Well, that ice world was a slog.
I just reached World 7, Giddy Sky, in Super Princess Peach, and it's a welcome change of pace from the last world. First of all, why does every platformer have to have some stupid ice world to traverse? It was old in Super Mario Bros. 2, and has not gotten any better since. I mean I understand the developers want to create some sort of tension between players and their comfort with the controls, but there has got to be a better way. "Woo, slippery!" Always fun when you see that. And Super Princess Peach put it's ice level near the end of the game, so they can put more difficult ice platforming in there than they could during the easier portions of the game.
At least the boss was a pushover so I could move on.
In terms of puzzles, they aren't getting much more difficult. I've found as time has gone on, it's become increasingly difficult to keep coming back to Super Princess Peach - I think this is due to the lack of interesting puzzles. You see, I could deal with mediocre platforming so long as the extra stuff, the puzzle parts, were interesting, but they really aren't. What few changes have been made over the course of the game are beaten into the player's skull that as soon as he sees the beginning of one type of puzzle, he can almost immediately solve it and move on.
Compare this to Warioland's puzzles, and you'll see a much better difficulty curve. They start out relatively easy, but by the end of the game (I'm speaking mostly of 2 and 3, here), you're practically pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to solve puzzles. This is good, though. I would much rather try to do that than to simply blow through some lame attempt at a puzzle easily.
The continued nods to Super Mario World are keeping me entertained, though. The Mario World-styled Hammer Bros. are in it! This is sweet.
Going back and forth between Super Princess Peach and Fallout 3 is pretty jarring, to be honest, but I'm enjoying both overall. Anyway, my next Super Princess Peach post will likely be the last, since I'm a world and a half away from what I presume to be the end.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
War. War never changes. (part 1)
So I struck up a deal with Kyle. He plays through (and beats!) Persona 3, and I do the same with Fallout 3. As excited as I am for Kyle (he's going to love that game), I must say I'm enjoying Fallout so far.
The reason I'm enjoying the game right now is exactly the reason I thought I would - exploring. Since the game takes place in a post-nuclear apocalypse, the landscape has changed and humans must eke out a living in a very, very dangerous world. Exploring this world has brought me great joy - I've found a dog (who my character apparently names Dogmeat) and helped him survive, and he will help me find ammo or other items I'm looking for. Granted, there's not much to find out in the middle of nowhere, and the dog is incredible fragile so he's not worth taking into any dangerous areas, I just like finding stuff like that.
Scrounging around in this world is much, much more interesting than Oblivion, for me. I think the reason for that is items that I see are somewhat recognizable - I see fridges and cash registers and pop machines and cars, but they are all ruined and are worthless. I think it's a nice touch that bottlecaps are the currency of Fallout 3's world; you can find "Pre-War Money," but it's worth very little.
Where I'm struggling to like the game is the combat. I mean, I like it; the V.A.T.S. system allows me to eschew normal shooter gameplay most of the time, which is fantastic because I hate that crap. However, you get limited AP with which to use V.A.T.S., so sometimes you have to fall back on your shooting skills. Mine? Not so good. Which I know, says more about my skill than anything else, but I just don't like that kind of gameplay much.
So far, though, the world is drawing me in. And dammit, I'll at least beat the game so Kyle beats Persona 3, because that's something that needs evangelizing. And I want to talk about that game with someone in person rather than on the Internet, dang it.
So anyway, I just reached Level 4 in Fallout 3, and I gave myself the Comprehension perk, which gives me an extra 3 bonus points to apply towards my stats per level. I've beaten the first set of quests Moira gives you at Megaton, where you fill out the first chapter of her book - I beat all the extra optional stuff for them, too. I haven't started helping her with the second chapter yet, since I'm helping some kid rid some little town of Fire Ants - which are incredibly annoying because when you get close to them they spew very damaging fire at you.
Anyway, sorry for the abrupt end but I'm tired. More next time.
The reason I'm enjoying the game right now is exactly the reason I thought I would - exploring. Since the game takes place in a post-nuclear apocalypse, the landscape has changed and humans must eke out a living in a very, very dangerous world. Exploring this world has brought me great joy - I've found a dog (who my character apparently names Dogmeat) and helped him survive, and he will help me find ammo or other items I'm looking for. Granted, there's not much to find out in the middle of nowhere, and the dog is incredible fragile so he's not worth taking into any dangerous areas, I just like finding stuff like that.
