4847 replies to this topic

[Nicholas Steel]

I would play Symphony of the Night. One of my favorite games of all time.

Already have it on the PS3, it's a great game though very, very easy once you know what you're doing.

 

Depends on what kind you like. For platformer, Crash Bandicoot 1 and 3. (2 is just obscenely hard to me.) If you prefer a slightly easier platformer, the early Spyro games are decent. For a harder one... Croc. But not Croc 2. That game drove me bonkers. Tomba! is also okay,

 

For RPG- anything Final Fantasy. (1,2 and 4-9 are available on it as is Tactics.) Or Tales of Destiny 1 and 2. Or Grandia. (Definitely Grandia.)

 

For anything else, I can't really help. I haven't played a lot beyong those genres on PS1.

 

Currently playing; Metroid Prime Trilogy. (From memory.)

I could get a Spyro game, the Spyro demo on Crash Team Racing game disc was nice to play kinda. Funnily enough I've owned 2 copies of Crash Team Racing and they both freeze when loading either the first or 2nd level in the demo (Same level has the crash on both discs), both discs are also fairly scratched, the CTR gameplay works fine from start to finish. I've got Croc 1 & 2 on PC or at least played them on PC, their very uh childish in aesthetics and very basic in physics/momentum but seem to have okay puzzles once you get far enough in to the games.

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 11 September 2016 - 01:43 AM.

[Dawnlight]

Got back to Cities Skylines with all he recent DLC...whoa this feels like a completely different game.

Also playing through Bravely Second. I like it so far...but I felt the dialogue in the game is not nearly as polished as Bravely Default.

[Fiyaball]

Going to get Dragon Quest VII soon, excited for that.

 

Got Conker's Bad Fur Day for my birthday, been enjoying that.

 

Also ordered of a copy of Lunar 2 Complete with the bonus box.

 

Also just downloaded Breath of Fire 2 and the Mario Kart 8 DLC packs.

[Eppy]

Just finished the 2nd. Episode of AA: Spirit of Justice. DAMN FINE so far.

 

Also playing Trails in the Sky SC. the bosses sure got a whole lot harder....

 

And Overwatch, but that's obvious.

[Cukeman]

Completed ALBW today.

spoilers?

If Ganon's not going to be a character, I honestly wish he just wouldn't even appear. He's too cool to be nothing more than a cameo power up to the villain of the week.

 

I was super-excited to play some original GB games on my 2DS until I bought Pokemon Red- the game is blurry as heck in full screen, and native resolution mode is excruciatingly tiny... I guess SNES and GB is best left for the New 3DS XL...

[Golden Guardian]

I still have my usual list of games I want to beat, but it keeps getting added to faster than I can beat the games I'm putting on it. No to mention a friend of mine has a nasty habit of buying me multiplayer games that we end up playing constantly. Thus, the current list is this:

 

- Metroid Prime 3 

 

- Metroid Other M

 

- Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga

 

- The Last Story 

 

- Rayman Origins 

 

- Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

 

- Sonic Lost World 

 

- Sonic Generations

 

Aaaaand the multiplayer games are:

 

- Overwatch

 

- Rocket League

 

- Sir, You Are Being Hunted

 

- Don't Starve Together

 

I feel I should mention that my list was heavily added to when the Sonic Humble Bundle happened. ... That might be part of the reason I've had Prime 3 on here since last year.

[Cukeman]

Superstar Saga is excellent

[Lejes]

I finished a game called Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls recently. I think someone on Pure's IRC recommended it to me? It's literally free on Steam so I thought I would try it. It's surprisingly good given the price tag. The game plays like a budget Shovel Knight. It's a little on the easy side, but there's still enough stuff to occupy a few hours.

Steam noticed I had played a lot of Momodora 4 and Khimera, so it recommended another game for me: Cally's Caves 3. It was 70% off, so I figured why not. Moral of the story: do not trust Steam recommendations.

The game is really buggy (e.g. there's a control config option but it basically doesn't work), the game's levels are all indistinct arrangements of blocks, the background music is randomized for some reason, and it has more dialogue than you would think a game with such aggressively uninteresting characters and plot would warrant. It's not surprising that it started as a phone game before being ported to Steam. Look at this screenshot.



