Comments 2,538

Re: Funko Fusion Is Deemed A "Complete Commercial And Critical Failure"

EarthboundBenjy

Funko is one of the least-appealing products I've ever seen, and I have absolutely no idea why anyone would buy them, nor why they are popular enough for them to fill game shops and toy shops shelves to the ridiculous extent they do.

Even for Funkos made for brands I like, the fact that they remove their eyes and replace them with giant black dots, or the fact that they force everything into this weird misshapen square head shape... it feels more like an insult to the character design than it does a celebration of them, don't you think? I truly truly don't understand how Funkos have ever gotten so popular.

Re: PS Vita's 'Ys Memoire: Memories Of Celceta' Lands Switch Remaster In Japan This May

EarthboundBenjy

@8thDoctor
6 is definitely more likely than 5.

Ys 6 plays similarly to Origin and Oath in Felghana, so it will have an audience for fans of those games. And it also has a modern Steam version. The Steam version of Ys 6 doesn't have the extra Konami-developed content from the PS2 and PSP versions (extra dungeon on PS2, extra minigames on PSP), but it does have added fast-travel. If they port Ys 6, they'll likely just port over the Steam version since they own all the content in that one.

Ys 5 on the other hand, only has a bad SNES game and an even worse PlayStation 2 game, and has never had a modern version or an English version at all. It was technically ported to PC once on a CD-ROM in 2003 for Windows XP computers in Japan as part of "Ys Complete Works", but it was just the SNES ROM on a disc.

More likely, Ys 5 is going to get a Celceta-style brand new overhaul, rather than any kind of port. It just makes more sense when you see how they've handled the rest of the series - anything 16-bit or older doesn't see the light of day (Aside from the EGG CONSOLE releases, which seem to be available for historical value more than anything), and now only proper Falcom-developed and Falcom-owned versions are allowed.

Re: PS Vita's 'Ys Memoire: Memories Of Celceta' Lands Switch Remaster In Japan This May

EarthboundBenjy

It was also on PlayStation 4 - that's the version I played. I really enjoyed the game overall. it borrows the same general gameplay style of Ys Seven, but feels a bit more open-ended, and you can explore a good chunk of the Celceta Forest at your own pace before needing to do story progress things. it's pretty fun.

And it's not as long as Ys 8, 9, or 10, for those interested in giving it a go! It's a medium-length adventure, so I think it's more approachable than the later games.

What's not so fun is the mapping system, where if you don't brush against every single wall in the game as you're travelling, you might miss an 0.1% of map completion, which isn't always easy to see where it might be on the map screen. And there are important rewards tied to map completion, so this is something I hope they might address in a new version.

For those who may not be aware, Memories of Celceta is the modern retcon of Ys IV. Previously there were three completely different Ys IVs, one on SNES, one on TurboGrafx-16, and later on, one on PlayStation 2... and all three of them took their own individual creative liberties with the story and world design. Memories of Celceta decided to address this issue by once and for all laying down its own version of the Ys IV story, which is now considered the canon one.
Because of this situation, it's unlikely that the classic versions of Ys IV will reappear any time soon, which is a shame since I am a huge fan of the TurboGrafx-16 Ys IV in particular.

Re: Shinobi: Art Of Vengeance Brings 2D Ninja Action To Nintendo Switch This August

EarthboundBenjy

...I have never managed to actually beat a Shinobi game. I got decently far in Shinobi III in the Mega Drive Classics collection (PS4 version cause Switch version has too much input lag) but I don't think I managed to make it to the end before I had to stop playing.

This game looks cool though. Not a priority for me personally, I don't have much attachment to the Shinobi brand, but I'm pleased to see Sega is continuing to release followups to their legacy series. Would love to see a new Comix Zone, Ristar, Phantasy Star (classic Algol series, not online), Fantasy Zone, and other classic Sega series get a new chance to shine one of these days, so hopefully Sega continues the trend.

Re: Rumour: Kirby: Planet Robobot Will Indeed Come To Switch, It's Claimed

EarthboundBenjy

I remember liking this one more than Triple Deluxe, yet at the same time, I found it difficult to distinguish it from Triple Deluxe in many ways too. I think I like the robobot armor gimmick more than the hypernova gimmick, but apart from that, the games felt very similar in playstyle.

It would be a bit strange from them to just release Robobot without Triple Deluxe there too, but then again, I also thought the same thing about Tropical Freeze getting ported without DKC Returns, so whatever, Nintendo does what it does.

Re: Nintendo Music Adds Golden Sun Soundtrack, Here's Every Song Included

EarthboundBenjy

Not The Lost Age too? Just the first one?

Regardless, this is one of the GBA's best soundtracks.
If you play GBA ports of SNES games like Donkey Kong Country or Final Fantasy, you might come to the conclusion of "ehh the GBA has poor sound capabilities", but then you get games like Golden Sun and Mother 3 whose soundtracks were designed for GBA hardware from the beginning, and then you realise that it's possible to have outstanding osts on this thing. And this game is a prime example of an outstanding GBA ost.

Fun fact: In The Lost Age, there's an NPC in the battle mode lobby who acts as a secret sound test if you talk to them while holding L+R. It's the lower left one iirc. This sound test includes music from both games. Which technically means The Lost Age's in-game ost comprises both games' osts, even if the first game's themes aren't found in-game anywhere else. (iirc I think you can only hear the full osts of both games if you use Clear Data to access the battle lobby, otherwise you're limited to songs you've heard before within that save file)

Re: Poll: Is It Finally Time For Castlevania To Rise Again?

EarthboundBenjy

As much as I am in eternal everlasting love with the GBA and DS games, I actually voted for a new 3D game in this poll.

Definitely not a fan of Lords of Shadow style (seriously the majority of that game is repetitive clambering around scripted sets of climbing ledges with no room for freedom or creativity in the way you approach it, with bouts of hack n slash in between),
however the Lament of Innocence style has some potential - if they tuned up the exploration and level design, and refined the combat, made movement fun, added more variability akin to the DS games such as soul abilities or something else to give it more customisability and flexibility, it could seriously be something great.

Imagine a game with the amazing interconnected 3D world design of a Metroid Prime, mixed in with the ridiculous attention to detail and assortment of weapons, spells, weird food items, rare enemy drops, grinding spots, rooms with a single unique enemy in them for no reason other than it being cool, breakable walls, etc from SotN / the DS games.... with a simple yet satisfying combat system on top of it all.
If they can keep the "feel" and tone and atmosphere of Castlevania intact (unlike Lords of Shadow which discarded the feel of Castlevania entirely), then I think they could have something seriously interesting.

Of course I wouldn't say no to more retro style 2D pixel goodness either. If Konami has decided that the only thing Castlevania fans want these days is 2D pixel stuff, then I wouldn't say no at all. as long as they can continue the quality from the DS games, I'll be all for it too.

Re: Sega eShop Puzzler 'Puyo Puyo Champions' Is Getting A Physical Switch Release

EarthboundBenjy

Limited Run?? for a fully Sega-developed and published game?
They are exploiting their fandom. They know that Puyo is too niche outside of Japan for a full release, but they also know that the Puyo fans outside of Japan are fanatical enough to buy from LRG.

I'm definitely a little bit on the fanatical side when it comes to Puyo, yet I have absolutely no desire to get this version.

Puyo Champions itself is not very impressive of a game. It's mostly a functional game. Like if you want no-frills standardised Puyo matches online, then Puyo Champions is perfect. it's more like a "multiplayer client" than it is a "game". So that's why the idea of a LRG release feels so weird and unappealing to me. Because... it's not really a "game preservation" issue. Standard Puyo Puyo 2 matchmaking will always be available in some way or another. So this feels purely exploitative.

Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's GBA Library Next Week With Wario Land 4

EarthboundBenjy

Oh right, forgot about Virtual Boy Wario Land. I played it on emulator, and it was actually pretty good. The final boss is a huge difficulty spike though!
The emulator I used had settings for 3D support with the classic blue/red 3D glasses, so I was able to play with the Virtual Boy's 3D effect intact, though it did actually give me a headache.
I was always hoping that the 3DS would get a Virtual Boy collection one of these days, as it was the perfect platform for such a thing. but instead we got 3D Urban Champion. ...

Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's GBA Library Next Week With Wario Land 4

EarthboundBenjy

This game has a real unique vibe. You could tell the sound designers were allowed to go crazy in this game.

The "Hurry up!" theme is so effective at setting the frantic mood for the escapes.

And I find it so funny how the unlockable sound CDs are just... weird experimental sound performance art things, rather than a more "normal" unlockable like the game's ost or something. It's so peculiar, you can't help but appreciate it.

...would be nice to get Wario Land 1 and 2 on here too, it's weird that just Wario Land 3 was on the service right away, and we waited THIS long to get 4. The dripfeed is painful sometimes.

Re: New Nintendo Patent Seems To Confirm Mouse Functionality For Switch 2

EarthboundBenjy

It's going to be so annoying when devs don't support the mouse functionality for no reason other than unwillingness to put in the extra dev time to use switch features.

Already so many different games can't be bothered to use the Switch's touchscreen, it drives me insane. Even literal mobile ports like Fantasian don't have touchscreen support, like what the heck? Or when shooting games can't be bothered to implement gyro aiming. Or, most frustrating of all, when ports of old computer games like the EGG Console PC-88 releases, or the port of Epyx Rogue don't support USB keyboards and force you to bring up on-screen keyboards.

It's all well and good when Nintendo makes all these cool new features, but it's so frustrating that it's always up to the individual devs to put in the work to make them functional in their games, because the vast majority of them don't.

Re: UK Charts: Donkey Kong Slips From The Top 5 As Sniper Elite Makes Its Debut

EarthboundBenjy

@DwaynesGames
I think that Woolly World is one of the last few Wii U exclusives that could feasibly be ported with no issues to Switch.

Other games like Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush might be tricky to make work without the gamepad, Game & Wario and Nintendoland would be near impossible, and Paper Mario Color Splash and Starfox Zero don't have enough popularity.

I think it would be even better if they did a double pack of Yoshi's Woolly World and Kirby's Epic Yarn, if HAL were willing to collaborate. Both got 3DS versions, Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, and Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn - just like DKC Returns, the 3DS versions of these games got extra content, so it would be nice to see the definitive complete versions on Switch.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (1st February)

EarthboundBenjy

When Donkey Kong Land GB got added to the Switch NSO at the end of last year, I decided to give it a go, because I had never seen this game before. After beating it with 100%, I had the funny realisation that I never actually finished the original Donkey Kong Country with 101% before - I had never gotten all the bonus rounds in this game when I played it in the past. And it was kind of funny that I had managed to fully complete the GB spinoff, but never the original. So I decided to also play the original Donkey Kong Country on NSO and finally got myself the 101%. Some of those levels are tricky, you know!

After this, I realised that I never managed to reach the end of Diddy's Kong Quest before when I played it many years ago, and I had also never even played Dixie Kong's Double Trouble before, ever. So I've been spending the past few weeks playing through all the Donkey Kong games on NSO to try and rectify this. I mean, how can I be a Nintendo fan who hasn't even played the DKC games all the way through, huh?

So currently I have now finished DK Land With 100%, DK Country with 101%, DK Country 2 with 102%, DK Land 2 with 100%, and now just yesterday I finally started DKC 3 for the first time.
I plan to finish with with 105% (i think that's supposed to be the max in this one, right?), and then move on to DK Land 3 and get 100% there too.
I was quite surprised at just how great DKC2 is. I always knew it was the most-loved of the trilogy, but now that I've played it all the way through - yeah, I can see why!

So for the moment, I am catching up on my Donkey Kong arrears...... lol. DKC3 so far is rather similar to DKC2 in terms of having to find collectables and bonus barrels in the levels and all that, but seems to differentiate itself with having a slightly more open-ended world map, which is fun.

