Ps4 and 3ds versions came out simultaneously, switch port is an enhanced port of the ps4 version
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For some reason I thought the 3DS version came out earlier in Japan, by up to a year. Or otherwise that the PS4 version was based off the 3DS during development, hence sort of a ‘remake’ but not exactly
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You might be mixing this up with Ni no Kuni.
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Huh, maybe. I forgot that had a DS version. Otherwise I am misremembering the Tim Rogers review where I think he said he played each version a year apart, and I’m confusing that with release dates
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holy shit, this stage music
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A few things I can’t forgive changing between the new version (at least as the demo goes) and the original:
- Your uncle is way more of a shithead in the original. He socks you in the head if you don’t return his dumb rock!
- In the massively truncated quest to get to the temple, the new version has you fight some sorta specters in a cave, which makes the entire thing post-teleporting to a new world and encountering monsters feel kinda weak. Like, yeah, no shit there are monsters, you fought two in that cave earlier. Poor decision to get combat in earlier.
- The most egregious, most unforgivable change, is that when you take the tome/scroll to the old sage on the cliff, he translates it immediately. In the original, you can keep checking in on him, and every time you do he’s fucking off and looking at porno instead.
The funniest thing is, even with all the streamlined changes, it probably took me just as long to get to that first (canonical) monster fight in the original as it does in the new game. Possibly even less time! But I got to do some cool ass puzzles, too!
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Maybe we could say both versions are remakes of each other simultaneously, like an ouroboros of remakes…
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two things here:
- Corin is like the one character the game doesn’t openly sexualize, and the game openly sexualizes Ellen, who is explicitly of schoolgirl age and they sell a skin of her in the uniform (yes I am baselessly assuming part of the calculus here is that phone games are gooning conveyer belts instead of any other aesthetic decisions made that would cause this, like, I don’t know, voice acting)
- you have Alice, play Alice instead. run something silly that sort of makes sense like Alice/Lucy/Piper while you wait for Alice’s best friend Yuzuha to get a rerun next update and then, uh, I don’t know, wait for a Burnice or Vivian rerun and hey there’s a premium team
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I am further along in Knights of the Old Republic 2 than I have ever been. It’s really great. This game has some of my favorite RPG dialog design aesthetics where there are just like so many ways to say more or less the same thing, but each option inflects the general meaning of your words with a unique positionality. So like I can tell Atris that she can go fuck off in three ways. And they don’t really seem to have a mechanical bearing, other than maybe some giving me light or dark side points, and they are mostly there to help orient myself as a character in this world.
I grew up in the era where RPG design basically meant “our game has a morality meter in it and choices move you up and down on”. I just feel grateful every time I play a well designed RPG, because I never knew how bad I had it growing up with shit Xbox RPGs like Mass Effect and Fable
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Funny you should say that because Alice/Burnice/Lucy is literally the team I starting working towards almost immediately (I pulled Alice instead of Astra based entirely on liking Alice’s vibes, despite hearing that Astra is a significantly more important character for the meta). Right now I’m running Pulchra in addition to Alice/Lucy instead while I wait for Burnice or Lighter or Piper or another Calydon character I like more to be rerun.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that there is a horniness factor in these games that I’m just going to have to learn to either ignore or get on board with, and for the most part I’m fine with the level at which ZZZ pushes it, especially in comparison to WuWa which I found a lot more aggressive (like, just contrasting the starting 3 characters in WuWa vs ZZZ, where one is a robot guy and one doesn’t even show any skin). Which is to say Corin is fine, but one look at me playing a maid shouting “eek minaide kudasai” made my wife roll her eyes so hard I think they may be permanently stuck on the roof (her teasing is in good fun and I deserve it)
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idk if it was the restored content patch or not but there’s a dialogue on peragus where you get like 9 different dispositions as an option to deliver the same info and that’s why kotor 2 is an all timer to me
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it’s kind of a shame you didn’t start playing a patch earlier, last update had Banyue, who is easily the most complicated and character action-brained unit in the game, to the point where the game laughably having a move list accessible from the pause menu is actually justified with the way his strings branch out
IIRC during his beta if you manually input his meter spender instead of letting the game autocombo for you, it was something silly like 30-50% more damage
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This is so heartening to read because I definitely spent a good part of the 00s yelling at clouds because I thought mass effect, fable, and fallout 3 were the nadir of rpgs
And now peope can recognize it. Now that the luster of newness has faded, everyone can tell that these games were in fact degraded versions of earlier works
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Look, Jade Empire is here to show you it could get so much worse than Fable. Which is not to make Fable look good, just…the bottom is so far down.
