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Post by ZenithianHero on Mar 22, 2021 18:01:57 GMT -5
Soul Searching (Nintendo Switch, First Time, About 3 hours)
A survival adventure the main character sails island to island. As the title implies, the story deals with examining oneself and trying to find peace. The main character is depressed. The NPCs are no better shape. There are dragons trying to burn you alive. The sailing is kinda relaxing I liked the little fishing you can do. The survival mechanics are not too demanding and the game return to last save point if you fail (though that is a bit of sailing time you lost). The graphics are a mixed bag, because characters are just a mess of squares the game's world varying degrees of detail to it. The game got some pretty effects as you travel on sea.
The game also has side stories. They are presented as different experimental minigames each chapter. One is a sidescroller, another is in 3D first person view, another is a trippy game of basketball. The bulk of the game's backstory appear to be told here, but it is so bizarre I honestly think the developer is screwing with me here. There's a sense of disturbance going through it so mission accomplished.
As short as the story modes are, there is replay value. The game offers a random mode with multiplayer. Although I am uncertain you would want to. The game's tone and experience seems more intimate and the game is far too much a downer to drag other people into it.
6/10
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2021 3:45:04 GMT -5
I had the house to myself yesterday on a day off so I was able to get a couple of games polished off.
Final Fantasy The Adventure (Switch, First Time, 14 Hours) Following the recent thread about Zeldalikes I thought I should actually play one of them to diversify my experience a little and I had the Collection of Mana right there so I chose this. It took me a while to switch my logic from the strict rules of Zelda when playing but once I did and the gameplay clicked I had a really nice time with it. Everything is well drawn and animated and the action plays nicely. Dungeons are enjoyable to explore without too much getting lost and frustrated. There was one issue I came across though which was game breaking. Since doors relock behind you I found myself in an area between two locks and with no keys to progress. I read online that enemies spawn in each area to provide keys but in this one it wasn't the case. Anyway, I had to start again. I'm going to deduct a point for that. Also there was one really obtrusive puzzle with a clue about trees and a figure 8. Thank goodness for the internet because I'd never have gotten it. Anyway, the game is recommended, but keep a backup save perhaps at the beginning of each dungeon. And take plenty of keys with you.
Score 7/10
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Switch, First Time, 24 Hours) My only previous experience in the Musou genre from this game was the previous Hyrule Warriors, which I remember having a nice time with. I feel Age of Calamity made some significant improvements in a couple of areas though.
For one I found that there was a greater cohesion of the entire experience in the sequel. In the original there were several disparate modes, which, whilst being engaging separately, didn't really compel to play through each mode to a great amount outside of the main story. In Age of Calamity there is only one mode, with main quests and plenty of side quests on offer. To complete the adventure I found I did need to level up some through taking part in side missions, and those would strengthen my characters, however most of them can be skipped over if you're not a completionist. I found through levelling one character I was then able to pay to boost the others to the same level, which was enough for me much of the time (I could have happily played everything but felt pressed for time). Another benefit from the cohesive focus comes in the presentation. Everything feels like it has it's natural place and I'm not going looking through different menu's for different disconnected modes.
The other aspect I found is that AoC made better use of the Zelda property. The original Zelda did a nice job with this aspect, however, this being a completely original version of the characters everything had to be kept general with very generic material used to reference the original series. With Age of Calamity working specifically with the characters and world experienced in Breath of the Wild the dev team were able to zero in on the specific characteristics that made that world come alive and bring them to the forefront of the experience in enjoyable and often surprising ways. I don't want to get specific, since I don't want to spoil anything for other users who haven't gotten around to it yet. I will say that I really had a good time with the story once it got going, and that it really drove my experience. Also, I found that the characters on offer had nicely creative movesets and each brought a lot of fun to my playthrough. As a whole, I'm getting (through limited experience of course) that theme is really important with these warriors titles, and Age of Calamity does a great job to the point I'd definitely consider picking up and playing other musou's with appealing licenses. I am unsure how much the product benefitted through Aonuma's involvement though comparatively.
On the negative side, the game does stutter at times. Whilst I don't think this had to do with the amount of characters on screen frame drops seemed more likely to occur from certain effects. There's a lot of visual flair to the game but certain characters special moves slowed the game down whilst others didn't. It's an issue that's overstated online in my opinion, since it didn't really hamper my enjoyment outside of not using one character whom seemed to cause a significant issue. Generally though, the game keeps up well, with lots going on and is nice looking in my opinion.
