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NWR Interactive => Podcast Discussion => Topic started by: NWR_Lindy on August 23, 2015, 10:43:32 AM

Title: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: NWR_Lindy on August 23, 2015, 10:43:32 AM

The Thunder Round has gained some new Lords.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/41014/episode-441-the-model-of-efficency

Greg, Gui, James, and Jon are settling into their new podcast reality, and as always start the show with New Business. Jon goes first with a duo of Virtual Console impressions: Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse; meanwhile society's yearning for Castlevania Pinball is met only with Pachislots. Next up, James does some Project Treasure-related digging into Bandai Namco's Free-to-Play strategies, with Ace Combat Infinity. Infinity, as it turns out, is an apt description for the amount of time it takes to do anything without paying. Greg follows with impressions of Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards from the Wii U Virtual Console, reopening old wounds over the quality of various Kirby titles. Lastly, Guillaume has impressions of linear Real-Time Strategy titles Castlestorm and Swords & Soldiers, completing his quest to find out if the best wars are fought on rails.

After the break, we have the first Thunder Round listener mail segment of Season 5. James, in his new capacity as host, set an ambitious target for this foursome's first crack of Thunder: 10 emails in one hour. Too many topics are covered to list them all here. Questions range from RFN seasonal naming conventions to corruption in Canadian sport. Nintendo is also discussed, if that's important to you. Of course, the most vital question can't be answered until the end of the show: was James' forced march a success? Listen and find out.

If you want to make us step just a little quicker, you can send us a question or comment here.

Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Disco Stu on August 23, 2015, 06:35:34 PM
Well it only took until Greg's second episode back on the podcast before Treasure was brought up, albeit tangentially.  I think RFN's going to be ok, guys. I really do.  ;D
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: TOPHATANT123 on August 23, 2015, 10:24:25 PM
In terms of medical point and click DS games there is always LifeSigns Surgical Unit, by no means a great game but I feel it was thrown under the bus a bit for not being Trauma Center, personally I enjoy both styles and think there is room for games leveraged on gameplay and games leveraged on story.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: TheXenocide on August 23, 2015, 10:29:30 PM
Lifesigns wasn't bad, but I definitely prefer the Trauma Center games more. The surgeries, the part I was most interested in, were way to few and far between for my liking, whereas almost every episode in trauma center was a surgery.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Leo13 on August 23, 2015, 11:26:53 PM
GUI, thanks for covering CastleStorm, I bought that game back when it released and LOVED it. Did you ever realise you can use the touchscreen to aim your ballista?
My only complaint about the game is I wish there wasn't an upgrade/level up aspect to it fit the same reason that even though I love fire Emblem I love advance wars more because I can't just level up my guys when levels get too hard I have to figure out (strategy wise) and/or get good to beat levels
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Crimm on August 23, 2015, 11:32:00 PM
When I mentioned Trauma Center I was actually reaching for Lifesigns. My brain compensated and started to make it make sense. Wasn't until after recording that my brain de-obscured the problem. Live conversation, folks.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: ClexYoshi on August 24, 2015, 12:09:26 AM
Stoooooooooop! Stop the podcast! throw on the emergency break. stopped playin' my game, broke my zen... NO!

I will not stand to live in a world where Akitoshi Kawazu is making a game on any person's most hyped list. No! not doing it! stop!

Gui, did we play the same game? the game where you have a Max HP of 800 no matter what, you never feel strong enough to contend with the barrage of enemies, and the item you need to beat the final boss is in a non-descript chest in a dungeon that if you pass it up before you beat the boss, you lose access to it, only to find out a little further down the road that you've fucked yourself? oh wait, you don't find out because the game DOESN'T FUCKING TELL YOU WHY YOU CAN'T WIN I FUCKING HATE THAT **** AT LEAST GHOSTS N' GOBLINS HAS THE DECENCY TO SEND YOU BACK AND NOT WASTE YOUR FUCKING TIME AUGH!!!

*ahem*

I don't like Final Fantasy 2. I don't like SaGa in any of it's forms. (for the record, the whole "Hey! we got 8 protagonists you can play as in this same world!" thing is something Romancing SaGa 1 did, and SaGa Frontier and the particularly ****-tastic Unlimited SaGa had as well.)  Hell, outside of having a good time with friends, I didn't like how obtuse reaching the conclusion of FF:CC was. I could immediatley smell the stinky footprint of Akitoshi Kawazu's input into Final Fantasy 12, where he famously hid the weapon with the highest attack in the game in a chest that you cannot open if you have previously opened any one of four non-descript chests earlier in the game that give you no indication that you've screwed yourself out of it.

