VideoGame_Discussion

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.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

I didn’t even know that, that’s a weird coincidence though lol.

Happy Birthday Sir 🎂

Not everyone uses that GotM thread though

BloodPuppetX wrote:

Kommie wrote:

This. And hey, two badges for the price of one.

If that's a wet blanket, we have 60+ games in our RTT GOTM library now. There's got to be something there worth revisiting, and you'll still get a badge for it.

Prime still has to win, too. There's more than a day left to vote, and it's not the blowout like FFVI was last month.

Let’s have s’more votes! Not too many people have voted publicly.

Just got to the Floating Continent.... Hate this place.

Kommie wrote:
Preeeach. And apparently Shadow’s fate later on depends on your actions when you’re frantically trying to escape. How annoying!

I'm really hoping that Omega-Gau has some Rage up his butt that makes it easy this time around, but who knows.

And yes, please vote moar!!

BleedingViolet wrote:

Thank you

SupremeSarna wrote:

That was so weird when I first played it. Left him behind and then learned from a magazine that you were supposed to wait. I started the whole game over because he was my favorite character.

Since Prime is on Frank's and I participate there, here's my votes:
Pikmin 2 - 4
Metroid Prime - 1
Star Fox - 5
Adventures of Lolo 2 - 2
Virtua Fighter - 5

Oh crap, the ol' poison arrow.

The pace in Final Fantasy is really slow for a Game of the Month,
I am glad we’re allowed to get past badges now. I started it
and grinded some levels but haven’t done much. It’s okay so far.
I get why everyone would have liked it when we were younger but
it’s harder for me to get into now. I do still vastly prefer the speed
of games like Dragon Warrior (or Dragon Quest) and I also much prefer
the fight screens in Dragon Warrior and the Shining Force games.
That being said this game is more enjoyable than I expected and
even though the pace is too slow for me, at least there are no
giant swords yet (at least that I’ve noticed).

Aesthetics are unfortunately important to me and if I don’t like
the art or if it takes something away from the game it’s going to
keep me from liking all the things that ARE good within a game.
Obviously art and visuals are personal preference so they can
make a more mundane game better or worse for me. None of this
ruins this game for me though but because of it I will be slowly playing
it here and there. And again I’m glad we have that option.

Doom 64 on the other hand I really need to get back into.
It’s a great game with really nice graphics but it’s hard to
Play a level for a half hour only to lose it right at the end because
“surprise! They killed you without warning”. That’s effed up.
It’s hard to just wanna start the level over when you were really
careful and playing smart for things to fall apart like that.

Final Fantasy VI has returned to the Esper World and sealed off the entrance. Here are all the badges we earned this month:

BloodPuppetX image

Many thanks to everyone who played this month, especially those who still have pending playthroughs going, and BloodPuppetX for single-handedly preventing February from being another goose egg.

Final Fantasy VI is one of the longest Games of the Month we've ever had; certainly the longest in my tenture. I'm rapidly approaching the Floating Continent and have just crossed the twenty hour mark but still have a ways to go. Keep on truckin', everyone.

For those of us that need a break from saving the world, here's the tally for March's Game of the Month:

1. Virtua Fighter - 17 points
2. Pikmin 2 - 15 points
3. Star Fox - 14 points
4. Metroid Prime - 13 points
5. Adventures of Lolo 2 - 10 points

Virtua Fighter released in arcades in 1993 and is widely-considered the first 3D fighting game ever. Its character designs and fighting mechanics have gone on to inspire numerous other fighting games that followed. Sega developed home ports of the game for its Saturn and 32X consoles, and followed up with a Virtua Fighter Remix re-release that improved the graphics.

Play it on
Arcade
Saturn
32X
Astro City Mini

Play Virtua Fighter Remix on
Arcade
Saturn
Windows

Play Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary on
PlayStation 2 (included with Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution)

Beat Virtua Fighter or any of its re-released to earn a badge for the character you used, like the one below: {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/c1k4291.gif 114 128{imgt}

On your trek through fighting game history, don't forget to post #BeatIt screenshots here to celebrate your victories.

Ooo, finally an excuse to dust off that Astro City Mini

Can we talk about the Cultists’ Tower for a second? I find it positively maddening. Some of the most basic enemies are practically untouchable due to their reflect status, and they take so many attacks between yours. The ones that really burn me don’t even attack—they only appear if someone on your team has a reflect status up, and they’ll rapidly bounce healing spells off him/her to shrug off all your damage. My best strategy is to A) take off the Wall Ring as soon as I reach floor 3, or B) berserk everyone and then play a different game while the enemies use up all 2000 MP. And there are even two bosses afterward! This place is competing with the Floating Continent for least likeable FF6 area.

I just got to The World of Ruin. Went back and leveled up a bit and the Floating Continent wasn't that bad after.

I always save the Cultist Tower for last (excluding the final dungeon), then I just steamroll everything.

SupremeSarna wrote:

This is the area I remember hating from my previous playthroughs. That music, too... Ugh.

Is the Cultist Tower mandatory? I already recovered the old guy and beat the dragon, just haven't scaled it.

SupremeSarna wrote:

From what I understand, everything after you get the airship back after It happens is optional, but you're going to have a hard time with the final dungeon and boss with your party in such a state.

