|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 18, 2015 22:29:09 GMT -5
So... is karma the reason why I'm unable to enter any temples? Because that's really annoying.  I guess what you're saying is, you get bad karma for destroying bottles of poison, and can cure it by drinking them? EDIT: OK, so yeah, I've confirmed that my karma is the reason I can't level-up, but I'm only level 2, and I've only been on levels 1 and 2 of the dungeon -- so how in the world did I manage to rack up 24 karma?! Guess I'm restarting sooner than I thought! EDIT2: Wow, I think I figured it out. There's a Japanese wiki for the game that says you gain karma when you kill a good creature or when you "shirk payment." I thought this meant when you try to buy something you can't afford, but realized that it actually means saving when you have less than 200 gold -- if you don't have 200 gold to spare for saving or restoring your progress, the game doesn't take ANY gold from you, so I thought it was just, like... the game being kind, for a change. But nope! Guess if you can't afford to pay for your save in gold, you pay for it in karma instead. This game is truly, truly evil! -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by Ascended Mermaid on Apr 19, 2015 9:13:48 GMT -5
What's tricky is figuring out which creatures are good, and which ones aren't. (Without using a strategy guide) Karma is a very easy way to mess up your game without being able to start over. Do you only get one save, as opposed to 10 in Unbalance Xanadu? Having more than one save file is very helpful.
|
|
|
|
Post by SkyeWelse on Apr 19, 2015 10:16:22 GMT -5
EDIT2: Wow, I think I figured it out. There's a Japanese wiki for the game that says you gain karma when you kill a good creature or when you "shirk payment." I thought this meant when you try to buy something you can't afford, but realized that it actually means saving when you have less than 200 gold -- if you don't have 200 gold to spare for saving or restoring your progress, the game doesn't take ANY gold from you, so I thought it was just, like... the game being kind, for a change. But nope! Guess if you can't afford to pay for your save in gold, you pay for it in karma instead. This game is truly, truly evil! Yep, as you guessed, you will not be able to use the Temple to level your character up to new ranks if your Karma is too high. I had never heard of the Gold being less than 200 increasing your Karma. Ha! That is Evil. Love it! It's reasons like this why I like Xanadu and Demon/Dark Souls series so much. I like it when game developers are evil to the player.  -Thomas |
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 19, 2015 13:38:50 GMT -5
What's tricky is figuring out which creatures are good, and which ones aren't. (Without using a strategy guide) Karma is a very easy way to mess up your game without being able to start over. Do you only get one save, as opposed to 10 in Unbalance Xanadu? Having more than one save file is very helpful. Only one save slot in MSX Xanadu, yeah. And it auto-saves whenever you change levels or enter a tower, so your window to restart when you screw up is really small. The only "extra save slot" is the ability to save to cassette tape if you need to, though you have to own the cassette drive for that. -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 21, 2015 16:16:12 GMT -5
Scored myself another cheap MSX game, in the form of Youkai Yashiki (Ghost House) -- which, from what I can tell, is the only Casio-published game worth a damn. Everything I've seen online suggests that Casio was kind of like the LJN of the MSX, with most of their games looking downright awful... but to my surprise, Youkai Yashiki actually looks pretty fun! Any of you guys play it before? -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 21, 2015 19:31:49 GMT -5
Yeah, that's part of why I snatched it up when I found it for cheap -- I was looking at videos of a bunch of Casio games, and in almost all cases (I'll have to check out those two you named later on), my initial reaction was, "Ugh, this looks/sounds super bad!" But then I looked up a video of Youkai Yashiki, and to my surprise, my first thought on that one was, "Hey, this actually looks like it has... like... a somewhat creepy atmosphere! And fun gameplay! And pretty catchy music! Wow!" -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 25, 2015 15:50:19 GMT -5
Good call moving this. Sorry to have drifted so far off-topic. -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by SkyeWelse on Apr 26, 2015 21:29:20 GMT -5
I was kind of thinking the same thing actually since we had already discussed so much with MSX in general, it just makes good sense not to let it get lost in a sea of marketplace transactions. : )
Tom, hope you are still enjoying your MSX. I need to get back into it soon, but right now my attention is kind of all focused on other projects at the moment. Please do let me know when you are able to process your order for the MegaFlashRom SCC+ and I'll try to get some tools and utilities together that might be useful for you.
