Category: Nintendo

Mega Man X

Completed Mega Man X.
What surprised me after Mega Man X4 is that although you need to figth the bosses again, it is not a gauntlet. Instead, they are spread organically through multiple stages, and you also have unique bosses to figth along the way. The spider boss is difficult, but I’d say fair, after you understand it’s gimmick: it can only get to you if it has a path on the “ladder”. The “sleepy face” boss that throws its eyes at you is less fun, as it has this one-hit-kill spikes mechanic, and the “nose” has a bounce mechanic.
And by “TRex” boss I ran out of most of my ammo, so I was just throwing shit at it.
Sigma fight is three stages, but at least you start it with full health and energy tanks. First phase is the dog, which is easy. Second phase is Sigma jumping on walls, and it’s tiring, because you need to be very precise, and constantly walljump. Third phase is the wolf form, which is cool, but also random, akin to last form from Mega Man X4. Sometimes you just get unlucky and will be blasted by the plasma balls over and over, which are extremely hard to dodge.

I’ve heard some complain that this game is too easy.

In my opinion, it’s reasonably hard. You still need to know what you’re doing and be very intentional about it, and some jumps are quite ridiculous, but it’s doable even with someone bad reflexes as I am.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 26, 2024

Strangely, the midboss of the Mandril stage, Thunder Slimer, gave me much more trouble that Mandril itself. It’s hard to avoid due to its sticky slime, and still kills X in a couple of hits.

Unlike previous three bosses, Armadilo is no pushover. It’s a “bouncy” boss, but unlike second phase of Sigma in Mega Man X4, I couldn’t find a clear pattern, so I had to brawl it cyborg’o’marsupial
The Mammoth is very easy if you fought Pinguin and Eagle first to freeze the stage and get the Eagle weapon. Octopus though is tough. First, his stage is beautiful, with an impressive on SNES water effect, but it has one of the worst mini-bosses in the game, that sucks you on spikes, which are one-hit-kill. What’s also cool about Octopus stage is that I didn’t destroy the submarine, and fought mostly harmless eel. Turns out if you do destroy the submarine, you have to fight it in a spiky arena. Have no idea why someone would prefer it, though.

Then there’s the X-Buster upgrade on Mammoth stage… What can I say, the reason I won’t replay this game ever, I think, is this bullshit jump you need to perform.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 23, 2024

Decided to give Mega Man X a try. For SNES, this is definitely impressive. Not in terms of visuals, as I think Disney’s games and Earthworm Jim are more impressive. But the first level takes place on a bridge, and crusher enemies destroy that bridge. Terrain manipulation in a 2D platformer from ’93 is mindblowing.
Regarding bosses difficulty, I found Pinguin to be extremely easy. You stick to the top of the wall and shoot it in the face until it dies. The only issue solved in later games is that X doesn’t automatically shoot away from the wall. Which doesn’t make any sense, I know.
Also, Dash is a special move in the first game, which you need to aquire. Luckily, it’s impossible to miss it if you pick the right stage.
Eagle is also surprisingly easy. I mean, you can literally smash him in the face with regular shots, no need to charge them.
A feature no other game implemented, I think, is that killing one boss makes another stage easier. I thought it’s insignificant at first, but then the electric floor at the Mandril stage was so infuriating I went to pay Eagle a visit first.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo PSX Sony Switch

Mega Man X4

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 17, 2024

I always had a special relationship with Mega Man X4. It was the first Mega Man game I’ve seen, because for a strange reason, it was ported to PC. But also, many years later, while trying Mega Man X3 and Mega Man X5 I understood that it hit the sweet spot of looking amazing, unlike X3 which still had SNES era visuals, but still having solid core gameplay, unlike X5.

What I didn’t understand as a kid is that Dragoon literally screams “hadouken” and “shouryuken”, because his moveset is basically Ryu/Ken from Street Fighter.

For some strange reason, Mega Man X Legacy Collection on Switch doesn’t have save states. I rarely use them nowadays, but Mega Man without them is still brutal.
My path is Dragon, which can be beaten with exosuit, and I think that’s the easy choice. Then Peacock, turned out to be easy as well with the fire sword. Then Walrus, for obvious reasons.

