@mookysam Thanks for the props. Glad that you could relate the nostalgia induced by revisiting the game.
And equal measure of kudos for your well organized and wonderfully written Super Mario Sunshine review there. Not a game (or a platform) that I play or have any real involvement in, but I can recognize how well thought out your writing is; it oozes with personality.
And I am tempted to churn out a review of God of War, but I don’t know - I’ve plastered these forums with sufficient praise already. 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@mookysam The non-FLUDD sections were actually my favorite parts of the game back then. I wish all Fall Guy levels were like this too!
But yes, Sunshine is incredibly hard. I was a wee baby back then. I have this game to thank for my platforming skills. (Not that I'm very good at them still, but I do have a lot of patience!)
@Th3solution It came off very well; that's why I'd always encourage people to share their perspectives on anything they've played, no matter how popular. We could all play the same thing, at the same time, but we'd still all come away with unique points of view and that's awesome. Whenever you get around to Among Thieves, whether it's sooner or later, I really do hope it holds up for you!
And thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed reading my tragic tale! You know me, always happy to take one for the team. Should I stumble upon any more gaming garbage, I'll be sure to send up a flare!
I'll tag you with inFAMOUS 2 thoughts as and when. I doubt I'll write a full review; as much as I'm enjoying the experience, there's little I feel I could expand upon. So far, it's been the perfect example of how incremental improvements can turn a good time into a great one. I think that says enough!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Further thanks to @BearsEatBeets and @Kidfried for reading my Bond review. I'm getting a little overwhelmed by all the praise! Honestly, I just wanted to have a bit of a rant about the game, so this response has been a welcome surprise. I'm properly made up!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@mookysam Fantastic review of Super Mario Sunshine there, my friend! The more I read about this game, the more I'm convinced I'd enjoy it, dinosaur intercourse subplots notwithstanding. Your personal perspective (delivered with your trademark wit and affinity for uniquely vivid analogies) reinforces a lot of what others have said about the game's design, and the somewhat-rushed nature of the re-release, but your tactical deployment of Pat Butcher (boy, was I unprepared to see her delightful face this morning...) drives things home in a way nobody else could. I'm glad to see revisiting it wasn't a total waste for you, and that you've come to appreciate some aspects you overlooked in the past, but here's hoping you have (or have had) a more consistent time with Galaxy. Bravo, buddy!
Also, thanks for reading my Bond review, and for your kind words. I don't think Eurocom could realistically claim a lack of experience, even for HD consoles, because it's specifically why they'd kept porting their GoldenEye reboot to PS3 and Xbox360 in-house. When the dry run goes better than the actual attempt, you know somebody's screwed something up somewhere!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger FINALLY got a chance to properly sit down and read your opus and, I gotta say, Rog, I'm stunned. Your encyclopedic knowledge of all things Bond-related, your natural wittiness, and your increasingly excellent grasp of the art of game reviewing all contributed to make this not only your best piece yet, but arguably the best piece of writing submitted to this thread to date!
It really was a vision of hell for you, though, wasn't it? You're such a good-natured dude that I was impressed with the sustained level of contemptuous snark you managed to muster for this game. Not that this is at all inappropriate, mind you: while I think we both agree most games are made by people trying their best and are deserving of some certain level of consideration for best efforts made, sometimes a game comes along that really is just ill-conceived in all regards and deserves a proper and public caning. In that regard, your piece reminded me of some of Roger Ebert's unapologetically (and hilariously) scathing pieces on films he hated.
I really liked the way you structured your cold opening. It flows brilliantly into the body of the piece, and the use of your first screenshot as a well-timed punchline was excellent.
The screenshot of Blofeld putting up his dukes is pretty ridiculous. I kinda like it, not least of all because I can just laugh at the idea of it being included in a Bond game at all.
Also, for the record, stealth missions in non-stealth games are pretty much always the worst parts of said games. And at least as late as 2017, developers were still including them in their games. Here's to hoping for the final death of the forced stealth mission.