-Thomas
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Apr 26, 2015 21:35:30 GMT -5
Thanks! For the moment, I'm still playing through Xanadu more than anything else, but I'm stocking up pretty nicely on other inexpensive games for later as well -- got seven already, with two more on the way in the form of Metroid-like "Cross Blaim" and a Goemon/Zelda 2-esque action RPG from HAL Laboratories called Zukkoke Yajikita Onmitsu Douchuu (Foolish Yajikita's Top Secret Journey).
Looking forward to checking them out when they arrive sometime in (hopefully) the coming week!
-Tom
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on May 31, 2015 0:23:29 GMT -5
Figured I'd post an update for anyone who's interested, as I've done a lot of MSX shopping this past month. In addition to the aforementioned Yajikita and Cross Blaim, I also picked up a Zelda-like game from Xtalsoft called "Borfes and the Five Devils" (or ボルフェスと５人の悪魔, if you prefer), and I've got four more titles on the way: Castlevania/Vampire Killer (which I managed to snag with manual for only $60!), Maze of Galious, F-1 Spirit, and Ashguine 2. I'm mostly just posting, though, to give impressions on Yajikita and Borfes, as both are lesser-known games I picked up on a whim for cheap, half-expecting them to suck, and both turned out to be very much worthwhile titles that I would definitely recommend to others. Here are my general impressions of them, along with useful links: - The Fools Yaji & Kita's Top Secret Journey - This game is pretty rough around the edges, but provided an experience I haven't had in 20+ years: it's a game I could find absolutely *no* information on, in English or Japanese, anywhere on the internet, so I was forced to figure everything out entirely on my own. I didn't even know what my goal was when I started! But with perseverance, I was able to figure out what to do and get about 3/5 of the way through the game before getting hopelessly stuck and seeking help from the msx.org forums, where Larsthe18th managed to create a password generator, hack the game rom to provide invincibility, map the whole game Nintendo Power-style, and then reverse-engineer it to figure out what I was missing. Here's the topic where I went over everything I figured out, then Lars and I went back and forth exchanging info until we basically broke the game: www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/zukkoke-yajikita-onmitsu-douchuu-stuck-anybody-played-itIt really is a pretty flawed game (the combat is about as basic and uninspired as it gets), but it has a certain charm and personality to it that I quite like, and solving its mysteries was astoundingly engaging. Gameplay-wise, it's mostly just exploring the rather massive overworld map, doing delivery tasks for money, avoiding or fighting random battles Zelda 2-style, and fighting your way through platformer castles and forests to get from one area to the next. It's the sort of game you draw a map for, with lots of labels and question marks and notes, and there are still mysteries about it that neither Lars nor I have solved (like, what does ice do? And what's the point of raising your strength attribute?), but we've at least beaten the game now, and I don't regret picking it up one bit. Oh, also, the game has a pretty kickin' overworld theme song. The rest of the music is OK, but that overworld theme -- which is what you'll be hearing most often -- is a real earworm in the best possible way. I really like it! - Borfes and the Five Devils - This game is tough as nails, and has a few questionable design decisions (like a password system that doesn't let you use the keyboard to type anything out, absolutely requiring you to use arrow keys or a gamepad to enter it letter by letter, and which doesn't save the password so you can continue if you die unless you use the crystal ball item again immediately after loading), but is overall a very inspired and engaging experience. It's best thought of as a Zelda clone, but with more of an emphasis on... pure survival, really. Enemies spawn and respawn in insane numbers and almost all of them have projectiles which are fired so quickly that only shmup experts could dodge them all, and the ONLY way to recover health in the entire game (and this includes using passwords, since your current health is saved as part of the password) is to pick up hearts randomly dropped by enemies... and enemies will stop dropping hearts entirely (as well as money) if