-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Appreciation Thread: Alien Storm > Golden Axe
- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
Genesis Knight
Member
I played the cartridge version of Heavy Nova back when it first came out.
And I have a confession.
I had rented it from Blockbuster, and did not want to return it. For some reason I wanted to keep it. So I swapped the cart internals with Altered Beast, took out the capacitor, and put it back together. I told blockbuster it didn't work when I returned it.
What an idiot I was.
Genesis Knight
Member
Wow! That's intense, and for Heavy Nova? Some strange dedication.
Yeah I think the intro was just awesome or something like that. I don't know. There was something about that game at the time.
I think as kids we were just not as much as video game connoisseurs as we are now.
I was not a spoiled kid so I didn't have many games. Just buying the Genesis was from saving up lawn mowing money for awhile. I clearly remember paying out $200 (after taxes) for the Genesis at Service Merchandise. And seeing that thing roll down that huge conveyor belt with "Altered Beast" and "16-bit Power" written on it. Glorious.
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
some of the stuff came in another renovation game off the list only a couple left
Nice pickups! I wanna get Toki again, it being the 2nd game I had with my then new Sonic bundled Genesis. I remember discovering an exploit that let you literally skip a good chunk of the game with a few left to go afterwards. Let the game demos play and one in particular will do something unexpected. 
sixteen-bit
Member
series of awesome box art, lol
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Traysia.... what the hell?! I thought I knew of all the Genesis RPGs but I never heard of this in my life.
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
genesis has a bunch of unheard of gems
IrishNinja
Member
Rolling Thunder 2, shit yeah! i know i rented Cadash in the day, TG16 version looked better though
for real!
yeah this one was a first for me too!
for real!
Traysia.... what the hell?! I thought I knew of all the Genesis RPGs but I never heard of this in my life.
yeah this one was a first for me too!
A Black Falcon
Member
Traysia isn't a gem. http://www.gamefaqs.com/genesis/586560-traysia/critic
It is true that the Genesis has a lot of interesting little-known games, though. I agree on that point.
I know, that's the best collection of random box art I've ever seen!
PS. I can't believe I'd never tried it before, but I played an emulated version of Roadblasters... holy hell, that's literally the second best home port of the game (next to the Lynx version). Plays beautifully with the d-pad. Only thing it doesn't have is the speech
sixteen-bit
Member
Yeah TG/PCE version had a larger playable roster for parity with arcade IIRC
Points for having Mazin Saga Mutant Fighter. Games is tough as nails but it's a must play for any Genesis owner. Animations are fluid.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Hahaha ouch. That RPGamer review says:
That'd be inexcusable even in 1985, how did this happen in 1992? Haha, so weird.
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
time to collect some orbs oh wait just the rest of the genesis games that came still waiting on axelay and power blade
Armoured Priest
Member
If memory serves, Blades of Vengeance is a Euro style platformer. Mystical Fighter is a beat 'em up.
I liked Traysia
To be fair, I haven't played the game in 20 years. I did finish it, though. It only took me 4 days during summer break, so maybe a 20-30 hour game.
I always liked the idea of straight jRPG exploration and shopping, but the random battles having a Stratagy RPG bent to them
Hidden Gem RPGs for the Genesis? I think Sword of Vermillion gets unfairly crapped on, though I'll recognize its not for everyone (it was clunky in 1990, and downright archaic today...still a great soundtrack, though).
It always feels to me like Shining in the Darkness gets overlooked (dungeon crawler RPGS are also not everyone's cup of tea). If you do like them (dungeon crawlers) there's also a port of Might & Magic 2 for the Genesis that I seem to recall was decent.
I also, always like to through D&D Warriors of the Eternal Sun out there as well. It's a really difficult game to get started with, but its pretty fun
abuse the hell out of Entangle when you get that spell
Also, if you have the cash to get a copy I'd recommend Pier Solar or maybe one of the Super Fighter Team releases.
I'm not terribly fond of Beggar Prince, but I know people liked it. Pier Solar, I feel, compares favorably to 16-bit RPGs from the day and has some technical additions that are more modern (the use of flash memory instead of battery back-up for example to facilitate effectively being able to save anywhere).
