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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Dec 3, 2020 18:52:48 GMT -5
I finally took the shrink off my pre-order copy of Luigi's Mansion 3 this week. It has been sitting on my shelf for a year. Now, unplayed games on my shelf is nothing new, but with pre-orders I usually get to them within a week.
Anyhow, it's not sucking me in (no pun intended) as much as Luigi's Mansion 2 so far...but it's still pretty fun. I think the linear floor-based design isn't as good as the more open (but still structured) mansions from LM2. It's also a little repetitive at times. Then again, I haven't played 2 since release, so who knows how different it really feels. Despite this, I still enjoy wrecking havoc in each room, and the gems are often fun (and challenging) to uncover. It's also amusing to play a Mario game that's so clearly made in the west.
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Post by chronotigger65 on Dec 3, 2020 21:31:22 GMT -5
Playing The Simpsons Game on PS2 and at the final boss (just had to be a rythem game.) I'm really enjoying this game (like playing Marge with her command abilities just a shame she's only in three stages.) Went to Youtube to see stuff on the game and noticed that the PS3 version has extra stuff. I'm wondering if there's any major differences between the two gaming platforms and is the PS3 one worth getting.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2020 2:48:15 GMT -5
I still need to pick up Trials of Mana. I was really excited for it before release and bow keep forgetting it even exists. It seems to be available cheaply right now. I'll have to pick it up when my spending ban is lifted. 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 - Our opinions are quite different on Luigi's Mansion 3, but I will say, though it continues structurewise as per what you've already seen, the level design and set pieces really hit their stride around the middle.
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Post by kaoru on Dec 4, 2020 3:11:09 GMT -5
Yep, Trials of Mana is really cheap sind around Black Friday for like 20 (PS4) ro 25 (Switch) bucks over here. It's well worth that much.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 2:05:29 GMT -5
Every year me and my brother take a week off to get together and play video games together as well as some other things. It is usually nice and nostalgic being able to spend time together as we would when we were kids. So last week was that week this year but of course due to current circumstances we weren't able to meet in person. Instead we decided to play games alongside each other whilst helping each other over video chat and decided to play two point & click games since they lend themselves well to this format. I have 2 completions from it:
The Darkside Detective This one is a really nice game with lots of movie and pop culture references. It is fun to click around and find titles of books (for eg) that are a pun on a popular title. The game is structured into shorter episodes, with the first one playing out like a 10-15 minute tutorial and other chapters all being beatable in 45 minutes at longest. The puzzles are very straightforward and the game often stops just short of telling you the answer, so we were able to progress without difficulty. For that reason of course the game isn't one for someone looking for deep puzzles but it is very ideal for light play if you would like something you can easily click through. Incidentally, my partner picked this up after we played it and whizzed through it in 2 days, so overall this one has gone down well and I will pick up season 2.
Bulb Boy This is an unusual game. Everything is well drawn but visually it is going for a gross out kind of look. Honestly, I think they pulled it off a little too well because it made the gameplay feel really uninviting. Whilst the interface is simple it is also inelegant, and controls inconsistently. It can be hard to tell what items you have actually are meant to be, or what you can interact with at times. There are also a lot of timing based puzzles and also avoiding enemies (you don't click to move around, it is done with the analogue stick) which all adds to a frustrating experience. I really do feel that the visuals made the game feel worse than it was, but not in the way the developers perhaps intended? Unfortunately, I can't recommend this one.
As for the format we found it was a lot of fun and would play this way again. Each of us were able to help the other out at times and it felt reminiscent of the old pre-internet days in that respect. I'm not sure it would work for other genres outside of point & click adventures though.
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Dec 5, 2020 6:19:26 GMT -5
So I'm playing Tomba 2 (PS1). I've mixed feelings about this game as it makes a nice first impression with very good 3D visuals for the PS1, retaining the same charming aesthetic of the first one to the extent possible at the time, and the platform adventure-style gameplay with highly interactive environments is a lot like before which is generally a good thing.
However they expanded a bit on the 2.5D thing here with multiple paths through areas crossing each other at a 90 degree angle, and problems immediately arise related to this: There's zero manual camera control, the view is too zoomed in to get a good overview of areas (there're also no area maps, not even a vague world map for them here), it doesn't pick the best angles when moving around and you generally feel like it should've just been a fully 3D experience or continued like in the prequel as you run into invisible walls everywhere. Switching between paths is really stiff as well, forcing you to stop and stand still in exactly the right spot, press the other cardinal direction, and then sometimes switch back to the previous direction as the game decides to change the camera angle again. Yep, it's really strange.
