What have you been up to lately with your Genesis / Mega Drive?

[newtmonkey]

I played Phantasy Star III a bit more after posting that, and while it does get a little better once you get off the first continent or planet or whatever, I'm honestly shocked at how "cheap" the game looks and feels, especially compared with Phantasy Star II.  It really feels like the skeleton of a game some amateurs put together in RPG Maker.  It's so lazy that all the towns are basically the same exact thing, and the first few hours consists of a bunch of cut-and-paste content.  It's completely ridiculous that, so far, every obstacle is solved by stumbling upon some random character standing in the middle of nowhere (a lake, a cave) who has just the thing you need to get to the next cave, though no one ever explains why you need to go there or what you need to do -- you just go there because it's the only place to go.

 

I still don't understand the part where you find some random guy you seem to know somehow in a cave (?) who gives you a Sapphire (??) that magically opens another cave (???) that doesn't even appear to be closed off or anything (????), so that you can travel to another planet (?????) even though you have no reason to actually want to go to that planet (??????).

[newtmonkey]

Phantasy Star III

I'm a few hours in now, and this game is just joyless to play.  I adjusted Myu's technique grid to give priority to the technique that allegedly cures poison, but it still failed five fucking times in a row.  Absolutely infuriating!  I guess I'll just load up on antidote items.

 

The amount of backtracking in this game is unreal, even in the first few hours.  Of course, there is no quick travel option, so you just have to hike back and forth slowly over these massive but empty maps, getting interrupted every few steps, constantly getting poisoned.  Dungeons are thankfully not as massive as in the previous game, but are frustrating in another way -- they typically will have 4-5 chests in them, but every single one so far has just been a healing item.  What a waste of time.

 

Really disappointed with this one!  I knew it was seen as a weird misstep in the series, but I wasn't expecting such a lazy borderline incompetent game.  It's like it was designed by people who had never played an RPG before.

[Zoyous]

Oh man, that sounds rough. I've never looked into it until reading your playthrough. You might already know this, but apparently Phantasy Star III was developed by a completely different team than I, II, and IV (although the composer for III continued on to IV). Previously the developers on III only had experience with arcade ports, so that pretty much explains it. At that time, although there were organized development departments within Sega, they weren't yet focused on particular genres and they tended to be reorganized and merged frequently.

[newtmonkey]

@Zoyous

That makes a lot of sense!  It definitely feels like it was made by people who just don't get RPGs.  I am playing through this series for the first time, and loved Phantasy Star, and really liked Phantasy Star II, so this has been quite a disappointment!  I knew of its reputation, but I expected it to be just mediocre, rather than amateurish and lazy.

Edited January 17 by newtmonkey

[Tanooki]

I really should revisit PS2.  It has been like 25 years, never finished it because back then I didn't have the book sega made(do now) or a faq and it got confusing, then annoying, and with the huge size of dungeons and beatings in them I was over it despite liking the rest.  PS1 and 4 I really favor.  PS1 is the reason I went and reacquired the 1-3(ugh 3) collection along with the manual and fold out map/gear guide for GBA.

[Zoyous]

I had an impulse to revisit Insector-X recently. I love that era of the earliest releases on the Genesis, as the floodgates were beginning to open with third party support for the system and developers were just scratching the surface of what would eventually be possible. This is a side-scrolling shooter developed by Hot-B. It was originally published in the arcades by Taito and then ported by Hot-B again for a home version on the Gen/MD and published under their North American imprint Sage's Creation. It has a mechanized-insect theme and the battles play out against backgrounds containing both wilderness and man-made structures, which also indicate that the scale of the creatures is bug-sized (rather than being giant insects) as we see towering blades of grass and huge cinderblocks in some scenes.

