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Post by Ex on Jan 30, 2021 21:39:26 GMT -5
This month's CR theme is brought to us by Chema : "February is all about playing games in a franchise that offer side stories or deviate substantially gameplay-wise. Some examples for the topic are:
Resident Evil Gaiden, a secondary story set in the Resident Evil universe and a battle system that's unlike any other game in the series Star Fox Adventures, a Zelda-like game in an on-rails shooter franchise Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, a touch-based gaiden game in the Ninja... Gaiden franchise. Virtua Quest, an RPG with the fighter of Virtua Fighter The Mega Man Legends subseries The Shin Megami Tensei Raidou games Phantasy Star Online III, a card-based entry in the Phantasy Star series"
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Post by Sarge on Jan 31, 2021 11:41:36 GMT -5
While they're not immediately coming to mind, I know there are games that were spinoffs that actually exceeded their original series.
Also, I would note that most any non-standard Kirby game could probably count as a gaiden game. And a lot of people actually consider the offbeat entries to be superior to the platformers!
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Post by paulofthewest on Jan 31, 2021 20:26:17 GMT -5
I've actually never played Mega Man Legends, so there I go! The internet says it is about 10 hours, which will be refreshing from some of the titles I've played recently.
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Post by toei on Jan 31, 2021 20:35:00 GMT -5
I'm waiting for Ex to come out and just list like 50 games, cause I have no idea what to play for this month's topic.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 31, 2021 20:38:51 GMT -5
Mega Man Legends is one of the most charming games out there. Truly excellent stuff, and the art style holds up really well.
Lemme see if I can think up some gaiden games...
Technically, the entire Mana series was a spinoff from Final Fantasy - the Japanese title of the original is Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. There's also Final Fantasy Tactics, Crystal Bearers, Crystal Chronicles...
I would consider a game like Neo Contra a bit of a gaiden, given that it deviates from the usual formula.
While I'm not a massive fan of the series, Assassin's Creed in many ways was spun off from Prince of Persia.
Any of the non-core Mario games would count, particularly the sports titles (or Super Mario RPG, even, which was frankly mind-blowing when it came out). Although technically, I suppose Super Mario Bros. itself is a sort of gaiden from its Donkey Kong/Mario Bros. lineage.
The original post has Dragon Quest Swords, but there's also the Dragon Quest Monsters games, as well as the splendid Rocket Slime spin-off. (Seriously, can we get the others translated?)
I suppose Zelda has a few like Four Swords Adventures and... uh, the CDi games and Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland.
I'll keep adding as I think of them.
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 31, 2021 20:47:42 GMT -5
I replayed both Mega Man Legends games in 2017, they're amazing.
Just be sure to check out the control schemes. I think I liked some settings that were different from the default, like making the shoulder buttons control strafing or something.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 31, 2021 20:51:36 GMT -5
Oh, dang, one of the greatest spin-off series of all time: Gargoyle's Quest / Demon's Crest. There's also the Maximo games. I've beaten Army of Zin and really enjoyed it. In keeping with a darker set of games, the Shin Megami Tensei series has a ton of spinoffs of both regular RPG and strategic varieties. Persona, Soul Hackers, and Majin Tensei immediately come to mind. I reckon the various other Mega Man games would count as well? Mega Man X, Battle Network (which had its own spinoffs), and Zero/ZX would fall into that category. If I remember right, Ex enjoyed the PSP Metal Gear Acid games. Wild ARMs got its own tactical spinoff in XF for PSP. And thinking of tactics games, Valkyrie Profile also got a DS strategy game called Covenant of the Plume. Aren't the Metroid Prime games also considered a sort of spinoff? Both Prime and Fusion came out at the same time, with the latter actually being considered Metroid 4, not Prime. The Street Fighter series has a ton of spinoffs, too, not just Street Fighter Alpha but also the EX games. Honestly, I haven't even played the latter.
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Post by toei on Jan 31, 2021 21:05:03 GMT -5
^Ex was definitely going to mention that one. Unfortunately, I've played almost everything you mentioned, except Neo Contra, which I couldn't care less about. Although I guess I can give Resident Evil Gaiden a shot.
For now, I can suggest a few: Albert Odyssey on the Saturn is actually a Gaiden (the mainline series is the two SNES games). It's excellent. The Game Gear Shining Forces, or Shining Force CD. Pretty much all the Kunio-kun sports games are good. Also, random thought: why isn't there a basketball game starring Sonic? Wouldn't that make perfect sense?
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Post by Sarge on Jan 31, 2021 21:06:00 GMT -5
Heh, I'm working on trying to add more. I'm not surprised you've played through most of those, though. Oh, yeah, SFCD is definitely a gaiden. And actually very good, despite excising the JRPG elements. Thinking of Sonic, though... there's always Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood if you want to play a BioWare Sonic RPG for some reason. Ooh, what about the Summon Night games? The ones I know about are the Swordcraft Story games and Twin Age. Some day, I will beat a Heroes of Might and Magic game. And while we're on tactical games, there's Alpha Centauri, basically a Civ spinoff, and Birth of the Federation, a sort of reskin of Master of Orion 2. The Shiren the Wanderer series is basically derived from Rogue and Dragon Quest, starting with the SNES game starring Taloon. Baldur's Gate has a sort of spinoff in the Dark Alliance games. In that same vein, Everquest also had some hack-and-slashers with Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms. And Fallout has its spinoffs, with Tactics ( Ex approved!) and Brotherhood of Steel (not Ex approved, ha!). And of course, on the console side, you've got other Shining Force spinoffs like the Shining Soul games, EXA, Neo, and Shining Tears. Although not really explicitly named as such, Devil May Cry explicitly had roots in Resident Evil before becoming its own thing. Oh, dang, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is fair game now. There are also some handheld spinoffs. The GBC games are a bit Prince of Persia-like, and similarly quite clunky. Which just made me think of the Turok GBC games, which have some amazing chiptunes, and Daikatana, which I'm pretty sure you already know about. And the mention of Prince of Persia jogged my memory again - there are several games that I'd consider spinoff/gaiden games. Forgotten Sands, in particular, got several different versions, including the fantastic Wii game. There's also versions on the DS and PSP that are completely different as well... and there's also The Fallen King on DS. While I'm on the DS kick, there's always Suikoden: Tierkreis, which also reminds me of Suikoden Tactics. (Seems like JRPGs to tactical RPGs is definitely a thing.)
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Post by Ex on Jan 31, 2021 21:41:55 GMT -5
I'm waiting for Ex to come out and just list like 50 games, cause I have no idea what to play for this month's topic. There are a LOT of offshoot/gaiden games out there. What I'd normally do, is point to aggregated lists on Giant Bomb or Mobygames. Unfortunately this niche itself isn't considered a genre, so I'm not finding prefabricated lists as such. Pick a genre, there's bound to be franchise offshoots into it. I can recommend games in that fashion. As for Mega Man Legends, I consider that its own series. However, there is an awesome offshoot for it:
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