Soooooo what'cha playing?

[Original Alear]

I'm also playing Trails Through Daybreak. And I've made decent progress in Banner Saga 2 and The House in Fata Morgana, the latter of which I am replaying.

[Hrothgar777]

So I decided to give Unicorn Overlord a try. As a general rule I have no interest in these types of games if they're not Fire Emblem, but so far I'm not regretting this purchase.

 

-At the time of writing I've reached the point where battles are rated at approximately level 7, which should be an indicator of how far I've gotten. That being said I keep getting a prompt to "Talk to Miriam", but I have no idea where to find her. It's possible that there's a linear set of chapters FE-style and I've totally ignored that for exploring and taking on side quests. Not deliberately, if so.

 

-So far, it seems clear the main story is just obligatory, and they don't care about that much. Which is a shame, as a guy who compulsively spits out FE plot ideas for free. Marth being an exiled prince whose homeland was taken over by an evil empire made for an intriguing premise in 1990. Not so much in 2024.

 

-My initial thoughts were that the dialogue was so overdone to the point of feeling like parody of the high fantasy genre. But then it got better as soon as the scope became smaller and episodic, and revolving more around everyday characters. It honestly feels like the scenario writers put more care into a random thief guy or a bombastic general hunting witches in a swamp than they did for the late queen whatever her name was.

 

-Despite being a very different animal from Fire Emblem I've found the rules easy to figure out. It's different from anything else I've played and I can appreciate that. I'm also digging the vaguely retro artstyle. If this is the project of basically an indie studio then I'm glad I got to support it with my money, because quality games like this should be put out by more than a handful of big players.

Edited July 25 by Hrothgar777

[Fabulously Olivier]

I don't have a super huge amount to talk about this month, so I'll also cover playthroughs I haven't quite finished yet.

 

It's ARPG month, ranked from worst to best.

 

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition

Spoiler

Playthrough - Elf archer. Also tried Barbarian and found him worthless.

 

I've only completed the first third or so of the game, up to beating the first boss. So these are "early" impressions, but also enough to form a coherent opinion on it.

 

I wouldn't call it good, but it's a sort of enjoyable 3-4/10 in very small bursts. And it's short enough to not overstay its welcome. Unfortunately, it's just too much like the classic arcade games and not at all like the improved Gauntlet Dark Legacy is needed to be.

 

47. Torchlight

Spoiler

Cleared 7/1.

7/10

Playthrough - Alchemist minion master

 

For its time, it's pretty good, and it holds up fine now. It's a simple, vibrant ARPG with a nice art style (IMO better looking than its successors) and a good loot game. It's limited in both content and classes.

 

The pet system is a big QoL improvement that other ARPGs should have copied. Being able to send a companion to sell loot and purchase items while you continue to dungeon crawl is great for pacing and looting.

 

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

Spoiler

7/10

Playthrough - dual wielding melee bruiser, twin daggers

 

Where this game excels is its combat. It has the heaviest, meatiest combat in the genre, with the best impact sounds, and it's really something you should experience. The story is also good in a cheesy B-movie Warhammer sort of way. The whole things feels like a fun knockoff of Warhammer Fantasy.

 

I also like that it gives you 3 revive tokens per run which refill when you visit towns. This takes the cheapness out of death, and it only counts as death if you run out of them.

 

I also appreciate the transmog system, which is best in genre. You can pick every skin you've obtained, regardless of weight class, and dye it in any combination you want. And your look will persist even if you change the gear out.

 

Its weaknesses are bugs, occassional game freezes, lack of interesting modifiers on loot, and only middling depth in its passive tree. There is some depth there, but it's only comparable to Diablo 3, not greater.

 

It should be noted that servers are being shut down. That will soon render this a single player only ARPG. Personally, I'm fine with that. I got it for $4, have had fun with it, and will probably play it again in the future to experience the ranged and mage playstyles. Maybe even a 4th time to play tank.

 

Diablo 3

Spoiler

Seasonal Playthrough - Witch Doctor

 

Dropping my score from 10 to 9 because I no longer feel that this is the peak casual ARPG. Also, I've noticed that all ranged classes feel pretty bad to level up - the opposite of the typical ARPG problem.

 

In every other regard, I still love this one. It's fast. It's fluid. Loot is generous. Pacing is excellent. Endgame is addictive. And it's just barely deep enough to experiment. It's a damn good game.

 

48. Torchlight 2

Spoiler

Cleared 7/10

Playthrough - Dragoon (Modded Class)

 

9/10. 10/10 with Synergies Mod on PC.

 

This is the peak casual ARPG, to Path of Exile's peak hardcore. Combat is extremely satisfying, enemies explode into gore piles. The art style is clean and colorful. Progression is satisfying. Loot is rewarding. And steam workshop modding support really elevates this game. 

 

49. Last Epoch

Spoiler

Cleared 7/21.

Playthrough - Spellblade

 

So, if you told me there was an ARPG that combined the combat & pacing of Diablo 3 with the depth of Path of Exile, and then polished it up with a level of convenience reminiscient of Guild Wars, I'd ask where I sign to sell my soul for this one.

 

This isn't the peak casual ARPG, nor the peak hardcore. It is the best of both worlds in a way that just makes it peak, period.

 

Last Epoch's progression system is cool as Hell. You can pick 5 skills to specialize in, and every skill in the game has a PoE style passive web with real, meaningful choices. Make a mistake? No big deal. You can change which skills you specialize in or respec points and get them back lightning fast.

 

You also have a passive tree for your class, and pick one of 3 advanced classes. Your advanced class is permanent, but you also have access to half the skill tree for the other 2 advanced classes. Make a mistake? No big deal. Each passive point can be refunded for a small amount of gold.

 

In addition to the aforementioned, it also has other top tier QoL features. Built in custom loot filters. Single button inventory sorting. Detailed tooltips that describe what each effect does and how it scales. Etc.

 

It also has visuals comparable to Wolcen and Diablo 4. As in, the highest standard of the genre.

 

And while it has some of the generic grimdark fantasy the genre can't seem to get away from, it mixes that with traditional high fantasy and even prehistoric times. This game's got aesthetic variety.

 

Oh, and the soundtrack's gorgeous too.

 

I can't stress this enough - Last Epoch is EVERYTHING I want from an ARPG. Every bit of its game design is just so immaculate. It's only real flaws can be summed up as "it's new." It's got bugs to fix. It's got balance issues to work out. The devs have been responsive, and I'm hopeful for its future. For now I'll give it a glowing 9, and if they stick with it and fix it, it'll be a strong 10 in the future.

 

 

I'm still playing Pokemon Moon. My opinion has not improved at all and I'm about 90% sure that this is the only playthrough I'll ever do.

 

I've played even more Warframe this month than I did last month. I also tried The First Descendant. It's okay in a sort of 4-5/10 way, but it actually just made me want to play more Warframe.

 

I played a little bit of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Samurai Warriors 5, and Astro's Playroom just to break the pace a bit.

Edited July 26 by Fabulously Olivier

[vanguard333]

I started playing Ys 9: Monstrum Nox.

I originally played Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana back around the time that Ys 9 first released, and, aside from its ending, I absolutely loved Ys 8; I considered it to be one of those games where every component complements each other to the point where the game is far more than the sum of its parts. However, a lot of what I liked about Ys 8 was things that were unique to Ys 8, so I didn't know whether I liked Ys or just the one particular game, and since the premise of Ys 9 didn't grab me as much as the premise of Ys 8 did (stranded on a deserted island full of dinosaurs and having dreams of a woman from a lost civilization is a lot more interesting than escaping a prison and being forcibly recruited into a team of monster hunters within the city), I passed on Ys 9 when it first released.

However, now that I've recently played and greatly enjoyed Ys Origin, and with Ys 10 releasing in October, I thought I'd give more of the Ys games a try, and Ys 9 was on sale. So, I got it. I'm now at chapter 2 of the game.

Right away, Ys 9 starts off a fair bit more constrained than Ys 8. At the start of Ys 8, you're on a ship that you can fully explore, then you fight a prehistoric aquatic creature that destroys the ship, then a linear sequence as you find some allies and start planning what to do. In Ys 9, you start with a fully linear prison break sequence, then a series of flashbacks where the only playable moments may as well be cutscenes, then a chapter of walking to an abandoned house, then a tower defense, and only now in chapter 2 am I able to do some exploring. That said, once Ys 9 starts opening up, it does open up more than Ys 8 did; Ys 8 was broken into lots of small sections with brief loading screens between them, while there are no such loading screens for going between different sections of the main city. Plus, there's a grapple mechanic that is a fair bit of fun and adds some verticality to the exploration.

I have noticed that it's taking me a bit to get used to the controls despite them being largely the same as those in Ys 8 from what I can recall. I don't know if it's just that it's been a while since I played Ys 8, or if the controls scheme is different on the Switch versus the PS4 (I played Ys 8 on the PS4 and I'm playing Ys 9 on the Switch), but I'm having a hard time with flash guards in particular despite being able to reliably do flash guards in Ys 8. I'm also finding using abilities a bit awkward. That said, the combat is still fun. I'm surprised at how long it's taking so far to get additional party members, given how quickly Laxia joined the party in Ys 8.

One thing I liked about Ys 8 was that Castaway Village went a long way to justify all the vendors and side quest givers being in one location, making keeping track of everything a lot more convenient. Here, because the game is in a sprawling city, the vendors and that are more spread out. It makes sense for it to work that way in this game, but it is less convenient.

In short, I like it enough that I'm definitely going to keep playing, but I'm not getting that same sense of all the components complementing each other that I got with Ys 8, nor am I getting the straightforward fun of Ys Origin, and I'm not sure yet if this game has something that fills the void.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I’ve been playing plenty of games the last two months on account of booting up the old PS2 for a project and then chasing a rabbit hole of memories. Nothing particularly good or bad, but obnoxious to write about in a way that sounds interesting. 

The truth is that Minishoot’ Adventures got me in the mood for some zelda-like / zelda-adjacent games. The main series is, frankly, not in a good place right now. Even in light of The Legend of Zelda: Asset Flippers, which was announced a couple days after I decided to chase this theme for june (now july)'s write up. Before last year, I had played every Zelda game (except the CDIs), so the only places I have left to look lie beyond Nintendo’s jurisdiction. But I wouldn’t be much of a Zelda fan if I shied away from the adventure

Kena: Bridge of Spirits (2021, PC)

Spoiler

Now here’s a game that wasn’t on my radar much at all but absolutely should have been considering I owned a PS4 in 2021. What Zelda game does Kena remind me most of with its plot and themes? Well, the developers are actually the ones responsible for this viral short film so you tell me. The Mask Salesman's VA makes his video game debut as this game's antagonist. It’s hard to separate the “canon” from the fan canon when talking about Majora’s Mask, but I think even the most skeptical would agree that Termina is meant to represent Purgatory. That the time loop/Groundhog Day stuff is really just a way to contextualize Link helping these people move on when they’re cursed to suffer the same grief in a perpetuating loop. Kena’s role as a spirit guide is the same as Link’s, even if there’s no element of Time Travel. Time Travel was never the point. And by ditching it, every good deed affects the world space permanently rather than temporarily as in MM. She also gains new abilities from the spirits, including their masks which is surely another deliberate allusion.

But inevitably your exploration leads to a fight. The combat felt especially punishing and restrictive early on as you play like it’s a white knuckle reflex based action game. Parries, dodge rolls, building up your one notch of Courage that you need to spend either on a powerful attack or healing. It takes a few hours before your tools start to open up and you have more resources to play with. You’re much safer if you play like it’s a third person shooter with melee attacks to finish off near death enemies. They even slow time when you aim the bow in the air just like in Botw. The camera can be a real issue, because while enemies like to be polite enough not to attack you when your camera isn’t oriented in their direction, it’s not a hard and fast rule, and you’ll be forced to point your camera around for Rot commands, provoking new attacks from that direction. When surrounded it feels like you have no more than a second to strike before you need to dodge or parry something. There’s extremely subtle audio cues on enemy attacks that would serve as your warning. No threat indicator like in God of War 2018.

Thankfully Kena doesn’t have to work alone. She has the Rot, an ever expanding army of doughy faced spirit creatures that help out in battle and interact with the environment with a Pikmin-like work ethic. When the right context presents itself, all you have to do is point and click, no sifting through command menus. The traversal and puzzle solving elements are often seamless like that. Kena places a lot of faith in the player’s ability to notice things in the environment and discover how to interact with them. The game tutorializes you on its controls, but that’s all. You never “acquire” the game’s hookshot ability. You just have to notice a glowing flower, try to shoot an arrow at it, and it zips you over. You had the ‘hookshot’ all along, and you don’t ever have to dig into an inventory screen to equip anything.

This was a real winner of a game. The campaign is a perfect length of 10-12 hours with nothing feeling stale. They added free dlc challenges after release, and a New Game+ mode that remixes every combat encounter in the game and adds some new enemies not seen in the first playthrough. I really hope they can do a sequel, one that does even more with the Rot for puzzle solving. Heck, just go full Pikmin and introduce multiple types of Rot that can be commanded in separate groups. Also a minigame where you play as a Rot exploring a 2D top down Zelda dungeon, please. My favorite combat encounters are the ones where you’re permitted to summon the big Rot creature and guiding it independently with the right stick to attack enemies. Feels like playing V in DMC5, I think that ought to have been made a Rot Action for every battle.

The Legend of Zelda: The Ultimate Trial (2024, N64)

Spoiler

When Ganondorf claimed dominion over Hyrule, its residents fled to every corner. The most desperate ran all the way to the Lost Woods and were never heard from again. This accursed place takes your memories, your belongings, your strength, and your courage. And this is the situation we find Link as he arrives at the steps of an ancient stronghold. The only way to reclaim his destiny is to fight.

Here we have an ocarina of time hack that presents a ro-...Is it still a roguelike if the rooms are not procedural generated? I’ve seen enough tiresome debates on this genre definition that I’m not going to argue one way or the other. What it does have is the same progression. Rupees earned from each run can be spent on permanent items and upgrades. Including the equipment you need to simply complete later trials. Guards won’t let you in until you’ve got what you need. A ‘town’ populates over time with more NPCs appearing in the hub area. They’ll have signs above their head indicating if they have something new or important to say, and there’s a Zora at the front that will tell you about new arrivals so you don’t have to rely on your own meticulous checking of every room.

The three Trials are extremely challenging. The rooms not being randomized is your only advantage as it allows you to master each individual enemy layout and dispatch them as safely as possible. That led to the discovery of some new enemy interactions with certain items. The Megaton Hammer gets a lot of use due to its early acquisition. I never knew in vanilla OoT that it can kill wall skulltulas from ten meters away – because you never encounter that enemy as Adult Link. Similarly, the boomerang stunning enemies you never encountered as Child Link. You’ll want to work out the fastest/most consistent method for each room when it’s time to go back for your time trial that awards a precious Bottle.

In the latter half of the hack you’re treated to some of the fruits of modern OoT hacking. Newly added items and spells are rudimentary in function, but still really cool. The New Bosses are outrageously fun to fight. New NPC models. New level assets. New enemies. I’ve been waiting for the 3D Zelda debut of the Pol’s Voice and Roc’s Feather. Beyond the Three Trials, there’s a Boss Rush against enhanced versions of every OoT boss, a wave based gauntlet of randomized enemies, and some minigames. There’s even some proper Zelda dungeon exploration to cool off in between gauntlets. But if you’re the type of person that gets frustrated by OoT’s clunky combat (and those murderous dive bombing Keese), this hack may not be fun until you bump it down to its Easy setting. Which is extremely cool of them to add in such a way that you can switch difficulty mid-playthrough.

The Ultimate Trial also has an extremely authentic-looking players guide published as a pdf. It's loaded with spoilers, but still a really cool extra This project was clearly a labor of love from many members of the Hylian Modding community.

ガンプル (‘Gun Pull’): Gunman’s Proof (1997, Super Famicom)

Spoiler

This one’s a roller coaster. Ganpuru is a story of a young boy in wild west America battling Aliens, ghosts, and brainwashed humans. To save his humble village home he has to master an assortment of weapons and Street Fighter-inspired martial arts. His trusty steed is a donkey that fused (?) with one of the good space aliens. It’s got enough Zelda gameplay conventions that I think warrant it being called a Zelda-like, but tonally it’s closer to Earthbound. A world built on casually-misunderstood Americana tropes, and a story where all the adults are comically useless compared to the kids.

Really the big thing missing is Dungeon items. While I appreciate never needing to dig into my inventory to equip something in Ganpuru, dungeons can be frankly dull shooting galleries. You have a map of each one that updates as you go, but the only reward for full exploration is treasures that pad out your score like this is some kind of arcade game. Only occasionally do you get rewarded with a permanent upgrade. Including increasing your stock of 1-Ups when you find one. That’s what they should have done in Zelda 2. I managed to discover all health and attack upgrades in my playthrough, and I’m willing to bet several blind players can say the same without using a guide. It’s a relatively small and un-complex top-down world to explore.

Ganpuru is a fine little game. Not brimming with interesting mechanics, but also short enough that you could find yourself at the end before you’ve strongly considered putting it down. The spritework is very cartoony and cute, and the NPCs of your hometown update their dialogues as you progress. Extra lives allow you to come back to life in the middle of a battle with full health, so the battles tend to be easy and brute force-able.

Crusader of Centy (1995, Genesis)

Spoiler

Every time Sega makes a Zelda game, it always errs closer to the platforming and action elements. See also: Yuzo Koshiro’s Beyond Oasis. But there’s a lot of utility in giving ‘Link’ a jump button. And instead of the limp “Hero’s Spin” technique, our guy charges up to toss his sword like a boomerang, allowing him to focus on jumping and dodging over the enemy’s attacks as you wait for it to return. Dungeon items? Nope. He’s the Crusader of Centy: Animal Friends Aplenty. You equip up to two creatures who, for the most part, passively augment your abilities. Sometimes animals combine in interesting ways. Like the Loch Ness-looking monster that takes you over water combining with the cheetah’s Move Faster ability. This allows you to go up some rapid rivers thanks to the added speed.

