I may be in the minority, but I went and played the first 2 Witcher games (and then the 3rd again) with the intention of seeing how CDPR grew as developers before I played Cyberpunk and I was blown away with how they have ALWAYS been good at making a game atmospheric and immersive. Yeah, the first game the whole combat experience is janky AF (but fun in its own way) and a few of the key character models (Zoltan shudder yeesh) look horrifying, but the game, story, atmosphere, and storytelling that made the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 great were all present and noticeable in the Witchers 1 and 2
I feel like that sentiment only applies visually. The world and story of 1, as well as the gameplay if you accepted it was more of an RPG than an action game, felt much better than 2 did, imo, it just looked like absolute shit.
I just struggled hard with the gameplay. Some games throw up road blocks, but TW1 threw up entire mountain ranges for me. Maybe I just didn’t quite get something in the mechanics, but it felt like the game would routinely go from playable, to “die incessantly until you grind and overlevel”. A lot of the game’s difficulty felt like it was just level-gating progression blocks. Maybe I was just trying to go too fast? I admit that I may have just brute-forced my way through things that probably had a more nuanced or subtle solution.
This is also not to say that I dislike TW1 at all. I quite enjoyed it. It just frustrated me more than 2 and 3 combined.
Witcher 1 did want to be more meticulous. Researching the monsters, making specific potions or coatings, using the right weapons and juggling fighting styles, collecting sexy lady cards, balancing swordplay with signs, navigating political choices thay would be completely abandoned in the sequels…
i played 1 and 2 before 3 launched. Allowed me to appreciate the choices i made in 2, and while the plot of 1 for the most part is virtually disconnected from the rest of the series outside of Foltest, gives you appreciation for the heart of stone dlc in 3 when you revisit Shani (especially since i went the Shani route over the Triss one).
because of how disconnected 1 is as a story, it almost could be a side story as its very self contained outside of Foltest’ role inthe universe.
Absolutely. Daggerfall is an excellent game! It has some bugs, sure, and the procedural dungeons are sometimes broken, but it is such a fun game that really pushed what was possible in its time.
Arena is actually way more interesting than people give it credit for.
One of the most fascinating parts, and IMO one of the greatest lost features to the entire series, is that it had Terraforming.
Since the world was kinda on a grid/cell system, you could cast spells to make pits or walls, which was kinda simple for the time, but just think about it- as a strong enough spellcaster, its a viable strategy to create a pit all the way to the magma layer to avoid a martial opponent, and just sling spells at them.
Imagine if that popped in TES VI! Friggin Earthbend and yeet that Dark Brotherhood assassin to one of the moons
Preach on, Arena was amazing at the time. The “wall” spells to make and destroy walls were super powerful and pretty unique in RPGs. I also liked the “simple” ADND2 style spells (e.g. RNG value * level fireball). Daggerfall was better in most every way other than bugs, but Arena was great. It’s hard to go back and play it though, it would need to be totally remade which might kill a lot of its charm.
I think they meant the original versions of 1&2, because they are fixed-perspective, which for most people is just inferior. Whether you have nostalgia for those stories or not, almost everyone playing them are playing the Kiwami versions (which is also one of the main arguments many people give for why Yakuza 3 doesn’t need the Kiwami treatment).
Instincts is great, but I’m still technically correct (the best kind of correct) because it was a reimagined port of FC1.
I just looked up the Wikipedia article to check how many versions there were in total. There was the original, Instincts, Instincts: Evolution, Predator, Vengeance and Paradise Lost.
They pretended Insticts was a port, but as I understand it, almost nothing is actually the same. Especially with the feral powers that make instincts what it is
Everything except The Witcher, Shin Megami and Yaluza I am a fan of because of the first 2 games.
The Witcher 3 I skipped out on because the first 2 were jank as fuck and I couldn’t actually finish either of them despite thinking the ideas and story were rad. It wasn’t until way later I gave it a shot and it was definitely a better game than the first 2, but the combat got super stale after 20 hours and that’s not even like 1/5th of the story.
