Yeah that does ring a bell, magazines blasting it for being a lazy re-release pretty much.
I'm pumped to see Onimusha coming back too. That one seems like a clean slate as well since it's been so long. I could see them throwing in some ARPG elements. Now if I get a DMC6 announcement soon that'll be crazy haha. Or Sega doing another 3D Shinobi too.
I agree, kind of roll my eyes at the Souls clones at this point. I've ignored most of them by now, since they just never looked half as good as From games and I could just replay those instead. Lies of P was great though, I'm also just excited to see Korean devs getting more into single player games (hoping Stellar Blade hits PC too, then I'll officially never need a PS5 lol). I still have Code Vein to check out, looks like it could be fun. But beyond that... it needs to be absurdly fresh and unique for me to care with this genre now. I'm feeling the same about 2D Metroidvania's in the indie space too. There's a 1,000 of those too now.
I'm really curious what From is cooking up now too. Would love if they got back to first person dungeon crawlers somehow. Armored Core 6 was a breath of fresh air in a way too, wouldn't mind more of that. I think my dream for another Souls game from them would be something sci-fi. Could so easily do like a power armor thing. I'll play a Dark Souls 4, Sekiro 2, Elden Ring 2, etc haha, but yeah. New IP's right now would be cooler.
Bomberman 64 is such a gem. Great to see another fan. I finally replayed it and beat Hero a year or two back as well, which was cool too. Second Attack seemed good, but I burned out and need to give it another look someday. Love that first one though, nothing quite like it.
The Goemon games do look really cool actually. Mega Man Legends vibes. Shadowgate 64 is an interesting pick. The others I mostly have covered already heh. I do recall renting Castlevania 64 and liking it, but yeah... how about that Legacy of Darkness version though? I see some say it's a better version or something.
That makes me think of Final Fantasy Origin: Strange in Paradise, most say the base game/campaign is just training wheels for NG+ and everything after. But I didn't care to stick around for more. Was kind of disappointing. I love the Nioh's though. But damn am I happy to see Ninja Gaiden 4 announced.
Yeah I usually stick to Project 64. Weird how iffy it still is though. Meanwhile DuckStation is incredible for PSX.
Oh yeah, Vengeance blows Canon of Creation out of the water. What surprised me is that they completely replaced the third map and dungeon for Vengeance, for the better. That really dense city that's a bit obnoxious to navigate in CoC. At least it made my CoC NG+ run more interesting by that point, but yeah. CoV having a completely new main character (Yoko), the Qadistu ladies (my favorite Lilith ever), and never did the story feel like it fell off to me. So the pacing was great. Really seems like they fixed all the issues of the original release and made a better campaign. I was also able to do the true final boss with three phases, felt exhilarating beating that. Did pretty much everything possible, outside of one spoiler super boss, the other endings, Godborn run (unlocks level cap and everything is level 150), and Satan. Maybe I'll try the Godborn mode down the road someday. Demon customization wise this was the best ever.
Yeah glad that Soul Hackers 1 is entirely different. I did grab P5 on a sale. So I'll give it a fair shot someday. At least it doesn't have the chibi art style of P4 though. That seriously bugs me. lmao
1. Terminator: Resistance (PC)
2. Ninja Gaiden Shadow (GB)*
3. Bright Memory: Infinite (PC)
4. Gargoyle's Quest II (NES)
5. Zool: Ninja of the "Nth" Dimension (SMS)
6. Samurai Ghost (PCE)
7. Ghostwire: Tokyo (PC)
8. Cotton Fantastic Night Dreams (PCE-CD)
9. Kishin Douji Zenki (GG)
10. Second Samurai (Gen)
11. Kishin Douji Zenki - Battle Raiden (SNES)
12. Robo Aleste (Sega CD)
13. Shinobi X [EU, Legions](Saturn)
Had this random idea to beat 1 game per system and move onto another. But I'm hitting a brick wall with the N64 haha. Maybe I'll do Sin & Punishment. PSX will be effortless like always to play something cool.
That said I just started up FF7 Rebirth now on PC. This'll be sucking up a lot of my time.
