VideoGame_Discussion

Here are the nine nominees for Febrary 2023's Game of the Month:

Nominees
Final Fantasy VI
Super Mario Galaxy
Wizards & Warriors
Sword of Sodan
Bomberman GB / Wario Blast
Mario vs. Donkey Kong series
Harvest Moon franchise
Pikmin 2
Chip's Challenge

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 February 2023 GOTM.

Also, by default, the 2023 Annual Franchise Challenge will be Donkey Kong. More details will be posted on February 1.

Here are my votes:

Final Fantasy VI - 5 Super Mario Galaxy - 4 Wizards & Warriors - 4 Sword of Sodan - 3 Bomberman GB / Wario Blast - 4 Mario vs. Donkey Kong series - 4 Harvest Moon franchise - 2 Pikmin 2 - 1 Chip's Challenge - 2

Vote!

Mario Galaxy 5
Final Fantasy VI 5

Final Fantasy VI 5
Super Mario Galaxy 0 - was picked (& I beat) for Frank's GotM not super long ago
Bomberman GB / Wario Blast 3
Mario vs. Donkey Kong series 3
Pikmin 2 5

Final Fantasy VI 5
Pikmin 2 5
Chip’s Challenge 5
Wario Blast 5
Mario Vs. DK 3
Harvest Moon 2

SupremeSarna wrote:

Excuse me, but this is a lie: "Little Caesars is better."

...I just can't keep quiet in the face of such egregious misinformation.

My votes:

Wizards & Warriors 5
Sword of Sodan 5
Final Fantasy VI 1

Renaissance2K wrote:

What exactly is an Annual Franchise Challenge? Can I eat it?

Play a game from the franchise at some point in 2023, and you'll get an icon next to your username. It was meant to be a way to get longer games on the docket that probably couldn't be finished in a month.

It was Lunar last year, and I was the only one who played a Lunar game. And when I asked for nominations, we just got Donkey Kong. Which is fine. Lots of games to choose from.

It's no more or less edible than Little Caesar's.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Fair enough. My other choice would've been Kirby, and that's even shorter. So DK is probably better for everyone. I've already beaten DK 64 last week, so that probably bags me the icon automatically. I'm definitely gonna play more, though--I bought DK: King of Swing and Jungle Climber on Wii U this week, I'm about ready for another DKC2 playthrough, and DKC GBC is currently booted up on my GBASP.

How about Metal Gear for the annual franchise? Not super long, but surely longer than DK.

Now that everyone's aware of this, does anybody have any other suggestions? We can do another vote.

Renaissance2K wrote:

I would nominate Monkey Island games, or if we want to have more variety it could be Lucas Arts point & click adventure games - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LucasArts_adventure_...

OR if we want to be even more broad we could say point and click adventure games in general since I feel like it is a not oft considered genre nowadays.

I'm still voting Donkey Kong for Annual. The games are hard enough to last players a while.

Last day to vote for the Game of the Month and nominate a franchise for the annual challenge.

In other news, I still really suck at Doom 64.

What are the votes currently?

FF6 is leading with 21, followed by Wario Blast with 12.

Funnily enough, I just beat Wario Blast over the weekend. If that one wins, do I have to replay it to get the icon? Or are past clears also counted?

I'll allow it.

Imma vote for

Harvest Moon - 5 (I really feel like these games are better for the year long challenge though I would prefer to vote for that)
Pikmin - 4

And imma nominate a bunch of series for game of the year (if that’s okay, if not just count my first nomination please)

Shining Force series (they just released Shining Force cd and Shining Force 2 on the mini Genesis 2. Shining Force 2 is awesome!)

Tony Hawk series (one of the reasons I like the idea of us playing series so much is we can play any modern game in the series also
And some of the more recent non retro THPS games are just awesome and easier to access for newbies to the series.
Tony Hawk games are just fun but they aren’t as easy as some people seem to think. They are worth. Mastering though)

Tenchu Stealth Assassins series (These games are really fun but they do have some glaring flaws in earlier entries. The dialogue in the background
is great and hilarious when you are sneaking up to kill your enemies. They have a ton of great levels that you can
Use almost any strategy you like to try to get through. And in some of the games you get graded on your level
performances.)

Fatal Frame series (These games are atmospheric, literally haunting, gorgeous and above all else creepy as fudge.
The gameplay is not the star here as much as the story and the ambience are. They are the main
draw and these games are almost unlike anything else you will play.)

I also wanted to nominate the Harvest Moon and Deception (Tecmo) series but I figure four is a lot anyways.
If it’s allowed then I would like to add them too, if not, it’s cool. Harvest Moon is not a good monthly choice since
These games can be infinite. You could add stipulations to “beating” these games like get to the end of year one
or year 3 or 5 depending on the game played but I would have nominated a Harvest Moon game years ago
if there was one (that I liked and am aware of) that didn’t just keep going on forever. I LOVE Harvest Moon.
Also, If we are only going to have one main series to play all year I figure we should have a lot more to vote for.

Doom 64 has gone back to Hell. In its wake lie the defeated occupants of the Retro Talkshop Thread, none of which were able to finish the game this month.

I made a semi-valiant attempt, but I got off to a late start, and the game's difficulty curve took some adjusting. I made it as far as Level 15 and will finish the game if it kills me. And it will. A disgusting number of times.

On that note, here's the tally for February's Game of the Month:

1. Final Fantasy VI - 21 points
2. Pikmin 2 - 15 points
3. Wario Blast - 12 points
4. Mario vs. Donkey Kong series - 10 points
5. Super Mario Galaxy - 9 points
5. Harvest Moon franchise - 9 points
7. Wizards & Warriors - 8 points
7. Sword of Sodan - 8 points
8. Chip's Challenge - 7 points

Final Fantasy VI - released as Final Fantasy III in North America - was originally released for the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo. The game's legacy as the last old-guard Final Fantasy game is massive, and it's still celebrated for its memorable characters, unique antagonist, and robust soundtrack.

Play it on
Super Nintendo
PlayStation (Final Fantasy Anthology)
Game Boy Advance (Final Fantasy VI Advance)
Wii Virtual Console
SNES Classic Mini
Android
iOS
PC

Play the Pixel Remaster on
Android
iOS
PC

Beat Final Fantasy VI or any of its re-releases to earn the Kefka badge. {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt}

Choose whatever path you want with no regrets, but your #BeatIt screenshots are always welcome.

