Gaming Consoles & Gear

I’ve been absolutely loving the TTYD remake, I truly believe it re-invigorated new life into a game I’ve held very dear since childhood. There are a few small nitpicks of course, like the lack of text skipping and the game being slightly easier in some ways, but beyond the 30FPS issue (which I’ll get to) I have yet to find anything that goes beyond a nitpick. But what I want to highlight here is the opposite - to compile a lot of the more unsung improvements made to this remake that WERE’NT in a lot of the advertising and were thus missed by many.

Of course, it’s worth shouting out the bigger, more well-known improvements. The new visuals look incredible (and at the end of the day, looking this good is why it runs at 30fps in the first place), the grand orchestral feel of the OST really complements the game, (and of course, you can swap back, so no harm done if you don’t like them). Many of the new QOL changes that were highlighted are very much appreciated as well - like the partner ring making the game snappier, the new art and music galleries being fun to browse and fill, and of course, the majorly improved pipe room, being easily accessible, with more pipes, and better marking for them, alleviating backtracking issues.

But what about things that weren’t highlighted? Well, first, some of the known features actually go further than you think.

Visually, for example - they also added new faces to most characters… and a LOT more of them than I was expecting. The playable cast got plenty of new expressions, but I was shocked to see even the most small and generic of NPCs have new faces now where they used to just stare at you. Characters now also have destinct voices to destinguish them. The game is overall far more expressive. 

There is also brand NEW music, besides the remixes - I believe there are more cutscene tracks now to enhance those, but more importantly, the OST is now dynamic: the battle theme changes for each and every location so you never get tired of it, and even some other tracks, like the Rogueport theme for example, change (without resetting the loop) when you enter different locations, like the item shop or bar, and that’s really awesome.

The backtracking fixes too go beyond what was highlighted: the pipe room is great, but they even added new shortcuts to specific locations that needed them! The biggest one is of course - a pipe between Twilight Town and the Creepy Steeple, greatly reducing the backtracking in Chapter 4, a major issue people have always complained about! I hear there’s also a spring shortcut in Keelhaul Key, and there may be more of these as well.

Beyond the details of known features, there’s more too: Of course, everyone was wondering about those new bosses a German review mentioned, and whether or not they’re even real or not - and it seems they are! Specifically, a potentially humorous fight against Wacka in the Pit of 100 Trials, and even cooler, a Prince Mush fight in the Glitz Pit, which I can’t wait to check out!

But that one I only heard about and have yet to see. Next, I have a nice list of things I noticed myself, many of which are things I distinctly remember being annoyed with as a kid myself playing the original:

Like how cumbersome rechecking a Tattle was - during battle, if you forgot the ATK, DEF, or some special attributes or weaknesses of an enemy, you’d have to Tattle them again, which would cost you turns you can’t afford. But now, you can re-review previously performed Tattles mid-fight with a button press, which really does come in handy.

I’ve also always hated the fact your hammer was restricted to 2 directions, which made it cumbersome to hit something in front of you or behind you. Well, the remake allows you to use the hammer in a full 360, which genuinely makes exploring flow a lot better.
you

While some of the tiny things that make the game a bit easier are questionable, I am actually quite a fan of being able to restart a scene after dying rather than going back to a save - it’s optional, so it won’t bother anyone, but I find this makes the game less punishing rather than easier which just makes the experience smoother and more fun.

Completionists were also greatly helped by the ability to find Star Piece locations earlier - floor panels still have to be flipped with the ground pound of course, but even before unlocking it, you can now find the panels by using the hammer next to them earlier, letting you take note for later.

But actually, the completion experience is better here in a lot more ways than that - beyond both the easier-to-find star pieces, and of course, greatly streamlined backtracking, completion is now tracked a lot better - with not only a game-wide, but area-specific tracker for things like Star Pieces and Shine Sprites, making it a lot more convenient to locate ones you missed.

And man, that's just scratching the surface. There's so many little things sprinkled basically everywhere. Here's a list of more random small stuff I noticed or where brought up by comments:

While some menus are a bit slower, some are actually faster, like saving being snappier without a confirmation screen, certain repeated cutscenes being skippable after the first view (such as the cooking scene), and some text boxes being put in the background to not slow you down, you can now directly use an item instead of throwing one away when your inventory is full as well as sell items directly from storage without withdrawing them first, Yoshi kid makes less annoying sounds and controls more tightly, the badge shop now stocks everything at once so you dont need to go in and out to reroll, and the guarding animation plays even before the timing window which helps you get a grasp for the timing window.

That’s everything I’ve found so far, and there’s likely more. I really am loving how much smoother the experience is across the board, with it feeling like the developers listened to fan feedback for many of them!

I know this is a strange sub to ask this, but I've made a conscious decision, as I tighten my belt, not to follow as many YouTube channels that are focused on the latest handheld releases and find some that are more geared towards enjoying retro games on the stuff I own already. Tech Dweeb comes to mind as someone who does a bit of both, exploring hidden gems from the past as well as reviewing handhelds. Even his Retroid Pocket 2S video was just as much a love letter to the Game Boy and a childhood reminiscence as it was a handheld review.

With regard to other channels, I enjoy the usual suspects. While Retro Game Corps's bread and butter is the shiny new handheld genre, I appreciate his guides. The recent Retroarch/ios one was particularly helpful in getting me to go back to some of my handhelds and give a bit of tender loving care to my retroarch builds. I also appreciated his WebRcade tutorials which allowed me to retro game on lots of old devices, such as ipads and chromebooks, before Delta was even a twinkle in the EU's eye.

The problem for me is that the retro gaming world seems to either be a market for handhelds on one side and a vintage collector's market on the other side. It all seems to be driven by consumption and retail therapy.

I guess my point is that I have a Steam Deck, Miyoo Mini, Anbernic RG353m and Retroid Pocket 4 Pro. I really am done for the forseeable future. But I still like watching retro gaming videos, it would just be nice to watch more stuff that helps me to enhance and appreciate the things I already own rather than having me say "Oh, I really think that there's a clamshell shaped hole in my life right now"

Any suggestions?

EDIT: What an amazing sub! Seriously, I have so many channels and blogs to check out thanks to all of you. Thanks so much for all of the suggestions.