General Games Discussion

Your a bland game underneath IMO.

Firenze wrote:the tyrant Mike Ashley just  bought Game, it'll be gone within a couple years

it was always going to die, I haven't been inside of one in about 6 years so it has been irrelevant to me all of this gen  but dem childhood memories, traded in mad games to them during the early days of 360/PS3, remember getting Skyrim there launch week for £20 new somehow, staff new it was a mistake but allowed it without looking into it too much

although my real early memories it was called electronics boutique ffs

£52 million! I wouldn't buy Game for free if they offered me. It's a sinking ship with nothing to salvage.

I think i have like £300 quid on my GAME card, been racking up points since 2013.

Sees Kaladin say Nier is a bland game, remembers he likes one of the most boring fucking games I ever played in Life is Strange.

I hate ES now...

Fucking escorting that robot from the desert to the jungle at a pace of 0.00068 km/h? Thats fucking fun to you?

The only thing that kept me going was B01's (whatever the female robot's name was) skirt fluttering while running, thats it

That was like 1 extremely minor part of the game you ass lmao.

It still pissed me off, but like i said, it is a very bland action game underneath, what you expect from similar titles. Unless you are hyping the replayability, which is overrated, i'm not going through that shit again. OST is good though.

Special Request

Game: Shiren the Wanderer.
Year: 2008.
Genre: Roguelike RPG.
Publisher: Atlus, Sega.
Developer: Chunsoft.



First things first, I am changing my rating system to better rate different genres according to their own rules. It will still be from 50 quality points, but every title will start from 25 and earn/lose points according to criteria important to the titles and genres themselves.

As the last non-played Wii game in my collection, I hoped that Shiren the Wanderer would close my journey with the plucky console on a fond note. Instead, the game succeeded in infuriating me and wasting my time.

Looking back, there was little reason to hope. Here is a game based on a genre I don't particularly like. The genre, Rogue-like as it is commonly known, depends strongly on convincing the player to continue playing despite losing much progress.

When it became apparent that the only reason I was powering through the intense boredom of Shiren was a compulsion to simply finish the game, I wised up and stopped playing it. At that moment, I was about seventy to eighty percent complete with the game, and I have wasted about 40 hours of my life.


"We roam the land, seeking adventures... they call him... Shiren the Wanderer"

Usually, this genre is not known for having much of a story-focus. In that way, the basic story and characters included in this game are a step-up from its peers. Starring the eponymous Shiren, the story covers his and his partner's latest foray in treasure hunting. Also known as "Wandering".

Their latest quarry rests in the mysterious Karakuri mansion. In between randomly generated dungeons, some story sequences develop. Saving little village girls, defeating four guardians to open a mansion, the occasional betrayal, and even a prison escape sequence. Funnily enough, the prison escape sequence is also a randomly generated dungeon.

These story beats are not original, and they have little depth to them. To be fair, that is not to say that the story isn't good as much as to say that it will not be a driving factor behind completing the game.

If anything, I appreciated the simple straightforward story, and I mostly liked the character designs, which allowed me to imagine more interesting backgrounds for them that what is explained in-game.

Basic but Okay Story: +2
Good Character Design: +2

"Everything started when we found that odd-shaped key. The key to the fabled Karakuri mansion"

For a Rogue-like, what you are looking for is two things: Gameplay and progression.

This because the game randomly generated dungeons, meaning that level design is out of the equation and because you lose most progress once you are killed, and as such retrieving that lost progress becomes a very important consideration.

Let's talk about the gameplay first.

This is a classic turn-based dungeon crawler. Each move you take expands a turn, and then the enemies in the dungeon take a turn as well. Most of the time, you have one or two allies to work with. In more complex situations, you should manually control all characters, but the AI is fine most of the time.

In each turn, you can move, attack, use items, use magic scrolls or staffs, or some other of many actions. While in the beginning, it seems that you have many choices in how to confront enemies, it soon becomes apparent that there are many useless items.

While scrolls and staves can save you in some situations, the majority of your actions will be a forward attack that has no variety. There are no weapon types, not further strategy than your dungeon position, and no ability to extract yourself from a bad situation unless you have the requisite items.

Most of the time, it is not a bad gameplay system, and you utilize all the tools when you have to deal with a sudden monster room. However, the frequency which you go into dungeons where 90% of the time is rote gameplay is what drags the whole system down.

Decent Gameplay in Theor: +3
Gets Repetetive in Practice: -2


"It's a cardinal rule of battle to never let your guard down! Muahahahaha"

Second, let's talk about progression.

Before we begin, note that there is an easy mode to the game, where you get to keep all items and money if you die.

