I wouldn’t say Persona at all.
The narrative part of the game (I’ve only just started the demo) clearly shows its heritage in 999, VLR, and Danganronpa
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I really did enjoy it! Last one I played was Super Metroid on the Switch Online, then before that the Prime series when they were released, but having been advised by @captain on how good it is, I decided to give it a go. The GBA is a console I never got into when it was released, and what better way to start than that. I also was fancying a Metroidvania game so that helped.
Easily my favourite of the ones I’ve played, by a long way. It plays beautifully. The biggest thing that stood out of for me is how Samus moves so elegently. I felt every time I made a mistake it was because I pushed the wrong button, not the game being silly. One big issue I have with games of that genre is sometimes the controls aren’t kind and don’t allow for any kinds of error, but this one felt like if you slightly misjudged a jump or a shot, it would help you a tiny bit to make it work. While some people like that unforgiving system in a game, I’m not a fan. Either it does that or I am just pretty damn good at it!
It looked very pretty, sounded great, had enough of a story to keep me interested and not too much I got bored. When I thought I’d finished it, that was a nice surprise to keep me going as well. Granted the supposed final boss was a pain in the derrière, and it took quite a few attempts and swear words to beat it. That though was the only negative from the game for me, and was helped with save states which without I’d have probably given up and missed out on the whole experience.
If I never played another GBA or even Metroid game again, I would leave thinking “damn that was a cool game and a cool console”.
Nine Mother Brains out of Ten!
Sorry if you were hoping for an epic Cyberpunk-esque review, but I’m pretty tired and I think someone else could write a far better experience on that one than I could. And I would like to read it!
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No, like Zero Mission itself, adding length wouldn’t make it better.
The movement is definitely the biggest improvement, and that carries on into Dread as well, which moves like a dream.
The GBA has some surprisingly amazing stuff. If you only play one other GBA game, you should make it Warioware MegaMicrogame$ Inc. The first Warioware is still the best, and was truly innovative in its day.
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Okay, I’ve been hella absent from this thread compared to previous years. I am once again just popping in to say I’ve regressed from a run of Ruby Version, back to play Gold Version on a DMG.
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I don’t know what to say. I’m going to need some time to process all of that, but I thought writing up a snapshot of my “I just finished it a few minutes ago” thoughts would be worthwhile. Going to spoiler everything out of laziness.
Okay, before I try to deal with the epilogue, let’s talk about the pre-epilogue. Hunting down those final divergences was fun, and I only had to look up two things! The first was the clock puzzle (putting it in the intro is cute, but I watched that once a month ago) and the other was the name of god puzzle. I could tell what they wanted me to do, but I had already collected my jewels and didn’t want to mess around anymore.
The way the whole story unfolded for me was really compelling. Learning bits of the mystery and watching it take shape. Realizing that it’s not just the weird rock tower, but also corporate espionage and a special rock. And it’s all intimately connected. I liked it! I liked getting to know everyone and learning the secrets behind everyone’s secrets (Ryuuzouji has several more layers of secrets).
The epilogue. That just started happening and before I knew it I was in a new video game. They exploded the smallness that I liked so much in the main game. But I don’t hate the Dela Grante stuff either. It was just a huge swerve that, I imagine, catches everyone by surprise. The characters that are introduced (sorta) are good, the whole prison arc was some classic jrpg fun, and the way it starts to wrap back around to the main game is super strange.
When I look back and try to think about the whole thing, I don’t know what to make of it. What was the significance of all that? I won’t ever forget Eriko, Ryuuzouji, or Ayumi, but I don’t feel confident that I could tell you exactly what all of their deals are. Eriko is a time bounty hunter, Ryuuzouji is an evil… time entity??, and Ayumi… I don’t really know what Ayumi’s deal is even now.
My head is swimming. Great experience, but I’m going to have to sit with it for a bit before I wrap my head around the whole thing.
Oh, I didn’t go back and get the three happy endings. Are those something I should care about or are they just a nice bonus?
I’m also curious to know how my playtime compares to a walkthrough playthrough. How much time did me having to click on everything nine times add?
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I’ve been tempted by Dread as it does look pretty damn tasty, and my Switch needs some love before the next one comes along and it’s passed down to the boys. If I find a copy cheap I will add it to my 2025 played list!
And shall look at your recommendation for WarioWare too. I’m very new to the GBA, mostly as when it was released I was into home consoles and not handhelds (oh how times have changed!). Any recommendations are welcome as I know there’s a lot.
I’m only 24 years late, fashionably so!
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Yup. It’s the usual Kodaka writing style of always with a really neat tactics game so far. I’ll go further down the line, though.
