Dragon Quest also had Hoimi -> Behoimi and later Mera -> Merami -> Merazoma.
FinalBaton wrote:
We also bought a Star Wars tabletop book, which was fairly well done to be honest.
Was it D6 Star Wars, by any chance? That tabletop game formed the foundation for the entirety of the pre-Disney Expanded Universe and is arguably one of the least appreciated aspects of the franchise, though it's well known that Zahn used materials from the game as reference when writing his celebrated Thrawn books.
The next time you see someone whining about how the Alliance crest used to be the Marek family crest, remind them that RPG sourcebooks established it as having come from the seal of the Old Republic more than ten years earlier.
RBelmont wrote:A little math shows that if you overclock a Pi3 to about 3.4 GHz you'll start to be competitive with PCs from 2002. And you'll also set your house on fire
Oh ha ha, beat me to it. Yeah I made that thread a few weeks ago when we were first planning and voting on the game and/or setting we'd use.
Fun fact: as per my suggestion, we actually used the shmups forum top shmups voting system to decide heheh.
FinalBaton wrote: Best ones we did was Phantasy IV based universe with the appropriate races and classes etc. and interstellar travel. No joke! We were obsessed with that game back then, haha.
Sounds rad. I love that setting (as my avatar may attest). In fact, I think Sci-Fantasy might be my favorite kind of setting. Really has it all :3.
Obiwanshinobi wrote:
Squire Grooktook wrote: Some buddies and I are planning a Gurps campaign set in a Mad Max and Hokuto No Ken styled post-apocalyptic wasteland (main gimmick being half the planet is a scorched desert, the other half is a perpetual nuclear-winter tundra).
There's a Polish SF comic book (drawn by Kasprzak, I can't remember who was the writer) about a planet harshly split in half by some global disaster, where one half powers their engines by solar energy, while the other half does it by octane fuel (from industrially farmed plants, no less). In short, nihil novi sub sole.
That's an interesting idea. I'll be sure to mention it to the game master.
RegalSin wrote:Japan an almost perfect society always threatened by outsiders....................
Instead I am stuck in the America's where women rule with an iron crotch, and a man could get arrested for sitting behind a computer too long.
Going back to arcade games, I'm still playing Strider Hiryu 2. Learning to collect hidden items instead of rushing has definitely helped my overall rank, though it doesn't seem possible to get S without the no-miss bonus. I feel less conflicted about using the boost after having seen iconoclast earn S ranks with it in his run, despite the heavy slowdown it causes in the otherwise fantastic Playstation port.
And man, that mammoth fight. (Many thanks to Skykid and other contributors to the dedicated thread from 2013.)
RBelmont wrote:A little math shows that if you overclock a Pi3 to about 3.4 GHz you'll start to be competitive with PCs from 2002. And you'll also set your house on fire
WelshMegalodon wrote:Was it D6 Star Wars, by any chance? That tabletop game formed the foundation for the entirety of the pre-Disney Expanded Universe and is arguably one of the least appreciated aspects of the franchise, though it's well known that Zahn used materials from the game as reference when writing his celebrated Thrawn books.
The next time you see someone whining about how the Alliance crest used to be the Marek family crest, remind them that RPG sourcebooks established it as having come from the seal of the Old Republic more than ten years earlier.
I bought it around 1997. It's at my parents' place, I'll snap a pic tonight as I'm swinging by there
WelshMegalodon wrote:Going back to arcade games, I'm still playing Strider Hiryu 2. Learning to collect hidden items instead of rushing has definitely helped my overall rank, though it doesn't seem possible to get S without the no-miss bonus. I feel less conflicted about using the boost after having seen iconoclast earn S ranks with it in his run, despite the heavy slowdown it causes in the otherwise fantastic Playstation port.
And man, that mammoth fight. (Many thanks to Skykid and other contributors to the dedicated thread from 2013.)
