Page 20 of 35 FirstFirst ... 101415161718192021222324252630 ... LastLast
Results 286 to 300 of 518

Thread: WK's Top something or other... let's just say "games" and call it good list.

  1. #286
    Newbie Administrator Loony BoB's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2000
    Posts
    52,431
    Articles
    53
    Blog Entries
    19

    FFXIV Character

    Loony Bob (Twintania)

    Default

    Oh man, I loved Wild Arms! I remember nothing about it other than that I really enjoyed it. xD

    FFIX was good too.
    Bow before the mighty Javoo!

  2. #287
    Witch of Theatergoing Karifean's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Wandering the Kakera
    Posts
    3,933
    Articles
    1
    Blog Entries
    146

    Default

    I stand corrected.

  3. #288
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Nowhere and Everywhere
    Posts
    19,544
    Articles
    60
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    32.While the majority of games on this list could be said to be near and dear to my heart, Secret of Mana is a game that would easily rank in my top five most influential games for me. While I had dabbled in some PC and NES RPGs in the past, this is the game I consider to be my first true RPG. My friends in middle school were big on the genre and always wanted me to play some, but I was a arcade brat who liked his beat em ups and side scrolling shooters. So when this game came along, they used this as the game to bait me into playing the genre finally, and it didn't take long for me to get hooked. Even to this day, some of my fondest gaming memories from my childhood days are doing three player co-op with this. I still have a soft spot for the Sprite since I was always relegated to their character.

    In the distant past, the power of Mana flowed throughout the world. Yet some wicked forces coveted its power and tried to take it all for themselves. They built the Mana Fortress to absorb all of its power and let themselves rule the world as a deity. Yet a mysterious hero arrived with the Sword of Mana and a Mana Beast. Together they destroyed the Mana Fortress and sealed its remnants away. The power of Mana was weakened terribly from this war, but soon began to slowly recover. The hero disappeared, but their sword lived on in legend going by many names. When our story begins, this history is now considered to be nothing more than a fairy tale. The new Vandole Empire has risen, an they too wish to monopolize the last remaining power of Mana and resurrect the fortress of legend.

    When the game opens up, we are introduced to Randi, an orphan boy living in Potos Village who just wants to fit in. When he goes exploring with some other village kids near the forbidden waterfall, he gets swept away by the water and separated from the other children. He finds an old rusted sword that calls out to him. When he takes the sword from its Arthurian resting place, monsters begin to appear around his village. Randi discovers the sword is the actual Sword of Mana, its power all but nearly gone since the times of legend. Banished from his home for breaking the seal on the sword. Randi meets the Sage Luca whom tasks him with reviving the swords power and sealing the Seeds of Mana before the Empire can revive the Mana Fortress. On his way, he meets the spirited Primm, a Pandorian nobles daughter who has fallen in love with a lowly knight named Dyluck who has gone missing after a failed attack on the Witch Elinee's castle. Dyluck is now being prepared by the wicked Thanatos to serve as his new vessel and Primm pursues the two of them to rescue Dyluck. He also encounters an amnesiac Sprite named Popoi, an arrogant and boisterous being who is first met working as a con artist in the Dwarven Caves. Together, the three journey across the world seeking the Mana Seeds and trying their best to thwart the Vandole Empire. They are aided by the Eight Spirits of Mana and the baby dragon Flammie on their journey to stop the Mana Fortress' revival.

