Good lord.
I set up a small, 13" TV next to my computer and I've got a NES hooked up to it and I've been chugging away at Ninja Gaiden for a while here.
HOLY CRAP?
I've owned it for years but have never actually played past the first level, but now I'm on the last level and am realizing that this is probably one of the best games ever made.
The controls that are so amazingly fine-tuned, the amazingly meticulate level design, the perfect sound and music, a game whose "GAME OVER" screen you are more familiar with than any sort of congratulatory screen.
I am in love.
[edit:
I AM IN RAGE!
In the sixth act, there are three parts, each immensely, hair-pullingly difficult. It has taken me about two hours to even get to 6-3. Finally at 6-3, I have another 45 minutes of anguish as I trudge towards the final boss.
I get to the final boss. I've got the wrong weapon. I die.
And am sent back to 6-1.
Thankfully, I've played through act six enough that I can get through it without too much pain and suffering. Back to 6-3, this time with the right weapon.
Boom, the idiot's dead.
Another boss?!
Guess what? It's twice as hard. I die.
Right now I'm sitting at 6-1 with tears in my eyes and my NES controller furiously set on top of my NES.
I will beat you one day, Ninja Gaiden. That day will be tomorrow, even if I don't leave the house all day.
--
Japanese Progress
Hiragana: 20/46
Katakana: 0/46
Kanji: 8/2000
Kanji is, without a doubt, a bitch, but if you take it day by day and study new ones and review ones you already know, you can eventually get a hang of it.
Basically, I want to be fluent by the time I die so I figure if I start at 18 I should be not bad by the time I'm 20 and then by the time I actually go there I'll be fine. Y'har! If I made a program on BYOND for use in learning and reviewing the katakana, would you use it? I want to do it for myself, but I've already got stuff for it, but if others would use it I'd do it gladly. It'd probably encourage daily study by having a set amount of lessons, in the following format: 1. Review 2. Learn 3. Review 4. Test Of course you could re-do them as many times as you want, and it'd record your test results and maybe graph them or something? Maybe I'm putting too much thought into something that nobody would use. | |
Half of this community is built on fan games from Japan.
I'm sure there's more than a few people that would be more than happy to use a program that helps them along the path of japanese-fanboyism. No offense, heh. ;) | |
Hey Vort, tell me how you study it all. I used to take courses out of a book when I was younger to learn Japanese but I lost interest. Now I want to try again.
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Of course, Pmackeroo.
Perhaps I'll whip up a quick version of my Hiragana program tomorrow and let you be the test subject. Of course, I don't know a whole lot of the actual language (though I am slowly trudging along -- I'm trying to learn the alphabets (just katakana, not kanji) first and then moving onto learning Japanese using strictly katakana. But! If you've got msn, add me up ([email protected]) and if not, I'll keep an eye out for you and then we can both discuss and maybe try out my program. | |
Haha. I love how you say Ninja Gaiden has amazingly meticulate level design, followed by rage over inarguably the stupidest stage in the game. :D
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Yeah, Ninja Gaiden "anything" is known for random acts of the impossible followed by anguish and tears.
Basically the game ninjas you while you fail at ninjaing mobs, it's the best emotional assassin ever. | |
Sarm wrote:
Haha. I love how you say Ninja Gaiden has amazingly meticulate level design, followed by rage over inarguably the stupidest stage in the game. :D It's not that I'm frustrated with the stage, it's that I'm utterly impressed with the stage. It's so well put together that it basically comes down to split-second timing and memorizing exactly what happens to actually be able to beat it. The perfect game. :) | |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9CP-xgDfuU
This guy makes it look easy :( I'm pretty sure he's emulating and cheating with save states, though. | |
I don't know...that sounds anything but being put together well. I was never fond of the idea of not knowing the next enemy is going to come at you only when you're halfway through a jump, making losing a life required just to find out what's coming up next.
Going backwards a stage for losing to that last boss was pretty lame, too. | |
Sarm wrote:
I don't know...that sounds anything but being put together well. I was never fond of the idea of not knowing the next enemy is going to come at you only when you're halfway through a jump, making losing a life required just to find out what's coming up next. The game's not meant to be beaten without dying, it's as simple as that. If you had some sort of inhuman reflexes, you could kill the guy coming at you mid-jump (which doesn't happen unavoidably a lot), but it's pretty unlikely. It's just like Ghosts n' Goblins: to be good at the game, you've got to know the game and the level like the back of your hand, except in Ninja Gaiden's case you're given unlimited continues to be able to do it. Honestly, I prefer that to games where you just coast through level after level without even thinking about it. Going backwards a stage for losing to that last boss was pretty lame, too. Agreed, sort of, but it does make sense. The game would be incredibly easy if you just continue straight from the boss -- no game does this, really, except for new games, I guess. In any Megaman game, you're always sent back to the beginning of the level. I just wish it wouldn't send you all the way back to 6-1, but maybe 6-3 or even 2 instead. At any rate, I beat the game yesterday to much cheering on my part. :) | |
It's one thing to learn the layout of the level, but what I mean are instances like 0:35, 2:24 (debatable) and 4:37 in that video you linked that are flat-out mean. It doesn't seem reasonable to know those things coming until your guy is already falling down the pit, but sacrificing lives for unforseeable trial and error moments are what give this game a reputation of being crazy.
Battletoads is on the same level but for different reasons, though. It's actually IMPOSSIBLE to beat two-player because the developers were never able to get far enough into the game to find out that a bug prevents player 2 from moving in a later stage. Then again, if that's what you're looking for then you should check it out anyway. I did kinda enjoy it. I don't remember any Megaman game ever sending you to the beginning of a stage after dying, though. They had checkpoints where you'd show up on a new life; a good example being the in-between rooms that were right before almost every single boss in the game. | |
Even native japanese people have trouble getting a handle on it.
A good amount of adults don't know alot of their own language.
It's pretty easy to memorize the other patterns though.
Too bad learning the language itself is too much of a bitch or I might consider taking it seriously myself.