Video Games - Storage Space Blues

[IlyaP]

5 hours ago, briantw said:

It was a little buggier than the Rocksteady entries in the series, but other than that it's functionally identical.  I think it even uses the exact same map as Arkham City, only it's before the area was turned into a giant prison / half-flooded and it's covered in snow.

Story-wise, I think it's the second-best behind Asylum.  It might even be the best in that regard, although I think I'd need to replay it first to determine that.

I am led to understand there's also a reasonably well-regarded Batman Telltales game too?

[polishgenius]

Still playing Kirby - finished the main game, of course, it's not long, but bopping around doing the boss-rush modes, post-game levels and side-level cleanup. They absolutely nailed this.

 

Looks to have sold well as well, from early indications in Japan and the UK, so glad of that- Nintendo seem to have really done well bringing new eyes onto old franchises on the Switch, what with Zelda, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, Metroid (most probably), Luigi's Mansion, and to some extent Fire Emblem all getting their best-selling entry by far on the console, and Kirby might join that crowd.

Other than that I picked up Grapple Dog coz I wanted another super-fun super-cute game and an indie 2D platformer with some lovely GBA-style graphics and a simple joyous premise (you're a dog. You have a grappling hook. Go have fun) seemed like it'd hit the spot. So far it has. It's not, like, Celeste or anything, but I'm having fun.

[Toth]

Recently looked into The Crew 2's new season update. And I must say... I dig the new "Story" quests as they are exactly what an open world game with zero incentives to explore the open world needs. The idea is basically that you get little stories with a brief description of a place and a picture of it and then you have to go and find it, with 3 to 12 locations needed for one quest. A paper chase!

Unfortunately I find it a bit of false advertising. The intro trailer about "American Legends" says something about exploring the history of the US, but the themes of stories are mostly just entirely random treasure hunts and, oddly, heist stories. There are no true stories, no history but also no urban legends to find, which I find a shame. There is definitely more they can do with this mechanic!

Though they might need to work on the backtracking. In three quests I was forced to backtrack two times. If you hear "I live in a small house north-west of Daytona.", fast-travel to Daytona, go out into the woods, find the house and then the next hint is "I work as a Lifeguard in Daytona, so go back there!", I couldn't help but groan.

[Durckad]

After a bit of a break, I finished the Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster. Easily the best of the first 4, by a long margin, but that's no surprise. What was surprising was how easy it was. I remember playing this on the SNES and getting absolutely fucked up in some of these battles, but this time, I think I only had trouble on like... one or two? And by trouble, I mean, I died once. Even Zeromus went down like a chump.

And speaking of Zeromus, probably the worst main villain of any of these games so far. No personality, very little impact on the main story other than it exists, and easy. Okay, after thinking about it a bit, maybe the final boss of III is worse by a bit. It comes completely out of nowhere at the end of the game and all it does is spam the same AoE attack over and over, but it was a little challenging. So yeah, Zeromus is slightly better, but not by much.

But that's really all the bad I have to say. The story is fun, it feels epic, and the characters are a bit more three dimensional and give you a reason to care about what's happening, even if sometimes, what's happening is kinda dumb. Also, the music. This was one of the first games where I remember really enjoying the music independent of the game. The Redwing's Theme, Golbez's Theme, Mysidia, couple other really good themes as well.

Just good stuff overall and that describes the game as a whole. It maybe doesn't completely live up to my nostalgia, but it's still a good game and worth playing even today. Like FF1, it's super easy, not that long, and can just be enjoyed without too much investment of energy. 4/5

Now on to FF5, a game that I have never really played before beyond maybe 10 minutes on an emulator a decade ago? Should be interesting.

[Fez]

Ended up starting to play Triangle Strategy, a tactics JRPG on Switch. There's a free demo covering the first three chapters (roughly 4 hours for me) that, just barely, convinced me to buy it. But I'm glad I did. It has a rough start, but has really turned into something fun.

