What games are you playing 2: The revenge

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
From what I can tell, they're on the SD card, yeah. Not homebrew, from what I can tell. They were on the system when I bought it (that's why I bought it).
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Zwei: The Arges Adventure

So, pushing through, I defeated the first boss in the forest. That wasn't too bad, but Pokkle seems downright useless here compared to Pipiro. The game only briefly mentions it, but you move quicker diagonally than you do up or down, so it was easy to kite the boss with that. Also, Colbert the cat? After reading Dilbert for years, I want to call him Catbert instead.

The trial-and-error with clearing some of the levels can be a little frustrating. One of the forest levels requires you to bang on orbs to get them all to light up the same colour (ala reversi, so any orbs adjacent to the one you hit also flip colours), and it takes a lot of time to get it set-up right and slows down the level. Sometimes you have to hit only certain switches. It took me a little to clue in that some of the (unbreakable) pots show you which switches to whack.

I got the Water Orb. That definitely seems to make the game move a lot quicker, as now Pipiro gets splash damage (heheheh, 'splash' damage for a water magic) so she can hit monsters with a broader range than just her normal straight magic attack.
 

chronodekar

Obsessively signs his posts
Staff member
From what I can tell, they're on the SD card, yeah. Not homebrew, from what I can tell. They were on the system when I bought it (that's why I bought it).
After a bit of digging I found this = https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/3ds/9...digital-games-tied-to-the-console-or-the-nnid which is interesting.

Short version: The games are "temporarily" tied to the system.

Long version: If you were to factory reset the console, all the games would go away. If you change the SD-card, you will lose the games. Am not sure what the relationship between your new Nintendo ID is with the old games .. But basically - if you go online and buy a new game - it *should* download to the console, but there's a fair chance that an error would pop up asking you to reformat/factory-reset, causing all the existing games to go away.

Looks like Nintendo does not have a way to remotely wipe the console (AFAIK). Which is good for you - but I would avoid multiplayer. It *might* be possible, but with ~70 games on the system, I wouldn't risk it.

-chronodekar
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
I see. Thank you for that. Appreciate it.
 
Been playing Genshin Impact, last few days. Definitely been enjoying it although it does rip BoW off pretty blatantly with it's climbing, gliding, and cooking mechanics. The worst things I have to say are, it's a F2P Gatcha game, although it does hand out a few units for different elements and weapons.
 
The last couple of months, when not playing Fallout 76, I've been playing Marvel's Avengers, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning and Star Wars: Squadrons. I even briefly got back into the Mass Effect Trilogy.

Loved all of them. Marvel's Avengers has a pretty good story and I can't wait until they release more characters to see how they play. Very excited for when Daisy Johnson becomes a playable character though more than a little irritated that Spider-Man is going to be Playstation Exclusive.

KoA was nice to play without having to worry about the bugs that plagued the original, though I haven't encountered the new content added with this game yet, beyond the items you can find in the player chest in Gorhart.

Squadrons really takes me back to the days of X-Wing, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Tie Fighter and X-Wing: Alliance. It's weird playing a Star Wars dogfighting flight sim game without the use of a joystick, but I'm adapting.
 
Speaking of the Mass Effect trilogy, I've been slowly replaying the first game after ten years. Yes, it has been 10 years since I played that specific game. No, I don't know how that happened. And, uh, for all the praise Bioware gets for their writing, I forgot just how wince-inducing half the dialogue lines are. Who actually talks like this? Why would anyone talk like this?

My playthrough so far has just gotten Shepard out of the second Council meeting on the Citadel with a brand-new Spectre title. So maybe the conversations will improve from here. Or maybe not. I don't remember much about the specifics, which is partly why I'm going through this game again.

After 10 years. Yes, I will constantly be hung up on that number.
 
