Reference: [Link]
Thinking about it now, Timespinner kinda reminds me of Aggelos. Most other indie retro throwbacks try to stand out by being either obnoxiously meta (Retro City Rampage) or subversive (hey guys look, a shovel. We can put this character on T-shirts) but the makers of Aggelos clearly wanted to make their own Wonder Boy-like while adding their own ideas while also not being so grounded in its inspirations that it turns off newcomers. It's a wonderful game. Timespinner is just that. It doesn't try to stand out, it's just straight up Castlevania GBA but just enough to where it's doing something different without copying it and having that factor of "Why would I play this when I could just play a GBA or DS Castlevania game?"

Ah yes, I played/watched X so you don't have to. Translation: Watch my video so I can pay my rent. (Because they wouldn't have done it otherwise.)

I'm about to reach the sewers, but I don't really know who Civvie is. Bummer that you can't really play games like Doom. They're kinda like Twisted Metal, nothing to think about too much, just turn your brain off and blow stuff up.

You know what? That makes me mad I thought Timespinner (sometimes I confuse the name with Timesplitters) was also a good game! In fact, two of MrFwibbles' fave-o platventures are that and Rabi-Ribi. Yeah, I dunno! Your average game player seems to really, really love games that remind them of Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, why else would a new $20 one pop up every month? Not only that, according to Rarity (hey... where's that guy anyway? It's awful quiet without him), some games like Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider will get tagged with Metroidvania in an attempt to get people to notice. The sad thing is that it'll probably work. So much in fact that you should call ordinary things like going to church or cleaning the gutters a Metroidvania, or a Metroidvania roguelite!... or a better yet, a Metroidvania roguelite you've never played.

Ho, what fun. Hey, speaking of rooglites, you ever see this Nightmare Reaper game? It works on so many levels. Intriguing plot, carnage, neat pixel art, and yeah it does do the obnoxious indie quota of references to other games (... and SpongeBob, if we're counting achievement names), but wow, this mixture of classic FPS and rooglite gameplay actually works. Just like Moonlighter, it's not so rooglite that it turns off newcomers. Like, I think you, DarkLink, and Lilith would dig this one.

"Why would you want to play a First-Person Shooter with a mouse and keyboard? I can't imagine it'd be easy to aim in 3D with a mouse.""

Strong Bad: [singing] Checkin' e-mails at home from your work computer, it's kinda like playing first person shooters with your girlfriend. It kinda ruins them both.

"Meth Gator movie?!"

We did. [Link]

I was going to comment on how $60 for Suikoden seems like a pipe dream now, but it's actually fairly on point, at least according to Pricecharting: [Link] That's also probably a good rule to live by. Unfortunately, my monkey brain folds at the slightest hint of FOMO, so I usually end up paying full price for new stuff. Used games are a little easier to find a deal on in my area, so that's a plus at least.

Ah man, Shining Soul is not a name I've heard in a while. Have you played both of them, then? They're probably the two biggest blind spots in my Suda collection, but they always looked super rad.

That's a bit unusual. Typically, I've seen people get attached to the consoles that were new around the time they were born. Like, I'm infinitely fascinated by 5th gen consoles because I was born just before they went on the market. NES could be somewhat understandable, but 2600 too? Now *that* is damn shocking.

Yeah, I can see 7th gen as a whole being a big factor in that. "7th gen brown" games are actually a HUGE blind spot for me. I think I've mentioned it before, but I fell out of games during high school and early college which was the tail end of the 6th gen into the start of the 8th gen. It does feel like I missed out on some gems, but I also see games like Heavenly Sword, and my eyes just start to gloss over.

It almost seems like they were trying to overcompensate for the lack of character development previously...which is not something they needed to do. That style of storytelling has always worked best with Metroid. I'm glad it's becoming somewhat more common in the current generation with games like Tunic, basically all of Fromsoft's catalog, and Etrian Odyssey I can say that because it just released, right?

This time, I'm writing from my desk, but yeah it's mostly done on my phone since I find it's a bit easier to write. On my PC, I can multitask SO MANY THINGS without worrying about a page clearing or a window closing like it does on my phone. That amount of distractions usually makes it more difficult for me to write In fact, I've probably left this tab and come back like at least 5 times looking at various things.

