|
Post by Ex on Nov 22, 2020 13:18:44 GMT -5
Genji: Dawn of the Samurai / Bujingai: The Forsaken City These do look like very flashy, early examples of the "character action" genre. Not sure how much I'd enjoy them personally, as those 3D action games where you constantly rapidly attack attack jump attack jump jump attack attack ad infinitum... don't outwardly appeal to me. I'm not saying it's a bad genre, just not a genre that appeals to me intrinsically. DMC would be the entry I'd try again first though. It took me a while to get into Otogi's groove, but when I did, I enjoyed it. Enough to beat the game anyway. It's VERY FromSoftware in its atmosphere and general weirdness. These were my thoughts from 2014: Otogi is FromSoftware's eerie take on Devil May Cry, with a pinch of Dynasty Warriors for good measure. Otogi's strongest aspect is its Japanese styled mythological atmosphere which the game exhibits ingeniously. The astounding graphics aid mightily in this regard, with settings and demons rendered in utmost detail. An absolutely phenomenal OST is the final bit of brilliance bringing a sense of tangible malevolent mystery to the entire affair. A stellar presentation can only take a game so far though, and Otogi is not without issues.
Primarily Otogi falters in its enemy lock on system often, which is made fallible due to an erratic camera that fails to keep up with the intensity of battles with dozens of mobbing monsters. The lock on / camera problems only serve to further aggravate a player when they are dealing with an automatically dwindling magic bar that upon depletion kills the protagonist. These combined challenges can make the player furious when they are near the end of a complex mission, only to be killed by a marauding swarm of demons, one cannot properly fight due to mechanical deficiencies of game interface. Luckily the game allows the hero to level up, and encourages the player to grind older missions for this reason. Higher levels eventually make mechanical problems easier to deal with, and progress is finally made. Hidden powerful equipment aids in strengthening combat abilities as well.
With its outstanding presentation, surreal atmosphere, intense voice acting, unusual plot, and unruly combat, Otogi is another weird-but-worthy FromSoftware gem. 8/10
Six years later, I still haven't gotten around to its sequel. I do own it on Xbox though! All that said, I can totally understand how Otogi might not appeal to someone. The "floaty" aspect definitely is an acquired taste. That's another one I had hoped to get to this month. At 9 hours long though, I decided to shy from it for now. Ninja Blade was a surprising game to see FromSoftware produce. You know, back when they still made games that weren't just Souls-esque stuff. This series has always gotten mixed reviews from "pro" publications, but it also has a steady fanbase, and the first game especially is a bit of a PS2 cult-classic. I understand all of these things. Yeah most players don't enjoy open-ended structures in genres that usually don't incorporate them (as evidenced by the "pro reviewers'" treatment of the SaGa series). They prefer linear drip-fed narratives and mission structure. I can understand why that is, but more experienced open-minded players who value innovative game design, can appreciate the approach of a game like Way of the Samurai. Your review further leads me to believe that I'd enjoy WotS, and I did learn some things about this game I didn't know. Definitely on the business side of things. I had a feeling that I'd enjoy the WotS series, so I've managed to acquire the first four games in my personal collection. (The fourth game never received a physical English release, so I had to buy the European release for that reason.) On a tangent relation, I think you toei might enjoy this series of gamebooks: Way of the Tiger All of the WotT books have been reprinted, and can be acquired on Amazon for low prices. I plan to delve into WotS next weekend, I should have enough time in the evenings to at least get one ending in it. Meanwhile I'm hoping I can finish Ninja Five-O and Samurai Kid before then. We'll see how my presently busy real life goes.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Nov 22, 2020 18:52:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I don't feel like I've completely written off Otogi yet. I own the sequel too and haven't touched it. They still intrigue me a fair bit, so maybe the mood will align more someday when I try the first one again or jump to the sequel. I definitely remember the "vibes" and levels in Otogi being really cool. It was awesomely strange stuff. toei : That was a nice write up. I wonder if this series was better received in Japan? Not exactly for the context of the game, but they seemed a bit more patient and into the "leisure" non-linear thing in the PS2 era perhaps. Stuff like Shemnue and Yakuza come to mind. It sounds like an interesting curiosity I should give another look someday. Maybe I'd have a better grasp on it being 15-20 some years older since I first played it back in the day. However your review also has me really wondering what the sequels did and if they improved things, for better or worse. Did they refine things to the point of losing the uniqueness of the first game? Or perhaps they continued to be really experimental. I also just realized I think this is the newest game you've played in ages. And the history of the Tenchu series continues to sound insane. Some even speculate to this day last year in 2019, that Sekiro was maybe some kind of Tenchu title initially... who the heck knows at this point.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Nov 22, 2020 19:34:16 GMT -5
The later games are known for their goofy sense of humor and I've seen reviews that complained about them maybe soft-locking you into storylines earlier on. In the first game, even if you join one of the clans or ally yourself with the villagers, you can just suddenly turn on them for no reason up until the beginning of the final section. I accidentally did so once due to a dubious translation choice. It seems like a single playthrough is slightly longer in the sequels, too, but it's still shorter than average. That's kind of unavoidable for a mid-budget game that offers so many choices. The biggest problem with Way of the Samurai 2, though, is that the localized version is fully dubbed (the first game wasn't), with no option to turn the voices off, and it's really awful. If all of us on the board were to meet up, go on a drinking binge, and try to dub a game over a weekend, we could probably rival it.
