ogremode
(I spoil the ending of the game in the last paragraph.)
This is the first Armored Core game I've played, though I'm a massive fan of FromSoft's Souls games, and I was looking forward to checking out their other major game series. I came away loving it, and it left me really wanting to explore the earlier games.
The action of the game is excellent, fun and impressive, though rarely very difficult. Like the Souls games, attacks are grounded in their animations, though most of the projectile weapons are near instant. The real limiting factor is that each of your four weapons, once it expends its ammunition, is sent into cooldown. The loop of the action is juggling these four cooldowns while looking for opportunities to get a hit in on the enemies, as well as managing your boosting and stagger bars. Each enemy has a stagger bar, though the vast majority of enemy types are one or two-hit fodder enemies, called MTs, which do more damage as the game goes on but never become harder to kill. There are two or three tiers of regular enemies, each requiring more damage as you go up the tier, then there are enemy AC/LC enemies, which are similar to your own ship. Fights against other style of human NPCs are always fun in the Souls games, and they're great here, and there's a lot of them, as well as arena fights which are one on one. There are only a few boss enemies, but they're all unique and fun to fight. There's the usual genre of FROM bosses—action/skill tests like Balteus; puzzle-y bosses like the helicopter, which can be trivialized by staying underneath it; and then finally the Stormruler style cinematic fight (Ice Worm) where you must use a specific weapon to take it down.
Your weapon choices are limited primarily by two stats--first, the encumbrance stat, which is determined by your legs. The heavier the leg part, the more you can carry, though you might be slower. The other limiting stat is your generator. Generally, generators with more energy are heavier, limiting your choices for your other parts. Certain weapons work better with certain AC designs—each part—head, arms, cores, legs, computer, and generator—has specific stats that make them better for fast weapons, slow weapons, energy weapons, melee weapons, long distance, medium distance, and so on. You're rewarded for building highly specialized ACs, and certain load-outs will work better in different situations.
The game is all about customizing; the tension between expression and optimization, as well as the extreme amount of possibilities, reminded me of playing God Hand. I felt different parts of my action game player tendencies butt up against each other. On the one hand I wanted to find the right solution for every fight or kind of fight, and on the other hand I wanted to choose one weapon set and stick to it, like I tend to do in Dark Souls games. So I did both. For most of the three play throughs I've done so far, I used a medium weight AC, plasma whip and Zimmerman shotgun, the SOUP missiles and the Songbirds, and I painted it like the Gundam Ez8. For certain bosses I swapped over to a heavy, fast Guntank style build, where it was beneficial to have the hard hitting, heavy weapons be able be fired while still maintaining your momentum.
This tension between builds towards ends and builds as an identity, towards a particular mastery, seems to be reflected in the reviews and comments you see about builds in this game. On the one hand, there's the group that embrace modifying your equipment towards whatever end (who mostly appear to be seasoned AC players), and on the other side, there are players who are searching for the best build for them. In most mecha stories, as a rule, changes to the fundamental composition of the robot is rare; practically speaking, designing a completely new kind of Gundam for one-off episodes is not practical, and in general, a characters identity is often wrapped up in whatever kind of mecha they pilot. Amuro Ray is, narratively and iconagraphically, the RX-78-2 Gundam (nu Gundam etc. notwithstanding). In Dia Lucina's Armored Core 6 review, she says "Armored Core VI isn’t about perfecting a build, it’s about understanding that the Core is the persistence of identity, everything else can and should be swapped to suit the needs of the job"--but this is generally only true for the player character. On Rubicon, with few exceptions, every NPC pilot we encounter is tied to a specific Armored Core. Those that do change Cores, into bigger and badder machines, are typically only pilots that are, narratively at least, like the player character in their pilot mastery. Maybe that ability to move between different Cores is the mark of the great Core pilot; and the game forcing you into different builds for different fight's is its way of shaping you into a great pilot.
The mission loop is highly addicting--every mission takes between five to fifteen minutes, but it's impossible not to want to jump right back into the next mission. If you want to see the full game you will replay these missions a lot—it takes two NG+ cycles to see every mission and all the story content, NieR style. After you beat a mission for the first time, you can replay it as often as you want in the replay mission section, and when you replay a mission from that menu you get a letter grading. I really would have liked if you automatically got grades for replaying missions in the NG+ cycles. On the other hand, after seeing all the story content the letter grading is a reason for me to keep playing, and trying a mission over and over with different builds until getting the S is sincerely satisfying. I don't tend to think of myself as a score chaser in video games, though I do love playing score based arcade games or character action games. I guess a prerequisite for score chasing for me is that the game feels good to play, and AC6 feels great to play.
The games narrative structure is somewhat of a departure from the Souls games, though I understand its par for the course for AC games. As you get into chapter 3, where you learn that Raven is a name used by AC pilots that make choices, you are given a handful of choices for what mission to take, and one or two in-mission choices about how to complete certain missions. These choices unlock future possible choices, ultimately unlocking a choice in which ending to pursue. In NG+ you see more missions and more dialogue, and in NG++ you see even more changes and a new ending possibility. This felt a lot like NieR Replicant to me, since the narrative is designed with these new game cycles in mind (though, to be clear, playing through the NGs is 100x more fun here). Each NG puts not only the information you have from the prior NGs in new light, but recasts a lot of the main characters dialogue. When a new game cycle starts, the introductory dialogue hits different emotionally.