I also have a 3DS copy of DKC Returns that I never actually finished too. I may go for that one afterwards just for the sake of it. ...and no way am I getting the new Switch version unless I can find it for cheapo, since I already got it on 3DS innit.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (1st February)

EarthboundBenjy

@Zuljaras
Love to see it, people paying attention to Castlevania 64 despite its reputation. Be prepared to get used to the janky controls and camera, it can catch players used to modern games off guard.

I enjoy this game a lot - personally I like it better than Lament and Curse due to its level design... Lament and Curse felt very flat and repetitive to me, whereas CV64 has some actual verticality and landmarks and the levels feel like more properly fleshed-out locations.

Re: Momodora: Moonlit Farewell Brings More Pixel-Art Metroidvania Action To Switch

EarthboundBenjy

I played this one on Steam. I remember i didn't like it as much as Reverie.

One of my favourite aspects of Reverie was how, if you managed to kill a boss without taking damage, you'd get a unique item as a reward. This aspect was not carried over to Moonlit Farewell, which was a bit disappointing for me.

But aside from that, Moonlit Farewell tried to nerf the bow and arrow, which was pretty OP in Reverie, but it went a bit overboard and I find the bow really annoying to use now. It uses up stamina to fire the bow.

I dunno. The game is good. It's really pretty, and the action feels nice, but as a followup to Reverie it falls short in my eyes.

Maybe this is a bit harsh. The game is good. Give it a try if it looks nice for you.

Re: Japan's Switch eShop Will Soon No Longer Accept Overseas Payment Methods

EarthboundBenjy

I was only ever able to use eShop point cards I bought from Play-Asia when I wanted to add funds to my JP account, so I guess this doesn't really change anything about how I go about buying from the JP eShop. But it is a bit upsetting to see that they are tightening their stance on accessing regional eShops, because one of my favourite things about the Switch compared to Wii U and 3DS was the fact that we are able to visit other region eShops in the first place. Hopefully this isn't a sign that the Switch 2 situation will be more restricted.

Re: Final Fantasy Creator’s Next Script Is Already Done

EarthboundBenjy

I've now finished Fantasian - I really really liked it overall. The best aspect of the game was the boss design for sure. They can get really challenging, especially during the second half of the game.

This was such a comfy little RPG world to play around in, and I really like the characters too. I'll keep an eye out for any follow-up games because Fantasian was a delight.

Re: Poll: So, Were You Accepted For The Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Event?

EarthboundBenjy

Sadly no for me.

I was at the Switch 1's hands on event in London, where I got to try Breath of the Wild, Arms, and some other miscellaneous games. I think they had Puyo Tetris and Sonic Mania too?
...And a long long time ago I was even at a 3DS pre-release event... I remember seeing Ocarina of Time in no-glasses stereoscopic 3D and it was really cool. Bit of a shame I wasn't selected for the Switch 2 event, but oh well! I'll be busy in April anyway.

Re: Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic Receives Much-Requested Touch Control Update

EarthboundBenjy

would be nice if all mobile ports had touch controls by default. I just played Fantasian Neo Dimension, and the analogue stick movement is awkward because it doesn't reset itself properly whenever the camera changes perspectives as you walk. It's annoying to constantly have to readjust.
If it still had its mobile touchscreen movement from the 2021 release of Fantasian this would be less of a problem, but for whatever reason the touchscreen is disabled entirely in this game.

If the game already had touchscreen support, what is the purpose of removing it from later releases? I really don't understand why this is such a common problem?

Re: Undertale Creator Toby Fox Joins 'OFF' RPG Soundtrack

EarthboundBenjy

Hmm... the most memorable part of OFF to me was the Pepper Steak theme. The game isn't going to feel the same without its soundtrack.

I always thought indie games were less susceptible to these kinds of music rights issues but apparently not. :/ unfortunate.

Pretty much, this situation means that the original freeware RPGMaker version isn't really going to be replaced by the enhanced remake, and in the minds of many fans, the remake will have lost a lot of appeal.

I'm not a huge huge OFF fan to begin with - the game's vibes are a bit too weird and offputting for my tastes, but I did enjoy the soundtrack, especially the battle theme, so this has definitely put me off on having anything to do with the remake personally.

