Teach me how to love the Dreamcast

[Kazin]

I played the Dreamcast exactly twice when it was relevant back in 1999-2001. Some NFL game I couldn't care less about and Sonic Adventure at one person's house, and Soul Calibur at another house. I thought Soul Calibur was cool, but I've never been that big into fighting games, which is part of the reason I never wanted a Dreamcast back in the day - Sonic Adventure didn't really grab me (I thought it was really hard, I kept dying falling off the stages), and that was it for games I played when it was relevant.

Yes, I'm part of the reason the Dreamcast failed. I didn't want one in 99, plus I was anticipating the PS2 and Gamecube (or Dolphin, whatever it was known as back then, I don't remember).

Anyway. I've struggled to get into it over the years - I had a Sega Sports model for a while, long before the GDEmu was a thing, and I bought a few games for it, but mainly ones that had gotten ports to the Gamecube, so I didn't play it much at all before selling it. But now - now, I have a regular white Dreamcast, a GDEmu and a 128gb SD card in there, so I can play anything! I have a regular first party Dreamcast controller, a MadCatz light gun, and a keyboard on the way from eBay (I learned about Typing of the Dead years after the Dreamcast died, and I've wanted to play it since then).

So, other than fighting games - which are beautiful (I booted up 3rd Strike, my god is that game gorgeous), but I don't like them all that much, and I'm strictly staying single player only - what should I play? I was able to hatch some Seaman fish today, but I don't really know what to do next (presumably boot it up tomorrow and see what's going on in there). I started up Shenmue and am absolutely baffled as to what to do. I wandered around for a while, talked to a little girl who rescued a kitten who's mother had gotten run over by the guys I think I'm supposed to be chasing, but I have no idea where to go, and time keeps passing which is sort of stressing me out since that probably means I'm wasting it just wandering around.

Skies of Arcadia always looked interesting, but the Gamecube port is better overall, correct? Is there any reason to play Dreamcast Phantasy Star Online when the Gamecube and Blue Burst versions are available to me? I just played through Sonic Adventure DX (didn't anticipate getting a Dreamcast a month ago lol) so I'll probably skip the Dreamcast Sonic Adventure for now, but is the second game better on Dreamcast than Gamecube for some reason?

tl;dr halp

 

[WildcatJF]

Skies of Arcadia is a fantastic game, but the Gamecube port lowers the high encounter rate and adds a bunch of exclusive content, so it's the preferred way to go.

I love the Dreamcast for a lot of reasons, but a lot of them are indeed fighting games. Soul Calibur does have some meaty single player content that is a lot of fun to get imo, so I'll keep my recs of the genre to just that.

In terms of other RPGs, Grandia II is the other titan on the system, and the modern ports are a little unflattering, so going the DC route is still a solid option. Engaging battle engine, great music, and one of the visual stunners of the system, even if the VO can get a little annoying and the story doesn't rise much about the usual "religion sucks actually" narrative threads.

Jet Grind Radio is a good time, even if it's now available on Steam. It's one of the strongest pieces of the Dreamcast "soul", so to speak, and even if it's a little clunky gameplay wise it has so much style to spare.

Chu Chu Rocket and Sega Swirl are fantastic puzzlers that do some very, VERY unique things in the genre.

Some of the best classic Resident Evil ports are on the DC, and it even got Dino Crisis! Code Veronica is all right, but it's probably among the worst in terms of storytelling (and has a character that would be considered very offensive these days).

Cannon Spike is a great arcade style overhead shooter if you're into that sort of thing.

Tech Romancer is a fighter, but it's a very unique one that's more like a 3D arena type of thing with some destructible environments and a heavy anime influence.

Sonic Adventure 1/2 both got worse Gamecube ports as they took the less polished Japanese versions to act as the base, so the NA DC ones could still be considered the better of them.

That's what I got as of this moment, haha.

 

[Sarge]

Will second Grandia II - great RPG, and the best version still. Cannon Spike is also good arcade fun.

One of the other RPGs on the system is Record of Lodoss War, which is a Diablo-like ARPG by Neverland (of Lufia fame). They also made the spinoff Shining Force Neo and EXA games, which were also solid if not at all what series fans wanted at the time. I haven't played through Lodoss, but my brother has, and he enjoyed it back in the day.

