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With 46 Master Robots to choose from it wasnt actually very difficult to narrow it down to 10. A lot of them are just rehashes of previous robots, really wierd or simply forgettable.
Anyway we'll start at 10 and work our way down.
Continue reading Top 10 Master Robots
Over the next couple months I'll be taking a trip down memory lane. Those memories will include Robot Animals, Fat Bearded Scientists, Blocks Appearing out of nowhere (seriously), and Mega Busters.
Ill be trying to put up one Top 10/Bottom 10 (maybe 5 in some cases) per week. These lists will range from: Master Robots, Weapons, Levels, Music, Non-Master Robot Bosses, Wily Levels, Regular Enemies, Upgrades From Game to Game and anything else that pops into my head (or is suggested by you guys!!).
We'll start off with something easy and do Top 10 Master Robots. This should be up by the end of the week.
The Gamecube was definately not known for its robust RPG library last generation. The PS2 did a good job of blowing both other systems (combined) out of the water in that category (I don't know enough about the Dreamcast to confindently add it to that remark). That said the Gamecube still has a surprisingly strong showing in the RPG arena if you look closely. Games like: Fire Emblem, Tales of Symphonia, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Phantasy Star Online, X-Men Legends and Harvest Moon lead the pack. There are still a few other Cube RPGs that fell under the radar of most gamers.
[img width=256 height=359]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/z.jpg[/img]
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (henceforth known as BK) deserves a lot more attention then it gets. Lets take a closer look at its strengths and weaknesses, shall we?
STRENGHTS:
Story
This is "THE" most important factor of any RPG in my opinion. In most genres I'd say gameplay is key, but RPGs are the exception. If your going to be investing 20-40 hours of your life into a game it had better be darn interesting.
The game starts off with Kalas waking up in a small town after getting beaten up in the woods. After he regains his composure and figures out where he is he remembers his goal. Kill Giacomo the man who killed his family and burned his home down.
As you progress you find that the Empire is trying to ressurect the power of an ancient god that swalled the entire ocean leaving only a few islands left on the planet. Kalas eventually meets some others that join his party that are out to stop the emperor from suceeding in his plan. Kalas is reluctant to join, but because Giacomo is a higher up in the Empire he joins because their mission because it may eventually lead him to get the revenge he desires.
Visuals
[img width=570 height=449]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/00178236-photo-baten-kaitos.jpg[/img]
This is by far my favorite looking game on the Cube. While some games may be more graphically impressive such as Resident Evil 4 the art sytle of BK game really shines above. The entire world and all the characters in it are very bright and vibrant and full of life. The world really seems to be alive as you explore it. Simple things such as running through some bushes and spooking some birds to see them take off in a large group gives an extra amount of depth to the islands you explore.
Each Island you explore in this game has its own unique visual identity, wheather it be a lush green forest like enviroment or a hazy mountain top covered in clouds each place you visit is vastly different from the last.
Battle
This is another area in which this game really shines. At first the game just throws you into battle without much explanation and you slowly learn some tricks to help increase your skills over the next couple hours of game play through both experimentation and NPC tutorials.
You fight using a card based battle system. Each card belongs to an element and has at least 1 spirit number assigned to it. At first you can only attack with a couple cards, but as you level up and progress throughout the game the amount of cards you can lay down during battle increases.
Each Element type obviously damages enemies of opposite types more than those of the same time (such as Water hurts Fire based Enemies more than Dark would). But if you use a water based attack and a fire based attack in the same turn they partially cancel each other out (attack for 10 water and 6 fire in the same turn would result in a final attack of 4 water). This keeps you on your toes and quite aware of what cards to use and when to use them. It also involves quick thinking on your part because after you use your first card you have a very limited time to use your next few cards.
[img width=570 height=449]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/z2.jpg[/img]
As I mentioned above each card also has a spirit number. These numbers range from 1 to 8 and cards can have multiple numbers on them. If you manage to attack an enemy with a straight sequence of cards (such as 5-6-7) then a bonus percentage of damage is added to you final attack. As you become capable of playing more cards during battle later in the game you find more and more combinations become available to you (such as 2-2-2-3-3 or a full house) that will add more depth to your fights as you may choose to play less cards than you are capable of in order to receive a prize bonus to your final attack.
