Well, as you all may or may not know I’ve always been a huge dragon freak (though it’s something I keep to myself these days), so when I heard that the old SNES game “Emerald Dragon” has finally gotten a fan translation I acquired the ROM, and the patch and decided to try out a blast from the past.
I just finished it, and I must say I’m rather disappointed. It tries really hard to be good - it really does, has a somewhat cliche but still viable storyline (Demons taking over kingdom, go kill demons, go kill big baddie behind the demons, save the world, yadda yadda), an innovate (for the time) battle system, some good anime scenes.
But the map design ranges from mediocre to terrible, battles are tedious as you only control the main character and he only has one special ability, the music is bland, the sound effects are poorly done, and you can tell what’s going to happen next in the story before it happens, and I think I played most of the game with the turbo button down. I could honestly make something better with RMXP.
This is mostly why I stay away from fan-translated games…well, not because they’re fan translated, but mostly because, well, they probably didn’t get translated into english for a good reason. I can count the number of “imported” RPGs I’ve enjoyed on one hand, and I’ve been in the business of playing said “imports” for about nine years. I’m not sure how to say it without sounding fanboyish, but SquareSoft was generally the only company that made really good games that didn’t get released here in the SNES era, and even THEY had a lot of games that were out and out crap (Live-A-Live, Treasure of the Rudras, Front Mission).
Hey, I like Live a Live. It isn’t great, but it was still quite a lot of fun for me.
Treasure of the Rudras is the one with the weird magic combination system, right? If so, that one DOES suck. The battle system makes me want to eat one thousand potato chips covered in ex-lax and Vaseline.
I really didn’t like Live-A-Live that much. It was neat for a while, but a lot of the scenarios were just plain boring. The ninja one was fun, the Sci-Fi one was okay, but the rest were just painfully bad.
And yeah, Treasure of the Rudras is the one you’re thinking about. Actually, the combat system is really easy to break if you know the right four or five spells. The writing is just intensely bad.
Actually, I…ah, I totally hate the Star Ocean and Tales series. I think you probably already knew that I hated the Tales series. I admit, I’ve never played the first Star Ocean, but I don’t think it bodes well when I didn’t like the second and third. As for the Tales series, I’ve played almost every single one, due to my best friend being absolutely nuts about them, and I haven’t liked a single one yet.
I also found LAL fun (thanks, Cid). It didn’t exactly rock my world but the variety of the scenarios was nice and allowed for gimmicks that would be irritating if they were present throughout the game. The scenario with the GREATEST MARTIAL ARTIST! was so cheesy it had me laughing and I wouldn’t mind a full game based on the kung fu chapter.
edit: On TOP, I still remember my reaction the first time I loaded them on an emulator. This thing runs on SNES and it never got translated? I liked the gameplay, but other than the main conflict with Dhaos, I found the side-quests and most minor antagonists boring and later, after going to the future to beat Dhaos a third time, I lost interest.
The most fun I got out of Emerald Dragon was making up dialog for the characters because I couldn’t read it. An English patch might take away from that fun. Of course, it would make other aspects of the game better, like anything that requires reading.
I’ve played a few hours into it. As SNES RPGs go, it’s pretty good. I think the problems you run into with sound are the result of the game being a port from another system. There are several versions. The translator (Nightcrawler) seems to prefer the SNES version, but elsewhere I’ve read about the downgrades the game suffered on that system.
Yeah, that’s probably because nobody seems to know how to do ROM hacks for the Japanese computers it originated on.
And I hear Emerald Dragon was one of the harder to hack SNES games, which would explain why only Nightcrawler was willing to make the effort (and SNES is the only system he does hacks on).
Though I heard somebody who knows PCE well working on the PCE-CD version (which was supposedly a less-butchered port), though I haven’t heard anything about it in awhile.
Still, I liked SNES Emerald Dragon. I thought it was fun, and despite being ridiculously easy, and the graphics and music were pretty good.
Live A Live is a lot of fun; It’s basic concept was good and it gives you a lot of scenarios to play. Then again, I tend to like that kind of multi-genre game. It’s only limits were the ones due to the technology of the time, and a somewhat confusing story (it’s time travel, what do you expect?) I think LAL is a GREAT candidate for a game that could be a hit if given the recreation treatment ala Wild Arms Alter Code F: better graphics, a few redesigns, and a straightened plot.
