Racketboy Summer Games Challenge 2024

[pierrot]

Wild Arms

Well, for whatever reason the Ephinea people hate giving even a tentative start date for events, and the Anniversary event didn't start last week like everyone figured it would, so it will perhaps start within the next 24 hours. That's not really relevant to the thread, it's just that I ended up with a week I wasn't playing PSOBB when I thought I would be. Because of that, I ended up playing a bit more Wild Arms.

I don't really find the story to be very gripping at all. It feels kind of clumsy and awkward. I appreciate some of the things it's trying to do, but a lot of the themes (both story and visual) feel really disparate, with nothing really tying them together at all. It feels more jarring to me than anything. I did enjoy the sort of 'intro' credits sequence without any dialogue, though.

One of the big things for me is I think it was a huge mistake to make Rowdy a silent protagonist. I really can't wrap my head around that decision. I can be a little defensive of silent protagonists because of games like Suikoden, but that's partly because in that game (and the sequel) there are so many interactions that the MC has with other characters to make the MC feel like an actual character involved in the story. In Wild Arms, it seems senseless to me because outside of his introduction 'chapter' where he's alone, no one ever really talks to Rowdy. Even the other two party members seem to rarely actually be talking to Rowdy specifically.

I don't really expect things to come together at some point, but I haven't ruled out the possibility. Anyway, aside from that, the presentation mostly carries the gameplay regardless. I suppose the combat graphics are a little goofy (and the sounds monsters make are comical), but I don't mind it. It's not a very colorful game, though. There's actually a lot of different options in combat, but this is one of the rare times where I actually just let it run on auto-attack. Usually I micromanage, because it's more efficient in terms of resources, but for whatever reason I don't feel like spending time on that in this game. I do stop sometimes to have Cecilia Mystic a Heal Berry for a party-wide heal, though.


Dragon Quest IX

I'm actually a little taken aback by where I'm at with this. Most of it is because that damn dragon boss that drops the Dragon Lord map required 61 kills before he actually gave it to me. (I wasn't actually sure how many it was until I checked the bestiary after getting the map.) It's a 5% drop rate, so the statistical average gave me hope that I would see it within 25 or so attempts. I kept getting a bunch of Orichalcum drops (10% drop rate) which was putting me way ahead of the average on those events (extra frustrating). I'm up to my ears in Orichalcum now because after 61 runs through that map dungeon, I opened 183 Rank 10 chests and 122 Rank 9 chests (both have Orchalcum in them). That also gave me all of the metal slime gear out of the Rank 9 chests, and all but two of the legendary weapons out the Rank 10 chests (the pole and fan weapons--plus I got three of each of the Gringham Whip, Great Axe, and the hammer).

Once I finally got the Dragon Lord map, the Dragon Lord decided to be a dick and wouldn't let me level him up from 15 to 16 for ten fights because he refused to drop the Raditome Armor (15% drop rate, and gets replaced by the Death Psaro map at level 16). At least he dropped the map for me first chance at level 16, and Death Psaro also dropped the Mildoras map for me at level 16.

Anyway, I've beaten every last one of the legacy bosses at least once now. The only things left in the bestiary are the highest rank monsters from water and ice terrain map dungeons (10 in all). I also have every recipe in the alchemy pot done aside from ultimate equipment stages, a couple Metal King items I need some crowns for, and the Loto Armor that I still need the rusted armor from a quest for. After finishing the legacy bosses, I also reset the levels on my main classes (battle master, fighter, priest and sage) from 99 back to 1. I wasn't really ever intending to do that, because outside of achievements, it doesn't really do anything other than allow gaining more skill points with that class (which I don't need, because it was easier just to take each class to ~level 48). However, I found out it actually gives class badge accessories the first time for each class. They're slightly better accessories than the class badges in DQX, but not by a whole lot. Still, the fighter one is just a better Stardust Bangle, so that's kind of useful.

