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Post by dsparil on Feb 1, 2024 18:01:37 GMT -5
Woody Alien 2 I've always gone with total time. So 3 hours and 21 total for two two games. Multiple characters is just for fighting games as a rule.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 2, 2024 8:03:41 GMT -5
Here are the current rankings:
Total Game Completions:
dsparil - 16 personman - 10 Apollo Chungus - 9 JoeQ - 6 spanky - 6 Woody Alien - 4 Digitalnametag - 3 excelsior - 1 Snake - 1
First Time Game Completions:
dsparil - 16 Apollo Chungus - 7 JoeQ - 5 personman - 4 spanky - 4 Woody Alien - 4 Digitalnametag - 1 excelsior - 1 Snake - 1
Total Time Spent (Reference Only):
dsparil - 60h 30m Apollo Chungus - 56h 30m Digitalnametag - 39h 30m personman - 31h 30m JoeQ - 27h 30m spanky - 25h 30m Snake - 18h Woody Alien - 17h 30m excelsior - 14h
First Play Time (Reference Only):
dsparil - 60h 30m Apollo Chungus - 44h 30m Digitalnametag - 32h spanky - 20h 30m JoeQ - 19h 30m Snake - 18h Woody Alien - 17h 30m excelsior - 14h personman - 13h 30m
Total Time Spent (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
dsparil - 61h 32m 25s (3h 2m 25s/5h/53h 30m) Apollo Chungus - 51h 36m (12h 36m/0s/39h) Digitalnametag - 37h 30m (0s/34h/3h 30m) JoeQ - 35h 2m (17h 32m/0s/17h 30m) personman - 31h 30m (0s/0s/31h 30m) Woody Alien - 30h (0s/30h/0s) spanky - 25h 30m (0s/0s/25h 30m) excelsior - 14h (0s/0s/14h) Snake - 10h (0s/10h/0s)
First Play Time (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
dsparil - 61h 32m 25s (3h 2m 25s/5h/53h 30m) Apollo Chungus - 39h 36m (12h 36m/0s/27h) Digitalnametag - 31h (0s/31h/0s) Woody Alien - 30h (0s/30h/0s) spanky - 20h 30m (0s/0s/20h 30m) JoeQ - 19h 36m (2h 6m/0s/17h 30m) excelsior - 14h (0s/0s/14h) personman - 13h 30m (0s/0s/13h 30m) Snake - 10h (0s/10h/0s)
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Post by personman on Feb 4, 2024 4:26:25 GMT -5
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (PS4, first time)
I was thinking I would like this one quite a bit but I wasn't expecting to be blown away by it like I was; They really knocked it out of the park. I like this series a bunch, enough so I don't know why I can't get into more mecha stuff. However one thing you have to admit in the classic style of the series the action is barely serviceable, probably unpalatable to some and outside of a couple instances I never really understood how these games got such a reputation for being so difficult (At leas the PS1 trilogy is pretty easy), it's depth is also exaggerated but that's almost any game with customization, people always love blowing that up. This time around however the action actually feels like an action game rather than a pale imitation of one! This might not be exactly new since the series has been going in this direction since AC4 but with the last game I played in the series being Master of Arena on the PS1 its quite a shift to say the least.
And this shit feels damn good. I was worried there would be too much Souls influence and it wouldn't feel like AC at all. Truthfully it does feel extremely different of course but that's okay in my book. Sure the old style games where still fun but I never cared for how you had to play them too much with this silly bunny hopping you constantly had to do. They made a way to kinda keep that quirk but just make it feel and look so much better with quick boosts and typically you need to try and time it instead of just mindlessly doing it; It's a completely upgrade. Combine this with pretty great enemy design and just how good these things feel to control and you have a complete win. Someone I listened to on Youtube went through the whole series analyzing them and around the time of AC4 they mentioned the series was at first more about playing as the mech pilot and now its more about playing as the mech and I feel this here is like the total cumulation to the shift and for my money I think they nailed it. The bosses mostly are the biggest stand out, they have a bit of Souls DNA along with borrowing Sekiro's stagger thing (I think) and while there are a couple I feel are a bit over designed they shake things up and feel like a proper confrontation instead of the older games usually settling for normal enemy with bullshit stats or what have you.
Also can I just say these things are beautifuly pornographic? Yeah you heard me, you know like giant robots is one of those things you just have to put a magnifying glass of their functions, the force they exuded, gawking over every spoiler and sick looking glowing light, that sort of thing. You do it with cars, you do it with guns, and you do it with this, its just the nature of the genre and while this has always been a thing in the series (just look at all the CG intros) it usually only came across only so much in the older games and not really while you played. Here they perfectly nailed the animations for these things with the way they move, the weapons looking like the most complex machines unto themselves, the weight and heft is perfect. Above all the scale, like previously of course you're giant robot looked giant enough but rarely did the environment reflect it enough to really sell the idea of a world that has become so insane as to normalize deploying such ridiculous machines. Here the environment not only makes you feel like a rampaging beast with a bunch of vehicles and stuff to gleefully bulldose your way through but the installations match the insanity with structures that manage to make you feel tiny. Hell an early mission has you taking on a mining machine that needs to zoom to camera out so much you look like a Micro Machine for a time. Your AC is already like 10 to 12 stories tall and weight like 80 tons I'm sure... that thing is so unfathomly huge and impossible and its just fucking beautiful. Someone is probably looking at me funny lol, I just really love this game's art direction, even besides all that wild ranting it also just manages to work with mostly drab palettes really well without making things look too samey and boring which is really commendable after everyone is allergic to grey and brown after a certain generation of games.
