Gaming

Julian cannon back with another retro video game review. this time it is the very first metal gear for the msx2, although I did not play this until the hd collection.

in the metal gear timeline, this takes place after the upcoming metal gear solid: ground zeros and before metal gear 2 solid snake

Most gamers were introduced to Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation back in 1998. In addition to stealth gameplay that was unrivaled at the time, Metal Gear Solid also incorporated brilliant voice acting, off-beat humor, political satire and lengthy cut-scenes that drove a semi-truck worth of backstory and character development. Many of these cut-scenes, however, mentioned incidents and characters that were not included in Metal Gear Solid, leaving some gamers confused if this was an original game concept or a sequel to something nobody had heard of.

The answer is yes. To both.

The original Metal Gear was originally released for the MSX2 home computer in Japan, then later ported (albeit terribly) to the NES here in America. Metal Gear served as the game that would later set the stage for future Metal Gear Solid titles with what unfolded. Now keep in mind, Metal Gear for the MSX2 and for the NES are almost two different experiences, so I will do my best to differentiate between the two. The story line is nearly identical in both versions with some minor differences, but the main changes are in how the game plays and the overall layout of the game.

The plot is this game takes place in 1995 (in the timeline the name of the storyline is the outer heaven uprising). You are Solid Snake, a military operative working for FOXHOUND sent into a mercenary base in order to infiltrate and destroy Metal Gear, a nuclear tank that can walk. later in the game, you will find out that big boss is working as a double agent, revealing to snake that he is the commander of both outer heaven and FOXHOUND. When playing the MSX2 version, you start at the unmanned front door of the mercenary base, getting occasional messages from Big Boss (your leader) about current objectives. On the NES, you start in the middle of nowhere and must traverse through oddly placed guard dogs, mazes that make no sense and terrible ‘engrish.’

On the MSX2, you start at the front door of Outer Heaven.

The controls are responsive and actually fairly tight for its time. What confused me were the action buttons. On the NES, the B-button will punch enemies, and the A-button will use whatever weapon you have equipped (or do nothing if not equipped). The response time feels a little more reactive on the NES than the MSX2 version, but that might be the only positive aspect of the NES version. The NES port really gets plagued by level design and layout, which makes the game more frustrating and difficult than it needs to be. There are many situations where there is just enough of a gap in between a car and a bush that makes you think you can traverse through it, but you end up hitting an invisible wall and rethinking your strategy.

There are some poor logistics that exist in both versions of Metal Gear that can work in your favor and against you at the same time. Metal Gear is one of those games that reset the contents of a room once you leave it, the only exception being key items. This works great if you find an empty location that has rations (in-game health) or ammo that will infinitely respawn every time you re-enter a room, but the same tactic also applies to enemies. To make matters worse, in some rooms the enemies start their walking path right in front of the door you just exited, meaning you will enter the alert phase where waves of enemies come pouring into your screen in order to eliminate you.

On the NES, you start with this guy and his poor english. Also notice the more ‘cartoony’ color scheme.

Both games have their share of random occurrences that will either make you scratch your head in confusion or make you question what you just saw (much like everything in Metal Gear Solid 2). Starting with the NES, there are a few instances where the floor you are walking on just vanishes, killing you instantly. There is no warning, rhyme or reason for it. At first glance it looks like a logical path then the floor just goes away. In both games, there is a gas chamber that you need to progress through, but the only warning you get is once you actually have entered the room and are beginning to lose life. Big Boss actually calls you to tell you, “I nearly forgot, you need a gas mask to get through the gas chamber.”

Yeah, thanks a lot, buddy.

The inventory can be a problem in certain situations. You are allowed to carry one weapon and one accessory active at a time, so lets say you have a handgun and a card-key active. Using the gas mask example I just mentioned, you have to use the card-key to open the door leading to the gas chamber, meaning you don’t have the gas mask active, losing health in the process. You then switch to the gas mask (as unnecessarily reminded by Big Boss) and make your way through the room to the other door only to find out you need to switch out your gas mask for your card-key in order to escape the room of impending death. To summarize, you lose either way, friend-o.

Speaking of card-keys, there are nearly a dozen different cards that you need, with no distinct way to distinguish between them all. You constantly will be going through all your card-keys trying to figure out which one you need to open the door and escape the small militia shooting at you. I did some research on this, and actually found out that series creator Hideo Kojima wanted to create a sense of anxiety and panic when trying to open a door. Makes sense, but when you have a dozen different card-keys and every door looks exactly the same it’s hard to make sense of it.

