Critique of Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals

[@luckaugustin5123]

Yeah... Dolgon and Dolgan pulling off a combo attack out of they're asses while I'm at low health caught me off guard too.

[@Theybo2]

Lmao

[@jangmo-othewarrior3602]

Beyond the Portals is a game i have plenty of nostalgia for, so Im glad to see someone covering it! The only thing that shocked me about your review was the Satellite Puzzle segment. You can actually find fossils from the planet below on the satellite itself! You just have to scan the central part of the room and the walkways to the locked doors. I found all three of the fossils i used there!

[@Theybo2]

My point was less to do with not finding fossils and more about how long the process of doing the puzzle takes. It's just hairpullingly tedious. The game tends to drag sometimes. Though maybe my judgement is blinded by origins.

[@jangmo-othewarrior3602]

@@Theybo2 That's fair.

[@bowserflower6166]

If I remember right, there was a tool you could buy in Kollin at the market about half way through the game to help speed up excavating because it would scan the item and instantly grant it to you, but with a chance of it breaking. I agree though, excavating minerals gets old quickly. I loved this game too!❤

[@SuperSonic3557]

Another nice thing about the game is the possibility fight every boss again when you enter Krux's room after beating the game. There's this black orb in the middle of Krux's room which has 6 different levels which of only 5 and 6 are relevant (they give rewards, Level 5 gives a diamond, the item which gives the most money when sold and level 6 is the most fun i think). Level 5 is fighting 50 fights in a row which includes every krawl in the game and every 10th fight you fight against one of the high krawl (i think) and you can switch your spectrobes. Level 6 is fighting every high krawl in addition to Dolgon and Dolgan in a row without switching Spectrobes. There are also the Geo's( i remember while writing lol, Geos where the main reward of defeating the levels in the black orb) which when activated defeat a whole Krawl and not only one fight. And they have cool animations. My favourite animations are the ones of the electric and ice geo. Well, i really loved the game as a child and actually really like it to this day because it keeps me amazed to this day. There are the cheat code cards which i have completed not long ago. Some give very rare minerals which i have never found in game (the ones which complete the evolution conditions directly) and others double the number of rooms in your incubator. My favourite one is the addition of the incubator room which gives a boost to every spectrobe when feeding, it has a beautiful design i think :'D (normally you change the type of the room to match the spectrobe you are about to feed to increase the levels faster). What i actually didn't like about them is that some items are locked behind these cheat codes. For example the special equipment of Spectrobes (idk the english term i played the game in German :p). My favourite Spectrobes atk equipment for example was locked behind it (the atk equipment for Rydrake). .... sorry for writing a whole novel ;-; but it makes me happy that this game is still being remembered this time around and i have so much nostalgia with it 😂😂 I still have my account on a cartridge which i occasionally play with on my 3ds

[@Theybo2]

Oh i totally forgot about the GEOs. I remember trying to collect those. I never did fully 100% the game but i remember liking the new game plus more than the actual game

[@AlphaOmega1237]

Sadly, the Geos are kinda pointless. They're cool, but suffer from the fact that the narrative makes Ultimate Spectrobes just too powerful to be used in gameplay. They instantly end any fight they enter into and have no rivals, not even Kruz's "True Dark Spectrobes" or the Krawlosphere. As such, the games restrict them to only being cutscenes that don't give any rewards or have any engagement. Sure, they're cool and the first time seeing one annihilate a big boss is awesome, but they can't really be played around with or used beyond the climax of these games. Imagine if Pokémon legendaries were all just cutscenes... that would suck so much.

[@SuperSonic3557]

@@AlphaOmega1237 you are actually so right if i think about that ;-;

[@AlphaOmega1237]

@@SuperSonic3557 Sorry if I ruined them for you. It's just something a started thinking about recently after seeing the end to Pokémon Black and White and how awesome it is to have the legendary dragons fight. Reminded me of Spectrobes and well here I am.

[@SuperSonic3557]

@@AlphaOmega1237 nah man everythings alright i still love them from the bottom of my heart 😂😂 and yeah you are right about b&w as well. But if i remember there were these unkillable spectrobes of Krux where you only had to wait a bit until the fire geo cutscene comes... so yeah there was that :>

[@Themabyzo]

Pasta man be like “imma compare dark souls to a FUCKING POKÉMON

[@9millimeter272]

nice opinion one small issue I am inside your home.

With excavation as a kid I got some fossils with a crown, I believe you can get them if you 100% the excavation fast enough without damaging the fossil a single time. This is the only thing that kept me trying because even if I had no proof of that I thought Spectrobes having a grown would make them stronger or something else special Also I love how the commercials were like kids whispering "wake up" while in real life it's "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

[@lookingglass4422]

I think another part of why this series wasn't quite able to capture the magic of Pokemon was because of the lack of ways to get new creatures. Sure, the battle and catching system is always going to be the same, but you can catch Pokemon by looking in the grass, surfing on the water, fishing for them, and other ways kinda unique to each generation (Sinnoh's Honey Trees and Johto's Headbutt trees, for example.) Spectrobes doesn't really have that, Beyond the Portals kinda tries to fix that by adding more biomes to excavate in, but I don't feel like that's quite the same. Another flaw I think is the fact that just about every single line in the game is a 3-stage line. It takes away some of the mystique of figuring out what your creature is gonna turn into, if anything. Ironically I think both of the DS games screw this up, but in opposite ways. In the first game, evolution mechanics were so obscure that it took me a while to even figure out you could do it as a kid, but then Beyond the Portals just has everything delineated to you with three obvious boxes that you have to check. Compare with Pokemon where basic level up evolutions exist, but there's also special items you can use, sometimes you have to trade, sometimes you have to turn your damn console upside down. Pokemon just has more variety in about every aspect, and I think that's a big part of why Red and Blue/Green were so damn successful

