What are your thoughts on the Ecco games? I rarely see anyone talking about any of them besides the original / its Sega CD version. Are Tides of Time, Ecco Jr. and Defender of the Future worth playing? And has anyone played Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt?
I accidentally cleared the Vents in the original game before saving the final dolphin. I don't want to go back through it all again. Will using a level select code be treated as though I cleared that sidequest?
>>11510919I like themOriginal and Tides of Time are worth playing, Ecco Jr is apparently interesting, but easier and made for kids originally with the 'Jr' tag. Haven't played Defender for the future but I assume anything 3d sega is probably not great comparatively. So Ecco is good, Tides of time cranks up the weirdness.
>>11510919The Dolphin's Rune is my favorite among the dolphin themed video games.
>>11510919Sega should have made these like point an click adventure games, like kings quest and so on. Very much a "mood" game, but god damn are they ever punishing at certain points.
>>11510919It's like Ariel: The Little Mermaid on SEGA Genesis... but worse.
>>11510919I got kinda filtered on the first or second level. Couldn't find out where to go, so I dropped it.
>>11514456Same. That early cave level was rough when I was a kid.Then I revisited it around 2016. It was still very cool and had that mysterious feel. But I wasn't having fun in that same level, so i flushed it.
>>11510919Love all the main games. They have amazing atmosphere, unique ideas, and they're very fun to play if they click with you.Ecco JR. is a game aimed at very little kids. You have to accomplish a bunch of small tasks and there's no Game Over. It's a curiosity.
It's a super atmospheric game like no other but it needed better controls/hitboxes and level design. Sega CD's exclusive levels are some of the best.Fuck WTTM
>>11510919I too read Vice
>>11510919>What are your thoughts on the Ecco games?They're kinda shit. I like the premise of the first game but there's way too much repetition on-top of the pain in the ass air meter. I know it's realistic for Ecco to hold his breath for ten minutes, but fuck me it's a massive pace breaker in game where you're basically finding crystal keys to open up pathways blocked by crystals. I've not played the second game, but from what I have seen it's just a more obnoxious version of the first game.
>>11517067The controls are one of the best parts about the game. Once you dominate them, controlling Ecco is a lot of fun. Not all games should be super easy to control, learning to play is part of the fun.And I never had any problem with the hitboxes (except for some spikes in the Undercaves level that seem to be unavoidable) or the level design. What's your idea of a "good level design"? Because in games like Super Mario World most of the levels are straight lines where you avoid some easy enemies and obstacles and I don't see people bitching about them.
>>11517182I definitely experienced bad hitboxes while trying to push the crystals around. Controlling Ecco feels nice when it's about freely swimming around and jumping out of the water, but doing these more precise slow micro movements, it just doesn't work as well.>level designYeah I think more action-packed and linear level design would have been better, that's why mentioned the Sega CD levels. It's not wrong to add some maze-like levels, but in Ecco's case most of the game is like that. People do mention the difference between the more linear level design of Japanese platformers, which are centered around set pieces and overcoming obstacles, and the more aimless mazelike approach of western platformers, with less thought put into it in terms of planned set pieces.Now, Ecco isn't a platformer and it's fine if it has some non linear levels but the whole crystal searching thing gets old fast. It needed more levels with jumping above the surface