I got given Paper Mario Origami King for Xmas this year. Enjoying it so far, though it is very light on customisation from what I've seen so far. I probably won't play through it more than once.
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Media Videogame thread
- Thread starter Bummer
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I heard CS4 ends with a teaser? I sure hope the next arc doesn't take nine games to complete!
Not feeling like doing a full analysis post but here's a quick top 5 of games I played in 2020:
5. Tangle Tower - cute short mystery game with fairly innovative mechanics and pretty charming writing, hits the right spots for me, it does what it sets out to do
4. Heaven's Vault - you know this game is good because things like animation and general QoL things aren't at all polished but it's still great. the concept of making a conlang into a game isn't entirely new but the mechanics and the execution are just so well done, a must play for anyone with even just a passing interest in linguistics and/or archaeology
3. Outer Wilds - I talked about this game here at length, but tl;dr best exploration-based game i've ever played
2. Disco Elysium - Quite possibly the best writing I've ever seen in a videogame, and the thing is it's not even linear writing - there are so many different ways to go through this game and I will for sure return to this in the future for a second playthrough. This game is visceral and raw and decadent in such a bold way, the atmosphere is unlike anything else I've ever seen in a game honestly. Just phenomenal, would be an easy first place if not for the actual first place.
1. Hades - I'm sure you've heard of this one, just bite the bullet and play it. Nothing short of a masterpiece.
5. Tangle Tower - cute short mystery game with fairly innovative mechanics and pretty charming writing, hits the right spots for me, it does what it sets out to do
4. Heaven's Vault - you know this game is good because things like animation and general QoL things aren't at all polished but it's still great. the concept of making a conlang into a game isn't entirely new but the mechanics and the execution are just so well done, a must play for anyone with even just a passing interest in linguistics and/or archaeology
3. Outer Wilds - I talked about this game here at length, but tl;dr best exploration-based game i've ever played
2. Disco Elysium - Quite possibly the best writing I've ever seen in a videogame, and the thing is it's not even linear writing - there are so many different ways to go through this game and I will for sure return to this in the future for a second playthrough. This game is visceral and raw and decadent in such a bold way, the atmosphere is unlike anything else I've ever seen in a game honestly. Just phenomenal, would be an easy first place if not for the actual first place.
1. Hades - I'm sure you've heard of this one, just bite the bullet and play it. Nothing short of a masterpiece.
It ends pretty well imo, plus there's Hajimari to tie everything up before the next arc.
I've been working on finishing Hollow Knight, great game though longer than I expected.
Plague von Karma
Banned deucer.
I cleared Luigi's Mansion 3 a couple days ago after a long period of not playing it, and experienced some odd sound glitches.
The one in this video happened while fighting the swimmer boss ghost near the endgame. For some reason the water noise (the static-y thing you hear) overrode everything else, despite the fact it was meant to be gone ages ago. I had to go to the title screen and back in again to fix it. A similar glitch happened after beating King Boo, muffling the sound effects in the cutscenes thereafter, though I didn't record this part. Really dampened my experience.
Anyone else have this happen?
Oh hey it's the end of the year, let's talk about all the games I played this year!!
Since quarantine happened, I had plenty of time to sit down and play through games (well, before school started at least), finishing about 20 games this year, more than any year before. I won't go over my "Game of the Year" or whatever since I've played exactly one game that actually came out in 2020 (One Step from Eden) and while it was very good, it certainly isn't my favorite game that I played this year, so I'm going to go over every game through I played this year, despite almost all of them not coming out in 2020.
We'll do this in 2 parts, this first post is mostly just stuff I already played before this year and "disappointments", the next write-up will cover the REAL good stuff.
The "Stuff I already beat before 2020" category:
Katana ZERO: Played on Hard Mode. Still a wonderfully constructed game with a fantastic soundtrack, beautiful spritework, and a very good story too...although it was a little less enjoyable the 2nd time around. More thoughts here. (Low 9 to Mid 9, Amazing)
Castlevania Bloodlines: Finally beat Normal Mode without needing Passwords. Solid controls, eye-catching graphics with some really stunning sprite effects, fun level setpieces, great bosses, and a wonderful soundtrack (my fav song from the game, Calling From Heaven, is absolutely the single most underrated Castlevania tune) easily make this one of the best 16-bit Action Platformers. The limited continues kinda sucks, but the password system has your back, and this game, while tough, is still a good deal less daunting than most Castlevania games. If anything it just encourages you to get really good at the game. But, yeah, I highly recommend this game, though Super Castlevania IV is probably a better entry point to the pre-SOTN Castlevania games. (Mid 8 to High 8, Great!!)
