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Post by Ex on Nov 21, 2019 13:30:17 GMT -5
I've got about three hours in Forever Kingdom now. Still having a good time with it! Forever Kingdom reminds me most strongly of the modern Ys titles, insofar as party mechanics, combat, and dungeon exploration are concerned. At this point, as long as the quality level remains consistent, this old action-JRPG will go down into the Hidden Gem category in my book. I'm still shocked at how much it improves over its predecessor in just a year's time. But I've still got a long ways to go, FromSoftware could screw it up yet. Hope not!
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Post by Sarge on Nov 21, 2019 13:39:52 GMT -5
Well dang. Throwing out Ys comparisons will always get my attention. Hope it continues to hold up!
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Post by Ex on Nov 21, 2019 13:54:09 GMT -5
Well dang. Throwing out Ys comparisons will always get my attention. Hope it continues to hold up! What I've played so far, I think you would definitely enjoy. But like I said, don't want to jump the gun just yet. This game could get even better, or take a nose dive in the back half. You know how it goes. I'm cautiously optimistic though.
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Post by Chainsaw Bilqis on Nov 22, 2019 0:48:51 GMT -5
I own Forever Kingdom and what I played seemed really cool, though like many PS2 games I never put much time into it (the PS2 was the system that began my "Buying new games but never actually playing them for more than a few hours" phase haha). I never knew it was the sequel to Evergrace (I guess if I just looked at Forever Kingdom on wikipedia I could have learned this years earlier). So now I need to find a copy of Evergrace. I always wanted to play it anyway, ever since I saw the screenshots in game magazines where you are wearing a pumpkin on your head. Both games look like ones I would enjoy. Maybe they would be too hard for me haha, but I am willing to try my best. Finished Disc 2 of Koudelka. Story wise, one thing I respect and find unique about it is up to this point the characters are not the most heroic. A really unique feel to it in that regards, they feel more real than just "game character A, B, and C". Wonderful setting too, mentions of real life people like Lord Byron in a PS1 title is just cool. Some thought was put into the story no doubt. Today I did not have to go to work, so I spent 7 hours replaying Unlimited Saga after thinking about it lately. Well, prompted by the recent SaGa discussion on this very site last week (I still have to post the rest of my SaGa Frontier "article" I have been writing too), which in turn made me curious about its modern day reception. Googling, I found a recent and well-received 2019 review which was super unfavorable to Unlimited haha - no surprises there, but the vitriol of said review made me wonder if maybe I am too lenient with the game. So starting it back up, I got right back into the groove and am enjoying it just as much as ever. Oh well haha. I can see how it is frustrating and all that when you are thrown into the game blind, but since it clicks for me and I can't "erase the knowledge" I've accumulated playing it, I found today's 7 hours a supremely serene experience. Guess it was the music and watercolor visuals soothing me during a tranquil, lonely day instead of having to work at a people-filled office.
Edit: Oh cool, I just now noticed my new art book "descriptor" haha.
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Post by Sarge on Nov 22, 2019 11:32:33 GMT -5
I enjoy those little titles bestowed on us.
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Post by Ex on Nov 22, 2019 12:41:44 GMT -5
the PS2 was the system that began my "Buying new games but never actually playing them for more than a few hours" phase haha In my experience, the next phase is then buying games but never actually playing them. Rather letting them age like fine wine on your shelves for years. Then 10-15 years later finally cracking their seal. My gaming shelves are a wondrous cellar of shame, and yours can be too!
(The oldest one I have, which I've still never played, is a PC title I bought in back in the early '90s. Wrath of the Demon. I've own, but not played, said game for a quarter century and counting... ) So now I need to find a copy of Evergrace. Since I just finished my (mint condition) copy, I don't need it anymore. If you want, I'll send it to you (no charge) in return for an informed HRG member's opinion of it someday. If you're interested, just PM me your address. Ha! This tradition continues in Forever Kingdom. One of my characters is indeed wandering around with a pumpkin on their head at present. I had to solve a cute little puzzle involving a stray dog to get it. So far Forever Kingdom has been a piece of cake. Evergrace however vacillates from being easy to being sorta hard, with no discernible rhythm. It's a bit bipolar like that. Totally agreed. I still remember some of the conversations the protagonists had in that game. Wayyy better fleshed out characters than you usually see in a JRPG. Those characters seemed much more human than the typical cardboard stereotypes we normally get. Nice descriptor. Well that sells me even harder on Unlimited Saga, gonna have to check it out next year. I tend to enjoy the quirky underdog JRPGs more than the big community favorites anyway.
