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Caliane

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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yeah, I watched mortismals dq 1/2 remake vid.

And I find the story changes to dq 1-3 unforgivable. I won't touch them.

dq 1 by modern standards is odd yeah. its more a kin to a puzzle game, then an RPG as we consider them these days.
 

Runnen

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,175
5,517
I've been playing the new Hyrule Warriors : Age of Imprisonment on Switch 2.

A brief summary of my experience with the franchise so far :

Hyrule Warriors : I didn't like it much, the story felt uninspired, the graphics felt very generic, and the central character was someone we didn't know that came out of nowhere, barely felt like Zelda really.

Hyrule Warriors : Age of Calamity : that one was a hyuuuge improvement, it used the same graphics style as BOTW and that was a welcome change. They decided to use this game to tell the story of what happened in the war that ended with Link in stasis for 100 years where he wakes up just as you begin BOTW which was a great idea, filling the gaps in the story we only got some glimpses from in BOTW. Great game.

Now, for Hyrule Warriors : Age of Imprisonment, I had some concerns at first when it was revealed :

- the game takes place in the distant past, 10000 years before current Hyrule era, where Zelda was sent back in time during the events of TOTK, as such the characters we are familiar with are completely absent and instead you were going to get a lot of moments with King Rauru, his sister Mineru, and Queen Sonia. Those are seen in TOTK but I wasn't really very involved in those characters in TOTK so I didn't know if they could carry a whole game like this.

- not a huge fan in TOTK of the Zonai devices / assembling devices and crafting stuff, was concerned this might be a big focus in this game too, but it's definitely not at all a focus, you can do stuff if you like though.

But I'm quite happy with how it turned out, those characters (Rauru and Mineru) have fun and cool gameplay, Zelda is the main character fittingly and she's also got very cool moves with time manipulation and light attacks. There's also a bunch of new characters not mentioned in the reveals or trailers, like a whole new set of racial champions for the Zora, Goron, Rito and Gerudo and I honestly thought they were cooler than the ones we got in BOTW/TOTK so that's pretty nice.

I've not finished the game yet though I'm pretty close, and so far the gameplay is "more of the same" compared to Age of Calamity so if you liked that game or if you like Dynasty Warriors type of gameplay, it should work for you.

They added ways to combo your super moves with other characters nearby, with different characters creating different attacks and I liked that a lot. I was worried they'd have an overabundance of Zonai devices for you to use as a big focus in fights but they're there, you can use them for some cool stuff, but you definitely don't HAVE to, I almost never used them because I prefered moves with my weapons most of the time but they're not annoying.

The story focuses on the time period where Zelda was sent back to the foundation of the kingdom of Hyrule, after the events at the start of TOTK, so that's another gap being filled by this side-game and I like this formula, with spinoff games as a complement to main line games for people who want more story and gameplay.

I'd recommend it.
 

Rajaah

Honorable Member
<Gold Donor>
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yeah, I watched mortismals dq 1/2 remake vid.

And I find the story changes to dq 1-3 unforgivable. I won't touch them.

dq 1 by modern standards is odd yeah. its more a kin to a puzzle game, then an RPG as we consider them these days.

Which story changes? I finished the new versions of DQ1 and 3. They mostly just added things rather than changed things, I think? Like all the faerie bullshit in DQ1. Most of the new additions kinda sucked (that one five-on-one fight with the knight boss and four skeletons was a real bitch to deal with and totally disrupted the flow of the game).

Hah that's funny. I just finished playing through the original Dragon Quest 1 on my retro handheld. I think it was the only Nintendo game I had for a while back in the day. I really enjoyed it. There's something about the simplicity of it that I like. I'd like to try the remake at some point and see how it compares.

I also like Dragon Quest 1. NES version, SNES version, even the Android version are fun. It can be finished in like 3-4 hours and I like how open world it is. Can pretty much go anywhere from the start if you're prepared. The UI is super dated in the NES version but other than that I like DQ1 a lot. DQ2 on the other hand I always found to be a slog and the low point of the first five (which are four of the best RPGs ever otherwise). So it has a lot of room to improve with the new version.

DragonQuest 1 and 2 2d-HD Remake.
DragonQuest 1 sucks. They did what they could to make it not suck but it still sucks. It will always suck. The only reason anyone played it in the first place was because there was nothing else on nintendo quite like it at the time. I was afraid it would suck before I purchased this and yes it does suck. Apparently 2 is much, much better if for no other reason than the multiple characters. I wanted to support this type of remake as there are many games that could benefit from it (Destiny of an Emperor and Inindo: Way of the Ninja for example) and I really enjoyed the DQ3 remake.

The new DQ1 seemed balanced for more than one character. It sucks how they pit you up against big squads of enemies. If they were going to drastically change DQ2 by adding a fourth party member, they might as well have added Gwaelin to your party in DQ1 for backup. The fights should have been kept one-on-one. I think this newest version of DQ1 might be my least favorite version of DQ1, which is funny because it's so much nicer than the others.

The new DQ3 last year also had some balance issues. If you didn't level at LEAST one Monster Wrangler during the game (two is better) for their Wild Side and multihit abilities, you were basically boned in the endgame and postgame. You also had to actually wrangle monsters, lots of them, to get the best MW abilities (which the endgame was balanced around). I didn't do any of this and mostly ignored the new class, so the endgame was brutal to the point of ridiculousness. King Hydra for example ended up being basically unwinnable due to his AOE status effects and HP regeneration. I'd end up inevitably status-locked at some point while he sat there regaining health. It was so damn stupid. A friend of mine meanwhile had leveled two Monster Wranglers during the game and had gotten all the monster collection abilities, and he steamrolled King Hydra at a lower level than I was.

DQ2 I've got no thoughts on yet having only played like 3 hours of it, but it's good that it gives you multiple party members. DQ1's new 1v5 fights were garbage. DQ2 could actually be great with some refinement so I have high hopes for it.
 
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