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Post by dsparil on Feb 22, 2019 13:44:03 GMT -5
Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible (Game Gear, First Time)
I played the US GBC release, Revelations: The Demon Slayer, ages ago and decided to give the recently released GG translation a spin. The translation is a little weird in that it seems like it was made by people aware of the MegaTen games, but didn't seem to actually play any. Most of the spell names feel "wrong". Some of it does seem to be due to length limitations, but many simply don't match up even when they could. "L" is frequently replaced with "R" e.g. Bufura instead of Bufula, for example. Another odd situation is that Dia is translated as Dei, but the other healing spelling properly start with Dia-. It's still generally comprehensible, but it is in some ways worse than simply using the utilitarian names from the US release. Most of the monster names are correct though, but there are some miscellaneous issues. For example, Kirin (which was correct on GBC) is translated as Qilin for who knows why. (Edit: Qilin is the transliteration from Chinese.)
The game itself has all the classic elements. It manages to squeeze in demon negotiation and fusion although in simplified terms. Demons ask one of three questions and have a canned dialogue path to recruitment based on their "race". The game doesn't really have a concept of demon races in general and pretty much anything can be fused together without dealing with Elements and Mitamas. About 2/3 or 3/4 of the way, you have the ability to get three special demons from collected bones, and there's basically no reason to use anything else the rest of the game.
The battles themselves are okay. There's very little emphasis on raising and lowering stats as you only have regular access to Tarukaja (which only has one level) and nothing else. Some of the other spells do exist but they're attached to either low level demons or ones that need a level way in excess of what's needed to finish in order to recruit. You mostly get through everything including boss battles using regular attacks. Spells seem to never do all that much damage and there's no concept of weaknesses either. There is the usual auto battle option so that takes a little of the tedium out. I also wouldn't say this is super grind heavy, but you do need to some as the dungeons are very small and the world isn't all that large either.
Whether this is actually worth playing over the GBC version is a little up for debate. Specific issues aside, the translation is definitely better overall (not having to deal with the economic aspects of cart size will do that), but the GG one is lacking in some of the content that was added(?) to the GBC version. The GG version doesn't the post-game and new demons available there which I'm assuming wasn't in the original GB game. The graphics are obviously better, but the battles are limited to two different demons at once though.
Rating: 7
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Post by toei on Feb 22, 2019 16:28:07 GMT -5
dsparil The translation was done by Tom, who translated like a dozen SMT games. I'm pretty sure he's played a few
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Post by dsparil on Feb 22, 2019 18:22:22 GMT -5
dsparil The translation was done by Tom, who translated like a dozen SMT games. I'm pretty sure he's played a few I did see that before. It's just really weird. Almost everything already has an established name; why not use them? There's no translation notes so it comes across as sloppy. I mean, the notes for if... pulls a source to justify fixing an entrenched typo/misspelling. Edit: Sloppy isn't quite right. I really wish there where some notes to shed some light on this.
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Post by toei on Feb 22, 2019 19:40:48 GMT -5
Maybe they skipped the usual final round of editing?
I was thinking of giving that game a go, though I'm more interested in Last Bible 3 overall, being a SNES game and all.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 24, 2019 9:39:26 GMT -5
I'm planning on playing the others as I haven't before. Special is of particular interest since it's an actual dungeon crawler. I'll probably go II, III then special though.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 24, 2019 9:45:07 GMT -5
Bio-Hazard Battle (Genesis/Switch, First Time)
After trying on and off to finish this I finally have! Though I'd say it's mainly due to wavering interest. The site's article says basically everything. This is an okay horizontal shooter more notable for the art than the gameplay. I did enjoy it, but it's not something I'll replay all the time.
