Games Beaten 2020
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Re: Games Beaten 2020
Witcher 2 beat. Then I went back and played with mods to make the magic shield Quen, do infinite chain lighting if it is ever hit. Then went to the big battle scene in the second act and had it kill everything until the game crashed...
The game itself is a prime example of taking everything you learned from the first time around. Most of the issues from Witcher 1 are gone, but they had not figured out the systems yet - Mapping was left alot to be desired. That said, the story was nigh perfection and worth getting through the issues.
The game itself is a prime example of taking everything you learned from the first time around. Most of the issues from Witcher 1 are gone, but they had not figured out the systems yet - Mapping was left alot to be desired. That said, the story was nigh perfection and worth getting through the issues.
- prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2020
Nice work, Fast.
.....
First 50
51. Legends of Amberland (Switch)
52. Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from the Future (Wonderswan)
53. Double Dragon (Game Gear)
Played these for Together Retro. Ones an incredibly bad Mega Man game, and the other’s a surprisingly solid portable beat ‘em up.
.....
First 50
51. Legends of Amberland (Switch)
52. Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from the Future (Wonderswan)
53. Double Dragon (Game Gear)
Played these for Together Retro. Ones an incredibly bad Mega Man game, and the other’s a surprisingly solid portable beat ‘em up.
Re: Games Beaten 2020
The First 50:
51. Kid Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
52. Castlevania (Switch)(Platformer)
53. Akumajō Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
54. Akumajō Dracula [Castlevania IV](Switch)(Platformer)
55. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (PC)(RPG)
56. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)(Platformer)
57. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Switch)(Platformer)
58. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)(RPG)
59. The Darkness II (PC)(FPS)
60. MOTHERGUNSHIP (PC)(FPS)
61. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
MOTHERGUNSHIP
A few years ago, I played through Tower of Guns and enjoyed it but found it lacking in long term appeal. As much fun as a roguelike FPS with a bullet hell style was, there just wasn't enough meat to keep me going after several playthroughs. Still, it kicked off an interest in the roguelike FPS genre that has since spread in the indie realm like wildfire, from Bunker Punks to Immortal Redneck to Ziggurat. And then MOTHERGUNSHIP entered the scene, promising more roguelike bullet hell style, but this time with a twist: you could build your guns. It was an intriguing idea, so of course I went for it.
I didn't realize at the time, but MOTHERGUNSHIP is actually the next game from the Tower of Guns devs, and it fixes many of my complaints about longevity. There is now a main plot, yes, and it is humorous, but more importantly new alternative modes unlock as you get through it. Want to throw yourself at harder challenges for coins, experience, or new gun parts? Sure. Want to see how far you get in an Endless mode for skill testing and bragging rights? You got it. Want to try a much harder variation that locks you in with tougher opponents in a battle to try and survive in Nightmare Mode? Of course you do. And then you can replay the campaign, you can take on harder versions of levels to try and destroy a new massive gunship, and you can even try an Endless mode variant that lets you construct an over-the-top superweapon and go to town obliterating whatever gets in your way. I haven't even gotten into the hidden secret levels that pop up from time to time either!
However, there are some limitations to all of this, and that is that the game has a limited number of enemy types and a limited number of room types, which is further subdivided by the type of ship you are on. There are secrets hidden in these rooms too, but once you become adept at spotting them, you'll end up finding tons. You also probably won't be able to build exactly what you want in each level, because you're usually limited to only a handful of gun parts to bring with you and can only access these along with whatever parts you find in shops along the way. And the coins to buy them also have to be found. Also, if you die, you go back to the hub, sans the gun parts you brought or bought on that run; all of those are lost and can only be reclaimed via the expensive Lost and Found.
Now what kinds of guns can you build? Well, you get blasters, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, chainguns and machineguns, as well as guns that do things like launch exploding barrels, spew lava, or send out a massive shockwave. You find connectors that can link all these things together as well as mods that can do things such as increasing critical rate multipliers, boosting damage while sending you flying backwards while shooting, or even turning your shots into sticky mines that do area effect damage to anything around them for a short time afterwards. All of these eat up your power, and if you build too much, you'll use up all your power to fire once and then be forced to wait while it regenerates back to full. Of course, you can also build a gun that lets you aim at the ground and then fly through the air, so...have fun. The world is your oyster. Your gun-covered oyster.
You could also eschew all of this and just bring your bare robo-hands and punch everything. You laugh, but it's actually a solid tactic for conserving gun power in one hand for long range targets, especially if you can get behind some of your static enemies. Some special levels even require specific gun parts or bare hands, and while these levels only rarely pop up, they're entertaining. In one, I found myself punching out waves of robots that look like flying saw blades. In another, I had a flamethrower and was fighting in vent shafts against small doglike robots. I wish these kinds of levels were more common, because they were cool.
Do I have complaints about the game? Well, yes, a few. For one, restarting the campaign means I have to listen to all the cheesy jokes and events over again, and I'm good there. I also hear two player multiplayer is bugged in the campaign so you can't actually fight the final boss. There is also a general lack of bosses, only occurring in the tutorial level where you cannot die, the final boss battle, and a single boss about halfway through the campaign. That's it. I feel like an opportunity for further interesting boss designs was missed. Also, it doesn't always control as smoothly as I want; I have often taken a hit because the weapons didn't fire when I wanted them to, and I found myself repeatedly pressing my mouse until they went off, costing me precious milliseconds and sometimes getting me killed.
Still...not a bad package if you're a fan of these kinds of games. There is way more meat on these bones than last time, and I enjoyed myself immensely. I still have a few achievements to go, too, so I'll probably go back for more.
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version
I played through the Capcom-centric release of this game on the Neo Geo Pocket Color several years ago but decided that it was time I finally get around to checking out the SNK release. It wasn't vital, as the experience is generally the same save for what cards you are more likely to find, but I am still happy I did it. As usual, the NGPC controls like a dream, offers cute sprite work, and sounds good. There are also numerous references to both SNK and Capcom thrown in, so much of the framing and the cards feel like a love letter to the two companies.
As for the game itself, you're mainly running around various arcades and shops, challenging folks to play cards until you eventually get to beat the local champ. Beat the five local champs, and you then move onto the semifinal and eventually the final in an idealizing Las Vegas where SNK and Capcom have jointly built a hotel and filled it with people who actually think card games are better than Blackjack and slot machines...in Las Vegas. Oh yeah.
Now the real meat is the card game you're playing. Your objective is to drain your opponent's health points to zero. Underlings are played at 2000 health, while bosses are played at 3000. Each turn you can play a character card, use abilities, use action cards, and launch attacks, but how you choose to prioritize what way you do things will all be based on your deck, what cards you have in your hand, and what possible strategies you can develop over time or on the fly for certain situations.
I tend to play the game straightforward, so many of my cards were chosen for power, though I would sometimes favor specific abilities to do things like provide me with more health or prevent my opponent from using certain card abilities. Above all else, I worked to drop my opponent's cards in power, until he was fielding a weak group that would do only small bits of health while I could power through and hit hard for chunks. This strategy doesn't always work, especially if you can't get a rhythm going or are up against an opponent with equal or better cards, so that is where your choices on abilities plays out and really becomes a game changer. There is also some luck involved with getting needed cards in your hand, but there are even some ways to mitigate that.
Where luck is most needed is in getting new cards, because most are won through beating opponents, and the better cards can be rare finds. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll end up spending hours beating the same folks over and over again for trash cards while hoping you get lucky. Why? Because the semi-final is three rounds against three tough opponents, and unless you are an ace at these kinds of games with your strategies all mastered, you're gonna need some great cards to help you take them down. The semi-final is the hardest part of the game, even harder than the final, since you cannot save between the three fights or even swap or adjust your deck. Truly, it's what separates the adults from the children.
