Messages

1

Music Tournament / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM 2017- Round 1, Topic 6

« on: July 09, 2017, 12:04:35 AM »

Like Dark Holy Elf did in the previous topic, I'll only choose between two songs if at least one of them is from a game I've played.

Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk- Guidance vs Xenoblade Chronicles- The One Who Gets in Our Way - Both are actually pretty strong pieces, though their tones couldn't be more far apart. I'll go with The One Who Gets in Our Way due to how well it fits the player's first fight in the game.
Final Fantasy VI- Searching for Friends vs Final Fantasy VI- Terra - The irony! The WoB overworld theme ends up competing with what becomes the WoR overworld theme. Both are SNES masterpieces as far as I'm concerned. I'd say Terra works better as a stand-alone song, while Searching for Friends works better ingame. I think I'll go with Terra simply for it's pretty much 'the Final Fantasy VI song' and every version of it that plays within the game works extremely well.
Xenoblade Chronicles- Engage the Enemy vs Okami- Ryoshima Coast - Another excellent match-up. If I had to choose one though, it would be Engage the Enemy due to how well the song works as an emotional piece during the cutscenes it plays within and how it can also be enjoyed as a stand-alone piece.

In response to Cmdr_King; Engage the Enemy isn't meant to be anyone's theme, though it does play when Fiora dies at the start of the game. It also plays in several other cutscenes, usually when one of the party members has an emotional stake with their opponent.

2

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: July 08, 2017, 10:56:10 PM »

You're not alone; Sumia is lame (good PC though).

Agreed. Sumia wrecks mages like they're nothing.

In terms of writing, several fans I've seen seem to hate Tharja. I've never met her yet, is this hate deserved?

3

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: July 08, 2017, 09:09:02 AM »

VVVVVV: Got this from a friend during the Christmas period, but I never found the time to play it until now. I've beaten the game, though I never went after the trinkets as I don't quite have the balls to perform some of the crazy stunts that are required to receive them. Just like Undertale, the game is much better than the price tag implies. The controls are precise, the gravity gimmick is fun and the difficulty, while extremely high, is pretty fair for what is almost the entire game. I say almost as there was an escort mission which the player is to perform with Violet which can fuck off. It isn't too bad to start, though the method of getting past 'Not As I Do' is almost impossible to figure out without a guide and just as difficult to execute as the player is to avoid letting Violet walk into spikes while also performing several gravity flips in order to get to the next step of the process. I had several painful moments where I managed to get Violet past the area, but I died due to failing one of the final jumps. Despite this mission though; VVVVVV is a pretty damn good platformer and the fact that you can trade pocket change in order to play it is the icing on the cake.

Pokemon X: Got to Route 8. With the previous Pokemon games, I was able to plough through them quite quickly as I was using the turbo button which the emulators provided me. With the 3DS games though, I have to use the actual console. However; since XY were the fastest games in the series in terms of battle speed at that point in time, I won't bother to complain.

As for my current thoughts; the game probably has the best start out of every title in the series as it allows the player to speed through the tutorials quickly and offer you a ton of Pokemon of different types from older and newer generations. Sadly, like Lemon explained, the period before the second gym is rife with padding. The player has to perform TWO fetch quests in order to explore Route 7; waking up Snorlax with the Poke Flute for the sake of nostalgia, and searching for a Furfrou at the Parfum Palace for the sake of a sappy fireworks scene with Shauna.

Despite these issues, I still believe XY are solid games and they don't deserve half the flack kids on 4chan and GameFAQs give to them.



Fire Emblem Awakening: No one else on this forum (or anywhere else for that matter), will stop raving about this game so it's about time I tried it for myself. I've just got past Chapter 5. The only other TBS strategy game I've played is Pokemon Conquest, so compared to that FEA is already a masterpiece. I'm too early into the game to give any final thoughts on mechanics such as pair-up and the difficulty modes (I didn't go with casual, don't worry), though what I will say is that Sumia can fuck off. The tripping joke reminds me of Colette so that already makes me want smash my 3DS and her hobby involves baking pies, because patriarchy

I'm probably alone with my hate for her though. If Colette has a fanbase, why can't she?

4

General Chat / Re: Movies

« on: July 01, 2017, 01:57:49 AM »

I plan on watching Baby Driver as soon as I can, love me some Edgar Wright. I decided to use the fact that the movie was coming out to rewatch Hot Fuzz. Still my favourite comedy to this day. Everything from the writing to the suprisingly fleshed out characters is top notch.