RE: screen tearing, did you mess with v-sync on your computer? Sometimes older games have weird v-sync issues that require hardware-based solutions. It's really weird that the game doesn't support resolutions over 720p. Really, really weird.
Oh, and I'm impressed you created your own videos to show off music and compare tracks with other versions that appeared in Bond movies.
I should also note that you now have the notoriety of posting the longest piece in this thread to date, displacing the record held by my Three Houses write-up. Wear your crown of thorns proudly, my friend, as the curse passes onto you now until someone is foolish enough to try and beat the record again.
Great piece on Uncharted! The trilogy collection on PS4 is indeed a great way of seeing how the games evolved over time and adopted a unique identity (as you point out, the first game is more than a little reminiscent of the Indiana Jones films; I guess they all are, but subsequent entries felt more grown into their own mythology and narrative tone). I didn't have a great time with the first game myself, but some of that could be due to my using it as a test case for the viability of cloud gaming on PS Now. So, the unpolished old PS3 release plus the latency issues inherent to cloud gaming.
Even if it's not as slick as its subsequent entries, though, it does seem like the series started off on a solid foundation. Glad you enjoyed it, and would definitely be interested in hearing how your experience with this series evolves as you replay through the games via the Nathan Drake Collection.
I like the extended mythology you're establishing with Lakitu.
I played this game circa the mid 2010s and was still super impressed with how good this game looked on the GameCube. The water effects truly are out of this world, and the image quality as a whole was such a massive step up from the blocky, polygonal nightmare realm of Mario 64. I ended up liking this game less upon replaying it (probably primarily due to my insistence on doing EVERYTHING in this game, which led to some rather frustrating road blocks, and irritation at the blue coin collecting in general), but I think I still had a lot more fun with it than you did. At least, when I wasn't screaming at the TV during those chuckster shine levels, or after being knocked off the underside of the village for the millionth time during The Goopy Inferno level (Pianta Village really would be better off just burning to the ground). The 3D All-Stars Collection hasn't been treating you well thus far.
@Ralizah I'm bowled over; you really are too kind. Thank you for making the time to read it all (it's just shy of 7,500 words... is that really a record for the topic? Eep, sorry!) and for making encouraging posts about it elsewhere in the forum as well, which was generously embarrassing of you, or embarrassingly generous... whichever one it was, it made me blush!
I was constantly searching for something to be positive about, and rescued as many glimmers of hope as possible, but I couldn't justify not slamming it every other line. It was a new and slightly frightening writing process for me; cathartic, I think is the word. It's nice to be nice but you're right, sometimes you've got no choice. I feel bad speaking ill of an ill-fated developer, and I obviously have no idea the pressures they were under, but you reach a point where the facts speak for themselves. It should've been a safe slamdunk, if not a groundbreaking one; instead, it's an incredible failure, as in it genuinely defies credibility.
I won't embed it directly, but here is a link to a video (not mine this time) showing all the instances of the abysmal Punch Out! mechanic. You even get to hear the mangled introductory line after the first fight concludes. Watch it at your own risk!
And no, I didn't tweak the V-Sync settings on my computer. I'll be honest, I didn't even realise that was a thing I could do, so I'm grateful for the tip! Not because I'll be replaying 007 Legends anytime soon, but because I've got a couple of other PS3-era PC games lined up, many of which weren't exactly famous for having smooth technical performances. If I encounter any screen-tearing issues with them, I'll have a play and see if I can balance things out. At least they shouldn't be stuck at 720p (he says, hopefully)!
Again, most kind. Rest assured that my reviews will be back to business as usual before long!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Thank you for making the time to read it all (it's just shy of 7,500 words... is that really a record for the topic? Eep, sorry!) and for making encouraging posts about it elsewhere in the forum as well, which was generously embarrassing of you, or embarrassingly generous... whichever one it was, it made me blush!
Yeah, sorry about that. As a person who generally tries to be invisible as much as possible and avoids attention at pretty much every turn, it was uncharacteristic of me to draw attention to someone else's work like that. A while after I'd posted that, after people had already seen it, I did think: "I hope he doesn't mind too much that I called him out like that."
