stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Dec 22, 2021 5:08:26 GMT
That was my fear. It would have to be done in house like Gravity Rush Remastered that was brought from the Vita to consoles.
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billspreston
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Post by billspreston on Dec 29, 2021 19:57:19 GMT
Santa got me Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. Never knew this game existed, and while it took a good 20-30 years, they finally got the feel down pat. It really feels like you're Goku in the Dragon Ball world!
This might be the best licensed game of all time (no disrespect to TMNT the arcade game).
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Feb 3, 2022 13:45:06 GMT
My family and I have been playing Super Mario Party Super Stars and Cruisin' Blast. Both are a ton of fun. I'm impressed with the improvements to this Mario Party, because the last few games have NOT been fun. It's funny, but reverting back to the N64 era with added improvements is considered a plus. I don't mind, because it is a great time with the kids.
Cruisin' Blast feels like a return to the arcade. There isn't much depth here. Instead, you get no damage physics, and I love it! The game is set a perfect mid rage game price of $39.99 at Game Stop brand new. I wouldn't pay more for it, but it has been worth what I've paid. The tracks are ridiculous, and the unlockable racers make my kids laugh.
These two games are perfect for couch co-op.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Feb 3, 2022 18:45:20 GMT
Those are really good games. I really love Cruis'n Blast at the arcades, I always played it at Six Flags, so when I saw it was getting a port it made me happy. That's Eugene Jarvis's company, and they are the best producers of arcade machines in the West, so it would be nice to see more from them. All Raw Thrills releases are indeed a blast.
In terms of Mario Party games I love them all. They are supposed to replicate the table game experience, but it just happens that they also have that arcade multiplayer feel that they also bring home it is just nice to share those experiences with friends and family.
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Feb 3, 2022 19:04:24 GMT
In terms of Mario Party games I love them all. They are supposed to replicate the table game experience, but it just happens that they also have that arcade multiplayer feel that they also bring home it is just nice to share those experiences with friends and family. I generally like them too, but the last one angered me quite a bit. It required you to use nothing but joy-cons to play the game. I only have two, and I have no desire to buy more. So for my family to play, I would have to spend another $70. This new edition lets you use any controller you have. That's the way it should have been done in the first place.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Feb 3, 2022 19:28:19 GMT
That's a good point, some people want to use their GameCube Smash controllers to play for nostalgic reasons, so allowing people to use regular controllers is a good thing.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Feb 7, 2022 14:57:47 GMT
Trials of Mana (Remake) - PS4 version on PS5 Alwa's Awakening - PS4 version on PS5 Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions
Vesteria's an interesting one. Definitely an old-school Fire Emblem vibe, which has good and bad connotations, but I'm enjoying it so far. It definitely has a low-budget feel, and I wish they'd gone for a more pixelated art style along the lines of the SNES or GBA Fire Emblem entries, but it was originally freeware in Japan, so set expectations accordingly.
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Feb 10, 2022 2:02:55 GMT
After finishing Okami HD, I'm playing Dead or Alive 1&2 Ultimate and Transformers: Devastation. A quick opinion on each:
Okami HD (PC) is just a lovely game: endearing characters, beautiful visuals and creative dungeons and stories. It's not perfect (the later two thirds of the game seemed to be a bit rushed in comparison to the first part, so much that the "endings" to these sections are just told by a narrator instead of being presented through cutscenes, and the game has too much exposition), but it's obvious the developers at Clover Studios/Capcom had a great care for what they were creating. I guess that by basing the game on japanese folktales the developers had a personal connection to them, so the story never feels like it's there just to please or manipulate the audience: they really wanted to have fun with the stories they were telling. That said, Okami also feels like the brush that killed Zelda for a decade. Hear me out: as far as gameplay goes, Okami is not too original, besides the brush mechanics; most of it is what we could call a 3d Zelda clone, in line with Ocarina of Time. But the thing about Okami is that it learned the Zelda formula, and did it so well that, in my opinion, the formula reached a ceiling: I don't think that formula had anywhere else to go, which is the reason why Zelda could only do a full comeback after Nintendo finally decided to completely change its structure with A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild. Ocarina created a huge, detailed world full of sidequests, but Okami was twice as big with many more things to do; Wind Waker did pretty cell-shaded visuals, but Okami topped them with that painterly effect; Minish Cap showed a small Link going through a giant world, and Okami did that in detailed 3d; Twilight Princess had a wolf Link, while Okami had this versatile wolf god with many super powers. My point is that everything done by Zelda was being outdone or done as well by a Zelda clone, and by the end of Okami it does feel like that formula is completely exhausted, so much that a common opinion online is that Okami is "too long". That explains perfectly, to me, why all the later Zelda games on the Wii and DS have divisive or outright bad opinions about them: because the structure they were following (hub world with a linear main quest, a sidekick/fairy giving hints, dungeons, puzzle bosses, a number of things to collect, fishing minigames, controlled exploration, a village with fetch quests etc.) had already reached its limits. Seriously, playing Okami makes it feel like all the later Zeldas (starting with Twilight Princess) are lesser versions of it. Keep in mind Capcom had already understood the Zelda formula by developing the Oracle games and Minish Cap, so as much as the Oracle games feel like a perfect follow-up to Link's Awakening, Okami feels like the "true sequel" to Ocarina of Time (not in story, but as a game), as it expands on everything from that game. Again, it's not perfect, nor as good as Ocarina itself - bigger and expanded doesn't mean better, but it's a truly great game.
