Minorikawa's Game Club Lounge with Coffee and Booze

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Yeah, I don't trust them to do anything good. I just wish they'd get desperate enough to sell some of their IPs to other companies. I'd love to see the Metal Gear franchise go back in Kojima's hands.

[Minorikawa]

Konami's an odd duck. They basically ditched conventional games and gaming in favor of pachinko, but they were still releasing the odd port (and they're surprisingly solid ports! Well, Metal Gear Solid on GOG and both Castlevania port collections are solid, dunno about much else) and Bomberman game here and there, none of which are bad. They're looking to get back into more traditional video games according to rumor, but nothing is yet confirmed. There's one rumor they're working with Bloober Team (The Medium, Observer, etc.) on a Silent Hill title, but then there's rumors they're working with someone else.

I never got to play more than Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on Wii, so I can't really say much for that franchise other than having read a lot about Silent Hill 2.

I guess, given that I've seen companies go in cycles, I'm willing to see where Konami can go. They certainly are a shadow of their former selves, but, I'm also open to them putting out something good. After all, EA was at one of their lowest points when they put out Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, and Brutal Legend... then, sadly, two out of those three flopped and the lone success was pushed more into action until the third game was ...well it was the RE5.5 of Dead Space, but... we still got three solid games from EA when they weren't making much of anything good.

So, for all we know Konami could have something good up its sleeve, but it'll definitely be different. And that's what I think leaves them in a no-win situation. They'd be better off making new IP, but they'll probably try and do more Silent Hill and especially Metal Gear, and even if the games are objectively good, they'll be inherently different, and that could be enough for fans to reject them.

I will say: I'm glad Kojima doesn't have to make Metal Gear games anymore. He and Sakurai are almost permanently cursed to make the same game over and over, it seems, and Death Stranding was a great opportunity for him to just do what he wants with no restrictions.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

They released excellent ports, if you ignore the horrible Silent Hill HD port they made XD. No idea if the GOG ports of Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania are good, as I didn't play them but it's GOG. and GOG are good.

If you're playing only one Silent Hill, the second one is the one you want. Really, it's a masterpiece, a chilling story of a troubled widow looking for his wife in the ghost town of Silent Hill. I finished it countless times on the OG Xbox during my teens. Love it! Oh and speaking of EA, they didn't make those games, they just published them. Dead Space was made by Visceral Games, Mirror's Edge was made by DICE and Brütal Legend is Double Fine. No way I'd take the credit away from the actual talented people to give it to Electronic Sharts. XD

If Bloober Team are making a new Silent Hill, I'm all for it but I have no expectations from Konami, they don't seem to know what they want to do. With Silent Hill's track record, Blooper will have to work extra hard to bring the franchise back properly. I'd rather they didn't touch Metal Gear though because Survive was really unnecessary and I don't believe they can make even a decent Metal Gear game without Kojima. It's sad to say but the franchise should probably remain dead, with some ports or remasters if Konami can actually pull them off. 

I agree about Kojima having the freedom to do the games he wants but I still would prefer to see the rights to Metal Gear remain in a lockbox in his office than potentially seeing Konami doing stupid shit with the IP. I think there are still stories that could be told in the MGS universe. A new Metal Gear with The Boss as protag, anyone?

[Pixel]

Silent Hill 2 is very good, and if SH1 (which shattered memories was a rehash of) was sliced bread, SH2 is sliced cheese.

However.

Silent Hill 3 is the whole turkey and cheese sandwich. With bread in the side. That's your definitive Silent Hill experience with a kick ass female protag who I may stan hard because I may or may not have had a huge crush on her when I was younger, a widdle boi playing a game I shouldn't have had on my PEE ESS TWO. And because Heather is just a bad ass.

No shit taken today, byatch.

That's a role play I should do...

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

I'll have to play through SH3 someday. I have little excuse as I have a PS2 and a copy of the game. XD

[Pixel]

The main antagonist introduced herself and she responds with "SO WHAT?!"??? 

