Data Merging, Separation & Removal Mega Thread - Forum

5 Yrs♥✓#

Finnedorb

Unloved

#676

5 Yrs♥✓#

Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap and Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017) are the same thing.

Posted 2 Months Ago

7 Yrs♥$✓#

lowdefal

Modified

#677

7 Yrs♥$✓#

Replying to aarod333

I disagree for several reasons, between what constitutes a separate game, the average times, the established conventions already set and your examples.

These versions aren’t just remasters, they feature entirely rebuilt assets (graphics, UI, arrangements)

Firstly this part isn't relevant to wether they should be split or not, behind the shiny coat of paint they are fundamentally the same game

plus game boosts like EXP/gil multipliers and the ability to turn off random encounters. These can drastically change completion times which makes combining them with the originals misleading for users tracking playtime.

This is really the meat of the discussion.

The inclusion of quality of life features like this bring a valid debate but there are things we need to take into account. While these are officially sanctioned additions, they don't do anything you can't already do with an emulator or cheat device. And some people are just good enough to not need these things and still get comparatively low times (the RNG in FF1 is very easy to exploit if you know how).

I also looked at the actual data and while there is clearly a lot of people playing these games using the modern versions (and many of them leave specific notes on what they did), the times largely are consistent or in range of times for the original, ps1 "ports" or PSP versions as applicable. Additionally there are people playing the remasters with high times where they haven't used the feature. Only III seems to be truly biased towards the remaster but that is more about the availability of III having never been ported, only the 3d remake. VI is a good example, the remaster times are no faster than the quickest Super Nintendo run.

Crucially the average times are broadly the same as they should be without the remasters. At least the margin of error would be quite small. These were already popular games with a wide range of times that show that the more data you have the more reliable and consistent the average are. If anything the remasters have proved that by not distorting the averages. Or perhaps they may have just corrected out, it's not uncommon for games with lots of entries to still be higher averages than I would consider to be an average play through.

It's also worth pointing out that the 7-9 ports also have adjustments available and again the averages are not really affected.

The X/X-2 remaster only has the feature on Steam and even on PS2 FFX is actually different in NTSC and Pal (where the Pal version is effectively a port of International with the extra content), so those two titles can't be split . There is actually scope to consider a merge of XII International and Zodiac Age, I would need to look into that. So the pixel remasters are no different to any of the other modern versions of the series so there is consistency.

These are examples of other games with similar overhauls that got separate entries...

I don't think any of these examples help your case.

Mario RPG probably should be merged.

DQIII has new content and a larger map, which trumps any debate about visual style hiding similar gameplay.

Star Ocean seems to focus on lots of small updates that don't necessarily scream a different game, however enough of them would seem to add up to offer a differing experience to the original. It also has a new game plus mode to differentiate it from the original as that can be classed as additional content.

Edited 2 Months Ago

11 Yrs✓#

Kirbman

#678

11 Yrs✓#

This is a duplicate of this (Clutter's Greatest Hits).

Posted 2 Months Ago

4 Yrs♥✓#

BoiGh0sT

Builder

#679

4 Yrs♥✓#

Dupe:
Adventure of Samsara
Tower of Samsara - Hidden Treasures

Posted 2 Months Ago

1 Yr✓#

rfrk

#680

1 Yr✓#

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Collector's Edition) should have a separate entry since it has two additional levels compared to the standard game.

Edited 2 Months Ago

7 Yrs♥$✓#

lowdefal

Modified

#681

7 Yrs♥$✓#

Gemporium
Gemporium: A Cute Mining Sim

Posted 1.5 Months Ago

11 Yrs✓#

Kirbman

#682

11 Yrs✓#