I am continuing to play genesis games I had as a kid but never finished. Went straight from Landstalker into Shining Force. I always think of this as one of my favorite video games but it has been well over 20 years since I have played it and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up. This is a rare occurrence of an old video game seeming even better to me now than when I was a kid. I have been blasting through it and am on chapter 5 right now.
It is so polished and detailed - the art is beautiful, there are tons of unique sprites and character portraits, the portraits and sprites all animate, the character designs change and are even cooler after you promote your characters. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into the numbers and scaling too, it’s challenging without being punishing and makes for a perfectly smooth and fun experience. I’m sure you could put limits on how you play it and have a real challenge too.
The amount of polish and smooth gameplay and cartoon-fantasy all makes me feel like this this is the Sega version of Dragon Quest. I forgot how much of the game was about visiting unique towns and recruiting weird and fun characters - it makes sense that Suikoden clicked with me so much later on. The music gets a bit repetitive but I played Fire Emblem Three houses a couple years ago and it seems like maybe this problem still hasn’t been solved with strategy games.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/rC9ITPz.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/rC9ITPz.jpg[/IMG][/URL]Gotta love any video game with paladin centaurs fighting skeletons in an outer space ice palace cave in the middle of a reef that has been drained by an evil mage!
Had a free day today, played Etrian odyssey all day and made it to the last floor of the second stratum.
@"mindleftbody"#868 I don’t feel guilty at all for putting shining force back on hold until I take the time to figure out the save editor / emulator front end combo…. Because Etrian odyssey is published by SEGA and has an FM soundtrack by yuzo koshiro. So it counts.
Just kidding I’m a little guilty, and I will finish shining force..
I picked up the Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate + Injustice 2 Legendary bundle at like 90% off today. I am not a MK fan, and have in fact my whole life thought those games were super ugly and unappealing. I'm also not the biggest superhero fan but I am steeped in DC lore.
Anyway, none of that really explains why I pulled the trigger on this!! After years of seeing the ridiculously good animation in these games and hearing Brad and co. but Brad especially wax poetic about the NetherRealms MKs on the Nextlander pod I thought, well maybe I could be in the mood for some ultraviolent soap operas wrapped in a fighting game presentation?
And then I saw that I had without knowing beforehand gotten the ninja turtles unlocked in *Injustice 2*, and was fucking around as Leonardo calling in assists from his bros who always high five each other I was instantly like "I'm so glad I bought this" lol. I've never had a purchase validated so quickly.
I played 14 days in my beloved snes Harvest Moon for the first time since Stardew Valley was in early access and it's still so good. Days are very short but nights are as long as you want. The issue is, you don't have much stamina and you have a time limit to drop things in the box. I accidentally made my potato farm too big already. Foraging is a bit of a grind... you can really only grab 2 pieces of fruit and sprint back to your box before the sun sets, or quickly grab flowers for your gf (in my case I'm romancing my first wife ever, Ellen), and then grab 1 fruit. I am looking forward to taking my horse to the old town road instead.
Only having 2 tools on your person and carrying one thing at a time is tough to go back to, but it's still workable. All things considered the game still feels really really good to play. Even though I did waste some seeds accidentally because I didn't realize I had it selected instead of my hoe. But at least with switch online, it's easy to just rewind and act like it never happened.
I never really realized how much the relationship mechanics are front-and-center from the beginning, but I guess the game doesn't really show off that many competing systems up front. It takes a while to get the story going, upgrade your house and animals, and have weather events that open up new areas, etc. But for the first month there's not too much going on, so I understand why they want you to start giving flowers to the girls and read their diaries.
I am so glad that Stardew exists and expanded on this game in every way, but there's still value in coming back to this one. I hope I just pop it back in every once in a while to progress the story because it is pretty great once it gets going.
Even though it's even more primitive... I hope that Harvest Moon GB comes to switch online next!
@“leah”#p118146 all of my memories from that game are such a blur as I haven‘t played through it since it came out. What was the deal with Waka, that pest with the flute-lightsaber? Did Issun’s passionate speech toward the end of the game hit at all for you?
@“connrrr”#p118856 waka, hilariously, turns out to be >!A Good Guy!< in the end - i say hilariously because it‘s both very clearly telegraphed and makes no sense from a character writing perspective. i actually really liked when the game got a little goofy, as with waka’s interactions with issun/his whole deal, i could really see the viewtiful joe energy coming through there.
issun, though, i could not stand... the casual misogyny was not the vibe. i think they were trying to give him some depth in the third act, which i was interested in, but they only went halfway with it which made that ending moment feel really weak. honestly, given how truncated that part of the story is and how frequently boss battles get repeated, i wonder if they had to cut a bunch of content right at the end. it felt very....... abridged.
I love the original Harvest Moon dearly. I first played it at a friends house on his windows 98 pc on an emulator in the 4th grade. many years later I used a GameFAQs guide to get the best ending on hardware. The game has a glitch where if you do too well, the counter rolls over and you get a worse ending.
