Dan E. Kool
Walking Trash Can Robot
Now With Extra Pulp!
Posts: 3,325
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Post by Dan E. Kool on Apr 15, 2016 20:54:29 GMT
Although the music is still kinda of a problem; I still get shivers every time I hear the words "birthday cake". Brrrr. Dunno what you're talkin about. That song was awesome.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,820
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Post by Cervantes on Apr 15, 2016 23:58:24 GMT
Although the music is still kinda of a problem; I still get shivers every time I hear the words "birthday cake". Brrrr. Dunno what you're talkin about. That song was awesome. It's awesome until you hear it 20 times in a row. Then it sounds like a cat scratching your eardrums.
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stratogustav
Supreme Overlord
Warrior with Bandana
Posts: 7,460
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Post by stratogustav on Apr 16, 2016 3:37:49 GMT
I didn't play it every day. Just whenever I felt like it. I have mine on the vita. I didn't do every sidequest but there is a new game plus option and you unlock stuff when you beat the game for the first time. So I might start a new game then. I heard the Platinum is 10 hours. But who knows.
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lukefonfabre388
Sonic Wing
Move like a shadow, sting like a nuke.
Posts: 467
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Post by lukefonfabre388 on Apr 16, 2016 4:28:36 GMT
I didn't play it every day. Just whenever I felt like it. I have mine on the vita. I didn't do every sidequest but there is a new game plus option and you unlock stuff when you beat the game for the first time. So I might start a new game then. I heard the Platinum is 10 hours. But who knows. I got a lot of the trophies though when I was playing.
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Armored Core Raven
Vanguard Ranger
Radio: The test is over. From this moment on, you are a Raven!
Posts: 1,737
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Post by Armored Core Raven on Apr 26, 2016 21:52:16 GMT
The Story of Thor/Beyond Oasis (Mega Drive/Genesis)
Completed it a few days ago with a time of 6 hours and 33 minutes, 0 deaths, the rank of Warrior and I found just over half the Spirit gems.
This was the first time I've played it and I just loved it, I didn't explore very much and tried to stick to the main story path as much as possible. I know there's more stuff to find and do but I didn't want to get sidetracked during my first playthrough, I usually save that kind of stuff for when I revisit games. I would love to get hold of a copy of my own some day but sadly it's one of the most expensive Mega Drive games out there and very rare to find here.
It's a fantastic game though, easily the best I've played in the top-down action adventure genre from that generation. I've played most if not all on Super Nintendo and I'm not really aware of any more games like this on Mega Drive or PC Engine, only a couple of games that have some similarities but not enough that I'd count them as the same exact genre, so I guess I'm pretty much done exploring that genre as far as 16-bit goes, I've found my favorite.
The game makes use of the 6-button controller and I'd recommend using that over the 3-button controller. While I didn't use a 3-button controller during my playthrough and so can't say if it's that big a difference, I'm assuming it plays similarly seeing as the game still uses the standard 3-button setup for all things important, with A-button for Magic/Spirit commands, B-button for Attack, C-button for Jump/Crouch and the rest (X, Y and Z) for quick menu selecting between the Map screen, the Item Inventory and the Weapon Inventory. The Start-button brings up the main menu that also have those three options alongside your Character Status screen and Save menu, also the Mode-button can be held down while pressing B (attack) during gameplay to switch between the default Dagger weapon and a secondary weapon currently highlighted in the Weapon Inventory menu.
I love the more fast paced and in-depth fighting system this game has, being able to do special moves, fast and short ranged attacks, attacks while crouching, jumping and running etc., it's fantastic and makes the combat a lot more fun, I actually wanted to engage in battles with enemies in this game, something for example A Link to the Past on Super Nintendo never managed to do, in that game I'd just attack enemies to get items or solve puzzles, beside that I avoided fighting as much as possible, while in this game I'd leave an area I just killed all the enemies in and come right back to fight them again as they respawn just for the fun of it.
