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Post by Deleted on Feb 13, 2022 12:16:16 GMT -5
What it is that he doesn't like? I honestly haven't seen much negative about it outside of obvious trolling on GameFAQs. In general, I'd say the enthusiast community has been eating it up. It's definitely not perfect, but the overall execution is good. There's a lot of nice little touches everywhere, and the hidden ancient poems are interesting too. His complaints seem to be based around the structure. He's telling me there's too much jibber-jabber and that he would have expected the game to open up by now. He says he finds it a lot more confined that previously. He found more freedom in the old approach. I think that comes down to the mission based structure but I haven't tried it so I'm not 100%. When he's in the world he dislikes the controls, says there needs to be a jump action for him to get about more easily and that the in game map is terrible. Also he was pointing out a checklist system in the game and saying he found it was monotonous. For clarifications sake though I'm not assuming other Pokemon series fans have those issues or dislike this game. I have no basis for that. All I'm saying is that the majority of people buying the Pokemon RPG's every year are doing that because they like them, and what they want to see is more of that. Of course I think that the appeal of the IP has greater potential than just those games and so the fact that varied styles of Pokemon games are being made is great for audiences.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 13, 2022 13:32:29 GMT -5
It sounds like he's still in the beginnings of the first area. The other areas only have one mission, and the game don't hard gate you the way the first area does. You also can jump by the middle of the first area.
The checklists are the research tasks for each Pokémon, and they don't all have to be done. It's how you get points to increase in rank, and a Pokémon only needs to have its research level brought up to 10 to be considered completed with a Pokédex entry. The ones with a red mark next to them give two levels per milestone.
For someone trying to 100% the game, it would certainly get tedious trying to hit every milestone, but it isn't too bad for a regular play through. It's very easy to "overrank", and I had a rank high enough to beat the game (command Pokémon to level 80) at the beginning of the second area. I did put in a little time at the beginning to get it so sky high, but I would have been fine going completely naturally.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2022 4:48:44 GMT -5
OK, sounds like it may get better for him as it goes. At least lets hope so. It is taking him a long time to get anywhere. I wasn't planning on playing it for now but I may have to try getting ahead of him to show him how it opens up. On the checklisting side he is very much a completionist so I imagine he does feel the need to tick off the boxes. Thanks for going into further detail.
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Post by JoeQ on Feb 15, 2022 16:01:00 GMT -5
Killer7 (Windows) - Replay, Time: 26h (Steam timer), Rating: 5+++/5 First time replaying the game in over fifteen years since playing it on the GameCube originally. The Steam port is very good, updating and improving the game in all the right ways while leaving it otherwise untouched.
This is still Suda51's greatest masterpiece: surreal, obtuse, mystifying, incredibly stylish and unrelentingly weird, yet still very playable. Can't recommend it enough. I beat the game in the standard Killer7 mode, the balls hard Killer8 mode and the short Hopper7 joke mode, which amounts to about 2.1 playthroughs. Alphabet Challenge: ----EFG---K-M----RS------- Number Challenge: ----4--7--
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Post by JoeQ on Feb 17, 2022 5:08:09 GMT -5
Sonic Mania Plus (PS4) - First playthrough, Time: quite lot, Rating: 5/5 The real Sonic 4 and possibly the best Sonic game ever made. My only complaints are that I wish there was more original new content and I guess it doesn't really do anything new compared to the classic games it closely patterns itself after. Still, extremely good and fun time. I beat both Mania Mode (multiple times) and Encore Mode, both with all Chaos Emeralds. Got all the trophies too, which required playing way, way too much Blue Spheres. Alphabet Challenge: ----EFG---K-M----RS------- Number Challenge: ----4--7--
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Post by spanky on Feb 17, 2022 6:27:07 GMT -5
Zen Intergalactic Ninja (NES, First Time)
A late era NES licensed Konami game. Zen is based on a comic I've never heard of. Konami did a lot of popular licensed stuff back in the day but they'd occasionally do a game based on a lesser known property (they also had Cowboys of Moo Mesa arcade game for example). My guess is that they were hoping they'd find up the next TMNT cash cow. Like I said, I don't know anything about the comic, but Zen himself is sort of cool with his alien ninja design. Most of the villains are lame 90s environmentalist Captain Planet villains.
