Quick Questions XIII: Answers Return

I don’t think there’s a better and available-in-English version of the first two SMT games than the SNES versions, so if you don’t mind Mid 90s Dungeon Crawling that’s a good option.

Of the various spin-offs and side games… Well, kinda the same problem. English versions generally aren’t available on PSP. Well, I guess there’s Persona 1-3. Those are pretty interesting ports.

iirc the English translation of the first game is still bugged. there was an iOs option but it doesn’t work with the latest firmware?

there’s a bugfix patch for the old sfc english translation (and another somewhere on romhacking.net that binds instantly checking the map to L/R, a pretty big qol fix)

the ios port is so-so… it’s based on the gba port with the psx music grafted on, has an awful ui that takes up a huge chunk of the screen and yeah - doesn’t work on ios 11 as it was 32bit only despite shipping in 2014, well into devs being on notice there

i’m surprised the ps1 port is still untranslated

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why was it such a big thing in the late 90s to recover data for combat exercises saved on m.o. disks

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is there a pi small enough to fit inside a wonderswan’s case, enabling it to fulfill its destiny as a handheld tate mode stg machine?

I don’t see that anyone ever answered this, but it’s incredibly easy. If you went through with buying one, I could explain the important stuff you need to know.

Is Wasteland 2 worth $10, it’s the highest tier of one of the recent Humble Bundles

I might have too much of a soft spot for it but I think its worth playing even if it is strictly lesser than a lot of recent isometric rpgs.

It only really picks up in quality in the second half of the game (which makes an odd sort of sense, they built it after getting extensive feedback on the first half)

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agreed. it’s missing a lot, frankly, of what made a lot of the really great recent RPGs so good – it could’ve come out a decade ago and been hailed as just like the old classics and that would’ve been fine enough – but it’s still quite likeable. just bear in mind that I’d recommend original sin or dragonfall or new-torment or transistor more immediately across the board.

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Etrian Odyssey and SMT Strange Journey use a system where the chance of your next step causing a random encounter is indicated by a part of the HUD that shifts color, reflecting a percentage calculated from a number of variables.

Does anyone know of any other RPGs that do this, Wizardry/SMT-style dungeon crawlers in particular? Most are either fully random battles or have the monsters roaming around (although those monsters might be only be “symbols” for a potential battle).

Does listening for CD drive scratching in Skies of Arcadia DC count?

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The NIS dungeon crawler The Witch’s Coven and the Labyrinth of Refrain has a color-changing HUD indicator, but it reflects how close you are to the wandering enemies, not actual random encounters. I feel like I’ve played some other portable dungeon crawler that did this but I can’t think of which it was.

thanks! but my main interest was the quality of the controllers - are they good quality replicas of the SNES controllers? Do they have USB connectors?

I never owned a SNES, but from what I hear they are more or less the same as the original. The connectors are not USB, I think it is actually Wii nunchuck connectors for whatever reason

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I looked at them back to back with the real thing and any difference I could detect came from the old ones being a little more well-worn. So the main difference is the cable, which are shorter than the real thing and use Wii remote controlller port connections.

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So what happens when you plug in a Nunchunk or Classic Controller in there then? Does it work with alright button mappings?

I’m finally able to play “souls” games on my computer. I assume Dark Souls 1 is the best to play? Are there particular patches/fixes necessary or is the base Steam version fine?

DSFix is generally recommendable

it’s kind of frustrating they haven’t worked out a way to just ship that yet, one of the highest profile games from the past decade having a hardcoded 720p framebuffer without an external tool is silly

  1. Should I play Ground Zeroes before playing MGSV?

  2. I’ve never played a Souls game and only have a PS4. Is starting with Bloodborne a bad idea?