Random Game Talk, All game talk welcome...for now....

well, couldn't put this in another thread without going off topic in there, so this is what this one is for. randomness

@Nano-Nano
so i went to go hunt for grandia III today as well as looking for mana khemia as well and guess what.....no copies of grandia III (brand new at least). i'm so bummed about it because i was looking forward to getting some rpg goodness going this weekend. i saw mana khemia for 40 bucks which included the soundtrack and other stuff as well. it was really tempting to get it, but i was hellbent on finding grandia III. i can only get a used copy from some gamestops......but i like mine brand spankin new even if i won't play them again. even more so is that it's the grandia series. it's like a slap on the face to me if i can't find a new copy. worst case scenario(s) is that i order it from amazon or something for $55+ or (maybe even better) get it for $35+ imported version. i don't know if my japanese skills are good enough to understand ALL of the story yet which is what i want to do for grandia. i hear the story isn't as great as the first two, but still it would be nice to understand it all. i'll probably be able to get the main story talk, but the NCP talk is interesting as well.

but i think just because of this disappointing shock of not finding grandia III, i think i'll snag up mana khemia tomorrow. and then i'll get the imported grandia III.....it's freakin $35!!

@everyone else including Nano-Nano
anyone see/know arcana heart? i think i may pick that up as well seeing as how i haven't had played a fighting game yet in a while. what's more is that the sounds are all japanese intact as well as it anime style with girls as the players. plus the price is $30. it'd be a nice pick up and play when i need to kill some time so i'm just wondering if you guys played it yet.

This post has been edited by uragayduck on Apr 5 2008, 12:03 AM

Well it's too bad about Gradia 3 (well i'm not that confident in my japanese skills, need to learn more kanji's....)

Yes you better get Mana Khemia

Here's some info on the series.

Mana Khemia is the 9th game in the Atelier series from the developer Gust (for some reason they have it as the 5th game in the US..... well the 5th game released in the US from Gust----> Atelier Iris 1,2,3 and for some reason Ar Tonelico is the 4th.... which is wrong, well it IS a Gust developed game but it's a different series)

Name changes:

Philomel Hartung- Jap / Jessica Philomel- US
Gunnar Damm- Jap / Flay Gunnar- US
Titil Mimi Nike Mele-- Jap / Nicole Mimi Tithel- US

Nicknames:

Philo- Jap/ Jess- US
Nike- Jap/ Nikki- US (it works in the Jap version because it's part of her full name.... I don't know how they got Nikki in the US ver...)

Nike calls Gunnar "Gun-chan" in the Jap ver but in US ver..... Flaya.....?....>_>

honorifics:

chan-
kun-
senpai
sensei.....well you get it, it's obvious they won't have these in the US voice track.

And you will see alot of liberties to the script..... like american pop-culture reference "Jebus" and a obvious one (well for me anyway)

during a scene Vain says "everyone watch out!" but in the script they wrote... "Let the power of our mana decide our fate"

well it just doesn't work, Vain is a very passive soft spoken main char and for him to say that all of a sudden seemed really off (plus how the hell did they get that from that simple sentence!)

And for the hell of it here are the seiyuus:

Opening Song/ Haruka Shimotsuki

Vain Aureolus/ Akira Ishida
Philomel Hartung/ Sakura Nogawa
Gunnar Damm/ Kenyuu Horiuchi
Loxis Rosenkranz/ Daisuke Kishio
Anna Laemmle/ Ui Miyazaki
Titil Mimi Nike Mele/ Miyuki Sawashiro
Mupe Oktavia Wondratschek VIII/ Choo
Pamela Ibis Asuka/ Tanii
Bernhard Tieck/ Naomi Kusumi
Ernentraud Carnap/ Yukari Hishizu
Seppl Kleiber/ Kazuhiko Inoue
Melhis Roythiers/ Rina Satou
Carda Dii Rol Ale/ Ryuuta Iguchi
Toni Eisler/ Mitsuaki Madono
Lene Kier/ Ai Nonaka

Well my only gripe is the liberties taken in the script but I can tell which ones they are so not much of a big deal for me. (sucks for the people that don't understand/care for the Jap voice track because the english voice track only voiced about 50~60% of the game, Char events---> the whole event, shop clerks, ect are not voiced)

It's not that I hate the English voice track (It has some of my favorite US anime voice actors like for example Richard Ecpar)

It just seems the director had a different mind for the "personalities" for each char in the English voice track.

the chars sound really off in the english track but that's just my opinion.

plus in the end it all comes down to if you actually understand japanese to fully enjoy the jap voice track....

or you will always see this....

