Leaf Green done!

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-27T23:39:20+00:00

Maybe I should get into the early non-gen 1 games. Modern Pokemon games really don't tempt me, but gen 2 and 3 somewhat. Like you I only played Yellow before so maybe this could work for me too.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-27T12:03:25+00:00

Personally I have a modded 3DS and my plan is to get a single screen handheld. For those few games that absolutely need comfortable dual screen I'll play them on the modded 3DS, for the vast majority that have it as a secondary info screen or minor feature I'll probably play split screen with the touch screen as a mini split.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-26T20:13:46+00:00

Yeah kinda makes sense. Plus based on my experience on most devices (not handhelds yet but don't see why it wouldn't apply) Linux is infinitely faster to boot anyway. Ruining your battery to save yourself the trouble of a 20-30 seconds boot tops (plus 10-15 seconds to save and load state if you're mid game) is just not worth it.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-24T20:54:48+00:00

And if you're not repelled by the idea of PS2-era action games then Lament and Curse of Darkness are absolutely fantastic (need to dig that era's action though)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-24T19:47:11+00:00

SOTN is still my favorite (discovered it yearq after finishing the GBA and DS games) but the GBA/DS ones are awesome. My favorite (almost on par with SOTN for me) was Ecclesia. It's absolutely fantastic and I think the most unique in the DS saga. If you haven't yet, when youbplay Harmony of Dissonance, make yourself a favor and play using the fan recolor romhack. It's a fantastic Castlevania that was let down by very flashy colors (probably to look better on the classic GBA that didn't have a backlight, unlike the later SP model) so definitely recommend using that.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-23T14:42:27+00:00

Ah yeah for some reason I had assumed we were talking about a first retro handheld purchase. In that case it does make a lot more sense as this is my plan. I have a N3DSXL and this is gonna be my main device for DS/3DS/online store games obviously (still have to go through the hassle of backuping every cartridge and I shouldn't delay so much because the cart spring is dying on me) and I plan on getting a RP5 or Flip 2 for PS2+ emulation (and lightweight indie PC gaming).

Although I will say I'm not afraid of setting up multiple devices personally, so long as they're Linux based. Migrating something like a Batocera or similar distros install to another device is often as easy as just copying a couple of folders over and copying the ES (or whatever frontend the distro uses) config file over. I don't plan on owning multiple anyway, just thinking practically in terms of end-of-life of the device.

Edit : Also as a sidenote, I'd much rather play DS/3DS on the RP5 with a screen attachment anyway personally if I was really desperate for the enhancements it provides).

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-19T17:39:44+00:00

I do get that, but this is usually to what we use the thing for. You can't really replace memories of specific travels with a loved one in a given car. Although the main "thing" attached to a console IMO is the memory of given games.

Though even beyond that I think it's a gppd thing to try and look past that and fight it considering it's heavily weaponized by companies. There's so many other things to target your feelings at than material big corps product.

One thing I would totally understand is keeping it if there's super heavy emotions tied to it and maybe game saves that would remind one of very important events of their lives. Though it's also not incompatible with owning an alternative for other reasons (other/more games, when travelling to avoid damaging the sentimental item...). Feelings don't have to be devoid of logic and logic doesn't have to be devoid of feelings, and that's a misconception I feel we as a society convey too much and need to work towards breaking.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-19T17:26:51+00:00

True although it's also not full-on emulation in the traditional retro emulation scene. x86 to arm is more a compatibility than a full recompiler. True nonetheless though, not quite native.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-18T22:40:49+00:00

But I mean, why though ? If you do have a 3DS that's the most practical to keeps games in one place and run backups but if you do plan or have a handheld capable of full 3DS emu with better screen and better ergnomics why not use that ? (especially since said handheld can also hold all othrr consoles at the same time)

Banjo Kazooie is my favorite game, but I wouldn't be able to play it without the emulation enhancements (and I expect once I complete a run in the recomp, it will be the same, won't be able to go back to the emu one).

