I'm rewatching this video today. While I don't like The Legend of Dragoon as much as you do, I really enjoy how you explain the history and story of this game.
Loved the NES version! When Ì first played, I ended up as a Paladin. Of course some of the I did, I had no idea it was bad, like killing non-evil enemies.
"The PlayStation and Sega Saturn released about a year after the 3DO came out, both at a fraction of the cost." Completely wrong. First of all, it was about two years after. The second part makes the embarrassingly common mistake of completely forgetting that price drops exist. By the time the PlayStation and Saturn launched, both the Panansonic and Goldstar 3DOs were $299, whereas the Saturn was $399, and the PlayStation was $299 but came without pack-in games, A/V cables, or save memory (all of which the Saturn and Panasonic and Goldstar 3DOs included), and so effectively cost $399 as well. (That "$299" is widely seen as a stunning blow against the competition has solidified my belief that the average gamer is a complete sucker.) In short, the Saturn and PlayStation were both *more* expensive than the 3DO. This was widely recognized at the time, too; read some vintage magazines and you'll see lots of references to the 3DO as the economic entry into the 32-bit market.
GREAT review - really accurate I too felt many times that the developers just hated us and wanted to make a 'game' that everyone would hate playing and quit in frustration. (it makes no sense) With over 800 hours in the Survival side, I would urge people to just go in that direction for The Long Dark and sort of pretend 'Wintermute' didn't happen.
I played like half of this game and quit. I just wasn't feeling it. My only memory was the billion of characters. Hadn't played trigger so all that crazy explanation you gave made absolutely no sense but was hilarious.
what, no mention of the melee attack of the blade launcher never overheating your suit? cmon man, that's what makes it an actually worthwhile weapon. anyways really great video!
Ziltoid reference? Quest 64 background music?? Maj, you really are the best. Sorry I was too ADHD to watch this video fresh, but I'm binging them now! Keep up the great work.
The Bonehoard is brilliant. We can argue execution, it's a 1990s video game. But the concept, heck no. Unfortunately, this would never fly today, except in an indie game. You touched on the horn, and the maze-like nature of the level, but you don't connect the dots. You are supposed to feel a little lost here. At one point even Garrett notes down a "WHERE AM I?" on his map himself. Then, you hear the horn... that's not but a horn. That's your goal! And you can navigate to its place by Thief's still high-end 3d sound propagation and sound. Navigating a level by sound is such a brilliant idea in itself. But in most of today's conveniently designed games, even that would never dared to happen. Just came from watching a Gamespot interview with Arkane how playtesters apparently wrecked, er "saved" Deathloop's most unique feature, which is the "breaking the loop" mystery and puzzle at the core of it. Which isn't a puzzle anymore in the final release of the game, of course. Just conveniently picking up notes and following markers. Shuffling from place to place. Kinda like one of those zombies down in the Bonehoard. Figures.
My favorite levels that I would frequently replay were the Hoth battle of course, but also the space battle levels and the Swoop race. I think it was largely the novelty of a 3D world that sold me. The space battles were still pretty novel for the time and the swoop race gave me the unique experience of a fairly well realized Mos Eisley you can explore, at least for the time and hardware.
Shadows of the Empire has the distinction for me of fully ruining several Star Wars music tracks by way over using them for some of the most difficult levels, so now I permanently associate those tracks with AVGN-level frustration.
Seeing a Tallarico cameo in a totally unrelated video from the four hour masterpiece he put out in December is a fun little detail. I mean, another great YT output from Tommy! His mother is very proud.
Discovering the world is round is kind of funny to see in a game. The only other game that I can think of that has the characters learn the world is round is Custom Robo on the GameCube. And that game first gaslights you to thinking it's flat too!
I don't understand why but this video is the perfect sleep material, no matter what this vid can put me to sleep like a baby even tho ive seen it a dozen time
Holy moly I always remembered playing Koudelka but I could never recall what it was called. I never finished it because I'd missed picking up the item for the last boss and there was no way to get back to the item, so I just gave up and never went back to it. Now 24 years later I get to see the endings.
I didn't hate the game but i didnt like it either. The idea of using protagonists that were affected by the previous cast actions was a good idea but it was horribly executed. To me it was fun and i enjoyed monster taming and building part but that was it.
I haven't seen a documentary in this field ckose as emersive as this series. I love the personal details about everything around the main topic. Thanks a lot!! ❤
Honestly if this story had (several) more writing passes, an editor to help, and much much more self awareness, the degeneration of Mike would be a fascinating if stomach-wrecking story. It would be as much about a person's tenuous grasp on reality and his own sense of self crumbling, as about the Dark World (which would be better thought out as well as more strongly symbolic). As we go along we realize everyone Mike demonizes and dismisses, from Slim to the Mayor, were mostly right about him and some were just trying to help. Then we actually care about Mike and his plight so that if he's finally destroyed (shades of Requiem for a Dream), we FEEL SOMETHING. Or, if he manages to overcome all that and save the day, it will MEAN SOMETHING. Though, admittedly, turning Mike around into a hero would itself be a heroic task.
Some say you have not experienced true comfy, ultimate comfy, incomprehensibly comfy comfy. Not until one has experienced the comfy that is Hitman comfy. Of course by some I just mean me but the absolute comfy of the point remains it's unheard of levels of purely untarnished comfy... **straightens tie** ... Such comfy. Good times.
Batman: Arkham Asylum, Tony Hawk Underground, Story of Season: Friends of Mineral Town, Mario 64 and Odyssey, Oblivion, Tekken, Half Life 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Vocaloid Picross game, and Just Cause 2. I can just sit down and relax playing any of them.
Isn't survival horror rooted in open world gameplay?.. Exploring the mansion in RE, exploring the town in SH. Both games required player exploration to progress. TEW2's open world areas are more linear than traditional survival horror games as you always have a navpoint showing where to go to progress the main story and there's nothing stopping you from going directly to that navpoint. Exploration, while certainly incentivised, is optional. I absolutely loved that they had all these optional areas that contained callbacks to the original game. They were really well done and it was really gratifying to have your choice to explore every building rewarded like that.
