suggestion on what to play next here
Fun fact regarding Lufia 1 - when it was due to be released in North America they used a different cover image, both for the magazine adverts and for the official player's guide.
There's just one little problem... it's not their image to use. Say hello to Castle Master from 1990:
Obviously it was not used for any retail releases of the game, and makes any Lufia-related items with the image (like the full-size poster) somewhat of a collectible.
Phantasy Star 4 - Megadrive
^The quest to cure Covid 19
Uggggh. This one's gonna be a bit painful.
PS4 is a game I would have undoubtedly had down as an all time classic before replaying it. I must have finished it at least a dozen times as a kid, and I was really excited about returning to it. I've even stated on here that it was a "classic" too.
So it wasn't anywhere near as good as I remember it. In fact it was way, way simpler & emptier than I remember too. Starting with the positives it's easy to see why I fell for it originally. It has three key pillars of strength that really carry it - great presentation, mint characters & a well told, fairly interesting story.
The cut-scenes are shit-hot, and appear often enough to be enjoyable, yet are spaced out enough to leave you wanting more. The story itself is fairly stock, but the finer details of the story, certain events, and the way it ties together the PS series' history are all bang on. And for me personally the characters are top notch too. 6 of the 10 available really appealed to me, and the dynamic between characters (cocky magician, old fart with bad humour, badass bitch who takes no shit etc.) works great too. These cornerstones of the game make it easy to see why I was so enamoured by it back in the day.
Now the combat's somewhere in the middle. It's turn based & interesting with a macro & combo system adding some depth, but the trouble is the way battles are setup often means a standard attack is the best way to deal with things. You're given a ton of techniques & specials, but half the time most are useless, or not as cost-effective as using an attack then healing. Battles are way to frequent too, and it becomes annoying fast. But with that said there is some fun to be had there, and it's a least a bit challenging. Also The music is a bit hit & miss, but when it hit it really hits, and the way it is used really conveys the atmosphere superbly at times.
But overall the game's just SO simple & shallow. Each village is essentially a hub for resting & upgrading weapons and little else, as it rarely deviates from a formulaic "travel-rest & upgrade-dungeon-travel-rest & upgrade-dungeon" formula, and ends up feeling repetitive & lacking. The absence of secrets & hidden extras in RPG areas really hurts it too. You look at FF4 & every village felt like it could hold something valuable, and they often did. With this the only thing to search for half the time is more dialogue, and searching generally yields few worthwhile rewards. There are side-quests, but they are few & far between, and not really that interesting anyway.
Overall it's actually reflective of modern "RPGs" which rely too heavily on cut-scenes to carry a formulaic, shallow set of RPG mechanics. I thought of PS4 as one of the reasons I was drawn into RPG's, but on reflection it's probably actually one of the reasons I sought out the likes of Baldur's Gate & PC gaming instead.
Not awful, but not all fun either, the excessive battle frequency ground me down, and overall it's certainly not the classic I thought it was. A good, well story with some great characters bogged down by formulaic, shallow game.
Gutted.
Apologies to Lilura for stating this was a classic in a previous thread.
. I put you in my Let's Play, I am sure you can be nice with me.
Still waiting for a Siege review
I played the Dragon's Trap remake somewhat when it was first released, and while the remake is really good I had greater issues with the base game itself. And if your claim is true that this is the best game available on the Master System... well, I can scratch one system off my grand 'to-do' list.
Fair assessment of the game, and indeed I still love the game because it had absolutely 0 successor. AI is really not great as you said (it is better in the non-Fantasy reskin Walls of Rome, but as I said despite this I found Walls of Rome less viscerally fun). There are some real differences between units, but a large mass of units is just "random human/orc/dwarf" grunts, elite grunts and officers. Some races (minotaurs, trolls) hit like a truck though, some are really tough (dwarves obviously) or wimpy. They are hero units of various sorts and a small number of units with special skills (skeletons regenerates, spiders climb the walls, fire elementals burn siege equipment and are immune to fire attack), but they are rare in the base game. They added quite a few more interesting in the expansion.Siege - PC
An interesting one this, never played it before and never even heard of it. Released in 1992 I'd only flirted with the odd PC game back then, so stuff like this was for kids with rich parents. How nice to be able to play it now.
Straight of the bat Ramparts sprung to mind, a game which I quite liked back in the day. The style & premise really appealed to me, and I actually found myself thinking how some of the Total War games could have done with taking a leaf out of this game's book for town/city sieges in some areas. It certainly felt more satisfying than city sieges in the earlier Total War games to me.
Now the interface is something of a bind, and took some getting used to, but the solid gameplay drew me in after some effort (more than I like to put in I'll admit). However, just as I started to enjoy it, it became apparent just how it lacked in a few departments. For all the units you can obtain, the only real difference I found is whether they've ranged attacks or not, which felt a bit limp. I also found myself outflanking the enemy fairly easily too often, and the AI in general to be a bit "meh". The game's charm kept me playing, but as time drew on even that wore thin.
It just didn't quite deliver enough for me, but I can see why you like it ValeVelKal , it sadly didn't quite tickle my g-spot. One of those games which I think you already have to be connected to in order to really enjoy, but worth a look for fans of the genre.