5

Music Tournament / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM 2017- Round 1, Topic 5

« on: July 01, 2017, 01:47:33 AM »

Imperishable Night- Love-Colored Master Spark vs .hack//Link- Carl’s Theme - Both were pretty solid, though I felt that the harmony between the instruments and vocals in the latter won me over.
Final Fantasy XV- Veiled in Black vs Terranigma- The Way Home - I like the tone created by The Way Home, but damn is Shimomura a goddess with that violin and piano combination.
True Love- Ending Theme vs Dark Souls 2- Majula - I'm not a big fan of ending themes in any game really. I admired the atmosphere which was created by Majula, though I'm not sure how it would compare to other songs in the tournament.
Xenosaga Jenseits von Gut und Bose- Fatal Fight vs Berserk Millennium Empire Arc: Chapter of the Holy Demon War- Sign - Okay, having the intro footage to back the song up gave it an easy win.

Suikoden- Island Fortress vs Chrono Trigger- Battle with Magus - The instruments in Island Fortress are nice, but I don't feel that the song goes anywhere. Having Battle with Magus as your competition is also a huge blow against the track in my eyes, it captures the atmosphere of the stadium perfectly and it has aged extremely well despite the SNES soundfont.
Suikoden II- The Chase vs Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire- Battle! Zinnia - Zinnia's battle theme is one of ORAS' stronger pieces, though the harmony between instruments in The Chase sounds way more consistent.
NieR- The Wretched Automatons vs Xenoblade Chronicles- You Will Know Our Names - Both are pretty excellent pieces, though You Will Know Our Names screams modern classic to me. It manages to work both in-game and as a stand-alone song.
Final Fantasy X-2 – 1000 Words Orchestral vs Disgaea: Hour of Darkness- Planet X - Neither were great, but 1000 Words was way too cheesy for my liking.

6

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 30, 2017, 01:53:03 AM »

Incidentally, I agree with Ciato about appreciating ambition in stories, even if they occasionally fail.  Part of the reason I'm one of the resident Xenosaga defenders around here! 

I can kind of relate with Metal Gear Solid 2. Quite a few people have problems with how insane the plot gets towards the end and I can understand why, but I admire how Kojima managed to both provide a warning about the digital age and how you can use it to your advantage to create a legacy. It's not a subtle execution sure, but it struck quite a chord with me.

Of course, I was meant to discuss the games I was playing in this forum, not act like a confused puppy with Fire Emblem <_<

Mega Man 4-6: I've been on a bit of a Mega Man kick lately, if only to experience several of these games for the first time. I was meant to cover MM4 a while back. Having beaten 6 recently, I thought it was a good opportunity to discuss all three. None of the three manage to meet the standards set by MM2 and MM3, both of which are among my favourite games of all time. MM4 suffers from cheap level design and several of the stages dragging on for longer than they needed to (Ring Man says hi). Though it did introduce the ability to charge your shots, so that's something I guess. MM5 fared better thanks to its superior level designs, though the robot master weapons are quite mediocre in this game (though you could claim that it promotes more strategy with the Mega Buster) and some of the bosses can be outright chores if you didn't go out of your way to get Beat. MM6 is quite possible the easiest game in the series thanks to its predictable bosses and the overpowered Rush Jet Adapter which can allow the player to skip large chunks of gameplay. In a series known for its high difficult, being on the easy end isn't much of an accomplishment.

Not sure what MM7 is going to be like. I haven't heard a clear consensus on the game.

Pokemon Black 2: Managed to beat this one during the last two weeks. This game is basically what game journalists hype GSC out to be. The game expands upon the world Black and White created before the postgame, the villains actually have some form of screen presence unlike GSC Team Rocket and flaws with the originals have been fixed such as the high encounter rate and the Pokemon selection being limited to species from generation 5. One issue I do have with the game though is that the endgame drags. The Plasma Frigate trips are a suitable climax, but Route 23 and especially Victory Road drag out for way too long. I'm beginning to see why the developers made Sun and Moon's Mt Lanakila as short as it was considering how it was placed after the long Vast Poni Canyon. Despite the long endgame though, I definitely say Black 2 and White 2 are among the series' strongest titles to this day.

Final team:


Temporary members:

7

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 29, 2017, 09:35:10 PM »

There's nothing as bad as using hipster as an insult, except maybe liking FE Awakening

For real I went back to it for 1 hour and was appaled. Pair Up is handled so terribly that this has to be the worst FE mechanically. People dont even like playing it on Reverse Lunatic + 365/2 days mode, it is purely meant as EZ mode demolish things with your powerful units and enjoy the waifus. The only thing it has is content and bloat

As a FE hipster I'm way way more interested in Fates because it fixed Pair Up (but I still won't play it because it's too gross and digusting in a bad way)

Welp, can't say I have enough knowledge on the series to provide a convincing argument. I'll still give Awakening a try based on its own merits.