It's this reliance on luck that is the biggest detriment to the game, and it's the only real criticism I have. Beyond that, this game is a lot of fun, especially once you have a strong deck going and have a chance against anyone. And once you beat the finale, a few new events open up for even more powerful top-tier cards, such as a card option or the chance to play the infamous Mask character (and you want to win cards from him). Plus, there is always two-player, so if you have another NGPC and both copies of the game, as well as a friend who likes to play, you can have some fun seeing who has the better deck and the better strategies...and then you can also unlock some secret trades.
Card Fighter's Clash is one of my favorite titles on the NGPC, and anyone with the little handheld should at least look into checking it out. It's a lot of fun and well worth the money for the amount of time you will spend with it.
51. Kid Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
52. Castlevania (Switch)(Platformer)
53. Akumajō Dracula (Switch)(Platformer)
54. Akumajō Dracula [Castlevania IV](Switch)(Platformer)
55. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone (PC)(RPG)
56. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Switch)(Platformer)
57. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Switch)(Platformer)
58. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine (PC)(RPG)
59. The Darkness II (PC)(FPS)
60. MOTHERGUNSHIP (PC)(FPS)
61. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
MOTHERGUNSHIP
A few years ago, I played through Tower of Guns and enjoyed it but found it lacking in long term appeal. As much fun as a roguelike FPS with a bullet hell style was, there just wasn't enough meat to keep me going after several playthroughs. Still, it kicked off an interest in the roguelike FPS genre that has since spread in the indie realm like wildfire, from Bunker Punks to Immortal Redneck to Ziggurat. And then MOTHERGUNSHIP entered the scene, promising more roguelike bullet hell style, but this time with a twist: you could build your guns. It was an intriguing idea, so of course I went for it.
I didn't realize at the time, but MOTHERGUNSHIP is actually the next game from the Tower of Guns devs, and it fixes many of my complaints about longevity. There is now a main plot, yes, and it is humorous, but more importantly new alternative modes unlock as you get through it. Want to throw yourself at harder challenges for coins, experience, or new gun parts? Sure. Want to see how far you get in an Endless mode for skill testing and bragging rights? You got it. Want to try a much harder variation that locks you in with tougher opponents in a battle to try and survive in Nightmare Mode? Of course you do. And then you can replay the campaign, you can take on harder versions of levels to try and destroy a new massive gunship, and you can even try an Endless mode variant that lets you construct an over-the-top superweapon and go to town obliterating whatever gets in your way. I haven't even gotten into the hidden secret levels that pop up from time to time either!
However, there are some limitations to all of this, and that is that the game has a limited number of enemy types and a limited number of room types, which is further subdivided by the type of ship you are on. There are secrets hidden in these rooms too, but once you become adept at spotting them, you'll end up finding tons. You also probably won't be able to build exactly what you want in each level, because you're usually limited to only a handful of gun parts to bring with you and can only access these along with whatever parts you find in shops along the way. And the coins to buy them also have to be found. Also, if you die, you go back to the hub, sans the gun parts you brought or bought on that run; all of those are lost and can only be reclaimed via the expensive Lost and Found.
Now what kinds of guns can you build? Well, you get blasters, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, chainguns and machineguns, as well as guns that do things like launch exploding barrels, spew lava, or send out a massive shockwave. You find connectors that can link all these things together as well as mods that can do things such as increasing critical rate multipliers, boosting damage while sending you flying backwards while shooting, or even turning your shots into sticky mines that do area effect damage to anything around them for a short time afterwards. All of these eat up your power, and if you build too much, you'll use up all your power to fire once and then be forced to wait while it regenerates back to full. Of course, you can also build a gun that lets you aim at the ground and then fly through the air, so...have fun. The world is your oyster. Your gun-covered oyster.
You could also eschew all of this and just bring your bare robo-hands and punch everything. You laugh, but it's actually a solid tactic for conserving gun power in one hand for long range targets, especially if you can get behind some of your static enemies. Some special levels even require specific gun parts or bare hands, and while these levels only rarely pop up, they're entertaining. In one, I found myself punching out waves of robots that look like flying saw blades. In another, I had a flamethrower and was fighting in vent shafts against small doglike robots. I wish these kinds of levels were more common, because they were cool.
Do I have complaints about the game? Well, yes, a few. For one, restarting the campaign means I have to listen to all the cheesy jokes and events over again, and I'm good there. I also hear two player multiplayer is bugged in the campaign so you can't actually fight the final boss. There is also a general lack of bosses, only occurring in the tutorial level where you cannot die, the final boss battle, and a single boss about halfway through the campaign. That's it. I feel like an opportunity for further interesting boss designs was missed. Also, it doesn't always control as smoothly as I want; I have often taken a hit because the weapons didn't fire when I wanted them to, and I found myself repeatedly pressing my mouse until they went off, costing me precious milliseconds and sometimes getting me killed.
Still...not a bad package if you're a fan of these kinds of games. There is way more meat on these bones than last time, and I enjoyed myself immensely. I still have a few achievements to go, too, so I'll probably go back for more.
SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - SNK Version
I played through the Capcom-centric release of this game on the Neo Geo Pocket Color several years ago but decided that it was time I finally get around to checking out the SNK release. It wasn't vital, as the experience is generally the same save for what cards you are more likely to find, but I am still happy I did it. As usual, the NGPC controls like a dream, offers cute sprite work, and sounds good. There are also numerous references to both SNK and Capcom thrown in, so much of the framing and the cards feel like a love letter to the two companies.
As for the game itself, you're mainly running around various arcades and shops, challenging folks to play cards until you eventually get to beat the local champ. Beat the five local champs, and you then move onto the semifinal and eventually the final in an idealizing Las Vegas where SNK and Capcom have jointly built a hotel and filled it with people who actually think card games are better than Blackjack and slot machines...in Las Vegas. Oh yeah.
Now the real meat is the card game you're playing. Your objective is to drain your opponent's health points to zero. Underlings are played at 2000 health, while bosses are played at 3000. Each turn you can play a character card, use abilities, use action cards, and launch attacks, but how you choose to prioritize what way you do things will all be based on your deck, what cards you have in your hand, and what possible strategies you can develop over time or on the fly for certain situations.
I tend to play the game straightforward, so many of my cards were chosen for power, though I would sometimes favor specific abilities to do things like provide me with more health or prevent my opponent from using certain card abilities. Above all else, I worked to drop my opponent's cards in power, until he was fielding a weak group that would do only small bits of health while I could power through and hit hard for chunks. This strategy doesn't always work, especially if you can't get a rhythm going or are up against an opponent with equal or better cards, so that is where your choices on abilities plays out and really becomes a game changer. There is also some luck involved with getting needed cards in your hand, but there are even some ways to mitigate that.
Where luck is most needed is in getting new cards, because most are won through beating opponents, and the better cards can be rare finds. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll end up spending hours beating the same folks over and over again for trash cards while hoping you get lucky. Why? Because the semi-final is three rounds against three tough opponents, and unless you are an ace at these kinds of games with your strategies all mastered, you're gonna need some great cards to help you take them down. The semi-final is the hardest part of the game, even harder than the final, since you cannot save between the three fights or even swap or adjust your deck. Truly, it's what separates the adults from the children.
It's this reliance on luck that is the biggest detriment to the game, and it's the only real criticism I have. Beyond that, this game is a lot of fun, especially once you have a strong deck going and have a chance against anyone. And once you beat the finale, a few new events open up for even more powerful top-tier cards, such as a card option or the chance to play the infamous Mask character (and you want to win cards from him). Plus, there is always two-player, so if you have another NGPC and both copies of the game, as well as a friend who likes to play, you can have some fun seeing who has the better deck and the better strategies...and then you can also unlock some secret trades.
Card Fighter's Clash is one of my favorite titles on the NGPC, and anyone with the little handheld should at least look into checking it out. It's a lot of fun and well worth the money for the amount of time you will spend with it.
