Keep Calm And Discuss Retro Generally!

o1s1n · 10-04-2013 05:21PM

Here's a useful guide for you Cidey:

Remake - when designers have run out of fresh ideas and want to give a series a fancy few new layers of gloss. Often in these situations they ruin what made the game good in the first place.

Reboot - When designers have run out of fresh ideas and want to give a series a kick in a different direction. Often in these situations they ruin what made the game good in the first place.

Retr0gamer · 10-04-2013 05:39PM

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

But IMO the efforts at translating Megaman gameplay into a 3D realm could have been fascinating.

It was done already and called Megaman Legends and it worked fantastically without having to go gritty.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Well except for;
The demanding, intense and unforgiving (at least on hard) hack and slash combat.

A common misconception, castlevania was never hack and slash until RPG elements were introduced. It was all about timing, control and was very technical. LoS was God of War mash buttons and the same 'always be dodging' mentality of every western game with a combat system. If you can dodge you are fine.

If you want to see what Castlevania in 3D combat should be like then see Dark Souls.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Puzzle and platforming elements.

When has Castlevania ever had puzzle elements? Also what platforming was there in LoS. The jumping controls were horrific so Mercury stream quite rightly made platforming minimal.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A plethora of hidden items and secrets.

I don't think these have ever defined castlevania.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A story heavily soaked in Castlevania lore.

Actually there was no castlevania lore at all in the game, it totally and utterly dismissed Castlevania lore and started it's own thing. There's pretty much no similarities between LoS and Castlevania of old. There's no Death, Dracula gets a cameo in a silly end cutscene, I'm not even sure what they were thinking with the vampires and you fought the Devil at the end, what?. It's not a bad thing but saying something like that shows you don't really know your castlevania.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

A Belmont as the main character, armed with a 'cross whip'.

Who could have been called anything really and his weapon might have been Kratos's blades for all the similarities between them. In fact having a character called Simon Belmont was pretty much the only thing the game had in common with old castlevanias

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Welcome remixes of the iconic weapons and magic of the series.

Again mentioning magic shows a lot because there's not ever been magic in a castlevania game until SoTN and then it was vampire transformations, you should know this if you know castlevania.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

An unsettling, gorgeously drawn world of gothic dread.

I'll give you that one .

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Nightmarish character design.

Where everyone had huge bodies and tiny heads.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Epic, varied bosses.

Oh stop the bosses were pretty poor. They were either bad rip offs of Shadow of the Colossus bassies or followed the same always be dodging patterns of everything else. Also where were the iconic enemies? Again not that it's a bad thing but the game needs something more than calling the main character Simon Belmont and giving him a whip to be castlevania.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Dracula.

A mention of his name in the ending, and a really stupid ending at that. He's meant to be the big bad in Castlevania and yet you fight the Devil in this one.

Myrddin · 10-04-2013 05:54PM

o1s1n wrote: »

Here's a useful guide for you Cidey:

Remake - when designers have run out of fresh ideas and want to give a series a fancy few new layers of gloss. Often in these situations they ruin what made the game good in the first place.

Reboot - When designers have run out of fresh ideas and want to give a series a kick in a different direction. Often in these situations they ruin what made the game good in the first place.

Exactly. There are exceptions obviously, but by & large the results do be rubbish

DinoRex · 10-04-2013 07:15PM

Dark Souls 2 footage being released tonight on IGN. Looking forward to that, started back on Dark Souls just last night. Finally beat the Bell Gargoyles.

Been hearing a lot of chatter about DS2, I hope the tales of you having to keep a number of girlfriends happy are true, like a girlfriend in the Valley of the Drakes who really likes pizza.

johnny_ultimate · 10-04-2013 07:28PM

DinoRex wrote: »

Finally beat the Bell Gargoyles.

You've got a long, long way to go :pac:

But I maintain the first couple of hours are probably the hardest. There's a few ****ing cruel bits later on, but once you get used to the rhythm of the gameplay it's not too bad.

