Last year, a bunch of sexist assholes started harassing women and journalists in the video game industry. For better or worse, I never became involved in it - I don't post much on Twitter and am too nervous about doxxing or whatever to do that anyway - but I watched with increasing horror from the sidelines the horrible shit these "men" did to people who did nothing but make or criticize games. Aside from feeling ashamed that I did nothing, it was the start of a major change for me in my relationship with video games.
I've loved them my entire life, and still do, but instead of being this cool thing where I felt like I was a part of a community who understood me and what I liked, this insane, stupid sexist "movement" made me realize that anyone - even gamers - are capable of some truly reprehensible, evil shit. Aside from the occasional new game, I've barely bought a game in over a year, not even retro ones. It's been mostly Final Fantasy XIV and the occasional RPG, not the hundreds of dollars on SNES games or whatever I'd spent in previous years. It's not as though there aren't still games I want, either! I just became so sick of the toxicity surrounding my favorite hobby, that I wanted nothing to do with it. Because I'm still a nerd, I dove headfirst into a different obsession, Doctor Who, and started buying up all kinds of crap related to that - comics, audio plays, novels, etc. - and just tried to ignore the whole video games thing, at least on the internet. I became disengaged with video game news to the point that I'd see a post on the only forum I still frequent, Talking Time, and be surprised that a game that I was interested in was already out and people were already playing it, when I hadn't even heard of it. That hadn't happened to me since I was a little kid! I really enjoyed that feeling, where this hobby just surprises me with good games out of the blue, as opposed to years of anticipation just for a game to fail to meet my expectations. I liked not feeling that sense of "community" any more, forcing my fondness of videogames into a sort of internal exile, for lack of a non-pretentious way to put it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've gone from being proud of being a "gamer," someone who openly wears his "gamer" persona in public, to being a closeted nerd about it again because I'm ashamed of it, mostly from the GG shit from last year. I also had a roommate from 2012-2014 who, as far as I know, is not one of those GG assholes, but is definitely the guy who AAA games are made for these days. You know, your Call of Duties, Assassin's Creeds, etc. There's nothing wrong with those games, or fans of those games, but talking to him about videogames made me realize that there is a line that I don't want to cross, where liking games can be a fun hobby, to an obsession. This guy could talk about the ergonomics of a controller for 45 minutes - I am not exaggerating - and while that can be charming in a sort of dorky way, I felt kind of embarrassed for him. I mean it's not like he's antisocial or anything, in fact he just got married, but I had no interest beyond maybe 5 minutes of that controller discussion, and he could not pick up on my social cues to maybe move the topic of conversation on. This happened multiple times, and because I didn't want to make him feel bad, I didn't ever say anything about it, so it's kind of my fault too. The only reason I bring it up is because I don't want to be that guy to anyone. I don't discuss Final Fantasy XIV with my fiancée, because she doesn't care. I don't discuss it with my boss because he doesn't care. I text a buddy of mine about it because he plays it too, but I hope that if he wanted me to stop texting him about it, he'd tell me (I don't think he does, though, as we had an amusing text exchange about the existence of "ice mages" in Final Fantasy XIV yesterday. I still maintain they are a myth.). He just started dating a girl who, as far as I can tell, isn't much of a "gamer," so he hasn't been online much. While I would like him to play the game when he can, it makes me happy that he has his priorities straight. If he was playing FF14 constantly and the relationship with that girl didn't work out because of it, it'd be very, very sad. There's a fine line, and I have to be careful about it too, because if my fiancée got to the point where she felt I wasn't paying attention to her, I'd drop my FF14 subscription immediately with no hesitation. I love the game, but I need her more than I need videogames, any of them.
Which gets back to being slightly ashamed of videogames. I bought some videogame t-shirts at PAX a few years back, and now I only wear them around the house for the most part. They're not ugly or anything, they just seem... childish. In fact, I have absolutely no desire to go back to PAX, not just because the Penny Arcade guys seem more and more like GG supporters, but because I just don't want to be around other people who are obsessed with this stuff. Audience Q&As are some of the most painful things for me to watch, be it in person or on Youtube or whatever, because the people who get up and ask questions are such goddamn insufferable nerds, that until they shit their fourteen minute-long question out, I am squirming and uncomfortable until the person on stage starts talking, and even then, sometimes the question is so fucking awkward, I'm still struggling because the person on stage has to be polite when trying to respond to whatever insane fucking question the neckbeard asked them. "Where did you get the idea for Sephiroth because I love his long flowing silver hair and dark clothes and giant sword but he has motivation for what he did, you know? How hard was Nibelheim to design?" and then the hyperventilating nerd sits down and the poor bastard on stage has to deal with that shit. Someone could point a gun at me at that exact moment and I would genuinely welcome death.
So you've got these assholes who are ruining women's lives because they deign to say things like "hey I don't like all these games with tits hanging out, could we maybe have games that I could play that don't have rape in them?" or even just making the games they'd like to see themselves. If a game has a feminism bent to it, the creator of that game has to face some danger, which is the most fucking insane thing I've ever seen with regards to this dumb hobby. WHO FUCKING CARES if someone likes, wants, or makes something you don't? Isn't that the point of being a nerd anyway? Liking something other people don't and feeling smug about it? God forbid when that shit gets turned around on nerds, because then it's doxxing and SWATing time. Nerds have become the jocks in high school who used to torture them. They're worse, actually, because eventually high school ends. These fuckers will be harassing women forever. While I'd like to believe people will grow up and learn to empathize, I'm too cynical for that. That's why I'll likely be hiding my videogame fandom to most people for the rest of my life - I don't want to be associated with those assholes.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Thursday, November 19, 2015
FFXIV and Fallout 4
After taking a month or so off playing FFXIV, with the release of patch 3.1, I jumped back in and have been playing somewhat regularly. I find myself unmotivated, so far, to play the new raid, Void Ark, mostly because I don't like 24 man raids, as my stupid brain cannot wrap itself around healing 8 people among 24. I hear it's kind of easy, though, so I'll probably run it this weekend.
I've run one of the new dungeons, St. Mocianne's Arboretum, and I kind of don't see the point? It's a nice dungeon and pretty fun, and apparently drops i185 gear which is slightly better than upgraded Law gear, but what's the point? There are so many easier ways to get better gear, and unless you're JUST getting to level 60, none of that will be current. I suppose the point is to let people play something besides Neverreap and Fractal Continuum, both of which I've played probably more than any dungeon in the game for the Esoterics tomestones. Those dungeons are the reason I took a break from FFXIV, actually.
The nice thing is, hunting is viable again! I'm surprised I missed it, to be honest, but I've had fun the past few days creating a party in PF and looking around for A and S ranks. Yesterday I was able to find 2 A ranks myself, which is always fun because you can share it with your active party first, let everybody get there or at least get close, before calling it in /shout and your hunt linkshells. That way no one in the party misses it, and your PF usually fills up really fast if it's not full since yours is the only one up when you announce the coordinates. I was able to make about 1500 seals last night, which netted me 3 Clan Mark Logs, which are items you can trade to upgrade your i200 eso gear to i210. I think I'm going to go for 6 first, to upgrade my chest piece on my WHM, so then I can dye it.
I also spent $7.50 of real world money to buy 10 pots of virtual red metallic dye. *ahem* Moving on...
I've been playing on PS4, now, too, which is interesting for a few reasons. The PS3, it will come as a surprise to no one, is missing quite a bit of incidental detail. Every area in the game, be it ARR or HW, looks WAY different, to the degree where I sometimes get a bit lost. I'm not complaining, as the draw distance and resolution make the game even more gorgeous than it was. And even without a SSD on the PS4, giant groups of people killing a hunt don't seem to hurt the framerate (or make the hunt completely disappear, which was the most infuriating thing in the game when it used to happen to me on PS3). I did have a hunt in which the framerate dropped a bit - an S Rank had spawned in La Noscea somewhere - but I was still able to target the hunt and got full credit and all that, and it's not like the framerate was TOO bad, just noticeable.
The reason I bought the PS4 was for Fallout 4, which just came out, so I've been playing that too. I'm enjoying it so far, but it is 100% a sequel to Fallout 3, not New Vegas, which are both good games, though I vastly prefer New Vegas. Fallout 4, as fun as it is, just feels so much less like a cohesive world than NV did. Yes, there's a story and yes, there are questlines, but they seem so barebones compared to NV that it makes me kind of sad. The fact that it's much harder to talk your way out of problems because of the changes they made to the stats and leveling up system doesn't help. I used to try to talk my way through NV, which was fun, because I'd charm people into doing what I wanted them to, rather than have to fight every single person I come across. Thus far, across 15 hours or so of Fallout 4, there have been very few non hostile characters, though I have not made it to Boston yet, so that could change. It's just been "oh, there's a person, I bet they're hostile," and then, inevitably, they are.
All that said, however, Fallout 4 plays a lot better in terms of combat than 3 or even NV. I suck at shooters, though I'm able to aim a bit better in this one and have actually used VATS less than I thought I would (though I still use it often enough that I would consider not playing these games if Bethesda took VATS out entirely). I love the base building and gear modding stuff, and have really only scratched the surface of both. I'm starting to run into a bit of an ammo problem, but as soon as I hit level 13, I've decided to take the perk that makes you find more ammo, as I've heard it's pretty effective. Hopefully that helps.
The game is gorgeous, and so far, runs extremely well. I've run into very few buggy situations so far, which is unusual for a Bethesda Fallout, though I'm sure the closer I get to Boston, the more bugs I'm sure to encounter. As long as my save files and questlines don't get screwed, I'll be fine with them, I think.
I have to complain about the main story so far, though. Spoilers start in the next sentence for those of you who care. You start the game before the war, married with a child, with a live in butler robot who helps around the house. You talk to your wife, play with your kid a little bit, then the sirens go off and you have to sprint to the vault where you're cryogenically frozen. Before that, though, you get to see the world before the bombs fell, and it's really nice! I would have liked to explore outside just a little bit before having to jump into the vault, but the game doesn't let you leave the house until the sirens go off. I get why they did this - they didn't want me wandering off outside of the starting town - but the house you're in is pretty unimpressive. You run past some nice looking homes and lots of people who will surely die, then into the vault, where you're frozen. You unfreeze at one point, watch your wife, who's in the cryogenic chamber across from you, get shot and your child stolen, then refrozen. You're thawed an unknown period of time later and then the game proper starts.
I have issues with this. First off - how convenient that I was unthawed to watch my wife get killed and my baby stolen! I think it would have been more effective to be unthawed someday and THEN find out my wife is dead, and my kid is nowhere to be found. Maybe leave some notes in the computer terminal that hints to my kids fate or something. It's a small point, I suppose, but it's poor storytelling, something I don't think Obsidian, the writers of New Vegas, would have done.
Aside from all that, too, why does Bethesda keep giving the player character in Fallout a family? I did not give a shit about my dad in Fallout 3, nor do I care about my wife or kid, both of whom I've spent five minutes (and just an hour or two in game time) with in Fallout 4! If ever there was a series where the player character should be a cipher, it's the frickin Fallout games, yet now my character even has a voice actor. Why?! Unlike most other RPGs I play, I play Fallout to actually roleplay, and having some douchey voice come out of my character takes me out of that big time. Doesn't help that the voice acting seems very flat, too. "Streamlining" the dialogue trees, too, seems like a huge misstep to me, as now it's very difficult to talk your way out of situations like you could before. Now, when you level up, you get to select a new perk - which are attainable based on how many SPECIAL points you have, rather than individual stats like "Lockpicking" or "Persuasion" or whatever. I could be wrong as I'm only level 12 now, but the system as it is now seems to really encourage minmaxing, which I'd also rather not do in a Fallout game.
Where Bethesda has improved, though, is in world design. For all the fun I had in Fallout 3, I frickin hated exploring in that game, which was a huge problem. You had to go through all kinds of tunnels and subways to get anywhere, and the map didn't do you any favors when it came to figuring out which subway went where. Even when you were in the overworld, there were piles of rubble EVERYWHERE, nearly right off the bat, which limited where you could go. New Vegas blew 3 out of the water for many reasons, but this was the biggie for me. Fallout 4 continues the trend in New Vegas, and actually has a much more interesting and less annoying world to explore.
