Haven't played much in the area of games recently.

One of the last I tried out was super mario galaxy 2 back in summer for a few levels, which I quickly stopped since I wasn't enjoying it. Didn't care for using yoshi, and especially didn't like the preset camera angles when advancing through the level. I was looking forward to the game, but gave up on it pretty quickly. I wasn't too fond of the first SMG either, but I had at least beat that with the minimum amount of stars required.

Can't say I'm disappointed with nintendo, as it looks like they're back on the right track having watched their e3 this year. Though I haven't been playing too many of their games or any for that matter, their 3DS has sparked my interest with a decent lineup of first party games for it.

Some newer titles on my list to try out are, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Epic Mickey and Metroid: Other M- which there seem to be some complaints about. As for older titles, well I've been skipping games for a long time so that unkept list dates back to titles on the SNES even- so I won't be going into that. Future titles, I'd say the next game from team ICO- and some games on the 3DS like Paper Mario and Mario Kart and etc.

Hudson Bomberman wise hasn't released anything in the last 2 years that I've cared for, they did good at the end of 2008 with Bomberman Online Japan, Bomberman Blast (Full JP Version) and heard that Custom Battler Bomberman is good too but haven't gotten around to trying that one yet. I haven't played Battlefest yet, but if it's like Live/Ultra then I won't like that either- didn't like the camera angle or the feel of that game.



There's nothing directly for swearing, censor bypassing is mentioned but that's nothing much. We're pretty lenient around her for established members, so I'd say go wild.

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"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts."

You have no idea what you have released from me ;P nah, just kidding I don't swear that much really.

Though I don't play many new games either and I hardly ever pay attention to companies. In fact, the ones off the top of my head is Konami, Nintendo, Hudson, Bullfrog... uhh and I think that is it >.< I don't even know the latest news either...

Most recent game I got (in fact it was just Saturday me thinks) was FFVIII and C&C Red Alert Retaliation. I remembered both when I was younger so yeah. I don't buy many things. I'm pretty cheap :P

Oh man, more depressing news huh?

I loved Super Metroid but wasn't personally able to make the transition to the newer 1st person games. I couldn't get into it though I have to admit they still had a very Metroid like feel and atmosphere. I just don't like 1st person games much so I haven't been too into the series lately. i think the last one i tried out was Fusion which seemed decent IMO.

Either way its sad to hear that even many of those fans that still enjoyed the series after it went 3D are disappointed with this one. Bummer.

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Yeah and it came to me right out of the blue. Everyone was so busy complaining about the story that I hadn't heard anything bad about the controls when I bought the game. Had I known, I would have gotten it used (I'm a collector so even if I think it's a massive turd, I had to get it)


Yes, Metroid Prime 1 is essentially Super Metroid in 3D and first person view... so unless you like those, it's not gonna work for you. Normally I have issues with FPS games, they give me motion sickness, but thankfully the Primes didn't. I think it's the hud that helps by filling part of the screen with something static.


Fusion was a big let down to me, but it's still passable as a Metroid (or pretty darn good as a game in general). Other M is guilty of two of Fusion's biggest offenses (linearity and too much *beep*ing dialogue) but it takes those to the extreme and adds on more insults.
I would have thought Sakamoto had learned his lesson since after that one he made Zero Mission which was short but a true Metroid game by every meaning of the word. So much for that.

So to begin my analysis of Other M (and I'll preface this by saying that not having gone for the medical profession I never thought I would one day analyze feces), the intro of the game is nice, but as soon as you're thrust into the tutorial you immediately know something's wrong. Namely the controls are all kinds of screwed up. First off, Sakamoto wanted people to wonder how they would get a 3D game to be controlled with the D-pad (this game doesn't use the nunchuck, as you probably know). The answer?
They didn't. The controls are -extremely- clunky. Moving around in a 3D space while only being able to go in 8 fixed directions is extremely disconcerting, especially for an action game. It's the reason Nintendo came up with the N64 controller in the first place, too bad Sakamoto didn't get the memo. Also since this is a Wii-mote you only have so many buttons to go, meaning that there's no run button. In other words, Samus can only move at one speed... which happens to be thrice the default speed of any other Metroid game ever made. Expect to run into enemies a lot! Oh and on that note, it goes without saying that in order for this ridiculous set up to at least resemble a method of controlling the game, it's necessary that the camera moves in a predetrmined way, which means you have -absolutely- no control on the camera whtsoever. You'd think that would improve things significantly, but they managed to *beep* this up too as the camera will, at a surprisingly frequent rate, be placed in such a way that you can NOT see where you're going. Seriously often enough I find myself having to stop and shoot randomly toward the screen to make sure there isn't anything that needs to be taken out before I can keep going.

