@“saddleblasters”#p71873 Oh, whoops. I don't know where to post stuff sometimes
@“tokucowboy”#p71874 no there's nothing wrong with posting in multiple threads! i just thought it was funny
(also you all posted within like a minute of each other)
@“Karasu”#p71865 Pretty sure those horrific bobblehead characters are straight from the PS2 original!
I also like _SaGa_ only in theory, and have gotten instantly bored any time I try to actually play one of them. From what I understand the series was a reasonably big hit in Japan in the 90s, but 100% the entire reason it’s still going today and getting all these loving remaster treatments is because Akitoshi Kawazu remains a power player at SquEnix.
As for _Minstrel Song_, I’ve heard every opinion ranging from “it’s godawful” to “it’s amazing” to “it’s godawful _and amazing_”. idk who to believe but it seems like the one constant is nobody walks away from that game lukewarm.
this thread is where I learned about it and I'm grateful (the yu suzuki game I mean)
@“2501”#p71879 Glad I‘m not the only one! And it’s not like I haven‘t enjoyed some games that have SaGa DNA, like Legend of Legacy and Alliance Alive! I used to think it was that the older games had a lot of old RPG issues to them, but I didn’t have much luck with Scarlet Grace, either (although, AGAIN, I have a friend who considers it to be one of their favourites of all time).
I think ultimately I'm just too uptight of a player to enjoy them, but I will 100% continue to buy every single one, for whatever reason.
@“Syzygy”#p71886 So… yeah! I probably sounded overly harsh about SaGa! I find the entire series to be aesthetically fantastic and super intriguing! And I love how it‘s an entirely different branch of RPG lineage from things like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy! I just always end up not loving them in actual practice. But I’m really glad that they keep getting ported.
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@“2501”#p71879 As for Minstrel Song, I’ve heard every opinion ranging from “it’s godawful” to “it’s amazing” to “it’s godawful and amazing”. idk who to believe but it seems like the one constant is nobody walks away from that game lukewarm.
You could say this about pretty much every *SaGa* game, but also especially *Unlimited SaGa*, for some reason.
@“saddleblasters”#p71875 that is a beautiful communion
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@“2501”#p71879 As for Minstrel Song, I’ve heard every opinion ranging from “it’s godawful” to “it’s amazing” to “it’s godawful and amazing”. idk who to believe but it seems like the one constant is nobody walks away from that game lukewarm.
Aren’t you mixing up with Unlimited:Saga, the previous one on PS2?
Minstrel Song is generally considered one of the friendlier entries in the series (that’s not saying much but…) and a solid free form Japanese RPG with deep but rewarding mechanics. It does not have too many bugs, it has strong replay value, and the soundtrack is excellent. The biggest issue of the PS2 release is that it needs a x4 speed toggle.
Unlimited:Saga is best described as a cypher of self-hatred rolled into a Rubik’s Cube of confusion. "Godawful and amazing" would be an apt and popular description. **[edit]** Welp! Basically what everyone said.
@“Karasu”#p71882 I wanted to enjoy Legend of Legacy really badly, but the game systems seemed completely broken and nonsensical to me. Would love to know if there’s something I was missing, because I sure did poke around and couldn’t figure it out!!
I only have vague memories about _Minstrel Song_ but I know back in the day there was a comically long semi-viral Tim review utterly trashing it (he later claimed ironically) and the game developed a reputation (maybe among PS2 Square fans who hadn’t played _SaGa_ before?) for being violently offputting, leading to camps of apologists, haters and post-ironic champions. It always kinda confused me tbh, thus to this day I have no idea who was meming whom and what’s up with the game itself.
@“treefroggy”#p71359 I feel like the videogames world is incredibly weird. 20 years ago we weren‘t having all those games, so if you were young you had to stick with that one even if it stank (unless you were doing piracy with PC games and some consoles), and so there were a lot of obscure games falling off the radar. Now we have a lot of games, and the problems are two: finding out things that are truly unique and obscure, and this culture. It truly sucks, but even if it’s sad it won‘t be solved unless there are external circumstances. My advice is learning not to care: some games deserve to be played at your own pace, and it’s a shame we have internalized quite the opposite. Surpirisingly, and in a personal level, I‘m glad I’ve been able not to care: the parasocial sphere of videogames and culture circles feels more and more repulsive to me, and taking things slow and steady is my ideal approach.
Don't quite know where to share this, but Little Big Adventure 1 and 2 got a patch shadow dropped for its 25th anniversary that adds some qol stuff and controller support, and also a completely redesign for the game logo.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/398000/view/3324232052974597664
Very interesting to see games so old patched this way, wish it happened more often!
