On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Meanwhile, Mister Fantastic is a doctor, and his last name is Richards.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “1. The desperation for cola is a holdover from the original Japanese script where cola and burgers were medicine.2. The TRAP spell is for pit traps you encounter outside of combat. "What pit traps, James?" Yeah I know. But after a certain dungeon later you are going to be like "OH. THOSE pit traps."3. In addition to attacking all enemies guns also have a 100% hit chance, I…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “It makes a lot of sense that they'd allocate more space for names in a Wizardry port - all the original text is in English because it is an American game. ”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I consider myself a fan of the Phantasy Star games (sans the online ones), and heck, even I find the simplistic combat and high encounter rate almost unbearably tedious (oh yeah, and the PS2 dungeon with overhead pipes and cloud effects...ugh). It took them until PS4 to finally come up with a halfway decent combat system that alhad a bit of strategy to it (with the combos in particular). But I…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “"Both churches and healers use crosses. I don't think that would be allowed in an NES game."It would have been interesting if they had used the traditional Japanese symbol for hospitals.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Having a forest named after the town it surrounds seems appropriate to me, so often many fantasy names of places seem to be just completely unrelated to each other.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Dr. Doom is not a real doctor. https://screenrant.com/doctor-doom-marvel-name-not-real-doctor/”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “When it came to crosses Nintendo wasn't the most consistent. With Christian ones sometimes they'd be removed, and sometimes you get something like Castlevania 3 starting with you praying to a giant cross with the only change being that it isn't glowing. Meanwhile with the red cross the one that didn't like it used was the Red Cross, because they don't like it being used for…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “It's interesting to consider whether equipment in a game like this should count as part of character development - because of how tightly it's restricted to specific characters. Like, is there a meaningful difference between collecting XP to unlock a new ability and collecting money to buy a new weapon that only a specific character can use?”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Istanbul is fun, because, of course, it was called "Constantinople" by the Greek colonizers who built it, but when the locals took over, they called it what the travelers would always tell them when they asked where they were going: "eis ten polin" - literally "To the city".But what this reminds me of most of all is Torpenhow Hill in England, named for a succession…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I don't remember having to do nearly this much grinding in this game. I recall having to grind a little at the start, but after that I would run into so many encounters that I could save up the money needed for equipment upgrades and necessary purchases over the course of normal exploration. Meanwhile, experience was basically pointless since the power gain from equipment upgrades dwarfed…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Reminds me of the Sahara, which is literally just Arabic for "the desert". Or İstanbul, which is Greek for "the City".”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Not sure about the doctorate, but I'm pretty sure his real name is Victor Von Doom.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I hated the dungeon map layouts in Phantasy Star 2, and the parallax layer of overhead pipes just made it worse.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I think it's a bit harsh to use 'banallure' for Perihelion at least. IIRC it's a hot planet, scorched by solar flares. 'Perihelion' means 'the closest point in a planet's orbit to its sun' - so it could be that it was named by spacefarers as the very essence of 'perihelion'. If Midnight had been an especially dark realm, that would have worked too.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “It may be down to me being immersed in web forum culture, where the customary term for removing someone's posting privileges is "ban", but to me, "banallure" sounds like the temptation of the forbidden.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “... and that I want to form a band for some reason”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I would like to say that I really enjoyed the humour in the writing and the captions to this post so much that I'd bookmark this feed even if I wasn't interested in CRPGs. Thank you for the good time!”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Brings to mind the fact that (at least at one point. I think it's been retconned by now as a nom du guerre), Dr. Doom's doctorate was honorary, but "Doom" was his real name.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “It's also a bit unfair to complain that the game draws on too long and that you've hit the level cap too early when you grind so much.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Harming an animal has been the cheapest trick in the book to make you detest a villain, and it works on me as well.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “It would be nice to think the game is coming to an end. I feel like I've basically experienced it at this point.The third planet is not large (but can be a bit confusing) and then there's a bit of backtracking and then it's the endgame, so you're not far off.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I assume I'm supposed to find polymeteral and use it on one of those piles of junk to reveal the robotIn a comment on a previous post, I mentioned how the game's logic defeated me on a replay. This was the point. I knew Hapsby was in one of the junk piles from the previous playthrough, but the game wouldn't let me find him. Why? Because I hadn't spoken to the NPC that told me he…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I liked how Dark Souls did lava, it was very lethal unless you stacked fire resistance gear, which would allow you to cross small pools in order to reach some treasure (or do speedrun skips). Elden Ring turned it into a minor inconvenience a la Phantasy Star, though.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Even as a dog person, I approve of attacking someone that wants to slay cats, so good riddance, Dr. Mad.Also, good to know that Casba Dragons rock, by which I mean that they have gems.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Welcome to the padded section of the gameplay! Given that level ups have diminishing returns and that there is a lot of backtracking on the only section of open world, it is clear that the random battles/maze part of this backtracking is completely unnecessary. But hey, 80s game design, growing pains.And whenever I see the city Casba I start singing mentally "Sharif don't like it"”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “That makes sense, the Italian Alti means higher and plano means floor. But I assume both would be from the Latin meaning something like "Higher Level", thus making sense as a word for a plateau. A pleonasm it surely is.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “In Spanish "altiplano'" just denominates a plain at an elevated altitude (compared to its surroundings), so an "Altiplano plateau" is somewhat of a pleonasm. There are a couple places named this, most importantly the Andean highland covering parts of Bolivia, Peru, and Chile (I've been to the larger area and seem to recall our host also having been in Chile early in…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “...sorry to double post, but I just ran a search on that issue, and it turns out that there's an bug that kicks in if your defense is higher than the enemy's attack, which seems to treat the "negative damage" the enemy would have done as positive. No wonder.https://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php?topic=215.0”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Regarding Odin's best weapon, I seem to remember it being a toss-up as to whether his final axe was better than the best gun you get for him. I think I ultimately went with the gun (fixed damage to multiple enemies as opposite to potentially more damage to one enemy, IIRC), but I don't think it matters that much.If you want to save yourself a bit of tedium in the last stretch (and the…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “"They grow on the Altiplano plateau" - my limited Italian translates that as "Higher floor".”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “The simplicity and sheer number of random battles is what made me tap out to Phantasy Star. I made it through the sequel, but that took a lot of willpower and a few peeks at a walkthrough. I hope you make it to the end so I never have to go back. Hahahahaha”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Banalluring sounds like a pretty good choice for the specific constellation you describe. A more general term for a game whose title promises more than it delivers could e.g. be baitnamed or baitly named.We've seen other games where you just take some damage from walking across lava instead of dying (almost) instantly, like MM Xeen or Warriors of the Eternal Sun. Fantasy CRPG logic, I guess.…”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “"It would be nice to think the game is coming to an end. I feel like I've basically experienced it at this point. I have all the spells listed in the manual. Many more hours would feel superfluous."It's been a while since I've played it, but I think you're maybe about 60-70% through. You've got 13 hours in, so I'll predict your finishing time will be 19 hours.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star banallure: “What is with the cola shortage around here?Never played this game, but this reminds me of the game-within-the-story for Dream Park where a cargo cult used, among other things, cola for magical power.”
