Jason Moyer on 22/3/2013 at 20:33
Should I give a shit about Pat Rothfuss? Y/N/A/R
Renzatic on 22/3/2013 at 20:34
Quote Posted by dethtoll
As for the suck... mostly to do with LttP's clunky controls and tinny music. LttP mostly just irritated me more than anything else.
I thought LTTP's controls were fine. The music was sorta forgettable and blah, I'll agree.
Though LTTP's Dark World was far, far more interesting than OOC's past/future setup. It's one of the main reasons why I'd rank it just slightly above OOC on the grand scale of great Zelda games.
ZylonBane on 22/3/2013 at 20:40
Quote Posted by faetal
Still, I don't agree that titles are only good if every word used is in everyone's lexicon.
Still, if the title in question is attached to a work being marketed to a mass audience, fringe vocabulary choices certainly don't work in its favor.
But then if the work generates enough positive buzz on its own merits, a cryptic or even non-descriptive title ("Quake", "Half-Life") hardly matters one way or the other.
june gloom on 22/3/2013 at 21:09
I don't know. "Quake" was at least hinted at in old id Software "coming soon" pages in Commander Keen. Half-Life is a physics term and you do play a scientist in a big science lab. But more to the point, they're both one or two words and therefore are a bit iconic. My problem with "The Dark Descent" is that A) it's an unnecessary subtitle on a game that already has a title: Amnesia. And 2) The subtitle itself is a cliche. How many tabletop modules do you know with silly names like that? Or old 80s/early 90s games? Or 1960s sci-fi?
"The Dark Descent" -- well, by the game's nature as a frank Lovecraftian knockoff we're pretty sure there's going to be descent, and there's going to be darkness -- the subtitle is unnecessary. "A Machine for Pigs" at least leaves something to the imagination.
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Renz, the music is actually fine by itself, it's just that early 1990s SNES instrumentation that's tinny and irritating. Super Mario World has the same problem. When those songs get re-used for later games, the tinniness is gone because the instrumentation and samples have changed.
Also I disagree entirely about the Dark World. It's pretty much a recolor of the original map with a few bits changed around and a dungeon theme inferior to its Light World counterpart. Silent Hill or even Metroid Prime 2 do dark worlds better. And I find Bad Futures much more compelling, hence OoT winning out.
EvaUnit02 on 22/3/2013 at 21:47
I've kind of given up on Zelda. Basically everything since 1998 has been a more or less a remake of Ocarina of Time, just with a different gimmicky central gameplay mechanic as the hook each time.
Renzatic on 22/3/2013 at 21:49
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Renz, the music is actually fine by itself, it's just that early 1990s SNES instrumentation that's tinny and irritating. Super Mario World has the same problem. When those songs get re-used for later games, the tinniness is gone because the instrumentation and samples have changed.
I never noticed the tinny-ness, but I always thought the earlier SNES soundtracks sounded more, for lack of a better word, MIDIish than they did in the later on. Castlevania IV and Final Fantasy II were about the only games from that era that managed to avoid sounding overly fake to me.
Quote:
Also I disagree entirely about the Dark World. It's pretty much a recolor of the original map with a few bits changed around and a dungeon theme inferior to its Light World counterpart. Silent Hill or even Metroid Prime 2 do dark worlds better. And I find Bad Futures much more compelling, hence OoT winning out.
I think you're selling it far too short. Dark World was much, much cooler than just a simple palette swap. The map was pretty similar, sure, but the atmosphere and style was totally different between the two, and it really sold me on the concept.
Though in general I find evil alternate dimensions cooler than bad futures, so I guess this is really more a difference in taste than anything.
EvaUnit02 on 22/3/2013 at 21:53
Dethtoll and Renz, what're your takes on SotN's mirror castle?
Renzatic on 22/3/2013 at 21:55
It was alright. Kinda made me appreciate the level design that much more, because they could flip the whole thing upside down and still keep it playable.
...but if I had a choice, I would've preferred an entirely new area to play around in.
june gloom on 22/3/2013 at 22:12
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
I've kind of given up on Zelda. Basically everything since 1998 has been a more or less a remake of Ocarina of Time, just with a different gimmicky central gameplay mechanic as the hook each time.
Inaccurate. While it's true that most of the main games have more or less been retreads of OoT (which in turn was a remake of LttP which in turn was a remake of the original LoZ) Majora's Mask is decidedly
not a remake of anything. While it has its issues, it's got atmosphere out the wazoo and is genuinely original and sometimes frightening. It reminds me in a lot of ways of old Don Bluth films.
Quote Posted by Renzatic
I never noticed the tinny-ness, but I always thought the earlier SNES soundtracks sounded more, for lack of a better word, MIDIish than they did in the later on. Castlevania IV and Final Fantasy II were about the only games from that era that managed to avoid sounding overly fake to me.
"That era" meaning 1990-1993? Sure, okay, I'll buy that. I think SNES music saw a marked improvement in 1994 with Super Metroid, FF6 and Donkey Kong Country.
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Dethtoll and Renz, what're your takes on SotN's mirror castle?
Lazy way of padding the game instead of just adding more castle. Every time I think I want to replay SotN I remember the inverted castle and play something else.
Renzatic on 22/3/2013 at 22:19
Quote Posted by dethtoll
"That era" meaning 1990-1993? Sure, okay, I'll buy that. I think SNES music saw a marked improvement in 1994 with Super Metroid, FF6 and Donkey Kong Country.
Yup. Those first couple of years of the SNES' life. Like I said, I wouldn't describe it as tinny. It was more hollow and...I dunno...computer generated to me. It occupied the space between the chiptunes of the NES, and the much better MIDI you got out of the later consoles, like the PS1. Almost realistic sounding, but not quite.
Still, it was pretty damn impressive for the time, and it did get much, much better later on.
