1997
That certainly was Yoshert's Chronicle
2023
The dealer shot himself in the first round despite there objectively being no blanks left, then the game whiplashed by not giving me any cigs until after my defibrillator was cut in the final round, making them worthless and netting me my singular game over.
GOATed.
GOATed.
2000
This has taken my spot for being the most impressive PS2 launch title. Framerate tanks aside, it still looks and sounds amazing. It expands upon Gen1 in very important ways that make me excited to explore the rest of the PS2 titles. It does still kinda suffer from some utterly tyrannical fights at times though, both arena and story. The final stretch is hellish if you're not built in a really specific way.
Oh also very strong contender for the best OST in the franchise.
Oh also very strong contender for the best OST in the franchise.
Definitely succeeds at being the pinnacle of Gen1 and damn cool Armored Core in its own right. Arena balancing feels much less bonkers and the main story has a very nice variety and doesn't absolutely obliterate you. The final boss was surprisingly not as bad as some led me to believe.
The main story is hilariously thin and the arena's top half is CBT-tier even with a really busted build. You basically have to pick garage for some of them if you didn't Human Plus in AC1, or else they will glide around at mach 5 and be the hydrogen bomb to your coughing baby.
1997
Aged impressively well considering the kind of ambition on display here. It definitely takes a while to get accustomed to the controls and the balancing is comical, but I have to respect it considerably for how well it sticks the landing for the most part.
This game takes a really cool concept but only makes it like 60% realized. I feel like they could've done so much more interesting ideas with the coma structure but it doesn't quite hit those peaks, and what cool concepts there are don't get fleshed out enough. Also the final chapter, while cool, falls apart on a QA level.
That being said I do hope this sorta thing gets tried again with current tech to speed up the map navigation and expand the overall potential of the shift system. Also set it in a new IP, it needs the breathing room.
That being said I do hope this sorta thing gets tried again with current tech to speed up the map navigation and expand the overall potential of the shift system. Also set it in a new IP, it needs the breathing room.
2012
Really fucking impressive for an early 3DS game. I think the plot pacing gets really silly in the back half but it's not in a way that negatively impacts my enjoyment. The finale rocked.
I do think there should have been more V.S. segments though, it feels like you get Gingira way too late in considering he's in the prologue.
Also side-nitpick, the FMVs, be it for this port or the fan translation, have some pretty nasty data artifacting at times. It's not really busted, just scuffed. I kinda wish it was in a better spot on RPCS3 (supposedly has softlocking issues).
I do think there should have been more V.S. segments though, it feels like you get Gingira way too late in considering he's in the prologue.
Also side-nitpick, the FMVs, be it for this port or the fan translation, have some pretty nasty data artifacting at times. It's not really busted, just scuffed. I kinda wish it was in a better spot on RPCS3 (supposedly has softlocking issues).
A remaster we never needed, but I vastly appreciate from the bottom of my heart. Honestly one of the best remasters ever made especially given hardly anyone from Prime's dev team is still at Retro.
Rating these together because I can't separate it but I think the GBC ports as a whole are probably my recommended way of playing these two (or at least DQ1, 2 you may wanna go SNES).
Dragon Quest 1 through this port has aged really well, quaint little RPG you can punch out in a few sittings tops, if not one straight shot. I do think that it has growing pains but given how seminal it is, I'm willing to excuse it a bit.
Dragon Quest 2 improves a bunch and I'm sure if we were talking NES I'd call it a straight improvement, but I think it's in this awkward spot where it loses the quaint feeling from DQ1 while not having a fully realized scope to warrant that. I'm willing to somewhat excuse it again since this is the first one with multiple party members, but yeah it's more contentious for me. Endgame was hellish to boot.
Anyway I think I prefer DQ1 out of the two and I probably won't revisit 2 anytime soon even if it aged way better than Final Fantasy 2 lmoa
Dragon Quest 1 through this port has aged really well, quaint little RPG you can punch out in a few sittings tops, if not one straight shot. I do think that it has growing pains but given how seminal it is, I'm willing to excuse it a bit.
Dragon Quest 2 improves a bunch and I'm sure if we were talking NES I'd call it a straight improvement, but I think it's in this awkward spot where it loses the quaint feeling from DQ1 while not having a fully realized scope to warrant that. I'm willing to somewhat excuse it again since this is the first one with multiple party members, but yeah it's more contentious for me. Endgame was hellish to boot.
Anyway I think I prefer DQ1 out of the two and I probably won't revisit 2 anytime soon even if it aged way better than Final Fantasy 2 lmoa
A remake I didn't think I would ever see come about. The original game is a welcome expansion given how short it was on DS. I never played Another Code R before but I loved it here, though I learned about the massive amount of rewriting in its back half that makes me wanna play the original sometime. I also think they sanded down the puzzles a bit too much given what I remember about the DS original and what I heard about R's Wii puzzles.
I really REALLY hope we see a Kyle Hyde duology remaster
I really REALLY hope we see a Kyle Hyde duology remaster
So fucking peak. I have some nitpicks with certain points gameplay-wise, but they're very small. Absolutely makes up for XB3's kinda weird climax, and it makes me beyond excited for the future of Xeno.
Really really good, absolutely recommended, but I feel like the final stretch was half-baked, and too much critical story content is treated as optional and missable, leaving a few arcs potentially stonewalled if you didn't get to them.
Everything else about it is utterly sublime though.
Everything else about it is utterly sublime though.
I cried.
Really good expansion, love the combat to the point of wishing XB2 base could be played with these systems. All that being said I think the community gatelocking is far too awkward and should have been breadcrumbed better considering you only really get hit with it in the earlygame and literally right before the end. It's a pacekiller if you're not the type to inherently plug away at sidequests.
Really good expansion, love the combat to the point of wishing XB2 base could be played with these systems. All that being said I think the community gatelocking is far too awkward and should have been breadcrumbed better considering you only really get hit with it in the earlygame and literally right before the end. It's a pacekiller if you're not the type to inherently plug away at sidequests.
It was good, but I do feel like it's for the best it was just marketed as a bonus for DE rather than its own standalone package a la Torna, since not much really happens in the moment here. Still definitely worth playing for a number of reasons though.