THE BORE

General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 09:35:17 PM

Title: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 09:35:17 PM
I've been collecting OG Xbox games for a few months now and I'm getting my collection pretty well filled out other than a few notable omissions [Panzer Dragoon Orta and Shenmue 2 being at the top of that list], so I decided to start looking into the next system I want to start collecting for. Ended up hitting on the Saturn, since I've only ever played a few of the bigger domestic releases [Dragon Force, Dark Savior, Magic Night Rayearth, and some of the Sega games]. Domestic releases for a lot of Saturn games have gotten insanely expensive, though, games that used to be about $50 or now going for $150, so I'm going the import route, especially since there are a ton of really great Saturn games that just didn't get released outside of Japan.

Here's what I've got so far [other than a couple of domestic titles]:

(http://i.imgur.com/u3bXOla.jpg)

And I've got quite a few more on order from eBay. Haven't really been hitting many of the big ticket titles so far, just some of the interesting/weird stuff that I can grab on the cheap.

I do actually intend to play most of these games, even though there are a lot of RPGs and I understand very, very little spoken Japanese and no written Japanese at all. I'll try to work my way through, see what I can manage. I'll post my thoughts and experiences as I play them. Also, any helpful advice about how to play these games [and what other games I should get] would be a mighty fine thing for you to do.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 09:48:33 PM
Here's my collection...I haven't touched it in a while.  I'd recommend the the Cotton games (2D shoot-em-ups); I have Cotton Boomerang.  A lot of the games I have I don't care much for now because it's so easy to just load up and play the superior arcade versions.

(http://i.imgur.com/suCfjQf.jpg)

Holy shit at the dust on the bottom!
:neogaf

Here's a list of the games in the front rows:

Keio Flying Squadron 2 (Euro)
Sakura Wars
Sakura Wars 2
Vampire Savior
Sega Rally Championship (U.S.)
Magical Drop III
Nights
Shin Shinobi Den (Which IIRC has a U.S. disc inside, lol)
Load Runner Extra
Fighters Megamix
Street Fighter Real Battle On Film
Dragon Ball Z Legends
Street Fighter Collection
Dead Or Alive
Dracula X Nocturne In The Moonlight
Saturn Bomberman
Bubble Symphony
Cotton Boomerang
Biohazard
Pocket Fighter
Virtua Fighter 2
Winter Heat
X-Men COTA
Street Fighter Zero
Waku Waku 7
Marvel Super Heroes
Cyberbots


Virtua Fighter Kids
Gunbird
Astra Superstars
Vampire Hunter
Elevator Action Returns
KOF '97
KOF '96
Virtua Fighter Remix
Zero Divide The Final Conflict
Street Fighter Zero 3 (4MB RAM Cart Pack)
Fighter's History Dynamite (1MB RAM Cart Pack)
KOF '95 (With ROM Cart)
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter (4MB RAM Cart Pack)
Groove On Fight (1MB RAM Cart Pack)
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (4MB RAM Cart Pack)
Action Replay

There's also a Cyberbots LE in the back.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on August 15, 2017, 09:52:19 PM
Wow, a nice library there! I bought Sword and Sorcery for like $10. That game came to the US on the 3DO of all systems as Lucienne's Quest, and I payed 42x the price of the Saturn version :P Groove On Fight is a cool game in the Power Instinct series, though it pales a bit compared to Matrimelee (one of the later Power Instinct games), and I've heard good things about Black Matrix. I've never heard of Audvanis, Gulliver Boy, Thunderhawk 2, or Cyber Doll...

Saturn imports are definitely one of my favorite things to talk about, and there's a goldmine of obscurities - aside from the obvious (Radiant Silvergun, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Shining Force 3 part 2 and 3) I'd definitely recommend the following games:

Tengai Makyou: The Apocalypse IV (turn based RPG that takes place in a demented parody of late 19th century America)
Sakura Taisen 1 and 2 (a strategy RPG, dating sim hybrid involving a theatre troupe, these games I'd imagine would be right up your alley)
Linkle Liver Story (action RPG from the makers of Crusader of Centy with a slight furry theme)
Soukyugurentai (a decent shmup published by EA Japan of all people)
Steamgear Mash (isometric mech based game with slightly Metroidvania-ish design)
Twinbee Deluxe (contains Detana Twinbee and one of the later arcade Twinbees, it's an awesome cute em up that rarely gets its due in the US)
Bulk Slash (3d action game that has some really attractive graphics for the system)
Tryrush Deppy (platformer starring an anthropomorphic cab, very charming and colorful 2D visuals)
Farland Saga (strategy RPG with some hideously 90's cgi character design but FANTASTIC music)
Langrisser IV and V (a wonderful strategy RPG series with fantastic character design by Satoshi Urushihara)
Wachenroder (steampunk RPG)
Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari (a strange game that plays almost like a point and click, with a very unique art style delivered with beautiful 2D rendered graphics, it reminds me of something you'd see from Amanita Design)
Princess Crown (the first Vanillaware game, beautiful 2D graphics, and one of our favorite Bore posters even wrote a FAQ for it!)
Shienryu (a solid shmup that doesn't break much new ground, but it's worth a playthrough)
Battle Garegga (expensive af now, but it's a WWII themed shmup with an amazing soundtrack influenced by Detroit techno)

I'll be honest, I did a fair chunk of my Saturn collecting back before the market really took off, most of what I got here was $50 or lower apart from Radiant Silvergun. Don't know what prices are like now on all these.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 09:59:53 PM
I need to check out some prices too.  All my games were purchased back in the 90s/early 2000s.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 10:14:58 PM
I need to check out some prices too.  All my games were purchased back in the 90s/early 2000s.

I bought Albert Odyssey [US version] for $50 ten years ago, and that was a slightly inflated price since I bought it from a used game store's "premium section." It's going for $150+ now. Magic Knight Rayearth, Dragon Force, and the Shining spinoffs have similarly skyrocketed in price [of games that I previously owned, but unfortunately sold at some point]. Even a lot of imports [especially of shmups and certain fighters] are through the roof in terms of price, it's absolutely crazy right now.

For now I'm just buying what's cheap and a few titles that are in the $50~ range, then waiting to see if eventually some of the super-expensive games eventually come down in price.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:15:04 PM
Groove On Fight is a cool game in the Power Instinct series, though it pales a bit compared to Matrimelee (one of the later Power Instinct games),

They feel like pretty different games.  Different dev teams and pretty much completely different character rosters.  Groove has a tag mechanic too.  But the Saturn version is missing a lot of animation.