One more interesting note about battle combinations is that you can combine seemingly useless items (or useful items too) by using them together to create more helpful items. For example you can attack with a pot, some uncooked rice and charcoal to create a healing item of cooked rice.
Overworld Exploration
This is pretty standard as far as RPGs go, but if its not broken dont fix it right?
You explore the world as your main character Kalas (other party members only appear during non-playable areas such as cut sceens or NPC interactions). To enter a battle you simply touch an on screen enemy to initiate the battle.
Lots of items are hidden in ordinary scenery so make sure to check everything you come accross during your journey to collect a lot of helpful items and cards.
Puzzling
This is another one of my favorite parts of the game. Most of the puzzles in this game are not necessary to further the story so if you not all that into puzzling just skip most of them. You'll be out a few items that may help, but you can always grind your levels up a bit to make up for it if you prefer.
Throughout the game you get a limited number of Blank Magnus (Magnus is just a fancy name for cards). With these you can turn items, such as fire, into a card so that you can carry it to another location. So while your in town and you see someone has a roaring fire in their home you can take some of that flame with you into the forest and burn down a tree to gain access to a treasure chest.
Time Mechanic
This is something that is really cool to play around with and also a little frusterating at times. Lots of items change with time in BK.
For instance if you originally find a bunch of Bananas they might be Green Bananas. These are not good to eat yet and will function more as a weak weapon than anything else. After some time though they will ripen and become a useful healing item. After more time has passed then will rot and once again become a weapon.
This same mechanic has a few other functions such as puzzle solving. If an NPC is looking for a specific item such as yogurt or cheese and you only have access to milk, you simply have to wait until your milk has aged enough to turn into either item, just dont wait to long or it may not be they wanted when you get it to them!
One last fucntion the time mechanic plays is in gaining money. Instead of selling items in BK you take pictures of enemies during battle and sell those pictures to card shops. The pictures develop like a polaroid would. To get the most money for your picture you need to wait long enough for it to delevop properly, but dont wait to long or they will become damaged from your travels and the price you'll fetch will fall considerably.
Levelling up
Nothing ground breaking just something that I found quite unique and interesting.
Instead of simply gaining a level for a certain amount of experience, you hold onto that experience until you are able to visit a special "church". Once you are there you must pray in order to refect upon your past battles and only then can you increase in strength.
Along with this is the class increase which is treated much the same way as the level increase with the exception that a speical item is given to your character that you must pray with to unlock its potential. By increasing your class you are able to have more cards in your deck and increases the amount of cards you can use for each attack.
WEAKNESSES:
Characters
With the exception of Kalas I find the playable characters in this game quite annoying and stereotypical. Fortunately Kalas is the main character so it does oddly enough balance out. The reason for my annoyance isnt so much the characters themselves as it is the dialouge and voice acting.
I do however find Kalas interesting, as unlike most main characters, he isnt interested in doing any good. He just wants his revenge and could care less who dies or what nation falls in the process. He often voices his objection to joining his teammates and is reluctantly dragged along for a large portion of the story.
Dialouge/Voice Acting
Some of the worst I've heard. The old characters (70 years +) sound like a 13 year old is trying to make their voice raspy. The main characters that speak the most (Kalas and Xelha) both have shrill annoying voices and poorly written dialouge that often just sounds weird.
[img width=520 height=390]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/z1.jpg[/img]
FINAL THOUGHTS:
BK is a great game for any RPG fan. The battles are a lot less boring than your typical grindfest because of the random element and depth added by the card based battle system. This game can also appeal to someone who loves puzzles/side quests or to someone who just loves an interesting story. It is also (in my opinion) one of the best looking Gamecube games. This game can easily be found for under $15 and I would highly recommend anyone interested in a new adventure to check it out if possible.
FINAL SCORE - 6.5/10
The Gamecube is sorely lacking in arcade style games and more specifically vertical scrolling shootem'ups. The two that it does have (in North America) are both quite well done. Ikaruga gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so. So I'm going to spend some time talking about Chaos Field, your only other choice for this style of game in the Americas.
Continue reading Unloved #1: Chaos Field
Just something fun I thought I'd try out to add some depth to my top 100 list.
