Xak III

[termis]

Just some quick thoughts that I've finished it.

Part III of this overhead action RPG series is a bit of a different beast compared to part I/II.  Whereas the prequels were a more blatant Ys ripoff, part III is much more of its own game.  For example, part I/II was a run & bump game, and the jump was more of a novelty.  In part III, you need to hack & slash, more like... the SNES Zelda.  Jumping is also much more integral to the gamplay, as you need to jump between various platforms and also need to use it for attacking certain types of boss characters. 

This one is also a more serious adventure game than its prequel, as there are plenty of scenes with blood & gore, with plenty of severed heads flying throughout the story.  However, scenes of comical mischief is also peppered throughout the story. 

They also really slowed down the speed from the prequel, so much that it felt reeeeally slow when I first started part III.  It's not too bad once you get used to it, though.

In addition, you also play with plenty of NPC characters that follow you around, and unlike many other RPGs, they are actually quite damn handy -- so handy to the point where in some latter parts of the game, I made them the main attackers of the party at times. 

Graphics, though not stunning, are quite decent, and the music scores are above average as well.  The cinema scenes are excellent, though there weren't too many of 'em.  The English translation patch by Nightwolve is damn well done.  Anyone not fluent in Japanese will appreciate his work.  I only wish he & his group had the time and/or ability to either dub the voices or put subtitles in.  However, IIRC there were only 3 cinema scenes in the whole game (including the ending) that was solely in Japanese, so not too much was lost. 

Overall, I'm glad I picked this series up, and those who enjoyed the Ys series, or anyone who likes action RPGs in general, should give it a go.  Though the series is hardly known those outside of these circles, it's certainly part of the better group of RPGs for the PCE, and that's saying quite a bit.



My other PCE game reviews:
Ane-san
Babel
Blood Gear
Cosmic Fantasy 1
Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes
Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes II
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari
KO Seiki: Beast Sanjuushi
Kuusoukagaku Sekai: Gulliver Boy
Nekketsu Legend Baseballer
Tengai Makyou: Itouryoudan & Iga Ninden Gaiou
Xak I & II

[nat]

Thanks for the review, I just started Legend of Xanadu but the Xak III in my collection just moved up a few notches on the play list. I've already got the English version burned and ready to go.

[meka]

I'm having problems burning the xak 3 with the english patch, I can burn the normal Xak 3 (J) and any other cd game, but this one the best I can get is that it goes into the game with a black screen and only the bottom border.

[meka]

Nevermind, got it working.

[grahf]

Sounds good, Termis. The Xak series is on my to-play list.

[shubibiman]

Xak 1&2 is the easiest A-RPG I've ever played. It's not bad but you level up so fats that you happen to be at the top level way before the end of the game. And as far as I can remember, the jump gets really useful in part 2 only.

[RegalSin]

Xak series, I brought it because I was craving more Y's/Zelda series.
What I love about it, is the seriousness of the game itself. It like if people really took Adol seriously. However the game is also extremly gimmicky. For an exprience RPG/DAD person, you will see right pass the lizards, skellengtons, and walking tree men. I am taking my time playing this game, as with others alike it.

I just remember three simular games I am going to play in the future on my PCE.

[NightWolve]

The English translation patch by Nightwolve is damn well done.  Anyone not fluent in Japanese will appreciate his work.

Wow, I can't believe this was said. I appreciate it, but hard to believe. I find that Xak III is my worst patch and that the translation work is not that far from babelfish quality... I did the best that I could to edit and reedit post-Paul England's translation work, but when the sentence structure is too close to the original Japanese, I find it very difficult to edit it into something more natural (I went through that script many times too, across several years, and finally, in 2004 I believe, I just said, "That's it, no more, here ya go!" and produced what would be the final patch)...

