4:25. Was NOT expecting that guy to say "OH SHIT!" I nearly fell out of my chair. Also, I loved that animation of that green haired character rocking out on that ukulele.
That's Incubus, he has a bit of a potty mouth. The green haired guy is Satan, or Dark Prince outside of Japan, he is mainly this series main antagonist, save for Yon, which had a doppleganger of our plucky little hero, Arle.
@@RetroCore Reminds me of the bootleg Pac-Man game actually called "Oh Shit!" It's basically Pac-Man, but a bad vocal sample of him saying that happens every time a ghost gets him.
Just yesterday I heard on a gaming podcast at the oddity of a "Sega" game appearing on the PlayStation back in the day. The N64 version is the most traditional sprite based game I have ever seen on it. And thanks to this video I just bought a Saturn copy on ebay, very cheap and will go nicely with my collection. Thanks Mark!!
Just in case anyone is interested the GBC version is dual compatible with the original gameboy as well. Really enjoyed your take on the music at the end Mark!
I looked in the internet and while Ketteiban seems to translate directly to "decide" (I don't know), it also means "Definitive Edition". In other words, the PS1 version is called "Puyo Puyo Sun: Definitive Edition"
My two go to Puyo games are Tsu and Sun- I've had the same translated version on PC for years now, and I love that it still runs native on Windows 7! (No idea about 10 but I'm assuming so?) Hearing Incubus crying out "OH SHIT!" gets me every time :D I wonder if that was a similar translation issue to Sonic X- where they were trying to make him sound cool by using English but mistranslated "Kuso" to the literal translation over the more subtle japanese use ;P The Megadrive version sadly never had enough time to be made into a complete game- but most of the music from the main game is still there~ I can't wait for the VGZs to be ripped so I can try and make some midis...~ Also one thing you didn't mention is that the game (on PC at least...no idea about other versions) has a few colour modes to help with colourblindness! I thought that was always neat~ PS: Draco Centauros is best Puyo girl and nobody can tell me otherwise. :v
5:20 Sega didn't own Puyo Puyo until 1999. All of the flagship games in the series up to that point were already cross-platform. Puyo Puyo 4 is the only one in the series that was cross-platform under Sega's ownership while they were also still in the console business, and I'd be willing to bet that that was partly because it was already being developed for multiple systems before Sega's acquisition.
No, I believe it’s because the deal that got SEGA the rights to Puyo, also let Compile, the og devs, make games for the series for a couple of years afterwards. That couple of years ended shortly before Compile went bankrupt. I assume Compile was just able to get away with making their games on non SEGA platforms as the contract never specified anything like that.
"Sega" or rather "Sega Enterprises LTD JAPAN" was busy supporting this game and promoting it for both the ST-V arcade version and Sega Saturn... I feel the "ownership" thing is a bit misunderstood here... the ST-V is essentially a ROM storage based Sega Saturn as in nanosecond access times of a ROM Cartridge for business use with an enhanced and possibility of multiple revisions being released on the Sega Saturn system in Japan and surrounding regions in Asia where Sega Enterprises LTD JAPAN was able to get direct distribution into. The game is indeed very Japanese and comical with a somewhat anime television dialogue if this is a bad comparison on my part but the biggest culprit here as to why there were so many ports right away are more than likely related to the OTHER region that played gatekeeping and making authoritative "suggestions" as to what games should be allowed for localziation, translation and distribution in the U.S.A. and technically Canada and allegedly Mexico to complete the entire North American NTSC-U region where allegedly the potential for profits as both an arcade game for business use and a home consumer Sega Saturn game profits could have been possible. This is one of the biggest problems I noticed back then as an active Sega Saturn owner... seeing that in Japan there were all of these games being made yet only a few were actually being translated and some were heavily altered where it did not make sense. By comparison another problematic U.S. subsidiary branch in S.N.K.'s U.S.A. arcade distributor who did have some censorship issues with the arcade games (removing red blood color, turning it into white sweat? even when Mortal Kombat 2 and eventually Killer Instinct glorified the red stuff... S.N.K. NeoGeo games like the Puzzle Bubble and Puzzle de Pon series... essentially a similar competitive genre to Puyo Puyo series were being distributed into arcade centers but also the fact that some of the Puzzle Bubble games actually got fully localized and translated for the Sega Saturn. The key difference here is that the ST-V arcade and Sega Saturn initial versions do feature Japanese voice acting... something that could be muted maybe or given the option to while reading English subtitles but the problem back then plaguing 1990s Sega of America's staff was that they actually believed their primary target age