I just wish there was more personality to it. Again, I'm not yet to Boston, but New Vegas had all kinds of people working to different ends in nearly every inch of its world. There are still questlines I've never seen in that game, despite at least five playthroughs! Don't get me wrong, all of this might be moot and I might find myself with a great bunch of settlements soon, but that would be a bit surprising outside of Boston proper, I'd think.
All of this sounds like I hate Fallout 4 - I don't! It's a great game, but it just makes me really want the guys from Obsidian to make another Fallout, as I prefer their stuff.
I've run one of the new dungeons, St. Mocianne's Arboretum, and I kind of don't see the point? It's a nice dungeon and pretty fun, and apparently drops i185 gear which is slightly better than upgraded Law gear, but what's the point? There are so many easier ways to get better gear, and unless you're JUST getting to level 60, none of that will be current. I suppose the point is to let people play something besides Neverreap and Fractal Continuum, both of which I've played probably more than any dungeon in the game for the Esoterics tomestones. Those dungeons are the reason I took a break from FFXIV, actually.
The nice thing is, hunting is viable again! I'm surprised I missed it, to be honest, but I've had fun the past few days creating a party in PF and looking around for A and S ranks. Yesterday I was able to find 2 A ranks myself, which is always fun because you can share it with your active party first, let everybody get there or at least get close, before calling it in /shout and your hunt linkshells. That way no one in the party misses it, and your PF usually fills up really fast if it's not full since yours is the only one up when you announce the coordinates. I was able to make about 1500 seals last night, which netted me 3 Clan Mark Logs, which are items you can trade to upgrade your i200 eso gear to i210. I think I'm going to go for 6 first, to upgrade my chest piece on my WHM, so then I can dye it.
I also spent $7.50 of real world money to buy 10 pots of virtual red metallic dye. *ahem* Moving on...
I've been playing on PS4, now, too, which is interesting for a few reasons. The PS3, it will come as a surprise to no one, is missing quite a bit of incidental detail. Every area in the game, be it ARR or HW, looks WAY different, to the degree where I sometimes get a bit lost. I'm not complaining, as the draw distance and resolution make the game even more gorgeous than it was. And even without a SSD on the PS4, giant groups of people killing a hunt don't seem to hurt the framerate (or make the hunt completely disappear, which was the most infuriating thing in the game when it used to happen to me on PS3). I did have a hunt in which the framerate dropped a bit - an S Rank had spawned in La Noscea somewhere - but I was still able to target the hunt and got full credit and all that, and it's not like the framerate was TOO bad, just noticeable.
The reason I bought the PS4 was for Fallout 4, which just came out, so I've been playing that too. I'm enjoying it so far, but it is 100% a sequel to Fallout 3, not New Vegas, which are both good games, though I vastly prefer New Vegas. Fallout 4, as fun as it is, just feels so much less like a cohesive world than NV did. Yes, there's a story and yes, there are questlines, but they seem so barebones compared to NV that it makes me kind of sad. The fact that it's much harder to talk your way out of problems because of the changes they made to the stats and leveling up system doesn't help. I used to try to talk my way through NV, which was fun, because I'd charm people into doing what I wanted them to, rather than have to fight every single person I come across. Thus far, across 15 hours or so of Fallout 4, there have been very few non hostile characters, though I have not made it to Boston yet, so that could change. It's just been "oh, there's a person, I bet they're hostile," and then, inevitably, they are.
All that said, however, Fallout 4 plays a lot better in terms of combat than 3 or even NV. I suck at shooters, though I'm able to aim a bit better in this one and have actually used VATS less than I thought I would (though I still use it often enough that I would consider not playing these games if Bethesda took VATS out entirely). I love the base building and gear modding stuff, and have really only scratched the surface of both. I'm starting to run into a bit of an ammo problem, but as soon as I hit level 13, I've decided to take the perk that makes you find more ammo, as I've heard it's pretty effective. Hopefully that helps.
The game is gorgeous, and so far, runs extremely well. I've run into very few buggy situations so far, which is unusual for a Bethesda Fallout, though I'm sure the closer I get to Boston, the more bugs I'm sure to encounter. As long as my save files and questlines don't get screwed, I'll be fine with them, I think.
I have to complain about the main story so far, though. Spoilers start in the next sentence for those of you who care. You start the game before the war, married with a child, with a live in butler robot who helps around the house. You talk to your wife, play with your kid a little bit, then the sirens go off and you have to sprint to the vault where you're cryogenically frozen. Before that, though, you get to see the world before the bombs fell, and it's really nice! I would have liked to explore outside just a little bit before having to jump into the vault, but the game doesn't let you leave the house until the sirens go off. I get why they did this - they didn't want me wandering off outside of the starting town - but the house you're in is pretty unimpressive. You run past some nice looking homes and lots of people who will surely die, then into the vault, where you're frozen. You unfreeze at one point, watch your wife, who's in the cryogenic chamber across from you, get shot and your child stolen, then refrozen. You're thawed an unknown period of time later and then the game proper starts.
I have issues with this. First off - how convenient that I was unthawed to watch my wife get killed and my baby stolen! I think it would have been more effective to be unthawed someday and THEN find out my wife is dead, and my kid is nowhere to be found. Maybe leave some notes in the computer terminal that hints to my kids fate or something. It's a small point, I suppose, but it's poor storytelling, something I don't think Obsidian, the writers of New Vegas, would have done.
Aside from all that, too, why does Bethesda keep giving the player character in Fallout a family? I did not give a shit about my dad in Fallout 3, nor do I care about my wife or kid, both of whom I've spent five minutes (and just an hour or two in game time) with in Fallout 4! If ever there was a series where the player character should be a cipher, it's the frickin Fallout games, yet now my character even has a voice actor. Why?! Unlike most other RPGs I play, I play Fallout to actually roleplay, and having some douchey voice come out of my character takes me out of that big time. Doesn't help that the voice acting seems very flat, too. "Streamlining" the dialogue trees, too, seems like a huge misstep to me, as now it's very difficult to talk your way out of situations like you could before. Now, when you level up, you get to select a new perk - which are attainable based on how many SPECIAL points you have, rather than individual stats like "Lockpicking" or "Persuasion" or whatever. I could be wrong as I'm only level 12 now, but the system as it is now seems to really encourage minmaxing, which I'd also rather not do in a Fallout game.
Where Bethesda has improved, though, is in world design. For all the fun I had in Fallout 3, I frickin hated exploring in that game, which was a huge problem. You had to go through all kinds of tunnels and subways to get anywhere, and the map didn't do you any favors when it came to figuring out which subway went where. Even when you were in the overworld, there were piles of rubble EVERYWHERE, nearly right off the bat, which limited where you could go. New Vegas blew 3 out of the water for many reasons, but this was the biggie for me. Fallout 4 continues the trend in New Vegas, and actually has a much more interesting and less annoying world to explore.
I just wish there was more personality to it. Again, I'm not yet to Boston, but New Vegas had all kinds of people working to different ends in nearly every inch of its world. There are still questlines I've never seen in that game, despite at least five playthroughs! Don't get me wrong, all of this might be moot and I might find myself with a great bunch of settlements soon, but that would be a bit surprising outside of Boston proper, I'd think.
All of this sounds like I hate Fallout 4 - I don't! It's a great game, but it just makes me really want the guys from Obsidian to make another Fallout, as I prefer their stuff.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Heavensward
Oh, how things have changed since I wrote my last few posts about Final Fantasy XIV.
On June 23rd, the first expansion to the game came out, though since I had it preordered, I got to play early access starting on June 19th. I finished the main story of A Realm Reborn that day, and made it into Ishgard, the setting of the expansion.
First, though, I want to write about the endgame of ARR, as it was prior to HW. I still main WHM, and spent most of my time leveling that class, and two gatherer classes, primarily Miner. I still haven't done any end game mining, so I don't have much to say about that, really.
As for the WHM stuff, I worked on getting better gear by running low level and main scenario roulettes to get Allegan tomestones of soldiery and poetics, as outlined in my last post. Using those, I upgraded my gear to about item level 108, at which point HW came out and I started getting new gear very quickly (as of this post, I am iLvl 146). There was a ton of level 50 content (50 being the old level cap, prior to HW). New primal battles, new dungeons, remixed hard versions of old dungeons, and to this day I still haven't completed all of it (I have yet to beat Syrcus Tower and the World of Darkness, which are raids, and Ultima Hard Mode, just because I haven't bothered to queue up for it yet).
With regards to raids (giant 24 man dungeons, basically) - I want to get my thoughts on them down now, because I can see my opinion of them changing in the future. I think I've just had some bad experiences so far, some of which is my fault, and some of which is the fault of some assholes who don't have an ounce of patience. What I mean is, I like to go into new content fresh, and try to learn it as I go. Raiders take issue with this, since they want to blow through the content, get their item, and run it again or whatever. I sympathize with this! But when they get players who are new, they either drop right away, or do not take a second - can't even spare a single sentence - about the mechanics of a fight, even after a wipe. That's all I ask - if I can't learn a fight after an explanation AND a wipe, then get pissed at me, and drop or kick me or whatever. I'd be fine with that. But instead, we wipe, I ask a question, no one answers, and then we wipe again, and someone in my party will say (and I quote!) "why healers no heal." Because healers no know how fight works, idiot! Again, I understand someone doesn't want to jump into a raid, and then spend five minutes typing a novel about how to beat a fight just for the new guy not to really read it and wipe anyway, but come ON.
However - and here's why I think my opinion on them might change - a new raid is coming out in a week or two. It is against Alexander, another legacy Final Fantasy boss/summon. I am working on getting my ilvl up to around 170-180 so I am ready for it, so I can challenge it on day one. This way, no one can get mad at me for not knowing the fight, since no one knows the fight then. I'm sure by the time I queue up after work that day, several Free Companies on my server will have already farmed it to death, but at least it's still day damn one and I can /shout that all I want and not feel guilty at all. So, I'm looking forward to that.
Early this week, I bought a solid state hard drive for my PS3. This has improved the run quality of the game by a TON. Teleports now take single digit seconds, instead of taking more than 30 or 45, as was normal once HW launched and the servers got hammered harder. Hunts now load a LOT better - there are still issues when there are a TON of player characters around, where the hunt, when pulled, will disappear for a second or two, even if you've Focus Targeted them. This sucks because since everyone is doing hunts now, they all die in less than 10 seconds once pulled, typically, even the new HW hunts. I also take issue with people pulling the hunt early, but there's not much I can do about that, really. Being able to teleport somewhere quickly and get to the hunt as quick as I can is my only chance at getting those sweet, sweet Centurio Seals (the new hunt currency that is used to upgrade i170 gear, of which I only have bracelets as of this post).
The nice part is, once you hit level 60, you can get 100 seals per day doing your own personal hunts, which consist of finding regular enemies and killing 2-4 of them. So while it would be INSANELY slower, you could still make progress with seals this way, if you're, say, playing on a PS3 with the stock HDD, or a crappy PC or whatever.
I don't know when I'll get around to it, but I plan on leveling Dragoon as my second class (and primary DPS class, I think). I already have a lot of gear in the level 50 range for it, since some of the sidequests I took as WHM only gave Disciples of War gear (non-magic user gear, basically), so I took the DRG stuff for future use.
But I still love WHM. The new spells in HW are pretty useful, and while I'm still figuring out the best times to use them, they add a lot of utility, and I miss them when I'm running low level content (Assize specifically - does AoE damage around me and gives me 10% of my MP back instantly - quick cooldown, too. Love that spell).
No need to get into the main story or anything here, other than to say I really, really enjoy it. It's nothing super deep or anything, but I like the characters, and really enjoy the world of FFXIV. I actually care about what is going on in an MMO! Fancy that.
