What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Ed Oscuro]

La Mulana 2 released yesterday. Ninja!

[soprano1]

Stella Glow turned into another Ar Tonelico 2, gave up on it. The shitty anime tropes also came on full strength, so meh. I was gonna try out SMT Strange Journey Redux, but the thought of grinding demons and doing those dungeons all over again isn't very appealing, so I decided on trying Fire Emblem Echoes again.

[Steamflogger Boss]

I finished Ar Tonelico 2, but it was shortly after it came out when I was all about shitty anime games. I am not sure if I'd finish it now.

[Blinge]

Given up on pleasing Haruka to SSS Rank in Yakuza Kiwami. Little shite wants me to get an absurdly high karaoke score. I'm out, it's way too hard.

So after beating the story, clearing all the sidequests, Dragon of Dojima reborn, Majima finally defeated "for good."
Yakuza Kiwami ends with the whimper of me not wanting to play a minigame anymore. ah well! Fantastic game.

I'll probably pick up that shenmue I and II HD and play through them before touching Yakuza 0.

Replayed GTA Vice City (ps2) for the first time in 15 years. It's cool, I guess. There's a jarring disconnect between fun driving and unbelievably awful combat.

Also chipping away at The Witcher.

[Marc]

I was the other way around with Kiwami - I played it after clearing 0, and in the absence of arcade games, wasn't really too interested in side quests. Hell, I think Majima only jumped me maybe half a dozen times.

Of all the GTA games, I'd love to see a re-master of Vice City. Soundtrack and setting were amazing, but yeah, combat was dodgy even back then. And that mission with the remote-control planes......

Still playing Flatout 4. Sadly, the further into it, the more wonky the physics get. Best moment so far must be getting rammed so hard in the side that I was thrown into mid air and off the track completely.

[Stevens]

Spent some time (few hours) with Spider and Web this week.

It's a text adventure game from the late 90's in which you play as an agent you is currently under interrogation with the story being told through flashbacks.

Haven't played a game like this since I was a kid. And it was probably Zork.

[kaicooper]

anyone here played Pushmo games ?
just wanna know witch one is the hardest?

[BrianC]

anyone here played Pushmo games ?
just wanna know witch one is the hardest?

Probably Crashmo, from what I have played of them. Pushmo is the easiest. Pushmo involves pulling and pushing out platforms on a set structure to find a way to the goal, but in Crashmo, the blocks can be moved in multiple directions and can fall down off other blocks when pushed. Strechmo plays more like Pushmo, but with the ability to pull out platforms from the side.


As far as I know, the WiiU Pushmo is the same game with more levels, but I'm not sure how hard the new levels are.

[kaicooper]

anyone here played Pushmo games ?
just wanna know witch one is the hardest?

Probably Crashmo, from what I have played of them. Pushmo is the easiest. Pushmo involves pulling and pushing out platforms on a set structure to find a way to the goal, but in Crashmo, the blocks can be moved in multiple directions and can fall down off other blocks when pushed. Strechmo plays more like Pushmo, but with the ability to pull out platforms from the side.


As far as I know, the WiiU Pushmo is the same game with more levels, but I'm not sure how hard the new levels are.

just started last night with Pushmo with my little kid..its amazing but way too easy..im just playing the tutorial now..its gonna be harder little bit later ?

[BrianC]

just started last night with Pushmo with my little kid..its amazing but way too easy..im just playing the tutorial now..its gonna be harder little bit later ?

It does get a little harder, but only the late puzzles are the slightest bit hard, if I remember correctly. A common complaint with Stretchmo is the "free to play" structure, but games levels outside of the demo levels have to be bought outright at a reasonable price to be played. That one is harder than Pushmo, but easier than Crashmo.

[kaicooper]

just started last night with Pushmo with my little kid..its amazing but way too easy..im just playing the tutorial now..its gonna be harder little bit later ?