I avoid Boost on principle, it just looks and feels so dumb. FROOT ROLLUPS BOMBERRR nah, I wanna slice n dice like a human chainsaw powered by rice.
Superb game otherwise though, on my ninja sidescrolling shortlist for sure.
If you get a pre-owned copy, make sure it includes the 99% perfect (in some ways better!) port of the original Strider too! It was promoted as a bonus disc FO FREE in NTSCU, but in Japan it's legit one-half of the Strider Hiryu I & II collection. Accept no compromise.
Wow the game is expensive on Ebay now! I think I will wait till my next japanese auction shopping binge to get it. Will probably be a good deal cheaper than on Ebay.com
The Genesis port will have to do in the meantime!
Hey look at that, the jp cover art for the ps1 port is awesome!
wjiaooiiafnaifn accidentally closed tab again and lost hours of text again
just got to the true final boss of Dawn of Sorrow and quit there
-new artstyle sucks but spritework is good
-music is good too
-like the expansions to the tactical soul system, especially doppelganger
-special weapon attacks are more good for i-frames than actual damage
-room layout is probably the best out of the IGAvanias I played so far, enemies are decently placed as the layout takes advantage of the enemies' attacks
-actual backgrounds are par for the course save for some exceptions (snow village, mad garden, hell)
-bosses are creative and fairly challenging, except for the true last boss who is a massive bulletsponge and boring to fight
-weapon balance is on the better side
-weapon synthesis incentivizes grinding souls for better equipment, as handplaced high-tier weapons are barely present
-i could run through the entire game with fairly mediocre equipment (whip knuckles and battle axe) which was fairly challenging, but I had to quit at the final boss because I simply couldn't deal enough damage and didn't want to potionfeed my way through
-magic seals are pointless and ice blocks could have been utilized more
-story and the characters are whatever
-top screen which displays stats and the map is incredibly useful
Dawn of Sorrow offers some quality of life improvements and some good levels after Aria, but the gear curve should have been fixed alongside scrapping weapon synthesis in favor of placing high-tier weapons in more secret hard-to-reach places, and the magic seal shit should've been done away with entirely
In some aspects it's better than Aria, in some it's worse, though I think the good outweighs the bad more in Aria than it does in Dawn
Xyga wrote:
chum wrote:the thing is that we actually go way back and have known each other on multiple websites, first clashing in a Naruto forum.
Liar. I've known you only from latexmachomen.com and pantysniffers.org forums.
A while back I got Ys Origin as part of a humble bundle and while I could see promise with the combat engine, the endless yak yak cutscenes and annoying protagonist ruined it for me.
Not so with Oath in Felghana! The pacing is so much more straightforward, the action seems more intense (maybe just superior combat animations for Adol?), and I never realized just how much I missed silent protagonists in videogames. They reduce the cutscene yak yah by half while I just imagine my avatar talks like Pootie Tang the whole time.
It's also kicking my ass in a very satisfying way in normal mode.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.
An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.
Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
Been playing Crazy Taxi [PC].
I'm out of practice, didn't break $10k once today in 3 runs [one aborted midway through], although I did get within $100 of it. I had a route, stuck to it well initially, and then completely lost the pace, and a really unfortunate wallstick murdered the clock for me.
I really need to optimize my stops, and I kind of need to resist the urge to slide into some stops.
Durandal wrote:
Ghegs wrote:
Durandal wrote:wjiaooiiafnaifn accidentally closed tab again and lost hours of text again
Any halfway decent modern browser can restore the closed tab and what you had typed to text fields. Ctrl+Shift+T in Chrome and Firefox.
Shit, I wish I knew this sooner.
I'm glad this board doesn't have some fancy text edit widget/dynamically loaded one. I've been on too many sites where I've typed up a post and then I accidentally close it and then I reopen the tab, my post flashes by for a second, and then I'm greeted with a blank text area.
Come check out my website, I guess. Random stuff I've worked on over the last two decades.
Am I the only one who hates the Tower of Latria levels in Demon's Souls?
