hey its the yearly yume nikki animation guy
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I still need to go back and see if I can find more of this game’s endings.
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Got to credits in Gal Guardians. It’s fine and charming in a faux retro kind of way. It finds a way to split the difference between classic-vania and IGAvania. It’s padded out by going through the games levels at least twice. The first loop makes it feel like classic-vania where there’s far less searching as doors between zones are 1-way and finding map branches to probe is limited because each boss gives you a new sub weapon and the last few open more traversal options. After the first way through the plot decides you need to go back to get some mcguffins to reach the real final boss. Now with all your tools in to it feels more IGAvania. Then after getting to that final boss they tease you with other options to clue you into there being more collectibles to get other endings. Never played the source game which is a light gun parody game involving anime school girls. This game is far less lurid. Almost not at all until the end game quest reveals all the girls you save during the game are going commando due to dimensional travel so the final collect-athon us pulling undies out of gaps in dimensional barriers. Dunno if I’ll follow through for this final hunt but I’m told one of the hidden endings does a genre switch gag that I’m curious about.
Words about the gameplay itself:It has the gimmick of controlling 2 characters like Portrait of Ruin but isn’t quite as inventive about it but the game does have a 2 player option which I could see making it feel a little more dynamic than just swapping. When solo if you die or fall down a pit you don’t lose a life until the second character dies after spawning at a check point. You can then resuscitate the first girl up to half health and continue one. You will get used to this on boss fights and get caught in loops of mashing Y button to recover your other character to avoid a full death. Sometimes you have to be considerate of where you die since some spots will be untenable to have enough time to resurrect them safely.
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Can anyone remember how frequently Knights of the Old Republic 2 pulls characters out of your party? This has happened a lot already in the tutorial. And I am trying to weigh this against the need to make my character a jack of all trades, investing points into like every can-opener skill instead of roleplaying how I’d like.
People talk shit about Peragus. But the atmosphere is great. I am really enjoying my time with this. The first game was probably the very first RPG I ever seriously got into, let alone finished. And even then I remember feeing incredibly frustrated because I didn’t undersdicerolls and felt overwhelmed, or because I didn’t really know how to work with the jank that you encounter any time you want to position your characters in a particular way. But now I am just flying through everything. Having fun figuring out the intricacies of what I assume is like a d20 system under the hood?
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I don’t think I’ve ever needed to make my player character good at everything in kotor 2. it is one of my favorite rpgs in terms of feeling like it desperately wants you to only care about roleplaying and fuck the numbers
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peragus rules its a wonderful tutorial and a great story and i dont know why people shit on it. cuz the rest of the planets arent availaable yet and all they care about is the world being 'open?" i guess??
you eventually put all your dudes on a ship and can switch them out as you please and youll keep getting new characters so late into the game. always roleplay how you want IMO
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okay I think I am going to really like this game then. something about my experience playing ff9 a few years ago got me really anxious for not getting too comfortable with one party composition.
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No Rest for the Wicked is really, really good. The level design is really good. I had a theory that Dark Souls would be almost infinitely replayable with a dozen variations of enemy spawns and some randomization for items… and this kind of is proving it out. Also friendly fire for both players and enemies? It plays out so well. Very fun to see huge baddie mercing their ally. That will never get old.
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After years and years of never getting to it (almost 25 of them now, holy shit), I actually got to disc 2 of Dragon Warrior VII today and man, there sure is a lot that happened all of a sudden. This game rules so much.
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it’s true, what the Czerka corporation representative says. Those Ithorians through their Telos Restoration project are pursuing a complex and expensive operation with absolutely no clear profit incentive!
And that’s terrible.
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UNDER LEAVES
SHORT VERSION: A simple hidden object game with incredibly soothing music and ambience, plus charming art. Just a chill time as you help critters find food! This game had me in no rush to… LEAVE!
LONG VERSION: A simple, very pleasant and chill hidden object game. Each level has an animal asking you to find a certain amount of objects (usually something they can eat), and then you move on!
The main appeal of this game is the mood. The art looks great, like a children’s book, and it’s fun meeting new critters and you get a little animation when you finish helping them (that will remain when you revisit the level). The music and ambience is incredibly soothing, and the locales are varied… ah, it was just a lovely time.