It starts off as a wannabe Final Fantasy Tactics, but with an extreme over-emphasis on story. In the first 2 hours I fought a single 15 minute battle and the rest of the game was clicking through (fully voiced) dialog that just goes on and on. However, the story eventually picks up steam and at this point is engaging to follow. And, speaking of FFT, it's rare to find a JRPG this bloodthirsty, which I appreciate. I'm around 10 hours in, and I think there's been 4 named characters killed, including one that was publicly beheaded (I got strong, "we just watched S1E9 of GoT when we wrote this" vibes), and a whole lot of dead nameless NPCs.

There's also been two story choices so far which have some hamfisted contrivances around them (you're trying to convince your party members to vote one way or another and the vote is counted using a literal scales that has story significance) but would seem to have at least some real impact on the story. I assume it doesn't branch too much until the end, but the game does a good job of lending them weight.

As to the combat, at least on Hard it is a lot of fun. Each character is locked to a specific class, and the upgrade paths are pretty linear, so there isn't that element of designing the perfect characters. Instead it's about picking the right characters for each battle and then executing your plans properly. And there's no permadeath, so the battles are designed around the idea that you will win only barely. Sacrificing units becomes a perfectly valid strategy. Starting around battle number four, each one has taken be about an hour. With about half-an-hour of plot development between each one (there's also a new optional battle that opens up at the tavern each time), so the game remains story heavy throughout. But that in that slow start, the battles are shorter and there's way more scenes between each one. I get that the worldbuilding is important, but I think there's gotta be a better way to kick things off. Still, it turns into a really good game right around when the demo ends I think.

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, Durckad said:

After a bit of a break, I finished the Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster. Easily the best of the first 4, by a long margin, but that's no surprise. What was surprising was how easy it was. I remember playing this on the SNES and getting absolutely fucked up in some of these battles, but this time, I think I only had trouble on like... one or two? And by trouble, I mean, I died once. Even Zeromus went down like a chump.

I looked into it, figuring they based it on the "easytype" version that the US got. But no, they made it even easier!

Spoiler

The game has been rebalanced/made easier:

• Experience Points required to level up are halved for each character.
• Arrows are now infinite.
• Many indoor secret passages are revealed.
• The player is able to move diagonally, which can also minimize the number of random battles.
• The inventory size limitation is removed, though the Fat Chocobo otherwise remains in the game to hold items.
• Equipment used by departing party members is now automatically removed and placed in the inventory.
• No gil is lost upon running from a fight.
• Sap's effect is halved.
• Rosa's Pray ability is strengthened.
• Palom's Bluff ability is weakened.
• Item magic from equipment can be used even if the item is not equipped to a character. However, a piece of equipment can only be used as an item by those who can equip it; for instance, Cecil and Kain are the only characters who can use item magic from swords.

That's a shame. Give me a fast forward button to ease the grind, but don't make the game easier. The PSP version with The After Years and the stuff they added between probably remains the best version.

•  

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

And there's no permadeath, so the battles are designed around the idea that you will win only barely.

 

I'll try the demo first anyhow, but your review and especially this has likely convinced me to give it a go. I got the impression that this was like Fire Emblem in that regard (and I know some Fire Emblems allowed you to kinda turn off permadeath but I always felt that was against the intended design so skipped it) and as impressive as FE always is, that always stressed me out majorly. 

 

I had heard it was story-heavy but that is basically a visual novel for the first couple hours...



Anyway as an aside I really hope that SquareEnix's clear love of this HD2D style, the Live-A-Live remake and the remaster of Chrono Cross but not Chrono Trigger means we're soon getting a Chrono Trigger HD2D remake. That'd fucking slap.

[Fez]

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

 

I'll try the demo first anyhow, but your review and especially this has likely convinced me to give it a go. I got the impression that this was like Fire Emblem in that regard (and I know some Fire Emblems allowed you to kinda turn off permadeath but I always felt that was against the intended design so skipped it) and as impressive as FE always is, that always stressed me out majorly. 

