MagusSmurf

NOPE. Based on the 5 minutes I just played, Pokemon Trading Card on SGB actually does a pretty credible job on giving cards reasonable colors but the world map coloring is clearly not fully baked. The game appears to have both a palette coded in for GBC and a separate one for Super Game Boy.

AFAIK, none of the other Super Game Boy-enhanced games retain any of those enhancements when played on Game Boy Color. Pokemon Yellow does. Therefore, GBC game.

What if you put glorious quality classic Famicom game Lasagna Cat into the NES? SURELY IT PUTS THE INFERIOR WESTERN LIBRARY TO SHAME

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky: The 3rd The main plot and conflict here is just ridiculous arbitrary bullshit that solely exists as an excuse for one last outing with the Trails in the Sky gang before the series mostly moves on to focusing on other characters, stories, and regions. This is pretty much the Trails equivalent of a or something. I can't really complain too much, though. It probably wasn't even possible to write a totally reasonable story that accomplishes the cast reunion without undermining that the first two games were the stuff that mattered so I guess they didn't try too hard. The additional stuff we got here on character backstories, lore, and places for the series to go in the future are mostly really cool. If you're into the trails plot/characters/worldbuilding, I wouldn't call skipping this a good idea in spite of the issues. Some of the story content probably could have been placed in Trails SC if they had more forethought but that game was long enough as it was. And while the core conceit of the main plot here never stopped being silly, the emotional beats and characterization work well enough. The gameplay gives you enough options quickly enough and has some (tiny) tweaks from the first two that probably give it the best combat of the first three games. On the downside, whereas a lot of the reused assets in SC generally made sense in the context of the game as a whole and the story it was trying to tell...well, here the game's premise is just silly so it having a lot of the same areas even in non-flashback segments feels lazy. I enjoyed the game, but as the same time I can't help but scoff at it. Maybe don't pull this again, Trails? 7/10

Saw the discussion on Hollow Knight so played the first 3 hours since it's on my Backlog. Most recent notable thing that happened was the Hornet fight. This game is playing things REAL close to the chest. Having health recovery be something you manage yourself rather than something you rely on random drops for is neat and I like the lack of stats and experience points. But in terms of what you can actually do it's been very limited. You start off with just a melee attack and a jump and it hasn't been quick with new abilities either. I think they probably got a little too cute with the mapping; it feels like it's set up to slap new players in the face but now that I've got the Quill and Compass it's been basically inoffensive. This Souls-inspired "lose all currency upon death, recoverable only if you get back to where you were" hasn't hurt me so far but feels obnoxious for the sake of it. It'd be one thing if there were only optional character upgrades to buy but there's also maps and fast travel points and I also see the shopkeeper selling a key and something I think lights up dark areas. These are not things that seem like they should be gated behind grinding for unskilled players. The bosses have been cool though and I've got a Dash now (also a projectile albeit not a spammable one). I could see this game getting to greatness, it's got stuff going for it, but I don't think greatness is here yet.

Nobody's going to deny that lots of cool stuff got left behind in Japan but the way I remember this argument or a similar one going was that eventually people asked you to put up or shut up regarding your list of all the hundreds of supposedly great Famicom games nobody in the west knows about. You didn't. Without which, it's hard to see why this would be worth rehashing.

Happened to me on Soul Reaver last year: https://www.videogamesage.com/forums/topic/91-what-are-you-currently-playing/?do=findComment&comment=264994

Depending on whether you count colorized Game Boy ports, resolution-bastardized ports that might be okay on their own terms but that nobody sane is going to choose to play in glorious 160 x 144 in 2023, and stuff Nintendo published but not developed and that they probably had zero involvement in the creation thereof, GBC might not even make it to 25.

Tails can access Egg Reverie Zone with Level Select on PS4, yes. Didn't know Falcom and Sega had done a crossover, though. Neat.

Yeah, I followed it a bit back in the day. Looking it up now, it seems he released more videos in 2020 and 2021? Neat. Will look into. Also the story includes videos to watch in addition to the text so I can't imagine a podcast reading could possibly be an optimal way to experience it. https://jadusable.withinhubris.com/The_Haunted_Cartridge_(arc)

Probably Hitman? Never played that series though.

Not sure I should officially claim since I may not necessarily get to them any time soon but I'll be playing Banjo Tooie and Mischief Makers this year for the Backlog topic.

