Re: Video Games General

[KMR]

Yeah, I'm getting a lot more enjoyment from actually taking the time to find all the secrets and do the more challenging platforming required to do that compared to when I was just trying to clear each stage and move on. It adds a whole new dimension to the game, plus the sense of accomplishment is really motivating.

[bomaye]

Makes you feel like a badass and that you've really progressed as a platforming gamer when you get good enough to do all the harder stuff in it.

With my sister, she had so-so 2D platforming skills for the longest time (when she was a tiny kid parents would just give her an unplugged controller while I played because she'd think she was playing) but she really got into Tropical Freeze for some reason and now when she plays other platformers she's surprised at how much easier they seem.

[bomaye]

Urghhhh, I probably lost about 40 minutes of progress in Lost Odyssey. Fucking old-school video games with their save points

[KMR]

So I'm still playing Tropical Freeze, about halfway through the last world right now, been working towards 100% completion as I go. It's still fun, but between being busy with dissertation work and the fact that Grim Dawn's new expansion just released and what little free time I have has mostly been directed toward that, my progress has slowed significantly. And the fact that the last world has twice as many stages as all the others is not helping. I want to be done with this game already!

[bomaye]

Did you end up beating it yet?

Gosh darn, Mega Man 11 has long-ass stages.

[KMR]

I've been stuck on the final boss. Got kind of annoyed with it, so I took a break and have been playing Grim Dawn for a while. I'm planning to come back to it and try again, but haven't had the motivation lately.

[bomaye]

I quite seriously never realized he was the last boss until I beat him (took a huge chunk out of my extra lives) and then the end-credits started. I was kinda like "God damn, this is fucking hard for a regular boss."

[bomaye]

Beat Mega Man 11 on normal mode on the Switch, but with using store upgrades. I liked how variable it was, there's a lot of ways to make the game as hard or as easy as you want it to be.

I mostly didn't use a guide for the 8 Robot Masters (I beat Bounce Man first) but kind of lost patience later on with cycling through 8 weapons to see which one works on which boss so I did end up looking up their weaknesses.

I also ended up getting a Mega Man 30th Anniversary bundle sale or somesuch thing on PSN, it came with Mega Man 11. I like Trophies on PSN more so I'll probably end up playing it on PS4 later on.

[KMR]

I finally finished Tropical Freeze! 100% completion. Whew. The final bonus stages were pretty fun and actually felt a little easier than the prior bonus levels (which may just be a sign of how much better I've gotten at the game after all this time).

This game was fun, but my enjoyment of it really hinged on my ultimate decision to go for all the secrets and bonus stages. The base game was decent but nothing to write home about, which may be because of me making the inevitable comparison to the SNES games. In my opinion, the thing that makes the SNES games stand out is the wealth of creativity in level design and mechanics throughout the game. Tropical Freeze (and Returns) were kind of lacking in that, the levels felt a bit too formulaic to me, the mechanics reduced and simplified (e.g. having only Rambi as an animal companion, not having all the different barrel types that the old DKC games played around with). Tropical Freeze, especially with its bonus stages, did have cool level design in terms of creating clever platforming challenges, whereas the SNES games excelled at using creative level design to deliver unique gameplay experiences. So it was a different experience, not necessarily a worse one, although my nostalgia still elevates the original games over these new ones.

[bomaye]

I pretty much had the same opinion about both DKCR games. Really good games that are fun if you go for everything, and a great dose of nostalgia in the first one. They felt like the missions statement was "let's make Donkey Kong Country games that feel new to pad out the first party library for the Wii/Wii U/well the Wii U flopped but we can just put it out on the Switch", whereas the original Donkey Kong Country games mission statement was more "Sonic is kicking our ass, so let's put everything we've got into something that will sell Super Nintendos."

[bomaye]

e3 was aight. For Switch, Astral Chain and Daemon x Machina (despite the problems I had with the controls in the demo, part of it was just because I didn't feel like re-learning an entirely new control scheme and some movements felt awkward to pull off) look in my alley (but maybe not for near $90 w/tax). No More Heroes III should excite me but that's one where I beat NMH2 in a day so that's not worth day 1 with full price without more to it.

