centipede
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It was just one soy latte, I swear!
Posts: 2,781
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Post by centipede on Jan 24, 2024 11:38:31 GMT
I've just finished my first run of Sonic Frontiers.
My thoughts:
The update included a jukebox mode where you can listen to music from previous Sonic games, even while you're playing. Thing is, none of it suits what's right there on your screen.
During the 2D platforming sections, Sonic suddenly goes into second gear. I guess it's supposed to help you be precise in where you land Sonic, but I found it a hindrance, where I am used to the platform ingredients in Sonic Generations. P s. I think Derek had a similar complaint with Sonic Lost World on 3ds.
Most enemies were a breeze, some more threatening foes would have been good, besides the sub-bosses.
Be warned: the final battle turns is a bullet hell level!
It has some epic nu-metal for the boss tracks. This is something new that's actually worked.
I like how you can get audio logs of him talking about his life and Sage, his AI, who becomes more to him. He begins loving her as his own daughter! I think we'll see her again, to antagonise Sonic.
At the end of the day, it feels like another of Sonic Team's 'experiments', which they've been doing on and off with the franchise since the late 00's.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Jan 25, 2024 14:50:01 GMT
"Sonic, but a bullet hell" accually sounds interesting.
But yeah, Sonic Team does seem to have a lot of trouble with the concept of 'Let's just make a Sonic game', don't they?
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Post by Imperial Khador on Feb 4, 2024 2:12:30 GMT
Finished up Super Paper Mario for the Wii, played on the Wii U.
I really enjoyed this one, which was the case when I last played it when it was new. I think the 2D/3D gimmick was fun, and writing and localization was consistently amusing. I get that this was a departure from the previous games by being more of a puzzle platformer with RPG elements, but I still think it worked quite well.
My few minor gripes of it were mostly due to control limitations when using the Wiimote. There are points in the game when you're switching between both characters and pixels quite a bit, and constantly going back to the menu is a bit of a chore. With a more standard controller, I think each could have been set to their own button for toggling. But, that's a pretty minor gripe over all.
Not sure if I'll go on to Sticker Star yet. Might be Paper Mario-ed out for a bit.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Feb 11, 2024 15:02:06 GMT
Picked up River City Girls on the PS5 while it was on sale, and finished it in about 3 days.
No surprise that I quite enjoyed this one, as I did with its predecessor. Slightly bigger world, new fighters, etc. That's about all it needed to do, since the formula for the first one worked so well, and it delivered.
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Cervantes
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
A former Incompetent Evil Commander (XP: 2423)
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Post by Cervantes on Feb 12, 2024 7:52:16 GMT
Imperial Khador - Among this new wave of 2d beat'em ups, River City Girls looks like the most interesting one to me. Talking about beat'em ups, what I really wish is that Dragon's Crown gets a PC port someday. Or any Vanillaware game, for that matter.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Feb 12, 2024 12:58:33 GMT
Finished up Monster Tale for the DS, played on the 3DS.
Saw this on a recent Game Sack episode, and it caught my interest. It was a very solid, short-ish Metroidvania. Platforming is a bit slow paced, but the large amount of monster abilities you can unlock give you a lot of variety for different play styles. I quick-travel point system would have been nice, as there is definitely a lot of backtracking on this one. All in all, a very good late-DS release.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Feb 28, 2024 0:54:56 GMT
Finished up "Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name" on the PS5. This was a nice, shorter Yakuza game. It was fun playing as Kiryu again, and his 'Agent' fighting style, particularly the Spider gadget, was really fun against large groups of enemies. Looking forward to playing Infinite Wealth sometime later this year.
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centipede
CGR Undertow Groupie
It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on Mar 3, 2024 23:07:30 GMT
I finished Arzette: Jewel of Faramore a few days ago.
The plot reads like a fan sequel of the Zelda CDi games. It starts off with a tale of how the evil Ganon Daimur was sealed in a magic book, only to be released by the traitorous Duke Nodelki of Amelog (anagrams of Duke Onkled and Gamelon, with a letter changed), who had been previously sentenced to scrub all the floors in the Kingdom.
