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|  "Re(1):RANDOM GAMES! #34: A Breath of Fresh Ai" , posted Thu 2 Mar 23:05:  
quote:
Previous topic:
>>RANDOM GAMES! #33
A brand new console is out tomorrow everywhere and I think it is the right time to switch (!) topics. Nintendo's Vita 2 next home console for the AirBnB generation will come with a critically acclaimed game and more spotty sidekicks. It will be supported with a lot of indie games, including a fighting game taking inspiration for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. More importantly for the MMC, it is the promise of a portable two players arcade, such as these five Arcade Archives Neo Geo titles available at launch will try to remind everyone. We'll see how things evolve from there. I'll be there at launch, as I usually do, even if I don't see the obvious Pen Pen Triicelon / Dead Rising / Army Corps of Hell-type "not so great game that I will play way too much and remember fondly" of this lineup (unless you count Snipperclips, which looks legitimately great and thus does not really fit the description). But what about you?
I was actually going to mention Master Blaster Zero in the older thread since its gameplay has bit and pieces of everything like Bangai-O, Contra, etc. So its looks pretty cool and fun game by IntiCreates.
I also wanted to pointed out that a physical copy of Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours is being released this month for the PS4 and its region free.
Is it me, or is their a boat load of video games being released at a constant rate already in 2017? geez give us time to breathe!
Long Live I AM!
[this message was edited by neo0r0chiaku on Thu 2 Mar 23:07] |
| | "Re(5):A Breath of Fresh Frog Legs" , posted Thu 9 Mar 12:55:
quote:
While this is surely the best thread title rename in recent memory, I am surprised not to see some people seriously SWITCHing it up. I don't care about the unwashed masses' dumb impressions online, I just want to hear the Cafe's experience! This is maybe the first system I've wanted based soley on its design as opposed to any specific game (Zelda is nice, but I've accidentally failed to play a single Zelda game in 25 years of gaming, so why stop now?). I'm sure I will get one...when Virtual Console appears!
I got to play the Switch the other day. The whole thing played out like a Nintendo commercial.
I was talking to someone that I'd just met about video games. The Switch came up and he was like, "I got one, you want to try it?" and popped it out of his backpack.
Thing plays like a dream. We were in the back of a little hole in the wall BBQ restaurant during our lunch break. Set the screen on the table (it props itself up), broke off the two little controllers and we started playing Puyo Puyo vs Tetris.
The tiny controls felt just fine and the screen was very clear. I was several feet away and everything was legible. Everyone had a blast!
Having the screen makes a gigantic difference. This is quintessentially different than say getting a bunch of friends together to play PSP or DS. The single screen makes it easy for everyone to spectate. Also, only one person needs to have the system on hand.
It genuinely felt like a traditional, offline, face to face, multiplayer in the living room experience. But on the go. The ease with which you can take that experience with you wherever you go is a big game changer for me.
It would be exceedingly difficult for me to convince my friends to buy Puyo Puyo and then meet me online at a specific time to play (much less buy a console with which to play Puyo Puyo on). But now I can get a Switch and just bring the game to them easily.
You better believe people around me are gonna start playing Waku Waku 7!
Anyway, the Switch is everything it promised to be as far as I can tell. It actually works. It's not some awkward hybrid of portable and traditional consoles. It really does feel like a "real" console that you can take anywhere.
The screen is super clear. The controller feels good and it has just the right amount of heft. The breakaway controllers are more comfortable than I anticipated.
Oh and Zelda plays like a dream too. It actually feels a bit like MGSV to me, gameplay wise. Graphics look better in person too (I'm not a huge fan of the new art style, but it's very well executed).
Anyway, everyone go buy one. It's super fun and you can force your friends to play Neo Geo whenever you see them in real life now.
www.art-eater.com
[this message was edited by nobinobita on Thu 9 Mar 12:56] |
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| "Re(5):A Breath of Fresh Frog Legs" , posted Fri 10 Mar 06:29
quote:
Zelda is nice, but I've accidentally failed to play a single Zelda game in 25 years of gaming, so why stop now?
If you've never played Zelda 1, or have played Zelda 1, this is pretty much like Zelda 1 reimagined (and more?). Do yourself a favour and go into this game blind, without any guides, without any impressions. It's fun discovering the unique systems and mechanics in place (MGSV is a close comparison), but it pretty much feels like the first time you've played the first Zelda game (so many conventions are broken, including open world ones, such as not giving you a marker to find a specific goal).
