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Post by paulofthewest on Jan 4, 2021 19:38:59 GMT -5
Well I start Record of Lodoss War for Dreamcast. First impressions are a Diablo-feel, but not Diablo at all. A significant part of the game is timing and aiming your attacks since they seem to be on the slow side (even though I have a fast weapon.) If I don't get my hit in right then I just sit there taking damage... Now, I like the weapons system a lot; being able to transmute weapons and add rune words as needed simplifies many things. The one downside is that it seems I'm restricted to a warrior-type class as my magic ability is pretty low.
I did get Parn and Deelit which do help, but the main thing that increase my power was getting a two-handed sword. Most enemies take one or two hits now.
On a more neutral note, the boots of speed increased the enjoy-ability (what is word for that?) of this game a lot. Now almost no time is needed moving to the next section. The downside to this is it seems the game is design for the boots as I travel all over the map A LOT (or the boots were design to alleviate issue with the game.)
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Post by toei on Jan 4, 2021 19:46:26 GMT -5
Well I start Record of Lodoss War for Dreamcast. First impressions are a Diablo-feel, but not Diablo at all. A significant part of the game is timing and aiming your attacks since they seem to be on the slow side (even though I have a fast weapon.) If I don't get my hit in right then I just sit there taking damage... Now, I like the weapons system a lot; being able to transmute weapons and add rune words as needed simplifies many things. The one downside is that it seems I'm restricted to a warrior-type class as my magic ability is pretty low. I did get Parn and Deelit which do help, but the main thing that increase my power was getting a two-handed sword. Most enemies take one or two hits now. On a more neutral note, the boots of speed increased the enjoy-ability (what is word for that?) of this game a lot. Now almost no time is needed moving to the next section. The downside to this is it seems the game is design for the boots as I travel all over the map A LOT (or the boots were design to alleviate issue with the game.) There are tons of things you can modify once you start getting into the skills system, including speed of movement and attack speed. You can really turn yourself into a God of battle. BTW, I didn't list Lodoss in my "good anime games" post because Lodoss is mainly a novels series rather than anime. I don't know whether the game is based more on the novels or the anime versions. Either way, it's a great game, as I've said many times, and it's simpler to just include it in this month's theme.
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Post by Ex on Jan 4, 2021 22:35:16 GMT -5
because Lodoss is mainly a novels series rather than anime I don't know how many novels there are, but I watched a 13 episode OVA series, and a 27 episode anime series for this franchise. So I think it's a good fit for this theme. (There's a whole lot of Lodoss manga out there too.)
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Post by Sarge on Jan 4, 2021 22:38:30 GMT -5
Speaking of Lodoss, yeah, I was looking for the original series just the other day. It looks like it's only streaming on Funimation, which is a bummer. Not adding another service just for that. Also, just take the dash out. Enjoyability is definitely a word. My spell checker even deems it so!
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Post by toei on Jan 4, 2021 23:07:49 GMT -5
because Lodoss is mainly a novels series rather than anime I don't know how many novels there are, but I watched a 13 episode OVA series, and a 27 episode anime series for this franchise. So I think it's a good fit for this theme. (There's a whole lot of Lodoss manga out there too.) The original (and only 100% complete, afaik) version of the story is in the novels written by Ryo Mizuno, which were initially based on a D&D campaign he ran. The two main anime series, and the large number of (mostly very short) manga series are all adaptations. Like I said, though, it's better to be liberal about how we define the monthly themes than to argue about them. I think of it as "games adapted from anime or manga" (because so much of anime is adapted from manga, there is no point trying to keep them apart), but Lodoss does have a strong anime presence, which is what it's known for outside of Japan, so it's kind of on the fence for me personally. Valkyria Chronicles is definitely not an anime adaptation (the anime is a video game adaptation), but I don't care enough to argue if we decide to pretend it is. BTW, as with 3X3 Eyes, there's a cool-looking untranslated Lodoss game on the Sega-CD: It's a SRPG reminiscent of Shining Force, where you also walk around dungeons freely. Towns are menu-based. The fan-translated SNES RPG is incredibly bad. Be warned.
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Post by Ex on Jan 4, 2021 23:20:19 GMT -5
Lemme guess, those Lodoss novels are only available in Japanese...
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Post by toei on Jan 4, 2021 23:41:13 GMT -5
Lemme guess, those Lodoss novels are only available in Japanese... This one's in English, at least. Seems like it's the only one. The reviews seem good, too. There are 9 novels to the original series, and a bunch of sequels, plus related series taking place in the same world. I think all of them by the same author.
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Post by Sarge on Jan 4, 2021 23:46:06 GMT -5
Bummer. I'd totally read them.
Oh, that's interesting, the OVA and followup are surprisingly cheap on Amazon. Very tempting.
EDIT: And bought. Couldn't really resist at $18.99. Original series is on Blu-Ray, TV series is on DVD. Apparently they don't have the needed versions to transfer to Blu-Ray for the latter, anyway. Got a couple of inline USB power switches, too, mostly for using to turn off my RetroTINK 2X when I'm not using it but the TV is still on and powering it.
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Post by Ex on Jan 5, 2021 1:09:34 GMT -5
toeiThat novel's going on my "must buy" book list, thanks for the link. Aside from that one novel being in English, looks like a bunch of the mangas are available in English. SargeNice buy for a nice series. I really enjoyed the OVAs, the TV series was just "OK", but certainly decent sword & sorcery comfort food. Plus all that anime serves as a great basis for the many Lodoss games out there... - After being initially disappointed that the mystery SRPG I chose to play this month wouldn't work on actual hardware, I gave in and just started emulating it. Luckily the game emulates very well. So I put an hour into it tonight. Definitely enjoyed the first hour...
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Post by Xeogred on Jan 5, 2021 10:02:11 GMT -5
I actually rewatched the Lodoss OVA a year or two ago, it holds up really well. Visually too, old cel anime in remastered/BD form is such a feat...
Like Ex said, I usually hear the TV series is a downgrade. I'd probably still like it and want to watch it someday, but yeah. Had a lot of fun revisiting the OVA, after like 15-20 years! One of the first OVA's I saw back in middle school.
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