Live-a-Live (Super Famicom, 1994)

The next Super Famicom RPG that I'm going to cover is the relatively-unknown Live-a-Live. In the vein of the SaGa games, this one has a bunch of characters to choose from. The difference is that rather than each of them playing all the way through the same game with slightly-to-moderately different scenarios, in this game they all have a chapter of their own before converging at the end. It's most comparable to Dragon Warrior 4, but the way you can choose the order of the chapters puts a new spin on things. It's almost episodic. You can't really go wrong with mid-90's Square, so let's get to it.

Originally Posted in 2014

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Playstation 4, 2019)

 

Here we go, the main event. This was on a bunch of systems; PS4 is what I'm playing it on.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (Lots of systems, 2020)

 

This one is scary because they cranked the difficulty way up. It's like going from Mega Man 10 to Mega Man 9, roughly. While the first Curse of the Moon was intended to tide people over until Ritual of the Night was finished, the Kickstarter for ROTN was so successful that they did a second retro throwback side-game after it, and here we are. The purpose of this one seems to be to just obliterate people.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Lots of systems, 2018)

 

Time for me to finally take a dip in the Bloodstained series. These games look and play just like the Castlevania games, only a bit modernized. This is because they were made by the same guy, via crowdfunding. And the series has been very successful, much more Shovel Knight and less Mighty No. 9. The main goal was to create the game Ritual of the Night, and the crowdfunding overachieved enough that we also got a couple of NES-style spinoffs including this one. Starting with the shortest and easiest of the games, let's get to it.

Carrion (Nintendo Switch, 2020)

 

WHAT HAS GOD WROUGHT?

This is a John Carpenter's The Thing inspired game where you play as the creature. In Soviet Russia...bug hunts YOU.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite (Playstation 5, 2021)

 

Bug Hunt concludes with the biggest bug hunt of all. This game turned out a lot better than I expected. It isn't great, but it's a fun play, and what Colonial Marines probably should have been.

Earth Defense Force 4.1 - The Shadow of New Despair (Playstation 4, 2015)

 

BUG HUNT continues as I play an EDF game for the first time. These are known for being super fun shoot 'em ups. This one is a PS4 remaster of an XBox 360 game, so it looks a little antiquated at this point, but hopefully the gameplay is as good as I've heard.

Cosmo Tank (Game Boy, 1990)

Next I'm taking a look at an interesting Atlus game from 1990 that is remembered fondly by the few people that knew about it back then. This is a fun game with great music, and it has the boost of being featured in the Game Boy Player's Guide. To segue to Halloween, the next couple of posts will have a Bug Hunt theme.

Highlander 4x10 - Chivalry

 

Today on Highlander: Richie gets laid! Methos returns! And the story of how Duncan learned to dress respectably!

Highlander 4x09 - The Wrath of Kali

 

Highlander posts seem to be the most-read and most commented on posts on here, so it's time we do more of 'em. This one here is probably an average episode by most standards, maybe a shade above average. However for me, it's one of my favorite episodes. I think it was one of the first ones I saw as a kid, since I started really watching this early in S4. Prior to that I'd only sometimes caught it in the first 3 seasons. I had no idea who Kalas was until the DVD sets came out years later. In any case, here we go, one of my first episodes and one of my favorites, and I'm going to use WAY too many words.

Highlander 4x08 - Reluctant Heroes

 

This episode contains a Fop. A Dandy Lad. Anyone who has seen Rob Roy knows how despicable an evil foppish dandy can be. Outside of a strong villain (another of the many who should have lasted more than one episode), there isn't a lot to this one. We get some good Duncan and Richie hangout moments though, and I'll enjoy those while they last since Richie is entirely absent from the last 40% or so of the season.

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 8 - Mystical Brohan

 Moments after this picture was taken, Vegeta went on a blistering media scrum and buried Gokou and Gohan!

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 7 - Launch Intermission 2: Doc Brown's Mr. Fusion

 

Oolong: "So then I just started blastin"

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 6 - Cell Games

 

This game could have easily just ended after the defeat of Freeza and left the rest for a sequel. In this day and age, it's pretty cool that they just went ahead and kept going with it.

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 5 - Second Variety

 

It's time! It's Android time! Look at their massive foreheads. However, the threat posed by these guys is nothing compared to the threat posed by...Android 20? What?

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 4 - Pissing On The Dreams of Tyrants

 I totally missed out on a bunch of stuff from this part of the game. Like I took zero screenshots of the whole "Gokou = Ginyu" part. Rest assured, we missed nothing. That part almost feels like filler to me now. You fight Gokou (as Gohan) and stuff happens. Regardless, moving on with the story...Freeza interrogates Nail to find out how to use the 'balls. Let's just get to the actual Freeza battle before the show PTSD starts again. Regardless, Captain Ginyu is defeated, all the body-switching stuff is over with, and Gokou is laid-up in a healing tank. That's right, he's out of action AGAIN.

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 3 - The Green Zone

 

We get the "Vegeta, I hear you've had quite the battle" scene from the show. The first time I saw this, I thought Cui was Freeza. Expected Freeza to show up soon as the next big villain, didn't know what he looked like. Soon as this guy appeared, I was like "Freeza?" ...I'm glad he wasn't.

Dragonball Z: Kakarot Part 2 - Launch Intermission

 

"MY! NAME! IS! LAUUUUUUUUNCH!" ::smashes guitar::

Highlander 4x07 - The Colonel

 

This is a pretty formulaic episode that feels more like something out of S1 or S2, with a very cut-and-dry caricature of a villain. That said, even an iffy Highlander episode tends to still have some cool moments, so let's go.

Dragonball Z: Kakarot (Lots of systems, 2020) - Part 1 - Saiyan Saga

 

Here we are, the ultimate evolution of those DBZ RPGs on the Famicom and Super Famicom that I liked so much. Will I like this one? I hope so. It's more of an RPG/Fighting hybrid.