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Last Topic's Ratings:
Drift King: Shutokou Battle 97 - AA - 50% (2)
Elevator Action Returns - GGGGGGGG - 100% (8)
Ghen War - AAA - 50% (3)
Kururin Pa - BB - 0% (2)
Paneltia Story: Kerun no Daibouken - AA - 50% (2)
Pro Yakyuu Greatest Nine 98 Summer Action - AA - 50% (2)
A pretty interesting result here - this topic was totally unanimous. I don't know if this has ever happened before.
Games for this topic:
DeviceReign
Hyper Reverthion
Iron Man / XO Manowar in Heavy Metal
Sankyo Fever: Jikki Simulation S Vol 2
Sonic Jam
World Evolution Soccer
In case you were ever curious, when a game like DeviceReign shows up, I always pre-check it before putting up the topic to make sure it's at least decently playable without extensive Japanese knowledge. For games where the language barrier is so high that I can't play it to any degree, I just remove the game from the list and swap something else in. These days, it's gotten somewhat easier to play Japanese games thanks to the Google Translate app, so you can always give that a try if you get stuck.
DeviceReign - G (SR)
ReplyDeleteHyper Reverthion - B
Iron Man / XO Manowar in Heavy Metal - A
Sankyo Fever: Jikki Simulation S Vol 2 - B
Sonic Jam - G
World Evolution Soccer - A
DeviceReign is an extremely interesting game that's only held back by the localization barrier. It's a strategy RPG that reminds me of Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor with excellent production values and a number of interesting mechanics. Probably the game's most standout feature is that unlike virtually every other strategy RPG ever made, this game takes place in semi-real time. Similarly to games with "active time battle", each character has a turn meter that gradually ticks down, and when it's empty, you can choose to have them act, however time does not stop until you initiate your turn and other characters' bars continue to tick down. While this might initially seem purely like it exists to punish you for acting slowly, it actually has all kinds of interesting ramifications. For starters, to do anything at all, characters need MP (called SE here), and SE gradually ticks up over time. If you want to use a powerful attack, but don't have the SE for it, you can just delay your turn a few extra seconds to let your SE recharge, which I often had to do with the main character as he has a powerful attack that uses almost all his SE. Being able to choose when to take your turns also lets you fiddle with the turn order. If the enemy is at a distance, rather than having to move towards them and get hit, you can instead choose to simply wait for them to approach, then act instantly once they do, though obviously this also conveys some risk as they could have a long range attack and it could be better to put up a buff instead. There are also many actions that affect the turn bar directly, typically by adding to the enemy's turn bar, thereby delaying their turn, but I'll get back to actions later. Suffice it to say that it adds an interesting dimension to the battles and makes the game feel unique. The game has a fairly intricate customization system too. The capabilities of your character are determined by a 3x3 grid of gems called opuses. Both the specific gems you choose and the way you position them affects which actions you have in battle as well as the power and cost of those actions. This system is clearly very complex and is probably going to be the hardest thing to work around for those who don't speak Japanese, but luckily the game allows you to do skirmish battles in any place where you've done a battle already so it's not difficult to experiment. The game's production values are also generally pretty fantastic, the spritework looks great, there's a ton of voice acting (actually there might be slightly too much dialogue), and the interface is very slickly designed (for example, every action shows an overlay of how it would affect your energy meters, you can cancel movement after selecting it, etc). Compared to something like Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Yuna, which had decent storytelling but the SRPG mecahnics were kind of tacked on, this is clearly a drastically better game mechanically, I just really wish it was in english. If I wasn't so busy with guides already I might attempt to translate this, as this is clearly a top priority game to have playable for english audiences. I feel like there's a very good chance this is one of Saturn's top games that no one knows about.
I'm unsure what has changed about "Hyper" Reverthion, I had to go back to the PS1 version to try to determine if there were any differences at all and apart from very minor differences to the interface I'm not seeing much. It's still a very awkward and limited 3D fighting game where nothing combos and it feels really unbalanced and not very fun to play. Certainly, this is not a Robo Pit-esque huge improvement to the Saturn version, if anything has changed it'd extremely minimal.
DeleteHeavy Metal is all right, but it's very basic. It's essentially a fairly typical run-and-gun style platformer where you play as Iron Man. The game does have punches and kicks, but you'll never use them because you also have an extremely spammable blaster, so it plays much more like a shooting game than a beat-em-up. The most notable thing about the game is that Iron Man can fly, which sometimes helps to change up the way you approach things. For example, when facing an enemy from above, my first impression is usually to aim diagonally, but it's often better to fly and attack them horizontally instead. In terms of enemy and stage designs, they're very simple. You'll spend a lot of time just crouching under enemy shots and blasting away, which works fine, but it's certainly nothing we haven't seen before. The game's presentation is also fairly drab, it's clear enough, but doesn't really have any particular style and doesn't look much better than most games of the previous generation. At least it does have two playable characters who have differences from each other and you can play co-op, though apart from that I feel it's a strictly average affair.
Sankyo Fever Vol 2 is identical in setup to the original one, but I feel this set is a fair bit weaker. For starters, compared to the first game, there's way less machines. The first game had 6, while this game only has 3, and two of them are just slight variations of each other, so it's almost like there's only two. The reason for the cut is likely the addition of the game's new "story mode", which is really more of a challenge mode. In this mode, the game tasks you with relatively basic challenges like "spin the slot machine 25 times with a certain number of balls", and if you complete it you can see some short anime scenes. This kinda helps add a bit more to do, but it's still very basic and not too engaging and I think it'd be much better to have at least a couple more machines. I think you can sort of see the formation of a few good ideas here, but it's still going to take more work to make Pachinko engaging.
Sonic Jam is a strange one in that it's clearly a good game and yet I have almost nothing to say about it. At its core, it is mainly a repackaging of the 4 main Genesis Sonic games. The games are ported quite well to Saturn and have some extras, most notably the ability to use Spindash in Sonic 1 and some (optional) revised level layouts and bug fixes. None of the spinoff games are present here, so don't expect Spinball or anything like that, but these are the main games that Sonic is known for and this is a great way to play them. Beyond this, there is also "Sonic World", which is essentially a tech demo for a 3D Sonic game that also serves as a hub world for bonus content like artwork, music, and videos. There's not really a ton to do here and the Genesis games are definitely the main appeal, but it's an interesting look into one of the first attempts at a fully 3D Sonic (it's too bad they were never able to realize this on Saturn). There's not a ton more to say about it and I think you could probably make the case that Sonic Mega Collection is superior overall to this set, but it's still a solid product nonetheless.
DeleteWorld Evolution Soccer is a strange soccer game. For starters, this is the slowest soccer game of all time. The pace of this game could basically be described as a "power walk", even when dribbling the player movement is extremely slow. I imagine this was probably done to try to make the general gameplay feel more methodical, which it does kind of succeed at, but it also takes a sport that already lent itself to slow-paced, low-scoring games and increases that even more. Luckily, besides the speed of the game most of the rest of it is generally competent. Passing and changing players works well, the steal move is well-implemented, and setting up crosses works fine when you do get the opportunity to do it, it's just definitely not an intense affair at any point. The one exception to this is the commentary, which is very energetic and is kind of comedically mismatched with the game. Overall the game is not terrible but it's still a little slow for my tastes.