I hate the jap voices, the girls are too high pitched or the voices of the girls in english sound too old.... (I think this is the main reason for the Sub vs Dub wars)

Well I got some Arcana Heart char in Mugen, they play pretty slow...... well other than that I already played the import and let me say... it's pretty tough near the end because the last boss just spams specials after specials >_> but it's not a bad game it's pretty fun but it has limited chars and the stages are HUGE (even the converted vers of them for Mugen, it's pretty hard just to get to the top!)

well if you have more questions regarding Arcana Heart just ask... same goes for Mana Khemia

This post has been edited by Nano-Nano on Apr 5 2008, 05:25 AM

( ^ __ ^ ; ) ahahah....i mention that i may as well pick it up and i unleash your knowledge of the game in a mere matter of seconds. but thanks for the heads up. i guess all those little quips of the game is to be expected of american released games of japanese rpgs. although that jebus reference (as funny as it is in simpsons) really reminds me of the lunar games....well mostly from silver star story, when they use the whole austin powers "do you want to shag baby?" type of lines for an NCP character. if i was able to trudge through that mockery of translations then i should be able to deal with mana khemia.....i hope.

ooo....Nonoka Ai and Satou Rina being in there should make it entertaining as well with the already well known Ishida Akira, Nogawa Sakura, and Sawashiro Miyuki.

wait, so the game is voiced more in japanese than it is in english? not that it bugs me since i'll be playing through in japanese, but makes me wonder if it's because they didn't want to try as hard for the english one or they just didn't want to use up too much room on the disc itself.

well, there's nothing really much to ask about arcana heart. it's basically what i kind of want for nanoha strikers, a magical girl fighting game. it seemed interesting enough for me to snag it up. if i were to wonder anything about it, it woudl be who did the seiyuu work since i'm a fan of that kind of thing.

Oh I made a mistake it's

Pamela Ibis /Asuka Tanii (Noa!)

It seems jebus is pretty much known by everybody now
and as funny as those austin powers quotes sound, that would sorta push the line for a faithful translation..... oh well that's how US released JRPG'S are going to be like (not that i'm complaining, but some lines are too cheesy for my liking which ruins some chars for me)

Small budget (maybe the voice actors wanted more pay).... that's pretty much it.
and even if they manage to FULLY voice everything in BOTH tracks it still wouldn't fill the disk!

Nogawa Sakura, yeah I love her voice when I first heard her in the Kimi Kiss PS2 game (voiced the main char's little sister) then went to check info on her then find out she voiced so many other games and animes that I already own and are my favorites also (Ar Tonelico and the most obvious Rozen Maiden and many others)

guuuh....what have you gotten me into Nano-Nano. it's been 5 hours after i forced myself to stop playing mana khemia. that's a good thing though mind you. that shows that the game is indeed enjoyable for me as an rpg. usually i'm not into the whole synthesis thing in rpgs, but since it's critical in this game then there's no way of getting around it.

i do have a question though, when you're synthesizing in your workshop....what the hell is happening? well i know that you need to select certain items required to create a new one, but what's with the whole dial thingie? to me, it looks like the colored icons are elemental or whatnot but i have no idea what importance it has. i've just been randomly selecting the colors alongside of using the support from the girls.

not sure how often i'll be replying here since i'll be busy in the game, but i'll do my best to drop by here here and there......i hope.....

ahh the feeling of playing games again.....how i missed it

Heheheh~~ glad you're hooked to Mana Khemia.

Well that determines how much of an Ether boost you will get from a synthesis (the number) plus you will get better skills or better stats up skills like MGK (M) or a whole new skill all together!

The higher the number the better the item, but later on when you take part time jobs for people (you need to do this beause you get new recepies out of some jobs and once you miss them...... you might cut a part in your grow book which means no more new skills for some chars) for example a person wants a "cold" green soup, well the only way to get that is for the quality of that item to be below 20 or so (they only way to do this is usually Nikke's support card during synthesis, it lowers it down to 0) and if you want a "warm" green soup then you need it above 70 or higher.