If you watched the original CDi footage, you, will see references everywhere. Even to Castlevania.
I felt like I was playing a Mega CD game. Platforming simple enough for an 8 year old, 16-bit graphics combined with an inoffensive early 90s soundtrack.
Lots of fetch quests and the bosses were easy to learn. Last boss was underwhelming. Dodge the books and hit him once.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Mar 11, 2024 20:42:49 GMT
Finished up 'The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails' for the PS4, played on the PS5.
This is a bit of a weird one....
Falcom's "Trails" series, set on the continent of Zemuria, is already a spinoff of their "The Legend of Heroes" series, which was itself a spinoff of their "Dragon Slayer" series.
The decision to group this game with "Trails" is a bit of an odd decision. It's not a turn-based JRPG, but more of an adventure game along the lines of their Ys series. It doesn't take place on Zemuria, or even apparently on the same words, and while it does deal with world-threatening events, it is a bit more of a simplistic, all-ages tale. None of which are bad things.
There are some things are thematically similar to the Zemuria-set Trails games, and some possible connections, as the later Zemuria-set entries do get a bit into the existence of other worlds, though I won't get more spoilery than that.
As an adventure game, it's solid fun. It's important to remember when playing that this a remaster of a 2012-era PSP game, so the game does feel like it's broken up into small chunks suitable for play on a portable system.
I would say that in terms of appearance, the character models and such are kind of half-way between Ys Seven, and Ys Memories of Celceta. They're blocky, like Ys Seven, but have more details.
Although an adventure game, it isn't exactly like its Ys contemporaries. There's no three party-member system, or three-elemental weapon system like those Ys started using after Ys VI.
About the only negative thing I can really point out is the post-game 'After Story' chapter....which has enjoyable story moments....but involves replaying through new versions of many of the levels of the game, just to level grind enough to face the final boss. It ends up being a lot more gameplay for a lot less story advancement than any of the preceding chapters, and I found it tedious.
All in all though, I enjoyed it.
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centipede
CGR Undertow Groupie
It was just one soy latte, I swear!
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Post by centipede on Mar 26, 2024 12:36:13 GMT
Finished Steamworld Dig, after 10 and a half hours of play. Dig, whack enemies, sell loot, upgrade, solve a few puzzles, repeat. A game for filthy casuals like me.
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centipede
CGR Undertow Groupie
It was just one soy latte, I swear!
Posts: 2,781
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Post by centipede on Mar 26, 2024 12:46:30 GMT
I live very close to WayForward. They have very solid games. What can you tell us about their offices or the people who work there?
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stratogustav
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Warrior with Bandana
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Post by stratogustav on Mar 26, 2024 19:09:17 GMT
I used to drive by it, but never went inside or anything. I think they made the new Contra. I remember they also did Contra 4 back in the day. So they having a relationship with Konami means they are quite capable.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Apr 1, 2024 23:58:15 GMT
Finished up Evoland 2 on PC
It was good fun. Less of a parody of the JRPG and adventure genres that the first entry, it adds some other genres in to mixed effect. The side and vertical horizontal shooter levels were particularly tedious, but I had fun with the game overall. If anything, I think they could have toned the parody and references down by about 75%, as the story stands well enough on its own, and the constant references took me out of it more than once.
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dschult3
Off-Brand Transformable Robot
The true heir to the Monado.
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Post by dschult3 on Apr 3, 2024 12:40:54 GMT
I finally finished Y's VIII again. I took my time, because my daughter, who is in 1st grade, begged me to only play when she was around. She cried at the end. She loved Dana so much. I think I know who will be playing my small collections of RPGs when she gets older.
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Post by Imperial Khador on Apr 3, 2024 14:24:16 GMT
I finally finished Y's VIII again. I took my time, because my daughter, who is in 1st grade, begged me to only play when she was around. She cried at the end. She loved Dana so much. I think I know who will be playing my small collections of RPGs when she gets older. That sounds like a great memory that you have together now
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