korzic
Chryolos
Hmm, something feels off...
Posts: 697
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Post by korzic on Jan 29, 2013 14:41:09 GMT -5
The game glitching at certain points is a known problem with the patch (the original Japanese ROM seems fine, at least) - I don't think it's going to be fixed anytime soon, as I think it's been known for a while (a manual save and reset should get everything back to normal). I definitely agree about Mask's combat system being a bit rough (really hard not to avoid damage in certain areas, due to high enemy speed - the ice area comes to mind), and I do think that's one thing Dawn does better (though I need to replay Dawn again, which I've just restarted). I'm in the minority that prefers Mask over Dawn, though (but I am replaying Dawn to see if that opinion holds or not). And yeah, the Silver Citadel's got nothing on Ys II Special's Solomon Shrine.
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Post by katastrofy on Jan 29, 2013 17:23:17 GMT -5
does replays count? if it does; Last was the Steam version of Ys Oath in Felghana (I had problems... in normal ) if it wasnt; Ys Origin, all character endings just a few weeks ago
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2013 10:19:49 GMT -5
Mask of the Sun was a good game for sure, but I like what Hudson did with Dawn of Ys, they were very passionate about their work, it improved upon Ys Book I & II in every way. The portraits, voice acting, cutscenes really brought everything to life, I really didn't feel much of a connection with the characters in Mask of the Sun. It even had the transformation magic return from Ys II allowing you to turn into a demon and talk with other demons. You could mix ingredients together to create various potions. It had secrets, acquiring Leo's Equipment and the Developer's Room at the end of the game. I also liked the fact how you could complete the game with all the items in your inventory. I'm aware Hudson didn't follow closely with the story Falcom presented to them, they essentially created the game in their vision. I guess I was also a fan of Hudson
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korzic
Chryolos
Hmm, something feels off...
Posts: 697
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Post by korzic on Feb 1, 2013 23:59:38 GMT -5
Just re-finished Dawn of Ys myself. Bit of a long post for this topic, so I'll put it in spoiler tags. I feel much the same as I did when I first played it. I can't say I enjoyed the story nearly as much this time. I think it's partially because of the liberties Hudson allegedly took, as well as Origin completely contradicting certain details - the rest I attribute to a cliche storyline (seriously, most of the game just felt like a giant fetch quest before finally meeting with Lefance).
As far as the gameplay is concerned, it is fun, but not only does it borrow a bit too heavily from Ys I & II for my tastes (this seriously takes away from the game's "individuality", IMO - meaning, it hardly feels like Ys IV), it seemed to drag on a few dungeons too long. I know it's weird saying that about a Ys game, but the formula grows tiring after a while with so few gameplay changes. Plus, the equipment is practically worthless in this version, compared to traditional Ys; very little stat increases between them (no wonder over-leveling doesn't make much difference at all), and they don't even reach the traditional max stats of 255 (with a total of 50 levels, no less) - talk about imbalanced. I can't even say the maps were better. Prettier, certainly. But as far as actual design, there were far too many times where I walked down a corridor, only to realize it was a dead end (which you usually don't realize until a fair way in). This would be fine if there were something meaningful along the path, but 99% of the time, it seemed like it was done just because (artificial exploration, I'd call it). Sure, Mask did this, but as far as I recall, it was only in the ancient city portion (when they branched off, it was usually for a "legit" reason). As it is, it feels like a cheap way of making the dungeons seem non-linear. (As an aside, why in the world does the Alter magic let you walk through water? Talk about a huge jump in logic, even by videogame standards.)