On Mar 25 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Considering I am halfway through 2018 in my efforts to read every post it is insane that I accidentally scrolled over and saw CRPG Addict's comment here but it was so confusing that I had to see what it was a response to, and I am not disappointedBefore the huge JRPG boom when everyone and their dog was into anime? Yeah, sounds like 1996 at the latest from my recollection. I had just…”
On Mar 25 commented on quest for glory iii summary and rating: “Well you can certainly tell from his feelings on background music that CRPG Addict either does not have ADHD or has a different type than the "two videos playing simultaneously on your social media feed and a TV show playing in the background" that has become so commonplace these days.I have made the occasional post lamenting his feelings about music as an erstwhile computer/game…”
On Mar 24 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Ahhhhh the Chet-Harland banters are back. I missed them.”
On Mar 24 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I didn't realize Reddit had been around since 1990.”
On Mar 24 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “I guess the full version could be referred to as Schrodinger's Game...”
On Mar 24 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I once, back in the Reddit days when they still were on the side of free speech, saw a meme titled JRPG-incomprehensible.jpg.It was a screenshot of that very moment, in a spaceport with Alis in her knee skirt and the in-game caption said, "There is a cake shop in the cave."The whole thread was people just shaking their heads. And posting links to similar bizarre screenshots on imgur.…”
On Mar 24 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Those silly-sounding questions are so if they do later catch you trying to overthrow the government or whatever, that they can charge you with lying on your immigration forms an deport you all the faster. As we've seen lately, BigLaw firms can put up a huge fight on behalf of illegal aliens and they have real power and will work for free, in a way their would never do for their fellow…”
On Mar 24 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “Unless it turns up or there's feedback from the developers, we'll never know for sure. If it existed, I wouldn't be surprised if the 50-level number was extremely padded, e.g. by implementing small level segments as separate levels with teleporters.”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “Well, if I misinterpreted the text, that's no surprise. But I still think it's highly unlikely that they ever finished the full version. What are the odds that a 50-level game was produced has no mentions online?”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “I would have preferred they map it to a key, like the SPACE bar.”
On Mar 23 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Thanks for reminding us!”
On Mar 23 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Thanks for checking in, Harland. We were worried about you. It sounds like you don't plan to visit much more, though, which I hope isn't the case.”
On Mar 23 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “good luck and good smiles =)”
On Mar 23 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Oh wow, this game! My little brother had it in SMS, an otherwise pretty crappy console, and I actually played it all the way through and won it. Zillion, too. I remember this part, getting the cat and realizing there were only 4 characters in the game. And also that the game world was relatively barren. I too wanted to earn the billion credits, but didn't. I hate when they put chat or talk as…”
On Mar 23 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “This is the CRPG Addict Blog!”
On Mar 23 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Speaking from experience, I think the only time I had trouble with emulating any Mac game it was just something that ran off a CD, and that was just sound issues. Mind you, I don't really go for intensive titles in Mac emulation just yet.Regarding softlocks: V guvax gur ceboyrz jvgu gur cbvfba cbgvba jbhyq or zber gb qb jvgu abg ernyvmvat lbh fubhyq or xrrcvat vg nebhaq, gura onpxgenpxvat naq…”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “Nah, there would be a lot more stuff if there was a full version. Unless you're going to be boring and just use content you had in your shareware version, you need a lot more stuff to populate 50 levels, which is just as much work (if not more) as making yourself a working DM-clone.”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “Speaking of swords, that icon reminds me of the crossed sword icon in Warlords (used for diplomacy I think). ”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “The developers could have simplified it to just clicking on enemies to attack, without needing to click the sword button first.”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “There's no proof that the full version didn't exist, just as is there is no proof that it did exist. Besides, the shareware version looks like a finished product that is just missing a lot of levels. From my understanding kickstarter demos are usually much further away from completion.”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “All Event Horizon/Dreamforge games allowed to print their dungeon maps, if I recall correctly. Coincidentally, they also had really large dungeons.”
On Mar 23 commented on omega rich game world: “SPOILERSOver 30 years have passed since I last played Omega. I bought it as a shareware with few marks (our currency before euro). My memory is pretty vague and I do not know what the ultimate WIN situation is, but I did finish the Ultimate Challenge without any online help:The game throws you in a room where there are 5 chasms, one for each element and one void. You need to have 4 elemental Orbs…”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “"Now, maybe there's some nuance here that I'm not getting in translation, but it sounds to me as if they haven't actually completed the full version, and they're waiting to see if they get enough people interested before they take the time to do so."It sound like an early access game. An Ur-Example?”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “An interesting SHORT (not quite a BRIEF?). The background you surface up here evokes Kickstarter demos - contribute if you want to see this become reality. ”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “In case of Guido Henkel that was Linel (a Swiss publisher, never heard of them) and mostly Starbyte. Which lead to them self-publishing the older Drachen von Laas and then Realms of Arkania. Not as shareware, though. (Hey, Doom was also Shareware - the coincidences keep coming ;) )I don't think shady publishers were a German problem in particular, though the fact that these publishers were…”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “I agree with Menhir and VK, to a native German the message reads more like "We made this game, if you liked it so far, please support us so we can stay independent from a publisher". The sad truth is, in the 1980s and early 90s some of the so-called "publishers" in the German games market had some, let's say, less than savory business practices - at least two German…”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “The Summoning (1992) also supported printable maps”
On Mar 23 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I have some cool memories of Hired Guns in the 90s, even playing it solo, even if I never got very far. The 4 simultaneous screens thing is very neat and original, and the level design is actually great, with a 3-dimensional grid, something quite rare for blobbers at the time. Too bad there's no character development beyond weapons/ammo (something we'll encounter with system shock too).”
On Mar 23 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “Very peculiar to have a separate program to explain the interface like that.That plant monster looks like the sort of thing Erol Otus used to do in TSR modules and books.Any game with cheese has to be worth a play.”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “In the day you would know whether save / load had worked, because you'd hear the disk grinding for the expected time, the stopping.Even with hard disks you could guess, but now everything is silent. It's actually annoying me lately when I play Old World - I click on the shortcut, but sometimes there is no 'Steam game launching' method, and nothing happens for a few seconds until…”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “SS runes were far more "vertical" than the lightning bolts in the screenshot, and more importantly only had that meaning when there were exactly two of them (to the point that a fair number of typewriters in the Reich were fitted with a specific key to make both at once). A single siegrune meant nothing, nor did groups of two or more.”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Does SheepShaver run fine for other people, then? It always feels like it's slightly struggling with performance no matter what I do with the settings, even on good hardware, so I've always used Basilisk II for anything that runs on a 68k.Back to PiD itself, I was surprised to see it on the list; I'd probably describe it as a proto-fps/adventure game blend rather than a crpg in any…”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “I played a DOS Rougelike back in about 1990 that had printable maps. The catch was that they had to be purchased with in-game currency (and they were VERY expensive). I have long forgotten the name of the game, but I seem to recall that our host has covered it. ”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “I agree with VK, as a native this reads as "We made this game, please support us making more games in the future". So I wouldn't call it a scam unless we know for sure that there was no full version ever finished (and no money ever taken without delivering).”
