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What have you been up to lately with your NES/Famicom?


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On 5/10/2024 at 12:22 PM, newtmonkey said:

Dragon Quest IV

As a huge fan of DQII and DQIII, I had high hopes for this one.  First impressions were good; it looks and plays like those classics, and the way that the story is split into chapters with different characters is fun.  However, midway into the second chapter, I'm not 100% pleased with this one.

 

The chapter system is good in theory.  Each chapter is like a mini RPG, and while they all use the standard DQ engine, they vary quite a bit.  However, think back on playing DQII or DQIII for the first time, and how frustrating the first couple of hours can be with your weak level 1 characters.  DQIV is that, over and over.  What makes it even worse is that the worlds in each chapter are absolutely tiny and completely linear, with boss battles gating your progress.  The greatest thing about DQII and DQIII was how the game started you out in a small, linear area but after only a few hours the world was yours to explore, and there were very few bosses at all serving as level checks.  In DQIV, because the chapters are so small and linear, you are just following the story from place to place... and soon after you start feeling comfortable with your party, the chapter is over and you're back to level 1 with some other character.

 

Brief thoughts on each chapter so far:

 

Chapter 1

You play this tiny chapter as Ryan, a kind of medieval cop sent out to find some missing children.  This took me maybe two hours to complete, and it was fine.  It sets up the story, and it's balanced fine with no need to grind at all.

 

Chapter 2

You play as Alina, a badass princess, accompanied by a couple of retainers.  I'm only a few hours in, but it's extremely linear; what's worse is that that second step of the quest is just a few minutes away from the starting castle, and yet you are forced to fight a pretty difficult boss battle to continue.  You are lucky to get to level 2 naturally just walking to the fight, and level 2 is far, far too low to stand a chance.  Even the standard enemies outside of the starting castle are quite difficult for your level 1 weaklings, so there's no choice but to grind some levels.  This is quite disappointing, since DQIII requires no grinding at all (and DQII requires only a tiny bit at the very end of the game).  Anyway, it didn't take too long to get to level 4 for my party, and at that point the boss battle was a bit frustrating but beatable.  There was another massive difficulty spike right after that, but no bosses so it wasn't too bad.

 

It's not a bad game, but it just doesn't feel like Dragon Quest so far due to the tiny linear worlds and focus on story over exploration.  Hopefully future chapters will be a bit better.

Either Chapter 3 or Chapter 4 will require some grinding too, got to make money to open one of your party members a shop, and the shop isn't all that cheap to get money for. I beat the game many, many years ago, I found the last boss hard as nails, but I see other people have literally no issue with it. I figured I was underleveled, by the time I beat him, my entire party was wiped out, except Alena, and she had all of 12 HP left when she landed a critical blow that ultimately finished the final boss. There's also a nice gauntlet of tough bosses before you get to the final boss too.

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@Bloodreign

It was Chapter 3. :) It actually wasn't too bad at all, though.  I had a bit under 30,000 gold just through exploring by the time I reached that point, and it didn't take too long to make the extra 5,000 gold I needed, just by purchasing armor at one castle and selling it at the other castle for a profit.  It was a pretty cool chapter.

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I remember that, that is where the Torneko line of games popped up, they're the spinoffs of DQ4.  It was a neat idea, but as you're out of CH3 and into 4, once that's offloaded from your grinding you'll get into the actual full game with the hero, then trek to these places you stopped with the others on and start rounding up your caravan of characters.

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11 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

@Tanooki

It's too bad the Torneko games are just mysterious dungeon games.  Nothing against them, but it would have been cool if Enix made a full Torneko RPG that played like his chapter from DQIV.

They're all that like that aren't they?  I'd have to agree, it would be nice as we've seen through Steam/GoG in recent years full on JRPGs made as just a shopkeep alone, or a shopkeep+adventurer to restock the shelves and it seems like a smart and popular idea.  Square-Enix went into the weed with western koolaid and AAA development stupidity so much they're currently starting basically an apology tour and shitcanning within the week most the western losers and lunatics and basically rebooting themselves back home hopefully to imprve matters.  Maybe a wide long shot would be something like this, a solid character, solid franchise, and a lower cost/concept game that would rake it in.  They need to start making more titles of that sort, the B/A tier games both in style and budget as they go a long way.