But yes, with the tilt more towards action things do feel more streamlined as you would suspect. For one is seems like weight restrictions are extremely lax and I almost never went over with anything I built. I seem to remember radiators being a thing and those are absent and I think there are less parts on a whole compared to many entries before. However I say what does that matter? There is still plenty of choice and things to experiment with the weapons which have all sorts of quirks and behaviors. It's nothing as wild as Bloodborne and its kit but certainly there is more than enough out there to get you swapping around weapons and changing up your style. Usually when I play these games I find one niche and stick with it through most of the game. Here I ended up making different ACs to try out all the functions of the legs and had a blast, which is also a thing by the way: legs always were one of the most important parts of your build but they never felt that much different till now, each type has special abilities save for the normal bipedal type which just tend to be balanced. It was a great move to further feel like you're making your machine your own. Maybe its not as granular as some purist fans would like but man now actually using my AC is the highlight of the game rather than staring at numbers in the hangar screen so I see no problems.
Usually people play these games just for gameplay. There has always been a plot in the background in typical vague Fromsoft fashion but it was rarely more than "Shit sucks, capitalism will destroy us but for now it lets us fly these sweet mechs and chase after old super weapons so yaaaaay." which was fine, I never expected more. So why did this one go so damn hard narratively? I'm not saying its the most ground breaking thing ever written or anything but the story this time around got me hooked way more than I ever thought it would and while it uses some tropes you've seen before it also indulges in one I think I've only seen once (Think sentient energy sources). And crazy as it sounds it has some of the most memorable cast of characters I can think of in a Fromsoft title and you never seen a single person's face once. Like seriously I can barely remember any character from the Souls series besides funny sun meme guy and maybe Gharman and Micolash from Bloodborne but I'm going to remember Walter and Carla for a while, Michigan and Chatty Stick were amusing, V2 Snail just really nails that type of character you love to hate and the surprise true villain at the games final climax I thought was handled decently well and had a spin put on it that found to be a breathe of fresh air. Again I wouldn't say its revolutionary or anything but just very well done, way more than I was expecting is all. Only things I would criticize is in a story where no one is fully in the right you pretty much are shoe horned into sympathizing with one faction and a character you're stuck with. Otherwise its great stuff and you know the best part? The story is minimalistic like always with From but I always knew what was going on and had all the details I needed to get a proper picture. Unreliable story telling is great and all and I don't mind it but after Dark Souls just come on, tell me the damn thing upfront please after so many game of having to scour item descriptions and find rare npc interactions to really get the proper picture its refreshing to not have to go and listen to a Youtube essay to figure things out.
But of course its not perfect. But really I have to try hard to think of things I didn't like. For one the missions themselves aren't too creative and mostly amount to go here shoot that. Nothing wrong with that in of itself and they are tailored enough that there are multiple solutions to problems but I wouldn't have minded if they pushed the envelop more. Also feel like the difficulty curve spikes pretty bad now and then which nothing new with From games. Like there are some missions you will just want to avoid because they are ridiculous without equipment you wont get till your second playthrough. Suppose they needed something for the elitist dickheads to wave the GIT GUD flag over. Also I wasn't wild about the music, it fits while you're playing just fine but nothing really stood out to me. The series has all sorts of interesting music that I listen to on the regular and I haven't sat down with this one's OST yet but I don't think it'll stick with me; much as it started to grow on towards the end. And finally there is a ton of content locked behind a second and third replay, in fact the final ending can only be achieved on the third go. Nothing wrong with that but I was ready to hang up my guns on the first run until I heard about all the weapons, missions and arena fights afterward. I would have just mentioned it somewhere as all.
Relatively nitpicky things are about all I can come up with. Otherwise I can just gush about this game all day, I absolutely loved it. I don't give a flying crap about the game awards but seeing it for myself now I'm so happy this won action game of the year, it was well deserved.