Also to those who have been playing:
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
What where you doing when you stumbled upon Farosh? You know...the huge flying dragon thing that randomly shows up across the world?
There's nothing like wondering inside a rainforest encountering that thing flying alongside the river, chasing after it, while it hurls shock/lightning discharges at me. I shot an arrow at it, and it dropped something shiny, only to find it out it had been the scale I was looking for to solve one of the shrine puzzles!
End of Spoiler
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| | "Re(6):A Breath of Garlic" , posted Fri 10 Mar 12:43:
What's this "Nintendo Switch" thing everybody is talking about? I thought it was actually called the Zelda Machine, because this new Zelda is everything you'll never need.
Boy, am I having a blast with this game! I didn't feel like this since I was at middle school. All I can think about is getting home as soon as I can and play some more. The sheer joy and delight of exploring this world cannot be described by words. I've spent like 30 hours with the game and I have not yet uncovered more than 30% of the map. Heck, I have not even reached the first main dungeon, but I couldn't care less. Just strolling around looking for insects, hunting game and taming wild horses feels fulfilling enough. What an amazing game. I honestly feel like a little kid discovering videogames for the first time, and precisely I did discover videogames back in the day thanks to Zelda. The circle is complete I guess.
Oh, and the machine that plays it is really nice in itself. I wonder if it would have more games on the future, preferably Zelda ones. I don't seem to need anything else!
As for sfried's spoiler question:
Spoiler (Highlight to view) -
I stared at it like 2 minutes in awe and then just took a photo of it. I didn't know about the scale, I'll give it a shot (pun not really intended) later!
End of Spoiler
Also, since this is the Cafe after all, we can't forget the customary culinary topics. Cooking in this game is very simple, but super fun as well. I can easily spend hours trying new recipes (just like in real life, ha ha) and have never skipped the cooking animation even once. This Zelda is all about those small, charming details. Then again, all Zeldas are, but this one is just on another level.
What do you know, I'm playing (and enjoying!) videogames once again!
A Talking about Japanese History sword in hand
[this message was edited by Maese on Fri 10 Mar 12:46] |
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| "Re(7):A Breath of Garlic" , posted Sat 11 Mar 01:39
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What's this "Nintendo Switch" thing everybody is talking about? I thought it was actually called the Zelda Machine, because this new Zelda is everything you'll never need.
I may as well copy and paste everything Maese says, since I agree with it all so much. I'm a person who doesn't love open world games especially-- they so often seem uncurated and as a result they end up being unengaging for me. There's also the problem that when you've got literally anywhere to be, where you're 'supposed to be' is often the last place you end up, so they get boring for me, between bland 'go meet this person' or 'collect x of y object' quests, and I ditch them. And I know, BotW has all of these things, superficially, but at no point in my first 25 hours have I felt bored, and at no point has the game felt like every little piece was hand-crafted. I don't know where anything is going to lead me at the point that I'm at, and I don't even really care-- I'll just keep on slumping around in shrines, and maybe the story will keep happening. There are a million little pieces that all fit together so well that everything feels like a delight, from cooking to climbing to battles. I'm not sure I've played a game in the last 20 years that felt this way, and that has made me feel the way I do about this one. And I'm not even especially a Zelda fan. I think the greatest testament to its quality is that it doesn't really matter that it's a Zelda game.
It's slightly embarrassing to admit, but I found myself in a weird place this week-- Nier Automata has come out, a game that I would at any other time be completely obsessed over, and I'm finding it to be... a little boring and sloppy seeming, compared to BotW. It's not a bad game, by any means, and I love its aesthetic and its world. It's just incredibly unfortunate in so many ways that it had to come out the week after Zelda did. And I think that's the most unfortunate thing about BotW-- that it will make so many other games feel a little bit lame by comparison.
You have to carefully reproduce the world of "Castlevania" in the solemn atmosphere.
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| | "Re(1):A Breath of Old Chats" , posted Sun 12 Mar 05:19:
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Regarding why BOTW is so much fun, this recent viral video showing off some possible interactions is worth many words.
Here is the entire GDC talk discussing how the physics and chemistry involved in the link above were conceived, then (in the later third) how the development team settled on the over all art direction of BOTW. It's about 90 minutes long but it was peculiarly interesting to have the video running in the background as I was actually fooling around in the game.
Meanwhile, Capcom is kindly thinking about poor 3DS owners who can't join in on the fun.