The game goes out on the 24th or 25th, around the same day as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
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No. It’s more akin to a Danganronpa game with some cool FMVs and a ttprg that’s great on the side.
The fatigue and the stun mechanics alongside what your characters tend to do work amazingly good, and the style is crisp. The story, though… well, if you played a Kodaka game it’d be interesting to know your opinion if you play the demo.
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I’ve been very busy so I haven’t played many games this year, but I’m working my way through replaying the first two Baldur’s Gates. Currently in chapter 5 of BG2.
As soon as I heard the main menu theme I actually started tearing up a little, because it sent me straight back to being ten years old. Still a banger.
It’s very interesting to see what Bioware was like twenty-five years ago. They were definitely interested in social hangoutitude between party members, but all of the characters feel so flat compared to later games because everyone essentially has one or two personality traits. The party banter gets extremely repetitive. Jaheira is the standout character just because she has three things to talk about (druid stuff, Harper stuff, dead husband).
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What class / kit are you playing? Are you playing the original versions or the Enhanced Editions?
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Enhanced Edition, and I’m playing a Conjurer. It was tough in the first game because you barely get any spells, but now I’m up to level 8 spells and feeling pretty overpowered.
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I’m really enjoying FE Sacred Stones. So far I like it a lot more than its predecessor Fire Emblem: The Fire Emblem (or Blazing Sword if you like). I just got to the split where you can go with Eirika or Ephraim. Is it final fantasy 6 style where you choose which to do first, but you get to do both either way? I’ve only had to restart one battle after I let my pegasus knight get too far afield. I like this level of difficulty and I’m sure it’s gonna ramp up.
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It’s one or the other. Ephraim is the harder mode, but if you’ve gotten this far either one is beatable. I like his side a little better because he’s cool but both are good
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I’m playing this new boss focused shmup that also has a sense of mystery, it’s called Star of Providence A Whole Wolfrush!
It’s a boss rush shmup where you play as a captain of a mech piloted by 4 people (anthropomorphic animals) and between each mission you get to talk to them and give them gifts.
Where it gets interesting is in the branching possibilities - for starters, each part/pilot of the mech has its own HP and they can be permanently destroyed/die, losing functionality/someone’s life. The items you buy for the crew make them like you more and even unlock some special scenes…? (It’s not too heavy on the horniness, don’t let it scare you away. The reason I found this game in the first place is following the artist for drawing Ivy from Deadlock so I knew what I was getting into lol)
Even some of your actions in battle can affect things, sometimes in WILD ways. I’m getting Void Stranger vibes of “wow THIS is in this game huh?” Although in this game, a run is ~25 minutes so you can experiment easily. Give it some time and you’ll see. Free on steam! Feel free to ask for some tips too, even though I still have mysteries to solve.
I finally played Lorn’s Lure. Climbing game in the abandoned megastructure? A treat just for me. Some chapters are kind of meh compared to the rest, still amazing.
…Also Star of Providence. Good game.
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Started playing Avowed and I am not usually into fantasy games but the movement is cool and good with some light parkouring, the combat is pretty satisfying, and its low key pretty funny actually. Works great with steam controller as well - mixed controller and mouse input - so it feels extremely nice to play.
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Oh shoot! I kept a save right before the split, so maybe I’ll do one path and go back and try the other. Or maybe I can hop between the two on separate files?? That could probably get confusing. That’s pretty cool though. That’s one of the things I like about a lot of GBA games is that they often have a lot of value packed in. If you were a kid with only a handful of games, they usually had a lot of extra stuff to dig into. Like the post games of the pokemons, battle networks, and ff tactics advance. Heck, ffta had like 80 more missions after the credits rolled!
@Tom go ahead and add FE Sacred Stones and the rest I mentioned to your GBA backlog. Specifically Battle Network 3 if you only choose one of those. None are as particularly mechanically breezy as Zero Mission (is anything, really? Might be my favorite 2d Metroid depending on the day), but I think they’re great at what they do.
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Being a GBA kid whose family didn’t have much money may or may not be a factor in me having played the GBA Fires Emblem a million times each
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The only Fire Emblem games I’ve ever played are the GameCube and Wii titles. While they did make some technical improvements in the Wii one I’ve always considered the GameCube one the better game of the two.
Maybe it was just because it was my first one, but I found the story more focused and compelling. And it really hit me when during the ending it had little memorial summaries for the characters whose deaths I just couldn’t prevent even with reloading saves.
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Me except for the really shitty dodgeball game
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This is such an unsung part of the Switch. It does a simple thing almost flawlessly.
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