You just don't get that kind of quality writing anymore

[Minorikawa]

3 hours ago, DragonneRPG said:

They released excellent ports, if you ignore the horrible Silent Hill HD port they made XD. No idea if the GOG ports of Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania are good, as I didn't play them but it's GOG. and GOG are good.

Well, I was also only referencing their recent ones, particularly post-Kojima and post-pachinko. But, yeah, the awful Silent Hill HD ports, which is enough to make you wonder if a good port could ever be made what with the notorious problem of "No one has the finished source code". Then again, you'd think Konami could at least dump their own ROM and figure out where to go from there? I dunno, I don't code and I know that is an "easier said than done" sort of situation. It's a shame, though, because those games deserve some proper preservation.

3 hours ago, DragonneRPG said:

Oh and speaking of EA, they didn't make those games, they just published them. Dead Space was made by Visceral Games, Mirror's Edge was made by DICE and Brütal Legend is Double Fine. No way I'd take the credit away from the actual talented people to give it to Electronic Sharts. XD

Well, remember that Visceral Games were originally EA Redwood Shores. They were owned by EA, just as DICE is owned by EA. EA themselves are a publisher, but they own(ed) those companies. Double Fine's Brutal Legend is the exception, especially since it was already mostly complete by time Activision dropped it and EA picked it up. However, it was in part because EA was trying to find exciting new IP to put out there, a brief window where they said "Yes, we do care about making interesting games!"

...didn't last very long.

But both Dead Space and Mirror's Edge were made with enough company oversight. Right now EA is in a weird period because Vince Zampella of Respawn has a lot of control over his own company (hence why they're the only ones that was never forced to build a game in Frostbite) and is even a board member, and is also who the new Head of Studios went to in order to figure out what everyone else was doing wrong. Spoiler: Respawn builds actual prototypes rather than vertical slices focused on graphics to impress executives that don't know what a video game is. So that, combined with other things, has the new head of studios trying to basically "fix" a lot of EA internally, but, well... gestures at Battlefield 2042, which... is arguably "better" than 5? Maybe?

It's weird because of all the big publishers, I feel like EA is the one that can sometimes make something good when they want to, whereas I barely see the other logos cross my monitor these days. But, I am still looking at the Dead Space remake with trepidation, and whereas I used to have a lot of trust for Zampella, I'm looking at this emphasis on Apex Legends and lack of a Titanfall 3 with a sense of betrayal.

3 hours ago, Pixels said:

Silent Hill 2 is very good, and if SH1 (which shattered memories was a rehash of) was sliced bread, SH2 is sliced cheese.

However.

Silent Hill 3 is the whole turkey and cheese sandwich. With bread in the side. That's your definitive Silent Hill experience with a kick ass female protag who I may stan hard because I may or may not have had a huge crush on her when I was younger, a widdle boi playing a game I shouldn't have had on my PEE ESS TWO. And because Heather is just a bad ass.

No shit taken today, byatch.

That's a role play I should do...

There's a lot of people that perceive Silent Hill 3 as the under-rated gem of the franchise, liking it more than Silent Hill 2. I'm curious in both 2 and 3, but I don't even know if I am familiar with Silent Hill 4 outside of its subtitle "The Room".

[Pixel]

1 minute ago, Minorikawa said:

There's a lot of people that perceive Silent Hill 3 as the under-rated gem of the franchise, liking it more than Silent Hill 2. I'm curious in both 2 and 3, but I don't even know if I am familiar with Silent Hill 4 outside of its subtitle "The Room".

Silent Hill 2 is an excellent game but Silent Hill 3 is not only a continuation of the main storyline, where 2 was it's own side story that managed to be fantastic, it's the culmination of everything they learned about the franchise as they developed it and perfecting the formula. I think there's a lot of nostalgia about SH2 and people remember it being better all around than it actually was, but people also REALLY like the red pyramid thing.

The room is definitely the ugly duckling, and the last one by the actual team silent. It is also a very good game, just no one looked at it or paid much attention to it for some reason. It didn't make the splash that 2 and 3 did but those who stuck with it saw it grow into a swan.

