Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Yeah that was exactly what I was referring to. Not the Neo Contra likeness - that stuff is my jam.
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Modern twin stick always just feels like cheapo Xbox live arcade fodder.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
I hope some of those stuff is in online only or locked to certain modes, though I'm not too hopeful. Telling from screens, it looks like the game may be mission based too. Not sure about that in a Contra game.
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mycophobia
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
god MD Strider is bullshit. can't even run up the damn slope in the amazon stage. WTf
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WelshMegalodon
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Ah, yes, Mega Drive Strider's slight jankiness is well-documented.
Last edited by WelshMegalodon on Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Another metroidvania I recently revisited is Cave Story. I loved it back when the Aeon Genesis fan translation came out, and it's still just as good as I remembered.
It does an excellent job of combining the best elements of metroidvanias and more linear, arcade-style platformers. It's fast-paced, mostly linear, and low on backtracking, but its elements of exploration and discovery don't suffer for it. There are no experience levels, you power up by finding weapons, health upgrades, and other useful things strewn about the game's world.
Cave Story begins with its silent, amnesiac protagonist waking up alone and unarmed in a cavern. After procuring a firearm, he sets out and finds that he's on a floating island inhabited by intelligent rabbit-creatures who are being threatened by a sorcerous doctor and his minions. I don't want to say too much about the story because it's charming and well-made and is best seen firsthand.
The weapon system is a bit unusual. Most weapons start at level 1 and can be powered up to a maximum of level 3 by collecting energy crystals, which you'll mostly earn from killing enemies. Maxing out a weapon only takes a few minutes, but taking a hit powers your equipped weapon back down. The weapon selection is very good, there's a lot of variety, the weapons are fun to use, and your decisions and exploration have a big influence on what your arsenal will look like. There's a badass machine gun with so much recoil that you can fire it downwards to fly, a gun that's monstrously strong at level 1 but weakens when leveled, a powerful but short-ranged sword that becomes something completely different at level 3, and all kinds of other good stuff.
The graphics and music are really solid too.
Cave Story has a handful of extremely significant and obscure secrets that you aren't likely to find on your own. My recommendation is to play through once blind, and then look up how to find things like the sacred grounds and the spur for a second playthrough.
It's been released commercially a few times but the freeware version is still considered by many to be definitive. You can and should pick it up here.
It does an excellent job of combining the best elements of metroidvanias and more linear, arcade-style platformers. It's fast-paced, mostly linear, and low on backtracking, but its elements of exploration and discovery don't suffer for it. There are no experience levels, you power up by finding weapons, health upgrades, and other useful things strewn about the game's world.
Cave Story begins with its silent, amnesiac protagonist waking up alone and unarmed in a cavern. After procuring a firearm, he sets out and finds that he's on a floating island inhabited by intelligent rabbit-creatures who are being threatened by a sorcerous doctor and his minions. I don't want to say too much about the story because it's charming and well-made and is best seen firsthand.
The weapon system is a bit unusual. Most weapons start at level 1 and can be powered up to a maximum of level 3 by collecting energy crystals, which you'll mostly earn from killing enemies. Maxing out a weapon only takes a few minutes, but taking a hit powers your equipped weapon back down. The weapon selection is very good, there's a lot of variety, the weapons are fun to use, and your decisions and exploration have a big influence on what your arsenal will look like. There's a badass machine gun with so much recoil that you can fire it downwards to fly, a gun that's monstrously strong at level 1 but weakens when leveled, a powerful but short-ranged sword that becomes something completely different at level 3, and all kinds of other good stuff.
The graphics and music are really solid too.
Cave Story has a handful of extremely significant and obscure secrets that you aren't likely to find on your own. My recommendation is to play through once blind, and then look up how to find things like the sacred grounds and the spur for a second playthrough.
It's been released commercially a few times but the freeware version is still considered by many to be definitive. You can and should pick it up here.