Super Mario Galaxy: Replayed to confirm I loved it. Further thoughts here (Low 9, Amazing)
To the Moon: Replayed to confirm I didn't like it. Full thoughts here (Low 4 to Mid 4, Not good)
The Overrated category:
Furi: A boss rush video game whose identity seems to be based around its difficulty, when the game isn’t really that hard once you get a feel for it. Unfortunately, the bosses play very similar to each other, making them feel pretty same-y and boring, and with how much health bosses have, the fights can drag on for a while. Soundtrack didn't stand out much to be honest, possibly due to the annoying voice acting drowning it out and the need to focus on the game. Story is interesting but has an utterly absurd twist at the end. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have fun, but I really don’t buy into the hype for this game. More thoughts here. (Low 6 to Mid 6, enjoyable)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past:
(High 6 to Low 7, Enjoyable)
Ninja Gaiden: Another game whose identity mostly comes down to it being hard. Boring level design and an unreliable sword weapon really drag this down, plus the difficulty is more frustrating than gratifying…and honestly Thunder Force IV and Bucky O’Hare were harder games. At least the 4-2 theme slaps. Full thoughts here. (High 4 to Low 5, Enjoyable)
The "Oh yeah I forgot I played that" category:
Energy Breaker: A pretty good and unique JP-only S-RPG for the SNES with some excellent spritework, but also a messy (albeit still fun) plot, a somewhat disappointing soundtrack, and some serious balancing issues. Ultimately a fun ride though, and isn't that what matters most? Full thoughts here. (High 6 to Low 7, Legit good)
Mega Man: The Power Battle / Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters: Grouping these two games together since they're very similar, even if the 2nd is objectively better. A surprisingly fun Boss Rush game for Arcade (I played them on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection) with some great music, in particular the extremely underappreciated CPS2 Yellow Devil theme (CPS1 Yellow Devil is great too, as are the remixes of Wily Stage 1/2, Shade Man, and MM7's intro stage). Extremely simplistic and short, but fun for what it is. Definitely something Mega Man fans should check out and mess around in for a few hours, but it's hard to recommend to non-Mega Man fans since it's mostly just a novelty that lacks much depth; it's a pretty easy game that didn't take much practice to 1CC. As a bit of trivia, even though most hardcore Mega Man fans know this, I may as well mention that Power Fighters is one of the only games to directly link Classic Mega Man with the X series. (Low 6 to Mid 6, Enjoyable)
Vice: Project Doom: This one was a disappointment. Nintendo Switch Online’s NES and SNES collection gets a lot of shit for including games no one cares about, but they do occasionally stick on some hidden gems, which I thought applied to Vice: Project Doom. Vice is an NES Ninja Gaiden-esque platformer with some driving and gallery shooter stages thrown in for variety, and plenty of cutscenes to boot. A lot of people tout this game as a "genre fusion" but it's not much more of a genre-fusion than Contra: The platforming makes up about 80% of the game, and the Gallery Shooting stages aren't fun anyways. While the game plays decently and is nowhere near as frustrating at Ninja Gaiden, the level design is quite bland and also pretty easy, save for the last few levels where it starts having a semblance of challenge. Not even the soundtrack is that good, most of it is just because of poor arranging that makes the music sounds weirdly out of tune, though the final level theme is pretty good despite still suffering from that issue. The story is a step above Ninja Gaiden since it actually tries to be interesting (the game even has a late title card!) with some twists and turns, though it's not really good and moreso "weird", and not in a memorable/interesting way like, say, Monster Party. Ultimately, the game’s a good time waster, but unfortunately it's far from being one of the NES's best. (Low 5 to Mid 5, Alright)
Astebreed: Another big disappointment. Astebreed is a indie Shmup/Rail Shooter with some big anime influences and a rather involved story. I’ve had my eye on this game for years now and I picked it in a recent Humble Bundle, and was really excited to see the integration of melee attacks into rail shooter gameplay, which of course made my hyped considering my love of Sin and Punishment Star Successor. Alas, while I had fun playing it at the time, this game is extremely forgettable with lacking level design, bland 3D graphics, and a meh soundtrack (save for the final battle theme, Armageddon, which is actually really fucking great). The basic gameplay mechanics are also way more complicated than they should be, given the very lengthy tutorial (relative to the game’s length of maybe 1 hour). The plot is solid, but nothing to write home about. The game is also far too short and fairly easy; I didn’t 1CC this, but I don’t really have much of a desire to go back and do so even though it shouldn’t be too difficult. If you’re looking for a Shmup on Steam, check out Ikaruga; I’ve also heard good things about Zero Ranger and anything by CAVE. (High 5 to Low 6, Enjoyable)
Since quarantine happened, I had plenty of time to sit down and play through games (well, before school started at least), finishing about 20 games this year, more than any year before. I won't go over my "Game of the Year" or whatever since I've played exactly one game that actually came out in 2020 (One Step from Eden) and while it was very good, it certainly isn't my favorite game that I played this year, so I'm going to go over every game through I played this year, despite almost all of them not coming out in 2020.
We'll do this in 2 parts, this first post is mostly just stuff I already played before this year and "disappointments", the next write-up will cover the REAL good stuff.
