Shape Shifter

[ParanoiaDragon]

I have yet to beat ShapeShifter. I got stumped/stuck at some point. I should follow Tat's lead and play it, but I'm too busy playing Mystic Formula.

I paid $70 for mine and had to wait at least a couple months for the TurboDuo to be released to actually play it.

The Turbo version of Shapeshifter is pretty cheap.

Ha! I think my copy has the UPC/TurboPoints (whatever they were called) cut out of the instruction manual.

Or maybe I'm confusing games. Senility.

I'm pretty certain that the Japanese version is much easier(not that it's easy).  I remember getting to the moon with not too much difficulty when I first played it in Japanese, but then a friend of mine overwrote my save file, thinking there was more then one save!  Anyhoo, when I finally beat it, it was the US version, & it was tough, & I cheated a bit.  I haven't tried playing the Jp version in awhile, but I think what makes it easier is that enemies take off less damage.  Actually, I think most of the menu's n' stuff are in english...could probably make a US version that's easier by just replacing the tracks, assuming that none of the events that point to the audio tracks have been tinkered with.

[esteban]

I have yet to beat ShapeShifter. I got stumped/stuck at some point. I should follow Tat's lead and play it, but I'm too busy playing Mystic Formula.

I paid $70 for mine and had to wait at least a couple months for the TurboDuo to be released to actually play it.

The Turbo version of Shapeshifter is pretty cheap.

Ha! I think my copy has the UPC/TurboPoints (whatever they were called) cut out of the instruction manual.

Or maybe I'm confusing games. Senility.

I'm pretty certain that the Japanese version is much easier(not that it's easy).  I remember getting to the moon with not too much difficulty when I first played it in Japanese, but then a friend of mine overwrote my save file, thinking there was more then one save!  Anyhoo, when I finally beat it, it was the US version, & it was tough, & I cheated a bit.  I haven't tried playing the Jp version in awhile, but I think what makes it easier is that enemies take off less damage.  Actually, I think most of the menu's n' stuff are in english...could probably make a US version that's easier by just replacing the tracks, assuming that none of the events that point to the audio tracks have been tinkered with.

Now I'm curious about the Japanese version.

Has anyone made a detailed side-by-side comparison? <--This is the sort of thing that Black_Tiger always did an excellent job at (careful, detailed comparisons).

[ParanoiaDragon]

I agree, this is a BT thang

[Colossus1574]

(haven't been on the forums in ages, so here goes...)

Wow! Shapeshifter eh?

Can't remember too much on the game as i only played it after it was released, then traded it in after i finished it. Don't remember it being too hard. I kinda placed it in that medium...wasn't the greatest game but not the worst. I just find the art and design lacked a defining style...seemed like it couldn't make up it's mind what it wanted to be, hahaha, kinda fitting they called it Shapeshifter i guess 

I'm suprised nobody mentioned the music though  I found it the high point of the game for me. It had some atmospheric horror, some light action rock, and some mischievous medieval tunes if i'm right. Believe it or not, i remember dubbing all the tracks onto cassette before selling that game, heh.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I like the music in it, but I would've appreciated a few more tracks.  As it is, one of them is on there twice with some very slight tweaks.

[esteban]

Believe it or not, i remember dubbing all the tracks onto cassette before selling that game, heh.

I believe it, because I did the same thing.

[Colossus1574]

Believe it or not, i remember dubbing all the tracks onto cassette before selling that game, heh.

I believe it, because I did the same thing.

HAHAha, those were the 90's for ya my friend  I had Gates of Thunder blasting in my car's cassette deck many a times....

PDragon: ya, i believe you're talking about the 1st stage track...one had a slower paced intro to it, whereas the "tweaked" version was regular pace throughout?
Please don't make me pull out the cassette to confirm 

[esteban]

Believe it or not, i remember dubbing all the tracks onto cassette before selling that game, heh.

I believe it, because I did the same thing.

HAHAha, those were the 90's for ya my friend  I had Gates of Thunder blasting in my car's cassette deck many a times....

PDragon: ya, i believe you're talking about the 1st stage track...one had a slower paced intro to it, whereas the "tweaked" version was regular pace throughout?
Please don't make me pull out the cassette to confirm 

The best thing: sometimes (rarely, I suppose), there were Red Book tracks on the CD-ROM that were never used in the game. I love that! It's like finding a treasure .

