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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by PartridgeSenpai Fri May 06, 2016 10:02 pm

Exhuminator wrote:As for metroidvania-styled Castlevania clones, Konami's own Shaman King games on GBA supposedly fit that mold. Also Soul of Darkness on DSi-ware is definitely a ripoff of the format.


The person who owned my DSi before me had bought Soul of Darkness, so I essentially got it for free once I bought it. That being said, it's more or less a stage-based Metroid-vania game, and it ain't half bad. It ain't the real thing in any way, but as a rip-off, it's a good 6.5.

Also, MUST BUY SHAMAN KING. I like, NEED to try anything Metroidvania-esque, especially by the guys who made the real deal (or at least people adjacent to those people Xp).
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by MrPopo Sat May 07, 2016 12:36 am

1. Oni - PC
2. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
3. Yoshi's Story - N64
4. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide - PC
5. Forsaken 64 - N64
6. Bloodrayne: Betrayal - PSN
7. Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu - SNES
8. Fire Emblem Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū - Nintendo DS
9. Valkyria Chronicles 3 - PSP
10. Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - DC
11. Rise of the Tomb Raider - PC
12. XCOM 2 - PC
13. Shadowrun Hong Kong Bonus Campaign - PC
14. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3DS
15. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 3DS
16. Lagrange Point - NES
17. Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations - 3DS
18. Cybernator - SNES
19. Outwars - PC
20. Resident Evil - GC
21. Resident Evil 2 - GC
22. Resident Evil 3 - GC
23. Resident Evil Code Veronica X - GC
24. Dino Crisis - PSX
25. Resident Evil 5 - PC
26. Dark Souls 3 - PS4
27. The Banner Saga 2 - PC
28. Bravely Second - 3DS

Bravely Second fixes the notable flaws from Bravely Default and also removes some of the most broken stuff. But then it puts in new even more broken stuff, so it's all good. Just like Final Fantasy V, if you know what you're doing you can break the combats in half, and that's before you use the Bravely Second free turns. But that's part of the charm, in my mind.

The game is set two years after Bravely Default, and a new villain threatens the world. He starts off by kidnapping Agnes while kicking the crap out of Braev and Alternis. It's up to you (well, technically Yew) to rescue her and bring the scofflaw to justice. You are joined by Edea, Tiz, and newcomer Magnolia.

Most of the asterisk holders from Bravely Default return. The ones who don't are the ones that were hilariously game breaking. For the most part their functionality is replicated through the new jobs, but less exploitable. But there are also a few new jobs that have no counterpart in Bravely Default. The Charioteer stands out, as it gives you first the Triple Wield (put a sword on instead of a hat) and then the Quad Wield (sword instead of armor) abilities for going all out offense. There's also a couple of completely unique ones, the first of which is based around rolling back the state of things to a previous turns (roll back HP, MP, or BP) and the other has neat abilities but revealing them would spoil a bit.

The returning asterisk holders participate in the sidequests. They all come down to two asterisk holders being on opposite sides of some conflict/argument and then you choose a side. You then defeat the person on the other side of the debate and get their asterisk. It fleshes out their characters a bit more, and a few are rather amusing.

The main downside of the game is there isn't a whole lot that's new over Bravely Default, aside from the story. It uses all the same dungeons with a handful of new ones, so there is much less of that exploration feeling since you've seen most of it before. Fortunately, the game doesn't repeat the last third of Bravely Default (you know what I'm talking about if you've played it).

This series continues to be the proper successor to the 16 bit Final Fantasy era, and I hope they keep it going. But they should probably take a page fron Final Fantasy's book and set future installments on new worlds, or at least discover an underworld so we can get mostly new locales.
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Exhuminator
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Exhuminator Sat May 07, 2016 1:24 am

PartridgeSenpai wrote:Also, MUST BUY SHAMAN KING. I like, NEED to try anything Metroidvania-esque, especially by the guys who made the real deal (or at least people adjacent to those people Xp).