What is interesting to me is that they struggled with re-discovering what Western games for the longest time called "emergent gameplay", a term which got so trodden into the grown that people don't invoke it so much anymore. "Emergent gameplay" was especially used to describe the open-world games that took the world by storm following GTA3, even though it certainly existed in games long before that. A kind of central problem in general with GTA, though, has been that aside from certain NPCs, the only real interaction you can have with NPCs comes in the form of stealing their cars and/or attacking them. The way they describe novel and unanticipated situations and solutions arising from interactions of AI and systems is pretty much exactly what emergent sandbox gameplay has aimed to be. But I really like that they are aiming to find words to describe the mechanisms and design philosophies by which they seek to generate emergent gameplay.
That and this is the same kind of thinking I espouse whenever I talk with people about the old Microprose X-COM versus the new Firaxis X-COM: the new one is a smoother, more carefully designed tactical experience with all kinds of more modern progression mechanics. The older one certainly had a lot of tactical consideration in it, but it would often choose to be a more freeform simulation instead of a well-balanced tactical game, and so the player had a lot more freedom to do silly things and get into novel situations. It also had terrific integration between its disparate game systems, which made everything seem multiplicatively meaningful.
One entertaining article about this was about the game Red Faction Guerilla, a game which had an incredibly delightful building destruction simulation. When describing how to design missions for it, one of the designers said that making zones that were open to possibility was very difficult for them coming from the traditional FPS/TPS level design mentality. Indeed, some of the mission zones almost seemed TOO open and lacking in thought, because it was just like they made zones, threw in some enemies and items and physically interactive things, and put you on one end and an objective on the other. On the flip side, for me one of the most amazing missions involved protecting a convoy from snipers which were in multi-story buildings, because blasting apart chunks of the building to reach the snipers was really fun. It had the right combination of an environmentally interesting situation, a premise that put a little bit of pressure on me, and a vast amount of opportunity to leverage my creativity with the game systems.
I think in a truly ideal situation where a game is designed with emergence as an objective, in the player's mind it more becomes a setting in which stories/narratives get generated.
I need to stop blabbing so much!
[this message was edited by Spoon on Sun 12 Mar 06:31] |
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| "Re: A Breath of Fresh Nier" , posted Sun 19 Mar 03:25:
Iggy left me to go play Nier, at which point I mused out loud, "I hope it comes to Switch or Steam soon." Then I noticed it came to Steam yesterday, so I have no excuse. I know the world at large has been enjoying it, but please tell me why you in particular like it! It feels like the Cafe has been talking about it forever, but then I realized it might have been Nioh, and thus the conversation was for very different reasons. I admit that the quite excellent website and perfect Yoshida Akihiko character designs alone make a strong case.
Alternate question: should I buy it while I wait for Virtual Console on the Dedicated Breath of the Wild Device, or is Zelda my true destiny? I sure like Nier's character designs more than anyone in Zelda, which would explain my criminal negligence of the latter series since the SFC, the very first console I owned and which I could start ignoring the series with.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
[this message was edited by Maou on Sun 19 Mar 03:43] |
| | "Re(1):Re: A Breath of Fresh Nier" , posted Sun 19 Mar 08:20
First, I want to say that I'm extremely happy I can't play Zelda (or Horizon, because Horizon is a thing as well) before a couple more months, because even weirdos like me have been overwhelmed in games since the release of Scarlet Grace. I finished Hollow Knight just on time to move on to Nier, and I shouldn't linger too long with 2B because Rain World will be there next week or something. Ah, and Kolin, I want to play more with Kolin too.
I feel like no game could be released for the next 6 months and I still wouldn't be able to finish everything I want to play.
quote:
I know the world at large has been enjoying it, but please tell me why you in particular like it!
In no particular order:
- 2B is cool. She has some really gracious animations while being a giant ice queen "don't say you're happy androids shouldn't have emotions happiness is a disease". My better half was playing Bayonetta 2 behind me, and now I think of 2B like Bayo's polar opposite. I'm curious to see where the game is taking her (probably to some very unhappy place). The other characters are cool too.
- The controls are great to play because Platinum, but it's very much a Yoko Taro game. I was unsure at the beginning (the prologue ends with a silly fight with a giant robot) but no further sign of Platinum craziness appeared afterwards, while I went through plenty of YT's insanity already.
- The game is an open world Action RPG fishing top-down-shooter text adventure. Your favourite genre!
- Amazing music.
- Robot Sartre.
- White underwear.
- It sucks that SQEX gave a budget of probably 12 dollars and 25 pence to Kawazu to create Scarlet Grace, but at least they gave a proper budget to YT for his new project. Nier Automata may be our best chance to prevent SQEX from devolving into a soulless machine spurting "another game with your favourite FF characters" vs "another game with your favourite DQ characters" games every other month.
