#2 just seems to go the action rpg route now :

[fenharel]

Finally sat down to watch that bloodlines video because I didn't have the time to read more than the bullet points earlier and I'm a little bit very disappointed 😞

#personal #i don't think we'll get a character creator #and i hate the third person camera. the limited dialogue options. #or that we cant roleplay whoever we want to anymore #dont get me wrong there are games i love with very similar concepts my expectations for this are just different #because bloodlines 1 is one of my favourite games so i wanted the full on roleplay again and the unapologetic writing #2 just seems to go the action rpg route now :/ #I'll get used to it and then I'll probably be excited again just rn this is not what i wanted :c

[doorbloggr]

Friday 1/10/21 - Media Recommendations #20

Contents: Deltarune

I'd been meaning to get to this one for ages, so once again, I think to make it easier on myself, and my readers, today I am only recommending the latest videogame creation of Toby Fox. This ended up being quite an extensive article, so I split it into sections:

MY CONTEXT

OVERVIEW/PREMISE

GAMEPLAY

PRESENTATION

CONCLUSION

Deltarune (Chapter 1+2)

Toby Fox

1. MY CONTEXT

So context for my own gaming experience going into Deltarune, I have never actually played Undertale. Back when Undertale was getting big, it was only a PC game I think, and I just don't play games on PC. I probably should but yeah nah. Soon after it got popular however, I watched a comprehensive Lets Play of Undertale by Rubber Ross and Barry Kramer, and their voices for Sans and Papyrus are still to this day how I imagine those characters. Through that Lets Play, I experienced both the Pacifist and Genocide runs, and got intimately well acquainted with the characters and world Toby Fox had created, and how the actions of the player can shape how we save or ruin that world.

As a general context, I have always been a person who likes the idea of turn-based, random encounter fantasy RPGs, but the deepest I really got was Pokémon. I've been trying to change that recently, and after beating Monster Hunter Stories 2 a while back, I wanted to try more of the genre. Turn based battles are a lot more my speed than pure skill, like fighting games I've become sick of, and RPGs seem to be big on story, so when I heard the Deltarune demo had an update, I thought this is finally the time to jump into that world.

Going forward in this review, I'm gonna try and stay broad and unspecific with my descriptions, so as to not spoil. I may discuss some gameplay themes and characters, but I'm avoiding giving specifics away. I really think you need to experience all parts of the game yourself first.

Minor Spoilers for Undertale and Deltarune Ahead

2. OVERVIEW/PREMISE

Deltarune is a project of love. Pure charm and personality ooze from every aspect of the game. Dialogue is clever and snarky, and that charm even leaks into item and location flavour text. The setting and themes are fun, but with a bloodstained silver lining that is best appreciated by mature audiences. I guess I should just explain the premise?

Deltarune puts you in the shoes of a human named Kris. For unexplained reasons you live in a world of monsters and you are the only human. And by monsters, I mean curious looking critters of a variety of shapes and sizes, since, there is really nothing monstrous about them. One day at school, Kris and classmate Susie end up being transported to a whole different world where dark fountains construct monstrous subworlds, and it is up to the chosen ones, the lightners Susie, Kris and darkner (dark world native) Prince Ralsei, to seal the evils of this dark alternate world.

Deltarune is still a work in progress, and as the subtitle of this article suggests, 2 Chapters of a possible 7(?) have been released, and it is unknown at the time of writing if the rest will come out when the game is done, or as more standalone chapters.

3. GAMEPLAY

Deltarune borrows a lot of theming and game loop premise from its parent game Undertale. The tag line of Undertale was: the RPG where noone has to die. This is because the encounter based battle system is built on two courses of action to take. You may FIGHT enemies and reduce their HP to zero, or you may ACT, and talk the enemy into leaving the battle. Deltarune is built on this same system, but with extra layers. Kris is the stand in for the Undertale MC, who has the options to FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, SPARE, or GUARD. Most of those options were in Undertale too, but Guarding is a new addition where you earn Tension Points, or TP, for not engaging the enemy at all.

This TP is used for extra powerful ACT actions, or for special moves of the other party members. This is the main big difference in gameplay loop. Since the player controls a party now rather than just one person, each party member can specialise in different action types. Kris's ACT can incorporate input from other party members; Susie for toughness and Ralsei for softness, in general. Susie is the powerhouse, and if you chose the violent route, she does more damage. Ralsei is the Mage, and can heal allies, as well as use magic to resolve fights peacefully. Those extra abilities use TP.

In most turn based RPGs, there is a back and forth, where the player chooses actions, and sometimes there is a timing aspect to how well those actions perform, and then there's the enemy's turn, where most of the time you just have to wait and let it happen. Undertale and Deltarune have this truly unique system where the soul of the party members, represented by a heart, is directly controlled on the enemy's turn. It's a mini game unique to every enemy type, where you must move the heart around to dodge their attacks, and how good you dodge will decide whether you take a lot of damage, or even none at all. Deltarune adds an extra layer onto this, where if you make the dodge closer, so that the enemy only JUST misses, you earn TP, and open up more options for your next turn. I found this extra detail really endearing, and I made a lot more riskier moves than if there was no incentive to.

I probably mentioned it above, but just to close out this section, the option to either ACT or FIGHT opens up two types of play. Chapter 1, being a sort of intro part, does not differentiate, but the distinction becomes important later. ACTing to SPARE an enemy earns you money, and in Chapter 2, will lead to befriending monsters. FIGHTing will also earn you EXP in Chapter 2, making your options to hurt enemies more powerful. In Undertale, this difference in playstyle actually changed the ending in real time, and from what we know of Deltarune, it is likely going to be the same case.

4. PRESENTATION

Undertale had this unique visual charm to it that may have been a limitation of its Independent Development, but it was probably also a stylistic choice. Deltarune builds on the same type of artstyle, adorable pixel sprite graphics that bring a lot more colour and depth than its predecessor.

Many, but not all characters have little character portraits in their textboxes, and they change expressions to match the situation, and its so cute.

Character and enemy design are so top-notch. A team of designers have been brought on this time, and every one of them have brought gold to the table. Every random battle encounter is dripping with personality, as you learn how best to sweet talk your way out of battle, or how to best destroy them. Most recurring NPCs are lovable, and those who you hate, you love to hate. Dialogue is witty and hilarious, and the writing is fun.

The chiptune style soundtrack is phenomenal. Although I think Undertale's common enemy battle them was more memorable, that may just be that I have become more familiar with it. All character and boss battle themes are so catchy and energetic. Toby Fox is a master of high energy... fun music. It gets stuck in your head, and your brain bounces around at high velocity.

5. CONCLUSION

Ok so this review is already like 3 times longer than a normal Media Recommendation Article, and like 5 times longer than I planned it to be for this one game, so I should probably wrap it up here. Deltarune is a game experience I put off playing for way too long, and now I can't hold my excitement for when the next part comes out. And important to keep in mind, it is essentially a demo, in that it is just a taste of what's to come, but it is a damn meaty demo that will keep you engaged for many hours.

Chapters 1 and 2 are packaged together as a free game on most game platforms at this point, so there's nothing really stopping you from giving it a try. I don't usually rate my recommendations, but since I wrote this more like a review, I might as well...

Deltarune Chapter 1+2: 9/10

Please play it!

#blog #blogpost #media recommendations #videogame recommendations #deltarune #undertale #tobyfox #deltarune spoilers #undertale spoilers

[comunidadarcsystemworks]

Exclusive interview with Arc System Works

We have had the opportunity to interview several key members of Arc System Works. Before we begin, we want to thank Arc System Works America for giving us the opportunity to have this interview.

We will divide the interview into 3 sections: "General", "Daisuke Ishiwatari" and Tosimichi Mori.

General

Q. The first question is going to be a tough one, but the community has been very vocal about it so we would really want to begin with this one. Will GGPO (Good Game Peace Out) be implemented in your next projects? If not, would you consider its implementation at some point in the future? We are not talking specifically about Guilty Gear Strive.

A. We’ve heard your passionate requests, and we’re working on a netcode that will live up to everyone’s expectations.

We’ll have more information for you later.

(Guilty Gear Strive Director: Akira Katano)

Q. Fighting games aside, do Arc System Works has plans to do more action games like Hard Corps in the future? Especially with the Guilty Gear engine. We recently saw Code Shifter as your latest brand new platform action game or your collaboration with Wayforward, which are always welcome.

A. We’d definitely like to try genres other than fighting games, such as action games.

This would include plans to use Arc System Works’ 2.5D animation style in non-fighting games, of course.

However, we don’t have any concrete plans to share at the moment.

(Producer: Takeshi Yamanaka)

Daisuke Ishiwatari:

Q. Thank you so much for taking the time for our questions. Since the announcement at EVO, we are really excited to know more about Guilty Gear Strive, and we have read all the interviews and your philoshophy about this game and its gameplay. So, what would you consider to be the lead factor for this change?

A. Thank you for your excitement about Guilty Gear Strive.

The biggest reason for changing the gameplay is to make a game that can reach the current generation of gamers.

I feel that through previous Guilty Gear titles, we have more or less perfected the Guilty Gear formula.

It may very well be possible to tighten that up and make a further refined game. But, even if we did, such a game would create a disparity between new players and veterans who are used to the game’s systems.

So, we wanted to reset the start line for everyone. But of course, this doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten our appreciation and respect for long-term fans and accomplished players.

Q. One of the main focus seems to be drawing the attention for new players and esports while adapting the HUD and the gameplay/action to everyone so it can be enjoyed by a wider audience. That´s interesting, but how will you make new players invest time in your game and wanting to improve their skills at their own pace? For example Granblue Fantasy Versus could be a good example since it has a big focus on its RPG Mode to do so in case beginners are not doing well while playing online.. Will you take a new approach this time with the Story Mode or single player content?

A. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything concrete at the moment.

However, the game will offer an experience of learning and discovery for both new and advanced players. Our game design is even more focused on that now, than ever.

I can’t guarantee that it will make it into the game, but we are also thinking of ways to further strengthen the community.

For example, currently most players aren’t very familiar with the top players.

But if they realized there were stars similar to Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather playing the game, wouldn’t they want to know how that person got so skilled?

We’d like to provide something to help players who aren’t too deeply into the game a way to enjoy it as a whole, like fans do with soccer or basketball.

Q. As of today, we know that you are gathering feedback regarding the main points of the new gameplay so I´ll save it for later, but as for the music, we are noticing a lot of emphasis on vocal tracks. Will this be the Guilty Gear with the biggest number of vocal tracks? will we get new versions of themes like “Holy Orders” or “Give me a break!?

A. Yes, I believe GGST will feature more vocal tracks than any prior title.

That is one of our many decisions in attempting a complete renewal.

We aren’t currently planning vocal arrangements of previous songs, however.

The only example I can think of where that went well would be Queen’s Seven Seas of Rhye.

Of course, if there were enough requests, there are songs I would love to create vocal versions of.

Q. A lot of people are requesting characters from past games like Testament or Bridget, but of course, we know that you can´t confirm any detail by the moment. However, I would like to know if we could get just a small hint about past fighters coming back to the scene.? Can we expect more original characters to be added to the game besides the cyborg samurai from the first teaser?

A. All I can say is, there will be characters from the previous series and this new character too. Please look forward to it!

Q. About the gameplay, as I said earlier, I believe that it's necessary to wait until the beta version for us to have a proper idea about it. Since I still haven´t had the chance to play the game I can just express my opinion as a spectator. I believe the overall gameplay seems interesting according to what you want to achieve but doesn´t the wall break mechanic interrupts the flow of the match a bit too much for the spectators? I feel the same with restricting combo routes, won´t it be monotonous if we ever watch the same, or really similar routes?

A. Don’t worry. The developers are creating GGST with both a casual and hard-core perspective in mind. There may be some aspects that don’t quite satisfy series veterans, but we will create new depth that will motivate them to learn something entirely new.

Also, even if the Beta Test is not well received, you will see our answers to your feedback in the game upon release.

Finally, could you share some words and thoughts to your fans in Spain?

Currently, we are steadily releasing news about GGST. However, the gameplay itself is still very much in development. Our plan is to continue to evolve the game as we receive feedback from the players. Please look forward to it.

Toshimichi Mori:

Thank you so much for giving us the chance to give an answer to our questions. We have read everything that could lead to a future Blazblue or Persona 5 Arena so I´ll try to make interesting questions for everyone.

Q. First of all, I would like to start with Blazblue Alternative Dark War. Will it be possible for you to share some more details about it? Last time I heard from the game I was taking notes at the London Comic Con.  If you can´t share any details, could you give us a hint about when could we know more about the game? Also, I love the sketches that you publish from time to time!

A. Thank you very much.

However, I can’t say much about Dark War right now--only that I, personally, am working so that you guys can play the game as soon as possible. I believe that as long as the players are supporting the project, it will move forward. So please keep talking about it.

Q. Talking about the London Comic Con from last year, I remember that I asked about Alpha 01 and you said that this year we should have news, but this year I want to add something else to the same question. Besides Alpha 01, when could we know something about Gamma 03 as well?

A. I’m really glad that for whatever reason, so many people like Alpha.

I understand some are really looking forward to her making an appearance, but it will be some time… So please wait a little longer.

Q. As of June of 2018 you said in an interview with Gamerevolution that you are saving ideas for future Blazblue and future Persona Arena Projects. Also, in an interview with Gearnuke (January 2020) you said that you would like that your next game will be 2.5D and that the next Blazblue will have new system mechanics. Taking all of this into account, could you please give us further details about what would you like to achieve with a new Persona Arena (which people are really vocal about it) or Blazblue project?

A. I appreciate your enthusiasm. However, I can’t really discuss anything at this moment. Please understand.

Q. Moving on to Blazblue Cross Tag Battle and talking about the same interview from Gearnuke, we read that companies are not approaching you to add their characters in the game. Have you considered “small” companies like Nihon Falcom or Vanillware to see beloved characters like Adol Christin from the YS series or Gwendolyn from a cult classic like Odin Sphere? I feel that they are characters that most of us known or we have heard of but they still didn´t have the chance to shine outside of their games.

A. I get a lot of requests for characters in BBTAG. Honestly, there’s lots of characters I would like to include, myself.

I won’t say it’s impossible for the characters you mentioned to join the cast, but we don’t have any plans for this at the moment. Regardless, I would really like to do some form of collaboration in the future.

Q. Sticking with Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, will we see more characters from RWBY or Senran Kagura? Is there a chance to see Persona 5 characters in the game (unless a Persona 5 Arena is in the works of course) or Kyoko and Misako from River City Girls?

A. We’ve just released Season 2, so we don’t have any definitive plans for the next characters yet.

Right now, we’re still thinking about the next step and listening to everyone’s requests as we work with the current version.

