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Post by Discoalucard on Jan 24, 2011 15:17:48 GMT -5
While I love posting articles about interesting/weird Japanese PC games, if that's all we did we'd have approximately 12 visitors a day.
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Post by ReyVGM on Jan 24, 2011 15:57:21 GMT -5
I have read HG101 for a couple of years now, and the there is certainly a trend of reviewing games which are less interesting than there used to be. Maybe, just maybe... they are uninteresting to you? Yes, you would probably say (and it is what you are saying), however, you make it read like just because you find the past articles uninteresting then that means that HG101 as a whole has been uninteresting, when that's just not the case.
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Post by Sketcz-1000 on Jan 24, 2011 17:32:22 GMT -5
Erm... I will at some point make the change regarding escaping from battles, but I won't put any more time into the MSX2 version to see how it plays under different emulators. I'm totally burnt out playing all 3 versions. The article does make mention of the possibility that MSX2 emulation might be altering its internal mechanics - so long as that possibility is addressed, I am happy to leave it mostly as is, albeit correcting the point about escaping from the left side. Most people will be playing it via emulation anyway, so they'll experience what I did. Quick note: I never used frame skip for the MSX2 version, only for the PC-Engine version. The first game is worth playing (on PC88 or PCE) depending on what your tastes are and how good your Japanese is - the second game in English I'd say is essential for retro fans. It's ace. Gendo's correct. The first was hugely ambitious, set several precedents (first survival horror etc), but just didn't function as well as it could have, and was basically just fetch quests. The second game ditched all of the above, and focused purely on story and atmosphere, and worked better because of this. As for it being confusing or too long, I can dig it. I thought it was long, but as a personal self-indulgence I asked it not be trimmed by our sub-editors. Blame my ego . Then again, if you're going to have the definitive article on the series, you might as well cover absolutely everything.
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Post by scheeba on May 14, 2011 0:11:56 GMT -5
Great article, just wanted to offer a suggestion as to some character's name origins.
I doubt Stephen's named after Stephen King. Considering the game's title and the Romero name-dropping, Stephen, Fran and Peter are very likely lifted from the original Dawn of the Dead movie. Connections: Stephen & Fran are a couple in both, and in the MSX version of Fran's portrait, although she looks a bit different she's wearing the same clothes she does for a good portion of the film. As for Peter, in the film he was an initially tough-acting, black SWAT trooper who turned out to be a nice guy, the game just seems to swap out 'Nam vet' with the SWAT stuff.
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Post by Sketcz-1000 on May 14, 2011 2:13:46 GMT -5
Brilliant detective work! Thanks for starting an account to share this. I'd seen the film but couldn't remember any names - that's actually an actually a fascinating bit of trivia, and ties in even more strongly with what Magweasel said.
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Post by apachacha on Apr 19, 2012 1:42:08 GMT -5
So I've played through the PCE version and I have to ask why no one mentioned the game crippling inventory glitch. I was basicly a fight before the final boss when I talked to someone in the church like I needed to to kill the boss in the town hall, that person gave something to me, it overflowed my inventory, wiped everything clean, made my guns unselectable in the menu, completely disposed of the health packs and food I had, and made all the necessary items, including the plot medallions invisible. Worst of all, it made my raft , something that wasn't even in my inventory to begin with, evaporate, making it impossible for me to get to the final boss.
It was only through loading I managed to rectify the problem but still, you guys have no idea !
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Post by Sketcz-1000 on Apr 19, 2012 2:06:10 GMT -5
I played through with a Japanese guide but quit after about 90% of the way through. When I update this to alter the MSX text, I will mention the glitch.
Is this related to the glitch where if you over-level yourself, your level flips right back to 1? Because I knew about that one.
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Post by apachacha on Apr 19, 2012 2:08:43 GMT -5
I played through with a Japanese guide but quit after about 90% of the way through. When I update this to alter the MSX text, I will mention the glitch. Is this related to the glitch where if you over-level yourself, your level flips right back to 1? Because I knew about that one. I actualy suspect that this wasn't intentional at all. Like the programers suddenly found this glitch after the game was already in production or something and had to make a lieflet explaining this supposed "feature". And this being unintentional would also explain the inventory glitch. If you want I could send you a screencap with a completely empty inventory and the last two medalions visible, which you could never get without getting all the others before. Also, the walkthrough didn't mention stuff like having to talk to Omadon multiple times for the guy at the castle to appear so you can save him. Also two buildings have the same number on the map (try finding # 12).
