Taking a Look at the Bandai WonderSwan Color

[hockeyfanboy12]

I didnt even know this existed up until a few moments ago.. Btw i was born a year after that guy died

[hockeyfanboy12]

I didn't even know this existed until a few moments ago...i was born a year after he died btw

[RomanticLinguaphilia]

Very cool video.

[ExecuteRobot]

This video is really helpful, I've been looking to buy a Wonderswan for a while now. However, is the Swancrystal much different from the Color? It costs over twice as much, and I just wanted to know if it would be worth it.

[tvandlust]

@ExecuteRobot The screen is much better. The WonderSwan Color's screen is kind of a pain to see. Up to you if you want to drop the extra money.

[ExecuteRobot]

@tvandlust Thanks Craig, but what I was more wondering is what you personally would recommend. Is the screen on the Color hard enough to see that you wish you bought a Swancrystal?

[tvandlust]

@ExecuteRobot Yes.

[ExecuteRobot]

@tvandlust Thanks again Craig! After bouncing between the two for so long, finally this helps me decide to go with the Crystal. I thought the Wonderswan Color's screen was no worse than the GBC's screen, but it seems this isn't the case after all.

[gdog662]

How much did you spend on the system?

[emojo1990]

the gunpei game works in vertical format btw!

[gdog662]

Do you think that $123 was a good price for the final fantasy system in the box with final fantasy 2 in the box? I thought I got a decent price.

[kylericker7]

@gdog662 eh, i guess. i got an orange / white digimon edition with digimon anode/cathode in english, brand new for 55 bucks. still a couple of black models left.

[aireCOMBO]

Hey nice review! I was needing some info on this thing

[donpalmera]

The wonderswan color has more RAM than the mono.. so yes there were hardware changes.

[Dontpickmelast101]

i was born a few days after he died :(

[NostalgiaKing]

I really want a WonderSwan; the language-barrier is the only thing that's held me back. I love Bandai. Great video! Took me forever to check out your channel!

[smashmaster13]

and kid icarus and metriod

[RyoJapan2008]

One interessting Thing is that the Wonderswan could also conected so Sonys PSone and PS2 with an Adapter called "Wonderwave" and the PocketStation.

Gundam Eiyuuden was one of the Game, hwo could such an connection.

[TechnoHajikelist]

umm I plan to get a WS system (mostly for the Digimon and One Piece games) so anyway... do wonderswan color games really look good on the swancrystal?

[caralhosvosfodam]

Dude you look like me LOL

Just a little more chubby (not much :P) and with brown eyes instead of green ones.

LOL, I'm scared xD

[RaiCoss]

Blue Wing Blitz <3

[somoza]

Here in spain there's some online stores (and retrailers) selling them cheap (ff edition with game for about 50 euros. Im considering to buy one.

[n00berania]

It could've been great if there were English ports of the WonderSwan.

[Immafirinmahlazer]

You taught yourself Japanese? That's pretty hardcore.

I'm bidding on the box set limited edition Final Fantasy Wonderswan Colour later today.

Looks like an awesome system.

[tvandlust]

Haha, not as hardcore as it sounds. I'm not nearly as proficient as I should be given how long I've been working on it.

Hope you win that auction! It's a fun little system!

[Immafirinmahlazer]

I have won it! It's coming in a few days.

Now I just need to buy some more games for it.

How hard do you think it would be to play Final Fantasy without any knowledge of Japanese?

[tvandlust]

Awesome! Congrats.

I think the language barrier is mostly psychological for any import game. Most games, especially games within the same genre, share a lot of similar conventions. I think as long as you're patient and willing to put in a little trial-and-error, you'll do just fine. The worst part is that you probably won't be able to enjoy the story to the fullest, that's all.

[Immafirinmahlazer]

I suppose that'll be okay, I'll just have to mainly play Non-RPGs. As for FF1, it doesn't really have an intricate story, anyway.

[Immafirinmahlazer]

Came today.

Doesn't seem to be too hard to play, just a bit of trial and error for spells and whatnot.

My only complaint is that using the lower (X) Dpad seems to hurt my thumb. Do you know of any way to change the settings so that it'll let me use the Y dpad for moving? I fiddled around for a little bit but found nothing.

Just thought I'd ask.

