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Post by FM-77AV on Apr 2, 2008 6:09:37 GMT -5
Why does that say I'm the one being quoted? Ys IV PS2 *sucked*, man! I would NEVER say otherwise!!  Getting back on topic, I'd like to throw in my votes for some of the "black sheep" games in popular series. Zelda 2 and Castlevania 2 are still among my favorite titles in their respective series, and Ys III - while not a favorite - is still a game I think of very fondly, and got a lot of enjoyment from. -Tom Sorry for the misquote. And the titles you mention fit well into this topic. Castlevania 2 used to be considered a very good game, but after that crappy AVGN video, it's popular to bash it. Most people who do haven't even played it for sure. It's easily one of the best Castlevania games (if not the best). Zelda 2 is a great game. It used to be my favorite, but then replayed it and noticed that most of my fondness for it was based on nostalgia. Still a super solid game though, and it is very fun. People say it is hard but I disagree. The Famicom Disk System version, however, is hard! The level system is so evil! Unlike the English version, you can choose anything you want when you level up, so the first time I played it, I had attack 6 (and HP 1 and MP 1) after beating the first dungeon. I thought "damn, this game is too easy!" - I don't need HP or MP when I can have max attack in the beginning of the game. The enemies die instantly! Well, then I died and got game over in the second dungeon. Took continue. Started from Zelda's palace as usual. Attack 1, HP 1, MP 1 WHAT THE?! DO YOUR LEVELS RESET WHEN YOU GET GAME OVER?!  Then I looked at another save file (not mine - I bought the game used, naturally) - attack 3, HP 3, MP 3... So I realized.... Your levels must be even. Otherwise they will reset when you get game over. So if you have attack 8, HP 4 and MP 2... they will all reset to the lowest number when you get game over - 2 for everything, in this case. This makes it SO HARD! It's a load of fun, but also VERY frustrating when you lose so much when you die. |
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Post by FM-77AV on Apr 2, 2008 6:11:52 GMT -5
Lots of homebrew goodness cuz it's not all about pirating and emulating games~! *cough* Does anybody actually play homebrew games? I would never waste my time on stuff like that. :P I looked at a Youtube video of one of the more popular PSP homebrew games - some Zelda thing. It was TERRIBLE! The level design was a joke, the graphics were awful... I would never try it for myself. :P |
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Post by Justin on Apr 2, 2008 8:57:28 GMT -5
I don't know if this qualifies but I really enjoy playing Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song but everyone else seems to hate it I really like this game because it's challenging and gives you as much freedom as you want in making your party and doing sidequests. Finally....another SaGa fan on the board. That brings the total to a whopping 2 haha. |
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Post by Incog Neato on Apr 2, 2008 16:02:02 GMT -5
Does anybody actually play homebrew games? Eh, it's not just the games! There are useful applications too like RemoteJoy and some UMD ripping programs! :D Also! On the subject of Romancing SaGa games ... Never played any of them but I like the soundtracks! Well, for RS1 and possibly RS2 (can't remember ^^). I know I liked Minstrel Song's OST though! And I still have SaGa Frontier PS music file stuff on the drive!! OOPS! Forgot to write about game I dislike!! TALES OF DESTINY (for the PlayStation). The soundtrack was annoying, Leon was annoying (why in all bloody hell is he so goddamn popular in Japan? He's a stupid asshole that pushes people away from him. He pissed me off so much that I don't give a rat's ass about his damn oh-so-tragic upbringing or whatever the hell made him such a pissy idiot), the Aeropolis dungeon was EXTREMELY annoying and I'm sure there were more annoyances but I since I don't care about the game that much, I can't remember. :P I think the only thing I liked about the game was Rutee cuz I liked her character design. :P |
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 2, 2008 16:24:51 GMT -5
I have to agree with nunuu! There are good homebrew games out there (I love the Super Mini Mario one...) and the applications are a plus; using your laptop/desktop pc instead of your memory stick, great GBA/PS1/etc. emulation, and... oh, I must confess I did find something interesting. Custom Firmware 3.52 M33-4 actually works with FFVII:CC, regardless of the fact that FFVII:CC offers an official firmware version 3.7X -- so I didn't have to upgrade to the latest M33 custom firmware.  VERY cool! |
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Post by Justin on Apr 4, 2008 8:40:45 GMT -5
OOPS! Forgot to write about game I dislike!! TALES OF DESTINY (for the PlayStation). HAHAHA I totally loved this game man!! I must have caught it at the right time or something. Its the Tales that came after that one that blows. Tales of destiny II (eternia) was a long, cliche, horrible game. |
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Post by Lumi on Apr 4, 2008 9:59:46 GMT -5
Dawn of Mana is my personal favorite of the redheaded stepchildren among games. This poor game got nailed by reviewers for mostly justifiable reasons, and got more or less shuffled into the sidelines by fans of the Mana series because it wasn't a clone of the immortal Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 3 (the latter of which has a combat system I LOATHE, by the by).