@“xhekros”#p72030 we‘re on the 4th generation where companies like Nintendo are emulating their own classics, and somehow with each generation they keep getting worse?? Like N64 worked fine on Wii, then on Switch it was very bad. Playstation 1 games were perfect on PS3, now they’re terrible again. What the blubby heck.
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@“xhekros”#p72030 My advice is learning not to care:
oh buddy, I stopped caring a *long time ago*
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@“xhekros”#p72030 the parasocial sphere of videogames and culture circles feels more and more repulsive to me,
part of growing up / w \
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/g0OdWqC.png]
Am I the only one that thinks Sonic Frontiers looks great? I mean, I don‘t think it looks like a high quality banger in the traditional sense but it looks weird and messy and full of unnecessary stuff. Like the rails you can see in the background look like partially loaded levels streamed in by mistake. The LOD popping is wild. The enemies don’t seem to pose any threat. When you climb a tower there are huge ramps to run up and attached to them are also rail grinds. Why do you need both of those? When Sonic climbs the wall on the tower it seems you can choose to climb or just run straight up it. Why both? The wall texture doesn't change to tell you that this section is a climbing bit and this section is a wall run. I love all this stuff. Like loads of people had loads of things they wanted to put in and no one said no. I like the look of just having a very peaceful cruise round a green world collecting rings and just chilling.
I get that my reaction to it probably wasn't what they were going for but I'm into it.
@“Chopemon”#p72302 just FYI my non IC buddy was also into it this morning as well. He was unsurprised but mildly annoyed by the generally negative response people seemed to have, and my half baked quip of a response was: “The bounce and speed pads - nobody will ever accept those mechanics. ‘I am not in control and I don’t like how the camera moves’ Thus no matter whether there are good or bad elements of those games, 3D Sonics are doomed to rejection.”
https://twitter.com/bandainamcosea/status/1532527487288127489?s=21&t=zzBq1hBrCbGFRHb8miWONg
As people quickly pointed out they’re actually comparing the Wii remake and not the PS1 original which is hilarious.
This reply has an actual comparison:
https://twitter.com/penderton9/status/1532631857342337025?s=21&t=zzBq1hBrCbGFRHb8miWONg
Anyway my alternate title for this remaster collection: Klonoa Saturation Island
@“sabertoothalex”#p72356 is it just me, or does the lighting in the Wii “original” (lmao) look way better? The new game looks super-saturated and blown out, while somehow looking flatter (probably because the shadow detail is essentially obliterated).
Either way, I prefer crunchy sprites with low-poly backgrounds any day of the week!
@“Chopemon”#p72302
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@“treefroggy”#p72360 Frontier is a chance to have game play that’s like the Sonic CD intro AMV. Mechanically it seems sound. Open field Sonic makes sense. I agree that the lack of funk and general direction is off, but you gotta keep up with what kids these days think is cool, right?
I'm not scared of new directions for the blue lad
@"sabertoothalex"#p72356 this would make me angry but how can you stay mad when klonoa and huepow are all like `popoppeepeoopoepeopeopeooe!!!!!!!!!!!! owo `
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@“treefroggy”#p72360 Frontier is a chance to have game play that’s like the Sonic CD intro AMV. Mechanically it seems sound. Open field Sonic makes sense. I agree that the lack of funk and general direction is off, but you gotta keep up with what kids these days think is cool, right?
See, my response went in the polar opposite direction. I remember this comment from a *Sonic* developer saying that one of the challenges in creating a *Sonic* game is meticulously crafting all this impressive scenery, knowing the player's only going to see it for the half second they zoom past it. For me, that highlights not only how much *Sonic* is an artifact of a previous era of game design, but also how incompatible that design is with the dominant marke-oh, fuck it: open world game design, because of that. Whatever anybody's response to *Frontiers* might be now, I don't know that people were really clamoring for an open world *Sonic* game before that. After all, why would the idea occur to anybody when *Sonic*'s run-in-a-straight-line gameplay doesn't at all lend itself to an open world format?
To put it another way, *Frontiers*, *Arceus Legends*, *Elden Ring* etc. all demonstrate how open world gameplay doesn't arise organically from a given franchise's working premises, but is imposed from without to *make* that franchise converge on what is seen as the natural end point for all game design. For the developer, it's a cost-efficiency measure; for the player, an offer of a nebulous sense of freedom.
I'm about six seconds away from calling open world games the suburbs of game design again.
From the few minutes of gameplay I've seen it looks pretty and like I could chill with it but also that it might require HDR to not look blown out.
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@“treefroggy”#p72363 Frontier is a chance to have game play that’s like the Sonic CD intro AMV.
this is good and has gotten me optimistic.