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

[alienjesus]

Got stuck into Panzer Dragoon Orta tonight, and I'm enjoying it well enough. The difficulty isn't crazy, but some bits definitely needed a second attempt to beat them. I'm at the beginning of stage 4. It takes a bit of getting used to switching between the forms, and I'm finding I tend to favour the Base Wing (normal form) greatly, with the Glide (read: speed) form only coming out to take out weak enemies or bullets when there's too many for the normal form (very rarely). The Heavy form (read:power form) I'm struggling to see much use for at all. Because it has so few lasers, I find that most times the normal form would do more damage anyhow, as most major enemies have multiple hit points which the normal form can scatter fire across all at once, whilst the heavy forms slow lasers, enormous hitbox and lack of speed control mean it's just a useless, slow target with very minor power upgrade.

[dsheinem]

Got stuck into Panzer Dragoon Orta tonight, and I'm enjoying it well enough. The difficulty isn't crazy, but some bits definitely needed a second attempt to beat them. I'm at the beginning of stage 4. It takes a bit of getting used to switching between the forms, and I'm finding I tend to favour the Base Wing (normal form) greatly, with the Glide (read: speed) form only coming out to take out weak enemies or bullets when there's too many for the normal form (very rarely). The Heavy form (read:power form) I'm struggling to see much use for at all. Because it has so few lasers, I find that most times the normal form would do more damage anyhow, as most major enemies have multiple hit points which the normal form can scatter fire across all at once, whilst the heavy forms slow lasers, enormous hitbox and lack of speed control mean it's just a useless, slow target with very minor power upgrade.

Oh, so we're playing this now? Didn't get the memo!

I think there were a few others in for this, no?

[alienjesus]

Got stuck into Panzer Dragoon Orta tonight, and I'm enjoying it well enough. The difficulty isn't crazy, but some bits definitely needed a second attempt to beat them. I'm at the beginning of stage 4. It takes a bit of getting used to switching between the forms, and I'm finding I tend to favour the Base Wing (normal form) greatly, with the Glide (read: speed) form only coming out to take out weak enemies or bullets when there's too many for the normal form (very rarely). The Heavy form (read:power form) I'm struggling to see much use for at all. Because it has so few lasers, I find that most times the normal form would do more damage anyhow, as most major enemies have multiple hit points which the normal form can scatter fire across all at once, whilst the heavy forms slow lasers, enormous hitbox and lack of speed control mean it's just a useless, slow target with very minor power upgrade.

Oh, so we're playing this now? Didn't get the memo!

I think there were a few others in for this, no?

Sorry, I didn mention it, but it was kinda buried at the end of my Resident Evil 4 beaten post, so I understand if you missed it.

I'm playing Panzer Dragoon Orta now. Everyone else who wanted to should play it too!

[prfsnl_gmr]

SIDETRACKED!!! I started Dragon Quest IX while I was visiting my in-laws in Maine...and I am absolutely loving it. I think that it will seriously detract from completing my list:

1. Hotel Dusk Room: Room 215 (NDS)
2. Ecco the Dolphin (GBA port)
3. Final Fantasy II (GBA port) COMPLETE
4. Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
5. Starfox 64 (N64)
6. Sonic CD (NGC port)
7. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Intellivision - NDS port) COMPLETE
8. Guardian Heroes (SS)
9. Galactic Attack (SS)
10. Decathlete (SS)

I am mostly through Muramasa; so, I think that I will likely finish that one - and I will likely spend some serious time with Decathlete during the Olympics - but I do not see myself diving back into Hotel Dusk or Ecco the Dolphin while Dragon Quest IX remains in my NDS.

[NihonRobot]

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

Finished up Alan Wake tonight, and started Incredible Crisis earlier in the day. Going to play through Alan Wake's DLC tonight, too, so that one will be all done.

[alienjesus]

Plugged through two more stages of Orta yesterday. The game is getting a bit mean and tricky - especially the bosses. The game has an odd mechanic where you can continue from the boss fights if you die (but if you die before the boss you get put right back at the start of the LOOOONNNGGGG levels) but you only start with about a quarter of your maximum health. It's not too unreasonable, but it's an odd mechanic, and it does mean you have to take the time to learn some of the trickier bosses.

One mechanic I keep forgetting about is the ability to boost or brake, which wasn't present in the two Saturn games. Boosting has been a necessity a few times lately, and has caused a few deaths when I didn't realise that's what I needed to do - either to get behind enemies to shoot their weak spots or to boost through small enemies or projectiles to destroy them.

I'm at the start of stage 6 now, out of 9 or 10 I think. I'm dying a fair amount for where I am as is, so I can see it getting brutal by the end. My dragon forms are at level 3 (base), 2 (heavy) and 1 (glide) respectively, and I'm pretty sure I should be higher than that, but never mind.