---

With your marching orders distributed, let's vote on the 2023 Annual Franchise challenge. Here is the multitude of nominees:

Deception (Tecmo)
Donkey Kong
Fatal Frame
Harvest Moon
Metal Gear
Monkey Island
Shining Force
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tony Hawk

As with Game of the Month votes, please give every franchise for which you'd like to vote a score from 1-5. Not voting for a game is equivalent to a score of zero. On February 6, the franchise with the highest score will be our Annual Franchise Challenge. Beating any game from the franchise in 2023 will get you a permanent icon next to your name anywhere in the Retro Talkshop Thread.

Here are my votes:

Deception (Tecmo) - 2 Donkey Kong - 5 Fatal Frame - 2 Harvest Moon - 3 Metal Gear - 5 Monkey Island - 4 Shining Force - 4 Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 3 Tony Hawk - 4

Start voting!

Votes:
Donkey Kong - 3
Fatal Frame - 3
Metal Gear - 5
Monkey Island - 3
Shining Force - 3
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 3

Dang, that Kefka badge is sweet! But I won't be playing FFVI this month. I finally replayed it in 2019 after wanting to do so for many years. I can only re-visit long RPGs every so often. I do wonder how quickly I could speedrun it though...

Not going to lie... I'm pumped about this.

I haven't played FF6 since Final Fantasy Anthology came out. I read through the Boss Fight Books release for the game, and it got me itching for a replay.

I also didn't play any Final Fantasy last year, and I need my fix.

Yeah, I had been wanting to replay it for a long time. I think when I played it in 2019, it was the first time I had played it since my early teens, so around 20 years prior. The nostalgia was off the charts, and the game held up great. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I played the GBA version because I wanted to check out the bonus dungeon at the end, it was worth it.

Donkey Kong - 5
Harvest Moon - 3
Fatal Frame - 2

I’m still on level 15 of Doom 64 as well. But I too plan on finishing it no matter what.
The difficulty is due to quite a few things that I would almost consider to be design flaws.
The controls aren’t really helping as simple as they are. Things like needing to run
with these controls mean you are going to take a LOT of damage that will feel
impossible to avoid.

I doubt very much I will play this Final Fantasy game this month or any of them after,
But I have the SNES Mini classic and it’s still hooked up to my tv I believe,
So I may start it. If I can slog through some of the other games we have played
Maybe this won’t be as hard for me to stomach since at least it shouldn’t be difficult.
And hopefully not too monotonous?

How many days do we have to start voting for game of the year?
It’s a much harder decision for me to make than game of the month since
I want to figure out which games I have the most of or could easily get more of
and which games I would enjoy playing the most for a whole year.

Donkey Kong 3
Metal Gear 3
Monkey Island 5
Tony Hawk 3

Donkey Kong 3
Shining Force 5

BleedingViolet wrote:

Five. We'll do the tally on 2/6.

Sounds good thank you!

I got a couple more levels done on Doom 64 level 15 is annoying af
BUT level 16 is pretty cool and then level 17 ….. might take a minute for me.
They are both cooler than 15 though, at least they look better.
You may want to save throughout these levels though jussayin.

The N64 version doesn't let you save mid-level.

I was inches away from finishing 15, and then I got stuck on a corner and died to some fireballs. "That's enough video games for me today."

I'm curious what you guys will name your FF crew. So far I've got...

I like funny names.

Renaissance2K wrote:

Honestly I might start again after I beat it on the Xbox. I want to play the 64 version too.
Is there 4 different difficulty levels in that version too? I’ve been playing on the “normal”
difficulty. This game is so scattershot, some levels are amazing mixed with levels that are
literally just there to annoy you. I’m not sure why they would do that unless maybe
There were different people designing each one. Idk. What are your thoughts about the
levels and the designs of the enemies for this installment?

Oh and also I hadn’t actually saved on level 16 after it started the first time I was playing it ….. until after I had
almost beaten it and there is a really negative thing right at the end of it. You will be pissed but I don’t like
spoilers unless you really wanna know.

Yeah, there are four difficulty levels. I'm playing on the second easiest, which I think is equivalent to Normal. You can't change the difficulty mid-playthrough, or I probably wouldn't have done that by now.

I'm playing with a Brawler64 controller with the brightness turned all the way up. I don't know how anyone survived this with an OEM controller, or on stock brightness.

I like the enemy designs. I have an irrational appeal for the new Imps in this vs. vanilla Doom. The levels are all over the place because the devs tried really hard to differentiate the game from the original, for better or worse. I think they're fine... Not better than the original Doom, but fine.

I just need a reprieve. I fudging hate traps and "Gotcha!" triggers. It really sucks to limp through a level for 15 minutes just to die to a Baron of Hell that spawns point blank in front of the exit.

I feel ya, and yeah I’m not sure how they made it through this back then.
I did play through Final Doom on PS1 but it was way closer to Doom 1
Although it had a ton of new stuff too.

I’m not a huge fan of any of that spawning or gotcha bullcrap really but
it does give me some trepidation about playing like an idiot or ever feeling
invincible. They really wanted to slow the players roll with this type of pacing.
Every time you turn a corner something big might show up and kill you.
The main difference I feel like is that they give you way more firepower almost
Right away and then throughout the whole game.
I like the eyeball monster things (cacodemons?) much better now. They used to give me
the creeps, now I kinda like them. Overall I think this game is great despite
Some of the flaws I guess I just wish it were more consistent.
One level is wide open and fun almost kinda easy and the next is
a claustrophobic clusterfudge. I usually prefer the difficulty
Gradually bumping up. This game is all over the place.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I always keep the default names in video games.

In other news, Banjo-Kazooie is the game that made Nick Offerman swear off video games.

https://movieweb.com/nick-offerman-banjo-kazooie/

Deception (Tecmo) - 4
Donkey Kong - 2
Fatal Frame - 4
Harvest Moon - 5
Metal Gear - 1
Monkey Island - 3
Shining Force - 5
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 4
Tony Hawk - 5

Get your last votes in for the Annual Franchise Challenge!

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.

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

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

image

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.

image

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.

image

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.

image

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!

I continue to fail to line up what I am playing with the current month, but at least I knocked out another previous option: Castlevania II.

Foxhack wrote:

Can it actually wipe your data? That’s terrible!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Apparently


https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Sketch_bug

@Renaissance2K May I suggest a GOTM for April? It’ll become much harder to acquire when the eShop goes down in a few days (unless you emulate, anyway), so now would be a good time to say it.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Go for it.