There's two Shaman King games on GBA you'll want to check out:

Shaman King: Master of Spirits
Shaman King: Master of Spirits 2

Definitely underappreciated / hidden gems on the ol' GBA. A couple screenshots:

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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Sarge Sat May 07, 2016 1:18 pm

MrPopo wrote:Have you played Holy Diver? That's another one of the "seems like a Castlevania clone" games and I'd be curious what your take on it is.

I actually beat Holy Diver this year. Let me see what I had to say about it, despite not being this guy called Exhuminator. ;)

First take:

Holy Diver is bullcrap. Pure, unmitigated, bullcrap.

I can handle the first three stages reliably, and the fourth stage isn't too bad, either. I picked up with save states because I wanted to be able to quit when I wanted. It became necessary to abuse them when I hit the level four boss. That freakin' eyeball tower is ridiculously hard, since one wrong move sends you plummeting to your death. It's the worst of the sort of unfair bosses.

The rest of the game also hits you with a lot of unfair stuff, stuff that would take a lot more foreknowledge to really get through it relatively unscathed. I've watched someone go through, and he makes it look easy, but it's anything but, as most of us already know from other games.

My biggest problem with the game is that the whole game feels cheap and unfair, like a badly-balanced arcade title. It's hard in the worst way. Where something like Battletoads, as difficult as it is, feels fair once you get things down, this felt anything but. I know I resorted to save states far more often than in my practice Battletoads runs. It's got too much randomness in it for a game that difficult.

I "beat" it, at any rate. Glad to be done with it. Don't torture yourself like I did.

EDIT: Going back and checking that video again, I had the right idea in some places, it just takes perfect execution to make it all work. I think I could probably beat it legit if I beat my head against it enough (it does have unlimited continues), but I'll be darned if I'm going to do it now.

Second take after legit beaten:

...I've done it. I've beaten Holy Diver legit.

Well, effectively. I was pounding away at levels 5 and 6 today, and managed to get through them legit. No joke! I've even got the horrible "grapes of wrath" section down to a science. I usually only lose a life or two, and I've generally got five or six when I get there because the rest of the stage has gotten a bit easy.

Of course, I knew not beating the stupid eyeball tower in a proper run would bug me like crazy, so I went back to the beginning, and pounded on him. Took me three stage runs, and I got there the last time, thought I didn't have enough life, but managed to put him down without losing any lives against him. The speedrun has the right strategy for sure, you just have to do some manic switching between triggering your Overdrive and blasting away. I had two segments down for a while without even realizing it, I was so into it. With that, I've legit finished every single stage, so I'm calling this one done. I have zero doubts I could roll through levels 5 and 6 right now, but I'm absolutely exhausted putting that much effort into the game today.

My playthrough wasn't nearly as pretty, either. There are segments where I shine, but Funkdoc's got some amazing skills in the game, far more than I have achieved.

For the record? Game is still BS.

And now, some additional thoughts:

The game really has a lot of cool ideas. It looks really solid, and the magic spells are pretty slick. I loved having access to time stopping, or freezing lava flows. Heck, even some of the music is catchy and really good. It's one of those games that, if it were balanced a little better, would have been an instant classic. There are also some absolutely ridiculous plot points in the game, but much like Castlevania, they're completely superfluous to kicking butt.

If I didn't mention it, there's also some quirkiness in the jump physics. If you press a direction and jump at the same time, the game will often ignore your inputs. That will get you killed. You really have to get used to moving slightly and then jumping, or jumping and then moving. It's got a lot more controllable physics than Castlevania, so you can do that stuff. Most of the time, it feels really responsive, so to have it hitch up on you in those rare instances is definitely problematic.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Xeogred Sat May 07, 2016 1:52 pm

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Sephiroth?
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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by MrPopo Sat May 07, 2016 7:52 pm

