Games you are currently playing or recently beaten

[te72]

Fear Effect was basically a point-and-click adventure game transposed into the real-time action genre and infused with loads of twitch combat elements. Once you figured out the patterns, you were good to go. Until you figured out the patterns though, you were bound to see every possible death in the game about 3-4 times. They were meant to kick your ass so hard, because they spent good money animating all those billions of possible deaths, and by gawd you were going to see them ALL before you beat the game.

*huggles*

Areala

Soooo... basically a Sierra game?

I recently bought Final Fantasy I - VI for the Famicom & Super Famicom to finish my retro Final Fantasy collection. I'm playing them on the Retron 5 with English patches. I don't like playing on emulator via the PC. I rather play it on the TV with the actual game carts, and I thought the Retron 5 was the best bet, since I don't have a Famicom. I will get the Dragon Quest series too.

I've beaten Final Fantasy I and II before on the Playstation (Final Fantasy Origins). But a friend of mine said that doesn't count. You gotta play the originals. So here I am. lol.

Wait, you can apply patches to cart based games on the Retron? Very interesting... is it not some sort of emulator itself? Closest thing I can think of to patching on original hardware is the Game Genie, Game Shark, that sort of device. I suppose I could see something like that having the muscle to patch the text on the cart.

I bought Yoshi's Woolly World for my daughter yesterday, we played a bunch of that today. Technically I have not played it yet, I am just watching her play. It seems quite good though, it may actually be the first good Yoshi game since Yoshi's Island on the SNES.

I was about to point out Yoshi's Story, until I saw that you used the word, "good" in there haha.

What about the one that came out on the 3DS more recently? It looked a lot like Yoshi's Island through the lens of the "New" series of Mario games.

[ctophil]

Yeah the Playstation anthologies weren't the best, what with the loading and script deficiencies and other niggling errors. Final Fantasy Chronicles, in particular, was kind of a mess. A shame since it contains Final Fantasy IV, my favorite in the series, as well as the outstanding Chrono Trigger.

Can't say that I've ever heard of the "Retron 5" but now I"m intrigued, and not just because it sounds like some kind of badass Transformers character.

Haha. :-) And I really like the first generation Transformers. I own the entire DVD boxset. Anyways, the Retron 5 is a recent game console that plays many retro games straight from the cart. It plays NES/Famicom, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES/Super Famicom, and Game Boy/Game Boy Advance/Game Boy Color. It can also play Sega Master System through the Power Base Converter for the Sega Genesis. You noticed that it's region free. So you can play western (Pal or NTSC) or Japanese games. It even let's you plug in your original NES/SNES/Sega Genesis controller to be as authentic as possible! Check out the web site here: http://hyperkin.com/Retron5/ I love it because the Retron 5 can be hooked up to your modern HDTV via HDMI and upscales your retro games with a very clean picture and nice sound.

Wait, you can apply patches to cart based games on the Retron? Very interesting... is it not some sort of emulator itself? Closest thing I can think of to patching on original hardware is the Game Genie, Game Shark, that sort of device. I suppose I could see something like that having the muscle to patch the text on the cart.

Yeah, the latest update allows you to patch the games with anything you want, either it be translations, cheat codes, or even homebrew patches. You do it via the built-in SD card slot. Technically, it is an emulator. But as long as I'm playing from the cart, can be hooked up to the TV with ease, and let's me use my original controllers, especially let's me play Japanese games without the actual Japanese console, I'm all for it. :-) Don't get me wrong, I have almost all the original, retro consoles. And I still play on them for the western games.

[jay]

I was about to point out Yoshi's Story, until I saw that you used the word, "good" in there haha.

What about the one that came out on the 3DS more recently? It looked a lot like Yoshi's Island through the lens of the "New" series of Mario games.

The Yoshi Island on the 3DS was terrible in my opinion. It had such bland level design, and bosses. What makes a good Yoshi game is when they create such fun variations on the level design, which this new game has.

[miketheratguy]

Anyways, the Retron 5 is a recent game console that plays many retro games straight from the cart. It plays NES/Famicom, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES/Super Famicom, and Game Boy/Game Boy Advance/Game Boy Color. It can also play Sega Master System through the Power Base Converter for the Sega Genesis. You noticed that it's region free. So you can play western (Pal or NTSC) or Japanese games. It even let's you plug in your original NES/SNES/Sega Genesis controller to be as authentic as possible! Check out the web site here: http://hyperkin.com/Retron5/ I love it because the Retron 5 can be hooked up to your modern HDTV via HDMI and upscales your retro games with a very clean picture and nice sound.

