Gripe about What You're Playing 2: Bellyache-tric Boogaloo

[ShakeWell]

The original game was pulling on 20 years of people making and importing these things

*10

 

[Sprite]

Ten years in the 3DS ecosystem, yeah. I was including Wii in my count.

 

[ShakeWell]

Ten years in the 3DS ecosystem, yeah. I was including Wii in my count.

The Wii came out in 2006. Miitopia on 3DS came out in 2016. Am I missing something?

 

[Sprite]

No I’m dumb

 

[ShakeWell]

I was legitimately like "did I forget something important about Miis?"

 

[estragon]

Kind of want to play Breath of Fire 2 because it was one of those games I rented as a kid but never finished. I think I have a pretty high tolerance for random encounters, but wow is the random encounter rate in this one high.

I tried out BoF 1 not too long ago for the same reason and had a good time with it the whole way through, but this one seems pretty rough so far.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Yeah, BoF 2 and 3 have some obnoxious encounter rates.

 

[estragon]

I think I find it more frustrating than Romancing Saga 1, and it has symbol encounters that sometimes look like this:

 

[Issun]

DQV SFC's encounter rate says hello. I've been using a PAR code to turn off encounters sometimes they're so bad.

 

[MetManMas]

I think I find it more frustrating than Romancing Saga 1, and it has symbol encounters that sometimes look like this:

I know that feeling. Not too long ago in Romancing SaGa 2 I ascended and descended Comroon Volcano; place is a pile of screens of narrow pathways filled with way too many monsters.

On the subject of random encounters I'm currently playing Final Fantasy Legend II, which has a pretty nasty encounter rate.

 

[Bongo]

If you're playing Breath of Fire 2 on SNES Online, you can use the rewind function to reroll basically any random number you want, including the outcomes of attacks and, I think, even random encounters.

 

[Becksworth]

I wanted to give Blue Fire a shot since it was on sale and we already got the word Hollow Knight Silksong ain’t coming out anytime soon. Unfortunately, it seems like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a 3D Hollow Knight or a 3D Mario, and didn’t really focus on being more than merely adequate at either. I’ve yet to see anything it excels at.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I really like the platformer bits of Smelter, but I struggle with the RTS parts, and they don’t take long to ratchet up in difficulty and at a certain point I’m completely stonewalled by my lack of skill in a genre I didn’t buy the game to experience

 

[ArugulaZ]

Sounds like my experience with Brutal Legend. "Hey, this is a pretty good action adventure game annnnd... here comes the strategy stuff."

 

[madhair60]

I really like the platformer bits of Smelter, but I struggle with the RTS parts, and they don’t take long to ratchet up in difficulty and at a certain point I’m completely stonewalled by my lack of skill in a genre I didn’t buy the game to experience

In the most reasonable possible tone, they did advertise that stuff...

 

[Octopus Prime]

They did, yes, but I assumed it wouldn’t have been as much of a hurdle as it was

 

[Purple]

Sounds like my experience with Brutal Legend. "Hey, this is a pretty good action adventure game annnnd... here comes the strategy stuff."

I will go to my grave defending Brutal Legend, the RTS. The weird publisher mandate to have a single-player mode that cuts out all the bits that would tutorialize you on the mechanics but then still includes the final-exam type missions from it really makes for terrible first impressions, but if you immediately stop the moment the goth faction is properly introduced and uh... I guess find me and have me walk you through how the multiplayer works in a few comp stomp games, it's a really well-crafted experience with lots of room for creative tactics.

What I particularly hate is how the entire story of the game in singleplayer is preaching this thing about how "a good roadie doesn't take the spotlight and just makes other people look good" or whatever, which is kinda the key to making the RTS stuff click (in that you are not a good big-hero-unit or a particularly useful spellcaster but you are an AMAZING human-shaped buff spell) but then... cuts all that back to actually make you the big solo hero.

 

[Rascally Badger]

Are you saying I can just watch the following Tenacious D video and get everything I would out of Brutal Legend.

 

[Purple]

I mean, there's also some really fantastic skyboxes, and the main villain (and leader of one of the multiplayer factions) is Tim Curry.

 

[Adrenaline]

I like the scene where he dies.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

It's in vogue for media companies to curate a list of media to celebrate Historically Maligned Ethnicity Months for their viewers/players to engage with. This month is AAPI Month, and Microsoft wants to let you they too care about Asian-Americans by curating a special list games for us and....:

Fuck you Microsoft you worthless sacks of garbage.

 

[Violentvixen]

I... what. What does "curated by communities" even mean for something like this?

 

[MetManMas]

I will vouch for Prey 2017 (The Yu family is prominently Half-Chinese/Half German and have Asian-American VAs as well), but it's definitely not a good look when most of the games curated for AAPI Month basically amount to "Maybe you can make a custom avatar that's like you".

 

[Pajaro Pete]

My Time At Portia was developed by a Chinese game studio, for what that's worth. But lol @ Bethesdafest

 

[Sprite]

I remember Skyrim being crap for making Asian characters, so that one’s more “maybe if you find the right mod you can make an avatar that vaguely look like you.”

 

[MetManMas]

Yeah, there's different skin color options available depending on your choice of human avatar, but the customization parts mostly amount to different variations of 'roided up white guy.

 

[estragon]

I think that basically every change from Breath of Fire to Breath of Fire 2 is a change for the worse.

It's not the worst 16-bit RPG by any stretch of the imagination, and it has a pretty solid foundation as basically a Dragon Quest clone. But I don't think its attempts to explore new ground are very fruitful. Mostly it really makes me appreciate how strong the first Breath of Fire was by comparison.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Finding it hard to disagree with you. BoF 2 had some neat / interesting ideas (Guts, Shaman transformations, town building, skills/spells that could be learned by any character) but did seem to find ways to make everything just a little annoying one way or the other.

But that 'cinematic' with Ryu at the final battle was pretty cool, right?

 

[estragon]

But that 'cinematic' with Ryu at the final battle was pretty cool, right?

I've beaten it now, and yes! Honestly, the game is full of a lot of cool moments. The climax of Nina's personal storyline (where Nina is slamming her body into a door in a futile attempt to get into the room where her sister is sacrificing her life in Nina's place) was another great example of strong storytelling within the limits of what could be done in a 16-bit RPG.

But yeah like you say it's also full of a ton of little frustrations. It's also kind of funny that they created systems for both on-map encounters and encounters that stop when you've fought a certain number of times, but they're only employed for gimmick areas and instead the default is encounters every 3~6 steps.

It was . . . okay as a game to play mindlessly when you're feeling worn out.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Honestly, the game is full of a lot of cool moments. The climax of Nina's personal storyline (where Nina is slamming her body into a door in a futile attempt to get into the room where her sister is sacrificing her life in Nina's place) was another great example of strong storytelling within the limits of what could be done in a 16-bit RPG.

I had forgotten about that until just now.