/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7971493]

Tell me /vr/, how do you feel about limited continues in older titles?

Recently I've been trying to get into the Genesis library and finding that I enjoy many games but get stressed thinking about how if I fuck up too much I have to start over. I'm pretty young, 21, so I never had to deal with such a thing in anything I played growing up. I'm not inherently against it but I can't help but feel like any fuck up I make will cost me dearly down the line. I've been trying to play Shadow Dancer and Wings of Wor currently and enjoy both games but as soon as I die like three times I just can't help but feel the need to reset and start again to try to do better. How do you guys manage limited continues when you play? DO you just play and start over, do you only accept taking deaths at certain points in the game?

[Anonymous No.7971494]

>>7971493
It depends. I'm fine with limited continues if the game is short enough and has good pacing. But if a game has limited continues AND a password system, that's just silly.
You have the right idea with resetting if you game over early, save those continues for harder portions later on in games, master the beginning part first.

[Anonymous No.7971497]

The point of continues was to bleed your money in arcades, they serve no applicable purpose in home versions. If you enjoy the challenge they bring then leave them on, otherwise use savestates or cheat and give yourself 99 of them.

[Anonymous No.7971515]

These games take half an hour to beat, if they had infinite continues everyone would've beaten them the day they bought them.

[Anonymous No.7971595]

it's good because it means you have to actually get good at the game and give it the effort and respect it deserves.

[Anonymous No.7971621]

>>7971493
If you didn't 1cc a game, you didn't really finish it.

[Anonymous No.7971632]

Is this a game I want to practice and get better at?
>find value for lives/continues, lock at current value
Am I making a serious run at a game?
>no cheating allowed, not even in-game shit
If it really stresses you out that badly, just turn on a cheat for infinite lives/continues and play the fucking game. Why give a fuck about trying to impress some random person you don't even know?

[Anonymous No.7971730]

Since there's no way to replicate inserting coins to give yourself another credit, limited continues was a compromise. If you just have unlimited continues, that just removes all challenge from the game.

[Anonymous No.7971764]

>>7971730
You can continue as much as you like in Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, or Batman, but no one is saying those games are without challenge. Only arcade-style games that let you continue exactly from where you died can be made easier by credit feeding. Did you think about what you were posting before you hit post, or do you just share whatever retardation your brain comes up with?

[Anonymous No.7971801]

>>7971764
>Only arcade-style games that let you continue exactly from where you died can be made easier by credit feeding.
That's what I was referring to.

[Anonymous No.7971914]

Checkpoint-based games going extinct was the worst thing to happen to arcade/arcade-style games.

[Anonymous No.7972315]

>>7971493
I wouldn't say it really stresses me out, but it is kind of annoying.

Like I'm playing Castlevania: Bloodlines right now and practicing getting gud at a level I still haven't beaten, the way I typically would (right now I'm alternating between trying to complete the whole game from the beginning and trying to master the highest level I've reached), and it's just annoying as all fuck to constantly have to input the password each time I die. Just feels like a waste of time when like every other Castlevania platformer I've played doesn't make you go through that bullshit, and as similarly hard if not harder.

I don't really try to 1cc games, but I do try to play without using continues until I've gotten really far, like the last or second-to-last level, rather than just using continues all the time. So in that sense limited continues don't bother me re: the earlier levels, but do closer to the end when I actually want to spend time practicing the hard stuff. I definitely do reset if I feel I've wasted too many lives too early; I don't exactly have specific guidelines for when a death is acceptable but it's pretty easy to tell when you're doing poorly enough that it's just better to just start over entirely.

[Anonymous No.7972317]

>>7971493
I wouldn't say it really stresses me out, but it is kind of annoying.

Like I'm playing Castlevania: Bloodlines right now and practicing getting gud at a level I still haven't beaten, the way I typically would (right now I'm alternating between trying to complete the whole game from the beginning and trying to master the highest level I've reached), and it's just annoying as all fuck to constantly have to input the password each time I die. Just feels like a waste of time when like every other Castlevania platformer I've played doesn't make you go through that bullshit, and is similarly hard if not harder.

