Cave Johnson Posted November 12, 2022 Share Posted November 12, 2022 On 11/10/2022 at 3:57 PM, AihaLoveleaf said: Hey, what you're doing right now is already a heck of a lot more productive than anything most of us are doing in video games these days! That's pretty awesome, and considering how long you've been playing guitar already, I think the new journey is going to turn out pretty well for you. Unfortunately, I kind of fell off with guitar sometime after finishing Rocksmith. I don't intend it to be a permanent hiatus; I'd like to get back to it at some point. Learning the chords for my favorite Japanese songs was fun, and it'd be pretty cool to get fast enough to play them at regular speed someday. Rocksmith also showed me how fun bass guitar can be, so I do intend to pick up a bass someday to tinker around with. …and just after I said that, I might have to put learning fingerstyle (mostly) on hold until I get a classical / nylon string guitar, lol. As I soon found out, these arrangements are not as simple as the tablature makes them look, and trying to play them on a steel string is rough. Thankfully that's not why I bought my recent acoustic guitar; it was due to a deal I couldn't pass up. I'd also like to get a bass someday. In fact, if I keep going to Guitar Center it's only a matter of time before I end up buying one. When it comes to playing guitar in general, I've found that putting a guitar somewhere in plain view, preferably where you spend most of your time, will make you more likely to pick it up. This is also related to what I'm going to mention next; from reading interviews of some of the best guitar players, I noticed a few bits of advice that often come up. First, practicing everyday, or at least regularly is more important than simply the duration of practice. For example, practicing for 15 minutes a day is going to be more effective than practicing on only one day for two hours. Also, it's best to change up what is being practiced each day, scales one day, learning songs another day, etc. Lastly, playing along to songs and trying to figure them out is a great way to practice (apparently). This is something I never really did, and wish I would've known starting out. Though it's something I can't personally vouch for, if Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and John Petrucci, among others, are saying so, then I'm inclined to believe it. Anyway, I didn't intend to go off about guitar, but hopefully some of this will be useful to you in the future. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honor_Hand Posted November 12, 2022 Share Posted November 12, 2022 Oof, and here I thought Onrush was a failure with its shutdown 4 years after release and then you bring Babylon's Fall which is pretty much being shut down in less than a year. Now, that's a failure, lmao. xxD Nice to see you completing Onrush on time by the way. =D I had a decent time with the game myself, nothing too extraordinaire. It definitely offset its welcome early on with its repetitive events and bullshitty AI. It was a good idea but its lack of depth and the somewhat frustrating (and bullshitty) moments when playing made it feel more frustrating than it needed to. Despite its great music, I also found its presentation a bit obnoxious too. I mean, both you nor I weren't in the target demographic for this game, but lol, when I saw that dancing and the Battle Royale format, my brain couldn't help but think, "Ohh, sheesh, Fortnite Racing it is." ^^;; Yeah, I would have definitely preferred these developers to have stuck more to traditional racing a la MotorStorm. PlatinumGames has some exceptional products out there, so you definitely need to get better acquainted with them. Like, you know, by playing their best games like Vanquish or Metal Gear Rising. For a moment here I thought Babylon's Fall could be worth trying but I'm going to hear your advice here and just gracefully dodge that bullet here. x3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AihaLoveleaf Posted November 13, 2022 Author Share Posted November 13, 2022 (edited) On 11/11/2022 at 11:23 PM, Cave Johnson said: …and just after I said that, I might have to put learning fingerstyle (mostly) on hold until I get a classical / nylon string guitar, lol. As I soon found out, these arrangements are not as simple as the tablature makes them look, and trying to play them on a steel string is rough. Thankfully that's not why I bought my recent acoustic guitar; it was due to a deal I couldn't pass up. I'd also like to get a bass someday. In fact, if I keep going to Guitar Center it's only a matter of time before I end up buying one. Oof, another setback. ? A real unfortunate one too, if it's caused the entire project to go on hold. I imagine it'll be some time before you'll be buying the right guitar for it, considering you just got your acoustic recently. Hopefully you have another project as interesting to work on in the meantime. On 11/11/2022 at 11:23 PM, Cave Johnson said: When it comes to playing guitar in general, I've found that putting a guitar somewhere in plain view, preferably where you spend most of your time, will make you more likely to pick it up. Funny enough, I've used a variation of this trick to keep me on course with Diva the past few months. My HORI F Mini is always plugged into the PS3, set up in front of the screen and ready to play any time. When I get to the point of getting back to guitar, I'll have to do the same thing and set it somewhere that I can't just ignore it. On 11/11/2022 at 11:23 PM, Cave Johnson said: This is also related to what I'm going to mention next; from reading interviews of some of the best guitar players, I noticed a few bits of advice that often come up. First, practicing everyday, or at least regularly is more important than simply the duration of practice. For example, practicing for 15 minutes a day is going to be more effective than practicing on only one day for two hours. Also, it's best to change up what is being practiced each day, scales one day, learning songs another day, etc. Lastly, playing along to songs and trying to figure them out is a great way to practice (apparently). This is something I never really did, and wish I would've known starting out. Though it's something I can't personally vouch for, if Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and John Petrucci, among others, are saying so, then I'm inclined to believe it. Anyway, I didn't intend to go off about guitar, but hopefully some of this will be useful to you in the future. I can vouch for the effectiveness of (very) short bursts of practice. Rocksmith play sessions aside, when I was still going at the guitar, I was doing something like 20 minute practice sessions about five days a week with JustinGuitar - and even that was enough to make gradual progress. On 11/12/2022 at 0:26 PM, Honor_Hand said: Oof, and here I thought Onrush was a failure with its shutdown 4 years after release and then you bring Babylon's Fall which is pretty much being shut down in less than a year. Now, that's a failure, lmao. xxD Maybe there are games out there that had a shorter lifespan, but it's almost comical to see Babylon's Fall go even less time than most sports games before getting its shutdown announcement. ? On 11/12/2022 at 0:26 PM, Honor_Hand said: Nice to see you completing Onrush on time by the way. =D I had a decent time with the game myself, nothing too extraordinaire. It definitely offset its welcome early on with its repetitive events and bullshitty AI. It was a good idea but its lack of depth and the somewhat frustrating (and bullshitty) moments when playing made it feel more frustrating than it needed to. Despite its great music, I also found its presentation a bit obnoxious too. I mean, both you nor I weren't in the target demographic for this game, but lol, when I saw that dancing and the Battle Royale format, my brain couldn't help but think, "Ohh, sheesh, Fortnite Racing it is." ^^;; Yeah, I would have definitely preferred these developers to have stuck more to traditional racing a la MotorStorm. Both of us are definitely too old for this shit when it comes to Onrush, lol. A Battle Royale racer is certainly not something I would want to play again, knowing what I know now. I guess a couple of things I can take comfort in are the facts that the game itself isn't terribly long to complete, and that it's probably the only game of its kind -- it is, right? Hopefully. ? At least things can only go up from here - provided I don't pick anything from Milestone's 'amazing' catalog anytime soon. On 11/12/2022 at 0:26 PM, Honor_Hand said: PlatinumGames has some exceptional products out there, so you definitely need to get better acquainted with them. Like, you know, by playing their best games like Vanquish or Metal Gear Rising. For a moment here I thought Babylon's Fall could be worth trying but I'm going to hear your advice here and just gracefully dodge that bullet here. x3 I'm two for two now with studios I got off on the wrong foot with. Bad enough that my impression of Spike Chunsoft is at an all-time low with Jump Force, but now my only taste of PlatinumGames is Baby Falls of all things. I'll make up for both mistakes in the future. In the meantime, don't be me, and play some good viddy games. ? Edited November 13, 2022 by AihaLoveleaf Missed a link 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuber6969 Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 Congrats on the acomplishments, especially the Miku ones. I can barely pass Two-Sided Lovers with the Extra Leeway help item, so mad respect for perfecting that one. Babylon's Fall sounds awful, but I can tell you that the two other games that I played from that dev (MGR & Vanquish) are well worth your time. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AihaLoveleaf Posted December 7, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 7, 2022 Platinum #46 Hyperdimension Neptunia PP (11.95%) Completion Time: 6 days, 5 hours Game Time: 44 hours Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection -- also known as Hyperdimension Neptunia PP -- released to very mixed reception in the West, even among Neptunia fans. Understandably, an established niche JRPG franchise presenting an even more niche not-JRPG experience is bound to turn a number of players sour. Despite that, if you happen to fit the exceedingly slim audience Neptunia PP is targeting, and have the patience to endure a few glaring flaws, then there is a rewarding experience to be had. Compile Heart, Idea Factory and Tamsoft's Hyperdimension Neptunia PP - released in 2013 for Japan, and 2014 for the rest of the world - is the first of several spinoff titles for the PlayStation Vita offering players alternative experiences in the Neptunia universe in a variety of gameplay formats. There's a bit of confusion from prospective players surrounding Neptunia PP -- most sites list it as a rhythm game, leading some to think there may be a more interactive experience in the vein of Project Diva F. What you need to know beforehand is that you won't find any skill-based gameplay here; the focus is on the simulation and story. Neptunia PP is a combination of Dating Sim and Idol Raising Sim. If you aren't already familiar, Dating Sims are text-heavy games -- similar to Visual Novels -- with an emphasis on stat building and time management. Noteworthy examples include Tokimeki Memorial and LovePlus. In most Dating Sims, the idea is to manage your limited time effectively to raise the main character's stats to open up new routes or other areas of gameplay. Neptunia PP differs in that you're building up your chosen girl instead, leading into the Idol Simulation side of the game. You're given option at the beginning of any of Gamindustri's four goddesses: Neptune, Noire, Blanc and Vert, and tasked with building her up into a top idol. The game puts you in the role of an average dude getting ready to enjoy the upcoming summer vacation. The protagonist also happens to be an "accomplished" Idol Producer, at least in the world of video games. When rival idol group MOB48 (a play on AKB48) rises to popularity and nabs Shares from all four Goddesses, they quickly summon you - the player - to turn them into a top idol that can win the hearts and Shares of all of Gamindustri. You're given 180 days to get the job done, which is more than enough time for a casual playthrough, but careful time management is necessary if you're looking to 100% all four girls in as few playthroughs as possible. You can even name the protagonist, and live the true self-insertion dream Neptunia PP's story is non-canon, meaning that you could skip the game without missing out on any of the main story. Don't go into it as your first Neptunia game, though; PP builds its experience off the lore and character development already established in the first three games of the series, and