gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Fire Emblem)

Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Golden Sun)

and boom, golden sun is done.

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Glad I knew that the game would end on the worst ever cliffhanger before going in, otherwise I think I'd be super pissed at that ending. I still kinda am tbh, but at least I know that The Lost Age is available on the eshop whenever I want to finish the story

Time for thoughts. Golden Sun is an excellent game, but it possesses a few major flaws which kinda take from that. For starters, the dialogue is dreadful in places, and choppy as hell because of the small text boxes which can barely hold a full sentence, and the characters' overworld sprites that simply must react to every statement that's made. If the dialogue was better, then this wouldn't be an issue, but sadly most of the time your characters have to have things explained to them like they're idiots, and even then they still offer redundant responses (my generalisation of a typical GS convo above gives you an idea of what i'm talking about). The story itself is actually pretty interesting, but it's hard to enjoy with these nonsense interactions.

Secondly, the lack of detail in item/power descriptions makes using any of them pretty much guesswork, and hence the puzzles in the game become needlessly difficult towards the end because there are still new obstacles being thrown at you with no rhyme or reason, and without a good understanding of the powers, you're gonna have a bad time. I eventually found a 'details' tab for items, but even then it's just an oversized box which only gives details on the psynergies (special attacks that occasionally have field effects, essentially) it powers up, if any. Some weapons had powers infused into them that activated in battle, and I wanted to know what these things actually do and how often they activate, but they only ever give you the name. another thing, you don't even get to look at the 'detailed' item descriptions before buying the item (or if you can, I was never taught), so while Vorpal Slash sounded cool, I was sorta reluctant to part with x amount of dollars if the effect actually did shit all (the Assassin's Blade summoned a reaper which didn't really do any killing, so wtf was it for? The game supposedly never tells). I had to guess what powers/items worked well based on what consistently worked in battle, and what looked the coolest with the GBA-level particle effects. Ragnarok and Meteor were my favourite attacks by far for no real reason other than they just looked cool. Attacks which looked like shit were typically shit.

The battle system, aside from its ugly enemies and shit random encounters, was cool. Djini were these monster things you recruited throughout the game, and they gave you stat boosts/powers depending on who you equipped them on. When they were equipped, you could use them for a unique power, which would de-equip them and hence remove their buffs/psynergies. To re-equip them, you could either do that after battle or summon them as colossal monsters which increased in stength the more Djini you summoned. Obviously, summoning has a cooldown, so you don't re-equip the Djini right after summoning them. As more Djini joined my team, the power difference between a character with all djini equipped and one without djini became more apparent, so while you'd get the ability to literally bring about the apocalypse, you're suddenly much weaker for a few turns until all of your djini recover. It was a cool system, and led to some interesting tactics being formed. It made the final boss battle actually bearable, which was great.

From what I recall of my first attempt at playing this, Golden Sun starts very strong, but from jumping back into the game, I'd say it kinda faulters towards the end. It's still an excellent game, but all I can say is I wish it and its sequel were remastered so that the clunky animations/dialogue box could be fixed, but sadly I don't think that'll ever happen.

The Lost Age is pretty much required playing after finishing Golden Sun, so I'll likely purchase that a little later down the track.

Up next is Metroid Fusion, which'll be my first Metroid game ever so excite :samus:
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Metroid Fusion is my favorite Metroid game :birdo:

Although it is the most linear. Which is the only bad thing I have to say about it, everything else is amazing. The entire atmosphere and the antagonists are great!
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Alright, first impressions.