April 17 is the 10th anniversary of the North American release of Pandora’s Tower . Y’all should really play this game—it’s like 12 3D Zelda dungeons with a gothic horror theme, a romance with a sweet young maiden, a booming soundtrack, weapon crafting, lore to uncover, and memorable fights against vast beasts. Highly, highly recommend!

Like I said, it’s on the Wii U eShop for a little while longer, has physical copies, and can (presumably) be emulated. It’s a steal at $20… for now.

I've never heard of Pandora's Tower, and it looks great, but I'm worried it won't get much traction. We've had three quiet months (though the issue with Final Fantasy VI seems to be less that people aren't playing it and more that it just takes so damn long).

What does everyone else think? At the very least, it's the first nominee for April.

I'm always happy to spread the good word of it. Just bringing it to people's attention makes me happy, so I hope users will consider it before the affordable eShop version disappears. I'm definitely playing it next month even if it doesn't get the vote.

I think we should just take nominations as usual. I doubt too many would play that, especially if it isn't on sale. I should have played it more when I had it though. Same with Last Story.

I just meant to nominate it early, since nominating it as soon as it leaves the eShop wouldn't be very effective. We'll vote as always.

We're in the last third of March, so let's look back on the badges we've earned:

Kommie {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/XBpdSHe.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/twpkmhK.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/hkrXRms.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/GxlNufM.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/ul5SL0O.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/opBFe5N.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z87bp7l.gif 76 76{imgt} SupremeSarna {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt} Yoshi {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/iKZyry3.png 79 75{imgt}

Many thanks to everyone who's working through the Retro Talkshop Thread backlog this month. Keep those playthroughs coming, and we'll keep stuffing your face with badges.

Let's start taking nominations for the April Game of the Month. SupremeSarna already started us off by nominating Pandora's Tower, which is about to disappear from the Wii U eShop forever. What else should we have in our lineup?

We'll start voting on March 26 and call the winner on April 1.

Let's hear some nominees!

I’ve been seeing Pandoras Tower being a valuable game on here for awhile.
I think even before the pandemic.
The idea the way you describe it sounds great though.
Other than buying a physical copy and making sure one of my wiis works
I have no real way to play it. It doesn’t use motion controls too does it?
Because fudge that. I can’t remember the last time I had one of the wiis
set up but the motion controls are not fun.

The rear box art says it supports the Classic Controller. You'll still need a Wiimote, but you won't need to use motion controls.

Excellent, thank you! Maybe it would be worth the purchase.

The game’s awesome, so definitely look into it! You won’t be sorry. The Classic Controller is supported, but I think the pointer function of the Wiimote and Nunchuk is pretty efficient, myself.

I beat Metroid Fusion for a previous month's badge. And I'll nominate Red Earth for next month.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

Doesn't look like we had a badge for that yet, so you're the first.

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/aeKEQL9.gif 66 72{imgt}

Wheeeeeee, look at 'er go.

Finally finished Virtua Fighter with Jacky. It was a pretty easy playthrough - he has some easy combos - but I got trounced by Dural on a whole other level than with other characters.

image

Case in point.

Sarah

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Nice! Was that Saturn or Astro City? Looks like the former.

Lunar wrote:

Yesterday's theme was "Things Not Going As Planned."

I booted up the Saturn port with the intent of doing a Dural playthrough. I quickly discovered that I'm not very good at doing the Dural code; probably a 1/10 success rate. When you fail, you enter a match as a normal character - usually Akira or Pai - and then have to suicide before you can make another attempt.

Even when I was successful, I'm still not good enough at the game to 1CC it (even with a secret character) so the whole process would repeat a few matches in. 45 minutes and 5 rounds later, I had to give up. I booted up Virtua Fighter Remix just to see if the code was a little more forgiving there, but I had the same result.

I started looking around for other options. Virtua Fighter 10th Anniversary has Dural implemented but not unlocked, if that makes any sense. Turns out there's a patch, however, which sent me down the rabbit hole of creating, patching, and serving a PS2 disc image. My office is a big mess of PS2 consoles and parts right now, so this was more of an ordeal than it needed to be, especially when OPL decided it didn't want to read from my network share anymore for absolutely no reason.

I did eventually get it up and running, though. Dural, as expected, is an absolute beast. It didn't take longer than a few minutes to smash Arcade Mode and get the credits to roll.

image

Back to Final Fantasy VI...

I don't usually have time to complete more than one dungeon a session, but I plowed through Triangle Island really quickly and decided to take a shot at the infamous Fanatics' Tower, which a lot of us have been discussing and lamenting in this thread. It's the last side quest I have left (other than maybe seeing Shadow's dreams) before the final dungeon, Terra had learned Ultima, and I'd kept Phoenix locked to one of my mages since obtaining it with the goal of learning Reraise to deal with the tower boss' "fudge you" end-of-battle attack.

Somebody else in this thread mentioned "abusing Ultima" and yeah, that's definitely the way to go. I fought two matches trying to align weaknesses, reflect statuses, etc. to cater attacks to who I was facing, but Ultima ignores barriers and has no elemental alignment, so it just wipes the screen clean when you use it once or twice. By the time I made it to the top of the tower, my other two characters had learned Ultima as well, and the fourth was Gogo, so I made quite the mess.

Tower boss appears. Battle starts. He starts flinging big spells at me, nearly all of which get thrown back in his face because of Reflect Rings. I start scrolling through my spell list looking for Reraise and... I can't find it. Hit X a few times to switch to my other mages, and... nope, they don't have it either. Did I seriously not learn Reraise? I could have sworn I saw the end-of-battle confirmation. Oh crap. Oh crap oh crap oh crap.

So, I start the long, long, long process of draining the boss of its MP so it can't flip the table at the end of the battle. I cast Berserk on the boss to keep it from blowing itself off and start casting Rasp like it's the free chips at a Mexican restaurant. I cast it non-stop for what feels like an eternity, use Libra to check the boss' status, and... I'm only about 1/5 of the way there. This is going to take a while.

I've now blown past the hour "soft cutoff" point for my gaming session, and I'm still Rasping like Harvey Fierstein's larynx. The boss is now down to about 1/5 of its total MP. His pitiful forced physical attacks have slowly worn down my poor heroes, especially Old Man Strago, so I open up his spell list looking for Drain to get some of his HP back.