The narrative is classic Gundam/mecha anime stuff—not only is the mecha a weapon, crucially, piloting the mecha reduces a human being into a weapon. In AC6 this is taken to a dystopian extreme. Your character exists inside the mecha only—the vehicle is your body. As a player playing the character, you only exist during combat or when outfitting your Core for combat. The narrative is satisfying and well written, though a lot of it is delivered in that classic FROM way—sparse cut scenes, menu descriptions. The narrative feels implied. At a certain point in the game, you get connected with the Coral, one part of it named Ayre, who functions somewhat as a ghost haunting you, influencing you; Walter, your handler, constantly talks about his own "friend," though you learn he is not connected by the same way. Instead, he's haunted by the death of an old friend, haunted by a ghost in his own way. The character writing is sparse, but effective. In NG++, you have the option to work for Allmind—ultimately dispersing Coral into AC shells, and the very last line of the game implies that they are waging some kind of war. The Coral then get embodied as ACs, and immediately turn into weapons for some kind of vague war. The final line of the game is Ayre repeating the "engaging combat mode" dialogue spoken at the start of every mission. The Coral's dispersement into bodies is doomed, for themselves and for everyone, because of the particular bodies that they land in.
This is the first Armored Core game I've played, though I'm a massive fan of FromSoft's Souls games, and I was looking forward to checking out their other major game series. I came away loving it, and it left me really wanting to explore the earlier games.
The action of the game is excellent, fun and impressive, though rarely very difficult. Like the Souls games, attacks are grounded in their animations, though most of the projectile weapons are near instant. The real limiting factor is that each of your four weapons, once it expends its ammunition, is sent into cooldown. The loop of the action is juggling these four cooldowns while looking for opportunities to get a hit in on the enemies, as well as managing your boosting and stagger bars. Each enemy has a stagger bar, though the vast majority of enemy types are one or two-hit fodder enemies, called MTs, which do more damage as the game goes on but never become harder to kill. There are two or three tiers of regular enemies, each requiring more damage as you go up the tier, then there are enemy AC/LC enemies, which are similar to your own ship. Fights against other style of human NPCs are always fun in the Souls games, and they're great here, and there's a lot of them, as well as arena fights which are one on one. There are only a few boss enemies, but they're all unique and fun to fight. There's the usual genre of FROM bosses—action/skill tests like Balteus; puzzle-y bosses like the helicopter, which can be trivialized by staying underneath it; and then finally the Stormruler style cinematic fight (Ice Worm) where you must use a specific weapon to take it down.
Your weapon choices are limited primarily by two stats--first, the encumbrance stat, which is determined by your legs. The heavier the leg part, the more you can carry, though you might be slower. The other limiting stat is your generator. Generally, generators with more energy are heavier, limiting your choices for your other parts. Certain weapons work better with certain AC designs—each part—head, arms, cores, legs, computer, and generator—has specific stats that make them better for fast weapons, slow weapons, energy weapons, melee weapons, long distance, medium distance, and so on. You're rewarded for building highly specialized ACs, and certain load-outs will work better in different situations.
The game is all about customizing; the tension between expression and optimization, as well as the extreme amount of possibilities, reminded me of playing God Hand. I felt different parts of my action game player tendencies butt up against each other. On the one hand I wanted to find the right solution for every fight or kind of fight, and on the other hand I wanted to choose one weapon set and stick to it, like I tend to do in Dark Souls games. So I did both. For most of the three play throughs I've done so far, I used a medium weight AC, plasma whip and Zimmerman shotgun, the SOUP missiles and the Songbirds, and I painted it like the Gundam Ez8. For certain bosses I swapped over to a heavy, fast Guntank style build, where it was beneficial to have the hard hitting, heavy weapons be able be fired while still maintaining your momentum.
This tension between builds towards ends and builds as an identity, towards a particular mastery, seems to be reflected in the reviews and comments you see about builds in this game. On the one hand, there's the group that embrace modifying your equipment towards whatever end (who mostly appear to be seasoned AC players), and on the other side, there are players who are searching for the best build for them. In most mecha stories, as a rule, changes to the fundamental composition of the robot is rare; practically speaking, designing a completely new kind of Gundam for one-off episodes is not practical, and in general, a characters identity is often wrapped up in whatever kind of mecha they pilot. Amuro Ray is, narratively and iconagraphically, the RX-78-2 Gundam (nu Gundam etc. notwithstanding). In Dia Lucina's Armored Core 6 review, she says "Armored Core VI isn’t about perfecting a build, it’s about understanding that the Core is the persistence of identity, everything else can and should be swapped to suit the needs of the job"--but this is generally only true for the player character. On Rubicon, with few exceptions, every NPC pilot we encounter is tied to a specific Armored Core. Those that do change Cores, into bigger and badder machines, are typically only pilots that are, narratively at least, like the player character in their pilot mastery. Maybe that ability to move between different Cores is the mark of the great Core pilot; and the game forcing you into different builds for different fight's is its way of shaping you into a great pilot.
