I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscellanies

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
Searchlike
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Searchlike »

Sengoku Strider wrote:This was such a good writeup it made me impulse purchase a copy of Dai before I even replied to it. Not even joking:
That's the power of your writing, Sir Ilpalazzo. I had actually given up gaming until I read some of your posts about action games on another forum. I broke my long game hiatus by buying copies of Bayonetta, Vanquish and Ninja Gaiden II. I also found about this forum because of you. Cheers!

Back on topic, my only problem with Dai these days is how non-threatening the last level becomes once you learn how to deal with the Arremers. Safe spots also make an unsolicited appearance and kill some of the momentum, which is a shame.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Necronopticous »

If threatening arremers are your thing, I would definitely recommend Resurrection. :lol:
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Searchlike »

They most definitely ARE my thing, the Switch is not, though. :( Here's hoping for a port.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Mortificator »

How's Satan in Resurrection? It disappointed me a little how literally the first enemy you see in the series, the one who set everything in motion, got forgotten except for a cutscene in Chou.
Sengoku Strider wrote:Now I just need to find someone who can explain the Virtua Fighter 1-2 vs. Tekken 1-2 debate. Another one people have always had stark feelings about, but not able to actually articulate.
Woah, people like Tekken ONE? I know 2 has some appreciators (including myself) before the series hit it big with Tekken 3, but "laughable" and "hideous" seem to be the prevailing opinion of the original iron fist (including myself).
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sengoku Strider »

Mortificator wrote:How's Satan in Resurrection? It disappointed me a little how literally the first enemy you see in the series, the one who set everything in motion, got forgotten except for a cutscene in Chou.
Sengoku Strider wrote:Now I just need to find someone who can explain the Virtua Fighter 1-2 vs. Tekken 1-2 debate. Another one people have always had stark feelings about, but not able to actually articulate.
Woah, people like Tekken ONE? I know 2 has some appreciators (including myself) before the series hit it big with Tekken 3, but "laughable" and "hideous" seem to be the prevailing opinion of the original iron fist (including myself).
It was more like Virtua Fighter fans were always talking about it being 'light years beyond' Tekken as a series during the 32-bit era & after. I've always liked both series, though Tekken never really hit its stride for me until Dark Resurrection. But they both played almost identically as near as I could tell, right down to the nonsensical jumping mechanics, except Tekken had more juggles & no ring outs. I could never figure out what was supposed to put VF 1-2 so far ahead, and nobody ever seemed able to elaborate.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Mortificator »

My mistake! I mis-parsed your post as being VF1 vs. VF2 and Tekken 1 vs. Tekken 2.

As for your actual question I can't say much about early Virtua Figher, I don't think THAT series really hit its stride until VF4 Evolution.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

Sengoku Strider wrote:I've heard for years people arguing one way or the other between Cho & Dai, but never seen it laid out clearly like this.
Ilpalazzo's analysis is mostly spot on. Both games are great, don't ever doubt that. But I also don't think you could reasonably claim Chou is a better game than Dai. Daimakaimura is a genuine masterpiece, and in my opinion right up there in at least the top five arcade games ever.
How's Satan in Resurrection? It disappointed me a little how literally the first enemy you see in the series, the one who set everything in motion, got forgotten except for a cutscene in Chou.
Satan is in Resurrection. I don't really want to spoil anything, but it's a very memorable fight.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

Just checking in to let you guys know I still have a massive boner over this game.
Even with all the absolute bullshit thrown at you in the second loop. There's no way you can reliably 1LC this thing, way too much RNG that can just go south.

