This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1962, and received his own title with Iron Man #1 in 1968. Shortly after his creation, Iron Man became a founding member of the superhero team, the Avengers, with Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk. Iron Man stories, individually and with the Avengers, have been published consistently since the character's creation.
Iron Man is the superhero persona of Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark, a businessman and engineer who runs the weapons manufacturing company Stark Industries. When Stark was captured in a war zone and sustained a serious heart wound, he built his Iron Man armor and escaped his captors. Iron Man's suits of armor grant him superhuman strength, flight, energy projection, and other abilities. The character was created in response to the Vietnam War as Lee's attempt to create a likeable pro-war character. Since his creation, Iron Man has been used to explore political themes, with early Iron Man stories being set in the Cold War. The character's role as a weapons manufacturer proved controversial, and Marvel moved away from geopolitics by the 1970s. Instead, the stories began exploring themes such as civil unrest, technological advancement, corporate espionage, alcoholism, and governmental authority.
Major Iron Man stories include "Demon in a Bottle" (1979), "Armor Wars" (1987–1988), "Extremis" (2005), and "Iron Man 2020" (2020). He is also a leading character in the company-wide stories Civil War (2006–2007), Dark Reign (2008–2009), and Civil War II (2016). Additional superhero characters have emerged from Iron Man's supporting cast, including James Rhodes as War Machine and Riri Williams as Ironheart, as well as reformed villains, Natasha Romanova as Black Widow and Clint Barton as Hawkeye. Iron Man's list of enemies includes his archenemy the Mandarin, many supervillains of communist origin, and many of Stark's business rivals.
Errol Flynn was used as a reference for Tony Stark's physical appearance
Following the success of the Fantastic Four in 1961 and the subsequent revival of American comic books featuring superheroes, Marvel Comics set about creating new superhero characters. Stan Lee developed the initial concept for Iron Man.[1] He wanted to design a character who should be unpalatable to his generally anti-war readers, but to make them like the character anyway.[2] Iron Man was created in the years after a permanent arms industry developed in the United States, and this was incorporated into the character's backstory.[3] The character was introduced as an active player in the Vietnam War. Lee described the national mood toward Vietnam during Iron Man's creation as "a time when most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil".[4]
Larry Lieber developed Iron Man's origin and wrote the first Iron Man story, while Jack Kirby and Don Heck were responsible for the initial design.[1][5] Lee modeled Iron Man after businessman Howard Hughes, invoking his physical appearance, his image as a businessman, and his reputation as an arrogant playboy.[6] Kirby and Heck then incorporated elements of the actor Errol Flynn's physical appearance in the design.[7] When first designing the character, Lee wanted to create a modernized Arthurian knight.[8] Kirby initially drew the Iron Man armor as a "round and clunky gray heap", and Heck modified the design to incorporate gadgets such as jets, drills, and suction cups.[9][10] The Iron Man character was created at a time when comic book characters were first depicted struggling with real life problems, and his heart injury was an early example of a superhero with a physical disability.[11]
Iron Man's earliest stories were published in the monster-themed anthology series Tales of Suspense. Marvel premiered several superheroes this way in the 1960s as superhero comics became more popular than traditional science-fiction and horror comics.[9][12] Iron Man's first appearance, "Iron Man is Born!", appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date.[12] Though the Iron Man armor was gray in its first appearance, Marvel changed it to gold because of issues with printing.[5] Lee initially delegated the writing duties to other creators at Marvel, but he felt their work was substandard; as with his other characters, Lee reclaimed control of Iron Man so he could write the stories himself.[13]
Heck continued as the primary Iron Man artist until 1965, as Kirby had obligations to other Marvel properties.[9][10] As part of a shuffling to match artists with the characters they were most suited for, Steve Ditko became the artist for Iron Man.[14] Ditko was responsible for only three issues in late 1963, but in this time he redesigned Iron Man's suit from fully gold to the red and gold color scheme that became the character's primary image.[15] Iron Man's recurring nemesis, the Mandarin, first appeared shortly after in Tales of Suspense #50 (1964).[16] By this time, the science-fiction and horror stories were phased out, and Tales of Suspense ran only Iron Man and Captain America stories.[12]
Once Marvel's distributor allowed the company more monthly releases, The Avengers (1963) was developed as a new comic book series.[17] Iron Man was one of the five characters who formed the titular superhero team.[18] By 1965, the difficulty of maintaining continuity between The Avengers and the members' solo titles prompted Lee to temporarily write the original cast out of The Avengers, including Iron Man.[19]
For the first five years of publication, Iron Man represented the United States in Cold War allegories.[4][20] Growing opposition to the American involvement in Vietnam prompted a shift in Iron Man's characterization, which was part of a larger push by Marvel in the late 1960s to be more apolitical.[4][21] Over the years, the letters to the editor column in several issues saw extensive political debate.[22] Lee shifted the stories' focus to espionage and domestic crime, incorporating Marvel's fictional intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. He also incorporated the villains of other Marvel heroes, avoiding Iron Man's primarily communist rogues' gallery and rewriting some of Iron Man's communist villains to have personal motivations independent of their communist allegiances.[23]
Iron Man was one of several characters whom Marvel gave a full-length dedicated series in 1968.[24] Marvel combined the final issues of Tales of Suspense and the Sub-Mariner's Tales to Astonish into a one-shot special, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner.[25]Iron Man then began its run under writer Archie Goodwin.[26] Goodwin reintroduced political themes slowly over the following years, with a focus on domestic issues like racial conflict and environmentalism rather than geopolitics.[27]
I don't feel Tony Stark is a dinosaur, a creature unable to change before the weight of time crushes him aside. Yeah, it is hard in 1977 to praise a millionaire industrialist, playboy and former munitions-manufacturer—but it isn't impossible to change that image. Which is what I plan to do.