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Some of you may be wondering why I’m playing so many COZY or whatever games lately, it’s because my partner plays that sort of stuff and I’ve been going through their backlog on their Switch. And while I’m still not a big cozy game person, it’s been interesting seeing how they all differ and such… plus there have been some really good ones.
We also bought a cheap bundle of shovelware for a laugh, and though I’m mean in my reviews, it WAS a laugh playing through them with my partner.
BUBBLE CATS RESCUE
SHORT VERSION: One of the worst Puzzle Bobble knock-offs I’ve played, this throws power-ups at you to make up for the complete lack of actual game design. How dare they make me not want to rescue cats!
LONG VERSION: Puzzle Bobble knock-off with awful art. In this one you have to free kittens trapped in bubbles, so it’s more of a puzzle mode than the traditional arcade one found in PB.
The problem is that the bubbles it gives you are randomised… GOOD puzzle modes would give them in a certain order and you figure out how to use them, OR at least take into account which ones you need, but this does neither… sometimes it will even start a level by giving you a bunch you can’t use! And you have a limited amount of bubbles to beat each level, but it’s not your fault you weren’t given usable ones!
To make up for their complete lack of game design ability, you are awarded coins which you can then use to make bubbles more useful (such as matching any colour), and later you get chargeable power-ups… but they’re just there to make up for their shitty design, so it all feels so pointless and hollow!
There are other issues I have too (like seemingly not being able to scroll the board up so you can see everything, or how they keep cheaply surrounding cat bubbles with different colours), but in short, this is a horrendous, thoughtless Puzzle Bobble clone.
FLOW LINES VS
The concept of this isn’t bad, though I suspect it’s probably stolen from a mobile game I’m unaware of.
Basically, there is a hive, and you have to draw lines connecting the same coloured segments. The problem is that it’s too dang simple and easy!
It DOES introduce more mechanics (walls and bridges) after like 30 levels, but they make the game even EASIER because it limits your movement options and makes the correct paths more obvious. Later levels may introduce actually interesting mechanics, but it failed to hold my interest long enough for me to see.
It was nice not having to think too hard for about half an hour or so, but eventually it just got too boring and I ditched it. There is also a VS. mode but it’s literally just who can solve the puzzle fastest.
I like the little bees flying around, at least!
UPDATE: Someone informed me it is indeed a clone of a mobile game. In the original, it’s a grid instead of a honeycomb layout, and the board just gets bigger instead of introducing new (bad) mechanics… which I would have enjoyed more than what they did here!
GO KART MANIA
Hardcore shovelware racer where the karts have no sense of weight or friction, making for one of the most boring playing racers ever. Also looks and sounds incredibly generic, of course.
RISE OF THE TRIAD: THE HUNT BEGINS
SHORT VERSION: The demo for ROTT which is also standalone! A short, fun way to experience the game… has MOST of all the cool stuff and little of the annoying stuff found in the full game. If that sounds good to you, this is worth HUNTing down!!
LONG VERSION: The shareware episode of Rise of the Triad which is standalone for some reason, this is a pretty good option to play through if you don’t want to deal with some of the problems the full game (Dark War) has… there are no random rocket guys, no bullet sponge monks, and only the final level has the grenade guys (with a large group of them acting as the boss).
The levels are much more linear and restrained than the ones found in the full game, and many feel like they’re there to show off the game’s features such as moving platforms, jumping pads, shifting walls, moving traps, etc. They don’t get explored in as crazy or experimental ways as in Dark War, but they still do a good job of showing off the weirdness while also being coherent. Well, there are still some button pushing/floorplate puzzles but generally the levels are quite straightforward. Also, I felt there were much larger groups of enemies in this episode, but they’re all weak ones.
It’s not as generous with super weapons as the full game (except the last level), and it sadly doesn’t have the dog power-up (or I couldn’t find it at least), but you at least get some enemy variety thanks to a few robots, who are relegated to their own episode in Dark War. Oh, and the God mode power-up is still here, so that’s good! The shroom power-up is also here, but only like once which is exactly how many times it’s funny, so that’s good.
