Flash, I define repeated use of all caps and sarcasm as bitching. Which you may do at any point you wish, it just takes considerably more boredom for me to be willing to read it. I'm only stating my point of view; if I thought you were doing anything wrong I'd have reported it. I don't.
I'm not really sure why you're insisting on comparing a flight game to a platformer, which is an apples-and-oranges thing to me, but so be it. Mock my play time all you want, but I never found Shadow so frustrating as to drop it prior to the Last Story. No, I did not expect the game to progress as multiple boat levels, however, I DID expect the game to flow into repeated forced and broken gimmick stages irrelevant to the game's core mechanics. You haven't offered any counter-point to suggest that the late-game is any better focus. In fact all I've heard of the children gameplay suggests the opposite to be true. Further, when among your major complaints is the control mechanics, it does not take the full length of the game to confirm that they suck. I went with the pointer over the analogue stick because I was not confident in how natural an analogue stick will feel from a profile view. But hey, when I run out of good games to play, maybe I'll try again. As much as I despise the game, I'm not in the habit of trade-ins, so it's still there on my shelf. And when/if I do, I will take you control advise to heart. But don't expect much. The hurdles I have encountered thus far still outweigh those I encountered in either Shadow or Heroes. The fact that this is before I encounter the children gameplay, which I cannot possible imagine as even belonging in the game, much less pleasant, is not encouraging.
I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from addaulting my point of view as a means to justifying your own. "About 10%" is an exaggeration, unless you're suggesting the game has 20 bosses. Dismiss me as uninformed if you must, but do note that I've caught you in two false criticisms already (avoiding enemies in Shadow and lack of play difference between BK's Knights of the Round Table), and you've demonstrated that you don't recall the game you're defending well enough to know a mandatory minigame when one discusses it. At least when I give you a fact that backs my opinion, I'm confident it's actually true.
I don't care about screenshot comparisons. I already told you that Shadow's visuals do not impress me. But NiGHTS was released considerably later, and after Secret Rings, I expect better from Sega.
FYI, your complaints of my comments being too vague make this my final response in which I attempt to avoid my traditional use of quote tags. That's why I use them, so you know specifically what I'm responding to. I avoided it here simply because I was in a bit of a hurry.
Rush.
Well, that's WHY it bothers me. Otherwise I probably wouldn't care.
I haven't known the Sonic Team game that has done Mission Mode well, either. Shadow was close, IMO, closer than many realize given how many seem to believe that there are enemies you shouldn't be killing (???). But it still wasn't right.
I must wholeheartedly disagree. I find Shadow's death in SA2 as senseless as Zero's in X5. He's invulnerable, empowered by the 7 emeralds and thus able to teleport at will, and he dies by falling into the atmosphere? Riiiiiight.
See, I don't buy one dying simply because their "destiny" is fulfilled. Something has to actually kill them. And if the cause of death is half-assed, then I don't expect any better should a revival be attempted.
Not everyone likes caps, so I'll stop using them to highlight stuff in this debate. But sarcasm? That's the nacional language of the net.
Comparison issue: Flight games, platformers, they are all measured by the same thing deep down. Quality control. Graphics quality, gameplay fluidity, bugs... (specially bugs). They all can be used as standards. And as far as I've seen, Shadow ranks below Nights and Heroes in that.
Frustration/controls issue: There are five short "mandatory gimmick stages" in the whole game. Three levels where you play with the children, the boat one, and a rollercoaster one which pretty much handles like the "flying straight" parts in the main game. The children's parts don't have any control problem with them aside from being boring, as you've seen from the hub gameplay. From what I can see, you were playing flight levels when you quit the game, which means you had a problem with them. That's a problem you had with the style and gameplay of the game itself. The genre, if you may. Nights is about flying around in a 2D/3D plane with constant tricks and loops. Watch a video of the classic games to see how it is. Such things have to be done with an analog stick. Complaining about the flying stages' base controls is like complaining about Megaman not shooting up. It's the genre. It's good for what it is, aside from any actual control issues you might have concerning bugs or badly-mapped movements.