The dialogue wasn't bad, but the flow of the conversations could be a bit jarring at times. Allie Hillis' voice acting improved alot between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (Not that it stops Liara from being my #1 favorite Mass Effect Character). Keep in mind, Mass Effect came out in 2007 and was kind of groundbreaking in how it approached the action-RPG genre. It was also the first major Bioware title that was fully their own creation, unlike Baldur's Gate or Knights of the Old Republic.
 

Karnath

Well-Known Member
The dialogue wasn't bad, but the flow of the conversations could be a bit jarring at times. Allie Hillis' voice acting improved alot between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (Not that it stops Liara from being my #1 favorite Mass Effect Character). Keep in mind, Mass Effect came out in 2007 and was kind of groundbreaking in how it approached the action-RPG genre. It was also the first major Bioware title that was fully their own creation, unlike Baldur's Gate or Knights of the Old Republic.
They released Jade Empire in 2005.
 
They released Jade Empire in 2005.
I only vaguely remember that one and don't think I ever played it either. So I'm not sure I'd call it a major title- one completely of their own creation, definitely. Major title, debatable.

On the other hand, both the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises are staples of the RPG genre and are household names and each have frown beyond the videogame market into books, comics, and movies.
 

Zetas

Lurking upon the deep
Currently smashing my face against the wall that is Dual Universe's beta early game. I can now honestly see why my friend said to sell all the ore you mine and not bother crafting machines, the process to go from ore to basic machine starting out is like a hour or more process starting off.
 
When I am in the feeling to play videogames, I've been playing a lot of Anno 2205, modded Anno 2070, among other games. It oddly feels calming to build metropolises via logistic chains. ;)
 
I've been getting back into Dragon Age: Origins. A Dragon Age fanfic I've been writing has gotten me back in the mood to play and I'm planning on playing all three games, Origins, 2 and Inquisition in succession.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
I started getting nostalgic for the original Legend of Zelda, and realized I've never even beat the game before - I've watched others beat it, but never did so myself! I been playing it off and on for the last few days, and been having fun with it.
 
As a kid, a liberally used the Game Genie for many of my games. Despite having beaten games like LoZ: A Link to the Past, with it, the first time I beat the game without it felt awesome.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
Hell yeah. ALttP was the first LoZ game I beat, by myself, without help (by friends, Nintendo Power tips, or guides). Admittedly, the guides did come into play on later play-throughs, but still...
 
I didn't have the guides, but a friend of mine had to tell my dad and I about some of the things we missed out on getting, like the Golden Master Sword and the Red Boomerang.
 

sith2886

Well-Known Member
botw u[date: after loosing at least a hundred arrows I finally shot the balloon from a giant skull, caught a bunch of fireflies and let them loose in a woman's house (with permission) than I stalked a poor girl working at a clothing shop all the way to her dead lovers grave and got rightfully called out for it and then I stalked an old widower into a forest and killed one of his ex frat buddies. all for a cool poetically named sword

if there's ever a remaster I hope they add Dolans wife's ghost, sad that never made it to the game.
 

da_fox2279

California Crackpot
... It's a good thing you mentioned this was for BoTW, or else I was gonna start wondering about your mental state...:p
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Zwei: The Arges Adventure

So I made it quite a lot deeper into the game. Going through the volcano levels with the Water Orb helped me boost my level and looking at what little info there is on the game, one of the early levels in the volcano is easy to grind out XP for a little while, particularly with the Water Orb. Then later levels in the volcano have monsters that don't take any damage at all from the Water Orb :X

I cleared the boss in the oasis dungeon, which gives me a new add-on attack in addition to my regular magic attack, so now I have two attacks in one. That's very useful for my purposes since it essentially doubles my attack, and it hits in 4 cardinal directions. I also defeated the volcano boss, as well as getting myself the Wind Orb. The Wind Orb is a more 'circular' splash damage, which might be useful in some circumstances, but for now I'll be sticking to the Water Orb where I can.

