Lurker > transience

I wonder how you'd do that. the boss sealing sure, but you'd have to rewrite the design of some rooms. I guess there's nothing stopping you though

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xyzzy

91.



I can't put into words how weird it is to play this in 2021. 95% of it is a classic metroidvania, one that really helped define the genre post-SOTN and Super Metroid. But then out of nowhere comes some weird touchscreen gimmick that didn't play then but suuuuper doesn't play now. I love touching the screen to break ice blocks to create a path for Soma to get a potion! It fits so well into the gothic theme.

If I could change like 5% of this game - the random soul drops that are required to get the best ending, the boss seals, any of the other touchscreen gimmicks - then this game could be a lot better. It's still great! I love fighting the bosses and wandering around the maze. Dawn of Sorrow is the most traditional of the DSvanias and is good to return to years later outside of the weird gimmicks.

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xyzzy

92.



Michael Brough makes a very specific kind of game. His games are grid-based strategy games with a specific rule set and a small possibility space. They're simple and elegant and clear. Brough is heavily influenced by board games like chess and go, which is quite literally the best inspiration possible since chess is the GOAT and would probably be #1 on the list if it happened to begin on a video game platform instead of on a board.

P1 Select is a simple mobile game where you simultaneously control 9 different 'guys' that cycle based on your movement. Each time you move, you get a different attacking pattern. You can think of it like an ultra-slimmed down tactics game where you control all of your units within a single square. It's maddening to play at first and really addictive. Of all the Brough-like games out there, this is the one that I come back to over and over.

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xyzzy

I like him a lot! I looked back at our list and I had him at 18 while you had him at 9. we both think he's good. I might go even higher now, not sure.

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xyzzy

93.



AA5 is a great return to form after AA4 threatened to ruin the canon of the entire series. They went and made two Edgeworth games after AA4 because of how badly it compromised the timeline and some of its main characters. That return from the brink is AA5's biggest triumph.

With that said, it's actually easier to talk about AA5's shortcomings than what it does well. What it does well is obvious - it brings the AA franchise onto a new platform with resounding success and shows that the series has a future beyond the Fey storyline. You can tell good stories without relying on the past.

But the cases and storylines themselves? The final villain is underwhelming and I'm not sure anything that happens in this game is even all that noteworthy. The game really short changes Apollo Justice, the purported main character of the previous game. That would be okay if Phoenix had some kind of development but he's more or less a blank slate in this game. You could probably skip the game and not really miss out on anything. It's certainly the least essential of all the mainline AA games. I think the best piece of this game is actually the DLC case which is totally throwaway and legitimately great. Without that case, it probably doesn't make the list.

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xyzzy

94.



Mega Man 3 is a great companion piece with Mega Man 2, one of the greatest games of all time. It even adds series staples like the slide and rush that put it ahead of 2 in some respects. The music is great. Except.. it also has some glaring issues like game-crushing slowdown if there are more than like 2 enemies on the screen, or difficulty that oscillates from extremely easy to reasonably hard numerous times throughout the game. Why is the middle of the game so much harder than the end, where they give out energy tanks like candy? Those issues put it a ways behind 2 on the Mega Man hierarchy, but it's still really fun to rip through it. It has that fun factor that later Mega Man games are missing.

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xyzzy

95.



This game is kind of terrible in its own unique way. It's just so overloaded with random crap! I'm not even sure if it's good random crap or if it's just random for random's sake. The joy of a good Isaac run, at least for me, isn't in beating a tough boss or even in playing a smart run. It's in the absolute smorgasbord of modifiers and seeing what madness might come next. Maybe you'll get some kind of powerup that lets you poison enemies and fly over them while you summon 3 familiars that shoot fiery poop at them but can also explode and kill you randomly. That's just the Binding of Isaac, man.

I'm never sure if my winning run is because of the luck of the draw or if I did something clever. There's so much literal shit seeping out of every corner of this game that just seeing what shows up next on roulette wheel is a joy, almost separate from the game itself. I just want to know what the hell is going to happen. It feels dangerous to play this game, because if I want to understand anything properly it's going to take hundreds of hours. Instead I just poke at the demon and give myself over to the wheel of randomness.