Since we last talked though, I put 115 hours into SMT5 Vengeance. I beat it once then did NG+ for the original campaign. Got the demon compendium up to 95%. Easily one of the best games I've ever played. I still won't cleanly put it above SMT3 and SMT4 in ways, though combat/difficulty wise trumps SMT4. But yeah I think I'm just going to say 3-5 are all some of the best JRPG's ever in my book now. Can't believe how addicting these games are.
I dropped Soul Hackers 2 after about 5 hours lol. First one still looks cool though. I have that, the Devil Survivor's, and the Raidou's to check out still. I did buy SMT3 HD for a replay someday, I'll probably try hard mode then.
Still on a roll with sentai too. Bioman kicked ass. I'm cycling between the 80's and 2000's now. The rest of the 80's looks amazing. 2000's is a little hit or miss, but Dekaranger is ace and I liked Hurricaneger a lot (hated the PR version haha, huge upgrade). Watching Magiranger now... eh. lol
Dynaman looks low ranked but I can agree with some comments, these polls might be a bit skewed with new younger viewers and some of the old material not getting enough attention. Looks like a decent list though.
Here's my scratch notes and ones I picked out for now, though not listed are all the 90's ones and I might just go through them in order. lol
1. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger - 9.029 (2011)
2. Mirai Sentai Timeranger - 9.000 (2000) - Time Force
Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger (2018)
Avataro Sentai Donbrothers (2023) - Same writer as Jetman
Choujinki Metalder (1987) - Saint Seiya composer Seiji Yokoyama
"Jetman's writer goes on to do a lot of 2000's KR series like Agito, Ryuki, Faiz and Kiva, and they're even darker and edgier (too edgy for some people)."
Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000) seems good
I finished it already haha. Slam dunk 9/10 for me. Even some of the filler-ish episodes were hilarious and fun, like the evil ramen cup monster, the vending machine, tomatoes. But so much of this I couldn't believe coming off Power Rangers. The black ranger Gai being some kind of gambling antihero (probably my favorite character), the love triangle between him and Ryo with Kaori, actually some nasty hilarious gore at times. The villains were such a damn highlight too, always in the mix and constantly fighting the Jetman or themselves. Amazing designs too. Rei and Radiguet dealing with their fading humanity. Guess Keita Amemiya was the director which blew me away too, wonder if he had a hand in some of the monster designs. Music was amazing. Couldn't believe some of the ending lol, still not sure how I feel about it, but it was ballsy and will leave a mark. Thought this was way better than Kamen Rider Black honestly.
I'm burning through Kyuranger, (2017) since it's space themed. But I'm zoning out to it now. On paper ~9 main rangers (I'll always call them that lol) sounded kind of cool, but yeah it's overkill. Still on the fence if I'll like the modern ones are not. What else is new? lol. I'll hold off on Gokaiger for now. That said, I read the Jetman writer came back for Avataro Sentai Donbrothers (2022) and it sounds good.
Zyuranger was next up for the 90's and the MMPR curiosity was always going to get to me lol. It's... okay like I've heard. Freaking bizarre that Dragon Quest influenced it somewhat. Maybe a 7/10. Ups and downs. I can see how some joke about all the kid actors in this one, then I think back to Jetman and can't picture kids at all, unless they "died" getting evaporated from tentacles and stuff lmao... but yeah the rest of the 90's ones interest me a lot. Man I've got like 10 picked out now. Even skimmed some Ultraman and some of the Metal toku stuff (Saint Seiya composer on some like Choujinki Metalder entices me). The flood gates are unleashed now. lol
I sampled ep1 of Kamen Rider Kuuga. Seems like another weirder/darker one that was experimental as the comeback series after its hiatus. And the Jetman writer did some KR, so maybe I'll focus on those. There's so much variety here, might be one that really speaks to me. But I think I'll love a lot of the 80-90's sentai. Dairanger sounds amazing, so I'm excited for that one after Zyu. It's cool that Timeranger and Time Force for PR are always ranked among the best. Time Force was my favorite PR next to In Space (Megaranger). SPD (Dekaranger) was really good action/setting wise, so maybe the sentai will level that up even more. The PR cast/villains didn't have an A tier character for me outside of Doggie Cruger/Shadow Ranger.
