darksnowman

Fun game. At a glance, POW block and Stopwatch from the Mario RPGs or perhaps you've other reasons for not highlighting those.

Skim-read that as "So I kept seeing talk of a leak that has been proven right with the Wave Race tracks." I never knew about that either, and for a second I thought it seemed pretty rational because of the hover kart aspect before I caught myself on. I haven't sat down and thought about a wishlist of tracks I want so I'm happy enough with whatever they throw in.

Pikmin, eh? I continually count these games out... until I get around to playing one that is, then I realise how much care goes into them. Note to self: don't be lackadaisical about Pikmin 4. These games don't deserve to be put on the to-buy-when-on-sale list. Of the Wii U ports I've bothered with so far (Mario 3D World, TMS #FE), it looks like Pikmin 3 is the best of the bunch. Well, okay, MK 8 DX is probably up there with it too, I'll give you that one. It's early days for me on PNF-404. Reunited with Brittany. Got red, rock and yellow Pikmin at my disposal. Getting in the odd bit of fruit. Looking for the captain. There've been some funny bits of dialogue like when they talk about how people from Hocotate (like Olimar and Louis) survive on vegetables and they, who are from Koppai, are fruit eaters. All colours of Pikmin are stored in a single Onion now. My personal preference has me wanting an Onion per colour purely because it gives more of an impression that I'm building a base of operations. It's handy to just need to go to the one Onion, though. Something I assume is a holdover from the Wii U is d-pad for swapping between characters? When you want to swap, a d-pad plus appears on screen and due to that visual cue, I keep thumbing it on the controller before remembering the joystick does the job. The first time I tried to do this I was pretty confused for a minute or two as to why my d-pad inputs were not being recognised. Other than that, so far so great. The last thing I did was lose two red Pikmin to the darkling cave creatures. The reds were building a bridge and I watched on from my vantage point, wondering if they'd be preyed upon without me there to launch them into combat first. Now I know. Still, it's not like the first Pikmin where every loss was dearly felt -- I'll have some more sprouted in a jiffy. ...listening to their speech, Professor E Gadd is a giant Koppaite...? He has the look, too.

About time! Kind of an extreme final spoiler there but I totally get where you're coming from. I expected to end up being delighted through and through with LAL (a revered "lost" Square game whose demo intrigued me more than enough to be happy to make it a day one purchase), but with each passing chapter it whittled me down. I've been trying to let the dust settle a bit before attempting to pull together my thoughts on it. The graphics are obviously lovely and the game itself isn't archaic by any means--though some QoL features would have been a very welcome addition--there was just very little satisfaction to be had a long the way, imo. Fancy graphics and a grid-based turn-based ATB system will only get you so far. I'm going to mention a couple of brief spoilers now we're talking about how it wrapped up. I finished it twice. First time I went straight in and because justice was needed. No question. No hesitation. After witnessing that. I went again I genuinely could not believe that in this 20-25 hour RPG I thought I was levelled pretty well yet those end battles were a drag. Then of course guess who gets thrown into the fray at the 11th hour: And I thought I was going to have to reload, go prepare some more and do it all again. But I didn't, and nor did I feel fulfilled in seeing it out, tbh. In fact, I had already squeaked through a trio of situations just to get to the final form, if you get what I'm saying, and that too was just met with a sensation of relief rather than triumph. I believed the game was building up to go out on a real high with what transpires after finishing the 7 chapters. That hope was swiftly taken from me. How well did you save the game? For the longest time, I was just letting it autosave, then recording a proper save upon chapter completion but there was once that caught me out and I had to reset to the most recent save... which was an hour previous. It was the time trial bit. The autosave was in it and I could not escape. Yup, I wanted a customary screenshot of the "thanks for playing" part and couldn't believe they'd disabled it. In a way, it sums up what a bummer the game was. What I thought I was walking into was a gem of a game we'd never got until now. What it ended up being, I'm not even sure. It seemed to be shaping up to be a nice little curiosity of distinct settings and storytelling methods that were trying to poke and pull at the RPG status quo. For whatever reason, it didn't work for me and I came away feeling meh about the game overall. Last weekend I was mentioning new game + in my posts, right now I've no intention of firing LAL up again. I'm going to let it rest and perhaps next summer I'll be up for checking a guide to see everything I missed and finding those secret bosses that were all the rage here in the early going. Right now, I'm glad to say, I'm onto Pikmin 3 and it's looking like a true great from a previous generation.

On today of all days, the only thing this thread should have been bumped for is Nopon amiibo.

Not sure what you mean (honestly) as I think that's what my quote says anyway. However, I do know that Nintendo fans get antsy about such caveats as "it's good for a Wii game", "it's good for a 3DS game", "it's good for a Switch game" because what we want is games to be commented on as games and not shackled to how many bits their console was. The better SNES game in 94 was DKC and you know it. DKC games by Rare > DKC games not by Rare and you know it. OoT being compared, contrasted and repeatedly judged to be the best game ever is perfectly well and good and you know it. Tell me this, do you think Banjo-Kazooie is a great N64 game, a great game, or both? Some examples in the 16-bit RPG realm would be the likes of Chrono Trigger, FF VI and DQ V which all measure up to RPGs from later generations and then some. So while you might be viewing and reviewing LAL on 1994 standards, people who are seeing the game on shop shelves won't be, and nor should they. When Chrono Trigger came out here on DS, no one was telling anyone to temper their expectations because it was a SNES game. Same went for the FF ports on GBA, and DQ on DS. We were falling in love with them for the timeless classics they are.

