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Post by Ex on Feb 13, 2024 22:41:06 GMT -5
I definitely wouldn't count Curse of the Moon as a Metroidvania Yeah that was an accident, it's more like classic Castlevania. I'd give OoE a 9.5/10, SotN a 9/10, and CotM an 8.5/10. RotN would be a 9/10 as well, but it released wayyy after these games and I consider it a new era and separate IP.
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Post by Sarge on Feb 25, 2024 14:42:23 GMT -5
Decided to pick up a bundle from Fanatical, primarily for River City Girls 2 (leaving my copy sealed, so $7.50 was worth that) and Mechwarrior 5. But I decided to also do their little mystery bundle thing for $4, which I usually get badly burned by... and I wasn't this time, somehow. I played through the story mode of Old School Musical, a rhythm game that spoofs a whole bunch of retro games and has some pretty fun chippy tunes that often evoke those older games as well, so I had a good time with it. Even the sense of humor hit a fair bit for me - the main characters, Tib and Rob, gave me a sort of Sam and Max vibe at times, and I had a couple of eyeroll chuckles as well. Definitely worth the random roll, and if you like rhythm games (this one is all controller buttons and triggers), give it a shot! 8/10. store.steampowered.com/app/398030/Old_School_Musical/
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Post by Sarge on Mar 10, 2024 17:29:45 GMT -5
Tales of Berseria done. Thoughts later, but a good time overall.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 12, 2024 14:42:33 GMT -5
A'ight, some quick thoughts on Tales of Berseria.
Some positive things about this entry are a really fast, snappy battle system. It's not even locked into 2D at all anymore, you have full movement range even without holding a button to free-run. You can put together your own combos, and they will help you exploit enemies and stun them. Your ability to attack is governed by a "soul gauge" system where you have three orbs by default, four in an advantage battle (enemy from behind), or two in a disadvantage. When you stun an enemy, you get an additional one, up to five. This lets you unload longer combos, but it also lets you unleash a "therion" mode where you get faster/stronger and are effectively immune to enemy attacks, although your HP will run all the way down to one if you let it go too long without finishing with a strong ending attack. The tradeoff when you trigger this is that you give the enemy you hit with it one of your orbs and lose one of your own, but often if you're playing right you'll restagger then enemy in your onslaught. Some bosses might be pretty challenging, though, and you have to be careful giving them too much to work with. But they can also do the same, triggering their stronger moves and giving you an orb back. One of the better strategies if you can keep it going is to get the stagger and keep entering therion mode, letting you stay invincible and whittling down their health. This is usually really good if the rest of your team is in trouble and needs to heal up, or if you're close to ending a boss and you need that final push to win.
The graphics end up fine, but nothing outstanding. It's obvious this was a cross-gen release, so it doesn't really push the PC (or PS4) very hard. But unlike Zestiria, which had a 30 FPS cap, this runs at a silky-smooth 60 FPS. It's really nice. Atmosphere-wise, it's helped along by the ever-consistent Motoi Sakuraba, who, love him or hate him, always gives the games he composes for a certain vibe. I respect the consistency that Tales has managed to maintain over the years.
It's hard to not spoil a lot going into the story. I didn't know going in that this is a prequel to Zestiria, set 1000 years before the events of that game. I'd played enough of that game to recognize the crossover, but I wonder how much would have hit home even more had I played that one first. I'm interested in running Zestiria now to see how it all ties together. Velvet's tale is quite dark - her only goal for pretty much the entire game is extracting vengeance on Artorius, the leader of a religious order that sacrificed her brother on the Night of the Scarlet Moon for... reasons. While you play as Velvet, it's not always clear who the good guys and bad guys are, but I do feel like even with her selfish motivations, she ends up being more relatable (big surprise). It's one of the more interesting tales the series has told, and likely what drove me to the end.
For the iffy bits... well, I think it's primarily that the dungeons are quite basic overall. Most are quite easy to navigate, right up until the last one, which is quite the maze... yet somehow still not that hard to get through. I would have appreciated some more puzzling to mix things up there. I also didn't love how superfluous gear upgrades felt - you end up having to buy pretty much everything because each bit of gear rewards you with a permanent character buff upon mastery. And you can also strengthen older gear to get bonuses, but you have to expend a fair amount of resources to do it (not a huge deal, you get lots of equipment from enemies), but you're often short in powering up your most recent weapon acquisitions. Overall, I didn't dive deeply into that aspect. Neither did I do much of the minigames, or the cooking bits. I imagine this becomes much more important on the higher difficulties, which also give you better/more gear drops.
I also think navigation took a little too long at times. It's really nice that they gave warp bottles to get you out of dungeons and teleport to towns (yay!), but sometimes you have to navigate the large areas again. You get a sort of hoverboard to speed it up (and wipe out enemies that are low-level instantly), but I still think it's a touch too slow, and steering is twitchier than I like.
