Lunar SSS(C) Section: Upgraded!

[Kizyr]

Presenting our fourth and largest LunarNET upgrade, the "Silver Star Story (Complete)" section is now completely redone! We've got quite a lot more this time around: info on all the releases of the game, a full characters section, -way- more artwork (including bromides), and a full music section!

The music section is an interesting one... We have (1) the soundtrack that came with the US release, and (2) every single track from SSS... in MIDI format. See, apparently the Japanese PC release had much more detailed movies and images, but in the music department it took a step back and used MIDIs. On the plus side, this is the first time we've had all these MIDIs up in one place before.

So let us know what you think! And next week check back with us for the Eternal Blue Complete update.

Links:
SSS - Main Page
SSS - Characters
SSS - Artwork
SSS - Packaging
SSS - Music

[Sonic#]

Very cool! I'll take a closer look later, but a note on the MIDIs: I recall the first PC edition of Sonic 3 and Knuckles was released using MIDI music, even though theoretically they would be able to produce the original music at the time of the release. We're treating it as a step back, and it certainly is in terms of audio quality, but could they have had other reasons for doing it, whether related to legal rights, technology, or aesthetics? (MIDI being the mode of PC music, for example, or an easily duplicatable form for music before mp3s became more popular?)

[Kizyr]

There definitely wouldn't have been a legal rights issue (I mean it's still a reproduction of the music). But now that you mention it, I do believe it was a technological issue unique to the PC release, and one done for reasons of compatibility.

I figure, there were four options for file formats: (1) WAVs, (2) MP3s, (3) some other compressed audio format (e.g., like PSX and XA audio), or (4) MIDIs. The problem with (1) would be that WAVs are uncompressed and it would've taken too much space. The problem with (2) is that at the time, MP3 support wouldn't have been very widespread and they could've run into compatibility issues. (3) actually has the same problem--it would've created a compatibility issue since it'd also require installing some software for playback. (4) looks like the most logical choice then, since it's small enough to include on the disc and has wide enough support to not run into any compatibility problems... KF

[Alunissage]

Well, it's neat to have the MIDIs to use with transcription programs and actually see sheet music for them. Would be nice to be able to grab them all at once... yeah, I know, I in particular shouldn't need that, but I don't have them on this computer.

But please, don't perpetuate stupid fan names for the SCD soundtrack! There is absolutely no reason other than inertia to call the SCD opening song "Fighting Through The Darkness". It has a name on the Japanese soundtracks: LUNAR. The other track names are mostly okay -- "Betrayal" is strictly subjective and doesn't fit all occasions in which it's used, but I'm not overly fond of "sad piano theme" which a lot of people seem to think is some sort of official name too. "Vile Tribe" is a vaguely adequate name; I always called that track Xenobia but I suppose in the SCD game a version does play for one or two appearances of Ghaleon. The others seem just descriptive enough to be unobjectionable. But really, excise that horrid "Fighting Through The Darkness" name rather than leading more people into thinking it's an actual name!!

Typo in the last line of Mia's description: "...has always been lead by an Ausa."

For Nash's last name, I don't recall any of the Japanese materials transliterating it. But I think Ubi and XSEED both did, with conflicting spellings. Maybe you already checked this.

And yeah, I know I have to get you a whole bunch of packaging pics and stuff. Maybe I can get to some of that this weekend...

Oh, a biggie of sorts: the iOS release should also be listed on the main page, as unlike the PSP and GBA games it's exactly the same as the PSX game, save only the voices/subtitles and item/spell/monster/save location names. Even has the WD monster stats.

[Alunissage]

One more correction: TSS tunes appear for a few sections of THREE cutscenes in SSSC: the Trinity of Terror, Alex's nightmare, and the last scene of the game. WD version only, of course.

[DevNall]

There definitely wouldn't have been a legal rights issue (I mean it's still a reproduction of the music). But now that you mention it, I do believe it was a technological issue unique to the PC release, and one done for reasons of compatibility.

I think you could have done playback in-app without a codec, but that might have either incurred additional licensing fees or maybe the overhead on the CPU was too much. I think the minimum required CPU for the PC game was 66Mhz?

Anyway, the PC game is an interesting beast. Has anyone ever done any in-depth reviews of that version?

I tried playing it for a bit on a modern Windows machine, and the game's speed was wonky, the music wouldn't loop, and some text didn't appear. (Whether or not is due to playing on a newer version of Windows or a much faster machine, I don't know.)

I've seen people post about the improved video quality and MIDI music, but I think the improved graphics quality is much less well known.

http://i.imgur.com/mf8dS7e.png

The PC version renders at 680x480, instead of 320x224, and it looks like they doubled the asset size, and then touched up everything. (Interestingly, Harmony renders at 480x272, and while those characters are bigger and non-chibi, this means that technically a lot of the assets in the PC version are the largest ones.)

[Kizyr]

Well I just got done with a few minor tweaks to this update! Thanks for the feedback, and please keep it coming.

Well, it's neat to have the MIDIs to use with transcription programs and actually see sheet music for them. Would be nice to be able to grab them all at once...

You're not the only one who's hinted at wanting this. The music page has a link now to download all of the MIDI/MP3 files from the PC version in one zip file. (There are still separate links to each of the tracks for the US OST. I want to keep that separate to conserve some bandwidth and space.)

But please, don't perpetuate stupid fan names for the SCD soundtrack!

I've been trying to stick to official names where possible, and using the in-game references based on when a song plays otherwise. I had to double-check, but there's no instance of "Fighting through the Darkness" ever being an official or suggested name for the track. So, those are just changed to "Lunar" or "Lunar (Opening Song)" since those are the only valid references I can find.

Oh, a biggie of sorts: the iOS release should also be listed on the main page, as unlike the PSP and GBA games it's exactly the same as the PSX game, save only the voices/subtitles and item/spell/monster/save location names. Even has the WD monster stats.

I added a note about the iOS to the front page and game info page. I also fixed any typos found so far.

BTW, feel free to take your time on the extra packaging pics. I have my hands full with the next section as-is, but any time you can get those to me it'd be really appreciated {^^}. KF