Played through Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins and (the first playthrough of) Resurrection, too.
Goku Makaimura Kai is a real classic. Even putting aside the excellent level design, the game's aesthetics are wonderful - the music fits the action and the classic GnG vibe perfectly, the 1-1 theme is the best ever rendition of the GnG theme, and the levels all look completely gorgeous, filled with amazing art and environmental design (especially impressive because readability isn't sacrificed as a result - though the 30 FPS cost is a bit of a shame).
My biggest takeaway from Goku Kai has always been that it's the fullest realization of Super's double jump mechanic - which is very enjoyable in its originating game, but feels a bit wasted due to how relatively lacking that game is compared to the rest of its series. I still feel that way after my recent playthroughs - I love that the game is able to merge together, to some degree, Ghouls' more combat-oriented gauntlets and Super's more intricate platforming - but I've realized that it does change the scope of the game in ways I don't entirely like, too. Ultimate isn't bogged down to the same degree Super is at all, but you do get the sense that it holds back on its enemy count and enemy placements because the player is already being taxed with so many things requiring proper use of the double jump, so the action never feels quite as immediate as Ghouls. It's not bad design, and it does lend the game its own unique character, making it stand out in the series (it's still my second favorite, probably) but I think that is most of the reason I like Ghouls 'n Ghosts more in the end.
I still like the flight mechanic, although I've always been a bit shaky on it. Ultimately I think having such a powerful tool that can be easily stripped away from the player if you make a mistake is pretty satisfying (in a classic Mario-like way, only more demanding), and that goes a long way towards making it feel like using the dragon shield in quick bursts to circumvent particularly nasty things feels less like cheating and more like subversion on the player's part, which feels empowering - even if normal platforming is almost always more fun than flying over things. (And the angelic armor, which grants the player infinite flight but is lost in one hit, feels pretty much perfectly balanced for the kind of game GnG is. I wonder if the game would be better off if the armor was the only source of flight and not the more easily-retainable but weaker shield.) There are enough bits late in the game where there's some ambiguity on whether you're expected to be flight-skipping certain things or taking them on with your normal moveset that I'm a little torn on the mechanic, but even the oddly-short stage 4 is interesting in that it seems built around both methods of play.
I think the boss fights are overall the best in the series. With their slightly greater complexity and higher level of difficulty, they feel like they'd be out of place in a more strictly arcade-like game, but they're still fast, satisfying, and generally dangerous fights. Though, to scrub it up a little, the final boss feels like a truly absurd difficulty spike if you end up having to fight him without the wave magic - I really don't know how to appropriately deal with his moving spreadshots without being able to immediately cheese him to death with repeated point-blank magic blasts and I'm not entirely sure it's even a good fight.
I had never really played the original Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins before last month, so I gave it a shot. I don't think there's much to say on it beyond that I'm glad the Kai version was made. The original UGnG is probably my least favorite game in the series. The backtracking and the requirement of specific magic spells (necessitating armor) to get to certain hidden items, the lack of indication of exactly where the missing rings you need are, the final few rings being hidden behind 100% chest completion is all shaky stuff - but worse than any of that, I think, is the difficulty tuning. The absurd amount of enemies, while honestly more fun than the Kai version's toned down counts in some spots, feels like it's only really balanced around the standard mode (with a default 3 HP + more for upgraded armors and on-the-spot respawns). I get the sense that, given that the game's structure makes it unsuited to a single-sitting playthrough (and therefore a real "1CC", even though the game vaguely promotes that style of play through classic score marking upon the use of continues), they decided to ratchet up the difficulty in moment-to-moment play in order to replicate the overwhelming feeling most players probably got from the GnG games upon first encountering them, then mitigated that with the standard difficulty mode's forgiving respawns.
I think it's an interesting angle for a revival game of this sort to take - attempting to recapture the feeling of the original games without necessarily fully imitating their form - and it's not done ineptly, but ultimately the Kai version reworking the game into one that sticks to its roots is for the best. Original UGnG feeling a tiny bit like the scarier, more combat-focused classic Metroid I mused over while getting really into the first three Metroid games this time last year is actually pretty cool, but I don't think it's a totally successful experiment. (It is - or was, at least - probably the hardest game in the series when played on arcade / ultimate difficulty, though, so it does have that going for it.)
I've still only given
Resurrection one real playthrough (and even now I haven't delved into the shadow stages), so I can't go on at length about it yet. My first impressions on it - it's excellent. I think it's interesting how it feels a bit like Ultimate in that it feels more built around funky platforming setpieces despite having Ghouls' more limited moveset (no double jump), but the pace of the action feels closer to Ghouls 'n Ghosts than any other game in the series, which I like. A few disconnected thoughts:
There are a few bits that feel particularly off to me. Maybe I'm just nitpicking. Dealing with the Ghouls roots in lower stage 1 feels a little tedious - they block you off even more than in that game and slow you down for longer. The ogre house in upper stage 2 is pretty awesome - I love how heavily this game incorporates and reworks setpieces from the original two games - but similarly, I think if you end up in a situation where you have an ogre firing down on you from above, it kind of sucks that your only real option is to wait for him to start moving again. It doesn't bog things down in the way that the ogres' random movement in the original game can but it can still be a bit of a drag. What's up with the sandstorm bit in lower stage 2, where the flies periodically charge at you from the left? I feel like I have to be missing something there, because it seems like the only way to avoid damage is to have magic charged and ready to be fired off once they lunge.