I mentioned before that Pipiro seems more useful compared to Pokkle. This only cements itself the further in I get. Pretty much the only time I switch to Pokkle is when I absolutely have to now for puzzle segments, like pushing blocks around. I wonder if he gets a power-up later in game to offset this or not.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Zwei: The Arges Adventure

And some more dungeon-crawling. I did a little quest of running around to exchange items, but I got the battery that lets me access the lower levels of Pavel Gardens. Some of these levels are starting to become annoying again, as you have to use the Magnet to drag statues around which really slows movement speed through the dungeon. I was able to defeat Leviathan however, though it took me a couple of tries before I realised it has a big flaw in its attack patterns that basically lets me cheese it.

Ignoring the complaint above on how some dungeons really slow you down, I'm really enjoying the overall speed of moving through and clearing dungeons. However, it definitely gets repetitive, so I can only play for so long before I have to stop playing.

Also, I got to the Undine village. LOL! They turned it into an amusement park and didn't get a single customer. Pokkle's puns with the mini-games are gloriously bad, too.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
^
Anyways, I played through quite a bit more of the game. The last couple of dungeons really, really drag with the levels. The two sky dungeons both have some especially bad pacing, with some areas just running on forever and ever. On a first run they're not too bad, but if you're trying to get a higher level of medal, I can tell it would be a real pain in the rear end.

I defeated the final boss at level 23, with about 22 hours of playtime. Ate the rest of my remaining food to get to level 24 and change. I'll do a New Game Plus now, with the intent to get all the achievements, which means all character profiles, all monsters, and all pictures and music CDs, as well as clearing out all the bonus levels.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Zwei: The Arges Adventure

So I beat the game. Again. This time it took me less than 5 hours to bulldoze through the dungeons to the final boss.

This time, I started to do the extra content. One thing in this game is that you collect 50 Aluminum Tabs that are found in the main dungeons, with each 10 unlocking a special piece of armour. They each have a specific spot, like a specific pot on a specific floor. I think I got 48 in my first playthrough, and of course there was no way I was going to go through each dungeon and try to narrow down the two I missed. This time, I just kept track of how many I found in each dungeon playing through and compared to a guide to get all 50.

Next, I was able to get myself levelled up to Level 30, which is the max level, fairly quick. I mentioned in my first post on this game that you get experience by eating food, but you can trade 10 pieces of food in for a better food that awards 1.5x the experience. This scales up 4 tiers, so tier 1 can be traded in for tier 2 then tier 3 and finally tier 4, such that tier 4 is worth 1,000 * 1.5 * 1.5 * 1.5 tier 1 foods. But this becomes a lot easier at higher levels when I was able to roll over the enemies more easily.

So then I cleared the main optional dungeons. There's I think 12-14 optional bosses in the game depending on what you count as a boss. 4 of them are dragons, which are the easiest. It's actually kind of interesting, because they hit you with flame breath attacks that move quick. If I move in a cardinal direction, I always get hit, but if I move diagonally, I usually can avoid it. I wonder if this was the devs trying to make people realise that they absolutely must move diagonally in this game for better speed?

The next set of 4 bosses are elemental bosses. The first 3 are alright, with some tricky movements to get used to, but nothing too bad. The last one, however, is a complete and utter fucking bitch. Its name is Beelzebub, and it is a pain in the rear end. In fact, I looked it up. YouTube has almost nothing for this game, but it has two videos of players fighting it. This is the better one:



There's a specific set-up that I was able to use, but even still, it took me probably close to 20 tries to finally defeat it. Part of it is that you have to constantly be moving while it's moving, and it likes spamming attacks that have little room to dodge. I had to pause several times because I was playing on keyboard, and my thumb was strained from holding down the button used to run for so long. Auto-dash and auto-fire are toggle-on features in this game, but an absolute must in this fight.

After that, there are four 'repeating' levels where you have to go through a randomly-generated floor sixteen times to complete the level, and every four floors you fight the same boss, only it gets stronger every time. Easy the first few times, very frustrating by the last iteration, but more a grind than anything else. Much easier compared to Beelzebub.

