FALCOM Thread

[Skykid]

EDIT: As for Celceta vs. Dawn of Ys, I haven't played Celceta, but I can't imagine any game that's basically Ys Seven derived being as good as Dawn. Dawn is easily the best of the "old-school" (that is, pre-VI) Ys games.

Interesting stuff, I didn't know that.

Celceta is pretty decent to be honest, there's not a great deal to fault about it except that it's too passive (well it was for me). I find that playing on hard from the outset makes it much more threatening and skill based, requiring you to hit your Flash Dodge properly in your battles and making the boss battles more strategic. I personally felt that hard should have been the default setting and that normal was plainly too pedestrian - despite being finely crafted and therefore still very enjoyable to play.

[Durandal]

I hated the larger focus on text and cutscenes in Seven compared to earlier entries, this is supposed to be an -ACTION- RPG, damnit. (But on the flipside I loved the reallyfastforward button)
Whatever story there was in Seven wasn't all that engaging compared to previous entries. Like Jonathan Ingram said, it's painfully average. Ys always had that 'classic' feeling to it, since it was a franchise that started in the 80's. I find it hard to describe, but the Ys games did have a more serious tone to them compared to most JRPGs and Seven. Seven just feels really cliché in that regard, like a standard adventure anime that would be airing today. Not to say that previous entries weren't clichéd with their evil sorcerers and churches, but at least they kept it short and had more going for them. The non-descript art being done by the Baccano! guy doesn't really help, either. At least the designs are good, I think Seven Adol is my favourite design of him, before they somehow screwed it up in Celceta. (I wish they'd let the guy who did the art for Brandish: The Dark Revenant do more art for other Falcom games, the art for TDR was damn beautiful)

I get that Falcom always wants to innovate when it comes to gameplay, but Seven feels like a misstep to me. The rock-paper-scissors damage resistances feel like a lazy way to encourage the player to change their active party member. I don't want to use this weapon because it is the only weapon in my inventory that can damage this enemy type, I want to use it because it has a different use in battle than my other weapons. Differing party members do play a little differently, although that difference only lies in attack speed/power/HP/stats, so most of the time when I am not facing an enemy with a particular resistance, I do not have any reason to play as anyone but Adol. Each party member has his/her own passive ability (such as increased gold, XP, stun rate etc.), which will be the largest contributing factor behind your party composition aside from Adol because he's fucking Adol the Red. (whose support ability is a measly accuracy multiplier, WHY THE HELL IS THERE A CHANCE TO MISS YOUR ATTACKS IN YS IN THE FIRST PLACE?) The game doesn't tell you beforehand, but you are expected to have all party members leveled and geared up properly for the final boss. Even those party members you rarely ever use. Otherwise you are really boned.

Seven takes the Dragon's Dogma approach where you can equip 4 skills, and basically you use them to deal more damage. Some deal more stun, some attacks have different areas of effect, but the basic idea is that they deal more damage. Skills run on SP which you gain through attacking enemies, attacking anything, and you gain more SP if you stop attacking and charge your attacks. This entire skill system seems utterly pointless to me. In the end, all it does is make you deal more damage through skills, and then stun the enemy through skills so you can deal even more damage. It's a pointless layer of depth. Maybe if the skills had more versatility such as the elemental powers in the Ark/Oath/Origin trilogy, then I could have appreciated it, but only Celceta tells you the difference between what each skill does, and the differences between in skills are rather minor anyway. Each weapon has its own skills, which you can permanently learn by gaining one level in that skill. Skills can be upgraded by repeatedly using it in battle. Again, why is this necessary? Why do I need to go out of my way to be careful that the skills of me and my party members are not underleveled for a boss fight? Why should all of this be tied to stats and numbers instead of my skills like a true ARPG? Then there's your EXTRA skills which are basically Burst attacks from Origin with a longer charge period. You'll only use them for bosses because of that.

At least Seven gets the popping-bubblewrap flow of Ys sort of right. Basically you cut everything, get dosh, get mats for synthing weapons, and there you go. Oath/Origin added draughts and an XP multiplier to keep you engaged, while making consumables drops only. You can now dodgeroll attacks which works like Toal's Godspeed, and you can also guard everything. LITERALLY EVERYTHING. One boss covers the entire arena with lava, and I was able to guard myself the whole time by holding my sword in front of me while being covered in lava. Guarding in Seven is a nice concept since you really need to time your blocks, as wrongly timing it will make enemies deal double damage to you. The flipside to it is that once you've mastered guarding, it can trivialize everything in the game, but that mostly depends on your skill. I still miss jumping.