The "Stuff I already beat before 2020" category:
Katana ZERO: Played on Hard Mode. Still a wonderfully constructed game with a fantastic soundtrack, beautiful spritework, and a very good story too...although it was a little less enjoyable the 2nd time around. More thoughts here. (Low 9 to Mid 9, Amazing)
Castlevania Bloodlines: Finally beat Normal Mode without needing Passwords. Solid controls, eye-catching graphics with some really stunning sprite effects, fun level setpieces, great bosses, and a wonderful soundtrack (my fav song from the game, Calling From Heaven, is absolutely the single most underrated Castlevania tune) easily make this one of the best 16-bit Action Platformers. The limited continues kinda sucks, but the password system has your back, and this game, while tough, is still a good deal less daunting than most Castlevania games. If anything it just encourages you to get really good at the game. But, yeah, I highly recommend this game, though Super Castlevania IV is probably a better entry point to the pre-SOTN Castlevania games. (Mid 8 to High 8, Great!!)
Super Mario Galaxy: Replayed to confirm I loved it. Further thoughts here (Low 9, Amazing)
To the Moon: Replayed to confirm I didn't like it. Full thoughts here (Low 4 to Mid 4, Not good)
The Overrated category:
Furi: A boss rush video game whose identity seems to be based around its difficulty, when the game isn’t really that hard once you get a feel for it. Unfortunately, the bosses play very similar to each other, making them feel pretty same-y and boring, and with how much health bosses have, the fights can drag on for a while. Soundtrack didn't stand out much to be honest, possibly due to the annoying voice acting drowning it out and the need to focus on the game. Story is interesting but has an utterly absurd twist at the end. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have fun, but I really don’t buy into the hype for this game. More thoughts here. (Low 6 to Mid 6, enjoyable)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past:
I'm going to make a lot of enemies for this take aren't I...
Link to the Past is the first Zelda game I've ever beaten, and it actually starts off really good. The pacing is excellent and it gives you just enough guidance for you to not feel lost while also not feeling like the game is holding your hand. The entire Light World section was fun and the first two Dark World dungeons were great too. But after this point, the pacing comes to screeching halt. The 3rd Dark World dungeon, Skull Worlds, is in my shortlist of Worst Video Game Levels I Have Played. It is a drab and confusing maze requiring you to run around in and out of caves, which include these annoying hand enemies that will take you back to the entrance of whatever cave you're in if they so much as touch you, wasting a bunch of your time. The worst part is that much of the dungeon is spent in the forest rather than the caves, and because the forest is technically part of the overworld, dying there will kick you alllllll the way back to the Pyramid, wasting even more of your time than the Hands already did. The 4th Dungeon is quite fun though, and the Ice Dungeon would be good, except it's extremely long, so dying to the anywhere (god forbid against the boss) means having to traverse an insane amount of ground just to try again, and you'll need to refill your Magic too.
From here on the game gives much less direction on where to go and what to do, which is a problem because now the game suddenly becomes far more obtuse than it was previously. The 6th Dungeon isn't even accessible without doing the Ocarina sidequest due to you needing to switch to the Dark World in a very specific spot that is only accessible via Ocarina, which is absolutely ridiculous. And then there's the Medalions you need to hunt down in order to access the 6th and 7th dungeons. Finally, anyone in the GP server knows about my livid rant right at the end of the game, when I found out you can only open the cracked room in the pyramid with a SUPER BOMB, a very specific item which you get at the otherwise useless Bomb Shop...but it's not available right away, you need go back to the shop after you've cleared all but the last two dungeons, there's no indication that it was going to be sold there beforehand. Oh, you thought the Bombos Medallion was going to open that crack, because you don't need it anywhere else in the game? Nah, that Medallion has absolutely no purpose. And when you actually get in the room, you still need to fuck around with tossing items into the pond before you can finally get the Silver Arrows, which you're going to need in order to harm Ganon (who is fun but disappointingly easy ._.). This last stretch has some great dungeons, especially Turtle Rock, but god it's all tied together so poorly.
I really do like those opening hours, but the 2nd half makes so many missteps that I can't really say I fully recommend this game.
Link to the Past is the first Zelda game I've ever beaten, and it actually starts off really good. The pacing is excellent and it gives you just enough guidance for you to not feel lost while also not feeling like the game is holding your hand. The entire Light World section was fun and the first two Dark World dungeons were great too. But after this point, the pacing comes to screeching halt. The 3rd Dark World dungeon, Skull Worlds, is in my shortlist of Worst Video Game Levels I Have Played. It is a drab and confusing maze requiring you to run around in and out of caves, which include these annoying hand enemies that will take you back to the entrance of whatever cave you're in if they so much as touch you, wasting a bunch of your time. The worst part is that much of the dungeon is spent in the forest rather than the caves, and because the forest is technically part of the overworld, dying there will kick you alllllll the way back to the Pyramid, wasting even more of your time than the Hands already did. The 4th Dungeon is quite fun though, and the Ice Dungeon would be good, except it's extremely long, so dying to the anywhere (god forbid against the boss) means having to traverse an insane amount of ground just to try again, and you'll need to refill your Magic too.
