[Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

I'm ready go tonight. There's a party, alright. We don't need the raisin for joy, oh yeah. Tick down to midnight.
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Delthazar
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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Sun May 26, 2019 11:42 am

John Layfield wrote:
Sun May 26, 2019 11:28 am
Also in reality, like, all I can say is which I like more because they're not even the same type of RPG. It's like comparing raktajino and self-sealing stem bolts.
Yeah, the closest comparison for Star Ocean will always be Tales Of, for better or worse. Their combat systems are basically identical, they have a pretty damn similarly high Anime Bullshit Quotient (the ABQ), when the individual games do connect to each other they don't generally connect very well, and overall both are just as wildly hit-and-miss.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Sun May 26, 2019 12:09 pm

...Star Ocean 2 had a vibe that I really, really enjoyed. I don't know what it was exactly. Probably the mix of slightly older-school Motoi Sakuraba synth pads and that late-90s PS1 JRPG sprites-on-prerendered-backgrounds presentation, all of which looked and felt better in SO2 than in just about anything else at the time. But it also had the only cast of characters in the series that worked for me and the dual-POV option was really cool. Ahead of its time, really. Suikoden 3's Trinity Sight did more with the concept, but it was still years off.

There's also a few plot tricks specific to Star Ocean which maybe only work once - marooned on undeveloped planets, a childhood friend/love interest you'll almost certainly have to rescue at some point (SO2 doesn't do the childhood friend part, thankfully, and the POV option switches it up further) - so there's a possible Mario Kart Effect here: your first will always be your favourite, because after that you'll start to see the seams and patterns.

The moment the series moved onto polygons and full voice acting, the spell broke, and I've never really gotten into a Star Ocean since. Going backwards and trying the SNES original didn't help either. For me, SO2's x-factor happened exactly once. Even the PSP remaster fiddled with too much to keep it, and that version barely did anything other than make the character artwork worse.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by John Layfield » Sun May 26, 2019 12:21 pm

How anyone could watch me play Star Ocean 4 and not conclude it's amazing is baffling but, yeah, SO2 is a highlight for the series for so many people, really. So it's understandable that if only one of them was to work for you, it would be that one!

SO3 was actually my first one, and I find it to be a fine, if flawed game. SO2 I played later and found perfectly fine but not amazingly compelling or anything but that's the game removed from the zeitgeist. Again, it's the anime Star Trek I signed up for, which is part of why I like SO4 so much, it spends a lot of time in space.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Sun May 26, 2019 12:31 pm

SO2's opening still owns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbAh-_MvDhM

and also totally sells the Anime Star Trek factor hard, maybe too hard actually, as you say, not much of it was actually in space or anything

but maybe that's also one of Star Trek's little secrets, too. They play up the space setting but a lot of Star Trek gets bogged down on planets for budget raisins or ease of storytelling. Most Star Ocean games are kinda... Who Watches The Watchers stretched over 70 hours.

anyway. if there had been two or three other games in basically the SO2 style with a much more connected setting and character throughlines, I probably would've been into it nearly as much as Phantasy Star.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by DHerder222 » Sun May 26, 2019 12:35 pm

The closest I got to really enjoying Star Ocean was loving Radiata Stories, which wasn't really related but had a few easter eggs for SO. I don't think I've ever seen a JRPG's storyline fall apart quite the way that game's does, but there were a lot of unique ideas in that game I thought worked really well.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by John Layfield » Sun May 26, 2019 12:37 pm

SO3's gave me similar feelings and is absolutely super inspired by SO2's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuZzvRIj4Vw

You probably have a point that like Trek, SO uses an episode trope for ease of gameplay and that stretching that episode over 70+ hours is... tough, at the very least. Another notch in the post for SO4, really, in my view. It does a colonization attack, alternate dimensions, sufficiently advanced aliens, some Prime Directive, and also some Anime Bullshit to tie it together.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Sun May 26, 2019 12:41 pm

Star Ocean's ringships are pretty baller. Gotta figure if United Earth kept trying to adapt Vulcan starship designs, that's exactly what they would've ended up with eventually.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Thunderhead » Sun May 26, 2019 1:51 pm


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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by True Perception » Sun May 26, 2019 2:35 pm

I only played SO3, and like John, I thought it was fine. I wish most of it didn't take place on one planet, though.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Thunderhead » Mon May 27, 2019 5:24 am

Ya know, I was just sitting here thinking "Gosh I really wish there was a Looney Tunes mobile gacha RPG for me to play...