I don’t know why I never got into Persona or his other games. Just never tickled me. 🤷🏻♂️
Yakuza I only recently found to be awesome with Lost Judgement.
My friends usually wanted to hang out at my house because I was the only one with a PC and the only way they could ever check out shit like Fallout and Diablo.
Witcher 1 best lore and most “witchery” in that planning and hunting monsters was more of a thing. Witcher 2 was great but too short and abandoned some of what made the first interesting. 3 is a totally different game with plenty of merit but it’s weird how disconnected the games feel.
Persona 2 duology is better written than any other Persona game, and I think one of three games I’ve cried finishing. That’s not a “tough guy” flex, that’s just a comment on how shallow most video game writing is.
Also you can be gay and fight Hitler. Tatsuya sweep.
Well it’s the most hoped for remake in Japan after Persona 3…so here’s hoping a P2 rebuild is on top of Atlus’ list now.
I love the game too, but I even hesitate to recommend it to diehards of the genre because the gameplay is so dated. I usually say to watch a YT plot only video if anyone is ever interested.
I know I’m probably in the minority here, but I liked the first 2 Grand Theft Auto games on PC better than the more well known ones… They were top down view and easier to just pick up and play. The graphics were more like a 16bit era game. They were simpler games that just felt more fun to me than the giant massive games that came out later. I tried a few of the later ones but it just made me miss the originals lol
You should try Chinatown Wars for DS/PSP. It has the same top-down camera but with more modern gameplay sensibilities. It’s probably my second favourite GTA after 3.
The main theme song is awesome, it’s called Grand Theft Auto by Da Shootaz on streaming services. I had a PS1 disc version of the game from what I recall too which meant the song could be played by putting the game disc in a regular audio cd player.
With Final Fantasy Restored. Its definitely worth revisiting old favorites with As Intended/QoL updates.
But I can see why they are hesitant to replay the original as is, because it can be a bit rough.
Yet so charming. And its hard to keep one without losing the other in the rereleases
Granted I haven’t played them since they first came out, but far cry was great and the second one was ground breaking. The second one also started the trend of memorable, nuanced villains with the Jackal.
It’s kinda why I hated farcry 5. Joseph seed wasn’t nuanced, he was a religious zealot with no redeeming qualities, and since I despise religion I found him insufferable and not interesting. Also the bad guy in 6 was pretty straight forward and boring
A lot of people meme about the malaria in Far Cry 2 as being annoying but personally I hated the instantly respawning checkpoints wayyy more. Getting the malaria pills side quest adds to the flavour and danger of the land, and like 1 button prompt once in awhile, while not ideal, isn't the worst and can add into the tension when if flairs up at the wrong time.
But clearing a checkpoint, realising you made a wrong turn, turn back and needing to fight at the same checkpoint again? Gah!
Yeah, same for me. Those constantly respawning checkpoints killed immersion for me and took away all sense of progress. What’s the point of clearing them if you already know it will repopulate within moments anyway.
I loved it too! Until I learned you can attack your own party to essentially powerlevel. Couldn’t stop myself from abusing it instead of doing some proper leveling.
I think it’s worth noting that if you’re playing the Pixel Remaster version, it’s significantly less jank than the original from the NES. They also made the trap rooms a lot less brutal. That said the game is overheated for sure. It had ideas that didn’t pan out but it also was pretty ambitious for a NES game.
That’s why you like it, then. Every version of FF2 beyond the original has made the levelling less awful as well as try to fix up some of its other
If you go back and try an English translation (or can read Japanese I guess)of the original you’ll find its a shit ton of pointless grinding that just hurts to play
Im usually ok with a grind and some pain in older JRPGs but FF2 is not ok
Civ has a lot of old fans since civ 1 or 2 that just buy and play any new civ game that comes out. I had: Civ 1 Civ 2 + Addons Call to Power (which was no official civ) Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri Civ 4 + Addons Freeciv Civ 5 + Addons Civ: Beyond Earth Civ 6 + Addons Unciv
So does Armored Core, Yakuza, Final Fantasy, Fallout and a few other of the series posted here but I’m here to make jokes not accurate observations about various niche gaming communities
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