Turns out, I didn’t know some things about the Advance Wars:
Like the fact that a later cancelled version for Nintendo 64 was developed at one point.
Or that there were different designs for characters in the English and Japanese versions.
As much as I’m fan of Advance Wars, I never finished the first two on GBA. Fortunately, there’s a remake now for Switch. Delayed by a year due to war in Ukraine, but still.
Not sure if they just remade the graphics or also rewritten the dialogs, and it doesn’t matter much. The significance of dialogs and storyline in Advance Wars is equal to dialogs in porn or W40K. It’s just an excuse, and we all know that.
This game always reminds me of chess puzzles (not that I’m good at them). At least the missions where you can’t build additional units. Winning is not difficult. Getting an “S” score sometimes is. Although the score doesn’t impact anything except your ego, really.
One feature I don’t remember on GBA is the ability to rewind your last move. You can’t rewind enemie’s turn, but it’s still very useful, expecially if you misjudged artillery ranges.
PC:
– ArmA 2
– ArmA 3
– Batman: Arkham Knight
– Beast Inside
– Mortal Shell
– Sanitarium
3DS
– Bravely Default
Interesting retrospective. I didn’t know that the GameCube version of Bloody Roar looked better than Bloody Roar 4 for PS2, and that they scrapped some characters after Bloody Roar 1.
Completed Bravely Default.
Stopped playing it before thinking that the worst part was having to beat the same 4 bosses 5 times each was boring. How naive I was.
The final two bosses are a complete nightmare. First comes Airy’s 3rd form. Here’s a good explanation why Airy is so bad.
She can wipe the entire party with the best equipment in a single turn. She lowers resistances of the entire party, then immediately deals maximum damage to everyone. People mostly beat her by exploiting one of the game mechanics. I managed to do it only by spamming Giant Draft consumables, and lots of luck.
Then comes Ouroboros, which does basically the same, but his Disaster attack simply penetrates immunities, without any explanation. Again, you just need to be lucky and hope he casts Divergence instead, which “just” disables a character for 2 turns.
My guess is that the game authors either expected players to buy limit breakers with real money (Pay2Win scheme) or to exploit the social element and summon overpowered friends (that’s why Divergence stills allow you to “Summon friend”). But since I have 0 friends, I had to go the hard way.
The saddest part, is there is no character development in the game. Best way to demonstrate it, is that there’s a dialogue at the very end, where each character tells what they plan to do once this is all over. The village boy plans to return to his village. The priestess plans to go back to her temple. There was some romantic innuendo, but it all gets discarded. It is as if the game couldn’t decide whether it’s intended for children or adults. There are some adult themes, but then in the end, everything becomes inconsequential, and everyone basically return to where they’re started. Even the Final Fantasy X trick they tried to pull, where Tiz apparently dies without others noticing gets dismissed after a few moments .
PC:
– Blacksad: Under the Skin
– Darksiders 3
– Dusk
– Prodeus
– Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
– Rise of the Tomb Raider
Switch:
– Return of Obra Dinn
Completed Return of Obra Dinn.
I’m surprised how much I got into that game.
First part is gathering the clues, which is pretty standard for walking sims.
Second part, that starts with the storm, is much more involved, as it requires a lot of crossreferencing. Officers of same rank wear similar clothes. Each officer has a mate that is often seen with them. People of same origin tend to stick together. Things like that. The funny part is that I had the most trouble identifying four Chinese guys. Because, you know, they all look the same.
Stylish black&white walking sim. We play as insurance investigator from the 19th century, that is tasked with figuring out what happened to a vessel, now barren besides a few skeletons.
You have a magic clock, that given a corpses, shows how a person died. Now if in that memory someone else dies, magic clock will make their corpse reappear too. And you can do multiple time jumps that way.
The story broken into chapters, and each chapter has a page dedicated to each corpse. Some of the crew didn’t leave corpses behind, so you also need to figure out what happened to them (in the middle of the sea, dugh!). Each page is a 3D slice of a ship, sometimes spanning multiple decks. You can move around, trying to figure out who’s who.
There are about 40 different ways a person could die in this game. I didn’t expect anyone to be electrocuted. I was wrong.
Pretty quickly we discover that the ship was attacked by no less that a kraken. And before that, by a couple of murderous crab riding merman. And this is all a result of a curse. The game leans into the mystical heavier than what I expected. But there are also a couple good old murders to solve as well. A baton is a far deadlier weapon that one would assume.
Interestingly enough, they decided to remake Front Mission 1. Not just have a port from NDS, which was quite a direct port from SNES, but to actually remake it in 3D:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/FRONT-MISSION-1st-Remake-2171006.html
I personally don’t see a reason to play it myself, as I completed the game some time ago on NDS. But it would be intersting if they release other Front Mission games for the Switch as well.
NDS produced some very unique games. To play this one, you need to hold your console on its side, like a book. The backgrounds are 3D, but the characters are animated 2D black and white sketches. Very stylish.