First loop is probably possible though.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Austin »

Sumez wrote:
How's Satan in Resurrection? It disappointed me a little how literally the first enemy you see in the series, the one who set everything in motion, got forgotten except for a cutscene in Chou.
Satan is in Resurrection. I don't really want to spoil anything, but it's a very memorable fight.
I believe he's also a boss fight in one of the alternate Arrange Mode routes in the GBA version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Not to mention he's featured as a main boss in Ghosts 'n Demons (a fan game, so not official, but figured I'd throw it out there anyway).
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Mortificator »

Austin wrote:I believe he's also a boss fight in one of the alternate Arrange Mode routes in the GBA version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
Nah, that's Red Arremer Joker. Which brings up a probable reason why Satan got sidelined: a different flying red demon who dives and occasionally spits projectiles became the breakout star. But thanks for the feedback.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

Austin wrote: I believe he's also a boss fight in one of the alternate Arrange Mode routes in the GBA version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Not to mention he's featured as a main boss in Ghosts 'n Demons (a fan game, so not official, but figured I'd throw it out there anyway).
Isn't Ghost 'n Demons kind of a remake of the Wonderswan game? The bits I've seen of it looked very similar.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

I feel strongth welling in my body

Finished the second loop of Resurrection today, on Legend difficulty of course.
What a god damn rush. The shadow versions of the stages are insane, so much trial and error, and stuff that can screw you over with no warning. It's a masochistic endeavor, to a much bigger extent than the regular versions which are just a tough game.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by BIL »

I've enjoyed reading along to you guys, is this what Let's Play aficionados feel? :lol: Mostly just glad there's some worthwhile buzz, I really wasn't expecting much after the initial reaction to its animation.
Searchlike wrote:They most definitely ARE my thing, the Switch is not, though. :( Here's hoping for a port.
I'd say odds are pretty good it'll make it to PS4/SW/XB1/Steam, although OFC, there's still the question of them being good ports. Currently mood is uneasily optimistic, IE, as good as it gets nowadays. :mrgreen:
Last edited by BIL on Wed Mar 10, 2021 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

It's running in the RE engine, so I'm assuming it's easily portable.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Austin »

I wanted to add earlier, I picked up GnG Resurrection over the weekend and put several hours into it. Even on the Knight difficulty, it's still very difficult. Probably the hardest for me to learn out of any of the games in the series, and that's saying something. I wasn't expecting that at all from a semi-mainstream release like this in this day and age.

Just made it to Stage 5 and had to put it down (will get back to it later). The first half of Stage 4 was.. ugh.. Let's just say it required a stupid amount of restraint. Those of you who have played it probably know exactly what I'm talking about, haha.

Since people are sharing their opinions, I guess I'll say a few things. Overall I think it's quite solid for what it is. Much of the visuals have really grown on me, and the first stage in particular looks very nice. The gameplay is solid as well and it definitely doesn't play around in the difficulty department, almost to a fault. I'd rather it be this way than be too easy, as the difficulty is what most know the series for. Glad it doesn't disappoint there.

I'd say my biggest complaints come from the fire rate and, ironically, the visuals. Many of my deaths were due to being at the mercy of the slow fire rate (hello, Stage 2's building section in particular) and you aren't given the flexibility to mash the way you can in Ghouls 'n Ghosts. It really makes sections that would otherwise be a breeze in other games, be significant challenges in this one. Regarding the visuals, they are amazing at parts, but can also look lazy too (the bugs in the elevator portion of Zone 3: Caverns of the Occult are good examples). The parts that look great look great, but the parts that look simple or flat, really look like such. It's just inconsistent, but at least the visuals "nail it" more often than not. Gameplay-wise, I do also see what some have written about the magic. The game definitely feels designed around it. I don't have a problem with that--each game has ideal play styles, and in this one, magic is just that.

That said, I'm still very happy with the game. It turned out a lot better than I ever expected.
Mortificator wrote:
Austin wrote:I believe he's also a boss fight in one of the alternate Arrange Mode routes in the GBA version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
Nah, that's Red Arremer Joker. Which brings up a probable reason why Satan got sidelined: a different flying red demon who dives and occasionally spits projectiles became the breakout star. But thanks for the feedback.
Ahhhh, damnit! Yeah, in my mind I was thinking Satan, but it's been a while since I got to it. Bummer. :(
Sumez wrote:
Austin wrote: I believe he's also a boss fight in one of the alternate Arrange Mode routes in the GBA version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Not to mention he's featured as a main boss in Ghosts 'n Demons (a fan game, so not official, but figured I'd throw it out there anyway).
Isn't Ghost 'n Demons kind of a remake of the Wonderswan game? The bits I've seen of it looked very similar.
Yep, it's a remake of the Wonderswan game, and it's excellent. A must-play for anyone that's a fan of the series.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

You'd think the challenge ends with beating all the shadow versions of every stage, right?