Xyga wrote:It's really awesome how quash never gets tired of hammering the same stupid shit over and over and you guys don't suspect for second that he's actually paid for this.
EmperorIng wrote:I think Oath benefits by being a remake of a game from the 80s, when straight-forward action + less talky-talky were more the norm. Great game!
The funny thing is that Adol wasn't a silent protagonist is the original Ys III.
Finished up Mini Ninjas in just under 20 hours, medium difficulty, almost no item or magic use outside of the absolute necessities (a bit at the very end). Despite the completely useless gameplay systems design, it's a mostly pleasant enough journey. Even so most of the landscapes and visuals seem uninspired (compared to something like Tenchu titles on the original PlayStation). The final level has some memorable things but its oppressive atmosphere seemed like a poor way to depart the game.
Combat was always a chore, as the magic side is basically useless and expensive to pursue as you would need to refill it. That leaves melee and one archer - and there's a noticeable split in effectiveness between "Futo" and "everybody else;" Futo seems to be the only character who can beat giants. He seems slow to run (though this may be a trick of a changing FOV) and isn't quite so handy when vaulting up walls or getting in tight spaces, so I constantly moved back to a faster character. Combat's not very technically refined either, though I kept being surprised in the late game how useful the stun move is - you can even use it to demolish archer towers in one pop. Damage dealt seems somewhat random; a rush-shove animated attack with Futo sometimes pops an enemy, and sometimes it won't. Distance seems to allow multiple collision frames sometimes; giants can often be hit at awkward times (including after they've popped!) and their big swings cancelled if you have an unblockable QTE prompt queued up (though actually this was my favorite combat mechanic, excepting that giants can still swing unpredictably and a bit too fast to react to). I didn't see a way to precisely control the appearance of certain moves, i.e. Futo's hammer circle swing. Kiting enemies also plays a huge role as you run through a hail of arrows in many late fights (but this still wasn't enough to make me switch away from Futo and his ability to quickly pop many enemies). Boss fights are mostly QTEs, with the most interesting boss fight (at the water castle) coming about halfway through the game. The second to last was a mostly useless QTE fight, and the final boss is just not interesting (barrier, dude in middle, reflect stun, loses spheres and gets faster, uninspired crap).
It is a shame that there's so much emphasis put on searching through the environment for flowers, coins, and caged animals, and other stuff, since it doesn't build up to anything - especially on the Achievements-free PC platform - and you don't need any of it. It is just a way to push the player into situations that the movement scheme (wall running, jumping, climbing) don't handle elegantly. I still collected all the statues, and almost all of everything else. I used only a couple health potions through the game (until the endgame), used sunrays to kill ghosts, and fought the old fashioned way the rest of the time. You can even make a potion to turn into a fish (I just realized I didn't even try that out, or most of the other potions); the team here was certainly not wanting for inspiration, but for how to make those things needful. "Sneaky" ninja moves, like Tora's heavily damaging short range rush/backstab, are often not possible to execute well due to forced head-on confrontations and scant cover; even if you try, it's usually faster and easier just to roll in with Futo because you almost always fight groups of enemies, and you'd just stealth kill one member of that group. Playing normally should let anybody hit the max level early, featuring a thoughtlessly wasted capstone ability: Now you can possess the most useless small grunts! I determined that it didn't work on the fast teleporting guys and so never tried it again. (Who cares about taking over fireworks archers? Archery in this game is an evil thing.) In fact, I didn't even use the power attacks.
It is also a shame that the game has a shared meter for magic and running stamina, with magic uses actually reducing the meter's length against a very slow replenishment rate, which makes potion-unassisted magic use untenable (I just walked away a while in one area with forced magic use, heh). It's doubly shameful that the game has a running stamina meter despite the immense distances to cover (again, made worse due to it also being the magic meter). Another small annoyance was checkpoint juggling - it's tempting to not automatically hit checkpoints so that you can clear out more of an area or come back later when rested, but you risk losing huge chunks of progress, possibly getting sent all the way back to the beginning of the level with only your found statues (and kuji magic scrolls?) saving. I'm also a bit sad that the fairly pleasant Chrome PC browser demo level (or is that levels?) isn't in the game at all, even as an extra.