From here on the game gives much less direction on where to go and what to do, which is a problem because now the game suddenly becomes far more obtuse than it was previously. The 6th Dungeon isn't even accessible without doing the Ocarina sidequest due to you needing to switch to the Dark World in a very specific spot that is only accessible via Ocarina, which is absolutely ridiculous. And then there's the Medalions you need to hunt down in order to access the 6th and 7th dungeons. Finally, anyone in the GP server knows about my livid rant right at the end of the game, when I found out you can only open the cracked room in the pyramid with a SUPER BOMB, a very specific item which you get at the otherwise useless Bomb Shop...but it's not available right away, you need go back to the shop after you've cleared all but the last two dungeons, there's no indication that it was going to be sold there beforehand. Oh, you thought the Bombos Medallion was going to open that crack, because you don't need it anywhere else in the game? Nah, that Medallion has absolutely no purpose. And when you actually get in the room, you still need to fuck around with tossing items into the pond before you can finally get the Silver Arrows, which you're going to need in order to harm Ganon (who is fun but disappointingly easy ._.). This last stretch has some great dungeons, especially Turtle Rock, but god it's all tied together so poorly.
I really do like those opening hours, but the 2nd half makes so many missteps that I can't really say I fully recommend this game.
Ninja Gaiden: Another game whose identity mostly comes down to it being hard. Boring level design and an unreliable sword weapon really drag this down, plus the difficulty is more frustrating than gratifying…and honestly Thunder Force IV and Bucky O’Hare were harder games. At least the 4-2 theme slaps. Full thoughts here. (High 4 to Low 5, Enjoyable)
The "Oh yeah I forgot I played that" category:
Energy Breaker: A pretty good and unique JP-only S-RPG for the SNES with some excellent spritework, but also a messy (albeit still fun) plot, a somewhat disappointing soundtrack, and some serious balancing issues. Ultimately a fun ride though, and isn't that what matters most? Full thoughts here. (High 6 to Low 7, Legit good)
Mega Man: The Power Battle / Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters: Grouping these two games together since they're very similar, even if the 2nd is objectively better. A surprisingly fun Boss Rush game for Arcade (I played them on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection) with some great music, in particular the extremely underappreciated CPS2 Yellow Devil theme (CPS1 Yellow Devil is great too, as are the remixes of Wily Stage 1/2, Shade Man, and MM7's intro stage). Extremely simplistic and short, but fun for what it is. Definitely something Mega Man fans should check out and mess around in for a few hours, but it's hard to recommend to non-Mega Man fans since it's mostly just a novelty that lacks much depth; it's a pretty easy game that didn't take much practice to 1CC. As a bit of trivia, even though most hardcore Mega Man fans know this, I may as well mention that Power Fighters is one of the only games to directly link Classic Mega Man with the X series. (Low 6 to Mid 6, Enjoyable)
Vice: Project Doom: This one was a disappointment. Nintendo Switch Online’s NES and SNES collection gets a lot of shit for including games no one cares about, but they do occasionally stick on some hidden gems, which I thought applied to Vice: Project Doom. Vice is an NES Ninja Gaiden-esque platformer with some driving and gallery shooter stages thrown in for variety, and plenty of cutscenes to boot. A lot of people tout this game as a "genre fusion" but it's not much more of a genre-fusion than Contra: The platforming makes up about 80% of the game, and the Gallery Shooting stages aren't fun anyways. While the game plays decently and is nowhere near as frustrating at Ninja Gaiden, the level design is quite bland and also pretty easy, save for the last few levels where it starts having a semblance of challenge. Not even the soundtrack is that good, most of it is just because of poor arranging that makes the music sounds weirdly out of tune, though the final level theme is pretty good despite still suffering from that issue. The story is a step above Ninja Gaiden since it actually tries to be interesting (the game even has a late title card!) with some twists and turns, though it's not really good and moreso "weird", and not in a memorable/interesting way like, say, Monster Party. Ultimately, the game’s a good time waster, but unfortunately it's far from being one of the NES's best. (Low 5 to Mid 5, Alright)
Astebreed: Another big disappointment. Astebreed is a indie Shmup/Rail Shooter with some big anime influences and a rather involved story. I’ve had my eye on this game for years now and I picked it in a recent Humble Bundle, and was really excited to see the integration of melee attacks into rail shooter gameplay, which of course made my hyped considering my love of Sin and Punishment Star Successor. Alas, while I had fun playing it at the time, this game is extremely forgettable with lacking level design, bland 3D graphics, and a meh soundtrack (save for the final battle theme, Armageddon, which is actually really fucking great). The basic gameplay mechanics are also way more complicated than they should be, given the very lengthy tutorial (relative to the game’s length of maybe 1 hour). The plot is solid, but nothing to write home about. The game is also far too short and fairly easy; I didn’t 1CC this, but I don’t really have much of a desire to go back and do so even though it shouldn’t be too difficult. If you’re looking for a Shmup on Steam, check out Ikaruga; I’ve also heard good things about Zero Ranger and anything by CAVE. (High 5 to Low 6, Enjoyable)
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I play other nintendo games for fun, like mario games, super smash, also gta when I had a ps4 but not great at those games. Pokemons the only game I am good at, guess its easier for me to be lazy and just pick moves.
