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Posted
Just now, Glen-i said:

Honestly? You're probably golden at this point to climb to the top. If things get dicey, 4th D Slip guarantees an escape. So you can likely make the rest of the way using that if things go wrong.

Once you get the last two melodies, the rest of the game is smooth sailing.

Really? I read it's best to be around the mid 30s for the end game. I'm reluctant to move on, what with me having what I have at the moment.

Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Really? I read it's best to be around the mid 30s for the end game. I'm reluctant to move on, what with me having what I have at the moment.

I mean, there's no harm in it. But if you bust out a PSI Shield at the start of the final battle. You'll only take 80-ish damage max per turn. That's perfectly reasonable to deal with if Ana focuses on Lifeup Pi.

Edited by Glen-i
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Posted (edited)

I mean, this is the series with items called "Swear Words", "Signed Banana", and "Monkey's Love".

Amazingly enough, the latter two have nothing to do with each other.

4th D Slip is a PSI ability, BTW.

Edited by Glen-i
Posted

I've finally finished an Earhtbound game. :yay:

Spoiler

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I ended up attempting the last boss at level 32 and given how it plays out, I really had nothing to worry about at all. As Glen said, I could have attempted it earlier and saved on some of the grinding. Thinking about it, it is strange just how few actual bosses battles are in this game. ::shrug:

The series has always been one of the rare blank spots in my Nintendo gaming history and so it's good to finally put that to rest. Did I enjoy the game? Kinda. A lot the mechanics are very dated and the game is very obscure. A lot of the time you have no idea where you are supposed to go and the game doesn't help you at all in this regard. Also, I wasn't a fan of the quirkiness of the game. Such things mean little to me and it's also why I disliked Undertale. I makes sense I would also dislike this for the same reason. Still, it wasn't all bad. I did enjoy the soundtrack a great deal. There's something very special about NES games and the developers ability to pull of some amazing tunes with the limited capabilities they had. I will admit that there is a sense of nostalgia when I listen to games from that era but that still doesn't take anything away from this games OST. This is one of my favourites and the remix I listened to soon after finishing the game is inspired.

 

Beautiful stuff.:heart:

For those who have never played an Earthbound game and want to, I still think it's worth playing but just be aware that you are going in playing a game that is a product of its time. I have to disagree with Glen about the use of a guide though. I had to look lots of stuff up and I think trying to play it blind would be very punishing and a lot more time consuming. Sure, perhaps if I played this as a kid and had all the time in the world then this would't be an issue. I think that's where a lot of love for Earthbound on the SNES comes from, people who played this during a time when they were kids, didn't have a job or responsibilities and so they could really get absorbed into the world. 

So, that's one Earthbound game down and one more to go...unless Nintendo decide to release the 3rd game from the vault. Knowing that i've got through one of them gives me hope that I may actually get through the second game at some point. Time will tell...

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Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I think that's where a lot of love for Earthbound on the SNES comes from, people who played this during a time when they were kids, didn't have a job or responsibilities and so they could really get absorbed into the world.

It should be noted, NoA at the time thought some parts of Earthbound might be too difficult/obtuse, so they released it with a free Strategy Guide alongside the manual.

Edited by Jonnas
Posted
1 minute ago, Jonnas said:

It should be noted, NoA at the time thought some parts of Earthbound might be too difficult/obtuse, so they released it with a free Strategy Guide alongside the manual.

The old Super Metroid approach. 

Posted
Spoiler

Congrats, you've now seen where Mewtwo's design inspiration came from!

For all its issues, I don't think it can be understated how unique an RPG Beginnings was back when it was released. Pretty much all RPGs of the time were medieval affairs after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. So to have one set in 80's America was certainly a bold step.

EarthBound (and Mother 3) is easily the better game, it feels like a more refined retelling of Beginnings. Mechanics are better, the world is larger, but nowhere near as confusing and unbalanced, and provided you talk to everyone along the way, you shouldn't find yourself getting lost nearly as often. The rolling HP system is a great mechanic that I'm amazed no-one has ripped off.

But, I dunno, Beginnings is notable in a gaming history sort of way, if that makes any sense.

Eight Melodies is such a good track. It hits surprisingly hard and the build up of these seemingly random notes you've been collecting coming together to make a song. That said, I prefer Mother Earth.

Spoiler

What did you think of the reveal that Queen Mary was actually the Maria (Ninten's Great Grandmother) that went missing 80 years ago and Magicant was all of her making?

It's not the most amazing plot twist, but I was quite surprised at how heartfelt a NES game's plot was.

Part of me is wondering what someone who never finished SNES EarthBound before hand would think of it.

13 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

It should be noted, NoA at the time thought some parts of Earthbound might be too difficult/obtuse, so they released it with a free Strategy Guide alongside the manual.

NoA were very wary about selling an RPG to the West. They were stubbornly insistent that Americans were too stupid to enjoy RPG's, which led to that infamously terrible PR campaign that sold EarthBound as some sort of gross-out game, when it was nothing like that at all. They just focused so hard on that Master Belch boss and made out like the whole game was about puke. I can't imagine Shigesato Itoi was happy about that.

Thankfully, Smash Bros. happened, and got people wondering "Who the hell is this Ness kid?"

Posted
5 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

The Nintendo Player's Guide for EarthBound is available on their website as a PDF:

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/clvs/manuals/common/pdf/CLV-P-SAAJE.pdf

In true 90's fashion, that guide claims that you can get the best weapon for Ness from the Kraken.

You can't, it's a 1/128 drop from an enemy right near the end of the game. A lot of people wasted a lot of time repeating a boss that never drops an item.

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Posted

Not a bad price from a collectors POV but the usability of them makes them pretty rubbish lol. It's cool that they can attach physically to the Switch but the lack of buttons and especially of shoulder buttons renders them pretty useless outside of the NES app. The SNES and N64 controllers though, now those I would be interested in if ever there were a price cut. 

Posted (edited)
32 minutes ago, Josh64 said:

Not a bad price from a collectors POV but the usability of them makes them pretty rubbish lol. It's cool that they can attach physically to the Switch but the lack of buttons and especially of shoulder buttons renders them pretty useless outside of the NES app. The SNES and N64 controllers though, now those I would be interested in if ever there were a price cut. 

Worth noting that they're quite cool to use with a MiSTer or Analogue Pocket + Dock though.  They're standard Bluetooth, so they can be used with things other than Switch (I certainly get more use out of mine with those non-Switch devices!).

Just wish that you could charge them with USB-c like the other NSO controllers though... Thank God they dropped the silly Joy-Con rail gimmick after these ones, 'cause these are a total PITA to keep charged!

Edited by Dcubed
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Posted

nintendoswitchonlineoctober2023banner.620x0.webp

New Nintendo titles added to Nintendo Switch Online October 2023

Now up on the main page.

Overview and trailer.

Thanks to @Helmsly for posting the information here so quickly, I credited you in the article. :peace:

- - - - -

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Posted

First home console re-release of Mysterious Murasame Castle (previously only on 3DS), first release of Devil World in the US ever, and first ever re-release of Castlevania Legends.

Not bad :D

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Posted (edited)

Mysterious Murasame Castle is a fun game, but very difficult. Feels like a predecessor to many a hack&slash, but its design is clunky like only a NES-era game could be.

Very much worth playing, mind you. I certainly like it way more than, say, Ninja Gaiden.

Edited by Jonnas
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