Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

My main problems with Mother 3 is its poorly paced (a large part of the design document cut out from the N64 design--there is probably not a single game by Nintendo where it is so obvious cuts and compressions are) and...not really a sequel to EarthBound. EarthBound explicitly hinted that Pokey/Porky would get revenge on Ness or something along those lines, and yet the world of Mother 3 has absolutely no bearing on Mother 2. Dr. Andonuts has no backstory and Mother 3's story has absolutely no bearing on Mother 2 (not that the story is any good--something something dragon needles and something else ripped off from The Giver).
I haven't played it since the year the translation dropped, and even back then I still didn't totally follow the story.

From memory:
Tazmily Village is a peaceful place where there is no money and everyone just trades. Porky's army shows up and gentrifies the world and now everyone has money and is depressed. Lucas needs to go pull the needles out of the dragon that the islands the game takes place on in order to wake it up, because if you do all your wishes come true, or something. Its also been at least a thousand years since the events of Earthbound, and Porky is still chugging along as a very old man who is just as immature as he was in Earthbound. The troons Magypsies have something to do with the dragon.

The other two Earthbound games didn't exactly have the strongest story either, but they kinda made sense, at least. I thought Earthbound Beginnings had the most interesting one, with the big twist that Giygas was raised by Ninten's great grandparents.
 
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I haven't played it since the year the translation dropped, and even back then I still didn't totally follow the story.

From memory:
Tazmily Village is a peaceful place where there is no money and everyone just trades. Porky's army shows up and gentrifies the world and now everyone has money and is depressed. Lucas needs to go pull the needles out of the dragon that the islands the game takes place on in order to wake it up, because if you do all your wishes come true, or something. Its also been at least a thousand years since the events of Earthbound, and Porky is still chugging along as a very old man who is just as immature as he was in Earthbound. The troons Magypsies have something to do with the dragon.

The other two Earthbound games didn't exactly have the strongest story either, but they kinda made sense, at least. I thought Earthbound Beginnings had the most interesting one, with the big twist that Giygas was raised by Ninten's great grandparents.

There's a part where Leder (the tall man) gives you the backstory of the existence of Tazmily Village and that's all compressed into a giant text box, complete with a key item that will repeat it if necessary.

The End of the World

Long ago, there existed a world. A world different from what the people on these islands think of. This “world” was incredibly big. More people lived on this world than there are grains of sand on these Nowhere Islands. I know it may be hard to imagine, but such a world once existed. At some point, the world wound up destroyed. Naturally, it was humans who destroyed it. In the back of their minds, everyone had an inkling that it would happen at some point. And then it really did happen.

…And so, the world is no more.

The White Ship
Just before the end of the world, a “White Ship” came to these islands. On it were all the people of Tazmily Village… Aboard the White Ship were those few who had managed to escape the “world”. The people on the ship still went by their names from the previous world. This “White Ship” plan had been set in place before the world was destroyed. And, although they’re part of the world, these Nowhere Islands are a special place. They were the one place that would remain, even if the world was lost. The one and only place where people could survive. And so the White Ship arrived at these islands.

The Dragon and the Magypsies
The reason these islands are special is because they harbor a giant dragon nearly as large as the islands themselves. Long, long ago, people lived together with the Dragon. However, at some point in time, the people and the Dragon could no longer coexist. So, using the seven Needles, the Dragon was placed into a long, long sleep by the ancestors of the Magypsy people, who have lived here since ancient times. Ever since, the Magypsies have guarded the Needles, in an effort to prevent the Dragon from being woken until its power is truly needed. Thus, until the time of its awakening, the Dragon continued to sleep, as the power of the earth itself. And so, because of the tremendous energy of the Dragon hidden deep below, these islands were protected from the end of the world.

Those Who Lost Everything
Those who came here aboard the White Ship feared another “End of the World” more than anything else. They felt that the world’s destruction was a direct result of the way they had lived. The people of the White Ship discussed things at great length. They shared their wisdom and spoke with grave seriousness. And then they arrived at their conclusion. They decided to completely erase everyone’s memories of the previous “world” and start their lives over with new rules and new roles… In short, everyone would play out the ideal “story” that they had come up with. That is what happened. The people would restart their lives in a simple, peaceful village, in the kind of place they wished they had grown up in. They would erase their memory of everything: the world, their belongings, their rules… and then they would begin their new lives. Everyone’s old memories would be reset and replaced with their newly-created “story”. And thus the village of Tazmily came to be.

