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Comments
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/2x2sv4/my_best_friend_was_a_gamer/
Given shovelware usually means the crappy licensed games that get shoved out in time for movie releases, I'd say that's a pretty big distinguishing factor from just being "Games I don't like".
Good focus groups are professional researchers middlemanning for actual testers in your target audience. Shovelware focus groups are marketing lackeys playacting as
borderline offensive stereotypes of your target audience, have measurably worse attention spans than actual children, and force developers to interrupt development and go through multiple regressive development iterations that waste anywhere from weeks to months.
QA that's worth anything takes at least a month or two, and near the
end of the cycle they're supposed to do regression testing that drags
it out another month. Guess what the first thing to get cut from a quick release is.
For small releases like the 5-10 age bracket, your entire development cycle from concept to print is going to be a few months -- six at the most -- because anything more costs the publisher wages they don't want to pay. In many cases the publisher is so stingy that they don't even put artists on the project for non-placeholder art until late alpha. QA is going to get a couple weeks with a workable beta, if that, they're going to be looking at assets and animations that were put in days before, and regression testing is often cut altogether.
This is one of the reasons I love when professional devs do Kickstarters. It just cuts out so much of the exploitative bullshit and artificial schedules.
It doesn't help that the one true "trainee" unit doesn't have a promote class at all, none of the classes he re-classes into via expensive Second Seal have his original weapon proficiency and you're back down to bronze weapons no matter what, and his only real advantage is a growth rate skill that he can pass on to one of the children who doesn't suck ass. Coming off of Sacred Stones and its "faster than cavalry and higher passive crit than Swordmasters" trainees, it's pretty jarring to have one who just genuinely blows in every way.
But the writing is so good. The supports are actually interesting! Take that, Radiant Dawn!
Also Maribelle is Rarity. In, like, every possible way short of hooves. She's also the worst healer I've ever seen in the series. I'm thinking the entire game was one big setup for an impossibly elaborate transcontinental Worst Pony joke.
> game is decent, soundtrack and art are excellent
> want to get soundtrack
> can't find way to buy it on dev's site, despite dev saying it's for sale there
> attempt to find it via "other" means
> apparently OST was in a bundle
> suddenly realize I bought that bundle
By musing upon ideas that have nothing to do with each other, and then connecting ones that seem thematically or otherwise similar.
Sorry, I should have attached a "[not serious]" tag to that.
^^ And no I haven't. Actually, Shulk's being in Smash was the first time I'd heard about that particular game. I knew he was from Xenoblade Chronicles, and I presumed that that was part of the Xenogears/Xenosaga series, but I know even less about XB than I do about XG or XS...and I know little enough about those two already.
I figured the real reason for that line had to do with the source material, but it was still fun to think about.
something vaguely along those lines...okay, truth be told, it's because
it's a platformer I've been curious about ever since I bought it a
while back. Wooden Sen'SeY is a level-based action platformer by
a French devteam called Upper Byte. You play a village chief named
Goro who sets out to recover a lot of something called "SeY" (and is
probably sake) that got stolen by what seems to be a gang of creatures
with yellow eyes and -- like you too! -- squat ellipsoid bodies. You
make your way around by using a pair of chain-axes, which allow you to
attack things, boost off the ground (in place of the ever-popular
double-jump), and hang onto surfaces. Gameplay consists mainly of
platforming, with occasional arena battling. Early game there's also an
unxpected submarine level, which actually isn't too bad.
As with
Oozi: Earth Adventure, I think Wooden Sen'SeY is a decent, albeit
somewhat generic, platformer. It does have a few more controls than
Oozi, allowing to be a little more interesting, and it's harder to
achieve the conditions of getting all the SeY or defeating all the
enemies on some levels, requiring puzzles like defeating enemies who are
not above solid ground, or using your grapple swinging. Heck, the
final boss's first segment might be a little frustrating if you're not
good at grapple swinging (like me). Though fortunately the game stars
you back off at the beginning of the stage even if you run out of lives
-- and you'll accumulate a ton of extra lives during the rest of the
game if you're even halfway competent at platforming. Also of note is a
mid-/late-game segment where you'll need to make do without your axes
for a little while. So yeah, a decently interesting platformer with
several levels of action.
Strangely, Oozi has better reviews while I find Wooden Sen'SeY to be the better game.