Matrimelee got a PS2 port, BTW.  The port removes the bonus characters from Rage Of The Dragons, but adds in some Power Instinct characters from the older games.

And then Matrimelee got a sequel (Goketsuji Ichizoku - Matsuri Senzo Kuyo) that stayed in the arcades only.  It recently got emulated in the last couple of years.

I love me some Power Instinct.  I have Power Instinct 2 on PS1, Groove On Fight on Saturn, and Matrimelee on PS2.  Had the NeoGeo version back when I was buying AES games.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:17:02 PM
I need to check out some prices too.  All my games were purchased back in the 90s/early 2000s.

I bought Albert Odyssey [US versions] for about $50 ten years ago. It's going for $150+ now. Absolutely crazy. Magic Knight Rayearth and the Shining spinoffs have similarly skyrocketed in price [of games that I previously owned, but unfortunately sold at some point]. Even a lot of imports [especially of shmups and certain fighters] is absolutely crazy right now.

Do you know which fighters?

And wow...holy shit-- if I sold just 2-3 games on eBay, I could get enough cash to pick up one of those $600 TCL P-Series TVs I've been thinking about getting.  Insane.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: demi on August 15, 2017, 10:18:42 PM
Yikes, no thanks. Imports are a no-no for this fella and Saturn is just too expensive for me
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 10:19:06 PM
I need to check out some prices too.  All my games were purchased back in the 90s/early 2000s.

I bought Albert Odyssey [US versions] for about $50 ten years ago. It's going for $150+ now. Absolutely crazy. Magic Knight Rayearth and the Shining spinoffs have similarly skyrocketed in price [of games that I previously owned, but unfortunately sold at some point]. Even a lot of imports [especially of shmups and certain fighters] is absolutely crazy right now.

Do you know which fighters?

Not sure off-hand, but mostly the really niche ones, I think. The Capcom and SNK fighters are still pretty reasonably priced, though.

Yikes, no thanks. Imports are a no-no for this fella and Saturn is just too expensive for me

Certain games have gone crazy, for sure, but there are still a lot that you can get for $10 or less, and a lot more that are under $50. Of course, you can easily drop a grand on some games [Panzer Dragoon Saga, for one, where even the import versions are going for over $500].

The 12 games in my picture I probably got for about $100 total.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:21:45 PM
Crazy to think that a decade ago, you could get pretty much any of the Japanese games pretty cheap, especially in local shops.  Now so many are on auction sites with jacked-up prices and the stores are missing all this stuff.  :-\
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: demi on August 15, 2017, 10:24:11 PM
Theres no point in buying a japanese copy of Grandia when an english one already exists

Go back to Xbox, there's plenty of good stuff to get yet on it
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Himu on August 15, 2017, 10:24:19 PM
Get Elevator Action Returns.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:25:30 PM
Get Elevator Action Returns.

It goes for like $200-$300.

You can get it on one of the PS2 Taito collections.  I need to find that and get it so I can sell my Saturn copy off.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 10:25:57 PM
Crazy to think that a decade ago, you could get pretty much any of the Japanese games pretty cheap, especially in local shops.  Now so many are on auction sites with jacked-up prices and the stores are missing all this stuff.  :-\

Part of the problem is people on auction sites trying to one-up each other, but I think the bigger issue is that a lot of these games were never available in particularly large quantities to begin with and after years of collection most copies are in the hands of collectors who aren't willing to part with them [which shrinks the pool even further]. The same thing is even starting to happen with systems that were more popular in America, like the N64.

Theres no point in buying a japanese copy of Grandia when an english one already exists

Eh, it was $6 shipped.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Himu on August 15, 2017, 10:26:12 PM
I have the Taito Legends 2.

Elevator Action Returns costs that much? Jeez.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Himu on August 15, 2017, 10:28:31 PM
One suggestion I have is to buy on amazon.co.jp

You can get games cheaper there and it ships from Japan to NA.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Trent Dole on August 15, 2017, 10:33:17 PM
Crazy to think that a decade ago, you could get pretty much any of the Japanese games pretty cheap, especially in local shops.  Now so many are on auction sites with jacked-up prices and the stores are missing all this stuff.  :-\

Part of the problem is people on auction sites trying to one-up each other, but I think the bigger issue is that a lot of these games were never available in particularly large quantities to begin with and after years of collection most copies are in the hands of collectors who aren't willing to part with them [which shrinks the pool even further]. The same thing is even starting to happen with systems that were more popular in America, like the N64.

Theres no point in buying a japanese copy of Grandia when an english one already exists

Eh, it was $6 shipped.
The english version of Grandia is kind of aids if that helps. Bad va and all references to alcohol were changed to coffee.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:34:45 PM
Part of the problem is people on auction sites trying to one-up each other, but I think the bigger issue is that a lot of these games were never available in particularly large quantities to begin with and after years of collection most copies are in the hands of collectors who aren't willing to part with them [which shrinks the pool even further]. The same thing is even starting to happen with systems that were more popular in America, like the N64.

You still used to be able to find tons and tons of shops in Japan that had 100s of games available.  When I left in 2008, it was still like that.  Stayed the same when I went back for a visit in 2010.  Then I went again in 2015 and it was like they discovered that there were more auction sites than just Yahoo, and fucking everything was put on eBay, Amazon, and the like and the stores were cleaned out or had closed down.   Am sure the huge rise of mobile gaming played a part in the latter.

My favorite little chain Chameleon Club was down to like one store in my former prefecture and it was half the size.  But they had a huge presence online selling all this shit that wasn't in the shop.  I actually didn't have that much trouble getting a lot of the stuff I wanted though...I just ordered it off Amazon Japan and had it sent to my in-laws'. 
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: demi on August 15, 2017, 10:35:31 PM
The english version of Grandia is kind of aids if that helps. Bad va and all references to alcohol were changed to coffee.

Its also in English if that helps
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:37:11 PM
The english version of Grandia is kind of aids if that helps. Bad va and all references to alcohol were changed to coffee.

Its also in English if that helps

Yeah, if you can't read the text...why get a JRPG?

But I guess he's just collecting it and it was dirt cheap.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 10:38:56 PM
One suggestion I have is to buy on amazon.co.jp

You can get games cheaper there and it ships from Japan to NA.

