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Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Appreciation Thread: Alien Storm > Golden Axe
- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
IrishNinja
Member
alf717
Member
I should do another play through of Parasite Eve but I always get caught up in other games.
Its even worse when it looks like someone took sandpaper to the pins, I saw a copy of Snow Brothers on eBay earlier this year that was pretty much ruined because of some idiot doing that.
davidwhangchoi
Member
thanks man! hunting for another copy now =)
So, havent played EWJ much, but I did play and beat this decent plattform/shooter:
Wonderboy in Monster Lair was a decently fun diversion from the standard adventure-plattforming that characterized the series later years. Not too hard, and not too easy either. The big problem with the game is the repetitiveness, as the levels gets pretty similar, and the enemy variety and even boss variety is pretty bad. Still fun to play through, as the game looks and sounds great, has good enough controls and ticks my OCD of having to pay the whole series in order.
Was unfortunately not able to check out the two-player, but that looks to be even more fun.
Wonderboy in Monster Lair was a decently fun diversion from the standard adventure-plattforming that characterized the series later years. Not too hard, and not too easy either. The big problem with the game is the repetitiveness, as the levels gets pretty similar, and the enemy variety and even boss variety is pretty bad. Still fun to play through, as the game looks and sounds great, has good enough controls and ticks my OCD of having to pay the whole series in order.
Was unfortunately not able to check out the two-player, but that looks to be even more fun.
So I'm finally going back and playing all the classic RPG's that I missed. I've played through the big SNES titles, and I want to try out what Genesis had to offer. Are any of the Phantasy Star games still worth playing? I tried playing Phantasy Star II for about 30 minutes and it was... rough. Are 3 or 4 any better? I hear Shining Force is pretty good as well.
IrishNinja
Member
i guess i should've specified what games relevant to this thread might ya'll be playing, so we can maybe do a poll hint hint
Gonna play Shining in the Darkness since that is the game of the month for December.
IrishNinja
Member
wait, i thought that was the Nov game? i mean, we can just run with that if nothing else
Armoured Priest
Member
Yeah, I also thought Shining in the Darkness was the November game (which I was bummed about because I wasn't able to finish by last night.)
I didn't play EWJ.
I didn't play EWJ.
IrishNinja
Member
yeah, it's been confusing without jake here before & the thread title staying stagnant!
davidwhangchoi
Member
yeah i
'm sorta in limbo but trying to keep up with the titles.
'm sorta in limbo but trying to keep up with the titles.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Phantasy Star II was amazing at the time, especially for its story and scope, but it aged terribly. The maze-like dungeons are tedious as hell, combat is very grindy, and it's just... a slog, sad to say.
Weirdly enough I think Phantasy Star I aged better. I managed to beat that semi-recently (I was in an odd mood to draw maps, though... xD) whereas I gave up on PS II.
Phantasy Star III, I can't comment on. I rented that wayyyy back then and I instantly hated it. I never gave it much of a chance though, but it's often considered the odd one in the series and most people don't care for it. I wouldn't recommend it.
Phantasy Star IV, however, is fantastic. It holds up perfectly well (played it recently), it is not grindy, dungeons are well-designed, the pacing is fantastic, the story is cool and epic despite the mediocre translation, soundtrack is great... truly one of the best 16-bit JRPGs and still one of my favourites.
Shining Force I and II are also fantastic and hold up well. SF1 is a bit rough in some spots (weirdly balanced at times -- too many useless knight characters, wonky and inconsistent enemy AI in some battles), but still very fun. SF2 improved on just about every aspect of SF1 (except maybe character art, which I oddly preferred in SF1 for the most part -- SF2 still has a good art direction though), can't recommend it enough. An all-time classic.
Armoured Priest
Member
I'll agree with Phantasy Star II.
I'm weird, though. I like Phantasy Star III. The dungeons are a bit shorter than those in Phantasy Star II (though structurally similar). A play through is also a bit quicker. If memory serves, a path playthrough on PS III is only about 15, maybe 20 hours or so (give or take your path). Replayability is gained by taking different marriage paths, and some paths are way easier than others.
I'll also agree that PS IV is the best of the 16-bit Phantasy Star games and that PS I aged surprisingly well. Those 3D dungeons still look amazing.
I'll finally echo that Shining Force I & II are both well worth your time.
I'd also like to put a vote in on Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun. It's a tough game to begin (until all your peeps have their 2nd levels, and its pre-3rd edition rules, so your squishy wizard is going to take forever to level), but once you get going its really pretty good. Just remember to abuse your Entangle spell as soon as you can get it.
Another game, Traysia. I have nostalgia for it (I like the idea of a traditional jRPG with random battles that play out in a small tactical arena...one of the reasons I'm looking forward to "South Park: Fractured, but Whole.") It's honestly super rough, and pretty janky. Still, in this day and age it's not difficult to give games a shot. Just a warning that it takes a fair amount of effort to get anything back on this game.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
I think you are the first person to ever recommend Traysia, lol. Everything I heard about this game seems to be uniformly terrible. xD
davidwhangchoi
Member
use the pause/menu/walk and it's enjoyable =)
Anyone with Phantasy Star IV PAL? Last I checked the ROM hasn't been dumped and no one can say whether the game was PAL-optimised or not. I don't care that much about the ROM itself if it exists, but I would like to know whether I can be content with a PAL copy or if I have to import.
Armoured Priest
Member
Just so we're clear. Traysia has a lot of problems. I would not be upset by anybody playing it for 30 minutes and declaring it an awful game. I realize I'm in an extreme minority, and I recognize that it's not a good game, or even barely adequate.
I just think there are neat ideas in the game that could be stolen and make a great game out of. Seeing those ideas were enough that I got through the game back when I played it.
