Beat Zelda Kingtears the other day and for all my mountain of nitpicks about the game I gotta say I was very positive on the final dungeon and battle(s). Every Big Epic Game wants its home stretch to feel like a culmination of all the mechanics and imagery in the game but Kingtears pulls it off exceptionally well. Made me wish other parts of the game could’ve temporarily restricted healing, saving and fast travel for a scripted challenge gauntlet! Also, I never would’ve expected a Zelda game of all things to mess with its own UI during the final boss fight to freak me out but I guess everyone in the industry has played Undertale and Nier by now huh?
Also finding the _Quake II_ and _Tactics Ogre_ remasters hard to put down.
I guess I remembered correctly that _TO_ gets kind of messy in its last act, narratively and mechanically, which even all the _Reborn_ enhancements don’t change. Also much easier, which I guess is one of the classic oddities of Matsuno game design. Quirks in the new balancing are starting to come through as well, like base accuracy percentages for every character being so high that entire moves and mechanics (facing, terrain bonuses, etc.) become pretty much irrelevant. The very slow rate of character growth also makes it frequently more effective to recruit enemy units to replace your generics (easy to do, thanks to the rewind mechanic) than to actually stick with your units weaker units for the long haul, which feels weird. (I assume training units by hand gets you higher stat caps? Maybe?) Still a great game despite its flaws, but it really makes me think how amazing a new title iterating all these mechanics from the ground up could be. Fat chance of that unfortunately!!
Already mentioned how _Quake II_ feels like a step down from its predecessor in some ways (“great” to merely “good”) but it’s still so goddamn much fun and feels so fluid and aggressive with all the remastered enhancements. I actually kind of like the interconnected levels even if they produce a looser feel and (slightly) more backtracking than the conceptual gems of classic Id. The “point me in the direction I’m supposed to go” button is a clear concession to modern player expectations but given how convoluted the progression in these levels can get I’ll gladly accept it in the interest of keeping the game fast-paced — which, granted, might not be the greatest of compliments to the original designs. I never did love _Doom_’s on-and-off pacing where you’re either locked in intense battles to gain ground or wandering aimlessly through empty levels until you stumble into the red key for the red door on the other side of the map. I thought the first _Quake_ struck the perfect balance of retaining that labyrinthine feel while making the levels visually coherent and straightforward enough to navigate at a reasonably brisk pace.
But it’s also part of the era, I guess. I tried going back to the endgame levels of _Perfect Dark_ a few weeks ago (the 360 remaster) and for all the cool unique features in that game, it really turns into a slog by the end where the “challenge” comes from obtuse (sometimes time-sensitive!) objectives, confusing level layouts, cheap enemy placements, and RNG mechanics (enemy behavior/shot damage) weighed against the game’s _absence of checkpoints or healing_. Personally I would not mind that and _Goldeneye_ getting the Nightdive premium treatment!!
@“yeso”#p129211 I've been real curious about this one. On paper, it seems to hit a lot of notes that I am interested in or at least are likely to hook me for a while – I was worried that it might not all fit together well. Sounds like maybe it does!
I have been eagerly anticipating Bomb Rush Cyberfunk ever since it was first announced, and could not wait for today because I was so eager to play it and downloaded it basically as soon as the eShop got updated. My thoughts so far: is it janky? Yes. Do I absolutely adore it? Oh god, yes. It literally feels like a lost Jet Set Radio 2 from an alternate timeline where the Dreamcast survived a few more years, and I say this knowing Future exists (disclaimer I still need to play it and one of these days I‘m gonna finally buy an OG Xbox to play it and Panzer Dragoon Orta) because the look and game feel of this very much feels Dreamcast, and I love it. Hideki Naganuma once again delivers an outstanding soundtrack, the grinding feels soooo good, you get a skateboard (!!!) and a BMX bike (I haven’t unlocked it yet) on top of roller blades and of the two I‘ve unlocked, they feel unique and the game is just such an absolute blast and delight. Also, I love games where you have an in-game cell phone and I love how this game keeps the Dreamcast vibes going by having a very 00’s flip phone. If you‘re like me and the OG Jet Set Radio is one of your favorite games ever, you’re going to love this.
oh damn just hopping into chapter 4 of mother 3 and >!wasn‘t expecting the time skip which i love, and when I tried walking out of the house in my pj’s just now, and then the so-brief flashback that happened of Lucas‘s mom asking if he’s gonna go outside in his pjs as a lil guy, and then brushing his hair when looking in the mirror……wasn't expecting to get fucked up by that but it fucked me uppppp!<
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk seems like the real deal!! I played a pretty significant amount of JSRF earlier this year so that experience is still fresh and…BRC immediately feels a lot more fun to actually play. It retains some of the signature floatiness but I, so far, haven’t felt hampered or frustrated like JSRF’s movement can make me feel sometimes. The style and music are spot on too, it’s really impressive.
