[Schwere Viper]

Having never finished the original I'm leaning more and more in favour of going back and playing that and THEN coming back to finish this version. As much as I like the graphical style and MOST of the new music I find myself missing the original aesthetic way too much. The mails from Xelpud are adorable.

Anyway, I bought a copy for myself and a copy for my friend, so I have the fuzzy warm feeling you get from supporting the cool dudes at NIGORO. And that is worth more than what I paid. ;_;7
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Blog: Machines That Sing

[Schwere Viper]

I am actually getting places in the original version! Made a ton of progress today - got further than I ever have before and took down Sakit, Ellmac and Bahamut!

This feeling! I haven't felt it for so long!
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HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[Schwere Viper]

Just finished playing through the original on Sunday, which was incredible overall. So far I'm doing okay in the new version at about five hours with the first four guardians ticked off. I'm really digging all the minor changes that have been made, especially with veterans in mind - I'm having to keep on my toes, even with prior knowledge!

The new twist on the treasure chest puzzle in Temple of Moonlight was interesting, and the lead-up to the Confusion Gate was just wonderful. It kind of caught me off guard at first; I thought maybe they had thrown in a new area for kicks!

Sadly, my traipse through there was short-lived thanks to a certain explosive surprise. Still having a blast, though. This game is amazing!
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HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing

[Schwere Viper]

I finished playing the remake a few days ago myself, having played through the original game a week or so prior.

The remake is far more accommodating to new players and gives far more leeway in learning how the game works and getting accustomed to its peculiar sense of humour. While the graphics and sound seem to be fairly dividing, I think the new graphical style works well by presenting the game in a 16/32-bit era style in contrast to the original's 8-bit look, and while personally I do much prefer the original's MSX chip instrumentation I can't say I was offended by the new music. Puzzles remain mostly the same throughout the game and still require you to be attentive to both the information given to you as well as your surroundings. New and slight reimaginings of some puzzles pop up where you'd least expect them, but most of them still fit in with the rest of the game very well. The bosses and sub-bosses both gain new movesets and in some cases complete overhauls thanks to the new game engine, and they remain as challenging as ever. I like this remake, but there are some questionable choices made, and unfortunately I'm going to sound very nitpicky pointing them out.

At two points in the game you are required to perform a specific action that makes no sense in relation to the rest of the game's logic. In the Gate of Illusion there is a section where you must find hidden warps in order to proceed deeper into the field. At one point, you must destroy a pot and then stand on top of where it was standing and press down to descend into the ground Mario-style and warp to a previously unreachable area. Now, with absolutely zero visual cues to even hint at that action being an option, I have to call bullshit on this. I will concede that it makes more sense when you have to do it a second time (where you must press down to descend INTO a pot and warp to a completely different section of the ruins), but the first time really left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Another thing that got me was that for some reason the designers decided to make certain treasures - quite a few of them actually! - equippable and usable. Now for the most part this works out quite nicely and adds quite a bit to certain parts of the game since the player has a hand in making pretty big things happen. However, there are a few places where it becomes an outright annoyance. One example that comes straight to mind involves the Pochette Key and Palenque, the guardian of the Gate of Extinction.

When you start the battle with Palenque, you need to use the Pochette Key to start your small aircraft in order to actually begin the battle. If you don't, Lemeza slides off-screen, the screen fades to black and then fades back in on him standing in Palenque's chamber with the ankh gone, requiring you to either reload your save or run around getting the Ankh Jewel and summoning the ankh again. Now this wouldn't be so irritating in itself if there were some sort of cue letting the player know that they need to perform this INCREDIBLY SPECIFIC ACTION RIGHT NOW, but there isn't! It also doesn't help that this is the only guardian in the game that requires you to use an item aside from the Ankh Jewel to truly start a battle. Why don't I have to unlock a seal on Tiamat with the Infinity Key, for example? This is made even more confusing when I don't have to manually use the Medicine of Life on Mother's broken likeness during the endgame!

I could poke at some of the information-related puzzles I had a lot of trouble with as well, but in all honestly they all ended with me slapping my forehead and realizing it was my fault for either not paying attention or not exploring enough. Again, I like this new version, but for the reasons I've detailed among a few others - mostly those of personal taste - I think I'll always prefer the original.

[Schwere Viper]

[Schwere Viper]

This is now super-cheap and has the original music included!

http://la-mulana.com/en/blog/new-release-information.html
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Blog: Machines That Sing

[Schwere Viper]

[Schwere Viper]

I still think that really is one of the worst ideas in the game. If not THE worst.
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HeavyViper@Twitter ~~~ HeavyViper@Soundcloud
Blog: Machines That Sing