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FinalBaton
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
^^^^^^
I've gushed about Cave Story many times here already, but I'll just add that I really like the weapon system in the particular context of that game. My initial reaction was "but... but... muh powered-up weapunnnnn!!!1!!1!" but it actually keeps you on your toes and prevent you from being too cocky, and makes you think "evade" more. Keeps you honest. I also forces you to use the other weapons more and whilst I thought I would hate that, I actually ended up loving it. There's something about using your whole arsenal that is deeply satisfying, I think it triggers something in the subconscious haha. And yes the weapons having different usages/properties as they power up/down is a real treat
I've gushed about Cave Story many times here already, but I'll just add that I really like the weapon system in the particular context of that game. My initial reaction was "but... but... muh powered-up weapunnnnn!!!1!!1!" but it actually keeps you on your toes and prevent you from being too cocky, and makes you think "evade" more. Keeps you honest. I also forces you to use the other weapons more and whilst I thought I would hate that, I actually ended up loving it. There's something about using your whole arsenal that is deeply satisfying, I think it triggers something in the subconscious haha. And yes the weapons having different usages/properties as they power up/down is a real treat
Last edited by FinalBaton on Mon Jun 17, 2019 1:38 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
I really need to play it through again, this time with a guide. Great game.
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FinalBaton
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
You'll have a great time! Hell/Sacred Grounds is such a tight challenge, requiring great precision and finding/developping strategies. It's well designed too : even if it's though and you die lots at first, you can see what it is you have to do . so you can't help but to try again, and again, and again. very addictingMarc wrote:I really need to play it through again, this time with a guide. Great game.
Spoiler
some of the strategy happens even before the Hell level, in regards to : what weapon you want your partner to wield. That actually has the double benefit of giving even more replay value to Hell, as you can try it with both weapon configurations
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Also tried out a Cave Story fan game called Jenka's Nightmare.
It's a modded version of the original, and you can even load a save file from the end of Cave Story into Jenka's Nightmare for a few advantages. The save needs to be made at the final save point at the entrance to the sacred grounds. You don't need to beat the sacred grounds for it to work. Generally you're better off in Jenka's Nightmare the more items you had at the end of your Cave Story save, the two big exceptions are that Jenka's Nightmare rewards you for avoiding health capsules and the reward for having the spur at the end is far weaker than the alternatives. Personally I went for as close to a 100% run of Cave Story as I could and used the spur and with that save file I felt that the balance in Jenka's Nightmare was about right. One cute thing is that if you still have the little man in your inventory at the end of Cave Story, he'll still be there in Jenka's Nightmare, and you can check him in your inventory to get his opinion about things that are happening in the story.
Mechanically everything is much the same as the original. The order you find weapons in is very different from Cave Story, though, and the machine gun, snake, and spur are all available in one playthrough. You'll get to try things you wouldn't see in a single Cave Story playthrough. The difficulty level is a bit higher than in the original. There aren't many new enemy types, most of the bosses are recontextualized or slightly modified versions of bosses in the original, but they did a good job of recontextualizing them. The Monster X fight is a lot different when the ground is entirely covered in instant death spikes. If the sacred grounds gave you trouble, make sure to have the nemesis or little man in your inventory at the end of Cave Story so you can use the nemesis in Jenka's Nightmare. You can find a spur but it's been nerfed, unless you kept your original polar star in Cave Story, in which case the spur will be even stronger than before.
The story in Jenka's Nightmare takes place a short time after the end of the original Cave Story. The witch Jenka appears to have fallen into an unwakable nightmare following the events of Cave Story, and her magic is running wild and causing mass destruction. Jenka's Nightmare tries to flesh out the backgrounds and personalities of many of the simple but effective characters from Cave Story. It gets mixed results. I don't think it's bad, it just can't compare to the original's charm.
Cave Story is a perfect game for picking up and playing blind. You don't need to know anything going in. There are a good number of permanently missable items, but it's short enough that you don't need to regret missing them and it's good enough that you should immediately look forward to your next playthrough where you'll see the things you missed. I can't say the same for Jenka's Nightmare. There are a few things you're better off knowing in advance. For one, don't leave the underside without the sword. Otherwise you'll be stuck with the fireball as your main weapon for some time and you don't want that. There are a few aggravating trial-and-error puzzles and if you find yourself in one you shouldn't hesitate to look up the solution.
Overall it can't match the original, but it's still pretty good and is probably your best bet if you couldn't get enough of Cave Story's mechanics. The game itself and tons of information about it are available here.