Scrounging around in this world is much, much more interesting than Oblivion, for me. I think the reason for that is items that I see are somewhat recognizable - I see fridges and cash registers and pop machines and cars, but they are all ruined and are worthless. I think it's a nice touch that bottlecaps are the currency of Fallout 3's world; you can find "Pre-War Money," but it's worth very little.
Where I'm struggling to like the game is the combat. I mean, I like it; the V.A.T.S. system allows me to eschew normal shooter gameplay most of the time, which is fantastic because I hate that crap. However, you get limited AP with which to use V.A.T.S., so sometimes you have to fall back on your shooting skills. Mine? Not so good. Which I know, says more about my skill than anything else, but I just don't like that kind of gameplay much.
So far, though, the world is drawing me in. And dammit, I'll at least beat the game so Kyle beats Persona 3, because that's something that needs evangelizing. And I want to talk about that game with someone in person rather than on the Internet, dang it.
So anyway, I just reached Level 4 in Fallout 3, and I gave myself the Comprehension perk, which gives me an extra 3 bonus points to apply towards my stats per level. I've beaten the first set of quests Moira gives you at Megaton, where you fill out the first chapter of her book - I beat all the extra optional stuff for them, too. I haven't started helping her with the second chapter yet, since I'm helping some kid rid some little town of Fire Ants - which are incredibly annoying because when you get close to them they spew very damaging fire at you.
Anyway, sorry for the abrupt end but I'm tired. More next time.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Thoughts on Super Princess Peach pt. 2
Whoa! Two blogs in one day! Craziness!
But I'm loving this Super Princess Peach game, you see. Having gotten past the somewhat sexist parts of it, I've come to discover its charms.
I'm two levels into the third world, you see. The second world starting throwing some simple puzzles at me. It started when I noticed a waterwheel, unmoving, in a gushing waterfall in one of the early world 2 levels. I made Peach cry into it, and it starting spinning, which caused a pipe to appear elsewhere in the level, allowing me to find one of the Toads for that level (the "Level Collectable" in this game are captured Toads). The world put a few more twists on this theme, with a windmill one where I spun it to unlock doors, etc. One of the more interesting ones was where you make Peach cry, which causes her to not only spout water, but run extremely fast, allowing you to get across a quickly-collapsing bridge to find another Toad. I had to avoid Koopa Troopas while I did it, as well, which added a little (but not much) challenge to the game.
As an aside: Dry Bones are in this game. Yesssssssssssss
Having played the Wario Land games within the past two years (and chronicled them here!), I've noticed that Super Princess Peach plays a lot like a Warioland 5, for example. It's very, very easy so far, but if the difficulty ramped up and some harder puzzles appeared, it would seem as though this was just a Wario game where the Wario just wears a pink dress and cries from time to time (yeah, don't think about that). The different abilities of Peach coupled with her ability to, well, die if she loses enough health, really makes me think of the first Warioland, to be honest.
So I suppose what I'm saying is if this game gets harder soon, then it will make me very, very happy. Perhaps I'll float, allowing me to activate windmills...
But I'm loving this Super Princess Peach game, you see. Having gotten past the somewhat sexist parts of it, I've come to discover its charms.
I'm two levels into the third world, you see. The second world starting throwing some simple puzzles at me. It started when I noticed a waterwheel, unmoving, in a gushing waterfall in one of the early world 2 levels. I made Peach cry into it, and it starting spinning, which caused a pipe to appear elsewhere in the level, allowing me to find one of the Toads for that level (the "Level Collectable" in this game are captured Toads). The world put a few more twists on this theme, with a windmill one where I spun it to unlock doors, etc. One of the more interesting ones was where you make Peach cry, which causes her to not only spout water, but run extremely fast, allowing you to get across a quickly-collapsing bridge to find another Toad. I had to avoid Koopa Troopas while I did it, as well, which added a little (but not much) challenge to the game.
