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3 hours ago, BrightBow said:

No. They just give you hugs and suck your life.

Huh. Okay.

I thought I read somewhere about the dream-weaving/invading aspect was used in one of the Castlevania games; I'm guessing it must've been one of the other Castlevania games.

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On 10/19/2021 at 8:49 PM, vanguard333 said:

Anyway, the opening segment where you rescue Zelda and escort her to the sanctuary was interesting; it sets up the stakes, it shows the main characters trying to be proactive in trying to stop Aghanim, and it lets the player briefly get to know Zelda before she gets kidnapped again by Aghanim. That said, apart from her occasionally-repeating dialogue, she's very much a non-presence during the rescue; it just made me think that it might've been neat if she had some gameplay components or accompanied Link throughout the game; something that of course wouldn't happen until Spirit Tracks. I mean, it's not like there weren't any SNES games that had companion characters follow the main player character; games like Secret of Mana (which admittedly I haven't played) spring to mind.

Yeah, I always liked that part. Much as I enjoy rescuing the damsel, I also enjoy getting to bring her with me on adventures as it lets me see more of her and gives my character a chance to interact with her, making any relationship they have feel more meaningful in turn.

As a sort of "soft reboot" or remake of the original Zelda, I thought it'd be neat if Link saves Zelda at the beginning of the game, then she spends most of the rest of the game traveling with Link to help him find the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. She could carry a rapier with her for self-defense and maybe change into an outfit similar to what she wears in the old cartoon and Valiant comics.

For that matter, back before BotW debuted, I'd hoped Zelda would join Link as a companion, and likewise I'd hoped as much for BotW2 before trailers showed that they'll likely end up separated again. Heck, I'd even proposed that Zelda could be the main protagonist in the sequel with Link as her companion, since she'd have more room to grow than he would (in so far as gathering Heart Containers, gaining new abilities, and such). There's so much potential for a game where Link and Zelda are active companions, and it's a shame they've barely tapped into that.

Edited by Lord_Brand
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8 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Yeah, I always liked that part. Much as I enjoy rescuing the damsel, I also enjoy getting to bring her with me on adventures as it lets me see more of her and gives my character a chance to interact with her, making any relationship they have feel more meaningful in turn.

As a sort of "soft reboot" or remake of the original Zelda, I thought it'd be neat if Link saves Zelda at the beginning of the game, then she spends most of the rest of the game traveling with Link to help him find the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom. She could carry a rapier with her for self-defense and maybe change into an outfit similar to what she wears in the old cartoon and Valiant comics.

For that matter, back before BotW debuted, I'd hoped Zelda would join Link as a companion, and likewise I'd hoped as much for BotW2 before trailers showed that they'll likely end up separated again. Heck, I'd even proposed that Zelda could be the main protagonist in the sequel with Link as her companion, since she'd have more room to grow than he would (in so far as gathering Heart Containers, gaining new abilities, and such). There's so much potential for a game where Link and Zelda are active companions, and it's a shame they've barely tapped into that.

Yeah; having Zelda accompany Link was easily my favourite part of Spirit Tracks.

That could be neat, though I don't think it would necessarily work for a remake of the original The Legend of Zelda. One of the main points of the original is that you're free to go wherever you want and tackle the challenges in almost any order; you could even go most of the game without acquiring a sword if you wanted to do so. Right at the beginning of the game, the player has to make a choice: go into the cave or go down one of the three paths. I don't think inserting a mandatory section at the start of that game is a good idea.

I still hope, despite the trailers making it seem unlikely, that BOTW2 will have Zelda accompany Link. I hope this not only because it would be really cool and it would have a ton of gameplay potential, but also because BOTW ended on Link and Zelda being finally reunited and setting out together; opening BOTW2 with a massive visual, "What? You thought these two would be adventuring together because we ended the first game that way? Sike! They're separated again and you're going to have to go through this whole new game just to see them get right back to where already were at the end of the previous game!" would be a massive disservice to the characters and to the fans, and fans will see it as a massive disservice. And I'm not saying that as my opinion or prediction, but as something I 100% know will happen as a simple fact of cause & effect, simply because we've been down this road before:

Wind Waker gave us Tetra: a really cool incarnation of Zelda that was an adventurer and a pirate captain, and it ended on Link and Tetra setting out together. Then Phantom Hourglass opened with Tetra getting abducted by the Ghost Ship and then spending the rest of the game as a statue, and I distinctly remember Tetra getting sidelined like that being the most widely-criticized thing about Phantom Hourglass, and just think about what a high bar that is! I remember Tetra getting sidelined like that getting more complaints than the touchscreen controls and the temple of the ocean king combined.

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17 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

That could be neat, though I don't think it would necessarily work for a remake of the original The Legend of Zelda. One of the main points of the original is that you're free to go wherever you want and tackle the challenges in almost any order; you could even go most of the game without acquiring a sword if you wanted to do so. Right at the beginning of the game, the player has to make a choice: go into the cave or go down one of the three paths. I don't think inserting a mandatory section at the start of that game is a good idea.

Fair enough. At the very least, a sort of "New Legend of Zelda" that combines aspects of TLOZ and ALttP together. The idea of Zelda providing guidance to Link due to her connection to the Triforce of Wisdom would be brilliant. Like, she could sense when they're close to one of the pieces' hiding places, and whenever you obtain a piece, she receives a vision hinting to the location of another one, though you're free to pursue them in a different order than what the game suggests.

I was also picturing a scenario where a minion of Ganon injures/poisons Link and tries to recapture Zelda, forcing the Princess to defend herself and help Link. This would probably happen later in the game, after Zelda herself has acquired more skill, magic, etc. as a way of showing how far she's come since Link rescued her at the start of the game, not to mention show how close they've become since they met.

