What are you playing?

[Exhuminator]

Everblue 2



I dove that sunken luxury liner last night. The thing is huge and easy to get lost in. Ended up needing faster diving fins to fight the currents blowing through it. Had to find a key guarded by sharks to open a particular door, but eventually found the documents. While I was there I also found an antique typewriter to fulfill a secondary quest.



After that I spent some time salvaging for parts to upgrade my boat, I was able to find everything I needed and now the boat's range is amazing. I can take the boat just about anywhere and dive straight down now, instead of having to swim so far to particular wrecks.



Took a break from diving and hit the auction house for a while. Kept waiting for other divers to auction off better gear than what I already had. I sold some precious metals and gems I'd found earlier to have plenty of spending cash. I was able to win a better air tank and dry suit than what I had before. I still need a bigger salvaging bag though.



Later I took a challenge to navigate an underwater cave system, basically a maze. It was kind of stressful, but I was able to find what equated to an old pirate map. I used the map to find a long lost pirate ship resting very deep in a far corner of the game world. I'm supposed to dive the pirate ship tonight and find some sort of artifact. The artifact I think will unlock a subterranean temple.

This game is incredibly fun.

[Segata]

I have played shmups in the past but only recently REALLY got into them. I never fully got into them before because they seemed so intimidating. These are not all the ones I own but the ones I been playing recently that I do own. No real order.

Darius Burst CS- On PS4 physical play asia. It is a full priced game with tons of optional DLC. Mostly skins for the ship from other series like Space Harrier,Deathsmiles,Older Darius games,Raystorm and just about every shmup series under the sun. base game has multiple arcade cabinets. AC mode for Arcade. CS mode. 3000 stages. I kid you not. This game has infinite replay ability.

Astebreed- LOVE this game. Hack n slash meets shmup

MUSHA- Bought the OST CD because the game is so good. My Genesis rocks with MUSHA.

Gaiares- Tough as nails game. Imagine Kirby as a shmup.Music is great also.

Caladrius Blaze- Fantasy setting Shmup. Pretty good game. I just hate the stripping anime girls thing.

Raiden IV- III is lame but IV is awesome. Also from MOSS. Look forward to Raiden V in August on PS4.

Ikaruga- One of two recent Shmups I played I have not beat. I just struggle with it. Damn good tho.

Strainia- Shmup with mechs. Pretty decent.

Guwange- Cave shooter. Japanese myth setting. It's decent. Not the best from Cave.

Omedius Excellent- It's a Gradius game with anime girls. Cute em up Gradius. No pun. The game plays pretty stiff. mediocre game.

Deathsmiles- I really enjoyed this. It's Stupidly fun.

Akai Katana- Another one the better Cave games I played. Amazing rock OST as well. ESP Stage 4 music.

Pulstar - Neo Geo shooter. This one is pretty damn hard. Still great.

Espgaluda II: Black Label- Cave again. Quality as always. Good OST.

Mushihime-sama Futari Ver 1.5- This one is truly excellent. Unlike one game that claimed to be. I did a review of this in the review thread.

Soldner X-2 Final Prototype- I got this on Vita and damn is it awesome. Western developed but they truly get how to make a shmup. Not bullet hell really. It's on Vita on cart as well at Play Asia. Another great OST. A lot of VA to.

Bulk Slash- I dunno if this counts as a Shmup. It's a 3d Mech shooter but plays kinda like a shmup. Amazing mid 90s Saturn OST with a lot of synth rock.

Geist Force- It's unfinished and buggy. I am just glad to have a retail like copy after 18 years.

I do own more and played more in my life. These are the most recent. I have found it's not as intimidating as you would think.

[Xeogred]

Everblue looks wack, in a good way. It looks like I'm looking at 3D Ecco the Dolphin in some screens, then FF7 in the others.

[Exhuminator]

Everblue looks wack, in a good way. It looks like I'm looking at 3D Ecco the Dolphin in some screens, then FF7 in the others.

The original Everblue and Everblue 2 are very cool games, very innovative but also idiosyncratic. They honestly feel like labors of love from a developer who just wanted to make games they wished existed, potential target demographic be damned. I should mention I'm a big fan of scuba diving and undersea fauna, so that makes these games appeal to me more personally. But still, such a cool mishmash of genres, it's about finding lost stuff and helping people, taking pictures of fish for fun, and having conversations with natives about old pirate legends. No mindless killing or endless shooting whatsoever.

Yeah these games are a good pick for people who say they're bored to death with normal games that rigidly confine to genre specifics. If someone is truly seeking new experiences then they'll play stuff like Everblue or Miasmata or Panty Party! even. Taking chances like that pays off more often then not, and even if it doesn't, you still got to experience something truly different for a while.

