Y'know, just from concept, the implementation of a Randomly generated Dungeon
in this game sounds like pure genius; like Horde Mode for RPG'em-Ups!
I'm just saying that one easy way to surpass the pedigree of GH is through implementation of a fully playable, large scaled roster alone. That alone would have been worth more than the branching storylines because I found the story or characters of GH to not be particularly compelling. I have and like Phantom Breaker a lot. Bought the DLC as well.
I wish someone would actually do it one of these days! We've shifted to a "make a small cast more playable" gamescape, rather than a "make a large cast of varied quality playable" thing in gaming, and while I understand why, I loved being abel to play someone like Nando in GH.
I can't say I'd trade the branches for all playable in story, but that's because I love the GH cast, sooo... (I'd love a GH-style "Slayers" game...)
"Modern" often implies that one can't appreciate old-school games or must have a super refined and coddled experience. I merely wanted to correct any potential misunderstanding. I loved old school beat 'em ups. If you loved games as a kid in the early 90's, you kind of had to. I loved both arcade games and console games.
I meant it to say... things like persistent saves and online-derived decisions on a games systems are very common to modern games. And it's the kind of things people expect as common now, whereas we wouldn't even dream of much of them in the past.
I'm not sure why you're dismissive of "persistent leveling" and "hours of gameplay" as "console-speak", as though that's some derogatory term. Gauntlet Legends had persistent leveling, and that was THE arcade game for a hot minute. In any case, I certainly don't think that console replayability is inherently better than arcade replayability. It's not as cut and dry as you're making it out to be. You make it sound as if persistent leveling and looting is some lesser or cheaper form of longevity for a title, whereas GH extended its life by allowing you to choose your own adventure. I got all of GH's endings in two days or so. I'm sure I'll be leveling and looting in DC for weeks, if not months. Heck, I felt the leveling system in Phantom Breaker provided more incentive for repeat playthroughs because of the variety.
Well, going to it's origins, these things are more of an "at home" consideration, rather than a "made for arcade" consideration. (though the lines have blurred much by now.)
For the sake of argument, I do find many modern console-derived decisions to be lower in overall *quality* than arcade-driven ones.
Though, in the end, I think both can be done well, and have their place. I'm always one for "quality" before "quantity" in games, but I think the current retail-priced games vastly prefer quantity, which I always find a bit of a bummer.
Much of what takes 6 hours in a console BEU / RPG Hybrid, would have been available credit 1 in an arcade game... the discovery was found through multi plays. Many a time, after all is said and done, I feel like many console-derived decisions are the equivalent of "Filler" in anime, VS reading the Manga; that the only reason it took so long to reach a certain point is not because it was best for the story or the dedicated gamer, but due to many other outside factors.
Phantom Breaker BG was such a nice treat. They did a great job bridging modern and classic ideals together, especially for the asking price (DLC included).
Anyway, I'll leave it at this. GH was not a strong title in the aspects of action RPGs or beat 'em ups that I personally appreciate the most.
Yeah, and that's fine
I was just going on about why some of it is still unrivaled, and unmatched, to this day. I never knew how much I preferred GH's line-shift system, until I tried playing Castle Crashers VS mode... now even going back to D&D Arcade, the strengths of planes+fighting game motions seem stronger and stronger to me... and then Guilty Gear Isuka showed me how bad it could feel, too, if done wrong.
I've just gotten more appreciation for what it did right, as I see others try similar things, and fail, y'know? When GH came out on XBLA, it confirmed that I truly prefer these things, with no nostalgic-clouds. And the retooling / rebalancing was so in-depth, that it gave me confidence that they could make something new now, and do even better, if given a chance.