Prices look pretty similar to what Japanese sellers on eBay are offering from what I saw glancing through. And I don't have to mess around with a site that's in Japanese.

The english version of Grandia is kind of aids if that helps. Bad va and all references to alcohol were changed to coffee.

Its also in English if that helps

Yeah, if you can't read the text...why get a JRPG?

I can still mess around with it, enjoy the art and music and combat. I'm not gonna drop $100 on a Japanese-only JRPG, sure, but $10-$15 for something I haven't played before? Eh, why not?
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Valkyrie on August 15, 2017, 10:39:39 PM
Yikes, no thanks. Imports are a no-no for this fella and Saturn is just too expensive for me
Make Bore Mobile a Bore Premium™️ feature and you're all set.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 15, 2017, 10:40:36 PM
Mupepe has a Saturn right? He should post his collection.

:thinking
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 15, 2017, 10:42:49 PM
One suggestion I have is to buy on amazon.co.jp

You can get games cheaper there and it ships from Japan to NA.

Prices look pretty similar to what Japanese sellers on eBay are offering from what I saw glancing through. And I don't have to mess around with a site that's in Japanese.

You can change the language to English.  :doge
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Positive Touch on August 15, 2017, 11:09:54 PM
be careful with your saturn - they're breaking down a lot more nowadays and it's getting harder and harder to repair them. when i got mine out last summer it definitely struggled occasionally. nerds really need to come up with a great emulator so all this shit isn't lost in 20 years. there's a ton of great games for the system tho.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 16, 2017, 05:54:19 PM
One suggestion I have is to buy on amazon.co.jp

You can get games cheaper there and it ships from Japan to NA.

Prices look pretty similar to what Japanese sellers on eBay are offering from what I saw glancing through. And I don't have to mess around with a site that's in Japanese.

You can change the language to English.  :doge

Okay, I've done that, but it's not accepting my address for shipments, even the ones shipped directly from Amazon. >:(
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on August 17, 2017, 03:57:59 PM
My DF Retro thread rambling led me to remember...when Sega first showed off the Saturn to the Japanese media inside their hardware labs it was actually just a carved and painted wood block.

I wonder where one could import that wood block from.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on August 17, 2017, 04:04:53 PM
semi-related, GB did a three and a half hour video this spring with a modded Japanese Launch Saturn though they mostly just play well known (by us weirdo hardcore cool as balls types i guess) games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Y73fhiLKU

But it does provide this helpful information:
Quote
Kyrr-naion3 months ago
"we've got a bucket of saturn games here"

the appropriate measurement.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Bulleta©™® on August 18, 2017, 08:37:03 PM
All I've got is like X-Men vs SF, Vampire Savior, SotN, and Nights. Not much help.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 18, 2017, 11:26:49 PM
A game I've landed on as one that I feel like putting the most time into figuring out for now is a cyberpunk RPG called Cyber Doll. It's got a totally bonkers prologue video [with English narration!] that throws in so many crazy things that don't seem to have any real connection to each other, so it really gets things started on the right foot, in my opinion. The gameplay is random encounter, turn-based-combat, but adds in a few little twists by allowing you to attack and destroy different body parts of enemies [left arm, right arm, legs, body, and head, with the destruction of the latter two resulting in instant death] and varying distances [short range, mid range, and long range] that affect what weapons you and your enemies can use. It took me a little while to get all the basic mechanics down, but I eventually got them figured out enough to where I can work my way through the game.

The cyberpunk atmosphere is nice, with lots of dark and rainy cityscapes. The monsters you fight are so weird and cool, and varied enough in their combat styles to keep things interesting. Field sprites are relatively small and pretty meh overall, but the combat sprites are a lot bigger with way more detail. The music is just okay, definitely not one of the better Saturn OSTs but it does its job.

Fortunately, a huge chunk of the menus are in English, so it's not too hard to figure out what everything does, and the dialogue tends to drop a lot of made up English terms, enough to get an overall picture of what's going on. Would be nice to be able to read all the dialogue, of course, but so far it's playable without any knowledge of Japanese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhqABP9vtho
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 19, 2017, 12:05:31 PM
be careful with your saturn - they're breaking down a lot more nowadays and it's getting harder and harder to repair them. when i got mine out last summer it definitely struggled occasionally. nerds really need to come up with a great emulator so all this shit isn't lost in 20 years. there's a ton of great games for the system tho.

My Saturn's been having occasional problems [won't recognize that a disk is in the drive, won't recognize my 4-in-1 Action Replay, ect.], mostly due to having been in attic for a few years, hopefully it's not on the verge of dying. :-\
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on August 20, 2017, 12:59:31 AM
I went to a flea market in Farmingville and picked up some weird ass Saturn dating sims from Elf (big H-game company) and a game called Air's Adventure, which is an early 3D RPG and supposedly one of the genre's worst. All for like a fiver.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 20, 2017, 09:57:07 PM
I'm now addicted to buying Japanese Saturn games on eBay. :goty

On that note: Dosukube, if you ever wanna sell any of your Saturn games, toss a PM my way.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 21, 2017, 07:22:04 AM
I'm now addicted to buying Japanese Saturn games on eBay. :goty

On that note: Dosukube, if you ever wanna sell any of your Saturn games, toss a PM my way.

Sure, $300 for Burning Rangers and it's yours!  :D
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 21, 2017, 01:16:25 PM
How on Earth are you not fluent in Japanese, Rumbler?

If it was all spoken Japanese, I could almost, kinda, maybe, sort of, a little bit, but not really understand it. Japanese text, though? Nah.

Anyway, here's what I've bought since the first post:

(http://i.imgur.com/CwY9ety.jpg)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 21, 2017, 02:35:20 PM
What the hell is Body Special?

A jigsaw puzzle game that rewards you with short, low resolution, low frame rate clips of bikini models lounging around. :lol
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on August 21, 2017, 06:25:40 PM
Some nice pickups there... I own Princess Quest, bought it because I mistakenly confused it for Princess Crown. It's not that good, though. Very low budget dungeon crawler RPG.

What's that DJ Wars game? Name certainly sounds intriguing...
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 21, 2017, 07:00:54 PM
What's that DJ Wars game? Name certainly sounds intriguing...

I thought it would be more of a DJ Hero-type rhythm game, but nope, it's a DJ simulator that's really in-depth. I might set aside some time eventually to try to figure out, but first impressions are that it won't be easy to do.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 21, 2017, 07:41:21 PM
What I remember about DJ Wars was cool artwork, crappy "game."
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on August 21, 2017, 09:36:01 PM
What's that DJ Wars game? Name certainly sounds intriguing...