Re: Banjo-Kazooie Composer Has "Zero Hope" For A New Entry

EarthboundBenjy

"you die hard fans would instantly hate it and slag it off no matter how good it was "

Are they still bitter about how Nuts & Bolts was received?

It might be a perfectly fine game, but it's not what the Banjo fanbase was looking for for the next entry.
Nuts & Bolts is the kind of game that works as a spinoff to accompany a mainline entry, but not so much as a mainline entry itself.
It's the whole Metroid Prime Federation Force problem - it may have been a good game, but you can't break a drought of games with a spinoff release, because fans have no idea whether the weirdo spinoff version is all we're gonna get. Or if the new style is now the new normal for the series or not.

And the whole reason they're fans in the first place is because they liked the original style of game. So if it comes across that you're trying to scrap the original style in favour of this weird new style, of course the fans aren't going to be too pleased about that.

Re: Community: What Are Your Favourite Sidequests On Switch?

EarthboundBenjy

I like finding the 28 Unown in Pokémon Legends Arceus. Deciphering clues that refer to specific locations you gotta look in is fun.

in Ys VIII, the entirety of Dana's solo dungeon counts as a sidequest right? I think Dana's dungeon might be my favourite part of the game overall, so I'm gonna say that! I also liked the Master Kong fights in Ys VIII too.

in Fantasian Neo Dimension, rescuing enough of the robots eventually unlocks the story of Blik-0, which is a really cute story about a robot boy, told in a children's storybook style. And it's a proper full-length fairytale story too, it's not just a small cutscene. Comes out of nowhere, but is really pleasant to watch.

Re: Team Cherry Reconfirms Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Actually Real In Small Development Update

EarthboundBenjy

It's okay to anticipate a sequel to a favourite game, but I don't think it's really necessary to get quite as obsessive over it as I've seen from fans online...
If you're anything like a majority of gamers, you do have a massive backlog to be getting through, right? So I would recommend people to stop thinking about Hollow Knight so much until Silksong actually comes out, and instead focus on working through your other games. It'll come when it comes.

Re: Best Ys Games Of All Time - Switch And Nintendo Systems

EarthboundBenjy

@Gryffin
No, classic Rogue and Mystery Dungeon games are turn-based.

Ys is realtime. Imagine Zelda 1-style enemies just walking around. They're all 1 tile big, but movement is not strictly tile-based like in a ASCII rogue or Mystery Dungeon

The bump combat in Ys I, II, and IV is all about positioning. If you walk into an enemy head-on, you will trade blows with them and most likely die. But if you come into them from off-centre, then you can hit them safely. You can also attack them safely from the side or from behind. And if you're playing the Saturn versions or the "Chronicles" remake version of I and II, then diagonal movement is implemented, and allows for even more angles of approach.

Bump combat is about approaching safely, and reacting to the enemy movement. It's skill based, rather than strategy based.
Adol has absolutely no damage invulnerability, so if an enemy hits you wrong, if you don't react fast enough, all your HP can be drained in a single moment. (And that's why they let you save anywhere)

Re: Best Ys Games Of All Time - Switch And Nintendo Systems

EarthboundBenjy

@Truegamer79
Ark of Napishtim was originally a singleplayer game released on PC in Japan, later ported to PS2 and PSP by Konami, later released on Steam.

There was indeed also an MMO based on the game which closed in 2023. I don't know much about it though other than it was a microtransaction kinda game, so I don't have much interest in it.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (18th January)

EarthboundBenjy

The other day I beat the final boss of Fantasian Neo Dimension!
I was playing in Hard mode because I heard that this was the original difficulty level of the 2021 release before the updated version added an easier mode and called it "Normal".

And I'll just say..... the Hard mode in this game is really hard! That final boss was ridiculous. He frequently spews out party-wide instakill attacks that can only be survived if you apply an attack debuff to the boss, have your highest-defense guys equipped with defense-boosting gems, apply defense+ buffs to them, AND also have them use the "guard" skill on the turn before the attack. And then when you've just finished spending turns healing up from that nightmare, it's already time for the boss's next partywide instakill. And it just goes on and on until you manage to find enough hits in between healing to whittle him down. it's roughhhhhh.

