J-Chiptunator's recent activity
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
J-Chiptunator Link ParentThanks for finding out a few workarounds! I'll try those, just in case I couldn't progress smoothly enough. I planned many of my Backlog Burner games to play before you got around to playing Jak &...Thanks for finding out a few workarounds! I'll try those, just in case I couldn't progress smoothly enough.
I planned many of my Backlog Burner games to play before you got around to playing Jak & Daxter, so myself taking on Jak II afterwards is certainly a coincidence.
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
J-Chiptunator (edited )LinkJ-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (7/25) Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 7/25 Has less than 13 achievements ✔ Bastion Great reviews, but not your usual type ✔ Retro City Rampage DX ✔ Baten Kaitos:...J-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (7/25)
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 7/25 Has less than 13 achievements Recommended by someone on Tildes
✔ BastionGreat reviews, but not your usual type You got from a bundle
✔ Retro City Rampage DXRandomness determines your fate
✔ Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost OceanIs one of the oldest games you own Has a moody vibe Not found on any distribution service Is beatable without killing any enemies Has aliens Known for its impact on gaming From a genre you find challenging ★ Wildcard Features a mystery
✔ The Longest JourneyLight and dark play a role You can complete it in only a few hours Has a weather system Has a fishing minigame Has driving
✔ Jak IIUses a unique control scheme Is mostly text-based
✔ Radical Dreamers - Le Trésor Interdit -Focuses on exploration
✔ Neutopia IIConsidered a cult classic From a different culture or country Has time manipulation We're almost at the end of the event, and I haven't finished half of my bingo card. If I don't manage to quickly blast through the rest in 3 days, I won't even have a full row or column. Either way, I can claim that I played more games seriously than I did for the past 5 years, so that's definitely progress in my books.
Anyway, let's get the business rolling as usual.Jak II
The previous instalment, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor of Legacy, had players lamenting on the low overall difficulty. Which might’ve been the impetus for Naughty Dog upping it for Jak II, perhaps a tad too much given the amount of complaints alongside with stingy checkpoint placement.
Among the few levels I played, the platforming segments aren’t anything special, but they’re well-constructed in a manner that it’s easy to figure out what to do while offering fairly high challenge. At least, for someone’s who got a lot of experience on platformers.
One standout among them is the second visit to fortress on a mission called Blow Up Ammo at Fortress. It’s got a very good mix of tension and relax segments through judicious uses of moving platform setpieces and the not-so-aggressive red Krimzon guards.
Its main gimmick isn’t overused either, as the pressure added by the stalking spiky bulldozer tank never reaches to an overwhelming degree. It attempts to score a hit on Jak with its targeting reticle, and for one early section of the level, also applies its somewhat warbled visor overlay over of the gameplay screen and forces autoscrolling. At the very end, you get to trick the tank destroying parts of the ammo and complete the level with an explosive escape.
This game loves throwing lots of aggressive enemies in a tight spot that tend to lead to off-screen strong attacks thanks to the camera’s rather sluggish speed. I suppose such design choices are to justify the newly-added firearm weaponry as to further increase Jak’s offensive capabilities beyond his close-ranged melee moves. But I’m nearly an hour in, and I’m really feeling the need for weapons.
What makes Jak II fit to the
Has drivingcriteria, is the abundance of hovering vehicles found on its hubworld and are prominently used in the missions. It’s practically impossible to drive without triggering the crime alert by accidentally hitting one of the Krimzon guards or killing a civilian, so I default to abusing the rolling jump’s speed.The Longest Journey
While I was scouring for used items at a recycling store, I saw a cheap used copy of The Longest Journey, whose cover is evocative of the Y2K era. A time when 90s CGI renders were commonplace, and that I often played a few pre-Steam PC games playable with just a mouse before sticking to console gaming for over a decade. For nostalgia's sake, I went ahead and downloaded it.
This point and click adventure game follows the mysterious tale of an unlikely heroine, the minimum wage waitress and starving art student April Ryan, who recently moved to Newport. It seems like that the genre savvy’s bizarre dream might have a connection to the real world she currently is in, acting as an indication that there definitely is more than meets her eyes. A lot, actually.