Score 8/10
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Post by windfisch on Mar 23, 2021 4:51:27 GMT -5
I had the house to myself yesterday on a day off so I was able to get a couple of games polished off. Final Fantasy The Adventure (Switch, First Time, 14 Hours)Following the recent thread about Zeldalikes I thought I should actually play one of them to diversify my experience a little and I had the Collection of Mana right there so I chose this. It took me a while to switch my logic from the strict rules of Zelda when playing but once I did and the gameplay clicked I had a really nice time with it. Everything is well drawn and animated and the action plays nicely. Dungeons are enjoyable to explore without too much getting lost and frustrated. There was one issue I came across though which was game breaking. Since doors relock behind you I found myself in an area between two locks and with no keys to progress. I read online that enemies spawn in each area to provide keys but in this one it wasn't the case. Anyway, I had to start again. I'm going to deduct a point for that. Also there was one really obtrusive puzzle with a clue about trees and a figure 8. Thank goodness for the internet because I'd never have gotten it. Anyway, the game is recommended, but keep a backup save perhaps at the beginning of each dungeon. And take plenty of keys with you. Score 7/10 There is an ancient Germanic saying: "Always have keys in reserve when playing Mystic Quest aka Seiken Densetsu (aka Final Fantasy Adventure, if you wanted to be really silly)."
This is being taught to children before they're even born. And that puzzle with the figure 8 is sooooo obvious. I bet I would've been totally smart enough to figure it out all by myself (even if the official Nintendo-propaganda-magazine hadn't given me the solution beforehand...).
One more thing to keep in mind is that the auto-map resets every time you exit a dungeon, I think (or maybe when loading a save-state? possibly both).
It's been a few years since I last played it. But if my memory serves me right, it holds up rather nicely - for the most part. And I still prefer it over the GBA remake, as pretty as that one may be. 7/10 sounds pretty reasonable.
Now bathe in the glory of my wisdom, go back in time and thank me later!
edit: I should mention that this was my first RPG-experience ever, and it taught me that even video games can be sad. So it holds a special place in my heart.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2021 5:08:25 GMT -5
edit: I should mention that this was my first RPG-experience ever, and it taught me that even video games can be sad. So it holds a special place in my heart.
I was actually really impressed by the story. Especially considering the character limitations imposed by the game boy display I found it surprising how evocative the game managed to be using only simplistic language.
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Post by JoeQ on Mar 23, 2021 9:28:42 GMT -5
Monster Boy: The Dragon's Trap (NSW, 1st play, 5h) I think you mean Wonder Boy? Monster Boy is a different game, in the same series though.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Mar 23, 2021 10:01:28 GMT -5
Choujin Sentai Jetman (Famicom; Replay; 21 minutes) For whatever reason, I was convinced that I'd never properly finished this game despite having done so a few years ago. I'd completely forgotten about until I reached the final level, where the aesthetics seemed incredibly familiar to me. Still, it's funny to know I've actually beaten this one twice now. It's a pretty simple and easy platformer, but it's well-made in all the best ways, so even though it'll take less time to beat than watching an episode of Everybody Hates Chris (which is very short indeed), it's still a good time all the same. The only tricky parts are the mecha fights that serve as the boss battles, but they all share the same patterns so they're quick to understand and get through. Definitely worth checking out if you want a good, brief action game (especially if you're into Super Sentai/Power Rangers games).
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Post by windfisch on Mar 23, 2021 15:40:54 GMT -5
edit: I should mention that this was my first RPG-experience ever, and it taught me that even video games can be sad. So it holds a special place in my heart.
I was actually really impressed by the story. Especially considering the character limitations imposed by the game boy display I found it surprising how evocative the game managed to be using only simplistic language. Glad to know it wasn't just my youthful naivety. I also remember the very effective use of pauses and lots of "......". Those really did add ........ gravitas.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Mar 24, 2021 8:19:06 GMT -5
I think you mean Wonder Boy? Monster Boy is a different game, in the same series though. Yeah it should be Wonder, not Monster. Who can blame me with the Wonder Boy series' titles. I should mention that this was my first RPG-experience ever, and it taught me that even video games can be sad. So it holds a special place in my heart. Mystic Quest was my first RPG-ish game ever as well. Probably the least linear/most complicated game I owned as a very young child. It was also the GB game that I probably got the least far in as a kid, as I didn't really have much of a grasp on the English language back then. But I played the beginning over and over hoping I'd finally get somewhere. On the negative side, the game does stutter at times. Whilst I don't think this had to do with the amount of characters on screen frame drops seemed more likely to occur from certain effects. There's a lot of visual flair to the game but certain characters special moves slowed the game down whilst others didn't. It's an issue that's overstated online in my opinion, since it didn't really hamper my enjoyment outside of not using one character whom seemed to cause a significant issue. Generally though, the game keeps up well, with lots going on and is nice looking in my opinion. I'm only 3 or 4 stages in, but I'm finding the stuttering framerate to be pretty annoying. I think combined with the camera being a bit weird outside of combat and the more detailed environments compared to the original HW, it makes for a game that can be a bit hard to read sometimes. Trying to zig-zag up Death Mountain was very disorienting. It's still pretty playable, but I don't think I even want to find out how it plays in portable mode.
