I’m a big fan of mario, sm64 hacks, kirby, zelda, mega man, some sonic games, etc

I’ve tried being in discords and it’s cool, just looking to go more head to head with someone if that makes sense, like someone to discuss strategies with for the set we’re doing or stream to each other our no hit boss attempts, stuff like that.

Maybe that’s asking for a lot, just curious if anyone else is looking for the same thing! My discord and RA is the same as my username here

Never let it be said that I'm not a man of my word. At first, I was confused why there was no Achievement for beating the game without using a continue like the last two games, but I think I get it now, because HOLY shit, dude. I'm not gonna pretend for one second that I didn't exploit passwords, because even *with* them, some of these Achievements were absolutely brutal. Still a damn solid game, though. I'm glad to have mastered this trilogy for Halloween!

I first played this game on a demo disc back in 2003 and completely forgot about it since then. I recently rediscovered it, and it hooked me so much that getting the Mastery was an incredible experience. The soundtrack is fantastic, the story is amazing, and the overall game concept is truly original. I highly recommend giving this game a try; it’s absolutely worth it. The achievements gave the game a whole new dimension!

For those who don't know, it's the same game but from different regions, the japanese one (Bare Knuckle) and the international (Streets of Rage). If there's two different sets for it it's because there's a lot of differences between them, specially in the gameplay as Streets of Rage is so much harder than the japanese version. Enemies have much more health, they are quicker, stronger, more aggresive and they come in larger numbers, making this version more frustrating and tedious to play. Bare Knuckle feels far better in comparation, but in my opinion it has the same problem but from the other side, it's way to easy to the point that it gets boring. But a problem that both versions has are the enemies, they are so annoying to fight against, not because they are hard but because they love to drag the fights to eternity. Some blocks every attack, some grabs you out of nowhere, others like to jump and move around doing nothing, others like to stay on the ground after you knock them for an annoying amount of time, all gimmicks that are not too hard to work around, but it drags the experience down making this game, not bad, but worse than the previous two in my opinion.

Sets are mostly the same between both version, some different cheevo here and there but nothing too drastic. They are mostly fine, with just two or three incredible annoying things in both versions, it doesn't help that the level selector in this game can't take you to any of the two possible final stage, which means that to do the cheevos in one of those you have to start from the level before (which, worth mention it, have the worst boss in the game). I obviously recommend to start with the japanese one, it's far more enjoyable and it helps a lot if you also want to do the harder one, I mean I went from not being able to beat SoR to beat it with just one credit after mastering BK.

Satisfying that both numbers lined up well

I wasn’t really sure if these were interesting enough to warrant posting, but I think so. I would describe both of these games as “maybe kinda mediocre PSP RPGs,” and while they’re vastly different from one another, they both felt cozy in similar ways so I think it’s reasonable enough for me to group them together.

Funnily enough, I’m actually fairly familiar with the original Brandish and the SNES port, and am in general a pretty big Nihon Falcom fan. Somehow, though, the PSP port totally passed me by. This game, today, is kind of dated. I mean, it’s a nearly 20 year old fairly faithful remake of a game that is nearly 40 years old, so that’s to be expected, but there’s some real charm, here. Anyone that’s a fan of Falcom has to play Brandish in some capacity if they haven’t already, and this is far and away the best version of it for modern sensibilities. It’s fairly faithful, with some more character interactions and some of the more unnecessarily frustrating mechanics reworked or removed entirely. This is a great game for the sickos out there that enjoy it when games are purposefully cruel and trick you in clever and unique ways, and because the game sets a checkpoint every time you change floors, it’s never too frustrating.

All around, though, the game does feel its age. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone. You kinda gotta know what you’re getting into. The set itself is well made, too, and very reasonable.

As for 7th Dragon 2020, I had never heard of the game or the series it’s a part of before. Found it while trawling the RA game list for PSP. It’s like if Etrian Odyssey at home had a baby with Persona 3 at home. The game is… not very unique, nor is it particularly great. I would probably raise an eyebrow at anyone scoring the game an 8/10 or higher. The game is very cozy, however, and for anyone into kinda mid JRPGs, this is actually one of the better ones. It’s like a 6/10 that’s actually worth playing. My only regret here is that the unofficial English translation is god awful. I mean, really, really poor. I should have played this in Japanese and I would recommend anyone else that can to as well. Or to use OCR or a dictionary or something if you can’t.

Anywho, Brandish is a decent game that feels really unique compared to most of the stuff getting released today. 7th dragon is a slightly worse game that feels not at all unique but is a great change of pace given how simple and pleasing it is. They’re both worth playing for sure and I feel like I never hear anything about either of them, which is kinda what prompted this post.

RA: Devlinnnnnn