Original message (19441 Views )
| |  "RANDOM GAMES! #33: The Trilogy of Error" , posted Wed 17 Aug 20:47:  
Previous topic:
>>RANDOM GAMES! #32
FINAL FANTASY XV
NIOH
THE LAST GUARDIAN
All three long awaited games, in development for over 10 years, originally scheduled then cancelled on PS3, losing their original director on the way,will be released by the end of this year... Maybe? FF15 was supposed to go first, but you probably heard how well that went. Now it will be released after The Last Guardian. Unless The Last Guardian gets delayed too! And we still don't have a precise date for Nioh, which was supposed to be the last, but might end up coming before FF15, especially if next week's Beta is well received. Or get moved to 2017 because FF15 stole its spot. Who knows. Maybe FF15 won't even make it for November. Anyway. We should be fixed by TGS. I'll miss making fun of these three games once they are out.
It's Gamescom.
Metal Gear Survive Huh!?
52 minutes of FF15 That leak was all truuuuuue
NIOH one week to go!
Harley Quinn in Injustice 2 Suicide Squad Hype! ... Well, maybe not.
Lee in Tekken 7 Wait a minute, why is he pretending to be Violet?
Biohazard 7 by Capcom
Biohazard 7 by Namco
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Wed 17 Aug 20:47] |
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| "Chinatown Fair - The Lost Arcade" , posted Fri 19 Aug 13:53
This one is for Prof. and all others who've lived in or remember New York and its legendary Chinatown Fair arcade. There were about five threads where this could go, but I decided that taxidermy wasn't my strong suit and entrust it to the Gods of Random Thread.
MAOUBLOGGING VOL. 3223: LET'S ALL WATCH "THE LOST ARCADE"
I just saw The Lost Arcade, which chronicles the community and final days of the Chinatown Fair arcade. It benefits from the fact that the directors weren't associated with the scene but followed it like anthropologists because they found it interesting. This resulted in a film that I think anyone can enjoy: colorful characters like "Mahvel Baby" Yipes and the famed Marvel 2 scene are there briefly, and while this would have been a fun focus, instead it's really about the sense of community, respect, and play that brought people together...and it's a better film.
It's centered on two employees, one coming from a shattered family background who found his new family there, and the other who recreated the community in the new Brooklyn Next Level arcade when the OG Chinatown Fair closed, plus the kindly old Pakistani-American man who ran the place. He wasn't a gamer himself but fixed all the machines and created a self-regulating community where kids could meet...so much so that I never noticed him in real life. Pretty interesting.
Happily, the directors were able to extend filming not only when the successor Next Level opened but when Chinatown Fair itself did under new family-focused management. Impressively, the directors give the new Chinatown Fair owner a fair shake: he's a gamer himself from a different generation, and he ended up making a brighter place where a different crowd could create their own new community--more welcoming to girls now and a music game focus. There's room for both. I don't think a (disappointed) person from the OG scene could've shown this, and it improves the film.
There's also some amazing archival footage of early Chinatown Fair and the days of the huge early Times Square arcade scene (!?!) and the music is great.
There was a Q&A and I asked if they'd be sharing it outside the US since it's interesting not only as a nostalgia piece but as a record of a certain community and culture. I think Tokyo's Mikado scene or others would dig it. Even if you get to meet certain top players at Evo or Tougeki, you're probably not likely to have the chance to really see someone's "hometown dojo" like this, whether you're from the old Sunnyvale scene, Tokyo, Europe, or elsewhere. Plus, seems extra fitting with arcade-less SFV and Daigo mentioning his worries about not having an arcade scene to train with. Sounds like they'll send it to Asia at least. Bug them to bring it to your town!
Oh, there is a trailer!
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．．．
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| | "Re(1):Chinatown Fair - The Lost Arcade" , posted Sat 20 Aug 11:13:
quote:
This one is for Prof. and all others who've lived in or remember New York and its legendary Chinatown Fair arcade. There were about five threads where this could go, but I decided that taxidermy wasn't my strong suit and entrust it to the Gods of Random Thread.
MAOUBLOGGING VOL. 3223: LET'S ALL WATCH "THE LOST ARCADE"
I just saw The Lost Arcade, which chronicles the community and final days of the Chinatown Fair arcade. It benefits from the fact that the directors weren't associated with the scene but followed it like anthropologists because they found it interesting. This resulted in a film that I think anyone can enjoy: colorful characters like "Mahvel Baby" Yipes and the famed Marvel 2 scene are there briefly, and while this would have been a fun focus, instead it's really about the sense of community, respect, and play that brought people together...and it's a better film.
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
AH CHINATOWN FAIR! The dumping ground of our youth!!
I have fond memories of the arcade which makes me facepalm the way that I was spending my days, but it was fun times. The chicken in the tic-tac-toe machine near the doorway, the money exchange guy that looked like a Shoko Asahara... ahh it's all coming back to me. Oddly enough I can't recall any locals during my time there who turned pro, so I guess I'm a generation older or something.
I wonder if the film has some footage of the other arcades that were in NY, namely Playland in Times Square and the other location there which I forgot the name (no, not XS), it was right near an athletics gym. Those were just as good arcades although Chinatown fair was the only one to survive the mayor's cleansing of the city. I played the most Neogeo at Playland... I still recall the 3-in-1 bowling game cabinet right next to it which constantly yelled "POWER STRIKE!". It was annoying, and now it's fond memories. It was Bally Midway Tri-Sports.
This film seems nice! I'd love to check it out when it becomes more accessible.
Thanks for sharing!
[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 20 Aug 12:42] |
| | "Re(2):Chinatown Fair - The Lost Arcade" , posted Mon 22 Aug 01:39
quote:
This one is for Prof. and all others who've lived in or remember New York and its legendary Chinatown Fair arcade. There were about five threads where this could go, but I decided that taxidermy wasn't my strong suit and entrust it to the Gods of Random Thread.
MAOUBLOGGING VOL. 3223: LET'S ALL WATCH "THE LOST ARCADE"
I just saw The Lost Arcade, which chronicles the community and final days of the Chinatown Fair arcade. It benefits from the fact that the directors weren't associated with the scene but followed it like anthropologists because they found it interesting. This resulted in a film that I think anyone can enjoy: colorful characters like "Mahvel Baby" Yipes and the famed Marvel 2 scene are there briefly, and while this would have been a fun focus, instead it's really about the sense of community, respect, and play that brought people together...and it's a better film.
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
AH CHINATOWN FAIR! The dumping ground of our youth!!
I have fond memories of the arcade which makes me facepalm the way that I was spending my days, but it was fun times. The chicken in the tic-tac-toe machine near the doorway, the money exchange guy that looked like a Shoko Asahara... ahh it's all coming back to me. Oddly enough I can't recall any locals during my time there who turned pro, so I guess I'm a generation older or
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
I always wanted to play at CTF in the early 00's because all of the poorly compressed .avi's of competitions showed then-amazing level of play, at a level which I surely wasn't at but that I admired.
LMAO at a Shoko Asahara lookalike...
... actually I need to get a shave and a haircut soon or else I might start looking like a skinny version of that.........
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| | "Re(3):Astro Boy: Edge of Time" , posted Fri 26 Aug 14:00
quote:
It's a passion project from owner of Playism (i.e. the owner of the Osaka-based translation company AGM) Ibai Ameztoy. He is heavily influenced by Marvel for this project which I assume is why the artworks seemed strangely influenced towards western comics. Maybe there was a clear direction given to the artists, something like "imagine you were drawing an American comics"? Which in itself would be an interesting approach and exercise, I guess, although I struggle to see the connection with Tezuka or Astro, or how all this would organically result in "let's do a collectible card game".
Thanks for the clarification! That demystifies a lot of the seemingly arbitrary decisions on this project.
It's kind of scary how well Japanese artists can adapt to other styles now, even picking up on what I would consider the flaws of the source. For instance the FFXV mobile game, Justice Monsters Five, looks so much like the exact kind of American super hero comic book art that made me lose interest in Marvel and DC after the 90s.
The art for this Astroboy CCG also has a lot of those traits, like overly saturated colors, shading to black with no hue variation, superfluous rim lighting, coloring with too much rendering that strips attention away from the linework etc. I'm certain these artists could do better, but they are choosing to make the art look worse in the pursuit of authenticity!
www.art-eater.com
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| | "Re(1):Going from Yunnan to Yosemite" , posted Sat 27 Aug 02:38
Here's a fun song from China about office life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFaQwZyPOZQ
The English subtitles have localized a few location names to convey the point of the suburbs, vacation destination, and the place where all the offices are.
Another user posted a literal translation in the comments, which I've pasted here:
I tried to translate this: （试着翻译成英文，没有完全按照字面翻译）
So far, the sofa is so far. aka My body feels hollowed out
Dusk had fallen over Chaoyang Park
As the retired ones are ready for their square dance.
And through the window I see shadow of trees,
can’t help but wonder if this is the best days of my youth
(When the petals left the flower)
Here’s a boss whose name is David,
He appeared right at 6pm, with eyes of a german shepherd
and a pot of steaming hot coffee at hand, said,
“Hey hey hey what about we have a meeting now”
I said that would be fun, but
I need to go to the airport to pick up my elderly dad (my elderly daddy)
Haven’t seen him for thirty years
He came from that distant Siberia. (hmmm?)
You would have all these done in the morning,
but I saw you playing with live stream instead.
Don’t you have a home to go back to?
Please, I beg you, you don’t say that—
“Dear, have an overtime.” --by Leon Lai
My body feels hollowed out,
exhausted, I’m so dog-tired.
(I’m not tired, not tired)
Eighteen days without removing makeup
Two years and a half without changing monthly contact lenses
I lost control of life routine but gained weight instead
I get up to fight through North 5th Ring Road
while I live at Huilongguan*.
A sofa is my harbor to rest
With an empty stomach,
cakes only in my dream,
tell me how could I relax?
KPI everyday, I’d rather like you to
get your “craftsmanship” out of the window
Now hear me:
I love my job, I really like to work,
My work makes me improve.
I love to study, it makes me happy,
(I really need to pick my dad home, let me go home)
[I don’t care about pay, I’m mainly interested in this job]
[This job makes me feel content]
[This is the group effort of everybody]
[Thank boss for giving me this opportunity]
[The company provides a platform for my strength to shine]
[It’s okay, overtime is no big deal]
[No problem, this is part of my job]
[What boss means is actually really meaningful]
[I will do it now, count on me!]
[Yes Boss!]
[Everyday I wake up to embrace my job!]
[Of course, of course, this is what I should do!]
[I can keep on fixing this as you wish]
[Yes, till you’re satisfied]
[No hurry, I can go home after I finish this]
[I’m really healthy, an all-nighter is not a big deal]
[I don’t have anything to do at home anyway, so I’d rather stay]
[Boss has put more effort than all of us!]
[!krow llits nac I !pu em esiaR]
How do you like this, boss? hahahahahaha!
How do you like this, boss? hahahahahaha!
Now you’re satisfied, hahahahahaha!
(I really need to pick my dad home)
After I quit, boss be in my blacklist!!
Who needs to sleep? What a waste of time
Who wants to eat? PPT is my nutrient
How do you like this, boss? Now you’re satisfied?
hahahahaha…..
My body feels hollowed out, (no more overtime)
exhausted, I’m so dog-tired. (no more overtime)
(I’m not tired, not tired) (no more overtime)
Eighteen days without removing makeup
Two years and a half without changing monthly contact lenses
I lost control of life routine but gained weight instead
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~I’m heading to Yunnan
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~Say bye to Huilongguan (No overtime)
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~bring my dad along
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~Enjoy life like a adventurer on horseback
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~I’m heading to Yunnan
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~Say bye to Huilongguan (No overtime)
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey~bring my dad along
oh hey ya oh hey ya oh hey
no overtime!
No Overtime!
NO OVERTIME!
[For those who works overtime, with sympathy]
[Special Thanks to Leon Lai, for providing voice for David the boss]
*Huilongguan is a habitual region 33kms away from the city, where it takes at least an hour to commute to Chaoyang Park, where people work.
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| | "Re(5):RANDOM Yunnan Facts!" , posted Wed 31 Aug 00:25:
quote:
I don't remember if I had posted that game here at the Cafe, but I did see that tweet some months ago. It's an amazing work of art, the two characters made so far are positively insane, and I wish this genius manages to complete the game someday.
That game is a true work of art. I'm not even trying to be funny. It's beautiful TT____TT
With the internet's unwavering obsession with Harambe, that game might actually have a much bigger audience than the author ever expected now.
There's actually been more than one English article about this game!
One here
Another here
And the author has an English download page for the game on nico here!
From the download page:
"even so, since you are so geeky enough to be playing indie games
such as this one right here,
i believe youare also skilled enough to overcome your problems."