It's a modded version of the original, and you can even load a save file from the end of Cave Story into Jenka's Nightmare for a few advantages. The save needs to be made at the final save point at the entrance to the sacred grounds. You don't need to beat the sacred grounds for it to work. Generally you're better off in Jenka's Nightmare the more items you had at the end of your Cave Story save, the two big exceptions are that Jenka's Nightmare rewards you for avoiding health capsules and the reward for having the spur at the end is far weaker than the alternatives. Personally I went for as close to a 100% run of Cave Story as I could and used the spur and with that save file I felt that the balance in Jenka's Nightmare was about right. One cute thing is that if you still have the little man in your inventory at the end of Cave Story, he'll still be there in Jenka's Nightmare, and you can check him in your inventory to get his opinion about things that are happening in the story.
Mechanically everything is much the same as the original. The order you find weapons in is very different from Cave Story, though, and the machine gun, snake, and spur are all available in one playthrough. You'll get to try things you wouldn't see in a single Cave Story playthrough. The difficulty level is a bit higher than in the original. There aren't many new enemy types, most of the bosses are recontextualized or slightly modified versions of bosses in the original, but they did a good job of recontextualizing them. The Monster X fight is a lot different when the ground is entirely covered in instant death spikes. If the sacred grounds gave you trouble, make sure to have the nemesis or little man in your inventory at the end of Cave Story so you can use the nemesis in Jenka's Nightmare. You can find a spur but it's been nerfed, unless you kept your original polar star in Cave Story, in which case the spur will be even stronger than before.
The story in Jenka's Nightmare takes place a short time after the end of the original Cave Story. The witch Jenka appears to have fallen into an unwakable nightmare following the events of Cave Story, and her magic is running wild and causing mass destruction. Jenka's Nightmare tries to flesh out the backgrounds and personalities of many of the simple but effective characters from Cave Story. It gets mixed results. I don't think it's bad, it just can't compare to the original's charm.
Cave Story is a perfect game for picking up and playing blind. You don't need to know anything going in. There are a good number of permanently missable items, but it's short enough that you don't need to regret missing them and it's good enough that you should immediately look forward to your next playthrough where you'll see the things you missed. I can't say the same for Jenka's Nightmare. There are a few things you're better off knowing in advance. For one, don't leave the underside without the sword. Otherwise you'll be stuck with the fireball as your main weapon for some time and you don't want that. There are a few aggravating trial-and-error puzzles and if you find yourself in one you shouldn't hesitate to look up the solution.
Overall it can't match the original, but it's still pretty good and is probably your best bet if you couldn't get enough of Cave Story's mechanics. The game itself and tons of information about it are available here.
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Ah, Jenka's Nightmare, one of the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, the release of this third version makes the original version very hard to find...
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FinalBaton
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Despatche wrote:Ah, Jenka's Nightmare, one of the Great Old Ones. Unfortunately, the release of this third version makes the original version very hard to find...
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Some more Ninja Warriors physical sale stuff.
Would probably rather go with Play-Asia.... but depends on taxes stuff.
https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/ ... h-preorder
Would probably rather go with Play-Asia.... but depends on taxes stuff.
https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/ ... h-preorder
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BurlyHeart
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
I wonder if PlayAsia will have an English manual. Not too worried aboyt the buttons mind.Sumez wrote:Some more Ninja Warriors physical sale stuff.
Would probably rather go with Play-Asia.... but depends on taxes stuff.
https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/ ... h-preorder
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BurlyHeart
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Has anyone played Ultracore or know if it's any good? I've watched some videos and it looks a bit rough at times. Trying to decide whether to preorder it at $30 from Strictly Limitrd or wait for a cheaper PC version.
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Played it a few times, as it came with my Mega SG.Leviathan wrote:Has anyone played Ultracore or know if it's any good? I've watched some videos and it looks a bit rough at times. Trying to decide whether to preorder it at $30 from Strictly Limitrd or wait for a cheaper PC version.
It's not good at all. Typical 90s european-developed action game made by people who can do all sorts of wondrous stuff with the hardware, but know jack about game design. Plenty of enemies unavoidably dropping on top of you when going up lifts and similar crappy moments galore. My advice: Don't preorder, don't wait for a cheaper version, avoid altogether.