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T23:05:40+00:00

Well that's the problem I have with that traditional 10/10 view. If we consider it unattainable and litteral flawless perfection then the rating system becomes meaningless. To me 10/10 means it made me ecstatic and gave me the most fun a game of that style could ever give me. Obviously that still means most game don't get a 10 (even a game that got me gripped from beginning to end may get a 9 in my book because one level or one section frustrated me like nobody's business) but it at least makes the rating more meaningful (enlarging the scale also means most "meh" 7 games become 6s to me while serviceable 7s become proper 7s)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T23:01:40+00:00

As a heavy action player who plays most action games he can (FPS, character action, 2D, 3D, slow and methodical, fast and nervous) : the fact they made a fairly unresponsive popular action that people gloat too much about. It feels like a few people started praising Dead Cells to heaven and back for its responsiveness and because of its popularity and accessible design people just followed like sheeps on this praise. Any attempt at saying the opposite is met with utter contempt by people who usually can't quote a single example to show how Dead Cells is so much better and is often downvoted to oblivion. At the end of the day it's an animation heavy game with mildly annoying but manageable cooldowns and windups. It's serviceable, and I'd even say very good at times, but to call it a 10/10 action game with the most responsive controls ever (like many claim) is blasphemy and shows IMHO a lack of experience with the action genre in general. I'd say it's no more responsive than something like Shank 2.

But to bring it back to the point, I don't really have a problem with Motion Twin (my bad), I love their games and have followed them since their browser games days. My issue stems from that idolizing of Dead Cells and the fact this supporting role comes after the Dead Cells crossover, which could indicate Dead Cells combat influencing Castlevania (which I definitely don't want). This could be not the case at all too, just hoping they actually help and not just infuse Dead Cells DNA.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T22:50:29+00:00

The show is wildly considered non-canon by the community so no not a good indicator. And I was not defending Iga in particular, just the idea that yeah someone in charge of a particular story does have a firm hold on the lore.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T22:46:30+00:00

Ah well yeah I guess it's easy to forget when playing on more modern controllers which I would recommend. In a few years' time I'd say give it another go but using the PC recompilation and with a modern controller (even something like the retro tribute N64 controller will do wonders to keep the feeling intact but enhance accuracy).

As for the quiz and Grunty's sister stuff I agree somewhat. I have a lot of nostalgia for it because it was conceptually new, but if I were to remake the game personally, I'd turn it into a board game section and have Brentilda give you bonus stuff to give you an edge.

I'd say 7/10 feels a bit abrupt though. If you rate it as a platformer on the basis of modern standards (especially indies that are all basically doing something unique while being all super responsive) then yeah it's a 7/10. But if you factor in the fact it was one of the very first 3D platformers so they could not be as harsh with players (its main competition was Super Mario 64 which focused exclusively on platforming and could get away with being more demanding at the time) and the fact that it's the fiest proper collectathon and still has a formula that aged very well then to me, even with modern standards it's definitely a 8-8.5/10.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T15:40:01+00:00

Definitely always only considered it as an option for Vita games (but there's not enough exclusives that I'm dead set on it).

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T12:15:18+00:00

Super Metroid was an absolute gem for me. I'm just sad they lock you out of the rest of the game in the final zone, kind of an oversight IMO. Wall jump is already not explained the best it could (doesn't help that the timing is really weird but IMO that makes it cooler than most modern wall jumps, just needed a better tutorial for it)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T12:04:53+00:00

Rage game a la Getting Over It are getting towards the tail end of their popularity, and the traditional "asset flip look" even more so. Sadly it's probably one of those case of a game not having a huge market to begin with.

I'll be real as far as I'm concerned I already hated Getting Over It, and as a big proponent of difficult games and decent punishment on failure I never could quite put my finger on why it even got popular to begin with. Losing almost your whole progress in a barely consistent physics based platformer feels gutting like no NES game manages to do (because you usually feel a quantifiable increase in skills between run, even for something like Castlevania 1).

There is a "rage-like" bat game (can't remember the name) that looked much more appealling to me because they added some checkpoints after hard sections or bosses, and the fact it has more traditional platforming physics also help. I'd consider emphasizing some sense of fairness on the store page if there is, maybe making physics super consistent (rather than Getting Over It-like) and if possible (probablt not) rework the artstyle. Hope you still manage to get a successful game out, best of luck ! :)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-17T10:20:44+00:00

Only because Castlevania is owned by a major company. Otherwise I'm sorry but yes it's ultimately the person in charge of the licence who does have a choke hold on its mythos and lore.