Going back to Blazblue main story, now that the phase C came to an end, and with Rachel´s words being “I shall find you, I promise” at the end of Blazblue Central Fiction… Will we get a follow up to this arc, or it will be a completely new arc? Also, are you planning to do another anime or manga?

A. We are preparing for the start of a new story… Sadly, I can’t guarantee when it will happen. I think that when that new chapter begins, you will understand what Rachel meant.

Finally, could you share some words and thoughts to your fans in Spain?

Thank you for loving the BlazBlue series.

I can feel that love you have, so I hope I can meet all of you in person someday. Thank you for your continued support.

#Blazblue #Guilty Gear Strive #GGST #Ishiwatari #Toshimichi Mori #Arc System Works #Interview #Alpha 01 #BBCF #Blazblue Cross Tag Battle #BBTAG

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

#sage #sonic amateur games expo #writing #review slew #rayman redemption #sonic pinball panic #mega man #perfect blue #mayhem master #dreamcatcher #sonic galactic #sonic robo-blast #super mario flashback #sonic advance 4 #sms remake #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #review

[cheriesjubiles]

please don’t look under the read more i’m just testing

Can you imagine a world where we're all represented by a font? Huh, I wonder which one I would be? sees Arial Too straight. No! Not in that way! Just, straight, as in unexciting. sees Badaboom Too.. uh... Deadpool.... BROADWAY! Now that's the one! Now THAT'S the one! Hello Internet, welcome to GAME THEORY, where instead of putting a joke here I want to ask you a question. If your personality were represented by a font, what font would you be? Take a moment and put your font in the comments. I'm really curious to see what everyone has to say. Maybe find a couple new cool fonts to use. I'm getting bored with ol' Calibri 11. And with that out of the way, it's time to talk UNDERTALE. Now I don't think I've ever gotten this many requests to cover a game. Well, except for FNAF. And I suppose FNAF 2. OH and there was FNAF 3. Wait a minute, should I be worried about something here? Anyway, across the board on YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter, you all have wanted Undertale. And honestly, I'm glad you brought it to my attention. True loyal theorists will know that Earthbound is my favorite game of all time. So a self aware RPG in a similar style, WHOA MAN, it's like a gift from the indie gaming heavens. Undertale is a game where every character, from goat mom to grind fodder has a sympathetic design and a unique personality, motivations, goals, fears. Whether you're saving or slaughtering them, the game makes you feel something every time you enter an encounter. But to me, one character stood out amongst all the rest. SANS. A skeleton named after the font, Comic Sans, hence all the font references at the beginning of the episode. If you haven't played Undertale I'm sure that was a really weird opening. ANYWAYS, Sans is, well, there's a lot of mystery around this guy. And before we get into it, let me put up a very special spoiler warning: UNDERTALE is a game best experienced blind. So if you haven't played it, pause the video and come back after you've finished. I PROMISE YOU, I PROMISE you won't regret it. Alright, so everyone out of the pool and ready for the adult swim? Good. Because I'm feeling pretty determined to get to the bottom of Sans' mystery. So just to recap for those of you who haven't played the game and ignored the SPOILER WARNING, or just need a refresher, Sans is one of the two skeletal brothers who appears in the game. His partner is Papyrus, a loud, goofy trap lover also named after a font. But in the world of Undertale their origins are a big question mark. All you really know is what's given to us by a shopkeeper in Snowdin, who explains that Sans and Papyrus, quote, “just showed up one day and asserted themselves.” Weird, right? What's more is that, well, Papyrus is just kinda the goofy sidekick. Sans is much more complex. He likes fart jokes, but he's also incredibly powerful and deadly serious. Not only is his boss battle the hardest in the game, he's one of the only characters who has knowledge and power over space and time. He can take shortcuts around the world through ridiculous routes. Even is walking through walls. He also acknowledges that he's only one of infinite versions of himself, making self-aware commentary of the various timelines that you've played through in the game. He can even count the number of times he's killed you. He acts like an arbiter of this world, passing out judgements on the player's actions in the game, even explaining the secrets of EXP and LOVE, or EXECUTION POINTS and LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, just to clarify. In short, he just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the world of monsters. But then, what, or who, is he? Well, the idea that he doesn't belong in underworld seems to be correct. The evidence seems to point the fact that he WAS, in fact, formerly a surface dweller. In the true pacifist ending of the game, as the group looks out onto the horizon, Papyrus asks Sans about the giant ball in the sky. Sans says, quote, “we call that the sun.”

This is important because A, the usage of the word WE, and knowledge of the sun shows that Sans has a kinship or knowledge with other humans, and B, that despite he and Papyrus both being skeletons, or, supposedly, brothers, and apparently appeared in underworld at the same time, they clearly-- uuuGGHH take two CLEARLY have two very different histories. Why would Papyrus not know the name of the sun but Sans would? We get further clues to Sans' origins as we hear him say multiple times he wants to "go home" or "go back." He says as much during his dinner date scene at the Mettaton hotel. He notices that the player wants to go home and says, quote, "i know the feeling." He then continues, "maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you." As though he ended up in the underworld by accident. AND in a genocide run during his boss fight he says, quote, "look, i gave up trying to go back a long time ago." End quote. And before you say he means going back to the surface world, that's clearly not the full story. His very next line of dialogue is, "and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore either." Key word here, is EITHER. Yes, he seems to hail from the surface and wants to go back, but based on his dialogue he no longer considers it his home. It's as though the surface world he once knew is gone, as though he's from a different time. It's pretty intriguing. So we're left with a being that appeared out of nowhere, presumably from being from the human surface, but from a different time period, who seemingly has the power to teleport. That's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. But here's where things get REALLY interesting. Sans has a hidden workshop that takes a fair amount of searching to find. You could say it takes a lot of DETERMINATION to unlock. Anyways, obligatory determination references aside, as you start to look for this easter egg Sans gives you a key to his room and says "it's time you learn the truth." After some searching you find the workshop which contains items that leave even more questions. A photo album featuring Sans and a bunch of smiling people you don't recognize, a badge, blueprints with illegible handwriting, and a broken machine hidden behind a curtain. In the latest update, one more detail was added. A handdrawn picture of 3 smiling faces with the words “don't forget.” so what does it all mean? Well a lot of Undertale theorists have been linking these details to a feature to a character named W.D Gaster. A ghostly character who never truly appears in the game. Honestly, covering him is a theory all unto itself, and probably one best saved for another day. Even still, none of the Gaster theories I've seen have been able to explain all the details. In particular, the photo album, and the badge. And that's what kept nagging me as I researched Undertale. A badge? That one in particular really stuck out to me. Why would such an oddly specific item to be hidden in the huge easter egg of a room? Something that supposedly reveals the truth about Sans? Badges just aren't important in Undertale. Then it hit me. What if this badge isn't from Undertale? What if this badge is from a completely different game? And was, in fact, the most important badge in the history of gaming? The Franklin badge. Now, for those of you wondering what I'm talking about, the Franklin badge is a pivotal item from the Mother series. You know, the one with Earthbound. Or, maybe you don't know that one either. Uh, you know, the one with Ness from Super Smash Bros? Yeah well, Ness is from Earthbound, and Earthbound is the second part in this larger Mother trilogy. Alright? Good. Anyway, the Franklin badge is a really important part of that series. It gets its start in the very first game and carries through the whole trilogy, saving your life multiple times in the process. It's SO important that nintendo has made it a staple item in the Smash Brothers series. So I asked myself; what if the badge in Sans' drawer was THAT EXACT badge?

Well first off, it made Undertale connected to my favorite game, thereby making it even COOLER, but that's still a pretty big logical leap. I needed more. Let me tell you, as I started looking, more and more pieces started to fit into place. At the end of Earthbound you're given a photo album, covering your adventures throughout the game. To me it's one of the best, most satisfying endings in gaming to look back on your journey in picture form. And what does Sans happen to have in his other drawer? A photo album with pictures of Sans with people you don't recognize. Of course you don't know them, they're not characters present in Undertale. And note the word that's used here, PEOPLE you don't recognize. Not underworld monsters. So that's 2 items oddly linked to the Mother series. But then, how do the blueprints and broken machine fit in? Well, in the final stretch of Earthbound, Ness and his 3 friends must travel to the past in order to have their final battle against the evil alien Giygas. To do that, Dr. Andonuts (remember him, by the way, he's going to be important later) with the help of the science geniuses Apple Kid and Mr. Saturn, create what's known as the Phase Distorter, a machine that allows people to travel through time and space. Except, it comes with a cost. It can't transport organic material. As a result, the young heroes must put their souls into robotic bodies to use the machine, and thus, save the world. I played this game back in 1997 and I'm not ashamed to admit that when I first saw this scene, I cried. It's DEVASTATING. Doctor Andonuts says goodbye to his son, these characters you've grown to love and care about are suddenly promising to sacrifice their lives. For all they know, there is no possibility of them being able to come back home. It's this incredibly dark departure in the final moments of what was otherwise a fun, quirky, and colorful RPG. So what does all of this have to do with Undertale? A LOT, actually. But the first thing you need to know is that Mr. Saturns are known for their, let's say, unique linguistic style. That would explain the illegible handwriting on the blueprints. And the machine? I think a broken Phase Distorter is behind that curtain. Now that may seem like a stretch, but it actually explains a lot. If Sans wound up in Undertale via Phase Distorter, it could provide a reason for why he's a skeleton. He used the machine as organic matter and suffered the consequences. Not killing him, but turning at least a part of him into a pile of bones. That could also explain why Sans has given up hope for going home. Remember the Phase Distorter is a time machine. By being in underworld, he's not only in a different place, but based on how he talks, he's also in a different time, with no hope of travelling back to the time he came from. But the crossovers between Earthbound and Undertale continue. When you speak to Apple Kid at the end of Earthbound, he's blown away by the astronomical odds of Ness overcoming Giygas, saying that he's going to continue studying the trait called courage, in order to harness its power. Seems awfully similar to the same experiments happening in Undertale around the trait of determination, no? Especially since so much has shown that Sans was a key player in those experiments. But I'm sure you also want physical evidence right? Well don't worry, because I have plenty. During one of the endings of Undertale, we see Undyne and Alphys hanging out on the beach on the surface world. A beach that bears a lot of similarities to the tropical resort location named Summers that you play through in Earthbound. In fact, the geographic layout of the surface bears some striking similarities to the world of Mother. When Undertale's crew of monsters are finally able to reach the surface and look out over the earth, they're met with a beautiful sunset falling across the landscape of a tall mountain, a large city, and a sandy area adjacent to water. Notice the sun's reflection to indicate water, and a lack of trees in this middle section here, hence the sand.

Well, in Earthbound you have the big city of Fourside, complete with skyscrapers, which you reach via a desert that just so happens to be adjacent to some water, and to the east, the mountain in Onett where a meteorite lands on Earth. I always called it Aw-nett. But if that's not clear enough for you, Mother 1, Earthbound Zero, Earthbound Beginnings, whatever you want to call it, it's had a lot of names, had a map laying out the same geographic landscape. A tall mountain to the east of a large city, separated by a desert, with all of it up against a coast. I don't know about you, but to me it seems like there's a definite connection between the world of Eagleland (Eagleland? Again, unclear how its pronounced.) between the world of Eagleland and the surface world of Undertale. But the strongest physical connection, one that definitely unites these two franchises, comes from none other than Papyrus himself. He wears a custom-made costume known as his “battle body”. But if you look really closely at the design on the armor, you'll notice some markings on the chest. Is it just a throwaway detail? Ohoh NO, that right there is an exact match to the ones that appear on the chests of Starmen, the most iconic enemy of Earthbound. And look at the way he stands! I always thought it was awkward until i saw the two characters side by side. Papyrus’ curved arm and hand is a DIRECT match to the curved arms of the Starmen in the Mother series! In short, we have some incredibly strong proof that the Earthbound universe is somehow connected to the Undertale world, which brings us back to our initial question, WHO IS SANS? Well, what if we took it one final step and said that Sans happened to be Ness from Earthbound? Sent through the Phase Distorter during a test of courage, carrying the Franklin badge and his photo album and his trusty backpack. Not only do all the items in the workshop suddenly fit, but so does Sans’ behavior. Remember, Sans can seemingly teleport. And Ness just happens to have the PSI ability to teleport. Now look the way Sans always stands, hands in his pockets, directly facing the camera. It's a very similar stance to how Ness is depicted standing in most marketing for the game. It even explains why Sans bleeds when you finally hit him. He is, or at least, WAS, a human. Oh and finally, Sans is only one letter removed from being an anagram of Ness. That's just a fun one. I thought it was worth mentioning. But if there was any doubt, we have to look no further than the creator's previous work. Toby Fox, the man behind Undertale, had previously worked on a Halloween hack for Earthbound. But this just wasn't a simple reskin. The Halloween hack tells the tale of Dr. Andonuts after the events of Earthbound. Remember, I pointed him out? He's the one who made the Phase Distorter. In Toby Fox’s version of the story, we see that after Giygas' defeat, the souls of the kids never return home. Instead, by going to the past to defeat Giygas, they create a new timeline that they're stuck in. As a result, Jeff never reunites with his father Dr. Andonuts. And Dr. Andonuts goes crazy with guilt, because HE’S the one responsible for creating the time machine, and extracting the souls of his son and his son's friends to send them back to what he assumes was their death. In his mind, he's killed 4 kids. And in Toby Fox's game, he's lost his mind trying to deal with that guilt. I'm telling you, this hack is DARK. that said, you see a lot of Undertale in this game. The appearance of Amalgamates, the first use of the awesome song Megalovania, the prototypes for Flowey? And the theme of having the choice to be nonviolent in an RPG, SPARING your enemies. But then why's all this matter to the theory? Well, remember, in Toby Fox's version of the story, the kids don't come back. They're stuck in the past, with no hopes of getting home. Just like Sans. And, in the hack, one character is oddly missing, with no explanation as to why. NESS. Presumably in this timeline his soul is in a different place than his 3 friends.

In short, Undertale is a continuation of Toby’s version of Earthbound, with Ness never being able to get home, adopting the name Sans, and accompanied by Papyrus, a former Starman, an alien force able to speak English and still equipped with his armor, and signature posture, but without any knowledge of earthly things... like the Sun. The pieces all just seem to fit. Now all we need is an appearance from Pokey/Porky and we’ve got ourselves a true sequel. But hey, that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING!

#it’s the sans is ness game theory video copypasta

[cyberramblings]

Kingdom Hearts BBS, DDD Blind Thoughts

Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and earlier titles in the series. Also warning that I have insomnia and these are utter ramblings on the last 24 hours of blindly binging the Kingdom Hearts series as a total newcomer to the series. Haven’t played three yet and just started Dream Drop Distance. With that warning.....