The music is rocking, almost sonic-like. I was digging through MobyGames to see if there's a shared composer here. Early in the game you can potentially meet Sonic the Hedgehog himself. Which isn’t a big departure of Zelda games from the twentieth century. Mario’s portrait adorns homes in Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. And Link’s Awakening nintendo cameos could fill an entire paragraph. Making friends with Sonic isn’t just some neat cameo, it fits with the game’s narrative. Our character gets cursed early on to lose his human speech, but gains the ability to talk to flowers and animals. In particular there’s this recurring white flower with vital hints on how to progress. But if you talk to a human, all you’re getting is gibberish. 

The combat can get a little awkward. Your basic sword swing is extremely limp with an ambiguous hitbox. Best to keep your distance and shoot the enemies from a distance with your sword throw. The puzzles can be hit or miss depending on how well they employ your animal companions’ abilities. The worst designed room in the game is one where you make repeated leaps of faith into a bottomless pit to discover where the invisible platforms are to safely cross. Every time you fall you take damage and there’s a row of healing items because they knew players had no choice but to brute force a solution. It’s dumb. Not worthy of being called a “puzzle”

There’s an excellent scene where our character is turned into a Slime, and moments later the Human ‘Hero’ shows up and starts hunting us down. “Because we’re different” your new slime buddies explain. You can build an entire game off this prompt. Someone would, three years later. It was called Moon Remix RPG. 20 years later, the same torch was passed down, called Undertale. Crusader of Centy is definitely not as self aware and morally consistent as Moon though. It sets up a story about trying to use time travel to create a world where humans can co-exist with animals and monsters. One where you as the human champion can inspire everyone else into a lasting peace. But ultimately it ends with you sending the Monsters back to their world. Ending on the phrase “love your enemy”. It feels particularly hollow at communicating the theme when co-existence is ultimately discarded like that. What’s more, you lose the ability to talk to Animals in the finale! Perhaps it’s “nuanced” in the sense that there’s no arbitrary Villainous character pulling the strings, but I built up high hopes for this story and was ultimately let down.

Community Pom (PS1, 1997)

Spoiler

Man, I could not have picked a stronger reprise to Crusader of Centy than Community Pom. It’s got so much heart, constant gags in its dialogue, the most adorably expressive sprites, and explores the theme of co-existence to such a degree that you’re building a home for these little weirdos. The Poms are mysterious creatures that fell from the sky. They’re docile, but your village is suspicious that they’re behind the capture of their livestock (a suspicion that ends up being true). Our character’s childlike innocence leads her to rounding up all of her new friends and inspiring them to build their own self sufficient town and keep from turning evil. As represented by a karma counter that increments up every time they defeat an enemy for you. I don’t believe there’s any bad ending or permanent consequences to your interactions with the poms however.

Like the Animal Friends of Crusader of Centy, Poms are equipped into your active party to both fight enemies and provide extra abilities required to progress. How do you activate your Pom’s abilities? Bonk them on the head with your staff. Or pick them up and toss ‘em into the fray. Tons of potential for slap stick, but I wouldn’t call them strictly useful until you run into an enemy that can only be damaged by Poms.

The most annoying thing in the game is how you can’t swap in a new Pom when you first discover them. Not even when you left a party slot open for them to join. When a Pom has a new ability, you’re usually standing in a dungeon where it’s immediately useful. But the player is forced to leave, warp back to the Community to add them to the party, then backtrack to where they were for those extra chests. It’s an outrageous waste of time. The community building mechanics are extremely half baked too, as the Poms don’t do anything without your direction by feeding them. Their progress also freezes in time when you leave, so you’ll have to sit around watching them work, periodically feeding them their next meal once they finish.

Regrettably, I have not finished Community Pom at time of writing. I don’t often write about unfinished games, and I’m certain this one’s got a lot more surprises waiting for me. My Community hasn’t even been attacked yet. The fan translators took a stab at the game’s strategy guide and that's certainly the best guide I've seen on the web trying to explain the game. It's sad sitting her writing about fan translations given the news about the closure of romhacking.net. I've come to rely on these people so much for my gaming.

Saga of the Moon Priestess (2024, PC)

Spoiler

No points for guessing what art style this one is supposed to invoke. I think what younger gamers fail to grasp about these huge sprites is that they're not an "art style". They were necessary to understand what was even happening on the Game Boy's tiny screen. Anyone who experiences game boy games via emulator, virtual console, or some remastered collection is playing the games on a much larger screen real estate that would have transformed the experience completely had developers been allowed to design for it. Saga of the Moon Priestess benefits from the 16:9 display ratio, but little else seems to have been considered. The North wall of a room is placed just perfectly to be obscured by your health meter, and I legit missed a room exit because it’s not visible except during the frames of a screen transition or on your map screen.

The overworld space is remarkably small with few worthwhile digressions. Most of the playtime is spent in the game’s five dungeons which start out as Baby’s First Zelda and gradually inch closer to the Capcom era complexity of the Oracles games. There are dungeon maps, but it felt like a detriment to pick them up. Dungeon maps paint in every room as if you’ve already been there. So if you neglected to take a digression to the south, you might end up having to do a whole tour of the place trying to remember which room you haven’t been in for that last key. Your map button is more useful when you haven’t yet found the Map item.

You collect money from chests and defeated enemies, but the only thing you would reasonably buy is the inexpensive health potion, of which you could only carry one at a time. Any time you die or Load Game, you’re refilled on arrows and bombs. My diligent exploration yielded little in the way of tangible rewards. There was a heart container in a cave. And three items related to a side quest to upgrade your spear. However, upgrading the spear did not seem to improve it in any way. Enemies that took two hits to kill with the old spear still needed two hits. Exploration is severely de-emphasized here.

Saga of the Moon Priestess doesn’t leave you with much of an impression, but it’s a fine three hours for those nostalgic for this particular era of Zelda game. It’s story is the skeleton of Zelda but with the genders of its three main characters swapped – saving the Prince from an evil witch instead of a warlock. One overworld track sounded a lot like a Banjo Tooie song I couldn’t put my finger on. And there’s a peculiar text when getting the game’s “Hookshot”. It reads “You got the Swap Chain. How original!” Which is a joke I can’t quite parse. I’ve played Oracle of Ages, so I immediately identified this tool as the Switch hook. But if you hadn’t played that game, you’d think it’s literally an original item. Seems deceptive. I’d laugh if the joke were applied to a more characteristic Zelda item like Bombs.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore (2024, PC)

Spoiler

I wouldn’t suggest that there’s much merit in the brief partnership between Nintendo and Phillips. But excuse them for trying to inject CD quality sound and professionally animated story scenes to Nintendo’s bleep and bloop characters. Nintendo backpedalled hard against the future of gaming for N64, and for what it’s worth the CD-I was probably less of a flop than the 64DD and Virtual Boy. Years of Youtube poop videos preserved their effort better than it deserved, and now the first video game voices for Link and Zelda triumphantly return to narrate and tutorialize this fully original adventure by 'Seedy Eye Games'. Since the CD-I Zeitgeist was born online, it only stands to reason that they get some online talent to provide some of the voices for minor characters. I’m a little upset then that James Rolfe did not make that list. My familiarity with the games came primarily from AVGN, and I can’t think of any other content creator that I would associate with them.

Arzette adapts the design sensibilities of its source material wonderfully. One of the artists of the original returns to brush some backgrounds. While the music is authentic 80s synth-venture – reminding me most of the DIC animated nintendo cartoons. So much of the design details boil down to “this was how it used to be”. Like the music cutting out during dialogue, the anti-climactic final boss, bonus stages inspired by Hotel Mario, or the existence of Rope when you can just Save and Quit to Map from the pause menu. Totally useless item. But it’s not a game that ever seeks to annoy the player in the same way. The economy doesn’t demand you sit around killing enemies for ammo and rubies and carefully poke each one with your sword to pick it up. Enemies won’t respawn at the room’s entrance and punk you with a javelin to the back. Arzette is a smooth action platformer starring a protagonist that’s Cool, Sarcastic, Friendly, ambiguously Gay. Everything Link and Zelda could never be.

What I wasn’t expecting to be impressed by is the almost Metroid-like approach. Most of your progression abilities allow you to traverse color-specific barriers. Which is just about the most rudimentary of engagement with the metroidvania format, but it’s still working as recently as Metroid Dread. Multi-colored weapons for multi-colored doors is what I live for. Having a simple notepad of what colored progression barriers you’ve seen in those levels will help you a lot down the road. But after beating the game the achievements clued me in on something fascinating. You can beat the game without the Gun. Due to a small secret in the first level, you can bypass a blue barrier to collect the Sword Beam attack, which leads to a progression of sequence breaks that allow you to finish the game without a core ability. Just like knowing how to wall jump lets you bypass a lot of the intended progression of Super Metroid. This is the first indie metroidvania I’ve seen adapt this one specific type of trick.

I really enjoyed my time with this funny little game. The CD-I animation style is insanely charming and I’d love to see a followup. The only nitpicks that come to mind are certain side quests becoming available needlessly late. Items you need to collect only appear in the worldspace after you’ve talked to the NPC that asks for them. The Bell and Compass come to mind, as those appear in secret rooms that you may have already discovered and would not think to re-enter for the possibility of another item simply appearing there. Of course it’s not crucial that you complete these quests, they’re just handled very awkwardly

 

Edited August 3 by Zapp Branniglenn

[vanguard333]

After playing some more of Ys 9 and gaining access to the wall running as well as more of the city, I am starting to see more of this game's appeal. It is a lot of fun to run up walls and hookshot across the city. The traversal mechanics really add another layer to the exploration.

