Don't worry, I won't be like one of those obnoxious clickbait articles, I'll just answer you in the first sentence of this post. Wait, no, second sentence. Shit! Okay, here we go. Fifth: no, not really.
Oh, don't get me wrong. The characters and environments are still adorable. It's still kinda fun to have a bit of dynamic gameplay in turn-based battles, even if it is just some a press-a-button-at-the-right-time schtick. The dialog is still silly and fun/ny.
But the whole thing feels lacking. I'm talking, of course, about the recent remake that was released. I have fooooond memories of this RPG as a kid. And apparently fake memories too, because I could have sworn I beat it! This would have been back in the Blockbuster days (or maybe the mom & pop it would eventually come to strangle). So I probably just had to return it before I finished.
Nonetheless. I've had a copy of this sitting in my basement for, well, probably upwards of 15 years by now. I acquired it at some point or another. I kind of wish I went back to play that, to be honest, because they gimped the hell out of the remake. To beat this game, you basically just need a pulse. Not only do enemies deliver less damage and require less hits to beat, but they also put in a system where you slowly build a power gauge. Every, let's say, oh, 40 turns, you get to fire a super-mega-whammy-godzilla-goku attack. Or if Princess Peach is in your posse, maybe it'll be a super-cute-group-hug-on-the-cusp-of-a-sweaty-deviant-art-gangbang deal that heals all parties (panties?).
I'm quite certain it wasn't this easy when I was 12 years old. I remember getting frustrated and disconcerted when I got to Booster's tower and some Joker jerkoff hopped up on his big rubber ball and played a flute at me and smacked me around seven-stars-from-Sunday. "Damn, this is getting hard," I probably grimaced. But hours earlier, before I went to bed, I was playing Super Mario RPG, and it was pretty difficult.
So, as cutesy and charming as SMRPG is (that's short for Super Mario RPG), I'll have to admit that it was kind of disappointing.
What's funny, though, is that after beating the game, you can go off and beat some of the bosses again. And... they're fucking HARD. I went back to beat up the wedding cake boss into batter and I actually had to go back and *level up* a bunch before going at it. And when I ran back into the bomb boss in the mines, I found that each hit only took a single hit point off of him. No weaknesses. I'm pretty sure my most powerful spell only shaved off 8 HP.
There's some trick to it I'm sure, but I just don't have the patience to figure it out. You swung too far in the other direction Squeenix, jfc (that's short for Jesus Fucking Christ).
Oh well. Any of you knuckledheads play it? Now? Back then? Plan to? Spill your guts.
This, for me, is a "go to" game I replay every few years. I adore it and to me, it did hold up. There is more to the combat than "timed attacks" since the special moves have unique little gimmicks of their own, but I can understand someone not enjoying the turn based combat regardless.
I've reviewed this game in the past, though I'm rather embarrassed by my writing skills at the time. I'll say this. I love just how much detail is put into so many little moments throughout the game. Every town is worth revisiting at numerous points to see what new little quips characters have to say, and the level of odd interactions to reward more "playful" players is amazing. See that character running around in circles? Yes, you CAN jump on their head and ride around a few times, and yes, the game does respond to your act. There's results for taking chests from someone when they aren't home, or jumping up on a shop shelf, or sliding down a chimney into a house, or oh so many things. Little cameos, dreams, things like that for taking the time to explore old inns.
I enjoy me some turn based combat, so I've always enjoyed this game. It also presents some fun end-game challenges. There's rewards for managing 100 super jumps (good luck, you'll need a CRT or to play the modern game on something with very low latency to pull it off), a super boss inspired by something out of Final Fantasy, and all kinds of hidden little areas that require searching high and low all over the world to track down.
Now one good detail regarding difficulty is you can turn it up to "classic" difficulty levels in the options, and I recommend doing so if you've played before. Even so, yes it's true that much like Final Fantasy IV, and VI, and Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound, this game really isn't all that challenging once you know what you're doing. The extra boss fights at the end, the rematches, are where the challenge is really brought out. That said, if you hadn't been enjoying yourself, I wouldn't expect you to slog through more of it but harder. What I love about these remastered "hard mode" bosses is they've got full dialog and some unique aspects.
Yes, Culex is still in the game, he's still a Final Fantasy styled boss with Final Fantasy music playing in the background, and he's still a 2D sprite marveling at the power of the third dimension.
The first time...
The second involves... a very expansive new form for the boss.
All in all, while I can understand it not being for everyone, in the same way I know the Paper Mario games aren't for everyone, I very much enjoyed the original and find the remake to have become the new definitive way to play the game....
Except for one detail... I'm not a fan of the menu designs. They seem very "plain" to me for some reason. I just prefer the menu designs in the original version and wish they didn't make them feel so generic and.... "mobile gamey"?
