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Post by Ex on Apr 14, 2019 14:38:11 GMT -5
I get very little out of its moment-to-moment gameplay. Well that's disappointing to me, I was hoping to read your review of the game. Oh well, the original System Shock is certainly not for everybody. I do hope you give System Shock 2 a try someday though. It's quite different than SS1, I bet you'd enjoy that one. - So today I made more progress in LWR2. I finished dungeon 2's 6th floor and boss, and 5th floor and boss, and finally completed all of dungeon 2. I really hated floor 6... It was a series of rooms connected by corridors, but the rooms all had warps in them. You had to slowly figure out which room warped to which room, and eventually map out a path in your head (or paper I guess). It was tedious as hell, but I got through it. Floor 5 wasn't bad at all in comparison. So clearing all of dungeon 2 unlocked the final dungeon which is called "The Temple". And in that screenshot you'll see the word "tample" instead of "temple". The OFFICIAL localization is chock full of grammar mistakes and type-os. As I understand things, dungeon 3 (Temple) only has three floors like dungeon 1 did. Maybe it won't take too long to clear. I guess the developers expected the player to run from a lot more battles than I did, because I've already hit the level cap of 35. Which means the only thing I get from enemies is gold now. Unfortunately there's nothing in any of the shops to buy with all that gold, that is any better than what I already have. Maybe there will be a new shop in the Temple. Otherwise I'm just swatting enemies down for nothing basically. Hey a new type of treasure box monster showed up: And a couple more screenshots: I've got about 9 hours in this now, but I'm on the home stretch. I'm hoping by Monday evening I can have this one knocked out.
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Post by Xeogred on Apr 14, 2019 17:31:56 GMT -5
Sexcalibur?
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Post by Ex on Apr 15, 2019 0:16:21 GMT -5
Alrighty folks, I finally beat a game for this overwhelmingly popular Club Retro theme: 19. Lightning Warrior Raidy II: Temple of Desire | Windows PC | 2007
"Lightning Warrior Raidy II: Temple of Desire" has an interesting history. LWR2:ToD originally started as a Japan-only 1995 MS-DOS release. In 1996 that MS-DOS version was ported to Windows 95, FM Towns, and PC-9821... all versions remaining Japan-only. In 2007, LWR2:ToD was remade for modern Windows PC operating systems (XP-Vista), but this 2007 remake remained Japan-only a while longer. Finally in 2010, a subsidiary of Jast USA called G-Collections, localized and published LWR2:ToD's 2007 remake iteration in English for western distribution. That was of course after G-Collections had already localized the first "Lightning Warrior Raidy", which this is obviously a sequel to. By the way, ZyX Inc. developed all versions of this game. Yay ZyX!
LWR2:ToD stars a wandering female warrior named Raidy, who in addition to being a skilled swordswoman, has the ability to harness lightning and use it offensively. One year after the events of the first game, Raidy finds herself wandering a desert. Eventually she finds an oasis town called Lake Blue. In Lake Blue she discovers that local bandits are kidnapping the town's women, and turning them into sex slaves. Raidy won't abide that, and sets off to stop the bandits. Later Raidy finds out the bandits were working for a cult, thus ultimately Raidy must stop the cult's ambitions to revive a dangerous god. To do this, she will explore a huge mansion, an underground cavern, and a large temple. And she'll beat up and sexually violate any baddies in her way. Dungeon crawling style. Yes LWR2:ToD is a first person dungeon crawler. The gameplay centers around navigating maze like tunnels, while turn-based fighting enemies, collecting experience to level up, collecting gold to buy items, finding treasure, and defeating bosses. A large portion of the gameplay is also in visual novel format. (I'd go so far to say that a good 35% of this game is in visual novel format.) The interface is elegant and designed with full mouse control in mind, although the keyboard is recommended for navigating dungeons. What differentiates LWR2:ToD from your average dungeon crawler, is this is a hentai game. Naughty adults only stuff. That means the enemies are nearly all scantily clad women, usually dressed up like monsters. When you beat them, their clothes fly off. The bosses are all S&M maniacs, who sexually torture their kidnapped victims. When Raidy fights said bosses, one of two sexual scenes will play out. If Raidy loses, the player will witness Raidy being sexually violated by the boss. If Raidy wins, she will sexually violate the boss "to teach them a lesson". Most bosses can beaten by sheer physical or magical attacks, but a few bosses require special items to defeat. The difficulty of LWR2:ToD is on the very easy side. The first two floors or so of the first dungeon, may be a little rough, but soon enough the player becomes over-leveled and all fighting challenge evaporates. Enemies become mere gnats to swat away. Killing bosses is as easy as fully charging Raidy's lightning meter, and then just unleashing it all in one big bolt bursting attack. Normally this would be okay I guess, but once the player becomes too powerful, they won't be able to see the "lose scenes" when fighting bosses. Dungeon navigation itself can be tricky at times, but thankfully a very useful auto-map takes the sting out. These dungeon floors include fake walls, spin tiles, warps, and even the occasional simple puzzle. There are total of fourteen floors across three dungeons to explore. There are a few shops to spend all the gold on that Raidy will accumulate, but the best items are found in treasure chests. +A no-nonsense dungeon crawl with excellent auto-map. +Very high quality artwork / naughty scenes. +38 track OST is mostly good stuff.
