Jonnas

For the record, the stuff you can't steal is Gold (not an item, if an enemy Thief gets it, it evaporates) and weapons (unstealable by design). I don't think the chapter you were in contained any weapons, though.

So let me get this straight, this is just an updated version of the original SMT V? Which part of this couldn't have been DLC?

Very nicely done. Not an easy task, especially when you consider the amount of items that can't be stolen back. You might be thinking of the GCN/Wii games, where the system worked like that. In the GBA, it's all items, which demands one to consider their resources wisely. Regarding Lyn... there's quite a few chapters before her earliest promotion. Yeah, it kinda sucks, the next few maps would be perfect to train her promoted form.

Hell yeah, another true believer That dungeon slaps Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much This is the sort of game that sticks with a person. Well, I'm thinking the original, at the very least.

I always loved the Squirtle line. Squirtle is easily the cutest of the Gen 1 starters (well, it was, before the anime gave it rough, chain-smoking voice in the English version), Wartortle looks like a dopey teenager still finding themselves (as mid-evolutions ought to do. This is a 12-year old rascal if I ever saw one), and Blastoise is a strong, proud grown-up who knows what they're about. Love that it launches its water from hidden artillery bits, makes her look more like a tank, and allows crazy stuff like the rapid spin, or even her finishing move in Pokkén. Always liked that cool-looking pose on the original cover, too. In fact, I love that there isn't a single shot of Blastoise where they don't look confident. I don't particularly care for Mega Blastoise (where it looks excessively mechanical), or the Pokkén version (I mean, you know why), even if I love that Blastoise is in a fighting game. I've always respected the Bulbasaur line as well. Precocious Bulbasaur doing what he can, menacing Venusaur with its imposing weight, and Smash really made me appreciate Ivysaur's in-between form a lot more. Plus, the anime really showed how those Vine Whips mean business. A shame about its lack of competitive viability, Venusaur looks like such a mean tank. But the Charmander line... Never liked them. So basic. The flaming tail is their one cool feature, and even that isn't consistent, considering how often it gets drenched without ever going out. Okay, Charmander is fine, but Charmeleon has a stupid unihorn in its head, and Charizard is as generic as dragons get. Despite this, Charizard was all the rage (and still is), and its fans so obnoxious. Facts don't care for such feelings, though. Mah man I'll be hearing the PT version of this for some good ol' nostalgia. I picked Cyndaquil way back then, and never regretted it. This is a line I like a lot, with each form looking like a different mammal, but with a growth that makes sense. Plus, having flames replace what would otherwise be patches of fur (or porcupine spikes) is pretty clever. Quilava looks like an edgy-but-kinda-dopey teenager, and Typhlosion is explosive in all the right ways. I've also always thought of Flame Wheel as its signature move, and even if it isn't that great a move, it's pretty rad-looking. Totodile... isn't my style. No hate, it just doesn't gel with my sensibilities much. Croconaw doesn't do anything for me, either, why does its skin look like caveman clothes? Feraligatr looks pretty awesome, though, good thing the line ends on a strong note. I like the lack of an "o" in its name too, makes him more unique. Too bad the physical-special split didn't exist back then, he wasn't that hot back in GSC. Chikorita is a lovely design, I remember being a kid and really wanting to pick it, back when GSC was Japan-only. Bayleef is a surprisingly endearing mid-evolution, nothing dopey about it, it's just a nice-looking dinosaur with a leef moteef. Meganium is where it all goes wrong. That neck looks awful, the pink flower clashes horribly with the green skin, the movepool sucks... Bayleef looks pretty good throwing razor leeves, how does Meganium screw even that up!? Meganium alone made me go for Cyndaquil, it's that bad.

I'm sorry, I somehow missed this bit the first time around and... Oh my God How did they not know that Japan uses a different alphabet? Jesus, this is amazing

The cool thing about Fire Emblem (especially the GBA games) is that the interface and UI are surprisingly simple and direct for the genre. Despite this, the mechanics and details have a lot of depth to them. There's always a lot to explore and talk about. I see you're making good progress. Just a couple of tips: Merlinus is the only character protected from permanent death. If he dies, he just comes back next chapter (he only levels up if he survives, though); Won't spoil it if you want to figure it out yourself, but if you do want to know what to do about the named thief, click the spoiler below.

