[p]Hi everyone![/p][p][/p][p]I hope everyone has been enjoying the release of Ys vs. Trails in the Sky! Today we bring you the third and final part of the Remaster Features Overview series, which will focus mainly on various quality of life features that have been added to the release.[/p][p]We were planning to release this entry simultaneously with the game's release, but decided to wait until all features were available on all platforms, which wasn't the case until recently, as we were finally able to deliver an important patch for Nintendo Switch which brings it up to par with all versions. Otherwise, we would've been talking quite a bit about features that were missing on the Nintendo Switch version. Also, this patch will be included on the game card with the physical version, from which you will be hearing details about very soon.[/p][p]If you haven't read the first or second part of the series, I highly suggest you take a look at them:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]With that out of the way, let's go over the new features:[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]
Message Log Feature[/h2][p]With the story mainly being presented the way it is, you might want to catch up a bit in certain circumstances. For this, you can press the key or button that is assigned to "Up" by default (W on keyboard/D-Pad Up on controller) during story cutscenes, and you'll be greeted with a Message Log where you can go all the way back to the beginning of the story, while being able to play the voice line for each line. With all recent Falcom titles featuring a message log, this feature feels right at home.[/p][p]
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BGM Info Display[/h2][p]This is another returning fan-favorite feature: You can configure a BGM Info Display pop up that appears on the corner of the screen each time a song plays, or only when it plays for the first time. With the amount of tracks this game has, it's going to be valuable for those players that want to check out the tracks later on. It'll also help you make up your mind whenever you spot a new song that you want to buy on the shop for the Material Collection afterwards.[/p][p]
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Extra Training Mode options[/h2][p]We've added just a little bit more to the training mode, so that players get just a little bit more insight on how some moves behave as well as a few more toggles for players to experiment more. Pressing a button combination (Skill Combo button + Camera Toggle, which is R button + Select by default) will also reset the characters and put everyone back on their starting positions. We certainly hope these prove useful to labbing enthusiasts![/p][p]
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Rich Presence[/h2][p]
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[/p][p]We've implemented basic rich presence to display your status through the game on supported platforms, as well as Steam Timeline support to annotate your game recordings through this info. On Steam, your friends will be able to see what stage and character you're playing on. If you don't prefer this, you can simply go to the Option menu and disable the feature. We're planning to introduce Discord support on an upcoming update as well as more detailed info on the gameplay status.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h2]
Other additions[/h2][p]We have some more miscellaneous additions before we conclude, some apply for all platforms and some are implemented with platform-specific features:[/p]
- [p]UI Scale: The UI during gameplay was quite large on PSP due to its screen size. With screens being bigger nowadays, the game now defaults to a smaller UI during gameplay to make space. You can choose to make it even smaller via the "Small" option, or use the "Large" option which corresponds to the original scale. This is only used when there's one player on the system, as additional screen space is needed to display each player's skills.[/p]
- [p]Asset compression: This isn't really apparent to end users, now that the finished product is available, but most textures are now compressed using a better and faster compression algorithm, LZ4. We're not using any fancy packaging system as it wasn't deemed necessary for now, but it still shaves around 400MB that would've otherwise be added to the installation size. The console versions provide their own compression mechanisms, which optimize the install sizes using features unique to each platform.[/p]
- [p]Achievements: Well, this might be taken for granted, but it is worth remembering that the original game just had basic achievements tracked in-game. Every one of these now maps to a respective Steam achievement. Be on the lookout for the unique artwork included within them![/p]
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Conclusion[/h2][p]This is a wrap for the Remaster Features Overview series, and I hope that it adds just a bit more of value to what is an already awesome celebration of Falcom.[/p][p]I want to take a moment to thank everyone who helped make this remaster possible. From our internal team to our team of beta testers, from the passionate community members who provide ongoing feedback to the content creators who graciously provided their coverage. The support and enthusiasm have been invaluable every step of the way.[/p][p]With all the enhancements so far, we hope we're delivering the definitive version of this title. From the moment we got the project on our hands, up until now, and hopefully for a little bit more as we add just a bit more of polish through patches, it has been a lot of fun and an absolute honor to work on this project.[/p][p][/p][p]See you next time,[/p][p]Adrian Graber - Producer & Lead Developer @ refint/games[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][p]
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is now available on Steam![/p][p]
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