diablo 4 the first game I get into after finger injury:
Pop it tommy! pop it! get me back in there
4 Likes
What Saturn games still hold up? Right now I have noted the following:
Tactics Ogre Rewrite
Tengai Makyou: The Apocalypse IV
Shining Force 3
Soukyugurentai
Wachenröder
Bulk Slash
Hyper Duel
Night Striker
Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari
Anything else that is only there and should be played?
2 Likes
no sega saturn selection is complete to me without layer section/rayforce. simply unparalleled. outside of that i mostly like it for arcade ports so all the games iâd recommend would probably be better on MAME lol
5 Likes
kazeâs pinball games necronomicon and last gladiators
4 Likes
These are some of my favorites but I know they arenât for everyone:
Dark Savior
Nights into DreamsâŠ
Asuka 120% Limited Burning Fest
Sega Rally Championship
D
Panzer Dargoon Zwei
Batsugun
Magic Knight Rayearth
Saturn Bomberman
Twinkle Star Sprites
Burning Rangers
There are a lot more that Iâm curious about, but these are ones Iâve put a significant amount of time into.
8 Likes
The Quarry (PS5) - one of the prettiest games out there. looks photoreal sometimes⊠which gives it some uncanny valley stuff, particularly with lipsyncing. still, a gorgeous thing to look at
itâs basically an interactive movie type game. there is some walking around and other light gameplay stuff, but itâs mostly just making choices and doing QTEs
itâs got david arquette and ted raimi, who are both fine. worth playing just because this kind of game is neat. kind of a modern FMV game.
gotta try out Until Dawn, heard that one is actually better
Mega Man X2 (SNES) - have softened my view on the soundtrack somewhat. and yes this is another lengthy MMX2 soundtrack post. letâs get this out of the way first. the game is great. the soundtrack is mostly quite good. if the first game didnât have one of the best soundtracks of any game of its era, iâd just call X2âs OST a very above average SNES soundtrack and move on
i think one of the the biggest issues is that many of the most oft-used tunes are just kind of meh. the maverick stage intro, the stage select tune, the stage complete tune, and the new weapon sting are all forgettable, rinky-dinky jingles. these tunes form a core part of the aural experience, hearing each numerous times over the course of the game, and they are just too lightweight and workmanlike to get the blood pumping.
another issue is the snare sample used is just not up to the task for all these breakneck, aggro tunes. St. Anger syndrome or something
the maverick themes are mostly decent-to-good.
more MMX2 OST ranting
wire sponge - pretty good. has a solid tone and i like the descending chromatic chords at the beginning. instruments are OK. i find the main melodic section to have somewhat poor mixing (the lead doesnât âpopâ) and the melody is less than inspiring. the james bond lick randomly being in there doesnât really do much for me, either
wheel gator - hot. a little too repetitive and short, but musically pretty flawless. sets the mood perfectly. very high-energy. catchy and iconic. the mixing still lacks some punch, here, though. i guess thatâs the downside of going from 5 composers on X to just 1 on X2. quicker development turnaround, too.
bubble crab - the 6/8 to 4/4 switch at the beginning is nice. this song is alright, but doesnât really have much going on. the melody instrument is pretty good, but again it lacks punch and the actual melodic content is pretty boring. the tune lacks energy, and the melodic arc lacks the electric catchiness of the best X tunes. itâs instructive to compare this arrangement to the arrangements from the first X game. where Xâs tunes flow from section to section with incredible momentum, frequently digressing into chip âsolosâ with manic flurries of notes, tunes in X2 are, despite frequent rhythmic aberrations, frequently more structurally straightforward. as with many other tunes on this particular soundtrack, there are quite a lot of motifs that remind of F-Zero on SNES
flame stag - it is extremely instructive to compare the sonic characteristics of this tune to the previous gameâs most thrash-inspired tune. this one is rather lackluster aurally. it doesnât produce nearly the energy youâd expect it might given the tempo and intent. the little Holst-ian Mars triplets do give the tune a martial undercurrent, but that thrash drumloop is just so dinky and unconvincing, especially alongside the legit menacing sword sigma tune from the ifrst game. missed opportunity, because the composition is rather good, but the arrangement really lets it down here
morph moth - another tune with an anemic lead and âoffâ mixing. the dogged 8th note bass wants to feel like a charging, chugging pulse, but the sample is kind of a dud. i do like this composition quite a bit, particularly the guitar trill before the turnaround and the second phrase of the melody where it goes down to that natural sixth - iâm a sucker for those kinda of modal seasonings in melodies. the drums in this game donât seem to generate the excitement they seem to be intended to provide. you can get a lot of this tune, but your imagination will have to do some work - some assembly required
magna centipede - succeeds on the basis of having a recognizably âmega manâ melodic sensibility. the tempo and the drums, again, do not seem to be generating the type of energy they seemed intended to. feels like a pulled punch
crystal snail - flawless, complex, intriguing. as good as anything on the first OST. probably the very best tune in the game. somehow the mixing issues donât apply here - this one has real beefy presence. a clear standout.