I'm not going to try and predict anything, not going to fall for excessive expectations. I know it's not going to have Mole Mania anywhere in it, so what's the point of even tuning in? ... Ok, fine, I predict that Freedom Planet 2 will be in the highlight reel. There, you happy? ... OK! And a Banjo-Tooie announcement for NSO. ... andalsosoulcalibur2andskiesofarcadiarereleaseskthnksbye

I'm loving these impressions on my favourite Fire Emblem game. It's great to see you experiencing it with fresh eyes. The pirates at the gate are purposefully overleveled, hence why the chapter felt so hard. You could've taken the detour up north, which is the cautious path for this map, recommended for first-timers. If you did challenge the pirates up front and win, then you have my respect. Just... did you kill the enemy called Dart? Because the condition for recruiting him was leaving him alive during this chapter (he won't move at all if you leave him be) Sadly, I think the support system is the biggest flaw in this game. The conversations themselves are excellent, it's just the system itself that's so obtuse and difficult. You need characters to stand next to each other for a stupid amount of turns, and it depends on the pairing. Simple pairings like Rebecca/Lowen or Matthew/Oswin take roughly 40 turns per rank, while pairings like Erk/Serra or Raven/Bartre can take 80 turns per rank. The quickest ones are Eliwood/Hector (3 turns for rank C, then 26 turns for each subsequent rank), as well as Lyn/Florina (1 turn for C, 20 for the next ones). Oh, and each character can only do 5 support conversations per playthrough. There's that, too. Hannah definitely unlocks the support compatibility list at some point. I believe it's called fortune-telling or something like that. Florina can be quite useful as a utility flier. She can get better at combat if you train her, but it's not a necessity or anything. As Ike said, deployment spots are going to get more and more limited, feel free to stick with the characters you like. I personally love using Canas too, but if you end up not liking him, don't feel forced to use him, you do you. In better news, you won't have to wait much longer for a new flier...

I finally sat and watched the Attack on Titan finally-for-real-final-episode-seriously-guys-it-is-final episode. I am really happy with the adaptation. The animation looked gorgeous, as Mappa tends to do (Levi gets all the best bits, doesn't he?), but the general tone, the pacing, the priority in bringing the Manga's ideas into colour and movement, it was all everything I could hope for. I may have mentioned before that I had the one gripe with the Manga ending, and that it could be solved with a slight line rewrite. I may have also mentioned that Isayama confirmed that the line would stay the same in the ending, and that I hoped they could at least change the tone. As for parts that I still liked more in the Manga... Finally, one clarification for @bob. I knew the answer to what you were asking about, but had to watch the adaptation myself to be completely sure you were talking about that scene.

Huh, those screenshots for NFL QC 98 look really good for the N64. When I first glimpsed them, I thought I was looking at a PS2 for a moment.