One last thing for this post - Tam Tara Deepcroft Hard Mode is an incredible dungeon. The fights aren't anything too special, but the scenario surrounding it is probably my favorite in the game. Early (very early!) on in the main story of ARR, you meet a party of adventurers who are just getting started, having been inspired by you. You wish them luck, and they take off. You run into them again later, and find out that their tank died before the healer - the tank's lover - could save him. The party is dismayed, blame the healer (which rings true to me, since I main a healer!), and disband. The healer is, as you can imagine, absolutely devastated. Then, hours and hours and hours of gametime later, you see the mage from that party. He received a wedding invitation from his former teammate, the healer - who apparently is marrying the dead tank! You go off to investigate, and it turns out she is trying to resurrect him or something, but as you'd expect, he comes back as a demon or whatever. The whole dungeon is really creepy and you're fighting ghosts pretty much the whole time, and one fight, you have to prevent the aforementioned mage from being possessed. The final boss is the summoned tank, who is basically a giant skull thing. The healer is there, ostensibly aiding him. When you win, the depressed, insane healer, in despair, inches away from you, and purposely falls to her death. You then leave the dungeon with the mage, who, shaken, is remorseful about how he treated his former comrade, only for him to see her in spectral form, glowering at him with an evil smirk on her face, pretty quickly after exiting the dungeon. He runs off, terrified, screaming apologies, while your player character looks around and sees nothing.
Creepy.
My favorite part of the whole thing, though, is that some nights, in New Gridania, her ghost has like a 1% chance of appearing in a creepy corner of the town. I haven't seen it in game yet, but have seen screenshots online. It's little touches like this that show how much the FFXIV team love the game they made.
On June 23rd, the first expansion to the game came out, though since I had it preordered, I got to play early access starting on June 19th. I finished the main story of A Realm Reborn that day, and made it into Ishgard, the setting of the expansion.
First, though, I want to write about the endgame of ARR, as it was prior to HW. I still main WHM, and spent most of my time leveling that class, and two gatherer classes, primarily Miner. I still haven't done any end game mining, so I don't have much to say about that, really.
As for the WHM stuff, I worked on getting better gear by running low level and main scenario roulettes to get Allegan tomestones of soldiery and poetics, as outlined in my last post. Using those, I upgraded my gear to about item level 108, at which point HW came out and I started getting new gear very quickly (as of this post, I am iLvl 146). There was a ton of level 50 content (50 being the old level cap, prior to HW). New primal battles, new dungeons, remixed hard versions of old dungeons, and to this day I still haven't completed all of it (I have yet to beat Syrcus Tower and the World of Darkness, which are raids, and Ultima Hard Mode, just because I haven't bothered to queue up for it yet).
With regards to raids (giant 24 man dungeons, basically) - I want to get my thoughts on them down now, because I can see my opinion of them changing in the future. I think I've just had some bad experiences so far, some of which is my fault, and some of which is the fault of some assholes who don't have an ounce of patience. What I mean is, I like to go into new content fresh, and try to learn it as I go. Raiders take issue with this, since they want to blow through the content, get their item, and run it again or whatever. I sympathize with this! But when they get players who are new, they either drop right away, or do not take a second - can't even spare a single sentence - about the mechanics of a fight, even after a wipe. That's all I ask - if I can't learn a fight after an explanation AND a wipe, then get pissed at me, and drop or kick me or whatever. I'd be fine with that. But instead, we wipe, I ask a question, no one answers, and then we wipe again, and someone in my party will say (and I quote!) "why healers no heal." Because healers no know how fight works, idiot! Again, I understand someone doesn't want to jump into a raid, and then spend five minutes typing a novel about how to beat a fight just for the new guy not to really read it and wipe anyway, but come ON.
However - and here's why I think my opinion on them might change - a new raid is coming out in a week or two. It is against Alexander, another legacy Final Fantasy boss/summon. I am working on getting my ilvl up to around 170-180 so I am ready for it, so I can challenge it on day one. This way, no one can get mad at me for not knowing the fight, since no one knows the fight then. I'm sure by the time I queue up after work that day, several Free Companies on my server will have already farmed it to death, but at least it's still day damn one and I can /shout that all I want and not feel guilty at all. So, I'm looking forward to that.
Early this week, I bought a solid state hard drive for my PS3. This has improved the run quality of the game by a TON. Teleports now take single digit seconds, instead of taking more than 30 or 45, as was normal once HW launched and the servers got hammered harder. Hunts now load a LOT better - there are still issues when there are a TON of player characters around, where the hunt, when pulled, will disappear for a second or two, even if you've Focus Targeted them. This sucks because since everyone is doing hunts now, they all die in less than 10 seconds once pulled, typically, even the new HW hunts. I also take issue with people pulling the hunt early, but there's not much I can do about that, really. Being able to teleport somewhere quickly and get to the hunt as quick as I can is my only chance at getting those sweet, sweet Centurio Seals (the new hunt currency that is used to upgrade i170 gear, of which I only have bracelets as of this post).
The nice part is, once you hit level 60, you can get 100 seals per day doing your own personal hunts, which consist of finding regular enemies and killing 2-4 of them. So while it would be INSANELY slower, you could still make progress with seals this way, if you're, say, playing on a PS3 with the stock HDD, or a crappy PC or whatever.
I don't know when I'll get around to it, but I plan on leveling Dragoon as my second class (and primary DPS class, I think). I already have a lot of gear in the level 50 range for it, since some of the sidequests I took as WHM only gave Disciples of War gear (non-magic user gear, basically), so I took the DRG stuff for future use.
But I still love WHM. The new spells in HW are pretty useful, and while I'm still figuring out the best times to use them, they add a lot of utility, and I miss them when I'm running low level content (Assize specifically - does AoE damage around me and gives me 10% of my MP back instantly - quick cooldown, too. Love that spell).
No need to get into the main story or anything here, other than to say I really, really enjoy it. It's nothing super deep or anything, but I like the characters, and really enjoy the world of FFXIV. I actually care about what is going on in an MMO! Fancy that.
One last thing for this post - Tam Tara Deepcroft Hard Mode is an incredible dungeon. The fights aren't anything too special, but the scenario surrounding it is probably my favorite in the game. Early (very early!) on in the main story of ARR, you meet a party of adventurers who are just getting started, having been inspired by you. You wish them luck, and they take off. You run into them again later, and find out that their tank died before the healer - the tank's lover - could save him. The party is dismayed, blame the healer (which rings true to me, since I main a healer!), and disband. The healer is, as you can imagine, absolutely devastated. Then, hours and hours and hours of gametime later, you see the mage from that party. He received a wedding invitation from his former teammate, the healer - who apparently is marrying the dead tank! You go off to investigate, and it turns out she is trying to resurrect him or something, but as you'd expect, he comes back as a demon or whatever. The whole dungeon is really creepy and you're fighting ghosts pretty much the whole time, and one fight, you have to prevent the aforementioned mage from being possessed. The final boss is the summoned tank, who is basically a giant skull thing. The healer is there, ostensibly aiding him. When you win, the depressed, insane healer, in despair, inches away from you, and purposely falls to her death. You then leave the dungeon with the mage, who, shaken, is remorseful about how he treated his former comrade, only for him to see her in spectral form, glowering at him with an evil smirk on her face, pretty quickly after exiting the dungeon. He runs off, terrified, screaming apologies, while your player character looks around and sees nothing.
Creepy.
My favorite part of the whole thing, though, is that some nights, in New Gridania, her ghost has like a 1% chance of appearing in a creepy corner of the town. I haven't seen it in game yet, but have seen screenshots online. It's little touches like this that show how much the FFXIV team love the game they made.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV - Coming to Terms with Endgame Content
I had a bad first taste of what I thought the endgame would be like when I first ran Castrum Meritorium and the Praetorium, two level 50 dungeons that serve as the capstone to the main story of the FFXIV: ARR base game. They are very cutscene heavy, and the groups I was with both times just "carried" me through the dungeons, basically killing all the bosses without me and just letting me watch all the cutscenes. By the time I was done watching them all, I was the only one left in the instance, along with a Free Company member named Zant, who I appreciated because he helped guide me through when everyone else was several rooms ahead of me (Meritorium in particular is really confusing on your first playthrough, because the party spends a decent amount of time backtracking through areas they've already been to, so you're going in loops thinking "I've already been here. This can't be right!).
I was upset because the game had done such a good job of teaming me up with other players who were around the same level as me for all my Duty Finder situations to that point. I felt like I contributed to every dungeon and boss fight (and as the sole healer for those fights, it'd be hard to argue that I didn't). Then I get to those final dungeons, all the cutscenes are treating me as a member of the fabled Heroes of Light, and in between cutscenes, I'm just running past piles of dead bodies to trigger the next one. It was just this weird anticlimax because everyone else was overgeared and could steamroll everything.
But, having done both dungeons a few times each again through Duty Finder roulette, I'm okay with the game in general. I do like the dungeons, but it's pretty easy to tell that if everyone that were playing them were all fresh level 50s, they'd be a bit of a slog (easily 50 minutes plus each run, if I had to guess, assuming no party wipes). Which would be fine if you could still gain levels there - gaining experience and leveling up is fun, but since you've hit the cap by the time you reach them, it'd be kind of pointless. So I'm actually kind of happy that I'm able to quickly fly through those dungeons now.
The rest of the endgame content is pretty weird, though. The game doesn't do a very good job of telling you what you can do and where to do it. Mor Dhona is obviously the current end of game area for now, which you can tell is the case as soon as you arrive there. When you start running endgame dungeons after you've beaten the main story, you start getting Allagan Tomestones, which are an endgame currency that you spend in Mor Dhona to buy very high level gear for your level 50 class(es). Outside of the Duty Finder roulette, though, the game doesn't tell you where to find these (and the Poetry stones, I still don't know where to reliably get them, as I get 5 of them per roulette, and I need like 375 of them to buy even a ring. I have 45 of them currently). There are treasure maps you can find that will net you some stones, but those seem pretty rare and have to be found using a gathering class. Running the endgame dungeons, which you unlock as you find various NPCs, will yield those stones, but I'm hesitant to run them because they yield like 20 stones, whereas the daily roulettes yield 100 for low level and 120 for "main scenario."
The game also clearly wants you to level crafting/gathering classes, as upgrading your class's ultimate weapon forces you to meld materia during the first endgame quest. You can have someone else do it, of course, but I kind of want to do it myself, so I haven't really upgraded my weapon yet.
I also haven't even run the Crystal Tower yet, though I have unlocked it. I'm waiting for my friend to get to the endgame content for that, though I'm sure he'll get pissed off just like I did about how you have to unlock it. There are two specific FATEs that you have to beat when you get the quest to unlock it, but what sucks is you have to wait for them to spawn and they are deep in high level enemy territory, so it's not really safe to do alone, though I suppose since he's a BLM, he would have an easier time just doing tons of damage to the bosses of those FATEs. It just sucks having to wait for the FATEs to spawn just to advance in endgame content. I'm told there's more of that while upgrading your final weapon, too, which I'm not looking forward to.
Though I have to say, what exposure I have to new endgame dungeons has made me pretty happy. There's a neat dungeon involving Tonberries, those classic Final Fantasy enemies, that I ran for the first time last weekend that was pretty neat (and kind of scary, which is not something that's common for FFXIV, though if you know what a Tonberry is, you know why that dungeon is scary).
There does seem to be a lot of content, though. And with the expansion coming out in a little more than a month, that will continue. Good god, I love this game.
I was upset because the game had done such a good job of teaming me up with other players who were around the same level as me for all my Duty Finder situations to that point. I felt like I contributed to every dungeon and boss fight (and as the sole healer for those fights, it'd be hard to argue that I didn't). Then I get to those final dungeons, all the cutscenes are treating me as a member of the fabled Heroes of Light, and in between cutscenes, I'm just running past piles of dead bodies to trigger the next one. It was just this weird anticlimax because everyone else was overgeared and could steamroll everything.
But, having done both dungeons a few times each again through Duty Finder roulette, I'm okay with the game in general. I do like the dungeons, but it's pretty easy to tell that if everyone that were playing them were all fresh level 50s, they'd be a bit of a slog (easily 50 minutes plus each run, if I had to guess, assuming no party wipes). Which would be fine if you could still gain levels there - gaining experience and leveling up is fun, but since you've hit the cap by the time you reach them, it'd be kind of pointless. So I'm actually kind of happy that I'm able to quickly fly through those dungeons now.
