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JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Why in this RPG's, the villain generally is cool while the MC is extremely boring?

Seriously. You have Wiches and Deathknights as villains on JRPG's while the protagonist is rarely even non human and non swordsman.

I have very little experience with JRPGs, but in both I've played (DQ8 and 11) the idea seems to be that the main character is kind of a blank slate for you to RP as. They don't even speak in either game.

Western RPGs came up with the genius idea of letting the player create his own character. Human, elf, dwarf, male, female, wizard, fighter, thief, whatever - it's all up to you!!

Japs could learn from that incredible innovation that has been introduced to the genre as recently as... 1979 :M
Understandable that such a new innovation hasn't reached Japan yet.
 

PulsatingBrain

Huge and Ever-Growing
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The Centre of the Ultraworld
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
Western RPGs came up with the genius idea of letting the player create his own character. Human, elf, dwarf, male, female, wizard, fighter, thief, whatever - it's all up to you!!

Japs could learn from that incredible innovation that has been introduced to the genre as recently as... 1979 :M
Understandable that such a new innovation hasn't reached Japan yet.

It's just a different thing. It's a story specifically about those characters.

I'll say this too. It's FUN. Plenty of western RPG devs could take a note out of that book.
 

octavius

Arcane
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Bjørgvin
Western RPGs came up with the genius idea of letting the player create his own character. Human, elf, dwarf, male, female, wizard, fighter, thief, whatever - it's all up to you!!

Japs could learn from that incredible innovation that has been introduced to the genre as recently as... 1979 :M
Understandable that such a new innovation hasn't reached Japan yet.

Hmm...I wonder if there is a correlation between anime and not being able to create your own character? The only Japanese RPGs I can stomach are non-anime ones, and the ones I've played (Gaiden IV and Wizardry Chronicles) do have character generation.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
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It's just a different thing. It's a story specifically about those characters.

But they rarely has anything that justify being a fix protagonist. Eg - Being a human male teenager, specialized on ludicrous unpratical sword is not interesting. Nor in 99% of settings. Maybe if the protagonist lives in a Drow city it can be interesting but.... Is not as if they are incapable of making good characters. Every JRPG villain is amazing. I only read a little about Sephirot and Magus, both are extremely more interesting than Cloud and Chrono.

On reddit > https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg_gamers/comments/hre9nx/wrpg_protagonists_vs_jrpg_protagonists/
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Anyway, I did it. SOLOED SoA on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty

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I've used on the final battle >

  • 5 tier 9/epic spells -> 3 * summon planetar and 2 * stop time
  • 7 Tier 8 -> 5 * horrid wilting + pierce shield (and forgot to unmemorize the spell trigger)
  • 6 tier 7 -> 3 finger of death + limited wish + Mordekainen's Sword (only because i forgot to unmemorize the sequencer)
  • 4 tier 6 spells -> Two Invisible stalker + Spell deflection + True sight
  • 2 tier 5 spells -> Two lower resists
  • 1 tier 4 spell -> Greater Malison
  • 5 tier 3 spells -> 5 skull traps
  • Zero tier 1/2 spells. I an a necromancer. Necromancers can't cast the good low level illusion spells.
  • Total : 30 spells in battle
In addition to the spells used on the battle, i also used a LIMITED WISH to use a one time wish and cast a chain contigency and a sequencer and a spell trigger BUT don't remember which spells i picked and i don't have the usage on my spellbook. So we can sum + 9 to the spell usage. I also placed a lot of skull traps and rested, placed and rested on the arena, considering 5 skull traps per rest and 4 rests, I've casted 20 skull traps before the battle. That results in 59 spells being used to kill the enemy in that crazy high difficulty.

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My stats when ToB expansion starts


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And the final battle

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PulsatingBrain

Huge and Ever-Growing
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Messages
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The Centre of the Ultraworld
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
But they rarely has anything that justify being a fix protagonist. Eg - Being a human male teenager, specialized on ludicrous unpratical sword is not interesting. Nor in 99% of settings. Maybe if the protagonist lives in a Drow city it can be interesting but....

