Retro Spectives

The Legend of Zelda is perhaps the most iconic video game series of all time.  Boasting 19 mainline entries, and an endless swathe of critical acclaim and awards, it's hard to find someone who hasn’t at least heard of the action/adventure story of Link and Zelda.  

It all began back in 1986 with the release of the first game for the Famicom in Japan.  The game begins immediately with an open ended structure, giving the player multiple paths to follow, and an open world to explore.  You explore and fight, get stronger and overcome challenges, and discover secrets along the way.  It might sound inconsequential, but on release Zelda was breathtakingly audacious in its design, with its non-linearity and enormous world.

But is it still an impressive title today?  Non-linearity and open worlds are par for the course now.  And while Zelda has been massively influential, that just means there have been thousands of attempts at refining and improving over what the original game offered.  Has The Legend of Zelda truly stood the test of time, or is it simply just a historical landmark?

On this episode, we discuss:

Exploration and Secrets

• Zelda, like many games of its era, boasts a huge manual, complete with a partially filled map to get you started on uncovering its many secrets.  Is the process of exploring and finding secrets enjoyable, or is its reputation as obtuse and frustrating to figure out justified?

Progress and keys

• Zelda is stunningly non-linear, with most of the gameworld immediately accessible if you know what you’re doing.  Does the design of giving the player more utility and power through their progress instead of straight up keys lead to a more engaging open world?  Or does the metroidvania formulae do it better?

Combat

• Just how enjoyable is the moment to moment gameplay of Zelda?  Enemies can be fast and furious, and the game wil often sling a lot of projectiles at you.  Does the game give you the tools to skillfully deal with the obstacles in your way, or is it just about hit trading and tanking through damage?

We answer these questions and many more on the 122nd episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Zelda OST: Koji Kondo

The full manual can be found here

What other games have been heavily inspired by Zelda that we completely blanked on?  What were your experiences exploring the world for the first time?  What Zelda game should we play next?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

You can support the show monetarily on our Buy me a Coffee page!

Killer7 is one weird game.  Developed in tandem by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom and first released in 2005, its very existence as a game defies description.  Within moments of starting, you’re placed into a world with talking bondage ghosts, a TV channel that drains your blood, and abstract puzzles that would fit right into Resident Evil.  Combine this with a cinematic third person slow rail shooter and you might have just a taste of what Killer7 is all about, but the truth is that you’re just scratching the surface of this enigma of a video game.

Killer7 has a diehard cult following, not just for its presentation and aesthetic, but for its incredibly deep and confusing story.  But for all its fans, what is the experience of playing Killer7 actually like?  Is there an enjoyable game underneath all of its layers?  Or are they merely disguising something that's all flash and no sizzle?

On this episode, we discuss:

Presentation and Style

Killer7 is absolutely dripping in style.  From the broader minimalistic cell shaded environments to something as simple as the way characters reload their weapons, there’s a unique vibe to this game that is hard to describe.  Does the glamour eventually wear off, or does its presentation remain compelling for the full game runtime?

Combat and Pacing

Killer7’s combat is most reminiscent of something like House of the Dead, with zombie-like enemies and a first person static shooting style.  Does it match the frantic pace and tension of a light gun game, or does giving the player total control of the rail movement lead to something more plodding?

Story

What exactly is Killer7 trying to say?  There are layers and layers of story here, from identity issues, to geopolitics, to conspiracy and control.  Is this a compelling and understandable story?  Does it make sense?  Does it even need to make sense?

We answer these questions and many more on the 121st episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

We are joined by special guest Dave Jackson of the Tales from the Backlog Podcast!  He reviews interesting games that would otherwise sit on your shelf, with a focus on having spoiler free discussion initially for people who are on the fence.  He also hosts A Top 3 Podcast, where he and friends rank the top 3 of a given thing each episode.  Check it out!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Killer7 OST: Masafumi Takada

Did you find that Killer7 was all that it was cracked up to be?  Do you have any idea what’s going on with the story?  Are there other Suda51 games that are worth playing?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

You can support the show monetarily on our Buy Me a Coffee Page.

System Shock 2 is considered by many to be the finest immersive sim ever made.  Released in 1999 in a coventure by Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games, it sought to combine the classic 3D dungeon crawling of the original with pen and paper inspired RPG systems.  While resource management and exploration were still a key part of the experience, you were now restricted in what you could initially do by those RPG stats - and it was only towards the end game that your character would feel truly strong.  Perhaps most obvious were the changes from the more abstract environments to something that felt real - this was a real place that had a disaster befall it, not just a series of rooms and corridors stapled together.

