Rhythm Tree

Tales of the Abyss

2012-02-18T18:23:00.002-05:00

A few days ago, I bought Tales of the Abyss for the 3DS. I was a bit hesitant to buy it, since of all the Tales games I've played, I've only liked Symphonia. However, I hunger for RPGs, and haven't played an action-based one in a while (with maybe the Ys series being the last ones I played, last year).

Tales of the Abyss (the version I'm playing) is a port of the 2006 PS2 game with some minor 3D effects added, while fixing some - apparently pretty bad, I'm told - technical problems. The 3DS version has no load times, which means this version is likely going to be the definitive version of the game. The 3DS gets one of those, for once! ...Okay, Devil Survivor Overclocked is better on 3DS, the 3DS port of Ocarina of Time is probably the new definitive version, and the same goes for Star Fox 64 3D. I guess I'm just bitter that bit.trip.SAGA has technical problems the Wii versions don't have.

As for the game itself, though, I must say I'm really enjoying Abyss so far. I'm about nine or ten hours in. Let me just say this:

The characters in this game are complete assholes, and I love them.

The narrative of Abyss throws your battle party together out of necessity rather than choice, so no one in the party is really comfortable with each other, much less nice to each other. So, whenever one of them screws up, the others pile on that person and make fun of him or her. The main character, Luke, spends most of his dialogue saying dumb things and then telling other people to shut up after they make fun of them. The quiet girl, Tear, the first to join your party, rips on the Luke whenever he gets cocky after battles. She, in turn, is made fun of by Luke for being "ice cold." And not in a flirty way! He means it! As in "You are an ice-cold bitch, Tear."

Then there is Jade. I have no idea what role he will play in the narrative overall yet, but I must say he is already my favorite character in the game (and quickly becoming a very memorable character overall). He's a bit older than the other party members, and he makes it his job to make fun of, embarrass, and just generally be a dick to all of the other party members. He goes out of his way to do this. He's not always overt about it, either. Sometimes, he just stays silent as he watches the other characters make idiots out of themselves. Once, he was called out for not saying anything, and he said something along the lines of "Oops! You caught me. I was enjoying that." My favorite line, though, occurs if the party enters a battle by being chased down by an enemy on the map: Luke will panic and act like everyone is going to die, while Jade says in the most sarcastic voice you'll ever hear "Oh no, this is terrible!" after which Luke tells him to shut up.

I love that guy.

The battles, though, seem to be built on your typical Tales system. It has been years since I've played anything in the series substantially (probably since 2004's Symphonia), so I'm not sure how much different it is from more recent entries. I will say, though, that the system feels just like what I remember of Symphonia's. The enemy groups are all visible on the map, and you don't enter battle unless you touch them. The battles themselves take place is 2D, although you can run around the battle in 3D when you're not attacking by holding the L trigger. Don't worry, it's more intuitive than you'd think. You spend the battles doing button combos, while trying to chain in special attacks throughout, to keep your hit count up to do more damage and keep the enemy from attacking you. If you need to use an item or want to tell one of your AI-controlled companions to use one or cast a spell, you can press X, which will pause the battle while you cycle through some simple menus to do what you need to do. A cooldown timer will then appear on the upper left of the top screen to let you know how long it will be before the item or spell is used. I haven't seen one for longer than two seconds, either, so it's not like you have to wait forever.

From what I can tell, the AI is programmed fairly well, so I don't think you'll have to worry too much about babysitting them or wasting revival items on them too much. You do have the option outside of battle to tweak your party's AI a bit. You can tell the characters to only cast magic when they have 75% or more of their MP unless they need to cast a healing spell, or reduce that number to 50%, 25%, or to use magic willingly. You can pick and choose which spells and abilities they can use as well, so if you don't like them wasting MP on, say, a shield spell that only protects you over a certain area of the battlefield, you can turn that crap right off and they won't cast it anymore. You aren't forced to play just as Luke, either - you can switch your party members at any time and play as a spellcaster if you so choose. I like Luke's gameplay, though, so I've spent the whole game playing as him so far.

The main story so far is basically about averting a war, so I'm not too enthralled with that, although the constant banter between the party members definitely keeps me interested. Supposedly, Tales games subvert genre stereotypes about halfway through, so maybe that will change. I hope it does! But I'm having a blast so far, so I'll keep playing.

It's too bad Inazuma Eleven finally came in the mail a day after I bought Tales of the Abyss. Oh well! I'll get to it eventually...

Import: The Last Window

2012-01-17T18:21:00.003-05:00

I imported a game last week.

The Last Window: The Secret of Cape West is the Japan and Europe only sequel to 2007's Hotel Dusk: Room 215, which was released in the US. It again stars Kyle Hyde, and the game's story takes place a year after the first game.

The game play is exactly the same as in Hotel Dusk. The player moves Kyle around on the touch screen while holding the DS like a book, and Kyle's dialogue displays in a text box on the left screen while he either manipulates puzzles on the right screen or talks to other people. I enjoy the game play, but to be honest, there isn't a lot of it. Most of the time, you talk to tenants and make sure you pick the right questions to ask or answers. When you do solve a puzzle, it is either baby easy or pretty obtuse (getting the key out of the music box took me forever to figure out).

Where the game shines, though, is in the narrative, and more specifically, it's presentation. No, I do not mean the graphics - while I really do enjoy the "Take On Me" music video art, what I love is the writing. Kyle is very well written as a grizzled ex-cop, who doesn't really have a knack for sales, which is his current job. The other people who live in his apartment building (the eponymous "Cape West") are all well written as well. The game does a good job of making them all seem like normal people, while slowly revealing more sinister secrets about a few of them as time goes on. It also handles misdirection well; I had completely read one particular person to be a murderer, and I wasn't even close. It really does read like a good, pulpy detective novel (which, when written well, I genuinely enjoy).

The story ties into the first game in subtle ways, as well. Nile was a group of criminals that Kyle was investigating on the side in the first game, and were a big reason why he had quit the police force two years before the events of The Last Window. They eventually pop up in this game, and it all makes sense why. The story stands on its own, but has callbacks to the first game, and even some foreshadowing that I didn't realize was until much later (a painting hanging on one of the tenant's walls). All the little touches to the narrative impress me and I wish more games were capable of it.

The first quarter of the game, though, is pretty boring. You spend a lot of that time doing mundane things like paying rent and talking to all the tenants. I honestly can't remember what a lot of it was. It's worth getting through, though. Once the story proper picks up, the game becomes tough to put down.

The Last Window makes me very sad, though. It wasn't released in America mostly because it didn't sell well in Japan or Europe, and I don't think the first game did very well in the States anyway. This type of game should do well here, if only the right audience had access to it. Like I said before, the game is basically a mystery novel - which sell very well in this country. If more people were exposed to it, I'm sure we'd be seeing many more games of its ilk. Unfortunately, probably the only place where it could get notice would be on Apple devices, and it would probably cost too much for most people to pay attention to it and I'd also never have a chance to play it because I hate those things. I wish gamers would give off-the-wall stuff like this a chance. I know people who like to both play video games and read; there is no reason why they shouldn't give Hotel Dusk and The Last Window a shot. CING, the creators of Hotel Dusk/The Last Window, went out of business a year or two ago. It seems like Kyle Hyde's story was meant to be a trilogy, and we'll never get to see how it ends.

Hopefully America's gaming market matures, so I don't have to import other gems like The Last Window in the future, and so developers with solid ideas don't keep going out of business.

Metroid II: Return of Samus

2011-11-26T16:25:00.003-05:00

Metroid II: Return of Samus was released on 3DS Virtual Console this week, and I promptly grabbed it on Wednesday. Three hours and twenty minutes of gameplay later, I've finished it for probably the third or fourth time in my life.

This game is considered by many to be the black sheep of the Metroid series, and, as much as I like it, that is probably correct. It's an oddball little game, that's for sure. But it is not a bad game, which is what many people paint it as. It certainly has some issues, but the game is worth playing overall.

One of the issues with making games for the 8-bit Game Boy back in the early 90s was that despite its (relative) power, the screen resolution was tiny. This meant that although the system could display pretty detailed sprites, they either had to be incredibly small or way too large. One of the primary complaints people have about Metroid II is that Samus' sprite is way too large on the screen, which means that the player has a limited amount of time to react when enemies appear. While this is true, Metroid II does mitigate this by being predictable - and not in the "oh I know what is going to happen, BORING" way, but in the way where the player can recognize the room and enemy type and predict what things he'll likely encounter. The game will occasionally throw you for a loop, but most of the time you can predict what sorts of things will happen given the room. This fits with the overall theme of the game, as well - you are exploring a wild planet, after all, and you are a foreigner invading an ecosystem that has creatures who have behavior patterns and follow rules (the designers of the game, though, most likely just made the enemies behave the way they do to, again, mitigate the problem of there not being enough screen real-estate for the player to react to them).

Another major complaint about the game is the lack of free form exploration. In Metroid II, Samus is tasked with obliterating the Metroid species on SR-388, and so the whole point of the game is to track down every last Metroid and kill them all. There is a counter in the bottom right of the screen that tells the player how many Metroids are left. Also, when paused, that counter switches to tell you how many Metroids are left in your current area. "Areas" are divided into sections where the player must kill a certain number of Metroids, after which the planets lava will drain a little, allowing Samus to explore deeper into the planet. This doesn't really make any sense - why does the death of a certain species cause lava to drain? - but because of this, the player is limited to these areas until they clear out the Metroids.

This wouldn't be much of a problem to most people, I'm sure, if the level design wasn't so odd. It's unclear if the designers really were trying to make the underground caverns of SR-388 feel natural to the point that there are very few landmarks and thus it's very easy to get lost, or if they were constrained by the shortcomings of the Game Boy (probably a little of column A and a little of column B). The player will encounter very tight passageways filled with enemies that are hard to hit (depending on their current beam weapon, anyway) and then all of a sudden they'll be in a wide open cavern with very few enemies and tons of empty space they can jump through. These rooms are usually where players get disoriented, and they are actually my biggest complaint about the game. Because they are so large and empty, it's easy to confuse one room for another, and most of the time, they have little to no background - which means you can't tell how far Samus is falling when she jumps off a ledge into the blackness. This disorientation is further exacerbated when you realize that each of these enormous rooms are slightly different, but not in immediately obvious ways. So you might think you're in one large room, and start heading in a certain direction, when you are really in a different room. This is why an in-game map would be great, which is another complaint people have (myself included).

The 3DS version, though, is nice because you have the ability (as with any 3DS game) to go to the main menu by hitting home, hopping on the internet, and pulling up a map of the game (which I did when I got lost right at about the halfway point - didn't need to use it again after that, though). You also have the ability to use savestates, which make the battles against the Omega Metroids a bit more manageable (bastards). It is for this reason that I'd say this is the best version of Metroid II - sure, it's not the Super Game Boy version, but who cares? I played through this game on my original brick Game Boy when I was a kid, and if I could beat it on that impossible to see screen, anyone can beat this game on their beautiful 3DS screen.

My favorite thing about Metroid II, though, is the atmosphere. This is a creepy game. The few actual songs the game has are great, but most of the time there is just this weird set of atonal beeps and bloops. It sounds as alien as one could imagine. Since there are sometimes seconds long periods of silence, where you can only hear Samus' footsteps, the fact that Samus is alone in the middle of nowhere is really driven home, even more so than in the original Metroid, which I also think is good at reinforcing the feeling of loneliness. And when you encounter a Metroid, it is genuinely scary - they usually pop out of an egg or mutate when you first see them, and then they come at you with everything they have while creepy music plays. The game won't let the player control Samus as they mutate, so they are forced to watch this grotesque evolution play out (the player is allowed, however, to switch to missiles during this time). The power of the Metroids is also readily apparent, what with the fact that every other enemy in the game is some small, easily swatted away insect that probably only survives on SR-388 because the Metroids have no interest in eating them. There are a few larger creatures, but they are usually heavily armored and can only be damaged by shooting them from one side, suggesting that these enemies developed some sort of defense against the predatory Metroids.

The game is also really challenging. Not just because it's easy to get lost, either - as you get farther into the game, the Metroids get tougher and tougher. The Omega Metroids take a whopping 40 missiles to kill, and they spend a lot of time flying around the screen erratically! Luckily, they too have patterns, so if the player is observant they can be exploited.

Metroid II is also, as far as narrative is concerned, the most important game in the series. It's ending is the catalyst for Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Other M - which is near half of the entire series created up to this point, including the Metroid Prime series. If you take that series out of the overall narrative (as the Japanese creators of the series apparently have at this point) Metroid II's events are crucial for the narrative of all the rest of the following Metroid games. Pretty neat for a little black and white Game Boy game, huh?

The Nintendo DS: Part Five

2011-11-06T01:22:00.002-04:00

The 3DS has been out for 3/4 of a year, but that doesn't mean I can't stop eulogizing the original DS! Oddly enough, there have been a great game or two released for the system since I wrote the last post in this series, even. But anyway! Back to the saga of the DS!

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

---

Since its debut in the fall of 1996, the Pokemon series has always been a juggernaut for Nintendo. Each version in each "generation" of core Pokemon games sell well into the millions. The GBA versions of Pokemon were good, but that generation was the first in which Nintendo was criticized for "going through the motions" with the series. Cries of "the Pokemon designs are too similar to the old ones!" or "the designs are stupid" spread like wildfire on message boards across the internet. It probably didn't help that Nintendo released the first of the Pokemon remakes, FireRed and LeafGreen, which were upgraded versions of the 1996 Game Boy games. "Obviously, Nintendo is out of ideas when it comes to this series," many said. "What could they possibly do different in the future?"

Astute observers, though, would have noticed where Nintendo was likely going to go if they paid attention to how they released the aforementioned remakes. FireRed and LeafGreen both came with wireless adapters, so players could trade Pokemon wirelessly with each other, eliminating the need for each player to have their own cords and all that. If you owned FireRed or LeafGreen, you had a wireless adapter and were thus ready to go. No extra cost, no extra trip to the store for mom and dad, you can just trade with your friends right now. The only thing the adapter didn't let you do was go online to trade your Pokemon.

Nintendo's next generation handheld fixed that. Sporting wireless connectivity right out of the box, the time was right for Nintendo to implement some new functionality to the series before it became stagnant. It was time to allow players to trade their Pokemon with anyone in the world.

And that is exactly what they did. There were now almost no barriers to entry to playing and fully enjoying Pokemon like there was in the past - so long as you had the system and the game, you were on a pretty even field with everyone else. You would not have to buy two versions of the same game to be able to get all the Pokemon - you could simply trade with someone on the internet to get the ones you were missing. You didn't have to buy a separate cord to be able to hook up with a friend. And, despite the collective internet losing its collective mind about the implementation of Friend Codes, the DS Pokemon games only made you enter them to trade with individual friends. You could trade to people on the internet without having to waste your time typing in a long code each and every time you made a trade.

The level designs in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were a huge step up from the GBA games as well. Gone are the underwater sections from that game, which were ugly mazes that you could only get to by using a HM move (a move taught to your Pokemon that was usually useless in battle, but took up one of your precious four move slots so you could get around the world map). Some areas of the world had dynamic weather, which would change the way the player can move about - and also changes which Pokemon might appear. You could also bring your Pokemon from the previous generation up to the new one by utilizing the GBA slot on the DS.

Also, with just a few exceptions (the obligatory new version of Pidgey - the Starly evolution line, among a few others), the new Pokemon designs were interesting again. Battles were a bit easier to get through as well, because the player could use the touch screen to issue commands to his Pokemon in addition to being able to use the buttons as before.

Nintendo eventually released Pokemon Black and White, also for the DS, this year. They fixed some of the complaints people had about Diamond and Pearl, most notably how slow the battles moved even with animation turned off. Black and White added even more weather effects, and the world was navigated with a bit more visual flair as well. The story had a bit of a darker tone to begin with and was thus a bit more interesting than usual, despite veering into familiar territory near the end.

But the Pokemon series could not exist as it does today without the DS hardware. There will not be a mainline Pokemon game released at any point in the future without the ability to trade over the internet. But not every game would need such features. Some games were meant to be deliberate throwbacks to simpler times. Nintendo had been hinting at looking back at some of their older titles already on the GBA with the E-Reader versions of classic NES games, along with the Classic NES Series. But it had been a long while since their most important franchise returned to the realm of 2D...

In case you hadn't picked up on it yet... I am a huge fucking dork

2011-11-03T21:19:00.003-04:00

I haven't done a sort of "what I've been playing" brain dump of a bunch of games I don't have much to say about in a while, so I thought I'd write one of those here. I also scored some awesome deals the past few weeks so I thought I'd throw them up here, too.

First off, I scored pretty big in Mt. Pleasant last weekend. The local game shop had Xenosaga III (PS2) mint for $17.99, the lowest price I've ever seen it, so I grabbed that along with a mint The Legendary Starfy (DS) for $11.99 and near mint Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1) for free (part of their constant B2G1 free sale, probably my favorite thing about that store). I haven't played any of those yet, but I was intrigued because it was the first time I had ever seen the PS1 Star Ocean game and I had just bought Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP) for a song the previous week (a Target coupon for $5 off their online store netted me the game for about $4 shipped brand new).

The previous week had been pretty good to me as well. My "requests" list on Goozex has started to bear fruit, and I received notice I would be getting Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! (DS) in the mail in a week or so for 650 easily earned points (I will not be missing an extra copy of Izuna 1 (DS), Tales of Phantasia (GBA), or the battered copy of Mega Man (NES) I had received off Goozex once already - and I still have 900 points left over from those trades!). I've played four songs on it already, and despite not being able to read the language or understand what the songs are saying or what's really going on on the top screen, this feels like more Elite Beat Agents which is pretty much exactly what I've wanted since laughing my way through that game. The Ouendan are just as ridiculous and goofy as the Agents were, so I'm sure I'll play my way through that game, and maybe someday Goozex will send me the sequel, which sports a title including the words "Hot-Blooded."

Strangely, I've been getting ridiculously lucky on Glyde lately as well. I grabbed Mario Hoops: 3 on 3 (DS) for $12.99 shipped as soon as I saw it, as that is about ten or fifteen bucks cheaper than I have ever seen it anywhere since it came out like five years ago (right now on Glyde, the game in the same exact condition - "excellent" - I got it for is $27.99). The game will probably arrive in the next few days. I was also able to score Harvest Moon DS for $9.49 shipped in excellent condition, which I was thrilled about because I wish I never would have sold the thing a few years back in the first place and that's as cheap as I've ever seen it. There isn't currently an "excellent" condition copy available on Glyde, but right now a "good" copy is going for about $14 shipped. I got the Gamecube Warioware in excellent condition for $6.83 shipped, which is cool because that game is multiplayer Warioware on a big screen (and isn't like forty stupid dollars like the Wii version has been for years). I got Sim City DS for $6 shipped and Orcs and Elves (DS) for $5 shipped, neither of which are great games but I've been kind of interested in both since they came out and I figured they won't get any cheaper than that.

Probably the cream of the recent crop, though, is what I was able to snag a few days ago. I decided to log into my Gamestop rewards account for no apparent reason and discovered I could spend 6000 of my then 15000 points on a coupon for $10 off any used game. Since that coupon is usually 10000 points and the deal is only going on this week, I printed one out and went to the store. Lo and behold, someone had sold back a copy of Aliens: Infestation (DS) already! It was listed as $24.99, way more than I'd be willing to pay for the game, but at $14.99 plus my ten percent discount, I figured that was a good deal so I grabbed it.

Now I can actually talk about a game! I was interested in A:I because I had heard it was shockingly similar to side-scrolling Metroid. Since there hasn't been a new side-scrolling Metroid since Fusion, I have been dying for some of that so I read some reviews and put it on my to-buy list. First of all, this game is hard. The Aliens do not go down easy, and can kill you fairly quickly. When you play Metroid, you feel pretty much like a badass, because not much can stop you except maybe a boss. Not so in Aliens. Your marine guys are way weaker than Samus, cannot take much punishment, and are way less agile. The little guys who try to jump on you and suck your brains out or whatever are quite dangerous, because they can stop you in your tracks as you take damage from the big guys running around, who are VERY fast and can sometimes take quite a few hits to take down. You also have limited ammo for everything besides your handgun - and your handgun sucks! You can upgrade your weapons by finding upgrade kits strewn about the levels like missile tanks in Metroid, but they seem to be much rarer here.

I might write more about the game in the future, as it does some interesting things (such as how if one of your guys dies, they are dead forever - unless of course you power down your system before your next save or before the next time you beat a boss), but I must go play some more Balloon Kid (GB). It just came out on the 3DS VC, and it's a sequel to Balloon Fight with (gasp!) actual level design! Plus my girlfriend totally owns an actual cartridge. Prior to seeing her copy, I had no idea it even existed. I probably won't write about it here (there's not much to say - you travel left, collect balloons, and avoid dying) but it's pretty fun, and easily worth $2.99.

And thus ends a post in which I write a thousand words about damn near nothing.

"A painting... of the soul!" Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

2011-10-29T13:35:00.004-04:00

I decided randomly a few weeks ago that I wanted to play a Castlevania game, and not one that I've beaten a thousand times (such as Dawn of Sorrow). So I picked Portrait of Ruin, a game that I didn't get very far in when I first got it and haven't played since probably 2006.

Coming right off Dawn of Sorrow (still my favorite in the series), PoR is somewhat a disappointment. There's no Soul System, so killing enemies only nets you experience and the occasional dropped item like usual, rather than thousands of different powers you can use. You do have two characters to switch between, Jonathan and Charlotte. They each play a little bit differently, as their attacks are of different types - Jonathan's attacks are what I'll call "physical" and Charlotte's are what I'll call "magical" (the game might have terms for these, but I never saw what they were). Most enemies will take damage from both kinds of attacks, but some enemies will take significantly reduced damage from a particular type (bosses are often guilty of this - they seem to be built around the developers wanting to force the player to beat them with one of the two characters in particular). What I find interesting about this system is how it was iterated upon in the sequel a few years later in Order of Ecclesia, where there are multiple kinds of weapons and specific enemy types are weak to specific types of weapons (swords, whips, axes, etc.). I just find it kind of neat how you can draw a clear line of evolution from this game to that one, despite being awfully different in many respects.