From what I've read, there's also absolutely no need to have played any other Nier or Drag-on-dragoon, which is probably for the best.
The PC port seems to behave strangely on some people, though. Maybe it's better to have a rather powerful computer and/or wait for a patch. I'm not a tech snob, and the game works perfectly fine on a 970, but I may be lucky.
quote:
Alternate question: should I buy it while I wait for Virtual Console on the Dedicated Breath of the Wild Device, or is Zelda my true destiny?
The real answer to this is: wait for ARMS.
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| | "Re(2):Re: A Breath of Fresh Nier" , posted Mon 20 Mar 02:34
• I finally saw the end of BOTW after 100+ hours of roaming, hunting and surviving as promised on the back of the box. Welp, that was pretty great. I am sure it's not on purpose but it dawned on me during the rolling credits that the premise of the game makes for a nice metaphor of the franchise, considering how long it took for the original The Legend of Zelda to get rescued form several decades of despair (and especially the tyranny of Ocarina of Time) and finally get rewarded with a proper sequel to the original game, and its revolutionary idea of free form adventure at the time. Along the way, it's as if BOTW prepared for this fight against players' expectations by training and conquering pretty much 15 years of video games, from the Gravity Gun in Half Life 2, to the stamina, looting and bufficooking culture of Monster Hunter, to the vast lands and progression of Skyrim and Ubisoft games, to the thrill of invading soviet bases in MGS5. I have rarely thought so much of the best moments of so many games in a single, different game. What a gem. I've spent 20 further hours since I finished it for the first time, and I am now basically forcing myself to quit and play other games out of respect for them. I am thankful I bought the physical card because having the game available at any moment on my Switch would have made that promise much harder to keep.
• I did not expect a DF Retro on Master Blaster but it was worth it!
• [spoilers for MHXX ahead] The final boss for MHXX is, quite literally, Mantis piloting a Metal Gear. (And the game's producer is called Kojima, too!)
Même Narumi est épatée !
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| "Re(4):Re: A Breath of Fresh Nier" , posted Tue 21 Mar 09:34
quote:
We may have to buy a Switch much earlier than we thought.
Trigger warning
!!!! Aw hell, I wasn't planning on buying a Switch for another few months, but but but. At least it wasn't Seiken Densetsu 2, which would have made this entirely unavoidable and which would make more sense given the two player experience anyway.
quote:
One of the designers of Ori and the Blind Forest describes what he dislikes
In real life, the act of mechanical traversal alone is quite engaging. In video games, what aesthetic or kinaesthetic sensibilities need to be there?
The timing is quite interesting, since I was just about to inquire among my Nier enablers just how much fighting I have to do. I'd be quite happy following gorgeous 2B around beautiful landscapes without any other fuss. Maybe that makes Breath of the Wild my game? As a hint, Wander and the Colossus is one of my favorite games in the world, but not necessary because of the Colossus battles, which frequently make me feel sad.
Part of what the Ori guys may be pointing to lately is a subtle but crucial aspect of Nocturne in the Moonlight that is seldom noticed by its countless "Igavania-style" imitators in recent years: exploratory action games with puzzles require the scenery to actually be unique and varied for it not just to be a dull time-wasting series of back-and-forths. Why is Concerto of the Midnight Sun/Harmony one of the worst Dracula games? Terrible music aside, it's because I cannot remember a single environment in that castle.
人間はいつも私を驚かせてくれる。不思議なものだな、人間という存在は．．．
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| | "Re(7):Re: A Breath of fresh Seiken" , posted Wed 22 Mar 11:19:
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So, about that...
Holy cow! Now that is the right idea. After years of fumbling the series, Square finally realized that all they had to do was simply re-release the originals. I can't believe they are even including Seiken Densetsu 1 from the days when it was still "Final Fantasy Gaiden." Switch delay is becoming more difficult by the day.
Ah, and I'd forgotten that Seiken Densetsu 3 still allowed two-player even though it was missing 2's multi-player. I've never met anyone who loved 3 more than 2 anyhow. Also:
The difficulty level also never felt quite right for me, either. If I could do it all over again I would just okay on Easy the whole time. No amount of stylish action can chew through massive HP any faster. Mosquiton, this is seriously useful information on Nier. I think I remember you and Ishmael commenting in the FFVII remake thread on how so many action games are cursed by grunts with high HP that neither makes sense nor is much fun to pummel through. I want grunts out of the way quickly, if they're there at all. The only 3D action game with fights (Colossus does not count) that I've actually finished is probably the first Devil May Cry. So presumably if I want a Dracula-like game with unobtrusive one-hit goons but tricky bosses, I can still have fun if Nier is on easy? I'm a simple man, I just want to be left alone to explore the countryside and maybe ride a horse.