Rating-9
Now the only problem is I think it is going to be hard to go back to the older games lol. 2 was the next one in line and I hear a lot of golden word of mouth for it even today so hey, it may still win me over when I'm ready to continue with this series.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 4, 2024 19:30:15 GMT -5
Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain (Windows; First Time; 26 minutes)This is a tiny little game put out by the developers behind the indie darling Celeste as a fun way of celebrating the game's sixth anniversary. Unlike the regular game, it's a fully 3D platformer where you get to explore a fairly small but dense area full of places to explore using your usual abilities such as the jump dash and wall climbing. You can find plenty of strawberries at the end of various platforming challenges and little secret areas, and many of these will test your reflexes - especially those lurking inside cassette tapes (accompanied by an acapella theme inspired by the one used for Mario Sunshine's secret stages). It's quite a cool game, with a nice soundtrack that takes its cues from late 90s games with a lovely echo-y piano arpeggio, an electric piano melody, solid cozy sounding drums and a fuzzy piano bassline (all of which reminded me specifically of the music from the PS1 action-rpg Brightis which has one of my low-key favourite soundtracks). You can also run into a few characters from the main game that you can catch up with, which makes this an especially nice treat for folks who played and loved that game. Sadly, I'm not one of those folks. I tried to get into it, but even with the assist options, I just didn't enjoy the mere act of playing it nevermind when things got remotely - or enormously - challenging. Annoying, that also goes for this as well. It's hard to articulate but I can't seem to "get" the controls. I can move around and jump decently, but I can't wrap my head around how to effectively use the dash and it means that anything beyond the most basic of challenges is a pain in the butt. Apart from a Z-guide that indicates where you are in the relation to the ground, there aren't any alternative modes to alleviate my issues. I at least managed to make it to the top of the skyscraper, where the game notes how long it took you to get up there and has a little sign with credits and thanks from the developers, so it's the closest thing to an end goal though you're allowed to carry on looking round and what not. This isn't for me, but I appreciate that it's a cool gift for fans of the main game and I hope they enjoy this, as well as people who dig 3D platformers. maddymakesgamesinc.itch.io/celeste64Little Orpheus (Switch; First Time)I'd never heard of this game until I was looking through the articles on Greatest Game Music, a blog that writes about excellent (and often obscure) video game soundtracks. In their archives, I found an article highlighting the music from Little Orpheus, which was composed by Jessica Curry and Jim Fowler (of Everybody's Gone To The Rapture fame). I was in the mood to try a game with a fully orchestral soundtrack, and since this was available on the Switch, I thought it'd be worth a shot. It's a cinematic platformer where you play as a Soviet cosmonaut, recounting his story to an interrogator about how his spacecraft took him to a strange world buried deep underground and the many adventures he goes on. Much of the adventure is accompanied by his narration, but I turned it off so I could better listen to the music - and I think that was the right call because the score is instrumental to the strong control of tone the game generally has. It's very good at informing the mood of each section, and really well arranged to support those moods. The playful woodwinds sing as you swing from vine to vine in the first episode; the way the pizzicato strings pluck your every footstep while you sneak past a deadly dinosaur disguised as an egg; the sense of wonder provided when you come to a new location and the camera pans out to show off the vista; the increasing franticness during an episode's climax where you're desperately trying to escape from some out-of-control happenings. The music does a great job at making all the various elements of the presentation come together, and I felt like I was more of an actor playing the role of the main character trying to keep in-sync with everything else. "Cinematic" really is the word to describe it, and I'd honestly recommend it to folks who want to try out games like Another World or Flashback but find those too difficult. That said, my enthusiasm for it rather waned as things went. I wish the places and things you saw were more surreal than "regular earth thing but REALLY BIG", especially when the colour design is otherwise superb in making such amazing feeling locales. Sometimes it wasn't quite clear what I could and couldn't do, which only strikes me as odd considering how otherwise straightforward things are. I briefly turned the narration back on, and I feel like it's meant to be intertwined with everything else but I found it too distracting and not all that entertaining. While turning it off makes the unskippable dialogue-driven cutscenes a bit awkward, I preferred the feeling of not really knowing what was going on and trying to interpret the world through the visuals, music and mechanics. It's structured like an old adventure serial, where every level is called an episode and is bookended by an intro sequence and cliff-hangers, and each episode is only 20-30 minutes long so they're pretty good for fun quick-blast plays. You can also replay stages to find collectibles that unlock concept art and bonus costumes, which is pretty neat and a nice way to get folks replaying it. But I'm grand with the one playthrough. : )
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Post by personman on Feb 5, 2024 11:59:54 GMT -5
Mega Man 7 (SNES, emulated on 3DS, replay)
I was pretty surprised when I saw this available at HollyWood video since by now the X series started and I thought old Mega was done with. I guess in a way that was kinda true for the time since this game ended up being a melding of the X and Classic styles sort of cause this one feels VERY different. So when I said 3 was my favorite classic Megaman I meant it. However my favorite in the classic series as a whole is this one which seems to be an unpopular opinion but I won't let that stop me lol and I think it's keeping its crown for me. I really love this one, the stages I just find so fun and the bosses are great too for the most part, it has a great soundtrack and looks pretty good to boot.
It also is a massive tonal shift for the rest of the series and as such is probably really off putting to many. My guess is with the edgier X series doing so well marketing piped up and said rough the older series up! Right from the get go the intro for the game comes off very sinister and foreboding (and I love how the steam roller bot in the intro stage is at a completely different scale than in it's own stage). Its really weird because despite Mega running around with a 90s 'tude scowl and threatening Wily's life the character designs are even more cartoony and cutesy than usual, its really weird and I love it lol. The animation of Mega walking away from a huge flaming explosion with a hard look on his face still never fails to make me smile just for how hard its trying. I guess if I was gonna use a specific word for it twee would be a good one. I guess I get why it may bother people cause its way off the mark for the series but come on you have to admit this stuff is really memorable and funny; its Megaman's little rebellious phase trying to match is delinquent older brother! Just pat him and the head and let him work through it. Plus this is the introduction of my favorite calssic series character Forte/Bass. I just like laughing at that moron and his design is still really cool.
