VideoGame_Discussion

Metal Gear 5
Shining Force 5

The votes are in. Here is the tally for the 2023 Annual Franchise Challenge:

1. Shining Force - 22 points
2. Donkey Kong - 21 points
3. Metal Gear - 19 points
4. Monkey Island - 15 points
5. Tony Hawk - 12 points
6. Fatal Frame - 11 points
6. Harvest Moon - 11 points
8. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 10 points
9. Deception (Tecmo) - 6 points

Shining is a Sega role-playing game franchise that originated back in 1991 on the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive. Over the years, the games have adopted different modalities and mechanics - including turn-based RPG, strategy, and dungeon crawler - though many games share common character threads and a fantasy aesthetic. Most Shining games take an average of about 20 hours to complete, with later generation titles being longer and portable titles being shorter.

Suggested Games
Shining in the Darkness
Shining Force
Shining Force II
Shining Force CD
Shining Force III
Shining Wisdom
Shining the Holy Ark
Shining Force Gaiden
Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya
Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon
Shining Soul
Shining Soul II
Shining Force Neo
Shining Force Exa
Shining Tears
Shining Wind

Beat any game in the Shining franchise in 2023 to earn the {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/lh1uA37.gif 15 18{imgt} Max icon which will appear to your username everywhere in the Retro Talkshop Thread.

Having not grown up with Sega or Genesis, I've never played a Shining Force game before though they're mentioned everywhere in retro circles. I'm looking forward to trying one out.

Wasn't expecting that to win. I'll use the opportunity to finally play Shining in the Darkness. Might try to beat the DKC games still, since I haven't done that yet.

BloodPuppetX wrote:
I’m currently trying to beat them with one hand! Already got the third game finished.

I am a tiny bit familiar with the series from my Saturn days and am not a huge RPG fan generally, so taking a shot could be fun. Looks like the shortest 3 could be the 2x Souls titles on the or Wisdom on the with Final Conflict on the not being much longer.

If you're not looking to emulate, the original title is on the mini.

I'm likely either going to play Shining in the Darkness because it's the first in the series, or one of the Gaiden games so I can play it on a portable.

Back to FF6...

There's a lot more information on the game now than there was 20 years ago, and it means I'm actually using Gau regularly for the early parts of the game. He's a freakin' powerhouse.

Renaissance2K wrote:

2 words from me- Stray Cat. I make sure I have this rage before I leave the Veldt.

*pokes internet* Glad to see it mostly agrees with me, too.

dunno001 wrote:

D'oh. I've had this one for a while but never used it. Just spent two hours learning the Rages from the Serpent Trench, too. Oy.

Back 25+ years ago, I spent a few hours learning and experimenting with rages. Sure, I had the strategy guide, but all it tells me is the name of the specials from the rages. (This IS useful for Gau to teach Strago…)

That said, I wasn't without my mistakes. This one time…

And in the fanatics' tower…

Starting FF6. Playing on the Ayaneo.

Mr. Thou! Mr. Thou!

image

Any tips on things to not skip or miss out on? I'm gonna start it up soon. I know some characters are missable like Shadow and Gau and remember nothing on how to get them.

Gau is not missable. His abilities come from monsters, and some of those monsters are missable, but the character itself is part of the main plot.

Shadow's behavior and ties to the plot are really complicated, so you may want to find a guide that lays it out plainly for you.

There are a handful of optional characters of varying functionality, but they're all in the second half of the game and are skippable, but not missable. Pretty sure you can just go to their hiding spot at any point after them becoming available and have them jump aboard.

Just got Gau. I will eventually beat this but probably not this month.

Same, I don't think I can finish it in the two weeks we got left.

I just learned the main woman’s backstory, and now I’m told to attack the Empire in the east. Where specifically should I go?

Scratch that, I have to spend time in Narshe.

I'm about to hit the Opera House, and I won't be able to play until next Monday most likely, so I'm also not going to finish it this month, but I'm going to stick with it. Really enjoying myself.

Renaissance2K wrote:

That octopus is bad news.

Meh, he's just misunderstood.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Well, the little girl (Sejess in my file) just made him self-conscious. This is going in a weird direction.

SupremeSarna wrote:

In response to your spoiler:

And what may actually be spoilery:

@dunno001 Thanks for the tip! I’m glad to know a bit more about what I’m up against. I’ll keep at it.

In other news, I’m the first person to give a +1 to this thread. You’re welcome, @Renaissance2K .

I think the votes get reset every time the thread is archived, but your enthusiasm is appreciated regardless.