Rating: 7
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Post by dsparil on Feb 25, 2019 9:26:52 GMT -5
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (Genesis/Switch, First Time) PSIV feels like a two steps forward, one step back situation. The presentation is gorgeous and the story is good for the most part, but it falters towards the end. Dark Force is a pretty generic villain, and it's sad to see that the even greater villain is equally generic. It's a wasted opportunity for something really grand or weird especially considering the end of PSII. It feels mostly like a sequel to the original which uses some elements of the others. There's a lot of references to the characters, the vehicles are straight out of the original, a major dungeon makes a return appearance and some of the key items return but with different uses. The really big story event of II is critical to the plot, but that feels like it's about it in terms of story. III pretty much gets retconned completed out of existence except that chirpers (rappies now) play a role in a side quest. II and III each get a permanent character that represent them although they're obviously not characters that are actually from them. (a little about III) The main plot of III is about how all but one or two of the ships that flee Palma end up getting destroyed by Dark Force depending on the story line. IV doesn't mention the Dark Force stuff at all and has many ships end up landing on Motavia and Dezoris making the events of that game basically not happen. In terms of gameplay, I'm a little sad that the "magic rectangle" from III is gone and it's back to being new abilities per level. Limited use skills are new, but those mostly feel like a way to add new abilities without adding new techniques. Locking the set of techniques does make a little bit of sense in terms of the story behind techniques though. Combination attacks are something that's hypothetically interesting, but they're too hard to pull off in regular gameplay and you need a guide in order to know what they are. Macros are an interesting addition as they do make combos easier to do since they seem to force an attack order assuming an enemy turn doesn't interrupt the flow of needed characters. It would have been better to simply pick a combo and have it occur 100% of the time when the last character needed is ready. The weirdest thing is the graphics. The graphics outside of battles in III are fairly drab, but the enemies have some really great designs. IV goes back to the style of II where that's inverted. The enemies are fairly drab and lack a lot of the personality that they had in III. They are highly animated which takes a little bit of that sting off, but I would have liked to see the general art style return and have the best of both worlds. The illustrated cutscenes are a huge step above anything else from the era which makes it so odd that everything else looks straight out of II. An issue specific to the Sega Genesis Classics collection is that the lack of a real non-stretched mode takes away from the illustrations. They look weird without a filter, but filtering muddies the lines somewhat. I did enjoy IV particularly because of the frequent illustrations. They really do add a whole lot to the story and liven it up. I feels a lot like a real culmination of what was being attempted in the original, but held back by space limitations. Rating: 8 For the series as a whole, I think IV is undoubtably the high point. The Sega Ages release of the original does improve it quite a bit to the point that it might be my favorite since it ends up having the best dungeons. They're not overly complicated like II's or overly simply like III's or most of IV's. The monochrome style didn't sit well with me at first, but they do have a charm that's grown on me. The FM music might be the best soundtrack too. Not having to constantly grind anymore and having an automap that shows traps and secret passages helps too.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 25, 2019 9:58:30 GMT -5
Galaxy Force II (Genesis/Switch, Replay) Space Harrier II (First Time) Super Thunder Blade (Replay)
I was really not looking forward to the Super Scalar style games in the Sega Genesis Classics collection. Right off the bat, porting games that are built completely on top of sprite scaling to a system with no support for it does not bode well for graphics quality. I had already played Galaxy Force II and Super Thunder Blade in the past and knew that they were awful ports of genuinely good games. GFII on 3DS in particular is an amazing experience that totally makes up for the lost "ride" aspects of the arcade version. Thunder Blade is no slouch either. SHII was a bit of a mystery to me though. I had the played the original a little bit and was aware that the sequel is original to the Genesis.
Super Thunder Blade is basically a total disaster with no redeeming qualities. It's chopped down, has slow down galore, and has worse throttle control than the original which makes everything harder than it should be. Plus, it just looks bad in general. There is the addition of midbosses to every stage, but those amount to holding down the fire button while moving in a circle until they're defeated.
Galaxy Force II is a little bit later and doesn't have the performance issues of STB. That's about all of it's the positive qualities. There are small glimmers of the original that shine through, but the overall experience is tragic. The base infiltration (tunnel) sections are reduced to solid colors that look really bad, and your ship handling inside them is poor. Everything is a poor imitation of the real thing, just like STB, but it hits harder for me than STB.
I wanted to post these games together and it took quite some time for me to work up the desire to get to SHII after finishing the other two earlier in the year. That apprehension was completely misplaced since it's better than the other two put together! The lack of sprite scaling doesn't matter all that much here probably because it was designed with the limitations of the Genesis in mind. The sprites look great close up with some nice designs. The game as a whole is just the right amount of weird and moves fast enough for the slightly spartan play field to not matter. This and STB were the two launch titles with the Mega Drive in Japan and I feel very sorry for anyone that only got STB!