I make this note because the existence of this system may have affected the balance of the normal game. Because there is no logical reason why the loot you get is terrible most of the time. Seriously, it takes more than two or three runs through the same dungeon to get a single decent item.

With such terrible loot, a single death means you lost items you spent hours cultivating. In a better game, that loss would be recouped by playing the game. In Shiren the Wanderer, the items I get feel regressive from the items I had.

Worst still is the fact that there is no variety in the items as you get Cudgel after Cudgel after bloody Cudgel. It is both boring and unimaginative. It takes the fun out of diving for loot and makes replaying the dungeons worse than it normally would.

That is simply the cardinal sin of this game, as it provides no joy in playing the damn thing.

Terrible Progression: -5

"Guardian's of Hourai, huh? Guess we gotta fight 'em..."

Now let's look at another reason that some people will enjoy continuing a game, and that's its production values.

Here, the most obvioust shortcoming is that the game is alocked with a 3:4 Aspect ratio, meaning that you will have large black borders in most modern TVs. That's because the game was obviously developed for PS2 and then hasitlly ported to the high-flying Wii. This is apparent in the game's background and dungeon asthetics, which leave much to be desired.

In fact, other than the main characters design and some rare enemies, the entire graphical and animation dispaly of the game is simply lacking. The best that can be said about it is that it serves its liited purpose.

The same can be said of the game's soundtrack, which is mostly okay, even if it is intensely forgettable. Like a pretty catchy elevator track that you forget the moment you step out of it.

Oh, and even though I don't miss it, even bloody Saturn games had some Voice Acting, but this game does not.

Mediocre Graphical and Sound Design: -5


In Conclusion:

Purely measured in terms of its genre, Shiren the Wanderer fails at being a good Rouge-like because the progressions is terrible. Maybe the balance was off because of the option to play without death penalties.

Regardless of the reasons that the progression is terrible, the end result is that there is no fun to be had here. There is no earthly reason why anyone would enjoy going through the drab dungeons of the game, just to be subjected to the drab gameplay and poor rewards.

Final: 20/50

"Tips"

1- Always have spare weapons and items in the storage box.
2- Always have spare money in the bank.
3- Beware of pickpockets and enemies that downgrade or destroy your items.
4- To get items from jars, you need to break the jars by throwing them.
5- Putting items in jars frees your inventory.


"Next Game"

I regret playing this game. The only reason I had it is because I bought at a discount five or eight years ago because I liked the game's cover. Now that I think about it, there is a strong reason why it was being sold at such a steep discount. Hell, I think even the shovelware the Wii is so famous for may have been more enjoyable.

Now, even though I ended my Wii Review series on a sour note, I can only say that I greatly enjoyed playing all of those Wii games. Next, I will review the Wii console itself, starting with deciding my official top 10 Wii games.

Stay Tuned

Firenze wrote:
also waiting to see if new Switch versions are announced this year as is rumoured, will likely end up buying one

for what exactly?

Firenze wrote:the tyrant Mike Ashley just  bought Game, it'll be gone within a couple years

it was always going to die, I haven't been inside of one in about 6 years so it has been irrelevant to me all of this gen  but dem childhood memories, traded in mad games to them during the early days of 360/PS3, remember getting Skyrim there launch week for £20 new somehow, staff new it was a mistake but allowed it without looking into it too much

although my real early memories it was called electronics boutique ffs

They have started expanding from just selling games. It's now full on merchandise, food and and other stuff basement dwellers buy.

Still a finished store though. I mean i was there and they were selling 2 year old games for £40.

Last time I was in GAME, some 13 year old was yelling at his friend to watch a sick skill he pulled off on FIFA. I wasn't in there for long.

It's a surprise they've lasted as long as they have, really.

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:
also waiting to see if new Switch versions are announced this year as is rumoured, will likely end up buying one

for what exactly?

Zelda BOTW
Pokemon
Fire Emblem (when it's out)


...that's about it

I'd try Smash too but it's never looked my kinda thing

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:the tyrant Mike Ashley just  bought Game, it'll be gone within a couple years

it was always going to die, I haven't been inside of one in about 6 years so it has been irrelevant to me all of this gen  but dem childhood memories, traded in mad games to them during the early days of 360/PS3, remember getting Skyrim there launch week for £20 new somehow, staff new it was a mistake but allowed it without looking into it too much

although my real early memories it was called electronics boutique ffs

They have started expanding from just selling games. It's now full on merchandise, food and and other stuff basement dwellers buy.

Still a finished store though. I mean i was there and they were selling 2 year old games for £40.

they were already heavy on the merch back in 2012/13 when I was last there

Firenze wrote:

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:
also waiting to see if new Switch versions are announced this year as is rumoured, will likely end up buying one

for what exactly?