If you haven't played Rayman 2 on the myriad systems it came out on, I believe that's considered the best place to play it. I finished it a few years ago and had a good time.

Bangai-O is a pretty easy recommend. More bonkers stuff from Treasure.

A game I've always wanted to finish is Elemental Gimmick Gear. I keep falling off, but it intrigues me so much in terms of style, and it's a Zelda-style ARPG.

Another game that got a lot of hype in the day was Headhunter. It got a PS2 port, but I'm not sure which version is considered better.

For nutty arcade-style fun, Crazy Taxi 1/2 is worth a go.

There are a crap ton of shmups on the system - stuff like Mars Matrix, Zero Gunner 2, Giga Wing, Ikaruga, Gunbird 2, and a bunch more that are lesser known like Under Defeat or Border Down. If you dig shmups, there's a lot to try out.

While I don't love it, a lot of folks swear by Dynamite Cop. There's also Zombie's Revenge and Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage in the beat-'em-up category.

 

[Patrick]

My faves were Soul Calibur, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi 1/2, Shenmue 1/2, Power Stone 2, and Worms World Party.

 

[Kazin]

Right, I have to download Sega Swirl. That wasn't on the archive.org list I found, what the heck

Anyway, I played some Elemental Gimmick Gear just now - I hadn't ever booted it up because I thought it was a shmup based on the title - a genre I do enjoy, even if I'm terrible at them - but it's obviously not that at all haha. Played for about an hour, beat a boss. The game is beautiful in 2D mode - and it looks pretty good in 3D, even if pretty basic by todays standards. But the 2D stuff looks amazing. Really sucks that if you lose to a boss, it doesn't let you retry with full health, you have to go grind health pickups like it's Metroid on NES or something. I also hope my attack range gets longer - as is, the EGG's little punch has a super short range. Still, the game is fun, and seems pretty charming.

I did play Jet Grind Radio earlier - the game sounds amazing, and plays pretty well, though I don't really understand how to really escape the cops. I did beat the first level, but not very skillfully lol. Took a lot of damage, and running away (which I assume is holding forward and the R trigger) didn't really help, the guy was right on me the whole time. Still, I ran around a bit and was able to get the last tag.

I booted Bangai-O up for, like, a minute, and it immediately felt like it needed a second stick. I'm sure I could get used to the controls, though.

 

[Becksworth]

Since you are using a GDEmu it's also worth mentioning fan translations/conversions and homebrew titles. I've mainly dabble in Atomiswave conversions, which are fun but also mostly fighters. Blue Dolphin is a great Metal Slug-like if you haven't played that.

 

[Peklo]

Highly seconding the Record of Lodoss War game. It's the best Diablo-style action RPG... probably ever? I'm very biased because I love Lodoss, but you don't need any of that context to enjoy it. Overall, probably my favourite on the system.

Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream is probably the coolest game on the system. Chime meant it to be by women, for women, about women. Think Klonoa in platforming conceit and presentation, and also narrative tone. Yoko Kanno and Maaya Sakamoto did the music. It's fan translated for a couple of years now.

Dreamcast existed at a time when survival horror was the done thing, and as such has suprisingly many such games in its library. Please check out Climax Graphics/Crazy Games's irreverent duology in Blue Stinger and Illbleed for something tonally and structurally novel, particularly in the case of the latter. They are knowingly hokey and want you to laugh with them, and barely anyone does knowing B-horror in the medium before or since.

Moon is finally officially localized and rereleased by now, but Dreamcast still holds claim to Love-de-Lic's concluding work in their iconic trilogy: L.O.L.: Lack of Love, which is almost certainly unlike anything you've ever played, even if you're familiar with other life simulation games. Every time you boot up a Dreamcast, you're exposed to his work, but consider it also a form of remembering the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, as he composed the music and participated in the game's conceptual process in general. Another fairly recent and now essential fan translation.

