/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.1249920]

ITT: List the pros and cons of the last game you played, and what you would rate it overall.

Pros
>endearing characters and story
>beautiful graphics
>well-written dialogue
>special random encounters like the quiz make gameplay more interesting
>varied bosses and enemies
>highly customizable characters while still limited enough to not all be the same by the end
>incredible music
>entertaining set pieces and environments

Cons
>most continents on the world map are too empty
>battle animations take forever, bottlenecking the ATB and often making battles slow and frustrating
>load times are atrocious

Overall
>9/10

[Anonymous No.1251039]

Pros:
>Ability to capture enemy ships and gain a different weapon.
>Capture the same enemy over again and upgrade your weapon up to 4 times.
>Bosses look sweet.

Cons:
>You get hit once without a shield and you die.
>When you die you start off at the last checkpoint which there are few of.
>If you die at a boss you start right back at the boss but with no power ups.

[Anonymous No.1251093]

dicks

[Anonymous No.1251347]

bump

[Anonymous No.1251365]

XCOM: UFO Defense

Pros:
>Great mix of tactical and management gameplay
>High but fair difficulty
>Lot of depth

Cons:
>Difficulty takes a nose-dive late game
>Interface is somewhat clunky
>Bugs range from annoying to game breaking
>Easy to cheese the mechanics after a few playthroughs

[Anonymous No.1251395]

Front Mission

Pros
>Mechas
>Loads of options for customizing your mechs
>Interesting combat system
>Entertaining storyline
>More mechas

Cons
>AI isn't very bright (as usual for these kinds of games)
>No permanent death (I guess that's highly depending on the person playing, and might not be a con at all for some, but personally i prefer it)

>>1251365

>Bugs range from annoying to game breaking

I've been using OpenXcom for my current playthrough, and it's been pretty nice so far. It fixes most (all?) of the bugs in the original game, as well as better resolution support and a bunch of other optional shit. I'd really recommend it.

[Anonymous No.1251423]

pros:
>really neat game, cool story

cons:
>fuckin hard

[Anonymous No.1251426]

>>1251395

Not the guy you're responding to, but curious: Does it get rid of that ultra-annoying thing where the only way to open a door is to go through it. It just irks me that every time I assault a medium UFO, I need to have a sacrificial lamb to get shot by their 5 guys reacion fire, instead of just chucking a grenade through or something.

[Anonymous No.1251431]

>>1251426

Yeah, you can open doors when standing in front of them by right-clicking.

[Anonymous No.1251476]

HOMM3

Pros:
>looks amazing even today
>tons of heroes, factions, maps, campaigns, missions to pick from
>flavor text out the ass
>causes One-More-Turn Syndrome
>maps usually have underground sections

Cons:
>factions are unbalanced, leading to cheesy tactics
>some of the resources and units feel superfluous
>the story is pretty bare bones
>you can cheese hard if you know what you're doing

[Anonymous No.1251496]

>>1251476
Earth + Air magic: All day long.

Eh, as far as the factions being unbalanced, I think the only one with real problems on a medium+ sized map is Inferno. I'm pretty sure it can be a good fight against any other two.

That being said, Rampart, Castle, and Dungeon are master race on small maps.

Which resources and units do you think feel superfluous?

[Anonymous No.1251521]

Pros:
>challenging enemies
>having ACTUAL RPG elements in a Zelda game
>being able to cast spells
>having an overworld+combat world
>grinding isn't really necessary
Cons:
>like most Zelda games, the story is pretty basic
>no character developement
>random battles are pretty annoying
>some of the challenge comes from shit just being arbitrary, ex: asked to find mirror, with no clues to where it is; it's invisible and under a table that, so you just have to know to crouch down and press 'B' by that specific table
>This probably is just a product of its time, but I hate not being able to at least save in a town and start there.
>The worst flaw: having a limited number of lives and being sent back to the starting when you get a game over. It's not particularly challenging. It's just really annoying

[Anonymous No.1251552]

>>1251521
>>like most Zelda games, the story is pretty basic
>>no character developement

How are these downsides? These are just saying "it's different".

>some of the challenge comes from shit just being arbitrary, ex: asked to find mirror, with no clues to where it is; it's invisible and under a table that, so you just have to know to crouch down and press 'B' by that specific table

Not checking everywhere in town? Your fault. I found the mirror with no help.

>The worst flaw: having a limited number of lives and being sent back to the starting when you get a game over. It's not particularly challenging. It's just really annoying

Not a flaw. Gameplay design. And it's brilliant. You have to be smart. You have to spend your three lives smartly. Do you risk going for the attack upgrade with zero lives, or go for the safe upgrade? You have to play smart and make sure you accomplish "something" with those lives.

The game does not hold your hand, and I love it.

