Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo is a lot of fun. I also got it for free, and I really enjoyed it.
.....
1. Bastion (iOS)
2. LaserCat (360)
3. Zombie Incident (3DS)
4. Bye-Bye BoxBoy! (3DS)
5. Monument Valley 2 (iOS)
6. Zenge (iOS)
7. Master of Darkness (Game Gear/3DS)
Master of Darkness is to 8-bit Castlevania what Soul of Darkness is to 32-bit Castlevania (and I like to think of them as a loose series). That is, it is a knock o...excuse me...homage...that is inferior to its inspirations in every respect but graphically. It plays just like Castlevania, but with different weapons and an even more ridiculously-named protagonist (i.e., Dr. Social). It also sounds OK, but it doesn’t have any of Castlevania’s great music. Finally, the enemy variety is really limited. It does take some inspiration from Ninja Gaiden - there are cut scenes between levels and the last item drop before each boss is a terrible weapon - and it is probably the second-best portable Castlevania of its era. That isn’t saying much, however, and I doubt I will return to it often.
Games Beaten 2018
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12202
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
-
ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8621
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Henderson, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 21
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
21. Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training - Android - February 8
Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training is a game that I have wanted to review for a long time. See, this was the first full release from Yotes Games, and Yotes is one of my absolute best friends. Unfortunately for me and my aspirations of reviewing my friend's game, he made Unicorn Training BRUTALLY difficult. Despite that difficulty, however, I stuck with it WAY longer than I normally would have - I'm usually pretty quick to get frustrated and rage quit - and saw it through to the end. It was important for me to play through his game and feature it on my blog to support Yotes. And if the art from the game doesn't make this apparent enough, the game is inspired by My Little Pony (I mean, Yotes and I met at BronyCon).
The game plays like a fairly standard action RPG. You play as Clover, a unicorn mage training under the unicorn master Swirllock. Swirllock has left on a journey because plot device, and Clover has been left to continue her studies and training on her own. There's a village where you can talk to other ponies, and you can go into a forest south of the village to grind on some monsters to gain experience and level up your spells. The main game, however, takes place in the magic dungeon beneath Swirllock's house. You choose a dungeon floor by selecting the spell you want to unlock. After you select the spell to unlock, you enter the dungeon and complete the themed floor which consists of nine rooms the last one being the boss.
Each dungeon floor has a different theme - ice, fire, etc - but most of the enemies are common to several dungeons. The enemies themselves have a variety of designs, some fairly standard and some downright bizarre. It's that variety in enemy designs that keeps combat from getting too stale. The dungeons get extraordinarily difficult, but there is a silver lining there. The game is brutally difficult if you fight every battle that you enter, but Yotes mercifully gives the option to run from any non-boss battle by simply trotting up to the edge of the screen and waiting for a couple seconds. When you run from an encounter, the enemy disappears from the dungeon as if you had won. This sacrifices experience and spoils you could have gotten from the fight, obviously, but it makes it a LOT easier to get through a dungeon.
One of the things that Yotes did really well is the visual design of the characters. He used a pixel art style, and folks who know my views on retro games know that I'm not typically a fan of pixel art, but greater than my general disdain for pixel art is my love of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and he captured the aesthetic and feel of the show's character designs extraordinarily well from the coat and mane colors to the mane styles to Clover's cloak. In addition to the visuals, the music in the game - especially the battle theme - is extremely well done and will easily get stuck in your head. I'm not sure who Yotes got to do the music for the game, but whoever it is did a fantastic job.
I struggled for a while with how to rate this game. I was very unsure about the game at first - the difficult when jumping straight into the first dungeon was a big turn off initially - but I didn't want to give my friend's game a bad score. Fortunately, as I played more of the game, I started to get a feel for the game's quirks, the ins and outs of the hit detection, tricks to grind up experience more efficiently, and to just throw away my pride and run away with my tail between my legs. It's not the most approachable game at first because it does take some getting used to, but once you do get used to it and get a feel for it, it's a lot of fun. Obviously I'm biased since Yotes is such a good friend of mine, but I think Unicorn Training is absolutely worth the $0.99 asking price, and since there's a free demo of it, there's really no excuse not to give it a shot. Once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.
Also, as a last minute plug, there's a demo of Yotes' next game, Battle Gem Ponies, available at his website. The demo is obviously free, and I urge everyone to go download it and check it out. Both the demo and the full game (once it releases) are available on Android, iOS, and PC.
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (5 Games Beaten)
21. Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training - Android - February 8
Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training is a game that I have wanted to review for a long time. See, this was the first full release from Yotes Games, and Yotes is one of my absolute best friends. Unfortunately for me and my aspirations of reviewing my friend's game, he made Unicorn Training BRUTALLY difficult. Despite that difficulty, however, I stuck with it WAY longer than I normally would have - I'm usually pretty quick to get frustrated and rage quit - and saw it through to the end. It was important for me to play through his game and feature it on my blog to support Yotes. And if the art from the game doesn't make this apparent enough, the game is inspired by My Little Pony (I mean, Yotes and I met at BronyCon).
