PCBs: Different region = different gameplay? Why?

[dpful]

The Korean Donpachi is WAY harder than all other versions for some reason- I think most bullets faster and then some enemies bullets SUPER fast.

[quoth09]

The director of Devil May Cry 2/3/4, Hideaki Itsuno, also mentioned this perception as being why the localization of DMC3 was made harder than the original (which ended up biting them in the ass, since tons of people complained it was too hard, leading Konami to release the Special Edition).

It's not too much of a stretch to go from "Americans want action games!" to "Americans don't want games that are too brainy!", which probably explains what Square was thinking with their SNES-era releases and why Nintendo waited more than a decade to localize any Wars or Fire Emblem games. It kind of reminds me of the computer gamer vs. console gamer stereotype, actually.

Konami didn't make Devil May Cry...also what localization are you talking about, JP or US version?

Just my opinion here, but Nintendo really screwed the pooch by not releasing the Fire Emblem SNES games back when they came out, or rather licensing them from Square when they should have. While I would have had interest in them back then, I have next to none now. I remember when Super Smash Brothers Melee came out for Gamecube, and either had Roy or Marth in it (though I think it had both), and no one had a freaking clue as to who the hell they were because of Nintendo's crap. Sorry, that GBA remake of part 1 that you released did not give you redemption either Nintendo/Square.

[Enhasa]

Fire Emblem has nothing at all to do with Square, I thought? Well if you've played any in the series, you really ought to play the SFC ones. 4 is generally considered the best in the whole series, and I would put 5 second. The games since are mediocre at best. Wars series is better.

Well, you are right that Nintendo screwed themselves over. People would have played them back in the day since it's Nintendo. Biggest change to gaming would be that the western opinion of FF Tactics would have been a lot lower in this alternate universe. Also, nobody realizes this but Nintendo is seriously like the biggest and most prolific RPG company now. Makes sense, RPGs are the classic casual genre.

[quoth09]

Fire Emblem has nothing at all to do with Square, I thought? Well if you've played any in the series, you really ought to play the SFC ones. 4 is generally considered the best in the whole series, and I would put 5 second. The games since are mediocre at best. Wars series is better.

My apologies, I thought that they were by Square for some odd reason; just looked it up, they had nothing to do with it. I could have swore I read something that linked them to it. Oh well.

Yeah, I have played the SFC ones, which is why I made my comment about While I would have had interest in them back then, I have next to none now. - A lot of games have changed like that for me, just like I used to play Sim City (the original DOS one) a lot when I was a kid and Lemmings even, I don't have much patience for those kind of games anymore, or a lot of stuff that requires huge amount of patience, I get bored. I gave the SFC titles a try a few years back via emulation, so that is how I knew about them, plus an issue of Nintendo Power back in the mid 90's showed one of them as coming out in Japan, but like a lot of stuff they put in that section, it never came stateside, just like Final Fantasy V until long after unfortunately.

[Mortificator]

Konami didn't make Devil May Cry...also what localization are you talking about, JP or US version?

Of course Konami didn't make Devil May Cry. I'm just mentioning how two different guys from different companies both say they think American people are more into action games than Japanese people are. I don't know if that perception's objectively true or not, but it's the motivation that at least some devs have for changing the difficulty for a different region.

The first US release of DMC3 ("Dante's Awakening") shifted the difficulty levels:
US Easy = JP Normal
US Normal = JP Hard
US Hard doesn't have a Japanese equivalent, but it's harder than JP Hard.
Dante Must Die was the same in both regions.

The respawn system was also changed. In the Japanese version, you could purchase orbs that would let you instantly respawn, and would otherwise be sent back to a checkpoint. In the US, you had to buy orbs just to respawn at a checkpoint, and without them you had to restart the mission.

The second US release ("Special Addition") made the difficulty levels equivalent to the Japanese version's, with the addition of Very Hard to be equivalent to the original US Hard. It also allowed you to choose between the Japanese respawn system (gold orbs) or the one from the first localization (yellow orbs) when starting a new file.

Itsuno brought this up in one of the video interviews for DMC4, saying that it showed them it's better to just tune the difficulty to what feels right for them, instead of trying to guess what a foreign audience wants.

