What about Xak I & II?

[SkyeWelse]

I had not heard of this game series until I visited the site monthes ago and this game looked very interesting. Haven't played it yet, but any kind of overhead zelda/ys style action rpg is something I can deem worthwhile to try out, especially being from Falcom.

However, before I play the third game, I wanted to see what the first two games were like but I could only find the ones PC Engine and as far as I can tell they were not translated. The internet seems to show that these originated from the MSX and or possibly the SNES? But I have not been able to find out all that much regarding whether or not there was ever an English translation of the games in some form or another. Most topics about the Xak series seem to point here to this site to the Xak III translation.

So what would a new player to the Xak series do in my situation if I wanted to start playing the games? Is there an English version out of the first two games somewhere? Or if there isn't were they even worth playing? Is Xak III something that does not necessarily build upon the first two games?

-SkyeWelse

[Seldane]

1. Xak is not a Falcom game.
2. I believe Xak originated on the NEC PC-8801.

I believe the MSX versions of Xak I and II got fan-translated, but I can't confirm that.

There's another game on the MSX -- Xak: The Tower of Gazzel -- it has been translated.

[NightWolve]

I knew of no translations for Xak I & II when I worked on this project, so whether or not Xak III builds up upon prior sequels didn't really much matter, since, yeah, they're in Japanese... Xak III does stand on its own obviously, while making a few references here & there to past games like this "Tower of Gazzel." Little things like that I did notice but didn't much take away from anything.

[SkyeWelse]

Thanks for correcting me on it not being a Falcom game and giving me some name titles I could look up for more information.

*laughs* Well once I get started on a project, I tend to go a bit far out on a limb to research it.

By now I'm playing a few of the earlier released Xak games both translated and non-translated on an MSX emulator on my Xbox and so far it is interesting but rather slow. The MSX titles are not too fluid and take a bit to get into, but they do exist in some form of English translation or another.

The very first Xak game, called "The Art of Visual Stage" is translated, but you have to pay the translators (Delta Soft) in order to obtain use of the English translation patch, which I have not done and may not do. Depends on how well I get into this series.

The second game in the series is titled "The Rising of the Redmoon" which has been translated by Oasis.

The third game, or perhaps this could be thought of as "Another Xak Adventure/Gaiden" is "The Tower of Gazel", translated by Oasis.

And if one Gaiden wasn't enough, they have a spinoff gaiden on one of the female characters in the series, "Fray", who is the main character of "Fray - In Magical Adventure", translated by Oasis.

Now we come to the remakes: Xak I - The Art of Visual Stage for SNES/Super Famicom which looks completely awesome graphically and gameplay wise, but alas the translation group working on it never completed it and it is now a dead project.

The remake of Xak I & II for PCE-Engine seems like the best choice if someone were to continue the Xak series translations simply because of the fact that Xak III has been translated by Nightwolve and these games seem to co-incide the best in terms of graphical cutscenes and style. The cutscenes are impressive enough just to want to play through the game for that reason alone.

And then we have Xak III, of which I unfortunately have not been able to try out yet due to rom searching issues. Though I think that if I solve this problem soon, I may try finishing this first since as much as I like old-school games, Xak I, I have to pay money for, and Xak: Tower of Gazel and Xak II have extremely slow gameplay and it is doubtful we'll be seeing a release of the faster pace SNES Xak I and PCE Xak I & II. Besides, the game looks really awesome and I cannot wait to give it a try. : )

I put this together as well since well, I'm more a "Visual Stage" person and I enjoy creating random stuff:

Xak Translation Progress Display

-SkyeWelse

[Seldane]

Fray in Magical Adventure got ported to the PCE as well -- entitled Fray CD: Xak Gaiden. It is a fun overhead platformer. Highly recommended.

[SkyeWelse]

Ah, then I'll have to look for that as well then. Thanks.

Edit: Fixed the display list as well with this information.

-SkyeWelse

[NightWolve]

I put this together as well since well, I'm more a "Visual Stage" person and I enjoy creating random stuff:

Xak Translation Progress Display

-SkyeWelse

That's pretty cool.

[Seldane]

That's pretty cool, but you misspelled Gazzel.

[esteban666]

Let me jump on the bandwagon and also say "that was kool" . I never looked into the history of the Xak games...

A few years ago there was a nicely-done website (walkthrough + screenshots) for Xak I & II (PCE) with, IIRC, some very basic translations of key plot points. I don't know if the site exists now, though...

[SkyeWelse]

Thanks. I've been playing a few of the earlier MSX games ("BLUEMSXBOX" for Xbox works charms if you have a modified system btw) and it seems like a very interesting series so far. I also inquired about how much the patch would be from Delta Soft if they are even still offering it but no replies as of yet.

-SkyeWelse

[NightWolve]

Wow, you are a real Xak fan. Now you're sporting a sig for it. Well, I am somewhat surprised you exist, I must say.

[Seldane]

By the way -- have you tried out the X68000 version of Xak?

[SkyeWelse]

Wow, you are a real Xak fan. Now you're sporting a sig for it. Well, I am somewhat surprised you exist, I must say.

Thanks... I think. lol Perhaps it is just because I'm really into playing it now and your translation of Xak III has gotten me pretty hooked. I started playing the second game, (since it was the only one of the earlier games that was translated that I could get a hold of at the moment) but unfortunately my MSX emulator crashed the rom when switching the .dsk files and now all of my progress is completly well... botched to say the least. I don't think it is fixable...  so I was a bit put out with that. So I started playing the Xak games for the PC-Engine since I know at least they wouldn't crash on me and I've really been having a blast with it.