8

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 29, 2017, 07:16:05 PM »

LordDirtyBrit: FE plot is fine.  And Awakening is a fantastic entry point for the series.  (Path of Radiance is good too, but that requires a GameCube and isn't portable and is a little difficult to find, and lacks some modern QoL features.)  I like the older art style for Fire Emblem more than the modern "Waifuy" version too, but Awakening's art is still for the most part pretty good.

I appreciate your concern, but I have Path of Radiance covered for when I want to play it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6oKjuvA55g

9

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 29, 2017, 06:05:39 PM »

Awakening's plot is also different because it's essentially Fire Emblem's attempt at Terminator-style with the "messenger from the apocalyptic future" storyline.  It gets flack for this, but honestly it really comes off as just FE Hipsters hating on Awakening since it's the game that made Fire Emblem "mainstream" and god forbid it actually tried to be a little creative with it's story, but that's just my limited experience with the plot hate.  It's worth noting a common retort to this is "uh, Fire Emblem games have never had good plot", to which often the response is "STILL MEANS THE PLOT IS BAD!" which misses the point since they were trying to say "Why does this matter relatively to other Fire Emblem games" which is what the whole discussion is about to begin with.

From what I've noticed; another reason why FE Hipsters don't like Awakening is because of how it got the 'waifu' crowd into the series. I'm guessing more of the 'anime girls' were featured during marketing? Either way, I'm pretty sure this demographic is the minority and a good chunk of Awakening's fanbase enjoy the game for what it is.

Also; if Awakening's plot is similar to the Terminator, I'm all for it. Even if the writing isn't too great, at least it will be fun.

10

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 29, 2017, 09:28:41 AM »

Do all Fire Emblem plots make you want to do this or is this one particularly bad? I'm going to give the series a try with Awakening soon so I'm a bit worried if the answer turns out to be the former.

11

Music Tournament / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM 2017- Round 1, Topic 4

« on: June 25, 2017, 01:30:19 AM »

Darius Force- Super Nova ~Lame~ vs Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel- Exec_Flip_Arphage - Both are pretty solid, but I loved the echo effect on the Ar tonelico Qoga song.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Rock It vs Chrono Trigger- Singing Mountain - I never really got the hype for Singing Mountain, even if you remove the opening wind efffect. I can clearly see why they removed that song from the final game. Rock It easily wins this for me. The song is a strong contender for the best the series has to offer in terms of soundtrack in my eyes.
Deemo- The Witch’s Invitation vs Demon’s Souls- Tower Knight - Neither sounded any good, but Tower Knight sounded less cluttered so I guess that's the winner of the two.
Raiden V- Crystal of Abyss vs Front Mission 4- Hostiles - Both have rather long build ups, though Crystal of Abyss is more effective once the main melody kicks in.

Koudelka- Waterfall vs Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation- Liberation of Gracemaria - Both sounded generic, but I liked the relaxed tone the composer was going for with Waterfall.
Super Smash Bros.- Pop Land Stage vs Shovel Knight- Strike the Earth! Plans of Passage - Really enjoyed both songs. Strike the Earth felt like more of a toe tapper to me though.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn- Penitus vs Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War- The Unsung War - Kinda liked the chior in The Unsung War. Penitus sounded too much like generic 'epic' music to me.
Dies irae ~Interview of Kaziklu Bey~- Methuselah vs Bayonetta- Red & Black The amount of style which Red and Black has won me over here. The Dies irae song wasn't a lost cause though.

12

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 23, 2017, 02:21:15 AM »

Shadow of the Colossus: Beaten Malus. Because it's the final boss, it was easily the most nerve-racking fight in the game. This was due to Malus being the tallest of the colossi, which meant that falling off at any point would cause the player to lose quite a bit of progress, and the method of navigating it involves jumping whilst clinging to it's body which was a technique that I hadn't quite mastered by that time. Another factor that adds to the tension of the fight was the atmosphere which the setting created. While a thunderstorm is quite a cliched backdrop for dramatic fights in most works of fiction, here it is used to add to the bleak nature of the fight. As RabbidLuigi described in his 'most depressing bosses' video, even nature itself wants to prevent Wander from committing the crime of murdering every colossi.