I'm now also far enough that the game has its own version of castaway village in the form of the Dandelion Bar. It does carry over a lot from Ys 8: Dogi handles retrying tower defense missions, there's someone with whom you can trade materials, a blacksmith, and even someone who rewards the player for every 10% of the city that they explore. This stuff is all still good gameplay-wise, but it also shows the difference that context makes: in Ys 8, this stuff came across as everyone pitching in to help everyone survive the island. In this game, the map rewards are more of an aside; the justification essentially being, "Since you'll be exploring the city while searching for secret entrances to Balduq Prison, show me your map every now and then and I'll reward you" from a character whose main concern is that a friend of theirs is in Balduq Prison. It is of course a very small aspect of the game, and, as I said, this stuff is still good gameplay-wise.

EDIT: I would like to retract my earlier criticism about the shops being spread out in Ys 9. If the player completes a specific side quest in chapter 3, which I did, then they unlock an NPC that functions as every store the player has visited. That's really convenient and helps a lot, and it's an open that should appear in more games that have multiple shops.

EDIT: I am now on the final chapter of the game. I am overall enjoying it, and though there are two things with the plot that have annoyed me, they're not big problems. Incidentally, one small thing I'm surprised I didn't realize sooner: one of the major characters: Marius, was voiced by Billy Kametz.

Edited August 13 by vanguard333

[Revier]

Soooo I've played enough Tactics Ogre: Reborn to give my final thoughts on it. I was initially turned off by some of its annoying choices, most notably the bloated stats on late game bosses, but after adjusting to the game's quirks, I've become far more amenable to it. It's a good SRPG by its own merits, and pretty good for a remake, but I would say it is rather overcosted at its base price. At 50% off, it's well worth picking, especially if you are a fan of the Ogre series of games.

[Lightcosmo]

On 8/13/2024 at 11:59 AM, Revier said:

Soooo I've played enough Tactics Ogre: Reborn to give my final thoughts on it. I was initially turned off by some of its annoying choices, most notably the bloated stats on late game bosses, but after adjusting to the game's quirks, I've become far more amenable to it. It's a good SRPG by its own merits, and pretty good for a remake, but I would say it is rather overcosted at its base price. At 50% off, it's well worth picking, especially if you are a fan of the Ogre series of games.

I much prefer LUCT myself overall, but this is honestly a good assesment of Reborn.

[vanguard333]

I'm in the final dungeon of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. I must say, this game is a lot shorter than I expected. I don't recall Ys VIII being a 100-hour-long JRPG, but I do remember it being longer than this game has turned out to be. Am I misremembering the length of Ys VIII, or is this game actually shorter than its predecessor? I should point out that I really don't mind that it's surprisingly short; games can definitely be too long.

Another thing that surprised me was how much of the optional content I decided to complete. I knew going in that I would complete all the side quests, explore the whole map, and get max affinity with the NPCs; all things that I did in Ys VIII because of how well those things were integrated to the point where I never felt like I was going out of my way to complete them. To my surprise, in addition to completing these, I also went out of my way to get s-rank on all the tower defense missions (something I didn't do in Ys VIII, though I did complete all of them despite most of them being optional) and found all the azure petals and graffiti.

Speaking of the azure petals and graffiti, I think it was very smart to have them be within the city, rather than across the whole map, and have it that Doll's second sight ability makes them more visible. Both of these go a long way towards mitigating the problem collectible hunts normally have of the player searching the entire map for that last remaining collectible they passed by.

As for the tower defense segments, I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to get s-rank for all of them if that hadn't been easy to do and if the game's superboss wasn't locked behind it. The superboss was a fun fight, but nothing remarkable; it's an upgraded version of the giant floating bull head enemy encountered previously.

[Fabulously Olivier]

25 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I'm in the final dungeon of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. I must say, this game is a lot shorter than I expected. I don't recall Ys VIII being a 100-hour-long JRPG, but I do remember it being longer than this game has turned out to be. Am I misremembering the length of Ys VIII, or is this game actually shorter than its predecessor? I should point out that I really don't mind that it's surprisingly short; games can definitely be too long.

Another thing that surprised me was how much of the optional content I decided to complete. I knew going in that I would complete all the side quests, explore the whole map, and get max affinity with the NPCs; all things that I did in Ys VIII because of how well those things were integrated to the point where I never felt like I was going out of my way to complete them. To my surprise, in addition to completing these, I also went out of my way to get s-rank on all the tower defense missions (something I didn't do in Ys VIII, though I did complete all of them despite most of them being optional) and found all the azure petals and graffiti.

Speaking of the azure petals and graffiti, I think it was very smart to have them be within the city, rather than across the whole map, and have it that Doll's second sight ability makes them more visible. Both of these go a long way towards mitigating the problem collectible hunts normally have of the player searching the entire map for that last remaining collectible they passed by.

As for the tower defense segments, I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to get s-rank for all of them if that hadn't been easy to do and if the game's superboss wasn't locked behind it. The superboss was a fun fight, but nothing remarkable; it's an upgraded version of the giant floating bull head enemy encountered previously.

When focusing main objectives only, 8 is 38 hours, 9 is 28 hours. That said, Ys 8 is far better paced despite its longer length, IMO. It gripped me from start to finish in a way that most games don't, and 9 certainly didn't.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

When focusing main objectives only, 8 is 38 hours, 9 is 28 hours. That said, Ys 8 is far better paced despite its longer length, IMO. It gripped me from start to finish in a way that most games don't, and 9 certainly didn't.

Thanks for the information. Yep; I completely agree (though I did dislike the ending of Ys VIII). I think one reason, though definitely not the only reason, for why Ys VIII is better-paced and more gripping is that it's a lot better at buildup. You start off stranded on a deserted island, and though the creature that attacked the ship does create a mystery as to what it was, that mystery isn't revealed under chapter 2, and all the while, the game is building up to far more with Adol's dreams of Dana among other things. With Monstrum Nox, there isn't nearly as much gradual buildup, if that makes sense.

 

Well, I just finished Ys 9. The final boss fight was fun, Zola was an interesting antagonist in that he is a well-intentioned mad scientist who went to the efforts he did because he couldn't see any other option, and (spoilers)

Spoiler

I did like spirits of powerful beings Adol helped in the past providing the egg that's the source of the Grimwald Nox and helping Adol destroy it.

Incidentally, of the six of them, four of them were definitely Feena, Reah, Dark Fact and Dana; and I'm going to guess that the other two are from games I haven't played yet.

I do, however, have just two problems with the Egg of Draupnir and the Grimwald Nox:

1. The Egg comes almost out-of-nowhere as a solution. It is hinted at with an ancient text in a side quest in the forest, but that is the only hint, and it's optional. A lot of the tension in the climax comes from the characters not knowing about a way to end to the Grimwald Nox, so I get withholding the existence of it from the characters and player until the end, but I still think it hinders things by the game not building up to the existence of the source of the Grimwald Nox.

2. So, it was revealed earlier that the Grimwald Nox was created to turn the enmity of the people of Gllia into monsters that Grimnir and his demigods could then slay, and it was Grminir's death in the Hundred Years' War that's caused the current problem. What I don't get is this: what was supposed to have been the benefit of the Grimwald Nox's existence? I presume that slaying the Lemures must get rid of the enmity that spawned them, but we never really see how people benefit from the cycle of Lemures being created and slain; the people of Balduq seem to have plenty of enmity even after hordes of Lemures are slain. The game tries to paint this as a dilemma, much like destroying the Black Pearl in the original games, but that was clear and simple: the benefit of the Black Pearl was the magic, and the cost was the demons being created as a byproduct whenever humans used it as a source of magic.

 

Overall, the game was a lot of fun. It definitely ranks below Ys Origin and Ys VIII for me, which does make it my least-favourite Ys game that I've played, but that's mainly because those two games are outright excellent; Ys 9 was still a good game and enjoyable from beginning to end. I'm looking forward to Ys X when it releases later this year.

[Fabulously Olivier]

6 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Overall, the game was a lot of fun. It definitely ranks below Ys Origin and Ys VIII for me, which does make it my least-favourite Ys game that I've played, but that's mainly because those two games are outright excellent; Ys 9 was still a good game and enjoyable from beginning to end. I'm looking forward to Ys X when it releases later this year.

I agree with that. I also preferred Celceta, the only other one I've played.

 

I really need to lay off the Warframe. It's really slowed down my clears.

[vanguard333]

On 8/16/2024 at 6:29 PM, Fabulously Olivier said:

I agree with that. I also preferred Celceta, the only other one I've played.

Celceta... that's the remake/canon version of the fourth game, correct? If I understand what I read online correctly, there were two games named "Ys 4", neither of which were directly made by Falcom, and then Memories of Celceta is the remake/definitive version actually made by Falcom.

Incidentally, the remake of the third game is apparently getting a re-release.

