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Post by Xeogred on Aug 9, 2020 12:49:13 GMT -5
I remember hearing some people on podcasts didn't like the second half as much... after playing more this morning for hours, I can say those people are crazy and cannot be trusted.
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Post by Ex on Sept 1, 2020 0:18:21 GMT -5
Back in May 2014 I beat 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors on DS, giving the game a 5/10.* I had meant to move to playing its sequel shortly after, but with so many games and so little time, you know how it goes. Well tonight I realized I hadn't played my Vita since February of 2019, so to right that travesty, I picked a game off the Vita shelf to play. I decided to belatedly go with 999's sequel; Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. I only put an hour into it tonight, but I'll say right away, VLR seems better than its predecessor already. I'll report again later after I've got more hours sunk into it. * These were my brief thoughts from my HLTB entry six years ago:
999 is an interesting story, told in a highly inconvenient manner, via a badly designed game. The only way to uncover all of said interesting story is to replay this game six different times. A slow text speed, no way to instantly skip previously read dialogue, and having to redo puzzles you've already beaten over and over makes replays not much fun. The graphics are competent at best, the puzzles are totally simplistic, but the OST is above average. Honestly the fact that 999 is so highly lauded says more about the general lack of good writing in video games than anything else. (Time spent: 12h 37m)
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 1, 2020 2:38:16 GMT -5
I started up Turrican 4 Gunlord X yesterday myself.
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Post by Ex on Sept 1, 2020 8:57:53 GMT -5
GunLord has always looked excellent to me. I didn't know about the X version. But I'm glad it exists, this game deserved a second chance.
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Post by Ex on Sept 2, 2020 10:23:39 GMT -5
I put another two hours into Virtue's Last Reward last night. All that time was spent trying to escape one single room. I was figuring out all the puzzles just fine, until I reached this point: Without going into paragraphs of explanation, let's just say there's three words in this picture that matter. Red Moon, Lion, and Blue Planet. Well it turns out the Lion part was a complete red herring. Intentional misleading bullshit that has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the room's puzzles at all. But I got so hung up trying to figure out what the "Lion" part was about, that I spent over an hour trying to work that word into the solution. Finally in utter frustration, I looked at a walkthrough (which I absolutely loathe doing in adventure games), only to discover that "Lion" was completely unrelated to anything at all! Despite the fact that the characters in the game act like it does: No. There is no connection whatsoever. So what we've got here is a case of "unreliable narrator" in an adventure game. Oh chortle, oh joy.
I still like Virtue's Last Reward despite such shenanigans. Although it's clear to me now, why this adventure game has a HLTB time of 28 hours. And that's surely with people using a walkthrough. Oh lawdy what have I got myself into.
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Post by Ex on Sept 5, 2020 1:12:40 GMT -5
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last RewardAt 6.5 hours invested, I've gotten 2 different endings thus far in VLR. One was a Game Over (bad end), another was an official character end (Dio's). Considering there's 24 possible endings in VLR, that's not saying much. This game's designed to where every time the player tunnels to a new ending, more of the overall plot is revealed. Right now I still have a LOT of questions about WTF is going on. Thankfully unlike the original 999, backtracking in VLR to tunnel down a different story path is painless and quick. I'm not sure how many different endings I'll get before I'm satisfied with my comprehension of the plot, but at present I'm willing to hunt a few more endings down. I'm still not sure if I even like this game's plot yet, but I'll say that Kotaro Uchikoshi is a complete madman. Logical or not, the plot is entertaining and bizarre. As far as the puzzle rooms go, I've solved three thus far. I haven't needed a walkthrough except for that one time, due to the red herring word I described earlier. Although now that I'm learning more of the plot, I realize that red herring word was more of a meta meme thing. Something that only makes sense if you've been down other story paths first. I just had the misfortune of hitting that room puzzle before I knew the significance of the word "Lion" from a plot perspective. Has anyone here besides me played Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors or Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward?
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Post by Chainsaw Bilqis on Sept 26, 2020 18:03:15 GMT -5
Has anyone here besides me played Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors or Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward? I have played 999, mainly because of the Nishimura art, years ago but I have the others ready to play if I ever get around to it (I am very slow though). Today I started Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar (2017) for PC. I played Wizardry VII earlier this year, which was pretty fun (even if sometimes battles could drag). This game is done in a similar style but with a lot more options (that you can toggle on and off, even the rate of random encounters and your starting location) and modern improvements. Rolled an Assassin for my snake guy on my first try. So far so good.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 26, 2020 20:05:16 GMT -5
I've never even heard of that one. Looks interesting!
I'm debating whether I want to drop $10 on Gravity Rush Remastered on PS4. I have the Vita version, and have been playing it the last couple of nights. The controls are... not great. I'm getting used to it, but it feels like a game that would be much more at home with a few more buttons and a larger screen.
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Post by Chainsaw Bilqis on Sept 26, 2020 21:10:21 GMT -5
I've never even heard of that one. Looks interesting! It was all programmed by one person and took him many years. He first announced the project in 1997, so it seems to definitely be a "labor of love" game.
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Post by Ex on Sept 26, 2020 23:59:52 GMT -5
Today I started Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar (2017) for PC. Nice to see you are still alive, Chainsaw Bilqis. I am very familiar with Grimoire. I have not played it, but I followed its development on RPG Codex for years, and celebrated with others when it finally released. Cleve is a very... interesting person.
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