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Children of Mana (artworks/screens)
- Thread starter StephaneC
- Start date
gamewhooper
Banned
Frick's trying to look badass.
Looks nice; Shades of Chrono Trigger.
Did anyone see the article today that the "Mana" series was outsourced from Square to Next Entertainment (previously known as Nextech)?
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000447064808/
Did anyone see the article today that the "Mana" series was outsourced from Square to Next Entertainment (previously known as Nextech)?
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000447064808/
Lemurnator
Banned
This picture looks different than,
Is one a PSP game and the other a DS game?
Wtfs?
First screen looks uber pretty, second screen looks like a GBA game. So what is it?
Deku said:
Interestingly enough, it seems like an American gamer is more likely to get a system if they see a game they really want than a Japanese gamer. The N64 wasn't a bomb in the US at all (sold within two or so million of the SNES). Only Japan (and to a smaller extent, Europe) cost the N64 any chance of getting reasonably close to the SFC.
Was your friend on an N64 or an SFC/Saturn at the time?
CVXFREAK said:
My friend went from SFC > N64 > PS1
I went from SFC > PS1 > N64
We all got a Saturn eventually when it was on sale. :S
Yeah, I know the N64 did quite well in the US, but not having those japanese heavy hitters really hurt it globally especially considering how FFVII did so well in the US and it was the second Xmas between N64 and PS1 and the PS1 finally pulled ahead in weekly sales. If N64 got FFVII in Japan, it would have been pretty much over for PS1.
Snap, that just looks fantastic. I could do without the oversized HP and MP numbers at the bottom, but other than that it looks good to go.
...And I better not end up being proven wrong. Between the directions of the FF series and of the Chrono series, Square has already killed most of the nostalgia-based affection I had for them from their SNES games. Another misstep for the Mana series would just be argh-inducing.
Not that anything would stop me from buying FF4-6 on GBA, but still.
Maybe that'll be a good thing, though. It can't get worse than Legend/Sword of Mana.terrene said:Did anyone see the article today that the "Mana" series was outsourced from Square to Next Entertainment (previously known as Nextech)?
...And I better not end up being proven wrong. Between the directions of the FF series and of the Chrono series, Square has already killed most of the nostalgia-based affection I had for them from their SNES games. Another misstep for the Mana series would just be argh-inducing.
Not that anything would stop me from buying FF4-6 on GBA, but still.
Most likely because of Goldeneye, I'm assuming?CVXFREAK said:
Bizarro Sun Yat-sen
Banned
Not "entirely responsible", but the game design and scenario for both games were closely directed by SE staff (well, more closely for KH:COM than Sword of Mana). Who says they're entirely responsible for this game's design, anyway?
P.S. My Seiken ranking would be
1 Legend of Mana
2 FFA
3 SD3
4 Secret of Mana
5 Sword of Mana (doesn't really count since it's a remake. Secret of Mana still = worst game in series)
Lemurnator said:
This picture looks different than,
Is one a PSP game and the other a DS game?
Wtfs?
First screen looks uber pretty, second screen looks like a GBA game. So what is it?
I'm assuming that static locations will be hand-drawn while scrolling areas like dungeons, forests and deserts will be tile based. If you look at the character sprite in both pictures it is exactly the same quality.
_01.png)
Same game. Posted the explanation earlier:
On a 2D powerhouse like the DS (which it really is) we will see this a lot more often. The game budgets aren't big enough to have all levels hand painted. Plus, it would take away the possibility to easily change level layouts during development. The hardware capabilities are there to warrant it in special locations though.
However, I agree that the quality of the tilesets is a bit of a letdown. The DS can do better than that tech-wise.
Flakster99
Member
Both screens look outstanding. This game is so... fucking... mine. /thumbs up!
Diomedeskun
Member
Bizarro Sun Yat-sen said:
Aside from Sword of Mana, my list would probably be reversed. Secret is the only game in the series where I actually like both the gameplay and the story a great deal. The auto-targeting and cheap bosses in hurt the otherwise impressive SD3, FFA is fun, but primitive, and Legend of Mana had great crafting and several good plotlines, but I like to be able to attack up and down and heal and use magic without waiting for enemies to drop chocolate and coins in my action RPGs. It was also the easiest in the series. Many of the chapters were a little too difficult to find as well.
Sword of Mana was the biggest disappointment I've had since Kengo was supposed to carry on the Bushido Blade legacy.
A little fun-fact as to how Next Entertainment became the developer for Children of Mana:
http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2005/102405d.html
http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2005/102405d.html
I only played Secret of Mana, so I don´t know if things were better in newer incarnations of the series, but as much as I enjoyed the game, I think some aspects were broken.
1- When you fall down and an enemy begins to hit you, you can do nothing as long as you don´t have a character free to go and help you.
2- AI. I remember in Mana Fortress my companions got stuck every now and then. It was annoying to say the least.
3- Boss battles. They were impossible until you used the cheap trick of magic-combos.
1- When you fall down and an enemy begins to hit you, you can do nothing as long as you don´t have a character free to go and help you.
