|
Post by Xeogred on Feb 7, 2022 9:53:15 GMT -5
Did you ever get a flamethrower? It comes as an extension to another gun, IIRC. It runs out very quickly, but it's insanely powerful against bosses as the damage just accumulates as long as you keep it going. I think it might be THE best way to do a ton of damage to a single target rapidly. I found it especially useful in the first part of the final boss, and against that giant right before you find the little girl. I unlocked one at the end for NG+. I typically don't like flamethrowers in games... but I guess considering how good Combustion was, I can see one being excellent here. DPS was something I wondered about with some of the weapons. I ended up ditching my burst fire pistol for an MP5 once that was available, but it never really got any critical hits like the pistol did. So I still wonder if that pistol would have been better to keep around. Faster reload too, the slow reload of the MP5 and my other weapons could be trouble sometimes. I never bothered with melee weapons either, but I wonder if they were useful for some enemies. My least favorite were in the Shelter, those crawling jellyfish things that were immune to bullets and you had to use spells on. I kept wondering if something else could hurt them, like Firefly (flame) slugs, etc, but didn't figure anything out. Those rock slug things in Neo Ark were tough too until I realized the shotgun was really good at knocking a bunch of them over at once, then you could hit them when they were weak from being turned over.
Sadly no. I kept checking that yellow gate and could see the island (also on the map), but I never figured out how to get there. Wonder if that was an alternate solution from the stepping stone puzzle, or the sliding one? I only solved two of three solutions for the sliding puzzle I think. Another puzzle I skipped was in the first level, some water bridge section. I actually had no clue what to do or what the hints were, but eventually realized you could just take some damage by walking through the water. The game did have a few moments like that for me. Like the car jack puzzle, for some reason it just took me forever to figure out how to go around it through another door to get to the garage door, if you recall...
I looked more of this up and I don't even think I saw Pierce at the water tower. Apparently you use some of the ice from that outside freezer to help him heal a bruise. I checked that ice thing a dozen times and knew it had to be for something. I guess I thought Pierce was the guy on the phone, but maybe he died in my game way early on? lol. I wonder if I just missed Pierce at one point when I went back to the motel, since his car was there... but I cleared out the area again. Weird.
Yeah I bet we could have saved like two hours worth. In the long run too... I didn't even buy some of the last set of weapons and stuff, yet I had tons of BP. Now I'm not even sure why I didn't do that, lol. Maybe have made the final boss easier. I had the MP5, a second shotgun (could hold 7 shells), the M16 rifle with two ammo upgrades, and the grenade pistol. I bet a better grenade launcher would have been great.
Last night I was thinking it if would have been cool to get a classic, FF styled PE JRPG. If they didn't want to mess with Aya's story, maybe she could have just been a cameo unlockable, kind of like Cloud in some games. I'm guessing there's some licensing complications behind PE, but it seems like an IP Square could have fleshed out a little more. Could have been their Resident Evil. I'm just picturing something in the vein of FF7-FF8, set in this darker world, fighting monsters in more realistic locations. Maybe it could have been cool.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Feb 7, 2022 11:34:32 GMT -5
I'm glad your giving the game a second chance paid off. Sometimes it's like that, one plays a game and doesn't click with it, then years later a second try and it clicks. I do think you would enjoy the third game on PSP. It's very different than PE1/PE2, rather than being an action-adventure The 3rd Birthday is a frantic cover shooter. But it's a fun and challenging one, with lite RPG elements. Plus The 3rd Birthday pushed the PSP graphically about as far as it could go. Running The 3rd Birthday on PPSSPP all up'res'd would be a treat.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Feb 7, 2022 17:52:17 GMT -5
Xeogred For the rock slugs, there's also a spell and an gun accessory (I forget what either is called, but the description involves stunning or paralyzing enemies) that can knock them over in much larger groups. Plus a type of item you can find in a bunch of places and maybe buy later on. Once knocked over, they also take much more damage as their soft bellies are exposed. It works with those big alien-looking things that jump out of the bushes, too. The Flamethrower can kill those jelly monsters too, btw, but it uses up your fuel quickly. Another cool thing about fuel and energy based gun extensions in this game is that refueling/recharging them is free. I also took the damage in that first puzzle with the electric eels early on, lol. The carjack puzzle I vaguely remembered solving when I'd first tried the game 8-10 years ago or whenever it was. The island is unlocked through the stepping stone puzzle. There's a ladder going down into an underwater observatory type room, with a sea NMC boss. The flamethrower absolutely destroys it. IIRC you get something good for beating it. I found out through a FAQ after and went back to kill it. I was happy just to find a tiny stretch of unexplored content in the game, which goes to show that it is short but sweet. One additional midsized area would have been great, like you said before. Pierce is on the water tower when you get back to the motel from the lab, yeah, and he's injured. He was coming to try and help Aya. I think he makes it out even if you don't bring him the ice, though, and later he's in the lab's security room where you look at the cameras' feed. You just miss out on some rare item. I don't know if you noticed, but there's this group of maybe 4-5 accessories whose descriptions don't tell you what they do if you equip them, with names relating to elements or magic types. Each of them is hidden in some way or given as a reward for optional things. I think I found half of them in my playthrough. IIRC they all give you some big bonus (you can only equip one at a time) like reduced MP cost, level up bonuses, etc. and you can also use them once as an item to gain a level in their related psynergy type (though of course that means they're gone after). I liked the idea of this hidden section of the FBI tracking down NMCs, even though that's basically the X-Files. Maybe they could have have made a RPG centered around them as a team.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Feb 7, 2022 18:42:44 GMT -5
Finished up Terranigma. I'm not sure I'd put it quite as high as I used to, but I still think it's easily a 9/10 game for me. The quirks aren't enough to dissuade me from liking it. Also, I noticed that there was a bit of slowdown in spots playing on a SNES Classic that's not there on real hardware, but it was still plenty playable. I think there's a fix for that, but the game has to be patched to even work on there in the first place.
