While the JRPG has been my favorite genre of videogames ever since I was old enough to read, my experience with the Dragon Quest series is admittedly limited. After having played the DS remake of Dragon Quest V a couple of years ago and playing the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VIII shortly after, I felt like I had already experienced the best this series has to offer (at least according to most people) and decided that I should move on to other things if it was all downhill from there. Once Dragon Quest XI was released and garnered rave reviews, many claiming it to be the best in the series, I was immediately intrigued and didn't wait long to start playing it.
The Playstation and Nintendo 64 rarely had games that competed directly. Nintendo has long been going their own way, and that was no different than during this generation. One area where the two consoles did compete was in the realm of 3D platformers. The debate about which console has the best 3D platformers of this era still flares up from time to time, in a way similar to the much more fun 16-bit war between Sega and Nintendo.
Eagle Flight is a PSVR game published by Ubisoft. I got it in my initial haul from Disposed Hero. After finishing the main campaign in Skyrim VR, I was looking for something short and sweet to bang through before jumping back into Skyrim to knock out the DLCs. In Eagle Flight, believe it or not, you are an eagle who flies. The game takes place in the city of Paris after humans have gone extinct and nature has reclaimed the city.
Despite the modern integration of gaming in our daily lives, two terms that still do not tend to share the same sentence are 'romantic' and 'video games.' While movies, books, and music have genres and sub-genres focusing on amorous pursuits, successful attempts in gaming range from the very specific dating sim category and amateur-at-best forced narratives in action games to lengthy RPG character relationships. Let's just set aside fan-service in the vein of Dead or Alive and Senran Kagura for the moment.
Summer Carnival '92 RECCA is an impressive shoot'em up. As I played it, I wanted to know more about the Summer Caravan that spawned it. So here's a bit about summer gaming competitions, including Hudson Soft's All-Japan Summer Carnival and Naxat's Summer Caravan. Plus a review of RECCA.
This is Episode 008 of Shoot the Core-cast! This time around, MetalFRO and Addicted discuss, at length, the 16-bit powerhouse shmup Thunder Force IV, aka Lightening Force! Does MetalFRO's favorite shooter of all time still hold up? What are the differences between the different versions? And what's with the "lightening" anyway? All this and more, in store for you when you listen!
[img width=640 height=360]https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/you_twitch.jpg[/img] I totally stole this graphic from Ars Technica. Give them some love.
Unless you've been living under a rock the last few years, you'll know that, not only is gaming a huge deal on YouTube, but it's exploded all over the internet, with regards to people streaming their gameplay live. With modern consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One allowing the ability to stream directly to services like Twitch.tv, YouTube, and others, it's more accessible now than ever. Some people even manage to make a living from streaming, or by offering services in conjunction with their streams, so they can make a living doing what they love. Those individuals are the exception, rather than the rule, but as the greater games industry continues to rake in billions of dollars each year, more and more people find creative ways to make a living either directly in the industry, or in the periphery. Others, like myself, see streaming as a fun way to expand upon the hobby we already love, and to be more active within said hobby. I thought I would regale my experiences from my first month of live streaming, and offer a few thoughts on the subject.
I've been a fan of the Sega Saturn ever since I was gifted one in 1996. It had a library of games that you couldn't find anywhere else with titles such as Panzer Dragoon, Dragon Force, and Radiant Silvergun. The Saturn was also the first system I imported heavily for discovering titles such as X-men VS Street Fighter, Waku Waku 7, and Metal Slug. It is now 2019 and Saturn games are no longer cheap. To get the most out of my money and Saturn I purchased an all in one Pseudo Saturn cart from eBay seller choijustin. What does this cart do, and why should you buy one over an Action Replay?
It's been a lot of fun following the thread of our site's NES Challenge, as members rediscover old classics or finally dive into games they were always curious about but never got around to playing. I've dipped into a handful of games myself, may of which I haven't played in decades. There's also been a fair amount of discovering how much better I was at games back then, when I had nothing but time on my hands and my reflexes and pattern recognition were better.
It's also given me reason to tell a story that I've been meaning to for some time now; how I got my first NES. I've mentioned bits and pieces of context around the edges here, but figured the story itself was worth a full article. So how did 8-year-old me get a Nintendo?
The RF Generation community of collectors and players has committed themselves to demolishing the entire licensed NES library in the year 2019. Is that even possible you say, with your help it totally is!! Check out the RFGen 2019 NES Challenge thread to see how to join in at anytime throughout the year. There is plenty of opportunity to participate regardless of your skill level, favorite style of game or the amount of time you have to invest. Come over and play with us here:
Gothic is an action role playing game developed by Piranha Bytes, a German company. The game released in 2001 to most of the Western world, with a variety of different publishers getting the game on shelves in different regions. Egmont Interactive published the game for the German market, THQ was the publisher for the larger European market, while Xicat Interactive was the North American publisher.
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a rise of 3D open world RPGs, these varied in quality as there were no standards for design at this point, making each game quite unique. What makes Gothic stand out the most is its setting and world design. The prison colony guarded by a magic barrier was a world design decision meant to make the game world's dimensions feel a bit more realistic. Instead of being an entire world like Ultima IX, or a large, expansive landmass like Morrowind, Gothic's developers realized that the actual size of a handbuilt map would be much smaller than an entire world would feel. In this way the magic barrier serves two purposes, make the world feel much larger than it is presented in game, and also give the player a narrative incentive to beat the game.