It does get a little harder, but only the late puzzles are the slightest bit hard, if I remember correctly. A common complaint with Stretchmo is the "free to play" structure, but games levels outside of the demo levels have to be bought outright at a reasonable price to be played. That one is harder than Pushmo, but easier than Crashmo.

thanx man..i suggest u play Boxboy on 3ds and its sequel .. such a fantastic puzzle game

[BrianC]

just started last night with Pushmo with my little kid..its amazing but way too easy..im just playing the tutorial now..its gonna be harder little bit later ?

It does get a little harder, but only the late puzzles are the slightest bit hard, if I remember correctly. A common complaint with Stretchmo is the "free to play" structure, but games levels outside of the demo levels have to be bought outright at a reasonable price to be played. That one is harder than Pushmo, but easier than Crashmo.

thanx man..i suggest u play Boxboy on 3ds and its sequel .. such a fantastic puzzle game

I played Box Boy and a bit of it's sequel. Good stuff. There's also a third one, Bye-Bye BoxBoy!

[bottino]

chester 2 is 100x worse

Sorry for the late reply.

He's the fastest, hardest to hit and relentless boss in the game, that's for sure, but you can use the Terra bracelet to protect yourself against his attacks.

The tricky part is to seize what little opening you have to damage him during his 2nd phase, after he does his dash attack ( a well timed boost barrage attack greatly helps, but it can be dangerous ).

Felghana also has a mechanic that I believe to be unique regarding the Ys series: you actually get hit for less damage when you're using a magic attacks ( Fireball; Whirlwind ), something that you can use to your advantage in order to increase your boost gauge.

Galbalan, has you deprived of magic during most of the fight and you can get royally screwed by RNG during his second phase ( like spamming energy ball + flamethrower + lasers constantly ) and there's very little room for error during that fight, since he hits very hard and you have to fulfill very specific conditions in order to damage him.

[BulletMagnet]

Felghana also has a mechanic that I believe to be unique regarding the Ys series: you actually get hit for less damage when you're using a magic attacks ( Fireball; Whirlwind ), something that you can use to your advantage in order to increase your boost gauge.

IIRC in 8 you take less damage if you're hit while using a skill, and the more expensive the skill the greater the reduction.

Still plugging away at Skyward Sword; man, does it feel great when a series of waggles hits home perfectly, but man is it a drag when you're trying to move (but not slash!) your sword to another side to get past an opponent's defenses before attacking, but move just a bit too fast (which is easy to do, since enemies can change up their defenses pretty quick), it'll register as an attack and you get countered like an idiot. Thank heavens you've got your own counter move, or else some fights would be torture...sort of takes the emphasis away from where it's supposed to be, gameplay-wise, but at least it keeps the thing playable.

[Blinge]

How many Deku Hornets you got?
Want me to pause the game and show you exactly where they are in the menu? no? Tough.

[Immryr]

returned to ninja gaiden black after not playing it for a little while, made it past alma 2 and doku 2. both fights are pretty good evolutions from the first time you encounter them, the doku fight surprisingly feels a little more.... open in terms of when you can land damage on him. at first i was finding the alma fight more restrictive than the first time around, but once she is on the ground the true dragon running x x attack seemed pretty consistent for landing damage, although sometimes it would get me in an unavoidable grab attack.

jesus christ the ghost fish are annoying.

[BulletMagnet]

Want me to pause the game and show you exactly where they are in the menu? no? Tough.

Yeah, a bunch of the recent Zelda games do that if memory serves, and it is annoying that there's no option to disable it (especially since the game is self-aware enough to poke fun at the "pose every time you get something" trope)...on a similar note, I'm surprised that nobody's ever suggested they add a setting for text speed after all these years (unless they did it in BotW, which I haven't played).

Speaking of Deku Hornets, I have a million of the stupid things and the bug guy is never buying them.

[Blinge]

I believe in TP, it was only for the larger rupee sizes at the beginning of each new play session. annoying AF but not too bad.

SS does it for ALL the useless little crafting items and it takes much longer because of the insistence to open the menu for you and point it out. URGH.
It happened to me in one of the late set pieces that leads into the game's denouement. Unforgivable.
Spirit Tracks (ew) didn't do it, iirc. Link between Worlds certainly doesn't.

