What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[vol.2]

I've not played any of the Fallout games

Definitely a good retro segue from the newer Wasteland games (the first two games). Because of their position in the Brian Fargo timeline, playing them will put the Wastland games into a different perspective. Not that the stories are connected per se, but that there is a natural evolution from one to the next.


I've been playing Bloodstained Curse of the Moon.

So far, I really like it. It's just hard enough to feel like an old school game without being quite as relentless and unfair. Sure, it has it's fair share of cheap setups, but it's doable. I've been playing for two evenings total of 2.5 hours and I got through the first four bosses. The 3rd and 4th stage boss are not bad at all, got past #3 in one go with all my people alive, and #4 took out a couple people, but I figured out the pattern and took it out with two people.

Spoiler

The most irritating thing in the whole game so far are the dogs that drop from the ceiling in stage 3. I managed to avoid them by sheer luck a couple times, but it only happens if the dogs move away from you before turning back on you when they hit the ground. Otherwise, you get hit every single time. Of course, there are many sub weapons that can take them out, but it's not kosher to make an enemy that forces you to take damage unless you use a sub weapon with limited ammo, let alone several of the in multiple areas. That sort of thing should be reserved for a boss, and even then, there should a way to avoid taking damage if you're fast enough.
Come to think of it, the 4th stage boss does also have that annoying part at the end where it's tail bumps up and hits you while it's breathing fire. I don't think you can totally avoid taking damage their either (but it can be minimized).

[Mortificator]

I hadn't looked at Wasteland 3 at all, but these posts are getting me kind of pumped to try it. Lack of initiative aside, is the combat improved? Wasteland 2's came off a little simpler than I'd like in a grid combat game.

[Licorice]

Just finished Ys chronicles (Ys I and II remakes) on PC.

Played with the original PC-88 OST, which is probably in my top 5 soundtracks. I listen to it all the time.

Sadly, the sound track sets a very high bar that the game cannot live up to. It's very full of emotion and the game simply failed to engage me in the same way just listening to the music while staring into space does.

But, I don't think the game plays badly, at all, with the second game much better than the first. The areas and dungeons you have to traverse manage to translate well the "fun" (some people love it, others hate it, I'm somewhere in the middle) of plotting maps on graph paper to a real time format. Of course, you don't actually plot anything, instead the layouts end up being kind of short to medium term spatial memory tests. Works well with the brisk movement.

As is the case with many of these kinds of more leisurely action games, you can trivially avoid every enemy. However, levelling up is mandatory, as you simply can't damage the bosses required to progress if you're too low level, which provides the impetus to actually fight. There's not much challenge to it, it's all very mindless after the bump combat becomes second nature. Bumping into enemies ends up being something you just happen to do while you're lost looking for the next item or way through or whatever to advance.

The meat of the play is in the bosses, and the developers recognized that by providing boss rush modes on completion. The bosses are great and quite memorable. Simple and clever. They accomplished a lot with very little.

I also liked the plot and the adventure. Has a real Japanese fairy tale vibe to it. I don't know if it's a remake thing but I felt the "fleshing out" was weak, and the game would have been better served with less NPCs with less to say. Less talking monsters. Less is more. This is where the music really really outshines the rest of the delivery.

Could have also done away with the few "what item should I use in this area to activate the trigger" puzzles. Rules based puzzles would fit these games well, not sure why they went the lame pegs and holes route.

The second game ends with the beautiful opening music from the first. It's music filled with yearning, suggesting some kind of a fog covering hidden tragedies, begging for you to delve into it. It's sad but feels as if almost by design that while playing the game was great, it did nothing to alleviate that yearning.

[Blinge]

Could have also done away with the few "what item should I use in this area to activate the trigger" puzzles. Rules based puzzles would fit these games well, not sure why they went the lame pegs and holes route.

The game is from the late 80s ffs. Write a letter to Falcom and complain.

An unhelpful response? Yes, but your smug review yearns for it.

It's sad but feels as if almost by design that while playing the game was great, it did nothing to alleviate that yearning.

Nonsense.

[Licorice]

Seems like I touched a nerve. I don't even know why, I clearly said I liked the game and thought it played well. Forgive me if I think one part of the artistry clearly outshines the rest.

The game is from the late 80s ffs. Write a letter to Falcom and complain.

The remake is from the 2000s. I don't know how close it is to the PC-88 original. I suppose I should watch a play through on YT.

It would have been cool if they included a PC-88 graphics options same way they did with the music.