It's excellent work, though, and I wanted to get new eyes on it before it got lost in the shuffle.
I was constantly searching for something to be positive about, and rescued as many glimmers of hope as possible, but I couldn't justify not slamming it every other line. It was a new and slightly frightening writing process for me; cathartic, I think is the word. It's nice to be nice but you're right, sometimes you've got no choice. I feel bad speaking ill of an ill-fated developer, and I obviously have no idea the pressures they were under, but you reach a point where the facts speak for themselves. It should've been a safe slamdunk, if not a groundbreaking one; instead, it's an incredible failure, as in it genuinely defies credibility.
It really is a rare game for me where I dislike it so much that I really just can't find anything nice to say about it. I'm impressed you got through it all. I generally stop playing games that I dislike that much, although now that I'm writing about the majority of stuff I play through, I do try to play through everything and be as thorough as possible.
Like I said, that someone as good-natured as you ended up being pretty withering about the game speaks volumes to its quality.
I won't embed it directly, but here is a link to a video (not mine this time) showing all the instances of the abysmal Punch Out! mechanic. You even get to hear the mangled introductory line after the first fight concludes. Watch it at your own risk!
LOL I love how everyone grunts the same when being punched. And how the grunts sound like they were recorded in a bathroom.
And no, I didn't tweak the V-Sync settings on my computer. I'll be honest, I didn't even realise that was a thing I could do, so I'm grateful for the tip! Not because I'll be replaying 007 Legends anytime soon, but because I've got a couple of other PS3-era PC games lined up, many of which weren't exactly famous for having smooth technical performances. If I encounter any screen-tearing issues with them, I'll have a play and see if I can balance things out. At least they shouldn't be stuck at 720p (he says, hopefully)!
A lot of modern monitors have a technology built into them where they dynamically adapt the refresh rate of your display to match the framerate of the game to avoid screen-tearing, but, sans that, you'll sometimes have to tinker with v-sync settings to avoid screen-tearing. Most modern games are well-optimized enough that you don't really need to worry about it on more powerful computers, but older games can be a pain. For DOOM 3, for example, I needed to disable the hardware-based v-sync solution I had enabled and played around with in-game v-sync settings in order to eliminate tearing every time I turned the camera. To this end, software that caps your framerate can be helpful as well. For the few occasions I've needed to use it (Ys I on PC has a boss that's borderline impossible to beat if you play it at an unlocked framerate, for example), the Rivatuner Statistics Server software is free and relatively easy to use.
@Ralizah Oh, no apology necessary! The only minor damage was to my humility which, since it so often holds me back, could do with taking a few knocks. As much as I would never normally admit this, it did feel nice to be championed, so my thanks again.
It's down to my obsession with Bond first and foremost, that I made it through. My love for certain franchises has carried me to the end credits of some truly awful games over the years, ones that I should really learn to abandon. Knowing that I could spin it into a bit of a warning to others did help (and, as you say, it's difficult to justify reviewing something you haven't fully experienced) but I do seem to possess an infuriatingly-permanent optimism, no matter how foolish it may be.
Gotcha; that's good to know, thank you. I've made a note of that software name. It does amaze me how some older games look stunning right off the disc, patch-free, and am surprised that I haven't had to do more frequent tinkering to make things work. The further back in time I go, the more I have to rely on fan mods and custom launchers, though. It's a bit of a minefield, but a navigable one.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@mookysam So, the lily pad level was weirdly easy for me this time, considering I died 40+ times in the original trying to get it. I got the lily pad shine on my fifth try, although I prepared for 40+ attempts beforehand. I found that being more conservative with the water nozzle helped. Really, even getting out to that island turned out to be way harder than the challenge itself.
The pachinko level is weird, because, if you know how to hold the stick when you launch, it's really quite simple, but otherwise it feels infuriatingly random where you'll end up. Still an ill-conceived challenge regardless.
What really does me in with the chucksters is both the dramatic difference even the smallest change in angle will make and how often that angle being wrong equates to instant death. Also, some of those levels require you to manipulate a LOT of chucksters before you get to the goal. Ugh.