And now, it is time for a new kind of posting for me. It is time for... A Jonnas NSO Update (See, I wanted to post this update monthly, but I missed the end of January, and life gets too much in the way. So, to heck with it, I'll post these whenever I feel like it.) Since I decided I wanted to "clear" the NSO, I figured I'd give a quick rundown of the sort of games I've been playing. It's not chronological, it's a general rundown of what I've been up to. Bigger games get their own posts (like my Shinobi post up there, some of them played on the NSO), so these updates will be for smaller games or experiences. Here's some fitting music. NES Ninjas After the Shinobi high, I decided to revisit Ninja Gaiden. It's been ages since I last played it, to the point I barely remembered it. After the Shinobi series, I can appreciate how fast-paced it is, as well as its raw fun gameplay. It's certainly well remembered a lot for that, coupled with cinematic cutscenes that were quite uncommon and ambitious for the time. What isn't so hot is its incredibly frustrating enemy design, coupled with levels that heavily favour them (enemies that glue themselves onto the edge of platforms you must jump to, wobbly birds all over the worst places, enemies that literally respawn while you aren't even moving, etc.). The game is infamously difficult, so I shamelessly used rewind, but by the time I reached the final level, I realised I wasn't even having fun, so I dropped it. I appreciate what it does right, but ffs, the mid-to-late game is unbearable. I also tried Ninja Jajamaru-kun, a Japanese-only game on the service. I didn't like that one, it was quite dull. The Lesser Classics? Fun fact: I already knew who the Ice Climbers were back when Melee was released. I had seen Ice Climber on a collection of roms on someone's PC, so they were familiar. But the truth is, I never touched this game ever since that first glimpse, back in the 90s. As such, I decided to properly play it. Sadly, it's not good. I actually like the general idea, and how the levels are structured, but Popo plays like butt. Incredibly slow walking speed, incredibly hard to judge jumps, he straight falls through edges he should land on... It is painful to play this game. A shame, because the levels get creative, and progressively different. In a way, this is the inverse of Ninja Gaiden: well designed, but dreadful to play. Dropped it all the same. Next, a game I first heard about in Melee: Clu Clu Land. Didn't understand a single lick of what was happening, what my goal was, or even the controls. Quick drop. Finally, a game I keep seeing all over the place: Balloon Fight. High time I checked what the fuss is about. It's a fun game, actually. Really floaty, but it's part of the point, and its charm. Played several levels, and ended up putting it on the same level as Flicky: will visit it from time to time, no rush in beating it. After a slew of disappointments, this one was refreshing. 16-bit Procedural Puzzling Kirby's Avalanche! That's the game you should know! Kirby's Avalanche! It's got nothing to do with snow! It's Puyo Puyo with a Kirby coat of paint. American Kirby, at that. He's such a jerk in this game! I expected to play a few matches and get bored, but since this is a solid Puyo Puyo game, I ended up playing to the end and beating the Story Mode. Solid challenge too, the last few matches were insanely fast. Meanwhile, Kirby's Star Stacker and Panel de Pon were definitely not it. They're the ones where you swap blocks horizontally, and I don't like that particular type of puzzle. Well made games for sure (Panel de Pon felt fleshed out, and Star Stacker's got Rick, an instant win), but if Pokémon Puzzle Challenge (based on my favourite Pokémon generation) couldn't win me over with this style, these two wouldn't either. I also played Magical Drop 2. It's like someone half-listened to what Puzzle Bobble was supposed to be, and tried to recreate it, badly. Confusing rules, uninspired aesthetic, and generally unfun, I consider it Magical Dropped, too. There was also Bombuzal, a really terrible port of what might've been a decent PC puzzle game. Dear lord, do not play that travesty, it is horrible. Brutal Brawlers Tuff E Nuff is offensive on many, many levels. Bad boxart. Terrible title. Cut content from the western release, including all of the story. Janky hitboxes. 10 characters, but only 3 are playable. Sluggish game. Character designs that range from generic to stupid. There's actually a decent character design here (Rei), and now I'm sad she's stuck in this sorry excuse of a fighting game. The most annoying thing? This was actually the first game I beat this year. I didn't even want it to be that way, I expected to drop it, instead I just... kept playing and beat the boss. The shame... Doomsday Warrior manages to be worse, couldn't make it past the first couple of fights. Fighter's History is a pathetic Street Fighter II clone. I can respect that the final boss is Karnov from Bad Dudes, but that's it, nothing else positive to say about it. Brawl Brothers, Peace Keepers, and Rival Turf! are interchangeable, I cannot remember which is which. They're all terrible, uninspired Final Fight clones, and the only thing of note is that one of them has a colour customiser for every sprite in the game (very difficult to use, though). --------------------- On a final note, unrelated to NSO, I have decided to do good on one of my New Year's Resolutions and quit Fire Emblem Heroes. There's a multitude of reasons behind it, but the two principal ones were that I was no longer enjoying my time with it, and its daily routines were taking too much of my time. It's nice to uninstall that sort of game on my own terms.

Oh wow, I didn't know there was a Captain Toad game for the N64!

Man, Tetrisphere was such a cool game. Creative concept, trippy aesthetics, proper difficulty curve (I do remember some late-game challenges being daunting)... It's a perfect candidate for the NSO.