[Blinge]

Just play one of the original ports. They're emulated easily, or the PC engine stays true enough to the original gameplay I think.
Basically, not much has changed apart from the additional first village and the ability to sprint.

yeah you did touch a nerve, i can't get over your review.
'mmm yes, the game simply failed to engage me. ' c'mon man.

name a game that does engage you, so i have some context?

[Licorice]

It did engage me. I literally spent the last 3 days glued to the game after work staying up past bed time. It was only towards the very end of the second game where I felt like I needed a bit of a break but by then the game was over and now I want to go back and play the boss rushes.

It just didn't engage me as much as the music, which engages me even more. It's not a small thing to say something is somewhere in your top 5.

The thing with games coming from the 80s Japanese PC culture is, I love what (I understand) they were trying to do. I think it was a culture and time of great creativity. XZR, Megami Tensei, War of the Dead, Valis, etc. people still enjoy these games, but they do so despite, not because of, the play.

But with the Ys remake, I thought the game played really well. Still not up to the level of the aesthetics, for me, but very very well.

PC-88 original interests me more than the PCE due to the darker, more limited palette. I am interested in Dawn of Ys for PCE though. Heard it has some of the best bump combat, which I am a fan of. Also interested to see Hudson's take on a classic.

[Stevens]

I hadn't looked at Wasteland 3 at all, but these posts are getting me kind of pumped to try it. Lack of initiative aside, is the combat improved? Wasteland 2's came off a little simpler than I'd like in a grid combat game.

I am probably not the best metric for games like this. I've only played Wasteland 2 or 3 so my experience is limited. I wouldn't say it is any more complex than 2, if anything it is a bit simpler - your whole team goes and then your enemies go. Alpha strike or bust essentially.

That said I love the graphics, writing, story, and choice. There also is no difficulty spike like California. The latest patch dropped last night and response seems to be pretty positive. Now would be the time to try I say: )

[Mortificator]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am interested in Dawn of Ys for PCE though. Heard it has some of the best bump combat, which I am a fan of. Also interested to see Hudson's take on a classic.

The Dawn of Ys is good, but definitely not the equal of I & II. It rehashes them a bit too much, you get mostly the same magic as Ys II, go up Darm Tower again, fight you-know-who again. But it's still a very fun game with a killer soundtrack.

[Blinge]

It just didn't engage me as much as the music, which engages me even more. It's not a small thing to say something is somewhere in your top 5.

Uh, alright. I think I get it, if you've heard the soundtrack and listened to it for a long period of time with only your imagination to fill-in what the game must be like, I can see how it would fall short.

Kind of like when I'd read two lines from Catcher in the Rye for years before reading it and seen in them a level of profundity that's not really there in the book.

PC-88 original interests me more than the PCE due to the darker, more limited palette. [/quote]

Get on that emulation and see how the faithful Chronicles are to the original then.

[vol.2]

I've never seen PC-88 emulation that looks anything like what it's supposed to on a CRT. I don't know much about the method they used for graphics output, but it always looks like there are dark stripes in emulated screenshots, whereas regular screen footage of a CRT shows that those dark spots are more blended into the image. I guess it's dithering, but I'm not sure if that's exactly what they are doing.

check out this towards the end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdfG6ms ... nel=VUJLab.

and then compare it to the screenshots on mobygames https://www.mobygames.com/game/pc88/din ... Id,834195/

[WelshMegalodon]

The last time I checked, there weren't any English fan translations for the original PC-88 versions of Ys I & II. There are some spotty yet serviceable ones for the MSX ports, though those ports don't play quite as well as the originals. It's not a huge issue to anyone that's played the games before, but still worth pointing out.

Video is definitely one area where emulation still seems to fall short. I think MAME has the potential to look the most accurate since its CRT simulation is pretty mature, but as far as I know, MAME's PC-88 emulation is still very much incomplete. It's a shame, really.

There exists far less English-language documentation for PC-88 emulators than I would like, but I've had the best results with this one by Takeda Toshiya.

[Squire Grooktook]

I don't know if it's a remake thing but I felt the "fleshing out" was weak, and the game would have been better served with less NPCs with less to say. Less talking monsters. Less is more.

Completely disagree, the detail put into completely superfluous things like npc's you never need to interact with who continuously update their dialogue over the course of the game is why Falcom games are so charming beyond their fast paced gameplay. I was replaying Kingdom Hearts 2 a few months back, a game which has one of the most impeccable combat systems in the genre, but when I found myself examining a piece of scenery only for the most dry "THIS IS FURNITURE" text to pop up, I couldn't help but find myself longing for whatever characterful description a Falcom game would have instead, like a Tabletop GM scrambling to keep his players entertained by pumping as much personality into every short passing detail as possible.

