4847 replies to this topic

[SpacemanDan]

Fairly recently, I beat Advance Wars: Days of Ruin.Years late to the party, I know, but still glad to have a chance at playing it. I really like how balanced it felt overall - I never really thought any CO was too good. Except for Caulder. That guy's an asshole. >_> Thought admittedly, wherever possible, I liked to play with no COs. I've still got a whole bunch of the trial maps to do, and I may even tackle to war room at some point. It's just so much fun. @_@ Also, Will's theme is pretty great.

 

I've also been playing Final Fantasy XIV a lot. Been slowly chipping away at patch content so I can start playing around in the new Heavensward stuff. Though I've also been working on my Zodiac weapon, having just finished Atma grinding. Time for those wonderful books. XD

[The Satellite]

Once again I ended up doing something entirely different. Decided on a whim to pick up and play through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Which actually makes it the first Castlevania I've completed, though the second I've played; the first Castlevania on NES I've played and got quite far through, but didn't beat. Mostly because that damned hallway... Erm, anyways...

 

It was a fantastic game. There were a couple of things I wasn't too fond of, such as a few hidden walls to goodies that I'm not sure were ever hinted at in the slightest... but most seemed to at least have a subtle enough difference in the wall texture that you could find it if you were paying attention. There was that one though... break open a rocky platform on both ends, fly through one as a bat and back through as a wolf? How is anyone supposed to figure that out? Was it hinted somewhere and I missed it?

 

Whatever. It was a solid, incredible game, and I see now why it has the following it does. Sure, there were item combos and weapons that could break the game wide open if you knew how to find and use them, but they weren't outright told to you so it feels more like a reward. The story I wasn't entirely sold on, maybe it was the cheesy acting, which I did actually enjoy. But of course where it shines the brightest is the gameplay, and I honestly think it might be the best 2D Metroidvania I've played, better than even Super Metroid.

 

Suddenly I'm far more interested in Bloodstained than before...

[kurt91]

If your only complaint was the unmarked breakable walls, you'll really love the Sorrow games. In those ones, you can gain abilities from the enemies you kill, and the Flying Eye enemies give you a passive ability to see breakable walls. I believe that there's an item with the same use that you can equip in Portrait of Ruin, but I never found it.

 

Anyways, Symphony of the Night has the biggest following, but to be completely honest, the later games refine the formula much more. If you play one of the later games, and then come back to Symphony, you'll find it much clunkier than you remember. Personally, my favorites are the Sorrow games.

 

Now, if you decide to play the later games, I'll give you fair warning now. Circle of the Moon was made before any GBA models with a backlight were produced, and as a result, people complained about it being far too dark. Konami did their best to adapt their artwork for their next game, but the backlit models came out while they were in production, leaving it looking far too bright. Circle of the Moon is actually much easier to play now, since you'd most likely be playing on either emulator or backlit GBA. Harmony of Dissonance works best with a ROM patch that removes the bright glowing outlines over the characters, since it was designed for the darker screen of the original GBA. The brighter colors for the environment actually look rather beautiful, and give it a sort of twisted holy church look.

[Nicholas Steel]

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin would be good for you if you like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Harmony of Dissonance plays a little differently (Different physics) but is a pretty good game as well. I found Castlevania: Circle of the Moon's controls to be too clunky and didn't get far in the game. It needed an Always Run function with a button to switch to walking as needed, instead of the opposite set up that they have going in that game. The other 3 games have walking/dashing but not necessarily running so you don't have to worry about this.

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 16 July 2015 - 07:00 AM.

[Maleboocado]

I recently replayed MGS1 for the PSX.

It has some virtues. There's attention to details and sounds, it has some artistic values, a few cutscenes are touching (Sniper Wolf's death), and I somehow have the feeling Shadow Moses is a real place. Its OST is really good but not really the greatest one. But its gameplay is mediocre, it barely has any technical achievements (Metal Gear 2 for the MSX already implemented nearly all of MGS1's gameplay, and it was a 2D game made for a 8 bit system), the pacing is highly irregular (you spend far more time fighting bosses and watching cutscenes than playing the game, and all I want is pure stealth gameplay, which the game barely delivers). Also, while the story isn't weird by later Kojima standards, is still too weird.

If this is supposed to be one of the greatest games for the PSX, along with SotN and the FF series, it says pretty bad things about the PSX's catalog rather than positive things towards MGS1.

Next game: Symphony of the Night. Never played it before, hope it stands well.

[Nicholas Steel]

Next game: Symphony of the Night. Never played it before, hope it stands well.

It surprisingly does hold up well, if you ever get stuck I can probably help ya out without spoiling stuff because I've been playing it for the first time ever too (Started a month ago) and have almost completely completed the game. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania:Portrait of Ruin refine the gameplay and are very awesome too.

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 16 July 2015 - 01:58 PM.

[Dark Ice Dragon]

Finished Eternal Sonata, it was a nice  RPG ,even if a bit short and pretty hard.