I wonder if his manga is anywhere near as interesting as the visuals of this game. The severed head character is one of the most gonzo characters I've ever seen in a fighting game.
Thanks for sharing those links! Glad to see Daromeon is getting an international following! I really hope he eventually completes that game. I'm really tempted to contact him and offer to help with the animations, but I have zero free time!
Also thanks for posting that song! Yunnan is the land of my ancestry! Seems like it's one of the few places in China that most Chinese people unanimously have a pretty positive impression of.
Some fun facts about Yunnan:
-About 1/3 of all known orchid species (530 out of 1600) are found in Yunnan
-Hayao Miyazaki based the look of the Emishi people in Princess Mononoke off of Yunnan cultures (there isn't one, but many) rather than any Japanese cultures
-Reading through his essays, I was really shocked at how much Miyazaki knew about Yunnan. Turns out it's because he subscribes to the “broadleaf evergreen forest culture hypothesis” of ethnobotanist Nakao Sasuke who conjectures that Japanese and other East Asian cultures have common roots in Yunnan. I can confirm that the foods we eat (fluffy rice, fermented soy beans, savory mochi etc) are really really similar.
-China's best animation studio, WolfSmoke are making a super cool looking series of short films set in a fantasy version of Yunnan.
-If you want to see a great Kungfu flick set in Yunnan watch the 2011 Donnie Yen film Wuxia. For me it is a very very authentic representation of Chinese culture and values. A lot of the characters reminded me of people I've known in real life. Absolutely avoid the butchered Miramax release called "Dragon" though. It absolutely excises the life out of the movie. I'm not even kidding. If I sat down and had to choose all my favourite subtle shots that I felt contributed to the Chinese soul of the movie, those are literally all the shots (and a great musical number) they chose to cut out.
-Yunnan has some of the best mushrooms in the world. My favourite is the "ji zhong" which means "chicken mushroom." In english it's sometimes called the "termite mushroom" because it tends to grow in termite mounds. It has an incredibly deep savory umami flavour on par, maybe even better than most meat. It can't be farmed and only grows in the wild. Thankfully it tastes awesome preserved in oil and can be enjoyed year round (and the oil can be used for cooking like truffle oil!)
-Yunnan is also home to some of the finest ham in the world. I've heard from people in the restaurant business that in recent years some of the best Iberico ham is also secretly produced there then shipped overseas.
-Yunnan is also home to rushan, one of the only cheeses in Chinese cuisine.
-How to tie this back into video games? Yunnan culture is super cool, but has never been referenced directly in videogames outside of maybe some Wuxia games. I always thought some of the clothing in Lunar (and many other RPGs) may have been inspired by some of the traditional clothes from Yunnan though.
www.art-eater.com
[this message was edited by nobinobita on Wed 31 Aug 00:30] |
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| "Re(2):15 minutes of Sonic Mania" , posted Mon 5 Sep 05:11
...WOW. Feels so nostalgic, yet so fresh. I see the nth Green Hill rehash may get boring, but there are some tweaks that intrigue me, like...there are way more spikes at the bottom? And what looks like a one-way wall. Nice remix, very conservative but pleasant.
Studiopolis on the other hand is explosive, colorful, loud, without risking to look too loaded. From a gameplay standpoint, I like that ramp gimmick a lot, where you must spindash to fly to the next platform. What about the music? Fantastic. The Stardust Speedway reference is obvious and welcome, but I just can't help but feel a slight Chaotix influence, which is in the graphics of the game as well. It doesn't specifically remind me of any track from Chaotix, but I feel a touch of the general OST atmosphere from that title in the Studiopolis theme. The synth keyboard parts literally give me goosebumps. This theme sets my heart on fire.
Sonic's animation when he's about to fall is so freaking smooth, elastic, and so is the "look above" one. Jaw dropping motions. Last but not least, dancing Eggman is a great touch.
Cutting it short, it's day one purchase for me.
Ore no...kachi da!!
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| | "Re(1):Super Mario Apple" , posted Thu 8 Sep 18:09
quote:
So an unexpected Shigeru Miyamoto just announced at the Apple event of today the new Super Mario Run for iPhone (later too for Android)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgA_qNvm8Mc
Did Apple covered Nintendo with a mountain of gold to have this (timed) exclusive?
They announced also a version of Pokemon Go for iWatch (for how long the battery of the watch can support that thing?)
Mario looks fun! I like how Miyamoto appeared on stage and proposed this revolutionary idea of paying "just once" for a game, and that's it! You get a whole complete, balanced game! CRAZY!
I wonder how this will work out for them. Since it's Mario it's sure to sell several million copies worldwide. It almost certainly won't make the obscene numbers of Clash of Clans or Pokemon Go, but it doesn't have to.
I wonder if it will trickle down into more support for paid games. My gut tells me that unless you're Nintendo or Minecraft, people probably aren't willing to fork over money for your mobile game and freemium will continue to be the way to go.
I recall when Monument Valley came out. A friend of mine was playing it. His coworker asked him "wow what is that? it looks great!" She was really impressed but upon learning it cost $2 she was like "WHAT NO THANK YOU?!" He had to point out that the game was less than a Starbucks coffee and would bring you 6-20 hours of pleasure. Then it finally clicked that maybe it's ok to pay for a game ahead of time, instead of paying to win later.
Anyway, I wish Nintendo the best of luck as they take the real plunge into mobile. I think they'll come up with some game changing, or at least, widely copied stuff, as they do.
www.art-eater.com
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| | "TGS then, TGS now" , posted Fri 9 Sep 11:16:
First, for a bit of retro news, I dug up and translated the announced lineup for the very first Tokyo Game Show, twenty years ago. Ubisoft already had a booth!
For the first time in a while, I actually feel TGS will be less boring than E3 and Gamescom. D3P has a very unique and strong lineup for the local market, whatever one might think of the good/bad taste they evoke. EDF5 will very likely be announced at Sony's conference, High School Zombie Killer seems like the many stupid Simple Series we used to get, and (unfortunately?) Happy Manager is the game that VR was made for in Japan. (All of them can be seen on sites like Gematsu.)
We'll get an improved PS4 with three iconic PS3 development hell failures coming to term (see first post), the return of SaGa (in video form), I am sure Falcom will tease Sen no Kiseki 3, I have very high hopes for this year's Ryū Ga Gotoku trailer (which is always more fun than the actual game comes out to be), we might have Zettai Zetsumei Toshi news, that other Granzella game with Godzilla and Evangelion might be there too, MH Stories seems to be taking the 3DS as far as it can, Megami Meguri seems at the very least an interesting oddity like Japanese publishers used to try out constantly, The Dark Souls IIII DLC wasn't playable at Gamescom yet, CyGames comes back but brought console games this year, Pokémon Go might help motivate people to actually visit the indie corner this time, Cospa has cool Neo Geo gear on sale... There's genuinely a lot of topics to cover!
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Fri 9 Sep 11:53] |
| | "Re(1):TGS then, TGS now" , posted Fri 9 Sep 12:05
quote:
First, for a bit of retro news, I dug up and translated the announced lineup for the very first Tokyo Game Show, twenty years ago.
For the first time in a while, I actually feel TGS will be less boring than E3 and Gamescom. D3P has a very unique and strong lineup for the local market, whatever one might think of the good/bad taste they evoke. EDF5 will very likely be announced at Sony's conference, High School Zombie Killer seems like the many stupid Simple Series we used to get, and (unfortunately?) Happy Manager is the game that VR was made for in Japan. (All of them can be seen on sites like Gematsu.)
We'll get an improved PS4 with three iconic PS3 development hell failures coming to term (see first post), the return of SaGa (in video form), I am sure Falcom will tease Sen no Kiseki 3, I have very high hopes for this year's Ryū Ga Gotoku trailer (which is always more fun than the actual game comes out to be), we might have Zettai Zetsumei Toshi news, that other Granzella game with Godzilla and Evangelion might be there too, MH Stories seems to be taking the 3DS as far as it can, Megami Megumi seems at the very least an interesting oddity like Japanese publishers used to try out constantly, The Dark Souls IIII DLC wasn't playable at Gamescom yet, CyGames comes back but brought console games this year, Pokémon Go might help motivate pe
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
That Sega lineup is beautiful:
Sega
Daytona USA Circuit Edition (SS)
Sega Ages: OutRun (SS)
Sega Ages: AfterBurner II (SS)
Sakura Taisen (SS) <clairement l'autre jeu du salon>
Virtua Cop 2 (SS)
Fighting Vipers (SS)
Riglord Saga 2 (SS)
Victory Goal Worldwide Edition (SS) <version "internationale" de V-Goal '96, alias WorldWide Soccer 97 chez nous, meilleure simu de foot en 1996~1997>
Virtual On (SS)
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what the two secret items are in D3P's lineup, even if one of them is EDF5. As a frothing EDF fanboy, I will always welcome a new EDF from Sandlot, or any game involving giant things from Sandlot (Robot Alchemic Drive VR would be great....). It's kind of a weird feeling for D3P to be something to be really excited for at TGS, though.
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| "Re(2):TGS then, EDF now" , posted Wed 14 Sep 02:45
quote:
I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what the two secret items are in D3P's lineup, even if one of them is EDF5. As a frothing EDF fanboy, I will always welcome a new EDF from Sandlot, or any game involving giant things from Sandlot (Robot Alchemic Drive VR would be great....). It's kind of a weird feeling for D3P to be something to be really excited for at TGS, though.
There's nothing wrong with more EDF. Persona, Ni-Oh, yadda, yadda, yadda... that's nice but I'm spending 2017 shooting frog soldiers.
Speaking of crowd control, it seems as if Koei-Tecmo has condensed into a single ball of Musou.
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| "Re(4):TGS then, EDF now" , posted Fri 16 Sep 04:01
quote:
And speaking of DoA, it warms my heart and its desire to see a Sega/SNK crossover that the week when Mai's released in DoA5 Last Round, VF's Akira and Pai also happen to be the freely-available characters in the game's F2P version.
Wow cool coincidence :D Not to mention some KOF entries feature the SEGA logo or name somewhere -KOFXI promotional poster because the Atomiswave is a Sega Sammy thing, and the KOFXIV U.S. site because of Atlus's current status.
I almost get moved to tears every freaking time I stumble upon "Nintendo Play Station" stuff. The demise of that collaboration is heavy on my heart. I know this machine's specifications are vastly inferior to the Mega CD and the Super CD-ROM -if I understood Ben Heck's comparison chart-, but hey, that prototype may be a tentative model destined to be drastically upgraded during its development cycle. Either that, or they wanted to pull off another GameBoy in the CD add-on market.
Besides, I believe the long term plan was to make a 32 bit, 3D focused Nintendo-Sony console...Play Station 2? after the Play Station, provided that the Nintendo-Sony partnership took off. I can't help but think how the balance in the video game world could be different if stuff like Tekken and Final Fantasy came out on such a system.
But what left me speechless is that I've only discovered the TCRF Super Disc page today and it was created in March, although I'm an avid TCRF fan. (I also like Unseen64, but I find TCRF more comfortable to browse)
Ore no...kachi da!!
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| | "Re(1):Persona 5 free costumes" , posted Sun 9 Oct 12:12
quote:
• Klei's critically acclaimed Invisible, Inc. is now available on iPad.
Invisible Inc. is a game I really like and really don't like. Being a roguelike, the RNG level design can completely screw you, the lethal weapons feel like vestiges from an earlier design of the game that annoy me whenever they show up as loot because the lethal weapons are so awful, arguably one of the big challenges of the game is figuring out just how much to grind the missions for in order to be able to have an adequate crew/gear to handle the final mission.... but the sneaking mechanics are generally very well thought-out, the notion of a sneaking-based roguelike is neat, I like cyberpunk settings, the presentation is generally excellent, and the characters look cool.
I very much think that it is a game that many will simply play it and hate it, and others will love to pieces.
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| | "Re(1):Persona 5 free costumes" , posted Sun 9 Oct 14:53
quote:
• Thanks Baines. Do you know which work it was used for first? I guess a book?
To try to find a specific source, I looked online. Which was...interesting. Mainly because there are two conflicting periods.
The various free online dictionaries seem to all cite some point in the 1970s as the origin of the word, with none giving any source.
The alternative is the Oxford English Dictionary, which I've seen repeatedly seen sourced by others as giving the word a specific origin year of 1958. (Online articles as well as the book English Lexicogenesis give this year, crediting the OED as their source.) The problem with going direct to the source for more details is that the OED's online presence is a paid subscription service.
