Today I installed the Remaid of Dreams mod onto my Steam copy of Fata Morgana as a test. I’m pleased to say the process went well and I’m happy with the results as well. You do just have to launch an exe they give you, but they have made the installation very simple and all you have to do is direct it to your game’s folder. Personally I’m going this way because the increase in resolution alone is such a difference; 800x600 is tiny. There are some additional stories for after the main one added maybe, too? But the big epilogue I definitely want to continue to as a club if others are interested remains its own, separate Steam purchase.
The one subjective possible downside is that the artstyle has been slightly reworked in the CGs and backgrounds. I took a few quick screenshots from a Youtube comparison to share, original first and updated versions second:
Make of that what you will. Personally I do have a bit of an attachment to the unique original look, but I don’t think this is nearly as bad as a lot of remake art changes I’ve seen, and it’s definitely worth it for me. Those experiencing Fata Morgana on a platform like the Switch will only know the latter anyway.
Actually, it’s interesting you bring this up, because I was aware of the differences in the artstyle, but thought nothing of testing it out with this Book Club: maybe this time instead of the Steam I could get the Switch version and play that way?
Though when you bring up the screenshots, the original artstyle simply has SOUL and if a 500x200 guy makes me feel feelings, i wonder if i need a 1000x400 version of the same guy drawn by a different artist xdd
I’ll think of sourcing the Japanese Switch version somehow
EDIT: the backgrounds in Chapters 5+ are absolutely going to be a make-or-break of the Switch version to me. The trippiness of them and all of the sacral symbolism in the blurry background absolutely took my experience to the next level, I wonder if the Switch version can keep up
Yeah I feel you. Often I’d be the same way; a lot of the time I end up picking original games over remakes because of how they change the look and tone. I haven’t gotten around to Suikoden yet, but I saw some screenshot comparisons the other day of the remaster that just came out and they messed it up so badly
It’s a bit of a compromise on my end but I’m running on a 4k monitor and 800x600 is the tiniest little square on a portion of my screen, while blowing it up is just gonna blur the game to hell. In the end I think what I’ve seen of the remake art is still nice despite losing some of the unique look the original has, and I’ll be able to focus and kinda immerse better with it full screen and etc. It is a shame they couldn’t just get high resolution versions of the original art, but maybe those never existed in the first place.
I still think the backgrounds are nice and look relatively similar based on what I’ve seen, but honestly I don’t recall the later game ones you’re mentioning super well because I originally read this 8+ years ago now. My memory has slipped about a lot of it; I’m excited to see it again
Hey everyone, I guess I should figure out the actual details for this club sometime, and best to ask a little early since it relates to start time especially.
So, 2 questions:
Are we content doing a self-paced type club with a thread for each chapter? We might be at a fairly diverse range of preferred speeds based on what I know about the people here, and I had only really seen positive reactions to it after someone mentioned it here. Please chime in if you like it or feel strongly that you want a more set weekly schedule!
Does anyone have any need to shift the start of the club around by a week or two? We could go as early as the very beginning of May, around the 2nd if that works for @Akashelia (I started the club after the two of us talked about Fata Morgana so I want to check with them specifically haha) and the rest of you! I’d default to that date if not told otherwise.
Yes I think a thread per chapter is a great idea. When we did ISLAND I had a poll in the first post so people could mark which route they had already finished, I wonder if that could work here too? So we can see where people are at, at a glance
Same answer as Akashelia for the first question, in terms of the second question, I’ll be out from any significant grind traveling until May 10-11th-ish, I could bring Nintendo Switch with myself on the plane and then just look up things furiously in Kanji Study on my phone, but I don’t imagine that over the socializing and walking and so on I’ll be able to read much. I’m still interested in reading though!
I’m not afraid of spoilers anymore and I should try to tag my posts with spoiler tags as I go so that people wouldn’t fall into those.
Yeah sure, just remind me if I forget haha. I’ll have to make sure I get that set up properly (are changeable choices a thing?); I feel like I mess up the polls frequently but it’ll work in the end haha.
I’m excited to get started, but I don’t see any reason to make you get a late start. It could definitely be bumped closer to the 10th or something.
Yeah absolutely, we’ll want to get people marking spoilers with where they are in the chapter in an indirect way. I’ll be sure to put that request in the threads.
I will also be travelling a bit towards end of May / middle of June so my mileage will vary a lot from week to week. I don’t think it matters too much as the threads will still be there for whenever we have time to read!
Alright, in the absence of any dissenting voices, I’m going to plan to just make this unstructured with threads for each chapter, and aim to start Friday, May 9th. 1 month to go!
Hype time?? Only one week to go
I got myself committed to too many things both IRL and with book clubs, so will be a slow start for me, but I want to begin at the start date anyway! Then I may have more time to read in June… then less time to read in July… then more time to read in August… we’ll see how it goes, should work fine to have discussions anyways with the 1 thread / chapter system
You beat me to it! I was thinking I should post when it was one week away. Looking forward to it! I should have a good amount of time when we get started as far as I know, the only thing is needing to pull myself away from the Hundred Line
Yeah me too; getting Japanese stuff is so inconvenient sometimes. At least the Switch makes it very simple to have a Japanese account exist alongside your others, which is better than a lot of other places, but you do have to deal with finding a payment method they’ll accept.
Unfortunately I bought my Switch a few years before starting to learn Japanese, if I could go back I would just create a Japanese account from the beginning and buy gift cards somewhere.
It’s not too late really if you’re just looking to get particular games. It’s been a while since I set mine up but as I recall you basically just make a separate Nintendo account on their site that’s in the JP region, then create a second profile on your Switch and link it to that account. When you select that profile it’s linked to the eshop from its region so it’ll take you to the JP eshop, but otherwise the two profiles just act identical the way any others on a Switch would. Once you buy the games, even JP only ones, they can also be played by your main profile with no issues. It’s just the gift cards that are annoying, otherwise after you set that up it’s nothing but picking a different user when you want to buy something.