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xyzzy

96.



This one is tough for me. Spelunky 1 is one of the greatest games of all time. Spelunky 2... is basically just Spelunky 1 with different stuff on the periphery. The movement, the jumping, the enemies, the jerk shopkeeper -- it's all there, and it mostly feels the exact same. There's new fluid dynamics and mounts that you can ride and the environmental traps in each area changes.. but the core feel isn't really improved at all. And that's good -- because Spelunky 1 is just about perfect. I'm still looting the shop and wrecking enemies with the shotgun and dying in the most ridiculous ways.

But... I still haven't found a really compelling reason to play it? Like, it's technically amazing, right up there with probably the most influential/greatest roguelite of all time. Usually an iterative sequel will bring some kind of mechanical change that renders the old one obsolete. But this one? I'm just as happy playing the original. It's just not the same playing what feels somewhat like a rom hack or a remix, as opposed to a new experience. I love playing Spelunky 2, but if I never played it again I don't feel like I'd be missing out. It's weird.

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xyzzy

97.



This game's audio really makes it soar. What could have been a simple 7/10 puzzle game punches way above its weight with the little touches of the goo balls making sound, and the kinetic energy that the soundtrack brings. I suck at World of Goo - and really, any game you primarily play with a pointing device - but that feeling that the game exudes is special. And hey, when you fail, you fail kinda spectacularly and even that's kinda fun in its own way. Thank god for the rewind options in the game because redoing a level kinda sucks.

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xyzzy

98.



Okay we'll get past the early 90s nostalgia pull here momentarily, I promise. This game was so novel at the time that every single piece of it resonates super strongly. I like to take the sporcle quiz asking me to name every monster in this game, and I usually get every one because back then you got to know those suckers. After all, the experience tables in original NES Dragon Warrior were so grindy that you just knew everything there was to know about DW1's monsters.

Back in the day, I could walk through the dungeon where Princess Gwaelin was held hostage without using a torch because I had made dozens of attempts trying to kill that Green Dragon motherfucker. I have tons of little anecdotes like that. I'll always know the exact square where the axe knight is that guards Erdrick's Armor or where the fairy flute lies next to Kol. Every piece of this game stands out as special even if the game itself is the most rote, by the numbers JRPG ever made.

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xyzzy

99.



Uniracers is the most 90s-ass game that was ever made. Playing this game makes me want to put on MTV's Headbangers Ball or destroy some poor kid in Mortal Kombat 3 at the local arcade. This game's music and general attitude just exudes 1994. Uniracers is one of the simplest racing games ever made thanks to its 2d plane, even moreso than Super Mario Kart or even some of the arcade games of the 80s. It's so easy to pick up and play and doesn't have the awful rubberbanding of the original SMK. Give someone 10 minutes to get used to the controls and they'll be great competition. It's a unique game that calls back to an era and I really loved that time for games. Playing this makes me want to watch the Disney Afternoon. Hell yeah this game rules.

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xyzzy

100.



I still prefer the simplicity of the original Portal to the technically superior sequel. There's something about being introduced to that world, and the test chambers, that really appeals to me. I actually prefer that section to the more natural FPS environments you see in the second half. I think it sets a better tone with Glados and the unusual look of the test chambers and the way it introduces mechanics. I love that, and always go back to it to try to reclaim that feeling of wondering what the heck is going on.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is the iteration of sequels and what happens when a mechanically superior sequel loses some of the feeling that made the original special, even if it's just that the sequel had the unfortunate luck of coming after the concept was defined. Portal's one of those for me. I hope they never make a Portal 3 because I can't imagine being at all interested in it conceptually.

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xyzzy

hmm, okay, I think I can go with that. I'll rework a few things and then get started later tonight after I get my kids to bed.

