So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Retr0gamer

Started Aconcagua tonight. I'd forgotten that it's a pure point and click game. I'm really enjoying it. Each area is like a little micro point and click puzzle. Production values are very high, the soundtrack in particular is gorgeous and very john williams-esque. The wobbly script and suspect voice acting are the only really parts that let it down.

Retr0gamer

Started up another fan translation tonight. Baroque on PS1. It's such a messed up weirdo game. The visuals and sountrack are nightmarish. The game is a first person dungeon crawler. Some really interesting items that make you really take risks to gain big rewards.

And then on my first run through the tower I was blinded by green fat fuckers literally **** blood in my face.

Mr.Saturn

Well that's going on my Anbernic, though I should probably calm my tits with the auld backlog.

Retr0gamer

So I'm playing a lot of retrogames as they don't heat up my room as much as newer stuff on my PC.

Last night I played and finished Makaimura for Wonderswan, which is Ghosts'n Goblins.

Decent enough game, some really good moments with some janky moments. It feels a bit rushed as well as there's a lot of graphical corruption, it's something that happens on real hardware as well. It's a pretty decent platformer and kind of essential for Wonderswan since there's so few english friendly games for it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119356981#Comment_119356981

Definitely worth a play. Outside all the weirdness it's a really fun game to play and runs at a mostly solid framerate.

Retr0gamer

Started and finished Ninja Gaiden on the Game Gear last night.

The series is so weird. Everyone knows the NES games but it actually started as a double dragon style beat em up in the arcades. When Sega got the license they had to program their own games due to Nintendo's licensing rules and instead of copying the NES game they made brand new Master System and Game Gear versions. The Master System version is one of the best 8-bit games ever made but the Game Gear game isn't the scaled down master system port as you'd imagine, it's a totally different game. It came before the MS Ninja Gaiden and is a worse game. It actually plays really nicely, fast and responsive although you have very little i-frames on hit and can end up stun locked and lose all your health. It looks quite nice as well with loads of colour. Ninja Gaiden is famous for it's cinematic cutscenes and they try to replicate them here but they're not as impressive as the NES game. The main issue is that the game is so short. Skipping the cutscenes the game is about 10 minutes long. There's 5 stages but one of the stages is a gimmicky short auto scroller and another is just a boss battle. Frustratingly if you die to a boss it's back to the beginning of the level.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119366991#Comment_119366991

Dying and then having to go back to the start? Haha FFS

I remember seeing an article somewhere once - Ill have a root around for it later - about how many games back then were unplayed past the first few levels for similar reasons.

Retr0gamer

It's level not game, made a typo. It's certainly not unplayable, more frustrating and an obvious cheap way to extend an already very short game.

It's not always a bad thing but sometimes a checkpoint would be a nicer option.

Mucashinto

It's a funny one for me. I don't use save states on any emulation atm. Not sure if I end up missing out as there's definitely games I give up on, and time is limited, but still, happier that way for the time being. Played through Sonic 2 recently and couldn't figure out the final Robotnik at all, just panicking. Back to the start each time but if I didn't, what's the point surely? Did get frustrating alright but there has to be some consequence to failing I suppose and being able to blitz through the game to quickly get back was a nice feeling.

Played through the new Crash Bandicoot game after it was given free and I just blindly selected "Modern" mode, didn't even cop this meant infinite lives. Fairly sure I would have enjoyed it more going the other way (although I needed some amount of lives on certain levels so maybe not). But just didn't care if I died mostly, just going to send me back a little anyway and I should know what to do now. Way less engagement for me.

I know he rubs some people the wrong way but I thought Jonathon Blow managed it really well for a modern game with Braid. Ostensibly dying was utterly meaningless, you can literally rewind to safety, and yet somehow it still felt like a serious & annoying failure to me.

tl;dr Playing Metroid Prime 3 on Wii. Never played any of the Prime series before, enjoying it (it has the Zelda 'secret found' chime??). Does seem a little unusual with the narrow field of view for a first-person game but also I like the wiimote + nunchuck combo, very comfortable to just kind of pan out and play for me. Nice going back to it.

Retr0gamer

No amount of lives or lack of lives will make the original Crash Bandicoot good.

