I’m sorry I can’t remember how to beat that specific boss off the dome, but Alisia Dragoon is one of my favorite Genesis games – I was so pumped to see it dropped on Nintendo Genesis Online thinking “maybe more people will play it” and it’s great to see cool people playing it
look forward to this music, which I should make my ringtone/alarm clock/funeral march
Can we also talk about how great the Japan-region cover art is, especially compared to the ‘Boris Vallejo on the cheap’ art of the North American version?
yes yes yes, I was so close to ranting about how much I love the art when I posted up that YouTube thumbnail – you read my mind.
the Japanese cover is thought to be by Mariko Uemura. here’s a nice hi-res cleanup by redditor VktrMzlk
So good! The colours and composition are really up there with some of the best! I knew I couldn’t be the only person who loves it!
Was about to post this exactly before scrolling further into the conversation lol.
Just watched all three hours of Re:Chain of Memories cutscenes at double speed on YouTube in preparation for Kingdom Hearts II. I turn 23 next week.
I didn’t end up liking Indika very much. there was some speculation on the self-consciousness of the game’s developers earlier in this thread, and where I feel that most is in the rote, frankly annoying puzzles that keep bogging this thing down. I was pretty engaged in what they were doing narratively and one could argue that the puzzle sections have thematic coherence but the more they cropped up the more divorced they felt from the experience as a whole
there’s a lot of thematic stuff that I think it comes together well in the last half an hour or so but why do art games always feel the need to include block pushing puzzles
Personally, I loved the lack of cohesion.
The game doesn’t have an “experience as a whole” because it is made of so many disparate parts, from the pixel art segments and menus, to the level up system, to the astonishingly high production value cutscenes, to the block pushing puzzles where you maybe catch a glimpse of something through an open door, it’s like pieces of 5 different games cut up and mashed together inside of a Dostoyevsky novel if it were 70 pages instead if 900.
It’s clear from the first well-water task that this is going to be a game that sometimes intentionally bores the player with tedium. I think there’s value in a game that challenges you not just mechanically to keep going, but also emotionally, motivationally.
I agree, I like a lot of games that do precisely that, but I don’t think that intention comes across particularly well when the means are adventure game puzzles I’ve done a million times before. for me it didn’t create thematically rich friction
Neither the intent nor the effect of the puzzles was to instill a sense of tedium, in my opinion. I think they were about intentionality and attentiveness to those locales and what they mean. Yes, the game opens with the trolling-esque well water task, but beyond that it’s about the manipulation of increasingly colossal machinery (shifting unmoored derelict buildings, manipulating arcane elevator systems, grotesque fish processing, culminating in lifting molded concrete bridges with a huge crane).
How necessary those tasks were in fixing the player to those places and themes, I’m not sure. In part because the game already uses non-adventure-game-puzzley techniques to similar effect (traversal, sitting down for a beat and cycling camera angles, general “environmental storytelling”. But I don’t think “friction” was intended, but at least to me it wasn’t missed. In any case, there are like 20 min worth of puzzling anyhow.
I think you’re right about atmosphere and awareness of the environment.
But I would argue that friction is there, and intentional as well. For me, the biggest emotional hurdle in the game was watching the water wheel hit the dead dog, over and over as Indika and Ilya have a discussion about theology. For me, that felt like an attempt to intentionally make the player feel uncomfortable, and I see that philosophy bleeding out into the themes, environments, and puzzles as well.
I swear I spent over an hour doing puzzles in this game collectively but I confess that could be because I suck at them
Hah! I do too. I got stuck on one of the traversal segments when you have to toggle praying and listening, as well as the portal-esque puzzle towards the end.
Oh, and I absolutely could not find the path forward in the paint factory area where you have to stand on the ice at one end to make it rise at the other.
yeah I mean that’s the trade off with putting puzzles in your walking simulator. Fwiw I completed like 4 full playthroughs so breezing through puzzles of which I had foreknowledge is the fresher experience in my mind. Which also sort of speaks to what an essentially puzzle-free version of the game would be like: in my case, didn’t miss the puzzling them out aspect, but appreciated the thematic and textural sides
ventured into Dragon Quest 3 for the famicom (Dragon Warrior 3 for the NES with a famicom skin on my phone because we had “Family Computer” growing up) just to see how it is and have something to compare the remake with and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.
Great game (maybe they all are) to play a little bit every night before bed on my phone. Never played an NES JRPG for that long. I got to say towns are a little ugly at first but grown on me. Story is really fun and had an amazing twist that I wasn’t expecting when… …they made me the king of the town! Even if was just a joke for a little while it was fun and unexpected
I know they are some better versions like the SNES one or the mobile one if you’re playing on your phone but I wanted to see the raw original one.
Good game and seeing the price of the remake, maybe I even finish it.
I played a bit of A Short Hike on Xbox Game Pass as a little palette cleanser between Metal Gear Solids, and it’s kinda cute and whimsical and fun to run around in. The pixel 3D style is quite nice. I got to a point where I need more feathers than the 5 I have, and I feel pretty content with how much of the game I played. I doubt I’ll play more. It’s basically Animal Crossing meets Breath of the Wild meets Donut County.
The music in this game was great! I ended up beating it. That final boss is tough on normal mode with save states, I can’t imagine how hard it is on hard. This game has such good presentation, I’m so glad I checked it out! I can see how it’s a favorite of yours!
I purchased Burnout Paradise for a low cost and just tried it out and got extremely paranoid and motion sick driving that fast and running stop lights and stuff. Haven’t tried a racing game in about 15 years. Maybe something on a track instead of streets would feel better?
Also, the bad Paradise City song cover is awful
I’d been curious about it for a while, so I finally checked out The Exit 8. It’s real short – some people say it took them in the order of 15-30 minutes, it took me just over an hour to complete.
A neat premise, I had a good time with it. Took me a while to work out what was going on in some of the variations.
I made it!
(Sorry for so many posts about playing games, I’m all over the place lately!)
Last night while MGS3 HD was downloading on the ole PS3, I played a bunch of Celeste on Xbox One.
One time when I was much younger and drinking I said “I’m so hungry I’d drink a Celeste”
Growing up these little pizzas were a staple in the freezer. Not so good microwaved but nostalgic. Pretty good baked in the oven tho.
Celeste the game is, as I think many are aware, Quite Good. I really appreciate how quickly you start levels when you die, getting Strawberries is fun, the level design is great, and the chill vibes are right up my alley.
The 8BitDo M30 controller is perfect for the game, feels absolutely made for it. My favorite part about gaming might be controllers, and last night I remembered why: when you’ve got the right controller for the right game, there’s nothing like it!
Is it true that Celeste is a spiritual prequel to Aleste? When Celeste gets to top of mountain she finds space ship?? Thank you
