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Post by Apollo Chungus on Aug 16, 2024 15:44:31 GMT -5
personman God that Metroid II commercial is so good! I love how turning Samus into a stop-motion model lends a kind of solid rigidity to her demeanour that you can't quite get with other artstyles where the construction would inherently be a bit more malleable (see how they have to resort to traditional animation whenever Samus does more athletic stuff like the spin jump). Ever since I saw this years ago, I've been convinced that a stop-motion short would be such a great way of adapting Metroid into animation - though I also think that would be true of plenty of Nintendo things, especially Pikmin lol. Crash Team Racing (PlayStation; Replay; 3 hour 55 minutes)Man, this game. It was the first video game I ever played, all the way back in the year 2000 when I was just four and playing against my sister in one of the multiplayer arenas. It's a game I've loved from a young age, and have played it so often over the years that everything's become instinctive to me as breathing. Doing powerslides, pulling off jumps at the right time, turning corners; I'm vaguely decent at Crash Team Racing in a way I'm often not with games that demand quick reflexes and skill. This is a perfect game in my heart, and one that I find so damn comforting to come back to. I haven't properly played through this in roughly a decade, owing to the general size and scope of the Adventure mode where you need to do plenty if you wanna beat Nitrous Oxide and see the end credits (though thankfully not to the same extent as something like Diddy Kong Racing which I finally tried for the first time but dropped; I'll post about that in the Game Fail thread shortly). For this playthrough, I went through all four of the game's cups in Arcade mode, and even beat them on all three difficulties in first place which I was really surprised by. Hard mode's not something I ventured into before, but it lives up to its name and you really gotta prove your stuff if you wanna come anywhere but last - super satisfying to do! I even played as someone other than Crash, going with the good boy Dingodile, and managed to adjust to his heavier movement surprisingly fast. It's a bit weird how the final cup uses Slide Coliseum for its last track instead of Oxide Station, makes things feel a little anti-climactic when you're thrown into a (tonally and thematically) generic race-track for the finale. But otherwise, I had tons of fun racing at the edge of my seat; blasting round tracks, taking out other racers in the nick of time, and pulling off some mad maneuvers like boosting constantly round Mystery Caves or getting all the way from eighth to first place in Polar Pass. Also, I only just NOW realized you can activate the shortcut at Tiny Temple by attacking the door with an item of some kind. After 24 years, there's still something new to learn from this amazing awesome cozy game. : )
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Post by Digitalnametag on Aug 16, 2024 17:13:36 GMT -5
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions 3DS FTP 15 hours
Been years since I've played the GBA original and this remake has been sitting on my shelf since it was released. It is fun but a bit lacking compared to others in the series. The battles can get a little tedious once you learn how to dodge the zones enemies moves. Still bosses tend to be fun and the story has a few laughs in it. The added Bowser's Minions mode is kinda lame and I didn't finish it.
Short, fun, and portable.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Aug 17, 2024 20:00:25 GMT -5
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Nintendo Switch; Replay; 4 hours ~ ESTIMATED)
Ever since I first beat this back in 2021, I've had it sitting on my Switch since it's a small enough game in terms of file size, thinking I'd probably pick it back up often enough. That never happened until yesterday afternoon, when I fancied playing something while downloading Shadow Man (weird coincidence, seeing as that's another explorative action game made by an Acclaim studio on a comic book and would get a Nightdive port decades later).
I recall enjoying Turok on my first go; the levels were pretty varied in their designs, and I liked the mix of platforming, exploration and shooting that it was going for. But I'm a bit more muted about it this time around. Stages can feel like long rambling mazes that go on for a while and then stop, and stumbling across keys is more random than I think it ought to be considering that's the only way to reach later stages. I had automap on quite frequently just to make sure I hadn't missed stuff.
Not really relevant to the game, but this was the first time in a while I'd knocked off the game audio so I could listen to some podcasts and videos instead. I like having the chance to do that, whether to listen to some new stuff or catch up with some old favourites. Turok works quite well within that context, though it obviously means I was treating the game more disposably when I'm listening to unrelated discussions and thinking about them. Maybe don't play Turok like that lol; take your time, get to know stages, relish the bonuses and secrets you'll uncover, and enjoy the whole thing in small chunks rather than lengthy sessions where you risk getting tired of the basic formula.