As different as they are, though, I must say OoE is pretty much the spiritual sequel to PoR. Though they do not star the same characters, I think OoE improves upon PoR's ideas in every way. The levels are split up into different maps in both games - PoR has levels divided into "paintings" that are basically just warp points, whereas OoE is one continuous world divided into discrete levels (for example, you can travel from the town to the forest to the lighthouse in OoE, where in PoR, you'd have to hop into different paintings for each of these). The battle system has similar ideas, because in PoR, you have two different characters and can "call" the other person in to help you fight (the ally AI is pretty crappy, but it IS an option) or can switch between the two on the fly. OoE has only one playable character, but she can switch between three different equipment sets on the fly, which changes which weapons she has equipped so it's similar to PoR ally-swapping. There are weird little missions you can get in both games, too - in PoR, they come from "Wind," and you can only take on five at a time and you cannot even SEE any other ones until you start completing them, whereas in OoE you get them from the villagers you save in the individual levels, and you can pick and choose which ones you want to do at any time. The nice part about OoE is that the missions make sense - one mission you get tasks you with finding the cat of one of the little kids in town. The missions in PoR are random and arbitrary most of the time. One of them is creepy - "Wind," a dead ghost, asks Charlotte to come back wearing three maid items to complete the mission. Gross.

Anyway, Portrait of Ruin plays pretty well for most of the game and the levels are fun, right up until the last third of the game. You get to a point where you have to go through "dark" versions of levels you've already beaten with slightly altered maps and harder enemies. For a Castlevania game, this is a terrible idea. You already travel through these levels enough as it is looking for stuff and the way to go and all that, and you force me to do it again?! With less save points? Ugh. One of them in particular, the dark counterpart to the Nation of Fools, is like torture. It's difficult to figure out where you're allowed to even go, much less figure out where you should go. Oh and there's also yellow Medusa Heads around. Not fun. Also boring!

I do really enjoy the bonus mode you get for beating the game, though. You can play as Richter Belmont and Maria through the entire game, without any story scenes or missions or anything like that. They level up just like Jonathan and Charlotte, but they don't get new equipment or anything like that - Richter always has the Vampire Hunter whip and the normal assortment of Castlevania subweapons, and Maria has her awesome bird attack that shoots out at an upward arc really fast and does tons of damage quickly, assuming the enemy takes decent damage from magic attacks. Richter and Maria are a blast to play as and frankly would be a great bonus mode in any Castlevania, honestly.

So Portrait of Ruin is the worst DS Castlevania, but it is still absolutely worth playing. I had a blast playing through it and if it has been a while since you've played a decent Castlevania, pick it up and play through it.

(Click here to read my Order of Ecclesia post from earlier this year. It's pretty good!)

DQM: Joker 2 - Complete

2011-09-27T21:41:00.003-04:00

So I beat Joker 2 today, or at least the first part. I beat the final boss, which then allowed my airship to travel again, and I flew to the tournament we were originally going to anyway and won. I like how they did it, too - since I had just played the game for 25 hours, the game skipped all the low level fights and took me right to the championship bout - which was relatively easy (it wouldn't have been if I didn't have a monster with Armor Seco Rain, which completely heals everyone in 2 turns).

Disappointed you don't get to participate in an actual tournament like in the first game? Don't be! After the credits roll, your character and the crew of the ship fly back to the island they crashed on, where the moles are holding the official ORIGINAL Scouting Championship. It also unlocks some more monsters around the island, and it also lets you SCOUT THE GIANT MONSTERS THAT HAVE BEEN HOUNDING YOU THE WHOLE GAME.

They're very difficult to scout, though. I've only scouted the very first one so far (the giant worm, who takes up three party spots so you can only use him at any given time). I'm raising his levels right now, to fully unlock his unique abilities. I'm not quite sure what will happen if I fuse him - will I be able to scout another one? - but his stats are already kind of low compared to my highest leveled monsters (I have an A+1, the giant worm is only a D). So I'll probably fuse him eventually.

I think the biggest compliment I can give this game is that I still want to play it, even after 25 hours of monster grinding. I probably won't go nuts and get every monster or even beat the scouting challenge (lots of games are coming out for the next few months, you see) but I sure would like to catch all those giants. When I beat Pokemon White earlier this year, I was relieved to just finally be done. I had very little desire to keep exploring the world and raising monsters. Like I said in my last post, I think it comes down to exploring the world... Actually seeing how big these monsters actually are, and avoiding getting slaughtered really makes the world seem more organic and interesting. (By the way, like in all Dragon Quests and Pokemon, when you lose a battle, you get sent back to the ship minus half your gold. There's a bank on the ship that lets you mitigate losses by depositing gold before you venture out).

So, yeah, I want there to be more Joker 2... Square Enix recently announced a 3DS remake of the GB Monsters game (which I actually own, but haven't played), so I'll probably just wait for that (and Rocket Slime 3DS!).

This has also made me want to go back and actually finish Dragon Quest V or IX, too. They're the only two DS Dragon Quest games I haven't beaten (besides the original Joker, but screw it, Joker 2 is better in every way so it doesn't count).

Anyway, Joker 2 is amazing, and is highly recommended to anyone who likes games like Pokemon - even if you aren't necessarily a Dragon Quest fan.

This means you, Kyle.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 is Great

2011-09-22T14:19:00.005-04:00

So I bought Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 because I played a few hours of the first one, and was somewhat impressed. I say somewhat because the first game has some flaws in its presentation, which I'll get to at the end of this post.

So, the DQM:J series is similar to Pokemon, in that you go around a world and collect and train monsters to beat some competition. The difference between this series and Pokemon, though, is that you can "synthesize" monsters together to get a new one, and carry over powers and some stats to the new guy.

This, of course, reminds me of the Shin Megami Tensei series, wherein you fuse demons together to carry over powers and stats to the new ones. The mechanics are very similar, actually, with only a few differences. First, to "synthesize" monsters in the DQM:J series, both monsters must be at least level 10. This is annoying early on, when raising your guys to level 10 takes forever, but eventually you can do that in a few minutes even without the help of a metal slime.

What the DQM:J series needs to take from SMT, though, is the idea of a "compendium." In SMT, this allows you to repurchase old demons, in the interest of using them to fuse new ones or just to get them back if you don't like the demon you got as a result of a borked fuse. DQM:J doesn't have anything like this; once you fuse a monster, it's gone forever. The only way to get another guy is to raise more monsters, go all the way through the evolution trees, and get the new guy, or just catch a (slightly worse) one in the wild. Sure, leveling up to level 10 is easy when you have access to the later areas, and it's nice that three backup monsters (I.E. monsters not currently in your active party, but still with you) gain experience too. I just wish I could cut out the middleman and get back to raising some awesome monsters.

The DQM:J series does have a leg up on SMT, though. Each monster has a family tree going back a few generations, so you can see which monster came from what (for example, I currently have a tyrannosaurus rex with a giant hammer, and he is the result of several generations of synthesizing, and actually descends from my starting monster). Also, you can choose which sets of powers you want to carry over to the new monster, along with half the ability points (which work exactly like in Dragon Quest VIII). Half the points may sound bad, but keep in mind any freshly synthesized monster starts out at level 1, so you actually have the opportunity to earn way more ability points this way.

DQM:J also keeps track of monsters with a handy rating system, which serves to tell you how good a monster is. The rating system starts at F, and goes up through E, D, C, B, A, S, and X. I'm twelve hours in, and my best monster (the aforementioned t-rex) is a B+4 - also the highest rating I've seen. The + denotes a boosted rating a monster gets from being synthesized, so I'd imagine the best rating you could get would be X+4 or something like that. Anyway, ratings are handy when deciding how to fuse, because you don't want to synthesize a good monster into a lower level crappy one (the game indicates the results of synthesis before you commit to it, to cut down on crappy combinations).

So I really like the structure and system of the DQM:J series. What I didn't like about the first one was how the game played out. You start out as this ugly kid (with a wallet chain! ugh) on some random thief's island, and you set out to win the Monster Scout Challenge. To leave your home island, and to get anywhere in the game at all, you ride a waverunner.

In Dragon Quest.

You don't control it, either. They basically just serve as warp points, because guess what? You can't just hop on a waverunner and pick which island you want to go to. Oh, no. Each waverunner, spread around all the islands, goes to a DIFFERENT ISLAND. So you have to walk across an entire island to get to a different waverunner, which for no apparent reason can only go in a straight line to that specific island it's pointing at.

This gets tedious very quickly.

The world isn't very interesting, either. Now, maybe I didn't play far enough into it (about five hours), but generic and boring best describe pretty much every location I saw in that game.

Which are all reasons why I like Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2. First of all, the entire world is contiguous - you can walk from one place to another. Don't feel like walking all the way from the starting point to the farthest area? Why, pick it from a map menu and you're good to go! No stupid waverunners to deal with here.

Also, the world seems much more alive. There are monsters roaming around just like in the first game, but this time there are some giant monsters that will scare away all the other monsters when they show up. You can engage these monsters if you want, but it's best not to until you're leveled up a bit and probably with some better monsters, so you should just avoid them. I love them, though, because they make the world seem so much more vibrant.

It also helps that the levels are better designed, too, and the map is much easier to read. I haven't gotten lost in the game yet, and have actually enjoyed exploring every nook and cranny to find hidden treasure. Exploring is made much more enjoyable with good music, too (although they need more than one battle theme - I'm a bit sick of that now).

I will end this post with this: I am having more fun playing Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 than I did earlier this year with Pokemon White.

Startling, isn't it?

Everyone's Favorite Tech Demo Series - Pilotwings: Resort

2011-08-20T17:50:00.004-04:00

So I was able to take advantage of a neat K-Mart deal where all their 3DS games were $30, and I picked up Pilotwings: Resort using some leftover Paypal funds I had.

Now I loved Pilotwings 64. I spent a ton of time with that game, just exploring the levels and seeing all the neat little things the designers hid in there (like shooting a missle at Mario's nose to change him into Wario in the Little America stage). I also really enjoyed trying to master the controls to get medals on all the missions. My favorite part of Pilotwings 64 is probably the music, surprisingly enough. Tracks like this (read the comments for that video, the writer of that particular song comments on it!) and this are some of the most relaxing videogame tracks I've ever heard.

The missions were almost an afterthought, really. I mean I enjoyed them, but didn't play them too much. I spent most of my time exploring Little States. Even though it wasn't exactly right in every place (Michigan is a sort-of hand-like stump without the upper peninsula, for example), it seemed enormous and filled with personality and hidden stuff.

...Which is why Pilotwings Resort is such a letdown in retrospect. On its own merits, its an entertaining game, and I certainly had fun with it and will likely revisit it every once in a while, but Pilotwings 64 eclipses it in almost every way. The music is merely okay. It sounds a lot like a lame rip-off of Pilotwings 64, to be honest. The missions are about what you expect - there were no missions where you use the "missile" function of the plane to shoot anything besides targets or balloons, for example. I mean it's not like I'd expect them to put anything in there that you'd have to shoot down, but come on - no Mario/Wario transformation, or anything like that? LAME.

Another problem I have is how Free Play mode is timed. Why do they time a mode that is CALLED "Free Play?" Because there isn't much to explore, really. The entire game takes place on one island (okay, one and a half). Wuhu Island is fairly small, and maybe I would appreciate it more had I played much of Wii Sports Resort, but I shouldn't have to play some other game (that doesn't even remotely play like Pilotwings!) to enjoy the setting here.

I mean it's okay. Sure, I enjoy using the Turbo Jet to shoot down the volcano and come out the side entrance, but that's only fun for a minute or two before you get bored. I enjoyed finding the balloons hidden around the island, but forcing me to collect them only if I'm piloting a certain vehicle seems dumb to me. I understand that they want you to play with every vehicle, but I just don't like hang-gliding much (the Pedal Glider helped, but your very quickly depleting stamina meter sort of renders it moot). I would have rather used the Turbo Jet and Super Rocket Belt the whole time! I do enjoy the stuff you collect for each vehicle, though. The gold rings almost (almost!) made the hang-glider worth using, and why you collected presents with Mii Trophies in them with the Rocket Belt didn't make sense to me, but forcing you to do a barrel roll or fly upside-down through a Stunt Ring was a lot of fun with the planes. I'll probably get all those some day.

I know a lot of this seems negative. Like I said, Pilotwings Resort is only a letdown in retrospect. On its own, I enjoyed it quite a bit. While I still had missions and tons of stuff to collect in Free Play, I couldn't put the game down. The controls in Pilotwings: Resort are probably the best in the series. Landing with a plane seems more finicky (I always hit the water too hard, according to the game, but I have no idea how to counteract that), but other than that I have no complaints. I even got the hang (no pun intended) of landing the hang-glider. Still, I'll probably never get perfect scores on all the missions. If only I could land that damn plane effectively, I might go for it, but failing to land properly after flying a perfect run for 2-3 minutes and having to start over sucks.

Put it this way: I'm glad I got the game for close to free due to some judicious trades on the internet. If I actually had to put a dollar value on the game... Fifteen bucks would easily be worth it, but if you saw it for $20 you should probably pick it up. Hopefully it comes down in value someday so more people can play it.

I just hope Nintendo makes another one someday, and gives us a new place to explore, instead of some recycled areas from an unrelated game. That is, unless they want to make like Pilotwings: Twilight Princess or something, which, let's be honest, would be totally rad and not dumb as hell. Right...?

What a Nightmare: Catherine, part 1

2011-07-27T14:10:00.003-04:00

Catherine is fucking with me.

I figured that was a wholly appropriate way to begin writing about Atlus' new 360 and PS3 game, Catherine. This is the Persona Team's latest release, and you can see the influence their prior games had here - even down to the basic structure of the story. Like in Persona, Catherine spends its gametime exploring time, not space. There are a limited number of places the player can go, but it is how they act and the choices they make in those places that affect the story.

The main "game-y" portions of Catherine are basically puzzles. The player is tasked with climbing to the top of a giant tower, night after night, and the only way to do so is to move around and manipulate the blocks to create paths to the top, while avoiding enemies and not falling off. This is harder than it sounds, because time is limited - the bottom floors of the stage fall off as time goes on, so you can't dawdle to figure out how to progress. The "boss" stages also have some giant monster chase you, while using attacks that can really mess you up - one of them I encountered reversed your controls, another knocks you down a few levels, and yet another just outright kills you. This adds an even more frantic pace to the puzzle levels, and they tie into the main story, as well - typically the bosses are metaphors for the main characters current predicament.

But I'm here for the story. Catherine is about a middle aged man named Vincent Brooks, who has been dating his girlfriend Katherine for something like five years. She wants to get married soon, and Vincent is having trouble coming to grips with the idea. To further complicate things, he gets drunk one night and begins an affair with a girl named Catherine, a much younger, seductive girl who has no idea Vincent is already spoken for. The main point of the game is to guide Vincent through his relationships with these two women, and (I presume) ultimately come to a decision over which one to stay with (or, if the game really has balls, neither - but I haven't beaten it yet, so I have no idea at this point).

I really have trouble with this game, and I'm not even talking about the puzzle bits. When Vincent is awake, he is constantly getting texts from the two women, and the player is responsible for responding to them. You have a few options in how to word your text, and, like in real life, you have to try to send a text that doesn't screw up your relationship with the girl you want. As much as I want to scream at the TV "Tell Catherine about your longtime girlfriend and dump her NOW!" you don't really get that option. The player is more like Vincent's conscience, rather than in complete control of the man himself.

The game also has some neat online integration, as well, because in between puzzle levels, the player is asked questions like "Does life begin or end when you get married?" All the other players' answers are all tallied up online and shown after you answer. The answers that are displayed are also the ones people said when they first played the game, so you know what most people really think (because I'm sure when I'm done with this playthrough, I'll play again and go after the young Catherine to see how the story changes).

I just beat the fourth night, and am growing increasingly conflicted as I play. I know I want to repair Vincent's relationship with Katherine, but I don't want to hurt the feelings of Catherine, either, because she seems innocent to me at this point. It seems like that's how Vincent feels, too, which might be why he can't bring himself to tell either woman what is going on.

They'll find out soon enough, I bet. And I bet Vincent's nightmares that night will be demented as hell. I can't wait.

Etrian Odyssey III: Tales of the Metroid Guild, Epilogue

2011-07-08T20:59:00.002-04:00

The main force of the Metroid Guild stepped off the raft and onto the small shore, carefully hopping over the lava. The new Hoplite, Jaha, seemed somewhat nervous as he fidgeted in his armor. He, as well as everyone else, knew that his talents were crucial to surviving the ordeal ahead. The original founders of the guild had recruited him specifically to learn a technique of their own design. It was suitable for use only by someone who had experience as a Hoplite due to the defensive nature of that particular study.

It wasn't an offensive move, at all. In fact, it was a skill designed to keep up to five people alive in very specific, extremely dangerous circumstances.

It also had never been performed against anything that could prove its worth.

Marth, the battle-hardened Prince who had joined the Metroid Guild upon hearing of their accomplishments, patted Jaha on the back. "Fear not, my friend," he said as the other three looked on. "This will work. We trust in your skills. Shadow trained you well."

Nathan, original founder and current leader of the Metroid Guild, shook his head. "We have no time for this. Jaha, you're ready. Let's go." After readying his sword, he began walking over the crest of the island.

Behind him, Yukiko, the senior Monk who had also been an original founder of the Metroid Guild, looked at Kyle, also an original founder and senior Zodiac. "I hope you taught the prince well," she mused. "If he doesn't keep that Hoplite from passing out, I'm not sure my healing qi will be of much help if I'm dead."

"We'll see, I suppose," the diminutive magician said. Yukiko nervously cocked an eyebrow at him before catching up to the others on the crest of the island. She had never heard her old friend second guess himself before, and it worried her. Every person had a very specific job to do, and if any of them failed, every single one of them would die.

It was too late to back out now, though. As the rest of the five members reached the top of the small crest, they watched as their target became aware of their presence. It got up on its back legs, clawing at the charred dirt beneath it. It raised its enormous head to the sky as it roared, blasting pebbles and dirt past the guild as they stood there, in awe of the magnificent beast before them.

The beast settled down on its haunches, and the five brave souls threw themselves at it. Before they could even reach it, it bellowed a searing blaze of fire at them, large enough to engulf all five of them and then some. Jaha was ready. He threw up his rather large shield and chanted a few words, and the fire was fully absorbed by the enchanted shield.

Marth let out a celebratory holler. "Well done, Jaha!" he shouted as he and Yukiko started casting some protective spells to prevent heat exhaustion, confusion, and fatigue. Nathan did what he always did, and taunted the enormous creature - albeit nervously, because he wasn't sure he'd be able to stand up to too many focused attacks by it. The rest of the team would have to take some hits themselves. He worried about Kyle more than the rest, mostly because his small frame didn't lend itself well to much physical punishment. He would have to rely on Jaha for that...

Before the dragon composed itself, Jaha began using his familiar Line Guard skill, which helped mitigate the damage his friends would take. He threw a twist on his old standby, though, by utilizing Bunshin, a technique taught to him by Shadow, the veteran Ninja of the Metroid guild. It allowed him to spread his techniques to the entire party.

But the dragon, surprised his fire breath hadn't handled his attackers like it had always had, flew into a rage. It charged his small enemies, well aware how easily it could crush them.

It was again surprised to learn that these fellows were ready for him. It was stunned when the smallest one, dressed in black, shot two extremely cold, extremely painful spears of ice directly at his face.

It had been a long, long time since this ancient beast had felt pain.

They had the full attention of the entire Stratum now. Around them, the beasts in the cavern hid behind rocks or simply fled in terror at the battle unfolding before them. None, not even the large (at least not when compared to the beast now embroiled in battle) Poison Dragons dared participate. They watched in silent awe as the small humans fought valiantly against the Wyrm of the Molten Caves.

Nathan had given up on provoking the dragon, as the beast had gone completely out of control. It was throwing everything it had at them by wildly swinging its limbs at anything that dared come near it, while spewing fire in every direction every chance it got, and it when it wasn't spewing fire, it was spouting as much smoke as it could to try to befuddle the five humans.

The Metroid Guild weren't exactly in great shape, either. All five of them were covered in burns, and most of them were cut fairly deeply by the maniacal beasts claws. Yukiko had entered a healing frenzy, healing every one of them as often as possible, with no regards to her stamina. Once in a while she had to eat an amrita or two, to summon the mental acuity needed to keep her companions healthy.

Jaha hadn't had a coherent thought in a half hour. He didn't have time. He was a mess, but he showed no signs of falling. He was taking as much damage for his compatriots as he could, and his shield, thank the Goddess, was holding up admirably.

Kyle had been taking a beating like he had never had before. He felt as close to death as he had ever felt the whole time, as Yukiko's healing spells seemed to hit him as late as possible just before he was torn asunder by the beasts claws. He got angrier and angrier as he threw every ice spell he knew at the damned Wyrm; sharp ice seemed to flow from both of his hands constantly.

Marth was rattled. The prince had seen many battles in his time, and had fought against some tough adversaries, but nothing like this. This seemed a force of nature to him. He wasn't sure he and his compatriots would make it, and was worried that if they failed, the beast would continue to frenzy out of control, leaving the cave and killing anybody it found. He was chanting as fast as he could, occasionally striking the beast when he saw an opening, but at one crucial moment, right when they thought the beast might fall, he forgot to chant a spell to keep Jaha from passing out from confusion.

All four of them knew what happened instantly. They had no time to berate him, as the dragon let loose a flurry of smoke, disorienting Jaha and making him break away from the group. He knew he had to regain his composure or he and his friends would die. The dragon swung one of its giant claws and struck Kyle directly, finally landing a clean hit on the small wizard. The powerful spellcaster was sent flying, and he landed with a thud several feet away after splitting his head open on a rock. His main adversary downed, the dragon roared, and stood on its haunches as it prepared to finally take down these pesky, though worthy, adversaries.