The game plays like a fairly standard action RPG. You play as Clover, a unicorn mage training under the unicorn master Swirllock. Swirllock has left on a journey because plot device, and Clover has been left to continue her studies and training on her own. There's a village where you can talk to other ponies, and you can go into a forest south of the village to grind on some monsters to gain experience and level up your spells. The main game, however, takes place in the magic dungeon beneath Swirllock's house. You choose a dungeon floor by selecting the spell you want to unlock. After you select the spell to unlock, you enter the dungeon and complete the themed floor which consists of nine rooms the last one being the boss.
Each dungeon floor has a different theme - ice, fire, etc - but most of the enemies are common to several dungeons. The enemies themselves have a variety of designs, some fairly standard and some downright bizarre. It's that variety in enemy designs that keeps combat from getting too stale. The dungeons get extraordinarily difficult, but there is a silver lining there. The game is brutally difficult if you fight every battle that you enter, but Yotes mercifully gives the option to run from any non-boss battle by simply trotting up to the edge of the screen and waiting for a couple seconds. When you run from an encounter, the enemy disappears from the dungeon as if you had won. This sacrifices experience and spoils you could have gotten from the fight, obviously, but it makes it a LOT easier to get through a dungeon.
One of the things that Yotes did really well is the visual design of the characters. He used a pixel art style, and folks who know my views on retro games know that I'm not typically a fan of pixel art, but greater than my general disdain for pixel art is my love of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and he captured the aesthetic and feel of the show's character designs extraordinarily well from the coat and mane colors to the mane styles to Clover's cloak. In addition to the visuals, the music in the game - especially the battle theme - is extremely well done and will easily get stuck in your head. I'm not sure who Yotes got to do the music for the game, but whoever it is did a fantastic job.
I struggled for a while with how to rate this game. I was very unsure about the game at first - the difficult when jumping straight into the first dungeon was a big turn off initially - but I didn't want to give my friend's game a bad score. Fortunately, as I played more of the game, I started to get a feel for the game's quirks, the ins and outs of the hit detection, tricks to grind up experience more efficiently, and to just throw away my pride and run away with my tail between my legs. It's not the most approachable game at first because it does take some getting used to, but once you do get used to it and get a feel for it, it's a lot of fun. Obviously I'm biased since Yotes is such a good friend of mine, but I think Unicorn Training is absolutely worth the $0.99 asking price, and since there's a free demo of it, there's really no excuse not to give it a shot. Once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.
Also, as a last minute plug, there's a demo of Yotes' next game, Battle Gem Ponies, available at his website. The demo is obviously free, and I urge everyone to go download it and check it out. Both the demo and the full game (once it releases) are available on Android, iOS, and PC.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Games Beaten 2018
Darkwing Duck - NES (PS4)
DuckTales - NES (PS4)
DuckTales 2 - NES (PS4)
Talespin - NES (PS4)
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers - NES (PS4)
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - NES (PS4)
Scarecrow - PS1 (Vita)
The Heart of Dark - PS1 (Vita)
Justice - PS1 (Vita)
Caligo - PC
Tomb Raider (2013) - X1
Nephise Begins - PC
Diablo III: The Darkening of Tristam - PC
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - X1
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - SNES *new*
Total: 15
Previously: 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
This is the first game I spent any serious time with on my SNES Classic, and I think I picked a good one! I know this game gets a bad rap as too easy and basic, but I think it is quite charming, accessible, and a compelling whittling down of a lot of JRPG sluggishness into a purer experience. I talked about it a bit more over in this month's TR thread...
Darkwing Duck - NES (PS4)
DuckTales - NES (PS4)
DuckTales 2 - NES (PS4)
Talespin - NES (PS4)
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers - NES (PS4)
Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - NES (PS4)
Scarecrow - PS1 (Vita)
The Heart of Dark - PS1 (Vita)
Justice - PS1 (Vita)
Caligo - PC
Tomb Raider (2013) - X1
Nephise Begins - PC
Diablo III: The Darkening of Tristam - PC
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - X1
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest - SNES *new*
Total: 15
Previously: 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
This is the first game I spent any serious time with on my SNES Classic, and I think I picked a good one! I know this game gets a bad rap as too easy and basic, but I think it is quite charming, accessible, and a compelling whittling down of a lot of JRPG sluggishness into a purer experience. I talked about it a bit more over in this month's TR thread...
-
BoneSnapDeez
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 20118
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Games Beaten 2018
What's amusing is that Final Fantasy VI is an even "easier" game (it's exploitable as hell), and it retains all the trappings of a traditional series entry.
