StardusterEX

Maybe the ending will be a little cheerier this time around? I don’t think my heart can handle another ending like the second game.

@RR529 That one is... okay. It’s not bad, but not great, especially on the Switch because of the performance issues. There are always a lot of cutscenes, though they didn’t feel nearly as dragged out in the Arland or Dusk trilogies. I think that had to do with the performance issues, not having English voice acting like previous games, and trying to be more expressive with the 3D models than the engine could properly handle. You just end up waiting so long for any animation to play out that you’ve already read whatever text comes up.

The Arland and Dusk games for the most part also had way more endings, so after the initial stuff you were mostly triggering cutscenes for a specific person/people you were trying to build relationships with to get a particular ending rather than going through and triggering events for everyone in your party... And I’m not sure if it’s the new engine that Ryza’s running on, but it feels a lot snappier too.

Pretty sure this is the closest I‘ll get to Zoo Tycoon 2 on the switch, so I’ll be getting it eventually.

@Mario_maniac That would explain it then. I’ve never actually played a Metroid game start to finish, so all I saw was creepy scenery, lol. That other creepy level gives me LSD Dream Emulator vibes. Dunno if that’s what they were actually going for or not...

@Tyranexx I platinumed the Vita version. The pacing was kind of weird. It was really slow the first 10 and things really picked up speed after that. It took me... 30 or 40 to beat the main plot I think, and then 70 or 80 to complete everything else. I think some of the stats and stuff got rebalanced on the switch so it might not take as long to complete everything now. I kind of preferred the second one, from what I played of it. I thought the pacing was better and I liked the new stuff it added. I didn’t finish that one, though. Next time it goes on sale, I might double (quadruple?)-dip and finally get around to doing that.

@Paraka Short, mission-based. Levels usually have like 2 collectible things you need to complete it (like coins and balloons), a few simple puzzles to solve, and a little bit of platforming. There’s a secret collectible hidden in a few levels that gives you something for collecting them all. And a few bonus levels.

It’s mostly pretty cute and simple and I enjoyed it a lot, though some of the last areas are creepy and there’s no real explanation in-game as to why? That part’s not really important, and I’m probably the only person bothered by it, but...

@Primarina ‘cause those games‘ stories (maybe barring the FPS, I don’t really play those so I can’t speak for them) consist of a cutscene at the start of the game and the end of the game, if that. Even if they’re the same every time, they aren’t being thrown in my face for a 30 hour+ adventure. And if the characters were interesting or at least different every time, I could deal with it. I bought the gender swapped twilight book, my standards aren’t incredibly high lol. But somehow they’ve managed to make them less and less interesting since the series hit the 3DS...

@Screen Nah, I forgot the first date they gave (November?) but I think they delayed it after the backlash they got from the first trailer they released. That, or it was just a placeholder. Either way, I’m hoping they use the time to make it a polished experience. I enjoy Natsume’s ideas, if not always the execution.

Are you the people responsible for that RPG with the deadly chicken, or did you just take a screenshot of it? I got stuck behind the pit with the chicken and couldn’t get back out.

Considering the hours I lost to this as a kid and that $30 is probably way less than I originally payed for all the parts, this is an instant buy for me.

The second Japanese intro has a spoiler for this at 59 seconds in for those that are curious.

@0L1V14 Nah, he’s apparently canonically 24-25. So he’d be in his 60s, but probably still alive in a cranky Kong-type role, lol.

Besides Marenian Tavern Story, I thought Asdivine Hearts was pretty good. It’s nothing mind-blowing, but I liked the customization system, and it was fun enough for me to put in ~30 hours to see the true endings.

@Bolt90 Mm, in... 2004 I think, the company Marvelous acquired Victor Interactive/the Bokujō Monogatari series. That was just before the GameCube games came out.

In 2014, Marvelous decided to cut ties with their previous localization team, Natsume, to use their in-house team XSEED Games. They didn’t try to get the Harvest Moon name, they just kind of left Natsume with it. Iirc, it came as kind of a surprise to Natsume. XSEED chose to go with the new title Story of Seasons for their future translations.