This leads us to the next issue: the autoaim. Despite its claim to be a throwback to the 2D Metroids, due to the inability to move in more than 8 directions this game has to rely extensively on autoaim. It's quite laughable really. So long as the enemy is in Samus' field of vision (meaning if she isn't turned anything more than about 80° degrees away from it) all you have to do is hit the button and Samus will take it on herself to target the enemy. It gets really ridiculous in some situations when you're just facing forward to the very center of the screen and enemies from both sides move in toward you (and thus toward the center) allowing you to shoot them all down just by mashing the attack button repeatedly as they line up in front of you.

But perhaps you've heard about how you can go into first person view by turning the pointer toward the screen, uh? You'd think that certainly this would improve things, right? Well though luck, it doesn't. First of all, there's a delay. Going in and out of FP view does not freeze the game, only slows it down for a moment (which looks kinda silly), so you'd better hope you won't get blasted while the visual shifts. Once you're in FP view... you can keep on hoping the enemies decide not to attack you, because you are -rooted- into place.
There isn't really any sensible reason for this since the D-Pad isn't any further away from your thumb. It just stops functioning because "*beep* it".
So now you're in FP view you can at least attack more efficiently right? Well, if you want to attack with the beam weapon while in FP view then you can -not- use the lock on. Why? Because locking onto enemies is how you activate your missiles. And these are not the missiles of Super Metroid, nooo, this crap has a delay between shots. But that's okay because you will only have very few missiles in this game since each expansion only raises your total by one, not five as in the other games. What's that? "This sucks?" Oh, we've only just started here...

There actually is a way to move while in FP view... by dodging enemy attacks. Naturally this means you can only move if a bullet is about to nail you, but hey, beggars can't be choosers right?
Now you'd think this would be made in a simple intuitive way... and you'd be half right. It is simple: you have to jerk the Wii-mote in one any direction. Yup, you heard me, while you're using the pointer to aim your gun in FP view you are expected to move out of harm's way by jerking your pointer away from the target. Genius. It's not something tat comes naturally so it takes a lot of getting used to.
I did however readily manage to dodge while out of FP view... mostly unintentionally. You see in standard view dodging is performed in a completely different way (because as everyone knows, you can't shake your controller while holding it horizontally... oh wait yes you can, they built all of Wario Land Wii around that idea). No in standard view you dodge by pushing any one direction immediately before being hit. Yeah I'm not shitting you. To dodge attacks you have to first stop moving. What. The. *beep*.
So what happens is that most of the times I'm just standing still and attacking, then I see a bullet come my way and I push a direction to walk out of the way... instead Samus performs a dodge (essentially a sommersault) and each and every time I'm momentarily disoriented by the fact that my character did something I did not intend for her to do (which often ends up getting me hit by the next attack). What's worse is... the dodge/sommersault animation isn't all that different from the one you get when being hit. So at times I honestly don't know wheter I dodged an attack or got blasted in the face. It's horribly confusing.
Eventually though, you get the hang of this dodging business... and that's when the game essentially turns into a movie, because you can dodge your way out of -anything- as much as you want. There is no interval of time before you can perform another dodge, and you are literally invincible while doing one (you can pass through anything). So essentially you can stop moving normally and just keep tapping directions to spam the move. Sure you could try to hold back from doing that, but there's fights in the game that seem designed to be won that way. Oh and for some reason shooting right after a dodge gives you an instant charge shot. Because you know, we needed an incentive to dodge.

At this point, you're probably having trouble piecing together this incoherent mess. So let me bring up the question you should be asking if your head wasn't spinning: if you have to lock on to shoot missiles in FP view, how do you shoot missiles in standard view?
Well that's really simple: you don't. You can only shoot missiles while in FP view.
Has your head exploded yet? Well this just might do the trick: remember Super Missiles? In Super Metroid you selected them as an alternative to the regular ones. Lately (in the Prime games, most notably) Super Missiles are just a bunch of regular missiles combined into one by charging up the missiles as you would the beam... guess which approach this game went with?
Now think about this: you can only activate missiles by locking onto enemies and you can only shoot Super Missiles by charging while missiles are activated. And you can't move while in FP view. As you can probably tell, this all translates into "Super Missiles are completely impratical during combat. Enjoy using them solely to open doors."