On Mar 22 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “> "how many potential revolutionaries do they catch out of that?"ALIS: They're not "catching me" every time I go in there. I, uh.... um... I'm going for the "get to Level 30 before leaving Palma" challenge. Yeah that's it.”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “No damage feedback is a cardinal sin in my book.The spell creation screen got me even more concerned, with those little lightning bolts looking exactly like the official SS-runes; there must have been a better way to depict this, especially for a German developer.”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “I read it the same way, they state that the full version existed for people willing to pay the price, so that (repeating VK here) they can continue as independent publishers.Sounds like a scam, to be honest...”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “Printable maps is such a great idea. We need to send that idea back to the 80s in a time machine and popularize it”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “The way I read it, the devs just say they're hoping to get enough registrations to justify going without a publisher so that they can continue being an independent developer.There's a confusing German syntax rule by which the verb in a subordinate clause must come last, so "belohnt wird" related to "dies", not to "Vollversion".”
On Mar 22 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “It saddens me that you are unable to, for instance, click on the sword button, your cursor changes, then you can just click on the enemies and have it be understood that you want to attack them.”
On Mar 22 commented on game 464 fushigi no umi no nadia 1991: “Kind of weird, for years now I can't post using Blogger anymore. I can see my old blog, but all attempts to post a comment from my account just fail.Anyway, posting by name still works, so here we go.Nadia, huh? I still remember watching that show on TV, it was fun. One of these days I should rewatch it.Kind of funny to learn they made an SRPG out of it.”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “All the documentation, including the "official spoiler book", is also available at Mocagh.org .”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Star Control 2 getting the Amiga community to make music for it despite the game not releasing on said platform will always stand out as one of the most audacious coups for me - not least of all because it worked, but because it worked so well. Toys for Bob used the Orz music in their pre-game logos for 10 years! You'll find 2000s' kids in the comments on YouTube saying "So…”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I've seen PiD described as survival horror by some because of the early game, but I'd say you really just have to get used to the knife until you reach a certain point. Oh, and the time limit isn't too bad, I remember having plenty of time to complete the mission.Oh, getting back to emulation, the game seems to work fine under any OS released after it that you can emulate in…”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I would say that the two platforms, even by now, tend to have different music and sound effects, since Amiga games tended to have .mod files for music, and DOS would have something that could adapt to your sound card. (or CD audio) Which isn't set in stone of course, but I do note that every DOS game I've played that used .mod for music was original to DOS for some reason.”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “It's a very good game. I spent many hours in the 90's playing it co-op with a friend.We couldn't decide if we wanted Captive II or Hired Guns, so in the end we got both. I bought Captive II (Amiga) and he bought Hired Guns (DOS). He got the better end of the deal!”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Yeah, it looks like it's a multiplayer-focused game, but it's a great in single-player mode. I only played multi-player a handful of times back in the day, and never managed to play it with four people, but in two player mode, it was tremendous. The deathmatch aspect didn't work so well, but as a co-op game it was tremendous - like a kind of cross between Aliens and an Iain M Banks…”
On Mar 22 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “(CHAT hasn't worked once. Neither has the "Talk" action, even on humanoid enemies).CHAT and the TALK command both work on certain enemies, but it's never made clear which ones. I suppose you have to trial and error it. Oddly enough, the Rsnezre rarzl lbh fubj whfg nsgre gnyxvat nobhg vg qb erfcbaq gb GNYXvat.”
On Mar 22 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “In our dreams, we're attacked by a "saccubus" with 255 hit points.It is just about possible to kill the Saccubus, but it's not worth the reward. I think you get 1xp.”
On Mar 22 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “So this is the sort of game where you can't find things ahead of time; you can only find them when certain plot points have been tripped. Indeed. I didn't realise this the second time I played, so I rushed ahead to a certain point to pick up a certain item, but it wasn't there! I was baffled until I tried talking to the NPC that told me to look where I'd already been looking.”
On Mar 22 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “In fairness, the US visa document you had to fill in on entry (I don't know if it still exists) had a question that asked "Do you intend to overthrow the government of the United States? Y/N"Putting aside their touching confidence that I'm capable of such a thing, how many potential revolutionaries do they catch out with that?”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I have to laugh at a game of Talisman being considered brief. For a long time it was our group’s day-after-new-years game. For the entire day. With all 6 expansions, we were lucky to be finished by dark. The hangovers didn’t help, but it was big game. Simple enough to play while hung over, but man, it took a while.”
