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Sonic the Hedgehog Community |OT2 Battle|

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Kokonoe

Banned
Wario and Shadow...get bling bling, save the world?

Let's take this a step further~

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The Great Wario, manliest of men, suplexer of trains, Arks and really large robots everywhere.

Gotta GETS MONEY

all of a sudden that darn Warioware tune is playing in my head
 

qq more

Member
Wario isn't a hero, don't belittle the greatness that is Wario.

oh well that's true.. so... um... Super Anti-Hero!

wait... damn, Shadow is also an Anti-Hero.. uh...


EDIT: oh wait I got it!

Wario Man is a Super Anti-Hero for the money and treasure and one of the treasure happens to be the DAMN fourth chaos emerald! BAM! Shadow has a reason to fight him!

im a genius (ღ˘‿˘ღ)
 
Just click the mibbit link and you're in the chatroom. Simple as that!

When the time comes i'll tackle this complicated procedure.

Now you all need to stop spoiling the plot of Shadow the Hedgehog 2, the third game in the Nintendo collaboration no doubt.
 
I'm honestly sad that we can't have a Sonic 3 Complete thread, although it is completely understandable. :p I just wish more people knew about it. NeoGAF Member Anth0ny would probably get a kick out of using the Sonic 2 sprites.
 

Kokonoe

Banned
I haven't seen such a wack statement since I watched Bebe's Kids.

rTbV0OF.gif


I'm honestly sad that we can't have a Sonic 3 Complete thread, although it is completely understandable. :p I just wish more people knew about it. NeoGAF Member Anth0ny would probably get a kick out of using the Sonic 2 sprites.

Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed myself, if it only it didn't distribute the rom on the site. There have been many ROM and ISO modification discussion here on NeoGAF such as the Mario Galaxy mods, Mario 64 mods, and that Mario Land 1 mod.
 
I must play this Sonic 3 Complete after reading the laundry list of changes...HOLY COW...this will be like the even more perfect game for me!

On a separate note, the way Sonic controls in Triple Trouble feels awkward to me, I don't care much for having to time my button press after jumping on a spring to him something in mid air so often...=p
 
[22:57:53] * newbie|2 (~kvirc@Rizon-10F692A9.hsd1.tx.comcast.net) has joined #SonicGAF
[22:58:03] <Naoshi> hello
[22:58:07] <newbie|2> oh great
[22:58:09] <newbie|2> naoshi is here
[22:58:11] * newbie|2 (~kvirc@Rizon-10F692A9.hsd1.tx.comcast.net) Quit
[22:58:16] <Naoshi> oh
[22:58:17] <Rebel40000> wow naoshi
[22:58:18] * newbie|2 (~kvirc@Rizon-10F692A9.hsd1.tx.comcast.net) has joined #SonicGAF
[22:58:18] <Rebel40000> good job
[22:58:22] <Naoshi> lol
[22:58:22] <newbie|2> lol
[22:58:25] <Naoshi> oh youuuuu
[22:58:27] <Rebel40000> we finally got an active person and you scared him off
[22:58:30] <Rebel40000> you asshole
Naoshi: scary man
 

sibarraz

Banned
I want to read the archie comics from the beggining, are those packs from amazon good? like they include all the comics?

So I could think on buying volume 0 to 10
 
I want to read the archie comics from the beggining, are those packs from amazon good? like they include all the comics?

So I could think on buying volume 0 to 10

You talking about the Sonic Archives or Sonic Legacy? The former have 4 issues with each book; the latter has more actual comics in it (around 20 I think), but is in black in white.
 

Tizoc

Member
I want to read the archie comics from the beggining, are those packs from amazon good? like they include all the comics?

So I could think on buying volume 0 to 10

Hey there mate, if you want to read the Archie comics from the start, go with Sonic Archives collections. Volume 0 has the original Sonic mini-series, Volume 1 collects the ongiong which started after the mini.

