Like having this result then feeling the need to 100% it is what is wrong with culture. Don’t mind me this is just something in my craw.
2 Likes
penis sword
18 Likes
I was continuing to have a hoot with Valfaris until it absolutely enraged me with a sequence of annoying fights (with apparently no checkpoints in between, which seems particularly unkind of a game that is generally pretty generous in this regard). I figured I ought to just delete the game from my hard drive before I chuck a controller. Pretty inventive and fun game, I have to say. Did it just piss me off very badly? Yes. But I still have a pretty good overall opinion of it! I’m just not a patient man anymore.
2 Likes
Concluding Shining Force Week here at select button dot shoes and I have a sad report. Shining Force 2 may be the exact same game as Shining Force and Shining Force CD. It feels like it may have a more compelling story but I am definitely less compelled to walk around a JRPG town and click on everything.
In SF2 you are students of indetrminate age and after a rat steals some jewels it unleashes an ancient evil AND the neighboring kingdom is invading AND your teacher got owned. Now get out on the overworld and fight some slimes. Get ready for the songs to restart every 2-3 seconds as it switches from Field to Battle Scene to Field to Battle Scene. You’ll get real familar with the music in just an hour of game play.
When I was not in range of the enemy they did some idle movements that caused me to go “wow that is exactly what I saw in CD.” Sure enough same dumb as hell AI. Get just inside their undefined bubble and they go straight for you, or bypass you if possible for the inrange injured party member or mage.
I think tomorrow I’ll try it with my ipod on and no sound see how that feels but don’t have any high hopes of playing it farther than that. The more JRPG-ness of it (compared to the stripped down CD) just makes me think of all those great SNES JRPGs I could replay.
Also tried Ninja Golf for the 7800 and it sure is what it is on the tin. Not close to the worst golf game on the system even.
Wish every core had save states and that complaining is only there because I haven’t been in the mood to focus on GBA/PS1. Did try LotR:Fellowship for GBA until it reveal itself to be a JRPG with…mouse cursor movement in battles? I didn’t stick around too long.
And to talk about the other theme week of May tried the Genesis and Arcade versions of Double Dragon. Wow they really made that a video game on the NES and not an exercise in failure.
Gotta squeeze fun out of this stupid purchase.
11 Likes
Despite a lot of the same visual trappings of what would become SRPGs Shining Force battles are more akin to regular RPG dungeons with visible enemies than strategy fights. The AI is nonexistent. Just march across the map and press “fight”.
The only real strategy is trying to time kills with weaker/more fun party members (GONG) so you don’t waste xp.
They are definitely games I vibe with a lot despite (or maybe because of) how weirdly broken and mindless they are.
8 Likes
I got stuck and gave up on a late-game battle back when I played Shining Force 2 and I think it’s because I wasn’t sufficiently doing this for the rest of the game
I always seem to sleepwalk into this kind of trap with SRPGs. I’ve played many of them for 40+ hours but actually completed few. So in that respect Shining Force indeed is an SRPG after all
5 Likes
definitely a lot of them are designed with an implicit assumption that you want to raise up all your guys and they only make that explicit at weird intervals
but also, “SRPGS” as a broad genre are like… a huge mess of crap overall, from stuff like shining force that’s barely more thought through than dragon quest * ultima combat, to the jagged alliance / xcom school of 90s one offs that are fondly remembered but almost never meaningfully improved, to whatever the hell nippon ichi has been doing for 20 years… I think of myself as a huge fan of the genre but virtually all the good ones are exceptions because they need to come together in very unique ways
9 Likes
invisible Inc and original sin are almost definitely the best 2 from the past decade, they have the right amount of impact and maximalism (two design goals that usually cancel out)
I also liked duelyst a ton
4 Likes
I don’t recall, did you dislike Into the Breach? That’s hands-down my favorite but maximalist it ain’t
2 Likes
yeah, I couldn’t get past that issue
2 Likes
Yeah I tend to think of Into the Breach as a puzzle roguelite. It has a similar relationship with SRPGs as Slipways has with 4X games. Boiled-down to the point that it vibeshifts to a different genre
8 Likes
SF1 and 2 are definitely busted when it comes to leveling. They also never tell you that despite the fact you can promote units at level 20 you shouldn’t until level 40 due to the way stat growth works. You can 100% lock yourself into the game being impossible.