On Mar 22 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “As much as I love the boardgame, I have to concur that it's not an RPG. It does have the trappings - Strength and Spirit scores that are raised and lowered as the game progresses, and even a rudimentary version of experience points, as defeating enough foes increases your Strength. But it's not a CRPG. As a board game adaptation it wouldn't take long to play through and get a feel…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Talisman was originally a multiplayer board game. I agree with the assessment that it technically meets your most basic criteria (barely). It's a game we had alot of fun with as D&D players when we only had a few hours. It's highly dependent on dice rolls to land on specific squares to get specific encounters depending on what class you choose (or get assigned randomly). So if you…”
On Mar 21 commented on game 275 spurgux 1987: “ I'm pretty certain that PECTOPAH is a play on Finnish day tourists getting plastered in Soviet Union (at the time) due to much cheaper alcohol. Mostly SPb.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Oh, you should definitely try it, fireball! I think it’s a really interesting game, and a great experience. It’s a pity it isn’t better known, to be honest.Just be aware that it can take a bit of getting used to, especially the movement, which is so different from modern titles (where everyone zips around everywhere). It also gets pretty tough at points, both in the puzzles and in the fighting.…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “PS: It also has the advantage of having all the documentation for the game put together in one place.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Yes, the version finally made playable in 2004 needed the emulator set to NSTC - its stated on this page on GB64 (describing the process to produce said version) as well as this thread on Lemon64 (linked in a footnote in your coverage of and documentation on the game on StrategyWiki).As mentioned when we first discussed this here on the blog, there is also a newer (2021) 'proper' version…”
On Mar 21 commented on the master game list: “Hmm, it was on the MGL for a long while, I recall it being mentioned several times by commenters. Maybe it was dropped because one of the main sources changed its qualification and this came up during Chet's periodical review of said source?Its predecessor, Uncharted Waters, is still on the MGL (maybe owing to different sources review cycles) though both are described / categorized as RPGs in…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I am all for REALMS OF DARKNESS. I played the C64 version in 2019, and I think it may reach 35 on the GIMLET. The Apple version was unplayable: it froze as soon as a combat starts. The C64 version requires to "tick" one option in a menu of the emulator... I forgot which one exactly... NTSC, maybe ? I will check it. ”
On Mar 21 commented on the master game list: “May I wonder about "New Horizons: Uncharted Waters II" title, as in, "is there a reason it is not on the list?". I've checked, it is listed as a RPG in two of the places, while still called strategy/simulation in others (it's a bit like "Pirates!", but still. Here it is called an RPG: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/564431-new-horizons/faqs …”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “It is absolutely playable for one person. I completed it alone a few years ago (having never played it properly in the nineties). Despite a lot of awkward elements, I kind of fell in love with the game and it's one of those games I'm in retrospect really glad to have completed. Like Ultima Underworld (which annoyed and delighted me in many of the same ways).It isn't an RPG, but if you…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I'm intrigued enough to want to play it myself now. Thank you Kass for all the information. ”
On Mar 21 commented on wizardry vi king of mountain: “Reddit has a forum called "nocontext" in which people nominate comments that sound absolutely absurd if you don't know the surrounding context. This would be a perfect candidate for that forum. I started at it in my email and I couldn't figure out what you were possibly talking about.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “By 1994 DOS has started to reach parity or outright superiority with any other platform anyway, due to good video and sound cards becoming common in consumer level machines.The exceptions tend to be "lazy porting" rather than "the PC couldn't handle it" by then.”
On Mar 21 commented on wizardry vi king of mountain: “I think it's because they're all so afraid of being alone that they explore arm-in-arm in some sort of weird, 2-dimensional 'Truckin' style like the Monkees.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “The version I list is the version that I intend to play. That can be a subject of discussion, too, but as everyone probably knows by now:-Music doesn't interest me, so the fact that one platform has better music won't change the decision at all.-I will generally favor an easier emulation experience to slightly better graphics.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I would think Chet wouldn't be playing the Marathon engine mod. Game logic aside, it isn't the original nor an actual port, it's a mod in a different game engine. As you note, it moves away from the menus that the original had. I can see from the screenshot that it turns dialog into something you do via the console, which I can see harming the experience somewhat. That's not…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “It's a board game with character development. There's no choice to really make except which direction to walk when you roll the dice and see what space you land on. Save yourself and skip it.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “You would be mistaken, weapons have stats that increase as you use them. Pretty well putting it on par with a lot of other dungeon crawlers from the time.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I almost forgot! This game plays with a deliberately slow walking speed, to enhance the atmosphere. It works very nicely, but it can take some getting used to, and can be frustrating if you have very limited time for playing. However, there's a way to change that if you're playing the original game. Hold down control and type: turbo. That speeds the whole experience up!It’s not the core…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I remember Hired Guns much more as a local 4 player action game with a first person view. Then some ways to try and make it playable for one person.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Nice to see ‘Pathways Into Darkness’ on your list! I’ve played that game a bunch over the years, since first coming across it way back in the mid-90’s. I can offer you some info about it, and about the available versions. And I can answer questions if needed.I’d describe PiD as a hybrid of an FPS and RPG. It mixes properties of both, but doesn’t include the complete features of either. The result…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I'll echo those who say Talisman shouldn't count. The current iterations (especially the Talisman Origins single player video game) are probably worth considering, but the version you're considering isn't, IMO.”
On Mar 21 commented on the master game list: “[I had a Thomson filter in the link above, remove it to see a list in all its glory].”
On Mar 21 commented on the master game list: “May Chet forgive me, but I found this site WITH a RPG classification http://jeuxvideos8090.free.fr/index.php?Editeur=&Year=&Statut=&Type=8&Vue=&Machine=4&keyword= which compiles a lot of sources not found elsewhere, including the aforementionned DCMoto (now classified), CPCRulez, but also MSX, Oric, TI99, ...It has a lot of filters. RPGs are split between Aventure RPG…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Curious about Sandor II, very curious about your take on Hired Guns (its credits show an interesting pedigree in the people involved), and I think the Bungie game is interesting on how Bungie shaped FPS but not sure about the CRPG credentials. ”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I appreciate the detail in this story, thank you ”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “If we go by Chet's three rules for cRPGs (up until 2022) then Talisman qualifies, albeit barely: you have characters with different values in attributes, you can improve said attributes beyond just using equipment, and combat results are based on intrinsic values. That being said, all three of those rules are very basic...while I would describe Talisman as an "RPG-adjacent" board…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Talisman has a pretty funny history.In 1982, Helmut "Woof" Watson and Julian Fuller, two unemployed friends, created a wargaming magazine ("Miniature Wargames") using the money from an acquaintance: Stanley Gee. Then they realized there was an empty shop space below their office, so they bought it with Gee's money and opened a wargame shop, where they also sold video…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “You can download the original editions rules here: https://www.talismanisland.com/rules.htmThe mechanic where you exchange defeated enemies for strength points is already there (page 3, "Gaining strength").”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “HP growth is connected to fixed points you get from collecting certain objects, so no exp from killing monsters.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Is that true of the original edition VK? I know the expansions (1986 onwards) had some character development and the third edition (1994) introduced an experience mechanic, but I've never played the original.”