And that's when I saw it.

Reraise.

It was sitting there the whole time. I just missed it.

gosh darnit.

Strago casts Reraise on himself. Terra, Celes, and Gogo find their itchy Ultima triggers again. The boss returns the favor. Strago pops back up, flips the boss the bird, the battle ends, and I go into the menu to cast Teleport and GTFO of this hellho-

Oh wait, Teleport doesn't work here. Right. Fudge. What time is it? Fudge again.

And I swear, every two floors I hit another random battle, and it's those weird ballerina monsters that require two casts of Ultima and counter with curative spells because why not.

By the time I reach the bottom and save, I look like the Titanic "It's been 84 years" old lady.

And that's what I get for thinking to myself "HEY, THIS WASN'T SO BAD" as I approached the top of the tower.

I'm in Kefka's Tower. A bad combination of levels means Gau is the last wolf boy standing, and he's using the Magic Urn rage. High defense, weak attacks, and big cure spells.

He's been going for about 12 minutes now, and 1/3 enemies are down.

I'm going to walk away and check in later.

Edit: Good boy, Gau. Good boy.

@Renaissance2K I had a moment like that in the Floating Continent. The boss wiped out my team and knocked Poroso (Mog) down to a tiny bit of HP. He was using dances, and his final move was a wind-based dance that did just enough damage to finish off the boss. I was shocked but grateful.

And that's all she wrote.

image

Shadow's segment of the ending always gets to me.

I’ll nominate

Stormlord

Available many places but I only ever played the Sega Genesis version.
It would also be the only version I could play currently. Since I don’t
Play games on old obsolete computers anymore.

I played emulated 32X version, I'll try to hook up Astro City before the months end.

Any other picks for next month? We'll start voting tomorrow.

Uhhhhhhh Golden Sun

Shadow Hearts

Lunar wrote:

Don't tempt me to replay it again! I might..... even though I did it last year.

I got VF beat - but totally blanked on grabbing a picture/screen-shot.
I beat it with Jacky and stunningly breezed through just about everyone (after looking up some moves to help me out) and even beat Dural 3-2. I also beat it with his sister Sarah, though she was a TON more difficult for me and I had to switch to Pai to beat herself. Akira wrecked my day as Sarah and I did try to beat him with Pai but that didn't happen. I eventually got him with Sarah and did okay against Dural but lost 3-1.

I beat it on my RaspPie4 playing the 32X port - that was interesting as a few times the game struggled and slowed down, and I paused it once to look up some of Jacky's moves on my phone and afterwards the camera was 'stuck' in this off-angle view that made fighting rather challenging. Even after losing it stayed there until I paused for a little while again and it corrected itself - strange. But the camera position had some issues, especially if I got knocked down and my opponent went for a high-jump ground slam but I rolled away in time, then the zoom-out and pan around caused some issues. Oh well, I had not beat a game for this thread in a few months, so it's good to get back into it.

VF2 is SUCH a better game than this, surely the Saturn's power helps, and maybe my brain doesn't accurately recall how they really were back in the late 90's on my Saturn, but owning them both I barely touched the first title but put a lot of hours into 2, with Lion as my go to and Shun my #2 choice.

I’ll nominate Dragonball Advance Adventure

Here are the six nominees for April 2023's Game of the Month:

Nominees
Pandora's Tower
Red Earth
Stormlord
Golden Sun
Shadow Hearts
Dragonball Advance Adventure

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 April 2023 GOTM.

Here are my votes:

Pandora's Tower - 3 Red Earth - 5 Stormlord - 4 Golden Sun - 3 Shadow Hearts - 3 Dragonball Advance Adventure - 4

Voat!

Pandora's Tower: 5

I would've considered Golden Sun: The Lost Age if that one specifically was chosen, but I beat the original last year and don't need to return to it now. As it stands, I'm going all in on the Tower.

Golden Sun - 5
Shadow Hearts - 4

Golden Sun 5

Shadow Hearts - 5
Golden Sun - 5

Red Earth 5

Another previous month knocked out: Maniac Mansion.

Yoshi wrote:

Looks like we already had an ancient badge for that one. OP should be updated.

Astro City is where it's at.

Lunar wrote:

I'm bummed I didn't get the matching controller, but not enough to pay the inflated prices now.

Random Final Fantasy VI goody: I have this posted next to my name card at work.

image

Yea I wish I did too. But a M30 works better anyways.

Renaissance2K wrote:

My Mayflash joystick works quite well on it

Pandora's Tower - 4
Red Earth - 4
Stormlord - 5
Golden Sun - 3
Shadow Hearts - 3
Dragonball - 1

Last day to vote for the April Game of the Month, or to beat Virtua Fighter while all the cool kids are doing it.

Virtua Fighter has run out of credits and is running home to steal quarters from its mom's purse. Here are all the badges we earned this month:

BloodPuppetX {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/aeKEQL9.gif 66 72{imgt} Kommie {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt} Lunar {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z87bp7l.gif 76 76{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/XBpdSHe.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/twpkmhK.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/hkrXRms.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/GxlNufM.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/ul5SL0O.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/opBFe5N.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z87bp7l.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/sOdzGYC.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/tZd8fkm.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt} Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/sOdzGYC.gif 76 76{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/z87bp7l.gif 76 76{imgt} SupremeSarna {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/wCPZEqH.gif 64 96{imgt} Yoshi {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/iKZyry3.png 79 75{imgt} {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/5yYUI1T.png 15 51{imgt}

A thousand thanks and a million high-fives to everyone who played Virtua Fighter this month, as well as everyone who caught up on past Games of the Month or dug into the backlog.

Hope y'all aren't sick of JRPGs because here's the tally for April's Game of the Month:

1. Golden Sun - 21 points
2. Shadow Hearts - 15 points
3. Red Earth - 14 points
4. Pandora's Tower - 12 points
5. Stormlord - 9 points
6. Dragonball Advance Adventure - 5 points

image

Golden Sun was published by Nintendo in 2001, shortly after the launch of the Game Boy Advance. Calling back to the best RPGs of the 16-bit era, it was at the time one of the largest RPGs to ever launch for a handheld. The game is remembered years later for its unique magic system which uses spells not just for battle but for navigating the world and solving puzzles.