- BoneSnapDeez
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 20122
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Games Beaten 2020
49. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
50. Otocky (Famicom Disk System)
51. Raging Loop (Switch)
52. Arcade Archives: Contra (Switch eShop)
- prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12225
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2020
BoneSnapDeez wrote:
49. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
50. Otocky (Famicom Disk System)
51. Raging Loop (Switch)
52. Arcade Archives: Contra (Switch eShop)
Awesome reviews, Bone. Be sure to check out New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii sometime too. Both are solid. (NSMB2 is, basically, an over-the-top, orgiastic celebration of coins in Mario Bros. games. They’re such a weird thing to celebrate, and a lot of people didn’t like it, but I found it strangely titillating. NSMB Wii is just a really solid platformer.) I’ve read that NSMB U is the best in the series, but I haven’t played it yet.
Re: Games Beaten 2020
First 50:
51. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - Switch
52. Star Control Origins: Earth Rising - PC
53. Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX - Switch
54. Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith - PC
55. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls - PS3
56. Silicon Zeroes - PC
57. Warcraft - PC
58. Serious Sam 3: BFE - PC
59. Wasteland 3 - PC
60. Iron Harvest - PC
61. Serious Sam 3: Jewel of the Nile - PC
62, Homeworld Remastered - PC
Homeworld is an RTS set in space; the primary gimmick is that there is fully 3D movement. This is accomplished in one of two ways. The first is if you right click on an object in your view that is above or below the ecliptic your units will automatically move on the necessary vector. The other is if you are selecting to move to an area instead of doing the order it instead draws a circle; you can hold shift while moving the mouse to move up or down compared to the ecliptic your units are currently on, and then when you're happy with the final location (maybe you did some panning to get it just right) you click again to confirm the order.
The backstory of Homeworld is weirdly detailed compared to the actual in-game story, which is about as basic as they come. Your people discover a buried ship, realize you aren't from the planet, reverse engineer the hyperdrive. Now we're on the first mission, where you are taking it for a spin. Upon returning to your planet you find it has been burned by an evil empire. You take the remaining colonists and embark on the long journey across the galaxy to your original homeworld. There's some minor events that happen, but for the most part it's dealing with just random crap that happens on a long journey, and then the last several missions are busting through the empire's blockade. By contrast, the backstory goes fairly detailed into what life was like on the planet before you start your journey. There's a variety of characterizations of factions that imply there might be some interesting tension. Nope, once on the journey everyone is a faceless blob that does exactly what is needed. It feels like they went "well, we paid for these writers, might as well have them do something."
But how about the gameplay? The game is very slow paced compared to your average RTS, which is appropriate given the setting. You harvest resources from space rocks or from the chunks of destroyed capital ships. You can also reclaim any of your units for most of their cost, so you have a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to fleet building. This is important because you have some very hard supply limits to deal with. You couldn't just build a fleet of the biggest ship even if you didn't have to worry about counters.
The ships are divided into four classes. The first is the fighters; these are bombers and things to destroy bombers and things to destroy the things that destroy bombers. The bombers have the advantage of high damage and moving fast enough to evade the guns of large ships. The second is corvettes. These are the most versatile, as there is something for every niche. If you need more coverage against fighters you have an option. If you want to prey upon enemy harvesters you have something. If you want to pressure enemy anti-capital frigates you've got something. If you want to steal enemy ships you're in luck. Aside from the stealing ones you probably want to decide on the composition of the rest of your fleet first. The third class is the frigate; these have enough health that they can serve as a screening element and have enough firepower that you can't ignore them. They come in a handful of flavors depending on how you want to focus them; anti capital, anti fighter, or all rounder. Or you can mix and match. Finally, you have the capital ships, which are your biggest and heaviest ships. Lots of armor and big guns, and they are the most supply constrained. You are constrained not only on total numbers but also number of each individual type. These will form the core of your fleet, with all the other elements supporting them.
In terms of management you have your standard array of control group options and your standard move, attack, guard, attack move. The game lets you assign a disposition (aggressive, defensive, passive) which affects how they act when you aren't giving them explicit orders, and you can also toggle between aggressive, neutral, or evasive power settings, which affect how ships fly and the damage/speed balance (evasive is more speed, less damage, and reversed for aggressive). Additionally, the game lets you automatically put ships into a formation. There are two kinds of formations; homogenous formations and fleet formations. The former put your ships into a single shape and are best for a group of single units (to maximize the benefits). Fleet formations instead organize your group into layers based on the formation; fighter screen puts your lighter elements at the front and the heaviest at the back, while capital phalanx reverses that. The most useful ends up being frigate line, which puts the frigates in front of the heavy stuff and intermixes the light stuff. This puts your frigates in the role of being a meatshield for the more valuable capital ships and lets you focus the more dangerous enemy units more quickly.
The game has two weaknesses. The first is an overall unevenness in the mission progression. One mission will have you taking out an enemy fleet while the next is a simple "destroy incoming asteroids" where you're never in any real threat unless you walk away from the keyboard. There's also a particular late game mission where you have no real threat other than a neigh-invulnerable enemy unit which randomly steals your capital ships and turns them against you, but you can turn them right back. It's more annoying than hard. The second weakness is fundamental to the game's design; there is no terrain. This leads most of the missions to be fairly straightforward from an objective perspective; there will be one enemy concentration that must be eliminated. There are a bare handful that have more than one enemy group and only one of them (the last one) actively sends those groups against you in any real strength. So for the most part the tactic is to make a big hammer and send it at the enemy. Traditional RTSs tend to use terrain to force you to split your attention and build chokepoints, but when you have a wide open sphere to operate in you really lose that option; the best you can do is force a player to have one force staying home and one force going out to play.
Still, it's a solid title that provides a different bit of gameplay and definitely fulfills that "command a battle fleet" fantasy. One cool thing is that everything is progressive; the fleet you finish one mission with is the fleet you take to the next mission. You also get to choose when to end the mission after fulfilling all objectives, so you're free to harvest some resources and top off the fleet. Definitely take advantage of this.
51. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - Switch
52. Star Control Origins: Earth Rising - PC
53. Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX - Switch
54. Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith - PC
55. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls - PS3
56. Silicon Zeroes - PC
57. Warcraft - PC
58. Serious Sam 3: BFE - PC
59. Wasteland 3 - PC
60. Iron Harvest - PC
61. Serious Sam 3: Jewel of the Nile - PC
62, Homeworld Remastered - PC
Homeworld is an RTS set in space; the primary gimmick is that there is fully 3D movement. This is accomplished in one of two ways. The first is if you right click on an object in your view that is above or below the ecliptic your units will automatically move on the necessary vector. The other is if you are selecting to move to an area instead of doing the order it instead draws a circle; you can hold shift while moving the mouse to move up or down compared to the ecliptic your units are currently on, and then when you're happy with the final location (maybe you did some panning to get it just right) you click again to confirm the order.
The backstory of Homeworld is weirdly detailed compared to the actual in-game story, which is about as basic as they come. Your people discover a buried ship, realize you aren't from the planet, reverse engineer the hyperdrive. Now we're on the first mission, where you are taking it for a spin. Upon returning to your planet you find it has been burned by an evil empire. You take the remaining colonists and embark on the long journey across the galaxy to your original homeworld. There's some minor events that happen, but for the most part it's dealing with just random crap that happens on a long journey, and then the last several missions are busting through the empire's blockade. By contrast, the backstory goes fairly detailed into what life was like on the planet before you start your journey. There's a variety of characterizations of factions that imply there might be some interesting tension. Nope, once on the journey everyone is a faceless blob that does exactly what is needed. It feels like they went "well, we paid for these writers, might as well have them do something."
But how about the gameplay? The game is very slow paced compared to your average RTS, which is appropriate given the setting. You harvest resources from space rocks or from the chunks of destroyed capital ships. You can also reclaim any of your units for most of their cost, so you have a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to fleet building. This is important because you have some very hard supply limits to deal with. You couldn't just build a fleet of the biggest ship even if you didn't have to worry about counters.
