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Post by Xeogred on Oct 13, 2023 14:56:30 GMT -5
So... Otogi is very good. At about 1 hour into it this morning I think I might already be catching up to my ancient original save where I put 3 hours into it. Wish it had a timestamp/date, but this was probably ~15 years ago.
+ Had no remembrance of it being stage based in an Armored Core kind of way. Some missions are very short. Should be easy to jump in and out of, save, etc. Nice.
+ Amazing atmosphere, was hard to find composer intel so I'm going to post this here for myself: vgmdb.net/artist/6251+ The controls ARE floaty like I remembered... but kind of awesome actually. It reminds me of Shinobi PS2 but more loose. Combat feels great. Your heavy attack knocks enemies back a ton, can break bridges, buildings, it feels really good.
- Both Y and X axis are permanently inverted by default. Always an issue with this generation, lol. Often can't customize the joystick controls. I haven't had to rely on the right joystick too much thankfully, there is a lock on button so that's good.
Perhaps 10/13/2023 was the time for Otogi and me. Definitely going to keep playing more.
It amuses myself at this point how a lot of Japanese samurai media, movies and anime, kind of bore me really fast and I can't get into them much. I'll never say never. But going on 20 years now since the days of Onimusha and character action stuff, I still freaking love this genre for gaming. Swords are just the coolest thing ever. Bonus points to Otogi for all the demonic supernatural stuff too. I don't require that in such settings but I never mind it either...
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Post by Ex on Oct 13, 2023 20:47:06 GMT -5
XeogredOtogi has some issues, but overall it's a good one. I posted my review from beating it years ago already, you probably saw that. In some ways it has that "character action" genre feel to it. Hopefully it'll stay engaging for you. I still gotta get around to the sequel (own it on Xbox).
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 14, 2023 8:37:08 GMT -5
Forgot to mention, it's very nice that Otogi is dual audio too. Immediately put that to Japanese. A surprising feature for this era... I'm hoping 2 still has that but I won't bet on it. lol
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 15, 2023 10:52:51 GMT -5
I beat the giant worm boss in Otogi that I was stuck on back in the day. I have no issues admitting I looked it up for once after awhile, only to learn that it seems like some weapons will be better than others for bosses. Kind of annoying but good to know. The default sword with its heavy downward attack worked. It's just annoying since I was pretty much doing the same strategy with another weapon but because the attack animation from the player doesn't go down to get out of the way of its attack, I was just getting knocked around. This thing could kill me in like two hits too.
It's almost impossible to see the bosses HP which added to the frustration. Also like a lot of games this generation, even if I have my Xbox hooked up via component, it is muddy city on an HDTV. So extra hard to see things sometimes...
Wish you could just switch weapons mid level.
Finally opened the manual to figure out what the heck the player UI was about too. The health bar isn't exactly obvious, or other gimmicks. Like if you're out of magic, your health bars (if they aren't fully depleted) they won't regenerate unless you have some MP. Enemies drop a bunch of "Orbs" that are different via color. Health, gold, exp. It's kind of weird.
Think I'm about halfway through it though and still having a good time overall. So I'll keep playing. What did I learn from PN03? I probably should have done the Trials more to level up. So I should maybe replay some missions here in Otogi to level up. The manual also showed me what the permanent HP increase power ups looked like too. Now I'm going to be worried about missing those. No mission statistic seems to really show if you found them or not. I only have four so far. Dying hasn't been an issue up to this point but it's feeling like the mid game is a difficulty spike. There was a really obnoxious boat level I just did too. A bunch of blobs would land on the boat and you had to keep killing or knocking them off quickly before the boat sinks. The end of the level was the real kicker though with a boss you have to kill ASAP. It takes like 5 minutes to get to the boss only to die several times over... glad that one is over with haha.
Anyone else 6th gen gaming this weekend?
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Post by toei on Oct 15, 2023 11:48:34 GMT -5
I'm hoping to get into a good PS2 game this coming week. Today I'm distracted and kind of off so I'm either gonna play nothing or play something light.