you'll appreciate everything that much more if you're already familiar beforehand. Unlike previous entries in the series, PP has no true villains to deal with. Rival group MOB48 is presented as the game's primary opponent, but they ultimately take a backseat to allow focus on the main cast. Focus on plot resolution is diminished in favor of character development and interaction. Neptunia PP's story experience is largely derived from fan-service, which I mean in the all-encompassing manner. Story events are mostly humorous and light-hearted, and grounded in references to the previous games, as well as expected meta-references to the gaming industry itself - such as Lowee's focus on accessible, "family friendly" gaming (Nintendo), and Leanbox's more specific "western appeal" in everything from games (XBox) to massive food portions. Character interaction and comedy can carry the experience for me in a moéblob like Neptunia, so the continuous feed of entertaining story events was a big hit with me. If you tend to require a bit more substance in plot, however, you may find yourself getting bored quickly. In each day of Neptunia PP, you can engage in one of five options. You can go to [Work] to gain fans and Shares, attend a [Lesson] to boost your girl's stats, [Relax] to take the day off and shed accumulated stress, [Move] to any of Gamindustri's other three nations, or put on a [Concert] to gain even more fans than before. You only get one choice per day, though, so make your selections thoughtfully. Once you start a route with each of the four girls, the goals are to see all three endings -- Good, Bad, and True -- as well as achieving 100% in every category of story events, which basically means to read every lick of story in every girl's multiple routes. The skill ceiling required for all of this is pretty low, but where things do becoming challenging is with obtaining events without getting lost. Unfortunately, PP lacks a detailed event tracker, and while you always know where you stand overall in progression, there is no way to know specifically what events you haven't seen yet. If you find you're still missing an event at 98% completion and aren't sure where it is, then you could be looking at hours of back-tracking through things you've already done, to see what's missing. Neptunia PP may not be a traditional rhythm game, but it is still in some ways a music game, and live concerts are the core of that experience. After so many days have passed, you'll have the option to put on a live show in your current country of residence. Concerts are largely a passive gaming experience, as you can just sit and watch, if you aren't concerned with points. You are offered a degree of interactivity, however. The Producer's -- that's you -- job is to handle the camera work and stage direction during performance. Similar to the Love Live! Vita games I reviewed here a while ago, you also have the option to activate "Stage Gimmicks" like spotlights and confetti in order to spruce up the show. Doing all of this earns you more points, which means more Shares. For the trophy hunters out there, though, it's usually better not to actually participate during the concerts, as earning too many Shares too soon may end your playthrough before you've done everything you've wanted to do. Songs featured in the game during live concerts are, as you would probably expect, upbeat J-Pop tracks. If you tend to gravitate towards Denpa music, you'll be right at home here. Each girl has her own featured track: Fly High for Neptune, With Confidence for Noire, Dear... everyday for Blanc, and HP ∞ L♡VE Power for Vert. All featured songs are recorded by the Japanese voice actors, who have also recorded all featured songs individually, meaning you can hear Vert singing Neptune's song for example, if you choose it. Additionally, the actors also recorded "HDD" versions of each song, reflecting the more serious nature of their transformed states by singing with deeper tones. It's great attention to detail, and if you transform in the middle of a performance, the game will even transition to the "HDD" version of the song seamlessly. I find all the new songs to be pretty catchy and fun to listen to, but at the moment I find Blanc's song makes my heart feel the most animated. For being the one game in the franchise with no true skill-based gaming required, the Platinum should be pretty trivial - and in most ways it is, as you're primarily just reading text and making choices. It's funny enough then, that PP is likely the most challenging Platinum in the series. The poor event tracking built into the game is one reason, and the other is that there just aren't a lot of guides online for the game. Besides the PST guide, there isn't much out there on the internet to help you, other than various bits of info lodged into forum posts. Your first playthrough will likely be overwhelming, as you scramble to get a feel for all the choices the game offers you. As it usually goes with these types of games, though, after you've perfected your first idol, the rest should fall into place fairy easily... as long as you don't miss a story event and get stuck at 98%, at least. Sorry, Vert All of that said, should you - the reader - play Hyperdimension Neptunia PP? It depends. Are you a Neptunia fan? If so, great, but as the mixed reviews from fans has shown us, that's not good enough. How do you feel about Dating Sims? Do you enjoy the time management aspect, unlocking story routes, and fostering relationships with digital ladies? If the idea doesn't make you cringe into oblivion, then you're almost there. How do you feel about idols? Do catchy songs sung by cute girls fill your heart with hope and joy? Or does the whole idea send you running in the other direction? If you passed through every checkpoint here, then you're in the clear. If what you've heard sounds good to you, and you're just interested in as much of Neptunia's story that you can experience, then Neptunia PP is worth your time, if you can deal with its flaws. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Honor_Hand Posted December 8, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted December 8, 2022 Awesome! Glad to see you completing this one and taking the time to write such a well-structured, keenly formatted, and informative write-up on the game. As you already know, I was one of the many that thought Neptunia PP was mainly a rhythm game. A rhythm game in the franchise that had a lukewarm reception from fans and critics alike. I never expected it to be Idolmaster: Neptunia Edition. x3 That being said, I can see some fans of the series really digging the story, atmosphere, and goddess-bonding aspects of this one, provided they can get around the impact of realizing this is not so much a rhythm game but instead more of an idol-raising simulation game. It's unfortunate that you had to suffer a fair bit with this one during your first playthrough, owing to that complete lack of information online. It takes guts to venture into getting a potentially rare and difficult platinum when there's barely any documentation out there, as you cited above. Pretty sure that you had to put in some extra hours of research and figuring things out on your own, as well as having to piece together all those random bits of info you found in wiki and forums online. What I want to say is, the game may be easy in the gameplay parts, but it sure has plenty of extra difficulty added to it considering all the research work that you had to do. Of course, once you figured stuff out after a few playthroughs, it became easier. But still, man, all those research hours... I wonder who will be the brave soul that will write a guide here for this game, lol. xxD As for playing the game myself, well, I think I can clear most of those checkpoints you mentioned above. There are certainly a lot of them one needs to clear to be able to enjoy this title. However, I think I'd rather finish playing the main series and some of the other spin-offs first before trying this one out. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AihaLoveleaf Posted December 10, 2022 Author Share Posted December 10, 2022 On 12/8/2022 at 2:02 PM, Honor_Hand said: Awesome! Glad to see you completing this one and taking the time to write such a well-structured, keenly formatted, and informative write-up on the game. As you already know, I was one of the many that thought Neptunia PP was mainly a rhythm game. A rhythm game in the franchise that had a lukewarm reception from fans and critics alike. I never expected it to be Idolmaster: Neptunia Edition. x3 That being said, I can see some fans of the series really digging the story, atmosphere, and goddess-bonding aspects of this one, provided they can get around the impact of realizing this is not so much a rhythm game but instead more of an idol-raising simulation game. Thank you, Honor! Glad I was able to help clear things up regarding the game. ? PP is a great game for the non-casual fans that love the idea of self-inserting into Gamindustri and getting close to their Neptunia waifu. Given the nature of the franchise, it feels like a natural progression to eventually reach this sort of pure fan-service spinoff. I wonder if we would have seen more had the game done well enough. I'm thinking another game that would have explored routes with the CPU Candidates. A Nepgear route and a Uni route? Sign me right up! I was pleased enough with the Neptunia PP experience, so it's nice to know that things only go up from here. Looking forward to getting around to Idolmaster 2, and that game seems to actually have some rhythm gameplay, so that will be fun. On 12/8/2022 at 2:02 PM, Honor_Hand said: It's unfortunate that you had to suffer a fair bit with this one during your first playthrough, owing to that complete lack of information online. It takes guts to venture into getting a potentially rare and difficult platinum when there's barely any documentation out there, as you cited above. Pretty sure that you had to put in some extra hours of research and figuring things out on your own, as well as having to piece together all those random bits of info you found in wiki and forums online. What I want to say is, the game may be easy in the gameplay parts, but it sure has plenty of extra difficulty added to it considering all the research work that you had to do. Of course, once you figured stuff out after a few playthroughs, it became easier. But still, man, all those research hours... I wonder who will be the brave soul that will write a guide here for this game, lol. xxD I was hoping I'd be lucky enough to avoid some of the pain that others endured playing through PP, but I guess there was no way I was getting around it, with the lack of a comprehensive gameplay guide. ? The experience did feel similar to Xtreme 3, where the first playthrough triggers feelings of "Oh dear God, what did I get myself into? How am I going to keep up with all of these mechanics?", but the panic does calm after the first playthrough, fortunately. As for the guide: it definitely won't be me! lol. I totally see why nobody has stepped up to the plate to give this game a modern guide, even though it badly needs one. Rounding up and categorizing all the events, giving them names and summaries, and making sure you don't miss anything -- because then the player would miss something -- is a titanic task that I'm certainly not feeling up to. On top of that, the person that signs up for the job is sure to be the whipping boy when a player inevitably gets stuck at 98% with their current girl. Best of luck, guide writers! On 12/8/2022 at 2:02 PM, Honor_Hand said: As for playing the game myself, well, I think I can clear most of those checkpoints you mentioned above. There are certainly a lot of them one needs to clear to be able to enjoy this title. However, I think I'd rather finish playing the main series and some of the other spin-offs first before trying this one out. This is a good call. I have a feeling it may be the case for every spinoff -- and I'll make sure to let you all know when I play them -- but at least for PP, having the character and universe knowledge from the first three games improves the overall experience. Anybody coming from the PS3 games can jump right in, but Vita starters should finish Re;birth 1-3 first. Looking forward to your future Idol Production debut. ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AihaLoveleaf Posted December 12, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 12, 2022 Hello friends, let's talk about video games. Great news to share today about my DIVA progress, and a few retro games to touch on. Project DIVA F and F 2nd Progress Update #3 - Final The last time I talked about Project DIVA in this checklist, I mentioned I would give Project DIVA F 2nd one final moment in the spotlight if I managed to complete it. I figured there wouldn't be as much to talk about when the subject only centers around two songs, but it turns out there's quite a bit worth talking about, so let's get to it. After 303 hours on my save file, I've earned a Perfect rating (full combo) on all 40 songs in Project DIVA F 2nd -- all four difficulties, and without Help Items. Character Usage Count can also be used to measure playcount, and if you add it all up, then it comes out to 1,970 complete song playthroughs for me to get to this point. At the end of my last Diva update, I only had F 2nd's two 10★ songs remaining to complete my challenge. The first of the two to go down was 2D Dream Fever. At 180 BPM and 10 stars, 2D Dream Fever gets its difficulty from the constant note switches present throughout the chart, as well as the appearance of two Technical Zones -- highlighted sections of the song generally featuring increased difficulty -- that require quite a bit of speed to keep up with. Notes even speed up to 240 BPM for just a bit more than 30 seconds of the song (#364-552), demanding even more speed and coordination from the player to keep up with all the note switches without dropping combo. Despite all of that, though, 2D Dream Fever went down pretty quickly after my last update. It may have even happened the next day. While it certainly isn't an easy chart, I was ready for Perfect. By the time I had finished my last update, I had basically mastered the entire song, with the first Technical Zone (#202-234) being the only thing still giving me any real trouble. For the most part, once you're at the point where a chart only has 'one hard part', it's in the bag, provided you can deal with your nerves late in the song. The last song to finally go down, and present me F 2nd's most difficult title -- Idol of the Multiverse -- is The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku. This Perfect did not come easily, though; I cleared the song 498 times, and spent 50 hours of game time alone working up the skill to Perfect this beast of a chart. You probably saw me make a big deal in my last update about having gotten Perfect on Intense Voice, so I'll clear things up real quick for those that need it: what we're talking about today is the version of the song featured in Project DIVA F 2nd. The first appearance of The Intense Voice of Hatsune Miku was in Project DIVA 2nd, a game released for PSP in 2010. The PSP version of the song is the one containing the monstrous deathstream, and is also one of a few roadblocks to completion of Dreamy Theater 2nd and Dreamy Theater Extend - which is what was covered in the last update. The song also reappears in the tracklist of Project DIVA F 2nd (2014) with an updated chart arguably more difficult than what is featured in its PSP and Dreamy Theater counterparts. So, at 200 BPM and 10 stars, the F 2nd version of Intense Voice gets its difficulty from two things: speed and complexity. Where the PSP version of the song dials down the complexity to test your stamina, the F 2nd version instead gives you a number of uncomfortable note switches to deal with. The skill required for the end of the song was to the point that I wasn't even able to pass the song when I first started the game at the end of August, so even getting my first Standard rating was a bit of an event. When playing (or watching) the song, the first thing you'll notice is that most of it is actually pretty easy. Intense Voice plays opposite to 2D Dream Fever's consistent difficulty by employing spike difficulty -- meaning that the song is only difficult for a small section, which in this case is near the end. Unfortunately, that isn't of much comfort, as the difficulty spike in Intense Voice is unlike anything else in the series before it. This means that the song is easy to pass, but very difficult to Perfect -- unless you happen to be coming in with a skill level already far above what the game asks for. The worst part of my entire journey with F 2nd's Intense Voice was just how long it took to build up a level of consistency that made me optimistic about getting Perfect. Even with the hardest of songs, I was usually consistent enough around the 100 clear mark that Perfect felt within reach. Ideally, you want to be at the point where a song has one hard part, with the rest feeling simple enough, but even 200 and 300 plays deep into Intense Voice, I felt several sections where my foundation was shaky - that I could not hit 9 times out of 10. It's not a good feeling to feel that your best shot of full comboing a song is to pray for a series of flukes to come together for a single play. I was desperate to find a way to practice the most difficult parts of the song somehow. Early on, YouTube videos were a big help; I downloaded a Perfect run of the song, chopped it up into several videos, and played them in slow-motion and regular speed to eventually memorize the entire chart. This resulted in pretty consistent Excellent ratings, but Perfect was still fleeting. Tapping along with videos wasn't good enough - I needed a way to practice, drill sections, and get feedback. I needed a way to try new things without having to play through two minutes of easy stuff first. My breakthrough eventually came, as it always does, through the help of Edit Mode. For those that don't know: Edit Mode allows players to create user generated charts that can be shared online for others to play. While browsing the Edit Rankings in F 2nd, I would occasionally see Edit Charts of songs from Project Diva F -- ports of old charts created by fans as a way to combine the tracklists of both games. At some point, it hit me: "What if somebody recreated F2's Intense Voice in F1 for players that didn't own the sequel?" With my sudden revelation in mind, I jumped right back into Project Diva F and hit the Edit Rankings, desperately searching for the harpoon that would finally nail me this white whale. I dug deep through DIVA F's Edit Rankings - sifting through over a thousand pages of blank edits, deleted content, and questionable music choices in hopes for something. I figured if I go through the uploads around the 2014 release date of F 2nd, I would find something. Several hundred pages in, I reach uploads that line up with the release of the sequel, and... nothing. Intense Voice would occasionally show up, but it was usually the PSP version. Something told me to keep going though, so I did. I went through all of 2014 and 2015's Edits hoping for something, only to be disappointed. Though I was tempted to give up, I decided that this was important enough to be worth checking every page, just to be sure. It was around page 1700 or 1800 when I finally spotted the upload I needed: Quote "Intense Voice F2" I lit up. I shouted with delight. If this was actually a recreation of F2's Intense Voice, I was set. For those that have never used Diva's Edit Mode: the editor allows you to navigate to a specific section of a song and play through it as much as you like. This is effectively Practice Mode, provided you have the right chart. I nervously downloaded this "Intense Voice F2" chart to my hard drive, and tested it via Edit Play -- the notes matched. Somebody went to the effort to recreate the entirety of Intense Voice as an Edit, and now I had a way to practice. I was ecstatic. I immediately went back to F 2nd and used the games Import feature to transfer the Edit to F2. It took some tweaking afterwards to get everything just right, but once the chart was in sync, I was set. I spent hours drilling all the hardest parts of the song, finally getting feedback and finally building consistency. Welling with excitement and confidence, I start getting serious, and increase my daily practice now that the Perfect is finally in sight. Perfect didn't happen right away, it took a few days, and a few unfortunate setbacks, but I was getting there. Where I was previously flubbing multiple sections of the song regularly, I was down to about two troublesome parts at the very end - both of which have been aced several times over in practice runs and previous attempts, so it was only a matter of time at this point. Credit to 39dearMIKU for the gameplay. The GIF is for illustration purposes. Finally, it happened. Most of the time, when a run gets to the point you're seeing in the above GIF, I either mess up on the ⬇️⬇️ or -- more tragically -- the pattern at the very end. I usually get caught up in the moment and lose track of the rhythm I've memorized to consistently nail this part. Fortunately, at some point, I kind of stopped caring, as tragic fails at the end can only happen so many times before you stop getting as worked up in the following plays. Even with that, though, finally hitting Perfect sent me into a state of shock. Finally seeing Perfect flashing across the screen, finally reaching the results screen with those glorious tints of green and yellow where Miku audibly announces the Perfect score -- it all happened so quickly that I could only stare at the screen, with the realization setting in that my journey had finally come to an end. The moments that followed were glorious. If you've experienced the sheer joy and relief of finally shelving a brutal game, then you can relate. I don't intend to boot DIVA F 2nd up again for quite a while, so I made sure all of my business was in order: relevant screenshots were taken, edit chart data was handled and noted, and anything else that needed tending to was dealt with before finally removing the disc from my console -- after three months of daily play -- to return Project Diva F 2nd to its spot on the shelf. Waves of relief washed over me as the game went back to the shelf, as my HORI controller was finally put away for a well-earned break. I'm done. I'm free. The combined effort of completing the entire tracklist of F1 and F2 completely dwarfs anything I've ever had to do for trophies. The 50 hours of skill-building for Intense Voice alone, along with the hundreds of hours beforehand for the rest of the tracklists is a league above my toughest trophy-enabled achievements, and really puts everything into perspective for me. I do have to keep it real, though: I'm a bit burned out now, and need a break. Understandable considering how much was done in such a short time. I'm not done with DIVA for good, but some time off to come back fresh will do me a lot of good. I had originally planned on Dreamy Theater 1 for trophy milestone #2500, and Project DIVA X for Platinum #50, but given how close both of those are, it would be too much and too soon. I'm definitely coming back for more DIVA in the future, as I'm excited to see where all the skill I've built takes me, but for now I'll be reorganizing my upcoming milestones, and taking a chill pill. If you want to see some more DIVA in the meantime, I recommend heading over to @ExistentialSolid's Checklist, where he's working hard on a version of Intense Voice that requires double or triple the total amount of time I've spent skill-building in the series so far. P.S.: If any active F 2nd players are interested in that Intense Voice Edit chart for practice purposes, I'll link the upload info in an image here. ---- So, I also checked off a few titles from my dwindling list of Sega retro games. Being a childhood Genesis owner, I always get a kick out of coming back to revisit these little relics of my past. The games themselves are pretty short, however, and this update is already pretty huge, so I'll just touch on the following games briefly. ✅ 100% #13 Altered Beast (14.99%) Completion Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes "Rise from your grave!" Altered Beast, a game I never got the chance to play as a wee lad, but can easily play as a grown-ass man thanks to this port! Altered Beast is a port of the 1988 arcade game to the PlayStation 3. The game is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that puts you in role of a resurrected Roman Centurion summoned by Zeus to rescue her daughter. What makes this game unique is its transformation system. As you collect power-ups throughout the stage, your character goes from extra-muscular, to complete humanoid beast. Once transformed, you stay that way, even if you lose a life. Additionally, you gain access to cool abilities, like tossing fireballs, and zipping across the screen in charged thrusts. Combine this with the game's unlimited continues, and it makes for great, mindless arcade fun. Just keep an eye on those misc trophies as you work your way through. By the way, shoutout to @enaysoft for helping me with the online trophy. You're the man! ✅ 100% #14 Golden Axe (11.52%) Completion Time: 19 hours, 32 minutes Golden Axe, fortunately, is one that I did play a lot of as a kid - thanks to the 6-Pak compilation from the late 90s. This PlayStation 3 port, however, is actually the arcade version of the game. Compared to the Genesis version, the arcade port is missing the extra level and new ending