stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Jul 25, 2021 5:20:00 GMT
I would count that as beating the game, like getting to level 256 in Pac-Man. That's pretty cool.
Also nice to hear that Sonic 2 is getting some love from the young one. Those are always good memories.
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Jul 26, 2021 20:46:11 GMT
Also nice to hear that Sonic 2 is getting some love from the young one. Those are always good memories. "SOOOOOOONIC THE HEDGEHOOOOOOOOOOOOOG!" She likes it enough to sing about it in the clip like there's no tomorrow. It's nice to be able to raise the kids on classic games with a mix of the modern.
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centipede
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Post by centipede on Jul 27, 2021 9:44:58 GMT
Right now, I'm playing Alien Syndrome for the PSP. I wanted to play the hardest difficulty but it has to be unlocked first, which is too bad because all the enemies do scratch damage. It's only deadly if you ignore your health bar. Also, it has this strange Asian flute music
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Aug 12, 2021 5:56:44 GMT
I was just playing through The Messenger (PC). While I enjoyed some moments with it, it's certainly not the "new 2d Ninja Gaiden" or the high-profile indie 2d game that I was expecting it to be. To give an idea of my various pet-peeves, I'll compare it with the NES Ninja Gaiden games, the obvious inspiration. First, while the fake 8-bit graphics are not too bad, they are overly simple, even when compared to the NES Ninja Gaiden games. In NG2 or 3, you had levels like the train or the desert with multiple parallax layers (the fake kind of NES parallax, but still very convincing), animated backgrounds and sometimes cool effects that even affected the gameplay, like the falling snow that changes direction with the wind or the darkness being lit by lightning strikes in NG2. In comparison, The Messenger has only very basic backgrounds, sometimes with a static 2nd layer that uses very few colors or just plain black. In general, the color palette looks very limited most of the time, which is strange because NG and most later NES action games were much more colorful. In the end, there's a strange mix of wrongly mimicking NES limitations while, at the same time, ignoring them (using true parallax, much higher resolution, too many sprites on screen etc.). Something like Shovel Knight gets it much better. This is also noticeable in the story cutscenes: The Messenger uses static images, unlike the dynamic animations from NG. My point is that this game, released 30 years after NG, looks worse in multiple areas. While this is partially solved when the game later switches to 16-bit graphics, which brings a good visual upgrade, these are layered over the 8-bit sprites and tiles (plus it keeps, most of the time, a single background layer, unlike the multiple ones in SNES and MD games), so it doesn't look really as good as 16-bit either. For a small graphical comparison (8-bit section; keep in mind NG3 has, in this level, multiple parallax layers): The story is one area that I truly didn't like. It goes for that "It's so META!" style of humor, with every character making smartass quips all the time; worst of all, there are many, many unskippable dialogues, so you can't just ignore and speedrun it. Completely skipping dialogues by pressing start would do wonders. Then comes the gameplay, with good and bad sides. The controls are solid and responsive, and the main mechanic (hit things while in the air to get extra jumps) is great, especially after completely upgrading the Messenger's abilities. With well timed hits, it's possible to fly through most screens very fast and it feels great. The game begins as a linear affair for a few hours, and while the level designs aren't anything special for most of the time, being too simple, they do their job. The enemies lack variation and are usually too simple (I swear most of the game only uses those three different enemies, blue, green and orange shown in the screen above). So the gameplay is good, if a bit average... Until it decides to suddenly become a search action (metroidvania) game. Then you get why the platforming was so basic: because it must allow the player to go in both directions. But the reality is that, as the levels were all designed as linear, horizontal affairs, there's no fun in exploring them further. Instead of proper map exploration like Metroid, in which you get complex map layouts, it just feels like backtracking. Imagine if, after finishing Ninja Gaiden, you had to now run through the same levels multiple times, sometimes in reverse, until you find the occasional secret room. It's just that. Only very few levels near the end (the underwater ruins, maybe it's the only one...) have multiple paths and a non-linear map. That's probably why my favourite moment in the game was the sky level, which mixes platforming with shmup sections and was designed to have no backtrack in it: it shows that the game would be better if it was kept linear. One of the problems with the clash between linear and search action is that almost every level has a single entrance and exit, so it was aggravating when, after backtracking through an entire level, I had missed a secret in the very middle of it: there was no other way of reaching it besides going through the entire level again. It's unlike Metroid/Castlevania games, in which each map has multiple connections with the others and various shortcuts; it ends up being much more repetitive. To summarize it, I would describe The Messenger as a failed experiment to make a search action Ninja Gaiden game. I don't think it's impossible to do it, but it would need a much better map/level design, less story interruptions (maybe a better story), challenging enemies/platforming and more creative visuals. I've heard that Cyber Shadow is more successful in those areas, so I'll play it someday to compare. EDIT: Forgot to say: the music is outright terrible, ear piercing, and sounds nothing like NES (it's closer to Amiga games, but the compositions are bad).