Not sure if you had a chance to play Xak I & II for the PCE Nightwolve, but it is probably the closest thing to an old style Ys battle system that a Xak game can get. Rather than moving slowly in Xak III and having to swing the sword to hurt enemies, the battles and movement are fast paced. You hold down the sword button to have Ratok hold his sword out as you ram enemies and obliterate them exactly like Adol would by running into them. And the music is pretty solid as well for this one.

I'm sure you already have enough projects as it is, but should you ever want to get deeper into what you've already started and want to take on a new Xak game, this would be the one, definitely. Well, heres to hoping for that possibility one of these days. : ) Hell, I'd help with what I could. I only know about 10% of what is being said in the game since my Japanese is rather poor, but I could help with testing stuff, save states that sort of thing.

So far I'm really enjoying Xak III and I love how chaotic and merciless the demons are in it. I haven't seen demons this mean since the original Wild Arms. Whew!

And Fray CD - Xak Gaiden is hillarious. So yeah, I guess you might say I like this series a bit.

By the way -- have you tried out the X68000 version of Xak?

Not yet, but I might see if I can get a X68000 emu and try it out sometime. That's supposed to be the one that started it all isn't it?

-SkyeWelse

[NightWolve]

Xak I & II did not support the nice English 8x16 font that Xak III did. Xak III was virtually ready for localization from a technical standpoint which is why I chose it in the first place. I needed a game to begin my contribution to the fan localization/romhacking scene, and Xak III fit the bill as a game someone of my limited skills could complete.

I don't nor never did possess the programming skills to replace 16x16 system fonts with 8x12 or 8x16 type fonts, so those projects weren't something worth pursuing. If there isn't a nice 8x12/8x16 type font built-in, and you don't have the skills necessary to hack the print routine to change the font, your entire game is gonna look like this:



As such, I don't wish to dedicate any time for a whole game where I'd have to display English like that. And that's how Xak I & II would've looked like.

[SkyeWelse]

Xak I & II did not support the nice English 8x16 font that Xak III did. Xak III was virtually ready for localization from a technical standpoint. This is why I chose Xak III in the first place. I needed a game to begin my contribution to the fan translation/romhacking scene, and Xak III fit the bill as a game someone of my limited skills could complete. I don't nor never did possess the programming skills to replace 16x16 system fonts with 8x12 or 8x16 type fonts, so those projects weren't something worth pursuing. If there isn't a nice 8x12/8x16 type font built-in, and you don't have the skills necessary to hack the print routine to change the font, your entire game is gonna look like this:

<Pictures>

As such, I don't wish to dedicate any time for a whole game where I'd have to display English like that. And that's how Xak I & II would've looked like.

Well... when you put it that way, I guess it is pretty wasteful if the outcome is going to be an entire screen full of "gigantic-elderly-person--easy-to-read-text-with-no-big-words" and best of all, no lowercase letters it seems. I completely understand. Still, hear's to hoping that one day that particular Xak game is translated. After playing them all now, that definitely seems to be the best one if anyone were to try and tackle another Xak translation project.

By the way -- have you tried out the X68000 version of Xak?

I have now. To be perfectly honest, I never really knew what a Sharp x68000 was until you mentioned it. I'm sure I've seen it in passing when dealing with the emulation scene, but I always figured it for a really old Atari-esque machine, not something that can run hefty graphical applications. I suppose I was wrong as the system is actually a pretty cool system. I've now had the chance to play Xak - The Art of Visual Stage for it as well as the Ys x68000 game for it. I found a decent x68000 emulator for the Xbox and started playing them last night. Though, while I do like the artwork and character portraits and the fact that the play style is exactly like the PCE version of Xak I, in terms of how you ram enemies with your sword, I think the PCE engine one is by far the best version. It is much faster, has crisper graphics, a better sounding audio track and a smoother transition of how you do battle with the enemy monsters.

By the way, I updated the Xak - Translation Timeline if you want to call it that with this game as well as the dates each of the games were released to give a better idea of the overall timeflow of the series.

Xak Series Translations Progress and Timeline


And the Ys X68000 game is quite fun, I was rather impressed with it and the design is very unusual in appearance to the rest of the Ys re-releases. It's like they wanted the graphics to have as much of a realistic approach to it as possible, especially the character artworks. The town layouts are a bit different as well. I have not made it terribly far in the game just yet seeing as I was litterally sitting down to playing all of this at around 4 a.m. in the morning since it took me awhile to set it all up to work correctly, but I want to finish going through it if only to see what kind of artwork they have for "Dalk Fukt"... or "Dark Fact"... whatever. You have to admit that these characters in the realistic design approach do look kind of goofy. : ) Reminds me of what the character of Vandal Hearts II looked like. lol And that first pic, the title screen looks like it was from Amano, even though I'm sure it probably wasn't.



-SkyeWelse

[Seldane]

I'll quote myself from another board to provide you with some more information about Ys X68000:

Ys II was never released on the X68000.

If you mean True-Ys and True-YsII (ports of the PC-9801 versions of Ys/YsII), that's not official. It was hacked by some Japanese fans known as Team Milkhouse, and aren't bad ports at all.

The only official Ys games for the X68000 are Ys for X68000 (yeah, that's what it is called), developed by Dempa Micomsoft / S. Senoo and YsIII developed by Falcom themselves (this is also the best version of YsIII. Ever.)

Ys for X68000 is freakin sweet. I assure you. It didn't sell well at all because fans didn't like the "different style." Personally, I love it. 

I took a photo of the awesome box for your enjoyment. Drawn none other than Yoshitaka Amano. 

[SkyeWelse]

Ah ha! So it was Yoshitaka Amano. Well it does look like his style.

I should finish playing it then if you rate it so high Seldane. And I didn't know about Ys III and the True-Ys Ports for it. I'll have to see those too. So many games... So little time to play them all.

-SkyeWelse