I don't really try to 1cc games, but I do try to play without using continues until I've gotten really far, like the last or second-to-last level, rather than just using continues all the time. So in that sense limited continues don't bother me re: the earlier levels, but do closer to the end when I actually want to spend time practicing the hard stuff. I definitely do reset if I feel I've wasted too many lives too early; I don't exactly have specific guidelines for when a death is acceptable but it's pretty easy to tell when you're doing poorly enough that it's just better to just start over entirely.

[Anonymous No.7972651]

>>7971493
It helps set a limit on how long you play it. You either beat it or run out of continues, and then its time to take a break. Personally I like that, makes it more manageable.
>I die 3 times and get game over
Many games (Shadow Dancer and Castlevania for example) have options to increase your lives to 5, which I highly recommend using. It’s not cheating because it’s right there in the options menu.

[Anonymous No.7973857]

>>7972317
Bloodlines is the second easiest linear Castlevania. It even has a fucking easy difficulty. You could've cleared the fucking game by the time you finished blog posting.

[Anonymous No.7973884]

>>7971493
People don't understand games used to be actual skill challenges. That's the appeal of those old titles, mastering it enough to at least clear it with the allotted lives or with a limited number of quarters (preferrably 1 credit but no one cares if you use 2 or 3, only you can be bothered by it).
Those games are short and hard enough so you can try over and over, and this is actually a fine balance, unlike retard baiters that will claim otherwise. Just look at games that are fine on paper but bombed because it offered too few credits for too long of a game, like Last Battle on the Genesis. There's a reason arcade games are hard but still offer you a fighting chance (power-ups and health, point-based extra life extends, outright 1-up pickups), and that's the same reason why some home console games offer you limited continues, you're meant to feel like you actually can progress, and you eventually will if you stop whining and git gud.

[Anonymous No.7974054]

Sounds like you need one o’ these kiddo.

[Anonymous No.7974083]

>>7971493
>I can't help but feel like any fuck up I make will cost me dearly down the line.

Cost you dearly... by making you play the game longer. The game that you enjoy. This is the price you are stressed about? Fix your mind, dude.

Thanks to emulators (and in some cases in-game cheat codes or glitches), you have the option of cheating. But you aren't taking it, even though playing without cheating is stressing you out. Why? They're games. Play them how you want. If you enjoy learning, replay until you're skilled enough to win within the continue limit, OR stop playing because you'd have a better time doing something else. If you don't enjoy learning, then cheat. (You've got a much bigger problem in that case though. Learning is life, and you want to enjoy life right?)

It's true that limited-continue systems aren't perfect (too much replaying of early stages can be tedious) and it's true that infinite-continue systems aren't perfect (lack of challenge can ruin the fun). You don't have to like any particular system, and the problem isn't only with your mind. But the MAIN problem here is with your mind. So fix it, by taking one of the options delineated above.

[Anonymous No.7974091]

>>7972651
>It helps set a limit on how long you play it. You either beat it or run out of continues, and then its time to take a break. Personally I like that, makes it more manageable.
I agree. Really, if you run out of continues, it probably means you have died like 30+ times and it's time to stop. If you actually got gud you will be able to get back to where you were pretty quickly, and if the game doesn't suck it will be fun getting there, more fun than throwing away more lives on the part where you got stuck for sure.

>>7972317
Bloodlines is particularly weird because iirc continuing doesn't even make you restart the level as in most games. It really is just "more lives", on top of having a password system too.

>>7973857
Is it though? Feels "just right" to me, I think hard mode removes a bunch of food and it feels kinda wrong for CV.

[Anonymous No.7974095]

>>7971493
Shinobi is one of the best console side-scrollers.

[Anonymous No.7974112]

>>7971493

Potential loss in a game is stressing you out enough to alter your behavior. Consider asking a doctor whether you might have OCD.

[Anonymous No.7974438]

>>7973857
Sorry that responding to the OP question is apparently blogposting, dude.

I'm not playing on the easy difficulty, and in fact I said it's pretty likely that the other CV games I've played before this were harder. I got up to the last level in like half the time it took me to do the same in CV3.

My point was just that the combo of limited continues + password system means there's a lot of time when I'm not even playing the fucking game because instead I'm scrolling through the menu screens.

