Great games that came out right at the end of a console's lifespan

[Kelvin]

Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Wii U. I don't understand why they decided to release it on both consoles, rather than use it to drive all their business to the Switch. Maybe it was to help sell the remaining Wii U stock.

Because at the point they first revealed it, it was intended to drive sales to the flagging Wii U and they hadn't planned for it to launch on their next console. Once they decided to bring forward the NX, they obviously realised they could launch is with Zelda, so they settled on a dual launch to avoid pissing off people who had a Wii U and were expecting to play BotW. They couldn't really take that away after talking about the Wii U version for so long.

[madhair60]

I first played it on Wii U and it was a great version. Some of the dungeons were clearly designed around the gamepad.

[Consignia]

It's bizarre that it's exact same situation for Zelda Twilight Princess on the Gamecube and Wii. Maybe Nintendo are just too ambitious with Zelda that it takes them so long that they've got a new console to release by the time it's nearly to be released.

[NoSleep]

100% crunch.

Would probably explain why the second half of FFIX is fucking mental and makes no sense.

Yeah, production for FFVII started in 1994, so possibly twice as long as FFIX.

[Schmo Diddley]

Pretty much all great games on the Dreamcast came right at at the end of its lifespan.

It was a great console, killed by being so easy to crack and then crushed by the juggernaut of the PlayStation.

[magval]

No it didn't

I'm going by Wikipedia dates here, now, but Ristar's out February 1995, Saturn released in Japan in November 1994 and worldwide summer 1995.

You could have had a Saturn set up in the living room before Ristar was even in shops.

[Jim Bob]

I'm going by Wikipedia dates here, now, but Ristar's out February 1995, Saturn released in Japan in November 1994 and worldwide summer 1995.

You could have had a Saturn set up in the living room before Ristar was even in shops.

Correct.

Yeah, production for FFVII started in 1994, so possibly twice as long as FFIX.

Makes sense.  They had to build the game engine for Final Fantasy VII.  Whereas, with VIII and IX, the engine was there to begin with.  Also, they would have gotten the creative process down to a fine art by the time Final Fantasy IX was in production.

[NoSleep]

Took two years for VIII to be produced, though. As was pointed out earlier, IX does show signs of being rushed.

[bgmnts]

KOTOR II. Speaking of games that were rushed to fuck.

Fucking brilliant. Apparently getting a sequel soon but EA already ruined it by being utter useless cunts and its too late now.

[Jim Bob]

KOTOR II. Speaking of games that were rushed to fuck.

The restoration mod is essential for anyone interested in playing that game these days.

[Dewt]

Worms came out for the Amiga in 1995. Zeewolf II, also. That's one I bought a boxed copy of, new. In those days the shop would warn you, "you know this is for Amiga, right?". Must have got a lot of PC folk buying the wrong thing.

[NoSleep]

Having checked, I realise it is wrong to think of FFIX or Vagrant Story as coming out at the end of the PSX's lifespan, as PS1's were produced until 2006. Sales of the PS1 were probably high enough to keep it going for several years due to the secondhand market for PSX games, as PSX CDROMs were virtually indestructible (even when looking battered to fuck) compared to PS2 games which could be crippled by barely visible damage to the playing surface.

[peanutbutter]

I'd say it was definitely an end of kinds, when I was 10 I didn't really notice it so much cos droves of games started being reissued dirt cheap and Square put out a bunch of Final Fantasy compilations. Considering how big the PS1's userbase was, it's kinda nuts that games of any kind of substance largely seemed to dry up at the exact point the PS2 came out.
Guess it highlights just how aggressively they must've been pushing that hardware to its limits by the end, relieved to get away from it maybe

[NoSleep]

Weren't there initial problems for developers trying to work on the PS2?

[Jim Bob]

Weren't there initial problems for developers trying to work on the PS2?

Indeed.  The PS2's CPU was notoriously over-emotional; prone to breaking down in tears and refusing to compile the developer's code.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Hence it being called the Emotion Engine.

[Thursday]

That was his joke! You ruined it!

Unless it was just whimsy, and I'm wrong.

[peanutbutter]

Weren't there initial problems for developers trying to work on the PS2?

Right? That's the weird bit to me, I don't remember there being much of anything on PS2 up until MGS2 (Gran Turismo 3? ...Onimusha???), which was like 18 months after release. There must've been a span of about 12 months where the console industry was just totally on its arse.

My memories of that time period are exclusively playing older stuff, it was around that time that you had all those PC brands like Sold Out where you could get games from 3-4 years ago for a fiver, and they'd work on basically any shit Windows 98 computer.

[madhair60]

I'm going by Wikipedia dates here, now, but Ristar's out February 1995, Saturn released in Japan in November 1994 and worldwide summer 1995.

You could have had a Saturn set up in the living room before Ristar was even in shops.

February 1995 is earlier than summer 1995 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I suppose it would be true if you imported a console but that'd be a blatant goalpost move.

Either way, Ristar is complete and total dogshit beloved by basic bitches. On that we can all agree unless truly thick.

[madhair60]

Arguing about when Ristar came out. God, I want to die.

[Dewt]

When did Ristar go back in?

[Bazooka]

February 1995 is earlier than summer 1995 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I suppose it would be true if you imported a console but that'd be a blatant goalpost move.

Either way, Ristar is complete and total dogshit beloved by basic bitches. On that we can all agree unless truly thick.

Look at the state of this guy, you could only dream of being as loveable as Ristar.

[Jim Bob]

That was his joke! You ruined it!

Unless it was just whimsy, and I'm wrong.

No, you're not wrong.  That was indeed the joke.

[H-O-W-L]

Red Dead 2, surely? I mean, I doubt you could really spruce up or bell-and-whistle it any further, but it really did concern me that they were making it so close to the end of the console life cycle. I guess that's a result of how long these games take to make, but still.

[madhair60]

Red Dead 2, surely? I mean, I doubt you could really spruce up or bell-and-whistle it any further, but it really did concern me that they were making it so close to the end of the console life cycle. I guess that's a result of how long these games take to make, but still.

They will re-release it on PS5/Xbox for full price

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Red Dead 2, surely?

Shirley not. It was released about two years before any new consoles are expected.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Worms came out for the Amiga in 1995. Zeewolf II, also. That's one I bought a boxed copy of, new. In those days the shop would warn you, "you know this is for Amiga, right?". Must have got a lot of PC folk buying the wrong thing.

Plus they later released the Amiga exclusive 'Worms: The Director's Cut' in 1997, which was arguably the best version of Worms on any platform.

[madhair60]

Plus they later released the Amiga exclusive 'Worms: The Director's Cut' in 1997, which was arguably the best version of Worms on any platform.

Based on what, being obscure?

[remedial_gash]

You can still buy indie shmups for the dreamcast, does that count?

[Mobius]

Pillars of Eternity 2:Deadfire came out for the PS4 today. But apparently the loading screens are literally 5-7 min wait

Why fucking bother releasing the game. How is that acceptable..