I don't mind the barebones presentation for the 3D All-Stars games in general, but it annoys me that Nintendo wasn't even concerned about stabilizing the framerate. As you point out, it gets positively chunky in Delfino Plaza.
But yeah, Galaxy is the true hero of this release, as expected. Playing the other two before it only helped to highlight how much Nintendo's 3D Mario games have improved over time.
@Th3solution, great Uncharted review! I'm probably the only person on this site (the world even) who has never played an Uncharted game to completion (I partially played the first on the PS3 through a rental, but that was it). Good to hear it still holds up. I think I have the trilogy thanks to PS+, so I probably should give it a try someday.
@mookysam, nice Sunshine review! I played it for the first time last year (on Switch), and while it is janky in spots, I do think it's a lot better than 64, and didn't run into any major problems with the camera, and quite enjoyed the FLUDD-less levels for the most part. It probably helped that I didn't set out to %100 it, though.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@Gadjo Blimey, such a detailed breakdown! I'm flattered, thank you! I'll try to answer all of the questions you've asked and yes, just for the record, I am a total weirdo!
The stat screens vary from level to level. Sometimes there'll be a fade to black before they appear but, other times, they'll just be pasted over whatever Bond was last looking at. Die Another Day is the only time it happens at an appropriate moment, as Bond and Jinx make their escape from Graves' exploding plane via helicopter. Otherwise it's always in the middle of some death-defying escape, or atop some seemingly-inescapable location. Never fails to be awkward.
It's funny you mention Alpha Protocol, as I'll be playing and probably reviewing that soon.
Nope, absolutely no leaning or peeking option. If you crouch behind cover, you can pop your head up, but only when aiming a gun and only if you wrestle with two simultaneous inputs (over-complicating the simplicity of a single "aim over cover" button used in GoldenEye 007: Reloaded).
My snarky comment about "people keep moving" was more to highlight the uselessness of giving Bond a radar ping which requires both hands to use. Whether the enemies are strolling around oblivious to your presence or running and screaming right at you, you'll need to switch away from the radar and back to a weapon in order to take action against them. By the time you've done this (or by the time you've moved Bond himself) everybody is in a different place. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I could simultaneously aim a gun with one hand a look at my watch on the other... in fact, I know I could, because I've done it before! So it just became another ill-conceived addition to the game's long list of useless bells and whistles.
Thanks for praising my music editing skills, particularly since I only used SHAREfactory on my PS4, and cut both tracks manually, by ear. I'm not clever enough for anything else!
Alas, most of my gaming library comprises licenced games. It's my curse. You'd think Bond would be a pretty safe bet, considering his history. The original GoldenEye 007 on N64, the console version of NightFire and the epic Everything or Nothing are among some of the best games ever made, licenced or otherwise. It's a shame Activision ended up making Bond a franchise of such extremes; nobody does it better, but nobody does it worse, either. Here's to IO Interactive redressing the balance because yes, I've been playing and reviewing these Bond games specifically thanks to that announcement!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@mookysam Oh, I've wrestled with enough atrocious cameras in my time, so I'm sure Super Mario Sunshine wouldn't be too much trouble in that regard. I'm grateful for your caution all the same! And you're right, sometimes it's tougher to write about a good game than it is a bad one. I'm sure you'll find an entertaining way to voice your Galaxy thoughts regardless!
And yes, you're absolutely right about the Wii's barren FPS library. That's an interesting thought about that disparity between the consoles of the seventh generation. I might see if I can find a proper breakdown of sales figures, merely out of the personal curiosity you've just triggered.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Dragon Quest Heroes: the World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4)
The first entry in the Warriors/Musou style spinoff of the long running Dragon Quest JRPG franchise.
Gameplay:
Like most Warriors style games, it is a mission based action game where you take a party of 1-4 characters into battle against hundreds of foes. While most other Warriors titles have you taking control of a battlefield by completing various tasks (such as capturing forts, defeating important named foes, etc.) DQH tends to be a much more singularly focused experience. Maps (particularly in story mode) tend to be smaller in scope compared to it's contemporaries, and while you sometimes get a pretty basic objective (such as "defeat all monsters"), the game largely has a "tower defence" style bent to it, and you'll more often than not be tasked with protecting a specific location (such as a gate or statue) or an NPC (escort mission style) from waves of enemies as your sole objective in a mission.