 

EDIT: I set up my PS4 so I could revisit Ys VIII, and I decided to get Ys: Memories of Celceta since it's on the PS4. I just started playing it, and I realize one more small thing that Ys 9 lacked: a proper opening theme. I usually skip most games' opening themes, but there are exceptions that I almost never skip because they're really good and really put me in the mood to play the game. My favourite is probably Path of Radiance's opening, but Ys VIII's opening came really close to surpassing it for me, and Ys Origin's opening was pretty good as well. I was surprised that Ys 9 didn't seem to have an opening theme, and, now that I see that Celceta also has a good opening theme, I'm even more surprised.

Unfortunately, I very quickly had to stop playing, as it turns out that the L1 button isn't working on my PS4 controller anymore. EDIT: It wasn't just the L1 button; the control pad also wasn't working, so this controller is very likely broken beyond cleaning. Fortunately, I do have a spare controller, but it is a somewhat sad reminder that Memories of Celceta will undoubtedly be the last game I purchase for the PS4, and that it's time I saved for either a PS5 or a gaming PC; probably the latter.

UPDATE: I've gotten a lot further in Memories of Celceta. I can't really give too many details about my progress without giving away some spoilers, so I will say that I have reached the town that's across the river and I have explored 52% of the total map. Those who have played the game know how far that is. Overall, the game has been a lot of fun, and I've been enjoying it more than Ys 9.

Exploring the forest has been a lot of fun. I like the playable characters so far, and it is interesting to see Adol have to journey through the whole game with a character that isn't Dogi. Amnesia is a very common plot device, but I like how it is used here as both further incentive/context for exploration and a way to add insight into Adol's backstory. Adol is the type of character whose backstory is unnecessary; he actively chooses to be an adventurer and seeks out adventures because he loves exploring and witnessing interesting things, and thankfully his backstory as revealed here doesn't undermine that agency; it just reveals what inspired him.

I like the weapon/armour customization system; being able to use different materials obtained through exploration to apply different upgrades, such as increased damage, or chance of inflicting status conditions, is a good way to reward exploring and gathering materials, and it's very simple in its execution. However, the game, like every other Ys game I've played so far, has weapons and armour be very disposable, and this clashes hard with the upgrade system. What's the point of putting upgrades towards weapons and armour that I know I will be replacing in an hour with equipment with higher numbers?

It's not just the upgrade system that's impaired by weapon disposability. I've been completing all the sidequests as they become available, and the reward for one sidequest was a unique red sword that by default had a 30% chance of inflicting burn on enemies, and my immediate thought was, "How long will this last before I end up having to replace it with a store-bought sword with higher numbers?" The answer: literally about an hour. The sword last all of one mini-dungeon in an underground tunnel, then I arrived at the next town with with the shop there having a numerically far better sword. It really is disappointing when I see this in games.

 

EDIT: I am now a lot further in the game. I have been enjoying the world and the story and characters. However, I now realize that there's one QoL feature Ys 8 and 9 had that I'm now missing while playing this game: the ability to zoom in on the world map to get a detailed view of individual sections. I'm not one who tries to 100% a game, but Ys games, with the exception of Ys Origin, are about exploration, so I'm inclined to explore as thoroughly as I can, and I did incidentally explore 100% of the map in Ys 8 and 9. So far, I've explored 89.4% of the map, and I'm certain I didn't miss anything when exploring, but I recently glanced at a walkthrough, and it said that, at the same point I am at, it explored 90.9% of the map. It's a small difference, but it's enough that my brain is repeatedly thinking, "What did I miss?", and I don't want to comb through everywhere I've already been to find the one thing I somehow passed by; I'd rather look at each part of the map, which was easy to do in Ys 8 and 9, but not in this game.

Edited August 26 by vanguard333

[Zapp Branniglenn]

There’s a lot of Big games coming out in the last third of the year that I may be interested in, and I’ve got some stuff sitting finished on the bench here.

Super Koopa RPG: Here Come the Koopa Bros! (2024, SNES)

Spoiler

Super Mario RPG hacks have garnered relatively little attention over the years. Which is surprising given that the Lazy Shell Editor is turning 10 this year with extensive documentation on how to make your own. I’ve been planning on playing SMRPG: Armageddon for a few years now – it’s basically a much harder version of the vanilla game loaded with side content and superbosses. Then Square went and remade the base game, and I was satiated on the vanilla experience for the foreseeable future. I wanted a more original project and I think I’ve got it with Super Koopa RPG.

It didn’t blow me away on an artistic level. There isn’t a single bit of custom music, and only a handful of unique, not-recolored sprites. But nearly every location is fully unique from the original. The battles feature a meticulous level of challenge that’s tough but fair, always permitting several solutions. Side Quests are constantly opening up and can be tackled immediately for a tough challenge or later if you'd rather curb stomp it at a higher level. Secrets rarely include hidden blocks and are often sign posted by an NPC dialogue. There are exactly enough Frog Coins to get all the stuff at the frog coin shop and exactly enough Flowers to hit 99FP. Plus a trophy room dedicated to tracking the various completion milestones for the game’s side content such as its Final Fantasy 12 inspired Hunts.

An unexpectedly positive change is the removal of Perfect Guard. Perfect Guards are polarizing because being able to reduce the damage to 0 can prompt the author to make attacks hit even harder to compensate – leading to battles feeling too punishing and random in their difficulty. By making it so that you only have the 50% reduction guard, HP and defenses are more valuable to invest in. I got through the hardest fights in the game thanks to Yellow, who’s the designated tank of the team with the revival and group heal spells.

There isn’t much to say on the game’s story and characters other than commenting on the cameos from the Paper Mario series that I won’t spoil. The Koopa Bros were always palette swaps of each other and remain so in this hack. None of them have a personality that stood out besides Green as the slapstick comedy guy. They share a lot of animations and primarily express themselves through their unique spells and weapons in battle. It’s just a shame that they went with a story centered on a quartet of characters in a game with a Three person Party. We don’t get their signature move as a result.

I have more nitpicks, but they’re related to SMRPG itself. The level visuals are not great with plenty of SMRPG’s iconic empty voids bordering each map. No disrespect to Akira Ueda’s unique pre-rendered 3D tilesets, it just never did anything for me back in the original game. SMRPG’s battle system has very poor conveyance regarding status afflictions. No way to know if your attempt failed because of RNG or if they’re immune. And no indication on if they’re weak to this or that element. Some equipment pieces increase your speed, but the UI neglects to tell you that until you check your party stats sub menu. There’s also that legacy bug where you can’t earn an item from battle if your inventory is full. I only got to 99FP because of a bugged encounter that awards an extra Flower Box.

Judgment (2019, PC)

Spoiler

Judgment felt like it was going to be a big departure for the Yakuza series. A fresh celebrity actor. No more baggage of a long running franchise. Time to start again with this...mid thirties sort-of-yakuza dude who was orphaned at a young age and taken in by a benevolent gang patriarch in the streets of Kamurocho. They just did Kiryu again. Back then, I felt unsatisfied with the protagonist. But this time around I flipped on the official dub and it was night and day. Yagami works way better in English when he’s not smoldering every line. Rewriting him to be sarcastic (which is a distinctly un-Japanese humor styling) rather than unflinchingly judgmental of others makes him a lot less tiresome. The celebrity actor they hired clearly misplaced a lot of faith in the facial animation and that’s why he comes off so consistently flat. Greg Chun meanwhile ends up doing much more with far less. My only issue is Kaito calling us ‘Tak’. Not even attempting to match the nicknameタ坊. They really should have went with 'Kid' in English.

My MO with these games hasn’t changed. 100% completion on a fresh Legend difficulty save. The side content is packed with a lot of winners this time around, if I can ever reach them un-accosted. I dunno why people leave their bikes unattended in Tokyo, because I smashed every one in the game’s endless random encounters. If you’re facing in the vague direction of enemies when they spot you from a city block away, the fight starts immediately – not when they get anywhere near you. And near the end of the game, there’s about a 3 percent chance one of them spawns with a gun and murders you. That sure taught me not to run around the city at half health. Thank god for the new Autosave feature. And thanks also to Puyo Puyo getting patched out of the Steam/PS5 release, because I had already given up on it in Y6. Completion tasks were consistently challenging but never grindy, except for the usual culprit.

Mahjong now asks the player for a minimum of 50 wins across three locations, up from Y6’s record 30. Which would be outrageous except the Auto-win cheat item is infinitely grindable this time around. In Paradise VR you can grind up the necessary Money → EXP at a rate of about 4-5 cheat items per hour of the mario party side game. Which is slightly faster than the 15 ish hours I’d anticipate it would take to get 50 legit wins in Mahjong (and allowed me to grind out the requisite 2000 KOs at the same time). There’s still two tasks that require actual play, the three color straight which is unlikely but at least something you could actually target. And Riichi Ippatsu, which is pure luck and might take you 50 winning hands on its own. Especially frustrating since the cheat item gives you a hand that should meet the definition of Ippatsu but the game fails to notice unless you mess it up sufficiently - going from Nine Gates down to a Full Flush which is brilliant cheese that I came up with all on my own and confirms I do have a grasp on Mahjong after all this time.

