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Author Topic: Addressing LTTP GBA's Opposition.  (Read 1986 times)

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Koh

Addressing LTTP GBA's Opposition.
« on: May 13, 2013, 10:34:04 am »
  • Tamer Koh
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I just have to get this off my chest.  It sort of bugs me.

There are many people who feel the GBA version of A Link to the Past is inferior to the SNES version in many ways, which is fine, that's their opinion.  But some of these reasons are ridiculous, and I shall take these down specifically.

Silly Reason #1:  Link Now Has a Voice!? - It's no more annoying here than it is on Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask.  Same voice as Young Link from Ocarina of Time, and same amount of spam.  What makes it more ridiculous for it to be on LTTP than OoT?  Just because OoT is 3D?  Yeah, right, the dimension doesn't change the fact that it happens frequently, and makes you want to have a voice volume setting.

Silly Reason #2:  They Nerfed My Ice Palace, Dammat! - No, not really, they actually FIXED the Ice Palace.  You already have to do a fair amount of backtracking in this dungeon.  The extra layer you had to do on the SNES was just a waste of !@#$% time.  Not something that added to gameplay.

Silly Reason #3:  The Screen is Smaller! - Yes and No.  While it's not a scaled image on your TV screen, the actual screen resolution isn't that much smaller.  SNES:  256x224, GBA:  240x160.  It still remains a playable and enjoyable game, and they even optimized it a bit for the GBA with the HUD and Item Menu.

Silly Reason #4:  The Colors Are Way Too Bright! - There IS a brightness setting you know.  It starts out on medium, and you can make it darker.

Now I shall tackle a couple of the legit reasons.

Legit Reason #1:  The Sounds Are !@#$% Compared to the SNES - Why yes, of course.  I don't know why anyone was expecting for it to sound the same, as these are two totally different hardware with different soundchips.  Think about what happens when you play the same MIDI file across different computers, it's GOING to sound different.  But why couldn't they just optimize the music and sounds for the GBA?  Maybe they didn't care enough to, or thought they were passable, which they were (except maybe the warping sound...dear god.  That with max volume and headphones...).

Legit Reason #2:  I'd Rather Play on My TV - That's a personal preference.  But it doesn't change how playable the game actually is.  This is just one of those different strokes for different blokes situations, not of bad game design/porting.

Now for the benefits of the GBA version over the SNES version:

Benefit #1:  Portability - Unless you actually want to haul your SNES everywhere with the cables, it's much easier to just carry around a GBA SP that folds up with the game inside it, pulling it out any time.

Benefit #2:  Silliness & Glitch Fixes (and Introductions) - They fixed a lot of the silly problems and glitches with the SNES...only to introduce some of their own glitches, such as the Flute glitch.  Despite that though, there were a bunch of silly problems with the SNES, mostly revolving around saving and loading.  Why should saving INCREASE your death counter?  That makes NO SENSE unless you hit save and continue or something on the Game Over screen.  Also, why can you only restart in two locations on the SNES:  The Sanctuary and The Pyramid.  That's highly obnoxious, especially if you need to turn the game off to take care of something.

Benefit #3:  Bonus Game, Dungeon and Ending - Who doesn't like extra stuff?  I'll admit, it was pretty ridiculous of them to make it REQUIRED to play Four Swords with someone else, instead of having it operate like Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube.  However the Bonus Dungeon, Palace of the Four Sword, while quaint, does house the strongest bosses in the game, and while they still might not be that hard, they offer more of a challenge than the original bosses did, since they are the original bosses with buffs and enhanced AI.

--
I believe that's all I have to say about this.
 
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  • Megaclipse Games
Re: Addressing LTTP GBA's Opposition.
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2013, 03:27:07 pm »
  • The devil in the mirror.
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I have to mostly agree on everything except silly reason #1. It was well known how annoying that voice eventually became in OOT and Majoras Mask, so why did they still add it in LTTP GBA? When they added it in OOT it was new, and interesting.. for an hour or so. But there was no reason to add the same annoying voice into LTTP GBA.
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Re: Addressing LTTP GBA's Opposition.
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2013, 01:10:10 am »
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While we toss around opinions, allow me to respond :)


Silly Reason #1:  Link Now Has a Voice!? - It's no more annoying here than it is on Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. 
Wrong.  It's not the fact that Link has a voice - it's the fact that it's the kid voice.  Link was not a child(Kid Link) in LttP.  I don't care what Nintendo has done in the last decade to retcon the story, Link was at least 15 or 16 per the original artwork(both conceptual and in-manual).  The game is no longer immersive once I hear a child's voice for Link for a game where he was supposed to be older.  Hard to explain, but the fact that Link has a voice isn't the issue - it's the "age" of his voice that is the issue.