@“rejj”#p129257 yes I think it fits together. I was also unsure about that because it seemed like an ambitious concept. Turns out it is and it seems to work. As long as you‘re ok with an exceptionally slow burn kind of game then I’d recommend it. It's complex enough that I had to restart a few times before I could get my head around it, but a few reviews mentioned the game lets you recover from major fuckups so the restarts might be more to do with my anxiety than a design flaw
hahahah I spent so much time puzzling out all this rock paper scissors stuff before jumping in to the clever logic puzzle that was before me cuz I wanted to get the solution right on my first try, and itoi did a very funny thing on me
Guess what everybody, Vampire Survivors is good on Switch. Rippin through that thang, can't wait to try out the multiplayer soon – one of those situations where it felt like the game always belonged here
my gf & i played through case of the golden idol on the switch version, on the tv. it was really good to play together, got through the puzzles more quickly with two brains on the job, yet no less satisfying i think. the dlc is really cool too! i hope they do more but it does feel “complete” now.
it's cool to think about the designer "guiding" the player in a standard movement-focused video game - you know, "yellow paint means climb up this thing" - versus golden idol "guiding" you using nothing but information and almost-static images.
the only problem is that the mouse controls aren't totally well translated to switch. maybe you could plug in a USB mouse?
I finished Oath in Felghana over the weekend. I can see why this would be some people‘s favorite, though I don’t think it‘s mine. The action and the bosses especially are really fun. V and VI were kinda easy, and it was very nice to have some satisfying challenges again. The soundtrack rips. The platforming isn’t that bad, but it's not what I was looking for, and there are a few precise spots that I could have done without. I also think the game could have done with a little less writing. The narrative is good, but everybody takes too long to say stuff.
Leaps and bounds above V and VI, though. Absolutely.
I collected The King of Bugs in Pikmin 2, which I thought was what unlocked the second ending. I just found out this morning that I need to collect all treasures, actually!!! I‘ll come back and peck at this until that’s done.
Now I'm already a few days into ***Pikmin 3***! I just stomped the first boss today. @"treefroggy"#449 I think you're right about the uptick in tutorialization here, and I was a little put off that the game felt like I needed to be told (albeit with a cute illustration) that red pikmin are fireproof. That's something I figured out for myself way back in the Forest Navel, but at the same time… there were only three pikmin types back then and two hazards besides enemy animals. So I dunno, it's kind of a little thing because the second game had a fair bit of tutorials itself. I do miss when it was just Olimar and he was learning all about the pikmin world parallel to me as a first time player, and there's some of that in here too with the end-of-day logs. Overall I actually find it sort of surprisingly hands-off for a Wii U game, even when you have to be told what screen to look at and the actions are broken up between controls and touch, and three different characters all the while the countdown mechanic from the first game is reintroduced as a resource to manage. I like the ideas it's introducing.
I also love how it looks. Even more than the first two, this one makes me feel like I'm crouched down by a stream watching bugs and amphibians go about their lives on the forest floor. It's a very pretty game with pretty music.
----
So, the jig is up: I've been playing a fair bit of ***The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors*** lately and that game rips. I have never played a musou before, let me just say that up front, so I'm curious how much it differed from say its contemporary *Dynasty Warriors 8*. The magic meter looks like it functions similarly to DW8's rage meter, while HW lacks in-mission weapon switching. I don't know how weapon affinities differ from star ratings, abilities or elements on HW weapons. But anyway I am fully digging a *Zelda* where the action and fan service are ramped all the way up. The music in particular is killer—lots of great callbacks.
Also, this game is kinda jam packed with playable female characters? Fifteen of the 31 I counted. The boobs are crazy and there's a lot of moé fluff going on but it also genuinely rules. I love Impa in particular and her younger gangly ninja design from SS was so good, I'm glad it made a comeback for this. And Agitha!! the ~~mori~~ (I'm actually really conflicted about what style to classify her as and mori might be anachronistic for a character design released in 2006, maybe she's just sweet) lolita entomophile cloud cucco lander from *Twilight Princess*, of all characters. I haven't gotten a chance to play as her yet but she's such an unexpected addition. Marin too, even as (especially as?) DLC. These are deep cuts that show a lot of thought went into rounding out the roster.
@“connrrr”#p129459 glad to experience both pikmin and HW through you vicariously.
I don’t know if I will ever replay or return to pikmin again. It’s got melancholy nostalgia that hits me hard, and there’s so many other games I want to play. I also don’t think I’ll get around to musou. Haha. So you’ve played pikmin 1 and 2 now? I remember getting every treasure wasn’t much of a chore. It will be nice to hear your opinion on 3 & 4 after playing the first two. Also I guess I remembered wrong and was overly harsh on pikmin 3. But the first two, especially pikmin 1, was back in the day where we poured over manuals before playing the game. And pikmin 1 had peak miyamoto design simplicity in the manual, where it explained things like red pikmin being fireproof. By the time 3 came around, I know you posted it still had a Thicccboi color manual, but less kids were reading them I think, and they had become a thing of the past.
I'm really missing something by not seeking these out for games I don't own physically. This whole time I'd been wondering if red pikmin always had higher attack or if that was introduced later.
About that manual I mentioned that came with *Pikmin 3*, what I didn't show was that it's kind of a stretch to call it thicc and only comes with four unique pages that are repeated in French and Spanish. It's certainly more than just a little slip though. Were kids really not reading them anymore? It wasn't just that these games had to also be available digitally now, and to save costs on designing and printing them? I seem to remember digital manuals being available for a lot of my 3DS games (but also that I didn't read them lol, but I don't enjoy scrolling through a pdf like I do leafing through a physical booklet).
