[PC] [MAC] [PSP] [WII] [3DS] Doukutsu Monogatari

[Molloy]

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/pc/doukutsumonogatari/

Nice review. I similarily got rather bored after an hour and didn't bother continuing. It's patronisingly easy. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot if the ratio of action to exploration was higher and the difficulty was increased. The music and graphics while not outstanding have a certain charm.

[Volteccer_Jack]

I quite liked a couple of the bosses, like Monster X and island's core for example. Otherwise, though, I totally agree. Bland, and just too easy to hold your attention.

By the way, I'm loving the new review layout.

[TheBob]

There is a bonus and more difficult hell area at the end of the game, assuming you complete certain conditions during the main game. You might like that part of the game more Molloy, however, its only 10 minutes or so the first time you play it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3K48x3hx94

[JoshF]

That looks cool. Even more disappointing when someone has the talent to design nice levels and chooses not to. I wonder if people have made the connection between easy games and bad level design yet. Maybe that's an article I have to write.

[Volteccer_Jack]

Volteccer, are those bosses near the end? I remember some of the end bosses being far more challenging than the rest.

You fight Monster X in a tunnel a little ways before the swimming section. There's a screenshot of it in the review. The core is even later. The only bosses I can think of that come after the core are the set of bosses in the last level.

[MjFrancis]

This review has been needed for a very long time. The story of Pixel's labor is more enthralling than the game itself - no wonder the artfags praised it so much.

[bullethell]

I tried to like this game, I even forced myself to play it for a few hours to see what this legendary game is all about. But I couldn't enjoy it and stopped playing it. Then I checked again the internet. Who was wrong? Me or the internet? Anyways, nothing special about it and there are so many other good 2D Action games (even 2D Doujin ones) as icy already said that I don't know why people spent or want to spend time with this.

You can spend some time with it and have fun for a while but there are many better games out there like Wonder Boy in the Monsterland (Super Wonder Boy in Monster World), Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Monster World II Dragon No Wana), Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru (Psychic Killer Taromaru), Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Spirit, Shadow of the Beast, Rastan and many more.

[Naoshige]

I always thought at least the music was outstanding.

So did you fight the real last boss, Icy? And played that Hell Stage? I missed both on my first playthrough but after finding out still wasn't motivated enough to start over. I guess most people 'miss' it (or skip it, if you want). It seriously makes me want to shout to every new guy playing that game "Hey, at that and that time don't forget to do this and this or you will skip the most fun parts!". If I ever wrote a review about Doukutsu Monogatari, I'd set up this hidden boss and stages as a negative point in it. Hidden content is even more annoying than unlockable content, since you always end up blaming yourself for missing it...

Also, somehow I got the impression that you criticized the game's graphics and music for their, well, I hope I can finally use this word in this context, retro-ness. Don't focus on that term since I don't have the vocabulary and education to find a better word for what I mean. What I'm trying to get at is:

What do you think about the Wiiware remake? Many advocates of the original game thought that it was a bad idea to improve the bitrate of the music and resolution of the sprites, that trying to make it look and sound better actually made it look and sound worse. So when I read your review it somehow sounded to me like you would maybe prefer playing the remake over the original version.

So I wonder, do you consider the changes as an improvement or not? E.g.

http://nicalis.com/blog/2009/05/23/cave ... ison-hero/
http://nicalis.com/blog/2009/06/09/a-ne ... sand-zone/
http://nicalis.com/blog/2008/11/05/cave ... age-tiles/

[icycalm]

By the way, I'm loving the new review layout.

Layout courtesy of Recap, logos courtesy of Ronan.

I wonder if people have made the connection between easy games and bad level design yet. Maybe that's an article I have to write.

Sounds interesting. I am trying to make the connection but failing. Perhaps I need to think about it a bit more. The connection that I see, however, is between easy games and lack of complexity. Lack of difficulty simply kills complexity, even if your game is powered by such a complex engine as Civilization's. This connection will be developed fully in an upcoming article. But I would be very interested in reading yours too.

I always thought at least the music was outstanding.

Perhaps it is. I did not listen to the whole soundtrack, but the first few tracks at least, with perhaps one or two exceptions, I did not like.