On Mar 21 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “In British/Commonwealth English (and apparently Hawaiian!?!), "bugger" has a general, milder, sense that has no sexual connotations.You might use it as an exclamation when you stub your toe, for example, or you might refer to a friend who's played a trick on you as a "cheeky bugger".It seems like that milder use is what we're seeing in this game.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I don't know about this Spectrum version, never played it, but the boardgame has proper character development that fully satisfies Chet's four criteria.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Agreed. Although Talisman directly and deliberately emulates the experience of a D&D type game, it's not an rpg. Later versions of the board game will add more to it and get closer, to an rpg but those are irrelevant to the Spectrum version.(There is something to be said about Games Workshop moving in early into the computer games space, but not for this blog!)”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I’d say it’s a successor to captives but with the focus on combat. It’s like this is the direction blobbers could have gone in but thankfully didn’t. Definitely an interesting offshoot to do a brief on.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “https://www.atarilegend.com/games/talisman a french Talisman from 1988, this one Non-Commercial.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Yes, I believe that HG was an Amiga original, although the DOS version came very soon after.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Agreed. Although Hired Guns isn't an rpg, it is interesting from the perspective of what it's not, as it's almost a genre in itself: a multiplayer first person shooter using dungeon blobber "language". It's worth a brief, certainly.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “A question on your summaries of the upcoming games: Is the platform mentioned the one you understand is (one of) the original one(s), the one you plan on playing (either for that reason or due to emulation being the easiest for you) or the only one you're aware of at this stage?In other words, is it worth mentioning e.g. that Hired Guns was released for the Amiga or Realms of Darkness also…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Hired Huns sounds like it could either be a CRPG with an interesting setting we haven't seen yet or a British WWII era insult ;-).”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Re Sandor II: bits of the manual / backstory in German are worded in a way that understanding a machine translation might be challenging, so maybe let us know if that's the case.To give one example I'm pretty sure will be confusing: "Kotalan zu zeigen wo der Bartel den Most holt." which would translate literally as "show Kotalan where the Bartel gets the must [fruit juice…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Yeah, it's even less than what HeroQuest was (which of course had the advantage of coming out 6 years later on 16-Bit hardware). MobyGames says:> The player can move left or right, occasionally he will need to select which location he moves into (north, south, etc). He searches of different things and occasionally fights with monsters. Fights are very random: in battle, pressing any key…”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “+1 for giving Hired Huns at least a BRIEF. I believe it'll be rejected for "Lack of Character development", but I also think it's RPG-adjacent enough to at least discuss the inspiration that it did take from the genre, and also probably compare it to 1993's Space Hulk which is kinda in the same "RPG-adjacent but really not" space.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Many sources, including contemporary reviews, put it in the "role playing game" category. Probably too many to not at least give it closer examination.”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “Pathways into Darkness is more of an adventure FPS game than an RPG, only your HP grows if i´m not mistaken”
On Mar 21 commented on upcoming games warriors of legend 1993: “I vote for skipping Talisman. The original board game is a roll-and-move and this Spectrum version looks like a simplified take on it.”
On Mar 21 commented on sentinel worlds final rating: “Taylor could be killed when you first meet her, bypassing the final engagement on the station.”
On Mar 20 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “"Yeah, it's funny how SMT acquired this mythical status on the blog of the 'ultimate JRPG that Chet for sure will hate' out of a couple of comments years ago." It got that reputation because I had one commenter who wouldn't stop shoehorning it into every comment that he made. He was obnoxious in so many other ways that I just started deleting everything that he posted.…”
On Mar 20 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “Possibly "crap" would have been a better equivalent for "scheiße" since it's often used like "garbage" or "worthless" in addition to the literal meaning: "That toaster is crap" = "That toaster is garbage." You can also say "cut the crap" for "cut it out." It's very casual but not quite profanity.”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Oh, man, I'm waiting eagerly! I'm sure I'll find out any day now.(I wish I could play it off that I was counting six unique letters, but nope, there are five. In my defense, I'm a well-trained dog typing on an Amiga.)”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “No, I've never invoked that rule since adding it to the sidebar. I guess I should probably just remove it.”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “I'm happy to provide that service, but for RPGs. I didn't get into this to write about other types of games. The changes I outline above should only result in my reviewing fewer non-RPGs.”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “I've had a few like that, but almost a thousand?! I just can't imagine. For me, the number is small enough that I'd rather have possibly-incorrect information in the year field than to compromise the field integrity. Otherwise, I guess I'd have an extra column to distinguish whether it's a known date or just a "most probable" date.”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Personally I think my logic was "Someone mentions the guy, might as well keep trying and see if something happens"”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Contrats on getting the gang together! Now watch Alisa vastly outperform all of them.”
On Mar 20 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “Isn't the band Sodom from somewhere around there? I seem to remember reading an interview in which one of the founding members said he'd started the band because he was looking for any alternative to spending the rest of his life in a coal mine.”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “Fortunately I'm not doing all 900+ at once! If you want to see the process in action, you can look at my write up on Fun House by Ramella from '82 which didn't have a year or even a name of the game (file was just marked "Adventure"). It was a type-in from someone who had a programming column for children and the code got detached from the source.In some cases there's…”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Wait until you find out that they start with the same seven letters!”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “ I'm curious whether Master of Magic will meet CRPG criteria with "ruling wizard" treated as an RPG character, since he can be created in meaningfully different RPG ways through communication of spells and perks, and develops throughout the game via spell research, magic skill training, and additional perk acquisition.”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “ BTW, here's a quite decent comparison of Japanese and English versions of Phantasy Star 1, which helps identify quirks in the translation, including renaming all D&D-borrowed bestiary:https://lizbushouse.com/phantasy-star-1-script-comparison-sega-ages-gba-part-1/- RandomGamer”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “@Delfayne, eh, I've seen more than a few games get posts saying it isn't a RPG based off very old memories, having not played what is a more complex game than they give credit or on a few occasions, simply because the commentor didn't like the game. Combined with the incidents that resulted in Chet deciding to close off commentor suggestions, I can see why Chet doesn't take…”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The purpose of the questions is for you to lie. Because "helped the Nazis 90 years ago" isn't NECESSARILY a crime, but lying on an official form is perjury, which is. ”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “"I don't know how an era player would be expected to figure that out."At least one kid at school would stumble onto it and tell everyone else. Or they would hear it from a cousin and pass it on. Or it would eventually be covered in a gaming magazine.”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “>Part of me wants to know what happens if you grind for 1 >billion mesetas and then say "yes."I do realise that this is not a serious question, but more than 32,767 Mesetas will (very probably) either crash the game or make the balance go negative. ”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I might be misremembering things, but if I recall correctly I had only one dungeon in PS1 give me any major trouble, and that was because its exploration required you to do or look out for something that doesn't really come intuitively... Personally I found that the dungeons in PS2 actually gave me far more trouble, especially late in the game. I still have a soft spot for both Phantasm Star…”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “It is probably making fun of the declarations you have to fill at a border check when traveling to a foreign country. These are some questions on the entry declaration from for the US people flying there had to answer at some point:“- Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance; or have been arrested…”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Oh, and while on the topic of weird RPG names’ origin “King’s Field” was taken from a golf course in the UK that one of the devs visited and he liked the name.”