The first games I played in 2024 were Wipeout 3 and Sonic Advance, so I feel like I‘m off to a pretty good start. I also started the year making peace with the fact that I don’t enjoy Sonic 3 very much, despite everyone telling me I should
@“connrrr”#p146559 Honored that I could help start your year, and so glad it wound up being an experience that meant something to you. I was surprised to open my Steam library and see that I had played the game about a year and a half ago, I still think about it so much and remember so many scenes so vividly! Such a beautiful thing. The main track still gets to me (and its official MV is gorgeous)
Almost beat Mega Man Legends
I‘m having a blast with the Tengai Makyou fan translation. The art direction is amazing, they smoothed out the loading times. The music’s great. I've only cleared the first real map, but thusfar it feels like a really tight scenario. Waiting on an Analogue Duo jailbreak so I can play this on my CRT.
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i am playing mario wonder. it makes me mario wonder whether or not 2d mario is really… for me? for context, my main introduction to 2d mario was the original new super mario bros - which i understand is not a particularly Good One Of These. i did have the gba port of mario 2/doki doki panic but, while i liked the vibe, i never really got that far into it because i was 6, and i liked donkey kong country more. later, i played a bit of super mario world on the wii virtual console when i was trying to get into retro games but it just didn‘t stick for me - i got the original sonic around the same time and that felt more appealing, even though i wasn’t good at it.
_mario wonder_ is fun and i am enjoying it, but i dunno... it might not be what i want from a sidescrolling platformer. it has a very light and fluffy feeling, and so far (just cleared world 4) it feels like the usage of the wonder flowers is a little blunt for my taste, like the game's levels are built around their use. i would have liked a more freeform implementation with them - like, making them more hidden, or making them fully optional, or having levels where you might _not_ want to get it for whatever reason. it all feels a little railroady. and maybe it goes there later, but it hasn't gotten there yet.
i do like the special world levels so far, because i like how hard they are. they appeal to the same part of me that beat _celeste_ last year. i guess i really want some friction in this kind of game.
@"JoJoestar"#p146456 happy happy birthday!! and a very happy new year to all - may it be a good one.
@“leah”#p146601 maybe I can help
All the truly classic Mario platformers (SMB1-4, yoshi’s island, Mario land 1-3) are all very much stuff I’ve enjoyed to the fullest in my life.
Mario wonder may be the best one since that era, but it’s too little too late. Also, I just don’t care. I’ve tried playing it.
I played through Mario 3D world and it was more of an obligation or something to mess around with. It’s 3D so it’s a little bit interesting I guess, sm64 was one of the first games I ever owned. Despite that I still haven’t finished bowsers fury.
I guess my point here is that if you aren’t sucked into wonder, it doesn’t have much to do with whether or not the classics will be for you.
Modern stuff is just kind of lame. I sunk some time into Mario maker 2’a single player, heading that it was the best 2d Mario at the time. It just feels like busywork most of the time. I see that the Nintendo polish and style is there, but it’s easily taken for granted. Usually the music and sound design is the best part for me when it comes to these modern games.
It’s just so sterile and corporate feeling. Plus there’s the idea that it’s all baby games for babies and babymen. It’s all eye candy with none of the intrigue.
Mega Man Legends last boss is tough and I could use another 500,000 Ż
I’ve completed every single side quest and built every single special weapon except for the technical race course and associated laser beam weapon.
I’ve got buster parts with maxed attack and energy. Rapid and range are both +2 I think.
I’m using the active buster weapon, but rarely have a window to stand stationary and blast it, so I die before I get through half of my ammo (which is level 2)
Happy belated!
As previously mentioned in the introduction thread, I'm currently in the middle of _Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade_, _VA-11 HALL-A_, and _Disco Elysium_ (with _DE_, currently on a third play through with my girlfriend).
It took me a second to get used to the game play in _FF VII R_ only because I found having to balance the menu navigation and combat to be a little overwhelming. But now that I'm 10 hours or so into the story I'm having a much better time. Can't wait to play more, or for the release of _Rebirth_ for that matter.
Spent a lot of today with _VA-11 HALL-A_, which I haven't touched for a few months at this point. I tend to play visual novels as I would read an actual novel, where I'll go hard in the first few chapters before putting it down for a much later time. So far, I'm starting to remember why so many people like it.