Excellent choice! OG Dragon Ball is so fun to watch. Regarding Kai, the filler doesn't just extend to episodes or mini-arcs, there are full minutes of silence, flashbacks, or even imagine spots, in the original Z that just... fill episodes with nothing. Sure, sometimes there's proper tension, but the pace is far slower than what anybody remembers. On the flip-side, the mini-arcs and episodes of filler that DO exist in the original are actually very entertaining. That said, the original Z does have the original score, as well as uncensored violence. Those are pretty important, too. Finally, I don't think the entire Buu arc was ever adapted to Kai, so there's that (and to be fair, the Buu arc is far better about those Z issues I mentioned. It's a much brisker pace, that arc)

Yeeeesss! Another convert to the glory of Goemon N64! There is now, like, a full dozen of us in N-E. Rerelease them already, Konami, geez...

Depends on whether their intention was to replicate the glitch. If so, they successfully replicated Bow-Wow getting stuck in a tree. In the original, he'd snap back to you as soon as you moved into another screen (typical GB behaviour, really), so this brute-forced "fix" looked natural. Looking at the video you posted, it looks like replicating the original "fix" makes it look like he teleported, more unnatural than ever Even considering their intention, I do think they should've at least made it so Bow-Wow runs back to you when he's off-screen: replicating the "feeling" of that glitch is more important than replicating the exact behaviour. Regarding getting stuck in gaps between holes... I haven't played the remake. In the original, it was common for those in-between holes to feel like quicksand that just maaaaybe escape if you were quick enough. I hear this is actually something they changed in the remake, as Link snaps into the hole far more definitely (Michael Damiani in particular lamented that this lead to the loss of certain unintended shortcuts from the original game). I'm not sure if what you experienced is a by-product of that change. Finally, I love hearing your impressions, and I do hope you'll keep posting them. When you dive into a game, you go all the way, and I love reading about it.

