Summer Game Challenge 2013 - Begin when ready!

[pierrot]

1. Aladdin (GEN)
2. Rockman (MD)
3. Rockman 2 (MD)
4. Rockman 3 (MD)
5. Dragon Quest (SFC)
6. Dragon Quest II (SFC)
7. Grandia (SS)
8. Resident Evil 2 (DC)
9. Dynamite Deka (SS)
10. Phantasy Star II (MD)


I damn near lost my mind last night after making it to the final boss in Dragon Quest II, with full health/mp only to be used like a mop to wipe down Hargon's tower floors.

Gave it another go, armed with slightly more knowledge, and was able to make it through, even though I had to use a Yggdrasil leaf while fighting Burial. Was elated to finally finish the game, but now I feel a little sad that it's over. Which is kind of strange considering how much grief the game gave me. Generally the balance felt pretty good, but the final area, final dungeon and final boss(es) were accompanied with such ridiculous spikes in difficulty compared to everything before them. I was reading a review of this version last night, where the author was praising II for being more rewarding of tactical play than I or III. I haven't played III yet, but that was not my experience at all. Maybe that author had a better time with casting de-buffs than I did (although I don't know why he should have) but I constantly had to try to recast three or four times to get things like StopMagic to stick. That's an infuriating number of turns to be sitting like a duck while the enemy is beating on me with Ionazun (don't know what the localization called it) Zariku (ditto) and double attacks.


But enough of that. Only two more games to go.

[Violent By Design]

Godspeed pierrot.

[alienjesus]

1. Bubble Bobble (SMS)
2. Pulseman (Wii VC - MD)
3. Diddy Kong Racing (N64)
4. Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
5. Loco Roco (PSP)
6. Tomb Raider (PS1)
7. Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
8. Cybernator (SNES)
9. Earthbound (Wii U VC - SNES)
10. Shantae (3DS VC - GBC)

6th game beaten, and it was brilliant.

As far as I'm concerned, Earthbound deserved every bit of praise that has been lavished on it over the years. It has its flaws sure, but everything about the game is just charming, fun and generally well designed, so small flaws just kinda get brushed over. It's just the kind of game I needed to distract me from the slog that is Tomb Raider for a few weeks. The music is bizarre but well composed, and the soundtrack is surprisingly expansive and experimental. The graphics are simple but full of charm and style and they just work. The games script is genuinely funny, which is impressive for a 16 bit SNES era RPG translated from Japanese. It's just so good, it's definitely up there with my favourite 8-16 bit RPGs, and probably with my favourite RPGs in general. So glad I finally had the chance to play through this one.

Next Up: Supposedly Tomb Raider, but also quite likely Shantae.

[pierrot]

Between last night, and the night before, I've put nearly eight hours into Grandia, and have only just gotten Sue back in my party. (Anyone familiar with the game want to tell me how far behind average progression I am?) I do like the story, and I'm fairly invested in the game now, so sticking with it isn't really an issue. The character interactions, and story in general are pretty well done so far, and have this feature film quality to them. In some ways it actually reminds me of a Ghibli film. The problem for me is that there are FAR too many NPCs, everywhere, who all have multiple lines of monologue/dialogue. What with my propensity to talk to every character in a town, it took me two and a half hours before I was even ready to leave Palm.

I've beaten Grandia II on the Dreamcast way back when, so I'm fairly familiar with the battle system in this one. While it may be on a slightly different scale, it's a nice, semi-tactical, free-roaming battle system that doesn't get too repetitive. The game is extremely easy, so far, though. So my impression of the game at this point is more of it being a text-adventure game, than an RPG. Basically, in order to clear it in any reasonable amount of time, I should probably be playing it with a walkthrough, since I'm spending most of my time talking to NPCs multiple times, which in turn gets me mostly useless information. I don't really like using walkthroughs for games anymore, unless I'm actually completely stumped about how to proceed, though.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one, yet. I'm enjoying it in general, but I kind of feel in a bit of a crunch with the time sensitivity. Ultimately, that shouldn't be an issue, but I'm not happy about the game basically wasting my time by exploiting a "flaw" in the way I play RPGs. This is part of the reason I shy away from picking up more modern RPGs these days. There's no reason for all these NPCs. They do absolutely nothing for the narrative. Some of them provide some interesting interaction, but not enough that I feel good about being almost nowhere in the game after eight hours. Slow game is slooooooooooooooooooooooow. (Also, I half expected the "Grandia" title to pop up on screen after I first left Palm, or as the boat to the new world was setting off into the sunrise.)

