Please refer to the proper build in your post. For your convenience, a list of builds: -0701 -0718 -0801 -0826
0701 Different sound for SEGA. No intro text. Flora is Neer. Title Screen: Options: 0718 Normal SEGA sound, no intro text. Title Screen:
0812 There are some strange differences from the previous prototypes. For some reason, they renamed Ristar to Dexstar. This change was reverted for the final version, however. The introduction is in Engrish, and there is a line after the waking up scene which is removed in the final. Far out in the galaxy, Evil alien "Greedy" start Attacking surrounding planets. Even... The legendary hero Of the system is now in their hands... Now his son, 'Dexstar', Is trying to help him... (At this point, the whole "Ristar Wakes Up" scene commences.)
It seems like that one was a US version build while the others were JP version builds. The codes that don't work in the US version (e.g., FEEL) don't work in this one either. The others seem to support them.
Interesting that the header of the earliest ROM reads "VOLT - THE VOLTAGE". I'm assuming this was another name / identity for the main character that took place some time during the change from Feel to Ristar. It certainly explains that "RISTAR IS NOT VOLT!!" text found among unused stuff in one of the final ROMs though. = / I think it was the JP version, but can't be sure. If only Ristar Cluster was still up, I'd be able to check it up.. EDIT: Actually, the text is in the game even back as far as the earliest prototype here. It's at the end of the credits text in the Jul 01 proto (though is unused even in this version, as I didn't see it after having skipped levels using A + Start to view the credits), and reads: Code (Text): CAUTION! -... -RISTAR- IS NOT.. V O L T !! Interesting that the localisation team was going to change his name to Dexstar, too, but reverted it. I wonder if they thought the name "Ristar" wasn't appealing enough initially or something..?
0701 Areas within planet given names in the level select: Area 1 LIGHT PLAIN Area 2 DARK WOODS Area 3 RIHO IS COMING Area 1 BLUE WATER Area 2 LOST PALACE Area 3 OHSAT ATTACK Area 1 FLARE SURFACE Area 2 UNDER FACTORY Area 2 ADAHAN FALL Area 1 DU-DI-DA Area 2 DANCE-DANCE!! Area 3 AWAUECK SING Area 1 PURE WHITE Area 2 SPLASH SNOW Area 3 ITAMOR LUNCH Area 1 LAW? CHAOS? Area 2 BRAIN MAZE Area 3 URANIM POWER Area 1# KINGS TOWER INONIS DOLL SIEK KAISER!! Incidentally, I think pause + a/b may be the beginning to some sort of debug. I can only turn into a square though.
No idea if this is already known, but I figured I'd say it anyway. Pressing start then A, B, or C puts you in debug mode. Similar to Sonic's debug mode, you can move arond whereever you want. There are some other things you can do. Hold start in this mode and press A to complete the level, B to restart the level, and C to go to level select. This is in the 0701 build. It might work in the others, haven't checked. Edit: No, only in 0701.
The music isn't quite complete, for instance Star humming misses out all of its vocal sounds, and others seem to lack "background" too. The end credits (while we're at it) don't have all the Ristar animations dancing to the music, there's just one row of Ristars at the top walking. No skiing at the start of Freon.
Noticed a bit of a sprite change... 0701 0826 (So this was still taken in a beta, but it's the final sprite though...) Also note the differences in the Backgrounds too. Specifically towards the left, in the forest. You can see something that looks like a crystal of some sort, but in the later beta, it's removed.
The sprite differences in enemies and Ristar are all normal from the original to the US version.. they got the peaceful ones, we got the angry ones. Nothing new there, I'm afraid.
Planet name differences are the same as the sprite differences Crysta mentioned - all the planets were renamed during localisation of the US version. The names in most of these prototypes are consistant with the final JP version (the obvious exception being the Dexstar proto, which is from a point during the US localisation).
Again.. in the original, removed from the US release. I'd suggest everyone play the original Japanese Ristar for a while before posting anything, because there are a lot of (J) to (U) differences like these. Damn I wish the Ristar Cluster was still up..
This all makes me wonder why they bothered with all these stupid localization things anyways. None of the changes seem very significant.
They were probably under the misguided notion that if they made the game slightly less cute and more straightforward with its narration that it would attract more sales.
Yeah, that's one of the things that they did with Dynamite Headdy as well... speaking of which, I do still need to check them out!