That said, I also like the idea of Zelda taking a little time out from the adventure to watch or join Link in more leisurely activities like fishing. Say, she could watch Link fish and clap happily whenever he catches one, or they could work together to cook a meal, and once the meal is complete, they both taste their handiwork, kinda like when making curry in Pokemon SwSh. Lots of cute stuff like that to help sell the idea of them having a more personal relationship.

17 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I still hope, despite the trailers making it seem unlikely, that BOTW2 will have Zelda accompany Link. I hope this not only because it would be really cool and it would have a ton of gameplay potential, but also because BOTW ended on Link and Zelda being finally reunited and setting out together; opening BOTW2 with a massive visual, "What? You thought these two would be adventuring together because we ended the first game that way? Sike! They're separated again and you're going to have to go through this whole new game just to see them get right back to where already were at the end of the previous game!" would be a massive disservice to the characters and to the fans, and fans will see it as a massive disservice. And I'm not saying that as my opinion or prediction, but as something I 100% know will happen as a simple fact of cause & effect, simply because we've been down this road before:

At the very least, it'd be neat to see Zelda get her own side of the story. I've suggested in the past that she might explore the underworld while Link explores the overworld, staying out of Ganoncorpse's reach while helping Link by, say, activating new Shrines or Towers or something. Eventually, they find a way to contact each other, which helps ease Zelda's nerves a bit as she no longer feels completely alone down there in the dark. Eventually, Link finds a way down into the underworld where he can reunite with Zelda, possibly at the cost of Ganoncorpse escaping the underworld and wreaking havoc on the surface above, perhaps restoring himself to life in the process and maybe taking over most of Hyrule a la OoT. From then on, Link and Zelda's goal is to cleanse the surface of Ganondorf's taint/liberate the surface from his control and ultimately take him down.

17 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Wind Waker gave us Tetra: a really cool incarnation of Zelda that was an adventurer and a pirate captain, and it ended on Link and Tetra setting out together. Then Phantom Hourglass opened with Tetra getting abducted by the Ghost Ship and then spending the rest of the game as a statue, and I distinctly remember Tetra getting sidelined like that being the most widely-criticized thing about Phantom Hourglass, and just think about what a high bar that is! I remember Tetra getting sidelined like that getting more complaints than the touchscreen controls and the temple of the ocean king combined.

Yeah, PH is nothing like the kind of sequel I'd hoped TWW would get. I was picturing a story where Link, Tetra, and the crew travel from island to island helping them deal with whatever problems they face, be it monsters, pirates, ghosts, blight, etc. while searching for a land to call their own. Tetra and her crew would have been more involved in the plot, not less. Tetra herself at the very least could have joined Link as the playable co-star. Though PH had some neat ideas, a direct sequel to TWW was not the ideal time to use them.

This all said, I have a couple ideas for sequels to Spirit Tracks. One focuses on planes and introduces a new partner and friend for Link named Pella, who dreams of becoming a royal engineer and eventually gets her wish when she and Link are recruited by the royal family to join the ranks of Hyrule's elite air squadron. This title would evolve the ideas of PH and ST, with the plane being customizable and used to travel between islands. Naturally, there'd be lots of dogfights with enemy pilots and even bosses.

The other idea features Zelda and Tetra as sisters with a very "yin-yang" relationship. Zelda is the dutiful older sister who follows tradition and takes her princess training and education seriously. Tetra is the younger sister who wants to strike out and follow her own path rather than waste her life learning rules and protocols she thinks she'll never get a chance to use anyway. Basically, Tetra's treated by most of the castle staff as the "backup" princess, which she finds totally demeaning. Thus, she tends to sneak out through secret passageways in the dungeons and garden. In the game's opening act, Link, a knight in training under the Captain himself, is tasked with following Tetra discreetly to make sure no harm comes to her, and discovers a hidden cave near the sea where Tetra and some friends of hers have been building a ship. Tetra asks Link to keep the whole operation a secret to everyone; if Zelda or the castle staff find out, they'll have the ship confiscated and Tetra's friends locked in the dungeon, or so she fears.

Poor Link thus finds himself torn between his duties to Zelda and his friendship with Tetra (though he's also friends with Zelda, which makes getting caught in their conflicts all the more difficult for him). And naturally, later in the story Zelda is abducted by bad guys, forcing Tetra to take charge and put her "backup princess" training to work. Also naturally, her ship and friends come into play as part of the mission to rescue Zelda.

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4 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Fair enough. At the very least, a sort of "New Legend of Zelda" that combines aspects of TLOZ and ALttP together. The idea of Zelda providing guidance to Link due to her connection to the Triforce of Wisdom would be brilliant. Like, she could sense when they're close to one of the pieces' hiding places, and whenever you obtain a piece, she receives a vision hinting to the location of another one, though you're free to pursue them in a different order than what the game suggests.

I was also picturing a scenario where a minion of Ganon injures/poisons Link and tries to recapture Zelda, forcing the Princess to defend herself and help Link. This would probably happen later in the game, after Zelda herself has acquired more skill, magic, etc. as a way of showing how far she's come since Link rescued her at the start of the game, not to mention show how close they've become since they met.

That said, I also like the idea of Zelda taking a little time out from the adventure to watch or join Link in more leisurely activities like fishing. Say, she could watch Link fish and clap happily whenever he catches one, or they could work together to cook a meal, and once the meal is complete, they both taste their handiwork, kinda like when making curry in Pokemon SwSh. Lots of cute stuff like that to help sell the idea of them having a more personal relationship.

That all actually sounds very neat and interesting.