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

SH2 was excellent, though, not just because of Pyramid Head. It's the psychology of it, how the town changes to reflect James Sunderland's guilt, along with the disturbing imagery (just look at the room where you fight the Abstract Daddy for the first time). I think it showed a deeper connection between the protagonist and the ghost town than its predecessor. So, I wouldn't peg its popularity solely on nostalgia.

I thought The Room was fine for the most part, it was very creepy. I just wasn't a fan of ghosts constantly chasing you, with the only way to keep them off your back being the Sword of Obedience, which you'd have to remember to pick up again once you were done in a particular room.

[Minorikawa]

Yeah, though I haven't played Silent Hill 2, the one thing that bothers me from an outsider's perspective is how overused Pyramid Head is when he represents something very specific in Silent Hill 2. As expected, Team Silent didn't use him in other games of theirs, but then it felt like everyone else working on a Silent Hill anything had to throw him in there, including in the film (which, evidently, the original ending plan was to have multiple Pyramid Heads show up?) I don't know if it's a Konami mandate, or just some general misdirection like Metroid games overusing Ridley, or just the general obliviousness of fandom to miss the substance and instead celebrate the iconography.

I think I tried to play Silent Hill 2 before via Xbox 360 backwards compatibility. I own the original Xbox disc around here somewhere, and technically have access to the first via PlayStation classic. So I can at least play those two. Nonetheless, it would be nice for decent ports of those original four.

[Pixel]

I think it's apples and oranges trying to compare something like the red pyramid thing (which there ARE more than one of so it wouldn't have been that weird) to Ridley. Complaining that Ridley is overused is like complaining that Bowser is overused, Ridley is Samus' nemesis.

The red pyramid thing was a specific manifestation for James, but Silent Hill is also a very tricky place and it could be said that the red pyramid thing, along with any other type of monster, can appear out of the will of the town, too. Everything means something but it isn't really that cut and dry how it actually works when it comes down to brass tacks.

Of course, that's just their excuse for putting their most popular monster in more stuff but lol whatevs.

[Warning]

*sees the tag positivity*. This is nice, I could use some of that. Topic seems to be about Silent Hill... Well, I guess I should share my thoughts. Silent Hill 1 and 2 almost traumatized me as a kid and like any horror games, I never managed to play them unless someone was with me. Until I did that. The scary atmosphere of the dark rooms and the sounds just left me terrorized. SH3 was another game on its own and I will admit, I hated SH4. However, it's pretty true that pyramid heads gets overused a lot. At the same time, the above is true. It IS the icon of Silent Hill games, I guess?

Can I just curve this to talk about an undertated game I really like? Threads of Fate on the PS1 was probably the best thing ever and sadly, there's nothing else like it nowadays. Probably will never be. The diversity of clashing character personalities in there makes it a gem by itself and there is a lot of weirdness to it and yet squaresoft managed to make quite the epic tale all the way to its end. In a way, this is positive because I can remember this game all my life but sadly, i'll never get to experience something like this ever again. One has to play it to understand.

[Pixel]

While we're on the subject of square

What ever happened to the Chrono franchise??

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

8 hours ago, Seraphina said:

Can I just curve this to talk about an undertated game I really like? Threads of Fate on the PS1 was probably the best thing ever and sadly, there's nothing else like it nowadays. Probably will never be. The diversity of clashing character personalities in there makes it a gem by itself and there is a lot of weirdness to it and yet squaresoft managed to make quite the epic tale all the way to its end. In a way, this is positive because I can remember this game all my life but sadly, i'll never get to experience something like this ever again. One has to play it to understand.

I never thought I'd see this mentioned, I did play it in my teens. Wonderful game, I love Rue's power of transforming into monsters, that was cool. And Mint was such a brat. XD Sadly, it's just another underrated franchise that was left in the dust, much like Parasite Eve. I might try and snag a copy of this to play on the original hardware.