When Goodwin became Marvel's editor-in-chief, he assigned Gerry Conway as the writer for Iron Man.[29] Conway was the first of several writers in a four-year effort to reform Iron Man, beginning in 1971, with stories that directly addressed the character's history as a weapons manufacturer.[30] These stories were especially prominent during a run by Mike Friedrich, in which corporate reform of Stark Industries was a recurring subplot.[31]
Iron Man was one of several Marvel characters who declined in popularity during the 1970s, and the series went a period of time without a dedicated writer until Bill Mantlo took over in 1977.[32] The following year, David Michelinie and Bob Layton took charge of the series, beginning with issue #116.[33][34] While inking the series, Layton used issues of GQ, Playboy, and electronics catalogues as visual references,[35] which he and Michelinie used to stay informed on developments in real world technology so the Iron Man armor would always be a more advanced version of what existed.[34] Layton was inspired by the vast collection of specialized outfits used by Batman when designing Iron Man's various armors.[36]
In Iron Man #117 and #118 (1978), Michelinie and Layton replaced many elements that developed over the series' run: they removed Iron Man's romantic interest Whitney Frost and Stark's robotic Life Model Decoy doubles, and they had Stark move to a different home.[37] They introduced Iron Man's new romantic interest, Bethany Cabe, as a feminist character who worked as his bodyguard.[38] The largest change they made was to make Iron Man an alcoholic, an unprecedented move for a major comic book hero, which led to the "Demon in a Bottle" story arc that ran from issues #120 to #128 (1979).[39] At the same time, they introduced the character Justin Hammer, who provided financial backing for several Iron Man villains.[40]
In the 1980s, writers for Iron Man focused on the character's role as a businessman, reflecting the economic changes associated with Reaganomics, and many of his challenges involved threats to his company.[41]Denny O'Neil was put in charge of Iron Man beginning with issue #158 (1982). His run explored Stark's psychology, having him relapse into alcoholism and suffer at the hands of business rival Obadiah Stane.[36] O'Neil wrote Stark out of the role entirely beginning with issue #170 (1983), having him temporarily retire as Iron Man and replacing him with his ally James Rhodes.[42] Stark was relegated as a side character until he returned to heroism in Iron Man #200 (1985).[43]
The 1987 "Armor Wars" story arc followed Iron Man as he reclaimed his technology, which Justin Hammer distributed to several villains.[44] This story blended the character's superhero and businessman aspects more directly when Stark sought legal recourse against his rivals.[41] Michelinie and Layton returned to the series with issue #211 (1986), and they again experimented with variations on the Iron Man armor.[45]
In 1990, Michelinie and Layton handed the series over to John Byrne, one of the most highly-regarded comic book writers at the time. He wrote three story arcs across twenty issues: "Armor Wars II" (which had already been announced by Michelinie and Layton), "The Dragon Seed Saga", and "War Games".[46] Byrne revisited Iron Man's opposition to communism but portrayed it as less of a threat,[47] and he rewrote Iron Man's origin to remove references to communism and the Vietnam War. He lost interest in the series by 1992 as his collaborators John Romita Jr. and Howard Mackie had moved on to other projects.[46] Iron Man's supporting character War Machine was spun off into his own comic book series in 1994.[48]
By the 1990s, the Iron Man series rejected broader ideology, and individualist values replaced Stark's allegiance to American democracy for its own sake. He remained anti-communist, reiterating his support for democracy and refusing to do business in China following the Tiannamen Square Massacre in 1989.[49] The absence of Cold War politics was not immediately replaced by another theme, and post-Cold War Iron Man stories often explored different ideas regarding technology for a short time before moving on.[50] When terrorism became more prominent in the public mind, writers shifted Iron Man's symbolism from anti-communism to anti-terrorism.[51]
As part of a company-wide reorganization in 1996, Marvel's major characters, including Iron Man, were given to former Marvel writers Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld in a profit-sharing agreement. Lee and Liefeld were given charge of the "Heroes Reborn" branding that renumbered Marvel's long-running periodicals at issue #1.[52] This new Iron Man series, labeled volume two, was set in an alternate universe created during the "Onslaught" event. It ran for thirteen issues, written by Lee and Scott Lobdell and drawn by Whilce Portacio.[53][54] The following year, Marvel introduced the "Heroes Return" event to bring the characters back from the alternate universe, which again reset characters such as Iron Man to issue #1.[55][56]Kurt Busiek beamce the writer for volume three while Sean Chen was the artist.[53][57]
When the Ultimate Marvel imprint was created with reimagined versions of Marvel's characters, an alternate Iron Man appeared in 2002 with the Ultimates, the imprint's adaptation of the Avengers.[58] Marvel released a five issue limited series, Ultimate Iron Man, featuring this character in 2005.[59]
Iron Man represented an attempt to define what a superhero was in the 21st century, following the September 11 attacks, implicitly likening the fear of terrorism to the fear of unregulated super-powered beings.[60] In 2004, Iron Man was a major character in the Avengers Disassembled event and subsequently became a founding member of the New Avengers.[61]Iron Man volume four began in 2005,[53] with Warren Ellis as the writer and Adi Granov as the artist. Its first story arc, "Extremis", saw Iron Man upgrade his body directly through the Extremis virus, giving him direct control over a biological armor.[59] The volume's first 14 issues carried the Iron Man title, while issues #15–32 (2007–2008) were titled Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.[53]
Iron Man led the pro-registration faction during the 2006 Civil War crossover event by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.[62] In an allegory for the Patriot Act and government surveillance, Iron Man's pro-registration faction represented conservative support for government surveillance in the name of security and stood against Captain America's anti-registration faction that represented individualism and liberal opposition to government surveillance.[63] Iron Man believed in pragmatically choosing the lesser of two evils, whereas Captain America held an idealist approach, and both held these positions at great personal cost.[64] While Marvel was neutral between the characters, readers overwhelmingly saw Iron Man as the villain, being the stronger force that the underdog had to overcome.[65][66]
The Iron Man series reverted to the original numbering in 2011, when the overall 500th issue was published as Iron Man #500.[53] A concurrent series, Iron Man Legacy by Fred Van Lente, launched in 2010 leading up to the release of the film Iron Man 2.[70] Iron Man was then one of several characters whose series was relaunched at issue #1 with the Marvel Now! branding following the 2012 Avengers vs. X-Men event,[71] written by Kieron Gillen.[72] The 2014 "AXIS" event led into the Superior Iron Man series by Tom Taylor, featuring Iron Man with a new reversed personality.[73]
A new Invincible Iron Man run written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by David Marquez began in 2015.[74] A simultaneous Iron Man series, International Iron Man, ran for seven issues in 2016 under Marvel's All-New, All-Different Marvel branding, also by Bendis. This series was meant to ensure Iron Man's status as a major character as All-New, All Different developed.[75] A second Civil War event in 2016 portrayed Iron Man as an advocate of free will against Captain Marvel's determinism.[76]
As part of a broader trend by Marvel Comics to substitute its main characters with a diverse cast of original characters in the 2010s, Iron Man was temporarily replaced by Ironheart, a teenaged African-American girl who reverse engineered the Iron Man armor, in 2016.[77] At the same time, the series Infamous Iron Man began publication with Dr. Doom as Iron Man.[78]
The series Tony Stark: Iron Man premiered in 2018 with the Fresh Start branding, written by Dan Slott and drawn by Valerio Schiti.[79] In 2020, Iron Man was relaunched in a new series, written by Christopher Cantwell and illustrated by CAFU, following the "Iron Man 2020" event. This series moved away from the developments and deviations made to Stark's character introduced over the previous years—including the more extravagant science fiction and soap opera plots—creating a clean slate for new story arcs in a traditional superhero setting.[80] The character was relaunched again in 2022 with Invincible Iron Man, written by Gerry Duggan and illustrated by Juan Frigeri.[81]
Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963): Iron Man debuts. Cover art by Jack Kirby and Don Heck
Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark was born in Long Island, New York. As a child, he inherited his family's business, Stark Industries, when his parents were killed in a car crash.[82] Developing equipment for the U.S. military, he travels to a war zone to conduct a weapons test when he triggers a booby trap. His heart is critically injured by shrapnel, and he is captured by the communist Wong-Chu, who demands Stark build him a weapon. Stark instead builds a suit of armor that sustains his heart, becoming Iron Man.[15][9] The war zone Stark visited was changed retroactively multiple times by different writers to correspond with the character's age, which is explained by a "sliding scale of continuity" in which the timing of significant events in the world of Marvel may change. This conflict was the Vietnam War for the first decades of Iron Man's publication history.
Lunar: Eternal Blue[b] is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts in association with Studio Alex for the Sega CD as the sequel to Lunar: The Silver Star. The game was originally released in December 1994 in Japan, and later in North America in September 1995 by Working Designs. Eternal Blue expanded the story and gameplay of its predecessor, and made more use of the Sega CD's hardware, including more detailed graphics, longer, more elaborate animated cutscenes, and more extensive use of voice acting. Critics were mostly pleased with the title, giving particular merit to the game's English translation and further expansion of the role-playing game genre in CD format.
Set one thousand years after the events of The Silver Star, the game follows the adventure of Hiro, a young explorer and adventurer who meets Lucia, visitor from the far-away Blue Star, becoming entangled in her mission to stop Zophar, an evil, all-powerful being, from destroying the world. During their journey across the world of Lunar, Hiro and Lucia are joined by an ever-expanding cast of supporting characters, including some from its predecessor. Eternal Blue was remade in 1998 as Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, published by Kadokawa Shoten for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, with the latter version localized and published in North America by Working Designs.
Lunar: Eternal Blue is a traditional role-playing video game featuring two-dimensional character sprites and backgrounds. The game is presented from a top-down perspective with players moving the characters across numerous fantasy environments while completing story-based scenarios and battling enemy monsters. While basic game function remains similar to Lunar: The Silver Star, with story segments being presented as both on-screen text and animated cutscenes, the abundance of these interludes has been increased to over fifty minutes of movie content and an hour of spoken dialogue. Players advance the story by taking part in quests and interacting with non-player characters, which engages them in the story as well as providing tips on how to advance.[1]
Battles in Eternal Blue take place randomly within dungeons and other hostile areas of the game. While in a battle sequence, players defeat enemy monsters either by using standard attacks or magic, with combat ending by defeating all enemies present. In order to attack an enemy, a character must first position themselves near their target by moving across the field, or by using a ranged attack to strike from a distance. The battle system has been enhanced from The Silver Star by including the option to position characters throughout the field beforehand, as well as a more sophisticated AI attack setting that allows the characters to act on their own.[2] Characters improve and grow stronger by defeating enemies, thereby gaining experience points that allow them to gain levels and face progressively more powerful enemies as the game advances. The player is awarded special "magic points" after combat that can be used to empower a particular character's magical attack, giving them access to new, more powerful skills with a variety of uses in and out of battle. Players can record their progress at any time during gameplay by saving to either the Sega CD's internal RAM, or on a separately purchased RAM cartridge that fits into the accompanying Sega Genesis.[3] In order to save at any time, magic experience points equal to Hiro's level × 15 is required in the North American version.[4]
The character of Lunar; Eternal Blue were designed by artist and Lunar veteran Toshiyuki Kubooka.
