What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[SuperGrafx]

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS).

Forgot how much I loved the AC series. It's like a min-Shenmue/ friendly open world simulator with the added bonus of being portable now.

This is also one of the few games where the touchscreen improves the experience over its console brethren.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Dude, you're giving your own definitions to established terms left and right.

What the hell is this even in response to? Who's giving what definitions? Mortificator wondered why I considered Demon's Souls to be more of an RPG than Final Fantasy and I explained why. That's it. At no point did I try to redefine the term or imbue it with a new meaning, so what's with your nagging?

JRPGs are an extremely simplistic sub-genre of the RPG genre: a heavily scripted linear story whose gameplay banks entirely on the experience of leveling up.

Look who's making up their own definitions now. I say the term JRPG indicates the country of origin of a game whose genre is broadly labelled as an RPG and I believe this approach makes much more sense considering the breadth and diversity that these games used to offer and is a lot less likely to cause confusion than what you're suggesting. If we use your self-made methodology and establish that Demon's Souls(and many other role-playing games from Japan that don't fit the gameplay formula of Tales of anime tropes and their ilk) is indeed not a JRPG, then the opposite is true and the game is actually a WRPG(or a CRPG, whichever you like most) at which point I'd ask you to provide an example of a game like Demon's Souls made in the West, something that you'd inevitably fail to do as no game exists among WRPGs that's quite like Demon's Souls. Gothic? - Similar in some ways, but still very different overall. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic? - Not really, no. Maybe Ultima, Wizardy, Baldur's Gate or Geneforge? - Not even close. But even if it did play like any of them or at least borrowed some aesthetics, it still wouldn't make sense to refer to it as a WRPG or a CRPG, because they too, for the most part, are umbrella terms.

"Euroshmup" is not a literal term, it refers to a sub-genre of shmups based on certain gameplay elements, not the region of origin. Same with the term "JRPG."

Evidently, the term JRPG hasn't come to be used in the same way, else Vagrant Story, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Brandish, Sweet Home and many others wouldn't be called as such and yet they are.

Dark Spire is an example of a game made by a Japanese developer that is totally NOT a JRPG.

What about hybrid games like 7th Dragon then? I asked you this before, but since you chose not to reply to my post, I'm afraid that I have to ask this again. If, according to you, Dragon Quest is totally JRPG and Etrian Odyssey is totally not, where does that leave a game that combines the elements of two? Shall we call it a WJRPG?

In Falcom's Xanadu Next you mouse-click on enemies Diablo-style until they die, but the aesthetics are unmistakably Japanese and the level design is straight out of Metroid. Another WJRPG then?

Do you see how much more confusing you're making it by attempting to use the term JRPG in an extremely narrow sense?

[KAI]

Legend of Heroes VI: Trails in the Sky FC [PSP]
Love everything about this game, Estelle is best RPG waifu ever, the plot and the battle system are rock solid. I started playing the Steam release yesterday and I still can't believe how awesome this game looks like, it's a shame Falcom is abandoning that graphic engine.
I hope SC gets localized soon. I hope 3rd, Zero and AO get a localization too. I need more Falcom now!

[EmperorIng]

Ninja Jajamaru-kun Onigiri Ninpouchou Kin

I had been waiting to play this one for a long time, as one of those very obscure Saturn titles that looked like it might be a hidden gem.

However, I am not sure if it can be called that after playing it.

The game feels a bit sloppy. Controls are fine enough, but the level design is pedestrian (32bit-trying-to-figure-out-3D-platforming pedestrian), as are the boss fights. Some of them require your tiny ninja to jump on them while they move around erratically. It becomes a slog since the game is not built around precision jumping. You die alot because it's hard to see what is hitting you when you jump off-camera to hit a boss in the air.

The game is bright and colorful, and the music is very good. I like that it seems as if you can choose which levels you play. But I am not sure if I'll keep the game. Unless someone who has played the game on this forum can enlighten me to its true virtues.