There are a couple gameplay catches… first, each level has a limited colour palette, so some objects can easily blend in with the background… this is not a game for colour blind people.
Second, you revisit levels, and the objects you found previously remain to clutter up your new search, though they usually don’t get in the way much.
Thirdly, the objects tend to be quite small. Thankfully you can zoom in! The levels are also split up across screens you flip between, which makes searches feel less overwhelming than they otherwise would.
You can also get hints, but you have to do a slide puzzle first BUT!!! don’t fret, they are 3x3 puzzles and tend to be basically already solved when you load them up.
This is just a nice, chill, simple game and I had a good time with it. It’s also not long (though I believe the object positions are at least semi-randomised each play), and often cheap.
SNAKE PASS
SHORT VERSION: Yet another game I wish I liked more than I actually do, this is cute game built around a unique control method, but it quickly becomes both too frustrating and repetitive. That’s a pass from me, dog! Or snake, in this case.
LONG VERSION: I respect this game for trying to do something different, and really wish I liked it more than I do, but alas.
It really is fun slithering around as a snake, and pulling yourself up by coiling around things is quite a fun novelty at first… but it quickly becomes far too fiddly as obstacles become more complicated, and the camera is a constant nuisance, either blocking the view or being too hard to control while you’re also busy trying to coil around things without slipping to your death. It quickly goes from satisfying to frustrating.
At first it reminded me of early 3D games when people were still experimenting with the new dimension… in particular, Glover. But you also see everything in this game in the first few levels… the mechanics are never meaningfully built on, and all the levels look and feel the same, and the goal is always the same… collect the three gems and go to the exit.
Oh, it also has that generic Unreal look, though the snake’s character design is cute.
Also, it’s REALLY brutal to not save you collecting a gem should you die after collecting one before going to a checkpoint. I had enough of this around halfway through, and YouTubed the rest and don’t regret it since it was just more of the same.
So again, I respect them for trying something different, but it just doesn’t work. Could it work? I think so, if it had different kinds of level design. But it doesn’t.
DAXTER
SHORT VERSION: A generic but solid enough 3D platformer, this wouldn’t make much of a splash anywhere else, but on the PSP it’s one of the better platformer options… if only Daxter wasn’t such an annoying horny twit! Jak and Jagoff more like it!
LONG VERSION: Perfectly competent 3D platformer, with impressive visuals for the PSP and solid controls.
The whole game has an emptyness to the (at least quite varied and colourful) environments, and the combat (mostly swatting bugs) is very shallow and best avoided when possible, and the platforming is generic but engaging enough (though some parts are annoying when it’s not clear what you’re supposed to do), and the levels are mostly very linear and feel very flat. It feels like they did JUST enough to make the gameplay feel not completely hollow and just there.
There are also some minigames thrown in for padding.
The worst thing about the game is Daxter, who is incredibly obnoxious and horny and harasses every woman character he meets. The women should stomp on his balls but, alas, they just ignore him. You can definitely see why he’s usually relegated to the sidekick roll. Oh, this game also has some very dated references in it.
But… it plays well enough, has just enough variety in environments, obstacles, and mechanics to stay engaging if you absolutely have nothing else to do, so yeah. Perfectly competent but definitely nothing to go out of your way for unless you’re a hardcore fan of the series. Probably the best 3D platformer on the PSP? But also… you could play something better elsewhere
RISE OF THE TRIAD
SHORT VERSION: A ridiculous FPS where it feels like they threw in every idea they had, even the bad ones. It can be a very chaotic good time, but it can also be frustrating due to some shonky design decisions here and there. It occasionally got a RISE out of me!
LONG VERSION: Originally to be Wolfenstein 3D 2, this uses a souped up Wolf engine, allowing things like high walls (which they use A LOT), some basic verticality to the levels, and higher resolution graphics (I like the digitised enemies, but the overall game is a little too brown for me). But it wasn’t the tech that made this game stand out, it was the design… which is frankly a bit bonkers.
Basically what we have here is if lead designer Tom Hall made Wolfenstein 3D with the mentality of Commander Keen (or similar) platformers (though thankfully actually platforming over pits or the like isn’t really a thing).
Collect 100 things for an extra life! Jump pads and moving platforms! Obstacles all over the place like roaming spinning blades, spikes poking up and down through the ground, and crushing pillars! Even giant boulders rolling around!
