Who started this thread?

Mar 10, 2021 13:37:00 GMT KING KID said:

Who started this thread?

Our favourite Samurai Ninja from Houston Texas, Nobi.

Mar 10, 2021 13:46:41 GMT Big Pete said:

Mar 10, 2021 13:37:00 GMT KING KID said:

Who started this thread?

Our favourite Samurai Ninja from Houston Texas, Nobi.

Thanks. Saw it was a deleted member and was wondering who. We need Shin back.

Finished up Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando

Such a good game, such an improvement over the original. From the more forgiving checkpoints to the outstanding weapon experience feature that turns your solid weapons into fully upgrade monstrosities to the twist and turn story that was simple yet cool to the STRAFING, this was an excellent sequel. Had to be my 3rd time playing through this one, I didn't 100% this as I don't have the time to hunt down all of the hidden collectables and grind for the RYNO but I had a good time with this game. The game does pick up in difficulty later on and I do want to say the same problem exists in the original that it does in this game, the checkpoint system isn't perfect and if you do die in the middle of an area and have to respawn, you aren't giving back your ammo and to make matters worse, the boxes don't regenerate often if at all so there will be times your just forced to buy ammo and lose up the opportunity to buy something you might have been savings up for because the ratchet alone isn't going to destroy the influx of enemies that appear on a screen. Another gripe I would say is the cost of later weapons or better yet mandatory video tapes are ridiculous and this sort of ruins your chance to get all the weapons on a 1st playthrough, which I guess Insomniac was pushing for a NG+ to get the later weapons with a challenge mode that helps your bolt currency gain.

I am finding it a pattern that the R&C PS3 versions suffer from slowdown with too many enemies on a screen at a time which sucks but nothing that makes this totally unplayable. The core gameplay is great and it is probably my favorite R&C game of the ones I have played and it still holds up really well, even in 2021.


3rd one gets played very, very soon.

Gonna be a while until I get to them, but just picked up a stack of PS2 games: Gun, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Maximo 1+2, Viewtiful Joe 1+2, and Personas 3 and 4.

Mar 24, 2021 5:06:21 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Gonna be a while until I get to them, but just picked up a stack of PS2 games: Gun, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Maximo 1+2, Viewtiful Joe 1+2, and Personas 3 and 4.

Good haul, how much did they set you back?

The Persona games are worth a mint in PAL, I'm talking $200-$400.

Spent just under $350 on the lot, adding in House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return for the Wii, paying a bit extra for the VJ's and Persona's (NTSC versions, because I'm not loaded) to be factory sealed.

Like I said, I got a lot to get through before I get to them, but I have a list of games I'm stock piling for if a day comes I can no longer pick up new games at will. Got 10 more definites on PS2 (Manhunt, Red Dead Revoler, Psi Ops, the Bouncer, Shinobi, Stuntman, and, unless all of them get remasters for current gen, the 4 Onimusha games), then a list of about 30 maybes that fill out pretty much every PS2 game I could search up that I'd even have a passing interest in. Then just have to hope the systems still work when that day comes. It's kinda funny, when I was young I got rid of each system as I got the next, now I'm trying to go back and get a chunk for most of 'em (not every system, just the heavy hitters, Nintendos, Playstations, and X-Boxes). Really kicking myself twice over the Gameboy adapter for the Gamecube, firstly, I had it and got rid of it, and secondly, I saw it sitting at $60 for years and kept putting it off, I went to pick it up with this lot, after years of sitting steady at $60, now jumped up to $200 and right out of my cart.

I've given up on the Vexxperiment. Game was just too painful to play. But I feel like I achieved a lot by 100%ing the first world - in terms of difficulty it easily rivals the final level of any platform game I've played.

My next Playstation 2 game is XIII.

XIII is an FPS game with a comic book aesthetic. The premise is similar to the Jason Bourne story: FBI agent wakes up on a beach with no memory of himself but has retained all of his secret agent combat instincts. Someone has killed the president, and there's a lot people out to get me.

The first few levels are introductory. Incredibly fun game. So easy to play, basically Goldeneye but with better graphics and somewhat less clumsy. Nice mixture of run-and-gun and more stealthy gameplay. Plot is interesting. Excellent game.

