PretentiousHipster wrote:I'll obviously keep going with it and hope the dungeons will get better. The first boss battle was awesome at least.
Twilight Princess is alright. It starts a bit slow, but it is very much still another Zelda in the style of OoT. I didn't really love it when I played it, but if that's what people are in for, it's definitely gonna scratch that itch. It's not a broken, overly padded mess like Skyward Sword, at the very least XP
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
BoneSnapDeez wrote:I've only played SNES Dungeon Master. It's not that long (like 20-25 hours??) and is "easier" than most first-person CRPGs (much easier than Eye of the Beholder, for instance).
Funny you mention all this, as I've been in a CRPG mood myself lately. I got a new PC and found myself reinstalling a bunch of GOG.com stuff. High IQ genre.
Eye of the Beholder isn't worth playing on the SNES anyway, since it doesn't have the ability to port a party into the best game of the trilogy. Play it on PC.
I have yet to tackle Dungeon Master's SNES port myself, though I know I need to. If you want a CRPG/JRPG hybrid, check out Arcana.
There were a few games that I left on hold, when some stuff went a little bonkers for me this past Fall, that I need to get back to. I'm halfway through Kino no Tabi II on the PS2, and Shin Megami Tensei II on SFC. I got kind of tired of SMT II, because it wasn't particularly good, and I couldn't figure out where the hell the Nandi that I'm supposed to take out is. Plenty of Demi-Nandi running around, though. I also had, I think, about 30 puzzles left in SuperLite 1500 series Oekaki Puzzle 2, which I should just finish up, even if the pictures are pretty dull. I really want to get back to the Tantei Jinguuji Early Collection (Jake Hunter) to finish up the Famicom games with the last three on the collection.
For now, I'm back at it with Xanadu (or technically Revival Xanadu, basically, since I'm playing it on the Saturn). I left off a playthrough on original mode (no in-game floor maps, and some UI differences compared to Saturn mode) at essentially the end of floor 3, where I was unable to beat the Kraken guarding the first of four crowns. I had also been heavily debating whether or not to dump a whole bunch of gold into more keys. After picking it back up again the other day, I ended up buying a bunch more keys (from 70-something, up to 98, in total) after downing another bottle that temporarily increases Charisma, and consequently reduces the cost of keys. I also went and got all the Fighter and Wizard level ups I had been foregoing, despite my experience for both being high enough to level up multiple times. I'd been holding back on it because the cost of things like healing at the clinic, and buying keys increases with each level up, and keys may as well be your lifeblood in this game. Leveling up allowed me to crush the Kraken, and pick up the first crown! The first time I played this game, I had collected this crown, but came to the horrifying realization that my Karma had increased above zero, and that prevented me from using the stairways between floors. I'm now on floor 5, though, and in sort of a similar situation, to when I was worried about what to do with the keys on floor 3, where I'm concerned that I should probably buy some more keys, but I haven't leveled up again since floor 3. I have more than enough experience for at least one level in Fighting and Wizardry, at this point. The nice thing is that I am practically swimming in gold, because I've just been hording it, and running into some encounters with enemies that have dumped some pretty sizable supplies of food and gold on me. I was able to grab some Scale Mail, and a +1 Large Shield in one of the dungeons, but all of the equipment has an 8-bit proficiency counter associated with it. So I've had to spend a fair amount of time training those two pieces of equipment, and the only way to do that, that I know of, is to just get hit by monsters. It's kind of slow going, though. For weapons and magic, there are items floating around the dungeons that add ten to their respective proficiencies, but if there is anything similar for armor, they're exceedingly rare. It wouldn't really be an issue if there weren't these really scary mushroom enemies in the dungeons on floor 5. If I don't get hit from the sides, or the back, I don't tend to take much damage, but the mushroom dudes can take me out in only a couple hits (I have 53000 hp, by the way), regardless. Dungeons are also starting to require keys in the bushels to get through. There are often non-essential dungeons, without particularly notable rewards, so I often save/reload to combat such cases, but I'm still a little worried about whether or not I can actually get enough keys to finish the game. I'm almost out of Pendants (opens all locked doors in a room) and Mantles (pass through walls for a short period of time), so I'm pretty much forced to really use up those keys now. I'm already down to 64 keys again after basically one floor, and that's with the handful I've picked up from the odd enemy encounter that drops one, and the few lying around dungeons--.
