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For those who don't know, forums.penny-arcade.com will be closing soon. However, we're doing the same kind of stuff over at coin-return.org with (almost) all the same faces! Please do feel welcome to
join us.
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Also, The Mummy Demastered is also on sale on Steam for the first time ever.
My Backloggery
A commenter at Reddit pointed out that one of the promotional videos for Bloodstained ended in a passage played on a flute that never wound up in the actual game. But it sounds almost exactly like the theme from Ubisoft's Child of Light. The character "and their friend" could be Aurora and Igniculus.
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
(I just want more Shovel Knight. Where is Dig? Or Silksong?)
Re: Shantae cleverness.
I still think that Half-Genie Hero has one of the best dumb jokes I've seen a video game make.
I found three Shantae games on Steam and PSN. The same three are on both. Which seems to be Shantae 3, 4, and 5.
Are Shantae 1 and 2 available anywhere on a modern platform? I also checked gog.com and didn't find them there either.
They are on most platforms. I know they just released Shantae 1 for Switch for example. 2 *should* be on PSN (not sure about 1?). Although 1 is GBC and a little jank compared to everything that came after (but still fun). IMO Pirate's Curse (3) is the best one. It feels *very* Metroidvania, moreso than usual.
(it should also be noticed that Shantae 2: Risky's Revenge was a DSi-Ware game and thus much shorter than pretty much any of the others. It's really good though still)
Edit: I found this:
https://wayforward.com/wayforward-announces-all-five-shantae-games-for-playstation-5/
The funny thing about Pirate's Curse is that, yeah, it's probably the best one, even with 2 games after it (though, Seven Sirens feels very Metroidvania-y, in terms of world structure, I think). But part of what makes it the best one also make it a major departure in terms of gameplay from the others.
In Pirate Curse's story,
And each one adds a new move to Shantae's actions, without requiring her to stop and dance to transform. You get a ranged attack, a parachute glide, the equivalent of Metroid's Speed Booster... they're all fun, snappy moves that don't slow the game down to use.
And they're great fun... but due to the story reason for their inclusion, could only really be done in one game; they aren't her standard skills. Which I found to be a shame, because I liked them considerably more than Shantae's standard skills, which you get back at the end of Pirate Curse. And while I did like Half-Genie Hero, and it did improve the flow of her transformation dances, they still felt slow compared to the pirate equipment.
...which is why I was pleasently surprised when I saw what they then did in Seven Sirens.
At some point I really need to get back and finish Seven Sirens though, I only got maybe halfway through...
Nothing's cuter than Shantae trying to act like a pirate. "Moist the main snail!" is one of my favorite lines.
Really dig Nearl Alter's theme
It's a pretty short game and there's not much in the way of replayability, but it looks nice and I figured a sale is the best time to buy it. Especially since, as a licensed property, you never know when it'll be delisted.
My Backloggery
Even went out of their way to learn ice magic, that's true dedication.
Circle of the Moon - A total chore to play, horribly unbalanced, busted on multiple levels, incredibly drab looking. And a significant amount of your character progression is locked behind RNG (even with equipment!!). I know this was their first outing on the GBA but still this has not aged well at all.
Harmony of Dissonance - A shameless rip-off of Symphony in the best way. Simple but very functional combat, infinite dashing, INTERIOR DECORATING. And just some absolutely bonkers and amazing environments and use of colors. It's an eye-searing psychodelic nightmare in a way we'll never see again but is also absolutely my shit. I'm just kicking myself for having skipped this game when it came out and just never playing it.
Onward back to revisit Aria of Sorrow now!
I kinda wanna beat it just to say I did and then delete it, because I'm not sure how much I'm enjoying all the backtracking and running around.
Though I did enjoy the exchange where someone does Shantae a favor, and she goes "Thanks! (Kiss)" and the guy is like "Why did you just say (Kiss) at me?"
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
I'd probably rate my top 3 as such:
1) Order of Ecclesia
2) SotN
3) Aria of Sorrow
Wasn't it Dawn of Sorrow that switched to a more anime style?
They all kind of blur together for me. Either way, PoR was the first "anime" one I really clicked with.
And on Steam, Record of Lodoss war is on sale right now too. And holy crap that game is beautiful. It might be the best looking pixel art Metroidvania I've ever seen.
I always thought of Harmony as … fine? It doesn’t have so much of the collection gameplay as some others, which may be good or bad, there are a couple of annoying things in castle design (I know at least one point you can get stuck and have to backtrack A LOT to get unstuck). You play as a mechanically generic belmont guy who has some screen killing magic spells that are absolutely op against bosses.
I didn’t hate it but it didn’t blow my mind. I liked it more than circle.
Yeah I agree it's very, very fine. It's visuals probably being the most notable thing about it. I was just real surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and it was kind of palette cleanser after Circle.
I agree that navigating the castle is really unintuitive. Though honestly I like how the double-castle design is a lot more involved than that in Symphony.
They overcompensated a bit for the original GBA's screen, but not too much. You really need to play under some color correction for the intended effect. (In a way that you probably shouldn't for Circle...)
Here's underwater traversal and fetch quests. Here's an autoscrolling shooting level. Here's an entirely dark room.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Pirate Curse and Seven Sirens do some to move away from that, though.