1. Oni - PC
2. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
3. Yoshi's Story - N64
4. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide - PC
5. Forsaken 64 - N64
6. Bloodrayne: Betrayal - PSN
7. Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu - SNES
8. Fire Emblem Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū - Nintendo DS
9. Valkyria Chronicles 3 - PSP
10. Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - DC
11. Rise of the Tomb Raider - PC
12. XCOM 2 - PC
13. Shadowrun Hong Kong Bonus Campaign - PC
14. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3DS
15. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 3DS
16. Lagrange Point - NES
17. Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations - 3DS
18. Cybernator - SNES
19. Outwars - PC
20. Resident Evil - GC
21. Resident Evil 2 - GC
22. Resident Evil 3 - GC
23. Resident Evil Code Veronica X - GC
24. Dino Crisis - PSX
25. Resident Evil 5 - PC
26. Dark Souls 3 - PS4
27. The Banner Saga 2 - PC
28. Bravely Second - 3DS
29. Star Fox Zero - Wii U

As it turns out, this is basically a remake of Star Fox 64. Lots of the exact same lines, several similar scenarios, etc. It's not a shot for shot remake, though; they changed things up as they felt like. And that's before you get into the new vehicles.

The elephant in the room is the motion controls, and they're a mixed bag. The game keeps the main screen in a cinematic camera angle, which means it tends to be extremely hard to precisely hit stuff with your regular shots. Charge shots work fine, and those will be your primary method of attack. If you want to be able to precisely aim (say, against a boss) then you will need to look at the gamepad screen. When you're flying you can just continue to use the control sticks to aim like you were before, but in certain situations (which I'm going to get to) you need to use the motion controls specifically.

And this is the biggest pain point for me. Certain vehicles require the motion controls for any real aiming because you've been put in a free roam mode. The Landmaster is sometimes on rails and aims like Star Fox 64 and sometimes is in all range mode and so all up and down aiming is with motion controls. The walker mode is always all range mode. While the experience isn't as diluted as Star Fox Assault the all range vehicles end up being more frustrating to use than fun. And it certainly isn't helped that the final fight against Andross requires walker mode, but you are maneuvering as if you were in your Arwing in tunnel mode (so it is the worst of each).

The game features branching paths like before, with something like 20 different paths to get through the game. Each stage also has five medals to collect, one for points, one for collecting three specific gold rings, and the other three are stage specific. You will NOT get the majority of these blind.

I liked the game better than Assault, but 64 and the original are still better.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Sarge Sat May 07, 2016 9:21 pm

January:
1) Bonk's Adventure (NES)
2) Little Samson
3) Holy Diver
4) Holy Diver (legit!)
5) Mitsume Ga Tooru
6) TMNT II: The Arcade Game (NES)
7) Mighty Final Fight
8] Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
9) Monster In My Pocket
10) Battle of Olympus
11) Gunstar Heroes (repeat)
12) Dragon Age: Inquisition
13) Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser
14) Captain America and the Avengers (NES)
15) StarTropics
16) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES) (save states)
17) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES) (legit)
18) Crisis Force
19) Esper Dream 2
20) Felix the Cat
21) Moon Crystal
22) Panic Restaurant
23) Frankenstein (NES)
24) Crystalis
25) Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu

February:
26) Killer Instinct (GB)
27) Mashin Hero Wataru Gaiden
28) Sly Spy (Arcade)
29) The Red Star (unreleased XBOX, also on PS2)
30) Adventure Island 4
31) Cocoron
32) Batman: Arkham Knight
33) Xeodrifter (Vita)
34) Doom 2
35) Brandish: The Dark Revenant
36) Magical Pop'n
37) The Ninja Warriors (SNES)
38) Phantasy Star (SMS)
39) Phantasy Star III
40) Super Smash Bros. for 3DS
41) Brandish: The Dark Revenant (Dela Mode)

March:
42) Freedom Planet (Milla, 82 lives lost)
43) Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
44) Lara Croft Go
45) Oniken
46) Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam
47) Batman: The Video Game (GB)
48) Batman: The Video Game (NES)
49) Super Spy Hunter