Ico
Yorda feels like the most helpless and vulnerable ball-and-chain around your leg in all of gamedom, but I can't help but like the style of the game. I look forward to starting Shadow of the Colossus afterward.

[BIL]

The Ninja JaJamaru series vaguely intrigues me, being seemingly long-running, ubiquitous and never talked about. Haven't been compelled to try any of 'em, but then my Jaleco-fu is lacking in general.

[Mischief Maker]

Playing Aces Wild again.

Something about this game just puts a goofy smile on my face every time.

[broken harbour]

Mario Galaxy 2.

Oh my gawd, this is such an improvement over SMG 1. Sure, it's just more SMG, albeit extremely polished. So I don't even mind the re-use of assets and music from the first game. Level design is brilliant, control is (mostly) perfect. They even improved the camera, which was my biggest beef with the original. I love how it introduces a new mechanic basically every second level.

I still hate the motion control levels (racing, rolling the ball, etc) and there are a few odd difficulty spikes that make no sense, like a particularly sadistic slide level, but otherwise... near perfection. Best Mario game I've played since Yoshi's Island for the Snes.


Mario Kart Double Dash:

Kind of underwhelmed by this one, I like the tag team mechanic, and some of the tracks are pretty inspired (love the cruise ship level) but there just isn't enough content to be honest.
However I do think it has a great weapon balance, you still need to actually race, which seems downplayed in MKWii.
Great multiplayer tho.

[simon]

Playing Wolfenstein: The New Order. Easily one of the best single player FPS games I've played in the last 4 years. I highly recommend it.

[Stevens]

MDK 2 on the DC.

I swear the last boss is almost fucking impossible with Max.

[Zaarock]

Legend of Heroes VI: Trails in the Sky FC [PSP]
Love everything about this game, Estelle is best RPG waifu ever, the plot and the battle system are rock solid. I started playing the Steam release yesterday and I still can't believe how awesome this game looks like, it's a shame Falcom is abandoning that graphic engine.
I hope SC gets localized soon. I hope 3rd, Zero and AO get a localization too. I need more Falcom now!

I just played through the steam version of this as well, agreed on all points. I was skeptical the first couple hours of play but once it picks up it keeps getting better. Amazing game, wish higher difficulties were unlocked from the beginning though.

SC should be out on steam by the end of the year

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

MDK 2 on the DC.

I swear the last boss is almost fucking impossible with Max.

I seem to remember the first MDK being a cakewalk (might have been playing on easy or something though). How's the second one? More difficult? Might have to grab a copy.

[Stevens]

MDK 2 on the DC.

I swear the last boss is almost fucking impossible with Max.

I seem to remember the first MDK being a cakewalk (might have been playing on easy or something though). How's the second one? More difficult? Might have to grab a copy.

There are a few different versions of the 2nd one.

The Dreamcast one was the 1st to be released. It has a reputation of being really difficult (there are no difficulty settings), but it really isn't too bad except for the bosses and they go down pretty easy once you know what to do.

The exception however is the final boss. He is fun to fight with Dr. Hawkins, but maddening to fight with Max with Kurt falling somewhere in between.

Here is a video detailing the differences between the DC and PS 2 versions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbkdyVnNU8A

Apparently the DC version looks a bit better, but you also have the HD remake option which is available through Steam. I have not played it myself, but reviews are generally positive:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10 ... hd-review/

EDIT - Few negative reviews of the HD version on Steam. People citing buggyness and frame rate issues. PS 2 and DC verision can be had for under $10 on Ebay.

Enjoy!

[Obiwanshinobi]

MDK2 was already on PC back in the day (where I suppose mouse & keyboard controls should make it easier). First MDK was a computer game too (m&k controls as well) and I doubt the PSX port could be very faithful.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Cheers Stevens and Obiwan, think I'll have a look at that DC version.

[amdiggywhut]

Started another playthough of God Hand last weekend. Only a couple hours through it but I'm hoping to play more over the next few days. I will always love this game.