Speaking of Saint Seiya? lol. I really believe that's probably my #1 anime OST. Perfection.
Yeah I heard about that with Gokaiger, but saw some accounts of people saying it's fine to check out on its own. Not sure. Others I'm interested in are Dekaranger, Timeranger, and KT said Dairanger has some unhinged shit in it. Like Tomino stuff with people jumping off buildings and such lol.
Yeah the gritty edge to KRB was cool. Probably would have loved a movie rather than 50 episodes of that MOTW stuff though. KRW was definitely a lot "nicer" and goofier in ways. Compared to PW, the action was a lot more visceral and cool though. I really dug the weird dual suit and the various forms he had. I hear good things about OOO and Kouga too I think around that same era. But I'm probably good on KR for awhile and want to watch a sentai or two next for now.
Kamen Rider Black - 7/10. Finally finished this a few weeks ago after a like 10 year hiatus. Love the music, vibes, the practical effects, but I couldn't describe these characters to save my life.
Kamen Rider W - 8/10. Just finished this. The villains I felt were really boring, but some revelations later on turned that around a little. Wasn't totally in love with the two MC's or goofy sidechick girl. The side KR guy who came in later was pretty awesome though. Much easier to get through than Black, but still zoned out at times and if this is the peak of KR at a 8/10 for me, I don't know.
Garo - 8/10. Felt like watching a Reisdent Evil 1 show with all the dark/night scenes in buildings and stuff lol. The CGI will make your eyes bleed, but I liked everything else enough to keep going.
Garo: Makai Senki - 9/10. This one was banging on all cylinders to me. Recurring cast, everything leveled up, and this was like a live action Vampire Hunter D meets Devil May Cry series. Videogamey in all the right ways.
GARO: The One Who Shines in the Darkness - New cast. Gave it a 7.5 I guess. I can't remember much, but I don't remember it being bad.
Now I'm reluctant to keep going with Garo since it's gotten massive and ratings tend to pretty low too. Hard to even gauge how involved Keita Amemiya is at this point as well. I've seen the Iria movies. I do think maybe anything he touches, gets a possible +1 to me. Love his designs at least. So maybe picking out stuff he maybe had a hand in KR/sentai wise would be good.
Now you'll laugh but I'm burning through Power Rangers. KT's seen a lot too so I'm talking to him about it. Overall it's been a worthwhile project and pretty fun, even with these being 90% new material to me since I quit watching as a kid after Mighty Morphin. In Space and Time Force (Timeranger) are my two 9/10's now. 8/10 for Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, SPD. Now RPM seems like the last best one to watch.
I think I'm going to watch Goukaiger soon for sentai. Seems like a fan favorite. I'll be curious if somehow this formula works better for me than KR. I think I just have to get back to my bread and butter and what I loved about mecha anime initially, grimdark/sci-fi serious stuff. I don't think Goukaiger fits that bill and this is all child friendly stuff in the end, but yeah I'll maybe have to research more and pick out all the "darker" shows lol. I think it was worthwhile going from KR Black to W, so I'll maybe jump around the various eras to get a different taste of things.
KT says all the other American adapted stuff isn't worth it. VR Troopers maybe being the best option after PW. But yeah maybe some of the other stuff in Japan would work better for me. Me liking Power Rangers feels like a stooge saying they prefer Robotech lmao. But I do think it being live action is a different kind of vibe here with the changes and all.
tl;dr, despite my love of old school mecha anime, the jury is still out on this lol. I was really hoping to like KRW more than I did. But the curiosity still gets me, maybe there's a 9/10 in there somewhere for my tastes.
Yeah haha. Drove me nuts though, was one of those rare moments where I get to a final boss and was seriously unsure if I could roll credits myself. Got it eventually though. I thought Ys II was a huge step up with the fireball attack, really cool game. Dawn was a little bloated and the pacing got weird later on, but it was such a charming game overall. Loved it. I couldn't stomach much of Ys IV SNES, lol.
