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

  1. #211
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    46.
    Okay, so this game does feature a giant robot as well, but let's face it, Metal Gear is rarely really about the title machine. For most Western fans, MG2 was either the ill-conceived Snake's Revenge or simply the Previous Mission Briefing found in the Extras for MGS1. It wasn't until the Director's Cut version of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence that the West got an official release of this lost gem of a game. For those who don't know, the original Metal Gear did find it's way Stateside with a terrible NES port from the original MSX. The port completely scrambled the original games structure and removed and added things that make it both easier and more difficult than it needed to be. It's practically a different game and when Kojima finally saw the port, he quickly disowned it. Despite all that, it actually sold pretty well over here and so Konami asked for a new entry but gave it to a completely new team. Funny enough, Snake's Revenge is closer to the original MG1 than the actual port was. Kojima, didn't even know about it's existence until he had a conversation with one of the developers for it. He initially disliked it, but has apparently warmed up to it over time. Still, he was spurned on by the development team to make a proper sequel to Metal Gear, and in 1990, he did so on the fledgling MSX2.
    Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake begins four years after the events of Metal Gear in the "distant future" of 1999. The relationship between the Cold War enemies are thawing, and for the first time since the Cold War started, it looked like the threat of nuclear war may come to an end. Unfortunately, not everything is so rosy. Mankind has over-indulged in their love of oil, and now all the reserves may soon dry up, leading the world into a major energy crisis. With alternative fuel sources still decades away, the world fell into a major economical crisis, until a Czech biologist named Dr. Kio Marv discovered a type of synthetic algae that can convert spent oil back into usable hydrocarbons at an inexpensive level which he called OILEX. The crisis seemed to be over before it really began until Dr. Marv was kidnapped on his way to a U.N. meeting. As the world government investigates his disappearance, they soon notice a connection to a small but dangerous nation called Zanzibar Land.
    During the ensuing years between the Outer Heaven incident and the oil crisis, a small nation to the south of the U.S.S.R. declared it's independence from the mother land. With the help of mercenaries and PMC groups, the small nation was able to win its independence. Soon after, it used its forces to to attack nuclear facilities and stole enough resources to become a nuclear power, allowing it to survive without further retribution from the superpowers. With nuclear weapons, one of the most advanced armies in the world, and now the secret to OILEX; Zanzibar Land was in position for a serious shake up of the global power structure. Understanding the delicate situation, the U.S. tasked FOXHOUND to once again lead a covert infiltration mission in order to rescue Dr. Marv and thwart Zanzibar Land.
    Colonel Campbell, the new CO of FOXHOUND calls out of early retirment, the Outer Heaven hero Solid Snake for the missions. He's supported through codec by Master Miller, the trainer for FOXHOUND; Jacobsen, a zoologist and foody; Kessler, a retired merc and specialist on the industry; and Holly, a journalist and undercover CIA agent who has also infiltrated the base and supports Snake. Starting Metal Gear tradition, the simple rescue mission quickly becomes more complicated as Snake's first opponent is a technologically advanced ninja who is revealed to be Kyle Schenider, the resistance member who helped Snake overthrow Outer Heaven. Snake learns that after he destroyed Metal Gear and defeated Big Boss, NATO forces indescriminately carpet bombed the region, killing both Outer Heaven and resistance members. Kyle himself nearly perished and was captured by the forces and experimented on until Big Boss arrived and saved him. Realizing Big Boss is both alive but also the leader of Zanzibar Land, Snake quickly learns that many of his allies from Outer Heaven have returned. Dr, Madnar had alos been kidnapped and brought there to create the new Metal Gear D, and Snake's friend Grey Fox was now Big Boss' second in command. Battling skilled mercenaries, meeting the undercover agent Gustava Heffner and discovering her connections to Grey Fox, the staggering amount of war orphans being protected within the facility, and several tricks and traps that Snake is only bale to overcome thanks to Holly, and Snake's mysterious "No. 1 Fan. Solid Snake tears through a pretty dramatic adventure that culimnates in a final bout with Big Boss himself.
    MG2 is an interesting game to play through, on the one hand, it retains one foot in the past with several gameplay conventions and story beats from the original Metal Gear, on the other hand, it's easy to see the proto-development of the MGS franchise with this game. MG2 is more story driven and action packed than it's predecessors with the foundation of several Metal Gear gameplay conventions such as crawling, 2 step alert modes, Soliton Radar, and better use of hiding for stealth. The story introduces a much more varied and better defined cast and some of the series well known tendencies of subverting a "black and white" scenario are clearly here.