4 Likes
For some reason my brain immediately leapt from questionably designed Megadrive videogames to questionably designed US government programs
17 Likes
Thats because SEGA is the American console.
9 Likes
Persona 5 Royal is pretty nice compared to Vanilla, there are lots of costumes to use for every character + nice little changes to the dungeons + Morgana doesn’t spend his evenings forcing you to go to sleep + there’s a new absurd thieves den that’s like what if the art collection menu were a full explorable and customizable place?
I heard that the game is vastly easier now so I’ve gone with a few restrictions (3 party members in battle, no covers in dungeon) and the game is indeed still way easier even with that.
Man just how cool would Persona 3-5 be if they had good, economical writing? 90% of that text needs to get cut. I’ve read shaggy dog stories with less padding.My most memorable moment from the OG game was immediately turning off the game after beating the last boss and not subjecting myself to an ending. Here I’ve started skipping all main plot related text as soon as in the second dungeon. Even the confidant dialogue I’m starting to get bored of since they all need their tight little predictable character arc done in exactly 10 scenes. I think the soundtrack is very well regarded but honestly it’s not great either? It’s fitting but unexciting.
Both art direction and day to day schedule gameplay are so good though that this team would probably make an incredible Tokimeki-like. With new writers and composers.
14 Likes
NiGHTS Feels very much like a game where “you had to be there”. Or at least I can’t see why I’d play this in 2022. Very charming character design of the main little jester whosit. Probably didn’t help that the Steam port was making me play with keyboard controls when this was probably a real showcase for the Saturn analog controller.
I decided to put Kind Words to bed. I only have so many words of encouragement for lovelorn teenagers.
The Yawhg (art and writing by Emily Carroll who does those great horror comics) tasks you with controlling the actions of up to 4 village dwellers who don’t know that a calamity is about to befall their kingdom. Each week you assign each person to a place, and choose their actions in little vignettes. This levels up their different stats (Physique, Mind, etc). Then The Yawhg arrives and destroys the town. You assign each of your villagers a role (Leader, Conjurer, etc) based on their aptitudes and see how the aftermath plays out and each of their little epilogues.
Every character has different starting stats, and each seems to have a few specific random events that happen only to them in certain locales, while other random events can happen to anyone. They tend to be amusing (you cast the deciding vote in an election for sentient rats; when you’re watching a brewing potion for an alchemist and it starts to bubble violently do you drink it or toss it out the window of the tower?) and frequently your choices have unintended benefits/penalties. Each week you can only assign one character to each locale, and sometimes random events will make locales permanently inaccessible for the rest of the run.
It’s cute! Each playthrough is very short, and I’m sure if I kept playing it over and over I could actually get a good ending but I sorta feel satisfied with the bad ones I’ve gotten. They’re kind of mean in that good, old-school fairy tale kind of way.
8 Likes
Oh yeah, this definitely hurts the experience. I think for me, the game gets by despite a few boring laps due to a very strong aesthetic. The Steam port also cleans up textures, right? With cleaner textures and no CRT glow, I can’t imagine it feels as dream-like.
7 Likes
it’s by far the worst in the series, as a big fan of the gauzy heartswelling melancholy shoegaze house of 3 and 4’s osts. completely intolerable if like me you binged it while recovering from a major surgery.
i also really hate the visual and graphic design, it’s an absolute eyesore and i don’t get why that’s like the most universally acclaimed aspect of the game
11 Likes
I actually tried to play Persona 1 PSP recently and stopped entirely because the battle theme in the remaster was changed to a new Persona 3+ like song which didn’t fit at all. Absolutely stunning move
From
To
3 Likes
crying in the club rn
(I get it though, it’s very stylistically different)
2 Likes