As long as you don't get cursed, of course :cool:

CiDeRmAn · 10-04-2013 08:03PM

Feck Dark Souls 2!
I want Demon's Souls 3!

And I'd really like to beat the fecking Hydra, please!
Next Beers in mine someone is going to walk me through that one!

Retr0gamer · 10-04-2013 08:11PM

The Hydra is totally optional. If you get close to him he changes his attack and gets a lot easier. Getting close to him is the hard part

johnny_ultimate · 10-04-2013 08:14PM

The problem with the Hydra is that early on you'll probably waste a lot of resources just getting past those crystal gits preceding him. By the time you get to the Hyrdra itself you're likely to have drained a vital flask or two (assuming you're keeping your powerful spells in reserve for the main event).

Once you have a few powerful spells, it's a piece of piss if you fight a ranged battle (another early problem being it can easily leave your attack range). If I recall the areas it unlocks are only really high-level stuff anyway (as well as being optional, as Retr0 said).

TBH, 'crystal homing soulmass' is the solution to pretty much every problem in Dark Souls :pac:

Retr0gamer · 10-04-2013 08:19PM

The crystal 'gis' (

) can be lured out and yes it does open up a very high level area (which also has bug for easy levelling up) that can be reached from another area. Once you get close enough the Hydra will swing it's heads at you which will take a lot of damage off you but you can block it with a shield so if you are careful you can make mince meat of him at close range. The only thing to be wary of is the lake will lull you into a false sense of security. It seems shallow but drops off sharply if you wade in a good bit and you can find yourself falling off it when the sneaky fecker keeps retreating.

johnny_ultimate · 10-04-2013 08:29PM

There's also another mini-boss / merchant it gives you access too when defeated - not sure if you can get access to them without defeating the Hydra. But again what they offer is very much completionist stuff, there's more pressing areas to explore!

And yeah that bottomless lake is a pain. It's very easy to accidentally step that little too far even when being careful.

CiDeRmAn · 10-04-2013 08:47PM

I thought the moon thingy butterfly creature was brilliant, not much of a challenge but I liked the way you could see it off in the distance before later gaining access to the area and meeting him /her.
Part of the attraction of the game is the sense of the environment as a range of characters itself, with different areas having different personalities.
Wonderful, but hard.

Retr0gamer · 10-04-2013 08:53PM

I'm more amazed that you didn't trade it in for grey corridor shooter 9.

o1s1n · 10-04-2013 08:53PM

It's not that hard of a game at all really. At the beginning it is when you basically have nothing, but once you get a bit more powerful it gets much easier.

I'd say it's even easier online with all that help you get from other people.

Apart from the last boss. Never did beat that ****. I just couldn't face trekking to the bastard over and over!

johnny_ultimate · 10-04-2013 08:54PM

Was considering ordering Luigi's Mansion 2 online last night. It was one euro more expensive on Amazon than Gamestop's website, but was considering throwing it in a bundle with a few DVDs out of sheer laziness. Was falling asleep while browsing so said I'd sort it out this evening instead.

Went to order there and it's sold out on Gamestop and jumped by a whole £5 on Amazon. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere :pac:

o1s1n · 10-04-2013 08:55PM

I was in a really bad mood last week. Went into Gamestop to buy Monster Hunter 3 but they didn't have any. I was really in the humour for buying a game though so picked up Luigi's Mansion instead. Knowing it was a tenner cheaper online almost killed me :pac:

DinoRex · 10-04-2013 08:56PM

Dark Souls 2 is looking good:

http://ie.ign.com/articles/2013/04/10/dark-souls-2-gameplay-reveal-coming

New director had a lot of people worried.

o1s1n · 10-04-2013 08:57PM

DinoRex wrote: »

Dark Souls 2 is looking good:

http://ie.ign.com/articles/2013/04/10/dark-souls-2-gameplay-reveal-coming

New director had a lot of people worried.

I almost vomited when I heard someone involved use the term 'more accessible'!