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Post by Xeogred on Nov 22, 2019 19:16:59 GMT -5
Finished Disc 2 of Koudelka. Story wise, one thing I respect and find unique about it is up to this point the characters are not the most heroic. A really unique feel to it in that regards, they feel more real than just "game character A, B, and C". Wonderful setting too, mentions of real life people like Lord Byron in a PS1 title is just cool. Some thought was put into the story no doubt. Have you seen the drinking scene yet? One of the best scenes I've ever seen, especially for the PSX.
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Post by Chainsaw Bilqis on Nov 26, 2019 16:17:21 GMT -5
Thank you for the kind offer regarding the Evergrace game, but I have already purchased a copy during my recent visit to the local game store.
The store's inventory is typical of the internet-era we live in. The "in-demand" older titles are behind a glass case with price tags to match their hands-off environment. The 8,16,32-bit and Dreamcast titles in the "non-glassed"/"mere mortals" section of the store are of the requisite sports "variety" haha (well, not totally true, I did get a nice copy of Clockwork Knight for Saturn a few visits ago). But in terms of PS2 titles and up, the selection surplus is pretty vast. They have many PS2 titles of differing genres, you just have to look through a ton of stuff to find what you are looking for. I suppose in the near future a bunch of the cooler stuff might get moved to "the glass", as I already saw two PS2 titles in there this trip (granted they were Atlus published). I hope someone else takes you up on the offer. I plan to play it, but first I need to try the King's Field games like I said I would. I think after Koudelka. I will try to finish Koudelka this Thanksgiving. I have not played much of Disc 3 yet, I guess the scene mentioned above is in Disc 3 or 4. My third PS2 seems to be broken. I have had a lot of trouble with this console in terms of survivability haha. Rather than immediately purchase a 4th one I tested out my games on the computer I have plugged into the TV. I got to test out recording some gameplay footage, but the file sizes are huge so I will need to learn about compression. Here is a gif I made from some footage of one of my favorite enemies in Unlimited Saga: The Japanese name of this move supposedly translates to "Photosynthesis Blaster", so I wish they translated it as "Photosyntheshot" instead of "slam". Maybe the localizers never saw the attack animation haha. I really love the effort put into the enemies in this game. For example, this monster is a Rank 9 Vegeplast type, but is named "Mimic". Perhaps because it is attempting to mimic a human body. However, it is also similar to the Lilean race in the game: i.imgur.com/sqQMVZh.png
On the left is Platyphyllum, a recruitable character in some quests and member of the Lilean race. Perhaps Lileans are vegeplasts themselves trying to appear humanoid just like Mimic. Or maybe "Mimic" is a vegeplast attempting to appear as a Lilean, if indeed vegeplasts and Lileans are different haha. The game never says, it is just something to contemplate. Regardless, I love the "offness" of Mimic compared to a Lilean, with its wilting "hair/headress" and sinister glowing eye. (I scanned the image of "Mimic" from my guidebook to show a side-by-side comparison with the Platyphyllum image that was already on the internet , the quality of my Mimic scan is poor because of how tiny the image is in the book so I had to blow it up haha)
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Post by Sarge on Nov 26, 2019 20:45:47 GMT -5
Sounds like most of my "local" game stores. Closest one is twenty miles away, but that one you can still occasionally find deals. The two an hour away have folks that know exactly what stuff is worth, and the expensive stuff is in a glass case. There's one guy that I like a lot personally, but he's almost always overpriced. The only time I got a bargain there was when he decided to sell all his stuff out, and most games were a solid 75% off. I bought over $250 of stuff that weekend, but it was worth far more than that. Someone got to it before I did and spent thousands. (Honestly, there's a good chance I would have, too.)
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Post by Ex on Nov 27, 2019 13:50:37 GMT -5
Evergrace game, but I have already purchased a copy during my recent visit to the local game store. Glad to hear you've got a respectably decent game store nearby. If they've got Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne for a decent price, I wholeheartedly suggest it. Normally I'd recommend playing a game series from the very beginning. With KF, I can't do so. I think the best KF to start with for new players is KF4, known in the USA as King's Field: The Ancient City. If you play through KF4 and enjoy it, the rest of FromSoftware's first person dungeon crawlers will be a lot easier to get rolling with. ALL of them are outstanding experiences though. anayo might be able to help there. He's uploaded footage to HRG from games he's beaten a few times. I often wish I could take screenshots of some of the sixth gen games I play, but lack the conviction to set the hardware up to do so. I did a little research about this game's difficulty level. According to GameFAQs it's the most difficult PS2 JRPG: Do you agree with this assessment? Is Unlimited Saga truly that difficult? Or is it that people simply don't know how to play the game? Here's the top 10 for those interested: In that top 10 list, I've only beaten Nocturne and Baroque.
^^^This looks fantastic! I believe the Mimic monster is indeed copying the look of the Lilean race. Nice find. Thanks for the art uploads, cool stuff.
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