Since we're talking about missiles, have you heard that this game has no items dropped by enemies? Well what this means is, surprisingly, that you have unlimited missiles. The catch is, you can only restock by standing still. You do this by pointing the Wii-mote upwards and holding down A (seriously who thinks this shit up??). So yeah, once again, you'd better hope the enemies decide to take a break and stop shooting you. Oh and of course this can only be done in standard view. Whereas the missiles you're restocking are only used in FP view. Which takes an additional moment then to transition into. And roots you in place.
HOW DID THIS SHIT GET PAST BETA TESTING STAGES?!?!?!?

Oh, you may be wondering about health, since hey, enemies that always dropped that stuff now won't do so anymore. Because *beep* it.
Well, the above described method also restores health... but only if all your energy tanks have already been depleted and you're on the last 40 HP. It takes longer to pull off (it's not gradual so you can't interrupt it and get partial benefits from it) and does not recharge more than a few tanks, depending on dedicated items that you collect (you may wonder why it can only be done when you're down to 40 or lower and not, say, when you're at 60 and want to get back to 99... how many times do I have to say "because *beep* it"?). Oh and yeah, the only way to fully recharge your tanks is to reach a save point. Yippie.

For what is worth, the morph ball actually controls better than in Prime, probably just due to it having less inhertia. On the other hand, it's completely useless in fights because unlike Prime in which you took less damage in ball form, here getting hit snaps you out of the ball. What you still thought they'd do anything right? Well, I suppose it should be said that jumping surprisingly does -not- require you to throw your Wii-mote into the air clap your hands, scream "Jumpzor!" and catch it on the way down. At this point I expected no less.

So, you now probably believe the controls can't possibly get worse. Wrong, because just when you think that, they start getting "fancy" (no really).
First off, have you seen how Samus would sometimes get physical with enemies in the trailers? Guess how that is accomplished? By going into them. I swear I'm dead serious. There are some enemies which you can grab and toss by walking into them. This is completely automatical and I've often found myself doing so by accident (like the dodge).
Sometimes it isn't as simple as walking. In the tutorial I had one very surreal moment when I was told to "jump on its head". Right away I cracked up, exclaiming "That's a nice Super Mario joke there!". But I kept shooting and the enemy would not die. The game told me to stop sucking (almost literally. Yeah the tutorial actually insulted me for being slow) and repeated the earlier instructions. So I did, after several tries (it's hard to jump onto a moving target in a 3D environment with only an 8 directional D-Pad... who would have tought!) and again though I had not charged my weaponSamus delivered a charged shot to the head of my foe (because really charging your shot is only necessary when Samus doesn't feel like being a show off). I'm starting to be sick just by thinking back to all this...
There's also one more "technique": running into a stunned foe makes you perform a fatality. This seems to be bullshittingly mandatory against some enemies, but I could be mistaken.
Now the thing is... apart from this very last technique about stunned foes, there is no way at all to tell when you can interact with enemies in such ways. You just have to try throwing yourself at them, most likely getting hurt (and repeatedly too since, as I said, it's hard to land squarely on an enemy's head).
What's worse is... Samus has a really shitty armor in this game. You know those enemies that cling onto ceiling only to dive at you when walking by? The ones that in other Metroid games dealt something between 5 to 10 damage? Well one of them got a whooping 40 out of me. And I hadn't found any E-Tanks at the time. Obviously some bosses then will take out about 100 with one hit.

And yet, the game can still come off as pretty darn easy because of the dodge move. Also, they must have been very aware of how clunky this turd is, so the enemies are often bizzarrely not aggressive, leaving you time to recharge and shoot your missiles. As a result, you'll generally advance through the game without really enjoying the confusing yet easily won fights and still find yourself swearing like a sailor when you lose not because the game is genuinely hard but because of how clunky it is (really, that word never gets out of my mind for so much as a moment as I play through this thing).

