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TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
11/06/23 7:26:45 AM
#82
Moonlight Syndrome (PSX)

Same disclaimer as the last one (didn't play for real, watched a translated longplay)

In short, I was disappointed. I was expecting it, really, but there's a difference in going from a vague, possibly-exaggerated general perception to sitting down to experience the thing for real and seeing "The oral sex of a court of justice" and "What is a grand LSD" fly by during the opening FMV. Maybe it's because my years of consuming all kinds of media have left me a lot more jaded and skeptical that something about which that kind of sentence can be said is actually going to be genuinely interesting.

What I loved most about Twilight Syndrome the storytelling is not entirely gone, but it's now the exception rather than the rule. There's a handful of cases that develop a little like Twilight Syndrome cases (besides the branching paths that actually matter/multiple endings being gone), but honestly, it's surprising we even get that much when you consider the rest of the content. It's obvious that Suda wasn't interested in giving a genuine continuation to the story, and just ended up using this game as a testing ground for his own quirks and characters, which just means that there's a lot less plot/character development and a lot more long-winded non-sequitur pseudophilosophical ranting involving characters that we barely know anything about, and plot points that are completely reliant on paratextual knowledge and very specific interpretations of bizarre scenes, which to put it mildly is a big step down from its predecessor. Without saying too much, all the rumors I heard about dodgy things being done to the original games' characters were true, though if I'm being honest the new ones don't exactly fare much better.

Well, there are also some cheeky references to the Clock Tower games (which Suda wasn't involved with at all), so that was cool. My favorite was "Clock Tower 3 release date", though obviously that one invokes a good deal of humor that didn't even exist when this came out.

I'm not entirely out of hope for The Silver Case being an improvement, although given that I've now doubly confirmed the connection between that game and its predecessors that I was already superficially aware of, whenever said connection comes up I fear I won't be able to disassociate it from the lackluster impression this one left me with.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
11/04/23 6:21:30 AM
#79
Twilight Syndrome: Tansaku-hen & Kyuumei-hen (PSX)

Disclaimer: I didn't actually play these games directly as my Japanese isn't good enough for that yet, I watched a translated longplay on youtube.

These have been on my radar for quite a long while, but it wasn't until recently that I finally got the push to check them out one way or another as I was compelled to finally play The Silver Case within a fairly imminent date, and my seriation-obsessed self couldn't possibly fathom the idea of breaking that principle for a series that I don't actively hate.

It was definitely worth it. From what I could tell, the gameplay is halfway between a kinetic novel and something like Famicom Detective Club/Ace Attorney/Danganronpa etc. etc., in that there is definitely some gameplay and decision making but it largely consists of just moving around the game world and picking out responses from a list every so often (and sometimes examining things/talking to people, but this is largely inconsequential). On the plus side, this does go as far as to mean that each case has multiple endings, or more accurately one good ending and a handful of fatal or unambiguously bad non-canon outcomes.

The format of the stories is done interestingly. It's basically an anthology of Japanese style ghost stories/urban legends that follows one continuous plotline with three high school girls as the protagonists. As with many such stories, the interesting part comes from finding out how they unfold and learning the details of the backstories that made them possible, but something unique to this format is that there is an overarching story of sorts involving character development for Yukari, the girl who you end up controlling for most of the game, which resonates with some of the themes specific to each sub-story, and as you might expect comes to a big crescendo at the end of the last case. The way this plays out may end up feeling somewhat clich if you're not into it, but personally I think it's one of the best possible ways they could have executed a story like this in the medium. It helps that it has that unique HUMAN Entertainment style that makes certain other groundbreaking titles like Clock Tower and Mizzurna Falls stand out, even from a more modern perspective.