Finished up the main game portion of Jazz Jackrabbit, a 1994 run and gun platformer made by Epic, in particular, one of the lead designers is Cliffy B AKA the guy behind Gears of War 1-3. I remember playing the first(or was it 2nd?) one as apart of a free timed edition of a 100 games in 1 CD sort of thing. I remembered genuinely liking the game quite a bit out of that collection even as a kid..........and the game has a lot of perk. It plays sorta like Sonic the Hedgehog, from the speed pickups that make you on turbo mode to the areas being borderline ripoffs of Sonic levels(Marble world with Lava pits and moving platforms!) to the cheap enemies that appear out of your line of vision where you drop off into a new location, only to be welcomed by a enemy that hurts you.

The music off the top is a BANGER. This is a remix of the best track(IMO) but the original shreds too!


Arguably the best thing of the game. When you think of the 1990's, you think of the BOPPING bass and synth in countless Genesis games. This is no different. More times than not, your bopping your head when playing this game even if the track goes on repeat quite a bit on the levels that should last you 5-7 minutes barring deaths(Which will happen). Thank goodness for the save feature on the PC, make save states as often as you can. While the game doesn't fully let you cheese it where you can reload your exact same spot with exact same weapons and lives that you saved off with, it does bring you to the start of the level, 2 levels per planet, 3 planets before a final boss.

Story is simple, you have an anamorphic rabbit who wants to save his girl from the hands of an anamorphic evil turtle, sorta the play on of The Tortoise and the Hare I guess You have 6 main levels to choose from and they are in chapter format, as I mentioned 3 major levels that are broken down in 2 parts(HINT SONIC HINT HINT) before a boss that can be cheesed by staying in one spot and firing off it without it being to hurt you!

Game is fast paced rivaling Sonic in some sense but thankfully no pitfall or crush deaths, just spikes(sometimes) below at worst. Game plays more like Earthworm Jim if your familiar with that series with the run and gun inside a platformer needing to hit checkpoint and eventually the finish sign while blasting countless various enemies along the way. It isn't the perfect controlling platform as due to the speed, your protagonist will often slip and side when trying to move so at times, you need to fire at enemies far away to make sure you don't accidentally touch and thus hurt yourself on them.

The game offers up different weapons from BUSTER to MISSLES to BURNER SHOT to MEDICINE DROP SHOTS(As I call them, they look like pills!) to TNT. They all do the same exact damage, only each weapon gives you different projections which is vital for enemies below who can overwhelm you if they are in 2's or even 3's! You collect weapons along the way in the levels so your always going to be solid when it comes to ammo but what sucks is when you die, you lose everything you have or even when restarting a level. Ultimately, the generic buster shot you start with(Not like Mega Man) due to everything doing the same damage is good enough to pummel through most enemies but again certain enemies are positioned in a specific way, that having the other weapons availability makes life much easier.

You get 4 health but can pick up carrots for HP regain, invincibility pallets that are rarely around, minions like a OP bird that acts as 2nd shot and can take a hit for you, 2-4 shield pallets that protect you and again take hits for you if you make a mistake, a flying missle you ride around that negates the frustrating platforming elements in this game and speed shoes ala Sonic that makes everything turbo.

What sucks for me in this game is I tried very hard to get a controller compatibile with this game but unlike the sequel, I was unsuccessful so I had to make due with this game with a KEYBOARD. Keep in mind, how difficult it is to do a platformer like this with the up/down/left/right arrows and space to shoot and ALT/CTRL for weapon changing. I am a console gamer all the way through so this wasn't an easy transition and especially on very tricky platforms, it was frustrating. Mercifully, you get to reconfig the buttons the way you like them which is great.........except on the flying missle segments, you could not have the up arrow mean flying up, I had to set it up as ALT so I had to press ALT for up and down for DOWN :rofl:

I could have swapped back and forth but it would mean no full screen and seemed like a hassle given the missle segments are so few and far between in the game. Man I wish I could find a way to get a controller to work on this because it would have made life so much easier! In particular, I had to exit out of WORLD 2 at the very end with an impossible platform segments that seems even difficult with a controller! The let's plays I saw of this game, guys had to turn this super slow mo config and attempt to barely just do it. Terrible, terrible game mechanic, see for yourself.



