Quality versus Quantity?
RKeefe
RKeefe1032@aol.comDelayed again! I just checked out the release date schedule and Albert Odyessy has been delayed another week. No problem, the "almighty" Squaresoft called a one week delay on Final Fantasy Tactics at the last minute. Things happen.
The shocker is Magic Knight Rayearth and Lunar are now deep, deep in the fall release schedule. Working Designs can speak for themselves but should we read between the lines on this calamity?
Last winter, I wrote an editorial that called WD a "black hole" for Saturn RPGs. The response was amazing. I had stepped right in it. After rethinking the entire issue, I will concede the quality argument - WD always does a first class job with their games. Not only do I believe this, but I am completely convinced that "quality versus quantity" is the issue that divides Saturn owners on the WD debate.
All of the reasons for the delays are well documented. If WD can cut the loading time on Albert then this is a true improvement on a Japanese game with the worse loading problem of any RPG I have ever played. The game is great but when folks are asking me about loading time, they always say: "Is it as bad as Albert Odyessy?". Magic Knight came out right after the Japanese release of the Saturn and still has not been "topped" on any platform for Action RPGs. It is a beautiful game but no matter how hard I try, I cannot justify holding up this game over what we should name the characters. It's a "quality versus quantity" issue.
All you have to say is LUNAR to a Sega player! That game came out a long, long time ago in Japan. It is also a terrific game but now we are looking at November for the US release. I know MPEG videos are now being used instead of the smaller videos on the original and the old music (the music was indeed better on the Sega CD version) is being added in certain places on the Saturn version . These changes take time to develop. But November can easily slip to December in this business and so it goes - "quality versus quantity".
So after all this WD debate, it seems like there is still only one question to ask: Are you willing to sacrifice some quality (remember these were already great games) and play now or wait till next fall(winter) for some significant improvements.
I think we're permanently divided on this issue but this is why great Saturn sites like this one are lively and always interesting while the PSX sites seem to have fallen out of some corporate board room. Flat, stuffy, boring!