----
So I finally got around to doing it. I started seriously playing La-Mulana,
the remake version. I already got the Steam cards, so that not the
point here. The point here is because it's a really good game, and I
can't help but think that it's practically an MIT Mystery Hunt
in videogame form (minus the pop culture references of course, but plus
a gorgeous soundtrack), and also because I had a few friends who were
interested in seeing the game -- and I'd really love to have more people
to talk to about the game.
In case you didn't already know, La-Mulana is an immense metroidvania platformer made in a style reminiscent of the MSX game Maze of Galious.
It was first released in 2005 for Windows, as a freeware game by the
Japanese indie circle GR3 Project (now named NIGORO, a name that's
basically "256" spelled out). Like Cave Story, it met with huge success
and (with the help of a fan-translation) gained a dedicated following,
despite (or perhaps because of) its commitment to appropriately high
difficulty level -- considering that you play as an adventure
archaeologist trying to figure out the puzzles in a set of ancient ruins
rife with them, and aiming to recover the fabled Treasure of La-Mulana
-- as well as its excellent music and atmospheric theming. The game got
a remake in 2011/2012 on WiiWare and PC, and that's the version I'm
playing now.
In one sitting I beat the first boss and got to but
didn't beat the second and third bosses. Also obtained some of the most
important items in the game -- the Hermes Boots (faster movement), the
Knife (faster attacking), the Holy Grail (teleporting to save points),
and a couple of the subweapons. It's only gonna get harder from here on
out though -- as my own memory of having played the original game just
becomes fuzzier. I hear they changed a lot of details of how stuff
works, and that's exactly how I would have liked them to have done it.
Probably
gonna continue this only when I'm with that specific friend, since he's
interested in seeing more of this game, and probably not gonna play it
himself.
In any case, I'm also looking forward to La-Mulana 2 -- I
backed the kickstarter, and I'm hoping it'll be as awesome as the first
one.
----
Recently finished playing Aztaka.
It's a game made by
French-Canadian developer Citérémis, and apparently inspired by Aztec
legend. You play as the son of the gods, and your mission is to recover
a set of ancient phonograms that will restore the ability of humankind
to reach the gods.
It's a very interesting game. A main gameplay
element is the ability to collect these wisps of "energy", using the
mouse, which can be saved in appropriate containers and also used to
interact with the game world (albeit in specified ways, but there are a
lot of them). You play as a spear-wielding warrior, and you gain the
aid of a hummingbird companion who can cast magic spells. The game's
controls use left hand for all movement, while the right-hand mouse is
used to cast spells and move energy around on-screen.
In addition
to being used to interact with environmental elements, green energy
serves as portable healing, white energy serves as portable MP recovery,
blue energy allows the casting of a certain spell, and yellow energy
late in the game can give the player-character a rotating barrier of
damaging orbs.
The game's areas are laid out in a "split-level
metroidvania" fashion, similar to Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. The
main paths are mostly straightforward, but you'll want to take note of
various features to revisit, and there are a lot of them, just to get
powerups or to complete various sidequests.
The game's ability
advancement systems seem to be done in (what I think is) a WRPG style.
Curiously, there's one "skill" that can be enhanced by both spending
skill points and drinking a potion, though this is more of an alternate
leveling stat that determines equipment eligibility. And potions that
increase that skill as well as stat-increasing potions are actually
available in unlimited quantities, albeit at pretty decent prices --
though you should be able to afford a bunch in late-game if you pick up
the extra-large money pouch. Also, another one of these skills is
reviving in place rather than at the beginning of the area -- though
that's a pretty decent convenience considering the strength of late-game
enemies.
The game really puts an emphasis on exploration.
Important items don't just show up in the right places. You gotta go
find them -- and the game rewards going into nooks and crannies just to
find stuff. For example, the last energy container is in an arbitrary
pile of destroyable features on a side path in a dungeon. And a good
amount of the time, you're just left to remember, "hey wait, there was
that one odd thing that I haven't touched yet, in that one other area,
let me go check that out". (I enjoyed this, though I can see some
people objecting to it, and I think that having more hints might be
useful for an easy difficulty setting.) The game also rewards thinking
about how to use one's abilities -- most notably, late in the game,
there's one time you actually need to "pogo" on an enemy to get across a
gap.
