Recent reviews by DCT

These are remakes of the first two Ys games Ancient Ys Vanished: Omens and Ancient Ys Vansished: Final Chapter which really are more like one game split up into two parts then one game and it's sequel given that there isn't much diffrent between Ys 1 and Ys 2 in terms of gameplay or really plot since the story of Ys 2 is just a countiation of the story of Ys 1, though Ys 2 is the longer game of the two and the only real changes made are the ability to attack a monster diaganally and the use of magic.

Now if you played Ys Oath in Felgana, Ys Origin or Ys 6 you may find yourself dissapointed with the combat, there is no hack and slash system in these two, these use the "bump" system from the NEC PC 88 orginals where you run into your opponent off center, from the side, from behiend or in Ys 2 from a diagonal direction or else you will take damage and more often then not get killed really quickly. Now sure it sounds antiquated and lame but once you get used to it, it's kind of fun and is quite fast since if you land on your target right you land alot more hits.

Also since these are faithful remakes of two old 1987 Japanese action RPGs orginally made for a old series of 8bit computers the game is fairly grindy but not too bad at least on difficulties lower then hard, I found myself reaching the max level in Ys 1, which is 10 btw, by time I reached the third boss which was in the second dungeon and had almost all but the highest level gear and in Ys 2 I bearly level grinded at all and still did alright of course in Ys 2 I found myself getting lost so often that I end up killing tons of monsters anyway. Yeah Ys 2's levels can get pretty maze like the worst is the last level. Also in Ys 1 there is some slight padding especially in the final dungeon where you will find yourself reaching the final floor of the tower only to have to back track back down to level 11 to speak with one guy to get one item that you need to unlock the final door and fair word of warning the last boss of Ys 1 is the hardest boss in the series all I can say is watch where you attack him as for every hit you land on him he takes away the peice of the floor you were standing on when you hit him so you have to watch for that and the massive rain of fireballs that come down during the fight.

And the story in Ys 1 is pretty weak but that's mainly do to the fact it's a set up for Ys 2, all the story is there for is to lay the foundation of what you get in Ys 2. The music is fantastic and you get 3 renditions of them the newer arraganged version which I personally love which was done in house by Falcom's in studio band, the 2000 midi versions and the orginal PC 88 version. While it would of been nice to have been able to get the TG-16 CD/PC-engine CD-rom version of the soundtack as well but eh what can you do.

I know it sounds like I am being hard on these but you got to point out the low points. But I do love this series and these two in paticular there is a reason why I keep going back and playing Ys 1 and 2 after all these years, I just love them and they are that damn good if you can look past the few old school flaws. Highly recomended but if you want something that is a bit more modern try Ys: Oath in Falgana which is a complete redo of Ys 3: Wanders of Ys, Ys Origin and Ys 6.

Thac0(To hit a armor class of 0), vast maze like dungeons, deadly traps, deep charecter and party customization, level and stat drains, possible permadeath, large mobs of monsters, anti magic zones, zones of darkness, and all that. If those words start making your mouth water or makes you start thinking back to the old school Wizardry games and fond memories of late nights being glued to the warm glow of a computer screen with a caffinated soda in one hand and a pile of graph paper in the other savouring the fustrastion and the joys of trying to solve a vast deadly monster filled maze. Then this game is for you. This game is a Wizardry clone and one that isn't afraid to really hold anything back but rather embraces the old school nature of those games.

Monsters that can drain your stats or levels, it's got that. Possible one hit deaths it's got that. Vast maze like dungeons made to get you lost? oh yeah it's got that and in spades(over 94 floors to explore spread out over 16 dungeons), varied monsters it's got that too, it's even has for better or worse the old school Wizardry 1-5 level up system(you know the one where you have to rest at a inn and your stats can not only increase but decrease every level up but it is balanced out), charecters that can age yup, if it was a part of the old Wizardy rule system it's probley in this game.

