Comments 489

Re: Nintendo Direct June 2024 Confirmed To Boost An Otherwise Quiet Year For Switch

Grail_Quest

I think you guys should be ready for a nice surprise or two. While it's true that Nintendo has marshaled their best and brightest to prepare content for their next system, they are also aware that a 140 million user install base means a lot of potential for a big release on the current switch to fuel much needed revenue and profit into the launch initiative of that successor. I'm confident they have one more "big" surprise up their sleeves for the current switch.

Also, switch is like 15 million units away from taking the crown for most successful system ever, and they haven't even applied the end of cycle discount to it yet. It's going to do it for sure!

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (13th April)

Grail_Quest

@Diogmites Thanks for reading my long post, and for the words of commendation! Actraiser has been on my "to-play" list pretty much since it originally came out.

I'm glad I'm old enough to have been there as a kid when games jumped from 8 bit to 16 bit. The amazement of seeing games burst to life with all that extra color and sound never left me and somewhere in my gamer brain, that feeling still lingers whenever I boot up a Super Nintendo game to this day. It allows me to go back and really enjoy playing all those old games that I missed. Same thing for early 3D games.

My wife and kids think I'm crazy every time I exclaim "Wow, look how good the graphics are in this one!", while marveling over some antiquated relic. But, to me it will always be 1992, or 1996, or 2001. I loved every one of those evolutionary console cycle leaps... and guess I always will.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (13th April)

Grail_Quest

Well, I finally did it. This past week, I defeated the final, secret boss in Octopath Traveler. The game took me about 140 hours to complete all stories and about another 100 hours to grind and gear farm in preparation for the final boss. Ended the boss on the 3rd try once fully prepped. (Countless failures along the way, though...)

I also achieved 100% in Mario Odyssey, having found all moons, beat all levels, beat Bowser's second secret form and finished with a moon count of 999. Even that game required some significant grinding (via coin farming in order to max out moons once you've acquired all the ones that are possible to find) which is weird for a Mario game.

Both games are now retired.

I'm going to take a break from modern games for a while and focus on my retro collection. (Although Prince of Persia: Lost Crown is tempting me.)

I'm playing Dragon Quest 6 on SNES and loving it way more than 5 (which, along with 3 seems to be everyone's favorite). The colorful, detailed 16 bit graphics are the height of 2D Dragon Quest, with the environments even looking better in my opinion than DQ7 did on the PS1. The sound is crisp and clean, the music is unobtrusive and the story (though a little confusing) is a mystery that continues to unravel as you play. I just reached the part where you get the boat and the game world opens up to you. You can explore the world in any order you wish, docking at any interesting location, moving through side quests and finding rare and powerful loot. This part of JRPG's, usually reserved until the end of the game, right before confronting the final boss is always my favorite. It's interesting they chose to introduce it earlier than normal in this game.

After DQ6, I'm going to play the most legendary installments in my backlog in chronological order, revisiting some old favorites along the way. Final Fantasy 4 (2 on SNES) from 1991 is up next, followed by Actraiser.

On the side I'm still working through my FPS heritage playthrough (all first person shooters in order of release). I'm about 70% through completing all campaigns on Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous (the game is looooong with over 100 levels) and the classic, Heretic (precursor to Hexen) is up next!

Have fun everyone!!

Re: Poll: What's The Best Prince Of Persia Game? Rate Your Favourites For Our Upcoming Ranking

Grail_Quest

One of my favorite franchises. 3 titles stand out for me.

1) Sands of Time: A beautifully rendered fable whose innovations set a new benchmark for the industry. For many years after it's release, 3D action adventure games would be measured against the elegant level design, fluid environmental navigation, and engaging character interaction of Sands of Time. The time mechanics were icing on the cake.

2) Warrior Within: At the time of release WW gave off an appearance of being a try hard, over the top edgy experiment in making something "cool". It's gratuitous violence and sex appeal came off as obnoxious, but mainly because it was such a sudden tonal departure from Sands. Fans of Sands of Time who were hoping for the innocent spirit of that game to continue in a sequel, felt a little betrayed. However, I played through the series again a few years back and have to admit that underneath that grungy veneer (and partially because of it), the game is actually quite amazing.

The developers went all in with the darker aesthetic, not limiting it to superficial elements like character design and music. The actual level design and mechanics are infused with a sense of dark wonder and nightmarish dissonance. The entire game feels like you are exploring the inner workings of a complex nightmare, trying desperately to find your way back to the waking world. The wood and metal, trap laden rubiks cube level design puts you in the beating heart of the island of time and dares you to find a way out. It successfully makes you sympathize with the prince who has been robbed of his innocence by the harsh realities of his plight and this adds an element of gravitas to the series, taking you to the depths of character torment appropriate for the second act of an epic saga.

I had low expectations heading into the game, and they were obliterated by how good it was. The Dahaka was an especially memorable nemesis. My only gripe is that they should have had Yuri Lowenthal return from the first game as the voice of the prince.

3) Prince of Persia SNES: This is the definitive version of the original masterpiece. The graphics are dripping with color, the animation is smooth as silk (of course), the levels are brilliant and the music.... THE MUSIC! I've been trying to figure out who the composer was for this game for years. The soundtrack is perfect, offering twinges of adventure, mystery, intrigue, romance and driving determination to dramatic effect. I am so happy that this ended up being the first game I owned on the SNES. What a great start to that console generation!

Re: Nightdive Is Remastering One Of The Most Insane FPS Games From The '90s

Grail_Quest

@sfb You bring back a lot of great memories. Road Rash was incredible. In fact the 3DO version is still probably my favorite racing game of all time. It gave you this amazing sense of speed and you felt cool slicing through oncoming traffic like a pro.