I don't wanna get too far off topic, but that's why I love my job so much. I feel like I'm actually cared for by my colleagues and not just an expense/a number to this company. Cutting costs is absolutely something most companies would do, though.

And that's absolutely what they still did. From the outside looking in, it looks like they cut every possible corner while still leaving that storefront open for them to make money on. Which, in my opinion, if it had to be cuts to store functionality or staff, I'd much rather have a slightly more tedious PS3 store than have someone lose their job just so I can maybe buy Tron Bonne in a few months.

I suppose that is one way you could interpret "bat signal". Although I'd imagine saving Gotham would get kinda hard for any superhero having to walk with a cane.

You are 100% on the mark there. It sounds like some cartoonishly evil corporation's knockoff of MasterCard. And, hey, you're not wrong there either. Floridians are terrifying. Between the natives, meth gators, and all those scary laws getting passed recently, I'm glad I left.

EA made games? I thought they were just a holding company. holding old IP hostage, that is [Link]

Hope your PS2 situation is going well. I used to do this kind of stuff for a local game store when I was in college. I'm sure a lot of my knowledge is out of date by now, though.

Well, God of War II did not want to end anywhere but on a cliff hanger, I think the devs knew the next game would be on PS3 and did everything they could in order to build up the masterpiece that is God of War III. But, of course, God of War III would be nowhere near as good if God of War II had been any worse.

Yeah, of course they completely "rewrote" some characters, but anytime I am seeing something inspired by any mythology I do not expect a 1:1 conversion. I think those who do are the same people that want Tom Bombadil in the Lord of the Rings movies or expect every comic hero to have the exact same unitard they wear in the comics... some things just can't be translated 1:1. I accept that and enjoy the beauty of that game. It is silly and epic and immature and brutal and exaggerated and bombastic at the same time. I loved every moment of it!

Yeah, the Zelda timeline is a mess. I tried to reconstruct it somehow up until Twilight Princess, then tried again with Skyward Sword and A Link Between Worlds... but after Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, I think I am giving up. It just doesn't make sense any more.

Oh, you also have not played the Oracle games? Those were intriguing ones, I liked them a lot. They do nothing spectacularly new compared to Link's Awakening, but they have a lovely cast in my opinion and are just fun. =)

I think the "console wars" became a lot more bearable after the X360/PS3 era. It might also have to do with the terrible performance of the Xbox One and Nintendo just deciding to do their own thing again, but I feel like it is not as ridiculous now as it was back then.
But back in the Nintendo vs. SEGA times or in the N64 vs. PlayStation times, it was a mess. And it was so tough to just play the good games you wanted to play... because everyone had their own "system seller" or "killer application" as they used to call them. Also, I was young and stupid, so I did the one thing I would never do today. I took a side. Worst decision ever...

At least until I got wiser and learned I can go back on my words with more insight, so...

Anyway, yes, lots of great 2D games in the early days of 3D gaming, and lots of aged 3D classics in those days. Still, someone had to try and go for it. If not for those great failures and successes, we would not be where we are today. I firmly believe this.

I have yet to play Mischief Makers, but I was always intrigued by it.. you liked it?

I am noticing every time we talk/write, how many more "Retro" games you played that I never touched, did not know or have to even sometimes google to find out. I am impressed. I wish I had more time to play, but I guess I just have too many other hobbies that I also find equally interesting.

So, Symphony of the Night, I still need to play, all the Mega Man games, still need to play, Kirby 64, still need to play, Tomba, only know that is exists, Silhouette Mirage, never heard of, the first Super Smash Bros., still need to play... the list could go on and on and on...

"Maybe it's just some Final Fantasy summon reject that got lost on the way to the spiky-haired protagonist that called for its aid."

You got me here, this was genuinely funny!

Yeah, we know little about the lore, and Nintendo will never expand on it, so we can make of it what we want. I had an entire sidequest of my D&D campaign that went into such a direction, but the players came up with a cool idea and rolled really well, so instead of going from A to B by boat they instead went from A to C to B and avoided the place where the "completely harmless thunderstorm" was raging and... well, they got around it. And I hate railroading so...