This game have some good ideas :your special attack change if you are in the shadow or in the light and the rules of game changes when you progress in the game, adding both advantages and disadvantages.

At the beginning i think it was too hard, then when i learned to block or counterattack i made it

I'm just wondering why this game have no trophies , lately I like to collect those things even if so useless, they could put at least 5 or 6.

[Dawnlight]

Finished Eternal Sonata, it was a nice  RPG ,even if a bit short and pretty hard.

This game have some good ideas :your special attack change if you are in the shadow or in the light and the rules of game changes when you progress in the game, adding both advantages and disadvantages.

At the beginning i think it was too hard, then when i learned to block or counterattack i made it

I'm just wondering why this game have no trophies , lately I like to collect those things even if so useless, they could put at least 5 or 6.

 

Eternal Sonata PS3 does not have trophies because it was released before trophies even existed on PS3. Even so, the 360 version's achievements require you to open every treasure chest, collect all the EZI items, and get all the Score Pieces. It doesn't have the replay value for me to do a 2nd run.

 

I remember how OP Jazz is in the game. I even got Jazz's voice actor to sign my copy!

[Limebeer]

Playing Etrian Odyssey Untold right now, just started it and only getting up to the Fenir fight. I'm also playing Spirit Tracks as well... I'm at playing the duet with the Sand person in order to unlock the desert area... It's fruterating me because no matter how precise I play the Spirit Flute it says I screwed up, hence the hiatu on playing it :/

[Air Luigi]

Imo, SOTN is still the best castleroid. Aria, Dawn and Ecclesia worth a play, but they aren't in the same class. The weak points of SOTN are the piss easy difficulty and the weak bosses, these things are improved in the sequels. But SOTN still has the best castle, music and secrets. Skip Castlevanias like Harmony and Portrait, these are TRASH of the highest order.

In any case, I don't enjoy Castleroids as much as when I was younger (I was a big tard when they came out) Too easy and linear to play... same with Super Metroid. In these times I enjoy more the openworld metroidvanias like La-Mulana, Legacy of the Wizard, Metroid 1, Solstice or The Maze of Galious... Still, Super Metroid and SOTN are the best linear metroidvanias, that's why they are mainstream. They are perfect to get into the genre, but when you get to be really good in metroidvanias, you start to see that linear metroidvanias lack GUTS. Well, to be fair, SOTN has a lot of freedom later in the game, that's why it's stand better for me than Super Metroid. I need a sense of danger to enjoy a metroidvania these days.

 

Btw, in the last month I played:

-Live a Live (Super Famicom)

-Terranigma (Super NES)

-Alien Soldier (Megadrive)

 

Currently playing:

-The King of Fighters 98

Edited by Air Luigi, 16 July 2015 - 07:26 PM.

[Dawnlight]

Order of Ecclesia is my favorite out of the DS games. I found the bosses in that game to be a lot more memorable. The tag teaming in Portrait of Ruin was hardly any useful. Do I need to mention that (special boss fight where you have to use that special item)? I think Dawn of Sorrow has the best replay value. If you like speedruns, this would most likely gonna be your go to game for it.

[Air Luigi]

Ecclesia is a lot of fun, the glyphs are stellar, difficulty, combat and customization are perfect, you don't need to grind to get the skills,  bosses are the best in the series... but sadly the maps and the castle are totally linear and a bit bland.

[The Satellite]

I've definitely had my eye on Order of Ecclesia. If I can't find it somewhere I'll emulate it, though I'd like to try to get ahold of and play through Super Castlevania IV. Symphony of the Night is the oft-declared best of the Metroidvania games, while Super Castlevania IV is the oft-declared best of the Classicvania games (well, that or Rondo of Blood), so might as well try them both out. And I do intend on grabbing Rondo of Blood as well, which is strangely available, in its original Japanese form, on the Wii Virtual Console, not that I'm complaining.

 

I tried Castlevania for the NES again and I just can't do it. The stiff controls coupled with the demanding difficulty (looking at stage four and that damned hallway) are just too grueling for me. This is one reason why I want to do Super Castlevania IV instead, because it has actual control. I hear Rondo of Blood reverted, but the game was built around it much better than any previous Castlevania game.

[Air Luigi]

Castlevania III is GOLD stuff, but it's hard to get into if you aren't accustomed to it. NES Castlevanias have better balance (You have to think about every movement) than SCIV for example, in SCIV the subweapons are useless. It does not matter too much, the game is awesome anyway (my favorite all-time Castlevania). The atmosphere is just perfect. Rondo is awesome also, it's centered about secrets and branching paths, awesome cd music... (a bit too easy and I don't enjoy the art direction of the cutscenes, but still..).

Another great one that people overlook is Castlevania Chronicles (there is a port for PS1), it's a remake of Castlevania 1... and a perfect one.

Edited by Air Luigi, 16 July 2015 - 08:56 PM.

[The Satellite]

Well I mean, Super Castlevania IV is a remake in all but name of the first game as well.

 

But I might check it out sometime.