[Pixel]

Also who else remembers this bizarre little chestnut?

[Minorikawa]

Oh man do I love Secret of Evermore. I never managed to own a copy of Secret of Mana as a kid, but I did get Secret of Evermore, and boy did I think it was a blast. Tough, though, in a lot of ways, and at times grindy since you needed materials in order to cast certain spells (basically, your earlier spells were always your highest level and did the most damage, but as you went on you'd find their materials less frequently, which meant relying on weaker spells, and then having to grind those spells...) I've been meaning to go back and give it another play through, but my SNES isn't hooked up at the moment.

In regards to Threads of Fate, I decided to Google it and, yup, it's one of those JRPG's I'd see on the shelf of game stores and think "I'll get you one day", but then I never did. I loved the art on its disc case, and it intrigued me greatly. Same goes for Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure. I spotted the game, read the back of the jewel case, thought it looked and sounded real neat, but I never actually pulled the trigger. Looking on Amazon and eBay, looks like you can get a used copy of Threads of Fate for anywhere between $20-some bucks (US) to over $300. If it was released in 2000, I can see why it was forgotten. Not only did Final Fantasy IX come out that year, it was also the launch of the PlayStation 2. Sadly I don't know how much those games would cost outside of the States.

I know porting games isn't the snap-of-a-finger that everyone wants to believe it is, but still, seeing things like this has me wishing more companies would invest time and energy into porting and preserving their more obscure games, because otherwise they'll be lost to history.

Speaking of, the original PlayStation version of Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (which also released in 2000 and therefore had to compete against Final Fantasy IX and the PS2) is more expensive to buy used than Threads of Fate, but it looks like there was a port for the original DS that is significantly cheaper to pick up. I... am considering pulling the trigger right now on that since I have a functional 3DS XL I still use.

So there's the positivity for this post!

[Pixel]

Pull that trigger, treat yoself

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

Oof, that 300$ copy of Threads of Fate has to be a factory-sealed black label PS1 game and the game itsefl has to be pretty rare. I think I have it on my PS3 as a Playstation Classic. Might go back to it once I feel like hooking up the PS3, unless I somehow snag a physical copy. 

I really miss the PS1 days. such a great console with so many incredible games that I would often read about in awesome magazines, like PSM ... *sigh*

[Pixel]

We did exist in a bygone time of video gaming that we will probably never get back. I'm glad to have lived through what I did though because it was a great time. Seeing PokéMania at it's peak, the launch of Halo 2, the transition from 2D to 3D gaming, online gaming that the cable guy prophecised, popular franchises that were on top of the world and then died, but what I miss was the experimentation, the risks that were taken with offbeat titles. I don't know why every major developer seems like they're putting out the game game over and over, FPS1 vs FPS2, when it's the bizarre titles like untitled goose game that still make huge buzz.

I'm just saying you're not gonna see a game like Seaman on shelves probably ever again lol. 

[DragonneRPG Deactivated]

5 minutes ago, Pixels said:

We did exist in a bygone time of video gaming that we will probably never get back. I'm glad to have lived through what I did though because it was a great time. Seeing PokéMania at it's peak, the launch of Halo 2, the transition from 2D to 3D gaming, online gaming that the cable guy prophecised, popular franchises that were on top of the world and then died, but what I miss was the experimentation, the risks that were taken with offbeat titles. I don't know why every major developer seems like they're putting out the game game over and over, FPS1 vs FPS2, when it's the bizarre titles like untitled goose game that still make huge buzz.

I'm just saying you're not gonna see a game like Seaman on shelves probably ever again lol. 

I've been on such a nostalgia down thinking of the PS1 that my heart aches. It was such a special console and I agree that we went through the best gaming events. Each new console and their games blew my mind. I was all giddy when I got a Killer Instinct SNES bundle on Christmas, I went almost crazy when I got the Jungle Green Donkey Kong 64 bundle. Everytime my uncle came back from Blockbuster, I was excited to see what hot new PS1 game he brought back. And yeah, the PokeCraze that was fueled with the anime, which I'm more familiar with than the actual games. Except Pokémon Stadium, I played the shit out of that.