What Final Fantasy hacks did you develop, if I may ask?

Okay, now I get the Deer Carcass spiritual animal implication. Quite the morbid story, but I understand how it can be funny living it in the moment. Are there so many deer carcasses where you live? Who kills all those deers?

I understand your tendency towards shorter games, sometimes there are days where I want to also get more towards those shorter experiences, but then I am afraid most of them are shallow and I go back to the huge whoppers, and... it's a back and forth... Well, that brought me all the way to playing 4 RPGs at the same time. Plus Zelda. I should never do that again...

I managed to finish 28 games last year, if I did my calculations right, and this year I am not even halfway there, so it is gonna be a poor year for gaming as far as quantity is concerned. But the quality, hot dang, right now it is pretty high. Last year I played some pretty lame games instead. But I finished them (where I could finish them) and I was happy about that. Also, played the very first Metroid... that's gotta count for something, right? Even though I was not a big fan of it. It aged poorly, in my opinion...

Then I got straight up banned from another server I tried about because I dissed Undertale. The thing? I mentioned earlier about possibly playing Persona 2 EP (because it actually had adults), and people there were giving me the “NO YOU HAVE TO PLAY THEM IN ORDER” bullshit, and THAT was fine. Well, they said that those people shouldn’t have done that, but zero punishment was given. Yet I was given absolutely NO warnings whatsoever. The best thing? Some idiot got mad at me apparently because I said I didn’t like loud Youtubers, and they thought I meant them I guess, and started misgendering me (despite the server having pronoun roles), and eventually snapped and tore into me in a public channel. Yet THAT was fine.

Blue Fire Arrows are a setting in the newest version of the Ocarina of Time randomizer. If you turn it on, Ice Arrows gain the ability to act as bottled Blue Fire, making the Ice Cavern easy. The thing is with randomizers, you don’t always find Magic early, and they’re useless without it.

We’ll definitely get a date for that Kiryu sidegame, probably 8. Potential new stuff? Judgment 3, Fist of the North Star Xbox/PC maybe. Kenzan’s too early, they said that would be a full Kiwami remake (they called Ishin Kiwami in Japan, but it wasn’t anywhere near on the level as Kiwami 1 and 2). I’d be surprised if they ever ported the PSP games, and I’m not really bothered, since the translation of 1 is in August, and 2 is already out (2 was first because it already had a partial translation, story was done, but no substories). Fist of the North Star I’d maybe be interested in playing again, but I don’t remember having a great time, maybe cause I don’t know anything about Fist of the North Star. Dead Souls remake is highly unlikely, but I’d gladly take one. I have Dead Souls on my hacked PS3 though, so I don’t even need the disc.

I didn’t see that yet, no. Should be good. It’s fucking ridiculous, like when I tried to be in the Segabits discord server, everyone was cool initially, but then I made the mistake of saying that I didn’t think RE4 was the best game ever (god knows what would have happened if I said I hated it). Suddenly the administrators were getting passive aggressive, until I just left for that and various other reasons (attack helicopter “jokes”, making light of depression “go ride a bike”, and scummy final words before I left “you’ll be back”). The shitty thing? ALL of the above…was by the administrators. Never interacting with anything Segabits again, and I hope my friends don’t either.

You actually had a U-Force? And a Roll & Rocker?! Lucky. Or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, I suppose lol. I wouldn't mind trying the U-Force.

Okay, that sounds awesome. I already added Foregone to my wishlist, so if I catch it on a good sale, I'll pick it up.

Right now, I'm mainly waiting for Chained Echoes to go down to around the $16 mark. It looks pretty damn cool. I keep eyeing GG Deals, but I also gotta watch my budget with FF16 coming out soon. I don't buy into indie RPGs often, but Chained Echoes just has my attention for some reason. Trinity Trigger, eh? Somehow, I had a feeling it was Xseed just by looking at it. That's an interesting one, too.

Every time I see someone playing Outer Worlds, I think Outer Wilds. I don't think I know much about Worlds, other than it might be Fallout in space. Speaking of which, I'm disappointed that new Bethesda game is only on Xbox.