I just cleared route D (save lab / surrender) of Probotector MD. If I don't mess up the Noiman Cascade fight, the rest of the game is very doable. The train level is tremendous fun. Dr. Spidercrab has way too much health, though. On a sidenote: Is there any reliable way to deal with the red sphere boss right before the doctor when it floats around after the first leg is destroyed? This phase is a bit hit and miss for me. Is there any pattern to the movement or is it completely random?
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
This is pretty much exactly the feel I got from watching a gameplay stream one time. The game's even getting a physical Genesis/Mega Drive release now, so somebody's certainly doing marketing right with the whole "CLASSIC LOST TO AGES NOW REVIVED" -thing.Herr Schatten wrote:Played it a few times, as it came with my Mega SG.Leviathan wrote:Has anyone played Ultracore or know if it's any good? I've watched some videos and it looks a bit rough at times. Trying to decide whether to preorder it at $30 from Strictly Limitrd or wait for a cheaper PC version.
It's not good at all. Typical 90s european-developed action game made by people who can do all sorts of wondrous stuff with the hardware, but know jack about game design. Plenty of enemies unavoidably dropping on top of you when going up lifts and similar crappy moments galore. My advice: Don't preorder, don't wait for a cheaper version, avoid altogether.
No matter how good a game is, somebody will always hate it. No matter how bad a game is, somebody will always love it.
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BurlyHeart
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Great advice, thank you.
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Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
The last of the metroidvanias I've been playing lately is Touhou Luna Nights. (It describes itself as "search action" rather than a metroidvania, which is endearing.)
In Luna Nights you play as Sakuya Izayoi and you need to get through a deadly mansion Remilia Scarlet created to entertain herself. As you'd expect, most of the characters and music come from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Sakuya feels great to control, she's extremely powerful, versatile, and agile. Her basic attack is throwing a set of knives, which costs a bit of MP. They can be aimed sideways, up, or down. Throwing knives downwards while in midair gives Sakuya a small boost, allowing her to effectively hover for as long as her MP holds out. Holding jump in midair slows her fall, and later in the game you can (spoiler alert!) unlock a double jump. Between all of that she's got a ton of aerial mobility.
The highlight of the game is Sakuya's time magic. She can stop time or slow it down, and both are extremely useful. Stopping time uses up time magic, which is separate from regular MP. Attacking during a time stop uses your time meter rather than your MP, so if you're low on MP you might stop time just to keep your offense going. There are certain enemies and objects with auras that interact with time stop in different ways, so it's not a guaranteed solution to absolutely everything. The game is conservative with its use of these auras, which is good. Only a small minority of enemies and none of the bosses have auras, they're mostly used to make platforming obstacles more interesting. The time stop does and rightly should feel very reliable and powerful. It's very different from Koumajou Densetsu 2 where the time stop doesn't work at all on the things you'd most want it to work on. (Though to be clear, KD2 is still an excellent game.) Slowing time slows absolutely everything except Sakuya to a fraction of its regular speed and costs nothing.
There are also spellcards hidden throughout the game that give Sakuya a variety of attacks, generally at a higher MP cost than standard knives.
The visuals are quite nice. Well-drawn and well-animated. The environments could stand to be more interesting, but they're certainly not bad. Generally I find the Luna Nights's remixes of Touhou music preferable over the original compositions. You probably already know whether you'll like the soundtrack or not.
Sakuya is too strong for normal enemies to deal with. Most won't survive a flurry of time-stopped attacks. Slow time and it's trivial to avoid most of what they can throw at you. Often spellcards can hit enemies from positions where they can't retaliate. If you houserule yourself into not waiting for your time magic to regenerate and not spellcard sniping they can still be fun to deal with, but it's a failure of enemy design that you need to hold yourself back to give them a chance.
The platforming and exploration make good use of Sakuya's time manipulation. Lots of obstacles can't be overcome without time magic. In addition to the aura I mentioned there are lots of obstacles that are too fast to pass through without slowing time, there are some obstacles where you need to stop time at the right moment when everything is lined up for you to pass through, and so forth. We've all seen puzzles where you need to leave something on top of a switch so you can get through a door before it closes, but Sakuya doesn't have to bother with that crap. The way time stop interacts with water is clever and fun. One thing I don't care for is that fast travel points are very sparse, and are often out of the way. You'll end up needing to backtrack, more so if you don't have a planned route through the game, but even with one a fair amount of backtracking is unavoidable.