Rhythm games as they settled into their form eventually became these gigantic licensed medleys and mixtapes leveraging tons of pre-existing music to sell to fans and marks en masse, but there was a point when they were more condensed experiences and involved an emphasis on original content in both aesthetics and music. Cool Cool Toon by SNK is of that older vein, and should not be ignored even in the presence of relative genre tentpoles like Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo on the same system--even if in this case you'll have to stick it out in Japanese only. If you try to sum up Dreamcast's existence in media pop culture point and time, this game's aesthetic and atmosphere is a contender for that encapsulation.

Capcom defined the Dreamcast almost as much as Sega did, and did so largely through their fighters. The known commodities are what they are, but consider the follow-ups to two niche would-be-series transitioning from the PlayStation: Project Justice carrying on the Rival Schools banner, and Plasma Sword continuing the Star Gladiator saga. By most accounts, these games only improve on their stellar predecessors, and are rendered unknown for their choice of platform and no other factor (I'm sure the brand-ignoring titling conventions in English didn't help).

Only for the truly reckless enthusiasts: get yourself a copy of Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram and its practically mandatory signature Twin Stick controller, and experience probably the most technical mech combat game ever created.

Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm by Treyarch is a good sleeper choice for the system. In some ways it continues what the studio did earlier with Die by the Sword on PC (though much simplified and console-friendlier), and in other ways it's evocative of an old style of 3D action game with distinct character picks dictating the course of the adventure and how you play; think Nightmare Creatures or Severance: Blade of Darkness.

Play Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, regardless if you have played any prior game in the series or whatever opinion you might have of them. It's a terrific, unique game even within that context.

Frame Gride was to be FromSoftware's only Dreamcast release, and it's a 3D mech combat game. Anyone with familiarity with Armored Core knows how good From were at this genre from the start, so to have a slightly off-center variation on a theme is a treat. It is recently fan translated.

A particular kind of trash-FPS aesthetic of the era is probably best embodied by games like Kiss: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child. That FPS games are generally a nightmare to control on Dreamcast pads only adds to the experience.

Capcom's contributions to the era-specific arena-brawling genre are most representative through the Power Stone duology, but they also extended their support of the platform through weird licensed properties. Again, you don't play drek like Spawn: In the Demon's Hand or Heavy Metal: Geomatrix because they're "good", but because they're evocative of their extremely specific circumstances.

Maken X for whenever you want to remember the Kazuma Kaneko-brand Atlus doing things that weren't Megami Tensei, and landing on a novel expression of a first-person beat 'em up, a "genre" that's not conventional or populated at baseline to begin with.

D2, for another survival horror iconoclast, and Warp and by extension Kenji Eno's swansong as heading a major video game project.

Putting in a mention for Psyvariar 2: The Will to Fabricate among the legion of shoot 'em ups, for the exceptional title and being generally great otherwise too.

They kept fiddling with it through untold revisions and subsequent versions, but Dead or Alive 2 in any form is still a highlight for its series and even the crowded fighting game genre on the platform, depending on if you can gel with or endure the sex object aesthetic.

I have no particular firsthand experience with them, but the Evolution duology by Sting seems to me like they have likely been undersold and misunderstood historically, for being roguelike dungeon crawlers in an era when RPGs were not expected or accepted to be that, and for being generally dense games in the studio's style.

Things that would be essential were it not for a language barrier: Dreamcast is the platform to play Sakura Wars; the initial two games were ported to it and it houses parts three and four natively (the first game in its original Saturn form is the only fan translation currently). Segagaga for the most apt send-off for the system, and first-party Sega in general. El Dorado Gate, Capcom's episodic RPG project on physical media, released in seven volumes; you know it for the Amano box art if anything. Shiren the Wanderer Gaiden, starring swordswoman Asuka and one of the best box arts of all time.

 

[FelixSH]

I played Record of Lodoss War, before I saw the anime and knowing about Diablo. It's great, and I prefer it to Diablo, simply because hitting enemies is determined by your swore connecting with the enemy, not by a dice roll. Different swords have different range and speed (bigger ones take longer to swing), and the dungeons are not randomized.

I played this more than 20 years ago, so only 99% sure about all this.

In any case, I loved it.

The Evolution duology that Peklo mentioned are dungeon crawlers, which were quite fun. I played them both, back than. Basically, you are in a town, and can choose one of multiple dungeons. You have to do them all, in the end. Doing one later simply means that the monsters are stronger. They don't level with you, but every time another dungeon is beaten ups the level by a specific amount, I think.