    SoM's plot is pretty standard issue for JRPG plots. Mana itself has always been a series that revels in the themes of fairy tales, but I also feel like if you're goign to go that route, you should do it well. Secret of Mana does in my opinion as it combines old tropes like the Sword in the Stone, with tales of the Fair Folk, the evil empire slick, the legend of Midas, and even a wicked witch or two. I think what is most interesting about Mana is that despite the bright and cheerful colors and cutesy enemy designs, the game is incredibly dark. Its got its humorous moments of course, but overall, there is a real sense of hopelessness in the plot. Even the ending itself is incredibly bittersweet and most of the game's major subplots like Randi's parents, Primm's search for Dyluck, and Popoi trying to reclaim their memory usually takes a downward turn once they appear. I feel its this contrast and juxtaposition of the game's graphical style and story content that really impressed me about this game. SoM may have had a pretty poor translation when it first came out, but I feel the plot gets across pretty well overall, made more apparent to me when I played the remake and saw a more "complete" version of the script which can best be described as being a bit more elegant in presentation than the original, but still gets across the same information. The few significant changes are mostly callbacks to the first Mana game.
    It's a bit ironic that it was an Action-RPG that finally got me into the genre of playing RPGs. The irony being that I'm not a big fan of the sub-genre and can be incredibly picky about the battle systems. This game is maybe one of five or six Action-RPGs on this list. It's not even for nostalgia either. Replaying the remake released a while ago, I was actually surprised how smart the gameplay is. The game reuses the Power Gauge mechanic from Final Fantasy Adventure which controls the power of your attacks. Once you swing a weapon the gauge depletes to 0 and slowly climbs back to 100%. You can actually swing the weapons with reckless abandon if you wish. but the power of the attack is based on that percentage between 0 and 100, so in order to do consistent max damage, you have to actually hold off attacking and let it recharge. This is an incredibly clever take on ATB if you think about it, and I'm a little sad future installments ignore this mechanic because it not only made combat more unique, but it gives the game an aspect I find lacking in most Action-RPGs which is a sense of tactics caused by overcoming limitations. I can't just go in swords swinging and hope for victory, I need to back off and let my power recharge, at which point I have to be careful of enemy attacks. Anyone who has taken any kind of combat training will know this is really closer to how fighting actually goes because you can't just fight continuously without tiring out. Helping things out here as well is the variety of weapon types you can use. While the group start with a Sword, knuckles, and a Boomerang; they will eventually gain a whole assortment of weapons that can be upgraded by Watts the Blacksmith. The Spirits of Mana the party encounter throughout the adventure will also lend their power and bequeath their magic power to Primm and Popoi. Primm's magic is support and healing based, while Popoi gains mostly offensive and debuff spells. Magic may be one of the only major criticisms I can give to the game's battle system as it ends up becoming a powerful crutch that will trivailize most boss fights as long as you keep up with leveling it. Seriously, as soon as the boss appears, just chain cast magic on them until you're out of MP with Popoi and then clean up with magic enhanced weapons. It will take out 95% of the bosses no problem except the final boss and every boss you face before magic becomes available. Hell, leveling Primm's magic is super easy as you can just chain cast her magic in friendly zones like Sage Luca's Water Temple and then just have Luca heal you for free as you chain cast it to the maximum level you can obtain at the moment. The only thing that keeps this from breaking the game is that Magic Level is capped at how many Mana Spirits you have at the time.

    I feel one of SoM's cooler features that gets downplayed a lot is how it has a mostly seamless world. Following in the footsteps of games like The Legend of Zelda, there is no world map, its a seamless and sometimes open world for the most part. You do get gated of course, not like you can hop a few cannon travel rides to get to the Vandole Empire the second you leave Potos Village, but the areas can be huge and there are usually multiple paths you can take to reach the same destination in places. This also plays into how the game gives you two different means of meeting and recruiting Primm. Some players may witness her story by reaching Pnadora and visiting her house after meeting Dyluck and his crew, while other players can ignore going to Pandora to just make a beeline to the Dwarf Village to reach Elinee's Haunted Forest, where they'll meet Primm during a tough mini-boss fight instead as she tries to tackle the woods alone to rescue Dyluck. This means you can actually choose the order your recruit either of the other two party members, which was pretty neat for the console genre back in the day. Likewise, the maps have challenges that require use of some of the weapons to get through. You'll need long range weapons to flip crystal switches from across chasms. You'll need the whip itself to cross said chasms, and the Axe is needed to break down stone obstacles. Even in more straightforward maps, the gameplay is involving in a logical way. Again, this is something that isn't really considered speacil anymore but looking at SoM's design, it was really well thought out. The other major claim to the game was being one of the rare multiplayer RPGs. While most FFs did have a multiplayer style feature, due to the nature of the game, SoM played almost like an arcade beat em up with its multiplayer. To say you were a popular kid in school if you had both Secret of Mana and the multiap is an understatement.