The boss fights are my favorite part of Luna Nights. You can't just stop time and burst them down, and often they interact with Sakuya's powers in interesting ways. They're all exciting and very distinct in how they fight and how they need to be dealt with. The game even does a good job of expressing the characters' abilities and personalities through their fights. I really get the impression that Meiling is an exceptional fighter, and she's only low-tier in-setting because she has no answer to things like Sakuya's time magic. Marisa comes across as lively and playful, and she's not above taking cheap shots to win. The biggest problem with bosses is that, rather than selecting their attacks randomly, they go through them in a set sequence. It'd be much more exciting if you have to react rather than just anticipate. Oh well.
Luna Nights uses a graze system not unlike the one in the official Touhou games, but rather than raising your score, grazing enemies and shots replenishes your resources. Normally you need to come quite close to hazards to count as a graze, and doing so restores a bit of health. While time is stopped, grazing instead restores your MP and time meter, and coming remotely near a hazard counts as a graze, and the amount restored increases the closer you get. There's no activation cost for stopping time (there probably should be) so if you come across a big crowd of enemies or a wall of bullets, you can easily pop in and out of a time stop to refill your MP and time meter. Some of the later bosses fire such dense bullet patterns that a successful graze will entirely refill your health. I don't have a problem with the concept itself, but it's a bit too generous and can spoil what would otherwise be challenging fights.
Luna Nights has some dubious choices regarding your resources. Regular knife attacks costing MP is more of an inconvenience than a real tactical consideration. You've also got a limited supply of knives, which you can increase, though they're only relevant during a time stop. Once you throw your last knife you have to restart time before you can attack again. But since there's no cost associated with beginning or ending a time stop, you can simply cancel and renew your time stop for a fresh supply of knives. The system's only real function is to limit the power of the thousand knives spellcard during a time stop. Thousand knives is very powerful, but if that was really the reason for limited knives, it's a terribly clumsy solution. All of the resources costs associated with different abilities make it even stranger that slowing time is absolutely free. It's extremely powerful, often better than stopping time, and there's no reason not to leave it up constantly in every fight.
You also level up and can collect gems enemies drop. Gems provide passive stat boosts and can also be sold to purchase upgrades. None of that is necessary or improves the game. Fortunately, the benefits from those things are minor and you don't ever have to think about them.
There was a big update released recently that adds a new area which can be accessed after beating the final boss. It's an excellent addition. Luna Nights was a bit on the short side and the new area was just what it needed. The enemies are quite a bit tougher than the rest of the game's enemies, and the boss at the end is both the best and the hardest in the game. Completing the extra stage leads to an alternate ending. There is one serious flaw with the extra stage: about halfway in, you find at item that lets you double tap to dash. The dash can be triggered not only by tapping the same direction twice, but also by tapping one direction and then the other. It's very easy to trigger by accident while making fine adjustments to your movement. Dealing with that seriously feels as bad as dealing with Holy Diver's controls. I assume it's a bug, and hopefully it will be fixed sooner rather than later. At least it's only relevant for the very end of the game.
Overall Luna Nights is interesting, if flawed. For all the problems I mentioned, I still enjoyed it enough to go back for a 1CC right after finishing it. I recommend it, though not to the same extent as Cave Story or Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight.
In Luna Nights you play as Sakuya Izayoi and you need to get through a deadly mansion Remilia Scarlet created to entertain herself. As you'd expect, most of the characters and music come from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Sakuya feels great to control, she's extremely powerful, versatile, and agile. Her basic attack is throwing a set of knives, which costs a bit of MP. They can be aimed sideways, up, or down. Throwing knives downwards while in midair gives Sakuya a small boost, allowing her to effectively hover for as long as her MP holds out. Holding jump in midair slows her fall, and later in the game you can (spoiler alert!) unlock a double jump. Between all of that she's got a ton of aerial mobility.