That leaves Wikipedia, which is always questionable... Interestingly enough, Wikipedia's page for "prequel" does mention the OED, and goes further by claiming that the OED itself cites a 1958 sci-fi magazine article as the first use of the word in print. Specifically, an article by Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy editor Anthony Butcher, referring to the 1956 story They Shall Have Stars by James Blish, a prequel to Blish's 1955 story Earthman Come Home. (But since the source link is to a spot behind the OED's subscription wall, I can't confirm that citation.)
Wikipedia goes on to connect the term, via some dubious wording in an old Salon article, to the 1979 film Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.
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| | "Re(2):Persona 5 free costumes" , posted Tue 11 Oct 06:42
quote:
I wonder why such a neologism suddenly become synonym with "predecessor" / "precursor" / "precedent" / "previous episode" / "preceding episode" / many proper terms already available.
quote:
The various free online dictionaries seem to all cite some point in the 1970s as the origin of the word, with none giving any source.
The alternative is the Oxford English Dictionary, which I've seen repeatedly seen sourced by others as giving the word a specific origin year of 1958. (Online articles as well as the book English Lexicogenesis give this year, crediting the OED as their source.) The problem with going direct to the source for more details is that the OED's online presence is a paid subscription service.
That leaves Wikipedia, which is always questionable... Interestingly enough, Wikipedia's page for "prequel" does mention the OED, and goes further by claiming that the OED itself cites a 1958 sci-fi magazine article as the first use of the word in print. Specifically, an article by Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy editor Anthony Butcher, referring to the 1956 story They Shall Have Stars by James Blish, a prequel to Blish's 1955 story Earthman Come Home. (But since the source link is to a spot behind the OED's subscription wall, I can't confirm that citation.)
Wikipedia goes on to connect the term, via some dubious wording in an old Salon article, to the 1979 film Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.
Well, "prequel" is useful because with one word you can immediately convey three distinct things simultaneously without any room for error.
1. The work in question is related to an existing fiction/body of work.
2. The work in question occurs earlier in the chronology of this existing fiction/body of work.
3. The work in question is not the seminal work in the series; it builds on ideas/characters/concepts that already exist.
If I hear someone talking about a film's predecessor or a previous episode, I'm going to assume that it's older... that this precursor was actually conceived and created by the author/artist first and is an earlier expression of their ideas. I don't have any other info to go on unless you tell me that this episode is "new" or "the latest addition to the series" or something like that. And at that point I may already have a preconceived notion that needs to be corrected, and there's the possibility for some type of misunderstanding.
Prequel may be something that someone pulled out of their ass, but it saves a lot of words.
I'm personally more annoyed by "Episode Zero." Zero is the absence of something, it has no value. It's nothing at all! So why would I want to watch it? You'd better have some good cover art or be Gackt to really pique my curiosity.
/ / /
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
STM: n/a
CFN: Ishmael26b
| "Re(1):Thumper! THUMPER! THUMP!" , posted Tue 11 Oct 23:39
quote:
• Thumper is out early and you should buy it.
Thumper looks like the scarab from Journey album covers is going up against the arcade game Tempest and the arcade cabinet art for Tempest. I can't imagine what it's like to play since even the YouTube videos are trippy as all hell. Still, the throbbing, oppressive "music" is better than pretty much anything Journey put out.
quote:
The alternative is the Oxford English Dictionary, which I've seen repeatedly seen sourced by others as giving the word a specific origin year of 1958. (Online articles as well as the book English Lexicogenesis give this year, crediting the OED as their source.) The problem with going direct to the source for more details is that the OED's online presence is a paid subscription service.
That leaves Wikipedia, which is always questionable... Interestingly enough, Wikipedia's page for "prequel" does mention the OED, and goes further by claiming that the OED itself cites a 1958 sci-fi magazine article as the first use of the word in print. Specifically, an article by Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy editor Anthony Butcher, referring to the 1956 story They Shall Have Stars by James Blish, a prequel to Blish's 1955 story Earthman Come Home. (But since the source link is to a spot behind the OED's subscription wall, I can't confirm that citation.)
For what it's worth, I looked up "prequel" in the OED and can confirm it lists the 1958 article as the first quotation of the word. By 1973 "prequel" was used in a London Times article about The Silmarillon so it looks like it was a word that developed in genre writing and since then has been spreading into common usage.
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| | "Re(3):Thumper! THUMPER! THUMP!" , posted Wed 12 Oct 11:08
quote:
or what it's worth, I looked up "prequel" in the OED and can confirm it lists the 1958 article as the first quotation of the word.
That's nice to know. I'd run into sources quoting the OED, but had no way of checking myself, and it was weird seeing all those free online dictionaries saying the term only dated back to the 70s.
Funny thing is, there is a slight chance I actually had the 1958 magazine in question at some point. I used to own a ton of such old sci-fi magazines that I'd grabbed for cheap from an old (long closed for decades) book store that had itself gotten them from somewhere.
The Foundation books by Asimov absolutely had a prequel, with original collected stories having been written in the late 40's/early 50's, while the book Prelude to Foundation was published in the 80's. Prelude to Foundation is very much a prequel, detailing events that occurred prior to the first set of the Foundation stories. I'm quite sure that Prelude to Foundation was described even then as a "prequel", but it being a product of the 80s puts it pretty far off of the earliest reported occurrences of the word. Nevertheless, as an influential science fiction story, it certainly predates the Phantom Menace. I would not be surprised if the Phantom Menace represented the entry of the word into the mainstream consciousness and lexicon, though.
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| | "Gyakuten 15" , posted Thu 13 Oct 00:15
`ヽ､llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll`ヽ､_,-,
-―--`lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllﾉ
`ヽ､lllllllllllllllllllllllllll, - ､ll､_ll､ヽlllllllllllllllノ-,
￣ヾllllllll/⌒ｌ､lllllll-- `ヾシﾉ|彡
_ノll/ ⌒l `|ll/´ -､ /
`)ll| (`Y´ 二`ヽ､_ |
／lll`l`-| （ |;;lll| '´,イ´
,-'´／|`ヽ-┐ `￣' ﾉ
＿_, -‐/;;;;;;/ | | l
;;;;;;;;;;;;;/;;;;;;;| `l l､ ` , -'
;;;;;;;;;;/;;;;;;;;;;;| `l､ `ヽ､ -――-/
┌‐┴───┐ ヽ､ `ヽ､ 人
│ナルホド| `ヽ､ `＞┬イ `､
├───‐─┴─────────────────────────────
│We are celebrating the 15th anniversary of Gyakuten Saiban.
│Speaking of which, GS4 is getting a smartphone release.
└───────────────────────────────────
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| | "Re(1):Gyakuten 15" , posted Thu 13 Oct 03:05
quote:
`ヽ､llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll`ヽ､_,-,
-―--`lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllﾉ
`ヽ､lllllllllllllllllllllllllll, - ､ll､_ll､ヽlllllllllllllllノ-,
￣ヾllllllll/⌒ｌ､lllllll-- `ヾシﾉ|彡
_ノll/ ⌒l `|ll/´ -､ /
`)ll| (`Y´ 二`ヽ､_ |
／lll`l`-| （ |;;lll| '´,イ´
,-'´／|`ヽ-┐ `￣' ﾉ
＿_, -‐/;;;;;;/ | | l
;;;;;;;;;;;;;/;;;;;;;| `l l､ ӌ
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
Meanwhile in the west we are still waiting for a localization of Dai Gyakuten Saiban, and still had the last game only as a digital delivery, despite all the (empty) promises of Crapcom.
|
| | "Re(3):Gyakuten 15" , posted Thu 13 Oct 14:21
quote:
I find the cases too long
It has almost certainly the longest final case in the history of the series.
I think my final play time for this game, having not yet done the DLC case, is nearly 40 hours. It's substantial!
One of the odd things about this game character-wise for me is that there seems to be a very high proportion of anime-beautiful girls/women in the game. I liked how in the GBA ones, there were certainly beautiful women, but they came alongside a zany cast of characters with all kinds of unusual faces. There were "cute" girls who weren't typical anime moe looking, whether it was Maya/Mayoi or Pearl/Harumi, glamorous women that had creases and wrinkles on their faces, and women that were not at all ugly but weren't being pushed as gorgeous/beautiful/anime-cute like Lotta/Natsumi.
Though I get that the "line of thinking" thing you do at the climax of a case is meant to be more 3D, I don't think it looks as good as the inky one of AA5, whose energy and intensity were fantastic to me.
Even though it feels a little disjointed at times, overall I still think I like it more than AA5, and certainly more than AA4. It's fairly difficult for any game to capture the magic of the first experience of AA1, or the capstone climax of AA3, but I like that the outcome of AA6 has significant implications for the AA universe and its characters.
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| | "Re(3):Gyakuten 15" , posted Thu 13 Oct 18:41
quote:
I assume there must be a good reason, as the digital Western sales seem stable enough to secure profits. The fact they never clearly explained (I believe?) what's problematic lead me to believe there is either a legal or PR issue with the game contents.
My own assumptions are: either Capcom is afraid too many GS games in the west is going to over-saturate the franchise there, or internal politics.
As in, the franchise is now in the hands of a team whose job is to keep the series going as long as possible in Japan AND the west, hence capitalizing on safe aspects: fanservice, pretty characters and a setting less annoying to localize (fantasy Tibet). On another wing of the Capcom office, Takushu can do his auteur thing the way he wants, without having to bend his writing for the (perceived needs of the) international market. I'm not sure the case centered around the parody of Souseki Natsume would have been greenlit without this arrangement, for example.
Hopefully that means he can lead DGS the way he wants, end it when he wants without having the pressure to keep going because "people want more", and then move to another Ghost-Trick type of jewel.
|
| | "Re(4):Gyakuten 15" , posted Fri 14 Oct 04:21
quote:
My own assumptions are: either Capcom is afraid too many GS games in the west is going to over-saturate the franchise there, or internal politics.
Ah but of course! Capcom's famed aversion for saturating the market.
I understand where you are coming from but it does not make sense to me that they would stop the release DGS for fear it would not be accepted in the Western market, when it makes prominent use of possibly the most iconic character in the history of Western literature since Jesus. They have been bending over backwards with the "this is happening in LA" charade, almost to the point of self-parody at this stage (the recent translations are clearly tongue-in-cheek on this specific topic), so I really don't think a cameo/reference to a Japanese author would be such a big issue. Are we supposed to believe that most Japanese fans know who are the people on their banknotes?
I am more thinking of something like, there'd be a minor necessary clearance with the use of the Sherlock IP, or something which is specifically copyrighted about his look which they forgot to get clearance from before they released DGS in Japan, and now going through the process would not only endanger the Western release of the game but would also retroactively make DGS wrong in Japan, or something to that effect. From my experience, that's more the kind of typical reason why some games get mysteriously stuck in Japan.
Or it's a conspiracy and nobody wants Takushu to succeed again. Or it's a mighty conspiracy and Takushu requested not to make the game too successful because success only brings him trouble while failure and disappointment is a much calmer sea to calmly drown into.
quote:
a setting less annoying to localize (fantasy Tibet)
That's a good question. I don't think localizing was the main reason for this setting. Playing the game, it seems to me they built the entire thing backwards. I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way, although it would connote priorities which might explain some issues I have with the game.
I join you on the analysis "they are thinking long term". But I rather think it went like this: they first decided what they wanted to have achieved with this new game, and where they wanted the characters to be standing at the end of the game.
I won't go into details of the story and characters development to avoid spoiling someone who wants to play GS6 soon, but I think a good example which doesn't spoil too much is Mayoi(Maya). As touted in the promo of the game, GS6 is her big comeback. So first, they needed a reason to kinda explain where she had been. Then, they needed a reason for her to come back (and/or be in danger again). Also, they needed a way to set up where they wanted her to be at the end of the game.
GS5 was all about erasing the mistakes of GS4: improving the personality of Odoroki(Apollo) and find a new role for him in the series, bring back Naruhodo(Phoenix) as the main character and a more relatable protagonist, etc. GS6 is all about "what people like are the original cast, let's find a way to bring back Mayoi together with Naruhodo while still finding a place for all those new characters to contribute, and conclude some story arcs we had never really resolved".
Meanwhile, juggling with all these considerations, they also need (or at least they assume they need) some new gimmick, like the bracelet in GS4 or the emotion scanner in GS5, to bring a different approach and a fresh experience to the trials. I think this is highly debatable, but whatevs, it seems to be their direction : each new game needs it's new gimmick.
With all these considerations in mind, they had to built a story and a context which could comply with all the targets. Fantasy Tibet ends up doing a pretty good job in that regard. That's where Mayoi went studying, because it's the origin of the Kurain sect. Since it's a brand new setting, a few more loose ends are tied conveniently. And since the gimmick they found is "let's see through the eyes of the victim when they die", they added that magic princess. And since they added the magic princess, they had to put her into the plot. And to put her into the plot, let's consider the royal family. But why would Naruhodo actually act as a lawyer there, in the first place? A-ha, let's say there are literally no other lawyers in that country. But why would there be no lawyers? Well, let's make that the big mystery behind the main plot. Etc.