We play Kyle, an ex cop, who now works as a traveling salesman. His boss sends him to Hotel Dusk, no less. Where he by chance gets room 215, that is rumored to grant wishes. There are also other rumors about the hotel: it’s haunted by a ghost of a girl who disappeared there 10 years ago. Her body was never found.
Kyle is haunted by memories of his partner, Bradley, who was undercover in an art smuggling ring known as “Nile”. For some reason three years ago he betrayed both Nile and the police. Kyle shot him in the process, but Bradley’s body was again never found.
Played the game for a few hours already, reached Chapter 3. And until now I still don’t know what kind of mystery it is. Getting some pretty strong Twin Peaks vibes, though.
The further, the worse gameplay becomes, unfortunately.
Pen and chalk puzzle was annoying. Nobody likes pixel hunting.
The main theme of the game is angels. Melissa has an angel doll her mother made her. Writer Summers has a bookmark with reproduction of “Angel Opening a Door”. The same painting Bradley tried to steal from Nile, apparently.
Although I dislike the theme of masked vigilantes, I must admit that the game is phenomenal.
We play as a teenager that tried to stop a rapist, but instead got sued by him and now on probation.
He’s bestowed with a magical app on his phone that allows him to visit Palaces: places that evil people build inside their minds. And if he’s able to steal their Treasure, it will cure them. Potentially also make them brain dead, but it’s one evil person less anyway.
The most annoying part is that they brought back the persona dialog system from Persona 2. To get a new persona you first need to crit it, then you need to persuade it to join by guessing a right answer to a very vague question.
Managed to install Persona 5 on my Switch.
I feel like I update firmware on it more than I play it.
At first, I was getting “failed to read NSP metadata”
Fixed that by installing the latest patches. The process is super-shady, as you just copy a bunch of random files you found on the Internet.
Then, had to figure out the Master Key password in Atmosphere:
up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, plus
That enables unsigned code installation, since the only NSP available at the moment is converted from XCI.
But it works. And the most surprising thing, it works on Firmware 12.1.0, while the latest is 15.0.0
I’m always afraid of upgrading firmwares on my Switch, as I almost bricked it once already, and lost all my saves in the process.
Looks like I completely missed the fact that Persona 5 is now also on PC.
And even better news, Persona 4 is planned for Switch in January as well. Dropped it on PS2, dropped it on PC, not I have a chance to drop it for the third time!
PC:
NDS:
Racing game from Capcom from the 2000’s that is best known for using the popular at the time cel-shading technique. There are lots of cars available from the get go, including some top-tier ones, not just trash cars like you start with in some more realistic racing games.
The problem is that the driving itself is not very enjoyable. Cars are hard to handle, and I’m not sure what the game expects you to do about it.
Completed Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
Took me almost 4 months, albeit with pauses. Started to play it in March, and completed it just now.
Decided to play this game after completing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It was a mistake to try in play it on the original hardware, though. First, NDS can’t take screenshots. The game is gorgeous, but I can’t prove that now. Second, there are considerable slowdowns when there are a lot of moving objects on screen, which make some boss battles frustrating.
But first things first.
Bloodstained’s heroine was an exact copy of Shanoa, heroine of the Order of Ecclesia. Up to color of her dress and the tattoo on her back.
There’s no difference between weapons and spells now, or as they called here glyphs. A rapier, called Confodere, or a hammer, called Macir, use the same mana as a lightning bolt. Mana recovers quickly after a brief rest, very similar to endurance in Dark Souls series.
Different from most other Castlevania series, instead of a huge castle, there are a lot of discrete locations. All of them are rather small, and some of them also quite linear, even corridor-like.
In terms of pixelart, this is the swan song of NDS. The next Castlevania game will be already a 3D one. And Prison Island is simply a muscle flex, with it’s hand drawn lighting and shadow effects.
In terms of combat system, at a certain point I felt that they should have called it “Order of the Axe”. Seriously, Axe glyph rules the midgame. I always found axes in Castlevania games awkward. But in Order of Ecclesia they simply… work? You can hit enemies above or below you, which is great. You can also hit bosses multiple times, because their sprites are so big. Guess the game also helps you a bit in aiming your throws.
Crab boss was easy, except for the slingshot parts. You need to drag your character down in order to go up the Lighthouse. But then the boss is also beneath you. If you fall, you touch it. One touch, and you’re basically dead, caught in a damage loop.
Maneater boss was a lot of trouble for me due to its random moving patterns, and a lot of flying debris causing lots of damage. Then I discovered I have missed the light magic, Luminatio, at the top of the Lighthouse. I actually went all the way up, but then the elevator glitched, and went all the way down, so I assumed you need to do something special in order to fix it. Turns out it works just fine on the second try. And by mashing double light magic, the Maneater boss went down on my first try.
Not sure if I’ve “got” the game after that, but I enjoyed Russalka, Goliath and the “sand shark” bosses immensely.
I also feel that the game is slightly easier than other Castlevania games. A lot of glyphs have a rather wide arc, so you don’t have to position yourself that much. You can hit enemies standing above or below them, out of their reach. Unlike Symphony of the Night, where you had to get “in their face” all the time. And there are even some homing glyphs.
