No matter what lies your parents taught you, I can not stress this enough, snails are simply *not good at jumping*.
We're starting off with the Nintendo Switch Online release! It's a release for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion pass, which costs more than the regular pass but it has far more games available! One of them is Golden Sun, an RPG originally released on the Gameboy Advance. That was the third generation of Gameboy consoles. An RPG is a slower paced kind of video game typically characterized by more strategic combat and exploration. Frequently they use arabic numerals to exemplify character growth. While Golden Sun was a very good example of an RPG, a lot of people criticized it for talking too much. Many lines of dialogue were used to explain simple ideas. Many people thought this dialogue was redundant. The general consensus was that perhaps the video game needed an edidtor to pare this dialogue down, because there was so much redundant yammering. Yammering is a kind of aimless dialogue that is tedious to experience. Another game released was Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the direct sequel to Golden Sun. A sequel refers to something which comes next in line of the narrative. While similar, the storyline may be harder to follow if you experience it first. The Lost Age is considered to be one of the better RPGs on the GBA, but it, too had a problem with redundant dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue in the two games.
Now if you want an RPG that has just as much Good Times Playing Video Games and, if anything, nowhere near enough dialogue, then you just settle on in here and hitch your wagon up to Crystal Project! And it's a game I'm enjoying the absolute heck out of, but it's a challenge to explain why without making it sound like the game is kind of bad. I ASSURE YOU THIS IS NOT THE CASE. It's kind of like Octopath in that it's an SNES-y style RPG that is WAY MORE open ended than you'd expect from the genre but, while Octopath looks incredible, Crystal Project looks like butt with RPG Maker placeholder graphics and the kind of chunky polygonal effects that Minecraft puts to shame. BUT!!!
It's real good! Completely open ended and the emphasis was very much on going absolutely hog-wild with character build customization and a ludicrously huge world to explore and find treasure dungeons and mash up boss monsters and everything. It is What I Like In RPGs refined and condensed. The only plot is "Hey, look over there! I bet there's a new Job Class to unlock over there!"
Next is another RPG that is aimed directly at my heart-bones, and assuredly at least those of some of the other folk what be reading this thread; 8-Color Star Guardians, which combines strategic, turn based combat, a Mega Man style boss selection where each defeated enemy expands your arsenal, Super VGA graphics and Power Rangers! Assemble a team of Sentai Heroes and have them pound the bajeepers out of the monsters attacking the city, then unlock new powers as you defeat those monsters that work as foils to other particular monsters abilities to make them easier to defeat!
It's really worth its asking price of Less Than $5!
Speaking of old video games... well, we weren't, technically, but Egg Console: Marchen Veil is indeed one! Like the other EGG console releases, it's a port of a Japanese PC game from the 80s, in this case it's a Zeld-em-up where you're a guy what was turned into satyr and said "frick, this sucks?" and decides to Zeld his way back into having legs with a normal-looking set of knees and hair. It's a game with a lot more text than usual for games of the era, and very little of it was translated into English, so you're kind of left with a real clunky proto Legend of Zelda, which is still really neat and impressive but definitely falls more under Interesting Historical Curio side of things.
And speaking of ports of old PC RPGs (but, like... 2012 old, not 1984 Old) Legend of Grimrock dunn came out on the Switch this week, too! This here is a dungeon crawler where you've got a bunch of peeps what gotta make their way through a trap-and-monster infested MURDER MAZE otherwise... well... they'll be stuck ina trap and monster infested murder maze. That ain't no way to live your life. It hearkens a lot more to the style set out by the later Wizardry and Dungeon Master games where the focus is on puzzles and the monsters are there to keep things spicy, and it was one of the games responsible for the revival of the Dungeon Crawler genre, so good for it!
Next up is the game that *probably* should have gotten the headliner spot and which I've been looking forward to for a while as it's a game in a neglected series I love in a genre I'm a big fan of; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the first new Prince of Persia game since 2010! This time as a Troid-em-up instead of a time sensitive obstacle course/maze game or a Parkour Sim! It is, by all accounts, a real good time, and as noted, I've always loved the series, but it's also an Ubisoft game so it will be half price in a couple of months, so I will sit here patiently for it to go on sale.
But, you know, maybe I wouldn't need to wait for a sale if I had access to some extra cash. And what's the best way to do that? That's right; robbing a bank. But it's not like there's a video game that teaches you the ins and outs of how to do that. Well, you might say that, but then you'd look like a damn fool because here comes Turnip Boy Robs a Bank! The sequel to Turnup Boy Commits Tax Evasion! It's a Zeld-em-up where you're a turnip who is really good at crime and really bad at balancing a personal budget.
Next is Choo-Choo Charles, which continues the proud tradition of "What if this property intended for children was actually SPOOKY SCARY", but instead of Winnie the Pooh or Charles Entertainment Cheese or even the Steambot pilot, William, it was Ringo Starrs most enduring work; Thomas the Tank Engine. You're stuck on an island with a murder train named Charles and a real hankering to not be under the imminent threat of TRAINICIDE, so you get your own, less sentient train and upgrade it until you can go traino-a-traino with the giant spider-shaped one that wants to eat you.
It's the moment Sir Toppem Hat always feared was going to happen.
And we're closing thigns out with another Port of Old Games, but this time, it's the largely forgotten DS Point-and-clickers Another Code: Recollection, which is a collection of both Trace Memory and its sequel, Another Code. Teen Sleuth Ashely has her hands full trying to solve the riddle of The Missing Mom and... whatever the mystery sounding Blood Edward Island is; the eShop isn't telling me, and I didn't play Trace Memory back in the day. I'll assume that some guy named Edward was bloodier than usual and nobody ever figured out why until a tween decided to take a whack at figuring it out.