Dead or Alive (SAT/XBOX version) is a very fun game that looks to be, at first, just a Virtua Fighter 2 clone with bouncing boobs (no problem with that!), but it has an essential difference: instead of a block button, it has a "hold" button made to parry enemy attacks. So the defensive play in the game feels immediatelly more dynamic: you can't just hold block, you have to prevent an attack and do a reversal; also, you can't throw punches and kicks without thinking, as they will be parried and counter-attacked. Some Virtua Fighter 2 characters had reversal-based gameplay (Akira and Pai), but in DOA these are both easier to do and available to every character. So the game feels different enough and a great complement to VF2 (more so than Fighting Vipers). The Saturn version (ported to XBOX on DOA Ultimate) has, as an incentive to keep playing, an extra character and clothes received by beating the game with each character, besides a few extra options (ring size, fighting order etc.) that are opened by doing tasks like finishing Time Attack in less than 5 minutes or using DOA as your initials at the end of Arcade Mode. Just as VF2, there's no story or any kind of cutscenes, though, and any background details are restricted to the manual.
Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate (XBOX) is where the series got its own identity. The "hold" button became a mix of block and hold (depending on the direction pressed), so while parrying is still a huge part of the game, it's not as easily done as before and you need better reflexes to use it at the right time. The graphics are astonishingly beautiful and maybe the best for any fighting game in that generation: they were already on the top tier in the original Dreamcast release, but the Xbox "Ultimate" version was redone on an updated engine and looks as good as a 360/PS3 game (just on a slightly lower resolution). One of the biggest changes are the arenas: instead of being simple rings with danger zones and ring-outs like in the previous entry, this time they are scenic places (the Great Wall, a wooden bridge in a ninja village, a clock tower, an island by the sea etc.) with multi-tiered arenas; instead of losing the round when a character is pushed besides the bounds of the arena, the character may fall to another level, lose some health, and then continue fighting. It was a very creative way to turn the scenery more interactive and I don't remember other games doing it when DOA2 was released; that's also the reason why characters can now move up and down, so you can try to position yourself more favourably in the arena. The story mode has cutscenes, albeit very short ones, and the game has various modes (Time Attack, Survival, Team Battle), with the most important addition being a Tag Mode, in which pairs fight together and can do some special tag attacks. It's a seriously great 3d fighting game, besides all the jokes about the pretty girls and their bouncing boobs.
Transformers: Devastation (X360) comes from the time when Platinum Games was doing low-budget licensed games. The low-budget part certainly isn't felt in the gameplay, though: they are probably using the same engine from Bayonetta and all their other action games, and it plays like Bayonetta itself, including the "dodging at the last time starts bullet time" mechanic. The gimmick here are the transformations: the characters can either transform into vehicles at the end of a combo or, at any time, to help traversing the terrain (the levels are huge to compensate for that, and it's fun to drive around an incredibly fast Optimus Prime or Bumblebee). The low-budget part comes from the game having pretty much only two really different levels (New York and the Proudstar), with all the game's chapters reusing those same two places for new missions. That sucks, as it's very fun to explore the city and it would be nice to have more places to drive around, but once you accept that it's a low-budget game it's not too disappointing. Unlike other games from PG, this one also has an emphasis on loot, not unlike Darksiders 2: there are dozens of weapons to find that you can mix and level up at The Ark, choosing their different attributes. All in all, the game is very fun, but by reusing the same combat and engine from previous games over a short, low-budget campaign, Platinum Games was quickly getting to a point where each new release was starting to feel like retreading: this finally hit them with the lackluster TMNT game, from which they could only fully recover thanks to Nier: Automata.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Feb 10, 2022 7:10:59 GMT
I couldn't get into Okami because playing as a wolf is something that didn't call my attention, in fact, it was the wolf parts of Twilight Princess that I didn't like. I feel Twilight Princess would have been so much better without the wolf dynamic all along, but that said I imagine Okami is a good game, it just wasn't for me for that reason. I actually wish we had more Zelda games on that style though. To me that's a style I can't get enough, just like I can't get enough of the new Tomb Raider collecting stuff gaming style.
