On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I had Nintendo and Playstation instead of Sega systems, so I never played Phantasy Star. But the trope was instantly recognizable to me. Reviewing a YouTube video of the game, yeah, it looks like the implication is that Lassic was possessed by Evil, and you find Darkfalz about to possess his next target right after you thought you have won the game. It does not state outright what is…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I think it’s less that there’s something wrong with the trope than that it’s given no proper buildup and underexplained, so it doesn’t land effectively (ironically, something that’s also true of the late-game twist in Betrayal at Krondor).”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “It's extremely traditional in Japanese media like manga and video games that the villains are misguided rather than truly evil, no matter how vile their deeds might seem. I think there are both historical and philosophical reasons at play. Sometimes that villainy is simply tragic, but often the hero and villain put aside their differences and become friends, which works fine if you are a…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I must be the rare person who did have a meh opinion on Earthbound; IIRC I got to somewhere shortly after getting the pencil eraser, saved and stopped for the day, and just never felt the need to come back to it.I played Mother 3 years later and had no problems playing that one through all the way to the end. I may have just been lucky, but I was impressed with the pacing on just how tensely…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Lorigulf.If you insist on taking the term "pro approach" only in the most literal sense, I can rephrase it as "expert approach" or "practiced approach".”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I really enjoyed FF6 as a kid and played it through three times, but looking back I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who puts gameplay as a priority.”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Which is a funny thing to say as prior to this entry many commenters mentioned having to map during their play throughs and that the act of mapping may actually allow the addict to enjoy it more as he goes. O well.”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “P-tux7. Succubus being female and incubus being male are modern inventions of pop culture. They were able to change their appearance based on who they were seducing and it was whether they used domination or submission that was the delineator. Regardless apparently a Saccubus is more concerned with violence than seduction anyway ”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Chet hasn't really played remakes of games like that before, unless Chet played one of those fan Windows ports of Dungeon Master back when he played that. You can even see it here where people who played the Switch remake of the game had a much different experience than people who played the SMS version. That said, I do wonder how Chet is going to treat games like Suikidoden or Final Fantasy…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Earthbound has a few interesting things in it, but whether or not Chet gets to it or not depends on his ability to get through Japanese-style Americana and the...unusual combat system. Mother, on the other hand would probably leave Chet scratching his head.”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Yeah I don't know if I'd be able to rate PS4, Chrono Trigger, FF6 against each other exactly because they're both good in very different ways.I actually personally think PS4 is around the correct length these days because so many games are way too long. A tight 20-25 hour experience (I haven't played it in forever so this is a random number) is much easier to be satisfied by than…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “> The game won't even tell me how many hit points he has.Darkfalz has 510 hit points, per the Switch version's bestiary. The reason he can attack you twice is......he's actually *two* monsters, each one with 255 hit points. (This is why Odin's guns and Noah's Thunder spell hit him twice at the start of the fight, and once later on. It's because the party killed one of…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I think part of what has to be appreciated about phantasy star 1 is that like dragon quest 1 or final fantasy 1, this is the ground floor of a series that's going to be incredibly influential. Imagine judging the ultima franchise by ultima 1. I get the frustration that for late 80s, these console rpgs seem behind pc equivalents of the era but legitimately "ultima 1" is a good…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Agree with all points. A fair review.Whilst I like Phantasy Star, I like it most for the setting. Whilst I prefer fantasy, this was refreshing. PS1 though was far goofier than I remember and very forced..everything there to service the player's journey, as you say. PS1 and 2 are both heavily on the grinder side. I believe that gets better later but.”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “From what I've heard, if Myau dies during the gold dragon fight you end up with a party wipe. Since you no longer have a flyer keeping you in the air.”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Note that Dark Force gets explained better in the later games. Though I doubt you'll play them. PS2's grinding and long dungeons (though they're top down view like the rest of the game) are much worse than PS1's.”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “What gave me Skyrealms of Jorune vibes was the image of Baya Malay, with the top down view on the floating land above the ground landscape. Reminded me of the floating pieces of land in Alien Logic (with cruder graphics), which we'll probably come across in 1994.But I think I may have misinterpreted something. Baya Malay isn't actually the floaty bit, it's just a mountain that's…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “@Walter M: Yes, I understand at least some interpretations think Swift chose that name on purpose, being aware of the Spanish meaning, though it seems there are different arguments as to the reasons behind it. In any case, it lead to the name for the floating island / castle being slightly changed in many Spanish-speaking countries, both in Gulliver's Travels and in the anime. So the…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Oh, Laputa in Gulliver’s Travels was absolutely named for that reason…”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Busca: The Spanish coincidence is unfortunate, since changing the title for international audiences misses the reference to the airborne land in Gulliver's Travels. Though with Jonathan Swift's sense of humor, maybe it wasn't such a pure coincidence?”
On Apr 05 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Robert K.: Oh, absolutely. After Earthbound stole my heart, I gave Mother a try and could NOT get into it, even though I'd been looking forward to it since I saw a preview of the (later canceled) NES version in Nintendo Power. Many years later I finally restarted and finished Mother, but there were a lot of rough patches.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “You don't even need to argue technicality, Suikoden 1 and 2 both have PC releases as of a month ago (in a lightly visually remastered form, but the core gameplay is unchanged).”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “The Baldur’s Gate games allowed you to write party-member specific AI scripts that were quite sophisticated - as I recall you could edit the ones that the NPCs all ran on.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Another funny thing is that while they have the "appears in dreams" aspect correct in regards to Saccubus... succubi are female.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “That line about feeling like the game played you rather than the opposite really resonates. I've played plenty of JRPGs, but even at their most dynamic it often feels like they're something you clock into instead of something you play on your own terms.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I was reminded of the titular Castle in the Sky from the Studio Ghibli anime by Hayao Myazaki (天空の城ラピュタ, Tenkū no Shiro Rapyuta), also known under the (for Spanish-speaking regions unfortunate) name Laputa, which came out in 1986, i.e. a year before PS was released. Might have been an influence.Also, there is the Flying Citadel we saw in 1990's Champions of Krynn. Not sure when one first…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “@CRPGAddict, the numbers are only there because all the cool nicknames without them are already taken.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “ Oh, there's even a conspiracy theory that it should be "Dark Phallos". Seriously, the site that I linked earlier on covers it extremely well. Here's the page on Dark Force:https://lizbushouse.com/phantasy-star-1-script-comparison-sega-ages-gba-part-14/”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “ I, obviously, haven't played this, but for 1987 it seems a standard amount of open, with a starting quest, then going after Disassembulet of Yendor, then doing a boss fight. The plot is very weak.”
