Video Games General

I’m not sure it will; it looks more like a Classicvania. Of course, that’s absolutely not a bad thing. We need more of those.

 

Yeah, the two Curse of the Moon are much more like the older Castlevania games rather than the Metroidvania style of Ritual of the Night.

 

What... what's the difference between Metroidvania and Classicvania?

 

Metroidvania games are platformers in the style of Metroid or the later Castlevania games where you travel through a hub world collecting different powerups so you can progress rather than it being divided into separate levels. Classicvania games are level based platformers like the pre-Symphony of the Night Castlevania games or the Mega Man series.

 

Aside from what Melmar accurately summed up, there’s also a difference in focus. Classicvania games are mostly challenge-focused, whereas Metroidvania games place a significantly higher focus on exploration.

 

This is an understatement. I played exactly enough of Dracula X Chronicles to unlock the included version of Symphony of the Night, and in doing so racked up dozens of deaths, maybe even a hundred. (It was a year ago and I stopped counting fairly quickly.) Most of those were on the first two levels. Boss medal runs in Order of Ecclesia and Bloodstained RotN are hard enough - and I actually got the one for the lighthouse crab boss in OoE - but Classicvanias? Fuck that shit.

 

Fuck, I'm trying to remember a game, but the name just won't come to me. Here's all I remember, if anyone can help me out:

2d Platformer with Anime-esque Pixel Art graphics (Which, to be frank, doesn't really narrow it down), had a blonde, female protagonist (I think at least she was blonde) that used a wrench or a clamp of some sort as tool/weapon, one of the common enemies were some faceless Riot Cop-looking dudes, there was some sort of City or Sanctuary either floating in the sky or at least high up, and I think evil Angelic figures, as well as some Eldritch Abomination, were involved near the end. It also wasn't Retro game but fairly recent.

It isn't much, but I hope someone can help me out here so I can banish that nagging thought from my brain. I remember watching a video on Youtube where the guy playing had no idea what was going on, but I don't have any more to go on off.

Also, I started playing Front Mission First, with an English patch, on an SNES Emulator. It's fun so far.

 

I think you're looking for Iconoclasts.

I have it, played a bit of it. Was kinda expecting Metroidvania, then it turned out to be more level-based... at least as far as I got.

 

I stand corrected. Wasn't much into this subset of games until relatively recently and didn't know this distinction.

 

FUCK! Yes! That's it! Thank you!

The itch has been scratched! I am free!

 

Oh god. All the good guys on that one are both detestable and complete morons.

 

Thank you! This'll be fun, shame my Windows laptop is more or less a potato for the first/main game.

 

I decided to try making a meme empire in Stellaris and it worked out unexpectedly well.

The empire was Fanatic Xenophobe + Authoritarian, which gives a combo of cheaper system-claiming outpost starbases, faster pop growth, and more Influence points every month. In combination with the first choices in the Expansion Tradition, I was able to support 3 science ships exploring and 3 construction ships claiming what got found. (Factions kicked in right when I needed more Influence points.)

With default closed borders, I was able to wall off a decently large chunk of the galaxy, having only four chokepoints to fortify against filthy outsiders.

The Xenophobe / Authoritarian domestic side was also unexpectedly easy to manage, and here's where we get into the meme part of the empire.

The empire's origin was Synceitic Evolution, and as a xenophobe that means the servitor species will be enslaved. The primary race will behave as normal for a xenophobe.

The primary species I made was the beefy-looking green humanoid, known as the common space orc.

The servitor species was, of course, elves. Their traits were Fast-Breeding (+20% pop growth rate, to represent that the elves are being bred often), Communal (-10% housing cost, which represents that they're basically body-pillows for their orc masters), and both of the bad-as-leaders traits (Slow Learners and Fleeting) which didn't matter because slaves are never leaders. However, note that using all 4 trait slots meant no easy gene-modding. I'm not sure it mattered that I lost out on that.

For the orcs, the traits I picked were Decadent (unhappy as workers or slaves), Solitary (+10% housing cost), and Extremely Adaptive -- which was a mistake, since I always wanted elves on the same planets, so I ended up Terraforming every colony world anyway. There was one primitive species which was on the verge of space-flight, so I invaded their shitty Tundra world and enslaved them, so maybe I got some value out of Extremely Adaptable, but habitability modding came pretty quick after that and with a few clicks Frost Orcs were their proximate masters.

The game will start you off with your thralls in Chattel Slavery, which is sub-optimal. Immediately change them over to Domestic Servitude, which seems to have a bug but even with the bug it's great. Domestic Servitude takes all unemployed slaves and gives them a job as Servants, which means each otherwise-unemployed elf slave provides +2 Amenities (same as a Clerk, but no Trade Value).