Also, the good ending is slightly more obvious than in some other Castlevanias, as I have missed just two villagers in my first attempt, and I was doing that without a guide.
Barlowe was a huge pain for me. Lots of well timed jumps, especially in his second phase, when he starts to dash at you. Fail any of the five jumps, and you’ll be stunlocked, and probably loose around 50% of your total health. Ended up stocking on healing potions, just to get past him.
The next boss, Wallman, is a clever reference to Konami’s own Bomberman, by the way.
I really hate when others say “you haven’t seen the game until you do X”, but in case of Eclessia, it is quite true. You haven’t seen the true Castlevania until your reached the castle. And you reach the castle only if you head for the true ending.
Blackmore boss’ design is absolutely awesome: evolution of “not shadow effect” we’ve seen back on Prison Island. But the necessity of constantly staying in the air was quite tiring. I wish I didn’t play this part on the original console.
Eligor was a pain in the ass for me for a few evenings. I almost dropped the game at that point. It’s a long fight with four phases. The boss is huge, but with only a few vulnerable points that are hard to reach. What changed the fight completely for me was the Melio Ascia glyph (throwing axe). It drops very rarely, so I had to farm for 30 minutes for it. But once I’ve got it, destroying centaur’s crossbows is a breeze.
I literally cheated death by cheating the Death boss with the Death ring. Sorry, not sorry. That ring doubles your damage, but you die from a single hit. Unless you unequip it in time…
Final boss, Dracula was super annoying. He hits hard, and his patterns are very hard to avoid, compared to any other boss in the game. I tried to soak damage using the best shield, but the slowdowns in this fight are so bad and he hits so hard I still couldn’t beat him for a few evenings. Had to farm for an hour to level up and get tons of gold. And then used the same trick as in Bloodstained: stocked food items. All the food items I could get. That did the trick. Glad it’s not Hollow Knight!
Going back to pixelart for the last time: Dracula’s cloak is simply mindblowing.
Как-то тихо, без шума вышла новая ревизия единственной на сей день современной мобильной консоли. Пару лет назад я был бы вне себя от счастья. А сейчас как-то все равно. Я и NDS уже должно быть год не доставал.
Прошел Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
К сожалению, Fire Emblem: The Sword of Flame я проходил лет десять назад. так что уже мало что помню.
Xane – очень забавный персонаж, умеющий превращаться в других персонажей. Смех начинается если превратить его в баллисту, и когда та отстреляла, передать ему аммуницию и отстреляться через пол карты еще раз.
К 20ой миссии появляется артефакт не дающий оружию ломаться. It’s pwnage time. Правда, не на долго. Спустя пару миссий артефакт приходится вернуть. Впрочем, там же выдают посох для Lena’ы, с которым можно ремонтировать даже легендарное оружие.
В той же миссии перед игроком ставят интересный моральный выбор. Вражеский генерал Camus – положительный персонаж, даже спасший от казни какую-то там принцессу. Но он решительно не желает сдаваться. Хуже того, с него падает лучшее копье в игре. Любопытно, что разработчики предусмотрели вариант, когда игрок оставляет генерала в живых, что не просто, учитывая, что подонок лезет в бой, и за один ход способен убить практически любого персонажа.
Сюжет все же не о том как все “хорошие” собрались и убили всех “плохих”. Он оперирует такими понятиями как “стыд” и “гордыня”, что делает его на две головы выше большинства японских сюжетов.
Игра генерирует крайне смешные ситуации. Как я уже писал у сильных персонажей есть проблема с тем, что они контрударом убивают противника, открывая путь следующему. Картина: один из персонажей подбегает к такому силачу Ogma, отбирает у него меч, и дает бесполезный топор. Чтобы не убил кого ненароком, и дал подтянуться подкреплению.
Дракониха Tiki практически неуязвима для магии, что превращает предфинальное сражение в избиение младенцев. Marth так же превращается в убийственную машину с получением Falchion’а.
Финальная миссия все же заставляет изрядно попотеть. Противники прут буквально из всех щелей. Много баллист. Часть дверей имеет обыкновение захлопываться, так что приходится запасаться ключами. Впрочем, после нескольких попыток уровень мне все же дался. Главное перекрыть все точки генерации противников верными людьми. Сам босс оказался без сюрпризов, и умер с трех ударов.
По итогам, Marth женился на Caeda’е, с которой и начал свое путешествие.
Так и не нашел применения тяжелым рыцарям и лучникам. Легкие мечники и воины с топорами так же не слишком живучи. В основном концентрировался на всадниках: Hardin, Abel, Wolf и летучая Caeda.
Тем временем 3DS прочно закрепляет за собой статус платформы для инфантильной хипстероты. С полнейшим ноугеймзом для тех, кого не интересуют игры про Марио, Соника и всяких там Кирби. Но зато там рай для задротов, проходящих две игры в год, “потому что все, что не Dark Souls или Nintendo – говно”. Можно, к примеру, надрочить сто часов в Mario Kart 77.