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Playing through "Knights of the Round" as Perceval, and then checking out the other games in the bundle a little too 'cause it's been a while!
Wikipedia says "Perceval" is an alias for "Percival."
Turns out my eyes are a bit less stressed out these days and the flashing FX in these games for the most part (that flashing tunnel at the beginning of Final Fight is way worse than it was in the PS3 version somehow though, bleh--and anyway I really got sick of FF playing through the PS3 version, it just got ridiculously pile-on and cheap-ish) don't bother them that much, which MEANS I can actually consider playing them. ^ _^ And they SEEM fun as long as I don't pick sluggish characters maybe... Well okay the pacing of Battle Circuit actually feels way too slow; it ruins the pacing trying to impress you with zany graphics. And I'm a little worried Captain Commando and Warriors of Fate would turn out to feel slow, but I can't tell for sure without really giving them a try. The King of Dragons really seems to have great pacing though, it's such a drastic improvement vs Knights of the Round, which DEFINITELY dragged hard. And Armored Warriors, at least as Justice, really zipped; my notes from my last play of it, as Rash https://youtu.be/HI-y-SNJz30 , were a little ambivalent, saying it was hard to relate to robot limbs flying everywhere.
I think maybe overall beat-em-ups from other companies, like Konami's X-Men or Vendetta, are more my speed these days, but also I've played them more recently so I can't be sure yet. (I'd like to try some of the old SNK NEOGEO ones again but those are DEFINITELY too flashy, d-argh.)
Anyway guides on GameFAQs about Knights of the Round say you do press attack and back or just back as you're being attacked and there's a parry or something and you're invincible for a few seconds; I sure couldn't manage to do that but I'm terrible with parry or counter mechanics in every single game ever so I suppose that's no surprise; without that I couldn't get in more than one hit at a time in this game and yeah it was just torture. I'm not good enough and I guess it's just not one for me! Although if you check out say the Replay Burners Perceval Speedrun https://youtu.be/7CytDdFUCx4 they don't bother defending, it's just all about flawless single strong axe swipes; I could barely even do hit Attack + Jump power attack! Which seems to fail if you're inputting a stick direction at the same time--whyyyyy?
Man horses were just death traps for me.
Anyway I don't like it. : P
It's just so boring, like nothing interesting happens, it's just whack whack whack, slowly. Contrast with the first few minutes of Knights of the Round(Nov 1991, vs KotR's August '98), where there are magic spells zapping off and entire castle floors collapsing! KotR bosses are big and slow and just sort of blow up for body flop on you since you're way too slow to get away easily. Your character evolves visually as you "level up" but it makes zero difference in how it feels to play.
You can't throw anyone in KotR, or pick up any weapons. My character went bald and my useless horse upstaged me for the final shot of the final scene 0:55:00 and I guess that's how I kind of feel about it.
The game plays in a 16:9 window with static graphic sidebars--I cropped those off for the recording to fit better on portrait-mode cell phone screens or whatnot.
In Armored Warriors, "Justice's" actual name is Ray Turner:
Rash: 1st Lt Jeff Perkins
Justice: Captain Ray Turner
Gray: Major Glenn Reed
Siren: 2nd Lt Sarah White
Warriors of Fate Japanese version (Tenchi wo Kurau 2) and manga names:
Portor: Guan Yu, Kan-U
Kassar: Zhang Fei, Cho-Hi
Subutai: Zhao Yun, Cho-Un
Kadan: Huang Zhong, Ko-Chu
Abaka: Wei Yan, Gi-En
Captain Commando Japanese or other names for the non-title characters:
Mummy: Mack the Knife, Jennety
Ninja: Ginzu the Ninja, Sho
Baby: Baby Head, Fuba, Hoover |
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"The King of Dragons" might be my new favorite Capcom beat 'em up--just a super-fun game! Clearly became a prototype for Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom two years later, but much faster-paced and colorful. Straight up swiped stuff from Golden Axe from two years earlier. ; ) |
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| | | | Oh yeah the one awkward thing about KoD seemed to be that--aside from the herb thing that represents your credit's second character life but I guess is meant to be more of a "resurrect" vibe : P--you get a hit-both-buttons magic flame strike per life--don't ask how, it's quite useful--but the UI doesn't show you that you have it or have used it, you just gotta remember. |
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Forget that it runs slightly wider than 4:3 so I accidentally cut off the left and right edges of the game screen just a tad, blargh. ]]_[[
Well, this reminded me that I don't really like this Armored Warriors, it's so messy. Probably kind of fun to do the two-player transformation in multiplayer--then again, given how frustrating some things in single-player are, maybe that's got drawbacks too. Lots of cool stuff in the game but also problems and the boss fights seem to be just a lot of getting hit back and forth; sometimes you can get a handy arm or leg piece that will enable you to avoid attacks for a little while but eventually someone will just tear it off and then it's back to getting jumped on or stabbed in the back constantly because even Reptos, apparently one of the faster mechs, is still kinda slow and clunky; I find trying to maintain decent gear much more stressful than fun--didn't help that Reptos' starting gun is really weak, and the game is bizarrely stingy with dropping better guns through most of the stages.
