The Western RPG thread

[Ack]

In my desire to become comfortable with Drakkhen, I started reading up on it. I've discovered some fascinating facts about the SNES port. It was the first RPG released on the Super Nintendo in North America, beating out the likes of Final Fantasy II by several months. It also has some significant changes to the SNES port that make it easier than the original computer releases:

1. A shark in the moat of the first castle that can instantly kill your party members appears later in the game in the SNES version.
2. Using Anaks to heal and revive dead characters is free in the SNES version. It cost money in the computer versions, and each character had to have their own funds(money is shared in the SNES version). Since you couldn't give dead people money, you'd have to find a shop to transfer it to them, which meant you spent longer with a gimped party.
3. In the starting area, there is a central lane of flashing colors where dragons appear. In the SNES version, these dragons offer advice. In the computer versions, these dragons were hostile and would attack the party.
4. Running from monsters is easier in the SNES version.
5. A particular drawbridge trap at a later castle in the game will not hurt you in the SNES version. In the computer versions, it would kill a party member and splatter their blood all over the walls.
6. Options for interacting with the world are a bit different, making the SNES version more streamlined.
7. The computer releases came with a physical map, and you had to use the sun to figure out the time of day. This actually helped serve as a form of copy protection by making the game harder for anyone who didn't purchase a legit physical release firsthand. The SNES version has a map and compass built into the game to use.
8. Spell names were written as runes in the computer versions. These runes were translated in the guide, again as a form of copy protection. The SNES uses names for the spells in English.

All of this makes the SNES version much more user friendly, though some was added intentionally to prevent piracy...and gimped the play experience for anybody who played legit. Since Drakkhen is originally a French production from Infogrames...well, now we know where Ubisoft got their ideas.

If any of you guys ever decide to give Drakkhen a go, I recommend the SNES version. Though I figure only those of us playing for completion sake(namely Bone and I) will be interested.

Oh, and for laughs...while the gore has been toned down for the SNES port, this is one of the few NTSC-U Super Nintendo games where the references to alcohol were kept intact.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Do you know what the first RPG on Super Famicom was?

And yeah, Drakkhen is cool. Glad it got a console port, otherwise I probably would have never played it.

Oh, and I just discovered that the Amiga version isn't insanely expensive. So tempted...

[Ack]

Do you know what the first RPG on Super Famicom was?

And yeah, Drakkhen is cool. Glad it got a console port, otherwise I probably would have never played it.

Oh, and I just discovered that the Amiga version isn't insanely expensive. So tempted...

I'm actually not sure. Drakkhen apparently saw a release on the Super Famicom on May 24, 1991, which puts it ahead of Ys III by a month and Final Fantasy IV by about two months....so yeah, I think it's once again Drakkhen.

[noiseredux]

Ack, I'm certain I've asked you this to some extent in the past - but what's your stance on Dragon Age (series) or Bioware in general? I can't imagine you not liking DA Origins, but something tells me you weren't interested when I last mentioned it to you.

[Ack]

I haven't played any of the Dragon Age games, though the BioWare stuff I've tried I thought ranged from supreme to ok. Baldur's Gate is God-tier to me, Mass Effect was pretty good, but Jade Empire was forgettable. It really does depend on the game.

As for the Dragon Age games specifically, I'm not really that interested at the moment, but it's not their fault. I'm just trying to focus on very specific things in my gaming these days, including playing a lot of what I already own on the SNES and GOG mainly. I know the first is available on Steam, and I might pick it up eventually, but for now no dice. I still have a bunch of other stuff to play on Steam that folks have given me, including at least one gift from you, noise.

[Betagam7]

Another interesting fact about Drakkhen. Many of the PAL carts had some kind of glitch that made text unreadable.

I bought the damn thing three times back in the day and each time had to return it because of corrupted text. Annoying as it was so cheap at the time (around £14.99 as I recall) that no other SNES game was cheap enough for me to accept in exchange!

[Betagam7]

Cursory search says yes. The source I'm reading says all the important options can be set to English.

Yep, my searching led to something similar, however i couldn't find clear evidence that the whole thing can be switched to English or whether it just related to some menus.

Can anyone who has played it please confirm?

I also heard that the Western versions of the game are censored so this could be the superior version to get.

I've now recieved my copy of Wizardry so can answer my own question for anybody else who is curious.
The options menu has a bunch of adjustable options for changing the language. Bizarrely instead of just a Japanese or English setting each one only changes certain parts of the text (e.g. stats, items, in game dialogue). Flipping them all seems to pretty much change everything to English, however you still have to use Hiragana to name your characters. So there is no way to give your party English names. The names of characters in the adventurer's inn thingy that you can recruit from also remain in Japanese.

[Xeogred]

I haven't played any of the Dragon Age games, though the BioWare stuff I've tried I thought ranged from supreme to ok. Baldur's Gate is God-tier to me, Mass Effect was pretty good, but Jade Empire was forgettable. It really does depend on the game.

As for the Dragon Age games specifically, I'm not really that interested at the moment, but it's not their fault. I'm just trying to focus on very specific things in my gaming these days, including playing a lot of what I already own on the SNES and GOG mainly. I know the first is available on Steam, and I might pick it up eventually, but for now no dice. I still have a bunch of other stuff to play on Steam that folks have given me, including at least one gift from you, noise.

Be weary with Dragon Age, I thought Origins was horrible (still got 30 some hours out of it), and 2 was ragged on so poorly from critics and fans I skipped it, but ended up loving Inquisition. Who knows what I'll think of the next one.

[noiseredux]

I loved my 30 hrs with Origins.

[Sarge]

Origins was good, but not KOTOR-tier. I enjoyed my time with Inquisition, but I thought it tried a little too much to be "expansive" like Bethesda's games.

DA2 is what it is. A solid action-RPG (basically) that reuses assets a bit too much. Certainly not worthy of the ire it received, but not nearly as good as it could have been.