It practically screams "phone game". Playing Khimera right before this serves as a nice point of comparison. Khimera had fun character writing, Cally's Caves 3 had lifeless cutouts. Khimera had distinctive levels, with their own feels, music, gimmicks, and artwork. CC3 had towers and tunnels made of blocks. Khimera had distinctive boss fights. CC3 had bullet sponges that occasionally farted an attack in your direction. It took me a while to realize it, but like most phone games, things like "artwork" and "writing" are just window dressing for the real draw, a simple appeal to base compulsions. And the compulsion for CC3 is weapon upgrading. There are 15 guns you can use, and pretty much the only reason any of the stages or enemies even exist is so you have something to shoot with your considerable arsenal. I'm not such a gaming snob that I don't understand the appeal of this. I played the game to completion (it's not a hard game). But even on this front it failed. The weapon upgrades just weren't satisfying. The dev had at least one good idea: using a weapon levels it up, but instead of simply doing a little more damage, the gun will change functions at certain threshold levels. Stuff like a flamethrower gaining more range, or a pistol shooting two bullets instead of one. One big problem: the dev botched most of these upgrades. They frequently make the gun perform worse than its previous form. A gun that gains additional bullets will do less damage with all shots combined than the single shot variant, or the bullet spread widens (i.e. it gets less accurate). One weapon even switches from firing straight forward to firing upward at a 70 degree angle. It doesn't pierce walls, either, so you can't even hit an enemy on a platform above you with it. The game also has mods for weapons you can buy, thankfully with in-game currency. Individual weapons don't get their own mods, there are only 4 types assigned at random. Electricity and poison are essentially identical, weak damage over time. Fire adds a little splash damage per shot. Ice completely immobilizes anything not immune to it and is clearly the best. It's too bad the weapon upgrades didn't have more thought put into them; they're obviously the game's entire appeal.

So yeah that was my weirdly long review of a crummy phone game that botched its central mechanic, thanks for reading.

P.S. play Khimera

[Fiyaball]

My copy of Lunar 2 (Playstation version, omake box and all) came in yesterday... as did Dragon Quest 7.

I almost feel like I wasted $95 on Lunar

In other news, I'm addicted to Dragon Quest 7.

[kurt91]

I'm at the point on Neptunia Re;Birth 2 where I'm just getting the various endings and extras. The only real issue is that while you can mess with various save files to be able to get multiple endings on a single run, and not have to do a full repeat playthrough for each ending, it's a bit tricky to balance what you need to do with each one alongside the various deadlines to get them done. I've gotten the Normal, Conquest, and Holy Sword endings, so I think that I should be able to get the four City endings and the Human ending in a single playthrough, just manipulating Share values. (Completing quests or Colosseum battles takes "Share" points away from one of the four countries and transfers them to another. The game starts with the villain's group in control of a majority, and various endings require different countries to have various percentages) After that, I should be able to get the True ending and unlock the Oracle characters.

 

Other than that, I started playing Persona 3. I've never played it before, and I've started the FES version. I know that there's another version for the PSP, though, and that it made a number of changes to how things work. I'm only a few days in, roughly the point where you join a club. Should I switch to the other version, or stick with the one I'm already playing? I think I read that P3P removes "The Answer" epilogue chapter. Does it make much of a difference plot-wise? The only Shin Megami Tensei game that I've played before this one was Devil Survivor and some of Strange Journey, and SMT:DS was difficult enough that I never bothered going for the different endings. I moved on to another game after beating it once. I'm pretty sure that if it's the same case with Persona 3, as much as I'm enjoying this game, I probably won't want to play all of the different versions, so I want to make sure that I pick the right one at the start.

[MarinaraSauce]

I'm nearing the end of my first ever playthrough of Earthbound right now.

 

Current mood: You cannot grasp the true form of Grant's frustration.

[The Satellite]

And at last, Skyward Sword has been put down. It seems my opinion on it has somewhat soured lately, and I'm not as enchanted by it as I used to be. Make no mistake, I do think it's a good game, with some very good elements. But there's maybe a few things that mar the overall experience, especially on repeat playthroughs...

 

For starters, let's talk about text speed. It is agonizing. In most Zelda games, text goes along at a decent pace, with many opportunities to speed it up at a push of a button to display all text at once. In Skyward Sword... holding A only increases the speed the text shows up. It makes conversations really drag. Not so much story dialogue, because it still appears about as fast as I can read it, but on repeat dialogue, or dialogue I don't care about, or multiple dialogue boxes before I can even upgrade my gear? Just skip ahead already! I know this text or I don't care about it, let me past it so I can get back to the game!

 

There's just... so much that interrupts your gameplay experience or prolongs your lack of control. Menus being shoved in your face, game features agonizingly explained instead of allowing us to do some experimentation, collectibles forcing a menu in your face (which returns every time you reset the game), maps of a new area being slowly zoomed in and rotated instead of letting you just look at the map yourself, characters repeating directions and explaining where to go despite you already knowing what to do... It's just a major pain in the ass. Even the HUD itself gets in your face! New dowsing target? The C button will blink and beep until you dowse. Fi has a message? A chime plays and your sword hilt continually glows. Yes, I can see my hearts are low! Yes, I know my batteries are nearly depleted because there's already an icon telling me this! I don't want to dowse, stop yelling at me!

