This is going to make me beat this hateful monstrosity.
3 Likes
If I can transfer my save from my Mister, I will try to beat this on a Megadrive Monday, maybe.
1 Like
When you play a series out of order you are surprised. I played Sakura Taisen 3 at some point but that is set in Paris or å·“é as the game insists on writing it. I also absolutely did not know enough Japanese at the time.
Iāve written previously how I played Shin Sakura Taisen and loved the taisho era charm and general pleasantness as Anime Radiation bombarded my senses. I was old snake in the microwave playing that game. I think I eventually pursued the tom-boy loud traditional girl.
But thatās also where I learned and fell in love with KOI KOI. God I love Koi Koi.
So I have this Sakura Taisen Graph for Sega Saturn. I have been trying to decide if they mean Grafitti or Gravure. Probably both. They like to use Grafitti as a grab bag term. I chose Disc 1. It gave 3 illegible tickets as an option. Ah this is a gaiden collection.
I have not played Sakura 1 or 2. I am immediately bombarded with anime radiation. āWhy am I doing this?ā āThe voice track with text is good Japanese practice.ā āOh you stopped doing voice after the opening.ā
The theater layout is the same. I do not know most of the characters and yet recognize the tropes. I was suddenly asked to run around the theater to prepare people for a special Spring Performance of Sleeping Beauty. One of the girls is a 9 year old child in love with me (You Cannot Trust Japanese Nerds, EVER.)
I with an outstretched hand turn off the Saturn and free myself from anime poisoning.
in other news Gungriffon fucking owns. The weird face-button control scheme actually works awesome for a mech game. Wish I could circle strafe but we all wish we had more in this life. Incredible atmosphere and explosions. Less so that it is about Russia invading the Ukraine following climate collapse.
12 Likes
I think they did an okay job of telling her story in 1. I mean, I chose good dialogue options, so it didnāt get gross. You navigate the problem of establishing boundaries with her without belittling her feelings.
I donāt know if it can get gross. I donāt want to know.
8 Likes
Batman: Arkham City (360): it is not a good feeling to be struggling this much with a decade+change-old AAA Batman simulator, and nostalgia can only do so much to ease the pain
4 Likes
Not too much to say about DQ I&II HD-2D other than, if you have the option, maybe skip the Switch version.
Colossal ding dong that I am opted for this one, since I have the rest of the DQ games physically on Switch, and I feel like the loads are maybe a touch too long, shadows in the town panoramas look kinda nasty. Maybe Iāve been spoiled by the Steam Deckā¦where I could have gotten it if I wasnāt so stubborn!!
Anyway itās fine. Did the first half of the first quest, but I gotta call it a night.
Extremely distressing moment though where I went through like ten random battles before I fought a single slime. Just seems wrong, an ill omen.
8 Likes
ok good news it absolutely is this after all, just took a second hour of playing to feel it
2 Likes
Penny? Sheās great. Just wait until you see her team, or her dorm room for that matter.
7 Likes
Had a really souring session with the new Katamari. 3 bad levels in a row.
Firstly, roll up the biggest of this thing you can find. My least favourite level. This one has you dropping from a height at the start, mainly right on top of examples of the thing that are so small that after three landings I still couldnāt work out how they were thing. Thatāll do.
Second, a race level - like that racetrack from the second game. Except this one is in ever bigger routes as you get bigger, maybe I couldnāt work out the controls properly for this but I just seemed to spend half the level stuck on level geometry/the edge of the level unclear as how youāre supposed to turn.
Third, the first make a real big one. Itās 18 minutes long, thatās a long time. Size transition areas are really spaced out, and if you go straight to them youāre too small too actually roll up anything there. This happened at least 3 times with bigger trecks back each time. By the end of the level you are travelling in the ocean between hugely spaced out small islands. Got just under double the size requirement and got a D rating. When did they start putting rankings in these, who is the big Sonic Team fan?