The secret level is the wildest of the bunch, a massive level with lots of tricks and traps with lots of massive moving walls. I can see why it was the secret one, it could easily be overwhelming compared to the others. The only dud level in the lot, in my opinion, is Dark Tunnels which just felt like “what if Wolfenstein but too dark,” and was just a way to show off the lighting system. I guess the moments you hit light switches WOULD have been a wow moment back in the day.
There is also a Deluxe Edition of this episode, which was a commercial release of it despite it originally being shareware. It adds some more multiplayer maps I’ll never play, but more importantly, three new levels from Tom Hall which are placed just after the opening level. The first of the new lot is just a really solid level. The second is as close to a platforming level I’ve seen (including the levels from Dark War) and also shows why they didn’t go down that route because it’s not very good… but at least it’s short! The third is a another vertical one where you start in a central hub area and find keys to unlock each section. Like the other two, it’s quite short. So, nothing stellar, but fun or interesting enough.
In the Ludicrous Edition, to access the Deluxe Edition episodes you have to find a secret exit in the first level which is only accessible between a certain amount of time… I guess that’s neat? I don’t know what they didn’t just make it a toggle but whatever. If you go to the normal exit, you just play through the original shareware levels. Oh, you can also access the other levels by using the level select cheat. OH, there are also some levels only accessible by the level select which were too weird and/or broken for the actual game (also true of Dark War, I forgot to mention).
SO YEAH, as I said, this is a great way to experience ROTT without committing to the full game. If only it had the dog power-up… then it would have pretty much all the cool stuff!
ANIMALUDO
After we were disappointed with the loaded dice situation in the last Ludo game we played, we decided to try this one for a laugh… because it was a dollar.
Good news: the dice aren’t loaded! All random numbers, baby.
Bad news: everything else! The rules aren’t customisable at all, you select which animal pieces you use but not which animal you play as, and like 80% of the other pieces are microtransations?? Ha ha, no. Also, it’s ugly as hell. The shoveliest of shovelware.
Another Ludo fail! Where is our Ludo hero…
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Mr. Goemon, very decompression to see him throw out money to the poor people everywhere.
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My persistent winter cold finally came to a head weekend before this just passed one. There was some RPG gaming that i can claim scientifically helped cure me, as I have been healthy since.
I got pretty far in Tales of Maj’Eyal while following a walkthrough for the Bulwark class. I wasn’t being so careful until I realized I had a limited number of lives. I forgot that I had chosen middle difficulty and had burned most of them not being very careful for quite a while. I took it as a challenge but eventually, I was over-run in what may have been the final dungeon.
I was a bit bummed but have started a couple more characters. Archer seems good but it is really micro-managey. I started an arch-mage but died in the first dungeon. I’ve read skirmishers with a sling and shield is supposed to be OP and I think that’s what I want.
Speaking of OP, I also got back into Clair Obscure for the first time since months before it was Game Awarded and Ai-xposed. I was in the middle of an area that was way higher level but I could win battles by doing them over and over and getting hella XP. I beat the boss of that area and returned to a previous zone with an open world boss I knew I could beat but previously did too little damage.
Each attempt lasted 20-30 mins but I kept on making little adjustments and getting the counter timings right. The winning battle took about 28 mins. I’m on my phone and dont remember how to do spoilers but they dropped an ability that has made a lot of the game since very easy. This is always appealing to me in games. I’m happy to have it in this game in particular because there are some mechanics that I’m not interested in learning to up my power right now. I can just choose to plow through a bunch of story when I want.
My guess is that there will be optional stuff later that requires a bit of fiddle-dee-dee but I can choose if I want to get into that when it comes up.
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I played through to a T and it feels very much like Keita Takahashi really wanted to make a miniseries for kids and this was the medium available to him. It feels very much like a game for kids in a way that doesn’t quite work the same for an adult, it is very mechanically simple and repetitive. That said it does have a bunch of nice little touches and personality, it plays around with the repeating elements and expectations in a way that is only possible thanks to their presence (the episode openings can change in ways small or significant, the episodes themselves establish a routine before subverting it, etc.) and it has its heart in the right place. That makes it something that I think is worthwhile but also that is kinda tricky to recommend to a non-child audience. If Takahashi does get to make any more games I will likely keep on trying them.
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Neo-Rude wants to play it just about every day and play the 4 minigames and collect coins and buy outfits and eat breakfast. It’s lovely.
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