It’s also more power-up based than a typical FPS game… bullet weapons have infinite ammo (cool!), but things like rocket launchers have a limited amount that you use up and then you toss the weapon aside, and you can only carry one super weapon at a time (though they are at least fairly common).
Things like armor also act like power-ups… in Doom the armor slowly degrades as you get hit, for example, but you just keep it until the timer runs out here.
Okay, so it’s Wolfenstein 3D with more impressive tech and platformer sensibilities so far… but it also feels like this was designed like how Gremlins 2 was written in that one Key & Peele sketch… everyone got to have an idea and it got in the game, no matter how stupid/bad it is.
A power-up that turns you into an invincible dog, allowing you to get into tight spaces and maul enemies! A god power-up that makes you hover and shoot homing balls of electricity out of your hand! A flight power-up! A magic mushroom power-up! One that makes you bounce around like a pinball! Those last two are what I call “bad” ideas, because you just stand still and wait for the effects to wear off if you pick them up… they’re funny exactly once.
Eyeballs slide down your screen when enemies explode! Sometimes a dismembered hand will flip you off! People turn into skeletons and then tumble with xylophone sounds when they’re toasted! Sometimes when you die, the camera will pan out and show you exploding just to rub it in!
There are also enemies that throw nets at you! Ones that feign death to surprise you! Ones that beg for their life (but will always shoot you in the back)!
Every level has LITERALLY A BILLION secrets and sliding walls are all over the place, sometimes changing the shape of an entire level! Some walls just never stop moving and act as obstacles! I could go on.
The first episode feels like they weren’t sure what to do with all these wild mechanics, with rooms with no rhyme or reason or unifying themes… they’re not bad and they’re fun to run around, but they can feel a bit chaotic and incoherent in their design.
The second episode is a bit tighter, but also has more experimental levels, such as one with no enemies and is basically a big puzzle (there are plenty of traps, though), or another one which is a massive open area with “buildings” dotted about the place, which really reminded me of the city levels in Doom 2.
The third episode is by far the most cohesive… while it still has plenty of weird rooms, the levels feel more unified by ideas. This is also the only episode with robot enemies, who I really liked… some people hate them because they can only be killed with explosive weapons, but their patrolling behaviour added some variety to “slowly walk toward you while sometimes shooting” behaviour of the other enemies. There are also invincible robots, but they are relegated to level corners you can avoid, daring you to explore there. The boss is total BS, though!!!
The fourth episode is also more cohesive, and most of the enemies are now monks… I’ll get to those later. The last few levels of this one are so wild… first you beat a boss by not attacking him, then he turns into a snake made out of giant heads (???) and the next level is you chasing him around this open landscape, and then there is the final battle but you can only win it if you solve a puzzle and find all his REALLY disturbing looking larvae? They make you replay the level until you figure it out.
So yeah, this is a really wild game, but it also has some really wild problems! First, most of the enemies are pretty boring to fight… and after the first episode, you get random enemies with rocket launchers who will just shoot you on sight and kill you instantly. I can’t imagine actually playing this with lives instead of quicksaves, especially considering how long the levels can be and how easy it can be to die.
Episode 2 also introduces guys with machine guns who throw grenades at you… these guys would be fine if they didn’t take A MILLION HITS TO KILL, it’s so tedious. You’re supposed to use rockets on them I guess, but sometimes they are in your face or you don’t have rockets to spare!
Episode 3 has much fewer of these enemies, and they’re all but gone in episode 4, but then they introduce monks that take EVEN MORE HITS. And there are always hoards of them! The Ludicrous Edition has an option to lower their HP pool, but it’s pretty negligible.
So, sudden cheap deaths are annoying, enemies with a billion hit points are annoying… these are the biggest problems with the game. Then there are also annoying traps, annoying power-ups, enemies that blend in with the wall textures too much, sometimes you need to find secrets to progress, and the huge, incoherent levels can be easy to get lost in (thankfully there is a map). Oh, I forgot to mention that while this game uses keys, a lot of the time you have to find the right floor triggers or switches to progress, and it’s not always obvious what changed.
Did I have fun with this game? Yes! It’s stupid and ridiculous. But it also has way too many ideas, and way too many don’t work or needed refinement (especially with enemy design).
