qlip
2024
In my time using this site I never thought I'd be going through the process of getting a game added on IGDB just so I can tell people that it's cool and that they should play it, but here we are.
Castlevania ReVamped is an odd game. Odd in the sense that it dropped out of nowhere, and that nobody has been talking about it. It's a remake and a reimagining of Castlevania 1 - not as a traditional, level-based platformer but as a metroidvania - and it actually works!
Simon Belmont's first encounter with Dracula has been retold and reimagined half a dozen times by this point, and ReVamped opts to take aspects of all of them, and in so doing creates what I believe to be the definitive retelling. There's areas and music from Castlevania 1 and X68000 Akumajou Dracula (better known as Castlevania Chronicles), the diagonal whipping from Castlevania IV, and hell, really obscure stuff like the merchants from Vampire Killer on the MSX. It's a genuine labour of love for this franchise and I feel that's something that really sets it apart from most other Castlevania fangames.
Castlevania ReVamped isn't trying to "fix" something like those numerous Castlevania II fan remakes are. And it's more than just a character insertion like the many GBA and DSvania mods. It's an entirely new game made by a fan, for fans, and I can attest to its quality by saying I beat it in a single sitting; it's that good.
Castlevania ReVamped is an odd game. Odd in the sense that it dropped out of nowhere, and that nobody has been talking about it. It's a remake and a reimagining of Castlevania 1 - not as a traditional, level-based platformer but as a metroidvania - and it actually works!
Simon Belmont's first encounter with Dracula has been retold and reimagined half a dozen times by this point, and ReVamped opts to take aspects of all of them, and in so doing creates what I believe to be the definitive retelling. There's areas and music from Castlevania 1 and X68000 Akumajou Dracula (better known as Castlevania Chronicles), the diagonal whipping from Castlevania IV, and hell, really obscure stuff like the merchants from Vampire Killer on the MSX. It's a genuine labour of love for this franchise and I feel that's something that really sets it apart from most other Castlevania fangames.
Castlevania ReVamped isn't trying to "fix" something like those numerous Castlevania II fan remakes are. And it's more than just a character insertion like the many GBA and DSvania mods. It's an entirely new game made by a fan, for fans, and I can attest to its quality by saying I beat it in a single sitting; it's that good.
1989
I still don't know what they were cooking with the western version changes like "yeah dude let's add randomly spawning enemies to precise platforming sections and increase the amount of damage you take and gimp character abilities and overall just make it play worse". This is the definitive version, no ifs or buts - it just sounds and plays better.
idc if people don't see the vision it's still one of the coolest, most satisfying to play nes games, zelda 1 can eat shit
People will tell you about how gen 2 ruined the series and botched kanto and then you play it and it's one of the most impressive gameboy colour games and arguably one of the most impressive handheld video games ever, fullstop. Kanto being included at all and mostly intact on that gbc cart is a herculean feat and that's not to mention the stellar soundtrack that actually doesn't hurt to listen to AND incredible spritework. I get it, the amateurish gen 1 sprites have their charm and the front sprites improved immensely by the time yellow came around but the back sprites are what you're looking at for most of the game I'm sorry but they just look pixel vomit tbh! Having better yellow sprites also means playing yellow which uh. Is honestly the worst way to play gen 1 kanto gameplay wise. Kanto is genuinely so much better as supplementary material and serves as one of the best postgames in an rpg ever.
Also the level curve REALLY isn't that bad guys. Trainers are like, 10 levels below your team on average for like 1-2 hours of playtime before shooting up to roughly where your team is at once you reach clair. Red is also more than doable even thirty levels lower than his team. If you're not going in with status moves, buffs or at the very least x items that's on you.
Also the level curve REALLY isn't that bad guys. Trainers are like, 10 levels below your team on average for like 1-2 hours of playtime before shooting up to roughly where your team is at once you reach clair. Red is also more than doable even thirty levels lower than his team. If you're not going in with status moves, buffs or at the very least x items that's on you.
When a missingno mewcel says something so glitzerphobic that you gotta hit them with that decamark deoxys stare
This is my black panther
1990
Yuji Horii dared to ask: "what if there was a jrpg that let you be a wageslave".