The difficulty level of Mystic Quest is quite odd anyway. Losing a battle is common, though the instant respawns eliminate any real penalty.
The difficulty level of Mystic Quest is quite odd anyway. Losing a battle is common, though the instant respawns eliminate any real penalty.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Shantae: Risky's Revenge for PS4 on Normal. I missed a couple of the Magic Jams, though.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
1) Legendary Axe II (TG16) (6.0) (1/1) (2.5 hours)
2) The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (SNES) (7.5) (1/3) (1.5 hours)
3) Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (SNES) (6.5) (1/3) (2.5 hours)
4) The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) (7.0) (1/4) (2.5 hours)
5) The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minney (7.5) (1/6) (1.5 hours)
6) Phantom 2040 (SNES) (7.0) (1/9) (9 hours?)
7) Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) (8.0) (1/10) (0.5 hours)
8) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (8.0) (1/15) (0.5 hours)
9) F-Zero (SNES) (7.5) (1/16) (1 hour)
10) Star Fox (SNES) (7.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
11) Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES) (8.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
12) Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES) (7.0) (1/20) (1 hour)
13) Shinobi (GG) (7.0) (1/22) (2 hours)
14) Iconoclasts (PC) (9.0) (1/27) (11 hours)
15) Final Fight 3 (SNES) (8.0) (2/3) (1.25 hours)
16) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PSX) (7.0) (2/6) (0.4 hours)
17) Sol Divide (PSX) (6.5) (2/9) (0.65 hours)
Just blasted through Sol Divide on PSX. Well, there was blasting, but I'm pretty sure for a while there that I was the one being blasted. That last boss gauntlet is pretty tough. I was fortunate to get some decent spells to use; Phoenix worked on the big dragon, and the last boss that kept summoning enemies I started just wailing on (you have a melee attack too), popped off the Wind spell which pushed him toward the top of the screen (I think) and disrupted his attack pattern, and then had just enough for a desperation fire attack that killed him at close range. Whee! Probably took 30-40 minutes to play through, even with all the deaths; it's a really, really short game.
Strangely, it looks like there was not any localization actually done, or minimal; the end credits were completely Japanese. Not a bad time, but I wouldn't hold it up as some great gem in the shooter realm. Decent-to-good, so 6.5 it is!
2) The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (SNES) (7.5) (1/3) (1.5 hours)
3) Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (SNES) (6.5) (1/3) (2.5 hours)
4) The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) (7.0) (1/4) (2.5 hours)
5) The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minney (7.5) (1/6) (1.5 hours)
6) Phantom 2040 (SNES) (7.0) (1/9) (9 hours?)
7) Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) (8.0) (1/10) (0.5 hours)
8) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (8.0) (1/15) (0.5 hours)
9) F-Zero (SNES) (7.5) (1/16) (1 hour)
10) Star Fox (SNES) (7.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
11) Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES) (8.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
12) Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES) (7.0) (1/20) (1 hour)
13) Shinobi (GG) (7.0) (1/22) (2 hours)
14) Iconoclasts (PC) (9.0) (1/27) (11 hours)
15) Final Fight 3 (SNES) (8.0) (2/3) (1.25 hours)
16) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PSX) (7.0) (2/6) (0.4 hours)
17) Sol Divide (PSX) (6.5) (2/9) (0.65 hours)
Just blasted through Sol Divide on PSX. Well, there was blasting, but I'm pretty sure for a while there that I was the one being blasted. That last boss gauntlet is pretty tough. I was fortunate to get some decent spells to use; Phoenix worked on the big dragon, and the last boss that kept summoning enemies I started just wailing on (you have a melee attack too), popped off the Wind spell which pushed him toward the top of the screen (I think) and disrupted his attack pattern, and then had just enough for a desperation fire attack that killed him at close range. Whee! Probably took 30-40 minutes to play through, even with all the deaths; it's a really, really short game.
Strangely, it looks like there was not any localization actually done, or minimal; the end credits were completely Japanese. Not a bad time, but I wouldn't hold it up as some great gem in the shooter realm. Decent-to-good, so 6.5 it is!
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Haven't posted in a while...
Games Beaten: 45
Games beaten since my last post:
31. Ratchet and Clank (ps4)
32. Redeemer (steam)
33. Mega Man X3(snes)
34. Nex Machina (steam)
35. Doodler (steam)
36. O Fox life (steam)
37. Tai fu(ps1)
38. serious sam bogus detour (steam)
39. Vox Populi Vox Dei 2 (steam)
40. Mecho Tales (steam)
41. Metal Soldiers 2 (steam)
42. Atomic Adam episode 1 (steam)
43. Altered beast: guardians of the realm(gba)
44. Mike Tysons Punch out (nes)
45. Strider 2 (ps1)
Obv cant write about all of them, a few highlights:
32. Redeemer:
3 parts god of war, 1 part twin stick shooter, redeemer is a bad ass game that has you playing as retired mercenary who is trying to get away from his old life by joining a monastery. The game begins by having the monastery get invaded and the invaders either kill or kidnap all the monks. Your character is pissed off and embarks on a quest to save his remaining brothers and avenge those who are killed.
