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We do mean the SMT: Persona games, specifically 3 and 4.

MrPopo wrote:We do mean the SMT: Persona games, specifically 3 and 4.

I see, but the characters are not from the Persona games, they're SMT (and Fire Emblem) guys, right?

Violent By Design wrote:

MrPopo wrote:We do mean the SMT: Persona games, specifically 3 and 4.

I see, but the characters are not from the Persona games, they're SMT (and Fire Emblem) guys, right?

(From what I understand), the main characters who live in the real world are Persona-esque protagonists, but all of the Personas themselves are FE characters.

This game looks really cool! I'm far from the biggest fan of Persona 4, but Elkin has just about sold me on this one. It's definitely on the short-list for the next NEW game I'm going to buy.

Yeah, the protagonists are your standard Persona-style (but not actually from previous Persona games) high school (or recently out of) kids, but the mirages (taking the place of personas) are all Fire Emblem characters. They look nothing like the characters you remember from the Fire Emblem games, but they share the names, weapon styles, and personalities. The bosses are also from Fire Emblem games (though only characters from Awakening and Shadow Dragon are used in the game).

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Yeah, the protagonists are your standard Persona-style (but not actually from previous Persona games) high school (or recently out of) kids, but the mirages (taking the place of personas) are all Fire Emblem characters. They look nothing like the characters you remember from the Fire Emblem games, but they share the names, weapon styles, and personalities. The bosses are also from Fire Emblem games (though only characters from Awakening and Shadow Dragon are used in the game).

So there aren't spoilers for Fates in this? I hasn't played dat one.

The only technical spoiler is for the most basic plot of Shadow Dragon.

Games Ex has beaten in 2016:


82. Return to Mysterious Island|PC|2004|adventure|4h 33m|7/10



Here's a strong contender for games that have respectable female protagonists. Attempting to circle the planet in a solo sailing expedition, Mina's boat is destroyed by a storm and she is washed up on a deserted island. She must learn to survive, learn to invent, and hopefully escape the island before a volcano blows. Also Mina will rescue a certain monkey who will need her help as much as she does his. Doing so will be mostly a joy. The graphics are extremely detailed and convincing, and navigating the atmospheric island is wholly convincing. Involving music and realistic ambient sound effects seal the deal.



Let's not forget though, this is a puzzle game and is about solving tons of puzzles, most of which are thankfully logical. Also must puzzles have multiple solutions, due to an insane amount of inventory items available. (Unfortunately you'll occasionally be aggravated that despite a puzzle allowing for three solutions, you've thought of one using available items that the developers didn't.) Inventory items can be mixed with other inventory items, so you'll be constructing all sorts of tools. Also this game has multiple endings as there's more than one way to escape this island. Meaning there's some level of replayability here. There's also a score system like the old Sierra games keeping track of how well you're doing, and rewarding high scores with bonus gallery art.



Return to Mysterious Island is a brief game, I finished it in just a little over four hours, and didn't use a walkthrough to guide my way. (My wife did watch and help too though.) But while it lasts, RtMI acts as a nice summer adventure, with its tropical setting and mysterious secrets helping to ease the pain of the relentless heat. I do mean secrets, the last third of the game goes total sci-fi. If you're a fan of independent strong women in gaming, Mina will prove quite the heroine. If you're a fan of Jules Verne, you'll have an extra great time here. So while it's not perfect, RtMI once again proves Kheops is a world class adventure game developer. Rest assured this is an island vacation worth being stranded in.

https://www.gog.com/game/return_to_mysterious_island

The Persona games aren't part of SMT, Atlus just branded everything related to SMT (released after Nocturne) that way in the West.

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1: Rakugaki Ninja (Mac)
2: Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story) (Mac)
3: Dimahoo (ARC)
4: Rez (DC)
5: L.O.L.: Lack of Love (DC)
6: Rockman 7: Shukumei no Taiketsu! (SFC)
7: Ganbare! Daiku no Gen-san (SFC)
8: Super Metroid (SFC)
9: Dragon Force (Saturn)
10: Rocket Knight Adventures (GEN)
11: Quackshot: Starring Donald Duck (GEN)
12: Mario Story (Paper Mario) (N64)
13: Rockman & Forte (SFC)
14: Sparkster (GEN)
15: Lumino City (Steam)
16: Braid (Mac)
17: Kirby: Air Ride (GCN)
18: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (GCN)
19: Starfox Assault (GCN)
20: Terra Phantastica (Saturn)
21: Pikmin (GCN)
22: Doubutsu Banchou (Cubivore) (GCN)
23: Eternal Darkness: Manekareta 13-nin (GCN)
24: Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu (MD)
25: Densetsu no Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (Saturn)
26: Cibele (Mac)
27: Linda Cube - Kanzenban (Saturn)
28: Sonic the Hedgehog (MD-JP)
29: Pulseman (MD)
30: Surging Aura (MD)
31: Pu-Li-Ru-La (Saturn)
32: Purikula Daisakusen (Saturn)
33: Daytona USA (Saturn)
32: MegaMan ZX (DS)
33: Red Arimer II (Gargoyle's Quest II) (FC)


