Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Disgaea Poll

There is a poll on nisamerica.com asking

If you have owned Disgaea, do you own
1) DS?
2) PSP?
3) Neither.

Go vote to bring Disgaea to the DS.

Posted by _J_ at 6:08 PM

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14 comments:

Roscoe said...

I play disgaea in my Alpha-Bits!


....... I get about as far as I normally do, too, damnit.

July 12, 2007 at 6:21 AM
Kylebrown said...

The DS is the only portable system that makes sense for a TRPG. Why don't more companies understand this???
Twice the real estate than the PSP, with a logical separater (for, I don't know, action and data...) What more could you want?

July 12, 2007 at 9:30 AM
_J_ said...

The ability to play UMDs?

The DS doesn't have twice the real estate, either, technically. It has two screens. But if you compare the combined screen size of the DS to the screen size of the PSP the DS would have more, but it would only have about 1/6th more screen space than the PSP. If a sensible person designed a sensible game for the PSP they could have a presentation that would make sense and display the information in a manner similar to that of the DS. But in order to do that two impossible things have to happen:

1) A sensible person designing for the PSP
2) A sensible game for the PSP.

If I could have the game on either system but not both? I don't know which I would pick.

PSP:
+ Justifies my purchase of a PSP
+ Justifies my carrying my PSP with me places
- Less enjoyable gaming experience

DS:
+ Easier to carry with me
+ Better gaming system
+ Dual Screens for obvious menu / action displays
+ Functional WiFi
- Doesn't require people to buy a PSP

Well, I guess I do know which system I would pick.

July 12, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Roscoe said...

It is twice the real estate, though. It's two seperarate properties. We're talking in terms of visual information. There's more to that equation than surface area.

Kyle's got the right of this one.

July 12, 2007 at 1:05 PM
_J_ said...

So if one person owns 8 acres and another person owns two 3 acre lots on either side of a road your position is that the person with two 3 acre lots has more?

July 12, 2007 at 1:26 PM
Kylebrown said...

The important thing to realize is the logical physical separation of the real estate. In a TRPG, you have a action side, in which your team actually is, and you have a data side, where order, stats, and options are set.

This would simplify the game and allow for a simpler more enjoyable experience. When you try to mesh the data and action on the same small screen (of which both are victim and reasonably so) it gets very jumbled, and more importantly mechanics and data are left out as a result, a la FFTA

July 12, 2007 at 2:12 PM
Roscoe said...

Apples and Oranges. If you have one plot of land that is zoned in such a way that it can only be used for a specific purpose.. and two plots, slightly more conservative in size, without zoning restrictions? Yeah.. sorry.. Twice the Real Estate.

It's why most Strat-RPGs have a host of context sensitive info-buttons.

July 12, 2007 at 2:49 PM
Roscoe said...

To further clarify, upon thought-

We're really talking about effective visual area, as opposed to a metric area. I'd say that by that rubric, the DS and the PSP are roughly equivalent in terms of screen real estate.

The DS will be harder pressed to pull off the better cinematic attacks that Disgaea uses, but it would provide a much cleaner game interface. PLUS, no load times.


so.. in a very real sense, the DS will provide better gameplay.

July 12, 2007 at 2:53 PM
_J_ said...

The thing:

If screens are defined to have two seperate tasks (one displays action, one displays stats) and they are stuck in those seperate tasks throughout the entire gameplay experience then at times when one is not needed that screen becomes wasted space. I don't see a problem with having to Hold Down R1 in order to view stats/commands when I need to see those things and the rest of the time seeing naught but the perty graphics.

On the PSP, they can keep the screen full of prety graphics and when a player needs access to stats / commands they can hold down a button to bring that screen to the forefront, and then send that screen away when they do not need it.

When I played Disgaea on my one screen television I had no problem with the menu system. So I don't see a dire need to dedicate an entire screen to displaying the menu system. Especially when the PSP has a screen such that this information can be displayed well.

If we're talking about a GBA being crammed full of action / stats / menus etc. then, yeah, I can see wanting another screen. But if one screen can sensibly hold that (as televisions have for time untold) then there doesn't seem to be a need to claim that there needs to be a screen that displays only stats.

Yeah, the DS is set up to probably use that game setup (one screen menu, one screen action). But that doesn't mean it is the best way to do things. One screen worked fine for Disgaea, and I'm pretty sure the PSP screen can do just as good a job as my television did.

July 12, 2007 at 3:35 PM
Kylebrown said...

On a TV screen of minimum 15" the screen size isn't a problem because you can fit readable text around the action, without getting in the way. On a screen of say 4.3" one would need to drop the text to a font size of about 4 to match.

I don't know about you, but I can't read size 4 print, which means the text has to cover the action, making for a very cluttered screen.

I would much rather separate the two contexts such that I get an unhampered view of the game while still being able to see the luscious data, I so desire.

July 12, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Roscoe said...

The problem with holding down a button is there is only so much info you can provide in a hold-down/pop up window.

Classic Tactics, on a full tv, had screens of info on the pause menu, on each character, on terrain, equipment, timing, abilities, and stats. All of this BEFORE dialogue and gameplay. and most of this worth acessing from anywhere.

a seperate screen allows for everything you're saying, at much greater values.

I'd go so far as arguing that a Television screen IS enough. It works.. but even the classiest, FFT , was a lesuirely procedure. More stat intensive games like Ogre Tactics made due with shrunken images, arcane abbreviations, and a generally misunderstood series of systems was the result.

And you're considering Disgaea? a game wherein your STATS have stats?

I don't think you're fully understanding the value of a second screen, and this is possibly becuase you haven't played the breadth of strat-rpgs.... I mean.. When I was playing Dis 2? I was overwhelmed by stats and stat checking on a full tv.. they didn't disrupt what I was doing, but they sure as hell slowed it down, and then got me lost in them.

July 12, 2007 at 6:49 PM
Kylebrown said...

ok wow, I just did the math and I was quite surprised by the results. The DS does have more real estate but only by a small amount, roughly 10%

July 12, 2007 at 10:50 PM
_J_ said...

That surprises me as well.

Interesting...

July 13, 2007 at 9:30 AM
Kylebrown said...

I've lost the total numbers but the DS was around 5,900 mm2 and the PSP was around 5,200 mm2. So i guess that is closer to 15%... but still

July 13, 2007 at 9:39 AM

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