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Comments
I already bought two bundles and another game shortly before this. To date this year I've spent over $100 on games already.
I don't like Steam enough to spend much cash on it, to be honest. It's nice but anything I can get in bundles or DRM-free off of a site like Desura, Playism, or GOG is better.
It helps that I am neither interested in nor able to play top-of-the-line games.
That said, I once violated Commandment #1 when buying Terraria. Heh.
> Bastion
From what I can tell this is a good game.
> Analogue: a Hate Story
From what I have heard this is a good game.
> Ys Origin
From what I can tell this is an AWESOME game.
> Ys the Oath in Felghana
From what I've played I know this is an AWESOME game.
> Ys Origin
> better than Bastion
I don't even want to think about how much I've spent on games this year.
Bastion is an excellent game. Definitely in my top 20.
I've played 20 minutes of Bastion and while that's not enough to make a fair call, I'm not really seeing what other people see in it yet. There's no doubt it's a proficiently-made game, and the narration gives it a special kind of warmth, but those things "merely" make it good.
Who knows? It might still blow me away, but so far I see a very well-made action/adventure game with a unique narrative delivery. These are really good things, but unless the meat of the game kicks it up a notch, then the game falls short of true greatness in my opinion.
The game as a whole is quite good, but yeah, it's only quite good...but the ending is one of the best moments in the medium.
The true meat of Bastion is not any individual element. It's how every element works together, and you won't get even close to seeing how they all fit together after just twenty minutes of play.
Yeah, that's as far as I've gotten in Bastion.
Unfortunately, there aren't equally as many people who have played the Ys games to go around pimping them, but I'll say that Ys Oath (I haven't played Origin so I can't say) is a very, very solid game when it comes to challenging the player. The difficulty is somehow designed that I neither find it too easy nor stupidly difficult. Bosses have patterns, but instead of finding them gimmicky after I discover them, I find learning and perfecting them to be legitimately challenging yet doable.
And the music is epic.
I'll also comment that the moment you learn to survive in the fire caves...is when you really learn the game's difficulty.
It's also quite pretty.
I never got into Bastion
But I'm having a phase where I can't get into any western RPG atm.
I thought Bastion is a action game, not an RPG.
I didn't think Bastion was quite as lifechanging as some people here, but I still really liked it.
Bastion is no more an RPG than Call of duty's multiplayer is an RPG.
RPG elements/character progression =/= RPG.
Got Borderlands 2 for me and a friend.
Bastion's more in line with something like Zelda, only with more action and a gravel-tone narrator.
What? It's nothing like Zelda.
It's more like...Gauntlet, maybe?
Wait, no. Bastion doesn't have classes.
I know nothing about this. What's it like?
Ys is difficult to describe. It's kind of a dungeon-crawling JRPG with platforming and high-tension boss fights. Typically, you play as just one character, which allows for the real-timeyness that allows those different things to work in union.
HOLY SHIT YS ORIGIN IS -75% at $4.99
^^ It's an action RPG series with roots in the 8-bit era, where it used to feature a very unique combat system, involving walking into baddies at odd angles. That's been done away and now it plays like a standard action RPG...but very, very well polished, does game difficulty right, and has very impressive music.
Re Steam sales
When items are on sale on Steam, typically a "regular" sale is -50%, and a "flash"/"daily"/otherwise special sale is -75%. Sometimes these numbers may be a little smaller (such as-25% or -40% for your "regular" sale and -60% or -66% for your special sale. Sometimes they are more (I've seen discounts as high as -80% and -90%.
So if you see a game that's discounted to -50% ask yourself these questions:
Is Origin the first game, or a prequel of some sort, or...?
It's a prequel to the first game. Canon-wise it goes first, but it is an entirely new game made using a modern game engine.
Oath, on the other hand, is a thorough remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.
Ah...
So two questions then:
Is Origin a good game to play first, and if not, is the first game obtainable?
My first complete Ys game was Oath (I'd played Ys I for NES before that but I'd stopped in the second dungeon).
The story in Oath is simple enough that you really don't need to know backstory for it to make sense. I assume the other Ys games are kinda like that...but then again, they have made this entire mythos about the series, involving two goddesses, a land in the heavens, and a very persistent swordsman.
So you can probably get in at any point in the series.
I think Ys I&II might be available for DS, 3DS or PSP. Not sure.
All right. Will buy Origin then.
Picked up Reccetear, too.
Fuckin' capitalism.
Anyone got any tips for not sinking when it comes to those regular payments? The best I can think of is to adventure often to pick up essentially free stock (which can then be sold at the basic item price for sure sales), but that can be risky.
Doing that also eats away at your remaining time, and if you're not very good at it, it's better to just not.
Um, sell things at high prices. :V
Adventuring provides really huge bang for the buck if you make sure to clear each level of all enemies (including the limit respawning) and constantly optimize your loot (it'll fill your bag quickly but you'll easily find stuff more valuable than slime fluids to switch them out for). Also keep in mind that that's the only way to get certain ingredients for crafting, and some craft-only items are extremely valuable (look out for the ingredients blue crystal, fin fan, and special inkwell, if I recall correctly).
The first seriously difficult boss is at the end of the third dungeon. The rest of them have relatively easy patterns to figure out. The main difficulty of bosses is that (1) you can't practice them the way you can with most RPGs (heck, Ys included), and (2) if you fail, you fail the entire course, which means the stakes are even higher.
There's also Ys: The Ark of Napishtim, which is the first "new Ys" game (sixth one chronologically) and the aptly named Ys Seven (Though I'm not sure that one's available on PC).
I think they might be trying to get those onto PC via Steam but those aren't available yet.
Ys Ark is available for PC but not to western consumers, I think.
Oh, right. There is a fan made language pack, though.