Renaissance2K wrote:

This is correct. You definitely want to do most of the world of ruin sidequests. You technically could skip the tower, but you'll miss out on some things. Some good treasures (a strong piece of armor, and a powerful relic specifically), but you'll also miss

So is the original VF the only title in play for this month? I was thinking maybe 2 would also count or even the majority of the series. IIRC there isn't a story mode in the original, nor 2 actually. I got both titles packed into my Saturn (thanks MTV promotion!) when I got it for Christmas of '96, both are good but I put a ton more time into VF2 and played as Leon.
So we just need to run the arcade version? Would you consider opening up the badge to the whole series? I've been thinking of playing 4, 4evo or 5 recently.

You can play the original arcade version (which MAME oddly doesn't support) or any of the ports or re-releases. It's three different titles (Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter Remix, and Virtua Fighter: 10th Anniversary) across five platforms (arcade, Saturn, 32X, PC, and PS2). You'll get a badge for each character with which you beat it.

Broke my GOTM dry spell and finished the arcade release of Virtua Fighter on my Astro City Mini. I used Akira.

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I knew that I was going to have a hard time with this. I've barely played any Virtua Fighter, and the one time I did, I got my butt handed to me on the third stage. I'm still not quite sure how I made it through this time, other than dumb luck. Like getting two consecutive simultaneous ring outs against Lau that the game somehow decided to hand to me.

The final boss is optional, I guess. I fought her/it once and lost handily, then tried again and won, but I didn't get a different ending or anything. Maybe in the console version.

Speaking of, I'm going to play the Saturn version next. Or maybe the Windows 95 version, if I can get that working on my retro PC.

Also, the arcade character portraits are cleaner, so I'm going to remake the Akira badge using arcade assets before I give it to myself.

Changed my mind. I beat it on the 32X next using Pai.

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I still can't believe there's a 32X core for the MiSTer.

Almost done with FF6. Totally cheesed the Cultist Tower with Gog/no random battles and nuking everything with Ultima.

I’m using the Genji Glove-Offering strategy to obliterate my enemies. Doesn’t work in the Cultist Tower, though.

And hey, I even got to rename the king of Figaro. Xives wasn’t working for me, so his new name is Trige. Had Shadow (named Icqong) survived into the World of Ruin, I’d give him the name Xives.

Some combination of swords with Genji + Offering killed the final boss with one command in one of my playthroughs. It's a beast of a combo from FF5 onward.

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Nice job, @Kommie. You've got your badge.

I just finished the Saturn version of Virtua Fighter with Lau. I definitely prefer playing this game with the Saturn controller over the other options.

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Beat Virtua Fighter PC with Wolf. Got a lot of ring outs with him this playthrough because of all his thrust moves. Aooooooo!

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Man, Akira wrecked me. I spent more time on him than I did on the rest of the game. His elbow jab counters are so frustrating.

Another day, another character, another release. I beat Virtua Fighter Remix on Saturn with Jeffry, who is in dire need of a shave and a vowel.

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Dare I say, as much of a Tekken-head as I am, this version of the game looks way better than the original Tekken did, especially the PlayStation port.

I can't figure out how to emulate the native arcade version of Virtua Fighter Remix, so my last platform is the 10th Anniversary release on PS2. Let's see if I have time to play through that one tomorrow.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Jeffry McWilde just doesn't look right though

After 52 hours and almost a month and a half, I finally finished Final Fantasy VI. #BeatIt
I will now share my thoughts using the funny names I made up for my party members.

I can't really decide if I like the first half or the second half of the game better. Linear games don't bother me, so I appreciate the character development and slow burn of the early game. On the other hand, jumping from one big setpiece quest to another - with most having a big reward at the end - is fun, but does make things feel a little rushed and disorganized.

In any case, congratulations, thanks for sticking it out. Kefka is now giggling next to your name on the leaderboard.

On the Virtua Fighter front, I've exhausted my options and finally played Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary on the PS2 with Kage.

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Much easier than the original games because of the larger moveset. Well, except for Dural. She didn't really give me a chance and just pounded me into oblivion.

I need to catch up on badges and figure out which platform I'll use for the last few characters.

I went back to Virtua Fighter PC to see if I could get a higher quality capture through DVI (and yes, I did) and finish the game with Sarah.

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This time, Pai was the bottleneck. I managed to stave off Akira's charging elbow enough so that he only kicked my ass a reasonable number of times.

All the character badges except for Dural are ready to go and in the OP.

I'm still plugging away at Final Fantasy VI. I've heard a lot about this game's bugs and crashes over the years, but I never managed to make it crash myself until tonight in the Cave of the Veldt. Instead of the boss' second form appearing on schedule, it was just a blank sprite, like I had cast Vanish on it. Once I hit it with a spell, the whole screen went black, and I had to restart.

I still need to do my last runs of Virtua Fighter with Jacky and Dural, too.

I recall trying out Relm’s Sketch skill, only to have all my party members vanish, then the enemies vanished, and my button inputs wouldn’t register. I never tried Sketch again after that.

I was playing Doom 64 yesterday and got a cool 100 point achievement for killing a CyberDemon.
Only at level 18 but I hadn’t played it since the beginning of February. Already stuck again since
it seems like I’m missing some weird secret or trigger. Lol @ the designers for these types of
shenanigans.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Sketch was always a Russian Roulette move. Will it affect the enemies? Will it affect you? Will it wipe your save? Good luck!