Poor Image: Dungeon Town

It's almost, but not quite, "Does Not Illustrate" territory. There is nothing in the image to indicate that the battle backdrop is from an inhabited town (as required by the trope definition). It could just be an abandoned town ruin...

...which, for those in the know, is precisely what the image is from: Narsche was originally a (non-dungeon) town ^note (yes, with a cave dungeon next door, but that's not unusual), but was abandoned after The End of the World as We Know It to become an actual (non-town) dungeon.

FF 6's proper Dungeon Town is Zozo: Wandering NPC's and shops meet maze-like layout and Random Encounters.

Can we get a better image?

We could go with the Zozo example if we can get a screenshot of a battle taking place out in the open streets. The backdrop shows the dilapidated town fairly well. Heck, combine it with a screenshot of the party just walking through the city, other citizens slinking around the shadows, corpses littered in the streets...

edited 23rd Jul '12 11:48:38 AM by DRCEQ

I propose this image of Zozo both out of battle and in battle.

Can we maybe get one from the first visit there rather than late/endgame? And perhaps one with the enemy names rather than the command menu.

What value does the first frame have?

My guess, establishing that they're in a town.

Does the background of the second frame not do that?

edit: Ah, "There is nothing in the image to indicate that the battle backdrop is from an inhabited town", I see... that seems like an unnecessary detail, and I'm not sure the added frame says that anyway. If the suggested replacement is a better example, that's fine, but the split-screen isn't needed I don't think. It costs a lot and adds very little, if anything.

edited 24th Jul '12 4:29:26 PM by rodneyAnonymous

I don't mind the two-image image, but a spacer would be nice. They kind of flow into each other if you're not looking at it very closely.

I got another image, this time with the battle-scene only.

+1

I don't get "town" from just that panel.

There's a sign that says 'cafe' behind them.

Just for the sake of seeing if there are any alternatives, I tried seeing if I could get an example I remembered from Tales Of Graces F to work, but it turns◊ out they're◊ illegible at◊ wiki size◊.

Oh well.

rodney Anonymous proposes this larger, brighter version of the Zozo picture.

This picture could definitley use a caption, but I'm not a clever person, so I won't throw any ideas out there.

Ack, that brightness adjustment looks horrible.

Not really a fan of stretching out pixel art from 1:1 resolution at 256x223 to 300xwhatever, either. At least we used a decent resizing filter...

Actually, looking at it, it looks like the image was cropped a bit, since it's only 240 pixels wide... hrmm.

edited 27th Jul '12 9:09:23 AM by ShadowHog

^ Pixel art should never be scaled upwards, and only scaled down if absolutely necessary.

@14: Here's a better version of that image: Brightened only the background layer (leaving sprites and menu overlays unchanged), and by nowhere near so much.

edited 28th Jul '12 2:02:57 PM by Stratadrake

I fail to see how the proposed one is better than the current. They're both illustrating the trope properly, though, so I don't mind either. Both of them very clearly show a battle in a town.

If you want to play it that way, sure neither the proposed is better than the current nor vice versa. However, taken in context, the proposal is better.

(Must resist saying I don't like the definition of this trope in the first place. That's for TRS, not here.)

edited 29th Jul '12 10:53:05 AM by Stratadrake

Clock is set.

I think Zozo is better than post-Ruin Narshe, because the enemies you're facing are human thieves (or, humanoid, at least).

^ I believe at least one of the enemies in Zozo is a Brawler or something that is clearly a human opponent (then there's that boss fight going up the skyscraper).

Well, the "Harvester" is a thief, and then we have the dancers. The most inhuman are the Gobbledygooks and the enormous Hill Gigases.

Hey, hunchbacks are humans too!

Well, earlier Final Fantasies aren't exactly known for explaining their monsters....