[tggodfrey]

I had to go back to playing this after the original poster brought it up.  I had this game new and i remember it not being too easy.  This tiem around I am not finding it hard at all.  As long as you can stop is a safe spot to let your life force get recharged/filled by the eclipse, your good to go.  

I found the Cat Boss to be tricky and that took me a while to figure out, the merman is not hard but its time consuming.  The rest so far have been easy.  I am on Level 10.  the one thing I have done is played a level beating it regardless of how many lives i lost then starting back over and beating it without dying at all and saving that point.  That has been the time consuming part.

I have been using the map online so I havent had to deal with trying to figure out where the next entry point is for the higher levels.  I think 9 and 10 would have been tricky to find but flying around with the dragon, I would have found them eventually.  I do enjoy going back into levels to see if I missed anything.


Controls arent bad once you get used to them and understand the limits of each character.

Music I love, perhaps one of the best music sets.  I need to go find the red book to listen to that, I havent done that yet.

I wish the game had more weaponry and armor and perhaps more game play.  At this point it seems very short.

Terry

[Black Tiger]

Believe it or not, i remember dubbing all the tracks onto cassette before selling that game, heh.

I believe it, because I did the same thing.

HAHAha, those were the 90's for ya my friend  I had Gates of Thunder blasting in my car's cassette deck many a times....

PDragon: ya, i believe you're talking about the 1st stage track...one had a slower paced intro to it, whereas the "tweaked" version was regular pace throughout?
Please don't make me pull out the cassette to confirm 

The best thing: sometimes (rarely, I suppose), there were Red Book tracks on the CD-ROM that were never used in the game. I love that! It's like finding a treasure .

There are also hidden PSG tracks in games like Magical Chase and Kabukiden.

[esteban]

Believe it or not, i remember dubbing all the tracks onto cassette before selling that game, heh.

I believe it, because I did the same thing.

HAHAha, those were the 90's for ya my friend  I had Gates of Thunder blasting in my car's cassette deck many a times....

PDragon: ya, i believe you're talking about the 1st stage track...one had a slower paced intro to it, whereas the "tweaked" version was regular pace throughout?
Please don't make me pull out the cassette to confirm 

The best thing: sometimes (rarely, I suppose), there were Red Book tracks on the CD-ROM that were never used in the game. I love that! It's like finding a treasure .

There are also hidden PSG tracks in games like Magical Chase and Kabukiden.

Oh snap! I have to check that out. Thanks for the scoop .

[Black Tiger]

Oh snap! I have to check that out. Thanks for the scoop .

The extra PSG track in Magical Chase was used for the tutorial in the GBC version. Chances are it was planned for the PCE version but got cut.

The extra tracks for both games are in their hes rips.

[nodtveidt]

Hidden PSG tracks are cool. There's one in Neutopia as well... it was used in the sequel.

[esteban]

Hidden PSG tracks are cool. There's one in Neutopia as well... it was used in the sequel.

At least it didn't go to waste! But, I can't help but wish that they didn't recycle it for Neutopia 2...because then we would have a truly unique "unreleased" track.

Can you think of any games that have PSG tracks unused in the games themselves?

I would love to create a page with this info and the tunes .

Oh snap! I have to check that out. Thanks for the scoop .

The extra PSG track in Magical Chase was used for the tutorial in the GBC version. Chances are it was planned for the PCE version but got cut.

The extra tracks for both games are in their hes rips.

That's sounds totally plausible. I bet you're correct.

As I asked Rover...do you know of any other unused PSG tunes? I'd love to make a page+music for folks.

I suppose I should actually start a new thread for this. HA!

Valis II (and Lady Phantom) has some unused Red Book tracks. For Valis II, they are variations on the main theme (and they are great, IMHO!!!). For Lady Phantom, I think they have some random stuff that was either: unused (unfinished? not polished enough?) and/or from another game.

Actually, a few Telenet games appear to share random audio bits (I reckon the image/code shares stuff as well...Chris Covell will find some (more) for us one day ).

I've been meaning to find my old notes and re-listen to all the telenet stuff to document all of it.

"Shared Assets" is the boring, working title.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I believe Exile has an unused song.  I've beaten it a million times, & never heard the track.  I think it's track 17 or 18, I'm too lazy to check.  Also, Air Zonk has 1 track late in the sound test that I've never been able to hear in the game.  I've beaten that game a million times as well!  It has a slight "adventurey" sound to it, I was originally thinking of remaking it for N3.