Nope. I'm currently facing what's probably the hardest single thing in the game, and I could have avoided it if I'd known about it earlier.
Spoiler
Every time you beat the final boss, the game resets your stage progress and moves on to the next "playthrough". Any stage you beat on the previous playthrough will get a little skull icon, and those can also accumulate over multiple playthroughs, though it's currently unkown if they have any affect above 2 or 3.

But each skull will function like a more traditional "arcade second loop" increment of the difficulty/rank, where enemies will be more aggressive and spawn more often, heavy enemies will have more HP, and certain enemies or stage hazards will have new tricks up their sleeve.

Beating the shadow version of stage 3-2 with one of these skulls is pure hell, due to additional flying pests, and new added hazards that you need to jump over.
And I don't just need to "beat it", I need to go through it multiple times in order to unlock a secret there required for the TLB.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by BIL »

Badass av switch, Ilpalazzo-san :cool: I would place him atop his mountain of skulls, but as you can tell by my sig, I am inordinately fond of boney-kuns :oops: Image Image
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

Beat the True Last Boss of Resurrection today, still playing exclusively on Legend mode with no "difficulty reductions" or magic metronome cheating.

What a god damn ride it's been these past 11 days!

(spoilerific boss pic inside)
Spoiler
Image
Overall I loved the game. Hard to say at this point where I'd place it in the series, but it's definitely top tier. It's not as well balanced and ingeniously thought out as Daimakaimura, and although it has had some amazing highs, it's a slightly bumpy ride, with a few of the challenges not feeling as great as they could.

For the best enjoyment of the game, I'd honestly probably recommend just leaving it at the first loop. Absolutely play on the highest difficulty - it's challenging, but great fun. But it's fine to just stick to the original seven stages unless you're a die-hard fan like me, and want to punish yourself.
The "second loop" isn't the classic Makaimura approach - you get a proper ending from the first loop, while you don't even get one from beating the second one.
The shadow versions of the stages feel more like B-sides than a fresh set of challenges. Like ideas the dev team had been tossing around during development, but felt were either too unfair or not as fun as what they ultimately went with. Some of them are actually easier than the regular versions of the same stage, but when they are harder they are often obnoxiously so. Lots of memorization is required, and strategic reliance on magic seems to be expected of you. It's often unfair, and although the feeling of achievement from beating a stage is still grand, it wears out quickly. In replaying some of the stages, it started annoying me more than it entertained me.
This also ties into the "third loop" shenanigans, where the skull versions of the stages feel untested. It's like the developers didn't care if there's even a consistent way through them at this point, and praying for favorable RNG becomes a major part of survival. Playing those "even harder" versions of stages should probably have been left optional, rather than serving to hinder the progress of reaching the TLB.

That's probably my only real criticism though. Playing this game has been a rush that I've been unable to remove myself from, and I'd probably return to it some day trying to improve my performance on the first loop, seeing how few deaths I can get through the entire thing on. It might also be easier to master in the future, when more people have started speedrunning it, and more consistent strategies have been worked out for mitigating RNG, compared to the home-"devisut" routes I was able to cook up on my own.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Jeneki »

How to time out Ghosts n Goblins with style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr_zxSqbRzQ&t=490s

(timestamp at 8:10)
Typos caused by cat on keyboard.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by EmperorIng »

Oh wow, is that an entirely new boss fight for the 'true' TLB? I thought it was going to be a straight palette swap.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

The boss fight isn't just a palette swap, no. It's nothing insanely impressive, and it's not that hard either, but I found it enjoyable enough, and it took me a few tries to get down. :)
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

I got every bee in the game, so I really have nothing left to do here outside of going for the 1 life clear (1 loop), which is what I'm doing now. It's funny, when we first started playing I was talking with some guys who are also in this thread, about how maybe some day someone will be nuts enough to do that. But I think it's a lot more feasible than you'd think when first starting out. TMR has already done it plenty of times.

I've been thinking about the magic system and how well designed it is.
When I first heard there was a "skill tree" in the game, my reaction was like you would expect, but it's really designed perfectly around how the game works.

