• Surely this is the LONGEST game I have played so far? In-game timer said 30-something hours, and I don’t think it was quite that bad, because there were times when I’d leave it on the TV and walk away (just like as a kid!). But it’s a long time for sure.
• That said, the game doesn’t really drag on. There aren’t any sections that purely feel like padding. It’s just…. an RPG. This is what they do.
• Having not played the first Lufia game, I thought the storyline was surprisingly coherent (translation errors aside) and even had some surprises
• Characters, towns, and even dungeon designs are VERY well fleshed out. Dungeon layouts, for example, are very easy to understand and hold in your mind. But, they are not simplistic; some dungeons are very brutal
• Mercifully, no aspect of the game is so brutal that you ever find yourself grinding for levels
• I would bucket the soundtrack under “good-not-great.” Nothing about it is overtly bad, but there is very VERY little variety. It is pretty easy to get tired of a lot of these songs.
• Not really sure this is a bad thing, but if you’re “an RPG person,” be warned: Lufia II is very linear. The game loop is (1) visit new city (2) talk to who’s in charge (3) they send you to nearby dungeon to pick up the mcguffin (4) go get the mcguffin, and after bringing it back, you’re allowed to progress to the next city. Only at the very tail end of the game is there any point in backtracking or revisiting old places you’ve been.
• Speaking of the game loop, this game contains an area called the Ancient Cave, which drops you into a sort of roguelike game where the dungeons are randomly generated and you always start with none of your equipment. I did not try this out at all (as you can see from the stats screen above) but people seem to like it a lot. Others have even written that it’s almost like getting an entire second game for free, because it’s so deep. Some time when I’m not as RPG’d out, maybe I’ll pick this back up and see if the replay value is really there.
• There are puzzles in this game which are absolutely diabolical. They do succeed in their mission though, which is that you “feel smart” after solving them.
• Oh and don’t make my mistake of using the US ROM if you can help it. There’s a dungeon near the end of the game that is totally glitched out and you can’t see a thing. It doesn’t make the game unplayable; it is navigable with a guide. But apparently this is fixed in Euro or JP versions.
• By and large, I would rate this one a “only give it a try if you’ve burned through all other SNES jarpigs.” You’ll like it if you’re jonesin for a fix, but it’s not a must-play.

• Another one to file in “absolutely not gonna 100%+ this.” It is just too boring. I love a collectathon as much as anybody, but Spyro has absolutely no payoff at all for anything you are collecting.
• The level design is hit or miss. Some areas of some levels are amazing to look at and play through. Other places are expanses of vast emptiness, or baby’s first platforming, or paths that lead nowhere and dead end. By and large, I never really found myself looking forward to the next level. Some time in the middle of the Magic Crafters world, I was ready to just hurry through the rest of the game and be done with it.
• Like almost everything else on the PSX, this was my first time through this game. It doesn’t hold up very well in Current Year.
• Credit where due: there are actual reasons why a lot of the people who worked on this game are famous now. The music and voice acting is great. The controls feel awesome; even using the d-pad instead of analog sticks is very fluid.
• By and large, that is probably the point of the game. The controls feel so good, and Spyro has so much personality, that when you’re a little kid, you can spend hours running around and flying around in these worlds and not really get bored with it.
• Insomniac probably knew what they had on their hands wrt the controls; the final boss is basically a small scale racing game, it’s not an action sequence at all.

hi frens,

I made mention of this on Mastodon itself the other day but doing a post here too cause I really am wondering- is Mastodon still alive at all? can somebody get on there and tell me who to follow? as in, stuff that’s of similar interest to things posted on this site? Especially anything to do with old vidya.

or is it more of a situation where you get out what you put in? gotta talk into the void for a while before you run across anyone?

one thing I will say; I found a Mastodon client that I like a LOT: Ice Cubes - it’s so good it makes me want to use Mastodon more. Give it a try!

Anyway, stay safe out there compadres. Thanks for reading my blog.

• Even though this is a 2009 game, it is by far the newest one I’ve done for this series. I debated as to whether it should even be included, it’s so new
• However, Bayonetta plays like a very old-school game. This is meant as a compliment!
• While it is extremely self-indulgent about its’ own story and cutscenes, do not be fooled. Bayonetta is PURE gameplay. There’s not a single cutscene you can’t skip, and the story makes no sense anyway, so you don’t really miss a thing by cutting straight to the game.
• Combat is simple, and extremely deep at the same time. The system is easy to pick-up-and-play, yet it keeps rewarding you for understanding it better and better
• Enemy variety is not very high; you can tell this was conceived as a small project where they were very selective about putting in huge effort to things they HAD to get right.
• Pictured above is my first play-through, on Normal mode, and there is obviously…. A lot of room for improvement. This game does a great job encouraging you to do that, and I actually do want to immediately pick it back up and try to get platinum trophies on all these levels.
• ….With the exception of a couple levels that are very, very annoying (looking at you, Route 666).
• The weapon variety and the way it does loadouts is not TOO deep, but it is enough to still be fun. Players are rewarded for trying out different things with the weapon sets, and using them to come up with new combos.
• It’s only March, but this is already my favorite of the 6 games I’ve finished so far this year.