    The boss battles are more varied and better defined in this entry. The bosses of MG1 felt like typical arcade fodder outside of Coward Duck and the actual Metal Gear defense system battle, but here the bosses all have more exciting nuanced gimmicks to play around with. Blackcollar Ninja can attack from angles and while keeping his distance, Running Man plays keep away as you have to beat him before the room full of nerve gas kills you, Ultravox/Four Horsemen ambush you in an elevator so you have to balance the inclosed space with taking them out quickly, Blaster Man traps you in a room with barriers while he lodges grenades at you from the ceiling, Predator/Jungle Evil hides in tall grass for the series first attempt at a sniper duel, and Night Fright is a completely invisible enemy you have to use sound to find. The gimmicks are more memorable and fun, but sadly most of the boss fights are fairly easy. In additon the game continues the inevitable clash with a Hind D that stuck around for the first three entries, and we get our first battle with Metal Gear which is probably one of the easiest fights in the game unless you care about your final score. The actual final boss fight with Big Boss himself is actually more puzzle than an actual fight as he chases you around the room while acquiring more Key Cards and items to make a makeshift flamethrower to deal with him.

    Of course it's the puzzle aspects of the games that are always nice and MG2 is no slouch. MG2 shares a lot of elements with old school PC Adventure titles as the game makes heavy use of a manual to figure certain things out like Codec Frequencies, and a morse code cheat sheet. Sadly, the Western release lacks any of this and it's one of the most glaring flaws in this title as you'll definitely want to keep Google close to you for help on some of the game's more eclectic puzzles. The game also is filled with some pretty silly elements like Japanese "Singing Sand", using an owl to trick a guard it's night time, and dealing with the lethally poisonous Zanzibar Land Hamsters. There's also an item that plays the Zanzibar Land National Anthem that makes every enemy on the screen stop what they're doing and salute. On the flip side, there are some clever puzzles like the introduction of the Temperature PAL Key puzzle MGS1 fans will know well, the overall layout of the base is also better contructed than other Metal Gear titles which makes backtracking less of a chore, though I will say that MG2 introduced the annoying "boss can only be beaten with a specific weapon and now you have to stop all progress to backtrack all the way back to the weapon storage floor to get it" syndrome that plagued the next two installments. One issue it retained from the original MG1 was how Key Cards only opened their corresponding door, meaing you had to hold several cards and keep switching them to see which one would open the door. Thankfully, MG2 introduced Color Cards that did the effect of three levels of a card to help mitigate inventory searching but chances are you'll not figure out where these cards are until near the end of the game when it's almost pointless.

    Easily the biggest change from MG1 here is the narrative as I demonstrated above. While it falls short of the convoluted and socially aware sequels, MG2's story is pretty powerful for a game of its time, easily rivaling RPGs. Here we really get to see the earliest elements of what would layer become trademarks of the franchise. Every one of Snake's former allies who return in this installment all betray him or are fought as enemies if not both, Holly and Gustava both have concepts that will be reused for Meryl in MGS1, and we watch as Snake deals with one green horn female agent who can't seem to stay out of trouble while also dealing with one the he quickly grows to respect before she winds meeting a fateful end. While most of the bosses are one note wonders, Snake's conversations with Kyle (Black Ninja/Blackcollar), Grey Fox, and Big Boss are the earliest examples of the gut-wrenching monologues that several memorable bosses will later use. The game also tries for a more cinematic approach compared to it's sequels with character portraits, more dialogue, and some interesting sequences that make the game try to be more epic than it's 8-bits could muster which is quite impressive.

    As I've been hinting to for awhile now, and for those who remember the original version of this post will already know, MGS1 borrows heavily from MG2 in both concept and design. In fact in Japan where MG2 was known, many fans thought MGS1 was a remake of this entry. So it's really interesting to play this game with knowledge of MGS1 though I imagine for some people it will feel a bit dated. Still, it's obvious that this entry, combined with Kojima's future projects in the form of Snatcher and Policenauts would pave the way for one of the most important games of the 3D Era of gaming. Sadly, while it will never likely come to pass in any capacity I would be happy with, I was kind of hoping this entry and the original MG1 would have gotten the remake treatment by Kojima, especially since both of these entries suffer the most retcons out of any entry in the franchise. Alas, it will likely never happen.