Deleted User 465389
Banned deucer.
there hasn’t been any news yet
Hello! I'll be posting my other favorite games that I played in 2020 later, but for now I want to make a post on Super Mario 64. I've been playing it for the first time these past few days, and I figure a lot of other people here have also played it recently thanks to 3D All Star, so I'm gonna attempt to start some discussion on it (or at least give my thoughts)
Just to be clear, I am playing the original US version on an actual N64, not 3D All-Stars nor any other emulation, and this also means no Shindou changes. So far, I've finished Bowser in the Red Sea and have about 40 stars, so I'm a little past the halfway mark.
First off, I should mention that I am not a big Mario fan: I adore Super Mario Galaxy, but I find several other Mario games to be very good but still far from being an all-time fav (Super Mario World and Super Mario Odyssey come to mind). I honestly went into Mario 64 expecting to think it was mid, like a 5 or 6/10; I know a lot of people have praised the game for how it plays and its overall design, but I also know plenty of people who criticize it for its issues common to 3D games. And I am pleasantly surprised to say that I think this game is actually pretty good! I don't think it's quite a masterpiece, or even like an 8/10 if I'm being honest, but it's still pretty good one of the very first 3D platformers.
I will start by echoing Mario 64's main points of praise: The movement and the general design philosophy. For being the an early 3D platformers, Mario actually controls shockingly well (with a few exceptions that I'll touch on): Triple jumping, jump, diving, long jumping, and the odd somersault are all really satisfying maneuvers to pull and let you move pretty quickly even as a casual player. The levels are more open-ended and don't really give much player guidance, which does result in things being a little too cryptic at times, though I think it gives just enough direction for players to figure things out on their own while also allowing for different approaches to each of the Stars: A favorite example is the Star at the top of the pyramid. The stars themselves don't really take nearly as much effort to collect as they do in Galaxy, as long as you don't get too hung up on the tough ones, so the game actually moves at a really good pace.
Unfortunately, I also agree with what seems to be Mario 64's main point of contention: The camera is bad...though not quite as bad as I expected, and the issues I have with it aren't exactly what I expected either. Yes, there were several instances where the camera refused to snap to locations that allowed to actually see what I was doing (namely in Bowser in the Red Sea), resulting in a lot of finnicky jumps, but for the most part the camera gives decent angles and adjusting it actually worked out pretty well. My main problem with the camera, in fact, is that it generally gives really poor depth perception, and some of the levels are just not designed with this in mind at all. Elevator Tour in the Volcano is the worst example I've seen so far. There's a pole you need to grab after the 2nd platform and it's surprisingly touch to get a feel for where you have to jump to grab that pole, and this of course assuming you have a good camera angle to begin with. Of course, if you miss this jump, you will fall in the lava and almost certainly die. This isn't even considering the jump to grab the 2nd pole or the platforms at the very end, or the fact that if you climb too high on that first pole you'll probably hit that rotating fire bar, which will also cause to fall in the lava and die
.
These issues also result in something I really didn't expect...playing Super Mario 64 is legitimately giving me motion sickness LOL. The fact that the camera is decently zoomed in, the constant need to snap the camera to fix your angles, the wacky depth perception, and that god damn Boo Merry-Go-Round, it's legitimately made me nauseated and gave me headaches while playing, which I can't really recall happening with any other games I've played.
I also wanna give a quick shoutout to a few other major, but more specific, issues. Swimming is a mess to control, I really wish this game had a dive button or some means to speed up your movement like Galaxy does, but alas it does not. It makes Manta Ray's Reward, the one where you go through rings Superman 64 style, in Dire Dire Docks a chore because of how easily you can whiff or miss the rings and have to start the 5 Ring sequence all over again. Just for fun, I booted up Superman 64 to compare it and honestly, I think Superman 64's Ring stages control marginally better than this Manta Ray bullshit. Even more frustrating, perhaps, is the "collision" boxes for talking or checking objects. Something as simple as talking to Toads or checking a sign is so much more trouble than it should be, just trying to position Mario to be directly facing them in just the right way so that the conversation actually starts is super annoying. The Treasure Chests in Dire Dire Docks just exacerbates this further since, like the Toads, you need to press B in a very specific position in order to open them, which is VERY hard to do when you're also swimming and fighting a water current :|
But yeah, that's where I'm at with the game. How have you guys been feeling about SM64? Do you find it to be fun? Do you think it's aged poorly? Do you think it's actually a masterpiece beyond its importance to 3D game design?
Just to be clear, I am playing the original US version on an actual N64, not 3D All-Stars nor any other emulation, and this also means no Shindou changes. So far, I've finished Bowser in the Red Sea and have about 40 stars, so I'm a little past the halfway mark.
First off, I should mention that I am not a big Mario fan: I adore Super Mario Galaxy, but I find several other Mario games to be very good but still far from being an all-time fav (Super Mario World and Super Mario Odyssey come to mind). I honestly went into Mario 64 expecting to think it was mid, like a 5 or 6/10; I know a lot of people have praised the game for how it plays and its overall design, but I also know plenty of people who criticize it for its issues common to 3D games. And I am pleasantly surprised to say that I think this game is actually pretty good! I don't think it's quite a masterpiece, or even like an 8/10 if I'm being honest, but it's still pretty good one of the very first 3D platformers.