Yukiko, already casting healing spells as hurriedly as possible, tried to make up for the lack of defense from Jaha by chanting every spell she knew for her compatriots. She upped Nathan's strength in the hopes he would down the dragon. She tried to help Jaha regain his composure and bring him back to the rest of the group. She tried vainly to revive Kyle, as his body lay lifeless several feet away from them.

Nathan began to panic. His sword lately had seemed to barely do anything to the dragon, and the beast seemed to have gained a bit of confidence and strength when it killed Kyle. He still madly swung his blade at the beast, in the vain hope he'd be able to save his remaining comrades.

Jaha had regained composure and charged back into battle, defending his friends as best he could. Without Kyle, the battle had come to a stalemate at best, and the four Metroid Guild members knew the dragon could outlast them. They still fought, courageously hoping they'd be able to somehow survive.

Just when Jaha felt he had no more strength and Yukiko had long since run out of amritas, the dragon began to lunge at Marth. Right before his jaw clenched down around his torso, the dragons head was sickeningly rocked backwards as an enormous bolt of ice shot through its left eye socket. The dragon reeled backwards, and with a pained cry, finally spent its last breath.

Nathan turned around. "Kyle!" he laughed. "I thought you were dead!"

The wizard certainly looked it. He needed to be treated, fast, and the party had little means to comfort him. Jaha and Marth looted what they could from the enormous corpse, while Nathan and Yukiko tended to their old friend.

"You did it, Kyle!" Nathan told him. "We killed the Wyrm. We're going to be legends."

"We're already legends, you fool," he sputtered back.

. . .

The strong wizard was right. A little over two years ago, they had saved the town of Armoroad from an ancient and evil threat. They had mapped the Yggdrasil Labyrinth beneath the town, and had slain many dangerous monsters in the meantime. Tales of their valiant efforts had spread, and hundreds of warriors had come from all over the world to join their ranks. They had long since assured their financial well being, and decided to spend the rest of their days taking whatever challenge they could find.

They scoured every cave, every ruin, every haunt they could find. They were recognized as legends in their own time. Their tales would even be collected in a series of books that would become classics in their own right, making their authors and their heirs rich.

The title of the book is "Etrian Odyssey."

Dead Money: To Begin Again

2011-06-22T20:22:00.003-04:00

Today, I beat the first add-on pack for Fallout: New Vegas, the Dead Money expansion. I must say, I enjoyed myself quite a bit, despite absolutely hating it the first time I gave it a shot.

At about level 23 or 24, I had beaten the main story of the game, and decided to go see what was going on over in the Sierra Madre casino. Once I got there, everything I owned was taken away, and I was given some paltry weapons and light armor and basically told what to do by the mysterious Father Elijah. What sucked was that he put a bomb collar on me, making me do his bidding until the casino was properly raided.

But the bomb collar had a drawback (besides, you know, being a bomb). Radio interference would cause it to beep for about 10 or 15 seconds, at which point it would blow up, blowing the player's head off. So you have to either get out of range of the radios or speakers, blow them up, or deactivate them (some speakers are armored, and cannot be blown up and must therefore be deactivated at a computer terminal somewhere nearby).

Compounding this problem was the Cloud floating around the Villa, where the player starts in Dead Money. It's poisonous, and will rapidly drain your health if you remain in it. It also appears as a sort of fog, making it difficult to see things like speakers you have to destroy so your head doesn't get blown to bits.

Also, there were these guys running around the Villa, dressed in ancient metal haz-mat suits who threw spears at me and swiped long pole-arms at me, causing me and my light armor great damage. They also were tough to kill - once knocked down, they would get back up again, with full health, unless I managed to cut off one of their limbs or head, at which point they would be dead for good. Since I had, at the beginning of Dead Money, very few options for weapons (most of which were Melee, which my character has little skill in), killing these guys was incredibly difficult. I didn't have any of my Stimpaks, either, so regenerating my health was hard because I also couldn't sleep anywhere besides the Police Station in the Villa, which was quite out of the way most of the time.

For these reasons, I ultimately quit playing Dead Money, and went back to the main New Vegas area in a previous save, and leveled up some more. Once I reached level 31 and felt a bit bored with what was left of the main game (I certainly didn't complete everything in it, but finding new stuff to interact with was becoming more and more rare), I decided to give Dead Money another try.

Armed with a little bit of knowledge of the nature of the Sierra Madre, and with level 100 lockpick, science, and speech skills, I was able to arm myself much more quickly this time around. I knew the utility of the vending machines and how they worked, and I knew to look for Dean's Secret Stashes (marked by a glowing hand pasted on the wall near one of them) to stock up on healing supplies and ammo early on. I also went hog wild, not caring if I took damage, and ended up being able to kill the Ghosts much more quickly and permanently, at the cost of a decent amount of health. Once killed, though, they stayed dead, and subsequent trips through their territory wouldn't be as difficult (until much later, anyway).

So I eventually completed the old man's quests, and made my way into the casino proper. After turning the power on and locating all my comrades (whom had helped me get into the casino in the first place), it was time to enter the vault of the casino. I encountered the old man, killed him, and ran out of the vault, Metroid style, avoiding my own death via bomb collar, activated by the old man upon his death.

I skipped, in there, a whole bunch of story, which was actually quite good. I don't want to spoil it (there's really no point), but I do want to point out something I'm experiencing for the first time, here: narrative continuity between an add-on pack and the regular game. Typically, when I've played add-ons in the past, they are either pseudo-sequels to the main story, or completely divorced from it altogether. And while much of the story of Dead Money is separate, many of the characters in it have a lot to do with characters in the main story (one is even directly affected by the events in Fallout 1!). The ties to the main story are well done and subtle, and maybe aren't even obvious if you don't pay attention. I also liked how the main story, without even downloading the Dead Money add-on, references it, as well.

Overall, the add-on was worth my ten bucks, and I downloaded Honest Hearts, the second add-on, today. I've heard much about the Burned Man in my travels in the Mojave, and I bet I'll meet him in Utah.

What a great game.

The Best Donkey Kong Ever

2011-06-20T18:02:00.003-04:00

Game Boy Donkey Kong is without a doubt the best game with the words "Donkey Kong" in it ever. I mean as much as I do like the first two Donkey Kong Country games, they don't even come close to this one.

Which isn't to say they are very similar; in the SNES games, you actually control Donkey Kong himself, whereas in the Game Boy game, you are Mario, trying to rescue Pauline (the original girl in distress from the arcade game - but by 94, Mario had been rescuing Princess Toadstool for years. Did Mario have an affair?!) from Donkey Kong himself.

Interestingly, Donkey Kong Jr. made an appearance here. In the DKC games, this Donkey Kong would go on to be the one you control, whereas the big Donkey Kong in the Game Boy game would (apparently) go on to become Cranky Kong.

Anyway, Donkey Kong '94 is king because Mario must traverse over 100 levels, solving puzzles along the way, to try to finally confront Donkey Kong. But what is glorious about this game isn't just the puzzles - it's really Mario's moveset. Mario has one of his most diverse movesets here - and he needs no powerups to access them. He can double and triple jump, do a backflip, and do handstands, which allow him to use his feet to stop barrels from crushing him, also making them land lightly next to him so he can pick them up and throw them back at Donkey Kong. He can even pick most enemies up, like in Super Mario Bros. 2, and throw them around, killing other enemies or (in a few levels) chucking them at Donkey Kong himself! All of these moves are mapped well, too. None are difficult to pull off. The double and triple jumps just require timing to activate at the right time, the handstand is just down and jump, and the backflip is jumping while turning around while running. It's actually fun beating the levels from the arcade Donkey Kong with this huge set of moves - I beat the first level in three seconds in this playthrough, actually.

The game really is an amalgam of all the mainline Mario games made up until that point. It even predicted some of the moves Mario would have in his first 3D outing two years later. But the puzzles are great, too. Figuring out how to get the key to the door is, years and countless playthroughs later, still a blast. Stage 8-1 gave me problems, even though I have beaten this game a ton of times - I couldn't remember how to beat it, so I had to solve it all over again.

The music, too, is amazing. Each world has it's own theme, and they all evoke the setting quite well (nothing too serious, either - this is, after all, a game in which you spend one world on a pirate ship, another on a plane, and yet another in an ice world) with upbeat tunes and the occasional ominous tune. The last few levels, in particular, have interesting music, some of which I haven't really heard imitated elsewhere, either.

It's interesting, having played through this game after beating Rabi Laby, a DSi downloadable title by Agetec. It, too, is a puzzle platformer, and an enjoyable one at that, but it pales in comparison to Donkey Kong '94. Rabi Laby is a bit more puzzle-y, with less reliance on traditional platforming than DK: the girl in the game can barely jump, and the rabbit only jumps twice as high, so you spend most of the game working around these limitations to get the little girl to the exit. Rabi Laby definitely had harder puzzles, though. There was one instance where I couldn't stand it anymore and had to look up the answer to one level online (and I'm glad I did, because the answer was stupid and I never would have figured it out). Rabi Laby was worth the five bucks I paid for it, but if I had a 3DS, given the choice between Rabi Laby and the recently released Donkey Kong '94 for the 3DS virtual console, I would go with DK94 every time. That's actually the reason I played DK94 the past day or two, too. Everyone who had a 3DS has been talking about the game online recently, so I had to dig up my copy and play it on my GBA SP.

Man, between Ocarina of Time 3D (with awesome commercials!) and the virtual console already having Donkey Kong '94 and Link's Awakening on it (the two best original Game Boy games ever made), I really need to get a 3DS. Maybe in a month for my birthday...

The DS: A Classic Adventure Powerhouse?

2011-06-15T18:51:00.004-04:00

I suppose it makes sense, what with the touch screen, stylus, and the (relative) rebirth of classic point and click adventure games on the PC in the past few years, but this old genre has flourished on the Nintendo DS.

Sure, it's no PC in that regard, but the level of quality versus quantity is pretty unarguable. Here's the list of classic adventure games that I've played:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth Investigations
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

And I'm not even counting the Professor Layton games, which are kind of borderline. They are great games, either way, though.

It is somewhat odd that Capcom dominates that list, publishing all but two games (Hotel Dusk and 999). Who would have thought Capcom would make so many awesome adventure games?

Anyway the reason I bring this up is because I just finished Capcom's excellent Ghost Trick. Developed by many of the Ace Attorney people (possibly the same team, depending on where you get your info on the internet), the game is about Sissel, who dies at the beginning of the game. He receives powers after his death, and is able to move about in ghost form by possessing certain items. Sissel can manipulate many of these items, allowing him to move around farther, and also to interact with the many living characters that inhabit the game world.

Also, when he discovers a dead body, he can travel back in time to four minutes before their death, and do his best to reverse it. If he does so, he changes their fate, and thus allows the storyline to progress.

Sissel, you see, suffers from amnesia. He cannot remember who he was, other than the fact that when he dies, he can see his body from his ghost form. He spends the rest of the game trying to figure out who killed him, why they killed him, who he really was (for example, why was he present in the junkyard when he was killed?), and why many of the people he encounters seem to know and recognize his earthly body.

I will not spoil the story here, because it is fantastic, but it also holds up throughout. This is probably my main complaint about every other adventure game in the above list, save for Hotel Dusk. That isn't to say the stories aren't enjoyable, just that the suspension of disbelief falls pretty hard near the end (especially, ESPECIALLY in 999 - as much as I enjoyed the characters and most of the dialogue in that game, the true ending was pretty forced and weird). Ghost Trick has a somewhat goofy explanation for the main event the story spins around, but given the context of the game, it seems grounded and makes sense. I was satisfied with it, and was surprised several times by the twists and turns in the story.

Also, the puzzles were never too obtuse to figure out with a few tries. They were challenging, but since they made sense, it should only take even a adventure game newbie a few tries to figure out.

The animation, though, is unbelievably gorgeous. The characters who move around on screen look a touch rotoscoped, then colored over. They move smoothly, and often hilariously (see Detective Cabanela doing anything, also the "Panic Dance"). The dialogue shifts between lightly comedic (Missile the Pomeranian might be the only dog of that breed whom I find both adorable and lovable, and hilarious) to somewhat gloomy and sad, but never excessively so.

There is the possibility of a sequel (don't worry, nearly all story elements are tied up in this game), although apparently the game didn't sell to well in Japan (and likely in America, either). Capcom apparently even blamed it for a poor showing in the fiscal quarter of its release, too, so that probably dooms any chance of a sequel. Maybe. The runaway success of the Ace Attorney series, and the fact that this is Capcom, who makes sequels to EVERYTHING (they even made an Okami sequel, of all things!), might mean we get to solve more mysteries via Ghost Tricks.

Shining Force CD: A Reflection on Nostalgia

2011-05-26T00:17:00.003-04:00

I didn't realize how much the "Sword of Hajya/The Evil God Awakes" sucks.

One of the things that always annoyed me about my beloved childhood Game Gear Shining Force was how a few battles into the game, your Force splits into two parties. This means that for the next few hours of the game, you are fighting battles with about 5 or 6 characters in each party. This wouldn't be so much of a problem, if the battles themselves weren't so stacked against you.

Sure, you say. It's supposed to be hard - you're unexpectedly split up and the odds are stacked against you! To that I say "go hump a weedwacker." First of all, you cannot pick who goes in what team (which I suppose makes sense, due to the events at the particular moment your guys split up) so if your characters aren't leveled properly on either team - guess what! Difficult grinding time!

Then you have the maps. Most of the Shining games don't put you on maps that have very slim paths, but when you split up and only have 6 characters, there are a lot of them. There is also a map wherein you play in the dark, and enemies randomly appear as you make your way across the map. Oh yay! My mage, who I had been keeping in the back due to her low HP and defense (and who also happens to be the party leader, which means if she dies, it's game over) is now surrounded by zombies and dark knights. Oh and my healer - who also has the highest attack power in this party - is near the frontlines, so if she gets damaged, he might be two turns away from healing her! Oh and he also has low MP so he may be out of healing charges anyway. Fun!

The other party, with the main character you named at the beginning of the game (Deanna, for whatever reason, is the canon name) is a bit better balanced, but doesn't face nearly as difficult battles as Natasha's party mentioned above. Right now, I'm in a lava battle with this team, and I'm finding it difficult to find the urge to play.

Which really speaks to the issue I have with many RPGs, though. It's probably why I don't find Final Fantasy IV or Four Heroes of Light too enthralling - people are constantly coming and going from my party. Let me level them up! Don't let me possibly lose equipment when they leave! Stop making stupid plots where the people have to leave for little to no reason (Shining Force CD and the aforementioned Final Fantasy games are very guilty of this, 4HoL in particular). It's frustrating to have to deal with some asshole leaving your party when you've built them up for hours on end. I mean, if it's like Tellah from FFIV and they don't come back ever, fine! I don't even know why I put up with it in Final Fantasy VI... Although come to think of it, at least there the reasons the characters split up were usually for good reason (Sabin jumping in the river to fight Ultros aside).

Anyway I'm going to beat Shining Force CD, dammit. No matter what this stupid thing throws at me. But the original Shining Force Gaiden, "Toward the Root of Evil," is so far the better chapter.

Shining Force CD: The Sword of Hajya

2011-05-22T18:26:00.004-04:00

A few days ago, I beat the first scenario of Shining Force CD, "Towards the Root of Evil," based on the Japan-only Game Gear game, "Shining Force Gaiden." Sadly, there were no additional battles as creative (or fun) as the one where you had to find weapons on the beach, but the game did ramp up the difficulty a bit as it wore on.

Which isn't to say it is as difficult as its console counterparts; it isn't. Very rarely did I feel in danger in "Towards the Root of Evil," and really wasn't until the very last battle. There were bosses, sure, but with proper movement, and the slow pace I usually go through battles, I very rarely had player characters in any amount of danger. Now, it's very likely this is just because I know the battle system of these games inside and out, and therefore know the AI patterns of the enemies, but I would like to see a bit more challenge in the second part of Shining Force CD.

As for the final battle... The main bad guy of the game, Woldol, inexplicably turns into a scorpion and is invincible until you hit him with the Sword of Hajya. Going into the battle, I thought this was a Taros from Shining Force II situation in which only the main character could damage him, so I prepared accordingly, only to find out that after being damaged once with the Sword of Hajya, any old Force member can damage him. By the time I realized this, I had let a few of my party members die while trying to fend off Woldol from targeting the main character. It didn't matter, though, because once I realized what to do, I just threw everything I had at him and he went down pretty easily (coincidentally by the main character, no less).

What I do like about this scenario is how it ties into the second Game Gear game (part 2 of Shining Force CD, released as Sword of Hajya in America on the Game Gear in 1994). The main character of "Towards the Root of Evil" is actually Prince Nick, who, at the beginning of the second game, along with Gyan and presumably Claude, leave to go conquer Iom, where they eventually get defeated and your party has to help them. When I first played the Sword of Hajya, I had no idea why Prince Nick seemed to be important and why there was some random bird who looked important in the army that left that never spoke. And why Gyan had a face portrait. I never beat the Game Gear game, so it's possible that I'll eventually join up with those guys in "The Evil God Awakes," as part 2 is called in Shining Force CD (confused yet?).

Looking at a FAQ for what I missed in "Towards the Root of Evil" shows that apparently there were a few secret characters you can only get by searching certain bushes during certain battles. I like the idea of secret characters, but think it's dumb you can only get them by randomly searching bushes during battles. It'd be one thing if the game gave you some kind of hint, or something, but I had no idea they were even there. Also, I apparently missed a secret already in "The Evil God Awakes" because I didn't search a well a few battles ago. The item you find there supposedly unlocks the hidden boss rush chapter, where your party fights every boss from both "Towards the Root of Evil" and "The Evil God Awakes." I suppose I might try to get that eventually, just to see all the content the game offers (I'd also like to write about it).

Anyway, so I'm underneath the castle of Emild, about to fight the first true boss of the game, Gordon, to finally re-obtain the Sword of Hajya. I have gotten this far in the Game Gear version, and don't really remember having a problem with Gordon, so we'll see if that still holds true. I will likely write about Shining Force CD soon...

Shining Force CD: Fanservice of the Highest Caliber

2011-05-19T00:03:00.002-04:00

I picked up Shining Force CD a little while ago, knowing it's a Sega CD remake of the two Game Gear Shining Forces (one of which was only released in America on this disc) but what I didn't know was how there is actually a few chapters exclusive to this release.

This makes Shining Force CD an absolute treat for series fans.

Having grown up playing Shining Force II, I still prefer the strategy-lite approach to tactical RPGs the classic Shining series uses, as opposed to the complicated "make-sure-your-guys-aren't-exposing-their-backs" tedious BS of the Final Fantasy Tactics lineage (and pretty much every other tactics series besides maybe Advance Wars or Fire Emblem). There aren't too many games like this left, sadly, and Sega seems to want to make the Shining series into action-RPG only. This makes me sad, because there is Ys for that, and I want more Shining Force.

I picked up Shining Force III last year, and played a few hours of it before being distracted by other things. That may happen with Shining Force CD, but I don't think it will. You see, the game has 2D graphics, basically a mix between Shining Force I and II. Having been 16 years since the game released, I have memories of Shining Force II and this game calls back to it very well. In fact, I think that's the best way to enjoy this game; having played the original Shining Forces as a kid, going back to this sixteen years later is a treat, somewhat like Mega Man 9 was when that came out in 2008.

Anyway, so there are a few differences. Unlike Shining Force II, there is no between battle exploring - there is simply the option to Save, manage items and characters, and the occasional shop, then on to the next battle. Which is somewhat disappointing, because I really liked talking to people in Shining Force II - made the world seem more real. Then again, having played games of a more recent vintage that present their worlds on a deeper level, perhaps this is for the best.

The battles themselves so far have been pretty great, though. My favorite so far was the one where my characters had to abandon ship, and after washing up on a beach, find themselves under attack. They lost all their weapons and items when this happened, so they had to search the beach to find some sticks to use to beat the battle. I doubt a scenario like this would come up later in the game, but I thought it was pretty neat - in fact, there isn't anything like it in Shining Force I or II. It also highlights something I wish would have been implemented into the American version of II - the ability to search treasure chests and the ground - when applicable - during battle (Shining Force II had a few battles with chests in them, but they were only accessible in the Japanese and European versions, for what reason I do not know). This changes the strategy of battles, because the player will want to go out of their way to obtain items from chests rather than just go beat the boss. There was one battle, though, which had a treasure chest that I had to send a character way out of their way to go get that was just a stupid Medical Herb that pissed me off, but that has only happened once so far, thankfully.

I'm in Chapter 2 of the first part of the game, and I have no idea what that means in terms of how much of the game I have completed. I'm sure I'll blog more about the game, though, as I'm having a blast identifying the references to Shining Force I and II (sadly, most of them are to the first game, although we'll see how long that holds true as I go on).

Super Mario Sunshine: How Does It Hold Up Today?

2011-05-10T14:53:00.003-04:00

Super Mario Sunshine is a bit of an odd game.

Released for the Gamecube in late 2002, the game is the second 3D Mario platformer. There was a lot of hype before release; there hadn't been a 3D Mario since 1996's Super Mario 64, which was (and still is) considered one of the best video games of all time.

Nintendo had to differentiate Sunshine from 64, though, and not just aesthetically (which we'll get to later). They didn't want the game to simply be "Mario 64 2." The game also came (somewhat) early in the Gamecube's life - having only been out a year, Nintendo still had the opportunity to sell the system to people who couldn't decide between it and the Xbox or the Playstation 2. But how to innovate on Mario 64's design? Mario already had a great moveset in that game, and it would be difficult to just add more varied jumps to the mix.

Enter FLUDD. An acronym for "Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device," Mario wore this contraption on his back. Using the R button, Mario could use the various functions of the machine. It could spray water in whatever direction Mario was facing, whether standing still or not. By pressing X, Mario could switch to the Hover Nozzle, which allows him to hover in midair for a bit while holding R. Later in the game, Mario can find the Rocket Nozzle and Turbo Nozzle, which let him jump incredibly high in the air and run very fast respectively. By utilizing most of his jumping skills from Mario 64 (Mario cannot use the long jump or the backflip in Super Mario Sunshine) and FLUDD, Mario must find Shine Sprites (which work the same as stars from Mario 64) scattered throughout Isle Delfino.

