I'm hoping 13 Sentinels gets a western release. Yes they are very recognisable, it's like European folklore and mythology have gone through a Anime esque filler.
Although I was fairly critical of this one, I agree, I hope they stick around for a long time. I haven't played 13 Sentinels yet but I'm even glad they're taking another step outside the action genre, hope it turns out well. I want all their games on PC.
@Vazazell I replayed Muramasa awhile ago, and actually fount it to be really short, there is even a trophy for completing the game in under 3 hours. Even going after all three endings is not that long as you are powerful enough then to slaughter a room full of enemies, so you can rush through sections to get to the boss fights.
@@NetConsole It is available to download on the PS3, fortunately. Got it yesterday and playing through it now. store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP9000-NPUD21604_00-0000000000000000
Nah, cult games are the likes of Snatcher, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Gitaroo Man, Terranigma, Sweet Home, etc. Game which few people have played, but is beloved by the vast majority who have. The latter clearly does not apply to this game. Earthbound, Cave Story and Nier used to be cult classics, they aren't anymore.
Paradox games were Desync Central for the longest time so let's not pretend the format worked out of the box. And the format would be hard to pull off in 1v1 matchmaking scenarios
@@rubenfigueiredo3458 >Paradox games were Desync Central Still are. Tried to play Stellaris with two friends a year ago, had desynch at least twice an hour.
I'm not pretending anything, just making a bit of a joke - that said, criticizing Paradox's execution of the format doesn't make it any less true. It obviously probably wouldn't transfer over to a game like Grimgrimoire since it wasn't designed around it, but the comment "realtime with pause rules out multiplayer" is a proven false premise. If anything I'd argue the format would be easier to pull off in 1v1 matchmaking, just limit the amount of pause you get to something low like 5-10 seconds and only have it re-charge at a delayed rate to avoid people trying to use it to grief. Oh, and have the framework to keep people in synch, that'd be a good one. 1-1 should always be a lot easier to manage than the sprawling web that paradox games are, arguably, at their best in. I'll stop typing my dumb essay over a throwaway joke though, just seems odd to see the notion of realtime with pause dismissed so quickly considering part of the appeal of this channel is matosis' willingness to delve into game design choices, posit alternatives and his general interest in developers doing interesting things.
There is still that glitch in paradox games if you pause in multiplayer where you get hit in the head with household objects until you unpause, they still havent fixed that one
GrimGrimoire says more about Vanillaware's art direction abilities than their game directing. I feel like that's an underlying current of all their work. They shipped on a system that has support for usb keyboard & mouse, and didn't enable support for it. Other devs from Japan and the west didn't struggle implementing these controls just as they are in PC games of the time. If you want to make a controller RTS you abstract it to a degree - something like Docchi Mecha on the PS1 or Thousand Land by Fromsoft. Cloning starcraft and pitching it 90 degrees was far from the best way to tackle the genre. The asses on the demons are pretty nice, at least. Bouncy.
Very interesting to see this utterly obscure yet fascinating video games such GrimGrimoire receive legitimate reviews, 13 years after their release. One of the many things I enjoy about Matthew's reviews.
1:11 I’m never ready for Matthew’s jokes, and they always end up killing me. They’re simple in execution but extremely elegant, and don’t quite hit you at their fullest until you pause for thought. I guess that’s just how he does everything lol
Same! Long videos are nice, of course, but it's sometimes really hard to get through even when they're interesting. Shorter videos presenting byte-sized essays or quick presentations are such a great idea!
Exactly what I was thinking. Watching a MondayMatosis video about a game I've never even heard of is like jumping to a random chapter in the Silmarilion and hoping for the best, but... I kinda love it
This is one of my favorite games. You have no idea how nice it is to see it acknowledged, because Vanillaware sure doesn't lol edit: Welp. They finally did. :')
It would be interesting to see a side-scrolling RTS like this with units focused on attacking in different directions (like bombers dropping things from above, normal troops fighting on the same level, etc). That would really help take advantage of the multi-floor approach and give more strategy than simple type advantage
There was an NDS game like this: Glory Days. It was hella fun especially if you had someone to play with! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZnF_DULisfg.html
I honestly haven't heard of many of these smaller games, but I'm very grateful for the introduction. They seem to have a lot to offer, and a lot of lessons to be learned from their designs and implementations.
So not that Matt has done GrimGrimoire. I really hope he eventually gets around to doing dragon's crown and muramasa the demon blade, vanillaware other games.