The rest of the endgame content is pretty weird, though. The game doesn't do a very good job of telling you what you can do and where to do it. Mor Dhona is obviously the current end of game area for now, which you can tell is the case as soon as you arrive there. When you start running endgame dungeons after you've beaten the main story, you start getting Allagan Tomestones, which are an endgame currency that you spend in Mor Dhona to buy very high level gear for your level 50 class(es). Outside of the Duty Finder roulette, though, the game doesn't tell you where to find these (and the Poetry stones, I still don't know where to reliably get them, as I get 5 of them per roulette, and I need like 375 of them to buy even a ring. I have 45 of them currently). There are treasure maps you can find that will net you some stones, but those seem pretty rare and have to be found using a gathering class. Running the endgame dungeons, which you unlock as you find various NPCs, will yield those stones, but I'm hesitant to run them because they yield like 20 stones, whereas the daily roulettes yield 100 for low level and 120 for "main scenario."
The game also clearly wants you to level crafting/gathering classes, as upgrading your class's ultimate weapon forces you to meld materia during the first endgame quest. You can have someone else do it, of course, but I kind of want to do it myself, so I haven't really upgraded my weapon yet.
I also haven't even run the Crystal Tower yet, though I have unlocked it. I'm waiting for my friend to get to the endgame content for that, though I'm sure he'll get pissed off just like I did about how you have to unlock it. There are two specific FATEs that you have to beat when you get the quest to unlock it, but what sucks is you have to wait for them to spawn and they are deep in high level enemy territory, so it's not really safe to do alone, though I suppose since he's a BLM, he would have an easier time just doing tons of damage to the bosses of those FATEs. It just sucks having to wait for the FATEs to spawn just to advance in endgame content. I'm told there's more of that while upgrading your final weapon, too, which I'm not looking forward to.
Though I have to say, what exposure I have to new endgame dungeons has made me pretty happy. There's a neat dungeon involving Tonberries, those classic Final Fantasy enemies, that I ran for the first time last weekend that was pretty neat (and kind of scary, which is not something that's common for FFXIV, though if you know what a Tonberry is, you know why that dungeon is scary).
There does seem to be a lot of content, though. And with the expansion coming out in a little more than a month, that will continue. Good god, I love this game.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV Part 3
So.
The game has got its hooks in me deep. I have played nothing else in weeks and am still loving the game. A lot has changed since my last post, as well - chief among them being I now consider myself a White Mage first and foremost. It is even my highest leveled class, at level 44, and will likely be the class I complete the main story with.
I still like Archer/Bard, mind you, and that will likely be the second class I get to 50, but I will be going for endgame gear for my WHM first. I cannot stop gushing about how much I like to play WHM to people, and I'm sure my Free Company (basically FFXIV's version of guilds - collection of players that play together and have a private chatbox, basically) is sick of hearing me talk about it.
I've never felt the way I do while playing a videogame like I do when playing a WHM. When running a dungeon, I have a lot of responsibility - and since I'm playing with other players, I feel the social pressure of trying to keep everyone alive rather than thinking "eh, if the CPU dies, I'll just try again, who cares." I have to keep the tank healed, but if a DPS wanders into damage I have to heal them, too. And if the tank sucks? My job gets even harder. If the tank cannot keep aggro, I will be healing everyone a lot, running out of MP, then frantically casting Cure on whoever needs the heal the most when I have the MP - which gets pretty tense because when a battle goes belly up, people tend to forget their jobs, and DPS players start taking damage they shouldn't. All while dodging area of effect attacks!
Most of my dungeon runs have been good. I get a lot of player commendations, which I like (only 465 more until a golden Magitek Armor!), and feel pretty good getting through a dungeon without any deaths. When things go sour, though, I feel pretty bad. My first (and as of this post, only) run of Cutter's Cry was a nightmare. The tank died to a random mob early on, and though he said it was his fault, I don't think it was. I was running from an AoE attack, and since he had only a sliver of damage, I thought it was safe to do so. Once I got out of range and queued up a Cure, he was dead! Then it was up to the DPSs and I to finish off the enemies. Embarrassing! A DPS also died on the final boss, though he said it was because he was using a Limit Break and couldn't escape the AoE. I just assume they were being nice - I got zero player commendations for that run. I suppose it doesn't help that I had to be told I had Cleric Stance on when the dungeon started (this switches your INT and MIND stats, which allows you to do more damage which is great for soloing, but since it lowers your healing capability, is terrible for dungeons)!
I really need to level some other classes though, because I am using precisely zero skills/abilities from classes besides WHM. I suppose I should level Thaumaturge, but I'm spoiled by quick wait times in the Duty Finder, so I don't want to go back to DPS! I began leveling Gladiator yesterday, to speed Duty Finder times up even more when I get around to doing dungeons as a Tank, I suppose.
This game, though. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I've been addicted to a game so much. I think about it constantly. Work is just about to start as I type this post, and I cannot wait for stupid work to be over so I can go home and play it.
The game has got its hooks in me deep. I have played nothing else in weeks and am still loving the game. A lot has changed since my last post, as well - chief among them being I now consider myself a White Mage first and foremost. It is even my highest leveled class, at level 44, and will likely be the class I complete the main story with.
I still like Archer/Bard, mind you, and that will likely be the second class I get to 50, but I will be going for endgame gear for my WHM first. I cannot stop gushing about how much I like to play WHM to people, and I'm sure my Free Company (basically FFXIV's version of guilds - collection of players that play together and have a private chatbox, basically) is sick of hearing me talk about it.
I've never felt the way I do while playing a videogame like I do when playing a WHM. When running a dungeon, I have a lot of responsibility - and since I'm playing with other players, I feel the social pressure of trying to keep everyone alive rather than thinking "eh, if the CPU dies, I'll just try again, who cares." I have to keep the tank healed, but if a DPS wanders into damage I have to heal them, too. And if the tank sucks? My job gets even harder. If the tank cannot keep aggro, I will be healing everyone a lot, running out of MP, then frantically casting Cure on whoever needs the heal the most when I have the MP - which gets pretty tense because when a battle goes belly up, people tend to forget their jobs, and DPS players start taking damage they shouldn't. All while dodging area of effect attacks!
Most of my dungeon runs have been good. I get a lot of player commendations, which I like (only 465 more until a golden Magitek Armor!), and feel pretty good getting through a dungeon without any deaths. When things go sour, though, I feel pretty bad. My first (and as of this post, only) run of Cutter's Cry was a nightmare. The tank died to a random mob early on, and though he said it was his fault, I don't think it was. I was running from an AoE attack, and since he had only a sliver of damage, I thought it was safe to do so. Once I got out of range and queued up a Cure, he was dead! Then it was up to the DPSs and I to finish off the enemies. Embarrassing! A DPS also died on the final boss, though he said it was because he was using a Limit Break and couldn't escape the AoE. I just assume they were being nice - I got zero player commendations for that run. I suppose it doesn't help that I had to be told I had Cleric Stance on when the dungeon started (this switches your INT and MIND stats, which allows you to do more damage which is great for soloing, but since it lowers your healing capability, is terrible for dungeons)!
I really need to level some other classes though, because I am using precisely zero skills/abilities from classes besides WHM. I suppose I should level Thaumaturge, but I'm spoiled by quick wait times in the Duty Finder, so I don't want to go back to DPS! I began leveling Gladiator yesterday, to speed Duty Finder times up even more when I get around to doing dungeons as a Tank, I suppose.
This game, though. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I've been addicted to a game so much. I think about it constantly. Work is just about to start as I type this post, and I cannot wait for stupid work to be over so I can go home and play it.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV Part 2
I basically played this all weekend. I probably put 15 hours into it, if I had to guess. Maybe one or two less. I'm at level 17 right now, still Archer. I've made it to the second major hub in the game, which is a pirate area. It's a bit confusing to navigate, and certain areas being referred to by characters as one name while the map refers to them as others made me want to throw my controller at the wall, but I eventually figured it out and it's not too bad.
Anyway, the main point of this post was to discuss Sastasha Seagrot, my first instanced dungeon in an MMO. I received the mission, put the word out that I was looking for a party, and then went and did other single player quests while a party formed. This one took twenty minutes to form, despite the game telling me it might take thirty, so that's good.
Sastasha Seagrot requires a "tank," two "DPSs," and a healer. Healer being self-explanatory, I'll explain the other two: a "tank" gets the enemies' attention and attacks and defends and basically acts as a damage sponge, and a DPS is a damage dealer - which is the category I fall into since I'm an archer. So once the game found me a party of people to play with, I delved into a dungeon with three other humans and played for roughly an hour.
It was a blast, I have to say. The dungeon was pretty straightforward, but like everywhere else in the game, was gorgeous. It was a sea cavern, with rivers and rivulets flowing through it, and I fought mostly clams, their weird magic casting spawn, and pirates. The boss of the area was a Sahagin, one of those classic Final Fantasy water enemies. My favorite touch of the dungeon was the classic victory battle music playing when the boss went down, followed by the four of us doing a sort of victory pose all lined up like a regular Final Fantasy game. Good stuff!
But it was pretty fun seeing the other classes at work. The healer buffed us, healed, and occasionally attacked, while the tank got all the enemies to focus on him, while the melee guy and I threw everything we had at the enemies. Archer fits me well; I sometimes find myself surprised when my HP gets low when soloing, so not having to worry about it for the most part was fun, while I really got to stretch all my abilities. They mesh pretty well, and being able to poison or bind the enemies occasionally helped the other guys quite a bit.
As we progressed through the dungeon, there were a few minor bosses who would drop stuff we could grab. The game puts up a pop up and lets people say if they want it - and as near as I can tell, you get it, so long as A. no one else wants it or B. if they do want it, they don't roll higher than you. The first four items were all useless to me, so I passed on all of them, but the armor the boss dropped was really good so I grabbed it. I don't think anyone else tried for it, so it didn't really matter what I rolled, but I got it and my character is wearing it as of this post.
I was thinking about Monster Hunter while I played today, though, and how that game doesn't scratch the itch I'm looking for. I want to get cool new gear that makes my character look different when I equip it (which FFXIV does) and level up my character, too, while customizing some skills and stats and such (FFXIV does this too, while MH does not). I have been wanting to play a game like this for a long time now, and it really does seem like the MMO for me. I don't want to play WoW and be damned to have to play with people at certain times - I want to initiate a quest, wait for other people to join, and go off and play a dungeon, then be done. This works so well because I'm pretty sure the game gives bonuses to higher level players who help out low level people like myself, so there's always a reason to run old dungeons.
Depending on how burnt out I get on the game (and how tolerant my fiancee is of me hogging the TV), I could see myself paying a few monthly fees. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the quality of FFXIV.
Anyway, the main point of this post was to discuss Sastasha Seagrot, my first instanced dungeon in an MMO. I received the mission, put the word out that I was looking for a party, and then went and did other single player quests while a party formed. This one took twenty minutes to form, despite the game telling me it might take thirty, so that's good.
Sastasha Seagrot requires a "tank," two "DPSs," and a healer. Healer being self-explanatory, I'll explain the other two: a "tank" gets the enemies' attention and attacks and defends and basically acts as a damage sponge, and a DPS is a damage dealer - which is the category I fall into since I'm an archer. So once the game found me a party of people to play with, I delved into a dungeon with three other humans and played for roughly an hour.
It was a blast, I have to say. The dungeon was pretty straightforward, but like everywhere else in the game, was gorgeous. It was a sea cavern, with rivers and rivulets flowing through it, and I fought mostly clams, their weird magic casting spawn, and pirates. The boss of the area was a Sahagin, one of those classic Final Fantasy water enemies. My favorite touch of the dungeon was the classic victory battle music playing when the boss went down, followed by the four of us doing a sort of victory pose all lined up like a regular Final Fantasy game. Good stuff!