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Post by dsparil on Aug 18, 2024 5:43:40 GMT -5
Uru: Complete Chronicles (macOS, First Time)
Oof. So Uru was originally intended to be a weird MMO adventure game spinoff of Myst. After a number of years of development, Ubisoft got cold feet on the concept and a single player mode got added in. The plan then became to release the single player mode first, and then put out the subscription-based multiplayer component later. This got canceled entirely only to be resurrected and released by Gametap of all places. After the first season, they canceled it too sort of proving Ubisoft right, and Cyan has been running the servers for free since 2010 mostly statically although some user created Ages have been added in the last few years.
For the actual game, it’s pretty bad. One problem is that it’s sort of obvious that the game’s four ages were intended to be played by a group. They only have a handful of puzzles aside from one which is a linear progression of them, and one feels more like a hang out spot than anything else. Some of the puzzles seem like they were meant to be done with multiple people and got awkwardly retrofit to be done by one person. The main goal of each is to find seven markers inside them seemingly so a group has something to do.
There’s also not a huge amount of plot since this content was probably meant to set up subsequent MP-only material. The story is that it’s now the modern day versus the early 1800s of I through IV; this isn’t really a huge element of those games, but it comes up in the novels. The D’ni people of which Atrus was a quarter actually lived in an underground city in New Mexico after fleeing a societal collapse in their home age about 10,000 years ago. In the mid-1700s, their new society also collapsed with Atrus originally thinking his immediate family were the only D'ni descendants left. Two hundred years later in the 1980s, it’s discovered by humans. The game itself takes place around 2003/2004 with the D'ni Restoration Council having spent the intervening time exploring and trying to make it safe for visitors. However, the main action of the plot is about the player being guided by Atrus’s (now 200 year old) daughter Yeesha into restoring or freeing (?) the mostly unseen Bahro.
The mistake on Cyan’s part in terms of making an expanding MMO is that you really need to care about the all the backstory of the Myst games which at this point was really only explained in the novels. I did read those in the past, all three came out between Myst and Riven, but only the first sold well enough make it onto any charts and not that high. I’ve always felt that those overexplained things and added a bunch of grey area to a series that didn’t really need it. There was already enough of that with Gehn in Riven and Atrus's sons in the first which got expanded upon even more in III and IV; I accidentally tried to get through these out of order as IV came after Uru. In general, I don’t think people largely cared about the intricate history of the D'ni otherwise they would have bought the books. This is also a little bit of a problem with III which references the events of the third novel with Atrus finding surviving D’ni and writing a new home age for them (which the villain of III steals) which is confusing if you haven’t read it.
Aside from all that, the game is just ugly and has technical issues. It's sort of ’99 in its 3D graphics which isn’t great for 2003 game. Performance is really bad in places for seemingly no reason and trying to play in third person makes the frame rate tank. The camera also gets positioned incorrectly when entering most Ages which is weird. It’s not even obvious that's what is happening in first person which depending on the Age either makes the game seem frozen or that it has weird physics. Toggling third and first person fixes this though.
Complete Chronicles is a bundled release that adds the two expansions which are made up of content made for the MP portion. To D’ni obviously adds portions of the city, and Path of the Shell is the storyline continuation. I couldn’t bring myself to do much with either since they're just as bleh as the base. Overall, I think most people are better off just skipping this entirely and looking up the journals if they care about all the D’ni kings.
Rating: 4
Like IV, the Mac version is packaged with an overly old version of Crossover/WINE and needs to be used with a newer one.
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Post by spanky on Aug 18, 2024 6:23:41 GMT -5
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Nintendo Switch; Replay; 4 hours ~ ESTIMATED)Ever since I first beat this back in 2021, I've had it sitting on my Switch since it's a small enough game in terms of file size, thinking I'd probably pick it back up often enough. That never happened until yesterday afternoon, when I fancied playing something while downloading Shadow Man (weird coincidence, seeing as that's another explorative action game made by an Acclaim studio on a comic book and would get a Nightdive port decades later). I recall enjoying Turok on my first go; the levels were pretty varied in their designs, and I liked the mix of platforming, exploration and shooting that it was going for. But I'm a bit more muted about it this time around. Stages can feel like long rambling mazes that go on for a while and then stop, and stumbling across keys is more random than I think it ought to be considering that's the only way to reach later stages. I had automap on quite frequently just to make sure I hadn't missed stuff. Not really relevant to the game, but this was the first time in a while I'd knocked off the game audio so I could listen to some podcasts and videos instead. I like having the chance to do that, whether to listen to some new stuff or catch up with some old favourites. Turok works quite well within that context, though it obviously means I was treating the game more disposably when I'm listening to unrelated discussions and thinking about them. Maybe don't play Turok like that lol; take your time, get to know stages, relish the bonuses and secrets you'll uncover, and enjoy the whole thing in small chunks rather than lengthy sessions where you risk getting tired of the basic formula. Did you play it with the default controls? I tried playing the NSO version of Turok and noped out of there after about 30 seconds.