I don't get it. I do not get WHY this japanese man who got lucky and saved his job security with Square-Enix thanks in part to him piggybacking off of the ideas of Hironobu Sakaguchi does the things he does. I don't understand WHY he has such spite for his playerbase. unless it's to sell strategy guides, there's no reason for the stupidly high difficulty spikes and the games so deeply punishing you for going to a place that your character isn't meant to go... I was going to insert a review that perfectly encapsulates all my frustrations, but the guy who wrote it seems to have had it deleted from the interwebz, so... http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=427 here's my evidence that it existed and that the guy basically wrote a gameography on Akitoshi Kawazu's career and how each of his games try to chap your ass to lead up to the PS2 Romancing SaGa remake that so vexed him. read that forum thread. it's a ride.

and yeah, recognise that... wait.


... oh.

... apparantly Legend of Legacy does not involve the mind of Akitoshi Kawazu directly.

CARRY ON WITH MERRIMENT!

(note that the following post was made in jest. that sometimes doesn't come through all that well through forum post text. Feel free to like what you like. Do know that much like James recieved his box of terrible though, I may assemble a Care Package for Gui that consists of a Repro cart of Final Fantasy II, Unlimited SaGa, and possibly one of the other US released SaGa games just to revel in that new business trifecta of bad JRPG design)
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Pandareus on August 24, 2015, 12:15:16 AM
Hahaha, well I've actually hoped I'd stumble upon a copy of the PS2 Romancing SaGa remake. And I did, at PAX East last year, but $50 was too much to ask.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Enner on August 24, 2015, 03:56:49 AM
Good show!


Nice to hear Jame's comments on Ace Combat: Infinity. I wish that game was better, though that didn't stop me from playing dozens of hours of it. I wanted to fly my jets that badly. I swear the in-game currency was called credits, but heck if I'll boot the game up to check.


As for Akitoshi Kawazu: I'm not familiar with the man's work, but I enjoyed my 90+ hours and completion of The Last Remnant (PC). I have heard the X360 version is pretty messed up though.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: ClexYoshi on August 24, 2015, 08:52:11 AM
Quote from: Enner on August 24, 2015, 03:56:49 AM
As for Akitoshi Kawazu: I'm not familiar with the man's work, but I enjoyed my 90+ hours and completion of The Last Remnant (PC). I have heard the X360 version is pretty messed up though.

It's not that everything Kawazu touches turns into bashing yourself in the face; the video game. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is a pretty fun game, and... I have to admit that for all the boneheaded game design, he directed one of my favorite and one of the most fantastically broken Super Famicom JRPGs of all time in Rudura no Hihou. then again, the fantastically broken part about that game might be from the fan translation given how that game's Mantra system had to be overhauled by hackers in order for localization to even remotely work.

For those who haven't heard of Rudura, it's a game that's pretty standard JRPG faire, but the big thing is that spells can be cast provided you have the MP, and you have spelled out the proper mantra. basically, you make your own spells  or can steal spells from opponents if you can remember however the spell they are housing you with is spelled.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Crimm on August 24, 2015, 09:28:37 AM
I can confirm The Last Remnant on 360 is a dumpster fire
 I can also confirm it is the cause of my darkest arc on RFN.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Disco Stu on August 24, 2015, 09:54:40 AM
Quote from: Crimm on August 24, 2015, 09:28:37 AM
I can confirm The Last Remnant on 360 is a dumpster fire
 I can also confirm it is the cause of my darkest arc on RFN.


(http://leakynews.s3.amazonaws.com/pub/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/community-darkest-timeline.jpeg)
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Kobeskillz on August 24, 2015, 12:29:07 PM
I’m surprised Jon didn’t like Castlevania 3 as much. It’s def a game of its time but man is it so good. The stairs are terrible at first but like most NES games after about the 30th time you do the section you will stop fighting with the game and learn what the game needs you to do.
 
That’s most NES games where if you fight with the game you are in trouble. Instead you have to learn what the game needs you to do and do that very specific thing.
 
