A combo of nostalgia, ignorance and being too stupid to emulate.
Honestly, I don't even believe the graphical component even means much to the average normie game player. I've talked about this in the unpopular opinion thread about 4K graphics, but to give a specific remaster example I knew a girl that was super butthurt that they didn't release the Call of Duty 4 remaster on PS3 since she didn't have a PS4 to play it at the time.
Trying to explain to her that she could just play Call of Duty 4 on her PS3 and that the entire point of the remaster was to get it running with textures and resolution that were only capable with a PS4 didn't even register to her. She just wanted it because it was a "remaster" as if that would make the game itself better or something.
Makes sense. Though, doesn't call of duty have some kind of multiplayer component? I'm guessing the original version would be unable to play with people running the remaster meaning eventually the servers for the original game would be dead with most of the players having moved onto the ps4 version?
So, i'm still not understanding the purpose of this re release or why it's worth buying when i could just emulate an hd version that would literally run on my phone with my 8bit do controller.
That Retroarch stuff would go over most people's heads, and it's something I'd really have to follow closely because Retroarch is some obtuse shit.
But, uh, largely out of convenience. You want Chrono Cross, it's there, you slap down some paper and suddenly it's playable, no monkeying around with emulators or tweaking settings necessary. A whole lot of people, even some of the tech savvy, are willing to pay for the convenience and to not have to deal with that just to play Chrono Cross. Sure, you can play an endless supply of games with a good setup, but ultimately, you're only gonna dive into a few, because nobody has the time to just play absolutely everything. Which is also a reason Game Pass isn't as good of a deal as most think.
Hell, even I'll buy game compilations when they're cheap enough. Sure, I could play most of Rare Replay already, but it was $7.50 and now I don't have to set up Xenia or figure out the controls and map them manually for all the ZX Spectrum games or search high and low for why certain textures in Perfect Dark are all fucky in Mupen64Plus. It's just nice, it's not expensive, and I enjoy looking at the UI that ties everything together and all of the little extra behind-the-scenes videos.
Then again, Rare Replay is the gold standard for game compilations, but it's confined to the Xbox One with no ports in sight, so not a lot of people got to see it. Which makes it all the more frustrating when you hear about things like the TMNT Cowabunga Collection being sold for $40, and the game list was comfortably emulatable on low-end PCs even 20 years ago:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES)
and then I hear podcasters like Mike Matei and Pat Contri all talking it up when I know, you know, we all know, they know better. Rare Replay had Xbox 360 games. Desktop computers can emulate Xbox 360 games. And you mean to tell me they couldn't have included even Gamecube games in this list? Hell, they even have the balls to say it comes with 13 games, when most of them are just ports of another. TMNT Tournament Fighters alone counts for three games.
But, I'm the only person calling them out, apparently, since consoomers gonna consoom, and most people who know their way around emulators don't even acknowledge retro compilations. They're more often than not very trashy ways to cash in on old games, and as much as I'd love more along the lines of Rare Replay and PS1 Namco Museum that feel so inspired and enthusiastic, the soys just consooming trash like the TMNT collection just prove that they can release zero-effort rom packs for a pretty penny and get away with it.
And man, don't even get me started on Collection of SaGa. Three Game Boy games, completely unchanged, for $20. Even the brochure page makes sure to show off all the screen borders to make the thing not seem like a total farce. And there were perfectly good full 3D remakes of SaGa 2 and 3 on the DS! Fuckin' hell, man.
But, uh, largely out of convenience. You want Chrono Cross, it's there, you slap down some paper and suddenly it's playable, no monkeying around with emulators or tweaking settings necessary
Psx emulators have been pretty plug and play for a long time now. Back in the early 2000's when I first played chrono cross it took a while to tweak the settings to make it run at a decent fps, but these days, most devices people have are powerful enough and emulators have come a long way.
or search high and low for why certain textures in Perfect Dark are all fucky in Mupen64Plus. It's just nice, it's not expensive, and I enjoy looking at the UI that ties everything together and all of the little extra behind-the-scenes videos.
Psx emulators have been pretty plug and play for a long time now. Back in the early 2000's when I first played chrono cross it took a while to tweak the settings to make it run at a decent fps, but these days, most devices people have are powerful enough and emulators have come a long way.