While the dungeons are themed, thy are randomly generated.

You have your main character and a girl called Linear as a second party member. The third can be chosen. The dungeons are ruins and you explore those, looking for treasure. But so do other people, which will join, if you ask them. Or you can take along your butler.

Aside from leveling up, you can (and should) also upgrade every characters weapons in the town.

There is some storyline, but I think it' mainly happens after you did all the dungeons. You play it for the dungeon crawling. If you can enjoy that part, I totally recommend these two.

 

[MetManMas]

Just speaking from my experience with Evolution 2, but it's the kinda dungeon crawler I don't think really gained anything from the roguelike elements. It doesn't really do anything interesting with those bits, it's more a game that's random just for the sake of being random and it ends up with some really bland level designs because of that. Not that I liked the pre-made dungeon designs (a new feature in 2), either.

 

[Patrick]

Note that Skies of Arcadia has better music quality on Dreamcast. The Gamecube version has a lower encounter rate and added content. Not quite a wash, but DC has at least one thing in its favor.

Shenmue is a pretty odd series. It has a fighting system, but most of your time is spent exploring towns and talking to people. But, the towns are neat. I especially liked Hong Kong in the second game. The odd dialogue is funny and endearing, too. When I played it, the level of detail was mind blowing. I have no idea how well they hold up.

 

[MetManMas]

Note that Skies of Arcadia has better music quality on Dreamcast.

Yeah, that's certainly a compromise so the GameCube game could fit on a single disc.

 

[Kazin]

I'm so glad I made this thread. A lot of these games I'd never heard of, and I'm downloading like seven games I didn't already have, some of the fantranslated stuff, etc. Thank you all so much, I'll report back when I try them out!

 

[Violentvixen]

A lot of my love for the Dreamcast is something I can't recreate as it was linked to that time in my life and my friends. So uh, sorry, but here's a list of reasons I loved the Dreamcast that won't help you love it.

• I was one of the people who rented Sonic Adventure and a Dreamcast from Hollywood video. I loved that game and made it all the way to Sky Deck before I had to return it. They didn't give you a VMU so I left the system on the entire time of the rental (48 hours? I don't remember). The game was so fun, and I hadn't played a game that looked, sounded and moved like this.
• Their marketing got its hooks in me in a way that had never happened before or since. I loved all the redesigned characters and would practice drawing them all the time. This was when I was still thinking about animation as a career and this made me think a lot about character design and why the older Sonic design and this one were so different. Silhouette, shape, color, I saw the impacts of these decisions in ways I never had.
• This ad and all the characters just hanging out in there was neat to me. It was so fun to look at, I remember downloading the ad and discussing theories online for what various games/characters might be.
• When I finally got the game I brought it to school to take over a classroom at lunch and play. Me going through Sonic Adventure became a social thing, as 5-10 people would be there every day to watch me play, or we'd decide what character to do next. It took me a number of days to beat Chaos as Super Sonic, and I remember the room screaming "get more rings! you need more rings!". A number of people wrote it in my yearbook.
• The Dreamcast came out right when one friend got a CD burner, and figured out how to download ROMs and burn them for the Dreamcast. However they were almost never labeled and usually in Japanese. So every week at school we'd have a new game premiere. Until the day we started up a game and it was absolutely just porn. After that she'd give me the discs they day before to test out.
• The VMU was a brilliant and amazing addition. I loved raising my Chao who was named Callbox, my friends named him after the Callboxes that were along California highways.
• I quickly used my allowance to buy more controllers and we'd play all the multiplayer stuff. There were so many fun multiplayer games.

