Cool RPG site...

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:40 am

For all RPG fans, here a nice site with a lot of classic RPGs (Phanstasy Star, Final Fanstasy, ect...)
Lots of wallpapers, Pics, walkthroughs & Reviews...

http://www.fantasyanime.com/

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:53 pm

Very very nice find. I love the D&D games and his page on those is a nice flashback.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:49 pm

I prefer action RPGs rather than turn based ones, but I would love to get into Arabian Knights (SNES) when the translation is complete.
It looks awesome!

Could any RPG fans recommend me some cool, preferably action RPGs on any system (but I prefer SNES).
For example I saw the 1st level of Terranigma & it looked amazing!
Wasn't this ever released in the US or was it under a different name?

I remember some time ago, 2 pals playing Secret of Evermore & Illusion of Gaia. The games themselves looked pretty good.

I started playing Neutopia II on the PCE, but I got bored after some time & lost interest. I found the graphics a bit too repetitive. Does sit improve later on in the game?

I also tried Story of Thor 2 on the Saturn & Soleil on the Genesis but didn’t keep me either.

I found Stoty of Thor 1 on the Genesis a bit more interesting by the way.

I also tried Phantasy Star III on the Genesis, but the repetitive turn based battles got tiring after some time.

I absolutely hated Alundra 1 on the PS-1

Secret of Mana looks interesting, any good?

So any recommendations will be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:48 am

Cool, they got a page devoted to Earthbound!

russ · Post by **russ** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:17 am

ST Dragon: Secret of Mana is excellent, you must check it out. As for others, I recommend Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean, both also for the SFC (J only). Though you do get into random battles in both games, they have a real-time combat system where you move and engage the enemy yourself, instead of issuing commands. Well, in Star Ocean you're a little more restricted, and in both games you only control your main character while the AI controls the rest (though you can command the others to do stuff at any time). The games can't really be explained, so you have to check it out yourself. Note that Star Ocean needs a graphics patch to work, and if you want it in English you should download the dejap translation and patch the rom. The graphics patch is a bit more complicated - ask if you have any trouble.

EDIT: As for Terranigma, it only got a PAL release

though it's an awesome game still, I definitely recommend checking it out as well.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:28 am

ST Dragon wrote:Secret of Mana looks interesting, any good?

Mana is similar to Zelda in that you actually move around and such during battles, as opposed to selecting stuff from a menu, but it has more RPG elements in it than a typical "advanture" game. It has its "issues," but it's still one of my personal favorite SNES epics.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:40 am

FatCobra wrote:Cool, they got a page devoted to Earthbound!

I assume you've bookmarked it and visit it frequently now.

fantasyanime guy · Post by **fantasyanime guy** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:48 pm

(came here through referral history) Wheee I feel so flattered that people are talking about my website. ^_^

As for those interested in Secret of Mana, I highly recommend you play it with the "Secret of Mana: Enhanced" patch applied. It replaces the Secret of Mana font with Chrono Trigger's font. This allows for much more room in the dialogue boxes, so with the extra space ALL the dialogue in the game has been retyped to include more detail. Check out this image for some comparison screen shots. The patch also makes some improvements in the game, like "1 2 3" at the cannon guy now lists actual location names.

ST Dragon: SNES Slayers RPG (based on the popular anime) is another RPG that should be finished soon by fan translators. I'm looking forward to Arabian Nights as well!

Here are the games in my site that fall under the action/RPG genre:
- Alcahest (SNES)
- Final Fantasy Adventure (Gameboy)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (Arcade)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Arcade)
- Secret of Mana (SNES)
- Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES)
- Sword of Mana (Gameboy Advance)
- Terranigma (SNES)

russ: For quite some time now, ZSNES and Snes9X added support for all of DeJap's graphics packs. So games like Star Ocean and Street Fighter 2 Alpha no longer require the graphics packs to work.

Speaking of DeJap, they're pretty much dead right now. For those who aren't familiar with them, they're the most famed translation group out there for providing us an English translation for Tales of Phantasia, Bahamut Lagoon, and Star Ocean (all are superb games). I have here DeJap's last words. This was posted in their forum so you won't find it on their page.

First off, both DF and I now have access to the website. DF has been wanting to make a main page update for some time, but he hasn't been able to think of how to say what he wants to say. In the future, I may be taking over the website duties.

Essentially, what he wants to say is that DeJap is pretty much dead. As some of you may know, DF is basically the only member as of now. As some of you may also know, DF was in an accident several months ago. He's pretty much okay now, but he has to go through constant physiotherapy, which eats through his time, energy, and money. The sad fact is that he does not have the time to dedicate to any of DeJap's projects. He's been doing a bit of work on and off (mainly on Star Ocean, although there really didn't sound like there was a *lot* of stuff done), but he can't keep the whole DeJap running alone any more.