[Ed Oscuro]

HL2 mod hijinks:

Estranged mod team: "The story of a lone fisherman, stranded on a mysterious island during a violent storm"

This means that you have one cutscene on your boat pitching violently back and forth. After that, you get to swim a short ways up to the surface, like Bioshock (verrry original). The storm is totally gone, which doesn't make sense. There are some spooky-ish happenings early on, which suited me well - I thought this might be in the vein of a Lovecraftian adventure. Stripped-down interface elements helped support this idea, even though it was soon clear that the problem was just Zombies.

Nope, nope, nope. "A mysterious island" means you spend a lot of time in typical HL2 sewer/tunnel/underground industrial settings, rarely fighting zombies (and only zombies) with only ONE weapon. Of course, ammunition is very plentiful for the rare threats, even at the end game, unless you decide to keep a pistol.

Estranged's mod team also thought it was humorous have players go through a second (or even a third) time without a flashlight, or to carry a bucket all the way through the game. The game is quite short, and I played through it twice. Hey Estranged team, you know what? find_ent takes care of this nonsense. Just like how many people disposed of the shitty, so very shitty HL2 Ep 2 "Little Rocket Man" by turning a bucket into a garden gnome (as far as the game's concerned) with the ent_name console command, you can name a random folding chair into "wilson_the_bucket" to avoid carrying the colorful thing all the way through this game.

Overall, not a bad game, and the music in particular is far above the average for even good mods, but with only a few highlights the mod remains bland overall - and it simply doesn't deliver on many of its promises in terms of storyline (family? What family?) or content.

The highlight of the game, for me, was when a zombie's physics object chucking AI caused it to knock a key off a table and directly over to me.

[lilmanjs]

Burnout Paradise. Doing Burning routes at this point is pretty pointless since none of the cars I win are going to help me out. But still its something of a goal to search for and the easiest way to get wins at this point.

[iconoclast]

The Wonderful 101 (9/10)

I must have played through this 6 or 7 times over the last couple of weeks and I've finally completed it 100% (beat every difficulty, got all of the collectibles and unlockables, got all 101 achievements, etc). Quick review:

+ Very unique gameplay. It feels a bit like Pikmin + DMC + a fighting game. The Pikmin and DMC influence should be obvious, but the fighting game part comes into play when you go to switch forms. In order to use Wonder Red, you have to draw a circle with the right analog stick, in order to use Wonder Blue you have to draw a line, Wonder White requires a Shoryuken motion, etc. It's unusual for an action game but it works pretty well, for the most part.
+ Lots of enemy variety with well designed move sets. Most enemies are very different from one another and they're all fun to fight against.
+ Very good level design and pacing. There are a couple of awkward segments that I don't care for, but the game never starts to feel too repetitive.
+ The difficulty settings are the usual action game fare. On Hard, every battle is remixed to include more dangerous enemies and/or more difficult enemy combinations. Most of the battles in 101% Hard are the same as Hard, but you no longer have 'bullet time' while drawing shapes. I also think your attacks use more energy on the higher difficulties, because you can run out pretty quickly if you keep using strong attacks or cancels.
+ Gameplay spoilers: There are a couple of Punch-Out segments that I really enjoyed.
+ Good art and graphics.

= The story. It's not bad (nor is it good), but there's WAY too much of it. Cutscenes are frequent and they're almost never short. Almost all of them are skippable, though.
= QTEs. There's a ton of them, but it's practically impossible to fail any of them since they give you a ton of time to complete the motions. It's probably the best implementation of QTEs to date, honestly.
= I don't care for most of the boss fights. They're not bad at all, but I never look forward to replaying them. The stages are far more enjoyable to me.
= Kahkoo-Regahs. These are basically the Alfheims from Bayonetta. Most of these missions give you some type of restriction to deal with (eg. you'll have a small team, which makes dodging, blocking, and attacking difficult or outright impossible; you can only use a certain number of transformations; you can only use items, etc.) I didn't like being forced to do these gimmick missions in Bayonetta every time I replayed a chapter for ranking or score, and I don't like it here. Ninja Gaiden does these 'optional' challenge portals right by placing you in an arena and sending a huge gauntlet of enemies after you. No silly restrictions or gimmicks to deal with, just a bunch of enemies to cut down.