The game is split between 2D and 3D isometric platforming. You can choose the order of the initial 4 levels and each has it's own gimmick to keep things interesting. One level is only a boss fight, but you have to constantly jump back down to revive flowers being damaged by acid rain. Another has you going through a burning oil rig and rescuing workers. There's a mine cart level (ugh) and level with a timer. The final boss puts you in space where you have to divide your time between hitting the boss and destroying all the space junk he's bombarding the planet with.
The control is a bit stiff for a Konami game, I found myself taking some cheap hits here and there. Your main weapon is your bo staff and there's a technique where you can pick your foe up with it and spin them around and throw them. It's pretty fun to use and is more or less needed to beat some of the tougher bosses.
It's not a particularly long game but it can be kind of tough. And it's always throwing new gimmicks and challenges towards you. The aesthetics are top notch as you'd expect from Konami. 7/10
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Post by dsparil on Feb 17, 2022 19:18:45 GMT -5
Metal Unit (Switch, First Time)
I wanted to like this side scrolling action-RPGish game (there's a lot of equipment but no levels), but it doesn't quite come together. There's actually a relatively large amount of plot with unique art, but it isn't distributed very well being mostly front and backloaded without much going on in the middle. The plot centers around humans having to fight both monsters from the center of the Earth and aliens at the same and wouldn't feel out of place for a mid-tier anime. The ending is nice though. The real problem is the gameplay. For whatever reason, the developers decided to make this a "roguelite" game with three areas of deliberated designed, but randomly strung together stages ending in a boss with some rest areas after every few stages. As a result, you'll never even see most of the game unless you rerun areas for no reason. The second issue is that this is really way too easy. It's more moderate at the beginning, but it starts dropping all the really high end equipment around halfway so you can just plow through everything. It doesn't help that you also have an unlimited use invincible roll that also acts like an attack. This would be a lot better if all the random elements were dropped and you just went through every possible stage with periodic non-random equipment upgrades. Better equipment balance would help too as some is ridiculously overpowered.
I finished in 02:50:20.
Rating: 6
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Post by Woody Alien on Feb 18, 2022 14:02:55 GMT -5
S.U.M. - Slay Uncool Monsters (PC Windows, first time, about 14 hrs)
Free time-waster sort of-educational game I found on Steam, it is also available on the Switch eShop and Android phones. I think it's better as a smartphone app with a touchscreen than a PC or console game, in any case. The dumb pun in the title is based on the fact that it is a faux 8-bit retro dungeon crawler where you have to damage enemies with the four basic operations (+ - X / ) by completing the equations that appear under them. The only direct character input is moving him around the map and unlocking the various gates when you gain enough money from the fights and random chests. At the beginning it is cute and original, then it becomes tedious and near the end, with never-ending gauntlets of repetitive enemies, it just becomes mind-numbing.
There are just like 4 different areas (i.e. backgrounds) with a handful of enemy sprites, so after an hour you've seen everything that the game has to offer, and all the equations are based on clicking single-digit numbers on the grid so these operations are always the same stuff, and the difficulty comes from the enemies giving you less and less time to react and doing much more damage instead of solving more complex problems. The RPG elements (leveling up and gaining gold by comboing strings of correct equations) likewise don't really change the experience in a meaningful way.
I consider it completed after having beaten the giant castle at the end of the map, since nothing seems to happen after that and even "ascending" after having reached level 50 just unlocks the same map to start everything over again. I don't think that completing 100% of the stages changes anything either. Also, that giant monster on the cover/intro image doesn't really appear anywhere.
The game is free and to pay the dev there are some character classes sold as DLC, but from what I've seen they don't really change things that much, so I'm not going to buy them. The soundtrack is on sale too but it's very generic, annoying chiptune stuff so I'm not going to buy that either. I should probably have installed it on my phone (but I have no space left so...) because as a PC/console game it's just too simple and repetitive. 5.5/10
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Post by ZenithianHero on Feb 18, 2022 18:37:08 GMT -5
Pokemon Legends: Arceus (Switch, First Time, around 60 hours)
I love this game. You go into fields catching Pokemon all day and filling out research tasks. Nice to see the wild area concept from Sword and Shield as a full game. Mainline Pokemon usually battle-focused, seeing NPCs talk about Pokemon as they met them properly for the first time such a smart twist to the series. I hope we get another Legends game.