Here’s my final gripe with the NES version, and I apologize now but this might be a spoiler to some, despite the fact this game has been out for a long time. The title of the game is Metal Gear, the bipedal nuclear tank you are trying to destroy. In the MSX2 version, you finally face-off against Metal Gear, then have the final confrontation against Big Boss (this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody). In the NES version, you fight a super computer that controls Metal Gear and its movements, then the confrontation against Big Boss. A game titled Metal Gear that doesn’t physically include Metal Gear is like a Legend of Zelda game without Zelda or an Uncharted game without Nathan Drake. For me, this was a huge let down.

One of the final bosses, Metal Gear isn’t as big of a threat as advertised, but it still freaked me out when I got this far.

I should keep in mind as sort of geek humor; the super computer in the NES version is constantly showing a blue screen. I never guessed mercenaries were using Windows 2.0 back in the day to control Metal Gear.

Even more frightening than the nuclear bipedal tank Metal gear is the blue screen of death.

Metal Gear is, despite the problems and plagues, a fun experience and worth playing. I highly recommend avoiding the NES version and going for the MSX2 adaption. The MSX2 version is included in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, as part of Metal Gear Solid 3. One thing I failed to mention earlier was that the NES port was not overseen by Hideo Kojima but rather a different team from within Konami, thus the varying differences. Kojima has stated that he does not like the NES version and finds it “too difficult for all the wrong reasons.” I highly recommend, if you’re a Metal Gear (Solid) fan, go buy the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and check out the original Metal Gear and its sequel, Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake.

Retro Review: 4/5

hello everybody, Julian cannon has returned for a new post. I am sorry that I have not been posting, I was busy with Christmas shopping and family and etc, but anyways, Christmas is here and I love it because you have your gift there and you wonder what it is. on this case, you would want to know where it is, here is my new top 10 and it is the 10 hardest items to find in the final fantasy series

10. final fantasy X-world champion

I played final fantasy 10 at least 5 times and I never wanted to do the blitz ball minigame because I hated it. but then I did it again just to get waka waka’s ultimate weapon, the world champion..without it, you will not be able to use him properly, especially during the 3rd battle against Seymour. to get this item, you literally have to play that minigame and win about 10-15 times without loosing at all. this can take a full day or week depending on how often you play. if you have the time, do something I should have done the first time and do it

9.final fantasy X- venus sigil

another one from this game but this one is extremely hard. for the venus sigil(lulu’s ultimate weapon) you will have to go to the thunder plains and doge 200 lightning bolts WITHOUT getting hit. once you get hit, it starts over and you are stuck doing it again after 199 times. that is a killer is it. I was so mad everytime I got close and I never wanted to do it again.The best way is to stay at the south part of the Thunder Plains and dodge the lightning bolts at where there is a white path near at the right side. Reach to the white path, and stand still until the lightning bolt comes down, this way is alot more faster then any other way of dodging lightning bolts. I managed to dodge the lightning bolts 200 times in about 35 minutes.

8.final fantasy  XII-2- clock master skill

this skill, or in this case item, is the most useful ability in the game period. Final fantasy XII-2 was released in January 2012 and it has got positive feedback. but I have never got this until I saw a youtube video. and that is the clock master skill. to do this you have to collect all 160 fragments in the game. that is very tough because that is very impossible without the dlc features. also some of them you will have to find the 7 paradox endings in the game after you beat the main story. what does this skill do? it speeds the ENTIRE game, including cutscenes so that is very usefiul for traveling to do more stuff and to finish battles very quick, even at the hard setting. Try to get this if you can because it will take over 100 hours to do so

7. final fantasy VIII- triple triad cards

it can be debated that the card game in final fantasy VIII is the most annoying part of the game. when you first play the minigame, you get worthless cards(umm remember the yu-gi-oh games too) but you will get stronger ones on the way. That is the keyword, “on the way”. the rules are basic but on the way, the rules change too often that you cannot get the cards. for example, the “elemental”,”plus” and “combo” rule makes you want to turn of your playstation because u will loose your strongest card. now when you win, you can get to choose what card you want to win, however, there will be new winning situations, such as whatever card you take you win. that can be the easiest and hardest task of the minigame. now the cards are used to turn into items, you can easily get everybody’s strongest weapons from these but if you keep loosing cards, then you also will loose the parts of the weapon.

6. Final fantasy V- ragnarok sword

final fantasy 5 to me is the hardest game in the series and the most broken also. I loved the job system and the very hard bosses but this stands out for all of them. somewhere in the last dungeon, there will be a treasure chest, you will not know what it is until it shows “monster in a box”. that monster is no other than shinryu. you will think of nothing until his first or second attack which is tidal wave, which will do about 7000-8500 damage to your party. you can go back there many times but he will still be there until you beat him. when you do, you will get the strongest sword in the game, which is the ragnarok. that sword doubles the damage done to an enemy, and if you have that equipped while you have the “rapid fire-spellblade-one handed” abilities, not only its the most deadly combo in the game, but you will attack for a total of 8 attacks.

