Topic: Nihon Falcom games on NS2

I'm a firm believer that both physical and digital are perfectly fine. Its the keycards specifically that are not, because they are essentially camouflaged-digital offered as a bad faith substitute for a physical product. They are a strict 100% downgrade from an actual physical release, which is the only comparison that matters because keycards aren't being offered as a substitute for digital- they are being pushed forth as a substitute for physical.

@JaxonH I'm not a fan of digital either. And price isn't really much of an issue for me, as long as I am getting what I feel is good value for the price being asked. I value physical significantly more than digital, so I'm willing to pay more for physical. But the funny thing is, I often see better discounts from retailers on true physical games sooner than on the same digital games on the eShop.

My biggest issues with digital/GKC are the same:
1. Lack of true ownership.
2. Large digital storage space requirements.

That said, I will buy digital games when they are very low in price (like less than $10) and small in storage space requirements (ideally, less than 1 GB). So this usually ends up being small indie games or things like Arcade Archives releases. But for larger, more costly AA or AAA games, I refuse to buy them if they don't get true physical releases.

But we don't need to sidetrack this thread on this debate. My point was just I'm glad GungHo handled Sky as opposed to NISA because, IMO, NISA is one of the worst publishers on Switch 2 due to them:
1. Embracing GKCs
2. Making totally separate Switch 1 and Switch 2 versions of games without offering an upgrade path
3. Charging $10 extra for Switch 2 versions of games compared to versions on all other platforms, even PS5

With GungHo, we at least got a $1 upgrade path for the Switch 1 to Switch 2 version of Sky. While I would obviously prefer a true physical Switch 2 version, getting a true physical Switch 1 version with a nearly free digital upgrade to the Switch 2 version is a decent enough compromise given the apparent high cost of Switch 2 cartridges.

If NISA published Sky, they would have charged $70 instead of $61 for the Switch 2 version and there wouldn't have been an upgrade path for the Switch 1 to Switch 2 version. (This is what they are doing with the upcoming Trails Beyond the Horizon.)

@xenobladexfan
When you finish FC remake it shows in-engine clips of SC remake so yea, it’s definitely coming. And I’m so excited! Can’t believe I missed out on this franchise until now.

@rallydefault yeah really awesome cutscene at the end which made me really hyped for SC, I can't remember if Kevin Graham becomes playable in the second or third game because he a is fan favourite.

Trails is a great series i just wish they would port Cold steel 1 and 2 to switch as well.

@xenobladexfan Playing the original SC and yeah, Kevin is playable here.

Fun fact, Cold Steel 1 and 2 are on Switch, but only in Japan for some reason. It's weird.

@Bluelink45

IIRC, its fallout from when Falcom switched from partnering with XSeed to NIS. XSeed made the translations for Cold Steel 1 and 2, and still has partial ownership of that work, but Falcom's contract by that point was with NISA. To get Cold Steel 1 and 2 ported to Switch globally, either NISA would have to make a new translation from scratch ( expensive ), or buy the work from XSeed ( also expensive ).

@metaphysician
does make me curious is falcom ended up making their own ports of CS1&2 (as opposed to CLE) i imagine Xseed may be able to publish those similar to the recent Ys ports (felghana and Celceta) since i think they also published CS1&2 on ps4 after falcom ported (which was after NISA released Ys VIII but before they released CS3)

@Mgalens Yeah, I think CLE being behind the existing Switch 1 ports for Cold Steel I & II is the biggest blocker. Xseed has already demonstrated willingness to localize their old Ys titles with Oath in Felghana and the upcoming Revelations of Celceta. But those were ported in house by Falcom. Probably less lucrative if they have to work out a deal to split profits 3 ways instead of 2 if CLE is involved. Such a shame.

With the new switch firmware update am curious to see if it did anything to fix the Zero/azure FMV issue (not sure if i have a file with the gallery unlocked but i imagine a way to test it would be to try them from the gallery and see if it still crashes)

one thing i did hear though is that apparently Tokyo Xanadu ex+ was apparently one of the games which got some fixes from the previous firmware update (haven't tried it on switch 2 but i think it did occasionally crash on switch 2 from what i hear so maybe that was what was fixed) Am still hoping that the Zero/Azure issue ends up fixed in an update (again sadly dont have a save with gallery unlocked since i think i unlocked other things instead so cannot fully test)

@Mgalens yeah I checked the gallery thing on new game plus and its still unresolved,
Really frustrating that Nis America have forgotten about the two crossbell games and daybreak ii as these games are literally unplayable on the new switch.

Must be bad for anyone who tossed their old switch because in my experience these are the only games that run better on the old switch which is really odd.

@xenobladexfan What's the issue with Daybreak II? I didn't realize that had problems on the Switch 2.