Silly Reason #2:  They Nerfed My Ice Palace, Dammat!
Dunno about his one.  I love the Ice Palace and had zero issues running it during live stream off of a few years of rust from not playing through LttP.  This was all on the SNES version.  Couldn't say anything about the GBA.  But in general, I don't care for "dumbing" down original dungeons to make them easier.  Zelda games have usually(at least the 2d ones) been about dungeon crawling and puzzle solving.  Until you just posted here, I never really knew the Ice Palace had an issue.  Thanks for the insight.  :)

Silly Reason #3:  The Screen is Smaller!
Screen is smaller and it clearly cuts into gameplay.  It may not bother you, but it bothers many.  cutting off res without downscaling cuts off the viewable game screen.  The best way to somewhat off-the-wall explain:  Link's Awakening dungeons were fun to explore and puzzle solve; OoS/OoA were not as enjoybale(to me anyway) because of the scrolling.  The scrolling made me feel like I should have a larger viewport instead of 160x144 or w.e the gameboy was.  Like I said though, it bothers some and it doesn't bother some.  Silly reason? No.

Silly Reason #4:  The Colors Are Way Too Bright!
Actually, they were quite bright.  You shouldn't have to turn down brightness on a game on the default setting just to see it not be washed out.  Maybe the GBA screen was also to blame.  Haven't played it in a while, but the ROM clearly looks washed out on just about any emulator you try it out on.

Now I shall tackle a couple of the legit reasons.

Legit Reason #1:  The Sounds Are !@#$% Compared to the SNES - Why yes, of course.  I don't know why anyone was expecting for it to sound the same, as these are two totally different hardware with different soundchips.

Actually, I have several soundfonts of Lttp and Minish Cap and about 90%(more likely more) are near perfect duplicates of each other.  It may be more of the actual speaker and not the soundchip.

Legit Reason #2:  I'd Rather Play on My TV - That's a personal preference.  But it doesn't change how playable the game actually is.  This is just one of those different strokes for different blokes situations, not of bad game design/porting.
Your response to this Legit Reason could actually be given to everything else. xD  And yes, it can change playability.  Haven't played it on a GBA in a long time, but I can give a better recollection of a port that was less playable than it's original console version: SM 64 DS.  No analog hurt, but most everything seemed a tad stiff in the game.  Did I stll enjoy it?  Hell yeah  :)

Now for the benefits of the GBA version over the SNES version:

Benefit #1:  Portability - Unless you actually want to haul your SNES everywhere with the cables, it's much easier to just carry around a GBA SP that folds up with the game inside it, pulling it out any time.
People still use GBAs?  Serious question.  Carrying GBA carts all around in a pack so I don't lost them isn't pure portable.  Many people have moved on to emulators on other handhelds(DS/PSP/Android/iPhone) so the portability of the GBA version is moot as SNES version is just as portable in any format both in 2001(when GBA version was released and now thanks to emulation. :)

Benefit #2:  Silliness & Glitch Fixes (and Introductions) - They fixed a lot of the silly problems and glitches with the SNES...only to introduce some of their own glitches, such as the Flute glitch.  Despite that though, there were a bunch of silly problems with the SNES, mostly revolving around saving and loading.  Why should saving INCREASE your death counter?  That makes NO SENSE unless you hit save and continue or something on the Game Over screen.  Also, why can you only restart in two locations on the SNES:  The Sanctuary and The Pyramid.  That's highly obnoxious, especially if you need to turn the game off to take care of something.
Never had issues with any of this.  Seems like you are trying to grasp at moot benefits with this one. Again, emulation nullifies any of this now, even on the Virtual console.

Benefit #3:  Bonus Game, Dungeon and Ending - Who doesn't like extra stuff?  I'll admit, it was pretty ridiculous of them to make it REQUIRED to play Four Swords with someone else, instead of having it operate like Four Swords Adventures on the GameCube.  However the Bonus Dungeon, Palace of the Four Sword, while quaint, does house the strongest bosses in the game, and while they still might not be that hard, they offer more of a challenge than the original bosses did, since they are the original bosses with buffs and enhanced AI.
I'd sure hope you would get more for a game that was 10 years old at that point.  GBA LttP was what $30?  Cannot recall, but I am sure SNES LttP was cheaper used at the time.  Only makes sense to actually add content with the port.

--
I believe that's all I have to say about this.

And I responded.  :D
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 01:36:16 am by Theforeshadower »
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Re: Addressing LTTP GBA's Opposition.
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2013, 01:24:24 pm »
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I must also agree that the voices for link were not so much annoying because of just being there, but rather that they really clashed with the style of game.  I actually get used to the voice in every other zelda game that has them, and would feel sad if they were taken out of say OoT, but in LTTP it was just poorly executed, and became annoying as a result.
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Re: Addressing LTTP GBA's Opposition.
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2013, 07:07:30 pm »
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I never disliked the GBA version. I even liked it for the Four Swords part. To bad Four Swords was multiplayer only.

Legit Reason #2:  I'd Rather Play on My TV - That's a personal preference.  But it doesn't change how playable the game actually is.  This is just one of those different strokes for different blokes situations, not of bad game design/porting.
Uhm, silly reason. Why? Three words: "Game Boy Player". You know a tiny device for the Gamecube that lets you play GBA games on the big screen.
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