Hello. I came across this for the first time as I didn't realize Saturn modding had come such a long way. I want to say this is a great patch and great effort. I purchased the original game when it came out and played it a ton of times, so with a new reason to play. I downloaded this hack and dove in. I'm not sure if this is the right place to flag this stuff, but wanted to share some things in case another update comes out later down the line for possible further enhancement. I will say that I was playing version 1.1 on mednafen 1.32.1.2064:
- I noticed that water in the fishman area of the great hall uses a form of transparency for water since it's static. Could that effect be replicated for the underground garden? I suppose the cave pools of water are larger so creating a giant transparency might cause slowdown? It makes sense that in areas that animate (like before Scylla) that no much could be done because of the animation aspect.
- Realizing that some enemies flame effects when they die are transparent, I wanted to flag a couple that aren't for consistency: Red Fishmen, Lossoth (lantern guy) and Paranthropus (other black void effects like the Disc Knight and Wraith death use transparency). The Djinns could also benefit from this (it seems like their old effect that had a flashing color during their death and flame projectile attack has been removed).
- Some palettes have converted colors to transparencies. It suggests that the transparency color and the color within the sprite are the same. This is most evident with the Frozen Shade, the light blue that makes the center of her sprite is completely invisible. This also seems to affect her ice spikes. Other enemies that have this issue include Azaghal once he begins to animate, Bone Dragon (the flame effect in his attack has a dark center) and the Guardian Knights in the upside down castle by the great clock (they initially worked at the beginning of the upside down castle phase, but when i returned getting ready to face Dracula, the white in their blue and white fire effects was invisible).
- Dark Octopus effects completely hides the Dark Octopus. I would recommend returning this effect to a dither. Like turning into mist, this effect is too complicated for Saturn limitations.
- I noticed that Azaghal and the Vandal Knight have transparency effects, but the Hunting Girl does not. Something to consider perhaps for consistency.
- Holy water effects for Maria, Richter and Alucard are completely different. Maria's is good with nice transparency, Richter uses Maria's old sprites but have inivisible color issues (would suggest he just use the same sprites as Maria), Alucard's has no transparency effect and could benefit from it for consistency.
- There is an issue that is hard to describe for the Lesser Demon. When you fight him as a boss, the effect for the minions works well. Later in the inverted castle, the "cloning" effect does a weird flicker and then displays at an odd angle.
- For consideration, the super jump effect for Alucard, Maria's healing spell and Richter's power up (when Maria prays for him in the intro battle and during his flame whip) could all use a transparency effect as well.
- Speaking of the Fire whip, it would be cool if it would actually deal more damage when used (I think damage was supposed to be doubled from 32 to 64). It would also be useful if he could force reset his current item so he could default to the flame whip if desired, but that might not be possible in the game engine?
- Two things to flag that are preferences that I know you have addressed before, but adding my voice to them. For the clock tower cloud effect, I am not sure why the effect is now in the front of the screen unlike the original version, but you can clearly see the separation when you look at walls and objects and because if follows Alucard around, it seems worse than the original. Alucard doesn't need to be covered in cloud. It would be more immersive to let the clouds behave as they did before.
- The other thing to comment on is Richter. I understand that you like the new sprite and that it matches the portrait in the dialogue, but I would recommend doing what KnightofDragon did with the portrait for the intro fight. The original Richter sprite is a 7 years younger Richter, so it makes sense that he looks different (like Maria does). The original Saturn version had Richter in his new costume after that point and for the battle with Alucard, so it shows a nice progression. The alternate costume was always selectable for gameplay. Having the old sprite with the transition to the newer sprite is truer to the source material.
- I actually like the translation work you did, even though I understand why people want Japanese voices, or PSX script. I am not one of those people.
Like I said, I really dove in as a fan who never really liked the PS version of the game and played the Saturn game to death. This is a really great hack, and while it sounds like I'm flagging a bunch of stuff, I know you have done way more than these few things. I hope for an update in the future. Cheers to all your hard work. 🙂