And thus Torneko Taloon was born. And it was peak.
And thus Torneko Taloon was born. And it was peak.
1989
This review contains spoilers
At first glance, MOTHER appears as not much more than a parody of the Dragon Quests and Final Fantasies of the time, opting for or a modern setting in lieu of a medieval one - substituting inns for hotels, armories for department stores, and swords for baseball bats.
I do not believe this is what makes MOTHER a parody, however.
What truly makes MOTHER a parody, to me, is how much beauty it hides within its subtext, supplementary material, and the inferences you can make about the characters and world, especially given the time it released. It's a Famicom RPG, so naturally, not much is going to be spelled out directly. A lot of things that managed to hit me as hard as they did only hit because I bothered to talk to npcs, because I listened to the vocal album, and because I made up theories in my head about the characters' personalities based on the groundwork the game provided me.
Take Lloyd, for example. He's an evidently bullied, socially anxious, but incredibly intelligent kid with a love for explosives - just going off of NPC dialogue in Twinkle Elementary. Hell, he isn't just bullied by the other students, the game bullies him. Practically all of the flavour text relating to weapons refers to him as "puny", "weak", "nerdy" or some other synonym. So you find him in a trash can that he's voluntarily hid himself in, go to the sweet's factory to the south, get some bottle rockets for him in what is probably the single act of kindness anyone has ever given him, and he decides to join you. This is going to sound really corny, but I immediately saw him as neurodivergent. He's a smart, socially anxious kid who latches onto Ninten as soon as he does something nice for him, and has a hyperfixation on explosives, going as far as to immediately show them off to Ninten by dragging him to the science lab. I say all this because quite frankly I immediately saw myself in him (minus the intelligent part, I'm not that smart lol), and if I were in his shoes I'd probably want to be friends with Ninten too. Lloyd may be the only mandatory party member to beat the game, and despite that, this whole sequence of events comes across as the forming of a genuine friendship between two kids. If you're not sold on the two becoming genuine friends yet, the overworld music literally changes to "Bein' friends". This all culminates in Lloyd coming to the group's rescue on Mt. Itoi, in a bid to prove his bravery.
"Now it's the weakling's turn. You stay here and wait!"
Ana and Teddy have similar circumstances. You deliver Ana her lost hat and joins having developed feelings for Ninten from seeing him in her visions (which concludes with a really cute scene where the two dance together and confess their love). You get in a fistfight with Teddy, who recognises his strength and decides that the group (save for Lloyd) are strong enough to brave Mt. Itoi and avenge his parents. It was a rarity for party members i RPGs from this time to have nearly this level of character, let alone feel like they joined the party because they simply wanted to and not because the story demanded it, and it plays a huge part in one of MOTHER's core themes.
From the very beginning, MOTHER is a game about family. The found family of the party, the legacy of Ninten's great grandfather's research, his great grandmother's dissapearance, and how this all relates to the game's main protagonist: Gyigue.
There's so much I want to talk about regarding this game, from how much you can really feel Itoi just wanted to roam and explore the countryside as a kid, the heartfelt soundtrack, and my defence of the core game actually being that it's fine and not grindy or obtuse (because it isn't. Duncan's factory and Mt itoi are far from the worst RPG dungeons, and I actually quite the latter, which I'll get to). What I want to talk about the most, though, is MOTHER's fantastic, emotionally charged endgame. This gets pretty in depth and over analytical(even by the standards of this review so far), so I'm going to clearly distinguish where that begins and where the the point where I actually talk about the ending comes up, which you can read from if you want to skip this. It's basically a plot summary with my ramblings, inferences and thoughts on things that happen.
-----------------------------------
You're going through the cave leading to Mt Itoi. The enemies are some of the toughest yet (though very manageable assuming you don't get too unlucky with PK beam from the blue starmen), but after not too long, you're able to make it through to Mt Itoi itself. From the very first measure of music, Mt Itoi is a complete tonal shift. It gives off an incredibly foreboding atmosphere that really pairs well with just how much more difficult the encounters have become. They're somehow even tougher (and should still be manageable without grinding. you have buffs and powerful psi. use them.). It's a very clear indicator that you're nearing the end of the game, and I honestly think the area not being playtested was to its benefit?? I do genuinely feel toning down the difficulty here would take away from the game's ludonarrative consistency. You know that Teddy's parents were killed here, you know that nobody dares go near the place, and most importantly; it serves as Gyigue's base of operations - it would naturally be guarded his elite and wildlife driven mad by his very presence. If it was made easier, it just wouldn't make much sense, at least for me.