Yakuza isn't really non-linear, btw (at least not the PS2 games, which are the one I played), they just have a lot of side-quests and optional content. But the main story is linear. But I see what you mean anyway. Way of the Samurai is a very, very PS2-ish game. It was kind of a golden era for the Japanese action-adventure genre, samurai games were getting more common than before (Onimusha, Samurai Warriors, etc.), and there was a lot of experimentation going on in general. I can't imagine it on any other console.
And yeah, that whole Tenchu saga is something. I didn't mention it, but K2, the company that made those other Tenchu games, was bought out by Capcom and stopped working on the series, which is why the 2009 PSP release went back to Acquire. Who'd already created their own Tenchu rival, awkwardly.
But I guess From Software still owns the right? So Sekiroh might have very well been intended as a Tenchu.
EDIT - As for recent games, I did play Streets of Rage 4 and Thy Sword this year. But outside of indie stuff, the last one might have been Code of the Samurai, which was also on the PS2. I posted about it a bunch back in... not sure, 2018? Or early 2019. I found it super hard, but that was largely because the battle system was fully-based on timing, and the slowed-down PAL release (it only came out in English in Europe) messed it all up. But it was still a decent game overall.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Nov 23, 2020 1:01:54 GMT -5
I finished the first three areas of Ninja Five-O tonight, including beating the boss that I once thought was the final boss, but actually was not at all the final boss. Each area has four internal stages, so I actually beat 12 stages tonight.
It's been 17 years since I played this game. It's harder than I remembered, and not nearly as good as I remembered it being. But there's some positives to the experience. Anyway, hopefully I'll have it finished tomorrow.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Nov 23, 2020 6:12:52 GMT -5
Ex I didn't love Ninja Five-O, either. I spent a little time with Takeda Shingen yesterday - the late '80s arcade game, not the historical warlord. It's an early attempts at a proper hack-n-slash with real swordplay mechanics. Unfortunately, it's kind of awful. The PCE version is quite different, but it's not really any better.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Nov 23, 2020 14:52:47 GMT -5
Well, I played through Revenge of Shinobi again just to see if I like it any better. I still run into the same issues as before, though, and I realized some of my other issues with the game in the process.
First, the game is surprisingly sluggish. It looks amazing for its vintage, and I found myself digging the soundtrack more than usual, but quick evasion is not something you're going to get here. That's unfortunate, because there are a ton of instances where enemies will fire at you from off-screen, and unless you know they're there, you really can't do much about it. That double jump is less finicky than I remember, but still surprisingly hard to coax distance out of in a few instances - there's a jump in the late waterfront stage that's really tough to nail properly, and not doing so means you die. That stage also has a lot of areas where you'll get knocked back into pits. It's very much NES-era design in a lot of ways, but with the massive sprites it makes it tougher to react to threats.
