Ack wrote:I hated the GBC port with the little I played(the tiny screen size being a big part of the issue), but then I didn't like The New Nightmare when I first tried it back around 2003. But then later I picked up the DC release and found it to have been a much better game than I remembered. Not without its problems, but far better than the later Alone in the Dark that pretty much killed the franchise.
I could never really get into it either but the backlit screen is a big help now. You can actually see things!
I have New Nightmare on Dreamcast but was never that keen on it.
The GBC port is more of an interesting curiosity than anything else because of its ambition.
I just bumped the Corpse Party thread last night because that's what I'm playing! But I might as well share my thoughts in this thread too.
I have a lot of ambivalence towards it to be honest. On one hand, the idea of combining anime characters with grisly supernatural horror really appeals to me. On the other hand, the gameplay just isn't that good. There's a sort of annoying combination between linearity and non-linearity. So you're free to explore different areas but it feels like if you do things in the wrong order, you can end up with a bad ending. Or you suddenly run into a ghost which kills you instantly. And the save system means that when that happens, you have to go back and slog through 10 minutes of dialog you've just heard in order to choose something else. A lot of the horror elements kind of goes over the top and feels like if Fatal Frame was written by teenagers. "Team GrisGris" is appropriate because the game is grisly. And in pretty poor taste sometimes, so you might see a panty-shot while a teenage girl is going insane and choking on her swollen tongue. That doesn't do anything for me and kind of makes me wonder who it does do something for but WHATEVER CORPSE PARTY.
And even though it's originally an RPG Maker game, I'm surprised by the lack of RPG elements. There doesn't seem to be any combat, despite the presence of hit points. It's much more of a visual novel with many ways to die.
But I am pretty engrossed in the game despite its flaws. I imagine I'm going to end up going through all the extra chapters, but I don't see myself playing the sequel.
Finished The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth today and I adored the game. It was a lot of fun, even with it's flaws. It helped being a fan of Lovecraft though. The Shadow Over Innsmouth elements are presented well enough that someone just playing the game will understand them without issue, but there are other plot elements referring to The Shadow Out of Time, which I would have just felt poorly glossed over had I not read the story, especially in the ending. There's a lot of love for the source material and the gameplay was more varied than I expected, with chase sequences, light puzzles, some fps action, and stealth sections. I loved going insane and looking at all the mythos creatures, so the game gave me a score of "nut job" at the end.
Unfortunately, I did end up experiencing a couple bugs, which I passed without having to patch the game, but really broke the pace and took me out of the experience (Unofficial patches do exist though). That being said, there were also a couple bugs which were so hilarious that I enjoyed them. At one point I climbed a ladder to discover I couldn't stop and climbed infinitely out of the game map, and during the ending sequence I stepped onto a rock which made me noclip fairly quickly through a large expanse of the game, spinning the whole way.
Overall, this was a really atmospheric game and exploring Innsmouth, combined with the character interactions was a blast. Healing became much easier and interesting once I realized how to do it through the menu, instead of using the quick heal feature. You have to apply different means of medical aid to different portions of your body, such as sutures, bandages, and splints. There were some really intense sequences, the most notable being the hotel chase I mentioned earlier. Apparently they planned on making a couple sequels and it's really unfortunate that it's not going to happen. The game has some glaring flaws, but what it does right, it does fantastically.
I just wrapped up Fatal Frame for the first time in probably 10 some years, since it came out. I posted some thoughts here: viewtopic.php?p=909244#p909244
Curious to hear from the fans what you think of 2-3 in comparison? Like I said there, I just hope they improve on the combat and there's less backtracking. Easy to say 1 has aged. I never really have trouble going back to this genre (just got into Silent Hill last year), but yeah FF1 was a bit rough around the edges going back to it.
2 I did play a lot of back then too, but it's been ages and I probably mixed up some memories of it with 1. Can't say I remember much, so I'll be going in pretty fresh.
Xeogred wrote:I just wrapped up Fatal Frame for the first time in probably 10 some years, since it came out. I posted some thoughts here: viewtopic.php?p=909244#p909244
Curious to hear from the fans what you think of 2-3 in comparison? Like I said there, I just hope they improve on the combat and there's less backtracking. Easy to say 1 has aged. I never really have trouble going back to this genre (just got into Silent Hill last year), but yeah FF1 was a bit rough around the edges going back to it.
2 I did play a lot of back then too, but it's been ages and I probably mixed up some memories of it with 1. Can't say I remember much, so I'll be going in pretty fresh.
Congrats! Do you plan to go back through to fill out the ghost list and everything? It's been a long time since I played Fatal Frame, but I always appreciated its strange quirkiness regarding it's design.
I never played Fatal Frame 2 despite having owned it for several years but did watch someone else play through part of it, and I do recall it having fixed a few of the clunkier camera bits. It still relies on a fixed camera, and it has some enemies that are every bit as cheap as the first Fatal Frame, including a boss that was even worse than some of the ones in FF. And I'm sorry to say, but I have no experience at all with Fatal Frame 3.
It is kind of funny going back and comparing it to the higher budget RE or Silent Hill's, but yeah I think these games seem to have a lot of charm anyways.
I went ahead and started up 2, so I'll probably be doing that. One thing that didn't help with 1... was that you can't invert the camera controls I believe, so that also didn't help in my fighting with the ghosts... lol. Luckily 2 seems to have a bit more options, but then, I wonder if they took out the instant turn around with the camera. I can't seem to figure it out so maybe it's not in this one, I actually do think I remember that being the case and my friends and I missed it in this one. I wouldn't be surprised if it were intentional that they took it out.
Definitely feels quite a bit more polished than the first and I'm digging it. It froze at one point though, despite my copy being brand new (got them with the reprints), but I'm thinking my PS2 lens was dirty again. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.
I actually think I recall a certain enemy you might be talking about... I faintly recall this one central room that had some really tall freaky ghost with visual distortions that was an instant death upon touching you or something. Wonder if that was the final boss lol, maybe I got further than I thought I did back in the day.
3 seems like a big mystery to me. Guess it came out late in the PS2's life so it's never sounded like too many people played it, but I usually seem to hear good things about it. Pretty excited to go into that one completely blind.
I guess if I'm really interested I'll watch a walkthrough of 4 on youtube or something. But seriously, Nintendo better bring the new one across seas. This would rock with the gamepad.
Sadly I don't think Nintendo ever will. If you start playing Fatal Frame 3 though, please let me know how it is. I never picked it up despite owning the first two. I also haven't looked at the prices for the series, but it seems they've gotten a lot cheaper over the years than the last time I looked!
Maybe it's time I start seeking out the domestic PS2 survival horror games I missed. Rule of Rose will be a pain in the ass to track down, but the others that I'm missing from my collection aren't too expensive.
Yeah, I'm lucky. I picked up Haunting Ground years ago for $20, and Kuon for under $15 back in 2008 or so. My ex had Rule of Rose too, but...eh, I'll track that down.
The others I'm missing aren't too bad. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is probably the most expensive of the lot.
