The Gamer's Quarter

[dessgeega]

[a_plus]

ooh, a taaaaad expensiver than i'd like, but still cheaper than buying all the carts off ebay!

[dessgeega]

i've started playing nethack again for some reason. i generally prefer shiren because it's much more balanced and manageable (no need to worry about death resistance or fire resistance for example). the devteam throws injokes, monsters*, messages and effects into nethack WILLY-NILLY.**

that's what makes the game so wonderful, though.

* i actually encounted a creature i hadn't seen before, which i assume must have been added this newest version - a PYROLISK. it's a cockatrice that can set you on fire by looking at you. OH BOY!!

** things are easy to implement because, for example, a new enemy doesn't require graphics, animation, unique sound effects and all that. so ideas are implemented almost as soon as they're thought up.

i just lost a mighty valkyrie after coming so close to completing sokoban.*** on the last level, pushing the last boulder to the last hole, a pack of jackals was generated between the boulder and the hole. it was my last boulder - i'd pick-axed three on that level. in fact, i'd just destroyed one of the last two because they were stuck in a corner and there was no way to get both of them out. i'd killed a like-aligned unicorn, too****, because it'd been in the way, so now i was super unlucky. i marched in shame back down the stairs to the dungeons of doom and was ambushed and killed by a yeti on the bottom floor of sokoban.

*** i'd cleaned out all of the gnomish mines down to the outpost, too.

**** and a kitten :(

[LordGek]

[LordGek]

10 Days until Shiren DS hits the streets in Japan...any takers here?

[dessgeega]

i might import it!

or i might not!

i'd like to hear impressions before i make a decision. i'm worried they might have changed the game to be easier.
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[Pijaibros]

I really, REALLY want to buy this.

I am afraid that the language barrier will keep me from fully enjoying this. It does have quite excellent cover art, however!

Sega's publishing this, right? This gives me hope that there is a small chance of it making out here.

[Shapermc]

[LordGek]

Aha, but hope is usually not far off!

How I've gotten around this fun in the past is with COMPREHENSIVE Japanese FAQs translated through something like Bablefish. I had a real specific translator that I can't recall the link to right now but it was a good translator AND would show you both the Japanese and English simultaneously! Parts of the translation will always be rough and there is still a little guessing involved but it helped immensely.

Problems in this case would be NOBODY will have a comprehensive item FAQ in the first few days to week on this game so you'll initially only have FAQs for the initial SNES game (assuming they ARE out there still) to guide you incompletely at first.

[Shapermc]

Do you have any links? Alternatively, if you have one of your own I could possibly host it here.

Actually, if you have one of these that would make me buy it probably. I assume that mostly it would retain the translation from the SNES version.

Also, will you be able to use the WiFi features in the US?
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[LordGek]

Will post the link to the translator once I find it, no clue on SNES version FAQs in Japanese...just assume they exist as you can find great ones on most of teh rest of the Mysterious Dungeon games out there.

[Pijaibros]

The makes it playable, yes. I am only wishing for an English translation since I would be absolutely THRILLED to be able to play this on the road without the need to carry extra baggage with me.

Maybe with Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon doing pretty well (I don't have hard numbers to back this up, just a good ear) there is a chance of this arriving in 6 months.

If no stateside release ever comes, I will play this along with Mother 3 once that has a finished translation, too. On a flashcart, oh yes!

[LordGek]

Here is that Tranlator that served me well:

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/

(to see the English and Japanese simultaneously click on the right most "clickable circle thingy" and choose the second option in the pull down menu right there)

And if you want to see it in action, try it with this website about the items in Torneko 3:

http://www.chunsoft.co.jp/hint/torneco3/index.html

[LordGek]

Hmmmm...

While curious I do have one major FEAR. They mention they've made it a bit easier while still adding even some tougher and nastier creatures.

One REAL EASY WAY they could have made this game much easier is LOSE the level rest each time you die, like they did in Tornkeo 3 and the Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon games. I HOPE THIS IS NOT THE CASE! I love the level reset mechanic! Its harsh, to be sure, but it really gives you INCENTIVE to save your ass. Just being sent back to the beginning but AT your current level when you die would only serve to be tedious when nothing for the first several levels can even touch you.

I think I'll need to see if they wimped out on this mechanic before I try to import it.

[dessgeega]

[LordGek]

Whoa, no clue IF they did this!

The only thing I know is that did brag about trying to make it a little easier and it COULD be benign as simply their adding in a little tutorial/training dungeon and the ability to do the PMD like rescues, but no clue what else they've done to acheive this "easier/user friendly" status.

[dessgeega]

i meant, "they seriously did this in torneko 3 and pokemon mysterious dungeon?"
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[LordGek]

Oh yeah, that's true!

BUT in both of these titles (Torneko 3 and PMD) they DID at least provide a few "level resetting" dungeons at the end of the game. Possibly in an attempt to please EVERYBODY both of these games made challenging dungeons for folk to test their hyper levelled/equipped characters from the main game AND some dungeons where the characters' levels are reset to one and they either can only bring very limited amount of items or none at all.

So, even if, GOD FORBID, they cheaped out and lost the level reset mechanic in the main game/story mode, odds are it will at LEAST make a cameo in a few of the end dungeons (at least I certainly hope so).

Anbody here able to give a basic summation of the Famitsu review from last week? I can only hope it lost a few points BECAUSE its still very tough and nasty!

[ApM]

I'll probably do the yarr thing and prepare a report, for the benefit of the TGQ Import Squad.

