newtmonkey

Shin Megami Tensei I actually had got somewhat far into the PSX remake; it's a fine remake, but the fact that I was not playing the original version of the game kept bothering me, so here I am playing the SFC version. In comparison, the SFC version seems a bit harder at first, but I actually prefer how it looks and sounds compared with the PSX version. I only was able to play it for an hour or so, but I made some good progress into the game. I got through the intro, gathered the first two human companions, defeated a couple of bosses, and got a couple of demons to join. The human characters are actually quite powerful in combat, so I haven't even had to summon any demons so far. I'm enjoying it so far. Hopefully the negotiation/fusion stuff doesn't get too annoying, because I'd like to finally complete this one!

You don't remember this one back in the day because the game was released last year. Do you even read the stuff you post?

I like to think that the official title of this game outside of Japan is "Hey Punk! Are you Tuff E Nuff? Master the Moves to Master Me!"

Genre: Bubble Bobble clone Favorite in genre: Bubble Bobble

I completed reading through all the '93 issues of the mags I'm reading (Computer Game Review and Entertainment, Computer Gaming World, EGM, Electronic Games, PC Entertainment, GameFan, Nintendo Power, Gekkan PC Engine, and Super Play). Instead of providing my thoughts on all of these (most of them did not change much at all throughout '93, so my comments elsewhere in this thread stand), I'll just list my Top Three Gaming Mags of 1993 1. PC Entertainment This magazine really surprised me with its overall quality. The layout is very text heavy and could be described as dull (though they did end up jazzing it up a bit in a tasteful way), but the actual writing is far and away better than any other contemporary mag. The reviews are a pleasure to read, briefly and expertly summarizing the plot and overall mechanics before delving into what works and what doesn't. Reviews tended to be assigned to reviewers who actually like and understand games in that particular genre, and it's obvious that the reviewers all extensively played the game they reviewed. My only real complaint is that their "RPG" guy never really seemed to like RPGs, and really only seemed to get excited about the genre once the first-person action RPGs started coming out. Sadly, this mag only lasted until early '94... though it turns out there was some good news in mid '94! (See below) 2. EGM EGM peaked imo in 1994, but by mid-late '93 all the elements were in place: a great layout, nice screenshots, and massive holiday issues. I don't care for the review format, but I do think most of the review scores are quite honest; they had no problem ripping into a shitty game or praising a hidden gem. The writing improved a bit this year, though it doesn't matter much as this is not a mag you read for the commentary. It's still a ton of fun flipping through this mag today. 3. GameFan I knew going in that this magazine was much loved back in the day, but I was still pleasantly surprised. It's very amateurish but in a likeable way, and the page layouts and screens are even better than that of EGM! I love how these guys would just go bonkers over some random game no other magazine gave a shit about, like Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine on the Genesis or Cybermorph on the Jaguar. --- With that, I'm on to 1994, which sees the introduction of a new mag to read: PC Gamer This was my magazine of choice for PC gaming in the 90s, and I was looking forward to revisiting it. After reading the first '94 issue, I'm happy to report that the magazine has aged extremely well! It has great writing, and this is especially true of the excellent reviews written by critics who understand the genres they write about. It really reminded me of the excellent PC Entertainment and it even shares a lot of the staff from that mag... and I was not too surprised when the editor of the letters column mentioned that PC Gamer is in effect PC Entertainment under a different name. Now I'm really looking forward to reading more of this mag.

