Question Wednesday #8: Free Space

[moon_hotel]

 Hey everyone. Sorry, there's no QWednesday this week--I'm not doing too well at the moment so I'm really tired. But I wanted to make a "free space" kind of post in the hopes that it'll spark conversation anyway. Feel free to ask questions, gripe about where you're stuck, post silly screenshots, anything!

And there's always the eternal question: What are you playing right now? (You can always ignore this if you're not playing anything or you don't want to talk about it.)

Comments

[moon_hotel]

I'm about to start playing Rainbow Silkroad for the NES, myself. Whenever I feel really down like this, I usually like to sink into a good (or even bad) RPG to make the hours pass. I also recommended Magic of Scheherazade to a friend of mine tonight, so I might replay that one as well. It's always been one of my favorites. Here's an incredibly charming ad for it as a bonus:

[jackvambrace]

I downloaded a save file for Lufia 2 and played the ancient cave side quest over lunch at work. It had actually been released as a stand alone game for old mobile phones I think? I just wanted an RPG for my phone that didn't want to sell me chances on a five star rare card or some junk. I think I just really dislike gambling so most Android rpgs I find are kinda off putting.

My wife wants to play Minecraft alot lately and I'm kinda burning out on it. I wish we had a pair of computers that could run it, console version just feels stifling by comparison.

Apparently Scott Cawthon is making a new RPG? Robot hypetrain?

[moon_hotel]

Ooh, I'm really interested to see an RPG by Scott Cawthon!! I wonder what kind of approach he's going to take!

I hear the console version of Minecraft is good but yeah, in comparison to the PC version I feel like it might get old after a while. Hopefully you'll be able to come to a good solution!

[jackvambrace]

He did three or four before Five nights at Freddy's blew up.
The Desolate Room is the first game he published, it's kinda rough, but pretty good for a first release.
Link here --> The Desolate Room

Legacy of Flan: Flan Rising has you playing a quartet of flans trying to save the world. Definitely has more polish than The Desolate Room. You get items from each enemy you defeat that can be used to tranform each of your heroes into different forms. Reminds me a lot of how the monster characters work in Saga Frontier/Final Fantasy Legends.
Link here --> Flan Rising

Iffermoon stars a young child named silence who is haunted my monsters. I actually haven't played that far into it, but I like it alot. It's very bright and colorful, and feels much more substantial than the previous creations.
Link here --> Iffermoon

If you only play one, I'd try Iffermoon, simply because it's the most refined entry here.

[tepidsnake]

Wishing you the best, madamluna!

I finally finished Mint's story in Threads of Fate. I enjoyed it so much! There's also a lot of optional scenes, apparently, some of which I might've missed on my run. I'm definitely missing one of the magic types for Mint, so I'd like to play through again sometime. I'll be doing Rue's story another time, as I've been playing this and another game cocurrently and doing that kinda wears me out on games a little.

So I'm playing some arcade games instead! Having some short, relatively simple games to fall back on is always good for me. Specifically, Undercover Cops, a fantastic scrolling brawler by Irem that had Metal Slug staff working on it (and you can tell, the game looks amazing) and Samurai Shodown IV for practice with my online friend (we played 3 last week which is a bit silly and broken, but this looks like an improvement).

On the subject of fighting games, Karin got announced for Street Fighter V so I know they're basically just adding all my favourite characters. Just need to wait for Q~

[moon_hotel]

Oh yeah, I really want to check out Undercover Cops! That sounds incredible. I'm kind of surprised I haven't heard of it before...a brawler by the Metal Slug staff!!

Yeah I heard about the Karin news and immediately thought of you :^) I really hope we see some characters from III come back too...because...I really love Necro..............

[tepidsnake]

Yeah, Undercover Cops is really good. It's pretty obscure like a few of Irem's mid-90s arcade games, sadly! The one thing is you have to play the Japanese version- the World/US version, for some reason, is missing several moves (the wake-up attack, the running-jump attack, and the super-secret screen-clearing move) and has worse-quality music. These problems aren't in the Japanese version or a rerelease called Alpha Renewal. Sadly, the game was included in Irem Arcade Hits for PC but it's the US version!

And yep, it's nice to have Karin back! They've mostly added Alpha characters who weren't in 4 to 5 so far, so Necro has a chance since he wasn't there either!