But just before the final boss room, there's a treasure chest with a medal in it, and if you offer the medal up to a shrine in a previous area, you get to "go back in time", which is essentially doing a New Game Plus. ... It's interesting how you don't actually need to beat the final boss in order to start New Game Plus.
So even though I beat the game, I'm playing a New Game Plus playthrough because it seems to be the only way to get high level enough to challenge the "Void Realm" bonus boss challenge, which I am interested in completing just to see what happens at the end.

So for the moment I'm doing a quick runback of Fantasian's main story so I can get back to the New Game Plus added goodies.

It's a good game I recommend highly to classic JRPG fans! It's a really really good one!

Re: Lunar Remastered Collection Brings Classic JRPG Series To Switch This April

EarthboundBenjy

When I got the Japanese version of the Mega Drive Mini II, I was disappointed that the Lunar games there did not include the English versions, despite the fact that most other games on both MD Minis have multiple region versions.

So I am pretty pleased to see this Switch collection! I'm looking forward to playing Lunar for the first time. I've heard great things.

My only previous experience with Lunar was a small amount of Lunar Legend for GBA, which was pretty buggy, and I stopped playing because an inventory bug caused me to lose items, and I didn't want to have to worry about that for the whole game. ..

Re: UK Charts: Ys Memoire Narrowly Makes The Top 40 In Another Quiet Week

EarthboundBenjy

Oath in Felghana is a good game. It's easy to compare Ys to Zelda, but I also want to compare it to Castlevania. If you enjoy Castlevania Advance Collection or Dominus Collection, then I would highly recommend Ys Memoire and Ys Origin! To me, it gives a similar energy, with the platforming, monster-bashing, and light RPG elements. And Ys Memoire even has a clock tower area too.

Re: Switch 2 'Indentations' Make It Incompatible With Original Switch Dock, Says Genki

EarthboundBenjy

A bit annoying because I have a two dock setup. Gaming room downstairs has the dock my original 2017 Switch came with, and the tv in my upstairs bedroom has the dock my OLED came with.
If I were to upgrade to Switch 2, I'd have to buy a second dock just to keep my current situation going.
Also, depending on how system transfers are going to work, I might want to keep my OLED Switch 1 around anyway, so having two docks side by side per TV is gonna be a bit annoying too.

Re: Review: Ys Memoire: The Oath In Felghana (Switch) - An Excellent 'Less Is More' Entry In The Long-Running Series

EarthboundBenjy

@ScalenePowers

Lol, it can be confusing. But if they want to set a new story in between two previously-released stories, what else can they do? I suppose they could drop the numbering from the titles? Or only include a number in the title if the game takes place at a later point in the story?
Personally I like each entry having a new number, it lets people know right away that this is a long-running series with a lot of games.

It's interesting that they don't number Felghana and Celceta - they are the current canonical versions of III and IV, but I suppose they didn't want to make it too confusing for these releases in particular?
(Despite the fact that Ys IV and Ys V previously got PlayStation 2 remakes with numbered titles)

Re: Review: Ys Memoire: The Oath In Felghana (Switch) - An Excellent 'Less Is More' Entry In The Long-Running Series

EarthboundBenjy

One of the best Ys games. I recommend it to people who have played Ys Origin and want another game like that. I think Felghana is better than Origin personally.

I actually dropped Ys Nordics because it was starting to bog me down a bit too much. Lacrimosa is my favourite in the series, so I was hoping Nordics would give me more of that kind of feeling, but I dunno, something about Nordics isn't clicking with me. I still would like to see it through, but it's lower in my priorities now, which is unfortunate. (and the announcement of Proud Nordics didn't help either).

I do wish they would make more games like Origin and Felghana. The only other Ys game of that playstyle is The Ark of Napishtim, which is a fair bit jankier than Felghana and Origin, but still really fun imo.

I hope after Nordics they make Ys fast-paced and snappy again. I think it was Monstrum Nox that really pushed the series into cutscene-heavy territory, and I'm not sure that's a change for the better for a series like Ys. :/