Thursday, September 17, 2009

Quick thoughts volume 1

One thing I've noticed about the games I've been playing lately is that they're taking at least more than five hours to complete. Here's just a sort-of progress report about the games I'm currently playing:

Crimson Sea 2 - So far this game isn't too bad. There's not a lot of variety in the environments and it can kind of reminds me of Phantasy Star Online in that it uses different enemy combinations and the placement of a few key structures to keep stages different from each other. I guess it makes sense because apparently there are over 60 missions. 

Crimson Tears - Turns out this game is by Spike/Dream Factory. Spike assists in the development of the Way of the Samurai series and Dream Factory is responsible for that PS2 launch "classic" The Bouncer. Yeah I dunno how Capcom managed to get these guys together either. This game is the standard combination of action, random dungeons, and treasure. The dungeons are very bland and each of the 8 levels has maybe one or two unique qualities to them. Most of the time it's simply about beating up foes and moving on.

This game is probably the one I've spent the most time with so far. It's actually very addictive thanks to the RPG-esque sub-systems. This is a bad thing for me because I've been trying to get away from games that rely on these things to keep people playing. Basically I feel compelled to play simply to watch my numbers rise. Unfortunately the game-mode I'm looking forward to can't be accessed until after the game is beaten. This special mode basically sets the player's level at 99 and forces them to enter a huge dungeon with no equipment or items. This sounds like a interesting mode since it really gives off the roguelike vibe.

Midway Arcade Treasures 2 - I'm a fan of Midway's first arcade compilation but I'm not so sure on this one.  There's a handful of truly bad games in this set and some just happen to be far worse than I remember. I'll have to give it some more time. 

Kuon - If I had known this game was going to be closer to the older Resident Evils than Silent Hill I'm not so sure I would have picked it up. Luckily the only things that actually carry over from old-school RE are the relatively useless knives and the limited saves. The controls are much better. Haven't gotten far at all in this one though cause it's a Survival Horror title and I prefer to play those at night. Problem is I work nights and the last thing I need after a long one is to stress over getting eaten by demons.

King's Field The Ancient City - I played through this game before but that was a long time ago so I forgot practically everything. It still holds up rather well though fans of fast-paced action will hate this game. The pacing is practically glacial and even turning around can take a long time. Still though it's probably the most accessible of the series.

Shadow Tower - First thing I did when I started this game is fall off a cliff and die. No really I did a half-step to the left and fell to my death. On top of that I died three times just trying to find the first savepoint and then died a couple more times on a pair of skeletons. This game is very rough, unfriendly, and clearly doesn't want to beaten. I'll give it a go anyway cause I enjoy pain.

Wizardry Tale of the Forsaken Land - I'm nearing the end of this game and let me just go ahead and say I love it. That's all for now.

Shadow of the Colossus - This game still holds up very well despite the somewhat dated presentation. The framerate isn't really much of a bother either. Haven't gotten too far though as mostly I've just been goofing around and exploring the world. 

Nightshade - I'm only up to the 4th stage on this game(beaten it before) so I'm curious to see how it'll turn out despite what I thought of it in the past. I can tell right now though that the levels run too long and the three bosses I've faced kind of stunk. It has more content at least and the basics of Shinobi have been carried over nicely but I don't know.

Silpheed: The Lost Planet - Like most launch PS2 titles Silpheed got a bad rap. I'm not sure what people were expecting but I guess with Treasure at the helm it must have been Radiant Silvergun 2 or something. Regardless S:TLP isn't too bad. The scoring system is based on how close the player is when they destroy an enemy. This system was also used in that XBLA/PSN release of 1943 but in Silpheed it actually works. Otherwise I'm not sure what else to say.

Gradius V - Whoo boy I stink at this game. Currently on normal difficulty the farthest I can get is stage 4 which is less than halfway through the game(note that as expected of the genre I'm not using continues). It's obvious I won't be imitating any of those high-level plays on youtube anytime soon. Anyway this game is still pretty good. I need quite a bit more time with it though.

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