Do I think it would have been better if it was a more restrained game? Yes. But… also maybe it wouldn’t be as memorable?
Whatever the case, I’m glad it exists, I mostly had a blast playing through it, and I would recommend it if you want to play a chaotic, mess of a game… there is definitely fun to be had here, but there are also a lot of caveats!
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playing the spy fox games, they’re cute. i was puzzled with how the first one gives you gadgets you never seem to use and only found out afterwards the game includes randomised puzzle/plot routes when you play, which is an interesting way to sort of mix variation and familiarity in a short game kids will probably end up playing a couple of times. (also a secret ending which seems a bit opaque, but maybe i’m not far enough in the “click everything” mindset). i love the little bug who will just hang out in your pocket
i dont think i posted abt it here but i did replay gabriel knight 1 over the holiday break. i remember liking the moody early chapters and atmosphere enough to just kind of resign myself to the way every black character with a speaking role (asides from the gravedigger, iirc) belongs to the same human sacrificing voodoo cult. what i didn’t pick up on the first time is the plot element that within the game, the haitian revolution is said to be the work of an evil witch with a magic amulet. and your job is to.. destroy the witch and reclaim the amulet for the family of white german aristocrat witchhunters who originally owned it, and this is how you resolve the sins of the past? or something? i dunno.
there’s a whole third act in this game i somehow always forget about, although i did sorta like the high-tech underground voodoo compound that sort of looks like a TNG set. the clock puzzle is some bullshit though.
haven’t played gk3 but between what i’ve read about the vampire x templar stuff in that i am kind of impressed with jane jensen’s very enviable talent to come up with fake 90s conspiracy plots that somehow never ended up absorbed into the all purpose infowars blob to my knowledge. like idk there’s surely a parallel universe where the one guy at work is insisting you listen to this podcast about voodoo sacrifices and king ludwig werewolfism but thankfully it’s not ours (?)
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Probably a year ago I enjoyed Turok 1 Modern Port until the hit scan enemies were everywhere. Tonight thanks to the same claim free games service I tried Turok 2 Modern Port.
Well this is certainly not the same game as Turok 1. RESCUE CHILDREN (2/4) . The city’s level design of non-descript boxes that lead to teleports to other non-descript boxes almost reminded me of No One Lives Forever, which I found to be a series of corridors. You can’t really get lost in corridors. Anyways you can feel the stink of Goldeneye really shaking up their game design. I got questions for the guy that models the sex object talking head that gives you your mission from beyond the stars or whatever. At the end of an hour of play I reached the end of the stage but I had missed One Children so was told TRY AGAIN. And I thought about the real children in cages and got so sad I uninstalled and considered where were the real time-jumping Dinosaurs Hunters.
So I played Parking Garage Rally Circuit for 30 minutes. That game is fun.
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This was exactly my experience with Turok 2! I played all the way through the first game though, I had more fun with that one.
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Yeah I was trying to find your post about it. I guess I could search for your name and Turok!
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Yeah I would consider it the best point and click adventure game ever made if the plot didn’t go there. Everything is perfect and then…the third act happens.
I really need to play the sequels since their premises sound much less fraught? But I somehow doubt they nail the peak pixel based gameplay and presentation of the original.
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Did you know in Prey 2017 if you play as female Morgan the toilet seat in your apartment at the beginning of the game is down but if you play as male Morgan it’s up? Little stuff like that is why this is a god tier game.
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Playing Gradius Origins and I am not the shmupper I was when I was younger. Damn this is tough, and feels different from the vert shooters I usually play. Seriously,I am terrible at these games.
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Absurd turn around in opinion from me. In EVERY VITA GAME video I caught some RPGMaker game that looked like it was for ADULTS called Little Red Lie. It was on Steam so I bought it and sat on it for a few months.
As I said someone in house is sick so I actually play PC games. I was thoroughly impressed with the words and the story. It uses curse words like tactical strikes. It is an extremely depressing story about the hardships Millenials are going through as our parents get old and we can’t find a stable life and the amoral monsters that succeed. Pleasant stuff.
But the game right at the end yelled at me for even caring or having a heart and started to insult me directly over and over and over and over and over until I Alt F4’d. Which well, yeah I guess you can make art Game Designer. Glad I played your game I guess, Fucking Asshole.
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