Birth by Sleep was a ton of fun. We ended up needing to grind a little to make Aqua playable, but that ended up forcing me to learn the game mechanics much deeper, and even my friends leveled up their playing of the game! It was really cool to unlock some of the high tier spells like Triple Firaga and Thundaga Shot, although I do wish we had gotten to chance to unlock even more. I should remember how much more fun the game was after some internet research.

It was very satisfying to unlock the true ending so easily. We had only missed 2 of the 12 required Xehanort Reports. The 2 we needed involved grinding the arena for maybe an hour total and then 5 minutes of finding a treasure chest. We were then able to roll smoothly from Aqua’s finish into the final episode.

Aqua’s fight against Braig was laughable easy, but the final fight against Vanitas/Ventus was slightly tougher. The real challenge was fighting Terra/Xehanort but then the REAL challenge was phase 2 of that fight. I got them all on the first try! It was a really enjoyable flex of my gaming skills in front of the friends.

From a story standpoint, Birth By Sleep had my favorite story of any KH game so far, by a huge margin. I liked certain elements of the KH2 ending (Riku and Sora teaming up, Kairi’s keyblade) but BBS has been the only game where I had any sense of purpose or desire to see how it ends. They did a great job of having each of the 3 routes reveal new information even if played out of order (Xehanort taking over Terra, Vanitas having Sora’s face, Aqua taking care of comatose Ventus).

Obviously it helps to have Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill join the cast, plus Aqua’s VA absolutely dominates every scene she’s in. Terra’s VA reminds me a lot of Leon’s monotone edgy boy voice acting (David Boreanaz or otherwise). Of course Ventus shares a VA with Roxas, but the twist of Vanitas being Haley Joel Osmont is really great because he sounds so much older. I think it would have been easier to predict that twist if I had recently heard more of HJO’s Sora voice in Dream Drop Distance or KH3.

Aqua is, of course, the great standout character from BBS. From the start, we got attached to her because of her known prevalence in KH3 on top of her cool design, Arrow voice actress, and the fact that we could finally play a girl (plus one with more human proportions than Kairi). It worked out really well how we saved her for last and had to kind of unlock the secrets of her play style by finally mastering the various gameplay systems.

I much prefer the command deck system compared to the gameplay of KH2. To be fair, these are the only two KH games I’ve beaten. I’ve only barely touched KH1 and Chain of Memories. I felt like BBS did a good job of fusing the action gameplay of KH2 with the (potentially) satisfying deck building of CoM.

Re: Coded is a fucking mess. I might actually go back and play it on a DS emulator just to see the gameplay, but god damn the story is a flimsy excuse for a retread. I almost wish we had skipped it entirely, but just watching the opening and ending worked out pretty well. In the end, it’s literally just “Mickey is gonna give Sora the memories of all the other protagonists” which is badass but probably going to be mentioned again before being relevant. I will say that the ending with Riku and Sora being summoned by Yen Sid for the mark of mastery test is fucking badass and elicited quite the reaction from all three of us. The series is finally starting to have that feeling of “the stakes are high and I want to see what happens with these characters”.

This was expressed most fully in the intro to Dream Drop Distance. Step 1: invoke Disney Magic with a silhouette of magician Mickey. Step 2: Orchestral Simple and Clean. Step 3: use entirely new cinematic footage instead of splicing together an AMB. Step 4: show every keyblade wielder standing side by side. Apparently that’s enough to make me actually cry. We all got very excited by this intro, so it was a bit of a let down to start the game and be seemingly replaying KH1 again.

Of course that’s not the whole game, but I’m still not sure what the whole game is. Riku and Sora have to...wake the seven sleeping worlds to earn their mark of mastery? Are they dreaming all of this, or what? Seeing The World Ends With You was cute for like a second before realizing that I know almost nothing about it. Flowmotion is similarly kinda neat at first but quickly becomes annoying, but maybe it will grow on me with time.

Speaking of fun at first but quickly annoying: Dream Eaters. The Pokémon-esque system seems like a time waster that’s perfect for 3DS but maybe not so much for our tourist play through. The Dream Eater designs are cute when they’re on your team, but strike me as a bit annoying when fighting the same ones over and over. Heartless and Nobodies felt more generic, but that made them feel a little less repetitive to fight over and over. I see the same god damn rainbow colored Panda every god damn fight. To be fair, I think each world randomly contains certain types of Dream Eaters every time you visit it.

Speaking of Worlds, I’m not really looking forward to Hunchback of Notre Dame or Pinocchio world, but at least they’re new worlds instead of retreading Halloween Town, Agrabah, Olympus, Neverland for the millionth time. What I am looking forward to is The Grid from Tron Legacy! I don’t think we’ve seen any Disney world that specifically spotlight a sequel to a Disney world we’ve already seen. We revisit Halloween Town, Agrabah, Beast’s Castle, Olympus, Atlantica but only for some minor follow-up fluff. The Tron world in KH2 meant a lot to me having just seen the film. The Lightcycle combat could’ve been a little more true to the original, but the visuals were so faithful plus having Tron’s actual actor was so fucking cool. Sora and gang getting Tron outfits was so cool too. Also would’ve liked to have a disc fight, but the Sark/MCP fight was spot on. Hopefully we can get both of more in DDD!

It’s a perfect excuse to revisit The Grid since Legacy looks so different from the original. Now, The Grid is not a true world in KH2 but instead part of Hollow Bastion’s computer system. I’m curious if The Grid in DDD is a sleeping world or something that exists within another world, or if it is somehow connected to the KH2 Tron world (which would get real weird real quick if that version of the Grid is a copy of the original, but Legacy is supposed to be set in The Grid 30 years later).

Oh, I like that DDD has the command deck system but I don’t like the pets, I don’t like the link system, I don’t like reality shift, and I don’t like flowmotion. It just seems like BBS with all the RPG features crammed into the pet system with a bunch of gimmick infused into the combat system. Admittedly, gimmick is one of the biggest strengths of the KH franchise, but flowmotion just seems silly. Perhaps I’ll like it more when I get used to it and potentially get to customize the moves.

I’m not sure yet how I feel about the drop system, but I do like getting to play as Riku. I think multiple protagonists is a smart way to stretch the assets and tell 2 stories per world. I rather enjoyed the way Aqua, Terra, and Ventus interacted with some of the Disney worlds. Hopefully we get something similar in some of these worlds.

The dive mini game is definitely gimmicky nonsense clearly designed for the 3DS. In general though, all the games in these collections look great and feel great. I suppose that is why Days, Coded, and Back Cover are cutscenes: to keep the average quality of gameplay roughly somewhere in between KH1 and 2 between all the titles. In fact, I think KH1 is easily the worst feeling out of all the ones thus far. I’ve always complained about KH hopping between systems, but now I can’t really complain about that anymore. My complaint still stands about the games being overly complicated. Plus, the games are clearly taking themselves way too seriously, but that’s very clearly part of the charm.

Really, I suppose the games aren’t that complicated if you heavily condense Chain of Memories, cut out Coded, and try not to think too hard about the phone games. Then it just becomes: Sora defeats the heartless, Sora defeats the nobodies, Roxas backstory, Aqua/Terra/Ventus, training/prep montage, then KH3. Oh, and try to forget that somehow the upcoming rhythm game is canon.

#kingdom hearts #kh #kingdom hearts birth by sleep #birth by sleep #dream drop distance #kingdom hearts dream drop distance #kh ddd #kd: ddd #kh bbs #kh2

[fuse2dx]

June '20

Trials of Mana

Maybe not the highest profile remake Square-Enix have put out in recent memory, but one that was pretty exciting for me. I played a fan translation of the Super Famicom original some 20 years ago, so while it's not particularly fresh in my head, there's just enough there to enjoy some infrequent little pangs of nostalgia. The move to 3D has made for some welcome changes to to combat - jumping adds a vertical element to combat that wasn't present before, and enemy specials being clearly telegraphed and avoidable puts a little more control in your hands. There's still a good amount of 16 bit jank though - combo timing feels unreliable, the camera's often a pain, there's plenty of questionable hit detection, and you definitely wouldn't want to leave your fate solely in the hands of your party's AI. Willing to put most of this aside, what actually mattered more to me was that it still had the kind of playful, breezy nature, it looks and plays nicely, and that it progresses at a nice clip. Party selection will change the way you fight moment-to-moment, but only provides minor and very brief deviance from the main storyline, most of which is the kind of schlocky cartoon villainy that will have you looking for a skip button before it would illicit any kind of emotional response. But you know what? Overall, I still enjoyed it a lot.

So while it may not be revolutionising the action RPG, what it does show is that Square-Enix is capable of acknowledging their history of previously untranslated works, and that they also now have a pretty good template for getting a B-tier remake of such titles out in a reasonable timeframe. Where do I send my wish list in to, team?

Sayonara Wild Hearts

As a one-liner found on the back of the box, 'A pop album video game' is about as on-the-nose as it gets. The old "it's not for everyone" adage is definitely applicable, and its defiance of traditional video game metrics is not in any way subtle. How sophisticated is the gameplay? Not particularly. How long is it? Not very. But how does it make you feel? Now you're talking. It presents a simple but deeply relatable story of a broken heart, and leads from there with a catchy tune into a fast and colourful onslaught of new ideas, perspectives, and concepts. That is to say: it has the potential to make you feel all kinds of things. 

One especially celebratory note was how well the game is structured to fit into the album structure it boasts about. Stages flow quickly into one another, and while shorter, more compounding numbers are often about introducing new ideas and themes, moving on to the next is a few simple button presses and a brief, well-hidden loading window away. Inevitably there are more standout stages, those that feel like the hit singles; the longer, verse-chorus-verse type joints that grant the space for more fleshed out visual story telling, and that smartly synchronise their percussive hits, soaring vocals and the like to appropriate beats of play. A lot of the gameplay can easily (and cynically) be reduced to "it's an endless runner", but to liken this to a cheap re-skin of a confirmed hit-maker is to wilfully dismiss so much of what it does better and so much beside. You can play it on damn near everything, and for the time it takes, it's well worth doing. 

Twinkle Star Sprites

I've meant to play this countless times before. I've almost certainly passed it by while strolling through arcades, the Saturn version has never been hoovered up into my collection, and the PS2 collection this particular version belongs to - ADK Damashii - is no longer a cheap addition to anyone's library. The digital version of it for PS4 however was however recently on sale at a point that saw me receive change from a fiver. David Dickinson would be proud.

Having now credit-fed my way through the game's brief arcade mode, there's no doubt in my mind that the nuance of its systems are going to be glossed over in this rather ham-fisted appraisal. At least at face value, there's plenty of character and charm to appreciate in its colourful and cutesy style. As a two-player, vertically split-screen title, its a pretty clean break from a lot of a shooter's typical characteristics - rather than 6(ish) stages of hell, its a series of one on one battles - and all the better suited to 2 players for it. As enemy waves come at you, taking them out in chains can generate attacks to the other player; however if these attacks are too small then it's entirely possible they'll be killed off again, and an even bigger attack will come straight back at you. Think of a bit like competitive Tetris, but with shooting rather than puzzling. It's a neat and curious little game, that's likely best experienced properly, with a friend on the other side of the sofa to hurl abuse at. 

Blasphemous

Let's get the lazy-but-effective description out of the way: it's a 2D MetroidVania Souls-like. You've got "that" type of map, definitely-not-bonfires and definitely-not-Estus Flasks. You are encouraged to return to your body upon death, the combat system is very reliant on parries and dodge-rolls, and there's even a dedicated "lore" button to use on every item you pick up. 

While this likely sounds dismissive, it's more about addressing the elephant in the room. To give some context, these are both types of games that I love, and the end product here has done a pretty good job of bringing them together. The exploration is pleasantly open - gatekeeping is typically done less by specific items and abilities, and more by just which areas you're brave enough to poke your head into. It's a little bit of a shame that most of the new abilities have to be switched out for others rather than adding to a core arsenal of moves, but at the same time its base setup gives you plenty of ways to deal with any number of combat scenarios. This is of course best demonstrated by the boss encounters, which are wonderful affairs - big, gruesome, thoughtful variations on approaches to combat, which drop in at a nice pace to keep you from ever getting too cocky. The theming in general is wonderful, and the name is certainly appropriate - there's a lot of deep catholic inspiration in its gorgeous backdrops and environments, but then layered on top are some chilling elements of religious iconography, along with a cast of disturbing devotees and martyrs to sufficiently unsettle you. It's arguably a small intersection of the gaming population that it'll appeal to, but if you're in there, it's a real treat.

Death Come True

The first thing you see upon starting is the game's central character breaking right through the fourth wall to tell you directly not to stream the game or to share anything that might spoil the story. The first rule of Death Come True, and so on. I consider myself fairly well versed in such etiquette, so to then have the screenshot function entirely disabled for the whole game felt a little like being given a slap on the wrists for a crime I had no intention of committing. I don't envy the team trying to market it, that's for sure. 

The reasoning behind this is clear at least - it's a game that is in total service of its plot. Consider a mash-up of a 'Choose your own adventure' book and a series of full-motion videos, and you're mostly there. Unless you were to walk away from the controller or perhaps fall asleep, there seems very little chance that your play time will deviate from the 3 hour estimate - which will certainly put some people off, but is understandable given the production values, and personally, quite welcome in the first place. In terms of replay value, there are branching paths that a single route will obviously skip: as an example of this, in looking up a screenshot to use in lieu of taking my own, I found a promotional image of the central cast, only to not recognise one of them at all. One thing that such a short run-time does ensure though, is that minute-for-minute, there's plenty of action; without wanting to speak about the story itself (rather than in fear of reprise for doing so, I might add), it kicks off with plenty of intrigue, shortly thereafter switching to full-on action, and then strikes a pretty fine balancing act between the two for its run time. It doesn't get quite as deep or as complex as I would've hoped given the team's pedigree, but I do like it, and think it'd actually be a pretty fun title to play with folks who normally don't concern themselves with games. By the same token, it's probably not for the 'hardcore' types looking for something to string out over dozens of hours. 

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight 

After the generous main course that was Persona 5 Royal, I figured that I'd follow up with dessert. I did however wait until a weekend where I knew my girlfriend would be away, so as not to trigger any unpleasant flashbacks to looped battle themes, and the chirpy, indecipherable voices of Japanese schoolkids that made it so painful to endure as a non-gaming cohabitant.  

