Nexus... is actually quite good! *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Talk about the lesser known games "Theron's Quest" and "Dungeon Master Nexus".
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Gambit37
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Nexus... is actually quite good! *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Post by Gambit37 »

Life is ironic.

Many of you will know that I bought an import Sega Saturn well over a year ago to specifically to play Nexus, as part of my research for The Dungeon Master Codex. You probably also know that I'm purging my cupboards of rubbish and putting the entire contents of my flat on eBay to make some quick cash. Now that it's possible to play Nexus under emulation, I no longer need the Saturn and have just sold it on eBay -- for a small profit too!

Today, I decided to test it again just to be sure everything was OK, and of course the only game I have is Nexus. I never really played it before because I found the controls confusing, but I spent some time today getting to grips with it, and it's actually quite good! It took me a while to realise that the champions SHARE an inventory, and you manipulate it using various icons. With that sorted, the whole thing fell into place and before I knew it I had played most of the first level.

Now I want to play it properly, so I'm going to make some effort to get it working on XP again. The only problem is that I don't have a decent controller that mimics the Saturn controller, and using the keyboard is a nightmare. Can anyone recommend a good (CHEAP) PC controller that has an 8 way joypad, 6 buttons on the right, and two thumb buttons on the front?
Last edited by Gambit37 on Thu Nov 20, 2003 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by cowsmanaut »

personally I want to know how you are playing it on emulation? :)

I would like to try it to see how it looks/feels.

as for controllers. I've seen a few wireless ones that reseble the ps2 and gamecube controllers. I think they are wingman joysticks.

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Post by ChristopheF »

The instructions to play the game are on this page:
http://dmweb.free.fr/DMNDownloads.htm
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Post by cowsmanaut »

Thanks, I'm fairly interested in how this operates. It's not likley I'll actually reall be able to play it.. as the growing tower of game boxes beside my desk can attest to. I have this habit of buying games and not having the time to play them. :)

However, I think I'll have at least a little time to test the game mechanics of which I'm most interested.

moo
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Post by Gambit37 »

One of the nice things in the game is the fact that it uses the Z axis. In one part on level 1, you go over a bridge and can hear something stomping around underneath you -- it's only when you later double back underneath it that you get to fight the mummy that was hiding there.

Also, my party were killed off by the ceiling slowly crushing them to death....

As for the interface, I still haven't really worked it out fully, but I'm getting used to it. Because the game is very slow, a lot of stuff that you'd expect to do individually for each character, is now handled automatically altogether -- so hand weapons for the front two fighter are both swung if you attack near a monster. Haven't quite worked out how to get rear champions to throw darts and stuff though. It's nice that you can back away a little bit and evade hits -- none of the toe-to-toe stuff you'd remember from the original game.

Magic is good, if a little awkward to begin with. One nice thing is that for each character, it remembers the last spell you cast, so you can select an icon to launch, say, 4 fireballs very quickly.

I have just sold the saurn on eBay, but when I get round to setting it up on emulation, I'll report some more...
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Post by cowsmanaut »

I tried downloading all that stuff. however, I can't get the one thing I need wich is the disc image. Oh well... wasn't meant to be. Be sure to send out some more screens though. :)

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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

Have you tried CloneCD? It normally can do images of anything at all!

http://www.elby.ch/en/products/clone_dvd/download.html

The problem is, they stopped the production because of copyright issues these days, so I don't know if the demo version is still there and working.

Regards, PitD
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Post by Gambit37 »

Cows, I'd be quite happy to send you a disc with the BIN and CUE files on, if you pay the postage! :-) Same goes for anyone else who can't get hold of it.
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Post by cowsmanaut »

hmmm I may be inclined to do so at a little later date. Not so near the christmas rush.. it'd likley be mistaken for cash and get "lost" as happens to so many card shaped envelopes this time of year.. sigh

I'm in no rush.. as I say.. little time to play.

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Post by Gambit37 »

Back to the original topic, I've been playing Nexus for the last few days under emulation. It'snot perfect -- some graphics that should have transparent areas don't get matted, so you see big pink or green boxes arounf them. Also, some of the background sound effects (synthesised not samples) don't work and come out as beeps and bloops. But it doesn't detract too much from the game.