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
its pretty cool it only has minor rpg elements though but still fun
A Black Falcon
Member
Blades of Vengeance is a fantastic side-scrolling action-platformer. It might be my favorite Genesis game published by EA. (The developers were Australian, by the way.) The combat system requires some thought, and it even has two player co-op!
I haven't played some of those, but yeah, Pier Solar is good. Shining in the Darkness is alright too, though it's basically 100% grind. And yeah, Sword of Vermillion is very clunky, but not that bad.
For other Genesis RPGs, I also have The Fairy Tale Adventure; it's not that great, don't get it. Plus it has INSANELY long passwords for saving. On the other hand, it isn't an RPG, but TechnoClash is a pretty interesting, and good, game... it's really a top-down action game, but it has depth to it for sure.
The best "Genesis" RPGs are on the Sega CD, though -- Lunar 2 and Popful Mail are better than anything on the Genesis.
If memory serves, Blades of Vengeance is a Euro style platformer. Mystical Fighter is a beat 'em up.
I liked Traysia
To be fair, I haven't played the game in 20 years. I did finish it, though. It only took me 4 days during summer break, so maybe a 20-30 hour game.
I always liked the idea of straight jRPG exploration and shopping, but the random battles having a Stratagy RPG bent to them
Hidden Gem RPGs for the Genesis? I think Sword of Vermillion gets unfairly crapped on, though I'll recognize its not for everyone (it was clunky in 1990, and downright archaic today...still a great soundtrack, though).
It always feels to me like Shining in the Darkness gets overlooked (dungeon crawler RPGS are also not everyone's cup of tea). If you do like them (dungeon crawlers) there's also a port of Might & Magic 2 for the Genesis that I seem to recall was decent.
I also, always like to through D&D Warriors of the Eternal Sun out there as well. It's a really difficult game to get started with, but its pretty funabuse the hell out of Entangle when you get that spell
Also, if you have the cash to get a copy I'd recommend Pier Solar or maybe one of the Super Fighter Team releases.
I'm not terribly fond of Beggar Prince, but I know people liked it. Pier Solar, I feel, compares favorably to 16-bit RPGs from the day and has some technical additions that are more modern (the use of flash memory instead of battery back-up for example to facilitate effectively being able to save anywhere).
I haven't played some of those, but yeah, Pier Solar is good. Shining in the Darkness is alright too, though it's basically 100% grind. And yeah, Sword of Vermillion is very clunky, but not that bad.
For other Genesis RPGs, I also have The Fairy Tale Adventure; it's not that great, don't get it. Plus it has INSANELY long passwords for saving. On the other hand, it isn't an RPG, but TechnoClash is a pretty interesting, and good, game... it's really a top-down action game, but it has depth to it for sure.
The best "Genesis" RPGs are on the Sega CD, though -- Lunar 2 and Popful Mail are better than anything on the Genesis.
Bullshit, really?
Beam?
Had no idea!
Actually, maybe I did... I know I didn't buy it for that reason because it was a gift from my brother for Christmas (he went and bought three games in November, then decided it's probably easiest to wrap them up and give them to me a month later, lolz) but it sounds familiar.
Cool!
Edit: Aren't Story of Thor and Landstalker considered RPGs as well? I'm vague on the whole classification of RPGs in the first place (I've always been sketchy in that department) but was always lead to believe they were default RPGs everyone recommended for the platform.
Edit #2: Yup, was Beam. Surprised it's your favourite EA game though, they did so many great releases on there... like Road Rash (except for 3), Skitchin', the Strike series, FIFA, General Chaos and Lotus/II.
Fun fact: Jeff van Dyck, who did the music for FIFA and Skitchin' is now a part of Witch Beam Software, working on an amazing twin-sticker called Assault Android Cactus
A Black Falcon
Member
I love fantasy stuff, and of EA's fantasy-themed platformers on the Genesis, Blades of Vengeance is easily the best one. Risky Woods and Galahad are also alright, but aren't quite as good, while everyone knows how the other two turned out... (Dark Castle and Sword of Sodan) Blades of Vengeance has great music, too -- much better than most Genesis games have. It's reasonably long, requires skill, is full of secrets to find, two player co-op, good graphics... really good game.Bullshit, really?
Beam?
Had no idea!
