Round 6: The Belt of Hippolyta

[This Old Neon]

Round 6: The Belt of Hippolyta

You can vote for 1-5 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The top 5 games at the end of the week will move on to Round 7: The Top 128 Qualifiers.

1987 - R-Type - Arcade/TG16
1993 - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs - Arcade/PC
1993 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening [DX] - GB/GBC
1997 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PS1
1999 - Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia - PC
2003 - Shin Megami Tensei: [Nocturne / Lucifer's Call] - PS2
2003 - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - GBA
2004 - Gran Turismo 4 - PS2
2004 - Shadow Hearts: Covenant - PS2
2005 - Ninja Gaiden Black - XB

You are encouraged to discuss your choices and your reasons for selecting the games you did.

[Humphries90]

Not saying these are bad games, but I really haven't played any of them enough to justify giving them my vote.

[Turai]

Only played a single game here ( symphony) and I don't think it's good enough to get a vote so I'm abstaining.

[VictorViper]

Came real close to using all off votes in this bracket, but stuck to R-Type and GT4 got the votes. R-Type earns an instant place for being one of the true pioneering giants of the genre (not to mention still a blast to play). GT4 remains DISPUTABLY the best racer of all time - I nominated Drive Club as the one true competitor for that honour.

[Kong Wen]

Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow are contenders for the best overall action-exploRPG games out there. I'd put Metroid Fusion and Guacamelee! on that list as well. Maybe a couple others. These are masterfully-executed games with systems that are engaging and fun. They also have among the best world/castle design in the series. They both deserve to advance from here.

[Forscyvus]

again, still haven't played SOTN but I know about the inverted castle so already got my vote.

[Kong Wen]

again, still haven't played SOTN but I know about the inverted castle so already got my vote.

You now have just under a week to get some SOTN under your belt before you face a similar conundrum in the next round.

[Sharecrow]

As I won't get another opportunity to give Shadow Hearts: Covenant props in a poll that it is on, I thought I'd clarify a little bit why I love this game so much and why it works so well.

First of all, please note that this is a sequel to a fantastic early-PS2 RPG, Shadow Hearts. That game makes fun of itself a little along the way. It is set in the early 1900's in Europe. It has a kind of dark tone to it, but also is occassionally whimsical and silly. The result is a unique tone that is really engaging. Metal Gear Solid games kind of do this, too (a mixture of darkness and silliness), but Shadow Hearts handles it a little differently and it is obviously a different genre, too.

The combat is turn based, but it doesn't use menus like most turn-based RPG's do for attacks. Each character has its own wheel that has a pointer that will spin on it and you have to time your buttons to hit within their hit areas on the wheels. Each character's wheel areas are placed differently. As a neat touch, it also rewards you for cutting it close (you'll hit harder). And you may have three different hit areas in your wheel and, as long as you don't miss one, you can get a hit in each one. That's ideal but if you miss the second one you'll still get to strike the enemy from your first hit. I hope that makes sense. It works really well, though.

One neat thing about this system is that status effects actually impact you. In Final Fantasy, if you get blinded, it tells you your character can't see, you may have some black fog around your character's eyes to remind you, and you're almost guaranteed to miss anyone you try to strike. In Shadow Hearts, if you get blinded, your hit areas are invisible and you have to go from memory of that character's hit areas, the timing that works, and etc. There are other status effects that will speed up your spinner or make its movement speed erratic, and that type of thing. It's neat because even if you're blinded, you have a handicap but you can still pull off fighting well if you're good and maybe a little lucky.

I loved the first game and completed it. The second one, though, I loved even more. It did some refinements to the battle system that also allowed you to do coordinated attacks with other party members. It was the same type of game the first one was but with some nice tweaks to how it worked. You had Yuri, the main character from the first one, but your other characters were new. What worked even better, though, is the story. That mixture of skill and chance that can sometimes make a good work great manifested itself here and, to this day, there are two scenes in the game that stand out in my mind as the most moving and awesome scenes I have ever experienced in any game. Ever. Part of that is for personal reasons; however, part of it was just that it really is a well-done game. I completed it, too.

If either make their way to PSN as a classics, I'll pounce on them if only to add them to my digital library. I'd probably play them again, too, as it's been a while and, also, you can't have too much of a good thing. Right???

Edit: For anyone that isn't following my explanation on the wheel, this video spells it out better than I did. Plus you can see it. It's easy to understand and use.

[Kong Wen]

GT4 remains DISPUTABLY the best racer of all time - I nominated Drive Club as the one true competitor for that honour.

I wonder how you'll feel about DriveClub VR, given your love of one and distaste for the other.

[VictorViper]

Distaste? I may not be super hot on VR, but driving games are why a Morphed purchase is assured. Can't wait'Can't!