that was added to the console version. Doesn't entirely hit all the warm fuzzies I have for the Genesis version, but it gets close enough, and it's nice that I can at least play a version of the game that I may not have experienced otherwise. Golden Axe, like Altered Beast, is another side-scrolling beat-em-up -- released in 1989 -- and is even created by the same developer. You have choice between three character types: the Dwarf, the Barbarian, and the Amazon - all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. The trophy list does require clearing the game without using a continue, but hey - thank God for save states! Shoutout again to @enaysoft for helping me out with the sole online trophy. You rock! ✅ 100% #15 Comix Zone (14.79%) Completion Time: 2 hours, 24 minutes There's only one word to describe Comix Zone -- hardcore. You have one health bar, and once it runs out, it's Game Over. There are no extra lives, no continues, and only sparsely distributed health power ups to keep you topped up. If that wasn't bad enough: everything you do diminishes your health bar. You took down a group of bad guys without getting hit? Cool, but you still took chip damage from the blows you dealt. Need to break down a door to advance to the next panel? Go for it, but expect a little beating on your health meter in exchange! Comix Zone, released in 1995 for the Sega Genesis, is one I vividly remember renting as a child, but definitely stood no chance at actually beating. A game with no lives or continues, in an era without save states? Forget about it; I had no chance. Like the two games reviewed above, Comix Zone is also a side-scrolling beat-em-up that sees comic book writer Sketch Turner sucked into his own story by a villain of his own creation. Comix Zone is visually outstanding, turning comic book panels into living, breathing environments you can interact with freely. Combat is also satisfying, as the experience pulls closer to that of a fighting game; mix-ups are necessary to prevent enemies from blocking you endlessly, and you can even string together various combo attacks. Comix Zone is great, and worth experiencing at least once. Once again, thank God for save states, because I finally got to see the end of the game - unlike my experience with certain childhood Blockbuster rentals. ✅ 100% #16 Alex Kidd in Miracle World (20.39%) Completion Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes Alright, so, I'm old, but not that old. Alex Kidd, and the Sega Master System in general, are both a bit before my time. I didn't own a Master System as a kid, and I didn't even know the thing existed until much later in life. Talk about playing via Internet Explorer! Alex Kidd in Miracle World is the PlayStation 3 port of the 1986 title originally released for the Sega Master System -- Sega's 8-bit console. The Master System's controller only has two buttons, so controls are simple enough: one button to jump, and one button to attack. The game is a 2D Platformer and, considering when it released, is actually pretty impressive. There's a variety of gameplay squeezed into this title: roaming on land, swimming underwater, speeding along via motorcycle and even taking to the air for a bit of shmup action. An inventory system is featured, along with a variety of items and weaponry that you can make use of along the way. For an 8-Bit game with this level of depth and variety, Alex Kidd is almost amazing. It unfortunately has one big problem holding it back: the controls are shit. This is one of those unfortunate platformers where the character's momentum continues even after you've landed a jump, meaning you need to compensate in order to keep from sliding off the platform you've just jumped onto. Unfortunately, it's very easy to overcompensate and end up running off the platform the same way you came in! It gets more frustrating the further you go, as later levels require more precision in platforming. With the game being as short as it is though, it's not like you'll be dealing with it for long. For my introduction to the Master System, Alex Kidd is still pretty good, and I'm curious to see what some of the better titles on the platform were like (Phantasy Star, anyone?). 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuber6969 Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 Congrats on everything, especially Intense Voice! This is my first time seeing a review of PP that takes trophies into account, and I'm more interested in it now. Still very worried about the lack of info out there, and the shitty tracking system though lol. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExistentialSolid Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: The worst part of my entire journey with F 2nd's Intense Voice was just how long it took to build up a level of consistency that made me optimistic about getting Perfect. Even with the hardest of songs, I was usually consistent enough around the 100 clear mark that Perfect felt within reach. Ideally, you want to be at the point where a song has one hard part, with the rest feeling simple enough, but even 200 and 300 plays deep into Intense Voice, I felt several sections where my foundation was shaky - that I could not hit 9 times out of 10. It's not a good feeling to feel that your best shot of full comboing a song is to pray for a series of flukes to come together for a single play. I think you've really captured that suffocating sense of uncertainty that can often creep into the mind when you're struggling with a difficult song. When none of the pieces are quite lining up after dozens of hours of practice, feelings of hopelessness can set in quick. The mental game is always the hardest to cope with, but you never dropped a beat. You persisted, you continued to practice, and you annihilated Intense Voice with sheer skill, patience, and determination. Speaking of practice... 6 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: For those that have never used Diva's Edit Mode: the editor allows you to navigate to a specific section of a song and play through it as much as you like. This is effectively Practice Mode, provided you have the right chart. I nervously downloaded this "Intense Voice F2" chart to my hard drive, and tested it via Edit Play -- the notes matched. Somebody went to the effort to recreate the entirety of Intense Voice as an Edit, and now I had a way to practice. Finding a practice mode workaround through the use of Edit Mode was brilliant! I didn't even realize you could practice through edit mode, and, even if I had, I wouldn't have thought to look for an edit version of an official chart. I wonder if Edit Mode will return for a surprise cameo during your adventures through X considering players have likely created edits based off of X's charts as well. 6 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: Waves of relief washed over me as the game went back to the shelf, as my HORI controller was finally put away for a well-earned break. I'm done. I'm free. The combined effort of completing the entire tracklist of F1 and F2 completely dwarfs anything I've ever had to do for trophies. The 50 hours of skill-building for Intense Voice alone, along with the hundreds of hours beforehand for the rest of the tracklists is a league above my toughest trophy-enabled achievements, and really puts everything into perspective for me. I do have to keep it real, though: I'm a bit burned out now, and need a break. Reading through your posts and seeing someone with that same burning drive to improve at DIVA has been such an inspiration, you have no idea. Your skill level has skyrocketed over these past three months and I doubt I'd have reopened my own checklist had I not been moved by your infectious passion for the series and by the leaps and bounds with which you've improved. I wonder what sorts of trophy-related achievements you'll pursue next having accomplished something so difficult. Regardless of what you do next, you've done amazing work! I hope you relish those waves of relief and enjoy your well-earned break! You deserve it! Edited December 13, 2022 by ExistentialSolid 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cave Johnson Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 On 11/13/2022 at 2:33 PM, AihaLoveleaf said: Oof, another setback. A real unfortunate one too, if it's caused the entire project to go on hold. I imagine it'll be some time before you'll be buying the right guitar for it, considering you just got your acoustic recently. Hopefully you have another project as interesting to work on in the meantime. A lot happened in the last month, but I can at least report that after various other setbacks, I'm on track to improve my guitar skills again (fingerstyle is still on hold, though.) In short, I ramped up my practice too suddenly and wrecked my fingertips, bandaged them up and waited for them to heal, wrecked them again, waited longer that time for them to heal, but by the time my fingertips were fine, I had no time to practice and had to focus on dealing with essays, presentations, studying for final exams, etc., then I spent too much time procrastinating on Youtube and somehow became a devoted member of the Nousagi Doumei (it happens, I guess), and then finally, I only have one final exam left tomorrow, giving me plenty of time to work on my guitar playing after that. [Though it pains me to write such a long run-on sentence, I decided to leave it that way for comedic effect.] Anyway, I'll save the finer details for a status update I've been meaning to write for a while now; I'd like to go over what happened in the last few months that brought on this change, what I've done since then / plan on doing. 2 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: After 303 hours on my save file, I've earned a Perfect rating (full combo) on all 40 songs in Project DIVA F 2nd -- all four difficulties, and without Help Items. Character Usage Count can also be used to measure playcount, and if you add it all up, then it comes out to 1,970 complete song playthroughs for me to get to this point. The legend continues! As insane as this is, I can't say I'm surprised; after everything I've seen in this thread, it was only a matter of time before you reached this point. 3 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: P.S.: If any active F 2nd players are interested in that Intense Voice Edit chart for practice purposes, I'll link the upload info in an image here. I haven't been playing lately, but I'll have to make a note of that for future reference. I didn't know that edit mode could be used for practice in such a way until now, actually. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 I always find it interesting when I hear people preferring the Genesis version over the arcade version of Golden Axe but surprisingly this isn't the first time I have heard that. The Golden Axe port is indeed a great one, it's for sure the best home port on any system. I like the duel mode and the extra levels but I do find the extra level a bit dull, and the fact you can walk down below the edge and allow 80% of all the enemies to just fall to the deaths. Death Bringer is a great boss, but ultimately just a reskin of Death Adder. I think the extra stages are a great touch but compared to the arcade. So I find the Genesis version very easy indeed, especially if you choose the Dwarf, in the arcade version the gameplay is a lot tighter, Skeletons in particular are very aggressive. The vibrant colour palette of the arcade and the extra frames of animation and sound and voices etc. The Genesis version is a bit drab colour wise in places and due to technical issues (likely the programmers not getting used to the arcade yet) such as when voice samples playing all other sounds and music just stops for a moment. There's also noticable animation and sounds that are just missing. The death sounds of the arcade, when they are missing I feel sad, plus I love all the little noises of the thieves coming on screen. Both are obviously great games, it's just the visual and audio polish of the original and seeing Death Adder rise up from all the worms is just glorious. Also the ending where all the enemies jump out of the arcade is way more complex in the arcade version. I can live without the "enemy stats" and Giluis ThunderHead throwing all the ending credits letters to the Orc ending (which lasts about 10 minutes or it feels like it lol) on the Genesis version. Altered Beast on the other hand, I do actually think this is better on the Genesis, sure, the colour palette on the arcade is better (like with Golden Axe), the game is a bit better balanced. Getting stunlocked on the arcade version is honestly really quite annoying, but best of all is the hidden cheat on the Megadrive version to unlock and choose which beasts you can be on each stage. Now of course it's fun to play the Dragon on