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Now keep this in mind a few of these I'd let go of sooner or later, and some seeing what they are I clearly wouldn't like ever consider it.

 

But as is sits, this is what I have, left side other than bottom right corner and the aftermarket stuff are my legit period licensed Famicom carts, the rest are mostly 25+ year old vintage famiclone stuff with a select few modern

 

So this is what I'm messing with lately when I'm less direct about it but saying I'm tinkering with the famicom, it's something seen here.

 

May152024-fc-collection.thumb.jpg.700f99dcf20a6dae54966ba88cad7ade.jpg

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20 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

@Bloodreign

It was Chapter 3. :) It actually wasn't too bad at all, though.  I had a bit under 30,000 gold just through exploring by the time I reached that point, and it didn't take too long to make the extra 5,000 gold I needed, just by purchasing armor at one castle and selling it at the other castle for a profit.  It was a pretty cool chapter.

You are lucky then, I had to grind my ass off to get the gold needed. Myself and 2 friends each played a save file, I was the only one persistent enough to beat the game, the first RPG I ever beat.

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My 2nd youngest (9) step son wanted to play Super Mario 3 with me last weekend. I brought the AVS upstairs to play on the main TV and we had a blast. He wanted to warp to Level 8, so we did. Now we are at the first fortress and I can't remember where the hidden door to Boom Boom is. We played it on my Everdrive, so I did a save state to continue from.

 

Last night, for another thread, I was playing the Japanese version of Kid Icarus on my Everdrive to see if the sound emulation was as bad as what was demonstrated on a 6 year old comparison video (Everdrive vs FDS).  Played a couple levels before the kids started looking for me.  Heh.

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Dragon Quest IV

I finished Chapter IV last night.  It's a linear run through a couple of dungeons to a boss fight.  It's weird how the game sticks you with two very unpowered characters for half of the chapter, but then hands you an NPC that makes the rest of the chapter (including the boss) a total cakewalk.  It was alright, but was a bit of a letdown after the unique setup of Chapter III.

 

Chapter V starts you off (yet again) as a level 1 weakling, but I guess this is where the true Dragon Quest IV begins.  It will be fun meeting the characters and revisiting the areas from the previous chapters, and I'm looking forward to the exploration and non-linearity coming up.

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This topic reminded me I need to get back to Final Fantasy III.  I just got the first airship, and I'm about to use it to break a boulder. I admit, I used a few cheat codes, but only to get more money. I don't mind grinding for levels, but I hate grinding for money.

 

(If you're thinking to yourself "Hey, wait, Final Fantasy III is a Super NES game!", then you're thinking of the wrong game) :D

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(The real) Final Fantasy III is quite the grind given all the jobs and gear you'll have to slug through so it takes time, quite a bit.  It was streamlined a little more towards a FF5/6 grind with the 3D remaster on DS along with giving the characters names and personalities so it wasn't blank slate snore.  I've yet to try the pixel remaster of the game, but from what I've tinkered with so far with FF1 on there, they're back dating the mechanics somewhat, and while I doubt they'd make FF2 problematic as it was for development, FF1 killed off the MP system later releases had and went back to that crusty X magics per level stuff I never was a big fan of.

 

Adding a bit to this, during the beginning of the week I got the FC copy of Contra in the mail, knowing the updates to the visuals in animation, cut scenes, stagae map/pop map it does I had to have it so I waited on a deal.  Some say it's harder, doesn't feel any nastier to me and I feel bad I can't even finish it with a 30lives code anymore, but it's still fun to blow time on.

 

Also last weekend I reported on a deal I got with a nice spread of NES titles, and finally decided on those I was going to keep playing a series that weren't duplicates.  Others I had doubles of, if they weren't original buy/gifts of the 80s I traded up.  That said of all those games the only one (shock to some I guess would be) I never owned Tecmo Bowl before, and it's really not too bad, and I'm not a football fan.  I also decided not to purge my copy of Slalom so pulled it/manual from ebay days ago as well.  So what if I end up closing on 120 or whatever than keeping it around 100 nes games...don't care, I use them.