On Apr 04 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Now I'm talking to an NPC who says it's Mt. Gurdenbad, so I don't know whether I mis-transcribed it the first time or whether the game isn't consistent.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “The Ninja and Sage classes are the reward for a long optional dungeon that's only accessable right before the end. For all that trouble you would be very disappointed if those classes weren't better than the others.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Doesn't every party in FF3 wind up as 2 Ninjas and 2 Sages?”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I would recommend playing BoF2 with the retranslation patch. ”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I believe "Darkfalz" is just wrong romanization of the kana. It should be "Dark Force". ”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Final Fantasy 3? Really? I played that one, and I found that both the combat system and the dungeon layouts were a lot less interesting there than in Final Fantasy 1 or in contemporary computer games.FF3 does have a class change system, but it basically boils down to "now for THIS dungeon, you're going to need THESE classes" - sometimes NPCs tell you what "these classes"…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Robert K., if you're interested in more modern heavily configurable pseudo-scripted Player Character combat AI behavior, have a look at Dragon Age: Origins, or, very recently, Unicorn Overlord.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “"FF6 is so easy I don't think it would grab anyone from a system complexity perspective because all the stuff is kinda just there to be there, you can beat the game playing it in a very simplistic manner. I love FF6 don't get me wrong."I wouldn't really say FF6 has complexity, but it certainly has flexibility. You can do what you want in the late game. But yeah, both FF6 and…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Just looked up how gambits in FF12 work and no, this is actually a lot more involved, this game has entire If>Then conditional priority lists of actions for each character. I think I need to add FF12 to my to-play list, this sounds amazing. Thanks!”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Makes it harder now to identify who actually did what on games we loved, too. I hate it. The people who composed music for the Mega Man series for example deserved to be getting awards and recognition for what they pulled off on a sound chip with three channels + one noise.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “It's okay to acknowledge that a game you loved earlier in life isn't actually that great, looking back. It doesn't invalidate your happy memories of playing it.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I do think Chet's reaction to Final Fantasy Tactics would be interesting, though.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “FF6 is so easy I don't think it would grab anyone from a system complexity perspective because all the stuff is kinda just there to be there, you can beat the game playing it in a very simplistic manner. I love FF6 don't get me wrong.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Despite what I say above about its faults, there's a lot to like about Phantasy Star and a lot of things it does well, even with a critical modern eye.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Mother honestly has all the worst sins of early console RPGs. I have fond memories of playing it on an emulator back in my early internet days but I don't think it's going to change anyone's mind who already doesn't like cartoony graphics and tolerate endless repetitive grinding and back-loading most of the story. I think it's worth striving to get to that story, but I can…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Personally, I played the Switch port and had a great time despite having no prior exposure to it. That being said considering I also had a great time with things like modern Pokemon games and the original Dragon Quest that might just be more evidence of me having horrible taste in games, or extremely low standards”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Some similarities to FFXII's gambit system, Robert K?”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Phantasy Star 4 had the 'macro' system which I'm sure is still unique in RPGs, even looking at computer RPGs. You could set up a series of tactics in memory and choose to execute them for your turn, including deciding your characters' turn order. There were even secret combo attacks you could find by doing certain attacks in the correct order. I can't think of another RPG that…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Fakuto would just be "fact" with Japanese pronounciation, so Dark Fact would be dead on the mark”
On Apr 04 commented on amberstar entrance exams: “I don't know. Strapping a piece of cast iron across your loins sounds like pretty good protection to me. Almost sounds like a chastity belt without the lock.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Looking at the art direction on Space Harrier I'd say there were more than a few fans of Dean at Sega. Also at Treasure (Light Crusader) and Novotrade (Ecco Tides of Time).”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I'm not sure I would feel comfortable recommending Breath of Fire 2 to anybody without a major caveat that the terrible script is part of the entertainment, because wow, I think that game may have the single worst localization script of any published cRPG.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “The phantasy star series unfortunately aged poorly, in that the things that made them notable when they were first released are no longer anything to get excited over.PS1, for example, had the unique for the time mixing of standard fantasy with a science fiction planet-hopping setting, as well as the fake smoothscrolling first-person dungeons. In 1988 this was incredible, I'm sure - when I…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “That floating castle on a piece of land gives me Skyrealms of Jorune vibes. Or Roger Dean, I guess.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “FF6 and CT at least have considerably better stories and characterization. I mean, "considerably" really undersells the massive improvement. Both are personal favorites, obviously.I'd also point out that FF6 has quite a bit of flexibility in the latter chunk of the game. This is true in terms of choosing where to go next (technically, almost everything is optional in the last third…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Isn't it the case, though, that Chet does this as an amateur - which derives from word "amo", meaning "love", so, as someone who does these things out of love? The difference between amateru and a pro if not level of skill or talent - the difference is that a pro is doing that as a job, is getting paid, and can put up with something he does not like, as long as…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Suikidoden 1, technically got a pc release, albeit not in English ”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Well, you gave it a fair try, and you finished it, and that's good enough for me.I love Phantasy Star, but I appreciate that it's for mostly nostalgic reasons. It was the first rpg (j or otherwise) that I played, and I have a great deal of fondness for the Master System in general. I'm wise enough now that I'm old to see the game's many faults.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “A few thoughts:1. I think people thought Chet would like this because it has somewhat more complicated, first person dungeons combined with a different kind of setting and a general high regard among JRPG fans. Unfortunately, I think he hit a sort of donut hole here. For Chet, this game was too hard/painful to be completely brainless/easy-going, but not good/deep enough to represent a meaty,…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Reminds me of Dark Fact in Ys (though in Japanese it's Fakuto, so I guess they didn't miss the mark that much).80s game translations are a hoot!”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I played through a bunch of console rpgs/jrpgs back in the day. Phantasy Star wasn't bad, especially if you didn't mind looking things up, but I wouldn't rate it as high as the Super Nintendo versions of the same era. 2 and 3 have some interesting story beats, but the gameplay didn't significantly improve. Phantasy Star 4 was a much better version that I would place right behind…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “For most of the game the dungeons aren't that bad, actually, that's really only an endgame thing. When he said "this FEELS like a game I shouldn't have to map" I related because that's how I felt as a kid (and I had a real rough time in Baya Malay as a result).”