I thought it would be more of a DJ Hero-type rhythm game, but nope, it's a DJ simulator that's really in-depth. I might set aside some time eventually to try to figure out, but first impressions are that it won't be easy to do.

Simulator? Ehhh... I'll just stick to the real thing I guess :P

DJ Hero was pretty fun, though nothing like traditional DJing.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Olivia Wilde Homo on August 21, 2017, 09:40:04 PM
I went through this phase ten years ago (see thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61373)

I had a pretty big collection and even got Final Fight Revenge iirc (which after a quick check now goes for $350-500 lol)  I wound up getting rid of it in a matter of months because I didn't have much time to play it, didn't know much of the language, and having a big import collection was a lot less cool than it sounded.  The only games I really bothered with were the CPS2 games like the Vs titles and Street Fighter Zero 3.  By that time, CPS2 emulation was pretty much nailed down so there was no real need to bother with the Saturn imports.

Good luck with it though.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 23, 2017, 01:38:31 PM
I doubt I'll buy many, or any, of the really expensive games, probably gonna top out at $50-$60. So far, the most I've spent on a single game is $35 for Guardian Heroes, which is a pretty good deal even for the import version.

On the games front, Puyo Puyo 2 is crushing me. I understand the basic strategy of it [build vertical rather than horizontal, focus on racking up combos], but I'm playing on a part of the game where you do various matches to work your way up a tower and I'm stuck on the third match of the bottom tier because the AI gets so fast and so skilled that I can't keep up. :(
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: a slime appears on August 23, 2017, 04:28:42 PM
Please buy all the Saturn import games, Rumbler.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 23, 2017, 04:34:32 PM
Okay.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 23, 2017, 04:50:56 PM
I actually have the American version of Dark Savior, boo.  :-*
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 25, 2017, 01:37:40 PM
Round 3:

(http://i.imgur.com/zoZVktG.jpg)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on August 26, 2017, 11:15:47 AM
I have Blue Seed but couldn't figure it out. It's like an RPG set in a Japanese high school with card battles or something.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on August 27, 2017, 02:46:52 PM
I have Blue Seed but couldn't figure it out. It's like an RPG set in a Japanese high school with card battles or something.

Watch the anime instead!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on August 27, 2017, 08:22:52 PM
Also GR I bought that game in the lower left, the one from Elf. It's a waifu VN I think. I also picked up a strip mahjongg game for the system recently.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 27, 2017, 08:47:03 PM
Also GR I bought that game in the lower left, the one from Elf. It's a waifu VN I think.

It's pretty short and there's a guide online!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 27, 2017, 09:57:12 PM
Compare that with the American cover:

(http://i.imgur.com/OLrKTQV.jpg)

:neogaf
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on August 28, 2017, 02:55:45 PM
I'm playing EVE Burst Error's English translation now, what's wrong with me

(The music is boss though)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on August 31, 2017, 08:38:16 PM
These Puyo Puyo and similar games are really kicking my butt. I understand the basic strategy of how you win [set up your blocks for consecutive matches, build vertically not horizontally], but the AI just destroys me by being faster and far more skilled at building up a good stack. :-\
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 05, 2017, 05:02:27 PM
Batch #4:

(https://i.imgur.com/6wKg4Uc.jpg?1)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on September 05, 2017, 08:21:31 PM
Tengai Makyou IV is one of the best import only RPGs for the system, good pick. What's that Hudson game?

I love this thread! More impressions please, Rumbler!

And also, once you get bored of collecting for the Saturn, the PC Engine CD has a shit-ton of cheap import games to go through.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 05, 2017, 08:32:25 PM
Tengai Makyou IV is one of the best import only RPGs for the system, good pick. What's that Hudson game?

Yeah, it looks pretty interesting and I'm looking forward to putting some time into it. The other Hudson game is The Legend of Heroes 3.

Quote
And also, once you get bored of collecting for the Saturn, the PC Engine CD has a shit-ton of cheap import games to go through.

That's what I'd like to do next, but the system itself is a pretty steep starting point [$250+] so it'll be a while before I get to that.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 07, 2017, 08:35:59 PM
Set #5:

(https://i.imgur.com/3hxTj9m.jpg?1)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on September 08, 2017, 07:55:53 AM
I remember Virtual Hydlide as being a real piece of stank ass garbage, even for a launch era Saturn game. I'm totally not going to look it up in any way for a change but I remember it as a digitized sprite of a dude who has like ten frames of animation in front of a bunch of 10 fps randomized polygon dungeons that clashed and had no real system for like actually ensuring the randomization of items and shit worked within the dungeon.

Also that same awesome boxart is on the American version, with the princess seemingly pasted over that "side of a van" painting of sweet shit at the last minute for no clear reason.

I also want to say that after you got past the launch games of Virtua Fighter/Daytona/Soccer/Golf/Clockwork Knight/Panzer Dragoon that VH was like the only other game until you got close to the original Saturnday release. Bug! and Street Fighter: The Movie came out early but I want to say they were still later, and VH was like the only thing approaching an actual action-adventure type game that wasn't an arcade port outside of Panzer Dragoon. Probably even after the original launch day too because we only got shit like Shinobi. :lol

The American Saturn really got battered by that whole era where nobody knew what to do for games so it's like waves of just trash on both consoles, but PS1 was easier to do 3D on (and so much else) so it wound up with more stuff that would eventually pan out right as the Saturn was getting shoved out of the way for the Dreamcast.