What is most interesting about this idea is the player character can be directly harmed by Pokemon. Ambushing wild encounters while being in incognito actually a challenge at times. The game also provides boss fights where you dodge attacks and wear down the superpowered Pokemon. I probably spend too much time to finish the story but I couldn't resist exploring. It takes a while to get to the point where it is fun to travel around, got that Xenoblade style Alpha system in place.
QoL is also appreciated. You can change moves on the fly, you have easy access to grit that act like vitamins. You don't need to trade to get certain evolutions now. As somebody who doesn't use trade in the past, I can use an Alakazam and Porygon Z finally!
If there are sore spots to the game, I suppose the battles do miss something without the abilities and other mechanics. Many Pokemon feel more interchangeable with all the moves cut as well. Although the new twists with speed helps some Pokemon hit by balancing power creep.
Game Freak also didn't think things through with the new Distortion feature, where rare Pokemon show up and trying to complete the dex (which is a major last task you have to do in the game) waiting for what could be hour or hours to trigger the event is annoying.
9/10
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Post by spanky on Feb 20, 2022 6:49:22 GMT -5
Sunset Riders (Arcade via Arcade Archives on the Switch, First Time)
SUNSET RIDERS is a game that I feel like straddles the line between canonized classic and overlooked sleeper hit. It's a game I remember that was absolutely everywhere in it's time - grocery stores, pizza places, every single arcade etc. Pretty much everyone I know has played it - I once posted the "Bury Me With My Money" quote as a Facebook status years ago and it got a ton of responses.
I'm always a bit shocked it's never seen some sort of revival - no sequel, or HD remake or anything like that because I think it would do quite well. I guess you could argue "cultural sensitivity issues" or whatever but that stuff could be easily overwritten in a new version. I didn't even know this received a port until recently.
I've played both the SNES version (pretty good port in all honesty) and the reworked Genesis version several times but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've managed to play the arcade game the whole way through. Not sure why you'd want to play as anyone but double-wielding shotgun death machines Bob or Cormano though- their spread shot rips through cannon fodder. I chose Bob this time and got through the entire game in about 25 minutes.
This is straight run and gun action. There's only a handful of weapon upgrades, no shields or smart bombs or anything like that. Most of your foes fire large slow moving bullets that glow. While they are pretty easy to avoid, they sometimes get lost in the action and you'll get tagged. Bosses in the arcade version seem to be much less of bullet sponges than in the home ports. The presentation shines though - I love the standoff in the attract mode, wanted posters before each level, ducking into saloons and bordellos for power ups, the goofy slapstick that pops in etc. The music flat out rocks but being a Konami game you knew that already.
Like most Arcade Archives ports, it's fairly no frills. You can choose from the 2-player or 4-player modes as well as Japanese or US. From what I can tell, the Japanese version adds subtitles to the dialogue and gives you opportunities to earn extra lives. There's also the obligatory high score modes. One character's name was changed too.
This is one of my favorites and I'm pretty happy that I got to play an official port of the arcade version. 9/10.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2022 9:05:23 GMT -5
Sonic Colours (Wii, First Time, 7 Hours Appx)This is my first full playthrough of a 3D Sonic game, although of course the 3D segments are intertwined with 2D so it can be considered more of a hybrid. It's immediately striking how confidently Sonic Colours moves between 2D and 3D play. Behind the camera 3D sections concentrate on speed and vary between free movement and on rails segments which allow movement with the directional inputs by sidestepping as well as speed boosts. We move to 2D in order to engage in more deep platform designs so it feels like everything has it's natural place and varying styles of platforming come together to form a greater whole. The usual aspects of Sonic are all here, collecting rings, speeding through loops and the idea of learning levels through exploration. This last one is much enhanced than in the 2D series through the additional inclusion of 'Wisps'. These Wisps act as collectable power ups that change up Sonic's move set for a short period of time and are mostly used enable exploration of previously inaccessible areas and to build puzzles in order to collect stars within each stage. What's more these collectables are unavailable until you reach a certain point in the story and each Wisp power up is gradually unlocked. Although it could be argued that this idea artificially lengthens then game, as each stage will need to be revisited in order to collect each of the 5 stars per level, the exploration that benefits means the stages feel richer as they are unlocked. Unfortunately not every Wisp controls great, although they are 'good enough' I did find I made a good number of mistakes when handling some of these power ups. From a presentation standpoint the visuals of of a high standard for the Wii platform, although of course the lack of