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| karasu99 752th Post
  
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|  "Re(2):Ai o torimodose!" , posted Sun 18 Sep 03:05:  
quote:
As a conclusion to my Musou dilemma in the last thread, I would like to say thanks for the input for Karasu and Grave. I picked up Musou 6/Dynasty Warriors 7 and love it. The story mode is really nice this time around and an excellent representation of the novels. The game is still Musou for better or worse, but it fixes enough of my old complaints and delights me enough with the presentation to warrant the purchase.
I was itching for 3 Kingdoms so bad, I was about to read the novels again, but this does the trick quite nicely.
That's great! I'm glad I was able to help. I've been enjoying DW7 quite a bit still, to the point of being almost done the Jin story mode. I think given that you're required to play as certain characters has made it more interesting for me overall since in earlier games I would invariably get stuck using a favorite whenever possible. I plan on playing campaign mode (or whatever they call it) when I'm done with Jin. I may even pick up the expansion disc when it come out in a few months, assuming I'm able to get through much of the game in the meantime. We'll see how that turns out.
In turn I should thank you as well Polly, since I just ordered a set of the Three Kingdoms novels (and Outlaws of the Marsh!) just now, after your mention of them. I've been leaning on the Musou series for my knowledge of Three Kingdoms history for way too long.
EDIT:
quote:
Those itching for an "Outlaws of The Marsh" fix should check this one instead...
WHOA! I most certainly will! I've been away from the series since the very first game, poorly translated for the US market on the PS1.
www.secret-arts.com
[this message was edited by karasu99 on Sun 18 Sep 03:08] |
| maese 654th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(3):Ai o torimodose!" , posted Sun 18 Sep 06:55
quote:
In turn I should thank you as well Polly, since I just ordered a set of the Three Kingdoms novels (and Outlaws of the Marsh!) just now, after your mention of them. I've been leaning on the Musou series for my knowledge of Three Kingdoms history for way too long.
EDIT:
Those itching for an "Outlaws of The Marsh" fix should check this o
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Ack, Hayato beat me to it... A brand new Gensou Suikoden should be good news enough to have me dancing naked on the streets, but it seems this one is gonna go the Tierkreis path again and won't be related in any way to the marvelous and awesome main series we all know and love. Awww, I feel like shutting myself up on my den and crying for a whole week...
And for those who are about to enter the marvelous world of Three Kingdoms and etc., welcome to the club of classic chinese novel's lovers! You will find that the original texts are even more over-the-top than what any game, manga or movie adaptation could ever dream. I have yet to see anything on any media that matches the sheer awesomeness of certain chapters of Outlaws of the Marsh. Indeed, there's no way like the chinese gallant way!
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| Pollyanna 3122th Post
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| "Re(4):Ai o torimodose!" , posted Sun 18 Sep 08:07
quote:
I've been enjoying DW7 quite a bit still, to the point of being almost done the Jin story mode. I think given that you're required to play as certain characters has made it more interesting for me overall since in earlier games I would invariably get stuck using a favorite whenever possible.
I like how you will sometimes switch generals in the middle of a battle. It adds a nice touch to the storytelling.
I didn't play the last game, so maybe this is nothing new, but I also like the variety of musou moves as well. Rather than the "walk forward and destroy everything" kind, there are a lot that are selectively useful or more difficult to hit with.
One of my favorite parts of the novel was Sun Ce's somewhat pathetic sorcerer-related demise. The game makes it a bit bore dramatic and paints a nicer picture of him, but follows the book in a gratifying way all the same. I'm finding more of that in this game than any Koei game in the past.
I think the books will treat you well. If you're familiar with the Musou games, it's a lot easier to put faces to names...because there are a lot of names.
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A brand new Gensou Suikoden should be good news enough to have me dancing naked on the streets, but it seems this one is gonna go the Tierkreis path again and won't be related in any way to the marvelous and awesome main series we all know and love.
Konami dropped the ball so long ago that I don't know if there's any point in picking it back up again. I felt like the plot for the series as a whole was really taking off after the end of Suiko 3, only to have two mostly-irrelevant sequels and Tierkreis. It's been so long since the "core plotline" has been touched on, it wouldn't make much sense to continue it (and who knows if it'd be any good, anyway).
Speaking of times long past, I wonder if Konami has the staff to make a new Suiko game. I imagine it's outsourced, but to who?
quote:
I have yet to see anything on any media that matches the sheer awesomeness of certain chapters of Outlaws of the Marsh. Indeed, there's no way like the chinese gallant way!
Maybe I'll finally pick up Outlaws of the Marsh. I read Journey West and Three Kingdoms, so I might as well finish the "Triad".
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Gojira 2792th Post
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| "Re(4):Ai o torimodose!" , posted Sun 18 Sep 19:21
quote:
Ack, Hayato beat me to it... A brand new Gensou Suikoden should be good news enough to have me dancing naked on the streets, but it seems this one is gonna go the Tierkreis path again and won't be related in any way to the marvelous and awesome main series we all know and love. Awww, I feel like shutting myself up on my den and crying for a whole week...
I almost teared up, then I saw PSP. Oh well.
I disliked Tierkreis, but not being linked to the main series lore was the least of my complaints. Everything about it was just nothing like a Suikoden title. The character graphics were these ugly squashed 3D models, the plot leaned more on fantasy than war, the battle engine was wrong, there were no runes, or duels, or strategic battles, or a fun mini-game for the castle. It didn't even have 108 stars IIRC. It could have passed for an above-average Final Fantasy spinoff, but not Suikoden.
I think as long as this new game manages to feel like the main series, that's really all I'm asking for.
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| maese 657th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(5):Ai o torimodose!" , posted Sun 18 Sep 20:06
quote:
Konami dropped the ball so long ago that I don't know if there's any point in picking it back up again. I fe
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I remember reading somewhere that the original Suikoden team was disbanded a while ago... So Konami has virtually lost all its RPG know-how. I think the situations is explained here. Thus, for better or worse this new GenSui is going to be developed by TriAce, while having the same director as the previous Tierkreis.
Regarding Konami's loss of RPG mastery, as you probably already know, Yoshitaka Murayama, director, scenario writer and, well, "father" of the first Suikodens, left Konami for good on the middle of GenSui 3's development (which explains why, while being arguably the best game on the series, it had certain parts that seemed kind of half baked). Recently there were some rumors of him receiveng an offer from "certain company" and "crossing the proverbial Rubicon" again, but seemingly it all ended in nothing. So the good ol' GenSui is lost forever, it seems.
quote:
Outlaws of the Marsh goodness
I thoroughly recommend everybody to read this book, specially if you liked RoTK and Journey to the West. While it has its flaws and surely can get repetitive, it has plenty of awesome moments. The first book is one of the most memorable reads you'll ever find. But be warned: gallant and corageous as they might be, this is a tale of wrecked brigands and rebellious outcasts, so certain passages can be a bit difficult to stomach. Albeit thoroughly enjoyable, I wouldn't call it exactly an edifying read... Not in vain the old chinese saying advised the youth not to read "Outlaws of the Marsh" and the old not to read "Three Kingdoms"!
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| karasu99 752th Post
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| "Re(6): Where is everybody?" , posted Wed 21 Sep 01:29
Even though it's hardly news, I thought I would point out that Golden Fantasia X's demo is allegedly available in the X360 Japan store. Anybody try it so far? I probably won't have time before the weekend, since it's hard to bother with going to all the trouble when I don't especially like the character design or anything. Although, it is a 2D fighter and all.
In other 'news', I finally had a chance last weekend to try out the 2D Bloodrayne game and El Shaddai demos. I applaud the careful animation work present in Bloodrayne, but the game was just, well, DULL, with an even higher level of repetition than I had already resigned myself to accepting. I'll pass, but again, great job on the animation! As for El Shaddai, I'm really torn. It's beautiful in a lot of ways-- it's arty, atmospheric, beautiful... but it just wasn't any fun to play. Maybe it gets better in the full game ? I just found it, too, to be repetitive and a little boring in terms of gameplay, which stinks since it's so gorgeous in a lot of ways. And sadly with my budget right now I can't justify dropping $60 on a game that feels like it should have been released for $15 on Steam or download for the PSP, in which case I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat. Argh, it kills me to say that, but... yeah.
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| Mosquiton 1795th Post
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| "Re(7): Where is everybody?" , posted Wed 21 Sep 03:19:
Yeah where is everybody? I just got back from Japan and I'm all jet-lagged and what not. So I will post about games now. Yeah!
