(Retro) What have you been playing this week? Vol.2

[chopemon]

I love that part of Antarctica. Resident Evil works best in insane buildings designed by freaks (I mean in universe freaks like Spencer). The games where that doesn't happen like Resi 3 etc lose that sense of other worldly-ness that Resi 1 established. It's so perfect that there's a mansion hidden under the snow.

[wakka]

I kind of agree and disagree. Although a Spencer Mansion buried in Antarctica is a legitimately awesome idea, I almost feel like Code Veronica throws too much of this stuff out there. There are several industrial facilities, at least three mansion type areas, a few labs, etc. The environments feel less focused by the end and I don't get such a strong sense of place from them.

For me the classic Resi thing isn't a sense of otherworldliness exactly but the mash-up of the occult and the high tech. Opening an ornately carved wooden door in a lamp lit room filled with cobwebbed oil paintings and and deep pile carpet to find a gleaming silver laboratory with humming computers and tanks of liquid filled with strange creatures beyond. That incongruity to me is Resi.

And CV has that, but kinda dips in and out of each area type too much. Oop, here's a mansion. Oh, there's a lab. And back and forth and so on. For me it would have been more effective to trim back the number of environments used so that transitioning between them feels more impactful.

[samanosuke]

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for their interesting and eloquent opinions on CV. I’ve enjoyed reading through all the posts.

I haven’t played it since its release but I remember loving it back in the day, even though I had to restart the game when I got to the boss at the end of the first disc and had long expended all my explosive rounds.

Sure it’s not perfect but I loved the switch to 3D backgrounds. Makes it a uniquely transitional entry in the series between Nemesis and 4.

[wakka]

So, I finally finished Code Veronica, after taking a break since last week.

Firstly, the whole structure of the ending sequence is beyond insane. I totally see what people mean about the issue where items get stuck in either Chris or Claire's inventory now, and aren't accessible by the other character when you're playing as them. It's not a problem for 95% of the game, but in the final two hours, you switch back and forth a few times and you absolutely need guns and ammo on you for boss battles. Without any kind of warning as to when you'll switch, or any ability to recover items from the character you're not playing as, I'd be amazed if someone could play this for the first time and not utterly screw themselves. It's no exaggeration to say you could very easily end up on the final boss battle with no way to win and be forced to restart the entire game.

For myself I luckily did have an old save I could reload to recover the weapons I needed from Claire's inventory for the final boss, although I had to replay about 40 minutes of the game to do that. So, yeah, not great. Not sure why they made it work like that to be honest, since the item boxes are magical anyway. You should just be able to access the other character's inventory from them.

That aside - overall, I think it's a great game and a great Resi.

I really liked the gothic overtones of the story of the Ashford family, with incestuous siblings and murdering of relatives and all the rest of it. There is a cool mix of environments (although a few too many 'industrial' type ones, and I think the best ideas, like the mansion buried in Antarctica, get a bit lost in the mix at times). The item puzzles are probably at their peak here, since it feels designed for people who've already worked their way through the various jewels and emblems and so on in the prior three games. There's a really nice level of complexity - just enough to stretch you without becoming frustrating.

It is a chunky game - I clocked in at 15 hours 14 minutes, and I do think the Chris chapters are a bit bloated. It's beautifully paced up till you start playing as him, then it slams the brakes on. That's a shame, and I think perhaps it could have been a few hours shorter and as a result had more velocity towards the end.

But it's a lot of fun and I'm very glad I played it. I got given a D rank, by the way

[samanosuke]

I've been meaning to play the Phantsay Star games back to back for a while, and finally clearing a backlog of longer games has offered me the opportunity to do so. I've only ever played IV for a considerable amount of time up until now.

So last night I fired up the Anbernic and started playing PS1. First impressions are wow, this is an 8-bit title? I always knew the 3D dungeons were impressive but cut scenes as well? I can see how this would have blown gamers away back in the day as it is closer to a 16-bit RPG than the likes of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were back then. Makes it much more accessible to play in modern times than its peers.