Okay... and Bye!
We're starting off with the Nintendo Switch Online release! It's a release for the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion pass, which costs more than the regular pass but it has far more games available! One of them is Golden Sun, an RPG originally released on the Gameboy Advance. That was the third generation of Gameboy consoles. An RPG is a slower paced kind of video game typically characterized by more strategic combat and exploration. Frequently they use arabic numerals to exemplify character growth. While Golden Sun was a very good example of an RPG, a lot of people criticized it for talking too much. Many lines of dialogue were used to explain simple ideas. Many people thought this dialogue was redundant. The general consensus was that perhaps the video game needed an edidtor to pare this dialogue down, because there was so much redundant yammering. Yammering is a kind of aimless dialogue that is tedious to experience. Another game released was Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the direct sequel to Golden Sun. A sequel refers to something which comes next in line of the narrative. While similar, the storyline may be harder to follow if you experience it first. The Lost Age is considered to be one of the better RPGs on the GBA, but it, too had a problem with redundant dialogue. There is a lot of dialogue in the two games.
Now if you want an RPG that has just as much Good Times Playing Video Games and, if anything, nowhere near enough dialogue, then you just settle on in here and hitch your wagon up to Crystal Project! And it's a game I'm enjoying the absolute heck out of, but it's a challenge to explain why without making it sound like the game is kind of bad. I ASSURE YOU THIS IS NOT THE CASE. It's kind of like Octopath in that it's an SNES-y style RPG that is WAY MORE open ended than you'd expect from the genre but, while Octopath looks incredible, Crystal Project looks like butt with RPG Maker placeholder graphics and the kind of chunky polygonal effects that Minecraft puts to shame. BUT!!!
It's real good! Completely open ended and the emphasis was very much on going absolutely hog-wild with character build customization and a ludicrously huge world to explore and find treasure dungeons and mash up boss monsters and everything. It is What I Like In RPGs refined and condensed. The only plot is "Hey, look over there! I bet there's a new Job Class to unlock over there!"
Next is another RPG that is aimed directly at my heart-bones, and assuredly at least those of some of the other folk what be reading this thread; 8-Color Star Guardians, which combines strategic, turn based combat, a Mega Man style boss selection where each defeated enemy expands your arsenal, Super VGA graphics and Power Rangers! Assemble a team of Sentai Heroes and have them pound the bajeepers out of the monsters attacking the city, then unlock new powers as you defeat those monsters that work as foils to other particular monsters abilities to make them easier to defeat!
It's really worth its asking price of Less Than $5!
Speaking of old video games... well, we weren't, technically, but Egg Console: Marchen Veil is indeed one! Like the other EGG console releases, it's a port of a Japanese PC game from the 80s, in this case it's a Zeld-em-up where you're a guy what was turned into satyr and said "frick, this sucks?" and decides to Zeld his way back into having legs with a normal-looking set of knees and hair. It's a game with a lot more text than usual for games of the era, and very little of it was translated into English, so you're kind of left with a real clunky proto Legend of Zelda, which is still really neat and impressive but definitely falls more under Interesting Historical Curio side of things.
And speaking of ports of old PC RPGs (but, like... 2012 old, not 1984 Old) Legend of Grimrock dunn came out on the Switch this week, too! This here is a dungeon crawler where you've got a bunch of peeps what gotta make their way through a trap-and-monster infested MURDER MAZE otherwise... well... they'll be stuck ina trap and monster infested murder maze. That ain't no way to live your life. It hearkens a lot more to the style set out by the later Wizardry and Dungeon Master games where the focus is on puzzles and the monsters are there to keep things spicy, and it was one of the games responsible for the revival of the Dungeon Crawler genre, so good for it!
Next up is the game that *probably* should have gotten the headliner spot and which I've been looking forward to for a while as it's a game in a neglected series I love in a genre I'm a big fan of; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the first new Prince of Persia game since 2010! This time as a Troid-em-up instead of a time sensitive obstacle course/maze game or a Parkour Sim! It is, by all accounts, a real good time, and as noted, I've always loved the series, but it's also an Ubisoft game so it will be half price in a couple of months, so I will sit here patiently for it to go on sale.
But, you know, maybe I wouldn't need to wait for a sale if I had access to some extra cash. And what's the best way to do that? That's right; robbing a bank. But it's not like there's a video game that teaches you the ins and outs of how to do that. Well, you might say that, but then you'd look like a damn fool because here comes Turnip Boy Robs a Bank! The sequel to Turnup Boy Commits Tax Evasion! It's a Zeld-em-up where you're a turnip who is really good at crime and really bad at balancing a personal budget.
Next is Choo-Choo Charles, which continues the proud tradition of "What if this property intended for children was actually SPOOKY SCARY", but instead of Winnie the Pooh or Charles Entertainment Cheese or even the Steambot pilot, William, it was Ringo Starrs most enduring work; Thomas the Tank Engine. You're stuck on an island with a murder train named Charles and a real hankering to not be under the imminent threat of TRAINICIDE, so you get your own, less sentient train and upgrade it until you can go traino-a-traino with the giant spider-shaped one that wants to eat you.
It's the moment Sir Toppem Hat always feared was going to happen.
And we're closing thigns out with another Port of Old Games, but this time, it's the largely forgotten DS Point-and-clickers Another Code: Recollection, which is a collection of both Trace Memory and its sequel, Another Code. Teen Sleuth Ashely has her hands full trying to solve the riddle of The Missing Mom and... whatever the mystery sounding Blood Edward Island is; the eShop isn't telling me, and I didn't play Trace Memory back in the day. I'll assume that some guy named Edward was bloodier than usual and nobody ever figured out why until a tween decided to take a whack at figuring it out.
Okay... and Bye!