- Load times can be a little long, especially if you're retrying a Kahkoo-Regah. For some reason, selecting continue after failing one counts as a Game Over, but if you select no and exit the mission, it won't count against you. This means you have to reload the stage (30-40 seconds), then reload the Kahkoo-Regah (another 30 seconds) before you can try again. I don't know why they did this since failing the Alfheims in Bayonetta never counted against you. You could restart them almost instantly.
- Awful shmup and vehicle stages. Remember the ones from Bayonetta that nobody liked? Well they're worse and more frequent in this game.
- Waaaaaaaay too many important collectibles. There are probably 300+ in total and you have to find every single one if you want to unlock the hidden characters.
- When you first begin the game, you are way too weak. There is absolutely no reason to force the player to buy basic functions like dodging and blocking from the shop, and I'd argue that the 'witch time' custom block should be a basic feature as well. This also ties into my collectibles complaint, because the more Wonderful Ones you find, the more room you have to attack, dodge, use powerful attacks, etc. And you also have to do some grinding, since each guy in your team can be leveled up four times. It just feels like needless padding.
- Sometimes the overlapping mechanics can be frustrating to deal with. For example, in order to recruit civilians into your group, you have to draw a circle around them. If there's a battle in the middle of the city and you want to draw a huge circle for a powered-up Wonder Red, you might not be able to complete it because civilians take priority. That's really annoying.

That's all that comes to mind for now. So in summary: The Wonderful 101 certainly has some problems, but the good greatly outweighs the bad. I don't think it's as good a game as Bayonetta, but it is probably Kamiya's second best game and it's certainly the best on the Wii U at the moment. I still plan on doing a Pure Platinum run through 101% Hard, but I'm going to take a break first and focus on some other games for a while.

[Stevens]

Cheers Stevens and Obiwan, think I'll have a look at that DC version.

I may bitch about the last boss being too hard with Max, but overall it is in my top 3 DC games. It may even be my favorite.

You won't regret getting it. And that soundtrack...

[mamboFoxtrot]

I don't really play games consistently, but I guess Deadlight is non-shmup game I've made the most "progress" with lately. Not because its good, but mostly out of morbid curiosity as to how bad it can get.
So far, its only gotten kinda crap, but mostly just boring. Its one of those moody, monochrome "cinematic platformers" with the occasional zombies.

You spend most of the game just trucking along making the same simple jumps or climbing ladders over and over again, then every once in a while you'll spend some "quality time" with an awkward segment. Often the problem is the drab graphics making it impossible to tell what the hell it is you're supposed to be jumping for, but other times its just straight-up "gotcha" crap where not holding down the sprint button leads to instant death. Sometimes its just the shit controls. Never in a game has it been so difficult to jump straight up.

I think the weirdest thing about the game is the axe mechanic. Its a melee attack, but its almost completely useless. It seems that just three swings almost completely drains your stamina meter, and it only really kills zombies when you do the sluggish "finishing move" when they're on the ground. Otherwise, they seem to be able to take an infinite number of swings without ever losing a single limb. Thankfully, the game seems centered on you never actually using this thing...

- When you first begin the game, you are way too weak. There is absolutely no reason to force the player to buy basic functions like dodging and blocking from the shop

Yeah, this crap is obnoxiously popular to do lately. Scott Pilgrim makes you level up to be able to throw, and Phantom Breaker: BG makes you unlock practically everything: double jump, special moves, combos, etc. Its to the point that you literally can't even have a fair fight with the first few bosses. I really just don't get why so many designers think people won't like their game if you start off able to have a good time and aren't unlocking things every seven seconds.

