What is THE best looking game on Saturn?

[Aydan]

Just something I've been wondering about the machine. There are many fantastic looking games whether it's from an artistic stand point or 2d or 3d etc,

Other than Saturn Shenmue what do you guys think the best looking 3D saturn title is? Not just resolution, models/textures but also with whats on screen and draw distances etc.

I know there's loads of JAP titles out there which look great like the Drift King 97 for example looks great for a Saturn racer.

What would you guys say is the defining 3d game for the saturn which really pushes the system to its limits?

[swedishmeat87]

Burning Rangers Shining Force III Deep Fear etc

[Aydan]

See now Shining Force 3 looks "ok" in my eyes. the battles are the only good looking 3d bits, the use of sprites still to me is pointless. Enviroments also look good but I'd hardly say they're pushing the poly limits among other things on the machine.

Deep Fear certainly doesn't. 2D backgrounds with basic 3d characters is nothing special i'd write home about.

Burning Rangers was on my mind as one of the better looking titles but I don't know if it's the best. I'm hoping people can say or show some obscure japanese titles which totally rock the boat visually.

[swedishmeat87]

Yeah image Burning Rangers with smoother graphics that would be like orgasm

[Anthaemia.]

There's a reason later games such as Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga and the Shenmue prototype had such low frame rates - their programmers had found a way of storing frames in memory that were manipulated in later processor cycles with the blending of new rendered data to enable such features as "real" transparency effects and higher polygon counts than would normally have been possible (although we can't be 100% sure without better quality footage of how exactly AM2 managed to get Shenmue looking so incredible). A stock console of such complexity in the right hands can possess huge levels of power, and the Saturn's limit was only just being reached when Sega pulled the plug. If the company's own in-house teams were still learning new things about the hardware's dual-processor setup, we can only imagine what may have been if third parties had access to the same toolsets and coding experience, not to mention a greater reason to push harder as opposed to churning out second-rate PlayStation conversions. However, not all third parties were so complacent... D-Xhird gets my vote for being another incredible-looking title!

[bradcap1]

Burning Rangers and Winter Heat come to mind. This question is driving me crazy. Wish I had my collection here to go through them.

[Deleted]

I would vote Burning Rangers as one of the worst looking titles Sega themselves released for the system. Bad draw distance, too much crap going on at once making it confusing to navigate, etc.

For 3D I would say something like Sega Rally, for looking both good and moving at an excellent, consistant framerate. Sonic R also holds up very well.

[swedishmeat87]

I hope you are kidding Terramax i played trough Burning Rangers on Saturn like 10 times its a wonderfull game. Funny bosses and smooth gameplay nothing to clompain about.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

I don't remember Panzer Dragoon Saga having that low of a Frame Rate though. Yeah it did dip down a few times but it seemed for the most part to maintain what appeared to be around 30 fps.

My vote though goes towards Radiant Silvergun:



The game still looks good to this day.

[Liger]

The title that sticks out most in my mind is Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Seeing as it was released quite early in the Saturn's life I reckon it looks amazing even by today's standards. Episode 6 is incredible to look at and play through. The game created a great sense of scale too.

The thing with Zwei is that the 3D looks incredibly solid. The bosses from Episodes 3 and 4 spring to mind. Zwei is certainly one of the Saturn's greatest 3D graphical accomplishments I reckon.

[mick_aka]

Deep Fear should get a mention, lovely looking game, very nice way to finish the Saturn in Europe.

[zyrobs]

Deep Fear looks crap, dunno why you guys keep mentioning it.

Shining Force gets props for the battle magic effects, which were ambitious to say the least. Also, I think it was one of the few games to use actual polygon-on-polygon transparencies (the teleport in Sonic R also did it, but that game is more known for its fog effect which was just a background fade).

Burning Rangers had nice transparencies and a real "modern" 3d game look, but all the polygon warping and the bad controls made it look like the game could fall apart any second.

To me, the most graphically impressive Saturn games were (in no particular order): PD Zwei, PD Saga, the late Capcom fighting games, Radiant Silvergun, Scorcher, both Digital Pinball games, Sonic R, Duke 3d, Quake, Sexy Parodius, Dead or Alive (way better than VF2!), Athlete Kings / Winter Heat, Croc, Pandemonium, and perhaps Thunder Force V but the low-res textures kind of ruin that one.
But I'm probably forgetting a lot of games here.

[mick_aka]

Nov 24, 2010 21:04:54 GMT zyrobs said:

Deep Fear looks crap, dunno why you guys keep mentioning it.

It's easily comparable with games like Final Fantasy VIII as far as the character modelling and pre-rendered backgrounds go, and that came out a year later on the PSX, people keep mentioning it because it's a great game that many people like, simple really

[swedishmeat87]

Exactly Deep Fear was the shit and still is for many ;D Forgot to mention SAGA ofc thats one of the best graphics games on Saturn I played it throw like 1 mounth ago took about 12 Hours to complete i reached lvl 52 wonderbar game no doubt !

[zyrobs]

Probably my fault I guess, I find "adventure" games like that extremely boring (unless they are called Neverhood), and also I played PD Saga first. But that's just my opinion on gameplay. Graphically, it's crap. Making one or two 3d characters walk around a static background is about as far from impressive graphics as I can imagine. Plenty of Saturn games had more impressive models, AND more impressive backgrounds AND more impressive action all at the same time. As for the FMVs... they are just prerecorded movies! Even if they are impressive, it doesn't matter, because it'd look the same on a VHS tape too.

I forgot Grandia from my list, that game had sweet graphics and a ton of things going on at once. I wish someone would edit the english text into the Saturn version already.