I'm in the process now of getting my characters back to level 99 on those classes (at around level 65 currently), and then it's just grinding for maps until I get the two that let me clear out the bestiary and remaining quests, and trying to get the last two legendary weapons out of Rank 10 chests. After that I just ask myself whether or not I actually want to try to get all the best armor off of map bosses, and fight legacy bosses until I get eye strain in order to collect all the legacy hero armor and upgrade legendary equipment. We shall see.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Wild Arms
One of the big things for me is I think it was a huge mistake to make Rowdy a silent protagonist. I really can't wrap my head around that decision. I can be a little defensive of silent protagonists because of games like Suikoden, but that's partly because in that game (and the sequel) there are so many interactions that the MC has with other characters to make the MC feel like an actual character involved in the story. In Wild Arms, it seems senseless to me because outside of his introduction 'chapter' where he's alone, no one ever really talks to Rowdy. Even the other two party members seem to rarely actually be talking to Rowdy specifically.

If you're anything like me, then this is something that'll start bothering you now and will only increase as you go through the game XD
I turned it around and around in my head and yeah, I can just think of no good reason at all that they made Rowdy a silent protagonist. It does nothing but harm the writing and make anything they try to actually do with his character extremely clumsy for seemingly no reason. Utterly baffling writing choice. At least his doppelganger in the second game isn't silent, though given the writing quality of that game, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing XD

[alienjesus]

I've been playing a bit of Donkey Kong Country Returns lately. I'm 4 worlds in so far.

I know a lot of people here aren't super fond of it, and I know a lot of fans of the classic DKC games who didn't get on with it because it felt like something different. I knew this going in though, so I think it's helped me to set expectations appropriately and I'm generally liking it. The game feels pretty good to control, and there's some fun setpieces.

It's not perfect mind - I've found the levels have a habit of going a bit too long, and it's frustrating to die just before the first checkpoint and get sent back to the start. It also does a minor sin in my book in having missable collectables in the level that require an entire level replay or deliberately dying to reset it in order to collect them if you miss them. I also find the mine-cart levels more annoying than the ones in the original trilogy due to weird floaty momentum and small size of the hitboxes.

One thing I find weird is that the game feels like it's trying to be something new with some of it's mechanic changes to rolling, barrelyt throwing, climbing etc, and it's change to how Diddy Kong and animal buddies work. However, the soundtrack is 90% remixes of songs from DKC1 which I find a little deflating. I love David Wise's work, but I feel it shows a lack of confidence to just reuse that and not create something new for your new experience. Very mixed signals in this game between being a 'new' DKC experience or just trying to recapture the old style.

[pierrot]

If you're anything like me, then this is something that'll start bothering you now and will only increase as you go through the game XD

That's not too inspiring to hear that it doesn't really change at all--. It's too bad; I kind of enjoyed his intro section.

A couple things Note mentioned about the story were intriguing to me, and it seemed like they were related to Rowdy, so now I'm kind of thinking it might not really land for me. Oh well. I'm not really planning to give up on Wild Arms yet, but it won't be too much of a priority I suppose.

At least his doppelganger in the second game isn't silent, though given the writing quality of that game, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing XD

Hmm, I hope the gameplay in 2nd Ignition is at least fun. I was hoping to play through it before giving Advanced 3rd another shot.

[PartridgeSenpai]

If you're anything like me, then this is something that'll start bothering you now and will only increase as you go through the game XD

That's not too inspiring to hear that it doesn't really change at all--. It's too bad; I kind of enjoyed his intro section.

A couple things Note mentioned about the story were intriguing to me, and it seemed like they were related to Rowdy, so now I'm kind of thinking it might not really land for me. Oh well. I'm not really planning to give up on Wild Arms yet, but it won't be too much of a priority I suppose.

At least his doppelganger in the second game isn't silent, though given the writing quality of that game, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing XD

Hmm, I hope the gameplay in 2nd Ignition is at least fun. I was hoping to play through it before giving Advanced 3rd another shot.