    Thanks to the re-release of MGS3: Subsistence on the Legacy Collection, it's not too hard to get this game nowadays legally. I strongly encourage Metal gear fans to check this one out as MG2 is really a lost gem in a franchise with a pretty strong track record. The music is good, the gameplay is basically 2D MGS1 (or Ghost Babel for those who played it) and it features several important moments that help bring context to the drama that will unfold in future installments.


    Original Gushing
    Okay, so this game does feature a giant robot as well, but let's face it, Metal Gear is rarely really about the title machine. Originally an MSX title, Metal Gear was properly released in the West with MGS3: Subsistence over ten years ago, along with a non-butchered version of the original Metal Gear. Metal Gear 2 owes it's existence to the comically bad Snake's Revenge, a side-scrolling action sequel to the original Metal Gear that Konami ordered up, but gave to a completely different development team. Kojima was not amused when he first learned about it, and in his usual OCD kind of way, he eventually was able to get the greenlight on making a proper sequel to Metal Gear based on his own input and design.

    Set in the "future" of 1999, the world is gripped with an energy crisis as the world's supply of oil is getting dangerously low, and society is too lazy to want to switch over to alternative fuel sources. Luckily, a Czech scientist known as Kio Marv has engineered a new type of algea that can produce petroleum grade hydrocarbons called OILIX. It seemed the crisis would be over, until he is kidnapped by the small nations of Zanzibar Land that had won it's independence from the U.S.S.R. in 1997 during the Mercenary War.

    FOXHOUND is called into action, now run by Colonel Campbell after the Outer Heaven scandal of 95. Campbell tracks down Solid Snake, the shell-shocked veteran agent who ended the Outer Heaven crisis and killed the legendary soldier Big Boss. Once again Snake has to infiltrate a major enemy base where he will reunite with old friends, now turned enemies, and discover he's simply just a pawn in a bigger government scheme.

    For what is basically the equivalent of an 8-bit title, Metal Gear 2 is surprisingly robust and actually features a more intelligible plot and cast than the first game. Even more surprising is just how much the gameplay has been overhauled and refined. When it really comes down to it, MG2 is basically a 2D MGS1. I've often felt that the biggest success stories of the 2D to 3D transition games of the mid to late 90s usually came down to designers basically just copying and pasting their last 2D titles into 3D games, Final Fantasy VII, Ocarina of time, and MGS all share an uncomfortable amount of similarities to their predecessors in terms of themes and gameplay elements, but hey, it worked and better to see these series move on than watch them flounder into obscurity like Mega Man, Sonic, and Castlevania.

    Metal Gear 2 and MGS1's relationship is way more apparent than the other examples though, perhaps Kojima took advantage of the fact he knew most non-Japanese gamers have probably never even knew about MG2 existing, but it's funny to note that their are so many similarities between this game and MGS1 that Japanese fans first speculated that MGS1 was just a remake of MG2. No seriously, both games have a cyborg ninja as an enemy who is a a victim of experimentation by shadowy government agencies and happened to use a former friend of Snake whom he thought had died in the previous games, both games have that obnoxious PAL Card puzzle where you have to heat it up and cool it down, and in both games it turns out to be a trick by the bad guys. Snake deals with an undercover female soldier who disguises herself as an enemy soldier, there is a boss battle that involves Snake fighting four heavily armed guards in a locked elevator, and he has to fight both a tank and a Hind D at some point. Both games have a sequence where Snake has to jump down from one tower to reach the other side of the base cut off by natural defenses, you have to rescue a card from a rat, the big battle with Metal Gear is followed by a frustrating fist fight battle with a major antagonist who just won't smurfing die... yeah the list kind of goes on.

    While this may sound like a criticism, the fact is, I love me some MGS and so I wasn't really bothered by any of this. In truth, after bungling my way through the very disjointed Metal Gear, playing an incredibly refined 2D MGS in the form of this game was actually pretty incredible. Even the boss battles are actually clever, memorable, and pretty intense. The game introduces the Soliton Radar, the ability to crawl, vastly improves the enemy ability to detect Snake through sound and better sight. The game has some bizarre puzzles but I appreciate them, like one that involves catching a mouth with an important item. You get several types of rations in the game, and the item description actually tells you what is contained in each of them. One ration has cheese in it and you have to use it to lure out the mouse.

