Kane Knight
10-01-2011, 09:49 AM
Ever play a game with decent concepts that was possibly ahead of its time, or more likely otherwise shit?
Something got me thinking about Bushido Blade, and at the time, I thought their weapons system and mechanics were cool. Give a bunch of fighters several choices of weapons, some of which they are better with than others, mix up to taste, serve.
One-Hit kills being possible was also cool, albeit a hard sell to anyone not hooked on IWTBTG. Getting the "good" ending was ridiculously hard becase you had to play hide and seek, take no damage, and get to the normal "end" point, then face like 3-4 more bosses.
Not to mention most of the stages were all part of one large map and you could run around them. Used to take the fights to the area with bamboo trees for the "samurai" effect.
But the game was clunky, slow, and had a lot of flaws. It was also a poor seller outside of Japan, far as I can tell, since it's a very "Japanese" game.
I think some of these ideas could be folded into a modern game for a truly awesome experience, but the game over all? A niche title.
Then there's Drakengard, a game where you switch between on-foot and dragon fights on the fly to slaughter thousands of mooks, five at a time. Great concept, also had a lot of weapons, but the game played like Dynasty Warriors with fewer mooks onscreen. Usually like ten on a heavy fight. Seriously, they all sat around in squads of five.
There were other flaws, but the concept of being able to just hop on a dragon (Or, if not fantasy, insert other flying device) and blow shit up was awesome. A shame the game had so many flaws, the kind of story nobody ever gets into, a soundtrack that's like listening to Hitler rapging puppies in your eardrums, and one of the most WTF-y endings ever....If you've played the game, you probably know which one.
You sorta have the capacity in games like GTA or SR (Kind of like how they now have seemless cities like BB tried to do), but it's not the same....
Also, I hate any game where there's a "win" button or combo. Slow weapon with awesome ability+jump "cancel" = win. On everything. Except mandatory sky battles. Also, Angelus rocked, even if basically every other character was flat, boring, and had shitty voice acting. "I AM CAIM!" Indeed.
I kinda want to include Spider-Man: Web of Shadows here, because I liked basically one thing about it. The concept of seamless ground/wall/air fights. Too bad webslinging was boring, fights were standard, and the city was so repetitive. It wasn't really revolutionary, new, or stand-out enough, it was just fluid and worked. In a boring combat system which was "spam one of three moves to win."
Final one I can remember, but I always liked the Monster Rancher creation/collection system, but the games have always let me down. They weren't all godawful, but there's never been a truly good one. And this goes back before them, I think, with barcode boy and similar products. Scan something to get results, either random or specific (Or a combo of both, I remember certain CDs on MR would produce specific, rare monsters). This struck me as a really cool concept, but I never saw a game that really made it work. There's even a DS treasure hunting game that relies on hunting for local WiFi hotspots, but it's a pretty niche concept. Especially since it ostensibly involves exercise, something DS users oppose on principle. ;)
This sorta collection system would be awesome for action or RPG titles especially, I feel. mostly for portable titles, personally, but since all home consoles use CD/DVD drives and have other ways to access data, it would work....
There was another one, but I forget it. Maybe I'll revisit it.
Something got me thinking about Bushido Blade, and at the time, I thought their weapons system and mechanics were cool. Give a bunch of fighters several choices of weapons, some of which they are better with than others, mix up to taste, serve.
One-Hit kills being possible was also cool, albeit a hard sell to anyone not hooked on IWTBTG. Getting the "good" ending was ridiculously hard becase you had to play hide and seek, take no damage, and get to the normal "end" point, then face like 3-4 more bosses.
Not to mention most of the stages were all part of one large map and you could run around them. Used to take the fights to the area with bamboo trees for the "samurai" effect.
But the game was clunky, slow, and had a lot of flaws. It was also a poor seller outside of Japan, far as I can tell, since it's a very "Japanese" game.
I think some of these ideas could be folded into a modern game for a truly awesome experience, but the game over all? A niche title.
Then there's Drakengard, a game where you switch between on-foot and dragon fights on the fly to slaughter thousands of mooks, five at a time. Great concept, also had a lot of weapons, but the game played like Dynasty Warriors with fewer mooks onscreen. Usually like ten on a heavy fight. Seriously, they all sat around in squads of five.
There were other flaws, but the concept of being able to just hop on a dragon (Or, if not fantasy, insert other flying device) and blow shit up was awesome. A shame the game had so many flaws, the kind of story nobody ever gets into, a soundtrack that's like listening to Hitler rapging puppies in your eardrums, and one of the most WTF-y endings ever....If you've played the game, you probably know which one.
You sorta have the capacity in games like GTA or SR (Kind of like how they now have seemless cities like BB tried to do), but it's not the same....
Also, I hate any game where there's a "win" button or combo. Slow weapon with awesome ability+jump "cancel" = win. On everything. Except mandatory sky battles. Also, Angelus rocked, even if basically every other character was flat, boring, and had shitty voice acting. "I AM CAIM!" Indeed.
I kinda want to include Spider-Man: Web of Shadows here, because I liked basically one thing about it. The concept of seamless ground/wall/air fights. Too bad webslinging was boring, fights were standard, and the city was so repetitive. It wasn't really revolutionary, new, or stand-out enough, it was just fluid and worked. In a boring combat system which was "spam one of three moves to win."
Final one I can remember, but I always liked the Monster Rancher creation/collection system, but the games have always let me down. They weren't all godawful, but there's never been a truly good one. And this goes back before them, I think, with barcode boy and similar products. Scan something to get results, either random or specific (Or a combo of both, I remember certain CDs on MR would produce specific, rare monsters). This struck me as a really cool concept, but I never saw a game that really made it work. There's even a DS treasure hunting game that relies on hunting for local WiFi hotspots, but it's a pretty niche concept. Especially since it ostensibly involves exercise, something DS users oppose on principle. ;)
This sorta collection system would be awesome for action or RPG titles especially, I feel. mostly for portable titles, personally, but since all home consoles use CD/DVD drives and have other ways to access data, it would work....
There was another one, but I forget it. Maybe I'll revisit it.