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Thank you for playing, Chet, even if you weren't a big fan of it in the end. I really have been looking forward to your take on Phantasy Star for many years now.Yeah, the PS games prior to PS4 aged pretty poorly, I'll admit it, since the things that made them amazing back when aren't really unique any more, but there's always a place in my heart for this one. I actually played it…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I didn't find the jokes all that funny, either, even though I'm broadly aware of the context. Then again, I'm and will always be a PC gamer, so even if I'm aware of console wars and some of their tropes, I'm not deeply immersed in them. Also, I really wanted to fight for Piracy side (because as a developer and a gamer, I support piracy), but the game wouldn't let me…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I honestly should have thought to make that comparison.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Yeah, that game was 'Betrayal at Krondor'. ”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Phantasy Star, the not-exception proving the rule again.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I remember really liking Phantasy Star 4 as a child and playing it over and over again.I never was able to go back and play the earlier ones to completion, they were all extremely rough despite being important historically.By 4, they'd made a much more thorough plot with more detailed characters and even comic book panels for cutscenes and a rotating cast of party members. So they improved a…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “"Darkfalz" sounds like the kind of name some edgy teen would choose for his MMO character, except that it doesn't have any numbers in it.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “While choice in character creation and development and a nonlinear plot are preferences, they're not absolutes. I could still enjoy a game with a fixed character if the logistics, mechanics, and tactics were good. I just didn't think PS particularly shined in those areas, either.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “It's my favorite between FF1, DQ1/DW1 and itself but I think all three games are only worth playing for nostalgia or research. They're fun enough to be playable but there are so many better games you could play instead.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I didn't want to spoil this because, you know, it gives away the final boss, but apparently the "Saccubus" that attacks Alys in her dream was a "Nightmare" in the Japanese version. If you notice, it's basically Darkfalz' sprite cropped to just the face.Of course, not that Darkfalz being physically present earlier in the story actually explains anything about…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Having played ten (!) of the Neptunia games, I can attest that they are an acquired taste akin to Mystery Science Theater 3000. The games are very much the product of a AA-publisher, duct-taped together with lots of love and little money, with all the B-movie charm and B-movie failings. No one should watch a MST3K episode for the movie, and no one should play a Neptunia game for its JRPG…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I know a little about the Neptunia series, so I'd be willing to bet a small amount of money that the anthropomorphic video game consoles therein are supposed to be (a) young, (b) cute, and (c) enthusiastic. I've watched enough anime to know that those three characteristics, when combined, translate to high-pitched voices and a certain amount of squealing. That's just the style in…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “The whole thing about Japanese devs using funny pseudonyms is darker than it may seem at first glance. It was a policy enforced by the game companies to make it harder for rival companies to poach their talent.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I am sure Chet will love playing Mother or Earthbound where you literally play as children, but maybe one of those games will be the one to break his bias against goofy little cartoon men.... but I am not giving it much hope.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “You might have liked Phantasy Star less than Final Fantasy, but you surely liked more to write about it (5 entries vs 2 entries).”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I think this is a clear case of rosetinted nostalgiaglasses. The more I read about about Chets playtrough of this game, the more I remembered that it was an excellent product of its time but it have not aged well and isn´t that fun to play for a modern player. ”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I got about half-way through this one and enjoyed it to some extent, but didn't bother finishing it. JRPGs earlier than Chrono Trigger have aged badly for me: it's Wizardry with crapper combat, and aside from Active Time Battle, until 2000 or so they barely changed mechanically in all that time.Chrono Trigger is a great game though, that is worth playing I think. Not only is the combat…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Particularmente, achei o jogo muito ruim. Nunca consegui terminar. ”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I also had a friend push me into playing a JRPG (in my case, it was a remake of the first Neptunia game). It was supposed to be fun, because we're both game developers, and the game is abound console wars and piracy, with all characters being humanization of consoles, and enemies also being game-related.My reaction was pretty much the same as yours here: while the game does nothing…”
On Apr 04 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “The stories and character seem to be public domain in at least some parts of the world, but "Conan" as a trademark is owned and (very) aggressively protected.For example, there's a French series of graphic novels called "The Cimmerian" that (very attractively) adapt the stories but were unable to use the name.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I should point out, that you disliking this game and trying to finish it as fast as possible resulted in exactly the opposite thing - you wasted a lot of time running around and getting thing you should have found earlier if you payed more attention and made more notes.If you encounter such a game in the future I recommend either sticking to the pro approach you demonstrate with the most games or…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Your criticisms are completely fair, and the poorly-motivated fights and baffling plot developments make this game seem slapdash from my adult perspective, as I have no prior knowledge of this game. But it reminds me of other games of the era whose inconsistency and nonsensical plots really sparked my childhood imagination. We're suddenly fighting a final boss unrelated to anything else in…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I do think he'd like Phantasy Star 4 slightly more since it's just straight up better in every way, it's just an improved version of this. But not enough for it to be a wise use of his time.”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I can't disagree with your review, especially because you don't like the "fixed characters following a fixed plot" narrative - I will assume that Final Fantasy VI (released as Final Fantasy III in the USA on the SNES) and Chrono Trigger also won't be to your liking, even though they make most JRPG Top 10 of all time lists. They at least allow some flexibility with party…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “Yeah, this pretty much matches my experience with this game - I had a friend in college who sang its praises to the skies and convinced me to give it a go via emulation, but I just found it underwhelming even compared just to other JRPGs. It’s got more going on than Dragon Warrior/Quest, I suppose, but it’s also a *lot* longer and grindier, and lacks the elemental appeal of DW’s admittedly…”
On Apr 04 commented on phantasy star won with summary and: “I'm sure you totally don't care at this point but there was a magic key item that unlocked all those magic locks without MP (it was in Baya Malay I believe).”