I usually don't use save states but sometimes, the odd time, I have to break that habit. Ninja Gaiden was one. Having one chance at the last boss before being sent back 4 stages is insanity (4 of the hardest stages ever made). It meant you'd spent 15 minutes working up to the last boss, get there, panic and **** up and back to the start. There was no time for you to learn a pattern and perfect it so I save stated to learn how to take the boss on.

And I'm about to break save state rules again with Fire Emblem 6 because losing a character and having to repeat a 45 minute long stage has been infuriating.

Inviere

I try to avoid save states where possible too. There are the odd times though, where the game devs are just being outright tortuous, and that's where I'll use them (to save abandoning a game never to return)

Mucashinto

Yeah, to be fair I'm picking low hanging fruit with games like Sonic, the more I'll play the likelier I'll start to use them I'd say, especially with boss fights.

But I completely skipped games from about 2000 until I picked up an xbox360 in about 2013 and the main ways game had changed for me was - online multiplayer and checkpoints/no perma death. Felt like a massive change, couldn't believe you could just die on a boss and then end up outside the door again with nothing lost. Feel like that's when the focus on 'story' came in to compensate for that tbh. Story's a Mcguffin for me mostly, just tell me the princess has been kidnapped or whatever :)

In my defence as well the older games often cheat me (pretend I didn't press a button in time when I know I did etc.). You'd think they'd just accept I'd won but sure they've no shame. I'm actually embarrassed (for them).

Retr0gamer

Aconcagua is finished. It's flawed but highly entertaining and I enjoyed my 4ish hours with it.

Retr0gamer

Played some Baroque last night. Absolutely adore this game so far. It's only my second dive into the neuro tower after the first dive.

Anyway last night Baroque reminded me that it's a roguelike. I was doing fine in the dungeon. I was managing my buffs and equipment well and got to BF11. I had a weird item for a long time that 'inverted HP/VT of everything in the room' so I threw it at an enemy.

Inverted means it takes your current HP and VT away from your max HP/VT and that's your new HP/VT. Great when you are in trouble. A complete disaster when you are near full health and VY.

So my HP drops to near 0 and my VT dropped to 5. So I scrabbled around looking for food to get my VT up. No luck. VT ran out which started to eat into my HP and I basically died of starvation.

And yet I still love this game.

o1s1n

Have you gone near the PS2 or Wii versions of it? I see they were actually both released in English.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371773#Comment_119371773

Yeah. They are good and seem to keep the same story from the PS1 with the same progression and rogue-like elements but the third person mode isn't as immersive as first person so it doesn't feel as good. Worse still is the soundtrack has been changed. The gorgeous original ambient electronica is replaced by heavier guitar lead industrial music and while good it really changes the atmosphere of the game.

Inviere

Finally started Policenauts....years and years after saying I should. I've only played through the prologue so far, though very enjoyable.....oozes atmosphere as you'd expect.

Colonel Panic

Testing PicoBoot with a blast from the past.

Retr0gamer

So I finally got to Chapter 8 of Fire Emblem 6. Not ashamed to say that I used save states to help me. The game is viciously tough and it's such a pisser to lose 45 minutes of progress because you get unlucky against bosses whose evade stat is insane.

I can kind of see why Nintendo skipped FE6 and choose FE7 for the first FE released in the West. FE6 is considered one of the toughest games in the series and it feels like Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels of FE.

Mobius2021

I've only been playing retro games the past few months.

Have finished both Earthbound and Super Mario RPG. Earthbound really kicked off my retro buzz, really enjoyed it. Mario RPG by comparison felt a little overrated being honest - good game but feels a lot more restricted or on rails by comparison.

Currently have started playing two games I've wanted to play for a long time - Snatcher (Mega CD) and Suikoden (PS1). Wonderful style to Snatcher, my 10 year old self would have been fascinated by this if I played it when I came out. Playing Suikoden as I've heard so much about the series especially the 2nd game and like the fact it's pretty short. I don't have the time these days for epics.

o1s1n

Yeah I really wish I'd played Snatcher and more RPGs in general when I was a kid during the 16 bit era. Only thing that really came close was ALTTP - other than that it was 100% action type games for me. I don't think I really understood properly at that age that non action games could be fun.

