PixyJunket

The official press release is hitting the internet right now.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...4790234&EDATE=

Noonan

I've played through this game 5 times on three different systems and I still can't wait to play it again.

shumway

Chris_D

Are they doing any update to the story and dialog? It sounded like FFIII DS didn't get a lot of love in this area although I never played it.

GreenMonkey

A remake sounds really cool. Oddly, somehow I don't think I would be able to get rid of the GBA cart. I love 16-bit style.

And yes, where is DQ4? My favorite console RPG of all time (only Baldur's Gate II on the PC ranks higher for me).

PixyJunket

There's been a lot of story updates from what I've heard.

PixyJunket

I agree. I think it's going to be a situation where the remake will be a companion to the original as opposed to a complete replacement, at least for fans of the original game. The GBA version is kind of like a "perfect" version of the original (sans the battle lag, sigh). Cleaned up 2D graphics, a fantastic translation and a shit ton of extra content. If they screw up the remake, we still have that version. Before that we had two incompetent versions of the game in English. So it's nice to have such a good version of the game in English before the drastically changed version came out.

It might be my favorite of all time as well.

Dragon Quest V might have beaten it if it had come out here.

shumway

I've been waiting for a chance to play a legal version of DQ V forever.

PixyJunket

I got the PS2 import for cheap. It's just an amazing game and the "generations" structure of the game is beyond awesome. I'll try not to spoil too much, but my only hope with the DS version is that they finally make the major decision of the game less one-sided. They added a few scenes to the PS2 version to even it out slightly, but the game still kind of guilts you into one choice over the other in a way that makes the choice so less significant.

GogoTheMimic

FINALLY. FFIV DS came out in Japan in December; I was getting very close to importing it and getting a translation script from the net or something. Everything I've seen and read about this game it's going to be a million times better than the original. I'm so stoked.

Noonan

That sounds a little like Phantasy Star III with the generations. I think I'm one of the only people who enjoyed that game.

shumway

You aren't the only one. I think I played that through enough to get 3 different endings. My favorite one, if I am remembering properly was:

Chris_D

I think I got all 4 endings. Can't imagine the amount of hours I must have sunk into that. Right game at the right time I guess. Unfortunately it's not really something I can go back to these days. PSIV still holds up pretty well though.

shumway

I've thought about re-playing it. The only one that really gives me pause is PSII because I played the hell out of it and never beat that damn bastard at the end.

Noonan

I played most of the way through III again when it was released on GBA. It was still fairly enjoyable. I don't think I ever played IV for some reason.

Ginwen

I enjoyed it too. Since so many people hate it, I always wondered because it was the first console RPG I played that I liked it so much.

Hey me too. I think it's the only game I've actually gotten to the end and not finished. As I remember, every time you wanted to try him again it took a long time to get to him, and then I'd die pretty fast.

Chris_D

Oh you really need to give PSIV a shot. The story is more fleshed out than previous games, better characterization, the graphics are still good, and the music really puts the Genesis sound chip through its paces. I tried going back to PSII recently after the 1UP retro on PS, and I think PSIV is really the only one that still plays quite well these days. I'm usually pretty tough on retro games though.

fujishig

This is becoming the Phantasy Star thread, but I think the reason III failed is because II was much better than it. Also, having subsequent generations of characters meant that you had less time to grow attached to your party.

IV not only came out at the end of the Genesis's lifespan, but it was really expensive too. I've been working my way through III and I'm looking forward to finally trying IV (available in the Genesis collection but not on the GBA cart).

Now why they don't come out with a real, non-MMORPG-lite game, I'll never know. I had high hopes for Universe, but that was just more of the same...

Chris_D

I don't know if III failed, I think it sold OK. I suspect it's perceived as having failed because a lot of PSII fans found some things a step back when compared to PSII (eg. combat animations). However, people that started with PSIII, like myself and others on this thread really got a lot out of the game and got into the generations system and trying to get all the endings. I went back to PSI and II after that and found PSI too archaic even then, but PSII was certainly still a fine game (although I didn't manage to finish it).

I would still say PSIV is the finest of the series, taking the best of II and III, really adding a lot of polish and better story elements and characterisation. Also, it pushes the genesis hard, must be the best rpg in terms of visuals and sound on the system.

Interestingly, I found out on the 1UP podcast that PSII and PSIII were developed concurrently by two separate teams which explains the lack of coherency between the feature sets of both games.

Last thing, I too would love to see a true single player PSV, on PS2/3 or 360. I'm sure there are at least a few other PS fans who've been waiting a while for this!