[CFFJR]

1. Demon's Crest - SNES - Complete
2. Sonic Pocket Adventure - NGPC - Complete
3. Harvest Moon GBC - GBC
4. Panzer Dragoon - Saturn
5. Shadowrun - Genesis
6. Chrono Cross - PS1
7. Radical Dreamers - SNES - Complete
8. Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys - Genesis - Complete
9. Deus Ex - PC
10. Metal Slug 2 - PSN - Complete
11.Golden Axe 3 - Genesis - Complete

Thought I should update and say that after a very long break from the game (and hell, games in general) I did finally beat Metal Slug 2 a couple of days ago.

On easy.

But, that's as good as its going to get because that's all the patience I have for it anymore. Oh well.

We're coming up on the end here. I don't think I'll be able to beat Shadowrun or Deus Ex in time. We'll see if I have the motivation.

[BoneSnapDeez]

6th game beaten, and it was brilliant.

As far as I'm concerned, Earthbound deserved every bit of praise that has been lavished on it over the years. It has its flaws sure, but everything about the game is just charming, fun and generally well designed, so small flaws just kinda get brushed over. It's just the kind of game I needed to distract me from the slog that is Tomb Raider for a few weeks. The music is bizarre but well composed, and the soundtrack is surprisingly expansive and experimental. The graphics are simple but full of charm and style and they just work. The games script is genuinely funny, which is impressive for a 16 bit SNES era RPG translated from Japanese. It's just so good, it's definitely up there with my favourite 8-16 bit RPGs, and probably with my favourite RPGs in general. So glad I finally had the chance to play through this one.

Glad you liked it. Such a good game. In my opinion only Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger are superior.

[Retrogamer0001]

Blah, I've been ignoring this. Gotta buckle down and beat FF3 sometime this week and then power through Pokemon Yellow at some point...it's funny though, I've beaten games like Skyrim, Dragon's Crown, and Radiant Historia this summer, so time was definitely not an issue. Oh well, the more the merrier.

[alienjesus]

I've been working through Tomb Raider again recently. Its a bit of a slog, and I cant say whether I'm really enjoying it or not. Its a well made (if dated) game, but it doesn't do a lot for me.

As I'm sure I've said before, it amuses me that this game became so popular. It's very much an old-school hard game that takes a lot of time and effort to figure out where to go, and it has complex controls and precision gameplay that doesn't lend itself to a mass audience.

I'm sure it can partly be attributed to certain... aesthetic features of the game.

It basically just feels to me like if they took some of the old school rotoscope games like Flashback and Prince of Persia and made them 3D. I hate those old rotoscope games

[pierrot]

1. Aladdin (GEN)
2. Rockman (MD)
3. Rockman 2 (MD)
4. Rockman 3 (MD)
5. Dragon Quest (SFC)
6. Dragon Quest II (SFC)
7. Grandia (SS)
8. Biohazard (SS)
9. Dynamite Deka (SS)
10. Phantasy Star II (MD)



So, let's just say that I had Biohazard for the Saturn on my list the whole time, and not the second game for the Dreamcast--.

I was kind of fighting myself about playing the first one to begin with, and for a number of reasons, I decided on starting with 2 for the purposes of this game challenge. Pretty late in the game to make the change back, but here we are.

Anyway, I beat Jill's story and got the Secret Key. I checked a guide after the fact to see what exactly it does, and also found that I somehow, magically, got the best ending, also. I searched everything, though, and spent the bulk of my time just fumbling with inventory and making a ridiculous number of trips back and forth to the remote areas of the mansion that actually have lockers in them. Seriously, would it have been so bad to just shorten my main inventory by a few slots, and put puzzle/necessary items into a separate key item inventory? I get the impetus for the limited inventory, but the inconvenience at points really irks me. I can't pass up items; even the items the game told me I didn't need anymore, I kept and put into the locker. Why game-- why?

I did enjoy it, though. Very good game, and quite a bit of replay ability it seems. I'm interested in playing through Chris' story and getting the unlimited ammo rocket launcher, but I'm a little frightened by the idea of trying either right away. I still have to figure out how I'm going to get to the bonus room with Jill.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Are you in Japan right now, pierrot?