The ships are divided into four classes. The first is the fighters; these are bombers and things to destroy bombers and things to destroy the things that destroy bombers. The bombers have the advantage of high damage and moving fast enough to evade the guns of large ships. The second is corvettes. These are the most versatile, as there is something for every niche. If you need more coverage against fighters you have an option. If you want to prey upon enemy harvesters you have something. If you want to pressure enemy anti-capital frigates you've got something. If you want to steal enemy ships you're in luck. Aside from the stealing ones you probably want to decide on the composition of the rest of your fleet first. The third class is the frigate; these have enough health that they can serve as a screening element and have enough firepower that you can't ignore them. They come in a handful of flavors depending on how you want to focus them; anti capital, anti fighter, or all rounder. Or you can mix and match. Finally, you have the capital ships, which are your biggest and heaviest ships. Lots of armor and big guns, and they are the most supply constrained. You are constrained not only on total numbers but also number of each individual type. These will form the core of your fleet, with all the other elements supporting them.
In terms of management you have your standard array of control group options and your standard move, attack, guard, attack move. The game lets you assign a disposition (aggressive, defensive, passive) which affects how they act when you aren't giving them explicit orders, and you can also toggle between aggressive, neutral, or evasive power settings, which affect how ships fly and the damage/speed balance (evasive is more speed, less damage, and reversed for aggressive). Additionally, the game lets you automatically put ships into a formation. There are two kinds of formations; homogenous formations and fleet formations. The former put your ships into a single shape and are best for a group of single units (to maximize the benefits). Fleet formations instead organize your group into layers based on the formation; fighter screen puts your lighter elements at the front and the heaviest at the back, while capital phalanx reverses that. The most useful ends up being frigate line, which puts the frigates in front of the heavy stuff and intermixes the light stuff. This puts your frigates in the role of being a meatshield for the more valuable capital ships and lets you focus the more dangerous enemy units more quickly.
The game has two weaknesses. The first is an overall unevenness in the mission progression. One mission will have you taking out an enemy fleet while the next is a simple "destroy incoming asteroids" where you're never in any real threat unless you walk away from the keyboard. There's also a particular late game mission where you have no real threat other than a neigh-invulnerable enemy unit which randomly steals your capital ships and turns them against you, but you can turn them right back. It's more annoying than hard. The second weakness is fundamental to the game's design; there is no terrain. This leads most of the missions to be fairly straightforward from an objective perspective; there will be one enemy concentration that must be eliminated. There are a bare handful that have more than one enemy group and only one of them (the last one) actively sends those groups against you in any real strength. So for the most part the tactic is to make a big hammer and send it at the enemy. Traditional RTSs tend to use terrain to force you to split your attention and build chokepoints, but when you have a wide open sphere to operate in you really lose that option; the best you can do is force a player to have one force staying home and one force going out to play.
Still, it's a solid title that provides a different bit of gameplay and definitely fulfills that "command a battle fleet" fantasy. One cool thing is that everything is progressive; the fleet you finish one mission with is the fleet you take to the next mission. You also get to choose when to end the mission after fulfilling all objectives, so you're free to harvest some resources and top off the fleet. Definitely take advantage of this.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
- Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1428
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2020!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*
1. Pikmin 2 (GCN)
2. Banjo-Tooie (N64)
3. Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)
4. Super Baseball Simulator 1,000 (SNES)
5. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)
6. Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection (PS2)
***7. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2)***
***8. Cruis'N USA (N64)***
9. Arc The Lad Collection (PS1)
10. Halo 2 (XBOX)
11. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean (GCN)
12. DuckTales 2 (NES)
13. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)
14. Rocket Knight Adventures (GEN)
***15. Skies of Arcadia (SDC)***
16. Dragon Quest V (SNES)
17. Marvel Vs. Capcom (PS1)
***18. Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition (GEN)***
19. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (XBOX)
20. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
21. Flatout 2 (PS2)
I beat Flatout 2 on the Sony Playstation 2 this evening!
I discovered the Flatout series through my local Pinball Arcade. Somebody had modded a sit down racing unit and had put in several racing games on it to play. Since I used to go up there every two weeks, I decided to play through many of the games. One of the games I discovered was Flatout 2. It was an intensely addictive destructive racing game that was incredibly fun to play. Wanting to try it out for myself, I first bought the prequel. The game had some flaws, but it was still fun to race around in. After finding the sequel and wanting a break for my many RPG's that I have played this year, I decided it was time for some mindless racing fun.
At the beginning, I got exactly what I wanted out of Flatout 2. I got my car and then I just started winning cups all over the place. Debris was flying everywhere. I was hitting cars left and right as I watched them crash all over the place. Enemy cars were hitting each other and also crashing out when they would take the turns to fast or to sharp. I loved watching the driver fly out the window when you would hit them hard enough. I was getting into some of the tracks of the soundtrack, though some of the songs were from bands I would never like. But, I was really enjoying myself for the first 75% of the game. It was exactly what I wanted and needed at the moment.
And then I reached the final races in the last few cups. In the first Flatout, the game had no rubber band effect. So, each race was decided in the first 30 seconds when the giant crash happened. You were either ahead of it and then won, or you were behind it and you reset. In Flatout 2, the rubber band is very real at the end of the game. Suddenly, every driver is gunning for you and ramming you while other racers are flying by you like you are driving a go-kart. In the end, you are fighting against your car, the track, other racers and the debris on the road just to stay in these narrow lanes. Thankfully, you only need to get in the top 3 to move on.
Overall, though it was frustrating at times, I still really enjoyed my time with Flatout 2. It was exactly the action packed racing experience that I needed at the moment. I enjoyed the beginning much more, but there were enough crashes and fun to be had. If you enjoy arcade racing full of destruction, Flatout 2 is one of the better games in the genre!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*
1. Pikmin 2 (GCN)
2. Banjo-Tooie (N64)
3. Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)
4. Super Baseball Simulator 1,000 (SNES)
5. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)
6. Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection (PS2)
***7. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2)***
***8. Cruis'N USA (N64)***
9. Arc The Lad Collection (PS1)
10. Halo 2 (XBOX)
11. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean (GCN)
12. DuckTales 2 (NES)
13. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)
14. Rocket Knight Adventures (GEN)
***15. Skies of Arcadia (SDC)***
16. Dragon Quest V (SNES)
17. Marvel Vs. Capcom (PS1)
***18. Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition (GEN)***
19. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (XBOX)
20. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
21. Flatout 2 (PS2)
I beat Flatout 2 on the Sony Playstation 2 this evening!
I discovered the Flatout series through my local Pinball Arcade. Somebody had modded a sit down racing unit and had put in several racing games on it to play. Since I used to go up there every two weeks, I decided to play through many of the games. One of the games I discovered was Flatout 2. It was an intensely addictive destructive racing game that was incredibly fun to play. Wanting to try it out for myself, I first bought the prequel. The game had some flaws, but it was still fun to race around in. After finding the sequel and wanting a break for my many RPG's that I have played this year, I decided it was time for some mindless racing fun.
At the beginning, I got exactly what I wanted out of Flatout 2. I got my car and then I just started winning cups all over the place. Debris was flying everywhere. I was hitting cars left and right as I watched them crash all over the place. Enemy cars were hitting each other and also crashing out when they would take the turns to fast or to sharp. I loved watching the driver fly out the window when you would hit them hard enough. I was getting into some of the tracks of the soundtrack, though some of the songs were from bands I would never like. But, I was really enjoying myself for the first 75% of the game. It was exactly what I wanted and needed at the moment.
And then I reached the final races in the last few cups. In the first Flatout, the game had no rubber band effect. So, each race was decided in the first 30 seconds when the giant crash happened. You were either ahead of it and then won, or you were behind it and you reset. In Flatout 2, the rubber band is very real at the end of the game. Suddenly, every driver is gunning for you and ramming you while other racers are flying by you like you are driving a go-kart. In the end, you are fighting against your car, the track, other racers and the debris on the road just to stay in these narrow lanes. Thankfully, you only need to get in the top 3 to move on.
Overall, though it was frustrating at times, I still really enjoyed my time with Flatout 2. It was exactly the action packed racing experience that I needed at the moment. I enjoyed the beginning much more, but there were enough crashes and fun to be had. If you enjoy arcade racing full of destruction, Flatout 2 is one of the better games in the genre!
- PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2995
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Partridge Senpai's 2020 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
I first learned about this game during the unveiling of the Game Gear Micro a few months back, and then I was happy to discover that it's also on the 3DS eShop's Virtual Console. This month's Together Retro was a good enough excuse to finally use the credit I had sitting in my account to pick it up and play through it. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it, and I'm very happy with the sort of weird train of events that led to me learning about it and eventually playing it XD . It took me 7.5 hours to beat the game on the 3DS.
At its core, this is basically just another Nazo Puyo game, which were a series on the Game Gear and Master System that are preset puzzle versions of Puyo Puyo. Stages have requirements, and you have only so many pieces to meet that requirement (things like "get a 5 chain" or "match 4 colors at once" or "erase all red puyos"). There are more than 100 levels in the game, but you only need to complete 100 to complete your adventure, as there is a "pass" feature on each stage you can choose from the pause screen if you're just so stumped you wanna move on (although I believe it does cost you a life). There is also (usually) a hint on the pause screen that'll give you a kick in the right direction if you need it. One level I saw had a "hint" that was just "This is a trial. There is no hint.", and one or two levels had hints that just didn't help me nearly enough to actually beat the level, but I'm pretty proud of myself for actually managing to beat the whole thing without looking up any puzzle solutions~.
The game does use a password system to return you to the last opponent you beat when you run out of lives, but I wanted to keep retrying puzzles, so I used save states at the start of each puzzle to effectively give me infinite lives. Life mechanics don't usually add that much to the experience of a game, in my opinion, and in a puzzle game that is even more so the case as far as I'm concerned.
The thing that differentiates this game (and its Master System counterpart) from the other Nazo Puyo games is its presentation. It's not just a notebook you flip through to get to puzzles. It's a sort of adventure game where you play as the protagonist of the Madou Monogatari series, Aruru, as she is on a quest to go to town and get ingredients for her curry for dinner. That's it. The "Ruu" in the title is a Japanese approximation of the word "roux", which is also used to refer to curry mix. Despite the fact that Satan (the big bad of the Madou Monogatari games) himself tries to get in your way to steal your food at one point, the only stakes here are Aruru getting to make the dinner she wants X3. You go through different market squares and then a long path home, talking to different NPCs to either let you pass through or to give you the ingredients they have. They'll only oblige if you beat 5 of their Nazo Puyo puzzles, though, and 20 NPCs makes for 100 puzzles you'll need to get through. The writing is lighthearted and silly, and Aruru's interactions with the NPCs, albeit always brief, are cute asides from the puzzles.
The presentation on the whole is very good, and it looked and sounded great on my New 2DS XL's big screen. There aren't a ton of music tracks, but those that are there are pretty darn good, especially the one that plays during the "boss" fights of the last two NPCs you "battle". The graphics are also very pretty, and the character designs are nice, as the Puyo Puyo games always do.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is a really great little puzzle game! It doesn't require any knowledge of Japanese to play aside from knowing the hints, but you'll need to look up/trial and error to figure out the level objectives, I suppose. It gave me the same kind of "I FINALLY did it!" rush a game like Baba is You has in the past, and if that's what you're looking for on your Game Gear/emulation box, then this is a great game to look into~.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
I first learned about this game during the unveiling of the Game Gear Micro a few months back, and then I was happy to discover that it's also on the 3DS eShop's Virtual Console. This month's Together Retro was a good enough excuse to finally use the credit I had sitting in my account to pick it up and play through it. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it, and I'm very happy with the sort of weird train of events that led to me learning about it and eventually playing it XD . It took me 7.5 hours to beat the game on the 3DS.
At its core, this is basically just another Nazo Puyo game, which were a series on the Game Gear and Master System that are preset puzzle versions of Puyo Puyo. Stages have requirements, and you have only so many pieces to meet that requirement (things like "get a 5 chain" or "match 4 colors at once" or "erase all red puyos"). There are more than 100 levels in the game, but you only need to complete 100 to complete your adventure, as there is a "pass" feature on each stage you can choose from the pause screen if you're just so stumped you wanna move on (although I believe it does cost you a life). There is also (usually) a hint on the pause screen that'll give you a kick in the right direction if you need it. One level I saw had a "hint" that was just "This is a trial. There is no hint.", and one or two levels had hints that just didn't help me nearly enough to actually beat the level, but I'm pretty proud of myself for actually managing to beat the whole thing without looking up any puzzle solutions~.
The game does use a password system to return you to the last opponent you beat when you run out of lives, but I wanted to keep retrying puzzles, so I used save states at the start of each puzzle to effectively give me infinite lives. Life mechanics don't usually add that much to the experience of a game, in my opinion, and in a puzzle game that is even more so the case as far as I'm concerned.
The thing that differentiates this game (and its Master System counterpart) from the other Nazo Puyo games is its presentation. It's not just a notebook you flip through to get to puzzles. It's a sort of adventure game where you play as the protagonist of the Madou Monogatari series, Aruru, as she is on a quest to go to town and get ingredients for her curry for dinner. That's it. The "Ruu" in the title is a Japanese approximation of the word "roux", which is also used to refer to curry mix. Despite the fact that Satan (the big bad of the Madou Monogatari games) himself tries to get in your way to steal your food at one point, the only stakes here are Aruru getting to make the dinner she wants X3. You go through different market squares and then a long path home, talking to different NPCs to either let you pass through or to give you the ingredients they have. They'll only oblige if you beat 5 of their Nazo Puyo puzzles, though, and 20 NPCs makes for 100 puzzles you'll need to get through. The writing is lighthearted and silly, and Aruru's interactions with the NPCs, albeit always brief, are cute asides from the puzzles.
The presentation on the whole is very good, and it looked and sounded great on my New 2DS XL's big screen. There aren't a ton of music tracks, but those that are there are pretty darn good, especially the one that plays during the "boss" fights of the last two NPCs you "battle". The graphics are also very pretty, and the character designs are nice, as the Puyo Puyo games always do.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. This is a really great little puzzle game! It doesn't require any knowledge of Japanese to play aside from knowing the hints, but you'll need to look up/trial and error to figure out the level objectives, I suppose. It gave me the same kind of "I FINALLY did it!" rush a game like Baba is You has in the past, and if that's what you're looking for on your Game Gear/emulation box, then this is a great game to look into~.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
- PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2995
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2020
Partridge Senpai's 2020 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
60. Jumping Flash! (PS1)
This is a game I'd heard about ages ago, but had never thought of playing until recently. I picked it up for cheap the other day, and today seemed like a good a day as any to play through it. Despite the wonky controls, I was very happy with the time I spent with Jumping Flash, and it was a fun 1.5-ish hours of my time going through the Japanese version of this iconic early PS1 title.
The evil Baron Aloha is attacking the planet, and it's up to the robot Robbit to stop him! It's a fairly short adventure through just 18 levels, some of which are just boss fights, but what's here is good. You're either killing a boss, or you're hunting through a level for 4 carrot-shaped rocket pods to unlock the exit to the next stage. After beating a boss, you get a cute cutscene of the little squid-creature controlling it going to a little Japanese-style dive bar to complain to its buddies how it just got its butt kicked X3. The game's design is very lighthearted and silly, which serves it well. The overall presentation is really nice on the whole as well. There isn't a ton of music in the game, but there are a lot of really great tracks that I'll definitely be adding to my MP3 player before long. The visual design is also very abstract and cartoonish to fit with the low-polygon necessity of a 1995 PS1 game.
The game's controls are fairly clunky, but they're very serviceable (and at times exceedingly clever) given this is a 3D platformer with no analog sticks coming out before the revelation that was Super Mario 64. You control Robbit in a first-person view, with up and down on the D-pad moving you forward and back, and right and left turning you the respective direction. Robbit can also double-jump, and upon doing your second jump, you automatically look down to get a view of your shadow so you'll know just where you're going to land. This is a really clever take on 3D platforming, and it really makes the whole game flow really well. The only real problem I encountered with the platforming is that left and right on the D-pad don't have entirely consistent functions. Sometimes they'll turn you in the mid-air of a double jump, and sometimes they'll simply turn you. It has something to do with your height of where you are in the jump, but it's still annoyingly inconsistent in a pinch.
