ZealPath

I got really excited about this album when I saw the trailer a week or so ago, it feels like a long time ago since I'd been that hyped up about an upcoming album, and it felt great! I haven't been checking out as much of the new content here on OCR as I would like in recent years (mostly just busier, sorrrrrry!), but I knew this album was going to be a must-get as soon as it was out for me, and I could not have been more right. To give some background, I never really considered myself much of a jazz fan until I discovered OCR many years ago, and just sort of absorbed a love of the genre of jazz through some kind of musical osmosis without even realizing it from the many excellent jazz remixes I've encountered here over the years. This eventually resulted in me becoming a fan of non-VGM related jazz music as well, and I have OCR to thank for that, which I could not be happier about! So with that out of the way, few things could be more of a perfect storm than a Chrono Trigger Jazz Album for me, and it's every bit as awesome as I could have hoped for. A couple listens through, I can safely say that I love the way every single track flows, that perfect combination of keeping the source tune alive while improvising just works so well here. While I almost don't want to single any one track out, I'd be lying if I didn't mention "Dream of Green" cause let's face it, there is simply no such thing as too many remixes of "Secret of the Forest" and this one is as good as any that came before it! Thanks for an awesome album, OC Jazz Collective!

I am a little late to the party on this album, and it has literally been years since I have posted on these forums, but I have to say, I really enjoyed this album. "Rebirth" was awesome because I always thought that was a very unique song on the OST and I loved the way it was expanded upon in the remix. But, what really stole the show for me was "GG but ___ Solos Win," I can totally understand why some might think it's a minor copout to use elements from the FFVIII OST in an FFII album but man, the amount of love I have for this song is off the charts. It took me a while to remember what it reminded me of, which was "Smooth as Honey" from the MM9 album, both of course, involving Sir Jordanius (but don't worry Brandon, you know I <3 you too!), some things just make too much sense! While those 2 were the big ones for me, I found the album as a whole just as good as anything I've heard in the past. The metal vibe in "Torchlit" felt very classic, almost like the Doom soundtrack/Metallica/etc and the whole speech thing in "Personification of Evil" was a great touch. Thanks as always for putting together an awesome remix album for what quite frankly, is "probably" the most boring source material FF has to offer (and again I stress that is meant as a compliment!).

Definitely the highlight of Random Encounter for me, as I already stated in the official thread way back when it came out. Nice to see it get some single love too, somehow I missed this until now!

I would recommend just getting a mic instead of the headset route in your situation. I'd be the first to agree that headsets usually make more sense but considering your setup and the fact that you've already got a laptop, you might as well just grab a mic, connect it to your laptop and be off to the races. I have a roommate who uses a mic similar to this with mumble and it works like a charm.

I insta-wishlisted this on Steam when it first came out, now I'm starting to think I probably should have just impulse-bought it! Thanks for the detailed writeup, I think I'm going to be all over this sooner rather than later!

I think if they just removed the last 3 skillpoints spent limitation and kept charging you gold per point returned, that would be perfectly fine. Most games where you can fully respec your trees charge you per reset (rift, swtor come to mind) and I think the system they have in place would be totally fine, barring the "last 3 points only" limitation.

Same, as much as I am absolutely enjoying playing this game, the lack of freedom (and resulting feeling of needing to weigh your skill point decisions carefully combined with maybe even looking up what other players have said worked well for them) is my least favorite part of the game. I'd love to just experiment with everything then stick to what I end up liking best.

Done and done, thanks for the heads up!

I wonder if you'll be able to find the "giant" fish later on for permanent pet polymorphs like you could in the first game.

Had an absolute blast (literally) with Outlander last night, ended up at level 10, after roaming around and clearing a couple dungeons on Veteran mode. The shotguns, or shall I say shotgonnes, are a ton of fun with the knockback ability, so many gibs! The fact that the town music from Torchlight 1 was still present in a modified form might be the part that made me the most happy though!

