Lurker > UF8

refind self has a xaki soundtrack for any vgmc people checking in here btw

i think i remember this sticker game from the last indie live expo iirc, neat to see it here too

oh hey refind self

oh it's nearly started oops i was going to go to sleep now but i guess i can stay up for another hour

also i just realised there's no japanese showcase so that second list of games i mentioned is pretty much void

btw i will say i hope the dreamcast is still covered, i'd have expected it to get more activity than the other sega systems at least since it obviously did pioneer a lot more innovations compared to them

Wordle 1,034 4/6*





phew that wasn't looking safe for a while

AriaOfBolo posted...

I will fight you all

i'm glad to have support in this cause

SUBSTITUTE
+3 Deoxys
+2 Dusclops
+1 Alakazam
-1 Golett
-2 Grubbin
-3 Clauncher

G-MAX CANNONADE
+3 Torterra
+2 Cinccino
+1 Latias
-1 Zarude
-2 Thundurus
-3 Impidimp

ZeroSignal posted...

Assuming you want Dragonsphere dropped to 1 point?

ye

Gran Turismo 4 and if this one doesn't make it onto the poll i have no words

real outside shot but maybe Animal Well or Until Then might make it onto the highlight reels given they're may releases

personally hoping to see something like Fairune 2, Kokoro Clover S2, Neko Odyssey, any of the upcoming WSS Playground titles or Witch and Lilies, or of course Stray Children, or Mameda no Bakeru (that one's a real reach, i doubt that'd land in an indie direct now unless jp happens to have a comparable reveal)

still not recovering from the steenee hate

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e2ddc9e2.jpg

eh, might as well give Banshee's Last Cry my 2 points and plonk fire emblem off

HYDRO CANNON
+3 Steenee
+2 Stakataka
+1 Luxray
-1 Sneasel
-2 Mudbray
-3 Raging Bolt

i am already mad at the results

LEAF TORNADO
+3 Snorunt
+2 Metang
+1 Starly
-1 Terrakion
-2 Excadrill
-3 Aromatisse

i am also already mad at the results here too

ChichiriMuyo posted...

I know this is a different time, but the vast amount of data storage that is expected as the norm now gives devs a reason to just not care. There are games that are 5, possibly 10 times as big as they could be if anyone cared about not eating up storage space.

Going back to the N64, it had Resident Evil 2, and they did so mostly through creative uses of data compression. Two PlayStation CDs worth of game on an N64 cart. A Gamecube disc was closer to a DVD in storage than an N64 cart was to two PSX discs by a wide margin.

this is true, but it is also true that gamecube discs still only had a third the capacity of ps2/xbox, so managing to keep up with them specifically as often as they did was still notable at times

for wii and wii u i've already got some pretty impressive games that kept their filesizes mindbogglingly low in mind, and i've decided to try my best at keeping consistent with that (regardless of reception in this case) here. (admittedly this wasn't that straightforward, given what had to use multiple discs, and also how many of the other longer games happened to be ports from dc or even n64, thus making their feats a little less impressive)

just wondering, were all my initial 10 noms safe?

magcargo is the hottest pokemon

actually in light of that, i was thinking about going re4 but considering it doesn't even have that argument to really flex given they put it on two discs, i've changed my mind

instead i'm going to go with a very off the wall pick and go with the longest game i can think of on the system that doesn't use two discs, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom

the fact that gamecube was competitive in any multiplat releases given the smaller disc sizes is something worth considering to be fair, yeah

Wordle 1,032 5/6*






a bit unlucky, i think i'd narrowed it down to 3 options after the 2nd guess and the other two just happened to come to mind faster

up

ursaluna and annihilape make me frustrated at how they undo the original appeal of the lines so i refuse to count them (kingambit is fair enough though, even if it was also overtuned and highly unnecessary, there's no denying it was a welcome concept that served as a natural extension)

most of the likely offenders here are mons i care about so i can't think of any i ever mistake like this. at most i sometimes just need to jog my memory once in a while on what the evos or preevos for some (a select few) mons are, like say, salandit, or sewaddle (it's easy to remember swadloon, but sometimes i blank on leavanny. but if i were to be looking at a swadloon or leavanny proper i'd easily remember the full line), or armaldo...

