My worthwhile thoughts on a few PCE games

M1Savage · 09/20/2007, 11:40 PM

runinruder - go ahead and put Sol Moonarge at the front of your list. Hell, at the rate you go you'll probably clear it in a day anyway.

Seriously though, would be cool to hear your thoughts on this.

GUTS · 10/05/2007, 02:40 PM

Mysterious Song demo- Let me list the positives so as not to hurt anyone's feelings- the music is pretty good, the battle music especially is great, the guy who did the music has some talent. The end.

turbofan1 · 10/05/2007, 10:31 PM

Yeah I agree with that.Whoever did the music and the voice over has some talent.I don`t no if it was P D or some one else.As far as the rest of the game goes-As soon as I left the first building or castle,I got attacked by some red cat,and got my ass kicked.After a few times of that,I got tired of playing it.Didn't really understand the opening cinema.Is the guy supposed to be floating or something?.Not trashing the game by any means.If the difficulty was tweaked A little bit,it would be A fairly good game.

ParanoiaDragon · 10/06/2007, 02:28 AM

I didn't do the music, but I did enhance some of the music. Basically, I gave the music some atmosphere. Though, I'm off & on reworking the music a little more, so it sounds a little more organic & full. And, I'm the voice of Spear, the hero of the game, Odonadon is the mysterious voice. I don't think my particular performance is anything special, but, then again, I prefer to do wierd parts, where I don't sound like myself. Oh, & yeah, Spear is floating in the opening cinema. I'm basically floating around in nothingness........then I wake up.

I actually haven't tried the demo yet, but, at least in the beta, I don't recall it being really hard. And I really like the graphics. The cinemas are difficult to do though, & I don't like them. I'm kind of hoping we'll be able to change them, as I think Keranu figured out a better way to do them, plus Black Tiger is now our art director. Did I mention that cinemas are difficult? Cuz they are! I give Keranu credit for trying, it's definitely something new to him. I can't even remember the name of the guy that bailed on us & Mindrec who did cinemas, but that put us in a jam.

ccovell · 10/06/2007, 05:07 AM

I don't want to take this too off-topic. But several tracks on the MS demo disc are really good... but that's because they are old Amiga MODs (from videogames and such.) Are all the tracks from other artists, or are there some original compositions in there?

turbofan1 · 10/06/2007, 06:05 PM

I didn't want to say anything negative about the game,like guts said I don`t want hurt anyones feeling`s.But if you want me to nitpick.When you leave the first building,you fight red blobs and red/orange like cats.The red blobs are easy,but the cats are hard to defeat.Allot of times they would just block my attack,and in turn would get my asskicked.Than I would die,and would have to start the game over.If you where lucky enough to avoid those bastards,you would have to go back and forth between the first building and save the game several time in order to level up and defeat them.Well it probably doesn't seem hard to you,because you have probably played the game A hundred times.

Don`t bitch at me about the cinemas.I really don`t care anyways.And if there that hard to do,just fucking leave them out than.And to be honest about that,the opening cinema sucks.So there you have my glaring review.

Keranu · 10/06/2007, 06:47 PM

Quote from: ParanoiaDragon on 10/06/2007, 02:28 AMI actually haven't tried the demo yet, but, atleast in the beta, I don't recall it being really hard. And I really like the graphics. The cinemas are difficult to do though, & I don't like them. I'm kind of hoping we'll be able to change them, as I think Keranu figured out a better way to do them, plus Black Tiger is now our art director. Did I mention that cinemas are difficult? Cuz they are! I give Keranu credit for trying, it's deffinitly something new to him. I can't even remember the name of the guy that bailed on us & Mindrec who did cinemas, but that put us in a jam.

Yeah as I've said before, I'm really not too comfortable with the cinemas, especially the earlier ones. However I'm still glad I tacked the project for two reasons: 1. ) I learned a lot from it and 2. ) We managed to actually get cinemas in the game

. But yeah, if time permits, I'll try cleaning up the cinemas more. As stated, thanks to talking with CrackTiger, I've found out a much easier way to design cinemas for the Turbo very similar to how artists did back in the day. However I don't think I'm going to take up the next project that requires cinemas as it's a lot of work, but I would like to give it another try someday now that I have a much better method of making them.

Quote from: turbofan1I didn't want to say anything negative about the game,like guts said I don`t want hurt anyones feeling`s.But if you want me to nitpick.When you leave the first building,you fight red blobs and red/orange like cats.The red blobs are easy,but the cats are hard to defeat.Allot of times they would just block my attack,and in turn would get my asskicked.Than I would die,and would have to start the game over.If you where lucky enough to avoid those bastards,you would have to go back and forth between the first building and save the game several time in order to level up and defeat them.Well it probably doesn't seem hard to you,because you have probably played the game A hundred times.

