Aug Together Retro: Animal Main Characters

[laurenhiya21]

Two other things to note... The ending is pretty surprisingly dark. To sum it up...

They had Dog's Life at AGDQ earlier this year. I saw that ending there, and just watching that speedrun is probably as close as I'd ever want to get to that game. Was it worth playing?

Ah yeah I forgot to mention that I also saw the AGDQ run of it (which I thought was really good, especially with that skip that took forever to do).

Overall I thought that the game was worth a playthrough. I guess it helped that it was pretty cheap, but more importantly I had a good time seeing what weird thing an NPC would say, or what I would have to do for another bone. It's pretty cheesy and not super polished, but I still enjoyed it overall. Wouldn't say that it's for everyone though.

[Exhuminator]

I've finished 1 of 3 games I plan to play for this TR:



Klonoa had its positives, but I'm not as big a fan of this game as some around here. I did appreciate the Wii's enhanced graphics over the PS1 original (which I had played before this, just not finished). Those of you with young kids; Klonoa on Wii is a solid choice for them. As for the ending, yeah it was unexpected, but far from "soul destroying" or "devastating" . That level of emotion would have required me to be invested in this game's juvenile characters and childish plot. An impossibility for this player I'm afraid. (Further thoughts here.)

[BogusMeatFactory]

Inherit the Earth is installed and ready to go. I look forward to jumping in.

Outside of one particularly nasty maze, it is a great adventure game with a very fascinating world. The creators of the game had a failed kickstarter but have kept the story going with a webcomic.

[dunpeal2064]

Phew, E.V.O. is much longer than I first expected. Still plucking away at it, though.

I am now a Gnome!


And I saved these rad dudes from getting eaten by cannibals


Edit: Alright, I beat E.V.O. I did a full write up here, since thats where my pc-98 stuff has been going, but I'll share a bit here as well.

This game's ending is one of its better acts:

As you become the closest to a Human, the Devil challenges you. Turns out she's not the hottie we thought!


Defeating her allows you to become human, at which point 60,000 years pass, and you essentially ascend into godhood, becoming this worlds greatest hero


But of course, the devil comes back, having evolved herself, and this time, bursts out of the moon!


She destroys your body, but you attain the powers of every era of evolution, gaining new attacks to fight ultimate-satan with. After defeating her, you ascend fully into godhood, merging with the planet. Not bad, considering we started out as a single-cell organism!

While E.V.O. had some flaws that dragged down the experience a bit, I still found it overall to be a cool game. Its pixel art and general atmosphere are wonderful, and evolving is a ton of fun. The last two fights were actually well done, requiring smart ordering of moves to stun, buff, debuff, heal, and find windows for damage. Up to that point, though, fighting consisted entirely of me spamming the attack command, and the leveling balance was quite off, as I'd generally hit the level cap only shortly into each era. These flaws weren't enough to ruin the experience, but they bothered enough to leave a bit of a sour taste occasionally.

Very glad I played through this! If you like old-school turn-based combat and don't mind the simplicity, and this sort of world setting and pixel art appeal to you, then I think you'd have a pleasant time with E.V.O. - Theory of Evolution.

[Exhuminator]

Congrats on beating a PC-98 game, that's rad in and of itself. Plus the original EVO looks great too, thanks for all the screenshots. It does seem the original EVO is more complex than its SNES sequel, based on all you wrote about it. (That doesn't mean it's necessarily funner than the sequel though.) I think it'd be cool if you beat the SNES sequel next, just so you could contrast the two for us. Inquiring minds...

[BoneSnapDeez]

Cool E.V.O. posts.

Have you played Wonder Project J, dun? It's the other "big" game by Almanic/Givro.

[dunpeal2064]

Cool E.V.O. posts.

Have you played Wonder Project J, dun? It's the other "big" game by Almanic/Givro.

Thanks guys

I have not played Wonder Project J! I've heard the name a few times, but that's it. I'll have to look into it!

Oddly, Almanic/Givro aren't mentioned in the game's credits or manual at all. The lead programmer is credited as a Deltasoft rep, and Dynamic are credited for a bit, but most of the team are freelance. I've also been told that, in an interview, the lead programmer said there was no shared staff between this game and E.V.O. Search for Eden.

I'd guess that Deltasoft possibly became Almanic, or that someone was in both companies at least, but information surrounding the PC-98 in general is scarce, if not non-existent. Most internet sources just simply site the game as an Almanic work.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Donkey Kong Country 3 gives me bad vibes right out the gate. What's with the slow ass grainy world map? So pointless.

The throwing mechanic seems even more emphasized in this installment and it blows. It doesn't even make sense from a physics standpoint. One Kong throws the other and then the thrower magically just "slides" up to where the throwee landed? Wat?

Other than that, an okay game! Digging the handful of levels I've played so far.

[Exhuminator]

Other than that, an okay game! Digging the handful of levels I've played so far.

Good to hear DKC3 may fair better than DKC2. Did you finish DKC2?

-

I put some time into Armadillo and Hebereke on Famicom today. Armadillo had some innovative ideas, primarily the ability to roll into a ball and slide around curves Sonic style (although Armadillo may predate Sonic?). You can also get shrunk down and navigate platform levels in a micro-manner very similarly to New Super Mario Bros.'s mini-mushroom. However Armadillo's movement physics were way too janky for me, the jumping and ball rolling didn't work well from a mechanical standpoint. So I put Armadillo away. Hebereke stars a penguin, and is a Sunsoft game... so yeah, good music right out the gate. Hebereke is a non-linear exploratory platformer, and it seems pretty solid thus far. Hebereke was localized in Europe as Ufouria: The Saga, but it had some changes made for that localization I didn't agree with. So I played the fan translated Famicom original instead. I may bother finishing it, unless I find something better first.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Armadillo I've been meaning to play, once I get the Fami cart.

Speaking of such things, Hebereke is an expensive one, so I ended up getting Ufouria via the Wii VC. Played it a few times, liked it, think I got stuck?

I will hopefully be playing a penguin game this month.