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Post by Xeogred on Aug 22, 2023 22:51:32 GMT -5
Yeah, Amazon seems a little sketchy hitting launch dates with new games in my experience. I've had a few cases like yours where it says the shipping is expected a week or two later, but it does magically work out and ships on launch day. Just wouldn't bet on it though...
I also meant to say, while I did kind of fall off PowerSlave (PC), I thought it was cool how some of it felt like Dark Forces. Another rare FPS I think Sarge liked a lot.
So I'm curious if the NightDive PowerSlave/Exumed remake has that vibe too. Spacious levels, kind of adventurous. If I'm being honest though now that I fell off the PC game, I'm a little worried what I'll think of the other versions. Even though they sound so different... maybe I'll grab it on a sale someday.
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Post by toei on Aug 22, 2023 22:54:17 GMT -5
I'm glad that recommendation paid off for you, Ex . I figured if there was one person I knew who might appreciate Virtual Hydlide, it was you. I also wasn't wrong about the King's Field thing, so maybe that means Xeogred might also like it - I'd say that mostly depends on whether he can get past the choppy framerate. If anything, I think maybe Virtual Hydlide might be better appreciated today than, say, 20 years ago, now that it looks like a pioneer to a well-liked genre, and that those visuals have nostalgic value. At least by the right subset of players. I landed on a recent video that trashed it, and a lot of comments were defending the game. In the late '90s / early '00s, it seemed impossible to get anyone to give it a shot. That screenshot of the Princess overlaid over the nature footage is incredibly charming to me. Ironically, there's something a lot more human and real about early, unconvincing CG effects. How was that final boss fight, btw? I kind of sucked at action games as a kid, so I would just run circles around it and fire energy balls at it with the Holy Sword (I think that's what it's called). I remember they did very little damage as you had a better sword by then, so it would take way too long.
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Post by Ex on Aug 22, 2023 23:09:59 GMT -5
How was that final boss fight, btw? Believe it or not I found the last boss very easy, because my Light Sword was +1 when I found it (random bonus), and then I used a Stone of Protection to upgrade it again to a +2. That made it very powerful. For the last boss I just kept shooting light balls at him using that sword. Those light balls automatically target, so I stayed way away from him, and shot them galore. In turn he shot his own magic balls at me, so we ended up volleying balls at each other until one of us died. I had stocked up on Stamina Potions (when used completely fills your life) and had a Spirit Ring equipped (regenerates life) plus the Fairy Armor, so he died first. There were two bosses in this game that gave me trouble. The first time I fought the evil red mage, because he moves around so quickly and you can't hit him until he holds still. But when he holds still, he's going to pound you with black magic. So you have to be really vigilant about staying up his butt and hitting him immediately upon landing. But the second time I fought that mage, I had the +2 Light Sword, so I could wallop him with light balls constantly. He was a piece of cake then. The other boss that gave me trouble was the three headed flame hydra. That was because I didn't have the right equipment the first time I fought it, so I died instantly. That made me have to track all the way out of the volcanic caves, get the right equipment, then track all the way back in. But with the right equipment I slayed the hydra easily. It's a bad ass game that was a trailblazer in some ways. But I think honestly 90% of people who try playing Virtual Hydlide are going to outright hate it immediately, or lose interest within the first half hour. It's an acquired taste. But I honestly, no BS had a great time with this one. One of the best rec's I've ever gotten on HRG for my tastes.
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Post by toei on Aug 28, 2023 17:15:55 GMT -5
I thought I'd try to get a relatively short game in before the month was over, and since I was still in a ARPG mood after the too-short Shogunaria, I picked Linkle Liver Story. I had high hopes for it - it's a 2D Saturn ARPG from 1996, and it's by the makers of Crusaders of Centy (which I liked). Unfortunately, it's pretty bad.
