From what I heard, no, it's rather a licensing issue. As it turns out, Koichi Sugiyama is actually a total dick. On top of being the Japanese equivalent of a Holocaust denier (he says this didn't happen, basically), he's in charge of this organization that is responsible for all those music license deals and in general being stingy as all hell. They just couldn't secure a contract and he believes that the synth works better for the games (which I completely disagree with, since the synths he uses were never good and I feel his music loses a lot of its appeal when it;s not performed live). In general, I'm miffed that the reason is political and not technical, really, because if it were just size limitations there would be a chance we'd get the orchestral version as DLC, but no cigar. Damn, a man can compose awesome music and still be kind of a dick. I get the feeling Western Dragon Quest fans aren't that respected in Japan.
The DS version does something different. Your stat gains are completely based on which augments you give the character, so maxing out stats requires careful planning on the types of augments you give the party. Shame about the music being switched. Wonder if it has to do with space limitations.
So apparently they're replacing the fully orchestral soundtrack of DQVII 3DS into MIDI for the localized version. I am friggin' devastated Please don't let them do this to VIII
Speaking of IV, I totally forgot about the randomized stats thing until you mentioned it again. Do you know if that was carried over to the DS version? I could imagine how that would suck for anyone wanting to take on Proto-Babil.
You should really do yourself a favor and get the Enhanced Edition I wasn't a fan of the first game at first, really, and the gameplay there has become severely dated, but the EE really improves on that and everything is so nice and smooth now and it's much more fun to play.
I still need to finish Baldur's Gate. Hell, I'm not even sure my PC could play my copy anymore.
Yeah, it's really the reason why some characters are considered OP in BG - they just have broken equipment that can only be used by them. But then, you can use classes that no other party member has and gain gear restricted to that class, and you'll end up just better than anyone else anyway. But still, yeah, gear is super important.
I can see that, yeah, I find games that are more gear focused than stat focused are generally better in terms of my taste. I feel like it's the reason why I do love FFIV is that it has one of the most unique algorithms in the series, where neither levels, stats, or gear is completely dominant in making your character awesome.
Now that I'm replaying Baldur's Gat I have this newfound appreciation of how gear-dependent this game is. You only reach a maximum of level ten in the first game (that is if you play a thief, because each class requires different amounts of exp to level up - for example, I managed to reach level 7 as a fighter, then dual-classed to a cleric and reached level 7 in that and I can no longer level up because of the cap), but levels really don't change much. They influence your HP, your to-hit rate, and the number of spells per day for spellcasters. You can never really change your base stats aside from some very special items that are super rare, so all your offensive power and defensive capabilities are dependent on the gear you find because, some rare exceptions notwithstanding, the gear you can buy becomes pretty irrelevant pretty early on.
I totally see that as well. XIII-2 did look like a serious change-up. In some ways though, I felt the same way about X-2.