The PC port was fairly well behaved visually on my Windows 10 installation, though occasionally I'd get long stretches of surreal audio (mostly shortened/repeating sounds), often at inopportune but perhaps predictable times. Checkpoint or game reloading can solve this.
EmperorIng wrote:I think Oath benefits by being a remake of a game from the 80s, when straight-forward action + less talky-talky were more the norm. Great game!
The funny thing is that Adol wasn't a silent protagonist is the original Ys III.
In The Oath in Felghana, we are being told "Adol introduced himself" and such instead. So while he keeps his mouth shut, the game won't. I don't consider him 100% legitimate silent protagonist, then.
Although I've yet to finish either, The Oath didn't actually seem to contain any less text than Origin to me.
Last edited by Obiwanshinobi on Thu Aug 25, 2016 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The rear gate is closed down
The way out is cut off
been playing the Nioh demo and it's looking great so far. lots of very obvious dark souls influence, which is fine by me, but the combat and the way you upgrade through skills is clearly it's own thing. i missed the first demo so i dunno what they've changed for this one, but they definitely seem like they're on the right track to me. should be a great game.
With all the RPG talk on the previous page I thought it would be worth mentioning that a new fan translation of Final Fantasy III was completed earlier this month. The person behind this also released what is currently the only good English translation of Final Fantasy II FC (not to mention the only English translation of that game in over ten years).
An entirely new script was written that borrows text from the Nintendo DS remake where applicable. About ~75% of the text was taken straight from the DS remake, while the other ~25% was simply translated from the original Japanese text, while trying to make sure the tone of the text matches that of the material that was used from Square Enix’s DS remake of Final Fantasy III. The Japanese Famicom version text for every message index in the game was looked at to ensure when it’s appropriate to use text from the DS remake, and when it’s appropriate to translate the original text instead.
FFIII is easily my favorite Final Fantasy, so this comes as great news even with the existence of two other serviceable English translations. Or "Curaja" instead of "Kearuga".
The Japan-exclusive Wizardry Chronicle has also been translated. By a different group, that is.
Last edited by WelshMegalodon on Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RBelmont wrote:A little math shows that if you overclock a Pi3 to about 3.4 GHz you'll start to be competitive with PCs from 2002. And you'll also set your house on fire
Aliquantic wrote:Replaying through N++ again now that it's available on Steam (it was a PS4 exclusive for the last year).
Why are you replaying it? Is there new content?
Xyga wrote:It's really awesome how quash never gets tired of hammering the same stupid shit over and over and you guys don't suspect for second that he's actually paid for this.
WelshMegalodon wrote:With all the RPG talk on the previous page I thought it would be worth mentioning that a new fan translation of Final Fantasy III was completed earlier this month. The person behind this also released what is currently the only good English translation of Final Fantasy II FC (not to mention the only English translation of that game in over ten years).
FFIII is easily my favorite Final Fantasy, so this comes as great news even with the existence of two other serviceable English translations. Or "Curaja" instead of "Kearuga".
How big an increase in the fun factor should I expect from these games, coming from the very first NES release? I somewhat dislike the original FF on NES from what I've played thus far. Is there any significant benefit to looking for a retranslated ROM? I read the FC rereleae (in the FF 1 & 2 double header cartridge) had some "graphical updates."
Playing this before starting DX: Mankind Divided, using the Give Me A Challenge difficulty. HRDC has the Missing Link DLC content properly integrated into the game, and that's where I'm currently at on this. The Tyrant bosses can also be dealt with by alternate methods that utilize stealth/hacking. Lawrence Barrett, one of the early bosses, is less difficult here thanks to this. Bosses will still have to be killed but it won't affect the Pacifist achievement.