    Secret of Mana also has one of my favorite soundtracks from the 16-bit era. I still get goosebumps from hearing Fear of the Heavens, which is up there as one my all time favorite VGM tracks of all time. It is a damn shame that Hiroki Kikuta never stayed on as a composer for Square even as a freelance, because his work on both Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana are exceptional. While Mana has never had a token composer for the franchise since very few have stayed on the franchise for more than two entries; I'm sure if you asked any longtime fan of the franchise who the main composer of the franchise was it would likely be Hiroki Kikuta. Fun fact: Normally in this MIDI era, a composer would create the composition and hand it over to a sound engineer to convert the track into MIDI format. Being a complete control freak, Kikuta bypassed the enginners and composed the music using only the MIDI hardware so he would know exactly how it would sound. It shows how important this was too cause SoM is filled with really awesome tracks like Fear of the Heavens, Child of the Fairy Tribe, A Wish, Soul of the Night, Eternal Recurrence, The Eight Strokes of the Bell, Ceremony, Pure Night, The Sorceror, and Meridian Dance to name off a few. Hell, it would be easier to list off the tracks I'm not completely infatuated with.

    Of all the Mana games, I feel SoM has the most interesting backstory to its development that plays into a personal theory of mine. You see, I feel SoM was the game that really changed how Square approached their future games. Its interesting how some of the more open ended design of SoM found itself in games like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. Likewise, the use of Mode 7 Effects from this game were practically copied and psted into FFVI. Secret of Mana began its life as an exclusive for the upcoming Super Famicom CD-Rom Perirphial PlayStation. As many people know, Nintendo and Sony had a major disagreement over the system and eventually Nintendo sank the project which Sony turned around and released as their own system. What some don't know is what happened to a lot of the games that developers were making for the system such as SoM. Koichi Ishii had abeen a regualr at Square since the original Final Fantasy. He wanted to create his own game called Seiken Densetsu but was rejected in the early days until he was given free reigh to make Final Fantasy Gaiden (Final Fantasy Adventure for us NA fans) where he was able to sneak in his rogiinal ideas for an Action-RPG. The game did well enough for Ishii to be granted the chance to direct his own game. So along with Nasir Gebelli (Programmer of the NES FF games, and Mana being his final game for Square) and Hiromichi Tanaka as producer, Ishii was finally bale to make another entry in his Seiken Densetsu series and for the first time, had a lot of control over it. While the full scope of the game is unknown since developers kept poor records of this time, we do know that with the cancellation of the CD-Rom periphial caused the team to have to convert over everything they made for this game down into the smaller cartridge format. Some features that are known to have been lost was the fact the game originally had multiple endings and featured a more open ended playstyle with multiple story paths. A lot of the planned content had to either be cut or reworked to fit the older format, and this did create some technical issues, though I would point out that this may have also saved the game from dealing with loading times. Ishii estimates that about 40% of the original content had to be axed for the game and sadly I do feel it shows as the plot does feel a bit choppy in places which were not helped by the games skin of its teeth translation job by Ted Woolsey who had a mere 30 days to translate the whole game which was further hampered by the text being sent to him out of order and the game being stuck to using a font style that drastically limited how much could be displayed. Of anything, it's a miracle this game did so well in in North America.

    Ishii has said that Secret of Mana feels like his own game, and he's right. While SoM is the second game in the series, it really should be considered the true first entry as Adventure still utilizes too many elements from Final Fantasy to be its own thing. Likely the reason Ishii choce to remake the game as Sword of Mana years later, which is an unapologetic Mana title that stripped out all the FF elements and crammed it full of Mana ones instead. Secret of Mana just has a unique and different feel from Adventure and having more creative control allowed Ishii to make a game that start the third pillar of Square's RPG juggernaut status in the mid 90s along with Final Fantasy and SaGa. Perhaps I lucked out and was simply part of an outlier group of people, but among my friends and gaming classmates, Secret of Mana and the Mana franchise in general were well regarded and praised on the same level as Final fantasy and Chrono Trigger. Even quirky Legend of Mana was pretty popualr among my peers at the time.

