WHY does Champions of Norrath and Return to Arms have to be ps2 exclusive?! It sucks because I still want to avoid ps2 like I’ve said many times before…yet those games are excellent! I love a good real-time hack/slash rpg. I was at a friend’s house yesterday, and we moved our old characters over to Return to Arms, which he bought recently…
And so was the return…of the Dark Elf, Chojin, and his powerful allies. Disease Trail(aka “toxic fart”) was just as useful and funny as ever. But then the Chojin discovered another power…he evolved and then found the greatness that was the Summon Skeleton ability! “Skeleton Dude” would occasionally appear to be enchanted…which the Chojin dubbed Soul Glow. Before the day’s adventures ended, Skeleton Dude was definitely a valuable occasional 4th team mate, as he was leveled up to 20 with a 50% chance of having the Soul Glow.
Chojin also had a new appearance that was more disturbing and horrific than ever before…a metallic helmet that was cast in the likeness of a deer’s skull…his armour was all dark and drab in color, which was a perfect fit with his soul, his heritage, and his destiny.
anyway, yeah I LOVE this game as much as the regular “Champions of Norrath”. I will eventually have to get a ps2 to continue The Chojin Myth. My friend was level 37, I was 23 or 24, and his wife’s character was 28. My “Skeleton Dude with Occasional Soul Glow” was quite a valuable asset against some ugly giant characters we fought on 2 island/tropical areas.
What’s so good about that? I remember getting the “game” a year and a half ago, and I couldnt play it after a few hours of game because it sucked. The battles weren’t good, the story was ass.
It felt like an inferior everything.
It’s a good thing square never released that shit stateside way back in the day. It wouldve been messed up for people to pay $70(remember when cartridges used to cost that much??) for that.
EX-Sucker Punch: Yeah tell me about it. I remember when FF3(6) came out back in '94, shit was around $80-90 in some stores. I had to wait 6 months or so, so I could get it for about $72.
Way back in the day, got games like Mega Man 2 and Ninja Gaiden for like 70.
Shit was wild. That wouldn’t fly now at all. Those days, places like blockbuster and earl’s video and stuff like that had big business. It was more worth it to rent a game, cause back then i dont even remember stores having trade in deals until the appearane of stores like Funco-land, and when toys r us did it. So you bought the game, that’s it.
When I got CT back in early 95 or whatever year it was, it was about $55-60 for me.
EDIT: Oh shit and games like Mortal Kombat 2. Got that joint day one, on SNES. 70+
Damn games were really expensive, moreso than now by a longshot.
Well we also gotta consider how much work was put into a cartridge as opposed to a CD. All the chips they had to stuff in prolly added on to the budget.
I remember expensive carts being rare…most games were like 49 or 54.99. I think (snes)Street Fighter 2 was the only game I had that was either 59.99 or 69.99. I think TMNT: The Arcade Game for NES was 59 when it came out…but again, that was rare from what I remember.
Neo Geo was the one that was rediculous --a Neo game that was 85 or 90 bucks was actually considered “cheap”. I don’t think anyone in my school had that system…there were only rumors like: “Tasha’s bro that goes to Southside…he got one.” Never someone I knew of more directly…always a stepbrother of a cousin’s girlfriend that goes to another school. heh, I remember showing mom the Neo Geo in a Sears Wishbook(*I LOVED those catalogs!), and she saw the price and started laughing. I was laughing too…it was actually a bit of a bonding moment.
EX-Sucker Punch: True. CDs aren’t that expensive at all in comparison. But the budget for games themselves have soared.
Million: Haha I remember that sort of thing too. “Yo, my friend Louis friend got a Neo Geo gold!”(i dont know what the fuck a Neo Geo Gold is, dont think it exists.)
I remember around Mega Man 2 time, i had this friend named Gary and a friend of his was saying shit like: “Hey, yo Gary has Mega Man 3! He went to Japan and got it!” NO MM3 at his house(the shit likely wasnt even concieved yet).