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xyzzy

so, I super struggled with what to do with GAA2, since it isn't an actual release in NA. is it its own game? if it is, I might need to reconsider its placement. if not and the consideration is both games together... that's a totally different judgment.

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xyzzy

The Mana Sword posted...

I wonder if I could even guess half of them these days

you probably could! it's not like I do a big taste overhaul every year

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xyzzy

It's that time again! I've been doing these lists every couple of years for damn near half my life now and it's become a tradition to list them out on here. So, here we go again.

For anyone who hasn't followed my lists for the last 15ish years here, expect a lot of JRPGs and 2d action games/platformers. First and third person shooters often trigger my motion sickness so you won't see a lot of those here (though there are a few). I like me some indie games, but not at the expense of a good classic game from a major franchise.

Usually I write a few paragraphs about each entry but my tastes are pretty set in stone in my old age. So, instead of biggish writeups on the same games yet again I'll just do a quick thought or anecdote I have for each game. By the time I get to the top games I might have more to say, and I'm always happy to go into more detail if anyone is interested in more.

Without further ado, I present.. a bunch of Dragon Quest and Ace Attorney games!

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xyzzy

yeah I really don't like that spot. I always have to circle around because I don't have the timing down.

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xyzzy

yeah there's a lot of that. wide beam is the same thing. they use doors as progress barriers and then drop it. maybe it's good that they don't keep making you use them but it just feels like a key moreso than anything else. fortunately each powerup feels naturally good because you need to power up to deal with the evolving enemies throughout the game.

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xyzzy

there's some weird stuff being discovered on a daily basis. here's today's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM4tXy50i8M

Really great Metroid. It had everything I wanted and even more gimmicks that were well incorporated. I love how abilities stayed relevant and gradually added to the arsenal. That's what most Metroid style games miss, by treating abilities like door keys instead of changes in gameplay.

maybe we interpret this differently, but I thought Dread had the most 'door keys' of any Metroid. what are there, six different types of doors they sprinkle in? beam, missile, super missile, plasma, grapple, flash shift, phantom, storm missile, wave.. okay there's even more than that. mixing and matching doors gets kinda exhausting, especially the ones that you need to use the phantom ability since I never notice those and have to redo them slowly every single time.

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xyzzy

yeah agreed. but I usually need those attempts in order to nail the patterns down and basically get good.

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xyzzy

yeah, but I didn't need actual skill to beat those bosses or a good chunk of energy tanks to deal with every enemy hitting you for a full bar of damage. Dread swims in a bit of a different ocean.

but yeah you're probably right

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xyzzy

my biggest concern with Dread is that if I walk away from it for a few months and come back, I'm worried that all that muscle memory and specific pathing for all the odd sequence breaks (are they really even breaks? more like ZM-esque alternate paths) is going to be gone. Dread feels like a game that gives you back what you put in but I don't know that I could ever memorize a map this big.

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xyzzy

I don't think I ever bothered to get 100% in Fusion because you never really needed any missiles. you need them in Dread because they hit you so much harder.

but Fusion would probably be easier just because mmmmm dpad

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xyzzy

that diagonal spark onto the slope made things so much easier when I learned about it, especially since that spark is part of early gravity suit. the other ones I'll probably never do again.

the one GMUN posted is the one that gave me the most grief, just because you kinda have to hold the spark through jumps instead of storing it by pressing down. I did something similar but mine had like four jumps and was just me flailing out of control until suddenly I got the item.

I really feel like those things are the equivalent of doing fighting game combo trials, where you're just practicing your button presses until you execute right.

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xyzzy

this one?

https://twitter.com/necta_rines/status/1447410754160771074

I struggled with this one for sure. I find that playing with a pro controller is a lot better than handheld for these awful shinespark puzzles.

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xyzzy

I played with some sequence breaking - gravity suit before space jump and storm missiles. it's going fine but I'm finding myself in spots without space jump that are really weird -- for example, this extremely stupid bomb jump:

https://twitter.com/necta_rines/status/1449221082636959750

I think I might end up just beating it without space jump, which I assume is reasonably possible.

