MiSTer FPGA - Final Zone II (ファイナルゾーンII) [No Miss] / Turbografx CD (PC Engine CD)
14The first thing that stood out here, is how strikingly similar to Last Alert this game is. I just did a video for that about a month ago, and somehow the voice acting in this one is even worse. You can tell they were handed a translated script and used the source dialogue to infer the tone of their voices during recording, and it just turned out as terrible as possible. To make things worse, they have slowed down the dialogue at parts to better match the lips of characters during cutscenes. This is such a terrible way to go about a translation. They should have been inferring the tone and energy of the dialogue from the translated text's content, and not the original Japanese voice actors' delivery here. There are cultural differences in how certain sentiments are said whimsically vs seriously, and it just comes across as the most bland delivery in the world with the way they went about this. And oh dear god that theme song at the title screen. At least it's somewhat amusing in how awful it is, the first time you hear it anyway.
The game itself is also pretty bad. 7 short stages with no checkpoints and core design issues with how far they let the screen scroll up when navigating through the levels, makes this a rather annoying playthrough. You have to keep circling back at the top of the screen to avoid much of the damage that will instantly hit you if you just truck along. Sprinkle in some casual domestic abuse in the cutscenes and you have a real WTF game. It's surprising to me that NEC put their name all over this as if it was some flagship title for the system. Seems questionable associating the brand this heavily with such a terrible game.
I don't especially love playing through crappy games like this, but am involved in a software validation project for the system currently, and am going through the entire library. Don't know how many more of these godawful translations I'll see for the Turbografx side of things, but if anything stands out I'll make a feature video for them. Other videos go into an unlisted playlist that I use as an archive for original hardware owners to compare against. Thanks David Shadoff for providing such great record-keeping materials to keep this effort better organized & for continually looking after the core to resolve any small remaining issues.
MiSTer's PC Engine core was transformed into the most accurate way to play this console besides original hardware, largely in part thanks to efforts by srg320. He also created our SNES and Sega CD cores, and is now currently working on a Sega Saturn core for MiSTer.
You can support these efforts at his patreon: https://www.patreon.com/srg320
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TGFX core 7-25-21 - Final Zone II (ファイナルゾーンII)
Filter: Scanlines(Bright)/110_85_soft \\ Gamma: 2.3
Palette: Original \\ Extra Sprites: Off
Played using a Hori Real Arcade Pro VX-SA arcade stick w/ Seimitsu LS-62 lever & 1000hz USB polling.
Video: Integer Scaled to 1080p \\ HDMI to Datapath e1s capture card
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|:=-Timestamps-=:|
00:00:00 - Settings
00:00:30 - Intro / Title
00:06:48 - Full Game (No Miss)
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Live gameplay streams on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/WalrusFPGA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WalrusFPGA
=---------------CONTRIBUTE---------------=
None of this would be possible without the constant hard work of Sorgelig. It cannot be overstated how much he has done and continues to do for this project, since its beginning. You can support him either at his Patreon in the link below, or on Paypal, depending on your preference. MiSTer is a paradigm shift in how we can experience these classic games. This is a long-term preservation project that will continue to grow so that gamers today and in the future can experience these excellent systems as accurately and lag-free as possible. Donating what you can will help keep the updates coming. Thank you.
Patreon: https://patreon.com/FPGAMiSTer
PayPal: https://paypal.me/FPGAMiSTer
NOTE: I am not affiliated with Sorgelig and am only sharing these links as a fan of the project who wishes to see it continue to grow rapidly.
=-----------------INFORM-----------------=
SmokeMonster's overview video of this core: https://youtu.be/Zhw-ESx-j7U
Github link for this core: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/TurboGrafx16_MiSTer
MiSTer Forum/Wiki/Github (source, guides and info): http://MiSTerFPGA.org
Official MiSTer Discord for live chat/help: https://discord.gg/4xKVg4XVYn
(Be respectful; this server is moderated. New users must be verified.)
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Worldwide list of sellers for MiSTer expansion boards: https://misterfpga.org/viewforum.php?f=34&sid=74e1c5e7dae1b99284789d93194cfa0b
I have personally ordered all my parts from https://www.MiSTerAddons.com and have been 100% satisfied with the quality and service there. (North American seller. If in a different region, check list linked above for best local shipping rates.)