Comments 5,974

Re: Review: Star Ocean (SNES)

CanisWolfred

@ChromaticDracula Thank you for reminding me how embarassingly standoff-ish I was on this site 10 years ago.

...not that my opinion of Star Ocean has changed since. It really turned to be a dumpster fire of a series. 2 and 4 have fun combat and decent pacing, and Star Ocean 2's story was...salvageable...but overall, I feel like this series had squandered it's potential right from the on-set.

Re: Review: Smite - A Godly MOBA That Gives League Of Legends A Run For Its Money

CanisWolfred

@misterMike Paragon failed due to mismanagement, it had good ideas at it's core. I'm only saying I don't like games that feel like it's going to require 1000s of hours before I start having fun. I put in plenty of time on the PC & PS4 versions, too, but only because as you pointed out, there aren't any other MOBAs on consoles. That doesn't mean I shouldn't demand higher standards from what's there, though. Especially from a live-service F2P game like this, where the game might make significant chages in a year or two to remain relevant. I already saw that with Paladins.

Re: Review: Smite - A Godly MOBA That Gives League Of Legends A Run For Its Money

CanisWolfred

@misterMike I meant clunky in terms of controls, I went into it going from Paragon, which played like an Unreal Tournament game. Otherwise, yeah, I won't say it's a terrible game, just like how the Great Wall of China wasn't a terrible wall. It was just, you know, a massive waste of time and resources that failed to fullfill its purpose of being a fun game that I could play on my console and/or computer.

Re: Review: Smite - A Godly MOBA That Gives League Of Legends A Run For Its Money

CanisWolfred

The only game to frustrate me to the point of destroying my own keyboard...and that happened twice. I'm sure there are people who dig these kinds of games, but this just felt like a clunky mess with a barrier to entry the size of the Great Wall of China. Last time I considered playing, I literally found myself resorting to watching well-put-together training videos, like it was a continuing-Ed class for a job. That's about the point when I realized this game was no longer worth my time.

Re: MissX Bends The Rules In SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, Joins The Roster Next Month

CanisWolfred

@DanteSolablood That's not the point, they already ruined the joke - Miss X was supposed to just be Iori, in girls clothes, and yet no one could figure out who he was, and fans were already joking about how feminine he always looked, so it was a one-two punch that made it both good fanservice, and a funny subversion of expectations. This just feels like they completely missed the point, a conclusion I've come to far too often when analyzing this game in general, but this really is the last straw for me. This game is, and has always been, a low-effort cash grab that reuses assets from KOF XIV and adds a cynically exploitative layer on top of it, while completely failing as both a parody, and as fanservice. I am sorry I ever gave it attention at this point.

Re: MissX Bends The Rules In SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy, Joins The Roster Next Month

CanisWolfred

Finally. I honestly would've traded all these genderbent characters for the return appearance of "Miss X" from Gal Fighters...and I still don't want to go anywhere near this game because they're in the game, so too late now. But I'm glad they at least remembered the old joke.

EDIT: No wait a minute, they actually made him a woman this time.

...I'm done. This game just outright offends me now.

Re: Review: Chasm - A Procedurally-Generated Metroidvania That Pleases Rather Than Dazzles

CanisWolfred

On the one hand, I generally think its take on procedural generation is novel and far and above an improvement over what most Rogue-likes try to do, by making important parts of the game static so the game's progression and balance don't suffer.

...But if I'm being honest, they should've just stuck with designing the entire map themselves. It probably would've been less work, and they'd have an even better game because of it.

Re: Upcoming Switch Platformer Double Cross Delayed Until 2019, Brand New Trailer Revealed

CanisWolfred

@Blizzia I figured they'd mention that somewhere, but they're playing it straight for now. I mean, maybe they want to play it up as a surprise, but...it's in the title. And a double-cross isn't automatically a clever twist, so I personally want an idea of where to look for it and they want to go with it...

...unless they just didn't know what "Double Cross" means when they cooked up that title.

Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Has Exceeded Expectations Following Strong Sales Outside Of Japan

CanisWolfred

The first Xenoblade Chronicles was one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and I was fine with Xenoblade Chronicles X going a different direction. Series could probably use a fresh new direction after XC2 and Torna, so I'm down with whatever they choose to do...so long as it focuses enough on exploration to hold my interest, and doesn't go overboard with moe pandering and common Tales tropes like XC2 did.

Re: Random: Switch Hack-And-Slash Game Warriors Orochi 4 Just Won A Guinness World Record

CanisWolfred

@raisenv And yet is still incredibly simplistic compared to most games I've played. I'll admit, I don't play a lot of any Musou game, but I've never really needed to plot my course or find the most effictient route - I just kill whatever was in front of me, and I seemed to be rewarded for it. If that's different on higher difficulties, then I've never experienced it, because why would I ever want a challenge out of a Warriors game? That would take the series out of the niche it currently occupies in my library, and it doesn't stack up well to the plethora of options I already have for more complex experiences.