resolution does detract some, and it's clear why this title was chosen to be remastered. Each of the seven worlds bring a unique theme and look fantastic in 3D as the fast-paced segments really allow the detail to shine. Unfortunately the 2D by contrast looks flat and it's clear that the 3D presentation was considered first. There's a nice attempt at a dynamic camera which gives differing perspectives but there are times when Sonic becomes either too small or isn't visible on the screen at all. The soundtrack really elevates the game and manages as it is a high point. Unfortunately there were some areas that feel unfinished, and it seems that more time would have benefitted. The water based Aquarium Park is a significant down point and a couple of levels within the Astral Coaster world are throwaway. What's more is that despite the game having some nice boss stages they are repeated where having more variety in battles would have gone a long way. There are a good amount of cutscenes here and it is clear some good effort went into them as the animations are high quality and the voice acting is nicely done also. It is pretty clear, however, that the target audience for the story segments is for younger players as the dialogue can be hard to listen to. The jokes that are such stretches of being a play on words having to be explained just reinforces how bad they are and I had a hard time sitting through them. The scenes do manage to enhance characterisation and overall presentation so they are better off there than being left out, I just felt I was not who these scenes were for. One of the biggest marks against Sonic Colours is that it released amongst a library of strong competition; there's simply more polished and consistent platformers on the Wii. Even so Colours stands on it's own enough that I'd recommend giving it a play. When presentation is strong it does a great deal to enhance the fast paced gameplay, which on it's own separates it from it's contemporaries. A little more consistency would likely go a long way but I the issues here are minor stumbles and the positives greatly outdo the negatives. Score - 7/10
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Post by JoeQ on Feb 20, 2022 15:51:59 GMT -5
Prisoner of War (Xbox) - First playthrough, Time: a bit, Rating: 3/5
An early 2000s stealth game taking inspiration from The Great Escape (not to be confused with the officially licensed game that came out around the same time). Definitely of it's time and kinda ugly even for that, but I ended up enjoying it. Best described as a sandbox stealth game with a time management system, as you have to keep to a prisoner's schedule while sneaking around Nazi POW camps looking for equipment and fulfilling various objectives. As a smart choice you're given no offensive abilities at all and the game is all the better for it, instead forcing you to rely on your wits and stealth to outwit the (rather dull) guards. Not for everyone, but worth checking out.
I beat all chapters with A grade, which took a couple of tries for the harder ones.
Alphabet Challenge: ----EFG---K-M--P-RS------- Number Challenge: ----4--7--
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2022 16:43:00 GMT -5
Monster World IV (Switch, First Time, 7 Hours Appx)I've always thought Monster World IV has a kind of aura of mystery around it, being a finale to a beloved series that somehow didn't manage to see an international release. Of course it was localised back on the Wii/360 in an era before such late official translations were really a thing. Having picked it up on the 360 lead to it feeling more untouchable as it were as the controller just didn't meet the needs of this game. Recently though I finally managed to play it through a more appropriate means, and perhaps the one I'd been waiting for since it finally received a physical retail release in English. Of course, this release came as a bonus to the recent remake under the title 'Asha in Wonderland' however for me this was certainly the main attraction to the package. The most obvious attraction that presents Monster World IV as a compelling release is the visuals, which are gorgeously drawn, using bold colours and chunky sprites that present a cartoonish style. In motion everything looks perfect and nothing is out of place. The stylised sprites are both reminiscent of previous games in the series whilst also taking enough of a new direction to feel fresh. The main character of Asha and her helpful companion, a cute spherical animal known as a Pepelogoo, really come to life with their surroundings bringing the surrounding world together nicely. In terms of the gameplay it's quite simple, with levels being accessible via a hub world where upgrades to armour, weaponry and the Peppelogoo itself are found. The additions are mostly numeric however and serve to prepare Asha for enemies in the next stage so as not to be overwhelmed. The combat is pretty simple with a forward attack and a block along with Zelda IIesque upwards and downwards thrusts from mid air. The only substantial upgrade to the abilities ever given is the ability to double jump or float for longer distances. I found this design in contrast to that found in The Dragon's Trap where your changing form enables access to new areas and generally I would say it's a step backwards, at least in terms of Metroidvania design. The stages themselves are non-linear of course, though they revolve around finding one off uses in chests and solving puzzles in order to unlock new paths as opposed to learning new skills. There is a fair amount of