The highlight of the game is Sakuya's time magic. She can stop time or slow it down, and both are extremely useful. Stopping time uses up time magic, which is separate from regular MP. Attacking during a time stop uses your time meter rather than your MP, so if you're low on MP you might stop time just to keep your offense going. There are certain enemies and objects with auras that interact with time stop in different ways, so it's not a guaranteed solution to absolutely everything. The game is conservative with its use of these auras, which is good. Only a small minority of enemies and none of the bosses have auras, they're mostly used to make platforming obstacles more interesting. The time stop does and rightly should feel very reliable and powerful. It's very different from Koumajou Densetsu 2 where the time stop doesn't work at all on the things you'd most want it to work on. (Though to be clear, KD2 is still an excellent game.) Slowing time slows absolutely everything except Sakuya to a fraction of its regular speed and costs nothing.
There are also spellcards hidden throughout the game that give Sakuya a variety of attacks, generally at a higher MP cost than standard knives.
The visuals are quite nice. Well-drawn and well-animated. The environments could stand to be more interesting, but they're certainly not bad. Generally I find the Luna Nights's remixes of Touhou music preferable over the original compositions. You probably already know whether you'll like the soundtrack or not.
Sakuya is too strong for normal enemies to deal with. Most won't survive a flurry of time-stopped attacks. Slow time and it's trivial to avoid most of what they can throw at you. Often spellcards can hit enemies from positions where they can't retaliate. If you houserule yourself into not waiting for your time magic to regenerate and not spellcard sniping they can still be fun to deal with, but it's a failure of enemy design that you need to hold yourself back to give them a chance.
The platforming and exploration make good use of Sakuya's time manipulation. Lots of obstacles can't be overcome without time magic. In addition to the aura I mentioned there are lots of obstacles that are too fast to pass through without slowing time, there are some obstacles where you need to stop time at the right moment when everything is lined up for you to pass through, and so forth. We've all seen puzzles where you need to leave something on top of a switch so you can get through a door before it closes, but Sakuya doesn't have to bother with that crap. The way time stop interacts with water is clever and fun. One thing I don't care for is that fast travel points are very sparse, and are often out of the way. You'll end up needing to backtrack, more so if you don't have a planned route through the game, but even with one a fair amount of backtracking is unavoidable.
The boss fights are my favorite part of Luna Nights. You can't just stop time and burst them down, and often they interact with Sakuya's powers in interesting ways. They're all exciting and very distinct in how they fight and how they need to be dealt with. The game even does a good job of expressing the characters' abilities and personalities through their fights. I really get the impression that Meiling is an exceptional fighter, and she's only low-tier in-setting because she has no answer to things like Sakuya's time magic. Marisa comes across as lively and playful, and she's not above taking cheap shots to win. The biggest problem with bosses is that, rather than selecting their attacks randomly, they go through them in a set sequence. It'd be much more exciting if you have to react rather than just anticipate. Oh well.
Luna Nights uses a graze system not unlike the one in the official Touhou games, but rather than raising your score, grazing enemies and shots replenishes your resources. Normally you need to come quite close to hazards to count as a graze, and doing so restores a bit of health. While time is stopped, grazing instead restores your MP and time meter, and coming remotely near a hazard counts as a graze, and the amount restored increases the closer you get. There's no activation cost for stopping time (there probably should be) so if you come across a big crowd of enemies or a wall of bullets, you can easily pop in and out of a time stop to refill your MP and time meter. Some of the later bosses fire such dense bullet patterns that a successful graze will entirely refill your health. I don't have a problem with the concept itself, but it's a bit too generous and can spoil what would otherwise be challenging fights.
Luna Nights has some dubious choices regarding your resources. Regular knife attacks costing MP is more of an inconvenience than a real tactical consideration. You've also got a limited supply of knives, which you can increase, though they're only relevant during a time stop. Once you throw your last knife you have to restart time before you can attack again. But since there's no cost associated with beginning or ending a time stop, you can simply cancel and renew your time stop for a fresh supply of knives. The system's only real function is to limit the power of the thousand knives spellcard during a time stop. Thousand knives is very powerful, but if that was really the reason for limited knives, it's a terribly clumsy solution. All of the resources costs associated with different abilities make it even stranger that slowing time is absolutely free. It's extremely powerful, often better than stopping time, and there's no reason not to leave it up constantly in every fight.
