/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8178205
This sounds more like the adage at the time that Americans were too retarded to figure things out themselves and never shared hints with each other.

Part of why Tower of Druaga was a huge hit in Japan was that it was an accomplishment to collect and trade hints with other people. Beating it meant that you had the time and determination to solve a puzzle action game. It bombed here because everyone gave up on it when the game didn't hand them the answers and "top score" mentality meant that no one shared secrets in a broad capacity.

>>3268425
The Return of Ishtar is such a frustrating and obtuse game. How are you supposed to know where to go? Which of the dozen doors on any given floor to go through? Where to find necessary treasures and keys? Secrets? How are you supposed to keep your lunkhead Gil alive other than just parking him in the corner somewhere and letting you do all the work?

I think the farthest I got was 8 or so rooms into the game, before bullshit like bats kill me off.

I'm not 100% sure myself OP. I come back to the arcade game from time to time on my Namco Museum vol 3, trying to get a little bit farther. In that version I've yet to get past floor 10 out of 60. The first game's biggest problem is that RNG screws you so hard that you can be fucked in seconds thanks to a wizard warping in just the wrong spot. Couple that with the hard penalties of breaking the pickaxe and you can easily lose all your lives in a few moments.

The PC-Engine port fixes nearly every problem with the arcade game and is actually very fun to play, as long as you play the translated rom and know what the fuck is going on (since each floor Ishtar gives you hints in order to solve the treasure puzzle).

Return of Ishtar is a game that remains completely bizarre and foreign to me. I don't know what's going on and I am not even sure what they were trying to go for. There are so many fucking doors and it's so easy to die as either Ki or Gil.