But to me the gameplay is still really good and as I said it takes a bunch of bits from the X series and works them in which is a plus in my book. There is a bunch of stuff to find that grants a bunch of gadgets to play with which admittedly much of it tends to be so niche there is only so much real application for them, like Protoman's shield, so it doesn't mimic its spin off series too well but it's not hurting anything either. This feeds into the powers which aren't too great combat wise save for like Cloud Man's and Junk Man's (the latter of which is over powered) but tend to interact with the environment in a few spots and personally I just love things like that so I'm willing to give them more of a pass. The stages themselves are just really, really fun too and they don't quite feel like regular Megaman but don't just copy what X was doing either, its in the middle and I think it just plain works.
However I have to admit much as I love it I realize it is an acquired taste. I rented this game a ton as a kid and when I got into emulation I played this over and over again. It's a harder game and in some cases not for the best reasons. Common complaint I hear is Mega's sprite is a little strange and hard to jump this 'one foot off ledge' jumps which the game asks you to do very often. I can understand that but one can get used to it and in fact this run through I never fell into a pit. The endgame gauntlet has some bosses that are a little bullshit too, like the first stage boss is actually like a puzzle boss really which is really cool only you were never shown this kind of thing before and its solution is just kinda dumb. Like I know I never expected that Slash Man's weapon could do something like push a boulder back at someone. They just didn't quite pull it off and most will just have to go through a war of attrition spamming E tanks which doesn't feel great. The other two bosses have super tiny hitboxes too which wasn't really necessary and simply made finding weaknesses harder for the sake of it. Then god help you if you haven't unlocked the jet armor when taking on Wily's final phase and even then the window to dodge his shots is so tiny it would make a Dark Souls boss blush. These guys probably needed another pass at play testing. This also leaned into a trend that X started where the weakness forces the boss into a super simple pattern that makes things boring which is a real shame since the main bosses are great save for Slash Man (having two stuns that never go away till you take damage and is way too hard avoid was a bit much)
But beyond that I think its a great time. It's wierd and in a series that had already settled into being so formulaic I have a bunch of respect for it, however I get why it may not be everyone cup of tea. Can't deny the music is great though and also very weird in the Wily stages, I mean the second stage comes off as a riff on Thriller or something and is so out of place, but damn it I love it lol.
Rating-8
Now we'll see if I can look kinder on 8 now a days. I never hated it but remember being rather unimpressed with it when I first finished it back in the day. Tinkered with Retroarch's PSX core on 3DS and got the game running flawlessly so I'm at least excited for that lol.
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Post by excelsior on Feb 5, 2024 15:24:14 GMT -5
The Chaos Engine (SNES via Steam Deck, First Time, 1 Hour appx)Played this for the SNES thread. As I said over there, it's enjoyable enough but a very limited game. --- Silent Hope (Switch, First Time)Silent Hope is a spin off of the Rune Factory series, but this time it's a hack-n-slash dungeon crawling action game. As opposed to your Diablo's etc Silent Hope takes a slow pace, no doubt to appease to the audience of the mainline series, making it suitable for lighter play. The game itself is all about the grind, with little dressing. There's seven characters to select from, and you can swap over during the dungeon at crystals, which can also return you to the main lobby. Each character can gain levels and change classes, be equipped with their own set of weapons and accessories, and each runs a shop within the lobby area to provide you with crafting items. You can choose to level as many as you want. Playing as one character allows for more efficiency, though with the ability to swap characters at crystals, you are encouraged to play as multiple, which really seems to be the games intention. Pushing through quickly here seems to go against the spirit of the game, which is no doubt intended as a relaxing alternative within the genre. Unfortunately, things do get repetitive fairly quickly, as new enemy types are introduced slowly, and rarely surprise with a new set of attacks. As far as difficulty goes, it's generally pretty easy, but manages to challenge through surprising by surrounding you with enemies on some floors, or by choice as you can enter challenge floors to gain better equipment and level up faster. Should your character die you lose some of your gained items for the run, but not all of them, clearly a decision to not overly punish those who wish to take a risk. The risk/reward concept going on here simply leans towards the latter. Despite being a rather simple game, there is an attempt at a story here, but it all comes across as a somewhat random series of events that feel forced. There's the titular 'theme' of silence as the characters in your town have had their 'words' stolen by the former king, who then leapt into an abyss (the dungeon setting), and you essentially need to find him to regain your 'words'. Unfortunately, though, you are lumbered with a narrator style character in the towns princess, who has full access to vocalise every thought that pops into here head....and boy will she. It came across that the real reason no other character had spoken was that they perhaps couldn't get a word in edgewise. Her speech can be reduced in frequency or turned off altogether, suggesting that developers had already received feedback on how annoying the character was. Regardless, this completely undermines any idea of silence within the game, a theme that isn't really explored in any other way besides occasional (again narrated) story points. So in short, the theme of the story here is....nothing. In all, Silent Hope will appeal to those looking for a relaxing or simple action game they can dip their toes into. The visuals retain the charm of the Rune Factory series with each playable character having a nice design. Each has their place in play and which you choose to engage with will come down to preference. There's plenty of endgame to get going with. Unfortunately the game itself doesn't have the depth to retain anything but a passing interest. Occasional play is perhaps the best approach here, but a lack of any real change in environment or enemy design throughout means you'll have seen everything on offer within the early goings. --- Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch, First Time, 13 Hours Appx)It's been a long wait for Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Both as a new entry into the 2D Mario series on Nintendo Switch as well as the next gameplay evolution of that kind of game. Despite being a clear build on the back of the somewhat tired New Super Mario line there's more than a fresh