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Post by Sketcz-1000 on Apr 19, 2012 4:34:28 GMT -5
Feel free to take a screencap - I will add it to the pile for future use.
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Post by apachacha on Apr 19, 2012 5:57:14 GMT -5
Here it is
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Post by apachacha on Apr 21, 2012 12:03:20 GMT -5
Also just finished the sequel and it's a completely different game. Enjoyable, and actualy not that hard due to the infinite drug-filled chests strewn about in every area
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Post by blackdrazon on Aug 10, 2015 8:35:54 GMT -5
I'm not sure why, but it seems the Mayor appears multiple times in the character table!
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Post by wyrdwad on Jun 8, 2016 23:44:29 GMT -5
Resurrecting this old topic because I just got my hands on a cartridge copy of the first game for MSX2 and spent some time with it tonight. As was noted in this topic many years ago, every battle is escapable by pressing and holding left at the edge of the screen (though the amount of time it takes to escape seems to vary based on the difficulty of the enemy?). In turn, this actually makes the game RIDICULOUSLY EASY, as you can literally run from every single battle and you'll only ever take damage from projectiles, which barely do anything (ground enemies will never reach you before you successfully escape). That being the case, though, I'm compelled to ask: is there actually a point to fighting anything? The article notes that there's no experience and no levels or anything, and that does appear to be correct, so... is there any benefit whatsoever to winning battles? I would imagine there must be, as there'd be no point to even having battles in the game otherwise. Since people who've played through the game appear to have posted in this topic a few years ago, I'm wondering if they can shed any light on this, as the utter pointlessness of combat is kind of a black mark on what is otherwise a pretty enjoyable-seeming game -- more enjoyable than WotD2 for me, in fact, as the slow, stuttery pace of WotD2 *really* got to me, and the plot triggers required to progress were even more obtuse than the ones in WotD1 seem to be. Also, to the article creator, I'd suggest updating your article to remove the section about being unable to run in the MSX2 version of WotD1, as that *almost* convinced me not to buy this game... but then I watched a YouTube video of it, saw that you *can* run, and placed my eBay bid anyway. And thus far, I'm pretty glad I did, as this is a pretty unique specimen that, if nothing else, will make for a good conversation piece next time I have friends over. ...What I'm trying to say, though, is that the article as it stands is very misleading, and would seem to have been misleading people for 4+ years at this point. If I almost didn't buy the game, I imagine there will be others who similarly hesitate thanks to the article, and even from just the little I've played so far, I think that would be a shame, as this game DOES have merit and DOES seem to be well worth playing. -Tom
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Post by Discoalucard on Jun 9, 2016 12:42:40 GMT -5
I can go back in and fix it when I get the chance.
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Post by wyrdwad on Jun 12, 2016 13:10:19 GMT -5
Not to beat a dead horse, but I also confirmed last night that there actually IS experience and leveling in the MSX2 version of this game -- it's just all processed behind the scenes. After killing a certain number of monsters, I found my max HP going up by 5, I was suddenly fully healed, and I swear I was hitting a little harder with my combat knife as well.
I thought maybe this was instead triggered by rescuing trapped NPCs, since the first time I "leveled-up," it was right after rescuing the mayor -- but I wound up restarting the game in an effort to better conserve first-aid kids (which I'd been using willy-nilly my first time around), and since I'd progressed through the mayor-rescuing event more quickly this time, I didn't level up until much later, after deciding to actually fight a particularly difficult random battle in the middle of nowhere. So it was definitely tied to fighting, not to story progression.
...I also have to say, I'm enjoying the MSX2 version of the game *a lot* now. It certainly has some major design flaws, that's impossible to contest -- but they're not so major that they take away from what I'm finding to be a genuinely fun and engaging game. At first, you kind of have to keep reminding yourself that it's from 1987 in order to enjoy it... but after a while (basically, once you get the boat and the bush knife), it just becomes enjoyable on its own terms.
I can see myself playing this to the end, and am definitely very glad I bought it.
-Tom
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