However, it was necessary to record the fact that the memory replacement had taken place. The Hummingbird Egg was the device used to store the memories of the White Ship people. Wess and his son Duster, both playing the roles of thieves, were set to take action should a dangerous situation occur. Remember when they went to Osohe Castle? They went there to retrieve the secret of the “People of the White Ship”. And there’s one other thing.

Me.

It was essential that one person retain memory of the previous world to sort of “keep watch” over things. I was the only one in the village of Tazmily who wasn’t given a role in the new “story”. The sound of my bell served as a “suggestion”, to keep everyone’s fabricated memories from reverting. My name “Leder” comes from the word “Leader”. No, no, that doesn’t mean I was anyone special. It was just that I was particularly taller than all the others. So, upon discussion, I was selected because it would be easier for me to stand out. Being so tall, people would want to come see me, you know? And so I was given the role of revealing these secrets when the time truly called for it. Although Tazmily Village exists in reality, it was originally created as part of a story.

The Origin of Osohe
Let me also talk about Osohe Castle. Apparently, long ago, a kingdom existed on this island, centered around the king of Osohe. However, when we arrived on the White Ship, the people of this kingdom were gone. It seems they had left the islands, fearing the Dragon’s eventual awakening someday. Before boarding the White Ship, Princess Kumatora was an infant who had lost her mother and father. Upon coming to these islands, she was given to the Magypsies to raise, and given the role of princess of Osohe Castle. Wess and Duster being her retainers was another part of the fabricated “story”. Osohe Castle is one of the few and precious relics of this island’s “past”. We crafted our story in haste, so the people inside it have very little “past” or “history”. Have you noticed no one in Tazmily can talk about things from 100 or 1000 years ago? In truth, we HAD wanted to create an entire plethora of myths and legends… but our story was made in such a hurry that we weren’t able to. It’s a real shame.

The Intruder Known as Porky
Truthfully, we had no idea how Tazmily Village would turn out. But things actually went rather well. The people who had arrived on the White Ship had fully taken to their new identities. They believed they had always lived together peacefully. It was when a person by the name of Porky stumbled upon these islands that everything started to go amok.

It seems he used a “Time Distorter” machine to travel through time and space at will. However, he was apparently shut out from all other times and spaces and tumbled into this era and these islands. Even worse, he used his Time Distorter to bring many people from other eras here. The Pigmasks, as well as everyone in New Pork City, were all brought here and brainwashed by Porky.

This Porky fellow seems to view these islands as his own personal “toy box”, with which he can do anything he wants. He would take animals apart and recombine them to make creepy, new “Chimeras”. As a child-like dictator, he began doing whatever he pleased, including building Thunder Tower and forming his own army. Porky eventually learned the White Ship secret because of a traitor among the Magypsies.

The Dragon's Awakening
This traitor was Locria, the seventh Magypsy, and the only one you haven’t met yet. After Locria joined forces with Porky, Porky learned about the White Ship people and the secret of the sleeping Dragon. Porky decided to pull the Needles to wake the Dragon, so he could use the power for himself. The Dragon is the power of the very earth itself, you see. It’s said that whoever pulls the sealing Needles will become the Dragon’s master. However, only a very select few are capable of pulling the Dragon’s Needles. Apparently, neither the Magypsies nor Porky have that capability. Yet, the Needles are being pulled now. That means Porky is somehow controlling someone who can control the Dragon’s power!

…We have to put a stop to Porky’s antics. If we don’t, the world will be completely destroyed again, and it will spell the true end for everything. For Porky, that might be the ultimate pleasure, but we can’t allow it to happen. We, the last handful of people there are, absolutely can’t allow it to happen. Lucas. It seems you’re a chosen one, with the ability to pull the Needles sealing the Dragon away. You MUST pull the Dark Dragon’s Needle with your own hands, and pass your heart on to the Dragon. Let this be my one and only order to you as your “leader”.
 
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Part of the issue of Mother 3 was the anti-technology/pro-environmentalist angle of it. In a video game.

It's supposed to be a subtle criticism of consumerist Japanese society, except that the villains are given trappings of that thing leftists hate the most, America. This has the effect of letting the audience dodge the implications of the message by pushing it onto an "other."

It's a very cowardly, Japanese, passive-aggressive way to write a story.
 
