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Post by Xeogred on Dec 30, 2017 17:29:37 GMT -5
It really is a shame we didn't get a third Legends back when that series was hot. Should have been a trilogy! I resolve myself to accepting Tron Bonne as the third pillar. I'm interested to see what you think of Tron Bonne when you play through it. All the Legends games (including Tron Bonne) have aged amazingly well IMO. I didn't know you played Ultima Underworld. Was it the first or second or both? I love the aesthetics and designs in Legends so much, crazy to think how cool it would have looked with a third game on the PS2 or something. I tried following these up with Mega Man X Command Mission and couldn't get into it at all, but the budget seemed awesome and looked great. It just made me wish even more that it was Legends 3... Tron Bonne should be in the bag. Looking forward to it. Yeah I played Ultima Underworld years back. Actually never finished it though. I think I got really far, like level 7-8 with lava pitfalls everywhere... some kind of hovering magic spell was highly necessary but I never managed to get through it all. Loved just about everything in the game though and I wish editing and taking notes on maps like you could here was the norm in the entire medium. I think I disliked how combat heavy System Shock 1 was in comparison, even on the lower difficulties the constant respawning enemies and ammo drops was a little tiresome to manage. System Shock does have SHODAN though which gives it a lot of points, I really liked how "she" seemed a lot more hivemind/bug like and evil in this one compared to SS2. I cracked up hearing Warren Spector doing some voice overs too.
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Post by Ex on Dec 30, 2017 18:50:54 GMT -5
It's gonna be interesting to see how you react to Tron Bonne's more esoteric game modes.
I wasn't really into Ultima Underworld I, although I appreciated its ambition and technical accomplishments. Ultima Underworld II however is amazing. I never finished Ultima Underworld II, but I got fairly far in it. You really have to pay attention to the lore in that one, take notes, make notations, and definitely RTFM. Super awesome dungeon crawler though. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, Arx Fatalis is practically Ultima Underworld III. Arx Fatalis is really, really awesome... and hard. I never finished it, despite making my way to the bottom level. My problem was I'd killed some NPCs I wasn't supposed to, and locked myself out of knowledge I needed to progress. That's what being overly psychotic will do for ya.
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Post by markies on Dec 31, 2017 14:53:35 GMT -5
I posted my entire list over at RB, but I did want to mention my top pick here and go into a bit more detail.
I was torn between The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Skies of Arcadia.
Eventually, I went with Skies of Arcadia for the Sega Dreamcast as my Best Game of 2017. Overall, it offered the most enjoyment over the entire experience. It takes the perfected JRPG formula, takes the best parts of it and even adds some new ideas to keep it fresh. I enjoyed every moment of that game and it only got better the more I played. I was close to putting 60 hours into the game and I truly never wanted it to end.
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Post by Ex on Dec 31, 2017 16:00:16 GMT -5
I'll say Skies of Arcadia beats Wind Waker any day. I absolutely loved Skies of Arcadia when I beat it back in 2013. (I beat the "Legends" GameCube version, because I was interested in all the extra content it adds.) SoA has such a wonderful sense of exploration and cheery characters. Though the slow battle system and high encounter rate aren't spectacular. Despite that, the excellent music, fully realized and unique world, entertaining locales, epic ship battles, and full on joie de vivre SoA exudes makes it a necessary play for all JRPG enthusiasts. A highly unique and fun JRPG worth tracking down from the ether of eons past. I put 65 hours into it myself, doing all the optional things, which is something I never do with JRPGs, so that says a lot about how fantastic Skies of Arcadia is.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2017 19:07:33 GMT -5
Skies of Arcadia is extremely charming and entertaining. It's one of my favorite Dreamcast games. Considering I'm more of an arcade gamer and very rarely get any enjoyment out of JRPGs I think that speaks volumes.