audience were twelve year olds explicitly... including Bernie Stolar using a sample target audience at the GDC 1999 which is like saying "screw anyone who is older than twelve, is in their teens, late teens, have their own working income, are past twenty years old and also screw the female ages demographic while also screw supporting the Sega fanbase so they instead rely on multi platform gamer magazines that do not do such a good job of promoting certain games they did not like" In other words, here we are talking about how "Puyo Puyo was not fully owned by 'Sega" so it was ported to other systems" but the harsh reality here is that some big shot at the SoA 90s subsidiary branch wrote some "not good enough" or "skip/reject this software cause Americans won't get it" is the more logical culprit here on a game being limited to making profits in Japan and Asian regions, being prevented from being promoted and possibly picked up here due to someone or some small peanut group's opinion and worse certain staff that in hindsight should never have been hired in the first place to manage the U.S. subsidiary branch which greatly influences the other regions thus limiting the audiences, fan following, etc from ever happening... either that or using some incredibly stupid marketing ads that don't even feature screenshots of the games... Decades later this game has a cult following mostly thanks to die hard Sega fans who dug for information, later localization attempts and inclusions somewhat... thus it is more logical to see that had Sega of America's staff had different management staff who promoted most of the actual game software, these games might have had higher or actual representation and contributed to some hefty profits then Sega Europe and PAL regions could get this game which is not that different from the typical puzzle games of the time that were evolving or had the potential to evolve. Instead we know that Compile, Jaleco, Sunsoft, S.N.K., Data East and many other Japanese arcade/consumer game makers just "went bankrupt" which was no accident... and no bad hardare with Sega Saturn but dumb marketing and agendas.
I have an irrational obsession with this game. My ex-girlfriend and I used to play it all the time on the Saturn. We'd usually either play this, Hanagumi Taisen Columns or Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle-Dama, all three games are great for the two player versus modes.
Puyo Puyo games were released on other platfroms in the 90s because at that point Sega still didn't own the full rights. Later printings of the PS1 version were published by Sega with Sega branding after they acquired the full rights, I think Puyo Puyo Box was the last Compile release.
Was never a huge fan of games like this but I always loved this one. Might’ve been the upbeat major scale jazz fusion music. It’s usually the music that gets me into games I normally would find boring.
Nice to see Puyo Puyo Sun here! It is indeed a shame the Mega Drive version wasn’t a full port, but it is rather good! If SEGA and M2 plan to release the game for the Nintendo Switch, then I would be extremely happy!
I own the ST-V Arcade Board and the Cart of Puyo Puyo Sun! Was really hoping PuyoSun would've had the Sega Ages Switch treatment. Satan makes me think of Inuyasha with green hair...😆
Apparently M2 only had a solid month to create the Puyo Puyo Sun port, hence is why they only focused on the multiplayer aspect as the real game would've taken around 4 months apparently
In light of the recent release of the Mega Drive Mini 2, Mark has decided that he would make a Battle of the Ports video on Puyo Puyo Sun, and now he did! Great job, Mark! By that way, how did you manage to capture the Mega Drive port?
Interesting that although most of the graphics of the game on the N64 are generally crisp, they still managed to let some get blurry-ed by the console filtering hardware. 🤣 I guess not all the programmers remembered to set filtering off in their drawing routines! And, oh my, that intro video on the PS1 is horribly compressed, someone forgot to tune their encoding software prior to release. 🤭 Thanks for the video Mark!
Interesting about the intro video - I’ve got the game up on PS1 and Saturn right now and it’s the opposite. But the PS1 version I have is the 2003 rerelease published by Sega. But the intro FMV is noticeably less pixelated on PlayStation!
The 30fps limitation on Puyo Puyo Sun for Windows may be a DirectX limitation. When running the game in Linux using Wine, the game runs at 60fps for some reason.
Ahhh this one I will enjoy, I have the PS1 and Saturn versions, just need the GBC version to have 3 of the 4 ports (I don't own an N64). I do have the Windows port as a file, even translated in English, I believe that is the Korean version (Glad to see you also used the same one Puyo Nexus put out). I do love me some Puyo Puyo, picked up Yon for PS1 in either late 2020, or early 2021, still need it's GBC version as well, but it's more expensive than the PS1 version. The last 2 GBC games, and Puyo Pop for GBA is all I need left to be satsified with the series, Pop pretty much feels like Tsuu before the series got too gimmicky. I believe this is also some of the most detailed video of the MD Mini 2 version as well, would love to see more of it if people post competitions for it.