coat of paint here, which seems to have appeased many by simply being something truly new. For me, however, well... There's a couple of things going on within Super Mario Bros. Wonder that are reflected in its stage design. First, the idea of bringing fresh experiences into each stage carries across in a way that is more commonly associated with the 3D subseries of Mario games. Levels are built around one gimmick, with required powerups handed to you throughout. Stages are generally bite-sized, though 'break' stages last mere seconds, and 'badge' stages aren't much longer than that. The second idea here seems to be to create the most approachable Mario game in many ways. Don't get me wrong, Super Mario Bros. Wonder will offer challenge to many inexperienced players, but it does so because it's always introducing a new game mechanic for them to become comfortable with. However, there ideas are rarely explored with any depth. Eventually the game does get going, but by that point it's nearly over, and while Mario platformers always start off easily and are at their least engaging to series veterans in their early goings, the training wheels simply take too long to come off here. There's some nice ideas here, such as the Wonder Flowers, which transform each stage as though seen through a hallucinogen induced fantasy. There's some quirks, with Mario himself sometimes changing, or the way he interacts. It largely comes across as an alternate to a power up, and it seems there is more potential for freedom of expression from the developers. Unfortunately, this is one idea that outstays its welcome, simply due to the lack of interesting stage design, with many simply moving you in a set direction. The idea of badges is also nice, since it adds flexibility to Mario by allowing essentially two power ups at once. In practice, however, only badge-specific stages make any use of these abilities. There's also an in-game goal to reach the top of each end-stage flagpole. These are clearly more easily attained with use of specific badges and so, whilst the flagpole goal hasn't been the most welcome seen in past entries, here it outright contradicts the idea of freedom of play, and discourages experimentation with the mechanics. Fortunately when the game does eventually get going the number of enjoyable stages per world increases quickly, balancing creativity whilst keeping enough to engage veterans, even where stages may still be on the easy side. A bit of a spoiler here, but necessary for discourse I feel, there is a special world where the developers gloves come off, and it's only in these stages that we really see the potential of the gameplay, outstripping standard stages to the point they could be from a different game altogether. These stages are simply outstanding, and put most others contained to shame. So, with enough nice things going on here this certainly isn't a blunder, but it does remind me of the first New Super Mario Bros. game, which was highly praised initially, and later iterations improved upon the formula to the point that opinions were largely revised. I feel we will see the same here, since this doesn't come close to the potential of the mechanics. The developers absolutely managed to keep the game fresh throughout, especially in terms of visual themes, but this is the only Mario platformer where I've found stages becoming boring, or wanted to skip over parts on replay (such as the Wonder effects). There's more innovations here, and the idea of replaying and experimentation is nice, but there's really no reason to do so, especially since exploration is no longer encouraged through collectables, which are now almost always just found along your path. So, whilst this is perhaps the weakest Mario platformer to date, I feel there's enough underlying for future entries to build upon.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 7, 2024 6:06:26 GMT -5
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Nintendo Wii; First Time; 7 hours 42 minutes)After getting excited about Wii games again thanks to playing Another Code R, I decided to make a start at playing through whatever I'd owned for ages and finally trying to beat some of them. This was the only game I made any decent progress in, having gotten it for a euro in CeX and finding out it was stupidly good. I talked about this a bit when I replayed the Xbox 360 version last year, but Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was a series of completely different games that just happened to share the same name. Case in point, this Wii version by UbiSoft Quebec is its own unique take on the 3D "Sands of Time"-style of gameplay where, in addition to using the usual mechanics, you're able to use the Wii's pointer and activate special objects to help you in your platforming. Using the pointer on the walls creates hooks you can create to hang onto, while using it on the floor creates a whirlwind that gives you extra height. At first you can only activate specific locations marked with colours, but you'll later get the ability to activate them on most any surfaces. This makes for a cool take on the standard gameplay by letting you create your own platforms, and the level design gets plenty of mileage out of this whether you're making your way to the intended goal or sneaking off to find hidden areas where you can upgrade your combat skills, health meter, the number of "lives" you have (instead of the time reversing mechanic) and other things that can unlock bonus levels to try out. It's a confidently designed game that has plenty of great platforming puzzles, and a surprising amount of bonuses and achievement-style goals to unlock. Considering how the 360 game had basically the main game and little else to do, it's nice that the Wii version offers plenty to do and even a bit of incentive to go for a second playthrough. You can even unlock the SNES port of the original Prince of Persia, which is an especially cool tough seeing as that port adds a bunch of extra stages not seen in most versions of the game. Admittedly, there was some stuff I didn't dig about it. The combat's fine enough for what it is, though its use of the nunchuck to pull off attacks means you'll be flicking your wrist like mad and it can ache a bit afterwards. The non-platforming puzzles are mostly fine, except for the annoyingly recurring trend of puzzles where you have to rotate two interconnected circles and swap objects held from one to the other. It's always a pain in the bum for me cuz they require a lot of planning to do right and only a small mistake to become an embuggerence that requires lots of moving around to fix, so I stuck to using a walkthrough for those puzzles. In fact, this type of puzzle is why I gave up on my original attempt years ago, because the climax is preceded by a room where you have to do this puzzle four times with more and more useless objects piled on with each variation. There isn't a hint system offered to help folks who aren't skilled at this sort of thing, which feels like a very daft thing to do since it only takes up a small part of the adventure. Thank god for grannyplayer from GameFAQs for their walkthrough, or I would never have reached the end. Otherwise, I definitely recommend giving it a look if you enjoyed the Sands of Time games and fancy something in that style.
