Necro's game clears and mindless musings

[Necromancer]

Clear #52 - Sylphia



The Good: Cool techy tunes, a veritable smorgasbord of different enemies and sweet looking bosses, a bit naughty (harpie tittehs!), nice looking cut scenes and intermission screens, and some of the backgrounds are very well done (I particularly like the second half of the underwater level and being inside the tower).

The Bad: Some of the backgrounds are rather bland, and it's pricey.

The Ugly: NA

[Mathius]

^^While I like Syphia I feel that it's overrated. Not one of Compile's best, but still a good shewtie.

[Necromancer]

Agreed.  It's pretty good and has a lot of nice things going for it (especially the mythical setting instead of the usual space shewty), but it's not as consistently great as Lords of Thunder or Gate of Thunder.

[Mathius]

Agreed.  It's pretty good and has a lot of nice things going for it (especially the mythical setting instead of the usual space shewty), but it's not as consistently great as Lords of Thunder or Gate of Thunder.

IMO the cinemas were lacking especially considering it's a Super CD. I've seen regular CD-ROM2 titles with more engaging scenes. Again this is nitpicking.

[Necromancer]

IMO the cinemas were lacking especially considering it's a Super CD. I've seen regular CD-ROM2 titles with more engaging scenes. Again this is nitpicking.

True, they're not terribly exciting compared to great stuff usually found in RPGs (like LoX), but they're okay compared to most shewties.

[esteban]

IMO the cinemas were lacking especially considering it's a Super CD. I've seen regular CD-ROM2 titles with more engaging scenes. Again this is nitpicking.

True, they're not terribly exciting compared to great stuff usually found in RPGs (like LoX), but they're okay compared to most shewties.

Yeah, shewties don't often have much cinema action. It's funny—cinemas in a shoot-em-up is a total "bonus", while they are expected from other genres... (I wish all golf games had cinemas, and, no, I'm not lying and, yes, SUPER ALBATROSS).

Does Sylphia have difficulty settings?

This is one of those games I was unwilling to pay $70 for years ago and now I wish I hadn't purchased tons of crappy mahjong games with that $70.

[Necromancer]

Yeah, shewties don't often have much cinema action. It's funny—cinemas in a shoot-em-up is a total "bonus", while they are expected from other genres... (I wish all golf games had cinemas, and, no, I'm not lying and, yes, SUPER ALBATROSS).

Le true.  It's no big deal if the cinemas are bleh (or missing) in platformers or shewties, but it's a real bummer in an RPG.

Does Sylphia have difficulty settings?

Yep.  Besides normal, there's easy, hard, and special hard, but I can't say how big of a difference there is between 'em, as I didn't spend much time trying 'em out.

[esteban]

^ Good, there is Hardy and Extra Hardy.

I like the soundtrack. Of course, Paranoia_Drafon, being the anti-electronic-music-bastard that he is, created an alternative soundtrack entirely comprised of GnuMetal (Satriani? Some guitar dude.)

[Mathius]

I had in mind the Macross shewtie during my above post. With its awesome cinemas it's quite possible that I got spoiled.

[ParanoiaDragon]

^ Good, there is Hardy and Extra Hardy.

I like the soundtrack. Of course, Paranoia_Drafon, being the anti-electronic-music-bastard that he is, created an alternative soundtrack entirely comprised of GnuMetal (Satriani? Some guitar dude.)

I like the original soundtrack, I just felt like a rock inspired theme worked better.  And I got the tracks from various Vinnie Moore albums thank you very much!  But I do like Satriani.  Vinnie Moore's stuff tends to be closer to Lords of Thunder generally speaking compared to Satriani.

[esteban]

^ Good, there is Hardy and Extra Hardy.

I like the soundtrack. Of course, Paranoia_Drafon, being the anti-electronic-music-bastard that he is, created an alternative soundtrack entirely comprised of GnuMetal (Satriani? Some guitar dude.)

I like the original soundtrack, I just felt like a rock inspired theme worked better.  And I got the tracks from various Vinnie Moore albums thank you very much!  But I do like Satriani.  Vinnie Moore's stuff tends to be closer to Lords of Thunder generally speaking compared to Satriani.

Vinnie Moore! I was trying to remember who it was, but I refused to look it up.

I think folks should create more alternative soundtracks...it's fun to see what songs people choose for specific stages/sequences.

[ParanoiaDragon]

That's one of many things I've thought about doing, but I just don't have the time.  I have to stick to what little time I have to work on Mega Man for the time being, with Jackal probably being the next(thinking very Telenet for the sound), plus a few old soundtracks I want to get back to, even if the games themselves never get finished(Jungle Bros. for instance).

[esteban]

That's one of many things I've thought about doing, but I just don't have the time.  I have to stick to what little time I have to work on Mega Man for the time being, with Jackal probably being the next(thinking very Telenet for the sound), plus a few old soundtracks I want to get back to, even if the games themselves never get finished(Jungle Bros. for instance).

PARANOIA, we need for you to WIN THE LOTTERY so that you could make PCE (and Konami 8-bit) music full-time!

I know, though...I love the idea of homebrew soundtracks... Or even remixes/mashups.  So much patient owl for fun, creative ideas, IMHO.

[Necromancer]

Clear #53 - Magicoal



A lovely adventure rpg that requires more strategy than most such games, mostly in the form of teamwork.  As much fun as it was to play through, though, it'd be even better if I knew more of the story and how all the different magics work; that's not to say it's unplayable sans moonrune skillz, but a translation would sure be nice.

The Good: two player; cute as hell; lots of colorful, well animated, and usually humorous cut scenes; nicely detail and varied environments to traverse; loads of different enemies and bosses with sundry modes of attack; several secrets to find and magics to master; and it's a bit naughty, with plenty of panty flashing and betitted statues and magic idols.

The Bad: the AI controlling the second player is often retarded, forcing you to switch players and manually pull them away from shooting at an enemy they can't reach or disabling their attack spells altogether so they're forced to heel.

The Ugly: Melvy's hands in a couple cut scenes.  She's got man hands, Jerry!

[jtucci31]

You beat it! Congrats! That end screen is pretty looking, I'm sure (as you described) the cutscenes are just as good. Cool to see you beat that timed level. I'd like to try this at future Turbo meetups with simultaneous two-player action.