Going back to the reason I ended up checking these out at this time, there's also a secret bonus episode, "Prank", which from my understanding you can unlock by having good ending saves for all the cases on your memory card, and is a much more surreal and unconventional collection of scenes that leaves you with more questions than answers. Notably, this is apparently the only part of either game where Goichi Suda had full creative control (even though he had some degree of involvement directing some of the other cases), and it serves as a direct prelude to Moonlight Syndrome, which many fans of this one consider a kusoge due to (based on some comments I've read) some bizarre choices involving the characters from this game and general incomprehensibility, though thankfully(?) it does appear that it is also ignored by this game's other sequels. Well, I suppose I did ask for this, so I guess I'll go find out what that's all about next.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
10/23/23 2:37:11 PM
#71
Nioh: Complete Edition (Steam)

I actually ended up completing the vanilla game a couple weeks ago but thought I'd want to go through the DLCs as well which ended up requiring some preparation, but more on that in a minute

I first played some of this game in 2019 but ended up coming back to it because of how much I ended up feeling oddly compelled by the gameplay of Stranger of Paradise and seeing various comments that it was the same gameplay/engine that served as its base, and after finally finishing this one I can say that's pretty much true; other than the technical aspects there's the same mission based progression where you thoroughly traverse each map the first time for a story mission then you get a few shorter side missions later which go through the same map backwards with a different objective. Gameplay is comparable to something like Dark Souls other than every enemy having a stamina bar, though in this one emptying it doesn't mean a guaranteed OHK opportunity, and yokai also handle it differently from humans where they don't stagger until it's empty but it also doesn't regenerate unless they're standing in their spooky hell dimension circle. Figuring out how to fight all the different yokai types effectively is where the most of the challenge comes from here; in that sense the boss fights is probably where the game is most like Dark Souls where it's mostly about finding a good strategy for outlasting the boss. Pre-endgame builds are largely based on what weapon you're using and what extra skills you've unlocked of which there are a lot to choose from, though ironically I just found out that my two favorite weapons in the game, odachi and tonfa, apparently weren't even in the original vanilla release but were added as part of the DLCs. Wack.

There's also the aspect of tons of progressive equipment loot drops which make the blacksmith/crafting system obsolete until the very end of the game but which also pretty much become the metagame if you want to advance into any of the content that comes after the end of vanilla, since at this point you won't get better stuff unless you start delving deep into the Very Hard NG+ content. This became a minor time sink for me at that point since I couldn't rely on just getting higher level stuff from drops consistently anymore going into the DLC missions because of how postgame drops are restructured; you start getting random drops of green rarity "divine items" which sometimes have a + number next to their level which represents a much bigger stat bonus, which you really need at that point because the base level is locked to 150 and relatively low + levels until you reach the NG++ maps. I managed to complete the first main mission of the first DLC with this low level postgame equipment, but then decided to rush my way through as many of the NG+ maps as possible so I could get some NG++ equipment and come back to do the rest of the NG DLC levels since I'd heard... interesting things about the bosses in them. Which all turned out to be true, incidentally; the main challenge there comes from them being regular human fighters who spam living weapon buffs, making them agile and hard to hit while also giving them increased offense, elemental damage and un-staggerability until their stamina runs out at which point it's only a matter of time before they resummon their buff. Though ironically the only boss in the entire game that I couldn't beat without summoning help was the Onmoraki in the second-to-last mission of the final DLC, which spams wind attacks that give you a big offense debuff.

Speaking of the online, I had that off through most of the vanilla game not on purpose but simply because I didn't realize that one of the settings (crossplay with the epic store version) pretty much breaks it and guarantees it won't work (which was a relief to discover since for a while I suspected I was shadowbanned because I was running the game through Special K launcher), maybe I'll go back and do some more of that now that I'm pretty much done with the game but mostly I'm glad that I am so that I can check out some of the earlier Koei/Capcom games (Acquire too, but that was on the table already) with that same kind of setting since honestly one of my favorite things about this game was the style and presentation for the historical fiction part of it even if the dialogue isn't really stellar and the information they have about the characters/yokai in their profiles. I've heard the sequel is also a significant improvement so I look forward to playing that at some point. And hey, the fact that I was willing to put that much more time into this game after I was "done with it" so I could continue on to see every part of the story probably says something to how much enjoyment I actually got out of it.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
10/19/23 12:15:38 PM
#62
Witch & Hero II (3DS)