[modernmodron]

I can tell you what I WISH I was playing ... UNDERTALE T_T im easing the pain of "no game purchases" by plaing the FTP marvel diablo-like

[inevitableentresol]

Still playing Zelda: Link's Awakening.

[moon_hotel]

How far are you? That's such a sweet game, it's really close to my heart, even though I haven't beaten it.

[inevitableentresol]

The storyline is pretty deep forsuch a simple little game. Are we all really living in a dream?

Also, Wind Fish. Lol.

It is a sweet game.

I'm right at the last dungeon. It's my third time playing it, but the first time I've played it on 3DS. I played it twice on Gameboy before that.

There's an extra feature in the DX version. A photographer pops up and takes Link's photo at random points in the game! It's pretty funny.

I always use a walkthrough for this game, except for the first time I did it. There are good ones on YouTube and gamefaqs.

I meant to ask, what's the definition of an indie game for this comm? I don't think I play many indie games, but I'm not sure.

[moon_hotel]

Yeah I should use a walkthrough as well...I really would like to beat it someday :^)

Hmm...I try not to sweat definitions of "what is an indie game," especially nowadays when the lines between "high-budget indie" and "just a straight up AAA game" are blurred a little more than they used to be. I usually think of "indie" as "made by a small studio of, say, 100 or less people," which is a pretty forgiving definition.

The definition of "niche" in rainbowgames is pretty flexible too...I intend it to mean "anything that doesn't have a presence in popular culture," so like, Mario as a whole is really mainstream, but Picross 2 is niche as hell. Final Fantasy is mainstream, but Final Fantasy II JP has gone almost completely under the radar outside of Japan. I might end up dropping the "niche" from the header completely, eventually.

[inevitableentresol]

This is the most active general games commentary on DW, that I can tell. A wider umbrella would be nice.

I know hardly anyone in RL that I can talk video games with, so even Zelda and Final Fantasy are unheard of to them. I think the general public might just have heard of Mario and FIFA and Wii Fit, Grand Theft Auto and nothing much else. Oh, and Professor Layton is big here in Europe even among non-gamers. On top of that, Candy Crush and Angry Birds and that's it.

The only reason I didn't use a walkthrough for my first playthrough of Link's Awakening was that I was staying with my parents for a week and didn't have internet. Walkthroughs all the way!

I always get stuck on those columns of the Eagle Tower, every time.

Nice comm. :)

[moon_hotel]

You've convinced me! I've just updated the header/profile without the "niche" and I'm going to make a post about it. Thank you very much for your feedback, I really appreciate it! I would love if this community got bigger and attracted more Dreamwidth members.

[inevitableentresol]

I'd like it to be enjoyed by more too. I understand your worries about the comm being taken over by the bigger franchises, but I follow a few specific games comms and even they aren't that active on DW. There might be short bursts of interest when new big games come out, but that's about it.

Perhaps if there was a banner or something it would help in advertising the comm? I think I found you by searching interests, so adding more niche games to that list would also help.

If I can make one request, it would be to please change the comm layout. When I view the comm directly in portrait format on my tablet, which is my usual way to read DW, it squashes the text into a long thin column about three words wide, making it almost impossible to read the posts. This is the only comm I have this problem with. I nearly didn't subscribe until I remembered on my reading list it would format comm posts into my standard format. I only just discovered today that the problem disappears when I turn to landscape, but it took me months to find out.

The colours in the layout are lovely, though.

[moon_hotel]

Hmm, yeah, if the layout is unreadable on a tablet then that's no good at all. I just changed the layout on the community--how does it look now?

[inevitableentresol]

Fantastic! I can now enjoy it in all its glory.

Thank you!

[tetsuro_hoshino999]

I want to play Tempo the Badass Elephant sometime soon. But I don't really have the spendable money to pay for the PC download right now.

Yeah, I guess the definition of indie games can be kind of loose. I still feel kind of bad for not talking too much about indie games in this community (other than Gamefreak's more obscure works). I don't really have the time to seek out indie games let alone play them. So I'm kind of at a lost on what indie games I should look into...

[chocomarsh]

In a rare departure from games made more than 20 years ago, I picked up We Know The Devil and Undertale this week, and I'm trying to get thru both of them before spoilers become common on the internet. I haven't started Undertale yet, because Devil grabbed me that hard. I finished one ending, and I'm midway to another, and it's good enough that I'm putting every (rare) spare moment into it.

PS I hope you feel better soon, Luna! Thank you for keeping this wonderful group active and well-populated.