    The bosses are far more elaborate than MG1 where most of them are just buffed normal soldier with some gimmick weapon. The Cyborg Ninja tries to constantly bum rush you and you have to use the environment to keep the distance between you while you snipe him with your SOCOM. Jungle Evil is one of the less stressful Sniper duels in the series but can still be a pain in the ass, one guy has you fight in a room rigged with explosives, hindering your movement and forcing you to take him down with his own specialty weapon much like the battle against Revolver Ocelot. The final climatic battle itself is also pretty intense being more puzzle meets run away from Jason Vorhees kind of intense as you grab various items to make a makeshift weapon while the boss stalks you around the room with a powerful machine gun. I was honestly pretty impressed how well this game really stood up to time, especially playing it almost twenty years after it was initially released.

    The plot is also a bit better with lots of interesting moments between Snake, Gustav, Marv, Madnar, Holly, Grey Fox and Big Boss. The children were especially chilling when you first meet them and learn who is really running the place. It's still comically bad compared to some of the later MGS titles and the game has more wacky video game logic than most entries, but it kind of works for the title. I've been actually meaning to go back to this entry cause I had such a blast the first time through, especially compared to the first game which was more interesting for the novelty, but Metal Gear 2 is, dare I say it? A solid sequel to what will eventually become one of my favorite franchises in gaming. The music is pretty damn good as well as you can tell from the intro screen.

  2. #212
    Blood In The Water sharkythesharkdogg's Avatar
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    I've played the first one, but I never tried MG2. I have it, so I should try it out sometime.

  3. #213
    Recognized Member Scotty_ffgamer's Avatar
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    I really liked metal gear 2 when I played it and have been considering playing it again. I was not expecting it to be as good as it was , even if it was so similar to mgs.

    I really need to play through this series again soon though. It's been a while and I've been itching to play them.

  4. #214
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    45.Now we're going back to my arcade roots and one of the last fighting games I really dedicated myself to. This is specifically for the arcade version due to the PS1 port being awful and me not owning a Dreamcast, which is where you would go if you wanted to play arcade perfect ports back in the day. I'm actually still annoyed that I can't get an arcade perfect port for any of the consoles I own anymore. After Capcom had some success making arcade brawlers based on Marvel properties such as X-Men: Children of the Atom Marvel Super Heroes; Capcom started the Street Fighter Vs. series where these Marvel heroes battled it out with Cacomp's ever popular Street Fighter series with a new tag team feature that ended up becoming a popular mechanic used for later fighting games. This all eventually accumulated into what I felt was the Magnum Opus of the franchise: Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of the Super Heroes. No longer restricted to just the Street Fighter brand, Capcom pulled out some interesting choices for their side including fan favorites like Mega Man and Morrigan, as well as more obscure properties like Jin from Cyberbots or Capcom's former mascot back in the day, Captain Commando. In addition to the usual Tag Team mechanic. the game actually introduced the ability to perform a special mode that let you use and control both fighters at the same time with an infinite Hyper Bar for a short time frame which could be absolutely devastating when used correctly.Another new feature that was sadly retooled into something less interesting in the sequels, was the Assist Character. While it was possible to summon your partner for one attack starting with SFvsM title, this game "randomly" chose a special assist character you can summon who often had a unique move or special that could help you in battle like your partner without the threat of getting their ass kicked by a bad timed summon before our opponent pulled off a Super. It was also nice for giving some minor characters from both companies a chance to shine who probably never would, such as Jubilee from the X-Men franchise or Player Soldier 01 from Capcom's obscure Forgotten World arcade game.With that said, if anyone at Capcom was ever bored enough to ever read this, what the hell is up with your disdain for Breath of Fire with this franchise. We're four games in with a few special/ultimate editions and you still haven't put a single character from Breath of Fire in the games beyond the dumb card mechanic in UMvC3. Phoenix Wright isn't even a fighting game, and you have a character from it, Devil May Cry has three characters already, what the hell guys?
    Part of the reason why I consider this game to be the best is largely because it feels way more balanced than the entries that came after it, while also retaining the deeper movesets and mechanics of the earlier games. While the series has always been best known for the spectacle of summoning screen swallowing death laser to take off 18% of your opponents health, the later entries kind of took that concept and ran with it, whereas vets of the older entries knew it was just eye candy for a game still rooted in classic street fighter mechanics with just more floaty physics to make it feel unique. Not to mention this game feels like it actually balanced the characters as opposed to MvC2 which basically threw back in a bunch of unbalanced characters from previous titles *cough* Sentinel and Magneto*cough* or made new unbalanced characters to exploit like Cable.
    I also miss the fluid sprite animation of the earlier games. While the 3D models for MvC3 and Infinite don't look bad at all, I simply feel that Capcom has the absolute best sprite work, and a game like this just feels like it works better in this format than in 3D. Maybe it's just the nostalgia talking but this series and Street Fighter never felt the same once they jumped to 3D models.
    My first job was a movie theater, and this game was featured in our "arcade" if you wanted to call it that. While I was never good at the earlier Vs. entries, I had a manager who was actually an expert fighting game player who ended up showing me the ropes after I begged him. Slowly but surely, I ended up really mastering this title and with the exception of Zangief, I ended up getting pretty good with almost every character. Hell, I found the game a few years ago, and learned I'm not as rusty as I thought and actually made it to Onslaught on a first try. My two favorite gaming memories was challenging my friend to the PS1 version where he exclusively used the secret variant characters and still lost to my team and only finally won a match by using an exploit to play as Onslaught, the game's final boss, and even then, he didn't win until the final form. My other favorite memory was playing in an arcade once and letting a guy choose my team for me and ended up giving me Ryu and Captain America, one guy I main in most Street Fighter games, the other I had just picked up and was having a blast with. I don't know which was funnier, him nearly troutting his pants when I switched Ryu into Akuma mode at the start of the fight, or when I nailed his War Machine with Captain America's Final Justice Super which does way more damage than people think it does. So yeah good times, and this is probably the last arcade fighter I really stuck to and learned the ins and outs of. In my dream arcade I want to make, this will definitely be there and you will all be more than welcomed to challenge me. This is one of those games that always takes me back to my high school days and the late 90s for sure.