A couple days late on this one, but long story short, it's better than the first one. You can now move the witch around, she's fairly sluggish but can still outrun any non-projectile handily. She also rezzes the hero faster if they're next to each other which is nice. This alone makes the game paradigm far more skill-based and less grindy than in the first game. Accordingly, there are now 30 levels instead of the first game's 20 and some bonus modes at the end. My gripe with how protracted the first game's final boss was and how unfair it was at the end is largely addressed, except maybe for one little detail, once again with the very final phase of the final boss where it looks like you're meant to have put a few levels into the speed stat (which I never did) to actually deal the final blow. Fortunately you can circumvent that by taking a risk and having the witch facetank some of the projectiles you have to get through to reach the boss in the end. That probably would've been a problem if not for the fact that you can also buy some time during this final phase to let the witch heal. Quite a difference going from the first game's "unbeatable" to "beaten on the first try, with some puzzlement".

Speaking of the first game's final boss, the dev clearly knew what a problem it was because if you have that save data when you start this one it starts you off talking about how you couldn't beat it and makes you redo that battle. It plays the same way so I still couldn't beat it, but at least now it rezzes you if you die and lets you get the remaining 20 or so hits in that I never managed to with vanilla settings and now it's over and done with forever. I concur.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
10/09/23 6:01:58 AM
#50
Learn Japanese to Survive: Hiragana Battle (Steam)

I've had these in my library for years but I recently got the itch to start studying a bunch of language-and-related stuff again for miscellaneous reasons and they very much fall into the "try everything and see what sticks" wheelhouse. This game definitely doesn't do much of anything to differentiate itself from its perception as a rather lackluster meme game, which is superficially evident by virtue of basically all the assets being pre-made RPG Maker stuff and the writing for the "plot" being nothing special.

One of the complaints I saw the most while superficially looking into this game was that it was "too grindy"; in my experience it wasn't grindy like Dragon Quest where you HAVE to grind to survive and progress, more grindy like Mother 1 where the encounter rate is too damn high so even if you're not worried about dying the battles start feeling like a chore.

This relates to the system the game tries to use to teach you hiragana, which is selecting the equivalent latin script syllable from a list to attack the japanese script enemies. Since this includes the entire hiragana syllabary including all the dakuten/handakuten variations, the list gets pretty long pretty quickly. The game kinda gets around this by just focusing on the latest stuff you've learned, which kinda defeats the purpose, and even if you really wanna keep practicing this way there's no good way to ensure that you'll get encounters with the characters you want to focus on. Aside from hiragana there's a few basic vocabulary lessons sprinkled in, though given that the game doesn't include any kanji or mention the different on'yomi/kun'yomi readings, it feels kinda pointless in the grand scheme of things, even if the final dungeon switches things up by making everything vocab focused even though by this point there's a good bit of vocab piled up with no prior opporunity to practice it.

Oh yeah, and you better save often because there are random crashes.

I guess I'll try the others which I've heard are an improvement. Unsurprisingly though this one rates pretty low in the japanese learning tools I've tried so far.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
10/04/23 6:35:26 AM
#36
Nanashi no Game (DS)

It's neat, unique, functional, and little else. The real terror while being chased by the ghosts comes from the very sparse checkpoints meaning you'll have to redo several minutes of gameplay with the very awkward first person tank controls. Funnily enough the last time I can remember that I had to redo a lengthy "final boss" sequence because of a very minor goof I did at the end of it was also while playing a DS game, namely Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
09/28/23 9:13:54 PM
#28
Witch & Hero (3DS)

I've heard the sequels are better and I'm inclined to believe. It's short enough to beat in a few hours but still manages to feel very grindy by nature. The first half of the game has a few stages that feel like unnecessarily sharp spikes in difficulty designed to invoke this, including one that essentially forces you to rely on one particular ability that I had completely ignored until then, meaning I had to spend some more time grinding money to dump upgrades on it. After that you get a powerup mode which makes the rest of the regular stages considerably easier if you manage to get good RNG setups to use it.