This literally took me two minutes to download a rom and start playing. It runs perfectly, no setup at all.
I thought about elaborating on how the version of Perfect Dark in Rare Replay is the Xbox 360 version, which brought forth widescreen support, 60fps, and modernized controls, but decided that'd be getting too far out into the weeds. It's a very nice way to play the game.
But, I intended Perfect Dark to be a general example, considering it's probably the highest-end N64 game that's represented in Rare Replay. Or I could have said Blast Corps or Conker's BFD, I dunno, we're nitpicking now.
Anyway, to get back to the question of "Why ain't a nigga jus' finna slap a rom on they box and play a emulizzle?", like, that takes a mouse, and settings menus, and having to figure out whether you switch on full screen mode with F11 or Alt+Enter or from a menu. You don't get a big ol' piece of artwork with a big colorful "Press A to play!" button with little theme music, you get a little generic icon and "Perfect Dark (U) (1.1) (PeNiSmAn).z64" in a little list, unless you really want to take the time to figure out something like HyperSpin. OR you can just skip all that and spend money and launch a preconfigured game that may or may not be a worse experience than you can DIY yourself. Lots of people just don't have the time or knowledge or even comprehension to set this shit up. Hell, it's even a hassle for me, and I've had a decent grasp on emulation for ages. It's nice to have shit just right there for you.
I thought about elaborating on how the version of Perfect Dark in Rare Replay is the Xbox 360 version, which brought forth widescreen support, 60fps, and modernized controls, but decided that'd be getting too far out into the weeds. It's a very nice way to play the game.
But, I intended Perfect Dark to be a general example, considering it's probably the highest-end N64 game that's represented in Rare Replay. Or I could have said Blast Corps or Conker's BFD, I dunno, we're nitpicking now.
Anyway, to get back to the question of "Why ain't a nigga jus' finna slap a rom on they box and play a emulizzle?", like, that takes a mouse, and settings menus, and having to figure out whether you switch on full screen mode with F11 or Alt+Enter or from a menu. You don't get a big ol' piece of artwork with a big colorful "Press A to play!" button with little theme music, you get a little generic icon and "Perfect Dark (U) (1.1) (PeNiSmAn).z64" in a little list, unless you really want to take the time to figure out something like HyperSpin
The thing is, in many cases, they are worse than what can be done yourself. These companies put in less effort re-releasing their old games than furries and troons in programming socks do for free. Spending money on that crap just incentivizes companies to put the barest amount of effort in and shit out garbage they know will sell based on the name alone
The thing is, in many cases, they are worse than what can be done yourself. These companies put in less effort re-releasing their old games than furries and troons in programming socks do for free. Spending money on that crap just incentivizes companies to put the barest amount of effort in and shit out garbage they know will sell based on the name alone
Yup. And if there's one standard they should be held to, it's to release a product that's at minimum on par with what you can get in a DIY setup. They don't even have to go as far as the really crazy stuff like the Mario 64 decompilation + source ports, but at least have it on par with something like RecalBox.
The battle booster implementation in Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition makes all player party members have perfect evasion – effectively making them invincible. Enemies will always miss and the booster also fills out the player’s element grid to cast any spell they have equipped.
Curiously, the booster also does not replenish the elements since in battle, every ability is a one time use per fight. At this point, it may as well since there is nothing to stop the player from ever losing.
The real problem with the battle booster is that there is no way to ever opt out of having access to it. The object of any game is to win and by having a completely consequence free option available negates any challenge the game may have. Players won’t put much thought into how they assign elements to their characters and they might not bother equipping them at all either.
I haven't played it, but I got the impression that it meant if you turn on the battle boosters, you can't turn them off. Some versions of FF7 were like that, with an option in the menus that maxes out everyone's levels and money. If you save after using that, you can't go back to your old level.
His good/bad points made me lol, all of the bad points only apply to the remaster, and all of the good but one apply to the original game. And the one good point that isn't from the original isn't even about Cross, it's about Radical Dreamers finally getting an official translation:
The battle booster and other "enhancements" are all toggleable like the newer PS4 port of FF7. You just click sticks or press shoulder buttons and they go on and off. If the fast forward had an option to go, like, time and a half, the game would run perfectly.