So did you fight the real last boss, Icy? And played that Hell Stage?

"The real last boss", lol. "The Hell Stage", lol. You are a JRPG fag aren't you? That's how they reply to any objections of lack of difficulty in their elaborate screen-savers: "BUT THERE'S A HIDDEN BOSS IN A DOWNLOADABLE UNLOCKABLE DUNGEON WHICH YOU CAN REACH IF YOU FINISH THE GAME FOUR TIMES, AND IT IS REALLY HARD!"

Fuckin' retards.

I missed both on my first playthrough

"First playthrough", lol. I really should start banning people who have such terrible taste that they would be willing to go through shit like this several times without a gun pointed at their heads.

Hidden content is even more annoying than unlockable content, since you always end up blaming yourself for missing it..

Here's a newsflash for you: Hidden/unlockable content is only of relevance in great games. In every other kind of game it might as well not be there.

As for your questions about the graphics, etc., I am sorry but I am not going to wade into that swamp for you. The graphics in this game, taken as a whole, both in technical and aesthetic terms, SUCK. This has nothing to do with "retroness" or other such gay concepts. Daimakaimura's graphics, for example, are amazing, a work of art in every way imaginable, both technically and in terms of aesthetics, and the hardware it ran on was worlds behind of what is necessary to run Cave Story.

Bottom line is that lack of talent is lack of talent, and the number of people involved in a project has nothing to do with it, nor the amount of time each of them has put into it.


By the way... if anyone wants to suggest other indie games for me to look into in the context of my "Darlings of Indie Gaming" series, start a new thread and educated me about them. I encourage people to do this for every indie game they want to see me review.

[icycalm]

Some hilarious feedback:

Alex Kierkegaard's Cave Story review: http://insomnia.ac/reviews/... (In his typically harsh, but honest, writing style!)

http://twitter.com/mossmouth/status/2398233444

@mossmouth yeah, derek, why would you link to insomnia.ac like there was anything of value to be found there?

http://twitter.com/auntiepixelante/status/2399287557

@auntiepixelante Haha, I really enjoy reading Insomnia...! A different approach to video game theory. But understandably unpopular.

http://twitter.com/mossmouth/status/2399756959

Note that "mossmouth" is Derek Yu, a well known independent game developer who also runs the TIGSource, perhaps the most well-known indy gaming blog (or at least that's what it looks like to me, with my limited knowledge of the field...), and "auntiepixelante" is Anna Anthropy, an artdyke (literally, she is a lesbian, who moreover wastes no opportunity in making sure you are aware of this fact) who makes crappy third-rate indie games (imagine that, not merely third-rate games, but third-rate INDIE games -- it doesn't get any lower than this).

The funny thing is that Derek seems to be a big fan of the site, and even went as far as to email me and offer help with designing the banners for the reviews. He must be a big man to react so positively to all the bile I've been hurling in his part of the industry's general direction -- I wonder how he'd feel if I one day reviewed any of his games. I am not even sure what kinds of games he makes, but he seems to be very highly respected within his field. Anyway, I will try to avoid doing this. It's nice to have the occasional respected personality come out and declare in favor of what we do here.

Moving on, lol:

http://harveyjames.livejournal.com/131440.html

Here's some drawings I did for the upcoming release of Cave Story on Nintendo Wiiware, as reported by Play Magazine.

Speaking of Cave Story, a friend linked me to this. Ironic that in other articles he attacks professional games journalism really...

Yes, it may perhaps seem ironic if you don't know what the word irony means or if you have no idea what the articles you are reading are actually saying.

It's pretty well established in indie gaming circles that Alex Kierkgaarde is a grand master douchebag

"In indie gaming circles", lol. In plain English:

"It's pretty well established in shit gaming circles that Alex Kierkegaard doesn't like shit games."

[Marcus]

I am absolutely staggered by his decision to OBSCURE THE TILE.

Maybe JH is unknowingly ashamed of it.

But of course the schematic view is to illustrate the <i>astonishing underlying complexity</i> of the characters and the world they inhabit.

Sigh.

[icycalm]

I am absolutely staggered by his decision to OBSCURE THE TILE.

