I consider it Japan’s answer to MDK. There’s a lot more spatial awareness going on in that game than almost any other Mikami game made before or after. Not as conscious as MDK spatially but far more so than most 3D action games coming out at that time. Hell, I would say most action games miss this nuanced element overall even to this day.
The one thing I would change/add to it would be a sideways jump arc the same as the forward or backwards jump so I could shoot at the big lazer turrets and dodge around them at the same time.
So, stupid ol’ me accidentally deleted my save game for Baten Kaitos. I was just onto Disc 2, and was attempting to use the drive with the save game on it to create a Wnidows 10 installation drive. Turns out that it does not respect partitions and just formats the whole drive! Without telling you!
So that’s attempt 4 thwarted. I’m so mad.
I think I’m going to start it AGAIN.
This will be the most work I’ve ever put into finishing a game under incredibly stupid circumstances. The second most work was when I played through Earthbound too quickly and got to the end under levelled. I couldn’t beat a single enemy to get any experience points whatsoever, and Giygas kept killing me. I found a Gameshark code that would level you to 99 IF you got any experience points, which I couldn’t do.
So I restarted the game. I was playing on emulator so I could fast forward, but I went through the entire game a second time.
I got to the end and uh
Giygas still wouldn’t die.
That’s when I found out you have to pray to beat the end boss.
Which I could have done the first time.
Anyway, moral of the story: I’m a fuckin idiot and I’m dedicated to a few games beyond reason.
IIRC I actually got to the stage of Giygas (barely) where praying would have worked, and even ended up surviving a few rounds of damage. I think I probably could have done it.
I couldn’t play Nocturne the other day because the missus was watching the bowl, so on a whim I fired up Banished, which has been languishing on my hard drive unplayed for the last couple years. (Spoilers ahead)
My first town seemed to be going well. I took what I believe was Cuba’s advice and planted a bunch of apples, and everything was going smoothly until everyone started dying of old age. Apparently, building more houses is the key to getting children but I had no idea. Oops. Hilariously, the simulation keeps going even after everyone is dead, so I just let it go for a while and watched the trees slowly return.
So then on my second town I built housing at a steady clip, only to have half the town die of starvation. Oops, again. I went back to an earlier save and this time built at a more measured pace, and seem to have achieved a decent equilibrium. The kids aren’t growing up fast enough to replace the old ones dying, but I seem to have stopped the overall population decline. I never seem to have quite enough firewood, though. Also, what the hell is up with the exorbitant prices on seeds? I want to plant some different crops but can never afford it.
Anyway, long story short, I’m thoroughly addicted to this damn game. I’ve never had the patience for sim city-likes but this I really dig.
I love Banished. It’s quite peculiar in that it feels somewhat like a roquelike, meaning you can dip in and out without losing track of the more elaborate long term goals sim-city clones seems to be stuffed with.
Just finished watching a Let’s Play of Captain Blood for the Atari ST. I’m quite amazed at how successfully the game uses symbols to convey the inputs of the interface as well as a universal language for multiple races across an imagined galaxy. It creates a very alienating experience when travelling unlike most space sims out there; reaching new locations by deducing what an alien from a previous location has vaguely communicated.
It’s like some kind of a maze-linguist space simulator.
The premise of the game is very unique too, I find. Phillipe Ulrich might just be an unsung genius here…
Bob Morlock is a game designer who has just developed a new sci-fi video game set in outer space and alien worlds. While testing the product Morlock inexplicably finds himself in the spaceship within the game. A hyperspace accident clones him thirty times. Each of the clones departs, taking with him a portion of a vital fluid that sustains Morlock’s life. Assuming the persona of the brave Captain Blood, the programmer tracks down and disintegrated twenty-five clones, spending 800 years to achieve that goal. However, five clones still remain, hidden somewhere in the depths of the galaxy. Captain Blood must find these clones and destroy them before he loses his own life.