Play it on
Game Boy Advance
Wii U (Virtual Console)

Beat Golden Sun to earn a badge: I actually don't know anything about Golden Sun yet, so I'll create a badge when I learn a bit more about how the game works.

When you're done shuffling Djinns, feel free to post a #BeatIt screenshot to celebrate your victory.

April Fools! What butt-hole nominated another JRPG? They should be forced to beat it.

It's also on the Switch GBA thing, I think?

Kommie wrote:

They announced it but it's not on the service yet. All of those Golden Sun games were pretty great. I won't be playing it, so I'll be looking to get a past game's badge again.

I think I have a copy of Golden Sun “maybe”.
I just have to find it and one of my gbas AND a Gba adapter.
I didn’t find my copy of Virtua Fighter until the 29th and had no idea where the
Stupid little cable I ordered for the 32x years ago was.
I don’t even remember what it
looks like.

Ooo I was actually just testing Golden Sun last night.

BleedingViolet wrote:
It looks like the a short Genesis 2 video cable with the same connector on both ends.

Wow. I played Golden Sun so long ago. Must have been around 2006 I think. Had a great time playing that and The Lost Age. Those creepy dragon siblings were something else. Very powerful. And the games had cool cutscenes for the special weapons. There was this sword called Megido that would summon a meteor.

I'm gonna start this once I beat RE4

In celebration of the GotM, I have a pretty nice CIB of Golden Sun for $100 shipped if anyone is interested.

Lunar wrote:

What pre oder items are included?

Kommie wrote:
There were pre orders for the original Golden Sun?

Started playing, kinda forgot about characters defending if you had them attack and the creature is already dead. This is sort of off set by the fact that before a battle starts, but not after a battle, your PP restores slightly.

I bought Golden Sun when it came out but the story didn't really engage me.. or maybe it was just circumstances at the time in life. Do people purport that it's generally an upper echelon RPG or does it get over-hyped because it was on GBA and got a lot of hype when it came out?

You know how Dracula is... He always comes back.

I started Circle of the Moon last October as part of our Castlevania month, but the credits didn't roll until tonight. I got somewhat cocky approaching the final boss after my character - bloated from all the EXP gained during item farming - strolled through the second half of the game and breezed through the Battle Arena. Dracula himself, however, actually took a few tries. Just a few, though...

image

We didn't have a Circle of the Moon badge last October, so I dusted off the template and made a new one.

{imgt}https://i.imgur.com/rRON6uJ.png 79 75{imgt}

I haven't made much progress in Golden Sun so far, but I just want to say that character sprites squirm too much. It's unsettling.

I've been wanting to replay the GBA/DS Castlevania games for a while now. I played through all of them around 2008-2009 and really enjoyed them, although I was pretty burnt out by the end. I'd like to play them again and space them out better this time. Everyone always seems to love Aria of Sorrow the most, but I remember enjoying Circle of the Moon most. Could be because it was the first one I played though.

I loved Circle of the Moon, pretty much everything about it except the card juggling. It must have been mind-blowing as a GBA launch title.

I beat CotM in '21 I think after owning it for a long time. The music was one of my favorite aspects.

I'm switching topics a lot, but oh well.

I'm finally on the last level of Doom 64. Emphasis on finally. The number of times I've died suddenly and horribly at the very end of these levels - like, when the "Exit" sign is visible - is seriously inexcusable. Since I was struggling with the regular levels, I didn't bother with the secret levels. It didn't sound like there was anything wacky like the Club Doom or Wolfenstein levels, so I didn't bother to seek them out, save for the last one when I started to get some semblance of a groove with the game.

Turns out that those secret levels are how you upgrade the Unmaker and - here's the kicker - they keep you from getting wrecked by a demon Black Friday doorbuster rush before the final boss can even spawn.

Oh boy. And I thought I was so close...

Edit:

Oh my God, it's over. It's over!

That’s awesome man I just wish I hadn’t read some of that before I realized “spoiler alerts”.
I guess I’m not looking forward to any of that harder stuff now. I haven’t played it in awhile since
I’ve had other stuff going on and this is one of those games I really wanna “be there” for.

It’s a pain for sure but other than douchey developers using unfair game tactics, the game
itself is kinda beautiful for a Doom game. And at times you really do get to feel invincible
which of course is part of the fun of the original Doom. I hope to jump back in on this game
Within the next month or so but I will also be playing lots of Shining Force soon too 😃

Anyways congratulations on finishing the game, but I gotta ask, did ya have fun?

Am I the only one playing Golden Sun right now?

I'll be joining you Kommie at some point. Am finally in the process of switching from a 11+ year old PC to a more recent one and that includes moving my emulation setup. I did own Golden Sun back in the day and recall playing it and liking it, but it was in college and I had more pressing gaming and overall things to do. I traded my cart way back in 2011 for RE5 on the and I've yet to even play that game, but that was clearly not the best trade by today's values.

I'm playing a better RPG that's REALLY expensive now.

Man, enemies are really stingy with coins if you're trying to stay up to date with a new town's equipment.

Not playing Golden Sun, but anyone who is can look forward to the Tolbi-bound Ship. That section and Tolbi afterward are the game's highlight. The tree section is also pretty memorable.

image

Wow, that was unexpected. Congrats, @Kommie.

so, after replaying this, Final Fantasy 6, and Shadow Hearts last year, I think I'm done replaying JRPGs. Even though it's been a long time since I played GS (and the others), it felt like I remember most of the story beats. However, I don't think I ever played The Lost Age. maybe I should just take a break from JRPGs for a bit.

Pulseman got a Switch release!

image

On Nintendo Switch Online, or some other collection?

Lunar wrote:

That’s awesome! Pulseman is one of the best 16 bit games ever!
I wouldn’t have even played it if weren’t for this group. 😃

Renaissance2K wrote:

The former. It was added to the Genesis app along with Flicky, Kid Chameleon and Street Fighter.

I could have sworn Pulseman was a GOTM at one point, but I don't see it in the list.

It was before we got all official with badges and stuff

We're running out of April, so let's look at the monthly leaderboard:

Kommie {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/NF3MqQj.gif 80 80{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/rRON6uJ.png 79 75{imgt} image

Keep saving the world with Isaac, and maybe we'll see some more of his badges through this month and the next. I'm very slooooooowly working my way through the game, but I've enjoyed what I've played so far.

Let's start taking nominations for the May Game of the Month. What retro classic should we add to our lineup?

We'll start voting on April 26 and call the winner on May 1.