I think the problem with modern gaming is that big devs have figured out what sells more and they always try and make a profit with as little risk as possible. I would even dare to say that mentality is affecting indie devs because at the last E3, almost all the indie titles where ye olde 2D pixellated retro action game, which isn't bad in itself but it certainly gets old, even if those games are surely inventive.

And don't tell me about Seaman, I'm still heavily disappointed the PS2 sequel never left Japan. I don't have the willpower to learn Japanese so I can play an imported copy of the game. >.<

I'll probably enjoy video games until I get arthritis but I can't help but feel like the golden age of gaming has passed. Being mainly a PC gamers for over a decade now, I doubt I'll ever be impressed with a console again, not like the way I did with the classic ones.

Oh and you know what else makes me sad? Dreamcast died an undeserved death.

[Pixel]

This is also why I adore studios and directors like Suda51 and Double Fine, who put out wholly offbeat games loaded with style and originality. Before Psychonauts 2 was officially a thing, the original game was my absolute favorite standalone title of all time. The times of going to places and picking or Blast Corps one week and Wild 9 another are way past being gone lol, and it's such a horrible shame that kind of variety is what made me live for video games. The golden age is definitely over. The new modern era certainly has it's merits, but... I mean, only people my age got the full experience out of Pokemon GO, I felt a way I never thought I would feel again, seeing Pokemon all over the place again and everyone so excited about it, I felt like I was 7 years old again and I'm always going to be thankful for that. I don't think that kind of feeling really CAN be captured again in most cases.

Also, yes, the Dreamcast was the gamer's game system and I mourn it regularly. I remember the rumors of a SEGA resurgence a while back and I was so for it but it never happened. That's what happens when you use a shitty format with horrible security, if any, for your games. It was a costly mistake. Like activating a trap card.

 

[Minorikawa]

I have a lot of nostalgia for the old times, but I don't feel the same as you guys regarding the current era, but only in that I feel like indies and mid-level developers are allowing there to be games for nearly anyone. There's a resurgence of old-fashioned strategy games, loot-driven Diablo-likes even for when Blizzard is tripping over themselves to see how fast they can fall down the stairs, plenty of Metroidvanias and JRPGs, and we're starting to see a bunch of indies and mid-levels attempting to go back and be like the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill titles, even in terms of camera. I think what makes it rough to find them is 1) mainstream press and media just suck at providing that sort of coverage so you need to follow niche blogs and sites, and 2) for a lot of indie devs, it's easier to make a game on a limited budget that gets more hours of playtime if it's a roguelite/like (see: what happened with the move to PS2 and Breath of Five V and Dark Cloud). But there's so much out there, and so much of it is good.

I mean, do you like Metal Slug? Mighty Goose. Do you miss Mega Man X/Zero/ZX? Smelter's got your back. There's even a bunch of Fire Emblem clones being made by indie devs.

There's also a bunch of titles coming out of South Korea like Crimson Desert and Project Eve, making me wonder if the country is looking to blend Western AAA standards with Japanese emphasis on game design (of course, all these games exist as trailers, so... still need to wait and see).

When I look at the AAA space, I get the disappointment, but it just seems to me like there's so much out there. Or maybe it's just appreciating where we are compared to where we were during the 360 and PS3 age.

Then again, most of my nostalgia is for SNES/Genesis when it comes to most games. I only cared for JRPG's on the PlayStation because, with rare exception (Metal Gear Solid), most games on the PSX looked like garbage to me. I didn't understand how pixelated 3D graphics were superior to the crisp 2D art of the era, and JRPG's were where a lot of the most gorgeous drawn sprites were. Similarly, the Dreamcast was the lone poorly timed good idea after SEGA had a disaster of awful ones with 32X and Saturn. It released a year before PS2 with weaker graphics, an ugly controller, and inability to play DVD. Also, most of the games on there were arcade games, which, in the era of 3D gaming that was developing, was no longer worth full price to a lot of players. It was an awkward transitionary console and most people just held off for the PS2 since it was going to look better and play DVDs. If anything, the original Xbox was the Dreamcast successor, in part because members of the Dreamcast team went to Microsoft to help build it. Hence the huge controller, emphasis on online play, and SEGA's support of the system.

