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Post by Digitalnametag on Oct 2, 2022 8:13:21 GMT -5
The DioField Chronicle PS5 FTP 23 hours
Nice to see SE putting out these smaller titles. DioField is okay. The battles play out on a small map in a similar style to Baldur's Gate or Growlanser. You only have four units deployed at a time and even though you can gain the ability to switch mid-battle I never had a reason to do so. The fights get very samey in the end and pose very little challenge. Map objectives are always to kill all the enemy units. I started playing on double speed in the end.
The story was interesting but told in a very minimal style. Make sure to go back and read the character library after beating the game! Explains more of the twists. A lot of the details happen behind the scenes and are only hinted at in game conversations.
So yeah average game. Maybe pick up on sale. This one could have used some more development time.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 2, 2022 13:29:51 GMT -5
Immortals Fenyx Rising (Switch, First Time) (Somehow this is the official title with nary a colon or dash)
It was really eating at my that I had this sitting around uncompleted for almost two years now. I apparently put in about six hours then called it a day back at the beginning of 2021. My impression then was that it wasn’t as bad as Ubisoft BotW clone sounds but that it still wasn’t that great. Having actually completed it, that’s still basically the case although it’s really from the game’s own problems rather than its reverse copy cat nature.
Calling this a clone is and isn’t fair. There are very obvious things taken from BotW, but that game takes cues from Ubisoft in the first place. The key word is cues since it makes the portions of the formula it does take significantly less annoying and gives you an actually interesting and varied environment to explore. This has some direct similarity e.g. Vaults instead of Shrines and a minimum of characters, but this is basically Greek Mythology AC since it was made by the AC: Odyssey team. It's also much more boring than any of the AC games I've played and it really makes me wonder about the newer ones and if they have the same problems.
The overall issue is that this doesn’t do anything particularly well, but it does plenty of things badly. I questioned so many times if some parts actually got any play testing. Not even from poor or confusing design (although that can be a problem) but areas where the physics didn’t act reliably making a puzzle unsolvable until I reloaded enough times for some parameter to have the right value. I ended up not doing most of the Vaults because of this. It’s also very crash happy but the game constantly autosaves so it wasn’t too much of an issue aside from the annoyance.
The controls on the other hand were a huge problem for me. They’re based on the default scheme from AC: Odyssey so they aren’t unusual, but I prefer to have the attacks on the face buttons instead of on R and ZR. Doing this was an absolute nightmare. The ironic thing is that what I wanted was basically the alternate controllers in AC: Od adapted for this game, but those aren’t a preset.
Because there are so many actions, some buttons have to double duty, but there’s an undocumented priority involved so certain combinations aren’t possible. I ended up have to choose a type of potion to never use because I had to remap something to one of those buttons; they’re mapped to the d-pad with no modifier. More problematic is that not every action can be remapped and they instead use the mapping for something unrelated instead. When climbing, I initially ended up with Eject (from surface) and Drop both mapped to A, and had to remap things until they were different again. I still ended up not being able to perform some actions, but they at least weren’t necessary to complete the game. This whole element is so messed up that the default controls have a conflict!
I don’t want to go on and on because this is mostly a underwhelming effort by people who’ve never made this exact type of game. It seems like it was a huge flop considering that it’s on sale for 2/3 off on alternating weeks. No one is going to even remember this game in a few years except me because I’m doing the DLC now so I’ll have all that extra pain.
I finished in 23:38:14.
Rating: 5
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Post by lurker on Oct 2, 2022 19:50:35 GMT -5
TMNT: Shredder's Revenge (Steam, First Time)
I really enjoyed this one, even if some parts were a bit annoying (Darn Turtle Tenderizer). I plan on getting some more of the achievements, so I'm not quite done with this one. Really enjoyed all the little nods, though I wish there were more bosses that were unique to this one. I thought it was neat that the character selection wasn't just limited to the 4 turtles this time. Edit: Forgot to mention the combat. I really like the variety of moves, though I still need to practice with some (mainly doing consistent grapples). Also, the art style was really nice and I liked the little animation quirks.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 3, 2022 9:59:13 GMT -5
Another Code: Two Memories (Nintendo DS; Replay; 4 hours 11 minutes)
(I'm not sure what the naming policy is if the game has two completely different official English names. This was called Trace Memory in America, and Another Code is its European and Japanese name. I'd like to have it logged as Another Code, but calling it "Another Code: Two Memories/Trace Memory" can work as well if need be.)