 

I can't even ignore tutorial messages; for example, in the beginning, an instructor on the school's roof asks me to target him and talk to him. Instead I think, "Nah, I'll just run up these blocks and climb up there to talk to you in person." But as I try to, I'm greeted with him admonishing me for ignoring my instructor and then I talk to him... only to be told how to do the thing I was already going to do. It sets the tone very well...

 

Game's not all bad. Despite these moments of interruption, when I'm actually playing? I'm having tons of fun! For the most part. I've always said before that the sword controls are quite good and fun, and the aiming stuff is fine once you get used to it, but everything else... is kind of tacked on. You used to be able to throw bombs by pressing a button? Nope, make a lobbing motion instead! Twilight Princess had you control your swimming with the control stick? Screw that, tilt your remote to swim! All of this just feels really tacked on and unnecessary. Where it annoys me the most is swimming and whenever it asks you to draw, which thankfully is only required once. It's just very annoying and I would've liked traditional controls where possible.

 

But let's be honest, this game's dungeons are pretty fantastic. They're all pretty unique and wonderful and I have a hell of a great time exploring them, figuring out their puzzles. They're easily the high point of this game. Well, except for a couple dungeons that felt kind of tedious and— Oh wait. That's the overworld.

 

Sigh... I don't like the overworld in this game. The sky is boring (SKIES SHOULDN'T BE BORING) and the surface are glorified dungeons most of the time. They get tiring to explore when the game keeps having you revisit the areas with little new to explore. The exception is Lanayru; each visit takes you to new areas that are fun in their own right, including the best area in the game in the Lanayru Sand Sea. Its first visit does fall into that "glorified dungeon" territory though... So if you really like dungeons, you'll be fine! ... but if you're me, you're left wanting a real world to explore, not a sequence of events. There's also so, so little off the beaten path that it saddens me.

 

All this revisiting areas just feels like padding in the long run, taking a game with little surface area and making it seem larger than it is. I don't like it. It feels like the DS Zelda game formula, beefed up to be on consoles. Is it better than those two games? Yes. But it's a style I'm not too fond of.

 

Skyward Sword is a good game. It's pretty, has a good story, great music, but it has many faults. Also the Imprisoned, I don't think I need to elaborate. But it's so controlled, so focused, it no longer really feels like a true adventure like the previous Zelda games were. At least there's Groose.

 

When I set off on this adventure of replaying certain Zelda titles, it was with the goal of watching how the series progressed from the beginning up until now. And let me tell you, what a stark contrast it is. We went from maybe too little help to too much help. Open adventure to scripted pathways. Skyward Sword, Spirit Tracks, and to some extent Phantom Hourglass were stifling adventures, and I need some room to breathe. Turns out, Breath of the Wild is needed to remind us what made this series great: Adventure, at your own pace, not dictated to you. I'm so looking forward to this game now, even more than before.

 

But let's not forget A Link Between Worlds, shall we? I've only just started it because I needed to dive into that adventure again. And it's so liberating. Sure, there's a sequence forced on you at the beginning (do I really need to save in the introductory sequence?), but you get control so fast, the world is completely open, the text is fast, it's just so satisfying. I'm free! No handholding, just exploration! Sure, there's a couple scripted events in the early game, but you can approach them at your own pace and they aren't too lengthy of a detour.

 

I'm going to enjoy this.

[Cukeman]

I loved the larger areas in SS, especially the amount of freedom you had to explore the forest (once you knock down those logs) compared to the smaller forest sections connected via loading screens in previous 3D Zeldas (which are not dissimilar from the scrolling Z1 screens )

[kurt91]

A bit off-topic, but I saw a video the other day of somebody trying various GameCube and Wii games on a VR emulator, and Metroid Prime 3 worked pretty much flawlessly in VR. The guy said that most games give you mild motion sickness after a short while, but Prime was easy enough and natural enough to play that a person could do an entire playthrough using the headset and VR controls.

 

Considering Skyward Sword was focused on the motion controls, I'm kind of curious how well that would hold up in first-person VR. (Although probably remove Link's sword arm so you just see the sword swinging in front of you, since his arm is always un-naturally stiff instead of moving at the wrist like your real body is most likely to do.)

[MarinaraSauce]

A bit off-topic, but I saw a video the other day of somebody trying various GameCube and Wii games on a VR emulator, and Metroid Prime 3 worked pretty much flawlessly in VR. The guy said that most games give you mild motion sickness after a short while, but Prime was easy enough and natural enough to play that a person could do an entire playthrough using the headset and VR controls.

 

Considering Skyward Sword was focused on the motion controls, I'm kind of curious how well that would hold up in first-person VR. (Although probably remove Link's sword arm so you just see the sword swinging in front of you, since his arm is always un-naturally stiff instead of moving at the wrist like your real body is most likely to do.)

I looked for that video just now and I think I found the one you're talking about. The guy also played Xenoblade and the ability to look around at that game's amazing environments would be some of the raddest shit ever.