[Felix]

there was quite a lot of discussion of this in the news thread last week

seems like they've mostly tightened up their act since a really rough first couple days (lack of focus around the project and some pretty bad copy) but their growth rate has really slowed down and it might actually be a struggle to hit $600k at this point

which is a bummer because I'd at least like to see them get sakimoto and alex o smith, as that should give it a certain degree of unfuckupability

[Felix]

mauve have you ever looked at FFT's scripting engine for the cutscenes

because it's amazing

[Felix]

SNES Tactics Ogre is still a lot better in every respect but the production values

every cutscene gesture, be it a shrug, or a handshake, or a run-in-and-make-the-wilhelm-scream, is encoded in there as some form of /x7 /D3 /33 and so forth. some of them actually encode move-to-tile coordinates.

it is this which speaks to my disappointment with every game that uses shonen-style sprites for storytelling.

[Felix]

yeah, okay, I will say that the Chariot system is an intelligent and dynamic way to basically implement save states, but I really don't like the new leveling system (it takes the moxie out of what is still to this day the best implementation of permadeath) and the battles are even slower than in the original game, which as Pijaibros surmised, required that fast forward key for me.

[Felix]

well, sure -- apart from being really accessible for people like me who want to hack the game, the sheer consistency of all of the cutscenes basically being done in-engine (wherein the characters are basically following a demo mode script around the battle maps) goes a long way in terms of the production. it's almost like a worldbuilding detail; instead of the game having discrete Story Modes and Battle Modes the whole thing feels like a much more coherent whole.

it's such a rare thing in anything but painstaking-animated AAA 3D titles (which typically aren't nearly as much fun to play for me as a good sRPG) to have dialog presented as anything other than two alternating walls of text that having these multi-actor interactions with characters occupying some kind of real space and walking around rooms makes early Matsuno titles really special.

[Felix]

No argument!

[Felix]

profoundly contentful update from the man himself: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/482445197/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/731062?ref=email

[Felix]

and a slightly more legitimizing update despite the fact that they've only gotten fifty grand in the past week:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/482445197/unsung-story-tale-of-the-guardians/posts/732084

[Felix]

yeah. at this point they might just barely creep over the finish line. they'd have done much better to wait a couple weeks...

[Felix]

if you actually like the restranslation, there's a patch that just puts it into the PSX ISO and fixes some bugs and changes nothing else. I forget which patch this is, but it'll work for you. there isn't really an agreed-upon rebalance for the PSX version that doesn't make enemies overuse phoenix downs and make it more of a slugfest than intended.

I'm still working on my own rewrite. I got about two-thirds of the way through the actual script, hit writer's block, tried to do a bit of rebalancing meanwhile, broke something in the first battle of chapter 3 that I couldn't seem to fix, and haven't gone back to work on it since. I will eventually, I swear. please enjoy other felix products like 5 hour MGS4 movie and sunset rubdown DMC3 while you wait.

[Felix]

Yup to that whole post

[Felix]

this suddenly looks to be pretty likely to meet its target! this has been such a weird kickstarter campaign (not that I've followed others particularly closely); between them gradually announcing as they went on that they'd already snagged sakimoto and yoshida after all, and the funds being absolutely flat for two weeks, and the new concept art looking really really good ... eh, what the hell

there are now going to be no fewer than three (3)! highly anticipated linux native (!!) turn-based strategy titles coming out in the next couple of years(!!!)

between this, frozen endzone, and massive chalice, I'm a happy guy

[Felix]

The new concept art looks really good and somehow this thing is coming right down to the wire. I'm prepared to go up to $80 but pleased I probably won't have to.

[Felix]

have you tried the newest Fallen Enchantress, Talbain? it looks somewhat Ogre-Battle-esque (though very CRPG esque in not so great a way, and the last one was really poorly reviewed, and I don't have a great deal of confidence in the interface or the balancing so I haven't tried it yet)