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xyzzy

I just checked howlongtobeat. Hollow Knight's sitting at 26 hours whereas Dread is 8

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xyzzy

I've gotten weirdly good at the counter - maybe 30-40% of the time? but if you asked me how I'd say it's just luck

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xyzzy

I'm up to about 85% and have all the powerups. I spent the night goofing around with those shinespark puzzles rather than take on the last boss. some of those things are devilish, but I've managed to figure them all out but one so far.

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xyzzy

that's how I got that item

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xyzzy

so yeah, the last section was really strong and redeemed case 5. Stronghart! this dude is like Damon Gant but ratcheted way up. he's clearly very powerful and even manages to twist things in his favor at the very end before Sholmes shows up and his does his stupid crap to beam it to the queen or whatever. Sholmes is a real buzzkill.

Stronghart makes clear arguments in favor of himself and has the von Karma thing of never having a stressed animation until the very very end. his pose where he stands up is super good as it shows up his stature and perceived power. the audience goes back and forth which is a good touch. Naruhodo does some nice work here, never really losing his cool and being careful with his words. Kazuma.. yeah, he was better off dead I think. we needed a prosecutor for van Zieks obviously, but I didn't expect to be in a spot where van Zieks seemed more effective than Kazuma. but Naruhodo carries him regardless.

the section where they bring up the baskerville actually got me to gasp. I just didn't see it coming. Clint is a really good past character, and I really love past cases. they lay the Professor case on for literally the entire game and it needs some kind of moniker like DL-6. that case terrifies people. it's like Voldemort or something.

the ending is really lame and sappy, but I guess that's good. I grew to really like Yujin and Susato is a strong character too. I'm glad she's with Ryu and not Kazuma because Kazuma doesn't deserve her skills and grace. I'm guessing this is the last we'll see of this time period, but I did end up liking GAA2 a good bit.

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xyzzy

wow, that was amazing

I'll have more to say tomorrow, and I still need to button through the epilogue. I stayed up way later than I meant to trying to finish this case, which is a series tradition that's been haunting me for 15 years now. but, wow.

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xyzzy

the Jigoku takedown went a little better than the first day, but it was still pretty unsatisfying. Jigoku felt like collateral damage and the revelations weren't particularly insightful. it was clear he was involved from the point that you get the picture taken in the hotel, and the details of how he killed Gregson felt meaningless without the reaper being unmasked. I kinda felt bad taking him down.

the least surprising twist was that Kazuma was going to push for van Zieks to take the fall for the reaper. he feels pretty transparent to me but I still haven't pieced together Stronghart's exact role just yet. I've felt pretty confident since the first game that we'd be taking him down but that's gonna make for an awkward finale with him as the judge. hopefully that makes me feel whelmed, if that is what happens.

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xyzzy

okay, I finished trial part 1, or at least I think I did? I have to say, I didn't expect Iris's toy to be a line onto the grouse with sholmes and yujin. we come back to one of my least favourite settings to be controlling yujin of all people. how many characters have we controlled in an investigation? maybe... 5? this felt like a big deal, even if it was just a simple investigation to find jigoku.

I have to say, I was completely clueless in this trial. I had just about no idea of what to do the whole way. I didn't see Kazuma being on the ship at all and didn't even think to call out him as the person who made a faulty statement. I nailed case 4 without a single mistake but case 5 comes along and I just have no idea what is trying to be inferred here. oh well.

I stopped after the investigation. I guess we're coming back for the magical subpoena. Sholmes, man. I have such a bad taste about him. he's the worst parts of deus ex mia turned up to 11, and happening all the time.

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xyzzy

they're both kinda bad. useful, but bad. these games, by virtue of their multiple witnesses and jury members, kinda dilutes the pool of characters. I guess I'm used to having solid thoughts on each character from each case, but in these games it almost feels like they're not even characters at all, just sources of information.

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xyzzy

wait. case 4 ends with investigation day 2? and case 5 is just the trial?

well, that's going to make any case ranking extremely confusing!