Actually, there was a NeoGeo “Gold” system. NG came in a choice of 3 different packages/setups…and I think Gold was like the premium, top-level pack…it came with 2 controllers, and most likely 3 or more games…and of course it was the most expensive setup = 700 bucks, I think. (*the “cheap” set was 500, if I recall)
Not sure if I mentioned it before…but my friend has the DS…it actually looks better than what I remember from in-store demos. The screen is perfect --bright(*actual backlighting, I assume!?), clear, and sharp. The graphics on the Mario 64 port were much more crisp than I remember on the N64 original…still, it felt awkward to move around in that game with just a D-pad…and I usually prefer D-pad to analog sticks.
*also, I don’t see how people could say “well that screen will get scratched up quickly”…it only requires a slight touch with the stylus to activate. It’s not like you’re actually writing something with a pen or pencil. I barely tapped the on-screen button prompts, and that seemed to be good enough for the system to recognize it. Still, I need a better selection of games to come out. The launch lineup for DS was kind of pitiful, imo. Perhaps it was the fact that I just wasn’t really into Mario 64 like a lot of other Mario fans…(*I still say SMB3 is so far the best super mario game ever. I STILL play it on my GBA now.)
But yeah, they gotta get something going on now rather than later…or PSP(despite having the typical questionable Sony “hardware quality”) will CRUSH the DS. DS is in desparate need of some real system-sellers…cuz PSP is already set to come out with quite a strong launch lineup. They have Darkstalkers, which scores big cool points from me…and then they have a Twisted Metal game on top of that! I can’t remember what else caught my eye right now, but just that combination there is already serious business, imo.
Word. SM64 was playable, but that treasure hunting crap doesn’t compare to the straghtforwardness of the old skool stuff. SMB2/3, SMW, and YI were where it was at.
well personally i like the battles and raising dragons, and im prolly a little biased towards it because i like strategy tactic games like ogre battle.
Oh ok. Well, I didn’t like Orge Battle either. Couldnt play it longer than 5 min. Tactics Ogre beasts on OB, I’d like to find the PSX version somewhere.
Web-slinging is so addicting in Spidey 2. I actually had to hold off on doing it this morning because I needed to go cash my pay check. The fact that there really aren’t much if any unlockables in the game doesn’t seem to bother me, really. Web-slinging>anything else. It’s that much fun and I can’t get enough of it.
heh, speaking of Mario, I was playing SMAdvance 4(smb3+MarioBros.) yet again while waiting on the car(service/maintenence)…I played more regular Mario Bros…even that one is still fun to me. I got a new high score that was over 200,000…I finally died on “phase 24” or 25…things get kinda crazy around that point in the game, with the ice enemies showing up constantly, and ice stalactites falling, AND random fireballs(red and blue…heh, bluefireballs), with the now super-fast regular enemies; crabs, flies, and spiny turtles.
On Mario 3, I just played around in World 1 again, with my Hammer Bros. suit of course. I lost it, but thankfully I have about 5 of them in inventory, so it’s no major loss.
*I “acquired” the new Xbox mag demo today…and I’ll play it later. This one has Unreal 2(*or whatever they’re up to now with the added melee/3rd person abilities) on it!
*completely off-topic = VIDA is in FHM yet again. The pictures are spectacular as usual.
*back on = yes, I’m also looking forward to Jade Empire. The character with the samurai style outfit/mask on the current egm looks too tight. I like those old japanese masks, and the samurai armour style is always cool.
There is going to be an annoying boss battle and you are not going to like it later on. This will occur once you are finishing the area. I am not going to ruin it for you, let’s say it will take a while against a boss character you have dealt with from the first game. I won’t even comment about another boss battle that’ll take even longer this.
I beat it the first time i tried it. and this is my second time because I wanted to restart the game for the the GS campaign items. I decided to restart after I got on the elsa. So ive already fought albedo and level 4 before. they were both fairly easy too.
what made it so difficult? did you use the right combo to break his guard?
So far nothing has been harder than the early Margulies (sp?) fight from the first game.
I was laughing too…it was actually a bit of a bonding moment.
The pictures are spectacular as usual.