I was pretty excited to try this until I read Bleck's mini-review. I don't think I'll bother until it's the complete game just because as it stands I think (to me anyway) I would find it to mostly just be a big tease. At the same time I understand how challenging this probably was for the developers to even get to this point and I'm sure what they have done so far is probably pretty awesome, so it's quite tempting to give it a go! I also don't blame them for deciding to release something after 8 years of development... it seems clear enough at this point that their efforts have led to something pretty awesome for anyone who considers themselves a fan of the original Half-Life. Personally I think I'll wait until it really is done but this is very exciting, especially considering how Half-Life: Source really, really, really didn't feel all that different from Half-Life and this is one game that is completely worthy of a full-on remake. As far as why you felt this was necessary or appropriate, I have no idea. Criticize the game all you want but when you resort to this kind of shit it's hard to take you seriously.

Can't do it man, pickles are a no-go. Barring that, I'd be all over it!

I have my entire linkshell absolutely loving this album, thanks again for the awesomeness!

Pretty much the best game of the last year, if you ask me, so I'll have to second that!

Very exciting to say the least! As someone who was dragged back to XI about a year ago by friends and is still playing now, I'll definitely spread the word!

I can't quite pull off a full review of how I feel about this album yet, but I have to say that I love "Sentient Machines" so much that it's preventing me from giving a lot of the other songs the attention they deserve! 10 glorious minutes of "Floating Castle" guitar goodness!

I had a feeling I wouldn't be disappointed but wow, this is just as consistently good as everything else The Megas have done. I ordered yesterday but didn't get a chance to listen until today and I'm glad I set aside some time to dig into this because the lyrics are just as creative and entertaining as ever, without going over the top or being silly. The bar was set very high with Get Equipped but I have to say, History Repeating: Blue was absolutely lights out and a worthy followup! As with the first album, I felt like there were absolutely no filler tracks, every track is polished and catchy with a story to tell and they are all quite easy to identify to their originals. Once "History Repeating Pt. 2" started up with the familiar MM3 intro I could tell there was absolutely no way I was doing anything else till the album was through, and I have to say that "Continue" was an unexpected masterpiece to end it. I think "Don't mess with Magnetman" would be a good choice to submit, it was probably the most entertaining, and addictively catchy. While this album should hold me over for a good while, I can't wait for part two!

from FF8 comes to mind, how appropriate it "actually is" for ballroom dancing, I have no idea.

Annoyed me too, turns out you can tap Q and E to increase and decrease the aspect ratio (although you're unaware of this until you interact with a cupboard a few minutes into the game which tells you the various key assignments), I think I probably had to hit decrease about 100 times before I liked the way it looked, but you can experiment and see what you prefer.

Aquaria's been in 2 bundles (Introversion and I think #1, either that or #2) thus far, but you never know. Kind of happy they added Lone Survivor to this one as before that the only games I didn't have from this bundle were Psychonauts and Superbrothers. LS also sounds like a really cool game from what I quickly read about it, likely give it a go here shortly.

Not to be lazy but this is exactly how I felt about this song when first listening to Echoes years ago, and I would doubly echo the part about the extended tracks on the bonus disc, Spiraling Decay for example is really something else if you just let it sink in for the full 35 minutes.

They've done it again, it's a hell of a bundle, even though I already had 3/5 of the games I still had to support this. If for some reason you don't already have Bastion, well, this should be about the biggest no-brainer ever.

Definitely one of the game series my brother and I absolutely loved growing up. I've been meaning to play through them again but I keep putting it off, the nostalgia factor for me in this series might be higher than any other. GOG.com is really doing a great thing here with this package, and if this gets people who have never played the games to play them at last, so much the better. Long live the Adventure game!

Humble is at it again, this time with another "debut." The Humble Botanicula Debut is basically "The Amanita Design Bundle", with their new game Botanicula being the focus and Machinarium and Samorost 2 along for the ride. If you beat the average you'll also get another adventure game called Windosill, and a czech animated feature film called Kooky (pretty... weird but it might be cool? I have no idea). As someone who always loved adventure games and thought Machinarium was spectacular, this is pretty exciting and I can't wait to try Botanicula. In any case, have a look if you like point and click adventure games, Amanita Design are among the few still making them and their past work certainly has not disappointed.