On Apr 03 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Just to remind you of some context, Myst and The 7Th Guest were released at the same time as the last few games in the ZX Spectrum. The 90s were absolutely mad in technology. ”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “I was thinking that the in-town overworld graphics were very reminiscent of Darksun 2!”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “I came in here to say "codpiece", but clearly I am way too late!”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “I hate when this happens.”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “this is the sort of game where if you get attacked while burglarizing a private home, you retaliate with deadly forceWow. I was reading the paragraph before this one, when a guy with a big dog entered my garden, left a big pooh and tried to go away. I stopped him, asking to clean, he RETALIATED by attacking me, and the dog bit me on the ass (it was 2:30 Past Midday). The similarity is amazing...…”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “(I meant "Mount Gunderbad", not "Mount Gunderland".)”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “"Mount Gunderland" could be a combination of Tolkien's Mount Gundabad and Howard's Gunderland.”
On Apr 02 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Wandered into a certain vault and accidentally entered a certain simulation, skipping at least half the main quest? That happened to me.”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Regarding: "'Unless you're a good fighter, the easiest way to get from one to the other is to leave the city [and] go around.' I'm not sure what being a good fighter has to do with it."This sounds like a hint for solving the issue you noted when you said "I'm unable to find a weapons shop, but after a while, I realize that from the southern gate where you enter…”
On Apr 02 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Cool, more Wizard of Oz vibes! I remember of the greatest things in Castlevania Symphony of the Night is when you enter the section of the Castle which represents Dracula's library, and the Monsters there are and impaled scarecrow jumping on his pike, a kettle/tin contraption, and a giant lionman in armor...”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “yeah what Pie said. Also there was a wild difference in programming powers between people - you had wizards of code like the demoscene guys who ended up doing Pinball games, and then the rest who needed to come up with their own engine usually and where the scroll was janky. The use of Sound Cards was also all over the place in 1992-1993. I see now a lot of deluxe paint-y gradients and quite…”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Actually, it's questionable if Conan is or isn't already in the public domain in the US. At least most of it, since copyright law was weird at the time and you needed to renew it, which IIRC, they didn't for the original stories, just retouched up ones after Howard died. (which will eventually enter the PD) Of course, the people who own the rights to Conan would prefer you didn't…”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “I suppose the setting is famous for its lemurs?”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Completely unrelated bit of trivia, but the plot of the excellent 2022 indie game The Case Of The Golden Idol also involves an artefact from the mystical land of Lemuria.”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “On the plus side, if that guy was really bitten by a rabid dog, his other problems should not matter anymore.”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Quiver was my first thought, but the broad part at the top looks wrong for that. From the position, a space for “pants” would make sense here, and a loincloth would be a setting-appropriate placeholder for “no pants”.”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “it could be a loincloth/quiver, like pirates have "quiver me timbers"”
On Apr 02 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “The white collar fraud site has a whole section of pages dedicated to Crazy Eddy, including one on ads.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Can confirm - as soon as I read this I heard the ad tagline in my head! Though IIRC the business model was accounting and tax fraud, not moving stolen goods.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “The first Conan stories didn't hit public domain in Europe until 2008, and won't hit in the US until 2028.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “ PS. I put a few hours more into the game, and I cannot replicate your bug with the save names, not even when switching keyboards. I ran DOSBox 0.74-3, and the game from myabandonware . The game runs from c:\games\wol\”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Anybody who grew up in the Channel 11 viewing area (about a 100-mile radius around NYC) knows Crazy Eddy. He sold discount electronics, and his prices were...INSANE (mostly because it turned out his wares had 'fallen off of a truck').”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Looks like a quiver to me, which would make sense if one of the characters is supposed to be an archer.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Lots of Conan references. One of the longest of Howard's Conan stories was The People of the Black Circle from 1934. Quite good from what I recall.That Yarra guy sounds like he is over qualified to becoming a Country singer with a drinking problem.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “"Astrovir" could be the grown-up (adult-themed?) version of Astro Boy, and not just for Greek Geeks and Latin Lovers.Or a virus-themed variant of the recent hit game Astro Bot.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “The graphics are passable but the engine shows its age. But this time graphics where all over the place, 3d had just started to become relevant and companies still released games for older computers, being cutting edge and only playable on top end hardware could hurt sales.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Hey, I remember this one!Not the game itself, actually, but a review I read some 30 years ago. The reviewer called the game "a diamond in the raw", which would more or less align with your first impression of "interesting ideas, but janky execution". He also specifically mentioned the countless barbarian jokes that would be told in the city. In an era where the Xeen games, for…”
On Apr 01 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I remember skipping a bunch of content in Fallout 3 the first time I played it because I went exploring. For that reason, I kind of prefer having to trip a flag the first time I play things. Or maybe I should explore less. I dunno. Because I love the Matilda Gate in Suikoden 2.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “ The graphics are very clunky for 1993.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “The setting in Lemuria, combined with the "Dragon King" and quest to stop a gateway to chaos from being opened are also highly reminiscent of The Wizard of Lemuria, a Conan pastiche written by Lin Carter; the finale of the novel even involves an escape from the castle of the Dragon Kings (basically where this game starts).”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “"and NOT dressed like clowns."Well, I'm out. ”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Osric is the king in the conan movie”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Lemuria is a setting in conan stories, in the previous age, with Kull , thuriam age”
On Apr 01 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Old Wow Bastard, commenting anonymously because blogspot is sketchy. 1) you not knowing what a switch is/was is very on brand sir. Love it. 2) Let me just quickly express my extreme joy at seeing you review this. I played this when it was fresh and new. Will always have a very fond place in my heart. I very much hope you move onto PS2, as it’s a very substantive RPG imo. 3 is ok. 4 is good but…”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Bracer/armband?”