You also level up and can collect gems enemies drop. Gems provide passive stat boosts and can also be sold to purchase upgrades. None of that is necessary or improves the game. Fortunately, the benefits from those things are minor and you don't ever have to think about them.
There was a big update released recently that adds a new area which can be accessed after beating the final boss. It's an excellent addition. Luna Nights was a bit on the short side and the new area was just what it needed. The enemies are quite a bit tougher than the rest of the game's enemies, and the boss at the end is both the best and the hardest in the game. Completing the extra stage leads to an alternate ending. There is one serious flaw with the extra stage: about halfway in, you find at item that lets you double tap to dash. The dash can be triggered not only by tapping the same direction twice, but also by tapping one direction and then the other. It's very easy to trigger by accident while making fine adjustments to your movement. Dealing with that seriously feels as bad as dealing with Holy Diver's controls. I assume it's a bug, and hopefully it will be fixed sooner rather than later. At least it's only relevant for the very end of the game.
Overall Luna Nights is interesting, if flawed. For all the problems I mentioned, I still enjoyed it enough to go back for a 1CC right after finishing it. I recommend it, though not to the same extent as Cave Story or Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight.
Last edited by Vanguard on Sat Jun 29, 2019 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
https://store.strictlylimitedgames.com/ ... 4-preorder
super special edition for tnwa remake with zuntata cd.... "ooh! aah!!"
(available in roughly 24 hours)
super special edition for tnwa remake with zuntata cd.... "ooh! aah!!"
(available in roughly 24 hours)
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Any guesses as to the price?
You're sure to be in a fine haze about now, but don't think too hard about all of this. Just go out and kill a few beasts. It's for your own good. You know, it's just what hunters do! You'll get used to it.
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Holy shit, quite the package.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Man, almost too bonkers. I wish sets like this just had the tracks and the poster instead of upping the price and including all the little trinkets. I mean, eh, can't be too upset, pretty cool that this is happening in the first place.
BIL wrote: "Small sack, LOTS OF CUM" - Nikola Tesla
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
it's right in the linkStevens wrote:Any guesses as to the price?
the regular edition is going to be available with wider distribution in both EU and the states, but this is your only chance for metal chopsticks (and all the other things)Strictly Limited Games exclusive, 69.99€ each. Limited to 400 copies worldwide, individually numbered. We ship internationally. Max. 2 copies of the CE per customer.
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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Squire Grooktook
- Posts: 5969
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:39 am
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Just put in my order for the Tuned Collectors Edition.
As a prodigal agent of The Task Force, I felt it was my sacred duty.
As a prodigal agent of The Task Force, I felt it was my sacred duty.
Aeon Zenith - My STG.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.
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
my internet went down for 10 minutes the literal minute it went up :/ i was logging into paypal and then the whole internet shut down. if i miss the 2nd batch i'm going to shoot myself
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
|
~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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Squire Grooktook
- Posts: 5969
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:39 am
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
d'awwwh, good luck Kitten!
Aeon Zenith - My STG.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.
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
ty ;-;7
i almost never miss these things, including ones that sold out faster (people are saying 5-6m on this, which is a generous estimate for the 2nd batch which tends to go slower) but i'm currently housesitting and the internet is shit. going to have to like.... phone call co-ordinate carts with my roomie and make sure one of us checks out.
i want that goddamn zuntata album :<
i almost never miss these things, including ones that sold out faster (people are saying 5-6m on this, which is a generous estimate for the 2nd batch which tends to go slower) but i'm currently housesitting and the internet is shit. going to have to like.... phone call co-ordinate carts with my roomie and make sure one of us checks out.
i want that goddamn zuntata album :<
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
|
~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
|
~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
phew, got it this time
can't wait to use those metal chopsticks! picked up a second copy for a friend, too
can't wait to use those metal chopsticks! picked up a second copy for a friend, too
~Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations have diverse names~
|
~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
|
~*~*~*~*~*~* If there's a place that I could be ~ Then I'd be another memory *~*~*~*~*~*~
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Squire Grooktook
- Posts: 5969
- Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 2:39 am
Re: Ninja Gaiden [NES] + Scrolling Action Monogatari
Ah ha! Good to hear Kitten, congrats!
Aeon Zenith - My STG.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.