April:
50) Mega Man 2
51) Mega Man 4
52) Mission: Impossible (NES)
53) Mega Man 6
54) Super Mario Bros. 3
55) Sword Master
56) DuckTales 2
57) Rush'n Attack (NES)
58) Mega Man 3
59) Mega Man 5
60) Mega Man
61) S.C.A.T. - Special Cybernetic Attack Team
62) TaleSpin (NES)
63) Double Dragon III (NES)
64) Donkey Kong (NES)
65) Astyanax (NES)

May:
66) Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
67) The New Ghostbusters II (NES, proto)

So despite it being a pretty terrible Color Dreams NES game, I've always had a bit of fascination with Master Chu. I had a buddy that had it, but I never was able to beat it. Turns out it's pretty simple. I'd certainly feel ripped off if I'd bought the game back in the day, but it's... well, it's still pretty bad, but it's not unplayable bad. It's just, you know, regular bad. It does feel pretty much like those sketchy Chinese pirate carts... which isn't surprising, given that it's a unlicensed game developed by the Taiwanese Sachen.

The other one is probably one of the best Ghostbusters games I've played. While America had to suffer through the pretty awful NES games we ended up getting, our friends in Europe did get it. It's a fun little action game, where you control a pair of Ghostbusters as the one you control beams the ghosts, and your partner gets in place to trap them. It's very speedy, actually maybe even reminding me a bit of other overhead games like Zombies Ate My Neighbors or similar, except with the emphasis on locking ghosts in place and trapping. Definitely a recommended game for a quick NES actioner.
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by Exhuminator Sat May 07, 2016 10:06 pm

Games Ex has beaten in 2016:
1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10
3. Sleeping Dogs|360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10
4. Sleepings Dogs: NiNP DLC|360|2012|action adventure|1h 22m|5/10
5. Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS|GB|1992|shmup|33m|8/10
6. Vattle Giuce|GB|1991|shmup|45m|5/10
7. MechWarrior 2 (Clan Wolf)|PS1|1997|mech sim|2h 35m|7/10
8. Gradius: The Interstellar Assault|GB|1992|shmup|27m|8/10
9. SolarStriker|GB|1990|shmup|23m|7/10
10. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|45m|6/10
11. Dead or Alive (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|23m|5/10
12. Asuka 120% Burning Festival Final (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|26m|8/10
13. Soul Blade (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|18m|9/10
14. Trax|GB|1991|shmup|23m|7/10
15. Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1995|fighter|36m|5/10
16. Warpath: Jurassic Park (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|17m|4/10
17. Psychic Force (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|22m|7/10
18. Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|27m|7/10
19. Advanced V.G. 2 (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|15m|8/10
20. StarHawk|GB|1993|shmup|1h 15m|4/10
21. Nemesis|GB|1990|shmup|28m|7/10
22. Cardinal Syn (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|54m|7/10
23. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|15m|7/10
24. Street Fighter EX 2 Plus (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|22m|8/10
25. Battle Unit Zeoth|GB|1991|shmup|24m|6/10
26. Soul Calibur IV (Arcade Mode)|360|2008|fighter|12m|9/10
27. Mercenary Force|GB|1990|shmup|54m|5/10
28. Battle Arena Toshinden (Story Mode)|GB|1996|fighter|12m|8/10
29. Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams (Arcade Mode)|GBC|1999|fighter|10m|7/10
30. SD Hiryu No Ken EX (Story Mode)|GBC|1999|fighter|24m|7/10
31. Guilty Gear X: Advance Edition (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|8m|6/10
32. Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Revival (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2001|fighter|10m|7/10
33. Dual Blades (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|23m|4/10
34. Gradius Galaxies|GBA|2001|shmup|1hr 24m|8/10
35. Tekken Advance (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|15m|7/10
36. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|22m|7/10
37. Black Belt Challenge (Arcade Mode)|GBA|2002|fighter|8m|4/10
38. Iridion II|GBA|2003|shmup|58m|9/10
39. King's Field III|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|25h|9/10
40. Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel|360|2013|cover shooter|7h 54m|7/10
41. Panzer Dragoon|Saturn|1995|rail shooter|55m|7/10
42. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei|Saturn|1996|rail shooter|1h 25m|8/10
43. Kirby Air Ride|GameCube|2003|kart racer|45m|6/10
44. Mario Kart: Double Dash!!|GameCube|2003|kart racer|35m|8/10
45. Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (Arcade Mode)|GameCube|2002|fighter|35m|8/10
46. XG3: Extreme G Racing|GameCube|2001|racer|1h 35m|7/10
47. Mario Kart 7|3DS|2011|kart racer|1h 54m|9/10
48. Code of Princess|3DS|2012|beat 'em up|4h 25m|7/10
49. Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy|3DS|2011|flight sim|3h 42m|7/10
50. Crimson Shroud|3DS|2012|JRPG|6h 55m|7/10
51. Gunman Clive|3DS|2013|platformer|54m|7/10
52. Gunman Clive 2|3DS|2015|platformer|1h 30m|7/10
53. Attack of the Friday Monsters!|3DS|2013|adventure|3h 2m|8/10
54. Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception|PSP|2006|flight combat|2h 25m|8/10
55. Ace Combat: Joint Assault|PSP|2010|flight combat|6h 26m|4/10
56. Nayuta: Endless Trails|PSP|2012|action-RPG|16h 03m|8/10
57. Alpha Protocol|360|2010|action-RPG|12h 20m|5/10
58. Makai-Mura Gaiden: The Demon Darkness|Game Boy|1993|action-adventure|6h|7/10
59. Hangman|Atari 2600|1978|puzzle|15m|8/10
60. Beneath Apple Manor|Apple II|1978|roguelike|2h 28m|9/10
61. Rusty|PC-9801|1993|platformer|3h 46m|7/10