While I'm bashing the Saturn I'm still amazed that they had no conception of how they were going to cost reduce the thing and that it basically was built like an arcade PCB inside the case and would have been impossible to shrink. When the two newcomers into the industry, Sony, and 3DO both had not only clean single boards with the goal of reduction but also long term plans to basically put the whole system on a single chip before that was a thing. (M2 would have had a single 3DO chip in it like the PS2 has the PS1 CPU in there for I/O but really for backcompat. Actually, what 3DO accomplished in freakin 1995 was even include the GPU into the single chip which Sony wouldn't do until they combined the GS+EE in the later slim PS2s.) I think it's been suggested the N64 is similarly a messy board dependent on too many chips setup in a certain way, the final versions aren't any smaller than the launch ones.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on September 08, 2017, 07:58:03 AM
These Puyo Puyo and similar games are really kicking my butt. I understand the basic strategy of how you win [set up your blocks for consecutive matches, build vertically not horizontally], but the AI just destroys me by being faster and far more skilled at building up a good stack. :-\
I think all those games are basically built on the same difficulty scale which immediately goes to wreck up the joint mode after like the third or fourth stage. Even Kirby's Avalanche goes ham on you pretty quickly.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 08, 2017, 01:52:38 PM
Yeah, Virtual Hydlide is straight trash. Decided to get it, though, because it was only about $5. Ya know, to relive the magic. But yeah, it has digitized sprites of real actors, really really terrible pseudo-3D locations, and slow-as-molasses gameplay. Doesn't help that the character sprite is in the middle of the screen and takes up a huge amount of space, so you can barely see what you're doing. It feels like they were trying to do an Elder Scrolls-type RPG, but with no real idea of how to accomplish that and on woefully underpowered hardware.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on September 09, 2017, 07:54:38 PM
looked up a dude playing through it on youtube, oh god i forgot how big he is on the screen he's literally twice the size i remembered...and unless this guy is sequence breaking, like the first twenty minutes of the game are apparently walking through a forest where there's literally three different tree bitmaps and the trees can damage you if you run into them

the dude has one walking animation which is the same loop for his legs only, his upper body doesn't move unless you run :lol

that said the LoD system is actually kinda impressive for the open world areas all things considered especially since this was made in 1994-1995, it's only when polygon buildings or something that's not a faked 3D sprite come on screen that it tanks the framerate massively and stuff starts popping in all over...a lot of the fog actually seems to be more for spooky effect than hiding stuff

when he goes in the first dungeon/mansion the camera is right in the dude's back and he covers 90% of the screen and he couldn't move forward until he slowly shifted the dude around 90 degrees and discovered there was a big ass statue right inside the door he couldn't walk through...really there seems to be a massive inconsistency in what can be walked through or interacted with or not, chairs, NOPE, big ass table, YEP...he winds up in a room where there's a shit load of the stuff you can't walk through all over the place that reminds me of the whole inconsistency in the randomness i mentioned, later he enters a room where there's literally nothing but an healing herb lying on the ground in it

but to heal you can "nap" which involves the guy just standing in place with his arms folded :lol

the framerate indoors is at least half to a third what it is outside i assume because of the polygon walls, even though your view distance is never more than 20 feet, at least i assume that's the case since this came out well before even Sega figured out how to draw polygons properly on the Saturn...and i'm betting this runs entirely on just one of the CPUs...the boss fight against the Vampire is running at like a really choppy 10 fps because of all the polygons (literally tens to maybe a hundred of them, mostly to build the walls plus the steps up to the Vampire's bitmap Throne) even though there's nothing else in the room and just the one enemy sprite, while outside they can draw like thirty trees and five enemies and the far away background and it seems closer to 20 to even 30 fps at times...the second dungeon he plays through has a view distance that cuts off after maaaybe ten feet for darkness but it's destroying the framerate because of all the not visible walls to make up the maze...to where like the fog i think this might not actually be to improve performance but to make the dungeon scarier

armor, shields and such actually displays overtop the dude's sprite but when you come back from the menus it has a pause for a couple seconds to reload them back in over the character (yessss)

narrator guy says everything you drop stays where you drop it, which is, like wow actually...he also finds an item called LAMP OF DARKNESS which the explanation says nothing about, so he just uses it because why not, and it essentially turns the gamma down to about 10% so you can't see anything :rofl amazing random item to put in a game

he tries to fight a will-o-wisp in the dungeon but after readjusting his position four times he can't line up the animation of his attack with the distance to the enemy :dead

only 13 people made this game based on mobygames (really about four dudes did all the true work..and they outsourced for the hero's sprite footage!) and all their experience prior was making Golf games for the 3DO which seems like the ideal team to make a massive 3D RPG for the Saturn's launch and after this they made a Saturn Golf game before scattering to the winds

it's probably this random youtube guys laid back voice and the fact that he's trying to make the game seem interesting (like it does actually do a decent job of selling the mystery of the world even if that might be a byproduct of there being no information outside the text on items, signs, etc. like a proto-Metroid Prime way to telling the story) while making fun of it but it's sorta drawing me into this, i obviously wasn't mature enough in 1995 to embrace the jank like i am now and this is some serious delicious jank i'm seeing

i wonder how this runs on the emulators, there is no way it's one of the Saturn games i kept (he says while ignoring that he just got Rise of the Tomb Raider from Humble Monthly, recently bought MGS V finally and installed Hollow Knight this week)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on September 09, 2017, 08:44:42 PM
you know, your post length to how garbage the topic is, is often highly inverse
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 10, 2017, 09:58:16 PM
:crazy
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 10, 2017, 09:58:56 PM
It just hit me that Rumbler is buying all the games that never sold at the game shop I worked at back in the day.  :doge
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 10, 2017, 10:17:44 PM
It just hit me that Rumbler is buying all the games that never sold at the game shop I worked at back in the day.  :doge

:trumps
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on September 10, 2017, 11:36:13 PM
looked up a dude playing through it on youtube, oh god i forgot how big he is on the screen he's literally twice the size i remembered...and unless this guy is sequence breaking, like the first twenty minutes of the game are apparently walking through a forest where there's literally three different tree bitmaps and the trees can damage you if you run into them

HOLY FUCKIN SHIT

I took my Saturn over to my super hardcore buddy's house (he quit his game studio job for 6 months so he could platinum Dark Souls 2, no joke) and we decided to go ALL FUCKIN IN on Virtual Hydlide. We encountered the same incredible garbage you did, but managed to get things to the point where we got to the last boss. Sadly we forgot something that made it essentially impossible to finish the game...I watched this horrifying speed run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57McWbMdRaE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57McWbMdRaE) and realized we were pretty close to the end.