[LordGek]

[Six]

I drew a helpful diagram of ApM as a swashbuckler/Mayor McCheese lookalike, but it was kind of freaky so I'm not going to post it.

[LordGek]

Well, dang, with THAT as a visual I think I'd understand his post much better.

[Six]

If you say so!

[Shapermc]

[Lackey]

Ha, no, it's excellent.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[ApM]

Six, that is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me. Seriously! Awesome. I appreciate that my head comes from Zany Golf, but really, you should have put this head on Guybrush Threepwod's body.

LordGek, "yarr" 'round these parts is a reference to good old fashioned software piracy. I believe the term was coined by the incomparable John Szczepaniak. Basically I will download Shiren when it comes out, put it on my magical DS flashcart, and see precisely how wonderful it is before I go to the trouble of actually purchasing it!

[LordGek]

[LordGek]

Well, I MADE THE LEAP OF FAITH and placed an order through www.play-asia.com ...but I'd still love to hear the Yarr Report ASAP if available beforehand (usually ships in a week but this is during the HIGH SEASON so who knows how long it will take now).

[dessgeega]

play-asia is shipping stupidly fast right now. i got a package two days after ordering it. (hong kong -> new york.) just go with whatever "i need my package by christmas" mode of shipping they recommend.
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[Shapermc]

Yes, I seriously can't recommend Play-Asia enough. Their customer support is top notch and their products are in excellent condition. If you're ever looking for something from there in the "used" department expect it to be in or near collectors quality unless the discription says cart only or something.

Anyways, I await a report!
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[LordGek]

I've shipped a few things from them in the past and agree, best prices and reliable shipping...just never put them to the ULTIMATE TEST like this in what is frankly the crappiest time to ship anything.

I just took their default bubblewrap shipping which, previously (before moving from Oregon back to California), was just under a week usually.

[Six]

[LordGek]

Enh, hard to say.

Asuka Shiren (as I call that DC and PC one) was an evolutionary step beyond the original SNES which beyond the standard "more of everything" (monsters, items, and partners), once you beat the main game's dungeon, at least on the PC version, some 25-30 new dungeons were opened up for you to explore all with very different parameters (some you could bring in equipment, others none, some had even weirder rules in effect like where you were permanently blind to all of the creatures...you could see their location on the mini map but not on the main map and never would know WHAT your were fighting other than possibly clues from their special attack messages, i.e. if you just got poisoned it must have been a viper that just hit you...).

This game sound like its supposed to be much truer to the original SNES game but now on a handheld, with a few new items and monsters, an optional touch screen interface, and supposedly easier (no idea HOW they hoped to achieve this but hope its not by dropping the whole "level reset when you die" mechanic).

So if you've played the english patched version of the SNES game you should have a damn good idea of what you're in for. FAQs will translate the items for you and you'll probably miss out on any of the specifics on the story...thankfully there is rarely any tricky dialoge in these games so knowing exactly what NPCs are saying isn't usually that important.

[LordGek]

Pretty twisted 15 second spot for the game:

http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=4954

[Sushi d]

hmmm.. its just like the SNES one with a few new things..

i havent really gotten any where outside of the first town because i've been doing fei's puzzles. in this one they let you take as many as you want before you head off.
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X_X

[dessgeega]

boo.
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[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

That commercial is fantastic. It seems to capture the Sega of old spirit for commercials like for the genesis.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[LordGek]

Unless dealing with a complete BSer (always a major risk for posts at www.gamefaqs.com) I had somebody WHININGLY confirm that dying in Shiren DS still resets your level and causes you to lose ALL your stuff!

Cool, they didn't NERF the main gameplay and I could see THIS being a big reason Famitsu just gave it a 34/40...who the HELL likes having their level reset everytime they die its SO NASTY...but what this game is all about, in my book.

[Fred]

A friend of mine who works for a games website just posted to his Facebook a photo of a review copy of Izuna that he received in the mail this week. I didn't believe it was really coming here until I saw that.

And, like I told him, why we're getting this and not Shiren continues to befuddle me.

[LordGek]

Enh, I'm convinced it goes back to the "level reset thing".

Few RPGers in America would get the point of a game THIS HARDCORE. Die and lose all of your items (no, not just drop for you to come back out and recover) and experience earned so far.

Name me ONE Commerical English game that did this AND made some decent sales?

[player 2]

If you discount the Sims then Diablo II is the most popular game in the world. Ever.

So. There.
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[LordGek]

Right, Diablo has the random dungeons BUT does it BOLDLY reset your level once you die?

Also the Diablo series always wimped out on me since you could INSTANTLY warp back to town at any point for an endless supply of healing potions.

Games like Shiren, just like Nethack, you need to scavange your way through and even when you do find the occasional shop, the supplies are very limited and pretty random (may not have anything that useful when you drop by).

[Fred]

The problem is that we have been spoiled by battery backup. Back in my day*, we played Metroid and we liked it! And when we would accidentally write down an underscore in our passwords instead of a hyphen, we started over, and liked it too! And then we got good at the game.

* yesterday

[dessgeega]

[ApM]

[dessgeega]

even shiren has more carry-over between "lives" than most western roguelikes.

most western roguelikes are free, though.
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[LordGek]

Yeah,

We Americans made some of the Best Roguleikes EVER (Nethack, ADOM, Moria) BUT I don't know of any COMMERCIAL PERMADEATH ROGUELIKES was my point there.

[LordGek]

[Scratchmonkey]