As for me? I acknowledge the flaws of the wacky camera and somewhat oversensitive/insane controls, but it never really hindered my enjoyment of the game. And story-wise, I feel like Dawn of Mana got closer to the spirit of the game that made me fall in love with the series originally (Secret of Mana) than any other Mana game thus far. Also, the music is incredibly good, the graphics are gorgeous, and the voice acting is amazing. Gameplay flaws aside, I had loads of fun with this game.
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Post by Justin on Apr 4, 2008 17:39:14 GMT -5
That gets me very excited to play it. Its been sitting in my "waiting to play" pile. (i really should post in that topic). Speaking of "mana" was Heroes of mana any good?
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Post by Lumi on Apr 4, 2008 18:45:54 GMT -5
I'm not sure-- I've heard Heroes of Mana was pretty frustrating past a certain point due to the sheer stupidity of some of the unit pathing and AI. I haven't bothered to pick that one up yet mainly due to the fact that it's a strategy RPG. I've had little to no experience with the genre in general.
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Post by Justin on Apr 4, 2008 21:16:18 GMT -5
I find RTS games are really good, or really crappy. Were you a fan of secret of evermore back in the day? I absolutely love that game.
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 5, 2008 0:29:14 GMT -5
The fact is, the alchemy system just (did something very naughty to a masculine figure) and I wouldn't touch that game with a forty foot pole. I prefer the Edgar Allan Poe version, "Secret of Nevermore". I shall touch that game, nevermore. The main character's a freakin doof... "Oh hey! This instance reminds me of a totally unrelated B movie, and just after I say that I realize what a ponce I am because my analogies never make sense!" That game's a disgrace to the entirety of US ARPGs strewn throughout time. I really would rather play E.T. for the Atari 2600. Infact, add that to the list of games I love, although everyone else thought it sucked. That would be at the top of the list. Pitfall II (also for the Atari 2600) was also underrated and lesser known. Sword Quest, Sea Quest, and all others need to be added to the list. Mystery Quest! YES! I love Mystery Quest... why the hell does everyone bash the classics?! |
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 5, 2008 1:30:13 GMT -5
*nods* Mystic Quest was pretty decent and had a rockin soundtrack. I made no mistake and was simply reminded; kind of how someone can say tomato and someone else will think "hmm... potato!" -- or that could just be me. Mystery Quest was indeed difficult. The best way to play it? Rapid-fire control (To keep a good running pace, and take care of those pesky key-holding monsters!) and possibly a rewind button. I love Nestopia! I've yet to get the good ending, but I hear you get that after 4 runs. X( I'm on my first run, second castle. I haven't died yet. (The rewind button is a nice touch, but I haven't really had to use it thanks to the rapid-fire.) I might try NESten in the future to incur the wrath of the cheating gods.  At least to make the SOS raft permanent, keep the most powerful scroll handy, and have the max vitality possible. Playing SMB with rewind handy is fun too, if only to watch Mario exit the castle, moonwalk, climb up the flag pole and leap to amazing heights. |
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Post by FM-77AV on Apr 5, 2008 7:24:09 GMT -5
But Mystic Quest Legend is a Japan-made game!  And... that reminds me. Everybody hates that game.Everybody except me. I think it is very entertaining. Sure, it looks terrible, but the soundtrack is fun. The gameplay is fun. The dungeons are fun. Definitely a solid game. I don't love it or anything, but I think it is worth playing. At least halfway through. |
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Post by FM-77AV on Apr 5, 2008 9:54:15 GMT -5
Mystic Quest Legend is the European title of that game. It was intended as a spiritual sequel to the previously released Game Boy game "Mystic Quest" (which was called Final Fantasy Adventure in USA - even though it wasn't a FF game). Neither of those games had the Final Fantasy name added to them in Europe.