So how does it play?

Well, it took me a while to work out the controls, but I have pretty much got the hang of it. I'm on level 8 or 9 I think already, and that's after 6½ hours game time. It's quite entertaining, and I certainly have a feeling of playing a new game, almost as if this was the first time I'd played DM. But it is much more "arcadey", and the gameplay is nowhere near as subtle as the original. For example, you have power bars next to your weapons which signify what kind of attack you'll make -- L1 is probably akin to Swing, L2 Chop, and L3 Melee or berzerk. Like DM, you have to wait for time to elapse before taking another swing, and each level takes longer to wait for. Other things that are not as good as DM include situations when you need to bash down a door -- hitting it with your weapon makes it open, it doesn't actually carve a hole in it or anything like that.

It's fun finding new monsters and seeing how they compare to the original. They are all very slow, and are reasonably easy to defeat as long as you keep roughly behind them. It's rare to be attacked by more than one at a time. One nice touch is that because the models are 3D (albeit very simple), they have used the same models but larger in some areas. For example, the magenta worms are quite small, but I later fell in a trap which had a massive worm trying to eat me alive. Same 3D mesh, just bigger. The animations are quite good, especially the worm when it does a backflip!

It's also quite ineresting to see how much of the original DM ended up in there. Many of the puzzles are the same or with subtle variations. There's even a CSB puzzle on one level. It's all fairly basic as you'd expect -- put things on pads, find keys, etc. The riddle room is there, andit's the onlt time I needed help, to view the Encyclopedia to know which objects to put on which alcove -- as of course it's all in kanji.

I haven't come across all the existing monsters, but some that are the same are the screamer, mummy, scorpion, rock pile (which is the only one that looks very silly in Nexus). There are Trolin equivalents, that are experts iwith a staff -- they swing it at you and it has a long reach -- they also use it to block your attacks -- they look more like insects than the original Trolins.

I've also come across some big beasties, but won't go in to too much detail in case any of the rest of you are going to play it and don't want to spoil the surprise!

One thing that takes a bit of getting used to is object manipuation. When you pick up something from the dungeon, you can move it around to your champions hands, like you would in DM, or you can place it in your inventory directly by pressing a different key. Everything goes into a shared inventory, (there are no chests) and maniuplating objects here can be a bit time consuming. Drinking potions is also a bit of a pain. On the whole the interface is not as clean or intuitive as the original, but I guess this is part of the problem with using a joypad.

Some of the puzzles use the Z axis, which is quite nice, and in one place you have to make a bunch of pillars raise and lower to open up a path through a room. The architecture slopes in places, you can look up and down a little way, and there are bridges and balconies you can peer over. There are also multi height rooms, so you're not just restricted to everything being 10 feet high, like the screenshots in Dungeon Maker.

There is some atmospheric background music in places that sets the mood for key areas, but I think there are only four, and it gets a bit repetitive when you keep hearing the same thing.

The game is quite slow and I found it very boring to begin with, but I eventually discovered that there's a "run" mode. Double tap the forward key to turn it on, and you move twice as quick which makes a massive difference. It doesn't seem to affect anything either, although possibly the food and water drains quicker, I'm not sure. Double-tap backwards to go back to walk mode, though why anyone would want to is beyond me.

On the whole I am enjoying playing this, even though it's quite simple compared the original. When I have a bit of time, I'll post some screenshots.
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Post by Gambit37 »

I've posted some screenshots from the first 8 or 9 levels here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_hill/nexus/

If you are intending to play Nexus yourself, and don't want the surprises spoiled, don't look at these screenshots, especially the later ones which include some of the bigger beasties...
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Post by Lunever »

Gambit: Cool, really. Except Chaos looks really silly in Nexus.
Well, maybe he's just in bad shape after all those banishings he had to suffer...
Parting is all we know from Heaven, and all we need of hell.
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Post by Gambit37 »

It's not only chaos that looks silly, but the rock piles are quite bad too. I think it's because the game was made to be simpler to play for a console, and it looks quite cartoony. That screenshot of Chaos is about level 9 -- you beat him up a bit and then he vanishes, so I imagine I'll be seeing him a bit later on...