However, I would recommend reading the current author's run, which has been collected as the Sonic Saga series.
 

sibarraz

Banned
Well, im confused, I need a recap with all sonic comics and where could I find them

At least is kinda curious, with Sonic every game has at least one portion of the fanbase shitting on them, but the comics are universally loved (I know that there must be exceptions, but still)
 

Sciz

Member
Well, im confused, I need a recap with all sonic comics and where could I find them

Here's a list.

tl;dr:

Sonic Archives is the main reprint line starting from the beginning, while Sonic Saga serves the same purpose, but skipped ahead to reprint the start of the current writer's run. Sonic Legacy is a cheaper black and white reprint of the same early material.

Sonic Universe is a separate spinoff series running concurrently with the main book, with each volume representing a full arc.

They're available physically and digitally at a wide variety of locations.

At least is kinda curious, with Sonic every game has at least one portion of the fanbase shitting on them, but the comics are universally loved (I know that there must be exceptions, but still)
You'll find people who love or loathe every part of the series' run to this day.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Droppin&#8217; this here. This is the only place on GAF where I can say what I want/be unhinged/not held back, so the new members will have to excuse my bluntness. The running joke in this thread is that I hate video games, which isn&#8217;t true. Regardless, I don&#8217;t care if you agree or disagree. Again, this is the only place on GAF where I&#8212;or anyone else&#8212;can post impressions/reviews willy-nilly because, like, we&#8217;re all bros and sises in here. I just get edgy about posting criticisms about Mario games in here sometimes. I mean, y&#8217;all don&#8217;t give a shit that I said after playing FF13 JP, it made me hate RPGs for a year. Or that I don&#8217;t care for the DKC games at all and that Segata was right. Or that I don&#8217;t like Kingdom Hearts, period.

So&#8230; thanks for making me feel comfortable. It&#8217;s not wrong to want more out of the games I&#8217;ve played at all.

Just as a reference, this is one of&#8230; what, 3 RPGs I&#8217;d put aside from 2012/early 2013: Sticker Star, Tales of Xillia 2, and Ni no Kuni. I put them aside because they were boring the heck out of me. I felt that I needed a few months away from RPGs to clear my head, but nope. I was pretty accurate in saying that if I wasn&#8217;t going to like it then, I&#8217;m not going to like it now. To be honest, I feel like I was re-writing my Final Fantasy XIII review in some spots because I just hated the game design in this thing and ended up repeating the same criticisms.

---------------------------------------

Paper Mario: Sticker Star &#8211; Incredibly Flat and Flimsy Paper

I started with Paper Mario incredibly late. I didn&#8217;t play the first entry on the Nintendo 64 until my late teens when I&#8217;d luckily stumbled on a copy for $10. I didn&#8217;t have a GameCube, so I played The Thousand-Year Door after I&#8217;d gotten my Wii. Simply put, I&#8217;m not really a Mario fan because I hadn&#8217;t had very much exposure to the series as a preteen and thereafter (for example, I&#8217;d only played Super Mario 64 on this year). I liked the NES and SNES games when I was a child, yes, but not really the games afterwards due to underexposure.

With that said, because my genre of choice is RPGs, the Mario RPGs should appeal to me. I don&#8217;t like Super Mario RPG, and I think it has aged poorly. Both the Paper Mario games and the Mario & Luigi games are markedly better than their predecessor, and narratively, visually, and mechanically, they&#8217;re both incredibly stellar series. While the Mario & Luigi games are generally consistent, Paper Mario seems to have gotten stuck in a rut after the highs of TTYD and the lows of Super Paper Mario. Unfortunately, the rut continues with Paper Mario: Sticker Star. With that said, I&#8217;m not necessarily comparing the game with its predecessors, but rather, I&#8217;m evaluating it as an RPG in general. I&#8217;m all for RPGs taking a fresh approach and using another formula as opposed to using the same thing time and time again. Provided it has good execution of that formula.