But it was pretty fun seeing the other classes at work. The healer buffed us, healed, and occasionally attacked, while the tank got all the enemies to focus on him, while the melee guy and I threw everything we had at the enemies. Archer fits me well; I sometimes find myself surprised when my HP gets low when soloing, so not having to worry about it for the most part was fun, while I really got to stretch all my abilities. They mesh pretty well, and being able to poison or bind the enemies occasionally helped the other guys quite a bit.
As we progressed through the dungeon, there were a few minor bosses who would drop stuff we could grab. The game puts up a pop up and lets people say if they want it - and as near as I can tell, you get it, so long as A. no one else wants it or B. if they do want it, they don't roll higher than you. The first four items were all useless to me, so I passed on all of them, but the armor the boss dropped was really good so I grabbed it. I don't think anyone else tried for it, so it didn't really matter what I rolled, but I got it and my character is wearing it as of this post.
I was thinking about Monster Hunter while I played today, though, and how that game doesn't scratch the itch I'm looking for. I want to get cool new gear that makes my character look different when I equip it (which FFXIV does) and level up my character, too, while customizing some skills and stats and such (FFXIV does this too, while MH does not). I have been wanting to play a game like this for a long time now, and it really does seem like the MMO for me. I don't want to play WoW and be damned to have to play with people at certain times - I want to initiate a quest, wait for other people to join, and go off and play a dungeon, then be done. This works so well because I'm pretty sure the game gives bonuses to higher level players who help out low level people like myself, so there's always a reason to run old dungeons.
Depending on how burnt out I get on the game (and how tolerant my fiancee is of me hogging the TV), I could see myself paying a few monthly fees. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the quality of FFXIV.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV
I don't know why, but I bought and started playing an MMO. I haven't played one since the Matrix Online, almost ten years ago. That one had issues, and it didn't help that my laptop at the time could barely run it. God forbid anyone else appeared on screen, because the game would slow to a crawl.
Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. It looks pretty nice and seems to run pretty well. I've been around plenty of other people and even had a battle involving some enemies and maybe ten other people or so, with no noticeable lag (though it did get a bit hectic, UI wise, though I can probably fix that in the settings). It's a very pretty game, which I wasn't expecting so much because the PS3 is the "least powerful" choice to play the game on. The music, so far, hasn't made much of an impression on me, though it isn't bad, just pretty generic.
...Which is a word I'd use to describe the story, so far. Other than the idea that the world was torn almost completely apart five years ago, it's been pretty generic Final Fantasy so far. Find the Crystals! Defeat whoever stands in your way! Etc.
I have to say I really like exploring and fighting stuff so far, though. It's an MMO - meaning you use abilities, and when a timer cools down, you can use them again. Run around, rinse, repeat, level up. I'm playing as an Archer and have leveled up that job to 9. What I like is that I'm not limited to that class - if I buy equipment another class uses and start killing stuff with it, I'll gain levels in that class. I'm thinking I might play as a Mage of some sort as well as the Archer. I like the powers I have as an archer so far, too, which are kind of a combo. If you use them in the right order, you get an attack boost and once the enemy's HP drops below 20%, you can use a finishing move. I like ranged attacks in these types of games.
I don't know why it's called Fate, but I really like the system. There will be special enemies that spawn here and there, and you go in and kill as many as you can. The more you help out (because everyone else will make a beeline for them) the more experience you get. The enemies tend to be a little stronger than the other enemies in the area, but with tons of people helping out they aren't too bad, from the 3 or so I've been in so far.
I'm not sure how hardcore the multiplayer gets (I'd imagine pretty hardcore) and I don't know how long I'll play. I have a 30 day free trial, and have enjoyed my four or five hours I've played so far. No idea if I'll end up paying the monthly fee or anything. I do intend to make the most out of my trial.
I'm enjoying an MMO. God help me...
Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. It looks pretty nice and seems to run pretty well. I've been around plenty of other people and even had a battle involving some enemies and maybe ten other people or so, with no noticeable lag (though it did get a bit hectic, UI wise, though I can probably fix that in the settings). It's a very pretty game, which I wasn't expecting so much because the PS3 is the "least powerful" choice to play the game on. The music, so far, hasn't made much of an impression on me, though it isn't bad, just pretty generic.
...Which is a word I'd use to describe the story, so far. Other than the idea that the world was torn almost completely apart five years ago, it's been pretty generic Final Fantasy so far. Find the Crystals! Defeat whoever stands in your way! Etc.
I have to say I really like exploring and fighting stuff so far, though. It's an MMO - meaning you use abilities, and when a timer cools down, you can use them again. Run around, rinse, repeat, level up. I'm playing as an Archer and have leveled up that job to 9. What I like is that I'm not limited to that class - if I buy equipment another class uses and start killing stuff with it, I'll gain levels in that class. I'm thinking I might play as a Mage of some sort as well as the Archer. I like the powers I have as an archer so far, too, which are kind of a combo. If you use them in the right order, you get an attack boost and once the enemy's HP drops below 20%, you can use a finishing move. I like ranged attacks in these types of games.
I don't know why it's called Fate, but I really like the system. There will be special enemies that spawn here and there, and you go in and kill as many as you can. The more you help out (because everyone else will make a beeline for them) the more experience you get. The enemies tend to be a little stronger than the other enemies in the area, but with tons of people helping out they aren't too bad, from the 3 or so I've been in so far.
I'm not sure how hardcore the multiplayer gets (I'd imagine pretty hardcore) and I don't know how long I'll play. I have a 30 day free trial, and have enjoyed my four or five hours I've played so far. No idea if I'll end up paying the monthly fee or anything. I do intend to make the most out of my trial.
I'm enjoying an MMO. God help me...
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Persona 1 PSP: I'm Calling it Beaten, I Don't Even Care
I'm at the true final boss of Persona 1, the SEBEC route, anyway, and I just can't take this game anymore. I did something I've never done before, for any game of any type - I just watched the ending on Youtube.
I'm putting this game in the beat column, and I'm not putting an asterisk next to it. The final boss is bullshit, I grinded a TON on BEGINNER to get to around level 60, and I'm not going to waste countless hours hoping she doesn't use her stupid ice attack twice in one turn which will kill my whole party guaranteed. She switches between two different forms at random - at any time, even in the middle of your turn - which changes her weaknesses. Which wouldn't be so bad if she DIDN'T ABSORB AND HEAL MY MAGIC ATTACKS (that I cast while she's in one form, because she's weak to magic in that form)! So yeah, hit her with physical attacks, you say? Well, it just so happens that my high level Personae that got me through the game are weak to ice, so I switch to lower level Personae that aren't and I plink her for single digit damage. She supposedly has several thousand hit points. Did I mention she can randomly just wipe your whole party if she happens to cast her ultimate attack twice in one turn? Fuck that, I'm not risking being wiped out after an hour, it'd give me a heart attack. And the first Persona is not worth dying over.
This game is quite possibly the most frustrating RPG I've ever played. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but this game has parts that have merit - I even enjoyed myself a bit! But when the game sucks, it sucks hard. I've tried to get through the game several times since it came out in 2009, and just couldn't get over its problems. I decided to finally force myself to play through it. After roughly thirty hours... I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever play the thing again.
The game is just flawed on a fundamental level. The thing that bugged me right away when I first played it five years ago still sucks - your characters gain experience proportionate to their participation in battle. This is a terrible, terrible idea. If you happen to wipe out the enemies before, say, your slowest character goes, they don't get any experience (or hardly any so as to not matter at all). So you have to spend time paying close attention to who is at what level and basically have some characters skip turns so the low level ones can get a chance to level up. You have to fight poorly, basically, to level up, which sucks because you're then more vulnerable because you're not killing the enemies as efficiently as you could etc. etc. etc.
Oh, and each of your five characters has an Experience Level and a Persona Level. Experience Level dictates your stats and which Personae you can negotiate with, while Persona Level dictates what level Personae you can equip once fused. Why they separated these levels I have no idea, but it's insane because I believe you get less Persona Level experience if you finish battles without using your Persona - so don't just use physical attacks, because that number will fall behind! Or something. I'm not clear how it works, quite frankly.
Since this game came out in 2009, I've played a few more SMT titles that have demon negotiation in them, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It's still pretty random, but because the enemy mobs are so frickin' dangerous in Persona 1, it's way more risky than usual. Your five party members all have different approaches to negotiation, and figuring out which demon likes which approach can be a pain, especially when the closer you are to a full moon, the more likely you are to just piss the demon off and give it a free turn. The upside to negotiation, though, is that when you've successfully convinced a demon to give you their "Spell Card," you can convince the same demon later on to leave the battle if you haven't used the card in fusion yet. This is pretty handy, especially when you come across some asshole demon way in the back row who absorbs all magic attacks and is weak only to physical attacks (which becomes more common the farther you get in the game). Get that guy's card and tell him to piss off every time you come across him going forward.
Another huge problem I have with the battle system is the stupid grid you fight on. You and your enemies are all arranged on two sides of a grid, and depending on where each character or demon is on that grid determines which attacks or spells can reach the other side. So it is possible to be unable to attack without wasting a turn shuffling your people around because for some reason, Maki's bow can't target people right in front of her so you have to move Mark over to hit somebody with an axe, but moving those two costs them both a turn. My most hated thing, though - like I sometimes would reset the game when I came across it while grinding - was when some shithead would be in the back row, reflecting magic attacks and being weak to only physical attacks. I can't reach him until I've wiped all the other demons out at which point the game moves him forward so I can finally reach him. The problem is, the other demons in the front row absorb physical attacks, so I have to spam my multi-target magic attacks to kill them, while the assholes in the back reflect some damage back to me! So freaking annoying. I have no regrets choosing "Beginner," either, at the beginning of the game, because it reduces enemy damage by 20% - nothing else. The story doesn't change or anything, just that. I barely got to the end of the game as it is on Beginner, I can't imagine playing this stupid game on Normal.
All of that said, though, I do quite like the story in Persona. Until you get near the end, it doesn't seem very "Persona-like," at least to me, as someone who played Persona 3 and 4 first. The story seems more like Final Fantasy or something, where some dude figures out a way to summon demons or something and tries to take over the world. The way in which he does it, though, which you don't find out until three quarters of the way through the game, is very definitely a Persona story. Persona 4, specifically, takes several of its main story cues from the first Persona (it's not a repeat, or anything, it just reinforces the very nature of what a Persona even is, something Persona 3 doesn't spend as much time on). Having not seen most of the story of the first Persona until this playthrough, I didn't see why Persona 3 and 4 should even be in the same series as the first game, but it is very clear now they should be.
Luckily, to enjoy Persona 3 and 4, you don't have to play Persona 1. That's the weird thing about the game - I respect it, it lays the narrative structure foundation for future games in the series, and you can certainly see the seeds of where Persona 3 and 4 would go (especially near the end). Playing it is an exercise in frustration, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Persona/SMT fans. Like I said, I'd be very surprised if I ever came back to it, even to play through the Snow Queen alternate quest. I just can't stand actually playing it.
So yeah, I'm calling it beat. I'm not going to throw myself at grinding for another ten plus hours to beat a boss that is just stupid and cheap to begin with. Persona 3's final boss could be cheap, but not unfair like this game. I've heard Persona 2 is better. I'm going to give it a try next, though if it's basically Persona 1 all over again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach it now. I've heard Hitler is in it, though... I want to see that!
I'm putting this game in the beat column, and I'm not putting an asterisk next to it. The final boss is bullshit, I grinded a TON on BEGINNER to get to around level 60, and I'm not going to waste countless hours hoping she doesn't use her stupid ice attack twice in one turn which will kill my whole party guaranteed. She switches between two different forms at random - at any time, even in the middle of your turn - which changes her weaknesses. Which wouldn't be so bad if she DIDN'T ABSORB AND HEAL MY MAGIC ATTACKS (that I cast while she's in one form, because she's weak to magic in that form)! So yeah, hit her with physical attacks, you say? Well, it just so happens that my high level Personae that got me through the game are weak to ice, so I switch to lower level Personae that aren't and I plink her for single digit damage. She supposedly has several thousand hit points. Did I mention she can randomly just wipe your whole party if she happens to cast her ultimate attack twice in one turn? Fuck that, I'm not risking being wiped out after an hour, it'd give me a heart attack. And the first Persona is not worth dying over.