Admittedly, it doesn't really feel like I'm playing Dungeon Master, but it's entertaining nevertheless. I just wish it wasn't so slooooooowww -- I don't know if that's because the emulator isn't optimised yet, or if the game itself was actually designed this slow.
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Post by cowsmanaut »

seesm just from this i get a good enough idea of how it would be to play.. Things look badly mangled. The monster texures and geometry are uneccesarily simple. I'm reasonably certain the saturn could handle hirgher poly counts. And the warped apearance of chaos's face bugs me. :)

and.. why... WHY.. is he in a pinkish jester like outfit? Did they not even play the other games??? :P

bla..

Oh well.. I'm sure it's still fun.. but this level of seeming ineptitude in the creation of this games appearance compared to what they mannaged in the days of the first two games.. I just feel rather dissapointed. I know it could be soooo much more.

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Post by Gambit37 »

FTL didn't have much to do with the development of the game, other than licensing the name and some overall scenario/technical input. I haven't found out enough about it yet from Doug. All he said was
Frankly, the game was developed because JVC owed a favor to the company that developed the Nexus. We owed JVC a favor, and agreed to develop a scaled-down plot and provide technical assistance. I think we just got a lump sum for doing it because we didn’t see much of a market. So most of the decisions were not made by us.
I think he means Saturn when he says Nexus...! :-)
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

I like the screen shot with the worm (?) close-up - but the textures are hard to bear. Otherwise it looks interesting... hope you have more fun with Chaos when you meet him the second time... :twisted:

Regards, PitD
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Post by cowsmanaut »

oh and you can tell if the slow bits are due to the optimisation if it gets choppy. You will find it won't just run at half speed.. it actually drops frames and jumps. sounds usually cut out too.
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Post by Gambit37 »

The one big problem with the emulator that I forgot to mention, is that the magic runes don't show up when you cast a spell! This makes it very tricky, especially if you have spells at-the-ready and forget what they are! I've ended up casting Vi potions when I wanted to launch a fireball.

Champion portraits also don't show up, which is a shame, but not essential.

So far, I have only found one new spell: Ya Ven Sar. It seems to launch some kind of metal spiky ball!
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Post by Gambit37 »

Aha! -- finally discovered what Ya Ven Sar does -- it's a stone spell! Casting it on living beings turns them to stone - permanently! You have to be very careful that you don't do it on a monster blocking your way, or you can't progress....

There's another new spell too, Vi Bro Ra -- which is 'heal party', a spell much missed in the original DM. Shame you don't find it until level 12....!

I'm a bit screwed at the moment too -- have run out of water and I think I'm gonna die before I can get back to the last fountain....
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Post by cowsmanaut »

I hate games that trap you. That's simply the first best sign that the game was not well thought out. The fact you can permanently block your path is bad design. That's pretty fristrating. Are you sure it's permanent? Can you break them? any anti stone spells? hmmmm...
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Post by Gambit37 »

I don't partioculalry want to go back and see if it's permanent or not -- the things I paralysed were hellhounds with fireballs and poison abilities, so I don't like the idea of standing against them again! Having said that, I need to backtrack for water though...

You can attck the statues and the health does seem to go down ever so slightly, but I haven't yet made a significant dent in them, so I assume it would take me too long to see if it's possible.

I agree that this kind of thing is bad design, and it's one of the things that FTL were so careful about in the original game.

I've posted some more screenshots at:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_hill/nexus/page2.htm
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

The baby dragons look like pokemons... and as for the statue across three levels, maybe there's different inscriptions on each or just on one level to help you find a clue?

Regards, PitD
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Post by Gambit37 »

There is a kind of inscription on the statue, but it's the same on all three levels. But on the lowest level, you can go under the statue and flick a lever to open a door on the level above.

I agree that those baby dragons look like pokemon. It's odd as well, because they are quite a different style to the rest of the creatures. It's like they were textured by a different artist.