On Apr 01 commented on plot continuity across sequels ft: “No surprise I am so into it given I have been compiling an ongoing list of CRPGs where you can import characters/parties/world states from one game to another for ages, but yeah Wizardry VI/VII/8 is like the gold standard for this kind of behavior as far as I am concerned, even if I can definitely understand preferring something like Mass Effect's take on it.But yes, any time I see an…”
On Apr 01 commented on plot continuity across sequels ft: “When I started attending tabletop gaming conventions in the 1990s you would still occasionally see something about this written in the description of a game, like reminding you "NO homebrew characters from other campaigns" or similar, as the practice had died out recently enough that apparently some people still tried to show up with their half-dragon half-giant half-drow half-celestial…”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “The people from the Ataris Brand were Keena on playing Astrovir.I agree the manual and interface don't sound too helpful regarding the character classes. Nevertheless, if it says none of the characters is a cleric, then I'd assume Astrovir is a wizard. As for the archer, according to a walkthrough, it seems (ROT13) univat uvtu ntvyvgl / na nepure / hfvat objf vf abg ernyyl arprffnel be ng…”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “A bunch of carrots hidden behind a tapestry and some bones in a bookcase. Just your average RPG town household.Nice callbacks to games already played with KoL and SotSB. Beyond the lemurs, I took the Madagascar reference to also be about the animated films given the visitors arriving with their "exotic nature, strange tales and "feats of magic" [as perceived by the…”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “"Someone" being the game manual: "While each of the four characters is one of the five character classes,the fifth class, Cleric, can be utilized by any of them with high wisdom." This is impossible to reconcile with what you see on the character screen.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “ Looks like Lemuria is considerably older than a lot of other stuff; it was proposed in 1864, and it was not completely insane for the state of science at the time (or, should we say, during 1930es). This being said, the beauty of Amazing Stories crowd is that they drew quite liberally from the latest in greatest (at the time) in all science, history and anthropology included.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Given that the combat/clerical/etc. list has no numbers, isn't interactive and doesn't seem to appear past the creation screen, I would assume it's just meant as an explanation of what each stat does. ”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “ I just installed it, and so far I didn't encounter the save bug that Chet alludes to. In general, I've seen a bug with similar symptoms before; it happens if you switch your keyboard layout from English with default UTF-8 symbols to something with extra letters (some French letters qualify, AFAIR). Do you have any additional keyboard layouts installed in your Windows? Could you have…”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “I honestly didn't know that lemurs were the actual origin of "Lemuria." That's pretty funny. I also didn't know there were lemurs in India.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “I'm going with quiver.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Well, while the character creation/development, the dialogue trees, and the combat system seem lacklustre, at least the graphics are okay for their time. ”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “Yeah, Lemuria is definitely a concept Howard picked up (it was a pre-existing idea developed by Theosophists, and also gets name-checked in the Cthulhu Mythos). Per the name, it was originally a theory about why there are lemurs in India and Madagascar, but not the rest of Africa -- but because this was before plate tectonics, they thought there was an original lost continent that sank and broke…”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “ Lemuria, or Mu, is a canonical part of Conan's world. I also thought that Conan was in public domain and didn't need a license.”
On Apr 01 commented on game 546 warriors of legend 1993: “"whatever the thing in the lower right is"My guess would be a loincloth.”
On Apr 01 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Other examples covered on this blog: Bronze Dragon: Conquest of Infinity, Whale's Voyage, Space Hulk. Then there were games where the title also promised or at least hinted at something which was never expanded upon, e.g. Rivers of Light, Gates of Delirium, Fate: Gates of Dawn.Heck, you could even put classics like Final Fantasy (I'm aware of the story behind FF's name, but the…”
On Apr 01 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “In regards to the which is better discussion, I vastly prefer being able to stumble into finding something early. I could see a situation where an NPC tells you they will put an item somewhere and therefore you can't get it until then but otherwise let me pick it up. I remember playing a game called Tower of Time and coming on a weird item that it let me interact with but it just said you…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “"Gothic forest" is an artefact of translation. It was "Gashiko" forest in the original.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “In the case of the hovercraft here, I think the intent is that it is just unusable junk without the robot, so unremarkable you don't even notice it.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Worth noting here that a majority of console RPGs of this generation never made it to the US. They required cartridges with extra RAM, ROM, and battery backup - that was expensive. The much larger amount of text to translate compared to most console games of the era was also expensive. Most RPG titles cost two or three times as much as a typical game for the platform. This was also long before…”
On Mar 31 commented on game 447 forest of long shadows 1986: “Martin Page released Return to Long Shadows in 2023. Two versions are available here:https://martin-page.itch.io/”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Not allowing sequence breaking is easier for the linear, carefully planned dramatic stories of JRPGs. But instead of having the player search some area he might have combed through before, it's always possible to prevent access to areas where the player needs to find something later, by putting some obstacle before it, or making it accessible via a method of transportation the player will get…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Also in fairness, publishing a Nintendo Revolution console would have all XBox and PS fans in stitches because "Nintendo is Revolting"!”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star banallure: “When traveling on the Altiplano Plateau, you should always bring along provisions like naan bread or chai tea.”
On Mar 31 commented on game 302 wizardry crusaders of dark: “Absolutely devastated to Goog "Old 5 Kagal Survey" and see it never appears again after this entry”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Baldur's Gate just being the name of a town”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “And as unsolicited reply to one of your earlier comments along the line of „how did they expect players to figure this out“, I expect that designers knew and expected that we‘d spend waaaay more time on games back then without switching. You only had the cartridges that your parents bought ir that your pocket-money afforded you. So there was not much else to play. And Internet obviously. So if…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I am really happy that you are doing Phantasy Star! I played it when I was 10 or 11 year-old when it released and it is the first game I ever beat and 100%ed. I played through it again a few years later and I played through it again about 20 years later in my thirties and I still remembered the lay-out of many if the dungeons… crazy stuff. I love reading your playthrough, comments and…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Well, in fairness, it's supposed to refer to "we" and the two lower case i's are supposed to evoke a pair of people, both intended to emphasise the local multiplayer strengths of the console. It's just that didn't translate to English too well.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “There was that brief glorious moment when they were going to call the Gamecube successor "Revolution" but they decided to instead name it after a euphemism for urination.”
On Mar 31 commented on video summary of early era: “Well now that the video is gone, I have to say this is the only post from the beginning of your chronicle up until August 2018 that I cannot envision myself telling someone to check out. Looks like RPGBirdy cleared the whole channel six years ago and only has two unrelated videos up now?”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Isn´t it standard to name consoles to something stupid, thinking about x-box naming progression or Sony just phoning it in. With the exception of the gamecube that one was pure excellence in innovative names for a console.”
On Mar 31 commented on game 301 dungeons of kairn 1989: “Rolemaster was sarcastically so well-known as "Rollmaster" that I knew more than a few people who thought the latter was actually their company name. I certainly never played any of Iron Crown Enterprises' game systems, but I owned at least a half-dozen of their publications over the years since they were so fond of producing lists of equipment or random tables that could easily be…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Believe it or not, it gets worse after the dams.”