You'll unlock magic very gradually, and instead of investing in specific branches, you can return spent points whenever you want and use them differently - instead they serve to limit which spells you can have equipped at the same time, so you will always be making decisions based on which challenges you are facing next, and what your current goal is.
And you can use magic any time you want, even in your undies. There's a spell that makes you completely invulnerable for a while, and several that neutralize every enemy on the screen. You'd think that makes you super overpowered, right? Well, think again (spoilers, you'll probably never even be using the former). Every single spell is designed to have some kind of drawback, and the slow charge leaves you so exposed that it's hard to utilize any of them well without a very solid plan, while the cooldown means that more powerful magic will take priority and restrict your access to less powerful ones for a while. The constant rush of enemies means you very rarely get a chance to just sit around and recover, and on several stages that never happens.
In fact, while learning some stages I ended up relying on certain spells for certain chokepoints only to later find out that not using magic there at all actually worked better, because you can go ahead more dauntlessly without it - It's a nice crutch to have while you're still learning, but I've also seen players who have been unwillingly giving themself a harder time due to relying on spells that aren't necessarily the best for that situation.

The bees that you need to find to unlock spells are very deftly handed out in the various levels, and increase in numbers gradually in way that heavily dictates what magic you potentially have access to at specific points in the game - even if you're the type of player who scrounge every inch of a level to find the hidden stuff. There's a very specific point in the game where you'll be able to unlock magic that is able to give you armor back (or even upgrade to a gold armor) whenever you use it. You'd think that's incredibly powerful. And it kind of is, but at the point where you get it, it's also almost "required", and of course the next few stages are designed in a way that it, surprisingly, doesn't even give you as much as an advantage as you'd think, and you might be better off relying on other spells instead - but on the other hand, a lot of the magic you unlock will give you a bigger advantage when you go back and replay stages you have already beaten.

It's just really well thought through.
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sir Ilpalazzo »

Played through Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins and (the first playthrough of) Resurrection, too.

Goku Makaimura Kai is a real classic. Even putting aside the excellent level design, the game's aesthetics are wonderful - the music fits the action and the classic GnG vibe perfectly, the 1-1 theme is the best ever rendition of the GnG theme, and the levels all look completely gorgeous, filled with amazing art and environmental design (especially impressive because readability isn't sacrificed as a result - though the 30 FPS cost is a bit of a shame).

My biggest takeaway from Goku Kai has always been that it's the fullest realization of Super's double jump mechanic - which is very enjoyable in its originating game, but feels a bit wasted due to how relatively lacking that game is compared to the rest of its series. I still feel that way after my recent playthroughs - I love that the game is able to merge together, to some degree, Ghouls' more combat-oriented gauntlets and Super's more intricate platforming - but I've realized that it does change the scope of the game in ways I don't entirely like, too. Ultimate isn't bogged down to the same degree Super is at all, but you do get the sense that it holds back on its enemy count and enemy placements because the player is already being taxed with so many things requiring proper use of the double jump, so the action never feels quite as immediate as Ghouls. It's not bad design, and it does lend the game its own unique character, making it stand out in the series (it's still my second favorite, probably) but I think that is most of the reason I like Ghouls 'n Ghosts more in the end.

I still like the flight mechanic, although I've always been a bit shaky on it. Ultimately I think having such a powerful tool that can be easily stripped away from the player if you make a mistake is pretty satisfying (in a classic Mario-like way, only more demanding), and that goes a long way towards making it feel like using the dragon shield in quick bursts to circumvent particularly nasty things feels less like cheating and more like subversion on the player's part, which feels empowering - even if normal platforming is almost always more fun than flying over things. (And the angelic armor, which grants the player infinite flight but is lost in one hit, feels pretty much perfectly balanced for the kind of game GnG is. I wonder if the game would be better off if the armor was the only source of flight and not the more easily-retainable but weaker shield.) There are enough bits late in the game where there's some ambiguity on whether you're expected to be flight-skipping certain things or taking them on with your normal moveset that I'm a little torn on the mechanic, but even the oddly-short stage 4 is interesting in that it seems built around both methods of play.

