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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2021 10:23:34 GMT -5
Lords of Thunder (Sega CD, 1st time timer: 57 minutes):
* I've not played it, but some people say the TurboGrafix version is better.
Rating: 8
I'm one of those - I'd stick an extra 2 points on the Turbo version.
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Post by Digitalnametag on Apr 10, 2021 19:43:34 GMT -5
Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy PS5 FTP 42 hours
Ah the sweet comforts of alchemy. It's so easy to get lost in the process of creating things. The series has such a satisfying play loop between alchemy, character stories, and exploration.
Speaking of the story is charming with a heart-warming ending. Seeing the previous games characters return three years older is great. Building items is fun even if the battle system is kind of dull. Would rather just have a typical turn-based command system. (Need to get around to playing Lulua...) I dropped Bravely Default 2 for this and can confidently say I made the right choice.
I suspect we'll be getting one more Ryza game and I'm curious to see where the story goes. I would rate this one in the middle of the pack as far as Atelier games go. Fun but with some flaws.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Apr 11, 2021 17:32:10 GMT -5
Moon Waltz (Browser; First Time; 5 minutes)
This is a short but cool Flash game I stumbled across the other night, developed by molkman and MajusArts as one of the monthly games they were doing at the time. The concept is that a man is going out to the cigarette dispensing machine for a smoke one night, but you don't control him. He moves automatically, and all you can do is part the clouds by holding Space. Doing so reveals a full moon, and the man transforms into a rampaging werewolf so long as the clouds are parted. What the man does when he encounters certain objects changes depending on whether he's a werewolf or not, so there's actually plenty of different things you can make him do by choosing when to hold Space (or not, which is an equally valid option too).
You can cause all kinds of stuff to happen, with multiple endings that are driven by what you've done - no matter what you've done. As there's no health or time meter to impact your decision, you're free to replay this one repeatedly to see what else you can find. I only played it the once since it was the middle of the night, but it's a rad game with some neat art direction that I'd recommend giving a go: www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/618794
Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call (DS; First Time; 9 hours 30 minutes)
Professor Layton is a series I struggled getting into during the early 2010s. I loved the Eternal Diva movie and felt the games would absolutely be my thing, but try as I might, I could never truly get into them thanks to how confounding the puzzles could be. I've come to appreciate them more in recent years, particularly the first game Curious Village, and when my sister offered to give me the fourth and sixth games for my birthday, I decided I should give it one more shot. Spectre's Call (as it was called in Europe) is the first game in the prequel trilogy, and deals with the first case where Layton and his self-proclaimed apprentice Luke would work together.
It's a pretty cool game with a lot of the stuff I've come to love about Layton games: their relaxed atmosphere, the cast of quietly eccentric characters, the excellent music by Tomohito Nishiura, and some truly lovely background. Misthallery in particular has become my favourite fictional town because of how cozy it is, with its winding streets surrounded by greenery and canals, small houses and buildings, and walkways that ensure you never needed to drive to get wherever you need to go.
The puzzles sometimes elude me, mainly due to explanations or puzzle types that my brain blanks out on pretty badly, but I was able to get through plenty of them without trouble. Plus, there's a good deal of hint coins to help you out if you need, and a few minigames you can mess about with if you wanna take a break. (There's also bonus optional "episodes", which act as short conversations that occur before or during the game's events. I never bothered with them because I wanted to continue experiencing the world from Layton and his assistant Emmy's perspective.)
I haven't played much of Diabolical Box and Lost Future in years, so I can't say whether this would rank higher than those two. But it's a very solid game that only just loses out to Curious Village because I really dig that game's quietly melancholic vibe and how it frames the puzzles better than the other games.
(I know the game comes with a bonus RPG called London Life made by Brownie Brown of all people, but it wasn't included in the European release, so I wasn't able to give it a look.)
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Post by dsparil on Apr 12, 2021 6:22:00 GMT -5
Vaporum: Lockdown (Switch, First Time)
After enjoying the first game so much (it's on the first page), it's hard not to see this prequel as somewhat of a disappointment. It's more of the same gameplay which is fine because it was generally solid in the first game, but it's also paired with a worse story. That's a problem because the story is what got me through the duller parts of the original. This one is simply less interesting and also peters out by the end despite having some potentially interesting set up. The first game really had a big climactic finale and appropriate set up for it, but the final boss in this one feels 100% tacked on as if the real final area of the game got cut. Considering that you're fixing up a submarine to escape the tower in this game coupled with some foreshadowing, it really seemed like the last area of the game was going to be in the underwater meteorite central to the two games backstory and not that it would end with a bland boss battle at the sub's launch room.
