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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Sept 18, 2022 7:59:15 GMT -5
Developers of the Suikoden remasters hoping to continue the series is pretty meaningless, isn't it? Perhaps this means it's coming, but presumably not from creators of the original series. I'd imagine fans are more likely to be satisfied with Eiyuden Chronicle. Unless they're just talking about further remasters of course, those are welcome. It is funny they'd say that when the original creators are already off doing their own successor. It's Konami, so I doubt it'll amount to anything anyway. I honestly don't think most people would be very excited if Konami would continue their popular IPs, given the state of the company. On the plus side, this doesn't look too bad for a remaster, but I still think a straightforward port would've been better.
In other news, Splatoon 3 released about a week ago, and I've spend quite a bit of time with it so far. There have been some questions from people whether a sequel was really necessary, but fans have been very positive I feel. And there's enough tweaked and added here that it would be silly to expect them to put this out as an update to Splatoon 2. Then again, Splatoon never does as well with the critics as you'd expect based on fan opinions, especially since they tend to add a lot of content with updates. There's a lot of smaller changes that add up to make it fun to dive in again. Stuff like the Shell-Out Machine and the catalog add some ways to gain some goodies without relying on Salmon Run all the time. Creating your preferred gear is a bit easier now, though it can be very expensive to upgrade your gear to 3 slots (and you can upgrade it beyond that for extra EXP or something, but that's absurdly expensive). There's some neat things like your nametag and locker to add a bit of customization. Splatoon has always had a lot of detailed worldbuilding so it's nice to finally use all those stickers and grafitti they have plastered all around for yourself. Gameplay-wise it's on the same console as Splatoon 2, and it plays identically from what I can tell, save for some new movement options. There's only 4 new main weapons, which is a bit dissapointing considering I don't like any of them all that much, but at least there's a lot of new specials. It is kind of annoying to go back to only one version of each weapon, though. I hope the first major update includes second kits for each weapon since I there's some mains where I don't like the sub or special. The new stages are very fun though, and two of the returning stages from Splatoon 1 are so different now that they might as well be new stages, which is also kind of disspointing since they were two of the best stages in that game. Some Splatoon 1 stages were a bit too out there or unbalanced I guess, but these two were actually quite close to Splatoon 2's style, so I don't know why these in particular where changed. Similarly, Salmon Run has just enough things tweaked and added to get back into it. The rewards work a bit differently, there's an extra 4th wave that can sometimes occur, and some new enemy and wave types. Being able to launch golden eggs makes collecting enough a bit easier The single player is kind of a weird hybrid between S1 and 2's main single player modes and the Octo Expansion. The stages are definitely more like the Octo Expansion, with a similar area where you pick a weapon, and a more ominous tone, plus they have different objectives like in the expansion. The rest is more like a regular single player, but with more exploration in the hub worlds. Of course the difficulty is nowhere near the Octo Expansion, which is understandable, but I'm about two thirds in, and so far it's way too easy for my taste. Because of all the different objectives it's probably a worse tutorial mode than in S1 and 2, but on the flip side, it's more interesting. I'm also pretty curious where the story goes, considering that Mr. Grizz seems to show up, and Deep Cut is involved as well.
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Post by dsparil on Sept 18, 2022 15:09:09 GMT -5
My brother has been playing Symphony of the Night for the first time and been asking for help from me to avoid spoilers. I'd forgotten how obtuse that game can be. He'd heard about the inverted castle (who hasn't?) and was surprised when he hit the end credits with nothing afterwards. Unlocking it is definitely one of those 'how was I meant to know that?' moments. I think it isn't too obtuse in SotN. You mainly need to remember to visit the spike lined corridor after getting the spike breaker armor for the silver ring. I don't remember if the gold ring is optional, but it's less hidden. Getting the true ending in Aria of Sorrow is a lot less obvious since it isn't even clear why you'd need the souls the Ancients books are referring to.
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Post by Digitalnametag on Sept 18, 2022 15:50:37 GMT -5
Afraid not. Honestly after going through XC:DE I would say that the only entries with strong battle systems are 2/Torna. Yeah I remember liking X2 better. All the stuff just feels so simplified in X3. In X2 you at least had to mind the elements you were using to trigger a chain. In X3 you just trigger a chain when full and most of the time you can outright kill whatever you are fighting with it.