The game takes place from a top down/isometric perspective and offers a ton of fun combat options. There is a punch and kick that can be combined to form many different combos or be charged for power attacks. There is also a dodge, a block, and a counter if blocks are timed correctly. In addition to hand to hand combat every enemy with a melee weapon will drop it when defeated allowing you to pick it up and bash enemies with them.
On top of the hordes of melee weilding baddies, you are also faced with armed thugs that carry guns. They will drop their guns when defeated but you can also disarm them and steal their gun with a touch of the RB.
Combat is extremely fun and frantic, there is a wide variety of enemies that require different strategies to defeat and attack in large mobs forcing you to prioritize who you need to go after first. The gunplay is handled well and the twin stick shooting is spot on, switching between gunplay and fisticuffs is seamless and gives every fight a wide variety of options.
The game is also satisfyingly bloody and violent, every melee weapon has their own unique fatalities, and there is also several environmental kills that you can use to instantly kill enemies, if all else fails you can simply bash an enemies head against the wall or rip an arm off of an enemy and beat them to death with their own hand.
Redeemer is a must play for any fun of fast paced, violent, beat em ups. It was a great romp from start to finish.
Games Beaten: 45
Games beaten since my last post:
31. Ratchet and Clank (ps4)
32. Redeemer (steam)
33. Mega Man X3(snes)
34. Nex Machina (steam)
35. Doodler (steam)
36. O Fox life (steam)
37. Tai fu(ps1)
38. serious sam bogus detour (steam)
39. Vox Populi Vox Dei 2 (steam)
40. Mecho Tales (steam)
41. Metal Soldiers 2 (steam)
42. Atomic Adam episode 1 (steam)
43. Altered beast: guardians of the realm(gba)
44. Mike Tysons Punch out (nes)
45. Strider 2 (ps1)
Obv cant write about all of them, a few highlights:
32. Redeemer:
3 parts god of war, 1 part twin stick shooter, redeemer is a bad ass game that has you playing as retired mercenary who is trying to get away from his old life by joining a monastery. The game begins by having the monastery get invaded and the invaders either kill or kidnap all the monks. Your character is pissed off and embarks on a quest to save his remaining brothers and avenge those who are killed.
The game takes place from a top down/isometric perspective and offers a ton of fun combat options. There is a punch and kick that can be combined to form many different combos or be charged for power attacks. There is also a dodge, a block, and a counter if blocks are timed correctly. In addition to hand to hand combat every enemy with a melee weapon will drop it when defeated allowing you to pick it up and bash enemies with them.
On top of the hordes of melee weilding baddies, you are also faced with armed thugs that carry guns. They will drop their guns when defeated but you can also disarm them and steal their gun with a touch of the RB.
Combat is extremely fun and frantic, there is a wide variety of enemies that require different strategies to defeat and attack in large mobs forcing you to prioritize who you need to go after first. The gunplay is handled well and the twin stick shooting is spot on, switching between gunplay and fisticuffs is seamless and gives every fight a wide variety of options.
The game is also satisfyingly bloody and violent, every melee weapon has their own unique fatalities, and there is also several environmental kills that you can use to instantly kill enemies, if all else fails you can simply bash an enemies head against the wall or rip an arm off of an enemy and beat them to death with their own hand.
Redeemer is a must play for any fun of fast paced, violent, beat em ups. It was a great romp from start to finish.
-
Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1416
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2018!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*
1. The Granstream Saga (PS1)
2. Perfect Dark (N64)
*3. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1)*
4. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (XBOX)
5. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
*6. Pikmin (GCN)*
I completed Pikmin on the Nintendo Gamecube this afternoon!
I usually do not play Real Time Strategy games because I feel I am not smart enough for them. However, Pikmin takes all the hard difficulty from that genre and makes it much easier to control. I no longer have to worry about several things at once or coming up with strategic military tactics. I just control a bunch of Pikmin and I go about my mission. Pikmin is highly addictive with some cute characters and accessible game play. It is fantastic experience, even if you are not a RTS fan.
*Denotes Replay For Completion*
1. The Granstream Saga (PS1)
2. Perfect Dark (N64)
*3. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1)*
4. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (XBOX)
5. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
*6. Pikmin (GCN)*
I completed Pikmin on the Nintendo Gamecube this afternoon!