NES:
1. Mega Man 3
2. Mega Man 2
3. Adventures of Lolo
4. Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers
5. Super Mario Bros. 2
6. Totally Rad
7. Bubble Bobble
8. Contra
9. Dr. Mario
10. Duck Tales
SNES:
1. Super Punch Out!!
2. Street Fighter 2 Turbo
3. Super Mario RPG
4. Maximum Carnage
5. Mega Man X2
6. Mega Man X3
7. Mega Man X
8. Ninja Gaiden Trilogy
9. TMNT IV
10. Killer Instinct
N64:
1. Mario Golf
2. Mario Kart 64
3. Resident Evil 2
4. Super Smash Bros.
5. Star Wars Rouge Squardon
6. Mario Party
7. Iggy's Wreckin Balls
8. Zelda Marjora's Mask
9. Hybrid Heaven
10. 1080 Snowboarding
Gamecube:
1. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance
2. Resident Evil
3. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
4. Resident Evil: Code Veronica
5. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis
6. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
7. Beyond Good & Evil
8. Resident Evil 0
9. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance
10. Chaos Field
Wii:
1. Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
2. Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
3. Super Paper Mario
4. Zack & Wiki
5. Metroid Prime 3 Corruption
6. Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
7. Sonic and the Secret Rings
8. Super Mario Galaxy
9. Link's Crossbow Training
10. House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return
DS:
1. Lost Magic
2. Trace Memory
3. Yoshi's Island DS
4. Contact
5. Mario & Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
6. Pokemon Pearl
7. Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
8. Elite Beat Agents
9. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
10. Crosswords DS
Genesis:
1. Sonic 2
2. Earthworm Jim
3. Earthworm Jim 2
4. Streets of Rage
5. Sonic
6. Sonic & Knuckles
7. Castlevania Bloodlines
8. Maximum Carnage
9. Gunstar Heroes
10. Golden Axe
Playstation:
1. Final Fantasy IX
2. Lunar 2 Eternal Blue
3. Marvel Vs. Capcom
4. Legend of Dragoon
5. Castlevania Symphony of the Night
6. Xenogears
7. Worms Armageddon
8. Twisted Metal 2
9. Resident Evil
10. Resident Evil 2
Playstation 2:
1. Castlevania Lament of Innocence
2. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2
3. Xenosaga
4. Xenosaga 2
5. Xenosaga 3
6. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
7. Raiden III
8. Shadow of the Colussus
9. Resident Evil Outbreak
10. ICO
Xbox:
1. Jade Empire
2. Call of Cthulhu
3. Guilty Gear X2
Virtual Boy:
1. Vertical Force
2. Warioland
3. Mario Tennis
4. Galactic Pinball
5. Kemco Baseball
Dreamcast:
1. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
2. Resident Evil Code Veronica
3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
4. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
5. Soul Calibur
6. Sonic Adventure
By the end of the year I should be able to get both the Dreamcast and Saturn to a solid ten titles, but right now I've only had very short experiences with the systems and not a lot of titles I would consider as "must have" titles. The Virtual Boy may even see a couple titles added if I'm lucky. Unfortanutely for the Xbox though it'll probably sit at a measley 3 titles unless something really surprises me.
I really enjoyed reading through Tan's Top 50 list even though we have completely different gaming tastes. It was nice to see a large variety of systems and games that rarely show up on the stereotypical top games list, and I guess it has inspired me to make my own top games list. So here it is:
1080 Snowboarding - N64
Adventures of Lolo - NES
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance - NGC
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 - PS2
Battletoads - NES
Beyond Good & Evil - NGC
Bubble Bobble - NES
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - Xbox
Castlevania - NES
Castlevania 2 - NES
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PS
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence - PS2
Castlevania: Bloodlines - Gen
Castle Shikigami 2 - PS2
Chaos Field - NGC
Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers - NES
Contra - NES
Dr. Mario - NES
Duck Tales - NES
Earthworm Jim - Gen
Earthworm Jim 2 - Gen
F-Zero GX - NGC
Final Fantasy IX - PS
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - NGC
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Wii
Goldeneye 007 - N64
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's - PS2
Hybrid Heaven - N64
Ico - PS2
Iggy's Reckin' Balls - N64
Jade Empire: Limited Edition - Xbox
Killer Instinct - SNES
Legend of Dragoon - PS
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - GB
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - N64
Legendary Wings - NES
Little Nemo: Dream Master - NES
Lost Magic - DS
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete - PS
Mario Golf - N64
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour - NGC