First since you mention El Shaddai and Blood Rayne, I think the former is a little more interesting than your initial impressions lead you to believe. BR, though, is maybe my least-favorite Way Forward game ever, not counting the DS chat program. The controls just feel really imprecise... I can't properly position myself and every hit feels like a cheap shot. I put it down after a few minutes.
But I played a few games at TGS. I'm looking forward to Dragon's Dogma now after stomping the hell out of the Chimera boss in the floor demo. I love that you can use shoulder button modifiers to do a diagonal upwards slash, two types of shield bash, and some cool power attacks... although without any stamina system or whatever it does seem a bit easy to spam fast, high damage hits. Lots of fun though!
I also messed around a good bit with Lili in SF x Tekken. She has nice juggle ability on nearly all her EX moves, and as such can do some pretty stylish looking damage. I don't think they have the game systems and feel totally figured out though... the 123tag->super combo still seems to be the alpha and omega and it just seems really thrown together. The health bars seem criminally small with a lot of oh-shit-match-over-already moments, and I think the pandora system is a really weird and dumb idea. They have time to keep working on the game in general though.
Oh, and Max Anarchy Reigns Forever Platinum seems kind of okay. And the Saint Seiya DW clone looks WAY radder than Hokuto no Ken's Musou spinoff. Anyone vaguely interested should watch the trailer
/ / /
[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Wed 21 Sep 04:50] |
| karasu99 753th Post
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| "Re(9): Where is everybody?" , posted Wed 21 Sep 06:13
quote:
Yeah where is everybody?
The party has only started, everyone should join! Toxico said he'd pay for the drinks.
Ohoho, I've always wanted to see Chile! Maybe now is the time.
quote:
First since you mention El Shaddai and Blood Rayne, I think the former is a little more interesting than your initial impressions lead you to believe
Hum, I may yet try it out since, like I said, it's GORGEOUS, and I want to love it. Plus it's strange and I feel like I haven't had a good strange game since Bayonetta Shadows of the Damned Catherine ... well, let's just say it's been a while. Unless anyone can suggest an alternative strange game?
Still, El Shaddai could have had a much better demo, if the game itself is actually good. With Bayonetta, I actually played the demo something like 4 times to completion and enjoyed every moment of the full game.
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| Pollyanna 3123th Post
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| "Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Wed 21 Sep 06:45
If El Shaddai was super cheap and I had lots of spare time, I'd play it, but its particular balance of beauty and mediocrity doesn't do it for me.
On top of Black Rock Shooter, Xillia and Dynasty Warriors 7, I got Gears of War 3 today, so I'm pretty booked. GOW has always been too manly for me, but I'm hoping now that I can at least pick a girl, it won't make me grow chest hair and/or a pair of cantaloupe-sized testicles.
quote:
Even though it's hardly news, I thought I would point out that Golden Fantasia X's demo is allegedly available in the X360 Japan store. Anybody try it so far? I probably won't have time before the weekend, since it's hard to bother with going to all the trouble when I don't especially like the character design or anything. Although, it is a 2D fighter and all.
A played a bit of the PC version and thought it would make for a pretty decent game if it had a little better balance and a few more characters. The music and spritework were really good, but the game just wasn't quite there. I'm hoping that the 360 version ironed things out nicely, but I don't know if I can justify the purchase.
I mean, I doubt it'll be good to play online, since most players will be in Japan and there probably won't be many to begin with. If you don't have friends who are interested and/or you're not big into Umineko, it just doesn't seem worth it. Maybe if we were in the middle of a 2D fighter drought, but that isn't really the case.
Also, I know I've posted this before, but it still has the best character select music ever.
Heavy metal version
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| karasu99 754th Post
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| "Re(2):Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Wed 21 Sep 07:30
quote:
If El Shaddai was super cheap and I had lots of spare time, I'd play it, but its particular balance of beauty and mediocrity doesn't do it for me.
Agreed, that's exactly how I feel. It sucks, and I really wish the timing of its US release had been different. I want to encourage the release of games like it that can be beautiful, rather than bland, but... argh, I just don 't have the cash.
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On top of Black Rock Shooter, Xillia and Dynasty Warriors 7, I got Gears of War 3 today, so I'm pretty booked. GOW has always been too manly for me, but I'm hoping now that I can at least pick a girl, it won't make me grow chest hair and/or a pair of cantaloupe-sized testicles.
You're braver than I am-- I tried about 20 minutes of the first Gears game and it was enough to convince me to stay far away. It's not that I dislike it because I have that whole East vs West thing-- I just found it to be completely unappealing, from the design to the story to the gameplay. As it is I'm still up to my ears in DW7 and Black Rock Shooter (thanks for the recommendation, I love it!) and the DW7 expansion is coming before too long. Plus I think Catherine still has another play in it for me as well.
quote:
Even though it's hardly news, I thought I would point out that Golden Fantasia X's demo is allegedly available in the X360 Japan store. Anybody try it so far? I probably won't have time before the weekend, since it's hard to bother with going to all the trouble when I don't especially like the character design or anything. Although, it is a 2D fighter and all.
A played a bit of the PC version and thought it would make for a pretty decent game if it had a little better balance and a few more characters. The music and spritework were really good, but the game just wasn't quite there. I'm hoping that the 360 version ironed things out nicely, but I don't know if I can justify the purchase.
I mean, I doubt it'll be good to play online, since most players will be in Japan and there probably won't be many to begin with. If you don't have friends who are interested and/or you're not big into Umineko, it just doesn't seem worth it. Maybe if we were in the middle of a 2D fighter drought, but that isn't really the case.
True. Plus it will be astronomically priced for the US market. I'll pay it for a Cave shooter, but not for a mediocre 2D fighter. Now if you had told me it was fantastic, that might be a different matter.
www.secret-arts.com
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| nobinobita 988th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member++
| "Things Take Too Many Hits To Kill!" , posted Wed 21 Sep 09:01:
I just played the Demo for El Shaddai and it won me over with its unique art direction. I actually didn't like the first screens and movies I saw of the game, but seeing it in person I felt very immersed, and that's the most important quality of a game for me.
I do agree that the gameplay is a bit repetitive though.
Actually, it's a prime example of one of my least favorite trends in videogames of the last decade: Everything takes too many dang hits to kill.
Are there any modern games where you can kill things with decisive, well timed blows?
I mean like in Castlevania or Shinobi or the original Ninja Gaiden. This isn't just a nostalgia trip thing, there's just a simple pleasure in gauging distance, timing your jump or dash and pressing attack at the precise moment.
Most current action games make me feel like I'm mowing the lawn. I'm just an unstoppable train of combos mowing down enemies left and right. There's very little timing involved, I just vaguely point myself in the direction of the enemy and mash the attack buttons. The worst part is that they don't even go down right away, I have to keep chipping away at them, even if they're just faceless grunts.
Even in shooters, you can't take a guy out with one shot (unless it's a head shot), you have to shoot them a dozen times in the chest.
Are there any modern games where the basic unit of damage is a single, well timed hit? As opposed to a full combo?
www.art-eater.com
[this message was edited by nobinobita on Wed 21 Sep 09:02] |
| karasu99 755th Post
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| "Re(1):Things Take Too Many Hits To Kill!" , posted Thu 22 Sep 00:29
quote:
I just played the Demo for El Shaddai and it won me over with its unique art direction. I actually didn't like the first screens and movies I saw of the game, but seeing it in person I felt very immersed, and that's the most important quality of a game for me.
I do agree that the gameplay is a bit repetitive though.
Actually, it's a prime example of one of my least favorite trends in videogames of the last decade: Everything takes too many dang hits to kill.
Are there any modern games where you can kill things with decisive, well timed blows?
I mean like in Castlevania or Shinobi or the original Ninja Gaiden. This isn't just a nostalgia trip thing, there's just a simple pleasure in gauging distance, timing your jump or dash and pressing attack at the precise moment.
Most current action games make me feel like I'm mowing the lawn. I'm just an unstoppable train of combos mowing down enemies left and right. There's very little timing involved, I just vaguely point myself in the direction of the enemy and mash the attack buttons. The worst part is that they don't even go down right away, I have to keep chipping away at them, even if they're just faceless grunts.
Even in shooters, you can't take a guy out with one shot (unless it's a head shot), you have to shoot them a dozen times in the chest.