I remember that Grandma Nuff rented me Hydlide for the NES back in the 80s and I had a similar bitch of a time playing that too :D
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 11, 2017, 07:28:23 AM

I took my Saturn over to my super hardcore buddy's house (he quit his game studio job for 6 months so he could platinum Dark Souls 2, no joke)

Wait...what? 
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 11, 2017, 04:50:35 PM
One game I've been playing quite a bit is Dragon Master Silk. It's a pretty standard dungeon-crawler with turn-based combat, very Wizardry-esque. Everything's in Japanese and only a bit of the dialogue is voiced, but it's easy enough to figure things out and the game's on the easy side, so I'm not having to spend hours figuring out what most of my items and spells do. It's got nice anime artwork for the characters, but the locales are just standard Wizardry-style underground labyrinths and the enemies are these derpy 3D CG models that don't mesh with the anime characters or the more realistic environments. Feels like they wanted to show off the improved power of the Saturn, but really whiffed it since the original PC98 enemy sprites look way better. It's not a great game by any means, but it's scratches the itch for an old-school dungeon-crawler.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on September 11, 2017, 05:07:22 PM

I took my Saturn over to my super hardcore buddy's house (he quit his game studio job for 6 months so he could platinum Dark Souls 2, no joke)

Wait...what?

He was working on a relatively big project, wasn't really having any fun at his job, DS2 was about to come out, and he was like "Fuck it" and quit. Six months later he was like "Welp, time to go back to work" and rejoined, this time as a lead in a different department  :lol
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on September 11, 2017, 06:31:56 PM
Rumbler, try and track down a copy of Farland Story. Really cool SRPG for the system with really goofy looking 3D rendered characters (and great music).
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 11, 2017, 07:06:32 PM
That's one that I've been looking at, just haven't pulled the trigger on it yet.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: WaveRacer 64 on September 11, 2017, 07:36:30 PM
One of my favorite imports was Virtua Fighter Remix, not because it was a good game but the manual had really amazing art.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on September 12, 2017, 01:58:29 AM
One of my favorite imports was Virtua Fighter Remix, not because it was a good game but the manual had really amazing art.

Fuck yeah!!! That's Katsuya Terada's art. He went on to do this fuckin awesome graphic novel called VIRTUA FIGHTER: TEN STORIES. Let me know if you want me to grab you a copy, I see them for cheap when I visit Japan.

(http://art-eater.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Terada_Virtua_Fighter_2.jpg)

He's done a bitchload of other great stuff too:
https://kotaku.com/5899323/original-zelda-art-by-katsuya-terada/ (https://kotaku.com/5899323/original-zelda-art-by-katsuya-terada/)

My boss Jake randomly met him in a bar in Tokyo, and he wound up doing some mechanical design for Galak-Z.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: WaveRacer 64 on September 12, 2017, 06:07:01 AM
One of my favorite imports was Virtua Fighter Remix, not because it was a good game but the manual had really amazing art.

Fuck yeah!!! That's Katsuya Terada's art. He went on to do this fuckin awesome graphic novel called VIRTUA FIGHTER: TEN STORIES. Let me know if you want me to grab you a copy, I see them for cheap when I visit Japan.

(http://art-eater.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Terada_Virtua_Fighter_2.jpg)

He's done a bitchload of other great stuff too:
https://kotaku.com/5899323/original-zelda-art-by-katsuya-terada/ (https://kotaku.com/5899323/original-zelda-art-by-katsuya-terada/)

My boss Jake randomly met him in a bar in Tokyo, and he wound up doing some mechanical design for Galak-Z.

I always wanted to know who did the art on the manual and cover of VF Remix thanks! Had no idea he also did that Zelda art too. The Virtua Fighter 2 Ten Stories book looks incredible, I have a lot to catch up.

Quote
Katsuya Terada is a Japanese artist you may not know by name, but you may definitely know him for his work.

Tell me about it!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 12, 2017, 08:11:16 AM
I always thought the VF Remix J-version art was done by an American artist.  Had no idea!
:leon

It looks so much better than the American version, which was the cover of a crappy VF comic book from Marvel, IIRC.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Positive Touch on September 12, 2017, 08:22:27 AM
cool it's the guy who did final fantasy mystic quest's art
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 16, 2017, 11:41:03 AM
More games #6:

(https://i.imgur.com/PRlJhZC.jpg?2)

spoiler (click to show/hide)
(https://i.imgur.com/Tnq5mUX.jpg?1)
[close]
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Positive Touch on September 16, 2017, 11:43:37 AM
meow-wow didn't even know tactics ogre had a saturn port!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 16, 2017, 11:52:57 AM
March of the Black Queen also had a Saturn port.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on September 16, 2017, 11:58:45 PM
Where do you get these games? Ebay?
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 17, 2017, 12:50:40 AM
Yeah, from eBay. Pretty decent prices on most stuff [2D shooters and some of the rarer RPGs are pretty ridiculously expensive though].
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on September 19, 2017, 07:00:50 AM
This thread helped lead me to be pretty shocked at how many Saturn games never made it to the U.S.

Then I started looking into a lot of those games and it became less surprising, but still, compared to the Dreamcast it's like once they ran out of arcade ports SOA was like "screw it, nevermind. You third parties like PlayStation support? Well fuck off then."

Much like the sales of the consoles it seems there was a bit of an inverse compared to the Genesis and Dreamcast where the West in general got a lot of games that never seemingly went East. Which makes one wonder what happened to all the developers SOA/E used on the Genesis for stuff during the Saturn era. I guess like Core they probably went to multi-platform development?

Dreamcast has all those janky PC ports that probably never went East. Probably would have had more but I assume they got shunted over to the PS2 and explain a lot of those early weird PC ports on that. Plus there were those wide range of quality up-ports to both DC and PS2 from PS1/N64. I want to say there's something where like one of the Rainbow Sixes instead of it being a PC port, the DC version is an up port for the N64 game. But then the other game in the series is a PC port and runs just fine.

But all that aside, I guess I was wrong up above, Sega did find a way to shrink the board inside the Saturn which is how they brought the cost down, but the US and Yurop models never really got it and may not have at all, it was mostly Japan only. (And then Asia only because it's the base board for those ones that play VCD movies or whatever.) It was how Sega got the price under $200 in Japan before the N64 came out. They must have mostly shipped the old boards to the U.S. and Europe then since it was a dead console walking here figuring they'd make up the difference by selling more of the cheaper ones in Japan.

Sega's whole three free games promotion was so popular in the U.S. compared to sales before it that they extended it twice. It was originally supposed to only be for one month before Christmas. But by that point SOA had decided that the Saturn was dead, they only shipped 50,000 Saturns in 1997 to NA. 2/3rds of the Saturn's sales are from Japan, it sold more consoles there than the N64. Dreamcast only sold 40% as many consoles in Asia as the Saturn, it sold worse than the Mega Drive.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 19, 2017, 07:46:29 AM
This thread helped lead me to be pretty shocked at how many Saturn games never made it to the U.S.