This combo meant planets would start out with everyone working -- elves as menial workers, orcs as specialists and rulers -- then as both populations grew, slowly orcs would replace elves as menial workers, while elves effectively turned into Amenities.

This meant I'd have happy planets with a significant number of undeveloped building slots, and I could specialize the planet basically on-demand. Slamming down 3 buildings with 15 new job slots across them would instantly be filled, as orcs were available to just stop doing menial elf-work, and unemployed elf slaves stepped back into the Worker tier to take their place.

Domestic Servitude meant I could specialize worlds after building up a decent population, and removed a lot of the fiddly population appeasement (since elves are Amenities).

Species-specific rights for elves were:
- Slavery: Domestic Servitude
- No Population Controls
- No Migration Controls (this means they will breed faster on new settlements)

For the shitty Tundra aliens, I made them Indentured Servitude (can work specialist jobs) since I didn't want to touch their shitty Tundra planet more than necessary. They were some kind of fungus, so I absolutely did put them under Migration Control after they started showing up on my Habitats. (I terraformed a Tundra gulag planet and resettled all the Habitat-fungus over there. Might purge them later, idk.)


Anyway, I wanted to talk about the Great Hentai Orc Empire and how it was fun to play, and actually made Stellaris less fiddly.

Fast peaceful early expansion, then when you're done claiming systems change your Policy -> Diplomatic Stance from Expansionist to Isolationist which removes a lot of the Sprawl pressure while costing you nothing important, build like a tall peaceful empire but on a lot more land, and specialize your planets later than usual with a convenient population of domestic elf slaves, who are amenities.


Gark, son of Thag: "But Father, how do the elves feel about this situation?"

Thag, son of Grum: "My son, you can just look at the happiness report we receive from central command on Orctopia. Look at how amenities affect the happiness of our slaves."

Gark, son of Thag: "Yes, of course, everyone likes ameni-- wait, Father, even the elves themselves enjoy the, uh, amenities provided by Domestic Servitude?"

Thag, son of Grum: "You're old enough to understand now."

Gark, son of Thag: "I understand. From now on, I'm going to rape them a lot more often."

Thag, son of Grum: "That's my boy."

 

Suddenly I want to see how this plays out in story form.

 

Fuck yes! So do I.

 

So I have been playing Okami for the past few weeks. Been lazy about it though. Spent way too long dicking around with Golden fury and trying to figure out how to get certain things unlocked. The handholding from Issun can be a tiny bit annoying but he makes up for it by being hilarious.

Also, Rao has reawakened my fetish for Mikos and shrine maidens.

 

Okami is just a blast from start to finish. Make sure to try using your Celestial Brush powers on everything, because at least one of them will do something most of the time.

 

So in a bit of good news for thiccness enthusiasts everywhere the existence of Atelier Ryza 2 has been leaked by an Australian ratings website. Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy is the working title. Hasn't been officially announced by Gust yet, but now it's only a matter of time.

 

I still haven't even played the first game. Koei tecmo is seriously out for money.

 

Well, it is their most successful game. Koei tecmo have to start working on the next one otherwise they go into the red. That's why there is a lot of reused assets from past games in the open world.

 

No no. I'm talking about how Atelier products rarely receive discounts. I want to play them, I do, but Kiseki Series is way more affordable with a far larger number of cast and longer narrative.

I'm not made out of money as a broke student.

 

Oh. Well, it is not like it is going to go anywhere. One purchase at a time, I suppose.

 

You know watching play throughs of Dishonored I always wondered what a Star Wars game by Arkane would look like.

 

Bit of an update from Atlus on today's Nintendo Direct. First off, Shin Megami Tensei V is still in the works and will release globally in 2021 for the Switch. But there as a suprise announcement as well. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, the fan favorite third entry of the main franchise, is getting an full HD remaster, complete with voice acting and special guest Kuzunoha Raido the 14th from Devil Summoner, next spring. And it will be releasing for the Playstation 4 as well as the Switch.

 

Is Dante included?

 

If it doesn't Feature Dante from the Devil May Cry Series, I ain't buying it.

 

Not this time, due to licencing. Instead Kuzonha Raidou XIV from the Devil Summoner series will be the guest star.

 

Ew.

 

Eh, Raidou's great but Nocturne is zero percent fun so no thanks. Gimme DDS and Raidou remasters and we'll talk, Atlus.

Also, even by SMT standards V's MC is effeminate. They went past bishounen and straight into this is a girl in a boy's uniform.* And that hairdo looks like their barber died halfway through and they just rolled with it.

*Maybe? It's unusually flowery for a boy's uniform.

 

Eh, so long as you can have best pixie all is well.