In episode #7, Duke and 9T-AT attempt to repair another time fragment as they discuss live action super hero shows of the past. Enjoy the Season 1 finale!
When the NES challenge was announced, it was a way for to check out games that each of us wanted to experience, but always needed that little extra motivation to sit down and playthrough, and for me personally, Dragon Warrior IV had always been that type of title.
Quick backstory- Like many, I grew up with the first Dragon Warrior due to the Nintendo Power giveaway, but I also paid a lot of attention to news about the 2nd and 3rd installments, as those were both part of the same storyline. Rarely did I get to play the sequels, once seeing DW2 at a family friend's house, and renting DW3 a few times. Because of this, I craved to be able to dive into all 3 in the Erdrick line, and since there was a 4th game, go for it, too, even though it wasn't related in story to the 1st three. Quite literally, this became my first collecting goal, and while I acquired the first 3 relatively quickly, it was several years before I purchased the 4th. Even then, it just sat alongside the others in relative obscruity. Sure, I had heard it was good, but I always waited for the excuse to put time into it, partially fearing it would be a grindfest in the same vein as DW2 and to an extent DW3.
Enter January 2019 and that excuse I had been waiting for...
And my goodness, was it ever worth it.
As some may know, Dragon Warrior IV starts out by developing the back stories of all the members that will eventually form your party. You first meet Ragnar, and are tasked with finding and saving the children of Izmit village, as monsters have kidnapped them in hopes of finding and destroying the prophesized Legendary Hero before he/she can grow old enough to fulfill that destiny. Once you complete Ragnar's chapter, you are introduced to Alena, a tom-boy princess and her companions, Christo and Brey, as they set out to live their own adventure by seeing all parts of the world. Then comes Taloon, a merchant who dreams of becoming the greatest weapons seller in the world. Next, you play as Mara and Nara, two sisters bent on revenge after the murder of their alchemist father. Only after all of these backstories do you finally meet the hero and begin a massive quest.
All this backstory could get tedious if not for a few things done very well. First, while there is occassional grinding for money or levels, it's never for more than 30-45 min at a time, unlike some of the earlier games of the series. Second, each character is unique enough to keep things fresh and interesting. Taloon's chapter is an especially good example, as the first thing that happens is your wife gives you a kiss goodbye, hands you your lunch and wishes you a good day as you head to the local weapons shop to work for the day. After so many sales, the shop owner pays you your commission for your sales, and you head home for the night to see your wife and sleeping child, who dreams of someday following in his father's footsteps.
Where DW4 really shines though, is how immersive the world and its inhabitants feel. Things that happen in chapter 2 are referenced in all the following chapters. Secondary charcters abound, each having there own motivation in the events of the story; it's very satisfying when you see these characters go through some personality development as well. And nearly all the towns and castles are unique from each other in some form, not just layout or item choices, but each having a distinguishing feature to make it memorable.
The music and enemy sprites are probably the finest in the series, and the tune that plays when you first enter Aktemto may be the best in the NES library at setting a somber tone. It gave me chills the first time I heard it. (I do wonder if the developers knew just how good the song was, as they give you a way to trigger that tune yourself on demand later in the game.)
Before this turns into a total gushfest, I do have a few nitpicks. One, once you start chapter 5, the only controllable character in battles is your lead hero. The rest of the party is controlled through the AI in a "Tactics" system, where you preset a basic strategy for the computer to follow during each round of actions. I had fears that this would ruin the game for me, but instead it's executed about as well as you could expect, and it streamlines the battles in a way. Still, I can't help but wish this was an optional setting, instead of it being the only choice.
Secondly, while 80% of game involves a deep, detailed and engaging story, the last 20% feels a bit incomplete. Without using spoilers, there are several questions that remain unanswered, and some plot points that could have used more expostion, even upon completion of the game. (From doing a little research, the DS remake attempts to address both these complaints, but as of this writing I've only played the NES version.)
Still, it's amazing how deep of a game this is considering the limitations of the NES, and shows that by the time DW4 was released developer Chunsoft and publisher Enix were at the top of their games. They maximized the NES's capabilities in a way that few, if any, games at the time did, and produced one of the truly great JRPG's of the era.
It's sad that this game didn't get a better following from North American audiences, and one can only wonder if that would have changed at all with some fan service (maybe slip the name Erdrick into an item or two?). But the reality is any fan of 2D JRPG's needs to try this game, as although it's a long game, it's worth every minute spent.
The Onimusha series has strangely slipped under my radar throughout the years. I played the first three back when they were originally released on the PlayStation 2, but I don't recall having any particular fondness for them and have mostly forgotten about them over the years. Last Spring, while looking for a shorter game to play, I pulled the original title in the series off my shelf and decided to revisit it. I was absolutely blown away by how much I enjoyed it. Now, with the recent remaster of Onimusha: Warlords, the time is right to give my thoughts on this classic.
We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
