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Last Topic's Ratings:
Dejig: Tin Toy - AB - 25% (2)
Fire Pro Gaiden: Blazing Tornado - GGAA - 75% (4)
Linkle Liver Story - GAA - 67% (3)
Swagman - GA - 75% (2)
Virtua Racing - AAAGAAG - 64% (7) (1 SR)
Virtual Golf - AA - 50% (2)
Not too much to say here, contrary to the PS1 topic this was pretty much what I expected. Maybe I secretly know more about Saturn than PS1?
Games for this topic:
Advanced VG
Arcana Strikes
Discworld
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
Whizz
Wipeout
I had a heck of a time finding an RPG / Strategy game for this topic that was adequately playable without extensive Japanese knowledge, I had to go through like 4 of them before settling on Arcana Strikes. Just so you know, I always pre-check Japanese exclusives for playability before putting them up, so if you see Japanese titles here, they should be reasonably playable even if you can't read too much Japanese. I can also probably help if someone is trying to play a game but they get stuck.
Advanced VG - G
ReplyDeleteArcana Strikes - G
Discworld - A
NBA Jam Tournament Edition - G
Whizz - A
Wipeout - A
When revisiting Advanced VG for this review, I found it was a lot better than I remembered and I wondered if I had been much too hard on the PS1 version, but upon comparing both versions back to back it turns out the Saturn version is just a fair bit better. As before, it's a somewhat basic SNK-style fighter, with two punches and two kick buttons, albeit one with an all-female roster. This is exploited a bit more on Saturn, as one of the differences between the two versions is that after each round in arcade mode, there's a very ecchi still of the defeated fighter which is cut out of the PS1 version (probably for space rather than censorship). PS1 has a lot more visual cuts besides this, as the stage backgrounds look way worse (Minami's stage in particular looks atrocious on PS1, with some truly awful colour choices) and I'm fairly certain some moves are missing animation frames on PS1 as well. Even more than this, though, there are also gameplay differences between the versions. On PS1, moves generally have less hitstun, causing many things to combo inconsistently. For example, Yuka jump HK into stand HK can frequently be interrupted by jabs and such on PS1, but is a proper blockstring on Saturn. Certain moves also don't juggle on PS1, for example Yuka can juggle with QCB + HK on Saturn (say, after an opponent lands on a fireball), but on PS1 this will whiff. Having more consistent combos / blockstrings and better reward on hit makes the Saturn version of the game feel drastically better to play. It is still kind of a basic fighter, but there is a little bit of interesting tech with empty cancels (you can cancel pretty much every normal into specials, even on whiff, which has significant implications for footsies) and overall it does feel polished enough for G on Saturn despite stronger competition in the fighting genre.
Discworld, on the other hand, is a game that hasn't really changed at all from the PS1 version. Pretty much everything I said about it back then is still the case. It has pretty much all the problems you'd typically associate with games of this type involving totally nonsensical puzzles, possibly even worse due to the way its dialogue system works, but at least it's a funny game so if you spend most of your time just walking around and having conversations with people you'll still have a fairly good time. It's definitely not on par with the Lucasarts graphic adventure games, but its sense of humour still puts it a bit above average compared to its competitors.
DeleteIt took me quite a lot of tries to find a final game for this topic, because I kept coming across games that were far too complicated to play without extensive Japanese knowledge, so it was kind of refreshing to find the very uncomplicated Arcana Strikes. It's a very basic card battle RPG that doesn't really do anything too fancy. Cards are broken up into 2 main types, there's Monster cards, and Spell cards. You can summon Monster cards to defend you in battle, which is important, but you can only have two monsters summoned at a time, so you want spell cards so you're not forced to just sit there and do nothing until one of your Monsters dies. Spell cards generally have simple effects, like doing damage of a specific element or healing, and most Monsters of a given element are fairly interchangeable, so there's not really a ton of nuance to the game, but this does make it easy to play even if you can't read Japanese. The game's UI is actually pretty user-friendly, which is appreciated, there's icons on the map to tell you what's a dungeon and what's a shop and so on, and the card descriptions always remind you of elemental strengths and weaknesses so you don't have to memorize them. One of the game's biggest flaws is that battles can be a bit slow overall. Animations are kind of long and the first two turns in battle almost always just consist of both sides summoning two monsters. There's also no attrition between battles, you're fully recovered and all of your cards are restored after each fight, including the extremely powerful Arcana cards, though at least there are no random battles (all battles are visible and only a handful of battles respawn after you win them). Compared to something like Sorvice, I feel this game is clearly not nearly as innovative or inspired, but it's still probably fun enough to play to barely keep the G rating. It just goes to show how appealing the "collect and battle" formula is, even when a game plays it very by the numbers it still comes out well ahead of most other turn-based RPGs that use a more traditional formula.
NBA Jam TE also hasn't changed much compared to some of the other times we've looked at it. As with the Playstation version, the graphics have recieved a bump compared to the SNES version, and it has some load times, but it's otherwise mostly the same game. One changed I notice is that it feels like the sound effects have taken a hit, but at least there's music now. I don't think this version is actually much of an improvement over the SNES version, but it's also one of the best games of all time so you can't complain too much. Notably, Saturn also doesn't have NBA Hangtime, so this is almost certainly the best basketball game on the console.
Whizz reminds me a bit of Sonic 3D Blast. Both are isometric platformers from the previous generation that received a graphical facelift and a new soundtrack on the new consoles. As with Sonic 3D Blast, there's no escaping the fact that it feels like a last generation title, but the improved visuals and music do help. The game has also been made slightly easier compared to the 16-bit version, namely you can take more hits, which is good because the game has no mercy invincibility and your health can still evaporate in an instant. As for the rest of the game, it's a fairly standard isometric platformer. You can't fall off ledges, which is a bit limiting in terms of your freedom to explore the stage, but I suppose it also helps prevent unwanted deaths. The biggest issue with the game is the timer, which is far too short for a game that involves some exploration and puzzle solving, if you don't find all the hidden time pickups you'll never have enough time. Overall, it's still an okay game and this version is definitely an upgrade, but gameplay-wise it's not quite on par with Sonic 3D Blast, which is probably the best isometric platformer, while this is just a more standard one.
DeleteWipeout is pretty much the same as the PS1 version. It's definitely an impressive technical achievement for such an early 3D racer, it looks nice and runs at a rock solid framerate, but the gameplay isn't quite where it needs to be yet. A lot of Wipeout staples are missing at this point (for example, there's no health bar) and the collisions and general physics feel somewhat wonky. If Wipeout XL had never been made, I might have still considered this game for G, as what's here is kind of decent, but Wipeout XL is a massive step forward and it's also available on Saturn, so you might as well wait for that one.