Then Lion, you just need to dodge the stomps. And Stingray, despite being weak to the Walrus weapon, can also be taked out with a saber, you can jump safely underneath.

The most trouble, I had with the spider. You need to dash-jump to avoid the homing webs, and even then, I feel that sometimes it’s very hard to do, as his position is quite random.

With Spider weapon, Mushroom is easy. And I left Owl for the last, although with Peacock’s weapon, I could have done it much sooner.

Tags Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

Nintendo Switch

Steel Assault

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 11, 2024

A tribute to everything 8bit.
The hero is a cyborg. So it’s a tribute to Mega Man.

But he shoots grapling hook. So it’s a tribute to Bionic Commando.
But he uses a whip. So it’s a tribute to Castlevania.
But he also picks power upside that change how his whip behaves. So it’s a tribute to Contra.

And it all looks like a Strider game 😆

The game is brutal, to the point I had to look up a guide how to beat midboss on a second level. The only relaxation is that you have unlimited retries, and frequent checkpoints (although they could have added a checkpoint before the bosses).

Nintendo Switch

Circle of the Moon

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 9, 2024

I gave Circle of the Moon another try on Castlevania Advance Collection.
It’s still a bad game. Had to rewatch the intro multiple times, with no option to skip it, since the very first save point is placed badly, and I died multiple times looking for it.
The level design is obnoxious, with those “wells” that you have to jump from platform to platform, instead of a more serpentine multi-floor designs of some of the later installements. What puzzles me, though, is that the earlier Symphony of the Night got the design right, though!
Then there’s the drop rate… The main feature of the game is that you can combine two types of cards in order to imbue your whip with different powers, which gives you about 64 different options. Sounds great! And the nice thing about the Advance Collection version is that there’s an indicator if an enemy can drop the card, and if you already have it or not. But I spent probably half an hour farming for a very basic card, killing axe armor maybe 100 times, and I still haven’t got it. You know what, this simply doesn’t worth it.

Tags Castlevania, Circle of the Moon

Nintendo Switch

Tails of Iron

Beautifully animated metroidvania about a war between medieval rats and toads. The attacks are slow and telegraphed, there are rolls and shield parries, very soulslike. But there are no “bloodstains” to return to, you just start from the latest checkpoint, which is, like in Hollow Knight, is represented as a bench. Healing is interesting: instead of multiple use “estuses”, you have a flask, that replenishes your health the longer you drink it.
The narration is also very different from a soulslike: while rats just squeak and communicate through comics bubbles, there’s an almost constant background narrator, similar to Bastion or Hades.

Tags Tails of Iron

Nintendo Switch

Portrait of Ruin

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 4, 2024

Completed Portrait of Ruin.

I usually prefer two handed swords in Castlevania games for their reach, overhead pattern and damage. But in this installment I ended up using Heaven Sword most of the game, switching to Flame Whip and Vampire Slayer at later stages.
After beating the four paintings, you just have a set of bosses left. First, there’s optional Memory of the Whip, which is Richter from Super Castlevania. He can kill you in 5-6 hits, his whip is super quick and has a very good range. I ended up stocking on potions and just kiting him at a range. He basically runs into your weapon, and then you can backdash. With his whip, I just overpowered Brauner, not messing with all his painting magic. It’s impressive technologically how he draws a pattern on a canvas, then the same pattern covers the screen damaging you, but I don’t have patience for this shit.

Then there’s the Dracula and Death duo. Honestly, I think that’s one of the thoughtests bosses I had to face in Castlevania games. Death hovers above Dracula making it difficult to jump over him, hits you while you try to dodge the usual fireballs, can be hit only in double jump, and generally, a pain in the ass. Then there are some Dracula attacks that simply one-shot you.
I’m not sure if it’s the necessity of double jumps, or just the intensity of this fight, but I felt that the controls were very sluggish, like there’s a lag every time I press a button. Maybe it’s the Dominus Collection, or just me. At least the game itself didn’t lag, like the Order of Eclessia when I played it on the original console.
Or maybe the developers intended that you’d attempt this fight only after finishing all the quests. But with the quests such as “kill 1500 enemies with the Javelin skill”, no, thank you very much.
If it wasn’t for the two inverted paintings, and the frustrating final fight, I’d say the game was fantastic. But all in all – I’m not sure.