well i guess dream tactics is out now, i hope it does well (i can't afford it till next week tbh)

by the way they moved the date now on n1rv ann-a, so bad news it's not may any more, good news is it's not complete abandonware yet (they also put a To be announced note on it)

anyway that aside, i figured i'd link to some more links to things i didn't cover in my posts a couple of weeks ago now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLZF7Ncf7k4 FAN POP RHYTHM STAGEAim for the (apr 1) (vr shooting idol game)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIqSvjPIPuo (extra trailer) (it has male idols too)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV11u4m1T7uJ/ Unsolved Mysteries 2: The Bridge Master (apr 2) (vn, chinese-only but also only like $0.50)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DByjmWdx_rs The Devil Within: Satgat (apr 9 - steam early access) (3d sidescrolling action game)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWAyO8URNe4 Anomaly Collapse (apr 12) (furry game from the devs of Hardcore Mecha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9KyHbx784M Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage (apr 18) (the shmup i talked about a few days ago)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2901290/_/ Hoshikage no Yakata Satsujin Jiken (apr 20 - steam) (japanese retro horror detective game inspired by the same works as Retro Mystery Club. already out on freeware sites and booth/dlsite since last year)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2901300/2/ Kaiwa 2 (apr 23 - steam) (japanese horror text adventure from the same dev, also already out elsewhere)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1rN4y1o7vN/ Fatermyth (apr 23) (chinese deckbuilder game that looks nice)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Rr421p7Kf/ Jing Hua Yi Qing - Mirage Sugar Acacia (apr 24) (chinese yuri vn)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SWDXK_WO-A Virtua Unlimited Project (apr 25) (mega man zero-like game)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y02XbJ8YRXE Minicology (apr 26) (terraria/starbound-like)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2901310/_/ Kiteretsu Soudan Dial (apr 27 - steam) (also a japanese horror text adventure (same dev as hoshikage and kaiwa before before) and yes this has also been out on other sites albeit only since february)
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1YF4m1F7pu/ Touhou Silian Ship ~ Ultimate Fatal Octopus (apr 30) (new touhou fangame from a respected level maker)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsCEhIzkuic FRONT MISSION 2: Remake (apr 30 - ps/xb/pc) (i still haven't gotten around to picking it up on switch, so maybe i'll consider it on other platforms... probably not though)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0Q9a-EHzo Hisa to Yomi -Chapter 1: Two Wizards- (april) (a particularly beautiful rpgmaker project planned to release in three parts)

HURRICANE
+3 Poliwag
+2 Torchic
+1 Aron
-1 Solosis
-2 Orbeetle
-3 Shelmet

CLOSE COMBAT
+3 Shaymin
+2 Slugma
+1 Tapu Lele
-1 Sliggoo
-2 Glimmora
-3 Guzzlord

i have minimal input here but i will also say it honestly caught me off guard how small its impact on launch was compared to the other big releases that day too

of course it's hardly the only one i've felt that about, i assumed the thaumaturge would also be a hit (well, initially anyway, then i tempered my expectations and now it's actually done better than i thought, but still)

not to mention that games like botany manor https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/09b70a17.png, pepper grinder https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/bba53033.png, ufouria 2 https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/bb21a573.png, promenade https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/ef661dd7.png, recolit https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/727e0cc1.png and penny's big breakaway https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/32da10df.png were all going to be quite successful in the indie scene (at least peaking over 1k players) given their solid coverage before release and uh, oops

i also assumed games like dead man's hand (online competitive russian roulette-themed game with uno-like rules) and drop mahjong tiles (suika game but mahjong) would at least see some coverage through streamers but clearly that didn't happen either
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6145c5dd.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/ad663f5f.png

(the only games i've been right about in that regard so far this year are that game that's a kpop equivalent to needy streamer overload, the 100% orange juice f2p clone, and that unofficial fangame of getting over it that took all its assets besides the pot. honestly that last one exceeded my expectations, i'm pretty sure it has more players than getting over it itself)

Fall

Johnbobb posted...