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xyzzy

oh I have a lot of thoughts about that!

that's the advantage of a new set of characters. in the AA games, Phoenix is essentially done with his character arc by the end of AA3, and you could make an argument that he's actually done by the end of 1-4. (I would agree with that, I think.) in AA2, Phoenix doesn't go through much growth outside of maybe 2-4, and I would say that Edgeworth is the bigger growth there anyway. AA3 is about Godot and the Feys. Phoenix plays a big role in the end but he's more there for the ride.

AA4 should have been Apollo's growth, but y'know, and by the time you get to the end of AA5, Phoenix is battling Edgeworth but it's not really clear why? the story is about Blackquill, Athena, and Apollo, but yet here's Phoenix crashing the party for no particular reason, because he's the main character of the series and he's gotta wrap it up. AA6 is interesting because here's Phoenix again in a foreign land, but the game eventually clears the stage for Apollo to shine. it would have probably been better if Apollo was at the center from the start but at least they got there.

the two GAA games seem to be written as part of a singular package, or at least that's how I'm perceiving it with this collection, and so Naruhodo is actually central to the plot. the first game almost feels like a tutorial for the second. it's a strength of the game for sure.

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xyzzy

okay, I finished trial day 1. it was plainly obvious that Hugh whatever his name is was going to be Daley Vigil thanks to the picture, and that his notable feature was that he looked like a normal dude. but, I didn't put the pieces together that this Gossip idiot was going to be him. once that became clear, everything else kinda fell into place here.

I also figured out quickly that it wasn't Gregson that showed up at the park, but I figured that was because he was already dead and the killer took his place. I guess that's still possible but I'm having a hard time thinking that Vigil is the killer. something else is up here.

I've been thinking since the very beginning that Kazuma's game was going to be to burn down the British legal system for its handling of his dad's death. that... seems accurate, though maybe Naruhodo can turn the ship and just bring out the truth and rescue his troubled friend before he goes too far. that's where my head is at. it feels weird that it's being done with Vigil - his role makes sense, but his character seems so soft for someone who was supposedly a warden. I can't see this guy running a jail, even if he's got some repressed memories that have changed his personality.

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xyzzy

I played through part 1 of trial 1. I liked the tone here, at least in theory -- no jury, mostly I was hoping for no audience too but they still had the whispers and murmurs which I thought took away from it. oh well.

Kazuma is obviously the main draw here. I'm... struggling with the way they're framing him. like, think back to case 2, or really, all of the first game. Ryu's entire arc is predicated on him. and yet, we haven't even been allowed to really talk to him in any way beyond just the case. we don't even know if we've had any time to just go and say hey, have some tea, whatever.

Kazuma's our BFF and yet he's calling us.. our learned friend, the same as van Zieks? it's like he's his protege or something, despite having his memory back for like 8 days. he's really competent in court, very likable, but.. I don't know, I wanted something more. I also don't like his objection at all. it doesn't seem to fit him in the slightest.

the case itself is interesting, and I have to say, case 4 Naruhodo feels like the most competent in just about any game. there's not a lot of tricks and we seem really cool and collected, a lot like Kazuma. it feels like we're trying to match his tone. I like it a lot... but also, it doesn't feel honest because Kazuma seems to have turned from hothead to really detached overnight. I'm waiting to see where we go with him because we're obviously early. we're taking apart these corner rats like they're nothing and the deductions are simple, something I appreciate.

this case is reminding me of a 3-4 type of case where it's really framing what's to come. don't get me wrong, I'm liking everything the game is throwing at me with the vibe of the case and the idea of having Kazuma here. I think the execution just isn't all there though.

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xyzzy

it even goes out of the way to withhold information until it's ready to dole it out to you. usually a game will do that with a hidden hand, but this game lets you know that it knows and flaunts the fact that the other characters know more than you.