Another thing that I forgot to mention is the very poor sound effects that creatures make when moving. They all sound as if they are passing wind! It really spoils any atmosphere that might have been present... I still think the sounds in the original DM are better and more atmospheric.

Haven't found an 'unstone' spell yet...
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Post by Gambit37 »

Well, I've finished the game! *Warning, spoilers*

Having gone through four levels since seeing the last fountain, and being very close to the end of the current one, I took a risk and continued on. It was a good call -- the next level had a fountain not far from the stairs, so I was able to replenish and move on.

The next levels were all a bit of a mish mash. There was a whole bunch of elements from DM, CSB and DM2. The first few levels had a certain feel that was reminiscent of DM, but these last levels were a right old pickle, with nothing very challenging.

I ended up in a fight with two bloodied Knights who were supported by a flying sword and shield. I ran down a corridor , dodging lightning from the ceiling. I killed a zombie dragon. Ran past some vats containing floating brains (!!!). Met Chaos taunting the grey lord in a cage -- then there's a cut scene showing him transforming from the pink jester into a Chaos that more or less resembled the one we know and love.

Back to the game, lots more running about, crushing ceilings, serrated doors, find four corbums, lob them at some walls of flame, open a door, ooh look, there''s chaos -- funny, he doesn't look anything like the one in the cutscene. He's wearing a purple jumpsuit by the looks of it. No special way to kill him -- just atatck him with whatever you want. One easy fight later, a cutscene tidying it all up, and it was over.

Boo.

Oh, and at one point I went back to the hellhounds I had cast to stone, about an hour of gametime later, and they were still stone, so I guess it's pretty permanent...

On the whole the game was a diversion for a few days, but had none of the depth or subtlety of the original game. Very little backtracking required. No returning to get The Firestaff (it's not part of this story). Some silly design flaws (stone monsters can block your progress, see above) also were present.

I'll play it again some time in the future for mapping purposes, but that'll do for now!

I've updated the second page with the last few screenshots I took.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_hill/nexus/page2.htm
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

Strange seeing Chaos with a sword or similar attacking weapon... always thought magicians should reffrain from being fighters as well ;o)
What's that thing hanging on the wall there`in one of the screenshots ? Poison shooter plant?

Regards, PitD
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Post by Gambit37 »

Earlier in the game, I met these walking about -- I think they are the equivalent of the Swamp Slimes from DM. (see the first page of screenshots at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_hill/nexus/ )

On this level instead of being ambulatory, they are simply static and attached to the wall. Seems a bit silly as they are much easier to kill like this....!

As for Chaos, I'm not quite sure why he has a close combat weapon. I don't think it's a sword -- it looks more like some kind of spike attached to a glove. The thing that really annoys me though is why he looks different from the 3D rendered version in the cutscenes. I appreciate that there are limitations in the game models, but It really annoys me when this kind of obvious inconsistency creeps in to games. There's absolutely no good reason for it. Compare these pictures:

Image

I concede that the two models are similar enough, but the colour scheme of the in game Chaos is simply silly. And he has red eyes in the cutscene, and green in the game!
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Post by PicturesInTheDark »

Much more impressive colouring in the cutscenes it looks like. Fellow like Chaos should have a fashion designer helping him avoid bad clothing choices... :wink:

Regards, PitD
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Post by ParuNexus »

I personally Can't forthe life of me play very far into this game. Reguardless how I do it, even Svideo to my monitor and RCA sound to my dolby suround. I'm horrible at these "console 3d" and only sometihng like unlimted health coudl really help it. It's an azming game, but my extremely poor gaming ability and sorta dislike for "old skool 3d console" keeps me playing other games alot.
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Post by Tom Hatfield »

Poor Gambit must have lost his copy. He was on my eMule queue just the other day. I gave him a friend slot. Anyone else downloading from THX-1138 drop me a message, I'll give you one, too.
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Post by Gambit37 »

Ah, I didn't realise that was you!

I'm not really familiar with eMule to and only tried it to get the FM-Towns ISO. But if others want Nexus as well, then I'll look in to it. I don't really like the idea of my machine being on all the time, that's why I haven't sorted it out before.
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