at least we can all agree the best final fantasy is super mario rpg
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since it came out, I’ve been victim to the worst of all picrosses, Pokemon Picross. The game itself is fine, but the F2P model is awful. In any case, today I finally got the achievement for beating the Level 10 Daily Training in under 1:40 minutes. I got 1:30! I can finally chuck this 3DS into the sea.
Yuna in that video has better animation than Love Live or Idolm@ster.
Wind Waker is so beautiful, but what a shame about how unrelentingly tedious the sailing is after the first few hours, how win-button the combat is, how dreadful the dungeons are…
The stealth section at the beginning is an absolutely appalling design decision. The game isn’t set up to handle stealth, and the lose-condition infuriatingly just throws you back to the beginning of the level. The experience of playing the game just does not improve from this point, owing to the brain-dead combat. Nearly every encounter is trivialized by waiting for the massively forgiving counter icon to appear and pressing the win button.
The characters are instantly forgettable.
The level design is pretty good at times (the islands themselves, generally), actually, though on the whole not as interesting as the areas in Majora’s Mask. The “main” town is pretty well-designed too.
Game just basically sucks a great deal.
I played Wind Waker HD recently (first time I’ve played it) and really enjoyed it. Just had a great time sailing about, exploring, and doing sidequests. The main game was okay, too.
I didn’t have any problems with the stealth section because I never failed it.
i haven’t revisited Wind Waker or Majora’s Mask in years, and likely never will because i’m sure my memory is lying to me and i don’t want to deepen my disenchantment :
they are fun to think about but fundamentally unsatisfying to play, on just a basic mechanical level. Every 3D Zelda has that issue.
Speaking of (remakes of) “flawed masterpieces” that don’t hold up to scrutiny, uhhhh i beat Grim Fandango Remastered the other day. Actually it holds up better than i recall. The last time i played it must have been, gosh, six years ago? and i remember thinking it totally fell apart in the second half. I was surprised at how much more i liked that part of the game this time, though.
It’s not so much that it gets notably bad as that the game peaks at “amazing” in Year Two and fails to rise above “pretty good” for the rest. Rubacava is the game at its most well-written and aesthetically appealing. It has what is to my mind the best kind of adventure game structure: you have a shopping list of goals and get to solve them in whatever order you like, with plenty of creative scenery to explore and interesting people to engage. Some real gorgeous screens there – thinking especially of the Blue Casket and the tattoo parlor.
The rest of the game kinda funnels you through the plot more, which is fine because the plot is still interesting and the writing is still good, but it never reaches the same high again. Also there is way less dialogue, in the last year especially – i think all of two characters have dialogue trees, everyone else just says one or two plot things when you talk to them. Which is a shame because it’s a Lucasarts adventure game and i can’t get enough of my Lucasarts adventure game dialogue trees! Don’t deprive me of that delicious banter!!
Oh and the puzzles are, on the whole, better and easier than i remember (though some of that might be, uhh, whatever the adventure game equivalent of muscle memory is. Wait that’s just called "memory. shit) but there are a few in the latter half that amount to “i’m just doing this weird shit and i don’t know why, there’s nothing else i can do though, oh hey i solved the problem i guess?? onto the next story beat”.
The remastering is entirely just the models as far as i can tell, it improves the shading and adds lighting. Also there is commentary you can toggle on/off. Listening to some of the technical hoops they had to jump through to make this thing is p. interesting. Oh and you can play it with a mouse, or without tank controls, though i guess that was always an option if you had a controller? it plays much smoother and nicer without tank controls. you get an achievement called “The Right Way” if you do the whole game with them, and the description says that Tim Schafer insisted on putting it in. The rest of the cheevos are for pursuing all the dialogue and getting the best quotes which is kinda cool. STILL A GOOD GAME EVEN TODAY 8/10 STARS 1 1/2 THUMBS UP B+
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i’ve never played an FF game but i have played wayyyy too many RPG Maker games, so I think I got the FF experience down
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the stealth section would have been OK by me if it had been tweaked so the moblins have to catch you before they dump you in jail.
The combat looks nice, like the rest of the game, but it’s so easy it becomes repetitive. it really is “stun this guy with the boomerang or hookshot, then hit him” in every fight or yeah, press A to win… that’s one tiny merit of TP, it at least let you press A to win in a few different ways! you can even press A to strike a stylish pose, after.
don’t get me started on anytime you have to use the grappling hook x_x
but i liked SPLOOOOSH
It was a good game when i was an unpicky kid though. I never minded the sailing, finding all the different little islands felt like a real adventure. it’s forever my blue skies game… i just couldn’t play it again. Maybe i know what “child’s game” is now~
FUCK SPLOOSH IT TOOK ME AGES TO WIN THAT FRIGGIN GAME
bring back bombchu bowling tbh
I mean, they have names… that’s all I can tell you about them. I remember zero things about either of their personalities because they are the barest notch above generic archetypes. Contrast these blank slates with Tingle, for example, who is characterized interestingly and is odd enough to remember. I mean, Zelda in general is not really known for memorable characters, but Wind Waker’s attempts at them fall flat for sure in my book.
Hell, the Zora princess from OoT is more memorable than goddamn Tetra, for chrissakes.
The hand coming out of the toilet asking for toilet paper in Majora is more memorable than anyone from Wind Waker.
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the bird girl was cute…
i liked the Ganon…
yea…
I played it when I was hit with paralyising depression, and it helped me get through it okay. I think it was the perfect game to play at the time.
I liked the bird girl too, and a lot of the people on the main town island, such as that girl who turns to crime. And that gang of kids! And that postie who’s your fanboy (on dragon roost)
The hand coming out of the toilet is more memorable than the majority of game characters, come on, let’s be fair here
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in fairness, I like that we have one person here who will ardently defend PS2-era zelda and jrpgs that are otherwise commonly accepted as overcooked and representative of bad game design trends, I just wish it didn’t feel like we were having the same discussion from square one every few months
I also think a lot of this is generational nostalgia which is difficult/functionally impossible to have a meaningful critical discussion about
Nope
maybe if you shitpost more