Messages

361

Video Game Chat / Re: Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U and 3DS

« on: October 13, 2014, 06:42:03 PM »

"Ah, yes. I've gotten many complaints about Ganondorf. Why doesn't he use his sword more? Why isn't he as powerful as he is in Zelda? Well, when I decided to add him in Super Smash Brothers, of course he was a late addition included only because his physical appearance was easy enough to model swap over Captain Falcon. So I couldn't do as much justice as I wanted with him, but I worried people would be upset if I left out such an important and striking character.

Ganondorf is somewhat of a contradiction---in Smash Brothers, he's both powerful, yet sometimes comes across as a little worn down, a little tired. In a way, he was greatly influenced by my late father who passed away shortly beforehand. As a child, I viewed my father as a strict-disciplinarian, a man I both feared and respected. But when I grew up, I realized my father, that man I was saw as a powerful figure---a king---was often out of breath, and limped along. I wondered why I feared him so much? And in a way, that's how I've developed Ganondorf as a character. Personally I'm quite close to the character, and thus I find it difficult to bring myself to change him too much."

-Sakurai in a Famitsu interview

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Video Game Chat / Re: Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U and 3DS

« on: October 11, 2014, 01:32:53 AM »

Hey now, Smash Bros. doesn't officially anything. Blame Other M for everything it deserves.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U and 3DS

« on: October 09, 2014, 03:25:30 PM »

The worst elements from Kirby Air Ride's City Trial? You mean the Dragoon and the Hydra?

364

Fan Creations / Re: Gallery of BP

« on: October 07, 2014, 03:36:44 AM »

Pshaw!

I shaded all the sprites I've made so far because there's going to be this water move:



which called for a darkening/contrast-raising effect (surprisingly I actually had to make a custom material shader to do this) for things made wet and shading to accentuate it. As for what else it does... nothing, yet. How anything reacts to a specific hitbox is going to have to be done on a case-by-case basis. But the funny thing is, I played Mario Sunshine again to see if it had any interesting applications for water that I could steal the [dukar] out of. And I ended up taking note of only one thing: expanding cloud platforms. Nearly everything else FLUDD does is either completely obvious, or makes no sense and is only there because when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Take away Mario's punches and kicks, suddenly everyone is hurt by water. A springboard that you switch from carry mode to use mode by spraying with water? WHY NOT. Fortunately I already have some other ideas of what to do with water, involving buckets, oversized cattle prods, ice, and things like that...



The death sequence (sans Freddie, whom I've yet to animate dying). The grave stays where it is after the player respawns and can be picked up, thrown, stood on...

Those little lantern guys on the left are just some placeholder objects for tests. In the likeness of these little lantern guys I made up for another game concept I want to do later. And as NPCs in this. And most every other game I make in the future because I love them





^That, specifically, isn't gonna happen, I drew that just for fun... although, specific stuff that's going to go on in the narrative is still up in the air and not of the highest concern. I do know that, for this, I want disconnected self-contained stories within the larger one like Paper Mario, but with a little potential for sequence breaking... or even total nonlinearity, in the case of a New Game + where you have all your moves already.

Nothing about game development is interesting and I am sorry to have betrayed your expectations

365

Video Game Chat / Re: Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U and 3DS

« on: October 01, 2014, 11:57:00 PM »

Do you have the rest of it? Don't be ashamed of it! At least go in the pink wig!

366

Video Game Chat / Re: Favorite Final Fantasy

« on: September 30, 2014, 06:48:49 PM »

CHRONO TRIGGER

I wasn't gonna say it, but

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Video Game Chat / Re: Let's review...

« on: September 30, 2014, 06:43:17 PM »

This is my video game review of Pikmin and Pikmin 2 for the Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii. My review for these games is bittersweet, so don't hate me for trashing them through most of the review. Also, this review contains ***SPOILARS***. You, my friend, have been warned. Let's start.

I think it's interesting to look at Nintendo's history and imagine what they were thinking with each new step up in technology. In retrospect, it looks to me like Luigi's Mansion was a collection of toys with cloth physics and lighting effects the Nintendo 64 would have struggled to create. Another near-launch title for the GameCube, Pikmin, makes an entire game out of the processing power of the new console being able to handle over 100 characters on-screen at a time. But what makes something like that a game mechanic and not just a gimmick? The changes between Pikmin and Pikmin 2 really got me to think about and figure out the difference.

To sum up my feelings about Pikmin 1, I can't really fault any of its deliberate decisions. The deadline to find all your ship parts creates a need to micromanage pikmin so you can get as many tasks completed in a day as possible. The need to micromanage pikmin creates a need to watch their numbers and keep their population high. The need for that creates a need to think it through when micromanaging them, which teams to pay the most attention to, where to send which pikmin, how to divide the greater group. The need for that creates the need to think about which colors of pikmin you should be trying to make more of. It's an incredibly solid game and nothing in it feels like a waste or like it didn't need to be there, with the possible exception of everything relating to bomb rocks.

So what's different about Pikmin 2? For starters, the overarching time limit is gone and there are new areas in the world, referred to as caves, where the timer for the current day stops altogether. My first impressions from these changes were that they completely yanked the rug out from under the point of the game. With no worries about time running out, there's no need to multitask, and so no need to divide the group of Pikmin at all. Micromanaging is definitely possible, but ceases to be a game mechanic and becomes a gimmick. This is exactly what I was afraid of after finishing Pikmin 1--that the time limit would be received poorly for making the game a challenge at all, and would be removed, destroying the game's meaning.

