Posts made by HappyGaming

Mega Man X6

Mega Man X6 is a frustrating game. On its surface, there are a lot of cool pieces here; an RPG upgrading system taken from X5 that’s better explained, rotating optional boss fights taken from X2 that encourage you to replay stages or try new ones, among other things. A lot of these however are surrounded by, and forced through ideas that cause nothing but irritation, and as much as I adore the series, I haven’t ever been as upset at an entry in the series like I have with X6. I want to love the game, and there are parts that shine that I adore. But there’s so much that one has to wade through to get to those bits and appreciate the highs, it makes the lows all the more apparent.

I should mention that X6 was done in less than a year. It was made to be done for a Holiday release after the success of X4 that had close to two years, and X5 which had a little more than three. X6 was done with X5’s engine in 364 days without the help of series creator Keiji Inafune. The crunch and personal absence are definitely felt.
Starting with the things that the game carries over from X5, there are different armor sets to collect and change around as you see fit. You’ll begin the game with the Falcon armor, but over the course of the game you can collect two more (and Zero) to run through levels with. The game also carries over rescuing fellow Hunters in the levels, and depending on who you save, you’ll unlock upgrades to attach to yourself. These could be anything from a faster charge for your weapon, to an increase in your dash or movement speed. These are cool ideas to put together. However, they are both flawed in their execution.

The armor pieces are now, more or less, in extremely conniving places. So if you plan on getting them, and you should because certain levels are next to impossible without one or the other, you’re going to go through a lot of trial, error, and cheap deaths. The upgrades aren’t handled like they were in X5 as well, where each suit can hold a certain number of upgrade slots. Now it’s tied to your Hunter Rank, which brings me to another downer for the game; the enemies.

There are like ten enemy types in this game, and each level is largely populated 95% with one: the Nightmare Virus. These are special octopus looking enemies that when killed, drop an orb that you need to pick up to increase your Hunter rank so that you can equip upgrades onto your character of choice. Killing other enemies has no effect on improving your rank. This also means that because the majority of the enemies are now the Nightmare Virus, health and weapon pickups are extremely slim because these enemies only drop the orb needed to upgrade your rank. It feels lazy and tiresome. Some pickups like armor capsules, heart containers and sub tanks are all largely and frustratingly out of reach unless you’re able to equip one or two of the Hunter upgrades. But those upgrades can also just become permanently inaccessible if Nightmare Viruses kill the Hunters you’re trying to rescue, making the game more difficult as a result. So if you want to upgrade your character, you’re probably going to be replaying certain levels. A lot. You can’t even equip upgrades until you’ve improved your rank a little.

Upgrades aside, I feel like the levels in X6 are okay. On paper they have interesting quirks that make each of them unique. One has you avoiding a giant robot’s lasers, while another has you defeating a giant circle enemy six times throughout the stage. These feel less like interesting ideas though and more the biproduct of not having as many enemies to defeat. They cause more frustration than excitement. One level in particular has a ceiling lowering on you while you’re trying to move through a backwards conveyer belt while also trying to avoid spikes. This was just not fun, and like fighting that circle enemy six times, was infuriating for me. If you’re able to get around those, the stages also have optional second parts where there will be a hidden boss at the end. This is the key to getting Zero as a playable character, and defeating the boss High Max will also let you start the final boss stages early. I generally really like the bosses floating to new areas, but felt like sometimes I was forced to fight an impossible boss with my current ability set, and had to die a full set of lives to try a new stage.