Hiro – a young man and would-be explorer who is skilled with a sword and boomerangs
Ruby – a pink, winged cat-like creature with a crush on Hiro who claims to be a baby red dragon
Gwyn – Hiro's adoptive grandfather, and an archaeologist
Lucia – a mysterious and soft-spoken girl from the Blue Star who is skilled with magic and mostly naive of the world's customs
Ronfar – a priest-turned-gambler with healing skills
Lemina – money-grubbing heiress to the position of head of the world's highest magic guild
Jean – a traveling dancer with a hidden past as a prisoner forced to use a deadly form of martial arts against innocent people
Leo – captain of Althena's guard and servant of the goddess.[5]
While the cast's primary personalities remained intact for the English release, some changes such as colorful language, jokes, and double entendres were added to their speech to make the game more comical.
Primary supporting characters include the servants of the Goddess Althena, the creator of Lunar thought to have vanished centuries ago who suddenly appeared in mortal form to lead her people.
Borgan – an obese, self-absorbed magician with his eyes on the seat of power in the magic guild
Lunn – a martial artist and Jean's former instructor
Mauri – Leo's sister and Ronfar's love interest.[6]
Ghaleon (the primary villain killed in the previous game) - the current Dragonmaster, Althena's champion, and supposed protector of the world. His final end reveals that he regrets the evil he committed and does what he can to aid Hiro.
Zophar – the game's principal villain, a long-dormant evil spirit who is attempting to destroy and recreate the world to his tastes. Although his voice is heard numerous times, he remains faceless until the final battle.[6]
The plot of Lunar: Eternal Blue was written by novelist Kei Shigema, who previously conceived the story for The Silver Star. Working together with new world-designer Hajime Satou, Shigema intended to craft a story that would continue where the previous game ended, while also giving players a thoroughly new experience that would elaborate on the history and mythos of the Lunar world.
On Lunar, Hiro and Ruby are exploring an ancient ruin where they collect a large gem, The Dragon's Eye. Removing it sets off a trap and they flee as the temple collapses and monsters chase them. On their way back to their home they meet the White Knight Leo, captain of Althena's guard, who warns them of a person arriving that is prophesied to destroy the world, known as the "Destroyer". Despite these rumors in the land, Hiro, Ruby and Gwyn investigate a strange light that descended upon the mysterious Blue Spire tower. They use the Dragon's Eye to unlock the tower. There they meet the beautiful Lucia, who asks to be taken to see the goddess Althena in order to avert the destruction of Lunar. Zophar, an evil disembodied spirit, appears and drains Lucia of all her magic powers. The group travels to convince the former-priest of Althena, Ronfar, to heal her. After being healed, Lucia travels alone on her quest to find Althena.
Hiro, Ronfar and Ruby grow concerned about Lucia and follow her. They witness Lucia being abducted by Leo, who believes her to be the destroyer. They rescue her from Leo's ship, The Dragonship Destiny, and escape into a forest where they meet the dancer Jean, who is traveling with a circus group. Jean helps them escape the forest. Lucia does not understand human culture and often finds human behavior strange. As they travel she starts to learn about humanity and grows fond of people. Joined along the way by Lemina, the group travel across mountains and forests to reach Pentagulia, Althena's holy city.
Lucia demands to see Althena. But when she meets the woman who claims to be Althena, Lucia determines her to be an imposter. After a brief fight, the group is separated and thrown into the palace dungeons. The party is freed and joined by Leo, whose faith in the goddess was shaken by Althena's recent actions. The group determines to thwart Ghaleon, the self-proclaimed Dragonmaster who is supporting the false Althena, by returning the power he took from the four dragons. The heroes begin a journey to visit the four dragons and free them. As they travel, Lemina, Ronfar, Jean, and Leo each confront one of Althena's strongest heroes, redeeming their past lives that they have been running away from.
The revived dragons, including Ruby, attack the false Althena's stronghold, where she is transformed into a demonic monster that the group defeat. At the pinnacle of the battle, the group learns that the true Althena gave up her godhood after falling in love with a human. Lucia absorbs Althena's power in order to destroy Zophar, but hesitates as this could destroy all magic and Lunar itself. Lucia is then captured by Zophar who drains her power. Lucia uses the last of her magic to teleport Hiro and the others to safety. The group trains to fight Zophar. Ghaleon appears and gives Hiro his sword, explaining that he had to appear to be an enemy but wishes to atone for his past actions (i.e., as the villain of the first game).
The group work together and defeat Zophar using their human strengths, thus freeing Lucia and restoring peace. Lucia returns to her home on the Blue Star, hoping that she can one day entrust the Blue Star to humans based on what she witnessed on Lunar. Having fallen in love with Lucia, Hiro is heartbroken by her departure. In the epilogue, Hiro and the group reunite to help Hiro go to the Blue Star to be reunited with Lucia. Hiro succeeds, and the two look towards a bright future for humanity.
Lunar: Eternal Blue was developed by Game Arts and Studio Alex, with project director Yoichi Miyagi returning to oversee the production of the new game. According to scenario writer Kei Shigema, the game's concept of an oppressive god came from the image of Sun Wukong, hero of the Chinese epic Journey to the West, being unable to escape from the gigantic palm of the Buddha.[7] Shigema stated that "it was a picture showing the arrogance of a god who is saying, 'In the end, you pathetic humans are in my hands.' The moment I understood that, I thought, 'Oh, I definitely want to do this,' it'll definitely match perfectly. So we used it just like that."[8]Eternal Blue took three years and over US$2.5 million to produce, and contains twice as much dialogue as its precessor.[9] The game's development team originally wanted the game to be set only a few years after The Silver Star, and would feature slightly older versions of the previous cast along with the new characters, yet discarded the idea when they thought the new cast would lose focus.[10] Like its predecessor, the game contains animated interludes to help tell the game's story, which were developed in-house with Toshiyuki Kubooka serving as animation director. While The Silver Star contained only ten minutes of partially voiced animation, Eternal Blue features nearly fifty minutes of fully voiced video content.[11]
The game's North American version was translated and published by Working Designs, who had previously produced the English release of The Silver Star. Headed by company president Victor Ireland, the game's script contains the same light humor of the original, with references to American pop culture, word play, and breaking of the fourth wall not seen in the Japanese version. Working closely with the staff at Game Arts, Working Designs implemented design and balance fixes into the American release, including altering the difficulty of some battles that were found to be "near impossible".[12] Finding little risk in the ability to save the game anywhere, Ireland's team added a "cost" component to the game's save feature, where players would have to spend points earned after battles to record their progress, remarking that "[We] wanted to make the player think about where and when to save without making it too burdensome."[13] In addition, Working Designs implemented the ability for the game to remember the last action selected by the player during combat, allowing them to use the same command the next round without having to manually select it.[9] Like The Silver Star, the North American version of Eternal Blue featured an embossed instruction manual cover.