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Post by Digitalnametag on Aug 18, 2024 8:51:40 GMT -5
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire 3DS FTP 26 hours
Here is one from the backlog of shame. Almost ten years since release and unplayed! I was reading about how some carts of Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby have fatal issues so I opened my copy up to test it. Ended up playing through the campaign. So, uh, test complete.
Simple fun. I like a lot of the bottom screen features with DexNav being a standout. Mega Evolution is by far my favorite 'gimmick' of the newer Pokemon games (really liked XY back in the day) although you can really only use it near the end of the story. I do wish there was a bit more monster variety early game as it somewhat limits team building (dog, bird, bug, cat, rodent again) but the original Ruby and Sapphire were like that too. The game does require a Hidden Move slave or two to get through (I used Linoone and Tentacruel while throwing Fly on my bird) which can be a drag. This is something the newer games handle better. I do feel the pacing is better in Alpha Sapphire as compared to Sun/Moon as the NPC chatter is fairly minimal here. There really isn't much hand holding either which is funny coming off Mario & Luigi's obnoxious tutorials. Was kind of sad the Online features are dead but that is definitely my fault as we have known about the shut-down for awhile. Can't sit on a game for ten years and expect online play.
After being disappointed by Pokemon Scarlet earlier this year I'm happy to have enjoyed Alpha Sapphire. Even without Wi-Fi the game has an excellent mix of user-friendly features that make the game fun to play. I completed the Pokemon League and the Delta Episode with having picked Torchic as my starter.
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Post by JoeQ on Aug 19, 2024 16:03:05 GMT -5
Faerie Solitaire Remastered (PC/Windows) - First playthrough, Time: 24.8h (Steam timer), Rating: 2/5A passable solitaire game with a ton of levels to clear and some unlockable bells and whistles and a hohum fantasy story attached. The main strike against it is how often whether or not you'll be able to clear a hand comes down to just RNG rather than any player skill or strategy. I beat both Adventure mode and Challenge mode (which was much better) and collected all the pets and upgrades. ------- Elden Ring (PS4) - Replay, Time: 168:47:64 (in-game timer), Rating: 5/5Now that the DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is finally out I started a new character and did a full replay of the main game before diving into the DLC. The timer is combined for both. The base game is still is still great as ever and in many ways the DLC expansion was even better, distilling and refining what worked in the original game. I will concede that they went a bit overboard with a couple of the bosses. It was essentially Elden Ring 1.5, but I still wouldn't count it separately considering how tied it is into the main game. Essential for anyone who liked Elden Ring. Alphabet Challenge: ABCEFNPST Pics!
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Post by excelsior on Aug 20, 2024 3:38:46 GMT -5
Thank Goodness You're Here! (Switch, Fust Time, Two oors)Oh, what a beauty! You've never seen one quite like this before. Thank Goodness You're Here celebrates the northern English county of Yorkshire in the only way we humble folk who take up dwelling there know how: self depreciation. Headed by a couple of Yorkshire lads, who just so happen to have defected to the capital for whatever reason, acquiring a publisher for this project was quite the task, because this game is so rich in our specific culture that it can leave those outside of that purview missing what's here entirely. Fortunately, Panic Inc, publisher of Untitled Goose Game, were able to see it's potential. So what does Thank Goodness You're Here actually deliver? At the heart of the game is it's sense of humour. It's an adventure game and like many of those, comedy is it's greatest asset. TGYH takes this a bit further than most, however, stripping all but the essentials. There are no items to collect as you awkwardly mash your way through your inventory of tools as you grasp at an answer for any given puzzle. Instead, all you have is yourself, and the ability to directly interact (or jump). In fact, there are no puzzles to solve at all, rather, we move from situation to situation, as directed through dialogue, putting greater focus on the characters we meet and their usual situations. Of course these situations come about as exaggerations of real world interactions, but like the characters within, those interactions can be stretched so far in exaggeration that they become absurd. We are initially introduced as called upon by the mayor of the completelymadeupbaresnoresemblencetoarealworldtown Barnsdale as a required aid. No outline is given for what this task entails allowing for complete freedom as you're put to use any which way, usually greeted with the titular line 'Thank Goodness You're Here'. The stars of these interactions, of course, are the delightful caricatures you meet along the way. Brought to life with wonderful cartoonlike animation, coupled with perfect delivery by the voice cast (headlined by Matt Berry, but includes the creators and other unknowns), there's perfect comedic timing at work, creating many laugh-out-loud moments and both memorable and likeable characters. A great time, mostly for the northern Englishman, that's sense of humour is thoroughly silly. Jokes are based on familiarity here and come from a place of self depreciation. Yorkshire dialect and culture are prevalent, so whether the game resonates outside of this audience is a tougher call. I would like to think so, because, outside of a very short playtime, this is a tough to fault little adventure. Score - 9/10