Still, there are things I like here as well. As mentioned, the game looks gorgeous given its vintage. I also appreciate how bonkers the original release was. Fighting Spider-Man, who turns into Batman? Weird. Godzilla? Sure, why not. An Arnold stand-in that slowly turns green like he's The Incredible Hulk, and explodes to reveal he was a Terminator? Yeah, that happened. And despite my gripes about the slowness, I actually think movement still feels reasonably solid. I think with less of the off-screen hazards, this would rate very highly in my book - I do generally enjoy this sort of gameplay. I also learned how to use the ninja magic a bit better, which helps a lot. And the door maze, well, I got lost in it again, but found my way a bit faster. I think I'll remember the right way to go next time. Hopefully. Because I do plan on revisiting it again.
So I suspect this really is a game where your love may be directly influenced by how much you played it growing up. Not unlike myself and Ninja Gaiden, where the muscle memory and tricks are all there. I can absolutely see someone that played the mess out of this loving it as much as I enjoy Ninja Gaiden. But without that benefit, I'm going to give it... somewhere in the 6.5 or 7/10 range. I'm waffling a bit, because I think the core here is actually pretty solid, there are just aspects that really annoy me in the later stages.
|
|
|
Post by Ex on Nov 23, 2020 16:05:04 GMT -5
this really is a game where your love may be directly influenced by how much you played it growing up In my mind, The Revenge of Shinobi is a great game. That said, I also played it when I was a kid laid up in the hospital back in 1990. So pretty much any video game would have been a welcome respite in that situation. I'm tempted to go back and play the Genesis Shinobi games again, it's been a very long time since beat all of them. But there's that whole thing where when you revisit old favorites, sometimes the reality of the situation doesn't match your halcyon nostalgia. Hate to tarnish golden memories.
|
|
|
Post by toei on Nov 23, 2020 18:09:05 GMT -5
Sarge I played Revenge for the first time in probably 2015 and I think it's very good. BTW, there's a spell that lets you jump much higher if you can't pull of the double-jump. I get the impression people don't make use of those spells the way they should, except maybe the attack spell. It's also pretty easy not to get shot from off-screen, just let off a shuriken or two now and then if you feel like you haven't seen an enemy in a while. I pretty much never get shot from off-screen, personally. I replayed through Mystical Fighters, or more accurately, the Japanese version, Maou Renjishi. I had some vague recollection that there had been some localization shenanigans. As it turns out, they bumped each difficulty level up by one, so Normal in the US version is Hard in Japan, etc. This is a problem because you have to play the game on Hard to get the final stage, and US Hard is equivalent to the secret difficulty you unlock after beating the game in the original (called "Yea Right" in the Japanese version, amusingly). It's still doable, but it's not as fun, IMO. This game doesn't star samurai or ninja, but characters from a famous kabuki play, in a dark fantasy ancient Japan setting. What sets it apart from other beat-'em-ups, apart from the setting, is how mobile the character is. Instead of dashing, you roll on the ground at high speed, from which you can launch into a slide. You jump in a ball high in the air halfway across the screen like Sonic the Hedgehog. This allows you to do things like hop over an enemy's head and start beating on them from behind; it's also a great evasive move. Once you're comfortable with the moves, it plays slicker than most games in the genre - and while I'm not saying it would be easy, it's one of the few games in the genre where I think a no-damage run would be possible. It also has great throws, including one where you jump high up in the air while holding an enemy and launch face down into the crowd. It's a better game than it seems at first.
|
|
|
Post by Sarge on Nov 23, 2020 18:31:56 GMT -5
toei : I do think that's true - the ninja magic makes a big difference in several areas. The protection spell in particular is very, very useful, especially since it eliminates knockback. Mystical Fighter looks pretty cool, actually! I think I may give that a go myself.
|
|
|
Post by Xeogred on Nov 23, 2020 18:35:28 GMT -5
I definitely took advantage of the jump spell in that waterfalls area in Revenge of Shinobi. We already covered it in this very thread, but for me: Shinobi III >>>>>>>> Shadow Dancer > Revenge. That said, the older Shinobi and Shadow Dancer mold is definitely different. A slower more methodical platformer, similar to the older Castlevania's in a way to me. I appreciate their style and wouldn't mind more stuff like it. Shinobi III is kind of its own thing but yeah, just a complete masterpiece in my book. And more games like that would have been to my liking too, heh I'm greedy...
Too bad they didn't make at least one more Shadow Dancer. Could have been interesting if they tried changing it up in a Shinobi III kind of way as well.
|
|