[professor ganson]

Luminous Arc - Playing this series backwards and several years after playing Luminous Arc 2. Seems a bit less impressive, this first game in the series, but it has kept me playing.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

The Wonderful 101 (9/10)

Man, it is killing me that I can't play this game at the moment. A Wii U is a definite must-get for me; this looks and sounds fantastic.

Nice write-up.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I didn't like being forced to do these gimmick missions in Bayonetta every time I replayed a chapter for ranking or score, and I don't like it here.

I think they're a fun change of pace in Bayonetta... but that's only if you don't care about rank. I completely agree, if you are working on a Platinum or Pure Platinum run, hunting these down on every playthrough gets quite annoying and hurts the pacing of the game.

[gameoverDude]

Trails in the Sky (PC) : Got it from GOG on day one (7/29) for $17. The PSP version is a good port that nails the gameplay, but it's great being able to play the original at 1920x1200 and 60 fps. For a turn based RPG the battle system is good- encounters are not random, and you can also move around the field during combat to flank enemies, split the group up

It did suffer from a few crashes at first, but XSEED is ironing the kinks out quite well. The latest build is quite stable.

[null1024]

100% Orange Juice [PC].

RNG: The Game: The Movie.
It's Mario Party without the minigames and has a battle system that wouldn't be out of place in a simple SRPG. Surprisingly fun, but it retails for $7 [and it is worth about $1 or 2 -- there's a bundle you can get it in here].

This is pretty common:
"oh hey, level 5, full up on stars, about to make it home and win"
"lol no, get rekt" -- KO
"oh what the hell, man"
"lol, managed to warp a space before my home tile twice in a row, got all your stars so I'm full on the objective"
"WHAT THE HELL, MAN"

it's like getting blue-shelled with the finish line in sight, and then AGAIN with the finish line only one kart length in front of you

It's fun, but for all the balancing talk in the patch notes, the game has some pretty major flaws. Most notably, the KO system is some seriously dumb shit, the usefulness of going after # of kills instead of going after stars is mostly debatable [the only time you should go for it is if you are above the requirement or one away from it -- getting a lot of KOs takes too long], the game can go for really long if it's not being played at mach 900 speed with ctrl+shift being held down constantly, etc.

Oh, and the AI cheats. Blatantly at times, at least if you look at the rolls instead of just warping to your turn and making all your decisions as they come. If there's an open room, play online. More fun.

If you're a fan of the Suguri series and other Orange Juice games, you'll probably smile at the the [non-sexy] fanservice.

dumb, dumb, dumb shit: no hot-seat multiplayer for a board game
and it's not something that's likely to get patched in

[Stevens]

Gunlord.

How far I get seems to always have to do with the 5th stage boss.

Beat him with a no miss and I'll probably clear it.

Die a few times..not getting the clear.

[Some-Mist]

The Wonderful 101 (9/10)
That's all that comes to mind for now. So in summary: The Wonderful 101 certainly has some problems, but the good greatly outweighs the bad. I don't think it's as good a game as Bayonetta, but it is probably Kamiya's second best game and it's certainly the best on the Wii U at the moment. I still plan on doing a Pure Platinum run through 101% Hard, but I'm going to take a break first and focus on some other games for a while.

awesome review. I have a hard time agreeing with it being Kamiya's 2nd best game (just a difference of opinion) since I'm a huge fan of the original devil may cry and viewtiful joe, but it's definitely my favorite game on the Wii U. And that's me leaving RE2 out of it :F

[Doctor Butler]

Ultra!!!

[professor ganson]

Holy crap-- Disgaea 4 (Vita) just got dropped at my door!!! Amazon alerts go to my wife's email, so this is a total surprise. Can't wait! I know this game is going to be good.

[Formless God]

Pangya.
It's a fucking golf game, but it's flawless aside from the Monhun-tier load and wait times.