[miked]

Been playing Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance on the GBA. I heard alot of mixed things about this game, but I find it fantastic. A bit on the easy side though. Heck I think I might just sail right into Aria of Sorrow after this.

Also been playing Mega man Xtreme on the GBC. This game is hard. I doubt I'm going to beat this on anything other than the normal difficulty. I am surprised how well alot of the Mega Man X stuff was translated to the GBC. The control is not near as tight as the SNES games, but its still very impressive. Also won Xtreme 2 in the same auction but have not checked it out yet.

[Xeogred]

I don't like Harmony much but yeah, it's really not bad. Aria is leagues better. I like Circle, Aria, and Order of Eclessia the most for the handheld ones.

The Xtreme games rule and are still kind of hidden gems. They both remix elements from all three X games. It's really cool to imagine what an X game on the NES would have been like, but this is pretty close.

Everblue looks wack, in a good way. It looks like I'm looking at 3D Ecco the Dolphin in some screens, then FF7 in the others.

The original Everblue and Everblue 2 are very cool games, very innovative but also idiosyncratic. They honestly feel like labors of love from a developer who just wanted to make games they wished existed, potential target demographic be damned. I should mention I'm a big fan of scuba diving and undersea fauna, so that makes these games appeal to me more personally. But still, such a cool mishmash of genres, it's about finding lost stuff and helping people, taking pictures of fish for fun, and having conversations with natives about old pirate legends. No mindless killing or endless shooting whatsoever.

Yeah these games are a good pick for people who say they're bored to death with normal games that rigidly confine to genre specifics. If someone is truly seeking new experiences then they'll play stuff like Everblue or Miasmata or Panty Party! even. Taking chances like that pays off more often then not, and even if it doesn't, you still got to experience something truly different for a while.

Can't wait to see what you think of Ecco.

[Exhuminator]

Everblue 2

Well I scoured that pirate ship (The Edmund) last night, and eventually figured out the environmental puzzles required to retrieve an item needed from its bowels. It was the most complicated dive in the game, and that reflects the original Everblue 1's own pirate ship (The Spada which was a nightmare).

After that, I sought and found the Telospolis, a sunken temple, ancient and mysterious. But I couldn't get far in it, because I was missing a key item which had been stolen. The item was cursed though and caused the vessel it was spirited away in to sink. And that vessel was a submarine.

So I had to salvage said item from said disabled submarine. The sub wasn't too difficult to find, nor was it very difficult to navigate. However there was a tricky bit involving having to disable the emergency locks on doors, but I sussed it out. I then retrieved the item I needed from the sub as well, which allows me to return to the Telospolis.

And so later today, I plan to explore Telospolis and return to cursed item. I believe after doing that, I will have beaten the game. Although I'm sure there's plenty of post game material, but I likely won't mess with it. The reason why is, it will involve a lot of busy work collecting and doing small errands for people, and I'm just not into that sort of stuff. I'm an explorer not a fetch dog.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Been playing Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance on the GBA. I heard alot of mixed things about this game, but I find it fantastic. A bit on the easy side though. Heck I think I might just sail right into Aria of Sorrow after this.

We'll see if you maintain that qualm of too much ease once you get to the final boss. He's a right fuckin' kick in the teeth compared to the rest of the game, or at least I thought so. Being able to front AND back dash is sooooo awesome though ;_;

[Exhuminator]

Harmony of Dissonance is fun but a total piece of cake. As are most of the metroidvanias. Circle of the Moon and Order of Ecclesia are the only challenging ones.

[strangenova]

So I tried out Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival last night, and yes this game is as bad as everyone says. In my experience every nintendo made game for the wii u is amazing, minus a few that are just ok, this one is the only bad one I've played.

A few thought on what could make it better. First off, DON'T PUNISH PLAYERS FOR NOT OWNING ENOUGH AMIIBOS AND/OR AMIIBO CARDS. That is by far the biggest sin this game commits. I played a three player game, the game gives me two amiibos and I had no other compatible ones, the player without one loses out on bonus happiness the whole game. *Happiness is necessary to win* Amiibos should've just been a bonus, like playing as your favorite Animal Crossing characters, not necessary to compete with other players.

Ok now to some other stuff. The game starts off bare, but after you make it through seven rounds it adds in the Turnip stock market, which is good and every few turns you get a random bunch of event spaces thrown in. These are all good things but they should be present from turn one. I shouldn't have to play a boring fifteen to twenty minutes to get to an actual game. Even still there isn't enough meat to this game. I can't help but wonder if these changes plus maybe a few repetitive mini games here and there could've helped this game from failing to just mediocre.