouldn't have a problem. Time to begin more testing.
I'm impressed they're still fixing up the game. For other long-awaited Japanese ports, it feels like they get a patch or two and then get dropped like a hot potato, but not so for Valkyria Chronicles. It's as though they see a wonderful future for the franchise on PC!
Deadly Premonition sure could've used the same dedication....
I'm impressed they're still fixing up the game. For other long-awaited Japanese ports, it feels like they get a patch or two and then get dropped like a hot potato, but not so for Valkyria Chronicles. It's as though they see a wonderful future for the franchise on PC!
Deadly Premonition sure could've used the same dedication....
Pretty rad they fixed the intercept thing (haven't tested it yet though). I understand maybe some people thought it made the game better but ultimately this version should be faithful to the original when possible.
Pretty rad they fixed the intercept thing (haven't tested it yet though). I understand maybe some people thought it made the game better but ultimately this version should be faithful to the original when possible.
I think it should definitely be on a case by case basis with these things, so in this case of interception fire they have definitely made a mistake. There are some things the original game didn't do right and should be fixed.
In fact this mistake in question of interception fire being too slow is probably the game's most popular failure. Make no mistake they really should have left it alone and focused again on tanks not being able to climb steep embankments at 60fps.