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Been doing a replay of Earthbound on my SNES mini and while I still really love this game the middle drags out in a way I dislike. The period between finishing Threed and getting to Fourside I found to be pretty tedious. The uninterest desert background combined with the really irritating Gold Mine Maze just makes me want to get that section of the game over with. I'm curious does anyone else feel this way?
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Been doing a replay of Earthbound on my SNES mini and while I still really love this game the middle drags out in a way I dislike. The period between finishing Threed and getting to Fourside I found to be pretty tedious. The uninterest desert background combined with the really irritating Gold Mine Maze just makes me want to get that section of the game over with. I'm curious does anyone else feel this way?
View attachment 5432544 View attachment 5423642View attachment 5432552
I definitely always find the entirety of Fourside to be the weakest part of the game, with the monkey cave being the worst
There's just nothing very enjoyable about the section especially after Paula goes missing
 
I definitely always find the entirety of Fourside to be the weakest part of the game, with the monkey cave being the worst
There's just nothing very enjoyable about the section especially after Paula goes missing
For me the game really starts to pick up again when you enter Moonside. Despite it just being fourside with a color swap it has a really cool feel to it and I love the music. It's one of the most visually interesting parts of the game and a fantastic break from boredom of the previous few hours.
Moonside.PNG
 
Been doing a replay of Earthbound on my SNES mini and while I still really love this game the middle drags out in a way I dislike. The period between finishing Threed and getting to Fourside I found to be pretty tedious. The uninterest desert background combined with the really irritating Gold Mine Maze just makes me want to get that section of the game over with. I'm curious does anyone else feel this way?
View attachment 5432544 View attachment 5423642View attachment 5432552
It was a long time since I played it and I only played it once but the only thing that sticks out in my mind as annoying was the winter segment.
 
It was a long time since I played it and I only played it once but the only thing that sticks out in my mind as annoying was the winter segment.
Yeah, the pacing kind of hits a brick wall there, considering the scene right before Winters really amps it all up, with Ness and Paula following that lady into the hotel where they get mobbed and thrown into a dungeon. Then it jumps to Jeff at his boarding school with his gay buddy in an especially slow segment where Jeff escapes the boarding school and traverses through Winters, and he's level 1 and has no fun PK abilities and isn't given any of the usual tools he uses throughout the rest of the game.

Tools that you never really get to use all that much because inventory space is so limited and anything less than the Big Bottle Rocket isn't really any more beneficial than just attacking normally.
 
I haven't played it since the year the translation dropped, and even back then I still didn't totally follow the story.

From memory:
Tazmily Village is a peaceful place where there is no money and everyone just trades. Porky's army shows up and gentrifies the world and now everyone has money and is depressed. Lucas needs to go pull the needles out of the dragon that the islands the game takes place on in order to wake it up, because if you do all your wishes come true, or something. Its also been at least a thousand years since the events of Earthbound, and Porky is still chugging along as a very old man who is just as immature as he was in Earthbound. The troons Magypsies have something to do with the dragon.

The other two Earthbound games didn't exactly have the strongest story either, but they kinda made sense, at least. I thought Earthbound Beginnings had the most interesting one, with the big twist that Giygas was raised by Ninten's great grandparents.
Lucas isnt trying to pull the needles, the drag queens(not necessarily trannies, the middle easterner looking dude that follows you is also one of them) warn you to stop pokey's army from doing that. iirc, mother 3 is supposed to be an alternate dimension pokey was banished to after the events of Earthbound, Dr Andonuts was somehow kidnapped from that original dimension and made to work on stuff for him. The dark dragon is told to you to be an Ragnarok of sorts, but for whatever reason pokey thinks it's beneficial to him. The only thing I don't get get is why Lucas himself pulls the last needle after his brothers reanimated corpse leaves for the afterlife.

It's surprising the story is coherent as it is, they kept rewriting it over and over CONSTANTLY, for about a decade, even when it was made for the GBA. An example of this is instead of disappearing completely for most of the story, Lucas's dad was supposed to be in the party, they even made sprites for him in certain cutscenes, characters got redesigned or were intended to get a redesign for the story, some NPCs were supposed to be controllable party members and there was actual work put into alot of that. .
 
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Taking a break from FIghtcade and NeoGeo/Arcade recently and have gotten DuckStation and PCSX2 up and running. They both offer really great graphics updates and tweaking to the old Playstation 1 and 2 titles...been playing Gran Turismo 2, 3 and 4, Xenogears, Brave Fencer Musashi, Armored Core 1 and 2, Tenchu 1, 2, Wrath of Heaven, and a bunch of other stuff from the PS1/PS2 era that I haven't picked up since the early 2000's quite a lot lately. Pretty happy being able to visit those titles over again with Gran Turismo 4 probably being my favorite of them all and excited because I have a ton of others to run through soon. Bless the wonderful people behind Duckstation and PCSX2.
 