So what’s good about X6? I feel like I’ve been very harsh on it up to this point, and I don’t entirely hate the game. If you’re able to upgrade enough and get the necessary armor pieces, blasting through levels is still fun in that Mega Man way. The Blade armor in particular made me feel like a Dragon Ball character with the way the air dash works, and that was very fun to use. The music in the game also has some of the most metal standout tracks in the series, however not all of them are as memorable. Blaze Heatnix though and Infinity Majinion are incredible tracks that are just what I want from Mega Man, and that level select song showcasing the bosses with its searing guitar gets me pumped every time. Beyond those things though and a few clever and fun level ideas, the game is overshadowed by bad ideas that take the whole experience down. The last set of levels is just an exercise in cruelty with large pits and spikes everywhere, and the final boss specifically feels more like a Castlevania boss than something I’d do in Mega Man, where you're more fighting the pit than the boss itself. X6 loves instant kill hazards. The stages sometimes feel like they fight you for trying to have a good time playing Mega Man like you have in the past, and maybe it should have looked more towards the past to see why a lot of the previous games play so well. But having just started X7, I don’t think that message came across.

5.5/10

I'm typically terrible at strategy games, and have a difficult time playing them as a result. Civilization 5 is one of the most digestible and easy to pick up, hard to put down strategy games I've ever played. There's a lot of depth you can get into if you want, but if you choose to, this is such an accessible game for everyone to pick up and play how they want as well.

I didn't play this until years later when I purchased a 3DS and borrowed it from a friend, but when it came out, I distinctly remember kids with these Poke-Walkers that they'd carry around a shake like shake weights constantly throughout the day.

As far as the game goes, I love Silver, and think this is a really awesome remake, but generally just prefer the original as it's the one I played the most growing up. I was not really a fan of the music in the remake or the 3D buildings and objects, but again, that could just be my preference to the sprites and chip tunes the original had.

Admittedly I have a bad reason for not playing this. I got a Wii off Craigslist back in the day and it was Japanese, and certain games from the US didn't run or ran strangely. I think when I booted this up, all the text didn't work properly, so stage names, items, all that sort of thing just didn't read as correct characters. That and using motion to do the pounding was a huge bother to me. Both of those issues I imagine are ironed out in the 3DS version but I never got around to it and started Tropical Freeze instead.

I have to pick up that 3DS version! Although if they put the original on Switch...

@hanabi I've picked up Okami on the PS2, PS3 and the PS4 now, and I always try to like it. But for some reason it just never clicks with me. I share a lot of the same sentiments, but I think something else for me is the grating Animal Crossing voices that I didn't know you could turn down or off until my last play attempt. I agree about the combat from what I played as well; if it 's such a large part of the game, I wish it could be one of the funner parts of the experience.

All that being said though, I appreciate how much work went into making the world and the visuals represented as they are. As much as I've heard the game gets better after the first five or six hours though, I just don't get excited to play that long. I would definitely recommend that Tim Rogers' Kotaku video about how many times he's tried to like Okami and failed, but keeps buying it anyways.

When I was looking back on my favorite games of the decade, Limbo was one that I could never take off of my list. I followed it from a couple years before it released, and even then, it had a very specific atmosphere and mood that still is unlike anything I've played since. From my memory, it wasn't just the first game that proved and showcased to me that downloadable games like that and Braid were viable, but that there was a specific place where and how they shined above their contemporaries. I was unsure at that time why a downloadable game, and why such a short title could shine like physical AAA games did, but after playing it, it was a revelatory experience that it shines specifically because it isn't one, and is more powerful for it. Limbo shines because of its length, mood, and honestly because of its limitations, and it stands the test of time as something unique that hasn't, to me, been surpassed, but has definitely been imitated. It isn't a perfect game, but to me it was one of the biggest game changers for modern games, and one of the most special games out there. Something that I often reflect on, and has stuck in my head from the first night that I played it.

Day 30 - End Credits Music

Journey - I Was Born For This

What an emotional ride it is every time. It doesn't matter how many times I play through Journey, I'm in tears by the time the credits are rolling.

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Also be sure to check out the piano variation of the album. Has Austin Wintory playing and gives the music a whole different feel. Here's the same song from the alternate album:

Youtube Video – [00:00..]

I love this! Thanks for sharing. It sort of reminds me of some of the ambient stuff you'd hear in the background of edgy game demo discs' menus, and I'm absolutely digging the hell out of it!

What sort of recording equipment and setup do you have?