 

I had heard it was story-heavy but that is basically a visual novel for the first couple hours...



Anyway as an aside I really hope that SquareEnix's clear love of this HD2D style, the Live-A-Live remake and the remaster of Chrono Cross but not Chrono Trigger means we're soon getting a Chrono Trigger HD2D remake. That'd fucking slap.

Yeah, visual novel is a good frame of reference for the first few hours. It does get more balanced later on (especially if you play in Hard for the battles) but there is very little gamplay at first. And a lot of the story scenes weren't that compelling to me early on either. I did eventually get interested enough to keep going, albeit more for plot interest than being particularly attached to any of the characters.

That, plus the gameplay and the art style, are enough for me to recommend it to anyone who likes tactics-style games.

[IlyaP]

8 hours ago, Durckad said:

After a bit of a break, I finished the Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster. Easily the best of the first 4, by a long margin, but that's no surprise. What was surprising was how easy it was. I remember playing this on the SNES and getting absolutely fucked up in some of these battles, but this time, I think I only had trouble on like... one or two? And by trouble, I mean, I died once. Even Zeromus went down like a chump.

How's the UI? PC-friendly?

[Durckad]

5 hours ago, RumHam said:

I looked into it, figuring they based it on the "easytype" version that the US got. But no, they made it even easier!

  Reveal hidden contents

The game has been rebalanced/made easier:

• Experience Points required to level up are halved for each character.
• Arrows are now infinite.
• Many indoor secret passages are revealed.
• The player is able to move diagonally, which can also minimize the number of random battles.
• The inventory size limitation is removed, though the Fat Chocobo otherwise remains in the game to hold items.
• Equipment used by departing party members is now automatically removed and placed in the inventory.
• No gil is lost upon running from a fight.
• Sap's effect is halved.
• Rosa's Pray ability is strengthened.
• Palom's Bluff ability is weakened.
• Item magic from equipment can be used even if the item is not equipped to a character. However, a piece of equipment can only be used as an item by those who can equip it; for instance, Cecil and Kain are the only characters who can use item magic from swords.

That's a shame. Give me a fast forward button to ease the grind, but don't make the game easier. The PSP version with The After Years and the stuff they added between probably remains the best version.

•  

Yeah, I knew about most of these changes and I'm generally fine with most of them, especially the xp reduction for leveling. I don't have the time nor care to have the time to dedicate to grinding out levels in a 16-bit JRPG and was the main thing keeping me from replaying these for a long time. That said, I do wonder if the game being easy was because I had simply out-leveled the material (due to leveling being quicker) or if there were other changes made to the difficulty. Some of these fights are ludicrously easy now.

I do kind of wish they had included an optional hard mode, either with the difficulty increased (incorporating some of the material from the PSP and DS rereleases) or allowing you to turn certain options off and on in carte blanche approach.

Whatever, I do like the rereleases but I don't think they will be the definitive versions for some folks. But for a filthy casual like me, they're perfect.

19 minutes ago, IlyaP said:

How's the UI? PC-friendly?

I think it's fine, but I'm using an Xbox controller, so YMMV.

Some have complained about the font used in the game, but A) It didn't bother me and B ) It's apparently pretty easy to mod out.

[IlyaP]

I should be playing other games, yet here I am on hour 170 of Cyberpunk 2077, because godsdamn this game is scarily addictive, in a way I've only ever before experienced when playing Skyrim. Every time I think I've seen everything there is to see of Night City, I find something new and interesting. 

[Werthead]

There's a new Monkey Island game coming, which is kind of mad in itself, but this will be the first one since Monkey Island II made by original creators Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman (no Tim Schafer though).

