Reality

My parents and I spent a lot of time seeing who could get to the furthest stage in every one of the game's on a namco pug and play. I think my mother won Rally-X and Galaga, I won Galaxian and Pac Man, and my father won Dig Dug. Getting through the rock tunnel in Pokemon Red without flash and also without batteries (played in the kitchen by hooking the Game boy color to its charger plug) Cloning Mewtwo by accident due to batteries running out while trading. Handing my mother Pokemon Red and her asking me how to punch people. Getting through the vampire section in King's Quest 2 with - helpful - input from my sisters and father. Becoming Kool Kat Bad in a certain game included in the E-games 100 pack. The discovery of how to make Bobsled Coasters that didn't crash in Roller Coaster Tycoon. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater- This game was the revelation that made me realize that Consoles had a point. I remember the epic struggle to get the hidden tape over the fountain in the Streets of San Francisco level. I remember the statue>building climb being amazing nevermind that you do this casually in the other games and the final jump off the ramp onto the pagoda being the hardest thing ever due to just barely missing over and over. Playing Rampage World Tour with Cousin and sisters. The box might say it is a co-opperativee game, but I will never believe it. Playing Mario Party 3 with sisters and getting cheesed out of a win on the literal last turn due to a chance time star trade. Defeating Bowser in the final match with the first character I got to the Planet Cup of Mario Tennis N64. My Grandmother seeing the boxart for the Gamecube (director's cut) version of Sonic Adventure and assuming that Sonic was the bad guy because of how evil he looked and that Chaos was the player character.

I went through "the plunge" 3 years back. I don't remember how I felt about it at the time, but nowadays I tend towards dissatisfied. I think that the people who restricted themselve to just the "English releases" have a better relationship to the franchise tbh. If you have a very wide general RPG knowledge, you can knock out a lot of the Famicom / Superfamicom games with a deceptively short in-game playtime. FE4 and FE5 might have annoying moments, but it really won't take more than a week and a half at most. I do think that "marathoning" should only really be practiced in pure form with the early games, because they only had 1 difficulty mode. Later games have multiple difficulty modes, but other than Radiant Dawn / New Mystery / Conquest, playing them on Normal mode provides an experience that is easier than Dragon Quest / Pokemon. It's very useful if you want to see the story, but I like the game play to have some "meat" to it. A lot of them really demand replaying (or starting on) higher difficulties unless you want to go away with the impression that those games have no substance at all as SRPGs. The GBA games can be played at a very fast pace (on normal mode). Of the DS games, Shadow Dragon can be played faster, NM new Mystery should only give a little more problems than NM FE6, but is still relatively free (compared to what Shadow Dragon and New Mystery are like on their hardest difficulties). You can definitely get sub 20 if not 15 Hours even in a blind casual playthrough. of these 5 games on Normal Mode difficulty. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn take the longest amount of hours to play, because their idea of "turn off animations" is to "watch an alternative animation on the map screen that still takes 2/3rds as long". Both games are carried by their story, and Radiant Dawn also benefits from good gameplay. Path or Radiance is enjoyable to play through, but exceptionally easy even on its Hard mode. Playing the 5 3DS games lets you discover things that aren't really apparent- Birthright and Revelations, for all the flack they get, STILL keeps the low HP Stat growth that Conquest does, and it can come into play on Lunatic mode at times, although it isn't quite enough to make the level design intelligent. unless we compare it to GBA idea of Hard Mode. That said I consider that to have been very expensive trivia to learn. Awakening and Shadows of Valentia thankfully don't overlap so much as to make you feel guilty for your spending habits. These are gameplay thoughts- story wise I was very happy or happy enough with every game starting with FE5 * , but, but if I were new to the franchise that wouldn't sell me on it over a rival series with more intense mechanical and level design. * I like FE3 and FE4's scripts but honestly I don't think that playing the game's actually added to my appreciation of their story compared to reading them online in the same way as FE5 and FE6- perhaps the dissonance between hard gameplay matching the charathers panic in those stories / compared to FE 3-4 being in control of a group of supersoldiers gameplaywise who still claimed to be underdogs "lore-wise" got to be too much. (perhaps due to different quality of translations)