IIRC, SOA president at the time, Bernie Stolar, quickly gave up on the Saturn to focus on their next console, which was still a few years way from a U.S. release.  So the Saturn got all these games in Japan (and some of them could have done really well here, like X-Men Vs. Street Fighter which was the first 99% perfect 2D fighter port) that never made it elsewhere, and SOA did...pretty much nothing.  I remember one E3 where their booth was just some DJ yelling "POWER VR!!!!!!" for the upcoming Dreamcast that wouldn't be launching in the States for another year. 
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on September 19, 2017, 10:12:38 AM
I do understand SOA being a bit leery of games that needed the RAM/ROM carts considering the Saturn's sales. Especially after they just came off selling 600,000 32X's and still needing to clear them out at $20.

I wonder if anyone ever tried to figure out a way to use them with the Saturn. Then they could do some Atari Math and claim it was a 128-bit system what with the four SH2's and all. :doge
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 19, 2017, 10:14:55 AM
I do understand SOA being a bit leery of games that needed the RAM/ROM carts. Especially after they just came off selling 600,000 32X's and still needing to clear them out at $20.

Nah, that's some bullshit.  The 1MB and 4MB RAM carts were compatible with multiple games and they sold packages that included the carts in Japan.  It wouldn't have cost too much more to do it.  The only game that required its own ROM cart was KOF '95.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Positive Touch on September 19, 2017, 10:35:10 AM
Bernie Stolar's u.s. strategy was pure dipshittery. "well we can't make a ton of money so we're better off making no money, and hurting consumer trust while we're at it!" same bullshit with the early ps1 where they blocked niche games that didn't fit their image while allowing tons of shovelware.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 19, 2017, 11:45:41 AM
It's not Saturn, but it is import-focused...pro wrestlers looking for video games in Japan.  Specifically looking around at Super Potato!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSefjJKWnDI

AJ Styles talking about the NeoGeo
 :gladbron

Xavier Woods bought a Vita
:itagaki
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Mr. Nobody on September 19, 2017, 11:55:45 AM
This thread helped lead me to be pretty shocked at how many Saturn games never made it to the U.S.

IIRC, SOA president at the time, Bernie Stolar, quickly gave up on the Saturn to focus on their next console, which was still a few years way from a U.S. release.  So the Saturn got all these games in Japan (and some of them could have done really well here, like X-Men Vs. Street Fighter which was the first 99% perfect 2D fighter port) that never made it elsewhere, and SOA did...pretty much nothing.  I remember one E3 where their booth was just some DJ yelling "POWER VR!!!!!!" for the upcoming Dreamcast that wouldn't be launching in the States for another year.

I remember reading about that in (I believe) EGM back in the day. Was disappointed and I didn't even have a Saturn
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 19, 2017, 01:41:27 PM
It seems like SoA basically saw the early sales numbers and decided that Saturn was DOA so they barely even tried after that.

Here's a weird thing: The Saturn got three releases of American-developed Wizardry games [two collections of previous titles in the series and one spin-off], none of which showed up in the West.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on September 19, 2017, 06:39:22 PM
This thread helped lead me to be pretty shocked at how many Saturn games never made it to the U.S.

IIRC, SOA president at the time, Bernie Stolar, quickly gave up on the Saturn to focus on their next console, which was still a few years way from a U.S. release.  So the Saturn got all these games in Japan (and some of them could have done really well here, like X-Men Vs. Street Fighter which was the first 99% perfect 2D fighter port) that never made it elsewhere, and SOA did...pretty much nothing.  I remember one E3 where their booth was just some DJ yelling "POWER VR!!!!!!" for the upcoming Dreamcast that wouldn't be launching in the States for another year.

I remember reading about that in (I believe) EGM back in the day. Was disappointed and I didn't even have a Saturn

When that game came out, people went APESHIT.  I have never seen so much hype and insanity surrounding a Saturn game before.  My store got 25-30 copies in with the first shipment...all of them were pre-sold out at $100+ a pop.  People were bouncing off the walls when they saw it running on display and Saturns actually started selling out.  This was 1997, when fighting games were still very much in their prime and were the BIG genre and system sellers.  This game was massive in arcades.  Why the hell Sega didn't try to take advantage of this was beyond me. 

This kind of level of hype only happened with a few select games back then.  Tekken 3 (the Japanese version hit like six-eight months ahead of the American version) was another game with the same level HOLY SHIT IS DAT SOME TEKKEN GIMME NOW!!!! sales.  I'm sure if things were like this in my little local shop, it must have been similar elsewhere.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Olivia Wilde Homo on September 19, 2017, 07:20:12 PM
I still noodle around in XvsSF and MSHvsSF from time to time.  They're still my favorite Capcom vs games
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on September 20, 2017, 12:46:16 PM
This thread helped lead me to be pretty shocked at how many Saturn games never made it to the U.S.
I remember one E3 where their booth was just some DJ yelling "POWER VR!!!!!!" for the upcoming Dreamcast that wouldn't be launching in the States for another year.

HOLY SHIT I REMEMBER THAT GUY  :lol
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 26, 2017, 05:51:39 PM
Another more games #7:

(https://i.imgur.com/xzblmzg.jpg?1)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 26, 2017, 06:06:12 PM
:lawd
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Positive Touch on September 26, 2017, 06:18:13 PM
woo dragon force
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on September 26, 2017, 06:51:18 PM
:bow SOUL HACKERS :bow2
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 26, 2017, 07:14:32 PM
woo dragon force

I bought the American release on the cheap about a decade ago, but ended up selling it. :tocry
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on September 26, 2017, 09:41:31 PM
FUCKIN SOUL HACKERS IS THE SHIT

Loved playin that in English on 3DS
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Beezy on September 27, 2017, 03:49:03 AM
Dragon Force!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: demi on September 27, 2017, 08:12:55 AM
I really, really, really want to play Soul Hackers. I can say this for any Saturn game.

Here's hoping I can transition fully to a stable life where I can afford getting one. And hell yes I would get Panzer Dragoon Saga US. I'm a madman when given a steady income.

??? It's on english in 3DS. You dont need to waste time and money on these japanese saturn games.

