Comments 2,848

Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel - Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia

Expa0

I like both but I feel the one with solo Shanoa is a bit more dynamic so if I have to choose I'd say that's one I'll go with.

Superb game by the way, I really should replay this at some point though at the same time I'm kinda holding to hope that this'd get released on non-portable systems at some point.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 8th)

Expa0

I'm continuing on with Fire Emblem New Mystery (w/old mystery fanhack which removes the awful prologue & gaiden maps the remake added and removes the avatar from the plot). Decently far in already, Chapter 19 to be exact.

Game's been fine but even with the hack its definitely a lesser version compared to the original Mystery of the Emblem between the loss of the weapon weight mechanic, massively inflated growth rates, and lesser slots for units to deploy (despite the gargantuan roster of units). I wish I could just have the original mystery's balancing with the smoother engine and added difficulty options from the remake.

Re: Poll: What's Your Game Of The Year Of 2023 So Far?

Expa0

I haven't been playing all that many games this year just in general and many I ended up going for ended up being stinkers anyway, and my unquestionable top picks Advance Wars Reboot and Etrian Odyssey Trilogy are just that, remasters of games I've played before so I don't really feel confortable picking it for this year and Theatrhythm similarly is so much of the same as the 3DS one that it barely counts.

With all that in mind looking at my limited list my vote so far goes to Pizza Tower, I'm not a platformer guy but this one was superb and so full of charm, amazing soundtrack too.

Though my backlog is massive with plenty of games like Vagrant Story, Suikoden Tactics and Vestaria Saga 2 all of which I'm sure would immediatedly shoot up to my top spot if I just sat down to play them.

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

Expa0

I'm playing Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem, the terrible DS remake of the 3rd Fire Emblem game and the only one in the series I've never completed. At its usual state I find the game to be nigh intolerable but I did find out about this fan mod that gets rid of some of the game's more egregious issues, namely the avatar character and the godawful prologue & side maps the remake originally added. I still do have some pretty big issues with the game mechanics and balance wise but at least now its palpable and I do enjoy the far higher difficulty options compared to the original FE3 and it does also run on the same engine as the DS Shadow Dragon which is a big plus from me. Currently sitting at Chapter 8 I believe, Palla just slays everything.

Re: Review: Fire Emblem - The Blazing Blade Is Still As Sharp As Ever

Expa0

It's a decent Fire Emblem game and a particularly good first entry for anyone wanting to get into the series but it suffers for series veterans and those looking for a repeat playthrough since it forces you to play through Lyn's long winded tutorial campaign and you don't even unlock the toughest difficulty level until you've played through the full game two times.

Playing this on a fresh save just isn't an option for me.

Re: Talking Point: Is Super Mario Bros. Wonder Really A Departure From The 'New' Series?

Expa0

The "New" title was silly enough anyway and they really oughta have just dropped it in the first place after the DS game, at least that one was the first 2D Super Mario Bros game in a long time.

Mario Wonder itself looks great, the three things that did tie the "new series" together was the recycled music, multiplayer and how incredibly generic they all were. I'm very glad to see Nintendo's trying to do something a bit more interesting with the series.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of Today's Nintendo Direct?

Expa0

It was good, New Mario new new I didn't see coming and it does actually look a touch more interesting than the earlier new mario bros games, then as usual Squeenix got things covered between the Mario RPG remake, the Star Ocean 2 remake and Dragon Quest Monsters, all games I'm heavily considering.

Could've been better sure but certainly could've been worse.

Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's GBA Library Next Week With Fire Emblem

Expa0

Have fun with the Lyn Tutorial+Eliwood Normal mode, frankly even though I do enjoy the game having to play through so much mindless easy mode gameplay to unlock the game's hardest difficulty just makes the vanilla game without any prior save files unplayable to me. Plus of course I wouldn't support Nintendo's dumb rental only game plan anyway.

Re: Looks Like The Best 'Star Ocean' Game Might Be Getting A Remake

Expa0

"Pears into Peaches!"

Oh yeah, I'm all for that. I used to love SO:Second Story as a kid and while I wouldn't say it's a top tier JRPG or anything I'd be up for a revisit, hell I wouldn't mind too much even if they just repackaged the PSP remake as they did with SO1 already, this is what I'm expecting them to do.

It's probably a pipe dream to get the crusty old english voice overs from the PS1 release though... Getting those back would be actually amazing.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (June 10th)

Expa0

Continuing with Etrian Odyssey 1 HD currently at the last floor of the 3rd Stratum. Proper automapping and not being tied to the small handheld screen has made this game so much better in my books, like to the point where I seriously have to consider this for a top games of all time list.

Re: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Scores A New Chrono Game Update Next Week

Expa0

Mostly just regaining what was lost when moving from Curtain Call to Final Bar Line, but Robo's theme is a cool new addition.