You can use 7 different weapons through an annoying system, arranged by Power, Speed and Range ratings. In theory, there's a weapon specialized in each category, one that balances all three, and three that combine two of the three, ie Speed + Power, Range + Speed, etc. But every goddamn weapon sucks. Fighting is just thoroughly subpar in this game. You never have enough range - even the pure Range weapon, a boomerang, doesn't actually go far. It's also disgustingly slow and weak, to the point of being unusable. Not long ago, I struggled with a boss fight because every time I went to hit it, my body bounced against him, which put me out of range to hit him. Literally the biggest challenge was positioning myself at the exact range to hit him. Enemies always seem to get some hits in whenever you attack - it's just so sloppy, slow and imprecise. Dashing has this intense inertia where it's hard to turn and its feels like you're controlling a difficult vehicle. It's also executed by pressing the Jump button twice. It's just not fun to move in this game. It reminds me of Elemental Gimmick Gear in that way, and maybe Shining Wisdom for the garbage dashing. The story so far is a series of barely connected scenes that feel as if the writer made them up as she went along. There's an antagonist, but apart from that, it has no direction whatsoever. The setting is all about cute beastmen and animals and plant people and stuff. Music sounds like something from a carnival funhouse, it's super obnoxious. The dungeons are short and it feels more like some quirky platformer at times, with lots of falling boulders and spikes and so on. It does get pretty creative. At one point you have to kick a pollen ball up a beach while fighting enemies on the way so as to fertilize a flower, for example. I'd rather get proper dungeons, personally. Oh, and you can never seem to heal properly. You just get these acorns that restore ridiculously little HP, 1/20 or 1/10 or whatever. You have checkpoints, but they only restore your health if you die. So you always make it to the boss with your health nearly depleted, then I get you're supposed to die, redo that last little part, skip through the dialogue you already read... what a dumb game.
I can see some people calling this charming and maybe even a gem; I don't want to discourage people from trying it. It has some pretty visuals, as expected. Some spots look really great. Years ago, the lighthearted cutesy approach wouldn't have bothered me; I'm not sure whether I would've had the patience for that mediocre gameplay. This really looks like a 5/10 from what I've seen, I don't see how it could get better when I've tried every weapon.
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Post by Ex on Aug 29, 2023 9:09:54 GMT -5
I'd read Linkle Liver Story is a hidden gem a few times from various internet sources. Looking at screenshots that claim always seemed suspect to me. Your description of this game does not instill faith that I would enjoy it. From the wack OST to the goofy dungeon concepts and the keeping your health low for boss repeats, nah. I still appreciate you took one for the team here though.
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There's a couple Saturn games I'd like to beat for this theme before I'm done with it. One of them was to be Princess Crown. It's ridiculous that in 2023 we still don't have an English fan translation for Princess Crown. But I was hoping it would be short enough to just power through. Turns out it's anywhere from 20-40 hours long, so that's a LOT of text not to understand. Decided to skip it for now and hope someday we get more Saturn translations. There's shorter action stuff I'll hit up instead.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 29, 2023 20:33:21 GMT -5
Still running through TR4: The Last Revelation myself. My gaming has just been kind of low since I got back from my vacation haha.
It sadly did have kind of a lower tier arc I just finished. The returning issue that TR2-TR3 had, with SUPER DARK (the insane lack thereof brightness/gamma) levels with an annoying vehicle you have to baby sit. On top of TR4's more multi layered interwoven levels and loading points, it was a nuisance. But I think I'm in the final stretch now and it looks awesome. Still might be my new 2nd favorite TR in ways overall.
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Post by toei on Aug 30, 2023 11:01:25 GMT -5
So, typical of me, I decided to give Linkle Liver Story another chance. I'm glad I did, because it quickly improved on literally every single issue I had in the early game.
Health: After a while you have access to two renewable apple trees. Apples are restoratives that can actually be carried, unlike chestnuts. I never had to load from a checkpoint after I first found an apple. This is a bit weird, though; at the beginning of the game, an NCP tells you that he's studying the reason why the apple tree isn't bearing fruit. Then he never talks about it again, nor does anything happen that directly tells you to check the tree. I just happened to bump into it and get an apple. I figure it's probably available from a few dungeons earlier than I found it, when you first remove the mist that blocks the sun and restore some other plants. I bet the manual would have said something about it.