I'm not some advocate for JRPG. I'm not sure why you think I am. Like I said, I've completed a total of 1, and I'm currently completing a second.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
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Messages
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Frostfell
Hmm...I wonder if there is a correlation between anime and not being able to create your own character? The only Japanese RPGs I can stomach are non-anime ones, and the ones I've played (Gaiden IV and Wizardry Chronicles) do have character generation.

Dark Souls is heavily inspired by Berserk and Gorgeous.

my piromaniac

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Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
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Joined
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Messages
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Western RPGs came up with the genius idea of letting the player create his own character. Human, elf, dwarf, male, female, wizard, fighter, thief, whatever - it's all up to you!!

Japs could learn from that incredible innovation that has been introduced to the genre as recently as... 1979 :M
Understandable that such a new innovation hasn't reached Japan yet.
The original Final Fantasy from 1987 had six classes directly ripped off Dragons & Dragons: Fighter, Thief, Monk "Black Belt", Cleric "White Mage", Magic-User "Black Mage", and multi-classed Fighter/Mage/Cleric "Red Mage". Wizardry-likes attained great popularity in Japan and similarly allowed class selection in a tradition that continues to the present day. Even Japanese Action RPGs, such as Demon's/Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma, allow class selection and customization. It's only the JRPG subgenre, specifically, where the narrative focus demanded a full set of pregenerated party-members, including the protagonist(s). :M
 

Cryomancer

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t's only the JRPG subgenre, specifically, where the narrative focus demanded a full set of pregenerated party-members, including the protagonist(s). :M


99,9% of this protagonists are blank protagonists Generi-kuns. The villains in other hands, all seems to have amazing story, lore and background. Chrono Trigger if Magus was the MC would be a epic game. And Baldur's Gate 2 with Cloud or Chrono as a protagonist would be unplayable. Why they create so many interesting characters with interesting motivation, background, story and personality only to make the PC the most Generi-kun possible? Even on anime, a minority of shonen protagonists is different than a Generi-kun.

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Yldr

Educated
Joined
Jun 20, 2020
Messages
48
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Judge Dredd - Dredd vs Death (2003)

It doesn't look like much and the only reason I ever gave this a try was for the splitscreen coop on Dolphin.

As it turned out it's a fine little shooter and now that I'm replaying it on PC with glorious mouse aiming my pleasant surprise is confirmed. Of course let's not praise it too highly: the loud and satisfying shotgun stands out, the default handgun has different ammo types, otherwise the gameplay is as bog-standard as can be.

Graphically the PC version is ahead but the GameCube version already looks great in HD. In fact, consoles often sacrifice textures so it bears mentioning that the posters and advertisements are still fully readable. A good thing, as the game is heavy on cyberpunk aesthetics and the ads are full of dark humor.

It's the cyberpunk part that makes the game noteworthy: the city levels are gorgeous with an impressive orgy of details and superb skylines full of moving vehicles, ads, posters, citizens, malls and other urban features.

There's something interesting going on here: this outstanding level of detail is often wasted by how short the missions are. Adding to that, the levels are often bigger than they need to be and you can explore sizeable side areas that serve no purpose. My first playthrough was right after Black, which also features large (but empty) side areas for no reason. Both these games gave me a persistent feeling that they might have been originally intended to be much more open, perhaps even hub-based or free-roaming.

Sure it's not above anemic mission design and boring corridors typical of its era, but it's not like it's going to overstay its welcome: a medium-paced playthrough is unlikely to reach 4 hours, even if you go sight-seeing when the levels allow you to do so.

The PC version is slightly better with its mouse aiming, uncapped framerate and clean graphics, but of course if you want controller controls and/or splitscreen coop you're going to the Cube.

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A horse of course

Guest
DUSK and Amid Evil



Two recent boomer-FPS-tribute indies I picked up in the summer sale. I’m posting them together as they’re both published by New Blood Interactive, scored by Andrew Hulshult and are frequently sold as a pair deal, so I thought those that aren’t familiar with them might be interested. Both are fast-paced, gameplay-driven shooters that are light on story or exposition, but even so they feel like very different experiences. For the most part, DUSK mines classics like Blood, Quake and Half-Life for inspiration, whilst Amid Evil tips its hat to Hexen and Unreal.