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Posted (edited)

Final Fantasy III (FC) doesn't require any grinding at all, unless you constantly switch jobs.  I can see how the game seems like it needs grinding, though.  Each character has a "proficiency" level for each job that starts at zero.  Proficiency affects pretty much everything, so whenever you switch to a new job, the character will feel underpowered.  It's explained in the manual, but it's safe to say that most English-speaking players wouldn't have access to that.

 

The game was not really designed with the player constantly switching jobs in mind... the job system in FFIII is more like a tool for solving puzzles than the full-blown job system that rewards experimentation from Final Fantasy V.  The key is to mainly stick with the same jobs throughout the game, only switching temporarily when required to get through a specific area or boss.

 

I believe that the remakes do away with this proficiency level, though I haven't played them and can't say for sure.

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Dragon Quest IV

I'm a few hours into chapter 5, and so far it's exactly what I wanted.  Following the plot, it doesn't take too long to build up your party and get access to the ship, which breaks the game wide open for you.  Ocean encounters are pretty rare and not difficult, so you really can explore without too much worry.  As you gather the characters from the previous chapter, you have to choose three for your party, while the rest stay in your wagon.  One cool thing is that characters in the wagon actually gain experience and levels as you play, so you can swap in other characters if necessary, without having to worry about grinding levels for them.

 

I was dreading the AI system, but it actually works pretty well so far.  I've found the characters to actually make pretty intelligent decisions during battle, like choosing to use the Evilbane sword as an item (attacks all enemies in a group) if it makes sense, or just attacking if it would do more damage.  They can also react in the middle of a round and heal instead of attacking, which is something you could never do yourself!  I'm sure it will become frustrating at some point, but so far it works really well, and I do notice that the AI seems to improve with time.

 

The dungeons are also quite cool so far, with interesting layouts and fun gimmicks.  One thing I really like about the Dragon Quest games (up to this point anyway) is that you do find cool stuff in treasure chests.  There's nothing worse than walking down some corridor in a dungeon to get a chest, fighting 2-3 battles along the way, just to get like 5 G or an herb or something, which is pretty common in JRPGs.  In the DQ games, it's almost always worth fully exploring the dungeons to find all the chests.

 

So far, it's awesome, though I dunno if I like it more than DQ2 and DQ3.

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On 5/24/2024 at 10:45 PM, newtmonkey said:

Final Fantasy III (FC) doesn't require any grinding at all, unless you constantly switch jobs.  I can see how the game seems like it needs grinding, though.  Each character has a "proficiency" level for each job that starts at zero.  Proficiency affects pretty much everything, so whenever you switch to a new job, the character will feel underpowered.  It's explained in the manual, but it's safe to say that most English-speaking players wouldn't have access to that.

 

The game was not really designed with the player constantly switching jobs in mind... the job system in FFIII is more like a tool for solving puzzles than the full-blown job system that rewards experimentation from Final Fantasy V.  The key is to mainly stick with the same jobs throughout the game, only switching temporarily when required to get through a specific area or boss.

 

I believe that the remakes do away with this proficiency level, though I haven't played them and can't say for sure.

No they still do it, and the modern remakes, the pixel remasters, they reset the rule set back to the original releases of the games so far from all I've tested out.  FF1 has the old magic system and shitty xp grind.  FF4 is more FF4 US (not the even easier easy type or full on JP release), and so on.  I never got that it went that way so I ground out quite a few jobs on the 3D one on DS, maybe I'll find a party I just like with FF1 and do that, only switching over for a key battle or a key moment to use another because otherwise it's gimpy.  I just got the soundtrack to this game at a weekend show, need to burn the CD to MP3s for my phone this weekend.  I also got SMB2J/Ice Climber on a FDS disk, shame I can't use it legit, well...semi legit I could use my everdrive until I can repair the drive.

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41 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I never got that it went that way so I ground out quite a few jobs on the 3D one on DS, maybe I'll find a party I just like with FF1 and do that, only switching over for a key battle or a key moment to use another because otherwise it's gimpy.