One of the other things Nintendo put in the game that Mario 64 didn't have is the ability to ride Yoshi. Yoshi can use his tongue to eat fruit and enemies, and can also spit "Juice" to eliminate certain barriers. The "Juice" mechanic is the oddest thing in the game, as it looks like Yoshi is vomiting liquid all over the place while he makes a gargling sound. Yoshi himself is fairly limited in utility; other than breaking the aforementioned barriers with his "Juice," he prevents Mario from using FLUDD while riding him and cannot jump very high nor float very far. He is used fairly little in Super Mario Sunshine.

The game looks fantastic, though, even to this day. Thanks to the ability to output in widescreen and Progressive Scan mode (a rarity for games at all in 2002, and even rarer for Nintendo even up to this day), the game still looks clean and has pretty good art. Some of the character designs can be poor(the Pianta and the Noki just seem like blobs), but most of the enemies and bosses are detailed and cute, which fit the aesthetic.

The difficulty, however, wildly varies throughout the game. The game isn't usually too bad, but there are definitely difficulty spikes. Early on, the player is likely to encounter a "Secret," which is a special stage where Mario must get to the end of some tricky platforming without the aid of FLUDD. These areas, while usually fun, highlight the odd physics Super Mario Sunshine has when Mario isn't using FLUDD. He controls a bit slippery, and has a tendency to fall off ledges when landing from jumps. Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine's sequels, the Mario Galaxy games, don't suffer from this at all. Without FLUDD and the moves Mario has in Mario 64 and the Galaxy games, specifically the long jump and backflip, make navigating without FLUDD sometimes more difficult than need be.

There is one Shine in particular, though, that I died on nearly thirty times today. That is "The Goopy Inferno" in Pianta Village and it is easily the most difficult Shine to get in the game. Mario does not have use of FLUDD until he can get to the center of the level. There really isn't a good way to get through it; I believe you are supposed to use the fences underneath the level to navigate your way to the center to rescue the Mayor of the town, but it is almost impossible to get to him. Look at this video and watch how that guy does it. Doesn't seem like it's the way to beat the level, does it? There are other ways, but they are all exceedingly difficult. If Mario touches any of the orange glop, he is damaged, and the player loses control of him until he hopefully lands on non-gloppy ground (he will continue to take damage until he does so).

There is also the matter of the Blue Coins. When Mario collects ten of them, he can turn them in for a Shine Sprite in the hub level. There are 240 Blue Coins in the game, meaning a fifth of the game's Shines are bought using these coins. To complete the game one hundred percent, the player has to collect every coin. There are upsides and downsides to this. The Blue Coins are typically hidden well, and are satisfying to collect (the game saves every time you collect one), but when trying to complete the game, they become pretty tedious. Finding every single last one gets old, and will likely be the last couple shines a player gets in a given playthrough.

The Blue Coins seem to exist because Super Mario Sunshine has much fewer levels than any of the 3D Mario platformers (including it's sequels). The levels included are larger, of course, but less diverse. Most of them take place on beaches or outside in some capacity. They are relatively well-designed, though. Because there are fewer levels, Nintendo probably wanted there to be 120 Shines to collect so people wouldn't complain that Sunshine was "shorter than Mario 64," although that's a bit of a guess.

The game is worth playing, though. It gets some retroactive hate these days, but many people consider it to be "hardcore 3D Mario" in that it certainly isn't easy to beat. Mario 64 and the Galaxy games are better overall, but last place in a near perfect series is nothing to turn your nose up at.

Ys I & II Chronicles - Ys II is Much Better

2011-04-27T02:58:00.002-04:00

I just wrapped up Ys II, and I must say I enjoyed it quite a bit more than Ys I. I'll get into that in just a second - I have to tip my hat to XSeed for putting in a guide to Ys I in the manual of Ys I & II Chronicles - I hadn't noticed it until after I beat Ys I, but it sure would've helped to get through that obtuse mess.

Anyway, Ys II plays very similar to its predecessor in terms of mechanics - Adol still bumps into enemies at a slight angle to do damage to them. Ys II, however, adds quite a bit. The first magic item you get allows you to shoot fireballs with the X button - which is how you'll defeat most bosses, to be honest. You get a MP meter and - gasp! - can gain more than 10 levels! This makes the game quite a bit more balanced. You now gain levels at a roughly even pace throughout the game, so when you reach a new boss, you really don't need to grind or anything. Your enemies are a bit more interesting, too. Most of them have some sort of attack that triggers after they blink for a second or two, that you have to dodge or you'll take a lot of damage. This is nice because it means enemies can damage you in ways other than just running into you.

But my favorite thing about Ys II is how not obtuse it is. The game goes out of its way to give you hints as to where to go to next or who to talk to, and even gives you a warp spell pretty quickly. I only had to consult a FAQ twice, and one of those times, I didn't even need to - turns out I was getting lost in this one little area. The other time was because I needed to find some kid who wasn't in his hometown, and I had no idea where the hell he was. The game isn't completely straightforward, of course, as there are still a few puzzles here and there, but overall it is much better designed. The areas aren't quite as labyrinthine as in the first game, and there are no stupid warp puzzles! The music is also quite a bit better, too - my favorites are this track and this track.

Pretty much every complaint I had about Ys I was addressed in Ys II. The game is just much more forgiving and thus the difficulty is paced better throughout. The combat is better, the bosses are actually fun (imagine that!), and the game never felt tedious. I would even go as far as saying I wouldn't mind seeing another game in the vein of Ys II - combat and all. If I ever play a version of Ys I & II again, I won't be playing Ys I, I'll be sticking pretty much exclusively to Ys II.

Ys I & II Chronicles - Ancient Game of Ys

2011-04-22T03:32:00.003-04:00

Ys Month continues, as I've now moved on to the original games in the series: Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, and Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter, presented in 2011-o-vision Ys I & II Chronicles for PSP, released by XSeed.

First, a brief history of these games. Both Ys I and II were released originally for the NEC PC-8801 in Japan only in 1987 (1988 for Ys II). The games were then ported to like a hojillion systems. Time for a (probably incomplete) list! Some of the platforms Ys I & II were ported to:

-Japanese computer X1
-NEC PC-9801
-FM-7/77
-FM-77AB
-MSX2
-Sega Master System
-Turbografx CD
-MS-DOS
-Sega Mega Drive
-Sega Saturn
-Famicom
-Super Famicom
-Nintendo DS
-PC
-Playstation 2
-Cellular phones in Japan
-Wii Virtual Console

And of course the version I'm playing now, the Playstation Portable port. Having just finished Ys III (Oath in Felghana) and Ys Seven, I wasn't sure what to expect going into the original Ys games. I was worried I wouldn't like them at all, due to how archaic they supposedly were.

And they are archaic. Well, Ys I is, anyway - haven't played much of II yet. But I did beat the first game and I must say, I only sort of liked it.

You see, there is no "attack" button in the original two Ys games. You literally ram Adol into his enemies to kill them - the trick is, you cannot do this head on. You must hit them from the back, the side, or slightly off center to the front to be able to damage them without taking damage yourself. It's a very odd mechanic, especially considering Nintendo's Zelda had been out for almost a year by the time Ys I was released. Perhaps Falcom was trying to differentiate their series by speeding up the combat? Who knows!

But the mechanic isn't all bad. In fact, it can be pretty fun - when Adol is running around a bright, wide open area, it's tons of fun to ram into enemies and rack up gold and experience. The overworld of Ys I was a blast! But when Adol is running around small corridors in almost total darkness, it sucks! Like, a lot! Such as the entire second half of the game, in Darm Tower!

I will admit to liking the presentation of Darm Tower, at least in the PSP version (I have no idea if the original releases did the things I'm about to list - kind of doubt it). Adol is told when entering the tower that he has a day to complete his quest - after that, the guy who guards the door won't bother opening it every morning. As you climb higher and higher, night begins to fall. You see this because the tower is built in such a way that to climb it, you actually go outside on just about every floor. I thought it was a pretty nice touch.

Here's the problem. The level cap in Ys I is 10. I was level 10 before entering the tower. There is also nothing to buy in the second half of Ys I, because you literally end the game in the tower, so all the gold I had collected (and continued to collect, for whatever reason, inside the tower) was useless. There's nowhere to spend it! Okay, so that isn't a big deal. But it is just an odd design choice. The corridors of Darm Tower are also incredibly narrow, making it hard to hit the enemies. Oh, did I mention its fairly dark?!

So I didn't like that part. I struggled through it, and did something I usually don't (and haven't in a long time): I used a FAQ.

I have no regrets.

No, really. The game would be pretty tedious if I wondered around this tower, trying to figure out what to do for hours. There were a few people inside the place, and I kept having to go back and forth between them, ferrying items or information between them, to advance in the tower. Now, if there were no level cap, or perhaps something to spend my gold on, I wouldn't have minded. The grind would have eventually allowed me to do something. But all I would have been wasting was time, and frankly, the dungeon wasn't very fun to move around, so I just wanted to get through it.

In Oath in Felghana and Ys Seven, the bosses were (for me, anyway) the best parts of the games. Not so in Ys I. Almost every boss were annoying or exceedingly difficult - and not in a fun way - to fight. I enjoyed the worm boss and the two masks you have to fight, probably because they weren't stupid hard. That's it! The last boss in particular wasn't any fun, either. He floats around and when you hit him, wherever you landed the attack, a piece of the ground falls away, becoming a pit. If you stay on the tile as it falls away, you instantly die, ending the battle. And since the dude floats around the whole time, you can actually trap yourself and not be able to hit the boss at all, and slowly die via the fireballs he shoots.

I suppose I'm not surprised. The game came out in 1987, and for god sakes I was able to actually beat it. I can't say I have the stomach to do that these days for any turn based RPGs from way back then. Hopefully Ys II isn't such a slog - I do plan on finishing it though. Even if it does suck, I'll be cleansing my palette with Ys: Ark of the Napishtim for PS2 afterwards, most likely.

Oh! The music. I thought it was really good! Not as good as Ys Seven or Oath, but still better than most videogame soundtracks. You also have the option of switching between the Chronicles version of the tracks (the most recent remixes, which are great), the Complete version of them (the remixes done back in 2001 for the PC re-release of Ys I&II), or the original PC-8801 mixes, which I adore. I should note that the music for these two games was done by Yuzo Koshiro, of Etrian Odyssey fame. If you liked the music in those games, you will like the PC-8801 tunes in Ys for sure.

Ys Seven Postmortem

2011-04-21T04:35:00.002-04:00

Just wrapped up Ys Seven with about 21 hours on the game clock. Definitely enjoyed the game, but overall I think I like Oath in Felghana better. They're both very good though!

It's just Ys Seven tends to sag a little bit in the back half of the game. Once you've explored all of Altago, you are required to go back into all four temples you had visited, and access a deeper portion of the temple for a few new dungeons. The new dungeons are hit and miss; the first one in the forest is pretty boring. The second new dungeon is very short, but has incredible music - my favorite in the game, I think. The third one, in the wind temple, is unlike anywhere else in the game in terms of the way you traverse it - thus it's probably my favorite dungeon in the game.

As you might expect though, the parts that don't sag are the bosses. The bosses of each new dungeon are fantastically designed (especially the forest one - perhaps to make up for the boring dungeon). They are an absolute blast to play, and are pretty challenging, to boot.

The final dungeon of the game isn't that hard or incredibly interesting, but I must say - the final battle is a masterpiece. As soon as I saw what I had to do, I nodded my head as if to say "I see what you mean, Falcom. You want me to take the battle system to its logical ultimate conclusion." The final boss is a huge bug-like monstrosity that is divided up into three sections - bottom, middle, and top. Each section is fought by members of your team - every member. Not just the team you like to fight with through the whole game. You don't even get to choose who fights which part - which I suppose would be my only complaint. The three characters you fight the first form with were all characters I didn't use often, so they were pretty weak for my first try against the boss. But a bit of grinding (and some equipment upgrades, which I hadn't bought for most of them since the first half of the game) did the trick just fine for my second attempt.

The final part, the top section, is fought only by Adol himself. This means you do not get to switch party members if Adol is low on health - nor can you let his health drop to 0, either, because it's game over. No one else would be able to heal him. And by the time you get to this point, this is the fourth battle in a row you have fought without getting to save. My favorite part of boss battles in Ys games (well, the two I've played so far) are learning their patterns. Dodging, as I said in the last post, is incredibly important in Ys Seven. Therefore, as you go through the final boss fight, you are learning three patterns of attacks (that get more relentless as the boss's HP drops). By the time you land the finishing blow on the boss, you are exhausted. I was out of healing items (all of them!) and had been for a while - if it were not for my ability to dodge the bosses attacks he would have easily killed me before I got his final form down to 25% HP.

I can honestly say now that I'm an Ys fan. Tomorrow I'll start Ys I & II Chronicles, and see if I like the old school flavor. Oh, by the way - the localizations of these games are really good, too. I even began posting on Xseeds forums as a result of these games.

I've never even done that for Atlus. Now that says something.

Ys Seven, part 1

2011-04-18T01:04:00.002-04:00

I picked up the premium edition of Ys Seven the day after I beat Oath in Felghana, and I must say I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. It does play a little different than Oath; there is no jumping, for example. There is, however, extremely fast dodging - which plays a huge role in combat. But we'll get to that later.

Adol and Dogi arrive in Altago and begin to talk to the inhabitants there and... Eh, who cares. I mean the story isn't necessarily bad, really, just pretty plain. The point is, you have some stuff to kill.

Having only played Oath, the gameplay in Ys Seven is fairly different. Rather than just Adol, the player is given anywhere from two to three party members (probably three most often - a few people have come in and out of my party in the five hours I've played so far) to play as. He must switch between them at will by pressing circle, and the reason to do so is because each weapon each character uses does a different kind of damage. For example, Adol has a sword, which does damage better to "softer" enemies (basically, enemies without carapaces or armor, etc.), while Dogi uses his fists, which apparently does more damage to "harder" enemies. Other characters have different types (including the one currently in my party; she has "pierce" attacks, which are good against some "hard" enemies and some "soft" ones).

The other reason to switch characters is during boss battles. The boss typically will target its attacks at whatever character the player is currently controlling. It is thus wise to switch to characters who are either A. out of the way of the boss's attack or B. have more health than the currently controlled character. Unlike in Oath, you can use healing items in battle, so option B isn't as pressing as one might think.

Each character levels up, and each character has a set of special attacks, which unlock throughout the game. Each special attack can be leveled up (through using them, I think) and use SP, which is regained through the successful execution of regular attacks. I especially enjoy that, because it means I can use special attacks fairly often, without having to worry about refilling my SP gauge with items or at one of the healing rocks (the save rocks in Oath just heal you in Ys Seven - you can save anywhere at anytime except during boss battles).

Speaking of items, Ys Seven introduces a pretty nifty little item crafting subsystem. Whenever you kill a monster, they drop cash and items like Monster Hide or Monster Fluid (gross). There are also the occasional spots where you can farm items, somewhat like the "Take" or "Chop" spots in the Etrian Odyssey series. These can be used to craft new weapons or items. You can also just straight up buy items if you can't craft them, but I assume as the game goes on, the crafting will get more and more useful.

The centerpieces of the game, as in Oath in Felghana, are the boss battles. Each boss is very, very dangerous, and you must learn their patterns and avoid their attacks to be able to hit them when you can. You must also switch between characters and dodge all over the place to make sure all your party members survive, to ensure they all get the experience points once the beast goes down. This makes the pace of the battles frantic, and a lot of fun.

I beat Ys: The Oath in Felghana in about twelve hours. I've heard this game is quite a bit longer, which I'm happy about, because I'm rather enjoying it so far. Wait! How could I get through almost an entire post about Ys without mentioning the music? It is good! Quite good! Although I like Oath's music better so far.

Either way, though. Never would have thought I'd be mainlining Ys games. I'm definitely an Ys fan... I'm going to keep an eye out for the PS2 Ys: Ark of the Napishtim.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

2011-04-15T03:04:00.002-04:00

So in between bouts of running around post-apocalyptic Vegas and kicking punks' asses in the first Yakuza, I've been playing Ys: The Oath in Felghana for the PSP. I just beat it, actually, and have to say I'm excited to pick up Ys Seven, also for the PSP, which supposedly plays a lot like Oath.

The Oath in Felghana is actually a remake of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, which was released way back in 1989 for the Japanese-only PC-8801. There were ports to American hardware, too, though - the Turbografx 16, SNES, and Genesis, to be specific. Now, the original Ys III sucked. I can say this because I own the SNES version. It controls terribly and has ugly graphics, and that's all you really need to know. Not worth playing at all, really, unlike Ys Book I&II.

The PSP remake of Ys III reworks the game into a fully 3-D engine, and plays like a dream. Adol Christin, the hero of all the Ys games (except Origin, that is) is controlled via the d-pad or the goofy little analog nub (I switched occasionally back and forth between the two, depending on how much of a straight line I needed to move in). He can jump and swing his sword for a few combos, and can use new moves with some bracelets he finds throughout his adventure. There is a level up system, and also some very basic equipment upgrading as well.

There is also no way to heal Adol except by returning to a save point. This means that boss fights must be won by skill; you cannot simply beat on a boss and eat a few herbs or something to replenish your HP like in other games of this ilk. The bosses are very well designed, too, and thus a lot of fun to play, with very few exceptions. They all have patterns - difficult patterns - and must be bested by exploiting them. If you die (and you will), the game allows you to restart the battle right from the beginning without having to sit through any cutscenes, and if you die enough times, it even asks you if you'd like to lower the difficulty. You don't have to, of course (I was able to beat the game on Normal with very little big sticking points).

The graphics are beautiful, too. I suppose they aren't very original (mines, caves, castles, volcanoes, etc.) but they look very, very good. The special effects are nice, too, like the shimmering in the volcano, or the absolute darkness in the cave (before you find the item that lights it up, of course). My only real complaint is fairly minor: sometimes enemies are too small to see, such as the blue flying things in the last level. Are they bats? It's hard to tell, because as soon as Adol swings his sword, the only way I know they are still alive is if numbers keep popping up when he swings that way.

Of course, this being an Ys game, the music is fantastic. I've only really played this game, but I've heard in various places on the internet this game has the best music of the series. It wouldn't surprise me - the soundtrack is solid from start to finish. There are some great guitar tracks, good piano mixes, and even a violin thrown in there. The fact that the soundtrack comes with the deluxe edition is welcomed, for sure.

One of the things I'm dreading when it comes to starting Ys Seven someday is the story. I didn't really care too much for the Oath in Felghana's characters - I couldn't wait for them to shut up so I could start hitting stuff again. Thankfully, the dialogue in Oath is pretty light, and skippable. I've heard Ys Seven just goes on and on and on and isn't interesting to begin with. Hopefully I'm able to stomach it, because if the gameplay is as good as Oath, I'll be enthralled.

It has taken long enough, but the PSP has become a great little system for hardcore RPG fans like myself. It's really all I care about for the system, really. Other than Mega Man Powered Up (which I thought was good, not great), I've really only played RPGs on it. But between Ys, Persona 3 Portable, Crisis Core, Dissidia, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, and others I haven't played yet, I've really fallen for the little system.

If only my hand didn't feel like it had gotten stuck in a garbage disposal after playing for more than thirty minutes. Although I suppose that's what I get for playing on a PSP-1000. Rambling aside - if you have a PSP, pick up Ys: The Oath in Felghana. It is a PSP must-have.

Fallout New Vegas, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Buggy Bomb

2011-04-13T01:05:00.004-04:00

It's difficult putting my finger on exactly why I feel this way, but I like Fallout: New Vegas more than Fallout 3.

Perhaps it's the environment? While New Vegas still takes place in a bleak post-apocalyptic wasteland, it's color palette isn't so dark and muted. Sure, there is a lot of desert, but much like the hicksville areas of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, it's really there more as negative space for the important locations.

Thinking about it, New Vegas seems like more of a coherent world than Fallout 3. That game, while based (I'm told somewhat accurately) on real-life Washington D.C., just felt very same-y. I felt like I spent way too much time crawling around subways and trying to weave my way through the city because there were collapsed buildings everywhere. New Vegas is much more open - not just in a "we're in a huge wasteland desert area" but there are much less artificial roadblocks. Sure, there's the occasional mountain, but at least it makes sense that you cannot pass it - unlike the rubble piles in the city in Fallout 3.

It could be the story, too. I went way, way out of my way to avoid the story missions in Fallout 3, because I just did not care about the player character's dad. Oh man he wants to purify some water! Okay you run along and do that, Dad, you nerd.

New Vegas starts with the player character (hereafter referred to as the Courier) getting shot in the head by some dude who steals this mysterious package he was tasked with delivering. After being rescued in the middle of nowhere by some robot no one seems to know, you are set loose to find out what the hell all that was about. And the main hook of the story (that I will not spoil here) is a fantastic payoff, especially if you take the route I did. I felt like a badass when I beat the game. That's all I'll say about that.

I find it interesting, too, that the game was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, whose team is made up of people from the former Black Isle Studios, who made Fallout 1 and 2 (Fallout 3 and its downloadable content was developed and published by Bethesda, whereas New Vegas was only published by them). I really enjoy the writing of New Vegas more than Fallout 3, and I believe Obsidian crafted a much more entertaining world to play around in. Credit of course must be given to Bethesda for crafting the basic engine of the game, though, of course, as New Vegas was built upon Fallout 3.

Something must be said, though, about the ridiculous number of bugs in this game. I'm not talking about Radroaches, either - Fallout: New Vegas crashed on me time and time again, despite being patched a few times before I got around to it. There are numerous little bugs, too, like when I had beaten a quest, and was told to go get a deputy to arrest a guy, when the guy who needed to be arrested locked himself in a room and started giving a suicide speech over the PA. About half a minute into his two minute long speech, the audio just ended - and after another minute and a half, I would hear a gunshot and then the quest would end and I'd gain experience. No matter how many times I saved and reloaded (I even tried the quest over again from the beginning!) I couldn't get the bug to stop appearing. Every once in a while, I'd see an enemy character (usually animals or bugs - humans didn't seem to suffer this problem) get stuck in the environment, like halfway into a rock or something. There are more than that, too, but I don't feel like listing them all (and to be honest, they just tend to be annoying - the freezing didn't happen all THAT often and everything else was a small nuisance at best, nothing game breaking, at least that I encountered). In my experience playing it, Fallout 3 ran perfectly compared to this.

