HG101 2021 Game Finish Challenge
Jun 9, 2021 6:13:11 GMT -5
Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jun 9, 2021 6:13:11 GMT -5
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (NSW, 1st play (I guess, I mean I played the GB version), 13h)
Great remake. I basically had two main issues with the original: the constant switching between items (and the general over-reliance of obstacles that require a certain item to get past that caused this), and the navigation of the overworld, which was too convoluted without scrolling. Both problems are fixed with this release, and as such it pretty much automatically becomes the best way to experience Link's Awakening. You could argue both the extra buttons and the overworld scrolling makes things easier than the original. And sure, it's easier if you always have access to, for example, your shield. But it's worth it just because the game is much less of a hassle now.
The original still holds up very well. I've always liked the dungeons (aside from the Eagle Tower, but it's not as bad in this remake), the music, and it contains a lot of interesting, memorable moments. I will say I was a bit surprised by how simple the dungeons really were. They're still fun, but having played the Oracle games really doesn't do this game any favors in that regard. For a 1993 handheld title though, you can't complain.
As for this remake specifically. It looks fantastic. They completely nailed the feel of LA with these new graphics, and the soundtrack is amazing. I love the way they utilized bits of the GB soundtrack. They pretty much got the enemies and such looking as close to the original while still making everything look good by today's standards. It is a bit of a shame that the game's framerate is a bit choppy when you first enter a new area. If only the game would've loaded like two seconds longer everytime you warp somewhere. Apart from that the only main complaint I have is that the dungeon maps are a bit too detailed. For Eagle Tower that was nice, but for the other dungeons it makes things a bit too simple to navigate. Oh, and the game is easy as hell. But maybe the original was pretty easy too. I was reading some of the differences between this remake and the original and there were more changes than I'd thought. Goes to show how much this game nails the feel of the original.
The Chamber Dungeons are kinda cute. It gets stale after a while though. It's fun as a puzzle mode, but placing premade rooms doesn't really create very interesting dungeons, and you'll end up playing through the same rooms too often. The general flow of a Zelda dungeon isn't really something you can replicate with such a simple mode, but at least it's kind of fun to make something as convoluted as possible, or as efficient as possible.
So yeah, great game.
Rating: 9/10
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (NSW, 1st play, 25h20m)
Beat this two months ago and haven't played it for over a month so I better claim this before I forget.
I found this very fun. I'm currently taking a break to wait for the DLC and because I was getting a bit annoyed by certain missions, but there was a period where I played this every day.
I've played the original HW on Wii U, and I found this a bit deeper, gameplay-wise. It's still mostly beating up some enemies and then moving on to the next enemies, but the movesets seem more interesting. It's fun to figure out what moves bring out enemy weak-points and to come up with a strategy for each character. There are some characters that I have yet to get into, but most of them are pretty easy to learn. It does suck that the game forces you to play even as characters I don't like, but ah well.
All the BotW fanservice is cool, and it's neat to see these characters fleshed out a bit more (moveset-wise I mean), and to see how they used certain things from BotW in a completely different kind of game. The story is complete nonsense. The game was announced/promoted as a way to play the events leading up to BotW first hand, but it only kind of delivers and the opening freaking cutscene introduces time travel, so you can guess how canon this game is in the grand scheme of things. Not that anyone should play a Warriors game for the story (or a Zelda game, really).
One thing the game fails to live up to the original is the way the non-story missions are set up. In HW you had several Zelda 1 style maps which made it clear what you were going to unlock after beating each mission. HW:AOC is very messy and you tend to just unlock shit randomly and unpredictably. There's non-combat missions that just require you to give some materials you gain from other missions, and these sometimes unlock other missions. but you'll never know when. But there's so many and you might not focus on ones you don't particularly care about at the moment, so you'll end up unlocking very low-level missions randomly. You'll get used to it a after a while, but it's just a bad system and I hope the DLC has something more to the standards of the original.
Other problem I have with the game is the lack of overarching strategy in the maps. If you have a system of strongholds and two opposing armies in place, why would you not use that? Everything in the game is just beating certain enemies and moving on. Even switching between characters is barely useful. I only found myself using it to save time, barely ever for any strategical use. I seem to recall that in the original HW it was important some times to keep your eye on the big picture and maybe help out some strongholds that are close to collapsing or holding back some enemies here and there. Maybe I'm misremembering. Oh, and while I'm complaining, I might as well mention the apples. What a terrible mechanic that just leads to pointless grinding and needlessly locks you out of certain hard missions, and baked apples are an even dumber mechanic.
Anyway, overall I really liked it, but it has some issues that seem so easy to fix.
Rating: 8/10
DOOM II The Way Id Did (Win10, 1st play, 13h45m)
Another DOOM mod. This one reminded me more of DOOM II than the original Id Did reminded me of DOOM 1 + Ultimate. Some stages were clearly modeled after specific ones from DOOM II. It had some nice challenges on Ultra-Violence, but was still doable. There was only one bad stage (that's very low for a DOOM mod), not counting the Icon of Sin fight, which naturally sucked, and as always was even worse than the one in the original DOOM II.