This thing seems awesome!

[te72]

Yeah, the latest update allows you to patch the games with anything you want, either it be translations, cheat codes, or even homebrew patches. You do it via the built-in SD card slot. Technically, it is an emulator. But as long as I'm playing from the cart, can be hooked up to the TV with ease, and let's me use my original controllers, especially let's me play Japanese games without the actual Japanese console, I'm all for it. :-) Don't get me wrong, I have almost all the original, retro consoles. And I still play on them for the western games.

Oh, I have no hangups over using emulators, personally. The more ways to play old games, the better, and all the better that there are systems you can use your old games on for a reasonable price.

I still say that Nintendo would make a mint if they would release say, 500-1000 copies, per year, of the original NES with two controllers, with modern connections for today's TV setups. Same with SNES. Make it like a Christmas special type thing.

The Yoshi Island on the 3DS was terrible in my opinion. It had such bland level design, and bosses. What makes a good Yoshi game is when they create such fun variations on the level design, which this new game has.

That really is too bad, I almost bought my fiance a 3DS just so she could play that one. Perhaps a Wii U would be a better investment.

[twiztor]

finished Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword just now. my save file gives a time of 39 hours, 37 minutes, but since i refuse to continue and always "quit" instead, that number should be higher. Not sure what the average playtime is, but for a first time playthrough, i'm happy with it.

there was a lot about this game that i enjoyed. the art style, the story, the characters. there were quite a few rooms/puzzles that i found challenging. the boss fights are always interesting, even though some were way easier than they should have been.

there were also some things i didn't enjoy. with only three areas to explore, you have to keep going to the same places again and again. it got really old for me. On the bright side, they usually introduce a new challenge or section to explore, but it was still a drag sometimes.

overall, i'm glad that i finally forced myself to play this through to the end, and i now anxiously await Zelda Wii-U.

[te72]

Zelda is one of those few franchises that has been consistently good. Personally, only Zelda II strikes me as even a minor misstep for the series.

[CastleVanity]

I just recently beaten Final Fantasy V (PC/Steam). Despite people's dislike of it.

[miketheratguy]

Zelda is one of those few franchises that has been consistently good. Personally, only Zelda II strikes me as even a minor misstep for the series.

I even loved Zelda II, despite the fact that it is considered the black sheep of the franchise for obvious reasons. I haven't played every Zelda game out there, but every one that I've played I've loved.

I just recently beaten Final Fantasy V (PC/Steam). Despite people's dislike of it.

It's weird, I used to hear that Final Fantasy V was the lost gem of the franchise, the debatably best game in the series that we simply didn't get to play because it got lost in the shuffle in the translation of various Square games from Japan. Now, I only seem to hear people complaining about it.

For my money the two bookending games (IV and VI) are RPG masterpieces, the best in the franchise, so with its relatively weak story and nonlinear character-building structure I didn't feel that it stacked up. I did love the concept of the job system, but with my anxiety disorder it was hard to really enjoy it: I spent more time stressing about whether I was developing my characters properly than just experimenting and having fun with taking risks, lol.

[Areala]

For my money the two bookending games (IV and VI) are RPG masterpieces, the best in the franchise, so with its relatively weak story and nonlinear character-building structure I didn't feel that it stacked up. I did love the concept of the job system, but with my anxiety disorder it was hard to really enjoy it: I spent more time stressing about whether I was developing my characters properly than just experimenting and having fun with taking risks, lol.

This was SO me, playing both Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy Tactics. "I can make her a white mage. Or a thief. Or a ninja. Or...if I make her a black mage first, then I can make her a geomancer, and then...but she could also be a Paladin if I go with white mage, but is that overkill..."

GAAAAAAHHHH! I get stressed out just thinking about it.

*huggles*

Areala

[te72]

I just recently beaten Final Fantasy V (PC/Steam). Despite people's dislike of it.

Only matters that you enjoyed it and found it a good use of your time.

This was SO me, playing both Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy Tactics. "I can make her a white mage. Or a thief. Or a ninja. Or...if I make her a black mage first, then I can make her a geomancer, and then...but she could also be a Paladin if I go with white mage, but is that overkill..."

GAAAAAAHHHH! I get stressed out just thinking about it.

*huggles*

Areala

Haha, Tactics... ahh yes. Hit the hail on the nead there! This is also why I refuse to get into the online FF games, and to a similar extent, other MMO's.