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by DHerder222 » Mon May 27, 2019 9:13 am

Wow, what a silly game to make.

Now a Tiny Toons gacha, that I'd be all over.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Wed May 29, 2019 6:15 pm

In addition to Total War: Three Kingdoms, this week also sees the release of Void Bastards, Draugen, and Outer Wilds. A pretty nice haul for late May.

I didn't realize 'til the GB Quick Look that Void Bastards has that much FTL/Out There in it, so that's got my attention. But looking closer at these four (and their prices) I'm thinking Draugen is the one I should hit first unless Austin's review of Outer Wilds sells me hard by the end. (RPS also gave it a Bestest Bests, so, hmm.)

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Wed May 29, 2019 6:18 pm

oh, and, uh, Death Stranding got a new trailer today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hen8tPH0A2w

November 8 is probably way sooner than a lot of folks were expecting. More than a few people figured it might even be a PS5 thing, or PS4/PS5 crossgen, whatever that actually means now that we know the PS5 is fully PS4 backwards compatible. But nah, just PS4 for now.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:37 am

Now that it's out there's more pod on Three Kingdoms from Three Moves Ahead.

https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes ... e-kingdoms

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by DHerder222 » Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:32 pm

Ooh, I'll give that a listen too.

Just curious, Del, do you remember which Dynasty Warriors entries you played? I never actually tried any of them, ironically because I kept hearing they were all basically the same game. :pac But I'd be up for trying a top-tier entry now.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:49 pm

Heh, I've never actually played a Dynasty Warriors or a Romance game before. For me, it's the Three Kingdoms era that's of interest more than any one game or series, at least until now. I've never played a Total War before either, so this is kind of a perfect storm of two things I've always been right on the edge of trying out but never quite pulling the trigger on completely.

I think the latest Warriors game might actually be the Fire Emblem crossover? I can't remember. Not sure if that's top-tier by Dynasty Warriors standards though. As for Romance, having recently messed around with most of the major Paradox strategy games I kinda feel like I'm more ready for them now than I was before.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by DHerder222 » Sat Jun 01, 2019 7:55 pm

Those ones I'm more familiar with. Admittedly I didn't play much of XIII (though it got pretty solid reviews). If you're up for PS2-era stuff I'd recommend VII and IX too.

Both of these series seem to be franchises where everyone online has a different favorite *and* least favorite entry. Opinions are all over the place.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by John Layfield » Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:03 am

If we're talking Romance of the Three Kingdoms recommendations: VIII, X and XIII.

They all have the fun, to me, option, of starting as a low-rank or even a free, unalligned, officer and so you can play the game as you building your stats, gaining experience in various disciplines, making bonds with people, rising up the chain of the command, making oath brothers and appointing successors if you should, gulp, bite it in battle, or die of old age.

Some RTKs are more along the lines of a traditional "PICK YOUR FACTION, YOU ARE NOW THE ETERNAL SOUL OF THIS FACTION REGARDLESS OF PERSONNEL CHANGE" that I'm personally less into. In VIII, X and XIII, you can still do this. Just pick Cao Cao or whoever else is a #BossBabe, but I prefer the human-focused ways of those RTKs.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by DHerder222 » Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:13 am

Did you ever try either of the Dynasty Tactics games? They seem to have a mini-fandom and videos on Youtube indicate they've aged pretty well. Maybe I should try one/both.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by John Layfield » Sun Jun 02, 2019 11:31 am

I played some Dynasty Tactics 1. It was fun but odd, it was almost like a puzzle game at times. A lot of pushing enemies into chain combos by knocking their pieces all over the field. I'd certainly dip into them if you have them/can get them for cheap.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Tue Jun 04, 2019 1:05 pm

Final batch of reveals for the Genesis Mini, with some more doozies: first, the last ten games is actually twelve 'cause we got some unexpected bonuses.
Virtua Fighter 2
Alisia Dragoon
Monster World 4
Kid Chameleon
Road Rash 2
Eternal Champions
Columns
Dynamite Headdy
Strider
Light Crusader
Darius
Tetris
Bonuses in bold: this 1987 arcade original Darius never actually got to the Genesis, but was ported by a homebrew modder just this year, and this version on the Genesis Mini might actually be that homebrew.