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Post by personman on Aug 20, 2024 15:16:59 GMT -5
Apollo Chungus Aye, I'd kill to see some stuff like that with Earthbound as well. Regardless that vid just makes me miss when even advertising used to have some damn class back then. Shadow Hearts (PS2, emulated on Steam Deck, 48 hours, replay) I think one of the biggest reasons I've had a hard time getting into Jrpgs is chiefly due to the settings usually not being interesting to me. Tales of series has like nothing for me to latch onto, outside of FF7 with its punk vibe or 8 being so surreal I just couldn't care less about any of those worlds. Guess this may have been started by the first jrpgs I ever played being series that had rather non standard settings like Wild Arms or Skies of Arcadia, so when I heard about this series not only being horror themed (even if only lightly so) but having an alternate history thing going I was intrigued and picked this up when a used copy landed in my store. Fun fact: Gamestop priced the damn thing at 60 dollars even back in '05 since it was believed there weren't many copies printed. Whether that was true or not I'm not sure but it wouldn't surprise me either way since this damn thing released six days before Final Fantasy X, the game that was being used to hype the PS2 and looked like this when Shadow Hearts here looked like this. Yeah this thing didn't stand a fucking chance of anyone giving a shit about it lol so a short production run isn't out of the question. And I have to be honest the game is damn ugly these days with visuals that are barely above PS1 standards. But nonetheless it still has loads of charm and class with very atmospheric prerendered backgrounds which just ooze atmosphere most of the time, as much as Koudelka before it and with much nicer resolution to boot of course. Despite though its pretty clear this game didn't have nearly the budget its older sibling did with voice acting pretty sparse and no mocapping done at all which is fine as I find the janky goofy hand animated cutscenes and battle animations just add to the games charm. Still I can understand why many might be hesitant by how low budget the thing looks these days with spell effects being particularly sad. Course for me it just makes me like the game more since I find this kinda jank funny. Past all that though I adore the story and setting of this game, especially after playing Koudelka recently. It has a similar feel and continues to do a decent job selling its ties to history while having well enough research shown for various occult material and the like, props to the new director, Matsuzo Machida picking up the torch and following the last games tone while expanding more on the history. Though it does lose the more down to earth personal stakes and goes full blown crazy anime towards the end. It does kinda clash with how this is supposed to be about the going ons of the occult underground and things like this take place and its just like... yeah no one noticed that I'm sure lol. Still though it does some clever things with the history and the characters are pretty endearing much thanks to a localization that is a bit long winded as is expected of the time but has a load of personality especially from the lead character Yuri who has a pretty well laid out character arc through the whole thing. Even some of the characters who don't get developed too much are likeable enough like Kieth Valentine who pretty much has no reason to be around and I have to suspect someone at Sacnoth just finished a play through of SOTN and wanted their own Alucard in the party just because. Gameplay wise it stands out too with the judgement ring thing which in the least makes you pay attention. I like the concept myself as I just think its fun to have this sort of risk reward thing it brings as the timing for higher attacks become more difficult which I'd rather an attack fail by me missing something rather than RNG just deciding to say 'fuck you' or something. Helps that even the highest level stuff is still reasonable and getting the stuff right when things are down to the wire does add some nice tension to fights. I also like the sanity points you have to keep track of as they tick down since it encourages you to finish fights as quickly as possible and personally I think the most fun you can have with jrpgs is trying to find the quickest path to ending an encounter so by all means give me an incentive to do so. On the flipside the actual battles themselves don't have much of anything to them and I can see it argued it's your bog standard jrpg fair with extra steps. I don't think any of the bosses do anything unique besides inflicting potentially party wiping status effects at a health threshold which does that thing 'Yeah heres a merchant right next to the boss room that makes you immune to that' which always seems rather lazy. However, again the charm wins out over its short comings as the bosses, low fidelity as they are look awesome. And by awesome I mean absolutely disgusting and off putting in such a radical way. Like I know SMT of gets a lot of attention for its wild monster design and its no slouch for sure but personally I always felt