  5. #215
    Recognized Member Scotty_ffgamer's Avatar
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    I think I have this on my dreamcast! I'll have to double check that when I'm home.

  6. #216
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    44.Now for something a bit newer. Bloodborne is a spiritual spin-off from the Demon's/Dark Souls franchise which traded in Knights and squishy mages for dauper blokes in top hats with meat cleavers. Earlier this year, I slammed Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, and Bloodborne in the span of a few weeks. Ultimately Bloodborne came across as my favorite entry among the three for a variety of reasons.Set in the fictional town of Yharnam, the city is the home of the Healing Church who discovered a special blood and transfusion method that could cure any disease. The town prospered until it was afflicted by the Curse of the Beast, which began to transform the locals into monstrous werewolf like creatures. In the past Hunters and the Healing Church themselves would deal with the beasts, but as the scourge overran the town, soon the citizens themselves took up the hunt on certain nights. You play as a foreigner afflicted with an unknown disease, and you seek the paleblood to help cure you. When the story begins, your character is being treated by a doctor with a transfusion and you have a fever dream where a beast of blood tries to devour you before you are saved by some ugly cute pygmy skeleton creatures. When you awake, you find that no one is in the hospital with you except for a wounded beast that has broken in and murdered a few of the patients. You try to fight it off, only to be killed and wake up in a idealistic garden and cottage known as the Hunter's Dream. Tasked with helping in the Hunt, you're given some weapons and return to Yharnam where you must stalk the streets to kills the beasts, what transpires afterwards is a harrowing tale of gore, suffering, and the eldritch truth, as your character explores Yharnam and tries to figure out what the hell happened in Yharnam.Some people like to say that Bloodborne is a Dark Souls game but in truth, it actually has more in common with Demon's Souls mechanically speaking, as Bloodborne removes several of the user-friendly features from Dark Souls to return to the more narrative elements of Demon's Souls such as the safe hub world and the return to finite consumables for healing. Gameplay-wise, while Bloodborne retains the high skill and "die, die, and die again" difficulty and learning curves, the core mechanics have either been streamlined or altered to make the game more offense focus. This is best seen with the removal of shields as a left handed means of defense, and instead replaced with old school musket fire arms. Instead of deflecting an enemy attack to pull off a counter, your character interrupts it with a silver bullet to the face which stuns them long enough for your character to go in for the kill. On paper, it's the fundamentally the same principle, but hitting the enemy with the gun shot still injures them again, emphasizing a game more focused on the player character always being on the offense, much like action titles like Devil May Cry. This extends to character progression as well and equipment. Bloodborne drops weight load and poise, completing negating the "turtle" style of character development, if your character takes a hit from a twelve foot cleric beast, it's not only going to hurt but likely stun them by knocking them on their ass. Thus the game places heavier emphasis on dodging and finding openings, which frankly suited my own playstyle from the previous games much better. The coolest new feature is the Trick Weapons, hunter weapons that have dual functions like the famous saw blade you see in the artwork which can work as a fast light weapon in it's short form, or gain extra power by switching to it's giant two-handed meat cleaver form for extra power. There are actually some cool combo abilities with these types of weapons that can allow you to switch seamlessly from both modes and the weapons branch out from there as well. My starter weapon was a Cane Sword that could transform into a whip sword like Ivy's weapon from another series with "Soul" in the title. This proved to be a really great weapon because it could do three of the four strike types (Pierce, Slash, and Serrated) as well as having a special element bonus in it's cane form that helped with non-beast type enemies. The weapons mimic several weapon types from previous Souls titles but the dual nature allows for more seamless and interesting combat option, especially since you can equip two of these trick weapons at a time, effectively giving you four different weapons to use in battle. I also appreciate the fact the that stats available in this game finally have been worked out, with every stat option actually being valuable instead of some of the weird shenanigans from the previous games like Demon's Souls weird favoritism fro Clerics in terms of MP growth or Dark Souls having poison resistance be a separate stat for...reasons? Stuff like Arcane and Bloodtinge build on weapon types, so even if you go for a straight Strength/Skill build, throwing a