Surprise find, PS1 Kartia: Word of Fate!

[ifkz]

Tonight I went to my local used book shop to trade in ten or so unwanted DVDs. While browsing their clearance software shelf, I happened upon this RPG for the PS1! How cool is that? It's Atlus, it's an RPG, and I've never heard of it! It is (happily) complete, but the disc is very scratched up; thankfully I think I have a place that will buff it for me. I'll update this tomorrow if all goes well. It does play as-is, so that is encouraging.

The best part is it cost me less than a vending machine candy bar. My best find in quite some time; I can't help but be excited, it has been ages since anything neat and unusual popped up for the PS1 part of my collection.

[kupomogli]

It's not the best tactical RPG, but it's pretty good game with a unique combat system and a decent amount of replay value by having two different scenarios. Worth playing and owning if you like tactical RPGs.

[Tokimemofan]

Is it the Blockbuster version or the foil print version?

[ifkz]

It is the foil version, I never knew about the blockbuster label variation until I read this thread reply. Heck, I never knew about the game until I saw it in the flesh last night!

It is a strategy RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics, both of which owe a debt to Shining Force, IMO. I am just coming off of a marathon of Shining Force CD, so this will be a good title to dive into a little later. Hopefully I'll be able to give this disc a new lease on life later today.

This copy does have something going on for the label variation collector, the manual was incorrectly cut from the factory. The "Kartia" title is way too close to the top and I can see the cut border mark on the bottom. Pretty rare to see a factory printing error this obvious.

[kupomogli]

It is a strategy RPG like Final Fantasy Tactics, both of which owe a debt to Shining Force, IMO.

Owe a debt to Shining Force how? The fact that they're tactical RPGs? It's not like Shining Force was the first or even an amazing game in the genre. The Shining Force series is decent, almost borderline crap because of how slow and boring it is. Despite that, Shining Force CD is one of the best games on the Sega CD, but again, it's only decent. If you want a good tactical RPG for Sega CD then play Dark Wizard.

[isufje]

Don't listen to him, Shining Force is good! Also, I recommend the first thing you do is change the default viewpoint to standard isometric, because IMHO the default viewpoint sucks. But in tutorial mode, I don't think you can change it, but it's been such a long time since I played it, I don't remember.

[ifkz]

Not to worry, Shining Force is one of my favorite series and I own the main games on the Genesis, Sega CD, and Saturn and some of the side story Shining games too. I have a real soft spot for the main series and that's not going anywhere. I would like to get into Dark Wizard too, but so far I am only impressed with the anime cut scenes. Hex games are hard for me to like.

I am happy to report that I did indeed find a local shop to resurface my game for $4, which I think is very fair. Thanks for the tip about the in game layout, I'll check it out.

This turned out to be one of those really good days that collectors sit around and talk about as far as finds go. While I was out I stopped by another shop that had a small game section and also buys and sells systems. I spotted a fat PS3 marked bad and end up walking out of the store with it for a Grant pulls a few Washingtons. I blew my monthly gaming budget, but I am fond of an electronics project now and again. I had success fixing some fat PS2 systems a few years ago, so I figured it could be fun.

I get it home and clean it with a leaf blower and my vacuum, and hook it up to my TV so see what I had as a project. Long story short, the hard drive was in the process of dying and made the system behave very strangely. I had a dead laptop sitting around with a 160GB SATA HDD and I threw it in, learned about system updates, formatted it, and it seems to have fixed the system! I was finally able to enjoy my only blue ray- a copy of Toy Story 2. It was one of the last fats before the slim came out, so no PS2 backwards compatibility. But the silver lining is that it plays all PS1 games, so Kartia will work fine in HDMI! No telling how long it will last given it's history, but I'm pretty happy right now!!!

I like it vertical, but friends tell me to store it horizontal for fear of disc scratches and breakage from accidental bumps.

[Parodius Duh!]

This copy does have something going on for the label variation collector, the manual was incorrectly cut from the factory. The "Kartia" title is way too close to the top and I can see the cut border mark on the bottom. Pretty rare to see a factory printing error this obvious.

That means its generally worth less than a mint, correctly cut copy. People dont collect factory f'd up cosmetic errors.

Its like when I was a kid and got a nice new 1984 Storm shadow figure, open him up, two left arms. Mother FUCKER! My dad actually wrote to hasbro and they sent me like 10 figs for free.. @_@

[Daria]

The Shining Force series is... almost borderline crap because of how slow and boring it is.

*raises eyebrow, and then the finger*

[Colorado Rockies]

Kupomogli is an idiot and a retard.
Shining Force is one of the best series ever. Especially the Genesis versions.