Are there any modern games where the basic unit of damage is a single, well timed hit? As opposed to a full combo?
That's a really great point about things taking too many hits to kill-- I agree, and I think it's a complex problem to encapsulate and even harder to think of a solution that doesn't also cause a whole lot of problems in the opposite direction. I think originally combos became common because a) they're pretty realistic. Games like Shinobi aren't as realistic since a single hit kills almost all of the standard grunts. Also, b) if everything takes a single hit to kill, the levels ends pretty quickly. So it's a way to extend levels semi-artificially.
Anyway, I'll break my ramble and say that I'm not really sure that there's a modern game that addresses this problem. On top of that, some games (like the El Shaddai demo, incidentally) are so uneven in terms of what it takes to kill something that I was never quite sure how many hits it took to kill anything. Sometimes the standard grunt dude took like 5 hits to kill, other times he took 10. I dunno.
As for El Shaddai in general, I'd love to give it another chance, because I don't think it's a bad game-- I love the style a lot and maybe I'll discuss it a bit elsewhere-- but sadly it will have to wait until it drops at least a bit in price. It raises an interesting question though, about how companies put together demo versions of the full product, and which ones don't represent the finished game very well.
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| Spoon 2240th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(2):Things Take Too Many Hits To Kill!" , posted Thu 22 Sep 02:00
I've been tooting my horn about this for a long time, but probably not here.
It's actually only in a few particular genre games that this is really evident, but the cases of it stick out so sharply in my mind that I've come to think that it's a more prevalent thing than it really is. For instance, one of my biggest complaints about MW and the like is that none of the guns in single player feel very powerful because everything dies in a single burst/headshot no matter what gun it is you are using.
But the "everything is too durable" issue is particularly evident in all the games that have been inspired by RE4/Gears, though. Trying to enumerate all of the things inside Gears that make it what it is and how it differentiated itself from the FPS games that preceded it is a whole other discussion, though I think a few key parts of its feel include making all of your actions including movement very deliberate (in stark contrast to the 90s-era PC FPS games where you frequently had to be constantly moving for the sake of being constantly moving), and giving the game a chunkiness and slowness that fit the console control scheme (as opposed to the lightning-fast uber-precision of the mouse/keyboard). Part of that involved making everything more durable.
If you look at Mass Effect 2 and RE5, both contain systems that count how many consecutive shots/headshots you have fired and hit and how many times you've been hit/how much damage you have recently taken and scales enemy durability accordingly. In both games, it's not at all uncommon for headshots to NOT kill normal enemies, and for it to stay that way as the player does well. It's kind of fun that this system is really quite hidden from the player... I remember back when Zanac touted this sort of dynamic game difficulty adaptation as a central selling point of the game!
The worst problem of Gears which also manifests itself in ME2 is the weak hit reaction enemies have to being shot. I've had this sort of video game upbringing that goes from just around 8-bit-era where I was used to the notion that getting hit equates to knockback/invuln/something substantial, to SF2 where getting hit was AMAZING, to the early PC FPS games where getting hit had no gameplay effect on the player unless it was a rocket, back to fighting (IN THE 90s!) games where hit effects were tremendous, and.... eventually to now. I'm of the opinion that when an enemy gets hit and doesn't react to it in some significant way, that should be something special rather than something commonplace; that should be Gold Armor War Machine or Juggernaut, not ordinary Gears grunt #12364532164 just going on his way while you riddle him with Lancer bullets. Or it's a shoot'em up, in which case the rules go out the window.
I'm not sure if it feels even more laborious when a game actually manages to even somewhat decently sell impacts, but still makes the enemies tremendously durable. I do know that the last few levels of God Hand were by far the ones I enjoyed the least because the grunt enemies were so durable, though.
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| Nekros 396th Post
Silver Customer
| "Re(3):Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Sat 24 Sep 18:31
quote:
You're braver than I am-- I tried about 20 minutes of the first Gears game and it was enough to convince me to stay far away. It's not that I dislike it because I have that whole East vs West thing-- I just found it to be completely unappealing, from the design to the story to the gameplay.
Same here. Never liked gears after 20 minutes of the first game. Unappealing is the right word to describe it,I find also the art style terrible, generic and dull (Warhammer 40000 wannabe imho) and the whole gameplay fast-pace and polished but repetitive as hell. In terms of shooter games I like something with more personality, better art and game design (like Half-Life or the first Bioshock), and in general anything different from the whole army-dudebro cliche that I can't stand no more.
El Shaddai on the other hand is the opposite, amazingly conceived and clever in some choices (the whole jew religion thing has always a magnetic effect to me), but poorly executed in terms of gameplay. Precisely: controls. The gameplay is not bad per se, but the controls don't work fine at all, especially in platforming sessions, with imprecise jump and physics (especially the landing, reminds me of post-DC Sonic games). I like the game as it is, but I think it would have been way better. The final product is not like the demo in the beginning, although boring sessions like that are still present in the game (I find the demo inferior to the whole product).
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| Pollyanna 3124th Post
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| "Re(4):Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Sun 25 Sep 20:32
For what it's worth, since I'm usually a shameless Japanophile, I've really enjoyed GoW3 thus far.
I can't speak for the other games, but the design work that went into the settings in this one are quite incredible. The cities you visit are some of the best environments I've seen in any game. Some of the enemy designs and animations are top-notch as well.
I only wish the characters looked half that good. Maybe they stuck with their old designs and amped up everything else around them? Maybe they're not supposed to look anything like people? Is it supposed to be kind of cartoony? And I'm not just talking about how bulky everyone is. Anya's hair, for example, looks like it was rendered 15 years ago.
But whatever. It's a great game. My only real problem is that it's kind of...too perfect...too calculated in a way that makes it a little dull. All the segments are just the right length, with just the right level of challenge and just the right number of boss fights with just the right amount of cinemas. All the scenes that you're used to seeing you see...shooting while driving, holding off the enemy at the gate, using the turret gun on something huge, the guy heroically staying behind when you probably could've managed just fine...it's the pinnacle of "epic game", I guess. I may not have played it better, but I feel like I've played it before.
As a result, I don't find it terribly compelling, even if it doesn't give me much to complain about. I'm only about halfway. Maybe my opinion will change later. Playing it 4 player with friends must be a splendid experience and I'm interested to see how online goes as well.
But for now, I've gone back to Tales of Xillia, because that just draws me in a little more.
SIDE NOTE
On the subject of enemies taking too many hits, I do have a difficult time determining what kind of damage I'm doing in GoW3. Having a sniper headshot not kill something leaves me wondering if the weapon is worth anything at all.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| karasu99 758th Post
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| "Re(5):Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Mon 26 Sep 02:12
quote:
I only wish the characters looked half that good. Maybe they stuck with their old designs and amped up everything else around them? Maybe they're not supposed to look anything like people? Is it supposed to be kind of cartoony? And I'm not just talking about how bulky everyone is. Anya's hair, for example, looks like it was rendered 15 years ago.
Gah, character design in so many of these sort of western AAA games is really, really awful seeming, in an 'everybody is three feet wide', square-headed, soul-patch-having, bandana-wearing sort of way. I know there are tons of exceptions, and I know the way a game looks isn't everything, but... yeah. And poorly rendered hair is for me just the tip of the iceberg.
quote:
On the subject of enemies taking too many hits, I do have a difficult time determining what kind of damage I'm doing in GoW3. Having a sniper headshot not kill something leaves me wondering if the weapon is worth anything at all.
I think this sort of artificial durability is also a way to extend the length of the game. A headshot not taking someone out is pretty silly, even in the kind of game where a leg shot doesn't knock someone down. For me, I'd rather have the enemies be harder to hit that to have them take ten headshots to kill.
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| Ishmael 4222th Post
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| "Re(7):Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Mon 26 Sep 22:25
quote:
Gah, character design in so many of these sort of western AAA games is really, really awful seeming, in an 'everybody is three feet wide', square-headed, soul-patch-having, bandana-wearing sort of way. I know there are tons of exceptions, and I know the way a game looks isn't everything, but... yeah. And poorly rendered hair is for me just the tip of the iceberg.
Just think of it like this:
remember in the 80s where the villain characters and jobbers were mostly either midgets or WWF wrestlers (e.g. HnK)?
That's what we have here... though I would be tremendously more entertained if the various muscle-bound dudes of Gears were presented in bright Technicolor dreamcoat glory.