@@RetroCore Indeed there is, pretty good port, but has lower resolution backgrounds (like Capcom Vs SNK Pro, with it's lower resolution backgrounds, yet the game is still good), and stuff, like the fire wavy effects in one of the stages, is absent in the PS1 version. PS1 version is still pretty good for what it is. Took me a number of years to finally land a copy, and it was for around $35 US, a bit more than what I like to pay for a Puyo Puyo game, all the rest outside of Puyo Pop GBA, and Yon on GBC are pretty affordable, though Sun on GBC has gone up a bit in price too. Also of note Puyo Puyo BOX on PS1 has every character from the previous games, as well as Yon in it for it's Rally Mode, even has the Sun and Yon rules, as well as the rules of Tsuu usable in game. It also has the MD versions of Puyo Puyo 1 and Tsuu in it as well, complete with the same scratchy voice samples.
I like how compile did not make puyo puyo sun a sega saturn exclusive and even ported the game over tglo the udder dud of a console (in japan anyways) known as the N64 (it did crap in japan, it only did well here in United States for good reasons)
I'm amazed at why the N64 was so popular in the states. It have very few great games and few good games. Now that I have an Everdrive for the 64, I've been going through the library. A lot of the games even for the time look terrible and the Frame rate is very bad on the majority of games. Saturn and PlayStation had many 60fps 3D games and a whole bunch at 30fps. Most N64 stuff is below 30fps.
Considering the zooming or hardware scaling effects being used, Compile was definitely using the ST-V/Saturn hardware relative to still, early game efforts given that Saturn was launched in 1994 so by late 1996 the Sega Saturn was two years old hardware and Compile still had to limit themselves to making sure to use the 4.5MB of total "work ram" of a stock Sega Saturn, aka the reason why the ST-V and Sega Saturn versions slightly differ. I also feel that given how S.N.K.'s NeoGeo MVS/AES Puzzle Bubble 2 and 3 versions were very easily ported to Sega Saturn, this is a clue to Compile also holding back from really pushing some crazy 2d pixel sprite graphics potential and animation out of the Saturn version and probably sequels on ST-V and Saturn... plus, eventually the 4MB RAM Catridge not being fully supported outside Japan by a certain subsidiary branch really cut down the potential for game software evolving on ST-V and Sega Saturn... other than that... some advanced fluid animations, scaling, etc in pure 2d graphics could have been a thing because that whole "gamers preferred 3d" was just a myth... Nintendo 64 is different hardware... the port was made barely two years into the N64 market existence... so the fuzzy graphics as a issue may have been solved IF later pure 2d graphocs games had been made for it imo... especially as ROM Cartridge sizes grew larger but you also need the games to be widely marketed and purchased... so if this game was not well represented here in North American N64 back then, that was a real shame... especially given the 2d graphics potential that could have been tapped from N64.
Nice puzzle game! colorful graphics, cute and catchy sound! I enjoy some puzzle games from time to time, like "Super puzzle fighter 2 turbo" or even a other game call "Mouja" by Etona in 1996 on the arcade! the last one is very nice! it's like Puyo-Puyo with Yens! you have to combine different coins 50Y, 100Y, etc... to make bigger coins and finally make banknotes! really addictive!
I hope M2 did not threw some emulator routine check to VS Puyo Puyo SUN and the other bonus titles. I am still not able to play GG Aleste 3 outside of Aleste Collection because of that.
Few questions: was the track you made programmed or played? What did you use to make it? Do you have more? I program and play music so I’m always enthralled when hearing other peoples stuff. I mainly use FL Studio to program and Logic Pro X through a Korg Kross when I play.
It was played and I guess you could say programmed or at least the drum track was. I made this way back in the very early 2000s. I don't recall exactly what was used but I do know I used a midi keyboard, Yamaha XG midi format and Cakewalk sequencer would have been used. I did a few game tracks back in the very late 90s, early 2000s. Most are pretty bad. I'd say only a handful are any good, this Puyo Puyo 2 track being one of them.
@@besotoxicomusic I second this. Would love to hear more of your work! Everyone is always their toughest critic, bet some of your work is better than you think.