My biggest issue with Seven is that it muddles the simple addictive hack 'n slash gameplay Ys is known for with pointless systems and loads of item management, which doesn't add anything positive, but they are not poorly designed either. They are just pointless. The new skill system was carefully designed, it's just that the system itself doesn't amount to much. Seven's gameplay doesn't feel better, just different. Imagine the bump system with more than six tiers of equipment, a bunch of near-identical skills with their own levels, and a Limit Break. Would the bump system really be improved that way? I haven't played Celceta, although gameplay videos don't show that many changes to the gameplay from Seven. Like all Ys games, Seven is meth, just not as pure as other Ys games.

[Obscura]

Differing party members do play a little differently, although that difference only lies in attack speed/power/HP/stats, so most of the time when I am not facing an enemy with a particular resistance, I do not have any reason to play as anyone but Adol.

That's not true at all, though. There's two that are ranged attackers. Adol is a pretty awful "default" choice, actually, since he doesn't build up the skill gauge very fast. Better to use the Princess or the kid as your "default".

This entire skill system seems utterly pointless to me. In the end, all it does is make you deal more damage through skills, and then stun the enemy through skills so you can deal even more damage. It's a pointless layer of depth.

It's another way of getting to use multiple characters. Characters that fill the skill gauge quickly tend to have weak skills; characters that have better skills generally fill it more slowly. Better to use a fast-attacker as a "battery", switch to Dogi or Cruxie, use a skill, then switch back. When you're doing it right, the "build up -> release" flow feels really good.

[Durandal]

Differing party members do play a little differently, although that difference only lies in attack speed/power/HP/stats, so most of the time when I am not facing an enemy with a particular resistance, I do not have any reason to play as anyone but Adol.

That's not true at all, though. There's two that are ranged attackers. Adol is a pretty awful "default" choice, actually, since he doesn't build up the skill gauge very fast. Better to use the Princess or the kid as your "default".

How is one supposed to know which one build up the skill gauge faster? In my playthrough I haven't noticed much of a difference there when attacking with other characters.

This entire skill system seems utterly pointless to me. In the end, all it does is make you deal more damage through skills, and then stun the enemy through skills so you can deal even more damage. It's a pointless layer of depth.

It's another way of getting to use multiple characters. Characters that fill the skill gauge quickly tend to have weak skills; characters that have better skills generally fill it more slowly. Better to use a fast-attacker as a "battery", switch to Dogi or Cruxie, use a skill, then switch back. When you're doing it right, the "build up -> release" flow feels really good.

Again, how is one supposed to know this? Maybe I've just skipped over some tutorial message explaining the best strategy relating to your SP skill (I didn't even know you could flashguard until I finished my first playthrough), but on first glance the amount of SP one gets per hit doesn't seem all that different per character. If so, what is the point of giving fast-attacker characters skills if you are going to switch to a heavier character for their higher skill damage anyways? Won't a strategy revolving around two members in a three-member party cause the third one to just be left out, only being there to damage an enemy with a certain resistance? I should probably replay Seven again to check this out for myself.

[Obscura]

Differing party members do play a little differently, although that difference only lies in attack speed/power/HP/stats, so most of the time when I am not facing an enemy with a particular resistance, I do not have any reason to play as anyone but Adol.

That's not true at all, though. There's two that are ranged attackers. Adol is a pretty awful "default" choice, actually, since he doesn't build up the skill gauge very fast. Better to use the Princess or the kid as your "default".

How is one supposed to know which one build up the skill gauge faster? In my playthrough I haven't noticed much of a difference there when attacking with other characters.

This entire skill system seems utterly pointless to me. In the end, all it does is make you deal more damage through skills, and then stun the enemy through skills so you can deal even more damage. It's a pointless layer of depth.

It's another way of getting to use multiple characters. Characters that fill the skill gauge quickly tend to have weak skills; characters that have better skills generally fill it more slowly. Better to use a fast-attacker as a "battery", switch to Dogi or Cruxie, use a skill, then switch back. When you're doing it right, the "build up -> release" flow feels really good.