fuckin awesome

For those playing at home, the game starts out with Samus' ship slowly and eerily going off course and crashing into an asteroid. One might think this was a little case of space DUI, but as the succeding story shows, Samus was infected with a parasite (Parasite X, as the game calls it) from a recent expedition. This parasite posseses the ability to absorb and replicate the DNA of anything it infects, and Samus' body being infected for a long period of time caused her to be knocked unconscious as she approached the asteroids. Once her ejection pod was recovered, The Galactic Federation Force medical team tried to save Samus by fighting the infection, but to no avail until some genius thought of using a dna sample from the infant metroid (who I will henceforth refer to as THE BABY because memes) to create a cure. Conveniently, Metroids are the only natural predators of this parasite, so the cure saved Samus' life, though because parts of her suit were biologically connected to her and had to be removed via surgery to prevent reinfection, her new suit posseses a completely different design and function due to the DNA of THE BABY being in her system. She can still fire missiles/morph once she's been upgraded, but this suit also possesses the ability to absorb X parasites because of THE BABY's DNA. Yellow X parasites recover energy, Green X parasites give her missiles and Red X parasites do both, because this is a videogame.

However, Parasite X was not eradicated, and broke free from it's quarantine, and has started to infect the ship it was contained in. Samus journey's there with her condescending computer guide Adam to try and eradicate the virus before it spreads.

BUT THE VIRUS HAS TAKEN OVER SAMUS' SUIT AND IT'S SCARY BUT COOL AND AHHHH

Df is absolutely right, the atmosphere in the game is amazing. atm there's hardly any music, just ambient beeps/boops, but it adds to the creepiness of the whole thing. the opening story and the cutaways in the game afterward are done beautifully as well. that samus close-up with her dead eyes was pretty fuckin spooky.

currently trying to uninfect the atmospheric chambers and I've got one more to go. that first mini-boss was actually kind of tough because i wasn't used to the controls lol

become one with THE BABY
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Pi said:
I hope you're going for 100%
i assume that means grabbing all of the suit power-ups (extra missiles, etc.)? I can certainly try.
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

I can't wait for you to get to Sector 4. That area's awesome and it has the best song(s) in the game.
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

The Parasite X are probably my favorite things in the Metroid franchise (as of so far). They replicate DNA and steal their intelligence and just keep growing smarter. It's just amazing. Also

So my understanding that wasn't exactly clear in Fusion itself that the Chrozo created Metroids to defeat the Parasite X. Because they really thought that creating an overpowered parasite to defeat another overpowered parasite was a good idea. Which I do find this really ironic
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Threek said:
I can't wait for you to get to Sector 4. That area's awesome and it has the best song(s) in the game.
duly noted :samus:

Pi said:
GBAToad said:
i assume that means grabbing all of the suit power-ups (extra missiles, etc.)?
it just means that you're grabbing all collectibles and pickups and such

GBAToad said:
I can certainly try.
yay~
yup, i'm just trying to visit every room i can and keep an eye out for hidden things. i've got 2 energy tanks, 30 missiles and the charge shot atm, and i'm in the first save room for Sector 2.

also df since i don't want to spoil anything by quoting ur post, i'll just say that Sector 2's objective has me trying to avoid SA-X and obtain a new upgrade and i'm not sure my body is ready, SA-X is terrifying. turns out samus is weak to ice attacks because of THE BABY, which is cool

i'm actually loving this so much
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

had a little trouble with sector 4 because I couldn't work out which way led me to the boss lol

3k's right that beat was cool

I've just cleared sector 3. the Security robot was much harder than it was supposed to be. The hitbox on its weak point was jank. At first I tried shooting super missiles at it from above, but it didn't work at first? Then for some reason I managed to hit its weak point by having it land on a super missile while it jumped around, and it was so hard trying to do that multiple times lol. I actually defeated it in that way three times because I kept dying at the small group of enemies afterward before I learned that the first way I tried to kill it was right, and then it became much easier. the salt was real.

There was a brief cutaway earlier where Samus talks about the computer's similarities to Adam and thus why she named it after him. She said something along the lines of 'I feel like I can trust Adam', and that actually made me suspect that the computer was actually evil because murphy's law

Then after the X virus begins infesting areas that Adam has granted access to, I was like 'just stop opening doors???????'