Essentially, Paper Mario: Sticker Star does not seem like it is purely an RPG. It is more of a platformer with very loose RPG elements, if we can call them those (ie: battles, battles on a separate screen, hit points, money after battle, some skills). It is not the game I had wanted. Sticker Star eliminates the drive for the player to stick with the game in general. Without the base D&D-esque elements, there is little desire for the player to be enticed with respect to their stats on a level up, which skills they will learn, or which stat they should allocate extra points into for statistical changes. Personally, I get a kick out of that sort of thing, and since this game had not provided that satisfaction, it immediately fell short of expectations. There is no means to manage the character which you are role-playing as other than choosing which/how many abilities he uses or keeping his HP up, nor is there any sort of quasi-micromanagement in terms of equipping armours or weaponry. You are no longer &#8220;role-playing&#8221;, but rather you are simply controlling a character&#8217;s movement like a platformer. The role-playing involvement is of little-to-no consequence. You increase your HP by finding health upgrades on the field. You find different skills (not &#8220;new skills&#8221;) littered throughout the environment with little regard to field cohesiveness and background cohesiveness.

With respect to skills, I truly do find it irksome that there is legitimately a lack of significant growth to the skills you acquire. By significance, I mean &#8220;meaningful&#8221;. For example, you would find the worn-out jump in the first town in addition to the regular jump. But then you would also find the Shiny Jump, the Iron Jump, and the Hopslipper right after that in World 1-1/1-2. Regardless of the fact that the Iron Jump and Hopslipper are their own categories, why would you give the player mid-level and stat effect-esque jump right off of the bat instead of introducing them in terms of character growth or a compelling fashion to make the player experiment with it? Not to mention that the Jump and Hopslipper aren&#8217;t necessarily that different in terms of damage-dealing outside of their execution (ex: max 5 vs max 10 (and this one is halved)). This isn&#8217;t necessarily strange balancing, but odd design which leads to these attacks feeling somewhat insignificant to the player. Especially when you can use these stickers only once per battle. However, I completely understand that a lot of people would find this issue nitpicky, but in terms of skill progression and growth, the lack thereof bothers me.

Regarding battles, while the structure, pace and design of the battles seem like a good idea on paper, in terms of execution they are a bit lacking. In battle, you may use one or more stickers per round. These stickers may only be used one time only. Post-combat, you are only rewarded with money, which are used for goods and services more stickers. In turn, you fight more enemies in order to be rewarded with more coins in order to purchase more skills for your player character to use. This is just strange design in an RPG because there is very little compelling need to attack enemies. There is no need for your character himself to participate in battles because it doesn&#8217;t factor into your character&#8217;s experience and increasing hardiness for battle. Without having to manage equipment, skills, BP, FP, etc. the combat becomes incredibly rote and unrewarding.

Due to not having many RPG basics to manage at all, this effectively becomes a platformer with the RPG elements of encounters and purchases. Even then, the player is not required to partake in these RPG elements unless desired. In particular, the game is designed as a slower-paced platformer with purchasable power-ups to use within battles that act as slower-paced platforming experiences with timed-button presses. There is little challenge to this system, and your character&#8217;s stats matter very little (in fact, there aren&#8217;t really apparent stats outside of the base power of the stickers, which I legitimately find disappointing because I like doing the math for things like this).

The puzzle-esque boss battles are actually not too bad, and the final boss wasn&#8217;t bad, either. I just wish more fights in the game were like the final boss as opposed to being the way they were. I do feel disappointed that enemy variety was lacking, but this seems to adhere to the concept Miyamoto had of only using characters that are part of the platformer games as opposed to original concepts to drive an RPG forward. The Mario series has a plethora of characters to utilize, and thus it&#8217;s a perfectly fine idea to stick with these characters&#8230; provided that they are utilized properly. I&#8217;m a little surprised with the poor execution here, because the writing can definitely carry these heroes and villains forward. Instead, we get a sub-par drive to defend the good (all those toads who are almost indistinguishable) and fight enemies (who seem to have little personality).