I think the best reason for liking FE5 is that you can't mindlessly bulldoze your way through it like FE1,3,4. Gaiden is the only other of the Kaga games to slow you down, and it does so by using a JRPG level curve instead of of putting your units in danger like FE5 does. The character thing, is pretty much the same reason why some people like Shadow Dragon'st story so much. The (playable cast) don't have the personality that makes the English community love the GBA/Telius/3DS games so much, but the lord and his immediate advisors (eg August, Dorias) get a lot of attention. Besides this FE5 has probbably the most sympathetic bosses of any FE game if you consider the Freej generals (not just Reinhardt). Personally it helps me to visualize the story in terms of epic/folk literature instead of as a "medieval~high fantasy" which helps me because I think a lot of later games suffer from excess "psycholgoizing"" of charathers and I'm never quite sure about the dramtic/comedic shifts some of them take. The combination of FE3 and FE5 ironed out the base mechanics used in pretty much verbatim in the GBA games and FE9, so it definitely feels more familiar than the other Famicom/Super Famicom games. Not talking about it's specific, stuff, just things like how doubling works, how rescue works, (for player units).trading. It still has it's share of archaic-isms, (battle preview doesn't do the math for you yet), the unit deployment order can't be viewed, especially on maps that split up starting locations like C20, and not explaining a lot of things to you (the automatic support bonuses, escape). If you are doing a second playthrough, it's one of the game's where you can have the "most improvement" on second playthroughs---- Just take advantage of the Cannon fodder this game throws at you to make several units proof against generic enemies for the entire game (still worry about the bosses/subbosses/magic users). And with staffs remember some simple math- As long as you use 1/3 of your sleep staff charges on enemy sleep staff mages, you'll break even (and it protects your melee units anyway) which lets you use them throughout the game, constantly. Warp doesn't need an introduction. I still gave it a C in Jedi's poll.

64 , Melee , Brawl , Smash for Wii U Peach Melee Melee Smash 4 No. Everyone likes the ice climbers, but even taking the NES era, there is plenty of better options for charathers never in a smash. The Dig Dug guy, Taizo Hori. Rayman I would say Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid, but kind of causes an identify crisis as to how he is presesnted ost-Kojima. Simon Belmont or Alucard would be safer at this point. No objection. Master chief seems annoying moveset wise because projectile charathers in FTG. Make it Gravity Hammer (Energy Sword is more popular, but doesn't stand out against other weapon users in smash) No More Heroes - especially since it's having game developed for the Switch. Nintendo, but I'm fine with it serving "for video games in general" up until some other series can take up that mantle- The lack of such a thing makes the temoporary move away from Melee/64 compleely understandable. And anyway going too much into 'Nintendo could encourage more obsucre trivia charathers for the sake of obscurity (ROB some of the assist trophies) or the series gettting even more commerical with advertising new IPs (Fire Eemblem in series history, but remember people put in Arms charathers for fan smash 5 ballots even before Arms released) Elite Beat Agents. Golden Sun. Cubivore. I would implement clones only in the form of EG "Old Sagat" in SSFT With Brawl / 64 / Wii U I unlocked them all within a single weekend.. idk. I guess melee for slowing you down Yes They were fun to mess with. Since Miis are still a feuture of Nintendo Switch and customization has been shown to be popular (as much by avatars in other compainesand genres) Then they should return. Unlocking them was slow, but fine. since it gave me excuse to play SP longer than in Brawl. No. Since Brawl? Maybe. While he's with the company. Personally while co-labborate decisions are more "balanced" a single driving will creates a more interesting (not just in smash, I think of eg, Borat's domineering of a format by browbeating all oppositon. Or twingalaxies towards the early years of speedrunning. It's a very dumb minigame mode. It's too necessary to play conservatively due to the chaos. Yes, No. I think the main problem was blast zones being different distances on some Omega maps. Clarity is the best fix. No I thin havin DLC for a mass-appeal game is more dangerous than DLC for things that only fans of specific genres will purchase. The price exceeding base game is fine as the DLC was developed well after the game went to market. I think it became a case of vote for guy with best chance of beating my dislikes than encourging new ideas. This is justified, even with charathers with unexplored moves from their own games in addition to pepople like Captain Falcon. No It's justified. No.