As for the game as a whole, it easily deserves the hype it gets from critics and gamers as a whole. Every colossi fight feels unique in terms of design, even the weaker ones such as Basaran can be admired for the ambition the developers had to create an engaging fight. The sections where the player explores the overworld to find the colossi sound dull due to the lack of enemies and sidequests, but they actually allow you to keep on your toes to anticipate the moment when you wake your next opponent and they don't feel as though they pad out game time with dull puzzles or fetch quests. The AI in the game is rather solid for the most part, though Phaedra takes a while to start searching for the player when they are hiding from it. Agro's AI is particularly stellar as she accelerates rather quickly and she'll arrive to your aid almost immediately after you have Wander call her. I suppose Team Ico wanted to make Agro as competent as possible in order to allow the scene when she sacrifices herself to allow Wander to continue finding Malus even more effective.

I also believe that the game is pretty fantastic from a presentation and narrative standpoint. The game's world looks great and has managed to hold up with its realistic visuals much better than the likes of Twilight Princess (who the fuck thought the faces on the likes of Ilia looked passable?), and the soundtrack has several highlights that have become some of my favourite video game songs. The Opened Way, Revived Power and Despair  Filled Farewell are my big favourites from the game right now. The narrative is very minimalistic which works immensely to the game's favour. Only the key plot points are presented to the player and quite a bit of backstory is left to the imagination. For example; the player clearly understands Wander's motivation to revive Mono, but his prior relationship with her is up for debate. Were they lovers? Was she his sister? Did they have darker connections? That's only the beginning of the ambiguous plot points and character motivations in the game. While several important narrative aspects are kept vague, they are clear enough for the player to understand the storyline perfectly and react in the ways which the writers intended.

I've gone quite a bit about the game, but I feel that Team Ico put so much effort into every aspect that I have to give suitable enough credit to them. This has easily become one of my favourite games of all time and I would highly recommend this to anyone who can at the very least tolerate open world titles. As for the other games I have played this week; I'll get round to them next week, I feel I've gone on long enough in this post.

13

Music Tournament / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM 2017- Round 1, Topic 3

« on: June 18, 2017, 01:35:00 AM »

Dragon Quest III- Adventure vs Mega Man 2- Wily Stage 1+2 - Generic overworld music against one of the most popular video game songs. Pretty easy win here.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair- Ryukotsuki vs Splatoon- Calamari Inkantation - Not too big on either, but the off the wall lyrics/chanting will make me remember the latter more.
Kidou Senshi Gundam F-91- Act 12 vs Bastion- The Mancer’s Dilemma - I liked the build up for the non-piano instruments to enter in the latter. Act 12 just felt rather generic to me.
Wild ARMs XF- Intrude Upon Happiness, Plunder the Future vs Pokémon Sun/Moon- Guardian Deities Battle - Both had their pros and cons for me. The melody for the Wild ARMs XF song sounds better, but the instrumentation in Guardian Deities Battle will allow me to remember it more. I suppose I'll go with the song from the game I have actually played.

Vanguard Bandits- Dingdingding vs Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies- Megalith ~Agnus Dei~ The opening choir was pretty effective for Megalith. Dingdingding didn't sound too shabby though.
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean- Survival From the Force vs Bloodborne- Gehrman, the First Hunter - The composition for Gehrman sounded better for me, though I have a feeling that it is a song that works better when it is played in-game.
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete- Go Go Go vs Tales of Xillia 2- If It’s For You ~Song 4 u~ - I felt that the melody of the former got going faster, though the later sections of If It's For You are solid.
Final Fantasy VII- Anxious Heart vs Kingdom Hearts- It Began with a Letter - Anxious Heart fits pretty much all the scenes it played in. I was expecting a little more from Shimomura with It Began with a Letter.

14

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 16, 2017, 01:39:13 AM »

Pokemon Black: Beaten Ghetsis. I've decided against completing the postgames for the rest of the Pokemon binge, mainly because I've gone through them before in previous playthroughs and I would prefer to just focus on the next game. I'll still complete Episode Delta though as I feel that was what the developers intended as the true ending of ORAS, not unlike Red in the Johto games. Back to Black, the game is still quite solid even with Sun/Moon stealing the 'best narrative' niche. 'Best narrative' is a statement I never thought I would associate with Pokemon.

Final team:


Temporary members:


Shadow of the Colossus: Beaten Celosia and Pelagia. For all the hate the smaller colossus fights get, I still didn't have many gripes with Celosia. I felt the method of breaking the armour was clever and the small size meant for a neat twist where it is the player who is striking fear into the colossus as opposed to the other way round like the preceding fights.