I guess my point is simply that: The series is seen as shallow because it does reward you for button-mashing at its base difficulty, and that is not a bad thing.

Re: Random: Switch Hack-And-Slash Game Warriors Orochi 4 Just Won A Guinness World Record

CanisWolfred

@raisenv It doesn't help that Tecmo Koei has been trying to milk their fans for years in plainly obvious ways for years now, putting out expansions and iterations that don't really do much from game to game, all with fairly little competition - it really feels like they've carved out a monopoly for a type of game, and it's easy to be cynical about that.

With that said, Hack 'n' Slash games like the Musou franchise are best enjoyed as a gaming "snack food", at least from what I've played of 'em, and there I'm not really gonna overanalyze them or look for complexities that aren't obvious. I've been told by fans about their strategy elements, but if I cared about that, I have far more complex and interesting strategy games I'd play instead, like Total War. If I cared about the combat and its inherent challenge, I'd play character-action games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, and most everything Platinum has made. And I want to min-max characters, I have Action-RPGs for days that give me far more incentive to do so while also giving me a compelling world to explore, and sometimes even an interesting story to follow.

I'm just saying: Warriors games work because they they keep things simple. They're ultimately fun games with simple character archetypes, with lots of shiny effects and animations tailor-made to make you feel powerful, which makes them great for blowing off steam. Some people might call that shallow, but then again, what is a jacuzzi, if not the ultimate Kiddy pool? Shallow doesn't have to equal bad, and there no reason not to embrace the fans that just look at it skin deep.

...unless that just causes Koei Tecmo to double down on all of its criticisms and put out a completely worthless piece of garbage that looks like the company interns hashed it out in a week while the rest of the dev team blew their budget at the races.

Re: Vivendi Set To Sell All Shares In Ubisoft By March 2019

CanisWolfred

Time will tell if this changes literally anything. I'm not convinced, mostly because a lot of Ubisoft's antics started before this news arose. If this leads to an end to their "live service" initiative that has been poisoning their output for a while now, then this'll be great news...but considering how exploitative the video game whaling industry has been in and outside of the AAA space, I'd find it hard to believe Ubi has any incentive to stop, at least not before they've squeezed their consumers dry and burnt out all of their employees, like one big corporate wildfire...

Re: SNK's Yasuyuki Oda Unsure About One-Hit Mechanic In A Metal Slug Reboot

CanisWolfred

Your "lives" pretty much are your energy bar in Metal Slug, so I think it's fine so long as the game is balanced right. Metal Slug 7/XX were still fun, so...just don't screw it up, and I'm sure it'll still have a noteable audience. However, whatever they do, they should do something new while holding to the core of the series. I'm not saying that just to make it relevant to a new audience, but also as someone who already has access to every other entry in the franchise. It does get kinda same-y, so something to shake up the formula would be welcome, so long as the end result is still fast-paced, bombastic, and difficult-but-fair.

Re: Rumour: SMITE Patch Notes Suggest Hi-Rez Releasing Free-To-Play MOBA On Nintendo Switch

CanisWolfred

@Lthoise No, I read up on the basics, but the basics won't get you very far, and they won't make up for poor team composition and lack of coordination, on top of the fact that I don't even really understand what most roles are or what certain characters do, when I should use certain moves, when my team needs me in a team fight, how to last hit minions consistantly, what to build, etc. All these things are constantly evolving and require way, way too much effort for a game that doesn't have any sort of persistant story mode. I prefer my multiplayer games to provide bursts of fun, and could never get that out of Smite - it demanded too much to be decent just so I'm not holding my team back. I could try to screw around to at least make it fun, but then that ruins the experience for everyone else on my team. Besides, there are better games to mess around in, and I'd honestly rather play those...

Re: Rumour: SMITE Patch Notes Suggest Hi-Rez Releasing Free-To-Play MOBA On Nintendo Switch

CanisWolfred

Could never get into this one. Seems like MOBAs are a fad that passed me by, and their cutthroat nature meant there's little room for new players who don't want to play at competitive levels. I spent $30 on the Steam version and I wish I had gotten a refund. Petered out after a few days, culminating in me literally destroying my keyboard just trying to express my thoughts on the game in a forum - it was beyond frustrating for me! Never again...

Re: BlazBlue: Central Fiction Special Edition Has Been Revealed For Nintendo Switch

CanisWolfred

I take it this version will be largely the same as the PS4 version, but with all the DLC characters added? Is so, I'd pass, since I've already spent waaay too much money on Blazblue iterations over the years...but it'd certainly be a great time to jump in for anyone new to the franchise. It's the best in the series, bar none, and the DLC characters include the much-request Jubei.

EDIT: Oh man, I didn't think about the possibility that this one might have English voice acting! I take it back, if that happens, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!