 

4 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

At the very least, it'd be neat to see Zelda get her own side of the story. I've suggested in the past that she might explore the underworld while Link explores the overworld, staying out of Ganoncorpse's reach while helping Link by, say, activating new Shrines or Towers or something. Eventually, they find a way to contact each other, which helps ease Zelda's nerves a bit as she no longer feels completely alone down there in the dark. Eventually, Link finds a way down into the underworld where he can reunite with Zelda, possibly at the cost of Ganoncorpse escaping the underworld and wreaking havoc on the surface above, perhaps restoring himself to life in the process and maybe taking over most of Hyrule a la OoT. From then on, Link and Zelda's goal is to cleanse the surface of Ganondorf's taint/liberate the surface from his control and ultimately take him down.

I've seen this "Zelda has her own side story underground" theory a lot. It could be neat, but I honestly think it would be best if they keep Zelda and Link together.

 

4 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Yeah, PH is nothing like the kind of sequel I'd hoped TWW would get. I was picturing a story where Link, Tetra, and the crew travel from island to island helping them deal with whatever problems they face, be it monsters, pirates, ghosts, blight, etc. while searching for a land to call their own. Tetra and her crew would have been more involved in the plot, not less. Tetra herself at the very least could have joined Link as the playable co-star. Though PH had some neat ideas, a direct sequel to TWW was not the ideal time to use them.

This all said, I have a couple ideas for sequels to Spirit Tracks. One focuses on planes and introduces a new partner and friend for Link named Pella, who dreams of becoming a royal engineer and eventually gets her wish when she and Link are recruited by the royal family to join the ranks of Hyrule's elite air squadron. This title would evolve the ideas of PH and ST, with the plane being customizable and used to travel between islands. Naturally, there'd be lots of dogfights with enemy pilots and even bosses.

Yeah; I can agree. Phantom Hourglass is a very neat side-story, but never getting a game with Link, Tetra and her pirates as the main characters is a real shame.

Since Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were both going for a semi-steampunk idea (a paddle steamer and a train), perhaps an airship or a hot air balloon would be a better idea than a plane, especially since lighter-than-air aircraft can stop in midair.

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Recently I've gotten back into Advance Wars, and started playing the first GBA title again from scratch. (My original GBA copy was pre-owned, so starting anew was a fresh experience.)

I finished the Normal Campaign, and age definitely comes with experience. I remember slogging it out in the last few missions, taking around 30 days (turns) to clear, but now I even managed to S-Rank these missions. I somehow even S-Ranked Rivals, which is a map I never played but know about from other players. My final campaign rank was S-Rank, 960 Points. I could have improved some missions, while others I was amazed that I somehow secured an S-Rank.
-- My main change was knowing how useful regular Tanks, Anti-Air, and Battle Copters are. I believe before I would just only rely on Medium Tanks and Bombers, with the AA tossed in as necessary. Turns out having 2 Tanks is generally more useful than 1 Medium Tank, and you can get them out sooner.
-- Also, proper APC usage. I usually didn't bother with APCs, but after seeing how proper usage of them can improve the capture game, it helped immensely. Also, in AW1, sacrificial APCs are a thing since the AI has them high on the priority list of targets for some reason.
-- Lastly, knowing that Technique can be handled by spamming Infantry near the mission's completion to make up for any potentially lost units during the match.
-- The previous playstyle was the norm for me even through Dual Strike and Days of Ruin (I never got around to finishing AW2 as that campaign seemed like a bunch of War Room missions strung together.) Seeing Advance Wars PvP and revisiting some of the stuff of Advance Wars by Web definitely helped me become a better player, as well as my now deeper understanding of the mechanics.

I plan on replaying the Normal Campaign two more times so I can unlock the other COs and see almost every variant/mission the original game has to offer. As for the Advance Campaign, I plan on playing through that as well, although I'm uncertain if I will do all the routes there. // I still want to eventually move on to playing the Advance Wars 2 campaign, even though I have a great love for the original.
- - - - - - - - - -
It's a shame that the AW 1&2 Reboot got delayed as I was looking forward to its December release, but at least now I can brush up on my skills by playing the original games. I don't think the originals will become obsolete as their pixel art style still looks great to this day, and the original AW had the "Strategic Advisor Avatar" which is ditched in the remake (Andy seems to take over that role.)

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Beaten story mode of "Kirby Battle Royale".

I have a bit mixed feelings about this. On the one hand most of the games are fun (even if the amount is not too high). On the other hand some requirements or handicap conditations made this game a bit frustrating in some moments. I understand making this game a bit more difficult to give the player some playtime, but some handicap quests belonged to the category "fake difficulty" like giving the opponent a three score ahead. Nevertheless I enjoyed story mode for the most part. Final boss was really challenging. A bit chaotic but fun. Unfortunately I cannot make use much of online mode since none of my friends does not have the game and finding random online matches is as fruitless as it is in Kirby Fighters 2. Still for the paid 10 € it was it worth overall. I think for beating the game I needed 4-5 hours including retries. For people who like a "mini" "Mario Party" with a decent story mode, it's a solid game. Not the best Kirby game for sure, but definitely not bad either.

(Without considering online mode) I give the game a 6.5

Edited by Julizan
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I decided to try the demo for Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars.

I'm not typically a fan of JRPGs; they only really catch my eye if they do something rather creative. This one seemed really interesting: a JRPG presented through cards and overall a bit more willing to acknowledge that it's a game. So, you want to know how much the cards actually matter to the gameplay, story, etc.?

Based on the demo, not one little bit; it's just a standard JRPG with the cards only being presentation. While that means people who dislike card games won't automatically dislike this, I couldn't help but think that the card aspect could've been more than just visuals without having to become gimmicky.

That said, the card presentation is pretty good aesthetically and honestly ingenious at times. Traversal is done through hexagonal, one card at a time movement that can get annoying, but I like how you can immediately backtrack to any previous card unless you're in a dark area like a dungeon. The game master is a decent voice actor, and I like how the card-game presentation does justify a lot of JRPG tropes that I'd normally have to suspend my disbelief on; mostly smaller stuff like equipment selection and dialogue choices, but I particularly like how the game master will stop the player from traversing certain areas by breaking the fourth wall with stuff like, "I haven't yet finished the story for that area yet".