The soundtrack for Lunar: Eternal Blue was composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, who had previously co-produced the music for Lunar: The Silver Star. The game utilizes studio-quality Red Book audio for one of the two vocal songs. (Both are CD tracks in the US version.) Every other piece of music was encoded into 16 kHz PCM files. Dialogue and certain ambient effects also used the PCM format. Most sound effects were generated through the Sega Genesis sound processor.[14] Along with music director Isao Mizoguchi, Iwadare's goal was to produce music that contained "a high degree of originality" when compared to both the previous game and role-playing games in general.[15] While the original game's music represented a number of styles and genres, Iwadare purposefully narrowed his range of composition to give the songs a unified feel.[15] The English version contains an original title not found in the Japanese release, named the "Star Dragon Theme". It was used as the BGM for the Star Tower dungeon.[11] The game's ending theme, "Eternal Blue ~Thoughts of Eternity~" (ETERNAL BLUE) performed by Chisa Yokoyama, is one of Iwadare's favorite compositions.[16] An official soundtrack featuring selected tracks from the game was released in Japan on February 22, 1995, by Toshiba-EMI Records.[14]
Lunar: Eternal Blue Original Soundtrack track list
Lunar: Eternal Blue features spoken dialogue during cutscenes and specific points in the game's script. While The Silver Star contained only fifteen minutes of voiced content, Eternal Blue features over an hour and a half of pre-recorded speech.[18] The game's cast consists of fifteen voiced roles, with the original Japanese version featuring veteran anime and video game actors, including Rokurō Naya returning as Ghaleon. For the game's English version, Working Designs hired friends and staff of the game's production crew, many of whom had worked on previous projects with the company. John Truitt also reprises his role as Ghaleon, and is joined by a number of new cast members to the Lunar series, many of which would return in future games.[19]
The Japanese release of Eternal Blue was preceded by a spoken drama album called Lunar: Eternal Blue Prelude in June 1994 featuring the game's future voice cast performing skits and songs in-character to promote the game.[20] When the game was released the following December, it was packaged with an 8 cm music disc called the Lunar: Eternal Blue Premium CD featuring short conversations by Lucia and Lemina, as well as in-character theme songs.[21] In the months following the game's release, a two-volume drama album set featuring an expanded cast titled Lunatic Parade would be released by Toshiba-EMI records in June[22] and September 1995.[23]
Lunar: Eternal Blue Prelude track list
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Prologue: Eternal Blue Prologue"
8:16
2.
"Chapter One: Sea of Sand"
4:14
3.
"Chapter Two: Oasis"
8:12
4.
"Chapter Three: Ghost Valley"
4:25
5.
"Chapter Four: Ghost"
3:20
6.
"Chapter Five: Camp"
3:41
7.
"Althena's Song – Distant Journey" (vocal by Kikuko Inoue as Luna)
6:34
8.
"Chapter Six: Black Knight"
5:59
9.
"Ending"
1:52
10.
"Lucia's Image Song – Rondo of Light and Shadow" (vocal by Chisa Yokoyama as Lucia)
Lunar: Eternal Blue sold well in Japan despite an estimated retail price of JPY¥9,900, nearly the equivalent of US$100 in 1994.[9] The game would go on to sell fewer copies than its predecessor, Lunar: The Silver Star, yet still became the second-highest selling Sega-CD game in Japan and third highest selling worldwide.[31]Eternal Blue received a score of 30 out of 40 in Japanese magazine Megadrive Beep!,[32] with fellow Sega publication Megadrive Fan calling the game "fun" and featuring an official manga strip written by scenario writer Kei Shigema over the next several months.[33]
The game experienced relatively low sales during its release in North America, which Victor Ireland attributed to both the rise of 32-bit game consoles such as the Sega Saturn and PlayStation, and widespread media declaration of the Sega-CD's "death" in the video game market in 1995.[13] Its English release met with a favorable response, with GamePro remarking that "Eternal Blue could appear to some as 'just another RPG,' but the epic scope, appealing characters, and excellent cinematics make it much more," yet found the game's linear story progression to be its low point.[34]Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's "great story and witty characters", adding that "the all-important, usually absent ingredient is there: fun".[25] They awarded it as the Best Sega Mega-CD Game of 1995.[35] In their review, Game Players found the game's larger scope and expanded features made it less enjoyable than its predecessor, saying "it's a better game, it's just not quite as much fun. [We] still liked it, a lot, and it's definitely recommended, but it feels like something's been lost."[30]Next Generation Magazine echoed this sentiment, remarking that "overall it's a much stronger game, but you can't help feeling something missing", yet maintained that the game's storyline was "decidedly less goofy, with more of an emphasis on drama and storyline."[28]
When asked if he approved of the game's reviews, Ireland replied that they were "overall in the ballpark" from what he expected, with the exception of a portion of a review from GameFan.[13] In an earlier preview of the English version, editors of GameFan called the game's translation "ingeniously written",[36] which was quoted in an Eternal Blue print advertisement that appeared in several magazines up to the game's release. When the editors reviewed the final version, however, they questioned the game's frequent use of jokes and lewd quips in place of the original Japanese narrative[26] which Ireland described as "a complete about-face".[13] Despite their problems with portions of the translation, the magazine would still regard the majority of the game's "non-joke-laden" script as "excellent", and awarded the game a 91% rating, calling it "one of the greatest epics ever programmed".[26]
In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked Lunar: Eternal Blue the 40th best console video game of all time, remarking that "Despite some gamers' claims of the dialogue being a bit too witty in Lunar 2, the game itself is fantastic. The story is compelling, the music is great and the voice acting and animation are all top-notch."[37]Retro Gamer included Eternal Blue among top ten Mega CD games.[38]
In July 1998, Game Arts released a remake to Eternal Blue, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete for the Sega Saturn, with a PlayStation version available the following year. Like the remake of The Silver Star, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, the new version of Eternal Blue features updated graphics, re-arranged audio, and more robust animated sequences by Studio Gonzo, as well as an expanded script.[39] This version would be released in North America in 2000 once again by Working Designs in the form of an elaborate collector's edition package that includes a soundtrack CD, "making of" bonus disc, game map, and a special omake box complete with Eternal Blue collectibles.[40]
Legend of Mana[Note 2] is a 1999 action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the PlayStation. It was the fourth game released in the Mana series, following 1995's Trials of Mana. Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows an unnamed hero as they restore the land of Fa'Diel by creating the world around them and completing a number of interrelated quests in order to restore the Tree of Mana.
While incorporating action role-playing elements from the prior games in the series, such as real-time battles, Legend of Mana has its own distinct style of gameplay. Most notably, it gives the player the ability to shape the world's structure through the Land Make system, generating regions and quests in a non-linear gameplay system rather than a strong main plotline. Legend of Mana was directed by series creator Koichi Ishii, designed by Akihiko Matsui, and produced by veteran Square director and producer Akitoshi Kawazu.
The game had high sales, selling 400,000 copies in its first week of release and 700,000 by the end of 1999. Reviews were less positive than for prior games in the series. Critics gave considerable acclaim to its vibrant and colorful hand-drawn graphics and soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura, but were critical of the lack of a clear main storyline, stating that it left the game feeling disjointed. The game was re-released as a part of both the PlayStation's and Square Enix's best-sellers lines. It was released as a PSOne Classic in Japan and North America. A remastered version was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows on June 24, 2021 and for Android and iOS on December 7, 2021. An anime adaptation by Yokohama Animation Laboratory and Graphinica titled Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal aired from October to December 2022.
A boss battle featuring the protagonist and a Rabite pet. The party's health and special move meter is shown in the gauges at the top, and the enemy's health is shown in the bar at the bottom.