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Post by excelsior on Sept 19, 2022 0:47:46 GMT -5
dsparil - I think a guide is needed here and there. It doesn't really bother me too much, but I'm certainly not going to recommend La Mulana to him or anything like that. Digitalnametag - No, no, no! Use the chain attack as close to the enemy's death as possible to gain bonus exp. Bonus experience starts multiplying as soon as the enemy's health bar is depleted during the combo and once you get a feel for it you'll be gaining multipliers of 5-6 times the experience of enemies comfortably. Make use of this and you won't need to fight nearly as many battles. 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 - I don't think reviewers have adapted to modern service style games at all, never mind that they're stuck in the 00's and pretty much praise big budget single player games over anything else. What's more is that so many don't seem to realise what a hit Splatoon is. I'm forever seeing it labelled as a smaller series, but to recollection 2 has sold 14 million so far. -- I bet this hasn't happened to anyone here before. With the recent news of Pikmin 4 arriving next year I thought I'd give one of the older games a quick go, get into the spirit. So, I figured why not number 2 this time, since I usually go back to the first one. I was on the title screen confused about the multiplayer modes. I didn't remember bingo battle being added until 3. Then I start the game get a bit of a story about how I'm in debt.... I certainly don't remember this. Hang on - I've never played this game before. I could have sworn I had played through it. Anyway, that's my next playthrough decided.
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Post by retr0gamer on Sept 19, 2022 5:48:41 GMT -5
Still struggling through Fire Emblem: the binding blade.
On chapter 14, a sand storm giving fog of war and a desert which annihilates movement of horses and foot units that are mages. Also need to beat the stage in 25 turns to get the Gaiden chapter. I really can't imagine how people weren't driven insane by this game playing it normally. Getting through a level only to find you don't have a unit properly levelled enough and with the right weapon to damage them is infuriating, not to mention you can lose units to a cheeky crit. I'm playing it like the old snes game save stating after every turn and it's still a nightmare.
Went back to Blue Reflection for a bit. Been playing it on and off since release. There hasn't been a good magical girl game and was hoping the Atelier team could maybe pull it out of the bag but nope. It's got an incredible soundtrack but that's where the good stuff stops. It's quite low budget so there's very few areas but it's also not economical with them like the way Persona 3 was. Also there's very little conflict. There's no boys for the girls to fight over, not sailor mars/moon bitchiness and a lack of humour. Everyone is just too nice to each other. The battle system is no great shakes either and it's all very easy.
I see the sequel got good reviews but I'm a bit wary of it considering the disappointment of the first game.
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Post by retr0gamer on Sept 19, 2022 7:34:06 GMT -5
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Post by JDarkside on Sept 19, 2022 20:02:17 GMT -5
There's no boys for the girls to fight over, Cause they're baiting lesbians and yuri fans.
The sequel actually throws them a proper bone, hilariously with a villain from the anime who's entire personality in that show was an extreme masochist who is absolutely delighted by seeing people in emotional agony or when her friends hit her with a frying pan. The premise of that game basically wipes most everyone's memories in a mystery world so that actually lets them give her depth slowly and it's really interesting and MAN, the game lays the tension between her and the lead HARD.
It's great.
Blue Reflection makes way more sense when you understand it is not inspired by Sailor Moon, but more modern, moody takes. It's all about the emotions of the characters, a bit of angst, and forming relationships with others while dealing with your own issues, often all of this contextualized by magical set ups.
I haven't heard a lot of good on the first game but I enjoyed the short few hours I put into the sequel. The main character has a fun personality that lets her bounce off the other girls, and the whole scenario is legitimately interesting. Also heard from a friend that it is a massive step up from the first game. They're almost entirely unrelated story wise besides one or two characters, so no worries about continuity stuff. All the Blue Reflection media seems self-contained while bringing in a previously used character here and there.
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Post by excelsior on Sept 20, 2022 0:08:35 GMT -5
I see the sequel got good reviews but I'm a bit wary of it considering the disappointment of the first game. Sorry I can't answer this directly but from some poking around it does seem that The Binding Blade is considered the toughest of the 3 GBA Fire Emblems on normal difficulty (Sacred Stones being the easiest). My only recommendation in the next one is to do the optional quests, and create a save state before opting to do them, since it doesn't give the opportunity to save in game until after the choice is made. Use your merchant where you can and stock up on strong weapons. The only problem I found looking around the net for which FE games are tougher than others was the oddly common assumption in these communities that most FE players opted for the hardest difficulties, which is a complete load of tosh. If you wanted to look into a non-GBA classic style Fire Emblem I found the Gamecube one fairly easy.