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| | "Re(5):Gyakuten 15" , posted Fri 14 Oct 04:55
quote:
Are we supposed to believe that most Japanese fans know who are the people on their banknotes?
This is a point that I have literally no knowledge about!
In the USA, the faces on the banknotes are VERY well known people. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ben Franklin, etc. Sure not everybody might know detailed history about them, but everybody recognizes them and can name them. They are, in fact, American icons.
In Canada, it's a bit less so. We known that's Queen Elizabeth, we probably know that's John A McDonald, but I can assure you that nobody in my family would remember Robert Borden off the top of their heads (including myself!).
What's the case in Japan with Japanese currency?
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| | "Re(7):Gyakuten 15" , posted Fri 14 Oct 09:33:
quote:
I doubt 100% knows about the London thing, but anyone who listened during high school probably knows.
That's more specifically what I was was talking about. I know Sōseki is famous enough (although he has been replaced on the 1000 note recently) that any Japanese adult would generally know his identity, but I am not convinced fans of Gyakuten Saiban would know anything substantial about his life and understand the references in the game. The same way that I am sure most French people could recognize a picture of Victor Hugo or Emile Zola, but I am pessimistic enough to assume a reference to a similar episode of their life inside a video game would fly over most French gamers' head. Maybe my opinion on the average player's culture is too grim.
Regarding Takushu, he is still employed and active at Capcom, unless there is some shocking news looming and we learn he is not directly involved in DGS2, so that means he is getting paid to do what he enjoys. And he seems to have foregone any desire to go higher in hierarchy, since he keeps getting new producers above him, which means he does not have to deal with any managerial bullshit or even production/promotional issues. He wasn't even at the DGS2 reveal event for the 15th anniversary stage show at TGS, which... OK, that was a bit weird, but maybe he is happy not to do that anymore? At the very least, that means he can focus on writing stories and developing ideas, which I would assume fits what he really wants to spend time on.
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Fri 14 Oct 09:40] |
| | "Re(9):Gyakuten 15" , posted Fri 14 Oct 23:41:
quote:
Could it be that GS as a series is more popular amongst people with a slightly higher cultural background than your average mobile game / Danganronpa? Or also that they are older?
Or maybe that DaiGS is aimed towards this particular demographics, while GS6 aimed to a wider audience?
For example, I know the new Sherlock Holmes series is popular in Japan, but it would be interesting to know the average profile of the fans.
Maybe? No idea about the average cultural background of GS players. I do agree they probably skew older overall, and for sure more female than the average 3DS user. If only because I am not sure the series has recruited so many new fans since the GBA/DS era.
I am also quite curious about who makes up the DGS userbase. You have a very optimisitic theory. As you know, I am a rather skeptical person so I rarely vote my confidence for the best possible outcome Humanity could spawn. I'd rather expect the slighty smaller DGS audience to be mostly composed of a subset of GS fans who'd buy anything Gyakuten-relatd, even Gyakuten Tennis or Gyakuten Puyo Puyo. Of course there must be a niche of true Takushu fans like you (or other lapsed GS players who came back for other reasons), and some newcomers.
I think the missed opportunity with DGS is definitely the lack of newcomers and I wonder why more people did not bite for a reboot. It was a great opportunity to jump in, in the same way GS6 is the worst possible opportunity to jump in.
That being said, I would not be surprised if DGS2 improved the situation, especially if they apply the usual long-tail strategy and release the Best hits version of DGS, then the iPhone version, + the usual good sales of the used copies as the promotion of DGS2 ramps up, all those opportunities grabbing more players for DGS and getting more people excited for DGS2. I am sure many regular GS players thought « I'll give DGS a chance later/cheaper » because they were not sure the new setting would work out for them, or they were getting tired of the series at that point.
After all, GS remains the poster child of long-tail sales and word-of-mouth adoption, and this has happened on a worldwide scale. That's precisely why they can't rely on retail in the West anymore: with each episode the potentiel users took way to long to want the game, and then complained they could not find it anymore.
Which brings me back to my initial point: in many ways, Gyakuten's Western fans act the same way as Japanese fans. And they already had to swallow some insane contrivances and blurred references when the original trilogy got adapted, so it's not like a literary reference going over their head was gonna be a huge issue either.
Cap deliberately left money on the table despite the worst subset of Western fans harassing them on social media to release DGS in the West. Occam's Razor says we should not look too far for a valid reason why. It's probably some third party being too greedy or too procedural to let them release the game.
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Fri 14 Oct 23:44] |
| | "Re(6):Gyakuten 15" , posted Sat 15 Oct 00:59
quote:
In the USA, the faces on the banknotes are VERY well known people. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ben Franklin, etc. Sure not everybody might know detailed history about them, but everybody recognizes them and can name them. They are, in fact, American icons.
I think you might be over-estimating American knowledge. If you showed an average American a $20 bill and asked them who was pictured on it, I'd bet a fair number couldn't tell you "Andrew Jackson", much less tell you anything about him.
People know George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, because they are hammered into them via the school system. People know Franklin for the same reason, though I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you managed to find a few people who didn't make the connection that $100 bills are called "Benjamins" because they picture Benjamin Franklin.
People might recognize Grant's name, since he was a major Civil War figure. Jackson, they might recognize the name but not know for what (and some will just assume that he is a President because he's on a bill. Just as you can get people who think Franklin was a President if you make that president-bill connection first.) Hamilton? Not very likely at all.
Jefferson, people would have recognized his name, but so few places want to even bother with the $2 bill that you hardly ever see one, and there is a common (incorrect) belief that the bill is no longer in circulation and/or is a collector's item.
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| | "Re(7):Gyakuten 15" , posted Sat 15 Oct 05:28
quote:
I think you might be over-estimating American knowledge. If you showed an average American a $20 bill and asked them who was pictured on it, I'd bet a fair number couldn't tell you "Andrew Jackson", much less tell you anything about him.
People know George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, because they are hammered into them via the school system. People know Franklin for the same reason, though I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you managed to find a few people who didn't make the connection that $100 bills are called "Benjamins" because they picture Benjamin Franklin.
When we used to have Francs, I think everyone knew who was Delacroix (100F) or later Saint-Exupéry (50F), because there was a big hint on the other side of the bill (boobs, Prince). I don't think anyone would have recognized them if not for the hint. For example I only learnt that was supposed to be Debussy now.
Eiffel and the Curie, from the later generation, were very obvious too.
I grew up with the boring bills (mostly brown and grey, the Early 2000 AAA videogame palette), full of people I didn't, and still don't, really care about (except Debussy, he's cool). The following ones, with the garish red and almost neon blue, were much better but short lived because of the Euro. I regret I didn't get to use those, though. At least no one would have asked who's the guy on this bill.
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| | "Re(8):Gyakuten 15" , posted Sat 15 Oct 11:51:
quote:
Eiffel and the Curie, from the later generation, were very obvious too.
Man, in retrospect, that final generation of French Francs was pretty cool, both for its visual execution and via the roster of characters. Too bad it got squeezed out so quickly because it came out at the wrong time. It's the Street Fighter III 3rd Strike of French banknotes.
I remember in the mid-Nineties, the Swiss deliberately picked a roster of "Famous Swiss who nobody outside Switzerland realizes they are Swiss" (like Le Corbusier, Giacometti or Honegger) in order to educate foreigners involved with Swiss Francs. I am sure Pablo Escobar would have appreciated the effort if they came quickly enough.
FuRyu is back.
Thumper gets amazing around Level 4. I love that, instead of being forced to follow one unique proper pattern, you can improve and invent your own combos by diverting the original intended route/actions into a new logical sequence you improvised on the spot. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to any human being or sentient AI.
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Sat 15 Oct 11:59] |
| | "Re(3):RANDOM GAMES! #33: The Trilogy of Error" , posted Tue 1 Nov 03:56:
quote:
Random game I didn't even played but I'm curious: does anyone knows a game called Duelyst?
It's a card-gane online with F2P mechanics like Hearthstone but with a tactical phase.
I haven't played it because I discovered it after the release of Civ 6 so sorry no time Teddy Roosevelt needs his butt to be kicked, but this pixel art is very MMC-compliant.
Those will probably remind you of a fighting game or Fire Emblem character or a Pokémon.
Does anyone play it? I wouldn't be surprised it someone here worked on the game or knows someone who did.
There were people at my old office that loved the game to bits. I didn't want to play it because of its PVP focus, even though it is a nice looking game.
I actually tried this game when it was in beta last year. The art is pretty great!
Unfortunately the same free-to-play grind that killed my interest in other games struck here as well. First I play a bit and get used to it. If I'm enjoying it I keep playing, but I start to get tired of using the same cards/units to grind out wins. No matter how well the game is balanced, every once in a while you lose a match to someone you know you outplayed but who has a better deck.
Then I look at the available pool and think of the strategies I want to try out, and then feel bummed out or resentful when I don't get the cards/units I want (the resentment is usually triggered by spending money).
It's happening now with the Gwent beta, actually. In a way it's nice to be able to sample games for free and get out before they consume too much of my time, but I usually do end up spending a number of hours grinding to try and get what I want before I admit that it's not going to happen. Sometimes I have spent a modest amount of money and quit right after.... did I pay out of guilt for playing so long, even if a lot of it was grinding? Or did I pay with the naive hope that I'm going to get all most dynamic, useful, fun and powerful cards in one go?
Well, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go disenchant (they call it mill) a bunch of cards that I may want to use later. My personality draws me to these things, but it also ruins them for me.
/ / /
[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Tue 1 Nov 03:59] |
| | "Re(3):The Effects of Mass" , posted Fri 11 Nov 06:52
quote:
I'm not thrilled with the trailer because early on in the discussion of Andromeda they mentioned it being about the frontier, but the trailer is 100% Inception-noise action as the guys desperately gunfight against some monsters and a sinister humanoid alien. The atmosphere of the trailer is all "ooh sinister danger and desperate struggle for survival". It's utterly humorless.
It's not that any element of it looks bad, but rather that it doesn't communicate any super grand aspirations of exploration, role-playing, deep story/setting, etc. which is what I hope for from Mass Effect.
Admittedly, the trailers for ME2 and ME3 were kind of like that, too, and ME2 had plenty of great story in it.
It might entirely be possible that their long term strategy is to have DA be the largehuge exploration RPG and ME grows ever narrower in roleplaying scope as a more action-focused narrative.
Well, they have straight-up said that Andromeda is open world. Trailers, you can't trust 'em!
/ / /
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| | "Re(7):Family Computer" , posted Mon 21 Nov 13:08
quote:
Nintendo has not only put up the original instruction manuals for the Famicom Mini but they are available in different languages to boot. The English booklet for FF1 is over eighty pages!
Wow! I'd heard that they were really neverous about getting Americans to like RPGs (didn't they give away Dragon Quest for free or something), and this friendly guide confirms. The trend continues with Final Fantasy VI: have you ever seen the American manual? It's lavish and in color, full of Amano's art, a thousand times more pleasant than the simple Japanese original even if it has the classier box.
This is also a good time to remember that Super Mario USA ("2") kept the "Subcon" world name when moving back to Japan, and that Mario 1 has a weird undercurrent of Mushroom death since everyone is turned into bricks and plants according to the instruction book, which Mario destroys...not that the designers were probably thinking even slightly about it in those terms, of course.
I own an original NES FF1 with all its packaging and manual materials and it was NUTS. It comes with foldout maps of many of the dungeons, a walkthrough for the early part of the game, charts showing you the different gear/spells in the game and which classes can use them, charts showing the different enemies in the game and their abilities/weaknesses/HP/etc. (not all of which was correct!), and it even named "Chaos", but didn't show his sprite.
Metal Gear 1 on NES came with detailed maps and info about the different bosses and their weaknesses.
On the other hand, Strider on NES came with barely any info at all beyond the regular little manual.
Dragon Quest 1 on NES also came with an early-game walkthrough!
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| PSN: MickyKusanagi
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
STM: n/a
CFN: MickyKusanagi
| "Re(2):The Nonary + Code of Princess" , posted Mon 28 Nov 16:49
Maou, I love that game to death, though I admit it easily gets repetitive, turning into a matter of equipping your character with the most effective bonuses for the level/bonus quest you're about to tackle and do the same one or two moves over and over again. Move sets definitely aren't on par with Guardian Heroes IMO. But you can ease the repetitiveness by completing it with all the characters. Only the first 4 characters are playable in all modes IIRC, but any other character is playable in regular levels without following the story and in the bonus quests, so there's plenty to mess around with. Plus, as Nobi said, the storyline is fun and model animation is good. I love its soundtrack too. Go for that nonary price tag :D
By the way, I searched Google a couple times for a story related tidbit, but had no luck...