Like previous games in the Mana series, Legend of Mana displays an angled top-down perspective, in which the player characters navigate the terrain and fight off hostile creatures. The player controls the unnamed main character, and is assisted by up to two companions. One of these companions is an optional support character, which depends on what quest the player is performing, while another companion can be chosen by the player out of a roster of monsters, pets, and golems. Both companions are typically controlled by the game's AI, though a second player can take control of the support character, or load in their own character from a different save file, if present.[1] The main character and companions each have their own set of numerical attributes including hit points and strength, which represent the amount of damage the player can take or cause. These stats grow whenever the player advances a level, after gaining enough experience points from battle with enemies.[2]
Battles occur when the player character encounters an enemy while traversing the world. Combat takes place in real-time, and in the location the player found the enemy rather than a separate battle screen. The main character can equip a variety of weapons, armors, and accessories. Weapons let the player perform abilities in combat. Referred to as Special Techs, these abilities are powerful attacks by the main characters and support characters that can be used when the special move meter is full. This meter fills as the player damages enemies. Each weapon, such as a sword or spear, has a set number of special attacks to learn, which can hit single or multiple targets and can be assigned to different buttons on the controller.[2]
Legend of Mana, unlike previous games in the Mana series, does not feature a set journey through a fixed world. Instead, it features a unique "Land Make" system where the player generates the structure of the game world by placing objects, named Artifacts, on empty square plots on a map. This map takes the form of a grid of spaces presented in an isometric viewpoint on a map screen. When an Artifact is placed in a space on the map, it creates a Land, and the player can enter that Land by selecting the position on the map. Adjacent Lands are not connected; to move from one land to another the player must first return to the map screen. Different Lands are generated from different Artifacts, each containing a quest which upon completion usually gives the player another Artifact to place.[3] Lands can also contain additional quests. Each Land is ranked from 0 (no presence) to 3 (strong presence) in its strength in each Spirit of Mana; this in turn causes magic of that element to be stronger in that Land.[4] The strength of the rankings is dependent on the Artifact, its position on the Map, and the rankings of adjacent Lands. Many locations have non-player characters who give quests and information or sell equipment. Other areas feature enemies and bosses with which the player can battle.[1]
In addition to the main game, after certain quests are completed Legend of Mana gives the player the option to delve into optional gameplay aspects centered around the hero or heroine's house. The player can forge or improve weapons and armor using raw materials found throughout the game, or combine equipment with items to change their power or add special effects. They can grow different types of fruit in the orchard, raise pets to use as adventuring companions, create items, and build golems.[4] Pets can also be raised with the Japan-only PocketStation peripheral, and two players can battle each other in an arena.[5][6]
The world map as presented in the Land Make system. Eight locations are shown; the rankings for each Spirit of Mana for the selected artifact are shown below the map.
Legend of Mana is set in the fictional world of Fa'Diel. The Mana Tree, the giver of mana and life for the world, burned down almost entirely nine centuries prior to the events of the game. A war erupted between faeries, human, and others seeking the scarce power of mana that was left. When the war concluded, the burnt Mana Tree slept as it regrew and the many lands of the world were stored in ancient artifacts.[7] A hero, controlled by the player, is self-charged with restoring the world, and mana, to its former self. The Lands of Fa'Diel are populated with a large number of different creatures, including humans, faeries, demons, the jewel-hearted Jumi race, plant-like Sproutlings and Flowerlings, miner bears called Dudbears, and shadowy beings of the Underworld known as Shadoles. Fa'Diel is also the home of a host of anthropomorphic animals and objects, as well as monsters from other Mana titles such as Rabites, Chobin Hoods, and Goblins. The player controls the protagonist of the game, who is either a male or female silent protagonist. The character is unnamed and no information is given about their past; their history and personality is meant to be determined by the player.[8]
Rather than a single, overarching plot, the story of Legend of Mana is composed of a multitude of quests split into three main quest arcs, numerous other quests, and a final quest arc. Each main quest arc contains optional side-quests in addition to the main quests. Whenever the player completes the required portions of one of the quest arcs they are allowed to begin the final arc and finish the game, even if the other arcs have not yet been started or completed. The three main quest arcs prior to the final arc are: the Jumi arc, the Larc and Sierra arc, and the Matilda and Irwin arc.[9]
The first main arc is the story of the Jumi, a dying race of people who have external jewel hearts which are considered valuable. The Jumi have long been a persecuted people, and many magic characters in this game refer to them as "dirt" as a pejorative on their jewel cores. This branch focuses on Elazul and Pearl, who are among the few survivors of the Jumi. Elazul is a Jumi Knight, and the mission of his life is to protect the Jumi Guardian Pearl at any cost, even in the face of the jewel hunter, Sandra. The player assists them in helping the Jumi.[10][11]
The second arc is the story of Larc and Sierra—brother and sister dragoons who serve different dragon masters and fight on opposite sides of the same war for power. Larc serves the dragon Drakonis, who wants to kill the other three dragons so that he can rule the world. Larc blackmails the game's protagonist to help him in this quest. Sierra, a dragoon for Vadise the White Dragon, wants to stop Drakonis without hurting her brother Larc. In the end, Drakonis is defeated again and banished to the underworld, and Larc is freed from Drakonis' rule.
The third arc is the complicated love story of four childhood friends: Matilda, Irwin, Daena and Escad. Irwin is a half-demon who is angry that society prevents him from a relationship with the holy leader Matilda, and seeks to destroy the world in retribution. Escad seeks to destroy Irwin, and Daena tries to act as a mediator between all parties while keeping Matilda away from Irwin. The conflict eventually escalates into a war between humans and faeries. Depending on the choices of the player, either Daena or Escad will die, while the player helps bring an end to the conflict.
Regardless of which path(s) the hero decides to take, they begin the game's final story, titled "Legend of Mana". This arc concerns the re-appearance of the Mana Tree. The player journeys to the Mana Tree and scales it, but upon reaching the top they find that the Mana Goddess has become corrupted and the tree is rotten. The player is forced to fight the Mana Goddess, and after winning a Sproutling plants itself in the Mana Tree's rotten trunk. Calling upon the other Sproutlings to join them, they restore the Mana Tree.
Legend of Mana was directed by Mana series creator Koichi Ishii, who had worked on the three previous games in the series. Many of the other developers were new to the series, including producer Akitoshi Kawazu, the director and producer of many games in Square's SaGa series, and designer Akihiko Matsui, who had been the director for Chrono Trigger. The game's character designs and illustrations were done by Shinichi Kameoka. Retro Gamer, in 2011, stated that although Ishii kept the game tied to previous titles in the series by reusing gameplay elements, Kawazu had a heavy influence on the gameplay design of the game.[12]
Legend of Mana was designed as a 2D game, despite the PlayStation's 3D-focus, as the console could not handle the full 3D world Ishii envisioned where one could interact with natural shaped objects.[13] Kawazu initially let Ishii have a relaxed schedule and budget, as Ishii had a great number of ideas he wanted in the game, but when the project began to get out of control and out of time Kawazu tightened down the rest of the development schedule and convinced the Square executives to delay the game by two months—even though it had already been announced to the public—to allow it to be completed as Ishii envisioned. Content such as numerous character sprites and item game mechanics had to be scrapped for the sake of fitting the whole game on one CD-ROM.[14] Kawazu has said that this experience taught him that his true skill in game development lay in working as a producer.[15]
Legend of Mana was first announced by Square in March 1999 just before its debut at the Tokyo Game Show.[16] The game was released in Japan in July 1999 with considerable hype, packaged with demos of Square's future releases Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, Front Mission 3, and Threads of Fate.[17] It was planned to be released in North America alongside the July and August 2000 releases of Chrono Cross and Threads of Fate, but was instead released early on June 6.[18][19]
The original score for Legend of Mana was composed, arranged, and produced by Yoko Shimomura.[20] Shimomura was a newcomer to the series; the previous two Mana games were scored by Hiroki Kikuta, and the first by Kenji Ito.[21] Shimomura said in 2002 that she considered the soundtrack to Legend of Mana to be the one that best expresses herself.[22] She claims that she prefers "passionate music that comes from the heart", and that she has to "feel the emotions of a piece in the extreme before I am able to write" the music by putting herself in the same mood as the piece is supposed to be in. Legend of Mana featured the first vocal track of any Mana game, "Song of Mana", which also serves as the game's opening theme. It was sung by Swedish vocalist Annika Ljungberg, who was chosen by Shimomura because she "wanted to stay away from working with someone popular that everyone already knows". After hearing a sample of Ljungberg's music, she flew to Sweden "straight away" to do an analog recording of the song.[20]
The 1999 soundtrack album Seiken Densetsu / Legend of Mana Original Soundtrack collects 55 tracks of music from Legend of Mana on two discs. The music covers many styles including piano, hard rock, and electronic music. The soundtrack was published by DigiCube, and was reprinted by Square Enix in 2004.[23] The album reached #65 on the Japanese Oricon music charts and stayed on the charts for two weeks.[24] "Song of Mana" was later made available on the Square Vocal Collection album in 2001.[23] Four of the game's tracks were released as part of Drammatica: The Very Best Works of Yoko Shimomura, an album of arrangements highlighting the composer's work.[25]
