12 of my unplayed games are 38 games

[Smacktard]

I've been trudging through my backlog VERY slowly lately, and part of that is me trying to knock out some long-ass games, but also because I keep ordering collections.



I LOVE collections -- especially on the Switch, but the length it takes to complete just one means it feels like my backlog grinds to a halt while working on them. Of these, I've only played one game on Mega Man Battle Collection and one game in the Sly collection.

I feel like my backlog is never going to get shorter -- but then I remember that most of the "new" releases I pick up are collections from past gens, and it gives me a bit of hope that I'll one day be able to have only games in the future I'm looking forward to, and not games in the past.

So, any good collections you guys have played? Anything you've picked up lately?

 

[Benzine]

Love mmbn

 

[Raine]

I'm a little torn on Collections, myself. On the one hand, yeah, I pick them up from time to time - I have the Cowabunga Collection, Another Code, would have gladly bought Battle Network but that skipped Xbox - but I would feel better about doing it if more care was put into a lot of them. I feel like that about Remasters too; if I'm going to put out the money, I would really super appreciate that version of the game being equal or better in quality than the thing I already have.

Like there's no excuse for Tales of Symphonia on Xbox/PS4 being worse than Tales of Symphonia on GameCube. That's just dumb. Also no reason for that release, which was based on the PS3 "Remaster," to not also include the decidedly pretty bad sequel that came with said PS3 Remaster. But Scamco gonna Scamco, I guess.

 

[VashTheStampede]

Oh gods I forgot to get that Baten Kaitos collection when it came out

 

[Smacktard]

Love mmbn

The backtracking and same-y layouts of the virtual worlds was killing me, but the battling is so fun that I can forgive the rest.

Oh gods I forgot to get that Baten Kaitos collection when it came out

Lucky! You can get it for an even better price now.

Like there's no excuse for Tales of Symphonia on Xbox/PS4 being worse than Tales of Symphonia on GameCube.

Why is the ToS remaster worse than the GC game?

Typically I don't buy remasters for games I already own. Metroid Prime was an exception because visually it was such a huge upgrade. Baten Kaitos is another exception, but only because I've never played those games and like the convenience of playing them on Switch.

 

[Benzine]

The backtracking and same-y layouts of the virtual worlds was killing me, but the battling is so fun that I can forgive the rest.

100%, i just make myself forget all the rest. i also love games where you can get really tough fights early.

 

[Raine]

Why is the ToS remaster worse than the GC game?

Bit of a long haul on this one, but TL;DR is:

Originally a GameCube game
Ported to PS2, where it had a little extra content, but framerate was cut (60fps to 30fps) and graphic fidelity was worse
PS2 version was ported as-is to PS3 with bare minimum resolution bump, also paired with the bad Wii sequel
PS4/Xbone version was a completely phoned-in port of the PS3 game, sans bad Wii sequel, and again just got an (AI-assisted) resolution bump

So at this point the most recent release is still running at a lower framerate, has weird and bad AI adjustments to already blocky visuals, apparently including some clipping issues that weren't present in either GCN or PS2 release, and... they want(ed) $50 for it.

Typically I don't buy remasters for games I already own.

I would love to one day be able to retire a retro console for good. Alas, the video game industry is intent on never allowing this to happen.

I can't even retire the Wii U, because Nintendo hasn't bothered to port Xenoblade Chronicles X yet!

 

[Smacktard]

Damn, I didn't even know ToS2 got a release on PS3. But yeah, it's a truly terrible game. I loved ToS and I've been chasing that Tales of high since, but nothing's delivered.

I've retired my Wii U and my Virtual Boy (small feat that was). Still have a few games on Wii to get through, and a bunch on the GameCube, PS3, and PS4.

For what it's worth, XCX doesn't seem like it will be ported any time soon. I heard rumors that they lost some of the source code or something and would have to recreate parts of the game.

 

[Raine]

Damn, I didn't even know ToS2 got a release on PS3. But yeah, it's a truly terrible game. I loved ToS and I've been chasing that Tales of high since, but nothing's delivered.

For whatever it's worth, of the ones I've played from the mainline series, I'd rank them something like:

Vesperia (all around great)
Abyss (good combat, decent story and characters, don't believe the internet about Luke - he's fantastic)
Legendia (actually done by the SoulCalibur team; third act was phoned in, but I loved the characters)
Graces F (great combat, okay story, likable characters except Asbel)
Symphonia (all around pretty good, didn't like how much of the characterizations were inside of easily missable Skits)
Eternia (just okay; I honestly don't remember a ton about it ~20 years on)
Xillia (one character torpedoes the entire game, but if you removed them it would be "pretty good")
Xillia 2 (does everything in its power to piss me off, but despite that - I ended up liking a lot of the characters and narrative)

Own but haven't gotten around to Phantasia (GBA), Hearts (Vita), Zestiria, Berseria or Arise to date.

The Star Ocean games are extraordinarily similar as well; Namco Tales Studio and tri-Ace both descend from the team that made Tales of Phantasia. tri-Crescendo (Baten Kaitos, Eternal Sonata) is mixed in there too; it's a bit messy.

For what it's worth, XCX doesn't seem like it will be ported any time soon. I heard rumors that they lost some of the source code or something and would have to recreate parts of the game.

That's what I heard, yeah. No idea how stuff like that happens in the modern era, but... y'know. I'm sure they'll dredge it back up at some point.