Man, my first replay of something in a good long while. Since I've been getting into Japanese adventure games and becoming considerably more appreciative of examples I'd played previously, I wanted to revisit Another Code - a game I haven't played in seven years. This was an adventure game made by Cing (later known for their Hotel Dusk games) where you play as a young girl exploring an island in search of her missing dad. Along the way, she meets a ghost who can't remember his past and they make their way through an abandoned mansion together, hoping to piece together the clues to the ghost's fate and why her dad went missing.
The main focus is on exploration and dialogue, occasionally punctuated by puzzles that make use of the DS' capabilities such as its touchscreen, the microphone, and so on. Back in 2015, I was really impressed by the variety of puzzles they came up with, and it's still very cool to interact with objects in a more tactile way than you'd see elsewhere. But at the time, I wasn't really impressed with much else. I felt rather detached from the characterization and the general tone of the game, and I think that's because I had this narrow idea as to what adventure games could and should be.
Since then, I've been making an effort to be much more open-minded and to take things on their own terms, and I finally came round to it. It's a quiet sombre game, often with characters finding it somewhat hard to reply (the number of times a character will say another's name followed by ellipses, such as "Ashley...", is almost hilarious but gives off the impression that they don't know what to say during moments of uncertainty and high emotion). There's a candidness to the way it's written that I found worked towards the ideas being played around with, and I came away knowing about and caring for the people I'd been with during this adventure.
It's also just nice having a cozy adventure game to chill out to, with simple puzzles, very cool 3D renders of the various environments, and nice music to listen to which all tie the story together. I'm glad I got to revisit Another Code and better understand why it's a cult classic.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 3, 2022 11:04:34 GMT -5
Super Darius II (TurboGrafx-CD, First Time)
A step down from Super Darius, but it has a wider skill accommodation than Super or Plus.
I finished in 02:00:29.
Rating: 7
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Post by spanky on Oct 4, 2022 9:30:29 GMT -5
Blaster Master Zero III (Switch, First Time)
The original Blaster Master is one of those "almost classic" type of games. There's a lot to love about it but it has some really obnoxious flaws that hold it back. Fortunately we live in an era where game developers eagerly recognize this sort of thing and are able to develop sequels, reboots and remakes that address many of these issues. This isn't my favorite series but I have a lot of love for the original as it was an early Switch game and was a nice palate cleanser after marathon Zelda sessions. It's just a very solid Metroidvania style series.
BMZ3 is the conclusion to the trilogy. The series has a lot of fun with the "canon" of the games and this one introduces Kane Gardner, the hero of Meta Fight as a new character. It's quite chatty with the game stopping frequently to deliver exposition. You kind of wish they'd get to the point after a while. The details of the story end up being sort of incoherent but I did like the ending - it's one of those games that attempts to tie everything together and does a pretty good job of it.
The main new gimmick introduced by the game is Super Dimensional Space, which are basically alternate versions of the on foot and overworld sections. Sometimes they serve as alternate routes and other times they are needed to navigate around the map. When on foot you'll eventually take damage in these areas but you need to spend a fair amount of time in them to get the good ending (FWIW I avoided these sections as much as possible and still was able to get the good ending).
The game is the most fun when you're in your tank. The on foot sections have the obnoxious draining gun meter but the game tries to balance it out a bit by giving you some defensive counters and sub weapons. The level designs in these areas are quite dull too with lots of boring enemies and empty rooms with nothing of interest. Towards the end of the game I just found myself dashing through these as quickly as possible.
This is a good cap to the series if you're a fan of it (or the original even). It kind of makes me want to play the first two games again. 8/10.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 4, 2022 10:34:11 GMT -5
dsparil I've got a weird question that may needlessly clutter up discussion, but can side campaigns or sidestories count as separate entries? These would be campaigns or modes that are available in the base game which tell their own unique stories but don't affect completing the main game or vice versa (apart from unlocking them possibly). Something like "The Truth of Majima Goro" in Yakuza Kiwami 2 or the "Tintin and Haddock" mode in Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, for example. I'm mainly asking because I'm playing Panzer Dragoon Orta atm and I've unlocked a sub-scenario with its own batch of episodes where you play as a different character, accomplishing new missions and experiencing a story that's tied into the main campaign but is entirely its own beast afaik. This is accessed from the main menu via the Pandora's Box, and apart from unlocking the first episode by playing the main game, the rest are only unlocked by playing through this sub-scenario. I'm thinking of giving it a go, but I was curious to know what you thought of this. Would you consider it a kind of expansion/DLC despite being a part of the regular game, or would it not count because it's essentially a bonus mode?