Upon the game's Japanese release, several promotional items were made available from Square, including stuffed toy dolls of the rabite enemy and mascot of the series, a necklace, and lighters.[26][27] As a promotion for Square's "Summer of Adventure" release schedule in 2000, which the North American release of the game was a part of, those who preordered the game were given a free music CD with select tracks from the game.[28]Legend of Mana was re-released in Japan late in 2000 as part of the Square Millennium Collection at a budget price along with a special music box and two character figurines.[29] A companion book titled Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana Ultimania including artwork and interviews was released as part of Square's Ultimania series. It was published by DigiCube in 1999 and later reprinted by Square Enix in 2004 after the subsidiary's closing.[30] An artbook, Legend of Mana: Making of Mana, was published in 2000 by ASCII.[31] A five-volume manga series, created by Shiro Amano, was published between 2000 and 2002.[32]
In Japan, Legend of Mana was a bestseller at the time of release,[41] and sold over 400,000 units in its first week alone as the highest-selling release that week in Japan.[42] By the end of the year, it had sold over 700,000 copies in Japan.[43][44]Legend of Mana was also the top selling PlayStation game during the week of its release in North America.[45]
Legend of Mana received mixed reviews from critics.[33] The game's presentation was almost universally praised, especially its use of vibrant and colorful hand-drawn graphics. David Smith of IGN claimed that the graphics were one of the game's best points, and RPGamer's Andrew P. Bilyk noted that the visuals "may be the most impressive two-dimensional graphics ever to grace an RPG".[2][38] Andrew Pfister of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised them even more, calling them "the most impressive 2D artwork ever seen on a console".[46] Damian Thomas's RPGFan review likened the graphics to Disney animation for having "a very storybook, cutesy cartoony feel to them", while Andrew Vestal of GameSpot said that the graphics were some of the most lush and ornate 2D graphics ever made.[3][47] The game won an award for best graphics at the 4th Japan Game Awards from the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association.[48] The music in Legend of Mana was also a high point in many reviews; the reviewers for Electronic Gaming Monthly called it "fantastic" and "wonderful".[46] Smith of IGN's review stated that the soundtrack is "as good as any you'll hear today" with a good mix of intensity, suspense, and subtle nuance, and Vestal of GameSpot termed it "excellently orchestrated" and a perfect fit for the game in each environment.[3][38]
Much of the game's criticism stemmed from its substitution of mostly unrelated quests over a main storyline. GamePro, while praising the Land Make system, found that the "focus of Legend of Mana is obscured by the over-abundance of subplots".[4] Similarly, Game Revolution's Johnny Liu commented that the game lacked depth and felt like a collection of short quests rather than a single game, while Vestal of GameSpot noted that the game's use of miniquests will likely disappoint those seeking an action-RPG classic, and said that, although fun, the gameplay had a "schizophrenic and disjointed nature".[3][49]Next Generation agreed, saying that the Land Make system was an "innovative feature" but that it left the game disjointed without a solid plot to keep everything together.[39] The Japanese Weekly Famitsu reviewers felt that the system was ambitious, but left the game feeling disconnected, and that the divided plotlines kept the beginning of the game from having the charm of the end.[37]
Gary Steinman of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine said that the lack of a plotline gave the player no incentive to keep playing through what he felt was a poor combat system.[50] Both of those criticisms were repeated by Electronic Gaming Monthly's Sam Kennedy in his review.[46] RPGamer's Bilyk felt that the smaller plots, while sometimes simplistic and not focused on the player, were enjoyable experiences.[2] IGN's Smith concluded that while he enjoyed the game, he felt that it was not a complete game like Secret of Mana, but instead a collection of fun experiences.[38]
Street Fighter IV (ストリートファイター IV, Sutorīto Faitā Fō) is a fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom.[8] It was the first original main entry in the series since Street Fighter III in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years.
It was originally released on arcades in Japan in July 2008 and North America in August the same year.[9] Versions for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were released in February 2009.[1]A Microsoft Windows version was released on July 2009.[5] A version for iOS was released on March 10, 2010.[6] An Android version was launched initially as an exclusive for certain LG devices in May 2012,[10] and was later made available for all Android devices on the Play Store by December 31, 2012, with a region restriction that made it available only in Japan.[11] An updated version, Super Street Fighter IV, was released as a standalone title in April 2010.[12]
Street Fighter IV received universal critical acclaim; receiving universally high scores from many gaming websites and magazines, it has often been cited as one of the greatest games of all time. It was followed by Super Street Fighter IV and Arcade Edition in 2010, 3D Edition in 2011, and Ultra Street Fighter IV in 2014. All versions of Street Fighter IV have sold over 9 million units across all platforms.
An in-game screenshot showing Abel attacking Ryu in the Crowded Downtown stage
Producer Yoshinori Ono stated that he wanted to keep the game closer to Street Fighter II. The battles in SFIV begin with a short pre-fight intro, a small cinematic dialogue sequence which varies depending on the player's chosen character. A new system called Focus Attacks (Saving Attack for the Japanese version) has been introduced, as well as Ultra Moves. The traditional six-button control scheme returns, with new features and Special Moves integrated into the input system, mixing classic gameplay with additional innovations.[13]
The game arguably has a similar feel to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but also includes a few features from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.[14] As in Street Fighter III, throwing is performed by pressing both light attack buttons, while pressing both heavy attack buttons performs the character's personal action or taunt. Pressing both medium attack buttons performs a character's Focus Attack. Dashes and quick standing are also in the game. C. Viper and Dan (with the air taunt) are the only characters who can perform a high jump.[14]
It was intended that bonus rounds such as the car-smashing stage from earlier Street Fighter games would return. Ono later stated that the bonus stages would not be in the arcade game, citing the reason to be that the time players spend on bonus stages is a time during which they have no chance of losing, which ultimately takes money from arcade operators.[15][16] The bonus stages were later added in Super Street Fighter IV. There are also Rival Battles which have a cutscene between two characters (which depends on who they are) before the battle starts.
Focus Attacks, known as Saving Attack in the Japanese version,[17] is a new system introduced in Street Fighter IV. The Focus Attack is a move that allows the player to absorb an attack and launch a counterattack, and it is performed by holding the medium punch and medium kick buttons simultaneously. There are two phases to the attack. In the first phase, the player will shift into a new stance, at which point they are able to absorb a single hit from the opponent. The second phase is the counterattack. The longer the player holds down the medium punch and kick buttons, the more powerful the attack will be. There are three stages to the charge.
If the Focus Attack is held for a brief moment, no unique effects occur when attacking.
If held for slightly longer, the character charging the Focus Attack will flash white, indicating that it will crumple the opponent (if they are on the ground).
When fully charged, the attack will also ignore blocking.
Attacks that were absorbed during the first phase of a Focus Attack still cause damage to the player; however, life lost from the opponent's attack will be quickly regenerated afterward. In addition, during the first and second phase of the Focus Attack, the player may perform a dash either forward or backward to cancel the Focus Attack. Finally, at the cost of two bars of the Super Combo gauge, many Special Moves can be canceled into a Focus Attack. By executing a Focus Attack during the Special Move, the animation of the move will be cut short and go instantly into the Focus Attack animation. This allows players with precise timing to cancel Special Moves into Focus Attacks, and in turn cancel Focus Attacks into the forward dash, resulting in new combo possibilities. If a Special Move is blocked by the opponent, the new system allows players to cancel the blocked move with a Focus Attack, and then cancel the Focus Attack by dashing backward safely away from the opponent. Ono has stated that this system was incorporated in order to shift the emphasis away from combos and toward a more realistic system he has compared to boxing, in which "the skill is in reading your opponent's move before [they start] moving ... We haven't forgotten about combos and linked moves, but focus makes it so that you have to read your opponent."[18] The system aims to make ground attacks as viable a way of approaching opponents as jumping was in previous games.[18] The focus system is a core part of Street Fighter IV's gameplay.[19]
In addition to the powered-up versions of Special Moves introduced in previous Street Fighter games such as Super Combos and EX Special Moves, the game also introduces a new type of powered-up Special Move officially dubbed the Ultra Combo. Ultra Combos are long and cinematic moves featuring a lengthy combination of punches, kicks and other fighting techniques. Just as there is a Super Combo gauge, there is also an Ultra Combo gauge (officially known as the Revenge Gauge or Revenge Meter), but whereas the Super Combo gauge fills up when the player hits their opponent or performs a Special Move, the Revenge Gauge fills when one takes damage from their opponent (similar to the K Groove featured in Capcom vs. SNK 2). Along with the Super Combos, Ultra Combos are one of the only times (besides Zangief, E. Honda, Seth and Abel's command throws) the camera breaks from its normal fixed position to show a more dynamic, cinematic view of the gameplay.[19]
Street Fighter IV takes place after the events of Street Fighter II and before the events of Street Fighter V (thus is chronologically set before Street Fighter III which takes place in the future).