Street Fighter 2: Turbo: Tried out every character. Out of the entire roster; I'd say Ryu, E.Honda and Guile are my favourites to use, Ryu being my main overall. Despite its age, I had a great time with this one. I can definitely see why this game popularised the fighting game competitive community as well as the genre in general with developers. Though I'd be lying if I said I was a pro at the different combos you pull off in the game. Maybe I might get better at this game over time?

I'm not sure where to go with the series next. I managed to buy a cheap copy of Super Street Fighter 4 at my local GAME; do I go for that next or do I give Street Fighter 3 a go?

15

Music Tournament / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM 2017- Round 1, topic 2

« on: June 11, 2017, 05:51:08 PM »

Mega Man 2- Metal Man vs Ys: The Oath in Felghana- The Strongest Foe - I felt that Metal Man got going much faster. Helps how it's one of my favourites from Mega Man 2.
Final Fantasy Tactics- Antipyretic vs NieR- Shadowlord - The haunting choir won me over here.
Super Smash Bros. Melee- Menu 2 vs Rosenkreuzstilette- Luftfest Sleipnir - Although Melee is the one of the two I've actually played, I've never really had strong feelings towards Menu 2. Luftfest Sleipnir had quite a nice bit of energy to it.
Within a Deep Forest- Adventures vs Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria- How Wicked Ruler - How Wicked Ruler sounds powerful and dramatic, whereas Adventures comes off to me as dull elevator music.

Love Live School Idol Festival- Watashitachi wa Mirai no Hana vs Fire Emblem Fates- The End of All - The End of All takes some time to get going, but I prefer it over generic j-pop any day.
The Legend of Zelda- Overworld vs Secret of Evermore- Hall of Collosia, Chamber 1 - Both are pretty damn good, but the original Zelda song has definitely earnt its place as a classic for me. Even if I'm not as big on Zelda as everyone else is.
Atelier Violet- Izareya vs Legend of Legacy- Twin Dimension Battle - Felt Twin Dimension Battle got going much faster. I also felt that the instrumentation in Twin Dimension Battle sounded much stronger.
Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals- For the Savior vs Golden Sun: The Lost Age- The Doom Dragon - The melody of For the Savior sounded stronger for me. The Doom Dragon sounds like it's all over the place.

16

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 10, 2017, 01:27:20 AM »

Pokemon Black: Got to Icirrus City. Looks like they finally got a DS Pokemon game right. The battles flow as fast as they did in RSE and the core game doesn't feel padded out with dungeons involving HMs like DPP did. In fact, until Sun and Moon swapped them for the much better Poke Ride, HMs became a lot less noticeable in this game. Cut is the only one that the game forces the player to use, and even that's extremely early on. Two issues that always bugged me in this game though were the extremely high encounter rate and the limited Pokedex selection, both of these were thankfully fixed in the sequel.

I'd discuss more about the game right now, but Lemon summed up most of my thoughts in his post and I obviously want to avoid repeating them.

Current team:


Temporary members:


Shadow of the Colossus: Beaten Dirge. The feeling of immersion has definitely not left since my last post. Each fight with the colossi up to this point has brought something new to the table, my favourite so far being the fight with Hydrus due to the suspense of trying to deactivate the electric spines before it dives back into the lake to electrocute you. The only two fights I haven't enjoyed so far are Avion due to the tedious nature of having to swim to the platforms and waiting to get back onto him if you fall off, and Basaran due to the game's camera not being able to capture both him and the geyser you want to lure him onto. Asides from those two, the game is a blast so far and I hope it stays this way.

Street Fighter 2: Turbo: I'll come clean, this is the first time I've played this game. I'm a bad person, I know. I'm playing against Lemon to try to determine which characters are the ones that I am best at using. So far I'm enjoying Ryu and E.Honda quite a bit; though I've only used the two I mentioned, Chung Li, Ken and Blanka so far.

17

Tournaments / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM 2017- Round 1, Topic 1

« on: June 06, 2017, 05:57:32 PM »

Heroes of the Storm- Dva Music vs Dark Souls- Nameless Song - Never played either game, but Nameless Song left more of an impact on me.
BlazBlue Central Fiction- HAKAISHIN vs Persona 5- Life Will Change -  HAKAISHIN had a rather slow build up, but I prefer the main song to to Life Will Change.
Granblue Fantasy- New World Order vs Tokyo 7th Sisters- Twilight - The instrumentation felt more solid with New World Order if you ask me.
XCom 2- Spark Operational vs Chrono Trigger- Corridors of Time - Not a fan of either song, but I'll go with the Corridors of Time as the melody builds up a little faster. It also helps how I've actually played Chrono Trigger.