I usually do not play Real Time Strategy games because I feel I am not smart enough for them. However, Pikmin takes all the hard difficulty from that genre and makes it much easier to control. I no longer have to worry about several things at once or coming up with strategic military tactics. I just control a bunch of Pikmin and I go about my mission. Pikmin is highly addictive with some cute characters and accessible game play. It is fantastic experience, even if you are not a RTS fan.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
1. Ultima V - PC
2. Ultima VI - PC
3. Might and Magic VI - PC
4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC
5. Pool of Radiance - PC
6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC
7. Secret of the Silver Blades - PC
Secret of the Silver Blades is apparently one of the lower ranked Gold Box games, and I can see why that is. The game is much more of a slog compared to previous entries, and the problems with high level AD&D are starting to rear their head. It's still a good game, but so far I've enjoyed it the least of the three.
The game starts with you waking up naked in a mining town. You're naked because they used a magic wishing well to wish for heroes to save them, but were inspecific as to how they should be equipped. Thus begins yet another quest without all that pimped out gear. Here it's much more important that you lose all your fancy toys; while CotAB could have handled it (due to you only having one or two +3 pieces) SotSB finds most of its character progression through equipment upgrades, as you'll only gain a couple levels over the adventure.
The plot of the game is that there's this castle that has been frozen in ice to contain a nasty lich, but descendants of his minions are trying to break him out. As a result, the game completely abandons any sense of overworld travel; everything is contained within the immediate environs of the town and the path that leads to the castle. Which leads to the first impressive yet annoying thing about this game; the gigantic dungeon levels.
For those who remembered, Gold Box games are built on 16x16 maps. CotAB got clever by using teleporters on door transitions to convert a 16x16 room into an 8x32 hallway, as well as other such tricks. This game takes it a step further; there are now several sprawling dungeon levels that are on the order of 100x50 if you map out the entire thing. It's all built using small building block set pieces that all fit on the 16x16 map. That way you don't have any of the loading transitions that trigger when you switch from map to map. They seem to be using a system of manually keeping track of your position, then at a given block's boundary you warp to one of several other places based on your coordinates. It's some very clever programming. However, the actual level design and pacing ends up suffering in the end. The opening ruins are huge, and you only care about four points on them, one of which you can immediately teleport to. The rest is a bunch of samey corridors and random encounters you can't flee from. The mines consist of 10 levels where you only care about one of the four equally sized branches per level. The two crevasses are a bit better, in that they aren't as long and there's only two of them. But overall, the idea fell down in execution and requires some hardcore mapping to get through. Not helping things is the fact that the displayed coordinates in the world are a bit buggy, and I was seeing off by one errors when I transitioned between the ruins and a sub map that's supposed to be contiguous with it. After trying to correct my map twice and realizing the game was lying to me I said fuck it and just used a precreated map. Encounters were giving piddly experience anyway and didn't pose any real threat, so I didn't feel like wasting my time.
The smaller dungeons that were properly contained in a 16x16 map a la CotAB were much better. The game stepped up things with its use of puzzles, though unfortunately a few of the riddles fell victim of having several equally valid answers, with no good way of choosing one. The game does give you a bunch of ways to get the answer through helping NPCs or giving up and giving gems to the well that brought you here for a clue.
As you can probably tell, the game is basically one giant dungeon crawl. There's teleporters every so often to a central hub, so you can take breaks, but they are unevenly spaced and mostly serve as a good way to quickly scribe and memorize a bunch of spells. Magic is really starting to show the imbalances in the AD&D ruleset. Your magic user is down to a handful of useful spells; magic missile at level 1; stinking cloud at level 2 (more for the auto prevention of casting); fireball at level 3; ice storm at level 4 (only as a smaller radius version of fireball to interrupt casting); and delayed blast fireball at level 7 (fireball with no cast time). Notice the lack of useful spells at level 5 and 6, or the general lack of useful status spells? Saving throws are a bitch. The cleric is an after-battle healbot outside of his one or two castings of level 6 Heal, which is the only healing spell worth a damn in battle. But that handful of useful spells are also sickeningly powerful, especially if you have several mages (yay dual classing). The game becomes about figuring out which fights you can auto fight through (which has been improved; now magic users will use weapons instead of just defending like dorks) and which ones you need to use your aoe death; generally the deciding factor is the number and placement of enemy casters.
I'm ready to wrap up this arc with Pools of Darkness; that game's cap is 18, while this one's cap was 15, so I'll be able to get one or two final hot death spells. But I'm expecting more rocket tag gameplay.
Oh, I almost forgot one thing. This game finally introduced music to the series. It's only at the opening title, though. And it has mouse support, though I stuck with using the keyboard instead.