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62. Night Slave|PC-9801|1996|mech shooter|2h 37m|8/10

What would happen if you combined Assault Suits Valken with a yuri eroge? You guessed it; Night Slave. Night Slave was released back in 1996, for the Japanese exclusive computer PC-98. Due to never being ported or receiving an English release whatsoever, Night Slave remains relatively unknown outside Japan. But the good news is, you don't have to understand Japanese to be able to play Night Slave. The hardest part of playing Night Slave is simply acquiring the means to do so.

ImageImage

If you've played Assault Suits Valken, you'll be instantly familiar with Night Slave. The biggest difference is Night Slave incoporates a Gradius-like upgrade system to enhance your mech. Like Assault Suits Valken, Night Slave has a story told by cutscenes. Except Night Slave's cutscenes are full of explicit lesbian sex that is incredibly well drawn. However, if you're just not into that, you can disable the hentai stuff in the main menu. Yes indeed, you can play Night Slave as a straight up mech shooter without seeing any of the s&m loving female pilots rape each other.

ImageImage

Graphically Night Slave is excellent, and its OST is above average. Controls work just fine (with a gamepad), and Night Slave's not a particularly difficult game either. The only thing that will try your patience, are the bullet sponge bosses. The latter half of this game is full of bosses that simply will. not. die. The final boss especially takes an absurd amount of lead to perish. However, the ten available missions are pretty fun, with a lot of variety, and plenty of different locales to blast through. I strongly recommend Night Slave to any mech lover. Doubly so if you're a fan of really raunchy hentai.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by PartridgeSenpai Sat May 07, 2016 10:54 pm

MrPopo wrote:I liked the game better than Assault, but 64 and the original are still better.


This is the part of the review that intrigued me the most. I really enjoyed Assault when I beat it a few weeks ago, so now I'm very interested on what Zero has to offer, if it's even better than that.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
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Re: Games Beaten 2016

by BoneSnapDeez Sat May 07, 2016 11:30 pm

Those late-era Japanese computer games are kinda fascinating. Typically a game of Night Slave's quality would get a console port, though I guess it's no huge surprise it didn't given the content. The developer, Melody, only made "h-games" apparently.
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