If I'm speaking freely about _Disco_ for a moment, we're not even done with Day 2 and I'm already starting to feel a bit tired of. But don't get me wrong, this is a game I really enjoy. But three play throughs of a game that's narratively driven by and is gambling on you _not_ knowing whats going on kind of cheapens the whole experience. We're only playing it again at the request of my girlfriend who has only watched me play it once, and wants to see what we can do differently as a physical yet empathic detective.
@“treefroggy”#p146610 this is quite helpful, thank you! i think it is the sterile feeling i‘m reacting against. it’s not like i don‘t have fun while i play it, but that it feels vaguely anonymous, or something. (i did and do really like mario 3d world though. i get why people aren’t that into it but to me it's such a soft beignet of a game.)
I watched the opening cutscene of MML2 (the one that plays before the title screen) for the first time since I was a kid in 200X. Quickly the disc became too scratched for that cut scene to work so I only ever saw it through completely a couple of times as a kid.
Watching it now, holy shit that was the coolest most anime cut scene I’ve ever seen in a PlayStation 1 game for sure, and maybe in any game. When I was a kid, I didn’t understand any of it, but I knew it was awesome. I didn’t know what anime was, and I had only seen stuff like DBZ and Pokémon.
It’s making me very emotional. This melancholy tone from the ending has carried into the next game… I intend to chill big on MML2… it may be one of the best games ever made and deserves to be savored.
Like I said before in the monthly game club thread for MML, this fire-fighting tutorial is super nostalgic for me and I just got to it. The music is so good. Damnnnn
Omg _analog control_?!!!
>
@“leah”#p146629 feels vaguely anonymous
well-said! that's exactly how it feels
Sorry I’ve been gushing and double posting on this forum a ton this week and it’s about to get worse while I have the rare occasion to experience something this huge for the first time in 22 years :3
(Omg data was just trying to cook pizza! 😭)
I just want to live on Yoshonke City Island so bad!!!! This atmosphere… this is what video games are supposed to be
It’s making me so sad knowing this isn’t the direction that the series or video games at large went after this… it’s all so perfect..
I’m realizing how much this games focus on roll’s mysterious parents in just the first few cut scenes may have influenced my life. It may have planted the seeds for me to become inquisitive about my own absent parents who I was separated from at an early age. Also I live in a van down by the river just like the flutter! I’m glad they retconned some aspects of the flutter’s interior because it’s sooo homely in part 2.
My memories of this shop keep became overshadowed by Cid in kingdom hearts. The graphics in MML2 are so good they look better than a PS2 game at times. There’s quite a few things that feel like Kingdom Hearts. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/mwFFQiw.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/mwFFQiw.jpg[/IMG][/URL] I also feel it’s very interesting how this game can be played with MML1 style controls completely without analog sticks, but is so highly customizeeable that you can create your own hybrid or even use FPS-style dual stick + trigger fire controls..
Oh dear, already so many comments to read in the new thread!!
I've been sick with covid since Christmas (feeling better since the weekend and tested negative yesterday, though!). Been too tired to play games much but since I've regained my energy I've just been playing and replaying [Betrayal at Club Low](https://cosmoddd.itch.io/betrayal-at-club-low). Positively obsessed. Guided my friends through a playthrough over Discord today as the first game I played in the new year :)
In [Games you're thinking about playing](https://forums.insertcredit.com/d/2746-games-youre-thinking-about-playing/138) news, I'm looking very closely at that 11$ Disco Elysium price tag in the Steam Winter Sale.................
i played kings field i-iv and shadow tower and loved all of them last year, so i‘m kicking off this year right by playing lunacid finally. suprise: it’s fantastic. it feels a lot more approachable than KF while still retaining everything that makes it special. i really like all the additional touches of animation and style that really make everything pop. my favorite little detail is the way your disembodied hand/weapon lag behind the camera a little bit as you turn the camera. lovely stuff.
Thankful for the refresh of this thread, I was over 2000 posts behind in the last one. I've started out the year by completing Shantae and the Pirates Curse on 3ds.
I bought a modded 3ds before Xmas for a good price and have been jamming some other games such as zelda link between worlds and picross 3d round 2.