I’m bad at memorizing stuff when there are pages and pages worth of text for my not-so-great attention span. Thankfully, there’s her diary providing a nice and personalized synopsis of what happened in the game’s expansive storyline thus far, should I undergo through a hiatus.
Many of its puzzles are intuitive to solve, with some of them not being necessary for further progression. Its contemporaries back from the 90s would rely more on trial and error just to figure out a solution, often leading to tedious moments.
I cut much of the struggle that might've come into getting the game running on a modern desktop by simply opting with the GOG.com version instead. After installing it to a drive other than C:/, I had to execute the included TLJRegFix.exe executable to change to another installation folder. The only issue I ran into during gameplay is that the prompt windows for saving is completely whited out, but for now pressing the Enter key on my keyboard gets the job done.
On build 142 however, the version that GOG.com sold with, be careful of a glitch that prevents from progressing in Chapter 2 if you didn’t clear a certain puzzle on the first chapter.
Spoilers
Specifically, the rubber ducky on.Because of this, I'll be forced to redo the entire Chapter 1 with no other save file than the one I was playing with. Not much of an issue due to the ESC key's blazingly fast speedup function, but still worth pointing it out.
Neutopia II
Neutopia II, like its predecessor that came before, is Hudson Soft’s take on The Legend of Zelda 1. It looks and play identically, with better graphics and some quality-of-life adjustments like being able to move and attack in all 8 directions. That alongside being able to walk while swinging a weapon help on defeating foes with ease.
I’ve chosen this game specifically because I was interested on how this TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine game handles exploration. What I found is a case of how the joy of discovery is undermined by its linear-to-a-fault progression and forgettable content.
Clearing a dungeon is mandatory for unlocking a portion of the map that leads to the next one, rendering any kind of out-of-order progression impossible. No matter which way you go, you’ll inevitably end up reaching the next dungeon without much happening along the way.
Many of the visible and hidden caves are very easily found and are so unrewarding they become a chore in the process, including even the occasional infinite full heal or save point. Humans from those places and dungeons are also so good at providing hints, they might as well straight-up tell how to beat the game.
What about the puzzles? Neutopia II doesn’t even try beyond killing all enemies and/or finding a push-able block in a rarely clever terrain layout, alongside bombing at obviously suspicious walls. The enemy and weapon variety, while not lacking, never encourage strategizing on how to wipe foes to a significant degree.
It's a short game that takes 7 hours or so to beat it, and I managed to conquer the first two dungeons within roughly an hour. If you'd like to listen to its epic chiptunes without needing to load up a YouTube video, there exists a cheat code to be inputted at the password screen.
Retro City Rampage DX
There’s not a lot to say about this game that's part of a Humble Bundle purchase. Initially developed for the NES, it’s an 8-bit take on the Grand Theft Auto 1-2 formula, chock-full of late 80s video gaming homages to be found throughout storytelling, levels, character abilities and even the minigames. For instance, being able to stomp on pedestrians by jumping on them.
The simplicity of plowing through pedestrians, vehicles and objects with cops being increasingly pursuing the more you commit crimes 8-bit flavor lend very well to its pick-up-and-play nature, especially on handhelds. Free Roaming Mode in particular gives you max amount of money and all weapons to toy around with its game world without risking at impeding a Story Mode file progress.
Despite the game’s attempt at shifting the camera to help further seeing ahead as I speed, I still tend to bump on walls at turns around due to the playing field of view being limited by the low pixel density and the very zoomed in camera.
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
J-Chiptunator (edited )LinkJ-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (3/25) Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 3/25 Has less than 13 achievements ✔ Bastion Great reviews, but not your usual type You got from a bundle ✔ Baten Kaitos:...J-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (3/25)
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 3/25 Has less than 13 achievements Recommended by someone on Tildes
✔ BastionGreat reviews, but not your usual type You got from a bundle Randomness determines your fate
✔ Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost OceanIs one of the oldest games you own Has a moody vibe Not found on any distribution service Is beatable without killing any enemies Has aliens Known for its impact on gaming From a genre you find challenging ★ Wildcard Features a mystery Light and dark play a role You can complete it in only a few hours Has a weather system Has a fishing minigame Has driving Uses a unique control scheme Is mostly text-based
✔ Radical Dreamers - Le Trésor Interdit -Focuses on exploration Considered a cult classic From a different culture or country Has time manipulation I'm back for Week 4, this time with Monolith Soft's Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. It's an unconventional JRPG where game mechanics heavily rely on cards, which is referred to as Magnus.
