Eh, the extra content added to RPGs is almost always irrelevant/lousy/at odds with what was a perfectly great and complete experience to begin with. Final Fantasy X, instead of just fixing what was wrong with its original “superbosses,” decided it needed to put in content that simply involved grinding a completely irrelevant stat so you could even hit the crappy things (so…just grinding to get strong instead of anything interesting.) Finish a game like FFIV with a satisfying ending? Now you’ve got a fan-fiction-like extra dungeon with some pointless extra stuff. If your wonderful additional content just involves a lot of grinding and employing repetitious strategies from said grinding (like DQIII HD-2D’s monster wrangler stuff) you’re doing it wrong…and it’s always done wrong.
Instead of playing needless extensions to an already complete experience, just move on to another full, satisfying experience instead.
Instead of needless extensions, remake half finished messes like Xenogears and actually make them what people claim they are (but aren’t) and leave the good ones alone.
That Square also released half finished (Xenogears,) compromised (FFVIII), buggy (Mana games,) and mediocre stuff that looked like their other games all the time. Somehow it wasn’t a problem then but it is now, I guess?
@the_beaver I wouldn’t say it’s the best place to start. You certainly can start here but it’s better to progress through each as they improve substantially with each entry. Going from III, where the series reaches maturity, back to the first, even with the remakes that make it the light briskly paced game it should be, is going to be jarring for a lot of people. Plus, the original experience of these games is for people to encounter what they knew from the first two games in the third, not the other way around.
Shocked at how forgiving people are about this game. It’s sluggish and not responsive; it gave me flashbacks to the first GB title. Your movement makes it nearly impossible to dodge enemies left and right, especially in vertical sections of the game, like those floating spirits that just appear and you’re stuck on a rope, so F you. Collision detection is poor. That burning mode is absolutely there to be used on bosses and mid-bosses (there’s that jumping demon late in the game - c’mon you can’t avoid that guy!) It’s lousy all around.
I get the irrational urge to revisit Sonic Adventure every five years or so. It’s like eating popcorn - “Hmm, I think I’ll have popcorn…” Five minutes later - “Why on earth are you doing this? You know you don’t like popcorn!” I get through the Sonic part and I have to tap out.
It’s not a game that “aged badly,” it was always like this. Everything that is bad about this was bad in 1999, you’re just willing to tolerate certain things you didn’t like when you’re younger when you find something otherwise appealing.
Sonic 1 - Good game, still fun to come back to, but I agree much of the latter half feels barren.
Sonic 2 - Bigger and better in every way. An all around classic. I never do the special stages anymore, not because they’re hard (I don’t think they are - just don’t bring Tails, play alone,) but because Super Sonic just breezes everything and you can easily get him by the end of the first zone (it’s easy anyway, but still.)
Sonic 3 and Knuckles - Generally, I think it’s the best but these days I just kinda like the pace of 2 more for a revisit. The build to the end is great.
Sonic CD - Eh, it’s good. The exploration aspect is over-esteemed. I have far more fun exploring 2 and 3&K’s levels, which are more dynamic and flow better. CD’s levels are a cluster…you know what. You go to the past, find the machine, and then there’s no point to doing anything else but finish the level (you scarcely have any time to go to the good future and appreciate some superficial differences.) The Time Stones eliminate the need to do any of that stuff and the special stages are at least fun. The Robotnik fights are weak. CD does have excellent music like Metallic Madness Good Future (JP) (aka “Why the 90s were great!”)
Sonic Mania - Excellent…but it still reuses too much from the early games. If it was entirely its own thing it might have been the best (also needs a better final boss.)
Sonic 1 8-Bit/Game Gear games - people like the Master System game just for that one Koshiro track (there’s some more okay stuff but it’s no Ys or Streets of Rage.) Otherwise, just a decent platformer with annoying slowdown. The Game Gear games are a firm “No” just for the lack of screen real estate to start with. I got bored with them back then very, very fast.
I may be mixing up my runs through these with an older video I watched but I think one of these most recent patches removed the auto-battle icon from the battle screen when it’s not in use, which is nice (pretty sure it was there when I played through them in June.) I wish they’d also make the mini-map permanently removable instead of having to press the shoulder button after every single screen transition. Naturally, I stopped but, c’mon, I don’t need the thing so let me get rid of it.
@LastFootnote No need for a retranslation, the Woolsey was and remains absolutely fine. It’s accurate and far more elegantly worded than the later translation or various attempts at fan translations I’ve seen (Cyan’s last letter to the Maranda girl being one very good example, the guy who laments the world changing in Jidoor another - so many examples.)
I like the Pixel Remasters a lot but VI is one that I still think the original is still preferable (IV too.) The technical issues are a shame, they really shouldn’t be like that.
@Anti-Matter Japan does this a lot, so it’s hardly a “western” thing.
The old Mario movie was such a bizarre oddity you’ve got to appreciate it. Nowadays, studio incompetence and interference gets us bland stuff like Justice League. Back then, it got us the SMB movie - insane concept, production design, and Dennis Hopper.