But are those things that were so revolutionary back in 1999 actually that impressive today?  Nowadays we have semi-spiritual successors like Bioshock which mimicked environmental storytelling.  We have Prey and Deus Ex with far more expansive RPG systems.  Has System Shock 2 stood the test of time, or does it even offer something unique, when compared to the games of the present?

On this episode we discuss:

Storytelling

How does System Shock 2 tell its story to the player?  Do its many audio logs combine into a complete and understandable narrative, or is it just a lot of standing still and being bored while a voice actor spouts nonsense at you?

Level Design

Does System Shock 2’s systems complement its level design, or get in its way?  Does the non-linearity of the levels represent the apex of the game, or are they just confusing messes?

RPG Systems

How well designed are the RPG aspects of System Shock 2?  Do they allow the player the creative expression to make a unique character that tackles problems in their own way?  How well do they work over the full runtime of the game?

We answer these questions and many more on the 120th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

System Shock 2 OST: Eric Brosius, Ramin Djawadi 

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RSD Mods for System Shock 2

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Is System Shock 2 still the best and brightest immersive sim, or has it been eclipsed by new games?  Should we finally play Deus Ex?  What other games in the genre are we yet to play and need to?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

You can support the show monetarily on our Buy Me a Coffee Page.

Over the years, we’ve played games from pretty much every genre under the sun, but there is one that is notably missing - the racing sim.  We’ve dabbled with arcade racers like Burnout 3, and have played several kart racers - Diddy Kong and F-Zero GX to name a couple.  But this is the first time we’re trying to learn how to actually drive a racing card under somewhat realistic conditions.

And what better game to start with than the highly lauded Gran Turismo 4?  It boasts hundreds of hours of gameplay, and you’d be hard pressed to find a racing sim fan who hasn’t at least heard of it.  There are an endless number of cars, tracks and conditions, and it's the kind of racing game that requires you to do tutorials on how to brake and turn simple corners before you get to the actual racing part.

So with all that in mind, just how good a video game is Gran Turismo 4?  What does it offer to someone who knows nothing about cars, and wants to go round a track really fast?  Is this a fun and engaging time, or is it a bland and dry simulator, for the ultra-enthusiasts only?

On this episode, we discuss:

Tutorials

• In what ways does GT4 attempt to teach the player the basics of learning to drive your car on the race track?  Does it do enough to explain the why or does it just focus on the how? 

Mechanics

• Just how fun is it to race around the tracks?  Does the difficulty of taking corners and controlling steering end up being frustrating and repetitive, or is there a kind of satisfaction to be found here?

Tuning and Upgrading

• GT4 features an incredible number of different cars to choose from, upgrade options for them, and a bevy of ways to tune them to perform in different ways.  How good is the game at delivering this information to the player so that they make informed choices?

We answer these questions and many more on the 119th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Gran Turismo 4 OST: Various Artists

Is Gran Turismo 4 the best racing sim of its era, or is there a better retro equivalent?  How have modern racing sims changed from the formulae of the original?  Are there any racing sims with a gentler learning curve when it comes to tuning your car?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

You can support us monetarily on our Buy me a Coffee page

Hitman: Blood Money, first released in 2006 by Eidos, is considered by many to be the best Hitman game ever made.  After the first few games played around with novel ideas and concepts to mixed success, Blood Money honed in on the formulae of specific, small and dense environments filled with ‘accidental’ scripted opportunities to murder your target.  Gone are the long and slow walking through the linear levels of Silent Assassin.  You no longer have the weird and confusing systems of Codename: 47, where you only sometimes had to think outside the box.  What we get here is a more focused experience - 12 playgrounds puzzle murders.

But in focusing on these specifics, has Blood Money left behind something meaningful from the previous games?  And while it built the groundwork for what the modern games would become, does it execute on it with the same finesse?  Has Hitman: Blood Money truly stood the test of time, or does it just play like an awkward middle child?

On this episode, we discuss:

Story

• Hitman: Blood Money is ostensibly a more gritty game than the first two - but is this actually the case?  Does the gameplay end up pushing the overall tone towards something less serious and slightly more goofy, or does the darker story portrayed in cutscenes keep it grounded?