Terrible, just terrible. They had to patch this out as supposedly this was a bug but the version I bought this for on GoG did not do this. 2:53 onward in the video, just awful.

Overall, I still have a few mode side levels to go but I did finish the main game and it took me only a couple of hours so for the under 2 buck price tag this game had, I say it was fine for what it was. I have heard the sequel is much better so I am very much excitedly waiting to jump into that.

Now fully done with Jazz Jackrabbit, finished up the 3 lost episodes and the Holiday Hare Christmas Jazz Jackrabbit edition. Altogether my thoughts are the same, few things I forgot to mention up above:

1) Very Sonic like that there are multiple routes to take in a level, except unlike with Sonic that different trails all lead you to one area finish, this game seemingly has different finish signs so technically you can go off road in a level but still end up clearing it. Pretty clever really, makes you willingly want to see what even different mini-path takes you in a level.

2) Frustrating part is that you can only do two keys at a time. For example, a downfall to the run and gunning in this game is you can't shoot while running in the air as the walk/run button are 1 button and the jumping up and down is another command so you can't shoot while jumping up in the air while running which stinks. So you have to make running jumps without shooting which can cost you vs some of the aerial enemies that seemingly pop up at the worst spots when doing so. You learn to compensate with this but boy the amount of times I was saying I wish you can do such a basic feature in the game!

Def. will play the sequel in the very near future. Probably see me next time here posting about Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal which I briefly started.

Mar 24, 2021 5:06:21 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Gonna be a while until I get to them, but just picked up a stack of PS2 games: Gun, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Maximo 1+2, Viewtiful Joe 1+2, and Personas 3 and 4.

Great games there, especially Viewtiful Joe 1 & 2, both Maximo games and Persona 3 & 4 of course. You got Persona 3 FES or regular Persona 3?

I wish they threw Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2 on PSN or something of a remaster, I don't have a PS2 but have both games in disc waiting to be replayed. Super fun games. I took the 1st one a couple years ago in our tourney for games!

Mar 30, 2021 2:05:01 GMT Blindy said:

Mar 24, 2021 5:06:21 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Gonna be a while until I get to them, but just picked up a stack of PS2 games: Gun, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Maximo 1+2, Viewtiful Joe 1+2, and Personas 3 and 4.

Great games there, especially Viewtiful Joe 1 & 2, both Maximo games and Persona 3 & 4 of course. You got Persona 3 FES or regular Persona 3?

I wish they threw Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2 on PSN or something of a remaster, I don't have a PS2 but have both games in disc waiting to be replayed. Super fun games. I took the 1st one a couple years ago in our tourney for games!

FES.

Great write-up on Jazz, Blindy. I used to play it over at a family friends back in the 90s, it was one of those games I always wanted to get my hands on but had to settle on Holiday Hare which just seemed inferior in every single way.

And today marked the day of the finishing of Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and the end of the Ratchet and Clank trilogy. Unlike the first two, this one I had not previously played and the one thing that I remember everything saying was that this was the beginning of the series being gun heavy and focusing less on platforming and more so more on run and running in areas, and it's true. I am torn on that because I feel like the different guns, which this game does offer albeit some of the "new" weapons are practical carbon copies like the star shooting weapon in this game. More enemies=different guns being used and the new feature of this game is not only weapon EXP based off of the damage that comes from your weapon but also your health is done by experience to. You start off with little HP and have to gradually build it as you "level" up in this game by killing enemies but it's all for naught when the damage adds up where end game you can die in 3 good shots by the enemies!

