Some opinions on Super Fami RPGS?

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I've been currently itching for some good old scholol RPGs and Im leaning towards some of the last Super fami tieles I had heard so much about in the past few years. The ones Im kind interested in are Seiken Densetsu 3, Tenchi Sozo, Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean. Ive been playing ToP on the GBA but I hear the SF version is tons better...true? I would love to play Tenchi Sozo in English and I know it was released in Europe, but is there anyway for me to play it on my NTSC SNES? Any opinons and thoughts on these games would be a great help!

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I say download and install the English translation patches to the ROMs and enjoy yourself. What would you have to lose? They're all great games and it's not like you'd be wasting anything but time if you didn't like them.

As for Phantasia, yeah, the SFC version is a lot better. It's not that the GBA version's bad, it's just the handheld game's missing voices, parts of the intro, and suffers from extreme slowdown during battle sequences.

[50TBRD]

If you have a SFC cart,and you want to play it on your SNES, you have 3 options.

1. Open up the cart and just play with the board and no case,
2. You cut the cart, so the lock out tabs on your SNES fit into the cart.
3. RECOMMENDED, you get a converter cart.

Other than that, you either have to play it on your PC, make a cart from a translation, which takes some work, or get a flash cart.

You need a special screw driver bit to open the cart or I've heard that you can heat up a piece of plastic and mold it to a screw. If you want need a converter, I can help you find one. I just saw several at a store that was closing. I believe that they were 15 bucks. I believe that all but Tenchi Sozo are translated.

[klausien]

If you have a SFC cart,and you want to play it on your SNES, you have 3 options.

1. Open up the cart and just play with the board and no case,
2. You cut the cart, so the lock out tabs on your SNES fit into the cart.
3. RECOMMENDED, you get a converter cart.

You forgot the easiest and best one. Take a chisel or razor knife and cut out the tabs that are in the way inside the cartridge slot. It is a bit of a pain, but totally free and effective. PAL games require an internal hardmod.

As for the Super Fami RPGs, I haven't given most a go due to the language barrier, but I own and played through both Ys IV & Ys V with a walkthrough due to a personal love for the series.

Ys IV is different than the excellent PCE Super CD game as most are aware. It retains the "walk into enemies to kill them" mechanic, but placement is even more crucial. That fact can be irritating and frustrating. It is also one of those games that requires you to be incredibly careful when entering new areas. Not grinding enough spells certain death if you are not careful or skilled in the arts of the aforementioned physical avatar/enemy alignment.

The graphics are rather poor, scenes unmemorable (having a translation would help immeasurably, though most likely not enough to really make all that much of a difference). The biggest issue is that the game lacks that Ys stylistic flair aesthetically. It almost looks and feels like a mediocre homebrew RPG made on RPG Maker for the PSX. On the bright side, the music is pretty good compositionally, though nowhere near as good as the Duo games. It is not worth your time if you aren't an Ys completist.

I feel differently about Ys V. It also lacks the Ys aesthetic, but that is replaced with a different look altogether instead of a poor facsimile of the earlier games. It is a bit more realistic, with muted tones that almost evoke a Square circa FFIII feel. The characters are also not SD and Adol's hair is not quite the same firey red (though that is an easter egg hidden in Kefin). I am particularly fond of the background textures in some of the field areas as they hide any repetition well. Actually, the game is probably working with multiscreen single maps like its predecessors, so there is no repetition. In general the art is quite nice, if a bit generic.

The gameplay is a bridge to Ys VI. It is a full on action RPG with swordplay recalling Zelda III, though nowhere near as refined. The magical abilities are unfortunately rather unecessary. You don't really gain anything by working hard on your stats other than that all important increase in attack power.

Ys V also lacks the magic of the original games (which was gloriously resurrected in Ys VI. Naysayers be damned), but it is a lot more entertaining than Ys IV for an non-native speaker since there is more to do than literally just walk into things. There is a lukewarm opinion of this game all over the place, but it is actually pretty decent. Not something to seek out necessarily, but nice for the few bucks I got it for.

[50TBRD]

If you have a SFC cart,and you want to play it on your SNES, you have 3 options.

1. Open up the cart and just play with the board and no case,
2. You cut the cart, so the lock out tabs on your SNES fit into the cart.
3. RECOMMENDED, you get a converter cart.

You forgot the easiest and best one. Take a chisel or razor knife and cut out the tabs that are in the way inside the cartridge slot. It is a bit of a pain, but totally free and effective. PAL games require an internal hardmod.

That was number 2. But I did forget that if you have the cart open you can put the board in side a SNES cart and play it as well. The boards fit the exact same. Thats if you you like playing a game a lot.

[Xiados]

Seiken Densetsu 3 will work with just one of the converter things like what I posted in that one topic somewhere else on the boards. About playing Terranigma (PAL) on a US Snes or something. I never got around to getting any of those others as carts.

[Canadianzombie]

I played through the SuperFamicom Chronotrigger, but like someone else said the language difference makes it difficult, you could use a Gamefaq walkthru though.
Cheers
MArk