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Post by dsparil on Oct 4, 2022 11:42:21 GMT -5
dsparil I've got a weird question that may needlessly clutter up discussion, but can side campaigns or sidestories count as separate entries? These would be campaigns or modes that are available in the base game which tell their own unique stories but don't affect completing the main game or vice versa (apart from unlocking them possibly). Something like "The Truth of Majima Goro" in Yakuza Kiwami 2 or the "Tintin and Haddock" mode in Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, for example. I'm mainly asking because I'm playing Panzer Dragoon Orta atm and I've unlocked a sub-scenario with its own batch of episodes where you play as a different character, accomplishing new missions and experiencing a story that's tied into the main campaign but is entirely its own beast afaik. This is accessed from the main menu via the Pandora's Box, and apart from unlocking the first episode by playing the main game, the rest are only unlocked by playing through this sub-scenario. I'm thinking of giving it a go, but I was curious to know what you thought of this. Would you consider it a kind of expansion/DLC despite being a part of the regular game, or would it not count because it's essentially a bonus mode? No because it is a bonus mode. You can of course use the total time including them.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 4, 2022 12:26:47 GMT -5
Ai Chō Aniki (TurboGrafx-CD, First Time)
Worse all around than the first game. The bosses aren't as creative and there's even a bit of reused concepts. It's a bit heavier on the bodybuilders but it still mainly feels a grab at times. The controls are clunky too, and the need to do fighting games style inputs to attack is wasted when there aren't too many different attacks.
I finished in 00:33:03.
Rating: 6
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 5, 2022 16:01:07 GMT -5
Thanks for the reply dsparil , and that's fair enough. I tend not to count the bonus content if I'm playing it after beating the main game. I'm not really sure why, I know it doesn't really matter either way. I guess I like the idea of just considering those bonuses as something I can go back to at my luxury instead of taking everything in at once, like how I've left plenty of side missions in Warriors Orochi 3 and the bonus 12 stages you get in Balan Wonderworld after beating the game. So with that in mind... Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox; First Time; 2 hours 25 minutes)
Panzer Dragoon Orta is a game I've been wanting to play for nearly 17 years now. I first stumbled across it through the Winter 2005 demo disc from the UK Official Xbox Magazine, which featured a section dedicated to Japanese-developed original Xbox games. Through this section, I played the demos for Orta, along with other games I eventually bought such as Shenmue II, Jet Set Radio Future, and Ninja Gaiden Black. (There was also Otogi, but I don't have an Xbox One so I haven't played it yet) This demo disc basically kickstarted my proper interest in Japanese video games, having previously gotten into the Dead or Alive games thanks to a previous demo disc, and SEGA games beyond just the Sonic series.
But Orta was very hard to find and pretty expensive back in its day, not to mention that I live in Europe so I would've had to deal with the game crashing bug that affected the PAL version when played on the Xbox 360 (where it would always crash after mission 3, leaving you to replay the earlier game until you unlocked the side content or the mission select to check out the rest of the game). So it's only through the digital re-release as part of the Xbox One backwards compatibility, which also fixed that bug for the PAL version on 360 consoles, that I'm finally able to play it.
And man, it's so great to finally play this. It's quite a cool rail shooter with plenty of depth, especially thanks to the dragon transformations that offer you other loadouts such as super speed but machine-gun only or more powerful missiles but without speed boosts, and it's got stunning art direction for days. Whether in the environments, the creatures you encounter, the technology being used against you, or the ruins related to the long-lost Drones, I was frequently taken aback by the visuals. What a beautiful game.
It's also got very good pacing, knowing when to slow things down and ramp things up according to where we are in the narrative and where Orta is emotionally. Every level offers something visually and mechanically unique, and there's even alternate routes and a levelling up system to encourage you to keep coming back. Not to mention the frankly hysterical amount of side content, with bonus missions, a substory telling a completely different story, a mode where you can modify all kinds of parameters to make your own custom missions, and even the original Panzer Dragoon! It's a great example of a short game that offers so much for you to come back to if you'd like, and it's exactly the kind of game I dig in that regard.