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “King’s Field can definitely be seen as a simpler/jankier cousin of the UU games (and I irrationally find somewhat annoying that some will have played only that and not UU, on the account of From Software later games’ popularity) but it still has a fairly solid and satisfying , if more basic, RPG gameplay loop of explore/fight/level up/gear up.I also would be interested to read Chet’s take on it,…”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “I just did a quick scan of the title list and it seems the only non-Japanese releases (besides two French games already played and very recent hobbyish ones) might be those of the Dutch company Umax (seven titles published 1990 - 2000 according to that page, one other is a demo compilation) - and even then probably only part of them qualify, plus some early ones look like amateur efforts.Maybe…”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “Since on the MGL page you just wrote "It's also not really worth your time to tell me that a game is not an RPG by my definitions. I'll figure that out when I go to investigate it. Until then, I'm not comfortable taking anyone else's word.", I assume the 'comments on upcoming games' page / entry would focus on the other potential issues Gnoman mentioned (bugs,…”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “Close to what I was going to suggest. Commenters have often stated X is/is not an RPG by their estimation of your rules. You have more than enough signal/noise ratio amongst your readership to get some trust on their curation assistance. This "comment period" post seems a decent place to get clarifications from”
On Mar 20 commented on the master game list: “Digging around sources on the net to find dates for a game sounds like fun. Then again, it sounds much more daunting doing it 8-900 times ..”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “PASSPORT LADY: Wait, aren't you Alis Landale? The sister of that guy Lassic's soldiers beat to death earlier today in Camineet?ALIS: Oh, no! Not me! You're thinking of some *other* Alis Landale! I'm definitely NOT the famous one!PASSPORT LADY: ...what's with the sword?ALIS: It's my, uh... *emotional support sword.* Sorry. Can't handle interplanetary travel without…”
On Mar 20 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Laconia, NH also has a legitimately world-renowned arcade called Funspot, with tons of classic-era machines. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the Lake Winnipesaukee area. (How is it only dawning on me now that Winnipeg starts with the same six letters?)”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “I have no access to Jason's list, but checking UVL, there are about 800 games worth of games without a year, so I have no trouble believing that Jason can come up with over 900. He knows so much about adventures he should write an encyclopedia.”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “Actually, I was mentioning it on the assumption that there might be a RPG for the system that wasn't originally in Japanese or a port of another game. Ever since Lunatic Dawn I've gotten the feeling that even if a translated game is good, Chet just isn't going to be interested in it.”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “I think in some cases while he hasn't quite used it, he has given up earlier on shareware games than he would for commercial titles. The Moraff games, for instance. Then there was Dragonblade/Gayblade/whatever the third name was, which he did a brief before he called them briefs since they were reskins of each other and probably could have played one to completion.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “@Gnomon, maybe? The tricky thing is that you are right that they're anomalies, but there are a few. The only other notable one I can think of is SMT, which genuinely is difficult, and not because of any mapping issues.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I remember someone pointing out the Cusinart blade, but I don't remember if that was in the comments or if Chet himself expressed dislike, so it goes back much further than we think.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I would point out that in the real world, it's entirely possible for a group of people to have names of English, German, Greek, Jewish, Roman, Scottish and Welsh origins and for it to be completely normal. We just don't notice it because they've become normalized over the centuries. Not too far off from any given example.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Laconia is a city in NH (and Chet is from the area), but I originally read it as a joke about New Englanders, who can be famously laconic (a term which is derived from the Spartans being, well, also famously laconic). "Can't get there from here" and so on.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I was going to mention this interview. The gender ambiguity for Lutz ("Noah") exists in the Japanese, too (this is much easier in Japanese, where elided and gender-neutral pronouns are more common), and apparently he was originally intended to be what we'd call nonbinary today. (In the later games I believe he's referred to as unambiguously male.)”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “As with a lot of things, those seemingly voluntary disclosures are usually tied to some kind of penalty-of-perjury and/or breach-of-contract signature. But they definitely rely on some degree of both "most people try to follow the rules" and "most omissions won't matter".”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “"Wizardry V and beyond do"The primary NPCs in Wizardry I are named "Trebor" and "Werdna", the names of the developers backwards, and the dungeon has an elevator in it. Typical playthroughs involve grinding on an enemy called "Murphy's Ghost". There's event tiles with statues of Fozzie Bear and a dancing frog. Also: "Trebor Sux".”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Someone figured out that all of the goofy Fighting Baseball names were generated by taking real baseballers (and hockey players) and subjecting their names to some kind of crude algorithm (seemingly with some manual adjustments, because it's inconsistent).”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Meanwhile, I'm picturing the following exchange.CHET: Why is your store in the bottom of a dungeon? You won't get any customers here.SHOPKEEPER: Uh-huh. And why are you here?CHET: To buy a cake from you.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “This is a real conversation I had with the agent for the buyers who purchased my last house:AGENT, holding a list of contractors who had worked on the house over the last year that for some reason I provided her: "We'll need statements from all of these contractors stating that there are no outstanding balances or disputes."ME: "But I PROVIDED you that list. You have no way of…”
On Mar 19 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “Sure, there's no end to the list of computer RPGs that didn't make use of the full interactive possibilities of the keyboard. I think my point is that I can't start a console RPG of this period with any HOPE that there's going to be any significant world interaction. Certainly, the situation gets better when consoles start shipping with more complex controllers, including two…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The dungeon exploring isn't difficult, the constant battles are what tears away at you.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Laconia in New Hampshire ?Laconia made me think of the region whose capital was Sparta, in Greece (I learned it from "Battle of Olympus", an action-adventure game).Arms made of Laconia may be the best equipment, but soldiers from Laconia were the best fighters ! This is Sparta ! ”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “@Risingson I guarantee he's played worse. And I'd still love to see his take on it. I have a weird soft spot for the game to this day.”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “I think Robert meant more literally what do the letters mean, not just what they indicate. When I initially set up the system, "NI" meant "No - Initial" and "NV" meant "No - Verified."”
On Mar 19 commented on revisiting wizards crown 1985: “That is interesting to hear! I am definitely not a fan of the movement UI in Wizard's Crown!”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “From the Master List page:Playlist: Given everything else, do I intend to play the game. Values: "Y": Yes, the game meets the criteria outlined above. "E": No, it doesn't meet my criteria, but I have made an exception and already played it. "NI": No, but I may make an exception in the future. "NV": No. I've checked that the game…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “While we're at it, the "the pizza delivery guy played the piano part on You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" story is also fake, even though Randy Bachman himself confirmed it.You can't trust artists. :P”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Interestingly, "Fighting Baseball" is not Japanese. It's the Japanese version of Visual Concepts' "MLBPA Baseball" (it seems like the MLBPA was unwilling to sell them the right to use real player names in Japan for whatever reason). So all those fake baseball players' names might have been made by Westerners!”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Yes, that's another amusing example. I didn't say it was unique to JRPGs.”