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Post by anayo on Dec 31, 2017 22:33:46 GMT -5
I didn't keep very good track of the retro games I played in 2017. So, I guess mine would have to be Mario Kart Double Dash, just because my brother and I play that game to death. We're so competitive at it that we keep a list of our best times for all 16 tracks.
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Post by Ex on Dec 31, 2017 23:19:59 GMT -5
Those are some seriously tight times. You're definitely faster than me.
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Post by laurenhiya21 on Jan 1, 2018 18:03:23 GMT -5
I did a really lame job of beating retro games last year (although to be fair, I did beat less games overall). I only beat 8 games that are 10+ years old, and 4 of those I only beat because they were either super short or I felt like I had to beat them. So I guess I'll just list off the ones I did enjoy ha. The Top 4 Retro Games that I beat in 2017
4. Mystic Inn (PC)
It's a fairly simple time-management game, but it was entertaining enough for me. The difficulty curve is a little wonky (it's pretty difficult near the middle but then it's super easy near the end), but for me it was good for a cheap nostalgia trip. 3. Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica (PS2)
It's not perfect, with poor explanation of the battle system and a bad game-breaking glitch near the end, but it really nails the character and story aspects for me. The gameplay was also pretty entertaining once I sorta figured it out halfway through the game. Plus, as usual for Gust, the music is really enjoyable to listen to. It's just too bad that it was not localized very well. It would have been amazing instead of just pretty good. 2. Utawarerumono (PC)
I really enjoyed the story here, despite already seeing the anime before. It's a lot different from other VNs that I've played and I think it was well written here. Plus, even if I couldn't get the combat properly working on my PC (the animations are based off your PC's clock speed, so everything moved super fast haha), the strategy RPG portions were fun to play. I'm super bad at strategy RPGs, so I was happy that there was an easy enough mode for me to enjoy, while still being difficult enough for me to not be completely bored ha (but there are plenty of harder difficulties as well!). It's just too bad that it was never officially localized. 1. Littlewitch Romanesque: Editio Regia (Steam)
It not only has some gorgeous artwork, but it has some interesting characters and a surprisingly fun dice rolling mini-game. It's VNs like this that makes me happy that more publishers are localizing more good VNs recently. (also I wasn't going to put it here, but surprisingly it was originally released in 2007 so it counts!) Yeah most of these are VNs... I guess I know how to pick out retro VNs that I would like better than other genres haha.
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Post by Ex on Jan 1, 2018 18:22:54 GMT -5
I'd never head of Mystic Inn. Pretty awesome that you beat Ar Tonelico II. I agree that Littlewitch Romanesque's artwork is great. The developer "Littlewitch" produced quite a few other VNs, but unfortunately AFAIK only Romanesque has been localized. I recommend looking into Muv-Luv (2003) and Muv-Luv Alternative (2006), very renowned VNs. They have been localized and made available on Steam.
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Post by laurenhiya21 on Jan 1, 2018 18:54:34 GMT -5
I'd never head of Mystic Inn. Not surprising that you haven't heard of Mystic Inn haha. It's a super obscure game in a genre that not a lot of people play (it's a time management game, similar-ish to Diner Dash), and as far as I know it's only available on BigFish Games and physical discs. Only reason why I knew about it is because I played a demo of it a long while ago, and just stumbled on it again recently. I agree that Littlewitch Romanesque's artwork is great. The developer "Littlewitch" produced quite a few other VNs, but unfortunately AFAIK only Romanesque has been localized. Yeah, unfortunately Romanesque is the only officially translated one. Apparently two of their other games, Quartett! (2004) and Period (2008), have fan translations but I'm not sure how good or complete they are. I recommend looking into Muv-Luv (2003) and Muv-Luv Alternative (2006), very renowned VNs. They have been localized and made available on Steam. Already have Steam copies of both! I backed it on Kickstarter Only reason why I haven't started playing them is that I'm waiting for my Vita copies (which should hopefully be soon maybe?).
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