Most of my experience with the company comes from Richie's recomendations for NES games. I can wholly support that they are great NES developer, and I'm really thankful to him for convincing me to track down them. I've also played some of their 5th generation games (PS1/N64).. and they came off as mediocre to me. Richie does claim that Albert Odyssey is good, but I'm not interested. I'm not as interested in their genesis stuff, but I think it's how they are known to a lot of people, and Richie is enthusiastic about some of it. Blaster Master (Nes) I liked it enough, and it's a pretty good game, but honestly I can never manage to put it in top 20 NES games personally even though everyone else does. It just doesn't have what I'm looking for in a NES platformer. Batman/Uforia/Gimmick are better for me, let alone stuff like Little Nemo/Samson/Castlevania,etc. Uforia (NES)- I really enjoyed this game. Found it more satisfying than Blaster Master, but I don't really consider finding the friends to qualify it as a "metroid like" as some people try to do. Gimmick (NES)- I actually saw a speedrun of it in a GDQ before I ever read Richie's review of it. It has some very clever platforming with the player's projectile doubling as a ridable object. It does have some kind of arbitrary hidden items and it is flick screen instead of scrolling, but It's definitely still a good 2D platforming game. Batman (NES) - This is often compard to Ninja Gaiden. I personally think it is less methodical compared to ninja gaiden due to a much reduced enemy count. It has really interesting platforming sections, and even some things that you would normally see in modern Indie platform games (eg your wall jump has more horizontal distance than your ground jump, so their are times that you have to cling to the side of your starting platform in order to make a jump). A really good game, stil hard, but not as much as other companies do on the NES. Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) - A lot more generic as a platformer in its level design compared to the first game because it doesn't have the kind of wall clinging sections. It tries to vary the action with horizontal shooter sections, which are okay, but if you are into that the NES has gradius and over horizon. Gremlins 2 (NES) It's a weird top-down game. It's about equally a platformer, and a top-down shooter.The levels have a weird way of being really expansive, but once you learn the strictly neccesary areas, it's a really short game. That said the extremely random enemy movement makes it a pretty hard game. You do have a lot of "air control" when you jump, which is pretty much your only defense. I liked it, but personally I would rather play pocky and rocky or something. The platforming made it unique, but the enemies were a little too annoying. Xenophobe (Arcade) A very strange co-op arcade game where you shoot aliens. I don't really understand how to properly score attack in it, but even failing is pretty.fun if you have 3 people. It's mostly just a 2-D scrolling game, but the levels are a little mazy since they wrap around and have elevators. Enemies constantly lay eggs so it's harder than normal to keep their numbers down, but I like that it's more controllable than "off screen spawning" that you see a lot of these games. Blaster master: Blasting again (PS1) I think that the 3D version of Blaster Master has interesting movement options, but the level design just ruins the game. It is fun to have Jump jets on the tank, but in boss fights and things you just mindless strafe with no danger to yourself. Also the on-foot sections are handled WAY worse than on the NES, since in the PS1 game the tank's mobility is the sole redeeming factor. The lava world was the highlight of the game due to the circular level design that opened up into itself rather than the linear nonsene everywhere else. Chameleon Twist 1 (N64) This game has an intersting mechanic- the chameleon can stick out it's tongue, which functions as a grappling hook- It's really interesting because you have to "root" yourself while using it, but at the same time, it reaches so far that it can actually speed you up anyway. It also allows you to "rotate" if you attach it to poles or things, which is very fun. Unfortunately, most of the levels in the game are really flat, so even among the third string N64 platformers it struggles to beat any of them. The mechanics are filled with potential, but the levels kind of ruin it. Chameleon Twist 2 (N64) Keeps the fun mechanics from the first game, adds a couple more. (you can now do a handstand thing with the tongue and have a parachute) Levels are much more vertical and have better "themes' so you actually get to play around with the good mechanics. It's really colorful and has lots of abstract sections. It's pretty diffferent from other N64 platformers, because almost every level is basically a series of floating islands (think the bonus stages in Mario Sunshine). It can make the game feel like a budget title compared to the other N64 platformers, but unlike Chamleon Twist 2, it's actually filled with half-decent game play. Its really short, so if you only want to play through once it's a bad game, but at the same time it makes it very easy to pick up again anytime. I would probably place it somewhere below glover/gex 3/ duck dodgers 64 and above Bomberman Hero/tonic trouble/Indiana Jones on my n64 platformer hierarchy. Overall - Blaster Master / Batman / Gimmick / Uforia are recommends. Gremlins 2 and Chameleon Twist 2 are almost a recommend but (too high difficulty) and short length hold them back respectively. The other games are definitely avoids, although they aren't 100% bad by any means, it's just that they fail as an overall pacakage.