But, it didn't. Not entirely. I thought it did at first, but still enjoyed Pikmin 2 enough to keep playing and find that the caves started getting much longer and more challenging, which opened up something new. Micromanaging may no longer be an important game mechanic, but in the caves, there is a great emphasis on endurance. You cannot bolster the pikmin's numbers inside the caves, or even get more pikmin into your team out of the reserves. You can start with 100, and if 56 of them die on the first floor of the cave because a beetle is farting poison everywhere, then you're counting on 44 pikmin for the rest of it. So pikmin management is still critical, and deliberating which ones to take into the cave with only a vague element-based warning as to what dangers lie inside.

All of that being said, I still don't think it's better. Most ideas in Pikmin 2 do go hand-in-hand very well, but not quite so perfectly as every idea in the first. But I do applaud Pikmin 2 for taking the basic engine from Pikmin 1 and repurposing it for different gameplay ideas instead of creating a sequel that is more of the same thing. It certainly is longer, as well. I could have played the first game over and over and over again in the time I spent playing the second game once. What I don't applaud is that two of Pikmin 2's non-cave maps are just the same ones from the first game with small changes. Moved water, different enemies, electric fences for the yellow pikmin's convenient new electric resistance to take care of, etc. I would have liked to see a greater number of new worlds that made even more of a big deal of endurance, like the caves do. Larger worlds to explore, trek across, struggle to survive in... but I digress. Great games for their own reasons. Wish I'd played them sooner and will definitely play Pikmin 3 as well.

I give these games a 3 out of 10.

368

Video Game Chat / Re: Hyrule Warriors (name not final)

« on: September 29, 2014, 04:02:42 PM »

To expect a Zelda fan to go into it with that mindset is completely silly, because it is made entirely of Zelda shout-outs. I think it is lacking in those, and I haven't even played more than four of the 2D games.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Hyrule Warriors (name not final)

« on: September 28, 2014, 07:49:59 PM »

I might be biased because Little Mac and Greninja are in it, but I don't see SSB4's roster and think "What, that's it?" Or even Melee's or Smash 64's, given their respective release times.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Hyrule Warriors (name not final)

« on: September 27, 2014, 02:45:12 PM »

It's just that the "final roster" was shown and I'm not the only one whose reaction was, "What? That's it?". But Tecmo Koei was primed and ready to say, "No, no it is not! Not if you're prepared to pay more!" With the additional padding it looks a little better... but not for a 70/80-dollar game. So, is the combined total for content worth the combined total cost? You can decide that for yourself, and for me, I've decided it's not.

I'm not going to complain any more than that. I'm just not going to buy the game.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Hyrule Warriors (name not final)

« on: September 26, 2014, 11:23:52 PM »

All this day one vendor-preorder-exclusive DLC bull[dukar], themed DLC packs planned and ready before the game is even released and really could've helped the base game's roster... just, so much I hate about the game industry that Nintendo could have started doing years ago when everybody else did, had the Wii had a respectable hard drive. I'd hoped they were just too good for this. Maybe they are and it's just par for the Dynasty Warriors course. But it's not a business model I've ever liked or wanted to support.

I also get the feeling that they limited the (base) game's roster to OoT, TP and SS elements for some specific untold reason... having to do with those being the three games with unambiguously adult Links. Less risk of alienating anyone in the lowest common denominator who would look at, say, Wind Waker characters, and dismiss it as being kiddy. Does anyone else think it's a bit odd that Ruto and Darunia are in, but instead of Saria, we have this scantily-clad original the character playing around with the Deku Tree Sprout? Except apparently Majora's Mask IS good enough. To sell as DLC. I'm not saying I really have any evidence but if I were a corporate-minded video game director, that would be why I would choose to exclude so much of the Zelda series. It's the next-best thing when burly American space marines aren't in the cards.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Hyrule Warriors (name not final)

« on: September 26, 2014, 05:13:10 PM »

I just want to say the game very quickly became what I'd call Nintendo's first true AAA title and I cannot express my contempt for it.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U and 3DS

« on: September 15, 2014, 11:17:16 PM »

My problem is that ever since the GameCube put Z under the right finger, L has been my Defensive Maneuvers button. On the occasions I've used Remote + Nunchuk, down on the D-Pad is my B, B is my grab, Z is my shield. I'm really used to the diamond button layout now because I use my Classic Controller to play Project M on my Wii U, and Y for specials and B for normals is what makes sense there. Having no control options in the demo is a bummerino, but, I get it. It's the demo...

One other thing I can't complain about but will anyway: Pikachu, in the demo. Pikachu is the Italian food of Smash Bros. Yeah he's really great this time around and there are little differences, but really nothing to surprise you, you know? Nobody changes less than Pikachu from game to game.

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Mario Chat / Re: Favorite Mario Party

« on: September 15, 2014, 12:33:26 PM »

I bet that one comes in handy a lot.

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Video Game Chat / Re: Super Smash Bros. 4 Wii U and 3DS

« on: September 12, 2014, 11:47:29 PM »

Playing the demo. It's nice. I feel like there would be more of a point if one or two more new characters were playable (Greninjaaaaaa, alternately, Maaaaaaac). I won't make a list of observations about changes because you could go and find those anywhere.