Great art design, and absolutely loved Fran's voice actor.
I find that "normal" PS2 games with full 640x448 or 512x448 framebuffers usually do not really need scanlines from an upscaler. Usually full vertical field PS2 games can be forced into 480p with GSM as well!
But Dark Cloud 2 (or Dark Chronicle for PAL owners), was a field rendered PS2 game apparently. Checked via PCSX2 and yup, it says "field" mode for rendering lol....
Field rendered PS2 games run at alternating half vertical framebuffers or 640x224 instead of 640x448.
On a modern display, oof, it's pretty pixelated and jaggy since the deinterlacer cannot do that trick "properly" and has to line double/mathematically guess half the image information instead.
Been basically just turning on scanlines whenever I encounter these horrible "field rendered" PS2 games.
Was reading about FF12 OST arranger and was wondering why it sounded different from in-game: https://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/kawamori/index.shtml
>In Kawamori's most challenging work to date, he implemented the Final Fantasy XII's score throughout 2005. Hitoshi Sakimoto had created a texturally thick symphonic score for the game, with the expectation that it would be streamed, but the hardware limitations of the PlayStation 2 meant the score needed to be sequenced instead. Kawamori was required to massively downgrade instrumental samples so they utilised 2 MB of space as opposed to the original several GB, and extensively cut and arrange parts so that a maximum of around 25 channels were utilised instead of Sakimoto's preferred 160. Almost all of the hundred tracks featured in the soundtrack were recorded on samplers at Hitoshi Sakimoto's home studio; in order to attain a rich and often aggressive symphonic sound, Kawamori used Opcode's Vision sequencer, Samplitude 7.0, and GigaStudio in conjunction with numerous libraries, such as the Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra and Sonic Implants' Symphonic Strings Collection. While Sakimoto admitted that Kawamori's task was unreasonable, the final effort was still impressive.
Did FFXI on PS2 do the same thing in order to save RAM?
It's been well over a decade, so my memory is probably off. But I kinda vaguely remember the PS2 sound effects like weaponskills, footsteps, voices (especially the synthesized bard singing voices lol), and magic effects sounding different from PC?
Also the I kinda remember the PS2 not bugging out as much with disappearing sound effects like the PC version? IDK. Anybody else with better memory lol?
Can't remember if music sounded different though.
Always wondered if Mithras or Galkas would have had their own language!
Beastmen and demons as well.
Really curious how FFXI would be made in the modern day with voice acting too.
Been kinda wondering about that myself because of the well known fact that many people on the autism spectrum have a very hard time holding down a job(70~80% unemployment rate for autistic adults) and getting fired for their behaviors. Does that contribute to extensive poverty?
A lot of poor kids go undiagnosed throughout life as well with zero supports.
Is the PS2's success more nuanced and complex than simply just being able to play films like The Matrix?
"The best selling game on the PS2 was The Matrix films" is a kinda funny joke lol.
Like on the GC sub recently, they were discussing Shigeru Miyamoto's comment about how only gamers bought the GameCube back then in a recent interview with Famitsu: https://www.famitsu.com/article/202607/82197
He basically said that gaming just wasn't seen as a normal hobby yet, which was why the GameCube failed.
Comments of course said the PS2 appealed to the masses by being a DVD player and that's why it succeeded while the other consoles struggled.
TIL: You're not a REAL gamer unless you bought a GameCube.
And now Persona games are giants in the industry with remakes coming for P3 and P4. Most of the sales were from the remasters though...
Katamari Damacy games did not sell well on PS2 either I think.
We celebrate these games nowadays, but back then they were treated poorly by consumers, no?
IF you were shopping around back then for PS2 games, why didn't you buy these more "artsy" and creative games?
I know some people back then just avoided anything 2D like Odin Sphere lol... Crazy how times have changed. And ugh I know anime was kinda looked down upon back then in the 2000s...
Also never saw that Amaterasu's shadow is a paintbrush stroke....
Lasted less than a year. It looked interesting though.
Made me wonder what if a PUBG battle royale type game came out on the PS2 first...
