Author Topic: Tengai Makyou II rocks hard... (Read 2681 times)

runinruder · « **Reply #60 on:** October 04, 2006, 02:22:13 PM »

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I just never connected to Manjimaru on an emotional level like I did with Kabuki den.

Same here. Keranu and I were just talking the other day about how powerful a certain scene in Kabuki Den is (without spoiling it for everyone, I'll just say it precedes Fujiyama joining the party).

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Maybe it's because so many people casually die throughout the game and the cop out ending.

Heh, this is hard to talk about without posting spoilers, but I liked the death scenes. I even liked the cop-out ending. I guess I've experienced so many modern RPGs that insist on making mournful spectacles out of every ounce of tragedy they can squeeze from their stories that it was neat to see a conclusion like TM2's, which really took things to an opposite extreme. (Of course, at a certain point I knew there would be a cop-out ending, since I played through Kabuki Den first...)

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Manjjimaru's soundtrack may be great classic PCE music, but Kabuki den's is in a class by itself and has a major impact on the game.

I agree that Kabuki's soundtrack is superior. I really dig the world map theme in Manji, though.

But nothing can compare to Ziria's shop music.

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But that scene in Manjimaru at the ice palace is pretty effing cool.

Heck yeah!

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where as the volcano'y scene with Okuni left me speechless.

Kabuki left me wide-eyed and speechless quite a few times during its final few hours.

It's kind of funny... I think of all these crazy and emotional and shocking scenes when I think about Kabuki Den and Manji... and when I think about Ziria, I think of silly little Tsunade gleefully lifting giant axes and trying on outfits.

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Ziria's battles are what hooked me right away. I'd definately rank them above Manjimaru's bland same non-background in every fight, hold-down-the-button-with-the-turbo-switch-on, running so fast across the countryside that you enter fights so frequently, battles.

Ah, here's where we really differ. I loved being able to quickly turbo-switch my way through battles in Manji. So when I started playing Ziria, the battles seemed agonizingly slow.

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The bg art and animated enemies make a huge difference

I love the background art during battles in Ziria, especially the scene with cloudy skies looming overhead.

Keranu · « **Reply #61 on:** October 04, 2006, 03:20:59 PM »

I haven't played Ziria yet, but I've seen screenshots and I too agree that the backgrounds are a lot cooler than the simple gradient backgrounds of Manji Maru. Though I also agree with Runin that being able to speed through battles was great.

Black Tiger · « **Reply #62 on:** October 04, 2006, 03:28:17 PM »

Quote from: "Keranu"

I haven't played Ziria yet, but I've seen screenshots and I too agree that the backgrounds are a lot cooler than the simple gradient backgrounds of Manji Maru. Though I also agree with Runin that being able to speed through battles was great.

I think everything in Manjimaru is fun, but Ziria's battles are visually a step above, which is special considering that it's like the first console CD RPG, where as TMII was made around the end of CD2 games and was supposed to show us what all that extra memory could do for Super CD's and what we got was the battle bg's and non-boss animation taken away.

It just makes Ziria look extra good.

Keranu · « **Reply #63 on:** October 04, 2006, 03:30:55 PM »

Are the non-boss battles in Ziria animated? Interesting point.

To be honest though, Manji Maru did show off some power of the new Super CDROM2 technology by making a very long quest, a crap load of cinemas, and big, animated boss fights. Like I said though, I haven't played Ziria so I don't know how it compares to those aspects.

runinruder · « **Reply #64 on:** October 04, 2006, 03:52:20 PM »

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To be honest though, Manji Maru did show off some power of the new Super CDROM2 technology by making a very long quest, a crap load of cinemas, and big, animated boss fights. Like I said though, I haven't played Ziria so I don't know how it compares to those aspects.

Ziria has some VERY cool boss fights, but its barebones "cinematics" are nothing like Manji's or Kabuki's (understandably).