On Mar 31 commented on game 300 citadel of vras 1989: “The spaceport visual is stunningly evocative for the era. I probably would have left that screen open while doing my homework or something if I had played it back in the day. Well and been old enough for homework”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Well get ready for the awesome powers of Nintendo naming again as they prepare to launch their next console this year.... ... ... Switch 2!!! I wonder how much money the spent on coming up with that!”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “The game has a terse but I think fairly complete clue chain explaining what all of the quest items are for. The only missing link is someone explicitly telling you where Lassic is but I believe in the next entry Chet will relay the experience of finding the location after having gone everywhere else, theorizing Lassic has to be there because he's not anywhere else, and then realizing that all…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “If you don't have the Mirror Shield, she turns the entire party to stone on her turn. You can get lucky and keep having Alis cast ROPE (or is it Bindwa now? Three games and two thousand years are hell on magic names) on her while the rest of the party wrecks Medusa.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Yeah, you need the Crystal in order to avoid getting insta-fried by his hell lightning.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “The second game, "Legend of Darkmoon", has nothing to do with darkness or with moons; it simply takes place in a temple called "Darkmoon". Also, there's no "legend" involved; we just know there's a Bad Guy at the temple, and the party goes to beat him up.Although still called "Eye of the Beholder", the beholders in the second game have no plot…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “For what it's worth at this late stage:Barbrian, Dezorian, E.Farmer, Evilhead, N.Farmer - TALK or CHAT/TELE.Centaur, Horseman, Manticor, Sphinx, Tarantul - CHAT/TELE.I didn't know this until recently, but you can talk to the dragons! They respond to CHAT/TELE magic, but I don't know if that "wins" the encounter in the case of the unique dragons.The Magic Hat mimics CHAT…”
On Mar 31 commented on brief caer shiraz 1984: “That is an amazing coincidence. Thanks for the additional information, and please thank Dr. Kay for us when you see him again.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Hey, you want to hear something funny? Until just now, when I looked it up, I didn't even know what a Nintendo Switch was. I thought it had something to do with live streaming. I guess I was mixing it up with Twitch. Nintendo doesn't really do a great job naming things, does it? For years, I thought the Wii U had something to do with online education.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “My general rules for estimating a game's time is to halve whatever it claims on the box and double whatever is listed as the average on HowLongToBeat. That site doesn't make any distinction between blind play and winning with cheats, walkthroughs, and maps, which I'm sure that 90% of players smugly recording their times on that site are using.Last night, it took me almost two hours…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “That's another great example.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I had a further thought on your "Gothic Forest" banaal naming from the other session. There's entire games named like this! Take say, Eye of the Beholder. Is this a story that makes you doubt reality, or take different viewpoints into account because the perception is not what it seems? No, you go find a wand made out of a beholder eye and go point it at another beholder eye until…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “When it comes down to it, Phantasy Star 2 is amongst the harder jrpgs, esp of that period. I don't blame them including a guide. Getting it second hand though, that is not how I received it..”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I think I genuinely prefer a less "plot triggers" environment where you can find the item without being told.However this can sometimes lead to the flaw where you found the item outside of regular progression, but have no idea why you need it. Not that this game has so far set up "why" you need things, but still”
On Mar 31 commented on brief caer shiraz 1984: “I just read that comment this weekend, and then today I serendipitously discovered that the author of "Caer Shiraz", Dr. Paul Kay, works on the floor just below my office! We chatted, and he gave me some extra info, which he said I could share.He was 14 or 15 years old when he wrote the game. The original (unpublished?) version was for the VIC-20, and required you to re-load between the…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “PS: Looking at the armour Amundsen received in Japan as well as the descriptions in the Sega Ages version in-game Monster Manual (see e.g. here), I think Narwhal is right that there is a connection.While Frostman is characterized in the latter as "An ice warrior found on the frozen planet Dezoris. [...] cool and cold-hearted", the (start of the) description for Amundsen reads: "A…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Maybe if we hadn't had the shield, she would have killed us instantly or somethingI believe so.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Now that it's easy to get around with the hovercraftNote that the hovercraft lets you cross liquids, and water isn't the only liquid in the environment.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Sorry to kill you, man. It's your planet.These are one of the few "enemies" that you can TALK to.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “"There are places in the mountains where the ice is soft and impassable to those on foot." Another need for the hovercraft?I suspect you've answered this for yourself by now.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “That was a bit aggro from me. No, sorry, it was not my intention to be scorning, and I wrote that in a way it looked that way. You are right that I forgot about the changes in the Switch version.However, to my defence, to my honour of this internet avatar I have, the howlongtobeat stats are also interestingly on the lower sidehttps://howlongtobeat.com/game/6996/completionsNot only for switch. I…”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “This comment has been removed by the author.”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Sadly the rental version I had didn’t come with the walkthrough, only a simple controls manual. I still remember the painful nightmare of manually mapping out the four dams. I quit that game so often at that point. PS3 and PS4 on the other hand I enjoyed, PS4 especially so. ”
On Mar 31 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “fyi I believe this is also how the Mirror Shield works - if you don’t have it you just die, if you do, the fight goes normally”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “ Japanese versions of monsters were renamed in English translation to avoid potential collisions with existing franchises. "Amudsen" used to be "Vulcan". Some of the renames are quite pointless, though.https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DubNameChange/PhantasyStarI”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Never played this game to the end but a quick google search says yes, that is the reason.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Phantasy Star 2's inclusion of a full walkthrough has to be understood in the context of that game being Phantasy Star 2, and you really have to play it to completion to know what I mean by that because the first half is pretty standard JRPG fare.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Trying to avoid looking at spoilers, but I need a hint. Is the reason that Lassic is killing me instantly that I didn't find this "crystal" that he's supposedly afraid of?”