I think the boss fights are overall the best in the series. With their slightly greater complexity and higher level of difficulty, they feel like they'd be out of place in a more strictly arcade-like game, but they're still fast, satisfying, and generally dangerous fights. Though, to scrub it up a little, the final boss feels like a truly absurd difficulty spike if you end up having to fight him without the wave magic - I really don't know how to appropriately deal with his moving spreadshots without being able to immediately cheese him to death with repeated point-blank magic blasts and I'm not entirely sure it's even a good fight.

I had never really played the original Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins before last month, so I gave it a shot. I don't think there's much to say on it beyond that I'm glad the Kai version was made. The original UGnG is probably my least favorite game in the series. The backtracking and the requirement of specific magic spells (necessitating armor) to get to certain hidden items, the lack of indication of exactly where the missing rings you need are, the final few rings being hidden behind 100% chest completion is all shaky stuff - but worse than any of that, I think, is the difficulty tuning. The absurd amount of enemies, while honestly more fun than the Kai version's toned down counts in some spots, feels like it's only really balanced around the standard mode (with a default 3 HP + more for upgraded armors and on-the-spot respawns). I get the sense that, given that the game's structure makes it unsuited to a single-sitting playthrough (and therefore a real "1CC", even though the game vaguely promotes that style of play through classic score marking upon the use of continues), they decided to ratchet up the difficulty in moment-to-moment play in order to replicate the overwhelming feeling most players probably got from the GnG games upon first encountering them, then mitigated that with the standard difficulty mode's forgiving respawns.

I think it's an interesting angle for a revival game of this sort to take - attempting to recapture the feeling of the original games without necessarily fully imitating their form - and it's not done ineptly, but ultimately the Kai version reworking the game into one that sticks to its roots is for the best. Original UGnG feeling a tiny bit like the scarier, more combat-focused classic Metroid I mused over while getting really into the first three Metroid games this time last year is actually pretty cool, but I don't think it's a totally successful experiment. (It is - or was, at least - probably the hardest game in the series when played on arcade / ultimate difficulty, though, so it does have that going for it.)

I've still only given Resurrection one real playthrough (and even now I haven't delved into the shadow stages), so I can't go on at length about it yet. My first impressions on it - it's excellent. I think it's interesting how it feels a bit like Ultimate in that it feels more built around funky platforming setpieces despite having Ghouls' more limited moveset (no double jump), but the pace of the action feels closer to Ghouls 'n Ghosts than any other game in the series, which I like. A few disconnected thoughts:

There are a few bits that feel particularly off to me. Maybe I'm just nitpicking. Dealing with the Ghouls roots in lower stage 1 feels a little tedious - they block you off even more than in that game and slow you down for longer. The ogre house in upper stage 2 is pretty awesome - I love how heavily this game incorporates and reworks setpieces from the original two games - but similarly, I think if you end up in a situation where you have an ogre firing down on you from above, it kind of sucks that your only real option is to wait for him to start moving again. It doesn't bog things down in the way that the ogres' random movement in the original game can but it can still be a bit of a drag. What's up with the sandstorm bit in lower stage 2, where the flies periodically charge at you from the left? I feel like I have to be missing something there, because it seems like the only way to avoid damage is to have magic charged and ready to be fired off once they lunge.

I've seen a lot of complaints about the movement speed feeling slower than in previous games. I think this is like 60% just a psychological effect from the game being in widescreen. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass but I think having that much playfield visible and scrolling at all times makes it feel like things are moving slower than they really are (compared to a game that displays in 4:3). This doesn't make the game worse or anything, and it's not really even something you have to adjust to, but I think it does have an effect on how you perceive the game and gives it a different feel compared to the originals.

I'm a little shaky on some of the boss fights. They're probably the hardest the series has seen. Most of them are pretty cool just for the spectacle, but I think there are some telegraphing problems in a few of the fights - again, though I could be missing something, dodging Cerberus's full screen, fire-trailing run and his pounce can feel like a crapshoot, some of Astaroth's attacks can overlap in nasty ways (especially if you end a phase at a bad time and the platforms you're shooting him from drop straight down into one of his offscreen fire waves), the dragon can kind of screw you over if he pops up from a bad corner of the screen before you have the chance to get into a good position. This is probably where the other 40% of complaints about the player speed come from. The stages feel basically fine but some of the bosses are odd difficulty spikes in ways that feel pretty new to the series - but this could just be me not getting certain things; I didn't catch on to the best ways to deal with the cyclops' attacks until the refights in the final stage, so I'm not going to condemn anything preemptively.