The Genesis version of Tetris never left Japan and is exceedingly rare, as in "someone sold a cart for a million dollars" rare - but that's not the Tetris on the Genesis Mini 'cause it looks like we're actually getting another brand new arcade port from M2. Tetris and Columns in the same batch of reveals is neat.

As for the rest, Alisia Dragoon isn't necessarily rare but is rather obscure and I don't think it's ever been in one of these collections. It's a platformer by Game Arts, long before they started (and stopped) making Grandia RPGs, and also involved Gainax somehow. Monster World 4 was a Japan-only release until it eventually started getting digital-only ports in English for PSN/XBLA/Wii VC. Since it's on the Genesis Mini hardware I guess you could call this its first physical release outside Japan. Road Rash 2 and Strider are another two fairly significant third-party Genesis things which were generally pretty synonymous with Sega even if they had ports elsewhere.

So for those of you not really keeping track, the full list of 42 is
Sonic the Hedgehog
Ecco the Dolphin
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Space Harrier 2
Shining Force
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
ToeJam & Earl
Comix Zone
Altered Beast
Gunstar Heroes
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
Thunder Force 3
Super Fantasy Zone
Shinobi 3
Streets of Rage 2
Earthworm Jim
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Contra: Hard Corps
Landstalker
Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition
Ghouls ’n Ghosts
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Beyond Oasis
Golden Axe
Phantasy Star 4: The End of the Millennium
Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball
Vectorman
Wonder Boy in Monster World
Tetris
Darius
Road Rash 2
Strider
Virtua Fighter 2
Alisia Dragoon
Kid Chameleon
Monster World 4
Eternal Champions
Columns
Dynamite Headdy
Light Crusader
One more thing.

Image

The Japanese version of the Mini is getting optional Tower of Power accessories. :pac

https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/4/186521 ... ower-price

No word yet on whether or not these will eventually come to North America. They're simply aesthetic and not actually functional so you could probably import 'em and stick 'em on a NA Genesis Mini without issues. (for about an extra $40 + shipping from Japan so uh maybe don't actually do this)

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Falcon Critical » Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:04 pm

One of my greatest surprises in MK11 is that they've finally embraced the (first) movie. I knew they were getting Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa in to reprise Shang Tsung, but I didn't count on how much feels it would give me to see him break out his famous lines from the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV0H1bIa_kY

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Thu Jun 06, 2019 5:09 pm

I should watch that movie again, it's been decades.

Weirdly, Destiny 2 is suddenly available for preorder on Steam, so I guess it's no longer exclusive to Blizzard's battle.net on PC. I imagine this might have something to do with Destiny 2 being a Stadia launch title plus the recent cross-save news (even Sony is onboard with that as of today, which is neat)

I'm reminded that I own Destiny 2 vanilla 'cause it was a freebie somewhere for a while. 80GB+ install though, so I keep putting off trying it.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/6/186554 ... lease-date
https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/6/186554 ... exclusives

oh and uh since I mentioned Blizzard they kinda half-announced the existence of Overwatch 2 today so. Who knows how far off it is. Apparently it'll have a PVE focus a la Left 4 Dead? Or the existing Archives events in current Overwatch I guess? That's an interesting angle to take for a sequel, and probably pretty smart, since it allows the original to keep going as a mainly PVP game (and esport) rather than being replaced outright.

This comes at the expense of some untitled Starcraft FPS which has been canceled to direct those dev resources to Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4. So pour one out for yet another dead Starcraft spinoff.

https://kotaku.com/sources-blizzard-can ... 1835285125

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Delthazar » Thu Jun 06, 2019 6:39 pm

Oh, right, Baldur's Gate 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcP0WdH7rTs

It's being done by the Divinity people, which hey, that's a good fit, right? It'll be a Stadia launch title, but also on PC, probably on Steam since that's where the rest of Larian's catalogue lives.

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Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter

Post by Falcon Critical » Thu Jun 06, 2019 9:49 pm

Yeah I'm pretty excited! Mindflayers are one of those D&D monsters that really live up to their reputation. Fortify yo brains son!