The final boss fight however is an unforeshadowed switchup which is not only unnecessarily protracted but also makes you redo the entire last regular level when you die; this combined with the game's Ys 1 control scheme of attacking enemies by running into them at the cost of your own health (though for this particular boss you only take damage if its projectiles hit you) makes the encounter excessively tiresome. Even the hidden gimmick that's meant to make the fight easier isn't much help; you can use the controls that would ordinarily aim the witch's attacks to steer where the boss's projectiles are fired, the problem being that this is right stick on other versions but L and R in this one, meaning you cannot hold a specific angle, and letting go of the buttons means the boss goes right back to tracking you. This wouldn't be too much of a problem in the end if not for the very last phase in which the boss starts firing little laser shots that bounce off the edges of the screen and quickly turn things into the hell part of bullet hell which is only aggravated by the aforementioned awkward control scheme, and being unable to force a specific angle for them means the aiming gimmick is effectively useless. After punishing my thumb for a while I had enough and gave up.

In retrospect it was oddly similar to Fairune 2 in many ways, counting the system I played it on, the oddly specific way you interact with the enemies, the gameplay experience largely falling flat as a whole, and the unexpected final boss switchup although the former game fared much better in that regard. If there's one positive thing I can say about it it's that the aesthetics and gameplay flow for the regular stages reminded me a lot of Vampire Survivors even though the developers apparently have nothing to do with each other.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
09/18/23 11:12:47 AM
#17
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

I really only knew about the game as the funny killing Chaos meme game before I started playing it so I was genuinely surprised when it turned out to be a souls-like (I was expecting something more akin to FF13 or 15) though I suppose it's meant to be more like Nioh since it was apparently built on the same engine as the sequel.

The gameplay mechanics took some getting used to but I found it enjoyable on the whole even if there were several stumbling blocks. Most of the bosses didn't take more than one or two tries to clear but the first fiend boss fight against Tiamat was a huge wake up call for actually learning to use the magic-absorb parry effectively; other than that it was just pattern learning and sometimes switching to a better job set, I felt compelled to try and at least fill out the skill tree for all the jobs starting with the ones that seemed like they'd be clunkier at first which only felt somewhat worth it in the long run.

Some of the mechanics like the weapon upgrades/effects tinkering felt like it wasn't really worth looking into either just because of the sheer volume of equipment drops you go through on each level and how you're always finding higher base level stuff that way, maybe it would have some use if you do a good amount of the postgame chaos difficulty mode but I didn't really feel like doing more than a few hours of that. I also only did a tiny bit of the online co-op mode but it seemed neat enough.

Speaking of postgame, despite how much of a shitpost this game tends to be seen as I did feel like I enjoyed the ending more than I was expecting. I'd say it's worth checking out if you like games with that style of gameplay or are a fan of the series, since the story is pretty much a continuation of the weird edgy lore retcon-expansion for the world of FF1 that started in Dissidia, though as implied at the start of this paragraph I found that this game executes that a lot better.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II
DeadTaffer
09/16/23 8:08:11 PM
#12
Picross 3D: Round 2 (3DS)

Pretty much all of the changes from the first one are welcome, even if the biggest one that affects gameplay flow, the "show me the row/column where the next logical move is possible" button, often led me to question exactly what kind of logic the game expected of me. Still a good show, functionally it's a lot like the navigation function in other 2D picross games that effectively does the same thing. The extra amiibo puzzles that are conspicuously way more detailed than anything else in the game are also neat, even if the generic descriptions they're given are pretty disappointing.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
09/06/23 6:11:23 PM
#485
X-Men Legends (GCN)