How far into SS are you?

Yeah your problems with the motion control is that it's still not 1:1 movement detection afaik.

[BulletMagnet]

How far into SS are you?

Just finished "the Buddha dungeon" (the one with the first "flame" thingy to power your sword up), presumably I'm past the halfway point by now.

Yeah your problems with the motion control is that it's still not 1:1 movement detection afaik.

It's not even the detection itself, it's the fact that it's tough to tell, at least for me, when you're moving the pointer quickly enough that the game interprets it as an attack, as opposed to just moving it to another spot to reposition before an attack; maybe I need to fiddle around with it more, I can't imagine nobody in QA was able to make it work at least somewhat as intended. In the meantime there's always countering.

[Stevens]

I've forgotten how much fun light guns can be, just played through Confidential Mission.

Finished it in six credits, which I know I can get down with more play time seeing as I was generally unfamiliar with it. Haven't played it much over the years but I do like that stages one and two have branching paths dependent on if you succeed or fail mini missions.

Using the Startfire gun. Trigger is meh compared to the official gun (stupid software lock), but the rapid makes up for it. I have the official gun that I use for HOTD 2. If only I had an original mode translation:D

[Immryr]

More NGB: I'm now up to what must be the final boss and.... I have no healing items what so ever so I can't use my boss learning strategy of spamming healing items / talisman if rebirths till I feel reasonably confident then dying or resetting and trying to do it with minimal healing. So far my attempts at this fight have lasted about 30 seconds each haha. His grab attack is really brutal. It comes out quick, is hard to get out of range of even if you react in time and it does about a third of my health.

I'll give this some more tries tomorrow and if that goes badly I do have another save from just before the penultimate double boss fight. I think I still had a talisman and an elixir going into that fight, or if all else fails I will trek in shame all the way through the core and back to town. Really don't want to have to do that though.

-edit- well, i did it..... had to go back for more resources though. fuck that boss. why does the hardest boss in the game also have to be the only time when the game has a really shitty camera? loved the game on the whole though. i'll probably return some time soon and try the next difficulty level.

[Steamflogger Boss]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkR9ELR6cpM

Ys VIII down.

Intense plot spoilers

Spoiler

DERPDERPDERPDERPDERPDERPDERPJAPANDERPDERPANIMEDERP

[Stevens]

OK let the bullets fly.

Picked up Time Crisis 3 and 2 Guncon 2's for $45. Love my LGS.

A few more games in the PS 2 gun library go for cheap. Going to get them too.

[wgogh]

"A long time ago, so long ago that memories did not exist. Love was not wide spread among people and it was magic or might that ruled the lands. There were men that set out on precarious adventures in order to test their strength and courage. People called these men... SORCERIAN"

Sorcerian for the Mega Drive might be one of the best versions of Sorcerian, along with the PC Engine one. Much prettier than the DOS version and much more fluid. The biggest atractive to the DOS version might be the Expansions; Sengoku, Gilgamesh, Pyramid, Uchu kara no Houmonsha (the one with aliens). Some time ago, I really wanted to play the DOS version, but the bad scrolling and presentation in general was unbearable. Each version has their own scenarios, so I may try the PC Engine one in the future. The Mega Drive and PC Engine versions are all in japanese, but the menus are similar to the english DOS. As the PC Engine version has higher resolution, kanji characters were included. I searched the Youtube for videos about the different versions of Sorcerian, just to find out that almost all the videos were focusing on the music and the different arrangements. That is cool and all, but I believe the game itself is interesting enough and not to be forgotten.


I found much easier to control a party of 3, instead of 4 (max party number). Some scenarios are 3-characters-only; it does that so you have a room left for a guest character.

The game is a side-scrolling rpg with some twists. You can compare the Pentawa city part to a raising sim, as you have to wisely choose how to spend the years of your life. When you gather enough xp to level up, you must go to the castle and advance to the next level (you need to pay for it). The levels raise your HP and MP amount, but only your MAX CAPACITY to raise the other stats. That stats have to be raised on the dojo, where the characters can pay a small fee to spend usually two years of their lifes to raise their stats. I would recommend not to do this on the very beggining, as the most useful trainings are locked if your level isnt high enough. Its also a good idea to go to dojo while the iten is being enchanted by the magic shop, making sure to make a useful magic. After a years and years of training on the dojo, my trio returned in their fourties and with new sprites!