Retr0gamer · 10-04-2013 08:57PM

In other news I'm still waiting for Fire Emblem to come back in stock in America

And I have to wait for Ni no Kuni and Persona 4 because they are in the same order. It's well over two months since I ordered them.

Nintendo seems to have limited the supply there to increase digital sales so my advice is to buy the PAL version on release. I missed it by 1 fecking day on play asia

johnny_ultimate · 10-04-2013 09:00PM

o1s1n wrote: »

I was in a really bad mood last week. Went into Gamestop to buy Monster Hunter 3 but they didn't have any. I was really in the humour for buying a game though so picked up Luigi's Mansion instead. Knowing it was a tenner cheaper online almost killed me :pac:

I just can't do it. Should have picked it up at launch with Smyths loyalty card, but Ennio Morricone tickets made a dent in my discretionary expenditure that week! And now they're charging 44.99, which is just that fiver too much.

I had intended trying to play through it before Fire Emblem came out (commuting = no shortage of portable gaming time!) but unlikely now.

CiDeRmAn · 10-04-2013 09:16PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm more amazed that you didn't trade it in for grey corridor shooter 9.

To paraphrase The Quiet Man,
Write Retr0 down in me book!
Now, strike a line through it!

Actually I'm waiting for Grey corridor shooter 9, Game of the Year Edition, with the beige corridor dlc

Myrddin · 10-04-2013 09:21PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Feck Dark Souls 2!
I want Demon's Souls 3!

And I'd really like to beat the fecking Hydra, please!
Next Beers in mine someone is going to walk me through that one!

Just buy a potion from Gandalf the master wizard...that's what I always do

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy · 10-04-2013 09:23PM

Posters on Photobox are down in price again, anyone looking for some. Largest size is 40" x 30" is €11.98 was €29.95, ends 11th of April (no code needed)

Nerdkiller1991 · 10-04-2013 09:33PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Feck Dark Souls 2!
I want Demon's Souls 3!

And I'd really like to beat the fecking Hydra, please!
Next Beers in mine someone is going to walk me through that one!

There's a Demon's Souls 2?

DinoRex · 10-04-2013 10:17PM

o1s1n wrote: »

I almost vomited when I heard someone involved use the term 'more accessible'!

You weren't hoping for the ability to call in air raids and a capture the flag mode, then?

Retr0gamer · 10-04-2013 10:19PM

I was hoping for Arkham City combat. Mash buttons and press counter when prompted. Imagine how much better the game would be!

valleyoftheunos · 10-04-2013 10:55PM

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Was considering ordering Luigi's Mansion 2 online last night. It was one euro more expensive on Amazon than Gamestop's website, but was considering throwing it in a bundle with a few DVDs out of sheer laziness. Was falling asleep while browsing so said I'd sort it out this evening instead.

Went to order there and it's sold out on Gamestop and jumped by a whole £5 on Amazon. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere :pac:

I'm playing the original on Gamecube at the moment, really enjoying it, will definitely give the sequel a go at some stage.

DinoRex · 11-04-2013 03:21AM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I was hoping for Arkham City combat. Mash buttons and press counter when prompted. Imagine how much better the game would be!

If we're lucky we'll get some escort missions.

johnny_ultimate · 11-04-2013 07:45AM

Interesting article about the failed Mortal Kombat rip-off Tattoo Assassins: http://gameological.com/2013/04/splattered-ink/

deathrider · 11-04-2013 09:07AM

Speaking of remakes/reboots, has anyone played the PS2 remake of Altered Beast? Was it as bad as I'd imagine?

Pyongyang · 11-04-2013 09:29AM

Question for Mr. U:

Remember that film you found out about for me, Masao-Kun LOVE!?

I saw somewhere, Yesasia I think, that there is an R3 DVD out now from Taiwan. One web site says it has English subs, the other sites I've seen say only Taiwanese and Chinese subtitles.

Any ideas if the R3 has English subtitles? If so I am going to buy the DVD right away! The Blu disc is Japanese only unfortunately so I'd have to buy a normal DVD alas.

Keep Calm And Discuss Retro Generally!

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