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I always just imagined that more was happening behind the scenes (or text) since an 8-bit game could only do so much. For example, sure, the shield is there the whole time but we just don't get the extra details of how to find the shield hidden within a secret area of the fountain until we talk to that particular NPC. At least, that's how I explained it away... Perhaps it's be…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I think that the computer gaming market and the console gaming market in the US were much more distinct during that period, with the US console market being much more in line with what people expected from video arcades. Basically, in the US, if you wanted the more complex games, you became a computer gamer, and if you wanted simpler, more actiony games, you became a console gamer. I've heard…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “"I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the manual has a paragraph about literally every item you find in the game, including its statistics. This is helpful, but it also makes the game seem smaller, more linear, and more predictable."That was kind of par for the course with manuals for US releases of JRPGs in the 80s and 90s (the Japanese manual for Phantasy Star, by…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I guess the question is who did the localization for the North American and European release. According to this site, quite a few names were changed in translation and apparently not always for reasons of lacking space for letters. Based on that, the original name for said enemy in the Japanese version, "バルカン" can be translated as "Vulcan", which goes with the heat image and…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I don’t mind games that don’t let you find items before plot points, as long as it’s on the world map, and something that’s not bigger than a proverbial breadbox. I can totally buy that in one map tile that could represent several square miles, you can’t find a necklace hidden in a tree, even if you know it’s in there somewhere. The problem is when tiles represent much smaller areas or have…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “ROFL”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Amudsen did a tour of Japan in 1927, shortly before his death. He received the highest possible honours, including a visit to the Emperor himself! He received, among many gifts, a Samurai armour, which may or may not be what's represented in the game. He was a superstar in Japan the 20s, one of the few famous European names - possibly it persisted in the Japanese collective mind until the…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I regret to inform you that in Japanese, without Kanji, "Crystal of Space-Time" ("Jikuu no Kesshou") would take 9 characters ;-) (Ji-ku-u no Ke-s-sh-o-u, effectively)”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Yes, that was half the reason I subtitled the entry the way I did. I meant that I was looking for a more specific explanation as to why he's appearing in a JRPG as a spiky, armored warrior.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “As shamhat alluded to above, Roald Amundsen was a famous explorer of polar regions. In particular, his team was the first to reach the geographic South Pole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “So then the question becomes, does Risingson Carlos know this, or was he just scorning Chet for no reason?”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “The Switch version lets you increase money and experience from battles to cut down on grinding, so that version's going to be shorter unless you want to suffer with the original mode”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “"By the time I get there, I would be willing to pay real money to ignore random combats."I'm pretty sure that's the way how most mobile games generate a revenue. ”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Were you playing the game blind?”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I have around 15 hours recorded on the switch version (and I like to explore and in case of mistake re do from hours ago). So yes, it's short.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I agree. I think I mind it less in a "Disassembulet of Yendor"-type quest where you have to assemble X map pieces, all of which have their own sets of clues and puzzles. If you can just brute force your way to one or two of them, I don't see that as a problem. The issue with U6 is that those map pieces lead TO a treasure that can be found without any of them by a player who chooses…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I'll try to thread that needle.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I appreciate the solution to that mystery. If anyone can come up with a similar explanation for "Amundsen," I might be willing to pay cash.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “"A CRPG like Ultima IV would have had the same chain of clues but also would have allowed the player to say, "Hey, there must be something special about that island," and search for it without the prompts. Which is the better approach? Discuss."As you wondered about back in your Ultima VI entry, I (and probably many other players) found Captain Hawkins' treasure without…”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “That's wild. As a sidenote, the same movie is responsible for the trope that zombies eat brains and walk around saying "bbrrraaaiiiinnnsss". Great movie in any case. ”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “lv 23 - 25 is slightly under powered for the endgame, lv 30 - 33 is over powered, as far a I remember.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “"Here's an oddly-named foe."Trivia time! There is classic zombie movie "The Return of the Living Dead" from 1986. In Japan that movie has been shown under the name "Battalion" for some reason. Because of that, Battalion is sometimes used as a naming for the zombies in Japanese games, as a Shout-Out. Of course, in this game the name was shortened to 8 letters.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Ah, yes, thank you for reminding me. There were a lot more days than it seems between these two entries.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star banallure: “WUA acronyms are a different thing.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I'm still not sure why we're bringing a cat into battle.https://www.instagram.com/mickeyandmort/reel/DGgw6hGprGw/”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “...and I thought "Ze" was to show how we Germans fail to correctly pronounce "The". ”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “The good news is, you are on the home stretch! You should be able to finish it with your next update.Maybe a small hint: Lbh qb abg arrq n ebnq cnff gb trg cnfg gur jneqra va gur cevfba. Trggvat neerfgrq naq svaqvat lbhe jnl bhg guebhtu gur frperg sbe vf npghnyyl gur vagraqrq jnl gb tb. Tb onpx vafvqr, lbh fubhyq abg unir gb svtug lbhe jnl guebhtu. Gura lbh pna pbagvahr ba sebz gurer.”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “I dunno who told you it was short. It's a pretty big game by 8 bit standards.The mantle is a frad mantle. It's made of frad fibers. Remember frad fibers?”
On Mar 30 commented on phantasy star polar exploration: “Perhaps Amundsen moved on to cold new worlds after Antarctica?”
On Mar 29 commented on phantasy star banallure: “These days we even have "RPG games".”
On Mar 29 commented on phantasy star banallure: “And Sahara Desert”
On Mar 29 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “Ah, okay, now I get it. Still it’s ridiculously cheap in the time, even if it’s snack sized.”
On Mar 29 commented on game 543 phantasy star 1987: “Oh, how times change, even for this blog. "I do find a man who has been turned to stone". I wonder if this has been stated by the developers somewhere, but this game's party seem to have an affinity with the Wizard of OZ. There's the undisputable female protagonist; the lion creature (well, the feline creature); the strongman guy which you have to rescue from his petrified…”
On Mar 29 commented on phantasy star banallure: “We still have the Mekong River and the La Brea Tar Pits.”
On Mar 29 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “According to one site I consulted, a dollar ranged from 2.05 to 2.34 DMs in 1989, with an average of about 2.25, so the game sold for $4.44 in 1989. According to various sites, $4.44 in 1989 is equal to about $10.00-$10.50 today. This was the basis of my calculation.”