I thought it got released in Japan as Final Fantasy USA because it was intended for USA players - a simpler RPG or some such. Kind of like "our" Super Mario Bros. 2 got released as Super Mario USA in Japan, even though it was a Japan made game.
Well, so it was developed in USA then. Unexpected, for sure.
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 6, 2008 0:54:46 GMT -5
[shadow=red,up,300]WARNING! WALL OF TEXT FROM HELL!![/shadow] Personally, Doki Doki Panic beats the pants off of Super Mario Bros. 2 USA any day of the week. I mean, what kind of dunce removes the save feature and messes with the overall storyline?! "Uhhh... Mario, this is all just a dream. You can wake up now. Just a stupid dream, Mario. WAKE UP!" I mean... seriously, who DREAMS about throwing eggs and veggies at a genderally confused pink dinosaur named "Birdo" -- which ironically can't even fly or function anything LIKE a bird? I prefer the "we're in a storybook world to rescue the twins" plot, makes more sense to me. After our conversation yesterday, I had to see if I could get the good ending in Mystery Quest. As I confirmed what a FAQ had once stated about the game, you have to beat it 4 times to get the good ending, effectively suffering through the bad ending three times. Nevermind the fact that you can MAX your score (99,999,900) during the second playthrough. They offer an ample amount of "double score" powerups. I could probably get that score during the first playthrough if I wanted. It would've made more sense to give you the "bad ending" after the first three castles and the "good ending" after the last castle, instead of making you repeat the first two castles (x2 during each playthrough; castle 3 is castle 1, castle 4 is castle 2, both with very minor changes.) 8 times. Even still, the endings aren't so significant in comparison with the gameplay, which was deviously tricky and downright fun once you got the hang of it! In the end, they still hate it, I still love it. (Although now, having beat it four times just to get the good ending, I don't really think I'll pick it up again in the NEAR future.) Gotta love the engrish, though. "You got the Family Symbol and exit the castle" -- uhhh... not yet. You have to make him exit the castle! The good ending is also fairly engrish and made me chuckle when I first saw it. Another great game? Flying Warriors for the NES.  Top-notch kung-fu fighting platformer action levels with cheesy rock-paper-scissors Mortal Kombat boss fights (like the FFVII minigame, but you know what you doing) fetch quests and neat magic spells, and many many RPG elements. I LOVE this game! The only catch? It's DIFFICULT! Yes, I love hard games, and tend to find them very enjoyable. (Where as others would just get pissed off and break their controllers.) I'm one hell of a patient gamer and probably a retro pro -- but far from doing the speed run vids, my dear kids. One of these days though, I'd love to do speed runs. I've aced MegaMan 7 so many times it's not even funny... I think that's the one I'd like to challenge. Anyone know of the current record held for MM7? Also Wyrdwad: I too wouldn't have stumbled on such a classic without the help of one of my old (literally; he's like a big brother, 10-20 years older than I) friends from back when I was 3, maybe 5 years old. Even then, I didn't own it, so trying to remember what it was, that was a challenge. I did the same with games such as Flying Warriors and Kiwi Kraze (more commonly called "New Zealand Story") as they were memories from way back when I was a little one. I've been into scarce retro gaming since the dawn of my days, starting with the Intellivision, Atari 2600 and NES consoles. Thank you, Mom, Dad, and Grandma. A few years ago, a cousin of mine (young enough to be my nephew!) also started getting into retro gaming. Kids these days are AMAZING. He can remember not just one, but MANY sixteen digit passwords for his personal favorite, Punch Out!! He's damn good at it too. Nevermind watching him beat SMB 1 and 3... he's going to surpass my gaming prowess someday soon! I also got him into Wizards and Warriors III: Kuros Visions of Power. |
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 6, 2008 1:22:57 GMT -5
