BareKnuckleRoo wrote:What's your impression on The Ignition Factor?
Never played it - it's one of those games whose name I see every once in a while, upon which I avow to try it out, only to promptly neglect said vow. I'll try it out soon!
BareKnuckleRoo wrote:I never got very good at the game [Zombies Ate My Neighbors], and I'm aware some levels have "safe" hostages that can't be killed, but I think I enjoy the game a lot less because of the non-standard gameovers you get from losing all hostages. It feels surprisingly hard to keep them alive while also trying to keep yourself alive and not rushing in to take damage. Spoiled the game for me I think.
Understandably so, I've dropped the games a few times over the course of the years for the exact same reason. What really helped me was
this excellent speedrun with its
attendant notes. For the purpose of a regular 1CC run (as opposed to saving every victim, which was the goal for this particular player), it is not necessary to follow every step delineated there, but there is one
crucial piece of advice: the maximum number of enemies at any given time is six. If you know of a victim that has a regrettable tendency of getting killed immediately when scrolling it on-screen, try to walk around in a circle beforehand to spawn six zombies/mummies/fishmen/... and lead them on a merry chase before collecting the victim. To prevent the fishmen from leaping away after swiping at you, freeze them in place with the fire extinguisher.
It's also a good idea to have a piece of paper handy with notes describing when to use running shoes and potions as the vast number of levels and anxiety might cause sudden forgetfulness. Between those two things, the game becomes significantly more manageable (although still very hard in my opinion, as some aspects cannot be controlled so easily, and losing 2 or 3 victims out of perhaps 5 or so in a single stage is still an ever-looming threat).
All of the LucasArt games for the system have a steep challenge despite their divergences in quality, interestingly enough - the Star Wars games and Ghoul Patrol are pretty bad or terrible (namely Empire Strikes Back), Zombies Ate My Neighbors vacillates right on the verge between masterfully crafted horror and sheer frustration, Metal Warriors is mostly superb.
kitten wrote:have you watched the OVA for the manga that it's based on?
No - I almost guessed there might be some lore to the game, as there are some small story elements unfolding in the stages themselves as well as in-between, but I'm not familiar with the material whatsoever.
If I may ask you a completely different question: do you have any suggestions as to how to get better in Umihara Kawase? Did you find that spending time/practicing made the game steadily easier or was there a eureka moment where everything fell into place? I can't prevent myself from clumsily dropping down like a stone when trying to gracefully swinging from one obstacle to the next, and while that offers a certain amusement, I'd like to remedy that.
Bassa-Bassa wrote:How exactly are the controls and the graphics improved in the US Actraser? Would love to know - I found the JP version's action scenes already too easy.
There's a comprehensive overview
here. Mortificator pointed out the difference in the controls; regarding the graphics, quite a few enemies either have more frames of animation, more graphical details, altogether different miens/accoutrements/etc., a lot of minor things were ameliorated. And my respect for you finding the action stages simple, I found them to be remarkably nasty!
FinalBaton wrote:That's one I rented as a kid, and it left a haunting impression on me. The '7 sins'' theme was so vile, complete with very organic looking stages and monsters, and especially : disgusting bosses. And because it's got this religious backbone, it has this gravitae to it. And this heavy occult, brooding atmosphere, yet is carried by promise of redemption and salvation, creating this weird duality. Peace and benevolance via sword slashing action, now how about that! Extremely eerie, I'll never forget seeing this arch-angel warrior (well, this god in physical form I guess) descending upon that wretched world, his wings being touched by the fading rays of sunlight as he dove deep into the dark pits of hell, and unleashing his wrath by slicing every single living creatures with his holy blade, exercing revenge under that biblical soundtrack. Fucking epic!!
Wholeheartedly agree with all of the above. Where something like the brisk, looser interpretation of the Castlevania formula as seen in the grandiose MD Vampire Killer fits that system like a tailor-made suit, ActRaiser 2 is in all of its facets a genuine SFC game - surging, plangent audio alternating between pompous departure and inutterable melancholy (my favourite being
Palace); lurid monsters inhabiting depraved hell holes, orphaned places of former glory and verdant forests alike; ponderous, yet surgically acurate action that expunges the fetid sore of Satan himself in old-testamentary implacability, it's an indispensable experience, for sure.
Also many thanks for all the kind words! 'twas a lot of fun to bring the list together, even if it is an arduous process.
I'm also very happy to be able to add
Knights of the Round to the main list! After drilling every section of the game with savestates these last few days, I've finally had a superb run where I not only managed to clear the game on one life, yet also found one of those elusive extends for the first time ever (in stage 3, right below the horse). Since this is such an unusual game compared to any other brawler I've played before, a few more musings:
- I've went through a phase where I had to intentionally play slightly worse, as contradictory as that may sound. Generally speaking, you don't get health back after finishing a stage. For most of the game, this is pretty irrelevant as the end-of-stage bonus will give you enough points for a level-up, which refills your health. The exception to the rule is the fourth stage - if you play well enough (kill enemies of the same type in succession, split up all the treasure chests and food items for more points, take out several enemies with one special), you'll get the level-up during the boss fight (or perhaps even before that), meaning you don't get another one after finishing the stage. This means you have to survive one of the toughest parts of the game with whatever health you finished the Phantom fight. It might work out fine, I don't trust myself nearly enough, however, and made sure to enter the fifth stage with full health.