SH had it beat. Also Yuri has to be one of my favorite jrpgs characters to play as. He pretty much has an huge sidequest going on the whole game with being able to upgrade his shapeshifting and gain new forms that come with a wide variety of skills. Makes the dude versatile as hell and he really shines in the beginning being able to offer some great support and heals when Alice may have been running low on MP or otherwise tied up. Plus having a second layer of progression is just kinda neat. Only downside is once you unlock the final dark form it's spell and MP regening is so hilariously broken there is pretty much no point to not making him a magic nuke machine. Still its a super fun concept I haven't seen elsewhere and I just plain really like the framing with how you get to visit this spooky graveyard in his soul. Its edgy in just the right way lol. And you know most use the term edgy in a derogatory way and this game definitely fits the bills (especially with some of its VERY dated humor) but much of the art in the menus, manual or the detailed item descriptions has a very rustic feel that just heightens the historical setting. Occasionally it can get crass but the game has a lot of class as well that I just feel you don't see nearly as much these days. Very nice soundtrack too which not only has some weird track titles but just has some nice calm tunes with an air of melancholy I just find, again classy. Particularly love the first act's battle theme. I'd say the only big critisms I can hold against the game is the dungeons can be pretty tedious and thanks to this mechanic where each opponent you beat in an encounter counts towards a meter where if you let that max out you'll be pursued by a really powerful enemy you usually can't beat. It adds to the tension and the slight horror theme they're going for but with how you can only rest the meter at save points and the first half of the game having pretty lengthy stretches between them it can be annoying. Some of the post game stuff is super cryptic too and frankly its a good thing the bad ending is canon since getting the good ending as was as the secret transformations are extremely well hidden to the point I wonder how the hell people figured them out without hacking into the game files. For instance one of the secret dungeons is only found by going into your inventory on the map screen and looking at a key item where you would never ever be led to believe that was a thing that could happen before, its almost adventure game like which is kinda neat but also just random. The party balance is a little off too as it becomes more and more clear every party should just have Yuri and Alice then whoever the third is just kind of along for the ride. I made a point to exclude Alice and her ludicrous healing in the final dungeon to try and make use of the other members (and unlock their final skills) and while they all managed just fine the power difference is immense. Otherwise I really love this game, I think when I played it back in my senior year of highschool it hit right at the perfect time to shape a lot of my interests I still hold today and after playing Koudelka and seeing how much the second act of the game ties into the happens of that game I can appreciate it even more. It took its source material and really respected it, props. It's not a classic by any means, but with its unique style, half way cool battle system and relatively brisk pace I don't think its my bias to say this is a solid game. I love it a lot and it reminds me how sad I find it that despite this series just trying its little heart out it never really got the recognition it deserved. It may not be for everyone but I think I can safely say if you're a jrpg fan and haven't yet you should give it a shot sometime if you've already played the big names, in the least try its sequel which everyone usually says its the best... which is an opinion I don't share but I really need to revisit that one to get my thoughts on that one. In any case its good stuff. Rating-7
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Post by dsparil on Aug 21, 2024 8:38:40 GMT -5
Myst V: End of Ages (macOS, First Time) V makes me wish Cyan had just kept making regular Myst games instead of spending years on Uru. I think it sort of hits the right balance of explaining some things while still being enigmatic. The story has Yeesha asking the player to free the Bahro which were introduced in Uru and sort of central to the plot but not really explained. Here, it’s more clear that they’re a non-humanoid race that was enslaved by the D’ni. The how is partly explained, they’re under control of a special tablet of unknown origin which you need to unlock, but also leaves many details vague especially the why. However, the plot mostly comes from speeches given by the surviving D’ni Esher who wants the tablet and tries to convince you to eventually give it to him. I think the plot would have worked better if there had been more direct build up to it. The game clearly takes place after Uru, but using a few bits of text and dialogue to build up a subsequent game isn’t really enough. The interview with Rand Miller in the strategy guide gives the impression that the plot is sort of a compressed version of what they were planning for Uru in the long run probably over years. It’s not even really clear who the player is supposed to be. Since V didn’t end up being the last new bit of Myst, the first season of the Gametap Uru Live semi-canonically says that the player is Dr. Richard Watson, the head of the D’ni Restoration Council. Various things in V both go along with this and contradict it so who knows really. If you try to reconcile everything, you end up with some really weird conclusions. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the Dr. Watson and the unseen player character in Myst I to IV are somehow the same person despite the hundreds of years in between them. For the game itself, it’s okay if erratic in quality. Everything runs the gamut from interesting to dull, beautiful to ugly, thoughtful to obtuse. Cyan had dumped their Myst riches into Riven and Uru, and only had a very small budget from Ubisoft and a year of development time which pretty much explains it. You can really tell which parts got attention and which seem like they got slapped together quickly. The most disappointing element though is the slate mechanic. The goal of each Age is to bring a special slate to the end. The slate itself can be drawn on and has two purposes. The main one is to draw the various checkpoint symbols onto it which is mostly pointless given the small size of each Age, but this is occasionally used to access new areas via checkpoint warping. The other is for special Bahro command symbols, but those have almost no use and feel almost entirely tacked on. This seems like an element that Cyan had larger plans for, but the lack of development time made it almost entirely pointless. So, a somewhat down note for what was intended to be the series’s end. They did the best they could and made an okay enough game, but it’s sort of a shame that the series petered out more than anything else. Rating: 7 Again, like IV and Uru, the GOG Mac version is set up with an outdated version of Crossover.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Aug 22, 2024 8:44:08 GMT -5
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Nintendo Switch; Replay; 4 hours ~ ESTIMATED) Did you play it with the default controls? I tried playing the NSO version of Turok and noped out of there after about 30 seconds. I forgot that the original N64 version of Turok got released on NSO a while back; I've only ever played Turok via the Night Dive port done back in 2015 (and released on the Switch in 2019), so I can't speak to how the controls fared for NSO. It is a bit weird that happened tbh, having two different re-releases of the same game available on the same hardware. --- I'm gonna try and do write-ups of short games I beat during June and July that I never found the time to discuss properly. I'd gotten in the mood for romantic and/or erotic furry titles, as it's a side of gaming I've not really explored apart from a couple games I tried out some years ago. I checked out a few visual novels that I'll discuss in more detail at a later point, but I thought it might be neat to talk about these ones for a start. I'll note which games have NSFW content, anything else (ie the one game out of the following four) can be played by general audiences. Anír Soma (Browser; First Time) - NSFW: Contains explicitly written sex scenesThis is a Twine adventure fan game made by Cardigan, based on the in-progress visual novel Minotaur Hotel (which has sex scenes though you can skip those if you prefer). I've not played that one since it's still in the works and seems to be quite a lengthy title, but my understanding is that you run a hotel alongside a mythical minotaur named Asterion. This fan game runs with the conceit that the two of you have become a couple; Asterion's having some body image issues, and you're gonna assure him that he is indeed beautiful by exploring his body. It's quite a short game, with most of the focus being placed on brief but tenderly written scenes in which you choose where and how to explore him. I'm a sucker for more intimately erotic stuff where the sex expresses how the characters feel about each other, so I quite appreciated being able to do that here - especially with prose since it allows me to more strongly visualize the moments being described. There's a few variations on what you can do, whether you'd like to be more affectionate or rowdy, so you can always revisit this if you fancy trying something different. cardigan-cardigan.itch.io/anir-somaDate with Falco (Browser; First Time)Another fan game, this one based on the Star Fox series, and designed by Emberlynn "deertears" Bland. It's a cute lil adventure game where you play as Fox McCloud and go out on a blisteringly cold day with your boyfriend Falco, exploring the local town while chatting every now and again. I'm not a Star Fox fan, nor am I all that invested in the idea of Fox and Falco as a couple; this is very much for a specific kind of fan by virtue of its premise; but I enjoyed how relaxed it is. I quite like casual slice-of-life stuff where folks are talking about nothing in particular, so having a romantic take on that was nice to chill out to (and one with plenty of sweet moments with charming art and music, as well). deertears.itch.io/date-with-falcoGhost Wind (Browser; First Time) - NSFW: Contains explicit (but optional) sex scenesWeirdly, this game seems to have been taken down or removed since I played it, so I can't link to it. I believe it was made by raccoonthings going by the url, but it was a top down adventure game where you were stuck in a realm where it was Halloween forever, and you had to go looking around and talking to people. You could choose to have sex with some of the people you encountered, though it's optional if you're not interested in that; the main focus is on a brief fetch-quest type story, with a couple of