Jife_Jifremok
May 3, 2008, 12:37 AM
Have you ever cackled with glee as you picked up a weapon, only to nearly drop it as its sheer uselessness fills you with awe? Share the weapons that seemed to have great potential but dashed your hopes...
Gale Boomerang, from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. When I got this and used the waypoint system, I was immediately reminded of the sheer awesomeness of the Blaster Launcher from X-COM: UFO Defense which had the same kind of waypoint programming system more than ten years ago. I've been waiting much too long to use a weapon like this in a realtime combat system. Of course I wouldn't expect a mere boomerang to have all the explodey goodness of what's probably the most broken weapon ever made in a strategy game, but this thing was barely worth using at all aside from some puzzles! Everything else was more effective, even for pottery smashing. And again, aside from a few puzzles there was NO point at all in the waypoint system. When used on enemies (without Z-Targeting) it was like aiming a homing rocket launcher or Panzer Dragoon lasers except that it's WEAK. I saw no point in using anything other than clawshot or bow for ranged combat. Phooey. (well, maybe I can pick a fight with multiple enemies and try hitting two enemies with it...but why?)
Capricorn, from King's Field II (KFIII to the purists). It's said that very few humans can wield this sword due to its sheer weight, and the last person who used it was some halfway decent hero/commander who disappeared along with the hopes of the kingdom. It does good damage comparable to a sword you could find in the endgame, and if you know what you're doing you get it rather early in the game...when you're weak and have to wait a long time between swings, so you're better off just using something lighter (like the Excellector that you start with). But by the time you're strong enough to wield Capricorn quickly enough to warrant use, you may have already found a better sword, and the Excellector will have grown to be just as powerful as Capricorn (but still much lighter), rendering this big sword useless!
Free Range, from Thunder Force V. This replaces the Free Way (Three Way?) from TFIV and other equivalents from previous Thunder Force games. It has the same basic function (fires in the opposite direction of where you've last moved), except that it takes the form of easy-to-use lasers that just lock-on to enemies within its cone of range (still in the opposite direction of your movement) and do massive damage. This gun is MUCH more powerful than everything else you use in TFV, and if you don't have this it's practically impossible to kill the final boss within the allotted time to get the good ending. This gun actually reduces the fun factor of that game significantly. This makes it viable for "most broken weapons in games" but since this gun pretty much shat on the legacy of the Free Way and previous equivalents, this one's pretty fuckin disappointing.
Gale Boomerang, from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. When I got this and used the waypoint system, I was immediately reminded of the sheer awesomeness of the Blaster Launcher from X-COM: UFO Defense which had the same kind of waypoint programming system more than ten years ago. I've been waiting much too long to use a weapon like this in a realtime combat system. Of course I wouldn't expect a mere boomerang to have all the explodey goodness of what's probably the most broken weapon ever made in a strategy game, but this thing was barely worth using at all aside from some puzzles! Everything else was more effective, even for pottery smashing. And again, aside from a few puzzles there was NO point at all in the waypoint system. When used on enemies (without Z-Targeting) it was like aiming a homing rocket launcher or Panzer Dragoon lasers except that it's WEAK. I saw no point in using anything other than clawshot or bow for ranged combat. Phooey. (well, maybe I can pick a fight with multiple enemies and try hitting two enemies with it...but why?)
Capricorn, from King's Field II (KFIII to the purists). It's said that very few humans can wield this sword due to its sheer weight, and the last person who used it was some halfway decent hero/commander who disappeared along with the hopes of the kingdom. It does good damage comparable to a sword you could find in the endgame, and if you know what you're doing you get it rather early in the game...when you're weak and have to wait a long time between swings, so you're better off just using something lighter (like the Excellector that you start with). But by the time you're strong enough to wield Capricorn quickly enough to warrant use, you may have already found a better sword, and the Excellector will have grown to be just as powerful as Capricorn (but still much lighter), rendering this big sword useless!
Free Range, from Thunder Force V. This replaces the Free Way (Three Way?) from TFIV and other equivalents from previous Thunder Force games. It has the same basic function (fires in the opposite direction of where you've last moved), except that it takes the form of easy-to-use lasers that just lock-on to enemies within its cone of range (still in the opposite direction of your movement) and do massive damage. This gun is MUCH more powerful than everything else you use in TFV, and if you don't have this it's practically impossible to kill the final boss within the allotted time to get the good ending. This gun actually reduces the fun factor of that game significantly. This makes it viable for "most broken weapons in games" but since this gun pretty much shat on the legacy of the Free Way and previous equivalents, this one's pretty fuckin disappointing.