Final Fantasy XV- Reel Rumble vs God Hand- God Hand - The lyrics killed God Hand for me. Reel Rumble sounds decent, but I could imagine it growing old quickly.
Undertale- Death by Glamour vs Chrono Cross- Fate, God of Destiny - God of Destiny isn't a bad song, but it's competing against one of Undertale's strongest pieces. Considering how Death by Glamour is in a soundtrack full of great songs, that's quite an accomplishment.
Tokyo 7th Sisters- Hello… my friend vs Dark Souls 2- Old Dragonslayer - Didn't care much for either, but Hello..my friend has some more energy to it as opposed to a generic 'epic' piece.
Trails of Cold Steel II- Phantasmal Blaze vs Spyro: Year of the Dragon- Harbor Speedway - Both are pretty good, but Harbor Speedway coming from a game I've actually played gives it the edge for me. It also helps how it works well in the levels it plays in.

Welp, this has made me realise how little I've played in the way of video games.

18

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: June 02, 2017, 01:41:15 AM »

Speaking of Pokemon:

Pokemon HeartGold: Beaten Red. Decided to throw Mewtwo and Lugia at him, Choice Specs on the former is just downright brutal. Pity the process of catching Mewtwo involved me having to use Rock Climb throughout Cerulean Cave. For some reason, Game Freak believed players wanted Rock Climb in HGSS so they shoved it into several locations. Sadly; one of these areas was Mt Silver, which meant that the journey to Red lasted for way longer than it needed to.

I addressed my thoughts on the game and why I believe it's the most overrated title in the series during my previous post so I won't repeat myself here.

Final team (Kanto):


Final Fantasy V: Beaten Neo Exdeath. Decided to use Dragon Power from the Mix ability to power up Zeninage in order to end the fight quickly. I also decided to try my luck against Shinryu so I could have the Ragnarok for the last two bosses. While I was able to dispose of Shinryu somewhat quickly, the Ragnarok really didn't make that much of a different against Necrophobe and Exdeath.

Overall, my opinion on this game has improved thanks to this replay. I already enjoyed this game quite a bit during my first playthrough, but because I wasn't trying to go for the postgame content exclusive to the GBA version this time, it meant that I could relax a little more and not have to worry about grinding for the Dualcast and Rapidfire abilities.

Shadow of the Colossus: Lemon wouldn't shut up about the game so I decided to try it out. I've just beaten the third colossus (Gaius); while I never died on the fight, it took quite a while to defeat as the constant head shaking prevent me from striking the emblem. Currently, I'd say this game definitely deserves the hype it gets from the gaming community. The battles against the colossi manage to succeed as both puzzles and bosses, and the points when they start fighting back against you crawling their bodies makes the player feel like they are Wander when clinging to that R1 button in order to stay on the titan. It's a feeling of immersion which I have never felt from the likes of a Zelda game and I hope that this feeling will last throughout the entire game.

19

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: May 26, 2017, 01:38:24 AM »

All these posts about Echoes reminds me that I need to get into Fire Emblem.

Final Fantasy V: Started the merged world section of the game. While the game's storyline and characters are quite barebones outside of the tongue-in-cheek dialogue, Galuf's death was pretty damn stylish for the time. Even if he is facing off against one of the most boring villains in the franchise. The fact that there are people on GameFAQs claiming that Exdeath is a more effective villain than Kefka baffles me. In terms of gameplay, I remember the Forest of Moore being much more difficult during my first playthrough. I suppose I wasn't familiar with the Titan + Gaia Gear combo when I first played this one.

Pokemon HeartGold: Caught Lugia; because this is HeartGold, it obviously means that I'm at the postgame. Unlike DPP where a vocal minority of hipsters will tell you that they're the best in series, a rather large amount of people claim that this game is Game Freak's magnum opus. In my opinion, HGSS are not the best in the series. In fact, unpopular opinion alert, I'd say that HGSS are probably my least favourites of the Pokemon remakes. This is because I believe that this game is a combination of all the aspects I dislike about generations 2 and 4. It combines generation 2's poor overworld design, inconsistent level curve and limited amount of Johto Pokemon (in a game set within that region) with generation 4's slow battle and movement speed. A lot of the aspects that players hype this game for such as the added Crystal elements (Suicune and Eusine), gym leader rematches and walking Pokemon are small touches which don't add that much to the core gameplay in all honesty. On a brighter note, I found a shiny Goldeen near the Power Plant. That's something I guess?