Anyway, you're able to make it to yet another healer's house and effectively another checkpoint. Unless you missed any melodies before this point, and save for coming back later with Lloyd, this is practically the point of no return. Ninten and Ana have their previously mentioned dance here, and while it does feel like they went from nothing to confessing love, I do want to note the poignancy this scene just has in general. "Fallin' love" only plays here, and having a character directly confess their love to the protagonist like this, as far as I know, wasn't really heard of until Final Fantasy IV, a good few years later. It's interrupted with Teddy barging in to check on the two, and the group then getting ambushed with an unwinnable encounter that leaves Lloyd arriving just in time tp save the group. Teddy is presumably dead after this, though, which I see as the game's way of saying "he was injured protecting Ninten and Ana". I don't think it'd make sense if "the three were all equally wounded but the two kids made it out alive because psychic abilities". Regardless, Lloyd rejoins, has his quick character arc, and you quickly find a boat that he's able to get working, in turn having EVE join you.
EVE is the primary reason why I really don't think Mt Itoi is as impossibly difficult as many seem to describe it as. You're given an invincible robot designed by Ninten's great grandfather specifically with the intent on protecting him, should she ever be found, that oneshots every enemy in the area. You could keep her around for grinding, but by now you should have 4th D slip. Want my advice for getting to the top of Mt Itoi? Just run from every encounter. You really won't need those levels for the final boss. Either way, EVE quickly dies protecting the group in another scripted boss fight, and investigating her remains gives you the seventh melody. There's something bittersweet about a living organism, whether biological or artificial, having their flame finally go out with a tune. I think it just attests to music's beauty and its ability to illicit emotions in us.
Even after this, Mt Itoi has quite a ways to go. It genuinely is this long trek up a perilous mountain, and it becomes ever more rewarding when you reach the final melody at the top. George, Ninten's grandfather, even in death, is able to communicate with the group and bestow to them the final piece of Magicant's puzzle, before presumably finally moving on to the afterlife. The fact that his soul has lingered here for decades, him having created EVE, his diary - it's clear he died with many regrets, and as to why is quickly revealed when Queen Mary finally hears the full song. The game left many bread crumbs, but it's finally revealed Mary is Maria: Ninten's missing great grandmother, that the combined melodies are a lullaby that she sung to an adopted Gyigue as a baby. She cries out to her husband before joining him in the afterlife.
-----------------------
I struggle to articulate as to why, but there's something especially poignant about someone dying with regrets so extreme, that they essentially create an alternate dimension/dream world that they can live on in, with the only thing that perpetuates their continued existence being relegated to their subconsciousness. NPCs talk about how Queen Mary "sounds as if she is scoling a child" or "singing a lullaby to a child" in her sleep, which gave some clues towards her being Gyigue's adoptive mother well in advance when coupled with the riddles George's diary had in order to access Magicant to begin with. It's a testament to just how good the game's subtext is, and how much better it gets when given closer inspection.
Something I think I can articulate, is just how good MOTHER's final boss is. With the completed song, MOTHER, a game about family and the beauty and power of music, naturally tasks the player to beat the final boss using music. Music that the final boss is all too familar with. A mother's song. There's something so visceral, so evokative of having the final boss of a 1989 famicom RPG be defeated by merely having them crumble under their own guilt from hearing the selfsame tune that helped them to sleep as a baby. I guess even a universal cosmic destroyer can still love their mother, even if they're of the same species they seek to destroy. And I think I love my mother too, despite it all.
That is the unshakable bond that family can provide. This is what MOTHER, and by extension, the mother series, stands for.
I do not believe this is what makes MOTHER a parody, however.