The mission loop is highly addicting--every mission takes between five to fifteen minutes, but it's impossible not to want to jump right back into the next mission. If you want to see the full game you will replay these missions a lot—it takes two NG+ cycles to see every mission and all the story content, NieR style. After you beat a mission for the first time, you can replay it as often as you want in the replay mission section, and when you replay a mission from that menu you get a letter grading. I really would have liked if you automatically got grades for replaying missions in the NG+ cycles. On the other hand, after seeing all the story content the letter grading is a reason for me to keep playing, and trying a mission over and over with different builds until getting the S is sincerely satisfying. I don't tend to think of myself as a score chaser in video games, though I do love playing score based arcade games or character action games. I guess a prerequisite for score chasing for me is that the game feels good to play, and AC6 feels great to play.
The games narrative structure is somewhat of a departure from the Souls games, though I understand its par for the course for AC games. As you get into chapter 3, where you learn that Raven is a name used by AC pilots that make choices, you are given a handful of choices for what mission to take, and one or two in-mission choices about how to complete certain missions. These choices unlock future possible choices, ultimately unlocking a choice in which ending to pursue. In NG+ you see more missions and more dialogue, and in NG++ you see even more changes and a new ending possibility. This felt a lot like NieR Replicant to me, since the narrative is designed with these new game cycles in mind (though, to be clear, playing through the NGs is 100x more fun here). Each NG puts not only the information you have from the prior NGs in new light, but recasts a lot of the main characters dialogue. When a new game cycle starts, the introductory dialogue hits different emotionally.
The narrative is classic Gundam/mecha anime stuff—not only is the mecha a weapon, crucially, piloting the mecha reduces a human being into a weapon. In AC6 this is taken to a dystopian extreme. Your character exists inside the mecha only—the vehicle is your body. As a player playing the character, you only exist during combat or when outfitting your Core for combat. The narrative is satisfying and well written, though a lot of it is delivered in that classic FROM way—sparse cut scenes, menu descriptions. The narrative feels implied. At a certain point in the game, you get connected with the Coral, one part of it named Ayre, who functions somewhat as a ghost haunting you, influencing you; Walter, your handler, constantly talks about his own "friend," though you learn he is not connected by the same way. Instead, he's haunted by the death of an old friend, haunted by a ghost in his own way. The character writing is sparse, but effective. In NG++, you have the option to work for Allmind—ultimately dispersing Coral into AC shells, and the very last line of the game implies that they are waging some kind of war. The Coral then get embodied as ACs, and immediately turn into weapons for some kind of vague war. The final line of the game is Ayre repeating the "engaging combat mode" dialogue spoken at the start of every mission. The Coral's dispersement into bodies is doomed, for themselves and for everyone, because of the particular bodies that they land in.
1988
A much more playable update of Ghosts n' Goblins—I actually played through an entire loop before putting it down this time, and only didn't continue because putting the final boss behind an entire second loop is just insulting. Still quite difficult since you can really put yourself in an unwinnable corner; the second to last boss (my final boss) feels especially cheap. But I had a lot more fun this time. There's just a little bit more variety in everything—levels, weapons, enemies, bosses.
1990
M.U.S.H.A. (Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor), known in Japan as Musha Aleste: Full Metal Fighter Ellinor, is a stylish, if somewhat standard, shooting them up video game for the Sega Genesis (I played on the Nintendo Switch Online Genesis application). Like Compile's earlier games Blazing Lazers and Gun Nac, the enemy sprite and level designs are pretty impressive; I was really taken aback by Stage IV, where you battle over storm clouds, and as lightning strikes the screen goes white except for the silhouette of your ship and enemies. It's really cool. I'm a sucker for the mecha theme, and really like the robot designs. One of the enemies looks like an off-brand Zaku when they take their stance to point their gun at you; always loved killing those guys.
The final level is kind of a pain, expecting pixel perfect dodges in a constrained space, which had not yet been asked of the player. The way there is pretty breezy though. There's an options system where you can control how your drones behave, and the usual upgrade system that gets more powerful as you pick up more of the same color, but I played through most of the game without realizing which button fired your upgrade weapon, and the drones setting is never necessary to fiddle with. There are upgrades that float around which drop cards, and when you pick up three cards you get another drone added to your bank. I liked that addition; deciding when to shoot the icon to drop the cards reminded me of the Bells from Twinbee.
Altogether a pretty decent time; need to check out the other Aleste games.
The final level is kind of a pain, expecting pixel perfect dodges in a constrained space, which had not yet been asked of the player. The way there is pretty breezy though. There's an options system where you can control how your drones behave, and the usual upgrade system that gets more powerful as you pick up more of the same color, but I played through most of the game without realizing which button fired your upgrade weapon, and the drones setting is never necessary to fiddle with. There are upgrades that float around which drop cards, and when you pick up three cards you get another drone added to your bank. I liked that addition; deciding when to shoot the icon to drop the cards reminded me of the Bells from Twinbee.
