Summer Games Challenge 2025 - GET EQUIPPED

[SpaceBooger]

I'm getting better at Metal Gear Solid 2. 16 hours in and I just located the Secret Service Agent. The average time to beat this game is 13 hours and I am way behind, but I'm still having fun. The trial and error and error and error of this game along with the wackyness of any MG story is keeping me engaged.

Update on Dragon Quest V (NDS) - I am level 37 and about to take on the Final Boss. My DS is asleep while I debate on trying to beat the game or Zooming back to the town to heal/save and grind a couple levels or two getting back to the final boss. So if anyone has played this game and has advise, please share it. I don't mind grinding more levels but right now I have most of my MP since one of the minibosses just replenished all of my HP and MP. I worry that if I grind a bit, I may have a higher level, but not as much MP. So is Hero at level 37, Son at 34, Daughter at 33 and a Golem at 16 (he is the strongest of my monsters while SaberCat is my highest level - 34), good enough to finish the game?

[marurun]

All this Ys talk makes me want to play some of them. Sadly, I've only completed Ys VIII which I enjoyed greatly. I actually have Ys Origin Collectors Edition sitting on my shelf sealed. I picked it up at a LRG scratch and dent sale a few years back (one of the corners of the box is ever so slightly smushed). I figured I needed to get a few more Ys games under my belt before I play it.

Honestly, you don't. There's a lot of lore in it but the game provides a lot of the context for the lore. Even if you don't know the familiar items or tunes that's OK. Origins is a fine jumping-in point, even if the game lacks Adol, the main character of the Ys series. I mean, later games lack the floating land of Ys, so it's all good.

[pierrot]

I finished Yunica's scenario and while the game was very fun, I don't anticipate re-playing it any time soon, so I guess I won't see the "true" ending? Also, I didn't play Ys I or II outside of the PC Engine versions, and it feels weird that Ys Origin has so many characters and so many character moments to provide backstory and preface a game which has far less investment in character development and story.

I also have a critical complaint with the graphics, which is that the lighting is so darned flat across everything, and that flat lighting combined with the camera perspective means some of the 3D platforming bits are weirdly awkward. Games had largely figured out 3D platforming perspective issues by the time of the game's original release, so it seems strange to see the game occasionally struggle with it.

I do think it's pretty interesting to play Yunica against a couple bosses that felt almost like shooter bosses, with their bullet and enemy patterns. Why hasn't Falcom attempted a shooter by now? Clearly they have some staff who are interested in the genre.

　
Nice! Yeah, I can't remember if I had actually mentioned it at all, but apparently with the Ys Eternal remake (which would become Ys Chronicles), there was a particular writer (Takeiri Hisayoshi) who seemed to become the main scenario and script writer for the Ys and Legend of Heroes (starting with 5) series--along with the Zwei games. At least up to IX and Crimson Sin, respectively. So I have to imagine that the games in these series from about the turn of the century on are going to have the same kind of iffy writing in them, but it does seem particularly weird in Origin considering it's a prequel to a rather threadbare game in terms of plot and character development in Ys I.

I did start Ys Chronicles, even though I couldn't get it set up in an ideal configuration. I'll report back on whether it's more in line with the story in Origin, but my initial impression is that there's a lot more dialogue and character interactions that I don't remember being in the Saturn ports.

Update on Dragon Quest V (NDS) - I am level 37 and about to take on the Final Boss. My DS is asleep while I debate on trying to beat the game or Zooming back to the town to heal/save and grind a couple levels or two getting back to the final boss. So if anyone has played this game and has advise, please share it. I don't mind grinding more levels but right now I have most of my MP since one of the minibosses just replenished all of my HP and MP. I worry that if I grind a bit, I may have a higher level, but not as much MP. So is Hero at level 37, Son at 34, Daughter at 33 and a Golem at 16 (he is the strongest of my monsters while SaberCat is my highest level - 34), good enough to finish the game?

It's not an easy fight. More so than specific levels, you mainly just want to have a number of mp restoring items like prayer rings, party healing spells and Sage Stone, and the 100% revive spell/Yggdrasil leaves (daughter is liable to die more than once). Otherwise, if you have Fubaha and Bikillt (not sure what they're called in English; the breath attack shield and double attack power spells) you're probably good, as long as you have decent single target damage. You'll have to reapply buffs a lot, though.

[Ack]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Since wrapping up Saints Row: The Third, I decided to go ahead and spend a little time in C&C: Red Alert. This game imagines a direct confrontation between the Allied West and the Soviet Union under Stalin. For my first time playing, I opted for the Soviet side. I have now completed three missions, which have consisted of razing a civilian village, destroying an Allied base, and running down an escaping spy with dogs.

And I really like those dogs. They practically fly at infantry and rip them apart. They're useless against buildings and vehicles, but a foot soldier? Oh man, what fun.

The original Command & Conquer had some AI quirks where they couldn't deal with walls. I don't yet know if this is the case with Red Alert, so I have been experimenting with using them to close off potential pathways, though so far no level has really presented itself with a means to test; the one level where I fought an enemy base, they weren't aggressive. We shall see how this works. I'll keep going though. More communist hijinks are in my future.