Yeah it took me a lot of adjusting when I jumped back in. I had two characters and liked my second one more, Int/Dex/Katanas. But turned out it wasn't DLC ready, since I had gone to DLC+3 or something. So I tried with my slow ass Str/Greatsword first character and it was awful. I then realized I could quickly look up how to get the lift medallions, fight Mohg, etc to get to the DLC quickly on my second character. That went better. Now I'll never know if it was harder or not on DLC+3. Since the Scadutree stuff scaled things separately from the main game... who knows. There was one new katana that seemed like the new "anime sword", it was pretty cool lol. So I used that a fair bit, but that was about it for any new DLC item stuff. The new big pots and stuff too I guess. Think I got a nice 40 hours out of it. The fire and ice caverns were really cool. The second to last area (green lush area) was mesmerizing. But I still think some of the base game has it beat in level design/atmosphere. I might enjoy the DLC more another time around when I replay the whole thing altogether. I didn't want to commit that 100+ hours to that idea now though. lol
Agreed the AC6 music could have been better. Some boss themes stuck with me. But yeah, more drum & bass techno fun with the old AC's.
Ohhhhh, hear it from me, the Nioh 2 DLC was pretty doable and nothing too crazy. I never did Nioh 1's DLC, nor did I even finish that games post-game content. Once they started throwing two bosses at me in some tiny rooms... I was done. lmao, I usually 100% these games, but I drew the line with Nioh 1's insanity.
Radahn eat your heart out, lmfao. I had to go into the games config and turn the refresh rate way down. Still took forever though. Thank goodness the final bosses after that were more doable.
Since my last posts here, I beat Ys 1-6, Oath, Origin, all after VIII haha. Safe to say I've had my redemption year with Ys. I'm excited for the rest, but needed a break finally and know the newer ones are a bit longer. I'm still thinking about Ys Dawn's OST, good lord. Majestic!
My ranks:
S: Ys VIII
A: Ys II, IV (Dawn), VI/Oath/Origin
B: Ys I, Ys III
C: Ys V
After that been retro gaming a bit again myself, some quick Genesis games.
I beat the ER DLC myself. I took on Messmer pre-patches and hated that SOB the most. Commander Gaius was a nuisance too. I can see how the final boss will be the hardest for many and it's up there, absolutely insane. But I got it after a few nights, didn't seem as crazy as some other final bosses to me in a way.
After that I replayed Sekiro. I still like it more than Bloodborne personally. Crazy how much this game stuck with me too after like 5 years since it released, I picked up the mechanics really quickly again and got most of the bosses on a few tries max. Wish there was more. I think ER is my #2 after Demon's Souls now, but I honestly had more fun replaying Sekiro than the ER DLC haha. I also think I had more fun playing Armored Core 6. Did you hit that one up? Loved it. Think I'm kind of ready for "new" stuff for From. But I'll be excited for Elden Ring 2 down the road.
I'm thinking Code Vein or FF Stranger in Paradise for my next Souls-like fix.
How'd you beat Nioh 2 in a week? haha... I sunk 121 hours into that and all the DLC's combined. That was gaming crack to me. Honestly I would put it above some FromSoftware stuff perhaps. With so many dense weapon mechanics, I think it'll be easy to replay someday with some different builds. I rocked the Odachis/Kusarigamas for this playthrough. Maybe I'll finally rock dual swords next time. In Nioh 1 I did vanilla swords and axes. I'd like to get Nioh 1 on PC for a replay, but I don't know if it's worth it when Nioh 2 felt like Nioh 1 but better and more haha. And the demon move stuff was a nice addition. Still, I think Nioh 1 had some really good levels and atmosphere in spots. But a lot of BS design for sure. That stupid giant water boss...
Haha, think that's what I've heard with Ys3 SNES being bad, so yeah I played the worst one...
