Between Geofront and NISA and PH3's combined work, this port of a 12-year-old PSP game is so lovingly and meticulously crafted it's insane.

You really get the sense with this post that Durante and co. at PH3 are big fans of Falcom games like Geofront, which makes this release that much better! It's not "just" a job for them. They're lifting up an incredible duology that's been doomed to obscurity for more than a decade and polishing Crossbell to perfection out of sheer passion. As a lifelong Falcom fan, it's a dream come true!

Originally posted by Ultra Ball:

I realize this is the Steam forum but can we expect the Switch version to be on par with the others (aside from resolution of course)?

Yes! Aside from resolution, MSAA options, and some input options. And it's "limited" to 60 FPS of course.

Let's gooooooooo!!!!

The dedication and respect behind this release, and all of Falcom in PC in general, is absolutely amazing. It's such a pleasure to enjoy classic games this way :)

I would have been fine with a basic, localized port tbh but this is awesome. Hope my steam deck gets here in time for this release

Originally posted by Durante:

Originally posted by Ultra Ball:

I realize this is the Steam forum but can we expect the Switch version to be on par with the others (aside from resolution of course)?

Yes! Aside from resolution, MSAA options, and some input options. And it's "limited" to 60 FPS of course.

That's great, but you should get all that for the PS4 version as well. Maybe tell your people at NISA what we've said in this thread about the PS4 version lacking the features of the PC/NS version.

On an unrelated note, is it possible to get an option in Ys 8 to invert those damn HP/EXP gauges for the party members? Them going in the wrong direction--or uncommon direction, they empty from the left to right instead of right to left--is just so damn annoying, like Ys 8 was a fighting game or something. It's not in any other Ys game as far as I know, except for boss HP gauges in some titles, which is tolerable. Ys 9 have all gauges emptying in the traditional way of right to left. I've only ever seen this in one other game except for fighting games, Grandia II, and it was equally annoying there.

So, I read all of Durante's post, and I understand he is trying to make the textures look good and everything, but I'm still not 100% clear on these points:

Is Durante going to 100% guarantee to fix all of the major graphical errors in the original "Kai" ports, such as the "z-fighting" graphical glitches, and such as incorrect textures being placed into incorrect places, like a stone fortress wall texture having been incorrectly copy & pasted into the middle of a cliffside?

It seems like Durante's post did not address those matters directly, unless I'm misunderstanding something that he wrote (which is possible).

I also do not understand why Durante didn't use the Joyoland version as a base instead of the Kai version, since AFAIK, the Joyoland version has way better graphics than the Kai version.

Likewise, I'm very confused by why the character models in Durante's image make the Kai version look on par with the Joyoland version...whereas in contradiction to that, I remember seeing comparison videos between the Kai version and the Geofront version, in which the Kai version's characters models in those videos looked a lot closer to the terrible-looking, ultra-blurry, ultra-pixelated PSP version character models in Durante's image, than they looked like the Joyoland and/or Kai character models as they appear in Durante's image.

In other words, Durante's image of the character models from the Kai version seems to make the Kai version's character models look much better than they actually do for players who are actually playing that same Kai version..? What's up with that?

He probably just ported the Kai textures to pH3's version just for the sake of comparison

The amount of effort put into this port (remaster?) is insane. I’m only on trails in the sky 2 now but plan to play through the whole series. Looking forward to this arc. I think they really nailed the graphical style in this one.

Can't wait to play it! For what I've seen you guys made a great job!

Originally posted by Dragon:

So, I read all of Durante's post, and I understand he is trying to make the textures look good and everything, but I'm still not 100% clear on these points:

Is Durante going to 100% guarantee to fix all of the major graphical errors in the original "Kai" ports, such as the "z-fighting" graphical glitches, and such as incorrect textures being placed into incorrect places, like a stone fortress wall texture having been incorrectly copy & pasted into the middle of a cliffside?

It seems like Durante's post did not address those matters directly, unless I'm misunderstanding something that he wrote (which is possible).

I also do not understand why Durante didn't use the Joyoland version as a base instead of the Kai version, since AFAIK, the Joyoland version has way better graphics than the Kai version.

Likewise, I'm very confused by why the character models in Durante's image make the Kai version look on par with the Joyoland version...whereas in contradiction to that, I remember seeing comparison videos between the Kai version and the Geofront version, in which the Kai version's characters models in those videos looked a lot closer to the terrible-looking, ultra-blurry, ultra-pixelated PSP version character models in Durante's image, than they looked like the Joyoland and/or Kai character models as they appear in Durante's image.

In other words, Durante's image of the character models from the Kai version seems to make the Kai version's character models look much better than they actually do for players who are actually playing that same Kai version..? What's up with that?

A 100% guarantee isn't realistic because somethings always seem to slip by (we're only human after all) but it certainly seems like they're doing their best to fix everything they know about and would be willing to fix any issues that slipped by them if it's brought to their attention. In the last Overview Durante went into detail about fixing some textures and the way they were being rendered incorrectly. He didn't specifically showcase the texture you're referring to but I feel like it was likely part of what he was talking about. Hopefully they actually read the comments on the Steam forums, I believe Durante does as I've seen him respond to a few people who had valid questions.

As for the Joyoland vs Kai base... it's likely Falcom's decision that they wanted what they consider the "latest and definitive" version of the game to be the one localized. Could also be a bit of licensing ordeal but considering Durante's apparently able to utilize some Joyoland assets I'm not sure. In either case, the "better graphics" matters not considering the work being put into this build. Durante also explained why in some instances they decided to make their own texture upscales rather than use Joyoland and that is because Joyoland sometimes doesn't stay true to the original intent of the artist.

As for the Character model comparison... they were upscaled for an accurate comparison. Can't really compare things very well at varying resolutions. Unfortunately scaler used can also make such a representation slightly different... but in the end it does a decent job of allowing people to see the difference. Did you actually play the Kai builds or just basing your words off random YouTube videos?

Some additional feedback based on the screenshots now available: I'd move up the HP/EP/CP numbers in battle a few pixels (3-5) so that the gauges are easier to see. It seems like the numbers obscure the gauges as it is now, making it hard to see where the gauges are.
See this video from Sky FC Evo or this video from Zero itself for how it could look.

Another good feature would be visible hit rate (%) and possibly critical hit rate and status effect hit rate. This could be shown underneath the enemies' HP gauges. The option could be called "Enhanced Target Info" or something similar. Damage preview would also be great, maybe shown in red on the HP gauge or in numbers above the gauge, but this would perhaps reveal enemies' weaknesses right away. Maybe for known elemental affinities and normal attacks. TLOH are very TRPG-like anyway, so this would be a fitting feature (as an option, of course). It could be one of those white crosshair icons (red for crits) with the percentage after it.

One more idea: is it possible to add a battle feature that allows you to select the tile you move to before attacking? Say, press X/Square/menu function when you choose attack. You then move to a tile before choosing the enemy to attack. Would perhaps be needed for other actions as well. Could be on the Move command, allowing you to choose an action directly after moving. Or simply allow one action and one move per player turn, i.e. the PC can attack and then move. Add a button shortcut for end turn as well.

awesome!

I got to admit I'm a little jealous that the steam and switch versions are getting these upgrades and not the PS4 version which I'll be getting. It's a real crime shame to be sure, but I'm happy for you guys none the less.

Wow. The attention to detail this port has. I'm so glad I waited for this.