A Blast From The Past! Saturn and PC El-Hazard game cutscenes!

[jockomegane]

I am always impressed by what the Japanese YouTube users upload.  In particular Hyadain's wonderful Dragon Quest-based songs and videos.  I also notice that there is a few Japanese El-Hazard fans posting videos.  Some are AMVs, while others are clips from the series, but most recently I found out that someone has posted the cutscenes from the El-Hazard game.

I remember years ago when those clips were posted on this message board.  I know that the old links are now broken.  It is indeed nice that the clips have resurfaced in this way.  Who knows, maybe this masquane fellow originally got the clips from the long-ago posting on this very message board.

So, with no further ado, here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/user/masquane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w6EmIeZX4w  <-- The Opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMIayYo7v4  <-- Nanami's entrance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAoPpEppac0  <-- Shortly after their arrival in El-Hazard, Makoto and Fujisawa meet Ishiel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN2rGWVadmA  <-- Makoto and company meet Princess Rune Venus for the first time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQK3Md4YQGg  <-- Makoto and Fujisawa set out on their journey with the assistance of Alliele.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdsoLWFOpJk  <-- Miz's introduction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dbbh4o5Bc   <-- Shayla-Shayla.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kvB6RueXNI   <-- Afura Mann.  I always get a kick out of this part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJNUGIMIMeU  <-- TV Ifurita.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSiBiA2PzAo  <-- The Priestesses relax at the Fountain Of Arliman.  Shayla-Shayla drinks, of course.  Part 1 of 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWnO503XT2A  <-- Part 2.  Miz complains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89A4xMv5jNo  <-- Part 3.  Ishiel.

Endings.  Slight spoilers for anyone who has not played the game through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29zWI7B2D_U  <-- Ending #1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJZ6SpP0jb0  <-- Ending #2.  My favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFV1M24X3D0  <-- Ending #3.



Oh well, that's my good deed on the message board for this month.  I hope everyone enjoys this trip down memory lane. 

Keep it real.

[Icy EyeG]

Great find! We have to keep this in mind for the new EHOL. 
Since it's from youtube, It'll be easy to embed the videos.
Why didn't we have this technology back in 2000-2002??   

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

I ripped those from the Saturn disc a long time ago; there is an old thread on it: http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/forum/index.php/topic,12.0.html (but none of those links work anymore.)  My intention years ago was to supply movie playback functionality in my PC conversion, but at the time a good movie player lib was hard to come by.  These days the Linux group has portable libs for pretty much every old and new format, so it's not really a problem anymore!  Lately I've been caught up in whether or not I want to update the old conversion (especially to "fix" it so it's more on-target with mainline El-Hazard plots instead of the deviations I made.)  If I got into that, MAYBE adding movies would be good, but there's still the problem of them being in Japanese.  I was originally planning to substitute English voice clips into the videos like I did the main game, but there's a few problems with that, such as plot-specific things (Shrine of Earth) and Ishiel (who does not have an English VA since she didn't exist in mainline EH.)

[jockomegane]

Rob,

A more "normal" El-Hazard and scenario would be interesting for the game, so long as the more free-wheeling conversion is still available. 

Though, you know, there are times when I played the game that I wondered if the adaptations to the game's plot and script were really all that far off the mark from the original game's story.

If you did went ahead with the game update, it would certainly be nice to do something with the cutscenes... but really, it wouldn't have to be anything too extensive.  Just a basic translation would probably do.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

It's not like INSANELY off the mark, but there were a few creative liberties taken.  It sort of made the game partially El-Hazard and partially spoof of other things.  I don't honestly remember my motivation for customization.  But since the game is fueled on scripts, really all the "work" required would be retooling some dialog.

As for the videos, that would still be a minor project ... for PROPER translation, we need a Japanese speaker.  For just a "basically the same thing" you could overlay audio.  But I still wouldn't have a VA for Ishiel unless I just pulled some "close enough" lines from another anime etc.

[jockomegane]

Rob,

Well there's always keeping Ishiel's Japanese dialog with some "helper" subtitles.  Just have a disclaimer saying that eventhough Ishiel is speaking another language, Makoto and company understand her just fine, and here's what she is saying.

Hey, sometimes you just gotta fake it.  ;-)