Dead Or Alive was always closer to Virtua Fighter than Tekken, you definitely got that right, in fact, even after DOA developed its own identity, even having a movie with Steve Aoki's sister, the similitudes were still present. Similarities that distinguish those games from Tekken in many ways. This was even more notorious when many of the guest characters of DOA 5 come form Virtua Fighter itself, and they all blended in perfectly, as if they belonged, that pretty much tells you everything about how they can go hand by hand at this point.
Transformers Devastation is simply alive letter to actual Transformers fans, the game couldn't be made with more love and loyalty to the series, it even feel la cannon to me. But I do agree the low budget was definitely obvious, and like you said, once you accept that you can appreciate it even more, you totally nailed it there.
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Cervantes
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Post by Cervantes on Feb 23, 2022 5:41:36 GMT
stratogustav - Yeah, I liked Transformers Devastation much more than I thought. I had already passed on the game when it was on Steam, as I don't have much interest in Transformers itself and it seemed to be a quick job by PG, but there's a lot of love put into it, despite the low budget. One game that I forgot to talk about was Child of Eden (X360), which I replayed last month after a decade. It's a beautiful game, one of the most visually stunning on the 360, but the truth is that the gameplay is too stripped down in comparison to other on-rails shooters, including its predecessor Rez. It's in first person: you can aim at multiple enemies with one button (like Rez or Panzer Dragoon), the other button is a quick shot to take down projectiles and the third is a screen clearing bomb, and that's it. It's as simple as the very first Panzer Dragoon, but even in that one you could rotate the camera and move the dragon itself, not just the reticle, so CoE is even simpler. There are no alternate routes or secrets, no extra weapons (so it's simpler than Virtua Cop too) or changes to the player character itself (like the upgrade system in Rez). Unless you're really into high scores, there's really no incentive to replay any level, as they always play exactly the same, almost like a FMV shooter, and there are only six levels. I understand that the simplicity was demanded because it was supposed to be a Kinect seller, and it *is* one of the best Kinect games, but ended up being too barebones to me. As this time I used the controller, I also noticed an annoying artificial difficulty: they made the reticle too slow and with some momentum, without any way to adjust it. This was made so the game wouldn't be too easy with a controller, but just feels sluggish to control, which is a really weird thing in a game that you're only controlling a cursor. If you enjoy Rez for its visuals, Child of Eden is a nice little sequel and a stunning visual experience, but expect a step down in the gameplay department. Then there was Darius Gaiden (SAT)! I hate myself for sucking at shmups, especially horizontal ones: no matter how many times I play this, it kicks my ass. But man, talk about a nice game: while I don't enjoy the art style that much, as almost everything is inspired by sea life, there is a ton of stuff happening on screen without slowdown, some giant bosses and plenty of 2d graphical effects. There are many alternate routes (in the style of Outrun, with different letters) and as many as 8 different final bosses and endings, it's glorious. I played for a bit in two player mode, too, and everything gets completely chaotic, it's awesome! For now, I can only beat it in easy mode and using around seven credits (there's luckily a code for it), so I'm still terrible at it. Lastly, I was also playing Dead or Alive 3 (XBOX). There are two ways to look at it: if you've played DOA 2 on the Dreamcast or PS2, then DOA 3 is a great upgrade: even more refined visuals, new characters that have very different fighting styles, more moves, much longer ending scenes for everyone and new arenas. But, on the other hand, if you played DOA 2 Ultimate (XBOX) before, then DOA 3 is actually a *downgrade*: DOA2U was released later and uses an even newer engine (based on DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball), so it looks even better than DOA 3 and has many more arenas, which are also more expansive and detailed; the fighting engine itself is updated too, so it's just a better game overall. DOA2U only misses two DOA 3 characters, Brad and Christie, but it's not a big loss; also, if you're into clothes, DOA2U must have around four or five times more clothes than DOA 3. In general, the US release of DOA 3 has only a few unlockables: three clothes and one variant of a character (Hayate/Ein); all the other clothes are unlocked automatically with either a demo disc or if you unlocked everything in your DOA2U save, so, unlike DOA2U itself, there's less incentive to keep replaying the different modes. DOA2U ends up being the superior game with much more content, but DOA 3 is no slouch either and it was nice seeing the new characters. Now, one thing that DOA 3 does badly is the final boss: for some asinine reason, Team Ninja decided to change the camera perspective (it stays behind your character and makes the controls surprisingly confusing), gave the guy only five attacks, most of them being annoying projectiles in a series that doesn't use them, and made him invulnerable to grabs and holds, which misses the point of all the grab/hold-based characters. The entire fight is: run up to his nose, throw a few confused punches, pray so he doesn't throw your character far away to use projectiles - if that happens, you might never get near him again. It's my vote for the worst final boss in a good fighting game and the only time I've seen such a complete gameplay change in this genre. For this reason alone, DOA2U with its fun and unlockable final boss is a better game to play in single player. I'm already playing a bit of DOA 4, which feels like another great upgrade, so I'll talk about it later when I play more. I've already noticed that the boobs bounce HARDER, my wife definitely hates it, 5/5.
