FinalBaton wrote:That is so easy to say with hindsight tho.
Besides : sometimes a game doesn't need to satisfy the most demanding edge-of-your-seat GAMEPLAY HOUNDS. Sometimes, a game can just be a chill time... and still be a grand ol' time
Anyway, maybe it has more to do with my way of rating games : I tend to look at the amount of things done right in a game, instead of looking at the number of missed opportunity. And when you stack games up using the parameter of "the amount of things they do right", then SOTN hangs with the best of 'em. using that parameter, I reiterate.
I've never been a "this game coulda. this game shoulda" guy. that's just not my style. so maybe that is what informs my indestructible love for Symphony
Oh yeah, I'm all about kicking back with that game. I revisit every couple years and without fail, it takes up a solid two weeks of my free time just messing around / rediscovering stuff. To say nothing of the OST and general aesthetic... the hand-drawn stuff is of course ageless, but lately I've gained a fondness of the sparingly-used polys, too. I'd thought they might age horribly, all those years ago at release. But those, and the slight flange effect on its sounds, I wouldn't change either for the world.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure most of us in the sidescroller thread could make a good go of my #1 want: Battle Arena ala Circle of the Moon (COTM's Arena is great, but Nathan is effectively Richter mode aka SRS BUSINESS - I want Alucard and his massive sparkly toybox). On revisits, without fail, I'm floored by how smoothly SOTN handles. I make a point of stripping Granfaloon to his rotten core just to dodge those wicked homing lasers with the ultra-fine doublejump mechanic. I think it was years before I even found out about that phase, because there's no real reason to piss him off, and you'll probably kill him before then anyway if you're battering him with Soul Steals and Axes (the logical subweapon choice for that boss, I always found).
There's a handful of other spots offering similar fleeting thrills - fighting Doppleganger mkii with the Army Knife, tearing Galamoth's nutsack apart after ghosting through his brutal punt, and single-session Richter Mode is good fun as well. Also doing silly things like getting into the Coliseum's attic before getting doublejump. I'd just like something formalised to make the noobs go "WOW ITS IMPOSSIBLE." Put something cool at the end, like the Crissaegrim. Not a boss rush, mind! Harmony of Dissonance has one, and it suuucks. Waste of fine BG art.
Any further modification feels moot to me at this point, since Order of Ecclesia exists, and its very smartly holding back of the nonlinear castle until the player had acquired endgame power + mobility is pretty much what I wanted from a "Hard SOTN," back in the day. I just wish it wasn't on a tiny portable screen. That game actually has some serious goddamn feel to it, both visceral punch and aesthetic sheen.
Listen to this evil verve, goddamn. Ineffably fond of equipping
DOMINUS AGONY and a pair of rapiers, then HOKUTO HYAKURETSU KENning the fuck out of intimidating BLACKMORE; damage output skyrocketing in a hammering racket as both combatants' HPs plunged into the red. It's killing me but I'm killing you a lot worse, motherfucker!
Hard to get the luxuriant SOTN feels without a big screen, big speakers and big couch though! EDIT: I mean you can do the latter but it's not the same!