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Post by retr0gamer on Sept 20, 2022 3:18:58 GMT -5
Blue Reflection makes way more sense when you understand it is not inspired by Sailor Moon, but more modern, moody takes. It's all about the emotions of the characters, a bit of angst, and forming relationships with others while dealing with your own issues, often all of this contextualized by magical set ups. [/div][/quote] I guess I was just looking for a Sailor Moon game and got garbage modern anime the game. I can kind of see what they were going for with the writing in this game, it's just I don't care about any of the girls and all their issues are really trivial. It severely needs an injection of humour. I might give the sequel a go at some point if it's a big improvement. Blue Reflection obviously had a low budget and tried to copy Persona 3 which made great use of a low budget. It just fumbles that badly as well. I see the sequel got good reviews but I'm a bit wary of it considering the disappointment of the first game. Sorry I can't answer this directly but from some poking around it does seem that The Binding Blade is considered the toughest of the 3 GBA Fire Emblems on normal difficulty (Sacred Stones being the easiest). My only recommendation in the next one is to do the optional quests, and create a save state before opting to do them, since it doesn't give the opportunity to save in game until after the choice is made. Use your merchant where you can and stock up on strong weapons. The only problem I found looking around the net for which FE games are tougher than others was the oddly common assumption in these communities that most FE players opted for the hardest difficulties, which is a complete load of tosh. If you wanted to look into a non-GBA classic style Fire Emblem I found the Gamecube one fairly easy. Yeah I'm reading it's the toughest Fire Emblem other than Thracia 776. Bad game to start with but I wanted to start at the beginning of the GBA trilogy. I have played a lot of Blazing Blade and found it much more manageable. Binding Blade the maps are just too deadly and take too long and its heartbreaking to fuck up after a 45-60 minute slog. Even with save stating every turn I'm having a tough time
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Post by excelsior on Sept 20, 2022 8:34:09 GMT -5
The nice thing about Blazing Blade is it has a really good tutorial. A bit long, perhaps, but creates more clarity than most other entries. I guess because it was the first international release. A few maps are still slogs, but it IS a few maps like I say. The optional ones are intentionally harder, though you're missing opportunities to gain experience and items without them. Also, the lords in that game are so very breakable that protecting them requires a bit too much commitment for my liking.
On the difficulty front I think it's odd that there's a complete lack of consistency from one game to the next, including more modern entries. Since Awakening more difficulty options have been added so anyone can play, although they're all balanced around a standard difficulty, which varies. The Wii version acts as a follow up to the Gamecube one, and I always got stuck on it. Awakening was then really easy, I guess as they wanted to make an introductory game for new players. Then Fates had an entry that was really easy and an entry that was really difficult. There aren't many that nail the middle ground in my opinion.
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Post by lurker on Sept 20, 2022 11:19:29 GMT -5
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Post by dsparil on Sept 20, 2022 11:57:49 GMT -5
I haven't played Binding Blade, but that was the first game to use the screwy hit rate formula the series kept until Fates. Serene's Forest has a chart, but hit rates above 50% are actually more likely to hit and rates under 50% are less likely to hit than what's actually displayed. For example, 80% is really 92%. It's never safe to be reckless in an FE game, but that set of games lets you be a little extra aggressive.
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Post by JDarkside on Sept 22, 2022 5:09:36 GMT -5
On Blue Reflection's sequel, yes, it's much more humorous.
However, it's less wacky and more based on character dynamics. You may enjoy that anime I mentioned just for how over the top ridiculous the villains get. Just a bunch of messed up teen girls being unimaginably mean to each other in surprisingly creative ways. It helps the anime was headed by a woman, unlike the first game, so the dynamics click more.
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Post by retr0gamer on Sept 22, 2022 5:23:03 GMT -5
Thanks everyone. The sequel does sound like a much better game. I'm at chapter 10 now so getting near the end and I'm still getting annoyed at how banal every girls problem seems to be in this game, including the lead who needs to cop on and get over herself and her leg.
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Post by lurker on Sept 22, 2022 18:29:22 GMT -5
So Capcom is finally pulling the plug on Mega Man: Powered Up's online service.
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