+Raunchy humor is sometimes laugh out loud. +Imaginative enemy designs.
-Very low difficulty, gameplay not balanced well.
-Official localization is full of spelling errors.
-Some enemies are recycled from the first game. -Dungeon environment graphics needed more variety. -Game resolution locked to 800x600 Windowed.
While LWR2:ToD can't topple deeper better designed FPDCs, it can at least go toe to toe with them graphically. There's bucket loads of gorgeous artwork in this game, and also some surprisingly well animated cutscenes. Once the player beats the game, a comprehensive graphic gallery unlocks. At which point the player will be surprised at how much graphical content they missed, as that is indicated. (I suppose that's to encourage replays.) I should mention the vast majority of sexual situations here are representative of lesbian S&M. If you're into that stuff, this game has you covered. Raidy herself is a pretty cool protagonist. She's funny, a good fighter, and is definitely in denial concerning her um, proclivities. There's plenty of fighting to be had, labyrinthine dungeons to be mapped, and fancy loot to equip. The plot while not amazing, never takes itself too seriously, and is amusing in a self-aware way. Overall I certainly enjoyed this experience, mostly for the eye candy. I realize the vast majority of gamers are too prudish to play something like "Lightning Warrior Raidy II: The Temple of Desire". Fair enough, that's their choice. But if -you- are a fan of first person dungeon crawlers, and enjoy the more carnal things in life, you'll find Raidy's electric exploits a pleasant shock to your system.
Ex's time to beat: 11 hours 35 minutes Ex's rating: 7/10
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Well that's my one and only contribution for this month's theme. I'm now gonna double down my efforts into trying to finish Fallout: New Vegas this month. But I'll be back for some SRPG lovin' in May.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 17, 2019 12:12:21 GMT -5
I played a little more Lands of Lore last night. Went into the Urbish Mines, which has a door that I'm apparently not supposed to go through. My companion remarks that we should find another way around, because opening said door reveals a giant... slug? I think that's what it is. Anyway, weapons are ineffectual; try to hit it, and it basically disarms you. I imagine it as the weapon either sinking in and losing it, or sticking to it. So I wandered around a little bit in the other side of the woods, poking around for another entrance. I suspect the game is going to give me a spell at some point that will help me deal with the slug.
I'll be honest, I'm still not a big fan of the combat. For the most part, the game doesn't really give a lot of time to think about your moves, so it basically boils down to whacking your attack button as quickly as it comes up, and using the occasional spell to not die. Find a safe spot to sleep to recover HP/MP, and repeat. I don't know if Eye of the Beholder is the same way, but this is a case where I'd have preferred something more turn-based, or at least an ATB-style system where everyone is on a speed meter and the game pauses momentarily as you consider your next move.