Individual projects can be handed off to other groups, but DF is also looking to see if anyone specific is willing to take them over, possibly under the DeJap umbrella. Here's a quote from his most recent communication with me.

about the projects.. let's see, I'm in the process of giving feoez to ynt(group) lead by kammedo. he's a bit reluctant but I know he'll accept eventually. kam might not accept or not accept fully, so some kind of equal partnership is available for feoez.

I've already handed over all my dq3r material to chrisrpg and I also gave him the dq5 and dq6 works. he'll be converting dq5 to non-english and hopefully will be able to finish up the last 10% of dq6 (that project has been going on about 10 years now, it's just sad). since chrisrpg is not dedicated to dq6 (only dq3) he wont be touching it this year anyway so if we could find someone to at least finish up the translation for it that would be great. many have offered, ALL have failed and quit with no reason after a couple months.

I also gave tactics ogre to chrisrpg but again it's not on his priority list so we can still find someone to help with hacking it, tho chris is enthusiact about TO a whole lo more than DQ6.

samurai "shodown", whoever wants it can have it. in fact, I've been busy/lazy and have not responded to the translators who had translations to send back to me. I think I waited so long now that they've given up and moved on and don't have the translated scripts anymore.

wedding peach: if someone tackles that game I'll laugh. my only reason for keeping it as a project is that I wanted to replace the cheesy intro music with the full orchestrated version, which is a very interested hack to do.

daikaijyu monogatari 2: if you give gideon long enough, like another year or two, he'll do this game.

tales of phantasia stays with dejap always.. it's our claim to fame. I'm still handling the delegation of multilingual translations for it though I'd prefer if someone else can do it, it takes a lot of time and management skills though.

star ocean however... I don't know anyone who can take over and manage it. sure there's lots of good hackers out there but none have the vision I do for what the "proper final patch" should be, and few would be able to understand all the work that currently makes up the modified systems, not to mention managing non-english translations (this is something that will have to be done). the voice handling part tho is easy and any reasonable hacker could take that part over.

also.. I was wondering if you could ask for people who know some psx hacking, able to modify r3000 code (or whatever the psx cpu is). there's only one squaresoft rpg on psx that never made it here which really needs a translation (soukagi) and I wanted to at least try to get a group together for it but not try to put it under the dejap banner. also for psx, I just need some help cracking a PAL game which I own to run on my NTSC psx (i.e. modifying the signal output setting which isset in code)

So... there you have it.

It's sad, but all good things are meant to end. At least there are still several other translation groups still active and translating awesome games. On a side note, did you know that Tales of Phantasia has it's own anime?

It's rather new. Unfortunately, it's only intended to be four episodes.

russ · Post by **russ** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 5:38 pm

fantasyanime guy wrote:russ: For quite some time now, ZSNES and Snes9X added support for all of DeJap's graphics packs. So games like Star Ocean and Street Fighter 2 Alpha no longer require the graphics packs to work.

I was totally not aware of that - I havn't played Star Ocean since DeJap was only about 90% done translating it (the item descriptions and skill names were not yet translated), which must have been a good 2 years ago.

And what crappy news about DeJap, I had no idea they were calling it quits. They had done so much for the RPG and import community

. Regardless, I'm still a huge Tales fan, and have been importing the newer Tales games ever since. Still, it's a bitch trying to work through an RPG whose language is unfamiliar (to me, at least), but by hunting the internet for translations, using and abusing online Japanese dictionaries, and just through sheer deduction, it can be done. I'm working my way through Tales of Rebirth at the moment, and it's definitely an excellent addition to the Tales series.

As for the Tales of Phantasia anime, I've only heard of it, but those screenshots and movie clips might suggest I go a step further and check it out a bit more

. And since I havn't said it yet - excellent website, keep up the good work!

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:12 pm

@Russ
Yes it's true!
I just played Street Fighter Alpha 2 on ZSNES & it's very cool!
In some ways people were right about it being an arcade perfect conversion & in some ways even better than the PSX version.
Be sure to check it out...

Also I just tried Star Ocean (J) [!] [T-Eng] with the English patch.
It has one of the coolest intro sequences I've seen on the SNES.
The battle system is quite interesting, (I think it’s similar to Xanadu I & II on the DUO as I’ve read some descriptions, but never played either my self) I'll be sure to check it out further more once I complete the rest.

I wasn't able to play:
Far East of Eden Zero - Shounen Jump no Shou (J) [!], on either ZSNES or SNES9x...
Maybe it isn't supported yet?

Oh by the way Russ, that pic in your avatar, is it the 1st level Boss of Ikaruga?
It looks cool!
Do you have a full screen pic you could post?
Thanks.