Yeah, this is the way to do it.  Of course, once you reach max proficiency in a job, you can try some of the other jobs and just switch back if things get too tough... but when I completed the game I just mainly stuck with the same jobs (outside of "puzzle" dungeons/bosses) until you unlock the two ultimate jobs at the very end.

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4 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

Yeah, this is the way to do it.  Of course, once you reach max proficiency in a job, you can try some of the other jobs and just switch back if things get too tough... but when I completed the game I just mainly stuck with the same jobs (outside of "puzzle" dungeons/bosses) until you unlock the two ultimate jobs at the very end.

Sounds like a plan, longer term, since I took the bite awhile back when SquareEnix did an exceedingly rare discount on pixel remaster taking off like 25% so I grabbed the bundle as it's easier on the go on my phone than even my gameboy. :D  And well 3 never got a fair 2D release until that, or really 2 given it seems it's likely it's playing by famicom rules since 1 and 3 are.

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  • 2 weeks later...

:)  I got a nice package in the mail from Japan in just a few days (Fedex) and it's a four pack of Famicom games, solid games at that and when combining shipping made it such a deal over dealing with western grubbers too.  Sadly, its' that part of the week I can't find time to do much of anything they just had to arrive on.  Cleaned, tested, barely touched ...ugh

 

Anyone here a fan of Juuoki(Altered Beast), Airwolf(not the crap NES release), Joy Mech Fight, and Battle City as that's what arrived.  I've wanted ownership of these for quite awhile and it finally worked out quite well.

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Dragon Quest IV

I'm pretty sure I'm approaching the end of the game, as I've recruited all the characters and collected all the heavenly equipment.  Chapter 5 is really quite excellent, as it really opens up once you get the ship and the magic key.  You do have a lot of freedom to explore the world and find stuff at that point, though not quite to the extent of DQII or DQIII.

 

One weird thing about Chapter 5: I spent what seemed like hours with my party at level 15-20 or so, but then gained 10+ levels per character exploring just one dungeon (Royal Tomb).  I didn't even grind; it's just that the dungeon is loaded with those metal slimes that give tons of experience.  It's the game that truly proves what a waste of time grinding really is in RPGs: the experience you gain in a 30-second encounter in which you kill a single metal slime is greater than what you would earn grinding for hours earlier in the game.

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I finally yesterday got time to put a little effort into a couple of those games.  I put more time on Juuouki than the other, Joy Mech Fight, but I started to make some serious progress.  I mean I get being the NES the sprites are smaller, but to see people who idiotically rip on that one online proves they are either Sega fanboys or parroting fanboy stuff knowing f-all about the game.  It plays quite well, stuff pops up as it should, and it runs pretty smoothly as well, and so for a company like Asmik which is hit and miss they did well.  At first I had trouble with stage 2 but I was able, at times skating by, got as far as into the stage 5 which was one of the newer stages with underwater stuff and you beast mode into this shark thing.  It's solid, I'd say the only real loss, there is no 'GRRRRRARRR' transform head showing thing the Genesis/MD did when you went all the way, you just upgrade.  I'd call that a small loss, but otherwise it just works.

 

Joy Mech I need to figure it out, the controls I'll need to memorize on a bot or two, but from what I could get out of it so far was some moderate progress and took down a few enemies, it's a pretty good game, and it has solid control, moves I figured out, and mechanics all around.  Whoever owned this I think was damn good at it, I think it has all the unlockables done.  I kind of wish it wasn't, and I mean, I could pop the battery, but it would be a shame since I can just play fresh and use whoever I want.

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Dragon Quest IV

image.thumb.jpeg.1b7fa33bcbc9d84f1b3ca4a71ccd761d.jpeg

I finished this just now.  I mostly used Ryan, Alena, and Cristo, and they ended up reaching level 39-40 by the end.  Overall, it's a great game, though not my favorite of the first four games.  My ranking would probably be III>II>IV>I.

The AI system works pretty well, but it also makes the combat mostly mindless... which is a shame because the combat was definitely a high point in DQII and DQIII.

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