This game is quite possibly the most frustrating RPG I've ever played. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but this game has parts that have merit - I even enjoyed myself a bit! But when the game sucks, it sucks hard. I've tried to get through the game several times since it came out in 2009, and just couldn't get over its problems. I decided to finally force myself to play through it. After roughly thirty hours... I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever play the thing again.
The game is just flawed on a fundamental level. The thing that bugged me right away when I first played it five years ago still sucks - your characters gain experience proportionate to their participation in battle. This is a terrible, terrible idea. If you happen to wipe out the enemies before, say, your slowest character goes, they don't get any experience (or hardly any so as to not matter at all). So you have to spend time paying close attention to who is at what level and basically have some characters skip turns so the low level ones can get a chance to level up. You have to fight poorly, basically, to level up, which sucks because you're then more vulnerable because you're not killing the enemies as efficiently as you could etc. etc. etc.
Oh, and each of your five characters has an Experience Level and a Persona Level. Experience Level dictates your stats and which Personae you can negotiate with, while Persona Level dictates what level Personae you can equip once fused. Why they separated these levels I have no idea, but it's insane because I believe you get less Persona Level experience if you finish battles without using your Persona - so don't just use physical attacks, because that number will fall behind! Or something. I'm not clear how it works, quite frankly.
Since this game came out in 2009, I've played a few more SMT titles that have demon negotiation in them, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It's still pretty random, but because the enemy mobs are so frickin' dangerous in Persona 1, it's way more risky than usual. Your five party members all have different approaches to negotiation, and figuring out which demon likes which approach can be a pain, especially when the closer you are to a full moon, the more likely you are to just piss the demon off and give it a free turn. The upside to negotiation, though, is that when you've successfully convinced a demon to give you their "Spell Card," you can convince the same demon later on to leave the battle if you haven't used the card in fusion yet. This is pretty handy, especially when you come across some asshole demon way in the back row who absorbs all magic attacks and is weak only to physical attacks (which becomes more common the farther you get in the game). Get that guy's card and tell him to piss off every time you come across him going forward.
Another huge problem I have with the battle system is the stupid grid you fight on. You and your enemies are all arranged on two sides of a grid, and depending on where each character or demon is on that grid determines which attacks or spells can reach the other side. So it is possible to be unable to attack without wasting a turn shuffling your people around because for some reason, Maki's bow can't target people right in front of her so you have to move Mark over to hit somebody with an axe, but moving those two costs them both a turn. My most hated thing, though - like I sometimes would reset the game when I came across it while grinding - was when some shithead would be in the back row, reflecting magic attacks and being weak to only physical attacks. I can't reach him until I've wiped all the other demons out at which point the game moves him forward so I can finally reach him. The problem is, the other demons in the front row absorb physical attacks, so I have to spam my multi-target magic attacks to kill them, while the assholes in the back reflect some damage back to me! So freaking annoying. I have no regrets choosing "Beginner," either, at the beginning of the game, because it reduces enemy damage by 20% - nothing else. The story doesn't change or anything, just that. I barely got to the end of the game as it is on Beginner, I can't imagine playing this stupid game on Normal.
All of that said, though, I do quite like the story in Persona. Until you get near the end, it doesn't seem very "Persona-like," at least to me, as someone who played Persona 3 and 4 first. The story seems more like Final Fantasy or something, where some dude figures out a way to summon demons or something and tries to take over the world. The way in which he does it, though, which you don't find out until three quarters of the way through the game, is very definitely a Persona story. Persona 4, specifically, takes several of its main story cues from the first Persona (it's not a repeat, or anything, it just reinforces the very nature of what a Persona even is, something Persona 3 doesn't spend as much time on). Having not seen most of the story of the first Persona until this playthrough, I didn't see why Persona 3 and 4 should even be in the same series as the first game, but it is very clear now they should be.
Luckily, to enjoy Persona 3 and 4, you don't have to play Persona 1. That's the weird thing about the game - I respect it, it lays the narrative structure foundation for future games in the series, and you can certainly see the seeds of where Persona 3 and 4 would go (especially near the end). Playing it is an exercise in frustration, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Persona/SMT fans. Like I said, I'd be very surprised if I ever came back to it, even to play through the Snow Queen alternate quest. I just can't stand actually playing it.
So yeah, I'm calling it beat. I'm not going to throw myself at grinding for another ten plus hours to beat a boss that is just stupid and cheap to begin with. Persona 3's final boss could be cheap, but not unfair like this game. I've heard Persona 2 is better. I'm going to give it a try next, though if it's basically Persona 1 all over again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach it now. I've heard Hitler is in it, though... I want to see that!
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Persona Q
I just wrapped up my first playthrough of the Persona/Etrian Odyssey hybrid game, Persona Q: Shadows of the Labyrinth. I liked it, overall, though it became more and more of a chore to play the farther I got.
It's obvious right from the get go, considering the nature of the game, that none of the characters involved would remember anything. That's ultimately what happens. But the journey is the point, not the destination, right? Well, the journey could have been better.
It's not that I didn't like playing the game. The battle system is well designed, and I love the Persona switching mechanic for the whole team. It's just so easily broken. Fairly early on, I figured out that nearly all the enemies in the game have a Light or Dark weakness. Since every Light/Dark spell in the Persona series are instakills, this meant I could take the multihit Hama/Mudo skills and wipe out almost any random battle. I mean not every enemy had a light or dark weakness, but enough of them did that, unlike in an Etrian Odyssey game, for example, random battles did not scare me after the first few floors of the game. That's a problem! Sure, you don't have to play the game this way, and for a while I tried going without, but I'm sure doing it that way would add another 40 hours of battling onto an already 50+ hour game (I finished the game in 60 hours). No thanks.
The bosses were fun, though, I have to say. The second boss, especially, was fun to figure out, and was hilarious, to boot (not something I thought I'd ever say about a Persona or Etrian Odyssey boss). I don't know if it was completely intended to be funny, but I read it that way and think it works.
Then there's the Persona fanservice. Some of it I like - seeing all these characters again is great, since I love them all (besides Ken - fuck you, Ken). Seeing them interact with the cast of both P3 and P4 is interesting, because prior to this, you get weirdo Persona Arena which is years later. The less said about the plot in that game, the better, quite frankly, interesting though it was.
But some of the fanservice is gross. There's WAY more innuendo from Teddie this time, which I found amusing at first, but as the game went on it was like "gee, dude, calm down, none of these girls are going to bone you." Quite frankly, it amazed me that he didn't get beat up by Mitsuru or Yukari every time he opened his mouth near the end of the game. It sucks, because I really like Teddie, actually. Maybe if I play through as the Persona 4 team, he gets some more non pervy lines?
I did choose the Persona 3 team, and actually went through the entire game with a P3 only team - P3MC, Akihiko, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis. We've gotten so much more Persona 4 content (which I love, to be clear!) that I wanted to spend more time with these characters, since other than weirdo Persona Arena, Persona 3 is all you get (yes, a few P3 characters are in Arena, but what they're up to is so off the wall and weird that I don't count it). It was nice to hang out with these guys again. Their voices did grate a bit in the last two labyrinths, though - my fiancee would roll her eyes and groan every time Junpei would say "Oh no! We've got an FOE breathing down our asses!" which was pretty much every five steps in those last two dungeons. And Akihiko - whenever I see a treasure box, I want to open it, which is what I've done every time we reach one. Why do you insist on asking me what I want to do with it every time? At least when Aigis points one out, she jokes about destroying it, which is at least amusing.
But yes, sadly, the game just does go on a bit long. The final labyrinth is ten floors high, with the first seven floors being little bit sized ones, but those last couple of floors in the last labyrinth are awful. Moving platforms, pistons that rise and fall between floors, goddamn Death chasing you around, annoying random battle enemies who have instakill and ailment spells (and are resistant to them, too, most of the time!), these stupid spider FOEs that you have to puzzle way around, and what is quite frankly the most elaborate two floor puzzle I have ever encountered in any dungeon crawler make for quite a rough few hours of exploring. I don't experience this in Etrian Odyssey - at least, most of the time - and it was pretty painful here. My favorite dungeons in these styles of games are just labyrinths that you wander around, mapping out, looking for treasure, maybe with the occasional damage tile, pitfall, or conveyor belt. Not the intricate puzzle monstrosities in Persona Q.
The third dungeon is the best example of this. For half the dungeon, there aren't even that many random battles - you're just trying to figure out how to proceed most of the time. The atmosphere of the dungeon is great - it's very creepy. The whole dungeon reminded me of Corpse Party, actually. But because getting through it is so complicated, the third dungeon is where I was when I put the game down for two months. This is the first time I've played a Persona game that I didn't devour as quickly as I possibly could. The dungeon isn't badly designed or anything, and I'm sure someone out there would love it, but it just isn't for me. I'd rather spend more time leveling my characters up and mastering battles, which this game didn't do as well as, say, Etrian Odyssey III, for example. The aforementioned toothless random battles combined with super complex dungeons just didn't scratch the itch I thought it was going to when I bought the game.
If this post seems very down on the game, I'm sorry. I did largely enjoy playing it! The things I didn't like about it just stand out so much more for me than the things I did. The music was fantastic, as always for the Persona series, throughout the game. The Velvet Room has some cool stuff in it, now, such as Extracting Skill Cards from Personae, allowing you to teach your main Personae new moves. You can choose which moves your new Persona gets when you fuse, but they've definitely limited which moves the result can learn. This is probably for the best, I suppose, since in Persona 4 Golden or SMTIV, you could create ridiculous demons that absorbed every element, healed both HP and SP when battle was over, and had a Megidolaon or Pierce or whatever to boot. Still, I had fun fusing demons, as always.
Overall, I don't know when I'll go back to Persona Q. Probably eventually, as I wouldn't mind seeing how the Persona 4 side of the story plays out (though it won't be TOO different from the P3 side, just certain scenes, especially in the first labyrinth before you meet the other team, will have different characters in them). Also, hearing the Persona 3 main character actually speak is going to be weird. It was weird hearing P4MC talk in Persona 4 Arena, and it's still kind of weird here.
Anyway, you could do worse for a shoehorned fanservicey game, but you certainly could do better, too. I'm ready for Persona 5, and I think I'd rather replay P3P or P4G before going back to PQ, sadly. Also, it is an absolute shame that they included Theodore from P3P, but not the female P3 main character. Dammit Atlus!
It's obvious right from the get go, considering the nature of the game, that none of the characters involved would remember anything. That's ultimately what happens. But the journey is the point, not the destination, right? Well, the journey could have been better.
It's not that I didn't like playing the game. The battle system is well designed, and I love the Persona switching mechanic for the whole team. It's just so easily broken. Fairly early on, I figured out that nearly all the enemies in the game have a Light or Dark weakness. Since every Light/Dark spell in the Persona series are instakills, this meant I could take the multihit Hama/Mudo skills and wipe out almost any random battle. I mean not every enemy had a light or dark weakness, but enough of them did that, unlike in an Etrian Odyssey game, for example, random battles did not scare me after the first few floors of the game. That's a problem! Sure, you don't have to play the game this way, and for a while I tried going without, but I'm sure doing it that way would add another 40 hours of battling onto an already 50+ hour game (I finished the game in 60 hours). No thanks.
The bosses were fun, though, I have to say. The second boss, especially, was fun to figure out, and was hilarious, to boot (not something I thought I'd ever say about a Persona or Etrian Odyssey boss). I don't know if it was completely intended to be funny, but I read it that way and think it works.
Then there's the Persona fanservice. Some of it I like - seeing all these characters again is great, since I love them all (besides Ken - fuck you, Ken). Seeing them interact with the cast of both P3 and P4 is interesting, because prior to this, you get weirdo Persona Arena which is years later. The less said about the plot in that game, the better, quite frankly, interesting though it was.
But some of the fanservice is gross. There's WAY more innuendo from Teddie this time, which I found amusing at first, but as the game went on it was like "gee, dude, calm down, none of these girls are going to bone you." Quite frankly, it amazed me that he didn't get beat up by Mitsuru or Yukari every time he opened his mouth near the end of the game. It sucks, because I really like Teddie, actually. Maybe if I play through as the Persona 4 team, he gets some more non pervy lines?