This is where the Konami classic Vandal Hearts did it right. You had 11 characters whose job classes would branch into one of two paths. That's it. Once you chose a path, that's what that person was. Even better, or worse, depending on how much variety you crave, is that there were only a small handful of classes total. You had:

-Knight (think swordsman, all around attacker)

-Armor (moves like a tank, hits like a tank, takes damage like a tank)

-Mage (offensive wizard)

-Cleric (healing wizard)

-Monk (kinda a mix of the above two, with a bit of offensive attacks)

-Archer (long distance)

-Hawkmen (literally have wings and fly around the stage, with a spear)

Basically it's a big game of rock paper scissors. I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for a simple, but challenging rpg.

[miketheratguy]

This was SO me, playing both Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy Tactics. "I can make her a white mage. Or a thief. Or a ninja. Or...if I make her a black mage first, then I can make her a geomancer, and then...but she could also be a Paladin if I go with white mage, but is that overkill..."

GAAAAAAHHHH! I get stressed out just thinking about it.

*huggles*

Areala

Yep, that's exactly how it went down. It was overwhelming option overload. The game simply provided so many opportunities and potential outcomes that it was too hard for me to just relax with the confidence that I'd made the right choices and say "eh, whatever will be will be".

I first noticed something like this in the supremely underrated, supremely great Dragon Warrior III for the NES. Partway through the game you have a chance to change the class of the characters in your party, giving them new bonuses while at the same time - I think - cutting their current stats in half. So I'd sit there thinking "Ooh! How cool it would be to have a soldier who can also cast spells. But wait, should I level the soldier up more first before changing him into a wizard? Or maybe I should turn my wizard into a soldier. Maybe I can take my pilgrim and turn him into a wizard, thus keeping my soldier's strength but coming out with an even weaker wizard. But then again he'd be so low level after the change that maybe he'd quickly catch up?"

Etc, etc, etc. Maybe it's a bit simplistic but that's one of the things that I preferred about the more popular classic Final Fantasy games: They gave you characters that had specific roles and that was it, it was up to you to learn how to properly make the most out of whatever given team you were left with. By the time we got around to Final Fantasy VI (which, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adored) and everyone could equip Magicite to learn any spell in the game, and Final Fantasy VII (which, don't get me wrong, I don't ever want to hear about again as long as I live) where anyone could equip Materia to learn...well, EVERYTHING, it not only stripped the characters of what made them unique, it caused me to dive down countless rabbit holes of strategic planning hell.

This is where the Konami classic Vandal Hearts did it right.

I bought Vandal Hearts, way back in like 1998 or so. I enjoyed it and don't remember it being crazily complicated but I never got to finish it, I sold it to buy something else. Probably like Theme Park or something. Wait, there's even MORE planning!!! NnnnnnnoooOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[kitsunebi]

This is where the Konami classic Vandal Hearts did it right.

I love Vandal Hearts and have played through it twice. It was my introduction to the tactical RPG genre (and a good introductory game it was, as it's fairly short and easy.)

Then came FF Tactics...which took me nearly 100 hours to finish...and then Tactics Ogre (on PS1)...which I was over 100 hours into and possibly not even halfway done with all the branching missions before putting it aside for a brief respite and then NEVER COMING BACK.

I think Vandal Hearts is all the stronger for its brevity - it left me wanting more. FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre just left me broken.

[miketheratguy]

I love Vandal Hearts and have played through it twice. It was my introduction to the tactical RPG genre (and a good introductory game it was, as it's fairly short and easy.)

Then came FF Tactics...which took me nearly 100 hours to finish...and then Tactics Ogre (on PS1)...which I was over 100 hours into and possibly not even halfway done with all the branching missions before putting it aside for a brief respite and then NEVER COMING BACK.

I think Vandal Hearts is all the stronger for its brevity - it left me wanting more. FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre just left me broken.

I should pick Vandal Hearts back up again. I've long wanted to get a tactical RPG to get into but I want one that's accessible, not one that's ridiculously uber-hardcore and involved (for the reasons I described above and more).

I heard that Jeanne D' Arc for the psp was really good but I don't know where it falls on the byzantine scale.

[nutznboltz2003]

I am currently enjoying Final Fantasy Explorers on the 3DS and Final Fantasy Record Keeper on the mobile. When I get access to the console, I'm slowly, and I mean slowly, trying to make my way through Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is a great game.

[te72]

I think Vandal Hearts is all the stronger for its brevity - it left me wanting more. FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre just left me broken.

Well said, same here, regarding Tactics. Love the game, but man... it's got a LOT of content.

Fun story time. My friend Ben picked up Vandal Hearts shortly after it came out (same year we got Worms 2!), and that first day we played it after school on that Friday. I think we were up until 4am... man the energy you have as a kid playing a video game. Made it somewhere into chapter 4, I think, after you get Zohar the wizard.