Now this game isn't for everyone, if you are the easily fustrated type or a graphics ♥♥♥♥♥ this game will be a major turn off as this game is unapologeticlly hard and is not only emulates old school Wizardry games in the rules but also in the games graphics(though admitedly it's better then the early PC versions which were just wire frames for the dungeons) which take a cue from the japan only PS1 remakes of Wizardry's 1-5 which used 3d graphics for the dungeons and static hi-res portrates for the monsters and the town(which was still a basic menu like the orginal versions). But if that doesn't bother you and your looking for something that captures the old school Wizardry era dungeon crawler then this is for you. Just keep in mind while there is a automap feature it is a limited one as you can only access it via use of the consumable one use magic map item(though you can buy as many of them as you can carry and there is a multiple use one that can be found in the second dungeon but it can break but is repairable) and a level 1 mage spell so you may want to rely on it only when you are lost which probley will be very often since many passages and rooms are built in a way to confuse and trick you.

Final Fantasy 3 has joined Final Fantasy 7 and 8 on Steam, now keep in mind this is Final Fantasy 3 and not Final Fantasy 6 which was released in the US as 3(seems some people are still confused about that). This is also a port of the iOS/Android version which in turn was a port of the DS remake which took the orginal Famicom game and gave it a upgrade with a FMV intro, 3d graphics, though ps1/N64 level 3d graphics so expect some low poly models, revamped soundtrack and a reworked storyline which is still very light in narrative and a few other changes such as not starting the game with your full party and not having access to your first set of jobs till after the second dungeon. In the original you get your first set of jobs after beating the first boss in the intro/tutorial dungeon which makes the game a bit more harder when you reach the second dungeon.

Now this game is fairly old school so expect to have to do quite a bit of grinding for exp. before tackling the next dungeon or else your going to have a bad time, seriously the next dungeon after the tutorial one is packed with hard hitting undead that will wipe the floor with your party.

The game was the first in the series to make use of the "Job" system which means you pick what "job" each of your four charecters have and can change them for diffrent ones but unlike Final Fantasy 5 you really can't keep the skills learned from each job, so in other words you can have a charecter be a white mage and then become a ninja and still have access to white mage magic but you can move magic between charecters.

But despite this, the light narrative, the grinding and the old school "ask around to get clues on to what you may need to do next" style of gameplay it's pretty fun if not hard. So if you can look past the low poly models and the old school RPG mechanics this is a worth while game but not for the asking price, maybe 9.99 or so sure but not at 14.99 so you may want to wait to see if it goes on sale and grab it then.

This game, this game is just so amazing. So many times when you see "retro" style games they are usually either throwbacks to old NES/SNES/Megadrive(Genesis) era games or a lazy excuse for weak graphics since they may look like a old game graphiclly but they don't often play like them. This game on the other hand looks and plays like a old dos era EGA platformer, most notably Duke Nukem 1 so much so I half expected to see the Apogee logo and a shareware registration page which sadly it doesn't have but it does have a quit to DOS option(no seriously, but sadly no Simulated DOS prompt pops up when exiting) and it even uses old PC speaker style sound and music(title screen), so when I say looks and feels like I do mean it, the scrolling is a bit chunky since back in the day smooth scrolling effects were done on the PC through moving 8x8 blocks to simulated smooth movement like arcade and NES games had.

Only downside it's a bit short since each episode is only 5 levels long and they could tweak the controlls a bit since if your shooting and then push back you don't turn but rather just move back unlike other games from the era it's emulating where you will always face the direction you press shooting or not. Prehapes this is intentional but it's still feels weird at least to me also there are no saves but since each episoded(4 in total) are only 5 levels long it's not a big deal.

So if you have fond memories of old shareware EGA side-scrollers from the 90's like Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, Bio Menece, Dangerous Dave and the haunted mansion and others then by all means give this a go.