I've caught up on all the mags I'm reading and am nearing the end of 1993. It's been a lot of fun so far! Some thoughts: EGM The October '93 issue is basically the start of peak EGM. The layout is in place, the screenshots are awesome, and the writing is even decent at this point. This is the first issue where you get Major Mike reviewing games the main reviewers didn't bother to cover, and also the first issue where you get the awesome "Good/Bad/Ugly" box in the game previews. It's just such a fun magazine to read at this point. Computer Gaming World I'm getting increasingly annoyed with this mag! They expanded their reviews to two, sometimes three, pages, and it's all just a bunch of garbage. 90% of any given review just tells you the story and summarizes the screen (with lots of puns of "comedic" asides), so it just feels like a waste of space. The mag expanded in '93, but each issue has anywhere from 20-40 pages of wargame/sim coverage, so if you don't care about those genres, it's all a bunch of nonsense. As a fan of RPGs, I don't get the RPG reviews in this mag at all. Their adventure/RPG columnist, Scorpia, has several features each issue, including two different spoiler/hint columns... but even in her reviews she insists on outright spoiling the game out of nowhere. I'm not gonna get too upset about the ending of, I dunno, The Dark Queen of Krynn being spoiled, but why even do this in what is supposed to be a review? It's crazy. Why would the editors allow this? Electronic Games This mag has a great layout but is just awful. It's VG&CE part 2. The writing is excellent, but the reviews are absolutely awful. Every single game gets a review from 78% to 82%, regardless of quality, unless the game is major title, then it gets a score in the high 90s. The reviewers all write well, but have absolutely no taste at all, so some random garbage licensed platformer will get an 80% because the animation is cool and there's digitized voice. You simply cannot rely on these people for reviews. Nintendo Power An absolutely beautiful magazine with perfect screenshots all over the place and ridiculously thorough maps for whatever game they were pushing at the time, and fun comics too. Unfortunately, there's not much worth actually reading! Nintendo's own magazine was way behind the times when it came to future releases and import coverage, so it seems a bit quaint if you were reading EGM or whatever.

Tales of Phantasia The game definitely got a lot easier after the one massive difficulty spike where allowing the boss to get a single spell off was basically an instant game over, but I still find myself having to spam spells in some boss encounters; you just cannot let them get their spells off, because they do so much damage to your entire party. Having said that, the party has been getting more powerful simply by progressing through the game, so it's becoming less of a problem. There's a lot to like about this game. It's very linear, but there's some good exploration along the way with lots of stuff hidden out of the way, and I like how each character has his/her own way of learning new abilities. The main character learns sword techniques as he levels up, which you master through use, but can also learn special techniques from various trainers throughout the world; these special techniques combine two regular techniques, and you need to have mastered both techniques to use them. It's fun, because it's something you can realistically work on as you play the game, since it doesn't take too many uses to master each technique. You also have two wizards, and each has his/her own way to learn new spells; the summoner gains new spells at certain plot points, while the elf leans her spells from masters or just by finding spellbooks in bookcases, etc. It gives you a lot to do outside of just following the plot. Each town also seems to have its own optional side quest to do, and often it's just for fun. It reminds me a bit of Ultima VII in this respect, actually. Sometimes it's fun to just talk to the NPCs and solve their little problems not for any reward, but just because it seems like the right thing to do. I know that the fan translation of this game is infamous for its salty language and sexual content, so it was interesting to get to the infamous ship scene and see what the script actually says. It's probably been covered elsewhere, but the original script is very tame in comparison, and the fan translation is beyond Working Designs in its outrageousness. Why did the fan translators decide to sex it up so much? Very bizarre!

I'm in the middle of '93 for most of the mags, so some general comments: Computer Gaming World ('92) At first I really liked the quality of the writing in this mag (full sentences, no typos!), as well as the comprehensive coverage of PC games of all genres... but I have to admit that I just don't like most of the articles and reviews in this mag. The reviewers are too "cute" and are always trying to be witty but, imo, failing miserably. It's a bit tedious to get through most of the reviews, because you often have to skip anywhere from 1-3 paragraphs before the review starts, and then several paragraphs will be devoted to describing the screen to you in excruciating detail; crucial back when the mag didn't even have screenshots, but not in 1992! One perfect example is the review of Ultima VII by Charles Ardai, where he spends two entire paragraphs talking about how seven is an unlucky number, and how many people are avoiding Ultima VII because it's the seventh game in the series (huh????). This is after Scorpia fully reviewed the same game in the previous issue, so I don't understand the point of having yet another review. He also suggests that combat in U7 has a turn-based mode (it doesn't), so in other words it fails as a review because it doesn't even accurately describe how the game plays. He does spend a lot of the review describing the screen and praising the in-game speech, but doesn't actually review the game at all! Is it good? How is it compared with the previous game, or even compared with the back-to-back masterpieces of Ultima IV and Ultima V. I have to wonder if he played those games, or even completed U7! At some point in 1992, the mag dropped the fun Rumor Bag column (they seemed to get a LOT of complaint letters about this column)... though they did reinstate it later in the year. Reading these mags now, I definitely prefer PC Entertainment (from the Game Player's publisher) for PC game coverage. The writing is just much better, and I find myself reading each issue cover to cover, even when the mag is covering games in genres I really don't care about. EGM I just read through the June '93 issue (Mortal Kombat on the cover), and it was a very nostalgic read indeed! I was completely obsessed with MK around this time, so I remember reading the MK feature over and over. It's also just a cool issue overall at around 200 pages long, with lots of import coverage. This was definitely a high point for the mag, though it would get even better in '94 imo. Super Play I ended up mostly skimming through this mag. It's got great screenshots, awesome page layouts, and quality writing, but it's so jokey that I find it hard to take seriously. They are just throwing jokes at the wall to see what sticks, though it is sometimes very funny. The reviews are fine, but it's another case of 1-3 paragraphs of jokes and nonsense before the review actually begins. I did get a kick out of how much they (rightfully) flipped out over the fact that the Super FX chip was developed by a UK company. I think everyone knows this now, but I don't recall Nintendo Power mentioning this back in the day (though I might be wrong).