I will start by echoing Mario 64's main points of praise: The movement and the general design philosophy. For being the an early 3D platformers, Mario actually controls shockingly well (with a few exceptions that I'll touch on): Triple jumping, jump, diving, long jumping, and the odd somersault are all really satisfying maneuvers to pull and let you move pretty quickly even as a casual player. The levels are more open-ended and don't really give much player guidance, which does result in things being a little too cryptic at times, though I think it gives just enough direction for players to figure things out on their own while also allowing for different approaches to each of the Stars: A favorite example is the Star at the top of the pyramid. The stars themselves don't really take nearly as much effort to collect as they do in Galaxy, as long as you don't get too hung up on the tough ones, so the game actually moves at a really good pace.
Unfortunately, I also agree with what seems to be Mario 64's main point of contention: The camera is bad...though not quite as bad as I expected, and the issues I have with it aren't exactly what I expected either. Yes, there were several instances where the camera refused to snap to locations that allowed to actually see what I was doing (namely in Bowser in the Red Sea), resulting in a lot of finnicky jumps, but for the most part the camera gives decent angles and adjusting it actually worked out pretty well. My main problem with the camera, in fact, is that it generally gives really poor depth perception, and some of the levels are just not designed with this in mind at all. Elevator Tour in the Volcano is the worst example I've seen so far. There's a pole you need to grab after the 2nd platform and it's surprisingly touch to get a feel for where you have to jump to grab that pole, and this of course assuming you have a good camera angle to begin with. Of course, if you miss this jump, you will fall in the lava and almost certainly die. This isn't even considering the jump to grab the 2nd pole or the platforms at the very end, or the fact that if you climb too high on that first pole you'll probably hit that rotating fire bar, which will also cause to fall in the lava and die
.These issues also result in something I really didn't expect...playing Super Mario 64 is legitimately giving me motion sickness LOL. The fact that the camera is decently zoomed in, the constant need to snap the camera to fix your angles, the wacky depth perception, and that god damn Boo Merry-Go-Round, it's legitimately made me nauseated and gave me headaches while playing, which I can't really recall happening with any other games I've played.
I also wanna give a quick shoutout to a few other major, but more specific, issues. Swimming is a mess to control, I really wish this game had a dive button or some means to speed up your movement like Galaxy does, but alas it does not. It makes Manta Ray's Reward, the one where you go through rings Superman 64 style, in Dire Dire Docks a chore because of how easily you can whiff or miss the rings and have to start the 5 Ring sequence all over again. Just for fun, I booted up Superman 64 to compare it and honestly, I think Superman 64's Ring stages control marginally better than this Manta Ray bullshit. Even more frustrating, perhaps, is the "collision" boxes for talking or checking objects. Something as simple as talking to Toads or checking a sign is so much more trouble than it should be, just trying to position Mario to be directly facing them in just the right way so that the conversation actually starts is super annoying. The Treasure Chests in Dire Dire Docks just exacerbates this further since, like the Toads, you need to press B in a very specific position in order to open them, which is VERY hard to do when you're also swimming and fighting a water current :|
But yeah, that's where I'm at with the game. How have you guys been feeling about SM64? Do you find it to be fun? Do you think it's aged poorly? Do you think it's actually a masterpiece beyond its importance to 3D game design?
You don't have to press any buttons to open those chests, simply passing sufficiently close to them while facing their front is all it takes. You may have been having such trouble because you were trying to press a button? All other criticisms I saw here are valid, but the chests were never an issue for me.
I searched this thread for mentions of Hades and all that came up was this and Amaranth ranking it as their best game of 2020
For real, play this game @everyone it's so good. I picked it up earlier this month for Switch and it's all I've been playing. Run after run it's so satisfying just beating up on all the minions of the underworld, and I think it's an especially good sign for the game when my favorite weapon out of the six is whatever one I'm currently playing with. Like I thought I would develop a favorite fast, but the way it encourages you to use all the different types of weapons by giving you darkness bonuses is great, keeps you on your toes and wanting to change it up every time.
And that's not even mentioning the story, like I keep going back because there's always more to learn with the lore too. Just overall a masterpiece.
Stray thoughts about 3d platformers
Started up Rayman 2 again. I like the atmosphere, it's moody but also kinda silly. It's a world I just wanna lie down in but I gotta fight the pirates and save my frog friend from the ghost chickens. Someday we'll invent Earth-to-Dreamcast travel just for this (though I'd recommend ps2 port, it's way easier to find). Also don't buy it on GOG since it doesn't have true analog controls as far as I know
Snake Pass comfy. The control scheme is involving but reliable, and the time trial/score chase modes really help the game's focus on learning how to snake. What do snakes think, anyway? Do they think every other animal's a scrub for relying on their legs to get around? If given the capability, would they post parkour videos?
Finally, Jet Set Radio. It would be goty even if it was just "MS Paint with a controller" but there's also a sick mixtape and it's a score chase game in these Mario 64 levels. Not having some recent quality of life stuff like stronger rail magnetism would be appreciated, hopefully in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.