Altogether a pretty decent time; need to check out the other Aleste games.
Found out a local arcade had this machine and rushed over as soon as I could. Took a minute to get the hang of the drifting with the gear shift, but it felt and looked great. I can't wait to get back and play it some more. The closest thing I’ve ever had to a religious experience.
1991
A great looking game, good songs, even fun movement, but the levels and enemy placements seem to be purposefully designed to punch you in the nuts every time you're about to have fun. I just finished 100%ing Super Mario World, first replay since I was a kid, and the best of those levels are designed so you can bounce Mario off koopas right through the entire thing—here, every time you jump the developers have cheekily placed a rake for you to land on. Your rings will explode everywhere, and then you'll see above Sonic in huge letters the only word that appears in the game world—"COPE." Sonic is looking into the camera and he is laughing at you.
In the best cases, the levels require slow, thoughtful exploration, and precise platforming, but Sonic doesn't want to do that. He wants to run fast and bounce off bad guys. But half the bad guys have itty bitty hit boxes and will kill you for landing on them if you're a pixel off their head. Why are half the levels underwater, where you move even slower than usual and have to get air constantly? The game clocks in at around two hours if you're not dying constantly, which you will be, and all of these choices feel like they're designed to pad the game out. The game feels at odds with itself.
Sonic as a character, and his animations, are cool and well done. It's easy to see why he caught on; he's a likeable environmentally concerned hero. In general the worlds look good, though the background tiles themselves are unvaried, which makes the slow exploring sometimes confusing.
I don't see myself returning to it—it's just not a fun platformer, and it's not a fun slow action game either. In the platforming space, the closest comparison I can think of is Bonk's Adventure, which is far more accomplished and fun. Where Bonk's Adventure levels are a bit too sparse and easy, Sonic the Hedgehog is too difficult and rarely fun to move through.
In the best cases, the levels require slow, thoughtful exploration, and precise platforming, but Sonic doesn't want to do that. He wants to run fast and bounce off bad guys. But half the bad guys have itty bitty hit boxes and will kill you for landing on them if you're a pixel off their head. Why are half the levels underwater, where you move even slower than usual and have to get air constantly? The game clocks in at around two hours if you're not dying constantly, which you will be, and all of these choices feel like they're designed to pad the game out. The game feels at odds with itself.
Sonic as a character, and his animations, are cool and well done. It's easy to see why he caught on; he's a likeable environmentally concerned hero. In general the worlds look good, though the background tiles themselves are unvaried, which makes the slow exploring sometimes confusing.
I don't see myself returning to it—it's just not a fun platformer, and it's not a fun slow action game either. In the platforming space, the closest comparison I can think of is Bonk's Adventure, which is far more accomplished and fun. Where Bonk's Adventure levels are a bit too sparse and easy, Sonic the Hedgehog is too difficult and rarely fun to move through.
When I start a new Yakuza game, seeing what's available at the arcade is always a top priority, and this game is easily the best surprise I've found in one.
Spike Out is a great feeling 3d brawler, and was directed and produced by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the general director of RGG and one of the main directors of the Kiryu era Yakuza games. There are three attack buttons, and every string variation and button combination leads to a unique move or set of moves. (In the Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth version, some trigger buttons are mapped to the button combinations, so you can trigger one of those moves without having to input the combination, which itself is somewhat novel.) On top of that, holding one of the buttons during a combo sequence will let off a special move that often stuns enemies, and there are four different special moves depending on how long the charge is held. Finally there are special moves which can be triggered with a button combination, but you can only fire it off if you've picked up a special power up, which you can hold up to four of at once, and I don't think anymore drop from enemies once you're holding four. Enemies also drop health, but it doesn't give much back and they're also rare. There are four playable characters, and each one has an individual and unique moveset, though some are more different than others. The combat genuinely feels great, and I found myself rushing to the next encounter to try out different combos, which suited the clock ticking down rhythm of an arcade brawler very well.
The main character, Spike, spawns with his child holding onto his back, who flies off when you get hit or use one of your special moves. When the child is on the ground, he mimics your moves in a child like manner, which is a really charming touch. The mechanic of the kid flying off reminded me of the "kick me sign" in God Hand--in that game, the main character gets a "kick me sign" slapped on his back in an early stage, and it will fly off when you activate that character's special mode or use one of the special moves, but you can play through the entire game without using those moves, and if you do you're rewarded with music tracks you can play at an in-game jukebox.