I did choose the Persona 3 team, and actually went through the entire game with a P3 only team - P3MC, Akihiko, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis. We've gotten so much more Persona 4 content (which I love, to be clear!) that I wanted to spend more time with these characters, since other than weirdo Persona Arena, Persona 3 is all you get (yes, a few P3 characters are in Arena, but what they're up to is so off the wall and weird that I don't count it). It was nice to hang out with these guys again. Their voices did grate a bit in the last two labyrinths, though - my fiancee would roll her eyes and groan every time Junpei would say "Oh no! We've got an FOE breathing down our asses!" which was pretty much every five steps in those last two dungeons. And Akihiko - whenever I see a treasure box, I want to open it, which is what I've done every time we reach one. Why do you insist on asking me what I want to do with it every time? At least when Aigis points one out, she jokes about destroying it, which is at least amusing.
But yes, sadly, the game just does go on a bit long. The final labyrinth is ten floors high, with the first seven floors being little bit sized ones, but those last couple of floors in the last labyrinth are awful. Moving platforms, pistons that rise and fall between floors, goddamn Death chasing you around, annoying random battle enemies who have instakill and ailment spells (and are resistant to them, too, most of the time!), these stupid spider FOEs that you have to puzzle way around, and what is quite frankly the most elaborate two floor puzzle I have ever encountered in any dungeon crawler make for quite a rough few hours of exploring. I don't experience this in Etrian Odyssey - at least, most of the time - and it was pretty painful here. My favorite dungeons in these styles of games are just labyrinths that you wander around, mapping out, looking for treasure, maybe with the occasional damage tile, pitfall, or conveyor belt. Not the intricate puzzle monstrosities in Persona Q.
The third dungeon is the best example of this. For half the dungeon, there aren't even that many random battles - you're just trying to figure out how to proceed most of the time. The atmosphere of the dungeon is great - it's very creepy. The whole dungeon reminded me of Corpse Party, actually. But because getting through it is so complicated, the third dungeon is where I was when I put the game down for two months. This is the first time I've played a Persona game that I didn't devour as quickly as I possibly could. The dungeon isn't badly designed or anything, and I'm sure someone out there would love it, but it just isn't for me. I'd rather spend more time leveling my characters up and mastering battles, which this game didn't do as well as, say, Etrian Odyssey III, for example. The aforementioned toothless random battles combined with super complex dungeons just didn't scratch the itch I thought it was going to when I bought the game.
If this post seems very down on the game, I'm sorry. I did largely enjoy playing it! The things I didn't like about it just stand out so much more for me than the things I did. The music was fantastic, as always for the Persona series, throughout the game. The Velvet Room has some cool stuff in it, now, such as Extracting Skill Cards from Personae, allowing you to teach your main Personae new moves. You can choose which moves your new Persona gets when you fuse, but they've definitely limited which moves the result can learn. This is probably for the best, I suppose, since in Persona 4 Golden or SMTIV, you could create ridiculous demons that absorbed every element, healed both HP and SP when battle was over, and had a Megidolaon or Pierce or whatever to boot. Still, I had fun fusing demons, as always.
Overall, I don't know when I'll go back to Persona Q. Probably eventually, as I wouldn't mind seeing how the Persona 4 side of the story plays out (though it won't be TOO different from the P3 side, just certain scenes, especially in the first labyrinth before you meet the other team, will have different characters in them). Also, hearing the Persona 3 main character actually speak is going to be weird. It was weird hearing P4MC talk in Persona 4 Arena, and it's still kind of weird here.
Anyway, you could do worse for a shoehorned fanservicey game, but you certainly could do better, too. I'm ready for Persona 5, and I think I'd rather replay P3P or P4G before going back to PQ, sadly. Also, it is an absolute shame that they included Theodore from P3P, but not the female P3 main character. Dammit Atlus!
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Majora's Mask 3D
So because I'm a giant nerd, I just beat Majora's Mask 3D two days after came out, with all masks and heart pieces (haven't caught all the fish, yet, and doubt I ever will. I may be missing a seventh bottle, as well, if the rumor I heard is true and such a thing exists). I have to get my initial impressions of the full game out now while they're still fresh.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite video game of all time. I think it is as close to perfect as a game can get as of this writing. If something better exists, I haven't played it yet. So when they announced the 3DS remake of the N64 game, I was thrilled. Finally, I can play MM portably! With better graphics! With, according to the announcement, "added content," whatever that means! Hooray!
Overall, I had a good time with the remake. I will certainly play it again, and parts of it are better than the original. However, they changed some things I didn't think needed changing. I'll get to those, because I'd like to praise the remake first.
The graphics have been updated and the game is gorgeous. They've added atmosphere to nearly every area in the game, primarily with extensive wall decorations, adding flavor to to whatever locale you find yourself in. My favorite example, which shows how far they went with this, is in the room you get the Mask of Scents. It's a room you'll only be in once in a playthrough - you have to follow the Deku Butler through this weird mini race reminiscent of the Dampe race from Ocarina of Time. You get to the very end, the Butler gives you the mask, and you warp out, never to return (there's no reason). You're there for all of, oh, twenty seconds. But as soon as I arrived I saw four giant Deku statues against the side walls. They took the time to render them in 3D, as well, so these statues that you see for all of twenty seconds have been lovingly crafted to do nothing but add flavor to a room that you're barely even in. That is how you upgrade an already impressively atmospheric game. I have nothing but praise for the visual upgrade they gave the game - from top to bottom, it is fantastic, including the 3D (which is no surprise, considering the Ocarina 3DS port was great in that department, as well).
Now for the world changes. They've actually changed the game up quite a bit, at least to someone like me who knows the game very well. Someone else on the internet no doubt already has an exhaustive list so I won't do that here. Notable things, though: the Owl Statues no longer create temporary saves, they're permanent. There are also save points in important places such as first rooms of dungeons - these don't act as warp points, too, but simply save points. I certainly used these, but mostly because I've beaten the original game countless times and feel like I'm not missing anything doing so. I do feel as though they make the game a bit more friendly to new players, which is all well and good, but considering how high I hold Majora's Mask as an experience, I'm a bit sad for them. Though it'll likely help people finish the game, now, so I suppose it's a net positive overall.
The Bomber's Notebook is really nice, now. It keeps track of basically every little thing you can do, and marks it as complete when you're finished, even if it's something like "complete a task, get some rupees." Though I feel similarly about this as I do the Owl Statues for new players, it too is a positive thing because it really encourages seeing everything the game has to offer. The Bombers themselves giving you hints - strictly optional, mind! - is very nice as well, especially for Majora's Mask veterans who sometimes can't keep what sidequests they've already completed straight. It also allowed me to get all the heart pieces fairly easily as well. This is one of those changes I liked a lot.
However, we have the bosses. According to the Iwata Asks interview, Eiji Aonuma wanted to change the bosses because he felt they were a bit too straightforward. This makes me sad, because now, two boss battles I liked have been changed for the worse. Poor Gyrog got it badly - though he certainly was the worst boss in the original version of the game, now they've gone and made his battle intolerable. Halfway through the battle, the platform sinks into the water and you're left fighting the fish as Zora Link. Spike bombs on chains sort of sprout from the ground, and the objective is to cut the chains right when Gyorg begins sucking you in. This causes him to eat the bombs, which exposes his weak spot for you to go slap around. This puts Gyorg in a category of boss battles that I hate in any genre of video game - the "wait around a likely intolerable amount of time for the boss to expose his weak spot, hit, repeat." Rather than be able to beat a boss quickly if you're really skilled, you're actually just sitting around waiting for the boss to deign to let you hit him. This is bad enough, but what they did to the Zora controls compounds the problem.
My biggest disappointment with the remake all have to do with Zora Link. One of my favorite things to do in the original Majora's Mask is zip around the Great Bay, leaping out of the water like a dolphin while going to whatever my destination is. It was a blast! While you can still do this, you better make sure you have magic power, because now to be able to go fast you have to hold R, which also activates the Zora shield thing. This sucks. You don't zip through the water unless holding R, you creep along almost at walking speed. Even when you're going fast, you have this annoying blue light effect surrounding you, which colors the surroundings a bit and obscures a little of what you can see. I discussed this a bit with someone on Talking Time, and they made the point that Zora Link moved too fast in the N64 version. While I disagree, if they wanted to slow him down or make him a bit more accessible, how about letting the player choose the speed without the magic penalty? How about giving the player both a slow and a fast option? The original game played just fine with the "fast only" option. They also fiddled with the "Dive" and "Float" buttons, making them a bit harder to activate, presumably to prevent accidental rising or falling. All they really did was make it harder to pull those off in high pressure situations - for example, the Gyorg fight.
But anyway - the other bosses were changed, as well, though not quite for the worse as Gyorg. Twinmold, the Stone Tower boss, turns into a sort of wrestling thing, since the Giant's Mask (which you get halfway through the battle, instead of before!) takes away Link's ability to use his sword, so now he just throws punches. Once you've punched the worm enough, you can grab his tail, which causes Link to swing him around and slam him, which eventually kills him. It's not bad nor does it play very poorly, it's just... kind of dumb. Thankfully, Odolwa and Goht haven't been changed too extensively, and are still fun to fight. Considering Goht is my favorite boss battle in the Zelda series, I'm very glad for that fact.
There were a few changes that I like a lot, actually. One is the reward for getting all the fairies in the first dungeon. Rather than getting the sword technique upgrade (which you now get from the second dungeon Fairy), you get the magic upgrade. This is very handy since Goron Link uses magic so much as he rolls around. The second is the placement of the Stone Mask. Rather than being in the area right before the Ikana Canyon, he's now hiding out right in the middle of the Pirate Fortress. Handy, because that's where it is most useful. I like the way they implemented it, too - Tatl suddenly asks you "Did you just call for me?" completely randomly. I, being stupid, thought "that's weird," and kept on, missing the mask the first time around. It wasn't until a Bomber suggested the soldier was in the Pirate Fortress that I went back and found it. Either way, though - excellent change.
I have mixed feelings about Majora's Mask 3D. I was hoping for a sort of definitive edition of the game, and I didn't get it, mostly due to the changes to the boss battles and Zora Link. I had a lot of fun playing it - I did 100% the thing in two and a half days, for gosh sakes - but I don't think this version has completely negated the N64 version like Ocarina of Time 3D did for its original game.
I did get a kickass Skull Kid statue out of the whole thing, though, which is really nice. I'm also quite fond of my 3DS home screen Majora's Mask theme, too, though that was an extra $2. Overall, I'll play the 3DS version again, no doubt, but I have to say I am a little disappointed.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite video game of all time. I think it is as close to perfect as a game can get as of this writing. If something better exists, I haven't played it yet. So when they announced the 3DS remake of the N64 game, I was thrilled. Finally, I can play MM portably! With better graphics! With, according to the announcement, "added content," whatever that means! Hooray!
Overall, I had a good time with the remake. I will certainly play it again, and parts of it are better than the original. However, they changed some things I didn't think needed changing. I'll get to those, because I'd like to praise the remake first.
The graphics have been updated and the game is gorgeous. They've added atmosphere to nearly every area in the game, primarily with extensive wall decorations, adding flavor to to whatever locale you find yourself in. My favorite example, which shows how far they went with this, is in the room you get the Mask of Scents. It's a room you'll only be in once in a playthrough - you have to follow the Deku Butler through this weird mini race reminiscent of the Dampe race from Ocarina of Time. You get to the very end, the Butler gives you the mask, and you warp out, never to return (there's no reason). You're there for all of, oh, twenty seconds. But as soon as I arrived I saw four giant Deku statues against the side walls. They took the time to render them in 3D, as well, so these statues that you see for all of twenty seconds have been lovingly crafted to do nothing but add flavor to a room that you're barely even in. That is how you upgrade an already impressively atmospheric game. I have nothing but praise for the visual upgrade they gave the game - from top to bottom, it is fantastic, including the 3D (which is no surprise, considering the Ocarina 3DS port was great in that department, as well).