I had this same problem with another translator, Shimarisu, who worked with me on Ys projects early on - (she came with Neill Corlett, so to speak). Interesting back story with her was that she used to hang in Working Designs' chatroom and one day Victor Ireland got testy and told all the purist bitchy whiners that if you don't like his games, go learn Japanese and translate them yourselves your way, etc.... She was someone that actually (or at least claims to) took his advice and did just that, but with horrifying results in my opinion... Because she hated Working Designs' (Victor Ireland) approach of taking liberties with the source script, she went too far in the opposite direction of trying to preserve the original source material as much as possible and failing to properly localize the translation for the English speaker. In the case of Ys I Complete, the script, under her stewardship, became both somewhat embarrassing and boring after she got through with it and I could NOT for the life of me edit it into something better (only plus side was that she would translate certain things accurately)... I could stare at one of her sentences for hours where I KNOW it's just wrong, that it just doesn't sound right for normal English, yet I could not come up with a way to "fix" it... I remember these things because of how unbelievably frustrating they were...

One other thing about her (which I find purty disgusting) was that when Working Designs shutdown, she was one of the jerks that was cheering and jumping for joy about it! She and others of her type felt vindicated that WD's formula for script rewriting was proven a failure! I swear, they're tyrannical these psycho-purist types; according to their mindset, there just is no room AT ALL in the free market for companies like Working Designs to have fun with the scripts of the games that they license... /end tangent

Anyway, I'm glad I came across this thread. Nice to see somebody appreciated my Xak III patch, though I always felt that very few people cared about it and I don't blame 'em... I got burned out working on it and I'm not very proud of it - it shows...

[meka]

The patch is very good, all I can say is it is a whole lot better than playing it in Japanese.

[RegalSin]

When I can't understand something I make up my own script. It is not
rocket ship science or anything like that. I just admit that I am illiterate, and have to master the language. That is all.

[termis]

The English translation patch by Nightwolve is damn well done.  Anyone not fluent in Japanese will appreciate his work.

Wow, I can't believe this was said. I appreciate it, but hard to believe. I find that Xak III is my worst patch and that the translation work is not that far from babelfish quality... I did the best that I could to edit and reedit post-Paul England's translation work, but when the sentence structure is too close to the original Japanese, I find it very difficult to edit it into something more natural (I went through that script many times too, across several years, and finally, in 2004 I believe, I just said, "That's it, no more, here ya go!" and produced what would be the final patch)...

I had this same problem with another translator, Shimarisu, who worked with me on Ys projects early on - (she came with Neill Corlett, so to speak). Interesting back story with her was that she used to hang in Working Designs' chatroom and one day Victor Ireland got testy and told all the purist bitchy whiners that if you don't like his games, go learn Japanese and translate them yourselves your way, etc.... She was someone that actually (or at least claims to) took his advice and did just that, but with horrifying results in my opinion... Because she hated Working Designs' (Victor Ireland) approach of taking liberties with the source script, she went too far in the opposite direction of trying to preserve the original source material as much as possible and failing to properly localize the translation for the English speaker. In the case of Ys I Complete, the script, under her stewardship, became both somewhat embarrassing and boring after she got through with it and I could NOT for the life of me edit it into something better (only plus side was that she would translate certain things accurately)... I could stare at one of her sentences for hours where I KNOW it's just wrong, that it just doesn't sound right for normal English, yet I could not come up with a way to "fix" it... I remember these things because of how unbelievably frustrating they were...

One other thing about her (which I find purty disgusting) was that when Working Designs shutdown, she was one of the jerks that was cheering and jumping for joy about it! She and others of her type felt vindicated that WD's formula for script rewriting was proven a failure! I swear, they're tyrannical these psycho-purist types; according to their mindset, there just is no room AT ALL in the free market for companies like Working Designs to have fun with the scripts of the games that they license... /end tangent

Anyway, I'm glad I came across this thread. Nice to see somebody appreciated my Xak III patch, though I always felt that very few people cared about it and I don't blame 'em... I got burned out working on it and I'm not very proud of it - it shows...

Ha, it's been awhile since I wrote this one.  Having played this 4+ years ago now, I can't recall in detail anymore, but I don't think I would've wrote that translation was good if I didn't mean it. 

FYI, I can't stand the translation "purists" who try to keep things literal.  I can tell you for one thing for sure, if they went into any national-level translation certification exam with that type of mentality, they would never pass. 

Anyway, certainly appreciate your work -- I think I can safely say that for most of the folks who's played through Xak III with the patch.

[grahf]

Oh christ, I didn't realize the thread was that old. I feel like a necrophiliac.