BryanM wrote:
But eventually [Dangun] opened up like a flower on subsequent playthroughs, especially once you've memorized it, and it's one of my favorite games now. I wonder sometimes how many games that are out there that are like this.
This is something I've come to appreciate with AC-styled (meaning single-sitting) games; taking each as a "course." The most directly applicable are OFC racing games. Sega Rally 1995 - everyone loves it, in arcades, pubs, and airport boarding lounges alike. But you're not going to get everything it has to offer out of your first day, or week, or probably even month with it. You need to learn the course, and how to apply your vehicle to it, before you experience the movingly finessed edge-of-adhesion lines that earned Mizuguchi and co their laurels. Even then, you'll be merely an adept amongst masters. So we keep coming back.
STGs are no exception - in fact, they're very near racers, with no need to invoke avowed hybrids like Kingdom Grandprix and Cloudphobia; Dangun's aggressively lean, mean speedkiller ethos is an easy example.
Batman (FC) is another. Amongst thoroughbred sidescrolling action, it's notably ornery. Bats has a shade of "cinematic" heft, and his weapons are harshly situational, extra muscle memory necessitated by [start]'s active role. But in the context of an assault course - a short, punishing gauntlet of superhuman ninja athleticism - it surpasses the crisper yet relatively detached Ninja Gaiden and Kage. Bats' loving-animated glutes flex with tangible might, powering his way up towering shafts and through body-shredding gears; meddlers gashed at range by preselected arms - a bullet to the head here, a rocket in the nuts there - and crushed at pointblank by the good ol' Bat-Mitts. Experts will combine those with the enemy hitbox cancel, punching clean through foes with unbroken advance.
This touches on the element of
volition, again with racing games being an obvious, but by no means only exemplar - the furied waveshredding Dangun shares with Recca and Thunder Dragon 2 another, a furiously-revving feedback loop, beckoning the performer to redline and the edge of obliteration.
There is also the element of RNG, which in this context I think of as a garnish. None whatsoever can be bland. Too much can spoil. Just enough will insulate the course with a layer of volatility, further guarding against rote. Daimakaimura and Ninja Spirit are my desert island sidescrolling action for this reason, nailing a rare balance of consistency and chaos.
This isn't alchemy. Sunsoft's second FC Bats game, Dynamite Batman, roughly fits this model - but its character/course setup is nowhere as well-calibrated, enforcing rote drudge far too often; a middling effort, salvaged by admirably beefy GFX and the talismanic Naoki Kodaka. But these days, when I come across a game that's not immediately engaging for whatever reason - bit bumpy, bit obtuse - I keep this POV in mind, in case it's another FC Batman or Sega Rally or Dangun, as opposed to a mediocre Dynamite Batman, or outright non-starter, ala something I've long since forgotten.
Quote:
BIL wrote:
The underlying game is so goddamn jank and fundamentally blasphemous
Action RPG's back then seemed to have a tendency to be that way. More time put into powerups and rpg systems, but not much into basic fundamentals.
Namco's Dragon Buster (1984, two years before Athena) is an interesting case. Objectively, its handling is almost as jarring, right down to a similarly obtuse jump (and what many call the first-ever doublejump). But between the genuinely invigorating movement speed (it's ridiculous) and bite-sized dungeon raids, peppered with midboss duels decided in victory or death before the BGM can finish slamming into gear, it's a jank I'm more than willing to wrangle under control.
"You're a DARGON BUSTER, a kind of medieval exterminator! You sprint around catacombs mowing down skeltens and wyverns then u find the dargon and chop he mahfuckin head off 4 he loot" Aight, cool!
Jank Wranglers, advance! 
"You're a loli moeblob, you stagger around breaking blocks like Nelson Mandela in a thong until you find a weapon that doesn't suck, then you do it some more" Oof! "But the dudes who memorised the prison blueprints do the most badass escapes ever, even finding pants!" Oh ok, I'll just watch them then.