straightforward but tense stealth segments thrown in as you discover what's going on and how to fix it. I can't recall much about this or what I thought of it beyond "heh, that was kinda neat for a 15-20 minute game". It's a shame it's vanished in the meantime and I can't say much else about it. Trash Hero (Browser; First Time) - NSFW: Contains explicitly written sex scenesThis one's a short text-based RPG using Twine designed by raccoonthings, in which you play as a horny raccoon who's been forced to go and obtain a precious artefact in exchange for their life. You do the usual thing of fighting enemies and earning experience to level up and money to buy things in shops, but you're also able to flirt with enemies. This can cause them to drop their guard for a turn, or even disarm them and give you a chance to overpower them sexually. However, they can flirt with you too, and you have a lust meter that increases no matter who's flirting - if that meter gets high enough, you'll become overcome with lust and they'll dominate you. On top of all that, you have a in-game time limit, where you have only four days to find the artefact. Each day unlocks a new area to explore with more powerful enemies, so there's a decent bit of balancing to be done between exploration, fighting, flirting and "relaxing" so your pent-up lust doesn't betray you at the worst possible moment. I'm always rather curious about the idea of trying to represent sex as a mechanic in games, where it inherently objectifies the concept to the point where "flirt and get off with this character" becomes a verb on the same level of "cast magic", "attack" or "run away". Because of that objectification, the idea of sex becomes abstract enough that I didn't find it much arousing, more just interesting to think about how it interplays with the other mechanics on offer. It's got a sequel in the works called Trash Hero: From The Abyss which looks to expand on the gameplay, so I might give that a look at some point. raccoonthings.itch.io/trashhero
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Post by spanky on Aug 24, 2024 21:06:31 GMT -5
Final Fantasy VII (Switch, Replay)
It's been a while since I revisted FFVII. Truth be told, I'm not even sure if I've ever beaten the game legitimately. In the 90s I played off a friend's save file, then started from the beginning using his Gameshark to max out everything. I DID play it around 2010 but I feel like I stopped playing right as I got to the final dungeon (this happens with me sometimes when I play RPGs. Anyway...playing the FF series in order lately really drives home what a HUGE jump this game was. Not only in terms of visuals, but also setting and scope.
Cloud, his past, his relationship to Sephiroth, Aeris and Tifa (and Zack) are the core of the story. It's somewhere between confusing and compelling but the reveals are pretty interesting, especially for the time. Once the plot gets rolling about the middle of the game it doesn't let up until the very end. The other characters are fun and memorable but are just sort of along for the ride. It's all held back a bit by the translation too which loses a lot of nuance and can be incomprehensible at times.
The pre-rendered background graphics still look great. Sometimes they clash and sometimes they seemed to be designed without any regard for how they might feel to move around in them...but I love it. It's staggering when you think about the amount of work these environments took to create compared to previous games in the series. There's some cool art deco styling going on too. I love all the cozy bars in the game. The crazy battle effects and summons are also stunning the first time you see them but after the 12th times you've seen Bahamaut Zero you just kind of wish you could skip it with a button press. This port adds a fast forward option which my impatient self used pretty frequently(Some of those environments are HUGE and take ages to traverse).
The soundtrack is actually NOT one of my favorites. Something about it just sound a bit..."off key" to my ears. I can't really explain it. I do love Aeris's theme and the raid theme that plays in the reactors.
If the game really suffers anywhere, it's the gameplay. Materia kind of turns everyone into an interchangeable vessel. Obviously you can specialize but everyone ends up being a bit of a jack of all trades. I guess it's nice you can just use the characters you actually like but I sort of miss the FFIV days when WHO your character was informed how they performed in combat. The limit breaks are cool though. Like a lot of Final Fantasy games, once you figure out how the game works, you can break it open and it becomes a cakewalk. I picked up Big Guard early on and most bosses were trivial. It's also very easy to level up your characters but takes forever to level up some of the Materia. I actually had more trouble with some of the random encounters in the final descent than I did with Sephiroth himself. I can't bring myself to fight the optional superbosses though...
So IS FFVII the best in the series? Enough to warrant all these spin-offs and AAA remakes? I think I still prefer VI but it's pretty close. Every time I try to talk myself out of liking the game (usually in response to it's immense popularity) I think of all the memorable moments and places the game has - Everything in Midgar, the Nibelheim flashback, the Costa Del Sol vacation, the Gold Saucer, what is possibly gamings biggest spoiler shock moment, reconstructing Cloud's memories, the cool but baffling ending...It's a 10/10.