I actually had already put it on the hardest setting (which is just "normal"). Funny to see that there's an even easier mode, because it's hard to imagine how much easier it could have been.
Okay, since you've been around the block a few times, I have to ask: when do you run into Samus? I did back in the day, but I couldn't find her this time.
Also, although I probably won't go back to it, how
do you beat the bomb boss after completing the game? I noticed that the bombs sometimes spun around and turned on their master, but I couldn't figure out how to trigger it (I only made one attempt, in my defense).
And Booster. What the fuck! How do you stop him from running a train on you? I believe I tried a sleep spell and it didn't work. His move doesn't seem particularly magical, but maybe mute would have done something? There's some way to keep distracting him, but to my recollection, even focusing all your hits on him only holds him off for a round or two.
I did stumble across the Final Fantasy boss. I was pleasantly surprised that the 500 coin gemstone paid off. I probably wouldn't have bothered with buying it but the game is very generous with coinage (another way they updated the game to make it a cakewalk). Anyway, this phrasing:
Quote:Yes, Culex is still in the game, he's still a Final Fantasy styled boss
Makes me think he wasn't an actual FF boss they brought in...? I just assumed he was an existing antagonist that they threw in as an easter egg. Is he just a caricature of one? Is he difficult to defeat? That was another hanging thread I meant to go back and snip up. I was gonna bone up on the frog coin items (I can't remember their names, but they were the items that enhance your defense, attack, etc), but that was around the time I got annoyed at Booster and Bomb boss, and my attention wavered.
It sounds to me like you still need to find a lot of the hidden gear in the game. That does include the frog coin items, but it also includes a number of hidden chests, and the lazy shells. These will help massively for a lot of these challenges by making missteps more survivable. Also, make use of the new in-battle character switching mechanic. Swapping your healer in and out is critical to keep damage output up.
The bombs will "bounce back" from attacks that "blow back" things, at least from what I found. Samus, by the way, I think she appears after Toadstool Kingdom's town is overrun with the Smithy gang.
Culex isn't actually a Final Fantasy boss. His theme song is straight from Final Fantasy IV, but he really is more of a caricature, a sort of "stereotype" of what a Final Fantasy boss is, and I certainly appreciate that because that makes him more original than, say, tossing in Kefka or something. You know, I think coins might really be a bit easier to get this time around, though frog coins are still just as limited near as I can tell. It might also be that I tend to grind MORE in games on replays than I do on first runs.
I was just going through my credit card statements and god damn it, I just remembered I paid $60 this game. I remember sitting on the couch when I first pulled it up, yelling at the TV "Sixty BUCKS?! For a 30 year old game?!?" I think I'm officially a cranky old man.
I'm not trying to bash this game so much but seriously... it's just a remake of a relatively short and primitive game. I don't think it took any more than a couple weeks to complete. $20, tops. NINTENDOOOO!!!
A nostalgic fool and his money are soon parted
Alright, let me outrage you a little more.
Super Mario All-Stars had four games, fully remastered with new graphics and sound, for a standard game's price, but also just given away for free to anyone who purchased a new SNES at the time. They even improved it by sticking Super Mario World into later editions of that compilation, with the added feature of unique sprites for Luigi instead of a Mario recolor.
brb going super saiyan on nintendo
or maybe super sonic would be more appropriate
(9th December 2023, 7:56 AM)Sacred Jellybean Wrote: [ -> ]brb going super saiyan on nintendo
or maybe super sonic would be more appropriate
Can't hold on much longer... but I will never let go!
I haven't bought this yet. It's something I do have interest in playing eventually, but not for full price. I do own the SNES cart but never got past pretty early in the game, it seems good but as I've said before the game design and battle system feel like something that Paper Mario for N64 does so much better that my attempts to start Super Mario RPG always end with me going 'eh, this isn't as good as Paper Mario, I'm good...' and stopping. I don't know if this remake would change my opinion on the game or not, how much does it improve on the battle system for instance?
(7th December 2023, 3:57 AM)Sacred Jellybean Wrote: [ -> ]I was just going through my credit card statements and god damn it, I just remembered I paid $60 this game. I remember sitting on the couch when I first pulled it up, yelling at the TV "Sixty BUCKS?! For a 30 year old game?!?" I think I'm officially a cranky old man.
I'm not trying to bash this game so much but seriously... it's just a remake of a relatively short and primitive game. I don't think it took any more than a couple weeks to complete. $20, tops. NINTENDOOOO!!!
A nostalgic fool and his money are soon parted
On the one hand, the remake totally redoes the graphics and upgrades the game in some ways. It's a pretty thorough remake that surely cost a fair amount to make, it's probably worth more than $20.
On the other hand, if this wasn't a Mario game, yeah, it probably would not be $60. I don't know how much it would cost, but less than that.