Ys5 being so weird is a bummer. I must have tried that one out at some point too, because I love all the overhead ARPG's like that on the SNES. Even some oddballs like Brain Lord or Alcahest. Then I love all the Quintet stuff. But I'm never seeing people rate Ys5 too highly... that's insane it was that long, lol. That's crazy for an SNES game. And that one had no other port or remake? 4 on the PCE-CD looks pretty cool on the other hand and not too long. I did hear the series had some major staff changes off and on, like why Ys3 was such a departure gameplay wise. But yeah it still seems like a fan favorite that turned out well.
Yeah I want to say I liked everything about Ys6 back on the PS2 outside of the platforming (kind of like Alundra lol, never got far into that one either). But I'm excited to hit up 6 on PC again someday. I own the remakes of 1-2, then 6, Origin, and Oath all on PC haha, with everything else now wishlisted. Nice to have another big series I want to dig more into now.
I even tried playing Yakuza 5 on top of these two, lol. I ended up dropping that one. Love the Yakuza series but I could just tell I have better ones to play, Y5 isn't the standout favorite or anything. But yeah I generally don't play two long games back to back like this.
I have a rocky history with Y's. This is the first one that won me over. I don't like the bump combat of the first two. I think I played a little of Ys3 SNES or something. Ys 6 I had on PS2, but the platforming was annoying, I hear that's better on PC. And I only played like an hour of Origin and Oath. But now that I love 8, I want to give them all another shot now. You have a favorite version of 3? The PCE-CD OST is so damn good, seems like the one I should check out. I'm excited for all the modern games the most though, I think those will go smoothly with me. But yeah I'll give the whole series a second chance. I have no issues with 8 being the longest though haha. It's nice that the rest of them never look too long. But yeah, Ys8 basically feels like an ARPG Xenoblade, I love all those games. The sense of exploration and so much is similar here in an awesome way. I like using Dana and Laxia the most.
This is another reason why... the Y's OST's are just insane haha. Love it.
All Comments (67) Comments
I'm pumped to see Onimusha coming back too. That one seems like a clean slate as well since it's been so long. I could see them throwing in some ARPG elements. Now if I get a DMC6 announcement soon that'll be crazy haha. Or Sega doing another 3D Shinobi too.
I agree, kind of roll my eyes at the Souls clones at this point. I've ignored most of them by now, since they just never looked half as good as From games and I could just replay those instead. Lies of P was great though, I'm also just excited to see Korean devs getting more into single player games (hoping Stellar Blade hits PC too, then I'll officially never need a PS5 lol). I still have Code Vein to check out, looks like it could be fun. But beyond that... it needs to be absurdly fresh and unique for me to care with this genre now. I'm feeling the same about 2D Metroidvania's in the indie space too. There's a 1,000 of those too now.
I'm really curious what From is cooking up now too. Would love if they got back to first person dungeon crawlers somehow. Armored Core 6 was a breath of fresh air in a way too, wouldn't mind more of that. I think my dream for another Souls game from them would be something sci-fi. Could so easily do like a power armor thing. I'll play a Dark Souls 4, Sekiro 2, Elden Ring 2, etc haha, but yeah. New IP's right now would be cooler.
The Goemon games do look really cool actually. Mega Man Legends vibes. Shadowgate 64 is an interesting pick. The others I mostly have covered already heh. I do recall renting Castlevania 64 and liking it, but yeah... how about that Legacy of Darkness version though? I see some say it's a better version or something.
That makes me think of Final Fantasy Origin: Strange in Paradise, most say the base game/campaign is just training wheels for NG+ and everything after. But I didn't care to stick around for more. Was kind of disappointing. I love the Nioh's though. But damn am I happy to see Ninja Gaiden 4 announced.
It honestly kind of just sounds grindy doing Godborn mode and beyond, yeah. So I'm not sure if I'll bother.
Oh yeah, Vengeance blows Canon of Creation out of the water. What surprised me is that they completely replaced the third map and dungeon for Vengeance, for the better. That really dense city that's a bit obnoxious to navigate in CoC. At least it made my CoC NG+ run more interesting by that point, but yeah. CoV having a completely new main character (Yoko), the Qadistu ladies (my favorite Lilith ever), and never did the story feel like it fell off to me. So the pacing was great. Really seems like they fixed all the issues of the original release and made a better campaign. I was also able to do the true final boss with three phases, felt exhilarating beating that. Did pretty much everything possible, outside of one spoiler super boss, the other endings, Godborn run (unlocks level cap and everything is level 150), and Satan. Maybe I'll try the Godborn mode down the road someday. Demon customization wise this was the best ever.
