Reality
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Replace the ability to save with a self-erasing suspend or continue system. Or else increase difficulty immensely to justify having saving.
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Birthday: Nah has March 29, which I think is the closest to March 31, unless there is an April 1 guy I'm missing.
Name: FE10 Edward. Yay for exactness.
Appearance: Of all the blond males Cormag is probably closest. I'm a beanpole though, so I need someone taller and skinnier. I think my final decision on him was because blond+ did not have a boyish face, ... sorry Forde and Vaike.
Personality: Kellam mixed with L'arachel. Yeah I know they are opposites. I'm an introvert except when I'm not, In which case I"m REALLY NOT; domineering, bombastic, and willing to ignore anything that could possibly interfere with everything revolving around me. Kellam is chosen over the other introverts because he is a supernatural introvert, he isn't cowed or intimidated by others into becoming one.
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I'd rate it second after FE12's hardest mode.
FE11 has a nasty start on H5, but actually does allow room for growths compared to 12, and the reclassing is less restricted., which helps a lot.
I guess I'd put FE10 HM and FE5 next at 4th and 5th.
And finally awakening at 6th, even though I consider lunatic+ to be rather easy tactically and most of the challenge to be on setup rather than the actual maps. Even just that is still more taxing than the GBA hard modes and about half of FE10's hard mode..
FE9's hard mode is a bad comparision as it's actually easier than FE8's hard mode, although the normal mode is vaguely more difficult than fe8 normal mode.
FE7's hard mode is also probably the 4th easiest after 4, 9 and 8. It does have it's moments like the gaiden with the siege tome enemies, but overall I find it not too much of an improvement.
So conquest does amazingly well. I think the number of ways to break it are also just in between 11 and 12 as well. (boot camp, certain bond unit combinations, some key reclasses, rationing out offensive stave usage) compared to 11's (forging, effective weapons, reclassing, warp, and player slanted map design), or the restrained 12, (effective weapons, reclassing, but only on already good units, early game kris is easy to give exp.)
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The gameplay of the NES original was very much fumbling around. Just look at the promotion bonuses and enemy stats in that game. I have never understood the few vocal gaiden supporters either. It's true that the game is experimental, but it's also true that the whole experience kind of funnels you into doing one thing, and on top of that it has 36x14 maps with only four enemy units, summoner mechanics (aka reinforcements every turn in a position to block off the boss), and the deterministic AI is even more noticeable than in the GBA games if you are inclined to choke pointing or putting your units in a block formation.
So in my view 3-5 are the only Kaga games worth looking at. I don't really have much against 3, although I find it kind of generic feeling. 4 is WAY against my personal taste, and also easier than 3 and 5 for the most part.
As much as I enjoy FE5, it doesn't outweight the combination of all the "decent" experiences offered by the following games. It doesn't help that 12 and especially 11 have better gameplay than their inspiration. 6-9 are indeed somewhat uninspired compared to 5, but are all meant be a blast in the short while you blaze through them with varying degrees of success, but success nonetheless.
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I give recommendations for these a lot so I guess you can look at my old list Apologies for the "3D" portion of the list.
Most of these aren't on the Nintendo 3DS or Wii U Eshop proper, but Secret of Mana, Beyond Oasis, Landstalker, Dungeon Explorer, Neutopia, and Startropics are on the original wii shop channel which can still be used through wii U. I think licensicing to get things on the oriingal shop to the current shops is slowly going through, (star tropics is on both) but I don't see the point of waiting since you still use the classic controller regardless of which shop you buy from most of the time.
Pretty much all genesis and megadrive games are available via compilations on PS3, PC, digital, (or individually via steam) although I think the only ARPGs among them that aren't also on the wii shop channel would be crudader of centy and story of thor.
I don't consider all Action Rpgs to be "Zelda clones' but I can see why some people would add top down games or 3/4 camera games where you collect items or powers in addition to fighting and puzzles like Beyond oasis, legend of valkrie, vagrant story, seiken dekestu 3, YS, etc so you might want to look up lists of ARPGs if you want even more or think these have too ridiculous pre-requisites or console requirements.