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Post by Digitalnametag on Aug 25, 2024 16:54:45 GMT -5
This Way Madness Lies PS5 FTP 6.5 hours
Caught this on sale recently for a couple bucks. Like the other Zeboyd games 'Breath of Death' and 'Cthulhu Saves the World', 'This Way Madness Lies' is a short and quirky turn based game. I got some real laughs out of it and the combat is decent. Don't go in expecting a masterpiece and just have a good time with it.
7/10
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Post by personman on Aug 29, 2024 0:35:42 GMT -5
Haunted Castle Revisited (Switch via Dominus Collection, first time) Pretty wild that Haunted Castle got the Rebirth treatment out of the blue though I suppose you could say it sort of tracks since the Rebirth was a remake of the first Gameboy game and maybe M2 just looked at it and was like 'Hey, we already salvaged one bad CV game so lets see if we can do the same for what most consider the worst?'. And for the most part I'd say they succeeded, the level design is way better while still being decently faithful to the original hit detection is leagues better and the touched up soundtrack is very nice. I already found the original charming just for how barely on model it was to the series (though lets be a little fair since this was in the series infancy) and I'm pleased that this version mostly does the same just make it look way nicer and flashier. Though if it were up to me I would have kept the out of place iron bomb and the weird little segment where you fight two harpies in some alternate dimension. While its way better than the old game it still shares some of its issues mainly with the timer that is way too strict for the fourth stage. You don't get weapon upgrades anymore either really with powers up buffing you for a brief time and in my experience often when I didn't have many things to fight which I'm not fond of. I didn't love most of the bosses either who felt a tad cheap here and there like Medusa I felt like I had to just keep doing hit and run all the time to avoid damage which drags the thing out, the Frankenstein fight's gimmick just happens way too frequently and is pretty annoying. It comes off a bit like its trying to munch some quarters now and then. But still though they're a huge leap from its template. That all said it's not amazing and honestly it does have the feel of something just kinda thrown together in a game jam or some side project they've been pecking away at over the months. Still though I have a ton of respect for it since most people would have just figured remaking this game would require making an entirely different game but M2 decided to take the harder route and stay true to the old as much as they felt they can which takes some finesse for certain. Its a damn cool novelty and I enjoyed going through it a bunch though I don't think I'll be itching to revisit it (ha) too soon. However, huge bonus points for them making the intro even funnier. Rating-6 Haunted Castle (Switch via Dominus Collection, replay) Decided to do a quick run through the original for the hell of it while I was at it. think I played through this in '20 and didn't find it as bad as people say and honestly I'm not sure if there is some weird emulation differences between this version and the Arcade Classics version but dear lord I remember having a way easier time playing this back then. It might have been one of those weird times I got into a fugue state I could never enter intentionally again lol. I also lost the watch subweapon too which I remember being really over powered. But yeah the hit detection is awful and couple parts of the levels are awkward and annoying with really weak lame bosses. But you know, its an arcade game made by people who had nothing to do with the original for a series that was just starting. I'm never gonna say the game is good but cut the people a little slack eh? Guess I just have a soft spot for the odd ducks in long running series. After being so familiar with the series and its tendency to reuse assets I just find it amusing to see completely unique stuff that is also so weird and off beat. Circle of the Moon has a similar quality. But yeah this is merely a curiosity and I'm not nearly as forgiving of it as I was before but I still say you could do far worse. If you get this collection sometime it won't kill you to give it a look if it tickles your fancy. Rating-4
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Post by dsparil on Aug 31, 2024 15:37:33 GMT -5
Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (Switch, First Time)
Easily one of the worst games Nintendo has released in quite a while. The plot is dull as dishwater especially compared to the initial reveal. The gameplay is extremely linear in that you’re almost always stuck in a single location and are mostly exhausting and re-exhausting dialogue options until you get the option to move. You’re just drifting along, barely learning anything and then things go to 11 and it ends.
But then, you finish the game and get a 30 minute traditional animation with some extra in-engine dialogue bits before hand. This is infinitely better than the game itself! It’s dark and complex in all the ways the game isn’t. It’s actually probably too much for how concentrated it is. This portion is more likely than not the most disturbing content to ever involve Nintendo.
I mainly don’t understand why the two “halves” are so diametrically opposed. It’s not like Nintendo got squeamish about making a mystery about a murderer. It’s like they put all the interesting elements into the animation and had nothing left for the game. You could cut 75% of it out and it would still feel padded. This could have been a very good movie instead of an awful game and excellent video.
Rating: 5
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