I consider combining western cartoon animated characters with Japanese anime characters to be nonsensical so i just used anime. The person who included Death is awesome - If they had animated Reaper Man or something I would probably have gone for it. The Soul Music / Mort plot Hybird doesn't quite work for me. They did secure the perfect voice actor though. I'm Impressed to see so much love for Legend of The Galactic Heroes. Always good stuff. Top - Drosselmeyer from Princess TuTu / Kaname Ohgi from Code Geass / Ranma Saotome from Ranma 1/2 Middle - Porco Rosso from the Ghibli movie / Eikichi Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka / Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop Bottom - Kino from Kino's Journey / Ginko from Mushi-Shi / Vash the Stampede from Trigun.

Openings Trigun - The show has an amazing opening. Shows both action and comedy elements. Great Teacher Onizuka S1 - The monochrome is very cool, and the opening helps us remember that Eikichi Onizuka is also a loser as much as he is an idealistic hero. I don't think he ever does anything as self-destructive as painting a target on his own stomach and shooting a mirror, but it looks so cool! RIP the replacement opening>< Death Parade - A more zany opening, based on some band's already crazy enough music video. Totally out of tone with the show. Mushi-Shi - This show wins the "bliss out" opening. The nature shots also go way beyond being "standard" and are actually beautiful if you can focus enough to think about them. Gungrave - A very good opening that thankfully sticks to the mafia part of the story and doesn't show anything from the sci-fi action part. Count of Monte Cristo - The openings are mostly used to show a more intimate / reflective side of the Count. While this is dangerous close to the "recap" format, the artstyle of the show and the Count's personal magnetism make up for it. Ranma 1/2 - CHILDHOOD MEMORIES DEMAND I PUT THIS HERE Baccano - A very nice opening with great music. It does "weight" the character's bizarrely in giving us the names of so many minor characters alongside the important ones. Kino's Journey - talking about the first anime. It isn't quite as much a "bliss out" as mushi shi, but seeing the motorcylce go through very green hills is really relaxing. Good gentle song choice. A lot of the "title cards" are pretty inventive, but I don't know if they count as connected to the opening itself. Endings Sound of the Sky - one of the artistic creators of Elfen Lied did the opening/ending and it shows, even if the gentle slice of life plot/setting doesn't. Princess Tutu - This one is more based on the song than the visuals. Trigun - A good ending for giving you time to reflect after seeing some heavy stuff. Probably could have been used for the serious episodes only, and not quite as good as eg; cowboy bepop's , but I like it.

The only things that come to mind for me are Grand Theft Auto and Steambot Chronicles. If I think about it, I tend to end up dressing people as the stereotypical mafioso.