Rowdy does ultimately get a pretty decent arc in this game, though it's hard to shake the notion for me that it could've easily been better had he actually been able to speak for himself through it.

2nd Ignition's gameplay is honestly worse in many ways than 1 (or very negligibly better at best). There are far too many easy ways to victory because of how broken some characters are (and how awful some others are), and the final section is miserably designed. Wild Arms 1 is a far better game than its sequel in every respect sans graphics, imo.

[Syndicate]

Rabbids Go Home - Wii
A Link to The Past - Wii U
Steamworld Dig - Wii U
Thunderforce III - Genesis
Batman - Genesis
Toe Jam & Earl - Genesis
Rayman Origins - SX/360
Symphony of the Night - SX/360
Panzer Dragoon Orta - SX/360
Wonder Boy: Dragon's Curse - Switch

...hmmm, well I guess I've been a bit busier than I expected this summer and haven't really put a dent in my list. I did wrap up Steamworld Dig and Rayman Origins though. I had a really good time w/Steamworld Dig once I got the hang of what was going on. It's a fun game w/an interesting atmosphere and intuitive gameplay. I was just really surprised when it ended kind of quickly, it also got me interested in checking out some of the other games in the Steamworld universe. Rayman Origins on the other hand I got a lot of time out of, mainly b/c it can be flat out challenging. Everyone here knows the Rayman games drip style and look phenomenal, Origins is the first one in the series I spent any serious time with. On top of the awesome visuals, the music is great, and the gameplay is tight. It's definitely a challenging platformer and outside of some of the treasure chest chase level it generally feels fair. I really enjoyed the varying gameplay mechanics found in the levels and the total change of pace that the shmup levels are.

...I'm actively working on Wonder Boy and SOTN, but w/kids going back to school, work, family stuff, and life and general I'm not convinced I'll get through either before the summer is over. I'm also still poking away at Batman and Thunderforce III, I have to say that sucking at games has rarely sounded better I'm going to keep plugging away at them though and probably the entire list to see if I can get through some classics before or during the holidays.

[pierrot]

So, as is basically customary, I started out with a list for the summer, and proceeded to do very little with that actual list. Anyway, I've got some more stuff that's still kind of relevant, even if it's not from my original list.

PSO Blue Burst (Episode IV)

I finally played through the Episode IV government quests in PSO BB on Ephinea servers (even though it's the anniversary event). Mainly I hadn't played through the Episode IV quests before because I wanted to finish Episode III C.A.R.D. first, but I started playing Episode III well over a year ago, and I kind of hate it in a lot of ways. (It's chronologically well after the events of Ep IV, anyway.) Plus, adding hit% to enemy part weapons in Blue Burst requires playing through most of the Episode IV government quests, and I was tired of having Baranz Launcher and Bringer's Rifle without hit% on them.

Anyway, the episode IV story is kind of a mildly interesting premise, but mostly works out to be a slight lore dump, and a bit of a greatest hits of involving the poster characters from Episode I & II. It's a little forced feeling, but it does give a little bit more screen time to characters like Ash, Bernie, Sue and Kireek (among others). Unfortunately, I don't really remember enough details from the story in Episode I & II side stories, so I'm not sure, but I feel like the reveal (at the very end of the last Ep IV quest) about the true nature of the organization "Black Paper," and "Hound" (Kireek) feels at odds with the story of Episode I. I'd probably have to go back through those side stories to really figure out if it's a retcon or not, though. There are a couple side story quests in Ep IV that I haven't done still, but I've gone through almost all of the story in PSO now (outside of Ep III). Except, there are also all kinds of secret story triggers throughout the episodes in various quests that aren't really well documented even; So it's pretty tough to actually see everything.