And now going through my shelf of games I still have for it with some thoughts, good games in bold

• Crazy Taxi - This game was also a big lunchtime hit. People loved the music
• Marvel vs Capcom 2 - People went nuts for this and had involved arguments about favourite characters. Teachers did NOT like us jokingly saying "I'm going to take you for a ride" as they thought it was a sex thing so we had to stop saying that at school.
• Phantasy Star Online Ver 2 - I didn't have a good enough internet connection to dive into this game, which was frustrating because I liked it. I think I got to a part where you had to go back and do things again to find certain items and I just gave up.
• Web Browser - Wow I did not remember until right now that you needed a disc to browse the internet.
• NBA 2K- I think this was just a perfectly fine basketball game? I don't remember anything unique about it
• Rayman 2 - I definitely had a 100% save file, or maybe this was a game where you could get 102% or something? I absolutely adored this game. 3 wasn't as good and had the weird Asian stereotype character.
• Skies of Arcadia - People have already mentioned this, it's good! I think my save file corrupted or something? I never finished it.
• Sonic Adventure 2 - Kinda baffling? I'd still play it but it's a weird game and I like 1 much better.
• Armada - Another game my friends and I loved to play. But hard to recommend now, it doesn't do anything super amazing. Fun though.
• Pen Pen TriIcelon - I don't know what to tell you, we went nuts for this game. It's so weird and the controls make no sense but as a multiplayer thing with a bunch of friends it was great.
• Hydro Thunder - So fun! We played this one so dang much.
• Shenmue - This game is good but VERY hard to go back to now. Also the Xbox port is much better.
• Reel Fishing Wild - One of the weird ROMs a friend found. It sure is a fishing game
• Mode 1 Aqua GT - Hydro Thunder was way better
• 4x4 Evo - Another ROM, a racing game that made no sense, I think since it was in Japanese we coudln't navigate the menus?
• Powerstone 2 - Also tons of multiplayer fun.
• Soul Calibur - Scaring the younger kids at school with Voldo never got old
• Quake III Arena - Another ROM but I don't remember playing this at all.
• Love Hina - One of the "oops probably shouldn't have brought this to school" ROMs. I did not realize I still had this disc, ha
• Typing of the Dead - This was so fun and yes I did buy the keyboard after my friend got this ROM
• Mortal Kombat Gold - I don't remember this at all
• Unreal Tournament - Another I'm sure we played but don't remember
• "Probably Something Weird" - handwritten on the disc the bottom of the tupperware of CD-Rs my friend made. Now I need to hook my Dreamcast up and see what this is...

This was a great system. I think just about all of the library is on Steam or something else now, but I still love it.

 

[FelixSH]

• When I finally got the game I brought it to school to take over a classroom at lunch and play. Me going through Sonic Adventure became a social thing, as 5-10 people would be there every day to watch me play, or we'd decide what character to do next. It took me a number of days to beat Chaos as Super Sonic, and I remember the room screaming "get more rings! you need more rings!". A number of people wrote it in my yearbook.

In a very cool post, this is my favourite part. That sounds absolutely amazing.

Also, please report back about what "Probably Something Weird" is. I'm curious.

Alsoalso, Typing of the Dead exists also on PC, in some way (I remember playing it, years ago), and it's super great. If not on the Dreamcast, try getting your hands on that one, Kazin. A ton of fun, that thing.

 

[WildcatJF]

Note that Skies of Arcadia has better music quality on Dreamcast. The Gamecube version has a lower encounter rate and added content. Not quite a wash, but DC has at least one thing in its favor.

Yeah, that's certainly a compromise so the GameCube game could fit on a single disc.

The music is still good, mind, but if you have an ear from compression you'll notice (I don't really hear it myself).

 

[FelixSH]

I swear, someone here mentioned El Dorado Gate. Which I looked up, and found immediately interesting. Mainly, I found a thread about it here, where someone played it and wrote a few impressions up. It's a weird, episodic game, where the story seems to have been compressed at the end - with the death of the Dreamcast, they didn't get enough episodes to tell it all as planned. Spells are items, which are usable for a certain amount, it seems. Also, there is the art:

This is a random screenshot from the game. Looks pretty great (even through the quality of the screenshot). But wait, there is more:

This seems to be from a battle. Does the enemy design look familiar? It should. Take a look at the disk cover art:

It's Mr. early FF artwork, Amano.

At last I'm interested now.

 

[Voncaster]

My Dreamcast favorites:

Gauntlet Legends. I'm a lifelong gauntlet fan. I think this is the second best Gauntlet game. (Gauntlet IV is the best Gauntlet game!) It's a super fun coop game. The ability to save characters and progress make it a treat.