All that changed thankfully when the PS1 and FF VII came along which forced me to start liking turn based battles (I do remember being very 'wtf is this waiting shite???' when I first gave it a go)

Has anyone else been playing the Ex Zodiac early access much at all? I got an hour or so in last night, controls are 100% Lylat Wars, it plays lovely.

Couple of main gripes about it so far though, the text communications need to be placed better in the levels. Absolutely impossible to read while you're trying to dodge incoming fire.

I also wish they'd dial back on the vapourware type aesthetic a little bit. It's all a little bit too garish to look at.

Still totally worth picking up though and a blast to play.

Retr0gamer

Played more Baroque last night. Fist dive in the neurotower was a total wash. Teleported into B1F and was surrounded and died. There's a few enemies in the starting area that get you to level 3. Note to self, get to level 3 before heading in.

Second dive was a disaster as well. Got to level B6F but the weapon and armour drops were pretty meagre and I couldn't keep up with the DPS of the enemies in this level.

The third dive was my most successful yet. Got all the way to B15F. Figured out the circular structures you sometimes find can teleport items to help you in the next run. It started off poorly with the first armour I equipped having adhesive and sticking to my skin (the game's version of 'cursed' meaning you can't remove it without special items) at least it wasn't a bad piece of armour and I got some buffs that made it quite good. Got a thunder element weapon which I then added Ice element to and this basically ate through the enemies. Once I got to floor B11F the enemies started to hit harder and resources were thin on the ground. It was a struggle. I couldn't really find a better weapon, the current one was getting outclassed quickly. On B14F I was low on health and decided to use an unidentified parasite to infect my armour hoping to get a buff. The parasite flew away with my armour... At least that's one way to get adhesive armour off. Low on health I went to B15F and was surrounded by 2 new enemies that made short work of me.

It's a pisser being sent back to the start at level one but the game is so interesting that I can't help but love it and be enthralled by it. It's a testament that I was itching to dive back in again despite the disappointment of defeat.

Retr0gamer

Played a lot of Baroque today. Finished up my first run of the Neuro Tower but no doubt this isn't the end. Anyway the story has gotten way more bizarre and interesting. Really enjoying this strange oddity.

chrislad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119263069#Comment_119263069

Just finished Defiance. Yeah, there was definitely some rose tinted glasses on this one. I still enjoyed the story, but jesus, the most challenging enemy in game is the camera. Horrific work. The end game where they just throw overpowered enemies at you, the disregarding of the spectral realm as a gameplay option, other than to get through gates, was disappointing, and reusing the same puzzle areas twice/three/four times for each protagonist. The first SR was definitely the most enjoyable, as SR2 wasn't too bad, if a bit linear, but I can see why it got canned now.

Retr0gamer

I finished Monkey Island 2 last night. Was anyone else disappointed with this one?

The original is a classic and I felt the puzzles were fair but the sequel has a lot of esoteric nonsense that necessitates trial and error or a faq. The ending is just bizarre as well and the charm of the first game isn't fully there.

The Last Bandit

Ya completed both of them recently (full talkie Scummvm versions), first one I though had more logical type puzzles, both were frustrating in places and did resort to faqs for both at times. Did think the second was the better looking of the two, seemed more colourful or brighter but ya that ending..... eugh....

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393209#Comment_119393209

Well Monkey Island was EGA, 16 colours while Monkey Island 2 had 256 colour VGA to play with. Still it's insane what the artist achieved in both but extra insane for Monkey Island 1.

The Last Bandit

MI 1 was the cd version not the original floppy so would have been VGA as well. Both do look fantastic but of their era, I can't believe the crap Gilbert is getting over the graphic style for the new one - what the f is wrong with people.....

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119393369#Comment_119393369

People are always going to moan. I guess people are expecting Thimbleweed park graphics again but really the graphics are the least important part of the project. Not like the art style hasn't been wildly divergent across the entire series.

Inviere

Finally found what appears to be a clean source for some modern arcade titles...nice to play some Raiden III & IV again. Plan to get back stuck into Policenauts tomorrow though

The Last Bandit

Playing thru a few things on the Steam Deck at the moment..

Elden Ring - just started into this but seems good so far

Black (PS2 emulation) - Pretty decent underrated fps

Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn emulation) - Still holds up well but much harder than I remember