Black Tiger · « **Reply #65 on:** October 04, 2006, 04:06:15 PM »

Quote from: "runinruder"

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To be honest though, Manji Maru did show off some power of the new Super CDROM2 technology by making a very long quest, a crap load of cinemas, and big, animated boss fights. Like I said though, I haven't played Ziria so I don't know how it compares to those aspects.

Ziria has some VERY cool boss fights, but its barebones "cinematics" are nothing like Manji's or Kabuki's (understandably).

I guess that you can cut it some slack, since it was the first big CD-ROM hit and was so ambitious in scope, but we all know how good CD2 cinemas can be. Manjimaru also looks kinda primitive, PCE cinema-wise, with it's poorly lipsyncing.

Kaminari · « **Reply #66 on:** October 04, 2006, 04:39:20 PM »

In Ziria, you can somewhat speed up the battles by enabling the auto mode with [Select] during a combat. Switch it off with .

vestcoat · « **Reply #67 on:** October 05, 2006, 11:57:51 AM »

Should I buy the CD or SCD version of Ziria? Is there any diffrence?

grahf · « **Reply #68 on:** October 05, 2006, 03:09:45 PM »

What i always hear is that there is no difference, and that one simply requires the scd. But, ive always wondered about this. Why would hudson do that? Maybe it has shorter load times, or some other minor improvement. Anyone care to comment?

ParanoiaDragon · « **Reply #69 on:** October 05, 2006, 05:37:43 PM »

As far as I know, the SCD Ziria, wasn't released in stores, but was some kind of promo item they gave away at conventions. And they wanted more copies of it out there, after the success of the other games, but, I don't know how true any of this is.

Kaminari · « **Reply #70 on:** October 05, 2006, 08:29:39 PM »

It was bundled with some Duo-R packages. The loading times are marginally shorter. Personally, I sold mine and kept my CD version instead. Double case, better artwork, a neat sticker included, and cheaper to find... In other words: the best deal

Black Tiger · « **Reply #71 on:** October 06, 2006, 08:15:20 AM »

I believe, from what I remember from what I saw in PC Engine magazines, is that the Super CD Ziria was originally given away with the original PCE Duo, kinda like how the Turbo Duo came with it's big CD2 RPG Ys I & II.

I think that they just made it Super CD only because they were including it as a pack for their new Super CD system which was being marketed to play TM II(their killer app).

The one time I tested both versions out, I couldn't tell if there was any difference.

ParanoiaDragon · « **Reply #72 on:** October 06, 2006, 01:46:33 PM »

I just remembered something, I think I heard that the original Ziria only worked with the 1.0, like Altered Beast. Can anyone confirm whether this is true or not? I also remember hearing the same thing about Cosmic Fantasy 1, though, supposedly with that one, you can play the game up to some point, & then it'll crash. That's from my cousin, of whom I don't know what to believe.

Black Tiger · « **Reply #73 on:** October 06, 2006, 01:49:30 PM »

Quote from: "ParanoiaDragon"

I just remembered something, I think I heard that the original Ziria only worked with the 1.0, like Altered Beast. Can anyone confirm whether this is true or not? I also remember hearing the same thing about Cosmic Fantasy 1, though, supposedly with that one, you can play the game up to some point, & then it'll crash. That's from my cousin, of whom I don't know what to believe.

Definately not true for both.

Altered Beast can only be played without the 1.0 card until when the 1st boss should appear, but he never shows up.

I've heard before that there may have been one or two other games that only work with the 1.0 card, but Ziria & Cosmic 1 definately aren't them.

Kaminari · « **Reply #74 on:** October 07, 2006, 07:57:05 AM »

Quote from: "Black_Tiger"

I believe, from what I remember from what I saw in PC Engine magazines, is that the Super CD Ziria was originally given away with the original PCE Duo

Some early Super CD-ROM drives and Duo packs were bundled with the demo disc Super CD-ROM² Taiken Soft Shū. Ziria SCD was released sometime during 1993 for the Duo-R launch.