Zelda BOTW
Pokemon
Fire Emblem (when it's out)


...that's about it

I'd try Smash too but it's never looked my kinda thing

if i wasn't so lazy i would just send you mine for few months.

wtf, why did you buy one

I'm not into Nintendo really, didn't think you were either

guessing you never play it

almost pulled the trigger earlier, saw deals online 220 quid with a game, really cheap but like I said, wanna wait to see if they release newer version, want a smaller portable version

Play Witcher 3 at 540p imo.

Firenze wrote:wtf, why did you buy one

I'm not into Nintendo really, didn't think you were either

guessing you never play it

almost pulled the trigger earlier, saw deals online 220 quid with a game, really cheap but like I said, wanna wait to see if they release newer version, want a smaller portable version

I didn't buy. My brother gave it to me since he bought it and got bored of it after 30 minutes of BoTW. I don't even remember where i kept it.

Seriously though i would never shit on any games/consoles etc but switch isn't worth it unless you can get a used one for £100 or less. I know what games you like and you won't play any of those on the list other than fire emblem maybe.

Kaladin wrote:Play Divinity, i can tell ypu from now you wont like Nier, its a very bland game underneath

It's not a bland game, at all. You just have to push through the long and repetitive part to get to the good part, and hardly anyone would be bothered to do that, which is perfectly understandable.

Thimmy wrote:

Kaladin wrote:Play Divinity, i can tell ypu from now you wont like Nier, its a very bland game underneath

It's not a bland game, at all. You just have to push through the long and repetitive part to get to the good part, and hardly anyone would be bothered to do that, which is perfectly understandable.

Reading this again and my hate for ES has grown even more.

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:wtf, why did you buy one

I'm not into Nintendo really, didn't think you were either

guessing you never play it

almost pulled the trigger earlier, saw deals online 220 quid with a game, really cheap but like I said, wanna wait to see if they release newer version, want a smaller portable version

I didn't buy. My brother gave it to me since he bought it and got bored of it after 30 minutes of BoTW. I don't even remember where i kept it.

Seriously though i would never shit on any games/consoles etc but switch isn't worth it unless you can get a used one for £100 or less. I know what games you like and you won't play any of those on the list other than fire emblem maybe.

Nah mate BotW alone makes Switch worth buying. Just like Naughty Dog games made PS3 worth buying.

Then you have Super Mario Odyssey, Smash Bros, Mario Kart amongst other exclusives. Admittedly they're more or less family/friends gathering type which some of you may be too old for but I am having a blast with it (not forgetting Splatoon 2). As a PC gamer if there is one console I needed it was the Switch. Can live without playing Uncharted 4, Horizon and Spider-Man, but not Zelda. And the less is said about Xbox exclusives the better tbh.

Switch is great, might pick one up this Black Friday if deals are good.

The switch is cool. Bought one exclusively for Smash and was impressed with the design of the console. It's practical, it feels good, and it's great for trips.

Planning on getting pokemon, mario oddisey, and probably a few others like xenoblade. The new mario kart is a ton of fun as well. Might even give zelda another chance at some point (not a fan of the old ones).

futbol wrote:I will tell you the truth when I've played all.

So now I've finished Witcher 1 and 2. Of course the entire combat system ("click - wait- click - wait"), not needing a fireplace to rest, items with weight system instead of "1 piece of 10 different sorts of leaves = you're full" etc. etc. etc. is much better. Much more modern game of course.

Story-wise however, part 2 was much weaker than part 1. No contest. Game felt very very short and like a stop gap or prelude to Witcher 3. The one character you have any affiliation with gets abducted the entire game, the other main character of the game is poisoned and sleeping throughout only to wake up for a battle and then disappear again. 3rd chapter you spend 70 % of the time with the weird "Secret of Loc Muinne" riddle with characters that are so meaningless that they get killed during the riddle. You find some powerful armour only for the game to end 20 minutes later. One powerful silver sword requires a Dragon item in Philippa's home yet literally the only enemy left after that is the dragon itself.

In Witcher 1 you had so many great side characters that were meaningful like Alvin, Adda, Berengar, Kalkstein, Shani, Vincent, Thaler. Even unimportant characters had great stories and quests like the 2 sisters in that village towards the end and the wedding ceremony.

In Witcher 2 you have Iorweth and that's about it.

So other than better graphics and mechanics, story-wise Witcher 2 was weak IMO. Maybe story is the wrong word as the story is actually good of course but half of it is told to you by the last person you speak to in the game in endless dialogs. You don't really "play thorugh the story" which makes it weak.

Did you know you could use your save game from Witcher 1 to continue in Witcher 2?

Of course, why?