But lo and behold after clearing sector 3, the computer is talking with someone about how Samus doesn't suspect a thing. a+

there has to be more to this, because honestly if the computer wanted to infect the whole ship then it could've easily done it by now instead of just stringing samus along going 'I'm helping you [nobbc]:D[/nobbc]' because samus is pretty much powerless at this point.
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

ok so I've got the varia suit and I've explored the whole ship pretty much. currently hunting down the security robot a second time.

nightmare was fun /s

i was not expecting to see ridley's body in the sub-zero chamber

also adam's getting pissy with me, stating he 'didn't expect me to obtain upgrades' lol stay mad

I'm sorry pi but I think I've missed some things that have been kinda difficult to go back and obtain. If there's a break before the final boss I'll try to go around and collect all of the tanks I've missed.

The music is outstanding and adds so much to the atmosphere of each area. The SFX can become a little grinding after a while (especially that fucking buzzing noise from those creatures in the overrun sector 2), but otherwise I'm loving every bit of this game and I'm excited to finish it today hopefully.
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

aw that ending was nice
and intense wow

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What a spectacular game. Being my first Metroid ever, I'm glad it was such an incredible experience because now I really want to play other games in the series. The atmosphere of Fusion was both nerve-wracking and motivating, as I was gripped by the story and the continuous progression of Samus' journey into the infected spaceship. The accompanying music was outstanding and really helped build that tension. However, if this is considered to be one of the more linear Metroid games then I'd probably agree because despite this progressive unlocking of doors, gaining powers, etc. it was very streamlined, i.e. you start from Adam, complete his given mission, and return to Adam so he can direct you to the next target. There wasn't a lot of room to branch out and explore and discover new areas yourself because there was usually only one path you could follow; any alternate paths usually wound you up in an area with a door you couldn't open yet or a dead end with a power up. So yeah, I'd say it was linear in that sense, but given that I haven't played any other Metroid games I certainly had fun exploring anyway. Returning to different areas in previous locations for later missions and seeing the changes in scenery (this is very noticeable in Sector 2, which starts out with these bug enemies that later die when you return, and later still, all that you can see of them is an exoskeleton.) was a cool detail, and helped establish the scope of which the X was deteriorating the ship.

The story was very understated for the first few sectors. At first it was just Samus trying (and failing) to contain the X despite being weak, but as the game progressed
It became clear why the Federation wanted Samus to preserve the ship. I began to suspect that the computer had an alterior motive from the beginning, but I hardly thought there'd be anything to do with Metroids in this game aside from THE BABY at the beginning. It took a dark turn once the Restricted Lab full of metroids was destroyed, and even darker once Samus vowed to blow up the ship before the Federation showed up to experiment on the X. It was very cathartic finally facing and killing the SA-X and diverting the ship to eradicate the rest of the parasite. But, the true 'oh shit' moment came once I returned to the ship and it was gone. Following that giant monster (that I assume is a Metroid or something because of its weakness to Samus' ice beam) nearly killing Samus before the SA-X showed up to grant Samus her last power, I was experiencing a mixture of excitement at finally reaching the end, and dread at the idea that if I lost, I might have to face the SA-X again lol

It's not explained why the SA-X showed up to defend Samus, though, especially after Samus' monologue about how soulless the X parasite is. I assume it's because it detected the Metroid as a predator and tried to kill it, but still that's the only nitpick I have with the story. Everything else was excellent.

also as soon as I saw a parasite run off from ridley's body I knew I'd have to face him at some point lol. aside from his screaming, it was a great boss battle

Welp, my clear time was 5:04 and I only got 55% of the collectables. honestly thought it'd be much higher but in retrospect there were heaps of areas inaccessible without using things you got later in the game like the screw attack. I've got the ability to go back and collect everything now because all of the doors that were sealed have been reopened now that I've reloaded the game, but I think I'm satisfied with the ending so I might do that later. lrn to collect harder scrub

that was the last GBA game i had that I hadn't played, so it'll be a little while before I can continue this thread again. I might get a GBA game next week after the Smash Bros. broadcast if I've got leftover credit from whatever they release (if anything, lol) so yeah. I'll either play Advance Wars, Wario Land 4 or FE7. this was fun so i'll certainly continue it again soon. :luigi:
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