Definitely look for videos of some of the gameplay instead of taking my word for it, a few of them are far better on paper than when you are actually playing them. And as a final note I hope you didn't skip the game boy oracle games and link's awakening because they do surprisingly well in comparison to the other zeldas (although oracle of ages doesn't really start to pick up until about the 4th dungeon ) and are on the 3DS shop.
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I fell like the strongest man would be Gonzales or Dozla.. although Mordecai's human portrait is huge, even if we assumed he couldn't transform. I'm just thinking of strength in terms of "arm wrestling potential" so I don't think the likes of boyd, vaike, zelgius, gregor, etc would be up there with the largest hulking men.
Taking Dozla because I kind of get the impression that he has a low center of gravity as if he were a short/stocky like a dwarf, even though all the evidence points to him be as large as the other berserkers..
For women, Flavia, Wendy, and Titania are the natural contenders. I think Vaida and Isadora actually have larger builds than most women as well although I'm not sure I can overcome the bias against them due to gameplay reasons.
Personally I think I'll just go with Titania.
Weakest is hard, pretty much most child soldiers(as in rolf, neimi, and nontransformed fa, NOT the teenaged child characters of awakening/fates) Also the portraits for the GBA peagus knights are ridiculous and make them MUCH slimmer than the archers and mages. And then most bishops and clerics.
I hate JRPG healbot archetype, I want manly holy men like Friar Tuck and Sagacious Lu.I'll take Ricken for male and then Tate for female. I just can't get over her portrait, I think the likes of Natasha and noire could overpower her. It's very much a wet noodle fight though...
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Truth be told, when I first played Mario 64, I had already played like the first two levels of banjo kazooie and for years I thought of Mario as crappy Banjo, and even put off playing much of it after I was done with Banjo.
It has grown on me a lot though. The difficulty curve is much better for one thing. Banjo's first level is embarrassingly limited compared to bomb-omb mountain. Rainbow World and Tick Tock Clock are a pretty natural progression after the "medium" levels like Lethal Lava Land and Hazy Maze Cave, the same can't be said for Banjo's Rusty Bucket Bay.... the medium levels don't do nearly as much to bridge the gap as in Mario. I still prefer Banjo personally, but Mario definitely treats the player better.
Personally I think i's just one of those games that everyone should treat themselves too, and not just because of its influence. You could argue that it's completely vanilla as a platfformer, but in truth Mario doesn't need the larger movepool you would have in something like Rocket on Wheels or Sly Cooper 2. The level design is used to create the diversity instead of a barrage of different physics toys, and really, Mario 64 doesn't have to worry about getting repetitive anywhere. Some of the levels aren't even very vertical.
I don't have that many personal anecdotes. It was like the 7th game I ever owned, and coming from an entirely arcade and handheld experience, it, along with banjo and a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater helped to create a lot of the biases I have about video games to this day. I did like stretching Mario's face on the title screen a little too much. Also fuck the slide on Tall Tall Mountain.
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It looks pretty good. I kind of expected it to be a Sotn style castlevania, although I've always preferred just having the hack n slash platforming of 4 and rondo of blood. I guess it might have some kind of "Julius/Richard mode" to emulate playing a castlevania without the collecting powerups. Althuogh I hope it actually redesigns the levels to be platform oriented instead of what most of the GBA and DS castlevanias did. Having a charather that starts with their full move list and collects hearts as sub item ammo isn't ALL there is to the old style castlevania!
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Schwang Schwing: from MDK2, also everyone else in MDK2, even the enemies without speaking lines have personality.
Baz from Citizen Kabuto, actually pretty much everyone in that game too, except Yan and the Scottish wife, who are too over the top and hint at what will come in Armed and Dangerous.
Kron from Colony Wars: Vengeance.
Eddie Batillo and Roger Samms from Bad Mojo
Everyone in star control 2, except for captain tanaka and the arilou.
Burt Caesar (Nameless war veteran) from the first Colony Wars. His impression is so good that you would swear it was James Earl Jones himself!
Calypso from the Twisted Metal series. Honestly I think the darker calypso from Head ON and Black is just as valid as the smash tv esque game show host in twisted metal 2 and 2012(to a lesser degree). He's really interesting whenever he's onscreen, and even imitates other character's voices to mock them,
Jaunty and Micheal Le Roi from Shadow Man.