Now for the world changes. They've actually changed the game up quite a bit, at least to someone like me who knows the game very well. Someone else on the internet no doubt already has an exhaustive list so I won't do that here. Notable things, though: the Owl Statues no longer create temporary saves, they're permanent. There are also save points in important places such as first rooms of dungeons - these don't act as warp points, too, but simply save points. I certainly used these, but mostly because I've beaten the original game countless times and feel like I'm not missing anything doing so. I do feel as though they make the game a bit more friendly to new players, which is all well and good, but considering how high I hold Majora's Mask as an experience, I'm a bit sad for them. Though it'll likely help people finish the game, now, so I suppose it's a net positive overall.
The Bomber's Notebook is really nice, now. It keeps track of basically every little thing you can do, and marks it as complete when you're finished, even if it's something like "complete a task, get some rupees." Though I feel similarly about this as I do the Owl Statues for new players, it too is a positive thing because it really encourages seeing everything the game has to offer. The Bombers themselves giving you hints - strictly optional, mind! - is very nice as well, especially for Majora's Mask veterans who sometimes can't keep what sidequests they've already completed straight. It also allowed me to get all the heart pieces fairly easily as well. This is one of those changes I liked a lot.
However, we have the bosses. According to the Iwata Asks interview, Eiji Aonuma wanted to change the bosses because he felt they were a bit too straightforward. This makes me sad, because now, two boss battles I liked have been changed for the worse. Poor Gyrog got it badly - though he certainly was the worst boss in the original version of the game, now they've gone and made his battle intolerable. Halfway through the battle, the platform sinks into the water and you're left fighting the fish as Zora Link. Spike bombs on chains sort of sprout from the ground, and the objective is to cut the chains right when Gyorg begins sucking you in. This causes him to eat the bombs, which exposes his weak spot for you to go slap around. This puts Gyorg in a category of boss battles that I hate in any genre of video game - the "wait around a likely intolerable amount of time for the boss to expose his weak spot, hit, repeat." Rather than be able to beat a boss quickly if you're really skilled, you're actually just sitting around waiting for the boss to deign to let you hit him. This is bad enough, but what they did to the Zora controls compounds the problem.
My biggest disappointment with the remake all have to do with Zora Link. One of my favorite things to do in the original Majora's Mask is zip around the Great Bay, leaping out of the water like a dolphin while going to whatever my destination is. It was a blast! While you can still do this, you better make sure you have magic power, because now to be able to go fast you have to hold R, which also activates the Zora shield thing. This sucks. You don't zip through the water unless holding R, you creep along almost at walking speed. Even when you're going fast, you have this annoying blue light effect surrounding you, which colors the surroundings a bit and obscures a little of what you can see. I discussed this a bit with someone on Talking Time, and they made the point that Zora Link moved too fast in the N64 version. While I disagree, if they wanted to slow him down or make him a bit more accessible, how about letting the player choose the speed without the magic penalty? How about giving the player both a slow and a fast option? The original game played just fine with the "fast only" option. They also fiddled with the "Dive" and "Float" buttons, making them a bit harder to activate, presumably to prevent accidental rising or falling. All they really did was make it harder to pull those off in high pressure situations - for example, the Gyorg fight.
But anyway - the other bosses were changed, as well, though not quite for the worse as Gyorg. Twinmold, the Stone Tower boss, turns into a sort of wrestling thing, since the Giant's Mask (which you get halfway through the battle, instead of before!) takes away Link's ability to use his sword, so now he just throws punches. Once you've punched the worm enough, you can grab his tail, which causes Link to swing him around and slam him, which eventually kills him. It's not bad nor does it play very poorly, it's just... kind of dumb. Thankfully, Odolwa and Goht haven't been changed too extensively, and are still fun to fight. Considering Goht is my favorite boss battle in the Zelda series, I'm very glad for that fact.
There were a few changes that I like a lot, actually. One is the reward for getting all the fairies in the first dungeon. Rather than getting the sword technique upgrade (which you now get from the second dungeon Fairy), you get the magic upgrade. This is very handy since Goron Link uses magic so much as he rolls around. The second is the placement of the Stone Mask. Rather than being in the area right before the Ikana Canyon, he's now hiding out right in the middle of the Pirate Fortress. Handy, because that's where it is most useful. I like the way they implemented it, too - Tatl suddenly asks you "Did you just call for me?" completely randomly. I, being stupid, thought "that's weird," and kept on, missing the mask the first time around. It wasn't until a Bomber suggested the soldier was in the Pirate Fortress that I went back and found it. Either way, though - excellent change.
I have mixed feelings about Majora's Mask 3D. I was hoping for a sort of definitive edition of the game, and I didn't get it, mostly due to the changes to the boss battles and Zora Link. I had a lot of fun playing it - I did 100% the thing in two and a half days, for gosh sakes - but I don't think this version has completely negated the N64 version like Ocarina of Time 3D did for its original game.
I did get a kickass Skull Kid statue out of the whole thing, though, which is really nice. I'm also quite fond of my 3DS home screen Majora's Mask theme, too, though that was an extra $2. Overall, I'll play the 3DS version again, no doubt, but I have to say I am a little disappointed.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
So Now I Kinda Like Vice City
I feel old.
I am playing through GTA: Vice City due to a PSN sale these past few days, and I have feelings of nostalgia which strikes me as ridiculous because I remember - quite clearly - when this game came out. I had already begun driving lessons! That was thirteen damn years ago now and it weirds me out.
It's funny, though. Not having played V yet, I truly think GTA was at it's best on the PS2. The games hit the right balance of story and action, but didn't bog you down with too much realism or whatever that IV suffered from. Vice City's problem, though, which got WAY worse in IV, is that you have a cellphone, and people call you and talk to you pointlessly, when they should just tell you whatever they were calling you about when you go start a mission. Though I suppose not being pestered to go play fucking pool with your fucking cousin all the damn time is way worse.
Anyway, I am having fun playing Vice City, which is new because I kind of strongly disliked it when it came out. For whatever reason, I was very anti-80s at the time, and the game is positively dripping with 80s flavor. I've since come around on most of the music of the era, so now I quite like the soundtrack. The splashes of pink and pastel 80s colors don't bother me as much, especially since most action games nowadays or just greys and browns for the most part (hello GTA frickin IV, for example).
The story is kind of goofy, because Vice City really feels like I am playing a video game. What I mean by this is rather than a seamless progression of a narrative like we would later get in San Andreas, you get a bunch of disjointed missions given to you by just random people who don't seem to have much bearing on the overall story besides "is a crime-y type of person." The characters leap to conclusions between missions that don't make much sense. For example, when I found out the guy who owns the giant mansion that I was doing missions for organized the bum drug deal at the beginning of the game, I didn't really have any clue as to why it was him. Like Tommy Vercetti, the player character, was told this guy did it, with not really any proof, and so he bought it, killed the guy, took his house, and has now begun taking over Vice City. The only way I can reconcile this is if I skipped a mission somewhere that gives you a bit of background as to what is going on. Basically, I don't like the story of Vice City much at all - 3 didn't make a ton of sense either but at least it felt logical working for one guy and then the next. San Andreas, which has its problems (that game has TOO many missions, a lot of which are completely out of character for CJ, for example), presents its central narrative a lot better (IMO, the best of any GTA game, sans V, which again I haven't played yet). San Andreas also has the best gameplay, but that's a different post.
You can see Vice City as a successful improvement on the gameplay of 3, though. They added motorcycles and boats and helicopters, all of which are pretty fun to drive around and the helicopters, specifically, make getting around the world very fun. There's nothing like landing the helicopter in the middle of a busy intersection, doing whatever you came to do, then hopping in and flying off.
The helicopter really shows how small Vice City is, though. Like it feels tiny. Even driving from one end of the game map to the other doesn't take very long. I can't remember if it's any bigger than the city in 3, but it doesn't feel like it. I need to revisit San Andreas again soon because that game felt absolutely enormous despite having so much empty space out in the countryside. Vice City, by comparison, is made up of two pretty small islands and some water (25% of which is taken up by the airport, believe it or not. The place is HUGE!).
Not having played the Saints Row series, either, I have to say I think GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas hit the style of GTA game I want just right. From what I've heard of Saints Row, they take the goofy, jokey stuff too far and has a completely ridiculous story instead of just a kind of ridiculous story. Then you have GTAIV which tried to be a fucking New York in 2006 simulator with its cell phones and "realistic" gray ass graphics and weather and awful car controls and all the fun sucked right out of it. I know I'm too hard on IV but I just cannot get into the thing. It feels like a giant chore as soon as I start playing it, which the PS2 trilogy never felt like.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a GTA snob, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
I am playing through GTA: Vice City due to a PSN sale these past few days, and I have feelings of nostalgia which strikes me as ridiculous because I remember - quite clearly - when this game came out. I had already begun driving lessons! That was thirteen damn years ago now and it weirds me out.
It's funny, though. Not having played V yet, I truly think GTA was at it's best on the PS2. The games hit the right balance of story and action, but didn't bog you down with too much realism or whatever that IV suffered from. Vice City's problem, though, which got WAY worse in IV, is that you have a cellphone, and people call you and talk to you pointlessly, when they should just tell you whatever they were calling you about when you go start a mission. Though I suppose not being pestered to go play fucking pool with your fucking cousin all the damn time is way worse.
Anyway, I am having fun playing Vice City, which is new because I kind of strongly disliked it when it came out. For whatever reason, I was very anti-80s at the time, and the game is positively dripping with 80s flavor. I've since come around on most of the music of the era, so now I quite like the soundtrack. The splashes of pink and pastel 80s colors don't bother me as much, especially since most action games nowadays or just greys and browns for the most part (hello GTA frickin IV, for example).
The story is kind of goofy, because Vice City really feels like I am playing a video game. What I mean by this is rather than a seamless progression of a narrative like we would later get in San Andreas, you get a bunch of disjointed missions given to you by just random people who don't seem to have much bearing on the overall story besides "is a crime-y type of person." The characters leap to conclusions between missions that don't make much sense. For example, when I found out the guy who owns the giant mansion that I was doing missions for organized the bum drug deal at the beginning of the game, I didn't really have any clue as to why it was him. Like Tommy Vercetti, the player character, was told this guy did it, with not really any proof, and so he bought it, killed the guy, took his house, and has now begun taking over Vice City. The only way I can reconcile this is if I skipped a mission somewhere that gives you a bit of background as to what is going on. Basically, I don't like the story of Vice City much at all - 3 didn't make a ton of sense either but at least it felt logical working for one guy and then the next. San Andreas, which has its problems (that game has TOO many missions, a lot of which are completely out of character for CJ, for example), presents its central narrative a lot better (IMO, the best of any GTA game, sans V, which again I haven't played yet). San Andreas also has the best gameplay, but that's a different post.
You can see Vice City as a successful improvement on the gameplay of 3, though. They added motorcycles and boats and helicopters, all of which are pretty fun to drive around and the helicopters, specifically, make getting around the world very fun. There's nothing like landing the helicopter in the middle of a busy intersection, doing whatever you came to do, then hopping in and flying off.
The helicopter really shows how small Vice City is, though. Like it feels tiny. Even driving from one end of the game map to the other doesn't take very long. I can't remember if it's any bigger than the city in 3, but it doesn't feel like it. I need to revisit San Andreas again soon because that game felt absolutely enormous despite having so much empty space out in the countryside. Vice City, by comparison, is made up of two pretty small islands and some water (25% of which is taken up by the airport, believe it or not. The place is HUGE!).
Not having played the Saints Row series, either, I have to say I think GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas hit the style of GTA game I want just right. From what I've heard of Saints Row, they take the goofy, jokey stuff too far and has a completely ridiculous story instead of just a kind of ridiculous story. Then you have GTAIV which tried to be a fucking New York in 2006 simulator with its cell phones and "realistic" gray ass graphics and weather and awful car controls and all the fun sucked right out of it. I know I'm too hard on IV but I just cannot get into the thing. It feels like a giant chore as soon as I start playing it, which the PS2 trilogy never felt like.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a GTA snob, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
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