Points of view: Alright then, 10% isn't really accurate, it was just a slight estimation. I don't remember the game that well, having only played it once on launch, but from what I see, you must've played about a seventh of the game, at least. Regarding walkthroughs. Not to mention the a-life thing, collections, and ranks to get the best endings and bosses. As to avoiding enemies in Shadow, I'll get there later. Lack of play difference when fighting the knights? Please, I just waggled my way through both knights and levels. I think I had to back up a bit on Blaze, THEN waggle, but aside from that, jeez, it's pretty much the same dissapointing battle over and over. Not even any decent bosses, like Secret Rings had.
In terms of screenshots, you can at least see work went on Nights' designs, the graphical models and the overall ambiance. Shadow felt like several blocks placed randomly.
If the quote tags make it better for you to respond, then be my guest.
I kinda forgot that one fact about Rush. But I think it was only in certain enemies, the ones in the endurance rooms, correct? Defeat X enemies to go through? That kinda made sense in a design perspective, but I get the point, and I agree that no Sonic game should have energy bars on enemies. One spin, one kill.
Yes, playing through the same game time and time again makes no sense, but honestly, better to play through the same mediocre game, than to experience a worse one. On the mission mode, I must wholeheartedly disagree. Shadow's missions are not just the only way to play through the game, but pretty much mandatory. While on Heroes, in one fourth of the whole game you got search missions with obviously findeable objects in levels you've been in before, with tiny changes in design. Shadow? You got [parasitic bomb] like the search for bombs in the city, with the very worst of level designs, enemies you can barely find, and complete crap you end up disregarding for the sake of finishing the level in an easier and less frustrating way.
About the enemies? Yes, I do find the enemy kill selection something awful. Even though you can kill "allies" and still proceed with the mission. Why? Because it makes no sense, takes away from your immersion in the game (if there ever was any) and makes it so awful to play. You're allying yourself with a faction. Why should that faction attack you in the first place? You've got followers. Why don't they stop you once you've seen you do good or evil things, against their alignment? Shouldn't Sonic... I dunno, stop you from shooting people with a desert eagle? And why shouldn't you be able to make the selection between enemies you want to and don't want to kill in the first place? Just because they don't really matter if they're killed in few numbers, it doesn't mean you should just do it "because it works". It's like staying in a corner of the screen where the boss can't hit you for an entire battle. Or killing your allies in Fallout 3 to loot their bodies as a response to "they got bad AI, but you can continue the game without them!" That's not the point. The point is to make a good, coherent game. If you're siding with them, you shouldn't kill them because the game's engine is too damn bad to notice who you want to kill! Have you noticed how you have to stop and aim reeeeeeeeeeally carefully on where Shadow is actually looking at, everytime you want to aim a heavy weapon like a rocket launcher? Heck, any weapon really. What kind of game does this? It's awful.
And about Shadow's death? Here's my game.
Shadow's a guy who's been trapped in a space colony all his life, as a child's plaything. He loves this kid, but he knows for a fact that humans gunned her down in front of him. He awakens 50 years later on Earth. Of course he's gonna want to [tornado fang] some [parasitic bomb] up. So he does whatever he can to fulfill his goal, being a cocky [tornado fang]er while he does it, and cooperating with Gerald's grandson, the only guy he knows can operate the machine. Everything goes smoothly, plans get a little warped, and he gets what he wants anyway. The space colony goes on a crash course with Earth, and is about to destroy it. Then... aw, [parasitic bomb]. He actually remembers the rest of the promise. SAVE the Earth. So, he does what he has to. Not being a good guy, just fulfilling his objective. Once he's done it, seriously, what else does he have to live for? Why should he
want to keep on living, even? Maria's dead. Does he want to stay in the colony all his life, all alone, reminiscing for eternity? Does he want to go down there live with the humans who killed Maria? Seriously, why should he want to live in the first place? Maria's dead, he's going to meet her. Sayonara.