 

[Smacktard]

I find it funny that of all of the Tales of games that are out there, I've played most of the ones you haven't, and you've played most of the ones I haven't.

I still have to play Arise, and everything else you've listed except Symphonia and Abyss. FWIW I couldn't get into Abyss. Wasn't a fan of the combat, but I suspect it's because the game throws a tough boss at you right near the beginning if your difficulty level is too high, and you kind of just have to run around an empty arena and repeat the same action 100 times to win. I should give it another chance as I'm sure the combat improves.

 

[Raine]

I find it funny that of all of the Tales of games that are out there, I've played most of the ones you haven't, and you've played most of the ones I haven't.

Haha, yeah, that'll probably end up happening with a lot of longer-running series! By all rights I really should have all of the localized Tales games completed, but between the MMO stint/skipping a generation and playing Xillia & Xillia 2 back-to-back and subsequently burning out, I just haven't made the time yet.

I still have to play Arise, and everything else you've listed except Symphonia and Abyss. FWIW I couldn't get into Abyss. Wasn't a fan of the combat, but I suspect it's because the game throws a tough boss at you right near the beginning if your difficulty level is too high, and you kind of just have to run around an empty arena and repeat the same action 100 times to win. I should give it another chance as I'm sure the combat improves.

Oh, for sure on the combat improving. It's at least as good as Symphonia, though it of course pales in comparison to the likes of Graces or Vesperia where the team got more accustomed to 3D combat. Most Tales games letting you just swap difficulty whenever you want outside of combat is nice though, even if there isn't a particular incentive to turn it up unless you're getting a bit bored or want to flex for a boss encounter.

Worth noting, at least, that while combat is fine Abyss does employ an experimental system for learning and evolving combat abilities. Some people weren't a huge fan of that, though I personally didn't mind (or I guess more accurately, really notice at the time).

 

[VashTheStampede]

...I totally ordered a copy of Baten Kaitos.

Thanks for the heads-up, @Smacktard

 

[Smacktard]

Most Tales games letting you just swap difficulty whenever you want outside of combat is nice though, even if there isn't a particular incentive to turn it up unless you're getting a bit bored or want to flex for a boss encounter.

Yeah, or trophies! Good rule of thumb is typically to keep it on easy/normal, otherwise you'll quickly find yourself underlevelled.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Half of my Switch library is a collection of some sort. Street Fighter, Capcom Fighting (the one Red Earth), TMNT, Spyro, Crash. Haven't played much of them (yet), but having a system that can play all these games without having to pull out massive systems is nice.

I also have:

Sly Collection - PS3
Kirby's Dream Collection - Wii
Metroid Prime Trilogy - Wii
LoZ Collector's Edition - GC
Activision Arcade Clssics - PS1
Arcade Classics - Gen
Genesis 6-Pak - Gen; Sonic 1, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi, Columns, Super Hang-On all on one GEN cartridge
Gears of War Triple Pack - 360 (first 2 Gears games and an expansion pack)
Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection - 360
Far Cry Compilation- 360 (FC2, FC3, Blood Dragon)
Devil May Cry HD Collection - 360
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection - PS2
Sega Smash Pack Vol 1 - Dreamcast
Atari Anniversary Edition - Dreamcast
Super Mario All Stars - SNES - The original "HD remake"

Plus Physical PC copies of:
Medal of Honor 10th Anniversary (Allied and Pacific Assault and the expansions, Airborne)
Mass Effect Trilogy
Unreal Anthology
Ultimate Quake
Doom Trilogy - Hopefully, I can't find it right now (Doom 1, Doom 2, Final Doom)

I wish some HD remakes had options to switch back to the classic visuals like the Halo remake did. I would like to play Crash with the PS1 graphics, but with modern controllers and save system without using emulators.

 

[Raine]

I wish some HD remakes had options to switch back to the classic visuals like the Halo remake did. I would like to play Crash with the PS1 graphics, but with modern controllers and save system without using emulators.

The Tomb Raider Remasters had this, and I believe a couple of random JRPGs did/do as well.

But yeah I quite liked that aspect of Halo Anniversary and wish more games would 1) just be straight facelifts and 2) had that toggle option. Instead of things where they basically just make homages to the game that loses a lot of the finer details, charm and feeling - like NieR Replicant 1.yaddyadda, or full-on "reimagining" experiences like FF7 Remake.

 

[Smacktard]

Grim Fandango had a nice option to switch between modern and classic graphics. I fiddled around with it occasionally.

I have some more collection games back in Canada. The one I really wanted but never got was Metroid Prime Trilogy. It shipped to my brother's while he was going through a divorce and his ex-wife kept it for herself and sold it. Bitch

 

[Raine]

Oh yeah, good call out - The Secret of Monkey Island remasters (X360/PS3) also had the toggle between the original spritework and the new visuals!

 

[Fool's Requiem]

I have some more collection games back in Canada. The one I really wanted but never got was Metroid Prime Trilogy. It shipped to my brother's while he was going through a divorce and his ex-wife kept it for herself and sold it. Bitch

People need to stop fucking with other people's shit.

 

[Smacktard]

People need to stop fucking with other people's shit.

I've still never purchased the MP collection. Maybe I should buy it, but for some reason it just always feels like the one that got away... I own all individual titles anyway

 

[Dead2009]

They need to come out with a Power Rangers Classic Collection. If they can do it for TMNT they can do it for Power Rangers, too. Get on that, Limited Run.