2014 Local store (Book and Music Exchange) 60 USD I was playing through every FE from the famicom ones at the time. No Yes English Hard 4 Hard Elincia The Herons Dawn Brigade Part 1, High enemy stats, Skill allocation system works fairly until you get the boring super skills, Consumable items more important than usual. Pretty much only bosses having skills (not regular enemies), Base EXP in general, The lower difficulty of GM / Crimea chapters, No Yes Yes Didn't bother God no Ludveck 1-7 I don't like RD's map music as much as other games- it's too "busy", and often up-tempo. It has more restrained music for cut scenes though thankfully. Probably the defense theme for Dawn Brigade chapters. Crossbows. The story setup of 2-F Elincia's Gambit is refreshing compared to other "idealist" characters. It's a fluff mechanic, won't affect strategy either positively or negatively. Not good in principle Edward If it will slow down progress in future missions (eg no resetting for scrubs) I consider endgame uninteresting, probably just the GM and whoever has the highest stats. This never bothered me to be honest. Story stuff shouldn't have been locked, the characters are fine. Not really. 95% ish (definately) 17% ish Jill I think 6 (8 relative to other FE games) I've in the "just try" school of thought, so I'm happy with it even the botched execution of the finished product. 7 7 It's good for teaching people that FE games have depth but the enjoyment factor isn't particularly high, mostly due to the enemy phases lasting so long.

Pretty much anything printed in about 1930 or earlier will do. Check your local library's catalog for pretty much any early 20th century reprint of some minor edwardian work - evelyn waugh or Munro will do- Otherwise look for a volume on philosophy by someone who isn't Plato/Nietsche/Lao Ze (those will be modern reprints due to their popularity) - I think Kant and Spinoza work pretty well in this regard. If all else fails look for books published by Viking Press or Dr. Eliot's Five Foot shelf (a mandatory staple of every bookshop in America). If you don't think the library is worth it, I'm sure there's a book that falling apart and beautifully smelling in your basement or attic.

There is almost nothing so comforting in the world, as a properly musty book.

The point of collectibles is so you can see all content. "Completion bonuses" are completely irrelevant. Getting all stars / Jigsaw pieces or whatever is a much more satisfying goal. It isn't about having them in the inventory or some other nonsensical thing- it is about doing all f the platforming segments within the levels to get them. Calling it a "fetch quest" is a complete misuse of the term- In an RPG collecting items or flagging certain NPCs is a fetch quest because the "traversal" to get to them is different (and inferior) to the main gameplay (usually the battle mechanics). In a platform game collecting items is not a fetch quest because the "traversal" to get to them is actually a part of the main gameplay, usually due to the bottomless pits / bosses / trap mazes that you have to go through as part of the mission for any given star or other collectible. If anything, I would argue that completion bonuses in RPGs are meaningless- people should be motivated to fight post-game bosses for the sake of fighting them- especially since gameplay after getting "super equipment" that they drop is usually totally mindless. In a case like that, earning a completion bonus that DOES have a gameplay effect is actually negative imo. I would rather have the excitement of fighting the final boss in a damage race than to come back to him with the mega sword and blow him up without a fight. Completion can actually remove gameplay.

Should this draft really be for 10 players? With so many units taken out of the draft pool, You are going to end up with only 2 drafted units each. It sounds like it would be an interesting draft for 4 players with 5 each or 5 players with 4 each. Unless your intention is to force people to calculate when taking a 4 turn penalty is optimal, I really think this draft kind of leans toward somewhat boring play with just stacking javelin/javelin/javelin/vulnerary/vulneary on your chosen units. or handaxes / magic as the case may be.