Robbit also comes equipped with lasers (I like to imagine they fire out of his eyes <3 ) as well as special weapons he can launch if he finds special weapons tokens. The combat is fine, and the bosses are good fun, especially as you can also Goomba-stomp enemies by jumping on them to hurt them (this is a really fun thing to try to rush down bosses with). That said, it's a little awkward that you need to hold L1 to stop in your tracks to look around if you wanna aim anywhere other than directly ahead of you (or directly below you, if you're post-double jump), and given that R1, R2, and R3 aren't used at ALL in the default control scheme, the lack of a button you can hold to strafe is kinda difficult to forgive, even if the game is more than easy enough to complete without it. Honestly, your jump-stomps are so good and Robbit can take so much damage that you're better off using your guns as a last resort if you even need to fight at all in the normal levels.
Verdict: Recommended. It's not gonna set the world on fire, and it's a bit short, but Jumping Flash is still a really solid game despite how far 3D platforming has come since its release. It's certainly not worth paying an arm and a leg for, but if you can find it for a couple of bucks like I did, it's well worth spending an afternoon with.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat
1-50
51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
60. Jumping Flash! (PS1)
This is a game I'd heard about ages ago, but had never thought of playing until recently. I picked it up for cheap the other day, and today seemed like a good a day as any to play through it. Despite the wonky controls, I was very happy with the time I spent with Jumping Flash, and it was a fun 1.5-ish hours of my time going through the Japanese version of this iconic early PS1 title.
The evil Baron Aloha is attacking the planet, and it's up to the robot Robbit to stop him! It's a fairly short adventure through just 18 levels, some of which are just boss fights, but what's here is good. You're either killing a boss, or you're hunting through a level for 4 carrot-shaped rocket pods to unlock the exit to the next stage. After beating a boss, you get a cute cutscene of the little squid-creature controlling it going to a little Japanese-style dive bar to complain to its buddies how it just got its butt kicked X3. The game's design is very lighthearted and silly, which serves it well. The overall presentation is really nice on the whole as well. There isn't a ton of music in the game, but there are a lot of really great tracks that I'll definitely be adding to my MP3 player before long. The visual design is also very abstract and cartoonish to fit with the low-polygon necessity of a 1995 PS1 game.
The game's controls are fairly clunky, but they're very serviceable (and at times exceedingly clever) given this is a 3D platformer with no analog sticks coming out before the revelation that was Super Mario 64. You control Robbit in a first-person view, with up and down on the D-pad moving you forward and back, and right and left turning you the respective direction. Robbit can also double-jump, and upon doing your second jump, you automatically look down to get a view of your shadow so you'll know just where you're going to land. This is a really clever take on 3D platforming, and it really makes the whole game flow really well. The only real problem I encountered with the platforming is that left and right on the D-pad don't have entirely consistent functions. Sometimes they'll turn you in the mid-air of a double jump, and sometimes they'll simply turn you. It has something to do with your height of where you are in the jump, but it's still annoyingly inconsistent in a pinch.
Robbit also comes equipped with lasers (I like to imagine they fire out of his eyes <3 ) as well as special weapons he can launch if he finds special weapons tokens. The combat is fine, and the bosses are good fun, especially as you can also Goomba-stomp enemies by jumping on them to hurt them (this is a really fun thing to try to rush down bosses with). That said, it's a little awkward that you need to hold L1 to stop in your tracks to look around if you wanna aim anywhere other than directly ahead of you (or directly below you, if you're post-double jump), and given that R1, R2, and R3 aren't used at ALL in the default control scheme, the lack of a button you can hold to strafe is kinda difficult to forgive, even if the game is more than easy enough to complete without it. Honestly, your jump-stomps are so good and Robbit can take so much damage that you're better off using your guns as a last resort if you even need to fight at all in the normal levels.
Verdict: Recommended. It's not gonna set the world on fire, and it's a bit short, but Jumping Flash is still a really solid game despite how far 3D platforming has come since its release. It's certainly not worth paying an arm and a leg for, but if you can find it for a couple of bucks like I did, it's well worth spending an afternoon with.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
- alienjesus
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8786
- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:10 pm
- Location: London, UK.
Re: Games Beaten 2020
1. Ys: The Oath in Felghana PSN Vita
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Switch
3. Super Mario Party Switch
4. Moss PSVR
5. Paper Mario: Colour Splash Wii U
6. The Firemen SNES
7. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SFC
8. Kuukiyomi: Consider It! Switch eShop
9. Valkyria Chronicles Switch eShop
10. Illusion of Time SNES
11. Trials of Mana Switch
12. Undertale Vita
13. Rastan SMS
14. Rainbow Islands SMS
15. River City Girls Switch
16. Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch
17. Streets of Rage 4 Switch eShop
18. Dragon Warrior IV NES
19. Super Tennis SNES
20. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Switch eShop
21. Pilotwings Switch eShop
22. Castlevania: The Adventure Switch eShop
23. Streets of Rage Game Gear
24. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix Switch eShop
25. Ninja Gaiden Game Gear
26. Psychic World Game Gear
27. The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury Game Gear
28. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble Game Gear
29. Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu SFC *NEW*
Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu
This review has been a long time coming. I first started playing this game last year, for the summer games challenge 2019. I made it through the first 3 levels (out of 12) but not any further than that. This year, I picked it up again for the 2020 summer games challenge, and I eventually worked my way through the final 9 worlds. It took some time – this game took me 72 hours to beat all told, and that won’t include numerous restarts to earlier saves when I accidentally let someone die either.
Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu, also known as ‘Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War’ and just ‘Fire Emblem 4’ is often regarded by long time fans as one of the best in the series. People praise the story and the scale of the maps and the campaign in general, and lament that some of the unique mechanics of this entry were abandoned and never came back later. From my perspective, there’s certainly a lot to love, but I also think this is somewhat of a flawed masterpiece. I guess we should start by diving into the mechanics.
Fire Emblem 4 plays like a typical Fire Emblem game in many ways, with you moving your units around a tile based map fighting enemies. Characters have stats which determine their damage, chance of hitting and dodging, chance to critical hit or avoid one, etc. When a character attacks, the opponent will make a counter attack, and once you’ve move all your units the turn is over (you can also end turn manually). After that, enemies will have a chance to move and attack too, so positioning for enemy phase is crucial – particularly as once a character runs out of HP, they’re dead forever, meaning you have to continue without them, or, more commonly, reset the game and start from an earlier point to try again without losing anyone.
Fire Emblem 4 mixes up the standard formula in many ways though, some of which are now staples of the series, and some of which are decidedly not. As examples of mechanics which have stuck around or come back in later entries, there’s the weapon triangle, introduced here, which adds a layer of strategy to fights by making you choose your weapon carefully. Swords beat Axes beat Lances beat Swords, and fighting a weapon you beat gives you improved hit rate and dodge rate vs the opponent (but not damage boosts, unlike later games). Skills have been added which allow characters special bonuses, some passive (items are half price in shop) and some active and chance based (skill% chance to attack 5 times instead of 1). Fire Emblem 4 also adds the first dancer in the series, a very powerful class that allows other units to move again in a turn. It’s especially good here as it works on 4 units at once. There are other new mechanics which I’ll discuss which I think are interesting, but which I am glad didn’t become series staples.
First off is the map design. If you’ve played later entries in the series and don’t know this one well, you might be surprised how long it took me to beat only 12 chapters – after all, most games in the franchise have between 20 and 40. However, each of the 12 maps here functions almost like 3-6 maps from another entry in the series. They contain multiple castles and you’ll normally have one as a target before moving to the next after capturing it. Rather frustatingly only your main lord can seize a castle so he always has to be in the attacking party. Events will often happen in a map introducing new enemies, reinforcements or recruitable units midway through a chapter. Luckily, this game offers permanent mid-chapter saves (as opposed to temporary saves which disappear when you resume) so you don’t need to restart a 6 hour chapter if you lose a unit to the last boss.