 

One thing that's interesting to me is that, although this is a port of an arcade game, the coin-op is regarded as a "cute-em-up" with chibi character designs, while the Gen/MD version has a more realistic art direction. Reading about this, I learned that apparently the more realistic style was the original art direction for the coin-op until Taito requested that it be redesigned with a more cute and colorful aesthetic. So it's pretty cool that Hot-B was able to return to their original design for the home version. Apparently Hot-B also ported this to the Famicom, retaining the chibi style of the arcade version. But I haven't tried that one yet.

 

The game doesn't seem to push the system's capabilities much if at all, as it doesn't even have parallax backgrounds. But the overall design is so cool and unique I still love it. The title screen does have a very cool effect showing a compound eye-style first-person view of a flying insect tiled hexagonally 68 times, so that's one cool flourish that heralded the 16-bit era.

 

Here's a comparison of the coin-op and Gen/MD versions that I grabbed from the Wikipedia page, showing the differences in art direction:

 

[newtmonkey]

Raiden Densetsu / Raiden Trad

This is a pretty awesome port of the arcade game; I think it compares nicely with the PC Engine port, and of course both blow the bizarrely horrible SFC port out of the water.  Having said that, this port is somewhat lacking when it comes to the details in the backgrounds... it's a cool port, but it just hasn't got the ARCADE FEEL.

 

Enter: Arcade style tiles/sprites/colors hack:

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3598/

 

I couldn't find nice clean screenshots from the same area, so I captured a screen from a YouTube playthrough of the original game to compare:

Original MD/Genesis version

 

ROM hack

 

What a difference!  In addition to redrawing a lot of the tiles and sprites for more color and contrast, it even adds color cycle animation to the rivers and such.  Highly recommended!!

Edited January 18 by newtmonkey

[Tanooki]

@Zoyous That one on the Famicom is pretty faithful too, just it's stuck in a piece of hardware that's a half decade older so it has some constraints but it manages fairly well.  Just saw this clip of it yesterday or today I forget as I've been going from 1-end on this since I missed much of it when I can hit it for a bit.

 

[newtmonkey]

I'm a bit burnt out on RPGs, and am in the mood to clear some action games... so I spent a lazy evening trying out a few games on my good old MD2, with the goal of deciding on a game to focus on next month.  I consider a game "cleared" if I can finish it on default settings, though for shmups I personally would not consider a game completed until I clear it without continuing.

 

Bare Knuckle (aka Streets of Rage)

I am 99% certain that I actually cleared this on default settings years ago, but I didn't make note of it in my records, so just to be sure I'd like to clear it again.

I was able to get to the boss of Round 4 dying once, but for the life of me could not remember my strategy for taking this guy down.  I went through life after life trying to figure it out... then, finally on my last life, I got it lol.

 

X-Men

I remember this game being pretty huge back in the day (I had three friends with Genesis consoles, and they all had this one), but I guess it's seen as somewhat poor now.  Anyway, I thought I'd give it a shot and try to at least get out of the first area.  First impressions were mixed.  The X-Men themselves all look cool, but otherwise it's not a great looking game.  The intro cinema has some pretty cool music, but once the game drops you into the first area, the music is just pitiful.  The game also feels sluggish and controls are a bit floaty, though it's not anything you can't get used to.  There's still something cool about it though, and I don't dislike the stage design.  I actually ended up liking the game, so I might spend some more time with this one.  I did get through the first area, but died miserably at the first actual boss lol.

 

Musha Aleste

I've played this before, but never seriously.  This time, I got to the boss of Round 3 before losing my last life.  What a game!  It looks, sounds, and plays great.  It doesn't seem very difficult on the default settings, so this might make a good 1CC for me.

Edited January 28 by newtmonkey

[+jeremiahjt]

@newtmonkey I did not like Phantasy Star III as much as the other three games in the series, but I definitely enjoyed it more than you. The antidote technique thing is hilarious though. When I first realized that it was a crap shoot if it actually cured poison I was pissed. As I recall, in Phantasy Star II you never had to worry about getting poisoned, it was a very rare ailment.