So lets say for example you are making a heal jar and the ingredients for it is "water" (blue) and "dirt' (yellow) and you want it to be high ether quality

well those dials during synthesis are:

blue/water
red/fire
green/wind
yellow/earth
black/no element (might change some skills, depends on the item)

so if you want a high ether quality then try to match the colors during synthesis because later in the story some classes require you to have a high ether number on the item you are going to turn in!

So what do you think of the soundtrack?
great isn't it! just wait till you are a sophmore (that version of the battle theme is my favorite)

Yeah the battle theme changes--- freshman->sophmore-->senior
plus the small bosses (the big red blobs on the feild) have their own battle theme too!

I really LOVE Gust's music for their games (mostly their work in the Ar Tonelico series)

This post has been edited by Nano-Nano on Apr 6 2008, 02:55 AM

Still a sucker for the Tales of... series. I love how i just made my party go from level 14 to 59 in one battle at the very beginning of the game

@agumike
you know, i was about to get suckered into the tales of series just by symphonia alone. the character designer is the same guy who did the sakura taisen series so i was interested in it. and i've always heard of the tales of series but i never did get into it just like final fantasy or dragon quest. my favorite series though have got to be lunar and grandia since i've grown with those series even when i didn't own them thanks to the long deceased gamefan magazine. i can't recall, but did they ever port tales of symphonia onto the ps2? if they did, i may pick that up since the one thing that held me back from getting it was that i didn't own a gamecube.

@Nano-Nano
ooooh....i get it now. there was this other option for the support card which was something like auto-synthesize. is that a good thing or more of a hit and miss thing where something good can happen or conversely have a bad effect on the item?

and yes, i'll admit that the music is pretty good. battle music is pretty spot on too.....but it honestly doesn't hold a candle compared to lunar's battle music. i'll put up a little sample of a song and you'll be amazed, heh. interesting how that the music will change depending on your year level. that's a nice touch to a change of pace so i'll buy that.

Well Tales of Symphonia was a gamecube exclusive here (sony can't bring over the PS2 port over here which sucks because it has a ton of extras)

Well there is a Tales of Symphonia "sequel" coming out for the Wii later this year.... I might not get it because they might ruin something for me.....LloydXPresea my favorite canon couple but.... they might just put LloydXCollete seeing as she's the main female heroin... hate that combination >_>


Well if you guys have a XBOX360 ( ) they are going to release a next-gen Tales game for it which totally rocks for me plus it has the same artist from Tales of Phantasia, Symphonia, Abyss ..... so if you are a big Tales of fan then.... you have to buy a Xbox360.... well I doubt that for uragayduck

Nah just do that if you see their face next to the recipe (you will get a suggestion from that person and then you get a new recipe)

Mostly more of a hit and miss thing, I don't know if you will get you new skills out of it but maybe until I get more rare recipes then I'll see if it does or not.

off course it will sound great (Lunar series I never played them though... hard to find a copy >_>), he did the soundtrack for the Grandia series plus Golden Sun one of my favorite Rpgs for the Gameboy Advance (heck a remix of the battle theme from Golden Sun: Lost Ages is in the game SSMB!)

So what do you think of the voice acting uragayduck?

This post has been edited by Nano-Nano on Apr 6 2008, 03:02 PM

that's so true, heh. wait, so they DO have it on the ps2...but it's only on the japanese ps2? if so, then there's still a small chance of me getting it probably.

ooooh....i was wondering why there was a face next to one of the recipes. so if i use their support card on that item when i'm combining items, a new item will be created? hmm....got to try that later....

well, it is hard to find a copy of a brand new factory sealed silver star story and eternal blue, but i did happen to find mine on ebay for a pretty good price.....20 bucks each with all the little goodies that working designs threw in the american version. the boxes were beat up a little, but man it was so worth it. i actually prefer the music from lunar over the ones used in grandia. they're both good, but lunar is just spectacularly amazing. as mentioned before, here's the boss battle song (of course it's arranged differently and everything compared to the game...):

http://profile.imeem.com/o9fJG9T/music/CJk...boss_battlewma/

this song came from the soundtrack that came with the american version of the game. and it's not only this song but many others more that i just love. if you do happen to find a copy of silver star and eternal blue for a good price, pick them up. you really won't regret it. love stories couldn't have been told any better

as for the music in mana khemia....wow. it's really good actually. i'd put it up there with Iwadare Noriyuki's music of lunar/grandia if not above it. i'm still in the freshman year so i can just imagine how the songs will change as i go up the class years.