[pierrot]

I've mostly just been playing Dragon Quest VII, but I actually spent a little bit of time loading up the Saturn port of Ys I to compare with the first 10-15 minutes of Chronicles Ys I, and they are quite different. I realized for the first time that that Saturn mode adds some dialogue over the Original mode, which I assume is more purely the text from the PC-88 version. Anyway, Chronicles starts you out in this new town where they were transformed from a simple fishing village once the island began trying to export "silver," but then some sort of miasma formed around the island more or less trapping everyone either in or out. So along with all of that new stuff, there was something (I think it was about the sword at the Roda Tree) that made direct reference to the end of the 'true' ending in Origin. Plus just generally all sorts of new dialogue.


Otherwise, I've basically gotten into just grinding in Dragon Quest VII because I realized that the second tier professions completely stomp all over the defaults, and it's not even close. So I wanted to get my party kind of set up on decent professions with decent abilities after picking up a fourth character again, finally. Which makes this probably as good a time as any to get some of my grievances with VII out.

I've mentioned several times already that I hate a lot of the technical game design in VII. For anyone not familiar with VII at all, it's one of the professions DQs like III, VI, IX and X. VII's system is basically an extension of VI's where you gain proficiency in a class, but not levels with that class, or a table of skill lines like IX and X. After most levels of proficiency (up to a master level of eight stars) characters gain an ability or spell pertaining to their current profession (unless they already have it for some other reason). The abilities and skills stay on the character when changing professions, and mastering certain combinations of professions unlocks advanced professions for that character (eg. a character masters Warrior and Fighter, and gains access to advanced profession Battle Master).

The other main thing that professions do is modify a character's stats to be more fitting of that profession, and they change A LOT. The stats for most of the basic professions make characters pretty unspectacular, just redistributing their base stats in a way that doesn't really increase their natural strengths by much, and kind of severely weakens them in other ways. I had to go through a lot of the game after unlocking professions with Maribelle as a thief before my party was strong enough to deal with making her a massive liability on mage.

The way to level up proficiency is just through a number of battles that varies by profession and proficiency level (against enemies of a certain strength that I don't know the line for). This leads me to where DQ VII--quite frankly--fucks up. Unlocking advanced professions can take a huge number of battles, and the proficiency system doesn't even get unlocked until well into the game (like 30-40 hours in). The normal balance of the game (without doing any real grinding) makes VII on the considerably more challenging side of the DQ series, but still doable. You will absolutely never have enough gold to keep up with the equipment at shops because the game gives out a pittance for gold from enemies and chests, and the costs for equipment get exorbitant quickly. The game also very, very rarely actually gives even half-decent equipment to use; It's mostly just shop fodder for more pittance of gold.

The other thing is that experience from enemies is pretty pitiful, and each level requires a whole bushel of it. I was well past half of the game when I hit level 20! So the feeling of growth through the normal course of the game is absolutely terrible. Basically I got tired of kind of limping along through things and started just grinding proficiency at the tower by modern-day Harmelia, since it has this group of three lv8 slimes that I can kill before they call for help and turn into a King Slime, which gives me 450 exp and 150 gold (as opposed to the ~120 exp and 40 gold from the King Slime--). I only get that group maybe one in ten times, but that's about as good as it can get for me still, by a factor of two or three, and I've amassed a decent pile of gold (that will evaporate instantly) while getting my party decently tuned with professions.

So after, I don't know, six or seven hours(?) of grinding I'm sitting with main character at Lv 27 on Warrior after mastering Pirate (going for Demon Slash, and unlocking Battle Master), Melvin at Lv 24 on Paladin, Gabo at Lv 24 on Battle Master and just a master thief away from unlocking Monster Hunter, and Maribelle on Sage. I also took a small break from grinding to see about getting first place on the stat rankings in modern Leetrude, because I accidentally read too far when trying to figure out where I had missed another stone tablet piece (which is another whole issue that it was in a place I would have absolutely never had the slightest inclination I would need to ever go back to) and saw that I'm going to be losing Maribelle after finishing that map. So, since she was the character with the best fashion stat that I had, and the only one who could wear the glass slippers, I figured I should do that before losing her. Except! For whatever reason, I couldn't get her to first place with 196 cool stat, but I was able to get first place on my main character with about 180. I have no idea what that's about, but I got a nice piece of Platinum Armor out of it. I also got Melvin in first place for intelligence stat after doing the side quest tied to that (and having to look up who the hell Eteponge was; I have no idea how anyone could be expected to remember that).

Anyway, I generally enjoy playing the game, because it's Dragon Quest and the stories are pretty decent and Sugiyama's music is superlative and I enjoy a lot of the characters, but oh my god did they drop the ball with a lot of the technical game design and progression. A real tale of two cities.