@Gamemoose I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the AVS! It's a great system. There is an option in the menu to select different color palettes, and I recall one of them being very close to my actual AV Famicom. It was added in a firmware update, so if it's not in your menu you might consider updating!

Tales of Phantasia I just got done with a pretty tough boss battle, at around 7 hours into the game. This guy seemed absolutely unbeatable at first (luckily there is a save point right outside his room). It's you against him (a powerful spellcaster) and his minions. He has two golems that are tough and do a lot of damage if you let them get near you, and also two little flying wizards that can teleport around and annoy you with somewhat strong spells. You also start the battle surprised and surrounded on both sides. Finally, the boss himself does insane melee damage, and can cast a powerful spell that hits everyone for hundreds of damage and is basically a game over. It took several tries, but I was finally able to take him down without needing to grind any levels or anything. I set my wizard to the "don't cast spells" setting, and manually had him cast his one spell on the boss over and over, since doing so interrupts his spellcasting. I set my healer to the "focus on healing" setting, and basically just hoped that she could keep up. Finally, I had the main character focus on taking down the minions with special attacks. That did it! It was cool that I could change my tactics and defeat the boss without needing to level, but it also revealed how annoying it can be to have to micromanage fights using this combat system. Anyway, we'll see how the rest of the game goes.

Gekkan PC Engine This was a Japanese magazine devoted solely to the PC Engine, and it's a decent one at that. I mentioned earlier in this topic the nice layouts, excellent screenshots, and surprisingly in-depth walkthroughs and strategy guides... but like with any mag, the more you read it, the more you start to find annoying. It was fun at first reading these cover to cover (skipping the extensive "lifestyle and hobby" section in the middle)... but I realized after a few issues that much of each issue is just bunch a filler content not worth reading. So many pages are devoted to previewing the same handful of games month after month and basically just telling you that the graphics are AWESOME!!!! or describing the screen to you and telling you what you do in the game ("fly to the right and shoot things!" "walk to the right and bop things!"). With that in mind, I've mostly just been flipping through these and only reading previews of games that never got released or otherwise just look interesting to me (mostly RPGs), and any interviews they have with game developers (very rare). I was also initially reading the reviews, too, but they are some of the worst out there. There is simply not enough space given for the reviewers to go into any detail, and nearly every game gets a 70-80% review from every single reviewer, with the "review" almost always being some variation of "cool characters, good graphics, good pacing, not too difficult." Cosmic Fantasy, which was released in an unfinished/broken state (half the items and spells do nothing, enemies and bosses don't use any special attacks or spells, etc.) gets a round of 70-80% reviews ("cool characters, good pacing, not too difficult")... but the straw that broke the camel's back for me was the round of 70-80% reviews for the complete garbage that is the PC Engine port of Golden Axe (laughably described by one of the reviewers as a "fine port"). One fascinating thing about this mag is that you can see the train wreck that was the development of Tengai Makyo ZIRIA happening in real-time. Early issues of the mag cover the first version of the game, which looked extremely impressive... and then one suddenly the game is some kind of action RPG... and then the very next month it turns out the developers scrapped that and and now the game is yet again completely different. At some point, it starts to look a lot closer to the disappointing game that was actually released... and then just a few months later it's finished and reviewed! That explains a LOT about that game!