I am also not big on RE, even after playing a few of them I would not say that they are as great as people make them out to be, especially the old ones. I agree completely, realistic graphics from the late 2010s will be outdated sooner than a game with an obscure, stylized art style from the early 2000s if you ask me, then again, NPCs from my favorite games of all time look like bags of potato, graphics, and art style are good for hooking you, but there needs to be more than that, long story short just make a fun game and give it unique look, no need to look much deeper into than that.

Indeed, if you have an old PC, which most people don't, then you could just buy a physical CD and just install it, but now that is hardly an option, I could play CDs/DVDs on my old laptop, but not on the new one, so some of my physical PC games are now worthless, a shame. What a time to be alive when you have to say that other companies give EA a run for their money, all jokes aside, it is a shame that the current situation is so messed up, but there is nothing that we can do about that situation, so there is no point at being angry over it, all we can do is hope that the situation gets better one day and not worse.

In the defense of Dark Souls games, those games really are not hard, like, at all, once you figure out the way these games work it is not a challenge at all, over-leveling your character was always a thing in those games, a game that truly represents that rage video game would be that horrendous abomination that is Getting Over It, the game that overnight became an internet phenomenon because it was super unfair while the developer talked about most basic of philosophy about not giving up, the game is garbage and there is nothing that that game did that wasn't done already, so it was also pointless to make in the first place, but the fact that people praised it for "teaching you to not give up!" was just ridiculous, God, it is hard for me to find a game that I truly hate, but Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is just terrible, exactly because they did the opposite of what you said right here: "...design your games to be fun first and hard later...".

YouTube and the internet in general have always been very helpful when it comes to promoting video games, but YouTube especially. The best example, is Five Nights at Freddy's, as mediocre as that video game franchise is, it got mega popular because big YouTubers played it, so all it takes these days is that someone like Markiplier makes one video about a random obscure video game, and BOOM, you have at least few hundred thousand people playing your game. I saw your comment on the DMC 3 OST, I got the impression that you are not into that sort of music lol. Some relationships are meant to last and some are meant to end, it is one of many harsh lessons that life teaches us sooner or later, as someone who is in his early 20's it is a lesson that I learned recently, as awful as it is, it is something that must be understood, at the end of the day all it takes is to have someone, even if it's just one person that you can count on, it is enough, I am lucky to have a group of good friends, but they will also not be here forever, such is life.

That is exactly where the problem of objectivity and subjectivity comes from, how does one judge a video game? There will be games with fatal flaws that you perceive as a minor problem, one person will run a Bethesda game and have it crash every hour and call it unplayable garbage and the other person will play it and not care much for crashed, look beyond that and call it a masterpiece, both people could be right and wrong at the same time, as my mother would always say: "Tastes are not up to debate.", and I agree to an extent, I still like talking with people about my tastes, even if they don agree, it actually makes the conversation more interesting, if you don't agree with one another, then there is something to think at the end of the day. Smart move, I am glad that I was raised better than to be a zombie, glued to my phone all the time, sadly most people are, and while I can see why, it saddens and angers me when I see kids on their phones instead of playing outside with each other, there is no need to ruin your child's health just because their phone gives you some quiet time, there needs to be a balance.

[Link]

I don't see why disliking RotN would matter, everyone has different tastes. But maybe I don't care as much that you didn't like it because I have been harassed simply because I don't like the original RE4. People suck, who gives a shit what you like or don't.

Also, I'm pretty sure we both know how the masses treat people who dislike popular games, like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Shadow of the Colossus, Kingdom Hearts, and probably more.

Can this be so, MotherKojiro? You're going against the popular opinion and didn't enjoy Bloodstained Ritual? I remember it came out and it was that one game that you'd see twenty or so people add on your multitap, lighting up like a Christmas tree. Good for you, Mother! Way to stick it to the mob. You can Do BeTtEr after all! Honestly I didn't think it looked that great and it still doesn't.

There are many good ones for sure, I even like how old resident evil games look on ps1, especially RE3, then again I am not into those kinds of games, sadly, always wanted to check out some of those games just for the visuals alone, but then I screw myself over by not being skilled enough to complete them, but hopefully that will change over time. I am a visual person myself, I only charge into a game if it looks distinctive enough, shame that that leads to me playing some games that only look good and nothing else lol and by looking good I mean the art style, I do not like how a selling point of some games is that it looks hyper-realistic and that is all there is to the game, I have movies for that, hell, just go outside, I know not everyone lives in a breathtaking jungle, but every corner of the globe has something pretty to look at.