At the beginning of a battle, each party member will receive a handful of non-consumable battle Magnus at random from their customizable deck instead of a command list. After targeting a foe/friend and confirming with a card, the combo system will engage and allows choosing one or more card under a time limit. At the end of a combo, how much damage a character give or take will be applied.
Be mindful of the elemental variables at play, as it's possible to wind up nullifying its benefit by picking opposing elements during an attack phase or not opting for a dominant element during a defense phase.
Some Magnus will alter itself depending on how long it's sitting on the inventory, like a monster one taken from doing the photo move that will eventually be developed into full colors. They fetch much better prices than just 1G from practically every other Magnus.I've chosen this game for two reasons. One, it fits with the Randomness determines your fate criteria, where an unlucky string of wrong Magnus could wipe your party members out. And two, this was recommended by one of my friends for looking for an engaging JRPG that's nowhere near as overwhelming as Xenoblade Chronicles 1, for someone whose experience on JRPG outside of Mario is limited and tend to overthink about variables.
It worked out in the end, since I've managed to figure out the mechanics and its appeal fairly quickly through a few tutorials and little trial and error. 2 hours into the game and I'm looking forward to more of this.Although I got the Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster on my Nintendo Switch, I opted for the GameCube original to effortlessly avoid potentially some game-breaking technical issues and experience the corny English voiceover that better fit with the game's not-so-serious vibe and made me laugh at times.
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
J-Chiptunator LinkJ-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (2/25) Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 2/25 Has less than 13 achievements ✔ Bastion Great reviews, but not your usual type You got from a bundle Randomness...J-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (2/25)
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 2/25 Has less than 13 achievements Recommended by someone on Tildes
✔ BastionGreat reviews, but not your usual type You got from a bundle Randomness determines your fate Is one of the oldest games you own Has a moody vibe Not found on any distribution service Is beatable without killing any enemies Has aliens Known for its impact on gaming From a genre you find challenging ★ Wildcard Features a mystery Light and dark play a role You can complete it in only a few hours Has a weather system Has a fishing minigame Has driving Uses a unique control scheme Is mostly text-based
✔ Radical Dreamers - Le Trésor Interdit -Focuses on exploration Considered a cult classic From a different culture or country Has time manipulation Continuing towards the second week of Backlog Bingo, this time with Radical Dreamers - Le Trésor Interdit - that's playable from Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition right out of the gate. It's a rather dark text-based visual novel originally released in 1996 for the Satellaview peripheral for Super Famicom, which of course largely consist of reading befitting of the Is mostly text-based category.
As far as my knowledge of the Chrono series goes, I never played much Trigger and Cross, so I'm going blind into Radical Dreamers lorewise. So far, I'm almost halfway into the game, more specifically...
Spoilers
... at the point where I found an imprisoned rambling old man who needs some item to get him to speak much more clearly. Earlier on, I got a good laugh at throwing Kid's knickknacks at the Mouth of Truth just to get it and Kid to react in different ways, but disappointed at the fact that used items won't be removed from the list of choices. And thus, rendering Kid's (over)reaction meaningless.
Seeing as it takes 3 hours to beat it on average and 7 hours to complete according to HowLongToBeat, I assume it will have multiple endings. No idea on how the ramification from the choices I've made outside do-or-die situations would influence the story in any shape or form. Maybe I'll find out in one of those endings.
The combats and perilous situations I've encountered both uses the hidden timer that will force skipping the choice option if you wait for too long. There's even a Game Over should you manage to get yourself killed by a death trap, but I'm unsure if that's even possible during battles, having never died in any of these so far. Overcoming through all these aforementioned situations are generally an intuitive process despite the lack of UI commonly found in today's visual novels.