Immediately, it's clear that very little has changed since Persona 4's take on the rhythm action genre. The core game, while still functional and fairly enjoyable, hasn't changed a lick. Perhaps the most notable improvement to the package as a whole is in scaling back on a dedicated story mode, and instead just having a series of uninspired but far less time-consuming set of social link scenes that pad things out. The biggest flaw is repeated wholesale though, in that trying to stretch out noteworthy tracks from a single game's playlist into a dedicated music game leads to repetition - and there is a much less prolific gathering of artists involved in remixes this time. I'd be willing to wager that it's a very similar story once again with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, but I'm not about to ruin a perfectly good dinner to start with the sweet just to find out, if you'll excuse a second outing of the metaphor. Still, again compare these to Theatrhythm though - where Square-Enix plundered the Final Fantasy series in its entirety, along with spin-offs and other standalone titles to put together a library of music worthy for the one single game. Cobble the tunes from Personas 3-5 together into one game, and you're still coming up very short by comparison.

#trials of mana #seiken densetsu 3 #sayonara wild hearts #twinkle star sprites #blasphemous #death come true #persona 5 dancing in starlight

[doshmanziari]

2019 Mega Drive Explorations [4]

A continuation of parts 1, 2, and 3. Click the link below to read the full post.

The NewZealand Story (1990)

This almost instantly became one of my favorite games for the Mega Drive. It was first an arcade release (1988), and got a ton of ports with, I assume, differences between each; Wikipedia notes that the version I played “had its levels based on the prototype version of the arcade game.” What that means, qualitatively, I’m not yet sure. This is some of the weirdest level design I’ve encountered in a platformer that’s not, like, a reactionary deconstructive work (in the way that the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is). The only other somewhat contemporary title I can compare it to is Milon’s Secret Castle (1986). Each of The NewZealand Story’s stages is a sort of maze that’s completed when you reach a fellow kiwi and release them from a cage. What really lets the layouts grow as they do is that, once you get to the second zone (of four), you need to start making use of the various flotation devices which preexist here and there or are left behind by enemies you defeat. So the level design gets to, in a kind of freeform way, flip between “normally” accessible paths and platforms, and toothy stretches demanding aerial navigation. The flotation devices are distinct from one another, too, from how you adhere to it to the speed. What was especially fun about this to me is how, following a clear-out of enemies, you might have a selection of these devices to choose from, and there aren’t really comparative downsides between them (the closest you get to that are these things that look like, uh, torpedoes, which are slow, but they’re also the one device that can’t be popped by shooting at it or touching spikes).

Even if The NewZealand Story isn’t genre-/series-deconstructive, that doesn’t mean it can’t have whimsical moments. A standout for me is illustrated in the third screenshot, where a “room” you have to get to is surrounded by a barrier, and seemingly inaccessible, until you remember that if you are standing below platforms and walkways of a certain thinness and appearance you can jump through them. The solution is to get yourself up against that vertical band and jump through the bit where it briefly horizontally redirects. Cool!! The other thing I like a lot about the level design is that it’s not strictly economical, that some of the structural arrangements seem to exist to form visual patterns more than to control your route. So you have minor casual options for where and how to move through a space. Mercifully, amazingly, bosses are few -- only three -- and they have brevity: you can get rid of the final boss (see the screenshot above) within seconds by popping his balloon. I like looking at this game, too. A couple of stages reminded me of Falcom’s Xanadu and Faxanadu in their cute, flattish, compact representation of architecture or architectural elements within a screen’s worth of space and fortressed tiling. Once you’re past the first zone, loosely themed as a zoo, it’s impossible to tell if the zones’ apertures and voids admit further views or are all mosaics and/or props. It was an unexpected and engaging ambiguity: either interpretation has strange implications. Besides a couple of jumps over and under spikes which demand an inapt exactitude, this is pretty much a perfect game for me, and I wish it had gotten a handheld rerelease on the Nintendo GBA or DS.

Arcus Odyssey (1991)

As a Wolf Team-developed game, Arcus Odyssey sits snugly beside Earnest Evans and El Viento as a whirlwind of inexplicable plot points (rendered more inexplicable, and amusing, by an amateurish localization), lopsided pacing, and just a ton of baffling game design that doesn’t really care about you. Everything is exploding and the gravitas has no narrative grounding. It is at its best hilariously joyful and at its worst insensitively prohibitive. Environments, from a network of walkways suspended thousands of feet above the earth, to a colonnaded stepped complex that recalls John Martin’s infernal painting, Pandemonium, are set at an oblique angle and are swimming with sorcerers, skeletons, cockroaches, and other creatures who unendingly come at you from out of nowhere and half of the time spit projectiles. The palettes and narrow, minuscule tilesets give everything the veneer of a PC-98 title. Regardless of the character you choose (for me, it was the pink-haired Erin who wields a whip), the best strategy is to never stop mashing the attack button. This got iffy in one stage where a numerous type of flying creature left behind a crawling string of flames on the ground upon death. The best strategy for bosses? Use an invincibility-granting item you’ve hopefully snagged from a treasure chest, stand right next to the boss, and... yeah, mash that attack button. Which is fine! This is not a game where the mechanics could’ve yielded bosses who were interesting for reasons other than their appearance.

Arcus Odyssey has two serious, debilitating issues, though. The first is that you only have room in an inventory menu for six items (five, really; one of these items is permanent), and yet I have quite literally never seen another videogame with so many treasure chests relative to its stages’ sizes. You’ll mostly be passing stuff up then because you’re at capacity. Sure, you can consume the things you have to make room, but there are at least three items which have contextually valuable uses: the potion of invincibility, the lifebar-refilling lamp of life, and the resurrecting doll of life. Stocking up on one kind to the exclusion of everything else isn’t a sustainable plan. So the “economy,” as it were, is kinda fucked. The second debilitating, perhaps eventually paralyzing, issue is that Arcus Odyssey has the design of an early Japanese PC action-RPG like Ys or Rune Worth, where you are constantly harangued by waves of enemies who non-specifically occupy the level designs and bosses who may instantly unload multiple projectile-based attacks. That sort of design, somewhat haphazard as it was, could function (with degrees of success) in the context of the RPG part of the “action-RPG” equation, since you could reliably and incrementally level up (and save!). Arcus Odyssey doles out a few upgrades here and there, but it plays out like an action game that doesn’t understand the forms it’s borrowing. As such, it’s easy -- and become easier, the further along you are -- to get yourself into situations whose demands for superhuman, verging on omniscient, performance make no sense. Real shame.

Marvel Land (1991)

Like The NewZealand Story, Marvel Land is a Mega Drive port of an arcade game released a couple of years earlier. Also like the former, it quickly became a personal console-favorite. A few prickles keep me from fully loving it -- namely, the bizarre precision you need to have when jumping on enemies to not get hit yourself (and a hit here, as per usual with arcade games before the 90s, equals death), a few too many leaps of faith, and optional doorways which can send you back to previous levels, as far as the very first -- but the diversity of creatures, stages’ arrangements and themes, power-ups, and unconventional bosses have an individual and cumulative appeal that outweighs those problematics. I think I’m obligated here to say that I will almost automatically like any videogame that has a candy-themed environment, and Marvel Land has one of those, complete with waddling ice cream cones, gingerbread houses, and a maze built of cracker-cookies. The two main and most interesting power-ups are wings which temporarily give you a much higher jump and the ability to fly, and a string of self-duplicates which can be whipped around to hit enemies, collect items for score, and latch onto targets to swing from them. A later level surprised me when it both expected me to use the wings to progress and to be mindful about the height of my jumps so as to not skewer myself on spikes., denying the expectation that such a liberty would dissolve hard designs.

Bosses deserve a special mention because, god, by now I just hate bosses, they ruin so many of these games, and Marvel Land’s are designed as “minigames” -- a game of rock-paper-scissors, selecting an illustration in a grid that matches an example below, or Whac-a-mole (against a mole). It’s decent, clever, and properly playful. Despite this, the game is still compelled to have a “real” boss fight at the very end (were the developers anxious?), and I could’ve done without that; but, it was straightforward enough. The aforementioned bestiary, if you want to call it that, is wonderful and funny and can hold its own against any of the Kirby games’ rosters. You can see, for example, in the last screenshot that a feisty mallard duck who beckons at you with an index feather-finger is named COMEON. Other members include HEAVY, a chubby pink snake, and GIANTBURGER, a sentient burger. As a closing comment, I’ll say that it’s striking and odd how many videogames, from Japan, no less, were about restoring the rule of a Eurocentric fairytale monarchy. Hell, that’s what two of Nintendo’s most popular extant series are about (Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda). Why is this an international go-to for a premise? And how could anyone care about it? In some cases I think it’s fair to guess that the creator(s) did not care and simply went with a cultural trope that was within grabbing range; but the question remains of why those tropes are within grabbing range. We already know why these narratives are also fiercely heteronormative (even The NewZealand Story has to make the last kiwi you rescue be a girl -- wow, thank god!), but this prevalent medievalism that has an uncritical nostalgia for monarchy kinda mystifies me.

#sega genesis #mega drive #new zealand story #arcus odyssey #marvel land

[boesen02valencia]

How To Design A Map With Specific Dimensions And Biomes?

Candy Crush clone, hoping to make its version of the match-three craze work. Flying through the sky, attached to various contraptions, looking to pop balloons and enjoy candy is what you’re meant to do in Ava Airborne! You’re in the shoes of Monsieur Phileas Fogg's attendant Passepartout, who must manage the expedition’s funds and find the fastest routes across the globe. Un Pas Fragile takes you through the story of Camille, a young frog who is currently trying to become a ballet dancer. If you are looking for challenging action RPG’s with an interesting story and beautiful graphics, Hyper Light Drifter will tick all of the boxes for you. Apollo: A Dream Odyssey is short, but the story itself is lovely and the puzzles, once you do get the hang of them, are fun to solve. After selecting your character, some gear to buff them up, and the melee weapon of your choice, you get thrown into the arena with 11 other gladiators, hoping to be the one that outlives all the others. There's also a few surprises along the way as you workout how to get big enough to eat all the things. It's as much about her finding her way through the world as it is the relationship she forms with a cello player named Krish. The clean aesthetic and simple way to play makes Reky a really polished and fun puzzler - paired with the sleek design and you have a game that’s hard to put down.

Once you’ve played for a bit, these characters that you are facing off against will start getting towards first place, so you will need to win, but often that’s not the main goal. Well, that’s basically what Monument Valley 2 does. Hutch clearly put a lot of thought and work into the game, and it’s really paid off. I want the scale of the Minecraft map to work out so that one day of walking in-game equals one day of walking in real life. I'm wanting to create a map that is essentially my local area. I imagine that my relief map and manual biom marking would be my input. I want to download a relief map from the internet that will provide height. Then I want to somehow end up with a Minecraft map that is pretty close to the real world. I imagine I would want to draw circles on the map to say "this is snow, this is desert, this is forest" and so on. Playing as a prisoner who has just broken free, you can end up building a team of heroes who just want to save the world they are in.

I want the tool to auto-generate the terrain based on my parameters. Often you can find one or two colors, which can be picked up by your black blob and moved to a new block. These two types of upgrades don’t seem to cost money, but the parts needed to take some time to find. There, you are able to purchase upgrades and new weapons, which can help you with your next run. You do have three lives and the ability to purchase new characters with different abilities to help you out. Each day, you have a timer going until closing. Some races can only be played once a day, others are easy cash, more challenging for higher rewards or boss battles to take on. Fighting to survive against another player, either online or a boss through the campaign, you must be one step ahead of them when it comes to playing the right cards to help your animals evolve with the upper hand. Not all cards are monsters, some are milk packs to give you a boost in attack, coins, or health packs.

Are there any tools for turning maps of the Earth in to Minecraft maps? What launched as the 'Pocket Edition' is now just Minecraft - the full game, on your phone. Minecraft Genie can then use food, the currency within the game, to update weapons and make characters more powerful. Taking on level after level, you must use your wits to figure out what needs solving. Once the tile has hit the dry grass tile, the grass will move to any tiles on its level - hopefully hitting the flower and allowing it to bloom. Water starts on one hexagonal tile, but you can move other tiles around the water tile, allowing the water to take over that space. You have to match numbers by sliding the appropriate tiles around the board. Herobrine's Mansion Minecraft Map ’ll basically have your own team of dogs who play football, and you will be swiping left or right to make decisions both on the field and off the field. Using different ingredients and shapes, you’ll need to find the right combinations to fulfil orders.

The basic idea is that you walk around your neighborhood - or the country, or the world - with your phone, using augmented reality (and a lot of mobile data) to find the pokemon hidden on the streets. With such smooth controls, a large amount of different ways to upgrade your car and so much to offer, I find it hard to fault Rebel Racing. You can also save up for a better car, but I spend most of the time upgrading my own until it’s the best possible car of its kind! It’s up to you and your team to take back the world. Fuel runs out over time, especially as you take on more races, but it does refill after a set time which is displayed at the top of the screen. It's a maze of top notch content, that will guarantee you good times in your pocket.Make waiting in line boring no more! There are many, many different types of enemies within the game; some like zombies that slowly walk to you, others that explode when you shoot them and some that just wander around aimlessly waiting to come across your path.

#Minecraft Genie

[dumbfinntales]

I’ve finally completed another long journey as Divinity Original Sin 2 comes to an end. A very dramatic way to start this huh? But this game was perfect in length. I played it for a substantial amount of time and it didn’t feel like it started dragging on, like some other big open world games. DOS 2 isn’t open world per se, but some of it’s acts are very open with a lot of optional things for you to do in them.

I really enjoyed this game. It’s VERY different from the kind of games I usually play. Turn based, asymmetrical, dialogue heavy etc... but regardless I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the world and the many stories it tells, this game really scratched that RPG itch I had and can definitely be considered one of the greats. The PS4 version worked surprisingly well despite the game obviously being designed for PC’s. One of the games strengths is the freedom it grants you and how many different options you can choose, and the many different routes you can take. You can build your own custom character or play with a pre-made character with their own story, you can choose your class and shape the way you play however you want. And you can even change your character and playstyle completely whenever you feel like it.

The story, lore and world are the one thing I enjoyed the most in this game. Hearing about all the ongoing events of past and present, and seeing the struggles of the many NPC’s around you. Including your companions. I really enjoyed their presence and their stories. As I played a lizard I ended up romancing a crazy assassin elf named Sebille and together we took down her former master. Beast was also a favorite, because I like jolly dwarves. Even though I didn’t care much for dwarven politics I still helped Beast with operation Downfall and eventually confront the infamous queen Justinia. The game is also very good at building up these big important characters and to my surprise you end up meeting most of them which was wonderful. Fane was also a companion of mine and the fate of the Eternals was a damn rollercoaster to witness, and I loved it. Even though I kinda hated Fane at first. He seemed like a smug self centered jerk for no apparent reason, acting like he’s so much better than me. He eventually grew on me and I even accidentally ended up in bed with him. Don’t ask how, it just happened. Sebille didn’t seem to mind though.