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stratogustav
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Post by stratogustav on Feb 23, 2022 8:15:30 GMT
Awesome, I do want to play Child Of Eden, I haven't had the chance, neither I have had the chance to play DOA 3 and DOA 4, lucky guy, and Darius Gaiden is awesome to me, including all the sound effects and music Although, to be fair, my imagination does play a role in a lot of shoot 'em up games. For example in Gradius, where there are levels that the ceiling looks like the floor, I always imagine something like what Christopher Nolan's Interstellar movie showed.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Feb 23, 2022 20:10:28 GMT
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom for PS4 (on PS5) Final Fantasy 6 - Pixel Remaster version on Steam
Enjoying both.
I had heard a number of reviews noting Ni No Kuni II as an inferior (though still enjoyable sequel), but I find I'm enjoying it quite a bit more than the original. No longer having to rely on familiars in combat has been a dramatic improvement. Liking all the characters, the music, and the story.
For the FF6 pixel remaster, I'd have certainly preferred an HD-2D remake (Octopath Traveler styler) along the lines of what Live A Live and Dragon Quest III are getting, and it seems like a few scenes like the Opera have been redone in that style for the trailers, but this is a nice half-measure. I'm enjoying the redone music, and it looks very nice in wide-screen.
As with all the FF pixel remasters, there seem to be some general issues with screen-tearing/vsync with no single universal fix. In my case, running in borderless windowed mode instead of fullscreen fixes it (and still puzzlingly takes up the full screen), but that isn't universal. The default english font is also terrible, but has some very quick fixes. Now that all the pixel remasters are out, hopefully those issues were be fixed for all six.
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Feb 23, 2022 23:53:54 GMT
For the FF6 pixel remaster, I'd have certainly preferred an HD-2D remake (Octopath Traveler styler) along the lines of what Live A Live and Dragon Quest III are getting, and it seems like a few scenes like the Opera have been redone in that style for the trailers, but this is a nice half-measure. I'm enjoying the redone music, and it looks very nice in wide-screen. As with all the FF pixel remasters, there seem to be some general issues with screen-tearing/vsync with no single universal fix. In my case, running in borderless windowed mode instead of fullscreen fixes it (and still puzzlingly takes up the full screen), but that isn't universal. The default english font is also terrible, but has some very quick fixes. Now that all the pixel remasters are out, hopefully those issues were be fixed for all six. I'm a bit wary of the pixel remake for the same reasons you have talked about. I am interested, but I don't really play games on my computer. I look forward to your overall review.
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dschult3
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Post by dschult3 on Mar 1, 2022 18:32:10 GMT
Final Fantasy 6 - Pixel Remaster version on Steam I read somewhere that they edited out the scene where Celes gets punched by the prison guard. What is that all about? I don't like to hear about pointless censorship in a "remaster." Have you seen any of this censorship?
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Post by Imperial Khador on Mar 1, 2022 19:57:18 GMT
Final Fantasy 6 - Pixel Remaster version on Steam I read somewhere that they edited out the scene where Celes gets punched by the prison guard. What is that all about? I don't like to hear about pointless censorship in a "remaster." Have you seen any of this censorship? I don't recall whether it was there or not, so it didn't really register. I'm in the World of Ruin now, picking up party members. (Got Cyan back last night )
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