@fantasyanime guy

Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES) - I thought this had turned based battles like Final Fanstasy?

Final Fantasy Adventure (Gameboy) - Wow! A Final Fantasy game with real time action like Zelda?
I'll check it out soon then...

Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (Arcade)
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Arcade)

I tried to complete these back in 2001, when the CPS-2/Final Burn Emu craze broke out, but I got tired of them real soon & never finished them.
They have the best Heroic Fantasy art & animation I've seen.
I liked The CPS-1 arcade game "The King of Dragons" better, even though it had very few RPG elements.

I just tried Popful Mail on the SEGA CD & it looks quite good. It’s quite different to the SNES version though. I haven’t played the DUO version.

I think I'll start of with Alcahest (SNES) as it has a lot of the elements that made me love Zelda 1 & 3 & similar graphics with King of Dragons.
The English patch seems to be complete.
Is this a long & enjoyable game, with kick ass bosses & cool music?

Thanks in advance.

russ · Post by **russ** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:34 pm

ST Dragon wrote:Oh by the way Russ, that pic in your avatar, is it the 1st level Boss of Ikaruga?
It looks cool!
Do you have a full screen pic you could post?
Thanks.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the Stage 1 boss - I don't remember where I found the wallpaper, so I uploaded it myself, as well as a few of my other favorite Ikaruga wallpapers. I hope the download isn't too slow, because Comcast is pretty crappy

Download here.

edit: Oh, I forgot to mention: Star Ocean and Tales of Phantasia are very hard games, so don't expect to easily blast through the games. Especially in Star Ocean, and especially in the later boss fights - letting up or losing concentration for even a second can spell death for your entire party. Don't hesitate to press "X" during the fights, which brings up the action menu and pauses the battle (in both games) so you can take a breather and plan what to do next.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:55 pm

Thanks for the tips & wallpapers my friend.

Yeah that's the 1st level Ikaruga Boss!
He's one of the most sinister looking Bosses/Badies, one could encounter in a shooter along side with most of the Thunder Force V Bosses imo...

Oh .. yeah & Gaiares & Axelay...

@fantasyanime guy

Do you have the link of the Secret of Mana enhanced patch?
Thanks.

fantasyanime guy · Post by **fantasyanime guy** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:22 pm

With only eight stages, Alcahest isn't that long of a game. You could probably beat it in 2 or so hours. It's real fun, though; the weapon system has a nice variety and you'll love all the supporting characters.

The Secret of Mana Enhanced patch can be found here.

Seiken Densetsu 3 is the sequel to Secret of Mana, so, naturally, it would also be of the action/RPG genre.

Ugh, I hate the SNES version of Popful Mail. The Sega CD version is so much better.

As with any other good RPG, the difficulty in Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean depends on how well you're equipped and strategically prepared for battles.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:56 pm

I remember 4 years ago, my mate was playing a SNES RPG & at some point (I would imagine it was about in the middle of the game) you're stranded on a very small island (or raft? can't remember...?) in the middle of a large ocean with a girl & almost no items to use... but I can't remember the name of the RPG or how you get off that certain place...
Anyone know the name of this game?

There are also these 5 excellent GameGear RPGs:

Sylvan Tale (U)

And...

Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J)
Royal Stone (J)
Last Bible (J)
Last Bible 2 (J)

But the last 4 I have not been able to find an English translation patch, only a French patch for Ax Battler...
I would love to play these in English.

landshark · Post by **landshark** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 10:55 pm

I played a ton of Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows Over Mystara, and this game ALWAYS hands me my ass.

I even watched a few 1cc's of it and I just can't do anything but die.

The 2nd boss of both paths just kills me. Only recently can I even get passed the 1st boss consistently.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 11:10 pm

As we are talking of RPGs...

I remember I once played an RPG for the Sega-CD, where you could fight people and the game would become a 1x1 fighting game. There was another section where the game turned in a vertical shmup.

The game also had an option to play just the fighting game with 2 players, if you wanted so.

I played the game for like 10 minutes at most. So it didn't take me too long to either see the shmup section, or to fight someone in the main game. Maybe the game even branches in more genres later, I dunno. Or maybe it's not even an RPG at all, it just looks like an RPG in the beginning.

Anyone knows what game is that?

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 12:40 am

ST Dragon wrote:I remember 4 years ago, my mate was playing a SNES RPG & at some point (I would imagine it was about in the middle of the game) you're stranded on a very small island (or raft? can't remember...?) in the middle of a large ocean with a girl & almost no items to use... but I can't remember the name of the RPG or how you get off that certain place...
Anyone know the name of this game?

I'm almost 100% sure this is Illusion of Gaia (and it's a piece of driftwood). One of my favorite games on the system.