I imagine the BokuMono games were some of Natsume’s biggest titles, so it was probably continue to try and make games or shrivel and die and leave a lot of people out of work and a random company to acquire the name. Dunno for sure, so that’s mostly speculation on my part...

So I guess it depends on whether you mean the SNES game up to the PS1 games, the GameCube to first 3DS game, or any of the HM games after that.

I’m getting flashbacks to the Pokemon Colosseum commercials.
https://youtu.be/2v5PpX5Z2BA

I’d like combat slowed down a little so I’m not having to avoid trying to use the great items I’ve made in order to actually get a turn. I feel like the alchemy and combat system are working against each other more than complementing one another. Also, I’d like to see the font size for battles increased a little bit, it was really, really hard to see what was going on in handheld on switch. Oh, and either more character development in the main story or events like in previous games that I’m not having to pay extra for...

With all that, I think Ryza 2 could be even more fun than the first.

@Lugazz Eh, I never liked them much as a pair after seeing them in 64. Ann was kind of abusive in that game- sometimes you’d talk to Cliff and he’d have a black eye from getting hit with something Ann had thrown...

@Eel iirc, they cut it because of the Japanese fans. They’d either get unhappy breaking up a couple, they’d be unhappy with the pairing, they’d feel pressured to get married really fast... It doesn’t mean they were all like that of course, but the majority seemed to feel a lot differently about it than western fans seem to.

@Crono1973 At this point I have to think you’re only here to complain.

Gonna start up Bug Fables, I think.

@Crono1973 It’s been out in Japan for some time, and it’s not that hard to see what people already think about it/what it looks like/how it plays.

I mean, fair enough if you want to apply that to other games I guess, but that doesn’t work in this case.

@sikthvash Yup. Iirc, one of his earlier games Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. got a lot of criticism for the characters looking like those creepy animatronic diner mascots, so instead of giving up he decided to go in a different direction and base a horror game off of that.

Besides the jump scares, I think a lot of the... maybe not so much scariness as creepiness/atmosphere comes from finding little bits and pieces of lore as the games go on and let you put together the overarching story. I like games that do that in general though, so I might be biased.

This reminds me of Yo Kai Wibble Wobble.

Like most FTP games, I’ll probably just play it until it stops being fun/starts requiring me to buy stuff or grind to win.

I’m not saying that Natsume’s games are the greatest or anything, though I’ve enjoyed them, but the whole reason they still have the name is because Marvelous didn’t want it when they decided to switch to their internal XSEED team for translation. They kinda blindsided Natsume, iirc.

Even if Natsume completely folded, I doubt Marvelous would be picking up the name. Natsume didn’t ‘steal’ anything.

I didn’t... not have fun with SwSh. On my own personal enjoyment scale... I’d give it a 6/10, it’s hard to ruin the formula entirely. It’s an okay game. And I think that’s my biggest problem with it. It’s just okay. You’d think with it being one of the highest grossing franchises in the world, more time and money could be put into making it a truly revolutionary experience. But it wasn’t, and it feels like the games are an afterthought when compared to the cartoon/merchandise/etc. when it used to be the other way around.

I dunno. It might just be me. If that’s the case, and I’m just not the demographic being targeted anymore, that’s fine. Other people clearly still enjoy it a lot, and that’s great. It’s my little cousin’s first Pokémon game, and I like watching him play and have fun with it. But all that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt to have to move on from something I grew up if I just don’t enjoy it as much anymore.

If anyone’s actually curious, Kemco’s just the publisher for the most part. They work with several different companies, which is how they manage to push out games so fast.

I’ve played a bunch of their games... Asdivine Hearts was surprisingly fun, and I liked the customization system. That’s probably the best one. Certainly one of their best translation jobs. Dragon Sinker and the other Asdivine games were also a good time.

Other than that, they’re pretty average at best... You won’t find much you can’t get better from somewhere else. On the other hand, if you’re like me and really into budget RPG games, Kemco is a treasure trove.

It’s kind of like comfort food... It’s not good for me, but I keep coming back for more anyway.