I've seen a lot of complaints about the movement speed feeling slower than in previous games. I think this is like 60% just a psychological effect from the game being in widescreen. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass but I think having that much playfield visible and scrolling at all times makes it feel like things are moving slower than they really are (compared to a game that displays in 4:3). This doesn't make the game worse or anything, and it's not really even something you have to adjust to, but I think it does have an effect on how you perceive the game and gives it a different feel compared to the originals.
I'm a little shaky on some of the boss fights. They're probably the hardest the series has seen. Most of them are pretty cool just for the spectacle, but I think there are some telegraphing problems in a few of the fights - again, though I could be missing something, dodging Cerberus's full screen, fire-trailing run and his pounce can feel like a crapshoot, some of Astaroth's attacks can overlap in nasty ways (especially if you end a phase at a bad time and the platforms you're shooting him from drop straight down into one of his offscreen fire waves), the dragon can kind of screw you over if he pops up from a bad corner of the screen before you have the chance to get into a good position. This is probably where the other 40% of complaints about the player speed come from. The stages feel basically fine but some of the bosses are odd difficulty spikes in ways that feel pretty new to the series - but this could just be me not getting certain things; I didn't catch on to the best ways to deal with the cyclops' attacks until the refights in the final stage, so I'm not going to condemn anything preemptively.
The overall difficulty level in moment-to-moment play definitely feels higher than the previous games, which of course is saying a lot. Legend is the hardest the series has ever been, possibly putting aside UGnG's arcade / ultimate mode, and Knight is still pretty formidable (though I sort of wish there were less sub-checkpoints - as awkward of a decision as it is, I think I get why Knight's retry menu defaults you to the primary checkpoints instead of the more frequent banners of rebirth - it's an attempt to get you to play the game "classically", though looking at all the complaints online I doubt anyone really sees it that way). I deeply enjoyed Legend mode, though I can see how Knight might feel more true to the previous games' tunings in a lot of ways.
Stage 4's eyeball maze (and its total lack of a checkpoint until the boss fight) was truly terrifying. Maybe the most intimidating bit in the entire series at first. Stage 3's pitch-black platforming was initially disheartening too, as was the random Arremer before its autoscroller (at least until I realized you can, apparently, despawn him by fucking around before the ladder leading up to his platform). The degree to which the combat in this game for some of these bits relies on you keeping screen-clearing magic in reserve is interesting, and though I don't think I like that as much as classic GnG action (it's a bit reminiscent of original UGnG), it's still pretty exciting given the random enemy spawns that push you to move forward and not turtle too much. I also like that you naturally unlock more spells as the game goes on and that the game feels well-balanced around that - they definitely seem to expect you to have the frog and medusa spells by the time you hit stage 3.
I was worried about the game not having any semblance of an arcade structure, but it doesn't feel held back by it. The difficulty tuning doesn't exactly feel like an arcade or arcade-like game but I don't think it's out of whack (excessively hard) even on Legend mode - at least, again, on the first playthrough. Maybe the shadow stages will change my mind, but it does seem to say something that you get a full ending sequence after just the first playthrough this time, unlike before.
Searchlike wrote:Sengoku Strider wrote:This was such a good writeup it made me impulse purchase a copy of Dai before I even replied to it. Not even joking:
That's the power of your writing, Sir Ilpalazzo. I had actually given up gaming until I read some of your posts about action games on another forum. I broke my long game hiatus by buying copies of Bayonetta, Vanquish and Ninja Gaiden II. I also found about this forum because of you. Cheers!
Back on topic, my only problem with Dai these days is how non-threatening the last level becomes once you learn how to deal with the Arremers. Safe spots also make an unsolicited appearance and kill some of the momentum, which is a shame.
Wow, thanks! (To the other people who liked my rambling post, too.) I'm glad and surprised to hear that!
jepjepjep wrote:
The one in stage 6 is a good trap, but you can come up with similar strategies to deal with them. I think the one you're referring to can be manipulated by walking to the right underneath him, which activates him to spit down at you, then walk to the left, which activates him to walk rightward giving enough time to go up the ladder. The timing is strict, but it works very consistently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0qwJEQHHsA&t=529s
This is awesome! I got this to work several times, and I'm surprised to know there's a reproducible way of getting past this smoothly. This'll definitely make future runs on this game just a bit more confident; it's easily one of the biggest trouble spots.
I actually want to make this swap now, hmm. Would definitely read better but might be tougher to make. I'll look into it!