For old time's sake, I played with a wired SNES Classic Controller directly connected to the obscure RetroPad32 device plugged into Switch dock's USB port. Turns out, it's among the accessories that add as little as 0.711ms according to MisterAddons Input Lag page. One frame of input lag is 16.67ms on a 60FPS gameplay, and human players can indeed perceive the difference in input responsiveness starting at half-frame. For many of the action and reaction-oriented games on Switch and PC, this is how I'm going to roll going forward.
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
J-Chiptunator (edited )Link ParentWhat a more interesting way to start off the bingo card is with Supergiant Games's first indie title, Bastion, to fill the Recommended by someone on Tildes category. Given that I recently joined...What a more interesting way to start off the bingo card is with Supergiant Games's first indie title, Bastion, to fill the Recommended by someone on Tildes category. Given that I recently joined this website, I had to search for a post about game recommendations to stumble across of one that I actually own.
It's an action RPG game where hand drawn worlds materialize as the protagonist marches on while the narrator dynamically (and sometimes cheekily) commentate on what's happening around him, even down to weaponry skills and implicitly pointing out where to go.
I like how the game keeps me on toes by overwhelming me with seemingly chock-full of enemies, yet manageable with effective tactics such as hitting with a close range weapon and dodging. Which makes for an engaging gameplay experience without necessarily being difficult.
The only complaint I came across while playing, is that the camera for the most part is a bit too zoomed out, which can make distinguishing certain foes and objects trickier on busy-looking areas. Was it originally designed to play right next to a PC monitor? Perhaps...
So far, I cleared two stages and reached Level 2 and have yet to see more gameplay elements, enemy variety, and whatever else the game has to offer. Since I appreciated everything I experienced during the first hour, I'll consider beating Bastion sooner than later, which will last around 8 hours for the main campaign according to HowLongToBeat.
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Comment on May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
J-Chiptunator (edited )LinkIt's been a long while since I last played video games, perhaps due to my Internet addiction. So maybe participating in this year's Backlog Bingo will reignite the gaming spark within me....It's been a long while since I last played video games, perhaps due to my Internet addiction. So maybe participating in this year's Backlog Bingo will reignite the gaming spark within me.
J-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (1/25)
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 1/25 Has less than 13 achievements Recommended by someone on Tildes
✔ BastionGreat reviews, but not your usual type You got from a bundle Randomness determines your fate Is one of the oldest games you own Has a moody vibe Not found on any distribution service Is beatable without killing any enemies Has aliens Known for its impact on gaming From a genre you find challenging ★ Wildcard Features a mystery Light and dark play a role You can complete it in only a few hours Has a weather system Has a fishing minigame Has driving Uses a unique control scheme Is mostly text-based Focuses on exploration Considered a cult classic From a different culture or country Has time manipulation Not being content on simply picking a category from that bingo card to play on my own, I'll let a randomizer decide one at a time, akin to a real life bingo game. I've also spent some time choosing video games to the correspond categories. For someone who's fond of the platforming genre, I've managed to get a well-rounded lineup with well-known and obscure games ranging from the late 80s all the way to around late 2019.
Tonight's the last day of Backlog Bingo of the month, and I sadly ran out of time to actually get a bingo. So, I'll go ahead and show my last bingo card.
J-Chiptunator's Backlog Bingo Card (14/25)
Recommended by someone on Tildes✔ Bastion
You got from a bundle✔ Retro City Rampage DX
Randomness determines your fate✔ Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Is one of the oldest games you own✔ Choplifter
Has aliens✔ Alien 3
Known for its impact on gaming✔ Portal
★ Wildcard✔ Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Features a mystery✔ The Longest Journey
You can complete it in only a few hours✔ Enduro Racer
Has a weather system✔ Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Has driving✔ Jak II
Is mostly text-based✔ Radical Dreamers - Le Trésor Interdit -
Focuses on exploration✔ Neutopia II
Considered a cult classic✔ Asura's Wrath
Since I posted it at the very last minute and that I'll take a very long while conjuring with my detailed thoughts for the games I played after my previous report, I'll post about those on the final recap topic.