overdrive ostrich - i underrated this one. fantastic tune. more mysterious guitar trilling. the meandering quality of this soundtrack works to the benefit of this tune - unpredictable but never loses momentum. guitar lead lands well
boss intro - kinda weird? but otherwise just⊠not quite right. not the tune i want preparing me for a fight!
boss theme 1 - nothing too surprising. the progression and arpeggios work, but it isnât a standout
boss theme 2 - weird, cool. i dig it
sigma stage 1 - weak! uninspiring chord progression and melody. the spiky melody bit is the only salvageable bit here for me. and yes, we are yet again vamping endlessly on the i-VII-VI chords.
sigma stage 2 - trying to be ominous but with bad samples and uninspiring melodies and harmonies and you end up with this turd
sigma battle 1 has that wacky 6/8 section which is cool, but the other section doesnât really do it for me, and the whole tune is like 16s long lol
sigma battle 2 is harmonically and rhythmically kind of neat, but doesnât have quite enough going on to really make it work
6 Likes
The more I look at this post, the more I want the Thud and the Corsair II playable in Ace Combat.
2 Likes
Yeah the one thing ac does sort of lack is early cold war planes like thereâs no strangereal '68-72 game or f86s over belka etc⊠more like awacs ground eye. But strike fighters 2 is pretty good at letting you live out your retro AC fantasies just with realistic loadouts
2 Likes
iâve become a linkâs awakening remake hater full stop. âthis is an old game but it looks like this nowâ is so baked into its identity that thereâs nothing else there. i really canât imagine someone whoâs not gamer-brained being moved by it at all, there is no mystery
those masterful game boy single screen compositions made it a vital work and theyâre just ripped out completely, absurd
also it is wild how consistent remake culture is in doing these straightforward reorchestrations of interesting soundtracks and ending up with a bunch of music that feels like absolutely nothing
30 Likes
donât trust anyone who tells you Rayearth on the Saturn is good while looking to sell their copy is all Iâll say
5 Likes
Even the Game Boy Color version was already a downgrade. It especially makes me cringe when people choose to play it in an emulator with no filters applied
12 Likes
Plus, all the weirdness is gone, leaving place to the cutesy. Cute is not the point. The underlying game is nothing special, either (too easy) so if you strip away the gameboy soul, very little is left.
1 Like
There are a handful of remixed tracks that sound really good like the Marin beach scene. They sometimes keep things stark enough that it feels more GB. Overall I found it very placid and stiff.
7 Likes
yeah i played ff4 pixel remaster over the last week and same there
4 Likes
I bought this and played it!
I agree that it is very beautiful, but Iâm not as thrilled with the adventure logic. Itâs pretty good. In theory the game gives alternate solutions to problems by following townspeople around, but actually in the main game you are only ever required to do this once, when it tells you. There are a couple triggers that are missing an antecedent, like a classic jrpg - once you do a thing, some guy on the other side of the map is now suddenly doing a new thing that opens a thing you need, but the thing you did and the guy doing his new thing are not related. You can find that out by talking to all the townspeople over again, seeing who they are newly talking about and use the follow mechanic - or you can use the in-game hint system, which I think you are supposed to do freely and without shame because it comes with a sort of built-in penalty.
So you open every door and pick up every thing and every once in a while youâll be like âI donât think thereâs anything else to doâ and you use the hint system and it gives you the next step which you wouldnât have had any way to figure out other than retracing all your steps over again. That opens the next chunk that you can use adventure-brain to solve.
Getting the âtrue endâ after the normal end is almost insulting in its last-minute simplicity. On the other hand, the postgame I thought was a clever new use of the gameâs mechanics, but itâs so dreary and paltry that it isnât fun, and the story stuff it reveals is things you could/should have figured out just from the main game already.
I dunno. As an effort entirely of a single person it really is incredible, but it is somehow both too much and not enough at the same time.
2 Likes
Iâve been playing this little game that @slime introduced me to again.
Edit: Would you look at this arrow? I love how extreme this game has become since I last played it like a year ago.
14 Likes
Corporate man
Doesnât that just say it all about ghost recon breakpoint. Corporate man
also I told one of my friends i was downloading an 8 part mod from that hell site for strike fighters 2 called NATO FIGHTERS 5 and he said it sounded like a fake arcade cabinet in a build engine game
4 Likes
Elex II (PS5) - aw yeah, eurojank. PS5 needs more eurojank. if you play this on PS5 please set the display to Performance because the Resolution mode is absolute dogshit! it is kind of nauseating.
i have no opinion on the quality of this game, really, because it is just⊠so specific and niche and youâll probably already know if you can handle this gameâs bullshit lol
i like it because it reminds me of morrowind
5 Likes
What Remains of Edith Finch (PS5) - painfully boring. apologies to anyone who thinks this is good, i just find this incredibly overwrought and lightweight. the little vignettes arenât emotionally impactful, surprising, or a good method of telling the story this game wants to tell, imo. this game would be forgettable and ignorable if it wasnât slathered in praise. joseph anderson, the really boring youtuber video essayist, apparently loves this game. that follows - his videos are similarly boring to me, lol
7 Likes
I really liked the vignette about the girl who ate a lot of food and the guy who had escapist fantasies while working at a fishing cannery. The rest is not very remarkable imo.
4 Likes