STB: 3 GFII: 4 SHII: 8
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Post by dsparil on Feb 25, 2019 10:56:00 GMT -5
Claiming Aleste Gaiden (MSX2). First time. This is the first game that is too obscure to have a time on HLTB or GameFAQS which does seem to have a listing for the compilation itself, but with no time attached. I'm going to use 2h for the reference time since only one of the Disc Station Special entries on GameFAQs even has a time and I have no idea what to use otherwise. Does that seem too short?
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Post by Snake on Feb 25, 2019 12:13:02 GMT -5
Mega Man 3, Mega Man Legacy Collection, PS4 (replay, 1 hour 10 minutes).
The stages get more colorful and vibrant. The addition or Rush and sliding. While not my favorite, there is a lot to like. Mega Man 3 is the last game to give me some BGM I can memorize and hum to, until the arrival of Mega Man 7. The resurrected robot masters do a mega ton of damage, but otherwise, the game isn't too difficult once you get the hang of it. The end boss is laughably easy once you know which weapons to pick out.
Score: 8/10. I don't really crave revisiting this game, stage and character design is still quite fun. Surely one of the better endings in a Mega Man game for its time. I like the way the roll call winds down, documenting the original purpose of each robot master from the first game, until it unveils Proto Man/Blues.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, PS4. (replay, 3 hours).
Finished this in one sitting yesterday, and still a joy to play. Interestingly, a glitch that crashes the game is fixed. The revamped English translation still isn't an exact word-for-word from the Japanese voice-overs. Just in the last scene with Dracula, he says" Lisa, forgive me..." when he really says [間違えた] (machigaeta no ka), which should be something along the lines of: "Lisa, was I wrong?" "Lisa, did I make a mistake?" It's very easy to cheat your way through the last few bosses with Alucard Shield and Shield Rod. The last fight ends in mere seconds.
Score: 10/10. While not perfect, and difficulty is severely skewed towards becoming overpowered and easy, this game is still a joy to revisit. Fun item and weapon details and touches, ethereal music.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Feb 25, 2019 16:28:28 GMT -5
Mega Man 3 is the last game to give me some BGM I can memorize and hum to, until the arrival of Mega Man 7. Woah, woah. You're due for a Mega Man 4 replay my friend.
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Post by toei on Feb 25, 2019 17:17:53 GMT -5
Claiming Aleste Gaiden (MSX2). First time. This is the first game that is too obscure to have a time on HLTB or GameFAQS which does seem to have a listing for the compilation itself, but with no time attached. I'm going to use 2h for the reference time since only one of the Disc Station Special entries on GameFAQs even has a time and I have no idea what to use otherwise. Does that seem too short? Seems reasonable. 2, 3 hours at most. I played it through twice, so I spent a little more time on it than that, but for a first playthrough it sounds about right.
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Post by foopy64 on Feb 25, 2019 23:13:08 GMT -5
Tales of Phantasia (PS1, Fan translation)
9/10 - I've sort of played this one, I played through the gba USA release a couple years ago. My save file came out to 59 hours and I did all the post game content. Love this game to bits, and the PS1 version is surely the definitive version of it. Stay away from the DeJap translation on the SNES! blegh
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Post by Snake on Feb 26, 2019 11:01:46 GMT -5
Mega Man 3 is the last game to give me some BGM I can memorize and hum to, until the arrival of Mega Man 7. Woah, woah. You're due for a Mega Man 4 replay my friend. Haha, just finished it last night. Mega Man 4, Mega Man Legacy Collection, PS4. (replay, 1 hour 17 minutes)
Yeah, sorry Creamcheese, the only melody I can remember fresh from last night is the fanfare that starts when the Wily Stage map is drawing a line to the next destination. I suppose that, and the boss fight theme (although it isn't the kind of music I would listen to while driving). The charging mega buster is the best addition to the game, while the addition of the balloon and wire adaptors make the game nice and easy. It becomes easy to cut through all the timed jumps sections and disappearing block ledges. I would prefer to play this over Mega Man 5, and maybe about the same as Mega Man 6. Score: 7/10.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Feb 27, 2019 12:33:01 GMT -5
Hmmm...maybe you should replay it again.
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