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
To elaborate just a bit, I only felt like reducing the difficulty on the third route (meaning after two playthroughs). The enemies all have levels. It's a stats thing.
But, I'm pretty sure you can just move the difficulty up or down anytime with no consequences whatsoever! So feel free to tailor it to your liking.
Also, I like SD3 more than SD2/SoM... But I admit I'd rather the action didn't pause when you used spells/abilities. All the light/dark class changes and the story/final boss changing based on character selection, though... that's the coolest. I have played through that game with another live human being maybe 8 or more times.
/ / /
[this message was edited by Mosquiton on Wed 22 Mar 11:22] |
| | "Re(7):Re: A Breath of fresh Seiken" , posted Wed 22 Mar 23:29
quote:
Ah, and I'd forgotten that Seiken Densetsu 3 still allowed two-player even though it was missing 2's multi-player.
Actually, that's three-players, not two.
I also never cared for 2 except for the music, while 3 was my thing despite the bugs.
On the other hand, what made it special was the high replayability. Wasting several months of allowance on this game was worth it because you would be playing it again and again for months to come.
In our days of cheaper games released every other day all fighting for a time slot, I'm not sure Seiken 3 holds any value to someone who hasn't played it back then.
"You mean I have to play through it SIX TIME to see all the endings?!"
Back then, that was a stupendous sales point, not a reason to complain on the internet.
quote:
I'm a simple man, I just want to be left alone to explore the countryside and maybe ride a horse. Or a dinosaur.
You'll ride a moose and you'll LIKE IT.
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| | "Re(8):Re: A Breath of fresh Seiken" , posted Thu 23 Mar 01:33
quote:
In our days of cheaper games released every other day all fighting for a time slot, I'm not sure Seiken 3 holds any value to someone who hasn't played it back then.
"You mean I have to play through it SIX TIME to see all the endings?!"
Back then, that was a stupendous sales point, not a reason to complain on the internet.
This actually directly relates to Nier as well, hahah. The unfortunate thing about Nier is that the second playthrough is, overall, much too similar to the first. With one fairly large but not super-exciting exception, the actions available to you as a player don't really change too much either. But the game is still totally worth playing! You'll see.
The other thing about SD3 is that I feel like you could finish the game in about 10-12 hours once you get into it. And there was no list of sidequests to make you think "Oh man, I can't finish the game yet... I'm only 73% done with my secondary objectives and have 14 collectibles left!" That, to me, is one of the reasons modern games (particularly open world games) can feel like something you just want to finish and never, ever return to again.
/ / /
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| | "Re(10):Re: A Breath of Radiant Historia" , posted Thu 23 Mar 05:56:
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If it could be remade with the graphical style of SD2 and SD3, I'd buy a Switch without thinking twice!
Well, there was Sword of Mana on the GBA..
Oh yeah, that's right! Would there be any chance for SD1's adaptation in this compilation be the GBA remake?
Although, even if it isn't, SD2 and 3 are more than enough to justify the purchase of this compilation!
---
EDIT: according to Gematsu, SD1 is indeed the original GB version, rather than the GBA remake. Sad, but oh well, at least SD2 and SD3 are still part of the collection!
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
[this message was edited by Just a Person on Thu 23 Mar 06:12] |
| | "Re(3):Re(10):Re: A Breath of Seiken" , posted Thu 23 Mar 10:36:
quote:
EDIT: according to Gematsu, SD1 is indeed the original GB version, rather than the GBA remake. Sad, but oh well, at least SD2 and SD3 are still part of the collection!
I remember that people who liked 1 hated the GBA remake, but I don't know the reason.
The soulless 3D remake was hated as well, but that was easier to understand.
There was also a mobile port (although I think it was only released in Japan) which was closer to the style of the original game, right? In fact, the sprites for the hero and the damsel in distress in that port look more similar to how they look like in this SDC box art (and curiously also to how they look like in Adventures of Mana, the 3D remake) than how they looked like in Sword of Mana...
As for Sword of Mana, it seems that it changed a good part of the original game, so that's probably what bothered the SD fans. I don't know if the mobile port left a better impression with them than Sword and Adventures did.