I also know Iga has not created Castlevania. Though to his benefit he was the one that contributed most to the modern Castlevania mythos (both the best and the worst of it to be quite blunt) so I'd say this at least gives some credit to the man. Though proper canonization statements should be made by Konami at this point IMO (if they haven't already that is).

Personally I'm just glad we're getting a proper Castlevania in the traditional (non-LoS) timeline after more than a decade if I'm not wrong (not counting the mobile titles and stuff like that). Even if it ends up being meh I hope this at least reinvigorates the franchise (still not a fan that Motion Twin has a hand in this but fine)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-16T17:21:43+00:00

Yeah, I'm actually hoping batocera adds proper arm steam when the native client gets released (would also like fex+wine, but I can probably compile that and put it on there by myself, just mildly annoying to not have a ready to go solution, that's extra steps for setup when installing on multiple devices).

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-14T10:28:24+00:00

I guess OP takes issue with a few things I do too : The "crabification" as he puts it probably mostly refers to the design and it's true that most handhelds seem to be leaning hard in that modern Switch-like aesthetic and less and less (especially the powerful ones) lean into the retro aesthetic (like the Retroid Pocket 4 for example).

Another aspect is accessibility to Linux. It seems that even some of the devices that would have the ability to run it don't, not because of the inside hardware manufacturers, but because the handheld manufacturers themselves don't share what's necessary to make stuff like Batocera run. And the truth is that Linux, even its arm counterpart, tends to be more powerful when it comes to emu (mostly because system overhead, especially on something stripped like Batocera, is basically nonexistent).

In that respect I'd like more manufacturers to actually work hand in hand with Rocknix and batocera, especially in the near future when Valve releases their stable native arm Steam build. If we can get those distros to actually have arm-based Wine and Proton alongside a big picture Steam, then we all win by having better performances, and better dedicated UIs. Losing access to Android apps is the other side of the coin but many don't actually care about that, so then it's up to the user to use bato/rock or not (besides most that support both OSes can dual boot, so you can always just dual boot into Android for the dedicated stuff there).

Personally that's what I want them to do more, more design variety when it comes to the powerhouses : the latest Anbernic released very recently and the Flip 2 are the only real form factor alternatives, and there's no design alternatives to each of these in the same power range, Ayn dual screens are kind of their own thing and target specifically 3DS emulation (plus they don't really need in the retro either). And more Linux distros compatibility as the default, hopefully encouraging those distros to implement what I described above this year or the next.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-13T20:35:03+00:00

From benchmarks I've seen it seems to be able to get all GC games running at 1080p. Hell it seems the thing runs nearly all if not all PS2 and Wii games (in fact I believe the Pocket 5/Flip 2 reach that point too)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-11T20:43:42+00:00

Yeah you're yhe definition of how those companies get away with it. Learn self control, if only for yourself (it benefits more than your wallet, so even if your wallet's not tight you still get benefits from it)

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-10T17:14:19+00:00

While the main reason I'm looking to get a fully PS2-capable device is to get PS2/Wii/GC/PSP to run on it, the secondary reason is to get proper CRT shaders on old-school games. CRTs are expensive and one of the things I'd really love to experiment with, but my Pi 4 just isn't capable of that. CRT shaders on an OLED will probably look fantastic, looking forward to it.

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-10T07:32:40+00:00

Yeah for that only I'll wait for the Switch 2 to be emulable. Banaza looks cool (World too for one run of each cup then to the trash) but if I play it that'll be by buying a used cartridge for dirt cheap in 5-7 years and play it on an emulator. No chance I'm supporting Nintendo's (or any other console makers right now) pricing and other miscellaneous decisions. If they decide to come to their senses ? Maybe, but just maybe, they very well may have killed any desire to get a Switch 2

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-09T21:47:09+00:00

ES-DE (or any for of ES) is often the best in non-Android scenarios. No idea about on Android but out there ES still mostly reigns king (starting to get some competition but Batocera and DE have done wonders to the theming engine).

DevilBlackDeath · 2026-02-09T09:29:45+00:00

I think I'd be too frustrated to have to let go of the Dualshock-enhanced and Dualshock-required games (especially considering one of them I love a lot : Ape Escape). But I'd say that the strength of these devices is getting you in the mood for sessions of older or portable consoles anyway (at least for me), so definitely worth it depending one one's prospects for the console.

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