While playing Spike Out, I thought, there could surely be a similar challenge run where you never lose the kid on your back, but that seems impossible. Despite the huge variety of combat moves you can use, there are zero defensive moves. You can't block and you can't dodge--you will just get your ass caught in enemy combos and grapples and there's nothing you can do about it. This is where the games arcade origins feels the worst--after the first two stages, enemies do so much damage and come in such quantity that you're doomed to credit feed your way through the game. The game is also absurdly long for an arcade game, about an hour and a half to see every stage. It might be a lot more tolerable in co op, which is the intended experience--the original arcade cabinets could link up so four players could play at individual machines. I got bored and frustrated at the start of the third stage and tapped out, and probably won't ever complete the game. Still, it's a great feeling brawler when the odds aren't completely turned against the player, and absolutely worth piloting Ichiban over to a GIGO to check out.
Spike Out is a great feeling 3d brawler, and was directed and produced by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the general director of RGG and one of the main directors of the Kiryu era Yakuza games. There are three attack buttons, and every string variation and button combination leads to a unique move or set of moves. (In the Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth version, some trigger buttons are mapped to the button combinations, so you can trigger one of those moves without having to input the combination, which itself is somewhat novel.) On top of that, holding one of the buttons during a combo sequence will let off a special move that often stuns enemies, and there are four different special moves depending on how long the charge is held. Finally there are special moves which can be triggered with a button combination, but you can only fire it off if you've picked up a special power up, which you can hold up to four of at once, and I don't think anymore drop from enemies once you're holding four. Enemies also drop health, but it doesn't give much back and they're also rare. There are four playable characters, and each one has an individual and unique moveset, though some are more different than others. The combat genuinely feels great, and I found myself rushing to the next encounter to try out different combos, which suited the clock ticking down rhythm of an arcade brawler very well.
The main character, Spike, spawns with his child holding onto his back, who flies off when you get hit or use one of your special moves. When the child is on the ground, he mimics your moves in a child like manner, which is a really charming touch. The mechanic of the kid flying off reminded me of the "kick me sign" in God Hand--in that game, the main character gets a "kick me sign" slapped on his back in an early stage, and it will fly off when you activate that character's special mode or use one of the special moves, but you can play through the entire game without using those moves, and if you do you're rewarded with music tracks you can play at an in-game jukebox.
While playing Spike Out, I thought, there could surely be a similar challenge run where you never lose the kid on your back, but that seems impossible. Despite the huge variety of combat moves you can use, there are zero defensive moves. You can't block and you can't dodge--you will just get your ass caught in enemy combos and grapples and there's nothing you can do about it. This is where the games arcade origins feels the worst--after the first two stages, enemies do so much damage and come in such quantity that you're doomed to credit feed your way through the game. The game is also absurdly long for an arcade game, about an hour and a half to see every stage. It might be a lot more tolerable in co op, which is the intended experience--the original arcade cabinets could link up so four players could play at individual machines. I got bored and frustrated at the start of the third stage and tapped out, and probably won't ever complete the game. Still, it's a great feeling brawler when the odds aren't completely turned against the player, and absolutely worth piloting Ichiban over to a GIGO to check out.
Amazing looking game, and about as generous as beat em up games get—not in difficulty, which is as usual for arcade games cheap as hell, but in the sheer number of levels, animations, attack types (combos with the rest of the family is a cool touch), and Simpsons references. A great time for a Simpsons fan.
1987
I'm a sucker for the "classicvania" style and figured I'd give this one a try. It was really attractive to me—for one, the arcade sprites are huge and beautiful—admire Simon's Chun-li-esque thighs—and I was interested in seeing how the platforming acton translated into coin-op form. It turns out not very well.
I played the infamously difficult Haunted Castle on the Japanese rom, having heard it's easier than the American one. I was having an alright time until the third level, when it was taking four slaps of my level 1 vampire killer (I had died and lost my power up) to kill this game's flea variant; you simply don't have enough time to fire off four hits before the enemy hits you. Your other option is to rush the enemy and duck at exactly the right moment so he would fly over Simon, but it's 1) really hard to time and 2) useless when two of them are rushing at you, or there's a knight involved. I reset the game, ready to try to get there again with the level 2 vampire killer (which swaps the whip for a morning star flail) to see if it did more damage, and then dug into the settings. Sure enough, Konami Arcade Collection graciously supplies difficulty modifiers. I turned enemy enemy damage on low, and difficulty to easy. It was certainly easier, but still a pain in the ass.
The final level is a long bridge sequence to Dracula's castle. The bridge collapses behind you, while bats dive at you in front of you. When you stop to attack, the bridge collapsing doesn't pause, so as you defend yourself from bats while crossing the bridge you move ever closer to falling off. In fact, if you successfully kill every single bat you encounter, you are certain to be pushed off the falling bridge. However, these bats don't knock you back, so you can truck through them, but you'll take damage. You're forced to strategically kill bats and alternatively take damage while crossing the bridge, and figuring out exactly how many bats to kill to maximize leftover health for the Dracula fight was a weird experience. It's a fascinating bit of design where you literally cannot get through without taking damage. This learning process didn't feel great, but I found it was successfully thematic. You're not getting away clean if you want to kill Dracula. (I found after that you can also just memorize when the bats swoop down then time a jump to kill it as it does, but I'm too stupid for that kind of solution.)