Oiled, muscled men with giant guns designed to compensate for sexual inadequacies shoot aliens have always been in games but they used to know that there are more colors in the world than just brown. Dig those pastel headbands!
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| Nekros 399th Post
Silver Customer
| "Re(8):Re(10): Where is everybody?" , posted Tue 27 Sep 00:15
quote:
Gah, character design in so many of these sort of western AAA games is really, really awful seeming, in an 'everybody is three feet wide', square-headed, soul-patch-having, bandana-wearing sort of way. I know there are tons of exceptions, and I know the way a game looks isn't everything, but... yeah. And poorly rendered hair is for me just the tip of the iceberg.
Just think of it like this:
remember in the 80s where the villain characters and jobbers were mostly either midgets or WWF wrestlers (e.g. HnK)?
That's what we have here... though I would be tremendously more entertained if the various muscle-bound dudes of Gears were presented in bright Technicolor dreamcoat glory.
Oiled, muscled men with giant guns designed to compensate for sexual inadequacies shoot aliens have always been in games but they used to know that there are more colors in the world than just brown. Dig those pastel headbands!
Indeed, I always preferred Probotector sprites, especially the colorless Gameboy rendition.
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| maese 658th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(2):SDATCHER" , posted Fri 30 Sep 18:02
quote:
over 120 characters want to team up with Nobunaga in order to fight demons.
And who wouldn't? 
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| .: : : Vﾊ ::::: /:/ 'ﾞ :V :::::::Vｿ_) V/ ヾ;
::::::. Vﾊ.::: /:/{: fう .ﾉ :::::::ﾘ '⌒ヽ i′ .}}
. ', ＿ :::::_｝ゞ彡ﾞ ヾ__,. ''´ .:::::V＾)::::｝| ﾘ
. vｰ-￣二ﾆﾆ弍, ヾﾐ=‐''" :::::::ﾊ ゝノ ! 〃
r''ﾞ´fう }} }i ヽ .::::::,':::::',_rtﾉヾ; 〃
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Vヘ, rｯｯッッッｯ=彡 .::/:. :::::ﾞ|{ |
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| Pollyanna 3129th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(4):Omnibus games" , posted Fri 14 Oct 17:31
quote:
I don't get this analogy. Dark Souls and Zelda are nothing alike. One is more of a roguelike and the other...has dungeons where combat is only part of the challenge and progression is more of figuring out how to get to the next room. I'd say the only thing they'd probably have in common is...a crafting system? And even that's not something typical in a Zelda game, as this installemnt to be the most departed from the typical structure since Majora's Mask.
Maybe our perception is just wildly different, but I take it you haven't played Dark Souls? I don't see how it's anything like a roguelike. Roguelikes are characterized by randomization, are usually turn-based and have some sort of permanent death/loss. Other than the chance that you might lose your souls/money, Dark Souls has none of those things.
But maybe we're thinking of different Zelda games as well. I'm mostly thinking of Twilight Princess in this case. Comparing it to that, the combat system takes a similar approach (locking on, in particular), and it has a similar method of progression. You have large areas to explore as you like with tons of extra stuff, eclectic NPCs scattered across the game, a rich world, but few actual cinemas, "dungeon" and "overhead map" areas that are functionally the same and boss fights that usually require a specific form of strategy.
In contrast, Dark Souls is more open-ended in terms of what you can do in what order (as well as how you can effect the world), though you still have major plot "turning points." Also, although there are some traditional puzzles/traps, most of the things you have to figure out are more combat-centric. To make another analogy, in terms of puzzles, Zelda is more like ICO and Dark Souls is more like Shadow of the Collosus, where Zelda has you solving environmental puzzles and Dark Souls has you solving monster-related puzzles. I guess I see Zelda and Dark Souls as the same kind of game in the same way that I see ICO and Shadow as the same type of game.
I don't mean to discredit Zelda in any way, I was just frequently reminded of it while I played Dark Souls. In the case of the new Zelda, it's a matter of DS appealing to my sensibilities a little better. Kind of like if a fantastic new KOF came out and a new SF(4) was coming out a month later. I'm sure SF would still be great, but I'd have to give some time after KOF before I'd be terribly interested.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| KTallguy 1346th Post
PSN: Hunter-KT
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(5):Omnibus games" , posted Fri 14 Oct 19:07:
Dark Souls has similarities to Zelda, but the focus in Zelda is using in game tools introduced at an incremental rate to solve specific puzzles more often than not. Like using the boomerang to trigger switches, for instance. When someone plays Zelda, they will more or less have the exact same experience as someone else playing Zelda, in general.
Dark/Demons Souls is much more free in terms of how you solve things, and there is a lot more variety in play styles. You can rely on a lot of ranged combat, for instance. Or you can focus on mobility. Or you can create a walking tank that can't move fast but absorbs damage. There are so many variations that different people will have distinct memories of how they got past certain areas.
Dark Souls doesn't have an entirely linear progression, however you are gated in until you defeat certain bosses. So the content you are experiencing is "generally" in the same order as your peers, just the way you tackle that content can vary.
Just throwing this out there, if you want a Zelda Dungeon Like game that is ALSO a Roguelike, check out this game: The Binding of Isaac.
Trailer:
http://youtu.be/BiZ6mMlOF7c
Demo, playable online!!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/581168
I love love love this game :)
It's a roguelike combined with a shmup combined with Zelda level design combined with funny art, great music and a very non-politically correct concept. It's a bit grotesque though, fair warning.
[/enthusiastic rant]
Play to win... or to have fun too! :)
[this message was edited by KTallguy on Fri 14 Oct 19:08] |
| Pollyanna 3131th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(6):Omnibus games" , posted Fri 14 Oct 20:19
quote:
"Dark Souls is about the joy of defeating stronger than you and the glee of killing something dumber than you."
Ha! And you feel so smart when you figure something out. I love the wavering feelings of frustration and elation the game gives you, where you start out in a situation and say "this is impossible!" then an hour later you say "that was easy!" There are like...10 thousand wonderful things about the game, but the element of searching for a solution is one of my favorites. There are certainly some ways to rob yourself of a challenge (especially with a bow), but thinking "there has to be a way to do this!" and figuring it out is very gratifying.
Oh oh! And then there's that feeling of superiority when people online complain that there's no way to get past something you just finished (despite the fact that you were in their boat a little while ago).
quote:
There are so many variations that different people will have distinct memories of how they got past certain areas.
Yes. It's wonderful to play the game along with friends and share experiences. I'm constantly saying "Whaaaat!? You did it that way!?
quote:
Just throwing this out there, if you want a Zelda Dungeon Like game that is ALSO a Roguelike, check out this game: The Binding of Isaac.
That doesn't look like my cup of tea, but I have a friend that will most certainly love it. I'll pass along the recommendation.
It certainly looks weird, though! I could figure out what kind of game it was and how it was played from the trailer, but I can't figure out the concept whatsoever!
quote:
Dark Souls and Zelda Skyward Sword seem to be nothing alike, which is a very good thing for both.
I haven't dug up any information on Skyward Sword whatsoever. I thought I would just buy the game and (hopefully) be pleasantly surprised. All I know is that Zelda looks cute in a homely sort of way and there's some awesome looking grey(?) dude?
My big problem with Twilight Princess was that the enemies were almost completely unnecessary. They couldn't really hurt you, but if they weren't there, the game would feel empty. I felt like I got a much more satisfying sense of exploration, discover and puzzle-solving from Mario Galaxy.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Spoon 2248th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(2):Re: Journalistic Rage" , posted Fri 21 Oct 06:48
I do kind of wonder what "game journalism" ought to be about, because it's somewhat different from "real journalism". As much as games want to establish themselves as unique from the other entertainment mediums, when it comes to journalistic coverage of them it's hard to say just how they should be approached differently from the others. Journalism on things like war, politics, the environment, etc. ought to be held to a much higher standard not only because of the seriousness of their subject matter and the real-life effects they have on people's lives, but also because they aren't covering a thing that is really a luxury/fun thing.
Especially considering that games are an entertainment industry and game journalism is still in its infancy, trying to get "hard hitting" journalism that covers "issues that matter" often sounds like a laughable endeavour. Almost like kids trying to sound like adults.
There is the entire business angle, which has some very real-life implications for a lot of people (namely, the people making the games). But more often than not, this is only brought up when crazy/infrequent things happen (e.g. hella ppl get laid off, someone makes a storm about the working lifestyle, etc.). Otherwise, it's a bunch of people working in offices for 8-10 hours a day. It can be interesting anecdotally, but by and large it really doesn't make for interesting news, I can assure you.