On Mar 19 commented on revisiting wizards crown 1985: “A small, amused note to say that with my review of Imperium Galactum, I have finally covered all of Paul Murray's [strategy] games (4 space games, 2 historical wargames) before he turned into a cRPG designer with Wizard's Crown. Let's say his utter disregard for interface goes back a long way. On the other hand, he really tried to always do new things, even though it rarely panned out…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “>I always feel like place and proper names are all over the place in JRPGs. The backstory is always like, "King Louis rules over the land of Syria with the aid of his wife, Queen Tatanka. The neighboring kingdom of Panipat, led by Duke Rostov, is threatening war!""Avatar comes to the land of Britannia to aid Lord British. He travels to Skara Brae, and with the aid of Toshi of…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “ Funny part is, when I went to Japan in 2000, my father's boss did a considerable detour on a road trip to some Buddhist or Shinto monastery in the middle of the mountains to buy some special rice cake there. He was an expert at buttering up the system, that boss. - RandomGamer”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I don't find that explanation all that satisfying. It seems to boil down to, "There were a lot of silly women on the staff, and it was one of their ideas," as if any number of people didn't have the power to say, "Wait. This doesn't make any sense."”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Yes, I guess James is right. I haven't felt the need to map any of the dungeons yet. I just keep following the right wall until I reach my objective. If I don't know what my objective is, I keep following the right wall until I'm back at the entrance. I might miss something that way, and if I do, I'll change my approach.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Udo Dirkschneider sounds like a guy with a small sword.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Schneider is derived from "schneiden" - "to cut", so I can at least imagine the thought process that resulted in giving that name to a guy with a big sword. But the word itself literally means "tailor".”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “La-Mulana (not an RPG) has a shopkeeper that points out he hasn't had a customer in 5000 years. The shopkeeper is, of course, a ghost.”
On Mar 19 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “I always supposed that when games used "ebony" as a stone they were just making a mistake and meant "obsidian".”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “This plus he hasn't even gotten to the hard ones yet. The dungeons he's blogged so far can just be wall-banged or otherwise brute forced, it's not until around Baya Malay or late Dezoris that you have to map or die.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “No mystery as to why that would be. A lot of jRPG fans have great difficulty with the dungeons because the first-person view with featureless walls is a huge anomaly for the genre - the most common exploration perspective by far is top-down - and is thus really disorienting due to unfamiliarity. Even if you have the idea of "hey, maybe I should map this", which not everybody's going…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “If you shell shortcake at the bottom of the dungeon, you probably have to charge a lot for it, since you're not getting many customers :)”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “That would be such a waste for Van Halen.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I've noticed that Japanese writers seem to think that the name "Schneider" is particularly badass, while for me thr image it conjures up is a comic relief landlord with a very limited understanding of consent.”
On Mar 19 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “While someone called out this use of "bugger" as Midwestern, this and a few other details calls it out to me as British. A quick search shows the crack group to be USA based, though unsure if the crackers also translated or if that amateur effort was supposed to be official ”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “When console RPG fans go back to play this one, they usually complain about the difficult dungeons. The dungeons don't seem to be phasing you at all, though.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The cake-shop-at-the-bottom-of-a-dungeon joke was repeated in Phantasy Star Online. I suppose you'll have to play that one someday, since there's a Windows port.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “@PRACZ, they're not "German-inspired" - they're actually just regular German dictionary words, used with very little regard as to what they mean or even which part of speech they belong to. "Frieren" means "to freeze", "Fern" is "far, away", "Sein" is "to be" etc.”
On Mar 19 commented on walls of illusion won with summary and: “Thank you dearest for digging into Walls of Illusion and thank you the people who contributed. I have systematically finished all of the 53 realtime blobbers that existed up to 2012 and Walls of Illusion was the last one. I was able to do so with the help of the notes and comments here. The perfectionist in me is extremely relieved to finally be able to put this game away. I am currently in the…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I think all names in Frieren are German-inspired, so at least it's consistent.”
On Mar 19 commented on dungeon hack won one: “Are the iniciative rules for combat encounters, in this engine versión were harcoded with exact 2e rules ”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I rarely trust game devs to tell truthful stories about their development - they love to embelish their stories and print the legend, with just a few exceptions - look how long took Ron Gilbert to even admit that he knew "On Stranger Tides" or the Resident Evil guy to admit there was just a tiny influence of Alone in the Dark. Or the many JRPG devs to start admitting the influence of…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Yeah, I think the point is "fetch quest with a lot of backtracking that does not even make sense, it just exist to be a fetch quest that increases the game length and forces you through random battles". It is not even consistent. Luckily I found everything by pure chance.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Oh God please don't make him play that ultra janky poor version of Ultima Underworld that is King's Field. We can admire FromSoft for a lot of things, but that game is not it. ”
On Mar 19 commented on the master game list: “In the Playlist field, I assume NV means "NeVer" What does NI mean? "Not If I help it"? :)”
On Mar 19 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “"I would point out that this is at the expense of limited interaction with the game world."With JRPGs, at least, that is the case. But it's the case with most mouse-driven CRPGs as well. In Baldur's Gate, you can click to interact with a dresser, but you aren't doing anything but opening its inventory. Same with operating a door, or disarming a trap.In a simplified system,…”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I mean they even make fun of it here in its original appearance, what with the shopkeep apologizing for the location.”
On Mar 19 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “"Why is there a cake shop in a cave?" Funny thing, Yuji Naka (who did programming for Phantasy Star) also asked the same thing! There's a 1993 interview with some of the people who worked on Phantasy Star that goes into, among other things, the origin of the cake shop in the cave:https://shmuplations.com/phantasystar/”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The basic concept isn't too bad in any context. Having an important official refuse to see you unless you do something to impress them is extremely believable. The ludicrous part is that it is a cake, that can only be obtained from a shop deep in a dungeon. Not even, from any of the in-game description, a special cake like the one in Earthbound. If the requirement was something like "get…”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “> Ah, I see. Classic console RPG logic. To gain an ally as part of an interplanetary revolution, I'm going to need to give the governor a cake that I bought in a cave—which of course is the only "sweet" in the solar system, in the only shop selling sweets in the solar system. This is not as much console RPG logic as is Japanese dealing-with-officials logic, where similar gifts…”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “A Trip to Camineet's Passport Officea very very short film script by Snorbbased on a true story (and several untrue ones)[PASSPORT OFFICE - INT. DAYLIGHT]PASSPORT LADY: Have you ever done anything illegal?ALIS: No...?PASSPORT LADY: Do you currently have an illness?ALIS: No?PASSPORT LADY: A passport will be one thousand meseta. Is that all right?ALIS: Yep! (pays) Question! Has anybody ever…”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “reminiscent of the unintentionally hilarious "Fighting Baseball" team rosters where a poor Japanese developer had to come up with whole teams of American sounding names such as "Bobson Dugnutt" and "Todd Bonzalez"https://imgur.com/old-japanese-console-game-fighting-baseball-had-some-creative-fake-names-players-KJJOKTS”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “the shortcake from the dungeon is kinda infamous. there's a joke about it in a later game.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Five-finger-licking discount. (I'll see myself out)”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “I feel like somebody did make this suggestion at some point, but it was an era when the issues were less obvious.