Oh and I'm -not- done. There's still more ways, outside of combat, for the controls to suck. See, occasionally the game feels like being subtle-creepy. The thing is... it goes at this with the grace of a sledgehammer.
Every now and then, in certain areas with no enemies (not all of them, thankfully), the game will arbitrarily decide that Samus must stop running. Instead she will then walk around at a pace that would embarass even Resident Evil characters. Sometimes the game forces you to navigate huge-ass areas in this fashion. It takes for-*beep*ing-ever and, get this, nothing happens until you get to your destination. I'm dead, *beep*ing, serious. So yeah, after this magnificent example of douchebaggery, the programmers were clearly faced with a conundrum. How could they break up the action in an even more forced, arbitrary and extremely pissant way? They found a solution. Occasionally, Samus will be startled by something. When this happens you are forced in FP view and are required to go on a pixel hunt. Seriously, it's not as simple as just looking around until you find something, you have to guess (emphasis on that word) where it is Samus is supposed to look then keep the cursor on that spot for a few seconds (obviously to prevent you from just waving it around and get on with the game... as anybody clearly would like). The actual object you are looking at is generally only revealed afterwards (that's why I said emphasis on guess and pixel hunt. You only really see something small and partially obscured) and believe it or not: more often than not it is something that has no influence on the in-game action, just the plot. Seriously, Samus will just see something, shrug/remark on it and that's it. Wow. It honestly feels like everything in this game has been designed specifically to suck and piss off the player.

And that's all for the controls (yeah, I can't believe it's finally over either). So what of the game's other problems? Well first of all, this game is linear. Extremely so. There's no such thing as branching paths that can advance you through the game indipendently from one another. No. You will always have a destination and only one way to get there, with minor detours only meant to let you find some extra hidden power ups. On that note, Samus has a built in hidden item radar in this game that tells her where in a room hidden items are located after she cleared it of all enemies. Why after? Because... oh you're tired of hearing me say that. Actually I think the reason is that without enemy droppings, this is the only incentive to kill enemies rather than run past them besides the occasional door that only opens after they are dealt with. And with controls this enjoyable, the incentive is very much needed. Also, as I mentioned before, doors will inexplicably stop you from going back to previous areas (like they did in Fusion, except without bothering with any explanation as to why), so you better look around really hard when that blue dot blips on your map.
While we're talking of the map, it's important to mention that it utterly sucks. The one in the corner is multilayered, but the one in the submenu isn't. Yup, a 3D game with a 2D map. How's that for half-arsedness? Oh and when exploring... I'm sorry, when strolling by a new area, you are almost always given the map to the path you are to take by the save stations (again, like in Fusion).

Speaking of items brings us to one of the game's most universally disliked aspects, the plot. Yeah, that's a weird connection, I know. And that's the problem right there.
See, this game takes place after Super Metroid. So a reason was needed as to why Samus is back to basic abilities at the start of the game. Retro Studios in Prime made her go through accidents that disable her armor's powers. Cliché but functional.
Team Ninja decided to be "original" in this too (and by "original" I mean *beep*s). Samus has all her powers from Super Metroid (or most)... except missile expansions and tanks (which is left unexplained... brilliant). She just won't use those powers. Why? Because she's decided to go on a joint mission with Captain Asshole Munchon*beep* and he hasn't specifically authorized those abilities. Let this be absolutely clear: he hasn't gone and listed all abilities she can't use, only a few; ones that, in his own words, could damage the station (like Super Missiles or Power Bombs). Samus is just assuming that unless he specifically authorized it, she must not use it. No matter how life threatening the situation may be, Samus will die rather than use her full abilities. There is one particularly serious offender in the Varia suit. You have to go through a super heated area in which your healt depletes constantly because you don't have the Varia activated and Samus will rather burn to ashes than do so. It's only during the latter half of the boss fight that Captain Asshole calls in to tell her that she probably should use it. The absurdity of this is appalling when considering that the Varia suit can in no way damage anything being just a protective armor. Same goes for the grapple beam. Captain Asshole has you go around chasing a monster, then give up and reassign you elsewhere when the path's blocked... then go back and use the grapple beam to get over the obstacle! Something similar happens also with the wave beam, you navigate a maze, reach a point where you'd need it, get out and only then you are told you can use it, making you have to go back through the maze. WHAT THE *beep* WERE THEY THINKING????

This, of course, is all part of Samus' "scared emotional wreck of a girl" characterization you certainly heard about. Samus, the lone wolf best bounty hunter of the galaxy, is more afraid of not having the approval of her father figure (who acts extremely authoritative, rude and emotionally detached) than of dying a horrible death. Oh and she also is concerned about what a bunch of sexist dudes think of her. All human because clearly the Galactic Federation is entirely made of humans, right?
To most people that criticize this, the shit hits the fan when she is confronted with
Uff... that was a long rant. Oh and I almost forgot: all of the Metroid Prime games had nearly no loading whatsoever. The same goes for most Nintendo games as the company has always been sensible about this... not Hemorroid Other Emo, no sire.
Every time you go to load your saved game, you'll be treated to a very long loading sequence (to give you an idea of it: the game gives you a "the story so far" text and by the time you're done reading you'll often still have to wait a while).
Also the game expects you to move around in a certain way. Do otherwise and you'll have to stop at doors that refuse to open because the game (as it notifies you in a corner) needs to load.