few points into the other two actually has immediate benefits from Bloodtinge affecting your gun damage, to Arcane allowing you access to the Hunter Tools which are kind of like the game's version of magic but have other functions as well. Another interesting stat in this game is Insight and it's honestly one of my favorites because it affects the game world in various ways as the stat gets higher. The boss battles are also pretty fantastic with several memorable battles like Father Gasoigne, Vicar Amelia, Rom the Vaculous, and the Final Bosses are some pretty fun battles whom I love the lore for them.What ultimately drew me to this game more than say Dark Souls is the setting and lore. Truth be told, I'm not a big high fantasy fan (of which I'm probably going to get some odd looks after the next two entries) and I usually need some element to really bring me into that type of setting. In fact, I actually like Demon's Souls world a little bit better than Dark Souls, because Demon's Souls feels like a Fantasy Horror world as opposed to Dark Souls kind of being a Dark Fantasy/Heroic Epic. Bloodborne returns us back to that horror element which I fully appreciate, but more importantly, it's a game that borrows heavily from one of my favorite horror authors, H.P. Lovecraft. Yep, you start off in some Universal Studio Monster movie and it eventually escalates to fighting off fish people, tentacle faced monstrosities, and the Old Ones.This is where that insight stat I mentioned comes into play. Like Lovecraft's works, as you the player gain more knowledge about Yharnam, the more you'll begin to see things you didn't know were there. Enemies gain new abilities, the doll in the Hunter's Dream comes to life, you begin to see "things" that have always been in Yharnam, but no one seems to actually see except for the few notes left behind by those who did and went mad from the revelations. Like Lovecraft, there is a great use of the world of dreams. The Hunter's Dream itself looks like a peaceful garden and workshop, but it's really a prison that traps you and the other occupants there until you survive the night. You can even venture into Nightmare realms where humans can finally meet with the Old Ones. The lore and setting are just really awesome, especially for a Lovecraft fan like myself. I also love the characters in this game. Many of the non-crazy Hunter's you meet are instead shellshocked veterans who will leave you questioning your actions in the game; while the citizens are far less trusting and generally more tragic figures than the ones from previous Souls games. The game even twists around some of the stuff from previous Souls games by giving you two "safe" havens to send NPCs. There are some really interesting story arcs for these characters if you can figure it out. Yharnam itself is just eerie and gives a real Silent Hill kind of vibe which I appreciate, especially with the game's gorgeous soundtrack.Also, much like Dark Souls, I love the DLC known as the Old Hunters, where the player can travel to the Hunter's Nightmare, a dream world that serves as both a punishment for blood drunk hunters as well as the hell for several of the most important figures in the story's lore such as Ludwig the founder of the Healing Church Hunters, Laurence the Founder and first Vicar of the Healing Church, as well as giving background insight on what the healing church was doing to the people of Yharnam and the true sins of the Hunters. Not only does it have some of my favorite dungeons, but easily some of the best boss battles in the game like Lady Maria and Orphan of Kos. The Fishing Hamlet area is a creepy and great send up to Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth story. If I'm going to criticize the game for anything, it's that the Chalice Dungeons are kind of a buzzkill. They are copy paste type dungeons with Dark Souls reject enemies and some serious balancing issues. The bosses of these dungeons seem to either fall into "wait that was the boss" level of difficulty to "I need to post in the broken controller thread" there is like no middle ground and the dungeons themselves get repetitive. Bloodborne is pretty short, especially considering how massive Dark Souls was in comparison, and part of me wonders if these were added to kind of make the game feel longer. Thankfully, the lore behind them works on paper and still holds to Lovecraft principles, and more importantly, they are completely optional, but they do have some great stuff in them and can work as a great time waster/leveling hub. My other beef is that the Online component which really sets these games apart from the pack is hidden behind the paywall of whether you have a PS+ account, which is annoying but not damning for me. Other than that, if you have a PS4 and want to get into them Souls game but don't want to venture into the controversial sequels, give this game a shot. Especially if you're a fan of horror games and Lovecraft. In truth, this is actually my favorite exclusive for the PS4 currently, and while I doubt it will ever receive a sequel, I would love to see Miyazaki and his team make something similar in the future cause three for three, they've made some pretty outstanding games.


