great soundtrack – Page 16

In love with: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

20/05/2018 28/06/2019

In just 4 years I went from “What’s Ys?” to being a huge fan of these action RPG series by Nihon Falcom that is finally starting to get proper recognition outside of Japan. I didn’t like all games I’ve played so far equally. Origin and the story arc it preludes (covered in I & II) used to be my favorite – it had the perfect version of the gameplay mechanics that the series had in mid-00s, it had really interesting memorable story with good characters and it was quite short and to the point, covering every important and exciting aspect of itself in the best possible way. And I wasn’t super keen on the new gameplay ideas introduced in Ys Seven, the template currently used by the series, so I was a bit cautious about VIII (and still is about IV, which I will play later this year when it’s ported to PC).

Now, some of my concerns and fears were justified. But Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA might be my favorite Ys game so far and one of the best examples of action RPGs I’ve ever seen, both mechanically and narratively.

Thoughts on: Danganronpa 1, 2 and Ultra Despair Girls

07/05/2018 28/06/2019

Just like the Zero Escape series, Danganronpa has been a series I’ve been curious about for a very long time now. It has gained a huge following outside of Japan years before getting an official localisation for its quirky dark humour, fantastic soundtracks and curious approach to mixing adventure game visual novel elements in rather novel ways. But are they really that great?

In love with: Treasure Adventure World

29/04/2018 28/06/2019

There aren’t that many good examples of a free game turned into a paid product I can think of from the top of the head. Can think of plenty mods turned to paid games, sure. But free games? World of Goo was made from a free Experimental Gameplay Project title that simply had the same basic mechanics and looks. Super Win the Game is more of a successor to the free You Have to Win the Game. Only La-Mulana, Spelunky and maybe Eversion feel like actual “remakes”, which follow a more or less same structure as their original free counterpart but with updates. I suppose, Cave Story can somehow fit this list too. But point is – not that many I can think of, and, interestingly, almost all of them are somewhat metroidvania-ish.

Treasure Adventure Game is a free exploration-focused platformer with Zelda and Metroid influences that was released about 6 and a half years ago. I stumbled upon it due to it being featured on GOG and had a blast playing it 6 years ago. Then about a year later a remake was announced. Treasure Adventure World is a higher resolution, higher fidelity remake, with minor updates and several pacing changes, but overall unchanged design. For better and worse.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2017

29/03/2018 22/02/2022

Last time I decided to do a “look back at” videogame music of a previous year was mostly due to how big the wave of 80s inspired synthwave and like was and mostly to check just how prevalent it was in videogames. This time, I’m doing it because I feel like last year just had several truly amazing soundtracks that became an integral part of my main music playlist.

Disapprove: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

28/02/2018 28/06/2019

Almost 5 years ago a completely unexpected action RPG came out. The genre was back on the rise after the success of Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2, but people wanted to see it evolve even more. Add more little weird touches, more curious takes on the same basic mechanics and gameplay loop. Darksiders 2, an action adventure at core, had lots of action RPG elements to it and Borderlands were a huge success at mixing FPS and action RPG. So there was The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, from rather unknown NeocoreGames, who had previously released rather mediocre series King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame. And the game was surprisingly fun. I mean, it wasn’t stellar, it didn’t revolutionize the genre or anything, but there were small touches that made the game work a bit closer to how a story driven action RPG would, like The Witcher, yet it remained at its core a pure monster killing loot gathering aRPG in all its simplicity.

But it was meant to be the first of 3 games. And the games that followed… well… Let’s just say, I’m not exactly sure the Final Cut of the series, that mixes all 3 games into one, is the cut I would’ve went with.