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Aug 12, 2021 7:36:28 GMT
Yeah, it's definitely hard to compete with the art pieces the original Ninja Gaiden games are; however you have to give props to the developers for making the original creators play it. That is how you give publicity to your game.
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Aug 12, 2021 13:16:01 GMT
Great review, Cervantes! I have not read a critical review of this game up until this point. I have always seen this game mentioned with the indie scene. Do you think the simple platforming may be due Sabotage Studios relatively newness to the gaming scene? I get what you were saying about backtracking. I found the gimmick in Yoshi's Crafted World to be utterly obnoxious. Yes, the perspective was changed (bigger studio = more $), but it just wasn't fun at all. I was really interested in this game, and I think you may have saved me a few bucks. Thanks!
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Post by Imperial Khador on Aug 13, 2021 3:57:07 GMT
Nice review Cervantes . I'd have to say I largely agree with it. I enjoyed both the 8 and 16-bit visual styles, but actually found the game to be a bit of a slog after it switched to the Metroidvania style explotation in the second half. And yes, the writing is...painful. They try to have both a bit of a serious story going on, but also constant 'Look! See how clever I am? Did you get that reference? Let me explain the reference if you didn't get it!' bits of dialogue to move the story along, and I found it actively detracted from my enjoyment. I'd still use the Shovel Knight comparison for a case where the humor is present, but didn't make itself intrusive. When I next crave some Ninja Gaiden style action though, I am interested in trying Cyber Shadow from Mechanical Head Studios and Yacht Club Games.
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Aug 13, 2021 20:51:50 GMT
stratogustav - Yes, that video was exactly what made me interested in the game! It was indeed a clever move by the developers. There's also some interesting information in there, like Nintendo asking Tecmo to include an underwater scene in Ninja Gaiden. dschult3 - The game isn't terrible by any means, but it does fall apart in the second half (while the first half was already just average). It really should've strived to be a tight, linear action-platformer instead. Imperial Khador - Cyber Shadow looks great, I hope it doesn't disappoint.
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centipede
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Post by centipede on Aug 19, 2021 12:34:47 GMT
I was playing Skyrim recently. I started playing at 9pm and went on until 2 in the morning. I only checked because the game froze. I swear most of the time you're just travelling from place to place. I think it's too big for me :S mwaaah!
Now, I've gone back to playing Torchlight, playing the post game quests mainly as my Ranger chick.
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MeleeMonk
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Post by MeleeMonk on Aug 19, 2021 16:52:44 GMT
I was playing Skyrim recently. I started playing at 9pm and went on until 2 in the morning. I only checked because the game froze. I swear most of the time you're just travelling from place to place. I think it's too big for me :S mwaaah! Now, I've gone back to playing Torchlight, playing the post game quests mainly as my Ranger chick. By the way, which TES games have you played, Centipede? Is Skyrim your first? The older games gave you a lot more freedom in getting around the game world quickly. I lost interest in Skyrim when I heard that they got rid of spell crafting, attributes, and the athletics skill, all of which the player could use (or abuse) to get around in the previous games. I wouldn't be surprised if Bethesda dumbed down enchanting, too.
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Sept 22, 2021 19:25:12 GMT
I've been playing some short, smaller games lately.
Minoria (PC) in a spiritual successor to the excellent Momodora series, though this one has quite a different graphical style and gameplay: instead of pizel art, it goes for painted backgrounds and cell-shaded 3d characters that simulate quite well 2d art, more or less like Ghost Trick (DS). On the gameplay front, it's a short search-action game (just above 3 hours for a first playthrough), with the combat being heavily based on parrying/counterattacks. It's a nice experiment and change of pace from Momodora, but since the developer was experimenting with a new engine and gameplay style, it's a very flawed game: the difficulty feels unbalanced most of the time, with even "cannon fodder" enemies killing you in 2-3 hits and having collision damage, which doesn't go too well with the melee combat; the parries are also sometimes dificult to judge due to screen effects. Still: it *is* a promising start for a new series, although the developer has expressed disappointment with Minoria's reception and probably won't go back to it (their next project is Momodora V).
