This Old Neon Forum

I've been playing another Touhou game. ...Did I mention I like Touhou?

This time it's a Touhou fighting game, but it's special. That may sound cliche, but I'm not trying to overhype this game. This game isn't special because it's particularly amazing, but because of the following reasons:

-This is the first official Touhou game that will be translated in English.
-This particular Touhou game is on Steam.
-This is a Touhou fighting game, not a shoot em up.
-Combining them all together, this is the first official Touhou fighting game that is released on Steam and will have an official English translation.

You can find the game here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/71671 ... n_Flowers/

By the way, there's no real need to wait for the official English translation. There's actually an English fan patch out already. Although the skill card names are buggy and some text goes through dialogue bubbles, the rest of the game is completely serviceable. Since it's a fighting game, the minor inconveniences related to these text-based errors are no big deal at all.

At the relatively bargain price of $25.00, I feel like this game is a good deal. I played about 4 hours online with a friend and while the game was very confusing at first, after awhile I really started to get into it. The game is great for scrubs at fighting games like me as there are no complicated inputs whatsoever. Everything is done with a few buttons and directional inputs. No need to worry about shoryuken or quarter circle motions or anything like that. Gameplay is somewhat unique as it all takes place in the air. You can fly above or below opponents; some attacks are more useful depending on your position relative to the opponent's. Battles are also 2v2 affairs, though both characters share a healthbar. Switching characters can sometimes allow you to recover some of your HP.

There are 19 characters in the game in total. I've heard some complaints about the roster, but I personally like it a lot. It features a good mix of both older and newer Touhou characters. My personal favorite character so far is Doremy Sweet, based on a Japanese monster known as a baku who devours dreams. In Touhou terms...that means she throws beds and sheep at people. She also can transform...into this:



It's very silly, and it's also very fun.

I've heard the game has mediocre netcode. My personal experience has been great so far, but that might be because my friend lives in the next city over from me. I'm not sure the game even has online lobbies, so if you want to play then you gotta host, share the code it gives you in-game with somebody else and then have them input it.

Haven't had a lot of gaming time lately! But I've been playing the following.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap: This game is excellent. Since I bought a Master System a few years ago, this one has been on my list, but my lack of urgency to get it paid off. This remake is as good as remakes get. It's as true to the original as any I've ever played, while also being 100% fresh aesthetically. That it takes only one or two very minor liberties with the original gameplay is also a testament to the SMS classic. Great game so far.

3D After Burner II: I was inspired to pick this up when it was revealed that Data-Discs would be doing a vinyl for its soundtrack. For six bucks, it's a steal. It is to ports what Wonder Boy is to remakes: flawless. Tons of audiovisual options, 100% control over button mapping, great use of the 3D effect. Just a home run.

Good monthly update:

I beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Super meat Boy, which I was working on in my last update. My gaming hasn't been too heavy lately overall.

Golf Story - Main game I've been playing over the last couple days. Game has gotten into a good stride now and the difficulty is picking up. The oddball humour is working for me.

Splatoon 2 - I've been putting most of my time into this over the last few weeks. 165 hours in now, still great. Been playing some assorted modes, trying new weapons, playing multiplayer with the girlfriend. It's a game we always come back to.

Bayonetta 2 - sloooowly going through this one. It was suffering a bit from my back log. Once I finish Golf Story I'll feel ready to give this attention. Otherwise the game has been great.

Doom - picked it up on sale for switch, another one that has both been suffering from my backlog and me losing my switch for a week and a half when I sent it in.

The first real 2018 game I've decided to play is Ni No Kuni 2. I have no idea why I decided to go with this game. I don't particularly care for Studio Ghibli animation*, I never played the first Ni No Kuni and I haven't been following the second game at all. I noticed Ni No Kuni 2 came out and got positive reviews, so I decided to give it a shot.

So far I am enjoying the story a lot, but the difficulty feels a bit too easy. Battles feel a bit too shallow for my taste. Mechanically it's "fun," but this doesn't seem to have the same level of complexity or depth as a Tales game, for instance.

The PC port has run pretty well for me thus far. No complaints on that front.

I'm only 4 hours into the game so maybe it will get tougher later on.

*-This isn't to say I dislike Studio Ghibli animation. It's more like I don't really watch that much anime in general and barely am familiar with their work, which I am told is a main draw for this series.

The animation in the game is nice, but you don't have to be familiar with their other work for it to be a draw. Just their work in this game.

In NNK1, it did take a while for the combat to get more complex and difficult—certainly more than 4 hours—but even then it never reached the level of a particularly difficult RPG.

The animation is very impressive actually. There's a lot of little details that I noticed as I was playing tonight. Evan's cape will flutter in areas that are supposed to be windy for instance. Characters also have different animations when they walk down steps. Characters will turn their heads to look at other characters as they're moving. They also have various idle animations.

I'm about 10 hours in. The game definitely does open up, but it takes a good while. I feel like it didn't really become "good" from a gameplay perspective until around Chapter 4. At that point you can start taking on sidequests, expanding your kingdom, exploring more of the world and properly taking on more challenging foes.

From what I heard, the second Ni No Kuni differs greatly from the first in terms of its gameplay. The second game is basically an action RPG. It's similar to Tales but overall a lot more streamlined and simplistic. I find it mostly enjoyable but a bit too far on the easy side. I feel like this game could have benefited substantially from some kind of difficulty slider.

Do you think you'll be inclined to check out NNK1 after you're done with this one? There's no kingdom-building, but there is some monster-collecting.

It's not on PC, so definitely not. Maybe if it gets ported?

I've been contemplating buying Ni Oh(other than the similar sounding name there is no relation) but the download size keeps scaring me off.

I’m playing a few games, as usual.

I started Piers Solar and the Great Architects recently to celebrate another Genesis compilation cooking out soon. I’m a few hours into it and am quite enjoying myself so far.

I’m also playing the first NNK, which I restarted due to how much time passed since I last bailed. This game is just beautiful.

Finally I’m still working on Kholat and Asscreed Origins.

My gaming has lulled a bit over the last month or so, haven't had a whole lot of new games to play.

Due to this I ended up playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 again on new game plus. Overall it was fun going through the game again, used a few different Blade and Driver combinations this time around. It was tough balancing the difficulty due to being over powered

I've also been regularly playing Splatoon 2. I've been building up a lot of ability chunks for whenever I want to slap them on some new clothes.

I've started playing Thimbleweed Park again over the last couple days, which continues to be enjoyable. Lots of characters and threads to manage now.