Happy about: Zero Escape Trilogy

23/02/2018 28/06/2019

I’ve been curious about what became Zero Escape Trilogy for a while now. Original 999 (Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors) was released back in 2009 on Nintendo DS to very positive reviews on how it tackled the mix of visual novel and “escape the room” puzzles, while also using it’s branching narrative, common for visual novels, as a plot point for many worlds interpretation influenced plot. It was also one of the first attempts, to my knowledge, to bring the Cube (the movie) ideas to video game format, mixing horror, thriller and mystery novel and becoming somewhat of the “What if Cube, Saw and Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” were anime”. Virtue’s Last Reward followed 3 years later on PS Vita and 3DS, and then in 2016 Zero Time Dilemma was released as a final chapter of the plot on the same systems, but also on PC. However, it wasn’t until Zero Escape: The Nonary Games release last year, that updated and re-released the first two games in one package, that I finally had a chance to check on them.

Disapprove: Prey (2017)

25/01/2018 13/05/2023

Prey went through some really troubled development times. Original game of the same name has been one of the longest games in development, announced originally in 1995, and finished in 2006, retaining a lot of the original ideas and a lot of core 90s FPS values (and if you can get it, get it, by the way). Then, a sequel Prey 2 was in development as a more action adventure-type game, closer to Deus Ex or, probably even closer, The Darkness in the mentality and design approach, by Human Head Studios. Yet, after years of development, it was quietly cancelled before being re-announced as Prey, now developed by Arkane Studios. And being a completely different game, highly influenced by “Shock” games and immersive sims. Still taking on the topic of alien invasion, but now from a more psychological thriller angle, similar to the cancelled XCOM FPS title (later completely remade into mediocre The Bureau: XCOM Declassified).

It set out to be something amazing – a very freeform “Shock” title, with all the metroidvania/survival horror exploration focus and even more on top, with interesting setup, with aliens who can look like normal items, with multiple approaches to everything, with nicely written small NPC stories and with the music by Mick Gordon. If only all of this worked.

O tempora: System Shock 2

21/01/2018 13/05/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

This has been a long time coming. I’ve attempted to play System Shock 2 ever since 2001, when I first got my own modern (for the time) PC. And even back then, just few years after the game release, it already worked with issues. After that for the longest all games on this in-house game engine made by Looking Glass Studios, along with the Thief 1 and 2, were borderline unplayable on most PCs. Until one day a mysterious person (often believed to be one of the ex-Looking Glass employees), released an updated version of the source code of the engine, which made things work again. Ever since then, all 3 games on the Dark Engine have been receiving updates and fixes making games not just playable again, but often better than they were originally. And several years since I had a chance to replay all the Thief titles and a year and a half since I’ve first experienced the innovative undying beauty of the original System Shock, I finally had the chance to finish System Shock 2. And I can sum up my experience in a very short review: Wow…

For more in-depth analysis, read on. :)

Read more“O tempora: System Shock 2”

Disapprove: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

09/01/2018 07/11/2020

Mirror’s Edge was a complete surprise when I first saw the trailer for it back in 2008 or so. My imagination on the concept pictured it as a highly non-linear adventure, where you follow the bag as different Runners grab it. So you would play levels as different characters, crossing paths with characters you followed before and seeing glimpses of some interesting character lives. No one made game stories like that, to my knowledge (hell, even not a lot of movies attempted this). While I was wrong about that, I actually also had a game idea at the time, which was different overall, but one aspect of which was incredibly close to that of Runners and the movement in Mirror’s Edge, so I was excited to see someone attempt to implement that in a real game. And while it certainly wasn’t great due to numerous frustrating flaws, I loved it and still do, occasionally replaying it. And then a reboot was announced…

Thoughts on: Grey Goo, as a story

04/01/2018 28/06/2019

As usual for the genre, let me preface by saying that I suck at strategy games, but I like when they have interesting worlds and stories, and play them for that in the first place. Grey Goo is a game by Petroglyph Games, ex-alumni of Westwood plus other talented people. So when they promised a classic RTS experience, even I got interested. Because classic RTS usually meant some good (even when silly) stories. I cannot say that didn’t deliver on the promise.