Yep, it gives you some hope then reduces you to that, pretty much. You're getting dafter all the time. A SNES game cannot be in competition with a modern generation game!

Ja, alles klar? Yes, her! Danke!

I hopped through video via the news section on the Switch and didn't immediately notice any evidence of this? Maybe what you're alluding to will be more evident when racing on them. Kind of grown used to the track list being divided between the "good screen" and the "cheap screen".

@Helmsly The mind boggles to think what other things you are sitting on for when the day comes. Incredible.

I wasn't to realise that as I did space and ancient China first. I thought those, despite their shortcomings, were two pretty well-done stories with strong climaxes--especially considering their SNES origins. The doubts crept in as I went on to do feudal Japan (nice looking but, honestly, if there was something to that story it completely passed me by...) and the present day after that. Anything I could say about the present day would take longer to write and read than that chapter lasts. Twas but a fleeting moment, much like the present itself. Yeah in LAL they're connected by hate/odio but not a great deal more.

For some reason, the visual novel style of that first chapter accompanied by the battle at the end I thought recalled 13 Sentinels. The character selection ring also played into that perception. My opinion of LAL morphed and skewed between those bright-eyed early days and reaching the credits. After a couple of chapters, I realised that the game would have to go out on a strong note (whatever that was going to be, I did not know) for it to be regarded so fondly or else it would have been labelled as the nearly man of RPGs all these years, and everyone would have long since moved on. EDIT: It occurred to me that it's sort of like Rayman Raving Rabbids (the first one), with its scattergun approach to gameplay. If they had waggle at the time they'd have used it.

I can get on board with that feeling. Can you believe in the early going I was wondering if Live A Live was a proto-13 Sentinels?

Is that Alice Klaar?

How dare you. It was the first one I did on the demo and the first one I continued with in the full game. Perhaps it was because I was still in my Live A Live infancy but I thought things played out in a pretty shocking way. At least for an "RPG".

Will France be made to rue these missed opportunities.

Do you mean the wild west, feudal Japan, imperial China, prehistory or...? Oof. Just Distant Future to go now? Don't worry, it's not all 2001, there's other sci-fi influences to enjoy in it too.

The other character offered so little I mostly passed on their turn unless they were able to punch or kick an enemy in the vulnerabilities.

I have an Orville the Duck money box.

Has this tech pouch started getting a refresh every summer now? Nice one. Hope your audience enjoys that!

I watched a documentary on them a few years ago when P Nev was at the helm and they seemed like a decent bunch. Just wanted to knuckle down and improve to get the best out of themselves that they could. Stark contrast to the men who think they've won everything before a ball's been kicked. Quite right. That's snapped me out of it. Anyone but England! Noooo.

Indeed you did. I knew there was something else but I was getting distracted by the women's euros match at the time of posting. Imperial China is a good one. The way the story goes and the delivery of the final blow are among the best moments LAL has to offer, imo. I chuckled at the introduction of the first disciple, too. Still, there is something I'd change in it which I'm going to mention below. It's a weird one because when you think of the conceit for each chapter, they all sound cool with their own unique twist. But beyond that bullet point idea, there's plenty that could've been fleshed out. I came in via the demo and it's still managed to throw me for a loop. Perhaps the next step is S-E putting up a poll for people to vote on which concept they'd like to see developed into its own 25-hourPG. Steer clear of spoilers for the conclusion if you can. Ah, right you are. Best of luck with that. You can always check out the Live A Live demo sometime to see what you think of it. I was so glad to have some chapters resembling an RPG by the time I got to that I enjoyed it quite a bit. He ended up being my highest-level character because I didn't mind clearing the (Pac-Man) streets almost every time I was out and about. Something I noticed in this chapter that applies to several... The Origami King. Battle layout recognition. A lot of battles in the near future are groups with a leader. It's not long before you see the patterns repeat and you have the path to the enemy leader memorised. "Oh this one's up around the side, across the back, he'll try to poison me on this square, then I'll move in for the victory." And so on. I cruised through a lot of those encounters on autopilot. It reminded me of how people described ring combat in TOK. Also: no exp! There are a few chapters/ sections where you're battling but not gaining exp. TOK did not get a pass for this and it's been a niggle for me in LAL every time it's come up. Yes, the parts of LAL with no exp are so easy you don't need to be levelling... but still, every time I've battled for no reward it's felt like a waste of time, similar to TOK. Players who want to should be able to level the wee robot. Let him plug in like R2D2 to collect the exp or something. In Ancient China, he could receive 1 exp point from normal battles and higher exp when training the disciples because he discovers that he's learning from them, too. Or something. Near future has a part where exp is disabled yet the streets are still filled with enemies. Exp distribution could have been calculated in such a way that players who take the time to clear the screen will gain a level. In the gunslinger chapter, exp gains could be set so that you will level up after the final duel. You're overpowered for these parts already, so what difference is an extra level going to make. Better than battling for no nowt.

They play with heart, togetherness and humility. Go and bring the thing home.

Is that Hemp or Rivaldo?

It is three!