My gosh, you have to grind a bit to begin with though, don't you? Did my obligatory grind to get the better armour and weapons, and then got a bit stuck very early on. Anyone who's played PS1 will probably understand where/how as once I checked a guide I thought wow, really? I'd have never thought of doing that! Anyway, once I'd got over that small bump in the road I quickly managed to visit another planet, gain party members, and continue to progress without any need to refer back to the guide.

As I sit here typing this I can't wait for work to finish so I can go straight back to it. Been a long time since a game had that effect on me!

[chopemon]

I saved up my holiday for a big long Christmas break this year. This means I am playing a lot of games. I'm especially playing a lot of PS2 now that I have a Retrotink that makes them look amazing.

Started with the first Onechanbara. I like the recent games but this isn't doing it for me. Since it was a budget title it feels like they padded it to get the hour count up. Cool to finally play it but bouncing off halfway through.

Death by Degrees is a game full of seriously cool ideas. Your attack moves are mapped to the right stick and you flick it towards the enemy you want to attack. I can see what they were going for; that martial arts movie feeling of the hero dealing with baddies from all sides really gracefully. It doesn't quite nail it because the animations are a tad too long and don't cancel into each other as well as they could. The evade is mapped to flicks of the left stick but it seemed really hard to get it to register so I couldn't pull it off. Has some other weird ideas about tracking save points with a radar that could be realised into a really special game but the execution here isn't what it needs to be.

Spy Fiction. Third attempt to enjoy this but unfortunately my last. Made it further this time and hit the mission 3 road block a lot of people do. They recreate the Mission Impossible security room rappelling scene and it is a big difficulty spike. The rest of the game is cool though. It's kind of Splinter Cell but with the ability to disguise yourself as any NPC by taking photos of them. It is full of gadgets and is really well made on the whole. There are perhaps too many gadgets and the early levels never exploit them fully.

Magical Drop 2. Always wanted to try Magical Drop and found it was on the SNES collection on the Switch. Love it. I discovered my love for this kind of puzzle game when I first played Money Puzzle Exchanger at HOG on a Borders down meetup. Really like the speed of MD2 and will definitely play more.

Saw a game I'd never heard of on the SNES Switch app; Spanky's Quest. I'm sure it's probably the best game ever to someone but it's a nightmare of sentient fruit, a monkey that bounces balls (?) and weird controlling mechanics.

Outrun 2006. This was my first Retrotink test game. I'd never played it before and it just about blew my face off. I've dabbled in OR2 on the Xbox but seeing this on a PS2 is something else. Amazing game and will keep going back to it.

Looking forward to getting into more of my backlog over the next couple of weeks.

[Cepp]

Playing Mario Land 2 which is a lot harder and weirder than I remember.

[chipsgravy]

Having just recently got an X-Station and PS1 for the first time since they were next gen I have been dabbling in PS1 titles. Today I got my 20+ year old Jogcon controller out and gave R4, V-Rally 2 and Breakout some time. Its also "compatible" with Pac World, but not really. Anyway V Rally 2 was superb with the Jogcon and is probably my favourite of the 4 titles that support it.

[wakka]

Continuing my retro kick of recent months, I started Racing Lagoon last night. The recent fan translation, of course.

Very early days on this as I've only put a few hours in so far, but after a slightly rocky start where I wasn't sure about it, it massively clicked with me about two hours in. I'm having a huge amount of fun cruising around Yokohama and upgrading my vehicle.

Two key things stand out. One, the way they have integrated classic Squaresoft RPG tropes into a racing games is very graceful. They haven't been too slavish with how the RPG structure usually works, and instead have adapted it well to a racing game.

Secondly, the racing. The controls are digital and the feel is quite typical of the era, but it's very satisfying to play. You need to commit to turns, but when you get the speed and angle of entry just right and are able to trigger a neat, fast drift past your opponent, it's a terrific feeling.

Oh, and one other thing. The graphics and music are excellent. Yokohama is hugely atmospheric, and the mix of jazz tracks scoring it are so expertly done that I'm immediately reminded of how Persona uses music.

So - very positive so far. Looking forward to playing more.

[wakka]

Double post incoming.

Played more Racing Lagoon last night and I'm really enjoying it. It's such an addictive blend of RPG levelling and old school drifting action.