Wish they got some other stuff too like Ocean Palace, The Sewer and Tyrano Lair to name a few, you could almost make a rhythm game of its own out of the Chrono Trigger soundtrack.

Cross also got pretty shafted, shoulda at least had one of the amazing map themes or the fun boss theme, something.

Re: Atlus Listening To Etrian Odyssey Fan Feedback For Future Entries

Expa0

Aside from the steamy price I really have no issues with it, I got the games on the big screen and there's finally actual real automapping, though it's still a minor nuisance that you do still need to place the doors and the gathering points and whatever so maybe that could be improved upon.

It worked out here cus I do prefer the original visions of the Etrian Odyssey games over the remasters on the 3DS, but if at any point they're gonna release stuff like Strange Joyrney on newer systems and they do plan on incorporating the 3DS version "improvements" then I'd love to see the option to choose between the vanilla and the remastered version. I wouldn't like it but I could at least deal with the Untold versions of the Etrian Odyssey games but Strange Journey Redux was just too much, I hated it.

Oh yeah and Dark Spire, I still remember your best game Atlus. Maybe port that one too, for me, please?

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (June 3rd)

Expa0

Etrian Odyssey HD I didn't even realize how much I had missed playing this series until I started this, just reached the 2nd stratum of the game and I've been having an absolute blast, it's so much better now that there's proper auto mapping and I don't need to look at the tiny handheld screen.

Been trying a bit of a different thing from the usual strick party of 5 where I'm instead switching around from my currently around 10 units I think depending on what's useful and what kind of weapons and armor I have available at the moment.

Re: Review: Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection - Divine Dungeon Crawling But Not Definitive

Expa0

Got the collection on Steam and just got about 30 minutes on Etrian Odyssey 1 and for my money this is already the definitive way to play the games, having the mapping almost entirely automated makes this so much quicker and being able to play on the big screen is such a boon as well, I know the mapping's like the series major gimmick and while I'd say it was a cute feature, it also did get very old very quick for such a long game and for game with as many entries as this.

I do also prefer the cleaned up sprites over the 3D enemy models they used on the 3DS releases, just gives it that more classic look.

Re: Poll: Will You Be Updating Your Copy Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?

Expa0

I play with the game's rules so duping is out of the question for me never looked up how it works even. But I don't really see any point for going ham grinding for stuff either, level 3/3/2 Knight Armor which I immediatedly had 70 hours in when I finally figuredbout how to unlock the armor upgrades was more than enough defense for the rest of the game.

And besides I already beat the game.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 27th)

Expa0

Zeldi still, I think I'm around 110 hours in now with one of the main 4 quests left, I'm still having a lot of fun just playing but I'm starting to get to the point where I'm probably just going to start being more methodical in my progression, not too much wandering around anymore, just going from objective to objective, maybe a bit of exploration of the Gerudo area too once I'm done with the main quest there and then whatever it is the game throws at me still. I feel like I've gotten quite a bit out of the game at this point, definitely moreso than I did from BotW even though I enjoyed that game as well.

I do also kind of want to start preparing myself for Etrian Odyssey next week.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 6th)

Expa0

Been mostly playing the Advance Wars Remaster, good ways into the AW2 campaign about to start the Green Earth portion of it. I originally wasn't planning on following with the 2nd campaign immediatedly but I'm kinda glad I did, some really cool missions on this one, particularly a much bigger focus on non-predeploy missions which I kinda like.

I've played some of AW2 a long time ago but I had little recollection of the Yellow Comet missions for instance, the finale in that one was one of my favorite AW maps I've played in quite some time.

Re: Poll: Who's Your Favourite Champion In Zelda: Breath Of The Wild?

Expa0

I love the game but frankly I found all of them pretty forgettable, charaterization has never been Zelda's strong suit (With some expectations, namely NPCs in Majora's Mask), the divine beast questlines being so incredibly copy & paste between each other didn't help things. I do like that Ravioli is just Falco.

Re: UK Charts: Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Tumbles Out Of The Top Ten

Expa0

Not surprised between the delay and near non-existant marketing, as much as I love it personally I doubt it does too much to appeal to anyone outside of the few people who were already fans of the series. Though the game doesn't comeacross as something with a large budget so maybe it'd be enough to meet expectations.

Seeing an actual new entry will probably be a pipe dream though sadly.

Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp?

Expa0

I only got the game yesterday so I'm not too far along into it yet, I think I'm at the AW1 main campaign mission 8 at the moment, I loved the original Advance Wars 1 and I think the remaster holds up. I like the artstyle and I personally don't mind the board game look, there's tons of content between all the war room maps and whatnot.

Though at the same time in terms of things added there doesn't seem to be a whole lot, being able to play on the big screen is a boon but other than that I'm not sure if there really is any particular reason to pick this one over the original. I do find the speed-up being mapped to ZR being a bit jank as well.

But it's still good because the original game was good and I've personally never played the AW2 campaign fully so I'm pretty excited for that one.