    SoM finally allowed Ishii to create his own series, and this game inparticualr expanded the mythology and feel that would become quintessential for the series. Flammie, Rabites, the Mana Spirits, and a few other elements. Probably the biggest contribution is creating the central ecological theme of the series by merging the usual magical macguffin trope that runs rampant in the genre and by grounding it into this idea of Mana as a natural elemental force that is interconnected with life and the planet. While this isn't necessarily new for Square since the first Final Fantasy pulled this off as well, I don't really feel like FF has hit as close to Mana has on this message with a few major exceptions like V and VII. Helping to drive this mesaage is really the art direction of the game. Again, Mana has always had a more cutesy rt direction from other Square and JRPGs in general. Yet I've always felt this was intentional as a way to really show the corruption caused by the misuse of Mana. Rabites just don't look like something you should ever be worried about, and yet there is something unsetteling about having to chop them down left and right. This is especially poignant in this title as the story explains that monsters really didn't start to bother certain places like Potos Village until the Sword of Mana's seal was broken. It gets interesting to see how monsters go from being really cutesy like Tropicallo, who is a funny looking Palm Tree looking creature and then get further along to face something like the infamous Dark Lich. Again, that inner darkness and juxtapositon really plays well together in this series as most people who played this game back in the day will likely talk about how disturbing Thanatos is as a villain. Its scary to think that Hiromichi Tanaka has said the original script for this game was much darker. Somethign I feel most fans won't argue with considering how darker and edgier Trials of Mana turned out to be in comparison.
    Likewise, another aspect I like about the game was how it really deconstructs and reconstructs the Arthurian Sword of Legend story angle. The Mana Sword is a rusty relic by the time Randi finds it, and even the knight Jemma feels he was only able to retrieve the weapon was because its power had faded too much. So randi finds himself in the ignoble task of having to try and restore the swords power since it was his fault for breaking the seal. He's treated as the unchosen one and many figures in the story, while happy to see the sword of legend return, are not quite as thrilled with the country bumpkin attached to it. This of course gets completely subverted towards the end of the game when its revealed that Randpossesses a bloodline connected to the Tribe of Mana and his father was the last Mana Knight. The deconstruction here is that while this gave Randi the power to weild the sword, he still had to work towards becoming worthy of its power by restoring it and stopping the Vandole Empire, making it much closer in line to some Arthurian myths in the process. Ishii has described his take on Mana as an unfolding mythology shown in the medium of video games. Funny enough, SoM feels abit bare bones compared to many of the games that came after it in this regard, but I feel the games interesting handling of old myths and legends really add to this fairy tale feel of the game that would become more and more predominate as the series grew.

    Two years ago, Square-Enix finally released a remake of this game, and while I had a lot of fun replaying it, I'm not going to lie. I was a bit disappointed in it as I was hoping for SE to do more with the game, maybe try to add back some elements that were cut or add a few new features. Instead, I was given a graphical update at best, which itself is more humble than the powerhouse consoles the game was released for. I still stand by my theory that the remake was a Vita title originally that was then changed into a console port when it was almost finished. My bigger upset was that playing the upcoming Trials of Mana remake, which took great strives to translate the game into a true 3D gaming experience has me only thinking about what might had been if the same care had been placed on this title. Still, I am grateful that SE chose to remake the game anyway and to even release it again.
    Mana was an important series for me growing up, and so seeing SE work to bring it back has been one of the most pleasant things to come out of the company in the past few years. Secret of Mana will always be a game near and dear to my heart. It formally introduced me to a life long love of JRPGs, and I still find the game to be inspiring to this day. despite my disappointment with the remake, I still had a blast playing through it because the core game holds up way better than I could imagine.While the game only clocks in at 32 for this list, I still have days where this game could creep into my top ten if I wanted to. This is easily my nostalgia title for the SNES and just thinking about this game makes me feel all warm and gooey inside as I remember fun summer evening playing this game to completion or awesome sleep overs at a friends house tackling the Mana Beast in multiplayer. Lately, some of my old college friends have wanted me to hang out with them to replay this game and if I can spare the time, I'm going to take them on the offer.


    Original Script
    If this was a list simply about the most important games in my life, this would probably top five material right here. While Battletech was my first real role-playing game and I had played a few Zelda titles here and there, this is what I actually think of when I talk about my first RPG. I had two friends in middle school who loved the genre and wanted me to play it and I always declined on the grounds that I loved action games more. So when one of them convinced me to try out an Action-RPG, I said "why the hell not?" and borrowed it. If I told myself then how much this game was going to open up both my passion for a new genre of games, but also something that would have more personal impacts on my life, I would probably laugh it off.I ended up buying the game from my friend, and I still have his older brother's save file on it where he renamed the main cast with "dick" in all of them. Childish, but hilarious even now for the blackmail potential.