[quoth09]

Konami didn't make Devil May Cry...also what localization are you talking about, JP or US version?

Of course Konami didn't make Devil May Cry. I'm just mentioning how two different guys from different companies both say they think American people are more into action games than Japanese people are. I don't know if that perception's objectively true or not, but it's the motivation that at least some devs have for changing the difficulty for a different region.

The first US release of DMC3 ("Dante's Awakening") shifted the difficulty levels:
US Easy = JP Normal
US Normal = JP Hard
US Hard doesn't have a Japanese equivalent, but it's harder than JP Hard.
Dante Must Die was the same in both regions.

The respawn system was also changed. In the Japanese version, you could purchase orbs that would let you instantly respawn, and would otherwise be sent back to a checkpoint. In the US, you had to buy orbs just to respawn at a checkpoint, and without them you had to restart the mission.

The second US release ("Special Addition") made the difficulty levels equivalent to the Japanese version's, with the addition of Very Hard to be equivalent to the original US Hard. It also allowed you to choose between the Japanese respawn system (gold orbs) or the one from the first localization (yellow orbs) when starting a new file.

Itsuno brought this up in one of the video interviews for DMC4, saying that it showed them it's better to just tune the difficulty to what feels right for them, instead of trying to guess what a foreign audience wants.

Ah, my apologies, sounded like you were saying that Konami released the special edition of DMC3 - what I quoted you by really makes it look like you were saying that, even though the previous paragraph is about Castlevania. None the less, thanks for clarifying.

Interesting, I was not aware of the difficulty issues on the original DMC3 - I only picked up the 2nd US release because when I was going to buy the game originally and they had announced that the SE was coming out soon with extra features, so I didn't bother with the first. All in all I didn't play part 3 much, however I did play the original version of it prior to purchasing mine, and I did find it pretty damn difficult in comparison to the previous games, and I played it on Normal...so that would explain a lot.

I imagine the PC version is fixed also, since it is based on the second release as well.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's not too much of a stretch to go from "Americans want action games!" to "Americans don't want games that are too brainy!", which probably explains what Square was thinking with their SNES-era releases and why Nintendo waited more than a decade to localize any Wars or Fire Emblem games. It kind of reminds me of the computer gamer vs. console gamer stereotype, actually.

I think it was more of "let's get Americans hooked on our crack" for Mystic Quest and "Easy Type" -style releases. Goodness knows we needed "simpler" games coming from such computer games as Ultima, Wizardry, gold box SSI, text adventures...

[quoth09]

It's not too much of a stretch to go from "Americans want action games!" to "Americans don't want games that are too brainy!", which probably explains what Square was thinking with their SNES-era releases and why Nintendo waited more than a decade to localize any Wars or Fire Emblem games. It kind of reminds me of the computer gamer vs. console gamer stereotype, actually.

I think it was more of "let's get Americans hooked on our crack" for Mystic Quest and "Easy Type" -style releases. Goodness knows we needed "simpler" games coming from such computer games as Ultima, Wizardry, gold box SSI, text adventures...

You know, for as much as everyone bitched about how Mystic Quest sucked or whatever else, I actually enjoyed it. Yeah sure it was easy, and yeah it didn't really deserve the name of Final Fantasy, but it still wasn't that bad of a game. I would definitely say it's not as advanced as a lot of other games.

We haven't even gotten half of the Wizardry titles over here unfortunately, and as far as that goes in that whole genre, I know you didn't mention this one, but the Might and Magic series went to shit after 5 - when New World Computing was purchased by 3DO. Parts 6-8 are ass and I have heard the same about 9. The Heroes titles are even worse, and Ubisoft has done nothing but run the whole series' name in the ground. Very saddening considering that I have fond memories of the early Might and Magic's on NES, SNES and Genesis, as well as the PC parts of 3-5. Turbo CD version of 3 wasn't bad either. Generally I have a bad opinion about most First Person RPG's, but Might and Magic and Wizardry did them right, and the only game that I can even think of that is reminiscent of any of these is Baroque on Saturn (and remake on PS2), The Dark Spire (DS), and maybe a few others that I can't think of the titles of right now.