Dracula himself was a total chump, and went down in just a few hits. In general, the bosses of this game are just rewards for making your way through the difficult levels, which I don't mind. I liked seeing Frankenstein and the Gorgon in arcade style, even if you only see them for a few moments.
I can't really recommend this game—The Astyanax is a much better Castlevania arcade game—but I'm glad I checked it out. It's an interesting curiosity and worth seeing if you're a fan of Castlevania.
I played the infamously difficult Haunted Castle on the Japanese rom, having heard it's easier than the American one. I was having an alright time until the third level, when it was taking four slaps of my level 1 vampire killer (I had died and lost my power up) to kill this game's flea variant; you simply don't have enough time to fire off four hits before the enemy hits you. Your other option is to rush the enemy and duck at exactly the right moment so he would fly over Simon, but it's 1) really hard to time and 2) useless when two of them are rushing at you, or there's a knight involved. I reset the game, ready to try to get there again with the level 2 vampire killer (which swaps the whip for a morning star flail) to see if it did more damage, and then dug into the settings. Sure enough, Konami Arcade Collection graciously supplies difficulty modifiers. I turned enemy enemy damage on low, and difficulty to easy. It was certainly easier, but still a pain in the ass.
The final level is a long bridge sequence to Dracula's castle. The bridge collapses behind you, while bats dive at you in front of you. When you stop to attack, the bridge collapsing doesn't pause, so as you defend yourself from bats while crossing the bridge you move ever closer to falling off. In fact, if you successfully kill every single bat you encounter, you are certain to be pushed off the falling bridge. However, these bats don't knock you back, so you can truck through them, but you'll take damage. You're forced to strategically kill bats and alternatively take damage while crossing the bridge, and figuring out exactly how many bats to kill to maximize leftover health for the Dracula fight was a weird experience. It's a fascinating bit of design where you literally cannot get through without taking damage. This learning process didn't feel great, but I found it was successfully thematic. You're not getting away clean if you want to kill Dracula. (I found after that you can also just memorize when the bats swoop down then time a jump to kill it as it does, but I'm too stupid for that kind of solution.)
Dracula himself was a total chump, and went down in just a few hits. In general, the bosses of this game are just rewards for making your way through the difficult levels, which I don't mind. I liked seeing Frankenstein and the Gorgon in arcade style, even if you only see them for a few moments.
I can't really recommend this game—The Astyanax is a much better Castlevania arcade game—but I'm glad I checked it out. It's an interesting curiosity and worth seeing if you're a fan of Castlevania.
After playing Zelda II, I decided to finally get around to the weird sequel in the franchise I have lot more love for. I had been put off by the promise of backtracking and exploration—so I used a guide. Just like the early Zelda games, I'm glad I did, because it can be really obtuse.
And I did have a better time with this than I feared. The moment to moment action is mostly pretty good, but it can be limited. It never gets too difficult, and it can end up feeling samey due to the lack of enemy variety for most of the game, but controlling Simon still feels really good. There are only three bosses, too, which is disappointing, and while they're somewhat easy they're not annoying fights.
What sets this game apart from the others is its weird fantasy horror atmosphere, which is downright subdued compared to the cartoon tone of the other games. It ends up being a fun tone to play in—almost somber. The text in the game often doesn't make any sense, but it's fun to read. I can see why the people who love this game love this game, but I definitely prefer the action-oriented, level based games.
And I did have a better time with this than I feared. The moment to moment action is mostly pretty good, but it can be limited. It never gets too difficult, and it can end up feeling samey due to the lack of enemy variety for most of the game, but controlling Simon still feels really good. There are only three bosses, too, which is disappointing, and while they're somewhat easy they're not annoying fights.
What sets this game apart from the others is its weird fantasy horror atmosphere, which is downright subdued compared to the cartoon tone of the other games. It ends up being a fun tone to play in—almost somber. The text in the game often doesn't make any sense, but it's fun to read. I can see why the people who love this game love this game, but I definitely prefer the action-oriented, level based games.
Had a great time returning to FF7R. Yuffie was one of my favorite characters in the original game, and one of my main party members—she's a goofy thief who's always trying to steal from the player, but for a good cause. Her characterization in this dlc is great, reframing her as a kid who desperately has to prove herself, while trying and failing to be cool. She's also a lot of fun to play as.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake was already somewhat of a Yakuza game, and that continues here as it wisely reuses the NPCs and locations from the regular game. It looks like the next game will do the same.
I was disappointed that the limit breaks still get interrupted by cut scenes, and end early if you hit whatever the HP mark is to activate the cutscene--it really takes the air out of the combat, and feels at odds with the ATB/limit break/summon bar generation combat flow. The meticulousness of the enemy encounters call for these hard breaks, but I hope the team finds a way of not interrupting your limit breaks in the next game, even if the solution is something like enemy HP getting inflated to compensate for the extra damage done by the limit break animation. This is mostly a slick, polished experience—for me, the FF7R games represent the epitome of AAA gaming, and I'm really looking forward to the next one.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake was already somewhat of a Yakuza game, and that continues here as it wisely reuses the NPCs and locations from the regular game. It looks like the next game will do the same.