    A long time ago, evil forces once tried to take control of Mana, the primordial force that creates and controls the world, and built an evil fortress powered by it to subjugate the world. With the power of Mana draining from the machines engines, the world nearly lost the power of Mana until a warrior appeared, brandishing the Mana sword, who slayed the evil doers and stopped the Mana Fortress. While the warrior eventually passed on, his sword continued to be well known through legend as it changed owners hands before disappearing in the flow of time.

    In the modern age, both the Sword of Mana and the Mana Fortress are simply myths and while great feats of magic are still possible with the little Mana left in the world, it's power too has faded to obscurity. One day, outside of the village of Potos, the orphan Randi travels with two boys in the village looking for a treasure rumored to be near the waterfall. The boys are trying to keep their treasure hunt a secret because the place is also forbidden. Randi slips on the log bridge and falls down the waterfall. Unharmed, he sees that the growth of vegetation has blocked his path and can't proceed. Looking for something to cut it, Randi discovers the shiny object, a rusted sword thrust into a stone. Hearing an odd voice calling for him, Randi takes the sword and a bright light flashes before he sees the vision of an eerie ghost. Despite the shock, Randi cuts his way out of the lake-bed and soon discovers monsters roaming the woods around the town, despite none ever being in the area. When he returns home, he's chastised for entering the forbidden area with the other boys before the elder sees in horror that Randi has the rusted sword which legend says if it was ever to be pulled out from its resting place, the village and world would soon face calamity. Blamed for the sudden appearance of monsters, Randi is attacked by one of the children before an earthquake swallows them up and they are nearly eaten by a Mantis monster. With the guidance of the Knight Jema and using the sword, Randi fights off the monster but is exiled from the village for his transgression. Jema informs him that the sword he holds is the legendary Mana Sword and tasks him with restoring the sword. On his journey, Randi meets Primm, a young feisty tomboy in search of her love Dyluck who disappeared on a mission for their village; and Popoi, a rare Sprite creature with amnesia who is trapped in the dwarven jails for his mischievous behavior. The three embark on a journey across the world to restore the sword and Mana itself while fighting off the evil forces who wish to revive the Mana Fortress for their own deeds.

    Released in 93, Secret of Mana is a sequel to Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden) and the first game in the series to bear the Mana title. Originally envisioned as Square's first major title to utilize CD-Rom technology on the new Super Famicom CD attachment being built by Sony, when the CD unit was scrapped, Square found themselves in the conundrum of having spent a large amount of time and money on the project with no system to release it. Not wishing for it to go to waste, the game was condensed onto the much smaller cartridge medium of the time. So if you ever wondered why Secret of Mana feels a bit choppy or say drops the plot and just starts telling you to go here and do this, that's why. This debacle is also pointed out by some people to be when Square started to form plans to leave Nintendo for another platform. Despite this hardship, the team did their best to build a rather groundbreaking Action-RPG which made use of the SNES multitap to have three player co-op, and I will say it was smurfing amazing back in the day to do so.

    Gameplay is pretty simple on paper, but actually has a surprising amount of depth for it's time. You can walk around the screen and interact with monsters with the attack button. Every time you swing your weapon, a timer appears on the status bar showing how much longer until your next attack will be full power. You can swing with wild abandon if you wish, but your hits will be weak, whereas waiting for the timer to fill back up to 100% will guarantee a strong attack. I didn't really understand it when I first played, but it doesn't take long to instinctively realize what's going on. Primm and Popoi can use magic which involves pulling up the inventory screen and selecting the Mana Spirit you wish to summon and perform which spells. Primm focuses on healing and support magic, while Popoi gets mostly offensive magic. What's actually really groundbreaking about this game is the seamless world it creates, something borrowed from Zelda but still distinctively Square with the shops and greater emphasis on graphics. Your party actually travels to several unique locations ranging from deserts, snowy forests, a really cool forest that changes seasons as you pass through it, dark tombs and even the Moon. The Pure Lands are easily one of the most atmospheric locations in the game with it's gorgeous music and pain in the ass difficulty spike. In addition, the various weapons you gaincan also be used to pass obstacles like using the axe to break heavy wood barriers, or using the whip to traverse gaps between cliffs, the game has a cool Zelda-vibe going for it. Despite the game's cutesy designs and up beat soundtrack, Secret of Mana is a surprisingly somber experience. It's a bit funny to imagine how a game where your party kind of beats up Santa Claus (yes, that one) can also be a game with some truly gut-punching moments like Popoi regaining his memories, Primm and Dylucks story, as well as anytime Randi learns anything about his parents. The game's ending, like the whole franchise in general, is pretty bittersweet with the party having to fight a friend and and lose another. Helping the game's plot are some really great tracks by Hiroki Kikuta who went on to do Seiken Densetsu 3's OST as well.