The problem in this case with the enemy overload is at least for the PS3 version of the collection, the slowdown is TERRIBLE. Talking under 15 FPS when you summon the necessary miniturret or agents of doom(AKA Glove of Doom) to help crowd control when surrounded by 5+ enemies that take quite a few good hits to kill. It's borderline unplayable and I shudder to wonder how much better this game is on the PS2 in it's original form! Likewise, in typical old school R&C fashion, the checkpoint system is cruel but in fairness, each section isn't that short but the problem is the damage output from one gunshot wipes out almost half your health so this game more than ever makes you focus on one thing in general:

The need to strafe! You have to learn to love the strafing, R&C 2 tapped into this late game for me but this was the game that made me realize how much of a crutch it is to shift left and right while in combat, shooting down enemies to survive. It's arguable at times that you need to be defensive and conservative in this game due to the ridiculous damage and there were times I had to stay far, far, far back out of the enemy's sight & cheese for the win.

The leveling up system differs here where each weapon has 5 levels, and sort of evolve per say with enough damage dealt from it. It's a really rewarding and satisfying system where your encouraged to drop your level 5 fully maxed out weapon to dapple with another weapon in the effort of boosting it's strength, especially when you run out of ammo on a weapon(Which you will unless you cave into the vendor despite saving up for armor or a new purchasable weapon!). I found myself late game with about 10-12 of my weapons fully charged up!

The story is sorta predictable and pretty clique for the game but honestly the antagonist, the infamous Dr. Nefarius is great and I think is the best antagonist of all of the R&C games(Well of the ones I have played). He has a Robot vs "squishies" mentality that is fueled over his backstory without spoiling too much and he really isn't a total dunce like say Captain Quark is but is still PG enough that he still is funny. The different boss fights in this game are great and I can say easily of the 3 PS2 games, this is the one with the best fights, where each differ in the patterns that are posed against you. Sure, at the end of the day, it's shoot the boss till it dies but the way the combat occurs is refreshing. By no means is this Dark Souls level of deepness as far as bosses go, far from it but you can see how all of the boss fights add to the challenge of Up Your Arsenal. Voice acting is the same as usual, it's just a funny enough game and doesn't lose it's charm in the least bit.

The lone gripes as I mentioned are the ridiculous enemy overload that is thrown at you where the damage output is outrageous but the one other thing I felt was a drawback are the minigames. I found myself dreading some of them like the button press Parappa the Rapper like prompts or the basic and atrocious hoverboard minigame, in large part because you can't gain health at all so your expected to mow down a hoard of enemies with 100 HP that shrinks in about 4 or 5 hits! Some minigames are fun like commanding Quark's newfound monkey friend(Story that takes a lot to explain!) and this game's version of the electrifying but I do think the minigames are mere distractions more than anything. I died twice on one by accidentally touching a laser despite having the necessary gadget around for crying out loud!

Overall, the game is fine and I can say it does not wear out it's welcome but I still think the pecking order of games goes:

R&C: Going Commando
R&C: Up Your Arsenal
R&C 2002

of the major 3. Nostalgia might be the reason for R&C: GC being above all but I think the pace was a tad bit better and the worlds felt larger and had 2 side missions rather than one major one in Up Your Arsenal with a side track that often leads to either a titanium bolt or a side piece. Most definitely, some things Up Your Arsenal does better than Going Commando like the boss fights so by all means, it is still a very fun & playable experience, just if you can, stay away from the PS3 version!


Will be doing Jazz Jackrabbit 2 very shortly after this and then I go on a hiatus from this thread due to some juicy releases coming this month!

R&C:UYA should beat GC for the Courtey Gear video alone. Though it been so long since I played GC the only thing I remember was their was a Giant Furby as a boss fight.

Honestly I don't remember anything individually about any of the R&C games, they are bleed together for me. Loved every one but couldn't tell you anything that separates them unless they were gimmicky (Deadlocked I think didn't have Clank as part of the fighting... and All4One obviously had the team element.)

Apr 4, 2021 20:11:33 GMT X-zero said:

R&C:UYA should beat GC for the Courtey Gear video alone. Though it been so long since I played GC the only thing I remember was their was a Giant Furby as a boss fight.

She is great, I really liked the cast of characters in Up Your Arsenal!