Following up on my previous update... Dang, a single section in an RPG hasn't infuriated me this much in years. I'm serious, the Floating Continent is up there with Persona 5's last room as one of the most aggravating portions of a quest I've ever played. It just feels like the game is bullying you every step of the way.
Want to proceed? Heh, it's a maze.
Tired of fighting enemies? Heh, the Ninjas can't be escaped, and the Brainpans freeze you in place at their earliest opportunity, making it a slog to flee.
Want that one chest at the start? Heh, it's the first Monster-in-a-Box I've seen this whole game.
Liked your party? Heh, you're stuck with three characters and Shadow, who has been in and out of the group so much that he's underleveled with worse gear.
Want to switch members or buy items? Heh, you've gotta navigate the whole maze before bailing out, which forces you to restart from the beginning.
Want to save before the boss? Go for it, but the save point is pretty far from him, and the enemies won't let up.
Ready for a good boss? Loooool, he hits the whole party like a freight train and casts countdown-KO effects. And no, there's no save point afterward! Better backtrack, heh.
You like cutscenes, yeah? Hope you love 'em, because given what happens next, you're gonna see the same long one multiple times with no option to skip it!
Remember that countdown at the operahouse? The one where you had to fight common enemies quickly or dodge them under threat of failure? How about a ticking timer as you battle brand-new enemies that do their best to freeze or silence you? With a timed boss at the end, of course. Run out of time and it's a game over.

I was greatly enjoying FFVI up to this point, but holy frickin' fricks, this one area was an ordeal and a half. I eventually caved and looked up the Naughty weaknesses. The Thunder Blade was equipped by a non-present party member (Locke), so I had to leave to get him, then restart the continent. It's one of those RPG dungeons I won't forgive or forget, and will have serious influence on any plans I make to replay the game. Hope it gets better from here.

[imgt w=750 h=920]https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.758602492.4888/fla...[/imgt]
I think Terra here sums it up.

SupremeSarna wrote:

In all honesty, that dungeon is my least favorite part of the game, though I never really had problems with the section after the cut scene. (I do spend quite a bit of time running from most enemies in the first half. There are still some maze-type dungeons in the second half of the game, but the enemies aren't nearly as brutal. I'll mention a few things I found helped me in the game-

I remember the Floating Continent kicking my butt on my first playthrough when I was a kid. I think it's a rite of passage.

I remember a few bosses from the Floating Continent consistently giving me trouble on my playthroughs. We'll see if my new strategies change that at all when the time comes. I still have quite a few areas to go before I make it there.

We're approaching the month's final lap. There are no badges earned yet for Final Fantasy VI, which is to be expected given the game's length. That hasn't stopped sandy-booted Kefka from laughing at us, though.

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt}
fwaaa waa waa waa wop wop

Let's keep discussing our progress, and feel free to share if you've earned badges for any past monthly games so we can deck out the trophy case a little.

I briefly considered delaying the March GOTM since there are a few pending playthroughs being tracked, but that isn't really fair to the people that sat February out. With that in mind, let's start taking nominations for the March Game of the Month.

We'll start voting on February 25 and call the winners on March 1.

I’m going to try again with a nomination I made last month: Pikmin 2. Since we now have a firm release date on the long-awaited Pikmin 4, folks might want to revisit the series. 2 drops the stressful time limit from the first game, making it a good starting point.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I beat Super Mario Land 2 a couple of weeks ago.

I'll nominate Metroid Prime for next month. Just hope those physical copies for Remastered start showing up in stock at retailers again tomorrow.

I don't often put nominations in the pool unless it's a quiet month, but since it's the 30th anniversary, I want to nominate the original Star Fox. I'm pretty sure it's not the first time it's been nominated, but there's any time it deserves its due, it's probably now.

DO A BARREL ROLL!

Can I nominate all the kung fu movies I've been buyin? Lol, j/k. I'd buy and play metroid if I could get my hands on the physical.

One more day to nominate games for March before we vote!

I’ll nominate

Adventures of Lolo 2

NES and hopefully there are other ways and places to play this.

We submitted four nominees for March 2023's Game of the Month. To round out the list and add a non-Nintendo option, I added a fifth game from Sega that also celebrates its 30-year anniversary next month.

Here's the full list:

Nominees
Pikmin 2
Metroid Prime
Star Fox
Adventures of Lolo 2
Virtua Fighter

Either publicly in this thread or privately in a PM to me, give each nominee 0-5 points. Omitting a nominee is equivalent to giving it a vote of 0. The game with the highest score by the end of the month will be the March 2023 GOTM.

Here are my votes:

Pikmin 2 - 1 Metroid Prime - 4 Star Fox - 5 Adventures of Lolo 2 - 3 Virtua Fighter - 4

Come forth and vote!

Pikmin 2 - 5
Metroid Prime - 2

Virtua Fighter- 5

Would give me an excuse to plug in the Astro City mini and also wouldn't take too long

Prime - 5

Pikmin 2 - 5
Metroid Prime - 1
Star Fox - 4
Adventures of Lolo 2 - 5
Virtua Fighter - 3

I’m sure Metroid will win anyways but I’m down to
play everything else as long as I can get a copy
of them somehow. I may have a way to play 3 of these
games already and I always wanted to play Pikmin
so I might buy it if it does win 😃 this is a good list of games!

Metroid Prime is GotM in Frank's thread next month. I guess just go with the runner-up if that gets the most votes then.