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Post by spanky on Oct 6, 2022 9:50:21 GMT -5
Demon's Crest (SNES via NSO, Replay)
I usually make it a point to play a few Castlevania games each October but I felt like doing something different this year so I played Demon's Crest. The third, final and best game in the Gargoyle's Quest trilogy. It's also the most tragic in a way.
The game is spectacularly gorgeous, with some of the best backgrounds across the entire system generation. In an era where devs were experimenting with rendering, polygons, digitization etc. This is a game that's just pure, master class sprite art. Great music too which is moody and atmospheric while still worming it's way into your head.
It's a very short, Metroidvania style game with the main gimmick being different forms you acquire. You get a form that lets you fly, one that lets you swim...etc. They're all pretty cool though I wish you could change them with the press of a button instead of having to jump to the submenu. DC is fairly linear but you can do certain tasks in a different order. This time I got the Time Crest before fighting the Crawler boss which is typically an unfun slog of a boss. There are some questionable design choices as well. You get a number of weapons for your base form that enhance your mobility...but you'll never have to use them because you'll likely get the Air Crest beforehand which just lets you fly freely. It one of the few games I could ever see myself playing an elaborate ROM hack that explores the game to it's full potential.
Still the game is so fun and satisfying to play that you really won't care. Getting the real ending involves finding all the items in the game (not as tough as you'd think), beating the boss then hanging out at the ending screen which gives you a secret password that's a New Game Plus of sorts. It gives you the Ultimate form (combines all the abilities of the other forms into one and has enhanced strength and defense) and lets you challenge the real final boss. This boss is ridiculously tough and will require you to have a full stock of health refills if you want to beat him. I do wish it was a bit easier to change your elevation when flying in your Air and Ultimate forms as pushing the A button to ascend is tough to do when in the heat of battle.
I mentioned that this game is a bit tragic. What I meant by that is despite it's quality, a low number of carts were ordered and it sold very poorly, with a Nintendo Power issue claiming that it had negative sales one week (more returns than purchases). After playing it, I think I know why. For starters, it came out during the 1994 Holiday season which was absolutely stacked. And while it is a pretty short game, you might be fooled into thinking it's shorter than it really is. You can actually challenge the final boss pretty early in the game. In story, he is gathering his power much like you are so you can actually fight him when he's much weaker. This of course gets you the bad ending but I think it's interesting from a narrative perspective. Speaking of the story, the English script leaves out a lot of details that are in the Japanese version which actually helps the game make more sense. But anyway, with the way the game is structured you might think the bad ending was all the game had to offer. Just a theory of mine!
This game has graduated to one of my favorite SNES titles over the year. I love almost everything about it. 9/10.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 7, 2022 6:39:03 GMT -5
Immortals Fenix Rising — A New God
After being so ambivalent about the base game, I was pleasantly surprised by the first piece of DLC. It's basically just a large number of mini-dungeons, but they're actually good. Considering that all the DLC came out over a span of a few months starting 2 months after release, everything was clearly developed at the same time. The cynic in me thinks that the good stuff was held back because the quality is like night and day. Part of it is that you start out fully maxed out, and a lot of abilities are actually optional in the main game so none of the required dungeon-y parts can rely on them except as shortcuts around the intended solutions. You get some new abilities too over the course of the DLC although not everything gets equal usage. The quality of this makes me a little more hopeful for the other two DLC, but I'll get to those after Nier: Automata.
I finished in 13:54:26.