The main issue I have with map design is the scale tends to slow things down – many turns will involve you making your army trudge across vast expanses of ground to the next castle with nothing interesting happening on the way. The map design is also pretty bad too – if multiple castles were open at once it would encourage some fun separation of the team and strategizing on who is best to go where, but normally there’s only one objective at once. The game also all to often likes putting the first objective up one route of a long split path and the 2nd up the next, forcing lots of tedious backtracking – especially in the 1st half of the game.
One interesting thing about this game compared to other games in the series is that you aren’t encouraged to use a few party members from a much bigger pool. Every character you recruit can (and for the most part, probably should) be deployed on every map, meaning you often have 20+ units to use as opposed to later games 8-12 or so per typical map. This is quite fun at first, as it takes away some of the tough decisions about who is interesting to you, but it does end up slowing the game down quite a lot later on, as moving so many units can take a lot of time – especially in some of the desert chapters where they are restricted to moving only 1-2 tiles a turn. It also means that the imbalance in units feels really pronounced.
Fire Emblem has always been (and still very much is) a series where units were not balanced very evenly. Some classes are much better than others due to weapon versatility, extra movement, and inate effects – but never has it felt so pronounced as here. Due to the huge size of the maps, mounted units (who move 3-4 spaces further than foot soldiers) are strictly better for almost everything. Often they have finished the job before foot soldiers can arrive to help. It also means that to raise units evenly means playing slowly to allow foot units time to catch up. Also problematic is the distribution of skills, particularly the skill pursuit. In most FE games, faster units can attack twice in a combat round (they attack first, enemy second, them third) if they significantly speedier than the opponent. In this game, that is only possible with the pursuit skill. This is such a valuable and necessary skill to be consistent that units without it are practically worthless unless they have incredible bonuses to make up for it. Poor old Arden, one of your first units, is undoubtedly the worst unit in the game as he has no pursuit, low speed so he gets double by enemies with pursuit, and has only 5 movement so can’t keep up with the rest of the army.
Another reason for the character balance issues is the choice of weapons. Whilst this game introduces the weapon triangle, the weapons are still not created equally. Swords are generally weaker than lances by a point or two, and lances weaker than axes by another point or 2. On the other hand, swords weigh only 1-3 weight, lances normally 10 or so and axes are often 15-20! Every point of weight reduces your speed by one and speed is used to determine dodge rate and hit rate, with the ultimate issue being that even though lances beat swords for example, swords users normally manage to dodge attacks pretty well, always hit back, and if they have pursuit, are basically guaranteed to hit twice. Because of this, swords are nearly always preferred. Axe users are particularly screwed because they also have low accuracy, and seeing hit rates below 20% on sword users is standard practice. Some units in the game also get unique exclusive weapons which turn them into powerhouses. These legendary weapons give massive stat buffs (think +10 speed, + 20 skill on a unit with about 15 of each to begin) and have huge attack power (30, when most weapons have about 10). Unfortunately, whilst you get 3 different legendary swords, the only legendary axe in the game is enemy exclusive, meaning your axes users still fall behind overall.
Another unique mechanic of the game is that all units have their own separate stash of money, and this cant be traded between units unless they are married (or if one is a thief). This means weapon repairs and buying new equipment is reliant on the individual units finances, rather than the party as a whole. This is interesting, and is made more significant by the fact that units cant trade items or weapons in this game – only sell them for 50% value to a pawnbroker, to be bought by another unit at full cost. Units can earn money by saving villages in the map (more money the quicker you save them), by fighting opponents if they’re a thief (thieves take enemies money if they hit them) or by winning at the arena. The arena is very different in this game, a set of 7 preset fights per chapter which all recruits face. You cant die in the arena, but because foes are set, it can be problematic for some units – fighting a swordmaster as an axe wielder and winning requires crazy amounts of luck. The arena is an interesting mechanic, and is abusable by reloading and trying to send in different units to move the RNG on a bit, but it can also be tedious. I’d estimate I spent about 33% of the game fighting battles in the arena.
One last mechanic I want to talk about, and probably the most significant and spoilery (stop reading here if you don’t want to spoil a 25 year old Japan-only SRPG) is the generation system. See, the first 6 chapters all take place with your main lord Sigurd and his buddies, but the latter 6 all feature his son Seliph as the main character, and most of the units you can recruit that generation are children of the 1st generation characters. There’s a lot of variance here because the stats and abilities of the children are determined by who their parents are (kids are determined by their mother buts stats and abilities can be passed from dad too) and so who you pair up makes an impact. Any mothers who are unpaired or die in generation 1 will result in weaker alternative units being provided, but you definitely want the kids because they are so superior. The second generation of the game is actually much more fun I think then the first – with the way kids stats are determined they’re generally much stronger than their parents and you’ll end up with a more capable and well-rounded party – plus the map design is less back-tracky, theres less dead time between objectives and it’s all around more fun. It does mean that the game ends up with this bizarre lopsided difficulty though – the games hardest chapters are probably around chapter 3, which is only 25% into the game.
Overall though, there is a reason I called this a flawed masterpiece. I think considering the time it was made, and the quality of not just the series but the entire genre leading up to this, FE4 is a landmark title that tries and succeeds in a lot of things. Unfortunately, I believe it also tries and fails in many respects too. The game has an impressive story that feels very mature and political for a game of it’s age and system in the early 90s, and the artwork and animation of battles is stunning. It has issues with difficulty spikes but is overall fairly well balanced throughout. The main issue for me is that it struggles to make a good case for the scale of it’s maps, as they cause unit imbalance, issues with design (big groups of enemies rush all at once, then the map involves lots of tedious healing and walking to the next destination before more appear) and boring grouped up gameplay. However, most of the issues I have with it come in retrospect, having played Fire Emblem games which I feel improve upon and build upon it’s good aspect. I feel most of what has been left behind by the series after FE4 was not really worth being sad about, but it does mean that the game stands out as being quite unique in the series now. I wouldn’t recommend it as anyone’s first Fire Emblem game, and it’s not my favourite one either, but Genealogy of the Holy War is well worth a look.
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Switch
3. Super Mario Party Switch
4. Moss PSVR
5. Paper Mario: Colour Splash Wii U
6. The Firemen SNES
7. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SFC
8. Kuukiyomi: Consider It! Switch eShop
9. Valkyria Chronicles Switch eShop
10. Illusion of Time SNES
11. Trials of Mana Switch
12. Undertale Vita
13. Rastan SMS
14. Rainbow Islands SMS
15. River City Girls Switch
16. Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch
17. Streets of Rage 4 Switch eShop
18. Dragon Warrior IV NES
19. Super Tennis SNES
20. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Switch eShop
21. Pilotwings Switch eShop
22. Castlevania: The Adventure Switch eShop
23. Streets of Rage Game Gear
24. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix Switch eShop
25. Ninja Gaiden Game Gear
26. Psychic World Game Gear
27. The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury Game Gear
28. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble Game Gear
29. Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu SFC *NEW*
Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu
This review has been a long time coming. I first started playing this game last year, for the summer games challenge 2019. I made it through the first 3 levels (out of 12) but not any further than that. This year, I picked it up again for the 2020 summer games challenge, and I eventually worked my way through the final 9 worlds. It took some time – this game took me 72 hours to beat all told, and that won’t include numerous restarts to earlier saves when I accidentally let someone die either.
Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu, also known as ‘Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War’ and just ‘Fire Emblem 4’ is often regarded by long time fans as one of the best in the series. People praise the story and the scale of the maps and the campaign in general, and lament that some of the unique mechanics of this entry were abandoned and never came back later. From my perspective, there’s certainly a lot to love, but I also think this is somewhat of a flawed masterpiece. I guess we should start by diving into the mechanics.
