jplc.ca
He/Him. Born 1990. Sometimes I type things. Video game developer. Technical Animator at Ubisoft Toronto. Opinions are mine.
https://www.jplc.ca
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Agreed with the other replies, ship it
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"Noct, you gotta see this"
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It definitely has that Capcom polish. I haven't given the Mega Drive version much attention, to be honest, but I've always preferred the SNES version
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Cool. Thought it was worth an ask since sometimes Kirby gets skipped in Nintendo convos
Ok, so in terms of SNES platformers, some surprisingly good branded ones that spring to mind are Aladdin (Capcom) and Animaniacs (Konami)
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Does "big first party" include Kirby Super Star? Easily one of my favourite SNES games, and likely my favourite Kirby game
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It's interesting how Phantasy Star IV doesn't give you control over your party composition (or if it eventually does, I haven't hit that point yet). The plot dictates who's in the party, and people come and go as required. Most party-based RPGs get to the "this is where you can swap" part early
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There's a robot enemy in the Kuran dungeon called "C-Ray Tube"
I think there's a pretty high chance it was named after a cathode-ray tube
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To be fair, it being a Sega Genesis game, it's hard to tell if the green is fur or skin or scales, but I read it as fur. Mainly just to keep the Grinch idea alive
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An intentional design choice, or a coincidence?
If they start going off about a Christmas-equivalent, maybe that'll be the answer
Though Dezolisian party member Raja _is_ a priest, so, I mean, there's a religion connection right off the bat
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So the Dezolisians are green-furred snub-nosed cat/dog-like humanoids that live on an ice planet
They're all the Grinch
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Oh, and also:
- Showing TP costs for Techs outside of battle.
That one especially is a weird exclusion since there's plenty of screen real estate outside of battle to display Tech costs, but they just don't
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If Phantasy Star IV ever got re-released, I would say change nothing except for giving players more access to information. Specifically:
- Item, Tech, and Skill descriptions both inside and outside battle
- Showing max HP, TP, and Skill use values in-battle
- Showing equipment stats while shopping
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Well, I'm back at the start of Dezolis, which is the farthest I've ever been. I remember why I stopped last time: You get 2 new party members back to back with new Skills. It just became memory overload since there are no in-game Tech or Skill descriptions. Which is why I'm taking notes this time
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After Alys is gone, it's a neat touch that Chaz now says her "party leader" lines; sure, of course he'd say the lines now that he's the leader, but it also gives the impression that Chaz is following in his mentor's footsteps and using the knowledge she taught him. She lives on through him
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I use Obsidian for my notes. Since it's just a vault of text files (Markdown files, technically), I sync it between devices using my cloud storage of choice (in my case, OneDrive; on Android specifically, I use the OneSync app)
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*Sigh*
Goodbye, Alys
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A neat thing about the character sprites in Phantasy Star IV is that the walk cycles move at different speeds. E.g., Chaz has a "normal" stride, Rika's is a little faster, and Demi, being short, has a very fast stride so that she can keep up with the group. It's subtle, but a very effective detail
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squid game is not aspirational you absolute monsters
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Protag: Uh-oh, looks like I gotta squeeze through a tight crack again. Woe is me
Protag squeezes into the crack in the wall
Camera pans to the left to show a perfectly functional open door
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Yup, gonna be reliving the one on the left relatively soon
Alys, whyyyy, you were the best characterrrrr
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You're doing everything so fast, you can't stand taking a single moment to sit and think to yourself. What else is there? What are you saving time to even do? If you brush away the process of learning and growing and thinking what even is left?? Christ
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The most successful con pulled by capitalists has been framing art as “nonessential” as though they wouldn’t pass away from boredom without any books, TV, movies or artwork in their grubby little lives
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I imagine that occasionally the back teleport is followed by a gunshot- a single while line of pixels across the screen, which Lupita deflects with her rapier.
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Can you see this in your head: Fighting game sprites with Lupita jabbing forward again and again with her rapier, Zendaya barely moves but keeps doing little teleports backward and occasionally snaps her fingers which somehow does damage from a distance. Her hat stays down and you never see her eyes
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Like, that has to be intentional, right?
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It happened a while ago, but kinda ironic that Alys can learn the "Death" Skill considering, well, things are not looking too good for her future right now
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(Now that we're caught up, expect many unannounced time skips; this thread was mainly intended just to catch my thoughts as I played, but I got caught in the recap trap. Trying to right the ship here)
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So we're literally looking for a car called the "Land Rover"
Sega's legal team mayyyybe just let this one slide
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Well, looking at my notes, it seems I still have quite a bit of ground to cover between Tonoe and where I am now, so I'm gonna stop recapping and employ the classic Time Skip™ to get this thread current to my actual progress
So Zio has cursed Alys, she's out of the party, Chaz is looking for a cure
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The nearby Valley Maze (false advertising) leads the gang to the town of Tonoe, the Motavian settlement
See, humans are actually Parmesanians
Pomeranians?
Parmanians, since they come from ye olde planet Parma. Motavia's natural residents, by contrast, are cool blue-furred owlbear-lookin' people
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We hightail it out of Molcum and end up in Krup, Hahn's hometown. He's hesitant to visit, maybe because he doesn't want to see his disappointed father, maybe because he doesn't want Alys and company to see him all lovey-dovey with his fiancée, or maybe because he's wary of a notably rotund dog
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And yes, obviously, Alys is Misato, Chaz is Shinji, and Hahn is Pen Pen
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In the ruins of Molcum we meet Rune, a cool wizard who is the most Ryoji Kaji-lookin' dude you'll ever meet
Does it matter that Evangelion came out two years after Phantasy Star IV? Or that it's really only because they are both cool dudes with ponytails?
Who's to say