I beat the vanilla game of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, took only like 3.5 hours! I can already see why everyone is saying the game is flat out better than the 1st, for one having use of a controller is a game changer! You also get 3 characters in the version I got vs just 1 and each has a different ability and offer up different versatility with the main character having the best rate of fire on his gun to the 2nd character(Spaz?) having a double jump to the female bunny whose name crosses my mind having a Dixie Kong ripoff hair spin albeit not as good(You know I picked her for this). This just feels much better, not a perfect game which I will probably mention after I finish all of the side content with Holiday Hare, Secret Files & the user designed levels that is offered in this JJ2 final package.

Welp, had a bit more money than I'd expected, putting off buying a Switch hearing about a new model on the horizon, cleared a larger chunk of my PS2 backlog. Picked up: Manhunt, Red Dead Revolver, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, the Bouncer, Shinobi, Stuntman, and the four main Onimusha games. That clears my priority list, the rest are just strong maybes.

Also, digitally I picked up Vagrant Story, the PS3 store is going away and I'm not sure I'll like it to the degree of dropping damn near a hundred bucks on physical.

But, like all the others, this is all just stock at this point, no idea when I'm getting to any of this stuff.

Apr 9, 2021 8:10:39 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Welp, had a bit more money than I'd expected, putting off buying a Switch hearing about a new model on the horizon, cleared a larger chunk of my PS2 backlog. Picked up: Manhunt, Red Dead Revolver, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, the Bouncer, Shinobi, Stuntman

I thought my Playstation collecting days were done, but I'm not familiar with any of these games. Why have you added them to your collection? Sell me. I'm interested.

Not sure I could sell, just games I've played and know I enjoy, rather than the rest of the list, which is stuff I'm interested in but haven't touched so I'm not sure about buying. But, here goes.

Stuntman is a driving game where you play, and stick with me here, a stuntman. It's a game of nothing but challenges, you go in, it frames the scene, then you have to hit your marks to make the scene work. Mostly stuff you'd expect in a driving game, dodge obstacles, take sharp turns, flip 180's; then more specific stuff like 2 wheel motion or keeping pace to jump through a moving object. I know it gets pretty tough, I've never actually beaten it, but am a bit older now, so, maybe I can hit those hardest of tasks now.

Manhunt is Rockstar's stealth action game, you're put in a deathmatch scenario and must make your way through the world and off potential attackers in brutal fashion. Think the way the character controls in San Andreas, but a much smaller scale game. Or, well, I guess, Bully, but way more violent. There was a Manhunt 2, which I may get eventually, but I didn't enjoy that one as much.

Psi-Ops is a really underrated gem, fantastic usage of Psi powers, think Jedi but in an espionage setting. Lifting enemies into the air, filling 'em with lead, then hurling them at their allies. Does end on a cliffhanger and there was never a sequel though, so, there's that.

Red Dead Revolver technically launches the "Red Dead" series, but the game actually has no connection with the Redemption games, other than Red Harlow, the star, getting passing mentions around campfires in the first of those. Definitely antiquated when stacked up against the Redemption games, or even the Call of Juarez games, but I do loves me some westerns.

The Bouncer is an action RPG, more beat 'em up than RPG, but some good fun. It's a Square game, so that sort of story with a selection of different characters that each have different moves and a different view on the story, and some solid beat 'em up action.

Shinobi is a lightning fast ninja action game, I'd say a bit Devil May Cryish...but more platforming.

Edit: Also, I saw them on the cheap digital, so I picked up Final Fantasy VII and VIII and both the Chrono games. Growing up, I could never get into turn based, been rather vocal on it being one of my least favorite styles. But then I loved the two South Park games and Persona 5, so these’ll be the litmus test to see if I finally get what what I was missing growing up, maybe check out more classics...or if modern turn based just found what I was missing, and the classics are still lost on me.

Flying through XIII now.

I find that I don't care much about the story but the gameplay is mostly very fun and there's a good variety of levels. The first true stealth mission involves creeping around a snowy military base. If you get spotted, it's a matter of seconds before the guards set off the alarm, and you have to restart the mission. Pretty challenging but didn't feel unfair; there are a few ways to dispose of guards without alerting others. That took a few tries but was a nice challenge.