I finished in 9:01:32.
Rating: 7
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Post by halftheisland on Apr 12, 2021 9:43:04 GMT -5
Wow it has been an age since I last posted here. Unfortunately real life has distinctly got in the way of gaming of late, but I have managed to complete a few things.
Just Cause 4 (PS4, 1st time, probably about 30-40 hours)
I loved Just Cause 2 and still do, to the point that I regularly go back to an old save just to drop in and fool around in the world for a while. Neither Just Cause 3 nor this latest effort seem to have managed to recapture the magic that made 2 so special.
However, this fit a distinct need in my life for a game that I could play without really focusing on and I ended up clearing a surprising amount of it before finishing the main plot. I didn't go quite so insane as to try and 100% it, but I cleared both the Sargento and Garland stories in their entirety, as well as doing a substantial amount of the wingsuit/vehicle tricks dotted around the map. Beyond the first tutorial Javi mission I ran into a couple of tombs but couldn't really figure out what each one required so just didn't bother with those.
Basically, this was fine at a time when I really just needed to shut down my brain for a couple of hours each night. It was otherwise a strangely unengaging experience - graphically and sonically it felt extremely flat, and while the plot has never really been a strong point for Just Cause games I cared even less about it here.
5/10
Super Mario 3D World (Switch, 1st time, about 20 hours)
Coming off the back of the relatively freeform Odyssey into this was an interesting experience. This is certainly much more classically structured as a videogame, with numbered levels, specific goals within each of those levels, and a hard timer on completion of each.
Gameplay-wise, this is up there as one of my favourite Mario games of all time. I'm not convinced anything will ever unseat Sunshine for the pure nostalgia factor of it being my first proper Mario game, and Odyssey is now a solid second place, but top three is still pretty good. It has a really relentless sense of experimentation and fun, and with a few exceptions, going back to levels with different powers or characters for full completion didn't feel like a particular slog. A small thing but I absolutely loved all the Cat Mario stuff and the "Woohoo! Meeow!" on finishing a level with Cat Mario never failed to make me giggle.
I completed the main storyline and a bunch of the additional levels, and I three-starred, got all the stamps for, and gold-flagged every level of the main game. I fully intend to go back and finish off the post-game content at some point, but was getting to a point of frustration with it and decided to move on.
Honestly the only thing I didn't particularly like from a gameplay perspective was the timer. I get that it needed something to give it a bit of challenge and to add some extra tension, but again coming from the very exploration-centric Odyssey it sometimes felt a shame that I wasn't able to fully explore the levels at my leisure. Other than that though, a really solid and fun game. It's one I can definitely see myself playing with my niece in a couple of years once she's old enough to properly understand and appreciate it.
9/10
Bowser's Fury (Switch, 1st time, about 5 hours)
This actually reminded me of Super Mario Sunshine more than anything else. The aquatic/sunny setting, the relatively loose hub-and-spoke mission structure, and the sheer verticality of some of the levels all felt very familiar.
I enjoyed every second of this, start to finish a genuinely joyful and constantly surprising experience. I even largely enjoyed the ebb and flow of Fury Bowser interruptions, bar in the very late game when I was just sort of waiting around a couple of times so I could pick up Cat Shines behind the fury blocks. It certainly balanced the open structure of Odyssey with the more traditional level structure well e.g. having the Cat Shine shards and Shines behind fury blocks collectable at any time made it relatively easy to switch goals mid-level.
This has made me genuinely excited to see what Nintendo have to bring to the table with the next mainline Mario game. I had struggled to see how they could top what they achieved with Odyssey this generation but based on the few hours I spent with this I've got hope that there's something brilliant in the works.
Mark of the Ninja Remastered (Switch, 1st time, about 12.5 hours)
One of the best stealth games of the previous generation updated, on Switch, and with some additional bells and whistles? Yes please!
This does such a good job of making you feel genuinely powerful and - something I love in a stealth game - encourages and rewards you trying different approaches to the same challenge and actually allows you to use "failing" at the stealth mechanic to your advantage. Struggling to sneak up on and deal with a cluster of enemies? Let one or two of them see you for a split second to draw them away from the pack, or fire a dart to smash a light and draw their attention, or throw a trap to kill one and terrorise the others. All perfectly valid and rewarded ways of getting past a situation.
I took a particularly aggressive stealth approach based around the Path of the Hunter, which allows you to carry two attack items and means that assassinations automatically succeed without the need for a contextual action. By the end of the game I was playing with a genuine flow, assessing a situation and then leaping in to take out multiple enemies quickly and silently. The closest analogue for me is probably the predator maps in the Batman: Arkham games - stealth is still important, but it's a stealth that makes you feel powerful.
The art style is still beautiful and really suits itself to playing on the Switch in handheld. I played most of the game that way with headphones in and the relatively subtle sound design really comes across well there. I had one minor issue late game where the autosave put me in an impossible situation and I had to restart the level, but that's about the only real issue I had through the entirety of the game.
A well-deserved 10/10 for me.
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Post by personman on Apr 12, 2021 12:40:01 GMT -5
Vulcan Venture (aka Gradius 2) (via Switch Konami Anniversary Arcade classics collection, replay)
I guess I felt there was a need to play a better Gradius game after being so frustrated with 3 and well, I succeeded in that. Mostly. I'm pretty sure I gave all of the series a play through at least a couple times but 2 I just never really remembered too much of. I can kinda see why now for its has pretty much two cool stages and the rest are just really bland. This was before they let you edit your weapon loadout individually and unfortunately most of the types feel pretty similar and frankly type two is plainly superior to the rest. But it all works, it is fun and all just it really doesn't do anything later entries (even arcade 3 in terms of aesthetic) didn't do better. It's solid but, just that really.
What will kill it for most however is the pants on head stupid placement of checkpoints. Gradius has a reputation for just killing you over and over if you dare lose a life and get stripped of your power ups, well I guarantee you it started here. I just don't see how its possible to recover from a good amount of spots, the last stage in particular comes to mind. That's really, really, really not cool. However to play my own devils advocate its an arcade game, it was made to make them money, and this was still really early in the series and hell kinda the genre. There was a lot they needed to figure out still which I would argue the series didn't really mature till the console version of 3.
Anyways, not terrible but I don't think I'd recommend it to most. Some neat songs though. I'm starting to wonder if I'm really a huge fan of the series or just a huge fan of a couple of its games (Gaiden, Snes3 and 5)
rating: 6
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition (via Devil May Cry HD Collection, replay, 22 hours)
Woundabar. Honestly there isn't much I can say that hasn't been said elsewhere. The series matured here and just everything fell into place just, everything. The art direction, the music, the weapons, the silly cutscenes, you can tell the people working on it were just having a blast with it. It's so nice to see those projects where everyone just had complete confidence in what they were doing and nailed it. Personally I like how the styles are separate instead of switch on the fly since I find it much more manageable to have a smaller move set that hits a niche really well then have all the options all the time and be expected to be the best swiss army knife on the fly. I'm frankly pretty nervous about starting 4 just knowing how Dante is going forward (the amount of junk he has in 5 fills me with anxiety). I just stuck to Trickster on this run but I can definitely see myself going through again as another style. Maybe this time I can play Gunslinger the right way, ha.
So yeah, that was great and I'm happy I managed a B average (hey, I'm new to playing these types seriously, leave me alone). Anyways theres a reason many consider it the best because its pretty much a damn master piece. I can only really think of one part I thought was legitimately bad and that's just one half of a boss. That's it, the whole thing is just a wonderful cohesive whole. Thinking back I remember playing this and Okami back to back when they were new. No wonder I thought Capcom was amazing for a bit in my college days lol.
Rating: 10
I started up 4 right after and... boy I don't care for Nero so far but we'll see if I can figure it out.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Apr 12, 2021 16:25:08 GMT -5
I'm starting to wonder if I'm really a huge fan of the series or just a huge fan of a couple of its games (Gaiden, Snes3 and 5) There's a bit of variety for me too when it comes to Gradius. I personally prefer the PCE ports of Gradius 1/2/Salamander (not to mention Graidus 3). Probably because they're easier to be honest. NES Life Force and Gradius II are pretty good too, as are the Parodius games overall. So the original arcade Gradius games which you'd think are the main attraction are probably the ones I like to play least.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Apr 13, 2021 6:05:01 GMT -5
I started playing some homebrew games a few days ago for the hell of it, and I managed to beat a couple of them.
Anguna: Warriors of Virtue (DS; First Time; 2 hours 27 minutes) This is a pretty decent Zelda-like developed by Nathan Tolbert under his faux-professional handle of Bite the Chili Productions. It was originally made for the GBA back in 2008 but was ported to the DS shortly after, and I chose to play the DS version as it would be easier to get running on my 3DS. Anguna plays much like any basic Zelda-styled game, with a focus on navigating dungeons, solving simple puzzles, fighting enemies and acquiring new items that either make you stronger or let you access new areas. There's plenty of game with a large enough overworld and five dungeons (in addition to a sixth bonus dungeon that I couldn't find), but it's not too imposing as you can tell by my completion time.
It's mostly quite alright, although there's one thing I don't particularly like. There's a weird emphasis on hiding important rooms in dungeons behind secret walls that I think gets brought up in one brief text box somewhere, with no indication of their existence through visuals or the like. So if you're stuck you have to rub up against every possible wall until you sudden clip through into the next room. I had to have a map guide on hand after a while because of this, which is rather unfortunate. (Also, the game will sometimes not give you the key you need to access the next room. For the second dungeon, you have to find it in a secret cave in the overworld, and in the fourth dungeon, you have two keys that you can accidentally use on two doors leading into the same room and if you do that, you'll need to wait around until a third spare key spawns in.)
If it takes your interest, it's free to download from Tolbert's website (along with other games, including an Anguna sequel made for the Atari 2600 of all things): www.bitethechili.com/anguna/Super Boss Gaiden (SNES; First Time; 17 minutes)
This is a very cool action platformer made by Dieter Laster and ChronoMoggle. The premise is that the last remaining prototype of the unreleased SNES PlayStation add-on (a real thing that Sony was going to make for the system until Nintendo broke it off, which directly inspired the creation of the original PlayStation) has fallen into the public's hands, and the president of Sony is furious. In fact, he's so furious that he decides to punch the entire company and everyone in the building into the ground. It's a simple game with a focus on combat via the usual punch combos, aerial attacks uppercuts, throwing objects, and slides, where you have to maintain your heart rate by repeatedly punching things.
In spite of the silly premise and the main character sprite being obviously modeled on the Kunio-Kun games, I'm amazed at how solid it is in terms of controls, graphics, and music. Everything just works really well and despite an annoying third phase in the second boss fight, I was enjoying my time on the game immensely. If this were expanded into a much larger game, I'd happily be playing it for hours. But it's quite great as is, and the best thing about it is that it was mainly designed to be played on the actual SNES PlayStation add-on prototype that fell into the public's hands. The download comes with a version you can play on the SNES, so anyone can still enjoy the game regardless of its platform, and I'd definitely recommend it: superbossgaiden.superfamicom.org/
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2021 7:35:53 GMT -5
I'm starting to wonder if I'm really a huge fan of the series or just a huge fan of a couple of its games (Gaiden, Snes3 and 5) There's a bit of variety for me too when it comes to Gradius. I personally prefer the PCE ports of Gradius 1/2/Salamander (not to mention Graidus 3). Probably because they're easier to be honest. NES Life Force and Gradius II are pretty good too, as are the Parodius games overall. So the original arcade Gradius games which you'd think are the main attraction are probably the ones I like to play least. I concur. Generally I have a preference for home console conversions of arcade games due to the rebalancing that takes place. I think NES and PCE versions of Gradius games are absolutely lovely. That said, despite being easier, I find 2 on PCE is pretty tough for me. Perhaps I didn't get far enough to experience the repetition personman mentioned.
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Post by dsparil on Apr 13, 2021 8:28:33 GMT -5
I started playing some homebrew games a few days ago for the hell of it, and I managed to beat a couple of them.
Anguna: Warriors of Virtue (DS; First Time; 2 hours 27 minutes) It's mostly quite alright, although there's one thing I don't particularly like. There's a weird emphasis on hiding important rooms in dungeons behind secret walls that I think gets brought up in one brief text box somewhere, with no indication of their existence through visuals or the like. So if you're stuck you have to rub up against every possible wall until you sudden clip through into the next room. I had to have a map guide on hand after a while because of this, which is rather unfortunate. (Also, the game will sometimes not give you the key you need to access the next room. For the second dungeon, you have to find it in a secret cave in the overworld, and in the fourth dungeon, you have two keys that you can accidentally use on two doors leading into the same room and if you do that, you'll need to wait around until a third spare key spawns in.)
I've tried playing this half a dozen or so times, and this still gets me every time. Maybe I'll push through some time because that's much shorter than I would have expected.
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Post by dsparil on Apr 13, 2021 10:10:09 GMT -5
Picross NP Vol. 3 (SNES, First Time)
Basically the same as Vol. 2 except the section with detailed images doesn't seem to have any theme this time around. It seemed like they all had a water them at first, but that doesn't seem to hold for all of them. The Nintendo theme is Kirby and they still have a bit of squatness like the Mario puzzles.
I finished in 8:42:14.
Rating: 8
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Apr 13, 2021 10:33:11 GMT -5
Anguna: Warriors of Virtue (DS; First Time; 2 hours 27 minutes)
It's mostly quite alright, although there's one thing I don't particularly like. There's a weird emphasis on hiding important rooms in dungeons behind secret walls that I think gets brought up in one brief text box somewhere, with no indication of their existence through visuals or the like. So if you're stuck you have to rub up against every possible wall until you sudden clip through into the next room. I had to have a map guide on hand after a while because of this, which is rather unfortunate. (Also, the game will sometimes not give you the key you need to access the next room. For the second dungeon, you have to find it in a secret cave in the overworld, and in the fourth dungeon, you have two keys that you can accidentally use on two doors leading into the same room and if you do that, you'll need to wait around until a third spare key spawns in.)
I've tried playing this half a dozen or so times, and this still gets me every time. Maybe I'll push through some time because that's much shorter than I would have expected. If it helps, there's a section on the main website that links to maps of the first four dungeons* and a partial walkthrough of the first two dungeons. www.bitethechili.com/anguna/guide/
*The final dungeon is a straightforward series of stairs and hallways leading to the last boss, so it doesn't really need a map.
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Post by personman on Apr 13, 2021 12:39:58 GMT -5
I'm starting to wonder if I'm really a huge fan of the series or just a huge fan of a couple of its games (Gaiden, Snes3 and 5) There's a bit of variety for me too when it comes to Gradius. I personally prefer the PCE ports of Gradius 1/2/Salamander (not to mention Graidus 3). Probably because they're easier to be honest. NES Life Force and Gradius II are pretty good too, as are the Parodius games overall. So the original arcade Gradius games which you'd think are the main attraction are probably the ones I like to play least. Oh that's right. I totally forgot about those, and come to think of it I believe that is how I first experienced those games (unless you count the NES port of the original) so perhaps that's why I still had a more positive, if still vague, memory of them before, ha. My memory is so damn foggy these days. Yeah it really seems like the wrong move to me to keep throwing the arcade originals out on shelves these days when there are more playable versions out there. I even remember the PSP collection had the arcade versions and I didn't like my time with that collection too much for that very reason especially after fighting through 3 once again. I swear I'm a masochist. I wonder if no one has access to the PCE ports source code anymore or something.
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Post by alexmate on Apr 13, 2021 13:31:10 GMT -5
Clockwork Knight (Saturn, 1st time, Est time: 2 hours) Good Points (Clockwork) * Oodles of charm and quirky characters. * The Toy theme never gets old in any game. * Surprisingly good jazzy music in places. * For the time impressive Softimage FMV (which was expensive to do and very few people knew how to use it)
Bad Points (Fake Rolex) * Not a huge leap up from Genesis games especially later ones like Toy Story, Alien Soldier and Vectorman. I can see why some gamers were disappointed. * A bit annoying to play due to enemy placements and traps. * Slippery controls - feels like nearly every level is on ice.
* Non-Skippable cutscenes? * A lot of people claim this game is too easy. It is pretty generous with health and lives, but I would say it is in the same difficulty league as Sonic 1.
Rating: 7
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Apr 13, 2021 15:20:24 GMT -5
Oh that's right. I totally forgot about those, and come to think of it I believe that is how I first experienced those games (unless you count the NES port of the original) so perhaps that's why I still had a more positive, if still vague, memory of them before, ha. My memory is so damn foggy these days. Yeah it really seems like the wrong move to me to keep throwing the arcade originals out on shelves these days when there are more playable versions out there. I even remember the PSP collection had the arcade versions and I didn't like my time with that collection too much for that very reason especially after fighting through 3 once again. I swear I'm a masochist. I wonder if no one has access to the PCE ports source code anymore or something. All three PCE Gradius games came to virtual console. But I think Gradius and Salamander only on Wii U and Gradius II only on Wii for some reason? I'm now realizing that I was actually kind of misremembering, as the PCE version of Gradius II is the one I've played a lot more than the arcade version and that one's still pretty damn hard. I was thinking it was the arcade version I'm mostly familiar with since I remember it being so damn hard, but since I played it on Wii VC it was the PCE version. But at least Gradius 1 and Salamander are more doable than their arcade versions. I should scoop them up on Wii U some time I guess. They've also been released on the PCE mini depending on the region.
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