After M. Bison's survival following his encounter with Akuma, the S.I.N. corporation began another fighting tournament in order to draw out the most powerful street fighters on Earth to complete the BLECE project. Each World Warrior has their own reasons for entering this tournament, but S.I.N.'s real desire is to lure Ryu to them in order to analyze the Satsui no Hadō, believed to be the last piece of data needed to complete BLECE.
Gouken, having recently awakened from a coma after surviving an attack by Akuma which occurred between the events of Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha about seven years before, knowing of SIN's interest in Ryu, starts looking for him to instruct to stop his Satsui no Hado development. He instructs Ryu and shows him a power known as the Mu no Ken (or Power of Nothingness), which is essentially the opposite of Satsui no Hadō, where calm and tranquility transcend human powers.
Akuma, knowing what Gouken has done to Ryu, has become driven with fury and has a fight to the death with Gouken once again, releasing everything from his Satsui no Hadō against all the power of Gouken's Mu no Ken.
It is revealed that Crimson Viper was a double agent, and she betrayed Seth, in addition to Juri who also wanted to see Shadaloo's total downfall, and set up the fight between M. Bison and Seth. Although Seth took over SIN, M. Bison managed to take on the consciousness of another clone thanks to the scientists at Shadaloo, and ends up with Seth.
M. Bison is behind the SIN, letting the plans go, while everyone thinks he is dead, and the Seth that the players find at the end of the game is revealed to be a clone, as the real Seth was killed by M. Bison.
Abel, who is a fighter with no memory, supposedly was saved by Charlie Nash and joins Chun-Li and Guile to destroy the SIN headquarters, so they manage to end this organization.
Chronologically set between the Street Fighter II series and the Street Fighter III series, the playable character roster of the arcade version includes the cast of the original Street Fighter II (all 12 characters, including the four Shadaloo Grand Masters) and four new characters. Akuma from Super Street Fighter II Turbo also appears as a hidden playable character, as well as a secret opponent, for a total of 17 playable characters. Additionally, the game includes two more secret characters: Seth as the game's standard final boss, and Gouken as a secret opponent, which makes for a total of 19 characters. The console version includes 6 more characters to the roster making for a total of 25, the returning characters are: Cammy, Dan, Fei Long, Gen, Rose and Sakura.
Newcomers:
Abel, a French fighter who utilizes full-contact karate, Judo and Russian combat sambo to defeat opponents (note his kurtka). He is described as an amnesiac, a "man with no past" looking to defeat surviving members of Shadaloo. He is later revealed to be a prototype of Seth's model.[20]
Crimson Viper, a female American spy wearing sunglasses, leather gloves and a form-fitting suit with weapons she entered the tournament in order to "test" her skills.[20]
Rufus, an obese kung fu fighter, who seeks to fight Ken to prove himself as the best fighter in the United States.
El Fuerte (Spanish for "The Strong One"), a Mexican luchador and aspiring gourmet chef.[21]
Seth, also known as "The Puppet Master", is the new boss character. He is the CEO of S.I.N., the weapons division of Shadaloo. His body has been modified using advanced technology. His Special Moves are techniques used by other characters.[22]
Gouken, the elder brother of Akuma, and Ryu and Ken's master, appears in the arcade version as a secret computer-controlled challenger in the end of the single-player mode, making his debut as a fighter in the Street Fighter series.[23]
Before producer Yoshinori Ono pitched the idea to Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune, the prevailing attitude around Capcom was that a new numeric entry to the Street Fighter series would not be made. Initially, there was much resistance to Ono's pitch for a new Street Fighter game so many years after the original. The gap from 2000 to 2008, since Street Fighter EX3, the latest Street Fighter game at that point, represented the longest time the series had gone without a sequel. However, in light of fan demand plus the positive reception to Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting on Xbox Live Arcade, Inafune eventually allowed the project to begin.[19] This was Ono's first take on a new entry for the Street Fighter series as a producer, although he had previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike as a "sound management director" and previously produced Capcom Fighting Jam. The experience provided by Super Street Fighter II Turbo became the main influence for the Street Fighter IV development team.[24]
The original game concept, titled Street Fighter IV Flashback, imagined in part by David Sirlin, the designer of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, never made it past the proposal stage. Flashback would likewise feature the 2.5D gameplay and a roster made of classic Street Fighter II characters plus Sakura and a few new characters. The game would have also featured a single-player mode with third-person 3D action (similar to this of the God of War series) that focused on Ryu's backstory, as well as all Street Fighter arcade games in their original forms and a 3D version of Super Turbo. Flashback's proposed easy control system was later used in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, minus its titular "flashback" gameplay feature.[25]
While Street Fighter IV features models and backgrounds rendered in 3D, the gameplay remains on a traditional 2D plane, with the camera having freedom to move in 3D at certain times during fights, for dramatic effect, similar to the Street Fighter EX series Capcom produced with Arika. Initially, the title had been developed to use 3D hitboxes, but the testers felt it did not have the "pixel perfect" precision of a Street Fighter game, and the game was therefore changed to use 2D hitboxes.[26]
Ono has also cited the arcade version of Arc System Works' Battle Fantasia as the inspiration for the game's three-dimensional art style.[27] Art director and character designer Daigo Ikeno, who previously worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike,[28] opted for non-photorealistic rendering to give them a hand-drawn look,[13] with visual effects accented in calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays during the fights.
Street Fighter IV's musical score was primarily composed by Hideyuki Fukasawa. The game's music consisted of new and old material created for it. Several music pieces (such as the themes for the returning SFII characters) were rearranged for SFIV. While previous Street Fighter games contained limited voice work, Street Fighter IV was the first Street Fighter series game to feature extensive voice acting. The game offers a choice between the original Japanese or an English dub.
The game runs on the Taito Type X2 arcade board inside a Taito Vewlix cabinet.[7] It takes advantage of the Type X2's network capabilities and allows players in separate machines within the same LAN to fight each other.
Street Fighter IV was also released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, featuring additional playable characters and features not found in the arcade game. Capcom later released an iOS version on March 10, 2010.[6] In March 2017 the Xbox 360 version of Street Fighter IV became compatible with the Xbox One.
The notable addition in the home versions of Street Fighter IV are eight unlockable and playable characters not available in the arcade version. Seth and Gouken, computer-played characters in the arcade,[29] and six characters from other Street Fighter games were added, to a total of 25 characters, all of them playable. The introduced characters are Dan, Fei Long, Sakura, Cammy, Gen and Rose.
Home versions also feature online play, six new stages, downloadable content,[30] a Challenge Mode that acts as a training module for new and experienced players, requiring them to reproduce indicated moves or combos with successive levels of increasing complexity,[31] as well as selectable English or Japanese voices for the characters (similar to the voice option settings in the Soulcalibur games), making Street Fighter IV the first game in the series since the original Street Fighter to feature English voice acting for all the characters. The game also offers a new opening cinematic scene featuring the theme song "The Next Door", by Exile, in both Japanese and English (as "The Next Door -Indestructible-" which featured Flo Rida in the extended version of that version) (depending on language settings), and animated opening and ending sequences for each character's story in Arcade mode.