The gameplay held up well too. The tactical turn based combat isn’t really my personal cup of tea, but I didn’t hate playing it. Playing those South Park games that released recently really helped me to stand the turn based combat and maybe even enjoy it a little. I can turn people into chickens, cast a spell on them that makes them take damage while they move and then just watch the chicken run around aimlessly until it dies. The environmental interactions spiced up the gameplay really well too, even though 90% of the time the whole map was on fire after a fight. A few times I had party members die right after winning a fight because they were standing in fire.

So, how about some negatives? I don’t have many, but the one thing that I couldn’t stand was the biggest frustration I had with this game. And here comes a hot opinion from someone who isn’t very familiar with this genre of games, but I felt like the game balance was ass. There were so many fights in this game that felt genuinely impossible if you didn’t cheese the fight somehow. You either use cheesy tactics to win or you overlevel the encounter. Your characters level and gear matter SO MUCH in this game that it’s almost infuriating.

The way how boss encounters are designed is complete whack and I’m not sure if it’s intentional or if it’s just stable of the genre. So, you take a boss who has a shit ton of health, can perform more actions than you and who does a ton of damage/AoE damage. Now pair that boss with several helpers who in most cases drastically outnumber you. Two of the biggest offenders being the Doctor and the final encounter. The final boss is it’s own can of worms, but the Doctor was just ridiculous as he alone was powerful and also had like 8-10 helpers. That fight too I had to cheese by running out of the house, luring his minions outside, killing them there and slowly progressing until the Doctor himself was alone. Granted the bosses are a bit easy if you go against them 1v4, but there HAS to be a better way to balance a boss fight than just throwing a shit ton of enemies at you.

And oh the final boss, what can I say about that? Spoilers ahead obviously. You meet some very interesting characters you’ve heard about throughout the entire game, it’s heartfelt and epic. As the fight starts you hear the games main theme play and oh did I get goosebumps while that was happening. Until the game decided to shit itself when fucking Braccus Rex turned on his masters, summoned the Kraken and now the fight is you VS a fuck ton of powerful people. The fight is a bit of a free for all, but in a lot of the cases you and your party members end up being targeted. Oh and the Kraken is so fucking powerful that your entire party can die in a single turn. So I tried to suffer that fight but I couldn’t beat it. Then I took the other dialogue choice and it was the easiest encounter in the entire game, Braccus died in the middle of a Divine gang bang and BOOM the game was over. Very anticlimactic, very frustrating. I really didn’t feel like the game balance was fair or right.

So yeah. I know I talked about the negative a lot, but it’s just because I was so frustrated so often at the game. It didn’t feel right at all and when I feel that a game cheated me I tend to lose my cool. But amidst all the shit fights there were some really enjoyable ones. Most of these fun encounters being in Fort Joy/Reapers Coast. Regardless, the game is fantastic. As a RPG it’s fantastic. Just cheese your way through the game and have fun with the world and the mysteries it presents! Divinity Original Sin 2 gets a IT SMELLS WORSE HERE THAN A DOZEN ROTTEN EGGS IN A BARREL OF VINEGAR out of THEN DON’T COME OVER!

#a review type of deal #divinity original sin 2 #spoilers

[enterinit]

New Xbox One Games for October 29 to November 1 2019

New Xbox One Games for October 29 to November 1 2019.

Afterparty (October 29, 2019)

In Afterparty, you are Milo and Lola, recently deceased best buds who suddenly find themselves staring down an eternity in Hell. But there’s a loophole: outdrink Satan and he’ll grant you re-entry to Earth. Control Milo and Lola with an intelligent conversation system that changes the story and your relationships based on every decision. Uncover their personality quirks and foggy history during the wild events of the night. Every step is up to you as you stumble through the underworld. Go on a hellish bender, uncover the mystery of your damnation, and drink Satan under the table. Starring: Janina Gavankar as LolaKhoi Dao as MiloAshly Burch as SamErin Yvette as WormhornDave Fennoy as Satan

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD (October 29, 2019)

Hold onto your bananas, because Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD is rolling your way! Experience the magic of one of the most beloved titles in the series, now remastered in HD! Head back into the fantastical world of Super Monkey Ball and take back your bananas from the space alien pirate king, Captain Crabuchin. Race through over 100 colorful stages and challenge your friends and family to 10 fan-favorite Party Games! Feeling like the fastest, most maneuverable monkey around? Try out Time Attack mode or the grueling Decathlon endurance run! Will you make it onto the scoreboard? Features: 100 stages to race through10 fan favorite mini-gamesTime attack mode & online scoreboardDecathlon endurance run

Xeno Crisis (October 30, 2019)

Xeno Crisis is an arena shooter in which one or two players take control of battle-hardened marines embarking on a deadly mission to confront an alien menace and get home alive! Run and gun your way through thousands of adversaries as you explore the devastated research outpost, searching for survivors, and ultimately facing the origin of the outpost's demise. Outpost 88 is divided into seven distinct areas, each being randomly generated with each play, meaning that your strategy must evolve on the fly if you're to succeed in your mission. Collect dog-tags from vanquished enemies to upgrade your equipment between areas and look out for special weapons which will give you a momentary advantage. Features: A faithful port of the hit 16 bit game with added extras.Incredible pixel art from the legendary pixel artist, Henk Nieborg.Intense FM chiptune soundtrack by Savaged Regime, originally created for the YM2612!Two difficulty levels and three modes of play.An arsenal of 10 weapons to master.Play solo or local co-op with a friend!

Police Chase (October 29, 2019)

In Police Chase thrilling missions, powerful cars and fighting crime will be your routine! Whether it’s issuing offenders with parking and speeding tickets or thwarting terrorist plots and other crimes — only one thing counts in your job: Guarantee safety in your beat! Meet with informers, shadow suspects, chase perps and handle time-critical missions. Superfast action, a captivating story and a big, open game world call for courage, skill and fast reflexes! In Police Chase it all depends on you! Features: Begin your police career in an absorbing campaign with 15 tense missions.Be ready for the speed and heart-pumping action that awaits on 15 dangerous routes!A wide range of detailed vehicles with varying HP await.Your beat is a large, open 3D world with highways, country roads, and industrial estates.In free-play mode, protect the streets from criminal masterminds and solve 80 different side quests to move up from beat cop to the chief of police.

Close to the Sun (October 29, 2019)

It’s 1897. Deep in international waters, the Helios stands still. Dark clouds loom overhead as unforgiving waves crash against the hull. Colossal effigies of gold, decorated with magnificent finery, stretch as far as the eye can see. Born of Nikola Tesla’s vision, the Helios serves as a haven for the greatest scientific minds. An unbound utopia for research, independent from state and isolated from the gaze of society. Free to push the boundaries of matter and time. Journalist Rose Archer steps aboard the Helios in search of her sister Ada. She quickly discovers not all is as it seems. Grand halls stand empty. The stench of rotting flesh lingers in the air. Silence. A single word is painted across the entrance… QUARANTINE!

Inferno 2+ (October 29, 2019)

The sequel to Inferno+, Radiangames' critically-acclaimed twin-stick action-RPG, Inferno 2 boasts even more devious levels, more weapons, more upgrades and powers, more enemies, and more customization, along with more insane explosions and particle effects. Blast through 80+ levels full of enemies and secrets while upgrading your ship the way you want. Features: Play through 80+ levels of atmospheric awesomenessCustomize your arsenal of upgradable weapons and ship powersSingle player and 2 player local co-op for the first time!New Game+ mode adds even more replayability3 difficulty levels (change it up at any time)All-new special level types and goals. Survival and boss fights!Dozens of enemy typesTons of secrets to discover

Delta Squad (October 30, 2019)

Just when you think the world is safe and it’s okay to take a break, a new threat emerges. Having already survived an alien invasion in FullBlast, the Delta Squad must now do battle against General Rumanovsky, a maniacal overlord who will stop at nothing to achieve global domination. To overcome every threat players will need to take full advantage of upgrading their skills in a bid to deal maximum damage. Features: Gorgeous 3D graphics50 missions across 5 levelsAmbient soundtrack Local co-op support for up to four playersThe option to play any of the 5 levels you want for a quick gaming session

Citadel: Forged with Fire (November 01, 2019)

Citadel: Forged with Fire is a massive online sandbox RPG with elements of magic, spellcasting and inter-kingdom conflict. As a newly minted apprentice of the magic arts, you will set off to investigate the dangerous world of Ignus. Your goal: create a name for yourself and achieve notoriety and power among the land's ruling Houses. You have complete freedom to pursue your own destiny; hatch plots of trickery and deceit to ascend the ranks among allies and enemies, become an infamous hunter of other players, build massive and unique castles, tame mighty beasts to do your bidding, and visit uncharted territories to unravel their rich and intriguing history. The path to ultimate power and influence is yours to choose. EXPLORE A MASSIVE FANTASY WORLD Welcome to the magical world of Ignus: a 36 square kilometer landmass of sweeping plains, dense forests, craggy mountains, festering swamps and frozen tundra. Leave no stone unturned as you explore dangerous caves and ancient ruins to recover powerful artifacts and uncover a rich history spanning thousands of years. Embark on a journey across the land to find the perfect place for you and your allies to call home. STUDY THE ARCANE ARTS Master a diverse range of powerful spells. Discover your conduit of choice among a huge selection of mystic wands and staves, magically imbued axes, swords, maces and hammers, and enchanted gauntlets. CREATE ALLIANCES AND FORGE AN EMPIRE Align your efforts with fellow Warlocks to create a mighty House. Create an internal hierarchy of power, design and plant your own House flag, share your resources to build huge castles and team up to hunt legendary creatures. Wage war with opposing Houses or hatch plans of deceit and trickery to cause internal chaos and ascend the ranks within your own. FIGHT, TAME AND RIDE LEGENDARY BEASTS Use the Pacify spell to tame ferocious creatures and amass an army of minions. Tamed companions will gain experience and grow with you as you travel the world and triumph in battle. Siege an enemy fortress with a horde of savage Orcs, ride Horses and Direwolves to quickly traverse the vast landscape, or rain fiery death upon your enemies from the back of a Dragon BUILD AND FORTIFY EPIC CASTLES Construct your Dream Castle using hundreds of structural pieces found within a flexible and easy-to-use building editor, or take advantage of the dynamic destruction engine and crush someone else's. Enhance your fortress with magical structures like defensive shields, attack towers, mana pools and respawn stones. Unlock new fortification materials and building features as you level up: with so many materials and pieces to work with the only limit is your imagination. FIND A NEAR LIMITLESS VARIETY OF LOOT Are you an old, bearded and wise Warlock or are you a young, ambitious and strong-willed Mage? Create your own style with a huge variety of clothing and weapon options. Discover a near limitless variety among these items' stats with Citadel's rich and deep loot generation system; every loot pull is different and ensures that fighting monsters and exploring dungeons is a constantly rewarding and memorable experience. ACHIEVE THE POWER OF FLIGHT Why walk when you can fly? Use your Wizardly prowess to take to the skies. Enjoy the convenience of a custom-crafted broomstick, tame and mount airborne companions like dragons and giant eagles, or use alchemy to concoct potent elixirs allowing flight without the aid of beast or broom.

Race with Ryan (November 01, 2019)

Ready, Set, Race With Ryan! Take the wheel as Ryan and all your favorite Ryan’s World friends! Ryan’s World has come to life, and it’s every bit as colorful, fun and fast as you imagined. So pick a racer, head to one of six magical locations, and step on the gas to show your friends and family who the fastest racer really is. This is no ordinary championship! Ryan’s famous Mystery Eggs are scattered across each track, and they’re full of surprises that help you power through the pack – like Burger Shields, Sticky Slime, Trick Surprise Eggs and many more. A huge cast of Ryan’s World characters are here to race, including Policeman Ryan in his Patrol Car, Red Titan, Gus the Gummy Gator, Pirate Combo Panda, plus many more you’ll unlock as you race your way to the top. From the miniature toy world of Fantasy Park, to the pirate kingdom of Treasure Island and beyond, each world is full of secret pathways, slippery slides and kids’ imagination! With simple controls, optional auto-acceleration and a tutorial to guide younger players through their first video game, drivers of all ages will love to Race with Ryan. Race your way to the top in Career Mode or speed past your friends in 2 - 4 players split-screen races, the fun keeps coming. Will you be first across the finish line? Features: Race for victory across the colorful world of YouTube sensation, RyanChallenge yourself in Career mode or race with friends in split-screen playSimple racing controls, auto-acceleration, auto-steering and tutorial mean everyone can playUnlock Ryan’s World toy characters and vehicles including Moe, Gus, Alpha Lexa, Peck and Ryan himself!Speed around 6 magical locations including The Toy Shop, Wild West and Spooky Land

Jalopy (November 01, 2019)

Navigate miles and miles of tyre changing, fuel burning, carburettor busting, mud clattering terrain, through night and day, rain and shine. Adapt to whatever the procedurally generated world of Jalopy can throw at you. Upgrade, maintain and care for your Laika 601 Deluxe motor vehicle. Keep close attention to everything from the state of your tyres, the condition of your engine and even the space in your trunk. Repair each aspect of your scrappy little car and install unique upgrades to deal with the changing world. Everything from cargo weight to the condition of your carburettor will determine how your car performs on the open road. The rise of capitalism brings an economical conundrum. Scavenge for scraps to make a small return of investment, or become a baron of the open road and smuggle contraband under the eyes of border patrols to make a sizable profit. Developer Greg Pryjmachuk worked on the Formula 1 franchise from 2009 through to 2014. In late 2014, Greg began work on this new driving simulation featuring the fictional Laika 601 Deluxe car; reminiscent of the East German “Trabbie”, it will need much love and care to keep it going on this memorable road trip! Features: Embark on a grand road trip through the former Eastern BlocDrive and take care of your Jalopy, the Laika 601 Deluxe by keeping an eye on fuel, tyre wear and moreGo under the hood to replace various car parts, from the ignition coil to the air filterExplore Germany, CSFR, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and TurkeyDiscover life in the former Eastern Bloc as you undertake a grand trip with your Uncle Read the full article

#Games #XboxOne

[brothermouzongaming]

Game Awards highlights

Highlights of the awards are as follows: Roger Clark (Arthur Morgan) won best voice actor, God of War stole Game of the Year from RDR2 as well as best game direction. Fear not, Red Dead did take the award for best narrative, score, and audio design. Celeste won best indie. Deadcells snuck away with best action game. Monster Hunter World took best RPG and...I agree but I also think Nino Kuni, Octopath, Pillars of Eternity and Dragon Quest 11 fans are rightfully mad. Dragon Ball FighterZ takes best fighting game. Fortnite took best multiplayer game, shocker. 

