Summer Games Challenge 2014

[noiseredux]

I mean like SMB2, Snake's Revenge, etc. I know those are sequels in name only, but we didnt know that then.

FF II isnt a completely diff game. Its still a turn based RPG.

[fastbilly1]

Well i'm not really having trouble with FF1 it's just that I get lost and sometimes it's hard(without a walkthrough) to know what to and not to spend money on. Other than that it's been easy so far...(I've got where to go up to marsh cave memorized). It's a fun game, it's just like other games I have a tendency to get a decent ways into it then get busy in real life, then come back to it later and wonder, "wait where the heck am I and where was I going?"

Decided to restart ff1 because I wanted a different party. I'm actually liking this party setup better(warrior, monk, white mage, red mage). Find it weird that the monk had a staff equipped since everything I've seen or read says do not give him a weapon since he's better off w/out it. Red mage feels so much better than having a black mage and the monk seems to be even better than thief.....I may stick with this layout since it seems to be easier to get through some of the battles quicker in this version

I had that problem for years. Once you get out of the small ocean, into the big world, aka after you help the dwarves, you will feel even more lost. But that is the nature of games from that era.

Unequip the Monk weapon and sell it. Equip up the Warrior and keep him in the first spot until everyone does a job change, then the Monk is better there. White Mage needs to know cure sure enough, but dont doubt the power of Fog/Blink. If you are on the NES you can boost your evade to 255%, so you will never be hit ever. Red Mages are good early on, but become weak later. They can be very useful, but not as much as the glass cannon Black Mage that can easily destroy bosses.

If you want a challenging four person party, four Black Mages. The iconic challenge is four White Mages, but after someone figured out you can boost your first party members evade to 100% in one round if you are lucky, it became much easier. The hardest party in the game is a solo Black Mage, I have tried that one a dozen times and never got past Astos. If you want a party where you rarely have to think, three Black Belts and a Red Mage. Keep the Red Mage in the first slot until the Black Belts upgrade, then let their natural evade keep them alive in the top slots. Your Red Mage can bolster them with Fog. And he will always have the best spells and equipment, since the Black Belts never need weapons.

[Stark]

I actually like how back in the day sequels would play entirely differently from their predecessors.

You mean like Final Fantasy II?

Even those of you who like Zelda II, would you still concede it's the worst in the series? Or is there another game you'd rank lower?

The game does handle close sword combat better than most similar titles from the era, but it's still miles behind something like Faxanadu.

You'd have to determine which games in that series you're comparing it to. If you're just saying console games I'd say it's down there and may be the bottom (although I haven't played Twilight Princess.)

[darsparx]

Twilight princess is pretty good, though it takes second on my list of the best zelda games(OoT is #1 for obvious reasons ). The only ones I haven't liked is the ones on the regular ds. They're fun and I still have yet to beat them but i prefer games to be more like the more realistic art styles and on portables I really like 2d games but that era is long gone...

[BoneSnapDeez]

Link to the Past and Link's Awakening absolutely murder all other Zelda games.

[fastbilly1]

Id mark Twilight Princess as the worst 3d Zelda. It did somethings right, like the miniboss fights and several of the new items, but it did somethings REALLY wrong, like the boss fights and not using items outside of the temple you found them in. That and Wolf mode was just silly.

[darsparx]

Odd I actually liked the wolf mode, gave some interesting puzzle solving to some things and made parts of it a little harder(like the random fights that happened quite a bit when you first got into wolf form). But i never really noticed the item problem except with keys but that I'm used to especially since it's been that way ever since I can remember(except in zelda 1 from my attempts at that even though I get mildly lost and it feels harder to play some of these games with the wii mote....)

[prfsnl_gmr]

Even those of you who like Zelda II, would you still concede it's the worst in the series? Or is there another game you'd rank lower?

You asked for it...

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
4. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
5. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
6. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
7. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
8. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
9. The Legend of Zelda: Orcale of Seasons
10. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
11. The Legend of Zelda
12. The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap
13. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

EDIT: All but the last two are excellent games, and the quality distinctions between them are very fine. Minish Cap, however, is just "very good", and Spirit Tracks is just "good".

Not Played:
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The game does handle close sword combat better than most similar titles from the era, but it's still miles behind something like Faxanadu.

I think it is superior to Faxanadu, but that game also did it well.

[Ack]

Aliens Versus Predator I played 10 minutes of just to sort of see what it was like. BTW, I'm really only planning to play the Colonial Marines route for the challenge. Because as a fan of the franchise, I love being a marine and killing aliens. My first impression is "holy balls, this game looks scary!"

I'd say doing this is a mistake. Not because you shouldn't play marines(it is fun), but because you'll be entirely missing out on 2/3 of the game, a 2/3 of the game which offers a very different experience as far as FPS concerned. I played a fair amount of Aliens Versus Predator multiplayer back in the day, and as an aliens player, you'll be missing out on the fast and furious ride that is a xenomorph tail whipping a marine in the face and then corkscrewing its way down the hallway so that enemies can't get a bead. The amount of freedom you experience playing as an alien, climbing walls at furious speeds, leaping across massive drops at impossible angles, silently stalking your prey in ways Predators never could and Marines are too terrified to consider is something that you owe it to yourself to try.

And you should ask Fast about how the Predator plays. But Fast is crazy with that thing. I've seen him get kills by hurling his discs around corners and just annihilating everything there, despite not being able to see any of it.

Odd I actually liked the wolf mode, gave some interesting puzzle solving to some things and made parts of it a little harder(like the random fights that happened quite a bit when you first got into wolf form). But i never really noticed the item problem except with keys but that I'm used to especially since it's been that way ever since I can remember(except in zelda 1 from my attempts at that even though I get mildly lost and it feels harder to play some of these games with the wii mote....)

Well, if wolf mode in Twilight Princess impressed you, wait until you see Sonic do it!

[darsparx]

Yeah I've actually wanted to try that one...