Parasite Eve
(Completed on 2 Dec 2024)

One of the great Squaresoft RPG’s. I had never played this game before, or seen the movie, but I did read the book, and the story plays WAY better as a video game
Thankfully NOT a 40+ hour grind as is common in the genre. I played pretty casually and finished in less than 12 hours. Didn’t attempt the EX run but might go for that later
It took me a surprisingly long time to understand the mechanics of using Tools to modify guns and armor. Other than that, there is nothing complicated about the game at all.
I also really like an RPG where there’s only a single hero instead of a party, like the original Dragon Warrior. Done right, it makes some situations and dungeons more intense and is more engrossing
The combat system is roughly the same as Chrono Trigger (designed by the same guy) and it feels very good. You can move around freely, I don’t think there are any enemies with attacks you can’t dodge, and it is surprisingly deep considering how limited movement options are.
Overall very fun, not too hard, and I’d recommend anyone play it during the Christmas season since that’s when the story takes place in-game.

∞ Posted on 4 Dec 2024

サーフィン CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Metal Gear Solid 2
(Completed on 30 Nov 2024)

Classic status for a reason, but not sure it lives up to the greatness of the original
Enjoyed the setting a lot, wasn’t really mad about having to play as Raiden
Controls can be slippery; it is not always easy to make the character go where you intend. Extremely easy to accidentally flatten yourself against a wall when trying to make a tight corner to run away from an enemy, which gets you killed every time
Also, there are too many controls. I don’t like how you are able to make your character do things that you’d never ever need to do over the course of gameplay. It overloads the buttons for no purpose
I don’t really have a problem with sitting back and allowing all of Kojima’s over-indulgences, but by the end of this game, all the cutscenes and communicator sequences had got OLD. The first 70% of the game is a great story though
Probably just an issue of “git gud” but I never learned to cope with how smart or dumb the enemies were going to be. Some of them seemed like 80 IQ drooling morons, and others seemed like the Terminator.
The combat and gun mechanics and such feel very good; this aspect of the game is even better in the VR missions than it is in the main story

∞ Posted on 28 Nov 2024

サーフィン CLASSIC VIDYA REVIEW

Pokemon LeafGreen
(Completed on 20 Nov 2024)

This whole thing started as just idly killing time… Telling myself I’d do a run through LeafGreen, pick Bulbasaur as a starter just like I did playing Pokemon Blue when I was 9, have some good nostalgic memories, not think too hard about it…
…And somehow, in the middle of the run, I decided I was going to make a living Pokedex. I figured that’s a reasonable definition of “completing” the game?
This Pokedex was made entirely legitimately. No glitches, cheat codes, save states etc. were used. Using 2 Analogue Pockets, and another FireRed file (which I didn’t even complete), I traded over everything I needed, just like you would have had to do in 2003.
Nothing about this is really hard, it’s just tedious. I did have the extreme fortune of finding a Lucky Egg on the first Chansey I caught, which helped the level grinding a LOT
Not sure what I thought would happen, but trading over another EXP.SHARE from the other game also caused no problems. Half of Exp goes to the monster who did the fighting, and the other half is divided between however many are holding the EXP.SHAREs. This made it pretty easy to grind the elite 4 to level up living-pokedex monsters.
When I was playing through LeafGreen, I did my best to give myself over to the game and get in the mindset of what it felt to play it (meaning Blue) for the first time ever. I haven’t played a single Pokemon game past gen 3, however, I remain convinced that the 1st gen has the best setting and aesthetics.
The pokemon lab, the burned out mansion, the references to strange science projects, team Rocket skulking around, it all works together like none of these games ever did before or since. No one ever really thinks of the Pokemon games having a “plot” but there really is a lot here if you pay attention.
Overall, good experience, but this little project landed me in a gaming hole where it was the only thing I did for the past few months. Hopefully I can pull myself out of the rut and get back to playing smaller games to post more frequent reviews.

∞ Posted on 24 Nov 2024

サーフィン WEB SURFIN

What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? →

This is only 4 years old and it already feels like something from ancient internet times.

∞ Posted on 22 Nov 2024

サーフィン WEB SURFIN

vgen →

Extremely cool idea and I really hope it takes off. At the height of the bat flu I tried to build something similar, but never could make it work. The execution of vgen is way better than what I was up to, and it's done with much better taste.

∞ Posted on 20 Nov 2024

画廊 IMAGE STREAM