Even so, I never did finish Fallout 3, and don't really have any desire to go back and play it, either. I just found everything in New Vegas to be more compelling. The different factions are all so well characterized and written, whereas I can't even really remember the difference between all the people in Fallout 3.

The game structure seems a bit more polished, too. I like the leveling system in New Vegas (well, at least how now there isn't Small Guns, Big Guns, and Energy Weapons - it's just Guns and Energy Weapons). The game controls a bit better, as well. Companions do not stay dead permanently if knocked out, either, which is a vast, vast improvement as far as I'm concerned. I was afraid to use my companions in Fallout 3 for fear of them dying. In New Vegas, if a companion is killed, they will stay dead until all nearby danger is eliminated, then wake up after being "unconscious".

If you enjoyed Fallout 3 at all, I feel like New Vegas is a must play. You will certainly enjoy yourself, and I don't think it's "more of the same" like I kept hearing people worry about before the game was released. I know that "war, war never changes" but Fallout does, and for the better.

I put a Pokemon in the chamber and I pull the fucking trigger. BLAM!

2011-03-07T21:43:00.002-05:00

A new Pokemon has come out.

This means that, as is my almost semi-annual ritual, I must play through it and beat the Elite Four. I must decide whether or not I want to collect them all (last time, I did - it took me 300 hours to get all 493. There are now almost 700 of the damn things).

Reading the reviews, the usual complaints still seem to apply. The structure of the game hasn't changed. You still fight 8 gyms, then the Elite Four, blah blah blah. Many of the new Pokemon are reskinned old ones (Woobat in particular both looks stupid and even sounds like Zubat). The story is very childish. The challenge remains low throughout the game. And the endgame is way too time-intensive for those who don't suffer from OCD.

Yes still, I'm having a blast. I don't really know why... Is it because I am completely unfamiliar with all the new Pokemon? Discovering how they evolve and learn moves is fun, sure, but I can't shake the feeling that my Fire starter (who just evolved and added a Fighting type to it! Sound familiar?) doesn't really bring much new to the table besides a new name and evolution line and slightly different move list.

Which is true; it does not. The core of the Pokemon series hasn't changed since... Well, it never has. Every game is like 1998 all over again. Yet I still play them. I cannot figure out why. I suppose, as it has been suggested before, I think Pokemon is my Madden. I may not be able to pick up a new version every year, but every other year or something close to that, I buy a new (or newly remade) Pokemon game and do it all over again.

I'm also about fifteen hours into Radiant Historia. The game is tough, no doubt about it. I'm loving the story quite a bit, though, and the battles certainly aren't unfair. The characters are really well written, and I absolutely love Stocke. He is such a well-written character it is crazy. And he is likable too! He is not a surly asshole, nor is he a mute protagonist.

The game still suffers from the lack of a minimap, and I must say the battles can be a bit long (as in there are way too many enemies to deal with quickly. Come on, Atlus - eight guys, six of which can petrify my three characters? REALLY?!) but again, they aren't too bad. The boss battles in particular are great - they are a bit puzzle-y, and also take some endurance.

It all comes back to the story, though. Jumping back and forth between the two timelines is a blast, and seeing characters on different sides of the battle lines is really interesting too. The dialogue between the two sides is still very intriguing. I would say the game is worth playing for its story alone - the good battles are just gravy. Seems to be a lot of sidequests, too, if you're in to that sort of thing.

I also played through and beat 9 Persons, 9 Hours, 9 Doors as well. Like the Phoenix Wright series, I put everything else on hold for this excellent classic-adventure-style game. The story, like in PW, was excellent (up to the ridiculous, and I mean absolutely bat-shit insane STUPID true ending), at least in its presentation. What I liked about the puzzles was that they weren't too easy, but they all had logic to them. Many of them involve digital roots, and I kept thinking "Okay game, you are going to run out of puzzles involving digital roots soon and you will be boring and I will put you down," yet they never ran out and it never got boring.

I also got two endings that weren't the true one, and they add some flavor to the main plot. The first one I got ended in my player character's untimely demise, and I didn't even get to find out who killed me. The game lets you replay it after you beat it, and skip any text you have already seen - allowing you to make different choices and see the rest of the game. The goofy overall plot is almost sort of justified in the way the game makes you get one certain ending to be able to see the REAL one, but not really.

One last game: Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. I never thought Pac-Man would ever be relevant after the 1980s. But he is - and he is awesome. Not much to say other than I am in the top 2,000 of over 150,000 for the 5 minute main level. Quite proud of that, dorkily enough. Easily, easily worth the 5 bucks I paid for the game (and looking back, would have easily been worth the 10 it would have cost if it wasn't on sale).

God damn I love videogames.

Dragon Quest VI and Radiant Historia

2011-02-26T18:31:00.004-05:00

So I beat Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation a few days ago. The main story was pretty good, although your typical Dragon Quest fare. The vignettes (which I hear more and more are the main point of the series) seemed more interesting than in Dragon Quest IV, at least.

The Party Speak function was by far my favorite aspect of the game, though. The party characters had something to say for just about every NPC and situation in the game. I thought maybe that as the game went on, they would say less and less, but that never happened. Without Party Speak, my characters would have been very bland and boring. For example, I never put Ashlynn in my party after I got Nevan, so she was never very well characterized for me. Same thing with Amos, Terry, and Goowain, too.

The job system didn't get much more complicated as the game went on, either, which was nice. I really enjoyed grinding jobs a little, and giving my guys moves and things they probably wouldn't have been given by Enix if there were no job system. Nevan Hustle Danced his ass off after he got it, which I doubt they would have given the serious priest otherwise.

Other than that I don't have much to say about the game. It was good and worth playing!

I also picked up Radiant Historia last week, too. This game reminds me of a mix of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Mega Man: Battle Network, of all things. Because of that first influence, I have a certain friend who would fall madly in love with this game if he would just give it a chance. But anyway, this is the quintessential time-traveling RPG. Your character, Stocke, is given choices throughout the game, and each choice branches off into a separate storyline. The thing is, he can time travel from any save point to any one of these choices. This allows him to explore other timelines, as well as make progress in all of them. For example, you routinely have to explore alternate timelines to learn skills or get items to use in the regular timeline, which I think is pretty cool. The game telegraphs fairly well about where you need to go to find the next thing you need to move the plot forward.

The text and story are incredibly solid, as well. Coming off Dragon Quest VI, it's incredibly refreshing to see such a deep, engrossing story. The characters are great, and their ultimate motivations remain unclear to me (I'm seven hours in at this point). I'm still not even sure if my kingdom or the current enemy kingdom is even evil!

I do wish the game had a Party Speak option, though, like in Dragon Quest. It is probably too much to ask, however, because of all the branching storylines and whatnot. I just find myself pressing B a lot after dialogue ends to see what my party will say.

As for how the battle system is like Battle Network, well... First of all, it's turn based. So already it's quite different. It is definitely location based, though, which is to say the enemy position is crucial to pretty much every battle. You will attempt to knock enemies around their grid to maximize damage. For example, there's a move that will allow you to knock enemies back, or right, or left, or even pull them forward. As long as you keep a combo going (basically, this means before the next enemy turn) any enemy can occupy the same space, and your characters will do equal damage to everyone in that space. Come the enemy's turn, they will all spread out a bit again. What makes this like Battle Network is that your attack skills are usually more effective when the enemy is in certain formations. Unlike Battle Network, though, you always have access to all your skills and don't have to rely on the luck of the draw to get an attack you want.

The graphics and sound are like if Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger had an awesome baby. The environments are 3D, but definitely evoke FFVI, and the music is just as good as Chrono Trigger's, I think (and I'm of the opinion that the best thing about Chrono Trigger is its soundtrack). In short, I'm really enjoying Radiant Historia and it's worth playing.

Needs a minimap, though.

Dragon Quest VI: Ten Hours In

2011-02-17T18:08:00.003-05:00

I decided to buy Dragon Quest VI the day it came out, both to register it to get bonus coins on Club Nintendo, but also because Dragon Quest IV and especially V are very rare and pretty expensive these days. I also liked those games, despite never finishing V because I didn't feel like leveling my stupid kids when I got them.

I really like Realms of Revelation so far. The battle system is very speedy, and I like the characters a lot, too. I've made extensive use of the Party Speak function, and I must say, I'm amazed how detailed it is. When you talk to any NPC, and I mean damn near just about ANY, your compatriots all have some sort of reaction to them. They are well written, too, and fit the context of the situation. I really can't think of a game besides this series that does that this well. Sure would be nice in Fallout New Vegas, for example.

I just unlocked the job system, too. I rather enjoy this version of it - I haven't really messed around with job systems in Dragon Quest games in the past, so I may not be the best for context regarding this, but I digress. It really reminds me of Final Fantasy VI and IX, to tell the truth. You give a job to your guys, and then after fighting a certain number of battles (the battles can't be scrubs, either - they have to be monsters that are roughly around your experience level) you will learn a new technique.

I love this because Dragon Quest games typically take way to long for your characters to learn new spells, because as time goes on, level ups become more and more infrequent. This negates that, somewhat - your party will learn new spells and attacks so long as you keep training them in their jobs. And any person can learn any job, so far as I can tell. I mean sure, I'm not going to teach Carver to become a Mage, but whatever - I can if I want to.

Some of these battles, though. Wow. The game hasn't been too unfair thus far (as in, I haven't come across many bosses who throw party-damaging attacks twice in a row), but there have definitely been some tough battles. Also, the encounter rate seems just a bit to high for me, but that's pretty much always a complaint of mine. I suppose its kind of the point of Dragon Quest to fight a lot. Sure could use the cash anyway.

The graphics are really, really good in this game. The improvements over Dragon Quest IV and V are pretty subtle, but player characters are better animated this time around. The game has some fantastic sprite art, as well, and it looks good when the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot. The music is pretty good, as well.

Now if only my friend would pick up Dragon Quest IX when he's done beating every Castlevania...

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

2011-02-13T12:18:00.002-05:00

A week ago, I wrote that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was my favorite Castlevania of all time. But since I just finished Konami's third DS Castlevania, Order of Ecclesia, I may rethink that position.

There's a lot to like about Ecclesia, especially in light of the complaints of the past few games in the series. Many people thought the Sorrow games were quite easy, and made easier when the player ground up their levels. This is true; the enemies aren't necessarily designed to kill Soma easily - they are instead designed to chip away at his health over a long time, as Soma makes his way from save point to save point. And while this still happens a bit in Ecclesia, Konami decided to make the game a bit harder. If you don't play skillfully, or you play carelessly, you will die. It is as simple as that. There are a few enemies in the game that I avoid at all costs, if I can - the Cave Troll, relatively harmless in other games in the series, can kill you if you get caught in its electric attack - you can't move and it drains 30 HP every half second for about five seconds. Three hundred health is just about how much you'll have when you first encounter these guys. In past games in the series, the only time I would die would be on bosses - here, I died all the time. But it was very rarely due to some cheap hits - the Blade Master enemy is incredibly cheap, in my opinion - it was almost always due to poor playing on my part.

In addition to skillful playing being a necessity, the player must take into account enemy typing. Gone are the days when the player need only use one type of weapon - you must constantly shuffle around your Glyphs to be equipped for the right situation. See a skeleton enemy? Get your mace glyphs ready, because your swords aren't going to do much damage to them. See a rock enemy? Get a hammer out! And so on. The game lets you switch between three sets of Glyphs on the fly, and I loved having to switch weapons twice in one room to defeat all the enemies. Makes every room count, really.

One of the things I didn't like about the game the first time I played it two years ago was how the map was split into different areas. There's a town, there's a Monastery, there's mountains, a Lighthouse, etc. I wanted them to put all of that in one map - and I suppose they could, but honestly I think what they did turned out better. Each map flows into the next, which means when you enter the swamp, it is a straight shot from one end to the other, fighting enemies in pools of fetid water the whole way. When you get to the other side of the swamp, you get to a new area. Once you've played through an area once and found a new exit, you don't have to go through that area every time - you just pick the place you want to go to from the map menu. You can always go back if you like. All of this makes the world seem natural because Konami wasn't restricted to forcing all their level designs into one big map.

As you play through the early game, you sometimes encounter villagers you can save. Once you save them, they go back to the village, and will hand out quests to you. Some are easier than others, of course, and many of them unlock more items to buy in the shop. They provide a nice diversion from the main quest, if you're inclined to do them. They also provide some respite from the tough boss fights, if you'd rather take a break from trying to beat them.

The boss fights are likely my favorite thing about Order of Ecclesia - they may be the best in the series. They are incredibly well designed, and almost none of them exploit cheap tactics. They all have patterns that the player can learn, and some sort of weapon weakness the player can try to exploit. I was never disheartened whenever I got to a boss, which is new for a Castlevania game for me - they are all beatable, all at whatever level you happen to stumble across them. Sure, if you have more levels, you can take a bit more damage and deal a bit more, but if you play smartly, you will beat the boss.

I won't spoil the Dracula fight, but I will say this: he will not let you jump over him in his first form. You cannot exploit that age old tactic of getting him to start his attack animation, jumping behind him, and wailing on his head until he teleports. He quickly slaps you down with his cape, and it does a bunch of damage. The first time he did that to me, I smiled. Dracula wasn't going to put up with my bullshit this time. Overall, it's a fairly challenging fight, but he, like all the other bosses in the game, is fair and beatable.

I'm really not sure whether I like Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia more. They both have their benefits... Ecclesia is very streamlined, tough, and largely a new experience for Castlevania, whereas Dawn takes the format of the Symphony of the Night type of game and almost perfects it. I definitely know that Dawn and Ecclesia are my two favorite games in the series, at least.

God, I love the DS.

The Nintendo DS: Part Four

2011-02-07T19:24:00.002-05:00

When Microsoft released their Xbox 360 at the tail end of 2005 (followed by Sony's Playstation 3 a year later), they ushered in the era of HD videogaming. These new HD systems were leaps and bounds better, at least in terms of graphical prowess, than their ancestors. However, the cost for developing games for these high end systems grew larger than ever before. So while a few publishers and developers reveled in their technical prowess and huge budgets, smaller developers couldn't afford to compete on the same level, and so they needed a way to put their "lower-end" skills to use.

Enter the Nintendo DS. While the system was more powerful than Nintendo's handhelds before it, it was no where near as expensive as developing for the new HD systems. Games developed for handheld units were historically cheaper than their console counterparts, true, but the gulf in development costs was now wider than ever before. Sony's PSP even had high development costs, due to having Playstation 2 quality graphics - which while not as expensive to create as, say, Playstation 3 graphics, were still more expensive than Nintendo 64 graphics, which the DS was roughly on par with. So smaller developers (and big developers who didn't want to spend a fortune on every game they made) flocked to the DS, and tried to eke out a niche there.

Take, for example, the small Japanese developer formerly known as Office Create. They released a low budget game for the DS in 2006 called Cooking Mama. The game was relatively simple: players used the unique functions of the DS to cook dishes, as instructed by the eponymous Mama. Majesco published the game, and it went to retail with little to no fanfare. The game sold fairly well, at first, although it did something unexpected - it never stopped selling. It was a reliable seller for a few years, so Majesco made a few sequels, and as of 2009, the series has sold over 8 million copies.

One publisher that has done very well for itself on the DS is Atlus. They have done very little work on the HD systems, purportedly due to the costs involved. Their first breakout hit was Trauma Center: Under the Knife, released in October of 2005 and spawning a sequel on DS, and a remake and two sequels on Wii. They also did very well with their Etrian Odyssey series, which saw its first release in America in 2007. Two sequels were then published for the DS in following years, and a new Etrian Odyssey has been announced for the upcoming 3DS. They were also able to capitalize on the success of the Playstation 2 game Persona 3 and release two "Shin Megami Tensei"-branded games on the DS - SMT: Devil Survivor and SMT: Strange Journey. These were wholly original games, while the PSP entries in the SMT franchise were remakes of Persona games previously released on the Playstation 1.

Another breakout hit came in the form of 2009's Scribblenauts, developed by 5th Cell, who had previously created moderately selling DS titles Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The game was incredibly ambitious. The player was tasked with solving puzzles by summoning items or characters into the game by typing in words. The hook was the player could type nearly anything, so long as it wasn't obscene or copyrighted, and that word would appear as a physical object in the game that could be interacted with. The game even won several "Best of E3" awards, making it the first handheld title to ever do so. The game sold very well, and a sequel was released in late 2010.

The DS had proven itself fertile ground for several developers and publishers, but, of course, the first party titles cannot be ignored. Nintendo followed up the mediocre Super Mario 64 DS with a steady stream of fantastic games for the DS, culminating in 2007 with the newest release of its flagship handheld series - Pokemon.

The Nintendo DS: Part Three

2011-02-06T22:52:00.002-05:00

Whenever video game hardware is released that has features not found on prior hardware, there are usually complaints that decry the new features as "gimmicks" that may take away from what many gamers call "hardcore" games. The reasons for this phenomenon vary for each new system, of course - the upcoming 3DS has people wondering what the 3D will bring to the table as far as gameplay enhancements go, for example. But since the original DS was such a wild departure in terms of hardware design, it follows that many people (myself included) were worried about all its seeming "extraneous" features detracting from the good, solid gameplay of the past.

The DS has two screens. This in itself is odd, when you think about it - what other video game was ever designed with two separate screens (arcades don't really count)? People were worried that developers wouldn't know what to put on each screen, or that there would be too much going on for a player to make sense of what was happening on each screen, etc. Some of these worries came to fruition in games like Yoshi's Island DS, in which there was a gap between the screens in which enemies could lurk, which severely hampered the playability of the game.

Then of course there is the touchscreen, which was an extremely new feature for a mainstream handheld videogame system such as the DS. Tiger's Game.com had a touchscreen, but it wasn't implemented very well and was underutilized, like most features on the system. There were of course Palm devices that had touchscreens, but no killer app games were ever developed for those. Nintendo was going into largely uncharted waters with this feature. Super Mario 64 DS had poor touchscreen functionality; Kirby: Canvas Curse, released by Nintendo in mid-2005, proved that the touchscreen really could allow for compelling gameplay. In this game, the player controlled Kirby with the stylus by drawing paths for him. These served as both roads and bridges, but if the player drew a vertical line, could stop Kirby in mid-roll. Canvas Curse was the game that fired the opening salvo for in-depth touchscreen gaming.

The lessons of Kirby: Canvas Curse weren't taken to heart right away, and many developers struggled to find a use for the touchscreen functionality of the DS. There were many titles that shoehorned the function in during the early days of the DS. One game that both shoehorned in some very underwhelming touchscreen functionality and also tried to solve the question of what to do with both screens was Konami's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, released October 4, 2005.

Konami had done very well for themselves on the Game Boy Advance, with a trio of Castlevania games released for that platform, each of which eclipsed the quality of the last. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was especially well received, due to a mechanic that was entirely new to the Castlevania series: the ability of the main character, Soma, to acquire the "souls" of his enemies, effectively giving him hundreds of powers. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria, and it carries over many of the features of its predecessor (along with a lot of reused assets, but that is something the Castlevania series is prone to anyway).

One of the things it did add was the "Magic Seal" function, which was how Konami determined the touchscreen would be implemented. When the player reduced the HP of a boss to zero, they had to draw a pattern on the screen to "seal" the boss (which really just meant actually finishing it off). The problem with this was that when many players beat a rather tough boss, they were forced to draw some pattern from memory, and if they failed, the boss would come back to life with a third of its health. In a series known for its brutal bosses, this feature alone was widely hated, and not implemented in any future installments of the series.

Konami did, however, use the dual screens fairly well. The top screen was used to display a map of the castle, which was very useful because the intricate design of Dracula's lair was easy to get lost in, and not having to pause the game to view the map really kept the pace going. The player could also display a detailed stat screen for Soma and the enemy he was currently fighting - displaying not only known info like HP, but what items an enemy could drop (if Soma had collected them before) or whether or not he had already collected that enemy's "Soul".

But other than these new features, the game was an early example of what many would categorize as a "hardcore" game on a system that had a reputation at that time of having pretty tame games. The game was difficult and had an abundance of features, one of which was a very robust postgame quest that had a unique twist - Julius mode, in which the player played as a typical Belmont, armed only with a whip and the usual subweapons of old. The game also had a New Game + feature, which allowed players to carry over all their souls, levels, equipment, and items to a new file if they wanted.

Personally, I fell in love with this game. It is, to this day, the only game I have ever written a FAQ for, and is still my favorite Castlevania game. Despite its odd touchscreen functions and sprite reuse, it is one of the best DS games ever released, and is therefore a must-play.

The Nintendo DS: Part Two

2011-02-05T14:36:00.002-05:00

The Nintendo DS was, until late 2005, largely useless. The games available for it up until that point were not of the caliber seen even on the less powerful Game Boy Advance, at least in terms of gameplay depth. Almost a full year had passed before the first worthwhile games began showing up - such as Mario Kart DS, the game that made me begin to fall in love with the DS.

Released on November 14, 2005, Mario Kart DS was an important release for Nintendo in many ways. Just in terms of the Mario Kart series, Nintendo was pulling in the reigns a little, returning some of the gameplay ideas of older Mario Kart games to counter complaints levied against the Gamecube's Mario Kart: Double Dash. Gone were the two characters riding one kart, gone were holding two items at once, and returning were the jumping of vehicles and Mario Kart 64-style powersliding (more on this later). They did keep in the ability to pick different karts for each character, though.

But Mario Kart DS represented Nintendo's first tentative steps into the world of internet gaming. This was the first game Nintendo had ever made that allowed for online competition - and in many ways, this shows. When a player would drop out of a race early - typically because they were losing - the people left wouldn't get credit for beating them. This meant that if all the players dropped out before the end of the four races, nobody would get any credit for having won any races - meaning the win/loss tally for the player would never be quite right. The other problem was people who "ragequit" weren't penalized with losses, either, which meant they could quit with impunity.