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Post by spanky on Feb 9, 2024 7:33:03 GMT -5
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (Switch, First Time)
The bundle was on sale for 60 bucks and that sounds like a pretty good deal to me so I picked it up. This is the latest in a line of remasters of the 2D Final Fantasy gaems. I've beaten the original once and the GBA version a couple times so nothing here is really new to me.
The remaster itself is a mixed bag. There's some noticeable screen jutter and the framerate drops frequently. I know the Switch is kind of old technology at this point but honestly it's inexcusable for a game like this. You get used to it by the endgame though. Aside from that, the game throws at you every single QoL feature you can think of. You've got, overworld run, you have autobattle (with fast forward!), you can turn encounters off, you can quadruple experience/gil, in game maps for every section, autosave, quicksave etc. The remastered graphics are the big draw and they also are a bit of a mixed bag. Your character sprites are nicely redone and so are some of the enemies but a good chunk of the art feels like it was just lifted from the GBA version or from other games in general -the airship sprite is taken straight from FF IV for example. It's not bad, it just feels sort of sloppy for something that was this hyped. I also miss the old shop view that the original game had. The remastered music is pretty good with a few interesting interpretations here and there.
As for the game itself, it's also a bit of a mixed bag.. The game peaks in difficulty early on, with the Marsh Cave being pretty long and if you run out of healing items or someone gets killed, then you have to hoof it back to town. However, you start getting better spells and equipment soon after which makes the game significantly easier. Most importantly you get several items that let you cast spells for free and without limit. By the end you'll be storming through the dungeons and random encounters. The remaster doesn't go crazy with new items but it does put in a few useful consumables like Elixirs. I turned off encountners a few times, not because I was in danger, but because I was becoming so ridiculously overleveled that the game was becoming a too easy! Chaos made me sweat a bit, and he is significantly more challenging than anything else in the game (I didn't bother tracking down WarMECH). Final Fantasy was always famous for players being able to beat the game with any party makeup but I sort of wonder if that's possible in this version as Chaos here is a real bear. Like a lot of older RPGs, it's very straightforward and grindy but the grind is sort of the point. Your satisfaction comes from the time investment and slow progress. All the tension comes from the fact a simple battle mistake could result in a dead party and tons of lost progress. When all that friction is removed...well the game feels much less interesting and less of an accomplishment. I still enjoyed myself, mostly. 6/10.
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Post by personman on Feb 9, 2024 12:16:59 GMT -5
Mega Man 8 (PS1, emulated on 3DS, replay)
When I first saw this on the Saturn and Playstation I felt real betrayed since I figured Mega Man was always gonna be on a Nintendo system... even though I saw a Game Gear game a couple years before but still. I felt like I got left behind lol, but once I got my own Playstation I of course had a copy of this as well and couldn't be happier; it was like meeting up with an old friend again. However once the flash of the graphics wore off and the anime cutscenes stopped impressing I just didn't care for it too much, mostly because I was very aware there was also an X game floating out there and I really wanted that instead. Combine this with all the memes losing thier mind about the voice acting making the game seem like a joke and my memory of it really soured. With fresh eyes now though I ended up enjoying it way more.
Of course this game is utterly gorgeous. It all has a spectacle to it that makes you feel like you're playing an arcade game which is really neat. I think the same team of artists that worked on their fighting games may have been on this and X4 since the animation is nearly as fluid as stuff I see in vids of SF3 and such. But to match that the stage design is usually pretty damn good. Usually. I enjoy gimmick stages and this one is trying its hardest to but as jammed pack full of them as it can, sometimes to its own detriment. Like Tengu man's has a couple shmup segments that are inoffensive but rather dull, and Frost man's snowboard parts can be rather annoying and go on for too long (Jump! Jump!) and the fact that these two types repeat for the Wily gauntlet was a pretty bad misfire (Slide! Slide!). Hell the entire Wily castle is pretty underwhelming with not too great bosses, the first one in particular being out right bad. The second just rather boring, and this games interpretation of Yellow devil, cool as they look is just tedious to fight.
The rest though are pretty good. I liked Clown Man's stage quite a bit and just couldn't get over how those tiny tin solider guys have so many damn frame of animation, I had to just sit a watch them for a bit. Sword Man's stage was a treat since it is specifically designed to get you to use the first four bosses powers to their fullest which is my jam. I could have done without the maze parts of Astro Man's stage but they're not bad and weird as it feels to swim in a Mega Man title I appreciated how Aqua man's actually had multiple routes to go through. The encounters are pretty damn good too though once again using a weakness on them kinda just turns them brain dead half the time. Plus flashy as thier moves are they just don't seem to do much damage at all so they're rather easy to beat which isn't a deal breaker but I think I would have beefed them up a bit. Astro Man needed a second pass too dude is just pathetic weakness or no. (go figure his next appearance in Mega man & Bass hes one of the hardest fights)
The powers are pretty good this time around as well. I got tons of use out of them and they continue the idea 7 had with them often interacting with the environment. For example Clown Man's can grapple onto stuff and let you swing across distances in many of the stages which is real cool. I think they only weapon that I couldn't find much use for was Aqua Man's, thing is just a buster shot with a slight lob. But leveraging these will often reward you with upgrade tokens which I never tried to go after till now and doing so was a lot of fun. Interestingly the upgrades you can buy with these are too numerous to purchase them all and you have to pick and choose which actually lets you customize Mega Man to a degree I was never aware of. You can focus on getting more weapon ammo, upgrading the buster if you want to be a buster only person and even make him faster and sturdier. It's not to the degree that it'll make the game drastically different but its neat all the same.
