Everquest and I'm thinking about buying a dreamcast just to play railroad tycoon 2. Yes, I live in the year 2000.
Everquest and I'm thinking about buying a dreamcast just to play railroad tycoon 2. Yes, I live in the year 2000.
A got all four tablets on Beyond the Beyond meaning I've made it to the games last two dungeons, at this point I'm a bit bored of it so decided I'll just move on. Maybe I'll go back to it later but at this point I'm putting a hold on it.
There are a few games that I did play though during this point. I finished Sword of the Vagrant on hard and then played through NG+ to the very end on very hard, but since there's a true ending area and I can't find out how to reach that I've saved at the last save point and put this game away. Also, the game doesn't start getting anymore difficult in NG+ until the very end of the game, I'd recommend just playing the game in very hard from the get go and maybe doing NG+ in lunatic.
The two games I'm playing at this time though now, I've played five chapters in Fire Emblem on the GBA, the first US release, not the first GBA release.
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I've also played two runs of Ravenswatch which imo is both good and bad. I have both really positive things to say about it and negative things to say about it.
Starting with the negative is that, like most procedural games, the game feels very samey. You start the game, you play the run, you die, you restart, you do it all over again, and it's just one of the few things I hate in modern gaming where there are these select few genres that are just prioritized. Whether it's because it's exploration platformers, procedural, or open world, it's games that waste a lot of time. For indie developers they're more low effort, low cost games that forces the player to spend more time to do the same things over and over to extend the length of the game, and that's unfortunately the end goal of modern gaming. The length of a game matters above all else.
Now, I've only played Scarlet, Little Red Riding hood, so the bosses may change between characters, but I don't believe they do. The game has three procedural Diablo-like maps with important areas around, these areas will either have treasure chests, quest encounters, max HP, or gems, all to buy a specific amount of items and tools and then increase the rank of these tools from common to legendary. And all of this brings so much repetition in a single run that you just keep doing this over and over and over and over, the fact that it took me 30-40 minutes to see and die from the second boss and there are only three maps with three bosses. Again, unless the bosses change per character which I doubt it.
Now the novelty of this is that this game is Diablo in what's essentially around an hour and 30 minutes to two hours, but unlock the Diablo games this leans heavily towards skill based instead. Each of the nine characters on disc or the two patched in characters(and I can tell you right now based on sales this game isn't getting a complete edition) the characters have a primary attack, power attack, special attack, defensive manuever, super attack, and a dash. Even the easiest enemies can kill you in a few hits, so it's mitigating damage, attacking with your cooldowns and primary, evading when necessary, etc and again, it's about choosing the skills as you level up to determine your build path. Every enemy has a their own attacks or their own form of getting to you to deal damage, some enemies may even explode after being defeated dealing damage to other enemies as well as you if you're in range when they die. With Scarlet, she can dash through enemies to deal damage to enemies and each time you build up her critical, the power attack deals more damage, but you can dash through multiple enemies making it more useful, while in werewolf form the power attack is a lunch that can hit adjacent enemies in a close formation, but cannot dash through htem, in both cases the defensive attack might help the character where in Scarlet's case she can't be damaged until it wears off or until she attacks, while the werewolf will recover a very small percentage of life for a short amount of time, making using that ability and having your other passives ready to go is more optimal. Pushes you to learn the enemy movements and route the enemies properly to make the most out of your moveset.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
And after playing 10 hours of Ravenswatch, I've finished the game, not because I've completed it, but because I'm done. I've made it to "a last boss" apparently there are four final bosses after you defeat the day three final boss, and that's according to the trophy list, but all the other bosses are the same.
The 10 hours consisted of either nine or 10 runs, and a game that at length to complete is an hour and 30 minutes, allowing you to save between areas. I know that I only played three attempts with Aladdin and I got to the final boss, but Scarlet may have been six or seven as I was getting to grips with understanding the flow of the game. Maybe I could have finished the game with Scarlet if I kept on going with her but my complaints about the game since the very first run, I just wanted to try someone else, have a little more variety as I knew the game itself wouldn't.