But some would see a bigger problem with the competitive nature of Mario Kart DS - and that is the art of "snaking". The Mario Kart series has always had drifting and powersliding in it, with different implementations in each game. Typically, though, while going around a curve, if a player holds down the drift button, and uses the D-pad to lean in and out of the turn, they get a small boost when they release the drift button. Mario Kart DS had this feature, and it was made incredibly easy. The time required to activate the boost was significantly lessened, and the D-pad made precision powersliding a breeze, when in the past players had to deal with a more sensitive analog stick. This led players to discover that they could powerslide across straightaways, something that was pretty much impossible in past Mario Kart games. This ability, dubbed "snaking" for the way players would zigzag across the track while performing it, split the Mario Kart DS player base into two groups: those for it, and those against it. It became commonplace to see people dropping from matches as soon as they saw snaking, which made finishing any races at all even harder whether you were snaking or not. Since players couldn't host matches themselves, there was no way - short of playing only with their friends - to make sure their opponents weren't snaking. Thus, just a few months after Mario Kart DS's debut, was the online scene a ghost town for people who did not want to snake.

Nintendo's online foibles aside, though, the game itself was incredibly solid. I fell in love with its precision controls immediately, even before I taught myself how to snake. The courses were incredibly well-designed, too, from the tight corners of Luigi's Mansion to the windy turns of Desert Hills. It also was the first Mario Kart game to let the player play tracks from older Mario Kart games, ranging from the Super Nintendo all the way up to some of the better levels from the Gamecube version. Putting Mario Kart DS's superior controls into these older levels made them that much more fun to play for many people - myself included.

The game also introduced a mission mode, which was for one player only. This greatly extended the life of the single player game, though, because there were a ton of missions. The game would task you with goals such as "collect all the coins in X seconds" or "get rid of all the Koopas" and would grade the player on how well they performed. You could unlock a few characters this way, and people could not complain now that Mario Kart was only good for multiplayer.

The Nintendo DS was a departure for Nintendo from the old way of doing things. They were embracing online play now, Mario Kart DS being the first step. They were experimenting with new ways of player input, with the largely failed Super Mario 64 DS - although they would try again, and not perhaps not fail so badly. They were preparing themselves, in essence, for the Wii - the console that really sparked the advent of the "casual gamer" - that is, people who don't normally play games would now begin to play. That isn't to say that games made for the "hardcore" crowd didn't exist on the platform, and one of the best was brought to the DS by Konami just before the release of Mario Kart DS, in fact. But more on that next time.

The Nintendo DS: Part One

2011-02-03T18:44:00.003-05:00

I'm stealing my favorite videogame writer's idea and writing about Nintendo DS games in anticipation of the 3DS release - although I'm changing a bit to be a timeline of my experience with the DS, measured in terms of games.

I'm doing this because the Nintendo DS was not something I looked forward to, and in fact didn't like at all at first, yet eventually became my favorite gaming system of all time. In fact, this was a system that I asked for for Christmas simply because it was a Nintendo system and I figured it would eventually have good games. I was scared - terrified, actually - that the PSP, the system I didn't choose, would overwhelm the DS and outsell it, effectively ending Nintendo because at the time, they were losing badly with the Gamecube to Sony's PS2 juggernaut and Microsoft's powerful Xbox 360 was just around the corner. The Wii was just a twinkle in Satoru Iwata's eye at that point (okay, so it was being developed, but us non-Nintendo peons had no idea it existed at the time).

When I got the system, I wasn't too thrilled with it. The included demo, Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt, was the main reason why. Here was a shooter, which I didn't like anyway, which played terribly with touchscreen controls (which were apparently improved for the actual release of the game) and honestly didn't look too great. The fact that Samus had to interact with other bounty hunters was the first sign that the Metroid series was beginning to decline in quality, too, but that's another topic altogether (and I haven't played Other M yet anyway).

The other game I got was Super Mario 64 DS, what is thought by many to be the main launch title. Nintendo's goal, as far as I can tell, was to show two things: first, that the graphical capabilities of the DS were roughly on par with the Nintendo 64, and second, that even a game with a complicated set of traditional controls would work with a touchscreen.

The fact that the graphics were as good on Nintendo's flagship DS game as they were gave me some hope that the DS wouldn't be utterly crushed in the marketplace. Of course, the PSP could outdo the DS without so much as breaking a sweat, so I was still a bit worried.

But the real problem with Super Mario 64 DS is its control implementation. You can control the game with the D-pad, but it is clear that Nintendo never really intended for players to do much of that: to run, you have to hold down a face button to change Mario's speed. This is needlessly complicated, which is a huge problem because momentum and precise control of Mario on precarious platforms are the main challenges in the original Super Mario 64. So what is your best option? To use the touchscreen to guide Mario around.

This is, of course, a complete and utter terrible way to control a 3D platformer. It just doesn't work. You see, you control Mario by moving your stylus (or thumb-nub, which came with the game) on the bottom screen, while watching Mario move around on the top screen. So right there, you have a disconnect between where your finger/stylus/thumb-nub is and where Mario himself is moving. With buttons, this is fine, because the position of the buttons never changes - your thumb-nub, however, by necessity, must change positions. You can also remove your nub from the screen, which of course causes Mario to come to a stop and also forcing you to recenter your thumb on the screen when you inevitably must move Mario around again.

What a mess, right? At least Nintendo threw in thirty extra Power Stars to collect, and a few characters who controlled a bit different than the eponymous star of the game. I just wished I could control them with an analog stick, which is of course what the original Super Mario 64 was designed around.

The original DS unit itself wasn't very attractive, either. It was a large, plastic, gray blob that was heavier than it should have been, and certainly wasn't very streamlined. It did, however, have great speakers (which were neutered in the first system redesign, the DS Lite, but eventually brought back with the DSi speakers) and my favorite D-pad of all time. This made a certain racing game a blast to play, but that's for the next post.

Lost in Phantasy Star

2011-01-29T21:30:00.003-05:00

2011 seems to be the year of Phantasy Star, apparently. I'm still playing cube-flavored Phantasy Star Online - Odin Taros is now level 43, and I've reached the Ruins on Hard - and I recently picked up Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP. (As an aside - why do publishers insist on making games with the same acronyms as the systems they are on? Phantasy Star Portable, Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Resident Evil Deadly Silence, etc. etc. etc. It's such a weird thing to do...)

But! Before I give you my initial impressions of PSPortable, I must tell you about Lost in Blue, an old (2005 vintage, actually!) DS game I picked up recently on the cheap. I can see why it was $7.99 - Konami didn't give too much of the budget over to graphics or sound, so what you have is a somewhat ugly, janky-looking game that sounds pretty bad.

The premise of the game is simple. Much like their 1999 Game Boy Color title Survival Kids, you are a young boy who has washed ashore on what appears to be a deserted island (I just started playing, so I have no idea if it's completely deserted or not) and you must gather items and kill wildlife and survive the wilderness. You do so by combining items together, and playing little minigames to use them. For example, once you've acquired a twig and some tree bark, you play a little minigame in which you alternately press L and R and blow into the microphone to start a fire. I find this pretty neat, although I imagine it will get incredibly tedious after a while if I have to light a fire every in game day, though.

So after finding a cave to sleep in for the night, I woke up and was able to cross the now calmed river to find a girl, washed ashore, passed out on the beach. I woke her up, gave her a coconut, and brought her to my warm, dry cave and nursed her back to health as best I could with my raw clams, seaweed, and fire. Okay, so neither one of us is in good shape. But I suspect as the game goes on I'll become more and more capable of surviving.

I think the game is aggressively mediocre so far, but that is likely because the concept is so great to me, and I had heard the execution was pretty subpar. I will try to play more of it, but of course, the timesink juggernaut Phantasy Star looms.

As far as I can tell, PSPortable is a portable rendition of Phantasy Star Universe. I have not played PSU, so I cannot verify this claim. But what I've played of PSPortable is quite interesting... The game is like a mix of Phantasy Star Zero and Phantasy Star Online. The graphics are quite good, actually - much better than PSZero - but the controls are very weird. You have the ability to switch between weapons on the fly by holding O and then using the D pad to select your weapon. You then use the square button to use the weapon (I can't tell if there are Regular and Strong attacks, like in PSO and PSZero - perhaps I'm dumb and didn't find the button? Who knows). You also can lock on to enemies, but you don't stay pointed at them - your character will strafe around the guy, but stay pointed straight ahead rather than focus on whatever you targeted. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, though. It can't be good when something as basic as locking on is obtuse right off the bat, though. There also seems to be a little number in the corner that ticks down as you use your weapon, but slowly ticks back up when you don't. I'm not really sure what that does - is it weapon degradation? Is it the weapon temporarily getting weaker? I cannot tell.

Like Phantasy Star Zero, you go on Story missions with some CPU-controlled partners. So far, I think the CPU in PSPortable is much smarter than PSZero, because your guys actually alternate between attacking and healing pretty regularly and don't seem to walk into obvious enemy attacks. Granted, I haven't faced a boss yet, and that's the real test.

What story I've encountered so far is mind-numbingly boring, not that I expected any different (and really, who cares - you don't play these games for the stories anyway). I made a RAcast named Odin Taros, just like in Cube PSO, and he recently graduated Hunter School or some crap and is now going out on his first few missions. Like in PSZero, I pick between a few dialogue choices on the occasion when someone asks me a question, and just like in the DS game, my responses don't seem to matter very much.

Regardless, though - I dropped 2000 meseta (been playing too much Phantasy Star, I suppose - $20) on this game, so I'm going to put more time into it, as well as Lost in Blue if I can.

The Differences Between 0's and O's: Phantasy Star

2011-01-23T20:02:00.003-05:00

So I have beaten Phantasy Star Zero, as of yesterday. The game was incredibly easy, and honestly? By the end of it I was pretty bored. It wasn't necessarily because of the difficulty (or lack thereof) - it was mostly because there was so little variety to it. Even compared to Phantasy Star Online (which I have recently started up again, thanks to the Sylverant servers)!

I know I said the game has a variety of level design, and for the most part, that holds up throughout. The problem as I see it is a lack of variety in gameplay - sure, you're killing tons of enemies throughout, but they don't really offer any challenge. The levels don't really offer any, either, and having replayed a lot of Phantasy Star Online recently, the bosses leave a lot to be desired as well. They have ridiculously easy patterns (except maybe the first time you fight the Octopus boss, but even then I never died against him) and go down fairly quickly.

Compare that to Phantasy Star Online, where the bosses are dangerous as hell. If you aren't overleveled, you have to be very careful when you go up against any boss in PSO - from the first boss all the way to the last. I grant, though, that all the bosses are not created equal - the bastard Cave boss, for example, is really badly designed. He isn't even damageable except for a small window, and frankly even then he its too difficult to hit him without getting hit by his stupid antennae. This makes the battle take forever.

Regardless, though, Phantasy Star Online is the better game. Sure, Phantasy Star 0 has some neat ideas - I love the reward system (think Achievements, only instead of points, you get items), the ability to recruit NPCs for offline missions (who I wish would never, ever talk, but it's still a neat idea), and the camera controls are a little better. But Phantasy Star Online just has more going for it - a more balanced game (with, you know, CHALLENGE), better character designs, better music, better atmosphere, better reasons to keep playing, and better items. It's kind of intangible, actually, why else Phantasy Star Online is better - you get the impression that 0 was made on a shoestring budget and didn't get quite the care it should have to make it a better game.

So I'm now way to far into PS0 for my own good, probably. I'm playing more of this than any other game I have, at the moment - I still haven't finished Fallout: New Vegas (although I fully intend to). I must get back to Odin Taros, my level 24 RAcast, and grind him up.

I am addicted to PSO again, and it feels so, so good.

Phantasy Star Online: Anniversary Edition

2011-01-12T20:22:00.002-05:00

On a whim, I recently purchased Phantasy Star 0 for DS. I bought it new, at full price, for $34.99 from Gamestop (something I very, very rarely do for games that haven't come out in the past year or so) because I was itching for some Phantasy Star Online. I had heard a recent podcast about the entire series of Phantasy Star Online, from the original Dreamcast release all the way up to the recent DS and PSP games. One of the people on it, who said he played mostly offline PSO on the Gamecube (which is pretty much what I did the most of) said he really liked Phantasy Star 0, so I bit.

I'm glad I did! This game really seems like a remake of Phantasy Star Online, honestly. There are some new story bits, but they aren't too intrusive (something I've heard Phantasy Star Universe has big problems with) and has all new levels and character designs and enemies and such. In fact, the graphics are some of the best 3D I've seen on the DS, to be honest - much better than the Final Fantasy IV remake a few years back and better even than the recent Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light (which made some stylistic choices regarding its graphics, but I don't think they look too great, to be honest). One of my favorite things about this game is the varied levels; each place I've been to so far (four places) have been outside, and the game has random dungeon design so each time you go through the dungeon is different, thankfully. I suppose the only thing I miss compared to Phantasy Star Online is the player character design and detail. For my gunner, I picked the only option I had to [i]not[/i] wear a goofy cowboy hat. That's fine in Fallout: New Vegas, but not my futuristic pseudo-MMO, dammit!

The controls are pretty good, as well; the game plays very much like Phantasy Star Online, with a few minor tweaks. First, you have the ability to lock on to an enemy and strafe at the same time, by holding L and then moving left or right. This makes you a bit slower, but allows you to attack while moving a bit, dodging many enemy attacks in the process. Also, since I chose a gunner as my character, this makes combat almost damage free because I hang back from the enemy and shoot. There is also a dodge ability, which causes your character to roll in the direction of your choice - they are invincible during the roll, too, so far as I can tell. There is a cooldown period for this, of course, of about a half second - which means you better be out of harms way wherever your character stands up or you'll take damage.

I rather enjoy the music, too, although admittedly when I've been grinding recently I've been listening to my iPod.

I just find it interesting how retro this game is, in terms of its gameplay - this really is Phantasy Star Online Again Round 2. It's like Sega realized the past few have kind of sucked and they started over - perhaps that's why they called it Phantasy Star Zero? Although that probably has to do with some goofy storyline.

Anyway, I highly recommend the game. My buddy recently picked it up and as soon as he gets back to his apartment at the end of the week we should be playing some games online, which I'm really looking forward to. Apparently he is a human mage, so he plays quite a bit differently than my gunner. Which works!

In other news, I was able to get my Gamecube copy of Phantasy Star Online connected to a private server a few days ago, which means we can play that online now too, if Phantasy Star 0 isn't to our liking or we get sick of it or something. I guess we'll see.

Christmas Haul 2010

2010-12-27T22:39:00.003-05:00

So Christmas has come and gone, and, as usual, has affected the games I'm playing currently.

Before I get to those, a simple list of the games I've gotten (so far, because I may be getting one or two more on New Years day):

-Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
-Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS)
-Prince of Persia (PS3)
-New Play Control Pikmin (Wii)
-Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
-Nier (PS3)
-Contra 4 (DS)
-Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSiWare)
-Mighty Flip Champs (DSiWare)

I also got a swanky new DSi XL (midnight blue) that looks and plays great, but anyway.

I have begun Final Fantasy XIII and don't have much to say about it yet - I'm about two or three hours into it and it seems I've barely started, which is about what I expected given how much I've heard TWENTY HOUR TUTORIAL since the thing came out. Most of what I've done so far has been gameplay, though, which I'm happy about - it's not a boatload of text or twenty minute cutscenes the whole time. Granted, I just unlocked the ability to Paradigm Shift along with leveling up via the Crystarium, so I've got some learning to do (along with some reading, which is quite difficult on a SDTV - fucking dammit).

The other Final Fantasy I got, 4 Heroes of Light, is pretty great so far! I like the combat system a lot - it is challenging so far, but not frustrating or unfair. Depending on the fight, you have to be very careful, as one or two mistakes can cause you to lose. The nice part is that you don't lose too much if you get party wiped - the game randomly picks one of the types of gems you have and halves them. This means that you may have to grind for those gems again if you need them, as they provide both easy cash if you sell them and also they are used to upgrade your Crowns, which are similar to the old job systems of old Final Fantasys.

My big complaint is that the game, despite being called 4 Heroes of Light, actually splits them up pretty quickly, and that is quite annoying. I want to really delve into the Crown system but can't, really, because all my stupid guys are all apart so I don't really know which Crowns to level up yet. Hopefully it won't be long before they all get together and I can really start to grind them up.

I've also played a bit of both Mighty Flip Champs and Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Wayforward's DSiWare offerings which I downloaded for $20 total on Christmas day. I like them both quite a bit! I'm a bit lost as to where to go next in Shantae (I've beaten the first boss and I think I'll probably have to talk to townspeople for a clue as to where to go next), but the mechanics are pretty solid. I like the monkey transformation and I look forward to unlocking more transformations to maneuver my way around the delightful side-scrolling world better. By the by, Shantae looks absolutely fantastic on my majestic DSi XL, as does Contra 4 and Mighty Flip Champs (it seems 2D sprite art games are a good fit for the little beast).

Mighty Flip Champs is a puzzle platformer in which you press any face button on the DSi to make the bottom screen flip to the top screen. You must navigate the levels to get to the end using this mechanic. It is like 2D Portal, actually. I'm in the second set of levels and they are getting fairly devious, at this point. Great little game, though, easily worth the eight bucks.

And that is all for now, and likely all for 2010. My New Years goal? To write more blog posts next year than this year, which is already my most prolific year. Hopefully the writing competency gets better, too...

Second Annual Ocarina of Time Throwdown: Afterwards

2010-12-19T20:03:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, four friends of mine sat down and began to race our way through the entirety of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Three of us played on Nintendo 64s, one on a Gamecube, and myself on my Wii. After about eight and a half hours, I came out victorious, but that is not what this post is about.

I hadn't played OoT in about three years (since the last Throwdown) and had since played through Majora's Mask twice. Some things surprised me during my revisit to Hyrule.

First and foremost, I have this game down pat. Again, not bragging, it's just that I beat this game so many times that it has almost literally become muscle memory for me. I almost felt as if I was watching someone else play through the game as I watched myself beat the entire thing in a single day.

I forgot some things, though. Like I always did when I was younger, I forgot to go get Saria's Song after meeting up with Zelda before attempting to enter Dodongo's Cavern. Frankly, I still think it's stupid the game makes you do this - you leave the forest, are given the Fairy Ocarina from Saria, then you run to Hyrule Castle, talk to Zelda, then are expected to run right back to Saria to learn another song.

WHY DOESN'T SARIA JUST TEACH YOU HER STUPID SONG WHEN SHE GIVES YOU THE OCARINA?!

Anyway. Coming off playing Majora's Mask twice as I did, I was surprised at how short the dungeons are in OoT. Besides the Water Temple, all the dungeons can be completed fairly quickly and don't get too devious in terms of navigation - they are pretty linear. I'm glad Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess didn't fall prey to this.

I do suppose that they are only linear because I know exactly where I'm going, which is a fair point. Considering I've beaten Majora's Mask so many times, though, the dungeons in that game aren't a cakewalk to me each time I play them, which is how I prefer it.

What Ocarina of Time has over Majora's Mask, and probably every other Zelda game, is the final boss gauntlet. The little dialogue from Ganondorf right before the battle is fairly chilling, then the duel you have with him is intense, and you can easily die if you aren't careful. Then you have to run down the collapsing castle with Zelda, and, just when you think it's all over, you hear a noise from a pile of rubble. Link runs in to investigate.

A gravely injured Ganondorf pops up from the rubble, and floating there, he holds up his hand. The Triforce of Power appears, reminding the player that Ganondorf will not go down easily. Nothing is said at all from any of the three people standing there as Ganondorf begins to transform into the monstrous pig-beast Ganon. Holding two giant twisted sai, the beast roars its challenge at Link as it begins flailing its arms. Link, taken off guard, loses his Master Sword as Ganon knocks it out of his hand, out of the arena. Ganon then takes a moment to squeal triumphantly as he knows Link is in trouble without the only blade capable of killing the evil dictator. Link, sword-less, looks up at his foe, in what is probably the single best pre-boss scene in any video game ever:

So, so tense. I'm going to end it there, at one of the greatest moments of quite possibly the greatest series in video games.

Dragon Warrior III First Impressions

2010-12-12T17:30:00.003-05:00

So I came across a copy of Dragon Warrior III for the NES last week for a decent deal, and since it was in fantastic condition I bought it. After Phantasy Star IV, I wanted some more classic-style RPG to sink my teeth into.

I've heard good things about Dragon Warrior III, too. It has a rudimentary job system, and you get to name all of your characters and pick their classes and all that. It's also an NES RPG, which means once you've saved, you have to hold the Reset button as you turn the power off - and I'm playing this thing on a knock off Famiclone, so we'll see how well the save stays in the cartridge. Although when I turned it on the first time, there was a save with the guys at level 36, with names like Kain and Crono - which says to me the game was started back in the mid nineties. So obviously the save battery still works in the cart...

Anyway, as for game impressions, I will start by saying the encounter rate is too high. I know, I know, it's an 8-bit RPG so I should expect as much, but still. The battles are fast paced, though, which is nice - I sort of expected incredibly slowly moving text, but it moves pretty fast if you set it that way. I love the music, and the graphics look like a 1986 NES game, even though it was released in Japan in 1988. I like them, though. They're simple, but not boring looking, like Paladin's Quest, which I also picked up when I bought Dragon Warrior III.

I reached the first boss, though, about three dungeons in - and he kicked my ass. I forgot, this being a Dragon Warrior game, that when you lost a battle, you get sent back to the last town you saved at, minus half your gold - but you keep your experience. Which was nice! I would have lost a half hours worth of grinding had that not been the case. I'm going to have to grind some more to beat that guy, though.

It's difficult to write about these old RPGs. The battle system is classic Dragon Warrior/Quest, which is to say it didn't change all the way up to Dragon Quest IX (and even then, it wasn't too different). And it's not like the story is really worth writing about. Either way, I'm having a good time.