I'd say it was an improvement overall and a great wad if you just want some good old-school DOOM action.
Rating: 9/10
Great remake. I basically had two main issues with the original: the constant switching between items (and the general over-reliance of obstacles that require a certain item to get past that caused this), and the navigation of the overworld, which was too convoluted without scrolling. Both problems are fixed with this release, and as such it pretty much automatically becomes the best way to experience Link's Awakening. You could argue both the extra buttons and the overworld scrolling makes things easier than the original. And sure, it's easier if you always have access to, for example, your shield. But it's worth it just because the game is much less of a hassle now.
The original still holds up very well. I've always liked the dungeons (aside from the Eagle Tower, but it's not as bad in this remake), the music, and it contains a lot of interesting, memorable moments. I will say I was a bit surprised by how simple the dungeons really were. They're still fun, but having played the Oracle games really doesn't do this game any favors in that regard. For a 1993 handheld title though, you can't complain.
As for this remake specifically. It looks fantastic. They completely nailed the feel of LA with these new graphics, and the soundtrack is amazing. I love the way they utilized bits of the GB soundtrack. They pretty much got the enemies and such looking as close to the original while still making everything look good by today's standards. It is a bit of a shame that the game's framerate is a bit choppy when you first enter a new area. If only the game would've loaded like two seconds longer everytime you warp somewhere. Apart from that the only main complaint I have is that the dungeon maps are a bit too detailed. For Eagle Tower that was nice, but for the other dungeons it makes things a bit too simple to navigate. Oh, and the game is easy as hell. But maybe the original was pretty easy too. I was reading some of the differences between this remake and the original and there were more changes than I'd thought. Goes to show how much this game nails the feel of the original.
The Chamber Dungeons are kinda cute. It gets stale after a while though. It's fun as a puzzle mode, but placing premade rooms doesn't really create very interesting dungeons, and you'll end up playing through the same rooms too often. The general flow of a Zelda dungeon isn't really something you can replicate with such a simple mode, but at least it's kind of fun to make something as convoluted as possible, or as efficient as possible.
So yeah, great game.
Rating: 9/10
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (NSW, 1st play, 25h20m)
Beat this two months ago and haven't played it for over a month so I better claim this before I forget.
I found this very fun. I'm currently taking a break to wait for the DLC and because I was getting a bit annoyed by certain missions, but there was a period where I played this every day.
I've played the original HW on Wii U, and I found this a bit deeper, gameplay-wise. It's still mostly beating up some enemies and then moving on to the next enemies, but the movesets seem more interesting. It's fun to figure out what moves bring out enemy weak-points and to come up with a strategy for each character. There are some characters that I have yet to get into, but most of them are pretty easy to learn. It does suck that the game forces you to play even as characters I don't like, but ah well.
All the BotW fanservice is cool, and it's neat to see these characters fleshed out a bit more (moveset-wise I mean), and to see how they used certain things from BotW in a completely different kind of game. The story is complete nonsense. The game was announced/promoted as a way to play the events leading up to BotW first hand, but it only kind of delivers and the opening freaking cutscene introduces time travel, so you can guess how canon this game is in the grand scheme of things. Not that anyone should play a Warriors game for the story (or a Zelda game, really).
One thing the game fails to live up to the original is the way the non-story missions are set up. In HW you had several Zelda 1 style maps which made it clear what you were going to unlock after beating each mission. HW:AOC is very messy and you tend to just unlock shit randomly and unpredictably. There's non-combat missions that just require you to give some materials you gain from other missions, and these sometimes unlock other missions. but you'll never know when. But there's so many and you might not focus on ones you don't particularly care about at the moment, so you'll end up unlocking very low-level missions randomly. You'll get used to it a after a while, but it's just a bad system and I hope the DLC has something more to the standards of the original.
Other problem I have with the game is the lack of overarching strategy in the maps. If you have a system of strongholds and two opposing armies in place, why would you not use that? Everything in the game is just beating certain enemies and moving on. Even switching between characters is barely useful. I only found myself using it to save time, barely ever for any strategical use. I seem to recall that in the original HW it was important some times to keep your eye on the big picture and maybe help out some strongholds that are close to collapsing or holding back some enemies here and there. Maybe I'm misremembering. Oh, and while I'm complaining, I might as well mention the apples. What a terrible mechanic that just leads to pointless grinding and needlessly locks you out of certain hard missions, and baked apples are an even dumber mechanic.
Anyway, overall I really liked it, but it has some issues that seem so easy to fix.
Rating: 8/10
DOOM II The Way Id Did (Win10, 1st play, 13h45m)
Another DOOM mod. This one reminded me more of DOOM II than the original Id Did reminded me of DOOM 1 + Ultimate. Some stages were clearly modeled after specific ones from DOOM II. It had some nice challenges on Ultra-Violence, but was still doable. There was only one bad stage (that's very low for a DOOM mod), not counting the Icon of Sin fight, which naturally sucked, and as always was even worse than the one in the original DOOM II.
I'd say it was an improvement overall and a great wad if you just want some good old-school DOOM action.
Rating: 9/10