[tkorulesdaworld]

bought one of these a couple years ago while they were actually still making games for it. i had this over a GBA believe it or not. i actually enjoyed it. they got some pretty good turn based strategy games on this system.

soooo...after sitting in my room for a couple years,the battery leaked. the other day i did a massive cleanup and it still works like a charm! i still love it.

i'm planning on getting blue wing blitz and mono eyed gundams soon. maybe i'll post a gameplay vid

kool vid btw!

[tvandlust]

Thanks! Yeah, the game library doesn't compare to the GBA, but it's pretty decent. I'm reluctant to import too many more games for it, though. My Japanese is ok, so while I can understand most of what's going on, it can be a chore sometimes.

[tvandlust]

Um, I dunno. A few hundred. Not many, honestly, but enough to get by. I could probably easily JLPT 4 if I tried.

[tacklegibson]

wait... r there any english games on that?

[tvandlust]

Not really, no.

[tacklegibson]

haha, how can u deal with that? i can barely deal with japanese in jump ultimate stars

[tvandlust]

Because I can read Japanese.

[tacklegibson]

no way, thats crazy. arent there like 4 alphabets though?

[tvandlust]

There's kana (katakana and hiragana), which are actually syllable sets and can kind of be compared to our alphabet. There are something like 40-something characters for each set. And then there's kanji, which are the more complicated characters that have intrinsic meaning. There are hundreds of thousands of kanji, but you don't need to know nearly that many.

I'm not fluent or anything, but it was enough for me to get around Tokyo and it's enough to get through an import game.

[tacklegibson]

sweet. did you take japanese in high school?

[tvandlust]

Naw. I taught myself.

[tacklegibson]

ha, how?

also could u send me a link to any sites you any have used. it would be very much appreciated

[tvandlust]

Um, mostly some books and homemade flash cards and stuff. I used a couple iPhone apps too. Then I played Japanese games and read Japanese magazines and listened to Japanese music. I basically immersed myself.

[tacklegibson]

thats cool. i know some spanish but i wanna try to learn japanese so much more

[manhattansportsclub]

OK, so today I got a monochrome WonderSwan in the mail. It is slightly smaller than the Color and in some cases looks a bit better when playing the monochrome games. However, it has some similar issues as the Color like ghosting, but the contrast dial does help optimize some games that use a darker palette like Makaimura and Terrors. Still, the Crystal is the superior model among the three.

[manhattansportsclub]

I also forgot to note that, while the WonderSwan in its original black and white incarnation seems to have a suprisingly clear screen, some games are hard to see on almost every WonderSwan model. Makaimura always comes to mind, as that game is a pain in the ass to see even on the crystal because of the ridiculously dark palette.

[tvandlust]

Glad I could help! Hope you enjoy the WonderSwan!

[manhattansportsclub]

You did a good job covering the WonderSwan. I also enjoy collecting handhelds, and I own both the WS Color and the SwanCrystal. I must say that the Color's screen is rather inconvenient, so I strongly suggest using the SwanCrystal instead. However, I am curious in trying out the monochrome version to see if the black and white titles look better than they do on the color.

[tvandlust]

Thanks! I recently cracked my WSC's screen, so I'm going to need to get a new one soon anyway. Maybe I'll skip right over replacing it and get a Crystal straight away.

[manhattansportsclub]

Yeah, that would be a good idea. I would probably use my Color as a backup if neccessary, but in general I prefer the Crystal. Also if you have any other questions about the Wonderswan series then ask me.

[NESSNESMASTER]

Finally!! Someone else knows of the WonderSwan! Great vid!

[tvandlust]

Thanks man. You've got some pretty great videos yourself.

[Futondean]

good video

[Svenzoid]

Great , another console i didnt know =D !

[dauntlessmath]

It seems really cool. It's too bad they didn't release it in North America. If they had boasted releases of some of the older Final Fantasy games before the GBA ports, it may have had some modest success here as well.

[tobl66]

do you ever play older systems like this one when you have the ds's and psp's of today, or are they more of just sweet collectibles?

[tvandlust]

A little bit of both. I like collecting classic handhelds (usually because they're so unique and pretty affordable), and I definitely play my DS and PSP more, but I also play these older ones too.

[boratslaya]

great quality video

[dxvolt]

first