The iOS version allows for bluetooth-based multiplayer between devices, but features only eight of the console version's characters and stages. The characters consist of Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Dhalsim, Blanka, Abel and M. Bison. In an update, two more characters were added: Zangief and Cammy. The most recent update features Sagat and an unlockable character, Dee Jay.[32]
The Windows version of Street Fighter IV includes all the features found in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and some extras, that Capcom representatives say could make it "the definitive version" of the game.[2][33] The game features online play via Games for Windows – Live, with built-in voice chat and PC-exclusive achievements, but no cross-platform playability would be available with Xbox 360 players.[34] Also, the game features higher resolutions, and three new freely selectable visual styles, named "Ink", "Watercolor" and "Posterize".[35] There are also two bundles of the game: regular (game only, $39.99) and a bundle that includes the Mad Catz FightPad (with the Ryu design) that is currently sold separately for the Xbox 360 version. Those who pre-ordered the game at Best Buy received a DVD with an Eagle One animated comic (this is not the same as The Ties That Bind that comes in the collector's editions of the console versions).[5] Additionally, Svensson has stated on the Capcom Unity forums that the retail version uses disc-based SecuROM as its main form of copy protection for the North American release. The specifications for the game were released on May 15, 2009, and are considered relatively modest.[36]
There was also a benchmark version of the game that you could download to test whether your computer would be able to run it properly before purchasing the full game. The benchmark version boots into a menu similar to the actual release of the game, but with a few slight changes. The menu has an option called 'Loop Mode'. Which, judging from the name, loops the benchmark over and over again (assuming it's for commercial use). You can turn the mode on or off from the switch next to the option. The 'Start' option is replaced with 'Start Benchmark'. The PC Settings and Quit options are still there for either to change the settings of the game or to quit the program. The background is more stylized and the word 'Benchmark' has been put right next to the game title. At the end of the benchmark, you're given a run down of your test results, and a score to determine if your computer can run it or not. It's extremely similar to the Benchmark option in the Windows version of the game. [2]
For Western markets, three different packages for the game were prepared—the European release, the North American standard package and the North American Collector's Edition. The contents of the Collector's Edition are nearly identical to those featured in the European version, and are the following:[37]
A comic book style mini strategy guide by Prima (which also published a full strategy guide for the game in the U.S.), featuring artwork by UDON.
A disc including the 65-minute animated film titled Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind (新たなる絆, Aratanaru Kizuna), produced by Studio 4°C[38] as a prologue for the game, and a selection of the game's trailers (a Blu-ray disc for the PS3 version and game disc with the movie in 720p for the Xbox 360).
A soundtrack CD (not in Europe).
Crimson Viper and Ryu figurines (in the US release, PS3 owners got a Ryu figurine, while Xbox 360 owners got a Crimson Viper figure. In Europe, PS3 and Xbox 360 owners got both figurines in place of a soundtrack CD.)
Five downloadable character costumes, which is known as the Brawler Pack that included alternate costumes for: Zangief, E. Honda, Rufus, El Fuerte and Abel.
Street Fighter IV dedicated arcade stick with eight action buttons
Mad Catz produced six controllers for the game, two Arcade sticks and a game pad each for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. These products include a basic model joystick, the "Street Fighter IV FightStick"; a heavier and sturdier stick, the "Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition'; and a six-button game pad, the "Street Fighter IV FightPad".[39] Meanwhile, peripheral manufacturer Hori also produced two joysticks for the game for the Japanese/Asian markets based on previous joystick models produced by the company.[40]
An iOS version of the game was released on March 10, 2010. This, and subsequent mobile versions, retained many of the console version's features, but contained a simplified combo system and replaced the original game's 3D polygonal fighter models with 2D pre-rendered sprites. Additionally, the game also included Bluetooth multiplayer and Game Center achievements, and was released with eight playable characters, though more have been added through free updates. This version is no longer available to download on the iOS store.
Later a version called Street Fighter IV Volt was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch on June 30, 2011, which enabled online play.[41] Another version called Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition was released on July 12, 2017, which featured updated graphics and adds Poison, Ibuki and Dudley to the roster, increasing the total number of playable fighters to 25. An additional six fighters (Gouken, Rose, Elena, Juri, Guy and Evil Ryu) were later added into the roster through free updates.
On January 5, 2012, a version of the game called Street Fighter IV HD was released for LG's Android-powered Nitro HD and Optimus LTE phones.[11][42] On December 30, 2012, the exclusivity was dropped and the game was re-released on Google Play, this time titled Street Fighter IV, with a region restriction in place that makes it available only in Japan.[43] On February 21, 2018, an Android port of Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition was made available worldwide on Google Play. This version contained 32 playable characters, including Dan as a platform exclusive.[44] This version of the game has had one million installs.[45]
The first expansion pack, titled "Championship Mode", was released free of charge on April 24, 2009. It provides players with a replay mode, a new points system and an enhanced tournament matching system.[47] Championship mode is a game mode where a series of players compete against each other for ranking points. The higher the ranking, the harder the contest the player will participate in. The PlayStation 3 version of the download allows the player to vote on the parts of the recorded match they thought were "funny", "awesome", and "beautiful". The Xbox 360 version allows the player to download their recorded fights to the console.[48]
Additionally, five alternate costume packs are available for purchase. These costume packs include the alternate costumes already seen in the arcade version, and were released on separate dates following the game's launch. A single package called the "Complete Alternate Costume Pack", containing alternate costumes for all 25 characters was made available for download on May 5, 2009, in North America, and May 8, 2009, in Europe.
February 17, 2009 (North America); February 20, 2009 (Europe): Brawler Pack including alternate costumes for: Zangief, E. Honda, Rufus, El Fuerte and Abel.
February 24, 2009 (North America); February 27, 2009 (Europe): Femme Fatale Pack including alternate costumes for: Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, Rose and C. Viper.
March 3, 2009 (North America); March 6, 2009 (Europe): Shoryuken Pack including alternate costumes for: Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken and Dan.
March 10, 2009 (North America); March 13, 2009 (Europe): Shadaloo Pack including alternate costumes for: Seth, M. Bison, Sagat, Balrog and Vega.
March 17, 2009 (North America); March 20, 2009 (Europe): Classic Pack including alternate costumes for: Guile, Dhalsim, Fei-Long, Blanka and Gen.[49]
Although initially Capcom stated that there were no plans to add any additional characters to the game, wanting to focus on core gameplay values,[50] Yoshinori Ono later revealed that unfinished versions of Dee Jay and T. Hawk (the only two missing characters from SSF2T) had been made, and given sufficient fan request for them, they could eventually get added into the game.[51] These characters eventually found their way into Super Street Fighter IV.
There was an update for the iOS version that added Zangief and Cammy to the roster. A second update added C. Viper and E. Honda whilst a third added Sagat and Dee Jay—the latter having to be unlocked. DLC is also available. So far, Ryu and Chun-Li each have one new costume each. Additional music, "Street Fighter II Arranged BGM", can also be purchased to provide alternate in-game audio.
This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t) so that you can touch-up an existing theme to your likings or use a certain wallpaper from it (as many themes have multiple). But remember, if you use content from another theme and release it, be sure to give credit!
Download p3textractor.zip from above. Extract the files to a folder with a program such as WinZip or WinRAR. Now there are multiple ways to extract the theme.
The first way is to simply open the p3t file with p3textractor.exe. If you don’t know how to do this, right click the p3t file and select Open With. Alternatively, open the p3t file and it will ask you to select a program to open with. Click Browse and find p3textractor.exe from where you previously extracted it to. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename]. After that, all you need to do for any future p3t files is open them and it will extract.
The second way is very simple. Just drag the p3t file to p3textractor.exe. It will open CMD and extract the theme to extracted.[filename].
For the third way, first put the p3t file you want to extract into the same folder as p3textractor.exe. Open CMD and browse to the folder with p3extractor.exe. Enter the following: p3textractor filename.p3t [destination path]Replace filename with the name of the p3t file, and replace [destination path] with the name of the folder you want the files to be extracted to. A destination path is not required. By default it will extract to extracted.filename.
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