- Pu-Li-Ru-La is a fairly old, Taito, beat-'em-up, that was faithfully reprogrammed for the Saturn. It has an extremely quirky presentation, and is probably most well known for stage three, where there is a wall with a pair of stocking-ed legs hanging out of two doors, and a third door in the center. (A cartoon elephant pops out of the center door, if opened.) The premise is that some evil-doer is stealing the keys that turn the cogs in towns, which stabilize the flow of time. The main characters' grandfather gives each one a magical staff that grants protection from the effects of time being frozen, as well as undoing some of the big-bad's handiwork. It's an all right b'mup, but can be extremely frustrating, mainly because of the hit boxes on enemies, and how ganked up the hurt boxes on the main characters' staves are. I had a heck of a time beating it with the default three credits, but just barely managed it, with some cheesing on a couple bosses. Wouldn't exactly recommend the game, but it's interesting.

- Purikula Daisakusen is an isometric, 'free-roaming,' shooter. The protagonist, Princess Kulala, is from the Gouketsuji Ichizoku (Power Instinct) games. I believe she just returned from the tournament in Power Instinct II, at the beginning of this game. In Purikula Daisakusen, Kulala and Kilala have to save their older sister, Ulala (the queen of Miracle World) who was kidnapped by the evil Scrap Empire. Oh yeah, I guess Grey is there, too (he's a Knight who was turned into a giant cat, thing). It plays pretty well, although does require some adjustment to the 'quarter-view.' The stages are pretty short, and at a certain point, the toughest thing about the game is the final boss, who is a total cluster-fuck. The back of the Saturn packaging says there are six stages, but the game ended after stage five, and I haven't found any information to support there being an extra stage. Interesting to note that the title was originally intended to be 'Kulala Kilala Daisakusen,' but was changed to Purikula Daisakusen after the success of Atlus' Print Club (colloquially known as 'Purikula,' and practically an industry of its own in Japan).

- Daytona USA is Daytona USA. I don't know that there's much for me to say about it, other than that the frame-rate in this version is a real problem, for me at least.

- I've owned ZX since 2006, and while there was a cleared Vent save on it (from one of my roommates borrowing the game) for most of that time, I had never personally played more than a couple hours of the game. The story is garbage, but the game is all right. I played as Aile, and got to change her costume colors; that was pretty cool. I thought the 'open' concept level design was pretty unnecessary, and a nuisance. Also hated the mission structure of the game. The level design was often pretty annoying, but I did kind of like the boss fights. Although, I never needed to use anything other than Zx for most of them. (I had to switch into Hx on the final boss once he was on his final bar, and I was sitting at 0 lives, with no subtank energy, and only a sliver of health.) I got all the health upgrades, and all the subtanks (two of which were real chores to get). I also got Ox, and the secret boss for it was stupidly easy. I didn't even need subtank energy for him. I'm glad I finally knocked this game off my backlog, but it's not one I'm likely to revisit.

- Red Arimer II is pretty fun. The action stages feel a little like moving through molasses, at first, but the Arimer does get a bit more mobile toward the end of the game. I thought the level design was good, and I even enjoyed the mirror palace. Not a game I can really go nuts over, but it just felt like a really solid game. Very nice graphics, as well (especially in RGB) and a great soundtrack.

1. Tenchi Sōzō (Super Famicom)
2. Eternal Senia (Steam)
3. Tombs & Treasure (NES)
4. Magic Knight Rayearth (Super Famicom)
5. Zelda no Densetsu: The Hyrule Fantasy (Famicom Disk System)
6. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES)
7. Seiken Psycho Caliber: Majū no Mori Densetsu (Famicom Disk System)
8. Deep Dungeon: Madō Senki (Famicom Disk System)
9. Deep Dungeon II: Yūshi no Monshō (Famicom Disk System)
10. Suishō no Dragon (Famicom Disk System)
11. Dandy: Zeuon no Fukkatsu (Famicom Disk System)
12. Lagoon (SNES)
13. Contra (NES)
14. Super C (NES)
15. Wonder Boy (Sega Master System)
16. OutRun (Sega Master System)
17. OutRun (Genesis)
18. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
19. Written in the Sky (Steam)
20. Wendy: Every Witch Way (Game Boy Color)
21. Mario Bros. (NES)
22. Popeye (NES)
23. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
24. Super Mario Bros. 2 (Famicom Disk System)
25. Phantasy Star II Eusis's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
26. Phantasy Star II Nei's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
27. Phantasy Star II Rudger's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
28. Phantasy Star II Anne's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
29. Phantasy Star II Huey's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
30. Phantasy Star II Kinds's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
31. Phantasy Star II Amia's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
32. Phantasy Star II Shilka's Text Adventure (Steam - Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics)
33. Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (Famicom Disk System)
34. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
35. Super Mario Advance (Game Boy Advance)
36. Gunman Clive (Nintendo eShop)
37. Zaxxon (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
38. Zaxxon (Atari 2600)
39. Zaxxon (Intellivision)
40. Zaxxon (ColecoVision)
41. Cosmic Avenger (ColecoVision)
42. Mr. Do! (ColecoVision)
43. Pepper II (ColecoVision)
44. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
45. Sakura Spirit (Steam)
46. Ys Eternal (PC)
47. Moon Patrol (Game Boy Color - Arcade Hits: Moon Patrol & Spy Hunter)
48. Ember Kaboom (Steam)

Kirby's Dream Land
My daughter wanted to see me play this to the finish. Decided to do so on a rainy Sunday morning. And what do I see upon completion? PROGRAMMER: SUNDAY RAIN.