And that's again, the biggest problem of the game. The biggest problem with modern day indie games in general is that the games are either a 2D side-scrolling exploration game or a procedural game as the large amount of games that are released by indie developers, both of which are very padded experiences, forcing the player to either repeat what's essentially an hours worth of content endless over and over until you finally get good enough or lucky enough to have a winning combination of items in your inventory or what can be a great designed explorable world but more often than not, it's a poorly designed explorable world and the problem with that is that it's always one key item that will lock you out of progress as that's the nature of the game, so you may have 20 points of interest you can't progress, but if that one key item or one of those points of interest are poorly explained or visualized to the players, you're going to either spend hours and hours and hours of wandering or just throw your hands in the air and look that sh-- up online. That's pretty much most indie games and even a lot of modern day AAA developers are doing this as well because padding is the name of the game in the modern day gaming scene, where most modern devs opt for open world, but other modern developers are being inspired by indie devs with games like Dynasty Warriors Origins, Returnal, Elden Ring Nightreign, games that have this modern AAA bullshit, now have this indie bullshit as well.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
I was correct in my last post that I was close to the end of the chapter I was in then in London Detective Mysteria for Vita (which is now apparently Vita-exclusive for its English release, as the PC version was delisted just recently). I was even closer to the end than I had guessed, as the game dropped the whole subplot of figuring out the mystery surrounding the deaths of the protagonist's parents. I assume you can't get a proper conclusion on that until you clear some/all routes. Anyway, the chapter after that was like a last hurrah for the common route. It involved a picnic with all the main characters, where you first systematically have one-on-one time with each love interest and the most significant side characters and then everyone comes together to eat. I did manage to get onto a route before taking off to visit family, as the person who helps Emily clean up after the picnic indicates whose route you're about to start.
I was expecting to switch to something else after that, mainly because I was only taking earbuds with me and don't like playing visual novels (ones with voice acting at least) without high-quality headphones. But it turns out my husband has a couple pairs of decent headphones that he keeps at my mom's house, and I've been using one pair to continue playing London Detective Mysteria. I don't like these headphones as much as my usual pair, but they're good enough to hear the voice acting clearly. As I expected, I did end up on Holmes's route. I believe the character routes are an additional five chapters, and I cleared the first one for Holmes. There weren't even any choices to make. It feels like I've read quite a bit in the next one, so maybe I'm close to polishing off another. Still not too much in the way of drama or romance, so I'm waiting for you-know-what to hit the fan haha.
Still haven't finished off the chapter I was in when I made my last past about London Detective Mysteria on Vita, and it's not for lack of playing. It feels like a million things have happened in this chapter, and it's still going. There was a segment at school, then a long flashback, then a segment at Holmes and Watson's flat, and now more drama in another location. Still no choices in sight either, so it's practically been feeling like a kinetic novel, especially compared to how frequently choices seemed to pop up in the common route. And while the drama is increasing, the relationship between Emily and Holmes still feels like barely anything beyond friendship. I'm not saying that as a complaint, though, just an assessment of the story as it currently stands.
Okay, so I was literally only a couple ellipses away from the end of the chapter I was in as of my last post in London Detective Mysteria on Vita, haha. The way this game works is that, between scenes, it cuts to a black screen with a few ellipses to skip through, I guess to show the passage of time or whatever. I find those make for good spots to stop playing and save, so I'm not confused by stopping mid-conversation the next time I load the game up. But those transitions are also used right before the chapters change, so sometimes I leave off right at the very end of a chapter and don't even realize it. Anyway, I'm a ways into the next chapter now, and there's a teeeeeny bit of romance starting to creep in. It's cute seeing Watson observe things and take on something of a wingman role. (Which I suppose you could say Watson always was, just not previously in matters of romance.) I like that Lupin is showing up again too, as his regular self, not under his disguise, which I find kind of annoying. On that note, this route has gone on and on about how those who are adept at wearing disguises can see through the disguises of others, so why the heck has Holmes, who wears disguises and can see through his father's disguises, been seemingly unable to see through Lupin's disguise? It's not like it's even a good one, haha. Going by "John Lupine" instead of "Jean Lupin", wearing glasses, and speaking with a nervous stutter isn't exactly obscuring things a lot.
Well, I've finally done it. I started playing Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, my very first time playing a turn based RPG! The game creates a beautiful world with interesting enemies and areas to explore. I'm quite liking that. Clair Obscure has been getting accolades for being made by a 30 member development team over 5 years who released the game at a $50 price point too, in their words, reach as many people as possible. Nintendo doesn't talk like that anymore!