Actually, maybe I did... I know I didn't buy it for that reason because it was a gift from my brother for Christmas (he went and bought three games in November, then decided it's probably easiest to wrap them up and give them to me a month later, lolz) but it sounds familiar.
Cool!
[...]
Edit #2: Yup, was Beam. Surprised it's your favourite EA game though, they did so many great releases on there... like Road Rash (except for 3), Skitchin', the Strike series, FIFA, General Chaos and Lotus/II.
Fun fact: Jeff van Dyck, who did the music for FIFA and Skitchin' is now a part of Witch Beam Software, working on an amazing twin-sticker called Assault Android Cactus
As for other EA games, they released a lot of Genesis games, but Blades of Vengeance is my favorite one. I don't like the Genesis Road Rash games much. The framerates are awful and the games frustrating. Unlike just about everyone, I think that Road Rash 3D on the PS1 is actually my favorite game in the series, it's more of a standard racing game than the rest. Lotus 1 and 2 are good, but aren't nearly as good as the Top Gear games on SNES, which are from the same developer but have better graphics, better sound, sound and music at the same time, etc. Strike... eh, never got into those at all. I've never found the 4th gen ones interesting enough to get anywhere near finishing a whole map. I do like the 5th gen Strike games more, though -- Soviet, Nuclear, and Future Cop LAPD (sort of a strike game) are good, but those aren't Genesis games of course. General Chaos is a good game, but it's quite short unless you're playing it multiplayer. Fatal Rewind and Haunting starring Polterguy are good fun games too. So is James Pond (I have all three of them, but even though it's the simplest I think I like the first one most...). Etc etc, EA released a lot of Genesis games. Oh, Battle Squadron and Mario Andretti Racing are a couple more of their weakest releases. Those are not good.
As for EA Sports, I don't care much about most of them, but do have a couple of the hockey games. They're decent fun.
Yeah, Landstalker, Beyond Oasis, and Crusader of Centy are action-RPGs, or at least RPG-ish action-adventure games in the Zelda vein. All three are definitely very good games.
Well, I think you managed to successfully address everything in my post without sounding at all like a dick. Colour me impressed AND thankful!
Oh, I almost forgot about Battle Squadron. I kinda liked that game, along with some of the other Amiga games that were ported to the MD. If nothing else, the MD was great for those of us who wanted to play Amiga and Amiga-style games. From what I can/could tell, the SNES didn't seem to have as many of those (if you know what I mean... the most common Amiga games have a very distinct feel to them in terms of style, playability, longevity etc.).
Oh, I almost forgot about Battle Squadron. I kinda liked that game, along with some of the other Amiga games that were ported to the MD. If nothing else, the MD was great for those of us who wanted to play Amiga and Amiga-style games. From what I can/could tell, the SNES didn't seem to have as many of those (if you know what I mean... the most common Amiga games have a very distinct feel to them in terms of style, playability, longevity etc.).
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Interesting. Gonna have to check it out, thanks for the rec's. I also had only heard the name Pier Solar before but I know nothing about that game. What's it like?
Now this I disagree with. I like Popful Mail, but nothing beats Shining Force II and Phantasy Star IV in terms of RPG, and for action/adventure/RPG types I prefer Beyond Oasis and Wonder Boy 3 / Monster World 5.
I feel like Shining in the Darkness gets overlooked whenever people talk about great Genesis RPGs. I couldn't put that one down, and I normally hate dungeon crawlers.
Traysia...ugh. I bought that game sight unseen and must have started it about a dozen times over the course of four or so years before I just accepted that I would never get into it.
Traysia...ugh. I bought that game sight unseen and must have started it about a dozen times over the course of four or so years before I just accepted that I would never get into it.
Lord British
Member
Can vouch for Blades of Vengeance. A lovely surprise, it was.
A Black Falcon
Member
The SNES has some European-style games -- Gods, Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, Super James Pond, First Samurai, Soldiers of Fortune, Super Turrican 1 and 2, and more -- but yeah, the Genesis probably does have more, you're probably right. It's probably because the Genesis did better in the UK, which is where a lot of the European console games then came from, so they released more games for that system. Also Sega's licensing fees were lower, and EA released a bunch of computer-to-Genesis ports, but nothing of the sort on SNES.