- For all the things I slowly but inexorably learned to enjoy, the RNG and small foibles are definitely not among them. Some examples: the aforementioned rare/random (?) extend, other random items such as level-up staffs, crystal orbs and the occasional food from enemies. Random behaviour of the fruit baskets: sometimes they split up into six pieces, usually into four, every so often into one measly apple. Attacks that either cross up or hit "inside" the character and are thus unblockable: Braford's dive kicks, the odd thrown hatchet from Sky Walkers & Phantom, those horrid flames from both Arlon & Garibaldi, even the stalwart Sword Men have the ability to strike at unblockable distances. Braford and Garibaldi are the worst offenders in my opinion, especially since it doesn't seem to be all that intentional, although I might be wrong here.
- There is one more thing I want to criticize: Mask Men/Sky Walkers/Phantom, Braford and Balbars are invincible during particular frames/actions. With Balbars, it is both predictable and properly set up (when he tries to grab the player), with the rest of the bunch, it comes off as a glitch. They make a sound as though they're hit, they react as though they're hit (by bouncing away), you see the little graphic as though they're hit, they merely refrain to lose health from it. I've seen Braford ignore up to three hits in a row, it's incredibly aggravating.
- My favourite fights are those against Balbars & Muramasa. The former, while not inordinately difficult, perfectly exemplifies the "block & retaliate" core mechanic insofar as you're constantly doing the one or the other with barely any moment of surcease. The latter administers the antidote to some of the poor RNG decisions with the correct shaping of chaos & uncertainty. You don't want to stand your ground here but learn to keep the right space where you can block and attack while maintaining the auspicious distance to strike back. Unlike Garibaldi's fatigable riposting (he loves to "counterblock" two or even three times in tandem), Muramasa's nimble parry game will quickly be resolved in one of the contestants getting hit whereupon the roundelay starts anew.
- Don't show too much trepidation in using the special attack to knock out a trio of deadly enemies. Getting hit will take away anything from 40-75% of your health depending on the situation, using your special is a sensible investment that not only instantly defuses the lingering threat, it also might give you the chance to harry a few enemies to death afterwards. You definitely shouldn't use the special constantly and/or against set-ups that can easily be handled with your block, but if you play permanently well, there should be more than enough health for otherwise harrowing skirmishes (such as the one in stage 5, or even some of the battles within the castle in stage 3). I had to learn that the hard way myself.
- A lot of mix-ups can be circumvented by chary screen scrolling or perfectly spaced "activation hits". Some examples: the Tall Man in stage 5 (you don't have to fight the two Falcons at the same time) as well as the Bird Men afterwards (fight them one at a time); don't provoke the first Tall Man in stage 6 in order to fight against the four other enemies separately; the final two Tall Men in the last stage can be goaded into action one at a time as well; use a special for both so that you keep the barrels with health intact for the fights afterwards!
- You obviously also want to incorporate the two fixed level-up staffs (especially the one in the final stage) as well as the crystal orbs correctly into your game plan. Doing so drastically lowers the difficulty of the stage 6 encounter towards the end of the stage.
- Amusingly, the more I played the game, the worse I got at just initiating combat for myself. While this is the optimal modus operandi against Bird Men and Tall Men, for example, a flip side presents itself: the Magicians, by all means a trivial enemy type, caused me more and more problems the better I got at the game (I never got hit by them when I played the game at first, whereas most everything else incessantly killed me). In a similar vein, the Mask Man/Sky Walker enemy should be chased down relentlessly as they have no qualms reacting with frame-perfect attacks when you lower your guard.
- I really wish I would've been able to adequately implement the back attack and the evasion attack, both of which are incredibly tight, input-wise. Playing as Percival also was too daunting for me from a survival perspective, I never got consistent at his dash game. I'll definitely experiment a bit more whenever I try out the original arcade game!
- Overall, I'm elated that I persevered once more - I don't think it quite makes it into my top 5 SFC brawlers, it's assuredly in my top 10, however. The visuals are outstanding as per usual with Capcom games, the soundtrack also fits the theme perfectly. Some of the abovementioned quirks should've been adressed, I think, and the difficulty overall is hectoring (doubly so as this game is so unorthodox, meaning you can't transfer your former knowledge nearly as easily) to a point that it might deject players, getting proficient at reading distances in order to deflect attacks and then retaliate by whirling around a puissant broadsword on the other hand is incredibly satisfying.