I' m gonna be dazzlingly unoriginal and say Symphony Of The Night. Best gameplay and musics in the whole series to me. Although the GBA/DS sequels were quite nice none of them really managed to bury their PS ancestor. One of the series strong point is its music but, unfortunately, neither the GBA nor the DS can deliver CD quality musics. The other series strong point is its gameplay, SOTN added some metroid-like exploration and A-RPG aspects to the original NES formula and the result was so awesome that, remakes or 3D games aside, they kept it ever since. If I had to recommend a single Castelvania game though it wouldn' t be SOTN, it would be Dracula X Chronicles on PSP. It' s a Rondo Of Blood remake. It comes with the old NES gameplay and out of this world difficulty, it is in fact so hard that I lost any hope to ever complete it. So why the hell would I recommend it you say ? Well because the PSP has CD quality musics and DxC happens to have heavenly unlockable musics, and because another unlockable feature is ... SOTN ! I hope Konami will treat us with a 2D HD Castelvania one of these days, it' s almost at the top of my gamer wish-list. I mean a full-fledged game, not just a multi-player PSN app. Unfortunately most developers are afraid to release 2D games on HD consoles, nowadays most gamers seem to have the (moronic) idea that 2D cannot be as pretty or impressive than 3D, or that it' s necessarily easier to make or something (boy are they wrong). Overall they consider 2D to be outdated and don' t wish to see it anywhere but on handhelds. Grr, someone please hand me a whip.
It didn' t change me, I' ve always been both open-minded and rational at the same time. How should I put it ? Let' s just say there' s a Mulder in me who wants to believe and has tremendous fun at exploring the what ifs, yet at the same time there' s also a Scully in me who keeps filtering my experiences, deciding what I can more or less trust and what remains highly debatable. Ghost stories are fun, but it would be quite silly to put any stock in them, based on nothing more than blind trust or faith. Hell, I' m far from being convinced the weird things I witnessed myself don' t have a perfectly rational explanation, so I understand Mysty' s skepticism 100%.
Same as Machina, I don' t think we' re supposed to look too much into the few tie-ins, they' re probably nothing more than insider jokes or shoe-horned fan-service. When Vagrant Story was released in Europe Matsuno said in an interview that Valendia and Leá Munde were actually part of Ivalice, not far from the places shown in Final Fantasy Tactics. I read that interview myself in a French magazine back then. Matsuno confessed since then that what he said that day was pure fan-service, meant to advertise the game, and that in his mind Vagrant Story isn' t linked to Ivalice at all, even though Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics share Alazlam J. Durai as a "narrator". http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/...2_and_Vagrant_Story_are_not_in_the_same_world Whatever Matsuno might think FF XII established these connections as canon, but then the Ogre Battle games made by Quest (the team behind FFT) also share connections with Ivalice such as the Zodiac Stones. Should those non-SE games be part of your big FF picture ? Also Seiken Densetsu, Mystic Quest, Ehrgeiz, the Cristal Chronicles series and the many Chocobo games have many FF tie-ins, make of that what you will. Anyway, if you have fun trying to Link them all somehow then by all means knock yourself out (see what I did there ?).
He does straight up say it, the part of the video you linked (the beginning) shows RFA summarizing the content of the video : "And finally we' ll give you news on a Wii title that many of you have been clamoring for and maybe thought would never arrive here in America", which fits The Last Story to a T, and sure enough the last game shown in the video is indeed The Last Story.
If I' m not mistaken there' s also The Last Story, Xenoblade and Pandora' s Tower. These three games have or will be released in Europe, but as far as I know nothing has been announced yet concerning a release in the United States. Out of those three The Last Story is the most likely candidate. Edit : I watched the full video, it was indeed The Last Story.
Actually no, the Nes games are really tough, with plenty of things to figure out on your own and outright lying NPCs. A Link to the Past, Link' s Awakening and Ocarina of Time progressively introduced a dumbed down difficulty and more user-friendliness. The series remained fairly easy and treated ever player like a moron ever since. Eiji Aonuma confessed recently that he never managed to complete the first Zelda (and let' s keep in mind he' s only speaking of its first quest, a second much more difficult quest is unlocked once you complete the game). Maybe that' s the problem, he may think most players suck just as much as him at playing video games ? I guess it' s a good idea to keep those players in mind, but forcing crutches on every player out there and disallowing any form of personal settings or skipping is a horrible idea, no matter how you look at it. I know most Zelda players are kids but ... HELLOOO ! HEY ! HEY ! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA WAS RELEASED IN ENGLISH IN MY COUNTRY, I WAS 12 YEARS OLD BACK THEN, I DIDN' T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH, YET I MANAGED TO COMPLETE THE GAME SOMEHOW ! AONUMA YOU DIMWIT ! HEY ! LOOK OUT !
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You can have an emotional investment in the incident and yet enjoy humour noir, both aren' t mutually exclusive. I fail to register how that joke could truly upset anyone, granted it wasn' t exactly an exercise in finesse. But yeah, as a humorist said once "you can joke about anything and everything, just not with everyone".