[+jeremiahjt]

On 11/28/2023 at 11:09 AM, newtmonkey said:

Phantasy Star II

I completed the green dam dungeon, and got whisked away to space jail.  After escaping, I explored a big maze (not too bad by PSII standards) and finally ended up on the second planet.  I explored this quite a bit to seek out towns and upgrade my stuff; even without grinding, I actually had more than enough cash to get everything I needed, which was nice.

 

The next step seems to be to explore a crevice near one of the towns.

 

I'm probably going to stick with my current party to the end (Hunter, Huntress, Medic).  The robot enemies aren't too bad at all even without the techs that damage them.  Medic is pretty useless, but I think she's the least useless of the remaining characters, because she's got some nice utility techs (and great healing spells useful in an emergency).

I am going back and reading through your posts, and all I have to say is WHAT? No comment about the destruction of a planet full of people! Palma has been obliterated, along with all her people and it does not even get a mention. What a soulless playthrough.

[Tanooki]

Anyone here have a take on Caliber 50? I know it's an ikari wannabe and it's not super colorful, but as far as an arcade run n gun goes what's the feel here?  I don't trust sega-16 they gave it a 3 and seem to have a snarky bug up their ass often about some times of titles this falls into it.

[Bloodreign]

Rainbow Islands Extra

 

While I am glad to have a boxed copy of it, the game itself just doesn't feel right as neither version on the cart behave like the arcade does. The original mode doesn't even have the last 3 islands, nor the true last boss, and Extra Mode doesn't let you manipulate the items in the secret bonus rooms if you get the 7 little diamonds in order. In the arcade and FM Towns versions of Extra, once you collect the 7 in order, whatever gem you get last determines what item you will find in these secret rooms. In the vanilla version the items are always the same each of the 10 hidden rooms, the MD version of Extra behaves exactly the same way as the regular version, not to mention a lot of music in the game is missing (seriously the game puts the regular music in the Arkanoid levels, known as DOH Island, that world is supposed to only play Arkanoid sound effects). This should've been done better, I know the system was capable of actually having both games behave properly, seems Taito got lazy for the ports.

[newtmonkey]

16 hours ago, jeremiahjt said:

I am going back and reading through your posts, and all I have to say is WHAT? No comment about the destruction of a planet full of people! Palma has been obliterated, along with all her people and it does not even get a mention. What a soulless playthrough.

I am posting my thoughts on playing the game, not summarizing its plot for a Wikipedia article.

[newtmonkey]

Played some more:

 

Bare Knuckle

I was able to get a bit further tonight, reaching the bosses of Stage 6 (factory) on my last credit.  I've been forcing myself to avoid using the special attack (police car), so I can learn better how to play the game.  I think if I started making use of that attack, I could probably clear the game on default settings, but my goal now is to reach the last stage without using the special attack at all.  I do like this game, but I'm not sure I like it enough to work on a 1CC.

 

Bare Knuckle II

I intended to just play it a bit to compare with the first game, but ended up playing this quite a bit.  It's a massive improvement over the first game in terms of graphics and "feel," though I don't like the music as much.  It plays "better" but there's something awkward in how Axel attacks in this game.  I'll have to check out the other characters.  I was able to get to the boss of Stage 5 (Ship), but ran out of lives and continues trying to figure out a good strategy for the boss.

It's really impressive how much better this game looks than the first game, almost hard to believe they are both on the same system.

[GiygasKaz]

Finally got around to playing Phantasy Star IV (my first time with the series.) I had no idea what to expect but wow. Not ashamed to admit I cried a few times. Everything about the narrative and presentation, from visuals to music and cutscenes, is absolutely incredible (more under spoilers.) The gameplay strikes a solid balance in difficulty for a relative novice to RPGs of the era, and I found the combat to have reasonable depth to keep the relatively short runtime consistently interesting. Fantastic experience from start to finish and holds up remarkably well.

 

Also, can we please have more RPGs with macro assignments? How did this feature sneak into a 90s RPG and never get wider adoption?