[Anonymous No.1251553]

Pros:
>6 Unique classes
>Skill Trees, which lets you choose to play each class completely differently from the last time you played it
>Actually interesting storyline
>Tons of cool lore to look into
>The in-game cinematics are some of my favorite looking cinematics in a game to date. They just have such a good feel.
>Near-infinite amount of items, makes each run guaranteed to be different from the last.
>Combat is really smooth and intuitive
>Environments are randomized, so it doesn't get too old

Cons:
>going through the same Quests every time gets kinda old. Really something they should've randomized
>The Difficulty doesn't scale that well. If you don't grind before you go to the next difficulty level, you will more than likely get your ass handed to you.
>With random items, sometimes you do simply get screwed in a playthrough.
>Identifying items is kinda a pointless feature. Once you get out of Act one, not only can you get them identified for free, but gold is too plentiful not to have as many identify scrolls as you need.
>Speaking of that, Gold needed more use. Gambling was great, but there needed to be something more. Buying shit from merchants was simply not worth it.

9.5/10

>>1251521
Forgot to give rating here

8.5/10

[Anonymous No.1251573]

>>1251552
LMFAO, Little story and no character developement is just 'different'? Nah, it's a major problem with the Zelda games, though not all of them. Then again, it is an NES game, so I should give it a break on that front.

Eh, I found it on my own. It's just a really annoying gimmick in RPGs to just check every nook and cranny for things you need in the Main Quest. I don't mind that shit for extra shit.

You aren't risking anything when you get an upgrade. When you die, it saves your upgrade. You only lose experience.
It's not like you lose all your progress. It's just really inconvenient to have to get back to where you are.


Don't worry, you'll grow out of that "Zelda II masterrace" attitude. Once you realize that ldolizing shit just because others don't recognize it as a good game isn't cool, you're life will become a lot better, and people might stop thinking you are a total douche.

[Anonymous No.1251605]

Super Mario 64

Pros:
>Lovely environments, for time
>Most of the enemies did pretty well being transferred over to 3D
>Gave the Mario series a lot more content
>Fairly difficult to get all the stars
>Added interesting jump mechanics
>Cannons lol
>Hats
>Perhaps, it is just nostalgia, but really has that homey feel to it.

Cons:
>The controls are fucking horrid
>The camera is terrible. I understand 3D games were new and all, but it does not hold up. I can forgive graphics and see them as quaint, but gameplay is crucial, nigga.
>With the large addition of content, there came lots of annoying fodder that has lingered in the Mario series. Ex: not every fucking world needed red coins. I hate Red Coins. Fuck Red Coins. Luckily, you don't have to get EVERY star to complete the game, so it isn't a huge flaw on its face. But, it did sort of put the Mario series on the path of fodderization.
>The Bosses suck.

7/10 - It's still a fun game, but it definitely has problems.

[Anonymous No.1251615]

>>1249920
>>most continents on the world map are too empty

I thought towns and shit were fairly evenly spread across FFIX's world. If you want an empty map try FF VIII

[Anonymous No.1251613]

>>1251573

>video games have to have to be interactive movies and if they are not this is a flaw

[Anonymous No.1251614]

>>1251605

Are you saying the controls suck on the original console/controller? I played through it recently on emulator and on the original console. The console with n64 controller feels just fine, it felt like shit on the emulator with an offbrand dual shock.

Could this be synonymous for other anon?

[Anonymous No.1251618]

>>1251573
>>1251521
I don't think you've played many retro games if you expect unlimited lives and character development in an NES action game.

[Anonymous No.1251621]

>>1251613
who or what are you quoting exactly

[Anonymous No.1251629]

>>1251618
>I don't think you've played many retro games if you expect unlimited lives

Have you not played Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden...?

[Anonymous No.1251634]

>>1251521

Zelda II has the best combat of any Zelda
Zelda II has actual resource management

Zelda II was the right direction for Zelda in terms of combat and could have been expanded upon in order to maintain that challenge while being more exploration-based like ALTTP

[Anonymous No.1251639]

Pros:
>Pretty wide selection of Badges that allow you customize Mario and your partner to make combat interesting
>The partners are cool and pretty memorable
>The environments are fucking awesome
>While the overall storyline isn't great, it is better than most Mario games storylines
>That being said, some of the chapter storylines keep me fairly interested, like Ghost Chapter's storyline. You can tell that it is made for kids sometimes, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
>Reoccurring bad guy keeps you on your toes.
>The Bosses in general are pretty cool and can get hard, if you aren't prepared.
>Good difficulty curve, though, if you really know what you are doing with badges, it can get kinda easy.
>Enemies are plentiful, but can be pretty easily skipped, if you know what you are doing.
>It's pretty fun collecting shit
>The Game Parlor is fun
>Healthy amount of side-quests

Cons:
>If you just go with the strongest Badge set-ups, the combat can become pretty easy. However, you can't really get the best badges, until later in the game.
>Bowser is the main enemy
>Needs more luigi
>Would be better if the combat took more skill, instead of just the wii bit of strategy strategy.


9/10

[Anonymous No.1251646]

>>1251614
Nope, the N64 controller makes shit WAY worst for me.

>>1251618
If you would've read the second response you linked to, you would've seen that I said, "Then again, it is an NES game, so I'll give it a break on that front."