Solution: Level up

. Most RPGs start the game with strong enemies that requires you to do a little leveling up before you can move on. Just be sure to buy whatever weapons and armor you can afford in the castle you start out in (and save right away) and just level up two or three times before moving onto the next town. I should also point out that Mysterious Song charges less money for older weapons and armors in later towns you advanced to, so it makes shopping easier.

Emerald Rocker · 10/06/2007, 11:19 PM

QuoteMost RPGs start the game with strong enemies that requires you to do a little leveling up before you can move on.

Well no, not really. Most RPGs start off pretty light. The ones that start with hard enemies are exceptions, and I know this because I can name them -- Dragon Knight, Cosmic Fantasy 2. The thing is, those games have strong hooks to keep people playing.

Now, I haven't played the MS demo, so I can't say whether or not it has a strong hook. But if the game is really hard at first, and the opening cinematic doesn't enchant people, then there's not much hope that they'll want to keep playing. You don't want to drive people off before they get to the good stuff!

GUTS · 10/07/2007, 12:39 AM

Well honestly the art in the opening cinema is really, really bad, like the Zelda games on CDI bad. The in game graphics are ok in a NES sort of way, but it would have been better to axe the cinemas completely if that's how they all look since they give a really bad impression.

NecroPhile · 10/07/2007, 02:43 AM

I've played through M.S. 69 times (my lucky number) and haven't had that many problems starting out. Anyone who can't get to the first town just sucks at playing video games and should stick to something easier, like stealing candy from babies or jacking little old ladies at the park.

Keranu · 10/07/2007, 09:52 PM

Quote from: Emerald Rocker on 10/06/2007, 11:19 PM
QuoteMost RPGs start the game with strong enemies that requires you to do a little leveling up before you can move on.
Well no, not really. Most RPGs start off pretty light. The ones that start with hard enemies are exceptions, and I know this because I can name them -- Dragon Knight, Cosmic Fantasy 2. The thing is, those games have strong hooks to keep people playing.

I disagree with that as from my experience with RPGs, you tend to have to level up once or twice in the beginning before you can comfortably move on in the game. You could get away without leveling up right away in probably many RPGs, but it's a lot easier to just to take the time to do some light leveling up.

One thing I should note for people having trouble with Mysterious Song is to not venture off too far between the castle you start off in and the first town because after a certain point in the distance, the tougher enemies will kick in and it would require luck to safely travel between the castle and town without leveling up a couple times. So like I mentioned in an earlier post, immediately purchase whatever weapons and armor you can afford after talking to the king, and just level up a couple of times against the enemies that are just outside the castle, not the enemies that are near the next town.

Quote from: Emerald RockerNow, I haven't played the MS demo, so I can't say whether or not it has a strong hook. But if the game is really hard at first, and the opening cinematic doesn't enchant people, then there's not much hope that they'll want to keep playing. You don't want to drive people off before they get to the good stuff!

The game does have a strong hook, but it's not just hard because some enemies might be tuff, but because the game will require some strategy, which is a great thing. You make a great point though that the start of the game should interests people, but there are definitely much jucier parts throughout the game and the ending is pretty nice!

Another thing I'd like to comment about on the cinemas is that the art isn't all that makes the cinemas. What really sells me on the cinemas is the dialog: the script, the voice acting, and the sound editing are all pretty top notch if you ask me! What's amazing is that the voices were recorded and edited from people's home computers and not done in a professional studio, yet the outcome is just as good, if not, better than what you would get from a studio.

Quote from: GUTSWell honestly the art in the opening cinema is really, really bad, like the Zelda games on CDI bad. The in game graphics are ok in a NES sort of way, but it would have been better to axe the cinemas completely if that's how they all look since they give a really bad impression.

The cinemas went through a lot of changes throughout development and funny enough, I think this is represented in the game because the cinemas at the end look nicer than the ones in the beginning. I'd like to redo the first cinema because of this not only so it looks better, but so it blends in with the later ones. Keep in mind there are only four/five cinemas in the game, so they aren't really a distraction at all since most of the time spent is ingame. Lord_Cack's tile work really impressed all of us.

ParanoiaDragon · 10/08/2007, 04:55 AM

I'd personally like to see the cinemas redrawn a bit, maybe some more detail added, though, I'm not an artist like BT, so, I can't say for sure what the cinemas need.

Emerald Rocker · 10/08/2007, 09:53 PM

QuoteI disagree with that as from my experience with RPGs, you tend to have to level up once or twice in the beginning before you can comfortably move on in the game. You could get away without leveling up right away in probably many RPGs, but it's a lot easier to just to take the time to do some light leveling up.