I've always been a fan of being able to summon semi-AI semi-manually controlled monsters and such that help me too, like how you can in games like CastleVania Symphony of the Night, Legaia 2 Duel Saga, Chaos Legion or just about any game in the entire Final Fantasy series, so having the Spirits in this game added a lot of additional depth to the game, both during combat and in virtually all other situations the game had to offer as they all have unique abilities that can help depending on what you're trying to do, like several of them can help fight enemies, one can help light fires, another can heal you, another can help with pitfalls and reach things that'd otherwise be out of reach for the main character alone and so on. Using the spirits drains your magic but it restores automatically when not used for most of the game, some areas and bosses for example disables your ability to regenerate magic and health though, so healing and magic restorative items are still a vital part of the game. The thing that makes the Spirits less overpowered is that you can only summon them from certain elements like fire, water and even some really clever things I won't spoil here. I had a good time finding new ways to summon my Spirits by testing my magic on all kinds of things.
The graphics are also top notch, I love the designs and style of it all, it's a really nice looking Mega Drive game and I honestly think that at least aesthetically speaking it even has the Saturn prequel beat, it's just a really gorgeous game.
The sound design is no slouch either, there are plenty of sampled sound effects for things like enemies screaming as they die, the creaking while opening an old treasure chest etc., it's a very nice sounding game and it even has some nice stereo separation.
The music is is also good and I've found myself humming some of the tunes while not playing the game.
The story I felt was a bit underdeveloped in-game and it came across more like an older game where if I wanted to know something I had to take my time and read about it in the manual, and with this game being a 1995 release I just feel it could've done a bit more in that department to represent a more modern age like it does so well in other regards. To sum up the story you are Prince Ali of the island Kingdom of Oasis and you've found a Gold Armlet in a cave that lets you summon magic spirits all while an evil Silver Armlet is being used to summon monsters and bring chaos to the land and you have to set out to stop whoever is doing this. There are plot twists and stuff but I won't spoil any of it here.
I'm not a big fan of how the weapons and items work however, only having one item per slot in the Item Inventory and a very limited amount of item slots meant I constantly had to get rid of stuff I wanted to keep in favor of slightly better stuff instead of keeping it all. This is the kind of real life problem I feel is better kept unrealistic in games, I know in real life you can't carry around 255 of every single thing you find all over the world, but in a game I pretty much demand it to be so. Thankfully it wasn't too bad as the game is well balanced with the amount of treasure chests it has laying around and the frequency of handing out items dropped by slain enemies, so I never felt I was completely shit outta luck at least.
The weapon slots are even fewer, only 7 slots in total when not counting the default dagger which has unlimited use and you can't get rid of. There are some other unlimited super weapons in the game but they are hard to find and you'll most likely not get any of them in your first playthrough, I sure didn't, though I was close at getting one of them after having discovered a secret cave, but the challenge was too great for me so early in the game and I abandoned it to move the story along instead. All other weapons you find have limited amount of uses/ammo and every weapon you pick up, regardless of the amount of uses/ammo it has or if you already have that exact type of weapon in your Weapon Inventory already, will always take up a new slot. This means that if you pick up a crossbow with 50 arrows or a set of 15 bombs or something, and then come across another crossbow (with the exact same kind of ammo) that has 20 arrows or a set of 30 bombs of the same exact type you already had 15 of, and you decide to pick any of that up, it won't add to the previous amount of that weapon you have in the slot you already have that same kind of weapon in from before, instead it adds the newly picked up weapon to a new slot and you'll end up with separate slots with a crossbow with 50 arrows in one, another slot with a crossbow with 20 arrows in it, a third slot with 15 bombs and a fourth slot with 30 bombs and so on until all seven slots are filled. This makes no sense and really cripples the amount of weapons you can carry as you have to switch out the same kind of weapon only for a larger amount of uses/ammo instead of adding it up to an overall larger amount like in pretty much every other game ever made. It kind of makes sense that it is that way for swords, where they have a set number of uses before they break while still being one single sword, but for all the different type of weapons that count ammo and not amount of uses it just falls apart and becomes an unnecessary annoyance when you can't combine the amount of ammo you have in one slot for one type of weapon. You can't just pick up more ammo for weapons you have which would've made a lot more sense, felt more practical and been a lot more useful, instead you have to discard one weapon for the same exact weapon only with more ammo/uses, unless you want to take up two slots for the same exact weapon regardless of the ammo count. A set of 3 bombs takes up one slot, just like a set of 30 bombs does for example, and because anything that is left behind starts flashing after a few seconds and then goes away forever it means you also can't go back and pick anything up again later on, so instead of just adding the new amount to the current amount to make an overall bigger amount you have to waste you time picking stuff up to see if it has more ammo than what you currently have because the weapon on screen doesn't show how much ammo it has, you have to pick it up to see how much it is! Again, like with the items, it's not a big problem when the game is so well balanced and generous enough with the amount of weapons you find, it's just a problem that didn't need to be there and it doesn't make anything better, it doesn't add a fun challenge in any way, it's just a bad design choice and stains an otherwise fairly flawless performance.