The highspeed option is a great way to save time when backtracking or grinding. A little trick that I came up with is to go to the cave on the second scenario and then go to the first door; there you'll find a small room full of blue bats. You can hug the wall on the left, face right, enable the high speed and hold the attack button with your fighter. He will take care of wave after wave of enemies, gaining in few minutes more XP than the bosses. That is possible because, in Sorcerian, you only take the XP after beating all enemies on screen and all small enemies give you the same amount of XP (1xp point). Later, I changed my strategy and started killing monkyes on the "Chinese Medicine" scenario; they can give up to 30 exp in 10 seconds.

Playing that game would not be possible if werent for this site http://tk-nz.game.coocan.jp/sorcerian/c ... index.html There are magic charts and herb charts on this site that can save a lot of try and error (Magic names in ENGLISH and ingredients on the same order as they appear on the game). The site also has maps and brief explanations for the scenarios. Finally, I dont use it myself, but it seems to have a incomplete translation for this game that covers the Menus and Pentawa City. Unfortunately, the project stopped and the dialogs remain untranslated.


The first puzzles are not that bad, but the language barrier can make things more complicated. For example, scenario 3 requires a character employed as 'priest' or 'missionary' on the party, so you can marry a troll couple.

Overall, it's a unique oldschool rpg that dont require the amount of grinding that titles from this time were known for, exchanging that for the option to fast-foward some years on the dojo. The soundtrack is pretty good, as usual from Nihon Falcom. Of course, Project EGG released a beautiful Sorcerian Complete box compatible with new systems, and it has the Mega Drive version, soundtrack discs, along with many other cool things. I really cant afford that at all, but it does look awesome.

[BIL]

The fuck, my wiener is standing up at those screenshots! :O The MD boxart is rad too. Perhaps I must investigate. Ta for writeup!

[NYN]

the ghost fish are annoying.

It's stop and stare.
My tactic is to equip the flail, get their attention and they will come. Let them. Stand still and flail with mid to long strings. Stop when they're handled. Get ready for the new spawns. Let them come. Repeat. Dodging makes you vulnerable. When Hayabusa puts the weapon to his back, they are all done. If you are not certain that it's over, listen to the sound they emit. Some stick to a wall at times.

Black does it right. In Vanilla Gaiden the flail is limited with short strings that will not last enough. The 360 sequel takes the bite outta this enemy, since the flail is only available long after encountering and overall supposed to be slayed with every weapon.

Glad you enjoyed your black trek. Come back for more and you will get it.

[FinalBaton]

Always wanted to try Sorcerian on MD. How easy would it be for someone new to the game, to navigate through the japanese text, wgogh?

[wgogh]

Always wanted to try Sorcerian on MD. How easy would it be for someone new to the game, to navigate through the japanese text, wgogh?

Not straightfoward, im afraid. If its a ROM, one could use the partial translation for the menus, as for the original cart, the only way is to learn where everything is. I can't say it would be easy.

The fuck, my wiener is standing up at those screenshots! :O The MD boxart is rad too. Perhaps I must investigate. Ta for writeup!

The boxart have that early fantasy art (reminds me of Moebius a bit), the logo is very classy as well. I almost refrained myself from writing since my english isnt great, but since theres so little about this game out there, I did anyway.

[BIL]

The boxart have that early fantasy art (reminds me of Moebius a bit), the logo is very classy as well.

Indeed, the artist (Hitoshi Yoneda)'s MD covers are unmistakably Moebius-esque; there's a little discussion of him here. His Phantasy Star II cover is another that makes me want a copy just for the box.

I almost refrained myself from writing since my english isnt great, but since theres so little about this game out there, I did anyway.

Perfectly readable, I'm glad you went ahead.

[FinalBaton]

Yes thanks for the review wgogh!