What truly makes MOTHER a parody, to me, is how much beauty it hides within its subtext, supplementary material, and the inferences you can make about the characters and world, especially given the time it released. It's a Famicom RPG, so naturally, not much is going to be spelled out directly. A lot of things that managed to hit me as hard as they did only hit because I bothered to talk to npcs, because I listened to the vocal album, and because I made up theories in my head about the characters' personalities based on the groundwork the game provided me.
Take Lloyd, for example. He's an evidently bullied, socially anxious, but incredibly intelligent kid with a love for explosives - just going off of NPC dialogue in Twinkle Elementary. Hell, he isn't just bullied by the other students, the game bullies him. Practically all of the flavour text relating to weapons refers to him as "puny", "weak", "nerdy" or some other synonym. So you find him in a trash can that he's voluntarily hid himself in, go to the sweet's factory to the south, get some bottle rockets for him in what is probably the single act of kindness anyone has ever given him, and he decides to join you. This is going to sound really corny, but I immediately saw him as neurodivergent. He's a smart, socially anxious kid who latches onto Ninten as soon as he does something nice for him, and has a hyperfixation on explosives, going as far as to immediately show them off to Ninten by dragging him to the science lab. I say all this because quite frankly I immediately saw myself in him (minus the intelligent part, I'm not that smart lol), and if I were in his shoes I'd probably want to be friends with Ninten too. Lloyd may be the only mandatory party member to beat the game, and despite that, this whole sequence of events comes across as the forming of a genuine friendship between two kids. If you're not sold on the two becoming genuine friends yet, the overworld music literally changes to "Bein' friends". This all culminates in Lloyd coming to the group's rescue on Mt. Itoi, in a bid to prove his bravery.
"Now it's the weakling's turn. You stay here and wait!"
Ana and Teddy have similar circumstances. You deliver Ana her lost hat and joins having developed feelings for Ninten from seeing him in her visions (which concludes with a really cute scene where the two dance together and confess their love). You get in a fistfight with Teddy, who recognises his strength and decides that the group (save for Lloyd) are strong enough to brave Mt. Itoi and avenge his parents. It was a rarity for party members i RPGs from this time to have nearly this level of character, let alone feel like they joined the party because they simply wanted to and not because the story demanded it, and it plays a huge part in one of MOTHER's core themes.
From the very beginning, MOTHER is a game about family. The found family of the party, the legacy of Ninten's great grandfather's research, his great grandmother's dissapearance, and how this all relates to the game's main protagonist: Gyigue.
There's so much I want to talk about regarding this game, from how much you can really feel Itoi just wanted to roam and explore the countryside as a kid, the heartfelt soundtrack, and my defence of the core game actually being that it's fine and not grindy or obtuse (because it isn't. Duncan's factory and Mt itoi are far from the worst RPG dungeons, and I actually quite the latter, which I'll get to). What I want to talk about the most, though, is MOTHER's fantastic, emotionally charged endgame. This gets pretty in depth and over analytical(even by the standards of this review so far), so I'm going to clearly distinguish where that begins and where the the point where I actually talk about the ending comes up, which you can read from if you want to skip this. It's basically a plot summary with my ramblings, inferences and thoughts on things that happen.
-----------------------------------
You're going through the cave leading to Mt Itoi. The enemies are some of the toughest yet (though very manageable assuming you don't get too unlucky with PK beam from the blue starmen), but after not too long, you're able to make it through to Mt Itoi itself. From the very first measure of music, Mt Itoi is a complete tonal shift. It gives off an incredibly foreboding atmosphere that really pairs well with just how much more difficult the encounters have become. They're somehow even tougher (and should still be manageable without grinding. you have buffs and powerful psi. use them.). It's a very clear indicator that you're nearing the end of the game, and I honestly think the area not being playtested was to its benefit?? I do genuinely feel toning down the difficulty here would take away from the game's ludonarrative consistency. You know that Teddy's parents were killed here, you know that nobody dares go near the place, and most importantly; it serves as Gyigue's base of operations - it would naturally be guarded his elite and wildlife driven mad by his very presence. If it was made easier, it just wouldn't make much sense, at least for me.