Yeah glad that Soul Hackers 1 is entirely different. I did grab P5 on a sale. So I'll give it a fair shot someday. At least it doesn't have the chibi art style of P4 though. That seriously bugs me. lmao
Had this random idea to beat 1 game per system and move onto another. But I'm hitting a brick wall with the N64 haha. Maybe I'll do Sin & Punishment. PSX will be effortless like always to play something cool.
That said I just started up FF7 Rebirth now on PC. This'll be sucking up a lot of my time.
Since we last talked though, I put 115 hours into SMT5 Vengeance. I beat it once then did NG+ for the original campaign. Got the demon compendium up to 95%. Easily one of the best games I've ever played. I still won't cleanly put it above SMT3 and SMT4 in ways, though combat/difficulty wise trumps SMT4. But yeah I think I'm just going to say 3-5 are all some of the best JRPG's ever in my book now. Can't believe how addicting these games are.
I dropped Soul Hackers 2 after about 5 hours lol. First one still looks cool though. I have that, the Devil Survivor's, and the Raidou's to check out still. I did buy SMT3 HD for a replay someday, I'll probably try hard mode then.
Still on a roll with sentai too. Bioman kicked ass. I'm cycling between the 80's and 2000's now. The rest of the 80's looks amazing. 2000's is a little hit or miss, but Dekaranger is ace and I liked Hurricaneger a lot (hated the PR version haha, huge upgrade). Watching Magiranger now... eh. lol
https://old.reddit.com/r/supersentai/comments/e0egkv/rsupersentais_season_rankings_1_results/
Dynaman looks low ranked but I can agree with some comments, these polls might be a bit skewed with new younger viewers and some of the old material not getting enough attention. Looks like a decent list though.
Here's my scratch notes and ones I picked out for now, though not listed are all the 90's ones and I might just go through them in order. lol
I'm burning through Kyuranger, (2017) since it's space themed. But I'm zoning out to it now. On paper ~9 main rangers (I'll always call them that lol) sounded kind of cool, but yeah it's overkill. Still on the fence if I'll like the modern ones are not. What else is new? lol. I'll hold off on Gokaiger for now. That said, I read the Jetman writer came back for Avataro Sentai Donbrothers (2022) and it sounds good.
Zyuranger was next up for the 90's and the MMPR curiosity was always going to get to me lol. It's... okay like I've heard. Freaking bizarre that Dragon Quest influenced it somewhat. Maybe a 7/10. Ups and downs. I can see how some joke about all the kid actors in this one, then I think back to Jetman and can't picture kids at all, unless they "died" getting evaporated from tentacles and stuff lmao... but yeah the rest of the 90's ones interest me a lot. Man I've got like 10 picked out now. Even skimmed some Ultraman and some of the Metal toku stuff (Saint Seiya composer on some like Choujinki Metalder entices me). The flood gates are unleashed now. lol
I sampled ep1 of Kamen Rider Kuuga. Seems like another weirder/darker one that was experimental as the comeback series after its hiatus. And the Jetman writer did some KR, so maybe I'll focus on those. There's so much variety here, might be one that really speaks to me. But I think I'll love a lot of the 80-90's sentai. Dairanger sounds amazing, so I'm excited for that one after Zyu. It's cool that Timeranger and Time Force for PR are always ranked among the best. Time Force was my favorite PR next to In Space (Megaranger). SPD (Dekaranger) was really good action/setting wise, so maybe the sentai will level that up even more. The PR cast/villains didn't have an A tier character for me outside of Doggie Cruger/Shadow Ranger.
Speaking of Saint Seiya? lol. I really believe that's probably my #1 anime OST. Perfection.
Might make you laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8TUyPzym8U
No complaints here, that's the exact style I want more of haha.
