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[LaserBeing]

[R^2]

Wall-jumping in Ninja Gaiden 1 was awful. Wall-climbing in Ninja Gaiden 2 was much improved.

[Shinra]

The only real problem I have with a hard-to-use skill like that is that you can be trapped in a scenario where your ability to use this pretty tricky technique is heavily tested. So it's not a feeling of, "THAT'S AN AWESOME THING I CAN DO IF I MASTER IT" when you complete the challenge. It's a feeling of "FUUUCK" because you never complete the challenge.

I still don't think I can escape from that pit.

Right, there's really only one area in Super Metroid where the wall jump is actually REQUIRED, and it's a secret unmapped area that exists for the explicit purpose of showing you how to wall-jump.

Not so bad on those grounds, but yeah it really is a fucking bitch.  And am I correct in remembering there's a save point down there?  That's fucked up.

(I remember walljump being fine in Fusion and ZM.  MMX walljump was great up until controllers with right sticks became standard; after that it cramped the fuck out of my hand and pretty much necessitated the spammy autocharge function in the later games.

Which I guess is as good a reason as any not to PLAY the later games.  Though I remember 8 being actually pretty good except for the fucking flying level.)

I know this is a super late response to this comment, but I want to point out that wall-jump isn't required for that area. The first two times I got stuck down there (Thanks a lot, save point) I had to bomb jump out. I actually couldn't figure out how to do the wall jump.

I spent a very long fucking time down there.

[Disposable Ninja]

I really don't like it when the game's story is affected by how well you can actually play the game -- especially when it's near the start of the game and you haven't had a chance to acclimate to the controls. I just got Deus Ex: Human Revolution, for example, and the first real mission in the game has you deal with a hostage situation, which you can easily fuck up by taking too long, and get all of them killed. Admittedly, for now it seems like a minor thing, sort of more a flavor failure than an actual failure on my part, but still it feels like kind of a hearty 'fuck you' for not being instantly good at the game.

Another example, there's this terrible Survival Horror game called Obscure, in which you control multiple characters. If you fuck up the intro and die, you lose use of a character for the rest of the game.

Oh God, and Mass Effect 1, the Thorian level. You have to use knock-out grenades if you want to stay Paragon. Just... man, fuck.

[Thad]

Obscure sounds like bullshit, but I'm all right with the other two.

On the other hand, there's plenty to complain about regarding the assessment of Good/Bad Points of all varieties; what makes you Paragon and what makes you Renegade is kinda all over the map, particularly in ME2 (still haven't played 3).  And in Red Dead Redemption -- man, maybe I didn't bring that guy in alive because I'm honorable, maybe I brought him in alive because I GET TWICE AS MUCH REWARD MONEY.

[Zaratustra]

I really don't like it when the game's story is affected by how well you can actually play the game -- especially when it's near the start of the game and you haven't had a chance to acclimate to the controls. I just got Deus Ex: Human Revolution, for example, and the first real mission in the game has you deal with a hostage situation, which you can easily fuck up by taking too long, and get all of them killed. Admittedly, for now it seems like a minor thing, sort of more a flavor failure than an actual failure on my part, but still it feels like kind of a hearty 'fuck you' for not being instantly good at the game.

I dunno, looks like a good warning of what the stakes are going to be like for the rest of the game.

even though, in DXHR, they usually aren't.

[patito]

DXHR contiues the tradition of other games of its kind by making you think choices matter.

[François]

I dunno, looks like a good warning of what the stakes are going to be like for the rest of the game.

I literally finished the original Deus Ex for the first time a couple days ago, and I got a whiff of that sort of moment when I realized the game wasn't gonna let me forget that one time I went into the women's bathroom.

i was exploring a first person shooter level i didn't think i didn't expect i didn't know oh my god i'm not a pervert ok i'm not i'm really not well maybe a little but not that much

Speaking of Deus Ex, those goddamn knives. Gah. Rad game otherwise. But those knives... It's like if I was playing Skyrim and every time I looted someone all their junk would get automatically transferred to my inventory.

Oh, and I just started Invisible War, and it feels like I'm running into something I could put in this thread every other minute. Probably gonna go straight to HR instead. I could probably power through IW if it wasn't for the loading times but the game just doesn't feel like it's making it worth my while.

[DestyNova]

Obscure sounds like bullshit, but I'm all right with the other two.

 Obscure 1 isn't that bad,(especially in the case of Obscure 2, that one turned a reasonably enjoyable RE clone into a royal turd.)  Fucking up the intro happens if you don't take the hint and get your ass moving down the hall after the NPC you rescued gets impaled by a major monster. First time playing and I made it to the ladder, made all the easier because 1.I was used to the apperance of fuck-you monsters and 2.You get the fastest character right at the start.

[Thad]

• Require an insipid minigame to get the vehicle.
• Surround the vehicle with lava traps that will quickly kill the player if he falls into them.
• For a tutorial, provide hard-coded keys instead of checking the user's actual keybindings.
• In fact, what the hell -- hard-code some keys that aren't actually the default keybindings.
• Don't allow the player to save after getting the vehicle.  Every time the player dies, make him go back and redo everything, from that damn minigame onwards.
• Call the whole thing "Firewalker".  You know, out of irony.
• That'll show those fuckers who complained about the vehicle segments in the first game.

