Opera 2.0

[crono_logical]

*coughSNESTalesOfPhatasiaIntroThemecough*

And not just the song, the characters also said stuff in battle in that SNES game Star Ocean was also voiced, though I don't remember that game having a song with full vocals in.

[LingaringBell]

I'm sorry, but i have never played the game that you speak of, but if vocals are used during an intro or something like that not really in game play, it is a different method by which they can do it. If you really want to get technical about it, the old 16 bit system used midi sounds, well have you ever gotten a midi sound file, not possible to put vocals on to them, vocals must be saved in a more advanced form of waves in which the frequencies can be distributed properly. So, for the old games to have them they needed to imput completely independ sound files for each voice, each of which would of been a humongous file, kinda like the size of a .wav file to a .mp3, i imagine that the voices used in battles, even though i have never actually played the game like i said (however now I am very curious), were simple sounds that were repeated often. If you want a more modern example, think about one of the first talking rpg's, Lunar: Silver Star Story complete (I think that was it's full name) on the PS 1, if you remember they didn't really use the voices during game play, only that one time when luna was chasing the ship, and anouther that I can't really recall at the moment, sorry it has been along time since I played it, and in other games such as Zelda: Ocarina of time, the characters make noises yes, but they are the same noises used over and over again, and not very complex.

[crono_logical]

Doesn't really matter what method they used, the fact they got a vocalised song is enough to show that the SNES is capable enough for doing the same during the Opera scene (although I doubt they'd worked out how back in FF6's time) - all the Opera scene would require is several smaller pieces of song which would play back-to-back, the selection of which pieces play depending on whether you choose the right lyrics during the game or not. The same sound engine could just be used though.

As for voices in battle, if by simple and repetitive you mean all the characters have their own voices and call out the name of the spell/technique they are performing, then yeah, that's what they do Tales of Phantasia on the SNES has over 100 of these voice samples. Star Ocean has more since it also has phrases for each character for different situations and more characters.

It's a shame these two games weren't officially translated so you'll never find them in your usual English/American game stores, but you can always download ROM images of them off the internet and run them through an emulator to see the technology they use

[LingaringBell]

You make me more and more curious about those two games, do you know a site that I can download them off of, since alot of good rom sites have been shut down. The battle speach that you are talking of, is still by standards, "simple", a one word phrase or alittle more then that, not to large of a set back in a game. I think when it really comes down to it the opera in ff6 probably would have required so many huge sound files, (one for every possible mistake, not just the correct words), and don't forget that the opera was quite a large thing, so they probably couldn't add lyrics because of size complications, and just over all irritation that would have been caused by trying to do it all. I think i am gonna write a letter the Nobuo and ask him, maybe he knows, hehe.

[crono_logical]

Hmm, I guess there is a lot of audio looking at the soundtrack - the length of the three parts that have singing in is almost 13 minutes, even though not all of it requires voice. The Aria itself in the game is 4 minutes though, so I guess that bit at least might be possible, when you look at the size difference between the ROMs of FF6 and ToP/SO (those two are the largest two SNES ROMs in existence, both each double the size of FF6 ). Oh well, I guess it'll never happen though, did they even bother with vocals in the PSX remake?

I think you'll have to resort to filesharing programs for the ROMs, I can't find any working download sites on Google either SO has extra graphics complications though so that one will end up at around a 10 MB download instead of 6 MB to get the patches to make the graphics work in the emulator.