For those who find narratives compelling, Sticker Star applies some lacklustre storytelling, or rather, a bare-minimum with respect to the narrative. Outside of gathering comet fragments and stopping Bowser, there is little drive to push you further towards your goal. There is little tension-building and tension-release. This is facilitated via the lack of multiple towns, the lack of a variety of NPCs, shallow settings, and just having a paper-thin objective for the player to aspire towards. The problem here is that the world itself consists of setpieces that Mario and his adversaries must dash around in. None of the areas feel significant to the plot, not enough for the player to learn much about them. The lack of characters leads to a lack of character development. No one necessarily develops because there generally isn&#8217;t anyone to develop. Mario is a silent character, and in typical silent character fashion, his emotions or actions are played off of another character. This is why partner characters, other party members, or NPCs in general make silent protagonists work extremely well. Kersti doesn&#8217;t seem to cut it, nor does she seem to work well with Mario in general. This, in turn, makes the atmosphere of the game rather weak.

With respect to the dialogue, this is executed quite well. I generally love the PM/M&L localizations. The humour and wit always shine through. I just wish dialogue were more abundant.

Let&#8217;s balance this out with something I did like: The visuals. I can&#8217;t talk about 3D because due to my eyesight, I cannot see 3D very well (or even at all in some circumstances). Outside of that, the visuals are rather spectacular. The gyro control in this game for the shiny stickers is quite a nice touch. All of the field and battle assets are very nice to look at, and the UI looks very lovely. The animations (ex: knock around animations, scene animations, etc.) look great, and the framerate is rather consistent.

The music is also great. I get the feeling that it&#8217;s by Masanori Adachi and Kiyoshi Hazemoto. It sounds like their style. I appreciate the bass and brass instruments throughout the entire soundtrack, and the melodic nature of the soundtrack was a bit of a drive to keep me going. Music like Boo Night Fever, the second phase of the final boss, and the credits theme were peppered with the right amount of percussion (and right mixing on the percussion), elegant and melodic bass, and beautiful brass.

Thus&#8230; Paper Mario: Sticker Star is more of a spectacle-based and slower-paced platformer with semi-RPG elements than a full-blown RPG. While it has its ups with the presentation and dialogue, that is not enough to save it in my eyes. It definitely isn&#8217;t my cup of tea at all.

Am I faulting the developers for experimenting? Hell no; I love Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, don&#8217;t I? Am I faulting the execution? Yes. Some of this stuff is okay to good ideas on paper (though to be fair, I was initially skeptical when I&#8217;d heard about the game&#8217;s mechanics in the first place), but in terms of execution, it makes a lot of missteps in terms of essentially following the basics of the basics of RPG construction in D&D roots, inadequate tension-building and release, making battles essentially meaningless, cultivating a dull atmosphere, reducing characterization to a nonfactor, lacklustre character writing, reducing the amount of player agency with respect to character customization, and essentially making its world structure rather boring due to a lack of worldbuilding and adequate NPC characters to carry it. This game simply lives out its welcome before it has a decent chance of sinking in and finding its pace.

It&#8217;s quite a shame, because I generally love IntSys&#8217;s work. They know exactly what decent balancing, stat factors, and game mechanics work and what don&#8217;t. It&#8217;s disappointing that they did not use all of the knowledge they possessed with respect to these qualities in full-force in a Mario RPG.

Pros:
+ The final boss was good! I love how the game gave me the game I&#8217;d wanted at the very end of the game.
+ The music is excellent
+ The game looked good. Gyro for shinies.
+ The dialogue/localization was superb.

Cons:
-Lack of adherence to general RPG basics
-Feels more like a platformer with loose RPG elements than an RPG at heart (Personal con)
-Battles are too easy and are forgettable
-There is little to no reason to participate in battles at all
-Stickers are strewn about willy-nilly, disregarding area aesthetics
-Little to no character development due to a lack of significant NPCs or varied NPC/PC characters
-Due to the overworld design, field areas feel a little small and disjointed
-The overworld itself feels rather unimaginative.
-Lack of player agency with respect to character customization; cannot equip new gear and result in it affecting your character&#8217;s potential in-battle
-There is little to no reason to utilize the money you acquire because many of the stickers strewn about the world are more than necessary, and because the battles are not that difficult.