Mario Kart 64 - N64
Mario Party - N64
Marvel vs. Capcom - PS
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - Dreamcast
Maximum Carnage - SNES
Mega Man - NES
Mega Man 2 - NES
Mega Man 3 - NES
Mega Man 4 - NES
Mega Man 5 - NES
Mega Man 6 - NES
Mega Man X - SNES
Mega Man X2 - SNES
Mega Man X3 - SNES
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Wii
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy - SNES
Norse by Norsewest: Return of the Lost Vikings - Sat
Pokemon Blue Version - GB
Punch-Out!! - NES
Raiden III - PS2
Resident Evil 0 - NGC
Resident Evil - NGC
Resident Evil 2 - N64
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - NGC
Resident Evil: Code Veronica - NGC
Resident Evil: Outbreak - PS2
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles - Wii
Shadow of the Colossus - PS2
Sonic and the Secret Rings - Wii
Sonic CD - Sega CD
Sonic the Hedgehog - Gen
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Gen
Sonic & Knuckles - Gen
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer - N64
Star Wars Rouge Squardron - N64
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting - SNES
Streets of Rage - Gen
Super Mario Bros./Duckhunt - NES
Super Mario Bros. 2 - NES
Super Mario RPG - SNES
Super Mario 64 - N64
Super Paper Mario - Wii
Super Punch-Out!! - SNES
Super Smash Bros. - N64
TMNT IV: Turtles in Time - SNES
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam - Wii
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 - NGC
Totally Rad - NES
Trace Memory - DS
Vertical Force - Virtual Boy
Warioland - Virtual Boy
Worms Armageddon - PS
Xenogears - PS
Xenosaga 1 - PS2
Xenosaga 2 - PS2
Xenosaga 3 - PS2
Yoshi's Island DS - DS
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure - Wii
I'm hoping to do another one of these in the last half of the year (if I remember) and see how many titles change from now until then.
Some fun stats:
N64 - 13
Wii - 6
NES - 21
DS- 3
Playstation 2- 11
Virtual Boy - 2
PLaystation - 7
Gamecube- 10
Sega CD - 1
Saturn - 1
Dreamcast - 1
Super NES - 10
Genesis - 7
Gameboy - 2
There are many games out there for many systems that fall under the radar of the average consumer. Most of them deserve the lack of attention that befalls them, but there are always a few gems that dont truly get the attention that they deserve.
Because of that I've decided to start this blog to showcase some of the games that I think deserve better. The focus will be on Wii and Gamecube games that I have personally finished and enjoyed. There is no real criteria as to what I will classify as an underated game, but I will try not to include any games that have acheived over 1,000,000 units in sales, or that have a rather large (or at least vocal) cult following.
Heres a little bit about my gaming history just to give you a sense of my gaming habits.
I've been gaming since I was a young child and grew up with a NES, SNES and Genesis. Most played games on those systems were as follows:
NES - Totally Rad, Megaman 2 &3, Hydlide, Contra, McKids
SNES - Adventures of Batman & Robin, Uniracers, Rock n' Roll Racing, Street Fighter II
Genesis - Earthworm Jim 1&2, Boogerman, Vectorman
Since then I've mostly stuck to Nintendo systems and only grabbed other systems at the end of there life cycle at bargain prices. I own and play most Nintendo, SEGA, Sony & Microsoft systems with the notable execptions of the 360 and PS3. I dont dislike any company or system, but recognize that I have a personal bias in favor of Nintendo systems. I also dont dislike any particular genre, but tend to stray from any "realistic" style games such as: War like games, sports games and racing games. There are of course games in all those categories that I enjoy very much, but they will be a minority and most likely vastly under-represented in this blog.
With that said I would also like to point out that I've never written anything for pleasure before. Only required school papers, and never a blog. Because of my inexperience I would greatly appreciate any feedback from as many people as possible in order to refine my writting skills. Hopefully in the next week I'll have my first blog up for critism which will be for the Gamecube game Chaos Field.
I'm looking forward to your responses!!
With Avengers Infinity War still very fresh in my mind as well as my attachment to most of the characters involved in the MCU I have no choice but to write about super heroes to decompress after this film. I won't be talking about movie directly so don't worry about any spoilers. I'm simply going to be writing about my favorite game starring a playable version of each character from Avengers Infinity War.
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Continue reading Rfgen: Infinity War
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