There's even talk about Game of the Year. Not best game ever, that's reserved for Nintendo for reasons I can't fathom. The team is entirely from Europe and unmistakenly influenced the design choices and the voice acting and avoided the "Ohh God, another damn bowl of rice!" feeling I get from playing Japanese games.
Expedition 33 is available on the PC, Xbox and PS5, but not the Switch. That's probably a good thing because the game would be ruined at 16 colors 480p or what ever it is that the Switch outputs. I know, I know, but you get to play in bed with the Switch while mommy tucks you in! Well, there is something to be said for that, right.
Since I have nothing to compare Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 too, I'll just say that as a newbie I'm aproximately half way through the game and only thought of putting down the game once when a character I liked playing was knocked off.
I really wanted to buy a guide for the game, but there were none available, so I scour the internet for playing tips where I'm learning new jargon like tanks, DPS and Glass Cannons. As a novice to the genre I thought all RPG's were required to have a dungeon with rats to kill. I haven't run across any rats yet. But the girl team member who leaps in the air to sprinkle life giving fairy dust on dying team mates is definately in this game. I guess some rules of RPG's can never be broken.
I should be in the final chapter of Holmes's route in London Detective Mysteria on my Vita now, so I'm closing in on finally beating this game after starting it so many years ago. Of course, that's only one route, and I probably will continue on with it, as I'm still in an otome/visual novel kind of headspace. I could theoretically switch to Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds, which I also have digitally on my Vita and left off midway through (though that I believe I cleared with some sort of solo ending and then left off on trying to get on an actual character route, not that there's a lot there in that regard, as Kyoto Winds is just half of Hakuoki). Anyway, even though I'm near the end, I only have 50% of Holmes's cutscene art unlocked. I think I did miss something in the common route, but I still wonder if they're gonna unload on me in this last chapter, haha. They also didn't even get to an actual confession until the end of the previous chapter, so it's definitely been more general plot and drama than romance. I liked how the game pulls the other classmates back into the story right as I was starting to think how it felt like they just ceased to exist once I ended up on Holmes's route. Well, with the exception of Jack, but he's so antisocial that it makes sense why he wouldn't be around.
I finished Holmes's route in London Detective Mysteria on Vita, earning the "Destined End", which I believe is this game's terminology for the best ending. That surprised me, as I rarely get a character's best ending the first time through their route. Per usual, I made no effort to pick the answers that would increase affection. I know a ton of otome visual novel players use outside resources when they play, like trying to get a consensus on the "recommended route order" and consulting a walkthrough to get the routes and endings they want in whatever order they want. Some others prefer to self-insert and make decisions based on what they themselves would do. Me, I prefer to play blind and let the chips fall where they may. I usually play in a methodical method, simply choosing the first option listed every time I'm presented with a choice. Then, if I get the normal/bad ending with whatever character, I get on the same route, then pick all the options I didn't previously, keep doing that until I've seen the results of every choice, and then try to pick all the affection-boosting answers to get the best ending. Then I start picking the second options listed on the common route to end up on a different character's route and so on. But trying to get on Holmes's route again while not boosting affection to the point of getting the Destined End seems like a pain right now, so I restarted the game and am already picking different answers on the common route. If I go straight into a different character's route, that's fine. I can always tie up loose ends at a later point in time.
I've noticed that, early in the game, there are a lot of points where you choose between Holmes and Watson. I always picked Holmes (the first choice) my first time through, so I guess that explains why I had high affection with him early on. Now I'm going with Watson every time, and I've already racked up a lot with him, so I won't be surprised if I end up on his route. Seems like getting other routes would require switching back and forth on these choices to balance out the gains, keeping either from getting especially high. And I gotta say, I don't like how this game handles choices overall. I think I've played otome visual novels from a decent variety of developers (as opposed to, say, the fans who stick with Otomate almost exclusively), but I believe this is my first from Karin. This game has timed choices, which I think I heard is something Karin tends to do. I prefer to take my time, and it's not like it automatically picks whatever is highlighted when time runs out. Instead, it defaults to a particular choice or sometimes even takes you in a different direction than any of the selectable options. So in that regard, there's an extra, invisible choice sometimes, and there's no way to knowing without either a guide or letting the timer run out on every option. But what really irks me is that, while the regular text is highlighted when it's already been read (it shows up in red, rather than white), choices don't change color even when they have been picked before. There's no way to know if you've already picked something unless after making a choice and seeing what color the subsequent text is. I suppose you could use the navigation options to jump back to the previous choice, but that's a pain itself. So this is where it really helps that I have a systematic approach to picking choices. Even though it's been years since I did the early chapters of the common route, I'm pretty confident that the choices listed first are what I've picked before.
