Alundra and Arc the Lad coming to PSN on 10.12.2010

[Ivalice Alliance]

I was just about to post this. Good to see that Arc the Lad is getting its attention.  I feel like we will see Lunar And its sequel real soon.

[ZeronHitaro]

Sold! Soon as I can recover from my NV reservation I'm totally popping a PSN card to get the first game and hold out for the second.

[Robert Boyd]

I was just about to post this. Good to see that Arc the Lad is getting its attention.  I feel like we will see Lunar And its sequel real soon.

According to Vic, the rights to the Lunar games are a complete mess and though he'd like to put them up on the PSN, it seems doubtful.

[Eusis]

I'm going to be more hopeful for the rest of WD's games instead, or at least some of the others. I could see RayStorm being released by SE themselves, but ideally they'd drop the price of the HD game and stop being idiots and get it on the US PSN as well.

[ZeronHitaro]

Honestly instead of Lunar on the PSN I'd rather see Lunar 2 on the PSP so the whole set is playable again. Lunar was nice but I have fonder memories of Lunar 2; and the lack of L2 ports is rather depressing. :-/

[Masamune]

That's a pretty good point, Lunar 2 does need a fresh port.  It's like SE porting the crap out of Final Fantasy 1.  I wish they would start porting FF7-9 as I honestly think those 3 games have probably held up the worst in the graphics department.  Most people would rather look at sprites moving across beautifully rendered backgrounds than a buncha pixelated polygons.  Not to mention these 3 also suffer from some of the worst load times.  I'd love to replay FF9 but then I remember how slow it feels to load every single battle.  I don't want full blown remakes, just some high quality HD lovin'.  Release all 3 in a God of War type package for $60 and I'm sold.  /endrant

[Kevadu]

Well all three are on the PSN and while that doesn't help the graphics I think it does help with load times.  Reading from a hard drive is a lot faster than the PSX's CD-ROM drive...

[Eusis]

They're emulating a PS1's CD Drive speed in order to not break the games, but maybe someone can stress test it to be sure. And they definitely need more work than God of War (or most PS2 games really) to look great in native HD.

[Hobbun]

Well, Alundra looks pretty good from what I have seen so far. I was really concerned when I saw the opening animated sequence at the title screen, which also showed gameplay screens. Looked a godawful mess.

However, when starting up the actual game, it looks quite good. Sprites are sharp. Even looks a little better if you make the screen 4:3.

[Eusis]

However, when starting up the actual game, it looks quite good. Sprites are sharp. Even looks a little better if you make the screen 4:3.

I'm always baffled that people would rather have a screwed up, extra wide screen than black bars. If it bugs me that much I'll play something that naturally fills that space.

... Though maybe you mixed up and mean you were playing it at "original" rather than "normal", which is still 4:3 but zooms in so the black on the top/bottom's gone. In which case, yeah, sprite games especially tend to look really nice at their native resolution.

[Kevadu]

I'm always baffled that people would rather have a screwed up, extra wide screen than black bars. If it bugs me that much I'll play something that naturally fills that space.

Me too, Eusis.  Me too...

[Hobbun]

However, when starting up the actual game, it looks quite good. Sprites are sharp. Even looks a little better if you make the screen 4:3.

I'm always baffled that people would rather have a screwed up, extra wide screen than black bars. If it bugs me that much I'll play something that naturally fills that space.

... Though maybe you mixed up and mean you were playing it at "original" rather than "normal", which is still 4:3 but zooms in so the black on the top/bottom's gone. In which case, yeah, sprite games especially tend to look really nice at their native resolution.

My post really had nothing to do with complaining how good or bad the game looked in fullscreen, I was just saying it does look better in the 'normal' screen (black bars on the sides).  The full screen looks good as well, though. Not stretched or contorted. 

[Eusis]

Except by definition it isstretched and contorted. The visual style masks it some, but you definitely see it in, say, the steering wheel on the boat being an oval rather than a circle, and it has an effect on gameplay in that it feels like you're moving faster left and right than up and down.

[Hobbun]

Yes, I see your point.  But let me put it this way, it's not something I notice myself where it affects gameplay (for me). I don't look at the screen and go "Wow, that is completely messed up." It just looks like a larger screen.

Maybe I am just lucky in not noticing it.

[Ivalice Alliance]

I was thinking about buying Lunar 2 on eBay.  Vanguard Bandits would be nice to see on the PSN too!  PSN needs more strategy games.