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Adventures in Retro

Started by Cerys, June 16, 2011, 10:00:05 PM

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Cerys

I love the Final Fantasy series.  So when I finally got the chance to go backwards and play the earlier titles I got all excited.  Currently on FF4, and it's great seeing how some of the aspects I love looked in the early days.  Has anybody else gone back to the beginnings of their favourite titles?

Cerys

Heh - just come across a race of dwarves who use 'rally ho' as a greeting.  FF9, anyone?

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I decided to try the original Fallout recently, after finishing my first play through of New Vegas. It wasn't really my cup of tea, though. I've never really played any old style, numbers based RPGs (unless you count Pokemon) so pretty much everything about it feels like a chore. I did like the fact that they'd reused some of the music in New Vegas however.

mikeyg27

This serves as a reminder that I really should go back and complete FFVI. If only my 'to play' list wasn't already so daunting...

As someone who loves both Metroid Prime and Super Metroid, I always find it really difficult to get to grips with the NES original. I know I've seen people complain about games being too easy these days but for the most part I prefer that to the old approach of games with not so much a difficulty curve as a difficulty cliff-face. Super Metroid, however is pretty much perfect and definitely the game I end up revisiting the most - usually I tell myself I'll just play the opening section for a bit, and next thing I know I'm somehow fighting that giant 2-screen-tall fuckoff monster Braid.

Consignia

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on June 16, 2011, 11:50:12 PM
I decided to try the original Fallout recently, after finishing my first play through of New Vegas. It wasn't really my cup of tea, though. I've never really played any old style, numbers based RPGs (unless you count Pokemon) so pretty much everything about it feels like a chore. I did like the fact that they'd reused some of the music in New Vegas however.

Yeah, I tried that recently after 3, but I found the original so clunky to play I gave up a bit early. It's a shame because there's loads of good things cleary going on but I just didn't get on with the interface.

I also can't really play any of the Final Fantasy's before 6, because they are too "fantasy" for my liking. 6 was brill, though, but I just didn't finish it. I got to the final dungeon, but I just stopped for some reason. Should finish it someday.

Phil_A

This year I've decided to play all the Ultimas, from the beginning. I'm currently up to Ultima III, I've even set my Atari ST up so I can play it on the appropriate hardware. Yeah, I'm  hardcore retro. Just starting off seemed incredibly initimidating at first, but once you've mastered the 26(!) key commands, the games are oddly enjoyable. Although best played with a walkthrough and maps within easy reach.

mcbpete

Quote from: mikeyg27 on June 16, 2011, 11:53:57 PM
This serves as a reminder that I really should go back and complete FFVI. If only my 'to play' list wasn't already so daunting...

As someone who loves both Metroid Prime and Super Metroid, I always find it really difficult to get to grips with the NES original. I know I've seen people complain about games being too easy these days but for the most part I prefer that to the old approach of games with not so much a difficulty curve as a difficulty cliff-face. Super Metroid, however is pretty much perfect and definitely the game I end up revisiting the most - usually I tell myself I'll just play the opening section for a bit, and next thing I know I'm somehow fighting that giant 2-screen-tall fuckoff monster Braid.
Super Metroid is my favourite game ever everrrerever. I've played through the whole game probably at least a couple of dozen times and every time I'll notice an extra bit that I missed before (titter, it's Kraid by the way - Braid is that time travelling game on the X-Box). I too struggle with the NES version, but if you can get hold of Metroid Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance I highly recommend it - it's like a directors cut extended version of the original game but with a far more lenient difficulty curve.

mikeyg27

Quote from: mcbpete on June 17, 2011, 01:07:20 AM
(titter, it's Kraid by the way - Braid is that time travelling game on the X-Box)

*slaps forehead* Goddamnit, I knew that as well. I was thinking how it was odd that they shared the same name...

Braid, that's another one on the to-play list.

madhair60

I used to play retro games pretty much all the time, it's only this last year I've actually gotten into new stuff at all.  I still play old games fairly constantly.  I'm probably going to have to 100% Yoshi's Island again.

Cerys, have you played Final Fantasy VI before?  If not you are in for a treat.  Also, Chrono Trigger is the secret best Final Fantasy.

Jemble Fred

If only Xbox Live could give freer, emulator-style access to classic old-school games of all kinds. I suppose yuo can hack it, and I also suppose that re-releasing old games involves a billion annoying rights issues and so on, so it'll never happen. But I love the idea of logging onto the Games Marketplace and, for instance, downloading Quackshot on the SNES, Young Merlin on the Megadrive, Personal Nightmare on the Amiga and the BBC Granny's Garden for about 50MP each, all of them downloading in about 30 seconds...

Mainly Quackshot. God I loved Quackshot, but emulated games on the laptop just aren't the same.

