Animation Sequences

For discussion of Lunar: Dragon Song (Lunar: Genesis), the only Lunar game on the DS
User avatar
Greensky
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 446
jedwabna poszewka na poduszkę 70x80
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 1:47 pm
Location: Calgary, Canada
Contact:

Animation Sequences

Post by Greensky »

I wasn't quite sure what the DS was capable of, but in the recent game footage for Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows, it shows a beautiful anime scene for the start of the game.

You can view the trailer of it here:

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/695/695639/vids_1.html

It's the 4th footage.

So if this is what the DS is capable of... why couldn't they have made such great scenes for Lunar DS? If room was an issue, they could have made it into 2 or more cartidges.

If all of the anime sequences in Lunar DS are all image stills... I won't exactly be a happy camper :?

User avatar
HuBBsDoctor
Reza Thief
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 5:49 am
Contact:

Post by HuBBsDoctor »

I don't think room is an issue considering that a DS carttridge can hold up to 1.2 gigs of data.

drumlord
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 354
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:12 am
Location: RI

Post by drumlord »

HuBBsDoctor wrote:I don't think room is an issue considering that a DS carttridge can hold up to 1.2 gigs of data.


1Gb of data, or 128 MB.
-Rich-

Lunar Eclipse
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 360
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:01 pm
Location: U.S.A.

Post by Lunar Eclipse »

I've never really understood why animation was such a tremendous deal. I mean, most of the animations in The Silver Star were crude at best with just the mouths of the characters moving to speech with an upward or downward pan toward the characters' faces, and since there's probably no VA in Dragon Song, the motion of the mouth would be purely gratuitous and totally not necessary. Plus, they'd probably give the text an annoying scrolling sound like in Fire Emblem or Golden Sun so that their mouths could move in tandem. Bleh. I think the stills will be fine, especially since this game is, unlike Legend, being designed with the stills in mind. I'm confident that Kubooka will make them work.
Let those who war with life forfeit their own! -- Mareg, Grandia II

User avatar
Greensky
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 446
Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2003 1:47 pm
Location: Calgary, Canada
Contact:

Post by Greensky »

Hmm, well I've always been a fan of cutscenes, anime or CG, either way. It really brings the world of the game to life. At least that's the way they contribute to me.

Lunar Eclipse
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 360
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:01 pm
Location: U.S.A.

Post by Lunar Eclipse »

To me, FMVs sometimes kill the experience unless they're integrated properly. It's like they pull you out of the game graphics and then just throw you back into them again. That's why I'm sort of a fan of games like RE4, Shenmue, and Skies of Arcadia that rely solely on the in-game graphics for cutscenes. It just seems to flow so much more naturally like that.
Let those who war with life forfeit their own! -- Mareg, Grandia II

User avatar
Alunissage
Goddess
Posts: 7353
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2002 10:31 am

Post by Alunissage »

Yeah, I thought Legend did just fine with its sprite scenes and didn't need even the stills.

User avatar
NallOne
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 366
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2003 4:23 am
Location: Taben's Peak

Post by NallOne »

I'm not disappointed as I wasn't really expecting them in the first place. Now, if they were missing in a future console follow-up (Lunar 3) I'd obviously be upset, but that is unlikely.

The sprites probably won't express as emotion as the ones in LL from what I am seeing so far, but I'm sure they'll get the job done. I really don't think we even need the stills, really.

I wonder if there will be some form of an opening animation, though. Just a one-shot deal to open the game up - Either before the Title Screen or before the actual game opens up. I doubt it, but it would be nice to have something there. Perhaps something akin to the opening of the more recent Zelda GBA game(s).
- Mike
Image

User avatar
SSSFan
Red Dragon Priest
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:20 pm
Location: in front of my computer, above my keyboard, at the lunarnet forum, in my house etc. etc.

Post by SSSFan »

If all of the anime sequences in Lunar DS are all image stills...
.

I've read there ARE cutscenes. Though I don't no if it's true...

User avatar
Khan
Nanza Bandit
Posts: 27
Joined: Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:41 pm
Location: My house

Post by Khan »

ACcording to the august issue of Nintendo power there will be cut-scenes. There isn't much of a problem with putting in animated sequences, it's the Voice Acting that takes up a crap load of space.

