Shadow Madness (ps1)
Ive been playing Shadow Madness for ps1 lately and really enjoying it. I like games, and thats an understatement. Coming up in the ps1/ps2 era, the majority of games I enjoy are of that era. The ps1 I received for Xmas at age 10/11ish was the first system I got that was truly "mine". It was a big deal. I'd had a genesis, and it was fun, I loved Sonic, but it was hard for me. The games on PS we're so different. Before that, I'd played my brother's, but this was mine.
Ive got burnable emulation working to play burned ps2 games on console, and I have the stuff to do the same for ps1, I've just been out of it.
That aside, Shadow Madness is a game I started a couple years ago, restarted recently and am having a lot of fun. Games that are very similar to more popular games, but are significantly worse is a genre that I'm extremely fond of.
Despite its different atmosphere and environment (more fantasy than futuristic) Shadow Madness looks and acts like FF7 in a lot of ways. The models, backgrounds, some of the music wants to be that. The drawn character art, dialogue, and other elements though, are more akin to an early 2000s webcomic or RPG Maker about serious themes handled unseriously. Theres a surprising amount of tenderness in SM, though.. A lot of heart. The characters are loveable and stand out strongly. Its pretty funny, pretty abstract in places. I'm only about 5~6ish hrs in but I'm loving it.
Being a kind of uhhh... Less than high budget game, it plays very well as of yet, isn't infuriating at all. There's some neat mechanics like lock picking and ducking random encounter enemies by playing dead. I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm going in blind, only having looked up if I missed an item to progress or not (I did) but not how to get it or where it was. I can find it in time.
I hadn't realized, but playing it this way has been so fun in part because I dont know what's coming. I remember getting FF7, 8, and 9 as a gift from my brother shortly after 9s release. It was a huge, exciting gift, I'd never knowingly played a JRPG (I had, it was Wild Arms, but I just messed around till I died) and it was so exciting. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't understand the concept of a guide.
He gave me a huge acordian binder of guides from gameFAQs, printed in their original courier font. I used them sometimes, but mostly sat them aside and played freely.
As Ive gotten older, I use guides in RPGs as not to miss anything, but I always missed the excitement of just playing, having every story turn be fresh and new and exciting. I think I'm going to go back to that, instead of feeling high pressure about getting everything.
I don't consider myself uh... Organized? Smart? Enough to have amazing strategy about equips and things-- I never could get those amazing chain combos people would do with materia-- but nonetheless I still love it. Playing Shadow Madness has been refreshing to say the least. So much fun. I don't know what's going to happen next, and I love that.
The other game in this category I'd started playing was Overblood 2. Lol. This game is truly an anemic FF7. Voice acting is miserable, setting is clearly inspired... But! Your character can jump. Which is an insanely rare thing.
Despite the above, I enjoyed playing that too. I'll go back to it eventually.
I ordered a dexdrive to put my files onto a physical memcard for when I burn Shadow Madness and Overblood 2 to play on console. Ive been using a phone emulator thus far but that way I can keep my progress.
I have a list of games to get back to-- I want to finally finish Legend of Legaia (I gave it to a friend in middle school and still regret it haha...) And I'd like to see if Wild Arms is as fun as I remember.
Thats all for now.