No, I know you didn't suggest I was crazy. I was just glad to see another opinion similar to mine about the game. Everything resonates the way it does for everyone.Phaseknox wrote: ↑Thu Dec 30, 2021 3:34 pm I never implied that you were crazy for not liking it, we all like and dislike things for our own personal reasons. It appealed to me immediately and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, but I also realize that it’s not for everyone. It’s especially not something that I expected cane to like, so it doesn’t surprise me that he didn’t like it. But I thought that you (izzy) might like it, at least more than you did anyway. I think that Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West are better, but I like it more than DmC: Devil May Cry.
27) Ballsy! World Cup 2020 (PC)
I love good arcade sports titles, and I'm especially fond of soccer - both in gaming and in real life, so finding a melding of those two flavors is always enticing for me. I picked up a game called Ballsy! World Cup 2020 on Steam a while back and figured I'd give it a try. It differs from soccer in that there is no out of bounds - the ball just "pinballs" off the edges - and the team sizes are smaller. And at its core it's really simplistic. However, it has the fundamentals of a good game. The movement it tight and intuitive, with momentum factoring into things. The artificial intelligence is challenging and makes games tense and interesting. The basics are nice. Everything feels really good. But there isn't much in the way of legs (no pun intended) with Ballsy! There's a World Cup mode where you pick one of a limited number of included flags. (I don't understand why they didn't just include every nation since they're essentially palate swaps.) But there's no group stage. It's just an immediate knockout competition. And there are no career/franchise modes, no stats and very little depth to anything. And, to be fair, I get it. It's a cheap game made by a single person, I believe. I just ended up feeling a little frustrated and disappointed at what could have been. I wanted a reason to spend more time with this one, and I could see it being fun in couch multiplayer, but playing solo is just lacking any reason to spend a significant amount of your time. If the developer just built upon the solid foundation they had, it could have been something quite compelling for the arcade sports lover. As it is, I'll give it an average 3/5, maybe worth bumping half a point or more if you've got a regular human opponent who enjoys the same sort of gaming.
26) Vampire Hunter D (PS1)
I was looking for some obscure PS1 games to see if anything really interesting slipped through the cracks for me, and I noticed Vampire Hunter D which piqued my curiosity. You take on the role of a half-human/half-vampire who is hired to rescue a human girl from the grips of another vampire. The back-story for this is that humans have faded from prominence for many, many years, having been replace by a thriving vampire population. However that dynamic is shifting back in the other direction. There is apparently a pretty involved narrative to this whole universe - a work of fiction which I knew nothing about prior to playing this game. But it does seem to be fairly interesting. Perhaps I'll check out some of the other media at some point.
The basic structure of the game is in the vein of early Resident Evil. There are fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments. There are keys, items and puzzles. Overall, it feels very much like a clone of the same basic template that became popular in the early PS1 days. The atmosphere was pretty well-done with some nice music in spots and the voice work was better than those early Capcom titles, although that's not necessarily high praise, lol. The whole vibe was more than I expected from Jaleco, although to be fair, they were pulling from external source material. In contrast to Resident Evil, the main character wields a sword rather than guns. The combat itself was functional, if not engaging, but the real annoyance was with the controls for movement. The movement felt slippery and awkward while using similar tank controls. It was easy to overshoot your intended stopping point of just struggle to align yourself with an intended point/object properly. They were functional, and I believe work as intended, but they were not well designed in my experience. Things were pretty nonintuitive and never really became comfortable or enjoyable. When you couple the awkward movement with fixed camera angles that shifted too often, it was very easy to get disoriented and turned around. There were certainly things to like about Vampire Hunter D, but they were often undermined by poor execution. I won't say it's a bad game, and if you really love the universe and/or simply must play everything in the style of classic Resident Evil, it may be worth your time. But for most, including myself, I'd say it's middling at best. 3/5.