What I wanted to talk about were the announcements and trailers that came between the commercials and cringe-inducing antics of the event. There wasn’t a lot going on but what was announced was very interesting.

Atlas: Pirates and cannons do not excite me, seafaring and swashbuckling just does nothing for me. All that said...wow Atlas really looks impressive. Made by Wildcard and the team consists of many people who put Ark together. This appears to be a full pirate sim mmorpg that plans to hold 40,000 people on one server. Yes. Forty thousand. Is that MAG level hype? Yeah that and then some. This seems to be one of those situations where a game comes out, it flops, and another studio swoops in to capitalize on the disappointment (see Fortnite to PUBG, 2k to Live, FIFA to PES etc). That game I’m referring to is Sea of Thieves and Wildcard appear to be working hard on making the game Sea of Thieves should’ve been. You can watch a trailer here.

MK11: I am so conflicted by this trailer, lemme tell ya. The actual look of the CG trailer was nice, visceral, even cheeky at some points (awful big emphasis on weapons in that trailer). Another obscure and mysterious aspect of this game is time and how that plays into characters and the story potentially. New Scorpion is killed by Evil Raiden, only to be killed by Old Scorpion himself...hmm. Now that makes me think. It was a quintessential Mortal Kombat trailer top to...wait...is that 21 Savage playing in the background?? The song choice did not fit at all, it was like someone at NetherRealms plugged in their phone last minute to compensate for a glitched audio. Literally, anything would’ve been better, Wu-Tang, Freddie Gibbs, Earl Sweatshirt if you had to go the rap route. Yeah, I could be making a big deal out of nothing but I’ve also seen games make unnecessary focus on soundtrack and losing focus on the actual game. All in all, interesting. trailer here

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: Oh boy, oh fucking boy. X-men Legends (stick with me here) was the first of top-down arcade hero brawler type that really got my jimmies jumping. So when Marvel Ultimate Alliance came out it was something of a true actualization of what me and my friends thought up back when Legends came out. Two titles, both of which I owned and played through thoroughly unlocking characters and finding cheats. So imagine my surprise when initially I think this is the Marvel Avengers project by Square Enix. No! Wrong! Bad Chayton! It’s UA3 by...Ninja Theory?! What is going on? We got a little gameplay that unfortunately didn’t look too impressive. I’m still excited and with it being a Switch exclusive...I just have more reason to get one. trailer here. Speaking of reasons to get a Switch...

Joker joins the battle: Hi, huge Persona 5 fan here. Very excited to see our boy join the scuffle. He will be included as a DLC character (meh) but it raises some very interesting questions as to who else could be added. Goku confirmed! really cute trailer here

Far Cry “New Dawn”: This screamed Rage 2 to me. It is a cool idea to play so directly off the last released Far Cry title. I’m sure the games are going to be very different but the trailer seemed to take direct influence down to the shade of pink they used in their cooky-wacky post-apocalyptic looking setting. The game will even have you run into Joseph Seed and this is where I think it will diverge heavily and start to focus more on the Far Cry aspects of the game. Interesting villains as per usual but I’m hesitant. Even if it’s an expansion from FC4. trailer here

Rage 2: Now this is the post-apocalyptic open world I am looking forward to exploring. As I have stated before, Rage was underwhelming but had potential, this new trailer expanded upon what was already explored but didn’t really show off anything new. Regardless of the utter turmoil BGS seems to be in I am still excited to get my hands on this game and rip shit up .trailer here

Psychonauts 2: This is big, many many fans have been dying to see where Rasputin’s adventures take him. The look hasn’t changed much, but the polish of modern tech is doing wonders for the world of Psychonauts. We don’t get much info but just the glimpse is more than enough to get me thinking about the possibilities. trailer here

Dragon Age 4 teaser: this is a teaster trailer for Dragon Age 4... not much more to it. trailer here

The Outer Worlds: This is the big one, Obsidian are coming out the gate hard. In the wake of Fallout76 this was the last thing Bethesda could afford; for another studio to come along and do their games better than them. A space oriented RPG that appears to focus heavily on decision-making and character development. Two staples of Obsidian games that I can’t wait to take part in when this bad boy drops. With Obsidian being acquired by Microsoft I was concered this would be an exclusive but thankfully they can’t deny the PS4 audience, at least this time. Next gen (or title even) we might not be so lucky. trailer here

#Atlas #Mortal Kombat 11 #mk11 #marvel ultimate alliance #MUA3 #ssbu #super smash ultimate #far cry new dawn #rage 2 #psychonauts 2 #dragon age 4 #the outer worlds #tga 2018 #the game awards #video games #gaming

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

HAHAHA YES I DID IT I FINALLY BEAT THE GAME THE CURSE IS BR--

Uh. 

I finally finished the game this time, clocking in a time of just over 58 hours for Neutral route cleared and not really many sidequests done.  While I played this run with a mod (if you’ve played the game, you’ll notice in the pictures some differences), I'll talk about that another time.  I should note that I've given this game at least five prior attempts each clocking in at over 20 hours over the several years I've owned it, so this is a pretty significant victory in my eyes. 

The Valerian Isles have been in turmoil ever since the untimely death of her king, Dorgalua.  He passed with no heir, and a regent installed himself into rule, although his influence only really extended through the northern part of the isles.  The Hierophant Balbatos has enacted a regime of ethnic cleansing in the south against the Walister, your people, and your leader has already been captured.  Worse, the knights who torched your town years ago are headed your way and the only help you have are your sister and best friend...

Five versus three against your favor, and they’re all veterans versus you all never having taken the field.  What’s the worst that can happen? 

I'll be making a few comparisons to Tactics Ogre's sibling series, Final Fantasy Tactics, during this review and I apologize for making so many.  Tactics Ogre originally was a Super Famicom game and it was ported to the PlayStation 1 and Sega Saturn before getting remade on the PSP quite a while later.  I've never played any of the old versions prior so this is mostly new experiences for me. 

Tactics Ogre is a turn-based tactics RPG.  Field a small team of characters in a variety of classes and fight it out through a number of battles as you clear a swath through everyone standing in your way.  Warriors use big swords, Archers snipe with bows, Clerics heal, Canopus wins entire maps, Wizards damage and rebuff with spells, and so on.  Objectives vary between "kill all enemies" and "kill the enemy leader" with very few deviations.  Instead of the almost constant limit of five troops that Final Fantasy Tactics imposes on you, you can field a maximum of 12, but the limit increases or decreases based on the map, and even maps near the end of the game won't let you take everyone along.  Enemy troops will almost always outnumber yours, but you have the advantage of human intellect, grinding, and the ability to revive your troops to counter them. 

I’m apparently really bad at taking screenshots of actual gameplay, but the anti-aliasing on the text broke on the enemy’s numbers for some reason, thus the picture. 

Though this is a modern-day remake, the game still uses sprites for characters and the battlegrounds, but instead of having the ability to freely rotate the map, you can instead tilt the map overhead for a bird's eye view to plan your next move.  And in the process, it looks like the maps actually are 3D models textured to look like sprites.  One of the final maps in the story is a translucent bridge situated over a glowing pit, and you can actually adjust the camera to look into the pit for no reason other than it looks cool.  Spells also have been given a visual overhaul as have the weather effects in battle. 

It might be a little jarring to have such advanced effects shown alongside sprites and pixel artwork, but they at least put the PSP’s hardware to work with these. 

The biggest difference this version has to its prior incarnations or its siblings is how different the class system is.  Instead of individual characters having their own character level and class level, the classes themselves level up and characters no longer have a personal level.  If you have Warrior at 22 and change Denam from a level 5 Wizard to one, his level jumps to 22.  More characters of one class fielded at the same time level faster, as do people of a lower level than the average. 

It's an interesting system on paper, but it's got more than a few issues.  While you can take a new character and stuff them into a leveled class to use immediately, you'll have to babysit anyone who switches to a new class since they'll be stuck using weaker gear until they get back up to speed, due to everything having a minimum level to use.  Classes don't unlock too often so you'll have to decide if what new things the class can bring to the group are worth the trouble of grinding the characters back to effectiveness.  EXP and SP are rewarded once the battle is won and it doesn't seem to matter what anyone on your side does to affect the final number, so you're not penalized for someone being dead weight.  Battles where you have to kill the enemy leader can be useful for quick EXP/SP, but random battles never have these conditions. 

Characters have personal reserves of SP used to unlock new skills and up to ten slots to stick into them.  Skills either boost stats, like boosting defense or max HP or boosting ranged evasion, or they grant passive bonuses like weapon skills or racial skills boosting the damage done with said weapon/against said race, or they enable the use of certain spells like Fire Magic or Dark Magic, or they give your unit class-specific actions like Fearful Impact or Speedstar.  New skills unlock slowly as that class levels, but not all of them can be transferred to other classes. 

Some skills slowly rank up as you use them and weapon skills are no different.  You’re encouraged to get at least one weapon skill up to 2 for every character to unlock heavily-damaging Finishers, so you can burst down tanky targets or other dangerous foes. 

Unlike in FFT where you can reasonably allow your characters to access the skills of prior jobs so you could have a Knight with Black Magick abilities, here skills and spells and equipment is a lot more rigid.  A Knight and a Cleric can both use Divine Magic to heal allies, but only the Cleric can use resurrection magic.  A Knight can use Axes and 1H Swords, while the Cleric can't.  They both can use Hammers, but only female Clerics get the sole Hammer the class can use.  You kinda need to plan out your characters to minimize wasted SP.  While it's not in short supply, it can be frustrating to want to try something new with an old character and then have several of their skills not apply to the new class.  There is one special class that can use almost everything any other one class can use, but only one character can use it and it comes at a heavy cost, as well as said class learning nothing naturally.  Think Freelancer or Onion Knight from Final Fantasy proper. 

Combat is speed-based like in FFT.  Each class has a base Recovery Time as well as how much RT is added per panel of move.  Then this is all factored against the weight of the equipment you have on and the RT of the weapon.  Unique characters (either fully unique or named generics) almost always have lower base RT than generics, on top of some having unique classes and dialog opportunities in some battles.  Every class has HP for living and TP to fuel special abilities and weapon finishers that unlock once the related weapon skill is at least rank 2, but some have MP which start at 0 to prevent anyone from using their strongest spells on turn one, the same way FFTA2 does it.  You're given a turn order on the bottom of the screen so you can try to manipulate the battlefield to your advantage, such as seeing if a character might be within range to kill a healer before they can act. 

But if things wind up not going your way, another new feature to the game is the Chariot Tarot, an in-game turn rewinding feature.  This unlocks in your first non-tutorial battle and allows you to rewind up to 50 turns backwards, and it even saves the 'alternate timelines' you created in that battle so if your original plan turned out better, you can jump back to it.  The game records your use of this but you can do a same-turn Chariot free of charge, to perhaps try to aim a projectile spell another way or if an attack you needed to hit got dodged.  The game points out that repeating the same actions the same way will only bear the same results, so if an Archer is having trouble landing an arrow for example, it might be worth it to same-turn Chariot by firing from every different tile in range until you make your mark. 

I didn’t test to see how many alternate timelines you could make, but having the ability to rewind at all is pretty handy. 

There are three story routes across four chapters, but they branch off instead of being three full stories from beginning to end.  There is one Chapter 1, there are two Chapter 2s, three Chapter 3s, and one Chapter 4 where they all converge again.  Law route has no branches, but Chaos can branch into Neutral at the end of Chapter 2.  Each branch has its own story sequences, but the roles characters play in them might change.  Someone who is an ally on one route might be an enemy on another, someone may live or die or even be recruitable depending on how you go.

  Once you finish the game, you gain access to the World Tarot, which allows you to travel time forward and backward, jumping to Anchor Points while you keep your gear and roster.  There are several Anchor Points sprinkled through each route's chapters, but you can't merely jump to a specific story battle at-will.  Don't go back to the start of the game and expect to zero-effort everyone you find though, as enemies will now scale to your level and their gear will too.  The World Tarot gives you an opportunity to replay story battles or to tackle another route too.  Beating the game also unlocks the CODA section of the game, four short but new chapters made originally as DLC for this version of the game, baked into the release we got here.  Progress through CODA requires certain characters to be considered alive by the timeline used to access it, so you may need to replay a good portion of the game to make the new timeline 'canon'. 

You still experience the routes as if you were playing them the first time, so Denam won’t try to change history even further.  Though one chapter in CODA does meddle with history to save a friend...

When not fighting on the battlefield, you can buy new wares in shops, recruit new people in shops, or craft new items if you have the recipes and materials.  Crafting can make very powerful equipment even early on, but the biggest caveat is that the process is very tedious.  You need to make advanced versions of materials one step at a time, and it's entirely possible that something will fail and you'll lose the materials in the process.  I believe one piece of Wootz Steel takes over 30 steps and again, there's the failure risk to consider.  You will be save-scumming quite a bit when it comes to crafting. 

You can also auction off recruited monsters for money that you can then turn around and use to buy the meat and other items processed from their bodies!  Somehow it’s even worse than FFT’s Poach/Secret Hunt because you’re doing this to members of your own team...

The last option accessed on the map is the Warren Report.  This is like the Brave Story of FFT, but it allows you to replay cutscenes as well as see an overall timeline of when events happen, and it has bios of damn near everyone you meet and fight and kill.  And they're not one-liners either--some enemies are nth generation knights or one pirate is actually pregnant (and you killed her, you monster), and so on.  The Warren Report also holds all of the Titles you earn naturally by playing or by doing specific side goals (so Achievements basically), as well as tracking the number of battles fought, Chariot Tarot uses, number of escapes, number of allied KOs, number of allied deaths, and how many people you've killed as well as to which clan they were affiliated.  And finally, it functions as a music player. 

War is hell.  All of those people you kill aren’t just faceless goons.  Just...the ones with names are the only people who show up here as opposed to every generic person having a bio. 

The music in this version has been given a full orchestral overhaul, given the 70-some names used in the credits for all the instruments, and several songs have been lengthened and given new parts.  The Warren Report also lists composer notes about the tracks, saying what kind of mood they were going for or talking about how difficult it was to get specific instruments to meld together.  The game has a percentage unlocked stat for the songs and I want to believe that most of them unlock by hearing them and winning the battles where they play, but at least one is unlocked by the Titles you earn. 

Okay, so that's Tactics Ogre.  Move your troops around the battlefield killing people until you win, then move onto the next map.  Buy or make new gear and spells and buy skills to keep your team in top shape, and experience the story across three different routes. 