Anyway, you're able to make it to yet another healer's house and effectively another checkpoint. Unless you missed any melodies before this point, and save for coming back later with Lloyd, this is practically the point of no return. Ninten and Ana have their previously mentioned dance here, and while it does feel like they went from nothing to confessing love, I do want to note the poignancy this scene just has in general. "Fallin' love" only plays here, and having a character directly confess their love to the protagonist like this, as far as I know, wasn't really heard of until Final Fantasy IV, a good few years later. It's interrupted with Teddy barging in to check on the two, and the group then getting ambushed with an unwinnable encounter that leaves Lloyd arriving just in time tp save the group. Teddy is presumably dead after this, though, which I see as the game's way of saying "he was injured protecting Ninten and Ana". I don't think it'd make sense if "the three were all equally wounded but the two kids made it out alive because psychic abilities". Regardless, Lloyd rejoins, has his quick character arc, and you quickly find a boat that he's able to get working, in turn having EVE join you.
EVE is the primary reason why I really don't think Mt Itoi is as impossibly difficult as many seem to describe it as. You're given an invincible robot designed by Ninten's great grandfather specifically with the intent on protecting him, should she ever be found, that oneshots every enemy in the area. You could keep her around for grinding, but by now you should have 4th D slip. Want my advice for getting to the top of Mt Itoi? Just run from every encounter. You really won't need those levels for the final boss. Either way, EVE quickly dies protecting the group in another scripted boss fight, and investigating her remains gives you the seventh melody. There's something bittersweet about a living organism, whether biological or artificial, having their flame finally go out with a tune. I think it just attests to music's beauty and its ability to illicit emotions in us.
Even after this, Mt Itoi has quite a ways to go. It genuinely is this long trek up a perilous mountain, and it becomes ever more rewarding when you reach the final melody at the top. George, Ninten's grandfather, even in death, is able to communicate with the group and bestow to them the final piece of Magicant's puzzle, before presumably finally moving on to the afterlife. The fact that his soul has lingered here for decades, him having created EVE, his diary - it's clear he died with many regrets, and as to why is quickly revealed when Queen Mary finally hears the full song. The game left many bread crumbs, but it's finally revealed Mary is Maria: Ninten's missing great grandmother, that the combined melodies are a lullaby that she sung to an adopted Gyigue as a baby. She cries out to her husband before joining him in the afterlife.
-----------------------
I struggle to articulate as to why, but there's something especially poignant about someone dying with regrets so extreme, that they essentially create an alternate dimension/dream world that they can live on in, with the only thing that perpetuates their continued existence being relegated to their subconsciousness. NPCs talk about how Queen Mary "sounds as if she is scoling a child" or "singing a lullaby to a child" in her sleep, which gave some clues towards her being Gyigue's adoptive mother well in advance when coupled with the riddles George's diary had in order to access Magicant to begin with. It's a testament to just how good the game's subtext is, and how much better it gets when given closer inspection.
Something I think I can articulate, is just how good MOTHER's final boss is. With the completed song, MOTHER, a game about family and the beauty and power of music, naturally tasks the player to beat the final boss using music. Music that the final boss is all too familar with. A mother's song. There's something so visceral, so evokative of having the final boss of a 1989 famicom RPG be defeated by merely having them crumble under their own guilt from hearing the selfsame tune that helped them to sleep as a baby. I guess even a universal cosmic destroyer can still love their mother, even if they're of the same species they seek to destroy. And I think I love my mother too, despite it all.
That is the unshakable bond that family can provide. This is what MOTHER, and by extension, the mother series, stands for.
1993
genuinely forgot how good this is. I've always gravitated to x4 and the zero series and x2 stuck with me longer but it's good to go back and remember how this series almost peaked with its very first entry.
1997
As a huge fan of Duke3D and Shadow Warrior, I was initially stoked to move on to what is often regarded as the best Build Engine game.
That was 4 years ago. Every time I play Blood, I play a couple levels, get filtered and drop it. I can do the other build engine games on their higher difficulties no problem, but Blood on just about every difficulty setting feels Cheap with a capital C, mostly because the majority of the enemy roster consists of hitscanners that often shoot before you can even see them. Yes, I know the strat is to use dynamite, but I still found myself having to save and reload far more frequently because they mow you down anyway. Couple this with me just not being into horror movies (something I feel is far more niche than cheesy 90s hollywood action movies or over the top martial arts movies despite not being an explicit fan of either), and most of the references fly over my head. I'll probably sit down and finish it at some point, but I think this is the single instance of a popular or cult (no pun intended) 90s fps that I've just never found any desire to finish.