Escort mission the game, pretty much.
Maps tend to be more maze-like, where you have to figure out the best way to stem the incoming tide of enemies so you can safely venture out to slay the "Mawkeepers" (tougher enemies that guard the portals mooks endlessly spawn from). To do this you'll need to summon your own monsters to the battlefield (which you can do after picking up dropped "monster medals" from defeated monsters) in key defensive positions, as well as take advantage of other strategic elements, such as stones dotted across a map you can warp to (they need to be activated first, but only once, so it's completely viable to leave your main objective unprotected your first go around as you go around activating all the stones, that way you can make use of them from the start on future attempts) or map specific elements such as cannons or switches that open & close gates.
I'll be honest & admit I really didn't care for the general gameplay loop in this. Don't get me wrong, mowing down hundreds of mooks can be as fun as ever (and it was kinda a relief whenever I didn't have to protect something), but general character control felt a little more heavy & not as snappy as other Warriors titles, and whenever you had to protect an NPC that has their own weapon they have a tendency to bum rush the strongest enemy that's currently in their "zone", even if they only have a sliver of health left, which makes for many a failed mission. Plus, I encountered at least one bug during a story mission where I had to protect a barricade, and the game considered it a failed mission whenever it reached half health (I've since watched a couple gameplay vids of people completing the mission with much lower barricade health, so it had to have been a bug, and not that isolated as I found a thread discussing the issue on the Steam forums). Luckily, you keep all EXP, Gold, & enemy drops you obtain in failed missions, so at least there's always some level of growth.
I will concede that I enjoyed the boss battles that closed out each chapter, and while they have nothing on the boss encounters seen in something like FFVII Remake, they do tend to be more involved than your typical Warriors bosses, and were nice & challenging IMO (though it has a tendency to reuse bosses, or at least pallet swapped versions of them, as regular enemies later on, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine).
Each character has a series of combos they can execute with various combinations of the Square (light attack) & Triangle (heavy attack) buttons, Cross is used to jump, and Circle activates Tension mode whenever it's guage is built up (think the "Musou" mode from other games. you'll get a brief all around stat boost & status effect immunity, followed up by a screen filling super attack once the guage empties, or if you pull it off early by pressing Circle again). By pressing one of the shoulder buttons you'll bring up the special attack (these attacks use MP) & Healstone (these heal everyone in your party, though not any NPCs you're protecting) menues, another shoulder button makes you guard, another is dodge, and the last one switches between characters.
In terms of powering up your characters, they level up (general stat boosts) upon earning enough EXP (characters not in use earn EXP, but at a slower rate), by spending skill points on upgrades (you earn skill points every time you level up, and can learn/upgrade special attacks, upgrade combos, obtain extra stat boosts, and unlock other boons), by equipping new weapons/orbs (you buy these at the shop back at base, and the new items that appear at the start of each chapter are universally better than what came before, though a few characters have super weapons earned through late/post game side quests), and by equipping accessories (you synthesize these back at base with monster drops, and they offer boons non-stat related, such as protection against status effects or damaging terrain).
From my experience there are only 13 playable characters in the game (outside of any potential DLC, which I haven't checked), and while this means the scope of the franchise that it represents is quite small, the characters it does have are well realized & play very uniquely. It has a whopping 4 OC's (Luceus, Aurora, King Doric, & Isla), 4 reps from DQIV (Alena, Kyril, Maya, & a secret character), 2 reps from DQV (Bianca & Nera), 2 reps from DQVIII (Jessica & Yangus), & 1 rep from DQVI (Terry, who is also the protag of the Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series). Barring Terry, all the characters present are from titles I've actually played, so lucky me.