Again, how is one supposed to know this? Maybe I've just skipped over some tutorial message explaining the best strategy relating to your SP skill (I didn't even know you could flashguard until I finished my first playthrough), but on first glance the amount of SP one gets per hit doesn't seem all that different per character. If so, what is the point of giving fast-attacker characters skills if you are going to switch to a heavier character for their higher skill damage anyways? Won't a strategy revolving around two members in a three-member party cause the third one to just be left out, only being there to damage an enemy with a certain resistance? I should probably replay Seven again to check this out for myself.

You learn these things by experimenting with different characters and noticing that some fill up the bar faster, and that some of them cause bigger numbers to appear with they use their skills.

It really shouldn't require a tutorial.

(And, yes, usually there is a third member that's just there to cover the last element. Generally, that's going to be Adol or Geis.)

[soprano1]

Ugh, I wish Falcom made higher resolution versions of their wallpapers for older games, especially Dinosaur.

[gameoverDude]

I've been playing Ys Seven lately, and have started to use Mishera a bit more. Her Aerial Orb spell will cost 100 SP (that's right, ALL of the SP gauge) but does very nice damage, about 1500-3000 on Angue-Barl. Dogi's Roundhouse Kick especially rocks if you trap an enemy against a wall.

Celceta does seem slightly easier than Seven. Hopefully Ys VIII puts the difficulty back up a tad.

Cold Steel's battle themes are even better than Sky FC & SC's, with a harder, more serious sound. Take "The Glint of Cold Steel" for example. Great stuff.

[Strider77]

Is Cold Steel any good?

[BulletMagnet]

Is Cold Steel any good?

Most every individual element is solid, but I've found little to truly separate it from other JRPGs in my time with it, so if you're into the genre it's a pretty good bet, but if you're not this won't be the game to convert you.

[Strider77]

I use to but have grown weary of them except for old favorites... was wondering if it would trigger some old spark/fondness being a Falcom product.

[Squire Grooktook]

I picked up Cold Steel because I wanted more of Trails In The Sky's tactical battle system after I'm done with it. Haven't had a chance to try it yet though.

Trails In The Sky is nearly perfect on every front though. If you haven't played it, play that one first. Writing, gameplay, pacing...everything in the game is on a level beyond what I've seen from nearly any other JRPG (especially the writing, which isn't perfect but damn if it isn't sweet, lovable, humorous, and fun).

[blackoak]

obviously lttp, but I just started playing the modern Ys games. Began with Napishtim, which I finished in two days. Pretty fun, but I feel it suffered from a narrow "goldilocks" zone in terms of balancing: impossibly tedious if you're underleveled, or trivially, waste-of-time easy if you're just one or two levels above. That goes for bosses too. And most of the music was crap--not because of the MIDI cheapness, but the hackneyed quality of the writing itself. All said, I still had a pretty good time.

Now I'm on to Oath in Felghana, which I'm halfway through and liking more so far.

[Immryr]

yeah blackoak that is EXACTLY what I thought when I played oath in felghana last year. there were a few times when I was stuck on a boss and dealing next to no damage to it so I'd go away and level up one or two levels and suddenly my damage would be great and I'd take the boss down first try. it made the game feel a little artificial to me, though I still enjoyed it on the whole.

[Strider77]

I enjoyed the hell out of Oath... that soundtrack, phenomenal.

[BrianC]

I might stick to PS2 for Ys 6 since I already have it, but that dub is painful. It makes Dogi sound like a total idiot (which is not my impression of him from Ys I-III/Oath).

Edit: I think there was some code to switch to JP voices, if I remember correctly, but I'm not completely sure.

[Skykid]

I enjoyed the hell out of Oath... that soundtrack, phenomenal.

Same, thought it was great fun. I never had a problem being under levelled as far as I was aware, but I remember there being a few bosses who took some beating.

[BulletMagnet]

I think there was some code to switch to JP voices, if I remember correctly, but I'm not completely sure.

I'm almost positive there is, though I believe you can only enter it after beating the game once - IIRC there's another one to replace the 3D cutscenes with the original anime-styled ones too. Offhand I actually recall liking a handful of the US voices better (the village chief comes most immediately to mind); then again I have a notoriously high tolerance for cheesy voice acting, so perhaps I'm not the best reference.