It’s been a while since I last went through FFT, but it didn’t show you dead civilians a few times, did it?

What's good?  There's a lot of content here.  You can be sated with a one-and-done like I've done, but if you want to do everything in this game, you might want to set aside a couple hundred hours.  There's a bunch of side quests and extra dungeons, and one of them is even 115 battles long.  And you need to do that one in one go or you have to start over, but at least you can save between the fights this time.  And to get the most out of it, you need to do it more than once.  Yeah.  There is a lot to do here, to the point where I'd say that no other FFT can come close.  I hope you like grid-based turn-based RPG tactical goodness because this game is full of it. 

And variety too.  There are a bunch of different weapons for each type, a bunch of spells for each element, a bunch of skills for each class, and a bunch of classes for each race.  Even monsters have classes!  Though Golems and Dragons really only get to change, but demihumans like Reptiles and Orcs get access to some classes Humans can use, while they also get classes only they can use too.  And then you have Hawkmen who scoff at terrain differences and can fly everywhere, but they can only use a handful of classes. 

I'm a fan of the music.  I now wake to the Warren Report theme as opposed to E.S. Battle from Xenosaga Episode II like I have for the past forever.  And speaking of sound, the death cries are pretty lacking, especially compared to the PS1 FFT's anguished screams, but that can be ignored...even if you hear them quite a bit. 

If you're into customizing your troops, then this game will definitely scratch that itch, even with the restrictions on the skills I mentioned above.  There is actually a strategy revolving around recruiting enemies off the field in order to get their gear and to get their skills.  When enemies die in this game, they leave either a bag of loot containing some of their gear or valuable coins, or they leave a tarot card that increases stats of whoever picks it up and said card becomes a usable item in combat.  Instead of crystals you pick up to learn skills, you instead intentionally kill these recruits and then Scavenge their skills onto someone compatible.  And this doesn't get into the ridiculousness of Snapdragons or Cursed Weapons either, of which I didn't touch at all. 

There is some good scriptwork here too, though it has the same quasi semi-Elizabethan/Medieval bent the way War of the Lions did. 

What's bad?  Strangely, I felt like at least Chapter 4 dragged on a little too long, and that doesn't even count the multi-stage final dungeon.  This wasn't the first time my interest flagged since at least two other runs have gotten to the final dungeon and I just...stopped.  I imagine part of it was due to me somewhat rushing through the game (at a snail's pace?) and just wanting to finally be done with it this time, but I kinda dreaded the final part of the game since I knew it'd take a while--but I was wrong there. 

There are several fights where you're unable to leave, sort of like Riovanes in FFT.  You assault the castle's gates, then you enter the courtyard, then you break into the throne room, etc.  You can always save into another slot in case things go south, but then you have nothing to show for your efforts other than a little bit of knowledge for the next try and a need to get levels/gear/skills up to snuff.  The final dungeon is also set up this way, with maybe 12 fights if you don't take any shortcuts, and that many more you have to plow through if your team can't take on the last enemies.  At least it's a nice touch that there are sometimes alternate routes to the same goal, and yes the Warren Report tracks each of these different approaches if you’re a completionist. 

I mentioned crafting's tediousness, but that's at least optional.  A major gripe I had with the shop was the inability to compare the stats between the gear my people had on with what the store was offering.  So I'd save, buy a few things, go to the Party menu, compare, maybe reload the save and buy less or different things...  I get that it's a remake, but a Fitting Room option really would not have hurt this game one bit.  Because each tier of gear gives boosts to different stats, it's hard to tell how effective something would be until it's in your hands, and I found money tight enough that I couldn't just keep a copy of every weapon and armor on hand just for this reason.  You can use the page feature to see if whichever class is leveled enough to use the item in question, but there's no stat comparison and stats are kind of important here. 

It would have been amusing for people you kicked out to get revenge, but this never happens. 

I didn’t like how you still couldn’t see your starting position and the enemy before you commit to battle, the same way that FFT did it but not either FFTA.  Being able to change your gear or classes or skills or so on this way would’ve been a nice quality of life change, if to just make things a little less tedious.  Like knowing if you should keep your regular gear on or swap to Baldur while diving into the Palace of the Dead, to exploit Baldur doing heavy damage to the undead. 

So yeah.  Tactics Ogre is pretty good.  I think I still prefer the FFTs more but this isn't bad.  It still plays like its sibling games, just the differences can trip you up a bit if you don't adjust to how TO works its classes and all.  I think FFT and all are more accessible and more flexible, but if you've interest in other games like them, then Tactics Ogre is definitely worth a try.  It'll keep you busy for a while, especially if you decide to dive into all of the content here. 

Final stats. 

#playstation portable #recommended

[antiques-for-geeks]

Game Review: Dragon Buster

Namco / 1985 / Arcade

Guide hero Clovis on an epic journey to rescue Princess Celia, who is being held captive by a fearsome dragon deep in its underground lair. Fight your way through five different treacherous locations on your way to the fair maiden and glory!

I was looking for my brother who had wandered off on a trip to a local seaside town. Seaside towns were exciting for a number of reasons. The beach. Ice-cream. Cheap plastic toys. But chief among them for me was the opportunity to check out and play the latest arcade games. My brother was generally as excited at finding these games as I was, and so it was no big surprise when I finally caught up to him in a café transfixed by a glowing monitor in the corner. The game in question was one neither of us had ever seen before, or would ever see again… Dragon Buster!

Sigh... here’s yet another obscure little coin-op that I somehow remember in place of more meaningful things that may have happened to me as a boy…

I’m not sure exactly what it was that grabbed me about Dragon Buster, but it has a fair bit in common with other games I enjoyed much later on like Wonderboy in Monster Land and Zelda II. It’s kind of an early prototype for side view action games with lite RPG overtones. In many ways the game is more reminiscent of something you’d play on a home computer, with a level of choice and exploration completely lacking from the majority of arcade titles in ‘85.

Firstly, you get a kind of overworld map screen where you can choose your route to the dragon’s lair that ends each stage. OK, it’s hardly open-world exploration, but you do get the opportunity to choose a path with your preferred locations to fight though.

There are a mixture of five basic location types before your face off with the fire breathing princess-napper.

The Cave. A simple set of rooms and corridors in a straight line.

The Tower. Set over many floors, you’ll have to travel by ladder to find the way out.

The Boneyard. A spooky ossuary filled with winding tunnels where you’ll meet skeleton bosses at every turn.

The Mountain. Lots of descents down pits as you travel to the bottom.

The Ruins. A mix of bits from the other locations.

You also have a single life with a heath bar, which was a pretty unusual feature in the instant death world of the arcade. This makes the game feel fairly generous, at least in its early stages. I have also read that this was the place that the idea of a ‘double-jump’ was first introduced (where you can make a second jump while still in the middle of the first). The jumping mechanics are, however, notably poor here, so it’s possible this may not even have been an intentional feature.

Once you enter a location, Clovis is often presented with multiple corridors and ladders in search of an exit. As you explore you’ll uncover rooms containing mini-bosses that, once defeated, will drop either a useful item or reveal the way back to the overworld. 

The rooms in each location are dimmed out before you enter them, like you’re walking in on a surprise birthday party... with a tough wizard or skeleton as the lucky birthday boy or girl. It’s quite a pleasing effect that seems stolen from a more serious role playing game. The items you pick up here can be the difference between making it to the next set of levels or expiring down in the depths. They include heath restoring potions, improved weapons, a mushroom that increases the length of your health bar and fireball spells that you can shoot at enemies. The fireballs can be stocked up for later use and have been given their own dedicated button. After exiting every location a chunk of Clovis’s health bar will refill.

Shakedown. Breakdown. Takedown. Everybody wants into the crowded line. Breakdown. Takedown. You're busted.

Once you get to the dragon’s lair at the end of the road you’ll have a fight on your hands to reduce its health bar down to zero and move on to the next set of locations. These will be made up of the same basic set of five, but with more corridors and rooms filled with tougher and more aggressive enemies.

If you make it past the dragon on certain levels having found a crown or scepter you’ll get a brief scene where princess Celia shows her gratitude. If you have both she’ll be wearing a skimpy outfit and will give Clovis a kiss. Phwoar! As is usual for a game from the 80’s, there’s a tacit understanding that the player simply must be a white heterosexual male.

I believe this game is much better known in Japan, which is why it has appeared on various Namco retro arcade collections over the years, on machines like the PS1 and PSP. It even has a Famicom (Japanese NES) port. It appears that nobody gave a damn about it anywhere else though, with no western console or home computer conversions and nothing but blank stares and uncomfortable silences if you mention it today.

So, this is really quite an interesting effort for the time, but how does it hold up now? Sadly, it’s a pretty mixed bag. For every enjoyable aspect there’s an equal and opposite misstep.

The jumping is not assigned to a button, but to ‘up’ on the joystick, which makes navigating the ladders and escaping monsters a clunky mess. Surely ditching the dedicated fireball button would have made more sense?

Worse even than that, the combat feels mushy and unsatisfying. Your sword has a very short range, and enemy hits knock you back. You can easily end up being juggled in the air, taking damage without reply. The skeleton bosses are particularly annoying and can end up causing a lot of damage you'll feel couldn’t be avoided.

This was popular enough in Japan to be turned into a boardgame.

The graphics, while certainly acceptable for the era, are a little ‘off’, with the hero Clovis in particular looking like his arms have been put on back to front.

Finally, it also gets a little bit repetitive after a while, with the same 5 repeated level types and many of the same monsters appearing again and again.

So no forgotten classic then, but just about good enough to nudge into the bracket of ‘interesting failure’.

Playing it today

Easily emulated using MAME, but you can also pick it up (along with various other Namco arcade titles) on Namco Museum Volume 2 for the PS1, Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP or Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for Xbox 360.

It was also converted to the Famicom, and is playable via emulation or on Namco Museum Archives Vol 1 on Nintendo Switch. The Famicom version has quite a few changes to the arcade, with larger sprites and a more zoomed in view of the action. It’s alright as conversions go, but if you’re going to play this the arcade version is recommended.

Commentariat

Meat: This is quite an odd little footnote to Namco’s illustrious arcade heritage. They seem quite keen on it since it keeps popping up (along with Tower of Daruga) on various retro collections. It’s half a good game, and some of the ideas were really quite prescient, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s games that bounce you back and forward like a beach ball in the wind when you get hit. Worse, Clovis has a shocking mullet and looks like he’s spanking one out when he walks. 

Pop: I’ve always had a soft spot for Dragon Buster after first spotting it in an arcade all those years ago. I also recognise that it was quickly left behind by the rapid pace of game development at that time. You’d be better off thinking of it as a prototype for better things to come. The game mechanics of the best remembered ‘classics’ from the early 80’s are often still sound due to their appealing tightness and simplicity. The fact is that Dragon Buster is too loose and inconsistent to be worth a hearty recommendation today. Still, I got some enjoyment from dusting it off again, and there are certainly much, much worse games out there.

Score card

Presentation 6/10

A simple title screen and a fairly standard attract mode. Nothing bad here, but nothing particularly revolutionary either.

Originality 8/10

There simply weren’t any other arcade games quite like this at the time. The mixture of map screen, health bar and other ‘RPG lite’ mechanics made this a highly original offering, though it may not seem anything special today.

Graphics 6/10

A real mixed bag. Everything is bright and cleanly drawn, and the enemy designs are quite appealing. However animation is minimal, and the player character looks anatomically incorrect. It’s built on the same basic hardware as Pac-Land, but it certainly doesn’t make the same jaw-dropping ‘cartoon brought to life’ impression that game did on release.

Hookability 7/10

The game has a fairly approachable difficulty level, and there’s quite a sense of mystery to exploring it’s locations en route to battle with the dragon.

Sound 6/10

A jolly little tune burbles along while you explore the levels. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s also a total mismatch to the adventure being portrayed on screen. Something more spooky plays when you face off against one of the mini bosses in an item room. Sound effects are fairly perfunctory.

Lastability 6/10

Has quite a few levels to work your way through which become increasingly complex. These suffer from serious repetition, and you won't see anything genuinely new after the first few sets, which really kills any desire to keep playing.

Overall 6/10

Better examples of this type of game abound, but Dragon Buster got there first, and for that it deserves some recognition.

#arcade #namco #AFG #review #antiquesforgeeks #retrogaming

[filligan-universe]

Game Review: MIDDLE-EARTH: SHADOW OF WAR (2017)

It’s 4 AM and I’m mad. I’m mad at the current political climate, I’m mad about the literal climate, I’m mad that it’s 4 AM, I’m mad that you can’t order CDs through Amazon unless you like cracked jewel cases (yes, I still own physical CDs and also purchase them!). And I’m mad at Shadow of War, which is weird because I normally don’t give unenjoyable games much time. But I’ve poured over 50 hours of tears and groans and sighs and sweat and blood on that one day I had a hangnail into this game, and I’m still mad at it.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Loading had one job: be better than its predecessor. This is not always easy when you borrow two of your game’s biggest mechanics from franchises that have failed to top their earliest entries (Arkham Asylum and Assassin’s Creed), but bless Monolith Productions for givin’ ’er anyway. 

Hey, if you’re reading this far and I still have your attention, let me ask you a question: what the hell is this game? What the hell is going on? Are we even alive? 

Backstory: in the first game, Shadow of Mordor (better title, too), you hacked through orcs, snuck up on orc fortresses, did battle with strong opponents, and got to play around with the unique chess board called the army menu. You could single out orcs. Orcs that bested you rose higher on the board and you felt compelled to hunt them down to cut their ascension short. The game made you plot you every step in battling warchiefs. Were you going to run in sword blazing? Or would you assassinate his bodyguards to weaken his defenses? Or would you dominate his bodyguards – turn them to your side – to ambush the warchief? Different strategies for every enemy, but how you played that chess board was left to you.

Shadow of War should be called Shadow of Army Screen, because that’s the crux of the game. You must take over a significant amount of captains, and you must place high-ranking followers on each of the five capturable forts in order to progress. Things have improved in that you can order your followers around in much more interesting ways. You can create missions for yourself to level up your captains the way you want to. Or you can do this up to a certain point, at least.

Okay, here’s the thing. Here’s what really got my goat. I hit a level cap before I hit the actual level cap. I beat the game, but the game doesn’t truly end. The game consists of four acts, and the end of Act Two culminates in the whole game inverting itself on your ass and nothing being as it was again. It doesn’t really affect the gameplay, but it affects the story. Sure, fine. Act Three is two boss battles. The end. Act Four – oh, ho, ho, Act Four. Act Four is called the Shadow Wars, and this is where the forces of Mordor try to retake all of your forts. Multiple times. These are siege battles, and they’re actually kind of fun, though more so on the attacking side. The stronger your warchiefs in the fort, the stronger the fort, and you’ll be given an effectiveness rating to compare with your attackers. Level up your guys, gain some better defenses, improve your rating, win the siege. Simple, right?