Rune Factory 3: Harvest Moon Reloaded

2010-12-08T20:13:00.004-05:00

Rune Factory 3 may have perfected Harvest Moon.

Okay, so it may be a little too early to say that yet - I've only put in about 10 hours or so - but so far I am very happy with what I've played of Rune Factory 3.

The Rune Factory games (all with the subtitle "A Fantasy Harvest Moon") take what you do in the mainline HM games (farm and woo ladies) and add dungeon crawling into the mix. You wouldn't think that would work, would you? And I would argue that it hasn't, at least until now (although I've only played Frontier, the Wii version - not the two previous DS games).

The Wii version had way too much crappy voice acting and loading to be much fun; you see, I'm used to the quick loading of Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon DS, the two HM games I've spent the most time with. When you throw load times in, the game just becomes unbearable. To be fair, the Wii version wasn't too addled with load times, but any at all really kill the experience for me. There was also a heavy emphasis on "Runeys" - I didn't play the game long enough to really tell what they were about, but a cursory search of the internet has shown that they govern how fast your crops will grow - for example if you don't take care of a certain area, the Runeys will die out there, causing your crops to grow much more slowly. Likewise, if you take really good care of an area, more Runeys will come and will cause crops to grow really fast there. A lot of the complaining about the Rune Factory games that I've seen on the internet has focused on the Runeys.

I have not seen one Runey since starting up RF3 - nor have their "effects" ever been mentioned in the game. In Rune Factory: Frontier, the Runey's were explicitly explained in-game; here, they bear no mention.

But the sheer amount of things to do in RF3 boggle the mind. Every day, there are "Requests" posted to the bulletin board in town that you can do to help villagers out, to both get items or gold from them and to raise your relationship with them (there's also requests sent directly to your mailbox, which seems kind of weird to me - why are there two places where you can get jobs?). If you don't feel like helping out villagers, you can go into one of four (that I know of) dungeons to kill stuff and get even more items, such as gems from mining spots or loot drops from your enemies. The fighting is real time, and you have many different weapons to choose from - I am currently using two swords, because you move fast and, as the flavor text so aptly puts it, "overwhelm your foes." You gain experience by fighting, but you don't merely level your character up this way - pretty much everything you do in RF3 will level up.

From what I've seen, you can level up walking/running, fighting (each individual weapon type has it's own level associated with it, i.e. swords, dual swords, spears, etc.), fishing, cooking with hands, cooking with a knife, love (which is leveled up by dealing with villagers of the opposite sex), friendship, sleeping (you level this up by sleeping, and when an enemy puts you to sleep, a higher level of "sleep" skill will wake you up faster), farming skills (such as your skill with a hoe, scythe, watering can, etc.), and so on. I'm positive I haven't even seen everything you can level up in this game yet. Also, another thing to note is that when you level something up, it not only boosts your capability with that skill, but it also usually adds something to your stats - whether its HP, RP (Runey points, which is basically your tolerance for fatigue), Strength, or whatever. This comes in handy, because you typically don't have enough time each day to do a whole lot of farming AND dungeon diving (its typically either dabbling in both, or one or the other). When you farm a lot, for example, your strength and RP will go up, allowing you to both farm better, and last longer in the dungeons.

There's a lot to find in this game, it seems. As for the characters, they are mostly one-note so far - they don't have the depth I'd like to see, but at least they aren't flat out boring like the characters in Frontier seemed to be. Certainly the script in the game is nothing to write home about, but it is passable (it isn't annoying, at least, which is appreciated).

As far as graphics go, I like them, for the most part. There are a lot of villagers, and I kind of wish my choices for chasing ladies weren't so varied. I may change my mind on this later, but there are too many girls to keep track of, and a lot of them look similar (at least they do on the map - their personal portraits that come up when you talk to them look quite different).

The sound isn't as iconic as in Harvest Moon 64, but it isn't bad, either.

One of the things I discovered just before starting this blog is that I apparently can ask anyone in the village to accompany me into the dungeons - if I can get some of the girls in town to come fight things with me, my love for this game will probably skyrocket (assuming they have passable AI, of course). You apparently can turn into a "wooly" too, which is a sheep-looking thing. I just unlocked the ability to do that, and I don't really know what it's for, yet.

I stayed up later than I wanted to the other night playing this game, which historically has been a good sign for me loving a game, because it means the game has its hooks in me. We'll see if they stick...

Unsung Heroes: Phantasy Star IV

2010-12-04T18:55:00.002-05:00

I just beat Phantasy Star IV. As posited in this article, PSIV is one of the largely unsung classics of the 16-bit era. While I wouldn't quite put it on the level of Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger, I do think it is a better game than Final Fantasy IV (which I do like quite a bit). It really is a shame this series hasn't seen any love other than Phantasy Star Online and its crappy handheld spin-offs.

Would I recommend it to someone who is used to the standards of today's RPGs? That's hard to say. Do you enjoy grinding a bit (such as WoW)? Sure, it'd be offline, but there's quite a bit of grinding. At least, that's how I played it - the nice part is, it doesn't take too long to level up - you get to a new area, level all your guys up once or twice, and then challenge the boss. If you are able to beat him, keep going. If not, level up another time or two.

You have Techniques, which is basically magic in this game. This costs MP to cast. You also have Skills, which have a counter on them - you can use them as many times as is listed, until you spend a night at an inn, when they are replenished. They are entirely separate from Techniques, so you don't have to split MP between them. Some characters (the robots) can't use magic, so they are limited to their Skills. Some Techniques and Skills can also be used in a certain order to cause special attacks, such as Nawat and Nazan to cause Blizzard, which is the only one I found myself. Apparently there are 14 of these and they are all pretty powerful.

If I have a complaint about the game, it really is that the battle system isn't anything exceptional. It's not bad - I would say its even above average! - but compared to the openness and flexibility of both Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI I would say it's pretty plain. Much akin to the Dragon Quest games, to be honest. The encounter rate can be somewhat high, sometimes, but it wasn't ridiculous.

Although it was a little more sparse than I would have liked it (due to what I'm guessing are space constraints, some of the scenes are a little lighter on dialogue than I would have liked), the story was presented excellently. I already mentioned those colored manga panels in my last post, and they really do deliver throughout the game. They are well-timed to the music for the ending as well, which is nice. It really does wrap up the story of PS1-4, too.

So I suppose I don't have too much more to say about the game. I am going to start up Phantasy Star II again, probably tonight, too. Whether I beat that game or not, we'll see - from what I remember, it's even more grindy than PSIV and a little slower, and also not as well presented. But I'm going to try! I have the ability to play Phantasy Star I, too, and I'd like to, but I really will need to buy some graph paper in that case. Which kind of sounds like Etrian Odyssey, so I'm tempted... We'll see how that goes, though. One of the blessings of playing PSIV and II is that they are on a PSP collection I have, so I can play them portably, and I only have access to I on my 360 Genesis collection. Anyway, though, I really enjoyed PSIV and will probably play it again someday. It's like RPG comfort food - lots of grinding, light story, excellent graphics and music.

Oh Sega. How the mighty have fallen.

New School Platformers and Old School RPGs

2010-11-25T23:17:00.004-05:00

I've been preoccupied with two games as of late, and they are about as different from each other as you could imagine: Super Meat Boy, a Xbox 360 port of a flash game by Edward McMillan (who apparently did some concept art for indie-hit Braid), and Phantasy Star IV, a 1995 Genesis old school RPG by Rieko Kodama (among others), producer of such games as Phantasy Star I and II, Skies of Arcadia, Magic Knight Rayearth, and 7th Dragon (which, sadly, does not look like it will come out in English - a pity, because it plays like Etrian Odyssey and is gorgeous).

Super Meat Boy is a ridiculously hardcore sidescroller, akin to N+, only it plays much faster. You are given around 300 levels, and tasked with reaching the end by touching Bandage Girl (who serves as the "damsel in distress" for this game). Actually, click here for a nice post about Meat Boy that also delves into the story and characters a bit, because I don't really feel like writing about them.

The gameplay, though, is incredible. Meat Boy moves really fast, and can walljump - which is honestly where the game throws its challenge at you. Sure, there is the aspect where the player has to figure out how to beat each level, but even when they do, they have to actually do it - which is easier said than done. This is why I love the game so much. It makes no bones about what you have to do - get to the end point of the level - but it so expertly ramps up its difficulty throughout. By the end of the game, there are levels that to someone who just started, would look impossible - and a veteran player will fly through the level as though it is a tutorial. Likewise, early levels that had initially proved difficult are a breeze. This is good game design - sprinkling new level design throughout the game to teach the player new techniques to move the little guy around. Also having the ability to unlock new characters - who control differently from Meat Boy! - is great as well. The Double Jump mechanic one unlocks when the unlock The Guy (a cameo of the main character from I Wanna Be The Guy) changes the way you play every level in the game completely.

It is very likely that Super Meat Boy is my favorite Xbox 360 game.

As for Phantasy Star IV, this is the second time I've started the game up, and this time, it has clicked. It is as old-school as RPGs can get, which means a lot of grinding, but the game is very polished. As in, the graphics are the best I've seen anyone get out of the old released-in-1989 Sega Genesis, the music is some of the best I've heard from the same, and the localization isn't a complete turd (like, sadly, the first two Phantasy Star games).

The story is told in a way that I haven't really seen anywhere else in games, too. Cutscenes are told through use of text and what amounts to colored comic book panels which pop up as different characters speak or different events happen. It's a really neat effect, and I wish other games would use this sort of style to tell their story - particularly contemporary RPGs designed to be old-school, such as Nostalgia (or especially Sands of Destruction, which could have dropped the shitty voice acting and horrible load times in favor of snappy dialogue delivered in a cool way).

Regardless, Phantasy Star IV (and, really, the entire series, save for what little I've played of III) evokes a type of world you don't see too often in (good) RPGs - sci-fi. As in, outer space, laser beam, laser sword, sci-fi. Sure, there is Star Wars KOTOR, but what else is there? Not many good ones, I'm afraid. It's done well, too - you start out on a fairly barren planet and slowly make your way around it, then get a spaceship and start traveling to space stations and new planets and such. I legitimately enjoy exploring these worlds because I haven't explored similar worlds in RPGs before.

Also, being really familiar with the stories of the past games makes Phantasy Star IV all the better. Having played through about half of PSII and having a passing familiarity with the stories of PSI and PSIII means a lot of the references in Phantasy Star IV are really cool. For example, I just beat what I believe to be the reincarnated last boss of Phantasy Star I! I have also seen a statue of the heroine from Phantasy Star I as well, but no one in the town it is in really seem to know who the hell it is. The player does, however, which is a cool way to present that (PSII took place 1000 years after PS1, and PSIV takes place 1000 years after PSII, which explains why the townspeople are fuzzy in regards to the statue). I found a crashed ship from Phantasy Star III, and most of Phantasy Star IV's story seems to tie in with Phantasy Star II's. I won't get in to any more details, but you don't see this often in RPGs either - intimate little nods to past games in the series.

I'm really enjoying both games so far, having finished Super Meat Boy's main story mode while now trying to beat the dark version of all the levels, and I have no idea how long Phantasy Star IV will take me. I may go back and try to play Phantasy Star II after this, too, if I have the patience - THAT game is a grindfest (although it has awesome, synth-tastic music).

Majora's Mask: Goht

2010-10-27T16:04:00.002-04:00

I just finished the second dungeon in Majora's Mask, which concludes with one of my favorite boss fights of all time (definitely the best in the Zelda series): the Masked Mechanical Monster, Goht. I need to write about him.

The second dungeon of the game basically uses three items throughout: the Goron Mask, Fire Arrows, and occasionally the Lens of Truth (mostly to find Stray Fairies). Other than the lens, the other two items can be used to fight Goht. You can either stand in place as Link and wait for Goht to run around, hitting him with the occasional fire arrow, or you can do it the fun way: by using Goron Link.

You do this by chasing Goht around the arena, trying to ram him enough so he falls down, allowing you to stop and pound the crap out of him. I don't even do this, though - when he falls, I just let him get back up and start the chase again. Goht begins shooting lightning beams at you, followed by forcing stalactites to fall from the ceiling in your path, to just outright throwing bombs at you. You have to avoid all of them to continue to chase him to finally bring him down.

There is no boss fight I can think of that is as fun as this one, in pretty much any game. Goht is no pushover (at least not on your first try - I kick his ass no problem, now), and what you have to do to beat him is pretty obvious due to the set up of the arena you're in, so it's all about the mechanics of the fight. It helps that Goron Link controls very well, too, although I wish he wouldn't lose his spikes if he caught to much air - but oh well. The whole thing is awesome.

It is really too bad the next dungeon boss is so lame in comparison. Zora Link is incredibly fun to swim with, and yet most of the time you try your best to be out of the water so the dumb fish doesn't eat you. I wish that battle had been like some sort of toilet drain chase (you know, like a long pipe you have to swim through as Zora Link, occasionally getting magic pots so you can continue hitting the fish with your Zora electric shield or whatever). I suppose that would be a little too similar to the Goht fight, though... Oh! What if instead of chasing the fish, you had to swim away from him? And like, to damage him, you had to like jump out of the water and like ram a stalactite off the ceiling to make it drop onto the fish? Now THAT would be an awesome boss battle.

Anyway, who cares. Goht exists, and is fun as hell. I love Majora's Mask so much.

Happy 10th Birthday, Majora's Mask!

2010-10-26T22:22:00.002-04:00

Ten years ago today, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was released in America. This marked the peak of the Zelda series, which has been declining since then: Wind Waker was pretty great, Minish Cap was okay, Four Swords Adventures was also okay, Twilight Princess was alright, and Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks have pretty much sucked. Here's hoping Skyward Sword bucks the trend.

Anyway, I bought Majora's Mask on Virtual Console today, to both mark the occasion and play what is largely considered to be the best version of the game. Apparently, it runs smoother on Wii than on the N64 (which I'm told all N64 VC games do), doesn't contain the musical glitches in the Gamecube port, and, you know, is right there on my Wii whenever I feel like playing it.

It's also Majora's Mask. Nintendo can have my ten bucks, because I will buy this game over and over again because it's my favorite game ever.

So I played through to the beginning of the first temple today, and had a blast. This is, I believe, my fourth playthrough of the game, and I attempted to do as much as I could during that first three day period; sadly, the most I could accomplish was getting 200 rupees and unlocking the Big Wallet. Which is neat! I usually get the Moon's Tear, get on the Deku Flower, and then just sit at the entrance to the Clock Tower until the festival starts. So at least I kept busy.

The atmosphere in the game is still so great. I've gone to great lengths before as to why I love Majora's Mask, so I won't post here unless it's something I didn't touch on in my previous article.

Also, the PS2 came out ten years ago today, too. Which, I guess, overall, is a bigger deal than Majora's Mask. But not to me.

The Dabbling Continues

2010-10-25T17:58:00.002-04:00

So after unchaining myself from the grasp of the excellent Etrian Odyssey III, I have been looking here and there for the next RPG to attach myself to. Shining Force III has been okay so far, but it hasn't really gripped me yet - which isn't to say I won't finish it. That game has been a long time coming, so I think I'm going to dabble in and out of it until I can polish it off someday.

Actually, most of the reason I haven't played too much of it is due to it being on a console. I don't have as much time as I used to and I'm kind of nomadic these days, so lugging my Saturn around (with the stupid coax-only hookups) to play the game gets old after a while, so I've been looking for a portable RPG to really dig my teeth into. So I looked at my shelf, full of DS RPGs I haven't touched yet (such as Infinite Space, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, and The World Ends With You, among others) and decided to pop in Sands of Destruction. I have barely heard anything about this game, despite it being a relatively lavish RPG made by Sega (I think they talked about it on Active Time Babble last year, but I don't think they said too much about it).

It comes from an interesting group of developers, actually. These are the people who made Xenogears, Children of Mana, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, and Wario Land: Shake It, among others. Quite an odd collection of games, eh? The Fire Emblem game they made happens to be my favorite game in that series, and people have most certainly heard of the infamous Xenogears, yet Sands of Destruction has received very little fanfare.

Which I find odd, to tell the truth. Now, before I start, I'm only two hours in - so I doubt I've scratched the surface of the game yet. But I'm impressed, so far. The game has solid graphics - it's displayed from a (mostly) isometric perspective, and Sega has managed to squeeze out some impressive graphics from the ol' dual scrizzle - even moreso than Square, to be honest. They used a mixture of sprites and polygons, but nothing to chunky, which is a problem typical of DS games. So far, I like the graphics better than the DS versions of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, which is saying something because those games look pretty good.

The spritework in this game deserves a special mention, actually. The little character sprites are heavily detailed and have a fairly large range of animations, which you just don't see that often. They look great, too.

The music is alright, but we need to talk about the voice acting. I don't hate it, to be honest - I just wish it would go faster. The game seems to be loading the next sound byte when one finishes, so there is always this one or two second pause between one text box and the next. If it would just speed the hell up, the voiced parts of the game wouldn't be so intolerable. Hell, if it just gave me the option to skip the dialogue once I have read it, that would be awesome too! But it doesn't.

As for the battle system, it is somewhat combo based. You have a bunch of skills and some AP, which you spend to use different moves, and if you use the right combination of skills, you'll get bonus AP or free moves or whatever. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, so I'll probably post more about it later if I keep playing the game. There is also CP, which lets you upgrade your individual skills to be more accurate, do more damage, etc. which is kind of obtuse for me so far. I'm not quite sure where to put my points, yet, but I suppose that's what experimentation is for.

A Curious Case of the Threes: Etrian Odyssey and Shining Force

2010-10-20T18:05:00.004-04:00

So I beat Etrian Odyssey III last week. The last boss actually wasn't too tough; I brought along some restorative items and was fine on my second try. My first try would have succeeded had I had any revival items, because the bastard got a lucky hit on my monk, meaning he wasn't able to heal at all for the last quarter of the bosses health. He wasn't difficult at all, really.

But I must write about the horrible, horrible 19th and 20th floors of the final stratum. You see, I thought the first two floors of that stratum were pretty fun! There were rooms where you couldn't see anything on the radar, and had to map them completely blind (i.e. without the little arrow icon to show you where you are). I enjoyed that and thought the puzzles with the FOEs in those rooms were hard but fun! But then the game throws in warps. Warps where you travel into a square one way, and then it teleports you to a set place on the map. Which wouldn't be so bad IF I HAD ENOUGH UNIQUE ICONS TO PLACE TO MARK EACH INDIVIDUAL WARP GODDAMMIT! But no! There are like 20 different warps on both the 19th and 20th floors and I have to use the stupid little pink arrow, write a letter, and then zoom the map in every time I go to those floors to figure out where the fuck I'm going to end up. The mapping system was not built for this and it's really annoying.

That aside, I've played two floors into the bonus stratum, and I don't know how far I'll be going. There's slippery floors and damage tiles, and I've already had to go up and down multiple floors to make progress. In other words, mapping the place is a pain, and the really powerful (and sometimes just weird) enemy lineups don't help. There is an enemy whose only purpose is to switch the positions of two of your characters!

But anyway, I think that will be it for Etrian Odyssey III around here for a while.

I've played a few more battles into Shining Force III and I'm still enjoying it. There is an unique little feature where if two of your characters stand next to each other, every so often their "Friendship" will go up - which confers bonuses to them if they are ever near each other again in the future. For example, Synbios, my main character, and Masquirin, my Wizard, are "friends" and get an attack boost (for Synbios) and a magic boost (for Masquirin) when they stand next to each other. Little icons even pop up over their heads when there is a bonus to be conferred! Which is awesome and means I'll likely use these bonuses.

Anyway, as far as moving around the towns and such go, I'm really impressed by what Sonic Team did with the little old Saturn. The load times in this game are good - so good, in fact, they eclipse even current gen games. When you go in and out of a house, or in and out of battle, there is virtually no wait time - a little more than the Genesis Shining Forces, but for a 32 bit console, they are pretty much nonexistent. I've heard (I think on Retronauts) that Sonic Team used the sound processor to kind of rope extra data along whenever you move in and out of areas/battles, so I suppose that's why? I'm not sure, but either way, it's MUCH appreciated. I expected to have to wait seconds at a time for anything to happen (like in the PS1 Final Fantasies) but I do not have to wait long, here. Even saving is really quick!

Plotwise? Well, you know. Standard Shining Force fare, I would say, so far. There was a peace conference between two countries, and a third party came in and kidnapped the leaders of one of the countries and made it look like the other country did it. Hijinks ensue! But I've heard it gets pretty interesting, so we'll see.

I've been enjoying the music so far, although it isn't as bombastic as the Shining Force II soundtrack. That's okay, though. I haven't heard anything bad yet.

Except the voice acting. Some of the worst I've ever heard. And the guy in that link? I don't even have him yet! I'm not looking forward to it... Why even put voice acting in the game if it is going to be that godawful? I mean, even back then, when voice acting was so new, you HAD to know how bad that was. So terrible. But, spirits help me, I must play more!

Well, this is going to cost me...

2010-10-12T17:04:00.003-04:00

The trading time thread over at Gamespite continues to be good/bad for me, because I recently acquired Shining Force III for the Saturn for a good deal over there ($60, to be exact, while it currently goes for $100+ on eBay). This has opened the floodgates to what may be my most expensive classic videogame obsession yet: Saturn fandom.

I just gave my girlfriend a list of Saturn games I want (there's 14 games on it! Way more than I thought I'd ever want for the thing) for Festivus. She kind of rolled her eyes at me; I can understand that. Trying to acquire Saturn games, at all, much less at a reasonable cost, is damned near impossible.

Well, she tells me she loved me, so it's all her fault anyway.

That being said, though, I need to outline some thoughts that have been kicking around my head for at least 12 years now (!) about Shining Force III. I've wanted the game for about that long, but I was never able to play it - I didn't have a Saturn during the short time it was viable, and when I finally got one (around 2003-04) the game was way out of my price range.

I was a huge, HUGE Shining Force II fan, however. That, and Sword of Hajya for Game Gear were the two games that made me interested in RPGs at all. So when I first heard about Shining Force III, probably in the pages of Game Players magazine, I wanted it. Badly. But I never got it, and my thoughts about what it must be like were all I had. I'd like to get them down here, for posterity, because when I finish Etrian Odyssey III, I plan to sit down and finally play Shining Force III.