Let's hear some nominees!

I nominate Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Wario World.

Rayman

For anyone about to play Golden Sun, you can change the names of all the characters by entering two separate cheat codes! I recommend doing that to make your journey more personal.

I played through GS last year without knowing that, but fortunately, you can still change the names in The Lost Age even if you link up the two games. I have a very funny idea whenever I get around to that game.

Zelda 2 and Rayman are great nominees I only wish they could both win.
Sometimes I wish we did have two games of the month so more people felt like participating.
I haven’t been playing these games like I should have either, my house and life are chaotic this year
so far.

I’ll nominate

Dragon Warrior 1

It’s on NES, Gameboy color and Switch I believe as well as a few other places.

Renaissance2K wrote:

It was! When the thread was a young buck, even I beat it. Went from meh to pretty good.

Three great nominations so far. Anybody else have a game they want to play next month?

I'll nominate Final Fantasy 3 (the original, not 6).

Perhaps I'm speaking for myself here, but we could probably stand to break from RPGs for a little while. But it all comes down to the votes, I suppose.

I'll nominate Wizard's and Warriors NES

SupremeSarna wrote:

I already took a break from them with the previous games lol.

I'm not voting or playing any Rpg if one wins.

I'm a big Final Fantasy nut, and I've been looking for an excuse to play through FF3 on PSP, but yeah, I'm experiencing a little JRPG fatigue myself. That said, we'll continue to let the votes decide instead of flat out saying "NO RPGS".

Here are the five nominees for May 2023's Game of the Month:

Nominees
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Wario World
Rayman
Final Fantasy III
Wizards & Warriors
Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest)

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 May 2023 GOTM.

Here are my votes:

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - 5 Wario World - 4 Rayman - 5 Final Fantasy III - 3 Wizards & Warriors - 3

Voight!

Zelda 5
Final Fantasy 5

Rayman 5

Wario World: 5
Zelda II: 5
I can’t play the other games without pirating them, which isn’t my speed.

Rayman 5

Wizards and Warriors 5
Rayman 3

Hey, everyone.

I totally missed this post from @BleedingViolet a few days ago.

BleedingViolet wrote:

I've added Dragon Warrior/Quest to the nomination list. If you've already voted and want to hand Dragon Warrior some points, feel free to do so.

I'll be giving it a vote of 3.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - 4
Dragon Warrior - 5
Rayman - 4

Last day for votes, and to prevent this thread from a other JRPG invasion, if you're against such a concept.

Golden Sun has set. Here are all the badges we earned this month:

Kommie {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/NF3MqQj.gif 80 80{imgt} Renaissance2K {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/rRON6uJ.png 79 75{imgt} image

Many thanks to everyone who picked up yet another epic RPG this month, even if you (like myself) didn't manage to finish. If you make your way through the game later on, feel free to share your triumph here and earn the Isaac badge.

Here's the tally for May's Game of the Month:

1. Rayman - 22 points
2. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - 18 points
3. Dragon Warrior/Quest - 13 points
4. Wario World - 9 points
5. Final Fantasy III - 8 points
6. Wizards & Warriors - 8 points

Rayman launched an empire of cartoonish platformers, became one of Ubisoft's first unofficial mascots, and spawned a race of parasites so vile, they even threatened the Mushroom Kingdom. The hand-drawn hero made up for a lack of a body with excellent animations, psychadelic level design, and an incredible amount of detail to distract you from some brutal platforming and bosses. Originally intended to be a Jaguar exclusive, the first Rayman adventure fell onto the scene in 1995 for the PlayStation, Saturn, and PC, eventually being ported to a variety of handhelds as the horsepower became available.

Play it on
Jaguar
PlayStation
Saturn
MS-DOS
Game Boy Color
DSiWare
psOne Classics
PlayStation Classic
3DS (Virtual Console)

Play Rayman Gold on
MS-DOS

Play Rayman Advance on
Game Boy Advance
Wii U (Virtual Console)

Beat Rayman or any of its ports to earn the Rayman badge: {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/77BtpHO.gif 89 66{imgt}

Please keep your arms and legs inside the non-corporeal torso at all times, and don't forget to share a #BeatIt screenshot, if you're so inclined.

Oooh I love Rayman, I don't think I've ever beaten it on PS1 but I think
I still have my PS1 copy somewhere and have only ever beaten it on the Jaguar.
That was the first time I ever played it or owned it but it was so good
especially back then that I had to beat it. There is also a
mini game that is available in the Jaguar and PC as well as the
“Mobile”? Versions. Its a really cool mini game.

Hopefully everyone has a chance to play this one, the graphics
are so good for the time and the stages are beautiful in this game.

I considered getting the DSiware version during the eShop closure, but I passed it up. Bummer.

I've already got my game suggestion(s) ready for next month, so I look forward to sharing them around the 20th.

I started the PlayStation version way back in the day, but I couldn't get past one of the music levels. I hear things only get tougher from there.

I'm going to start this up on Jaguar once I'm done with Crisis Core, which shouldn't be much longer.

I started the Saturn version last year while trying out ROMs so I'm interested in giving it more time.

The Jaguar version is great, mostly because there are no load times.
But also because of the mini game which is a fun distraction.
I dont remember the game being too hard but then again I was an old school
gamer when I played it. Now i barely struggle with anything.
I just dont play stuff as much either. I dont know if my current self
would play through the original tomb raider if i never played it before.
So maybe it is harder than i remember?

I know Golden Sun is last month's news, but the new Analogue Pocket firmware update makes the game look so much better. The two options before were "brown and muted" and "oversaturated." The new filter that imitates the original GBA finds a much better balance.

Time to start on Rayman!

Renaissance2K wrote:

If you ever get The Lost Age, remember to transfer your save file!

I think I underestimated how difficult Rayman was going to be.

- You have to essentially 100% the game to finish it.
- Each stage is multiple sub-levels, so if you're having trouble in sub-level 5/6, you're going to be replaying 1-4 quite a bit if you're trying to save lives.
- You have a limited number of continues.

Has anybody else picked this up yet?

Renaissance2K wrote:

I hate limited continues. I probably wouldn’t try a difficult game with that stipulation. If my nomination makes it for June, we’ll have a much easier time.

I beat Rayman on the PS1 a long time ago. Only played one or two other games in the series, and 1 is still the only one I finished.