As for how it fares as a JRPG, it's rather standard and straightforward. It's party-based turn-based combat with a character's speed stat determining who attacks first. One thing that I do like and that I think is at least somewhat unique (someone correct me if I'm wrong about this being unique) is how it handles skills: you have a certain number of gems, with you gaining a gem every time one of your characters uses their turn, basic attacks don't cost gems while skills do cost gems. Unlike a mana system, this means you can't render yourself unable to use skills/spells for the rest of a battle, while simultaneously making you need to think about whether or not you want to use more costly skills.

 

Overall, it's a decent demo for what is probably a decent game. Don't go into it with high expectations, and don't expect the cards to actually be important. But it is a decent JRPG that's well-presented. Overall, decent/10. Now just to decide if I actually want the full game or not.

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2 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I decided to try the demo for Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars.

Good, I was about to tell everyone to play the demo before buying the game.  Because this game is the brain child of the same guy that did Drakengard, and the first troll is the demo itself.

In terms of gameplay, things aren't quite as steamroll mode as they were in the demo.  Your weapons matter, while you can slack a bit on your armor during early game (but not too much, being OHKO sucks).  Pay attention to which elements the enemies are weak to, because killing the enemy before they can hit you makes life a lot easier.

This game is basically a traditional RPG, so if someone can stomach Drakengard-style trolling, then they'll probably enjoy this game.

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On 10/29/2021 at 10:08 PM, eclipse said:

Good, I was about to tell everyone to play the demo before buying the game.  Because this game is the brain child of the same guy that did Drakengard, and the first troll is the demo itself.

In terms of gameplay, things aren't quite as steamroll mode as they were in the demo.  Your weapons matter, while you can slack a bit on your armor during early game (but not too much, being OHKO sucks).  Pay attention to which elements the enemies are weak to, because killing the enemy before they can hit you makes life a lot easier.

This game is basically a traditional RPG, so if someone can stomach Drakengard-style trolling, then they'll probably enjoy this game.

Yeah; I didn't know about that (or even about Drakengard itself) until after I played the demo and decided to do a bit of research about Voice of Cards. Even now, I only did about 1 minute of research into the Drakengard series and my impression of it is that the characters are deeply messed up. What do you mean by "Drakengard-style trolling"?

I see. Yeah; I figured that the demo would be easy compared to the full game. Weapons mattering sounds good, though I'm generally not a fan of how, in most RPGs, weapons are basically just numeric increments that you'll quickly replace with new ones that have slightly higher numbers. I've always been more a fan of different weapons having different pros and cons instead, but RPGs almost never do that.

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Just now, vanguard333 said:

Yeah; I didn't know about that (or even about Drakengard itself) until after I played the demo and decided to do a bit of research about Voice of Cards. Even now, I only did about 1 minute of research into the Drakengard series and my impression of it is that the characters are deeply messed up. What do you mean by "Drakengard-style trolling"?

Notice how the character descriptions have a back side to them, that's locked in the demo?  It's unlocked in the full version, and it ranges from "what did I just read" to "that's kinda cool", with the former being far more common.  It's not as graphic as some of Drakengard's weapon descriptions (or at least the ones I've seen), but I wouldn't share them with just anyone!

2 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I see. Yeah; I figured that the demo would be easy compared to the full game. Weapons mattering sounds good, though I'm generally a fan of how, in most RPGs, weapons are basically just numeric increments that you'll quickly replace with new ones that have slightly higher numbers. I've always been more a fan of different weapons having different pros and cons instead, but RPGs almost never do that.

This is very much a numbers game!  I prioritize elemental weakness over raw damage, but bigger offensive numbers are generally better (so far, perhaps endgame will tell a different story).

One of the noted flaws in the reviews is that some attacks use a dice roll, and the game doesn't tell you which dice it rolls.  The "pros and cons" thing is in the skills - you can only equip four at a time, so you have to pay attention to the enemies in the area and adapt accordingly!

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4 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Notice how the character descriptions have a back side to them, that's locked in the demo?  It's unlocked in the full version, and it ranges from "what did I just read" to "that's kinda cool", with the former being far more common.  It's not as graphic as some of Drakengard's weapon descriptions (or at least the ones I've seen), but I wouldn't share them with just anyone!

This is very much a numbers game!  I prioritize elemental weakness over raw damage, but bigger offensive numbers are generally better (so far, perhaps endgame will tell a different story).

One of the noted flaws in the reviews is that some attacks use a dice roll, and the game doesn't tell you which dice it rolls.  The "pros and cons" thing is in the skills - you can only equip four at a time, so you have to pay attention to the enemies in the area and adapt accordingly!

I see. Thanks for letting me know.

That makes sense. For me, speaking as someone who only played the demo, elemental weaknesses were straightforward to deduce but difficult to remember. I tried looking at the enemy cards to see if there was a spot that showed the enemy's weakness, and I couldn't find it.

Yes; the use of different dice without anything to indicate which dice was rather annoying.

Being only able to equip four skills at a time does sound at least somewhat interesting.

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On 10/21/2021 at 2:15 PM, vanguard333 said:

Huh. Okay.

I thought I read somewhere about the dream-weaving/invading aspect was used in one of the Castlevania games; I'm guessing it must've been one of the other Castlevania games.

I think Symphony of the Night has an optional event where if Sorin lays in a particular bed, he has a nightmare of his mother's execution, and it turns out a succubus was disguising herself as his mother in the nightmare.

By the way, how did your ALttP playthrough go?