In between missions you'll spend time at your base of operations which houses the world map (which you select to set out on missions), the aforementioned weapon & orb shops, the aforementioned synthesis shop, the Mini Medal shop (rare collectables you obtain from a variety of sources that you can trade for synthesis recipes, monster drops, & a special selection of weapons), the side quest counter (more on these next), accolade counter (earn Mini Medals for earning achievements & defeating certain numbers of enemies), the mail counter (mostly just goofy letters awarded upon completing a sidequest, but certain sidequest rewards are obtained here as well), a Church (saving & refilling Healstones), & a Tavern (swap out party members here).
A fresh group of sidequests become available at the start of each chapter (and in post game), and while there are a number of them that offer a bespoke mission, the majority just ask you to defeat "X" number of this enemy type or collect "Y" number of this enemy drop. The problem with this is that, as far as I could tell, there's absolutely no way to replay missions (story or otherwise). Instead, when you select a certain location on the world map (unless there's a new mission to play) you're only option is to take on an endless wave of enemies at one of three difficulties (which determine which monster types spawn, which you can check by pressing the touch pad). This makes grinding out the "Kill X enemies, or collect Y items" type quests (or heck, grinding in general) the absolute worst kind of rote grinding imaginable. You'll be roped into doing quite a bit of them too, as worthwhile upgrades are locked behind them (like expanding the number of enemy drops you can hold, number of total Healstones, and number of monsters you can call to your side in battle), and story mission difficulty ramps up quickly enough that you'll need to do most of them to stay properly leveled, in my experience.
The only missions not completely pulled from availability after completing them are the boss fights, as souped up versions of them get their own map locations (appearing as caves) after you clear their associated chapter.
Oh, each character also has a couple of alternate costumes to unlock (via sidequests...), but they're all pallet swaps, so nothing too interesting, and kind of disappointing considering DQVIII & DQXI both offer actual alternate costumes (like armor sets, bunny outfits, etc.) for party members. Apparently there are a couple of interesting armor sets available as DLC, but this only applies to Luceus & Aurora (the player character OC's).
Story:
It takes place in a kingdom where humanity & monsters have lived in peace for as long as can be remembered, however strange events are afoot & monster kind turns against humanity. After securing Arba (the capital city), King Doric and his head knights Luceus & Aurora (the two player character choices) head out to protect the troubled kingdom & find out what's going on with their monster friends (which happens to involve slaughtering them by the hundreds, lol), and along the way they team up with iconic DQ personalities, who've been mysteriously transported to this realm.
It's a simple story with legendary heroes of light & dark lords awaking from slumber, but it works, especially since such simple tropes are what set up most DQ games proper. The strength of DQ's stories has always been the games' eclectic casts, and as an all star crossover, you'll get your fill here (I especially enjoyed Alena, Kyril, Jessica, & Yangus).
Most of the time the cast hangs out at the tavern back at base, where they'll usually have something new to say after every mission or so.
DQ tends to have a way with wordplay & puns, and this holds true here as well. Even the iconic "Puff-Puff" gag makes it's return here, though I'm not sure what exactly triggers it (every once in awhile a party member at the tavern will treat you to a "Puff-Puff" of a various kind, though this only happened to me twice. Once from Kyril, & once I think from Bianca. From what I understand there's one from each party member though?).
Writing is always in top form.
Oh, the game also makes liberal use of one of the DS4's unique features, the built in speaker! All spoken dialogue is fed through the TV and the DS4 at the same time. While this is kind of neat during the heat of battle (character chatter from the controller will be louder or quieter depending on how close you are to the speaker on the battlefield), it gets kind of tiring back at base, where you'll have NPCs blaring the same lines at you at full volume everytime you want to save, visit the shop, etc.
Graphics:
I will say it's a nice looking game that nails the vibe of the DQ franchise, and has all the typical environmental locations.
There'll be a lot of various particle effects going on, and many marble & stone floors are plenty shiny.
Likewise all the iconic DQ sound effects, music, and various voice accents & speaking patterns are here and accounted for, for better or worse.
There's no performance issues as far as I could tell, other than the aforementioned barricade bug.