But I'm having some trouble understanding the best strategy for upgrading my car, and there is precious little info out there. There is a detailed walkthrough on GameFAQs, but it focuses on giving you the optimum setup at all times, rather than helping with the fundamentals so you can create your own builds. The only other resource I've found is a bunch of people discussing it on a forum in 2010.

Has anyone here played it? If so, I have questions!

[chopemon]

I've played a couple of hours of the fan translation and quite enjoyed it. I only just started getting to grips with car parts etc so I don't think I'll be much help...

[wakka]

No worries. I've played about 6 hours now so probs a bit ahead of you. It's mostly trying to wrap my head around what difference the chassis and body makes that I'm confused about, and also what governs acceleration (I'm frequently getting people roar off the line ahead me despite having a pretty powerful engine in my 86 now).

[chopemon]

I struggled with that as well had to save state scum a few early races as I got used to the handling and how easy it was for racers to get ahead of me.

[chopemon]

Been playing Shinobido on PS2. This is the game that put me off playing PS2 games for a while because the colours and resolution look terrible through the OSSC and the resolutions my TV will accept. It was also terrible to play because it switches resolution between FMV, main menu, game and pause menu. Every time my TV would go black and then come back with a big grey bar across the top telling me what input and res it was displaying.

Well, with the Retrotink all those problems are gone. The only problem it has now is that it never got a US release so if you want to play it in English, you have to play the 50hz only PAL version.

Anyway, it's a more ambitious Tenchu. Instead of linear levels it has big playground levels which are repurposed for lots of missions. Kind of like Tenchu Z but with better variety.

It adds lots of options for the player with equipment and abilities. You can quick fire the grappling hook to make escape easier, you can wall hop and wall run, the grappling hook can be used to pull items towards you or get guards off balance, you can fine aim a lot of equipment and pick up and throw items in the world. This gives you a lot of options but it always feels like you're fighting the imprecise movement and camera. Some of the actions are very snappy but there's a lot of the game thinking it knows best and just as you're about to do something, it snaps you into cover because cover and crouch walk are the same button. Or you go to cover or want to drop down from a ledge and it binds you to the wrong next cover/ledge. There have been a lot of accidental guard triggerings leading to quitting and restarting. A few missions in though and I'm getting used to it.

A lot of the missions are very standard but I did a great one yesterday. I had to kill a general in a fortress in a misty forest. I sneaked in, taking out some patrolling guards. I got into the tower above where the general was hanging out and discovered a huge black bear in a cage. I unlocked the cage and ran. The bear came charging out and slaughtered loads of the guards while I watched from above. Eventually the bear ran out of guards to kill and started roaming. I hopped down to the corridor outside the general room and made some best guesses about the view cone distance of him and his lackeys. I got it right and managed to setup a trail of landmines down the corridor. My plan was to get back into cover and throw some explosive sushi into their room. One of them would eat it and send the others into patrol mode and they'd hit the mines.

It turns out I got lucky with my view cone guess and just as I was retreating to cover, one of them turned and saw the trail of mines and they all went berserk, running out to investigate. They investigated with their feet and their health bars and all took a load of damage. This attracted the bear who came roaring in and battered the lackeys. The bear and the general had a long fight that took them out into the forest but eventually the general defeated the bear. He started heading back to his room and I snuck up behind him for the kill. Unfortunately you can't stealth kill him, he has to trigger a pissant little cutscene. So I triggered that then escaped so I could try again. I followed him from the roof and for threw the explosive sushi down in front of the door he was headed towards to stop him from going indoors. He ate the sushi which exploded, changing his search route and I dropped down and stealth killed him.

Amazing experience with a lot of luck that only happened after several failed attempts at the level.

I went back to that fortress for the next mission to steal something. The bear door had been replaced with a solid iron door. I opened it and a frenzied Savage type enemy came bursting out. There was no way I could know he was in there and I couldn't see him through the gap in the door and the normal HUD icon that shows that an enemy is nearby is arbitrarily turned off for these enemies until you trigger them. So that sucks.

Not sure of I'll play through the whole game is it is quite long, full of filler and often frustrating but the killing the general via a bear, land mines and explosive sushi was a really wonderful experience.

[wakka]

Awesome I love when a plan comes together in a game like that.