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Post by dsparil on Mar 24, 2021 9:01:00 GMT -5
I played it entirely docked and didn't notice much stuttering unless I have a higher tolerance for it. I wonder if it's a cooling issue?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2021 9:22:49 GMT -5
I'm not really a hardware guy to know about the reasons, though I did find it happening most with Mipha, so I ditched her pretty quickly. Generally the game does seem to be able to handle what seems like a lot and I was happy with the performance. I will say I quickly blanked out performance issues on Link's Awakening for instance (which was entirely on screen transitions anyway) so I have a high tolerance.
I also agree with reading the map in relation to the characters positioning being difficult on levels with varied elevation.
Definitely there is a case to be made that it wasn't designed with handheld mode in mind, but honestly, I'm struggling to think of the last Nintendo game that was. Bowser's Fury for instance is just sub par on the go and even Fire Emblem, coming off being a handheld only series, has difficult to read small text. I see a lot of people asking for more power under the hood of the Switch so they can gain better docked performance, I just want it to live up to the promise of home experience on the go, which I think was being achieved on initial releases for the platform. I think it comes down to game design as much as graphical capabilities though.
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Post by dsparil on Mar 24, 2021 9:56:22 GMT -5
Beast Busters (Arcade, First Time)
Going backwards from the order I actually played them, SNK's Beast Busters is probably a whole lot better as a three player "light machine-gun" game in an arcade. You kill zombies and animals, fight a mini- and main boss in each of the first six stages with the last one being an overly long boss gauntlet. I think it's safe to say that light gun games always lose something when played with a mouse, but this also doesn't have any good gameplay to make up for that. It's just a constant barrage at you and nothing else. This is totally doable with the stage x 2 credit limit, but the later stages are heavily slanted towards multiplayer with it being nearly impossible to not take damage when playing solo. Wikipedia says that it was the #1 upright cabinet in Japan for 1989, but it clearly did not have much longevity. It's all spectacle with no depth.
Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 (NGPC/Switch, First Time)
As the site's article notes, SNK made a new game in the series for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 and this action-RPG spin-off for NPGC in honor of the original game's tenth anniversary. The HNG64 does have some support in MAME now, but requires a pile of supplementary files, and I wasn't in the mood to track everything down. Dark Arms is okay, but it's on the short side, full of grinding, and has some odd design decisions that make it a chore to play. SNK's site for the game tries to tie this into the original by saying it has the same main character even though the original has three none of which look like the hero here. Neither the manual nor the intro do this at all, and you play as a character that has found himself in the Dark Realm (underworld/Hell). To the extent that there is a plot, you are guided by Caso, the Shutoden(?) Master. You go through a handful of top down "dungeons" that occasionally double as towns with NPCs while collecting weapon seeds and "oums" (weapon type) sometimes defended by bosses to make weapons. You fight the final boss, do a little epilogue section, then the credits roll with an extra dungeon unlocked.
The major issues are the plot and the weapon system. It isn't surprising that an action focused game would have a light plot, but the scenario is complicated enough that it ends up being sketchy to the point of near inscrutability. More significant is the weapon system. The basics are fine, but it's the specifics that have problems. Weapons need to be "fed" captured monsters in order to "evolve" into new forms with two of the types having three branches at the first evolution. You also gain experience in dungeons which is evenly divided among the one to three weapons you take with you when you leave a dungeon. Weapon levels slightly increase their damage and decreases their power usage which recharges and is per weapon. The problem with this system largely hinges on the fact that enemies have to be defeated with a specific weapon which you luckily always have, but it's also the absolute weakest in the game and doesn't seem to ever get stronger despite getting messages to the contrary. It is the only the last shot that needs to be done with it, but you still might have to fight a monster with it if your other weapons are too strong and one shot the monster.
As part of a collection of more worthwhile games, this isn't a total waste of time, but it also doesn't rise to the level of really being all that fun either. There's so many ways the RPG elements could be made better to make the game both more interesting and better playing that it's a little frustrating that such a weird premise got wasted on this.
