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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by PartridgeSenpai Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:53 am

opa wrote:How many in-game days did it take you to finish pikmin? And did you get all ship parts?
I think my fastest time is 19 days, iirc.


I got all the ship parts, yup! Took me 19 days as well X3
I could probably cut off a day or two if I tried again though. At the very least one day, since my final day was composed entirely of carrying the piggy bank to the ship, because I killed the final boss too late in the day to get the 85 Pikmin over there to bring it back XP (it weighs a lot more in the Japanese version)
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Nemoide
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by Nemoide Fri Aug 06, 2021 9:51 pm

I've started Geist, am only in the third level, but am totally loving it so far. You start off as a normal person in an FPS-type situation but the second level starts with you being ripped from your body and now "living" as a ghost. In ghost form, you can float a bit and go through things you couldn't before, although the only way you can directly interact with things is by possessing them. To possess a creature, you first have to scare them which you can do by possessing something else first and then haunting it in a way to scare them. For instance, you can possess a trash and press the A button (labeled "scare" in the HUD) to make some trash fly into the air and explode. That might turn a person's aura from neutral to yellow, but it needs to become red before you can possess them, so then you can possess a telephone and haunt that into scaring them more. Then you take control of their body and use that to get past checkpoints or kill enemies.
It's a lot of fun figuring out that you can possess a bowl of dog food to scare a dog and then possess the dog, and that the dog's barks can scare rats which let you then hop into the rats and go someplace else. It's definitely got some FPS gameplay, but shooting is not the focus of the game.

I know this game got really mixed reviews back in the day; maybe it will get too repetitive or turn bad, but so far I'm really into it!
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by MrPopo Sat Aug 07, 2021 11:52 am

I initially started with F-Zero GX, but then remembered the track design is far too in love with ways for you to fall off (especially if you have the temerity to go fast) and the story mode has absolutely no balance to it. So I switched to Baten Kaitos instead. It's got a unique battle system, but it's not necessarily great. And it's using prerendered backgrounds that do an absolutely terrible job of letting you know where transitions are and doesn't even have the decency to have an option to highlight them like FF7 does. And the main character is kind of a prick.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by PartridgeSenpai Sat Aug 07, 2021 5:52 pm

MrPopo wrote:I initially started with F-Zero GX, but then remembered the track design is far too in love with ways for you to fall off (especially if you have the temerity to go fast) and the story mode has absolutely no balance to it. So I switched to Baten Kaitos instead. It's got a unique battle system, but it's not necessarily great. And it's using prerendered backgrounds that do an absolutely terrible job of letting you know where transitions are and doesn't even have the decency to have an option to highlight them like FF7 does. And the main character is kind of a prick.


It is SO wild to me that in the original version of FF7 that it didn't have those arrows to highlight climbable areas and area transitions. That's why I'm so glad that I found an International Version in Japan, because even that one change makes playing the original release seem so brutal Xp

--

I started the GameCube port of Far East of Eden 2 yesterday! I've tried starting it on the PCE version (both on my PCE Mini and on my PS3) several times, but I'm so glad that I waited to play this version instead. The graphics are way nicer, sure, but omg are the quality of life features SO much better. I'm not sure if the difficulty has been rebalanced at all, but hot damn if the more readable menus and more readable text don't make this feel like a whole new game XD. I'm not terribly far into it so far (I only just met Kabuki, who I believe will become my first party member), but I'm having a good deal of fun so far~.
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by BoneSnapDeez Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:09 pm

Man PSO on GameCube is sooooooo good.
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Note
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by Note Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:18 pm

PartridgeSenpai wrote:@Note - Oooo! Luigi's Mansion is a really fun one! I hope you have fun (and can find that pesky key you're missing) :D


Thanks, Pidge!

I played a bit more of Luigi's Mansion tonight and figured out what I had missed. There was a wall in the storage room area that I had to push back, once that occurred, a bunch of boos escaped throughout the mansion. After catching a few of the boos, I made my way to the washroom area, attained a key, then had to catch a bunch of grab ghosts in the mirror room. Afterwards, I received the fire elemental medal, and an additional key.