Started up Rayman 2 again. I like the atmosphere, it's moody but also kinda silly. It's a world I just wanna lie down in but I gotta fight the pirates and save my frog friend from the ghost chickens. Someday we'll invent Earth-to-Dreamcast travel just for this (though I'd recommend ps2 port, it's way easier to find). Also don't buy it on GOG since it doesn't have true analog controls as far as I know
Snake Pass comfy. The control scheme is involving but reliable, and the time trial/score chase modes really help the game's focus on learning how to snake. What do snakes think, anyway? Do they think every other animal's a scrub for relying on their legs to get around? If given the capability, would they post parkour videos?
Finally, Jet Set Radio. It would be goty even if it was just "MS Paint with a controller" but there's also a sick mixtape and it's a score chase game in these Mario 64 levels. Not having some recent quality of life stuff like stronger rail magnetism would be appreciated, hopefully in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.
Great meme source
Anyone else started the Project Triangle Strategy demo? It’s taking me a while to get used to the battle system but I think it’s good. I’m not gonna comment too much on what I like as I’m a big fan of grid-based SRPG gameplay as a whole and would prefer to focus on its flaws for now, but I particularly like the Take Cover move as it feels like a neat way to patch up the typically-underwhelming rogue archetype, and her moving twice with her passive skill means she can make good use of it when infiltrating enemy lines—though of course it depends largely on how you route her relative to other units as an enemy facing her directly will break the stealth.
Managing resources is pretty intuitive once you realise TP doesn’t work like a traditional AP/MP/SP meter, but it also feels like there’s no real cost attached to the cleric’s healing as it only costs 1 TP. I wouldn’t be shocked if she gets more powerful/expensive healing that she actually needs to manage her resources for at higher levels so I won’t hold that against it yet, but in the first battle it felt like it undercut some of the system’s depth.
Tomes dealing physical damage feels sorta silly and is going to take some getting used to; I guess they want to make ranged magic require SP management, but the fact that mages can’t deal half-decent damage without SP even on a critical hit feels like it clashes with the co-operative attack system and the character orientation system.
Speaking of character orientation, while I like it conceptually I feel like it’s sorta trivial to play around in practice. All you need to do to bolster your crit rate is move your character behind your opponent, and this means there are often 2–3-turn sequences of characters alternating running behind one another to score crit after crit. However, this might just be a matter of me adjusting to the system. ATM I’ve kinda defaulted to having characters face the direction of their nearest attackers, but I think one of the potential ways the system could be used is to have two characters move up the board together and face away from one another to protect each other’s backs.
I also think the camera is horrible and should really be locked to cardinal angles in battle with free up/down panning (or cardinal+intermediate angles if they really want to preserve the diagonal camera), as the sprites don’t align with the camera properly at some angles (and as such are misleading wrt character orientation), trying to get the camera to a point where you can view higher ground out of shot involves navigating the cursor to that square, which is far from ideal, and just getting the cursor to move how you want when the camera isn’t at a straight angle feels pretty horrible too.
I’ve not yet found an opportunity to make use of the push-back into double attack or combined magic that was shown off in the trailer, but as I’ve only completed chapter 6 in the demo so far I’ll probably find a chance when I’m not grappling with a system I’m unused to. My mages ended up being poorly placed bc I wasn’t expecting the tomes to function how they did lol, so I didn’t get a chance to try a terrain combination.
Managing resources is pretty intuitive once you realise TP doesn’t work like a traditional AP/MP/SP meter, but it also feels like there’s no real cost attached to the cleric’s healing as it only costs 1 TP. I wouldn’t be shocked if she gets more powerful/expensive healing that she actually needs to manage her resources for at higher levels so I won’t hold that against it yet, but in the first battle it felt like it undercut some of the system’s depth.
Tomes dealing physical damage feels sorta silly and is going to take some getting used to; I guess they want to make ranged magic require SP management, but the fact that mages can’t deal half-decent damage without SP even on a critical hit feels like it clashes with the co-operative attack system and the character orientation system.
Speaking of character orientation, while I like it conceptually I feel like it’s sorta trivial to play around in practice. All you need to do to bolster your crit rate is move your character behind your opponent, and this means there are often 2–3-turn sequences of characters alternating running behind one another to score crit after crit. However, this might just be a matter of me adjusting to the system. ATM I’ve kinda defaulted to having characters face the direction of their nearest attackers, but I think one of the potential ways the system could be used is to have two characters move up the board together and face away from one another to protect each other’s backs.
I also think the camera is horrible and should really be locked to cardinal angles in battle with free up/down panning (or cardinal+intermediate angles if they really want to preserve the diagonal camera), as the sprites don’t align with the camera properly at some angles (and as such are misleading wrt character orientation), trying to get the camera to a point where you can view higher ground out of shot involves navigating the cursor to that square, which is far from ideal, and just getting the cursor to move how you want when the camera isn’t at a straight angle feels pretty horrible too.
I’ve not yet found an opportunity to make use of the push-back into double attack or combined magic that was shown off in the trailer, but as I’ve only completed chapter 6 in the demo so far I’ll probably find a chance when I’m not grappling with a system I’m unused to. My mages ended up being poorly placed bc I wasn’t expecting the tomes to function how they did lol, so I didn’t get a chance to try a terrain combination.