Weapons and combat: The bokken/sword types are still a little short and slow, but they're workable. One thing that really improves combat is you get access to two other elemental weapons in quick succession, then another a bit later. Each enemy has an obvious elemental weakness based on their color, and you can switch between weapons with L and R. Generally enemies go down really quickly when you hit them with the right element, so the game starts sending you large waves of weak enemies that you kill in one or two hits, creating a beat-'em-up feel. I actually started to have fun around that time. There are still cheap, unavoidable hits sometimes, and boss design is quite weak. You really don't have to worry about dodging their attacks much, just hit them a lot and they die. Even the final boss is a joke.
Dungeons: The goofy concepts are mostly early on, and they don't take very much time; after that you get a lot of standard dungeons that are pretty fun. They're all bite-sized so you usually want to do another when you finish one, like 15 minutes each (that's what it feels like, anyway). The highlight for me was the underwater dungeon, which I really liked.
Story: It starts to make a bit more sense and have more direction almost immediately after where I was. It's not completely cliched or cookie cutter, either, and it's mostly about the nature of life, renewal, etc.. It's all told in a concise manner, maybe even a little too concise. Most of the dialogue is whimsical and subtly amusing, too, without being laugh-out-loud funny, and there was one line at the end I found meaningful in a real life context, even if it's an ancient idea (immortality is achieved through making children and passing on our genes/essence/memories, basically, and no other way).
Game setting: There are no humans in this game, just beastfolk, treefolk, fishfolk, and some monsters. After a while it stopped coming across as cutesy to me and I started to see its charm. It's a cool little world, with a sense of mystery.
Music: While some of it is overly happy and annoying, there's some really good stuff in there, too.
So a couple dungeons in, and probably in an impatient mood, I disliked the game and thought it wouldn't improve. I was wrong. It ultimately is pretty good, and has a feel of its own. The controls / gameplay could be tighter, which hurts the game especially early on when you don't have elemental weapons and magic. I see a parallel with Legend of Oasis, which is good, but not quite as good as Beyond Oasis, or Dark Savior, which is good (and very odd/interesting), but not as good as Landstalker; this game has the same relationship with its Genesis spiritual predecessor, Crusader of Centy. The world is more special, if a little underdeveloped, but the gameplay isn't as polished. It's short, too, btw. Maybe 5 hours. But it is in fact rather good overall.
I'll give a 7 overall because the early part brings it down for me. Also, there's no proper final dungeon. But in its best moments, it entered 8 territory. It's not so rare that it takes a couple hours to get to the good stuff a game; but when a game is 5 hours long, it does hurt it.
This is the underwater dungeon. Notice the DKC water levels style music.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 30, 2023 14:32:39 GMT -5
Today I learned that Linkle Liver Story was from the same dev as Crusader of Centy. And I think you're dead on with Beyond Oasis and Landstalker vs. Legend of Oasis and Dark Savior, so I believe you with LLS as well. Still has me super interested now, though, because I do like CoC, and eventually should finish that game. (I have beaten the others, however.) Also, didn't know it was that short!
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Post by toei on Aug 30, 2023 15:40:28 GMT -5
Sarge Same dev as Crusader, and several elements in common (the little bits of platforming, the way you run, similar feel and universe, same writer, same scale - Crusader of Centy is also really short). I replayed the early part just to see if I was off the other day. It goes by really fast when you know what to do (plus skip the dialogue). It didn't change my mind. The first third of the game is mediocre, with some really asinine parts. The good news is that none of the crappy parts last very long, but man, that giant stone head boss is terrible. But things really do pick up. I don't regret sticking with it. The crown jewel of Saturn ARPGs is Magic Knight Rayheart. A licensed game based on an anime I don't even like has no business being this good, it's really stellar.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 30, 2023 15:47:33 GMT -5
Still need to get to that. Probably should have done it for this theme, but I'm swimming in games, haha!
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