---
EDIT (wow, third edited post in a row...): I found a video showing a little of this mobile version, and in my opinion it looks quite good (not as good as Sword of Mana, but good enough). It's a pity that Square Enix is sticking with the old, original GB version (sure, it's the original and all, but it just looks so inferior to its two sequels...).
...Then again, most SD fans do claim that the original version of SD1 is a great game by itself, so maybe Square Enix made the right choice picking it for this collection.
-----
EDIT 2: after watching some videos of the original SD1, I think it doesn't look as outdated. Sure, it has no colors, but the sprites are nice and the music is great, so it looks like a good game nevertheless. SE, please just give the three games a translation to English and we have a deal!
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
[this message was edited by Just a Person on Tue 11 Apr 21:50] |
| | "Re(10):Re(10):Re: A Breath of Old Games" , posted Mon 27 Mar 23:02
quote:
I've never been able to play any of the Soejima lead MegaTen games.
Hmmmmmrmrmrm but Soejima has never done any character designer work in any capacity on any Shin Megami Tensei game. He did replace Kaneko on the Persona series from the third episode. You might be mistaking him with Masayuki Doi?
I really like all three of them, although personally I don't think Doi's strengths match the atmosphere of SMT so well. Soejima would be a better substitute to Kaneko, actually. I would not mind if they switched roles on each franchise. Or rather, considering that Soejima will be busy on their High Fantasy project for a while, I hope Doi gets to try his hand on Persona and someone new appears for the next SMT game.
They all had to be softened up to match the new generic anime face girl.
I would not be surprised if the main reason was technical constraint vs cost, really. We'll have a better understanding of development costs and the scope of the project once we know if they simply upscale the Lancarse engine or have converted the entire game to the SMT4 engine.
the logical thing to do would have been to get Kaneko to design an anime face girl that fits in that world.
Who knows, maybe that was their first intention? Maybe Kaneko is not available or not ke
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
Those are really good points! Sorry I get emotional over stuff like this. Yeah there's so many reasons things could have turned out the way they did and the only thing that's for certain is that I have no clue haha.
Thank you for telling me the difference between Doi and Soejima. That makes perfect sense as I also like Soejima's work on Persona more than Doi's work on SMT. I enjoyed Doi's work on Persona 2 that he produced directly under Kaneko. Those masks that he made were awesome. But his work on Trauma Center and SMT basically just feel like Kaneko, but not nearly as good. His drawing's are not nearly as technically precise and his designs just don't have the same flair (but who does?). I feel like an ass reading over these words though. It's not as if he's a bad artist at all. I just ... KAZUMA KANEKO WHERE ARE YOUUUUU??
If he's no longer directly involved in making art, I hope he's living the high life in a senior position (as much as that's possible at a medium sized game company)
www.art-eater.com
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| "Re(1):Farewell to Roland's godfather of MIDI" , posted Thu 6 Apr 01:54
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Not purely game news, but very important to games: Kakehashi Ikutarou, the founder of Roland and the "godfather of MIDI," died this week. We have this man to thank not only for many drum, piano, and guitar synthesizers, but for the MIDI sound format, which Nikkei notes he made public for free and which became an instant standard! He got a Technical Grammy in 2013 for this.
Over the years I've met a number of people who feel that the best music is produced by a giant panel of knobs, wires, and blinking Star Trek lights. I'm not certain if it's more about the sound or the equipment but either way they owe a great deal to Ikutarou.
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| "Re(2):Re(10):A Breath of Fresh Night Trap" , posted Thu 27 Apr 01:34
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Night Trap is being re-released... seriously!
!?!
Actually, dollar for dollar, Night Trap might be the most internationally influential game of all time. Didn't this obscure American Mega CD game more or less lead to the ratings sytem there, which later spread to Japan and probably other places as well?
I think Night Trap's rerelease was inevitable in some shape or form, given how post-ironic the smaller-than-AAA videogame industry has become. I'm not even surprised at how it's getting a physical release, honestly. Now, for a low-low price, you can have a physical copy of a game that will be purchased largely for its LOL factor and for plenty of people will never even make it into their PS4. And for the record, I absolutely agree, Night Trap has been hugely influential-- it just doesn't need to played by anyone anymore.
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I was wondering what people's thoughts are of the recently released upgraded port of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap?
