Also the easiest way to play the PSP version with the combat slowdown fix, which is essential.

I had to actually get my hands on it to find out what appeals. For me it was a combination of challenge, routine, and a clear sense of progression. Hunting materials for gear gave me clear milestones while I was also getting better at the combat at the same time in a more intangible way.

Monster Hunter World was the one I spent the most time in, and my favorite part was the multiplayer. Unfortunately, frustration with that is also what led me to eventually drop it. Co-op with a friend in that game was bizarrely restricted, with a really janky way of going through the story (I eventually figured out that it was just better to do the story independently). On top of that, the multiplayer had technical issues on PC at launch.

I hear that Wilds will have a similar setup for the main story co-op–outright bizarre for a AAA game releasing in freaking 2025–but here’s hoping it won’t have the other issues at least.

A welcome change, though I imagine the more savvy grifters have seen the writing on the wall for a while now with virtual credit cards becoming more popular. I put a freeze date on every single purchase I make that has a recurring subscription.

Forever ago, out of morbid curiosity. I do vaguely remember it being quite bizarre.

Loved these movies as a kid. Still one of the worst games I’ve ever played.

It should also be noted that playing on authentic hardware is an inherently destructive action. Parts wear out–especially on hardware with disc drives or fans–discs get scratched, cartridge contacts corrode, etc. On top of all this, goods get destroyed or lost in transit all the time even in the collector market. All of this is driving prices up.

If one wants to have an authentic experience, they still can, but they had better be prepared to pay a premium for it. People are already compromising on displays since CRTs are rare and/or cumbersome, and there are other compromise options like MiSTers and repro carts that aren’t just emulating on your home PC.

I don’t know how well it’s aged for a new player, but I found it very notable at the time for being dark, if not outright macabre, at times. We had very little of that in the 16-bit era.

Drawing from real-world locales and cultures was interesting, too. Ys is another series that does that to good effect.

The script was a little rough at times for sure, like plenty of the other localized games of its era, but I don’t remember it being especially bad. Terranigma was definitely worse, though, possibly due to not getting a North America release. Would love to see a project tackle that one.

It never occurred to me that a con would have this, so I appreciate you mentioning it. I’m gonna keep an eye out for it at my local cons. I’ve played a ton of riichi mahjong digitally but very, very little with real tiles.

What I’ve seen when looking back is a lot of the retro games aren’t in English. It’s not a big deal once you’re familiar with the game, but I definitely don’t recommend that approach for beginners. Not retro (yet), Yakuza 0 was the game that got me started with riichi mahjong. It has the added benefit of being a way to make a little money for other stuff in the game.

The current game I play is Mahjong Soul. Super friendly to beginners. It has a cosmetics-only gacha, and sexy anime girls is very much the trend in gacha these days.

Sid Meier and Firaxis in general are probably the only ones that have been consistently great for me over the years. I still think about Alpha Centauri a lot, and I’ve played so much Civ over the years. His studio’s XCOM games and Midnight Suns are all great, too.

Pretty much all the others I could name closed up shop or have declined in recent years.

They were that style of sprite derived from prerendered 3D art that was popular in the late 90’s/early 2000’s.

It’s unfortunately looking like ports of this game are going to come later.

Calling out the Jenis Academy stretch would be bold in the fandom, lol. I mostly agree with you though, I think that whole chapter was a low point for the series.

Sky SC in particular has some brutal pacing, so it’d be reassuring for the future remake if they shuffled up this game a bit.

Images in particular have been very slow for me lately.

You’re not getting it.

Racial segregation is rooted in legislative and legal process, and that is also the scope of free speech. It does not go beyond that to private communities.

Even if you hadn’t been snide in your reply, the mods could have taken a look at your comment history, quickly found the uncivil behavior there, and upheld the ban.

To paraphrase xkcd, free speech doesn’t shield you from consequences. The people listening found you unwelcome, and they are showing you the door.

The Cloudy Mountain one is more like classic Intellivision stuff. I think that one was well-received at the time, but I actually don’t often hear much chatter about Treasure of Tarmin. Tarmin being a first-person dungeon crawler gives it some legs since it’s an inherently “classic” style, although calling the graphics and controls dated would be a huge understatement.

Players are absolutely going to need the game manual, and even then some item use cases will have to be figured out.

I still play Treasure of Tarmin (Intellivision, 1983) on my phone from time to time. I don’t think the core gameplay loop would be entirely out of place in a small roguelite game today.

Yes. One of my moments is a certain event late in the game where the world map music changes after pounding the player with an oppressive atmosphere and some very low lows for a couple of hours. It’s amazing how well a 16-bit game was able to make it so cathartic.

It was a toss-up at the time but I’d argue FF7 has aged much more gracefully. Sure, you’ve still got the Lego figures and messy navigation on pre-rendered backdrops, but the battles still feel snappy and dynamic even with the low framerate. It isn’t a slog like FF8 and especially FF9 turned out to be when they started pushing the hardware.

Ocarina, meanwhile, has full-on 3D camera jank.

The biggest change is the visual redesign, which uses a brighter color palette and slightly more blended sprite designs to approximate how the original games would have looked on a CRT (along with miscellaneous small changes, such as a FF6 party member being redone to look closer to the concept art). They also all have new, optional soundtracks. Most notable is FF3, which is a full update of the Famicom version and doesn’t have any similar releases. The old DS 3D remake had different characters and a light story too, so the FF3 Pixel Remaster also has a completely new script for Western audiences.

I’ll emphasize what was brought up already–none of these have any content added in the various ports over the years. Extra dungeons, job classes, FF4’s late-game party change, all that isn’t here.

Some filters are better than others for certain tastes. The glow effect on CRT Royale is what gives me the nostalgia buzz, but it looks much better on 4K displays. On my 1080p displays I use a package that adds a bezel for the display to reflect off of which gives me a similar effect.

I’d rather have a native CRT display, but I’m used to larger displays at this point and I couldn’t physically handle anything even in the high 20 inches range.