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
what does Liongate/Schwarz tell Solange in the Japanese version in the last scene -it's limited to one of the two endings if I remember well-, when he gets the second "mou...ecchi!!" from his beloved little sister complete with a strike in his balls? Is it the same as the English version, "please cover yourself when you go out"? I doubt it...
End of Spoiler
Ore no...kachi da!!
|
| | "Re(2):The Nonary Games are back... well, exce" , posted Tue 29 Nov 21:20
quote:
Not really fresh news, but last month Spike Chunsoft announced the Zero Escape: The Nonary Games compilation for PS4, PSVita and PC. It brings both 999 (with high-resolution graphics and voice acting) and Virtue's Last Reward.
The weird thing is, while it's understandable that Zero Time Dilemma isn't present in the PSVita and PC versions of ZE:TNG (as it was already released in these systems), it won't be included in the PS4 version, either. I know it wasn't as praised as its predecessors, but it could be a way to have more people interested in the compilation.
It's also not a Nonary Game like the other two games are so they'd have to change that clever title to something else.
That's right, it's a Decision Game... well, nevertheless, it's the final part of the Zero Escape trilogy, and since there are nine participants with their lives on the line, this game is still kinda "nonary"...
I can be any person in the world... maybe I'm this person right in front of you... maybe I'm not.
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| | "Re(3):The Nonary Games are back... well, exce" , posted Wed 30 Nov 16:03
quote:
Not really fresh news, but last month Spike Chunsoft announced the Zero Escape: The Nonary Games compilation for PS4, PSVita and PC. It brings both 999 (with high-resolution graphics and voice acting) and Virtue's Last Reward.
The weird thing is, while it's understandable that Zero Time Dilemma isn't present in the PSVita and PC versions of ZE:TNG (as it was already released in these systems), it won't be included in the PS4 version, either. I know it wasn't as praised as its predecessors, but it could be a way to have more people interested in the compilation.
It's also not a Nonary Game like the other two games are so they'd have to change that clever title to something else.
That's right, it's a Decision Game... well, nevertheless, it's the final part of the Zero Escape trilogy, and since there are nine participants with their lives on the line, this game is still kinda "nonary"...
Don't look at this if you haven't actually played Zero Time Dilemma.
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
Until you consider there's actually ten players in which case the 'deci' in Decision game takes a whole another meaning
End of Spoiler
I found Kagami's sword in a junk yard.
I will rule the world and find that truly good cup of coffee.
"Dink-a-dink-a-dink-a-do."
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| PSN: zonepharaoh
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CFN: zonepharaoh
| "Code of Maou" , posted Sat 3 Dec 16:20
Hahahah, oh lord Code of Princess may be the dumbest game I've bought in a long time. Note that I didn't say "bad," necessarily. Kinu is the obviously the reason to get it, and they know how to get your attention from the start. There's a lot of uninteresting characters running around, even if the dialogue between characters frequently makes me laugh. I wish the game were more fun, though! Lots of mash. I'm starting to wonder if Dragon's Crown, in addition to being one of the finest games ever made, is also an anomaly as an RPG beat-em-up that's actually fun. Sure, it looks nicer than Code, but what are the other reasons it's so much more fun to brawl? Maybe it's having real stages. Either way, I still wish Kinu and Kamitani would team up for a game. They're friends, after all!
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．．．
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| | "Let It Die is quite the roguelike" , posted Tue 6 Dec 04:43
I honestly don't like the combat, which is what you mostly do in the game, I personally try to stay away from roguelikes because after a dozen plus hours I feel existential dread, but Let It Die has the funniest and most stylish first hour-plus. It's Grasshopper through and through. It's got amazing and bizarre images and characters, a lot of low-fi aesthetics, and a possibly too-gritty/too-edgy punk feel.
It's a F2P game where the microtransactions mostly have to do with character resurrection in the form of insurance.
It being F2P means that you should also all try it out! I think the one downer of it in terms of its intro to the game is the sheer volume of text notes you have to read that you can easily forget, even if they are presented in a way that's amusing. The notebook you have in the game showing achievements/objectives/past notes/etc. looks quite nice, too! Where Ni-Oh has the Dark Souls bloodstains serve as summons for AI-controlled versions of those players, in Let It Die your dead will automatically appear in other people's games, and in your own. Defeating them allows you to reclaim them in your game, which is a cool mechanic.
I don't know how much of it I'll actually play, what with FFXV in my hands and TLG coming up and the fighting of Let It Die not being terrifically great, but it gave me enough goofy grins that I'm tempted to just throw them some money anyway.
Iggy and nobi will probably love the mushroom fanatic.
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| | "Re(2):Nierly (not) Automatic demo" , posted Sat 24 Dec 21:19
quote:
JaP, you'll be happy to see some Kilgore goodness if you haven't already. Also, it looks like 2 other characters are on the way.
Thanks, Micky! It seems that the KI's Definitive Edition that I bought some months ago is no longer definitive... *sigh*
Kilgore looks... exactly how a KI3 fighter would be if the game was developed in the 1990s. Kinda cheesy, but not bad. And it's great that he has his own theme (so far, only Omen and Shadow Jago share the same theme, and that's possibly because it fits both of them), which I like better than Fulgore's.
I'm curious to see the other two fighters. I doubt they will get their own stages, but hopefully they will get good, individual music themes (unless they're more guest characters; if that's the case, I couldn't care less about them). The djinn and magic archer concepts in the poll conducted before Eyedol's reveal could be very interesting...
I can be any person in the world... maybe I'm this person right in front of you... maybe I'm not.
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| PSN: Ishmael26b
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CFN: Ishmael26b
| "Re(1):A Dogmatic Dragon" , posted Mon 26 Dec 08:11
quote:
Among the far-too-many games I bought myself for Christmas because according to myself, and I'm a very reliable source on the subject, I've been a very good boy this year, I finally bought Dragon's Dogma (it's on Steam for not too much).
I remember several people were really into it a few years ago, is there anything I should know before starting? Some things I should absolutely do or avoid?
Dragon's Dogma, the game I love an irrational amount!
My main advice is to study up on pawn inclination. Not only do you want to train your pawn up right but you want to recruit pawns that aren't completely stupid. Having a pawn who constantly drains their stamina by running ahead or who scrounges around for items on the floor of the horse stable without an ounce of self-respect is not a pawn you need in your party.
Speaking of pawns, it's not a bad idea to have a pawn's class compliment or mirror your own. Having a ranger pawn is nice if you are going in for melee attacks or if you're both sorcerers your pawn will mirror your major spells for double the damage.
As for classes, pick whatever you like and don't be worried about switching whenever the mood strikes. Not only are all the classes more or less viable they are fun to play. Even the fighter, who in another game would be just some starting class that you play until you unlock something good, is really entertaining. "They're masterworks all, you can't go wrong," as one of the NPC's will tell you again and again and...
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| | "Re(2):XBO game Scalebound Cancelled" , posted Tue 10 Jan 12:01:
Word is Kamiya suffered some mental health issues and is on sick leave. Hope he gets better and doesn't let this dampen his spirits.
At least the positive reception for Nier Automata should keep the Platinum torch burning.
EDIT: Kamiya's response:
quote:
As you may have already heard, Scalebound has unfortunately been canceled. I'm very sorry to everyone who was looking forward to this game.
Sorry to bring you such bad news at the start of the year. All I can do for you is to promise to keep delivering fun games.
I'll work extra hard to never have to let you down like this again, so I hope you will keep watching over us in the future too.
Thanx for your lots of messages!!
And...I took time off for my mental health? ...Me!?
No way.
I thought I would get lots of savage messages, but in reality I'm getting lots of warm messages. Thank you.
Platinum's statement:
quote:
Regarding the Cancellation of Scalebound
2017.01.11
We’re sorry to say that on January 9, 2017, Microsoft Studios announced the cancellation of Scalebound. We are very disappointed things ended up this way, especially since we know many of our fans were looking forward to this game as much as we were.
Going forward, we will strive to continue delivering high-quality games to you, starting with NieR:Automata in March, and including products like GRANBLUE FANTASY Project Re:Link and LOST ORDER in the future.
We will keep working hard to meet your expectations and we look forward to your continued support!
President and CEO
Kenichi Sato
[this message was edited by Freeter on Wed 11 Jan 21:48] |
| | "Re(1):Xaaaanaaaaduuuuu" , posted Mon 23 Jan 22:09:
quote:
Xanadu Next has been released on Steam in English. Is this the same Xanadu that chaz so often spoke fondly of?
Yes! I am very sorry for the late answer. That is the game I frequently mentioned (when I was not talking about the original Xanadu), and that is the game I am disappointed Tokyo Xanadu (Vita/PS4/PC, coming to the West later this year) is not taking any inspiration from.
I have to admit, I am not sure how well Xanadu Next has aged and I would not recommend it as blindly as as I would have done five to ten years ago. When Tokyo Xanadu came out, action adventure games with such a focussed premise had all but dwindled among publishers. Nowadays, besides the revival of old-school action adventure ignoring narrative-heavy sequences, notably thanks to the Souls series, we've had plenty of great indie games scratching this kind of 90's SFC "action-RPG" itch. I bought the Steam version last Christmas out of respect for Xseed's insane decision to release an English version (and to celebrate the recent purchase of a proper gaming laptop), but I have not launched it yet. When I do, I'll try to give you a proper assessment of the game's objective contemporary value once the crumbs of the nostalgic pie are swept under the rug.
Même Narumi est épatée !
[this message was edited by chazumaru on Tue 24 Jan 09:27] |
| PSN: zonepharaoh
XBL: n/a
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CFN: zonepharaoh
| "Re(1):Neo Yorker" , posted Wed 25 Jan 13:31
quote:
A discussion about Neo Geo collecting popped up in, of all places, The New Yorker.
I love reading the New Yorker with a bit of cheese when I'm in literarti mode, but I had no idea I would love reading a gaming article from them!
I get that physicality is attractive to these collectors of Neo-Geo carts at extreme prices, but it's an interesting direction to go rather than, say, collecting the actual arcade cabinets, which ironically may be less expensive given that they've likely been produced in higher numbers in some cases. While I guess space could be an issue compared with making a complete Neo-Geo library, the money saved by not spending $200,000 on video game carts might be enough to enable you to build a special wing of your house just to house your arcade cabinets intead...
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．．．
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| | "Re(2):Xaaaanaaaaduuuuu" , posted Thu 26 Jan 00:09
quote:
Xanadu Next has been released on Steam in English. Is this the same Xanadu that chaz so often spoke fondly of?
Yes! I am very sorry for the late answer. That is the game I frequently mentioned (when I was not talking about the original Xanadu), and that is the game I am disappointed Tokyo Xanadu (Vita/PS4/PC, coming to the West later this year) is not taking any inspiration from.
I have to admit, I am not sure how well Xanadu Next has aged and I would not recommend it as blindly as as I would have done five to ten years ago. When Tokyo Xanadu came out, action adventure games with such a focussed premise had all but dwindled among publishers. Nowadays, besides the revival of old-school action adventure ignoring narrative-heavy sequences, notably thanks to the Souls series, we've had plenty of great indie games scratching this kind of 90's SFC "action-RPG" itch. I bought the Steam version last Christmas out of respect for Xseed's insane decision to release an English version (and to celebrate the recent purchase of a proper gaming laptop), but I have not launched it yet. When I do, I'll try to give you a proper assessment of the game's objective contemporary value once the crumbs of the nostalgic pie are swept under the rug.
I'll be looking forward to reading your impressions of the game in this modern age!
I played Tower of Druaga on an arcade cabinet today and died when I found myself surrounded by Wizards!
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| | "Re(1):Danganronpa Question" , posted Sat 28 Jan 01:48
quote:
Just started watching the animation for Danganronpa and was pretty amazed how it turned out. I didnt expect much but was surpised. Did not know it was originally a video game. Just A Person, how is the game played? Is it something like a crime investigating game like Ace Attorney? Well, never played that either so curious to know. Also which game in the series would be a good start to try out for newcomers?
Yes, it is very similar to Ace Attorney in terms of gameplay (but VERY different in terms of setting), but between one murder and other, Danganronpa also has Free Time, where you can interact with the other students and try to become closer to them by giving them gifts, talking to them and so on. It doesn't affect the main plot, but allows you to unlock special skills for investigations or trials, and to learn more about their backgrounds.
I guess the first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc would be the best one for newcomers, as it features less mechanics (there are a lot of them, yes, but each sequel brings even more of them, so...) - not to mention that some twists from DR2 can only be understood if you played DR1 first (DRV3 is supposed to be an independent chapter of the franchise, but I wouldn't doubt that it is connected to the previous games in some way or other). There is the Another Episode spin-off, but it is an action game, quite different from the other ones.