I remember being mildly intrigued by this game/its sequel and Marvel Ultimate Alliance when I saw their gameplay compared to Diablo years ago. I have yet to play either of the latter, but this was a pretty neat experience even with some lopsided factors here and there. The character skill trees can feel overwhelming at first but are pretty manageable once you get a grip on what everything does after a few hours of gameplay. The difficulty had a weird unique spike about a third into my playthrough during a part of the game where it feels like the characters haven't quite caught up to the challenge factor which led me to discover too late that there are some farming tricks for health potions in the Danger Room stages which I locked myself out of by going through them too quickly, but I never felt like I needed them once I got past that point in the game. The rather low cap on health potions felt like a weird design choice overall, as you only really notice it when the difficulty ramps up so much that you end up burning through them in a short time, which after the part I just mentioned only happened to me with some of the late-game bosses. The game does seem pretty keen on doing good service to its source material, dropping plenty of backstory trivia and references and even having some of the classic X-Men designs during flashback missions; in that sense I do see it as a good addition to the pre-MCU Marvel games lineup from that era. Overall I'd say it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the franchise or if you can get someone to play it with you, even if I've heard that the sequel handles the multiplayer aspect better.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
09/04/23 11:52:13 AM
#481
PowerWash Simulator (Steam)

It was exactly what I was expecting, which is nice.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/29/23 9:49:44 AM
#476
The Messenger (Steam)

Sure it's neat, but it feels like it's got too many inconsistencies to ignore. The aspect of selling itself as one of the many old 8-bit platformer inspired indie games that followed in the wake of Shovel Knight is executed well, even if the later parts of the game quickly led me to the realization that I personally have zero actual nostalgia for anything with the Genesis/Amiga aesthetic. The optional hidden side challenges to get extra items also feel much, much less like those classic games and much more like some mid 2000s Game Maker title like IWBTG, Jumper or Untitled Story where oftentimes it just feels like it's trying to be hard for the sake of being hard, sometimes (admittedly rarely) to the point of being unfair.

I was not a fan of the game's writing, which has the pretense of being jocular and self-aware while also trying to tell a very trope heavy but ultimately basic story; the way this is handled combined with the fact that the shopkeeper's rants are self-labeled as "philosophical" without any regard for how unilateral and reductive they actually are can't make me help but think the writers thought they were being much more clever and witty than they actually were. Particularly egregious is the bit in the DLC where the shopkeeper repeats that story about the hotel with infinite rooms that every first-semester compsci student is told to teach them about applied discrete mathematics in algorithms and plays it off at the end like he just dropped some kind of arcane wisdom that is guaranteed to blow your tiny mind.

I would not go so far as to say it's a bad game or even not a good game, but I certainly won't be in a hurry to replay it anytime soon. One good thing finally playing it led me to realize: Bamboo Boogaloo 1 is better.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/21/23 9:33:46 PM
#465
Glass Rose (PS2)

Been wanting to play through this one forever as it was CING's first release but never sat down to do it until the past few days. The gameplay feels pretty rough as it's pretty much all trial and error and not even in the traditional "try every action/item on everything" way you'd traditionally associate with adventure games, but just figuring out where to go and sometimes where to find items. The game does try to nudge you in the right direction most of the time and there is a hint system of sorts that you can access sometimes but not always, but some of the things you're required to find are pretty ridiculous in how easy to miss they are. The other big gameplay thing is the dialogue scenes where you have to highlight particular phrases to advance through the conversation, which feels pretty unique but also often pretty unintuitive/inconsistent for precisely that reason.

The other big aspect in this game would be the story, which feels competent as a whole but feels like it could have been executed a lot better. The way it meshes with the gameplay reminded me of something like Laura Bow where it feels like you can miss important information and screw yourself out of a good ending, but that isn't really the case (there are multiple endings but the factors for those are a lot weirder) except for some optional hidden journals that are also easy to miss and give some extra backstory. It did remind me quite a bit of the main thing I know CING for which is their later Hotel Dusk and Another Code titles, the story being reminiscent of Hotel Dusk in that all the characters end up having an intertwining backstory which is less unexpected in this case since most of them are related, but there do still end up being a couple surprise reveals in that regard. Also like in the Another Code games it has the vibe of the protag exploring a weird, almost aetherial environment from which s/he's largely detached, though the characters in those games are a lot more endearing. I did wonder pretty early on if the twist with the killer's identity was going to be more like a Phantasmagoria 2 or like a Black Mirror (2003); it ended up being the former.