 

Spoiler

Alys's death is one of the most sudden and shocking moments in an RPG I've played. I was anticipating some kind of macguffin until they have you stand around her grave. The shift in dynamic between Chaz and Rune that develops afterwards is wonderful to see develop. I also appreciate the moments between Chaz and Rika, where she opens up about how Alys helped her feel more accepted into the world and more "real" regardless of her being a numan.

[newtmonkey]

Phantasy Star III

I finished the first generation tonight.  The few boss encounters were surprisingly easy; in fact, easier than some of the more dangerous random encounter groups!  I really am not liking this game so far, but hopefully it will improve during the second generation.

[Tanooki]

For what it's worth, more power to you sticking to that evident turd seeing how much you're not finding any good really with it.

[newtmonkey]

@Tanooki

I really do enjoy playing RPGs, so I don't want to give up on even a poor one, unless it's just intolerable!  PS3 is bad, no doubt about it, but it's not broken, so I'll see it to the end.  I've finished worse -- Tengai Makyo: Ziria and the Cosmic Fantasy games on the PC Engine, for example lol.

Edited February 4 by newtmonkey

[insertclevernamehere]

This is a super long shot and I doubt I'll get any response but I've been playing Magic Pockets from Pixelheart on my Hyperkin Retron Mega HD.  Some of the objects I throw out of my pockets are invisible and have no effect on enemies. Other objects randomly disappear too.  I presume that rather than the cart being faulty, it's a lack of compatibility with the Retron and it would work fine on original hardware, something I should but haven't yet bought.  I don't suppose anyone else has had a similar experience?  As I said.  Super long shot.

[spacecadet]

I recently bought a Retrotink 5X Pro and the first cable upgrade I bought to go with it was a SCART cable for the Genesis. At the same time, I got my first Everdrive, the X5 for the Genesis. Together, they've meant I've been having tons of fun playing both the games I remember owning when the system was current (many of which I do also have the real cartridges for) but also a lot of games I've always wanted to try but either haven't been able to justify the cost of or just haven't gotten around to buying... stuff like Mutang League Football and Hockey, Comix Zone, and various shmups. I also do weirdly find myself still gravitating towards sports games on the Genesis, which I don't do for any other system. I think the Genesis was the peak of that genre, when sports games were just realistic enough but still pretty arcadey. The SCART cable is great and only cost me about $9; it's almost *too* sharp. I do notice the jail bars and dithering that the Genesis does a lot more than I ever did using composite on a CRT, although if I want that blurrier look I can always still just switch over to composite again. Overall I'll take the sharpness.

Edited February 4 by spacecadet

[newtmonkey]

Phantasy Star III

I completed the second generation (Layne aka Nial).  This was must less tedious than the first chapter (most enemies do not poison you, and there isn't quite as much backtracking), but it was also extremely easy.  You start out with your cyborgs from the first chapter, and they retain all their equipment and levels/stats.  This makes the start much easier... but then the game just gets easier and easier every passing minute.  By the end of the chapter, all five of your characters are lethal killing machines, and two of them are also powerful healers.  You basically cannot lose.  I guess one good thing about this game is you don't need to grind at all... it's usually pretty clear where you need to go next, so I just zoomed from place to place, could barely afford any of the equipment in the last couple of areas, but still wiped the floor with the boss with all characters at nearly full health when the battle was over.

     I chose to marry Ruise (aka Alair), so it's off to Chapter 3!

Edited February 6 by newtmonkey

[SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO]

Just bought Castle of Illusion, which I'd only had on Game Gear as a kid since I didn't have a Genesis.

 

Curious to see how the Genesis version compares. 

[+neogeo1982]

On 2/2/2024 at 2:04 PM, GiygasKaz said:

Also, can we please have more RPGs with macro assignments?

Part 3 had this feature in it. Though like Newtmonkey pointed out, that's not the best entry in the series.

[+neogeo1982]

@newtmonkey

It's really too bad they didn't include more save slots on the cart. I would have saved before each generation end and played out that way then, exploring all the different branches of each.