Fortunately, Spike Chunsoft has already released a collection of the first two games for PS Vita and will release it this year for PS4, so it should be easier (and cheaper) to get them.
I can be any person in the world... maybe I'm this person right in front of you... maybe I'm not.
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| PSN: n/a
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STM: ungenesis
CFN: ungenesis
| "Re(3):There's A New Double Dragon Game Out To" , posted Wed 1 Feb 17:43
The heck? I love DD as much as the next guy, but why does this exist? I'm no art-eater so I'm struggling to put this thought to pen, but here's what I managed to mind-vomit out on my drive home.
ASW is between a rock and a hard place. Billy and Jimmy are so rooted in the 80s-denim-leather-tattoos-vests gritty Streets of Fire dynamic that (IMO) it would be difficult to create a 'real' new game that would be relevant to consumers today AND commercially viable. Each attempt to update or reinvent their world has failed - from reimagining them as Saturday-morning superheroes (TV series / The Shadow Falls), Surf Ninjas (live movie), or trope-laden self-parodies (Neon). I think Rage of the Dragons had its heart in the right place, but, y'know....
So the easy solution is, just make it look and play like the one you remember, right? After all the kids who grew up on it eat up the Megaman 9s, Shovel Knights, River City Ransom SPs and their ilk. And after all, our generation is about to drop 50 bucks on Street Fighter 2! Why go through the effort of creating something really new at all?
I think the reason NES graphics work so well for the new Kunio games is that their goofy, lighthearted style makes them kind of timeless, like Peanuts. Wait, wrong audience - I meant like Lupin. But using and (barely) tweaking the DD2 assets here doesn't feel like tribute, it just seems lazy. When it comes down to it, the retreaux games I listed above massively outstrip the capabilities of the consoles whose personalities they emulate, but manage to hide that in an 8-bit shell. From what (admittedly little) I've seen here though, this just looks like a romhack of DD2 with widescreen - stiff, unforgiving, and dare I say boring.
Now that all said, I'm not the type of person to knock a game on visual impressions alone, I firmly believe that if it plays good, that's all that matters. But as I continue to get older I'm finding it harder and harder to give things a chance. Money isn't as disposable as it used to be. I have to worry about health insurance, gasoline, providing for my family - if a game (or other avenue of entertainment) gives me any reason to believe it's not worth the time and trouble, I skip it. So that underwhelming trailer sure didn't do it any favors. (I mean, come on! "The mysterious enemies were called......The Renegades"?!)
My love for Double Dragon runs deep. I hope that I'm wrong and overreacting and maybe if a friend pulls the trigger and I get to try it I'll come back here and eat these words. And in all fairness, I don't have a better idea of how to save Double Dragon.
But does it really need saving at all? It was fine the way it was.
Sorry for the incoherent rant. Now I'm going to go remind myself that this is not in fact rock bottom for the Dragons by watching the episode of the Kunio TV drama they appear in.
"Hai ... Shindekudasai?"
Anyone still playing Phantasy Star Online 2?
Ship: 2
ID: entropytempts
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| PSN: Toxic-Baron
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|  "Re(3):Sunless Skies of Rockman" , posted Fri 3 Feb 14:05
I have been trying to elbow people all afternoon on Double Dragon IV. The game indeed feels quite lackluster compared to most of the other retro re-fits that we have had so far; I think the game is basically 1/4 the price of Wild Guns Reloaded, and that's actually quite a fitting description poduction wise.
Someone asked why they fell back on the NES visuals on this thread, right? Well, I can offer two good guesses, 1 is a rumor that I haven't confirmed that the staff for this game hasn't worked on the arcade versions at all, but has done work on the console versions thus their nostalgia is on this direction; 2 is that the inhouse dev team probably already has tools to develop NES style graphics because that stuff is all over the place and this isn't the only retro NES project this company handles.
Your next dialog is, "I want to hear your small gripes about the game という ".
- No Schwarzenegger in any form (no disco bouncer from arcade nor seasoned soldier from the NES). Profound sadness.
- No Kunio & Riki (c'mon! we have the Dragon Twins in that universe, you know? and they even use the title theme!)
- No means to regenerate life other than stage clear, this was acceptable on the NES games due to how easy they were, but things are harder now. A DD1 method of "full life on spawn" might even have been acceptable since there are not that many room to room per stage. Additionally, there is no "0" life, after dying on "1" you need to continue, this confuses my little brain 
- Every unique AI mechanic from the series is actually gone (the one that hurts the more being gone is the no hint about the enemy's remaining Hp). Between that and having the Lee brothers not look like Kenshiro lifelong admirers is damn sure a strange way of "keeping in touch with the soul of the series". Due to no mechanics for the AI, the mooks are basically quite improved since they are now equal to the characters resistances & attack wise; and they even have special moves to boot. This causes problems quite a few times, since enemy danger range is completely different to what the series has ironed in you during those thousands of runs of old.
- No difficulty selection nor the chance of gradually improve the game's length and ending via cimbing through them.
- The best thing most of us expected from this game could have been, was a mugen with almost everything of the NES trilogy + some new stuff..... and that failed completely to be delivered since this title masturbates too obscenly on 2, sometimes kisses 1 and tries to move on from a troubled past relationship with that crazy hot chick called 3. To sum this point better, for example you can actually fight in game and unlock to play the boss from DD1 (Jimmy), from 2 (that Souther clone), from 4 (obviously), but not the boss from 3 (Cleopatra). Can you imagine the large hole of emptines such void creates in our hot rod wild gang fighting afternoons??. ----- Also, Linda is the only one who can use both DD1 & DD2 "skins", they should have done that for everybody who could.
The last point is more evident since every Double Dragon game changed everything more or less (graphics & 'key of success' tactics), so what we really were hoping for in this game was a harder, better, faster, stronger game that has shade of all that sexual insecurity and awareness change process from those teenage years, all in one package.
------- Now, the reason why I'm playing this, and I might even play for a long time till I platinum it, is because unlike the afternoon nap easy that the NES game were; this game actually can offer the danger of being killed and quite some oftenly (you'll always hate it when Abobo spawns along another character that has decent attack range). When the AI decides to have the initiative on attacking you, it's very hard to hit them without getting hit (the old Konami fighting method of using the Y axis to lure enemies into your punch string hardly works, and most enemies out do you heavily on the X axis range); so you sometimes have to be quite radical when boarding that fighting, you also need to open your eyes and see the AI behaviour and observe who is being more aggressive---- a first for the saga, perhaps?. The only thing from a non NES port that was inherited here is the ability to juggling from the GBA game; and considering that the game is hard, you really want to make the most of it when it counts.
The tower can actually be intense, and rooms are randomized except for character unlock rooms, I think?
Billy and Jimmy are actually different (some combos are impossible to construct with Jimmy, but his 1 shot special moves seem to be "bigger" than outoto's); additionally Jimmy (boss) and Sonny are also different from the other dragons. At least, that wasn't a waste.
Now we'll resume our friday drinking. Abobo for president! Better yet, Abobo for Sunless Skies captain!!!
Obscene voodo dance teleport.
さっきの感じならあと100発はもつ‥‥と思うぜ
Update 24 as of 03/04/12. // 104 personajes traducidos
Now sponsoring : video game analogies (ES)
Last update : Chapter 25 as of 31/08/12
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| | "Re(1):There's A New Double Dragon Game Out To" , posted Sat 4 Feb 03:33
Has anyone played Double Dragon IV yet?
Maybe it is fun, I don't know. But considering that Arc Systems is behind it, I was hoping for something more polished. You know, some sprites with better definition, gameplay innovations... maybe even using the Rage of the Dragons designs for Billy and Jimmy (but keeping the game as a beat-em-up).
Then again, sometimes a game can be surprisingly fun without all these things, so I'll keep it on my list of games to check.
quote:
On a side note: Thanks Just A Person for info regarding Danganronpa.
You're welcome (and sorry for replying just now)! DR is quite a crazy franchise, and not everyone likes it, but if you enjoy Ace Attorney, chances are on your side. Good luck!
I can be any person in the world... maybe I'm this person right in front of you... maybe I'm not.
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| | "Re(3):There's A New Double Dragon Game Out To" , posted Mon 6 Feb 21:44
quote:
The posts by Ungenesis and Toxico were very informative even if they didn't contain any good news. I enjoy this style of game but there are very few modern examples and, judging from what has been written about DD4, even fewer titles that are worth playing. Why is it so hard in this day and age to make a game where you go somewhere and punch a bunch of people? At least we will always have the Yakuza games.
Well, there's a Power Rangers beat-em-up game (based on the Mighty Morphin' team, including a pre-order bonus with the White Ranger and the second Red, Black, Yellow and Pink Rangers) released in January. I don't know how good it is, and the animations often resemble Flash games judging from YouTube videos, but it allows to play with three other people (unfortunately everyone needs to be playing at the same place, because there isn't online multiplayer so far) and it seems to have some elements from the old (but GOLD) SNES games, so it may be fun.
With the MMPR film coming up this year, I wonder if there will be a future DLC pack to play as the rebooted and armored Rangers and/or fight rebooted and hot Rita (even though Machiko Soga's Rita will always be the iconic one).
I can be any person in the world... maybe I'm this person right in front of you... maybe I'm not.
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| PSN: MickyKusanagi
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CFN: MickyKusanagi
| "Re(5):There's A New Double Dragon Game Out To" , posted Tue 7 Feb 23:07:
Being reminded that beat'em ups aren't a thing anymore makes me sad...Toxico's DDIV review and the Flash-tastic visuals in Power Rangers Mega Battle don't help me at all, of course. Seeing footage of Power Rangers disappointed me because, as far as video game graphics go, the only style that makes me turn down a commercial game is the "free browser game in Flash" one (Castle Crashers is great though, at least judjing from the demo when I tried it ages ago).
Too bad, because I had great expectations for the future of this genre when I first tried a demo of Fighting Force. I played that demo a lot, but never had a chance to play the full game. Fighting Force could have served as a template of sorts for the mainstream kind of beat'em up -didn't play Dynamite Deka at all, but being the Sega fanboy I am, I'll love it for sure when I'll be able to get my hands on it- and Guardian Heroes could have been the prime example of a more niche approach to the genre, in an age where 3d graphics had set a new standard for video game visuals.
EDIT: totally unrelated but I really feel like sharing this one with you guys. The reason I disappeared from the Cafe for a couple days is that I got too absorbed in Castlevania Akatsuki No Enbukyoku. What a sick game. I got informed about its major plot twist as soon as the game came out, but seeing it taking place when you are playing is something else entirely. Ah, and the Clock Tower theme is my favorite, just like Tragic Prince is my favorite track in Gekka No Yasokyoku. Just found a guitar cover of it :D My favorite moment from the game is the battle against
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
Julius
End of Spoiler
, and this battle's song is my second favorite.
Ore no...kachi da!!
[this message was edited by Micky Kusanagi on Wed 8 Feb 00:04] |
| | "Re(6):There's A New Double Dragon Game Out To" , posted Wed 8 Feb 06:46:
quote:
Being reminded that beat'em ups aren't a thing anymore makes me sad...Toxico's DDIV review and the Flash-tastic visuals in Power Rangers Mega Battle don't help me at all, of course. Seeing footage of Power Rangers disappointed me because, as far as video game graphics go, the only style that makes me turn down a commercial game is the "free browser game in Flash" one (Castle Crashers is great though, at least judjing from the demo when I tried it ages ago).
Too bad, because I had great expectations for the future of this genre when I first tried a demo of Fighting Force. I played that demo a lot, but never had a chance to play the full game. Fighting Force could have served as a template of sorts for the mainstream kind of beat'em up -didn't play Dynamite Deka at all, but being the Sega fanboy I am, I'll love it for sure when I'll be able to get my hands on it- and Guardian Heroes could have been the prime example of a more niche approach to the genre, in an age where 3d graphics had set a new standard for video game visuals.
EDIT: totally unrelated but I really feel like sharing this one with you guys. The reason I disappeared from the Cafe for a couple days is that I got too absorbed in Castlevania Akatsuki No Enbukyoku. What a sick game. I got informed about its major plot twist as soon as the game came out, but seeing it taking place when you are playing is something else entirely. Ah, and the Clock Tower theme is my favorite, just like Tragic Prince is my favorite t
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
I would encourage everyone to try Charlie Murder. It's not the most elegant beat'em up, but it's pretty fun. Just check it out.
EDIT: One caveat... Xbox 360 only.
/ / /
[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Wed 8 Feb 06:47] |
Platinum Carpet V.I.P - THE FOOL  | "Re(2):There's a bug-themed metroidvania" , posted Tue 14 Feb 23:39
Yeah, there is quite a difference between Super Metroid and SotN, and mixing them into a "Metroidvania" blender erases the nuances. It's like calling Nioh a Dark Souls clone: it takes a lot of inspirations from it, sure, but it erases the Ninja Gaiden elements along with it.
