Originally Posted by
Eidolus_Dyne
Although Temple and Spaceship had mostly flat terrain, there was some cool stuff. Remember, Topography is more than just elevation. Room shapes play a big role. I loved the small modular rooms in Temple, the ones that sometimes had a hole in the middle, with a little platform there. Or the raised center variation. I also seem to be only one who liked the tight labyrinths. It was pretty easy to navigate them once you got the hang of things. Spaceship also had some interesting elevation changes that mostly went unnoticed. You can see a lot of them from walkways and windows. I think though, in terms of tight passages, again Central Control Area wins points. There was a secret cave in the second Jungle area, where you break a rock and wiggle back into a water filled cave. I think there's a sinow beril fight down there.
The only accomplishment that made PSO stages so noticeably unique, was that they had animated life. If water is present animating it is a must, but plants area easy to ignore as static. Yet many plants in Ep2 shift subtly in the wind. Or wave drastically in the Gal Gryphon fight. Every area has some kind of floating, flying, or crawling life form in the background. Or creepy bulgy flesh webs, like in Ruins 3. They even did that fog in CCA or the blowing dust in the crater. These details get over looked when comparing PSO and PSU. One had them, the other didn't, and the later suffered because of it.
Although PSU did have some nice falling leaves and swirling darkness in some areas. Mizuraki CD felt more alive than Raffon Field for it. I think my favorite stage from PSU was Rozenome City. It had some swirling dust effects and used that dead desolate feel most PSU levels had to its advantage.
Yeah, I have NO clue why Sakai didn't hold the reigns with PSU. All I know is he's back, and delivering rolled gold. Delicious PS pretzels. Ha ha.
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