Games you played for the presentation

[ciro64]

AKA games you played more for the graphics or the music rather than the gameplay itself.

My take? Shantae Half-Genie Hero.



Undynamic boss patterns, constantly having to pause to use purchased consumables and having to mash the melee attack button against things with super armor. On top of that you have a bland story carried by fetch quests excuses.

After I beat the game I've seen a speedrun using creative use of the powerups you can buy to make combat a bit more fun. It's not how I tend to play more action oriented games as I like sticking just with the base tools the game gives me, but I'll keep this in mind in case I ever do a replay.

So why did I play it?

Platformers are my favorite genre, particularly expressive and colorful ones. Also I'm a big fan of 2.5D when done right. Yeah, the gameplay was mid imo, but that was carried by my constant drooling for the amazing graphics and the music (composed by Jake Kaufman my beloved).

This game is more linear compared to other entries in the franchise, but honestly that's probably why I managed to beat it in the first place.

I'll just leave a longplay here, scroll to wherever you like if you don't mind spoiling yourself a bit.

Pro-tip: go to 39:23 if you're into giant mermaids.
Or to 1:25:12 if you're into Fire Emblem randomizers.

 

[Hourai]

Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I wouldn't have played it were it not for the hand drawn art.
Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk is really good, but also, I don't think I'd have given it a second look were it not entirely dried blood red.
World of Horror would've been pretty easily overlooked without its Junji Ito-inspired art style, since roguelikes are kinda...
Does anyone really play David Cage games for the story? Or was it because he figured out lifelike graphics in 2010?

Also, shout out to the PC-98 as a whole, but Doukyuusei in particular. As a reminder, the 98 can display 16 colours at once.

And yet here it is, displaying such beautiful images. Even with borders using most of that 16 being visible at all times, meaning the game is locked to the same palette. This wasn't even necessary; games didn't need borders. Quite a few important ones just flat-out didn't have them, even. And a lot that did have them even just used very simple colours that would be in every scene. Yu-No mostly uses greys and whites, and Necronomicon, for all of the beauty in its border, is also similarly low intensity. Doukyuusei went fucking hard simply to show off. It's no wonder that the sequel didn't keep this up.

Using the exact sickly shade of yellow for allowing you to bring the background you have in your head to life is a lot easier when you have an actual colour allowance, after all. It lets your butch biker gal really stand out in a way that Hiromi (blue hair) just couldn't, too.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

AKA games you played more for the graphics or the music rather than the gameplay itself.

My take? Shantae Half-Genie Hero.

View attachment 11949

Undynamic boss patterns, constantly having to pause to use purchased consumables and having to mash the melee attack button against things with super armor. On top of that you have a bland story carried by fetch quests excuses.

After I beat the game I've seen a speedrun using creative use of the powerups you can buy to make combat a bit more fun. It's not how I tend to play more action oriented games as I like sticking just with the base tools the game gives me, but I'll keep this in mind in case I ever do a replay.

So why did I play it?

Platformers are my favorite genre, particularly expressive and colorful ones. Also I'm a big fan of 2.5D when done right. Yeah, the gameplay was mid imo, but that was carried by my constant drooling for the amazing graphics and the music (composed by Jake Kaufman my beloved).

This game is more linear compared to other entries in the franchise, but honestly that's probably why I managed to beat it in the first place.

I'll just leave a longplay here, scroll to wherever you like if you don't mind spoiling yourself a bit.

Pro-tip: go to 39:23 if you're into giant mermaids.
Or to 1:25:12 if you're into Fire Emblem randomizers.

one of the positives in the Shantae series is the beautiful graphics these games have, each one from there respective releases are impressive.

 

[ciro64]

one of the positives in the Shantae series is the beautiful graphics these games have, each one from there respective releases are impressive.

I discovered the series in the GBC game, and was already taken aback by then.