Another thing I found to be a little annoying at times was the platforming, it could get pretty stressful at times with multiple out of reach enemies shooting fireballs and other shit at you while you were trying to do pinpoint jumps onto moving platforms from a top-down perspective. The controls are good and the falling doesn't kill you, it only hurts you and places you back on the last firm ground you were standing on, so it's not anywhere near impossible, just frustrating at times, also one of the Spirits you get later on in the game can actually catch you if you fall and instead of losing health you just lose a little magic, so at that point it becomes a little less problematic.
Only other thing I didn't like was that you couldn't save everywhere. I like the feature that you can save your game and that it allows 4 separate files to play and all that, that's all well and good, but as far as I could tell you could only save when you were outside. I didn't try to save in every single area in the entire game but the only times I wanted to save and the game didn't stop me was when I was outdoors. I could never find a save friendly area when in a dungeon, a temple or cave or something so I always had to keep playing until I solved all the puzzles and beat the end boss of the dungeon I was and finally got outta there until I could finally save my progress and stop playing, either that or turn it off and lose my progress. This could've been solved if they had a save point system like for example Final Fantasy VII does where all locations had save points scattered about, they'd be placed a little here and there all while you'd still be able to save anywhere when back outside wandering around on the world map.
Speaking of world maps, this game doesn't really have one, it has a map screen you can look at with icons showing you the next location you're heading towards but beside that it's all an open world connected in real-time and you go from one place to another on foot, there are a few occasions where you travel by teleportation, and there's even a boat you go on that takes you to another place at one point, but for the most part you go where you want when you want to using your own two legs, the game is open for exploration and like I already mentioned there are secrets to find and things to do beside the main story, also the Spirits help you get past certain obstacles so some places are off limits until later in the game.
At the end of the game you have several scoreboards measuring different things like time taken and amount of times you died, this helps keep track of how well you do each time, you can do a playthrough trying to get a top score for best time or to get a higher rank, you don't have to do everything perfect at once, this is also very nice and I appreciate that feature very much.
Overall I'd have to give this game a very high score despite some minor nitpicky complaints, I'd say 9/10 feels very spot on as it's not perfect but it's pretty damn close and it goes above and beyond what it needed to do seeing as there wasn't much competition on Mega Drive, pretty much all the competition was on Super Nintendo and as far as I'm concerned it beats that competition, it's just a really really great game and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes action adventure games.
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Post by manicottimafia on Apr 26, 2016 22:04:01 GMT
Armored Core Raven Very nice review. I've been wanting to pick this game up for awhile, but was never too sure because I haven't really been able to get into the genre. Sounds like it fixes most of the things I don't like though (especially simplistic combat) so I'm definitely going to be getting this one ASAP now.
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Armored Core Raven
Vanguard Ranger
Radio: The test is over. From this moment on, you are a Raven!