Magnus from Ogre battle 64 even though in most people's eyes Denam Pavel from the next game blows him away as a main charather.
Jutah from Silent Bomber
Pajama Sam and Putt Putt nostalgia vision coming through
I'm counting Baldur's gate, system shock, Thief, psychonauts, and planescape: torment as well known (for good charathers).
Dovicoulous from Brutal Legend.
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2 The island in Link's Awakening, I like to imagine the nightmares are afraid of link because their world will vanish if he wakes the wind fish up. Oracle of Ages is close second though.
3 Really I'm more interested in getting my niece to play the games I played when I was younger than any new games, but it would probably be easy to convince her to play the new shiny model which will probably impart the same experience, so the ease of getting others to play it is the best feature?
4 Power Gauntlets. I used to think they existed just because the GB games didn't have an L trigger, but when they appear in the 3D games and four swords they let link move comically huge objects, and they can break rocks and signs when nothing else can, leading to hilarious moments like oracle's vase collector keeping track of how many you broke and screaming about the humanity of it Even in Zelda 1 they let you access the warp cave network.
5 Cane of Somaria. I really like the idea of making blocks but some versions of the cane don't even hold switches down! I think bomb's have had the ability to do so in more games than the cane even. Not to mention that its replacement in Link Between Worlds contends with the boomerang for biggest upgrade in utility.
6 Pols Voice
7 I'm kind of vicious and in good shape, so I could deal with any humanoid up to king bulbin that relied on instincts instead of skill/self control.
8 Megaton Hammer.
9 Green.
10 Poe soul
11 Blue
12 Moosh. Honestly I think every partner is good and people exaggerate when they say some are annoying. Other than the owl.
13 WW Earth Temple, mostly for the light puzzles, the boss is kind of lame, but it finally delivered on mirror shield's potential after OoT and MM.
14. Ballad of Wind Fish
15. Wisdom
this is the one you assemble in Zelda 1 after all -
I feel like if they aren't enthusiastic about paper Mario and feel that the old games are leaving a constant shadow on the new ones then IS should do something else with their minor titles.
Paper F-Zero.I liked the original trailers of color splash and am actually disappointed with the last one since it's giving up ground to the old games with the rpg system. I would have been fine if it was a game like Epic Mickey or something and devoted itself wholly to its new mechanics. But instead it looks like its going to be half and half, which usually doesn't end well. -
The title made me think that Beyond Oasis was coming back, but then I got disappointed when I looked at it. It looks like it'll be okay.
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Waiting to see if attacking the old men in this game cause their fireplaces to start attacking you. It IS supposed to be a remake of Zelda 1 right?
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-Wind Waker
A lot of people claim that this game has the easiest dungeons, and I agree to an extent, Dragon Roost Cave, Forbidden Woods, and Tower of Gods, are pretty simple. Also almost all the non-boss enemies in this game are rather passive, even for Zelda. However I think that the wind temple and earth temple pick up the slack a lot, and are on par with twilight princess and majora's best. Another weakness of the game is the triforce quest. It's pretty disappointing that the pieces don't even get mini dungeons / caves like random heart pieces / extra bottles do. and it also features the hated Rupee grind. I guess it's supposed to encourage you to explore the aforementioned GOOD side areas to get your rupees from their chests? I've personally always felt that the ocean should have been scaled down by about 2/3rds. I've heard that the islands are so far apart only so that the Gamecube's draw distance wouldn't be under too much pressure. Sadly the HD version doesn't change this. The HD version's has a pretty noticeable boost to the graphics, although the original doesn't look bad either. You can also use the tingle tuner without the finicky game boy advance link cable. The story has some nice touches, Gannon is portrayed as a tragic figure at times, and the n64 Zelda games are acknowledged. Personally I like WW just a little more than twilight princess although the first half of the game is probably the weakest in the series.