So how do I feel about this one overall? I think it's one of the stronger entries in the series. I don't know that it dethrones my memories of Abyss or Symphonia, but I do think it was a touch better than Tales of Hearts R on PS Vita, and probably better than Tales of Graces f on PS3 as well. For better or worse, it's a very consistent time where I was rarely surprised gameplay-wise at what was there, but it also provided a nice throwback to ye olden days while not feeling too musty because of the snappy combat. I'll give this an 8/10. (Final completion time was around 45 hours according to Steam, in-game was a bit lower.)
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Post by Ex on Mar 13, 2024 8:11:16 GMT -5
Nice review Sarge. Sounds like you really enjoyed the battle system. Certainly a good battle system goes a long way to make a JRPG worth continuing to engage with hour after hour. >It's one of the more interesting tales the series has told, and likely what drove me to the end. Not often I see folks praise a game in this series' plot, and I didn't know this one was a prequel either. >I also think navigation took a little too long at times Yeah they should offer permanent warp portals at the entrance of areas. This is something Ys8 does extremely well, it's very convenient to warp around in that game. >I'll give this an 8/10. (Final completion time was around 45 hours according to Steam, in-game was a bit lower.) 8/10 is a solid score. And 45 hours is plenty long. I would say I'm surprised at how quickly you got through this one, but as you mentioned being able to play it in bed at night with the Deck made for cozy convenience. I've got Tales of Berseria physical for PS4, so I'll play it there someday. I just looked over my library, and turns out I own quite a few Tales of games on various platforms. I still think starting with Symphonia first makes the most sense for me. I had a roommate many years ago that absolutely loved that one on GameCube, he effused its qualities often back then. Sounds like Berseria channeled some of that legacy.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 13, 2024 14:18:32 GMT -5
I was shocked at how quickly I got through it myself. Steam says I did 37 hours in two weeks! Yeesh! I do think a lot of that came this last weekend, though - I'm almost positive I put in over ten hours over the weekend. But like I said, for whatever reason it was also a really good "play for a while in bed" game.
There's a quick warp you get pretty early, and it's appreciated, I just wish you could warp to more than just the towns. But there are also often plot beats that you're forced to hit so warping is cut off for a time. That makes sense, honestly. And if that hoverboard thing were just a smidge faster, it'd be more than fine.
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Post by Ex on Mar 27, 2024 9:56:55 GMT -5
Title: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANAGenre: Action-JRPG Platform: PlayStation 4 (also available on Vita, PS5, PC, Switch, Stadia, Android, iOS) Region release played: USA Year of release: 2017 Developer: Falcom Publisher: NIS America Graphics: 4/5 Audio: 5/5 Challenge: 2/5 Fun factor: 5/5 Premise: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is an entry in the long lived Ys series, being developed within the modern framework first seen in Ys Seven (meaning this isn't bump combat). In this entry Adol and a bunch of other shipmates end up shipwrecked on a mysterious island, which they will need to explore and utilize to escape. Through layers of evolving complexity, both in game design and plot, the player will remain intrigued throughout this considerably lengthy adventure. Veterans of earlier Ys entries (pre-Seven) may scoff at the level of exposition, subsystem depth, and game length, but do so at their own expense. Because Ys VIII is an absolute must-play for ardent fans of the action-JRPG genre. +Highly entertaining and fun game design all around. +An intriguing and surprising plot with well written likeable characters. +Incredible OST. +Blisteringly fast combat system. +Varied side-quests that are enjoyable and worth completing.
-Graphics aren't technically impressive for PS4, due to originally being a Vita release. -There's a lot of (fast) loading screens between areas, due to originally being a Vita release. -On Normal difficulty this game's a cakewalk. -I didn't care much for the Raids mini-game (I find tower defense as a genre tedious). -I didn't care much for the Hunts mini-game (it was cool once, then became monotonous).
Conclusive thought: Falcom crafted a masterpiece of an action-JRPG with Ys VIII; an outstanding triumph in nearly every facet.Ex's time to beat: 56 hours 30 minutes (True Ending, 100% exploration, 100% treasure chests, 98% side-quests, did nearly every optional thing you can do.) Ex's rating: 9/10
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Post by toei on Mar 27, 2024 16:45:42 GMT -5
Congrats on slaying that nearly 60-hour beast. I haven't beaten a long game like that in a while, and it sounds like it was really worth it for you. I didn't like Ys Seven, but I admit I'm a little intrigued about this one now.
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Post by Sarge on Mar 27, 2024 16:52:49 GMT -5
I'm super interested in seeing what my final completion percentage was. It is indeed a masterpiece, and glad it was a winner for you.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 27, 2024 17:11:08 GMT -5
I definitely want to play it this year now. As Ex says in his opening thoughts, this being so different from the old Y's could actually be in my favor. Also these music tracks sound like Xenoblade meets Mega Man... YES! Hopefully I enjoy the gameplay/combat, since that's probably the biggest thing going here. Maybe this is more like the modern Secret of Mana-esque type of game I've always wanted heh.
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