This is a game I remember being a 9/10 when I played it. I have the most fond memories of playing with my buddy and talking about the differences of what happened to each character and how things changed per playthrough. We both even still had 4:3 tube TVs at the time. I still love this game, but nowadays, it feels more like the epitome of swimming in 7's; a game that isn't bad, but has too much on top to be able to stand the test of time or its own weight. And I still love it for what it wants to do, the story it tells, the memories it gave me. But it doesn't quite hold up as well as other games I played since. Still, I think this game has something special that's worth looking at and remembering. Even if to me it's swimmin' in 7's, It'll always be that 9 in my head of what it tried to do and what it accomplished for me and my buddy when it came out.

Day 29 - Final Boss Music

Undertale - Hopes and Dreams

This song has such good Earthbound vibes when that guitar comes in reminiscent of Pokey Means Business, but less aggressive. The fight also successfully captures some of my favorite Shounen anime vibes of every character coming in at the end to help the protagonist save the day (and in this track, all of their themes represented respectively)

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@phbz What do you dislike about it? I picked it up on the Switch, and had it on PS3, so I've been locked at 30, and was curious what it would have been like had I picked it up on PS4 instead.

@axel I had absolutely no idea! I thought their level was honestly a thing for if you play on the Xtreme difficulty, so I just sort of brushed it off.

Mega Man X5

I'm conflicted about Mega Man X5. It does some things that are definitely a step forward, but at the same time, it does take a step back in other areas as well. All in all, I don't think it holds up as well as X4, but I still had a great time with it.

Starting from the very first level, it controls a lot better. X5 adds a crouch button that helps you get those pesky guys that are too short to hit with a normal shot, and generally feels a lot more polished in how it moves than the previous game. Depending on the character you choose to start the game with, you'll also either get a powered up X or Zero. At the beginning of each stage after the intro, you get the option to be either character now, so you're not stuck with either for the entirety of the experience. X now also accumulates armors, so if you power up X at the beginning by having him be your primary, you'll unlock his "Fourth Armor" from X4, alongside the standard Mega Man armor. Zero unfortunately never gets any new armor sets per tradition, but this means that when you unlock the other two armor sets for X, you can choose to use them in any level after that, or a different one of your choosing if it plays more to your style. The stages and bosses are all more balanced in a way that makes Zero more fun to play as well, which is a great step up from X4.

The game leans a lot more heavily on narrative this time around. X4 dabbled in it a little bit, but sometimes X5 can feel like its forcing a lot down on you. Because of a Sigma virus you have 15 hours to get materials from bosses. This basically means that you get 15 chances to go through four stages, where if you don't, the game will just unlock the final boss stage for the bad ending. I feel like this was more of a way they were trying to funnel players to play certain stages first, but it really doesn't feel as effective in practice. I played the stages they wanted because I wanted the good ending, and never had any moment where I was short on time (you get even more time after beating the first four bosses, and you only 'lose' an hour if you leave a stage after running out of lives). I feel like beyond assisting the plot, it was better implemented in something like X2 where you have the extra bosses that roam around randomly.

The stages themselves though are all pretty varied and fun to go through, though I wasn't a huge fan of all of them. The water level has a pet peeve of mine where you can only move as fast as the screen chasing you. Besides this one though, they're generally better paced than some in X4 that all had 2 parts to them. I felt like I went through stages much more quickly in this game. That is, I would, if it wasn't for Alia.

Alia is the computer operator. Her role is supposed to give you intel from home base, but she constantly is stopping you to tell you very obvious things. Like "There are spikes up ahead. Be sure to avoid those", or "This area has bombs! We need to make sure to blow those up before they reach zero". Previous X games have all relied on you recognizing the situation and adapting and learning as you play, and Alia makes every stage feel so sluggish because she can't go two or three screens without stopping you to open a text box and open her mouth. She's useful a handful of times when she will hint at where an armor piece could be, or what a boss weakness may be, but generally the things she tells you are things you would already know just by walking two steps ahead. She even continues this in the post level screen where she tells you that you got a new power and you should try it on new bosses because every boss has a weakness. Even if this is your first X game, you need that information once, not after every single level. Besides this character though, I really enjoyed the other interactions, especially the banter between you and the boss before every fight (even though all the characters are pretty much new and we've never heard of them before).