Tags Castlevania, Portrait of Ruin

Nintendo Switch

Portrait of Ruin

The first “painting” ain’t bad at all. You get the Owl Transformation spell, that let’s you fly around. No more platforming. The boss, Frankestein Monster, is also okay.

The second painting is a rehash of Carnival theme, and it’s again pain to the eyes. At least as an owl you can fly past most of the traps. The boss, Medusa, looks amazing, but annoying as hell: deals tons of damage, and has an annoying hitbox. I managed to beat her without a guide in the end using the minotaur and that strikes overhead and a meteorite spell, but you need to be super precise to stand just below her head so the tails don’t touch you, as it’s almost a certain death, they multihit.

The other two bosses, Werewolf and Mummy (I’m telling you, they ran out of fresh ideas) are easy in comparison, as they can be team tagged from two sides.

With the owl dorm, the game also unexpectedly becomes kind of indirect control: most enemies can’t hit you, and attack your partner instead. But since damaging him consumes only mana, which regenerates, it’s a great bargain.

Tags Portrait of Ruin

Nintendo Switch

Portrait of Ruin

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 26, 2024

Of course there’s a False Ending, it’s Castlevania after all. Path to the True Ending in this game is slightly more obvious than in others, though. Or maybe I just played enough Castlevania’s by this point.
First, you obtain the spell the cures vampirism, and you even get to practice it on the monk shopkeeper. And then during battle with Loretta and her sister, you just distract them long enough to cast it.

I also beat them to get the False Ending. They aren’t hard. Funny thing is, the spell is called “Sanctuary”, so it’s not very obvious from its name that it cures vampirism. And I picked it up completely by chance, not evening remembering where.
By that time, I think developers ran out of budget, since they just dump 4 paintings (portals) on you, go and clear those, then come back.

Tags Castlevania, Portrait of Ruin

Nintendo Switch

Torchlight 2

Decided to go back to my beloved Torchlight 2, this time on Switch.
Berserker is not what I expected, at least on Veteran. I thought it’ll be a barbarian. Instead, it’s more of a Assassin, dual wielding and a bit of a glass cannon type.
Then I gave Outlander a chance, which is a ranged class. First thing that surprised me was that the range of pistols is quite limited. Shotguns – I can understand. But pistols barely cross half screen. I think in Diablo 3 and 4 it’s the visibility distance.
I also didn’t know or remember that pets can cast spells, including healing, which helps a lot to recover between fights.

Tags Torchlight

Nintendo Switch

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 17, 2024

Death boss was the first that gave me a real pause. The spinning scythe homes on you, and the horizontal swipe has a lead: if Death starts telegraphing and you jump, it still can follow you and hit in mid air. It’s also not very clear what the boss is resistant to when it switches colors. But by wasting a few potions, I managed to beat it.

I forgot how much I love the witches design in Castlevania. The fact that there’s a cat familiar sitting on her broom, and then when she’s defeated, she turns into a cat with a witch hat, with the familiar still sitting on her back. So much detail and love.

Tags Castlevania, Portrait of Ruin

Nintendo Switch

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date September 3, 2024

I tried to play it many years ago, I think still on original NDS.
The two character mechanic is fun. Second character can take out the smaller annoying enemies or cast spells as you fight.
What I didn’t remember is that the game was leaning heavily into 3D backgrounds. Or maybe I simply didn’t notice on the tiny screen.
The theme of this game is paintings. So besides the usual Dracula Castle, we also have painted worlds we enter, each the size of castle itself. There is European city, Egypt, and so on.
I was enjoying the game until Nation of Fools painting. Castlevania can get quite confusing by itself. With the world at 90 degrees, it becomes simply annoying.
Legion, the ball of bodies, makes a comeback. Waste not, want not. It was giving me a lot of trouble until I discovered Heaven’s sword that wasted it in seconds.