As for the rest, I dunno if you played on Nightmare, but I found the bump combat pretty lethal until you overlevel an area. It's just fast and random enough that a single poor reaction when an enemy suddenly turns just as your about to go in for the kill can spell a messy end for your dungeon run. Obviously not as challenging as the bosses (where I vastly preferred YS II's genre switch into shmupping for its climactic duels), but a solid threat while trying to mentally map and pillage those cleverly layed out mazes.

I enjoyed the playthrough of Chronicles. Aside from some of Ys 1's bosses being dumb on Nightmare, I can't think of much to criticize. The bump combat isn't something I'd want a return to in any future installments (unlike Ark/Oath/Origin's killer mix of bullet hell, platforming, and slashing...give me 10 more games like that honestly), but it does its job well and the rest of the game is sterling and as charming as these games come as well as a brilliant little slice of rpg history.

[Licorice]

I couldn't help but find myself longing for whatever characterful description a Falcom game would have instead

I don't think you can inspect scenery in Ys chronicles. There's sometimes a bit of flavor text (mainly as a hint to try use something from your inventory) when you enter certain areas or rooms.

Anyway, I guess if done correctly it might have added, but it was all very cheerful Harvest Moon town wasn't it? IMO, it clashed with the archaeology, lost (sacrificed!) ancient civilization, creation myth and restoration themes.

I watched a bit of a PC-88 play-through. It seemed much sparser (NPC count seems halved) and more appropriate. However, I don't speak Japanese so I can't make any judgements on the text.

I did recall early Falcom staff went on to form Quintet and according to MobyGames the guys who came up with the Ys I and II scenarios were also responsible for the same in Actraiser, Soul Blazer and Terranigma (which to my understanding, explore much the same themes as Ys I and II). These are a bit more accessible to a non Japanese speaker such as myself. I've had those games on my backlog so I might play them and make a call whether it's likely the thematic strength was lessened in the remake.

I wouldn't be surprised though. I mean I can enjoy 2000s Falcom like Trails in the Sky just fine but I can't help but feel in this case they forced a bit of Trails in the Sky onto something originally very different and much darker.

[Squire Grooktook]

I couldn't help but find myself longing for whatever characterful description a Falcom game would have instead

I don't think you can inspect scenery in Ys chronicles. There's sometimes a bit of flavor text (mainly as a hint to try use something from your inventory) when you enter certain areas or rooms.

Anyway, I guess if done correctly it might have added, but it was all very cheerful Harvest Moon town wasn't it? IMO, it clashed with the archaeology, lost (sacrificed!) ancient civilization, creation myth and restoration themes.

I watched a bit of a PC-88 play through. It seemed much sparser and more appropriate. However, I don't speak Japanese so I can't make any judgements on the text.

Scenery was just an example of their usual style, yah.

Perhaps I'd have to replay Chronicles but it didn't strike me as egregious. If there's difference with the original perhaps at most Chronicles might have leaned towards the style of Oath in Felghana: relatively sparse if you don't bother to interact with anything non-mandatory, but with detail snuck in for those who bother to probe every nook and cranny and continue to do so with interest. IMO this is a pretty ideal compromise for this type of game in Falcom's milieu.

I don't remember Chronicles feeing too chipper either, although I will admit YS 2 had one or two moments that felt a bit out of place (little gags/puns from certain village npc's). But I felt overall YS 1 on a whole captures exactly the "fairytale" mood you describe, and YS 2 mostly does as well despite being a bit more chatty with its more numerous villages and subplots (indeed, isn't a little bit of humor and whimsy appropriate for a fairy tale, after all?).

[Blinge]

Anyway, I guess if done correctly it might have added, but it was all very cheerful Harvest Moon town wasn't it?

No.
Maybe in 1, definitely not in Ys II.

[Marc]

More Mario Sunshine. Love it, there's the odd duff Shine here and there, but for the most part it's a much more engaging game than 64.

[Stevens]

Along with yet another trip through Wasteland 3 (Fallout next perhaps?) I've been making my way through Ritual of the Night.

Only one boss in so far but am rather enjoying its pace.

[Mischief Maker]

Journey to the Savage Planet is more fun than expected.