The fighting kicked my ass most in Judgment. Boss characters were one shotting me until I maxed out my HP. The new hotkey for items permitted me to jam bento boxes down my throat during certain combo attacks and grab animations. Life saving. Having a personal fridge worth of healing items is the only safety net you have since, like the previous two games, the weaker Mook enemies are extremely threatening and attack all at once. A lot of the intended playstyle seems to be tanking hits with Tiger Stance’s super armor, or doing the same with the invincible EX Boost mode which ends in 3-5 seconds. The best option, especially if you’re lacking in upgrades, seems to be brute force backed by a full inventory. And I don’t think that’s the design intention with this character. Yagami’s Square Square Triangle attack strings are slightly more effective than Kiryu’s in Y6 and Kiwami 2, but the more unique stuff he can do is wildly unpredictable. Wall Kicks miss 50% of the time, because they demand you let go of lock on and let the game decide who to target. It’s totally unpredictable when the game will understand you’re trying to run up a wall or vault over an enemy for the same reason. I don’t think Lock On even works in Crane Style. Flux Fissure routinely misses a guard broken opponent too. This fighting system is theoretically satisfying, just severely in need of patches that it never got.

Judgment is probably my new favorite Yakuza game. 0 is its immediate competition due to it’s combat system being much more responsive, predictable, and just overall More with eight styles in total and enough encounter variety to really put them through their paces. Judgment is winning in every non-combat category. Although I’ll never stop dunking on them for choosing the circa 2007 Assassins’s Creed tailing missions. In Chapter 12 there’s a long Tail where the target does a full lap around his eventual destination for no in-universe reason. And they thought I would fail to notice. The story is starkly competent for this franchise’s standards. At least most of the time. There is this outrageous scene in Chapter 9 where the Guys are sitting around the office spouting conspiracy theories, and Kaito gets annoyed and shouts the wildest one he can think of – and ends up being right on the money. It’s not even played up as a joke, that’s how they stumble on the connection between this case and the one from three years ago – a name drop Kaito probably hadn’t heard in three years if he ever did. Writers just gave up.

I was pretty surprised by the Women of Judgment. Who are still completely sidelined by the men, but overall the game is way less horny. Judgment is The First Yakuza game to nix Cabaret Clubs as a side activity, and there’s no softcore porn activity either. There’s a rare moment of Enlightenment when you take the first person role of Saori-kun as men on the street make lecherous comments to her as she walks by. Which is then repeatedly undermined with lewd camera work on her body in later scenes, but the fact that somebody thought to put that sequence in the game shows real character growth for this studio. I was equally impressed with the maturity regarding the Girlfriend Quests, particularly with Nanami. Way easier to write convincing romance when it’s not a Cabaret Girl. It is definitely dumb that you can pursue romance with all these women concurrently with no repercussion, but baby steps and et cetera

If there’s one thing I wish we could do is put on our Disguises whenever we want. And perhaps allow us to use a disguise to avoid random battles like Yagami does during the story? Just a crazy thought I know. The Keihin Gang threat never ends and there’s no reason to engage with it unless you hate being sent demoralizing texts for letting your nerd friends down. None of the CP checklist involves these encounters, and the crafting material you earn from knocking down those mini bosses isn’t even uniquely obtained here. There’s a climactic penultimate side quest where you seemingly defeat them once and for all but it’s a fake out. They’ll continue to harass you forever.

The PC remaster of Judgment also adds what I’m guessing was cheater DLC items for the original release. I’m pleased to report that I refrained from using those bonuses. What’s next for my Yakuza adventure? Well 7 is next chronologically. But I’ve been considering emulating the original two games on PS2. Or the still unreleased Kenzan. Or perhaps even play Dead Souls? Ishin? Or the Fist of the North Star game? Lots of options. It may be quite a few years before I pick up the story of Yagami and his Judging Eyes

Fallen Leaf (2024, PC)

Spoiler

Fallen Leaf is a pixel aesthetic action platformer. No shortage of those as of 2024. A game designed by two people, brothers, for whom this is their first project. You travel across a SMB3 style world map. After every 2 or 3 levels of jumping and shooting you’ll come across a hub of NPCs with minor quests and funny dialogue. Delving into side content will load you with up to 10 playable characters and 12 special weapons that you can switch in real time or in the pause menu. It’s a lot to toggle through, but they issued an update while I was playing that allows you to turn off non-preferred choices if you just want to swap between your favorites. Wow, take notes Mega Man because that is brilliant.

I don’t really have a lot to say on the game, in the same manner that I don’t have a lot to say on the original Shovel Knight. It’s pretty good, the pacing between proper levels and just hanging out with NPCs dispensing jokes is perfect. The pixel art is consistently excellent. The gameplay mechanics and level design speak in a retro game language I’ve been speaking for as long as I remember. It's a comfy adventure.

The main area where it falls short of Shovel Knight, and I know it’s subjective, it’s the music. Fresh after beating the game I can recall exactly one tune, and it’s the three second level clear fanfare. Perhaps it’s because there are over 70 levels about 3-5 minutes in length, they didn’t want to deliberate where great songs ought to go if they’d only be heard once or twice. But there’s no ‘main theme’ that’s getting riffed on constantly, no unifying motifs they could have used to expand one song into five or six songs by swapping out the instrumentation or tempo. The final boss music employs the same notes as the Title Screen music, and that’s the only creative direction I can point to. The music was handled by the lead programmer, and while he certainly has more talent than I do, I hope they can afford some musical artists for their next project. This was not a kickstarter game, so I imagine the tight budget demanded a ‘If you want something done, figure how you’ll do it yourself’ grindset.

Metal Slug Attack Reloaded (2024, PC)

Spoiler

I’ve been interested in these un-gachad gacha games. When some mobile trash is inevitably taken offline, all that art and music just disappears forever. Further compounding the industry's Preservation Crisis. So second chances like this are rare indeed. Metal Slug Attack is definitely not as fun as a proper Metal Slug game, but it will get you nostalgic for those old sprites and sounds. Deploy units, get AP from each defeated enemy to deploy more units, and progressively snowball squads to the enemy base and destroy it before they do the same to you. There is still gacha acquisition of units, just not monetized with real money. You’ll have every unit at Max Merges long before you finish the game. The real grind is earning items from the battles themselves. You need specific drops to unlock a unit’s full set of passive abilities, which invariably means replaying maps where those specific drops might spawn. Of course you can just let the game play itself on Auto and do the grinding for you.

I had an extremely embarrassing humbling moment when I was struggling on a map, flipped on Auto Battle on a whim and watched the AI S rank that map on the first try. Thankfully I salvaged my ego three minutes later when I watched the AI fail only for me to try it for myself and succeed. Clearly the AI is better at some things than others – like being able to make manual commands at a speed the human player can’t scroll through. But they really struggle with playing on the back foot. Always fielding the same cheapest units you brought with you. You need something tankier to avoid a checkmate situation where your guys die at spawn. The AI and I switched off on failure. Sort of like two Brothers sharing a file. I also maintained strategic control of the units we used which makes a big impact no matter who’s playing.

To simply progress in this game takes a lot of homework. You can’t level up anything past your Player Level, and that Player Experience is exclusively obtained from repeating levels. So I had the game re-running stages on my steam deck while I played a different video game elsewhere. Sure is a power trip to be knocking two games off the old backlog at a time. To reach the end of the story mode, you’ll eventually have to beat every chapter of Another Story. And that’s a slog because there’s just hours of inconsequential dialogue that I eventually began skipping. That’s something I almost never do on a blind playthrough of any game but it was so bad here. I think the dialogue was machine translated. One of the Another Story chapters is titled ‘Death of Minorities’. It’s very incomprehensible and not in a funny way.

It’s a shame because Another Story does something I really would have liked to see in Fire Emblem Heroes: restricting your units to one of its five army affiliations. You know, field units that are actually on the same team rather than the usual Anything Goes format. This forces the player to build up and experiment with dozens of units. Which inevitably leads to a better understanding of what works in this chaotic game. There’s about 300 units total, and I understand the gacha game had around one thousand. The missing characters appear to almost universally be alternates. You know, holiday themed banners and such. This release of the game doesn’t have a single swimsuit in sight, but the portraits are no less horny. At the very least I’ll say that the spritework for these endless OCs are kind of incredible, and prove that the talent is out there to make an actual Metal Slug if they aspired to. But an actual Metal Slug doesn't make as much money as a gacha game you've never heard of.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (2024, PC)

Spoiler

Capcom put out a survey early this year on a lot of frank questions about their games. Much of the results are what you’d expect. The mega popular games are indeed mega popular, and fans of cult classics like Dino Crisis certainly showed up. I was a little surprised to see such support for Okami and Onimusha. Both games that spawned from what was a pretty bleak time in the company, but that never deterred the raw creativity of things that were thrown at the wall. Kunitsu-Gami's new attempt at ancient Japanese action is a little nostalgic. It’s exact genre is indeterminate. ‘Tower Defense’ largely misses the point. It's similar to the indie game Gotta Protectors, but that’s all I can really point to. During the daytime phase you purify the land, rescue villagers, and guide the Princess slowly to the end of the path. At night the monsters come out and you battle them with a flashy dancing sword style while directing the Villagers to best protect the princess

Soh's hacking and slashing is not mechanically deep, not like a Devil May Cry. Our character is powerful, but the only way to defeat all the enemies in time is keeping an eye on all the spawn points and making certain your villagers are positioned to stand in the way of them. And if you take too many hits before healing, Soh will be in a helpless spirit state with only the ability to direct villagers until you respawn. I prioritized ranged attacking classes with only the sumo wrestler and ascetic classes working to slow down enemies since their the best at that job. Soh also has Tsuba Guard skills that are basically super moves with a cooldown. You can equip up to three, but only the currently equipped one will recharge, so think carefully about which one needs to come back the most.