There is the technology angle, which is genuinely interesting. Of course, there are things like Gamasutra and GD Magazine which cover this, as well as the internet in general, GDC, etc. While sometimes the benefits of the tech get played way up (or the drawbacks don't get discussed enough), engineers are often very honest about what worked with their tech. This is good stuff, but in detail not something that many can appreciate. Would you be interested in version control systems that try to prevent bad code from being submitted to repositories so that automated builds don't get screwed? Be honest.
Art/music/design are all kind of interesting. We can be critical about what there is and why it's there, and I think there can be some genuinely interesting material that can come out of discussion on it. But there really can't be a lot of honesty or even veracity to it until after the game is done.
If video games are still a highly immature medium, then game journalism is yet more immature. Some of the most interesting stories about games are things that officially a company should not allow out as a press release, nor would the developers want out as a press release. Stories about how annoying enemies in games were named after annoying people on the team who were fired, or how angry messages were hidden in the assembly code of old ROMs, or other such things are great and entertaining, or the personal opinions of some of the people in charge of popular games on their fanbase are things that shouldn't be officially stated, and that they'd be well in their rights not to say if asked about. To me, conceptually, there's just a limit on what game journalism can be taken seriously about, and I'm not sure what can be (or ought to be) done to change that.
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| Professor 3271th Post
MMCafe Owner
     
| "Re(6):Re: Journalistic Rage" , posted Fri 21 Oct 22:45
quote:
No problem with the crdit here, it just feels odd considering all the other people that seem to post news more often, appear to be better informed, and have actually played Castlevania.
The other day I created KoF-i and KoF Encounter articles at the SNK wiki but they were soon deleted by the admin for "being ports of XIII", so so acklowledgement of a relatively smaller contribution here feels odd in contrast, I guess.
Well, it seemed right on spot since Ex-capcom's Inafune's hand..some.. art, was also being mentioned. Overall it's an experimental update, I think I need to revamp the site design to begin with.
I'm not sure how those Smartphone titles, particularly KOF-E, should be considered a port. Social games are not Social (and not fighting games either).
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| Ishmael 4242th Post
PSN: Ishmael26b
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(3):Re: Journalistic Rage" , posted Sat 22 Oct 08:35
quote:
I do kind of wonder what "game journalism" ought to be about, because it's somewhat different from "real journalism".
Personally, I think game criticism is an idea that has not been fully worked out. The way to approach a game and the vocabulary used in the discussion still aren't fully agreed up so any criticism that goes beyond ranking by bullet points can vary wildly depending on the author. Game journalism, however, can borrow a lot of its structure from journalism that covers any other form of popular entertainment. Mostly it will be dressed up press releases, rumors and general silliness with a small section dedicated to discussing the deeper nuts and bolts of the creative process. What I think confused some people about Brandon's interview is that Gamasutra is aimed at people who work on games so his questions, by necessity, have to go beyond PR shilling.
quote:
Well, it seemed right on spot since Ex-capcom's Inafune's hand..some.. art, was also being mentioned. Overall it's an experimental update, I think I need to revamp the site design to begin with.
Between that unrelated "Shin Keiji Inafune" guy who's running around and whatever the hell is going on in that game it seems that Inafune's mid-life crisis is in full swing. Most people just buy a sports car or date someone who's totally wrong for them so it's a surprise to see Inafune channel all that angst into his work. I guess the results could be interesting?
Finally, some live Attorney action. It's not takarazuka but it will do.
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| Maou 2269th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "it's DRACULA WEEK" , posted Mon 24 Oct 10:55:
quote:
Symphony of the Night, how come that's still not on PSN?
Loona, let's make this easy for you, in honor of Halloween and the fact that I finally beat Death in Dracula 1 yesterday! Nocturne/Symphony is only on 360 I'm afraid...but it's also in the Dracula X Chronicle for PSP.
Ignoring the logistics, let's give you some good series entry points...so while I'd love to have the 8 bit ones on here, because Simon and Ralph jump like cretins I'm instead choosing more accessible ones! Cafe denizens, add yours!
1. Nocturne/Symphony was actually my first Dracula. What!? It's true. The wonderful design and music grabbed me and convinced me that I could handle "scary games" if they were baroque and classy. Seeing so many nods to previous Draculas, including having the first level be the final stage of the previous game, drew me into the old 16 bit series. It might for you, too.
2. Dracula SFC/Castlevania "IV" - this is a wonderful introduction, available on Virtual Console I think, with sublime music, reasonable difficulty, and all manner of creative level designs, a tour-de-force for the early Super Famicom. We talked about it a lot last year.
3. Rondo of Blood - available on PSP, Wii (maybe Japanese only), it's a superb bridge between the old platformers and Nocturne. Classy music and level design, tons of alternate routes, dramatic.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Mon 24 Oct 11:31] |
| Grave 1402th Post
PSN: Drakee
XBL: Mikelson
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "it's RETARDED WEEK" , posted Mon 24 Oct 11:51
I love you guys but you need to get your heads in the game! Come on now!
quote:
I recall a lot of praise for Symphony of the Night, how come that's still not on PSN?... Konami has the original MSG in there, what gives?...
quote:
Nocturne/Symphony is only on 360 I'm afraid...but it's also in the Dracula X Chronicle for PSP.
But... it's right there. PS1 Classics section. Wasn't added this year. Or last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that. It's been there since 2007!
quote:
I gave the Harmony of Despair demo a quick spin, but the zoom was kinda crazy, it tried to show the whole ma at once during play with no appanrent way of changing that, so I could barely see lil' Alucard stabbing things and being attcked by even smaller things.
Click the right stick to change zoom, there's 3 levels of it. I kinda like this game. It's this weird CV-meets-Diablo grindy sort of deal, and it seems like any character with a whip has an extreme advantage early on, and with Julius being the best one of those, it's hard to justify picking anyone else, heh.
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| Grave 1403th Post
PSN: Drakee
XBL: Mikelson
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(1):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Mon 24 Oct 12:56
This is going to be long and rambling and I'm going to make no attempt at editing it into something coherent. Because shut up. Here are my important opinions on things:
Well, the first three CV games are a pretty easy way to scare someone who didn't grow up with the series away from the series entirely, as much as it pains me to admit it! 2 would have been impossible without reading a lot of game magazines at the time and I hardly think it's worthwhile today when the SotN-and-beyond games have succeeded so well at what it tried to do. Regarding how obtuse that game can be - I've always wondered if the Japanese version actually gave you the info you need to complete the game via dialogue, or if it was just as insane.
CV1 and 3 do involve a lot of frustration with "Castlevania jumping" but I think it's important to know where the series came from, so don't take that as me telling you to ignore them! I know full well that playing games from that era that you didn't necessarily grow up with can be trying and you might even come to resent them if you can't immediately grasp what draws someone to a series - so maybe developing an appreciation for the basics of what's going on here is the key.
That is to say, a basic appreciation of the walking primarily in one direction, whipping things, periodically changing direction at a different elevation sort of Castlevania! SotN and beyond, as good as they are, are hardly a place to start out. Gothic Metroid etc. So if we're going to look at something that plays well enough for modern sensibilities but is still a CV at heart, your choices would be a bit limited. Right now I'm thinking it's either PCE CD Dracula X, SNES/SFC Castlevania IV, SNES/SFC Dracula XX or the X68000 CV. Dracula XX is arguably the weakest of these, not to mention the hardest to play via legal channels these days. Despite how fond I am of some of the SNES arrangements of the music, it's not worth playing when you can get your hands on the original and far superior game so easily. Note that I didn't mention the PSP version - it's kind of a pointless remake, though if I recall it does contain the original version. Why bother? I have the Wii Virtual Console version and I'm very happy with it on an SDTV. Anyway, moving on.
Dracula X is a wonderful game, and I think it represents the absolute height of what CV games in the classic style were capable of - the art and sound were wonderful, the game feels rock solid and does away with a lot of the baffling concerns of the NES games. Richter is a whole lot less likely to plummet through a staircase to his doom! Far and away it's my favorite of them... but is it the right one for you? Is it? Well...