People are conflating “availability” with “preservation.” These are not the same thing. Aside from all of the hard copies out there, almost every single piece of video game software has been copied and is out in the wild to find. The companies also undoubtedly have copies of their old games (the assets, however, are another story.) These things are already preserved and can be reclaimed almost instantaneously.
Making them available is more complicated. Licensing wrecks a lot of it - no one is going to pay to restore a license when they may not make even a fraction of the fee back on it. There are tons of lousy licensed games out there that would make absolutely no money getting a rerelease. Then there are technological hurdles. More recent games, from the last 23 years, are far more in need of legitimate rereleases as emulation isn’t as practical or easy as it is for the things from before the 3D era.
As a film guy, let me tell you you’ve got far more options. Even a great film from the 1910s has trouble getting a good home video release, or any at all, whereas you can easily pull up any piece of garbage from circa 1990 and play it today, even without original hardware and a legit copy (I’m not against it - who cares if you pirate something that’s probably never going to get a rerelease? Just don’t make it like it’s some grand noble act.)
@Nameless_Shame “The original two Zelda games haven’t properly been reimagined in any meaningful way. They are borderline unplayable today (at least Zelda II)”
Nonsense, the only thing anyone needs to know to get through those games is - 1) Read the manual (there was always key info you needed to know in them) and 2) Be thorough. Those games play perfectly fine today.
Yes, I would like this. In fact, this is precisely the situation that would make me buy a Switch immediately. I haven’t had a Nintendo console since the N64 and had mostly been out of gaming between 2002 and 2018, so I’d really like a chance to play all of the Zelda games I’d missed in that time. This would be absolutely perfect for me to have them all in one place!
As for a comment about The Last of Us remaster and remake compared to these, there’s a big difference between having something that you can already play across platforms easily (the remaster of Last of Us) and games that are locked to previous consoles and require more to get (Zelda re-releases.) I don’t really care that they decided to do a Last of Us remake but it’s really not the same thing at all in terms of availability.
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Re: Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster Controversially Cuts War Of The Lions Content
Eh, the extra content added to RPGs is almost always irrelevant/lousy/at odds with what was a perfectly great and complete experience to begin with. Final Fantasy X, instead of just fixing what was wrong with its original “superbosses,” decided it needed to put in content that simply involved grinding a completely irrelevant stat so you could even hit the crappy things (so…just grinding to get strong instead of anything interesting.) Finish a game like FFIV with a satisfying ending? Now you’ve got a fan-fiction-like extra dungeon with some pointless extra stuff. If your wonderful additional content just involves a lot of grinding and employing repetitious strategies from said grinding (like DQIII HD-2D’s monster wrangler stuff) you’re doing it wrong…and it’s always done wrong.
Instead of playing needless extensions to an already complete experience, just move on to another full, satisfying experience instead.
Instead of needless extensions, remake half finished messes like Xenogears and actually make them what people claim they are (but aren’t) and leave the good ones alone.
Re: Review: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (Switch) - Square Doesn't Drop The Ball, Just Some Frames
@Keegsy “Miss the old Square.”
That Square also released half finished (Xenogears,) compromised (FFVIII), buggy (Mana games,) and mediocre stuff that looked like their other games all the time. Somehow it wasn’t a problem then but it is now, I guess?
Re: Video: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison
The controversy over this is probably the stupidest thing I’ve seen in quite awhile…and there’s a whole lot of stupid out there.
Re: Get A Closer Look At Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake In New Gameplay Trailer
@the_beaver I wouldn’t say it’s the best place to start. You certainly can start here but it’s better to progress through each as they improve substantially with each entry. Going from III, where the series reaches maturity, back to the first, even with the remakes that make it the light briskly paced game it should be, is going to be jarring for a lot of people. Plus, the original experience of these games is for people to encounter what they knew from the first two games in the third, not the other way around.
Re: Review: Castlevania Legends - A 'Vania So Poor It Got Booted From Canon
Shocked at how forgiving people are about this game. It’s sluggish and not responsive; it gave me flashbacks to the first GB title. Your movement makes it nearly impossible to dodge enemies left and right, especially in vertical sections of the game, like those floating spirits that just appear and you’re stuck on a rope, so F you. Collision detection is poor. That burning mode is absolutely there to be used on bosses and mid-bosses (there’s that jumping demon late in the game - c’mon you can’t avoid that guy!) It’s lousy all around.
Re: Best Sonic Games Of All Time
I get the irrational urge to revisit Sonic Adventure every five years or so. It’s like eating popcorn - “Hmm, I think I’ll have popcorn…” Five minutes later - “Why on earth are you doing this? You know you don’t like popcorn!” I get through the Sonic part and I have to tap out.
It’s not a game that “aged badly,” it was always like this. Everything that is bad about this was bad in 1999, you’re just willing to tolerate certain things you didn’t like when you’re younger when you find something otherwise appealing.
Sonic 1 - Good game, still fun to come back to, but I agree much of the latter half feels barren.