Neutral:
o Feels more like a platformer with loose RPG elements than an RPG at heart (Personal con)
o Poor excuse for skill progression (this is a personal con)
o The puzzles aren&#8217;t that difficult to figure out (but this is a personal stance)
o Puzzle bosses were alright.

---------------------------------------------

Man, I've missed making these kinds of posts.

I also finished Conception &#20474;&#12398;&#23376;&#20379;&#12434;&#29987;&#12435;&#12391;&#12367;&#12428;!, but I'm not going to post a lengthy review on that. I'll just say, I think the story in that game is fucking dumb, but the mechanics are extremely solid. It's just too bad that it's repetitive.
 
Is it weird that the thing that jumps out as most disagreeable in the post is that you think the final boss was good? Because I hated it. A lot. And that's from a guy who actually kinda liked the game in general.

I don't like the idea of a gauntlet fight that requires you to know in advance multiple distinct gimmicks you have to use to beat it - and if you don't use those gimmicks you're dead, end of. If it were one fight, that'd be one thing - for some Earthbound examples, I don't mind Belch requiring Flea Honey, since the game tells you upright about that (I just forgot about it until late into the fight, and Paula got poisoned and died because I'm an idiot), nor Giygas requiring Pray multiple times (still need to reach this point...) - but to do four or five such battles in a row? You have to go in and see form one, fail at him because you're missing the correct Thing, come back with the correct Thing, succeed at form one, see form two, fail at him because you're missing THAT correct Thing, come back with the correct Thing, find out you have to do form one all over again... It's a huge exercise in trial and error, which is rather frustrating. If I hadn't used IGN's walkthrough to tell me exactly what to do, I'd probably have given up at that point.

World 3 was also very much "eh". A lot of backtracking and hidden passageways, as I recall, culminating in a boss fight with great music, but a rather annoying weakness (
use the sponge at any time other than the one exact moment the game wants you to, and instead of his goo getting sprayed back on him, you just kinda waste the sponge in general, rendering the fight a loss
).

I understand the "lack of stat progress" feeling, actually, although I basically just kinda took it as "Worlds 1, 2 and 3 have relatively weak enemies for whom normal or worn-out attacks are fine, Worlds 4 & 5 have relatively strong enemies for whom shiny or flashy attacks are better, and World 6 and bosses are best to use Big Shiny or Megaflash stickers on", which served me fairly well. The bigger issue is that since all you get from battles is coins, I find myself at times just running away from fights, because I'm so sick of the constant battling that I can no longer be bothered. I've hit that point in several RPGs, of course, but at least here I'm not really missing out on much, other than potentially HP, for doing so, whereas in other RPGs, I'm probably throwing out potential XP, and possibly setting myself up for a surprise when I find out I'm under-leveled at the next boss. I know you've brought that one up, though.

Also, 5-3 suuuuuucks. Avoiding that giant Cheep-Cheep seems like luck of the draw, really. And yet you have to do it multiple times if you want to get Big Shiny or Megaflash Infinijumps... both for the museum, and for actually using.
 
The running joke in this thread is that I hate video games, which isn’t true.

Yeah, that's qq more. Get it right, people!

Schala's review of reviewy-ness

I have only played the first Paper Mario game, so my opinion on the franchise is somewhat limited. I thought the game was good, but I prefer M&L more (in fact, I started playing again the other day). It's always a shame to hear that Sticker Star wasn't as good as it could have been, though. I just hope that Dream Team delivers.
 

qq more

Member
Sticker Star was okay, it could've been sooooo much better if it had story and maybe a level up system. (TBH I like the battle system a lot, but yeah it is pointless half of the times).

Also Lightning Lord, play TTYD!
 