I like it, and I think it's been beautifully animated and presented, but playing it has just made me realize how far its genre has progressed since the late 80's, and how much I would have preferred that they take the original as a baseline to make a new game. It's also surprising to me that they made the decision to completely remake the game while conforming precisely to the original rather than updating the gameplay in any way at all. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a game that hasn't aged all that well in some ways, like its impossible architecture, where falling down a well drops you in the desert, etc., and all of the tiny incremental improvements to the Wonder Boy series after this one.
So, it's not that I'm unhappy it was made, I'm just a little startled by it. The TurboGraphx version was one of the highlights of action games for me at the time, and I'm sure that that makes me the audience for this game, so... I guess great job? I bought it, so I suppose mission complete?
You have to carefully reproduce the world of "Castlevania" in the solemn atmosphere.
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| | "Time to decide!" , posted Fri 5 May 04:12
After being left off of the Zero Escape: The Nonary Games collection, Zero Time Dilemma will finally get ported to PS4.
I wonder why Aksys didn't include it in the PS4 version of The Nonary Games. Well, apparently they're announcing that ZTD is being remastered to present "beautiful HD graphics" - which is interesting, because Vita's ZTD didn't look bad at all. The only thing that looked bad was how characters were animated, and I doubt this will be fixed (they didn't fix Clover's smiles in the Nonary Games' VLR game whenever she was supposed to be scared, sad or angry, so why would they fix animations now?).
Oh well, despite all of these complaints, I consider this good news. At least people who own a PS4 (and only a PS4) will be able to experience the full Zero Escape trilogy, just like the people who played it on the 3DS, Vita or PC. These games deserve all the sales and appreciation they can get, and much more.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| PSN: DefensorVirtuoso
XBL: n/a
Wii: n/a
STM: n/a
CFN: n/a
| "Re(1):Time to decide!" , posted Fri 5 May 04:58
quote:
After being left off of the Zero Escape: The Nonary Games collection, Zero Time Dilemma will finally get ported to PS4.
I wonder why Aksys didn't include it in the PS4 version of The Nonary Games. Well, apparently they're announcing that ZTD is being remastered to present "beautiful HD graphics" - which is interesting, because Vita's ZTD didn't look bad at all. The only thing that looked bad was how characters were animated, and I doubt this will be fixed (they didn't fix Clover's smiles in the Nonary Games' VLR game whenever she was supposed to be scared, sad or angry, so why would they fix animations now?).
Oh well, despite all of these complaints, I consider this good news. At least people who own a PS4 (and only a PS4) will be able to experience the full Zero Escape trilogy, just like the people who played it on the 3DS, Vita or PC. These games deserve all the sales and appreciation they can get, and much more.
Isn't the finale of the trilogy terrible? also I read that some puzzles lost all their charm without the second screen that the DS systems gave
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| | "Re(2):Time to decide!" , posted Fri 5 May 05:15
quote:
Isn't the finale of the trilogy terrible? also I read that some puzzles lost all their charm without the second screen that the DS systems gave
I'd say that's debatable. The most common complaints are about the animations, the roster (many players consider the new characters aren't charismatic, while some of the returning ones aren't as sympathetic as they used to be) and the ending (as it doesn't answer all the questions from the franchise's plot).
That said, most of these things are subjective. For instance, I actually like most of the new characters in ZTD (I do agree that some of the returning ones are quite unlikeable, though - then again, the same thing happened to Clover in VLR and that game was still fantastic), and I also like the idea of fragmenting the order of the story and puzzles and the decision moments (which could be compared to the Ally/Betray voting system in VLR, only more random and with much harsher consequences). It's also worth noting that most of the professional ZTD reviews are positive.
In the end, it's up to the player to experience the game and find out herself/himself whether s/he enjoyed it or not.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| | "Re(3):Time to decide!" , posted Fri 5 May 10:03
quote:
Isn't the finale of the trilogy terrible? also I read that some puzzles lost all their charm without the second screen that the DS systems gave
I'd say that's debatable. The most common complaints are about the animations, the roster (many players consider the new characters aren't charismatic, while some of the returning ones aren't as sympathetic as they used to be) and the ending (as it doesn't answer all the questions from the franchise's plot).
That said, most of these things are subjective. For instance, I actually like most of the new characters in ZTD (I do agree that some of the returning ones are quite unlikeable, though - then again, the same thing happened to Clover in VLR and that game was still fantastic), and I also like the idea of fragmenting the order of the story and puzzles and the decision moments (which could be compared to the Ally/Betray voting system in VLR, only more random and with much harsher consequences). It's also worth noting that most of the professional ZTD reviews are positive.