Yeah the gritty edge to KRB was cool. Probably would have loved a movie rather than 50 episodes of that MOTW stuff though. KRW was definitely a lot "nicer" and goofier in ways. Compared to PW, the action was a lot more visceral and cool though. I really dug the weird dual suit and the various forms he had. I hear good things about OOO and Kouga too I think around that same era. But I'm probably good on KR for awhile and want to watch a sentai or two next for now.
Kamen Rider Black - 7/10. Finally finished this a few weeks ago after a like 10 year hiatus. Love the music, vibes, the practical effects, but I couldn't describe these characters to save my life.
Kamen Rider W - 8/10. Just finished this. The villains I felt were really boring, but some revelations later on turned that around a little. Wasn't totally in love with the two MC's or goofy sidechick girl. The side KR guy who came in later was pretty awesome though. Much easier to get through than Black, but still zoned out at times and if this is the peak of KR at a 8/10 for me, I don't know.
Garo - 8/10. Felt like watching a Reisdent Evil 1 show with all the dark/night scenes in buildings and stuff lol. The CGI will make your eyes bleed, but I liked everything else enough to keep going.
Garo: Makai Senki - 9/10. This one was banging on all cylinders to me. Recurring cast, everything leveled up, and this was like a live action Vampire Hunter D meets Devil May Cry series. Videogamey in all the right ways.
GARO: The One Who Shines in the Darkness - New cast. Gave it a 7.5 I guess. I can't remember much, but I don't remember it being bad.
Now I'm reluctant to keep going with Garo since it's gotten massive and ratings tend to pretty low too. Hard to even gauge how involved Keita Amemiya is at this point as well. I've seen the Iria movies. I do think maybe anything he touches, gets a possible +1 to me. Love his designs at least. So maybe picking out stuff he maybe had a hand in KR/sentai wise would be good.
Now you'll laugh but I'm burning through Power Rangers. KT's seen a lot too so I'm talking to him about it. Overall it's been a worthwhile project and pretty fun, even with these being 90% new material to me since I quit watching as a kid after Mighty Morphin. In Space and Time Force (Timeranger) are my two 9/10's now. 8/10 for Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, SPD. Now RPM seems like the last best one to watch.
I think I'm going to watch Goukaiger soon for sentai. Seems like a fan favorite. I'll be curious if somehow this formula works better for me than KR. I think I just have to get back to my bread and butter and what I loved about mecha anime initially, grimdark/sci-fi serious stuff. I don't think Goukaiger fits that bill and this is all child friendly stuff in the end, but yeah I'll maybe have to research more and pick out all the "darker" shows lol. I think it was worthwhile going from KR Black to W, so I'll maybe jump around the various eras to get a different taste of things.
KT says all the other American adapted stuff isn't worth it. VR Troopers maybe being the best option after PW. But yeah maybe some of the other stuff in Japan would work better for me. Me liking Power Rangers feels like a stooge saying they prefer Robotech lmao. But I do think it being live action is a different kind of vibe here with the changes and all.
tl;dr, despite my love of old school mecha anime, the jury is still out on this lol. I was really hoping to like KRW more than I did. But the curiosity still gets me, maybe there's a 9/10 in there somewhere for my tastes.
Yeah it took me a lot of adjusting when I jumped back in. I had two characters and liked my second one more, Int/Dex/Katanas. But turned out it wasn't DLC ready, since I had gone to DLC+3 or something. So I tried with my slow ass Str/Greatsword first character and it was awful. I then realized I could quickly look up how to get the lift medallions, fight Mohg, etc to get to the DLC quickly on my second character. That went better. Now I'll never know if it was harder or not on DLC+3. Since the Scadutree stuff scaled things separately from the main game... who knows. There was one new katana that seemed like the new "anime sword", it was pretty cool lol. So I used that a fair bit, but that was about it for any new DLC item stuff. The new big pots and stuff too I guess. Think I got a nice 40 hours out of it. The fire and ice caverns were really cool. The second to last area (green lush area) was mesmerizing. But I still think some of the base game has it beat in level design/atmosphere. I might enjoy the DLC more another time around when I replay the whole thing altogether. I didn't want to commit that 100+ hours to that idea now though. lol
Agreed the AC6 music could have been better. Some boss themes stuck with me. But yeah, more drum & bass techno fun with the old AC's.