Final team (Johto):


Temporary members:


I'll probably list my team I'd have used against Red in the next post.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Beaten Chaos. I decided not to collect every soul in the game as the process is too time consuming and my brother tells me that it will end up making you overlevelled. Final thoughts? This game is definitely a worthy follow up to SOTN. Heck; I'd say it is a slightly better game overall, at least for me anyway. The combinations you can use with souls to defeat bosses are fun to toy about with, I particularly enjoyed cheating Death's tackles with the Medusa Head ability so that I could stay in mid-air. Speaking of Death; I found the bosses in this game much more engaging than SOTN's roster, mainly because there's some actual challenge provided by them this time. Julius Belmont in particular did not hold back. At least continuously losing to him meant I could listen to his excellent battle theme for longer.

The game isn't without flaws though. Like SOTN, you can only access the true ending of the game through a cryptic method of defeating the game's climax boss. While you could credit both titles for not holding your hand, I do believe that this practise doesn't add anything to the experience and nothing would be lost if the game just continued after the player defeats the climax boss without using the method. I also believe that the Chaotic Realm is a poor method of extending game time. The main purpose the area serves is to make the endgame feel longer than it actually is. If you removed the Chaotic Realm from the game, I reckon that the endgame would take around 15-20 mins as opposed to 30. Despite these drawbacks though, I still highly enjoyed this game and I'm looking forward to trying out Portrait of Ruin sometime in the future.

20

Music Tournament / Re: Music Tournament of DOOM- 2017 Edition

« on: May 23, 2017, 06:31:46 PM »

Time to try my hand at one of these:

1: Xenoblade Chronicles: Engage the Enemy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wdc_cDaUNQ

2: Xenoblade Chronicles: You Will Know Our Names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OfNgkxkM_o

3: Final Fantasy X: Otherworld
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbLQhzsJG0A

4: Final Fantasy VI: Terra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6t_uyg_pF8

5: Super Metroid: Lower Brinstar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj5DWB5a2n8

6: Mega Man 2: Dr Wily's Castle Stage 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJRoRt155mA

7: Pokemon Sun and Moon: Guardian Deities Battle Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKr616BOslU

8: Metal Gear Solid 2: Main Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiPon8lr48U

9: Spyro Year of the Dragon: Sunny Villa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0qZV6g3-9w

10: Crash Bandicoot 2: Rock It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsvHQCTgHvg

11: Super Mario Galaxy: Bowser Battle Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_VZo01MWYo

12: Chrono Trigger: Magus Battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKRRXt8J5YU

13: Final Fantasy VII: One Winged Angel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wJ8pE2qKU

14: Castlevania Aria of Sorrow: Heart of Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxFWgilSyAE

15: Undertale: Megalovania
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcoqR9Bwx1Y

21

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: May 20, 2017, 10:27:53 AM »

I never liked Zidane back in 2000 but he's gotten way worse the older I get; I was stunned how badly he came off when I watched the game a couple years ago, especially after a similar adult rewatch of FF8 convinced me I'd been a bit too hard on some of its weaker castmates as a teenager. But Zidane just seems to have scene after scene where he acts like a total dipshit. I think for instance of the scene in which he beats up a guard of the castle in which he is a guest so he can go talk to Garnet because violence to NPCs is funny. Or the scene where he mocks all his friends behind their backs when sending them to the elemental pillars. The Terra stuff is forced as Brit says and I'm not a huge fan as such but at least it involves him in a moment of vulnerability instead of acting like an asshole; I suspect some people just hate on it because it's being "emo" or whatever they decided they hated Squall for.

Never notices these moments with Zidane until now. They've lowered my opinion on him even further, that's for sure. As for Bran Bal, I'd like the scene more if Zidane's emotional crisis had some build up like Cloud's did. I couldn't care less if a character has an 'emo' moment near the end of the second act. The point of the second act is to bring the characters to their lowest point so it only feels natural that a JRPG would have a moment like this for their main protagonist.

Speaking of JRPG casts, a lot of people criticise FF8's characters for falling out of focus throughout the story (from my understanding). FF9's cast doesn't fare much better. By disc 3; only Zidane, Garnet and Vivi matter. Sure; Eiko gets a DiD moment at the end of the Desert Palace, but after that she is irrelevant to the rest of the plot along with the others.

I'm not here to defend XY's narrative (and question how much one should use plot to compare Pokemon games) but uh do people really think DP is any better? I don't remember any plot except that Team Galactic had a plan as stupid as "expand the landmass/seas!" but the game took it more seriously. (I could really do without the Evil Teams having stupid grandiose JRPG plans, they don't fit Pokemon at all. Team Rocket had small-potatoes goals but those fit the setting much better IMO.)