-Pokémon Coloseum
You reach the final boss at around level 45, which makes it only a little shorter than the normal pokemon games. It does have some post story content. You get to collect some discs and unlock one last tournament with slightly higher level opponets than the final boss. The bad guys drive the story until the end since there's no gyms/elite four to take over once you beat them. I think being able to actually purify every pokemon in the game and not have to use HMs are a nice touch compared to the usual pokemon experience. Also getting all three jhoto starters near the beginning of the game instead of picking one is fun just like it is in pokemon yellow. Almost every encounter in the game is a double battle, although single battles are supported outside the main story. It also has an optional 100 trainer gauntlet, which has the most interesting enemy composition. Starting at level 25 speeds up the early part of the game. No need for pound/tackle/scratch here! Soundtrack doesn't remix classic pokemon music very often and is pretty memorable overall. Piano as main instrument is pretty great.
-Pokémon XD
Similar, but slightly improved. It also features mostly jhoto pokemon, but the two games mostly feature exclusive pokemon. Shadow pokemon are more interesting, since there are multiple shadow attacks, instead of every single one of them receiving shadow rush. Less status effect trainers to deal with. Pokémon Coloseum had a main story boss that spams attract and a couple parafusers on nameless mooks elsewhere. You get to revisit a couple old locations and characters to see how they've changed in the years between the story of Coloseum and this game. You get tms pretty early in both games, so you can customize your pokemon when you want to. XD starts at low level, like normal pokemon games, but still ends at 45, so it's longer than coloseum.
They're alright if you like pokemon enough. Keep in mind that these are gen 3 games and there is no special/physical split. If all you wanted was an rpg, I don't consider the GCN as bad as most people claim, between tales of phantasia, baton kaitos, paper Mario, and the skies of arcadia port. If you just want a pokemon game, instead of any rpg, then it is much easier to recommend. I think my official stance is still going to be "pass them up" though.
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I usually only bring up wild guns (and for that matter cabal) just as a further gameplay for people who like sin and punishment, but this is pretty exciting in a small way.
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Do you benefit from crowd energy or do you prefer the spectators to be relatively quiet?
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The hype around this E3 and the games featured actually made me re-asses what I value in video games, and I'm actually planning on selling tons of stuff on amazon because of it. For me, Ridge Racer was the best game shown, although the presentation was nothing compared to what other games got, although I've already determined that I will not buy them, as GAMES, so If I can help it I won't buy anything released this year at all.
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I do think the art style is much closer to wind waker's full-on cell shading than skyword sword's hybrid stuff.
Keep in mind that these are prototype game assets, I'm pretty sure that stuff like the water that link wakes up in will end up being made prettier (compare it to the waterfalls outside and such outside) and a couple clothing choices will be made softer and less crisp, since they kind of clash with the rest of the game.
I'm a little worried that this will have animation glitches. Not on the level of assassin's creed or anything, but I imagine that the wall climbing would freak out if you climbed into the corner of wall and ceiling, or tried to tackle something weirdly curved like a stalactite or the curved "lip" of some cliff faces.
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Before today I always thought that the open world take on Zelda wouldn't be any more extreme than say, the Gothic trilogy, but it seems they had more in mind.
I am worried about the plateau area. It's pretty looking and their are sandbox things to do with the enemies, but it looks like too much of a tutorial section. The most interesting trial was still like 2 puzzles and 1 enemy long.... I was kind of hoping that classic style dungeons were going to be "compatible" with the open world thing, even with the problems of you just clambering into them from any side instead of using a single entrance.
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I love a lot of 16 bit spritework, but I wouldn't say that not having to worry about aging (in comparison to 3D) is their biggest advantage. I mean if the setpieces are inventive enough, like the alien environments in MDK, or the scenery in Beetle Adventure Racing, then the low resolution and polygon count of a 5th or 6th generation console don't matter as much.
And of course cartoon 3D like in Banjo-Kazooie and Rocket:Robot on Wheels has aged extremely well for the most part.
For some reason I wish early (realistic) 3D was a category, for some reason I end up missing every human model having balled up fists for hands in goldeneye and playing stuff like tomb raider, quake, and starfox 64 in their original blocky glory. It would probably only be my second pick in the end though.
The NES category should be expanded to include other primitive graphic systems like the ZX spectrum.
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Soren becomes pretty good eventually, but the first few maps of the game are blatantly biased against him and make him look bad, which makes you doubt that the day will come. Also losing speed due to awful con is a thing. Soren's built for speed and skill, so he's the only mage worth blowing abilities on, and conveniently he already has adept.