If I had to sum this game up in a short sentance it would be "this is how you do a modern retro style game" the graphics are beautiful and actually look like a genesis/megadrive or SNES game, the gameplay feels like a mix of Rastan/Rastan Saga, Legendary Axe, Castlevania and Ghouls and Ghosts and it's as difficult as those games are but no unfairly so, if you die it's your own damn fault but keep in mind when you die you go back to the very beginning of the stage much like many of the classic games it draws insperation from. So if you love NES/SNES/Megadrive hard side scrolling action platformers then you will love this game, if your easily fustrated you may want to give it a pass.

Ahh Spelunky, this is one of those games that takes parts from rouge-like rpgs and mixes them into a diffrent genre sorta like FTL, Binding of issac and Rouge Legacy. This one takes rouge-style elements and mixes them with action-platforming, you explore a series of randomly generated levels where you try and collect as much loot and reach the exit in less then 2 1/2 mintues(if you take longer then a large ghost will spawn and try and kill you) oh and while you have health you only get one life, unless you find a special item that grants you a second chance and much like rouge-like rpgs or anyother game that takes elements from rouge likes this game is hard, I mean really hard yet still manges to be fun so long as you don't get easily fustrated. Just be prepared to die and die alot before you are able to finish the game.

so what can I say it's FF7, granted this is the old windows 95/98 PC port from Edios and not the PS1 version running under a emulator which doesn't mean much outside of the music is weaker since it's midi so you may want to hunt down a good patch/mod that replaces the old midi files with either the tracks from PS1 version or ones taken from the offical soundtrack. Also this release does require a onetime online activation/log in to a Square-enix account but after that you can play offline but you won't have access to cloud saving. Also some of the backgrounds can look pixelated since there being streched out a bit but outside of those minor details it's still how you remember. So if you still want to play FF7 and don't have a PS1 or a PS3 and you don't mind a one time log-in/online activation and weaker music then you can't go too wrong with this.

Do you like tons of blood? Do you enjoy fast paced ninja action with tight controls and classic Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden style platforming? Well then stop reading this and go buy it seriously this game is fast paced classic style fun and it features randomly generated levels, two difficulties, a all new bonus tower,map editor to create your own user towers and the ability to play others. If your still not sold play the orginal flash version of Super House of Dead Ninjas on Adult Swim's website then go and buy this and yes they added controller suppourt in this version and the ability to remap the jump key where as in the flash version you had to use up for jump.

Ahh good ol' Sonic CD this little game will always have a special place in my heart as being my favorite Sonic game next to Sonic 3 & Knuckles so I was especially happy when Sega brought this game to Steam especially since my Windows 95 version no longer works. Now before you sit there and say oh this is a emulated title,it's not this is a completly re-coded version using a new engine compete with a few new extras such as paying as Tails, time attack, leaderboards, widescreen, both JP/EU and US soundtracks, among other features. Now if there is one drawback it's that it currently has a bug that causes the game to run at double speed on 120hz monitors but that can be remedied by turing on Vsync and full AA on your graphics card or setting your monitor to 60hz until sega issues a patch(shouldn't be too long). So is it the best sonic game ever? that's up for debate it is a great sonic game and this is a amazingly well done port. So is this game worth the asking price,hell yes.

I really wasn't expecting much out of this game,but this little Arena shooter is a real blast to play. If you don't know what a Arena shooter is it's basically where your placed in a set area and have to face off against waves of enimes. For you COD fans think Dead ops arcade and you get what I'm talking about. Now while all this insane zombie slaughtering is alot of fun but like any arcadey style game it can get repetive. It does keep things intresting with multiple game modes, perks which you pick after gaining X ammount of points, four classes, and a active online multiplayer plus like Terraria it's always getting free content updates and the devs are a great group of guys who listen to the players.

Now sometimes when you go into multiplayer you may not see servers/games because games are always comming and going so just host a game and you will be surprised how fast your game fills up.

So yes get this game