It's a comedy version of Metroid Prime, by which instead of the game taking place in an "open world" full of dead space, it's one long chain of areas packed tight with puzzles and collectibles and visible goodies you won't be able to reach until you have the right tools.

The humor is very Tim and Eric.

I absolutely love the fact that stamina restores while you're in a running slide, so alternating running and sliding can move you at top speed indefinitely.

[Blinge]

Anyone put themselves through the cock and ball torture that is Jump King?

This one seems a bit less fun than GOIw/Bennett Foddy

[Mischief Maker]

This almost belongs in the "Shameful gaming confessions" thread, but I'm having more fun with the mobile-port Starfox-clone "Redout: Space Assault" than I did with Panzer Dragoon Remake.

[To Far Away Times]

I finished up Resident Evil 5 today as part of my quest to beat all the Resident Evils before the new one comes out.

So, I've avoided RE5 for some time, since it kinda seemed like a lesser version of the legendary RE4. And I suppose that's still true. But there's some good here as well. The "can't walk while shooting" gameplay feels really good. The whole game is designed around it. Enemies surround you from all sides but slowly telegraph their attacks and aren't very agressive. Ammo drops are plentiful and you can pack quite an arsenal. It isn't much of a horror game but its damn fun to play.

Now on to the bad. This is the most mid 2000's game I have ever played. The yellow piss filter on the screen, quick time events, Wesker acting like a dollar store version of Neo from The Matrix, the jingnostic military adverturism of a post 9/11 world, its all here. Hell, they even throw in chest high walls and a really basic cover system since that was the latest trend at the time.

Oh, and a lot of one hit instant kills. In fact it seems like that's the only thing that's threatening in the game. The enemies won't wear you down. Its either a "gotcha!" moment or you're moving on to the next area.

Still, the gunplay is fantastic, and the game is well paced.

It loses a few points on the more superficial, but obviously stupid stuff.

7/10.

[vol.2]

Now on to the bad.

The way I understand it, 6 takes all those things you mentioned disliking and turns it into the focus of the game. Like, you would have expected them to just fix all that stuff, but that was actually a hint of things to come and not a flaw for them.

But I've been avoiding it, so I'll be interested to hear your evaluation.

[Squire Grooktook]

RE6 actually has fantastically fun movement mechanics, problem is very little in the game (not even Mercenaries mode) encourages you to use them properly. And the campaigns are ugly and embarrassing as a whole, especially compared to the oozing stylishness and overwhelming polish of 4.

Play Vanquish instead.

[Mortificator]

There's still Resident Evil Revelations 2 to look forward to. It's my second favorite of the over-the-shoulder REs, Jill-sandwiched between 4 and 5. My recent attempts with Silent Hill: Homecoming (which I dropped BTW) actually gave me the urge for a Rev2 replay. Too many games are vying for my time right now...

Of course, "play Vanquish" is also good advice.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I tried 6 on normal a while ago and it's unenjoyable, bordering unplayable because of how bullet spongey everything is. Also the AI partner is Revelations level of does nothing but the game is clearly focused on co-op play. Massive step back from 5 because Sheva is really handy as long as long you give her a submachine gun and keep her away from healing items. It's actually enjoyable on easy with QTEs turned off, although it's still far from a good game. Chris' dudebro discount Gears campaign is unintentionally hilarious from what I remember.

Got Revelations 2 for xbone ordered as Amazon had it on the cheap. Played it on 360 already but it's a weird Live Arcade on disk affair, so you can't install it at all - damn thing reads constantly from the disk and stutters a lot as a result. Remember enjoying it a lot, particularly the atmosphere in Barry's sections. Aside from a dumb section early on with a torture room where if you don't instantly hit the right switches you die, and the bit at the end where you have a timed escape with Claire and those invisible insta-kill enemies are there.

Currently replaying Tomb Raider (2013) on xbone because it was another cheap purchase. Highlights quite how much they shit the bed with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, because this is night and day in how Lara handles. Only one finnicky bit (I hit the guy in the face with a n00b tube so why am I dying in this cutscene?) as Lara clips neatly to objects during the "Fuck! Run!" bits and general traversal. Whereas in Shadow you're fucked if you don't hit something dead straight and/or make the inexplicable perfect timing (too early? Dead. Too late? Dead. Slightly at an angle? Dead). The tone of the game is utterly hilarious as well, Lara has her first kill moment and is horrified then before you know it she's practically shouting "fucking come get some, I'll take yer all on" like she's in a bar fight in Leeds. It gets proper Rambo II simulator about halfway through as you're just mowing down random idiots ziplining at you and whipping out explosive arrows. Entertaining, but impossible to take seriously!