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On 10/29/2021 at 11:04 PM, vanguard333 said:

Overall, it's a decent demo for what is probably a decent game. Don't go into it with high expectations, and don't expect the cards to actually be important. But it is a decent JRPG that's well-presented. Overall, decent/10. Now just to decide if I actually want the full game or not.

I played the demo as well, and that's similar to my assessment. I was really hoping for interesting things to be done with the card mechanic - say, having to draw from a deck to come up with weapons or skills, or seeing enemies show up as cards that are flipped over. As it stands, it just feels like an ordinary RPG, albeit with impressive 2D artwork. And if anything, the "card motif" allows for certain shortcuts in presentation - characters don't have to be given different expressions, or even their own voices.

All-in-all, I could see a major JRPG fan, or someone who likes this particular developer, to enjoy this game. I am neither, so this game wasn't especially enticing to me. More power to those who enjoy it, though.

For my part, though, I just picked up Pokemon Trading Card Game, originally for GBC, on the 3DS e-Shop. I had this game back in the day, but never beat it. Honestly, it's impressive how well simply translating a card game into video game format actually works. Receiving new cards, and experimenting with them while refining your deck, is always rewarding. The pacing is fairly quick, too, with most 4-prize matches finishing in uner 10 minutes. The match difficulty seems to come down to RNG more than anything (I lost once to a gym trainer, then easily defeated his boss), but that comes down to the TCG's reliance on coin flips and "heart of the cards" more than anything else. It might have been nice to get cards as more particular rewards (i.e. receiving fire-type cards and energy in the Fire Club), but random booster packs are still a'ight. Overall, I'd say it's a good time for anyone with happy memories of the classic TCG sets, and at a very approachable price point on 3DS.

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13 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

I think Symphony of the Night has an optional event where if Sorin lays in a particular bed, he has a nightmare of his mother's execution, and it turns out a succubus was disguising herself as his mother in the nightmare.

By the way, how did your ALttP playthrough go?

I see. That must've been what I was remembering.

It went well. I made it as far as beating the second Dark World dungeon before my free trial ran out. It would be neat to finish the game, but I don't see myself paying for NSO just to finish A Link to the Past. If the standard version had another game I was interested in, such as the Oracle games, then I might consider it.

I really dislike the thieves in the lost woods: they're indestructible, they're just as fast as you, you're in too confined an area to make use of the pegasus boots and, unlike the thieves in Four Swords Adventures, the thieves in A Link to the Past can't be stunned. But, once I obtained the Master Sword, I could forget about them. And the Master Sword is definitely a great upgrade: the sword finally has decent reach, and it's good to have the sword beam (though again, only having the sword beam at full health is rather annoying).

The Hyrule Castle revisit was pretty good. I like how, rather than it be a coincidence that you arrive just too late to save Zelda (something other video games are guilty of), Aghanim deliberately waits until Link shows up in order to make Link feel helpless to stop him. Speaking of Aghanim, the fight against him is rather neat. He's the original tennis boss. Of course, one thing I always found odd about these kinds of bosses is that they have one attack that can be used against them and two that can't, so if they just used the other two attacks, they'd be invincible, and yet they never think to do that despite being portrayed as cunning masterminds. This is the reason I think the Ganondorf boss fight in Ocarina of Time is the best execution of this type of boss fight, as all of his attacks can be deflected back at him if you're careful. Still, Aghanim is a fun boss fight.

One criticism I have with the first Dark World dungeon has to do with bombable walls: they have cracks on them to indicate that they can be destroyed, but there are lots of other non-bombable walls that have the exact same cracks. I was stuck for a while figuring out how to obtain a key just because all the cracked walls in a particular room looked like they were just decorative. Other than that, it was a decent dungeon with not much worth mentioning.

The second Dark World dungeon was interesting. Raising the water level in certain rooms to gain access was interesting. It's a bit underdeveloped as an idea compared to Ocarina of Time's Water Temple or A Link Between World's water dungeon where you have to think about raising and lowering the water level multiple times, but it was interesting to see the beginnings of that concept and I can understand them not wanting to overcomplicate it. My one criticism would be how you access the dungeon: flooding that area in the light world to drain it in the dark world. It is pretty much spelled out to the player to do this, and the explanation for why it works: that what you do in the light world affects the dark world, sounds like a neat idea only if that idea is done for more than just the one dungeon, and I suspect that that isn't the case. I looked online and found out that that's apparently the only case where you do something in the light world to directly affect the dark world.

And... yeah; that's pretty much it in terms of what I have to say about what I played of A Link to the Past.

 

2 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I played the demo as well, and that's similar to my assessment. I was really hoping for interesting things to be done with the card mechanic - say, having to draw from a deck to come up with weapons or skills, or seeing enemies show up as cards that are flipped over. As it stands, it just feels like an ordinary RPG, albeit with impressive 2D artwork. And if anything, the "card motif" allows for certain shortcuts in presentation - characters don't have to be given different expressions, or even their own voices.

All-in-all, I could see a major JRPG fan, or someone who likes this particular developer, to enjoy this game. I am neither, so this game wasn't especially enticing to me. More power to those who enjoy it, though.

Same; I wasn't expecting much from the cards, but I was expecting at least something other than just presentation. Having the enemies be cards that are flipped over would've been really interesting, especially since unexplored non-adjacent cards are always face-down, so flipping a card over and it being an enemy could've been interesting.

Same; I'm neither of those things, so the game really isn't all that interesting to me. Since typing my review of the demo, I've decided that I won't get the full game.

Edited by vanguard333
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9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

It went well. I made it as far as beating the second Dark World dungeon before my free trial ran out. It would be neat to finish the game, but I don't see myself paying for NSO just to finish A Link to the Past. If the standard version had another game I was interested in, such as the Oracle games, then I might consider it.