[CIT]

Just finished Gurumin (PSP). Really charming, cute and creative title. Seems simple at first, but actually the combat system has quite some depth and is more at the level of recent Ys games. Feels like a Dreamcast game, partly because of the graphics, but also because it has that anarchic spirit that a lot of Japanese developers up to about 2007 exhibited. For example you make monsters happy by returning their stolen furniture, thereby removing the dark clouds from the world map and gaining access to new areas.

I really dig the fast-paced combat (pro-tip: use aerials to focus on your opponent and finish them with drill dance); on the PC version it even has an added rhythm component. If you want a real challenge there's also an optional hidden boss.

Only thing I didn't like so much was how the destruction of vases (which is part of your stage completion %) and other objects slows down the game flow a bit, esecially compared to the combat. And it's not really advisable to skip this, as the cash is much needed.

On to Brandish: The Dark Revenant now!

[Pasokon Deacon]

Gurumin really is fun. I hear the original PC release also suffers from a 30 FPS target, but it feels more like Falcom was playing it safe by making a fully-polygonal-3D game their main audience could play on toasters. These days fighting Black Bean and playing Hoccer is easier because of the improved controller support added by Mastiff. The music's also top-notch, often more atmospheric and textured compared to contemporary Ys music while still feeling vivacious and memorable. Some of the level design could use fine-tuning, and the mirror level variations didn't go nearly as far as they should have, but I can't not recommend Gurumin for its strengths.

And most of the music was crap--not because of the MIDI cheapness, but the hackneyed quality of the writing itself.

Let's agree to disagree. The musician who did 70% of Napishtim and Zwei!!, Wataru Ishibashi, had great command over melody and clean arrangement of instruments within each of his tracks (he passed away recently, to my dismay). I don't think he ever found a style as inimitable as Koshiro's or Yonemitsu's (both of whom stand out when composing or arranging for any genre, not just Ishibashi's beloved electronica), but for a while this guy was on his way to leading Sound Team JDK. Jigs like Windslash Steps contrast and complement more experimental stuff (mainly Black Ark Unveiled, but also Zemeth Sanctum). And it doesn't seem anymore hackneyed or needlessly sentimental than much of Felghana and Origin, let alone Ys game music before and after. By the way, even advanced Yamaha MIDI doesn't sound this good, and you can compare Falcom's own Roland MIDI albums with Napishtim to hear the difference.

[gameoverDude]

Sony is no longer producing the PlayStation TV/VitaTV. Damn. That said, they have also called Vita a legacy platform. Too early for that IMO, since it only came out in late 2011-early 2012. First party studios aren't really making games for it now, with the system now relying on 3rd parties mainly. Maybe it might not last as long as PSP, but I'm hoping it's got until 2018 at least. I don't want to lose out on Tokyo Xanadu and portable Ys VIII. If needed, maybe Falcom could do a similar push for these titles as was done for Cold Steel.

Before long, Sony is retiring the PSP PlayStation Store app. The purchasing would just have to be done by PS3, PS4, or PC at the PSN website. I guess the PS3/PS4 could be used to put the game on the PSP.

Smartphones are making it difficult for portables. Shame, because I prefer to play games on a Vita far more.

[blackoak]

Let's agree to disagree. The musician who did 70% of Napishtim and Zwei!!, Wataru Ishibashi, had great command over melody and clean arrangement of instruments within each of his tracks (he passed away recently, to my dismay). I don't think he ever found a style as inimitable as Koshiro's or Yonemitsu's (both of whom stand out when composing or arranging for any genre, not just Ishibashi's beloved electronica), but for a while this guy was on his way to leading Sound Team JDK. Jigs like Windslash Steps contrast and complement more experimental stuff (mainly Black Ark Unveiled, but also Zemeth Sanctum). And it doesn't seem anymore hackneyed or needlessly sentimental than much of Felghana and Origin, let alone Ys game music before and after. By the way, even advanced Yamaha MIDI doesn't sound this good, and you can compare Falcom's own Roland MIDI albums with Napishtim to hear the difference.

hehe. Well, "crap" might have been a strong choice of words, but as a (very critical) musician I really hate lazy, formulaic vgm--especially in fantasy games. To be clear I have no problem with the aesthetics in Napishtim's music: it's the melodies themselves that I find a paean to mediocrity. Every choice of melodic phrase, every turn and joist, is so utterly predictable and cliche as to render it emotionless... paint-by-numbers fantasy. The songs often employ what is, imo, the height of sophistry when it comes to melodic writing: neatly "rhyming" A+B couplets within the phrases--the musical equivalence of badly rhymed poetry. To explain more precisely I'd probably have to be sitting there listening to the song and ranting in real time, haha.