[Anonymous No.7975129]

>>7974438

Password system implies unlimited continues. Why not just use save states to skip the password entry?

[Anonymous No.7975147]

>>7971595
Get a life.

[Anonymous No.7975150]

>>7972651
>and then its time to take a break
This is what people don't understand now. Just come back to the game in one or two days.

[Anonymous No.7975154]

>>7975147
We're talking about video games.

[Anonymous No.7975252]

>>7975129
It's still sort of limited continues in that you only have the number of lives/continues you had when you got the password. Ex. if I got that password while on my last life and last continue, then I can still only attempt that level as far as I can last on a single life. Meaning that since I'll be dying a lot, I'll also be spending a lot of time putting in that same password.

I don't use save states, but I woudn't mind using them to skip the mandatory password shit. It doesn't seem the emulator I'm using has them though.

[Anonymous No.7975253]

>>7971493
>Tell me /vr/, how do you feel about limited continues in older titles?
It's dumb.
Never grew up with it, but always hated it.
Shit's not at the arcade where you had to pay 2 win or pass the puck to the next faggot in line when you sucked. What's worse is lack of saving or level select. Maybe instead of making a straight arcade ports, the console ver. lets you unlock those features when you beat the game(s).

inb4 Triggered autists

[Anonymous No.7975775]

>>7971493
>Tell me /vr/, how do you feel about limited continues in older titles?
i think it's complete and unadulterated bullshit of the highest level, but it's expected. it's not an arcade game where to pay to progress.

[Anonymous No.7976052]

Wait till these crybabies learn about games with no continues at all

[Anonymous No.7976162]

>>7975154
i.e. not something that deserves effort and respect from any functioning adult

[Anonymous No.7976850]

People that hate it were introduced more to a modern mindset with brute forcing a game in a sitting rather than over a few sittings and getting better at previous levels. Today it has advanced to auto saving at check points and dropping you back there once you die, though modern games are significantly longer so a 30~60 minute set back is a bigger time waste than older games which can be beaten I'm 30~90 minutes.

[Anonymous No.7978327]

>>7976162
Do you know where you are fucker?

[Anonymous No.7978418]

>>7971493
Good because they discourage deliberate game overs to reset your life count.

[Anonymous No.7978636]

>>7971493
Older games rely more on memorization and patterns rather than dynamic generation and skill, don't fret it, it's intentional.

[Anonymous No.7979249]

who doesn't practice using save states before beating it legit? i do it with every game i play now, i really enjoy the process of finding out how to beat a boss. i played mega man zero on 3ds recently and couldn't use save states, i cheesed most of the bosses with their weaknesses, but one of them, the hidden phantom, is probably the hardest boss in the game and has no weakness, BUT his is the only level where you fight him first and then beat the level afterwards, so i got to practice a lot before being able to beat him flawlessly and it was super satisfying compared to having to resort to cheesing to not waste time beating stages over and over to practice against the other bosses. maybe some find the process of figuring out the patterns while in pressure fun but for me it's figuring out how to do it, then executing it in pressure later that is the most gratifying

[Anonymous No.7979258]

>>7979249
All the bosses in Mega Man Zero have really simple patterns and are really easy to exploit. Phantom is a joke.

[Anonymous No.7979260]

>Die
>"Continue?"
Nah I think I'll just return it.
Of course I wanna fucking continue, you candle-sniffing fuck fence. That's why I bought the fucking game.

[Anonymous No.7979268]

>>7979260
Continues lower your rank and lock you out of tlb fight, anon.

[Anonymous No.7979426]

>>7971493
Just use save states. 95% of /vr/ pretends not use them, but they do.

[Anonymous No.7979432]

>>7976162

go be a dumb nigger somewhere else

[Anonymous No.7979440]

>>7978327
Touche

[Anonymous No.7979450]

>>7971493
fine
it might seem like a huge hassle because when you're first starting you don't know how far you are in a stage or what will come next, you don't know the milestones, everything is unexpected, you don't know the patterns and you gotta react but aside from some games like kid chameleon most of the shit is what, 20-30 minutes at best so whatever. if I fail today there's tomorrow no biggie