Posts: 1,737
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Post by Armored Core Raven on Apr 26, 2016 23:31:53 GMT
Armored Core Raven Very nice review. I've been wanting to pick this game up for awhile, but was never too sure because I haven't really been able to get into the genre. Sounds like it fixes most of the things I don't like though (especially simplistic combat) so I'm definitely going to be getting this one ASAP now. Yeah, I always felt the genre (at least back then) could've been better and the offerings on Super Nintendo never quite satisfied me, they lacked things I wanted like better combat and that's where this game really delivered on a whole other level, more like a modern hack n slash like Devil May Cry or something. There are plenty of advanced moves beyond the basic stuff but I stuck mainly to the basic stuff myself as just the addition of jumping, running and crouching freely in this game gave it enough depth for me to get different strategies down for different types of enemies, I didn't even need to go more in depth with special attack moves and such. FYI I added some additional info about the controls that I forgot when I posted earlier.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
Posts: 2,820
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Post by Cervantes on Apr 27, 2016 2:44:43 GMT
Armored Core Raven - The sequel on the Sega Saturn, Legend of Oasis, is also really recommended. You have more weapons (and they are all permanent!), more spirits and the map is huge. It keeps the same combat mechanics, although, in general, the game has a focus more on exploration and puzzles than combat this time around. The graphics are very colorful and detailed (much more than the Mega Drive was capable of), and the cd format did wonders for the sound - the orchestral pieces are beautiful. The story is also well written and very interesting. I think you would like it a lot. Give it a try if you have a chance.
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Pimpjira
Guardian Force Shooter
Posts: 1,102
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Post by Pimpjira on May 24, 2016 18:52:25 GMT
Chrono Cross(PS1) - 8/10 Good RPG, glad I did finally play and can still definitely say I like Trigger better.
Trouble Shooter(Genesis) - 8/10 Fun and quirky shmup that I enjoyed, I hear the sequel is quite a bit better so I'll be checking that out.
Vice Project Doom(NES) - 9/10 I really liked this game. Great action/platformer with some driving and shooting stages for variety. Cool Ninja Gaiden style cutscenes. Difficulty ramped up pretty quick at the end. Most of the game I wouldn't consider what they call NES-hard but the last level and two boss battles is tough.
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Post by Falcula18 on Jun 3, 2016 4:17:36 GMT
WATCH_DOGS 9/10
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Pimpjira
Guardian Force Shooter
Posts: 1,102
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Post by Pimpjira on Jun 7, 2016 17:34:47 GMT
Alright I'll just list mine this time, if anyone wants to know more of what I thought they can ask. Super Castlevania IV(SNES) 9.75/10 Kid Dracula(Game Boy) 8.5/10 Castlevania II: Simon's Quest(NES) 8/10 Megadimension Neptunia VII(PS4) 7/10
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stratogustav
Supreme Overlord
Warrior with Bandana
Posts: 7,460
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Post by stratogustav on Jun 7, 2016 21:51:55 GMT
I want to know more about what you thought about Super Castlevania IV and Simon's Quest.
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Pimpjira
Guardian Force Shooter
Posts: 1,102
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Post by Pimpjira on Jun 9, 2016 19:12:33 GMT
Super Castlevania IV is one of my favorite games. I really like other Castlevania games but this one is a perfect balance for me with the improved controls(able to whip in other directions, moving a bit less staff, stairs are easier to deal with) that it's enough of a challenge without being frustrating so I find it more replayable.
Simon's Quest is the weakest of the NES trilogy but I still enjoyed it. The bosses were kind of weak compared to other games in the series but the levels were still fun for the most part. I used a walkthrough because I didn't want to waste time not knowing what to when I have a lot more games to play so it being cryptic wasn't an issue. I did like the semi-openess of the game and being able to talk to villagers and hear the weird stuff they have to say, added to the mood of the game actually.
The soundtrack in both of them is awesome.
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stratogustav
Supreme Overlord
Warrior with Bandana
Posts: 7,460
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Post by stratogustav on Jun 10, 2016 17:33:35 GMT
Nice, thanks for sharing.
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lukefonfabre388
Sonic Wing
Move like a shadow, sting like a nuke.
Posts: 467
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Post by lukefonfabre388 on Jun 11, 2016 1:53:24 GMT
I finished star wars the force unleashed 1. Good game. Now I need to try the second one. 8.5 out of 10 for the first. We will see how the second one compares now although it seems to have mixed reviews on steam.
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