cause a commotion! on 7/24/2019 9:21 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

SOL and PETS are actually two major, defining gameplay mechanics of Dragon Quarter, although I can't tell you what they're doing in the credits at that spot. Presumably the people who conceived of them were proud of their work and wanted them mentioned, and for whatever reason representative logos were designed at some point. You may be familiar with how Final Fantasy IV introduced ATB (Active Time Battle) to the series and gamers, and the convoluted combat evolution of Namco's Tales of started with Phantasia's LMBS (Linear Motion Battle System). It's that kind of thing.

In case anyone is curious, and doesn't already know: SOL (Scenario Overlay) is the system that handles how the narrative is altered and expanded by certain player actions - saving, reloading, game overs, restarting, raising the D-counter. It's a bit hard to explain succinctly if you're not already in the middle of detailing the unique flow of the game, although it also encompasses the New Game+-style carry-over of player equipment and abilities without actually requiring you to clear the game. Supposedly some aspects of SOL trace back to the earliest moments of development, when they wanted to use the online features of the PS2 to implement social elements. The same thing happened with Final Fantasy X, I think..

PETS (Positive Encounter and Tactics System) relates to the battle system, but is particularly concerned with how you start combat. Like in Lufia II dungeons and Earthbound and numerous other games, enemies are visible and mobile, and an advantage can be won (or lost) depending on who initiates the encounter and how. More specific to Dragon Quarter is the ability to set various traps like explosives and poisons, which the enemies can then to be lured into before combat. There's also the APS (Active Point System), which is basically just another way of saying party members and enemies have, spend and are limited by 'action points' during combat. If you've played more than a handful of RPG or strategy games, you should be familiar with the concept.

As far as I'm aware, neither system was ever used again. Something a bit like SOL was featured in the original Dead Rising, where it apparently confused and confounded a lot of people, just as it had in Dragon Quarter. As for PETS, visible encounters became much more common in JRPGs since 2002, although I think it's a bummer that Capcom decided to go with random encounters and more conventional combat in Mega Man X: Command Mission.

Now I'm kind of wondering if Capcom had or planned to have some legal protection for SOL or PETS. Square patented ATB back in the day, and while I'm not sure there's anything for LMBS, Namco gained some minor notoriety for patenting loading screen minigames. But without any evidence, I'm just baselessly speculating.

as an equally meaningless aside, I wonder what brought in Jun Enoki from Opus. He doesn't seem to be credited on the soundtrack album, like he was for Onimusha. Perhaps he only worked on SFX, or helped with the software being used.

firefang9212 (81827) on 7/24/2019 7:27 PM · Permalink · Report

They are just logos representing some of the games mechanics, so nothing related to a company or some piece of middleware. (SOL and PETS on the Breath of Fire Wiki)