wanted to play through Mega Mans 9 and 10 again recently so I picked up the Collection on Switch on sale, since that seems the best way to go about it, these days.
Mega Man 9 - I remember really enjoying this one when it came out, and well, I still liked it, but it still isn’t as good as 2 or 3 or 8, but it’s probably better than 5 or 6. the game has a lot of mean tricks up its sleeve that made me laugh out loud a bunch, but the movement on some stages is really, really precise, requiring total memorization of patterns, especially in some of the Wily levels. stuff like the Met hiding in 1-UP is cute, but much like a joke from 20 years ago, it’s barely noticeable once you’ve already seen it. a cool game with a catchy soundtrack, so i’ll probably return to it again, like I have with the other games through the years.
Mega Man 10 - on the flipside, I very much remember not really like 10 as much as 9 when it came out, and this time, I mostly thought it was fine. however, there is something about it that just feels kind of off. the spritework isn’t as good as 9’s, and this is especially apparent in some of the bosses. some of them just lack detail, or their designs don’t translate well to sprites. the stages are either very short and easy or have some really annoying parts you have to replay over and over if you die. again, if played enough times, this is an obstacle one can overcome, but nothing really stands out. the music, similarly, is fine but nothing sticks in my head the way it did in MM9. they also bring back fast-switching between weapons with L and R, but Mega Man doesn’t have a charge slot and can’t slide (I know Proto Man can do this, though). I might replay the game with Proto Man and Bass just to see how that feels, but having just beat this game a few minutes ago, I honestly can’t remember much about the experience. also, none of the weapons feel particularly great or exciting to use, with Sheep Man’s probably being my least favorite out of all of them. it floats out so slowly, and trying to get the lightning bolts to hit anything requires a precision I never felt compelled to commit to muscle memory. items are also a lot cheaper in this game, so it’s easier to just buy and spam E Tanks and whatnot. Capcom and Inticreates farmed this one out to other teams in Asia, and while I won’t say they did a bad job, it just doesn’t feel as coherent to me as 9.
damn this game is cool as hell going back in time and telling kid me that it doesn’t have to be an either/or thing and that it’s possible to like pokemon and digimon at the same time. and despite what your dumbfuck friend told you, they aren’t even similar in the first place.
For a period of time Mega Man 9 and 10 were my comfort games I would play off and on for little intervals every so often. I think Concrete Man, Jewel, Hornet, Tornado, Plug, and Splash woman all have fun levels in 9. Magma and Galaxy are the only stages that feel slow to me and I’d prefer to pass on. On the other hand I really only like Chill, Nitro, and Strike in 10. I think 10 just has overpowering level gimmicks and half the robot masters have slow patterns that take too long to cycle through and aren’t that interactive
9 is the most fun to play in the series for me. But it does have a feeling of having a solved design whereas 2 just feels cooler by virtue of being on the edge of figuring out what it wants to be, even if it’s not my favorite to play
fate/samurai remnant - i think i would like this. it seems like a mostly ok action game that maybe has some dynasty warriors dna (i haven’t actually played those). i just want some type-moon sometimes, the general character design is nice, and most of all i’d like to see the two protagonists interact more and feed into my delusions of what kind of relationship they might have with each other. i feel like i’d find iori adorable if i got to spend more time with him.
code vein - i had fun making a character but the half hour of time i spent running around the dungeon and hitting dudes did nothing for me. first impression is that it’s a lesser nioh-like, and i didn’t like nioh at all.
brush burial: gutter world - oh, this is totally designed for kbm. didn’t bother setting up anything to play, it looks sick tho.
hell maiden - the title screen gets me pumped with the music and the character designs and it’s great that its just dante and vergil as girls, that’s cool, but i guess the vampire survivor format does not inspire confidence in me, just like hades kind of put me off with its runs-type game. it’s possibly good at the thing it does despite me not liking it. the dev made those adventure games before that i should check out instead.
dragon quest vii remake - finished the demo in 4 hours. this is the full extent i’ll play of the remake. i just wanted this all for comparison so i get how different they feel but i’d much rather have the tone of dragon warrior thank you. i have a save-file about 20-30 hours into the original that i need to get back to. the style is gorgeous btw but its so zoomed out that it’s kind of straining my worn out eyes to look at it so that’s another point in favor of low resolution original.
verdict: videogames are ok also if you play as a boy he should be cute
my friend recommended this to me a few years ago and it felt like a bootleg anime dark souls 2. the size of the customizable action palette they give you is novel if you’re coming from the souls series and some of the encounters are interesting to play through if you leave the ai companions at home. the plot and character designs did less than nothing for me apart from providing a little window into a part of the cultural landscape i’ve generally avoided. but the game has some dark souls 2 in it imo
CV tricks you into thinking it’s just a benign souls ripoff with anime stylings and then you take an elevator and suddenly you’re in It’s Fucking Anor Londo
probably the part where you’re running around a post-apocalyptic modern city and you go underground and you’re in the Cathedral Maze Zone like it’s nbd
also there’s a cool reverse giant dog-lady at the end of it
Absolutely loving Romeo is a Dead Man. It’s got a lot of soul which is to be expected from Suda. I really like the way the upgrade system works and the bastard farming is probably one of the funniest things I’ve seen a long while.