I really dislike the thieves in the lost woods: they're indestructible, they're just as fast as you, you're in too confined an area to make use of the pegasus boots and, unlike the thieves in Four Swords Adventures, the thieves in A Link to the Past can't be stunned. But, once I obtained the Master Sword, I could forget about them. And the Master Sword is definitely a great upgrade: the sword finally has decent reach, and it's good to have the sword beam (though again, only having the sword beam at full health is rather annoying).

The Hyrule Castle revisit was pretty good. I like how, rather than it be a coincidence that you arrive just too late to save Zelda (something other video games are guilty of), Aghanim deliberately waits until Link shows up in order to make Link feel helpless to stop him. Speaking of Aghanim, the fight against him is rather neat. He's the original tennis boss. Of course, one thing I always found odd about these kinds of bosses is that they have one attack that can be used against them and two that can't, so if they just used the other two attacks, they'd be invincible, and yet they never think to do that despite being portrayed as cunning masterminds. This is the reason I think the Ganondorf boss fight in Ocarina of Time is the best execution of this type of boss fight, as all of his attacks can be deflected back at him if you're careful. Still, Aghanim is a fun boss fight.

One criticism I have with the first Dark World dungeon has to do with bombable walls: they have cracks on them to indicate that they can be destroyed, but there are lots of other non-bombable walls that have the exact same cracks. I was stuck for a while figuring out how to obtain a key just because all the cracked walls in a particular room looked like they were just decorative. Other than that, it was a decent dungeon with not much worth mentioning.

The second Dark World dungeon was interesting. Raising the water level in certain rooms to gain access was interesting. It's a bit underdeveloped as an idea compared to Ocarina of Time's Water Temple or A Link Between World's water dungeon where you have to think about raising and lowering the water level multiple times, but it was interesting to see the beginnings of that concept and I can understand them not wanting to overcomplicate it. My one criticism would be how you access the dungeon: flooding that area in the light world to drain it in the dark world. It is pretty much spelled out to the player to do this, and the explanation for why it works: that what you do in the light world affects the dark world, sounds like a neat idea only if that idea is done for more than just the one dungeon, and I suspect that that isn't the case. I looked online and found out that that's apparently the only case where you do something in the light world to directly affect the dark world.

And... yeah; that's pretty much it in terms of what I have to say about what I played of A Link to the Past.

A pity you don't have the SNES Classis, as ALttP is among the titles included on that system. If you can find one, I highly suggest you pick it up. To help sweeten the deal, SNESC has a technically new game, Star Fox 2, which was never officially released before (Fay and Miyu are now valid requests for Smash!).

Yeah, the thieves are annoying. The Village of Outcasts in the Dark World has its own equivalents, but thankfully you have a lot more room to move there. The Master Sword's blue blade always brought to my mind Luke's lightsaber from Star Wars Episode IV and V. Probably contributed to my fond memories of the game.

As an aside, the idea that you're supposed to turn Ganondorf's attacks against him is the basis for how I think he should work in Smash; he'd be strong, fast, heavy, and have good range, but his attacks would all have some kind of flaw that you can exploit, like his projectiles being easy to reflect just by attacking them or his melee attacks leaving him open to counterattack if you're careless due to end lag or momentary immobility. Thus, though he'd seem overpowered and broken at first glance, you'd realize that he's very much a double-edged sword once you know how to counter his moves.

As a second aside, if they were ever to make a sequel to the original Hyrule Warriors, I thought it'd be cool if Ganon's essence were split among, say, eight artifacts that, upon being awakened, each manifest their portion of his essence in a different form. One of those would be a Pendant of Darkness that manifests its essence as Agahnim, making him playable for the very first time. Another could be a Phantom Mask that manifests Phantom Ganon from OoT, and a third could be the Sword of Demise that manifests Demise from SS, or at least a Demise-like being (maybe Ganondorf but with the fiery hair and body scales?). Maybe a Ring that manifests the Dark Oracle, a form based on Ganondorf's unused design for the Oracle games?

Anyway, back to the game at hand. Yeah, I hated that they had "false cracks", and notably no future games used them. Honestly, I prefer ALttP's degree of water level manipulation to how OoT and OoA handled it. I don't remember much of how ALBW handled it, but it can't have been as annoying as in OoT or OoA, as I don't have vivid memories of loathing it in ALBW like I do in those. And yeah, it would have been nice if the connection between the Light and Dark Worlds was explored more than once. Oracle of Ages has a similar concept to ALttP in that you travel between two similar worlds - in this case, different eras - but does a lot more with it; you'll frequently travel to the past and influence the present by your actions, like saving a city in danger of being destroyed by a volcano or curing the ill monarch of the Zoras.

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Last month I played Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection, released earlier this year, and developed proudly on Capcom's coveted RE Engine (lol).

Spoiler

I often hear that Capcom doesn't "do enough" with its legacy franchises. I'm inclined to agree when speaking of the Clover IPs (Viewtiful Joe, Okami), but most of what Capcom has left behind is either the same exact genre as one of their A listers, or an arcade classic like this one. That's a very different situation from Nintendo or Konami. And If there's a market for super difficult side scrolling action games that dare to present an art style that isn't "retro" and boast a price point above twenty dollars, I invite you to show me, because something like this is an obvious gamble from Capcom's perspective. Even I held off on my day one purchase when I saw the reviews and the price point. I thought to myself there are many, cheaper games of higher acclaim I could get instead while I wait for a sale. I often wonder if the world of digitally distributed games has eroded my willingness to take chances. How many people like me buy digital games primarily on sale yet obliviously complain that their backlogs are too large? Getting Resurrection for ten dollars cheaper does not make the game any better, it just allows me to benefit completely from Capcom's gamble while also telling them the game wasn't good enough back when they still cared about the game's reception.