New year, new style! I'm hoping to put a slightly new spin to the way I post about titles this year. Make more thematic posts, essentially. In fact, I'm not even going to mention yet which title I finished first this year, that's coming at a later date. So, Sega announced a dozen of franchise revivals last December. That's pretty cool, but one of them bothered me: not because I disliked what I saw, but because it's a franchise that never really crossed my path. I was bothered by my ignorance, and by the fact that I kept putting it off, despite those games being on my backlog. And thus I ventured into a classic series I knew barely anything about. That series is......... ........ Shinobi That's right, I never really played anything about this classic Ninja series, despite it showing up all the time when talking about Sega. So let's start with the first entr- Wait, I don't actually own the first game? Why isn't it on the Mega Drive collection? Oh, it was only on Arcades... and now only available through SEGA AGES? uuuuhhhh... Nevermind, ignore this. Shadow Dancer Weird name. Do I own this? Oh, good, I do, it's on Steam. SO! Apparently the second Shinobi game did not actually have Shinobi in the title! I don't know what Sega was cooking back in 1990, but they were definitely smoking it. Shadow Dancer is billed as a 2D action game in which a Ninja (which may or may not be the same Ninja from the first game) and his good boy doggie go up against a terrorist group that suddenly attacked... the world, I think, while "committing all of the atrocities known to man". I assume that includes eating a Francesinha with your bare hands, so I'm already motivated. I thought this would be a 2D platformer, but the stilted movement and focus on killing enemies made me think this was more like a Beat'em up (or a Shoot'em up, it's a fine line between those genres). It's a fun one, for sure, as progress through each level depends on rescuing every hostage before continuing, which I thought was a neat idea. In some cases, you may need to explore the level a bit to find them all. Combat is fascinating. Your main moves are throwing shurikins (yes, that's the spelling), but that button turns into a context-sensitive sword slash if an enemy is nearby. Mashing the attack button does work for attacking frantically one way or the other. You'll want to do that, because your Ninja dies after a single hit (or so it seems). The other key move you have is siccing your dog at an enemy, which will leave them busy/stunned long enough for you to approach and kill them. If you take too long, the dog will get attacked and shrink back into a pup... as dogs do in those situations, I suppose (I wouldn't know, I'm more of a cat person). The dog can't be sicced while he's a puppy, but he'll grow back into houndhood after you earn a few points. I decided to name the dog "Mario". Mario is very useful for dealing with enemies with guns, as well as invulnerable enemies who only drop their shield for a few seconds. There are tricky situations where making good use of Mario is key to dealing with crowded clusters of enemies. This pondered approach is encouraged, which is pretty neat. There's also the nuclear option: ninjutsu. Once per stage, you can unleash a move that kills every enemy on-screen, but you get fewer points at the end. I did say there were one-hit deaths, but there seems to be an exception: if a rushing enemy runs into you, you just get bumped back a bit. They'll try to attack with knives afterwards, but that initial bump gives you the breath you need to avoid the killing attack. I thought this was a clever way of designing the game, deaths are instant, but there's plenty of leeway for avoiding attacks, with extra tension. And then we reach the 3rd level, and those damn ninja enemies just jump at you with knives, so suddenly it's frustrating again. A shame, because outside of those enemies, I thought it was a cool system. Thankfully, the game is short-but-sweet, with just 5 levels (each with 3 stages). The bosses are all pretty cool too (except for the final boss, which is pretty tedious) Soundtrack isn't that memorable, but there is this one track. The special stage in-between levels feels like the early 90s distilled into a funky Mega Drive beat. It's a fun game, but later levels put a hamper on it. 3 stars from me, which isn't a bad start. Mario is a good boy. The Revenge of Shinobi Yeah, so this is the first entry of the series to be made from the ground up for the Mega Drive. First released in 1989, wait that doesn't sound right, wasn't Shadow Dancer released in 1990?... Or was that the date for the MD port? It wasn't a port? So, Shadow Dancer was an arcade game, and after Revenge, they just decided to redo Shadow Dancer entirely for the Mega Drive with different levels and assets instead of making a new game?.....And named it Shadow Dancer again. The fuck, Sega? Your flights of fancy are ruining the chronology I was going for! Anyway, terrorists invade, they're out for revenge against our Ninja (called Joe Musashi, apparently), they kidnap his girlfriend just to lure him into several levels of danger. The title is misleading, this revenge is being inflicted upon the Shinobi. This game feels like a much smoother experience. Joe here controls a lot better, jumps properly, can double jump even (and if he throws a shurikin* while double jumping, he throws 5 at once in an arc, it's pretty rad). His shurikins are now finite, meaning you can't just spam them without consequence. More importantly, he has a health bar now, he can take a few hits throughout the game. Sadly, no more Mario The ninjutsu command is now a system where you can pick one of four ninjutsu at leisure. The screen-nuke spell is still here, but we now also have a shield ninjutsu (4 hits before it breaks), jump ninjutsu (useful for a couple of stages), and suicide ninjutsu. This last one is an even stronger screen-nuke, with the caveat that you sacrifice your current life. Sounds useless, but since checkpoints are sparse, it's actually a great way to regenerate your health without restarting the level. Plus, since you only get to use one ninjutsu spell per life, the suicide move is the only one to replenish itself! Right off the bat, the first level gives you well placed enemies that attack with projectiles, but can be dealt with good positioning. There are also armoured Samurai that deflect projectiles except for a few moments at a time, you have to goad them into attacking so you can dodge and hit them back. It's pretty cool stuff, having several situations that call for caution and skill. It's also a very varied game, with each level bringing a new idea, and nary a sprite recolour in sight. Fantastic bosses, too, especially the incredibly tense final boss, where you need to defeat the bloke before he kills Joe's girlfriend. But, uh... They're all copyrighted by someone else. Not unexpectedly, I mean, they literally put Godzilla as a boss in the game... and also Spider-Man... and also Batman... and also Rambo... and also Arnold-Schwarzenegger-who-turns-into-the-Hulk... Shit, even the eyes at the title screen were done in the likeness of an actor without his permission. The more recent releases replace most of these characters with copyright-friendly substitutes, and even then, they didn't catch them all Man, Sega was brazen. Unusual for the time, our main composer Yuzo Koshiro gets top billing. Deservedly so, as the music is terrific. Favourites include the first stage, boss music, and Chinatown. It's a charming game, but there are significant flaws: that double jump has finicky timing, which is pretty bad for how many times it is needed to proceed. There are a couple of nigh-impossible jumps too, which is pretty bad design (lose a life, or use the jump-jutsu, pick your poison). Furthermore, some levels are just unreasonably hard, like the subway and highway levels requiring you to dodge things all the time, or the military base that feels like a bullet hell, or the worst one, the utterly dull labyrinth. Level gimmicks are all well and good, but these gimmicks kinda stank. All of these frustrating aspects are pretty serious, and hamper the game a lot, especially since they're derived from legitimate gameplay and level design issues. The main proof is that I started to brazenly use the rewind feature because I felt like the game was getting super unfair. And after beating it, I have no desire to try the higher difficulties. I liked the game enough, and it's pretty strong in other areas, but it's hard to ignore the problems. Sadly, they're enough to bring the game down to 3 stars. *They keep calling them shurikins, but they're clearly kunai. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master Sega, for eff's sake, this is the fourth game in the franchise, and the first to be numbered. Why can't you be normal?! Wow, this is a glow up. The Shinobi team was inspired when they made this one. So, in yet another tale of terrorists invading the world, our boy Joe Musashi looks and feels better than ever. He can now run (!), block projectiles at will (!!), wall-jump and dive-kick (!!!), and even ride horses and surfboards (!). The ninjutsu and finite shurikins are the same (though we now have the option of storing two or more ninjutsu at once), everything feels like a strict improvement. Everything feels faster, easier to control, level gimmicks are more fun overall, level design is much better across the board... This is a very fine game! The music isn't as good as Koshiro's, but it is pretty fitting and energetic. The opening theme sets the tone. This is also an easier game than Revenge. Not just because it's less frustrating, the enemies are genuinely easier to defeat and deal with. This is not a bad thing per se, I thought the game's difficulty felt right, even while the final levels ramped it up. Ended up replaying the whole game on the highest difficulty, it's that fun. Honestly, after the previous games, I didn't expect this one to be as good as it was. 5 stars, easy decision. (On a side note, I noticed is that I now reach for the rewind button as soon as I feel like a jump didn't come out like I meant it to. I think I'm gaining bad habits. I tried to avoid doing this on my second playthrough, and yet my fingers would still do it at times...) ------------- And as for the original Shinobi... from what I see, it's basically Shadow Dancer without the dog, so I'll pass on the AGES version, even though I'm sure it's great. For the series as a whole, I really liked learning about it! Didn't expect to see as much charm as I did, and I certainly appreciate the ways it approaches combat (I swear, that suicide ninjutsu is brilliant stuff). When I look at what Lizard Cube are doing with the new entry, I now can't help but grow excited at the revival.