As an aside: Dry Bones are in this game. Yesssssssssssss
Having played the Wario Land games within the past two years (and chronicled them here!), I've noticed that Super Princess Peach plays a lot like a Warioland 5, for example. It's very, very easy so far, but if the difficulty ramped up and some harder puzzles appeared, it would seem as though this was just a Wario game where the Wario just wears a pink dress and cries from time to time (yeah, don't think about that). The different abilities of Peach coupled with her ability to, well, die if she loses enough health, really makes me think of the first Warioland, to be honest.
So I suppose what I'm saying is if this game gets harder soon, then it will make me very, very happy. Perhaps I'll float, allowing me to activate windmills...
Thoughts on Super Princess Peach pt. 1
I was finally able to pick up Super Princess Peach today. I have wanted to play this game for quite a while now, but never wanted to spend $30+ on it - and I was able to trade my copy of No More Heroes (which, let's be honest, I was never going to play again) away to a kind fellow on Gamespite.net.
And I'm glad I did! The game is fairly breezy so far, and is pretty enjoyable. I just beat the boss of the first world, and I have no idea how long this game is, but I hope the puzzle difficulty starts to ramp up because I enjoy the mechanics so far.
Well, mechanically, I do.
You see (and this will come as no surprise to anyone who actually knows anything about this game), Princess Peach has some power-ups available to her at any time in this game, so long as her power up meter has some juice left in it.
What are her powers?
Menstruation.
I'm only half-kidding. You use her emotions to change her abilities; so when she is sad, she cries huge waterfalls of tears that allow her to fill things and water plants and such, and when she is angry? She bursts into a pillar of flame, allowing her to kill enemies instantly and burn down wooden things. When she is happy, she is able to float, and when she "calms down" (which is another power you have to activate!), her health slowly refills.
Now I am not Mr. Politically Correct. I could care less if people are offended if something is most likely good-natured and teasing; and this may very well be the case with Super Princess Peach! I haven't met the developers, of course. But since I haven't I can't help but feel like this game is pretty darned sexist.
Which isn't to say I'll be boycotting the game - far from it, actually. I'm enjoying it so far! It's not as if the game is a total comment on supposed "emotional instability of women" - the powers are used, and you move on. Some might even argue that the emotions are actually part of Princess Peach's character, but whatever. Moving on.
Despite the weird presentation, I think Super Princess Peach has a lot going for it. The controls work really well, the graphics evoke a sort of simpler Yoshi's Island type of look, and there are nods to other Mario games throughout the entire thing that aren't annoying overt. The puzzles, so far, seem simple yet entertaining, and that first boss fight actually had a little challenge to it. The music is, well, simply okay so far.
I suppose I'll end my thoughts here. I'll get more into the specifics in my next post, as I don't have much more to say yet.
And I'm glad I did! The game is fairly breezy so far, and is pretty enjoyable. I just beat the boss of the first world, and I have no idea how long this game is, but I hope the puzzle difficulty starts to ramp up because I enjoy the mechanics so far.
Well, mechanically, I do.
You see (and this will come as no surprise to anyone who actually knows anything about this game), Princess Peach has some power-ups available to her at any time in this game, so long as her power up meter has some juice left in it.
What are her powers?
Menstruation.
I'm only half-kidding. You use her emotions to change her abilities; so when she is sad, she cries huge waterfalls of tears that allow her to fill things and water plants and such, and when she is angry? She bursts into a pillar of flame, allowing her to kill enemies instantly and burn down wooden things. When she is happy, she is able to float, and when she "calms down" (which is another power you have to activate!), her health slowly refills.
Now I am not Mr. Politically Correct. I could care less if people are offended if something is most likely good-natured and teasing; and this may very well be the case with Super Princess Peach! I haven't met the developers, of course. But since I haven't I can't help but feel like this game is pretty darned sexist.
Which isn't to say I'll be boycotting the game - far from it, actually. I'm enjoying it so far! It's not as if the game is a total comment on supposed "emotional instability of women" - the powers are used, and you move on. Some might even argue that the emotions are actually part of Princess Peach's character, but whatever. Moving on.