God Slayer (aka Crystalis)

I haven't been playing any Wild Arms for a while, because any time I'm around consoles I've just been playing PSO, but I did start playing God Slayer/Crystalis through the SNK collection on my Steam Deck. I've been interested in playing Crystalis for a long time, but never actually touched it. I haven't played a whole lot so far, though. I had a heck of a time getting past the first boss, and after beating it, I wandered around the second area a bit and explored the second town, but that's about it. Honestly, I don't care much for the game. Hit detection is really dodgy on normal sword 'swings,' the charged projectile only charges when standing still, the health bar is really easy to lose track of, healing with herbs is very clunky; I tend to really like action RPGs, but so far I don't really see the appeal with this one, and it doesn't seem like there would be anything later that changes my opinion much. It also seems like it might be kind of short, so that could be a positive--.


Dragon Quest IX

This is kind of starting to just feel a bit depressing for me. I've been continuing to dive through a lv 94 cave dungeon map to try to get the maps to complete the bestiary, and in so doing I've gotten every piece of equipment out of every rank of the treasure map blue chests, including every one of the legendary weapons from Rank 1 chests (a number of which I have 4 copies of now). I'm really just opening chests now for some specific alchemy items used to make Evolution Stones for upgrading legendary equipment. I got a max enemy rank water dungeon map to finish that part of the bestiary, and I got an ice dungeon map with the penultimate monster rank floors, which leaves me with just one blank space left in my bestiary for the one new enemy in a max enemy rank ice dungeon map. That one enemy also happens to be one I need to kill to complete the quest to get the Rusted Mail, which I can then use to make the Loto Armor and finish the last of the quests (that aren't related to weapons, and don't require the Brey equipment set) I have left.

I've just been at this for way too long, and there's no reason this one enemy should be tied to those quests. Any time I get a treasure map, it's only a 10% chance (each) for it to be an ice dungeon (or water dungeon, or volcano dungeon), and then it's just a prayer that it has the high rank prefix word in the name to be a max enemy rank map with enough floors. I've only gotten two ice dungeon maps in this time since beating all the legacy bosses, though, and both of them were insufficient enemy rank, so--.

[Note]

Just a quick update on my Summer Games Challenge list.

I was able to finish Ico (PS2) on Friday night, so that's the third game finished for the challenge. It was a short but fun adventure, which mostly contained environmental puzzles, platforming, and some combat against shadow demons.

The controls were a bit wonky from time to time, mainly when the camera angle changed in an area, and the directions needed to be pressed were slightly different. This didn't break the game IMO, but was just something I needed to be cautious of. The end of the game was a bit more difficult than the rest of the adventure, since there are no save points in the last portion of the game. Luckily, there is checkpoints in the last section, so incase you do happen to perish, you don't have to start all the way back at where you were able to last save.

I've really had a good time with both Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, and I'm interested in playing the development team's other offering, The Last Guardian.

[Ack]

Well, I've fallen off the wagon this year it seems. I blazed through the first handful of games but started needing breaks, and that meant a breakdown of focus and discipline. And then I hit a problem where I didn't care for a couple of the games that I was playing, Outlast and Rage. I managed to beat Outlast, but Rage continues the slog to the point I stepped away and haven't come back.

I feel like the biggest loser here is Ultima IV, a game that deserves to be played, and one I deserve to play. So, regardless of whether I do it for the summer, I will be playing it this year. I have at least experienced some of Tactics Ogre before, and my progress there is halfway; I'm not giving up on it and will get back to it. But I don't feel bad about it the way I do Ultima IV.

A part of this is definitely my love for older RPGs and a desire to knock out as many big names as I can, if only for the bragging rights. I know I'm competitive in that regard, but I also enjoy getting pulled into the worlds of CRPGs. So don't worry, Ultima IV is still in my mix, even if I don't do it this summer like I had hoped.

[MrPopo]

I warned you about Rage. Doom 3 was a disappointment, but at least it was trying to do something somewhat unique at the time. Rage is just generic with some vehicle physics that doesn't even get as much use as Borderlands' does.