Yeah, Diamond/Pearl's plot is pretty stupid. A lot of the game's fanbase (4chan and GameFAQs kids) like to defend the narrative of the Sinnoh games because Platinum 'improved it'. First off, you should not have to wait for the deluxe version in order to receive the complete experience. Secondly; Platinum does not improve Diamond/Pearl's plot, it adds an area between the Galactic Admin double battle and Cyrus which basically gives him the same conclusion he had in Sinnoh mk1. No added backstory, no depth towards his motivations, just more "I'll create a new universe".

22

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: May 18, 2017, 11:05:05 PM »

My only inputs to this conversation are that FFV is the bomb, FF3 blows, Pokémon D/P/P snoozes, FF9 is terrible if only because of the slowest battle system in a JRPG I can think of (and 20% slower in PAL on PSX because early 2000s Square regional support was horrible).

Oh shit, I have a PAL copy of the game which I never played thanks to the power of Steam. I could only imagine how slow it would be.

23

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: May 18, 2017, 07:27:37 PM »

That sounds eerily accurate, right down to the games being too damn slow for no reason and both having weird hipstery fanbases which will try to tell you the games are totally way better than all those other more popular games.

I've only played Diamond/Pearl but there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever it's the worst mainline Pokemon.

Finally, someone who gets it. Diamond/Pearl is the worst mainline Pokemon, MeepleLard has often described it as a beta and he isn't wrong. Platinum fares a little better, but I don't see why everyone is now saying it's the series' highlight. My guess is that they grew up with them.

As for Final Fantasy IX, not only does the game itself appeal to hipsters, the protagonist does too. I've seen several players nowadays claim that Zidane is the best protagonist because he isn't "angsty" like Cloud or Terra and he isn't "whiny" like Tidus. The thing with the three protagonists I described is that their character development and emotional conflict didn't feel forced unlike that scene in Bran Bal in FFIX. I'll give the game credit for having my favourite villain in the series and a great OST, but boy does it have problems.

24

General Chat / Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?

« on: May 18, 2017, 11:27:23 AM »

Haven't posted here for a while.

Final Fantasy V: Decided to replay this one after finishing Final Fantasy III for the first time to see how well it holds up. I felt that FFIII was pretty solid for an NES RPG, but the final boss was pretty tough unless you didn't grind beforehand. With Final Fantasy V, I've just got the submarine and boy has this aged really well. The battles are much faster than FFIII's and an unlimited inventory is always welcome. I also prefer how FFV is built around experimenting with the jobs to deal with different areas and bosses, as opposed to FFIII which is based around keeping to a job for as long as possible. While FFIII's job playstyle worked; I'm definitely more comfortable with FFV's, if only because I'm more used to it.

Pokemon Platinum: Beaten Cynthia, both during the maingame and postgame. I've already moaned about this game's battle speed in my previous post so I'll instead focus on a different topic. This game loves HMs so much that it causes it to become tiring to playthrough after a while. Throughout my Pokemon binge, I've tried to teach some of the HMs to my team members to minimise on HM slaves. I couldn't get away with this technique with Platinum as the game loves throwing the nigh useless Defog (before generation 6) in your face and will sometimes rear its ugly head even during the postgame areas. What I'll give this game credit for is one of the best champion battles in the series. Asides from Kukui, Cynthia is probably the toughest champion thanks to her well rounded team with great movesets and her ace Garchomp which will outspeed the rest of your team unless you are over-levelled. Overall, while I've had several good memories with DPPlt in the past, the games really haven't held up as well as the folks on 4chan and GameFAQs will have you believe.

Final team:


Temporary members:


Dialga and Palkia were mainly used during the postgame, hence why I've listed them here.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: Finally decided to get round to this one as my brother bought it on the Wii U VC for me to play. I've currently reached my first warp point after meeting up with most of the cast members. It's a Castlevania plot so I'm not going to give two fucks about any of them. As for the game itself, it is pretty darn good. It's already coming off as an improvement to Symphony of the Night, a game I already enjoyed quite a bit, as the soul system allows for more depth to combat in this game. I find that they do a much better job at giving variety to your arsenal than the awkward spells for SOTN. Whether or not I prefer this game over SOTN depends on how much more challenging the bosses are.

25

General Chat / Re: Movies

« on: May 08, 2017, 12:35:03 AM »

Guardians of the Galaxy barely qualify as Super Hero movies if you ask me.  In fact, if they weren't from Comic Books, let alone Marvel, I don't think anyone would consider it a Super hero movie, more just "Space Adventure with a bunch of idiots" (which is really the charm of both movies all things considered.) 

Kinda reminds me of Star Wars in that aspect. Maybe that's why I enjoyed the movie.