[@elafrum1278]

It's kind of funny that this game had more to be discovered because I grew up and replayed it and was able to understand the premise more. Spanish is my mother language so replaying it in English when I was older got me a little messed up with the existentialism, like how Nanairo is the birthplace of humanity yet the other solar systems you visit, the "kids" of Nanairo, are abandoned or destroyed by krawl. The High Krawl also had some existential implications, they show us Krawl aren't mindless monsters or demons or whatever, they're just as alive as humans and Spectrobes, they even have more sapience than Spectrobes... It's all so bittersweet, because yes Rallen saved Nanairo, and Jeena recovered history, but we didn't get to deeply understand why Krawl do what they do, and the krawl war goes on and on, (spoilers) Jado doesn't die, Krux doesn't die... Etc etc space horror idk.

[@elafrum1278]

Btw my theory is that exploration for the sake of getting humanity's mark on everything, and colonizing other planets might as well end up biting us in the butt because of the pure audacity to assume "intelligent life" has to be sapient (and our especific cultural sapiece btw), we can easily destroy life because we want to rush into space. Maybe Nanairo humans tried to be a type 3 civilization, krawl felt threatened by being displaced by humans, Spectrobes simply can buffer humans being killed by krawl because humans can bond and train animals- so Spectrobes aren't "angels" in this case, but it's scary to think Geos can destroy planets as well if a human just tells them to. Rallen is like 16 btw.

[@icespirit7829]

@@elafrum1278 Rallen is definitely not 16 lmao, but I like the rest of your theory. It's always nice when a game leaves room for interpretation.

[@RedGoner]

shin megami tensei v looking kinda shnasty

[@Theybo2]

Hello Eve

[@armoredanteater609]

Fossil fighters did everything spectrobes did but better

[@tylamcgilverson3923]

Really?? How was fossil fighters space travel ? Or it's sequals.

[@armoredanteater609]

@@tylamcgilverson3923 it took all of the ideas of recovering fossils and reviving them, and then made a way better combat syste.

[@Ratersen]

I would have to fully agree with you. I dipped 80+ hours into the first spectrobes and I found myself getting bored but 60+ hours into fossil fighters champions I'm still having a blast.

[@Ratersen]

​@@armoredanteater609 made the fossil excavation more fun too. There's fun in chancing upon buster points and the bgm is nice to hear unlike the deafening silence in spectrobes

[@icespirit7829]

Still, Spectrobes was first. Without it, Fossil Fighters would probably have never existed.

[@Jack-nj9pi]

Ughh ur telling me it doesnt get better? Im trying so hard to play the first one ans wow is this series a slog

[@Theybo2]

You're better off just skipping to Origins

[@pablotomasllodra4423]

You know they can use Charge Attacks in the first game aside from the Combination ones, right? As well as some Spectrobes (alright, very few) which you can give a little bit more variety of orders.

[@Theybo2]

I thought i Made reference to that. Guess not, but yes i am aware.

[@Exo594-b5v]

Dude... I remember getting this game because my fundie xtian parents wouldn't let me get the ebil pokemans I loved this, I was also peak weeb at the time

[@digishade7583]

Just wanted to point out that you’re a little bit off with the first game. Yeah the early game spectrobes aren’t all that complex. You press the shoulder button and they attack. But evolved spectrobes and some late game adults have more options when you press their shoulder button they have multiple abilities.

[@Theybo2]

I'll be real and say that i wrote that section in a rush and neglected to mention that. I appreciate the criticism.

[@TANKTREAD]

I have this game coming in. Got it in good condition at a reasonable price (CIB). I was interested in it from watching a "DS Hidden Gems" video. However, the one in the video was the first game. I heard the 2nd entry on the DS was much better, so that's why I opted for the sequel. I hope it isn't too bad and quite enjoyable.

[@Theybo2]

I hope you like it more than i did

[@SkinsAndBone]

Your review was alright, cuz the story was great,

[@Theybo2]

Ok

[@jellybean5929]

I really wanted to know if it was worth playing, it’s such a slog and completely monotonous. The first area doesn’t mix up the formula at all and didn’t keep me engaged.

[@blackswelproductions3876]

It was

[@Circ00mspice]

You complained backtracking without mentioning the jetpack which fast travels back to the cruiser. Did you use the jetpack?

[@Theybo2]

You mean the jetpack that you get in the second half of the game? Yes. Yes i used the jetpack.

[@AlphaOmega1237]

To be fair, the jetpack isn't great. It only works in some areas (outdoors, which not every level is considered outside) and it's still kinda a chore to use given how many time you'll use it in mineral valley.

[@icespirit7829]

@@AlphaOmega1237 I've been to mineral valley only twice. No idea what you were doing there so many times 😅

[@Theybo2]

​@@icespirit7829 i said in the video. I was gathering materials because it's filled with valuables.

[@BrianQuest64]

Pokey mon? C'mon....

[@Theybo2]

Cum on pokey mon