Snickerd00dle's Summer Challenge 2012 - how is it going?

[alienjesus]

Whilst it DOES get harder, I do think that the first few levels can be some of the roughest in the game, especially the Undercaves. However, the hardest levels are probably Dark Water (about level 13 or so?) and the Machine (the final level). Those are torturous.

Are you playing on Mega Drive/Genesis or Sega/Mega CD? The game is significantly easier for the most part on the latter due to checkpoints, although they added in new levels making it even longer. The last level, The Machine is also unmodified, meaning it's still probably the hardest level in anything ever.

I'm actually playing the Dreamcast game, Defender of the Future. I should have specified that, sorry. While we're on the subject though, I did beat the original Genesis Ecco, and Tides of Time, some years ago. The Machine is definitely a nightmare come to life. I've never played the Sega CD versions though, and I didn't know they added checkpoints. It seems cruel to leave checkpoints out of The Machine. I do want to try them though, for the different music at the least.

I've read in a few places around the web that claimed DotF was harder in some ways than the Genesis games. I can't say that myself yet, but we'll see. Have you played it?

Haha, sorry about that! I haven't played Defender of the Future I'm afraid, but I hear it certainly lives up to the series lineage of crazy hard difficulty. I'm definitely interested in hearing more from you about it actually. I own it myself, but the disc doesn't work. I'll have to make a real effort to clean it and get it running.

As for the checkpoints on Sega CD ecco, any time you hit a glyph it becomes the new checkpoint i do believe. Certainly the Key glyphs do, perhaps not the invincibility ones. There's no glyphs in the machine, so no checkpoints.

[noiseredux]

Cthulhu Saves The World: Alright so I've defeated the uh "4 Heroes of Light" again which was hilarious battle. And then I defeated the Golem Cthulhu, which was surprisingly easy. And then I made it to what I now presume (again) to really be the final boss battle of the game. And it's hard! (Then I noticed Dave signed onto XBLA to play DDP Resurrection and I got sidetracked )

EDIT:





^more thoughts to follow, but I loved every minute of it!

EDIT:

Finally another update! I started Cthulhu Saves The World right away this Summer, but just finished it tonight. It has been my favorite of the four games I've completed. As a fan of both old school JRPG's and HP Lovecraft, it was pretty amazing to me. And funny! For instance, your first boss battle is against "four heroes" (I assume "of Light") whom are a little tough without early grinding. Later in the game you face them again and kill them in a single hit. Then there's all the great Lovecraftian references like visiting Innsmouth or battling Dagon. It's all so tongue-in-cheek both for fans of 8 (and 16)-bit RPG's and horror fans. The writing is seriously hilarious, and the gameplay is classic. I suggest this highly to... well... everyone here who has an affinity for retro gaming really. If you're into the macabre, then that's just icing on the cake. I've also unlocked some bonus modes that I can re-visit later as a plus.

[alienjesus]

Been playing more Oracle of Ages, just because it was already started. I finished the third dungeon, and am on my way to the fourth. Some neat little touches because this is a linked game: a subrosian character from Seasons showed up and got me my shovel back during a section where I was robbed, rather than me having to do so. In addition, after dungeon 3,

a mini boss from Seasons appeared and kidnapped Zelda, and I got to play a little mini game that was very reminiscent of Donkey Kong to rescue her, climbing ladders up a tower and jumping rolling fireballs that came down.

I also found 2 more secrets, bring my total to 5. There are 10 total I think. The ones I got gave me (in order of finding them):

an extra heart container, a seed satchel capacity upgrade (from 50 to 99) a bomb capacity upgrade (from 30 to 50), a heart ring (which slowly regens health) and a ring case upgrade (can carry 5 at once instead of 3). I finally figured out how to bring the decrets back to Ages too, so I'm enjoying my improved item capacities nice and early in the game.

Having done a run through before (but the other way around before), I think I know what the other secrets will be:

Bombchus, Master Sword (lvl 3 sword), Mirror Shield (lvl 3 shield), biggorons sword (giant two hand weapon) and another ring. I dont think there's anything else.

On Resi 4 I'm on the Island section, on disc 2 or chapter 5. There's lots of things annoying me lately, like enemies spawning in areas I know were previously empty, and the silly amount of damage they tend to do now, which feels like false difficulty to me. I do like the game, but I'm increasingly feeling like I wish it was over already.

[noiseredux]

so Jet Set Radio Future... how do you know when you've beaten a level?

[CFFJR]

so Jet Set Radio Future... how do you know when you've beaten a level?