25) Dragon Valor (PS1)
I don't think there are too many PS1 titles that register as unfamiliar to me when I come across them, but I was looking around for something to play on the PS1 since I seemed to be enjoying some of that classic early 3D goodness this year, and I stumbled across a game called Dragon Valor by Namco. Now maybe it crossed my path at one time or another, but if so, I had certainly forgotten about it. It seemed like it might be interesting, so I picked it up.
In this game you take part in a multi-generational war of humans against dragons. You play a chapter as one protagonist, fighting bosses, finding keys, loot and exploring and then finally upon defeating the section's main boss/dragon, you are introduced to the offspring of that character and learn a bit about them before continuing on the journey in this long-standing conflict. There is no voice acting, but there is a fair amount of narrative it all landed quite flat and dull, if I'm honest. There just wasn't anything gripping about it, intriguing central premise aside. The concept was fine, however the execution just had no juice. So in the absence of narrative pop, things fell upon the gameplay and presentation to pick up the slack.
Some might be tempted to call this an action RPG, but for me, that's stretching the definition of the category. You do learn some spells and upgrade things, but it's very narrow in scope. As an example, you can only visit shops at certain designated points between chapters, and even then you can only buy or sell according to that particular shop-keeper's whims. And usually there's only 3 items you can buy or sell before you're ushered out. The game had lots of little odd quirks like this. Another example is that there were numerous times where there would be an unlimited magic potion there to pick up, but it would be situated in an area with no enemies. There were just some strange choices that showed a lack of polish and refinement. The combat was fairly enjoyable with a variety of sword moves as well as the aforementioned magic. Everything controlled well enough, and I didn't have any major complaints, but despite the serviceable controls it just didn't have much in the way of excitement most of the time. There were a few boss battles that were an exception and offered more engaging encounters, but most of the time I just repeated jumping up and slashing downwards on what seemed to be a near endless supply of enemies. Overall it was a bit repetitive and lengthier than warranted. The general atmosphere was decent and the graphics were not off-putting, but despite feeling pretty unique and somewhat strange, things just never rose above the average for me.
In the long list of PS1 titles, this action, hack and slash/light RPG had its moments, but just wasn't polished or engaging enough to strongly recommend. Despite the roughly 8 hour play time, I still felt like it dragged by the end. It's a middling 3/5.
24) Shadowgate (PC)
Old school adventure (Point and click) games can be really hit or miss for me. Oftentimes the intentionally impenetrable (and often illogical) puzzles along with that feeling of being "stuck" just drain the fun. Having said that, there are some great games in the genre, and sometimes they're really worth playing, and I find myself absorbed in their worlds. I was always curious about the Shadowgate remake that had been sitting in my backlog for a while, and I decided to check it out.
The presentation was really nice. The medieval setting with magic and mystery was portrayed wonderfully with the mostly static, but beautiful, backdrops. (There were some nice animations that sometimes played over the backdrops for added flavor.) You had the sense of being in this strange world of witches, dragons, castles and the like, and the soundtrack also added to that magical, fantasy flavor. In typical point and click style, there were plenty of puzzles requiring you to explore, find and utilize items in various ways to unlock progress. There were also magic spells that you picked up on your trek that could be tried out in different situations, and it wasn't always obvious if a particular spell would have the desired - or any - effect. Items could also be combined to make new items, another staple of the genre. As is the case with this style of game, figuring out what to do and executing is satisfying (or just imparting a sense of relief at times). You also have a talking skull as a side-kick that can offer hints if you wish, and there are multiple difficulty levels that change puzzles and items - very much in the vein of the Silent Hill series and I thought that was a nice touch, giving added longevity.
But, for some reason, I just didn't find myself really engaged - despite the positives. I'm not sure what it was. I was stuck for a while, and I realized at one point that I was struggling to find sufficient interest to even bother figuring out or looking up what was needed. It's not that the game was bad or poorly made - not at all. It's just one of those cases where this genre has to really suck me in in order for me to stay engaged. For the right player, I can see it being fantastic. I'm not a hardcore genre-fanatic and this one wasn't enough to rise above for me. 3/5.