complexity to the design, and some involved and surprisingly difficult platform included so there's a good amount of challenge here, but dungeons felt a bit long, especially due to a scarcity of save points, and I was generally disappointed by the game design. That said this disappointment comes only in comparison to a game I held in high esteem, and one I've played across various releases. Monster World IV boasts a great deal of character in it's bright colourful world and characters, and the gameplay is tight and rewarding. Personally it wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but I did enjoy it in it's own right. Score - 7/10 As an aside a Wonder Boy collection is inbound which will include this game along with Wonder Boy, Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Monster World. It's an odd collection since there's some obvious omissions, but it does present another way to get hold of this game.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 20, 2022 18:53:01 GMT -5
The Darkside Detective (Switch; First Time; 4 hours 4 minutes)
This is a pretty neat adventure game about solving strange paranormal mysteries, some of which involve a parallel ghostly reality called the Darkside. Each mystery takes up its own self-contained case with a unique batch of environments, characters and puzzles, which take around 20-50 minutes to beat. I picked this up on the recommendation of excelsior around Christmas but didn't play it until a few days ago to stave off some bad anxiety, and dang it really did the trick. It's a breezily paced game, so you can make progress super quickly and a solution (or information that'll clue you in) is often a couple of screens away. That said, I have realized that I'm rather bad at retaining information since I found myself looking up a walkthrough only to find that I just had to remember an object I'd looked at previously and grab it. There's plenty of objects to observe, and it can be hard to tell which you'll need and which will be there to make goofy remarks about, but that vagary is part of the fun with adventure games since you never know what's important until you have that "Aha!/Eureka!/Zvarri!" moment. So it's more of an acknowledgement that said element leaves me out in the cold and wishing there was an in-game hint system for idiots like me, and that's okay. This was quite the cozy little game, so I might end up grabbing that sequel sooner than later. Or maybe I'll stick to adventure games for the most part, since a lack of knowledge is the only problem I'll be running into with most of these. I might pick up Machinarium and Grim Fandango again, and maybe try a couple of the games sitting on my Switch for months like Tardy and Broken Sword 5. Who knows, but it's pretty exciting!
Prisoner of War (Xbox) - First playthrough, Time: a bit, Rating:3/5 An early 2000s stealth game taking inspiration from The Great Escape (not to be confused with the officially licensed game that came out around the same time). Definitely of it's time and kinda ugly even for that, but I ended up enjoying it. Best described as a sandbox stealth game with a time management system, as you have to keep to a prisoner's schedule while sneaking around Nazi POW camps looking for equipment and fulfilling various objectives. As a smart choice you're given no offensive abilities at all, and the game is all the better for it, instead forcing you to rely on your wits and stealt to outwit the (rather dull) guards. Not everyone, but worth checking out. I beat all chapters with A grade, which took a couple of tries for the harder ones. Alphabet Challenge: ----EFG---K-M--P-RS------- Number Challenge: ----4--7-- God, Prisoner of War. That's a flashback and a half. Of the various Xbox games we had, that's the only one I recall as being an odd duck not attached to a pre-existing series or something that went on to become a cult gem. I stunk horribly at stealth games and time management, so I never made much progress. But there's something about it that's quite distinct, considering it's lurked in the back of my mind all this time. Well done on beating and getting to appreciate what it does!
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Post by Snake on Feb 21, 2022 14:16:39 GMT -5
Yo! Noid, NES (1st time, approx 1 hour, 10 minutes)
So-so game. If Konami was promoting Pizza Hut via pack-in coupons for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2:The Arcade Game, Capcom here has backed Domino's Pizza through their own mascot, The Noid!
Controls are nice and tight, as you'd expect of a Capcom 2-D game. But concept feels a bit watered down, stage design a bit on the lackluster side. There's basically 3 gameplay styles, the 2-D platformer, the 2-D sidescrolling copter, akin to a swimming stage in Super Mario Bros but in the air, and the math skills involving pizza-eating showdown at the end of some stages. No bosses. All this, as the Noid is expected to wander a whole city map to challenge other Noids to a definitive pizza eating contest. You better hope you have collected enough power-ups to multiply the pizzas to eat, because the last few Noids have much higher cards to draw.
The stages themselves... playing and fighting with a yo-yo ain't so bad. But you die in one hit. You get some occasional power-ups that seem like ninjitsu flash/crash attacks to clear the screen of enemies. I think the most frustrating stage for me was the early ice level. Died way too many times, navigating a too slippery surface. Playing this game once is enough.
5/10.
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