Oho! Legacy of the Wizard was a fun one! BTW, I updated my prior message in response to a message from you I missed earlier. I've owned that one (just the cartridge, no manual or anything) since I was 12. Thank you, Funcoland!  I can get to and beat the first boss without a FAQ. I've gotten pretty stuck after that point though, and I should check out the FAQs to see which area to go to next. (...and which character to use.) I was pretty confused. I mean, I don't even know the names of these characters half of the time, thanks to the fact I didn't get an instruction manual. Legacy of the Wizard was the first Falcom game I ever played, not to forget Faxanadu. (Which, of course, really doesn't even count.) The Dartmoor theme is playing in my head as we speak... such catchy music in that game! I'd be shocked (kindof) if the JDK Band/Soundteam didn't play a role in the nifty soundtrack for Faxanadu. If Faxanadu and Legacy of the Wizard had arrange/super arrange/orchestral/baroque CDs, you can bet your balls I'd buy them in a split second, no questions asked! |
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 6, 2008 2:52:18 GMT -5
Wow man, I wanna check out Clean Sweep now, haha! The Vectrex... it almost seems legendary. If its technology only had a chance to evolve, it could have been not just legendary, but revolutionary at that. For its day though, it almost was just that. I suppose I could enjoy a nice (sadly pixelated) B&W bout eventually. You've certainly piqued my interest.
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Post by FM-77AV on Apr 6, 2008 5:47:17 GMT -5
Hey, actually...
Super Mario Bros. 2 fits well in this thread! It receives a lot of criticism, and it was also featured in Screw Attack's top ten worst Mario games.
They are wrong!
If it should be in any list, it should be in the top five Mario games, and also the top ten NES games. This game is far better than SMB1, which to this day receives way too much praise. Sure, it WAS good, but it has not aged well at all. I bet most people who still love it do it a lot because of nostalgia. Sure, it is KIND OF fun, but I don't see what all the fuss is about, anyway.
SMB2, however, is still very good! It looks nice, it sounds nice (best [and only good] Mario soundtrack in my opinion) and the level design and gameplay are both excellent!
And about the soundtrack... well it isn't surprising that it is the best Mario soundtrack, as it isn't actually a Mario soundtrack in the first place. And yes, Doki Doki Panic IS better than SMB2, but not by much. I like that you can save (more like you unlock every world that you finish - so you can choose which one you want to play later), and that you have to start over if you want to switch characters. And this belongs in the other thread, but what's the deal with Mario music anyway? Everybody seems to love it, but I can't stand it at all. Sure, SMB3 had a couple of neat map songs, and the water song in SM64 is nice... but that's it.
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Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 6, 2008 17:08:01 GMT -5
Yoshi's Island has to be my favorite. Best music in the series! I never tried the DS one though. Yoshi's Story was OKAY, but I prefer to play that one with the sound off... especially since it has that whole singing babies effect that just seems to embarrass the crap out of me when company's over... or, that is, when I used to have company.  |
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Post by Justin on Apr 6, 2008 19:37:21 GMT -5
Yoshi's Island has to be my favorite. Best music in the series! I never tried the DS one though. Yoshi's Story was OKAY, but I prefer to play that one with the sound off... especially since it has that whole singing babies effect that just seems to embarrass the crap out of me when company's over... or, that is, when I used to have company. Haha yeah that game blows but its at least worth picking up on the VC. Anyone remember Magic Knight Rayearth on the saturn. I loved it (ended up with both jap and us versions) but man is it panned. Almost everything on the saturn was but I really love that system. |
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VERY cool!
At least to make the SOS raft permanent, keep the most powerful scroll handy, and have the max vitality possible. 
Top-notch kung-fu fighting platformer action levels with cheesy rock-paper-scissors Mortal Kombat boss fights (like the FFVII minigame, but you know what you doing) fetch quests and neat magic spells, and many many RPG elements. 
I can get to and beat the first boss without a FAQ. I've gotten pretty stuck after that point though, and I should check out the FAQs to see which area to go to next. (...and which character to use.) I was pretty confused. I mean, I don't even know the names of these characters half of the time, thanks to the fact I didn't get an instruction manual. 