The music, a soundtrack by Marc O'Reilly, is very
atmospheric. What makes it cooler is that it was actually performed by
real people. While it uses classical instruments, it does have (what at
least sounds stereotypically like) some Mesoamerican folk influences.
The result is a very interesting mix of guitar sounds, gong sounds,
simple flute melodies, some vocal pieces, and even a few organ pieces.
The
visuals -- especially the environments -- are hand-drawn and are
gorgeous. The story is certainly intriguing, but feels a little too
less-than-epic and mainly just mystical exploration stuff, compared to
what it seems to be aiming to do.
The game is certainly good and
has lots of interesting design features. But it also feels like it
could use a bunch of minor improvements. For example:
* loop music in all areas, rather than having some tracks just play to completion then silence.
*
improve wall-jumping. For example, give a frame or two where Huitzilo
clearly pushes off the wall. Also do more to inform players that they
shouldn't press a direction after hitting a walljumpable wall (unless
they want to stay on that wall).
* a certain important sidequest
affects whether your hummingbird friend will be present at the ending.
Right now, the ending barely changes at all -- in fact, the same
Epilogue text presuming that you finished that sidequest will be shown.
*
Having manual or multiple saves would also help -- the game doesn't
really let you intuit very easily when you're about to reach the point
of no return on that sidequest, and if you proceed after that point is
reached, you've locked yourself into failing a pretty important thing,
even if it is optional, thanks to autosaves.
* the last thing to do
in the game is a little unintuitive. In general the story felt a little
weakly done. If the game could be remade with a better story-oriented
presentation, with things like preparing climaxes and such, that might
help.
* I'm not sure if it was intended, but after I got the
screw attackability that allows me to damage enemies when jumping, I pretty much
stopped using the basic spear attack, and just kept jumping into things,
and never made use of the spear-dancing or multi-hit abilities.
*
Eliminate double-tap to dash. Just make dashing permanent (unless
there's a great reason why -- it seems it was justified based on flavor,
which might be a mythological reference).
* the game is occasionally
a little buggy. It doesn't play well with Alt+Tab if you're
full-screened, so I suggest playing it windowed. Also occasionally got
crashes, but restarting let me get past those just fine. Also other
minor issues such as an enemy making its way into a cutscene and
constantly trying to attack you, or a cutscene quote being displayed
half off-screen if the speaker is near the edge of the screen.
* provide a mini-map for areas. Some areas can get a little confusing. (Though I only ended up drawing out a map for one.)
*
the soundtrack should include all the music -- for some reason the
(strangely major-key) theme of ominous antagonist dialogue seems to be
missing from the soundtrack release.
Overall, I'd recommend this
game. Though really aren't that many choices if you're looking for
something inspired by Mesoamerican mythology...
Like, now.
Seriously NOW.
Then you can join us in drooling over X.
Also, I might try to add Palutena to my list of characters I play, which currently consists of Pikachu and G&W. Not that i'm any good at them, of course. I have no way to practice at all. I guess I could pick up a copy of Melee, but whatever.
Also the left analog stick makes my left thumb hurt.
At least I got it for free, so that's something!
Nowhere Man: Alchemist of Nowhere Land
other stuff:
[09:54:26]
[09:55:06]
[09:56:11]
[09:56:27]
[09:56:44]
[09:56:57]
[09:57:01]
Frozen Synapse is no longer on my shit-list, because I never have to touch the single-player campaign again (unless I ever get around to doing the RED DLC). Seriously, fuck that last mission.
Been playing a decent amount of Infinifactory lately. I'm not sure it'll ever quite reach the puzzle-high that SpaceChem gave me, but it's still quite fun, and the Steam Workshop integration is nice.
Just started on Qbeh-1: the Atlas Cube, which looks to be an interesting puzzle game in the vein of Portal or Antichamber. I like the atmosphere.
On the console end, I'm still chipping away at Metroid Prime Trilogy. Currently in Echoes, gathering keys to the Sky Temple. The Light Suit is awesome.
I just want to issue a proclamation.
Steam is a piece of shit.
Whilst I accidentally shut myself out of playing any important games by buying a PSV and then forgetting other consoles (and actually the PSV too) were a thing whilst I bought animu things (and continuing to do so because this is an Elements Garden year) I expected somebody to play XV because it has Kakihara Tetsuya in it so since you haven't set out to fulfill these demands that I've never mentioned to anybody before I will never, ever forgive you.