Having completed the demo version, my biggest gripe is that mages are only playable half the time, due to most of their offensive spells requiring 2 TP. And even when they can act, the spells they were given in the demo have pitiful range, meaning they often have to join the front lines and get bonked, which can be fatal due to how squishy they are.
On the whole that makes physical units much stronger because their default attack costs 0 TP, meaning they can simply amass a few TPs while still retaining battle prowess. The system feels kind of imbalanced.
As for the "nothing personnel kid" mechanic, it's a bit of a mixed bag since imo it incentivizes turtling: can't really send a unit all alone since it will inevitably get surrounded and backstabbed/comboed to death.
I kind of like the "bow attacks get stronger if you're at a higher point" thing. It makes sense thematically, and the character with a bow having a flying mount makes the feature easier to use.
Finally for the battle phase, the fact that you have to manually pick up loot feels like a very bad game design decision. It either means that a) you have to bend your strategy to end your turn on a case with loot, potentially getting swarmed by enemies, or b) you have to keep one enemy alive at the end of the mission and sweep across the map for all the loot. In either case, I highly dislike it.
Now, where the game really shines in my opinion is in the non-battle phases. The Scales of Conviction in particular are a phenomenal gameplay element when factoring in you can talk to various people to unlock arguments & secrets used to convince people to vote like you. This is a fantastic non-material way to reward exploration, and you kind of feel like a master spy when managing to influence other people.
On the whole that makes physical units much stronger because their default attack costs 0 TP, meaning they can simply amass a few TPs while still retaining battle prowess. The system feels kind of imbalanced.
As for the "nothing personnel kid" mechanic, it's a bit of a mixed bag since imo it incentivizes turtling: can't really send a unit all alone since it will inevitably get surrounded and backstabbed/comboed to death.
I kind of like the "bow attacks get stronger if you're at a higher point" thing. It makes sense thematically, and the character with a bow having a flying mount makes the feature easier to use.
Finally for the battle phase, the fact that you have to manually pick up loot feels like a very bad game design decision. It either means that a) you have to bend your strategy to end your turn on a case with loot, potentially getting swarmed by enemies, or b) you have to keep one enemy alive at the end of the mission and sweep across the map for all the loot. In either case, I highly dislike it.
Now, where the game really shines in my opinion is in the non-battle phases. The Scales of Conviction in particular are a phenomenal gameplay element when factoring in you can talk to various people to unlock arguments & secrets used to convince people to vote like you. This is a fantastic non-material way to reward exploration, and you kind of feel like a master spy when managing to influence other people.
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This is gonna sound real stupid if I just missed it (still extremely early in the demo), but I'm really noticing the lack of a "delay turn" option. Given that the system is so heavily based around combination attacks, it seems clunky to be unable to have the two parts happen right after another.
It’s not quite what I think you mean, but IIRC there is a unit with a move that lets them move another unit’s turn to directly after their own, sorta like After You in Pokémon, so you could always try using that to coordinate units who are near each other+that unit. The other option would just be to press X to end their turn without doing anything other than change orientation, though that’s obviously quite a long time to wait before you can move again.
Well yes but, here's the catch: it costs TP.
On a non-physical unit.
Finished Yo-kai watch 4 recently, amazing game. The battle system is fun, the dungeons are some of the best parts of the game (though there are only around 5 and some are pretty short), the game looks great, the side modes are fun, and even the quests are fun and worth doing. I've heard the story is good too, but I don't speak Japanese. The only problems I have are that the postgame can be really grindy, and that the framerate on the switch version isn't that great. Other than that, nothing. It's really sad that this sold so horribly. Level-5 should make the next Pokemon game, it would be the best the franchise has seen in years.
Yo-kai watch 3 is still better though
Yo-kai watch 3 is still better though
Yooo I used to love Level-5 RPGs like Inazuma Eleven as a kid, really sick games. I got my hands on Yo-kai Watch 1 and it was cute too, is the rest of the series worth my time? Does it ever get really challenging? I think my main gripe with both the Inazuma Eleven games and Yo-kai Watch 1 is that you could put in a shitload of effort to get a sick team but there's never really anything to reward you for it in-game, if those games had multiplayer pvp stuff for example I'd probably drop a happy couple hundred hours on them lmao
Yo-kai Watch 2 is definitely the hardest in the series. At the end of the game there's a difficulty spike that basically requires you to grind in previous chapters if you don't want a softlock. The postgame has 2 bosses that are absolutely brutal as well. The easiest game in the series is the 3rd game because of the reworked battle system, but that game has one of the best postgames I've seen ever. There's also an online/local multiplayer mode that you can unlock REALLY early that's super fun, but makes the main story even easier with the rewards you get from it. Both games have online vs matches (you can still find people playing online in 2 for some reason), and the people who still play them are oddly competitive. It's really hard to win without preparing a perfect team beforehand.
Oh my that's fantastic, will probably check them out then. Thanks a lot