People aren't complaining about a little routine leveling -- they're complaining about red cats killing them. There's a big difference. If you have to walk around and fight a few battles, gain a little gold or experience, that's one thing. If you have to pray "I hope I don't run into any red cats!" while walking from the first castle to the first town, then you have a problem.

QuoteThe game does have a strong hook,

Please share! I'm curious as to what the hook is. Strategy and an awesome end-game are nice, but those aren't hooks. Those are perks that reward persistence. Hooks are things that make people *want* to be persistent and finish the game.

ParanoiaDragon · 10/08/2007, 10:30 PM

I finally downloaded the demo(I've played the game so many times, I wasn't in a hurry), & I have yet to see any red cats.

Emerald Rocker · 10/08/2007, 10:30 PM

Keranu --- Paranoia Dragon --- I see from your profiles that the two of you are writing posts. So I just wanted to preemptively say......

YOU'RE WRONG

Emerald Rocker · 10/08/2007, 10:31 PM

They look like cats to me.

ParanoiaDragon · 10/08/2007, 10:34 PM

Uhhh, ok. I'm just talking about what I played for awhile last night. What am I wrong about? This isn't some kind of contest on who see's cats or not. I just said I didn't see any whilie leveling up. Are you maybe talking about those Bird Mask guys??

Emerald Rocker · 10/08/2007, 10:37 PM

No, I'm talking about the enemies that look like cats.

Maybe they aren't in your version? That could be why I didn't see any Bird Mask guys... the red cats ate them.

Keranu · 10/08/2007, 10:38 PM

Quote from: Emerald Rocker on 10/08/2007, 09:53 PMPeople aren't complaining about a little routine leveling -- they're complaining about red cats killing them. There's a big difference. If you have to walk around and fight a few battles, gain a little gold or experience, that's one thing. If you have to pray "I hope I don't run into any red cats!" while walking from the first castle to the first town, then you have a problem.

The difference isn't big at all. In the start of most RPGs, chances are you're gonna have to pray if you decide not to level up. Whether the enemies in Mysterious Song are stronger than most RPGs are not, you're still gonna have to avoid enough battles to survive if you chose not to level up.

Quote from: Emerald RockerPlease share! I'm curious as to what the hook is. Strategy and an awesome end-game are nice, but those aren't hooks. Those are perks that reward persistence. Hooks are things that make people *want* to be persistent and finish the game.

I wouldn't want to spoil anything

, but I think the mysterious opening itself is a hook and the other mysterious "dream sequences" you encounter in the game hook the person into uncovering what this all means. A bit like Ys I and II where you slowly discover and unravel the secrets of Ys.

Keranu · 10/08/2007, 10:39 PM

Haha, wow too many posts going on before I could post!

Emerald Rocker · 10/08/2007, 10:39 PM

The hook of Ys was the crazy awesome music and the crazy awesome cinema. If Ys 1+2 had started with lousy PSG music and Adol stepping off the boat, a lot of people would have given up on it.

Keranu · 10/08/2007, 10:42 PM

Quote from: Emerald Rocker on 10/08/2007, 10:39 PMThe hook of Ys was the crazy awesome music and the crazy awesome cinema. If Ys 1+2 had started with lousy PSG music and Adol stepping off the boat, a lot of people would have given up on it.

As stated, Mysterious Song has "crazy awesome music" as well. Not to mention the "crazy awesome" red cat eating Birdmasks.

Emerald Rocker · 10/08/2007, 10:43 PM

That's what I thought you'd say!

GET OUT OF MY HEAD

Keranu · 10/08/2007, 10:45 PM

Quote from: Emerald Rocker on 10/08/2007, 10:43 PMGET OUT OF MY HEAD

You... you're different.

GUTS · 12/24/2007, 11:36 PM

BUBBLEGUM CRASH ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Since Bonknuts was cool enough to let me beta test this, I thought I'd write up a review. I played through the game in one sitting, and it was pretty damned fun, not the best digital comic I've ever played, but definitely worth playing through for any Turbo fan. I didn't encounter any bugs (there are a couple he warned me about that are in the actual HuCard so I was able to avoid those) fortunately, and I spent a fair chunk of time just fucking around moving and trying different things to see if I could get it to crash.