Stella was also lots of trouble for me in her second phase, until I got the Nebula whip that, unlike most whips is Castlevania, actually aims.
Also, I just love this entrance sequence:

Tags Castlevania, Portrait of Ruin

Nintendo Switch

Since I don’t play on my Nintendo Switch too often, every time I try to install a new game, it requires a lot of coersing.
First, there are sigpatches, which I download randomly and pray they would work.
Then turns out when Tinfoil says “failed to read metadata”, you need to update Tinfoil itself (install new NRO) not Athmosphere (unpack and copy files).
And when the game installs, but crashes at start, it means you need to update actual firmware through Daybreak.

Nintendo PC Gaming Switch

Castlevania Dominus Collection

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 28, 2024
4 Comments on Castlevania Dominus Collection

Castlevania Dominus Collection released on Steam and Nintendo Switch is one less reason for me to own NDS/3DS now. Until recently, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia were all NDS exclusive. I even finished Order of Ecclesia a few years ago on 3DS. Now I’m sorry I haven’t waited for this release, as playing NDS games is often a pain: you can’t take screenshots, and the game also hung up on me a few times.
In any case, this is another chance for me to try and finish Portrait of Ruin.

Tags Castlevania

Nintendo Switch

Diablo 3

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date August 18, 2024

Am I playing Diablo 3 again? Yes, yes I do.

Never seen than joke before, though:

I understood that I don’t understand Diablo 3 Necromancer at all. I mean, you immediately get 7 skeletons, that are almost invulnerable and don’t require corpses. Why exactly 7? I don’t know. And your skeleton mages aren’t really skeletons at all, as they act more like turrets and persist only for a few seconds.

The legendary drop is still ridiculous but fun. I got two legendary swords even before I reached Leoric.

Tags Diablo, Diablo 3

3DS Nintendo

Link between Worlds

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date July 13, 2024

Nintendo has an entire Mario spinoff series dedicated to 2D characters in a 3D world. Link in this game has a similar concept: he can turn into a chalk image, which technically works as if he clings to a wall. Yeah, like Solid Snake. Solid Link, maybe?

Believe it or not, they added some Souls elements in this game. You can invade other worlds, which I can’t try because the game is so old now, and I never cared about invading anyway. And you loose some of your items when you die, then you need to buy them back.

Speaking of items, unlike most other games in the series, where you get an item, complete a dungeon with it, get another item, complete another dungeon, here you get a lot of items right away.

Just after two dungeons Link gets the Master Sword, faces Yuga, the local villain, and traverses to the world of Lorule (obvious pun on Hyrule), that is ruled by Princess Hilda. The world is a darker version of Hyrule, and irony which is not lost on me, since Hyrule was always so chirpy. The enemies hit twice as hard, and are much, much harder to kill.

From this point, the game is a bit less linear, the order you complete the next seven dungeons seems to be mostly up to you.

Tags Legend of Zelda, Link between Worlds

Nintendo Switch

MiG Switch

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 28, 2024

Something I didn’t think would be possible: a Flash Card for Switch. But it’s apparently true. No need to solder anything, and it should be able to play every XCI:

I don’t need one at the moment, but it’s an interesting development.

Nintendo Switch

Board games and video games

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 10, 2024

I find that the best way for me to learn a board game is to play its videogame version for a bit. That way you feel that something guides you, doesn’t allow you to make completely stupid mistakes and you don’t need to bother with maths either.
This worked great with PC version of Wingspan for me. Then I tried to console version on Catan, which is tiny and hard to follow, but still helps.

And now I tried Root. The interesting bit about Root is that it’s completely asymmetric, unlike most board games. Every has different mechanics: one has fixed number of moves, another has number of moves increasing every turn, another has number of moves depending on the items. Starting positions are completely different: one faction controls all areas, but is spread very thin, while another controls just one area, but has a large force there. So while certainly not something I would play solely for my enjoyment, it’s interesting, and well executed.

Nintendo

“Was it Good? – Chrono Trigger”, Josh Strife Plays

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date March 3, 2024

I completed Chrono Trigger, but it was some 20 years ago. Maybe one day, I’ll complete it again.

One fascinating detail is that Chrono Trigger story is the rejected story for Final Fantasy 7. That’s why they have Lavos (evil entity from space that sucks planet energy) and Genova (evil entity from space that sucks planet energy).

Tags Chrono Trigger