Ummm... can you explain what you mean by this? Is it some sort of art design lingo that I am not familiar with?

[Marcus]

Sorry about that, it was a simple failure to do enough proofreading. I meant title.

[icycalm]

http://www.ghetto-overlord.com/Blog/?p=1074

Universal Praise Story

If you enjoyed a commercial video game in the last seven years, you probably haven’t played Cave Story. It’s an exceptionally polarizing indie game, either the greatest game of all-time, or a transcendent work that transcends all transcendency. It’s made enough of a name for itself that I decided it was worth six hours of my life. All I can say is “Really? This is the game that got everybody worked up?”

I initially threw two hours into the game and decided to reserve judgment about the overall product. Alex Kierkegaard’s unprecedented review (Spoiler: He didn’t think it was flowers and sex) spurred me to find out the second half of Cave Story actually lived up to its hype. I’m not looking to puppet his line of thought, I’m just not sure where “polished platformer with no core flaws and a good weapons system” became code for “classic”.

Apart from two bosses, the game is a cakewalk. The backtracking is completely obnoxious. The in-game events that define progressing from point A to point B are completely illogical. The dialogue is not very good. Not that these flaws keep the game from being on the sunny side of “good”. The problem is that my vote has now doubled the amount of people who do not think the game is perfect.

Search any gaming message board, and people will disagree with your opinion of any game. Warcraft III is my favorite game of all-time, and that didn’t stop people from throwing their copy in the garbage when it got home after killing all the creeps in the neighborhood. Not this one. By virtue of “single developer busts ass to make playable Metroid game”, Anthony Burch of Destructoid can channel shared sentiments:

Honestly, if I found a way to put Cave Story on an SNES cartridge, go back in time to the 90’s, and sell it as if it were just your regular big-budget game, nobody would hesitate to call it one of the greatest games of all time.

…

…there’s literally nothing not to like in Cave Story.

…

This is Cave Story, and it is perfect.

It probably doesn’t surprise you I have beef with a game designed to honor 8-bit gameplay, considering I just got off that tangent. Simply by being the fetish of the indie gaming community (that is, one of the five-hundred best games to ever come out of Japan), it’s worth downloading, if simply to educate yourself. But you think I’m kidding about the “far from perfect” part? I can work some front-page laughs into the works.

Tim Rogers ranks Cave Story the 8th greatest game of all-time:
http://www.actionbutton.net/?p=416

A 9.4 review average amongst 121 voters on GameFAQs:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin ... 42695.html

The aforementioned Destructoid review which basically calls the game perfect:
http://www.destructoid.com/indie-nation ... 0328.phtml

“GoNintendo’s [Kevin] Cassidy told me it’s the only game that made him cry.”
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/ ... ave-story/

Some of his comments make no sense to me, perhaps because I am not familiar with his blog, or perhaps because he sometimes has trouble expressing himself clearly, but in any case he has the general idea down.

[MadCheese]

Sorry to tell you, he is not lying. There is a hidden stage and boss that you can unlock. (I know because I have gotten to it.) By beating it, you get a different ending. (The best one.) I will not say how to unlock it as it is spoilers. (Also TheBob posted the level, BTW.)

I similarily got rather bored after an hour and didn't bother continuing. It's patronisingly easy.

Well, the beginning of most games are easy, as the game does get harder further into the game. Also, yeah, the beginning is a little, slow, but it gets better after that.

as Icy already said that I don't know why people spent or want to spend time with this.

Ummm, maybe because they find it to be a great game and everyone has their own opinions?

Lol, there is also a thread about this review on GameFaqs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessa ... c=50212431

So, in the end, I have disagree with this review. (Not that there is anything wrong with it.) Because IMO, this is one of the best games I ever played. (Please don't kill me.)

[JoshF]

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/pc/doukutsumonogatari/

VERSUS!

So, in the end, I have disagree with this review. (Not that there is anything wrong with it.) Because IMO, this is one of the best games I ever played. (Please don't kill me.)

Ummm, maybe because they find it to be a great game and everyone has there opinions?

[aaden]

2.5D remake coming to the 3DS:

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/cave-story- ... 6228990012