Overall I would say it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the developer's other work but owing to the general clunkiness I also feel compelled to say that I absolutely do not regret using a walkthrough.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/21/23 12:51:04 AM
#464
The Legend of Kusakari (3DS)

Basically an action puzzle game where you cut the grass like in Zelda except that's the whole point of the game. The level progression/structure definitely feels like something you'd see in a mobile game. Though the game itself is pretty short, arguably the real meat of the game comes from trying to complete all the levels with the extra conditions which are mostly don't waste swings and don't get hit. There's also don't heal (you lose health automatically over time which speeds up on certain terrains or if you run into any other characters on the field) but this one is only in the early levels. I was attempting to get all of those challenges done but ended up giving them up in the last couple levels where some of the enemy movement patterns are completely random and really don't feel like something you can accomplish based on skill alone so I got fed up after one retry too many. The game as a whole is neat enough if that premise sounds interesting but it clashes a bit with my aversion to level based puzzlers which most handheld systems seem to be inundated with.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/20/23 3:41:25 AM
#463
Dementium: The Ward (DS)

I already played this game many years ago but I figure now I can redo it on real hardware so I can also play the sequels the same way without weird technical issues. It's unique because, well, who expected a survival horror FPS on the DS? As you might expect from that description the controls can feel awkward at times but they are pretty functional, though it can wear on the palm of your left hand if you're trying to finesse a lot of frantic movement in a short time.

What's shown of the story in this game is nothing spectacular, though it does show its roots as a failed attempt to pitch a Silent Hill game on the DS. The level design and gameplay are similar in that regard, even though as you might have guessed from the title the whole game takes place in a hospital and all the hallways start looking alike pretty quickly with little in the way of environment variety. The limited ammo capacity and refill availability is quite fitting for the genre and much like in RE you'll often find yourself running past enemies rather than spend precious ammo, though unlike RE said enemies tend to respawn every time you come back to the room so you gotta be even more judicious with your supplies. I found myself being more conservative with ammo even after getting the second melee weapon which totally obliterates a couple of the enemy types so make of that what you will.

Last big thing worth talking about are the boss fights, most of which are just a matter of figuring out how to best cheese each encounter and avoid damage, sometimes by getting the boss stuck in some part of the geometry. The big exception is the final chapter/boss, which feel like the game's big weak point, as the final battle has much less (or at least much less intuitive) strategy for avoiding death, and if you mess up you have to redo the entire last chapter which is a lengthy gauntlet of rooms containing every regular enemy in the game, some of which you'll notice to have pretty inconsistent behavior/hitboxes especially if you have to deal with them again and again.

Overall though I'd recommend the game just for how unique of an experience it is and it being very well executed overall, save for that God of War style "we forgot to playtest the last level" endgame.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/18/23 8:50:07 AM
#459
Ghosthunter (PS2)

I can't even remember how I became aware of this game in the first place, but it had the kind of topics/premise and obscurity that can make me raise and eyebrow, especially when combined. The game itself is functional and entertaining but fairly jank, not just by virtue of being a stick-only TPS but also from a fair part of the challenge coming from the exploration sometimes being held up because it's really not clear on what you're supposed to be doing. There's also a couple aspects of the game that feel like wasted potential, such as the story/lore which feels genuinely intriguing at a few points but ends with a disappointing resolution, or the ghost viewer/bestiary which stops being accessible about halfway through the game. The music feels a bit like that sometimes but there are definitely some standouts, including a track the devs must have been aware of as they ended up remixing it for the credits. The graphics for the character models are very good for the time but don't feel spectacular otherwise. Overall I'd say it's worth checking out if the premise sounds interesting and you're able to put up with some degree of vintage 3D jank, Geist is another game that comes to mind as a potential comparison.
Topic[VGMC] Day 98!! THE END!!!
DeadTaffer
08/17/23 10:36:09 PM
#15
pain
Topic[VGMC] Day 97! THE FINALS!!!
DeadTaffer
08/16/23 10:56:21 PM
#15
The Last Specter's Theme
Topic[VGMC] VGMusic Contest 17: EPB/Rusty Ruins; Sunleth/Skaarj; Staff/Machine
DeadTaffer
08/16/23 3:26:22 AM
#16
Electric Power Building
Skaarj Assault
Staff Roll
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/15/23 6:01:10 PM
#452
Underleveled posted...
There was one to Feel the Magic as well
True, but that was one of the couple with the Samba de Amigo gameplay. Also probably the hardest one to get a clear on for me just because it's so fast that it's hard to tell whether beats that go to opposite ends of the screen are supposed to be simultaneous or rapid succession, especially with that song.
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/14/23 11:51:26 PM
#449
Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure

Other than general recommendations and reading the title I had no idea what to expect going into this one, so diet Layton with a bunch of short rhythm games with varied gameplay was a surprise that was probably for the better. The brassy big band/aggressively french themes that color the most prominent musical motifs of the game weren't a particularly big standout for me, but I did like a handful of other songs that depart from that. The storytelling felt pretty lackluster overall with some plot threads left unresolved at the end and unlike Layton I really don't know if this is ever getting a sequel to address them. Gameplay wise I mostly enjoyed it even if there were some minigames that were just painful, and I'm not even talking about the motion control ones which mostly worked fine for me, but ones where the visuals were really non indicative of what the right timing/action was supposed to be even though that's meant to be a big thing for this game. Football kicking/dogs eating bread instantly come to mind, definitely made me go "fuck that" when I saw that the requirement to unlock the last bonus chapter was to get an A on everything. Even for a few of the others since you get one sentence's worth of explanation at most it can take a few tries just to be able to pass them, but other than those I found most of them easy to get used to. One thing that pleasantly surprised me and that I probably should've seen coming were the tribute stages to Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo (even if I've never actually played the latter).
Topic[VGMC] Day 95! feat. SEMIFINAL 2!! [Chronological and Numerical]
DeadTaffer
08/14/23 11:01:00 PM
#25
oof
Topic[VGMC] Day 94! feat. SEMIFINAL 1!! [Smashed and Spooked]
DeadTaffer
08/13/23 10:37:05 PM
#21
The Last Specter's Theme
TopicPost Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition
DeadTaffer
08/13/23 4:50:12 AM
#447
OFF