each stage and just be super OP, or not play as the Dragon on Stage 2 and give yourself a really hard time lol. But still, the gameplay is a lot fairer on this version and when you get stunlocked your input isn't ignored like it is on the arcade and seeing your three headed wolf waltz away (which makes you have to resort to constant button mashing). Being able to choose your beast each stage gives the game a lot of replay value, in my opinion. As much as I love Sonic 1. I do feel sad for people who didn't get Altered Beast as the pack in game, as honestly it's a great game. 2 player Kung Fu Master but with transformations. The game gets a lot of hate, probably because it was free. But Altered Beast and Golden Axe, two great classic. I am glad PS3 version of Altered Beast is the arcade though, cos like, who doesn't have Altered Beast genesis version on about 3 or 4 other Classics collections already? lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AihaLoveleaf Posted December 13, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 13, 2022 16 hours ago, Yuber6969 said: Congrats on everything, especially Intense Voice! This is my first time seeing a review of PP that takes trophies into account, and I'm more interested in it now. Still very worried about the lack of info out there, and the shitty tracking system though lol. Thanks, man! ? Heck of a time getting it done, but I'm glad I went to the effort. As for PP, I think it's correct to be worried. ? Most people are bound to hit a snag, and troubleshooting afterwards can be a pain with the limited info out there. If you take your time and focus on each girl's 100% before moving on, then doing said troubleshooting is still manageable because the details of what you could be missing are still fresh in your head. That said though, game was still totally worth it. It's absolutely packed with story, and I found it all so entertaining, too. If you clear Re;birth 3 and still feel like you need more character scenarios, then definitely go for PP in the future. 14 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said: I think you've really captured that suffocating sense of uncertainty that can often creep into the mind when you're struggling with a difficult song. When none of the pieces are quite lining up after dozens of hours of practice, feelings of hopelessness can set in quick. The mental game is always the hardest to cope with, but you never dropped a beat. You persisted, you continued to practice, and you annihilated Intense Voice with sheer skill, patience, and determination. Speaking of practice... The mental game really is the toughest. After knocking out 2D Dream Fever in just a little over 100 clears, I figured Intense Voice would drop shortly after. "Like, maybe 150 clears tops, but there's no way I hit 200 clears and 260 hours on my save file without a Perfect." To see both the clear count and hour count creep well past my expectations was a sobering reality check. The idea of 1000+ clears and 400+ hours on my save; the idea of this song alone taking months of practice, both possibly becoming reality, was depressing to say the least. One thing I had to keep in mind the whole time was that I was dealing with the game's final boss. This is supposed to be insane, this is supposed to weed out all but those willing to put in the hours to meet its challenge. There's no shame in racking up those metrics as long as I don't give up. 14 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said: Finding a practice mode workaround through the use of Edit Mode was brilliant! I didn't even realize you could practice through edit mode, and, even if I had, I wouldn't have thought to look for an edit version of an official chart. I wonder if Edit Mode will return for a surprise cameo during your adventures through X considering players have likely created edits based off of X's charts as well. Edit Mode really has been the guardian angel carrying me safely through this journey. I'm sad that the idea only struck me after 400 clears of Intense Voice, but late is always better than never. One thing trophy hunting has taught me is to be as savvy as possible in my approach to games. Looking for any possible opening we can take advantage of to meet a challenge, even when trophies aren't at stake, can still pay off big time. I did see quite a few X charts while browsing F2's Edit Rankings, so I will likely be back when it comes time to break out some Perfects. I've heard that, in general, DIVA X is easier than F 2nd -- to the point that it's been used as a complaint against the game by some players. The plus side to that is that I can hopefully knock out 29/30 songs in the tracklist without too much of a fuss. The 10★ Medley is obviously a different story though; that chart may very well be the hardest official non-arcade/pre-FT chart, but I won't know for sure until I'm actually playing. The Extreme Medley actually has been converted to an Edit chart though, and is on my PS3 right now, so it'll be there for me later if I need it. ? 14 hours ago, ExistentialSolid said: Reading through your posts and seeing someone with that same burning drive to improve at DIVA has been such an inspiration, you have no idea. Your skill level has skyrocketed over these past three months and I doubt I'd have reopened my own checklist had I not been moved by your infectious passion for the series and by the leaps and bounds with which you've improved. I wonder what sorts of trophy-related achievements you'll pursue next having accomplished something so difficult. Regardless of what you do next, you've done amazing work! I hope you relish those waves of relief and enjoy your well-earned break! You deserve it! Thank you for that! It means a lot to have received your encouragement during the journey, and even more to hear I helped revive the checklist. ? Your positive approach to difficulty in gaming really inspired me in the past, when I was mostly lurking the checklist, and I believe your posts have had the same effect on others, judging by the positive reactions that often surface when you make a comeback. DIVA has successfully restored my confidence in rhythm gaming. Despite being my most played genre overall, my confidence in it was at an all-time low, considering my "failure to launch" when it came to osu!. DIVA helped me realize that I can do big-boy things in the genre if I go in with the right approach. With that in mind, I'm not fearful at all of jumping into some of the tougher traditional rhythm game plats out there like Taiko and Superbeat Xonic. I'm not quite "Hey let's boot up DJMax Respect!" levels of confident yet, lol, but I think I will get there in time. 13 hours ago, Cave Johnson said: A lot happened in the last month, but I can at least report that after various other setbacks, I'm on track to improve my guitar skills again (fingerstyle is still on hold, though.) In short, I ramped up my practice too suddenly and wrecked my fingertips, bandaged them up and waited for them to heal, wrecked them again, waited longer that time for them to heal, but by the time my fingertips were fine, I had no time to practice and had to focus on dealing with essays, presentations, studying for final exams, etc., then I spent too much time procrastinating on Youtube and somehow became a devoted member of the Nousagi Doumei (it happens, I guess), and then finally, I only have one final exam left tomorrow, giving me plenty of time to work on my guitar playing after that. [Though it pains me to write such a long run-on sentence, I decided to leave it that way for comedic effect.] Anyway, I'll save the finer details for a status update I've been meaning to write for a while now; I'd like to go over what happened in the last few months that brought on this change, what I've done since then / plan on doing. Your story -- in all of its glorious run-on form -- gave me a good chuckle. ? The busted fingertips are not-so-humorous, of course, but it sounds like they're healing up, which is great. I must have watched too much anime last month, because I couldn't help but think your string of events would not be out of place as the script of an anime episode, lol. Naturally, the anime needs to feature a moé guitar player in a slice-of-life comedy for maximum effect. Took a few Google searches to get right, but I discovered #野うさぎ同盟 must be referring to Pekora's fanbase. I do wish I had more time to watch Vtubers, but unfortunately the kinds of games I've been playing lately are not conducive to running YouTube streams in the background. Perhaps my solution is to boot up a few grindy JRPGs that allow me to divide my attention without affecting the experience. 13 hours ago, Cave Johnson said: The legend continues! As insane as this is, I can't say I'm surprised; after everything I've seen in this thread, it was only a matter of time before you reached this point. Thank you! It was a struggle, but it was worth it. I'm glad that -- at least outside of the Extreme Medley in X -- it's largely downhill from here. I don't see any of the pre-F2 titles I'll be backtracking to for Perfects giving me as much grief as F2's Intense Voice did. 13 hours ago, Cave Johnson said: I haven't been playing lately, but I'll have to make a note of that for future reference. I didn't know that edit mode could be used for practice in such a way until now, actually. I hope it helps! Edit Mode is amazing, it's just hoping somebody recreated an official chart and finding it yourself, that prove to be the hard parts. Edit Rankings in both games badly needed a way to search by chart name; it's such an obvious oversight that I can't believe the devs never bothered to include in either F1 or F2. But, anyway, hopefully you won't need it for too many charts. 9 hours ago, enaysoft said: I always find it interesting when I hear people preferring the Genesis version over the arcade version of Golden Axe but surprisingly this isn't the first time I have heard that. The Golden Axe port is indeed a great one, it's for sure the best home port on any system. I like the duel mode and the extra levels but I do find the extra level a bit dull, and the fact you can walk down below the edge and allow 80% of all the enemies to just fall to the deaths. Death Bringer is a great boss, but ultimately just a reskin of Death Adder. I think the extra stages are a great touch but compared to the arcade. So I find the Genesis version very easy indeed, especially if you choose the Dwarf, in the arcade version the gameplay is a lot tighter, Skeletons in particular are very aggressive. The vibrant colour palette of the arcade and the extra frames of animation and sound and voices etc. The Genesis version is a bit drab colour wise in places and due to technical issues (likely the programmers not getting used to the arcade yet) such as when voice samples playing all other sounds and music just stops for a moment. There's also noticable animation and sounds that are just missing. The death sounds of the arcade, when they are missing I feel sad, plus I love all the little noises of the thieves coming on screen. Both are obviously great games, it's just the visual and audio polish of the original and seeing Death Adder rise up from all the worms is just glorious. Also the ending where all the enemies jump out of the arcade is way more complex in the arcade version. I can live without the "enemy stats" and Giluis ThunderHead throwing all the ending credits letters to the Orc ending (which lasts about 10 minutes or it feels like it lol) on the Genesis version. My memory of that final level in Golden Axe is well over 20 years old at this point, and is fleeting at best. It may very well be that I find it didn't age as well as I had it in memory. ? The trick you mentioned with letting enemies fall to their deaths sparked a dormant memory, because I think that's a tactic I may have employed a bit of when playing co-op way back when. The Skeletons in the arcade version are no joke! I reloaded my state quite a few times getting used to them, lol. The game seems to give the Skeletons a few I-Frames as soon as they come out of the ground, and if you're spamming attacks hoping to catch them, then they'll easily punish you. The ending of the arcade version was insane. That's definitely worth seeing at least once, and I would have missed out if this wasn't the arcade ROM. I do fortunately have a copy of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, which seems to include Golden Axe, so I'll likely get my console fix when I boot up that one. 9 hours ago, enaysoft said: Altered Beast on the other hand, I do actually think this is better on the Genesis, sure, the colour palette on the arcade is better (like with Golden Axe), the game is a bit better balanced. Getting stunlocked on the arcade version is honestly really quite annoying, but best of all is the hidden cheat on the Megadrive version to unlock and choose which beasts you can be on each stage. Now of course it's fun to play the Dragon on each stage and just be super OP, or not play as the Dragon on Stage 2 and give yourself a really hard time lol. But still, the gameplay is a lot fairer on this version and when you get stunlocked your input isn't ignored like it is on the arcade and seeing your three headed wolf waltz away (which makes you have to resort to constant button mashing). Being able to choose your beast each stage gives the game a lot of replay value, in my opinion. Dude, the Genesis version sounds awesome, lol. That cheat should have just been a feature in the options menu, but either way I can totally see myself funning around with it when I get to the Genesis collection later. I had enough fun with the arcade version, but knowing the console version is improved is really something to look forward to. 9 hours ago, enaysoft said: As much as I love Sonic 1. I do feel sad for people who didn't get Altered Beast as the pack in game, as honestly it's a great game. 2 player Kung Fu Master but with transformations. The game gets a lot of hate, probably because it was free. But Altered Beast and Golden Axe, two great classic. The pain of my parents picking up a used Genesis is that I got none of the pack-in games. I did eventually get to enjoy Sonic 1 through the 6-Pak collection, but Altered Beast never even had a chance. Perhaps Sega should have just built the games into the console like they did with Alex Kidd on the Master System. ? 