Ilyana is really practical to use. She's basically the "power" mage, and usually gets high magic, but her speed growth is annoying. I love promoting her as early as possible, so that I won't have to rely on Rhys with staffs. Sadly, her bad speed growth makes me doubt her for the last 7~ maps, while I'll still use the other mages.
Tormod is the genuine speed mage, but he's about 11 levels under when you get him, so you have to feed him Base Exp. The extra movement is cool, and he has an actual con stat like ilyana, but for some reason, he will almost never CRIT or activate skills. That skill stat doesn't lie. Of the other units in the BExp dependent category(Rolf, Shinon, Astrid, Makalov) I'd put him second to Shinon, unless you use the brokenness of forged axes for the paladins.
Calill is probably my favorite and actually works the closest to the GBA mages. Yeah she has no staves, but she has a little defense as a backup, excellent speed, decent mag, and weapon ranks (this game is BAD about raising weapon ranks).
Most to least Practical: Ilyana, Calil, Soren, Tormod, Bastian
Endgame Potential: Soren, Tormod, Calil, Ilyana, Bastian
Support Quality: Bastian, Soren, Tormod, Calil, Ilyana
I'd use multiple just so that you could ignore the cleric units entirely and use staves via sage. The second half of the game has a giant deployment limit anyway, even if you do find the physical units more fun you'll probably have some space left over.
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When I hear GBA valkrie I immediately think of those godly arena fighters who show up with capped stats to prevent you from grinding. I get that some unit had too do it, but why on earth was it them, if not for comedy value?
For the playable I had to go L'arachel.
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RE: Zelda-like games
Will edit in console information later. Note that most of the things I list are for 16 bit systems, so don't be surprised if you can't even find emulators of them.
3-D
-Okami (PS2, Wii)
Obvious comparisons everyone already knows, I have nothing to add to the discussion, just noting I have same feelings.
-Beyond Good and Evil (GCN, Xbox)
Not so directly an influence as Okami, but I feel that it's stealth/platformer elements are not the most intense focus of the gameplay. Pretty small setting compared to Wind Waker of course. However exploration of large swathes of land is substituted fairly well for exploration of what you do have thanks to the photography mechanic and it does have hidden rooms every now and then. For the record, I'll call this Zelda-lite but not stuff like tomb raider/ Metroid prime/system shock/ Indiana jones and the infernal machine. Also certainly not counting God of War / Dark souls/ Devil May Cry / Mad World or dedicated Platforming games.
-Star Fox Adventures (GCN)
If you thought Skyward Sword is railroaded with tutorials, this game is the stuff of nightmares by comparison. I kind of hate it for the handholding. I like the visuals, especially in the water temple. It's a little too mini-gamey as well, and the only "welcome" minigames are the are the arwing sections. I thought it was a rental-worthy game while the gamecube was current, and nowadays I consider it completely ignorable.
-Shadow Man (PC, N64, Dreamcast)
At the time I believed this game to have the best voice acting of all time. Well, at least Jaunty and Le Roi. This game hasn't aged undamaged, and was not for a traditional audience to begin with. It's more than a 3rd person shooter since as you get abilities, such as climbing waterfalls, you'll have plenty of chances to retread old ground to explore for powerups. The game also features brutal platforming. You do not get "Mario physics" to help you, this is the kind of platforming that you had to deal with at the last part of half life 1. Game is atmospheric and has enough of a story to inspire you to read the real thing (the comic). Sadly, while hunting down the 5 serial killers and their leader is cool. 4 of the 6 boss fights are essentially reskins of each other (although they each have their own music/backstory) and the final boss, while something new, is one of the worst designed things in all videogames. Also I should warn you that this is one of the scarier horror games ever made.
-Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PlayStation 1, PC) Also on steam, but the keyboard controls are awful, must use joystick controller option for good time.