The X68000 CV, the one you probably know as Castlevania Chronicles, shares something in common with CV4 in that they're both something of a reimagining of the original Castlevania. Kinda. Sorta. They're also very, VERY different games. Both very good games, mind you, but playing one in no way should keep you from playing the other. Comparatively I think CV4 is kind of on the easy side and a lot of its gimmicky moments seem like a goofy SNES tech demo when played today. CV Chronicles still certainly qualifies as something that plays like a more modern sidescroller than the NES games but will also occasionally deliver a savage kick in the dick to remind you that it is the boss and you have to do what it says.
So really, when it comes down to it, I desperately want you to buy CV Chronicles and I want you to love it and I want you to play with the cool new Simon sprite based on the Ayami Kojima artwork too. But if I have to be realistic (please don't make me be realistic) you're going to have a much better time playing Dracula X. Because it's a better game. You should probably buy it.
But CV4 is good too. And so are the NES ones. And the GBA and DS games. And that weirdo Genesis game. And Spanish Castlevania is OK too. Just kind of boring.
Don't play the N64 games.
MORAL: ???????????????
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| sibarraz 287th Post
PSN: n/a
XBL: sibarraz4life
Wii: n/a
Copper Customer
| "Re(4):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 00:38
quote:
I mostly second everything that's been said, but I've talked about these games so much that it seems silly to repeat everything. Dracula X is truly excellent and "Castlevania Chronicles" (or whatever you want to call it) in the same class.
My favorite "new type" CV is Order of Ecclesia. SoTN has a fantastic atmosphere and soundtrack, but it's just a little too easy for me to really get into.
On a side note, I have Harmony of Despair on 360 and lament the fact that I can't do local multiplayer. Has anyone tried it yet? Does it work out nicely?
Also...
Now that I think about it, should I catch up with old times by getting Sengoku Musou 3?
We tend to disagree on things, so I would take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I found Sengoku Musou 3 to be quite horrible. Notably inferior to the latest Sangoku Musou, certainly. If you're looking for non-sluggish semi-historical action on Wii, I'd go for Basara 3 instead.
You can't play locally Castlevania HD which is a shame, I hope to see some patch or dlc one day to had this option
And the game is fun
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| Maese 660th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(1):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 01:46
quote:
Speaking of which, five demerits if you don't list your recommendation for Loona's introduction to the series!
What a week to have a curse!
I think there is little else to add to what's been said, but since this is the random thread and Maou is threathening us anyway, a little Castlevania chat won't hurt.
I guess SotN can be a good entry into the series for somebody who has not ventured into Dracula's castle before: elegant visuals, nice soundtrack and a most pleasurable (albeit a bit easy) gameplay.
If you liked what you saw there, then you can move to the main course, where I'd recommend good ol' Castlevania IV for the entreès and the glorious Rondo of Blood/Dracula X as the main dish. And if you're still hungry for vampiric blood, then any of the GBA titles would make a most decent dessert. But pretty much these are the same as Maou's recommendations, I guess...
Other than that, I keep hearing good things about some of the DS titles, but I have yet to play them (mental note: this Halloween will be a perfect chance to solve that). Oh, and if you're into the retro thing and don't mind midi melodies and crude pixels, most of the oldest titles from the NES and the MSX are real gems as well.
Happy hunting!
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| karasu99 781th Post
PSN: robotchris
XBL: robotchris
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(2):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 02:49
quote:
What a week to have a curse!
I think there is little else to add to what's been said, but since this is the random thread and Maou is threathening us anyway, a little Castlevania chat won't hurt.
I guess SotN can be a good entry into the series for somebody who has not ventured into Dracula's castle before: elegant visuals, nice soundtrack and a most pleasurable (albeit a bit easy) gameplay.
If you liked what you saw there, then you can move to the main course, where I'd recommend good ol' Castlevania IV for the entreès and the glorious Rondo of Blood/Dracula X as the main dish. And if you're still hungry for vampiric blood, then any of the GBA titles would make a most decent dessert. But pretty much these are the same as Maou's recommendations, I guess...
Other than that, I keep hearing good things about some of the DS titles, but I have yet to play them (mental note: this Halloween will be a perfect chance to solve that). Oh, and if you're into the retro thing and don't mind midi melodies and crude pixels, most of the oldest titles from the NES and the MSX are real gems as well.
Happy hunting!
I think my suggestions pretty much follow these as well, although I'd say Ecclesia on the DS is quite nice, although not explicitly as a Castlevania game. I'll also agree with Iggy regarding Rebirth. It's funny that even though I'd never have suggested the GB Castlevanias to a first-timer, its remake is quite fun as an into to the series-- a few years back I would have suggested the Castlevania Chronicle X68000 remake instead. Still, now that Chronicle is on PSN, it's much easier to come by so you may as well try it too.
Even though no one actually asked (and likely no one cares), my own personal favorites in the series are SOTN and Super Castlevania IV; SOTN is at this point so familiar to me (I've probably played it to completion 10 or more times) that it's the game equivalent of comfort food, and IV is a distillation of what I like the most about the original pre-Metroidvania games, but without all the irritation of the slowness and maddening jumps and hit knockback (as in when you get hit by a medusa head and get knocked back, thereby falling into a pit) of the first three games.
I do find it odd that the Mega Drive version has seen only a bit of mentions. It's far from my favorite, but the multiple characters, nice-sized spritework, and nice soundtrack make it something of a sentimental favorite of mine. It's sadly still not available on Virtual Console though as of the last time I checked.
ALSO (and there is always an also with me) I would suggest a play through Dracula XX on the SFC, but only for the interestingly remixed take on Rondo of Blood's music.
As for HoD, I have to say I don't quite care for it. Not really sure what it is that I don't like, but I didn't find it very appealing. Perhaps I should look some of you up for a match or two sometime.
www.secret-arts.com
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| Grave 1405th Post
PSN: Drakee
XBL: Mikelson
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Executive Member
| "Re(3):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 03:13
Hey, I forgot about the PS2 and Xbox (original) entries! Lament of Innocence was OK. Kind of dull, bad environments, competent action. Good monster design from what I remember. I have a copy of Curse of Darkness for Xbox but I'm not gonna hook that thing up unless it's Steel Battalion time. Was it any good?
Re: SotN as "comfort food" game, hah, absolutely. That's exactly how it feels to me as well. I can kind of remember the week when I got it, I was absolutely blown away the first time I saw so many parts of the game and just the scale of the castle felt insane to me at the time, and then the inverted castle...! It's not exactly difficult but good god I love going back to it. I still find out new things about weapons and items every time!
quote:
ALSO (and there is always an also with me) I would suggest a play through Dracula XX on the SFC, but only for the interestingly remixed take on Rondo of Blood's music.
I don't blame anyone for skipping my wall of text, but I feel the same way! A lot of the music is quite good, I really like how the first stage theme sounds. I know mbisonhatclub is a fan of it too. The game itself isn't terrible, it just seems unnecessary considering how easy it is to get the superior original game these days.
quote:
As for HoD, I have to say I don't quite care for it. Not really sure what it is that I don't like, but I didn't find it very appealing. Perhaps I should look some of you up for a match or two sometime.
I'm hoping the game will become a great deal more difficult on hard, because on normal most of the level parts are a cakewalk. It only got difficult when fighting bosses, really. Most of the fun we had was goofing around and talking about things we liked in other CV games. 3 people seems to be the sweet spot for this game, 6 is just kind of insane.
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| HAYATO 1046th Post
Red Carpet Premium Member
| "Re(6):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 03:42
In terms of personal preferences, I'd suggest anyone interested on playing this wonderful series the following titles (orderly sorted for your convenience):
- Symphony of the Night: As many of you have already stated, this is the best game for neophites to be exposed to the series for the first time.
- Dracula X: The PC Engine precuel sounds like the logical choice to me, as both games share a good deal of visual themes, enemy design and (to some degree) playing mechanics, more so if the player made a Richter run on SotN.
- Castlevania Chronicles: Following the same rule stated above, this one should be the third entry on the list. The game mechanics are pretty similar to DX and equally enjoyable. Plus, the enhanced visuals on the PSX version are very well done and blend seamlessly with the rest of the graphics, which also contributes to a better gaming experience.
- Super Castlevania IV: despite its age, this game still stands out thanks to its immersive, dark atmosphere and its dynamic and innovative mechanics, unique in the whole 2D series (multidirectional whip slashes and grappling abilities). I suggest to play it after the rest just for consistency's sake. One is free to either begin or end the "2D Castlevania experience" with this game, but playing it inbetween would ruin the experience and, as appealing visuals are so important nowadays, I decided to play it last.