Full Disclosure: I haven't played it recently, so there is that.
I do know there are some people that espouse Sorcerer's Kingdom. I've tried three times to play through that game, and just give up after about 5 hours.
I bring it up as an example of lower tier Genesis RPGs that do have their supporters.
Do I miss anything by jumping straight into PSIV? Should I at least be familiar with the plots of the other games?
IrishNinja
Member
haha same!
its like when i talk about Super Hydlide...i mean damn, that music was nice at least
this really helps, but if you don't grind you're gonna get slaughtered at some point, especially around the Nei dungeons!
ehh yeah, it ties them up nicely, and i wanna say you can now play II on PSN (i think JP?) with options to walk faster, level quicker etc and make the experience overall better. 1 is an absolute gem as well, though 3 can usually be skipped unless you find it particularly interesting.
i honestly think IV has so much meat to it that it's a very strong game on its own, it's just made so much better as a swan song to such a great series.
What the hell happened to the title of this thread? lol
Anyway, cross post:
Computerphile is on a streak with interesting videos. Their latest is about coding on a Sega MegaDrive. Dude is super legit. Worked on Frostbite engine, has a real MD dev kit setup, and has been developing something for 3 years on it.
Anyway, cross post:
Computerphile is on a streak with interesting videos. Their latest is about coding on a Sega MegaDrive. Dude is super legit. Worked on Frostbite engine, has a real MD dev kit setup, and has been developing something for 3 years on it.
sixteen-bit
Member
Sounds interesting. Definitely saving this for later.
ResidentDante
Member
Me too!
They put the PAL version on the Wii VC. It's not optimised. Music is noticably slower than the US version. Gameplay wise it shouldn't make that much of a difference though, and if you haven't heard the soundtrack at the original speed then you'd not really mind either.
This rules.
Any idea if it goes back to normal when the console is 60Hz? Or if there is a region lock?
ChamplooJones
Formerly Momotaro
As a programmer interested in gaming this is dope. Definitely saving this.
Here's his blog that talks about Gen/MD programming and his game Tanglewood: https://bigevilcorporation.co.uk/
That I don't know sadly :/. It's a late era game so wouldn't be surprised if it was region locked.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Not that much. Phantasy Star IV was my first Phantasy Star, and I was fine. I did know a bit about some plot points from previous PS games, though. Maybe read up on the backstory a bit online if you want.
ChamplooJones
Formerly Momotaro
So PS1 holds up more than PSII? Weird.
That is odd.
IrishNinja
Member
they're both gonna be grindy, but most just point to how amazing PS1 is for the hardware, especially in the way the dungeons move. PS II is early on the genesis and looks/sounds amazing, and i think it has an even more dark sci-fi feel than 1, but some people feel it ages more due to slog/dungeons which you absolutely need the sometimes-incorrect hint book to make it through.
i think they both age like fine wine.
Haha yeah, its been confusing. What we did was we voted on both months at about the same time, so that probably made it even more confusing. Btw, Im starting Shining tonight, would love for some of you to join in!
Anyways, its time to vote on january game right? So we need nominations.
blast processed
Member
I don't know about the title change, but just wanted apologize for the confusion. I just simple don't have the time to assemble a game of the month at this point. Maybe I put too much into it, but it seemed the time spent wasn't worth it, because not many people jumped in. I tried to make it as flashy as possible to get more interested, but that didn't seem to work and in the end I just burnt my self out. Just wasn't having fun and thats what its all about. You can all hate me now.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Yeah, I think it does. PS II is too grindy and more of a slog.
ChamplooJones
Formerly Momotaro
Hmm I see.
Well, to change topics to puzzle games for a bit, what does Gens/MD gaf think about Columns?
Well, to change topics to puzzle games for a bit, what does Gens/MD gaf think about Columns?
No problem, Ive been having fun with it and are thankful that you took the time to do it.
Are people interested in continuing the game of the month-thing? I would certainly love it, as it could spark some interesting discussion and make me play games i otherwise maybe wouldnt, but it depends on participation of course. I can probably organize it practically, but then it will be without the awesome Game of the Month-posts that Jake from State Farm and Onpoint over in the Nes-thread creates.
Armoured Priest
Member
No worries. RL often interferes with fun, and you have to take the time to deal with that.
I'm probably guilty of not jumping in that often (again, RL interferes).
Columns is fine. It's a fun puzzle game for 2 players, and simple enough to grasp quickly, but not easy enough to be a pro instantly. That being said, I'm not that happen that it is being redone for the 3DS classics. I think we already got a better puzzle game (Puyo Puyo 2), and they could spend their efforts on something more enjoyable.
Shadow Hog
Member
S'okay. Columns III is arguably better, tho; more-involved single-player campaign.
As far as Sega-made puzzle games go, I'm more of a Baku Baku Animal fan - though that's more a Saturn/Game Gear thing than Genesis. (And Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo is basically the same concept as that, anyway, and is much more prolific...)
IrishNinja
Member
nah, i personally think you did way more than was warranted too - im on several retro communities and it's not often i actually see more than a few people play the same game. always dug your efforts but absolutely no hard feelings man!
davidwhangchoi
Member
Jake, you did an awesome job! and don't feel obligated to do anything, come and enjoy posting like a regular, thanks for the hard effort you put in =) if i see a super star wars CIB you're looking for, i'll pm you.
Holy shit guys, you have to watch this
The launch of SEGA GENESIS (1989)
@ about 1:15 ~ 1:18 ....LOL.
Guess who ?!
The launch of SEGA GENESIS (1989)
@ about 1:15 ~ 1:18 ....LOL.
Guess who ?!
davidwhangchoi
Member
yeah, i was about that it was already posted.