This means that the former is relatively conservative in its ambitions, relying on the staple arsenal of pistols akimbo, double-barrelled shotguns, machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers and a couple of melee weapons that will all feel very familiar to players. Combat is split fairly evenly between cramped spaces reminiscent of Blood’s horror movie-inspired levels, Quake’s gothic fortresses, and Half-Life’s wacky military labs gone awry, plus larger areas visually similar to the rural backwaters of Redneck Rampage and alien-industrial nightmares of Quake II. Enemy variety is a bit limited, and only expanded at a drip-fed pace throughout the campaign. There are a few gimmicks like rooms with haste, time-dilation and wall-climbing powerups, but these don’t make a substantial impact.

Amid Evil’s roots already make it a slightly less conventional shooter, but on top of this the developers have been a lot more daring in gameplay, technology and environmental design. Rampaging through seven dimensions of around 4 levels each, the player has access to a unique blend of offensive options. Most are projectile-based weapons such as homing mana missiles, energy sword waves, a trident that cooks enemies or turns them into living bombs, explosive orbs, and a Morningstar that launches spikes like a nailgun - and these weapons can interact with enemies in interesting ways. For example, in one episode the sword might cancel out one foe’s ranged attacks against the player, whilst in another episode it might carve through a particular enemy faster than other weapons, but also leave behind parasitic swarms that continue to hound you. On top of their existing differences, your weapons also transform once you’ve collected enough enemy souls and enabled alt—fire mode. For example, when powered up, the energy sword’s slashes will penetrate multiple foes and bounce off surfaces for a time, whilst a rocket-like wand now fires miniature Black Holes. There’s a veritable host of different foes to challenge you, with around four or five distinct variations for each of the seven episodes, few of which you’ll see repeated. A number of these are fairly unremarkable melee trash like axe-wielding fanatics or hungry moss beasts, but there are some variations that will make you approach the fight very differently, such as plant mortars that leave pools of acid on the ground or legionaries who can reflect most of your projectiles with their shield.

Neither of these games are revolutionary, though I’d recommend both to fans of old-school shooters for just how well they capture the best of their forebears. As for which is the stronger, there’s obviously a major element of nostalgia for your preferred classics, but I’d say DUSK is the more refined experience of the two. Many might be disappointed by the familiarity of DUSK, but I found Amid Evil could often be frustrating or messy in ways DUSK never was. I always felt in complete control of my actions in DUSK, whereas Amid Evil has some very irritating sequences where you hop around tiny platforms, get stuck trying to jump out of water or fall off tripwire bridges. DUSK’s levels might not be the gruelling achievements that Amid Evil’s are, but I felt a genuine sense of physical and narrative progression as I moved through them. DUSK might seem a little brown at times, but its environments are sharp and clear with enemies and pertinent details that pop out when you need them to, or draped into gloom when the developers want to imperil you. Amid Evil is definitely pushing the latest Unreal Engine’s strengths with massive, sprawling levels and some stunning lighting effects, but many environments felt visually very uncoordinated, like kaleidoscopic vomit that strained the eyes to look at for too long. I was only really impressed by portions of the final episode, which reminded me of the work of sci-fi artists like Roger Dean – and even then the constant shimmering and visual artifacts made it slightly unpleasant to stare at. Still, those who want a more challenging experience, appreciate the artistry of mapping, and enjoy experimenting with all the different combinations of weapons, powerups and enemies will probably get a bigger kick from Amid Evil. Either way, Infinitron is gay.

DUSK
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Amid Evil
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Psquit

Arcane
Joined
Sep 18, 2012
Messages
1,921
Location
Ushuaia
Looks like popamole's back on the menu boys!

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Finally, I can start and finish the fight!

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See that mountain? You can climb it.

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:kingcomrade:
 

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