Some aspects of the gameplay do feel unpolished. I really don’t see why the bonus objective achievements have to be hidden on your first play of a level. Granted they are extremely hard and seemingly meant for New Game+. The game allows you to undo a class’ upgrades in order to respec and master specific stages. But you can’t just take off the Shaman’s sixth and final upgrade for instance, you have to refund all of them, and spend 15 seconds reacquiring those five upgrades you still want before leaving that screen to spend elsewhere. Another area where the playtime is really adding up is returning to old Bases to fill up on Crystals. I really wish you could do that from the stage select screen. Building up the bases by personally walking over to each construction site is fine with me, since it lets me hear the calming, contemplative piano music and destress from each battle. But if all I’m doing is walking three seconds over to the tent and quitting to the stage select, it’s just busy work.

So much more of the game is dedicated to its artwork than its gameplay. In true Capcom fashion, one of the main unlockables is just 3D models of the characters and enemies. Kunitsu-Gami has no dialogue, the villagers are all wearing masks and dance with you at the end of a stage in a manner that evokes a Bunraku show. The environments complete that illusion given the nature of their creation. They’re real life dioramas carefully scanned into the game. Why do I get the feeling the developers came up with this elaborate project as an excuse to build a bunch of Miniatures? Also, can I buy them? The music is great too, from its soft, contemplative piano tracks when you’re helping villagers rebuild their homes in between battles, to the blaring rock saxophone during the Batsu boss battle. This isn’t the best game I’ve played this year, but it was certainly the most artistically resonant I’ve played this year. You don't find stuff like this outside the Indie space, but here it is, being funded by Monster Hunter Money.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023, Switch)

Spoiler

Hoo Boy. This is definitely the finale to my marathon of Zelda-likes that I wrote up last month. I’ll say up front that I’ve got little appreciation for Breath of the Wild. I think it’s a game that’s punching at the same weight class as the ubisoft open world titles that inspired it but adding a lot of unnecessary survival elements to an annual mid 2010s Assassins Creed or Far Cry release. Crafting systems, Stamina meters and cooldowns, a skyrim questlog, checklist-y map markers, side quests as compelling as Bring me 55 Rushrooms. There are occasionally neat puzzles facilitated by a complex physics engine, but they don’t make up even half as much cumulative playtime as holding forward on the control stick so that Link can climb that Ubisoft Tower, cross that empty landscape, or glide to a distant neon-lit structure or waypoint. It’s exactly the same experience as crossing the Great Sea of Windwaker, and mark my words, when they re-release these two games on newer hardware some day, there’s gonna be a Swift Sail upgrade to the paraglider and a general increase in movement speed.

I’ve scratched out sooo many snarky comments and comparisons when putting together this write up, because I don’t want to come across like I hate these games. It’s a high 6 or low 7 out of 10 game that’s not quite for me. It’s well polished compared to its contemporaries. And there’s so much damned content. My Ubisoft comparisons are positive as they are Negative. It’s like a Family Size bag of chips. Not meant for one person alone to eat, but the fact that you could, given enough time and enough craving, is a tantalizing possibility at great value. If anything I think Junk Food Games need more recognition so long as they don’t load it with microtransactions. And for what it’s worth, you don’t have to do even a fraction of that content if your skill and knowledge of the game is high enough. Play as much or as little as you like, you won’t be walled off by level scaling or gear checking.

But I’m also reluctant to herald the game for that fact due to it’s outrageous, Great Plateau-inspired difficulty curve. Final Fantasy 15, an Equally Not Great open world game, lets you blitz the main story and ignore 90% of the game world too. But the main quest heavily scales the damage you’re taking and dealing for a somewhat consistent challenge at any level. For TotK, I’ll just say it, game’s too hard. Satisfying challenge is an art form that no one can appraise objectively, but I think TotK is legit broken. If it has the same Hidden EXP system as Botw, then they need to tweak those values. I was up against the third tier of enemies at just Seven Hearts, no Stamina. Not because I walked into a high level area, but because I killed too many enemies. Getting one shot at full health during Main Quest content is more oppressive level scaling than any RPG I've played. I remember Botw had a Last Chance mechanic where you’d be knocked to a quarter heart instead of dying, it’s clearly not here in the sequel. I was cooking Food that I never had a chance to Eat. They also seem to have heavily nerfed Temporary Heart recipes, and the availability of those ingredients. Then later in the game when I’m packing even more Hearts and upgraded armor, nothing can touch me. The final Boss did 1 Heart or less damage to me with my not fully upgraded armor. This is clearly designed for fans who grew into adults, but my heart goes out to all the kids putting away the ipad to try out Zelda and getting frustrated around Hour 5-10 which is peak difficulty. My first Zelda was a life changing experience, but mechanically intensive first person shooters and PC games were something I bounced off of at that age. I never minded that Zelda games were easy, especially if they were willing to throw in a harder difficulty – another idea that TotK casually casts aside.

I disagree with the majority of what’s new in the sequel, so let’s talk about the Good. I liked Fuse a lot. It actually got me looking around my environment to experiment. Fuse was probably meant to be an unnecesary extra step in upping my numbers to the standard of the last game. But it also creates the Dead Rising experience of picking up crap and trying it out. Like slapping a Sled to my shield to make a snowboard. Next is the enemy variety. Not everything is a humanoid holding a weapon. Finally, caves and wells. I was explicitly missing this from BotW, a game whose only dungeon experience was in its divine beasts and Shrines. The survival-focused overworld never had any natural interiors like this. And if a cave goes into a tall mountain, you can Ascend from inside of it to avoid a ton of dull climbing or at least the un-eventful walk out of that cave.

It’s unfortunate then that the Depths are a huge misfire for me. It’s just another empty open world whose emptiness cannot be accurately appraised until you’ve turned the lights on. There’s no NPCs, and nearly no quests that send you down there. No Shrines or collectibles. There’s crafting materials that can only be found in these zones, but that’s it as far as in-game justification for their existence. Not being able to see too far ahead of you makes even vehicle traversal a pain. Because large structures exist, but you can’t see the top of them to know if it’s scale-able. Every attempt at building a vehicle ended in me crashing and failing to go around structures I could not see. Should have just walked.

Even the theoretically good ideas are marred by bad execution. The replacement for Champion Abilities have a lot more utility than simply being combat skills, but to activate them you have to walk up to that specific buddy. This is hard in and out of battle because they’ll often clump up together or walk the same direction you are at the same speed. Couldn’t they have mapped it to another sub menu, like Down on the D-Pad? Whistle can just be one of those choices. The A button is the Interact key, so there were a lot of misinputs trying to make use of these skills. I wasn’t a fan of Ultrahand either. Why add twenty angles to a grabbed object that you’ll never use? Everything you build is discarded faster than the building process. The Zonai devices seemed like they could fill in the void left by classic Zelda items, but they too are consumable, and are mostly geared toward vehicles and combat. Each Korok Delivery quest is a mental math proposition of “Would it be faster to just walk them there…?” The optional Autobuild skill alleviates the time investment, but at a cost to your upgrade resources. That flying machine you built to reach a shrine will disappear when you come back out of the Shrine. It would have been awesome if a quest asked you to Ultrahand a bridge, and that bridge is a permanent structure of your game world like in Death Stranding or Fallout 4. But instead TotK says “20 Wood Please” and it gets built offscreen by an NPC.

The big disappointments are where I felt like they could have really improved on BOTW. This IS the game that hears all the complaints about Weapon Durability and says “let’s make weapons break even faster lol”, even if it creates a plot hole in which the Gloom missed all the bows and arrows, shields, and armor. What I wanted most was better Dungeons and better Story and they just turned in the same work as before. The Story is, once again, something that already happened before you hit New Game. And playing catch up on those events involves seeking out secret cutscenes and hearing the same story four times by four different narrators. In BotW this was contextualized by Link having amnesia and people from his past not being able to provide the Answers on account of being dead. This game provides no such scenario, and its Past Heroes lack a face, a name, and the vague notion of a personality the Champions had. The dungeons were a let down. Often providing greater spectacle in the entry sequence and Boss Fights, but providing less gameplay concepts than before. The simple act of needing to control something externally about a Divine Beast in order to better traverse and solve its puzzles was something unique to that dungeon, but TotK dungeons are just a culmination of Shrine Puzzles you may or may not have experienced prior. Never presenting a moment of gameplay that’s unique to them. Even the boss fights aren't unique to them.