Fire Emblem 4 plays like a typical Fire Emblem game in many ways, with you moving your units around a tile based map fighting enemies. Characters have stats which determine their damage, chance of hitting and dodging, chance to critical hit or avoid one, etc. When a character attacks, the opponent will make a counter attack, and once you’ve move all your units the turn is over (you can also end turn manually). After that, enemies will have a chance to move and attack too, so positioning for enemy phase is crucial – particularly as once a character runs out of HP, they’re dead forever, meaning you have to continue without them, or, more commonly, reset the game and start from an earlier point to try again without losing anyone.
Fire Emblem 4 mixes up the standard formula in many ways though, some of which are now staples of the series, and some of which are decidedly not. As examples of mechanics which have stuck around or come back in later entries, there’s the weapon triangle, introduced here, which adds a layer of strategy to fights by making you choose your weapon carefully. Swords beat Axes beat Lances beat Swords, and fighting a weapon you beat gives you improved hit rate and dodge rate vs the opponent (but not damage boosts, unlike later games). Skills have been added which allow characters special bonuses, some passive (items are half price in shop) and some active and chance based (skill% chance to attack 5 times instead of 1). Fire Emblem 4 also adds the first dancer in the series, a very powerful class that allows other units to move again in a turn. It’s especially good here as it works on 4 units at once. There are other new mechanics which I’ll discuss which I think are interesting, but which I am glad didn’t become series staples.
First off is the map design. If you’ve played later entries in the series and don’t know this one well, you might be surprised how long it took me to beat only 12 chapters – after all, most games in the franchise have between 20 and 40. However, each of the 12 maps here functions almost like 3-6 maps from another entry in the series. They contain multiple castles and you’ll normally have one as a target before moving to the next after capturing it. Rather frustatingly only your main lord can seize a castle so he always has to be in the attacking party. Events will often happen in a map introducing new enemies, reinforcements or recruitable units midway through a chapter. Luckily, this game offers permanent mid-chapter saves (as opposed to temporary saves which disappear when you resume) so you don’t need to restart a 6 hour chapter if you lose a unit to the last boss.
The main issue I have with map design is the scale tends to slow things down – many turns will involve you making your army trudge across vast expanses of ground to the next castle with nothing interesting happening on the way. The map design is also pretty bad too – if multiple castles were open at once it would encourage some fun separation of the team and strategizing on who is best to go where, but normally there’s only one objective at once. The game also all to often likes putting the first objective up one route of a long split path and the 2nd up the next, forcing lots of tedious backtracking – especially in the 1st half of the game.
One interesting thing about this game compared to other games in the series is that you aren’t encouraged to use a few party members from a much bigger pool. Every character you recruit can (and for the most part, probably should) be deployed on every map, meaning you often have 20+ units to use as opposed to later games 8-12 or so per typical map. This is quite fun at first, as it takes away some of the tough decisions about who is interesting to you, but it does end up slowing the game down quite a lot later on, as moving so many units can take a lot of time – especially in some of the desert chapters where they are restricted to moving only 1-2 tiles a turn. It also means that the imbalance in units feels really pronounced.
Fire Emblem has always been (and still very much is) a series where units were not balanced very evenly. Some classes are much better than others due to weapon versatility, extra movement, and inate effects – but never has it felt so pronounced as here. Due to the huge size of the maps, mounted units (who move 3-4 spaces further than foot soldiers) are strictly better for almost everything. Often they have finished the job before foot soldiers can arrive to help. It also means that to raise units evenly means playing slowly to allow foot units time to catch up. Also problematic is the distribution of skills, particularly the skill pursuit. In most FE games, faster units can attack twice in a combat round (they attack first, enemy second, them third) if they significantly speedier than the opponent. In this game, that is only possible with the pursuit skill. This is such a valuable and necessary skill to be consistent that units without it are practically worthless unless they have incredible bonuses to make up for it. Poor old Arden, one of your first units, is undoubtedly the worst unit in the game as he has no pursuit, low speed so he gets double by enemies with pursuit, and has only 5 movement so can’t keep up with the rest of the army.
Another reason for the character balance issues is the choice of weapons. Whilst this game introduces the weapon triangle, the weapons are still not created equally. Swords are generally weaker than lances by a point or two, and lances weaker than axes by another point or 2. On the other hand, swords weigh only 1-3 weight, lances normally 10 or so and axes are often 15-20! Every point of weight reduces your speed by one and speed is used to determine dodge rate and hit rate, with the ultimate issue being that even though lances beat swords for example, swords users normally manage to dodge attacks pretty well, always hit back, and if they have pursuit, are basically guaranteed to hit twice. Because of this, swords are nearly always preferred. Axe users are particularly screwed because they also have low accuracy, and seeing hit rates below 20% on sword users is standard practice. Some units in the game also get unique exclusive weapons which turn them into powerhouses. These legendary weapons give massive stat buffs (think +10 speed, + 20 skill on a unit with about 15 of each to begin) and have huge attack power (30, when most weapons have about 10). Unfortunately, whilst you get 3 different legendary swords, the only legendary axe in the game is enemy exclusive, meaning your axes users still fall behind overall.
Another unique mechanic of the game is that all units have their own separate stash of money, and this cant be traded between units unless they are married (or if one is a thief). This means weapon repairs and buying new equipment is reliant on the individual units finances, rather than the party as a whole. This is interesting, and is made more significant by the fact that units cant trade items or weapons in this game – only sell them for 50% value to a pawnbroker, to be bought by another unit at full cost. Units can earn money by saving villages in the map (more money the quicker you save them), by fighting opponents if they’re a thief (thieves take enemies money if they hit them) or by winning at the arena. The arena is very different in this game, a set of 7 preset fights per chapter which all recruits face. You cant die in the arena, but because foes are set, it can be problematic for some units – fighting a swordmaster as an axe wielder and winning requires crazy amounts of luck. The arena is an interesting mechanic, and is abusable by reloading and trying to send in different units to move the RNG on a bit, but it can also be tedious. I’d estimate I spent about 33% of the game fighting battles in the arena.
One last mechanic I want to talk about, and probably the most significant and spoilery (stop reading here if you don’t want to spoil a 25 year old Japan-only SRPG) is the generation system. See, the first 6 chapters all take place with your main lord Sigurd and his buddies, but the latter 6 all feature his son Seliph as the main character, and most of the units you can recruit that generation are children of the 1st generation characters. There’s a lot of variance here because the stats and abilities of the children are determined by who their parents are (kids are determined by their mother buts stats and abilities can be passed from dad too) and so who you pair up makes an impact. Any mothers who are unpaired or die in generation 1 will result in weaker alternative units being provided, but you definitely want the kids because they are so superior. The second generation of the game is actually much more fun I think then the first – with the way kids stats are determined they’re generally much stronger than their parents and you’ll end up with a more capable and well-rounded party – plus the map design is less back-tracky, theres less dead time between objectives and it’s all around more fun. It does mean that the game ends up with this bizarre lopsided difficulty though – the games hardest chapters are probably around chapter 3, which is only 25% into the game.
Overall though, there is a reason I called this a flawed masterpiece. I think considering the time it was made, and the quality of not just the series but the entire genre leading up to this, FE4 is a landmark title that tries and succeeds in a lot of things. Unfortunately, I believe it also tries and fails in many respects too. The game has an impressive story that feels very mature and political for a game of it’s age and system in the early 90s, and the artwork and animation of battles is stunning. It has issues with difficulty spikes but is overall fairly well balanced throughout. The main issue for me is that it struggles to make a good case for the scale of it’s maps, as they cause unit imbalance, issues with design (big groups of enemies rush all at once, then the map involves lots of tedious healing and walking to the next destination before more appear) and boring grouped up gameplay. However, most of the issues I have with it come in retrospect, having played Fire Emblem games which I feel improve upon and build upon it’s good aspect. I feel most of what has been left behind by the series after FE4 was not really worth being sad about, but it does mean that the game stands out as being quite unique in the series now. I wouldn’t recommend it as anyone’s first Fire Emblem game, and it’s not my favourite one either, but Genealogy of the Holy War is well worth a look.