Games You Played Today ##RELOAD

yeah basically it just posts some wacky snaps to your profile if you allow it. And probably some marketting related snooping on the sly

Played through the 2012 PC release of Maldita Castilla, after learning of its existence via the trailer of it’s newly revised 2016 Bone version.

After finagling around with the most recent 1.1 version posted on the dev’s website, couldn’t get it to let me run at its native res fullscreen. It’s built at 256x224 but forces 640x480. Tried using a couple wrapper programs meant to run fullscreen-only games in borderless windows: didn’t work out.

Did some googling and happened upon a pertinent Spanish-language forum thread. Apparently the older 1.0 release’s fullscreen mode doesn’t care and runs at your desktop resolution. Saucy. But 1.0 doesn’t let you turn off the CRT-effect filters on display in the screenshot above.

Doesn’t seem like its linked anywhere proper on the dev’s site, but some dude in that thread posted a link to a separate build of the 1.0 executable that has the filtering removed. Success.

https://www.locomalito.com/juegos/Maldita_Castilla.zip
https://www.locomalito.com/juegos/Maldita_Castilla_no_surfaces.zip

Real fun game. Was challenging, at least to me, at later levels; but had a better sense of fairness than the sociopathic games it is emulating. Jump physics feel nice. Has one of those “you must come back with all the jewels” bad endings. Prob need to use less than 4 continues for good ending; it allows infinite (a considerate touch) but chastises you after 4. Would play the new extra levels if they re-release on PC.

3 Likes

I had to hunt far and wide and finally deep for my vita charging cable.

THE LEGEND CONTINUES

9 Likes

Been on an SMT kick.

Soul Hackers is surprisingly breezy for an old saturn rpg. The 3ds ver is lightning quick and the difficulty is really low. The story is pretty snoozy but some of the characterisation is nice and it’s a real good time. There’s a very tidy thesis statement towards the end where the villain emphasises a continuity between spiritual and religious modes of communication and now the internet which is kinda neat i guess.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions totally coincidentally opens with a very similar thesis statement to the effect of the earliest records of the performing arts come in ritual dances, so I guess there’s a kinda thesis going between the two games and I’d wager some of the other more single-issue SMT spinoffs: thing as extension of spiritual and religious communication, which manifests in the deployment of religious/ spiritual tropes (i.e. demons) to thing. I don’t like the Persona games much at all because of their shitty random dungeons and the idea of maintaining time/ schedule pressure over a fucking 80 hour game, and TMS has neither of those (tho it still has really bad sidequests). So yeah, TMS ain’t bad, and it’s probably worth a look if you don’t mind the idea of Persona but hate the games themselves! None of the character narratives are particularly good, but they all focus on nurturing creative expression and I like that a lot- an rpg about creative growth.

I’ve also started up SMT4, which I’ve previously played thru the bad ending. the first half an hour is awful and has stopped me replaying it a few times, but I’d totally forgotten how good it gets immediately after that- the plot tension ratchets up, it dives into a surprisingly solid class struggle narrative, and then throws some really good bosses at you.

smtfroth

4 Likes

If you have any recommendations for similar media I would love to hear them

did you play nocturne yet???

has anyone played the etrian odyssey/persona crossover? I’m really interested in playing that next and it was reviewed fairly well

Hi Toups.

It is pretty simple for a etrian and the battle system never really challenges you (My team was Naoto for mooks and the other 4 for everything else. Also naoto had a physical attack thaf caused poison that I carried the whole game.)

There is a Hinge Problems about it!!

The question you wanted to ask but didnt is you do get to hangout with the P3 P4 cast more but as a sidestory they cannot experience any character growth. A big part of the games is seeing them change and they can’t.

Play persona 4 arena and ultimax instead for persona cast fun times.

Then look up a video of the epilogue to Dance All Night (or buy my copy.)

1 Like

I love Persona 3 and its cast so much, but I couldn’t bear to play more than a few hours of PQ’s sub-filler anime bullshit. They introduce a female character with a mysterious past, a protective onii-san, and whose sole defining characteristic is she eats all the goddamn time.

1 Like

I heard Labrys isn’t in it and I don’t want none of that

1 Like

nocturne is thematically great but mechanically the pacing is still a little too dragon quest for me, the second quarter of the game is just urrrrgh

It’s such a weird divide, but I genuinely found P4’s cast way more pleasant and tolerable than P3’s.

Hence weird divide. I feel exactly the reverse

Earth Defense Force 4.1 is pure unadulterated videogame fun but there’s got to be a way to balance early level vehicles other than making them handle like lead bricks, especially the helicopters. It even more tortuous on mouse when the aiming has more of a track ball kind of feel so you keep overshooting your turns.