The overall difficulty level in moment-to-moment play definitely feels higher than the previous games, which of course is saying a lot. Legend is the hardest the series has ever been, possibly putting aside UGnG's arcade / ultimate mode, and Knight is still pretty formidable (though I sort of wish there were less sub-checkpoints - as awkward of a decision as it is, I think I get why Knight's retry menu defaults you to the primary checkpoints instead of the more frequent banners of rebirth - it's an attempt to get you to play the game "classically", though looking at all the complaints online I doubt anyone really sees it that way). I deeply enjoyed Legend mode, though I can see how Knight might feel more true to the previous games' tunings in a lot of ways.

Stage 4's eyeball maze (and its total lack of a checkpoint until the boss fight) was truly terrifying. Maybe the most intimidating bit in the entire series at first. Stage 3's pitch-black platforming was initially disheartening too, as was the random Arremer before its autoscroller (at least until I realized you can, apparently, despawn him by fucking around before the ladder leading up to his platform). The degree to which the combat in this game for some of these bits relies on you keeping screen-clearing magic in reserve is interesting, and though I don't think I like that as much as classic GnG action (it's a bit reminiscent of original UGnG), it's still pretty exciting given the random enemy spawns that push you to move forward and not turtle too much. I also like that you naturally unlock more spells as the game goes on and that the game feels well-balanced around that - they definitely seem to expect you to have the frog and medusa spells by the time you hit stage 3.

I was worried about the game not having any semblance of an arcade structure, but it doesn't feel held back by it. The difficulty tuning doesn't exactly feel like an arcade or arcade-like game but I don't think it's out of whack (excessively hard) even on Legend mode - at least, again, on the first playthrough. Maybe the shadow stages will change my mind, but it does seem to say something that you get a full ending sequence after just the first playthrough this time, unlike before.
Searchlike wrote:
Sengoku Strider wrote:This was such a good writeup it made me impulse purchase a copy of Dai before I even replied to it. Not even joking:
That's the power of your writing, Sir Ilpalazzo. I had actually given up gaming until I read some of your posts about action games on another forum. I broke my long game hiatus by buying copies of Bayonetta, Vanquish and Ninja Gaiden II. I also found about this forum because of you. Cheers!

Back on topic, my only problem with Dai these days is how non-threatening the last level becomes once you learn how to deal with the Arremers. Safe spots also make an unsolicited appearance and kill some of the momentum, which is a shame.
Wow, thanks! (To the other people who liked my rambling post, too.) I'm glad and surprised to hear that!
jepjepjep wrote: The one in stage 6 is a good trap, but you can come up with similar strategies to deal with them. I think the one you're referring to can be manipulated by walking to the right underneath him, which activates him to spit down at you, then walk to the left, which activates him to walk rightward giving enough time to go up the ladder. The timing is strict, but it works very consistently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0qwJEQHHsA&t=529s
This is awesome! I got this to work several times, and I'm surprised to know there's a reproducible way of getting past this smoothly. This'll definitely make future runs on this game just a bit more confident; it's easily one of the biggest trouble spots.
BIL wrote:Badass av switch, Ilpalazzo-san :cool: I would place him atop his mountain of skulls, but as you can tell by my sig, I am inordinately fond of boney-kuns :oops: Image Image
I actually want to make this swap now, hmm. Would definitely read better but might be tougher to make. I'll look into it!
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Rastan78
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Rastan78 »

Goku Makaimura Kai is a real classic
I'm glad there are others that feel this way. I've always thought that it held up as one of the best in the series, and by extension, holds up among the best action platformers of all time. I had always wished they would do some kind of console or PC port with higher resolution and 60 fps so more people would play it.

I differ a bit on my appreciation of the original Ultimate. This is probably largely because I played it on release before Kai existed. When Kai came out it felt like they had been reading my mind and addressed every annoyance and issue I had. It felt a bit more like icing on the cake at the time though, since I had already really enjoyed the first version warts and all. Either way Kai is the arcade style experience that this game should have been in the first place.