I don't disagree that platformers and then fighting games became the dominant genre for the 16-bit consoles, but if companies were still releasing shmups and RPGs in 1992, then there was a market and fanbase for them. It's unprofessional and a disservice to the readers to not review the games on their merits, and if the reviewer in question doesn't "get" shmups, someone else who does should be reviewing them. The major US mags (EGM, Gamepro, Gamefan) at the time heaped a lot of praise on shmups and RPGs alike. It's a moot point anyway, because my impressions were only on the first couple of issues of Superplay. They improved a lot only a few issues in, and started assigning reviewers properly.

Tales of Phantasia I originally figured this would be your typical trivial 16-bit RPG to blast through, but I'm surprised to find that it's actually pretty involved. The dungeons so far are not massive but also not completely linear paths to bosses; in fact, there aren't many bosses so far, and your objective is usually just to get through a dungeon or find some item or character. It also has a pretty unique combat system, because it is basically just a single-character game, with that character being a sort of "tank" (to use MMORPG terminology) supported by the rest of the party. He is mostly there to soak up damage, take out the enemies, and protect the rest of the party. Although the combat is real-time and action-based, it has a real turn-based feel because you have to wait for the attack animation to finish before you can attack again. The combat is also heavily focused on interrupting animation, so you have to learn how each enemy attacks if you want to avoid damage. You get a bonus to evasion if you stand still, so that's another thing to keep in mind. So far, I am very impressed with this one! I didn't think I'd like the action combat, but it's great so far. It's basically the game I was hoping Star Ocean would be.

It's a sad fact of life that Discord is largely replacing forums. I have never understood the appeal of live chats with dozens of people, because there's no way to stay on topic. It's just chaos, and there's no way to discuss anything in depth. I know you can search Discord, but you still end up just tracking down threads of conversations throughout a bunch of memes and off topic nonsense. Of course, forums aren't really helping themselves here, since few forums seem to want to crack down on YouTube shills, people that just post meme gifs or link after link to YouTube with no discussion, trolls, etc.

Some more thoughts: Computer Gaming World I blasted through the '90 issues... there ended up being a LOT of stuff not worth reading imo this year, such as straight-up walkthroughs full of spoilers from Scorpia (adventures and RPGs) and "survey" articles that go on and on for pages simply summarizing a dozen games with a sentence or two. I also ended up skipping the pages upon pages of wargame and sim strategy guides, since I have zero interest in those genres. Scorpia has been given a regular column this year, in addition to her letters section and review of the month. I've complained before about how she would just drop a spoiler-filled mini walkthrough in the middle of her reviews, and she still does that (why would anyone want this???), but she's otherwise an excellent critic and writer, so I enjoyed reading her columns. Having said that, she seems hyper critical of RPGs at the time, criticizing them for not playing just like pen and paper games around the table with your friends. I really don't know what she was expecting, as computers are not even capable of doing this NOW never mind in 1990. She describes her ideal RPG in one column, and it sounds 100% like Baldur's Gate... which is hilarious, because she would somewhat infamously give that game an extremely negative (and bizarre) review years later. I must also mention the particularly awful reviews written by Charles Ardai. He is one of those reviewers who spends 90% of the review talking about anything other than the game, and then wrapping the review up with one of those wishy washy "it's okay, if you like this kind of game give it a try" paragraphs. Whenever I read any of his reviews, I end up with no idea whatsoever as to how the game plays or what it's about. Finally, although the mag thankfully got rid of Arnie Katz's bizarre video game column... they went and restarted the column again, just under a different writer (Roe Adams). If I want to read about the Sega Genesis in 1990, I'm reading EGM or something, not "Computer Gaming World." PC Entertainment I finished the '92 issues, and this magazine is just exceptional. It's got a really clean, professional layout, and the writing is excellent. Featured games will usually get 3-4 pages per review, while smaller games will get a single page. I'm so happy I discovered this mag recently... I would have loved it back in the day.