I‘ve been playing Valkyria Chronicles on my switch. I’m having a real good time with it, about to start Chapter 6 (set in this desert/ruins of an ancient city that sure feels like it‘s going to be plot relevant.) I’m enjoying how team composition works, in that it has some wrinkles that use familiar design elements but in new-to-me combinations. Unit type, potentials, and character affinities are all at play, but some are more or less important depending on the context. There seems to be a real benefit when I know my units well and under which conditions they thrive, or not. I use as many Darscen characters as I can, and Rosie is going to just have to deal with it.
The last couple of missions I've had to completely restart, which is annoying, but it's my own dang fault! I need to remember I can save anytime I want and continue the mission. I ought to get in the habit of saving every turn. I do like when the game changes the context of a battle half way through or near the end, >!like when Jeager shows up to cover for the enemy evacuation!<, it can really get my blood pumping and I need to think on my feet to win and get my units through alive. It's annoying when I have to completely restart, though, but luckily in this game I don't have to.
@“RubySunrise”#p119080 Yeah, I‘ve also been playing this. Even the bad character traits are fun and get me to like the characters. Game’s got this silly morning cartoon quality to it that's hitting.
@“seasons”#p119088 yes, good call on the cartoon feeling. The character traits and how they function with the tactics part of the game makes me feel like a coach or teacher or something… But in war! So… Squad leader.
I've never loved a Street Fighter, or even played one very seriously, but having just played the SF6 demo for a few minutes, I gotta say this seems indisputably like game of the year
Might just have to [join the club](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/2612-comradery-by-way-of-punching-the-street-fighter-6-club-thread)
I got to the first boss in Lies of P aka Pinocchioborne. The story/setting is wonderful trash and I love it so much. I'm probably going to play through the full game just for that.
The combat's fine. Like _Jedi: Fallen Order_, it's actually more of a sekiro like than it lets on, with the rock-paper-scissors triangle of block, parry, and dodge. The rolls feel really bad
But look at this dialogue! This could also go in the "Wife Worried" thread too! [URL=https://i.imgur.com/36imcNI.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/36imcNI.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
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@“deepspacefine”#p119400 knowing nothing about the game I'm going to guess that there is some sort of “Lies Told” percentage metre which may or may not unlock a devil trigger mode for Pinocchio.
I played a little bit of Amazing Island (2004) for the Nintendo GameCube (Born to play.™) yesterday. It‘s more like a create-your-own-monster minigame/sports collection than an action-adventure. The controls for each game are unwieldly until you’ve failed or come close to failing your first round. The budget is minimal and the sound effects are sometimes very cliched cartoon stock noises. The textures are very Wind Waker at their best.
The music is for some reason [kind of good and full of sick beats](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP8_sGncyT5QMnkvInWcwYY0VGVRXkeFB)? And sure enough: composed by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima.
You are given a personality quiz that determines the shape spat out as your starter monster. The regular character designs are all really cute, and the female player avatar wears a sling pack—in 2004!
If I return to this I'll take a closer look at the custom monster creation, because it involves some drawing in shapes and at least on the surface seemed more robust than I was expecting.
I have started playing Loop8: Summer of Gods, the spiritual sequel to Gunparade March. It‘s like Attack of the Friday Monsters but with dating sim and jrpg mechanics. It’s currently getting ripped apart with a 48 on metacritic because I think people had unrealistic expectations based on that description. I, a genius, went in knowing and expecting nothing about the game and am enjoying it so far! Yes, the performance is bad, and often there are loading screens after 1 sentence of talking. Yes, the game runs at 10 frames per second during some of the battles. But who cares? It‘s a visual novel with full voice acting!!! And it’s not like it looks awful either. Looks pretty nice!
The load screens aren't that bad! Only 3 in this 30 second clip!
"You're free to do whatever you like" (there are only 5 small places to go)
@“Tradegood”#p119439 Is this the game that announced that the interactions with love characters are AI-animated or something like that?
Honestly, I‘m curious about this, since it makes me remember what the show talked about with the possibilities of AI in gaming, and the game doesn’t seem bad, either.
@“xhekros”#p119453 I did not hear about this but looking it up, I think they‘re lying and it’s just marketing, nothing they couldn‘t have done with RNG. Basically when you talk to someone you have like 5 options (“never mind” “get to know” “flatter” “tease” “take a walk with me”) and there’s a probability chance they will respond well. Then if they do it contributes to three stats “affection”, “friendship”, and “hate”. As far as I can tell it's just random. Maybe other options will come up later but I doubt it.
The game is just very obtuse with what's happening. I wish GameFAQs was still a thing, because I kind of want to understand these systems more. I have been fighting a few battles and can't really tell if what I'm doing is successful. I think I even >!perma-killed one of the party members/enemies!< because I don't really understand what is going on.
@"yeso"#p119452
Thre is a lying mechanic in the game. Right after you beat the first boss you come up to a door that asks you "Are you a puppet?". Puppets aren't allowed inside and you have to choose whether to answer that you're human or that you're a puppet. I picked human (lie). P's nose didn't seem to grow.
It's kinda funny how much they're just lifting from _bloodborne_, even stuff that isn't obvious or that maybe they shouldn't have. Remember how it's a pain in the butr to fast travel back to the safe area (meaning two full loads) to level up with a doll in _Bloodborne_? Lies of P has that exact same mechanic! I'm even playing on PS5 and _Lies of P_ is the slowest-loading game I've played on ps5 yet.