Aaaanyway, I know this is just conclusory hyperbole to someone who personally likes the songs. I only mentioned it because the Ys games (later incarnations included) are always getting raved over for their music...

As an aside, for me great fantasy music from video games would be stuff like Koshiro's Actraiser, Norihiko Yamanuki's overlooked 7th Saga (Elnard), much of Uematsu's writing for FFIV, most of Seiken Densetsu 2... classics I suppose, but with good reason.

[blackoak]

I finished Oath in Felghana today. Less balancing issues than Napishtim, but I still did have to grind once or twice. Nothing onerous, but boring. It was at least pretty clear where the game wanted you to be in levels, because at a certain point your progress would just grind to a halt on the enemies in a given area, and that was generally the "you should be at this level" cue.

Some of the boss fights I really liked, others seemed a little "slushy" with the hitboxes (the really big bosses). I was playing on Normal though, so maybe that's not where the challenge lies? I see people talking about Nightmare and Inferno here... is the difficulty scaling good? I read somewhere that HP of bosses goes way up, so if it just makes the fights longer, I don't think it's for me. I already hate waiting for the "damagable" phases of bosses as it is, hehe.

I'm going to play Origins next, maybe take a brief break though. Overall, I feel like Felghana and Napishtim are competent, and the underlying controls+combat are pretty fun, but they're lacking something (perhaps enemy variety? better boss fights?) to elevate them beyond just B-level for me. Again I'm curious if I should be playing them on the hardest difficulties by default...

[Aisha]

I'm going to play Origins next, maybe take a brief break though. Overall, I feel like Felghana and Napishtim are competent, and the underlying controls+combat are pretty fun, but they're lacking something (perhaps enemy variety? better boss fights?) to elevate them beyond just B-level for me. Again I'm curious if I should be playing them on the hardest difficulties by default...

You may want to consider playing through Origin once before taking a breather from the series. Origin is structured so that it takes place in one large dungeon, and you must play through the game multiple times in order to face the TLB and see the real ending: In the Steam version, once with either Yunica or Hugo, and again with a character who becomes unlocked after the first run. Even though each character has his or her own unique play-style and take on the story, the dungeon itself more or less remains the same, so going through it multiple times in a row can be pretty draining.

[Durandal]

Again I'm curious if I should be playing them on the hardest difficulties by default...

I think I read in an interview with Falcom somewhere that all Ys games were balanced around Nightmare difficulty, and that any difficulties below were just made easier in comparison. To me, Nightmare is the definitive way to play.

[Squire Grooktook]

I seem to recall that the harder modes do make attacks harder to evade, it's not just a stat upgrade.

[Chaos Phoenixma]

Yeah, lots more bullet hell stuff at times on the higher difficulties in addition to higher boss HP and damage taken.


In YsF, some of the attacks even get changed up a lot. The second boss of the the lava area additional stuff on Nightmare and Inferno completely sucks, but a lot of the other boss additions are pretty neat.


Also a question about Gurumin if anyone is aware of the original release stuff. Was Crazy mode even in the original release or was it added later in a patch like with Nightmare or Inferno in some of the other games? obviously any of the English official releases had the higher modes from the start, but I'm wondering about the original Japanese release.

Also for Gurumin, I'm pretty sure the original version is 60 FPS and that Mastiff screwed it up somehow(oh how I wish Xseed were able to handle this game instead since they would have actually cared about the framerate and translation since Xseed is constantly updating the Ys games to make things work better). It's still fun though, and I've been working on S-rank Crazy mode. I beat Crazy Black bean on a split save to get the Crazy All Stages cleared achievement over with but went back to finish S-ranking on my other file. That was a very good fight for me though (3 Cookies, 1 Chocolate, 1 Shortcake, 1 power Oil, 2 Energy oil), and I don't think I could possibly pull that off again, especially in the Crazy Boss Rush where I'd need to maintain resources, so i doubt I'll ever actually get the Swimsuit outfit(maybe someday I'll grind out attempts for it just to fully complete the game, but 100% Steam Achievements is going to happen for sure).


The PC version was the first time I beat Black Bean on Crazy though. I was never able to manage it on the PSP release. he actually loses his elemental weakness on Happy and Crazy difficulty while any other boss in the game kept whatever weaknesses, which means you have to survive the fight a lot longer. On Crazy with max damage reduction(not counting OP swimsuit), his Z Slash attack in the second phase does 100 damage out of your max 100 HP, so you can easily be 1 shotted at the end of the fight or boss rush.

[soprano1]

So, for Gurumin would it be better to go PSP or PC GoG/Steam version?

[Chaos Phoenixma]

PSP has some outfits PC doesn't have. You get these by giving Hyperbolic 30 Gold Medals on each difficulty. With this every headgear now has a matching outfit. None of the new PSP outfits have any gameplay benefits (only Nurse, Leopard, and Swimsuit outfits give any benefit to you, and all 3 disable other headgear use, and all 3 of those are in both versions)


PSP version has a code you can enter to be able to use the Japanese dub, so it has dual audio through that(requires you to have clear data though). It's possible to switch the voice files with the localized PC release if you prefer the Japanese, but I don't know where you'd find them.


I think being able to use a controller on PC works better than controlling it with the PSP. There's also a keyboard + mouse option like the PC Ys games, but I've never spent time trying to play them like that, so I don't know how it compares. You might be able to play it on PSTV(I'm not sure if this game was on PSN or not) in which case you have the PS3 or PS4 controllers as options.

PSP has a few things censored while Mastiff seems to have left the PC version alone.

the health bar works a little different between the 2 versions on bosses.


The rhythm based critical hits mechanic is in both versions of the game, but only the PC version has the visual indicator for it while the PSP you'd have to time your hits to the music. I was never good at the timing on either version, so I just attack stuff and if it crits, fine, otherwise it's just less damage.


both versions let you skip cutscenes, but both versions require you to have clear data for this.


One of the puzzles to unlock one of the reverse stages was changed on PSP (original is critical counter must be at 1 to match the number on something, while PSP requires the coins to be at xx666 )

Money cap on PSP is 65,535 while on PC it is 99,999. This only really matters for the maid outfit and the fact that your money transfers to NG+.

Boss Rush works a little differently in both versions. The unlock requirement is the same for the first 4 difficulties(have to get good end on all 4 difficulties below Crazy). However, PSP version lets you choose which difficulty for the boss rush while the PC version locks it to whatever your save file is on. This means for PC, you need to keep a file before ending the game on Beginner/Normal, Hard, and Happy. It does mean you can try Crazy Boss Rush at any time on a Crazy NG+ file on PC while the PSP version forced you to have Crazy clear data before it showed up.

Overall, I think the PC version wins out.

[Pasokon Deacon]

Aaaanyway, I know this is just conclusory hyperbole to someone who personally likes the songs. I only mentioned it because the Ys games (later incarnations included) are always getting raved over for their music...

As an aside, for me great fantasy music from video games would be stuff like Koshiro's Actraiser, Norihiko Yamanuki's overlooked 7th Saga (Elnard), much of Uematsu's writing for FFIV, most of Seiken Densetsu 2... classics I suppose, but with good reason.

Granted, it's one thing to be formulaic, but I can't think of it as lazy (Ernst is as close as it comes, being a mix of Ys I's Final Battle and Moon Over the Castle). I also don't think FFIV's all too amazing on a track-to-track basis (great overall, but I'm currently playing FFV and love the variety/ambition of its non-battle tracks), lol. Part of the point of Napishtim's music calling back to earlier Falcom music in its composition stems from how Falcom needed to reassure long-time fans this new 3D game would recapture the old-time feelings they had when playing Ys I and II.

Now listen to Legend of Xanadu (I and II) and you'll know the meaning of predictable Falcom music! The melodies there are fun but desperately lean on 4/4 groove and schmaltz, or they're not even memorable in a good/bad way. Good thing Brandish 3 exists to show that incarnation of JDK wasn't off the deep end yet.

Also for Gurumin, I'm pretty sure the original version is 60 FPS and that Mastiff screwed it up somehow.

I heard from someone who owns the Japanese PC release that it's always been 30 FPS, with Mastiff's comments and commenters' lack of foreknowledge confusing everyone else (me included). Mastiff's done an okay job updating the game, but I get the impression they're a transient entity after so many years of localizing military shooters instead of stuff like this.

[soprano1]

Wow, thanks a lot for the detailed info, Chaos Phoenixma.