Conclusion:
As someone who has really enjoyed the other licensed Musou games I've played such as Hyrule Warriors DE, Fire Emblem Warriors, One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (might be my favorite, and I'm not even a big OP fan), and even Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, I was looking forward to this as someone who likes the DQ games, and while there are aspects of it I do like, in the end I found it to be a slog to finish, and chose not to bother with any of the post game stuff (which apparently includes a total of 3 superbosses). To be honest the experience will likely put me off trying out the new Hyrule Warriors for awhile, and especially the second DQH game (which I hear is a lot better, apparently).
Bye, we're off to return to more enjoyable games!
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@RR529 Sorry to hear you didn't really get on with DQ Heroes. A musou game oriented around escort missions sounds dreadful, honestly. Lack of optional costumes, poor mission variety, and small, mazelike levels don't sound ideal, either.
I've been tempted to snag this a few times in sales, so I'm glad I didn't.
It's a shame, really, because a proper ARPG Dragon Quest that still had all the other things that go into this series would probably be a lot of fun.
Nice work on the review!
@mookysam As far as I can tell, Galaxy is locked 60fps. It's very nice after all the jank in 64 and Sunshine.
RE: Mario 64, what gets me is that Nintendo could have put in the visually improved NDS version of the game, but I guess just upscaling the N64 version was easier. Zero effort for one of their most iconic games.
At least Galaxy had some effort put into it. The gyro/touch controls felt like a great evolution of what they accomplished with the IR sensor on the Wii.
@mookysam Yeah, if I can ever find it for a decent price, I'm very tempted to review Mario 64 DS as a separate entity.
...actually, as I typed that out, I realized that Mario 64 DS is also on the Wii U VC. Guess being a Wii U owner still pays off at times.
I think I'm waiting on Age of Calamity until Nintendo releases something that can run it at more than 25fps. Whereas, from what I hear, Persona 5 Strikers runs perfectly on the system (near locked 30fps, anyway), like you would expect an exclusive to do.
@mookysam I've heard 64 DS works well with the circle pad on the 3DS. I imagine it likely works well with actual analog sticks as well. ANYTHING is better than a D-Pad for a 3D platformer, lol.
Same here. Even though I slowly seem to be replacing my Wii U collection with Switch ports, I don't own a Wii, so it serves that function well. I just wish all the GBA games on here were also available on Switch. Nintendo choosing to put GBA games on a home console but not on an even more powerful hybrid that would be an amazing host platform for all of their games is the sort of moon logic that infuriates me.
I think I'll probably download some of the VC games as well. I bought Kokuka on 3DS recently after hearing about it being delisted in other regions. Not excited about buying an expensive-ish 3DS eshop game at full price, but it beats permanently losing access to a game I've maintained a very mild level of interest in for a long time.
AFAIK, the AoC demo was a fairly good indicator of how the game as a whole performs. Maybe they've patched it post-launch, but I've not heard of any improvements. I was already kind of sour on the game once my worst suspicions about it were realized anyway, so the poor performance just killed any interest I had at the time. If it works better on a Pro model or something, I'll definitely get it, though.
@RR529 Cracking write-up on Dragon Quest Heroes up there! Sorry to see you didn't get along with its gameplay, though (particularly considering it sounds like quite a repetitive game; I've only ever played one of these "a hundred vs. you" horde combat game before and it definitely outstayed its welcome, despite sharing similar-sounding bespoke, cinematic boss battles every now and again, as well). I also hate it when a game makes you work at unlocking an alternate costume and it turns out to be a simple colour variant on their default threads. It's one thing when you're a superhero like Batman or Spider-Man and the differences are relatively minor anyway, but anime-styled characters are known for their elaborate flamboyance, so I would have expected better.
Props to it for remembering the DualShock4 has a speaker, though! As annoying as it can get sometimes, I like it when games try and get clever with hardware. Shows that somebody on the development team, at some point, did some thinking outside of the box.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Whenever I finish and review Persona 5 Royal, there's a DS4 gimmick in that game that's equal parts bizarre and delightful that I'm looking forward to mentioning. I also like when developers actually use the hardware in creative ways.
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