Level Design

• How does the level design of Blood Money craft and guide the overall experience?  How does it use visual direction to create a sense of place, and does it compare favourably to the levels earlier in the series?

Execution(s)

• How enjoyable is it to discover and execute the various scripted deaths on every level?  Are these fun puzzles to figure out through trial and error, or does this lead to a sense of frustration as you wait around with no idea what to do?

We answer these questions and many more on the 118th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Hitman: Blood Money OST - Jesper Kyd

Is Hitman: Blood Money truly the best Hitman game?  Just how good are the modern hitman  games, should we play them?  What’s your favourite level?  

Come let us know what you think or recommend us a new game on our community discord server!

If you would like to support the show monetarily, you can buy us a coffee here!

Final Fantasy VII is a landmark title not only for the JRPG genre, but for all video games.  First released in 1997 and developed by Square, it took the format of the previous games and brought them to life with 3D models and environments.  Featuring an ambitious and creative setting, a complicated plot with intrigue and a seemingly deep and engaging combat system, the game seemed to be firing on all    cylinders.  Critics and fans alike adored the game to pieces, and even today there are legion's of players who will cite Final Fantasy VII as their favourite game of all time.

But how has time truly treated this once overwhelmingly impressive title?  Our ability to construct graphical setpieces goes far beyond what was possible in 1997.  Combat systems have come a long way, developed into something far more sophisticated.  And are the characteristics and story really as impressive as they were when the game first released? 
Has Final Fantasy VII truly stood the test of time?

On this week’s episode, we discuss:

• Final Fantasy VII’s cinematic set pieces fuse and random battles, cutscenes, in-game cutscenes, exploration, minigames and music in a continuous flow.  Is this a compelling way to do story telling, or does it just come across as quaint?
• The characters of Final Fantasy VII are notoriously underwritten, with their dialogue being just flat out bad and uninteresting, or is there something special lurking underneath?
• The combat present is a complicated mix of summons, magic, materia, mazes and random encounters. How does it all stack up when you put it all together?

We answer these questions and many, many more on the 117th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Musicc: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Final Fantasy VII OST: Nobuo Uematsu

How did our thoughts on FF7 stack up to your own personal experience?  Is FF7 the best final fantasy game, or does it rank middle of the road?  What JRPG should we tackle next?  

Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

Support the show monetarily on our Buy me a Coffee Page!

Rain World is a game that was released to very mixed reviews.  With a whopping 59 on Metacritic, it was panned for its controls, difficulty, tedium and general obtuseness.  But take a gander at the community reviews and you get a very different picture.

The thing is, Rain World can at times be all the things that its critics hate so much that they give it a lower score than your generic AAA Ubisoft game that comes out every 6 months.  It controls nothing like Mario.  It kills you frequently and uncaringly.  Its checkpointing and karma systems do force you towards a kind of repetition, and its refusal to explain anything does mean you have to experiment to understand the world in front of you.

But does a different philosophical approach to game design really deserve this kind of heat?  Is Rain World’s expectation that you learn by doing, instead of gradually ramping up difficulty with careful tutorializing, really that bad?  Is it, perhaps, that the very thing many critics loathe about the game, exactly what makes Rainworld truly shine?

On this special 116th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast, we play the cult classic Rain World, and do our best to cut to the heart of what it’s all about.

On this episode, we discuss:

• What is the fundamental gameplay loop of Rain World actually like?  Rain World is a game that resists easy definition or explanation, shrouded in mystery and misunderstandings.  We break down what our experiences of actually playing the game was, from start to finish.
• How well do Rain World’s many systems gel together?  Are the Karma Gates that bar your progress from region to region an essential part of this system, or do they sometimes force the player into a cycle of tedious repetition?
• What did we think of Rain World’s story?  How does Rain World deliver its lore to the player, and was there perhaps a more effective way to get the details of the story  across?

We answer these questions and many more on the 116th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Rain World OST: James Therrien

What were your experiences like playing Rain World?  Did you like how the story was delivered or was it just too much?  What modern game should we play next?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

You can support the show monetarily on our Buy me a Coffee Page!

The Ancients of Rainworld’s solution to everything

It's that time of year again!  For most of our episodes, our format is identical - we play a game, then discuss and review it.  Once a year, however, we take a break from the format at christmas time for our Mailbag episodes.  These are some of our favourite episodes to do - we take a break from the norm for some offbeat discussion about games both old and new.

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions on our discord server.  As always, having you all to listen is exactly what makes the show worthwhile and we’re very grateful for your support.  

So please, grab a cup of cocoa and relax as we answer those burning questions that are on everyone’s minds!

On this episode, we discuss:

• What are Pat and James’ top 5 favourite games of all time?
• What is an opinion on video games that you have always wanted to defend but that nobody has ever asked about?
• Has doing the podcast changed your opinions in any significant way?

We answer these questions and many more on the 115th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

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If you have any more questions or have suggestions for games for us to play, please swing by our community discord server!

If you would like to support the show monetarily, we have a Buy Me a Coffee page!

Ensemble Studios blew the world away with Age of Empires way back in 1997.  It took a different approach to the RTS formulae than Westwood or Blizzard, and was rewarded heavily for it.  Being able to advance your entire civilization's technology level was a heady drug, and balancing the varied needs of your economy with a well rounded army was strategically engaging.  After releasing a sequel and pumping out a couple of expansions they decided to try to add something genuinely new to the formulae.

So just a few years later, in 2002, we got the spinoff Age of Mythology.  It was extremely well received on release - while the teching to later ages was still there, Age of Mythology expanded the role of heroes, added more factional diversity, had a wide range of mythical units to complement your army, and even added god powers that could make or break the tide of battle.  It seemed to just be Age of Empires++, a more fun and flavoured take on what made everything in the original great.

But does adding mythical units with no active abilities compare to the caster units in Starcraft?  Does the extreme focus on macroing an economy up with its slower pace combat make the game tedious?  Does Age of Mythology truly stand side by side with the other RTS giants, or is it fated to become a forgotten spinoff, just one game to litter the RTS graveyard?

On this episode, we discuss:

• Age of Mythology doubles down on the economic focus of Ensemble Studio games, adding faith as an additional resource alongside food, wood and gold.  Is it fun trying to optimise your economy, or does this come at the cost of more high octane battles?
• Many RTS campaigns suffer the issue of every mission boiling down to building a max population army, then attack moving into the enemy, destroying everything in your wake.  Does Age of Mythology succumb to this problem, or does it have a solution?
• How enjoyable is the combat of Age of Myhology?  Do the autocasting abilities of myth units and heroes allow for your to micro them effectively?  Does the relatively low lethality of units make fights exciting?

We answer these questions and many more on the 114th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

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Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Age of Mythology OST: Stephen Rippy, Kevin Mcmullan

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Pat guested on the Nostalgia Goggles Podcast to review and discuss Starcraft!

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Is Age of Mythology better than Age of Empires 2, or just different?  Are there modern RTS games that you have played that have eclipsed Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 3?  Which RTS game should we play next?  Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

Next episode we’re doing our annual mailbag, so if you have any questions we’d love if you’d drop by!

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If you enjoy the show and want to support us monetarily, please check out our Buy me a Coffee Page!

Blood, first released in 1997 by Monolith Studios, was the middle child of the big three Build Engine games, sandwiched in between Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior.  Its combination of gory horror-inspired visuals combined with action filled FPS gameplay was a huge hit at the time of release, but has slowly faded in many people’s memories.  Both Quake and Half Life loom larger in most people’s memories than Blood, and the question must be asked: why?

Is there a good reason that Blood has become one of the dark horses of the boomer FPS genre, known mainly to connoisseurs of the genre?  Or has the quality of 2.5D shooters been massively overstated?

On this episode, we discuss:

Weapons

• Blood has a quirky roster of weapons, including a flare gun as pistol, an aerosol can with a lighter, and a voodoo doll sniper.  Are these weapons just silly gimmicks, or do they all serve their purpose as part of your arsenal?

Level Design

• Bloods level design is, for the most part, compact and filled with secrets joining levels together.  Does this create a coherent sense of place, or does the abundance of tunnels just turn the level into an awkward mess?

Aesthetics and Presentation

• Blood’s story is very barebones, but is filled to the brim with references to 80s and early 90s horror films.  Can a reverence for a genre of film carry an aesthetic, or is this just a case of Borderlands syndrome where its all references and no substance?

We answer these questions and many more on the 113th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Blood OST: Daniel Bernstein, Guy Whitmore

Retro Hangover Duke 3D podcast featuring Pat!

Does Blood truly have the best shotgun in any video game?  
Are there any boomer shooters which you think are better than Blood?  
What modern game best captures what Blood is all about?  
Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

To support the show monetarily, check out our Buy me a Coffee Page!