I should pick Vandal Hearts back up again.

You should. Trouble is it's not on PSN or any other digital marketplace that I'm aware of. You might try Steam, but otherwise you'd just have to dig around. Fortunately for you, I don't think it was terribly sought after, so it should still be reasonably priced.

[kitsunebi]

You should. Trouble is it's not on PSN or any other digital marketplace that I'm aware of. You might try Steam, but otherwise you'd just have to dig around. Fortunately for you, I don't think it was terribly sought after, so it should still be reasonably priced.

And if none of that works, well...there are always those other options. I still own the Playstation disc, so I had no guilt about loading a copy into my PSP to pass the time on a transpacific flight a while back.

[miketheratguy]

And if none of that works, well...there are always those other options. I still own the Playstation disc, so I had no guilt about loading a copy into my PSP to pass the time on a transpacific flight a while back.

I have no guilt about finding digital copies of games to load onto my psp, period.

Still, you know me and my physical media bent. I prefer to own actual copies of a game, when possible. I'm actually surprised to hear that (A) Vandal Hearts wasn't a big seller and ( its price hasn't skyrocketed as a result.

[kitsunebi]

All this talk of Vandal Hearts is gonna make me want to finally play Vandal Hearts II -- one of the many games I own but have never so much as taken the disc out of the case. I hope it isn't a let down.

[CastleVanity]

Right now i'm currently playing Dragon Quest Heroes (PC/Steam)

[te72]

All this talk of Vandal Hearts is gonna make me want to finally play Vandal Hearts II -- one of the many games I own but have never so much as taken the disc out of the case. I hope it isn't a let down.

You know, I understand the personality of the original isn't quite there, but that the gameplay was supposedly quite solid. Never played it myself though.

As for playing it however you can, I have no guilt, particularly given that A) it's 20 years old now, it hasn't been re-released in any form to make them money, and C) it's a videogame, something Konami seems to have no interest in anymore.

I still wanna play VH2 someday, as well as Flames of Judgement (a prequel, digital release came out in 2011 or 2012 I believe), but I have sooooo many games to get through that I wonder if I ever will. Perhaps if I see it on sale one of these days, I'll pick it up and give it a couple hours to see if it catches my attention.

[kitsunebi]

As for playing it however you can, I have no guilt, particularly given that A) it's 20 years old now, it hasn't been re-released in any form to make them money, and C) it's a videogame, something Konami seems to have no interest in anymore.

Yeah, I actually have no compunction about it as well. I pretty much only play on dead systems - I don't own any consoles newer than the PS2/X-Box/Gamecube/DS/PSP (whatever you wanna call that generation). So except for the Xbox, I can pretty much run any console game I ever owned on my PC now.

I just didn't want to set a bad example, arrrr...

Edited February 25, 2016 by kitsunebi77

[te72]

I understand completely. There was a period where I wasn't much of a gaming consumer, mostly due to working for Blockbuster. I rented games for as long as I wanted, and while I bought a decent amount of games then, I played a LOT more than I ever had to pay for.

However, with the market the way it is in this day and age, if a company is willing to offer a game in an accessible way, then I always try to support those efforts. Heck, I even buy some games that come out on PSN simply to encourage companies to release more things like it. Specifically the Suikoden series, I buy them as soon as they put them on PSN.

Not to mention gaming is a fairly cheap hobby these days. Anyone else remember paying $50-60 (or way more, if you were an N64 gamer) for a new game? Now even top shelf stuff can be had for half that if you're willing to wait the couple months for a sale. Not like there's any shortage of interesting games to play...

[miketheratguy]

Not to mention gaming is a fairly cheap hobby these days. Anyone else remember paying $50-60 (or way more, if you were an N64 gamer) for a new game? Now even top shelf stuff can be had for half that if you're willing to wait the couple months for a sale. Not like there's any shortage of interesting games to play...

I would argue "relatively" cheap. Sure, the core price of games is a little less than it used to be at one time (I remember having to pay $70 bucks for SNES titles like Street Fighter II Turbo and Secret of Mana) but they're also more than they were at a different time (NES games were about $50, Playstation games were $40). The fact that prices aren't much higher these days is actually kind of amazing, since so many other things have gone up with inflation.

At the same time, they're gouging us in other ways. To get a full title anymore you all but have to drop a hundred bucks for both the core game and the DLC that completes it.

[HowardBware]

Not a big fan of DLC. I do have to say that at leas with the wii u you can often buy an amiibo for extra content and then you get a little keep sake statue