Regarding the portraits and close-ups, they were nice touches, but I feel the dub actually detracts from the experience (whether it's in Japanese or English, though I must say I didn't care for the English dub, but it was nice to not need to pause and follow along with a script). As a matter of fact, that's one of the main reasons I still haven't touched the TCD version of I & II (the other main one is I don't own a TCD or Wii, and I hate messing around with most emulators, though I guess that's no longer an issue) - not only is it unskippable, I'd much prefer the option to have text instead (at least along with the voices). Seeing as it's not unskippable, and voices only for those parts, it leaves very little of the characters' personality up to the player's imagination, as we are forced to do with most of the other NPC's. That's one of my favorite parts of unfolding an intricate story (at least, one that is largely in text form), and the English dub didn't help much either - it often felt forced, and some characters I feel didn't fit their roles, though I realize part of this is due to being a fandub (not that I don't appreciate the effort, though - it does save me a fair bit of trouble, after all). All that aside, I fell in love with the Ys series because of the gameplay, not some extra touches (which in Dawn's case are not "extra" at all).
Overall, I do actually like the game, but I prefer Mask in virtually every way, except for its usually unforgiving combat. Even then, I do feel like both are rather weak Ys entries, all things considered.
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Post by schlagwerk on Feb 3, 2013 14:04:44 GMT -5
Antichamber. Been waiting for this non-euclidean first-person puzzle game for a while. Even talked to the creator once or twice at PAX over the years.
It's uniqueness does lend itself to another replay or 2 unlike most puzzle games thanks to playing with minimal route or speed clears. I gotta say that I am a little disappointed that while the game is very free-flowing with multiple routes in the beginning, that the path narrows the closer you get to the end of the game.
And I say I'm done.. but I dunno if I really am yet. There still the puzzle of what the purple blocks do... hmmm
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Kuro-chan
Limendy
Clones are awesome! ... Even with the wrong hair colour...
Posts: 228
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Post by Kuro-chan on Feb 3, 2013 18:39:01 GMT -5
Finished playing through Dino Crisis on Playstation. It was not bad, just not one that stands out in my mind as the best of the best, if you know what I mean. I had a few nits about the game. - Lack of ammo. This became a nasty problem when surrounded by a couple dinosaurs and your pea shooter is lacking what is needed to do the job. I found ammo was becoming an issue closer towards the end of the game. One piece of good news is there are alternatives to killing off some of the dinosaurs. You can put them to sleep with tranquilizer darts. - Lack of inventory space. This complicates the ammo issue. While it added a good sense of realism since you can 'only carry so much', for gameplay it can greatly complicate things. - Difficulty in moving around, especially when Dinosaurs are tearing you to pieces. :/ - Camera does not do a good job of following you around. This creates a lot of ambush opportunities for the dinosaurs. A few perks that were nice. - The graphics were pretty good, even by PS1 standard. They actually bothered to add detail to the character models since they were designed to be visible up-close as well as from a distance. - Multiple courses of action to handling certain problems and Multiple endings. Of course, it's only towards the end of the game that your choices actually matter. - The mix option. This is good for enhancing your existing recovery items and can also turn some secondary items into very deadly weapons if mixed properly. Some of the ammo-heavy enemies can be quickly dealt with if you mix the right stuff together. - Some of the scripted ambushes in the game were well-designed and (a lot of the time) unexpected. You have to deal with a T-Rex several times during the game as it tries to gobble you up in a single attack. Weapons were pretty basic, and the Add-ons to them made it feel a bit like you were playing Parasite Eve, except with a greater degree in control difficulty. I put my review through my site and got a final rating of 6.1/10. By Kuro standards, that is an acceptably good game.
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Post by lailmith on Feb 21, 2013 18:25:50 GMT -5
Ys I Chronicles+ on Nightmare mode! wohoo I didn't believe I would ever even make it to Dark Fact, not to mention that I could beat him xD But after 2hours+ trying I finally beat him, and kinda fun that was going to be my 'the last attempt of the day' fail or not and it started very bad Overall, playing it on nightmare was quite a different thing. For the first time ever, I found Time ring useful By the way, how is hard compared to nightmare? And is Ys II easier than harder on nightmare difficulty? P.S. Vagullion sucks.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2013 9:25:55 GMT -5
Congrats Vagullion was much harder than Dark Fact in my opinion.
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Kuro-chan
Limendy
Clones are awesome! ... Even with the wrong hair colour...