House of the Dead 2. My favorite light gun game. I played with a controller and it was still tons of fun. My friend and I could reach the last boss; but we could never beat it.

Illbleed. I have never played Illbleed; I've only watched Lets Plays of it. It seems right up my ally: A horror game that is having a lot of fun with horror tropes. I get a Zombies ate my Neighbors vibe from the humor of this game.

It is crazy that a game this good and fun is locked away on Dreamcast only.

Power Stone 2. According to Wikipedia Smash Bros and Power Stone came out around the same time. I always assumed Power Stone was simply Capcom's take on Smash Bros. It doesn't matter. Power Stone is an amazing 4 player brawler. But I think Power Stone 2 offers so much more that it almost makes Power Stone irrelevant.

It is crazy that a game this good and fun is locked away on Dreamcast only (and PSP?).

Star Wars Episode I - Racer. The difference in quality between N64 and Dreamcast Racer is night and day. This game looked and played great on Dreamcast. The graphics and speed felt so good on DC.

Typing of the Dead. This is House of the Dead 2 adapted for typing instead of shooting. My brother has secretary level WPM typing skill. My friend and I were able to beat Typing of the Dead with my brother's help. We were finally able see the ending to House of the Dead 2. To this day one of my favorite gaming memories!

Resident Evil 2. I think this was my introduction to Resident Evil. It may have been the Gamecube remake. I don't remember. I do remember RE2 was fantastic on Dreamcast.

Wacky Races. The best Mario Kart clone I've played. The cel shaded graphics and VO work really makes it feel like you are playing a cartoon. I played through the campaign coop. It was super fun. The campaign required you to finish 1-2 to advance. The campaign was challenging but felt like an accomplishment when we beat it. Penelope Pitstop and the Creepy Coupe were my favorites.

Additional Shout outs.

The Dreamcast Controller. I remember really liking the heft, feel and visual design of the Dreamcast controller. Its been a long time since I picked up a DC controller but I remember liking it. Did the VMU show your heart rate in Resident Evil?

The Dreamcast Keyboard. Allows one to play Typing of the Dead. IIRC it also allowed my friend and I to play NFL Blitz online and trash talk. I believe one of us would play a human opponent and the other person would type in trash talk. That play didn't work for you! You shouldn't have picked the Bears!

The DC firesafe. I picked up my DC after it was announced that Sega was exiting the console market. I believe Best Buy sold me a brand new DC for $50. Even in 2001-2002 money, that was a good deal!

 

[Ixo]

I’m here to toss in the thus far unmentioned Space Channel 5.

Dreamcast is supposed to be good for fighting games right? School Rumble, Marvel vs Capcom 2, that really expensive JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure game where you can win all the time by playing as the bird, Power Stone 1 & 2…

 

[Sarge]

I don't know that I'd necessarily recommend it, but Time Stalkers is a rogue-like with a few guest stars from other Climax games like Landstalker, Lady Stalker, and Shining in the Darkness.

Also, apparently a fan translation for Rent-A-Hero No. 1 is very close to release. This one also had a fully-translated prototype show up for XBOX.

RENT-A-HERO No.1 - Translation! [...] - Page 21 - Dreamcast-Talk.com

www.dreamcast-talk.com

 

[Kazin]

Played some Napple Tale, and so far it's probably my favorite "new" (as in, new to me) game I've played thus far. I'm a little over an hour in, trying to figure out where to go next... presumably one of the summer levels or something, since I have to figure out how to bring the wind back in the second spring level to get any further. I've dismantled all the items I found so far and made what I could with them, and found the treasure chest on top of the circus tent, and chased what looked like a gargoyle off the roof of the ice cream shop I'm living in. The soundtrack is incredibly good.

Record of Lodoss War seems fun, and played really well - to be honest though, it makes me want to HDMI mod my Dreamcast, because the characters and enemies are quite small on the screen. Part of the issue is I'm playing on a 20 inch CRT (admittedly via s-video, so it's pretty sharp), but Dreamcast games seem like the type of games where an HDMI mod would make even more sense than, say, my N64. So that's something I'll probably do lol

Also, no need to apologize, @Violentvixen - I really enjoyed your post. Let us know what the "probably something weird" disc ends up being lol. Also I forgot about Hydro Thunder, I'll put that on my GDEmu, always looked fun. I have Pen Pen Trilcelon, weirdly, because I remember Retronauts making fun of it lol. Haven't tried it yet though.