Rating: 4, 6
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Post by alexmate on Mar 24, 2021 11:32:13 GMT -5
HuniePop (PC Windows, 1st Time, Est Time: 11hrs)
While not a classic game it does a lot of things right. The game is a bit of collect fest, so if you're not into that and it's very repetitive. That said the actual puzzle game which is a match and drop very similiar to Candy Crush is really well done; that's the area where they could have messed it up, but it's fun. The voice acting surprisingly good and all characters sound different. The music really catchy, a bit like lounge music. In short this game shouldn't be as good as it is. Be warned it is basically a Western take on Hentai and is very explicit with a lot of strong language as well.
I collected all 12 panties (which is completion as it's all images unlocked), 84% complete. To get 100% you need to get all the girl's answers to questions which I didn't do and all objects. I got all the unique gifts and most of the normal gifts.
Rating: 7
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Post by alexmate on Mar 24, 2021 11:36:59 GMT -5
Beast Busters (Arcade, First Time) Going backwards from the order I actually played them, SNK's Beast Busters is probably a whole lot better as a three player "light machine-gun" game in an arcade. You kill zombies and animals, fight a mini- and main boss in each of the first six stages with the last one being an overly long boss gauntlet. I think it's safe to say that light gun games always lose something when played with a mouse, but this also doesn't have any good gameplay to make up for that. It's just a constant barrage at you and nothing else. This is totally doable with the stage x 2 credit limit, but the later stages are heavily slanted towards multiplayer with it being nearly impossible to not take damage when playing solo. Wikipedia says that it was the #1 upright cabinet in Japan for 1989, but it clearly did not have much longevity. It's all spectacle with no depth. Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 (NGPC, First Time) As the site's article notes, SNK made a new game in the series for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 and this action-RPG spin-off for NPGC in honor of the original game's tenth anniversary. The HNG64 does have some support in MAME now, but requires a pile of supplementary files, and I wasn't in the mood to track everything down. Dark Arms is okay, but it's on the short side, full of grinding, and has some odd design decisions that make it a chore to play. SNK's site for the game tries to tie this into the original by saying it has the same main character even though the original has three none of which look like the hero here. Neither the manual nor the intro do this at all, and you play as a character that has found himself in the Dark Realm (underworld/Hell). To the extent that there is a plot, you are guided by Caso, the Shutoden(?) Master. You go through a handful of top down "dungeons" that occasionally double as towns with NPCs while collecting weapon seeds and "oums" (weapon type) sometimes defended by bosses to make weapons. You fight the final boss, do a little epilogue section, then the credits roll with an extra dungeon unlocked. The major issues are the plot and the weapon system. It isn't surprising that an action focused game would have a light plot, but the scenario is complicated enough that it ends up being sketchy to the point of near inscrutability. More significant is the weapon system. The basics are fine, but it's the specifics that have problems. Weapons need to be "fed" captured monsters in order to "evolve" into new forms with two of the types having three branches at the first evolution. You also gain experience in dungeons which is evenly divided among the one to three weapons you take with you when you leave a dungeon. Weapon levels slightly increase their damage and decreases their power usage which recharges and is per weapon. The problem with this system largely hinges on the fact that enemies have to be defeated with a specific weapon which you luckily always have, but it's also the absolute weakest in the game and doesn't seem to ever get stronger despite getting messages to the contrary. It is the only the last shot that needs to be done with it, but you still might have to fight a monster with it if your other weapons are too strong and one shot the monster. As part of a collection of more worthwhile games, this isn't a total waste of time, but it also doesn't rise to the level of really being all that fun either. There's so many ways the RPG elements could be made better to make the game both more interesting and better playing that it's a little frustrating that such a weird premise got wasted on this. Rating: 4, 6 I've completed the Arcade version of Beast Busters as well albeit on Mame. I have seen it and played it in Arcades. It has a nice looking cabinet and great massive Uzi style guns. Playing at home loses something, but it's not up there with what I consider the best: Virtua Cop, Time Crisis, House of The Dead; it's not even as good as Alien 3 The Gun from Sega.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Mar 24, 2021 11:55:50 GMT -5
dsparil I have a question about visual novels. I know that visual novels where there is no gameplay don't count, but what about visual novels where there is only one choice at the very end of the game, which gives you access to at least two different endings? Would those be counted under this challenge?
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Post by dsparil on Mar 24, 2021 13:04:51 GMT -5
dsparil I have a question about visual novels. I know that visual novels where there is no gameplay don't count, but what about visual novels where there is only one choice at the very end of the game, which gives you access to at least two different endings? Would those be counted under this challenge? That would count under the rules since there is a branch point even though it's at the very end of the game.
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