I believe you might want to read this : http://www.kh-vids.net/showthread.php?116584-Ghost-Encounters
Despite its poor line-up people knew the 3DS would have high-profile games later on (RE, KH etc ...). Developers had little doubt the latest Nintendo handheld would turn out to be be successful, so they announced major titles before it was even released. The PSV isn' t as lucky, few people are willing to bet on its success. Not only does its line-up suck, it doesn' t look like it' s gonna get any better anytime soon. Almost every high-profile games announced on the PSV is also announced on the PS3. Developers would rather wait and see if the Vita sells well before planing any exclusive killer-app, and customers won' t buy anything unless killer-apps are announced. Yeah, this is gonna end well ... I fear the high PS3-PSV compatibility will turn out to be the one thing that buried the PSV before it was even born. I hope for Sony that SE will announce something soon, both PSV exclusive and much much much more exciting than a FFX half-baked remake.
Oh, and I forgot to mention : the only thing that led us to believe that nobodies can' t feel anything is what Ansem the wise wrote in his notes. DiZ : <<Oh, he told you how he "felt", did he ? Ridiculous ! A nobody cannot feel anything.>> Yet Namine left a note in Jiminy' s journal, telling Sora has to "ease their suffering" (they being Axel, Roxas, Xion, Aqua, Ventus, Terra). I just stumbled upon this interview of Nomura from the Re-Coded Ultimania guide : Though he’s a member of Organization XIII, Axel is shown in the end of Re:Coded in the memories of “pain”… Nomura: Since healing the necessary “pain” of Axel’s is different than with other people, if he is revived he will take a form like Xehanort’s. In the end of the story, Namine says, “Those whose memories are sleeping inside Sora need relief.” In the Birth by Sleep secret cutscene “Blank Points”, certain characters call out to Sora, however in that scene Axel is the only one who appears and doesn’t say Sora’s name out loud. Speaking of the Birth by Sleep secret cutscene, Ansem the Wise says that he hid his research results in Sora. This complies with what happens in Re:Coded when Namine says DiZ (Ansem the Wise) has hid something inside Sora. Is that mystery remaining unsolved? Nomura: Yes. Namine added data to the Jiminy Journal in order to convey that the “pain” of those connected to Sora must be healed, but at the point in time Ansem hid the research results inside Sora, he didn’t know that. Accordingly, Ansem’s research results will become the key to healing the “pain” in the future of the story. Clearly Namine believes nobodies have genuine feelings, whatever DiZ might think about it.
There' s another thread about Roxas having feelings. I think you' re right, nobodies are obviously able to learn things and take decisions, I find it hard to believe they didn' t regain a heart somehow. As I posted in that other thread it looks like we' re about to find out, here's some pictures from a KH 3D trailer :
There, happy ? :lolface:
Well, it was tricky to figure out, it would be just as tricky to explain. It' s like trying to find the right mental switch, kinda like "how do I move this muscle ?". The first few times I did it I closed my eyes in the dream. I could still feel what was "happening" to me, but bringing everything to pitch black helped me to concentrate on waking up instead.
Yeah but since Origins on PSP is not a port I wondered if you had the right title. I would definitely choose the PSP version then, no bug, no lag.
A Silent Hill PSP port ? Wait, which Silent Hill game are we talking about exactly ? To my knowledge the only Silent Hill games that were released both on PSP and PS2 are Origins and Shattered Memories. Origins was initially developed for the PSP, the PS2 version is a hasty port. The graphics are the same in both versions, but the PS2 version runs noticeably less smoothly. I played both versions myself so I can tell. As for Shattered Memories it was initially developed for the Wii. A quick glance at a SH forum tells me the shadows and flashlights are better in the PS2 version while the ice textures and the little details are better in the PSP version (mostly thanks to its tiny screen). However the controls are clearly better in the PS2 version (in this game you have to run and move the camera at the same time constantly, and the PSP only has a single analog stick). The only version I played myself is the Wii one, getting rid of the enemies with motion controls is annoying like hell, but apart from that tiny detail the motion controls are OK (and this comes from a guy who overall hates the Wii-mote with a passion).
Well, marketing has always been a part of their job. Those who tried to emulate Nintendo and cater to a casual audience quickly noticed that if they don' t have the same marketing steamroller as Nintendo then casual games don' t sell at all. Or any kind of game really. The rise of the Internet is the one thing that allowed the industry to cater to its audience more than ever before. It is the perfect marketing tool, developers can use it to feed us any information they see fit while monitoring our reaction at the same time. How about that, the SOP actually exists ! Years ago Kojima used his MGS2 game to yell at us "This is what awaits us, it has already begun". Ironically Kojima himself is just a cog in that well-oiled machine.
Yup, recycle !
^ This. Since my connexion is decent while my PC sucks at playing HD files I download everything in HD nonetheless, on my USB drive, which I then plug into my PS3 to watch the files on my HDTV. (No Hulu or whatever available in my country)
I agree that playing a wide array of games can definitely be a hardcore gamer characteristic, but not on its own. I mean if you play a wide array of games but just jump on the latest shiny thing that caught your attention (if you do not play often and/or barely finish any game at all), then you' re a casual player to me. I also think those who play many games superficially are precisely the kind of gamers that hurt the industry (qualitatively, not financially).