One should take my proposed run as an involutionary process, a journey back in time in search of the roots of everything which made Castlevania so loved and dear to us Cafers...
And about 3D Castlevania games... just stick to Lords of Shadows, what Castlevania should have been since the PS2 era and never was until Spain teached Japan how to make a dwindling franchise cool and appealing to the masses again...
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| karasu99 783th Post
PSN: robotchris
XBL: robotchris
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(4):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 04:04
quote:
Re: SotN as "comfort food" game, hah, absolutely. That's exactly how it feels to me as well. I can kind of remember the week when I got it, I was absolutely blown away the first time I saw so many parts of the game and just the scale of the castle felt insane to me at the time, and then the inverted castle...! It's not exactly difficult but good god I love going back to it. I still find out new things about weapons and items every time!
I was so excited to get SOTN that I actually imported it and used the miserable, PS1-killing disc-swap spring method to play it, and then bought it for US PS1 when it came out. Nobinobita mentioned buying SFA3 many, many times; SOTN has been my SFA3 I guess, since I've bought it compulsively every time it's been re-released. I should note that while it's not technically superior to the PS1 original, it may be of interest to track down the Saturn version. It's Japan-only, but has extra stages, enemies, weapons, and best of all music, as well as a different playable Richter sprite and a different playable Maria from the one that's playable in... what, the PSP version?
Not really sure it's worth the steep cost it goes for these days, but I like it quite a bit.
quote:
I don't blame anyone for skipping my wall of text, but I feel the same way! A lot of the music is quite good, I really like how the first stage theme sounds. I know mbisonhatclub is a fan of it too. The game itself isn't terrible, it just seems unnecessary considering how easy it is to get the superior original game these days.
Urk, I knew someone had mentioned that! I did read your wall of text, but then in scanning to see who to quote on it, I totally missed it the second time. As for Dracula XX, I'd say that given how easily emulated these sorts of things are, it's worth a play or two AFTER trying Rondo of Blood. But definitely not worth the $50 or so I paid for it years ago.
www.secret-arts.com
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| Pollyanna 3139th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(5):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 09:19
I'm so glad everyone likes Chronicles so much. When I played it I thought it was really great, but no one else I knew seemed to share my opinion.
On the subject of Lament of Innocence...it was a bad game that suffered from a common PS2 problem where enemies took too many hits and levels were big (and empty) just to make the game longer. On the upside, the last level theme (Leon's theme?) is one of my favorite Castlevania tunes. Only thing I liked about that game!
quote:
I'm hoping the game will become a great deal more difficult on hard, because on normal most of the level parts are a cakewalk. It only got difficult when fighting bosses, really. Most of the fun we had was goofing around and talking about things we liked in other CV games. 3 people seems to be the sweet spot for this game, 6 is just kind of insane.
This was my big problem with the game. The levels were too easy and the bosses were too hard. Actually...the bosses were just about right, but the levels were just "prelude to the boss".
I got all the DLC levels (and music!) and loved them all (in varying degrees). The DLC characters kind of vary in quality, though.
I am ALMOST ready to buy it again to be able to play with friends, but I have the same concerns you do about local multiplayer. I have a 46 inch TV, which should probably alleviate the problem a little bit, but I would hate to buy a game I've already bought for friends who may or may not want to play it with me when it might not even work terribly well. I imagine, as far as building up the characters/items, everything goes to and comes from the system you're playing on.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Maou 2271th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(6):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Tue 25 Oct 10:33:
quote:
I'm so glad everyone likes Chronicles so much. When I played it I thought it was really great, but no one else I knew seemed to share my opinion.
X68000/Chronicle is great fun. But has the passing of a year been enough time to lift the evil curse that prevents you from loving SFC Dracula/"IV," m'dear?
Anyway, Chronicle's first level with the insane pumped up arrange version of Vampire Killer is OUT OF CONTROL (the only "weird" mix of Vampire Killer that I love--I blare it every Halloween before I go out and defeat the undead), as is the majestic arrange version of Simon's theme for the last stage.
I do feel that the green snot-filled level 2 sort of kills the momentum early on, though. The clocktower battle with the werewolf is really good, though, complete with the clock getting used as a weapon. Meanwhile, like I wrote last year, I don't think I've ever put my playing-platform-games-since-age-8-skills to the test more than I had to to beat Chronicle in original mode. Death and Medusa must have killed me 50 times before I won.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Tue 25 Oct 11:42] |
| karasu99 784th Post
PSN: robotchris
XBL: robotchris
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(7):it's CASTLEVANIA WEEK" , posted Wed 26 Oct 00:46
quote:
Anyway, Chronicle's first level with the insane pumped up arrange version of Vampire Killer is OUT OF CONTROL (the only "weird" mix of Vampire Killer that I love--I blare it every Halloween before I go out and defeat the undead), as is the majestic arrange version of Simon's theme for the last stage.
If you haven't already, you may want to attempt to find the OST/AST for Chronicle... 'somewhere'. It has a total of four versions of each track, of varying qualities-- most of which are actually really good! I typically shy away from Castlevania 'weird' mixes (the recent Akumajou Dracula Tribute albums were pretty repellent) but these are great.
quote:
Whoa! I kind of ignored Last Hope and I sort of figured that'd be the end. This looks cool! The artwork really grabs me, it's the kind of art that if I saw it in a game magazine as a kid I would immediately become obsessed with said game. Curious to see how well it plays being such a Turrican homage and all. Might have to order it, mostly because buying a brand new DC game in 2012 will feel pretty damn weird!
Yes, that's really exciting! I missed out on Last Hope as well, and by the time I had a chance to get it it was unavailable/too expensive (OH! But looks like they are reprinting it in January!). But a Turrican-esque game! That's pretty cool.
Urgh, I wish I hadn't sold my Neo Geo 15 years ago! I know the DC version will be cheaper and all, but every time I start up my Dreamcast I have a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something will break/burn out in it.
www.secret-arts.com
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| Iggy 9304th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(9):Sengoku Basara STUPID TEAPOT" , posted Thu 27 Oct 05:44
At first, I was intrigued by which standard this story would be stupid, as by normal, sane standards, all the stories in Basara are stupid, and retroactively, by Basara standard, no story can possibly be stupider than the leader of the Maeda clan kicking St Francis-Xavier's ass at Sekigahara because she's secretly the magical girl of cooking.
Then I saw it was actually Musô, not Basara, and I shrugged.
By the way, Basara 3 Utage is shaping up to be all sorts of awesome and manlinesses(?), including an old man haunted with ghosts and rheumatisms, and the most historically accurate way to ride horses.
It also has a version of Matsunaga that manages to make up for the less glorious depiction of the treacherous bastard in Hyougemono.
Is anyone reading Hyougemono, by the way? Pineapple will never taste the same for me after that manga.
Elephant riding will never be the same either, now that I've seen what Nobunaga wore when he did so.
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| karasu99 791th Post
PSN: robotchris
XBL: robotchris
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(1):Asura's Wrath's EUR release date" , posted Tue 1 Nov 04:29
quote:
Headbutt Buddha back to Tenjiku on 24th february!!
Ho ho, can't wait! At least having it take so long will let me finish a few games I've been at for a while.
Wasn't someone here talking about Sonic Generations not long ago? Well, either way, I tried this and a bunch of other demos this weekend and found it to be actually not bad. The demo I tried was the one marked Green Hill-- I think there are actually two demos-- and it includes an 'HD Remix' of Green Hill Zone along with a 3D reinterpretation. I thought the HD Remix just did't feel right (and here I know several folks have talked about 2D Sonic's 'feel', and how Sonic 4 didn't have it). However, the 3D reinterpretation was pretty sweet-- it has the feeling of speed that I always felt like 3D Sonic could have, but just didn't, without making you feel like the slightest twitch to left or right would cause me to plummet off of something.
Also-- and I know that there's a mobile game thread somewhere, but here is as good a place as any-- I just got Shantae: Risky's Revenge for my iPhone, and it's pretty great as well. Given the platform I still have issues with the control scheme's accuracy, but the sprites are great, it's fun, the characters are likeable, and best of all it's a huge explorable new platform game, something I feel like I haven't gotten to play a new game of in quite a while. It does the sensible thing of making the game free-- basically a demo that gives you 4 areas-- and then making the full game an in-app purchase (US $2.99 at the moment). It's a nice way to do it since now I won't have to download a separate 'lite' version to get the demo. Anyway, check it out, it's pretty good.
www.secret-arts.com
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| Moo
61th Post
Occasional Customer
| "Doujin game recommendations" , posted Fri 4 Nov 14:38
I hope I'm not derailing the thread by posting this, but I thought I'd recommend this doujin game that I found by chance.