Beautiful game. The lack of challenge suits the aesthetic nicely. Worth replaying on an annual basis.

Sakura Spirit
I'm not exactly proud of this one.

The Sakura games kept popping up in my Steam recommendations. This nine-part (but only two year old!) series comes to us courstesy of Winged Cloud, a Western weeb developer.

From what I can tell, seven of the nine games (of which Sakura Spirit is the first) are "I can't believe it's not hentai!" style visual novels. The lastest, a WRPG-esque dungeon crawler, actually looks somewhat competent and interesting. When said game (Sakura Dungeon) went on sale a couple of weeks back I decided to scoop up the entire series. So here we are.

Sakura Spirit is a VN about a kid who's sent back in time to feudal Japan and, with the help of some kitsune girls and grizzled samurai babes, must find his way home in time for a judo tournament. The writing is pretty lousy, backgrounds are stock and stale, and the music is blasé (though I did enjoy the schlocky "steamy" track which sounds oddly reminiscent of the Plumbers Don't Wear Ties ending theme, complete with MIDI[?] saxophone).

The character art, however, is top-notch and most certainly the highlight of the game. It's really the only redeemable feature.

As a final note, I'm always bewildered by those who call a game like this "too short." At 3+ hours it was indeed WAY TOO LONG; it could have easily been condensed into 90 minutes or so.

No idea if I'll continue with the VN installments of this series. Skipping right ahead to the dungeon crawling entry may be the best course of action.

Ys Eternal
No, this isn't some obscure spin-off. Ys Eternal is yet another variant of the first Ys game. This one was released in 1998 for Windows 95 computers. Getting it to run on my PC was a bit of work, but I pulled it off.

A couple things are notable about this one. It's the first version of Ys I that's a full-on remake (not simply a port) of the original game. So the graphics have been given a complete overhaul and the environments have been expanded. Second, every subsequent version of Ys is based upon this one. So if you've played, say, Chronicles (PSP, PC, Steam, GOG.com) there's no real compelling reason to check out Eternal. Unless you fancy yourself a Furiously Fapping Falcom Fanatic, as I do.

Moon Patrol
Moon Patrol is a 1982 arcade game by Irem of R-Type fame.

It was ported to the requisite second gen systems, though those seeking the arcade experience should track down the PlayStation or GBC variants. The game appears on a couple of Midway compilations, as they were the publishers of the game in the US.

Moon Patrol is a fascinating experience and a game with no clearly definable genre. It's something of an early platformer, with rapid-fire shmup-like weaponry, and a repeating landscape similar to today's "endless runners."

You control a buggy working its way from point A to Z on the surface of the moon. All the while, hostile enemy ships (air) and pitfalls and rock mounds (land) must be dealt with. The fire button causes the buggy to shoot in two directions, up and right, so the UFOs and land hazards can be taken out simultaneously. The game maintains a fast pace, as the screen scrolls. Controlling the buggy is similar to the ship in Cosmic Avenger (see game #41) as right and left don't simply move the buggy but instead accelerate and brake.

This is a game from 1982 with jumping in it. That means the jumping can get very tricky. Proper timing is essential and knowing when to brake in mid-air (possible on the moon apparently) is a necessary skill.

The game looks fantastic. It features one of the earliest examples of parallax scrolling, with its multiple layers of the moonscape. There's a proper checkpoint/continue feature as well, rarely seen in a game this old.

Moon Patrol is addictive second gen loopin' action. There's only one real flaw: the game features a segment filled with landmines which is absolutely unbelievably annoying. Getting over these mines requires some insanely precise jumping and a dash of luck. "Well Bone, you probably just suck." True, but check out the longplay pros try to tackle this same stretch. It ain't easy.

Ember Kaboom
There has been discussion on the forums lately about how indie Metroidvanias are played out and how more straight-up retro platformers should be developed instead.

Well, Ember Kaboom is one such game. It stars a cute little kitsune girl working her way through 36 levels. The game is very much like Super Mario Bros. in terms of jumping physics, landscapes, and enemies. Bad guys are defeated by bopping, 100 coins = extra life, mushrooms everywhere. So yeah, very much inspired by the plumbers. A couple notable differences include the fact that there are no power-ups (one hit deaths!) or hidden areas to speak of.

The game controls very well and is "fun" to play. I wish the levels were a little more cohesive - they feel like they were all just shuffled in a random order.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but if you want to kill a few hours with an easy breezy platformer starring a kawaii protagonist hit this up on the Steams.

MrPopo wrote:The only technical spoiler is for the most basic plot of Shadow Dragon.

does he fight a dragon of shadow