I was disappointed that the limit breaks still get interrupted by cut scenes, and end early if you hit whatever the HP mark is to activate the cutscene--it really takes the air out of the combat, and feels at odds with the ATB/limit break/summon bar generation combat flow. The meticulousness of the enemy encounters call for these hard breaks, but I hope the team finds a way of not interrupting your limit breaks in the next game, even if the solution is something like enemy HP getting inflated to compensate for the extra damage done by the limit break animation. This is mostly a slick, polished experience—for me, the FF7R games represent the epitome of AAA gaming, and I'm really looking forward to the next one.
Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo is the perfection of traditional Castlevania; in many ways, it feels like a groovy remake of the original game, informed by the lessons learned in the prior games. There's alternative paths and levels, but they're pleasant surprises, rewards for exploration instead of outright choices made between levels. The movement and attacks have been streamlined—Richter's whip attack is only horizontal, and his jumping requires NES precision. The only thing that sets Richter apart from prior Castlevania PCs is his backflip, which is useful and quite satisfying to pull off. But Rondo's focus isn't addition—it's perfection. He feels great to drive here, especially compared to how he feels in Castlevania: Dracula X, where he drops and slides like a slick stone.
Like in Castlevania 3, you're encouraged to rescue other characters, but there's only one other playable character, Maria. She plays very differently, and also changes up the tone. With floaty hops and the ability to double-jump, and her button-mashing rewarding double dove attack, Maria is somewhat of an easier character player to play as compared to Richter, who requires precision, but she takes far fewer hits before she's killed. She's a lot of fun to play as, and throwing cats never gets old. Her Game Over screen is more playful, with flowers and a toyish font. Interestingly, her victory screen after you beat Dracula is a lot less poignant than Richters. In Maria's, the simpler castle collapses into the ground like the prior games; there's also much brighter colors.
The presentation is the strongest of all the games—the anime cut scenes are cool, if primitive—but the in-game set-pieces also have a cut-scene-ish quality to them--they have a narrative drive. The set-pieces in Super Castlevania IV or Castlevania: Bloodlines are cool, creative gameplay sequences, but there's no story reason for IV's Mode 7 platform level, or Bloodlines' disorienting upside-down hallways. Rondo begins with a bang, as Richter fights Death while riding the wagon, who warns Richter he won’t be so easy on him next time.
The titles for each stage are slick and cool, and I never got tired of watching them slide down the screen. The stages themselves are just as memorable. Stage 1 is an awesome rush through a village from Castlevania 2 as it burns down. The golems are nice mini-bosses, and the ape skeletons are fun, throwing barrels like DK. Great song in this one too.. Stage 5 is one of my favorite levels in all of the Castlevania games. It's a spooky pirate ship! And the song is awesome, at once chill and stirring.
The bosses are mostly very fun; the only one I don't love is the headless knight Dullahan. The rest are all pretty satisfying, and the boss rush in Stage 6 is a blast. The Dracula fight isn't too tough once you get the timing down to hit his head and fireballs at the same time, though the demon form can be a little annoying to dodge because Richter's movement speed is so slow, and you have to be placed just right before he hops so you can walk underneath him. I also kept getting cornered while Demon-Dracula spat eye balls, and I was never totally sure how to dodge that.
Altogether, this is the Castlevania masterpiece. Please, Konami, put out a Rondo/SOTN collection for platforms besides PS4.
Like in Castlevania 3, you're encouraged to rescue other characters, but there's only one other playable character, Maria. She plays very differently, and also changes up the tone. With floaty hops and the ability to double-jump, and her button-mashing rewarding double dove attack, Maria is somewhat of an easier character player to play as compared to Richter, who requires precision, but she takes far fewer hits before she's killed. She's a lot of fun to play as, and throwing cats never gets old. Her Game Over screen is more playful, with flowers and a toyish font. Interestingly, her victory screen after you beat Dracula is a lot less poignant than Richters. In Maria's, the simpler castle collapses into the ground like the prior games; there's also much brighter colors.
The presentation is the strongest of all the games—the anime cut scenes are cool, if primitive—but the in-game set-pieces also have a cut-scene-ish quality to them--they have a narrative drive. The set-pieces in Super Castlevania IV or Castlevania: Bloodlines are cool, creative gameplay sequences, but there's no story reason for IV's Mode 7 platform level, or Bloodlines' disorienting upside-down hallways. Rondo begins with a bang, as Richter fights Death while riding the wagon, who warns Richter he won’t be so easy on him next time.
The titles for each stage are slick and cool, and I never got tired of watching them slide down the screen. The stages themselves are just as memorable. Stage 1 is an awesome rush through a village from Castlevania 2 as it burns down. The golems are nice mini-bosses, and the ape skeletons are fun, throwing barrels like DK. Great song in this one too.. Stage 5 is one of my favorite levels in all of the Castlevania games. It's a spooky pirate ship! And the song is awesome, at once chill and stirring.
