List of issues with the remastered version

[Stremon]

While I do like the QoL improvement, this remaster has several issues.

Issues on both classic and remaster modes:

• no scaling option. The default scaling isn't great and don't scale well on lower resolution screens (720p/1080p), making graphics blurry on the edges and the text all weird. It's noticeably worse with the remaster mode. I feel like they are rendering the game in a fixed internal resolution (4K maybe?) and then scale it down to whatever resolution you set, in a nasty uneven way. We should have at the very least a vertical integer scaling option like in the mobile phone version of the game. /!\ NOTE FOR ANYONE WHO IS TOO LAZY TO CHECK THE SCREENSHOTS BEFORE COMMENTING: Yes, Post FX is disabled, no need to post a comment about it.
  
• no remastered soundtracks, and the rendition of the ps1 tracks is very poor.
  
• in many scenes the voice acting volume is too low, and the music is completely covering it

Issues on the remaster mode only:

• There is a nasty white gradient over the top of the screen during outdoor time, very visible on black screen. It's impossible to disable it.
  
• The front and back blur effect isn't disabled during fight scenes, and seeing the game files it seems to be backed in the texture itself, so most likely unfixable.
  
• The japanese voice is never properly in sync with the cinematics, it has 1~2 seconds of delay in all videos. Not sure about the english voice I only tested the japanese one.

Issues on the classic mode only:

• The CRT filters aren't aligned or scaled to match the game visuals, making them look bad and pretty much useless.

I know these sound like nitpicking, but the mobile phone version of Lunar (that also supports controllers), costing only $10, don't have any of these issues and have a lot more options and QoL.
I don't mind putting $50 in these games, but not in an unfinished port.

Edit: Here are some captures of the game in classic and remaster modes for context. I took screenshot of the 1440p, 1080p and 720p in the menu, and then the 2 in game pics are in 720p.

The last pic is a direct screenshot of the white gradient overlayed on the remaster version. I took it on a black transition screen so that it's easier to show, but it's also very visible on normal backgrounds.

There was no editing/scaling so if you increase the images size you should see the scaling issues easily.

Classic 1440p:
https://i.imgur.com/tQIWRPt.png
Classic 1080p:
https://i.imgur.com/oCCOYvq.png
Classic 720p:
https://i.imgur.com/85sZapo.png
Remaster 1440p:
https://i.imgur.com/LfGEvfO.png
Remaster 1080p:
https://i.imgur.com/BBBXXa7.png
Remaster 720p:
https://i.imgur.com/U8iCxGx.png
Classic 720p:
https://i.imgur.com/QE26doL.png
Remaster 720p:
https://i.imgur.com/JEqDd7c.png
Gradient overlayed on top of the remaster:
https://i.imgur.com/2qMNI9f.png

[yoship]

Listing one issue I have in display configuration settings- cannot change from Borderless to FullScreen, Windowed works fine. The display change fails to take effect and reverts to Borderless after a few seconds. This is on Win 11, and happens on all resolutions.

Devs should pin a thread for users to report issues and bugs.

[Stremon]

Originally posted by yoship:

Listing one issue I have in display configuration settings- cannot change from Borderless to FullScreen, Windowed works fine. The display change fails to take effect and reverts to Borderless after a few seconds. This is on Win 11.

What's your graphic card?

[yoship]

Originally posted by JayBee:

What's your graphic card?

It's RTX 40 series card, on latest driver released yesterday. So yes, the driver could be a culprit. Just bringing to the Devs' attention, it's not a big issue but it is there.

[Vashe]

maybe there is a slight unsync in cutscnes but not 2 seconds, at least not yet (I'm in the sewers). For the volume issue, I just set the voice volume to max and the music to 90 as a workaround

[Stremon]

Originally posted by Vashe:

maybe there is a slight unsync in cutscnes but not 2 seconds, at least not yet (I'm in the sewers). For the volume issue, I just set the voice volume to max and the music to 90 as a workaround

Are you playing with the japanese voices? I feel that it's between 1 and 2 seconds on all cinematics, but it's sometimes hard to see as the facial animation is very simple.

[Stremon]

I added screenshots to illustrate the issues.

[Timedye]

I cannot figure out how to equip rings in the "Remastered" Item Management mode. It's like they don't exist.

As for the blurriness around the edges: turn off Post FX. That removes the blur from around the edges of the screen.