and for the voice acting....of course they're great. Sawashiro Miyuki's voice is just a delight to listen to since it really is different from other roles she's done like GA. Tanii Asuka is really surprising like you said since it's completely different from the sharp tounged noa that we're used to. and there's one person who i'm still wondering about who voiced her, but that front desk girl at the student affairs....isn't that Kawasumi Ayako? it's been bugging me and that's who it really sounds like to me. i have no comment on the english voices since i haven't touched it so let's leave it at that, heh. and i do see the weird scripting they wrote that you mentioned. that jeebus reference was too painful for the situation as was the mistranslation to that line vayne said to roxis before they battled. oh well, other than those, the translation isn't too bad.....now lunar on the other hand had some pretty downright pitiful scripting in some spots.

From what Lunar game is the boss music from?
Iwadare Noriyuki's music is great as always!

Well just a heads up wait till you hear a specific boss battle theme in Mana Khemia (later in the story you will have to fight one of your teachers) this song will blow you away!....well in my opinion! oh yeah the song is called Nefertiti.

Ken Nakagawa, Daisuke Achiwa, Akira Tsuchiya these are the three persons responsible for the music for the Atelier series and the great Ar Tonelico series....

well just to get your interest in their work...

Here's the boss battle theme for a specific girl's route in Ar Tonelico 2 (love this song soo much )

It's called EXEC_SPHILIA. Artist: Noriko Mitose (Daisuke Achiwa did this one himself!)

http://profile.imeem.com/9cssYg/music/qQGZ...e_exec_sphilia/


The Ar Tonelico series centers on these songs called hymns which revatiels (bio android girls) sing! so that's why these songs sound great because the series made up this language which the girls sing.


and if you're not afraid of being spoiled here is the last boss theme for Mana Khemia (for some reason some people think it's the opening song remixed, boy are they ever wrong >_>)

The song's name is STIGMATA Artist: Noriko Mitose (great isn't she ) (again Daisuke Achiwa did this one himself)

http://profile.imeem.com/9cssYg/music/Nkv-...itose_stigmata/

hope you like it!

This post has been edited by Nano-Nano on Apr 7 2008, 01:19 AM

@Duckie- Yeah, the port never came, but I have it! and I love it. Yes, the Tales of Vesperia is coming out on xbox, which makes me kinda sad, but it just means that hte graphics will be great. And I really like LloydxCollet anyway. The ToS for Wii coming out lookos much more interesting than I first expected, then tehre is the new Narikiri dungeon coming out for DS at some future date.

@Nano- Yeah, Golden Sun, awesomes, beating Dullihan on hard was.......chaotic. Took sooooooo many times

Yeah I have the import also (all the skits are voiced so that's a plus!)

uragayduck just to tell you Tales of Symphonia is the first tales of game to let you CHOOSE which character you want to end up with as lovers or best friends soo Presea was an obvious choice for me I really love the scene when you save her from Mithos, Lloyd pretty much proposed to her! (saying that he will always be by her side)

Yeah the best choice was to use your strongest summons and pray that you will survive the next attack because you will be weak from using most of your djins.

I loved that part too! And my guide for the PS2 version has EVERYTHING in it! It tells you what answers will make whom go up or down. But as for skits, there is apparently one or two extra skits in teh PS2 version than (at least) the US GCN version, because the skit numbers at teh Nekonin Village eventually were one off of each other. I still have to go and find it. And the best skit is the nickname skit, always loved it. "Lloydo wa "omae". Geniusu wa "gaki"." xDD


Yupyupyup! And it took FOREVER. But mixing around Gjinni is fun, like Luminer for Jemma and other things, like the ninja-like job for Issac.

Ah yes, Mana Khemia Alchemist of Al-Revis. Hopefully I will have it completely dowloaded soon...