The game plays out like an episode of an anime show, it starts out with a bank robbery and it's up to your chick (and her friends) to get to the bottom of what's going on. The story is pretty predictable and the digital comic parts really hold your hands, but you can interact enough that it doesn't feel like you're just watching the proceedings. Everything unfolds like a typical game in the genre- you move between locations talking to people and uncovering clues, showing items, solving a few simple puzzles, etc. After an hour or so of that, you are treated to a weird motorcycle chase thing where you have to catch up to a mech. The game concludes with the classic Wizardry-style maze where you are attacked by robots as you try to hunt down the last boss. This was really the only annoying part of the game since you can't save in the maze (set aside at least an hour or so to beat it).

The graphics are decent enough for a HuCard, although it does have that NES look to some of the backgrounds (I assume they were saving memory for the bike chase part and the fight scenes later on). One thing that the game could have used is some more art of the main girls or at least bigger portraits, I felt like I barely saw them by the time I had finished. The maze part has the nicest graphics in the game in my opinion, it actually looks pretty cool, although it could have used more than 2 different robot types to fight and maybe a palette swap or something on the different floors.

I also feel like I should mention the music is pretty bland. Not a single song stuck out, they were all very generic and sounded like they came as examples with the PCE dev kit sound library or something. They weren't offensive or anything, just forgettable.

I definitely recommend all you homos get the translated ROM and play through it, and since it's only about 2 hours long you really have no reason not to.

termis · 12/26/2007, 02:24 AM

Cool. I wanna have a go at it, but I'm too frickin' set in my ways to play 'em on an emulator. I really need to get one of those flash cards...

Quote from: GUTS on 12/24/2007, 11:36 PMI definitely recommend all you homos get the translated ROM and play through it...

Homos only please.

GUTS · 12/26/2007, 12:21 PM

I played through it on my Xbox using Mednafen- I hate playing games on emulators too, the only way I'll do that is if it's a translated game and there's an emulator that runs on Xbox so I can sit in front of my TV and play it. Everyone should own a modded Xbox, it's the greatest thing ever. Although you can probably beat it in one sitting on your computer, it shouldn't take you more than a couple hours at most and that's if you screw around, you could probably beat it in and hour and a half if you tried.

GUTS · 02/05/2008, 03:10 PM

Got a few games in a trade recently-

Asuka 120%- Fucking retarded, retarded fighting game. I don't know what you guys are on about that actually like this shit- Flash Hiders completely and utterly obliterates it on every level. The graphics especially are heinous, the characters all have super spindly limbs and teensy little faces that you can't even see and look about as high res as a fucking NES game's sprites. The game has a nice title screen and presentation to trick you into thinking you're about to experience a sweet fighting game, but the actual fighting is BLEH to the max. I played this on PSX and THAT version was good since they completely redid the graphics and added a ton of stuff to the fighting engine, but why anyone would bother playing this shit when there's Flash Hiders or Fatal Fury is beyond me.

Advanced VG- I actually liked this one a little better than Asuka since at least the actual in-game sprites are identifiable as women and not pixelated scarecrows. Still pretty shitty and archaic though.

Zero 4 Champ II- Now this shit seems really cool- a digital comic mixed with a drag racing game. I got a little ways into the game where I was running some odd jobs for some lady (deliveries I assume, it's a pac-man like mini-game where you race around avoiding other cars). I also had a bunch of money I figured I was supposed to be spending on a car, but I didn't make it far enough to do that yet. The actual drag racing isn't very exciting since all you do is try to shift on time (there's a two player mode of some sort included so you can immediately battle the computer), but I guess that's basically the gist of real drag racing so it's all good. The digital comic parts seem pretty well put together, and it's a GREAT idea for a game, so I'm hoping the language barrier isn't too high so I can give it a serious playthrough. This is one I might update with some deeper thoughts on later.

Steam Hearts- Not bad, not bad at all! For being a pervert shooter this is actually a damned decent game. The powerups are nice, the graphics are ok (even nice in some places), and the control/hit detection is spot on. My only gripe is that there is way too much talking in the game. You can skip it by hitting start, but it's still distracting when you're in the zone and suddenly everything grinds to a halt so one of the generic characters can yell about something. The cinemas are also incredibly boring since you look at one fucking picture for about 5 minutes before it changes, but again you can skip these. The game would have greatly benefited from an "arcade" mode or something where all the useless fluff was removed (or maybe it has one already, I didn't see the option though) and you were left with just a decent fast-paced shooter with some cool bosses. I also really dug that it uses the life bar system instead of 1-hit kills, it makes the game much easier for people who suck at shooters like myself. Plus if you continue it starts you off with the same level of power up that you had when you died, so basically the game is very shooter-tard friendly.

MurderDate · 02/05/2008, 04:19 PM

gaaaad this entire thread is HILLARIOUS! I'm gonna go play Impossamole now.