I started this yesterday, was a bit annoyed that I had to redo level 1 after the fairy gave me the punch ability, like what? I only did levels 1-3 and didn't get all of the crates.
Do we need to collect all 6 of the crates in each level to beat it? If so, bah that will stink since you don't really get any indication as to where they are or how many are in a given section/sublevel.

Yes, you do have to collect all the 6 cage things on order to beat it. Had I known this, I may not have voted for it. Pretty sure there are cheat codes a plenty if you wanna cheese it.

Thanks @Kommie - I don't think I want to cheat via codes, but I might look for a walkthrough to help me know where the all the cages/crates are and what abilities I need to get them. The levels so far are short enough that I don't terribly mind replaying them once, prefer not to have to play them multiple times though.

This game definitely falls Into that old game design and see of the later levels are really annoying so far

Had no idea Rayman was released on Jaguar. I still have my Jaguar in storage. Would love to whip that out sometime soon.

Phew, this might take a while. I found a YouTube walkthrough that I've used to help find some of the cages and after my 3rd play session I've got 5/6 at 2 of the first 3 worlds, 1 at 6/6 and 2 more worlds at 3/6 - from a pinned comment on the video, it looks like there are 17 worlds with 6 cages each. I just got the grab upgrade after beating the mosquito a 2nd time.
Overall the game is decent, but it's not something you can breeze through.

For me having just found my ps1 Rayman yesterday and having to set up a little monitor
And the PS1 i think the biggest problem im having is load times.
I forgot how cool some of the ideas in this game were. And its still beautiful.
The controls are less responsive than i remember which is weird to say
since i played through it on the Jaguar. Maybe Its because I’m using a
“Performance Gamepad” that isnt made by Sony.

I’m only at a small percentage but thats okay I just started and have other things
on my mind that I’ve been working on. The game is great and different.
But I gotta say if you hate it so much don’t play it.
For me I really like prolly love it but again its been like 20 years since my last playthrough
and I’m a little more jaded about gaming. I may get all bogged down if i feel like
Its taking me more than an hour to playthrough the whole game 100% on hard mode.
Oh well at least i have the June game to look forward to.

A single level in isolation doesn't get all that frustrating. It's having to beat a chunk of them at a time and being afraid to lose lives because of the limited continues.

It's a gorgeous game, though. Once I got past that first band level, which is where I got stuck last time I attempted the game, I really started.to appreciate all the world building.

I think I'm going to give up on getting all the Electoons I can as I go and just work on completing levels until I have all my abilities. I'm going to need to run through almost all the levels again at the end, so there's no point in stressing about missing them.

Thats a great strategy actually. I think having everything available
all at once in any given game takes away from learning how to implement
each thing as you go along anyways. I’m mostly thinking of a game
like Hollow Knight when I say that though. But surprisingly enough that
is how this game works too.

I’ve only sat and played for maybe an hour each time and only have the first two abilities.
The world we live in now is far more demanding of our time than it was when this game
first came out though so it doesnt surprise me that its harder for people to get into it these days.

If my posts sounded like I wasn't enjoying the game, that wasn't intended. It certainly is from a different era and has different goals - you're meant to revisit all or most levels after earning more abilities and there's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but that tactic has largely gone away in modern titles, unless they're Metroidvanias and those generally are larger maps vs. individual levels. It is really great looking and unique. I've had digital copies of several later Rayman games and have been interested in playing them, so once I complete this I think I'll push a little towards playing the later titles as well.

Rayman is hard as hell. I tried to conquer it a couple of years ago but gave up when I realized you had to 100% the game in order to finish it. It is one of the most challenging games I've attempted.

I put another session in tonight and changed up my approach, didn't follow the YT walkthrough and just made progression, a few sections were tough, but I reached and beat the next boss, the stone dude - he was a little annoying as even though I got his pattern down, he evolved a bit and some attacks were still hard to dodge. Based on looking at some info about the game, the power I got after him seems to be the final one, so I went back and got all 6 cages now on the first 4 levels and I actually got all 6 on I think the stone-dude's one, so I feel like I made solid progress. I still have 4 levels that I need a few cages yet, as well as 2 that I've gained access to but haven't played yet. There's also several levels that I've not exposed yet either.

I largely enjoyed that session, especially since I made some good progress and didn't feel like I cheated by using the walkthrough so heavily.

Put a good bit of time into this today and man as a kid in the 90's I'm not sure how you'd know where some of the cages were or how to trigger them. I've completed all of the first 6 zones and got 6 cages per stage. My hands are sore from some of the platforming required. The saxophone and pirate bosses were relatively easy, but the washing machine lady can suck it.
It's been interesting watching the YT vid I found that's noted as being captured on the while I've been playing the port - there are several differences with enemy and blue orb placements, backgrounds of levels, and more - I do wonder if some of my differences could be from emulation, but I don't think too much is.
Been largely enjoying this, it's challenging but I'm mitigating some of that thanks to the YT video and save states. I've oscillated btwn 2 approaches of either playing out ahead of the YT video and have found a good number of the cages and such on my own; OR I'll jump ahead by 5 secs at a time on the video until I see them find a cage, checkpoint or exit the level - then I play and 'catch up' basically only having seen the general path forward and to know what to look for next. I'm sure it's still cheating to some and that's fine. I don't want to miss a cage and have to replay sections/levels if I don't have to. Looks like I've got 1 area and only a handful of levels left. Whomever recommended this, I'm glad they did.

I've done it, I've saved the world!
Game was fun but yeah without save states I could see myself getting frustrated with some things. The final few bosses were actually pretty easy once you saw their attack patterns and could react accordingly. The final area was pretty cool too with a few unique things mixed in. I all but abandoned my YT walkthrough in my final session and I got 5/6 cages before having to check against it. I didn't use it at all after that.
#beatIt picture upload:
image

image

I'm a little behind on OP updates and posts in general - I've been getting killed at work these past two weeks, and don't even have my PC plugged in - but I'll catch up this weekend.

Once I catch my breath, I'll start making progress in Rayman and Golden Sun again.

The last weeks of May are upon us. Before we start prepping for BBQs, let's look at who has led a pile of disconnected body parts to victory this month:

Kommie {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/77BtpHO.gif 89 66{imgt} Slickriven {imgt}https://i.imgur.com/77BtpHO.gif 89 66{imgt}

Many thanks to everyone who's taking a shot at Rayman this month. It's brutal, but it's also gorgeous and overflowing with personality, so give it a look if you haven't already.