 

[Sarge]

Aaaaaaand it's out! Rent-A-Hero translation is done.

Rent-A-Hero No.1

Dear Heroes, the wait is over! I am thrilled to announce that Dreamcast [b]unofficial Rent-A-Hero

www.romhacking.net

 

[Olli]

RE: Code Veronica is great, and the DC version is the best version around.

 

[Olli]

And yeah, Lodoss is really fantastic. It's so good it's kind of a shame they used a license for a property that's not exactly well-known outside Japan, as it possibly made it less interesting for people who don't know it (and the name is a mouthful)

 

[Sarge]

Just pushing out VGA to a monitor can look quite nice. While a CRT is preferred, even a cheap PC LCD like I have it hooked to adds quite a bit to the clarity. The annoying thing with that, of course, is that there are a few games that don't support VGA, but there have been some patches that have come out recently for games that don't work otherwise (even forcing via MODE), most notably Bangai-O.

 

[muteKi]

is the second game better on Dreamcast than Gamecube for some reason?

I would say, admittedly with more experience with the PC port than the original GC version, that the answer is actually no. The chao gardens are roughly 1:1 equivalent but you don't need to have a ton of space on a VMU to do anything with chao. However, the SA2 chao adventure 2 experience is really special and deserves at least a couple of your coin cell batteries if you ever get the chance. If you like having a chao sitting in your GBA and wondering aloud if political reform is tasty, you will find so much to enjoy in those.

It's also possible to get online to the dreampipe SA2 replica server, but this is actually easier to do on an emulator (since you don't need to do any wacky modem hacking), and will let you download some otherwise unavailable jewel chao and some DLC kart racing courses. The former are available on the GC version from a GBA chao garden, and the latter are interesting as a novelty but only weird anal-retentive guys like me could ever miss them.

That said, one thing I liked about the original SA1 (DC) is that for how arcane the chao mechanics could come across (and there's at least one significant bug that it has about time passing that causes chao to be hatched with zero life), it was incredibly breezy. I got all the possible color variants and made every one a 999-level chaos chao as an early pandemic thing.

In comparison, SA2's chao garden stuff compared to SA2B is almost identical but slightly worse, and that's like the main difference in terms of mechanics/performance/interaction. Luck is leveled up by being, well, lucky in the chest selection minigame (get a good item in a chest and your luck goes up, get nothing and it goes down) and intelligence is boosted by eating smart fruit. These stats are, in SA2B (and all the ports that came after it) much easier to deal with (mainly done by giving the chao the chaos drives, which are of course very easy to get). PC port, with mod support, has some very small tweaks to make the chao raising process a little more fun. While I used to think chao were bogged down with extraneous stuff in SA2, I've come to change my mind on this since installing SA2 mods, and actually found it fun to get all the emblems. Of course, the GC games, with the GBA interoperability, allow you to transfer chao from SA1 to SA2 with ease in both directions; SA2 lets you import chao adventure data from SA1, but it's a one-way transfer *and* your chao restarts as a baby and their first life cycle (if they were a jewel chao) winds up looking normal. Also, the chao doctor has a bug in SA2 (DC) in english that can corrupt your save file when trying to show the life of your chao -- works fine in English, and I'm not sure if anybody has tried to hack a fix in.

Only other big difference is that some cutscenes in SA2B use an updated model for Sonic with more polygons in the hands, but I also think that model is incredibly ugly. Point in SA2 DC's favor, I suppose. That and the chaos emerald transparency isn't handled properly on ports due to the Dreamcast having order-independent transparency (those cats at PowerVR were on some incredible shit in the late 90s). Neither tips the scale enough in my estimation, certainly not in comparison to SA1's ports completely gutting the lighting engine and making the game look weird and washed out.

Very last thing is that SA2 PC's Eggman stages were regularly designed to use lighting effects for visibility and atmosphere, and those didn't get ported correctly. Fixes are fairly easily modded back into the game.