Played this once about a decade ago and just did it again for a group thing. It's neat but maybe feels a bit dated in its overall pacing. Presentation and writing are neat but hardly mindblowing. I got to play it in its original language this time which was nice. I had forgotten just about everything from the endgame except the very last fight so I guess I got to reexperience that at least even if it did leave off a slight taste of "how can I make up a BS interpretation of all this that'll make a passable college paper" vibe.
Topic[VGMC] Day 93! feat. BRACKET D FINALS [Counting Up and Ticking Down]
DeadTaffer
08/13/23 3:41:39 AM
#28
To Far Away Times
Topic[VGMC] Day 92! feat. BRACKET C FINALS [Looking Back vs Powering Forward]
DeadTaffer
08/11/23 10:16:37 PM
#10
PowerOne
Topic[VGMC] Day 91! BRACKET B FINALS [City Lights vs Village Ghost]
DeadTaffer
08/11/23 1:37:43 AM
#28
The Last Specter's Theme
Topic[VGMC] Day 90! BRACKET A FINALS [Out at Night vs Breaking Day]
DeadTaffer
08/09/23 11:54:59 PM
#19
Ragna Breakers
Topic[VGMC] Day 89! feat. The Demons of Bracket D
DeadTaffer
08/08/23 10:29:05 PM
#11
Dancing Mad
To Far Away Times
Topic[VGMC] Day 88! feat. The Champions of Bracket C
DeadTaffer
08/08/23 12:57:23 AM
#25
Staff Roll
Topic[VGMC] Day 86! feat. The All-Stars of Bracket A
DeadTaffer
08/05/23 11:32:54 PM
#14
Northeast Frost Street
SHININ' QUEEN
Topic[VGMC] Day 85! feat. The Old, The Free, The Linear, and the Timeless
DeadTaffer
08/05/23 4:25:34 PM
#42
Old L.A. 2040
To Far Away Times
Topic[VGMC] Day 84! feat. Counting Forever and Reading for 10 Minutes
DeadTaffer
08/04/23 12:15:37 AM
#21
Song of Mourning: The Eternal Wind
An Empty Tome
Topic[VGMC] Day 83! feat. Two Structures against Two Spaceships
DeadTaffer
08/03/23 12:25:11 AM
#24
PowerOne
Staff Roll
Topic[VGMC] Day 82! feat. the Snow Bowl and the Time Bowl
DeadTaffer
08/02/23 8:22:10 PM
#54
Frozen Grounds
Back in Time
Topic[VGMC] Day 81! feat. Phys Ed, Algebra, Film Studies, and Astronomy
DeadTaffer
08/01/23 12:59:30 AM
#26
Aria Math
The Last Specter's Theme
Topic[VGMC] Day 80! feat. Water in Air, Water in Lakes, Water in Pipes, and No Water
DeadTaffer
07/31/23 1:27:56 AM
#23
The Sunleth Waterscape
Epicentre
Topic[VGMC] Day 79! feat. Losing and Breaking, Shining and Sunrising
DeadTaffer
07/30/23 11:54:40 AM
#34
Lost Forest
Subterranean Sunrise
Topic[VGMC] Day 78! feat. RETIREMENT ROUND!!! and Roar of Time vs. the End of Time
DeadTaffer
07/29/23 12:03:28 PM
#35
To Far Away Times
Azure Archipelago
Topic[VGMC] Day 77! feat. EPOLIS, GOLD, HAPPY SKY, PENDUAL, GOLD again, and GOLD x3
DeadTaffer
07/28/23 2:19:10 AM
#20
Old L.A. 2040
Desert-Duo
Topic[VGMC] Day 76! feat. FF3, F0, FF5, FF9, FF4, and Xenogears
DeadTaffer
07/26/23 10:45:58 PM
#11
An Empty Tome
Calling
Topic[VGMC] Day 75! feat. Ira, Superbia, Luxuria, Gula, Pigritia, and Avaritia
DeadTaffer
07/25/23 10:35:52 PM
#13
Rampage
Staff Roll
Unused Song 2
Topic[VGMC] Day 74! feat. :wave:, :boom:, :train:, :factory:, :star:, and :milky_way:
DeadTaffer
07/25/23 1:18:58 AM
#17
PowerOne
You Can Have Mine
Topic[VGMC] Day 73! feat. EF, Dfc, Dfa, Csb, BWh, and Csa
DeadTaffer
07/24/23 5:55:53 AM
#21
Frozen Grounds
Portugal
Festival of Dionysus (Greece)
Topic[VGMC] Day 72! Featuring Music, Music, Music, Music, Space, and Space
DeadTaffer
07/23/23 1:10:58 AM
#16
Aria Math
The Last Specter's Theme
Remnants of Celestial (Stage 3)
Topic[VGMC] Day 71! feat. Sandy Beach, Landing Beach, Sunny Beach, and Rough Waters
DeadTaffer
07/22/23 11:04:50 AM
#34
Suna Gin
Blue Whitecaps
Crystal Caves
Topic[VGMC] Day 70! feat. Singin' in the Rain, Woman from Tokyo, and Earthquake Bird
DeadTaffer
07/20/23 10:04:06 PM
#4
The Sunleth Waterscape
Epicentre
Topic[VGMC] nice day! feat. CRACK!, drip., SHINE!, SHINE!, SHINE!, and you
DeadTaffer
07/19/23 11:49:58 PM
#11
Crystal Caves
Beat the Diamonds
Subterranean Sunrise
Topic[VGMC] Day 68! feat. Sky, Land, Sea, Core, Sea again, and then Land again
DeadTaffer
07/18/23 11:24:34 PM
#11
Wind Scene
Azure Archipelago
Lost Forest
Topic[VGMC] Day 67! Round 3! feat. Nebraska, Minnesota, Saudi Arabia, and Portugal
DeadTaffer
07/18/23 2:51:55 AM
#20
MNN+@0(Day)
Samsara
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