23) Silhouette Mirage (PS1)
Confessions of a gamer who's been around since the beginning of the medium : I don't think I've ever played a Treasure-developed game. (Check's wikipedia - well actually I did play part of Stretch Panic on the PS2, but never really got into it. And I do have several other of their titles in my backlog for various systems.) Regardless, I know they have a reputation for being a very good developer, particularly in regards to gameplay, which is something I can really appreciate, and also makes it all the more surprising that I have such limited experience with their work. I've been on a bit of retro kick in 2021, particularly the PS1, and I had always wanted to play Silhouette Mirage, and...so I did.
The hook with SM is that there is a polarity mechanic (which eventually made its way into Ikaruga - also by Treasure) where you can be invulnerable to damage if you switch to the right polarity. In SM, the main character has a red side and a blue side that is displayed depending on which direction you are facing in the 2D plane. Certain enemies will be a threat to - and vulnerable against - one polarity or another. So you find yourself not only dodging attacks in the traditional way, but also simply switching directions in order to avoid damage. The mechanic worked as intended and required a bit of adapting from the typical mindset of having to avoid all attacks via movement. There were also a pretty large array of moves that allowed for various tactics. I was pleased with the amount of depth, at least theoretically, available. The game played well and was responsive. All in all, everything was really polished.
But despite the polish and the unique mechanic, I just didn't find myself loving SM. It had a very quirky anime presentation, and while I enjoy anime oftentimes, this particular style wasn't something that really clicked with me. The characters were in a style that was a combination of cute and ridiculous, and it just wasn't really my jam. To be fair though, I did find that the style grew on me throughout the game, in part because it was infused with a decent amount of humor in the (text only) dialogue. And as well as the game played, as well as things worked, it just didn't engage me deeply enough on that level either. Just because something is well-made and functions properly doesn't necessarily mean it's going to click. So while I appreciate the game and can see it being enjoyed more by some players, it just wasn't a can't-miss game for me, in the end. I had some fun with it, but I could have missed out and not felt too bad in retrospect, curiosity notwithstanding. I do have, as a result of playing SM, an appreciation for Treasure's abilities though, and I'm curious to try some of their other work at some point. In this case though, their reputation felt like just a bit of a mirage. 3/5 for me.
) In the vein of considering the vast scope of potential realities and explanations for things, we find the cosmic horror of Lovecraft whose writings unnerve on an existential level, leaving the reader on shaky ground - great for the adventurous, curious or bored individual looking for mind expanding journeys and entertainment. I came across a game in this realm called The Whisperer in the Darkness, a minimally interactive visual novel made by one person. Being primarily a narrative experience, the full weight of judgment falls upon the story and atmosphere, and I am pleased to say that this game delivered nicely in that regard. There was a spooky soundtrack and the writing was very well done. We follow an investigator into the hills of Vermont who discovered some potential alien beings from the planet Yuggoth who may or may not have a sinister agenda. There was plenty of tension and I was very interested to see it all unfold. It wasn't a lengthy experience and had no high production values or real gameplay to bite into, but I certainly enjoyed it. Not a bad way to spend a little of your time if you find potential existential crises stimulating. 3/5.
.
), and this also makes for a setting that is fascinating and rife for exploration. Shrinking Link down to encounter the "Minish" to see things from their diminutive perspective was interesting in concept and practice. The transition from one size to the next offered up opportunity for some interesting ways to both look at and explore the world from different vantage points. And many of the puzzles relied upon these shifts as you tackled things at one size that you couldn't deal with at the other as a sort of dual Link, one assisting the other on their branching, but connected quest. It was all, as is par for the course with Zelda, clever stuff. There were many places and secrets to discover and explore from both viewpoints, and it gave the whole proceedings a feeling of a vast adventure, which is a great feeling and very endemic to this franchise. There was also less in the way of annoying elements that I found in Link's Awakening with the constant item switching and intrusive text box prompts being a non-issue here.