OMG Aero

Member
I liked everything about Sticker Star except the bosses for this reason:
I don't like the idea of a gauntlet fight that requires you to know in advance multiple distinct gimmicks you have to use to beat it - and if you don't use those gimmicks you're dead, end of. If it were one fight, that'd be one thing - for some Earthbound examples, I don't mind Belch requiring Flea Honey, since the game tells you upright about that (I just forgot about it until late into the fight, and Paula got poisoned and died because I'm an idiot), nor Giygas requiring Pray multiple times (still need to reach this point...) - but to do four or five such battles in a row? You have to go in and see form one, fail at him because you're missing the correct Thing, come back with the correct Thing, succeed at form one, see form two, fail at him because you're missing THAT correct Thing, come back with the correct Thing, find out you have to do form one all over again... It's a huge exercise in trial and error, which is rather frustrating. If I hadn't used IGN's walkthrough to tell me exactly what to do, I'd probably have given up at that point.
All of the main bosses are trial and error fights where if you don't happen to be psychic and come into the fight with the correct things then either the boss is going to be incredibly difficult, make you use all your stickers, and take forever or it is just going to be straight up unwinnable.

Also that river raft level with the fish chasing you. That is the absolute worst level in the whole Mario series.
 

qq more

Member
The fucking raft level

I don't know how I managed to get through that so easily the first time (I didn't even moved the raft in that attempt). But after beating the game and going back to that level, it's somehow next to impossible to actually get through it.


Did the difficulty of the level went up after beating the game or was I just lucky?
 
The fucking raft level

I don't know how I managed to get through that so easily the first time (I didn't even moved the raft in that attempt). But after beating the game and going back to that level, it's somehow next to impossible to actually get through it.


Did the difficulty of the level went up after beating the game or was I just lucky?
I've wondered the same thing, since I could breeze through 5-3 at least twice, and every attempt thereafter was a royal PITA.
 

qq more

Member
In speaking of fish:
I hateeeee that Cheep Cheep boss fight where you have to use the hook in order to actually be able to fight it. Nevermind the fact it also HEALS ITSELF!
What the heck was their thought process when they designed half of the game?


Wow I honestly forgot how flawed the game was, despite enjoying it. It's all coming back now :lol
 

Village

Member
In speaking of fish:
I hateeeee that Cheep Cheep boss fight where you have to use the hook in order to actually be able to fight it. Nevermind the fact it also HEALS ITSELF!
What the heck was their thought process when they designed half of the game?


Wow I honestly forgot how flawed the game was, despite enjoying it. It's all coming back now :lol

We want to desig..

* miyamoto breaks in*

Nope Miyamoto time.

That was it.
 

qq more

Member
I wish they would give us a proper Paper Mario like 64/TTYD since every attempt at a different Paper Mario game has been a bust. How hard is it to do that, Nintendo?!
 
I wish they would give us a proper Paper Mario like 64/TTYD since every attempt at a different Paper Mario game has been a bust. How hard is it to do that, Nintendo?!

Nintendo likes to reinvent the wheel.

Every. Single. Time.

I wish Nintendo wasn't at the beck and call of Miyamoto and would actually pay attention to the West once in a while.
 
That tome was dropped with such weight that the earth itself quivers, which is to say that was a big one!
The moment the sticker mechanic was revealed my interest in Sticker Star fell off the map never to recover, not a game I can actually judge having never played it but everything I read about it ensures that I keep my distance, well until the potential £10 price at least.

Speaking of recently completed games so far this week I finished up Tales of Graces F (minus epilogue stuff) and Bioshock Infinite as of about an hour ago, guess i'll whip up a little writeup for each of them some point soon, please understand that you'll just have to wait a little longer.
 
Speaking of recently completed games so far this week I finished up Tales of Graces F (minus epilogue stuff) and Bioshock Infinite as of about an hour ago, guess i'll whip up a little writeup for each of them some point soon, please understand that you'll just have to wait a little longer.

oh you
 
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