Despite the weird presentation, I think Super Princess Peach has a lot going for it. The controls work really well, the graphics evoke a sort of simpler Yoshi's Island type of look, and there are nods to other Mario games throughout the entire thing that aren't annoying overt. The puzzles, so far, seem simple yet entertaining, and that first boss fight actually had a little challenge to it. The music is, well, simply okay so far.
I suppose I'll end my thoughts here. I'll get more into the specifics in my next post, as I don't have much more to say yet.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
What I've Been Playing These Days - May 2010
So it has been quite a while since I've talked about what I've currently been playing here. Let's jump into it, shall we?
So I bought Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and despite my best efforts, I don't like it all that much. The main problem is the combat system: it plays like a modified version of Nocturne's system, which I liked, but with a few key differences. First, your attacks do bonus damage based on your alignment rather than spell type or demon type.
That drives me insane.
Here's why: My main guy? He's neutral right now. It takes a while to change alignments, and so the only way I can get bonus damage through using my MC's attacks is if my demons are also neutral.
Perhaps it's because I'm only in the first two floors of the second zone, but there are very very few neutral demons. My MC is the best character because I can change around his attacks more easily than my demons, yet I can't get bonus damage or whatnot because of the reasons I listed above.
So I gave up on the game for now. I might go back to it at some point, as it's possible I just prefer Etrian Odyssey to it and had gotten off a huge sting of playing that, but who knows.
I bought, played, and beat Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth since I last posted here, as well. Overall, I enjoyed it! I'm not sure if I prefer it or Apollo Justice - I certainly do like the improvements made to the mechanics of the series in this iteration, though. The game limits you to whatever screen you have to be investigating and will not let you leave until you've finished. So there is no more wandering back and forth between 5-6 areas clicking on everything multiple times looking for the next plot point! Considering that was my biggest complaint about the previous games, it's a pretty big deal they fixed it.
As far as the story goes, I thought it was pretty good for being largely self-contained, although I would have liked to see a cameo from Maya. I want to know what the hell that girl is doing now after having ditched Phoenix!
But anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it was funny as hell just like the previous games. I particularly enjoyed the one character who couldn't take anything Edgeworth did seriously and laughed at almost everything he said. It was pretty meta, and I liked it.
Pokemon Heartgold and I have reached an impasse. I beat the Elite Four and am in Kanto, but I don't feel like playing much any more. I think it's because I have to level up a little bit to start beating the Gym Leaders over here, but there is ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE TO DO SO. So eff it. I could just send my Pokemon over to Diamond and grind them fairly quickly there, but that's a pain so whatever. I'll come back and plow through the rest of it someday.
I bought Rune Factory: Frontier for Wii and I like it, but I'm just not in the mood for a hack'n'slash right now. It also doesn't help that the story and characters are ridiculous and stupid beyond belief. Why can't the writing of these Harvest Moon games ever be as good as Harvest Moon 64? I mean it ain't Shakespeare, Natsume!
Half-Minute Hero is fuggin' awesome and I will beat it eventually. I suspect once I have my PSP out regularly (read: once Persona 3 Portable comes out) I'll be popping it in and out quite a bit. But because it's pretty action-y, I'm not really in the mood for it.
I picked up Glory of Heracles on the cheap yesterday and have put about two hours into it, and it has already amazed me at how rough around the edges this game is. The battle system is pretty neat, but everything from the graphics to the dialog to the music all seems like it was made on a very light budget. I'm kind of surprised Nintendo published it - it seems below their standards for presentation. That said, the battle system shows promise so I'll put a little more time into it and get back to you.
Final Fantasy IV Advance still contains the "You spoony bard!" line from the SNES version and that's all you really need to know in regards to the game's quality. This will be my RPG snack - I'll play just a little bit of this for a while, I believe.
I finally opened my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics: Grimoire of the Rift today as well, and have already dumped two hours into it (boy, days off sure are nice). This game is going to be loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong but I'm liking it so far. The battles could move a little faster (I'm used to the speed of Devil Survivor, so I'm somewhat spoiled), and the job system seems a little opaque, but that might just be due to my unfamiliarity with the previous FFT games. I've been itching to play another one of these since I finished Devil Survivor, so I'll definitely be putting more time into this one.