[Timedye]

Pretty sure the white gradient is intentional: it's only there when you're in sunny out doors scenes. I'm in the sewers right now and it's not there at all -- not while I'm roaming, and not on black screens either. I think it's intended to give the top of the screen a washed look in sunlit scenes.

[Timedye]

As for sound mixing: if you think the music is too loud, adjust the audio settings. There are sliders for music, FX, and dialog (which is a blessed relief, because in the original PS1 version the music was WAY too quiet and there was no way to adjust the levels individually).

[Timedye]

Just went and had a look: the white gradient is also entirely missing during the night time scene on the boat. Doesn't show up in game play or during transitions. So yeah, pretty sure that's an intentional artistic choice.

[Timedye]

Originally posted by yoship:

It's RTX 40 series card, on latest driver released yesterday. So yes, the driver could be a culprit. Just bringing to the Devs' attention, it's not a big issue but it is there.

Definitely odd behavior. I'm playing on an RTX 4070, latest drivers, 1440p, Windows 11, and it will swap between borderless and full screen fine.

When you installed the new drivers, did you pick the clean install option or did you just install the new drivers over the old ones? I don't always do a clean install, and this occasionally causes me issues and I have to do a clean re-install.

[Timedye]

Been doing some testing in Meribia: the white gradient at the top of the screen is definitely only there when you're outside. When you go into any interior it goes away entirely, both in game play and during transitions. It's clearly trying to simulate sunlight bleaching the top of the screen. It's possible that it's supposed to fade out when the scene transitions from area to area, but it doesn't.

I went and had a look at some game play on YouTube for the Series X, and the same effect is present in the same way, so it's not unique to the PC port.

[Stremon]

Originally posted by Timedye:

I cannot figure out how to equip rings in the "Remastered" Item Management mode. It's like they don't exist.

As for the blurriness around the edges: turn off Post FX. That removes the blur from around the edges of the screen.

check my screenshots, you will see it's all turned off. The blur I'm talking about isn't caused by filters but by uneven scaling. You can see the text there is all messed up, letters having various size and looking terrible. You probably won't see it if you play the game in 4K.

Originally posted by Timedye:

Pretty sure the white gradient is intentional: it's only there when you're in sunny out doors scenes. I'm in the sewers right now and it's not there at all -- not while I'm roaming, and not on black screens either. I think it's intended to give the top of the screen a washed look in sunlit scenes.

I am pretty sure it's intentional too, but in my eyes it looks very bad, like someone just made a gradient in photoshop in 5 seconds and slapped it on top of the game. Which I am pretty sure isn't far from the truth.

Originally posted by Timedye:

As for sound mixing: if you think the music is too loud, adjust the audio settings. There are sliders for music, FX, and dialog (which is a blessed relief, because in the original PS1 version the music was WAY too quiet and there was no way to adjust the levels individually).

Yes but then it's not the same levels everywhere, so I would have to change them all the time.

Originally posted by Timedye:

Been doing some testing in Meribia: the white gradient at the top of the screen is definitely only there when you're outside. When you go into any interior it goes away entirely, both in game play and during transitions. It's clearly trying to simulate sunlight bleaching the top of the screen. It's possible that it's supposed to fade out when the scene transitions from area to area, but it doesn't.

I went and had a look at some game play on YouTube for the Series X, and the same effect is present in the same way, so it's not unique to the PC port.

yeah that's the whole issue, it's not subtle at all and doesn't get muted when the screen turns black, which takes me out of the game right away. I would honestly prefer if they provided a way to disable it, the same way we can disable other effects.

[yoship]

Originally posted by Timedye:

Definitely odd behavior. I'm playing on an RTX 4070, latest drivers, 1440p, Windows 11, and it will swap between borderless and full screen fine.

When you installed the new drivers, did you pick the clean install option or did you just install the new drivers over the old ones? I don't always do a clean install, and this occasionally causes me issues and I have to do a clean re-install.

Similar system here, and I did a clean install. The current driver and previous ones have been fine for me, stability-wise. I'll try rebooting and see if it fixes the issue.

[StackzGaming]

Hmm. Gradient looks like a Dollar Store technique to enhance sky/ground contrast without doing extra work. Especially since it's only used outdoors, apparently.

Budgets, y'all. Budgets.

EDIT: For the curious here's a playthough. Now that we've seen it, it's the lazy way of creating the blurred top edge. Like an opacity filter effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV1CoIzMy0c

Since it's just this, there's probably a file being called that can be replaced with a transparent pixel image to resolve it. That's a theory based on what's seen.