How about that? You can have a great game like Prime and play it as much as you like without any breaks... or you can bore yourself to death as you wait for a piece of crap to drive you bonkers.
Being it the later released game, you'd think at least the technical aspect would be handled better.

Honestly, this game is a *beep*ing insult to the franchise. Whereas Fusion could not really be considered a good Metroid but was still a very enjoyable game, Other Emo is barely a mediocre game and a Metroid in name only.
As far as I'm concerned it's on the same level as the Zelda CD-i games (which are a surprisingly good parallel since they too have horrendously bad controls and cringeworthy cutscenes).

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Metroid: Other M - As in "There's the good Metroid games... we chose to do one of some Other Make altogether."

Wow Duke. Sounds like Other M was probably your worst gaming experience ever, and I'm sorry to hear that. I guess I know not to bother trying this anytime soon. I'm not even sure if I'm going to buy it at all anymore.

I've heard a lot about emo Samus in this game, and all of it just seems like it was ripped out of a really bad fanfiction. Seriously, Samus Aran confronted the Space Pirates with absolutely no fear several times before (and foiled all of their plans skillfully). But in this game, she's deathly afraid of fighting an enemy she defeated at least three times before? I call the Bullshit card right here.

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

Nah, like I said it's simply mediocre. If it was made by an indipendent developer I'd probably have a much better opinion of it. The problem is, this was supposed to be the next big Metroid game, the first 3D one made in Japan, by a famous team of developers. To say that expectations were high, would be a ridiculously blatant understatement.
I have unfortunately played worse games. Like that thing... that abomination which calls itself Megaman X7.


I'd say you may give it a rent if you're curious. Who knows, if you don't mind a completely linear action game with a spammable invincibility move, clunky controls, obnoxious interruptions, nonsensical plot points and long loading times, you might actually get some fun out of it. I mean, half the fanbase seems to obstinately consider this a good game. I imagine the redeeming quality to them must be that... uh... It's Metroid! With moar plot! And uh... from Japan?
I've actually been to a board where they had a poll about the best 3D Metroid and this one got first place in a draw with Prime1. My brain exploded at that point. I'm told putting it back together was a real pain.


Yeah, they just re-used a scene from the Zero Mission manga. In which it actually made sense, what with that being the first time she met him again since childhood... then again, on another hand, the vanishing suit did not make sense even in that context (oh and that shit happens again later on, in case it wasn't stupid enough the first time).
I have a fanon theory for lulz that Other Emo Samus is actually a clone of the real one programmed by the federation to obey her commander's orders unquestioningly and that this makes her less brave and capable  
That or Samus got plastered after her victory in Super Metroid and dreamed up the whole thing (worst nightmare ever).

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Metroid: Other M - As in "There's the good Metroid games... we chose to do one of some Other Make altogether."

Well, it isn't exactly what you would call "disappointing", but it's just that with some RPGs I try to get into, they never seem to appeal me as much as Pokemon does. Though everyone says Pokemon can easily be surpassed, I tend to have different views of a game in general than everyone else. For an RPG, provided it uses a turn based combat system, I expect something that is both easy to understand and packs endless hours of content due to the relative ease of programming such games.

For a real time combat RPG on the other hand, I expect things differently. What I expect is a flawless combat system with no real faults with easy controls similar to some Action-Adventure games such as Zelda, and I don't exactly expect much content in these kinds of games as A: I don't own any of the HD consoles yet, so storage space on the systems I do have is limited for such, and B: most of the times that kind of content exists, the game is linear, and I'm not counting the MMOs due to their mostly non-linear nature and due to the online part of them, as I'd rather have a handheld or console based RPG, mostly the former.

Typically I can enjoy a real time combat RPG provided it had all of the above, yet why is it after playing Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Digimon World 4, and even bits of Secret of Evermore I still spend most of my time with Pokemon? Well it's simple really, because both RPGs tend to have some kind of small problem that's real simple yet can ruin the dream of a perfect gameplay experience. Those 4 games play differently enough that I can get a basic understanding of what exactly is wrong with them, but let me atleast start with Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.

