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Post by toei on Sept 30, 2019 9:34:41 GMT -5
I didn't know about Kuon until Xeo brought it up (I haven't explored the PS2's library nearly as much as I have earlier major consoles'), but after watching a quick gameplay video I immediately added it to my To Play list. Medieval J-Horror in videogame form? That's got to be worth a look.
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Post by hooplehead on Sept 30, 2019 12:10:57 GMT -5
XeogredI’ll second Ex and recommend Haunting Grounds to you. While I haven’t played it, it was actually born from one of the failed concepts of RE4, the “fog” version. Also the mechanic of someone chasing you came from the Hookman concept for RE4, and the game uses some levels and assets from that build, too. So you get to essentially play the game that came from two of the dumped builds of RE4 in one! I’ve also heard it’s very good, which doesn’t hurt. Apparently Clock Tower fans consider something of a spiritual successor.
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Post by Ex on Oct 1, 2019 17:18:26 GMT -5
Well somebody's gotta get the turd ball rollin', so I took this hit for the team today: Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon | SNES | 1994Rex Ronan is an action-platformer developed by Sculptured Software and published by Raya Systems in the USA, back in May of '94. Rex Ronan is a jump 'n shoot platformer, with some first person flying ship portions as well. The concept here is to educate kids against the dangers of smoking. Although after playing this abhorrent pile of binary bile, I think kids would probably start sucking on cancer sticks out of sheer spite. Unfortunately yes, this is a real game.
The story concerns an "experimental surgeon" named Rex Ronan using powerful technology to shrink himself down to an extremely small size. Small enough that he can enter a dying cancer patient, and eradicate the cancer from the inside out - using anti-cancer guns of course. However this patient is suffering cancer because he was a smoker. And it turns out Big Tobacco does not want the patient to live. Because if he does, he might warn others of the danger of smoking said cigarettes. So this evil tobacco corporation creates a bunch of nano war machines to chase Rex down while he's inside the patient's body. Kill Rex, and Big Tobacco kills the Patient. Problem solved! Now Rex is in a race to destroy the cancer from his patient's mouth, lungs, heart, and brain - before the robots destroy him. Besides jumping and shooting cancer and robots, sometimes there are quizzes. Sporadically you encounter mines which grill you on smoking-related health facts and myths, rewarding correct answers, or alternatively blowing up when presented with falsehoods.
+Wacky plot idea.
+Maybe someday we can use nanotechnology to fight cancer?
+There's a "bad ending" if you lose, instead of just a Game Over.
+Playing this will make you appreciate mediocre games.
+The experience does eventually end. -Terribly sluggish controls.
-Really bad graphics with LOTS of slowdown.
-About as fun as getting a root canal and an enema simultaneously.
-God awful "OST".
-I spent actual minutes of my limited lifespan on this trash. No, I did not beat this game. I beat a few levels, and eventually died on purpose... just to make it stop. You could probably beat this game on your first try if you wanted to. But you won't want to. As bad as you think Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon looks, I promise you, it's far worse to actually play. I have a theory that no matter how bad a game is, said bad game is somebody's all time favorite game. And that means that some poor kid back in the '90s, isolated in a fear bubble via tyrannical helicopter parents, received this abomination as a Christmas or birthday present. That poor kid was stuck with this game for months on end, playing it incessantly due to sheer lack of choice. Eventually the Stockholm syndrome set in, and the kid started to enjoy the pain. The hellish torture of lackluster everything gave way to embracing Rex Ronan and every half-ass patronizing thing his game stood for. It became the poor child's favorite video game. And now that kid is all grown up dying from lung cancer. I was A-OK with this ending. Ex's time to beat: I did not beat this crap. I played it for 15 minutes and barfed all over my keyboard.
Ex's rating: 3/10 For the brave and masochistic among you, Raya Systems also published a video game about the dangers of sugar consumption as it relates to diabetes: God help you if you play it.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 1, 2019 17:26:15 GMT -5
Oh dear. I watched a speed run of this, and yes, it looks awful. Also:
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Post by Ex on Oct 1, 2019 17:28:39 GMT -5
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Post by Sarge on Oct 1, 2019 20:17:09 GMT -5
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Post by Sarge on Oct 1, 2019 23:55:34 GMT -5
So this is more "horror" than "horrible" (at least the Japanese release), but I finished 8 Eyes for NES. Most folks compare it to Castlevania because of the way you scale stairs, but you've got much less range, necessitating hit and run tactics. The game feels so much less fair and polished, even if it plays with some interesting ideas. See, you get this falcon, Cutrus, and he can attack enemies as well. You can even have a second player use him, which seems the best way to do so! Needless to say, I didn't have that, so controlling him can be a pain.