Pretty cool music track you composed, Mark! What software did you use? About the game itself to be honest I have yet to play it. I used to like a lot this kind of games but not so much these days.
Given that the Mega Drive Mini 2 only comes with a single controller I would have thought they'd concentrate on the single player mode for the game rather than versus.
This reminds me of Street Fighter III: Third Strike. For some reason, Capcom decided to rerecord the voiceworks with different voice actors (seiyū) for this (final) update. Why? Bests me. I would also like to know🤔
I hope the MD Mini 2 does well enough to warrant M2 porting Puyo SUN 100% to the Mega Drive (Versus SUN is a demo of a port they've been developing). Imagine if they use their technical muscles and fucking squeeze the entire PS1 and PC voice acting audio onto the thing. I mean, they pushed scaling onto the MD, so I can only hope they pull this kinda tech trickery.
@@RetroCore The Saturn and PC/PS1/N64 versions have different voice acting tracks for Incubus, Skeleton T and Rulue. The latter is considered the preferred version. Plus the MD Mini 2 version uses the Ketteiban versions of those voices
After some further research via getting the PC version to run on Steam Deck, I'm convinced that the performance issues may just be down to that old port agreeing less with some PC setups. I have the same 30fps issue on my laptop, just running the game as it is upon installation, but Steam Deck performance with the latest GE-Proton is much closer to, if not reaching, 60fps. To be honest, none of this surprises me, but it does prove that the PC version *can* still be just about the best experience all around with some tinkering.
So odd that an old game still has trouble on some modern PC set ups. It must have been pretty bad bcak in the day. This must be the Crysis of the Puzzle Game world 😊
Indeed, it's something I find uncommon among various old computer programs. At least I can thank Steam for having a very handy and *very* versatile controller configurator to make things easier to handle. Though for puzzle games you still could do far, FAR worse than keyboard too. XD
Thanks for showing the Megadrive Mini 2 version of this game. I think I preffer the original one, that you can play changing the idiom in options in Megadrive Mini 1. Much easier game that Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
Do you happen to have an MP3 of your song uploaded somewhere online? I would LOVE to add that track to my playlist. It's a banger! I'll make one by ripping the audio from the RU-vid vid if I have to lol. Pretty sure you won't mind, right?
Fully agree on the Mega Drive port. Was wholeheartedly disappointed that it was only VS. They did such an amazing job at recreating the sound style of the first two that it really blows to not have the whole game. Given how much they covered of it already, I want them to maybe try to make it anyway for the future and bring the entirety of said port over to the Mega Drive emulator on Switch in all of its glory. Would be a really cool surprise to end off its life cycle before its successor comes out. Might have been my favorite version if it was the entire game. Excluding it though, my hat may have to go off to the Saturn port simply because of its improvements and notable differences from the other versions. If I only count the ones in English, N64 version easily since you get the entire story, still has some nice bonus content and loads way quicker. If I want to count the best and quickest way to play the game at its fullest potential, Arcade load times are pretty difficult to compete with. Though, with a 60fps mod onto it as well besides the English patch, the Windows version is incredibly ideal in competing with that.
Ah yes, I own the Saturn version and played the GBC version on my Everdrive. Both are good games, but I feel like the cpu is way more cheap on the GBC, I breezed through the Saturn version in comparison. It's interesting that they made changes from the STV original though, seeing as they could have left it virtually unchanged, but it's nice that they did go the extra mile. The PC version is disappointing with its 30FPS cap, and I'm really curious why it even has that. Even a Windows 98 PC should have been capable of running a simple 2D game at 60fps, so I doubt it's a hardware issue. Also was the ending music composed with a Roland Sound Canvas? It has that type of sound to it.
Never in my life i heard about THIS Puyo Puyo, and i'm a fan of it but i feel like i will like it like any Puyo Puyo game. Also neat that the MD Mini 2 got a VS edition as a bonus game although hearing that M2 didn't have much time to produce it it's baffling to say the least. Really surprised the N64 version got it almost arcade perfect knowing...well how some developers screw it, the GBC is a good handheld play like it's expected for a puzzle game and the Windows one what a surprise that never came to the west. Really interested to try this game anytime thanks for showing this one Mark. Also nice composition Mark really liked it.
It's worth mentioning that the PS1 version is one of the very few games on the platform published by Sega, though a re-release and not the original version.