Has there ever been an evolution introduced generations later that was nearly that well done?

gen 4 has peak designs in this regard tbh

not the fault of the likes of honchkrow, yanmega and porygon-z arguably that gamefreak decided to dunk on their viability afterwards (i'd throw in ones like gallade and froslass here too but i dunno if the criteria here counts them, and i'm a big fan of others like magnezone and togekiss but i get they kinda go a different direction from the original intent)

Sega Saturn, Shiro!

ZeroSignal posted...

August 1995 release, according to Wikipedia

according to gamefaqs though it's a July 1994 release though so hm

edit: oh it looks like the source for that that likely came from prior wikipedia revisions actually (they'd had that date there from 2008 to 2022) so fair enough

Wordle 1,030 2/6*



let's go

Damn I actually can't believe gran turismo 2 couldn't make the poll that time.

Anyway I was definitely struggling to think of a convincing candidate for this one. There's games on there that really impress me in their own ways, like the budget title Tilk that brings full voice acting and anime-style production to a 30+ hour campaign, and that one Bomberman game on the Saturn has an interesting edge in being the only game i can think of with up to 10 player local multiplayer, but they don't really feel like smart calls when there are so many games on the system boasting 3D graphics unlike them (even including the other bomberman game on the system...)

For me it's probably between one of the higher profile 3D fighting games and mech games (namely the likes of the Virtua Fighter 1/2, Fighters Megamix, Fighting Vipers, Battle Arena Toshinden, Dead or Alive, Zero Divide and Final Fight Revenge among others, as well as ones like the Gungriffon series in the latter regard. Oh yeah, and also the odd standout games in other genres, such as Resident Evil competitor Deep Fear, groovy action games like NiGHTS and Burning Rangers, and of course the popular candidate in Panzer Dragoon Saga). Other genres also definitely saw strong representation this generation too, but given how far they lagged behind the most advanced examples on PS1 I don't think they're quite in contention (yes this is me being unfair to all of the racing games for being so limited compared to gt1/2).

Anyway personally I've decided to hand it to Virtual On, and no it's not just because it happens to fit my aforementioned 3D fitegames and mechgame descriptions, though admittedly it is a large part of it. It's mostly because it just makes sense it's more technically demanding than any other 3D fighter on the system (as an arena fighter with high speed movement and heavy use of projectiles) and they did a great job on the conversion.

honest answer is the first thing it made me think of was korean people with that surname

but since i didn't think of anyone specific i'll instead say that the next one i thought of was the name of a local park i'll also omit, and then begrudgingly say my next thought after that was south

OBLIVION WING
+3 Spiritomb
+2 Sandshrew
+1 Hatenna
-1 Flareon
-2 Bewear
-3 Toedscool

ELECTRIFY
+3 Baltoy
+2 Froslass
+1 Phanpy
-1 Tympole
-2 Dondozo
-3 Veluza

Wordle 1,029 3/6*

it's pretty fun to think about how so many of gen 4's unique encounters were on this ghost type list (with the rest still being gym leaders' aces (mismagius/froslass) or a major character in another game (dusknoir)). no wonder why it made it here despite the smaller roster

stuff like the time-specific drifloon encounter/kidnapping attempt, the dedicated fights for rotom and spiritomb, the old chateau, the multiple cemeteries in route 209, the turnback cave i mainly remember because i got godtier rng that allowed me to reach it immediately by only going up 3 times on my first playthrough and of course everything about the distortion world really cement how big a deal ghost types were that generation

oh actually i missed that kamaitachi no yoru was also a game with a vote already lol (as banshee's last cry. it's fine though, i'm doubting it gets counted anyway and honestly that one is also just as awkward for eligibility too with its english iOS release that i kinda overlooked)

Money

Ash.
EMIT
Panorama Cotton
Power DoLLS: Detachment of Limited Line Service
Umihara Kawase
Tokimeki Memorial
Shining Force II
Puyo Puyo Tsuu
Dragonsphere
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem

(and if cotton and kawase and puyo aren't safe, i'll add on these three as well) (panorama cotton also only got an english release a couple of years ago)
Galaxy Robo
Naname de Magic!
Kamaitachi no Yoru

decided to stick to ones that didn't already have votes, so apologies for arbitrarily excluding darkstalkers/wario/dk/policenauts/vf2/cyberia (ok the last 3 were only in my top 17 but still i had them above naname at least)

on an additional note, EMIT is a series of 3 sequential titles basically, but they were all released at the same time and have since been treated as a set so it's kinda a higurashi/umineko kind of deal. also your call on whether that's fine or not, it didn't really seem right to me to have them filling multiple slots in the contest

Anagram posted...