The bosses are mostly very fun; the only one I don't love is the headless knight Dullahan. The rest are all pretty satisfying, and the boss rush in Stage 6 is a blast. The Dracula fight isn't too tough once you get the timing down to hit his head and fireballs at the same time, though the demon form can be a little annoying to dodge because Richter's movement speed is so slow, and you have to be placed just right before he hops so you can walk underneath him. I also kept getting cornered while Demon-Dracula spat eye balls, and I was never totally sure how to dodge that.
Altogether, this is the Castlevania masterpiece. Please, Konami, put out a Rondo/SOTN collection for platforms besides PS4.
2022
Really amazing looking world, cool, nasty animations, but I am just too stupid and impatient for mysterious puzzles. I could play with a walkthrough but would get less out of that than just watching an LP.
2022
Pentiment is the new narrative game with some RPG elements directed by Josh Sawyer, who famously directed Fallout: New Vegas. Set in 16th century Bavaria, you play as Andreas Maler, an apprentice illuminator and painter who splits his time working in the abbey on the book projects with monks and on his masterpiece, an art piece that he can show to potential clients once he leaves the abbey. After a murder, you investigate various people in the town looking for whoever is most likely to have the motive. Along the way you get to spend a lot of time with well-written, interesting characters, developing your own character along the way. Many choices are tracked and influence your options later, and you will feel ashamed of your words and deeds.
I really loved this game. Like Disco Elysium, the RPG elements serve more as the characterization of your protagonist than anything else. While different backgrounds will give you different ranges of responses in certain situations, these are never necessarily better or more preferable than other dialogue, and in fact may get you less preferable outcomes.
The game has a lot of style. The character and background artwork is inspired by illumination mansucripts, and character dialogue text is rendered depending on their backgrounds—printers get an animation that evoke printing, the monks that work in the scriptorium all write in beautiful script, and peasants and middle-class characters write in their own scripts. As well, the writing itself takes longer or shorter depending on the character. A peasant may write their script slow, but a monk with a lot of scriptorium experience will write in their script much faster.
The events and options you have depend on the section of time you're in. For example, you will do an event which will pass the time from the morning to lunch time, then more options open during lunch time. You end lunch by having a meal with someone, then the next time slot opens up and so on. The meals are used to develop characters—you often have a lot of options with who to eat with, and what they eat is dependent on their class. Monks may have a lot of wine and fish, while peasants will share small morsels almonds and cheese and bread with you.
I flew through the game and really loved the time I got to spend with the characters; as the narrative evolved, I came to care a lot for them, and felt genuine emotions about the story and my part in them. It's a real achievement.
I really loved this game. Like Disco Elysium, the RPG elements serve more as the characterization of your protagonist than anything else. While different backgrounds will give you different ranges of responses in certain situations, these are never necessarily better or more preferable than other dialogue, and in fact may get you less preferable outcomes.
The game has a lot of style. The character and background artwork is inspired by illumination mansucripts, and character dialogue text is rendered depending on their backgrounds—printers get an animation that evoke printing, the monks that work in the scriptorium all write in beautiful script, and peasants and middle-class characters write in their own scripts. As well, the writing itself takes longer or shorter depending on the character. A peasant may write their script slow, but a monk with a lot of scriptorium experience will write in their script much faster.
The events and options you have depend on the section of time you're in. For example, you will do an event which will pass the time from the morning to lunch time, then more options open during lunch time. You end lunch by having a meal with someone, then the next time slot opens up and so on. The meals are used to develop characters—you often have a lot of options with who to eat with, and what they eat is dependent on their class. Monks may have a lot of wine and fish, while peasants will share small morsels almonds and cheese and bread with you.
I flew through the game and really loved the time I got to spend with the characters; as the narrative evolved, I came to care a lot for them, and felt genuine emotions about the story and my part in them. It's a real achievement.
1989
Massive improvement over the first. Has one or two levels and boss fights that aren't that very fun but most of it is a blast.
1989
Played in the 40th Anniversary SNK Collection. Prehistoric Isle is a somewhat interesting shooting game by SNK. The coolest part of the game is its setting--I'm a sucker for for the pulp adventure theme, and piloting a biplane to shoot cavemen and dinosaurs is a good time in and of itself. I also liked the surprising downer of an ending.
This is a pretty standard STG, but it remixes some ideas from other series--the cavemen enemies will jump on your ship if you get too close to the ground (and you don't kill them before they latch on). When they grab onto your ship, they will pull you down a bit. Waterfalls also press you down a little, which is straight out of R-Type II.
The option in the game can be rotated around your ship with the second button, and depending on its orientation to your own ship, it will have different firing styles.
A decent time, but doesn't stand out as much as its sequel.
This is a pretty standard STG, but it remixes some ideas from other series--the cavemen enemies will jump on your ship if you get too close to the ground (and you don't kill them before they latch on). When they grab onto your ship, they will pull you down a bit. Waterfalls also press you down a little, which is straight out of R-Type II.
The option in the game can be rotated around your ship with the second button, and depending on its orientation to your own ship, it will have different firing styles.
A decent time, but doesn't stand out as much as its sequel.