One of the coolest things I discovered is that once you help the photographer back to your car, the game will bring you back to the start of the area, but I went back to check on him before having gone any further. Now, at this point, I hadn't been attacked by any monster, but Mara described the guy's symptoms when asking him how he felt, and told him she had been attacked by one too. I thought that was some sloppy mistake on the devs' part, that they had expected me to have encountered an enemy before speaking to him.... but, as the plot progresses... it became more clear that Mara did know what was going on, even if I didn't.
I had taken damage before making it to the twist, so I didn't notice that, but did notice how later in the game Mara would describe certain rides as "being fun before." Or at least implying that she has seen or experienced certain stuff before. I had been checking in on the photo guy often since I got an achievement for helping him.
Also one very cool detail to add to this is that if you notice very closely, even at full health, Mara can start randomly bleeding or have blood on her dress at times even if you arent injured ... this is because of the wounds that we found out she always had and that never healed.
Y’all I just learned that the SFB in SFB Games stands for Super Flash Bros, and it’s the same guys who made stuff like the Decline of Video Gaming series on Newgrounds in like 2004, this blew my mind wide open
Exactly! To me, graphics have always been a means to an end -- one size does not always fit all, and in many cases, "uglier" graphics can heighten the mood of a game
@@niclaswa5408 if it’s like cartoon NitroRad and the cereal has a bunch of references to horror games, I’d be down with that phrase, lol(if we base it off of an actual oops all berries box)
The benefit of a simplified art style is not letting the important parts get lost in the detail and force players to pixel hunt through the noise. And crow country understood that beautifully
I never truly liked the hyper realistic horror games, don't get me wrong, sometimes it does gives a more realistic experience and that is good on itself, but there , is something about the unpolished graphics, the outlandish designs, the weirdness that takes you to a space in your mind that is akin of an nightmare, so unfamiliar yet familiar, so strange and unknown , and isn't the unknown the scariest thing there to fear? Hell yeah.
@@anonymousoff-brand7538 I guess this is why the first Silent Hill is still regarded as the best and if not one of the best in the series. It does nails the eerie feeling without the need of hyper realistic graphics. When you remain ignorant of how the danger looks like until you do see it everything feels scary, even more so when you can't quite figure it out completely. That and the use of the radio still is one of the best features in Survival Horror.
It's the kind of fear you see in ghost children or Romero style zombies, where you're looking at something familar and human to you, yet there's something off about its appearance that twists your belief of what is normal and causes you to be constantly on guard.
I really dig the ps1 aesthetic that this game goes for, especially with the cutesy art style the devs are known for. It’s like they added some of their touch to an old school horror game. An abandoned amusement park also adds to that cutesy visual style, like making two fun and innocent looking things spooky
It just occurred to me…@NitroRad , you should try FEAR AND HUNGER. Those are intense, difficult rpgs with cryptic stories, twisted characters and monsters, and a RIDICULOUS amount of details. Seems up your alley
On the one hand, I reckon he'd resonate with it. At least to an extent, since I don't know if James is big into Berserk, since Fear & Hunger has a LOT of Berserk to it. On the other hand, I suspect certain themes might turn him off of it. Especially considering the Guards in the first game, who are such a grim enemy that Super Eyepatch Wolf had to not only apply pixelation to footage of them, but also had to cut an entire section of his initial upload. I still remember the "party" from the initial upload, but now it's replaced with a black screen that says "if you are seeing this, we did not have a ***** party".
As someone who loves horror plots but hates the stress of survival in horror games, exploration mode is a dream come true. Finally, a horror game where I can be creeped out and explore a spooky story without constantly fearing that I'm going to get killed. I'll take a game where I have to not die, or a game where everything is spooky. Both is too much cortisol in my body.
I haven't tried it but have heard from those who have that the story beat (dialogue, memos/logs and stuff) takes a more appropriate tone for the gamemode akin to being a reporter figuring out the aftermath of a situation rather than being actively involved within the investigation shooting hordes which I think is a nice touch and after I complete the new hard mode (waiting until it's not fresh on my mind, though that's hard cause everyones been raving about this game lol) I think it's worth trying on exploration mode as someone who thought that their wasn't enough survival lol.
