Author Topic: Night Creatures: It can be done (Read 550 times)

Black Tiger · « **on:** June 06, 2006, 06:16:37 PM »

Yes, its true. Night Creatures can be finished and yes I really have done it before and now I have the proof:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.com/nce2.avi

Now, most people who played a few minutes of this masterpiece of un-masterpieceness and then threw it in the garbage probably thought that it was the worst game ever made.

But only after mastering the game, can you truly appreciate how bad it is in ways you don't get to fully experience in the first few minutes of the game. For example, all the controls, including item usuage and menu navigating only work anywhere from 25% - 75% of the time(literally).

If it wasn't so close to a good game and full of real potential, it wouldn't be able to achieve such a high level of failure.

Seriously, if it was barely a demo, who would care? But its so close to being a worthy next-gen Simon's Curse that even if only the broken gameplay and linear path(only one correct way through the game, deviate once and its game over, even though its setup to be non-linear) were fixed, it would be good.

Although the rest of the game could stand to be cleaned up too.

And contrary to folk lore, the game doesn't only have one bgm track, it actually has 3 and the final piece is actually pretty long.

I made a bunch of notes along the way and will be updating my walkthrough with details on how to deal with several specific glitches/challenging spots.

And I'll have the entire game on dvd soon(if I can shrink it well enough, I'll youtube the whole thing).

And finally, yes it is true, I love this game. Even if Keranu is the only one who can understand why. The challenge of beating an impossible game is rewarding enough for me, but the game has a unique charm that has kept it one of my favorite Duo games, along side all of the quality titles.

Keranu · « **Reply #1 on:** June 06, 2006, 06:19:21 PM »

Awesome, totally downloading and watching the video. I was just talking about this game with someone online the other night.

By the way, I've been checking out your site these past weeks, I totally dig it.

KingDrool · « **Reply #2 on:** June 07, 2006, 10:03:43 AM »

I was soooo freaking disappointed in this game when I first got it back in the day. Like you said, it had so much potential and failed so miserably.

esteban · « **Reply #3 on:** June 07, 2006, 10:32:26 AM »

Quote from: "jlued686"

I was soooo freaking disappointed in this game when I first got it back in the day. Like you said, it had so much potential and failed so miserably.

Same here.

I'm glad you, Black_Tiger (and others) feel that this really could have been a neat game. And you know, some folks don't dig the character designs, but I like most of them. And, more generally, I don't think the graphics / settings / aesthetics of the game are as bad as some folks make them out to be. I rather like them.

I agree with Black_Tiger's assessment of Night Creatures, and I can't wait to see the video, by the way

I've beaten this game -- BUT, I followed the FAQ (Keranu, which TurboBoard member made that FAQ?) and it was only a few years ago. In fact, it was when I first got back into the TG-16. I couldn't believe folks were keeping TG-16 alive and writing FAQS for games like Night Creatures! Of all games! I mention this only because it is pretty funny that Night Creatures is partially responsible for re-entrance into Turbo Fandom.

Back in the day, I made it 2/3 to 3/4 into the game (though I didn't know it at the time, since I had no yardstick to measure progress). I finally lost interest when less-masochistic games caught my eye.

I still don't know how to pronounce "Hecate"... you'd think I'd have looked it up by now. But, nope...

Keranu · « **Reply #4 on:** June 07, 2006, 05:44:54 PM »

Quote from: "stevek666"

(Keranu, which TurboBoard member made that FAQ?)

RuninRuder.

Black Tiger · « **Reply #5 on:** June 08, 2006, 08:01:05 AM »

When I submitted my FAQ/walkthrough to GameFAQs several years ago, it was the only one for Night Creatures and was later followed by another FAQ from someone else, which eventually disappeared.

I put a video of the complete game up on youtube, but it was recompressed into something ugly. I'm going to see what I can dig up on what youtube does to files to see if I can get a better quality video up there before trying again.

In the meantime, I'm just about finished experimenting with different divx settings for the full video which I'll have up on my own site very soon.

ParanoiaDragon · « **Reply #6 on:** June 08, 2006, 03:59:50 PM »

Cool. Is it just me, or do the bosses in the last level, actually use a good pseudo-transparent effect, or are they just flickering, & on the video maybe it looks like a better effect? Transparent effects are difficult on the Turbo, with Shapeshifter, probably having done the best in this regard. But it looks like Night Creatures did a perfect job as well.

Black Tiger · « **Reply #7 on:** June 08, 2006, 06:52:44 PM »

Quote from: "ParanoiaDragon"

Cool. Is it just me, or do the bosses in the last level, actually use a good pseudo-transparent effect, or are they just flickering, & on the video maybe it looks like a better effect? Transparent effects are difficult on the Turbo, with Shapeshifter, probably having done the best in this regard. But it looks like Night Creatures did a perfect job as well.

Night Creatures uses a poor flicker effect and yes, the video blends it in nicely.

The nicest flickering transparency I can think of for PCE/TG, that I've seen, is probably the bg's in Vasteel fights.

With 30(ish)fps video, flicker effects will never get captured properly. Hopefully 60fps(or better?) videos will become standard soon enough.

Keranu · « **Reply #8 on:** June 08, 2006, 08:28:18 PM »

Haha, I just watched the video finally (I had it saved on my desktop for days and kept forgetting to watch it). What a wasted ending, eh? I love how the music didn't change at all even after you beat the final boss and it went into the ending, making you think that the game might not be over just yet. For some strange reason though, I kind of totally dig that ending at the same time.

Black Tiger · « **Reply #9 on:** June 10, 2006, 10:08:28 AM »

Alright, I've got video of the complete game divided into two parts, to make it easuer for people to download.

You can get each video from my homepage:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.com/

Or directly at:

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.com/nightcreatures1.avi

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.com/nightcreatures2.avi

Now, I also put these on youtube and although the picture quality isn't completely terrible, the audio is out of sync. So I recommended just downloading the higher quality clips that I'm hosting.

_joshuaTurbo · « **Reply #10 on:** June 10, 2006, 12:18:26 PM »

Never did conquer it, but I always thought it was pretty cool.

Allthough VERY frustrating!

TurboSage

_joshuaTurbo · « **Reply #11 on:** June 11, 2006, 03:47:22 AM »

had to post this.

After watching the whole run through, I found it funny that Glen Kirk's name came up in the credits as Lead Programmer.

http://www.metaplay.com/bios.htm

appears he works for this company Metaplay he's even gone on to work on better things after Night Creatures. Funny how they spelled TurboGraphix wrong on his BIO..

LOL

TurboSage

Keranu · « **Reply #12 on:** June 11, 2006, 08:43:58 AM »

Haha, good link find. I always love seeing stuff like that.

esteban · « **Reply #13 on:** June 15, 2006, 06:31:35 AM »

Turbo_Sage and Black_Tiger: Bravo!

I still haven't watched the video (I'm on my mac), but I will watch it soon

Keranu: Runin! That's right! I liked the stuff he and "Dark Fact" wrote. I never did figure out who Dark Fact was (it wasn't Sig, was it?)

Keranu · « **Reply #14 on:** June 15, 2006, 05:43:41 PM »

Haha, Runin was Dark Fact, man

. I always loved his writting as well; his Ys Book I & II review was one of the best reviews I have ever read

.