That was 4 years ago. Every time I play Blood, I play a couple levels, get filtered and drop it. I can do the other build engine games on their higher difficulties no problem, but Blood on just about every difficulty setting feels Cheap with a capital C, mostly because the majority of the enemy roster consists of hitscanners that often shoot before you can even see them. Yes, I know the strat is to use dynamite, but I still found myself having to save and reload far more frequently because they mow you down anyway. Couple this with me just not being into horror movies (something I feel is far more niche than cheesy 90s hollywood action movies or over the top martial arts movies despite not being an explicit fan of either), and most of the references fly over my head. I'll probably sit down and finish it at some point, but I think this is the single instance of a popular or cult (no pun intended) 90s fps that I've just never found any desire to finish.
2023
Of all the Mega Man inspired games (not including actual Mega Man games) I've played recently, this was the only one to get everything right. Movement, stage design, boss design, and difficulty are all superb and the story actually had some cool plot revelations towards the end that open up the possibilities of a prequel or sequel. Whatever happens I'm super excited to see what Domesticated Ant makes next; for only their second game they've put out an all-time great 2D platformer and what is easily my GOTY for 2023.
1996
Did a buster only run and it's honestly way better than I remembered. Not abusing weaknesses really shows how well designed these bosses are and while the "jump jump slide slide" sections are still ballsy they're relatively doable if you know what to expect. Voice acting is funny, sprites are gorgeous and Electrical Communication is a banger.
2004
Controls smooth as butter (though I personally prefer how the psx games control), fantastic boss design, and some of the best writing in the series (which isn't saying a lot but the final few cutscenes really left an impression on me) but mannnn I kinda actually didn't enjoy my time with this one as much as the others??? By the end of the game you're used to the bullshit but this has by far my least favourite stage design in the series, hitting you with spikes fucking everywhere and often before you have time to react because of how the camera works. Lumine's stage isn't even that bad because by then you're used to it all after having played gravity antonian's stage lord knows how many times but of all the games to drop the infinite lives that the psx games gave you they couldn't have chosen a worse one. It's objectively better than x6 and 7 but I'd genuinely rather revisit those games than play x8 again. Only giving it a higher rating because I can recognise it's a far better game and that final cutscene ending the game on such a good note.
2003
I'll be honest, I don't think it's the worst thing ever. It's definitely bad, don't get me wrong, but it's also really good to point and laugh at. Considering how much I found myself going hysterical over the voice acting and terrible game design decisions at every turn, X7 wound up being a game that I actually enjoyed purely because it's a train wreck. That and it honestly really wasn't that miserable to play (at least by the end of it. It's pretty bad when you're starting out without upgrades or X), finishing with less than 4 hours ingame time. Sigma doesn't even have fucking animations for some of the attacks in his final phase; he just goes into a t-pose. You genuinely can't make this up.
Kirin gameplay initially comes off as the best inti has ever crafted but by the time you reach the second set of stages not only does it become apparent there really isn't that much depth to it and it lacks the kind of dynamism that copen's had but the level design also kinda takes a huge dip in quality, opting for annoying gimmicks and the same kind of annoying enemy placement and attack patterns as gunvolt 1, and boss design has taken a huge dip in quality too. Sidelining gunvolt is honestly a good thing because anything inti makes at this point is going to be infinitely more enjoyable than his playstyle to me but I found copen's total absence really weird. Sure he was fresh off of having two spinoff games exclusively dedicated to him but it's kinda like if a megaman x game after x4 just didn't have zero at all. You can't just introduce this cool new playstyle in one game, give him the spotlight in a few games designed around them, then totally remove it. Also going to go back on what I said about not caring about the writing when talking about LAix2 and say wow this sure is a whole lot of nothing and also a really weird kinda change in the status quo. Basically nothing about what potentially happened after gunvolt 2 is addressed and Sumeragi are the good guys now, I guess. Despite having always been portrayed as an evil megacorpororation. Not a fan.