Guardian War is great. In fact, I'm in the middle of that one now. Both games made use of the (then) new CD format with excellent soundtracks. Soundgarden featuring heavily in RR and clean soaring electric guitars in GW, although the weapon shop jazz music was a little... strange. Then again, that quirkiness is part of what gave 3DO some of it's charm.

My favorites were Alone in the Dark, Bust a Move, Escape from Monster Manor, Flashback, Gex, Kingdom: The Far Reaches, Lemmings, Lucienne's Quest (yes, I had a copy), Out of this World, Road Rash and Wing Commander 3.

Being able to plug headphones into the controller jack and have volume control at your fingertips felt next level! Great reminiscing with you guys!

Re: Nightdive Is Remastering One Of The Most Insane FPS Games From The '90s

Grail_Quest

@Diogmites Too many people, too quickly write the 3DO off as a failure. It's true that the strength of the 3DO library did not measure up to the PSX or N64 however.... for a brief window, between 1993-1995 the 3DO was so cutting edge, it might as well have been from the future. Light-years ahead of the technical capabilities of it's contemporaries at launch, the graphics and sound were jaw dropping. The first time I saw it in action with Crash N' Burn, I was blown away. It remained the most sophisticated console on the market for two full years, until the launch of the Saturn. During that time it built a library that contained a surprising number of quality games, several of which you listed. I fell in love with the system during those pre-playstation years, and it remains my favorite non-Nintendo system to date.

Re: Feature: The Pitch-Perfect Storytelling Of Final Fantasy VI’s Opera, And How The Pixel Remaster Missed A Note

Grail_Quest

I was there for the original. As a 14 year old, the hype leading up to FF6 (FF3 to us at the time) was stratospheric. The environmental fidelity in every Gamepro and EGM screenshot was tantalizing. I remember being blown away by the snow drifts atop the rooftops in Narshe and the cozy glow emanating from rustic windows. We had never played in a world realized with such detail before.

When the game hit, it was all we had dreamed and much more. One of the main reasons it stunned a generation of SNES teenagers was because of how seriously it took itself. From the much lauded opening sequence of Magitek Armor Mechas trudging through the snowy night, Narshe twinkling on the horizon and Uematsu's sweeping score infusing the moment with cinematic grandeur, we knew we were in for something uniquely special. The game never lets up in this regard and this feeling of grandeur, of elevating gamers to cinematic heights not seen or felt prior in gaming, culminates with the opera house scene.

I imagine it would be difficult for someone playing the game for the first time today to truly appreciate how potent this now antiquated scene was in 1994. In an 8 and 16 bit world, filled with games that were limited in their immersive capabilities, we were being invited down amidst the hushed expectant crowd within a showpiece of lush, color saturated spritework. But the window dressing was only the start, for the real triumph of the opera house scene, the reason it resonated so profoundly and is still held so closely to so many gamers hearts is because of how it made the player FEEL.

The poignant antics of our heroes, and Uematsu's prodigious composition swept us away for a moment of tender, crescendoing emotion that had us sitting with our controllers on the floor as the afterglow of the sequence lingered sweetly before we could stir ourselves to move on. It was that EMOTION that FF6 was able to harness that was new to us. It was that emotion that would force the scene to live on in our memories while we randomly hummed the Aria Mezzo di Carreterre (although we didn't know it was called that yet) through the following years.

In that moment, video games rose beyond jumping on platforms or hacking and slashing through dungeons. It became another form of cinematic expression. It was the seed that would later bloom into cinematic moments that would rival Hollywood and eclipse the revenue records of motion pictures. There was so much more emotion in store for gamers over the years that would come after, but it all started right there. It was a special, powerful moment in gaming. I'm glad it got some well deserved attention in the pixel remasters.

Re: Surprise! Nintendo Is Officially Working On A Live-Action Legend Of Zelda Movie

Grail_Quest

Noooooo! In any other era but this one. They are going to destroy it. No adaptation by Hollywood over the past decade gives me any reason to hope this won't be a disaster. The woke who have taken over all aspects of media are incapable of creating a 1:1 interpretation. I pray I am wrong, but you'd best buckle up for a race swapped, girl power mess of a movie. Tears of the Kingdom indeed.

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 21st)

Grail_Quest

@Mjoen I'm with you on physical games. I have an e-shop wishlist and just use it as a checklist for buying the games physically. Every time I order one, I delete it from the wishlist. Unfortunately, the world is evolving away from people like us. Not too distraught though, I have enough games in my physical collection to span multiple lifetimes, and if Nintendo moves away from physical after Switch 2, (another 7-8 years from now) I'll probably be too old to care. Lol

Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 21st)

Grail_Quest

Mario Wonder!

Okay, my controversial take. Wonder is great, but not in the same league as Super Mario World. I feel they made a huge mistake by stripping away the unique feel and abilities of the characters and rendering them all the same. In 2D Mario, Luigi is not the same without his flutter jump, Peach needs to hover, Toad should be blazing fast. In this regard, even SMB2 is superior. Best 2D Mario SINCE Yoshi's Island? Sure, but the competition since then has not been too crazy. Also, the music is generic and irritating in the same way that it was in the New Super Mario Bros games. However, it is definitely beautiful and creative, and will make for a fun multiplayer experience. I give it an 8/10 so far.

Besides Wonder, still grinding towards 100% in Mario Odyssey and Octopath Traveler. I BEAT THE "DARKER SIDE" CHALLENGE LEVEL IN ODYSSEY THIS PAST WEEK!! 540/999 moons so far. In Octopath, characters are 92-94 and barely moving. It takes about 4 hours of grinding to move up a single level now. We'll get there though... one step at a time.

NOW YOU'RE PLAYING WITH POWER!