So I used to be really into Godzilla. Of the people I've met (and apparently certain creative teams) there has been a lot of disagreement about what monster is truly the arch nemesis of godzilla. Personally I lean toward the classic villain- The ultimate monster King Ghidorah- King Ghidorah was a master work of technical puppeteering, had a distinctive roar and sound effects rather than the stock ones used for less impressive monsters, and in most of it's appearances- is so powerful that godzilla requires assistance to defeat it. Mechagodzilla is another classic choice- However, personally I think he is limited by his status as a "dark reflection" A mechagodzilla story can work well with mechagodziall maiming or even killing godzilla in their first encounter-, but fundamentally, aside from the defeat of the aliens controlling/powering up Mechagodzilla, the fact that Godzilla will usually overcome Mechagodzilla on his own without support and that Mechagodziila does not usually represent destruction to cities/armies outside of fighting Godzilla himself makes him take a secondary role to his masters to a greater extent than other monsters. . Destroyah is the weakest option - Conceptually, he is a callback to godzilla's 1954 weakness- that is oxygen deprivation. However, visually, he is also obviously a more heavyweight, taller, spikier, monster. This has always made me feel that his inclusion always leans toward "godzilla as underdog" stories, which, while fine for Rocky, or the more kid-friendly version of godzilla, lean toward Godzilla himself losing too much of his menace- I think that even when godzilla is operating as a hero, he should still be a menace, even if it is the "lesser of two" and that the human characters watching him descend in the ocean/etc after the end of the battle, should feel some level of problematic anticipation of his return rather than the "he will always be there to protect us" sentimentality.. Destroyah, by its very design, lends itself to using a more friendly godzilla. Additionally, I have always found him to be contradictory- his powers are more interesting than his design- I imagine the "oxygen deprivation monster" properly as working like the DC villians Nukeface or to a lesser extent Doomday- The very encounter with him should represent the death of Godzilla- The need for him to also be a heavyweight should be an afterthought. Ogra- Ogra is a very powerful monster, but for me it is actually too powerful to work as an archrival - Ogra must limit his appearances to maintain his mystique and his effectiveness as a threat. Personally I see Ogra as the most "lovecraftian" of Godzilla monsters. Generally, Godzilla defeats Ogra while being absorbed by it (eg a sacrifical atomic blast). Future People- The Future People were used as recurring villians throughout the entire Heisei period. Because they were the descendents of people on earth, they helped connect Godzilla to a critique of industrialization and pollution. They mind controlled or built various monsters for Godzilla to fight, and often required the intervention of the human charathers to be defeated in tandem to their monster being punched out by Godzilla. Xilliens - The Xilliens were one of the interchangable "alien race of the week" from the original Showa period films. However, unlike most of these aliens, these would be the ones to be resurrected in their villianous roles in later series. Thematically.... I would have preferred the cockroach aliens to have won out from the aliens of this period. However, what the Xillens lack in real-world ethical concerns, they make up for in raw menace- they would control/build/bioengineer the most deadly monsters and would have "destruction" on their agenda more often than simple colonization, etc. A few people like to bring up "battle of the century" monsters such as King Kong or SpaceGodzilla, but I find these to be completely ridiculous in a long term context- King kong especially is only entertaining because of the meta-context of King Kong as a rival monster series for Godzilla's critical acclaim, due to how overmatched the thing would be otherwise. Obviously not all interpretations use godzilla as a hero- in which case it is arguable that either mankind or pollution (especially in mothra oriented stories) is the true bane of godzilla. While these can be quite good. I feel that at this point, these almost qualify as an alternate take on the character. I'm interested in hearing anyone's thoughts on these enemies or other suitable candidates. Will King Kong vs Godzilla 2019 be a disaster?

The essential problem with the old magic triangle is that all mages are built as low HP+high res. With the physical units , we have more variety, high def+low res, high hp+low def, or even high resistance and low defense (eg peg knights,, dread fighters). The result of all magic units having nearly the same defensive build means that you want avoid ALL mage on mage combat(and in game's where enemy Ai is based off of potential damage, they'll also prefer to hit another unit neutrally rather than exploiting your mage's weakness to them) . You don't avoid it because it is dangerous- you simply avoid it because neither your mage nor the enemy mage will take significant damage. It's very much a waste of a turn. I've seen people recommend things such as "armor mages" with high physical defense and low resistance to mitigate this in the future and encourage using mages to counter enemy (dark/light tome users), but personally I'm not sold on the idea... For one thing it seems like it would drive FE back into the enemy phase focused stone age Also in most games the triangle impacts accuracy to a greater extent than damage- but fighting against dark tomes against disadvantage isn't really as bad as it should be in the "classic" games. If you were going to do almost no damage to them and they were barely going to do damage to you... then a higher chance of missing them or them having 10 more hit really doesn't matter. 90% of mage on mage battles only happen when A: you are using the mage to body block or stall them with the intent of finishing them with your low res physical units later.. The other 10% happen when B: When the level/stat difference makes the weapon triangle irrelevant. Frankly, I think Heroes is the best impementation of magic. The fates version also appeals to me on paper, as it similarly creates actual tactical reasons for fighting or defending against common enemy types, but outside of royals I almost play them mage-less. Stuff like enemies exclusively getting the 1-2 version of the javelin/handaxe does reduce opportunities to use the trinagle proactively as the player a lot rarer than you can in Heroes for example. The fates triangles does go a long way to make fighting enemy mages more strategic though. I think the Fates triangle in a game that used a different stat spread from fates could have worked excellently.