  7. #217
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    I can never love Bloodborne like I love Dark Souls, but it's still like a 9/10 game instead of a 10/10 (and of course I use a "real" 10 point scale rather than the 7-10 range that game reviewers use).

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    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    Bloodborne sounds interesting but it looks too scary for me.

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    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    There are only a few scary places in the game to be honest, and frankly the biggest fear factors in this game is typical of the Soulsborne series where you accidentally aggro something you really didn't intend to fight at that moment. Most of the really eerie places are in the DLC and the scariest section of the game, which is the Choir's Research Facility is not only optional, but someplace you're likely not going to find without a guide.

    Now if you're the type who gets freaked out easily by body horror, then this game might be a bit intense for you.

    I'll have my next entry up in a bit.

  10. #220
    Memento Mori Site Contributor Wolf Kanno's Avatar
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    43.Now to move the entire other side of the spectrum from gory gothic horror, we have my favorite Dragon Quest entry in the series. I will say now that while I have played varying versions of it, I'm going to try and stick to the GBC version due to it being the first version I played and the one I remember the most fondly. With that said, I have screenshots from other versions due to google image search telling me that no one really bothered to play this version, so you'll likely being seeing some screens from the Super Famicom or iOS versions. In the summer of 2001, I had recently graduated from high school and was stuck on a family trip to Florida. I was able to bring my Game Boy Color and my new copy of DQIII I got with it, that I had kind of been ignoring. To offset the boring car ride and my needy family, I took a serious dive into DQIII and found myself incredibly immersed by the whole experience. What it lacked in gripping narrative and visual eye candy, it made up for with lots of variety, well-rounded design with lots of options, and DQ's greatest strength: the sense of accomplishment from the game's various mini-victories. Only old school games ever give you a sense of satisfaction for going off the beaten path in a dungeon to find a new weapon, which may not even be a super weapon, but just raises your stats enough to feel worth it. It's the little victories that make this and many old school titles a serious treat for me. I didn't finish it on the vacation due to the GBC devouring all the batteries I bought, but I didn't finish it later that Fall around my birthday. This game and DQVIII I feel are the two games that I always think about around Fall season, and I'll still get in the mood to play through the franchise that time of year.The Kingdom of Aliahan has grown increasingly concerned with the rising power of the Archfiend Baramos, who wishes to conquer the world. Sensing he may soon succeed, they task their greatest hero Ortega to journey to Baramos' castle and slay the demon king. Despite leaving behind his wife and newborn child, Ortega undergoes the journey and, in time, is never heard from again while Baramos' influence continues to expand. Sixteen years later, you, the child of Ortega, are now tasked with fulfilling your father's quest and must build a party of adventurers to travel the world and stop Baramos. In hindsight, I really feel like DQIII is quite possibly the best RPG on the NES/Famicom. There is so much this game does right, and it has far more staying power than a lot of other RPGs available in the 8-bit era. It also does a lot of crap that modern games still get praised for, such as allowing you to choose the heroes gender, heavy customization mechanics, and day and night cycles that affect the monsters encountered and change the dialogue and towns. The definitive version to me, is the Super Famicom remake, from which the GBC and later ports all borrow from as it adds quite a few new mechanics to increase the games depth such as the Mini-Medal side quest from later games, Pachisi Game boards, and the new personality system. In the remakes intro, your character has a dream concerning a mysterious voice in which you get to choose your gender and name. Afterward, the voice decides to see what your character truly entails and makes you do a few mini-scenarios that help define your character better. These scenarios are often pretty clever, and people familiar with the GBA FFIV port will notice similarities to Cecil's optional Lunar Trial. My favorite scenario has your character transformed into a monster, with a village trying to hunt you down. There are also ones concerning corrupt nobles and Good Samaritan scenarios. Depending on how you choose, your character is given a personality which directly affects your stat growth, such as Macho types giving boosts to strength and endurance at the cost of Intelligence and MP growth. There are even personality traits that are exclusive to gender. Once the dream is over, your character speaks with the king and is sent on their quest. Here you can stop by Ruidia's Tavern and find adventurers to help you. You get to build these characters by selecting the job and gender and then using Stat Raising seeds to customize their ability. Personalities are