April Together Retro: 1980s Genesis

[nightrnr]

Still rollin' through Vermilion, though I've slowed down a bit. This game reuses tilesets to the point of insanity.

I suppose that's a casualty of trying to be 3 different games in a low memory cart (by later standards). Doesn't make it any less disappointing, but I wasn't surprised on that end.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Well, I finished the game. The last few hours really sucked. I hit the level cap early on and just found myself running from battle after battle as a result. The lack of inventory space becomes a major issue late-game, especially since you need a cluster of specialized keys to navigate the final dungeon -- that's like half the inventory right there!

The game starts to straight-up troll near the end too. Items hidden in obscure places. A lack of maps. Even finishing the game is a mystery..... after defeating the final boss you have to head to a specific town and "use" the mystical stones on a king's throne? Where else in the game does one "use" an item on an object? I understand this game came with a hint book... good thing, as the final stretch would be nigh impossible without it.

Kind of a lackluster experience overall. Repetitive, cryptic, but with mash-A battles that get very easy very quickly, making the whole thing feel like a "mindless" slog. Phantasy Star II is probably just as tedious, but that game had much cooler aesthetics.

[nightrnr]

I may have used a walkthrough in a couple parts on my playthrough.
I was also overleveled (not sure if I reached the cap) mostly because I failed to realize that I had a warp spell; so I walked back and forth literally everywhere searching for things (and fought most battles).

I do remember being glad to be done with it. Even so, I liked it for the most part. I won't fight any criticisms though, the game is the definition of archaic design.

A note about Phantasy Star II: I would not have survived that game without the guide it came with. One dungeon in particular is deviously tedious. And I'm fairly certain I wouldn't have found or known about the visiphone on my own.

[pook99]

tried to play last battle, it was meh, but there is a way to do a super jump which is required to get over some pits, but it doesnt seem to work consistently and the game is just not engaging enough to bother. I probably wont play through any games for this since I want to tie up some loose ends before I start the summer challenge.

[alienjesus]

Well, I finished the game. The last few hours really sucked. I hit the level cap early on and just found myself running from battle after battle as a result. The lack of inventory space becomes a major issue late-game, especially since you need a cluster of specialized keys to navigate the final dungeon -- that's like half the inventory right there!

The game starts to straight-up troll near the end too. Items hidden in obscure places. A lack of maps. Even finishing the game is a mystery..... after defeating the final boss you have to head to a specific town and "use" the mystical stones on a king's throne? Where else in the game does one "use" an item on an object? I understand this game came with a hint book... good thing, as the final stretch would be nigh impossible without it.

Kind of a lackluster experience overall. Repetitive, cryptic, but with mash-A battles that get very easy very quickly, making the whole thing feel like a "mindless" slog. Phantasy Star II is probably just as tedious, but that game had much cooler aesthetics.

Yeah. your thoughts are pretty similar to mine overall. It's not good.

[BoneSnapDeez]

My favorite part of the game is actually..... the towns. So, yeah.............

[Note]

I've been on a shmup binge the past two weeks, so figured I'd play a few sessions of Truxton to participate a bit more.

I'm not good at the game yet, but played for about two hours on the easy difficulty. I like the power-up system in the game, and the graphics are pretty colorful which I appreciate. My only issue with the colorful backgrounds is sometimes I have difficulty seeing the orange bullets over certain backgrounds. Also, another problem for me is all the enemies that come from behind -- in certain sections this killed me a lot. With more playthroughs, I'll hopefully have a better idea of where I need to be to avoid those specific enemies. Also, I find the music to be relaxing, it's a good contrast with all the action on screen, IMO.

I was able to get up to the large blue boss (?) in Stage 2, Round 1, but he kept kicking my ass. I just couldn't execute the pattern I needed to, to get past this section. I'll most likely play it a bit more throughout the week, and hopefully can get a bit further.

[dsheinem]

Truxton might be my favorite Genesis shmup. Some of Toaplan's best work. I've debated giving it another run through this month...

What I did play through was Space Harrier II. I now think it is much better than I once used to...

It also seemed really appropriate for the COVD-19 times, so I made a cartoon

[BoneSnapDeez]

lol

I dig it.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Agree. That’s awesome, DSH. I should give Space Harrier II another shot, I guess.