The new overworld Gleeok boss was the most fun I've had with the combat system, and all I got was more fuse material for those spent weapons. The game is just one big skinnerbox of consumable junk. Is it any wonder that the biggest successor to BotW isn’t this game, or the superior Immortals Fenyx Rising, but Genshin Impact? Gacha games are very deliberate about slow acquisition of resources to prompt player spending. What does Zelda gain from this design? When I’m sitting down to play, the addictive compulsions of my mind force me to chase things I definitely don’t need and very likely won’t put to good use. By expanding the potential uses for all this junk via Fuse and Ultrahand, my brain can never say "don't need those". Especially for a blind player that doesn’t have the answers to everything. Really wish I didn’t sell those Ambers for instance. I thought maybe those were the most likely Trash Loot in the game that's best for selling, and I was super wrong. 

So, I can once again claim to have played every (non-CDI) Zelda game for at least the next month. This one left me hungry for a classic zelda for sure. I don’t know if Nintendo will ever make one again. Eiji Aonuma is in the Executive Producer seat now, and he says traditional zeldas are bad. He doesn’t grasp that limitations breed creativity or perhaps players enjoy getting new abilities and items as they progress which get them excited about all the new things they can do now. To him, Progression is only in RPG terms of leveling up and acquiring stronger gear. If you asked me what made Breath of the Wild better than this is because it’s just a little more tighter in its focus. Sure I can do slightly more of ‘everything' now, but that’s the Bethesda Simulation over Video Game way of thinking. And if we Must deliberate, I liked Starfield more than Tears of the Kingdom. As Direction-less, Too-Big, make-your-own-fun games, Starfield edges out the competition by just having good stories to tell. And its Companions do what I tell them to. And its weapons won't break.

One final time, the game is Fine. Rarely frustrating for more than a few seconds, but also rarely fun for more than a few seconds. I did every Main Quest and the game was acting real impressed I found the master sword early (I wanted to know why This One didn't attack me). Final play time was 70 hours. That's 10 more than my run of Starfield, but I feel like I Did a lot more things in Starfield if that makes sense. The Zelda B-Plot, on paper, is kind of a bold choice until you realize it's a recreation of her story in Skyward Sword - the only other game that tries to create origin mythos for the series. Watch this one get cast aside too. I buy the tragedy of that game better because that Link and Zelda cared for each other before Destiny uproots their lives. This new Link and Zelda are just co-workers. One last hot take for the road? Hummm, Age of Calamity is better.

 

Edited September 6 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Fabulously Olivier]

4 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Hot Take: Age of Calamity was Better

 

Hey, if I'm allowed to say Hopes > Houses and Warriors > all 3 games it's based on, you're allowed to say Age of Calamity is better than BotW and TotK.

 

Anyway, Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem and Diablo 3 discussed last month became clears 50 and 53 respectively on 7/25 and 8/10. Err, well, I decided to retroactively count Wolcen as beaten based on Act 3, since Act 4 is an endlessly cycling endgame act that isn't meant to be beaten for several cycles.

 

51. Crisis Core Final Fantasy Reunion

Spoiler

Cleared 8/1

7/10

It's pretty obvious that this was a handheld game, so I can't be too harsh to it. It's got fun enough combat, and a pretty good story. Very much not essential to appreciate Final Fantasy 7 though. The main story missions are pretty fun, while the side missions are universally too simple to be fun.

52. Tales of Zestiria

Spoiler

Cleared 8/8

7/10

While I still think this is the worst mainline game since Legendia, and may be worse than that, I was also somewhat too harsh to it. It's not quite a Dawn of the New World level disaster, and the worst mainline Tales game is still a good time. It's bold, if extremely overcomplicated in its combat mechanics. Has way too many tutorials. The party of characters are actually pretty well written. The story is nothing special, though the villain actually gets a pretty good backstory.

54. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

Spoiler

Cleared 8/17

Playthrough: Hunter

7/10

It feels like an evolved Torchlight 1, but not as evolved as Torchlight 2. Having a constant battle companion who can sell your gear is always nice. The story and setting are fun. There's a fair bit of depth and replay value here. There's even a unique tower defense segment of the game, that the story only makes you do once.

 

I have 2 main issues with this game. The first is that there was not a single interesting gear affix in my entire playthrough. Just stats. The second is that ranged enemies are wildly overpowered, even on Casual difficulty. I was getting mowed down in a second by ranged basic enemies with fast projectiles. That felt unearned.

 

Ultimately I got the whole collection for $5, and had a pretty good time. I got my money's worth already on just the first game.

55. Astro's Playroom

Spoiler

Cleared 8/17

7/10

The core gameplay is a really fun, brisk, adorable 3D Collect-a-thon with impressive use of the 3D rumble feature.

I will say, however, that none of the various motion control segments were fun at all. If they're in Astrobot, I may have to pass.

56. Warhammer Chaosbane

Spoiler

8/26

Playthrough: Eltinor, the Elven Mage

7/10

I've heard this described as a dishwater Diablo 3. And yeah, that's pretty accurate. But a less good Diablo 3 is still a dumb fun time. It's visually good, the story's alright, there's some actual interesting gear effects, and it's somewhat better overall than Van Helsing.

Also, as a $5 purchase, I got my money's worth several times over just on the one playthrough and could definitely see myself doing more.

57 and 58. Final Fight and Captain Commando

Spoiler

8/28

Playthrough: Haggar

Playthrough: Captain Commando

Yes, I did buy the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle on sale in order to fluff up my clear numbers with quick, mindless games.

 

I feel like any score I could give an arcade game would come with a huge asterisk. They aren't good games. They aren't meant to be good games. They aren't balanced around being fair or even possible, but rather around draining quarters. Not unlike modern gacha games, really.

But in their modern console version where you can just respawn infinitely, they're at least enjoyable in a crap sort of way.

I'm not sure if $10 for 7 short arcade games is good value in terms of dollars per hour. Certainly if I replay them later on other characters. But is it a good value in terms of quarters saved? Absolutely, lol.

 

I'm still playing a metric ton of Warframe. I have a problem... I mean I can quit anytime I want.

 

I'm getting close to the end of my Pokemon Moon playthrough.

 

I've also gone through a good chunk of Halo Infinite this month.

Edited August 29 by Fabulously Olivier

[Samz707]

STALKER Clear Sky.

I have an unfinished run so I've been resuming it as I'm hyped for the Switch ports.

[vanguard333]

I'm currently completing the last few optional parts of Ys: Memories of Celceta before I tackle the final dungeon of the game. I just completed the game's superboss (incidentally, semi-crystalline deer are a pretty much a staple "powerful ancient creature" in fantasy media, but it's a staple for a reason, it fits the forest theme of the game, and I think I enjoyed its fight more than the superboss of Ys 9), I've already completed all the sidequests, and, as far as I can tell, I have thoroughly combed over every part of the map. So, guess how much of the map the game says I have uncovered?

99.8%

I do enjoy the exploration in this game, but, compared to Ys 8 and 9, the game does suffer from the fixed camera and the inability to zoom in on the world map making it very easy to think you've combed over every part of the map, but there are actually tiny crumbs that you missed. Quite a few times now, I've walked through paths I've already taken and had the uncovered map percentage increased, with me having no idea why it increased. This is a game where your stated goal at the start is to explore the forest in its entirety.

I've tried looking at images of the completed world map to get an idea of what I've missed, and it doesn't help much. I'll try combing through the game world one last time; one area where this game has the advantage over Ys 8 and 9 is that only the overworld counts towards world map completion; dungeons and indoor areas don't. In Ys 8, it made sense for indoor areas to count, as they were often natural pathways across the island, but it didn't really make sense in Ys 9 for the insides of buildings to count towards overworld map completion.

Overall, right now, I like Memories of Celceta more than Ys 9, but less than Ys 8 and Ys Origin.

 

EDIT: I finally 100% completed the map. I looked online, and people suggested running along every wall. I found one slightly faded wall of the world map and ran along it, and that got me to 100%.

With that done, all that's left is for me to complete the final dungeon, and then I can give my final thoughts on the game. After that, I'll probably end up taking a small break from games until Echoes of Wisdom releases.

 

EDIT: I finally completed Ys: Memories of Celceta. The final boss fight was fun, as was the post-final-boss sequence where you run up a volcano while pursued by enemies to destroy the ancient artifact the villain was planning to use.

The ending was rather interesting; it was rather abrupt, and it even lampshades that it deliberately left certain things unresolved, and yet, despite that, it's probably the most solid ending I've seen to a Ys game so far. It didn't draw out its ending for far too long (Ys 9), it didn't force in an unnecessary twist at the end that undermined the game's core themes (Ys 8), and it didn't hide the canon events behind a secret additional story route (Ys Origin).

Overall, I enjoyed Memories of Celceta a lot; I enjoyed it more than Ys 9, but less than 8 and Origin. So, I've completed 4, 8, 9 and Origin; now just 1 & 2, 3, 6 and 7 remain (5, from what I've learned, was never localized or given a remake).

One thing I would like to see the Ys series do in the future: change things up from the usual "the magic goes away" resolution. I understand that it's become something of a staple in the series, but I think it would be really interesting to see them try something else; perhaps a "the magic returns" plot where the location Adol visits used to have magic, lost it, and begins rediscovering it at the end? I think that would be a great way to play with the usual formula.

Edited September 5 by vanguard333

[avensis]

I play Astro Bot, very good game without headache, very detailed, too bad the lifespan is very limited