The Starstone stuff was indeed really quick. I was actually shocked how quickly I was done with it. And I actually didn't really remember where stuff was in a few instances, but there weren't really that many overworld locations that could have been leftover - the fortuneteller gives a vague "what you seek are in a dream, sand, ice, mountain and ruins" hint. But sand is pretty obvious, ice narrows it down considerably, ruins can be tricky but there's a very recent ruin with a door you couldn't open that make it pretty simple, and both "mountain" and "dream" are places you probably already visited and didn't see anything obvious to do. (And there's a good chance that happened with the desert as well.) Then there's the altar, which Kumari tells you is at the end of the world, which you've also probably already stumbled across.
I also spent just a bit of time with what I perceived to be an excellent grinding spot. Like, grabbing a level every three minutes or so. Beefed up to level 35, and that ended up making the last boss a cinch, even if I couldn't quite remember how to handle his most powerful attack at first. (Oh, hey, there's a guard button you've probably not touched the entire game, haha.) He's also frustratingly random in actually coming close enough to hit, so you're basically at the mercy of the RNG. But when he does come in range, at Level 35 with all the potions I could find, you can throw damage on fast. Oh, and the game doesn't let you use Magirocks here. Bummer!
So yeah, I still had a blast playing through again. It's easily up there with the other ARPGs on the SNES, and while it loses a little bit of Soul Blazer's simplicity, you can tell this was the one they just went all-out for it.
Final save time was a bit over 18 hours, SNES Classic save state time said 19h32m. I'm guessing the game might not count menu time in the mix.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Feb 7, 2022 19:36:51 GMT -5
Pierce is on the water tower when you get back to the motel from the lab, yeah, and he's injured. He was coming to try and help Aya. I think he makes it out even if you don't bring him the ice, though, and later he's in the lab's security room where you look at the cameras' feed. You just miss out on some rare item. I don't know if you noticed, but there's this group of maybe 4-5 accessories whose descriptions don't tell you what they do if you equip them, with names relating to elements or magic types. Each of them is hidden in some way or given as a reward for optional things. I think I found half of them in my playthrough. IIRC they all give you some big bonus (you can only equip one at a time) like reduced MP cost, level up bonuses, etc. and you can also use them once as an item to gain a level in their related psynergy type (though of course that means they're gone after). I liked the idea of this hidden section of the FBI tracking down NMCs, even though that's basically the X-Files. Maybe they could have have made a RPG centered around them as a team. That reminds me of all the stuff Maeda would give you in PE1. Had no clue if they were truly good luck charms or not... but I kept everything he gave me.
I did weirdly have two items that read like Latin and were supposed to unlock another ability, but I could never use them. I'm guessing maybe I needed to have maxed out two spells for some element. But then again I don't know, I think Inferno just unlocked when I maxed out the two fire spells.
That part at the end seemed very Half-Life 1 to me as well, with the "off the record" Marines sent in to kill Gordon Freeman and everyone on the site. Gotta love the 90's.
The Starstone stuff was indeed really quick. I was actually shocked how quickly I was done with it. And I actually didn't really remember where stuff was in a few instances, but there weren't really that many overworld locations that could have been leftover - the fortuneteller gives a vague "what you seek are in a dream, sand, ice, mountain and ruins" hint. But sand is pretty obvious, ice narrows it down considerably, ruins can be tricky but there's a very recent ruin with a door you couldn't open that make it pretty simple, and both "mountain" and "dream" are places you probably already visited and didn't see anything obvious to do. (And there's a good chance that happened with the desert as well.) Then there's the altar, which Kumari tells you is at the end of the world, which you've also probably already stumbled across. Might be why I never remember this part when I see others mention it as an issue. Guess it was quick and easy for me too. It was mainly all the city building/fetch quests that kind of took some wind out of me. The action takes a backseat around that portion.
Definitely one I want to revisit someday as well though. Really cool game.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Feb 7, 2022 20:13:08 GMT -5
Yeah, you could technically blaze through, but the game feels like it wants you to fully engage with its exploration aspects.
In the end, Magirock stuff is still superfluous in many regards - the healing one can get you through some areas, but since some bosses won't let you use it, it's definitely a bummer. You still very much have to keep Bulbs on hand.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Feb 7, 2022 20:30:55 GMT -5
Yeah, the final spells unlock automatically when you master the others in the same type.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Feb 8, 2022 16:39:06 GMT -5
The Starstone stuff was indeed really quick. Quick or not, having the game stop you at the very end and say, "Hold up we're gonna need you to backtrack and find a bunch of hidden rocks now" was just doltish for me. I had already largely lost interest by that point though, so that was the final nail. That said, I'm glad Terranigma held up for you. It's clearly an enjoyable game for most players.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Feb 8, 2022 19:54:51 GMT -5
The Starstone stuff was indeed really quick. "Hold up we're gonna need you to backtrack and find a bunch of hidden rocks now" Hold up we're gonna need you to backtrack and find a bunch of hidden rocks now THE GAME!
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Feb 8, 2022 21:46:34 GMT -5
|
|