Ah, you fools! Your followers cannot be stronger than you. So if you’re level 45, then level 45 is the strongest possible orc in your command. A problem if, within the attacking siege party, is a couple of orcs above level 45. What’s the big deal, you’re asking me. What the fuck is wrong with you, you’re asking me. It’s an RPG action-adventure hack-and-slash regular-old piece-a-crap – why don’t you just level up your dude so you can level up your orcs so you can beat the fucking sieges and finish this godforsaken game? Well, you arrogant fucks, because leveling up is slower than orc blood in January in Act Four. Once all story missions are finished, you have little options to gain XP. One is to farm nemesis missions, which net about 3000 XP each. Of course, you could be like me and just press on into the sieges because they grant the most XP and hope, with your head and your heart, that the game will propel you enough to keep you on track with the next sieges.

But it won’t! 

I… I don’t know what to do. Ever since I reached Act Four, I feel empty inside. I feel like the game gave up on me, but I don’t know what I did. Why did it just up and leave me? We were having a good time, I thought. Sure, I was groaning and sighing a lot, and I’ll get to why, but we had something. Or I thought we did. I dunno, man. I hit level 45 and it felt like there was no reasonable way for me to level up to continue at the same pace I’d been moving.

I don’t know if I’m getting older or if games are getting more lax with the bullshit. It might be a sad combination of the two. And I’m not talking about loot boxes here. I’m talking about games taking their sweet, sweet time with every. Single. Fucking. Thing. They ask you to do. This game takes six hours to load every time you jump between regions. That’s bad enough. But good lord baby Jesus, why does Monolith keep taking the game out of my hands?

In the previous game, each time you confronted a captain, they gave you a little speech that rarely eclipsed fifteen seconds. That tradition continues in the sequel, but now these orcs… these fucking orcs. Sauron taught them how to read Shakespeare or something because they absolutely will not shut up. I’m pretty sure some of them yammer for the better part of a minute. And the problem with that is twofold: 1) I don’t care what these orcs have to say. Nobody does. Nobody ever did. It’s always the same shit over and over and over again delivered from one of three different voice actors. At least in the first game these speeches were short like “Arrrgh I’mma kill ya now, ya fuck!” or something, you know? 2) You did not have to confront nearly as many captains in the first game as you do in this one. This game is all about confronting captains. If you didn’t confront captains, you would not be doing anything. The game could be called Shadow of Confronting Captains. And you still have to hear their speeches every. Single. Time. It wears thin.

This sounds like a trivial complaint, and maybe it would be if the game would just let me play it. That’s all I ever wanted! That’s all I ever ask of a game: let me play you. But the cutscenes are obnoxiously common. The game will surprise you with an ambush or a betrayal way too frequently and – I’m certain it’s programmed this way – at crucial moments with other tasks. I’m an achievement hunter, and there’s one for killing a drake while on a graug. These creatures are randomly generated and they’re not too easy to find. You can probably find a graug in a cave, but then you’d have to find a drake. Twice I managed to do this. Both times, just before I could finish the drake, I was ambushed by a follower betraying me, and I lost the drake kill because every time you’re ambushed, the whole game just totally stops and suddenly there’s an orc and suddenly you have to listen to his whole goddamn speech. 

Recently, I was defending a fortress in a siege. Things were going south. All of my captains were dying. When your orcs are in peril, they begin to bleed out and you have to rush over to them and hold B to revive them. This is almost always impossible – you’re often too surrounded by enemies to complete the revival. But guess what happens every time one of your captains dies? That’s right! The whole fucking game stops and you have to watch them bleed out in slow motion, because somehow bleeding out in slow motion is a thing that is even possible to convey. If you have ten orcs fighting for you and shit goes south, that is ten times the game will halt you, no matter what you’re doing – attacking a difficult enemy, trying to regain ground, trying to counter an attack, trying to dominate an enemy, trying to execute an enemy – no matter what you are doing, the game will whisk you away so you can watch your orc die because there is no better way they could have possibly given the player such information. 

On the army chess board, your followers will randomly enter missions. If you have a specific orc in mind for a specific task but he’s busy in a mission, you cannot control him until you either force the mission to start and see it to success or advance time three times, which takes forever just from the loading screens. If you seek out an orc to dominate because he’s perfect for a plan you’re crafting, he can instantly enter a mission after he joins your army, and he’s useless to you until he’s free of that mission. If you enter the mission and help him complete it, there is a possibility he will instantly enter another one. Again, you will have to complete that mission before you can use him for what you needed him for. This happened three times in a row with one orc. Just let me play the game! This is not playing the game. Nobody wants to do these shitty things. You can’t set up your game on the premise of free exploration and a choice of how to proceed, then box players in because you couldn’t figure out a better way to integrate this system into the chess board. 

So, these loot boxes. The rule of the follower level cap still applies. If you find yourself desperate for powerful orcs, you can purchase them in loot boxes, but they still won’t be a higher level than you, so if your problem lies in enemies stronger than you, loot boxes won’t help. You can gain XP boosts, which seems like the only route to take at this point. 

There are two “online” modes: Vendetta and Conquest. Both have you enter another player’s world, which looks identical to yours, and either kill a warchief (Vendetta) or capture a fortress (Conquest). Both modes take ages to load, ages to complete, and the perks are minuscule at best. You rack up spoils of war points, which is a point system segregated from your single-player experience, and every online victory brings you closer to a free loot chest. I’ve thought about doing a bunch of these in the hopes for free XP boosts, but the sheer time it would take is offputting. 

The most tragic thing about Shadow of War is the core game, which is identical to its predecessor, is still fun. That’s why I’ve sunk so much time into it. There is a good time to be had here when you brush past all of the garbage development choices. I want to hit the actual level cap, but I have never in my life played a game where I feel like I am just unable to because there’s not enough for me to do. I could farm nemesis missions for days on end and eventually get there, but I’d only resent the game more for it and have a worse time than I am now. I actually Googled a solution to this because it baffled me so much – I was certain I had missed something or done something wrong. The top solution amongst players is to lose your fortress in a siege, then retake it, because that grants you three times the XP of just defending it. I can’t think of a less satisfying way to beat a game, so I may never see the sun in Mordor again.

#Middle earth Shadow of war #Middle earth #Shadow of war review #Shadow of mordor #Middle earth review #Middle earth game #Shadow of War

[simnovels-blog]

EA RANT

Ok so I was reading reblogs and comments under a post that someone created in appreciation for the new Cats and Dogs expansion and calling out people who are crying they aren’t getting what they want. First of all I want to say that I agree that simple hate for something will never get you very far. EA won’t listen to you if you scream in capital letters that you want a different expansion or if you want horses in your game. They will just laugh at you as they cash in their millions in november.

BUT, I do agree with the core of what these people are trying to say. I think it’s better though to form a well thought, well written opinion which explains exactly why Cats & Dogs and the Sims 4 in general is such a disappointment so that everyone, even the die hard Sims 4 fans, understands what these ‘hating’ players are going through. So I decided to post a rant about EA and the direction they took with Sims 4, which will forever make me sad and disappointed and this is why (I’ll add a read more button but please do read more):

First of all: I am 25 years old now. When The Sims was released I was eight and I can still remember very well the first time I played the game at my friend’s house. She was so kind to lend me her disk set so that my dad could copy it (yes, very oldskool, back in the day copying disks wasn’t a crime yet lol). And so i had my very first Sims game and I fell in love with it immediately. From then on, I patiently waited for every christmas, birthday and the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas to ask for new expansions and I played them more than any other game we had. All the way up to Sims 3 Into the Future. Sims was and is my childhood, my teenhood and now even my tweenhood (are those real words? lol). So you can imagine how excited I was when Sims 4 was announced!

Sims 4 looked amazing in the first trailers. I didn’t care for the change in art style. Cartoony would be fine with me because this was going to be a new Sims and it was going to give us even more than what Sims 3 already offered. EA’s campaign focused greatly on the new improved CAS and their emotion system. The way they presented it made it look really cool. It actually seemed like you could knead your sim in any way possible and those emotions felt like a true enrichment to storytellers. As a storyteller, these teasers and trailers and gameplay trailers made me incredibly excited!

I was lucky enough to be asked to review The Sims 4 by my current employer back then a gaming website called XGN.nl (right now it’s just a clickbait SEO mania there but when I worked there back in 2014 they did produce some quality). This meant I received a copy of The Sims 4 for free. This is when I was first encountered with how EA deceived us with their trailers. Every company does this of course, but I had to say it was a great disappointment to try out the new CAS and bump into very strict limits when it came to kneading your sim. The sliders were basically still there, just hidden behind a different mechanic that also didn’t work very well yet (they patched it later). Second of all, the emotion system was completely dominating the game, meaning that sims were ALWAYS feeling a certain emotion. They were never ‘neutral’. Another ridiculous element they added was the sudden change of moods whenever your sim walked into a room with a sculpture or painting that was created in a certain mood. Did your sim’s father die 5 minutes ago? No worries, just take a look at a playful painting and you’re all good again. This was not the emotional system they promoted. This was a mechanic that was way too flexible and not realistic at all even on a cartoony level. It completely destroyed the possibility to make beautiful screenshots and stories of your sims without having to use posepacks and this was exactly what I loved doing.

Of course there were also the other restrictions like the lack of toddlers, swimming pools, dishwashers, pregnancy leave… the super tiny neighborhoods with fixed lots and those horrible loading screens… It was definitely a step back from Sims 3. They did announce they would prioritize performance over content this time, but it seemed to me that they weren’t given the appropriate budget for this game. Even back in 2014 it should’ve been possible to create at least an open neighborhood with lots you could move around to your desire and still imrpove performance compared to Sims 3. Of course that would mean the development cost would be higher so this is where I start my actual rant. I’m pretty sure EA didn’t give them the money they needed to create a proper sequel. EA is notorious for being a cashgrab company and they saw more profit in a low cost model that would attract the new generation who grew up with mobile games and NOT with the older Sims games. They saw money in those teens and younger kids who weren’t in the possession of an up-to-date gaming pc and therefore were used to playing stuff like candy crush on their phone. And of course, they were right. This was a huge group of people it turned out and they considered Sims 4 a success.

But what about their old player base? What about me? What about everyone else that was like me? We had been looking forward to a sequel for five years already. This was no sequel. This was a different game made for different players who never experienced the enormous and free worlds of Sims 3. On top of that, this wasn’t a game for creative people either. They took away create a style, they took away toddlers (thank god they fixed that one though), they made the baby stuck to a crib, they added loading screens, sims would look vastly out of place now if CC’d, everything a creative person loves to do, to direct their game and have all the freedom to create any kind of picture they desire was taken away.

In the beginning I still had hope. I thought: expansions are going to turn this game into something great just like they did with the other series. But even here EA decided to take the cash-grab route instead. Instead of releasing expansions with a decent amount of content they went for the modern way of DLC: add only one or two extra things per DLC. Comparing expansions of The Sims 4 to expansions of The Sims 3 and simply calculating the amount of hours of gameplay each expansion gives if you try out everything once showed how TS4 expansions are only a fraction of what TS3 had to offer. Again: their arguments were about keeping the performance good enough for even low-end laptops. But seriously my phone could probably run TS4 without any lag. This day and age it IS possible to create way more than what they do with the TS4 and still have a decent performance even on an outdated PC. So this had to be a matter of budget. I don’t blame the developers. They get their money from EA. I blame EA for not giving the developers enough money to make a worthy sequel or to make worthy expansion packs. And it’s not just with Sims 4 btw. They completely ruined the Mass Effect series as well with that monstrosity they call Mass Effect Andromeda. If you google a bit about what happened there, you can see how bad management, a low budget and a deadline pushed way too early by EA messed up the entire development of that game. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing is happening behind the screens of the Sims 4, but we just don’t know about it.

The worst thing is, at least here in Europe, Sims 4 isn’t any cheaper than Sims 3. Even though the development cost was clearly a lot lower and even though they give us a lot less content, the base game and its expansion packs still cost the same amount as a Sims 3 expansion. You pay 40 euros for Get to Work, which gives you only 3 new careers. This is the same amount you pay for Ambition, which adds so much more. I don’t even want to speak about the Vampires game pack which is the prominent example of how EA decided to cut previous expansions into thousands of little pieces and then sell them for a high price each to get more money.

This finally brings me to the newly announced Cats & Dogs expansion. Again, at least half was cut off the content we had previously gotten in pets expansions and the only new thing they added was a vet career. To make it even worse, cats and dogs won’t be controllable so when the crappy AI abandons you and fucks one of them up, you are basically screwed since you can’t control them to fix the issue. We will have to see about this when it is actually released, but it’s perfectly possible your pet will get stuck in your house somewhere and die of starvation simply because you can’t get to it in any way. Besides this possible issue, it’s another restraint for creators. A lot of stories including pets can’t be made now since the pets can’t be directed into a desirable action or position. I can’t imagine every storyteller is patient enough to wait until the pet performs the desired action by themselves. Back in Sims 2 pet’s weren’t controllable either, but at least they had a cheat so you had the option of you really wanted to. Now they announced they won’t even give us that cheat. This isn’t because they don’t want to give us a cheat, it’s most probably because they never developed the possibility of controlling a pet to begin with. Again, I suspect this was a budget issue. If they wanted to make pets controllable, with their given budget they probably had to cut down on other stuff like autonomous AI. Again, EA decided to go cash grab instead of giving us more options and more freedom to create whatever we want with this game.

They have derailed from a sandbox game into a more RPG/mobile game kind of feel. I just can’t understand why they did that. Did they underestimate the size of their creative playerbase? Did they underestimate how restrictive some of their choices would be? I don’t think so. I think they simply didn’t care. They care about money, that’s what EA is famous for. They have been given ‘awards’ for being the worst gaming company  plenty of times already. Sims 4 is one of the shining bright examples as to why they deserve those awards.

One can only hope that one day a different developer with a less money greedy publisher will pick up Sims where the third series left off and make their own version of The Sims. This already happened with for example Cities Skylines and Planet Coaster, who are succesors of Sim City and Rollercoaster Tycoon created by different companies. But as long as there’s no announcement about such a thing, all I can really do is be sad about what Sims 4 never was and never will be.

#ts4 #sims 4 #sims 4 rant #ea rant #ea #electronic arts #sims 3 #ts3 #i hope it's clear now for all of the sims 4 fans why the game receives the criticism you guys hate so much