Zetetic

I'm playing Planescape: Torment on-and-off, but I don't have the inclination right now to actually sit down and plough ahead. Unfortunately this means whenever I come back to it, I've completely forgotten where I am and what I'm meant to be doing.[nb]Which might seem appropriate, but it's also very annoying.[/nb] The quest descriptions aren't usually sufficiently helpful in this regard.

mikeyg27

Quote from: Zetetic on June 17, 2011, 10:32:53 AM
I'm playing Planescape: Torment on-and-off, but I don't have the inclination right now to actually sit down and plough ahead. Unfortunately this means whenever I come back to it, I've completely forgotten where I am and what I'm meant to be doing.[nb]Which might seem appropriate, but it's also very annoying.[/nb] The quest descriptions aren't usually sufficiently helpful in this regard.
I've pretty much done the same thing. I'm early enough in the game that I think I might just start again and give it my full attention.

madhair60

Quote from: Jemble Fred on June 17, 2011, 09:56:23 AM
Quackshot on the SNES, Young Merlin on the Megadrive

I think you got that backwards.  Quackshot is MD, Young Merlin is SNES.

mcbpete

Quote from: madhair60 on June 17, 2011, 09:52:51 AM
Chrono Trigger is the secret best Final Fantasy.
True that - I recently beat it for the first time on my phone using a SNES emulator, bloody amazing game. Squaresoft would make a killing if they released their back catalogue on the smartphone market ....

NoSleep

Quote from: madhair60 on June 17, 2011, 09:52:51 AM
Also, Chrono Trigger is the secret best Final Fantasy.

Thirded. Recently replayed this on the DS (Having previously played it on a SNES Emulator). Possibly the most memorable soundtrack of all the Square games.

madhair60

I played it for the first time through on the DS, having done a bit of it on ZSnes.  The DS version is the definitive release, easily.

Consignia

Hmm... I might have to give this Chrono Cross a go. I've played it for about half an hour years ago, but haven't revisited it. Again, it looks up my alley, so might pick it up at some point.

Cerys

Quote from: madhair60 on June 17, 2011, 09:52:51 AM
Cerys, have you played Final Fantasy VI before?  If not you are in for a treat. 

I just finished it for the first time.  Once I'd got past the clunky movement I fell in love with it.  I suspect another playthrough is going to happen comparatively soon, just so I can concentrate more on the sidequests.  That's if I can get past the fact that Locke's avatar reminds me of nagsworth.

NoSleep

Quote from: Consignia on June 17, 2011, 12:39:32 PM
Hmm... I might have to give this Chrono Cross a go. I've played it for about half an hour years ago, but haven't revisited it. Again, it looks up my alley, so might pick it up at some point.

Not played Chrono Cross, but we're talking about Chrono Trigger.

Consignia

Sorry, you are right. I get the buggers confused, as well something called Chrono Crusade. I meant Trigger as well. I've heard Cross isn't that good anyway.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: madhair60 on June 17, 2011, 11:39:46 AM
I think you got that backwards.  Quackshot is MD, Young Merlin is SNES.

Yep, sorry – to be honest I thought Quackshot was both, but it seems not.

NoSleep

Quote from: Cerys on June 17, 2011, 12:51:35 PM
I just finished it for the first time.  Once I'd got past the clunky movement I fell in love with it.  I suspect another playthrough is going to happen comparatively soon, just so I can concentrate more on the sidequests.  That's if I can get past the fact that Locke's avatar reminds me of nagsworth.
What did you play FFVI on? There's a Japanese>English fan translation of the SNES Japanese original game out there somewhere (which differs from the one released to the US/UK in some ways I've forgotten - some censorship of the original, I think). I think I might have the patched version somewhere here if you can't find it.

Cerys

PS1.  It's the revamp they did about ten years ago.  I have a feeling the one you're talking about is the one where you can fight Tiamat, among other things.

NoSleep

Quote from: Cerys on June 17, 2011, 01:39:02 PM
PS1.  It's the revamp they did about ten years ago.  I have a feeling the one you're talking about is the one where you can fight Tiamat, among other things.

That rings a bell. I've played the PS1 remake (I have some others for PS1, too, somewhere). As I recall the PS1 would sometimes slow down at certain times in the game most noticeably slowing the tempo of the music. But that may have been either on an original Playstation or a PS2; not tried it it on a PSOne (yet).

Cerys

I noticed the music going a bit haywire in Figaro Castle - not a tempo issue, more as if it had just lost the plot a little.

madhair60

Loading times/lag make the PS1 version the worst, but it's the worst version of a tremendous game.

Cerys

The time it takes to save a FF4 game to memory card is annoying.  Loading time is pretty good, though.

madhair60

Could be worse, could take an entire memory card to save, like the PS1 version of X-Com.

How about the unofficial FF7 remake for the unofficial Chinese version of the NES?

Final Fantasy 7 - 8bit remake (1)

Cerys