Battle Squadron, though... ugh. The graphics are alright (very Euro-style, but that's not bad), but the gameplay isn't. It's brutally hard, no fun, and very frustrating. Sure it has two player co-op, but that just lets two people suffer together.
Pier Solar is a homebrew game released a few years ago. It's a very well-made game and really is as good as most Japanese-style RPGs released on the actual 4th gen consoles. Some ports of the game are in development, for Dreamcast and current-gen consoles though, so the full-price Genesis release soon won't be the only way to play it. I don't regret getting it for Genesis, though.
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue is easily my favorite JRPG of the 4th generation, never mind just the Genesis and its addons. Incredible game. Phantasy Star... I have PS II and IV, but they just don't hold my interest. The games are too tediously grindey, II particularly, and the stories are too depressing!
As for action/adventure/RPGs, Popful Mail is a side-scrolling one, so it's a different kind of thing from Beyond Oasis, really. Wonder Boy in Monster World is a fantastic game though, yeah, but I think Popful Mail is even better. I do think the Monster World series is great though. Love all four of them, which is kind of interesting, considering that I've never much liked the original Wonder Boy or its Adventure Island spinoff series...
As for Shining Force, I guess they are RPGs, but I've always thought of those games as being more strategy games than RPG. Even if you count them though, Lunar 2 is still better.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Ooooh right, that thing. I didn't know they were making ports, though. LOL @ Dreamcast port... for fuck's sake guys, put it on Steam or something. My Genesis is broken, dammit.
You really should revisit PSIV. PS II is very grindy and tedious, I gave up on it, but PS IV is very streamlined and not at all grindy. I wouldn't call the story depressing either, though it does have some tragic moments.
I admit I didn't play Lunar 2, only the first one for a bit, but I was slightly underwhelmed by Lunar SSS. I'm sure I'll disagree anyway, though, since ShF2 is one of my all-time favourites.
Armoured Priest
Member
Ooooh right, that thing. I didn't know they were making ports, though. LOL @ Dreamcast port... for fuck's sake guys, put it on Steam or something. My Genesis is broken, dammit.
You really should revisit PSIV. PS II is very grindy and tedious, I gave up on it, but PS IV is very streamlined and not at all grindy. I wouldn't call the story depressing either, though it does have some tragic moments.
I admit I didn't play Lunar 2, only the first one for a bit, but I was slightly underwhelmed by Lunar SSS. I'm sure I'll disagree anyway, though, since ShF2 is one of my all-time favourites.
Yeah, Black Falcon, I'll second giving PS IV another shot, it really isn't that grindy. I'm with you PS II. I finished once back on the Genesis 20 years ago (I want to say 93), and it was rough. I've played through PS IV multiple times, and much more recently (I think the last time was like 2002). Its like a 25 hour game, and that's doing all the side quests. There's the beginning run of grinding and a section about 3/4 of the of the way towards the end where its helpful to spend about an hour and a half grinding. That's about it otherwise, the rest you can generally get by fighting on your way.
I'll agree with you though, the best reason to own a Sega CD was for the RPGs. Lunar 2 is also one of my favorites from that era (though, yes, I do also love Shining Force and SF 2).
I guess the main one I dislike the most was Sorcerer's kingdom. Man I've tried that game multiple times, but I always give up. Just some things about how the game play works in that one pisses me off (I have a group...you're telling me all the monsters get to go, and only one of my dudes get to go? That is BS). I like the idea of non-linear leveling, and I even think this game does it better then Final Fantasy II (NES) did...still is broken, though.
IrishNinja
Member
did you guys see this? Mega-Amp, the universal Genesis audio circuit
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
I beat PS4 countless times and you can do the game without grinding without any real problems. Nasar might help against
but it's not mandatory.
Lassic/Lashiec
So...what would this do for a " Good sound Model 1"? Noticed the post said
"you will experience either the sound of a VA0 MegaDrive Model 1 or the full spectrum of the Genesis' sound hardware."
Or does it just mean that the VA0 Model 1 = full spectrum of genesis sound hardware?
IrishNinja
Member
yeah, that was the same conclusion i came to as well, might ask on that thread if i don't see a relevant reply soon. thanks to televators i have a non-TMSS model 1, and haven't yet heard better sound on a genny than that.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
The #1 reason why PSIV is one of my favorite RPGs of all-time is its lightning fast pace in almost every facet (fast battle animations, fast map transitions, fast cutscenes, attack macros, a competent starting party, an appropriate EXP curve, instant death spells that actually work as long as you know which kinds to use on which targets, etc).
As long as you grab the important equipment upgrades, you can just take a straight b-line though the game without ever stopping in one spot to level up. I once made a romhack that cut the EXP/MST gain in half, and even then I only had to power-level for 3 boss fights in the whole game.
It's pretty far from a "grindy" RPG.
Old playlist I made of a low-level PSIV run.
As long as you grab the important equipment upgrades, you can just take a straight b-line though the game without ever stopping in one spot to level up. I once made a romhack that cut the EXP/MST gain in half, and even then I only had to power-level for 3 boss fights in the whole game.
It's pretty far from a "grindy" RPG.
Old playlist I made of a low-level PSIV run.
Rygar 8 Bit
Jaguar 64-bit
bought battlemaster looks clunky but kinda fun
Ommadawnyawn
Neo Member
MD/MCD Box art gallery (for your viewing pleasure):
https://plus.google.com/photos/110507989581185950715/albums/5874870024545363633
https://plus.google.com/photos/110507989581185950715/albums/5874870024545363633
How long does/would a first-time run take of PSIV? With all the talk about it, I'd love to tackle it... I've never played a full-on RPG on a 16-bit console before.
I love the way Google+ tiles picture galleries. That would actually make a good wallpaper with all the games sorted like that.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
It's tough to say. For those who already know exactly what they're doing, it's roughly a 10-hour game, but for a first-timer I'd expect it to be twice that at the very least.
My basic advice for someone new to the game would be:
- Learn the naming conventions for techs/magic, such as common prefixes and suffixes. You can always consult a list of course, but there's often a rhyme and reason in the names of techs that share similar effects.
- Learn how to macro efficiently. The most significant benefit of this is an easy way to set up team attacks. (Triblaster, Firestorm, and Blizzard are useful against large enemy parties in the early game. Grandcross is useful in the late game.) A secondary benefit is the ability to strategically revive and heal party members who need it the most at that very moment. And it can just speed up battles in general.
- Remember which classes of instant death spells are effective on which enemies. (Spark on machines. Holyword on darkspawn. Brose on nothing. The others are more or less general-purpose.)
- Generally, you should conserve at least half of your TP for bosses and use the rest throughout the dungeons. There is rarely a reason to conserve multi-target skills for bosses, so use those in dungeons liberally when confronted with bothersome enemy parties.
- There are four specific sidequests that you shouldn't miss (names only, listed in chronological order):
Dezolis Mysterious Valley, Dezolis Climate Center, Silver Soldier, and the Anger Tower.
- If you haven't missed any important gear, the game can be beaten easily enough at level
40
sixteen-bit
Member
<3 Technosoft music
http://youtu.be/brXe66mLbrk
http://youtu.be/brXe66mLbrk
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Another PS IV tip I would add: use Deban and Barrier liberally against bosses. Makes all the difference in the world.
Gamepro TV review of Heavy Nova
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx1VHSJKD7U#t=314
Watching this stuff borders on cringe inducing and pure unadulterated nostalgia.
Good to see bullshit review scores have always existed. But I think gamepro really set the standard here.
Shadow Hog
Member
Gotta say, cancelled game Ratchet & Bolt sounds like it would've been quite ambitious. Shame they chose the 32X of all consoles to develop it for; could've made an okay Saturn game.
IrishNinja
Member
...so what's a good price for CIB Snatcher these days
Shadow Hog
Member
Last I checked, it was $250-300 CIB, but that was from a very small sample of eBay auctions.
Honestly, I would also like to know. I've got this Sega CD, might as well get some of the better titles for it. (I mean, no huge rush, Skyrim is goddamn addictive, but still, later down the road...)
IrishNinja
Member
...and of course i ask right as one goes up on ebay for $175...damn that's not a bad price, i just cant justify it at the moment! gonna be hard to find one that beats that later is my concern here