@topsekret yeah on handheld mode the visuals look extremely rough, I played the game on portable mode switch 1 earlier in the year and I remember the game being playable on both modes, however on switch 2, when playing handheld the game resolution is 380p but on a 1080p screen, the characters have white fuzzy blobs that appear on their heads when talking and environment textures look rough too.

@xenobladexfan Do you think the resolution is actually lower on Switch 2 than Switch 1 due to a bug? Or is it just a case of the resolution being the same, but it looks worse on Switch 2 than Switch 1 due to the already low-res image being stretched over an even larger screen?

@topsekret yes I think the lower resolution is due to the already low res image being stretched on a 1080p screen, the game didn't look great on the original switch anyway so it really needs a switch 2 edition for better resolutions.

@xenobladexfan
in regards to the Zero/Azure issue i do still see it potentially being one of those things which eventually is fixed as the compatibility layer is slowly improved, since despite the ocasional blips such as the current BdSp issues it feels like overall its improved since launch, with things like Tokyo Xanadus improvement and one of the longer running issues, the Klonoa collection, finally getting fixed (the latter was one of those games which was fixed despite not being listed as having issues so it does give me hope for Zero/azure) it just feels like a case of trying it after each firmware update.

at the very least it feels more likely than hearing back from NISA at this point.

as for Daybreak 2 that one definitely needs a dedicated switch 2 version or a patch, though i feel like if anything the former would be the best bet, similar to how cold steel 3 and 4 got native ps5 versions despite the games being backwards compatible from ps4, if it is the case i imagine it would be spaced out releases but even if that were the case i would be happy just seeing some of these games making their way to switch 2.

the big mystery though will be what happens with cold steel 1 and 2 and whether falcom themselves decide to port them, if so then Xseed releasing them would be viable since iirc cold steel 1 and 2 on ps4 were published by Xseed even after NISA had published Ys VIII (plus weve got a couple of Xseed published Ys games, looking forward to celceta)

@Mgalens, about the anime cutscenes or FMVS in the crossbell games, those games were originally released in 2010 on the psp so maybe the backwards compatibility struggles with cutscenes from earlier titles, oddly enough I tried more modern games, such as persona 5 and tales of vesperia, on the switch 2 and all the cutscenes were smooth without errors.

About the cold steel games, 1&2 they were handled by nis america on the ps vita in europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Heroes:_Trails_of...

I don't understand the publisher issue with those games if nis america have owned the licence before.

@xenobladexfan
I think there were issues with games like tomba which were related to the FMVs so yeah it could be how certain games handle them, i havent tried nayuta though forgot if that had much in the way of FMVs since that was also a PSP game.

Havent tried Zero/azure after the recent update though as mentioned i dont think i had the FMV viewer unlocked (think i spent the NG+ points on something else) wouldnt be surprised if it was still the same but do have a tiny hope after each update that maybe the specific issue with the transition layer was sorted since it feels like thats the biggest hope of seeing it fixed (dont see them getting dedicated patches) though some of the games which had issues for a while got fixed relatively recently (klonoa, Nier automata, Tokyo Xanadu Ex+) so im still in the "cautious optimism" stage (not regarding this update in particular but just in general that someday one of those updates will sort it)

@Mgalens trails zero is still broken, tested this morning, for now its better of playing the crossbell games and trails daybreak ii on switch 1 and playing the rest of the series on switch 2.

I played nayuta on switch 2 and it ran fine.

Daybreak ii runs perfectly on switch 1, I tested it last Saturday and all
the visual problems I noticed were non existent on switch 1.

I wondered if tales of besteria has FMVs issues on backwards compatibility because the publisher recommends playing that game on switch 1.

@xenobladexfan
ah thats unfortunate, though at the very least it feels like those firmware updates are pretty common.

The Berseria situation is odd since this is the second Tales-of game released after the switch2 launch which didnt have a switch 2 version, especially since several Namco games released prior to them did have switch 2 versions (pac man world 2 for example having it on launch and that DBZ game had an upgrade announced) i am curious to see how Berseria ends up compared to the (japan only iirc) ps3 version since that and zestria were the only ps3 Tales games to not have 60fps combat so unlike Graces and Xillia the switch version wont have combat running at half the framerate of the originals (Symphonia also had it at 30 in combat but that was based off the infamous ps2 version and kind of feels unsalvageable at this point outside of a full remake) though it does make me at least hope that they will eventually get native switch 2 versions (though the Trails series is still my most wanted on the switch 2 update list next to the Xenoblade games and octopath 2)

but yeah it feels odd that they targeted 60fps for Vesperia even outside of combat (which wasnt in the original iirc) and does make me at least wish they had an option to have it run unlocked for switch 2 future proofing.

last part kind of went on a bit of a ramble but basically its just me hoping that Berseria on switch 1 runs at least as well as it did on ps3.