Final Fantasy 3(or6 Depending How You View It)

[martymcfly]

Hey guys, was just wondering, i have been using drpcketsnes to play final fantasy 3. Really love this game.
I was thinking though...is this the best way to play this game on gp2x? Or should i try gameboyadvance version? I was just wondering what fellow ff fans would recommend?

 

[Tobriand]

Well... in the current version of GPsp, I imagine the GBA version's not working. Should be in the next release though (read Exophase's blog - he's fixed the bug that stopped it working, but not released as yet).

Plus you get a significantly smaller resolution on the GBA version even when it does work - and at 266MHz (assuming you can reach that) DrPocketsnes is as near to full speed as makes no odds, so probably best to use that one, yeah. Unless, of course, there's any extras in the GBA ver that I don't know about...

 

[martymcfly]

Loads of extras, but to be honest i think your right resolution wise. im at 200mhz at the moment and isnt that slow at all really. Mite end up sticking with snes, seems its the only way at the moment anyway!lol

 

[___]

could you tell me what extras the gba version has to offer? I would like to check it out. I really enjoyed playing ff3 on pocketsnes aswell but I am curious.

 

[martymcfly]

Just wikipedia it my friend, all the answers are there. Just search for the snes page of the game, and it has a section on the gba verison and differences etc. Seems the translation has been brushed up etc, and some other additions that werent on the original. Let me know what you think, i too am tempted by the fruit of another haha, if you can name the band reference it'd be even better

 

[rokdcasbah]

i've logged probably 60 hours on ff6 on drpocketsnes so far...gonna do some more when i get home tonight too. if you can tolerate a little bit of frameskip in the towns you're golden. gotta love the chainsaw.

edit: the band is either squeeze or the squeeze, i forget. decent song though.

 

[jimid2]

I've been playing FFVI Advance on my DS for the last few days - toyed with playing FFIII on the GP2X but decided I'd already been through the SNES version, and besides, I paid for the GBA cart so why not unwrap it and use it!

Anyway, the translation is radically different - not in "meaning" but in style and clarity. If you do a direct comparison of the graphics, the GBA version has a bit cut off at the bottom of the screen that the SNES version displays, but other than that, they look pretty much identical. The DSLite screen really pops with those bright, bright colours though! There is apparently a new dungeon too, but I'm not there yet...

It's just such a great game - play the SNES version now, and when you want to go back to it next year, play the GBA version...

Oh, and the band was just Squeeze.

 

[Mudi]

If you don't like the SNES translation, there's a great fan translation patched over the English ROM (and several others patched over the Japanese ROM) that I like... the SNES version plays great on PocketSNES, even with transparencies on most areas are full speed, though some of the larger area maps have noticable frame skip (does not adversely affect gameplay though)

The Mode7 world map looks excellent on PocketSNES, I love it

 

[martymcfly]

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies! Well done getting the band as well haha, love that song. Yeh, drpocketsnes is running it well, i moved it from 200 to to 260 and now the fps have doubled in the towns etc, so ill leave it on that. Before i really get into it though, could you explain alittle more on the fan translation for me please Mudi? Might be worth doin something like that.

 

[Tobriand]

Have a gander here http://www.romhacking.net/trans/697/.

Then of course take a look at any other translations for other games if you've not come across romhacking.net before, since it's got rather a large collection, oh yes

 

[Exophase]

Like every port of an SNES game to GBA that I've tried the sound quality is inferior (save for some areas where they benefited from having more streaming audio, but I mean in general). Square Enix and Nintendo both do a much better job than most in this area, but to me it's still very noticeable in this game. I got in an argument with someone about this (he was playing it on his GBA at the time) but I think it has just been too many years since he actually played the SNES version to tell. Listen to the SPCs, you'll see what I mean, FF6 really pushed the envelope on what you can do with the SPC700.

Granted it's not Tales of Phantasia level bad audio conversion or anything. Playing that and Lunar Legends feels like someone's swabbing my ears out with shards of glass.

 

[martymcfly]

Thanks, yeh i found it hard to believe a GBA could recreate a snes game as well as the original. With regards to the translation, i am still undecided. Bad translation sometimes makes me laugh, such as resident evil: "you are the master of unlocking". I may just bear with the FF3 usa rom, but i will have to think about it. Any more feedback would help!

 

[rokdcasbah]

you should probably go with the original snes, "official" translation just for the sake of playing a classic. also what exophase said about the audio. i have to agree 100% with exophase...real chip tunes vs. crappy streaming audio version of said chip tunes...hmm.

 

[CRP]

FF6, in the original jap version with translation patch, is one of the first games I decided to play on PocketSnes, where it plays satisfactorily.
But I must say that I was quickly turned down by the game itself: the story and setting are ridiculous (FF4 was much better!), and the random battles are annoying. I hate how FF rpgs just try to "innovate" battles with stupid variants (like beasts etc.), but they remain invariably boring...
I soon stopped and moved on to Front Mission.

 

[martymcfly]

Would you say chrono trigger is a better option? What i really want is a game with a good storyline to match the gameplay. Mario kart is fun, but i do like my stories(hence why i love adventure games)

Edit: i am loving FF3 atm though i have to say.

 

[Mudi]

Yes, if you didn't like FF6, try Chrono Trigger before you give up on Jap RPGs completely. No random battles, very good storyline, excellent soundtrack, basically one of the best SNES games ever.

 

[dabarratt]

Chronotrigger is a great game with an interesting story line but I always find myself drawn back to the FF franchise simply because those are the games that I played as a youngster. I still base my conception of what an RPG should be based on FF II (IV).

As a side note - Is Star Ocean playable with(out) the graphics pack and all that? I'm assuming no...

Front Mission = Great.
I even got my twelve year old brother-in-law into it who has been raised on graphically outstanding next-gen games. That's saying a lot.

 

[Draken]

The best rpg I recently finished on my gp2x was Phantasy Star IV for the Genesis. It has an excellent story that honestly moved me at times (like the ending), awesome graphics and excellent music (concidering the inferior soundchip, it's all very catchy.
Perfect and fullspeed on gp2x underclocked to 133mhz.

I also finished FF4 on my gp2x last week. It's a decent rpg, the story is especially good for a snes game, but I prefer FF6. Has some very good moments in the storyline. (and the best soundtrack of snes games imo)

I'm playing Chrono Trigger at the moment. The storyline is quite good (and I love the general idea), but, a mute protagonist kinda kills the seriousness of the story. (No mute protagonists in Phantasy Star IV or the Final Fantasy series)

Dunno what I'll play after CT, maybe finish FF5 finally, or play the cult Earthbound..

 

[saehn]

While we're on the topic of Final Fantasy... I have a question regarding FF2 for GBA. My characters are in the 5000hp range. They have about level 9 sword & ax skills. But they just started missing everything! It's as though they're cursed or something. Is that the problem? What do I do?

 

[martymcfly]

Phantasy Star IV, thanks ill check it out. Is it like final fantasy, where the prior games are differerent worlds etc and not necesary to understand Phantasy Star IV? Also, chrono trigger and ff3 are great on my gp2x now, needs to be overclocked to 260 which is disapointing thought, concidering my picodrive emu is running at 130 full speed haha.

Edit: its a shame mario rpg wont work on gp2x, i had heard great things!