User avatar
phyco126
Dragonmaster
Posts: 8136
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2002 3:06 am
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Post by phyco126 »

You know, the GBA is capable of pretty tight movies and such too, maybe not at the same level of quality, but still pretty capable. I personally liked the sprite movies, the stills just gave me good memories of SSSC.
Image

- "Sometimes life smiles when it kicks you down. The trick is to smile back."

User avatar
DevNall
Blue Dragon Ninja
Posts: 648
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:33 am
Location: Unknown

Post by DevNall »

Khan wrote:ACcording to the august issue of Nintendo power there will be cut-scenes. There isn't much of a problem with putting in animated sequences, it's the Voice Acting that takes up a crap load of space.

Even if only a piece of the 128MB a DS cart was audio, you can compress a good bit into that. And the DS has a lot more horsepower than the GBA did for this kind of thing.

User avatar
ZP
Pao Hunter
Posts: 46
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:04 am

Post by ZP »

Are DS games really anywhere near 128MB in size though? Larger cart capacties still cost more to make. I guess 128MB isn't completely unlikely since memory prices are still falling, but some newer GBA releases are still on 4MB carts.

With today's compression technologies it wouldn't be too difficult to stick the whole of Lunar Eternal Blue on a 128MB cart, so there had better be some nice anime cut-scenes in there if it does use one!

Is this megabytes or megabits btw? I'm thinking bytes.

drumlord
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 354
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:12 am
Location: RI

Post by drumlord »

It's bytes. I clarified that above. 1Gb, 128MB. And I'm fairly certain that ALL DS carts are 128MB. GBA had different size carts because of pricing, but Nintendo made the DS carts cheaper than GBA carts to help encourage developers on board.
-Rich-

User avatar
HuBBsDoctor
Reza Thief
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 5:49 am
Contact:

Post by HuBBsDoctor »

No you wrong its not bytes. Nintendo has said 1.2 GB not 128MB(1Gb). Proof of this is well above the 128MB limit is the new port of Resident Evil for the DS which is over 256MB.

User avatar
Angelalex242
Legendary Hero
Posts: 1308
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:38 pm
Location: Lucia's Fortress

Post by Angelalex242 »

Kind of a bummer, really, about the cutscenes. I wonder how well they'll maintain the 'look and feel' of Lunar without 'em.
Don't blame me, Lucia promised me lots of snuggles and cuddles if I would be her PR guy.

Image

Lunar Eclipse
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 360
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:01 pm
Location: U.S.A.

Post by Lunar Eclipse »

. . . Probably about as well as they maintained the Lunar atmosphere in TSS in which the cutscenes were practically stills or Legend in which they actually were stills. It doesn't have me concerned in the least.
Let those who war with life forfeit their own! -- Mareg, Grandia II

User avatar
Angelalex242
Legendary Hero
Posts: 1308
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:38 pm
Location: Lucia's Fortress

Post by Angelalex242 »

I got into this stuff on the Playstation.

Call me spoiled.
Don't blame me, Lucia promised me lots of snuggles and cuddles if I would be her PR guy.

Image

drumlord
Black Dragon Wizard
Posts: 354
Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2002 1:12 am
Location: RI

Post by drumlord »

HuBBsDoctor wrote:No you wrong its not bytes. Nintendo has said 1.2 GB not 128MB(1Gb). Proof of this is well above the 128MB limit is the new port of Resident Evil for the DS which is over 256MB.


Nintendo has said 1Gb and has been saying it for a long time. It is theoretically possible for them to churn out larger carts for the DS but they aren't. I'd like to see a link for your 1.2 GB statement from Nintendo and for the size of Resident Evil for the DS.
-Rich-

User avatar
HuBBsDoctor
Reza Thief
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed May 25, 2005 5:49 am
Contact:

Post by HuBBsDoctor »

Its in one of my GameinFormer issues. I'll have to go throught them (its probably in my e32004 issue or the one after that.) and when i do I';ll scan it.

*EDIT*
No you're right. One wikipedia it says 1 gigabit. But thats about to be expanded with Resident Evil DS. The game itself was over 300MB on CD and since they are also going to include the FMV's in the game its gonna be a costly $40 game.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests