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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on May 8, 2021 14:04:38 GMT -5
I accidentally played this the “wrong” way that at a minimum made me grind for credits in every story instead of just once. I think what you’re really supposed to do is finish one story, and then roll over all that progress into the “NG+” for the next one you do. The wording of the prompt when selecting it made me think that you had to finish all of them and then roll over all eight at once which isn’t actually the case. When you do a NG+, you get a checklist for what you want to bring over which is everything except enemy rank by default; it also carries the timer over. Due to character availability in each story, you’d still need to build up some characters but I think a few stories might have literally no grinding with the right party compositions and main character ordering. That sounds so weird. I'd assume the game takes care of that kind of stuff for the player. That's good to know, though, since I'm planning on starting it soon and I would've interpreted the NG+ the same way probably.
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Post by Digitalnametag on May 8, 2021 16:59:32 GMT -5
Poison Control PS4 FTP 12 hours
Another low budget game from NIS. I liked the character designs and some of the music (some of it Danganronpa-esque) and the game starts inoffensive enough. It's a shooter where you also have to manage cleaning area's kinda like Mario Sunshine. An interesting gimmick. Too bad the bland level design and poor enemy balance lets the game down. The stages start brief but drag out in the late game with enemies that take way too many hits to kill and respawn. Those shield enemies are the stuff of nightmares. The ammo management is annoying as well. You have to spend all your charges to gain more ammo and endgame a single enemy may deplete one gun.
There isn't much in the way of plot development either. Most stages are based around resolving a girls trauma and while there is some unique artwork most of the story is told through reused assets. Very little animation as well. The skits before the levels are somewhat amusing (and also Danganronpa-esque) but leave a lot to the imagination. Such is the fate of a low budget game I suppose.
Definitely a game that lands on the mediocre side of things. For Kusoge fans only. I Platinumed the game as that didn't require much extra effort. And thus it is retired to the library for eternity.
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Post by ZenithianHero on May 8, 2021 19:03:27 GMT -5
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4, First Time, 44 hours)
A bit mixed bag about it. Excellent combat, I like fighting mech beasts and it is satisfying fighting human enemies as well. Good variety of arrows and tools to utilize. As an action-adventure it is solid. The world looks neat and I like visiting the ruined buildings and cauldrons. The open world felt half-baked. Aloy's interaction with the environment is limited, a game really wanted you to climb but she relies on cliff ledges like some Uncharted game. I wasn't getting interested in much of the story I didn't care for any of the characters. I hated that the core background of the plot was told using hologram characters. I was zoning out on quest dialogue too.
Maybe I just think the game didn't need to be open world. Main mission layouts do well with pacing and set pieces. Not that I was totally bored but I was ready to clock out of the game rather to get the rest of the collectables or finish the DLC.
7/10
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Post by dsparil on May 9, 2021 6:35:38 GMT -5
I accidentally played this the “wrong” way that at a minimum made me grind for credits in every story instead of just once. I think what you’re really supposed to do is finish one story, and then roll over all that progress into the “NG+” for the next one you do. The wording of the prompt when selecting it made me think that you had to finish all of them and then roll over all eight at once which isn’t actually the case. When you do a NG+, you get a checklist for what you want to bring over which is everything except enemy rank by default; it also carries the timer over. Due to character availability in each story, you’d still need to build up some characters but I think a few stories might have literally no grinding with the right party compositions and main character ordering. That sounds so weird. I'd assume the game takes care of that kind of stuff for the player. That's good to know, though, since I'm planning on starting it soon and I would've interpreted the NG+ the same way probably. One of the the weird things is that it also has "system data" which I think is just which scenarios and Fuse cases you've finished that's separate from normal save data. I think it's a relic from the PSX version, and the entire save/NG+ aspect could have used a real streamlining since memory card storage issues are a thing of the past. Quick Save data is a real slot this time instead of being in-memory only at least.
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Post by Woody Alien on May 9, 2021 9:35:07 GMT -5
I am playing more substantial games but also some shorter and simpler ones in the meantime, here's one of them:
Brave Hero Yuusha EX (PC/Steam, first time, approx. 9 hours)
Finished both the main story and the post-game, but not completed it 100%. A simple RPG Maker game and yet another riff on the Dragon Quest I formula. The Yuusha (Hero), Dark Lord and Princess of a typical fantasy book get discombobulated by an external threat who scrambles the plot, their roles and messes up the world, so it's up to them to try to put everything in place. Also there's the parallel story of a kid in the "real world" who's reading that book and getting a bit too engrossed in it... Nothing terribly special but as a low-budget, low-price RPG Maker game in an approximation of 8-bit style it's what I was expecting. Cute and simple game, being meta without being too annoying about it and with some gentle humor, also it doesn't overstay its welcome. Enjoyable for a few afternoons. 7/10
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 9, 2021 18:20:39 GMT -5
Undertale (Windows; First Time; 5 hours 20 minutes)
I was digging through the computer last month to see if I could clear up some space by deleting large games nobody was gonna play (mainly those downloaded my brother since he moved out nearly four years ago), and stumbled across this game sitting in the files. I faintly remember watching my brother play it around the time it came out, but didn't know much else about it despite how ubiquitous it was for a while - that's one of the perks of being a pop cultural hermit, I suppose. So I figured I'd give it a bash, and it turned out pretty well for the most part.
I don't feel as strongly about it as most folks, whether in its characters, the mechanics, or the various ideas it was playing around with, but I did enjoy myself a good deal. There's a spontaneity to how and when things happen that I found very charming, where I had no idea what was around the corner. It made the various encounters with one-off characters, surprise happenings, and unexpected combat outcomes really fun. Many of them got a belly laugh through just the direction or timing of the conversations.
The one area of the game I feel most mixed about is its combat. For reference, I decided not to kill any of the monsters, so the combat revolved around trying to understand them while dodging their attacks. Dodging their various patterns becomes increasingly hectic as the game goes on, and I definitely had to rely on health items to carry me through when my reflexes weren't enough. I'm mixed because I think it actually works very well as presented within the game: every character has unique attack patterns to learn, it adds a tension to boss battles where you're just holding out as long as possible, and it makes for a unique take on the normal "attack or be attacked" combat systems you find in RPGs. My problem is that I found the projectile dodging a bit too overwhelming from a sensory overload perspective as the game went on, to the point where I actually gave up a couple of times at the later boss fights.
But to my amazement, I did actually make it to the end. I haven't unlocked the True Pacifist Ending, but I'm not interested in going through with the requirements if I have to fight even more boss battles with crazy projectile dodging. I'm happy to have played the game at all, and equally happy to leave it at that.
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Post by dsparil on May 11, 2021 10:56:04 GMT -5
Save Me Mr. Tako: Definitive Edition (Switch, Replay) The original release of this is full of so many bugs that the fact that one of the worst turned out to be from a deliberate suggestion from a tester felt untrue because the game did not come across as something that got any testing at all. Wrapped into this was the awfulness of Nicalis as a publisher and withholding from Switch the sole patch that the PC version got. That patch seemingly did not address the most major technical failings, but it was a start. The fact I finished it at all is more a testament to my own stubbornness than anything else. I’m going to quote myself from my original post for my main issues with the original release: Considering that this new version would address nearly every issue I had including some not listed above, I hoped that whatever positive qualities the game does have could have a chance to shine. Those hopes were quickly dashed because I had forgotten that the underlying game just isn’t any good in the first place. For what is fixed, it comes down to four things: the “health” system, cutscene deaths, enemy collision detection and post-hit invincibility. This time around, there’s a 99 life max and regular three hit health with the hat properly getting knocked off as a fourth hit; the original’s nine life, one hit difficulty and the patch’s one hit, 99 life max also return. This single change goes far to mitigate the bugs that still exist. Most, but not all of the cutscenes that lead to deaths were removed and boss attacks seem to dissipate now when they’re defeated. Enemies don’t randomly kill you from half a screen away. You do get a smidge of invincibility, but it actually isn’t that long so stage hazards still have a good chance of being instant death even though they aren’t technically. This isn't to say it's now bug free as there's still a huge pile of them including some that might be new, but the absolute worst were fixed at least. Ultimately, the game is still let down by its fairly poor level design and story. Levels are either incredibly short and boring or incredibly long and tedious with little in between. There’s maybe ten or so fun levels which is not great considering that there’s about seventy or seventy five total between the regular levels, “dungeons” and optional levels. The story is supposed to be the highlight, but the simplest parts are overdeveloped while the potentially more intriguing parts are glossed over making it both boring and confusing. This isn’t a supremely frustrating game anymore, but there isn’t anything worth playing either. I finished in 12:07 which is nine hours less than the original to give a sense of how much bug driven BS there was in the original version. Rating: 5
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Post by Snake on May 11, 2021 12:30:02 GMT -5
Shinobi, Arcade mame (1st Time, too long. 40 minutes for playthrough, maybe 4 hours aggregate played)
This one is infinitely tougher than Revenge of Shinobi. Being a one-hit wonder is unforgiving. But what makes it worst is that no continues are allowed on the last Mission. It's worst than Ninja Gaiden's, "oh, you died at the boss, let's take you back to level 6-1." What a pain to have to replay the whole damn thing. Especially when trying to get past The Lobster samurai, where you just have to be precise. I found him tougher than the actual last boss. I actually pulled up a youtube playthrough for this game, just to see the best strategy for clearing the last stage and the Masked Ninja.
All hail "ninjutu," the art of being invisible.
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on May 11, 2021 19:05:45 GMT -5
I've read that they added continues all the way through in the NS re-release.
The arcade game is really intense but I kinda prefer the SMS game overall.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 12, 2021 18:12:03 GMT -5
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Xbox; First Time; 4 hours 21 minutes)
Felt up for playing another Tony Hawk, so I decided to check out American Wasteland, the last sixth-gen title by Neversoft and a game I haven't played in many years. I had beaten it way back when, but this was when I still played through the games with cheat codes on so I could cheese through challenges with unlimited rail and manual balance. I was curious to see how I'd fare without cheats since it's been so long, but it turned out alright as you can tell by me writing about the game in this thread.
This was the first game in the series to experiment with the open world concept that Neversoft would use for the next two games, and while this only affects the level design by placing corridors between otherwise self-contained levels, it was interesting to notice that it affected the placement of shops. Instead of going to a customization menu to change your appearance, you'd have to reach actual shops to change your clothes, hair, and accessories, and these would be specific shops located in certain parts of the map (so there'd be a place to get tattoos, but only in Santa Monica). The same applies to the stat challenges, which would be allocated to specific skateboard shops in each level.
More than a couple times, I'd think to myself "Hmm, I better check the stat challenges outside the Beverly Hills skate shop" or "I should pop back to Hollywood and change clothes". It can and did get a little tedious going back and forth when the game required you to get something from a certain shop, but it was kinda cool in how it encouraged me to pay attention to the geography of the whole map.
Otherwise, it's a fairly okay game - missions are structured in that post-THPS4 mindset of having you only do one thing at a time, and it's actually taken a step back from the preceding Underground 2 in that all missions have you talking to people to activate missions. It's rather a shame, especially since there's plenty of points where you have various missions to pick from, adding to a more open feeling that works somewhat well with the open world.
Something that I really didn't like was the padding taking up the opening section and just before you can go to East LA. The former has you re-learning most of the standard gameplay tricks over a dozen or so missions, probably because there were so many moves at this point that it might frighten new players away. It makes sense, but it also results in a very tedious hour or so when you're trying to get into the swing of things.
The build-up to East LA is much more egregious, as the game suddenly stops you and demands you do the graffiti tagging side missions and learn how to ride a bicycle before you're allowed to progress. These are some of the game's optional mechanics, and something that hadn't been emphasized as particularly important up to now, so you might've ignored them as I did. And once you do those, they never come back into the main missions. It feels like there wasn't any confidence in players checking this stuff out unless they were railroaded into it, and it makes for another tedious hour or so.
The end result is a game that works on the strength of those classic mechanics, which can make even the most average levels a blast to skate around, but struggles under the weight of its padding and dull mission design. I'm happy to have gone back to it, but I'm pretty content to never replay that story mode ever again.
Tracking Dog (Windows; First Time; 5 minutes)
This is a short PICO-8 puzzle game by CopperCoin Games, where you play as a dog who has to traverse maze-like levels to collect bones and reach the kennel at the end. It's only got ten levels, but I quite liked the simple, straightforward approach to both its visual and design. It's very good if you have a few minutes to kill: coppercoin-games.itch.io/tracking-dog
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Post by dsparil on May 13, 2021 14:57:30 GMT -5
Picross NP Vol. 5 (SNES, First Time)
Nothing new in this volume. Nintendo theme this time is Ocarina of Time and back to 15x15 as the minimum size.
I finished in 07:29:31.
Rating: 8
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Post by ZenithianHero on May 13, 2021 15:37:05 GMT -5
New Pokemon Snap (Switch, First Time, 12 hours)
It has been forever (N64 gen, actually) since we've gotten a new Pokemon Snap spinoff. Thought that maybe it wouldn't live up to the original but it sure did. It has everything I love about the original and the quick gameplay sessions of taking photos with cute and cool Pokemon still exciting and fun. The level of detail and animation work put into each Pokemon is incredible. The variety of Pokemon is surprising too. I know there is 8 generations of Pokemon for them to choose from and about 200(?) used in this game but I like that certain Pokemon do get spotlight (because they aren't Gen 1 darlings) and they are not even available in Sword and Shield. The game expects you to replay levels to move along in the story. As you take more and more photos and research a stage that location will level up and Pokemon in that area will open up to you better and more Pokemon will come out of hiding. It is like each stage has 2-3 different variations. It does take a while to gain exp for the later stage variants but it is worth the grind. You'll also take optional photo requests from your NPC allies. These involve solving puzzles to get that specific pose or Pokemon to appear. The submission for these requests are a little picky, they want near-perfect timing. It makes taking lot of these challenging (or maybe I just need to have a higher stage research level).
It took me about 12 hours to reach the end of the story but I haven't completed all of those requests or the photodex. I can see myself playing this game for years to come as I have the original.
10/10
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2021 15:51:05 GMT -5
New Pokemon Snap (Switch, First Time, 12 hours)It has been forever (N64 gen, actually) since we've gotten a new Pokemon Snap spinoff. Thought that maybe it wouldn't live up to the original but it sure did. It has everything I love about the original and the quick gameplay sessions of taking photos with cute and cool Pokemon still exciting and fun. The level of detail and animation work put into each Pokemon is incredible. The variety of Pokemon is surprising too. I know there is 8 generations of Pokemon for them to choose from and about 200(?) used in this game but I like that certain Pokemon do get spotlight (because they aren't Gen 1 darlings) and they are not even available in Sword and Shield. The game expects you to replay levels to move along in the story. As you take more and more photos and research a stage that location will level up and Pokemon in that area will open up to you better and more Pokemon will come out of hiding. It is like each stage has 2-3 different variations. It does take a while to gain exp for the later stage variants but it is worth the grind. You'll also take optional photo requests from your NPC allies. These involve solving puzzles to get that specific pose or Pokemon to appear. The submission for these requests are a little picky, they want near-perfect timing. It makes taking lot of these challenging (or maybe I just need to have a higher stage research level). It took me about 12 hours to reach the end of the story but I haven't completed all of those requests or the photodex. I can see myself playing this game for years to come as I have the original. 10/10 There are a few issues with the game, such as the requests being a little specific as you mentioned (marking solved ones in your photo selection would be a big help), the grindiness being a needless resolution to the request for more content, and of course where the heck is Snorlax? That said I agree with your enthusiasm and I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this is a 10/10. Finding all the hidden interactions is really special, many of which aren't even requests. Many hours in and I'm still constantly being surprised. I'll do you one further on your 10/10 and say it - New Pokemon Snap is now my favourite video game of all time.
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Post by ZenithianHero on May 13, 2021 16:44:24 GMT -5
There are a few issues with the game, such as the requests being a little specific as you mentioned (marking solved ones in your photo selection would be a big help), the grindiness being a needless resolution to the request for more content, and of course where the heck is Snorlax? That said I agree with your enthusiasm and I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this is a 10/10. Finding all the hidden interactions is really special, many of which aren't even requests. Many hours in and I'm still constantly being surprised. I'll do you one further on your 10/10 and say it - New Pokemon Snap is now my favourite video game of all time. 10/10 isn't perfection to me, rather it is a measure of how much a game overcomes its flaws and also how fun and engaging it can be. New Pokemon Snap checks all the boxes for me. I think there are moments where my 9 scores are more like a 9.9/low 10 accomplishment, I think sometimes I just hand out a score that suits my current mood about the game. New Pokemon Snap is definitely one of my favorite Switch games and spinoffs from Nintendo now. I wonder if we can get DLC. Even a remake of a N64 Snap stage is fine.
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2021 16:56:03 GMT -5
There are a few issues with the game, such as the requests being a little specific as you mentioned (marking solved ones in your photo selection would be a big help), the grindiness being a needless resolution to the request for more content, and of course where the heck is Snorlax? That said I agree with your enthusiasm and I'm glad I'm not the only one for whom this is a 10/10. Finding all the hidden interactions is really special, many of which aren't even requests. Many hours in and I'm still constantly being surprised. I'll do you one further on your 10/10 and say it - New Pokemon Snap is now my favourite video game of all time. 10/10 isn't perfection to me, rather it is a measure of how much a game overcomes its flaws and also how fun and engaging it can be. New Pokemon Snap checks all the boxes for me. I think there are moments where my 9 scores are more like a 9.9/low 10 accomplishment, I think sometimes I just hand out a score that suits my current mood about the game. New Pokemon Snap is definitely one of my favorite Switch games and spinoffs from Nintendo now. I wonder if we can get DLC. Even a remake of a N64 Snap stage is fine. I agree with what you're saying, it's not about perfection. For me my 10/10 games tend to be ones that are not just great games, but ones that I connect with the most on an emotional level. They're games that feel very personal to me. That Pokemon Snap is a shared experience for me and my partner goes a long way - comparing photo's, each discovering new behaviours etc. The fact that he loves Pokemon and we both have a fondness for nature photography makes the theme pretty much a perfect fit. And the simplicity of play allows us to enjoy it on the same level. Honestly, it's the game I've been waiting for. For so many Nintendo fans they've been asking for a revival of F-Zero or Wave Race; for me it's always been Pokemon Snap. I would buy DLC for it too - especially if there's Snorlax. I'll pay ÂŁ50 just for Snorlax!!!
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