A lot of the stuff in that game is VERY well hidden, so don't worry about it.
That giant creature thing is an Omega Metroid, which is almost always the final stage of a Metroid's growth. Oh yeah, did I mention all the Metroids you know and fear are just infants?
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Tuxedo Ridley said:
A lot of the stuff in that game is VERY well hidden, so don't worry about it.
That giant creature thing is an Omega Metroid, which is almost always the final stage of a Metroid's growth. Oh yeah, did I mention all the Metroids you know and fear are just infants?
I did see the Metroid evolution in the Restricted Lab, but there wasn't much for me to assume the last monster was a Metroid aside from its weakness to ice. That's nice to know regardless, and kinda settles my complaint about the SA-X's final actions

also it turns out i missed 9 energy tanks, holy crap. i can imagine how much easier the game would be had i found all of them x_x
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Pi said:
go back and get them and then play Zero Mission
ok don't hurt me

i've already begun searching. so far i've gotten 12/20 energy packs, 42/48 missile tanks and 12/32 p-bomb upgrades.

i'm in sector 1 atm and there's this upgrade which seems kinda impossible to get??? it's being blocked by super boost blocks, but they're placed in a way that they can't be broken. like there's room to charge a boost in the adjacent 3 rooms but then you enter this room and there's a huge wall that forces you to drop into a u bend in order to get it and everytime i fall the charge runs out?? halp

also df i'll definitely make Wario Land 4 my next purchase
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Beast Boy said:
GBAToad said:
also df i'll definitely make Wario Land 4 my next purchase
Yeah! It will make planning WLM easier.
i was gonna say that we could start planning wlm immediately after i finish WL4 but then i realised i've got to get GBAMafia completed first because i promised i'd get it started by the end of the year. D:

speaking of, playing these games has given me so many good ideas for roles/items. the second i get to a computer again imma gonna start writing an updated op for the game and announce some big changes that i've thought of which i'm excited to implement
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

GBAToad said:
Pi said:
go back and get them and then play Zero Mission
ok don't hurt me

i've already begun searching. so far i've gotten 12/20 energy packs, 42/48 missile tanks and 12/32 p-bomb upgrades.

i'm in sector 1 atm and there's this upgrade which seems kinda impossible to get??? it's being blocked by super boost blocks, but they're placed in a way that they can't be broken. like there's room to charge a boost in the adjacent 3 rooms but then you enter this room and there's a huge wall that forces you to drop into a u bend in order to get it and everytime i fall the charge runs out?? halp

also df i'll definitely make Wario Land 4 my next purchase

I believe you'll have to perform a series of shinesparks, not just one. Is it possible to show a picture of what it looks like so I can try and see what room it is?
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

that was the last GBA game i had that I hadn't played, so it'll be a little while before I can continue this thread again.
Time to pirate and get your tactics on
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

Meta Ridley said:
I believe you'll have to perform a series of shinesparks, not just one. Is it possible to show a picture of what it looks like so I can try and see what room it is?
i'll get a picture in a second but what is a shinespark?

Santa said:
that was the last GBA game i had that I hadn't played, so it'll be a little while before I can continue this thread again.
Time to pirate and get your tactics on
maybe shhhh
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

GBAToad said:
Meta Ridley said:
I believe you'll have to perform a series of shinesparks, not just one. Is it possible to show a picture of what it looks like so I can try and see what room it is?
i'll get a picture in a second but what is a shinespark?
It's a move that's never explained iirc http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Shinespark

Good luck trying to master it :dk:
 
Re: gba plays gba games (currently playing ~ Metroid Fusion)

A shinespark is a hidden technique that involves the speed booster. You basically run and once the speed booster is going, briefly push down. You should flash for a moment. If this happens quickly jump and push the dpad up left or right. If done correctly, you will be propelled in that direction.

This can be done to reach tricky speed boost blocks.

Another hidden technique that may help getting items is the wall jump. However you already have the space jump so there's no reason to wall jump but it is very useful for getting things early. If you wish to know how to all jump let me know
 
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