you outlevel them. So the only way to survive this game is to make sure you don't level-up too fast, or else to be so exact in your movements that you never get hit. There are a ton of great weapons at your disposal, though, which are really fun to play around with and all control very differently. My personal favorite so far is the boomerang, which fires ahead of you very slowly, but then tracks your movements -- so if you fire a boomerang to the right, then move up, the boomerang will start to veer upward at an angle. And if you fire a boomerang to the right, then move right, it'll speed up. It kind of reminds me of the guidable magic in Xanadu, except more precisely maneuverable. You also get urns with demons in them. If you equip an urn, the demon inside it will gain 1 HP per enemy killed, and if you then use that urn, you'll actually summon the demon and control it instead of Borfes. Each demon has its own unique attacks, many of which are also used to solve environmental puzzles in order to progress (one of the demons can mend broken bridges, for example). The game sports a pretty wide variety of environments, as well as a TON of different monsters with very different movement systems, AI schemes and methods of attack. There are also plentiful minibosses and tons of dungeons, each of which is sealed until you push one or more of the rocks outside of it in very specific ways (and you typically need to find a local hermit in order to learn what the local dungeon-opening rock pattern is). It's a great game that seems suspiciously like something that SHOULD be a highly-regarded classic -- making it especially weird that it's such an unknown title. It looks good, with detailed environments and really nice animations, it sounds good, with great music overall, and it plays perfectly, with the only real flaw being the inability to move diagonally. If you play it, though, take note: you can't get a password until you buy a crystal ball from a guy in the first cave for 10 coins, and you have to actually USE the crystal ball to get your password -- and you can't use the crystal ball if there are any enemies on or near the screen. Fortunately, despite the high respawn rate, enemies DO eventually stop respawning altogether (until you leave the area, anyway), so if you keep killing them, eventually you'll get their numbers down far enough that you can use the crystal ball in peace. While Yajikita is a "maybe" recommendation (for fans of exploration in games only), Borfes is a wholehearted recommendation to anyone who likes challenging action RPGs (which is probably most people on this forum, considering Ys!). And while English information on it is hard to come by, here's a really nice Japanese mini-FAQ and walkthrough, which also has a ton of screenshots: www.geocities.jp/galfned/borfesu/borfesu01.htmIf you're looking for a great MSX game to try, I recommend checking it out! -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by SkyeWelse on May 31, 2015 1:02:37 GMT -5
Borfes and the Five Devils is one I've never heard about before. The screenshots look pretty good, I'll check it out sometime. : )
Nice price on the Vampire Killer. European small box version or Japanese version?
-Thomas
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on May 31, 2015 1:06:11 GMT -5
Borfes and the Five Devils is one I've never heard about before. The screenshots look pretty good, I'll check it out sometime. : ) Definitely think you'd like it. It's not as polished as an Ys game, but it's still got a lot of the same appeal to it. Japanese. Really shocked I got it -- it was an eBay auction that started at $60 and had no bids, and wasn't going to be up for 48 hours. So I was like, what the hell? I'll bid $60, though I'm sure I'll be outbid like, INSTANTLY. But nope! 48 hours came and went, and somehow, I was the only bidder at $60. The auction had pictures, and the cartridge and manual both look to be in great shape. Best I can figure is the hardcore collectors didn't bid on it because it didn't have the box -- but me, I don't give a crap about the box! Every other game I've bought so far has been cartridge only, so I'm thrilled just getting it at all, much less with instructions. -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by bonesnapdeez on Jun 1, 2015 13:11:54 GMT -5