Denuvo and other DRMs, in general, are the worst fucking thing ever, as someone who had to use EA launcher for a few games I had just as much fun as anyone else, bad connection, constant repairs and maintenance, and it of course never works. I love, love the irony that it was created to stop piracy when in reality it made it at least ten times worse, people need to realize that if someone wants something they will find a way to get it, "Gamer, uh, finds a way." - Ian Malcolm (almost), Steam, GOG, and others alike are fine for the most part, but of course the king of shit design EA is the worst offender.

I can understand that, it took me waaaaay too goddamn long to get into the way the map worked, it is not that I did not enjoy traversing the map, but some vertical platforming areas were a pain in the ass, getting to a new area, that you do not have a map of, and then finding out that it is hard as balls to get back up from where you came so you need to search for a bench where you can rest, just to walk in the dark, cuz you do not have a map, just to die and get back to the other side of the world from where you came and forget how to get to that place where you died, it was annoying, to say the least, but as I said, it did get easier after getting some useful powerups.

Well, look at it this way, at least the creepypasta served as an ad for a game with a killer soundtrack! Memes and creepypasta can be a very effective tool in promoting the game in question, a good example would also be when Metal Gear Rising had a resurgence a few years ago with the OST becoming an internet phenomenon and making people, myself included, a reason to check out the game and it worked. I do feel you on that one, I try to give any game a few chances before I either sell it or just delete it if I just can't get into it, a good example would be Assassins Creed III, never played a single one in my life so I bought it for my ps3 years ago and tried so hard to finish it, but just couldn't do it, and I do not feel bad for just deleting it, it was not fun and I had better things to do and better games to play, no reason to torture myself. Hate is a strong word, but I did dislike most of my classmates in both elementary and high school, being forced to be around people who you do not care about and know you will never see again can be annoying as hell, but there are always those few, I am still close to few of my friends from high school, but I do consider myself lucky on that one, most people disappear without a trace.

It is definitely not for everyone, but I never saw it as a deal-breaker, was there a specific reason that you could not get into Oblivion? There is nothing wrong with that one, on the contrary, it is probably good you don't, some modern technology is really unnecessary, if it was possible I would get the most basic phone in existence if it means that I would get rid of apps that shorten my attention span every day, I know I could just muster up the willpower to not go and watch YouTube shorts, but hey, sometimes they are a fun distraction.

The spiral sword is pretty OP. I used it for like halfway through the game.

Ritual of the Night is so good. Really can't wait for the sequel.

It's funny that you've mentioned Metroid Prime, because I have issues with it myself. I've played it three different ways: Wii, PC (with the Mouse and Keyboard mod), and the Remaster. Always end up dropping it around 75% through as I feel like the gameplay relies way too much on scanning and shooting buttons across rooms that are not only a pain to traverse, but also filled with enemies that push you to slow you down. Oh, and the Thermal Vision gimmick gets old very fast.

Indeed! I would love to find out what's behind it, especially as it does feel like there's more to it than simple "If enemy = X, use Y". Just gave Magic of Scheherazade a search and the Japanese cover art caught my attention! Looks like a fun game.

Yeah, seeing more and more people joining the industry just for the money leaves quite a bad taste in my mouth. What's worst is how many games with potential and a somewhat decent experience end up being severely hurt by greedy business models. Seems to be the case with the new LEGO 2K Drive, which is fun to play but features both microtransactions and a premium battle pass despite being a $70 game.

Metroid Dread can admittedly be a lot to grasp if you're not really into having a lot of different buttons to press/tools to play around with. But what made me love it is the fact the developers took sequence breaks into account and even made so that the boss fights change to fit what you have. Also, the animations are brilliant and overall, Dread felt a lot like Doom Eternal to me (which is a very good thing ).

"Amadeus's Laboratory."

What if it was Dr. Zaius's Laboratory?

Innie chance you'll be playing Rabbi Ribi next? I mean, Rabi Ribi? It's super freaky.