Now for KH, without this one problem, I can probably be spending hours on end with this game with practically no problems at all. It's simply the controls and how they work with the combat system is what I'm disappointed about. This is something I didn't really expect, as even though I heard some bad bits in reviews, I've looked at actual gameplay videos and saw a perfect and fast-paced combat system. I never expected the controls to feel slightly clunky like that, as what I saw in videos was fast paced action with highspeed character movement and a reliable jumping ability.

Yet when I tried actually playing myself, the control scheme felt kind of awkward and not as polished as I originaly believed it to be, mostly the camera system is why this is so. Since Birth By Sleep is on the PSP, which means only a single Analog, the default control scheme requires the Lock-On be activated by both the R AND L buttons.

Why couldn't they simply have just the R Button for locking on? And why is it that you only need to lock on once when I'm used to having to hold the button down to stay locked on? It's so much easier the latter way than the way KH does it since I'm so much used to how it's used in Zelda games by actively holding the Lock on button down than just pressing it once, yet not only that, I constantly had to lock on over and over to rotate the camera in the way I needed it to go, as just locking on once can sometimes screw up the camera angle when moving around to attack.

The default control system is my least favorite because of that, yet even on the other control system, it's no better either. In that control scheme I need only a single button to lock on, making locking on less of a chore. The camera itself is probably what the other problem above is, as when I use this control scheme, I have to press one of the shoulder buttons AND MOVE THE DAMN ANALOG STICK when I wanted to rotate the camera normally, which given how I need to keep moving inorder not to be hit in combat, is why I'm forced to lock on over and over in this control scheme. So why did I not choose the other control scheme for easier camera? Well, I tried, but whenever I did use the default it made me seem as if the L button had some kind of attack/spell command for it which halted all character movement (Can't remember what exactly it was, didn't pay attention too much).

Also, on a minor note, when upgrading Finishing moves, it happens automatically and I don't even notice, and there is this one finishing move in particular which requires me to suddenly press a certain button or get stunned and leave me open for attack. Why such a finishing move even exists amazes me, as it's very difficult to control as I NEED to focus on actual combat, especially with Bosses as I don't always have time for anything "fancy" unless I can do it without getting hit in the process.

Now we go to Monster Hunter which, like KH, has a minor problem which otherwise keeps it from being a perfect experience. Yet, even with this, nothing is really stopping it from being perfect anyways. At 70 hours logged on my main file, it is the ONLY other game EVER that I've ever spent so much time with other than my Pokemon Platinum's 120 hours (At the time my Monster Hunter file had more hours logged than SoulSilver). Well, the reason I'm not playing Mon Hunt more than Pokemon is because IT'S SO ****ING HARD AND THE BOSSES ARE CHEAPSKATES THAT GET FREE HITS ON YOU EASILY. Yet even then, that's actually what makes the games so rewarding to the point the flaw is almost nonexistant, but yes, I cannot get any farther in Unite so far as I'm stuck with dual Diablos, so that is the only reason I do not play it so much nowadays. Other than that, Pokemon would pretty much be extinct if it were a tad bit easier yet still hard enough to keep the challenge it has.

Then we got Digimon World 4, which is probably the worst of the 4 main examples I have so far. This particular game controls differently from KH and Mon Hunt, since it's in an overhead perspective and has 4 player Co-Op (Though Mon Hunt also 4 player Co-Op in a somewhat similar manner). The main reason I don't play it very much is not because of bad control, but it simply lacks major features. Only 4 main worlds exists, all kind of small with only 14-16 playable Digimon (Can't remember how many exactly, but I know it was a small amount). The combat feels barren and difficult, and by difficult I don't mean the good difficult as in Monster Hunter, I mean true difficulty as there's no real rewarding feel to the bosses other than simply completing a level, where in Monster Hunter it made difficulty seem more like character developement in a cinematic movie as you want to get revenge against that Tigrex that keeps beating you the death. Other than the difficulty, the lack of any kind of replay value other than a Hard and Very Hard mode is disappointing, and from what I'm seeing, the game should technically have ALOT more space on the Disc for such content.

Now we go to Secret of Evermore, which is a pretty good game actually, but it's just that the combat system is kinded of limiting to the point it's not really real time, but more like a turn based RPG. Once you attack, you need to wait a few seconds for your strength to recover until you can attack again, and if you attack before you finish recovering, you do almost nonexistant damage. Not only that, but as an old game that I've only recently ever tried, I feel rather limited with since in my opinion, it should atleast be a turn based RPG as I would probably play it more with it does and I'm not really used to real time combat on older systems such as the SNES, as it's usually limited compared to what I see on the 6th Gen era systems and later (Of course I could be wrong, as there might be a game like that on the NES or SNES, but is it an RPG?).

So which of these do I feel the most disappointed about? Well it's a tie between Digimon World 4 and KH, but given what I've seen Square Enix do in the past and the fact that KH tries to be one of the more advanced RPGs, I'm probably having to hate on KH more than Digimon World 4. I've actually enjoyed DW4 in the past when I was younger, and since KH's controls seem to be the confusing mess it is, I don't see any main reason to play KH as much as I do. If I play any non-Pokemon RPG at all nowadays, I look directly at Monster Hunter, as the games have progressively been fixing the difficulty problems at the loss of content, which may lead me to believe Monster Hunter Tri and the upcoming Monster Hunter Freedom 3 is the exact kind of RPG I'm looking for, but I don't really know yet until I've actually played them for myself.

.....

Though I'm kind of late for asking this since Christmas is too close by now, what exactly are the RPGs you guys tend to focus on (And that also have a US release)?

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Well, at least it sounds like you've made more of an effort to actually try some different things and open the mind a bit. Although you've mentioned some flaws it sounds like you still got moderate enjoyment out of some of the games so that's good.

There's always gonna be flaws in most games its really hard for anyone to find a game that they will enjoy every aspect of perfectly, It just really doesn't happen. There's always gonna be something you wish was different or extended etc.

Like I'd say some games deserve a 10 out of 10. it doesn't mean they're perfect in every way. It just means it's probably as close as it could have hoped to get.

As a comment I have to say I sympathize with you about the KH controls. It's always annoying when a game doesn't control smoothly. It is the most important aspect of any action-based game.

As for your closing question I'm not exactly sure what you mean by

If you mean titles I've been focusing on recently, I've mostly been playing Ys:The Oath in Felghana for PSP which I've heartily enjoyed and finished this past week. Next time i pick it up I'll have a harder difficulty to play and more upgrades to get.

I've also been playing A GBA game from about 5 years ago called Sigma Star Saga. I bought it right when it came out got stuck about 4-5 hours in and put it down for awhile and eventually stalled it. So I started it over from the beginning about a month ago and I got one of the endings this past week. Overall I thought it was a pretty decent game. Its basically a horizontal shooter and RPG combo. You explore over-worlds or dungeons on planets and whenever there's a random battle you get warped into a fighter and basically play a shooter. The enemies you kill drop exp that levels you up and your ships will do more damage and you'll take less damage from enemy attacks. There's also bullet data you find on the planets that give your ship different types of shots like 3-way, wave beam, seeker missiles etc. Story was so-so I wish there was actually more dialogue and/or cut scenes. The OST was quite good and it was mostly fun to play alot of backtracking to explore more areas as you get new items and abilities so you can find more gun data to use and such. One other aspect I don't like about the game is you are given random styles of ships for the random battles so sometimes you get screwed with a ship that's too big and slow or too fast and you're forced to navigate tight corridors with it and probably lose tons of health or die repeatedly by crashing into walls.

Those are the 2 games I've been focusing on lately, if you mean what kinds of RPGs I focus on in general I usually like to play Tactical RPGs and Action RPGs the most, but anything with an anime theme can possibly catch my interest so when i buy RPGs thats usually what I'm looking for.

....

Also Duke Serkol I'm quite sure I won't be wasting my money on Metroid Other M now. heh heh

Since it's doing decently you can probably expect the series to most likely be ruined from this point forward. That does seem to be the trend nowadays. If the kids bought the crap we'll make more of it since they're gonna buy it regardless of the amount of effort we'll put in.

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Well now that you've said that, it's not the Tactical RPGs I'm into. I'm not really familiar with the correct terms for what kind of RPG is what, but what exactly is Pokemon and Monster Hunter listed under? Since those are the two RPG games I like the most, I'd probably like an RPG similar to those two franchises. I know God Eater Burst is similar to Monster Hunter but at the time of posting this just now I cannot believe I actually forgot to add that to my Christmas List. DERP.
Edit: Oh wait Burst isn't out yet. My bad, last I checked it would be released in the US last Fall, but now it's for a March release.

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I don't think that they'll keep making the metroid games like this from now on for the series (though it's possible that there could be a sequel), as the normal FPS versions of the games didn't bomb compared as far as I'm informed on the matter. Say with super paper mario, that game was different then the main paper mario series (though it didn't reel me in like the normal paper mario style games). Even though it did well, and was the best seller in the paper mario series for that matter. As can now be seen on the 3DS, they're making an original style paper mario game again. So there's hope that metroid won't crash and burn like some game series have, no matter how well the Other M version of it does.