 

[Kazin]

Jeez, I'm sorry you typed up all that stuff about Chao raising, @muteKi - I never got into Chao at all, and had my friend and his sister get all the chao related emblems for me to unlock Green Hill Zone in SA2B (since I hated the Chao and he hated most of the regular game, it worked out pretty well lol). So, most of that won't apply to me. I am slightly curious about playing through the full Dreamcast version story mode, though not getting all the Emblems, in both games, though.

 

[muteKi]

Another point in favor of the DC version over SA2B GC (but not over more recent ports) is that of the two, only SA2 DC has Big the Cat. Most other differences are really subtle.

I mean if you want to spend an hour or so of your life seeing all the tiny little object changes, you can, but it's primarily Cosmic Wall that's noticeably different, and that level is also significantly easier to A-rank on Dreamcast anyway. I guess Mad Space and Meteor Herd are a little more annoying on Dreamcast, but it's all pretty minor stuff overall.

 

[Falselogic]

I got nothing to help with this. I just want you to know that every time my eyes glance over the title of this thread I read it as, "Teach me how to Love the Democrats..."

 

[Kazin]

I got nothing to help with this. I just want you to know that every time my eyes glance over the title of this thread I read it as, "Teach me how to Love the Democrats..."

That may be useful as well, really. lol

 

[ShakeWell]

Jet Grind Radio is a good time, even if it's now available on Steam. It's one of the strongest pieces of the Dreamcast "soul", so to speak, and even if it's a little clunky gameplay wise it has so much style to spare.

Yes.

Some of the best classic Resident Evil ports are on the DC, and it even got Dino Crisis! Code Veronica is all right, but it's probably among the worst in terms of storytelling (and has a character that would be considered very offensive these days).

Cannon Spike is a great arcade style overhead shooter if you're into that sort of thing.

Tech Romancer is a fighter, but it's a very unique one that's more like a 3D arena type of thing with some destructible environments and a heavy anime influence.

Seconded.

Bangai-O is a pretty easy recommend. More bonkers stuff from Treasure.

[...]

For nutty arcade-style fun, Crazy Taxi 1/2 is worth a go.

There are a crap ton of shmups on the system - stuff like Mars Matrix, Zero Gunner 2, Giga Wing, Ikaruga, Gunbird 2, and a bunch more that are lesser known like Under Defeat or Border Down. If you dig shmups, there's a lot to try out.

While I don't love it, a lot of folks swear by Dynamite Cop. There's also Zombie's Revenge and Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage in the beat-'em-up category.

I do love Dynamite Cop and Zombie Revenge. RIYL brawlers.

Power Stone 2

Both of them, tbh. But 2 has four-player if that's a thing you're into. They are technically fighting games, but they don't really feel like it.

Please check out Climax Graphics/Crazy Games's irreverent duology in Blue Stinger and Illbleed for something tonally and structurally novel, particularly in the case of the latter. They are knowingly hokey and want you to laugh with them, and barely anyone does knowing B-horror in the medium before or since.

100%, yes.

House of the Dead 2. My favorite light gun game. I played with a controller and it was still tons of fun. My friend and I could reach the last boss; but we could never beat it.

Heck yes. And to start with my own recs that I haven't yet seen in the thread (though I may have missed them): Sega Smash Pack Vol. 1 (the only volume) is notoriously bad for its treatment of the Genesis games included, which is most of the compilation. HOWEVER, it contains, as someone upthread mentioned, Sega Swirl, but more importantly, a fantastic port of Virtua Cop 2.

Also, obviously, YMMV when it comes to wrestling games, but Fire Pro Wrestling D is great, though you can find good FiPro games on basically every platform ever, so I'll specifically say here that All-Japan Pro Wrestling: Giant Gram and Giant Gram 2000 are wonderful arcade grapplers made by Sega themselves.

Also, with a GDEmu, there are a bunch of Atomiswave arcade ports out there, because they share, uh, a ton of the internal hardware, so stuff like Metal Slug 6 and Dolphin Blue (a very Metal Slug-meets-Waterworld thing that comes recommended if you like the MS series) are basically arcade perfect on those.