Later on the game starts to play dirty with you. There's a level where you have to break out of prison. You punch a couple of guards to death, take their pistols, and it's off to the races. As you'd expect, you don't have much ammo and health to play with. More significantly, the AI suddenly becomes hyper aware and can sniff you coming a mile away. There's parts where you have to open gates with keys, this is clumsy and takes time, and there's no way you can't do it without exposing yourself to gunfire. Once you get past this bit there's a convenient sniper rifle lying around, but even then it's really difficult to make progress without taking damage. The guards are even more eagle-eyed than you are at this point.

Moderate levels of bullshit. I eventually got to the end of that level and the subsequent asylum level, where you fight the first boss. I forget his name but he's an evil doctor mad scientist kinda guy who has the same superpowers you do. Can take a dozen gunshots and survive, super fast. Fortunately he does very little damage so you just keep shooting him as he comically darts around the room throwing random shit at you like a Crash Bandicoot boss. After killing this asshole the next step is to get out of there. You free an innocent nurse along the way, who says you "have to take her hostage". Hostage taking is introduced in the second level of the game, and I had basically forgotten all about it. You can't reload or use medkits when holding someone hostage. It's suppose to stop the guards shooting you, but the fuckers shot me anyway. So I died a few times. Then I decided to forego the hostage option, kill all the guards, go back and grab the nurse. I don't know if you are required to take the nurse out of the level with you (I didn't try doing it without), but she pops up at the start of the next level (Grand Canyon) to say goodbye...so I rescued her to leave her stranded in the desert.

Grand Canyon is super bullshit. Several sections with narrow passages leading to open areas where guys perched half a mile away bombard you with RPGs. Sniper rifle is the only realistic way to win. Unfortunately I only had a handful of bullets left from the prison. They got me past the first lot, but then there's a second lot of bazooka bastards. After much bullshit trial and error I managed to pull off some miracles with my revolver - shooting a guy when he's barely a blip the screen - because I couldn't find another way to do it. If I get within any reasonable range they blow me up.

Right after that you get the bazooka for yourself and there's an amusing section where a corridor of guys runs at you. There's a little hill so you can pop over the hill, fire a bazooka, go back down, reload, and wait for more grunts to appear. Gotta admit, that's a lot of fun. The designers must have been aware of that bullshit and given you a fun little comeuppance.

One thing I like about this game is how it always manages to catch me out. Right at the end of the level there's a plane you have to enter to exit the level. I figure "I go near that plane and a bunch of guys will come out all guns blazing". I run up to the plane, touch it, nothing happens. Seconds later there's a shot on my back. Motherfucker. I run aroun the plane to take cover and snipe the one lone ranger that's left. End level.

That's a beautiful touch, helps add to the authenticity that you are a real guy on a real mission and anything can happen.

Mega Man 5

Replayed Mega Man 5 with a revisit to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne HD(Which will all be in this thread because it's a PS2 remaster muahaha!) looming this Tuesday for me, had heard MM5 was considered the easiest of the NES Mega Man games but honestly, not sure if it was the 4 month rust of these games but I struggled somewhat with this game!

Now don't get me wrong, I beat all 8 robot masters with the mega buster, which is a first for me and should have been a trophy in the MM Collection IMHO and this game hands out lives like it's candy but the amount of cheap spike deaths and fall deaths to compensate for difficulty was maddening. Yeah enemies respawn when you barely leave a screen but that's the NES for you, I am used to it at this point, the cheap deaths are filtered all throughout the game. I died more times on this stuff than I did off losing my health naturally! The Robot masters feel sorta recycled in some sense but you do get some cool fights like Gravity Man that your constantly on a different level than the boss and have one shot to hit him and have to dodge his regular attacks all the mean while. I did die quite a bit on some of them vs one shotting others, even with not having full health! The Protoman & Wily stages offered more difficulty due to the aforementioned and the storyline of Protoman setting up Dr Light being kidnapped and causing Mega Man loads of trouble in recovering him from the hands of Dr Wily is a neat story, where the real Protoman and not the imposter one comes out and saves your bacon is still so cool. Protoman is the man, and still to this day, not sure why he's evil in the cheesy anime series.