Intriguingly, it's an interquel and slips into the gap between Monkey Island II (and its weird ending) and Curse of Monkey Island. Gilbert had previously said any new Monkey Island game he made would eject Curse, Escape and Tales from canon, but it seems he's dialled back on that (and Curse, at least, has a lot of fans).

The new game is called Return to Monkey Island and should be out before the end of this year.

[Kalbear]

Curse was amazing. 

This is also amazing news. 

[briantw]

7 minutes ago, Kalibuster said:

Curse was amazing. 

This is also amazing news. 

Yeah, I don't know why they'd want to scrub Curse from the Monkey Island canon.  It's the best one.

"Taste cold steel, feeble cannon restraint rope!"

[IlyaP]

23 hours ago, briantw said:

Yeah, I don't know why they'd want to scrub Curse from the Monkey Island canon.  It's the best one.

"Taste cold steel, feeble cannon restraint rope!"

Same! Curse was AWESOME in so many ways! An intuitive UI, great design, music, production, score, writing. It was, across the board, an excellent entry in the Monkey Island series.

[IlyaP]

https://www.pcgamer.com/au/unreal-engine-5-city-sample-matrix/

City Sample is an Unreal Engine 5 sample project which demonstrates how the engine's "new and improved systems" were used to build The Matrix Awakens, says Epic. It's a "complete city with buildings, vehicles, and crowds of MetaHuman characters," just like what was released on consoles, but without Neo, Trinity, or any of the other Matrix stuff—it's just a generic demo project.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, IlyaP said:

Same! Curse was AWESOME in so many ways! An intuitive UI, great design, music, production, score, writing. It was, across the board, an excellent entry in the Monkey Island series.

It's hovered near the bottom half of my all time top ten for years now, mostly because the awesome Saturday morning cartoon quality voice acting and decent animation were ahead of its time.

It's not Portal 2 from a writing brilliance perspective, but that game was also like twenty years later.

[Werthead]

On 4/5/2022 at 12:33 AM, briantw said:

Yeah, I don't know why they'd want to scrub Curse from the Monkey Island canon.  It's the best one.

It wasn't worked on by the original team and contradicted their original plans for Monkey Island III, so I get why they had mixed feelings on it. They came around to it being a good game I think reluctantly and over time. There doesn't seem to be much love for Escape or Tales though (I played Escape and bounced off it pretty quickly).

After the excellent remasters of Secret and Monkey Island II (one of the greatest games of all time), I was surprised they never remastered Curse or Escape, especially after they did a remaster of Grim Fandango which uses the same engine (as Escape).

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

It wasn't worked on by the original team and contradicted their original plans for Monkey Island III, so I get why they had mixed feelings on it. They came around to it being a good game I think reluctantly and over time. There doesn't seem to be much love for Escape or Tales though (I played Escape and bounced off it pretty quickly).

After the excellent remasters of Secret and Monkey Island II (one of the greatest games of all time), I was surprised they never remastered Curse or Escape, especially after they did a remaster of Grim Fandango which uses the same engine (as Escape).

Were the Tales games/episodes any good? They were on Steam on special at some point, so were affordable enough to merit buying, but...can't say any time was ever allocated to them. And Escape never quite managed to stick with me either. The wholly unnecessary 3D engine also seemed less...joyful than the delightful and whimsical cartoon engine of Curse.

[briantw]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

It wasn't worked on by the original team and contradicted their original plans for Monkey Island III, so I get why they had mixed feelings on it. They came around to it being a good game I think reluctantly and over time. There doesn't seem to be much love for Escape or Tales though (I played Escape and bounced off it pretty quickly).

After the excellent remasters of Secret and Monkey Island II (one of the greatest games of all time), I was surprised they never remastered Curse or Escape, especially after they did a remaster of Grim Fandango which uses the same engine (as Escape).

Curse is probably just less in need of a remaster since it already looks pretty good and had voice acting from the jump.  Main thing Curse could use is updated resolution.