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Topics - Saigas

1
The Lounge / Vandal Hearts (The overlooked classic)
October 10, 2009, 01:51:23 am
Though the fact is that there are many of us here at FFH who have lived in the realm of Turn-based Strategy RPGs for awhile now, I find myself continuously surprised by the incredible amount of people who have never played (or even know about) Konami's classic Playstation SRPG "Vandal Hearts."

For those of you who have never before played the game, let me be the one to tell you - "You should play it."

Now, don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't classify this game as epic. In fact, I wouldn't even really say it is as good as FFT as far as SRPGs go. But it is certainly good enough to hold its own.

While it doesn't really have the quality of FFT as far as graphics goes, it makes up for it by providing you with a great story. Not as great as FFT's, but it's still really good.  Additionally, whereas FFT is chock full of "Generic Random Name Characters" and a few "Unique Player Characters" that have at least some relevance to the overall plot, Vandal Hearts has a large group of fairly well-developed characters, all with names and back stories, and almost every single one of them actively playing an important role in the progression of the plot.

The plot, however, IS rather short, and VERY linear. The armaments from beginning to end are almost entirely shop-purchased, enemies have equipment you can NEVER obtain, there are NO random battles, and there is really only one sidequest in the entire game, which is actually a 'hidden' quest that must be accomplished "as you go" throughout the main story. The shortness of the game is also amplified by the fact that the level of the final villain is not only preset, it is also less than 50. This is largely due to the fact that the lack of random battles completely prevents power-leveling (unless you use the only known cheating method), which is a plus to those of us who enjoy the challenge.

Now, on another positive note - where FFT limited the number of PCs in battle to 5 (or 4 + up to 2 Guests), Vandal Hearts starts you off with only 3 members in your party, but every ally you gain as you progress through the story is an active member in each future battle. By the time you have acquired your final ally, you stand strong as a party of no less than 12. This is, of course, balanced by the fact that the enemy groups you fight increase in quantity/quality as your party does.

There is, however, a downside to this party set up and that is the "Vandal Hearts" Class System, which leaves much to be desired. The classes are very linear, and provide very little for the player to be creative or imaginative with. The large number of characters you possess in battle makes up for this somewhat, but not entirely.

Aside from what I listed, I can't really describe much more about this game without giving up story spoilers. But I will say this much. I would like those who read this topic to give this game a shot. As far as SRPGs go, it is definitely an overlooked classic.

Thanks for your time. ^_^

P.S. - If nothing else, this game has one of the best Ocarina songs I've ever heard. It's title is "Vicissitudes of Fortune". It isn't very long, and is rather repetitive, but I'm certain you will no doubt hear the power in its notes. Look it up sometime on Google or Youtube.
2
Spriting / Concept Sprite (Arcanist)
October 08, 2009, 03:06:55 am
I have only a front view, but this is my concept view for the Arcanist, a class of Mage that serves as a counterpart to the Sorcerer (Kletian), and is the basis of my original character, Garynhardt Saigas.  Because it is currently nothing more than a slightly edited compilation of various body parts, it is way over the color limit, but I intend to sort the palette out after hearing your general opinions on the way the character looks.  It may also be slightly too tall, on account of its hat, but the hat can be edited to a smaller version if necessary.

EDIT: Concept now uses the hat from Elidibs rather than the Black Mage. Elidibs' hat looks more befitting this particular sprite, as well as less comically large.

EDIT 2: For some reason both Gimp and Photobucket converted the image into JPEG from its original BMP after I saved it, so now the colors are all screwed up.  This will be fixed later.

__________

This character was generated using the Male Archer's boots, the Female Knight's cape, the Elidibs' hat, Mustadio's gloves, and Wiegraf's neckerchief + edited torso pieces.
3
Spriting / Marle from Chrono Trigger!
October 03, 2009, 03:32:28 pm
Just started up on my next project.  I'll be doing Marle from Chrono Trigger!

BTW, these are separate images, so the spacing is off from what it would be on the spritesheet.  I'm doing each image one at a time, so I upload it one at a time.



As I'm sure you can tell, the body is a slightly modified and recolored Rafa.  The head, however, I will admit to shamelessly taking from Lydyn and Zozma's Ponytail Agrias.  It is the best head that I can see for Marle, and since I'm still an amateur spriter, I rely mainly on copy/pasting.

Anyway tell me what you think of it.  It only has fourteen colors in it, so if there are any particular details I could fix, there is room to do so. ^_^
4
Spriting / Frog from CT (Complete as of V1.1)
August 22, 2008, 07:47:53 pm
Here is the beginning of my first attempt at spriting.  I get so confused trying to use the palette editor that I gave up trying and am attempting to make a new sprite using solely the colors given in the original palette.  The generic sprite I am modifying is quite obvious.  ^_^



As you can see, trying to work around an unchanged palette is quite difficult.  If you can't tell, which you probably can't, this is meant to be the framework for a Glenn/Frog character from Chrono Trigger.  Unfortunately, I think I'm kind of in a rut as to how to go about: a) making him short, with a frog head for Frog - b) Give him appropriately colored green hair for his human form, Glenn.  It is just unlucky for me that I can't have his hair blending into his cape, but there are only two greens in the Knight palette I'm using. :P

As far as this goes, this is by no stretch of the imagination a very simplistic and amateur attempt, but in my defense I AM trying.  Any Constructive Criticism or just strait up assistance anyone can give me?
5
Alright, so I went and test-swapped the SERIA and LEDY files for a test run using the Miang and Miluda sprites for Alicia and Lavian.

Those were fine, which I assume can be owed to the fact that those files are never used.

So I went and also swapped out the sprite used for Malak's death scene, replacing it with the spiky-haired warrior for Rad.  Along with that, I swapped out Rafa's Guest sprite with the Red Mage sprite for Lezales.  In the first scene everything seemed to be going well (at least as far as Rad goes).



But then when I got out to the battle things got a little screwy.



As you can see, Rad seems to be using the other.spr spriteset for some reason, thus becoming a glitchy mess of chickens and such (even though I edited the ENTD to use the swapped out Malak sprite).  In addition to this, Lezales still appears as Rafa, even though I swapped out the sprite with a Red Mage.  And I double-checked to make sure I assigned the right one in the ENTD and I did.

EDIT: I also patched all necessary files using FFTPatcher, and followed the steps in Lydyn's guides to the letter.

Can anyone help with this?
6
Greetings.  For those of you who do not know me, do not remember me, or did not care to remember me, I used to hang around the gamefaqs forums for FFT before WotL was ever released.  In those days, the only real contribution I gave to the group was my work with the legendary Philsov to create Gameshark codes for the 'Red Mage' class back when all of this kind of hacking was little more than a wet dream we all probably had after a long day's work.  I wish to do much more now.  :)

Anyway, I am new to the entire concept of hacking this game using the methods you have developed, though I immediately downloaded almost everything you have to offer the moment I saw the site.  Got a pSX emulator and an ISO all in that same day, too.

I would greatly appreciate any and all help that I can get.  Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this most noble and awe-inspiring organization.

-Saigas-

PS- looking for what Lydyn referred to in the Guides as 'GIMP'.  It is apparently an editing program, and I currently have none, so I would like to know where I might get it.