I've got Banjo Tooie and Mischief Makers on my Backlog Challenge next year, so those are covered. You'll have to get someone else to beat Quest 64 this time though!

I'm still only on the third Trails in the Sky game but I've heard things. My understanding is that Cold Steel 1 was meant as a decent starting point for people not caught up on five games of continuity and isn't that bad about spoilers for the older games but that over the course of the Cold Steel games (and especially in 3 and 4) they significantly ramp up the reappearances of older characters and while the games remain comprehensible to newer fans, you're still spoiling older games/seeing the continuations of some old arcs and missing a lot of context that undermines the experience a bit. Especially if you end up trying the older games at some later point. This is especially the case when a lot of this series' special appeal lies in all of the extensive worldbuilding and continuity. So I don't think there's a particularly good case for not at least giving the first Trails in the Sky a chance before going to Cold Steel. Some people have issues with it; it starts pretty slow, doesn't really have a strong plot hook early on, and the combat is generally not brilliant. But there are reasons why it spawned so many sequels that have such a devoted fanbase. And it's not like I haven't come across bitching about Cold Steel 1 too. Also the first Trails in the Sky game is currently on sale on Steam for $9.99. You could play that instead and keep your physical copy at maximum value!

...So Tanooki, I'm baffled. I don't recall The Action Commands here being at all hard or particularly different than in TTYD and you saying they're both just doesn't square for me? Any chance you had a screwed up controller, bad emulation, or were just going through a particularly bad/weird time while playing it? Age when playing this vs. the others?

Cool game, worth a playthrough, would recommend. In context of the other Mario RPGs I do think it comes off a little middle of the road without quite excelling. TTYD has a few particular pain points but in general is just kind of a straight improvement. And that first hour or so suffers a bit particularly on replays. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make Action Commands something you have to unlock should be shot.

IIRC the only bush you actually need to burn was the one leading to Level 8. And while I don't recall any hints towards that, it's so blatantly in the way that I found Level 8 pretty early in the game just trying to make a shortcut through that section. I thought Golden Axe Warrior was kinda bad when I played it a few years back but the game didn't leave much of an impression. Biggest problem I remember was no or at least insufficient knockback on enemies.

It's pretty cool. Has some crazy stuff and the difficulty options allow it to get easy enough to have to something to offer to people not already inducted into the Shmup cult but then can also ramp up substantially. Seemed like a top 100 NES game.

how dare you besmirch nintendoage you subversive scumbag

Most other overhead action-adventure and action-RPGs from the era generally only have passable area design at best, even the otherwise good games. For this and Startropics though, Nintendo actually put in the effort. And the combat is really good too! On the other hand, while the degree to which Zelda 1 is indecipherable on your own tends to be wildly overstated...It does have its moments. The English script being a little "wat" here and there doesn't help.

Ratchet & Clank Fun game if rough around the edges at points and the cast and its vision of the consumerist future were endearing. Tough call on this vs. Jak 1. 7/10

Everyone's so used to it that it can go below the radar but among actually popular, well known games? Donkey Kong is among the worst. There's not a single Donkey in that game or pretty much any of the sequels. What a ripoff.

Oh wow. Bruce Coville has barely passed my mind in probably like 15+ years now but I read a lot of his stuff back in the day. Not quite as much as I did these though:

some obscure game called god of war, you’ve probably never heard of it. Upper 7/10 I guess. The combat was pretty fun but I don’t like strict pass/fail rapid button mashing in, like, basically any game, there were so few bosses, and there was probably a bit too much slow block pushing. I appreciated the variety the platforming and puzzles generally brought though.

Yeah Pokemon's gotten criticized plenty in recent years. At this point it looks to me like Sword/Shield has basically broken the fanbase's default goodwill and for any big future releases Game Freak will probably have to work harder at making the games better, interesting, or new if they want good reception. One assumes they might not care since Pokemon prints money regardless but a metacritic score below 75 (which the newest games got) probably could have a marginal impact on their revenue and they just might care enough to react to that if nothing else. Pokemon does have longstanding issues but I have trouble not scoffing a little at the fan backlash. It seems to me like all this is really ultimately about: 1. Dexit and its continuing impact 2. Not taking the step forward people wanted when the series went from being a $40 handheld game to a $60 home-ish console game. And that most people would probably be fine were it not for those. And as someone who peaced out of this franchise over a dozen years ago for reasons that obviously had nothing to do with either of those? It just seems a little silly that these were the last straw.