Resurrection does have generous checkpoints and infinite extra lives, but that has only encouraged the level designers to craft meaner challenges. Even on the game's "normal" difficulty setting, this game is considerably harder than the arcade original in terms of moment to moment gameplay. This is why I always say we need better terminology than just "difficulty". Resurrection is a game you are more likely to beat without getting frustrated, yet is much more challenging. Both of those are true statements that the singular lense of game difficulty just can't reconcile together. Arthur's jump arc is a committed one, like that of a Belmont. However, your air speed from jumping is faster than walking, so the player often has to jump in order to put more distance between himself and hazards behind him. And that's generally where enemy spawns do their best job at sucker punching you. The player is constantly choosing between fighting off the onslaught of enemies, or frantically running and jumping over them. The correct answer can be one or the other, or a fine blend of both. Even searching for secrets carries some level of peril. Uncovering a treasure chest by hitting the right wall or walking down a particular path may spawn a wizard who will morph you into a toad. 

Hunting for secrets will reward you with helpful upgrades. Mostly magic spells. I got the most use out of the doppelganger ability for piling on more damage, and Embolden for surviving autoscroller sections. And regardless of selected magic spell, activating one gives you about a full second of stationary I-frames, which allow you to "dodge" an incoming attack. You also don't lose your weapon after a death. I don't know how I could have beaten the game without the crossbow and it's inability to shoot straight. Shooting at weird angles lets you subvert the challenge of hitting a lot of tricky enemies and boss weakpoints. And when I eventually unlocked the ability to swap between two weapons, I could keep a straight shooting weapon in the back pocket whenever it made more sense. 

Wait if this is Ghosts n Goblins, then we have to play the game twice to get the true ending right? That was what I thought, so I endeavored to play the same levels again, now remixed with tougher enemies, but I have all my upgrades. This second playthrough went much smoother. I still died plenty of times, but I had a greater mastery of Arthur's bizarre physics. And remembering these level layouts gave me much better guesses on the fight vs flight dilemma. I used much more magic too. However, I was denied my true ending at the end of playthrough #2. Turning to Google, I found that it was dependent on discovering various secrets in the levels, rather than just clearing both versions of the game's seven stages (though that is also required). Beating the final stage sends you back to the first, with no way to skip ahead. I decided at this point I had had my fill of these levels and would keep the true ending a mystery. 

I also wrapped up a playthrough of Golden Sun Dark Dawn.

Spoiler

I'm not the biggest fan of the original, but I am a fan of the decade long tradition of playing a JRPG alongside one of HCBailly's LPs so getting to this one was simply a matter of time. You know I'm starting to notice the finer points of Golden Sun's battle mechanics. Djinn are not only powerful tools in their own right, but they dictate heavily that character's stats and skills. Unleashing one of them forces you to lose access to its benefits until it's reset, either by spending a turn or doing so outside of battle. However you can keep several Djinn spent in order to unleash powerful summon moves which force a longer cooldown. It's a very in depth multi stage battle system that makes me realize there's no "wrong" way to play. Sure there are wrong decisions, like failing to heal allies when their health is low. But whether you decide to keep your djinn set, unleash them for individual effects, or rush them out in order to access summons, every playstyle just seems valid in its own right regardless of party setup. It's just a shame that this theoretically simple battle system is presented very obtusely across many different menus. When you're distributing Djinn, you don't know precisely the benefits of each class without direct experimentation. Even with dual screens I felt myself starved of vital information. It was hard to build up expectations when two characters with the same class will end up with variations in their abilities. And when you can equip up to nine Djinn, it's pretty obnoxious that you can't swap an entire loadout with a different party member. You have to go one at a time. Changing your party setup feels like more work than it's ever worth. 

What isn't cumbersome is the overworld, Zelda-y exploration and puzzle solving. They added customizable shortcut buttons for psynergy, so that you don't have to access the menu each time. But even with the L and R's two buttons, I found that most dungeon areas required exactly three psynergy skills to fully traverse. It would be nice if I could access more from the touch screen for instance. Like most DS RPGs, the touch screen is used for one of two things: A map, or displaying your party's current HP. There are touch controls for psynergy, but you get by just fine with the A button and D-pad. The game never seemed to misinterpret what I was trying to do. I also really appreciate the new Insight psynergy, not only pointing out what objects you can interact with, but specifically what skill you need to use on them. That should cut down on consulting a guide. My only problem with the game's overworld sections is that there are once again permanently missable djinn and summons. 

Can I just say that the game looks and sounds pretty good considering its hardware? The original Golden Sun was a landmark GBA game because of it's presentation, and this DS sequel had a lot of effort put in as well. The battle animations are surprisingly fluid, and summons are as over the top as ever. It may be the best looking DS RPG I've seen - that commits to a 3D polygonal art style which wasn't many of them. Certainly better than similar 3D games put out by Square Enix or Bioware.  And for those keeping track, the best looking and sounding DS RPG regardless of art style is Radiant Historia. I will hear no arguments. But I guess in Dark Dawn's case people weren't inclined to care. The DS was nearly on its way out in 2010. The PSP already showed us that N64-esque graphics just don't cut it anymore. And I think it took some serious psynergy stones to ditch the expressive spritework of the previous two games. I commend them for that. Polygonal models take a lot more choreography in even basic dialogue scenes than just having sprites that gyrate ambiguously in response to what's being said.

I wish I could say all that effort translated into a better play experience, but this game, like the original, has nearly ten minute long, meandering dialogue sequences where new information is presented inbetween things you already heard, so your brain doesn't know what's significant. The new Encyclopedia feature at least underlines keywords for you to skim through comfortably. If you're feeling lost in the plot of a Golden Sun game, don't worry, the protagonists are as well. Consistently not noticing that they're being tricked or veering further away from their objective. Every side quest-y thing in a far off town ends up being improbably mandatory even if you didn't realize at the time. There's even dungeons where you can scale all the way to the end only to learn you need a key item that an NPC from a different town grants you for talking to him. I've heard that The Lost Age presents an even larger, more labrynthian world of partial quest lines, ambiguous sequence triggers, and mandatory backtracking. In my opinion, Dark Dawn keeps things more simplistic than that, but is it really too much to ask for a gosh darned fast travel spell or an airship?

