How is your Saturn gaming going?

[Soldier Blue]

So, is it generally accepted that import RPGs for the Saturn are strictly for collecting? It pains me to see copies of Shining Wisdom and Shining The Holy Ark for under $10, yet I cant enjoy them cause they're entirely in Japanese. =/

On a side note, does Dracula X require a strong understanding of Japanese to play? Not too interested in the story, just wanna play through the game as Richter and Maria.

I don't think it's that hard to play import rpgs, especially if there is a english counterpart. You can just look on youtube for a walkthrough. For japanese only rpgs you should type the name into youtube in Hiragana/katakana/kanji or search youtube.jp

One example is Magic Knight Rayearth. There is quite a bit of spoken dialogue in the game so you can get a feel for the angst in the characters voices. You might already know some of the phrases/expressions if you've watched anime.

Additionally, when you are given decisions in the game, the character Hikaru's animated head will appear and nod for a choice meaning yes, and shake meaning no. There is also a anime for this particular game, so you can further tell whats going on. Overall, I don't think they are that difficult to enjoy.

[the7k]

Yeah, RPGs aren't really that hard to get through in Japanese, in most cases - although, you really have to answer why you are playing it if it's in Japanese.

Like, I can pretty easily say I would not have played through most of the JP RPGs I have played through had they not been based on an anime series I was interested in.

One exception for me is tactical RPGs, though. I feel like the battle system in such games is fun enough that I don't need to know the story or care about the characters.

[Thierry Henry]

Ooof.

My internal save battery is dead. Bye bye Ys II progress.

Changing one of these isn't too tough, right?

Unless you're qualified, Don't do it!

Seriously though myself I tend to favor saving on a memory card.
Over time data can get corrupted, but touch wood I haven't had that problem thus far.

[Reprise]

Seriously though myself I tend to favor saving on a memory card.
Over time data can get corrupted, but touch wood I haven't had that problem thus far.

Yeah, is that a common issue? Because I had that happen to me and I lost all my data

It's an official memory cartridge and fortunately I haven't had a problem with it since, but I just don't really understand why it randomly got corrupted one day.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Can I simply choose to save directly on to my Action Replay? I have one but haven't looked much into its functionality. I've used it strictly to boot imports.

[Thierry Henry]

^^
Not too sure about that. I've never tried it. I use an official Sega memory cart.
I stand to be corrected but AFAIK you can't save directly to the AR.
More like you can move saves files to and from the internal memory to the AR cart.

[deathsled]

My gaming is about to get a lot better. My "portable Saturn" is almost complete. I've been trying to get a Saturn in my hands for years now and finally have a workable solution. I'll be updating with more details soon!

[Reprise]

Yeah, you can't save directly to the Action Replay. You can only transfer and back up saves.

[Czernobog]

Can I simply choose to save directly on to my Action Replay? I have one but haven't looked much into its functionality. I've used it strictly to boot imports.

In my experience, no. You have to transfer the data back and forth from the battery to the action replay. There does tend to be much more space on action replays than the battery though, so it's good for clearing space without losing your saves.

Also, anyone can easily replace the Saturn battery. You just take it out and put another one in. No knowledge needed.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Worth noting that most games will save directly to the official Sega memory cartridge.