Posts: 228
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Post by Kuro-chan on Feb 23, 2013 19:28:57 GMT -5
Good job beating Vaguillion! That is no easy task, for sure!
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Kuro-chan
Limendy
Clones are awesome! ... Even with the wrong hair colour...
Posts: 228
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Post by Kuro-chan on Mar 18, 2013 13:35:43 GMT -5
Just finished playing Ys 4: Mask of the Fun for SNES. I like the music for it and found it a good and fun play, albeit a little short. It has me thinking about adding a few swords to the rankset that never got used.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2013 14:10:19 GMT -5
Mask of the Sun had a great soundtrack. I liked the Bronze District in particular.
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Post by Gamemusicfreak on Apr 12, 2013 15:18:40 GMT -5
Finished Ys I Chronicles ++. The extra plus means I played with the TG16 music whenever applicable. A great experience. I'll start Ys II Chronicles ++ today.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2013 20:42:01 GMT -5
Pandora's Tower is epic I didn't think I would enjoy this game so much, it really is superb. I'm beginning New Game+ tonight. I officially played all Operation Rainfall games
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Kuro-chan
Limendy
Clones are awesome! ... Even with the wrong hair colour...
Posts: 228
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Post by Kuro-chan on May 16, 2013 21:15:44 GMT -5
Did a run-through of Wanderers of Ys for SNES last night. Talk about tedious and imbalanced... >_>
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Post by Red Hairdo on May 22, 2013 21:36:21 GMT -5
Gurumin PSP EU beaten on Crazy Mode! I'm still working my way through to beat Black Bean on Crazy Mode, though... I'll finish leveling up the rest of my headgears from lv.4 to 5 (six to go out of fifteen) to boost up all my chances, as I was doing months ago. Now that I finished Crazy, a costume for Parin was unlocked, one which gives bonuses by itself AND one with which you can still equip your headgears normally to further enhance Parin. I tested it and saw it reduces taken damage by 50%, raises all damages by 2x or 2.5x, and raises Magical damages further by... roughly 3x... Maybe 3.5x? So having that with many other powerful headgears = Black Bean just MIGHT be doable... I mean, he technically IS, I'm sure, especially since that aside, there's nothing else LEFT to be done in the game. xD Get S+++ everywhere without that powering Parin up, perhaps? That's not the last of it, though: Boss Rush on Crazy Mode has been unlocked now... That means ALL bosses + Black Bean! CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then I'd finally be done with Gurumin (*cough*onthepsp*cough*... *cough*EUversionanyway*cough*), the most amazing-est game ever created.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 21:45:50 GMT -5
Xanadu Next! The soundtrack is beautiful. The game is a bit easy (besides those block puzzles)
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jdkluv
Limendy
<Brandish Man>
Posts: 223
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Post by jdkluv on May 23, 2013 8:06:46 GMT -5
The game is a bit easy (besides those block puzzles)Watch this if you want to solve them: And yes, the soundtrack is indeed beautiful:
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Post by Red Hairdo on May 23, 2013 18:07:37 GMT -5
Xanadu Next! The soundtrack is beautiful. The game is a bit easy (besides those block puzzles) Loved that game, too. I still have unfinished businesses with it. And if I find SOME way to play the N-Gage version on PC (I was looking that up some months back), then I'd Stream that! (Which could be very boring, especially xanadu next to the PC version. xD)
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2013 1:05:00 GMT -5
Matron I actually used that Box Video after getting frustrated in the final areas.
Red Hairdo If you ever did stream that, I don't think it would last very long XD
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Post by Red Hairdo on May 24, 2013 2:06:05 GMT -5
Actually, I completely streamed Xanadu Saturn before, and believe me, I doubt even Xanadu Next N-Gage can be more traumatizing than that! Stream lasted for long, too (the game is big), although it's true everyone there got beyond traumatized with the repetitive music and bored with the repetitive, slow gameplay. xD (But it was actually entertaining in a way! ) Xanadu Next N-Gage gets a nice plus though for letting you control what is obviously Adol while having the Ys VI boss music for the XN N-Gage bosses.
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