9 hours ago, enaysoft said: I am glad PS3 version of Altered Beast is the arcade though, cos like, who doesn't have Altered Beast genesis version on about 3 or 4 other Classics collections already? lol This is a great point. Even if I wasn't nostalgic for the arcade version of Golden Axe, it was still Sega's best choice for the standalone version on PSN, because we can easily play the Genesis ROMs in any of their compilations, which there are well over 9000 of at this point. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cave Johnson Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 14 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: Your story -- in all of its glorious run-on form -- gave me a good chuckle. The busted fingertips are not-so-humorous, of course, but it sounds like they're healing up, which is great. I must have watched too much anime last month, because I couldn't help but think your string of events would not be out of place as the script of an anime episode, lol. Naturally, the anime needs to feature a moé guitar player in a slice-of-life comedy for maximum effect. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but Bocchi the Rock (currently airing) might cover similar occurrences, lol (probably not). It's a slice of life comedy with a moe guitar player as the main character, so it's pretty close. 14 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: Took a few Google searches to get right, but I discovered #野うさぎ同盟 must be referring to Pekora's fanbase. I do wish I had more time to watch Vtubers, but unfortunately the kinds of games I've been playing lately are not conducive to running YouTube streams in the background. Perhaps my solution is to boot up a few grindy JRPGs that allow me to divide my attention without affecting the experience. Yeah, that’s correct. I never thought this would happen to me, but I guess the Youtube algorithm knows me better than I know myself. I kept clicking on clips in my recommended, for some reason Pekora stood out to me the most, then I started watching her full archived streams and there was no turning back after that. Anyway, I can understand not having enough time, in fact, the last thing I needed was yet another interest that takes up countless hours. The good news is of course that these streams can be put on in the background (depending on what you're doing, as you noted). As much as I'd like to give them my undivided attention, it's not really feasible. Recently while working on various school stuff, I got through about 17 hours of Pekora's Elden Ring streams (also a good example of how far gone I am lol). It certainly didn't help my concentration, but it made getting through all the work more bearable. 14 hours ago, AihaLoveleaf said: Thank you! It was a struggle, but it was worth it. I'm glad that -- at least outside of the Extreme Medley in X -- it's largely downhill from here. I don't see any of the pre-F2 titles I'll be backtracking to for Perfects giving me as much grief as F2's Intense Voice did. The last medley in X is likely the hardest thing left after completing F and F 2nd, or at least I think so anyway. At this point it’s been too long for me to remember the chart. Either way, I’m sure the rest of the series will be a breeze when you get back to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Posted December 14, 2022 Share Posted December 14, 2022 Oh I also forgot to mention that I really like how in arcade Golden Axe when you kill an enemy, they turn to stone and stay on screen, this was a very subtle effect that no home version, not even the Megadrive version would replicate. Yeah sure in 2022, who cares about such trivial details? I dunno why but back in the day, when you got your home port of a game, it was never the arcade and everyone owned different systems, so you know, which system was the nearest to arcade perfect? Well you'd have a check list of all these things. Enemies turning to stone! No idea why this is even a thing in Golden Axe but still it's an unusual feature which kinda resonates. Yeah the select a beast feature in Genesis Altered Beast, not even "A history of Altered Beast" videos on youtube mention this great feature. I also forgot to mention that Chicken Leg, the pink tailed bird beast from Golden Axe is an enemy in Altered Beast (it appeared in Altered Beast first) And the funniest feature of all.... COCK ANTS! lol. Yes you probably noticed the ants in Stage 3 where you turn into a bear, they sprint at you, with their tails in front of them, which in turn just makes them look like they have a huge boner. Anyway, erm yeah. I do wish other System 16 games would get some love. Like Wonder Boy III : Monster Lair and Dynamite Dux. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted December 15, 2022 Share Posted December 15, 2022 On 12/12/2022 at 0:49 PM, AihaLoveleaf said: So, I also checked off a few titles from my dwindling list of Sega retro games. Being a childhood Genesis owner, I always get a kick out of coming back to revisit these little relics of my past. The games themselves are pretty short, however, and this update is already pretty huge, so I'll just touch on the following games briefly. 100% #13 Altered Beast (14.99%) Completion Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes "Rise from your grave!" Altered Beast, a game I never got the chance to play as a wee lad, but can easily play as a grown-ass man thanks to this port! Altered Beast is a port of the 1988 arcade game to the PlayStation 3. The game is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that puts you in role of a resurrected Roman Centurion summoned by Zeus to rescue her daughter. What makes this game unique is its transformation system. As you collect power-ups throughout the stage, your character goes from extra-muscular, to complete humanoid beast. Once transformed, you stay that way, even if you lose a life. Additionally, you gain access to cool abilities, like tossing fireballs, and zipping across the screen in charged thrusts. Combine this with the game's unlimited continues, and it makes for great, mindless arcade fun. Just keep an eye on those misc trophies as you work your way through. By the way, shoutout to @enaysoft for helping me with the online trophy. You're the man! 100% #14 Golden Axe (11.52%) Completion Time: 19 hours, 32 minutes Golden Axe, fortunately, is one that I did play a lot of as a kid - thanks to the 6-Pak compilation from the late 90s. This PlayStation 3 port, however, is actually the arcade version of the game. Compared to the Genesis version, the arcade port is missing the extra level and new ending that was added to the console version. Doesn't entirely hit all the warm fuzzies I have for the Genesis version, but it gets close enough, and it's nice that I can at least play a version of the game that I may not have experienced otherwise. Golden Axe, like Altered Beast, is another side-scrolling beat-em-up -- released in 1989 -- and is even created by the same developer. You have choice between three character types: the Dwarf, the Barbarian, and the Amazon - all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. The trophy list does require clearing the game without using a continue, but hey - thank God for save states! Shoutout again to @enaysoft for helping me out with the sole online trophy. You rock! 100% #15 Comix Zone (14.79%) Completion Time: 2 hours, 24 minutes There's only one word to describe Comix Zone -- hardcore. You have one health bar, and once it runs out, it's Game Over. There are no extra lives, no continues, and only sparsely distributed health power ups to keep you topped up. If that wasn't bad enough: everything you do diminishes your health bar. You took down a group of bad guys without getting hit? Cool, but you still took chip damage from the blows you dealt. Need to break down a door to advance to the next panel? Go for it, but expect a little beating on your health meter in exchange! Comix Zone, released in 1995 for the Sega Genesis, is one I vividly remember renting as a child, but definitely stood no chance at actually beating. A game with no lives or continues, in an era without save states? Forget about it; I had no chance. Like the two games reviewed above, Comix Zone is also a side-scrolling beat-em-up that sees comic book writer Sketch Turner sucked into his own story by a villain of his own creation. Comix Zone is visually outstanding, turning comic book panels into living, breathing environments you can interact with freely. Combat is also satisfying, as the experience pulls closer to that of a fighting game; mix-ups are necessary to prevent enemies from blocking you endlessly, and you can even string together various combo attacks. Comix Zone is great, and worth experiencing at least once. Once again, thank God for save states, because I finally got to see the end of the game - unlike my experience with certain childhood Blockbuster rentals. 100% #16 Alex Kidd in Miracle World (20.39%) Completion Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes Alright, so, I'm old, but not that old. Alex Kidd, and the Sega Master System in general, are both a bit before my time. I didn't own a Master System as a kid, and I didn't even know the thing existed until much later in life. Talk about playing via Internet Explorer! Alex Kidd in Miracle World is the PlayStation 3 port of the 1986 title originally released for the Sega Master System -- Sega's 8-bit console. The Master System's controller only has two buttons, so controls are simple enough: one button to jump, and one button to attack. The game is a 2D Platformer and, considering when it released, is actually pretty impressive. There's a variety of gameplay squeezed into this title: roaming on land, swimming underwater, speeding along via motorcycle and even taking to the air for a bit of shmup action. An inventory system is featured, along with a variety of items and weaponry that you can make use of along the way. For an 8-Bit game with this level of depth and variety, Alex Kidd is almost amazing. It unfortunately has one big problem holding it back: the controls are shit. This is one of those unfortunate platformers where the character's momentum continues even after you've landed a jump, meaning you need to compensate in order to keep from sliding off the platform you've just jumped onto. Unfortunately, it's very easy to overcompensate and end up running off the platform the same way you came in! It gets more frustrating the further you go, as later levels require more precision in platforming. With the game being as short as it is though, it's not like you'll be dealing with it for long. For my introduction to the Master System, Alex Kidd is still pretty good, and I'm curious to see what some of the better titles on the platform were like (Phantasy Star, anyone?). Feels good to know I wasn’t the only kid. We were quite young, some of my early memories include going to a video rental store. Some Blockbusters here and there. I also rented games, because back then in 1994 - 1997 that was really the best way to try out games. No internet, no smartphones, no laptops to easily look up games. So we ended up playing a lot of shit on Sega and Nintendo, I’m not completely blinded by nostalgia. So it’s a miracle Sega was nice enough to give us all these PSN games. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Posted December 15, 2022 Share Posted December 15, 2022 44 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said: Feels good to know I wasn’t the only kid. We were quite young, some of my early memories include going to a video rental store. Some Blockbusters here and there. I also rented games, because back then in 1994 - 1997 that was really the best way to try out games. No internet, no smartphones, no laptops to easily look up games. So we ended up playing a lot of shit on Sega and Nintendo, I’m not completely blinded by nostalgia. So it’s a miracle Sega was nice enough to give us all these PSN games. I wish they would re-release them on PS4, because like, there's not reason why they need to be PS3 exclusive. Along with all the Konami scrolling beat-em-ups, like X-Men, The Simpsons and Turtles. Well maybe not Turtles, that collection is on PS4 now but not the remake PS3 Turtles In TIme, that is still a PS3 exclusive, and while not as good as the original arcade games. That's still no reason to just kill and be unable to play a game I bought on PS3, a game I paid money for. It sucks knowing that there will never be a single system that has all these games in their entirety, and yet, there already is. If you want to buy a Pandora's box. So you can have all the games you want, if you go the unofficial routes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted December 15, 2022 Share Posted December 15, 2022 19 minutes ago, enaysoft said: I wish they would re-release them on PS4, because like, there's not reason why they need to be PS3 exclusive. Along with all the Konami scrolling beat-em-ups, like X-Men, The Simpsons and Turtles. Well maybe not Turtles, that collection is on PS4 now but not the remake PS3 Turtles In TIme, that is still a PS3 exclusive, and while not as good as the original arcade games. That's still no reason to just kill and be unable to play a game I bought on PS3, a game I paid money for. It sucks knowing that there will never be a single system that has all these games in their entirety, and yet, there already is. If you want to buy a Pandora's box. So you can have all the games you want, if you go the unofficial routes. X-Men, The Simpsons and Turtles are all delisted because of licensing. I want a retro collection of Simpsons titles, but given the licensing, that’s a field I’d rather not delve into. PC is your one and only option. I primarily trophy hunt but I occasionally play PC games to break up the flow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honor_Hand Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 An outstanding achievement to finally get Project DIVA F 2nd completed and fully perfected. I reckon you had been working on this for an exceedingly long amount of time so seeing that 100% game completion stat there is nothing short of impressive. I hadn't had the time to read your full thoughts on the experience until now, and I have to say, this right here is quite an insane amount of rhythm game mastery. The amount of dedication and effort you put into completing this game is astounding. 303 hours and close to 2,000 complete song playthroughs. Man, I know next to nothing of rhythm games, but hats off to you for such a monumental achievement. ^^ It reminds me a bit of when I was trying to go for the full set of Trackmaster medals in Trackmania Turbo. You know, the platinum only asked for 50 of those, but my experience with the accurate, 100% deterministic physics of the game just made me fall in love with it. I was so in love with the game that it pushed me to go even further than the platinum and obtain even more of those medals just for the heck of it and to become the best at least in my country. I still have around 25% of those Trackamaster medals left to obtain by the time I stopped, but I can definitely see myself back jumping into it at some point. That's kind of the crazy stuff we do for games sometimes, don't we? xxD Another thing I wanted to comment on is your quest to look for that specific chart you needed to practice F2's Intense Voice in the game. It's shame that the game lacked a search function to help you locate that, but boi, I know I wouldn't have had the patience to sift through 1,800 pages of songs looking for that chart. Extra kudos on your perseverance there. Safe to say your efforts were massively rewarded once you found the correct chart. Finally, it was nice reading about those SEGA classics, I played some of them myself on a cousin's Genesis at the time and I have fond memories of many of them too. My favorite out of the ones you mentioned is Comix Zone. Without a doubt, a super unique game not only for its time but in general. And one thought motherfucker too! I have never seen the ending to this day. I also got it alongside many other SEGA classics at the time for my PS3. I may need to sit down one day and see how it ends, lol. I've read the game, for all its toughness, is fairly short too. And your playtime of around 2 hours and 24 minutes pretty much confirms this. All I need is to sit down and actually work my ass to see what happens after the fourth level. =D 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AihaLoveleaf Posted December 17, 2022 Author Share Posted December 17, 2022 17 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: An outstanding achievement to finally get Project DIVA F 2nd completed and fully perfected. I reckon you had been working on this for an exceedingly long amount of time so seeing that 100% game completion stat there is nothing short of impressive. I hadn't had the time to read your full thoughts on the experience until now, and I have to say, this right here is quite an insane amount of rhythm game mastery. The amount of dedication and effort you put into completing this game is astounding. 303 hours and close to 2,000 complete song playthroughs. Man, I know next to nothing of rhythm games, but hats off to you for such a monumental achievement. ^^ Thank you, Honor! I really appreciate it. ? 18 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: It reminds me a bit of when I was trying to go for the full set of Trackmaster medals in Trackmania Turbo. You know, the platinum only asked for 50 of those, but my experience with the accurate, 100% deterministic physics of the game just made me fall in love with it. I was so in love with the game that it pushed me to go even further than the platinum and obtain even more of those medals just for the heck of it and to become the best at least in my country. I still have around 25% of those Trackamaster medals left to obtain by the time I stopped, but I can definitely see myself back jumping into it at some point. That's kind of the crazy stuff we do for games sometimes, don't we? xxD I remember you going for those Trackmaster Medals. Sounds like a lot of the work is already done, but the last medals are likely the hardest, so you still have quite the task ahead of you I imagine. ? For a lot of us, most games go back to the shelf when the list is done -- and rightfully so, since we have backlogs to get through. However, I do love that there are still games out there that can grab tight enough a hold on us that we'll stick around to see all of the game's challenge through, even if there are no trophies to show for it. A full Trackmania completion would make a sweet addition to your gaming resume, and a peek into the journey would make for great writing content as well. Having at least one major non-trophy gaming achievement that we can look back on with pride is a great feeling, and are the achievements I'm most likely to bring up when sharing accomplishments with other gamers in the future - as it's generally tough to make trophies sound impressive to those outside of the hobby. 18 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: Another thing I wanted to comment on is your quest to look for that specific chart you needed to practice F2's Intense Voice in the game. It's shame that the game lacked a search function to help you locate that, but boi, I know I wouldn't have had the patience to sift through 1,800 pages of songs looking for that chart. Extra kudos on your perseverance there. Safe to say your efforts were massively rewarded once you found the correct chart. It's scary to think that I may still be playing F2 right now if I hadn't found that Edit chart. I'm happy I had the patience to sit through over an hour of thumbing through Edit Ranking pages, but also grateful to the person that recreated the chart as an Edit to begin with. Considering trying to reach out to the original uploader on PSN sometime and thanking them for their 6+ year old creation, lol. 18 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: Finally, it was nice reading about those SEGA classics, I played some of them myself on a cousin's Genesis at the time and I have fond memories of many of them too. My favorite out of the ones you mentioned is Comix Zone. Without a doubt, a super unique game not only for its time but in general. And one thought motherfucker too! I have never seen the ending to this day. I also got it alongside many other SEGA classics at the time for my PS3. I may need to sit down one day and see how it ends, lol. I've read the game, for all its toughness, is fairly short too. And your playtime of around 2 hours and 24 minutes pretty much confirms this. All I need is to sit down and actually work my ass to see what happens after the fourth level. =D Nice to see I wasn't the only one suffering through Comix Zone on the original hardware back in the day! ? Now's a better time than any to get around to those Sega classics we never got to see the end of. Besides save states, these games also have built-in turbo options, so you can easily spam attacks with any controller you want to. I did hear on PST that Comix Zone actually had cheat codes -- none of which are usable on the PS3 version by the way -- that probably would have gotten me to the end of the game, but wee little Aiha was not nearly savvy enough to think of firing up the old dial-up modem to look for cheat codes back then. If only I was as resourceful then as most of us are now! Oh well, at least they're getting done in 2022 -- or perhaps 2023 in your case! Unfortunately for me, there aren't too many more of these Sega Vintage Collection titles left to go through. I think the only one I haven't bought yet is a ToeJam & Earl game.. or two. Gonna have to pick those up sometime. There are compilation discs on the PS3 and PS4 that I haven't gone through yet; it should be a pretty good time playing through both of those, considering they contain the Genesis versions of various titles. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AihaLoveleaf Posted December 19, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 19, 2022 Platinum #47 Hotshot Racing (6.12%/5.22%) Completion Time: 3 days, 3 hours After a year in the backlog, patiently waiting for its time, Hotshot Racing finally takes off to a ROLLING STAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRT!! Wrong game? My bad. Hotshot Racing -- developed by Lucky Mountain Games, Sumo Digital, and published by Curve Games in 2020 for the PlayStation 4 -- is an arcade racer that brings the charming aesthetics of retro classics such as Virtua Racing and Daytona USA, and gives it a modern touch. The drifting is insane, the speed is insane, and so is the rubber-banding -- but more on that later. Hotshot Racing brings the usual racing modes you'd expect, while adding a few unique modes to mix things up. Grand Prix is the main attraction, and the difficulty-intensive part of the game, featuring a a series of four races each across five different cups - if you include the free DLC. Arcade and Time Trial modes are single-shot races against the AI and against the clock, respectively. The first of Hotshot's unique modes is Cops and Robbers -- a mode where players take role of either cop or robber. Cops are in pursuit of robbers, who will eventually become cops themselves if hit by cops enough times, or if enough time passes without hitting checkpoints. Lastly is Drive or Explode, a mode where drivers will eventually blow up if they fail to maintain the minimum required speed. Drive or Explode is also the fastest mode in the game in terms of speed, as top speed increases at each checkpoint, and cars can reach upwards of 300 MPH given enough laps! Paying homage to the arcade racing experiences that came decades before it, Hotshot Racing uses flat-shaded polygons to beautiful effect: modern hardware allows buildings, scenery and cars to be detailed in ways that would not have been possible in the games that precede it, while still maintaining its noticeably retro identity. Hotshot's soundtrack is similarly retro-flavored, and unlike similar games such as Horizon Chase Turbo, it dispenses with rad, tubular guitar riffs in favor of 90s-styled Electronic tunes. Ridge Racer vibes, anyone? Fortunately, there