Animal Crossing for the N64 didn't make the cut

unfortunate since that's probably the only time AC had a genuine case for this poll series (if it gets votes for the gc port i'll laugh)

anyway oh boy this one is tough. I'm just going to put down the really boring Gran Turismo 2 vote and maybe come back if I realise i forgot something really major because ps1 had way too much going on in it

(still, it is rather hard to beat a game that not only boasted some of the best physics in a racing game of its time but also had a vehicle roster a hundred times larger than most of them)

2 eligibility questions, are Umihara Kawase (has an english version on sayonara umihara kawase on vita as well as a standalone ver on steam, both >20 years later) and Puyo Puyo Tsuu (has an english release on the neo geo pocket color port as puyo pop in 1999 (this is like the 10th port)) eligible

Wordle 1,027 3/6*




slate
pulse
louse
got pretty lucky again today, that wouldn't have been an easy word otherwise. i really thought i had it for sure on the second and that there couldn't have been anything else that fit there (on further reflection there were still a solid few others but shh)

picked up Dead Man's Hand and Retro Mystery Club 2, though I haven't gotten to either just yet since i've been playing another game i picked up now, Matsukeke Burst (which came out in late february)

it's not the best out there but i'd def recommend that to people who like falling block puzzle games with story modes along the lines of puyo puyo or panel de pon

also i ended up playing the demos for that chinese vn The Hungry Lamb (which was supposed to release today but actually just got hit with a surprise indefinite delay since it had a run in with steam guidelines) as well as a shmup remaster due out on the 18th, Shikhondo: Youkai Rampage. both were pretty good. I will clarify that the hungry lamb does not appear to be an 18+ title or particularly close to it, but it's also not a big surprise its subject material got subjected to scrutiny here, as it's about bandits, slavery and human trafficking in like 16th century china. the game pretty clearly takes a stance of villifying such things, but simply making the story about them at all was risky enough (i do hope they can find a way to release it without censorship somehow though)

anyway apparently dead man's hand has had zero reception so far outside of one relatively popular streamer playing it which is not a good sign for a game made with online multiplayer in mind (apparently it currently only has one active player too which is a bit rough). hoping it'll be fine enough in singleplayer at least when i finally start on it

can't believe monolithsoft didn't come to mind first for anyone else rip

anyway Die

my first thought was mario artist but that doesn't really count so uhhhhhhhhhhhhh

part of me wants to give it to a racing game other than f-zero (beetle adventure racing has the most detailed courses tbh, wave race's water physics are highly elaborate, and there are several f-zero clones that while lacking x's high perfomance metrics, also vastly outclassed it visually). also that one mech game, last legion ux, is pretty cool too

buuut after thinking about it a bit i think i have to just give it to the original Animal Crossing, or Doubutsu no Mori

MacArrowny posted...

Who did people give the Ring of the Maiden to?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4b9eb451.jpg

the objectively correct answer obv

still glad i cleared it before finishing elheim

warning non-american vote

Statue of Liberty
Hollywood Sign
Grand Canyon
Golden Gate Bridge

being born in a country where the most iconic location in the country is either an opera building or a bigass red hill in the middle of nowhere, and would be comfortable with describing the latter as a natural monument, i'm going to cheat and count the grand canyon for this lol

i'd kind of like to see what people would actually say for australia or new zealand here

TORMENT
+3 Empoleon
+2 Nosepass
+1 Venomoth
-1 Quaxwell
-2 Kartana
-3 Qwilfish

appropriate division name, it hurts minusing any of these besides qwilfish tbh (i wanted to plus everything down to quaxwell...)

PSYCHO CUT
+3 Mareep
+2 Xerneas
+1 Meltan
-1 Golurk
-2 Clobbopus
-3 Palpitoad

def weaker but still solid group too