[prfsnl_gmr]

All of your criticism of DQVII is completely fair. It is a really, really long, grind-y entry in the DQ series, and I sometimes wonder how I got through it. The episodic nature of the story helps, I think, and I was able to break the game up into bite-sized chunks. (Big bites…since each section was at least as long as an 8- or 16-bit JRPG.) Keep grinding and you’ll get through it.

……

In other news…we are killing it with the Summer Games Challenge this year, and I am happy to see so many people getting through so many good, classic games.

Just a few minutes ago, I wrapped up Resident Evil: Code Veronica X. It’s a game that’s been in my “to beat” list for years, and it’s the last of the classic RE games I needed to beat before progressing with the series. (From here, I feel like I can advance to either the RE-makes or continue the story with RE5 and RE6. Decisions! Decisions!)

Resident Evil: Code Veronica is definitely one for the fans. @Ack described it as a game that’s been assumes you’ve beaten all its predecessors, and that description is spot on with regard to both gameplay and storyline. Specifically, the game features classic RE gameplay (i.e., tank controls, limited inventory, fixed camera angles, fetch quests, simple puzzles, and shotgunning zombies, etc.), but unlike previous entries the backgrounds are not pre-rendered, allowing for a bit more interactivity. Beating the game also requires controlling two different characters (i.e., Claire and Chris Redfield) as they navigate two different versions of the same locales. The game is significantly more difficult than its predecessors, though, and if you don’t manage your inventory and supplies well, there are quite a few things you could miss or, worse, you could effectively “soft-lock” your game. (Pro-Tip: Make back up saves!) If you’ve beaten another RE game, it won’t give you too much trouble, but I could see someone new to the series getting very frustrated with it. The story is also for the fans, featuring frequent references to events from RE and RE2 and expanding significantly of the series’ lore. Again, newcomers would likely have no idea what was happening or why.

All that said, the game is very strong, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. It’s rare to see an entry in any game series that doesn’t cater to newcomers, but provides fans a strong challenge, and I appreciated it. I am glad that I <finally!> beat it after so many false starts, and I hope that anyone else playing this summer enjoys it as much as I did.

1. F-Zero X (N64) - inspired by @bmoc
2. Gate of Thunder (TG16 CD) - inspired by @marurun
3. Jet Grind Radio (Dreamcast) - inspired by @Racketboy
4. Perfect Dark (N64) - inspired by @Key-Glyph
5. Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS2) - inspired by @Key-Glyph
6. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (Dreamcast) - inspired by @alienjesus
7. Terranigma (SNES) - inspired by @SpaceBooger
8. Ys Book I & II (TG16 CD) - inspired by @pierrot
9. TBD
10. TBD

What should I play next?

[Ack]

Heh, well Prfsnl, now I want to see how you tackle Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Heh, well Prfsnl, now I want to see how you tackle Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64!

Is it OK if I play the HD port on the 360?

[Ack]

Sure, even that is 15 years old at this point.

[pierrot]

Keep grinding and you’ll get through it.

It's one of those things where I know there's an end, but it's a little like when I was playing DQ IX last year, I just got more interested in buffing up my party with all sorts of insane abilities that probably shouldn't exist all on a single character. I had already grinded professions to the point of outstripping the difficulty curve before I got Eila, and now that I've got her in my party and almost to being a Super Star, I'm so far beyond the level I'm 'supposed' to be it's not even funny.

Anyway, nearly up to my intermediate goal of having my main character on Battle Master, Gabo on Monster Hunter, Melvin on Sage, and Eila being a Super Star before continuing on after getting Princess Gete to hold a Toula contest at the castle. Planning to start doping with the collection of stat seeds I've been holding onto since the start of the game, and plough through the ~70,000 gold I've got on hand for tuning up equipment.

I also seem to have missed another stone tablet piece somewhere (I think this makes three, maybe four, now). So, I'll probably just look that up.

Just a few minutes ago, I wrapped up Resident Evil: Code Veronica X. It’s a game that’s been in my “to beat” list for years, and it’s the last of the classic RE games I needed to beat before progressing with the series. (From here, I feel like I can advance to either the RE-makes or continue the story with RE5 and RE6. Decisions! Decisions!)
All that said, the game is very strong, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. It’s rare to see an entry in any game series that doesn’t cater to newcomers, but provides fans a strong challenge, and I appreciated it.

Sweet! I went RE (Saturn) -> RE2 (Dreamcast) -> RE3 (Dreamcast) -> REC:VX (Dreamcast), and after a while I finally went through ReMake (Gamcube), but I honestly prefer the original RE. So, personally I don't have much interest in later REs, but I have still been kind of meaning to play RE0 and RE4. Don't forget about Dino Crisis! I think it's decidedly "okay."

Also, if you haven't played any of the Fatal Frame games, and you need some more survival horror juice, it is a mother crunkin' awesome series.

Just putting this out there, since I don't think it's been mentioned that some people prefer the original C:V on Dreamcast mostly because the complete version ("C:VX") added the scenes

that make Wesker a crazy vampiric super soldier.

Some say it changes the feel of the game significantly.
While on the Dreamcast, Illbleed and D2 are some beautifully weird-ass horror experiences that remain exclusive.