I've beaten Adam's Venture Chronicles a while back. Was gonna review it but I've decided to compare it to the remastered Origins. The remastered version is somehow worse. Sure, the graphics look better, there's a grappling hook, and they give you freedom with the camera, but those are pretty much the only pros. The story is in order too, and the puzzles are partially different from the original. The animations are worse. The mouths barely move when people talk. It seems even more robotic too. I also had bigger glitches such as my character losing his voice until the next loading screen. They use the same voices as the original as well, but they try to make the protagonist look "cool' this time, so the voice doesn't suit the character AT ALL.
Myst is a slideshow. Animations are minimal in this, with some things moving like a bookshelf, or even some FMV. Other than that, it's pre-rendered photos. At first I thought that it wouldn't age well because of that, and that it won't make the world immersive as images can only do so much. You know what... I was actually wrong in that regard. The world is so immersive even when it's so simple that it reached the point where I didn't mind that it was just images, and even forgot about it.
The thing Myst does best is establishing a mood. You really do feel the isolation of the in-game world from this. It actually gave me a sort of eerie feeling as I was playing it. The audio in this is where it shines the most. It is mostly ambient that although sounds pleasant, it helps emphasize the isolation of the island. The music can also be quite effective, and it's used rare enough that when it does come, it packs a harder hit. The visuals can also be impressive. Obviously not through a technical standpoint as it's just pre-rendered images, but through an artistic standpoint. The island has a surreal quality that I admire.
I found this be surprisingly obtuse. I couldn't find what to do with the switches, and it took me ages to notice the button in a certain room to deal with that stuff. The good news about this is that the main island itself is very small. You will reach a point where you eventually exhaust all options, and will find some sort of opening.
The navigation in this is probably the worst I've seen with older POV point and click adventure games. I found myself being lost in the library because it was so hard to find the right spot to click at to get out. I also had trouble with that stuff in regards to going left, right, or straight, or other actions like going down the stairs.
Myst is a good, but very dated game. It was mind-blowing at release, which is when I played it, and I hope you can appreciate it for what it is (and was) playing it now.
.....
I’m still playing Legend of Grimrock. It rules. I am on the eighth floor of the dungeon and inching my way toward the exit. I may also go back to some of the previous floors to uncover any secrets I may have missed.
Before Myst I played a clone called Obsidian. It was made a few years later, and had a whopping 5 CDs, but I still preferred it. It was a lot more immersive with its animation, and I enjoyed the surreal nature of it. The first two acts were polar opposites where the first was an absurdist comedy, and the second was a lot more dreamlike.
The reason why I mention this? There are talking monitors with mouths in the first act. One of them has a man just rambling. The blue pages... BRING ME THE BLUE PAGES!!! It's just some absurdist comedy so I brushed it off as it being random for the hell of it. Now that I'm playing Myst, I understood the reference and it made it even better.
right now I'm playing red steel 2 for the wii, rush n attack ex patriot for xbox 360, and mega man rock and roll for the PC. I have to say after not playing wii for so many years I am having a really fun time with the motion controls and my initial impressions of red steel 2 are very positive.
I got a PS2 slim recently so decided to play a few games that slipped me by. First up is Shinobi. Gonna be honest, it's not that great which is a shame. Lots of straight corridors filled with indentikit enemies, bad camera work, so-so combat, looks kinda crappy. Not a great jump to 3D. I'm about 5 stages in but honestly might jack it in.
Also gave Evergrace a go. It's fine. I was interested as it's both a very early PS2 game and a FromSoft joint but like Eternal Ring there's some interesting ideas but it's mostly pretty dull. Its selling point is that your equipped gear raises your stats and gives you new moves and you can upgrade it for more stats and more moves. It's neat in theory but the main game is very slow, very ugly (looks like a net yaroze game) and just, well, dull. Will give up on this one as well.
I have also dug out Soul Calibur III. In my eyes, this is the last truly great Soul game. IV was okay but V was actually quite poor I thought. I haven't played enough of VI as I've been put off by its DLC. SCIII has the biggest cast (with no quest characters), has a proper story mode and a complementary RPG like mode for created characters as well as the usual arcade/survival/time attacks and just generally looks and sounds really nice. I feel like these days it's kind of the black sheep of the family but it's basically Soul's version of Third Strike or Alpha 3.