[Searchlike]

Everyone should play Resident Evil 6, but not before watching a few advanced combat tutorials and playing as many rounds of Mercenaries as necessary to master the mechanics. There's a lot of fun to be had in No Hope mode once you know what you're doing. Vanquish is brilliant too, but RE6 has the most depth. Oh and hi, everyone. Wasn't planning to use this account, but I am not just going to sit and watch as people recommend skipping over one of my favorite games.

[To Far Away Times]

There's still Resident Evil Revelations 2 to look forward to. It's my second favorite of the over-the-shoulder REs, Jill-sandwiched between 4 and 5. My recent attempts with Silent Hill: Homecoming (which I dropped BTW) actually gave me the urge for a Rev2 replay. Too many games are vying for my time right now...

Of course, "play Vanquish" is also good advice.

I finished this one last week as well. It's pretty good. Kinda reins in the over the top parts of the action based RE games. It's budget nature shows a little bit with the reused areas but all in all its pretty solid. There's a few self aware one liner gems in this one like "Why couldn't it be a normal factory, why'd it have to be a fucked up factory?" And "What in a moist barrel of fucks?". Unlike RE5, This game knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be.

[Licorice]

Just finished Ys Origin. Yunica Normal.

Amazing game. I love the movement and the move-set, which grows at a good pace as you progress, with the encounter and dungeon design evolving appropriately. I found myself using everything in my arsenal, from the basic combo, to the thrust attack, to the aerial thrusts (both upward and downward), to the colored special moves and their charged versions. Yunica's red special is a shot, and the last move you get is a bomb, which really cements the game's genre as at least shmup adjacent if not an evolution. The boss design and camera reinforce this.

From this point of view, the game is competes with Nier Automata. Comparing the two, I found Origin's default overhead camera preferable to Automata's default player controllable 3rd person camera. Comparing like with like e.g. the fixed side scrolling camera set up both games sometimes adopt, reveals Automata's the movement as the more slippery of the two (I guess because it's not fixed speed movement like in Ys, but not direct analogue control either, there are animation switching delays). As a means of avoiding hits, I much prefer Ys' jump to Automata's dodge.

Anyway, I guess the move I used the least was uncharged yellow, but even that was super useful in some side scrolling sections to attack enemies the level above you. Learning to best use the basic attacks by just ensuring you commit at the right times and get the spacings correct was very fun.

Suffers the one same problem as many of these kinds of games do, which is you can just run around all the non boss enemies. Well, I shouldn't say all. Sometimes you must engage to activate a trigger of some kind. You also do need to be a certain level to meaningfully damage bosses, but there's always one particular mob in each area that gives the greatest XP (and SP) to time invested ratio, and you can avoid all the others. That being said, in the absence of foreknowledge, the natural way to play is to just clear everything, and it's very fun doing so, even though it's not much of a challenge (on Normal).

I liked that it was all just one big dungeon crawl. The dungeon had heaps of variety in terms of scenery and accompanying navigational hazards and puzzles, some taking cue from platformers (e.g. an underwater area, slippery surfaces with rolling spikes, and timed platforms) while others took cue from traditional dungeon crawling (e.g. teleporter puzzles and dead ends). I liked the shop at save point statues system. I liked the navigational puzzles mentioned above. I liked the abridged backtracking. Excellent design all around. All wheat, no chaff.

The aesthetic was all very cohesive. Falcom still milking Koshiro's work on Ys I and II, which is great (the only weird track choice was the jazzy one that plays when Yunica gets knighted). Dialogue did not detract from the pacing, and was generally well written. One part that stood out as strange was in the end when the four younger people declared their intent to stay on the surface and one of the elder members said "Oh we'll make sure to tell your loved ones they'll never see you again" . I understand more plot is revealed playing with the other characters, but what I did see so far did not do any disservice to Ys I and II and made for a good prequel.

My only regret is that I didn't play on Hard and that I overleveled against some of the bosses so was able to beat them the first time around (including final). I never did any grinding, but sometimes right before a boss I realized I was only a few kills away from a level up so went back to kill a few enemies. Probably wouldn't have mattered on Hard or up, but I trivialized some very fun challenge this way.

[Searchlike]

I just beat chapter 4 of Jake's campaign in RE6 solo as Sherry, No Hope mode. And I did so, stylishly. The game is eternally replayable in the right hands, if you haven't played it you're missing out.