Rating: 8
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Post by spanky on Oct 8, 2022 7:21:26 GMT -5
Psycho Dream (SNES, via NSO, First Time)I kinda love the laziness of turning on my Switch a random short game on the NSO early in the morning while I sip coffee. This is an action game that reminds me a bit of Run Saber (a game I like lot better than this one). It has a virtual reality theme but the in-game setting is the sort of dark urban fantasy that you see in a lot of Japanese games of this era. Is there a name for this type of aesthetic? It also came very close to coming out in the west and was even reviewed in a few magazines and even had the standard-for-the-era box art where the character looks like he was traced from a Frazetta painting. Anyway, you choose one of two characters with slightly different weapons and abilities. You can pick up crystals that upgrade your melee attacks or give you long range attacks. You can also upgrade into a super form that shoots projectiles in all directions. The control is a bit stiff, especially on the Switch Controller and to complicate things the hit detection is pretty wonky. This is usually manageable as the game throws enough powerups this way to let you plow through enemies and the game has infinite continues and lets you restart at the beginning of each sub-section, including the bosses. However, unless you're powered up, the bosses are absolute nightmares. In particular the final boss, a giant robot has two laser shooting hands that must be taken out first. But the hit detection on these hands is SO bad and the the lasers seem to shoot out at a borderline random pattern meaning you will eat tons of hits unless you get lucky. It's not so bad if you have a ranged weapon...but the boss only drops melee powerup which means you'll have to come into the fight with a ranged weapon and hopefully not lose it. Once again, you start right at the boss if you die so it's not that big of a deal. The levels certainly look cool and this game gets by pretty far on aesthetics alone. I even like the somewhat creepy soundtrack. The level design is nothing special though. One level in particular is just riding up an elevator while you sit around and destroy monster generators that takes tons of hits. Very easy and kind of boring. There's things I like about this game but overall it's a bit below average and I don't have any sort of nostalgia poisoning with this one that'll taint my thoughts on it. 4/10.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 8, 2022 13:09:59 GMT -5
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (Switch; First Time; 24 hours 39 minutes)
How fitting that I've gotten round to finishing this, what with the recent news of a 9th gen port with fancier graphics and an upcoming bunch of DLC including a big expansion based on the Bardock TV special from the early 90s. I was big into Dragon Ball video games when I first got into the series back in the late 00s/early 10s, but fell out of it as buying new games became too expensive and anime games in general were always weirdly pricey. However, I ended up getting this game - originally to play on my sister's Xbox One at her house - as a birthday present from my brother, as it looked quite cool and I wanted to give it a bash. I never played it much though since the pandemic kicked off a few weeks in, and I just didn't feel like picking it back up. Until the Switch port was on sale for a decent enough bargain, so I grabbed it and the Trunks expansion.
It's a fairly decent action-RPG that retells the Dragon Ball Z anime, letting you travel across truly massive areas as you fight opponents, train to get new attacks, and do various miscellaneous activities like fishing, car racing, resource gathering and the like. I like the combat a fair bit, basic as it gets after a while, cuz of how much it reminds of a dream I had when I was 13 playing such a DB game where you fought enemies through these big landscapes. The side-quests you can do vary between boring "go here and fight/collect shit" and interesting stories that add fun contexts to the quests (such as the hilarious "Great Ladiesman" quest where you're forced to take part in various minigames to prove yourself as boyfriend material) and even introduce recurring characters exclusive to these quests. They're what I'm mainly here for, as the main storyline isn't all that engaging.
There's original material added which provides further context to the adaptations, like getting Gohan and No. 16 to hang out for a while before the Cell Games, but most of the retelling are standard "cutscene/fight" scenarios that are mainly interesting for the bigger fights that are essentially boss battles and the occasional fully animated cutscene that really goes to town on wicked visuals and directing. This is deffo a game intended for fans of the series, as there's plenty of moments which get glossed over with the understanding that you've watched the show and don't really need reminding of stuff.
It's a nice enough game to pop in and out of, doing a couple side-quests, learning new techniques and having a few short but enjoyable fights, though I find it's a bit too long considering how much it feels like it's spinning its wheels early on. This was exacerbated by being stuck in Namek for so long, and then having to deal with long loading screens when quests are catapulting you between areas for only a few lines of dialogue during the Cell and Boo arcs. I actually had to take a break for a good few weeks when I got to the Boo arc, I was so tired with its general repetition, and then proceeded to just blast my way through in a few sessions earlier this week.
At least I've beaten the game, opening up a whole bunch of post-game content that I can happily mess around with at my own leisure. There's also the "New Powers Awaken" DLC that got included with the port and the Trunks DLC I grabbed, all of which can be picked from the pause menu as soon as you take control outside of the opening fight. So I'll probably write about those at a later date.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 8, 2022 18:23:21 GMT -5
Immortals Fenyx Rising — Myths of the Eastern Realm (Switch, First Time)
A piece of DLC centered around Chinese mythology and made by a team in China no less. This is very loosely based on the story of Nuwa fixing the pillars holding up Heaven, but loosely is the key word here e.g. Nuwa is only a side character. There's enough potential in that story to sustain a full length game, but not much is able to make it across in a scant few hours. In terms of gameplay, it's just the base game in miniature so mostly not that great and the environment is extra small.
I finished in 3:29:27.
Rating: 5
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