Game is more of the same than previous Mega Mans but this wasn't the walk in the park I thought I would be getting but still did end up finishing the game in one Sunday afternoon/early evening so worth it totally. The true final boss is a bit of an annoyance due to RNG of him spawning in different elevations where if you run out of a certain weapon(Which I did and early!), he's a chore to beat and you have to dodge 85% of the time and get one chance to hit him on the right level and just bide your time and preserve your health. Very meh but not the first fight that's like this, IIRC the true final boss of MM4 did the same thing.

Have you ever played Nocturne before Blindy? I played through the opening about six years ago and it had one of my favourite presentations of all-time. Very Killer 7 esque and I felt really uneasy even before everything goes down.

I might play alongside you from the otherside of the world.

May 25, 2021 10:53:18 GMT Big Pete said:

Have you ever played Nocturne before Blindy ? I played through the opening about six years ago and it had one of my favourite presentations of all-time. Very Killer 7 esque and I felt really uneasy even before everything goes down.

I might play alongside you from the otherside of the world.

Yep a revisit though I got up to the true final boss of the game and dropped it since IIRC I had to grind out a certain ability to do damage on it. Was silly, I spent so many hours going through all of that to just stop. Now I am finishing the deed on my PS5 and dude your going to love this game. Same with Emperor who can play it on the PS2!

It's been a good 7-8 years since I last played it so I won't remember everything but man your in for a treat on a blind playthrough.

If you at all liked the SMT Persona 3 or 4 games, this game is right up your alley. Gone is the JPOP/JROCK and now the game has a metal apocalyptic sound and some instrumental music. All of the SMT demons are in this and have tons of lure from Hinduism, Norse, Egyptian, Catholic, satanism etc. No more social links or dating sim stuff, pure SMT with you getting to choose a side for one of SIX(!) endings. Only c knows the game and knows it to be pretty hard, the game is punishing but if you know the SMT Persona combat and how it works with buff/debuffs and the spell exploitation, your going to rock this game. 

One of the best RPG experiences for me ever. That's why I got the PS4 edition despite it being 50 bucks, though no to Dante and yes to FN Raidou of the Devil Summoner series because Dante DLC costs 10 bucks(Thanks Capcom). The dungeons are more complex in this game than P3 or P4 and it's a far darker tale which says something. This and Digital Devil Saga series are fantastic.

XIII

Continuing from my last post...

The next level sees me have to sneak into a base by swimming through sewage pipes. You have to pop up for air at various points. The first of these checkpoints, there are two guards on a bridge above your head. It's seemingly pot luck whether they notice you when you pop your head out of the water. If they do, instant game over because you can't be seen. Fortunately this is 1 minute into the level and you don't get seen on the second checkpoint so not too awful.

Skipping forward a few levels, I'm at the second boss in the game. General Whats-his-face. Feels like a Metal Gear Solid boss where it's more of a tactical shootout then a slugfest. He zips out from under cover at lightning speed peppering you with an automatic gun. Hard to get a shot on the guy. He doesn't hit you often from a distance either, but when he does it's a decent chunk of health.

In XIII you are superhuman: can take way more bullets than the guys you are fighting and you are pretty fast. This guy is faster, has greater defense, and if you get too close he will just stand in front of you and gun you down. He kills you way faster than you kill him. So essentially exactly what I've been doing to grunts the whole game. Gotta be honest, feels bad now that the shoe is on the other foot.

I've yet to figure out a strategy to combat this guy. He beats me at a distance and at close range.

So how "old" do you think a game has to be before it can be considered "retro". Or is it just code for the pre cd era of gaming?

May 25, 2021 23:31:57 GMT @ness said:

So how "old" do you think a game has to be before it can be considered "retro". Or is it just code for the pre cd era of gaming?

I would say two gens in between are the difference for me so to me, PS2/GameCube/XBOX OG are retro. They will be soon 20 years old!

I'm considering PS2 retro now, as much as it pains me to admit it.

May 26, 2021 16:26:10 GMT Emperor said:

I'm considering PS2 retro now, as much as it pains me to admit it.

How's that backlog coming?

I'm working my way through a PS2 game now, so that's progress!