Unfortunately, you cannot be sexy vampire Vincent Valentine in online mode, which is probably partly why it failed.
Hungry Ghosts: https://www.patreon.com/literalmente_game/posts/hungry-ghosts-153595071
Phantasy Star Generation 2: https://www.pscave.com/psg2/download/
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generations Gaiden: https://github.com/camd11/srw-og-gaiden-en/releases/tag/v0.2.7
Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand: https://github.com/Kaisaan/lostkefin
Armored Trooper Votoms: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/7581/
Definitely love seeing Ys and Armored Trooper Votoms. PS2 has probably hundreds of games that still need translation patches....
Also remember that there is a timeskip between Xenosaga 2 and 3, and that "Xenosaga: A Missing Year" fills in that gap. It's just a flash video animation, translated on youtube now. They really should have included it for Xenosaga 3...
The Guinness Book of World records still says that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has the longest cutscenes of any video game in history.
I kinda wanna ask them: Did they test the Xenosaga series...?
But one thing I do love about Xenosaga 3 cutscenes is that almost ALL of them are rendered in real time using the in-game engine! You can see the PS2 chugging a bit dropping FPS when there's too much smoke/particles on screen lol.
Flawed trilogy that was not very successful sales wise, but Xenosaga walked so that Xenoblade could run!
Flawed JRPGs defined the PS2 era imo and I love them, with all their blemishes and long AF cutscenes.
FF12 for example was a game that ran at 512x448, along with many PS2 games. Compared to the PC Zodiac Age remaster, it looks pretty low resolution, doesn't it?
Or was it too hard to tell the difference and thus it didn't really matter?
Or was it noticeable to some people? Did for example Xbox, DC, and Gamecube games look "higher resolution"/clearer due to running at 480p most of the time? Always wondered if low resolution 512x448 PS2 games contributed to that belief
Or maybe interlacing/deinterlacing was far more the bigger issue for image clarity?
Field rendering was pretty obvious though for the early launch PS2 titles.
640x448 = 286720 pixels
512x448 = 229376 pixels
20% pixel count reduction for 512x448 mode...
But developers saved precious VRAM of course by running at a lower resolution.
Google groups archive of a usenet discussion about PS2 Jaggies and versus Dreamcast discussion for example: https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.video.sony-playstation2/c/Db-_gbnB34A?pli=1
Anybody else got any other links or collections from back then?
I remember some Dreamcast fans were predicting the PS2 would fail badly due to initial slow sales and bad launch titles lol
PS2 games lacked the shiny-ness or slick oily skin look of per pixel specular/bump mapped textures for instance.
All lighting on the PS2 was pretty much faked and baked. All vertex colors for fake lighting.
Gouraud shading.
PS2's infamous and extensive use of post processing effects like depth of field bokeh blur and motion blur.
Particle effects?
Jaggies?!
What else defined "PS2 graphics?"
There are many things the ps2 could NOT do compared to PC/Xbox or the other 6th gen consoles. Did those limitations define the ps2 look?
I think it's kinda crazy how SC2 sold far more on the GameCube over the PS2 version, despite the GC console sales being very low.
Heihachi as a guest character tbh was rather lame imo since he doesn't use weapons and we all had Tekken anyways!
Well, I guess it didn't really get polished and felt more cinematic and fluid like Dissidia's until Kingdom Hearts 2...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/appraisals/snes-donkey-kong-country-competition-cartridge-ca-1995/
$2000~5000 for a 1995 Donkey Kong SNES cartridge!
Ya'll gonna be in your 60s, 70s, 80s appraising your PS2 collection...?
I think the PS2 model has held up pretty well, especially for less than 1400 polys!
Really surprised at the low polygon count of Monster Hunter games on PS2, especially for a boss enemy.
TBH I've never seen another PS2 game use those crazy animated textures like SH3. Nor any of the other 6th gen consoles either!
From Making of Silent Hill 3 bonus feature.
Love how he tests his code using a consumer composite CRT display Lol
Were any of you guys PS2 game testers...?
And damn so many heavy CRTs being used to test PS2 games in that video... Electricity costs must have been pretty high lol