Burn the heretic. I'm not sure how you ran into a point that the game play would get old. You have the alternate routes to go through, and hard mode spices up most of the levels. The only levels that ever started to feel stale to me were the star wolf levels and Aquas. It is definitely a "score attack" game rather than a difficult game though. I'm not sure how many times I've beaten it but I would guess 30-40. I would say my only major gripes with the game are that a lot of the bosses are heavily phased based and invincible for long periods of time(mostly a replay problem though), and that it counts the medals the same for expert mode despite them being ridiculously easy to get due to the denser enemy count.

Dark Cloud I really like the idea of the dungeons and how they kind of interact with the town building. However, all of the dungeon's are really flat, and combat is made extra unfun due to some halfbaked resource management (breakable weapons, stamina, water). Actually going through them is pretty awful, and even the weapon skill/crafting system doesn't really redeem it when 1/2 of the skills are either effectiveness skills for specific monster families, or skills that make the weapon use less durability against specific monster families! What's worse is that the game gives you multiple playable charathers but you really bother leveling up most of them in order to get through the rare "charather limited" floors in the later dungeons. And this is going beyond the fact that the main charather + Ruby are blantantly going to outclass everyone else either due to Ruby's range attacks, or the main character's having fast start up and wind down animations on his swings compared to all other melee characters. Game is just too tedious to be worth replaying. Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle) works a lot better. Sonic Rush I used to think that the Rush series was a "return to form" but when I try to replay them, I just end up feeling like the boost mechanic is misused, where the Genesis/Advance games would make you work hard to maintain your speed / reserve it for "payoff" by mixing it in with a lot of complicated "claustrophobic" sections. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 I really want to like the THUG2 levels, but a lot of them have problems (Skatopia/Barcelona especially). Even the most interesting levels have a very weird flow because all of the good trick lines begin in the same area of the map. (Germany/Australia) At least New Orleans is awesome. There is also a lot of other disappointing stuff- Even on the high difficulty, the point values you have to earn to get the "Sick" score are really low by the standards of other games. Additionally Focus time and the "Caveman" walking trick, are absurdly broken and let you continue combos that would otherwise be suicidal (doing 1080 of of ramps without enough height, continuing a grind combo even after accidentally going beyond the rails). It really cheapens a lot of the game. Classic mode is nice and it thankfully has more demanding goals than the Story, but it isn't really enough, and the levels don't have the personality of the original due to removal of cut scene oriented goals (EG stopping the police chase in THPS 3 San Fransisco or the Guy with his Tongue stuck to a pole in Canada) Finally the alternate vehicles are a total disapointment. All of them have generic "super stats" so they all play the same with their magical acceleration/hang time. They just aren't really satisfying due to the total lack of "weight" that they have and their tiny trick lists. In THUG1, the BMX bike was given its own set of physics that made it really stand out from the skateboard, and THPS4 had the idea of vehicles that created difficulties due to having LESS control than the skateboard such as the grocery kart in the Margera Pro Challenge. These were good uses of physics. Also it goes without saying that the game suffers from "Bam-Mania" which really dates it. Wanton destruction/property damage can remain fun if it's taken to really absurdist levels (Aggresive Inline, to a lesser extent Twisted Metal/World Destruction League) but the in-your-face attitude of this game makes it seem really juvenile.

QOTD 1393 Easy games, Defeatism, Blazing Sword

I've had my console version crash on Giant Crab actually. Never happens to other bosses though. I don't think I ever did anything to fix it, I just replayed the level a few times and eventually it didn't crash anymore.