Only straight down sides I would say is again the levels dip here and there with the castle stages are pretty disappointing. The music too is just so flat and boring and has none of the energy the series usually has. Its fine? I guess? Very much 'lofi tunes to study too' rather than stuff I'd actually associate with the series. I only really liked Tengu Man's stage and the boss theme and Search Man's stage just annoys the piss out of me; not sure why. I love the voice clips the bosses have though, their full of personality and made me smile, my favorite is Grenade Man.
I think its one of the better entries now that I look at it. In fact I'd rather play it again than 2! Yes I'm serious lol. However I more consistently enjoyed 7 so I don't hold it in higher regard than that. Still, real fun! Glad I took a second look.
Rating-7
Well far as I know there was no homebrew port of 9 and 10 to 3DS or anything so I guess I'll finally have to go to my Switch for those. Maybe I'll quit neglecting my Majora's Mask run while I'm at work now lol.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 11, 2024 3:30:48 GMT -5
I've been awake all night, so sod it let's do a big post for the hell of it.
Another Code: Recollection (Nintendo Switch; First Time; 12 hours 55 minutes)
I grabbed this with plans of covering it for HG101, and only managed to beat it a few days ago. Took plenty of screenshots and notes, though I still need to figure out exactly where I stand with it. I prefer this kind of reimagining where it's basically an entirely new game mechanically, as opposed to the 1:1 thing you see in plenty of other remakes. I appreciate that the new puzzles have plenty of variety and tend to contain a bit of depth in how to solve them, acting as a nice counterpoint to the original games' puzzles which were simple but utilized the DS/Wii hardware for cool gimmicks.
In terms of plot, I'd say the remake of the first game is quite faithful, apart from shuffling around the order of various events and adding or removing little details. The only major differences apart from the new perspective are how the mansion's been redesigned with a more sensible layout (it reminded me a bit of the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil weirdly lol) and that Ashley no longer quizzes herself on what's happened at the end of each chapter. I suppose it helps to keep up the pace and allows for chapters to end in more varied ways, but I do miss that bit of introspection from her and how it came back in an especially cool way for the climax.
The remake for the second game streamlines things a fair bit, combining a couple characters and reducing the amount of time you spend running back and forth between places. That makes sense considering this is essentially Part 2 of the collection and retaining the original pace could be a bit of a drag, but I feel like it takes away from the interest in mundane life that I found quite compelling in the original. There's surprisingly fewer puzzles in this half of the adventure, and while there's a couple opportunities taken to resolve or connect things that the original wasn't able to do, it also drastically changes the climax so that it becomes something else entirely.
Not that it's a bad change, I rather like the weird direction it goes. It's more that I assumed this was gonna be as faithful as the first game's remake was, and only making changes to improve on the handful of small loose ends and whatnot. Otherwise, this is a pretty neat pair of adventure games and although I still prefer the originals at the end of the day, these remakes manage to express a lot of what made them great. Which is prolly the most important thing at the end of the day.
Another Code: Two Memories (Nintendo DS; Replay)
I was feeling curious about how the original Another Code compared to its remake and ended up giving it another go. I still quite like, and it was interesting getting to more concretely observe the differences between them such as the puzzles, how Ashley thinks to herself more often in the original, and even little details in characterization or background details. I was playing on the new game plus mode, where the main difference is that the optional cards you discover replace Richard's diary entries with his discoveries on the Edward family. It was neat getting a better understanding of things, and how the origami cranes you can find in the remake basically combine the diary entries and Edward family research.
(Not entirely related, but I want to briefly moan about how awful the original 3DS XL's microphone is. It's literally the tiniest imperceptible hole, and it doesn't register activity very well. It made the handful of "blow into the microphone" puzzles basically undoable unless I literally yelled and bellowed at the vicinity of the thing like I was doing a mad impression of Morrisey at the opera. I wanna find whatever numpty at Nintendo decided the microphone should be re-designed like that and put soggy cereal in their shoes.)
How Buddy's Parents Met (Switch; Replay)
I'd been occasionally popping back into this one and solving the six jigsaws on the easiest difficulty while waiting for stuff to download. Ended up beating the last two while awake, so I thought I'd note it on here.
