Retro game recommendation thread

The_Liquid_Laser

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The_Liquid_Laser on 10 March 2022

Spindel said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Your tastes are not actually as niche as you think. Original Metroid was the best selling 2D Metroid for decades until the recent release of Metroid Dread. Also, Metroid Dread just barely outsold it will a much higher user base.

Your tastes aren't niche, but the internet perception of Metroid is screwed up.

I refer to my preferred games more in general even if original Metroid is a good example.

I wan't hard games, games where you can get lost (like original Metroid). And where, if you don't memorize, you might have to pull out pen and paper to write down clues or the map by yourself.

Most modern games are way to heavy with the handholding. Or they implement poor mechanics to make them "hard" (yeah Souls games are not hard because of good design but because of clunky design).

Another prime example is Elder Scrolls, I loved Morrowind to death when it came out. Then when I finally got to play Skyrim (some 6 years after it's initial release, never played Oblivion) I was sourly disappointed. Arrows to all your missions, so you can't get lost, enemies that scale so you basically can't by misstake wonder into an area and get crushed into pulp. No real sense of progression since all enemies basically always are as easy/difficult to kill etc.

Yeah, I agree with this, especially wanting to get lost. I like that feeling. It makes the game seem more challenging. I got this feeling in NES Metroid, and I also got this feeling in early dungeon crawlers like Wizardry. I rarely got out pen and paper, but that was just my playstyle. It was kind of cool that a person could pick how to overcome this challenge. Some made maps. I just would go over the territory over and over until I memorized it.

Of course, in both games I mentioned there were pits where you could fall and then have to fight your way out (or die). This also added to the challenge and was a unique "oh shit" moment that you just can't get today. Like, "this game was hard enough when I could progress carefully, and now I'm in deeper than I want to be." If you can make your way out of that situation, then you feel awesome.

Of course all of this makes me think of Elden Ring right now. I remember tons of "hardcore gamers" complaining about how hard Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were when they were fairly new games. Now Elden Ring is showing this type of game can be super popular. It may be a situation of some players not really knowing what they want. They complain about the challenge, but the truth is that tough challenges actually make a game better. The players just need to git gud.

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Illusion

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Illusion on 17 April 2022

SegaHeart said:

Edited above macbeth sorry

Shadows of the Empire Ord junkyard n64

Scary boss intro ord junkyard IG 88

Thanks for the memories of SF64.

I recently beat SotE on Hard mode and all challenge points using the original hardware. Hard mode is more difficult than Jedi because your blaster's effectiveness is dramatically curtailed. Honestly, at that difficulty level Xizor's Palace (specifically the three stage final boss Gladiator Droid) was one of the hardest things I ever accomplished in gaming. I actually had to redo my save file from the beginning to build up more lives because I just couldn't beat the boss with 4 lives. I ultimately went into the boss fight with 10 lives and came out with 2 or 3 left. There are speedruns on Youtube on Jedi mode, but frankly that is way easier than Hard mode since your blaster is so insanely effective. I haven't seen anybody beat this boss on hard and I don't know how to do it without a massive life count and just getting brutalized.

I would love to see a pro take on Xizor's Palace with only losing 1-2 lives on Hard. I would have a lot of respect for that because I spent a month practicing that level for an hour per day and I honestly couldn't find any good solution for that boss on Hard. Stage 1 had a trick that made it really easy to beat (walk behind the boss and shoot) and Stage 2 has a semi-useful technique (stand directly under and shoot but you will still sometimes get hit). That said, the third stage was a complete slaughter-fest and I know of no way to beat it without taking catastrophic damage. Generally, I lost no lives on the first stage, I would lose 1-3 on the second stage depending on how lucky I am with positioning under the droid, the third stage would generally wipe me out though, I would lose at least 6-7 lives here even at my best.