The biggest problem for me is that from the develoer standpoint, the new approach to DLC is so superior to what expansions used to represent that we rarely get to see them in the way they used to exist. I think specifically of Roller Coaster Tycoon, Age of Empires 2, Starcraft and Mechwarrior. 4 In the case of RCT, the two expansions do not function/install alone, but are nevertheless more meaty than the base game: vanilla=21 scenarios, Corkscrew Follies=30 scenarios, Loopy Landcapes=25 scenarios. Not only that, the majorty of the new scenarios easily topped the original in both creativity and difficulty. Similiarly with Age of Empires compared to Age of Empires Rome, or Mechwarrior to Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, Starcraft to Brood War. Their campaigns were longer, used better mechanics, and rewarded players for fully immersing yourself in the original game in preparation for them. I don't really want to cherry pick, but modern DLC (either indiviual or combining multiple small DLC packets) when sold at the same price as the main game, is often only has 3ish map/scenario packs of 3 maps each, and maybe as many new mechanics/charathers.which are less important anyway. In the very best scenarios, a modern expansion module might be a 50% increase over the original content, but it is a far cry from getting a 80% to over 100% boost in content PER expansion that you could see in early 2000s video games. It is also completely absurd that said "modern expansion" might be in concurrent d3velop as the main game. I would prefer something developed by people after they've learned from their base game... not that was developed while they were at the same (presumably) lower level of pracitce/inexperience as when they developed the initial game. I also believe that having to develop the entire new module at once helps ensure the quality is high as opposed to a gradual release. of thing after thing.

I don't know if 2 and 3 can really be considered hard other than the Lost World and maybe 1-2 normal stages (parachute panic maybe). The Hard SNES DKC game is the first one - most noticeably due to how water levels and minecarts are so toned down in the sequels, but it's general platforming also edges out the other games (except lost world stages) by the 4th-5th worlds in general. 2 and 3 provide a better "exploration" challenge, for obvious reasons, but in terms of simply surviving the platforming, they aren't that hard. I don't consider this terribly difficult. The rental pokemon in Stadium 2 for the most part have base 90-100 STAB moves more often than in Stadium 1, and more importantly you get counter/mirror coat / destiny bond. Also Round 1 trainers and not R2? It's really nice of Stadium 2 to only have 1 tournament with level differences, and at 50-55 the stats per level don't actually represent a very large percent power difference. At Level 15-20 and 25-30 in Staidum 1, the per level percentage matters a lot more- 2.5%x5 in the one and 4%x5 in the other. Ths is why you get stuff like R2 Fisher's alakazam being able to 2HKO the rental chansey. Honestly I consider the most difficult opponents in any pokemon game to be the R2 Pika Cup Hiker and the R2 Petit Cup Junior Trainer Male. Personally I've always thought that the multi-direction whip and the reduced importance of sub-weapons puts Super Castlevania a tier below the other classic games in difficulty. I think maybe some of the jumping gaps are harder, but there's only really 2 Super Castlevania levels that I would consider harder than the easiest level in 1 or 3 with the remainder of the levels being intentionally more fluid than anything in the other games. As for Zelda? I think that the Capcom-Oracle games are definately harder than anything other than 1+2 due to the psedo-platforming and many of the bosses lasting longer than other games, especially the final ones. But LttP and Awakening aren't terribly challenging for 90% of the time. I think only like the Ice Cavern and Eagle's Tower come to mind or me. I've heard people say that Awakening is confusing, but compared to the mandatory goron minigame tradequest or skeleton pirates in Ages, I think finding the ghost and doing that maze for the ocarina song so on isn't that bad, especially since the telephone houses are a lot more direct in their hints than the mila tree pause screen hints.

Leaf His interactions with Dorias and August are what really sell me on him. We get lots of moments of impulsive lords doing hot-headed things, but they rarely are made to suffer for it and thus grow as a character. I think his Genealogy incarnation milks the drama too much compared to in Thracia 776. If I had to pick a runner up it would be Eliwood or Marth. The former because I find him to have a pretty touching arc even if a lot of people think that the relationship with Nino is overwrought. The latter because because I find Mystery and New Mystery's stories to be the most re-readable in FE and personally I find him to really do what he does for the country first..

Edward from Radiant Dawn. A perfect match.

Category 1- Games that are always Hard