Great to not be stuck anymore! I'm finding the boos to be pesky, as they seem to always drain a bit of life from me when I run into them.
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by PartridgeSenpai Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:32 am

Woo hoo! Congrats, Note! ^w^

---

Got a bit further in Far East of Eden 2 today. I've now beaten 3 out of 7 (or 8?) big bosses~. Even in its GameCube iteration, it's easy to be impressed at just how ambitious a project this must've been on its original hardware in 1992. It's mostly just a graphical upgrade with some quality of life features thrown in for this version, so all those animated cutscenes and oodles of VA are right out of 1992.

That said, even in its GameCube upgrade, while I would rank FEoE2 above a 16-bit contemporary like FF4, I'm not sure I'd rank it above 8-bit predecessors like FF3 or DQ4. Both mechanically and narratively, there just isn't really enough going on to surpass 8-bit greats like them. FEoE2's greatest strengths are in its presentation, and as far as mechanics and narrative go, it's really just one huge and fairly flat adventure. The writing is still entertaining though. While it's very often at least a little silly, if not super super silly (and often quite funny), it's also sometimes *very* dark in a way I find incredibly memorable if nothing else XD. It's not really darkness to any particular narrative end either, so either they're doing it in the narrative to juxtapose against the silliness in order to heighten both and play both for a kind of comedy, or they're just being gratuitous to flex their budget and really drive home just what evil scumbags the bad guys are XD

Either way, I'm enjoying it and super happy for GameCube month here, because otherwise who knows how long it would've taken me to get to this X3.
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Note
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by Note Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:27 pm

Got a bit further in Luigi's Mansion this evening! I came across the laundry room, found Mario's red hat, then followed the butler ghost into the butler's room, and vacuum'd him up. Lol. Afterwards, I found the hidden room with the fire elemental ghosts. I didn't realize they were fire elemental at first, so I had to attempt that room a few times before I figured it out. Once I finished that area, I made my way to the conservatory room, where after checking the instruments, a woman starts playing Super Marios Bros. 3 theme. That cracked me up, wasn't expecting to hear that in this game. After that boss, I also defeated the hungry ghost and the waitresses in the dining room area.

Took a break at that point. Having fun with this one!
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by PartridgeSenpai Thu Aug 12, 2021 11:02 am

I finished Far East of Eden 2 today! I won't be getting to reviewing it for a while, but my feelings on it are definitely mixed ^^;. The quality of life improvements and enhanced visuals the GameCube port adds are definitely really nice, but there's a fair bit of other stuff that I would've appreciated being added. It's a game that definitely shows its age, GameCube or no GameCube, in many ways, and at the very least I'd have a hard time recommending even the GameCube port to someone who isn't very into retro DQ-style games. Still, I'm glad I finally gave it a try and got through it ^w^

---

I started Pikmin 2 this evening! I had forgotten just how massively better the sequel controls than the original. I love this game so much ^w^
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Note
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Re: Together Retro August 2021 - Twenty Years of the Gamecub

by Note Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:50 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Man PSO on GameCube is sooooooo good.


Love PSO on the Gamecube! I spent so many hours on it back in the day, I think I'll take this month to explore some games I never finished or put many hours into on the system.

But eventually I really would like to try to get a couple people to play online on one of the private servers.

PartridgeSenpai wrote:I finished Far East of Eden 2 today! I won't be getting to reviewing it for a while, but my feelings on it are definitely mixed ^^;. The quality of life improvements and enhanced visuals the GameCube port adds are definitely really nice, but there's a fair bit of other stuff that I would've appreciated being added. It's a game that definitely shows its age, GameCube or no GameCube, in many ways, and at the very least I'd have a hard time recommending even the GameCube port to someone who isn't very into retro DQ-style games. Still, I'm glad I finally gave it a try and got through it ^w^

---

I started Pikmin 2 this evening! I had forgotten just how massively better the sequel controls than the original. I love this game so much ^w^


Congrats of finishing Far East of Eden 2, Pidge! Also glad to hear you've started on Pikmin 2. I actually haven't played the Pikmin series before, something I'd like to try.

In regards to my game progress in Luigi's Mansion, I beat the boss in the second area of the mansion. Took me a bit of time to figure out how to damage the second area's boss, but luckily I didn't have to attempt the battle again.

Onto the third area!
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