Ohhhhh, hear it from me, the Nioh 2 DLC was pretty doable and nothing too crazy. I never did Nioh 1's DLC, nor did I even finish that games post-game content. Once they started throwing two bosses at me in some tiny rooms... I was done. lmao, I usually 100% these games, but I drew the line with Nioh 1's insanity.
My ranks:
S: Ys VIII
A: Ys II, IV (Dawn), VI/Oath/Origin
B: Ys I, Ys III
C: Ys V
After that been retro gaming a bit again myself, some quick Genesis games.
I beat the ER DLC myself. I took on Messmer pre-patches and hated that SOB the most. Commander Gaius was a nuisance too. I can see how the final boss will be the hardest for many and it's up there, absolutely insane. But I got it after a few nights, didn't seem as crazy as some other final bosses to me in a way.
After that I replayed Sekiro. I still like it more than Bloodborne personally. Crazy how much this game stuck with me too after like 5 years since it released, I picked up the mechanics really quickly again and got most of the bosses on a few tries max. Wish there was more. I think ER is my #2 after Demon's Souls now, but I honestly had more fun replaying Sekiro than the ER DLC haha. I also think I had more fun playing Armored Core 6. Did you hit that one up? Loved it. Think I'm kind of ready for "new" stuff for From. But I'll be excited for Elden Ring 2 down the road.
I'm thinking Code Vein or FF Stranger in Paradise for my next Souls-like fix.
How'd you beat Nioh 2 in a week? haha... I sunk 121 hours into that and all the DLC's combined. That was gaming crack to me. Honestly I would put it above some FromSoftware stuff perhaps. With so many dense weapon mechanics, I think it'll be easy to replay someday with some different builds. I rocked the Odachis/Kusarigamas for this playthrough. Maybe I'll finally rock dual swords next time. In Nioh 1 I did vanilla swords and axes. I'd like to get Nioh 1 on PC for a replay, but I don't know if it's worth it when Nioh 2 felt like Nioh 1 but better and more haha. And the demon move stuff was a nice addition. Still, I think Nioh 1 had some really good levels and atmosphere in spots. But a lot of BS design for sure. That stupid giant water boss...
Ys5 being so weird is a bummer. I must have tried that one out at some point too, because I love all the overhead ARPG's like that on the SNES. Even some oddballs like Brain Lord or Alcahest. Then I love all the Quintet stuff. But I'm never seeing people rate Ys5 too highly... that's insane it was that long, lol. That's crazy for an SNES game. And that one had no other port or remake? 4 on the PCE-CD looks pretty cool on the other hand and not too long. I did hear the series had some major staff changes off and on, like why Ys3 was such a departure gameplay wise. But yeah it still seems like a fan favorite that turned out well.
Yeah I want to say I liked everything about Ys6 back on the PS2 outside of the platforming (kind of like Alundra lol, never got far into that one either). But I'm excited to hit up 6 on PC again someday. I own the remakes of 1-2, then 6, Origin, and Oath all on PC haha, with everything else now wishlisted. Nice to have another big series I want to dig more into now.
I have a rocky history with Y's. This is the first one that won me over. I don't like the bump combat of the first two. I think I played a little of Ys3 SNES or something. Ys 6 I had on PS2, but the platforming was annoying, I hear that's better on PC. And I only played like an hour of Origin and Oath. But now that I love 8, I want to give them all another shot now. You have a favorite version of 3? The PCE-CD OST is so damn good, seems like the one I should check out. I'm excited for all the modern games the most though, I think those will go smoothly with me. But yeah I'll give the whole series a second chance. I have no issues with 8 being the longest though haha. It's nice that the rest of them never look too long. But yeah, Ys8 basically feels like an ARPG Xenoblade, I love all those games. The sense of exploration and so much is similar here in an awesome way. I like using Dana and Laxia the most.
This is another reason why... the Y's OST's are just insane haha. Love it.