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Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2020 5:52:04 GMT -5
I'll probably give Call of Juarez another shot down the line, gotta play them in order of release though. Techland also developed Dead Island which seems more my jam. Dying Light looks very cool, too.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 31, 2020 6:37:41 GMT -5
They definitely seem to put in the work. I thought they were three CoJ's, but looks like there's four. I've kind of maybe ignorantly assumed that Dying Light (2015) is just a better/refined take on what they did with Dead Island (2011), but who knows. Maybe it's good too. I think they lost the rights to that one or something though, some other developer was doing the sequel. But for Techland, I'm highly anticipating Dying Light 2. Big shame about Chris Avellone though...
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Post by Ex on Aug 31, 2020 9:04:28 GMT -5
this is a Techland series? Indeed. And yes, there are four CoJ games. However, only three have received general praise. That would be the original CoJ(1), BiB(2), and Gunslinger(4). However the third entry in the series, The Cartel, was universally despised critically. Now, I have not played The Cartel, so I can't offer a personal opinion on it, or Gunslinger yet. I'll probably give Call of Juarez another shot down the line, gotta play them in order of release though. I understand. Just keep in mind that CoJ is merely good, while BiB is great. I say as such, to help push you through the lesser parts of CoJ. Also CoJ gets better the deeper you get into it. For me the first few missions of CoJ were the worst parts. Indeed, they developed DI and Dead Island: Riptide. However, Escape Dead Island was developed by Fatshark, and Dead Island 2 is being developed by Dambuster Studios. I was considering playing Dead Island next year, as it'll be ten years old then.
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Post by Ex on Aug 31, 2020 17:26:53 GMT -5
Law of the West is a western themed adventure game, originally developed by Accolade for the Commodore 64, back in 1985. A short while later in 1987, TOSE ported Law of the West to the Famicom, with said port published by Pony Canyon. On August 27th, 2020, GAFF Translations released a full English patch for the Famicom version of LotW.
Wikipedia does a great job of describing this game's core gameplay, so I'll cite that bit 'cause I'm short on time right now:
"The entirety of the game happens in a small frontier town, and the player takes the role of the town's Sheriff. The scenes are located along the town's main street, with a view from behind the Sheriff's back (the view is so close that only the Sheriff's waist, right arm and gun are visible). Various other characters appear on the main street in front of the Sheriff.
The actual gameplay mostly concerns the Sheriff discussing with the various characters via a selection menu similar to those in contemporary graphical adventures. For each line the other character says, the game offers a selection of four different responses, and the discussion progresses depending on the chosen response. Law of the West marks the first use of this now-common interaction style.
Depending on the outcome of a discussion, the Sheriff may get involved in a gunfight. In this case, the gameplay becomes a pure test of shooting skills, as the Sheriff has to shoot his opponent before getting shot himself. Gunplay is accomplished by pushing up on the joystick to draw the weapon, which causes a joystick-controlled crosshairs to appear on the screen. The various characters would react if the Sheriff drew his gun before they had a chance to say their opening line, usually refusing to speak until the gun was put away.
If the Sheriff gets shot, he blacks out, and the doctor is called to help. Depending on the Sheriff's previous interaction with the doctor and the other characters in the game (and if the doctor's in town), he may either be healed, or left for dead (either by the doctor refusing to help, or the doctor being drunk at the time). The only goal of the game is for the player to make it alive to the end of the day; if the player wishes he can gun down every character he meets without talking to them albeit this will be reflected negatively in the final score."
In addition to that game design, the Famicom version adds random outlaws that appear in the background. If you don't shoot those outlaws fast enough, they'll kill the person you're talking to. If you do shoot them fast enough, you get a point reward bonus.
+A unique game design I've not seen before.
+Be as nice or evil as you want, 100% player agency. +Captures the feeling of being an old west sheriff well.
+This game made me legit LOL a few times. +The extra outlaws in the Famicom version are kind annoying.
-I wish the characters would walk faster across the screen.
-No overarching story to discover and unravel.
-But it only takes about 15 minutes to finish a run of this game.
-The graphics could have been better, even for a 1987 Famicom game.
-The OST is very limited.
I really appreciate how innovative and unique Law of the West was for its time. Even today, I've not played a game quite like this. I think a well produced FMV remake would be great! Anyway, for its time, LotW on Famicom would have been a fine rental for a western loving Japanese gamer back in the '80s. A gamer today would probably be better off with the Apple II or Commodore 64 versions though. The Famicom version is functional, but is considered inferior to the other iterations. I only played the Famicom version, because well, I love the NES. It was fun being an 8-bit sheriff and choosing alternate conversation options across all the different town denizens, but I think most folks would tire of this game after two playthroughs. Though I guess it's worth mentioning, this is one of the only games I've ever played, that will let the player shoot children dead in cold blood.
Ex's time to beat: 36 minutes (played through the game three times) Ex's rating: 7/10
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That's gonna wrap this theme up for me pilgrim.