Let's take some nominations for the June Game of the Month. Since the summer concert season is upon us, nominate some games with soundtracks you love. Be it an epic orchestral monster, some incredible chiptunes, or just the best damn licensed soundtrack ever, give us all something to pump out of our Bluetooth speakers.

We'll start voting on May 26 and call the winner on June 1.

Let's hear some nominees!

I nominate Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

I mean if we are talking about soundtracks then we have to have a nomination for Daytona USA

My second nomination is Kirby’s Epic Yarn. The piano there is too darn good to ignore. If I’m only allowed one, Epic Yarn it is.

SupremeSarna wrote:

We've been able to nominate more than one for a few months now. Go ahead.

I’d gleefully nominate LocoRoco also, if both 1 and 2 could count for it. I just finished 1, so I wouldn’t play that one again so soon.

June was supposed to be “amazing” but clearly we need more nominations
With good music.

I’ll nominate some stuff I’ve prolly nominated before like


GTA San Andreas (PS2, Xbox and many other rereleases)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (original Xbox)

Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 (playstation 1, Dreamcast other rereleases and remakes)



And one I may not have,


Wu Tang Shaolin Style (playstation 1)


Hopefully other people will also nominate more games with good music.
Nothing I nominated this month is easy or short. Great music though, mostly anyways.

PaRappa the Rapper

Kommie wrote:

I thought about that one too, but having never played it much I couldn't recommend it.

Plus I watched some music videos from Um Jammer and …. Well I didnt like that music.
I only hope they used better vocalists in PaRappa. Imma check some veedjos for it 🎵

Edit: I checked and the music is SO much better than Um Jammer 🎵😃

BleedingViolet wrote:

Was this the game that they turned Thrill Kill into?

Renaissance2K wrote:

Absolutely yes sir, but I’ve played both and Wu Tang is definitely its own game.
They added a ton of cool stuff to Wu Tang and the fighting within is way more fair
and complex. Every character has a ten hit combo at least and each character
has a lot of personality all their own. Method Man and or Old Dirty Bastard
are my favorites prolly but they are all worth playing with. Its alot of fun and
a pretty cool party type of game.

I had a copy of Thrill Kill on playstation classic mini. They used to sell these rom collections
that I wasn’t sure was legit or not but I bought the fighting pack mostly for that game.
I let a friend borrow it so now that I’m not friends with her anymore I won’t ever get it back.
But i did play through with at least one character and its not anywhere near as fleshed out
as Wu Tang Shaolin Style, they said Thrill Kill was basically a finished product but there’s
way more available content in the Wu Tang game. I been wanting to buy another copy anyways.
It’s nowhere near as violent as any of the recent Mortal Kombat games anyways so
the gore factor shouldnt be a problem for anyone. Definitely not too much for me.
Its a pretty cool game that I would recommend even if its not game of the month.
If even one person here checked it out and really liked it I would be happy 😃

I'm posting just to say that these eraser levels are harder than diamond-encrusted balls, knowing full well how brutal the next worlds will probably be.

This is like when you finally beat the dam level in TMNT on the NES, only to learn that everything that follows is a million times worse.

Yeah I’m currently goofing around in those levels too.

I don't know if I’ll finish it this month but im still trying. Im only at like just over
50 percent but I got some rotten news today so I have been playing like trash
ever since then. I can’t concentrate at all.

BleedingViolet wrote:

I’m sorry to hear that. Stay strong, sir!

Renaissance2K wrote:

It kind of annoys me that the dam level has sort of become the epitome of the "hard retro level". Whenever I see people mention it as one of the hardest levels ever, I'm just thinking "you never beat that one, huh?"

what system is everyone playing Rayman on?

I just got in Saturn version but it's a bit too late into the month, I'll try to beat it another time.

I beat the Saturn version, @lunar and watched a guy playing the PS1 version to help me in some places, they are a little different. I thought the Saturn version, emulated, was decent.

I'm playing the Jaguar version. I'm trying to use a PlayStation walkthrough with it, but there are enough differences between the two that it's not always helpful.

I've heard feedback that that PS1/Saturn versions have better controls, but the Jaguar version seems to control fine. The only time I ran into issue is on that level that opens with the room where you can't stop bouncing. Got some serious d-pad cramps from that place.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Well they killed my cat so idk if strength of any kind will cut it but thank you for saying that!

As far as Rayman goes im not using guides but I am watching videos of stuff after the fact.
Im playing it on Playstation 1 but the graphics from Jaguar videos look more fluid.
Maybe my PS1 is just old …. And sad and tired. Like me 😉

BleedingViolet wrote:

That truly is difficult to hear. I was in the same position no too long ago, so I can empathize with the pain. All you can do now is honor your feline’s life and remember the good times. May your sorrow pass swiftly.

Thank you 🐱

@BleedingViolet I'm really sorry to hear that. I'm sure you gave them a wonderful life and hope you find comfort in the memories.

People give pet grievers such a hard time because "it's just a cat" but I never understood why you have to shut your life down when you lose some distant aunt you haven't spoken to since the Bush administration, but losing the soul who sleeps in your bed, who keeps you company every day, and who takes you as you are is just a clerical note.

/end non-gaming rant

I feel the same way about our little friends, they are people too just shaped a little differently.
I think its the way our society and most societies worldwide are based on things like money
and power. They are literally our family members except that we choose each other.
I know he's at least not suffering anymore but that barely helps since I’ll never
get to say goodbye now.

I tried to play some more Rayman but im still stuck on the first Pencil level.
I’m sure I will get it done again eventually but there isn’t much time this month.
Unless i start using guides or whatever. Maybe I’ll spend more time on it this week.

Losing a pet stinks, especially in how you defined it; I'm sorry for your loss. About 18 months ago my wife was doing just about everything she could to keep her cat going but his time was ending. We both got covid and the cat needed a lot of assistance and her mom eventually came and the three of them went to the vet... and put him down. I wasn't expecting that and was shocked that he didn't come home with them. It really sucked for my wife and even me. He was a special cat, very affectionate. Life hasn't been the same since, so I sympathize fully with you BleedingViolet since I didn't get my goodbyes in either.

Made it through the last unlocked world in Rayman with 75% of pickups. Time to go back and do clean-up. Oy.

Last day to nominate a game with a banger soundtrack. We have quite a few nominees so far, but I'd be happy to see some more.