It's not like you really lose anything when you die. Dying is just an nuisance in that game. It doesn't really add to the challenge.

>>1251629
This.

>>1251634
Agree'd I should've elaborated on the combat a bit more. I just always have way more to say about the negative parts of games. Just my nature, I guess.

[Anonymous No.1251771]

>>1251639
>wii bit

I see what you did.

[Anonymous No.1251791]

Well, after a year of owning it, I beat Eternal Blue on my SCD. Its one of the games I bought the system for, actually. Took about 30 hours of playtime, and never felt boring. I just took a very long break at the final dungeon. I think its because the first random encounter I fought auto killed my whole party and I thought "I don't feel like this right now". But no, its just one type of mob, and have a tell when they will use it. No big problem.

Pros:
-Great Music
-Great Graphics
-Good story with likable characters. I actually cared about the main character and his love interest.
-Random encounter rate is low, while the encounters themselves require a bit of thought.
-animated enemies
-stunning animated cutscenes (which are also full screen)

Cons
-loading times are noticeable, if not bad.
-a bit of slowdown (come on, I've played the Batman games, I know the Sega CD can handle this many sprites)
-voice acting isn't tied to dialogue boxes, so you better remember which voice is which character

I'm going to go ahead and give it a 10. I've played many, many 16bit RPGs, and I can count the ones I enjoyed more on one hand.

[Anonymous No.1251796]

>>1251423
FUCK YOU DEAD TURTLE! I WAS SIX YOU ASSHOLE HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO FIGURE YOU OUT?
Loved that game though.

[Anonymous No.1251803]

>>1251605
Agree on the red coins. 100 coin in each level was enough.

[Anonymous No.1251841]

>>1251618
zelda 1 had unlimited lives bruh

[Anonymous No.1251845]

Final Fantasy Tactics
Pros
>Characters
>Story
>Cutscenes
>Art
>Music
>Gameplay
>Packaging
>Controls

Cons
>The translation could have been better

[Anonymous No.1251857]

Ultima Underworld

Pros
>Unbelievable pacing
>Neat combat.
>Good story.
>I'm mentioning the pacing again, it's just that good.
>Humorous at times, while still keeping the dramatic atmosphere.

Cons
>Doesn't really fit in with the rest of the Ultima series.
>You get all these shinies that are completely useless. Except for paying shak, you practically never need to barter for anything.

[Anonymous No.1251885]

AE 2012

Pros:
>Huge roster with plenty of likable characters
>Mechanics are good overall
>Big online scene with solid netcode
>Pretty balanced game
>Extremely high skill ceiling
>Amazingly intense action

Cons:
>Unblockables and PBOS loom large
>Some models are pretty ugly and the soundtrack is pretty stale
>Shit like El Fuerte exists

[Anonymous No.1252193]

>>1251605
>The controls are fucking horrid
This is objectively incorrect

>The camera is terrible. I understand 3D games were new and all, but it does not hold up. I can forgive graphics and see them as quaint, but gameplay is crucial, nigga.
Valid.

>With the large addition of content, there came lots of annoying fodder that has lingered in the Mario series. Ex: not every fucking world needed red coins. I hate Red Coins. Fuck Red Coins. Luckily, you don't have to get EVERY star to complete the game, so it isn't a huge flaw on its face. But, it did sort of put the Mario series on the path of fodderization.
Yoshi's Island was the first appearance of Red Coins, and offering a red coin mission for each course is certainly not a downside, especially considering one doesn't even need to play those missions if he chooses not to.

>The Bosses suck.
Compare them to every previous Mario game (except Yoshi's Island) and they are a massive improvement.

I don't get all the hate for SM64 recently. When did it become so cool to hate on? Half the complaints don't even hold up under any sort of scrutiny. The camera sucks, but the game itself is just as good as ever.

[Anonymous No.1252210]

>>1252193
Not him, but I thought the controls for Mario64 were really fucking sloppy back in the day. I will admit that I played it after playing Spyro and MediEvil, so I was probably spoiled in some regard.

[Anonymous No.1252232]

>>1252193
SM64 runs at 30fps so the controls are automatically unresponsive and bad.

[Anonymous No.1252306]

>>1252210
How on earth were the Mario 64 controls "sloppy"? The vastness of Mario's moveset isn't even matched by other platformers of the era, and every single move is done with incredible ease. Sliding, kicking, walljumping, cartwheels, long jumping, backflips, etc. The range of movement available is staggering, and it all uses a combination of 3 main buttons to do it (Z, A, and B). The controls are by far one of the best aspects of Mario 64, I literally can't understand where this complaint is even coming from.

[Anonymous No.1252360]

>>1252306
Because it's really slippery and feels imprecise at times. All this combined with the camera and the way he would just kind of scuff his feet instead of moving instantly really bothered me.

Have you considered that having all these myriad of different movement options and buttons might, in fact, be a detriment to the game instead of a boon?

[Anonymous No.1252383]

>>1252306
Mario can't cartwheel, and many would argue that Walljumping in 64 sucks, especially compared to improved mechanics for it in later Mario games.