This is a neat idea. Not a fan of Shadow at all, but I always appreciate variety, and it's a good effort, bringing substantial new content to a remaster. But why did Sega greenlight a title that will inevitably lead to fanfiction when googled?

Oh shit! I remember playing Heretic on the PC when I was younger! Those screenshots look so similar to that. This too feels similar to my memories!

Yeah, but Yoshimitsu has always been an oddball design. He's meant to be "the weird one" in the cast. Not the only weirdo, mind you, but his sword definitely makes him one. Just like Roger&Alex's tails, or Kuma&Panda's odd proportions. All of those make those respective fighters "weird" or "unique", they stand out from the cast more easily than, say, Leo or Bryan. Ultimately, Tekken is a series where conventional martial arts take center stage. Sure, there are robots and bears, and goofy shit running around, but the core is very clear. Like, someone like Bob feels conventional, despite having a made up fighting style, and that's because he follows the heart of the series. Therefore, by adding Noctis, the choice was made for the FF character to be seen as an "oddball" or a "weirdo" in the cast, instead of somebody who actually feels like they're part of the background. It's not even just the sword, he literally summons blades from the aether whenever he feels like it. Neegan was criticised to hell and back for not being a proper martial artist and just whacking people with a bat, and yet he's still closer to the feel of the series than Noctis. tl;dr: Just because he's technically not the first bloke with a sword, that doesn't mean he fits.

That's what happens when you add the most recent FF protagonist in Tekken 7, instead of... the character that actually makes sense He'll never hear the end of it!

How many bosses? Around 8 or so?

I love our emojis They're expressive, charming, cute, and characteristic. Somehow, we went from having a surprising variety of smileys throughout the internet, to gradually having every single platform share the exact same set of emojis. Except for N-E It's the best corner of the internet

FINALLY! I kid you not, I checked if there were updates on this just this morning. I can finally play this 2022 game on my Switch. (Should've added FP2 to the 2024 pledge, I think ) By all means, Steam reviews are glowing. They also claim this to be a surprisingly long game.