5. Final fantasy XII- zodiac spear

final fantasy XII is on my top 3 of the final fantasy series. the battle system is arguably the best in the entire system, and the environments were well done. the story is pretty much law and order mix with star wars. but the only downside to XII is getting the weapons. the zodiac spear is the strongest weapon in the game and all characters can equip the spear. it also gives the user 150+ attack, 20% chance of attacking more than once, and evasion 40%. but to get this spear, you would have realized it when you were looking it up online to find out that you cannot open all the treasure chests in the game. that left so many players confused into why square enix would do that. I will not post on what chests that cannot be open because it is a long chart. but after you find out which ones it is,  the Zodiac Spear will appear in the Necrohol of Nabus.

4. final fantasy IX- Excalibur 2

Excalibur II is one of the hardest weapons to obtain in the entire Final Fantasy series, as it cannot be bought from a shop or dropped or stolen from any monster. The only way the player can obtain the Excalibur II is to make it to the game’s final dungeon, Memoria, into the room Gate to Space (where the party fights Lich) without exceeding 12 hours of playtime. Once Lich is defeated, the player must search the pillar on the right of the room to receive the sword.Passing three discs in 12 hours is a challenge, but if one is going after a “perfect” game save, there is much more that needs to be considered, such as many items, key items, and such cannot be obtained after their respective disc. This is made harder by the fact that to get one key item later on, one will need to have not missed any treasure. Another issue is achieving “perfect stats”; if one is to make the most of a character’s stat potential one must play a “level 1 game” until disc 4, when the best stat-boosting equipment becomes available. However, there are four battles in which EXP must be gained: the three battles fought in Pandemonium, and Tantarian. So players have to choose what players absorb what EXP. So “perfect stats” and the issues mentioned above make the challenge probably the hardest challenge available in Final Fantasy. For years, this challenge was thought impossible on the PAL version of the game due to the 50/60Hz conflict, but recent runs have shown that a PAL play-through is possible, but extremely difficult. Similarly, the challenge is possible in the PS-one “classics” downloaded version of the game but difficult due to the inability to skip FMVs (which adds about 2 hours to game time).

3. final fantasy XII-omega weapon

final fantasy XII is a game known in the series for being way too linear. but the after game missions kept me interested. but the one thing didn’t was getting the omega weapon. this is lightning’s strongest gunblade in the game. to get it, you would have to upgrade all of your weapons until the ultima weapon stage, then you would have to find  51x Chobham Armor, 45x Electrode, 28x Crystal Oscillator, 6x Particle Accelerator, 2x Trapezohedron. all in which will take hours and hours of battles or 5 star missions. you can buy these things but one item each is over 900,00 gil and you would have to transfer from different locations to get the rest of them for the same price. but anyways, this blade has a quick stagger ability, which means after the stagger bar goes up to 50%, it will auto stagger after that poiny, leaving you to do some pretty impressive damage every hit.

2. final fantasy VII-omnislash

this game is widely considered the most overrated video game of all time..and at some points I do agree. final fantasy VII is not on my favorite list but it is still a great game. but getting cloud’s level 4 and final limit break omnislash is a real pain in the ass. you would have to go to the battle square at that carnival and try to get 32000 points in total. that seems easy but you would have to go through stage fights( just like the 100 floors in paper Mario-the thousand year door) and it gets tough every time. if you do not want to get the move, then you will have to wait for the final battle( after safer sephiroth) to use the move. recently, the pc version that was re-released this year gave you an achievement for learning the move for 200 game points, that means you would have to go to the battle square to actually learn the move

1. final fantasy IV- pink tail

final fantasy IV was released in 1991, and since that release and remakes on various systems, I have never ever got the pink tail. and I bet nobody else got it either. to get this you will have to defeat a flan princess. seems ok at first but you will have to wait for the flan to drop the item. but it does not!!!. I have read that it has a 1/64 chance of dropping the item, which means it can take you hours or even months to get this item. which also meand that you will have to battle them in groups again and again until you get it which can be a real pain in the ass. while you are doing this, you will realize the pattern after every battle but the ratio starts over again for some reason. this issue was never fixed until the psp release of final fantasy IV-the complete collection. with this item, you will trade it to a blacksmith for adamant armor. not only that it is the strongest armor in the game, it can be equipped to any party member despite their character class. also the longer your character does not do an action, the more the defense will rise during battle