aren't a lot of notable downsides with Hotshot Racing; the game is more or less jank-free, and there really aren't moments where a loss feels to be due to things out of your control. Remember that rubber-banding I mentioned earlier, though? Yeah, it's insane in this game. Hotshot features some of the strongest rubber-banding mechanics of my limited racing career so far. Opponents are permanently hot on your tail, and are prepared to push ahead of you at any time. Stocking boosts for the final lap is a necessity, as you may otherwise find yourself robbed of first place in the final stretch. Unfortunately for me, rubber-banding is not a lot of fun, as you never truly get to reap the reward of pushing ahead of the pack in exchange for racing well. I get that it's there to increase difficulty and punish complacency, but I'm still not a fan. Like accuracy judgements at the ends of hold notes in rhythm games, though, my dislike of a particular mechanic won't chase me away from a good game if the rest of the package is appealing enough. Hotshot's trophy experience is challenging enough: at minimum, you'll need to win gold on Expert difficulty in all five Grand Prix cups at least once. You'll also need to win an Expert GP at least once with each character, though you're welcome to run whichever cup you find easiest for that. Most everything afterwards can be done on Normal. Unfortunately, you've got several hours of grind to deal with too: you're required to unlock and purchase every (cosmetic) customization for all four of each character's cars. Developers knew what they were doing, aptly titling the game's grindiest trophy Trophy Hunter. Put on a good podcast or YT video, and get ready to bang out thousands of boosts and drifts, once it's time to start grinding. Sore thumbs may result. Hotshot Racing is a fine arcade racing experience. If you enjoyed its grandfathers from the Sega arcade era, or contemporary entries like Horizon Chase Turbo, chances are that you'll dig this one too. Bring enough controllers to run a 4-player setup if you want to self-boost the entire list. Keep an eye on the Follow the Crowd trophy too -- it requires beating a downloaded ghost from the top 30 in Time Trial, and will eventually become "impossible" as the game matures. If you're eyeing Hotshot Racing in 2022 or early 2023, it's an easy recommendation to make, but those considering Hotshot in the far future may want to do a pulse check on the state of the leaderboards to make sure the game is still possible. Good luck. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honor_Hand Posted December 21, 2022 Share Posted December 21, 2022 DAYTONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! \8D/ Great write-up over here! And you're right, Hotshot Racing is pretty much a love letter to anyone that enjoys retro racers. This one in particular draws heavy inspiration from Virtua Racer and Daytona USA, as you accurately mentioned above, but I didn't notice the OST had these RR vibes until now. Cool. The game does have a pretty good soundtrack to accompany it as well. 90s-style Electronic tunes are a great fit for a racer like this. I always loved how the music's intensity and tempo escalated during the final lap of the race. Another thing that I really enjoyed about this game was the characters. Believe it or not, I thought they were quite a comical bunch of fellas. My favorites were Marcus, the fastest man alive; Everything-is-better-in-Russia Viktor, and of course, Toshiro (who is clearly a robot xxD). Their exaggerated personalities and silly quips during races grew on me for one reason or another. ^^ I don't really remember having too much of an issue with the rubber banding in this one. Picking the speed class vehicle of any character always proved fruitful in leaving everyone way, way behind. Marcus especially was my favorite at that because he has the fastest vehicle in the game. With the other characters and classes, yes, it's a bit more tricky, but not too bad. x3 The trophy list is easy for the most part but it does have a couple of tricky trophies like The Destroyer that's almost impossible to get on your own or with just one extra controller; or Follow The Crowd, which is definitely going to become near impossible to obtain as the game ages or if it gets given as a PS+ freebie at some point. ^^;; For anyone that enjoys classic arcade racers from a bygone era, Hotshot Racer does a pretty good job. Wouldn't mind seeing a sequel to it much in the same way Horizon Chase Turbo is getting one. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AihaLoveleaf Posted December 21, 2022 Author Share Posted December 21, 2022 12 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: DAYTONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! \8D/ 12 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: Great write-up over here! And you're right, Hotshot Racing is pretty much a love letter to anyone that enjoys retro racers. This one in particular draws heavy inspiration from Virtua Racer and Daytona USA, as you accurately mentioned above, but I didn't notice the OST had these RR vibes until now. Cool. The game does have a pretty good soundtrack to accompany it as well. 90s-style Electronic tunes are a great fit for a racer like this. I always loved how the music's intensity and tempo escalated during the final lap of the race. Thanks, Honor! ? I didn't pay a lot of mind to the OST until the review process, but after giving the tracks a proper listen, I realized some of these tracks are actually pretty dope! Waterflame's contributions to the game stood out to me. I hope my ears catch wind of his work when playing games in the future. After playing Split/Second, I'm a converted enjoyer of dynamic soundtracks in racing games, too. Interestingly, even the composers of Hotshot's music made brief mention to the feature, as it makes some songs a completely different experience when you finally come around to listening to the "original" version. 12 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: Believe it or not, I thought they were quite a comical bunch of fellas. My favorites were Marcus, the fastest man alive; Everything-is-better-in-Russia Viktor, and of course, Toshiro (who is clearly a robot xxD). Their exaggerated personalities and silly quips during races grew on me for one reason or another. ^^ I love the cast in this game! It's great that Hotshot doesn't take itself too seriously, and gave us such an entertaining roster of characters. When I started my first race, and Alexa told me to "tell someone else to play [my] music", I knew I was in for a treat. Marcus is an absolute unit, Viktor may very well be the second coming of Jesus Techno Viking, and Toshiro is totally not a robot. 12 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: I don't really remember having too much of an issue with the rubber banding in this one. Picking the speed class vehicle of any character always proved fruitful in leaving everyone way, way behind. My barometer for the strength -- the "snap back" ability -- of a racing game's rubber band is the recovery time given in the final lap following a "fatal" mistake. Fatal, as in, something like completely eating the wall during a drift and coming to a full stop, requiring a reverse to position yourself before you can build acceleration again. In racers with a weak rubber band, I've been able to recover from those types of mistakes in the final lap and still come out first, provided I had a good lead to begin with. In Hotshot though, even if I was running a great race beforehand, eating the wall and coming to a complete stop guaranteed me 6th place. By the time I was deep in my GP runs, I had already "got gud" and the rubber-banding didn't really matter anymore, but I still had to "respect the power of the rubber band" - so to speak - and keep my mistakes minimal on Expert. 13 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: The trophy list is easy for the most part but it does have a couple of tricky trophies like The Destroyer that's almost impossible to get on your own or with just one extra controller; or Follow The Crowd, which is definitely going to become near impossible to obtain as the game ages or if it gets given as a PS+ freebie at some point. ^^;; Yeah, I didn't expect The Destroyer would be as tricky as it turned out to be. In my mind, it just seemed like "tee hee just poke a few cars and pop the trophy" but it ended up taking several attempts for my boost partner and I to get right, lol. In the future, I'm definitely going to secure an extra controller to lock down a four-player setup for PS4 games. I was silly to think three would be enough, but I'll make sure that doesn't happen again. I couldn't believe Follow The Crowd wasn't emphasized by the Trophy Guide nor the community in general; that's a trophy that should be a headliner for those considering the game. While it's fairly obtainable right now, it's certainly not going to be in the future! I was lucky enough to find rank #30 in Castle Funfair eating dirt in his replay, so racers of average ability like myself still have a chance right now. God help the player base if this game goes Plus like Horizon did, though. 13 hours ago, Honor_Hand said: For anyone that enjoys classic arcade racers from a bygone era, Hotshot Racer does a pretty good job. Wouldn't mind seeing a sequel to it much in the same way Horizon Chase Turbo is getting one. I'm all for a sequel! The more arcade racing options, the better. Plenty of countries yet to be represented, which gives the opportunity for a fresh brand of hilarity. The boys and girls from the first game coming back for another cup would be fine, too. Hopefully a sequel lightens up on the grind; my left thumb did not enjoy all of that drifting! lol. Iceland aside, though, I do like that we at least have that Horizon sequel to look forward to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honor_Hand Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 On 21/12/2022 at 9:55 AM, AihaLoveleaf said: Quote My barometer for the strength -- the "snap back" ability -- of a racing game's rubber band is the recovery time given in the final lap following a "fatal" mistake. Fatal, as in, something like completely eating the wall during a drift and coming to a full stop, requiring a reverse to position yourself before you can build acceleration again. In racers with a weak rubber band, I've been able to recover from those types of mistakes in the final lap and still come out first, provided I had a good lead to begin with. In Hotshot though, even if I was running a great race beforehand, eating the wall and coming to a complete stop guaranteed me 6th place. By the time I was deep in my GP runs, I had already "got gud" and the rubber-banding didn't really matter anymore, but I still had to "respect the power of the rubber band" - so to speak - and keep my mistakes minimal on Expert. Yep, I know what you mean. Fatal mistakes like those aren't really allowed here, especially in the Expert class. Graze the wall too hard on one of the last corners of the last lap and you can pretty much kiss goodbye to 1st place. All cars have a fair chance of winning but there were some that were definitely more tricky to nail wins with. That being said, the tracks were simple to memorize and once you "got gud," there was very little challenge left in the game. I think it was nicely balanced in terms of difficulty. Worst case, we can resort for the tried-and-true method of saving nitros for the last lap and then flying past the competition when close to the finish line. It works wonders in a bunch of racing games with this kind of rubberbanding in place. xxD Quote Yeah, I didn't expect The Destroyer would be as tricky as it turned out to be. In my mind, it just seemed like "tee hee just poke a few cars and pop the trophy" but it ended up taking several attempts for my boost partner and I to get right, lol. In the future, I'm definitely going to secure an extra controller to lock down a four-player setup for PS4 games. I was silly to think three would be enough, but I'll make sure that doesn't happen again. Same, same! I thought, "Oh, just crash a few cars and that's it. How long it can take? 5-10 minutes?" Lol, no, after I saw the game in action and tried it myself, I realized it was going to be impossible on my own with just 2 controllers. Technically, it can be done solo, but with how fast the AI moves around the track, yeah, forget it, it's next to impossible. Far easier to have 4 human players in the race. And even with that setup it still takes a handful of attempts. ^^;; 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadly_Ha_Ha Posted December 23, 2022 Share Posted December 23, 2022 I think you're a really special person : ^ ) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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