How could it be a re-release if there's no original release? The Ketteiban name is also on Tsuu, on all versions Tsuu that the PS1 got. I've heard the Ketteiban name is supposed to mean difficult, or complete, Mark here says it means something entirely different.
@@Bloodreign1 There's a version where the cover art has no border and no Sega logo (just Compile), and another with a border around the art (different from the Playstation the Best release) and has the Sega logo.
Puyo Puyo is wat harder to master than Tetris. I had a hard time getting the platinum trophy of Puyo Puyo Tetris. Winning against japanese players was very, very difficult. But in the end I got my platinum!
Used to play a lot of Puyo Puyo 2 and 3 on office Mame cab in the pre WFH days. I'm torn between my favourite out of them. The additional game modes and rules of the newer entries distract too much from the core gameplay. MegaDrive version could have been amazing with option to swap out the in-game voices for SFX. Vs CPU would be nice, but 2 player is where it really shines.
It was made so long ago back in 2002 or around then. I don't remember exactly what I used but it was most likely Cakewalk, a midi keyboard of some sort and Yamaha XG sound fonts.
@@RetroCore it's good enough to where the song has actually been stuck in my head for quite a while now. I've come back to this video now a few different times just to listen to your song. It's quite catchy!
Thinking about it, the English would be Definitive Version. It most definitely would not be Final Version as Final in Japanese is a different word. Kettei does mean decided or at least it does if the Suru verb is added.
@@RetroCore definitive is better, but I don’t think final is wrong. 決定 is often treated as a final decision and you don’t have to write 最終決定 to mean it always. Anyways, enjoyed the video. Keep it up!
Easy. Take the ROM file of the game from the Mega Drive Mini 2, flash it to a Mega Drive cartridge or flashcart, plug it into a real Mega Drive console, and there you go.
The Mega Drive 2 Mini version got me fantasising about what the Super 32X version could have been like. Too bad that the addon was a commercial failure and is difficult to program for.
Arcade is a very charming and has excellent pixel art with a high quality soundtrack to match. Saturn is a drastic improvement over coin op. N64 is the most castrated version on home consoles due to the ROM format like most content. PS1 is a missed opportunity. Windows 95 is halfway decent. GBC is a decent way to play on the road. Genesis is better than N64 and I would have played it in the late 90s.
I downloaded the English translation of the Windows version after failing to get Puyo Puyo 1's Windows 95 port working correctly. I couldn't tell what i was doing because it was all in Japanese, some parts of the download couldn't run on Windows 11 and my anit-virus didn't like it either so I gave up. It's an average port, not the best but probably the easiest to play these days through downloading the English version like I did. Aside from that, the Saturn and PlayStation are better, Windows clocks in at third place and then N64, Mega Drive and GBC. The N64 version is what I expected. Nintendo really screwed themselves over by completely ditching 2D. The Mega Drive version i feel could've been better. The character portraits could've been more than just blue during gameplay and Puyo Puyo Sun isn't a very demanding game, they likely could've fit it all in. As for the GBC, it's fine for what it is but it's ugly as sin, like it looks like some bootleg. The only well drawn piece of art is that od Draco in the intro. even Puyo Puyo 1 looked better on the Game Boy.
The Mega Drive version of Puyo Puyo Sun is very impressive since it started as a joke from Sega and M2 on "what about porting a saturn game to the mega drive?" But the joke went too far and so M2 decided to do that with Puyo Puyo SUN and the original plan was to make a full back-port, working with ex-compile developers and bringing the original illustratior of the old boxarts back for this but the reason the game wasn't fully back-ported was because Sega rushed M2 to finish it, they had most of the stuff already done, graphics, music and controls but they had to yet to work on the cutscenes, AI and some extra stuff so M2 asked Sega to give them two more months to finish the game (Since I believe the port was being worked in around 2-3 months?) but Sega said they had to finish it as soon as possible because they only had 1 month left before reaching deadline so what M2 did was packing what they have done so far and make it a 2 player game only and thus Futari de PuyoPuyo SUN or VS Puyo Puyo Sun exists now. If M2 had more time we could had the full game running on stock mega drive/genesis, thank you Sega 🥲
@@RetroCore Hoo boy I'll definitely buy it aswell but I doubt that Sega would do that in any moment, let alone letting M2 finish the whole port, the least I expect is for this to be added to the NSO Exapansion Pack Sega Genesis like how Nintendo did with Star Fox 2, first on the SNES mini and then on NSO