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “My understanding is that most Western names sound equally exotic to Japanese speakers, regardless of the language they come from. So it doesn't come as "all over the place" to the developers.Essentially the inverse of the fairly common Western thing about pouring China, Korea, Japan, and the other cultures into a blender and serving up the slurry. ”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “Thanks for the mobile love, one of the sites I can follow through wi-fi at my job on my phone”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Maybe it's just a... sweet deal. (*ba-dum-tish*)”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “While the advertised price of the Shortcake is 1,000 Mesetas, the actual price is only 200. I do not know if this is a bug, a translation issue, or intentional. ”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “There's a great episode in Mrs. Davis where Jesus asks the main character to deliver a very specific cake from a very specific bakery to the Pope. But the baker hates the Pope for reasons, so when she learns who the cake is for, she charges a million euro for it. I wonder if the writers were getting there insipiration from this game.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The funniest example of this I know is the anime Frieren where all the wizards' names are just German verbs in infinitive. Though to be fair, Japanese developers and writers aren't alone in this. Western ones aren't particularly discerning when it comes to non-western names and toponyms either. Like, I absolutely love the Geneforge series, but the Trakovites…”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “I think it's more that they don't know what else to call a game in which you move a little icon around a screen and lose "hit points." I don't know what to call it, either, but that's not my problem.”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “I don't think it's come up that often. When it has, I guess I've chosen what I feel is the most likely date based on any available evidence. You have *911* games with no dates? That's crazy.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Speaking of console RPGs, I wonder if Chester would like King’s Field? I’ve been playing Shadow Tower lately (similar game from same developer) and it’s doing a great job of scratching my dungeon crawl itch.”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “That's an authentically good idea. Where were you 15 years ago?I originally read "emulation issues" as "emotion issues." It works either way.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “I always feel like place and proper names are all over the place in JRPGs. The backstory is always like, "King Louis rules over the land of Syria with the aid of his wife, Queen Tatanka. The neighboring kingdom of Panipat, led by Duke Rostov, is threatening war!"”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Wizardry V and beyond do, and lest anyone thinks I’m not being fair, I complained about it plenty in those entries.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Well, the game was inspired by Wizardry, and as I recall, Wizardry also has its fair share of willfull goofiness (as does the Might & Magic series). I mean, these are the series where important NPCs have names like "Hienmiety" or "Spaz Twit". Maybe this game wants to mimic that style of humor?”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Could make a great opening skit for a HGTV House Hunter episode. "I sell shortcakes at the bottom of a locked cave. My wife sells second hand passports. Our Budget is 1.5 million mesetas."”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The potion one is explained in the text. I just elided it. Opening the bottle causes it to mist out and cover Odin; he doesn't drink it.But the cake thing . . it's not like there aren't plenty of illogical moments in computer RPGs, but it's like they went out of their way with this one. I mean, why not make it that the governor really wants the amulet that his grandfather, a…”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “Speaking of logic: if Odin is turned to stone, HOW can he drink a potion? :)”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “"Ah, I see. Classic console RPG logic."That seems to be a common theme in every single paragraph.”
On Mar 18 commented on phantasy star gangs all here: “The terms "Palma", "Paseo" and "mesetas" caught my atention because there is a Spanish island called "La Palma", "Paseo" can mean "walk" or "promenade" in Spanish, and the Spanish currency before the Euro was called "pesetas". The first two can be coincidence, but that "mesetas" makes me think that at least…”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “What might help is a periodic "Comment period". Have a "these are the next 3-4 games on the list" entry every time you start the last game that's been commented on, so everybody who knows the games in question can discuss the merits, This is feedback you're already getting, but it is slapdash over the comment sections for unrelated games and thus any discussion is hard…”
On Mar 18 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “ ALL CAPS text is there so that stuff would be readable on TV without using binoculars. What's funny is that this is the fifth in a series of games with ALL CAPS text (Wizard's Castle, Walls of Illusions, Unlimited Adventures, Phantasy Star, and now this), and it is only now that Chet makes a point! Like, seriously - Unlimited Adventures had a big studio behind it, was meant to be played…”
On Mar 18 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “"Miss" and "chest" are absolutely on some idiot who divided assets between translators without giving them context and then didn't proofread the end result. I briefly worked as a translator from English in the late 90es in game and book industry.”
On Mar 18 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “ Profanity context is very hard to get right, as the rankings within different languages are rarely 1-to-1. Some, like "bloody", are impossible to translate literally. You need to have a very good command of language to do that, and this was clearly done by some ESL amateurs. They did a good job for what they tried to do, though. Bugger-wise, as of 1993, US was definitely ahead of the…”
On Mar 18 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “ PS. The string limitations with colloquialisms is most likely a function of the author compressing some of the lexicon in memory, so the translators had to find a version of "you" that would fit two letters of "du" to avoid modifying the code. The profanities can be genuine mistranslations.”
On Mar 18 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “ Regarding "da tower o'wizards" - it looks like the translators were attempting to fit 18 characters of "der turn der magier" in the original, for one reason or another, and failed to switch mentality to "wizards' tower". This feels with this translation, as it constantly abuses present continuous to translate from a language that seem to do everything…”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “ I would put it this way: Firstly, I think you should not blindly stick to random number generator, because reading about a bunch of crappy DM clones in a row is a slog. Leave a space for curated entry from time to time. Secondly, I personally more curious about some of the games you abandoned, like Antares, then about late C64 games that try to clone a more advanced gameplay in a hopelessly…”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “Out of curiosity: the rule that lets you "reject independent and shareware RPGs if they are clearly amateur efforts" has been in place for a long time, but have you ever used it?”
On Mar 18 commented on die prufung won with summary and rating: “Yes, but if you were interested in that sort of thing you might want to watch the original. Probably more difficult in 1993, but there were some options back then, and someone connected to an international cracker group probably had some connections. Music might be another source, not just rap, also punk, some rock music. The line "I have a fucking bad feeling about this", which is the…”
On Mar 18 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “Yeah, it's funny how SMT acquired this mythical status on the blog of the "ultimate JRPG that Chet for sure will hate" out of a couple of comments years ago.Probably something like FF7 or Chrono Trigger would be more fitting.”
On Mar 18 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “I don't think that puzzle in Hitchhikers is a relevant example. It's a puzzle that requires a nontrivial action from the player and it's also heavily hinted at.I'd argue that it's more an example of moon logic.”
On Mar 18 commented on the master game list: “@Morpheus: OK, I was holding back on that as I did not want to make myself even more impopular with our host ;-). I recall Chet saying/writing he's not 'obligated' to play games with fan translations (of course, in the end he can do what he well darn pleases), they'd go on the already quite large 'initial reject' pile with pure console games etc., but since you mentioned…”
On Mar 18 commented on ultima underworld summary and rating: “Yeah, that was one kick-orc game.”
Get this Recent Comments Widget
Hello Chet, I´m looking forward to your thoughts on Spellcraft and Magic Candle 3. I hope that professorship isn´t keeping you up too late each night.
ReplyDeleteHappy playing.
A Christmas Dungeon Adventure would be funny at this time of year to see :)
ReplyDelete