2- AI. I remember in Mana Fortress my companions got stuck every now and then. It was annoying to say the least.
3- Boss battles. They were impossible until you used the cheap trick of magic-combos.
The Take Out Bandit
Member
The developer of Shining Soul?!
I love them almost as much as Matt Bozon!
Man, on-line co-op for the love of god! ON-LINE CO-OP DAMN YOUS!
No co-op, no sale.
I love them almost as much as Matt Bozon!
Man, on-line co-op for the love of god! ON-LINE CO-OP DAMN YOUS!
No co-op, no sale.
Why? You don't think you can beat it without help?The Take Out Bandit said:Man, on-line co-op for the love of god! ON-LINE CO-OP DAMN YOUS!
No co-op, no sale.
In the other thread, multiplayer wifi is speculated, taking a hint from the official website (number of players is listed as 1 - ?). So you may get your wish.
Nex Entertainment's involvement now has me really, really worried. SMT:Nine supposedly wasn't that hot and Shining Soul was outright atrocious. Hopefully CoM will share little with the latter title, despite being another entry in the same genre.
::nervously rocks back and forth::
::nervously rocks back and forth::
The Take Out Bandit
Member
No, Assmaster of the last Dongpocalypse.
I like multiplayer!
It's what made SoM so great, and since I'm not a lonely Japanese gamer, or wanna-be lonely Japanese gamer; I want co-op like the SNES game.
If the SNES game didn't have co-op, it wouldn't have left the impression on me that it did.
Co-op gaming rocks! On-line gaming rocks! It's like peanut butter cups, only x infinity better. This way I don't need to coordinate a gaming "date" with my friends.
I could give a damn about the world and characters. Good friends hitting stuff = Great Pleasure!
CO_Andy said:
BorkBork said:
<nerdulence>
I used to own this, played through quite a few times.
As much as I love me some Evermore though, I don't think it should be included in the list of mana games.
There are plot themes and conventions that run through all the mana games that simply don't exist in Evermore. And vice-versa, there is some stuff in evermore that is wholy its own.
</nurdulence>
Love the alchemy system in that game, the market in the second age\world was great too. And the dog was an awesome companion.
Zensetsu said:<nerdulence>
I used to own this, played through quite a few times.
As much as I love me some Evermore though, I don't think it should be included in the list of mana games.
There are plot themes and conventions that run through all the mana games that simply don't exist in Evermore. And vice-versa, there is some stuff in evermore that is wholy its own.
</nurdulence>
Love the alchemy system in that game, the market in the second age\world was great too. And the dog was an awesome companion.
Yeah don't mind me, I was just getting nostalgic with Evermore when someone brought it up. I loved the alchemy system too. And come on, a toaster dog that shoots lasers? Can't beat that.
Zensetsu said:<nerdulence>
I used to own this, played through quite a few times.
As much as I love me some Evermore though, I don't think it should be included in the list of mana games.
There are plot themes and conventions that run through all the mana games that simply don't exist in Evermore. And vice-versa, there is some stuff in evermore that is wholy its own.
</nurdulence>
Love the alchemy system in that game, the market in the second age\world was great too. And the dog was an awesome companion.
Um, did you miss my post that reads "Secret of Evermore isn't a Seiken Densetsu title."? That means that Secret of Evermore isn't part of the Mana series!
edit: I'm sorry if I sound snotty, I just hate being invisible.
TheJollyCorner
Member
CO_Andy said:
Secret of Evermore was terrible... fucking terrible... and Hell has a special place for you if you actually liked it, you damned limey!
Lemurnator
Banned
The explanation is all good and fine... like cities and such.
Still the screenshot is much bigger and wider, like the size of the PSP screen.
The lower screen looks no much better than an SNES game would look. That's kind of fucked since Legend of Mana was BEAUTIFUL albiet shitty game... that ran on PSX... in 2D.
-_-
/sigh
Still the screenshot is much bigger and wider, like the size of the PSP screen.
The lower screen looks no much better than an SNES game would look. That's kind of fucked since Legend of Mana was BEAUTIFUL albiet shitty game... that ran on PSX... in 2D.
-_-
/sigh
JoshuaJSlone
Member
Absolutely larger, but it's still 4:3 and less than PSP resolution.Lemurnator said:
Guesses: We see larger screens for those things which we might expect to originally have been drawn larger than DS's resolution and later shrunk down. So these pictures where they're less shrunk down are like the DS equivalent of PS2 "screenshots" showing the games at 1024x768 with great anti-aliasing.
Or it could just be that the image was needlessly sized up, but continues to look quite good due to the quality of the original image.
Larger image:
One of the tile-based images resized to match:
Well, back in the day Nex Entertainment (back when they were Nextech, after they were Gau Entertainment) also made the fantastic Crusader of Centy/Neogenesis Ragnacenty on Genesis/MD... which is actually a better game than any ARPG to ever come out of Square imo. If we can get excited about Climax's new PSP games (another company who hasn't produced anything worthwhile since Genesis) we should probably muster some enthusiasm for this too.Heian-kyo said:
