Puyo Puyo

I haven't played Compile Heart's games but from what I've noticed the quality of their games doesn't match the original Compile's in terms of polish and thoughtfulness which is disappointing since that's something I enjoyed in a lot of their games.
 
I play CH's games. Whether or not you enjoy them depends on your tastes, and while I enjoy them, they aren't masterpieces. It does seem that they're a successor mostly in name only.

Though since they're owned by Idea Factory, I wonder who pulls the strings...
 
Look at what I got in the mail today.

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Yes, my Amitie plush finally came in. Even better, I got her after yet another long, grueling day at the peeling line, making my mood better.

I ordered her from ol' Lexiipantz here, who's put up her own photo prior to sending it. She did an amazing job with the plush. :)
 
I wasn't able to watch it, since I was out in town while it was running, but from what I have been told it was almost entirely centered around the two mobile Puyo games, which is kinda lame.
 
Well, I think it would be interesting to ask what do you guys expect from the 25th Anniversary?

I'm asking this because I'm really not sure what to expect, judging from past history it seems like a new Anniversary game is likely and the year is still young, meaning that's it's far from too late for an annoucement, but there is really nothing saying that anything will come, which is why I'm really not sure what to expect, especially with Sega increasingly putting more and more focus on the mobile titles, above everything else Puyo related.
 
I do hope for a 25th Anniversary game, especially if it has a PS4 version, or at least a PS3 release.

That said, there's still some games I ought to catch up on in the series, so if nothing else, I'll be celebrating the 25th anniversary that way.
 
Not getting my hopes up either and I'm on the same boat as Surrealbrain, in that there really isn't a shortage of games to play, in case nothing comes out this year, but I'd just love a new Anniversary title, since there is still a lot that could be done with the format, like bringing back Puyo Puyo-n's gameplay style and making it sorta, kinda balanced.
 
Tsu will be covered on the blog soon, they are currently at Donkey Kong Jr and Puyo Puyo is next in line, so it's going to be starting sometime this week.

The reason why I'm posting here now is because while I follow the blog's updates daily, I have been uploading old Compile era Madou/Puyo artworks, ads and magazine stuff myself for a while now and figured you guys might want em', so if you do, have at it :

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/140587124330/the-saturn-madou-monogatari-solo-art-of-the-ars

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/140464544410/gotta-love-how-lax-schezo-is-on-this-one

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/140337685590/the-three-protagonists-of-puyo-puyo-sun

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/139865151415/even-moar-from-the-discstation-magazine

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/139738404660

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/139142192375/witchs-artwork-from-puyo-puyo-sun

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/139010617405/so-adorable

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/138818538690/the-ars-trio-in-their-saturn-madou-monogatari

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/136694007190/two-artworks-for-madou-monogatari-the-tower-of-the

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/137952181680/have-some-madou-monogatari-123-art

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/137657587700/the-character-artworks-for-madou-monogatari-ars

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/137243449065/some-magazine-coverage-for-the-obscure-spin-off

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/136326110815/even-more-old-artwork

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/136279819220/some-old-compile-era-art

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/136125018350/original-satan-character-art-from-madou-monogatari

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/136122348490/original-schezo-art-from-puyo-puyo-tsu

http://warelander.tumblr.com/post/136081576685/some-puyo-puyo-sun-artworks-i-love-how-bright-and
 
I recently watched a Longplay of Game Gear Madou Monogatari 2 and found out something neat about the series, it is possible to guarantee yourself critical hits.

I tried it in the three games I played so far, ARS is the one game where it doesn't work, (they likely didn't add the mechanic until the Game Gear remakes) but in GG Madou 2 you have to hold the button down and let go the very moment Arle is done calling out her attack and in Tower Of The Magician Fire/Icestorm and Thunderstorm will first appear in a round sphere for a split second before initiating the actual animation and you need to let go the second the sphere appears on screen (still not sure on the timing for Areiado/Areiado Special thought).

In both cases the timing is quite strict, but it a helpful trick, especially in Madou 2, where it makes the spikes in difficulty much easier to handle, since I no longer need to rely on Diacute for everything, meaning that I have more magic energy for healing and it doesn't seem to be that well known of a trick, since no other video I have ever seen uses it, nor does any guide evr mention it, so that's interesting.

Speaking of not well known I'm debating about which Madou game I will tackle next and MM : Michikusa Ibun is particulary interesting me, since it is probably the most obscure game in the series and information about it is scarse, in fact the only thing I know about it (outside of it being a Disc Station released game and about 10 minutes of me dabbling into it) is that it supposedly aims to build a bigger connection between Madou and Puyo with its story, in what way thought I don't know, in fact, I'm wondering if anyone here knows something about it.
 
So, I figured that I could go and try out Michikusa Ibun a bit more, to see how far I can get in it, without having to look at a guide (since I had none on stand by ) and I kid you not, I have already beaten it.

This is certainly among the Disc Station games that weren't given all that much development time or budget, as evidenced by the short lenght and the fact that most of the assests are reused from MM: ARS, ranging from most enemy sprites, Arle's voice clips, the menu layout, to the entire soundtrack being ARS songs, there is some new stuff, like Kikimora joining the enemy roster, but it is easily outnumbered by the reused stuff.

The gameplay is also very basic, with no real puzzles to speak of, which is probably why I had such an easy time, the only puzzleesque thing in this game is the fact that you use warp points a lot, in order to explore new areas of previous floors, which did get disorienting after a while, when there suddenly 4+ warp points on one floor that all demanded to be used, thought I was never lost for very long and always got back on track fairly quickly, I could have done without the ''one way doors'' thought, Madou 2 had them as well and I didn't like them there either, they are traps that only serve to waste time and force you to backtrack.

As for the story I now know what the connection between Madou and Puyo in this game is, there were some hints, but I didn't put them together until the ending message came up :
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Yep, it is a prequel to the first (Arcade, not MSX2 ) Puyo Puyo game, according to the japanese Wikipedia MM article (at least what I can read from the Chrom browser translation ) it serves as a playable version of what the manual for Puyo Puyo described as it's backstory and putting this ending screenshot and artwork there is indeed a resemplance :
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It helps that the intro shows this :
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I don't know about you, but to me this looks practicly identical to the ruins area from Puyo Puyo, where the matches against Zoh Daimaoh, Schezo, Minotauros and Rulue take place.

So yeah, I enjoy the prequel aspect and the game itself isn't bad, just unremarkable, it's certainly a side game, especially compared to fellow Disc Station game MM: Tower Of The Magician, which was a true proper, full entry in the series, but I'm glad that I got to play it and being able to beat one of these games without any help from a guide, because of language barrier puzzles is quite refreshing.

The funny thing is, now that I'm done with this game so much quicker then expected, I'm back to wondering which one I will go to next, back to square one as some would say.
 
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Soooo... I just got done with another Madou title, ''Secret of Elysium'' to be exact and it was an odd one to say the least.

Much like Michikusa Ibun this one caught my attention due to it's obscurity, being the final Disc Station entry in the series and the only Madou game to never see a japanese release (althought one was supposedly planned ), this is Korean exclusive title, so needless to say I wasn't sure what to expect, but now for the actual impressions.

Story

A mysterious castle has appeared out of nowhere and the green haired masked head master (GEE, I WONDER WHO THAT COULD BE) of Arle's school issues a challenge to the students to explore the castle.

Upon arriving there Carbuncle runs off into the castle and Arle needs to find him, she soon does and the story just kind of pauses until they reach the final boss, which is also where I don't understand anything anymore and couldn't find any translation by fans or anything.

The main antagonist (at least I think) is this lady :
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She goes by the name of Jamjaneun Gongju, which according to someone on Puyonexus translates to ''Sleeping Beauty'' and judging by the masculine echo in her voice and an orb that comes out of her body and explodes upon defeat, it seems like she was possesed, much like Wish was possesed by Dark Matter in Tower Of The Magician, but it's hard to say, since she isn't seen at all in the ending and instead this comes up :
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This moon thing with Nasu Grave glasses that talks to Arle and.....yeah, I don't have a clue what's going on at that point, althought I admit that I kinda like the weirdness of it all.


Graphics

This game uses the MM: Final Test artstyle, which is infamous for being very off model and low quality and while this is a bit better then that (and reuses some TOTM sprites ) it's still pretty bad especially compared to TOTM, which is a very nice looking game, just compare the battle and cutscene graphics and judge for yourself :
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One good thing I will say about the visuals thought, is that slower movement speeds actually have an added visual effect of showing you going to the next point stepwise, rather then just instantly warp to the next space on the grid, which actually looks pretty neat.

Sound

The soundtrack is made up out of remixes of MM: Final Test songs and they work well overall, the voice overs leave a lot to be desired thought, with low quality audio and incostent volume levels, which leaves the Sound as a mixed bag.

Gameplay

This game uses the same very easy to use interface as TOTM, which made me feel right at home and made item and battle command identification very comfortable even with the language barrier, there isn't as much enemy variety in this game thought, to the point that you might fight the same enemy on four seperate floors, which DOES become tiring after a while.

The puzzles are where the odd part really kicks in, because not only does this game bring back a gimmick from TOTM, where you have to turn the opposide direction, once you hear a sound cue in order to progress, but it also has an facination with warping you to different parts of the map, when going towards ordinary looking places, which get's introcuced as soon as the second floor. These two are often combined with button gimmicks and other crazy puzzles, like the exit being obscured by a sign thats flying in the air (which made me think it was a graphical glitch) or the way you just came being closed up behind, you when making a wrong step, which combined with you getting warped around all of the time can turn simple navigation into a downright mindwarp, where even the map won't help you that much anymore, which might sound like it could be obnoxious, but I actually suprisingly enjoyed it, it gave the exploration part a very different feeling in comparison to the other Madou games I played and requires a very different mindset in order to get through, which gives the game an identity on it's own, while still sticking close to the usual Madou conventions, because it is otherwise very similar to TOTM.


I rather enjoyed this one, (questionable artstyle and voice quality aside), it may not compare to TOTM, ARS or MM2, but it did suprise me with its odd style of navigation puzzles and the bizzare story ending, which both helped to make it notable in its own right, instead of being another ''not bad, but unremarkable'' deal like Michikusa Ibun and I always enjoy to engulf into the obscure stuff.

Also fun fact, while Schezo is not in the game his TOTM sprite set is still in the game's files, usually I'd be disapointed by his absence, but given the artstyle and the fact that it would have likely meant a return of Scheshu Weegee here:
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Yeeeeaaaaaah, I'm not that upset, to say the least.
 
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Okay, did AKOM (or at least Nelson Shin) have anything to do with that game? Yikes, Schezo looks strange! Not Compile's (or even Compile Heart's) usual standard for art quality.

Or maybe this was earlier in Many Hands' career? Either way, it looks as beautiful as the art in the Star Wars Holiday Special's animated segment.
 
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