I also collected all of the in-game collectibles, which are a bunch of music CDs and bromides (character artwork). Most of these you get by trading in food to a 5th tier. Some are monster drops, and a select few are dropped by certain bosses or found in obscure places. However, two of the monster drops were ridiculously frustrating. After not getting any drops from the two monsters, I started counting. I killed probably a combined total of 350 of the two monsters to get both their drops. Not very impressed with that drop rate.

However, I think I'm ready to call it quits with this game. I've completed most of the content, but the last few bits are beyond me. One of the Steam Achievements is to get a Gold Medal on every level of every dungeon. While there is no time limit requirement for Gold, it requires you to go through the level, destroy _every_ destructible object, kill _every_ monster, and take 5 damage or less. Monsters in the earlier levels only deal 1 damage to me when I'm at Level 30, so it's easy to grab Gold. In later levels, however, I have to be extremely careful, and there's just simply too many goddamn monsters with teleportation or bullshit projectile spam. I don't have the patience or the desire to grind for another 30 hours to try obtaining Gold when I could play other games. I got 21 out of 40, and that's enough.

A few more Steam Achievements are to beat 3 mini-games put in an arcade within the game on their Hard Mode setting. One of them is a standard horizontal-scrolling shoot-em-up. I'm decently good at shmups, so I was able to do this. Another one is Ys Typing, literally a typing game with a Ys theme. There are either 7 or 8 levels. I got through the first 5 easily, had to repeat the 6th level once or twice, had to repeat the 7th level several times, and then ran into Level 8. If you lose a level, it will always let you repeat the level with no penalty until you outright quit the mini-game, but even with that, aarrrrrggh! I consider myself an extremely good, quick typist, and I still struggled! No wonder only 1% of players have this achievement.

The last game is a Tetris-type game with a character mascot. I tried several times but couldn't get anywhere. I looked at a youtube video of somebody clearing this, and I wasn't even a fourth of the way to winning. So nope.

Now, would I recommend this game? Probably. There's doubtlessly several similar games of superior polish and design, but this was enjoyable. However, some of the post-game content is just outright aggravating. There is a sequel game to this where the storyline is about 99% unrelated to the first game, so that would probably be better to play for greater polish.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
99 Spirits

So this game is fairly blatantly in-your-face Japanese. It apparently takes place during the Japanese Muromachi era, with the backdrop being the Ōnin War, which was in the 1470s. This specific time period isn't really critical to know, just that it's definitely pre-modern, feudal Japan, with characters wearing traditional clothes. There's also a heavy dosage of Japanese folklore and supernatural themes. Hanabusa's helper is a kitsune, for example, there's multiple folkloric gods, Yamato no Orochi, and the namesake of the game are the tsukumogami, which are essentially items or tools that have acquired a spirit and are (usually) antagonistic. Tsukumogami is in fact the name used in the original Japanese game. Considering how in-your-face Japanese this game is as mentioned above, I think that would have been a better name than 99 Spirits (There aren't actually 99 different tskumogami in the game. I looked up the term. While it literally translates to 'tool spirit', a modern rendition is also '99 spirit', so 99 Spirits is close to a literal translation).

The actual gameplay is a little unique. You move around on grid-based maps to go to your final location in each area, and you can encounter (non-random) tsukumogami, which are the game's enemies. Every time you encounter a specific tsukumogami for the first time, it appears as a blue flame. You have to hit it a few times and get 'hints' as to what the item is, which are descriptions of the item and different letter spelling the item out. So for example, a katana would give 'KA-TA-NA-blade-cutting', while a spinning top would give 'T-O-P-spinning-toy'. It doesn't give you all the hints at once nor in order like the examples I gave, so you have to piece it together and then type in the word or choose from a selection of options (but you have to buy the 'index' that gives you a pre-filled list of options first). In actual practice, 90% of the items are reasonably easy to guess. The other 10% are Japanese items that wouldn't be familiar to an English speaker with little exposure to the culture, like a Torii (shrine gate), Kusarigama, or Naginata. Besides the actual difficulty mode, there are two different game modes you can use for guessing the spirit. Casual Mode means you only have to identify a specific tsukomogami once and whenever you encounter it again, you can just go straight to fighting it. I don't know why anyone wouldn't choose Casual Mode, because while the identifying game is fun, repeating it over and over for the same tsukumogami would easily become a chore quick.