Anyway, getting back to the actual story, I thought it was cute that the end of Holmes's route mirrored Emily's first encounter with Holmes. It's also fun skipping through the early chapters, stopping to read some new text here and there because it's refreshing my memory on what occurred in these early chapters.
Last edited by Aussie2B; 06-12-2025 at 04:59 PM.
Genesis
Metal Gear
Awhile ago the msx,metal gear got a port to the genesis and it's very well done.You can play it emulated or on a genesis directly using a everdrive.
What I will say is that RPGs have come a long way since the absurd level grind that were "mostly" on the NES and "sometimes" on the SNES. But even then, you hear people say that you do nothing but press the attack command on classic RPGs and yes, you can do that if you want on classic RPGs. There's no need to use any bit of actual thought to finish Final Fantasy 4, if you did want to level grind and blow past any difficulty.Originally Posted by Spartacus
However, I have finished Final Fantasy 4 dozens of times and despite characters like Cecil, Kain, and Edge being able to do mostly attack, you can still play efficiently even when that's your only option. You can play efficiently by attacking enemies in a specific order like how one character might go last but can kill an enemy alone, allowing you to avoid attacking that enemy with anyone else to not waste a turn, or how a character like Rosa, despite being a white mage has many different status effect spells that can be used to slow the enemy party or paralyze enemies removing them from combat entirely allowing you to then focus on other enemies reducing the amount of damage you take. Rydia will later on get the more powerful stop, so instead of casting much more expensive spells or summons, why not just stop one of the two red giants both removing him from combat and keeping him from exploding when at low HP.
There's a lot of great RPGs starting even on the NES with the original Final Fantasy which when you get better at it is not the grind that a lot of people would make you believe. The Magic of Scheherazade which isn't the greatest at all, this one is a little weak in both its action and its RPG mechanics but just how unique this game, it's always been a childhood favorite of mine. The Magic of Scheherazade has an action combat system and then sometimes when you move from one screen to the next it will go into a turn based RPG system.
Now, I haven't yet played Expedition 33 and I intend to, but it's not on my radar to buy right away because the parry and evasion. Let's say you're perfect at parries and evasion, well, you'll never take damage, and to me that removes a lot of the strategy and depth that I feel that an RPG should have. Especially when on the flip side I could be dog sh** at this same mechanic and not be able to progress because of just a broken frustrated mechanic.
One last thing I've heard that Expedition 33 has an amazing storyline so that does interest me as a good storyline is great for RPGs, but I will also say that my feelings on this, again, not knowing the story is that, this is a modern RPG. Classic RPG storylines, got straight to the point. The problem with modern games in general is that modern games pad things out, they really really pad things out. And this isn't just storyline, but for the modern video game, storylines are often these ridiculous text dumps that shove a massive amount of unnecessary dialogue down the players throat.
I'm going to use SMT Nocturne and Persona 5 as two examples. SMT Nocturne has a great storyline, but it has a very limited storyline that key points at the beginning and the end of the dungeon are generally the only points that you'll see storyline and then the gameplay is purely gameplay. While SMT Nocturne is heavily skewed in favor of gameplay, not all RPGs are like that and this is just one extreme example since SMT Nocturne is based on its dungeon crawler RPG roots even if it is actually in third person.
Persona 5 on the other hand tends to repeat a lot of the same dialogue over and over and over, even in main story scenes and every single character has to get a word in, so whether it's three characters starting out or later in the game eight characters, every single time one character says something the game makes sure the other seven characters get a word in before moving on. And before moving on doesn't mean "finishing the conversation" it means just getting to the next sentence. So the amount of padding in this game is just absolutely absurd.