This is exactly why I struggled to play any horror games despite following reviews and walkthroughs for almost a decade, and I'm a scaredy cat who still sleeps with a light on at night! I completed my first survival horror games, RE2 and 3 remakes, by buying dlc weapons and looking up puzzle solutions online. Yes the infinite weapons make the enemies super easy, but I only used them as a last resort when my regular weapons are spent or save ammo against the stronger enemies. They still scared me so much when onscreen, plus backtracking without fast travel is something even veteran players like NitroRad hate. Having that moment of relief after enemies are dead, or looking up the answer to a frustrating puzzle, is something I needed to convince myself "I can do this, there is hope for me completing the game!"
This game is absolutely incredible. I agree that it is *the* perfect introduction to the horror genre at large in that it's just creepy enough to be unsettling, but not overly petrifying to where newcomers to the genre won't wanna continue. Give this a look if you haven't!
15:49 I feel like the reason for this is that it never wants you actually running out altogether. I'd bet it provides resources based on how many you use. When I played, I avoided most enemies and rarely used my ammo for most of the game and all the trash/vending machines were empty through almost the whole game. Almost every box was empty too.
On survival horror difficulty, vending machines are guaranteed to give you a grenade after kicking it 10 times. I was able to cheese a lot of fights for most of my first play through since I basically had infinite grenades after finding that out lol
I love your big projects but also these smaller videos are great in their own way. Anything to get the algorithm on your side. Your passion comes through either way. Your channel deserves over 1 million views every video
I 100% this game and it is probably my favorite game so far this year! Been running the new hard mode and it adds a nice challenge. Helps really limit the ammo and resources to where your not overloaded like I was on my first couple of playthroughs. I had the same complaint when I first played but Hard mode really fixes that for people who want to have more scarce resources.
Crow Country really gives me really strong Illbleed vibes. It might be the setting or the purple-haired protagonist but, I love it. The PS1 style is absolutely WONDERFUL 💜 Awesome video, dude! ✨
This game was at like 120 reviews a week after launch. I can't help but think Sphere, AlphaBetaGamer and you guys helped to give it the attention it deserves. So happy for these devs.
Nitro ramble is a good video format! Your thoughts are already well structured, so if this is the ''looser'' version of a regular script, I mean, it's already very well put together. I imagine it's also less stressful to put together? Anyways. These have been very enjoyable and interesting. Thanks for the videos man!
So glad you're doing these more or less free-form videos this year. It means more NitroRad vids for us, and hopefully more money in your pockets as well. Always an easy decision to just see your channel in the sub box and immediately click on your newest content - also just awesome that with these videos, it feels like maybe we have a better chance of getting more variety away from platformers, which is fun, considering you have deeply informed and passionate opinions on games in the survival horror genre too. Awesome stuff :)
I think what you're seeing vis a vis the pixellated edges is the difference between a game that's rendered at a high resolution internally then filtered down to a lower resolution versus a game that's actually rendered at that lower resolution to begin with. I'd imagine this game is actually *rendered* at 1080p (for compatibility purposes if nothing else) then post-processed to be pixelly.
Dude, I'm not watching your videos as often as used to, but when this one popped up in my feed, I instantly was like HELL YEAH THAT'S WHAT I WANTED. Thank you for your service, Nitro Rad
A cool detail I noticed is that one of the staff memos mentions a list of rooms that need to be inspected by the fire Marshall. At first I didn’t know what it was for, but when I reached the underground safe room, I realized it was on the list from earlier, and since you save via first features, it clicked that it was the game’s way of listing the safe rooms.
The vending machines dont get restocked they're designed to give you unlimited handgun ammo when you run out or have about 3 handgun bullets left. I say handgun because it doesn't take into account if you have tons of ammo for your other weapons so I was always using the handgun and stockpiling the rest of my ammo. When I played it day one, the updates weren't there so it'd be nice to try it again on hard mode. Other than that the game felt like about half the length of your standard RE game. These are just nitpicks tho cuz the game is great.
To be honest I really hope if they do a sequel to this game, i really _really_ hope they shoot for a Saturn or n64 look, still keeping the artstyle but with cg cutscenes that are a stark contrast but with making an illusion of a different genre. In a horror game like this, in a ps1 astetic with ffvii art style, throwing people for a loop by doing the opposite of what you expect makes a introduction _imprint more_
I saw someone stream this game and half expected to see you upload another quickfire video like Another Crab's Treasure, but glad to see a full video nonetheless
As you pointed out, more then the remakes that are coming out, I'm much more of a fan of developers taking those games from their childhood and putting their own spin on it: Crow country is such a wonderful example, but also Kidz, pseudoregalia, signalis, sometimes we've sea of stars, but in most cases the end result is smth amazing! Keep up the good work james!
Aesthetically more than anything, it kinda reminds me of those Gamecube/Ps2 games made by smaller teams who would not only get really creative with their lack of a big budget but also stay within the design philosophy of then's last gen so they wouldn't go overboard more easily. I know it's supposed to make me nostalgic for Ps1 games but I'm just here missing my Gamecube while watching this lol
Just wanted to say, thanks to this video I went and bought the game. Beat it in a day, and it was my first real survival horror game like this. Thank you so much, it was a fantastic experience!
The moment I saw the demo available, I downloaded, played and loved it. I’m very happy to see it has turned out as good as I had hoped! Thank you for your continuing work on bringing more attention to these kinds of lesser-known gems. They often turn out to be my endearing favs, after all.
thanks for the vid games, absolutely loved this one and thought of you the whole time i played it. was hoping you'd put something out on it. the final act was so awesome i really loved the whole ending
Crow Country was a instant play for me. kek I will say its was really great and memorable. Its also really fun to speedrun because of some of the secret tricks that you can find. I am slow though. It took me a long time to realize the revelations meant, even when it was spoken to my face. I was like "...wait a minute...!" after they explained everything. I always take things at face value you see so it throws me off when big story reveals like this game drop. Ah well its fine. lol Great game for sure. Maybe a personal GOTY for me.
I wouldn't call this a metroidvania. For it to be a metroidvania, the keys to new areas would also have some sort of practical use in traversal and/or combat. The keys really only open a couple of rooms, but don't let you directly. You may be able to take a route that avoids enemies, but it doesn't let you avoid enemies that are right there more easily. Compare the keys to missiles or the space jump from Metroid. The missiles not only open red doors but also destroy specific blocks, on top of being a more powerful weapon. The space jume gives you access to higher places, but you can more easily run away from common fodder.
Gotta be honest, these nitro ramble videos are awesome! You get to cover more games in less time and they dont seem any less passionate! amazing format and great review as always :D
From the moment this released, I just knew Nitro rad was gonna like it. Also if he likes horror games with theme parks, I would reccomend Indigo Park chapter 1.
I do love how much effort you put into your videos but I have to say if this is one of your less time and effort "ramble" videos I am quite impressed, You scripted it good you effectively sold me on the game (waiting for that switch port) and all the nice details like the laser sight with the fog machine was really visually engaging! I honestly wouldn't mind more videos like it especially if it helps you have a break from the harder and longer videos. Overall good stuff
Having played the game a few times and gotten all the achievements recently, I have to say it's really friggin good! A nice bite-sized survival horror with great puzzles and doesn't overstay its welcome. In terms of visuals, it feels like the Final Fantasy 7 if it was made on the Dreamcast. The music is also very atmospheric, and there's some really good bangers in the soundtrack. There are no countless doors that are locked that you'll never be able to enter. You can pretty much explore every area the game shows you. They don't overdo it with locked doors, and many of the doors that seem blocked off act as shortcuts across the park. The game respects your time and your intelligence.
Coming back after finishing the game, which I bought right after I watched this vid two days ago. As a person who doesn't typically like this genre of games, 10outta10outta10. As for the video, pretty good! I did buy it instantly after all. A little too much of the mystery was spoiled and the video drew my attention to things that I think would have been better as complete surprises, but I do not regret it at all.
I am so happy i quit watching half way through. It may have took 3 months but i bought and played the game all the way through and loved every part of it that probably wouldn't have if i was playing blind. Now I'm finally back to finish the video
One of my favorite moments in horror games isn't just the horror, but the un intentional comedy. Like whe you screw up, you know it, game knows it, and you run around like "FUCK! Fuck fuckfuckfuckduckfuck fuuuuke!"
I've been playing this game and I fucking love it. Already a game of the year for me easily. You know a game does horror well when the environment scares you more than the monsters.
The aesthetic here is incredible- as someone who loves more "cutesy" graphics and styles being used for horror (or being used for something that would be horror in a different context- see the Binding of Isaac), I'm always glad to see that done in different interesting ways, and this game does not disappoint in that regard!
Hey Nitro!! Have you thought about covering any Puppet Combo games? They are the most famous PS1 graphics developers and their games are so so good. I'd watch everyone you covered. Thanks for the video!
A great game. I finished it in two nights. Was the perfect length, stayed fun the whole way through, and I wanted to start ng+ as soom as it was over. I didn't read much into the story but I enjoyed what was on the surface.
I really enjoy creators returning to this style. I feel like the longest time 3D art it was sorta seen as either outdated or modern rather then appreciating it as a an artistic style. Now It’s not just low ploy cause it’s old we can appreciate the feelings it invokes amoung lots of other things. I just think it’s neat
I played the demo during Steam's Next Fest. Once I finished the demo I HAD to play the full game, I bought it day 1 it released and got all achievements.
This is on my radar for sure, only knew about it from stumbling across it on release day. However it has been like well over twenty years since I last played an old school survivor horror game so unknown if my skills can still pay the bills. Even back in the day my lack of consistency was obvious to myself, could speed run RE2 in like 2 hours without taking damage yet Silent Hill would absolutely demolish me (still loved them tho).
LOVE THE VIDEO!!! Hey Nitro, could you do a video on Withering Rooms? Like I see Punchy Speedrun it. It looks fun as hell, very Clocktower esque, but I just want someone else's outside the speedrun community's opinion of the game.. Thank you
I absolutely loved this game, finished it in about 8 hours. I absolutely adored the way the game made me jump at times but it never felt cheap. I also really liked the puzzles, they seemed fair enough
Another amazing video. I was so excited for this game that I went and created a physical N64 style box and cart labels to display with my other games. Video is on my channel for those who are curious. Can't wait for October to be here and see more of you Halloween specials!
Just so you know: Vending Machines give you ammo and/or health that you are low/out off and only when you are low, they are technically unlimited. Hard Mode still gives you stuff from Trash Cans, if you run out of ammo completely, they will give you a single bullet per trash can, just enough to shoot a crate for more ammo. Also certain bosses and puzzles can be "solved" by other methods, for example shooting the clock til it breaks in the N/E/S/W puzzle, You can also defeat the boss afterwards simply by opening the gate on him.
Loved playing this demo. It had me loving it and yes my guy this style is nice and it locks in on control so crispy it made my screen crack it's really good and the game definitely does have like a ds or gbs advanced feeling like a GameCube game
Glad to hear Crow Country is a hit from our friendly neighborhood Horror and Platformer Guru, I played a demo of this and enjoyed my time with it and I think more so than a lot of the throwback horror games I've tried out over the last few years, I have it installed so it's a matter of choosing when to pop the cork, well Nitro Rad might've decided that for me.
The vending machines restock if you have 9 or less bullets for your handgun, so yes you can abuse that pretty heavily. I feel like that's a necessary evil though, since you don't have a melee weapon, you kind of need a reliable weapon unless you want to softlock your players.
This game definitely looks interesting to me mainly through it's graphical style, which I really like. I'll probably get sometime next month. If you're looking for more survival horror games with a PS1 like look, that game Alisa looks up your alley.
