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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 4, 2019 15:52:24 GMT -5
The Sega CD Eye of the Beholder is woke as hell. And has mouse support.
I actually prefer WRPG console ports, generally speaking. I know this is blasphemous to some. A controller + menus is superior to clunky old keyboard commands. However, a controller is no substitute for good mouse controls, and that's where trouble can begin.
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Post by Ex on Apr 4, 2019 18:17:39 GMT -5
The Sega CD Eye of the Beholder is woke as hell. Is there anything really different about it versus the SNES or PC versions?
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 4, 2019 20:01:24 GMT -5
Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack, my dude.
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Post by Ex on Apr 4, 2019 20:33:37 GMT -5
Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack, my dude. Oh lawdy! Case closed. Edit: Apparently the SEGA CD version also includes built-in maps... Now that's good thinking SEGA.
Well now, I may just revisit EotB via this version later on this month.
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Post by Ex on Apr 4, 2019 23:51:18 GMT -5
Okay so I spent an hour with Lady Sword and an hour with Arcana tonight. --
Lady Sword is a very simple PC Engine FPDC, with the sole draw being able to see ladies naked when you rescue them. Now, I'm all for such lewd shenanigans, if only the gameplay was up to par. Lady Sword's game design is way too simple for me. You only have one party member, you only have one basic attack, there's no equipment... everything is just boiled down to bare dum dum bones. I mean this game is just barely above Yakyuuken Part II - Gal's Dungeon* in complexity. I didn't hate Lady Sword while I played it, but it's a 5/10 at best, not worth my time! Especially considering I found a site that has all the enemies and ladies (including their nude forms) graphics as a gallery, so nothing left to see here. If for some reason you'd like to read a detailed playthrough of Lady Sword however, you can do so here. *I actually beat this game years ago, sadly enough.
- Now, Arcana on the other hand shows a lot of promise. The hour I spent with it was encouraging, I can see myself finishing this game. I'm fairly sure that toei Sarge bonesnapdeez were on point when they said Arcana is a good 'un. At first I found it kinda strange that HAL Labs would have developed a FPDC. But... if you go back and look at their older library, HAL used to produce a rather wide range of gaming genres, before they became a dedicated Kirby dispenser. - Edit:
Thankfully both of these games have built-in auto-maps. Unfortunately neither put those auto-maps on the main screen as a mini-map. Which means every time you want to see your map, you have to exit to a separate screen to do it. Not ideal. Smart FPDC developers put a partial mini-map on the main screen at all times, and then you can see the full-map in a separate screen. That's the right way to do it! Some developers even allow you to turn on a constant (transparent) full-map overlay across the main game screen. Which works better than it sounds like it would.
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 5, 2019 6:49:09 GMT -5
Gotta love those games that use real Japanese women instead of anime girls.
I had gotten a little jump start on this month by playing some (original Famicom) Megami Tensei in late March, but I've abandoned it. There's a lot I like about the game - the music and graphics are stunning - but it just wasn't clicking.
The demon collecting/fusion aspect is cool, but success in the game hinges so much upon it. I'm not into "monster-catching" in general, but if it is inserted into an RPG I prefer the monsters to behave like sidekicks. Here, it's necessary for them to take center stage as the two main human characters are so weak.
The game is also very slow and very grindy. Exploration isn't particularly fun, especially since there are so many floors with an entrance/exit and nothing else. Navigation is really disorienting, as there's no scrolling, but instead a really aggressive "screen wipe" with every step. There is an automap that can be conjured up via a spell, but I hate it. It's very tiny, zoomed-in, and the displayed map rotates around an icon representing your party, as opposed to showing you party traverse through the map in a standard fashion. Oh, and this is really nitpicky, but I greatly dislike it when a FPDC doesn't allow you to walk backwards.
This is actually a cool game, especially in light of its early 1987 release date, but it's such a hardcore time/effort commitment and I'm just not "in the mood" right now.
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Post by Ex on Apr 5, 2019 9:54:46 GMT -5
I had gotten a little jump start on this month by playing some (original Famicom) Megami Tensei in late March, but I've abandoned it. I wonder if the SFC remake smoothes out some of the issues you didn't like? The SFC iteration is the one I'm personally interested in trying someday, I know it at least adds some new content. I too had considered hitting up an SMT title for this theme, but as you said, these games are quite involved, demanding, and fairly long. Since I'm already playing a huge complex WRPG at the moment, adding something of SMT depth on top didn't seem prudent. Some smaller/shorter/simpler FPDCs for those interested in playing a snack sized FPDC:
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Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 5, 2019 9:57:58 GMT -5
Yeah I'll get that remake someday. And finish the Fami original. It's a quirk of mine, but I tend to feel as if I have unfinished business if I haven't played the "original version" of game.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2019 11:03:04 GMT -5
Small update.
Deep Labyrinth apparently is a very easy, kiddy and colorful game. You save the game by interacting with a pink platypus and talking mice guide you through the game mechanics. The first enemies you encounter are slimes and bees. I assume it gets better and more interesting - to some extent at least but what was I got to play really was neither compelling nor awful. The true reason why I don't feel like playing more of this is the magic system, which requires you to draw runes on the screen to cast a spell. I always deeply disliked that system whenever I had to deal with it - Arx Fatalis and The Void come to mind.
Fighting Fantasy seemed a bit more interesting at first and I thought I could get into this one, but the challenge is all over the place. It goes from very easy enemies that go down after two hits and then it immediately shifts to orcs with a meaty health bar and a ranged attack that poisons you and puts you down for good after a couple of hits. Sometimes you would enter a room and after the loading screen one of those enemies would already be right next to you and there'd be no way for the player to actually dodge their attack. That's not great game design and it seems to me like I'd have to grind a lot in order to make some progress from here on out.
Short of more FPDCs on the DS with real-time combat to play, I decided to take a look at some of the no party-based titles with turn-based combat that have been mentioned earlier. That also means that from now on I'm no longer restricting myself to first person games with real time combat and I'm potentially going to play more than one first person game a month. I'm still going to focus primarily on SRPGs this year, but I wanted to make a few changes to my 2019 gaming objectives, so that I could be more active and play more games for the April theme. That is, if I find games I actually like and if I have enough gaming time on my hands.
In any case, I started up Orcs vs Elves and I'm enjoying it thus far. Definitely not a 'breezy' FPDC on the highest difficulty setting, but pretty cool stuff. I'm also looking forward to Doom RPG.
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Post by Ex on Apr 5, 2019 11:53:40 GMT -5
Deep Labyrinth apparently is a very easy, kiddy and colorful game. That's because you played the first scenario which is designed for kids... If you want a challenge, play the second scenario... The two scenarios have completely different plots, they aren't tied together. Perhaps not. I beat DS Orcs & Elves on Normal difficulty. On Normal the challenge is quite breezy. You can beat the game in five hours pretty easily. It's still fun stuff breezy or no.
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