Another thing that probably fueled my appreciation for the original was that there was a huge drought of arcade style gaming at this time. You didn't have the Renaissance of 2D indie platformers yet or the revival of fighting games triggered by SFIV. It honestly felt more unlikely to get a GnG game of that quality then in 2006 than it did to get Resurrection 15 years later.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by BulletMagnet »

Resurrection is headed to PS4, XB1 and Steam, though no specific date has been announced.
Searchlike
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Searchlike »

BulletMagnet wrote:Resurrection is headed to PS4, XB1 and Steam, though no specific date has been announced.
Great, now I'm just hoping that Bayonetta 3 sucks ass so I don't have to buy a Switch. :lol: Those Sega Ages ports look great though. :(
Spoiler
I don't really want Bayonetta 3 to suck, people.
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Sumez
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sumez »

Sir Ilpalazzo wrote: Goku Makaimura Kai is a real classic.
Considering how much I agree with in your earlier post about the rest of the series, I'm surprised to hear you say this.

Playing Goku Kai, I really burned out and ultimately felt devastated by the end of the first loop. It was frustrating and way more difficult than any of the predecessors. I felt that it didn't really mesh well into the arcade formula that the Kai version tried to retrofit it into, and even though I didn't like the inventory, stage replaying, and secret hunting from the original version, playing Kai really made me feel like the game just works better for that design.
Looking back at my five year old post on the game, I had a few other issues with it that seem to contradict several of your points, but the game is already too distant for me to remember in detail. At least all of the things I'd pointed out there were fixed in GnGR, and then some.

It may have been a mistake for me to try and play it like an arcade game. Because a lot of what wore me out was simply the thought of eventually trying to 1CC it, which felt completely unsurmountable. And as already documented, I really love resurrection, and that one definitely does not lend itself to be played like an arcade game, instead favouring hundreds of deaths with infinite lives on the same checkpoint until you finally make it through.
But then on the other hand, I also feel like I could go for a 1 life clear in Resurrection's first loop, and that's still something I wouldn't want to consider in Goku Kai.
What's up with the sandstorm bit in lower stage 2, where the flies periodically charge at you from the left? I feel like I have to be missing something there, because it seems like the only way to avoid damage is to have magic charged and ready to be fired off once they lunge.
Just kill them before they lunge at you? Finding a good place to crouch and just fire left works well every time, and I guess the more expert trick is to handle this section in a way that stops your forward momentum as little as possible.
The overall difficulty level in moment-to-moment play definitely feels higher than the previous games, which of course is saying a lot. Legend is the hardest the series has ever been, possibly putting aside UGnG's arcade / ultimate mode, and Knight is still pretty formidable (though I sort of wish there were less sub-checkpoints - as awkward of a decision as it is, I think I get why Knight's retry menu defaults you to the primary checkpoints instead of the more frequent banners of rebirth - it's an attempt to get you to play the game "classically", though looking at all the complaints online I doubt anyone really sees it that way). I deeply enjoyed Legend mode, though I can see how Knight might feel more true to the previous games' tunings in a lot of ways.
I didn't try Knight until after I'd beaten the TLB on Legend, and honestly coming from Legend, Knight just feels incredibly easy to the point where I think it allows you to get through every stage without ever having to learn how to play them. The extra hit point is a fine way to lower the difficulty and make it more beginner friendly, but the abundance of checkpoints would be fine if the game didn't give you infinite lives, but as it stands you can basically just bang your head against the wall until you reach the end, not a fun way to master a game. The only checkpoint that feels "fine" in Knight IMO is the one right before the final autoscroller on stage 4.
(at least until I realized you can, apparently, despawn him by fucking around before the ladder leading up to his platform).
Did you find a way to do this consistently? Because even though speedrunners have been able to avoid him with some consistency it seems no one have been able to figure out exactly what makes the difference so far.
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Sima Tuna
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Re: I've been to hell and back, and other Makaimura Miscella

Post by Sima Tuna »

Ghosts and Goblins Resurrection is now $20 on the eshop.
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