Also wondering if this one was just supposed to be Edo Japan before they ran out of ideas and added some other time zones. Iāve unlocked several new time zones, done one or two levels and got pulled straight back to Edo. It seems to have as many levels as all the other zones out together..
If there is one game I wouldnāt expect to have a challenging development it would be Katamari. I know itās been a while but they used to churn these out til they got told to stop. And 2 remasters in the run up to this.
Iāve been enjoying this up until this bit of playing. Seems to be the opposite of what I was expecting, all the charm that it had seemed to use up completely but tripping over what was a perfected design.
17 Likes
It is a bit slower, involves a bit more necessary exploration (you go quite further afield as things develop), and has a bit more of a āget everybody together to deal with the bossā as you move through the Acts (which also act as a geographical/technological boundary). So itās both slower and more structured than other games of the type.
The Real Sickos game of this genre for people who like things to move incredibly slowly is Vintage Story, which is a lot like regular Minecraft except it takes a really long time to make more complex stuff and you really have to concentrate a lot more on stuff like survivability, like there are seasons, and you need to be able to get through the winter.
6 Likes
PAC-MAN Halloween 2025 Edition
It gives you loads of extra lives, never gets harder, and ends after 8 stagesāso itās a simplified, score attack Pac-Man with a funky Halloween theme.
There are a few small rough edges (bonus item pickup sound a bit loud, ghost fleeing sound stops while some ghosts are still edible, ghosts move behind rather than in front of bonus items, and I had a glitch once in which I respawned where I had died, rather than at the usual spawn point).
The weirdest thing is though I finally figured out uh after busting out a calculator because evidently I canāt do math, and going frame-by-frame that the fourth ghost you eat with a single power pellet is worth 4600 points, not the ā1600ā points number showing on the screen where the ghost was a-la original arcade Pac-Man. So the score is REALLY skewed toward getting that 4th ghost with each power pellet, even more so than in original arcade Pac-Man; and the single (not two, like arcade Pac-Man) bonus item per stage is relatively unimportant. And for some reason they didnāt update that score sprite. :PPPP
11 Likes
M2ās Haunted Castle Revisited is a great game to play on Halloween.
11 Likes
Select Button classic Bioshock
5 Likes
rewatching twin peaks right before the meetup, as well as mulholland, velvet and highway etc, and now replaying metal gear solid, immediately erased for all time any doubts I might have had buying a new home theater receiver or trying to actually live within my means/living space. this is what it was all for. god tier sound design.
18 Likes
obviously peoples interests and focus can change over time and Iām glad kojima can seemingly do what he wants now after being chained to metal gear sequels for so long. but I wouldnāt mind if he took a renewed interest in either john carpenter-esque scores or at least say, boss fights, once more
7 Likes
Iāve always held Ninja Blade and Bullet Witch take place in the same fallen Earth, overrun with monster freaks. Just on different sides of the globe.
though Xenia has issues, the latest canary has not eaten my save and I am trying to play through Ninja Blade as fast as possible before something else happens.
NB also has a stage taking place on top of a jumbo jet. It is somehow less plausible than BWās.
Iāve always thought this game was stupid and fun and keep getting annoyed because in 2025 there are multiple FROMSOFTāS WORST GAME videos. Buddy have you played Knight and Baby? No? Okay. Neither have I.
Gameās fun. I only have ambient sound most of the time which is an interesting way to play.
9 Likes
I played through the prologue of Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader and I am really enjoying it. I am playing on easy but there is still enough friction for me.
5 Likes
i also just started rogue trader yesterday. must be a fall thing. iām not sure how much i actually want to play this kind of game right now but the combat animations are satisfying
4 Likes
I loved rogue trader, just be warned that Act 1 kind of goes on too long before you have enough combat options
4 Likes
Oh man. I never got into the DLC for Rogue Trader. I have a few hours this morning. Gonna see what I can do. Thanks for the reminder!
3 Likes