I think I'm all caught up now. Within the next week or so, I'll be receiving two games I got great deals on for DS: Super Princess Peach (which I've wanted to play for quite a while now) and Infinite Space (which I bought primarily because I think it's going to get quite expensive soon). I'll probably write about those soon.
So I bought Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and despite my best efforts, I don't like it all that much. The main problem is the combat system: it plays like a modified version of Nocturne's system, which I liked, but with a few key differences. First, your attacks do bonus damage based on your alignment rather than spell type or demon type.
That drives me insane.
Here's why: My main guy? He's neutral right now. It takes a while to change alignments, and so the only way I can get bonus damage through using my MC's attacks is if my demons are also neutral.
Perhaps it's because I'm only in the first two floors of the second zone, but there are very very few neutral demons. My MC is the best character because I can change around his attacks more easily than my demons, yet I can't get bonus damage or whatnot because of the reasons I listed above.
So I gave up on the game for now. I might go back to it at some point, as it's possible I just prefer Etrian Odyssey to it and had gotten off a huge sting of playing that, but who knows.
I bought, played, and beat Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth since I last posted here, as well. Overall, I enjoyed it! I'm not sure if I prefer it or Apollo Justice - I certainly do like the improvements made to the mechanics of the series in this iteration, though. The game limits you to whatever screen you have to be investigating and will not let you leave until you've finished. So there is no more wandering back and forth between 5-6 areas clicking on everything multiple times looking for the next plot point! Considering that was my biggest complaint about the previous games, it's a pretty big deal they fixed it.
As far as the story goes, I thought it was pretty good for being largely self-contained, although I would have liked to see a cameo from Maya. I want to know what the hell that girl is doing now after having ditched Phoenix!
But anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it was funny as hell just like the previous games. I particularly enjoyed the one character who couldn't take anything Edgeworth did seriously and laughed at almost everything he said. It was pretty meta, and I liked it.
Pokemon Heartgold and I have reached an impasse. I beat the Elite Four and am in Kanto, but I don't feel like playing much any more. I think it's because I have to level up a little bit to start beating the Gym Leaders over here, but there is ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE TO DO SO. So eff it. I could just send my Pokemon over to Diamond and grind them fairly quickly there, but that's a pain so whatever. I'll come back and plow through the rest of it someday.
I bought Rune Factory: Frontier for Wii and I like it, but I'm just not in the mood for a hack'n'slash right now. It also doesn't help that the story and characters are ridiculous and stupid beyond belief. Why can't the writing of these Harvest Moon games ever be as good as Harvest Moon 64? I mean it ain't Shakespeare, Natsume!
Half-Minute Hero is fuggin' awesome and I will beat it eventually. I suspect once I have my PSP out regularly (read: once Persona 3 Portable comes out) I'll be popping it in and out quite a bit. But because it's pretty action-y, I'm not really in the mood for it.
I picked up Glory of Heracles on the cheap yesterday and have put about two hours into it, and it has already amazed me at how rough around the edges this game is. The battle system is pretty neat, but everything from the graphics to the dialog to the music all seems like it was made on a very light budget. I'm kind of surprised Nintendo published it - it seems below their standards for presentation. That said, the battle system shows promise so I'll put a little more time into it and get back to you.
Final Fantasy IV Advance still contains the "You spoony bard!" line from the SNES version and that's all you really need to know in regards to the game's quality. This will be my RPG snack - I'll play just a little bit of this for a while, I believe.
I finally opened my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics: Grimoire of the Rift today as well, and have already dumped two hours into it (boy, days off sure are nice). This game is going to be loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong but I'm liking it so far. The battles could move a little faster (I'm used to the speed of Devil Survivor, so I'm somewhat spoiled), and the job system seems a little opaque, but that might just be due to my unfamiliarity with the previous FFT games. I've been itching to play another one of these since I finished Devil Survivor, so I'll definitely be putting more time into this one.
I think I'm all caught up now. Within the next week or so, I'll be receiving two games I got great deals on for DS: Super Princess Peach (which I've wanted to play for quite a while now) and Infinite Space (which I bought primarily because I think it's going to get quite expensive soon). I'll probably write about those soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)