This was also a sort of transition period as well. Normies were always buying games like Madden in droves, and there were a bunch playing Counter-Strike on PC. Xbox Live and its emphasis on Western titles started bringing them over, and when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare hit on 360, well... we had a new Counter-Strike.

But, again, when I look at what we have now (I mean, really, FPS games are barely being produced, it's the "open-world with crafting" that's the big new AAA model to copy-paste), I think we're in a better spot. Is it different? Yeah, but that's also part of getting older. I'm not going to say it's better, but we're in a good era of games, I think.

[Pixel]

I do want to point out that I don't care for League of Legends (the community puts me off, but I also played it when it first started and wasn't impressed and haven't touched it since), but Arcane was EXCELLENT and I haven't seen that sort of ambition in an animated television series since The Clone Wars.

Jinx is turbo wife for life.

[Warning]

4 hours ago, DragonneRPG said:

I never thought I'd see this mentioned, I did play it in my teens. Wonderful game, I love Rue's power of transforming into monsters, that was cool. And Mint was such a brat. XD Sadly, it's just another underrated franchise that was left in the dust, much like Parasite Eve. I might try and snag a copy of this to play on the original hardware.

Mint was just my favorite. She is me, basically. I can be ever so violent but I still have a soft side. Parasite Eve btw was quite the series of "not sure where it wants to be" and it's what makes it so great in a way. The first game went totally for horror JRPG and that was an awesome feeling each battles. The 2nd game went for horror with only a small side of JRPG. It was great but oh so scary at times. The third threw all of this out and went for third person over the shoulder horror shooter, still with its rpg system. The story itself of each game itself is pretty good, imo.

As for Chrono series that was mentioned and I am sure not everyone agrees with the feeling, I found chrono trigger to be pretty good while chrono cross was a real letdown on at least the battle system. They could have made a chrono trigger 2 or something. I know someone teased a video of what a proper sequel would look like in which there was an old Lucca or something. They made it look like a real game trailer and it was awesome. Of course it wasn't going to be a real game but that would have been fun, I was getting into that. Oh well, sadly that was lost.

Another series that I truly loved was Wild Arms 1 to 5 despite the fact I could never find myself to finish the third game. The 5th game was the absolute best among them and closed the series pretty nicely, which sadly meant that there would no longer be any good games made out of it. There are many more other ones out there like Legend of Legaia, which was an absolute gem on its own with its never seen before battle system but sadly the sequel (which was not a sequel) was mostly a pretty terrible game in comparison. Still, I have excellent memories of the first.

[Minorikawa]

You're not alone in liking Chrono Trigger better than Chrono Cross. Personally, I wish all JRPGs would take the Final Fantasy route (well, it's original route) and have each take place in its own world rather than the same. They tend to get convoluted, though Chrono Cross seemed to at least approach it in an interesting fashion. I still need to play it, though.

Wild Arms, though... I have a soft spot for the first one. One of my first non-Square JRPG's and an early one on the PlayStation, and boy did I love it. That opening anime cut-scene, the music, the narrative... but, uh... that combat... Oof. I only played Wild Arms 2 and 3 after that, and 3 had some really good innovations for dealing with random encounters as well as having some top notch dungeon and puzzle design. It's a real shame more games didn't imitate it, and fighting giant desert monsters with the ship instead of merely warping to a regular battle on deck was pretty rad.

I never got to play the rest, though. I miss the series, but if there ever was an opportunity for Sony to keep it alive, it's gone now. Wild Arms isn't going to be wowing the Western press with shiny graphics and wannabe Hollywood production values. Same with Legend of Legaia. Such a shame.