Banjo Kazooie being on Smash Bros is interesting as hell because it's another weird example of Microsoft and Nintendo working together. Kinda just want Microsoft to handle Nintendo's online infrastructure and achievements for them.

Zelda BOTW 2 is a hype announcement, but I also feel like it was premature. They probably revealed it now because they had to completely restart development of Metroid Prime 4 and this slot would've been Metroid Prime Trilogy HD leading into Metroid Prime 4.

I liked seeing other things like the Secret of Mana re-release collection and just how many third-party games Switch keeps getting (and the quality of them, The Witcher 3 being on it is crazy).

I'm not super-big on Pokemon Sword/Shield even though finally getting console(-ish) mainline Pokemon was a huge desire for years.

[bomaye]

Beat Zelda: Twilight Princess HD on the Wii U. Didn't play Hero Mode because it doesn't add anything imo, just gets in the way. 100%ed the collectibles (all hearts, items, upgrades, Poes, insects, Stamps).

Most of my opinions from playing it on Gamecube stayed the same.

- Epona and swordplay was clunkier than before
- Overworld was big but too empty
- Dungeons and items were fun as fuck (Double Clawshot and the Metal Boots being used with Magnetic surfaces to walk on walls and ceilings)
- Wolf Link didn't add much.

Two opinions that did change

- I liked the aesthetic more. At the time everything was in a sheen of gold and grey and it looked really drab in an era where every game was going for that grey and drab look. Nowadays everything looks like an '80s crossdresser party, so I appreciated the look a lot more. It kind of reminded of Nier from the 360 too.

- Story-wise

Spoiler:

[Enail]

It's 2019, all videogames need to allow you to jump if you can walk around, and to pet the animals if there are any (I'll accept throwing chickens as a substitute.)

[bomaye]

>Latest Nintendo Direct
>Xenoblade 1 HD

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

God I hope they have the Japanese subtitles included

[Enail]

Just saw that, I'm so excited!! Need to hurry up and play the Torna DLC!

But why do you want the Japanese subtitles? Don't you want the subtitles translated so you can read it??

[bomaye]

There's one in every crowd

[Enail]

But I don't see how you follow it if you don't use English for the subtitles or the voices? You don't watch anime with Japanese subtitles.

Also, unrelatedly, Heaven's Vault, a translation/archeology game that I've been dyyyyyyying to play, is coming to Switch!!!

[bomaye]

Japanese subs = Japanese voices with English subtitles :p

[Enail]

Ohhh, I was taking it literally as Japanese subtitles and just thought you were so hardcore that you didn't care if it meant not understanding what's going on! I usually somewhat reluctantly do voices in English for games just because you can miss a lot of background chatter and little character voiced bits while you're concentrating on fighting monsters, but definitely otherwise disapprove of dubbing like any reasonable human being.

[bomaye]

That is a problem with that kind of game (I've actually experienced it a few more times now, Berserk and the Band of the Hawk and the Daemon x Machina demo), but there's some legendary voice actors on the Japanese side of things in Xenoblade 1 that really added to it in my estimation.

It's also really awesome because that's the "other" half of the story that was connected to Xenoblade 2. I'm really digging this drive in the new generation to make sure you can play as much of a game series as possible on each platform.

[Enail]

Me too, XB2 really had me wanting to see more.

Definitely get wanting the Japanese voices, I'm always kind of torn, b/c they usually are fantastic(English voiceacting has improved so much, though, I used to cringe at it every time and now I'm often quite impressed) but I also really get a stupid amount of enjoyment from little side banter and comments in battle and things, so I usually take that as the lesser evil.

[bomaye]

I am utterly fucking addicted to Smash Bros Ultimate x_x

[Werel]

Untitled Goose Game may be so totally overhyped, but also, it is not overhyped. It’s the perfect game. HONK

[bomaye]

Smash Bros is "Nintendo Marketing: The Video Game" and it totally worked because now I'm playing Luigi's Mansion on 3DS, bought Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and Earthbound Beginnings on Wii U Virtual Console, and actually want to play Bayonetta in the future.

[bomaye]

Luigi's Mansion is such a comfy game

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