2. Ultima VI - PC
3. Might and Magic VI - PC
4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC
5. Pool of Radiance - PC
6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC
7. Secret of the Silver Blades - PC
Secret of the Silver Blades is apparently one of the lower ranked Gold Box games, and I can see why that is. The game is much more of a slog compared to previous entries, and the problems with high level AD&D are starting to rear their head. It's still a good game, but so far I've enjoyed it the least of the three.
The game starts with you waking up naked in a mining town. You're naked because they used a magic wishing well to wish for heroes to save them, but were inspecific as to how they should be equipped. Thus begins yet another quest without all that pimped out gear. Here it's much more important that you lose all your fancy toys; while CotAB could have handled it (due to you only having one or two +3 pieces) SotSB finds most of its character progression through equipment upgrades, as you'll only gain a couple levels over the adventure.
The plot of the game is that there's this castle that has been frozen in ice to contain a nasty lich, but descendants of his minions are trying to break him out. As a result, the game completely abandons any sense of overworld travel; everything is contained within the immediate environs of the town and the path that leads to the castle. Which leads to the first impressive yet annoying thing about this game; the gigantic dungeon levels.
For those who remembered, Gold Box games are built on 16x16 maps. CotAB got clever by using teleporters on door transitions to convert a 16x16 room into an 8x32 hallway, as well as other such tricks. This game takes it a step further; there are now several sprawling dungeon levels that are on the order of 100x50 if you map out the entire thing. It's all built using small building block set pieces that all fit on the 16x16 map. That way you don't have any of the loading transitions that trigger when you switch from map to map. They seem to be using a system of manually keeping track of your position, then at a given block's boundary you warp to one of several other places based on your coordinates. It's some very clever programming. However, the actual level design and pacing ends up suffering in the end. The opening ruins are huge, and you only care about four points on them, one of which you can immediately teleport to. The rest is a bunch of samey corridors and random encounters you can't flee from. The mines consist of 10 levels where you only care about one of the four equally sized branches per level. The two crevasses are a bit better, in that they aren't as long and there's only two of them. But overall, the idea fell down in execution and requires some hardcore mapping to get through. Not helping things is the fact that the displayed coordinates in the world are a bit buggy, and I was seeing off by one errors when I transitioned between the ruins and a sub map that's supposed to be contiguous with it. After trying to correct my map twice and realizing the game was lying to me I said fuck it and just used a precreated map. Encounters were giving piddly experience anyway and didn't pose any real threat, so I didn't feel like wasting my time.
The smaller dungeons that were properly contained in a 16x16 map a la CotAB were much better. The game stepped up things with its use of puzzles, though unfortunately a few of the riddles fell victim of having several equally valid answers, with no good way of choosing one. The game does give you a bunch of ways to get the answer through helping NPCs or giving up and giving gems to the well that brought you here for a clue.
As you can probably tell, the game is basically one giant dungeon crawl. There's teleporters every so often to a central hub, so you can take breaks, but they are unevenly spaced and mostly serve as a good way to quickly scribe and memorize a bunch of spells. Magic is really starting to show the imbalances in the AD&D ruleset. Your magic user is down to a handful of useful spells; magic missile at level 1; stinking cloud at level 2 (more for the auto prevention of casting); fireball at level 3; ice storm at level 4 (only as a smaller radius version of fireball to interrupt casting); and delayed blast fireball at level 7 (fireball with no cast time). Notice the lack of useful spells at level 5 and 6, or the general lack of useful status spells? Saving throws are a bitch. The cleric is an after-battle healbot outside of his one or two castings of level 6 Heal, which is the only healing spell worth a damn in battle. But that handful of useful spells are also sickeningly powerful, especially if you have several mages (yay dual classing). The game becomes about figuring out which fights you can auto fight through (which has been improved; now magic users will use weapons instead of just defending like dorks) and which ones you need to use your aoe death; generally the deciding factor is the number and placement of enemy casters.
I'm ready to wrap up this arc with Pools of Darkness; that game's cap is 18, while this one's cap was 15, so I'll be able to get one or two final hot death spells. But I'm expecting more rocket tag gameplay.
Oh, I almost forgot one thing. This game finally introduced music to the series. It's only at the opening title, though. And it has mouse support, though I stuck with using the keyboard instead.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
1) Legendary Axe II (TG16) (6.0) (1/1) (2.5 hours)
2) The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (SNES) (7.5) (1/3) (1.5 hours)
3) Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (SNES) (6.5) (1/3) (2.5 hours)
4) The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) (7.0) (1/4) (2.5 hours)
5) The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minney (7.5) (1/6) (1.5 hours)
6) Phantom 2040 (SNES) (7.0) (1/9) (9 hours?)
7) Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) (8.0) (1/10) (0.5 hours)
8) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (8.0) (1/15) (0.5 hours)
9) F-Zero (SNES) (7.5) (1/16) (1 hour)
10) Star Fox (SNES) (7.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
11) Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES) (8.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
12) Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES) (7.0) (1/20) (1 hour)
13) Shinobi (GG) (7.0) (1/22) (2 hours)
14) Iconoclasts (PC) (9.0) (1/27) (11 hours)
15) Final Fight 3 (SNES) (8.0) (2/3) (1.25 hours)
16) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PSX) (7.0) (2/6) (0.4 hours)
17) Sol Divide (PSX) (6.5) (2/9) (0.65 hours)
18) Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SNES) (7.0) (2/10) (12 hours)
Well, I've got one Final Fantasy spinoff done for TR, anyway! So, let's talk Mystic Quest.
First of all, let's get this out of the way: FFMQ is not a terrible game. It's even a good game! It's just not Final Fantasy II/IV. Expectations are a bear; it's one thing when you're slapping the Final Fantasy name onto a Game Boy game; folks aren't expecting a console-level experience there. But they are expecting it on the SNES, and expectations for the series had already been heightened significantly. So this one landed with a thud.
It didn't really deserve to, though. The game strips the genre down to the basics. You only get two party members: yourself and whatever helper the story dictates that you'll have along. In the early going, they will be much more powerful than you. Typically they will one-shot most enemies, while you'll be just shy of doing so. By the time you've caught up with them, it'll be time for a new partner.
The reduced number of members also means that you're not going to take on many enemies at a time, either. Three enemies is the maximum per battle. The game makes up for this by making them hit quite hard. Most healing spells will restore full HP, and you'll need it because both enemies and allies alike deal out prodigious damage. Efficiently taking out threats comprises the bulk of battles. (Also, seriously, don't put your members on auto, they do stupid stuff.) Believe it or not, you're going to lose a lot of battles; get turned to stone or popped with a few criticals and you're in a world of hurt. Thankfully, you can just try again at the start of the battle. You can also save anywhere on the map; these two aspects really tone down what could have been a tough game.
Enemies give up both EXP and money, but you'll actually not be buying much equipment. A few random townspeople will sell you new gear, but most of your funds (assuming you spend them much at all) will go towards consumables. Interestingly, chests with consumables (the brown ones) respawn when you leave an area, too. So if you're cheap, you can amass a lot of potions or ammo or whatnot.
So if you're not buying equipment, then where do you get it? Exploring. There are red chests that contain the "big" items: new spells, story items, and armor. When you pick up a new piece of armor, it replaces your previous one. They often bestow elemental defenses or status defenses as well. I don't think there's ever a defense against stone, though, so that will be a threat right up until the end. You also can find weapons in the chests, although they will always be an upgrade of a type you're already carrying.
The weapons, interestingly, give you a few options in moving around the maps. The sword can poke stuff like switches, the axe chops down trees, and the coolest, the claws, will let you climb certain surfaces and later use it to zip to grapple points. Many of the areas revolve around navigation puzzles that involve some combination of these. Sometimes this is fun, sometimes it gets rather obnoxious.
Spells are handled much like the original Final Fantasy. You get a set number of charges for black magic, white magic, and "wizard" magic. The first two are as you'd expect (although the Life spell will also restore HP, so it's useful if you've got a party member you want to heal but they might also die first), and the last contains mega-powerful attack spells. You'll want to use these a bunch towards the end, especially Flare and White (aka Holy). And spending money on Seeds is a pretty good idea; they'll restore all of your MP charges.
As an early SNES game, the graphics are fairly utilitarian. It's got more in common with FFII for sure, although enemies have some funny poses as you work their HP down. In fact, that's a nice feature of the game; you can tell roughly how much damage you've done by how hurt the enemies look. The sound, however, stands out. Superb, rocking tracks will keep you moving forward. It's worth mentioning that the composer here also worked on Treasure of the Rudras, a fantastic late-gen RPG with a kickin' soundtrack.
The story is nothing to write home about, although it can feel a bit silly. There are often no explanations for why you're doing some things (there's a running gag with an old man who'll tell you what to do next with no other directions and zip off, leaving your hero to just shrug his shoulders), and characters just jump right in and join your party with very little characterization. Really, there's very little to get in the way of you reviving the crystals and killing the inevitable big bad.
That's a lot of verbiage for the game. I'm glad I finally burned through it. I'll likely never run through it again; it's not that good. But it was good enough to enjoy for the twelve hour run time. If you're short on SNES RPGs by now, this isn't a bad one to try out. It's even better if you can play enough to tell folks that, no, the game is not awful.
2) The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (SNES) (7.5) (1/3) (1.5 hours)
3) Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (SNES) (6.5) (1/3) (2.5 hours)
4) The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) (7.0) (1/4) (2.5 hours)
5) The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minney (7.5) (1/6) (1.5 hours)
6) Phantom 2040 (SNES) (7.0) (1/9) (9 hours?)
7) Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) (8.0) (1/10) (0.5 hours)
8) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (8.0) (1/15) (0.5 hours)
9) F-Zero (SNES) (7.5) (1/16) (1 hour)
10) Star Fox (SNES) (7.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
11) Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES) (8.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
12) Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES) (7.0) (1/20) (1 hour)
13) Shinobi (GG) (7.0) (1/22) (2 hours)
14) Iconoclasts (PC) (9.0) (1/27) (11 hours)
15) Final Fight 3 (SNES) (8.0) (2/3) (1.25 hours)
16) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PSX) (7.0) (2/6) (0.4 hours)
17) Sol Divide (PSX) (6.5) (2/9) (0.65 hours)
18) Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (SNES) (7.0) (2/10) (12 hours)
Well, I've got one Final Fantasy spinoff done for TR, anyway! So, let's talk Mystic Quest.
First of all, let's get this out of the way: FFMQ is not a terrible game. It's even a good game! It's just not Final Fantasy II/IV. Expectations are a bear; it's one thing when you're slapping the Final Fantasy name onto a Game Boy game; folks aren't expecting a console-level experience there. But they are expecting it on the SNES, and expectations for the series had already been heightened significantly. So this one landed with a thud.
It didn't really deserve to, though. The game strips the genre down to the basics. You only get two party members: yourself and whatever helper the story dictates that you'll have along. In the early going, they will be much more powerful than you. Typically they will one-shot most enemies, while you'll be just shy of doing so. By the time you've caught up with them, it'll be time for a new partner.
The reduced number of members also means that you're not going to take on many enemies at a time, either. Three enemies is the maximum per battle. The game makes up for this by making them hit quite hard. Most healing spells will restore full HP, and you'll need it because both enemies and allies alike deal out prodigious damage. Efficiently taking out threats comprises the bulk of battles. (Also, seriously, don't put your members on auto, they do stupid stuff.) Believe it or not, you're going to lose a lot of battles; get turned to stone or popped with a few criticals and you're in a world of hurt. Thankfully, you can just try again at the start of the battle. You can also save anywhere on the map; these two aspects really tone down what could have been a tough game.
Enemies give up both EXP and money, but you'll actually not be buying much equipment. A few random townspeople will sell you new gear, but most of your funds (assuming you spend them much at all) will go towards consumables. Interestingly, chests with consumables (the brown ones) respawn when you leave an area, too. So if you're cheap, you can amass a lot of potions or ammo or whatnot.
So if you're not buying equipment, then where do you get it? Exploring. There are red chests that contain the "big" items: new spells, story items, and armor. When you pick up a new piece of armor, it replaces your previous one. They often bestow elemental defenses or status defenses as well. I don't think there's ever a defense against stone, though, so that will be a threat right up until the end. You also can find weapons in the chests, although they will always be an upgrade of a type you're already carrying.
The weapons, interestingly, give you a few options in moving around the maps. The sword can poke stuff like switches, the axe chops down trees, and the coolest, the claws, will let you climb certain surfaces and later use it to zip to grapple points. Many of the areas revolve around navigation puzzles that involve some combination of these. Sometimes this is fun, sometimes it gets rather obnoxious.
Spells are handled much like the original Final Fantasy. You get a set number of charges for black magic, white magic, and "wizard" magic. The first two are as you'd expect (although the Life spell will also restore HP, so it's useful if you've got a party member you want to heal but they might also die first), and the last contains mega-powerful attack spells. You'll want to use these a bunch towards the end, especially Flare and White (aka Holy). And spending money on Seeds is a pretty good idea; they'll restore all of your MP charges.
As an early SNES game, the graphics are fairly utilitarian. It's got more in common with FFII for sure, although enemies have some funny poses as you work their HP down. In fact, that's a nice feature of the game; you can tell roughly how much damage you've done by how hurt the enemies look. The sound, however, stands out. Superb, rocking tracks will keep you moving forward. It's worth mentioning that the composer here also worked on Treasure of the Rudras, a fantastic late-gen RPG with a kickin' soundtrack.
The story is nothing to write home about, although it can feel a bit silly. There are often no explanations for why you're doing some things (there's a running gag with an old man who'll tell you what to do next with no other directions and zip off, leaving your hero to just shrug his shoulders), and characters just jump right in and join your party with very little characterization. Really, there's very little to get in the way of you reviving the crystals and killing the inevitable big bad.
That's a lot of verbiage for the game. I'm glad I finally burned through it. I'll likely never run through it again; it's not that good. But it was good enough to enjoy for the twelve hour run time. If you're short on SNES RPGs by now, this isn't a bad one to try out. It's even better if you can play enough to tell folks that, no, the game is not awful.