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Post by Ex on Oct 16, 2023 8:29:21 GMT -5
I should maybe replay some missions here in Otogi to level up. I did indeed go back and grind earlier missions to level up faster. And yes you have to look out for those power-up orbs. I remember that level, and it was a good example of Otogi's biggest flaw; its crappy lock-on system that is fallible. Especially due to an erratic camera that fails to keep up with the intensity of battles with dozens of mobbing monsters. Which is what happens on that boat. It's a great game for its time, but the lock-on foibles, camera, and automatically depleting health kept it from awesome tier. I didn't get much gaming in at all last weekend. The temperature down here was too nice not to be outside (low 70s). Spent all saturday hiking this trail with my wife (trail kicked my ass... too much climbing). Spent most of sunday Geocaching with my niece and nephew, then spent the afternoon with my daughter. But I did at least finish two missions in Front Mission 2 Remake last night. Thus far I've finished five NGPC games for this theme, and plan to finish a couple GBA games, and a PS2 game before end of October.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 16, 2023 18:08:44 GMT -5
I should maybe replay some missions here in Otogi to level up. I did indeed go back and grind earlier missions to level up faster. And yes you have to look out for those power-up orbs. I remember that level, and it was a good example of Otogi's biggest flaw; its crappy lock-on system that is fallible. Especially due to an erratic camera that fails to keep up with the intensity of battles with dozens of mobbing monsters. Which is what happens on that boat. It's a great game for its time, but the lock-on foibles, camera, and automatically depleting health kept it from awesome tier. This in combination with its forced inversion on BOTH the Y and X-axis for camera controls on the right joystick makes me never want to even touch that joystick, thus severely limiting me. The more I play the more frustrating the game is becoming. Patience wearing thin. lol
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Post by Ex on Oct 16, 2023 21:21:23 GMT -5
The uniqueness and atmosphere pushed me to the credits, but it's an artificially tough game for sure.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 20, 2023 9:41:18 GMT -5
I might be tapping out on Otogi. This level just absolutely sucks. And that's been the trend with a few of them in the mid game here...
- Wind blowing you around, can throw you off the level - Gargoyle enemies everywhere - Annoying ambience - Can't see sh!t!!! - Boss arena has poison blob things all over
On top of the camera/control issues no less. And it's so weird how easy this game was out the gate, but now you can die in a blink.
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Post by Ex on Oct 20, 2023 9:55:54 GMT -5
but now you can die in a blink Have you finally found a FromSoftware game that's too hard? - The GBA game I've put some time in lately is DK: King of Swing (2005), I'm about 1/5th through it. Back in 2018 I beat this game's sequel; DK: Jungle Climber (2007). I didn't particularly love Jungle Climber, and King of Swing isn't blowing me away either. However, the way the locomotion works in both of these games is so unique, it's kinda worth playing just for a truly unusual platforming experience. As usual with platformers that dare to not be typical run 'n jump, these games didn't garner a lot of interest in their time. But I'll finish King of Swing regardless. Aside from King of Swing, I previously sampled about 30 random GBA games. They all ranged from bad-to-meh. I was really hoping the Splinter Cell GBA game would be fun, but it sucked right out the gate. Not interested in its GBA sequel as a result. I had a little fun with Medal of Honor: Infiltrator (a blatant Cannon Fodder ripoff) until it decided to start focusing on boring stealth missions. Turok: Evolution seemed okay but quickly wore thin. I was intrigued by Robotech: The Macross Saga until I booted it up and realized a western developer made it, as expected it's a shit show, even the first stage practically put me to sleep with its unrelenting repetitiveness. And the disappointment continued with various other GBA action games I sampled. I'm well aware the GBA has plenty of great games (and some hidden gems), it's just I've already beat all those years ago. Hence I've been dipping deeper into the barrel, digging around in the poop piles looking for a pleasant surprise. There are some RPGs I've not beaten on GBA, but I'm not looking to get into anything that will take hours and hours to finish right now. Ergo I'm swinging with DK.
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