The lore of the Legacy of Kain games is very interesting, but while the 2-d original is ultimately a little shallow gameplaywise (while still fairly difficult) this excellent second entry gives us a new character in Raziel, and interesting abilities. The game's story is its strongest point, but the dungeons have a nice mix of combat and puzzles. One of the dungeons is entirely optional, and you can collect optional powers in additional to the usual optional "heart containers" Most of them function like the LttP medallion spells, but they are hidden behind the coolest puzzles in the game (one even feauturing a revisit of a dungeon from Blood Omen). The later 3D games, Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen 2, and Defiance, don't fit my definition of Zelda-like as neatly as the first two in the series due to their extreme focus on combat. One thing in Soul Reaver that I love is that your default "swordplay" is unable to kill enemies, only stun them, and forces you to then grapple and use environmental hazards. It causes the entirety of the early dungeons to be carefully planned out, and makes killing, while not difficult or technical, surprisingly satisfying. I played it before Blood Omen, and the instruction booklet and ingame prologue catch you up better than playing them in order. Raziel even has a propaganda / bias against the first game's events, so arguably Blood Omen is intended to be played second anyway to protect the surprise.
2-D
With top down games, I don't count 8 way shooters, or their close derivatives (zombies ate my neighbors, legend of oasis, legend of Valkyrie). I also don't count the most traditional Action rpgs, such as secret of mana, illusion of gaia, final fantasy adventure, and YS. Know that there are many people who would define these as zedla-like and that my own convoluted definition stems from a desire to exclude landstalker and its sequel dark savior.
-Oceanhorn (mobile)
Very recent indie title that tries to be like the handheld DS Zelda games. 2D with 3D graphics. It's shorter than Phantom Hourglass, but seeing how close the graphical style is provides unintended comedy. Low difficulty.
-Crusader of Centy (Mega Drive)
The big idea of this game is that you can have two of your items (animals) equipped at once and different combinations lead to effects, which increases the amounts of mechanics in the game a bit more than you see on face value.
-Alundra (PS1)
Mind numbingly long. Graphical style somewhere between chrono trigger and Link to the past. Can feel combat focused during the boss fights, but full of puzzles many types throughout. Kind of large inventory. Unique storyline has stuff like entering people's dreams to save them (different explanation than in psychonauts).
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. (PS1)
The first game in the series. Personally I feel that it's gameplay is painfully generic for a top down Zelda game. Lots of combat, fairly linear dungeons outside of hallways that lead to extra chests, and all the interesting abilities are based on combat rather than movement/puzzle solving. This game even has literal event triggers painted on the floor instead of being invisible! At least you won't miss anything. Main draw is the mixed morality of the main charather and playing as a vampire, complete with all the traditional vampire powers (turning into werewolf, making people's blood boil, draining them, turning into mist, turning into swarm of bats, etc). Story and presentation is wonderful, but I WANT A GAME DAMN IT.
-Startropics (NES)
Puzzles are either too cryptic or really tied into the tile-based system. Combat doesn't always feel clean. Otherwise this is a pretty great game overall.
-Neutopia and Neutopia II(TurboGrafx)
Closer to NES Zelda than Link to the Past due to not herding you into the dungeons in sequence as much(still some pointers), but still boasting reasonable sprite graphics. Probably my favorite really early Zelda-like.
-Golden Axe Warrior (Master System)
Zelda 1: the deluxe edition. I do appreciate the enemy and stylization from the classic beat'em'up, but unless you want to be like egoraptor and prove to people than Zelda 1 is better than Link to the past due to having authentic exploration > narrative, I'm not all that sure about this one.
-Golvelluis (Master System)
Puzzle light and action heavy, but unlike Blood Omen, this game does it well. Also full of offbeat humor and weird characters.
-Shining Wisdom (Saturn), Threads of Fate(PS1) Crystalis (NES)
They exist, but I consider them mediocre. Just go full ARPG > Zelda and play Vagrant Story
unless your wallet is screaming out in pain.-Elemental Gimmick Gear (Dreamcast)
Horrible Translation. Otherwise I consider the gameplay to be the best of anything on this list.
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I'd prefer the lord to be made out of tissue paper. It's a lot more fun to have "discovered" good characters from the pool of the larger cast.
Moving them to seize could be made into a devious puzzle instead of an afterthought this way.
Also I have a chess sensibility and don't approve of the whole leader at the forefront thing.
Games Like the 2D zeldas
in General Gaming
Posted
Now that I think of it I saw a game called Anodyne at some charity event. I know it's for steam and that it's top down and uses item based puzzles, but I've never played it since it seemed really story heavy and I'm not in the habit of using the pc for gaming anyway.