It's actually pretty boring, much better Megaten games out there
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on September 29, 2017, 10:28:31 PM
FUCKIN SOUL HACKERS IS THE SHIT

Loved playin that in English on 3DS

I need to play that, I've got my brother's copy sitting in my 3DS carrying case right now but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I only grabbed the Saturn version because it was pretty cheap [like about $6, I think].
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: a slime appears on October 10, 2017, 09:35:14 AM
Great Rumbler is the biggest Saturn fan on this forum. Holy shit this dude's import collection is incredible.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on October 11, 2017, 05:10:17 PM
Some games I bought this weekend plus more eBay acquisitions:

(https://i.imgur.com/mjphGeV.jpg?1)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on October 11, 2017, 07:59:30 PM
:bow :bow :bow TWINBEE :bow2 :bow2 :bow2

One of my favorite game series.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Sho Nuff on October 11, 2017, 08:12:53 PM
UNO DX
 :dice
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Shuri on October 18, 2017, 09:56:13 PM
I picked up Assault Suit Leynos 2 this week, amazingly fun game, and hard as fuck. And it has that non stop neo-geo action scaling effect
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on October 18, 2017, 10:19:33 PM
I'd really like to get that, price isn't too bad but it's still higher than pretty much every other game I've bought so far.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on October 19, 2017, 01:54:51 AM
Does the "EXTREME" version of Off World Interceptor have the MST3K-like silhouette dudes making jokes over the bad FMV or is that only in the 3DO original?
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on October 19, 2017, 11:48:29 AM
Yeah, the Extreme version has that, too. I wonder what the story is behind that?
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on October 19, 2017, 12:57:47 PM
I could never find anything on if it was intentional or if they got the FMV back and it was so bad they were like now what and and MST3K came on.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Shuri on October 19, 2017, 09:23:38 PM
Today I got Shinobi For the saturn, it’s a cool sequel, the fmvs are mid ‘90 no budget dtv fodder but the camp factor is amazing, especially with the game over screen  :lol

The gameplay is pretty much like previous games, but it feels a bit simple so far. Expect gameplay in the spirit of the first shinobi game.

The graphics are a blend of Mortal Kombat style digitalized actors for the ninjas and humans and early 3d rendered graphics for monsters and environments. The graphics have an interesting charm to them. Also there’s Lone Wolf and Cub-style bloodletting when you kill ennemies. This please  my inner 13yo.
,
From what I’m seeing online, it seems that it wasnt well received but i’m having fun with it. The controls are fine and there is nothing janky about the gameplay.

Worth checking out

https://youtu.be/_yfogwUrLkY
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on October 19, 2017, 09:42:52 PM
I could never find anything on if it was intentional or if they got the FMV back and it was so bad they were like now what and and MST3K came on.

My theory is that the FMV was filmed for an entirely different game that ended up being cancelled, so they just tossed it over to Off-World Interceptor and put in some guys making fun of it so people wouldn't pay too much attention to what was going on.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on October 20, 2017, 07:33:36 AM
Nobody posted the video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQX0Strzc9M

I wish more games with lots of FMV did this...I would have liked them a lot more.  :doge
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Cravis on October 23, 2017, 10:04:17 AM
I’ve got a soft spot for terrible 90s FMV. Only imports I have are XvSF, House of the Dead, Assault Suit Lynos 2, and MvSF.

I picked Scorcher last week. I didn’t realize it but the guys who made Red Zone on Genesis made it. Sadly no Jasper Kyd soundtrack on it, just genetic techno. I love how the first selling point on the back of the box is “Racing at 30 FPS!!!”
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Mr. Gundam on October 23, 2017, 02:13:47 PM
No Blue Destiny trilogy? For shame. They even work with the twin sticks!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: demi on October 23, 2017, 02:16:42 PM
I wish more games with lots of FMV did this...I would have liked them a lot more.  :doge

Even MORTAL KOMBAT MYTHOLOGIES: SUB-ZERO ? ? ? ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c98sW6QQgc
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Cravis on October 23, 2017, 02:21:34 PM
Most FMV cut scenes are so bad they’re good. Mortal Kombat transcends that and is so bad it comes back around to bad again.

I would take the FMV live action cut scenes over the MK4 cg cut scenes on PS one though. They touted those as a advantage over the N64 version. N64 should have touted “We don’t have the shitty cut scenes” as a selling point
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on December 16, 2017, 02:46:43 PM
No, I haven't stopped buying Saturn games yet:

(https://i.imgur.com/02yAyus.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/9pOsvS0.jpg)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on December 16, 2017, 08:32:25 PM
Did someone cut a Gex manual in half?   :'(

Also I think we oughtta turn this into the game collecting thread.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Mr. Gundam on December 18, 2017, 08:41:16 PM
The Zeta games (there are two of them) are a lot of fun. Still need the Blue Destiny trilogy, though.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on December 19, 2017, 02:09:12 PM
Did someone cut a Gex manual in half?   :'(

Yeah, it's disappointing, but I didn't want to pay very much for Gex and this copy was considerably cheaper than just about any other I've seen.
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on December 19, 2017, 06:46:34 PM
 :trigger
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on December 19, 2017, 07:33:10 PM
Rumbler, you need to give some impressions for these games! Curious about Lime and Gebockers, whatever those might be...
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on December 19, 2017, 07:50:11 PM
Gebockers is like some kind of cheap Virtual-On 3D arena fighter knockoff. It's really bad, too!
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: bork on December 19, 2017, 08:19:09 PM
Rumbler, you need to give some impressions for these games! Curious about Lime and Gebockers, whatever those might be...

Jewel Bem Hunter Lime:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9KY4-OLObs

It's a digital comic style "game" originally released on PCs in 1993 and later ported to Saturn and PS1.  The PS1 version has extra content.  I was interested in it back in the day because the character art/design is by the same person who did the Urusei Yatsura and Ranma OVAs, Atsuko Nakajima.  Her style really stands out.

The game looks dumb, but there was an OVA series released.

EDIT: ...And the OVA looks pretty dumb, too.   :lol  I just like that art.  :)
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: tiesto on December 19, 2017, 09:21:16 PM
Oh shit... that's the game this SICK song is from (well, at least the X68000 version of the game)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK2Vx5l0fpM&t=31s
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: Great Rumbler on December 19, 2017, 09:34:59 PM
X68000 and PC-98 had some great OSTs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bNlmi4KpE4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td0uePxV-WQ

:whew
Title: Re: Sega Saturn import thread
Post by: benjipwns on December 22, 2017, 08:42:51 PM
http://www.mattgreer.org/articles/sega-saturn-and-transparency/