But the last 4 I have not been able to find an English translation patch, only a French patch for Ax Battler...
I would love to play these in English.

Ax Battler got an english release, actually. No need for a patch.

fantasyanime guy · Post by **fantasyanime guy** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:59 am

Shatterhand: Did it take place in a sci-fi atmosphere? The only Sega CD game I know of that transitioned through a couple different gaming genres was Rise of the Dragon.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 3:29 pm

sethsez wrote:
ST Dragon wrote:I remember 4 years ago, my mate was playing a SNES RPG & at some point (I would imagine it was about in the middle of the game) you're stranded on a very small island (or raft? can't remember...?) in the middle of a large ocean with a girl & almost no items to use... but I can't remember the name of the RPG or how you get off that certain place...
Anyone know the name of this game?
I'm almost 100% sure this is Illusion of Gaia (and it's a piece of driftwood). One of my favorite games on the system.

But the last 4 I have not been able to find an English translation patch, only a French patch for Ax Battler...
I would love to play these in English.
Ax Battler got an english release, actually. No need for a patch.

The 2 major Rom sites that I know, don't have the US or Euro release of Ax Battler...
Only Japan, French, Spanish & a bad dump...
These are what they have:

Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V1.5)
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V1.5) [b1]
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V2.4)
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V2.4) [T+Fre]
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V2.4) [T+Spa100_pkt]

jp · Post by jp » Sun Jun 26, 2005 4:04 pm

fantasyanime guy wrote:Shatterhand: Did it take place in a sci-fi atmosphere? The only Sega CD game I know of that transitioned through a couple different gaming genres was Rise of the Dragon.

Rise of the Dragon didn't have shmup levels though... and it only did the platforming/light-gun-without-an-actual-light-gun levels at the very end. There are two run'n'gun levels and one of the latter.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:21 pm

ST Dragon wrote:The 2 major Rom sites that I know, don't have the US or Euro release of Ax Battler...
Only Japan, French, Spanish & a bad dump...
These are what they have:

Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V1.5)
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V1.5) [b1]
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V2.4)
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V2.4) [T+Fre]
Ax Battler - A Legend of Golden Axe (J) (V2.4) [T+Spa100_pkt]

That's weird, but I know for a fact that it came out in english. I've had the actual cart for years.

Keep looking, it's got to be somewhere.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 7:25 am

These translation sites don't have an english patch for Ax Battler either:

http://donut.parodius.com/?func=trans&platform=gamegear

http://agtp.romhack.net/

http://www.zophar.net/newtrans/?op=show&type=gamegear

Also are there any translations or US-Euro releases for these Game Gear RPGs?

Royal Stone (J)
Last Bible (J)
Last Bible 2 (J)

Thanks in advance.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 8:44 am

Like I said, there's no reason for an english patch. There's a legitimate, official english version already, released in America. Why would there be a patch?

It's weird that nobody has uploaded the rom anywhere. But if you want the game and you have a Game Gear, click here to get it on ebay.

By the way, I should warn you that it's really not a great game. As an RPG, it's extremely limited (it requires passwords), and the action is pretty mediocre. And the plot is "oh no, the ENEMY has the GOLDEN AXE! We must call AX BATTLER to get it back!"

llabnip · Post by **llabnip** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:14 pm

sethsez wrote:Like I said, there's no reason for an english patch. There's a legitimate, official english version already, released in America. Why would there be a patch?

Many (and I mean MANY) RPGs got translations that were not very faithful to the originals. Squaresoft translations are notorious for being badly altered. Fan based translations are usually more accurate and far more faithful to the original Japanese dialog. Both Final Fantasy 2(us)/4(jp) and 3(us)/6(jp) got fan translations that outpaced the official versions. There are other examples of a fan-based translation which are superior to official translations.

I prefer to own and play official versions (mostly because I enjoy playing the real cart/game on a real machine)... but I can defintely see reasons why a translation is still desired - even for a game that got an official localized release.

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 3:44 pm

True, but Ax Battler has such an amazingly skimpy plot that I can't see it being worth the effort. We're talking sub-Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior (the originals) here.

ST Dragon · Post by **ST Dragon** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 3:40 pm

Anyways, here are some cool RPG links with awesome high res Wallpapers from various RPGs, including Langrisser & other Anime Series...

http://www.animevisions.net/index.php - Cool Anime & RPG Wallpapers

http://www.legendra.com/art/wallpapers.php - Cool RPG Wallpapers

http://www.animanga.com/cels/gallery/ya ... isser.html - Yan's Cool Anime Cells
http://www.animanga.com/cels/gallery/ya ... ml+0+lan12

USEnet Anime Wallpaper Links.

http://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/sorted/anime/lan/

http://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/2000-06-25/

http://pantransit.reptiles.org/images/2000-03-19/