There's some more games I played in the final week of October that I am still working to finish. While Castlevania and Ghosts n Goblins certainly fit the Halloween theme, I wanted to play some proper survival horror games. 

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The golden  games are like an old wound, definately overated and peaked way too early leaving a boring slog after (Trent) in game 1, don't remember where I got annoyed in the other 2.

Right now playing Kid Hollow, which is technically a re-implementation of Costume Party. Very,small scale, Mario-maker esque level sharing 2d platformer kind of thing. Highlight is the developer putting in whatever he wanted for the sake of variety > consistentsy  (there's a costume that basically gives you Worms style, projectile aiming, another one that makes you into the solomon's key style block swapper, a bomb jumper, etc) 

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I decided to go back to Smash Bros. Ultimate, now that I have a joy-con that doesn't drift. I haven't played it since around the time of the first wave of DLC fighters, so the updates took over half an hour.

I decided to finish World of Light, since I was midway through it when I stopped playing. I have to say, repeatedly battling spirits, even if the better ones are almost like a puzzle for finding the best way to counter them, is a chore, as was going back and forth between fighting Dharkon's spirits and fighting Galeem's spirits in the third part in order to avoid either of the bad endings. However, the final part does have a proper epic weight to it, and not just in presentation. It doesn't have quite the gameplay/narrative buildup to it that the fight against Tabuu had in Subspace Emissary, but it honestly surpasses that in a lot of ways:

Being able to play as Master Hand and beat a huge wave of enemies is just awesome. Picking three fighters with which to do the final part was neat. The climb, while a little frustrating, helped a lot in providing buildup to the fight against Galeem and Dharkon while also reminding me a bit of the platforming in Subspace Emissary, fighting all the prior bosses was cool; I particularly liked the way in which the player gets to select the order in which they want to fight each of the bosses. Then, fighting Galeem and Dharkon simultaneously; not only is it a fitting final boss fight, but I like how their own attacks hurt each other, which is a great help for fighting against two bosses that will often attack simultaneously.

If the next Smash Bros. game acts as something of a relaunch, I hope it has an adventure mode that takes the best of all three adventure modes: Melee's, Subspace Emissary and World of Light. For World of Light, it would definitely be presentation and there being more to the world map than just as a level select.

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Biding my time for the release of the new Pokemon game, and also on the same day, FFXIV: Endwalker. It is going to be quite the day of jumping around back and forth. 

At the moment, I've been trying to replay Awakening and note down what might be distasteful about some maps (aside from STRs obviously) so that I can discuss it with a few others at a later date.

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13 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

If the next Smash Bros. game acts as something of a relaunch, I hope it has an adventure mode that takes the best of all three adventure modes: Melee's, Subspace Emissary and World of Light. For World of Light, it would definitely be presentation and there being more to the world map than just as a level select.

I have a fun idea for Smash 6's Adventure Map. Where Subspace Emissary and World of Light were both static images with little personality, the Adventure Map is 3D and has lots of unique set pieces, like a castle overflowing with gold coins or a temple where Krystal can be seen trapped in a crystal like she is for most of Star Fox Adventures. The Map is divided into numerous regions, the entrances to most of which are guarded by powerful bosses. Your active fighter walks around the Adventure Map, following paths to nodes that serve as markers for stages. You'll find a variety of Adventure Stages:

  • Battles pit you against one or more opponents. Generally these will be common enemies, but sometimes you'll face playable fighters as well.
  • Courses are platforming stages full of enemies and hazards. Oftentimes secret items are hidden in these stages.
  • Events are minigame-esque challenges like destroying a certain number of objects or racing to a goal. The majority of these are side stages found on paths that branch from the main path.
  • Fighter Challenges are special battles against unlockable fighters. Winning the battle means unlocking the fighter. Many Fighter Challenges require meeting some extra conditions before you can take them on, like gathering enough gold to satisfy Wario or completing six Krazoa Tests to free Krystal from her prison.
  • Boss Battles pit you against powerful bosses. Defeating these are often required to access new regions of the map.
  • NPCs are friendly nonplayable characters you can speak to for sidequests and such. Some NPCs run Shops where you can buy items.

Many of the game's unlockables would be tied to the Adventure Map, though I would also have an Arcade Mode that serves the role played by Classic Mode in past titles. Each fighter gets their own Arcade Route. Upon completing all fighter Arcades, a Final Arcade becomes available, which tests you against a gauntlet of every fighter in the game (many of whom get riders such as Team, Giant, or Metal) plus bosses. Given that Final Arcade would likely be a daunting challenge to try to clear in one sitting, you can stop midway through and resume at a later time.

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@Lord_Brand That sounds interesting, though it also sounds like it would be more complicated to implement. There's a reason that the world maps of Subspace and World of Light were static images with not much to them. Don't get me wrong; I would like to see the next game have the map be more than level/fight select.

Edited by vanguard333
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Decided to play "Radiant Dawn" again, known as my favorite videogame of all time. However it is the first time I am playing it on my Wii U. Since there was no way to transfer my data from the Wii to the Wii U, it's a complete new savefile, means I have to play on normal mode for the first time and also do not have access to transfer boots from FE9 anymore. One thing in my playthrough is confusing me: I cannot turn of battle animations; only can switch to map. This option is not shown for me at all. Is it because it's my first playthrough and this option will only be unlocked after a completed run as hard mode? If so, this is really weird. I tried literally everything, but there was no way to disable battle animations for me.

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