Sonic 2 - Bigger and better in every way. An all around classic. I never do the special stages anymore, not because they’re hard (I don’t think they are - just don’t bring Tails, play alone,) but because Super Sonic just breezes everything and you can easily get him by the end of the first zone (it’s easy anyway, but still.)
Sonic 3 and Knuckles - Generally, I think it’s the best but these days I just kinda like the pace of 2 more for a revisit. The build to the end is great.
Sonic CD - Eh, it’s good. The exploration aspect is over-esteemed. I have far more fun exploring 2 and 3&K’s levels, which are more dynamic and flow better. CD’s levels are a cluster…you know what. You go to the past, find the machine, and then there’s no point to doing anything else but finish the level (you scarcely have any time to go to the good future and appreciate some superficial differences.) The Time Stones eliminate the need to do any of that stuff and the special stages are at least fun. The Robotnik fights are weak. CD does have excellent music like Metallic Madness Good Future (JP) (aka “Why the 90s were great!”)
Sonic Mania - Excellent…but it still reuses too much from the early games. If it was entirely its own thing it might have been the best (also needs a better final boss.)
Sonic 1 8-Bit/Game Gear games - people like the Master System game just for that one Koshiro track (there’s some more okay stuff but it’s no Ys or Streets of Rage.) Otherwise, just a decent platformer with annoying slowdown. The Game Gear games are a firm “No” just for the lack of screen real estate to start with. I got bored with them back then very, very fast.
Re: Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Updated On Switch, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
I may be mixing up my runs through these with an older video I watched but I think one of these most recent patches removed the auto-battle icon from the battle screen when it’s not in use, which is nice (pretty sure it was there when I played through them in June.) I wish they’d also make the mini-map permanently removable instead of having to press the shoulder button after every single screen transition. Naturally, I stopped but, c’mon, I don’t need the thing so let me get rid of it.
Re: Final Fantasy's Pixel Remaster Series Has Now Sold Three Million Copies
@LastFootnote No need for a retranslation, the Woolsey was and remains absolutely fine. It’s accurate and far more elegantly worded than the later translation or various attempts at fan translations I’ve seen (Cyan’s last letter to the Maranda girl being one very good example, the guy who laments the world changing in Jidoor another - so many examples.)
I like the Pixel Remasters a lot but VI is one that I still think the original is still preferable (IV too.) The technical issues are a shame, they really shouldn’t be like that.
Re: Super Mario Bros. Live-Action Movie Getting 4K Anniversary Screening (Japan)
@Anti-Matter
Japan does this a lot, so it’s hardly a “western” thing.
The old Mario movie was such a bizarre oddity you’ve got to appreciate it. Nowadays, studio incompetence and interference gets us bland stuff like Justice League. Back then, it got us the SMB movie - insane concept, production design, and Dennis Hopper.
Re: Feature: 21 Vintage Nintendo Games You Can Now Only Buy For Original Hardware
People are conflating “availability” with “preservation.” These are not the same thing. Aside from all of the hard copies out there, almost every single piece of video game software has been copied and is out in the wild to find. The companies also undoubtedly have copies of their old games (the assets, however, are another story.) These things are already preserved and can be reclaimed almost instantaneously.
Making them available is more complicated. Licensing wrecks a lot of it - no one is going to pay to restore a license when they may not make even a fraction of the fee back on it. There are tons of lousy licensed games out there that would make absolutely no money getting a rerelease. Then there are technological hurdles. More recent games, from the last 23 years, are far more in need of legitimate rereleases as emulation isn’t as practical or easy as it is for the things from before the 3D era.
As a film guy, let me tell you you’ve got far more options. Even a great film from the 1910s has trouble getting a good home video release, or any at all, whereas you can easily pull up any piece of garbage from circa 1990 and play it today, even without original hardware and a legit copy (I’m not against it - who cares if you pirate something that’s probably never going to get a rerelease? Just don’t make it like it’s some grand noble act.)
Re: Poll: Do You Actually Want Switch Ports Of Wind Waker And Twilight Princess?
@Nameless_Shame
“The original two Zelda games haven’t properly been reimagined in any meaningful way. They are borderline unplayable today (at least Zelda II)”
Nonsense, the only thing anyone needs to know to get through those games is - 1) Read the manual (there was always key info you needed to know in them) and 2) Be thorough. Those games play perfectly fine today.
Re: Poll: Do You Actually Want Switch Ports Of Wind Waker And Twilight Princess?
Yes, I would like this. In fact, this is precisely the situation that would make me buy a Switch immediately. I haven’t had a Nintendo console since the N64 and had mostly been out of gaming between 2002 and 2018, so I’d really like a chance to play all of the Zelda games I’d missed in that time. This would be absolutely perfect for me to have them all in one place!
As for a comment about The Last of Us remaster and remake compared to these, there’s a big difference between having something that you can already play across platforms easily (the remaster of Last of Us) and games that are locked to previous consoles and require more to get (Zelda re-releases.) I don’t really care that they decided to do a Last of Us remake but it’s really not the same thing at all in terms of availability.