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Post by Ex on Apr 17, 2019 13:52:03 GMT -5
Well that's my one and only contribution for this month's theme. As much fun as Lightning Warrior Raidy II was, I won't pretend it was really much of a dungeon crawler. So, I decided to get serious, and started playing 1993's Dungeon Hack. For those that don't know, this is basically a roguelike, done in the first person dungeon crawler style, with a 2nd gen D&D theme. And, this game is hard. Or rather, it can be hard. It can also be piss easy. Just depends on how you setup the dungeon creation variables. There are preset seed settings for easy, moderate, and hard as well, if you don't feel like twiddling. I have just been playing on preset moderate settings. And... not doing a great job of surviving. The first time was because I tried to play a triple-multi-class character. Jack of all trades, excelled in nothing, died. The second time I did a fighter-thief combo, and died again, due to not fighting well enough. The third time I played as a full on fighter, and actually managed to make it to the second floor of a ten floor dungeon. But... I died there as well. Ran out of rations. What makes this game so challenging for me, is that enemies keep respawning, but fresh health restoratives do not. So if you get stuck wandering a complex maze, looking for that ONE fake wall... you'll keep on getting beat on, with your health slowly dwindling down to nothing, with no way to heal. That is after you run out of rations. When means you can't sleep and heal any longer. I'm thinking for my next run, I'll multi-class as a fighter-cleric. That should give me some health spells at least. These dungeons are big, random, and complex: Here's a few more screenshots from my last run:[/div] This game was made from The Eye of the Beholder engine, but with a lot of improvements to the interface. Unfortunately the battle system is still real time. But at least you're only controlling one character, so combat's more manageable. Your goal is to reach the bottom of the dungeon, and retrieve an orb for a sorceress. Actually here's the intro:
So I'm playing the GOG version. I've got about three hours into it thus far, but none of that counts as progress at this point, because I died yet again. I've been playing with the difficulty setting so that when you die, you DIE and all your save games are erased. This can be quite a hardcore experience. Well, I will see if I can beat it. That's all I'll say about Dungeon Hack for now.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 17, 2019 13:56:02 GMT -5
I was curious to see if ScummVM supports this game, and it apparently does not. It and Eye of the Beholder 3 apparently use the same base for their engines, both of which are different from EotB1/2, which does work in ScummVM.
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Post by Ex on Apr 17, 2019 14:24:25 GMT -5
which does work in ScummVM. Yeah playing Dungeon Hack on an Android tablet will probably necessitate this.
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Post by Ex on Apr 17, 2019 22:45:16 GMT -5
After five failed attempts, it looks like I finally found a character build that works. Half-Elf Fighter-Cleric. Now I can heal myself with spells, and replenish those heal spells by camping. I was able to clear the first randomly generated dungeon floor fairly easily thanks to that. Saved on the start of the second floor for tomorrow. I'm doing a 10 floor dungeon on moderate difficulty, fair enough. Seems like floors take about an hour to clear on average. It will be interesting to see how things change as I descend to each successive floor. Provided I don't die of course. Dungeon Hack's interface is pretty good, but there's still some dumb stuff. Like to read a parchment (not a spell scroll), you have to put it physically in your character's hand first. Or like you can drop rations on your characters portrait and he (or she) will eat them. But if you drop a potion on his portrait, nothing happens. You have to put the potion directly in his hand first. But still, this interface works a whole lot better than Eye of the Beholder's did. At least you can get to everything on one screen in Dungeon Hack. Also this game doesn't have an OST (sadly), so I was listening to this OST while playing:
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Post by Sarge on Apr 18, 2019 10:30:27 GMT -5
I put a little more time into LoL last night. Didn't make a ton of progress, honestly, other than filling in most of the forest map. And... I never did find another entrance to the mines. Confused, I looked at a guide (shame, shame!) and apparently there is a way to kill the slug/blob, although I would like to find where the hint was that tells me how to do so before I try to take it down. Something about a green skull (which I do have).
Also, I finally increased my magic level on my MC, and wow, I got a ton more MP! I'm actually almost equal with my companion who is at level 4, and my dude is only level 2. I'd read that the cat dude was hard to start with, but super-quick and could get good magic with some levels, but I wasn't really expecting this much of a jump just with one level. Will be interesting to see what happens going forward.
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Post by Ex on Apr 18, 2019 12:40:18 GMT -5
I put a little more time into LoL last night. Didn't make a ton of progress, honestly, other than filling in most of the forest map. I'm just glad to see someone still engaging with this Club Retro theme besides myself! I hope you finish LoL, even if it does take using a guide once in a while. - During my lunch break today, I cleared the second floor (out of a ten floor run).
There's another good 15% more floor that you can't see in that picture. The yellow down arrow allows you to scroll the map. I think that's kinda dumb. The dungeon should remain small enough to just fit on one screen. Clearly the developers wanted bigger dungeons than that.
This second floor was difficult due to being filled with ghouls that can paralyze the player. Thankfully as a cleric I had the spiritual hammer spell. Which basically gives the player Thor's hammer. Meaning you can use it as a projectile weapon, which I did, to keep the ghouls at bay. There were also spear toting troglodytes here, and I came across one lone kobold as well. Anyway, I saved at the beginning of the third floor. I'll try to finish it tomorrow.
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