I hope Matt is not having trouble releasing these weekly vids. Because I love them. Keep 'em coming. (If you burn out at least make them 2 weekly or monthly :)
@@HYDEinallcaps I really don't understand why a one sentence critism of the depth of vanillaware games requires so much priof but i have no way to send images on youtube so gimme your discord and i'll send proof
I had no idea this vanillaware game existed and I'm by far not a fan RTS style gameplay, but looking at this viewpoint instantly has me thinking about the FF7 Mountain minigame. Cool to hear opinions about stuff like this game that I'd actually never try myself. (Really hope the new Vanillaware game 13 Sentinels gets localized, I've heard great things about it from JP.)
There is a small list of PS2 games which are compatibles with Mouse and Keyboard and that can be any Usb mouse, I'm not sure if GrimGrimoire is one of them
Active pause isn't really anything new or unusual in RTS games. I'd say most have it. It's just that the C&C and Blizzard games don't, and they are probably the most popular in the genre.
Matthews great (as usual) review aside, can we just take a moment to appreciate that this man has barely any ads on his videos? Not even on the behemoth of a vid that is the 6-hour analysis of Dark Souls (and the most I've seen were single ads at the end of shorter videos such as these) So Bravo to you Mr. Matosis, for allowing us to enjoy your content on mobile without getting spammed and assaulted by Raid: Shadowlegends (Hope youre still getting food on the table though)
I've been debating playing this or not for a solid year now and you pretty much just summed up all my fears in one go. Shame that the summation of my fears ended up being your general thoughts after playing it, but sometimes it really just is like that.
Prismata is another strategy game where workers have a secondary function. Each turn a Drone can produce 1 gold, or it can block with 1 HP. Using Drones to block is inefficient, but it's often better than letting the opponent breach your defense. Prismata is currently free, so give it a try if you think it looks interesting.
Irishtube is best youtube No matter the topic, Irish youtubers seem to be the best. Matthew here, OSW Review for wrestling, Tantacrul for music, and so on
Somehow I'm really surprised that you reviewed this even though I should have guessed you'd go through everything Vannila made. Honestly I think the closest Vanillaware came to acknowledging it is through NIS and NISA adding Lillet Blan to Disgaea related polls. Anyway, I mainly just remember doing dragon stack spam, no need to worry about anything when you just AOE spam everything to hell.
In retrospect, one would've thought that a game made in compilation between Vanillaware and Nippon Ichi Software would've been...more? I mean, its still a fun game and I enjoyed it, especially since you can see the those Vanilla and NIS quirks seep through the writing and presentation, but considering its pedigree one can't help but think that it could've been bigger than it was. I mean Vanillaware has made fun and memorable games like Dragon's Crown and Odinsphere, while NIS is the company known for well beloved titles like the Disgaea and Atelier franchises and their various cousin games. Plus later on in the company history we DO see the return of characters like Lujei into the greater NIS Multiverse via Soul Nomad, so they are clearly aware that people enjoyed the game. So, considering all the other NIS games that get remasters and ports to other consoles, I feel like a remake of GrimGrimoire may not be impossible sometime in the future
"But Matthew what about FF7R, the most important thing since World War 2?" And Matthew is like "Fuck that noise. I actually want to have fun and not feel miserable by Nomuras hackwriting." Good on you Matthew. Good on fucking you. Thumbs up!
I havent played alot of Starcraft-type strategy games, so it was kinda interesting seeing some analysis on GrimGrimoire from that perspective, as I played through the whole game and loved it. Admittedly though, I still noticed some problems with the strategy. Most of my strategy boiled down to getting one the three best units in the game (Chimera, Dragon, and Titania), and figuring out which one worked best to steam roll the enemy. Theres also Chiron who was COMPLETELY useless throughout the whole campaign, even on the stage that wanted you to use him. However, it was mostly the story that got me invested. I loved the characters and story line and was interested in seeing where it was going the whole time. The gameplay wasn't terrible for me, especially being new to these types of games, so I still enjoyed myself with what strategy there was involved, and I had no problem playing a level just to see the next part of the story. I'd definitely recommend the game, but as I said, its interesting seeing someone with more experience in the genre talk about it. Also SPOILER WARNING: but I wonder how those bible-thumping idiots who think video games make people violent would think about a game where you kill the devil by making him embrace God.
@@LN.2233 yeah, and there's many more. Many games include active pause just because of the complexity of game mechanics - Paradox grand strategy games and various city building / economic games and the aforementioned infinity-engine rpgs. Bad North had a cool approach with slowdown instead of pause.
Vanillaware = My aesthetic. The side view of a tower? Wow that's rather eccentric, consider the pillars and floors are straight up blocking those beautiful sprites they are known for.
Vanillaware finally porting games to PC would be amazing, Muramasa in full HD with the art updated accordingly would be a dream come true. For now there's always emulation and some Vanillaware-esque games like The Vagrant but a man can dream.
Pretty please, I'd love to get an in depth video about Rain World. There is so much to unpack there and I'm sure you'd make some interesting observations
Hey Matt, love the frequent uploads as of late. I was wondering if yo have played a game called "The Void", it was developed by Ice Pick Lodge, same devs as Pathologic. I think The Void bares quite a few similarities to Rain World, to the point where I think the Rain World devs took direct inspiration from The Void. I know Pathologic wasnt really for you, but I think you would like The Void.
I never managed to finish that game but I admit The Void has been one of the most surreal and memorable games I've played. Its strong atmosphere paired well with the mechanics, as far as I remember, so I would also like to see a deep dive into it now, so many years later.
I actually like this game a bunch in spite of the obvious shortcomings. There’s a tangible charm to every single unit design that makes it a joy to look at. Which is par for the course with Vanillaware I suppose.
Warcraft 3 had a variety of mechanics tied to their workers. If there are so many copycats in the RTS genre, surely some of them would notice the improvement that gives in a variety of strategies.
Warcraft 3 is the next best example I'm aware of but I would say only ghouls and peasants have enough complexity to them. It's cool that acolytes, peons and wisps all gather resources in a slightly different way but there's not much to them. In GrimGrimoire elves, blobs and imps can all be worth building even if you don't plan on using them to mine at all.
@@Matthewmatosis I think you forgot that Peons can be put in huts to throw spears at enemies. Apart from mining another reason to build workers is to repair units and buildings and there's also the difference in how they build buildings (especially cultists and peasants). In DawnOfWar the workers are only used for building and repair. But of course there's always space for innovation and different approaches.
@@Matthewmatosis also wisps can disspell and deal deal massive damage to summoned units, and peasants with their ability to build collectively can be used to tower rush enemy, or quickly arrange a secondary base
May I recommend removing the black borders on the left and right so that iPad users can watch full screen with the entire device? iPads have 4:3 aspect ratio screens. Love your videos.
There's a good tactic with only a Titania and fairy rings Titania max it out so all glamour characters are slightly cheaper,better health,attack and speed Call fairies and use them to attack enemies Note the reason why fairies are good is that they cannot be attacked by their weakness or sleep effect when they can Astralize using the skill they have this mean glamour is immune to its weakness and can be resistant to another branch sorcery. It's better to have some spare elves and obelisks Elves to heal the fairies when in normal form and obelisks when in astral form. Only weakness is psychic shock from homunculus
Keen to hear your thoughts on 13 sentinels. The battle system and story are well connected through a plot conceit but ... it’s not enough to make them gel together. And the story is incredible, but rather dependent on twists. The lack of gameplay moments makes this an incredible title to rent and play once, rather than buy.
I love how Matthew will just randomly drop a commentary video about a seven-year-old game. I need more of your content man. You introduced me to zachtronics so I'm curious what else you've been playing lately, or if you're going to review the new zachtronics releases.
I'm almost certain that in single player Company of herores lets you pause and give orders whenever you want, so if you want to see how that can work in a very good RTS have at.
I've only been playing Vanilaware since Muramasa. And Vanilaware doesn't make it easy to buy their games. I hope this leads up to a look at Dragon's Crown. If I understand correctly, PS4, PS3 and PSVita can play together?
i was having an ok time with the gameplay, but i definitely stuck around for the story and the art. I was captivated by the visual novel aspect of the whole thing
I've got to agree with this review. I still like the game though. Albeit mostly as a curio for my collection. Being a game most people haven't heard of.
Shockingly there are people who insist that controllers are always better, the truth is they are simply more comfortable with a controller due to growing up with it. Controllers are great with some genres but for an RTS or an FPS you really want a mouse and keyboard.
I wonder how the Wii Remote and Nunchuck would have been for RTS games. Outside of the Pikmin rerelease, which worked wonderfully, I struggle to remember a single example. Moving the camera with the Nunchuck and selecting groups with the Wii remote and utilising the various buttons seemed like a prime opportunity for a company to release a type of RTS onto the system. Probably not as accurate as a mouse but certainly more manageable than a regular controller.
@@thanksbetotap This is true, both control methods have their weaknesses. Controller is better for precision in movement and action based games while keyboard and mouse is more precise for strategy, management and shooter games.
It also depends on how the game's designed. Bad North worked well with touchscreens as it was designed with this in mind (though I'd argue that mouse and keyboard still works best). Since I have played K&M all my life, I'm actually worse with controller regardless of genre even with games that are supposedly "unplayable without a controller". Including action and platforming games. I never got the argument about precision, though. Everybody's saying it but not giving any actual arguments. I'd think that using three fingers instead of just one thumb gives you more precision with directional controls. Same logic that applies to piano or a fretboard on a guitar.
This is weird. I know I played and completed this PS2 game when they released it on the PS3 store but there was quite a bit of unfamiliar stuff in the video. I think I exclusively went with the red faction because that's the color I most associate with the game.