Anyway, Hollow Knight seems to have picked its side and resolutely goes with SotN over Super Metroid, and I think it allowed them to have clearer development goals.
There has been several betas that I skipped because playing unfinished games often spoils the fun of the final release (especially when it is an exploration game such as this one), but I read they adjusted the gameplay, the jumps, the inertia and the sword slashes quite a bit since the first beta, so I have high hopes for the final product.
I was quite concerned that the "almost monochrome" palette qould make projectiles and attacks difficult to read, but so far they really seem to have paid a lot of attention to the legibility. As you said, it's an area that could have been overlooked, and seeing they paid attention to it gives me a lot of faith in the project.
The main character integrates well with all the backgrounds, yet pops up nicely without being jarring. Also, among the stretch goals they reached, there's another character, Hornet, with her own moves and nemesis, so that's quite exciting as well.
Plus, we have seen so many ugly 2D games with big pixels because "people dig the 8-bit days" that it's nice to have some beautiful looking hand-drawn art for once. And next year we'll get Indivisible, who also looks impressive!
As for keeping up with indies, I have the same issue as you do. Keeping track of everything seems impossible.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo are quite useful to hear about new projects once you're familiar with the interface of the sites. But then, you need to get a feel of what has a reasonable chance of being finished VS a project thrown together by hacks with no knowledge of the amount of work necessary to reach their goals. Concept art and no prototype is generally a good indication that you shouldn't trust these guys.
Also, anything with "retro" "Dark Souls" "Metroidvania" "8bit" and "rogue-like" raises a red flag, raise 3 and you're out.
NeoGAF has some very good all-indies thread, but even those tend to be cluttered.
Then... friends, early access, word-to-mouth, etc.
The problem with the kickstarter approach is that you need to be there when the funding happens. While a released game can still be played and enjoyed several years down the line, a failed kickstarter is failed forever.
For example, I keep hearing good stuff about Banner's Saga 3. I'd like to give them money, but I have yet to play the first one to know whether I like the series or not... but I know I won't in the foreseeable future, and the KS of the 3rd episode will probably be finished by then...
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| | "Narita Boy!" , posted Fri 17 Feb 19:35
I just got wind of an AMAZING new indie game called Narita Boy. Here's the initial trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SUos6MgTjA
It's made by a team called Studio Koba, who are originally from Spain, but lived in Japan and picked up some team members there. The game is a beautiful homage to old point and click adventures like Another World, but with a very modern, very unique sensibility. It's definitely not just a nostalgia play, there's stuff in here that I've never seen before.
This is one of the most visually interesting indie games, or just games in general that I've seen in a while! And for once, that's not a knock on the current state of games, I'm just really impressed with what they've accomplished so far in Narita Boy! The art direction, animation, quality of sprite art, the environments, the FX, it's all really well done!
Here's the website:
http://www.studiokoba.com/
And you can follow the team on Twitter here:
https://twitter.com/studiokobaGAME
The Kickstarter starts on Feb 21, 2017! Mark your calenders! (And don't forget that also happens to be Kofoguz's birthday too!)
www.art-eater.com
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| | "Re(1):Narita Boy!" , posted Sat 18 Feb 10:31:
quote:
old point and click adventures like Another World,
I don't know what Another World you played, but it was definitely not a point and click adventure for most of the rest of the world! That game was hard!
The weird spindly leg walking animations and body proportions makes me think of somewhat recent games like "Sword and Sworcery" and "Gods Will Be Watching", except a lot lot better than "Gods Will Be Watching". Actually, how people walked in that game really bugged me.
I'm with Iggy in that I don't know what this game actually is about and it may as well be a music video, albeit a cool one. I get a lot of FLCL vibes from it, actually.
That said, I find myself... not that hyped for the beetlevania, or even this, because I don't feel hype for how it plays. I'm sure the Arthropoda Dracula is going to be very mechanically competent and with hard hitting combat, but I think I just want to play action games that play substantially differently from ones I've played so many of before.
[this message was edited by Spoon on Sat 18 Feb 11:47] |
| | "Re(2):Kamurocho Boy!" , posted Sat 18 Feb 13:18:
One person's take on Yakuza 0
Kojima in the past has said that the reason why there's so much humor in the Metal Gear games comes from his belief that the games would be unbearable in their seriousness and tension if they didn't contain farce.
I think that the unique flavour of MG humor isn't just on Kojima's inherent weirdness, but partly due to a very strong grasp of the characters, universe, and mechanics of MG. As such, they're able to compose genuinely absurd scenarios for them that feel absurd because of how they run counter to the characters/universe/mechanics/etc. I feel like the EDF games have a similar grasp on the spirit of EDF, which is what allows such a consistent sense of humor even when you are presented a new joke you have never heard before in an EDF game. Part of Insect Armageddon's failure as an EDF game was that it was just completely straightfaced serious. EDF has terrific opportunities for entirely earnest humor, jokes about itself, deadpan humor, and so on, and it plays to them. It has like 5 different ways to make your character shout "EDF!!!", and an entire set of chat commands where you can make "Vague Responses".
In the case of Yakuza, where you take on all these goofy sidequests, the notion of taking your solidly established heroes and throwing them into absurd scenarios that they somehow just go along but without breaking character is just fun. They feel like omakes at the end of a manga chapter. That it is Kiryu contemplating a chicken makes it 10 times funnier than it being a random user created character contemplating a chicken, because we have experience with his typically serious and stoic character. I think really at the heart of it is taking the characters and the world seriously, such that scenarios can be crafted that are entertaining in that context. It's like getting a comedy feature about Kiryu double-billed with an earnestly serious drama feature about Kiryu.
That's my take, anyway. Iggy in the past said to me that Japanese Solid Snake is a very different character from the English one, conveying a different tone to all the proceedings in spite of having approximately the same lines. So in terms of Japanese (popular) literature and cinema, is there a structural/stylistic aspect that Western observers aren't familiar with? For instance, the presence of farce in tragedies is a longstanding tradition in classical Western literature, but it tends to come at particular and sometimes predictable moments, in addition to employing farcical characters written for that purpose. Ruben talking with me about the play in 4 acts in the Japanese tradition when I talked with him about a Korean movie whose cinematic cues kept making me think that the movie was about to end made me reflect on this with regard to the integration of comedic scenes in Asian works.
[this message was edited by Spoon on Sat 18 Feb 14:12] |
| | "Re(2):Narita Boy!" , posted Sat 18 Feb 15:16
quote:
old point and click adventures like Another World,
I don't know what Another World you played, but it was definitely not a point and click adventure for most of the rest of the world! That game was hard!
Sorry wrong term, I was just thinking "lushly animated adventure game" in general. Narita Boy looks to be cut from the same cloth as Another World, Prince of Persia, Flashback, Abes Odyssey, Heart of Darkness etc. In my mind I tend to lump those games together with Kings Quest, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango etc, but yeah they're actually super different!
I'm not usually a huge fan of the square body spindly limb look. It makes everyone look dopey, whether that was the intention or not. Even on Narita Boy I kind of dislike his sword animations. The posture is very goofy. But I think that was a conscious decision at least. And I love everything else about the game.
Spindly limbs seem to be real popular in high quality Spanish animation actually!
www.art-eater.com
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| | "Re(3):Kamurocho Boy!" , posted Sat 18 Feb 15:39
quote:
One person's take on Yakuza 0
Kojima in the past has said that the reason why there's so much humor in the Metal Gear games comes from his belief that the games would be unbearable in their seriousness and tension if they didn't contain farce.
Tezuka's narratives also strongly embody this value. This was actually a difficult pill to swallow for a lot of readers when Vertical and Viz started to release his serious works in English (side note: my friends at Viz told me that they always knew that the Phoenix books wouldn't be profitable in North America, but it was a matter of principle. Those books HAD to be released for the good of humanity!)
Berserk and well, COUNTLESS MANGA in general, took this cue from Tezuka.
But I think it definitely goes further back into a general sensibility in East Asian storytelling. Old Chinese and Japanese stories are often full of slapstick humour alongside serious drama. I've seen so many Chinese movies that flip between drama, then comedy, then romance, then potty humour then "oh my god I can't believe they just killed that little kid on screen!" I remember seeing a Tarantino interview where he talks about how Chinese movies tend to hit every note, often unpredictably. He called it a "peasant" sensibility, in the way that even Victorian plays would have bawdy jokes for the peanut gallery.
From my own experiences, I don't think it's necessarily that East Asian culture has a different storytelling sensibility so much as Hollywood and North America are the odd ones out. The Hollywood system has created the most refined, predictable, formulaic way to tell stories the world has ever seen. I've been to movie studios where they have spread sheets charting the exact emotions each scene is supposed to hit. They have precise metrics on feelings! This has lead to people expecting very specific emotional arcs out of movies/games/tv/etc.
I've been a huge advocate of Ghibli with my friends throughout my life. I remember one friend, a fellow animator who loved Disney said that she likes Miyazaki, but is kind of stressed out by how "you can't tell where the story is going to go." For me that's a huge positive though! And I think a lot of people who grew up on Hollywood stuff, but want something different will feel similarly. I hope Yakuza does super well in the west!
I'm really glad that American culture is finally getting over the whole "OMG WTF ASIANS ARE SO WEIRD" thing and just trying to enjoy things for what they are.
One thing that I find that a lot of Americans still get, if not "wrong", then "interpret difefrently from me" is I think they ascribe more irony or sardonicism
to things than are actually intended. Like when Yakuza or Metal Gear undermines it's own seriousness, it's not saying "YEAH SERIOUS STORIES SUCK HAHA, WERE TOO GOOD FOR THEM" they're just, like you said, taking an opportunity to tell some jokes in ways that are actually very peculiar to those specific settings and characters.
Another example is One Punch Man. I love ONE's storytelling because he's able to poke fun at stuff while also championing it. One Punch Man is as much a parody of Shonen Tropes as it is a VERY EXCELLENT shonen fighting comic itself. A lot of fans see it as "yeah it makes fun of all that STUPID SHIT" but actually it's a celebration of all that stuff, distilled into a form that recognises that there is much to be cynical about in the world yes, but hey comics can be pretty awesome still!
Anyway, excuse my rambling. Thank you for bringing up such interesting points on an interesting subject.
www.art-eater.com
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| | "Re(5):Kamurocho Boy!" , posted Mon 20 Feb 15:41
I really hope Iggy replies to this, being a person who has formally studied Japanese literature!
Personally for me OPM isn't wholly a shonen manga, it's a lot of seinen manga. The hallmark of shonen sports manga and shonen fighting manga is that if you work really really hard and have a burning spirit and a bunch of good friends, you can accomplish anything. Maybe that wasn't true for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 3 where it was about stupendous badasses who were stupendously badass from the get-go, but it's absolutely true for the bulk of the successful ones of the past few decades: One Piece, Naruto, Hajime no Ippo, and on and on and on.
OPM expresses a lot more of the seinen sensibilities you'd find expressed in things like I Am A Hero ("Even if I can't be the hero of my own story, can't I at least be the main character?"), where the realization is that most people aren't Kenshiro, they're going to either be the villagers or the random thugs, and no matter how hard they try, they're going not going to be Kenshiro. Fukumoto's endless mangas about crazy games and gaming have a bleakness to them constantly expressed about the limits and disposability of ordinary people. His "Legend of the Strongest Man Kurosawa" is incredibly depressing, showing a middle-aged man who has lived a boring life and can't find any meaningful joy in it. It's the kind of sentiment that a person who has graduated university and has had to go on the job hunt during a recession and can't find work would sympathize with, or the person who was good in school but is now in a menial position at a boring job faces. It's the existential challenge shown when you are confronted with the world and an endless, upward trajectory suddenly isn't there anymore.
OPM tackles a lot of things interestingly. Like, a ton of the monsters look and are named like really lame takes on tokusatsu type monsters, but occasionally they take on incredible menace (see: Sea King), which is a remarkable feat. A lot of the heroes honestly seem really lame, but Murata's rendition of them manages to make them cool, which throws you for a loop. But then when these heroes get slain by really lame monsters, you're again stuck between the monster being really lame but really menacing, or the heroes being deeply humiliated to be defeated by such lame monsters (rather than being defeated heroically by awesome monsters), etc. Saitama himself runs counter to the whole "work really hard, burning spirit, good friends" troika of themes in shonen because he no longer works hard at all, seldom has any spirit, and barely has any friends. Existential angst in OPM is much deeper and more pervasive than in shonen works, where it can often be dismissed with a simple "I don't know, but does it really matter? Just keep fighting/working hard/talking with your friends, because that's what matters!"