Actual battle is...easy. Really easy. The game has an Easy - Normal - Hard mode selection, but it only matters a little. That's because while the fights are partially turn-based, you have the option to parry and counter-attack almost every single attack in the game by selecting the X key (or whatever button it's mapped to on a controller) at the right time, preventing Hanabusa from taking any damage. And the game is _extremely_ generous with the parry/counter window, such so that it's very possible to go through even boss fights without taking any damage. You can also use items for healing or status effects and it doesn't even stop you from attacking again during the same turn. Money isn't that hard to come by, either.

You can also capture up to 5 tsukumogami at a time as the game goes on, and they can be used in-battle for effects like automatic counter-attacking, stealing items, and healing Hanabusa every turn.

The story isn't too much to write home about, but it is passable. Hanabusa is indeed an adorable protagonist in personality, and I'm lewd enough to admit she's decent eye-candy, too. The side NPCs have reasonable characterisation, too. What surprises me the most is Hanabusa's helper, a fox spirit named Komiya, who is basically a pretty boy bishonen with fox ears and tail. Even though he's tagging around with Hanabusa for nearly the entire game, there is basically _no_ romance between the two of them! He flirts with some of the female gods, but almost nothing that could be construed that way with Hanabusa. I find it kind of funny how the scenario writers actually subverted the obvious trope of two opposite-gendered protagonists journeying together and then getting romantically involved.

My first playthrough was about 7 hours, and my second and third were each about 2 hours. The game has three endings, which can be done in two playthroughs with careful saving near the end of a second playthrough. However, I didn't go through my first playthrough with full knowledge, so I had to do three playthroughs. New Game+ is indeed a thing in this game, and there are some quality-of-life things that let me speed through my second and third playthrough. Even during the first game, the gameplay moves at a quick pace. There's no stupid design decisions that bog things down, which is what I like in smaller games like this.

There are also two pieces of DLC sold separately, Cage of Night and Weeping Demon's Bell. These are both pure VN with no real gameplay. Cage of Night focuses mostly on Komiya and Saki, while Weeping Demon's Bell focuses on Kotetsu and Waka. They each include some additional short stories that are mostly comedic outtakes and bloopers.
 

seitora

Well-Known Member
Crossroad

So, Crossroad is a VN with a heroine and 5 male interests, each with their own route and set of endings, and a few non-romance interest endings. Total playtime was a little over 5 hours. The setting is vaguely fairy-tale like, with a mysterious, enchanted, shifting forest, magic, and some animal-humans.

The main character, Lumy, isn't a total idiot like too many VN protagonists are, which is a good thing. She's definitely innocent and a little naive, which the storyline acknowledges as well. However, there just isn't very much development between her and any of the male love interests except for one, the wizard. Oddly enough, it's actually possible to break midway from one male route to a different male route, and go from there. This break isn't too incongruous, but there are a couple of mentions in the text of a certain event that never actually happened. This is because the route happens early in Male B's route, but since I jumped from Male A to Male B's route midway, it skipped that event entirely.

The story is at least plotted out cohesively and at a reasonable, albeit still quick pace. My biggest criticism is it just ends without ever really explaining anything, and Lumy very rarely grows for the experience. There are a few things hinted at in the story, such as the character's grandmother and the local kingdom's monarch being childhood friends and Lumy potentially being the granddaughter of the king, but it doesn't get expounded on one bit.
 
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