At least it doesn't cost extra.  Unless you buy the game used.

[Healy]

Dare I ask what game you're talking about there?

[Thad]

Mass Effect 2.

Look, I'm a little behind.  Blame it on the game's constant BSoD's with nVidia cards.

[TA]

... you're running it in an emulated operating system, though.  What do you expect?

[Thad]

No I'm damn-well not.

The BSoD's are a Windows problem -- and a common one.  (I HAVE tried to run it under WINE but that's got an entirely different problem: it won't recognize my mouse clicks on the main menu screen and so I can't start the game.  No BSoD, though -- at least, not since a couple WINE versions ago, before this mouse problem cropped up.)

Damn thing's not even entirely stable on my fiancee's computer with the ATI card; it's crashed on me twice this week on that machine.  But at least it didn't bring the whole system down like it does on mine.

Let's say I'm a little wary about spending money on 3.

[Thad]

Motavia is bullshit.

[Disposable Ninja]

I tried getting into Phantasy Star IV earlier this year on the Sega Mega Collection, but stopped when I just couldn't make heads or tails of the abilities which all had exotic phantasy names and no descriptions.

[Brentai]

Don't you mean Mota?

PS1 was infamous for its kind of redonkulous goals.  I assume you've already visited the Naula Cake Shop.  Don't remember any dragon, but it seems like something that would happen.

PS4's Tech system is mostly undocumented but since the only Tech you really need is Res it shouldn't stop you from enjoying a pretty awesome game.

[Thad]

PS1 was infamous for its kind of redonkulous goals.  I assume you've already visited the Naula Cake Shop.

Yeah, I'm trying to remember whether I actually managed to work that one out without a walkthrough.

I DO remember an annoying bit where you can observe that there is a sewer there but can't actually go down into it until you talk to the right person.  It's full of shit like that.  In fact, I happened to meander on over to the translation thread and find that things are about to get much, much worse.

Don't remember any dragon, but it seems like something that would happen.

It's after you get the spaceship.  You have to fight a dragon on Motavia to get the key to a cave back on Palma, where you get the Iron Claws.

Seems like the kind of thing that would have been there in the original, though there's some chatter in that thread about the remake really overdoing it with linearity, so it could be that in the original it was a lot easier to do things out-of-sequence.

(Talking of nonlinearity, there's a dragon on Dezoris too but the game discourages you from doing that one first through the old 8-bit technique of making the enemies way the hell harder there.  You've got easy access to the Skure weapon shop, though, which makes the Casba one basically pointless.)

PS4's Tech system is mostly undocumented but since the only Tech you really need is Res it shouldn't stop you from enjoying a pretty awesome game.

Yeah, as I noted in the post, the biggest two benefits the PS2 remake has over the original are an (annoying but workable) automap system and documentation of what all the items and spells do.  (It DOES stop short, in most cases, of telling you whether a weapon is single, double, or group attack.  And the automap requires a consumable item and only works for 100 steps.  But still, workable.)

As for PS4, I remember working my way to the last boss and then getting stomped, and suspecting I'd missed some sidequests.  I bought the cartridge on eBay right before Sega started rereleasing it left and right.  I expect after I'm done with PGS1 I'll play through 2 (haven't decided on official Genesis version, Genesis fan translation, or wait for the PlayStation 2 fan translation) and 4 (haven't decided on cartridge, emulator on PC, or PlayStation 2 Genesis pack -- regrettably PS4 never got the Sega 3D Ages treatment like the first two did).

Brad spent most of high school repeatedly renting PS4 and worked out a bunch of advanced combos -- not sure if that was just through trial-and-error, or word-of-mouth, or he found a website somewhere.

Probably do Earthbound first, though.  I like to think of this as research -- getting a flavor for nontraditional 8- and 16-bit JRPG's, what they do right and what needs fixing, because some damn day I DO intend to make my own take on the genre.  PSG1's given me some good ideas on weapons (and Breath of Death 7 uses essentially the same system), and also some good ideas on what to avoid (big open areas with nothing in them; too many of the same kind of monster group; bullshit event triggers).  I've only played the beginning of Earthbound but I definitely think its encounter system's got the right idea; I'm sick to death of unavoidable random encounters, and while I think DQ9 managed a great twist on the formula I think that would be tricky to implement (especially if I wind up making a game where you can only move in four directions).

I really think Penny Arcade Adventures Ep 1 had some great ideas too, but the damn Linux binary is pretty much inoperable at this point and I can't find what I did with my Windows/Mac installation binaries and registration codes.

Which BTW brings us back around to Unforgivable Sins of Game Design: a game that fucking exits with an error if it can't initialize SOUND.

[Brentai]

You probably missed nothing in PS4, it just makes a final boss that is appropriately Really Fucking Powerful.  The way to beat him is basically "Hope you brought the goofy priest dude."

PS2 is kind of a lot more of what's annoying about PS1.  I think PSG2 might ratchet the outright player abuse down a bit though.

[François]

I could see how one might be underpowered if you skip Megid, don't get the Silver Tusk, and never go to Vahal Fort, which you're locked out of if you don't pick up the guild mission before the pit to swirly hell opens up.