    What's really interesting about this game is also how much it radically changed a lot of RPGs after it. While Square had been experimenting with Mode 7 effects in earlier titles like FFIV and V as well as the Romancing SaGa series, it's interesting how many elements wound up in later games like FFVI and Chrono Trigger to give them some really cool psudeo-3D effects. In fact the whole layout of Flammie flying your party was copy and pasted for FFVI's airships. The game also experimented with better sprite work and finally moving the genre away from the traditional one graphics for traveling and other for fighting, as the sprites for exploration is the same in comabt, another feature seen many of Squares later 16-bit titles and something they stuck to in the PS1 generation when their knowledge of the tech would allow them to. In a lot of ways, this game is kind of the beginning of the new era for Square in terms of bringing about their visual and design philosophy they hold onto. While the game looks adn plays pretty simplistically b modern standards, this game was actually pretty groundbreaking and even before my friend lent the game to me, I was aware of it's existence because a lot of gaming mags I read at the time liked to do spotlights on it.

    This is another one of those games where simply thinking about it really draws me back to parts of my childhood and I will honestly still get in the mood to play this game while watching videos of Sailor Moon or Gargoyles cause that's what I was into around the time I was playing this. I even wrote some awful stories that were close to blatant ripoffs of this game, but it really got my creative juices flowing and if I'm going to do the magic sword plot device, I kind of take my cues from this game.

    I'm actually kind of excited to see this game get a remake next year. Despite the grating English voice they gave to Randi, I'm hoping to see if SE might either put back some of the cut content, or at least finally give us a decent translation outside of the mobile port. Of anything, it will be nice to play three player co-op again. If you haven't experienced this gem of a game yet, check it out. I'm still draggin my feet to play is supposed superior sequel, but I'm looking forward to it.

  4. #289
    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Tower of the Swallow
    Posts
    18,929
    Articles
    57
    Blog Entries
    16

    FFXIV Character

    Fynnek Zoryasch (Twintania)
    Contributions
    • Former Editor
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    I played this on my iPhone and liked it a lot, but then near the end I just stopped playing and never came back to it. I have no idea why. I think I just got distracted and forgot about it. But maybe I'll get the 3D remake and fix that!

  5. #290
    Ghost of Christmas' past Recognized Member theundeadhero's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    In Jojee's pants x_~
    Posts
    15,557

    FFXIV Character

    Villania Valski (Adamantoise)
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Senior Site Staff

    Default

    I have a fond memory of the first time I played through this game. I borrowed it from a friend of mine one summer, then happened to stay over at my cousin's house that night. We 24-hour marathoned it, beating it in that time. He wasn't really into RPGs but the action of combat really helped him stick it out. The memories of laughs and fun we had that night are far more prominent than anything that actually happened in the game. What I do remember is the intensity of the boss fights. It probably would have taken me much longer to get through them if I had to rely on AI instead of another person.
    ...

  6. #291
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Hell, eventually.
    Posts
    3,653

    Default

    I actually don't think SD3 is superior (although it is very good). There's something uniquely charming about the world of SoM.

  7. #292
    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Oakland, California
    Posts
    41,604
    Articles
    6
    Blog Entries
    2
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Administrator
    • Hosted the Ciddies

    Default

    FFIX and SoM - both fantastic. Can't wait for the SoM remake. I still need to play Wild Arms.

    Proud to be the Unofficial Secret Illegal Enforcer of Eyes on Final Fantasy!
    When I grow up, I want to go to Bovine Trump University! - Ralph Wiggum

  8. #293
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Nowhere and Everywhere
    Posts
    19,544
    Articles
    60
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    I'm thinking of playing my next game on this list for a little while to get a better feel for what I should say about it. You still have your two remaining clues to figure out the next two. I feel the last one is kind of obvious with the clues, but surprised no one has come close to the next entry, but I probably made the hints too vague. I'll give you two more clues:


    1st Clue

    1. One game is an interesting take on communication abilities.
    2. One game is what I feel may be the greatest licensed game of all time.