On Mar 29 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Or... the smith could just be a big butt whit laser eyes”
On Mar 29 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I'm the one who wrote that last comment, and yeah, to be clear, the "underflow bug" was just an old hypothesis for why earlygame enemies seemed to do more damage lategame from decades ago. It wasn't a bad guess, but it isn't true. Per the decompiling, it's just the alternate damage formula - once you knock on-paper damage to negative, being high level means you take…”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “PS: Opening the game files with a text program, I see a "1988/1989" copyright for the first game, "1989" for the second. Don't see any for the third one.”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “This ad in the January 1991 Power Play mentions Teldor I and II for both Amiga and C64 as well as Teldor III for C64, with the price for the first two games on the C64 already having dropped to 5 DM.Since just a month earlier, only Teldor I and II were advertised and given when ads were sent in and magazines published, both 1990 or 1991 seem decent guesses for Teldor III.”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “Credit where credit's due! You found quite a few games of the 'Missing and Mysteries' list, plus others which didn't go there because the page did not yet exist at the time and looking for games Chet couldn't immediately track down was handled through comments and email alone.And that's in addition to solving technical problems - like with Sandor, whose successor is on the…”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “This one was a little bit too early for me, but it sounds enjoyable. One small remark: DM 10,- would be on the scale of $ 6.00 iirc. A dollar was usually around 1,80 DM in the days of my childhood. ”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “I also like how the ending text just casually mentions that volcanoes erupt and new islands form. And you gotta love a demon that says "ok".”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “The funny thing is, I made the same joke in this entry:https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2024/10/game-529-swords-and-serpents-1990.htmlBut in less perfectly teed-up circumstances. I should have waited.”
On Mar 28 commented on phantasy star banallure: “@Ross, that bit about Torpenhow Hill isn't true, since there's no named hill there and Torpenhow's origins are not so distinct enough that there that the name is hill in a dozen languages.”
On Mar 28 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “Best comment ever.”
On Mar 28 commented on game 461 eye of beholder iii assault on: “The audio of Eye of the Beholder III seems to be the best in the series, but only if you patch your game with AESOP32 and properly set up your audio-cards first. If you do not do that you get these choppy popping looping errors that sounds terrible.”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Or swords made in the town of Laser.”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “"The Devil is super mad at you and is blowing stuff up on the surface, watch out, but, uh, go live in peace now" is certainly a way to set up a "to be continued, maybe".”
On Mar 27 commented on citadel summary and rating: “Not often I bring up my couple of years writing reviews for AllGame.com in the early 2000s, but $25 was also what they paid ($10 for a neutral summary blurb to use as an abstract in their database and $15 for a review; yes if you were smart you would probably have just written as many blurbs as possible, but I wanted my name on reviews!)”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “Hallelujah.”
On Mar 27 commented on citadel summary and rating: “Wow, I was reading Computer Gaming World at that point and was about to get hard into Dungeons & Dragons and I never knew until this very moment that it was The Dave Arneson (if I even noticed the name). Amazing. Glad I still have some of my late 80s/early 90s CGWs to check for his reviews now (or, you know, I could just look them up immediately online)”
On Mar 27 commented on backtracking zyll 1984: “You could beat Zyll (the wizard) with one player, but you had to remember that after casting 2 or 3 attack spells, you would be weakened and need to heal. You could leave the room you were in, to buy a little extra time, and a few seconds later, Zyll would follow you into the next room to continue the battle. However, you also had to travel light. When you were weak/injured you could not carry as…”
On Mar 27 commented on 2088 won with summary and rating: “This game excited me to read about and I was not sure what the nuanced enthusiasm I was feeling was coming from, and then I realized on some level this is probably the closest any game came to realizing the "Earthlings fighting the Serpioids of Mars" fake Wasteland paragraphs plot. Sure it is Misanthropes of Cryll but I bet there is at least one Flamelance in the game somewhere, and…”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “The French wine must be flowing freely.”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “The SMS Power retranslation is amazing work, but it has probably had more person hours invested in it over almost 2 decades than the original game itself. It's built with tools that were not available at the time. I don't think it's fair to call the original "lazy" in comparison.”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “Nice little find, indeed, never heard of it, probably because my older brother only had an Amiga. Good for the German CRPG scene as well, I only became aware of homegrown developers with the 'Nordland-Trilogie' ('Realms of Arkania' for international markets). ”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “Yeah, when the localization team got the game, their options were "reprogram and debug the entire text display and menu drawing routines with 1980s Sega of America resources and manpower" or "truncate the names". In Japanese you can cram something like "Crystal of Space-Time" into eight characters, without involving kanji.Despite being developed in Japan, the Famicom…”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “[I am sure Busca does miracles as well of course, but with LanHawk I saw them with my VERY EYES I TELL YOU!]”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “I always like reading about those isolated games - more so than about major well-covered titles.Special kudos to LanHawk for finding out lost jewels. Well, maybe not jewels, but gypsum. He does miracles indeed! ”
On Mar 27 commented on game 545 teldor 1989: “"A basilisk says: for 500 gold I will tell you a secret." If you pay, the secret turns out to be: "I heard there was a secret door."That Chet must find, to beat Teldor; but you don't really care for secrets, do ya?”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “If I remember it correctly, Protection spell protects from physical attacks, while Wall spell repels magic.”
On Mar 27 commented on brief liberation captive ii 1993: “When I finally got into Liberation and did my first longplay on youtube I dug very deep into its mechanics to understand how to upgrade your skills. A skill-building system is in there, and it is more advanced than just buying items. You upgrade your skills by buying and combining chips and roms in specific configurations that youneed to optimize. It feels they did not progress this system beyond…”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “I understand what you are saying. However, I thought the quote above explained that there is indeed such a dimension to the title. Even if the land was called, I don't know, "Eonland", you could still use the same title for the game since it talks about the symbolic moment in time when the story takes place and you'd realize that when you learn about the backstory. It might not…”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “This makes me want to spread rumors about Laserswords in my next game and then letting the player meet a weaponsmith named Laser.”
On Mar 27 commented on phantasy star banallure: “For one thing, Phantasy Star 1 is inherently very grindy, meaning that the Addict taking time to grind out a few levels here or cash for equipment there doesn't add much to the total playtime.For another, the encounter rate is high enough that shaving some rounds off by getting equipment as soon as it becomes available (either because you're doing enough damage to kill the enemies…”
On Mar 26 commented on phantasy star banallure: “That wasn't hypocrisy so much as it was a US-only censorship policy that was handled with significant indifference in the earlier part of the US lifespan of the console. Note that the NES only recieved a full US release in late 1986 - the 1985 date you usually find online was test markets - and the Zelda games got US releases in 1987 and 1988, very early on. First party games were treated as…”
On Mar 26 commented on game 544 blade of doom 1993: “"be boring and just use content you had in your shareware version" was true of a lot of registered versions of shareware games.”
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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 :)
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