Sengoku Strider wrote: ↑Thu Sep 07, 2023 12:55 am
People talked so much trash about HoD that I avoided it for years, only getting to it once I'd beaten all the other GBA vanias. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing, and having played Circle of the Moon on the OG GBA when it came out I fully understand why they overcorrected in that direction with the art.
I don't think they overcorrected at all WRT visibility, having played both at release on the original GBA (I'm sure most of this thread could claim the same, the hype and goodwill around these being through the roof at the time; and that is how I was disabused of my faith in EGM
40/40, seriously?
). It's just got some fundamentally bad spritework, at least where human figures are concerned. Proportions, poses, animations... Juicy looks nice standing still, like in those GIFs. Well, as nice as Alucard roofied into Richter's loungewear can look.
(when ur wearin ur BF's shirt ^w^ *sniffsniffsniff*) But he runs, jumps, and especially,
especially walks like he's shat himself
And if you told me the Witch was from a canned Amiga port of SOTN from Great Value Soft of Tinkwinkyfordshire GB, I'd totally believe it. From SOTN's 90s anime cutie to a Cabbage Patch Doll riding a baguettte.
Might explain why Juicy loses altitude control if you whip during jump ascent.
They fared incomparably better on the big, chunky, multi-sprite monstrosities that were Takeda's MD bread and butter. You can tell where the heart and expertise was; when you crash a murderous slab of ice onto a buzzsaw-slinging Discus Lord, flame gouting YGWesque from its buckling joints, its own whiffed strike grinding a hail of sparks even as it
"BUWHARRRGs" its last. Absolutely woodening destructive force inherited from SOTN
I do like HOD, I just wish it'd come out a year later with the map bloat sanded off, and the handling model cleaned up (see AOS's Julius). And I've just realised I can no longer say it's so nice I bought it thrice (OG NTSCU, sold / GR8 VALUE JP, muh beautiful boxart is ruined! / OG JP,
lookin nice Alucard :O) - because now I've bought the fucker
four times via the M2 collection. 3: