So I beat Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation a few days ago. The main story was pretty good, although your typical Dragon Quest fare. The vignettes (which I hear more and more are the main point of the series) seemed more interesting than in Dragon Quest IV, at least.
The Party Speak function was by far my favorite aspect of the game, though. The party characters had something to say for just about every NPC and situation in the game. I thought maybe that as the game went on, they would say less and less, but that never happened. Without Party Speak, my characters would have been very bland and boring. For example, I never put Ashlynn in my party after I got Nevan, so she was never very well characterized for me. Same thing with Amos, Terry, and Goowain, too.
The job system didn't get much more complicated as the game went on, either, which was nice. I really enjoyed grinding jobs a little, and giving my guys moves and things they probably wouldn't have been given by Enix if there were no job system. Nevan Hustle Danced his ass off after he got it, which I doubt they would have given the serious priest otherwise.
Other than that I don't have much to say about the game. It was good and worth playing!
I also picked up Radiant Historia last week, too. This game reminds me of a mix of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Mega Man: Battle Network, of all things. Because of that first influence, I have a certain friend who would fall madly in love with this game if he would just give it a chance. But anyway, this is the quintessential time-traveling RPG. Your character, Stocke, is given choices throughout the game, and each choice branches off into a separate storyline. The thing is, he can time travel from any save point to any one of these choices. This allows him to explore other timelines, as well as make progress in all of them. For example, you routinely have to explore alternate timelines to learn skills or get items to use in the regular timeline, which I think is pretty cool. The game telegraphs fairly well about where you need to go to find the next thing you need to move the plot forward.
The text and story are incredibly solid, as well. Coming off Dragon Quest VI, it's incredibly refreshing to see such a deep, engrossing story. The characters are great, and their ultimate motivations remain unclear to me (I'm seven hours in at this point). I'm still not even sure if my kingdom or the current enemy kingdom is even evil!
I do wish the game had a Party Speak option, though, like in Dragon Quest. It is probably too much to ask, however, because of all the branching storylines and whatnot. I just find myself pressing B a lot after dialogue ends to see what my party will say.
As for how the battle system is like Battle Network, well... First of all, it's turn based. So already it's quite different. It is definitely location based, though, which is to say the enemy position is crucial to pretty much every battle. You will attempt to knock enemies around their grid to maximize damage. For example, there's a move that will allow you to knock enemies back, or right, or left, or even pull them forward. As long as you keep a combo going (basically, this means before the next enemy turn) any enemy can occupy the same space, and your characters will do equal damage to everyone in that space. Come the enemy's turn, they will all spread out a bit again. What makes this like Battle Network is that your attack skills are usually more effective when the enemy is in certain formations. Unlike Battle Network, though, you always have access to all your skills and don't have to rely on the luck of the draw to get an attack you want.
The graphics and sound are like if Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger had an awesome baby. The environments are 3D, but definitely evoke FFVI, and the music is just as good as Chrono Trigger's, I think (and I'm of the opinion that the best thing about Chrono Trigger is its soundtrack). In short, I'm really enjoying Radiant Historia and it's worth playing.
Needs a minimap, though.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dragon Quest VI: Ten Hours In
I decided to buy Dragon Quest VI the day it came out, both to register it to get bonus coins on Club Nintendo, but also because Dragon Quest IV and especially V are very rare and pretty expensive these days. I also liked those games, despite never finishing V because I didn't feel like leveling my stupid kids when I got them.
I really like Realms of Revelation so far. The battle system is very speedy, and I like the characters a lot, too. I've made extensive use of the Party Speak function, and I must say, I'm amazed how detailed it is. When you talk to any NPC, and I mean damn near just about ANY, your compatriots all have some sort of reaction to them. They are well written, too, and fit the context of the situation. I really can't think of a game besides this series that does that this well. Sure would be nice in Fallout New Vegas, for example.
I just unlocked the job system, too. I rather enjoy this version of it - I haven't really messed around with job systems in Dragon Quest games in the past, so I may not be the best for context regarding this, but I digress. It really reminds me of Final Fantasy VI and IX, to tell the truth. You give a job to your guys, and then after fighting a certain number of battles (the battles can't be scrubs, either - they have to be monsters that are roughly around your experience level) you will learn a new technique.
I love this because Dragon Quest games typically take way to long for your characters to learn new spells, because as time goes on, level ups become more and more infrequent. This negates that, somewhat - your party will learn new spells and attacks so long as you keep training them in their jobs. And any person can learn any job, so far as I can tell. I mean sure, I'm not going to teach Carver to become a Mage, but whatever - I can if I want to.
Some of these battles, though. Wow. The game hasn't been too unfair thus far (as in, I haven't come across many bosses who throw party-damaging attacks twice in a row), but there have definitely been some tough battles. Also, the encounter rate seems just a bit to high for me, but that's pretty much always a complaint of mine. I suppose its kind of the point of Dragon Quest to fight a lot. Sure could use the cash anyway.
The graphics are really, really good in this game. The improvements over Dragon Quest IV and V are pretty subtle, but player characters are better animated this time around. The game has some fantastic sprite art, as well, and it looks good when the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot. The music is pretty good, as well.
Now if only my friend would pick up Dragon Quest IX when he's done beating every Castlevania...
I really like Realms of Revelation so far. The battle system is very speedy, and I like the characters a lot, too. I've made extensive use of the Party Speak function, and I must say, I'm amazed how detailed it is. When you talk to any NPC, and I mean damn near just about ANY, your compatriots all have some sort of reaction to them. They are well written, too, and fit the context of the situation. I really can't think of a game besides this series that does that this well. Sure would be nice in Fallout New Vegas, for example.
I just unlocked the job system, too. I rather enjoy this version of it - I haven't really messed around with job systems in Dragon Quest games in the past, so I may not be the best for context regarding this, but I digress. It really reminds me of Final Fantasy VI and IX, to tell the truth. You give a job to your guys, and then after fighting a certain number of battles (the battles can't be scrubs, either - they have to be monsters that are roughly around your experience level) you will learn a new technique.
I love this because Dragon Quest games typically take way to long for your characters to learn new spells, because as time goes on, level ups become more and more infrequent. This negates that, somewhat - your party will learn new spells and attacks so long as you keep training them in their jobs. And any person can learn any job, so far as I can tell. I mean sure, I'm not going to teach Carver to become a Mage, but whatever - I can if I want to.
Some of these battles, though. Wow. The game hasn't been too unfair thus far (as in, I haven't come across many bosses who throw party-damaging attacks twice in a row), but there have definitely been some tough battles. Also, the encounter rate seems just a bit to high for me, but that's pretty much always a complaint of mine. I suppose its kind of the point of Dragon Quest to fight a lot. Sure could use the cash anyway.
The graphics are really, really good in this game. The improvements over Dragon Quest IV and V are pretty subtle, but player characters are better animated this time around. The game has some fantastic sprite art, as well, and it looks good when the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot. The music is pretty good, as well.
Now if only my friend would pick up Dragon Quest IX when he's done beating every Castlevania...
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
A week ago, I wrote that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was my favorite Castlevania of all time. But since I just finished Konami's third DS Castlevania, Order of Ecclesia, I may rethink that position.
There's a lot to like about Ecclesia, especially in light of the complaints of the past few games in the series. Many people thought the Sorrow games were quite easy, and made easier when the player ground up their levels. This is true; the enemies aren't necessarily designed to kill Soma easily - they are instead designed to chip away at his health over a long time, as Soma makes his way from save point to save point. And while this still happens a bit in Ecclesia, Konami decided to make the game a bit harder. If you don't play skillfully, or you play carelessly, you will die. It is as simple as that. There are a few enemies in the game that I avoid at all costs, if I can - the Cave Troll, relatively harmless in other games in the series, can kill you if you get caught in its electric attack - you can't move and it drains 30 HP every half second for about five seconds. Three hundred health is just about how much you'll have when you first encounter these guys. In past games in the series, the only time I would die would be on bosses - here, I died all the time. But it was very rarely due to some cheap hits - the Blade Master enemy is incredibly cheap, in my opinion - it was almost always due to poor playing on my part.
In addition to skillful playing being a necessity, the player must take into account enemy typing. Gone are the days when the player need only use one type of weapon - you must constantly shuffle around your Glyphs to be equipped for the right situation. See a skeleton enemy? Get your mace glyphs ready, because your swords aren't going to do much damage to them. See a rock enemy? Get a hammer out! And so on. The game lets you switch between three sets of Glyphs on the fly, and I loved having to switch weapons twice in one room to defeat all the enemies. Makes every room count, really.
One of the things I didn't like about the game the first time I played it two years ago was how the map was split into different areas. There's a town, there's a Monastery, there's mountains, a Lighthouse, etc. I wanted them to put all of that in one map - and I suppose they could, but honestly I think what they did turned out better. Each map flows into the next, which means when you enter the swamp, it is a straight shot from one end to the other, fighting enemies in pools of fetid water the whole way. When you get to the other side of the swamp, you get to a new area. Once you've played through an area once and found a new exit, you don't have to go through that area every time - you just pick the place you want to go to from the map menu. You can always go back if you like. All of this makes the world seem natural because Konami wasn't restricted to forcing all their level designs into one big map.
As you play through the early game, you sometimes encounter villagers you can save. Once you save them, they go back to the village, and will hand out quests to you. Some are easier than others, of course, and many of them unlock more items to buy in the shop. They provide a nice diversion from the main quest, if you're inclined to do them. They also provide some respite from the tough boss fights, if you'd rather take a break from trying to beat them.
The boss fights are likely my favorite thing about Order of Ecclesia - they may be the best in the series. They are incredibly well designed, and almost none of them exploit cheap tactics. They all have patterns that the player can learn, and some sort of weapon weakness the player can try to exploit. I was never disheartened whenever I got to a boss, which is new for a Castlevania game for me - they are all beatable, all at whatever level you happen to stumble across them. Sure, if you have more levels, you can take a bit more damage and deal a bit more, but if you play smartly, you will beat the boss.
I won't spoil the Dracula fight, but I will say this: he will not let you jump over him in his first form. You cannot exploit that age old tactic of getting him to start his attack animation, jumping behind him, and wailing on his head until he teleports. He quickly slaps you down with his cape, and it does a bunch of damage. The first time he did that to me, I smiled. Dracula wasn't going to put up with my bullshit this time. Overall, it's a fairly challenging fight, but he, like all the other bosses in the game, is fair and beatable.
I'm really not sure whether I like Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia more. They both have their benefits... Ecclesia is very streamlined, tough, and largely a new experience for Castlevania, whereas Dawn takes the format of the Symphony of the Night type of game and almost perfects it. I definitely know that Dawn and Ecclesia are my two favorite games in the series, at least.
God, I love the DS.
There's a lot to like about Ecclesia, especially in light of the complaints of the past few games in the series. Many people thought the Sorrow games were quite easy, and made easier when the player ground up their levels. This is true; the enemies aren't necessarily designed to kill Soma easily - they are instead designed to chip away at his health over a long time, as Soma makes his way from save point to save point. And while this still happens a bit in Ecclesia, Konami decided to make the game a bit harder. If you don't play skillfully, or you play carelessly, you will die. It is as simple as that. There are a few enemies in the game that I avoid at all costs, if I can - the Cave Troll, relatively harmless in other games in the series, can kill you if you get caught in its electric attack - you can't move and it drains 30 HP every half second for about five seconds. Three hundred health is just about how much you'll have when you first encounter these guys. In past games in the series, the only time I would die would be on bosses - here, I died all the time. But it was very rarely due to some cheap hits - the Blade Master enemy is incredibly cheap, in my opinion - it was almost always due to poor playing on my part.
In addition to skillful playing being a necessity, the player must take into account enemy typing. Gone are the days when the player need only use one type of weapon - you must constantly shuffle around your Glyphs to be equipped for the right situation. See a skeleton enemy? Get your mace glyphs ready, because your swords aren't going to do much damage to them. See a rock enemy? Get a hammer out! And so on. The game lets you switch between three sets of Glyphs on the fly, and I loved having to switch weapons twice in one room to defeat all the enemies. Makes every room count, really.
One of the things I didn't like about the game the first time I played it two years ago was how the map was split into different areas. There's a town, there's a Monastery, there's mountains, a Lighthouse, etc. I wanted them to put all of that in one map - and I suppose they could, but honestly I think what they did turned out better. Each map flows into the next, which means when you enter the swamp, it is a straight shot from one end to the other, fighting enemies in pools of fetid water the whole way. When you get to the other side of the swamp, you get to a new area. Once you've played through an area once and found a new exit, you don't have to go through that area every time - you just pick the place you want to go to from the map menu. You can always go back if you like. All of this makes the world seem natural because Konami wasn't restricted to forcing all their level designs into one big map.
As you play through the early game, you sometimes encounter villagers you can save. Once you save them, they go back to the village, and will hand out quests to you. Some are easier than others, of course, and many of them unlock more items to buy in the shop. They provide a nice diversion from the main quest, if you're inclined to do them. They also provide some respite from the tough boss fights, if you'd rather take a break from trying to beat them.
The boss fights are likely my favorite thing about Order of Ecclesia - they may be the best in the series. They are incredibly well designed, and almost none of them exploit cheap tactics. They all have patterns that the player can learn, and some sort of weapon weakness the player can try to exploit. I was never disheartened whenever I got to a boss, which is new for a Castlevania game for me - they are all beatable, all at whatever level you happen to stumble across them. Sure, if you have more levels, you can take a bit more damage and deal a bit more, but if you play smartly, you will beat the boss.
I won't spoil the Dracula fight, but I will say this: he will not let you jump over him in his first form. You cannot exploit that age old tactic of getting him to start his attack animation, jumping behind him, and wailing on his head until he teleports. He quickly slaps you down with his cape, and it does a bunch of damage. The first time he did that to me, I smiled. Dracula wasn't going to put up with my bullshit this time. Overall, it's a fairly challenging fight, but he, like all the other bosses in the game, is fair and beatable.
I'm really not sure whether I like Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia more. They both have their benefits... Ecclesia is very streamlined, tough, and largely a new experience for Castlevania, whereas Dawn takes the format of the Symphony of the Night type of game and almost perfects it. I definitely know that Dawn and Ecclesia are my two favorite games in the series, at least.
God, I love the DS.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Nintendo DS: Part Four
When Microsoft released their Xbox 360 at the tail end of 2005 (followed by Sony's Playstation 3 a year later), they ushered in the era of HD videogaming. These new HD systems were leaps and bounds better, at least in terms of graphical prowess, than their ancestors. However, the cost for developing games for these high end systems grew larger than ever before. So while a few publishers and developers reveled in their technical prowess and huge budgets, smaller developers couldn't afford to compete on the same level, and so they needed a way to put their "lower-end" skills to use.
Enter the Nintendo DS. While the system was more powerful than Nintendo's handhelds before it, it was no where near as expensive as developing for the new HD systems. Games developed for handheld units were historically cheaper than their console counterparts, true, but the gulf in development costs was now wider than ever before. Sony's PSP even had high development costs, due to having Playstation 2 quality graphics - which while not as expensive to create as, say, Playstation 3 graphics, were still more expensive than Nintendo 64 graphics, which the DS was roughly on par with. So smaller developers (and big developers who didn't want to spend a fortune on every game they made) flocked to the DS, and tried to eke out a niche there.
Take, for example, the small Japanese developer formerly known as Office Create. They released a low budget game for the DS in 2006 called Cooking Mama. The game was relatively simple: players used the unique functions of the DS to cook dishes, as instructed by the eponymous Mama. Majesco published the game, and it went to retail with little to no fanfare. The game sold fairly well, at first, although it did something unexpected - it never stopped selling. It was a reliable seller for a few years, so Majesco made a few sequels, and as of 2009, the series has sold over 8 million copies.
One publisher that has done very well for itself on the DS is Atlus. They have done very little work on the HD systems, purportedly due to the costs involved. Their first breakout hit was Trauma Center: Under the Knife, released in October of 2005 and spawning a sequel on DS, and a remake and two sequels on Wii. They also did very well with their Etrian Odyssey series, which saw its first release in America in 2007. Two sequels were then published for the DS in following years, and a new Etrian Odyssey has been announced for the upcoming 3DS. They were also able to capitalize on the success of the Playstation 2 game Persona 3 and release two "Shin Megami Tensei"-branded games on the DS - SMT: Devil Survivor and SMT: Strange Journey. These were wholly original games, while the PSP entries in the SMT franchise were remakes of Persona games previously released on the Playstation 1.
Another breakout hit came in the form of 2009's Scribblenauts, developed by 5th Cell, who had previously created moderately selling DS titles Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The game was incredibly ambitious. The player was tasked with solving puzzles by summoning items or characters into the game by typing in words. The hook was the player could type nearly anything, so long as it wasn't obscene or copyrighted, and that word would appear as a physical object in the game that could be interacted with. The game even won several "Best of E3" awards, making it the first handheld title to ever do so. The game sold very well, and a sequel was released in late 2010.
The DS had proven itself fertile ground for several developers and publishers, but, of course, the first party titles cannot be ignored. Nintendo followed up the mediocre Super Mario 64 DS with a steady stream of fantastic games for the DS, culminating in 2007 with the newest release of its flagship handheld series - Pokemon.
Enter the Nintendo DS. While the system was more powerful than Nintendo's handhelds before it, it was no where near as expensive as developing for the new HD systems. Games developed for handheld units were historically cheaper than their console counterparts, true, but the gulf in development costs was now wider than ever before. Sony's PSP even had high development costs, due to having Playstation 2 quality graphics - which while not as expensive to create as, say, Playstation 3 graphics, were still more expensive than Nintendo 64 graphics, which the DS was roughly on par with. So smaller developers (and big developers who didn't want to spend a fortune on every game they made) flocked to the DS, and tried to eke out a niche there.
Take, for example, the small Japanese developer formerly known as Office Create. They released a low budget game for the DS in 2006 called Cooking Mama. The game was relatively simple: players used the unique functions of the DS to cook dishes, as instructed by the eponymous Mama. Majesco published the game, and it went to retail with little to no fanfare. The game sold fairly well, at first, although it did something unexpected - it never stopped selling. It was a reliable seller for a few years, so Majesco made a few sequels, and as of 2009, the series has sold over 8 million copies.
One publisher that has done very well for itself on the DS is Atlus. They have done very little work on the HD systems, purportedly due to the costs involved. Their first breakout hit was Trauma Center: Under the Knife, released in October of 2005 and spawning a sequel on DS, and a remake and two sequels on Wii. They also did very well with their Etrian Odyssey series, which saw its first release in America in 2007. Two sequels were then published for the DS in following years, and a new Etrian Odyssey has been announced for the upcoming 3DS. They were also able to capitalize on the success of the Playstation 2 game Persona 3 and release two "Shin Megami Tensei"-branded games on the DS - SMT: Devil Survivor and SMT: Strange Journey. These were wholly original games, while the PSP entries in the SMT franchise were remakes of Persona games previously released on the Playstation 1.
Another breakout hit came in the form of 2009's Scribblenauts, developed by 5th Cell, who had previously created moderately selling DS titles Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The game was incredibly ambitious. The player was tasked with solving puzzles by summoning items or characters into the game by typing in words. The hook was the player could type nearly anything, so long as it wasn't obscene or copyrighted, and that word would appear as a physical object in the game that could be interacted with. The game even won several "Best of E3" awards, making it the first handheld title to ever do so. The game sold very well, and a sequel was released in late 2010.
The DS had proven itself fertile ground for several developers and publishers, but, of course, the first party titles cannot be ignored. Nintendo followed up the mediocre Super Mario 64 DS with a steady stream of fantastic games for the DS, culminating in 2007 with the newest release of its flagship handheld series - Pokemon.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Nintendo DS: Part Three
Whenever video game hardware is released that has features not found on prior hardware, there are usually complaints that decry the new features as "gimmicks" that may take away from what many gamers call "hardcore" games. The reasons for this phenomenon vary for each new system, of course - the upcoming 3DS has people wondering what the 3D will bring to the table as far as gameplay enhancements go, for example. But since the original DS was such a wild departure in terms of hardware design, it follows that many people (myself included) were worried about all its seeming "extraneous" features detracting from the good, solid gameplay of the past.
The DS has two screens. This in itself is odd, when you think about it - what other video game was ever designed with two separate screens (arcades don't really count)? People were worried that developers wouldn't know what to put on each screen, or that there would be too much going on for a player to make sense of what was happening on each screen, etc. Some of these worries came to fruition in games like Yoshi's Island DS, in which there was a gap between the screens in which enemies could lurk, which severely hampered the playability of the game.
Then of course there is the touchscreen, which was an extremely new feature for a mainstream handheld videogame system such as the DS. Tiger's Game.com had a touchscreen, but it wasn't implemented very well and was underutilized, like most features on the system. There were of course Palm devices that had touchscreens, but no killer app games were ever developed for those. Nintendo was going into largely uncharted waters with this feature. Super Mario 64 DS had poor touchscreen functionality; Kirby: Canvas Curse, released by Nintendo in mid-2005, proved that the touchscreen really could allow for compelling gameplay. In this game, the player controlled Kirby with the stylus by drawing paths for him. These served as both roads and bridges, but if the player drew a vertical line, could stop Kirby in mid-roll. Canvas Curse was the game that fired the opening salvo for in-depth touchscreen gaming.
The lessons of Kirby: Canvas Curse weren't taken to heart right away, and many developers struggled to find a use for the touchscreen functionality of the DS. There were many titles that shoehorned the function in during the early days of the DS. One game that both shoehorned in some very underwhelming touchscreen functionality and also tried to solve the question of what to do with both screens was Konami's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, released October 4, 2005.
Konami had done very well for themselves on the Game Boy Advance, with a trio of Castlevania games released for that platform, each of which eclipsed the quality of the last. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was especially well received, due to a mechanic that was entirely new to the Castlevania series: the ability of the main character, Soma, to acquire the "souls" of his enemies, effectively giving him hundreds of powers. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria, and it carries over many of the features of its predecessor (along with a lot of reused assets, but that is something the Castlevania series is prone to anyway).
One of the things it did add was the "Magic Seal" function, which was how Konami determined the touchscreen would be implemented. When the player reduced the HP of a boss to zero, they had to draw a pattern on the screen to "seal" the boss (which really just meant actually finishing it off). The problem with this was that when many players beat a rather tough boss, they were forced to draw some pattern from memory, and if they failed, the boss would come back to life with a third of its health. In a series known for its brutal bosses, this feature alone was widely hated, and not implemented in any future installments of the series.
Konami did, however, use the dual screens fairly well. The top screen was used to display a map of the castle, which was very useful because the intricate design of Dracula's lair was easy to get lost in, and not having to pause the game to view the map really kept the pace going. The player could also display a detailed stat screen for Soma and the enemy he was currently fighting - displaying not only known info like HP, but what items an enemy could drop (if Soma had collected them before) or whether or not he had already collected that enemy's "Soul".
But other than these new features, the game was an early example of what many would categorize as a "hardcore" game on a system that had a reputation at that time of having pretty tame games. The game was difficult and had an abundance of features, one of which was a very robust postgame quest that had a unique twist - Julius mode, in which the player played as a typical Belmont, armed only with a whip and the usual subweapons of old. The game also had a New Game + feature, which allowed players to carry over all their souls, levels, equipment, and items to a new file if they wanted.
Personally, I fell in love with this game. It is, to this day, the only game I have ever written a FAQ for, and is still my favorite Castlevania game. Despite its odd touchscreen functions and sprite reuse, it is one of the best DS games ever released, and is therefore a must-play.
The DS has two screens. This in itself is odd, when you think about it - what other video game was ever designed with two separate screens (arcades don't really count)? People were worried that developers wouldn't know what to put on each screen, or that there would be too much going on for a player to make sense of what was happening on each screen, etc. Some of these worries came to fruition in games like Yoshi's Island DS, in which there was a gap between the screens in which enemies could lurk, which severely hampered the playability of the game.
Then of course there is the touchscreen, which was an extremely new feature for a mainstream handheld videogame system such as the DS. Tiger's Game.com had a touchscreen, but it wasn't implemented very well and was underutilized, like most features on the system. There were of course Palm devices that had touchscreens, but no killer app games were ever developed for those. Nintendo was going into largely uncharted waters with this feature. Super Mario 64 DS had poor touchscreen functionality; Kirby: Canvas Curse, released by Nintendo in mid-2005, proved that the touchscreen really could allow for compelling gameplay. In this game, the player controlled Kirby with the stylus by drawing paths for him. These served as both roads and bridges, but if the player drew a vertical line, could stop Kirby in mid-roll. Canvas Curse was the game that fired the opening salvo for in-depth touchscreen gaming.
The lessons of Kirby: Canvas Curse weren't taken to heart right away, and many developers struggled to find a use for the touchscreen functionality of the DS. There were many titles that shoehorned the function in during the early days of the DS. One game that both shoehorned in some very underwhelming touchscreen functionality and also tried to solve the question of what to do with both screens was Konami's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, released October 4, 2005.
Konami had done very well for themselves on the Game Boy Advance, with a trio of Castlevania games released for that platform, each of which eclipsed the quality of the last. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was especially well received, due to a mechanic that was entirely new to the Castlevania series: the ability of the main character, Soma, to acquire the "souls" of his enemies, effectively giving him hundreds of powers. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria, and it carries over many of the features of its predecessor (along with a lot of reused assets, but that is something the Castlevania series is prone to anyway).
One of the things it did add was the "Magic Seal" function, which was how Konami determined the touchscreen would be implemented. When the player reduced the HP of a boss to zero, they had to draw a pattern on the screen to "seal" the boss (which really just meant actually finishing it off). The problem with this was that when many players beat a rather tough boss, they were forced to draw some pattern from memory, and if they failed, the boss would come back to life with a third of its health. In a series known for its brutal bosses, this feature alone was widely hated, and not implemented in any future installments of the series.
Konami did, however, use the dual screens fairly well. The top screen was used to display a map of the castle, which was very useful because the intricate design of Dracula's lair was easy to get lost in, and not having to pause the game to view the map really kept the pace going. The player could also display a detailed stat screen for Soma and the enemy he was currently fighting - displaying not only known info like HP, but what items an enemy could drop (if Soma had collected them before) or whether or not he had already collected that enemy's "Soul".
But other than these new features, the game was an early example of what many would categorize as a "hardcore" game on a system that had a reputation at that time of having pretty tame games. The game was difficult and had an abundance of features, one of which was a very robust postgame quest that had a unique twist - Julius mode, in which the player played as a typical Belmont, armed only with a whip and the usual subweapons of old. The game also had a New Game + feature, which allowed players to carry over all their souls, levels, equipment, and items to a new file if they wanted.
Personally, I fell in love with this game. It is, to this day, the only game I have ever written a FAQ for, and is still my favorite Castlevania game. Despite its odd touchscreen functions and sprite reuse, it is one of the best DS games ever released, and is therefore a must-play.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
The Nintendo DS: Part Two
The Nintendo DS was, until late 2005, largely useless. The games available for it up until that point were not of the caliber seen even on the less powerful Game Boy Advance, at least in terms of gameplay depth. Almost a full year had passed before the first worthwhile games began showing up - such as Mario Kart DS, the game that made me begin to fall in love with the DS.
Released on November 14, 2005, Mario Kart DS was an important release for Nintendo in many ways. Just in terms of the Mario Kart series, Nintendo was pulling in the reigns a little, returning some of the gameplay ideas of older Mario Kart games to counter complaints levied against the Gamecube's Mario Kart: Double Dash. Gone were the two characters riding one kart, gone were holding two items at once, and returning were the jumping of vehicles and Mario Kart 64-style powersliding (more on this later). They did keep in the ability to pick different karts for each character, though.
But Mario Kart DS represented Nintendo's first tentative steps into the world of internet gaming. This was the first game Nintendo had ever made that allowed for online competition - and in many ways, this shows. When a player would drop out of a race early - typically because they were losing - the people left wouldn't get credit for beating them. This meant that if all the players dropped out before the end of the four races, nobody would get any credit for having won any races - meaning the win/loss tally for the player would never be quite right. The other problem was people who "ragequit" weren't penalized with losses, either, which meant they could quit with impunity.
But some would see a bigger problem with the competitive nature of Mario Kart DS - and that is the art of "snaking". The Mario Kart series has always had drifting and powersliding in it, with different implementations in each game. Typically, though, while going around a curve, if a player holds down the drift button, and uses the D-pad to lean in and out of the turn, they get a small boost when they release the drift button. Mario Kart DS had this feature, and it was made incredibly easy. The time required to activate the boost was significantly lessened, and the D-pad made precision powersliding a breeze, when in the past players had to deal with a more sensitive analog stick. This led players to discover that they could powerslide across straightaways, something that was pretty much impossible in past Mario Kart games. This ability, dubbed "snaking" for the way players would zigzag across the track while performing it, split the Mario Kart DS player base into two groups: those for it, and those against it. It became commonplace to see people dropping from matches as soon as they saw snaking, which made finishing any races at all even harder whether you were snaking or not. Since players couldn't host matches themselves, there was no way - short of playing only with their friends - to make sure their opponents weren't snaking. Thus, just a few months after Mario Kart DS's debut, was the online scene a ghost town for people who did not want to snake.
Nintendo's online foibles aside, though, the game itself was incredibly solid. I fell in love with its precision controls immediately, even before I taught myself how to snake. The courses were incredibly well-designed, too, from the tight corners of Luigi's Mansion to the windy turns of Desert Hills. It also was the first Mario Kart game to let the player play tracks from older Mario Kart games, ranging from the Super Nintendo all the way up to some of the better levels from the Gamecube version. Putting Mario Kart DS's superior controls into these older levels made them that much more fun to play for many people - myself included.
The game also introduced a mission mode, which was for one player only. This greatly extended the life of the single player game, though, because there were a ton of missions. The game would task you with goals such as "collect all the coins in X seconds" or "get rid of all the Koopas" and would grade the player on how well they performed. You could unlock a few characters this way, and people could not complain now that Mario Kart was only good for multiplayer.
The Nintendo DS was a departure for Nintendo from the old way of doing things. They were embracing online play now, Mario Kart DS being the first step. They were experimenting with new ways of player input, with the largely failed Super Mario 64 DS - although they would try again, and not perhaps not fail so badly. They were preparing themselves, in essence, for the Wii - the console that really sparked the advent of the "casual gamer" - that is, people who don't normally play games would now begin to play. That isn't to say that games made for the "hardcore" crowd didn't exist on the platform, and one of the best was brought to the DS by Konami just before the release of Mario Kart DS, in fact. But more on that next time.
Released on November 14, 2005, Mario Kart DS was an important release for Nintendo in many ways. Just in terms of the Mario Kart series, Nintendo was pulling in the reigns a little, returning some of the gameplay ideas of older Mario Kart games to counter complaints levied against the Gamecube's Mario Kart: Double Dash. Gone were the two characters riding one kart, gone were holding two items at once, and returning were the jumping of vehicles and Mario Kart 64-style powersliding (more on this later). They did keep in the ability to pick different karts for each character, though.
But Mario Kart DS represented Nintendo's first tentative steps into the world of internet gaming. This was the first game Nintendo had ever made that allowed for online competition - and in many ways, this shows. When a player would drop out of a race early - typically because they were losing - the people left wouldn't get credit for beating them. This meant that if all the players dropped out before the end of the four races, nobody would get any credit for having won any races - meaning the win/loss tally for the player would never be quite right. The other problem was people who "ragequit" weren't penalized with losses, either, which meant they could quit with impunity.
But some would see a bigger problem with the competitive nature of Mario Kart DS - and that is the art of "snaking". The Mario Kart series has always had drifting and powersliding in it, with different implementations in each game. Typically, though, while going around a curve, if a player holds down the drift button, and uses the D-pad to lean in and out of the turn, they get a small boost when they release the drift button. Mario Kart DS had this feature, and it was made incredibly easy. The time required to activate the boost was significantly lessened, and the D-pad made precision powersliding a breeze, when in the past players had to deal with a more sensitive analog stick. This led players to discover that they could powerslide across straightaways, something that was pretty much impossible in past Mario Kart games. This ability, dubbed "snaking" for the way players would zigzag across the track while performing it, split the Mario Kart DS player base into two groups: those for it, and those against it. It became commonplace to see people dropping from matches as soon as they saw snaking, which made finishing any races at all even harder whether you were snaking or not. Since players couldn't host matches themselves, there was no way - short of playing only with their friends - to make sure their opponents weren't snaking. Thus, just a few months after Mario Kart DS's debut, was the online scene a ghost town for people who did not want to snake.
Nintendo's online foibles aside, though, the game itself was incredibly solid. I fell in love with its precision controls immediately, even before I taught myself how to snake. The courses were incredibly well-designed, too, from the tight corners of Luigi's Mansion to the windy turns of Desert Hills. It also was the first Mario Kart game to let the player play tracks from older Mario Kart games, ranging from the Super Nintendo all the way up to some of the better levels from the Gamecube version. Putting Mario Kart DS's superior controls into these older levels made them that much more fun to play for many people - myself included.
The game also introduced a mission mode, which was for one player only. This greatly extended the life of the single player game, though, because there were a ton of missions. The game would task you with goals such as "collect all the coins in X seconds" or "get rid of all the Koopas" and would grade the player on how well they performed. You could unlock a few characters this way, and people could not complain now that Mario Kart was only good for multiplayer.
The Nintendo DS was a departure for Nintendo from the old way of doing things. They were embracing online play now, Mario Kart DS being the first step. They were experimenting with new ways of player input, with the largely failed Super Mario 64 DS - although they would try again, and not perhaps not fail so badly. They were preparing themselves, in essence, for the Wii - the console that really sparked the advent of the "casual gamer" - that is, people who don't normally play games would now begin to play. That isn't to say that games made for the "hardcore" crowd didn't exist on the platform, and one of the best was brought to the DS by Konami just before the release of Mario Kart DS, in fact. But more on that next time.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
The Nintendo DS: Part One
I'm stealing my favorite videogame writer's idea and writing about Nintendo DS games in anticipation of the 3DS release - although I'm changing a bit to be a timeline of my experience with the DS, measured in terms of games.
I'm doing this because the Nintendo DS was not something I looked forward to, and in fact didn't like at all at first, yet eventually became my favorite gaming system of all time. In fact, this was a system that I asked for for Christmas simply because it was a Nintendo system and I figured it would eventually have good games. I was scared - terrified, actually - that the PSP, the system I didn't choose, would overwhelm the DS and outsell it, effectively ending Nintendo because at the time, they were losing badly with the Gamecube to Sony's PS2 juggernaut and Microsoft's powerful Xbox 360 was just around the corner. The Wii was just a twinkle in Satoru Iwata's eye at that point (okay, so it was being developed, but us non-Nintendo peons had no idea it existed at the time).
When I got the system, I wasn't too thrilled with it. The included demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was the main reason why. Here was a shooter, which I didn't like anyway, which played terribly with touchscreen controls (which were apparently improved for the actual release of the game) and honestly didn't look too great. The fact that Samus had to interact with other bounty hunters was the first sign that the Metroid series was beginning to decline in quality, too, but that's another topic altogether (and I haven't played Other M yet anyway).
The other game I got was Super Mario 64 DS, what is thought by many to be the main launch title. Nintendo's goal, as far as I can tell, was to show two things: first, that the graphical capabilities of the DS were roughly on par with the Nintendo 64, and second, that even a game with a complicated set of traditional controls would work with a touchscreen.
The fact that the graphics were as good on Nintendo's flagship DS game as they were gave me some hope that the DS wouldn't be utterly crushed in the marketplace. Of course, the PSP could outdo the DS without so much as breaking a sweat, so I was still a bit worried.
But the real problem with Super Mario 64 DS is its control implementation. You can control the game with the D-pad, but it is clear that Nintendo never really intended for players to do much of that: to run, you have to hold down a face button to change Mario's speed. This is needlessly complicated, which is a huge problem because momentum and precise control of Mario on precarious platforms are the main challenges in the original Super Mario 64. So what is your best option? To use the touchscreen to guide Mario around.
This is, of course, a complete and utter terrible way to control a 3D platformer. It just doesn't work. You see, you control Mario by moving your stylus (or thumb-nub, which came with the game) on the bottom screen, while watching Mario move around on the top screen. So right there, you have a disconnect between where your finger/stylus/thumb-nub is and where Mario himself is moving. With buttons, this is fine, because the position of the buttons never changes - your thumb-nub, however, by necessity, must change positions. You can also remove your nub from the screen, which of course causes Mario to come to a stop and also forcing you to recenter your thumb on the screen when you inevitably must move Mario around again.
What a mess, right? At least Nintendo threw in thirty extra Power Stars to collect, and a few characters who controlled a bit different than the eponymous star of the game. I just wished I could control them with an analog stick, which is of course what the original Super Mario 64 was designed around.
The original DS unit itself wasn't very attractive, either. It was a large, plastic, gray blob that was heavier than it should have been, and certainly wasn't very streamlined. It did, however, have great speakers (which were neutered in the first system redesign, the DS Lite, but eventually brought back with the DSi speakers) and my favorite D-pad of all time. This made a certain racing game a blast to play, but that's for the next post.
I'm doing this because the Nintendo DS was not something I looked forward to, and in fact didn't like at all at first, yet eventually became my favorite gaming system of all time. In fact, this was a system that I asked for for Christmas simply because it was a Nintendo system and I figured it would eventually have good games. I was scared - terrified, actually - that the PSP, the system I didn't choose, would overwhelm the DS and outsell it, effectively ending Nintendo because at the time, they were losing badly with the Gamecube to Sony's PS2 juggernaut and Microsoft's powerful Xbox 360 was just around the corner. The Wii was just a twinkle in Satoru Iwata's eye at that point (okay, so it was being developed, but us non-Nintendo peons had no idea it existed at the time).
When I got the system, I wasn't too thrilled with it. The included demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was the main reason why. Here was a shooter, which I didn't like anyway, which played terribly with touchscreen controls (which were apparently improved for the actual release of the game) and honestly didn't look too great. The fact that Samus had to interact with other bounty hunters was the first sign that the Metroid series was beginning to decline in quality, too, but that's another topic altogether (and I haven't played Other M yet anyway).
The other game I got was Super Mario 64 DS, what is thought by many to be the main launch title. Nintendo's goal, as far as I can tell, was to show two things: first, that the graphical capabilities of the DS were roughly on par with the Nintendo 64, and second, that even a game with a complicated set of traditional controls would work with a touchscreen.
The fact that the graphics were as good on Nintendo's flagship DS game as they were gave me some hope that the DS wouldn't be utterly crushed in the marketplace. Of course, the PSP could outdo the DS without so much as breaking a sweat, so I was still a bit worried.
But the real problem with Super Mario 64 DS is its control implementation. You can control the game with the D-pad, but it is clear that Nintendo never really intended for players to do much of that: to run, you have to hold down a face button to change Mario's speed. This is needlessly complicated, which is a huge problem because momentum and precise control of Mario on precarious platforms are the main challenges in the original Super Mario 64. So what is your best option? To use the touchscreen to guide Mario around.
This is, of course, a complete and utter terrible way to control a 3D platformer. It just doesn't work. You see, you control Mario by moving your stylus (or thumb-nub, which came with the game) on the bottom screen, while watching Mario move around on the top screen. So right there, you have a disconnect between where your finger/stylus/thumb-nub is and where Mario himself is moving. With buttons, this is fine, because the position of the buttons never changes - your thumb-nub, however, by necessity, must change positions. You can also remove your nub from the screen, which of course causes Mario to come to a stop and also forcing you to recenter your thumb on the screen when you inevitably must move Mario around again.
What a mess, right? At least Nintendo threw in thirty extra Power Stars to collect, and a few characters who controlled a bit different than the eponymous star of the game. I just wished I could control them with an analog stick, which is of course what the original Super Mario 64 was designed around.
The original DS unit itself wasn't very attractive, either. It was a large, plastic, gray blob that was heavier than it should have been, and certainly wasn't very streamlined. It did, however, have great speakers (which were neutered in the first system redesign, the DS Lite, but eventually brought back with the DSi speakers) and my favorite D-pad of all time. This made a certain racing game a blast to play, but that's for the next post.
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