Here's what I beat:
Call of Juarez (Xbox 360) 7.5/10 Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (Xbox 360) 8.5/10
Law of the West (Famicom) 7/10
Outlaw (Atari 2600) 5/10 Red Dead Revolver (Xbox) 4/10
Showdown in 2100 A.D. (Odyssey²) 4/10
Wild Gunman (NES) 4/10
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Post by Sarge on Aug 31, 2020 19:08:52 GMT -5
I probably won't finish up AC:F in time, but it will get done.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 31, 2020 23:26:47 GMT -5
Welp, I lied. Slipped it in just in time. I was ready for it to finish up, so I just made the final run and said screw all the extra stuff. Will discuss tomorrow.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 1, 2020 14:29:31 GMT -5
Triple post goooooo! Anyway, let's talk about Wild ARMs - Alter Code: F. For the record, I never quite know how to punctuate the title, as it just feels wrong throwing two colons in there, and it feels wrong just running it all together, too. For folks that have played Wild ARMs 3, you'll know exactly what you're getting into here. I'm pretty sure they're using the same engine and all, but they didn't go with the cel-shaded look this time, which is... well, I'm not sure if I prefer it or not. It also does that sort of grainy filter over the top that, while thematically appropriate, does muddy the visuals a bit - I found myself wishing for more crispness. Sound-wise, much of the game has some real ear worm tunes, which is what you'd expect from this series. In other ways, though, you can tell that this was a lower-budget game. Character models feel a bit cheaper, and a lot of the cutscenes are just movies of in-game engine stuff. You do get an animated intro and a decent part of the ending as well, which I have to imagine consumed much of the budget. The game also came with a bonus disc of a Wild ARMs anime, but it doesn't star these characters, and I don't remember much from it all these years later. The bulk of the gameplay boils down to battling and puzzling. Depending on how many Migrant Seals you found (I had 17!), you can skip practically every random encounter, and even the ambushes can be mitigated via personal skills. The nice part of this is that it lets you focus on the puzzling and dungeon navigation, which I greatly appreciated. On top of that, to be honest, most encounters don't yield a lot of experience, so you're actually better off fighting bosses, and at times using Lucky Cards to boost your EXP gained. Battling pretty much carries over from Wild ARMs 3, warts and all - it can be interesting, but also very slow. Again, another good reason to skip a lot of the combat and focus on bosses. Normal puzzling is very much in the Lufia II and A Link to the Past vein: use various tools in your inventory to navigate dungeons. That's probably the strongest part of this game, and has typically been a series strength. Some of the puzzles can actually be pretty tough. And if you delve into the later Puzzle Box dungeons, they get really rough. I'd expect a significant portion of my playtime was chewed up by those. I'd also note that the amount of optional content is mind-boggling. Multiple optional dungeons, tons of super-bosses to fight, and three new characters you can recruit, among other things. I did get them (using a guide), but unless you're scouring the world map again, there's a good chance you'll miss all of them. Not that it matters, though, because I didn't even use them. I was ready to finish things up, and danced with the ones that brought me. Which, I mean, why wouldn't I? Cecelia provides good healing, Jack is a speedy second attacker/pinch healer, and Rudy... man, Rudy wrecks with Gatling Raid and the right ARM build. I dropped the penultimate boss in two of them. The story is... well, honestly, I didn't think it was all that. Way too much "power of the human heart" stuff that pervades many JRPGs, and the stilted translation often impacts the story even more. Some stuff just comes out pretty nonsensical. Even when a story is trite, presenting it well makes a huge difference, and they definitely did not go above and beyond here. I don't remember Wild ARMs 3 having this issue, but maybe that's down to having different publishers - Sony published WA3, whereas Agetec did ACF. In all, despite all my quibbles with the game, I think it's good... just not great. This falls firmly into that solid PS2 JRPG category. I bequeath it a 7/10, and officially retire it for good, fifteen years after starting it. (Final time: 53h13m.) EDIT: Gotta add the awesome intro music. All the YouTube versions have a crappy trumpet in there that must have been from a different version. It's the very first tune here: www.zophar.net/music/playstation2-psf2/wild-arms-alter-code-f
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Post by Xeogred on Sept 1, 2020 15:22:22 GMT -5
Yeah, those screens are kind of ugly. They probably should have stuck with cel shading and made that film grain optional. Never a fan of that look. I wonder if it was lower budget because it was a remake project, or Wild Arms was starting to fall off around this point? Yet I see that this came out after 3, before 4 and 5. Hmmm.
So, better than the original version? If you've played it.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 1, 2020 15:33:31 GMT -5
I've played the original, but not long enough to actually say which is better. They're similar yet very different. Basically, if you thought Wild ARMs 3 was amazing, I don't think there's any way you don't like ACF.
I'm almost positive it was a low-budget game, though. It came out about a year-and-a-half after WA3 in Japan, and roughly the same length of time before Wild ARMs 4 came out, which completely reinvented the series. So yeah, I suspect it was tailing off.
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Post by Ex on Sept 1, 2020 15:56:49 GMT -5
I never quite know how to punctuate the title It's a weird title, but Agetec's online stuff officially says: Wild Arms Alter Code: FSmart design when you've got a slow battle system. Sounds like the developers knew there was an issue there. Aww yeah, that sounds right up my alley. Your review made me not regret buying this ol' JRPG earlier this year. Sounds like one I'll enjoy, maybe a smidgen more than you did due to my affinity for westerns. I just wish WA2 had a PS2 remake as well, then one could play the entire mainline series on PS2. I think you've set a new record for longest "backlog" retirement around here. Gotta be kinda bittersweet nostalgia to beat a game you started back in your mid-20's.
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