In the end, it's up to the player to experience the game and find out herself/himself whether s/he enjoyed it or not.
On one hand, once again there is a clever presentation/mechanic hook that has a strong narrative connection. On the other hand, some of the actual story in ZTD is hare-brained. I know some players who seriously think that the new story information that is revealed in ZTD retroactively makes the story of the series worse, and that's quite arguably true. Given that this is a series that really wants you to ponder big questions and think deeply about things, and enjoys having big clever reveals, some of the macguffins introduced in this game absolutely beggar belief. I'd even say that one of the climactic moments of the game that is intended to have deep emotional impact as a result of the combination of a big reveal and big questions completely falls flat.
That said, it's still an interesting game, and I don't regret the time I spent playing it, for all my gripes with it.
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| | "Re(4):Time to decide!" , posted Fri 5 May 22:45
quote:
On one hand, once again there is a clever presentation/mechanic hook that has a strong narrative connection. On the other hand, some of the actual story in ZTD is hare-brained. I know some players who seriously think that the new story information that is revealed in ZTD retroactively makes the story of the series worse, and that's quite arguably true. Given that this is a series that really wants you to ponder big questions and think deeply about things, and enjoys having big clever reveals, some of the macguffins introduced in this game absolutely beggar belief. I'd even say that one of the climactic moments of the game that is intended to have deep emotional impact as a result of the combination of a big reveal and big questions completely falls flat.
That said, it's still an interesting game, and I don't regret the time I spent playing it, for all my gripes with it.
Yeah, I agree with most of that, except with ZTD making the story of the series worse (in some aspects, yes; in others, quite the opposite). As for the climactic moments, some do fall flat, but I think others are quite good and one of them is easily among the best in the series. The same goes for the surprises and twists in it.
I guess another way of answering sibarraz's question would be: ZTD is considered by the Zero Escape fans as the weakest game of the trilogy - however, since 999 and VLR are considered amazing gems, it means that ZTD being the worst isn't the same as being a bad game, by any means.
It is quite frustrating that, as the final chapter of the series, it doesn't show most characters from the other two games and barely explains what happened to them (or, in one specific character's case, why that character was created), though.
Maybe I'm this person right in front of you... nah probably not though.
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| PSN: n/a
XBL: n/a
Wii: NNID:sfried
STM: n/a
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| "Re(2):Fire Emblem Echoes: Shut up Tobin!" , posted Wed 31 May 15:20
Is it just me or is Shadows of Valentia the FE game we didn't ask for, but needed? It's more your traditional FE story in tone (no more dating sim aspects), greater emphasis on class changes, weapon triangle is now turned on its head, dungeon exploration, town interaction, and not to mention one of the best production and localization values a Fire Emblem game has gotten (eat your heart out PoR/RD/Awakening). The only thing that kind of feels iffy to me is the animation by Studio Khara.
I also find it odd that this game has some spiritual connections with Nier Automata: localization is handled by 8-4 (some of their best work yet), Alm is voiced by 9S (KyleMcCarely), and a soundtrack that blows other past installments away. One wonders though what a Yoko Taro directed FE will be like, though...
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| PSN: robotchris
XBL: robotchris
Wii: n/a
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CFN: n/a
| "Re(1):let's Hover like JSR with Naganuma Hide" , posted Wed 7 Jun 00:41
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Anyone caught Hover yet? Sure, it's cribbing hard from Jet Set Radio, the subtitle is moronic, and the character designs aren't as good, but Sega hasn't done anything with the series for fifteen (!?!) years and they've got our electronica god Naganuma Hideki doing a SERIOUSLY funky track for the promo video!
I was a Kickstarter backer, and Naganuma's track is excellent stuff, but yeah, I'm a little disappointed with the general design. In a lot of ways though I always felt as though I was backing more the dream of Jet Set Radio (and the promise of Naganuma's music) than the resulting slightly off-brand take. It's like buying the store brand cola-- it's cola, sure, but it will always taste just a little bit off in a way that maybe can't be articulated.
I'm not sure if I missed this news, or if someone posted here about it while I was traveling, but it seems that there is an official english-language page for the latest from Vanillaware. I had seen the original teaser info about it ages ago, but I don'r recall seeing this latest dribble of info. I have to say that while the aesthetic of the characters and setting are fantastic, I... don't love the mechanics design in the slightest. Surely I can't be the only one?
You have to carefully reproduce the world of "Castlevania" in the solemn atmosphere.
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"Re(9):Re(10):Re: Bayonetta" , posted Tue 4 Apr 11:00