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xyzzy

okay, I finished the first investigation day of case 4. this was good, if not predictable -- Gregson was planning to leave London which meant of course he was going to get taken out. (I still haven't seen his body -- I don't think the game will keep playing the fake victim card, but you never know.) you know that you're going to end up defending van Zieks, despite his absolute insistence that it not be you. and you know that the prosecutor was going to be Kazuma -- either him or Stronghart, but I get the feeling that we save Stronghart until case 5.

the first chunk of this investigation day wasn't very fun - Sholmes, the hair color and the random racist prison warden. I'm sure it all ties in, in the same way that you knew the wax museum would play a big role in case 3. but for now, having all these random events get eventually tied up in a neat bow.. eh. sometimes things are a little too convenient. anyway, looking forward to seeing what Kazuma's like in a trial.

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xyzzy

I played an absolute ton yesterday so I only gave it about 10-15 minutes today. all I did was kick it off to see where it goes. I didn't expect to see the japanese bros show up just yet - I thought case 4 would deal with Kazuma being back and they'd be here for the finale. I didn't expect to see them before I saw Kazuma again.

I finished my chat in the hotel area with them and then called it a day. I'll get more in tomorrow.

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xyzzy

there's material to cover for sure. but that was basically a finale case shoved into the middle of the game, and that doesn't usually happen

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xyzzy

some four hours later, I finally finished G2-3's final trial day.

wow. I'm not even sure what to say besides, how are there two more cases in this game?

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xyzzy

I paused for a month or so after beating the first 'game', partially because I had other things to play but also because I just wasn't enjoying it very much.

GAA2 is a lot better so far. the first case is pretty standard tutorial fare, though it did have a notable recurring character die in the process which kinda bummed me out because I liked Brett as a villain. but, I can see that we're going somewhere with it, and hopefully it still has some punch with her dead.

I liked case 2 a good bit, moreso than any of the cases in GAA1. Shamspeare was an awful character with no redeeming qualities but I rather liked him just getting up in the middle of an investigation. that got me pretty good. the dynamic of the supposed victim being alive and testifying against Soseki was pretty cool, and when Green got involved I thought that was cool too. you get to know a lot of Garrideb's past and present tenants and those twists were really good. I didn't expect to study gas distribution so deeply in an AA game.

I also liked defending Soseki again - one complaint I have with this game is that you're kind of just given defendants, and having a natural 'in' with Soseki for a second murder case really helped push the narrative along. I don't like Soseki at all but at least we have some kind of relationship there as opposed to Stronghart just throwing some rando at us.

speaking of which, case 3, which I'm on now. I wasn't feeling this at all on investigation day 1, where you're kind of revealing some backstory on the fair and then trying to battle against super kinesis or whatever. Harebrayne might be the first defendant where it feels like you're actively working against him from the first minute. he isn't particularly likable, but isn't awful. eventually you debunk his case and Susato comes back for the miracle assist. hell yeah. I don't like Iris so I'm really happy to have Susato back.

but investigation day 2... I don't know what the list is, but investigation day 2 of case GAA2-3 might be among the all time greats. there's the hints of a Kuzama reveal -- which I had been expecting since GAA1-2 -- and then everything with the wax museum and Drubber. this whole investigation day has a vibe and it reminded me of 2-4's second day with how dark it gets. it's not on that level, of course, but after GAA1 I wasn't really expecting this game to hit very high heights, and so far this is good.

I'm about to start trial day 2 and am excited to see where this goes. there's Kuzama, everything with the Professor and van Zieks, the backstory about Stronghart and Susato's dad.. it seems like it might be winding up for something great. GAA2 is very intentionally only revealing the story in layers and while can be a little obnoxious -- don't let me get on my soapbox about Sholmes -- I appreciate that it seems like it's building to something.

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xyzzy

I could write an essay on this, but instead I'll just say that I put my 8 year old in front of super metroid recently and he got to spore spawn, got frustrated with the controls and bailed on the game. I put him in front of zero mission and he loved it the whole way through.

super metroid does have a wider range of options than zero mission thanks to the wonkiness of its controls and physics, but zero mission is the goat just because it controls better than anything else in existence. (except for AM2R, which is like zero mission+)

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xyzzy