Going back to positives the controls feel pretty much the same if a bit slower when not running (so good besides certain finer motions required during some platforming which are as clunky as before), and the game is more forgiving as it ditches the lives system and keeps progress when dying from falling into lava, spawning you where you entered the current area - something that works better for an exploration-based game. Level gimmicks are mostly fun and their structure test your spatial awareness at times. When in some towns, oddly enough the game switches to a different engine where movement is actually free, the perspective is in bird's eye view and there are even maps, however you can't jump or attack. There are again tons of quests, which is already getting overwhelming where I am, but I'll probably see it through to the end. Wish it was remade though.
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Post by spanky on Dec 5, 2020 7:59:01 GMT -5
Paid a few bucks for the first Fire Emblem game on the Switch. Mainly because I reflexively support official translations of old games.
Not really into it so far but I've never really cared for the FE games either so playing the creaky 8-bit original probably won't change that.
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Post by dsparil on Dec 5, 2020 10:52:23 GMT -5
I grabbed it too, and it feels too archaic for me. Not being able to see possible movement was more annoying that I thought it'd be, and there's only so much that can really be done with a game so old.
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Post by spanky on Dec 5, 2020 11:44:58 GMT -5
I grabbed it too, and it feels too archaic for me. Not being able to see possible movement was more annoying that I thought it'd be, and there's only so much that can really be done with a game so old. Yeah, like all FE games it's pretty punitive too with the permadeath and all. Plus visiting all the NPC houses on the battle map while trying to fight seems like a pain. I know a lot of this stuff is part of the appeal for the fans of the games though. I was hoping for a more breezy experience but a quick look at a longplay on Youtube shows the game takes about 22 hours to complete. At least they included the option to rewind your turns. Speaking personally, I'd take Shining Force II over any of the FE games I've played (which is only a handful I'll admit).
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Post by retr0gamer on Dec 5, 2020 18:57:27 GMT -5
Finished up Dragon Quest 2. Very impressed by just how much strategy there is to the combat. It's still very simplistic but since it's quite a short game it really explores as much strategy as it can without becoming a slog. I can kind of see why it caught on so much with the Japanese audience before dragonball Z blew up, it's just a really fun game.
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Post by toei on Dec 5, 2020 21:53:44 GMT -5
Finished up Dragon Quest 2. Very impressed by just how much strategy there is to the combat. It's still very simplistic but since it's quite a short game it really explores as much strategy as it can without becoming a slog. I can kind of see why it caught on so much with the Japanese audience before dragonball Z blew up, it's just a really fun game. And the strategic options actually increased a fair deal with things like the class system in later games (DQ3 and 6). A funny thing about Dragon Quest is that although it's inspired every other Japanese turn-based RPG, most of them ended up with much more shallow battles. Spells like Sleep or Poison are great examples; they actually work in DQ, and they can be of real use, while they're almost always entirely useless in most 8 and 16-bit RPG.
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Post by chronotigger65 on Dec 5, 2020 22:18:40 GMT -5
I've took a chance and went ahead buying a repo cart on Ebay. The game is Terranigma. The company is RetroGamerUS that sells only repo games some of which are not official games but roms for fan games. I really like the game thru emulation and this may be the only way I can really play it these days. Does anybody here have done business with them before? I like to know if their products are good. Reviews are good on ebay. Luckily they have a return policy if things don't work out.
Update...Forget it. I read about repo carts and decided to cancel my order.
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Post by retr0gamer on Dec 6, 2020 7:06:46 GMT -5
Finished up Dragon Quest 2. Very impressed by just how much strategy there is to the combat. It's still very simplistic but since it's quite a short game it really explores as much strategy as it can without becoming a slog. I can kind of see why it caught on so much with the Japanese audience before dragonball Z blew up, it's just a really fun game. And the strategic options actually increased a fair deal with things like the class system in later games (DQ3 and 6). A funny thing about Dragon Quest is that although it's inspired every other Japanese turn-based RPG, most of them ended up with much more shallow battles. Spells like Sleep or Poison are great examples; they actually work in DQ, and they can be of real use, while they're almost always entirely useless in most 8 and 16-bit RPG. That's the big thing i noticed. Status spells and buffs/debuffs were essential and extremely useful all through the game. The only other series that does this well is megaten. On other rpgs this stuff just gets ignored.
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Post by spanky on Dec 6, 2020 8:49:31 GMT -5
I wasn't impressed with the demo of Trial of Mana I played, but all the talk about it here, plus the recent Retronauts episode on it really makes me want to try it out. 16-bit RPG remake that's only 20 hours long? Sign me up...
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Post by dsparil on Dec 6, 2020 9:31:07 GMT -5
Trials is also a lot easier than the original. I only died once and just because I was being dumb. I really like that they mainly kept the original music and only touched it up a bit. Almost all the gameplay changes are for the better too.
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