Recettear (PC) is quite fun in its premise: the main characters, Recette and Tear, are owners of a shop in a very stereotypical RPG town - to be more specific, Recette has to pay her father's debts or lose her house, while a fairy, Tear, is there to collect the debt and make sure the shop is working. So the game is divided in two styles: a shop simulator, in which Recette has to haggle to buy items cheap and sell them for higher prices, and dungeon crawler action levels in which Recette hires adventurers to go into dungeons looking for new items for her shop. The dungeon crawler parts are simple, top-down action ventures that look like the 2000s' Ys games; the shop part is more fun and tricky, with having to figure out for how much each different character that enters the store is willing to buy an item, and which items sell better or worse. Meanwhile, external events may make certain items go up or down in price, so there's quite a fine balance between buying or selling certain items at the right moment. Besides all that, the only way to give better items to the hired adventurers is when they randomly enter the store and try to buy an item, and most of these adventurers are poor - so, sometimes, you have to choose between selling an expensive sword for a great profit or saving it on the chance that one adventurer may buy it for a much cheaper price. Also, every week Recette has to pay her increasing debt, so there's a lot of balance. The game is quite fun until the ending; after it, there's an infinite mode, without having to worry with debt and with extra events and dungeons, that sadly becomes too repetitive. But the main campaign is very fun and I definitely recommend it.
I've also started playing Tenchu Z (360) and will post a few impressions later (it's quite fun, even if too much on the simple side).
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centipede
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Post by centipede on Sept 22, 2021 23:55:00 GMT
I found Alice: Madness Returns a week ago. Definitely console-ized as each weapon and ability is button bound. Which is good since you won't have to switch between the blade, pepper gattling gun and rabbit bomb. The platforming sometimes makes you feel like you're going ot overshoot a jump, but you can double-jump multiple times in mid-air. Oh, and I love how she gets a costume change every level.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Oct 9, 2021 8:03:27 GMT
Ace Combat 7 (for PS4) - PS5 Dragon Quest VII - 3DS (still so very slowly) Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition - Switch
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Oct 13, 2021 7:23:18 GMT
I started Circle Of The Moon when the game came out, but I haven't continued playing since I have been busy with some work related stuff, and I really want to get back to finish it because it is a game I actually never played, and I thought I did, but I didn't or I would remember, and I don't remember this particular game.
To be honest I was expecting at least a decent game because all Castlevania games are usually insanely good, but because this is not one of the titles IGA produced I had my expectations very low.
To my surprise this game is easily a 10, I love everything about it, and it has overpassed my expectations, which is why it even hurts that I stopped playing these last days.
The way you feel overpowered, dashing and breaking things double jumping, wall jumping, and attacking as you move rapidly through levels feels very satisfying, and I'm super impressed with the soundtrack they made for this Game Boy Advance release.
Castlevania games never disappoint when it comes to soundtrack, and this game is not the exception, but not just for the soundtrack, also for the overall gameplay, and castle exploration, which is what I enjoy the most of Castlevania games.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Oct 13, 2021 16:11:55 GMT
I've been playing some short, smaller games lately. Recettear (PC) is quite fun in its premise: the main characters, Recette and Tear, are owners of a shop in a very stereotypical RPG town - to be more specific, Recette has to pay her father's debts or lose her house, while a fairy, Tear, is there to collect the debt and make sure the shop is working. So the game is divided in two styles: a shop simulator, in which Recette has to haggle to buy items cheap and sell them for higher prices, and dungeon crawler action levels in which Recette hires adventurers to go into dungeons looking for new items for her shop. The dungeon crawler parts are simple, top-down action ventures that look like the 2000s' Ys games; the shop part is more fun and tricky, with having to figure out for how much each different character that enters the store is willing to buy an item, and which items sell better or worse. Meanwhile, external events may make certain items go up or down in price, so there's quite a fine balance between buying or selling certain items at the right moment. Besides all that, the only way to give better items to the hired adventurers is when they randomly enter the store and try to buy an item, and most of these adventurers are poor - so, sometimes, you have to choose between selling an expensive sword for a great profit or saving it on the chance that one adventurer may buy it for a much cheaper price. Also, every week Recette has to pay her increasing debt, so there's a lot of balance. The game is quite fun until the ending; after it, there's an infinite mode, without having to worry with debt and with extra events and dungeons, that sadly becomes too repetitive. But the main campaign is very fun and I definitely recommend it. I thought I'd replied to this one already, but I remember playing Recetteer maybe 7 or 8 years ago now, and quite enjoyed it for the time it took to complete the story mode. It was a nice concept, charming presentation, and good localization job.
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