Quake (Switch; Replay) Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon (Switch; Replay) Quake: Dimension of the Machine (Switch; First Time)
I actually played Dimension of the Machine first, curious to check out some of the levels Noah Gervais talked about in his Quake retrospective video and having been quite impressed with MachineGames' Call of the Machine expansion for Quake II. Dimension's structured in the same way, giving you the option of checking out five unique worlds in any order (each one made of two or three huge stages), and there's a lot of variety in the individual stage designs that makes them fun to explore. The church stages were particularly awesome, along with the weird crumbled castle you explore and the brief section set in the giant purple void. I'd previously figured Quake I was just not for me, but in playing through these levels, getting reacquainted with the weapons, enemies and pace of the game, I found myself enjoying it a good deal.
So much so that shortly after beating it, I decided to dive back into the original Quake. I made a point to explore levels a bit more thoroughly so I could find their secrets, and even discover a few of the bonus levels if I got lucky (and I did). While I don't quite have that appreciation for the aesthetic of Quake, the moods and vibes generated by its visuals and sound design, I'm definitely getting a better feel for how it plays, how to fight enemies and how to intuit where to explore and what triggers secret areas and the like. I'm admittedly save scumming in an overly cautious way, quick-saving after basically every enemy killed or pick-up collected, but that makes things a bit more approachable.
I kinda prefer the original campaign to the Scourge of Armagon expansion, which is funny considering I felt the complete opposite when I first played these back in 2021. I enjoy the original's bite-sized stages to the lengthier, more maze-like affairs of Armagon, and while the latter has a cool sense of progression to its opening stages where you make your way through a military base to an underground mine to the portal that takes you across dimensions, there's nothing else as cool in the rest of that expansion. Both are grand, and I'm hoping that if I decide to give Dissolution of Eternity and Dimension of the Past a shot, I'll finally be able to see a decent about of what they have to offer instead of throwing in the towel.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 11, 2024 5:48:29 GMT -5
Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (Switch, First Time) Siege of Dragonspear is basically BG 1.5. One of its main goals is bridging the gap between 1 and 2 since it always felt like there was a weird missing story chunk between them. I’d say it does do this mostly successfully as it’s not just something tacked on. However, the game itself creates a pretty big loose thread right at the end. Since this came out after BGII:EE, it’s sort of just dangling there unless you install a mod for II. I think it’s possible that this might have been followed up in a Beamdog BGIII that was never made; I said before that this might have been made instead of BGIII, but I think now that they just continually asked and kept getting rejected. (Edit: Actually, I cut that out of my post for BG because I realized it wasn't accurate. There's an interview with David Gaider who was at Bioware starting on BGII and later joined Beamdog right before SoD was released that mentions what went on. They made an official pitch that was rejected, but WotC was more receptive to a new Planescape game. That one didn't get made due to funding issues.) As for the story itself, it is as the title suggests mostly a march with an army towards the castle Dragonspear, a preexisting Forgotten Realms location. This does make the game completely linear as you can’t access old areas once you’ve moved on to the next chapter, but it also means that there’s a more even distribution of optional areas and side quests. The optional outdoor areas tend to be smaller and more purpose driven, but the dungeon areas are more developed than those of 1 despite still being single floor. The difficulty is a big jump though. I think this mainly comes from the design being able to target a fairly narrow range of levels. The experience cap is the same as The Black Pits, 500k, so characters only have minimal growth with fresh characters getting a bit more hypothetical room. I didn’t actually end up hitting the cap, ended near 480k, so you’d probably have to grind a fair amount to make up the missing 97k. (Edit: Accidentally cut out that imported characters would be at a max of 161k, but new characters are at 64k) The AI is also smarter in general with the fog of war “trick” no longer working as entire groups now get activated if one member does. I played on Core Rules, but I did check that this no longer works on Normal. The big negative is the technical issues. This is hugely crash happy on a greater level than my two playthroughs of the first game combined. You absolutely have to save constantly and rotate saves! I really don’t understand why it’s so much worse. It doesn’t even seem tied to anything in particular and was always totally random. Ironically, a few places I saw as being crash prone were actually totally fine for me. The good does outweigh the bad, but it is a rough experience at times. I finished in about 20 hours. Rating: 6 (I’d go 8 overall, but there’s just so much crashing it’s worth -2). I looked it up and it turns out that importing a party with Imoen doesn’t actually make you lose all of her items. You still lose what she had equipped, but her inventory gets up in a chest after the opening dungeon.
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Post by personman on Feb 12, 2024 2:13:37 GMT -5
Mega Man X (SNES, emulated on 3DS, replay)
Rating- 10
Uh, really I have nothing to say that anyone hasn't said already about this one. Its one of my most favorite games ever and it stands the test of time.... I think I may end up going through all the X games now. There is something wrong with me.
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Post by spanky on Feb 12, 2024 7:52:14 GMT -5
The X series really peaks with the first one. I've played the other games plenty of times and none of them quite land like the original does. One of those "perfect" Capcom games they crank out once in a while.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 12, 2024 10:43:45 GMT -5
Controversial, but I prefer most of the sequels. I like all the new features that got added over time, and the Eurasia disaster storyline from X5, X6 and X8 is a whole lot better than the storyline of the six Inti games. I think we can all agree that X7 is awful though. I was half expecting it to underrated like X6, but it was somehow even worse than I imagined.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 12, 2024 10:46:42 GMT -5
Flying Trooper X-SERD (TurboGrafx-16, First Time)
Pretty good strategy game from NCS/Masaya and more "modern" than Crest of Gaia and Gaiflame.
Rating: 7
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