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I recently re-played Kartia/Rebus...





0
 01.25.2015 6:55pm
Thread Creator

landstander
Registered Member



I'm not sure how many people remember or are aware of this game, but it was always one of my favorites on the PSX/PS1.  It's an Atlus SRPG with artwork by Amanao.  Anyway, there are three things that really struck me as I played through it again this time. 
1. The storyline is fantastic and avoids a lot of the cliches the Final Fantasy games would fall into later.
2. Amano really outdid himself with the character designs here, I think this is my second favorite game he's done aside from FFVI.
3. The soundtrack was very underrated.

That said, the graphics don't hold up (the sprites look fine, but those maps are horrible) and the battle system is pretty mundane, plus there are no optional side quests.  If you're a fan of Amano at all, it's definitely worth a play, I wish this game were remembered better than it is.  I was just curious if anyone else had thoughts on this game, and just wanted to recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FgEwA1sUZI






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0
 01.25.2015 11:49pm


Nelfichu
I've been there, hombre.



I've never seen gameplay of this game before, but I have to say the graphics are actually pretty good for their age, even the maps. I recently put in the original Vandal Hearts for old times' sake and wow, there's a game that just looks awful. This one looks like it holds up.

I love Amano, so I may have to check out Kartia in the future. The two different main characters/stories reminds me of Threads of Fate, another Squaresoft game that came out around the same time.




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0
 01.26.2015 2:31am


Ramses
Registered Member

I can't remember too much about it other than I never did the second quest. Halfway through the game the stories merge, and my best characters jumped to the other lead, and beating the game was painful afterwards.  I just couldn't get the desire to do the otherside.  



2011 FFO Fantasy Football Champion




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0
 01.26.2015 4:43am


Coolsetzer
Formerly Furysetzer



I have had this game for years, being one of the many PSOne RPG's I bought when I was collecting games. I remember the graphics and gameplay not being that good. This one came out literally months after FF VII, and months before FF Tactics. I was engrossed in Castlevania SoTN and Mega Man X4 at the time.

When I came back to it after Tactics, I viewed it as a shallow carbon copy of that game. Which was unfortunate, because I really wanted to like it. The girl on the cover literally looked like Terra's sister from FF VI.




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0
 01.26.2015 9:04pm
Thread Creator (Edited on 01.26.2015 at 9:34pm)

landstander
Registered Member



Coolsetzer said:

I have had this game for years, being one of the many PSOne RPG's I bought when I was collecting games. I remember the graphics and gameplay not being that good. This one came out literally months after FF VII, and months before FF Tactics. I was engrossed in Castlevania SoTN and Mega Man X4 at the time.

When I came back to it after Tactics, I viewed it as a shallow carbon copy of that game. Which was unfortunate, because I really wanted to like it. The girl on the cover literally looked like Terra's sister from FF VI.
I find your take on it interesting, because I came from an opposing view.  I was one of the FFVI fans who were seriously ticked off about Amano being dropped for FFVII, so I was dead set on buying and playing this game at launch (which I ended up having to do by getting it used at Blockbuster, since it was a BB exclusive at launch).  I think the criticsm of Lacryma being too similar is one you can make about Amano's art in general, though; personally, I'm a big Amano fan.  This was a huge argument on Usenet back in the day (Amano fans vs. Nomura fans), and I think most of the early interest in this game came from the Amano diehards.  I will say that the battle system is in no way a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics, though.  I don't think it's as good, but it is different (with creating phantoms and mixing ingredients for spells and items).

EDIT:  One other thought I had, I think the BB exclusivity really hurt this game.  It didn't go on sale at retailers until (I think) about a year later, and its graphics were already a bit dated at launch, so comparing it to a late 1998-1999 game was not going to work out well for the sales.  For me, I hate 3D games in general, so the graphics aren't as big an issue, but I get why it doesn't appeal to a lot of people (and didn't then).  I'm also inclined to give Atlus a pass on that front, they weren't working with a FFT budget to begin with.




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0
 02.01.2015 6:17pm


SuperSquall
Shortening His Posts



Interesting... my experience with this game involves seeing it on a shelf at the video rental place, thinking it looked cool but not renting it (because I was there for Earthbound and didn't own a PSX at the time) and then never seeing it again for the rest of my life.




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0
 02.01.2015 8:55pm


Id82
Fuck Shit Stack.



As much as I like Yoshitaka Amanano as an artist. I always thought his character designs didn't translate well to the in game universe of the actual characters for the game. Looking at that LP for the game they just don't look appealing.




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0
 03.01.2015 9:12pm
Thread Creator

landstander
Registered Member



Id82 said:

As much as I like Yoshitaka Amanano as an artist. I always thought his character designs didn't translate well to the in game universe of the actual characters for the game. Looking at that LP for the game they just don't look appealing.
I respect your take on it, I'm just on the other side of that.  I always loved the early games for his artwork, and that's part of why I'm just not into the Nomura FF games as much.




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0
 03.23.2015 5:13am


Indiana Jerico
Sinfully Delicious v2
Administrator



What's funny is that Dissidia shows that Amano's style can work, if they just put their minds to it.


===

"Plans? What plans? I'm making this up as I go!"








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0
 03.27.2015 2:50am


Lucent
Dip Trip Flip Fantasia



Man, I got this game for my birthday practically a million years ago. I loved every minute of it, but now I can't remember a damn thing about it... Time to hit the NOSTALGIA HIGHWAY!







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0
 04.18.2015 6:46am


shooter_mcgavin
Registered Member

Indiana Jerico said:

What's funny is that Dissidia shows that Amano's style can work, if they just put their minds to it.

"

In terms of concept art yeah I never understoon why Amano's works couldn't be translated in 3D in the early PSone era perhaps but what we saw in FFIX is that Amano's Art actually translates better asthetically in 3D than Nomoura.

In Dissidia what I noticed is that the detail of the character's costumes and design with the pre-FFVII characters. The design and art work stand out but is kept in the confines of high fantasy, problem with Nomura is that he thinks he can just do his own thing without confines but often over does it.

It's no surprise that of the single player main line games after FFVI it was FFIX and FFXII that had the best character designs.  




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