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"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts."

OR IS IT? Dun, dun, dun!!!


Yeah, that's the philosophy that got us from Ocarina of Time's ten dungeons to The Wind Waker's six (with others having been planned and scrapped since no one really gave two shits).


Other Emo did spectacularly in Japan, where the Prime games pretty much bombed... so that's the exact reverse of sales in the rest of the world.
I'm not sure what that tells us about Japan really. I mean seriously, how can they love Tower of Druaga and hate non-linear Metroid games? WTF??


We can only hope, yes.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, this game was preceded by Fusion in some of its biggest flaws, so what Nintendo needs to do is wisen up and give Sakamoto the "Gunpey Yokoi Virtual Boy treatment".
...which means putting him somewhere he can't do anymore damage, not have him run over by a car, if you were wondering.
Also irony since Yokoi is the guy that made Metroid (and is probably performing the Screw Attack in his grave since Other Emo was released).

On that note... this is the disappointing games thread, so I'll take the chance to say: the first Paper Mario was a disappointment to me. I liked Super Mario RPG much better. This probably due to only two things: the story and style seemed much more epic and grandiose (think the fight with Exor) and support characters were handled terribly in PM (one hit and they have to skip the next turn? What??)
Thankfully both of those issues were "fixed" in PM:TTYD, so I absolutely loved that one.

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Metroid: Other M - As in "There's the good Metroid games... we chose to do one of some Other Make altogether."

I don't know what's up with gaming developers and expecting to hit over a (insert number other then 1 or 2 here) million in sales these days. It's such a ridiculously unrealistic number. The only games that sell that much are Generic FPS 4: Killing Spree Edition and other games that "casual gamers" play. Metroid isn't what I'd call a casual gamer title.

Not that I'm angry about it or anything. Based on what I've heard from other Metroid fans, Other Emo is a crappy game. It's just these "announcements" where a title hits over a million sales and then the company deemed the sales to be "not good enough" are incredibly annoying. Same thing happened with Devil May Cry 4.


I believe I read somewhere that FPS games aren't really popular in Japan. With that in mind, it wouldn't surprise me that the Prime series didn't do as well as the other ones in Japan. Even though I don't care for FPS games, I loved Prime. I don't think one can correctly say that the Prime games are FPS games. They just use the first person perspective camera angle.


I can totally see where you're coming from with this. Even though I kind of liked Paper Mario, it was no Super Mario RPG. TTYD was one of those rare cases were the sequel actually was better then the source.


I'm going to assume you mean "genre" of RPGs.

I dunno, I can like any of them. It depends on how well they are handled. Of course, a good story is a must with RPGs and the gameplay should be fun and not feel like a chore. With that in mind, I've been playing mostly Action RPGs (Ys Oath in Felgania and Phantasy Star Portable 2 as of late) and Strategy/Tactical RPGs (Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness) lately.

IMO, I'd say Pokemon is more of a traditional Turn Based RPG in game mechanics and style. I'm not really too familiar with Monster Hunter, but based on what I've seen/know, I guess one can call that more of an Action RPG.

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

I agree.
Some fans of FPS games were actually quite mad at the lock on system in Prime (saying that aiming is most of the fun in that kind of game).


Yeah, it was a good game (apart from the helper character turn skip thing), just not up to the expectation bar set by SMRPG.

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Metroid: Other M - As in "There's the good Metroid games... we chose to do one of some Other Make altogether."

Then I'd have to say these people completely missed the point of Metroid.

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The Local Video Gaming Lunatic

Recent stuff I'm into:

Watching: A Certain Scientific Railgun (ep.14, stalled), Hoshi no Kirby (ep. 71, stalled), Nazo No Kanojo X (ep. 8), Acchi Kocchi (ep. 8)
Reading: nothing

What I'm saying is it's doing well enough to warrant a possible sequel and fans that didn't like the looks of it but bought it for collecting's sake are contributing to the problem. If the games sell well enough they won't care about what we think they did wrong in them.

Although apparently Nintendo doesn't think it's selling well enough. They obviously aren't going to listen to us though since they are convinced its a "Great game". We're pretty much doomed.


Might be some biased opinions at work here. They might not have even given the games a chance/look given the new approach to the series or their development team change at the time.

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