It's an arena-style platformer/beat'em up, and I personally found that it just feels great to play: solid gameplay, great animation, sound effects, etc.
It starts out simple, but has a surprising amount of depth. You can basically customise your playstyle.
花咲か妖精フリージア (Fairy Bloom Freesia)
Official website and trailer
There's a trial download on the website. I've been told that an official English version is on the way.
I honestly don't know if it's the kind of thing others might like, but I enjoyed it, so I'm hoping others will too.
Another doujin game I was surprised at the quality of was Koumajou Densetsu 2, the Touhou equivalent of Symphony of the Night, if anyone's interested in checking that out too.
My apologies if this is all old news. I'm kind of behind on everything.
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| Pollyanna 3140th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(1):Doujin game recommendations" , posted Thu 10 Nov 09:00
quote:
I hope I'm not derailing the thread by posting this, but I thought I'd recommend this doujin game that I found by chance.
It's an arena-style platformer/beat'em up, and I personally found that it just feels great to play: solid gameplay, great animation, sound effects, etc.
It starts out simple, but has a surprising amount of depth. You can basically customise your playstyle.
花咲か妖精フリージア (Fairy Bloom Freesia)
Official website and trailer
There's a trial download on the website. I've been told that an official English version is on the way.
I honestly don't know if it's the kind of thing others might like, but I enjoyed it, so I'm hoping others will too.
Another doujin game I was surprised at the quality of was Koumajou Densetsu 2, the Touhou equivalent of Symphony of the Night, if anyone's interested in checking that out too.
My apologies if this is all old news. I'm kind of behind on everything.
Late reply, but that looks fantastic! The animation is really good for a doujinshi game. That's my problem, though...I used to play more doujin games, but I always found myself saying "this is good for a doujin game" or "I can't blame it for lacking this, since it's a doujin game." Eventually, I gave up everything but Touhou because I have more than enough to play already.
Did you play the first Koumajou Densetsu? Is this one terribly different? I was drawn in by the artwork of the original, but the game couldn't keep my attention, despite the fact that I'm a big Touhou and Castlevania fan.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Moo
65th Post
Occasional Customer
| "Re(2):Doujin game recommendations" , posted Sat 12 Nov 12:32:
quote:
Late reply, but that looks fantastic! The animation is really good for a doujinshi game. That's my problem, though...I used to play more doujin games, but I always found myself saying "this is good for a doujin game" or "I can't blame it for lacking this, since it's a doujin game." Eventually, I gave up everything but Touhou because I have more than enough to play already.
Glad you like the look of it :D I also used to try out doujin games a long time ago, but they often felt too simple or empty for me. It seems like there are more high-quality doujin games now. Freesia totally surprised me, because I wasn't expecting it to be so good. I think they successfully combined the best elements of action platformer, beat'em ups and fighting games into a high-quality package.
Edit: If you don't mind spoilers or if you've finished Freesia's story mode, you may want to check out this crazy guy on Nico Douga who can beat double boss fights without taking a hit:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm15487546
quote:
Did you play the first Koumajou Densetsu? Is this one terribly different? I was drawn in by the artwork of the original, but the game couldn't keep my attention, despite the fact that I'm a big Touhou and Castlevania fan.
I did, but I played the second game first. I tried the first game afterwards and felt that the sequel refined a lot of what was in the first game (eg. you can't just fly through entire areas). For me, the first game felt very easy up until about half-way through the game, then I suddenly had a lot of trouble. I think the sequel ramps the difficulty better, but generally felt very difficult to me. The boss fights in both are interesting, but brutal... particularly the later bosses. I'm not too great at classic platformers, though. I have no patience and tend to rush through.
I'm not sure whether it was because I didn't know the controls when I first played, but the second game felt kind of sparse at the very beginning. It got better quickly. Unlike the first game, flying is limited, but you still have to use it as a dodge in some situations. In place of the slide, there's a backflip dodge that can be cancelled. I think the invincibility for both the flying and the backflip is limited to the direction you're facing. There's also a rapid slashing attack, and you can customize your equipment/partners before a level. There's sufficient learning curve, gameplay depth and experimentation. I did feel that the complete arsenal is not very large, and there were lengthy periods where I didn't gain any new abilities. Some of the equipment/partner options also didn't seem very useful.
[this message was edited by Moo on Sat 12 Nov 12:55] |
| Pollyanna 3147th Post
PSN: Lilly_Dopamine
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(3):Saint Seiya Senki" , posted Thu 1 Dec 07:44
quote:
So I've noticed that the Musou-ish Saint Seiya game I lately gushed about without really having a good explanation for it has been released for PS3 this past week, so I was curious if anyone had tried it, and if so, if it's any good.
Import prices are going up up and up, but even the Asia version is pretty high on that one. Science can't explain it!
As a result, I got Basara Utage and One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 instead, so alas, I have nothing to say about Saint Seiya.
I will once again recommend Gigant Battle, though. It has the "Docking System" as an assist, and if you know what that is, that should be enough to sell you on the game. I have only a few complaints...
1) No playable Moria. Really! They have Wapol, but no Moria!? I would complain that Caribou is another silly addition, but I understand that they're trying to push the new arc. But Wapol!? The lack of a decent Thriller Bark level adds insult to injury
2) Law is boring. I guess his powers don't translate well to a fighting game.
3) The opening is so ugly, I can't make it through it. The game uses the manga designs, but the animation is still like the anime.
The fact that these are the only complaints that immediately come to mind speaks pretty well for the game, though. I wasn't originally planning on getting the game, but I'm glad I did, even if it's stopping me from winning Type-0.
青春謳歌 弱肉強食
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| Maese 665th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Ueda gate" , posted Thu 1 Dec 17:31
quote:
3) The opening is so ugly, I can't make it through it. The game uses the manga designs, but the animation is still like the anime.
I thought the original One Piece manga was already the pinnacle of visual ugliness, but it seems that even such heights can be surpassed... How frightening.
Oh well, since we're on the random news thread, let's drop in some random rumor: Fumito Ueda could have left Sony for good, altough he would still be working there as a freelance just to finish Torico once for all. I cannot seem to find any source in a language other than Spanish, but here you are the complete story for what's worth. Probably it will end up being just an unfounded rumour but, hey, you guys could take the opportunity to brush up your Spanish skills so you'd be able to throw offensive remarks at Shakira's old hag face on her next world tour or whatever!
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| karasu99 800th Post
PSN: robotchris
XBL: robotchris
Wii: n/a
Red Carpet Regular Member+
| "Re(4):Saint Seiya Senki" , posted Fri 2 Dec 01:56
Aha, I had figured that invoking a strange import game would summon you Polly! Sorry to hear you haven't played it, but I definitely sympathize with having a queue of games ahead of it. I'll have to see if there is a demo for it in the JP PSN store and try it out there.
quote:
I will once again recommend Gigant Battle, though. It has the "Docking System" as an assist, and if you know what that is, that should be enough to sell you on the game. I have only a few complaints...
Gah, I noticed it was out, and I recall your high praise for the first game, but again I'll bemoan the high price of this one, on top of the huge number of great games that have recently been released. It's on my list, but I'll likely wait until after the first of the year to pick it up.
quote:
1) No playable Moria. Really! They have Wapol, but no Moria!? I would complain that Caribou is another silly addition, but I understand that they're trying to push the new arc. But Wapol!? The lack of a decent Thriller Bark level adds insult to injury
That's pretty remarkable that they were able to include something like 40 playable characters, but exclude one of the most charismatic and interesting characters. And Wapol?!? Who actually wants to play as him?
quote:
2) Law is boring. I guess his powers don't translate well to a fighting game.
3) The opening is so ugly, I can't make it through it. The game uses the manga designs, but the animation is still like the anime.
I guess it's not that surprising that the OP anime is so bad looking. The style of the manga for the last several hundred chapters has been so beautifully dynamic that I'm not sure how they would translate it to animation anyway.
www.secret-arts.com
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"Random Thread... What's TGS? Is that edible?" , posted Tue 13 Sep 08:02
"A+B = Dead footsoldier" , posted Sat 24 Sep 07:43
who follow the path of a warrior