This thread has the potential to kill my wallet. I love "fat keyboard" style 8-bit computers. I have several of a the key domestic ones - TI-99/4A, CoCo, VIC-20, C64, C16, Atari 600XL - and the MSX has been calling to me for some time........ Quick question (apologies is this had been answered, I'm a notorious thread-skimmer): Is it worth getting one just for carts? I generally dislike mucking around with unreliable floppies and drives today. Oh, and Borfes! I've had my eye on that for some time....... I adore Xtalsoft, perhaps the most under-appreciated JRPG developer ever. Skye - you seem to be the resident expert. Don't be surprised if I one day send you a "what do you think of this MSX on eBay?" PM...  |
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 1, 2015 14:31:20 GMT -5
Carts are pretty expensive -- most of my collection has been in the $20+ range, and a lot of the big-name games like Metal Gear and Space Manbow are several hundred dollars no matter where you look -- but I've still done pretty well for myself cart-wise, with a rather nice library of games built up over the course of only two short months without (completely) breaking the bank. And the carts I've purchased do represent the vast majority of the games I've amassed so far, with the *only* disk-based games of the bunch being Xak and Xak II (as opposed to... something like 12 cartridge games?). So yeah, you can totally play MSX as a cart-only system, and I'm having a blast doing so (or mostly doing so, since I am also enjoying Xak). Honestly, I was originally just planning to pick up a handful of games to "tide myself over" until the Megaflashrom was back in stock, but... well, it's back in stock now, and I'm actually not even going to buy one yet, as I already have a backlog of legit cart and disk games. (I've confirmed with the guy from the MSX Cartridge Shop that he'll have them in stock for a few months, most likely, so I'll probably still pick up the Megaflashrom in a bit -- I just don't need it yet, and would rather save my money for the moment.) -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by bonesnapdeez on Jun 1, 2015 16:06:26 GMT -5
That's interesting..... totally forgot about Xak! I have those on PC Engine CD, which is probably good enough for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by Wyrdwad on Jun 1, 2015 16:50:26 GMT -5
That's interesting..... totally forgot about Xak! I have those on PC Engine CD, which is probably good enough for me. According to MP83, that's like, the worst version of the game. -Tom |
|
|
|
Post by leesmapman on Jun 2, 2015 9:56:22 GMT -5
Microcabin did wonders with the MSX Audio FM chip. Shame that the audio-engine for their software was very heavy. But having said that, they were the last great Japanese developer on the MSX system.
|
|
|
|
Post by SkyeWelse on Jun 2, 2015 14:02:53 GMT -5
Yep the prices for MSX Carts have skyrocketed over the last few years. It started with eBay and the prices were reasonable on places like Yahoo Japan for a time, but nowadays even Yahoo Japan's prices for certain games like Snatcher/SD Snatcher, Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2, Space Manbow and USAs are pretty ridiculous. Because of this, I just play most games using the MegaFlashRom SCC since I don't want to pay scalper prices for a collectible when all I want to do is play the game on real hardware.
Bonesnapdeez , you can still write your own disks if you want and use true disk emulation with the new MegaFlashRom SCC+ carts, so it's not terribly necessary anymore to collect the disk based games that will likely have a larger risk of not working anymore due to bitrot.
If you have any questions, I'd be happy to help.
-Thomas
|
|
|
|
Post by bonesnapdeez on Jun 3, 2015 16:17:34 GMT -5
Thanks. I almost snagged an MSX the other day but I ultimately purchased a Jaguar instead. The Atari console - not the car or cat. MSX is next on the schedule. Well, either that or Sharp Twin Famicom. And Xak on PC Engine is awesome. |
|
|
|
Post by bonesnapdeez on Apr 20, 2016 19:10:18 GMT -5
Finally snagged an MSX. I can't afford much in the way of games these days (stay-at-home dad here) so I simply ended up getting a 64K model. Four games so far: Beamrider, Circus Charlie, Hydlide II, Romancia.
I know that by forgoing the MSX2, floppy drive, etc. I'll by missing out on many great games but that's okay - I have console ports a-plenty.
Always fun to get a new console. Wow Romancia is brutal haha.
|
|
I guess what you're saying is, you get bad karma for destroying bottles of poison, and can cure it by drinking them?