[alienjesus]

Warning: Orta ending pics, with big spoilers! -

1. Monster World IV (VC)
2. Duck Tales (NES)
3. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES)
4. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64)
5. Resident Evil 4 (GC)
6. Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
7. Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
8. Grim Fandango (PC)
9. Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox)
10. Oracle of Ages & Oracle of Seasons linked quest (GBC)

In the end I finished with 5 C ranks, 2 B ranks and 3 As - I got better as I went on too, with the latter half having better results on average. Having now finished 3 of the Panzer Dragoon games, Orta rates right in the middle for me - I prefer the simplicity of the original game to Orta, which I feel might try too hard to add complexity, but I prefer Orta to Zwei, which I feel failed to add complexity and was way too easy.

Orta has a lot to consider that wasn't in the original - do I want to be in base form, heavy or glide? Which do I want to level up? Do I want to search for secret routes through the levels (some levels have 2 or 3 forks with up to 3 paths at each)? Do I need to shoot down that attack, fly around it, apply the brakes, boost past or what?
Whilst that adds a bit of variety to procedings, I also found it's a bit brutal in teaching you it - several times I died at the end of a boss or a level because I tried to dodge a laser I should've braked for, or boosted at an enmy I needed to shoot instead. Even the final boss comes with an annoying homing laser that has to be blocked in a way that you've NEVER HAD TO DO for the ENTIRE GAME. That was a moment of frustration that I had to look up a solution to, and whilst it kinda made sense, it certainly could've been better served has you been taught the mechanic earlier.

Levelling the dragon forms was fun, and by the end of the game I feel I was making good use of each, unlike the early game where I felt that the base form was obviously the best. At the end of the game I had base wing at stage 4, heavy at 3 and glide at 2. The difference is beneficial, but doesnt have a huge impact, so if you miss lots of the power up items throughout the game you should still be fine for the lategame enemies and bosses. Boosting and Braking was an OK mechanic that seemed like it would be very useful once you'd learnt how to use it successfully, but was just a layer too much for a first time player imo. The split paths aswell were very unclear and hard to find, and several times I went down a B or C path without really knowing what had caused it.

Overall it's a fun, challenging game with some interesting mechanics. In my opinion it may be trying too hard to add variety at the expense of simplicity, but once you get the hang of it you can fight your way through, even with the ridiculously long stages with no checkpoints until the boss and the tough boss fights with only 1/4 of maximum health working against you. I think I'll still alway prefer simplicity in my rail shooters - dodge, shoot, blow everything up, pewpewpew, but I don't resent Orta for trying to mix things up. A decent effort.

[SpaceBooger]

Classics
1. Shatterhand (NES)
2. Sonic CD (PS3) COMPLETE 7/9
3. Final Fight (PS3 or Mame) COMPLETE 6/24
4. Cave Story (DS) COMPLETE 6/12
5. Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)
6. Jet Grind Radio (DC or PSN when released)
7. Beneath a Steel Sky (PC)

Not Classics that I want to beat before summer ends
8. Clash of Heroes (DS) COMPLETE 5/31
9. Captain America: Super Soldier (PS3) COMPLETE 7/8
10. Ben There Dan That & Time Gentlemen Please (PC) COMPLETE 7/22
11. Conan (PS3 2007) COMPLETE 7/7
12. Batman the Brave and the Bold (DS) COMPLETE 7/29

Batman BATB is a game that is easy to beat but fun enough to play through. The game gives you unlimited lives and the only ones I lost was from platforming mistakes. Since I never lost a life during a fight or a boss battle I considered this game beaten once the credits rolled. There are a bunch of different challenges to complete that add a lot to the game in the replay department. These challenges include beating each level using only the featured guest character, who unlike Batman can not be leveled up, and boss rushes where the level's minboss and boss can be fought one right after another. While this game was easy to beat it was fun enough that I will go back and randomly do a challenge here and there in the future and I do expect them to be challenging.
As for the game it was a perfect fit for the show. The humor, teamwork aspect, and animation were spot on. If you are/were a fan of the cartoon check this game out. I actually preferred this version to the Wii version because of the controls.

[lisalover1]

Had to sink a lot of time into Record of Agarest War 2 for a review I'm doing (time wasted, if you ask me), but now I'm back on track. I have just about 60 Golden Bananas in DK64, so slowly but surely, I'm making my way through the collect-a-thon to end all collect-a-thons.

[alienjesus]

Got stuck into Duck Tales. I made it through 3 stages (Transylvania, The Amazon & The Himalayas) before dying on the boss of the Moon stage. It's been pretty fun so far, with nice music and fun enough gameplay. Sometimes mechanics can be a little awkward, such as when I was trying to jump out of mine carts in Transylvania, and it would only let me at the start of the mine cart's falling for some reason, or when your cane misses the edge of a block but your feet dont, meaning you end up standing instead of bouncing like you expected. Still, it's fun, I found a few secrets (a giant treasure chest in The Moon, and an extra health point in Transylvania). I can't find the key I'm looking for to open the 5th stage (The African Mines) yet, but hopefully it'll show it's face soon. The difficulty isn't too hard, I reckon I'll have it beat in another couple of attempts, especially now I know the levels a bit better.