Anyway, on top of that, you'll find subweapons, and go through stages that are usually straightforward action, but two are giant mazes that are a pretty big pain to navigate, mainly because they don't always follow the rules of Euclidean geometry. Kinda like the maze at the end of Super Mario Bros., actually.
Bosses are the biggest problem. You get a new sword every time you beat one, but it doesn't actually increase your overall power, it just gives you a weapon that's effective against one of the remaining bosses. Which one? Well, you'll find out when you get there. The manual is nice enough to hint at where to go first (Spain), but outside of that, I couldn't figure out how to tell the rest, so I just used a guide.
Also, while exploring the stages, you need to be whacking blocks as if looking for wall meat, but instead you'll find wall jars that may increase your max life (but only for that stage), fully restore your health (so much needed!), or give you an end-game hint on how to arrange the jewels you get when you defeat the bosses. It's basically a logic puzzle: black is all the way left, red is next to black, yellow isn't between white and black, etc. As long as you can find them (or most of them), it's not hard to figure out.
The last boss rush is a slog, though. You get to refight them all, and your sword isn't effective against any of them like they were when you did the correct order. Some bosses are easy; some are ridiculous and you'll have to lean on the full restore hidden in each boss chamber. The last boss doesn't actually pose a huge challenge, other than just making sure to get your hits in (the freeze ball helps for some) and getting in position to retrieve the health before you die.
After it's all done, arrange the jewels and the game is over. Or is it?! There's a second quest, and I won't be taking it on.
Honestly, I didn't like this game much. I can see why it got its reputation, even if I've always been somewhat fascinated by it. That's a bucket list item down, at any rate. I'm going to give it... hmm... I gave The Death and Return of Superman a 4/10, and that seems about where I'd put it, maybe a little lower. So 3.5 it is. Something that low I reckon could count as horrible as well.
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Post by Ex on Oct 2, 2019 0:21:13 GMT -5
I've tried 8 Eyes a couple times before, I didn't get very far in it. I could see the Castlevania aesthetics aping, but the decent gameplay just isn't there. I could swear there's either an anime or a manga related to 8 Eyes, but I'm having trouble finding it on Google right now. -
I've been trying to pare down what I'm gonna play this month. I've got the "horrorble" games sussed out, seeing as I don't plan to finish any of them, it doesn't much matter how long they take. However a lot of the horror games I was interested in average around 8-10 hours long each. I don't know how many of those I'll be able to finish, but I'll definitely finish a few. I plan to crack into Dead Space this week Xeogred . These are the horror games I'm currently considering:Calling (Wii) Castlevania III (Japanese Version) (Famicom) **
Dead Space (360) (This is definitely getting played.)
Dementium (DS)*
Echo Night (PS1) * Echo Night II (PS1)
Fatal Frame II (Xbox)
Hellnight (PS1)*
Kuon (PS2)
Luigi's Mansion (3DS)
Nanashi No Geemu: Me (DS)
Resident Evil 0 (GameCube)
Silent Hill Shattered Memories (Wii)
Tecmo's Invitation To Darkness (PS1)*
Trapt (PS2)
*I've played a bit of this before, but not finished. **I've beaten the USA version before.
Edit: Also, those looking for horror game ideas might like this site: horror.dreamdawn.com/?cat=4It's "Chris's Survival Horror Quest", a site that's been around for a long time, chronicling horror games with reviews and essays. If you scroll down to the bottom of that page to the "Categories" section, there's tags you can click on to find games. As in find games for particular platforms, or by year of release. The guy used to have all his reviews listed alphabetically and also by rating, but a few years ago he nuked that approach unfortunately. Still a great site for any horror gaming fan to dig around on.
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Post by toei on Oct 2, 2019 5:51:28 GMT -5
Ex You sure you're not thinking of 3x3 Eyes? Even looking up 8 Eyes' Japanese titles, no manga comes up. Nothing listed under either title at mangaupdates or anime news network, and no mention of it on 8 Eyes' wikipedia page. 3X3 Eyes has a pretty decent SNES adventure game that was fan translated a while back. It's unusual in that it's presented as a side-scroller rather than menu-based. I got stuck on it early on and couldn't figure what to do, but maybe I'll try again.
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 2, 2019 6:39:15 GMT -5
Wow I didn't know Echo Night Beyond had gotten expensive. I might check out the first one myself.
Fatal Frame II is amazing, nice step up from the first game.
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