Mumen Rider is one of the ultimate heroes of OPM because he's worthless as a superhero. In wrestling parlance, He jobs magnificently to Sea King, a fight he never had a chance in: Mumen Rider, who did nothing of real worth towards the defeat of Sea King, manages to elicit powerful emotion from the audience towards him and Sea King. Sea King's stature as a villain is stupendously improved by Mumen Rider, in spite of Mumen Rider's lack of impact on him.
OPM walks this line between parody and earnestness really well, even when it chooses to dip heavily in one direction or another.
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| PSN: IkariLoona
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
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CFN: n/a
| "Re(3):Kamurocho Boy!" , posted Mon 20 Feb 20:11
I've been playing thorugh Yakuza 0 as well, and it's been quite a ride. Actually, my girlfriend's been the one actually playing most of it recently - the whole thing clicked with her in a similar way to how Jojo's has, possibly due to the particular charm of tough and tough-looking guys frequently finding themselves in really silly circumstances while never really using the imposing aura, between the brutal fight scenes and the quiet tension of the primary narratives.
It was interesting to see the video mentioned above mentioning Takeshi Kitano, since his career does feel like a reminder of a principle that seems pervasive both in his work and stuff like the Yakuza series, that of action and comedy being mediums where timing and intensity play a big role (something that also may apply a lot of some mixes of comedy and horror, it seems, but I'm not that much into horror to assess that properly). In Yakuza 0, in an almost paradoxical way the most intense scenes seem to be the ones where the major yakuza bosses are simply talking in an almost affable tone about deals with implicit threats to upend or end someone or a city's life, which makes for quite the visual contrast of something like Kiryu dramatically picking up a phone of kicking someone in the head, which in that setting are kind of commonplace events.
The talk of Ghibli work reminds me of a notion on how there's a lot of talk in Hollywood screenwriting about the importance of a story being driven by a protagonist really wanting something, or of having a really good villain/antagonist, and how Ghibli seems to eschew that. In Totoro, for example, the titular character seems entirely irrelevant to the actual story, which is mostly about dealing with an illness in the family and the possibility of loss - the concept isn't likely to bring people to watch, so Totoro and the imaginative stuff like the cat bus are bait for the audience to get them to come watch the core theme, that of preparing for loss. Other Ghibli movies that I can think of seem to follow a similar pattern (Look at the wonderful moving castle! And by the way, here's what it may feel like to see your youth gone, which you will experience if you live long enough), but it's not like I've watched all of them, but it's been interesting to see that any antagonistic forces tend to be either indifferent forces of nature or people with perfectly reasonable motivation which could have easily been the protagonists in a slightly different retelling of the same events.
In a way, perhaps Yakuza's brutal action and silly moments work as bait to get people acquainted with the peculiar economic dynamics that the game introduces, at least in 0? You set you to fight some people in the streets, and a few chapters in the game has you dealing with real estate speculation and managing a business (heck, Majima's introduction in the game is practically a masterclass at this on its own).
I'm yet to even see the 2nd half of the game, so maybe I'm pretty misguided on what the game's actually about, especially not having played the previous ones, but it's certainly worthwhile so far, and I'm looking forward t what lies ahead.
...!!
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| | "Re(7):Kamurocho Boy!" , posted Tue 21 Feb 12:49
quote:
I really hope Iggy replies to this, being a person who has formally studied Japanese literature! I actually wrote a lengthy answer to that about Kabuki, Nô, ancient roman theater and that asshole named Aristotle, but as I proofread my post I thought "what kind of pompous prick wrote that shit?" and I erased everything.
I'll try to make a shorter, less obnoxious version at some point when I'm done slapping some common sense into myself.
Well with a preamble like that, my hype levels are super-high! Looking forward to reading it!
quote:
whiplash
One thing that was a definite problem is that the more open the structure of the game is, the less control there is over when things get encountered. So like you said, you could go straight from deadly serious child-soldier drama to silly smut mag hijinks, as opposed to a smoother transition of dramatic tension and subject material.
That doesn't excuse the times when things are perfectly linear and are just poorly directed, though.
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| | "Re(3):There's a bug-themed metroidvania" , posted Sun 26 Feb 19:16
Going back to the last topic: Hollow Knight is surpassing my most optimistic expectations.
Graphically, the trailer made the areas look a bit same-y, but once you play they are actually very unique, and full of little details that allow you to know where you are. Now I understand why the game is so humongous (9 Go!): no tile-set, unique environments and fantastic 2D animation don't come cheap. The "setting-that-tell-a-story-just-with-the-background" is working very well.
The music is fantastic, but even better, the sound effects are perfect. Some of the hit sound effects have just that chitinous "crunch" effect that is exactly what it should have been. I'm happy the attention to details went all the way there.
Controls are perfect as well: very low-key and down-to-earth movements and attacks that respond to the frame. The main moveset is very simple and easy to understand, which is the best foundation to build upon. Most of the powers I've gotten on top of that so far remain on the modest side. No strange gravity shenanigans or overpowered nonsense: if you want that wall jump, you'll have to work to get it. The only thing that's a bit unsettling is that the recoil when you hit is a bit extreme, and you sometimes end up jumping to a platform, hitting the thing there, and being pushed back down the platform by your own hit, so caution is advised. If the intent was to underline how light and frail you are, it works. The game starts up quite easy, but slowly ramp up the difficulty; the last place I've explored was really tough. Fortunately, it seems it was made on purpose, because after dying a lot I met an NPC (all the NPCs are charming!) that told me "have you explored in the other direction? there may be something that could help you" and indeed, there was a better weapon. I like that I could have received the weapon first but ended up there by virtue of exploration, and could have overcome it by being super awesome, but they added the NPC for scrubs like me and that's a really nice touch.
The magic system is interesting: either you use it to attack, or you stand motionless for a while to recover HP, and you only regain MP by hitting enemies, so the balance during bossfights is an interesting one. It also solves the issue of health in-game: you can die in very few hits, which makes the exploration tense, but you always have that handy tool if you need it, without any inventory management annoyance or relying on random enemy drops. Another very simple and elegant piece of design in a game that's full of those.
My favourite thing by far is the exploration (which is the most important in a game like this). The map is a bit peculiar: you don't have any at the beginning, and you'll use the money you get during the first hour of game to buy and upgrade it to something usable. But even once you've bought all the map-related things, it's still less overpowered than in most Igavanias: you can only have the map of an zone if you found the hidden cartographer in that section, which means most places are explored blindly the first time. The maps you buy have only the biggest areas of the zone and are very incomplete, but any area you discover isn't automatically updated: you need to find a save spot (a bench where your character rests) so that he can draw on the map the places he's discovered. Finally, the GPS system is not totally free: it has an opportunity cost, an equipment slot that in some instances you may prefer to forfeit for something that will allow you to live longer or alleviate some of the risks (the game has the Diablo/Souls thing of losing your money if you die and have you recover them there, but fortunately it also has several optional systems to mitigate the loss).
All this together solves another issue of metroidvanias: here, the map is a useful tool, but it's not an absolute substitute to exploration. You still need to be active on your end to recognise patterns, specific marks or enemies. You're thrown in the dark as soon as you enter a new place, and need to pay attention to your surroundings (which forces to admire the surroundings, and the fantastic parallax scrolling!). This only strengthen the ambiance, between urbex (some abandoned Victorian metro station, for example) and speleology (with some truly alien places that will give you pause).
Scarlet Grace was the de-facto GOTY for 2014, 2015 and 2016, but it has a strong contender for 2017 (I mean, aside for the fact that Scarlet Grace wasn't released in 2017).
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| | "There's a hell-themed backlogvania" , posted Tue 28 Feb 00:48:
quote:
I am so happy to have delayed my Switch order, I really couldn't have copped with Zelda on top of the rest. Poor people who have Horizon on top of that...
I am pretending that the Switch (and Zelda) doesn't exist for a while.
Honestly I have never really worried about having a backlog before. I am pretty selective about how and where I spend my time. But these days I no longer play games as a crucial component of my job, and making a big move at the beginning of the year has kind of screwed me (I won't actually own another HDTV for at least another week or two).
So right before I moved, I made it to maybe Chapter 10 in Final Fantasy XV... I am telling myself I will go back and finish it when they roll out that patch that will supposedly "fix" what I hear is a really shitty chapter 13.
Last Guardian has been shoved way back in the queue, but I waited for that game for so long that there's no way I'm going to skip it entirely (and I've had a physical copy since release day). So I might start playing Nioh, which likewise has not been touched... but Nier is coming out soon. And unfortunately my wife preordered Horizon: Zero Dawn, which sounds like it's actually really good.
Nioh kind of worries me. I consider myself to be fairly skilled in all ways of contending at Souls-esque games, and I did complete all the content for the first two betas, including the crazy optional bosses... but I'm not sure if I'll be able to play another game alongside it without splitting my focus/possibly getting stuck and neglecting the game for a week and letting my skills dull, making the game even tougher to come back to and continue pushing forward.
Part of me just wants to chill out until Nier comes out and enjoy that (probably playing on Normal difficulty for a nice, breezy playthrough). I hope that the game will not be ultra-unsatisfying after achieving just one ending.
Maybe I should wait on Horizon: Zero Dawn until I can get a switch and Zelda, so I can compare/contrast the two. Besides, it's usually safe to wait a couple of years to buy a Nintendo console... there's only so much backlog fuel they can throw on the fire without actual third-party support (hahah).
FUDGE. I forgot about Mass Effect! So after that, then, I can pick up a copy of Yakuza 0. But... what about Persona 5? I'm starting to think that I'm too old for it... can I really go back to highschool again?
UGH. So the truth is that if these games don't really grab me, I am probably going to have the waiter take them away after picking at them. Or at the very least, skip a whole bunch of optional content.
I think the last game I finished was Assault Suit Leynos. Maybe I should just go full retro, look forward to in-English Romancing SaGa 2 on Vita which still has no firm release date, and throw off these shackles of gaming modernity. But there's no fucking way I will not be all over Culdcept Revolt.
/ / /
[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Tue 28 Feb 00:51] |
| | "Re(1):There's a hell-themed backlogvania" , posted Tue 28 Feb 03:12
quote:
I am so happy to have delayed my Switch order, I really couldn't have copped with Zelda on top of the rest. Poor people who have Horizon on top of that...
I am pretending that the Switch (and Zelda) doesn't exist for a while.
Honestly I have never really worried about having a backlog before. I am pretty selective about how and where I spend my time. But these days I no longer play games as a crucial component of my job, and making a big move at the beginning of the year has kind of screwed me (I won't actually own another HDTV for at least another week or two).
So right before I moved, I made it to maybe Chapter 10 in Final Fantasy XV... I am telling myself I will go back and finish it when they roll out that patch that will supposedly "fix" what I hear is a really shitty chapter 13.
Last Guardian has been shoved way back in the queue, but I waited for that game for so long that there's no way I'm going to skip it entirely (and I've had a physical copy since release day). So I might start playing Nioh, which likewise has not been touched... but Nier is coming out soon. And unfortunately my wife preordered Horizon: Zero Dawn, which sounds like it's actually really good.
Nioh kind of worries me. I consider myself to be fairly skilled in all ways of contending at Souls-esque games, and I did complete all the content for the first two betas, including the crazy optional bosses... but I'm not sure if I'll be able to play another game alongside i
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
The only thing I have to add to this is that one of my most anticipated game localizations, Suda51's "The Silver Case", is getting new scenarios, and I still haven't gotten around to playing through that game. There are far too many top-shelf games I want to play that I don't have time to!
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| | "Re(2):There's a hell-themed backlogvania" , posted Tue 28 Feb 06:46
I was going to say that there's a chance either RomaSa.Ga2 or Scarlet Grace would be ported to Switch and localized then, so hope exists... until I remembered SQEX decided their first HD port of a PS2 game outside of FF would be Star Ocean 3, and not... if not Minstrel's Song, at least literally anything else.
Even an HD port of Vagrant Story, even with low-res texture, would have been better than revisiting the game that killed Star Ocean.
So, yeah, who knows.
As for Persona 5: if you missed the train the first time, wait a bit longer, I'm pretty sure they'll announce a P5G++ before the end of the year. Patience is virtue!
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"Re(1):SPLATBOOBS" , posted Thu 6 Oct 01:55
That is a pet peeve of mine. Technically a "prequel" (as in "sequel happening previously") was coined for The Phantom Menace, and denotes new releases which are situated chronologically before the event of the previous episode. I wonder why such a neologism suddenly become synonym with "predecessor" / "precursor" / "precedent" / "previous episode" / "preceding episode" / many proper terms already available.
who follow the path of a warrior
"Re(1):IGI ARI ! (OBJECTION!!)" , posted Wed 25 Jan 00:11