Ceti Alpha · 02/05/2008, 05:23 PM

Steam Hearts sounds interesting. I need to get at least one pervert game for the Turbo. lol

M1Savage · 02/05/2008, 08:24 PM

I'd love to see both of the Zero 4 Champ games translated someday.

http://www.gamengai.com/flyer_inf.php?id=202&l=e

nat · 02/05/2008, 08:29 PM

Wow, I'm surprised to hear GUTS didn't like Asuka 120%. Runinruder has done nothing but sing it's praises since he played it. I still haven't played it, but now I don't know what to think.

Joe Redifer · 02/05/2008, 08:51 PM

I remember playing Zero Champ Doozy J on some system. The J's were sure a doozy, but that's all I remember about it. I don't even know what type of game it was, but I want to say racing.

M1Savage · 02/05/2008, 08:58 PM

Yep, same company and the same series. Came out for Saturn and PSX if I remember correctly.

Edit: Wow, there's a flash version of Z4 too.

http://www.kurumade.com/entertain/game/contents.html

spenoza · 02/05/2008, 09:19 PM

Flash Hiders was fun, but it doesn't hold up. As soon as you start pumping your stats it becomes a horrible cheap-fest. Asuka and Advanced VG don't suffer that fate.

GUTS · 02/05/2008, 10:40 PM

^ yeah but at least there's something to do in Flash Hiders other than just battle the computer or a second player, and if you don't want to break the game you don't have to play with buffed out stats. Plus Flash Hiders looks about 10x better than either of those games.

GUTS · 04/03/2008, 08:07 PM

Fausette Amour- Fucking terrible. Slow as shit, retarded bosses, boring cut scenes, and all the challenge of a Sesame Street game. Fuck Naxat. I need to stop wasting money on this kind of crap. The graphics are decent, that's the only positive thing I have to say about this heap of shit.

Might & Magic III- Good, but not as good as I remember it. I swear to god the game only recognizes 50% of your controller inputs, and the other 50% of the time it either ignores you completely or doubles whatever you push. The menu cursors also move excruciatingly slow so it takes for fucking EVER to manage your inventory. Moving around isn't so bad, but the half-second delay between your button press and actually moving (that's when the game decides it's going to acknowledge that you pushed a button) gets irritating after a while, especially when compared to something like Eye of the Beholder on Sega CD which moves ultra fast and has better graphics. The adventure itself is still great and underneath the technical problems it's a kickass RPG, but honestly all the annoyances compound until it's just not much fun to play. Plus it takes up your entire fucking internal memory to play, so you better have a Tennoke Bank.

nat · 04/03/2008, 11:34 PM

I just picked up M&MIII the other day, and I wanted to try it out for 5 or 10 minutes but it doesn't even let you play unless you make room for the save file. I had to find a free Bank cart and do a swap just to play for a few moments.

I thought it looked pretty awesome from the brief moments I spent with it.

That's a bummer to hear about Fausette Amour, that's one title I've been wanting to pick up for a couple years.

TurboXray · 04/03/2008, 11:52 PM

Quote from: GUTS on 04/03/2008, 08:07 PMFausette Amour- Fucking terrible. Slow as shit, retarded bosses, boring cut scenes, and all the challenge of a Sesame Street game. Fuck Naxat. I need to stop wasting money on this kind of crap. The graphics are decent, that's the only positive thing I have to say about this heap of shit.

Hah. That's pretty much what I thought of the game too. Although, for me it was hyped before I played it, so that might have had something to do with it. I only played up to the second level and the was enough for me.

Keranu · 04/04/2008, 12:05 AM

Quote from: nat on 04/03/2008, 11:34 PMThat's a bummer to hear about Fausette Amour, that's one title I've been wanting to pick up for a couple years.

I'm going with Runin's positive review for this game instead.

GUTS · 04/04/2008, 12:58 AM

Keranu you might like it because everyone else hates it, but it's too bland to have any JJ & Jeff value as a bad game, it's just a really bad game, I think most people who play it will have mine and Bonknuts's reaction. The main problem is that the main character moves ultra slow, then couple that with sparse enemies, boring level layouts, and some of the worst bosses ever (with patterns that would be simple for a first gen NES game). I can handle a slow main character if the game throws lots of stuff at you like Castlevania or Legendary Axe (and the level layouts are creative and interesting), but when the levels are devoid of any challenge and extremely boring, it makes for a really lame experience.

Nat if you pick it up, wait until you can find a good deal. I got mine from Gamengai.com for a really good price, $70 (I also picked up an ultra cheap Harmful Park for PSX for only $75, couldn't believe my luck on that one). He has some amazing prices, I try to check his site once or twice a month.