Music has taken a big step up. There's definitely a lot more energy coming out of each area, and each level is pretty easily identified by the theme. The water theme is actually a direct pull from the water level in X2 (which incidentally shares a lot of level design quirks as well), but the theme is remixed with more modern sound recordings. I really don't have a lot to complain about with this section. The tracks generally aren't as catchy or memorable as Mega Man at its best, but also definitely not where it is at its worst. They're awesome tracks and are really effective for pumping you up in that way you want.

Some new game quirks, just like the time limit, aren't as successfully implemented. There's a new system where you accumulate buffs to attach to characters, like a super jump, or one that makes health pickups more effective. Each armor has a set number of slots you can set to these. The main problem with these is that they're never communicated in how they're given out. They'll randomly show up after each level like you got it from a boss. It's still unclear to me how you receive them. There are stray Maverick Hunters in each stage to help out who will give you an extra life if you save them, and its possible you get this from saving them. Alia also occasionally asks if you want to upgrade your health or energy, and its possible they come from this process. I'm not sure. With all the explaining Alia does, you'd think she'd tell you, but she doesn't. Besides it being a confusing mechanic, it definitely is cool to experiment with these new parts to help tailor the armors to your liking. If not though, it doesn't harm your experience if you never touch it at all.

The mechanic of changing armors also has its downsides. It's super cool to go through a different stage with a new set of abilities, and to be able to do it when you choose to, but the armors have very specific purposes that you use maybe one time. It would have been super fun to discover alternate level routes designed around these specific armors if you've acquired them. There is usually just a small branch in some areas that utilize the armor's abilities a single time that hold an upgrade before sending you on your way back to the normal path.

All of these things are minor annoyances, like Alia's talking, but they do add up to make the game a little less fun than it could be. With a little more polish, I would say this could have been even better than X4. As It stands though, it’s just a small rung below.

Final Score: 8.7/10

Day 28 - Music that makes you nostalgic

Kingdom Hearts II - Dearly Beloved

I think this is probably my favorite variation of all of the games' title music.

Youtube Video

Personally, Birth By Sleep is one of my least favorite entries in the series. It sounds weird to say, but I feel like this was the entry that got too convoluted for me. I could follow everything going on with 2, but there was so much lore and things going on with Birth By Sleep that I can't actually articulate what happened with the plot or characters anymore. I think I was also really missing areas that felt inhabited too. I love going around towns and talking to NPCs, but BBS was basically all combat in barren areas save for Disney Town. I did really like the ideas in combat where you level up different abilities and create new ones, but by the time I was partway through a world the second time with a different character I just wasn't having as much fun with it anymore. Which is a shame, because I really want to like it. I know there is a lot this game sets up in terms of story for the future, but generally prequels that shoehorn new characters in as the most important characters in the story's universe we have never heard of or mentioned before bothers me a lot.

As divisive as this game is though, I know it's not a bad game, it just isn't for me. I don't want to bash on it or anything. Just left a bad taste in my mouth in the end.

@bam541 Agreed. Katawa Shoujo definitely doesn't get enough love. I play this soundtrack sometimes in the background just to have some nice calm, positive vibes.

I loved playing the first level of this game, but I was horrible at it. Everything was so fast and there was so much going on it was sort of overstimulating. I feel like I'd have more fun if I were watching a buddy play it, but maybe I just need to play a little more and get into the rhythm.

Day 27 - Music from a handheld game

Jurassic Park - Level 1

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Day 26: Music from a game you haven't played

Devil May Cry 5 - Devil Trigger

Played this on repeat more often than I'm willing to admit. It may have been my sole inspiration for picking up the rest of the series.

Youtube Video

I played a lot of Nier Automata, but generally have always thought the first Nier looked more appealing. Platinum combat has never really been my cup of tea. I'm super stoked to play the remake when it comes out!

What sorts of changes were made to Automata from this one?