Either that or he played on a 3DS again. Lol. I kid I kid.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Enner on August 24, 2015, 05:03:36 PM
Quote from: Crimm on August 24, 2015, 09:28:37 AM
I can confirm The Last Remnant on 360 is a dumpster fire
 I can also confirm it is the cause of my darkest arc on RFN.

On The Last Remnant PC, I can and did fill all my unions all with hero characters rather than the generic recruits. Upon learning that the 360 version doesn't or didn't allow that, I can't fathom how that version of the game can be played.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: ClexYoshi on August 24, 2015, 08:33:37 PM
Quote from: Crimm on August 24, 2015, 09:28:37 AM
I can confirm The Last Remnant on 360 is a dumpster fire
 I can also confirm it is the cause of my darkest arc on RFN.

Send your copies of Unlimited SaGa to...
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Evan_B on August 25, 2015, 10:55:05 PM
If I've said it once, I'll say it again, and again, and again... If you think Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates is even half-decent, you owe it to yourself to play Echoes of Time. So much better in every way.

Good episode, guys, and unlike Clex, I have no issue with the man who graced us with Final Fantasy 2. I'm also immensely excited for Legend of Legacy and I'm worried I didn't mention it on my hype meter list.
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Crimm on August 26, 2015, 12:41:22 AM
Quote from: Enner on August 24, 2015, 05:03:36 PM
Quote from: Crimm on August 24, 2015, 09:28:37 AM
I can confirm The Last Remnant on 360 is a dumpster fire
 I can also confirm it is the cause of my darkest arc on RFN.

On The Last Remnant PC, I can and did fill all my unions all with hero characters rather than the generic recruits. Upon learning that the 360 version doesn't or didn't allow that, I can't fathom how that version of the game can be played.


It's biggest issue is that the game is literally exploding at the seams.


Also it killed my Xbox: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/23933/the-lord-giveth-and-ups-taketh-away
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: MASB on August 28, 2015, 09:50:27 PM
Since we've just past the 20th anniversary of the NA release of Chrono Trigger, I would recommend that for the end-of-the-show music. Perhaps "Millennium Fair," since it made such an impact so early in the game. I'd almost recommend a RetroActive at some point in the future, but it's been such an off and on prescence on RFN, you may not have a lot new to say about it.

I'd also suggest playing a song of Jason Ricci's at the end, after that "nose harmonica" comment. The man deserves respect!

Off topic, but on Twitter, Jonny talked about a IGN-labelled XBOne controller and how the readership of NWR would rebel if Nintendo did such a thing for NWR. I suggest a Wii U controller with a headshot of Jon Lindemann with the quote, "If you're a serious gamer... Wii U. It's as simple as that." Best-selling Wii U controller ever!

I saw there may be a smidgen of NFL talk on the next episode (if Gui allows it). Any chance of a RFN NFL Preview this year or did the recent RFN changes make it hard to fit that in? If nothing else, just post an hour, unedited, of James talking about RGIII, Jon talking about the Falcons run game, and Greg's Bills yet again, projected to be the best team of the three.

I always wonder about the parts of RFN that don't make it to the final show (or the stinger). You'd think that if the tangents were substantial (Jon's MMO talk, NFL, etc.), you could just put them up as separate files. I wouldn't think that would add to the editing time since you wouldn't bother to polish them like you do for the final edit. But the act of separating them out as indvidual files from the main show may be time-consuming, I don't know. It just feels like there are 6 year old Jon MMO rants among other things, yearning to break free (like Freddie Mercury maybe? ;) ).
Title: Re: Episode 441: The Model of Efficency
Post by: Crimm on August 28, 2015, 11:12:05 PM
The recorded tangents used to be longer when we recorded the entire recording session. Some of the best stingers came from the time between "acts." Now we stop the recording between sections; it makes editing substantially easier.


The NFL stuff this week was mostly just jokes about Madden, so its probably mostly safe.


We got a listener mail question about the responsibilities of journalists and I was going to talk about the IGN Controller during that. Regardless, my takeaway was that IGN's business department does not care about their outlet's integrity. I don't blame the editorial team for this, but the business team of journalistic outlets need to respect what the editorial team is trying to build. If Nintendo did this I wouldn't be pissed at Nintendo, they're doing work. I wouldn't be pissed at IGN's Nintendo coverage team, because the business side made it. I wouldn't be pissed at IGN's business team because again, they're doing business. I'd be irked by the entire situation, because it's unacceptable.