Shantae was a pretty breezy game. I 100%-ed it in 10ish hours. I think 2d action platformers are my favourite type of game, and this was a good time! There were a few sections which were pretty annoying but nothing overly challenging.
I've also got gamepass and have been playing heaps on monster hunter rise but I'll talk about that another time
Finally finished Parasite Eve. It was not the last game I finished in 2023 BUT it was the first of 2024, so it fits in this thread even better!
My thoughts are in the end very much in line with what I wrote on that other post. The way in which the game attempts to mix the of inventory management and resource scarcity of a survival horror with its layered RPG systems is a bit of a mess. Too many insuffciently explained concepts and mechanics that wouldn't be an issue in a 40-60 hour game where you have space to experiment and try out things, but definitely a problem on a 10 hour long one where you don't even know if grinding, item storaging and revisiting locations is a thing (turns out it is, but you don't know that until way later!). Not a deal breaker, but definitely not a smooth experience.
Despite the shortcomings and annoyances, it's a good game. Reasons why I ended up liking it are:
The characters sadly aren't as good. I was expecting Aya to be a bit more charismatic, and she ends up being kind of a female version of Squall (less annoying, thankfully). The locations and level design could be better, the game could have used a couple of extra puzzles to increase the adventure flavor of a survival horror. You get some keys and do some backtracking but it feels a bit bland. The lack of map makes navigation more annoying than it needs to be and the way combat works makes the environments have too many empty spaces to accomodate for the arenas the battle system requires. Also: too many goddamn missable items, this game is a nightmare in that regard. There are items hidden in insane places and ends up encouraging the "mash X in every spot of the map" mentality in a way that I am definitely not a fan of. Broadly speaking I feel like Koudelka does the same genre mash-up more successfully.
BUT I liked it regardless. A 8/10 game that can be elevated to a 9/10 if the negatives don't bother you as much, or if you are able to look past them, but definitely not on the same league of a Resident Evil 2, MGS or the best FF's. Sits comfortably in the middle of your Legends of Mana or Threads of Fate, and your Final Fantasy Tactics or Xenogears in terms of Squaresoft's output during that era. Also, a game I'm 100% confident I'll enjoy more on a second playthrough, having understood the systems and being able to ignore all the friction it produced during this first contact with it.
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Finally, as an aside, and related to point #2 of the positives, something that maybe explains why the game was as good in that regard is the fact that it appears to be based on a novel. Also, rather than a straight adaptation, it's a sequel to the story, which is rather unique. The events of the novel are brought up a couple of times during the course of the game and act as a background to the story. Basically something happened in Japan a couple of years back and it seems to be related to what's going on on NY during the course of the game. The book was adapted to a movie in 1997 (that is: an adaptation of the original story, not the one in the game) and it also has an English translation. I'm tempted to give it a shot out of sheer curiosity.
EDIT: Also how could I forget! Very cool credits theme. The fact that the lyrics were in Spanish was fun and caught me off-guard. I enjoyed listening to the song while understanding what was being said. +1 bonus points for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNGKlkxz968
@“JoJoestar”#p146681 So glad you got to the end of it! It's far from a perfect game, but it really was out there at the time and an amazing example of Squaresoft during what for me is their golden era! Do try and sneak in a second playthrough as you will fully understand everything by the time you get to the end of that.
With regards to the book - compare it to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner. While I haven't read the book fully or seen the film, I know of the plots and you can tell it took a lot of the best elements for it and made an amazing game.
If you want a very well written indepth analysis on the entire series (including the book and film), get comfy and watch this:
[Parasite Eve Series Retrospective | An Exhaustive History and Review](https://youtu.be/feCqT1S5pxI?si=zGiXYqnxxq8YOLA2) but try not to go too far into the first game as you will get super duper spoiled. They do amazing videos and this really inspired me to play PE2. Which was quite different and then some - but when you hear more about the game you understand why.
Welcome to the _"I finished Parasite Eve so I am cool"_ club ;)
@“cass”#p146662 you’re about where I am with the KF series. Eternal Ring is staring me in the face, daring me
@“JoJoestar”#p146681 Fun fact about the book; if you finish it you‘re given a PhD, and are required to become surgeon afterwards.
The book goes into a lot of detail.
I still have it, it’s pretty good!
I didn't like the movie that much.