Didn't find the Subweapon+Jump full-screen bomb/hurt-yourself move until afterwards. : P |
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| | | Playing through Tenchi wo Kurau II: Sekiheki no Tatakai ("The Devouring of Heaven and Earth II: Battle of Red Cliffs"), the Japanese version of Warriors of Fate, from Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle on PS4, as Kan-U ("Portor" in the US version)!
The game is based on the manga of the same name, which is based on the 14th century Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, set in China from 184 to 280 AD, in China's Three Kingdoms period. The game changed the names of the characters from the manga and novel slightly: Kan-U is the historical Chinese general Guan Yu, for instance.
The US version of the game switched to a made-up country, and characters with Mongolian names. Dunno why. Wanted to stick to the original setting so I played the Japanese version. There isn't much actual story in the game so I don't think I missed much, although you have to make a text-based choice right at the end and I don't know which I picked (whatever the first option was) ; it led to a final battle that was the most anti-climactic last battle I may ever had had in a beat-em-up.
Hm, in the US version playthrough I watched, there was no text choice, and the super anti-climactic fight just happened, but with a very short time limit. : P
Dang, all the Japanese version play-throughs I've watched just pick the first option. : P
Okay the FAQ on GameFAQs says it's a choice of killing him or letting him go (or in the US version, allowing the fight to time out). If you let him go, you don't get the final stage bonus, and uh well I got a happy ending, let's just say if you don't kill him you get a DIFFERENT ending.
The FAQ also filled me in on a few trick moves, "Charge Knockdown" and "Killer Attack":
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Basic Combo Press A (x3)
-Throw Ender Hold u or d anytime before the last A of combo
Item Pick Up Press A when over an item
Charge Knockdown Press d+B or df+B
Killer Attack Press d,u+A
Desperation Attack Press A+B simultaneously
Grab Enemy Press f near enemy
-Throw After successful grab, press f+A or b+A
-Choke/Stab After successful grab, press A (x3)
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The attacks are cool and it's maybe the most fun battle system in the Bundle. But it isn't my favorite game in the Bundle and that's mostly because there's very little variation in the encounters throughout the game; after you've gone through the first stage, you've pretty much seen what the game is going to offer. And it's a bit longer than the other games, so it does start to drag a bit. |
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Playing through The King of Dragons in Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle on PS4 as Cleric!
I was really impressed with King of Dragons the first time I played through, as Fighter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygbgYn-Fp7M , but this Cleric play-through left me yawning and dispirited. The game is slightly longer than most beat-em-ups and really started to drag; it maybe about doubles its natural length by using color swaps or "now there are two of them" variations of bosses; the bosses are either complete chumps, or super cheap, and you've basically got two moves: standing bonk or jumping bonk.
It does have nice and very colorful art, but the gameplay is kind of slow and weightless. I wonder if maybe Cleric, the largest character on the character select screen, is slightly slower than Fighter, and that helped tip me over to a more negative reaction. But I don't usually mind slower characters in beat-em-ups anyway, so I dunno if it's anything like that anyway. |
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