    2nd Clue

    1. "With some, we're certain our hearts must have been acquainted, long before we ever met them." ~Shakieb Orgunwall
    2. "Work smarter, not harder." ~ Allan F. Mogensen


    3rd Clue
    1. Molly Johnson ~ Best We Both Can Be
    2. Notorious B.I.G. ~ Mo Money Mo Problems



    #31


    #30

  9. #294

  10. #295
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Nowhere and Everywhere
    Posts
    19,544
    Articles
    60
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    On further review, my next entry is too good to be this low on the list and so I switched it with another title that I felt I was being a bit too generous about. Update will be tomor... I guess later today if my clock is right.

  11. #296
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Nowhere and Everywhere
    Posts
    19,544
    Articles
    60
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    31.DuckTales was one of my favorite Disney cartoons growing up, and Scrooge McDuck is easily one of my favorite characters in the Disney pantheon. So it's not a huge surprise that I was a big fan of the game made by Capcom based on the cartoon show. This is actually the first NES game I had ever beaten, and the last licensed title on this list. Combining elements of Mega Man and Mario, DuckTales is a simple story about Scrooge traveling the world to obtain five of the great treasures of the world to build his fortune and prestige, or go bankrupt trying. Each world is based on a different location ranging from the infamous Amazon to the actual Moon. Scrooge uses his trusty cane to pogo stick off enemies heads and to send heavy objects flying to defeat opponents, destroy walls, and hit objects in the air. The gameplay elements are actually really clever and add some serious challenge to traversing the maps. At the time of it's creation, I feel Capcom had sort of hit a serious good stride for their platformers, because while this is my favorite entry, the other adaptiosn they did for Disney as well as a few other obscure standalone titles are all seriously solid contenders that are easily on par with Nintendo and Sega's mascot character franchises. Even more fun for me is how much Capcom took from the show to make the game. Most of the major Duck characters from the show make cameo appearances in the level, including divisive characters like Gizmo Duck and Bubba. The enemies and bosses are taken from the show as well. The aliens from the Moon level are based off an episode about a Star Trek knockoff getting picked up by real aliens. The weird subterranean people are featured heavily in the African Mines stage, and several other interesting nods to the show the game is an adaption of. Honestly, I love this game cause it hits all of the right notes of how a licensed title should be. Plenty of shout outs to the source material and actual solid gameplay. Alos, it's mother smurfing DuckTales, and what's not to love?

  12. #297
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Hell, eventually.
    Posts
    3,653

    Default

    Let the record show that this is not even my favorite DuckTales game (that would be DuckTales: The Quest for Gold).

  13. #298
    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    Oakland, California
    Posts
    41,604
    Articles
    6
    Blog Entries
    2
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight
    • Former Administrator
    • Hosted the Ciddies

    Default

    Woo-hoo!

    Proud to be the Unofficial Secret Illegal Enforcer of Eyes on Final Fantasy!
    When I grow up, I want to go to Bovine Trump University! - Ralph Wiggum

  14. #299
    Recognized Member Scotty_ffgamer's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Eizon
    Posts
    5,275
    Articles
    4
    Blog Entries
    4

    FFXIV Character

    Scotty Ffgamer (Sargatanas)
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    Did you ever play the remake? What are thoughts on it compared to the original. I never played any of the old duck tales games but own the remake. I never could get into it, but I feel like I might like the original more.

  15. #300
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Nowhere and Everywhere
    Posts
    19,544
    Articles
    60
    Blog Entries
    27
    Contributions
    • Former Cid's Knight

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Scotty_ffgamer View Post
    Did you ever play the remake? What are thoughts on it compared to the original. I never played any of the old duck tales games but own the remake. I never could get into it, but I feel like I might like the original more.
    No, I never felt the game could be improved by one, so I gave it a pass, but I may check it out someday. If it's similar to any Remake I've seen of old school platformers, then I'm sure they made the mistake of adding animation frames that weren't there which makes the game slightly slower than the original. I remember Rondo of Blood had that issue.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •