I am up to the last few dungeons of Phantasy Star on Switch and only just learned (from the instruction manual, of all places) that the game actually has a fast forward feature, but you have to manually map it to one of the buttons
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I moved on from Horizon Zero Dawn, I liked it but felt I got everything I was going to get from it game wise and just read the plot summary elsewhere. Thatâs my open-world game for the year.
Then I tried playing THE EVIL WITHIN which is fucking awful. There is nothing I like about this game.
So just finished Phantasy Star, the mapping feature even works on the staff credits sequence, and shows the spaces where the names appear on the walls as little Alex Kidd faces.
This game has a lot more charm and personality than the 2nd and 3rd game, I feel.
I do kinda wish along with Ages Mode they also added one that reduced the random encounters but also made the enemies harder since a lot of the time all you need to do is spam attack until you win.
In summary:
12 Likes
It seems more like even early goals, like the first boss or the speed run doors, are next-to-impossible until youâve obtained some of the permanent upgrades. Compare this to 20XX, where the upgrades are absolutely not necessary, and they even have a mode where they are all turned off. It seems like I need to grind out the first few levels repeatedly to do even simple things.
Yeah this is about the world. The layouts are different but theyâre so unmemorable as to be boring. Again, 20XX gets around this by having distinct platforming and enemy challenges that make levels that have the same theme fairly different on each run, while ALSO providing the chance to memorize those prebuilt sections. It leads to moments like âOh Iâm glad I encountered this obstacle late now that I have the rocket boots upgradeâ OR âOh dang this is a really shitty time to encounter this, I guess Iâll have to play well.â
Dead Cells just seems likeâŚhereâs a series of SoTN-like corridors with enemies, go. That only works in SoTN because itâs NOT randomized. I can navigate the castle almost by muscle memory, making the enemy-filled-corridors more palatable because (a) I have a specific goal in navigation and (b) I donât have to think too hard about where Iâm going.
Actually the problem I have with Dead Cells is that roguelikes should inherently be mysterious, even on multiple playthroughs. I love the idea of randomized scrolls and potions, and very rare enemies that you only encounter irregularly. I keep coming back to 20XX because I think it nailed the roguelike platformer thing, but that game has mysterious and rarely encountered powerups that have both good AND bad effects, and I really like that. I havenât seen anything like that in Dead Cells, and Iâve barely even seen different weapons or upgrades past the second run.
No this is fun, I like to dissect why games donât work for me despite other factors (the presentation, the very pleasing combat) being exactly my thing. I just wish Dead Cells were better.
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Iâve played for about 1.5 hours. This game feels like a reaction to Pokemon in a few ways.
- Monsters join you of their own free will, and the relationship is a true partnership as opposed to the partnership-only-in-name of Pokemon
- Monsters can talk! And they have strong personalities that may or may not relate to their species/form
- Everyone is a girl
- You canât âcatchâ monsters, but you have a monster that can eventually transform into those monsters (I think), which is a cute concession to the catch-em-all appeal but again, without the gross parts of pokemon
- Just like, everyone is a girl though
- The monsters seem to be driving the plot vs. humans plotting to do this or that with god pokemon or whatever.
- The items areâŚhm, not functional in a way? I mean, they have mechanical functions, but itâs like âLook at this picture of a kitty to regain magic pointsâ, which implies a lot more humanity to the monsters than âhere drink this fricking potion idiotâ
- Have I mentioned that everyone is a girl???
On the flipside, I think the battle system is pretty boring. It does feel like Pokemon with the sort-of complex circle of affinities, but I donât have the variety of a team that I can change out to match different situations, so thereâs not a lot I can do to meet different challenges other than grind it out and get those crits. Iâm waiting for it to get better though, hoping my transformy Mogwai can get some more transformations.
Oh, and the text for whatâs happening in battle is at the top left, but the damage done is below the monsters and I canât read both at the same time. It happens too quickly. Seems like a rookie mistake to me.
So not a solid recommendation YET, but Iâm going to put some more time into it.
I was waiting for ape escape 3 to stop being boring and before I knew it I was about 3/4 of the way through all the levels. I donât know what the problem is.
I thought maybe I just grew out of these games and went back to try 2, which I hadnât played in literally 10 years, and seemed like it might be really bland in retrospect, but no itâs actually a nice sweet game
3 Likes
Counterpoint: Uncharted is good and a lot of fun and definitely has the best voice acting and⌠âdigital actingâ, or whatever the hell, of any game outside Last of Us and Red Dead
Also the co-op is absolutely fantastic. I mean outside of it still being centered around pushing a dot around the screen with a tiny lollipop but that is an ambient criticism of all console F/TPSes
Oh no this sounds like too much work
Also I have no idea what a âT9â code is, maybe I should give up now
if I had to rate all of the PS3/PS4 Naughty Dog stuff Iâve played, it would be like:
UC1: Didnât play
UC2: A-
UC3: Didnât play
TLOU: A-
Left Behind: A
UC4: C
Lost Legacy: B+
I agree with you insofar as the best thing about these games is the production, which extends to several aspects â the engine rigging, the object interactions, the character scaffolding, etc. â but I think they are constantly walking a line between being insultingly straightforward and pointlessly difficult because theyâve left themselves so little space to scale up the core gameplay, and their sense of this has definitely worsened in the PS4 era as they pad them out more and more. Lost Legacy actually has a whole 2 hour open world chapter with interesting side content while youâre driving around the jeep that felt like it shouldâve been that in 4 but wasnât and itâs one of the best things theyâve done with the series in years (on top of âmore women leadsâ and âHDRâ), but the later chapters double down on their worst instincts.
i still like the first uncharted the most because itâs 4 hours long
I mean, didnât they have exactly this? It sounds like LL just sort of develops it out more. There are definitely plenty of little side sections in the jeep segment of UC4 that you donât have to go to, so itâs not strictly linear and mildly âopen worldâ in the modern sense. More like a Mario 64 level or something.
yeah, âdriving aroundâ is actually the game, not âdriving around within heavyhanded half-life 2 level design pushing you in one directionâ
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Lately Iâve been replaying Saints Row IV, because itâs like comfort food for me. Also the PS4 version comes with the âSaints Save Christmasâ DLC and you bet Iâm gonna play that during the holidays.
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T9 codes are the thing on mobile phones with the letters on the numbers because I donât know how to dial 1-800-GIVE-UP
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I still absolutely adore both the French lady VA option and the final confrontation in which they stole the dialog outright from the animated transformers movie and never acknowledged it other than by soundtracking it with The Touch
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See, I just thought they were using The Touch as stylistic flair. Now it makes WAY more sense.
it says a lot about my affection for its particular brand of enthusiasm that âactually Kinzie ⌠itâs power armourâ right as Stan Bush kicks on and your teammates swoop in a moment later is one of my favourite moments in any game
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So I just solved it and it turns out the whole thing is a big troll and I canât even be mad
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Thatâs what it says in Russian! The back labels it as a Do Nothing/Pointless Work Machine
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I KNOW
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