It's nice how you can slap upgrades onto your weapons immediately once found, and spend the Praxis items on the spot to buff your abilities. If there's a Hard Reset 2, I wouldn't mind a similar system going into play there with no need for the HX-10 terminals.
As a stealth game, this is better than Crysis. You get the cloak ability but not for free- you have to spend 2 Praxis for that, and it can be upgraded twice for 1 more each time. You can play to kill enemies outright but this yields a bit less XP.
Finished Sonic Advance 2 and 3. The first one was my favourite in some things, the other two felt more padded and added useless changes. 3 had the best presentation, though.
I'm now playing Seiken Densetsu 3, starting with the Duran/Angela storyline. Chose Lise as third character.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
soprano1 wrote:Finished Sonic Advance 2 and 3. The first one was my favourite in some things, the other two felt more padded and added useless changes. 3 had the best presentation, though.
The second game was my favorite of the advance games, I love how the game really focuses on running instead of platforming. Grabbing all the special rings however is a huge pain in the ass. I was never able to collect all emeralds.
Just finished Not A Hero. Superb little run and gun with a cover mechanic. Not many games drag me back to hit every objective per level, but this has been a pleasure.
Just finished the first world on The Talos Principle. Nothing too taxing so far but I can see this taking up a lot of my time. An ideal chill game. Portal for people with no reactions.
Still having away at Driveclub Bikes, which I adore. Gets me in the same zone as Sega Rally when I get a time trial on a favourite track, sat there for an hour plus just saving off a few extra tenths.
Just started Mankind Divided... Its Human Revolution + which is all I wanted really. Seems cool so far.
Ed Oscuro wrote:How big an increase in the fun factor should I expect from these games, coming from the very first NES release? I somewhat dislike the original FF on NES from what I've played thus far.
As someone who enjoyed the first game, I quite liked how FFIII managed to retain the atmosphere of the original while improving on it in every aspect. Its world is rich and varied, and you're always left wondering where the game will lead you next. Dungeons are more straightforward than those found in the first two games but continue to provide a satisfying challenge. The well-hidden chocobo forests are also a treat, despite their inclusion supposedly being accidental.
As for FFII, while its reputation as the weakest installment is well-deserved, the leveling system is actually the least broken thing about the game. It generally works as described and can easily be used to your advantage. I found greater fault with the awkwardly designed overworld, cramped inventory, and severe bugs. That being said, Shibuya Kazuko's pixel art and Uematsu's music are as charming as ever, and Pandaemonium presents a truly worthy challenge for the RPG fan.
Ed Oscuro wrote:Is there any significant benefit to looking for a retranslated ROM?
I would say so. While I'm quite fond of the Alex W. Jackson translation, space constraints did force some compromise with the translation, and this new take doesn't have that issue. It's worth a look if you don't mind the localized Square-Enix names.
Ed Oscuro wrote:I read the FC rereleae (in the FF 1 & 2 double header cartridge) had some "graphical updates."
I believe the compilation cartridge features the tweaked character sprites and minor gameplay alterations from the North American release, like the removal of random encounters from the final floor of the Chaos Shrine. Think Final Fantasy VII International.
RBelmont wrote:A little math shows that if you overclock a Pi3 to about 3.4 GHz you'll start to be competitive with PCs from 2002. And you'll also set your house on fire
One of the most notable things about Final Fantasy III on the Famicom is that the final hour or so of the game cannot be saved—there is simply no place to save the game. It becomes a long rush against some very difficult bosses. (I didn't like the way they healed the party to full after every defeat in the DS remake; it really dampened the challenge of that marathon run to the end.)
After that, Final Fantasy IV had save points inside dungeons. I have to wonder if that was because of this last section in Final Fantasy III.
with the appropriate races and classes etc. and interstellar travel. No joke! We were obsessed with that game back then, haha.
FROOT ROLLUPS BOMBERRR nah, I wanna slice n dice like a human chainsaw powered by rice.