For most levels, you must complete the graffiti challenge. It gives you all the time you need to do so, but generally you're collecting spray cans and tracking down the tags in a level and tagging over them with your own graffiti. This is easier to do than it sounds, as if you pause in a level you can see a map of the area, and all of the tags you still need to hit are represented by a small yellow/orange dot. (If you see large orange dots, those are graffiti souls. You'll want to pick those up)

You'll sometimes have other goals. Early on for example, you'll meet new characters, some from rival gangs. You'll have to talk to them, and pursue them when they run away from you, and eventually they'll challenge you. The first time this happens is in the first level when you meet Beat. Once you've talked to him enough times, you'll have to race him, and when you win you'll unlock him to use.

Later, a couple of levels exist only for a couple of challenges, or a boss battle.

That's all extra though. Simple version, find and tag all of the graffiti spots.

[noiseredux]

thanks Carlo, the map tip helped big time. My problem was I thought I got all the graffiti spots, but I had missed one piece of a four-piecer so when I skated by it, I didn't realize I had missed that small piece.

Made a fair bit of progress since. I'm off to find some green-haired girls who "hate seafood with a passion."

I'm not sure I love this game, but it's certainly a lot of fun and I definitely think the visual style is extremely pleasing.

@CFFJR: how long do you think it took you to beat the game?

[lisalover1]

I just beat the Woodland Temple in Majora's Mask. I think this game is starting to grow on me more. The way the gameplay is tied together is very satisfying, and planning things out is less stressful than I anticipated.

[SpaceBooger]

I was playing Ninja Gaiden Black again today and got frustrated at the bridges to get the blue and red "eye". I just got used to the fighting in the game and now these platforming elements are crazy hard... I had to give up for a bit and...
I started Jet Set Radio Future this afternoon while the kids were napping. I played the intro, raced Beat, and finished back in the Garage. I'm digging this game and once I get used to the controls, and controlling the characters, I will like this game cause the style and music are great.

This year I have played a ton of 3D games and I still hate moving in the 3D world. Transitioning from 2D games to 3D games is taking me longer than I imagined... and the horrible camera in NGB isn't helping.

[NihonRobot]

My girlfriend's been wanting to play through Alan Wake together, so I'm going to replace Deadly Premonition with that.

1. Rogue Galaxy
2. P.N.03
3. Alundra
4. Indigo Prophecy
5. Deadly Premonition -> Alan Wake
6. Fear Effect 1
7. Fear Effect 2
8. Incredible Crisis
9. Brave Fencer Musashi
10. Psychonauts

I think I'm almost done with it, too, so I need to figure out which game I'm going to play next...

[CFFJR]

thanks Carlo, the map tip helped big time. My problem was I thought I got all the graffiti spots, but I had missed one piece of a four-piecer so when I skated by it, I didn't realize I had missed that small piece.

Made a fair bit of progress since. I'm off to find some green-haired girls who "hate seafood with a passion."

I'm not sure I love this game, but it's certainly a lot of fun and I definitely think the visual style is extremely pleasing.

@CFFJR: how long do you think it took you to beat the game?

Sure thing! Yeah its easy to miss spots on the bigger tags, particularly while grinding. If you don't slow down your grind, you will miss parts no matter what.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. What do you think of the music? I love it.

As for the time, well my clock is showing 25 hours, but that's after finishing every last thing in the game. If I recall right, I think I was at around 11 or 12 hours when I beat the story. I didn't screw around much, but there were a couple of points when I wasted a lot of time on the larger, later levels (Kibagaoka Hill pisses me off). I also did a few things that weren't story critical.

So yeah, 10-12 hours.

One other thing though, there's an event late in the story that I'd like to warn you about (no spoilers). When I was reading stuff online about the game as I played, I found out that its possible to trigger a game ending glitch. Its very easy to avoid because its pretty specific, but it seems its also easy to cause if you don't know it exists.

I don't want to make it sound scary or anything, but it happens so late in the game that it would suck big time to get stuck with it.

Spoiler-ed for convenience (SpaceBooger, you should read this too).

At the start of Chapter 7, you'll stop getting graffiti challenges, and there will be new graffiti plastered all over the city that you can cover up again. Doing that is totally optional, but for now ignore it entirely.

A red haired character named Clutch will show up at your garage asking you for 40 graffiti souls. (You start out with 20, and there are 140 in the game. When I got to this point, I had 35 just from playing around, and it literally took me 10 minutes to grab 5 more, so no stress on this note.) When you show them to him, he steals them and takes off, and then will alternate appearing in 3 different levels, where you'll have to find and catch him. DJ Prof. K will give you hints on this.

When this happens, drop everything else and go find him. There's not a huge rush or anything, and it won't take long anyway, but you should do it immediately. Once you've caught him and moved past this, you're completely safe to do whatever you want again.
The issue here is that a player might decide to ignore the event and start covering up the new graffiti or messing around in other ways. Apparently the glitch, if it happens (its not guaranteed), will eventually cause Clutch to disappear from the game entirely, making it impossible to finish.

Short version: Save before you give him the souls, and don't save again until after you've caught him and you're in the clear.

Sorry, I know that's a mouthful, but I thought it was worth mentioning.