Falcom and Atlus are two that use text as a way to add "value" but the more modern the game the more I can't stand playing games from these companies despite absolutely loving them in the past. Ys8 is one of my favorite games of all time and it has a bit of dialogue but it doesn't really go into the modern day text dumps that modern day Falcom games are known and praised for. Ys9 makes a big shift in this direction but Ys10? Ys10 you can't even play through the first area of the game within five hours because of just how much dialogue is within the game. This game constantly stops you, whether in the middle of a dungeon, or several times just progressing towards where you need to go, and these cutscenes are 10 minutes or more only for a new one to start a couple minutes later. It's absolutely fu**ing ridiculous. And after playing Ys10 even decided I'm never buying another Falcom games because at this point they're either Trails games with the same amount of text dump nonsense and the exact same gameplay the series has had since Trails in the Sky or they're just ruining the latest Ys which almost never gets a release in the first place.
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I will go into a small bit of detail on some modern RPGs you should try though if you want a more skill based efficient style of gameplay.
Star Renegades: This has a fairly decent opening storyline which progresses through with the games tutorial. Afterwards the rest of the dialogue is random character banter which you can turn off. This is a procedural game and I hate the term roguelike since I like actual roguelikes, but this is one that imo is one of the better style of these games. You start off with three characters, each one only having three actions, one of which is defend, and depending on the character they may also have an alternate mode they can swap to. After you finish the first planet and second planet, you get up to five, six if you purchase the game on PC where the developers actually released a final expansion of the game not on console in any form. I'm still satisfied with what I've received as a physical form but for how great of a game this is it is rather disappointing that we didn't get that on disc.
So on each of these planets(and any of the dungeons that you can unlock by entering the dungeon at night which are mini three path locations.) You have three planets plus a final area and each planet is in 3D but it's a two dimensional backdrop that you'll be able to go through nine areas through the course of that planet. What happens is that in each planet the areas are all randomized, so common, uncommon, rare, and epic treasure boxes, shield upgrades, food, gold, etc, and you sort of determine what sort of path you'd like to go to get whatever you can from nine of these locations. You can aim for special enemies on the map which will unlock dungeons at night and that allows you one of two paths for extra battles, rare chest, and maybe one of the other bonuses.
Experience points are limited, so each time you play the game you'll determine who you want to put experience points into first. Increasing their HP, damage, and every two levels acquiring a new skill. Aegis for example is a great tank, and on level four she'll unlock the long range shield throw, one of the better stagger skills, but maybe you bring the marksmen who really doesn't have any stagger at all and while having one of the more powerful attack skills in the game at level one, it's also the slowest. By getting to level four the marksman can get keen shot which is more powerful than his quick shot, has a quick speed, and so-so damage and you can still enter his sniper mode to reduce the speed by 20 seconds and increase damage by 25%.
So Star Renegades has a lot of depth to it and despite the type of game and losing resets you back to the very beginning, finishing the game on normal if you understand its gameplay, even if you're not especially great at it isn't too difficult. But if you were to get into the game and you did finish it on normal, there's seven more difficulties each one harder than the last. I've made it to Entropy 4 in which case has all the difficulty settings from earlier difficulties plus adds an extra enemy and sometimes two in each battle and I just can't get past it. But I really enjoyed what this game provides and I'd say it's one of the best RPGs, not just modern.
Suikoden 1 and 2 Have recently received remasters. Now these are pretty easy games, and playing efficiently only makes them easier. I'd say they're a favorite of a lot of people for the reason that the combat is enjoyable and just how easy they are at the same time.
However, one thing I'd like to point out is the great storyline to each of these games and with the more classic design, despite having 108 characters on the first game, the game is able to flesh out many of the character cast despite easily playable to completion at 100% within nine hours. The first Suikoden game is imo the best paced RPG you will ever play. The game is so quickly paced that there's around 17 towns, 17 dungeons(I could be off on this, just off the top of my head, it's 17 or more) and a really good storyline that gets to the point while also adding personality and backstory to many of the games charaters, all with a time of completion of nine hours or more. Obviously there's battles, there's the world map, and even then if you were to divide nine hours by 34 different areas, that is 26 minutes each area. You probably wouldn't even make it through most modern RPGs opening cutscenes and dungeon within a couple hours now days. Something that was a complaint on the original Dragon Warrior 7 which took two hours before you fought your first battle across two towns and a dungeon(and even that is speedy compared to the bloat you have with todays games.)
There's just a couple, I could throw a lot more at you here, but not sure how much interest you'll have in the topic in general.
Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.
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