randomly assigned, but you can always re-roll a character if it doesn't work out the way you want. The original had seven jobs you could acquire: Warrior, Fighter, Mage, Cleric, Merchant, Goof-Off/Jester, and the hidden Sage class. The remakes add Thieves as an eighth class. Your hero is restricted to the Hero class, but the class has above average stat growth and a host of unique spells and equipment that compensates for being locked out of the class system. Where the class system really shines is that you can eventually reach Dharma Temple (No I'm not using the mobile names), where at Lv. 20 a character can change jobs but be returned to Lv. 1 with their stats halved from their previous jobs. This means that these Lv. Characters will be significantly stronger compared to their original versions and as long as you follow the rules of having the character be Lv. 20, you can do this indefinitely to build incredibly powerful custom parties. In fact, once you beat the game, you can drop the hero and build your own custom team. This level of customization depth was unheard of for it's time, and may actually be the most broken customization system in the franchise. Also, some gear can actually change your character's personality as long as it's equipped, and spells learned in a class are retained across job changes, meaning you can turn a mage into a warrior with magic, and then use an item to offset the stat growth modifiers to something more beneficial. See? Broken, of course, it's also time-consuming as hell. Another interesting treat about the game is that the world map is actually loosely based on the real world, with many of the game's locations lining up with real world places and the towns following suit. There is a pyramid you can visit to steal a pharaoh's treasure which will curse your party to fight a battle every step until you leave the place (in the original, the curse never leaves) and the Japan themed town has you re-enact the Orochi Tale which I find kind of amusing considering that the other half of my time on this vacation was ogling the new screenshots for FFX, which borrows heavily from the Japanese myth. This game ultimately established the DQ Formula of having every location have its own story, which builds into the greater narrative of finding and slaying the Demon Lord. From smoothing over relations between Elves and Humans in one town, to stopping the game's comic relief villain from his newest scheme, to even sending one of your own party as a Merchant to start their own town only to have to save them later from an angry mob when their egos grow too big. It's all quite memorable, and I still think fondly of the adventures I had with this game.The biggest element that impressed me about this game is the huge plot twist 3/4ths of the way into the game. I am actually going to spoil this, so if you hope to play this in the future and want to leave this a surprise, you can and should skip this part. 3/4ths of the way in, your party will reach Baramos Castle and fell the Arch demon. During the victory celebration, you learn that Baramos was simply an underling of a more powerful Demon Lord from another world. To truly save the land, your character must travel to this dark dimension, which turns out to be Alefgard from DQI and II. After undertaking a quest to create the weapons needed to stop Zoma and restore light to the world with your Orb of Light, your character finds themselves trapped in the world forever but also a legendary hero given the title of Loto/Erdrick, meaning this whole time, you've been playing a prequel to the first two games in the series. This idea was sch a hit, Hori used it again in DQVI concerning the origin of Zenithia, and it's legendary gear. Overall, the game is a great classic NES RPG with good music, a great story, cool locations and ideas, as well as rewarding gameplay. It left quite the impression on me, despite DQI and VII being my first forays into the franchise. I still consider it to be the most clever and best made entry in the franchise, and I'm not surprised at all that Japan still regards it as one of the best in the series.


  11. #221
    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    Perhaps my actual favorite game as a child. I rate it as the 3rd best DQ game in the series.

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  13. #223
    Ghost of Christmas' past Recognized Member theundeadhero's Avatar
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    Its one of my favorite RPGs of all time and I've never even played outside the original NES version. It was perfection without those little additions. Having played through the first two games first made the spoilery ending all the better.
    ...

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    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by theundeadhero View Post
    Its one of my favorite RPGs of all time and I've never even played outside the original NES version. It was perfection without those little additions. Having played through the first two games first made the spoilery ending all the better.
    I have played the later versions also and I prefer the NES version myself. The only thing I "missed" when going back to it again was the dumb little mini-games in the casinos.

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    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    The twist in DQIII is really quite good. I don't like it as much as some others, but it was fun.

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