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Taking a break from FIghtcade and NeoGeo/Arcade recently and have gotten DuckStation and PCSX2 up and running. They both offer really great graphics updates and tweaking to the old Playstation 1 and 2 titles...been playing Gran Turismo 2, 3 and 4, Xenogears, Brave Fencer Musashi, Armored Core 1 and 2, Tenchu 1, 2, Wrath of Heaven, and a bunch of other stuff from the PS1/PS2 era that I haven't picked up since the early 2000's quite a lot lately. Pretty happy being able to visit those titles over again with Gran Turismo 4 probably being my favorite of them all and excited because I have a ton of others to run through soon. Bless the wonderful people behind Duckstation and PCSX2.
You should play R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, a racing game with a storyline.
Ridge Racer Type 4 - r4alt-11.jpg
 
That one I can beat without cheats... Minus turbo fire on the controller which I think is fair considering. When you compare it to other SHMUPS it's really not that bad. It's just the hit-detection is very biased. Once you figure out some of the patterns, use the bomb in the right places, it's not that hard. The funny thing is that the boss fights are a complete joke like two different people worked on it. One guy worked on making a hard as fuck level and the other guy phoned it in and made piss-easy boss fights that a 6-year-old could beat.
respect for beating those bullshit NES marvel games my dad had bought all them new so I had them as a kid and they just pissed me off and I've never went back to them. my shitty childhood arch nemesis superhero game I went back and beat recently was Batman Forever on SNES. I rented the PSX version and it's a fucking insane arcade beat em up and was fun as fuck. my tiny child brain assumed the snes one would be a scaled back version of the same game so I got it cheap at a used game store. It's not, its a shitty beat em up implementation of the Mortal Kombat engine where you have to do button combos to do shit like use a grappling hook for progression. going back to it now, being able to just look up the controls and shit it's really not as bad as I always thought it was, but it's still terrible. My few positives is some of the enemies have funny names, and although probably objectively bad I still kinda like the digitized real actor art style of the game's characters. as a kid I never really cared for the movie all that much, I always preferred the first two (particularly returns as a little guy) and honestly I think this game sucking made me avoid the movie itself more lmao
 
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I definitely always find the entirety of Fourside to be the weakest part of the game, with the monkey cave being the worst
There's just nothing very enjoyable about the section especially after Paula goes missing
The monkey cave was cute the first time through, but it's one of the weaker parts upon replay. I can't think of any other segments I dislike, even Moonside isn't too bad.
 
Which sucks considering those are among the best entries in their respective franchises, I can only imagine how much greater they'd have been given proper development.
Wind waker is a strong contender for favorite zelda for sure. Sunshine I like mario's kit but the levels suck and too many shines are just tedious. Also Physics are bit off when you do sideflip dive jumps you go insane distances which I'm not a fan of he gets too much momentum from no effort. Then theres the pachinko level and the boats and the lilypad level and the blue coins.... I just don't like sunshine that much.
 
Wind waker is a strong contender for favorite zelda for sure. Sunshine I like mario's kit but the levels suck and too many shines are just tedious. Also Physics are bit off when you do sideflip dive jumps you go insane distances which I'm not a fan of he gets too much momentum from no effort. Then theres the pachinko level and the boats and the lilypad level and the blue coins.... I just don't like sunshine that much.
I think Sunshine just suffers from being too linear, it should let you visit areas and collect shines more openly. It also should have the longjump added back in, but otherwise I love the controls and physics, and Fludd is fun as fuck to use.

I don't think the levels suck, but there are too many bullshit missions in them, and stuff like the Pachinko and that one shine that requires NPCs to throw you are just terrible. A proper remaster would make it a damn near masterpiece.
 
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I think Sunshine just suffers from being too linear, it should let you visit areas and collect shines more openly. It also should have the longjump added back in, but otherwise I love the controls and physics, and Fludd is fun as fuck to use.

I don't think the levels suck, but there are too many bullshit missions in them, and stuff like the Pachinko and that one shine that requires NPCs to throw you are just terrible. A proper remaster would make it a damn near masterpiece.
I forgot about the chuckya bonus level... Thats a nightmare. Yea no, I just don't like sunshine and the fludd is a neat idea but the coolest thing it does is spray>dive>water slide. Also I have no idea why it does nothing under water.
 
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You should play R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, a racing game with a storyline.
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Oh yes. I LOVED the style of that game when I was a kid it was beautiful. I was always partial to GT2 but yeah, R4 is a very special game. I wasn't ever good enough at the game to get the good cars and I think I grew up and got distracted with other silly things before I even beat the game all the way. But indeed I have that one set aside to replay as well! can't wait.
 
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