So. Shining Force II was given to me as a present by my parents, and I hadn't even asked for it, much less heard of it - they got it for me probably because the box art looked pretty cool, and I think they assumed since it was the second game in the series, that it must be somewhat good.

I sat downstairs and hooked my Genesis up to the only TV available at the time - the black and white 13' beauty (my sister was using the main TV down there for watching some stupid movie she had just gotten). The fanfare started up, and then the tale began to unfold before me. The graphics blew me away - I had never played an RPG before, and the perspective of the game allowed you to see a lot. It was top down, sort of like an old-school Zelda game, but it was tile based. All the little people shuffled around in place, like they were living, breathing people. When you talked to them, the text would scroll by with different intonation; fat old dudes would have a deep voice, whereas little pixies and kids would have a high-pitched shrill. Important characters even had a detailed face pop up when you talked to them - and their mouths moved as they spoke! Sure, it never synced up, but it was novel nonetheless.

The battle system really thrilled me, too. It wasn't action-y, like many of my other games. It reminded me of chess; you would place your guys close to the enemies, and then they would attack each other. Strategy was the name of the game; if you let one of your guys stray too far from everybody else, they would quickly get overwhelmed and killed.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Shining Force III, not II. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed II quite a bit, and started playing other RPGs, starting with Final Fantasy III (VI) when I finally got a SNES years later, and fell in love with that series and type of game. SFII really opened my eyes to one of my favorite genres, and I really loved the aesthetic of the game, so when I heard about SFIII and saw pictures, I was blown away and excited for it.

But it was for the stupid Saturn. Who wanted one of those?! I had a N64 and would have rather had a Playstation than get a Saturn, especially back then. They were expensive, and at the time, SFIII was the only game I really wanted for it. So, I pined and pined and then tried to forget about it.

As the years passed, I would hear about how great the game was. How it was one of the best games on the system, much less how apparently it was the BEST SHINING FORCE GAME EVER (which really pissed me off, because if it was better than II, I really, REALLY wanted to play it then). So I began to imagine what it would be like...

From here on, I'm going to describe what Shining Force III has always been in my mind. Remember, I coveted this game for over a decade, and still don't really know much about it. All I've done thus far is put it into my Saturn to make sure it works. The rest of this blog will be speculation (well, really, straight up DREAMS) about what Shining Force III will be like when I finally play it.

I always wanted a direct sequel to SFII. I wanted to find out what happened to those characters after the credits rolled; I loved the world in that game, from Granseal to Parmecia, and wanted to explore it again. That's what I thought, anyway, coming right off SFII. As time went on, I wanted that less and less, with maybe just some cameos from old characters or something because SFII's world was pretty self-contained. There wasn't really any room to do anything there besides SFII.

So Shining Force III was going to be a new game in my mind. It would have no old characters, and all new environments. New countries, new places to explore, new battle maps, everything. It wouldn't be like Sword of Hajya, because it would let me explore towns at my leisure like in SFII - and that is anytime I want, unlike the original Shining Force. The story was going to be epic - Zeon would probably be revived or something, or some equivalent malevolent force would rise up and threaten the world, and it was up to ME to stop it.

So, you know, typical JRPG plot.

But the graphics, from what I had seen in little magazine screenshots, were AWESOME. Everything would be fully 3D, but incredibly detailed - not like the blurry N64 visuals I was used to, but with detailed textures and snappy loading. The music would be even more impressively varied and interesting compared to SFII, and the battles would be way more cinematic (I always imagined more frames of animation for the characters during attack scenes in SFII, you see). I wanted all of that, and I have no idea if SFIII will deliver in that department. From what little I've seen of it, the FMVs are horribly dated - which is fine, because what little I've seen of the actual in-game graphics are pretty good, if kind of chunky like 3D visuals were at the time.

And Shining Force III was looooooooong in my mind. It went on forever and ever (which apparently, it does, because there are 3 parts to it, only one of which came out in English, dammit). I always thought it'd be neat to revisit parts of Grans Island, and maybe some locations from the first game and Hajya, too, because back then I was very interested in story continuity.

What I'm getting at, I guess, is that I've always imagined Shining Force III to be the best game ever. I'm sure it won't live up to that; more than ten years of wanting it will likely leave me underwhelmed after I'm done. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure I'll like it! But my expectations are sky high.

Either way, it was worth the $60. I've not even spent that much on a 360 or PS3 game, which I find interesting (okay, I find it telling that I'd rather spend $60 on a twelve year old game than spend that much on anything they're making these days, but that's another blog post altogether).

I'll finish Etrian Odyssey III, probably write one more blog about that, then delve into Shining Force III after all this time.

Etrian Odyssey III: Tales of the Metroid Guild, part 1

2010-10-08T00:33:00.003-04:00

Nathan adjusted his gauntlets as he surveyed the area to the best of his ability. The blinding sunlight of the Porcelain Forest made him uneasy. It was difficult to gauge the guild's position, much less track the FOEs who roamed the area. Encountering Olympia on the 18th floor earlier hadn't made him feel much better, either - she had summoned several Mortal Hunters in a large, exceedingly bright area, causing quite the headache for everyone. Mortal Hunters had incredibly sharp scythes, capable of cutting through to the bone - with particularly vicious swings capable of amputating limbs. The Metroid Guild had to be careful - they didn't have the personnel to spare in case someone was badly hurt or even killed. Time was running out to find the Abyssal King - he may be approaching the sick princess already, and the Metroid Guild was likely the only group capable of stopping him.

As Nathan pondered the situation, Yukiko appraised the state of her comrades. Kyle was almost untouched, but that was to be expected because he was the most fragile member of the guild. Kaitlyn's shin guards were a little scuffed up, but she was largely fine because she was too fast for most monsters to hit. Shadow was in similar condition for similar reasons, although he was incredibly tired ever since he had taken up the Shogun mantle. He had trained himself to use the cover of his guildmates to sneak up behind monsters while they were being attacked, and get a sneak stab in with his oversized Katana. He did this as often as he could, and it made him tired quick, but other than a thick sheen of sweat and some heavy breathing, he seemed no worse for wear. Yukiko herself was somewhat scuffed up, although her healing qi kept her in good shape most of the time. It was Nathan she worried about - he had trained himself in the use of shields and defensive maneuvers and spent most of his time provoking the enemy into attacking him, and Parrying whatever attacks he could. What he couldn't block took its toll on his body - cuts, bruises, and the occasional gaping wound peppered his largely exposed chest. Yukiko could not convince him to wear heavier armor - he refused, saying he couldn't move as fast. So Yukiko spent more and more time healing he alone.

Nathan didn't seem to notice the pain his body was in, though. He had really come through for his guild since venturing into the fourth stratum. They had come to increasingly rely on him as their enemies got stronger and stronger. He had become the de facto leader of the guild, even though they had agreed to make all decisions together. The deeper they found themselves in the endless Labyrinth, the more they relied on his leadership.

They gathered their things, and headed deeper into the bright forest. They hadn't travelled far when Kaitlyn pointed out the Somnovore rambling about the mud ahead. It hadn't noticed them yet, so they sneak up on it to the best of their ability; when they had reached striking distance, Kyle let off an enormous fireball at the giant sheep. It charged them, and they began the fight. Nathan began taunting the sheep immediately by yelling and pelting it with rocks, causing the sheep to focus the brunt of its attack his way. It began repeatedly charging him, and he expertly parried three of its attacks, while taking the following attack at its full force. Yukiko began her qi chanting to mend his wounds.

During all this, however, Kaitlyn, Shadow, and Kyle were throwing everything they had at the oversized ram. Kyle had been chucking fireballs as fast as he could, so fast, in fact, that sometimes he was able to send out two fireballs as though he were sending one. Kaitlyn was circling the Somnovore, peppering every inch of its frame with bullets from her oversized handgun. Shadow was barely visible, a living blur, as he seemed to stab at the goat-sheep from every angle. It would appear to the casual onlooker that there were at least two Shadows, perhaps even three.

The Metroid Guild had come into its own. Combat was now much more routine for the group - still dangerous, mind, but the level of danger had reached a plateau. The seasoned warriors knew to be careful, and knew they would likely take quite a beating, but their confidence had grown to such a level that they would attack FOEs on sight, so long as no other FOEs were directly nearby. They had heard tales of numerous guilds being wiped out by a single Mortal Hunter - they had cornered three down, and wiped them out mostly unharmed. They took what they could from the corpses, and sold them for profit while also purchasing three sets of armor for their front line made out of their hard skin.

* * *

It hadn't been this way for long, however. After besting the giant robot who guarded the entrance to the fourth stratum, they found themselves woefully unprepared for the tough fights that lie ahead. Shadow had become almost useless; it had turned out that his training in the elemental Zodiac magicks was a waste of time. He spent a week back at the Explorer's Guild training in the ways of the Shogun.While he was there, his guildmates recruited some local Armoroad farmers to help them gather materials in the Labyrinth: Moon, a young man eager to own his own farm, and his girlfriend Karen, who was interested in helping him. They were fairly new to the dangers of the labyrinth, and could not be counted on to defend themselves, so the remaining members of Metroid got them in and out of the dangerous maze as fast as they could. They were largely successful - they harvested materials most of Armoroad had never seen, along with some very rare things they had. Moon and Karen were able to buy themselves a farm on an island not far to the north of Armoroad, where Moon had decided he'd retire and raise a flock of sheep. They stuck with the Metroid guild, though, and tended to their matters in town while they were gone and helped train new recruits.

When Shadow returned to the main group, they decided to test his new abilities by going back to the volcano in the third stratum. They had run from the mother dragons they saw there a few months back, but they felt they may be able to take them on, now.

Shadow proved to be inspiration for the party because he single-handedly proved his worth almost immediately. He expertly sliced the dragons into pieces as his guildmates largely played distraction. Though he hadn't seen actual combat in a week (a long time, by the standards of the guild before he began his training), he had cemented himself as a permanent member of the main force.

Nathan spoke with Shadow after the great Dragon Hunt, as the villagers of Armoroad had come to call it, and the two came up with the idea that Nathan would study the ways of the Hoplite, to better improve the party's defensive capabilities, freeing most of the party up to attack more aggressively. Kaitlyn, meanwhile, studied the ways of the Ninja with Shadow, so she could more expertly dodge enemy attacks - her lithe frame didn't support heavy armor and she preferred not wearing much protective gear anyway. Kyle, annoyed that his only use thus far had been his Zodiac magick, sullenly taught himself to use a crossbow - quickly becoming capable of doing as much damage as, if not more than, his comrades.

The Metroid Guild found itself on the brink of solving the mystery of the labyrinth, and pressed on to discover as much as they could. Hopefully, they'd be able to stop the Abyssal King as well, but only time will tell...

Etrian Odyssey III: Part 2

2010-09-28T20:07:00.007-04:00

In the spirit of role-play, inspired by some comments regarding that topic from a friend and an inspiration (and also to brush up on my storytelling skills), I've decided to blog about my party's exploits as though they are keeping a journal. Dorky? Yes, hella dorky. Also, kind of spoilery if you haven't yet happened upon the third stratum, so beware the green text if not.

The Metroid Guild continued to explore the strange labyrinth below the sea town of Arboroad, and had found their way down to the tenth floor. The unease the group felt on the ninth floor from the occasional pool of lava grew to full-blown terror once they stepped into what appeared to be an active volcano. Their armor seemed to grow heavier under the heat, and the perspiration on their hands and faces seemed to boil from it. As they carefully explored the area, Kyle cast light ice magic to use bits of ice to soothe the party's burns and provide some drinking water.

After thoroughly mapping the first room, the group pushed past the rock at the far end and entered an altogether different cave. There were pools of lava stretching as far as they could see, but that was the least of their worries; in the center of each pool lie an enormous dragon! As they stood there, mouths agape, some three foot tall living mushrooms who had sneak up on the Guild began spewing thick clouds of spores in their faces. Nathan found himself confused from the spores, and began swinging his sword wildly in hopes of ending the disorienting torrent. In his panic, he struck Yukiko's left leg, and she let out a yell in pain. As Kaitlyn began rapidly firing her pistol at the mushroom closest to Nathan, Kyle applied a healing salve to Yukiko's wound. Shadow, however, was barely even paying attention to the plight of his guildmates; the ninja had been eying the dragon who lay only fifty paces away, and watched as it made a beeline for his preoccupied friends.

"We should leave, now," he insisted. When his compatriots asked why, the stoic ninja merely pointed behind them to the lumbering dragon now only twenty paces away. Nathan had regained his composure, so the party began making their way to the room they had left mere moments ago. To aid in their escape, Shadow chanted a few arcane words and created a duplicate of himself to distract the mushrooms. As they pushed past the narrow door of rock, the dragon behind them let out a roar of disappointment. Her meal had escaped by a mere hair's breadth.

One of the things I love the most about the Etrian Odyssey series is the narrative. Not the narrative the game explicitly gives you, mind; the narrative you construct in your head for your tailor-made party. The game is largely scant on narrative detail, and even the graphics, although very good, contain fairly repetitive environmental design. But the design of the levels adds character to the otherwise bland environments. This is because the player knows the game on a systematic level; they know the rules of the battle system and the rules of the field map. How far they can stretch those rules safely becomes crucial almost immediately. However, the level design constantly changes those rules, forcing the player to adapt.

For example, take the Metroid Guild's first jaunt into the tenth floor, for example. None of that green text up there was ever stated in the game; almost all of it popped into my mind as an extension to what I was experiencing in game, so the above was very easy to write. When I had to run from those enemies, I did so not because I thought they were too difficult - I ran because I saw, on the bottom screen, two FOEs moving towards my group. One of the unwritten rules of Etrian Odyssey is: DO NOT ENGAGE A FOE ON YOUR FIRST TRIP TO A NEW FLOOR. It may be one of the most important rules, really, and there was no way I was going to break it. So I ran - but I did so knowing that eventually, I would be strong enough to come back and best those FOEs.

I don't know if I'll continue writing up my experiences in narrative style, although I had fun doing it, so we'll see. I had gotten to a pseudo-boss battle, and got destroyed pretty handily, so I'm going to grind a little, so back to it...

Etrian Odyssey III: Part 1

2010-09-26T19:55:00.003-04:00

I'll start by saying that so far, Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City is my favorite Etrian game, and that's saying a lot because I had a lot of fun with the first two.

Why? Well, first, they completely revamped all the classes. There is not one class in the third game that existed in the first two, so the game is a totally new experience - much akin to Etrian Odyssey 1, really, what with trying to learn party balance for the first time with a whole new set of classes. Sure, I'll miss my ridiculously powerful Ronin skills (well, Mideraba, anyway), but that broke the game, honestly. Also, you are allowed to subclass - which apparently means you can apply another classes skills to your party members, which is going to be awesome once I unlock it.

They also improved the interface: the skills, windows, town, and every way you interact with the game is streamlined very well. When you kill an enemy the correct way, for example, and get a special item, the game highlights it in yellow to let you know that hey, you did something special to get this item. This is helpful because I had no idea in the past how to get certain items. Also, the map scrolls faster, both on the top and bottom screen, there are more icons to put on the map that make sense, and there is an auto-route option. What this means is that you can lay down a bunch of arrows on the map, and when you hit the play button, your guys will automatically follow the arrows without needing to hit a button - they'll even go through doors and down stairs! This is pretty unnecessary and the game would have been fine without it but Atlus put it in because it is very clear they wanted this game to be the best in the series.

Speaking of things that are unnecessary but awesome, they included the ability to explore the ocean via sailing. Your guild is given a boat early on, and you're told to go explore what you can of the ocean, and help people out and find items and fish and stuff. This is a great way to make cash early on (and probably later on, too) and also gain experience. That's right, there are fights to find on the ocean! There are no random battles, but when you find certain locations on the sea, some quests there open up - you can accept them at any time for no cost, and they seem to be fairly difficult battles. You gain experience and usually items from beating them, too, and you can replay them if you want. You can even play these missions with a friend (or four), too! That's right, you can wirelessly participate in these battles and gain experience and items with other people you know with the game. It is local only, though, unfortunately, and since I know only one other guy with the game, it seems we're stuck just using our two best characters, since we can't figure out how to bring more.

None of that was in the first two games. I am so thrilled with all these improvements it is insane.

As far as where I am now, I'm stuck on the second stratum boss. He has this attack that puts me to sleep, and he always follows it up with an attack that will kill any of my characters that are affected by a status ailment or bound in any way. Which means I usually do great in the battle until the very end when he starts spamming these attacks! So I have to figure out how to kill him.

I will post more about this, for sure.

Heavy Rain

2010-09-26T19:37:00.003-04:00

I should start with this: there will be slight spoilers for Heavy Rain in this post. It is kind of hard to discuss this game without them, honestly, so beware. I won't reveal who the killer is, though.

The story in Heavy Rain is fantastic! The gameplay is terrible!

That's really all you need to know about Heavy Rain. I get what the developers were going for: an involving experience, utilizing the unique aspects of video games to present basically a murder mystery book that is interactive. And for the most part, they succeed; the game changes pretty much every time you play it, with different outcomes depending on the choices you made throughout the narrative. Which I applaud! These are great things.

But oh, how I wish the gameplay weren't so bad. You see, in Heavy Rain, the entire game controls as such: movement is similar to the first few Resident Evil games - you hold R2 to walk, and use the left stick to turn. That would be awful enough, but the rest of the controls are all played out with Quick Time Events. If you're unfamiliar with these, they are events that the player attempts to beat by pressing the button on the screen. For example, to open the fridge, you go up to the fridge and rotate the right stick clockwise from the right. To pick up an item off the desk, you push the right stick up. And so on.

What sucks about this is that all the activities that would usually be fun in a game (fighting a boss! Driving a car and avoiding traffic! Shooting guns!) are boring at best, and plain frustrating at worst. Sure, the events are kind of intense because you are so scared you'll screw up whatever weird button combo the developers came up with, but that kind of nullifies the point of them - you should be scared because you are playing the character and they are in a tough situation, not because you are scared of the controls.

My only other complaint is a stupid save system. The game is autosave only - you cannot create a save at any point. If you want to restart because you screwed up some retarded QTE - which will happen! - you have to try to reload your previous save before the game saves over it. Awesome!

The story itself, though... So good. You play as multiple characters, each twisting and winding around the same plot points. The Origami Killer is kidnapping little boys and drowning them, and you have to find out who. It is made somewhat clear off the bat that the killer is either one of the characters you play as or someone very close to them, so the game is always throwing you curveballs as far as character development goes. For example, for my playthrough, I was incredibly surprised as to the killer's identity, although it made sense when I went back and thought about what I had been doing with them throughout the game.

Anyway, many characters can die throughout the game, changing the outcome in several ways. I'll probably play through the game again someday, and see what changes as I go through.

I'll just have to suffer through those annoying damn QTEs.

3D Dot Game Heroes: Best Zelda Since Twilight Princess

2010-09-18T14:38:00.002-04:00

Let's start with this. Between these two images, which seems more like a Zelda over world?

The answer is the top one, despite not being a Zelda game while the bottom one is! Let's break it down, here. Both pictures do not have much going on in them; the first one has a hero and an enemy in the distance, and that's about it. The bottom one has the hero riding a train, and a vast empty space (with shitty textured grass, but I digress - my point here isn't about graphic fidelity).

At least the top one has something interesting to DO in the over world.

3D Dot Game Heroes is the best Zelda game in a long time. It may not be incredibly original (it cribs from the first Zelda quite a bit) but it is at least fun. I have beaten two dungeons already (and I've even DIED once! When was the last time you've died in a Zelda game?!) and there has not been any tedium whatsoever the entire time. The game is lean - there is not very much exposition, and what is there is pretty barebones. This is a gamers game. If you are playing this game, you're playing it because you like traditional videogames - not some weird FORCED touchscreen minigame that is completely removed from traditional series gameplay - and, most importantly, not fun at ALL.

To be clear, I'm talking about the train in Spirit Tracks.

I've bitched about the train before and I won't do it again. My point here is that I'm really enjoying 3D Dot Game Heroes.

Oh, and if you're wondering how I'm playing this, I now own a PS3. The games I have for it are 3D Dot Game Heroes, Valkyria Chronicles, Demon's Souls, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption, God of War III, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Resident Evil 5. I plan on trying out all of these soon, and plan on playing a TON of the first three.

Happy 25th Birthday, Mario.

2010-09-13T23:56:00.001-04:00

I guess today marks the anniversary of Super Mario Bros. In honor of this pivotal moment in gaming history, I just beat the game. (I used the two warps, so it only took like 5 minutes, but whatever.)

Thanks you so much for letting me to play-a your game!

SMT: Strange Journey, part 1

2010-09-13T18:54:00.003-04:00

So I picked up Strange Journey again last week, after beating Etrian Odyssey II. I thought I didn't like it before, and while some of those criticisms still stand up (I still think bonus damage based on alignment is stupid) I'm finding myself largely liking the game.

By the end of Etrian Odyssey II I was sick and tired of mapping. I mean usually I like it, but when I'm trying to just get to the final boss as quickly as possible to finish the game I hate it. And when I started playing SJ again, I was glad I didn't have to map myself - I was trying to like the game mechanics, and had to fuss with them first and foremost.

The demon fusing is pretty streamlined, although costly. I really like the password feature - if I find myself stuck later in the game, I'll probably cheese my way through with some password-generated demon I find on the internet.

Does that make me a cheater? Yeah probably. I haven't done it yet, but I'm keeping that trick up my sleeve to prevent endless grinding if I can.

Speaking of which, I think that password thing is pretty damned awesome. Look here and here and here to see how fricking flexible the thing is. Have you fused a demon? Do you like it? Generate a password for it, and share it with your friends/the internet! I mean LOOK at some of Eirikr's demons - reflects all physical and magical attacks, and has Null Light and Dark. The only thing that can even DAMAGE those guys is Almighty damage!

Even if you aren't fusing ridiculous uber-demons who can kill God with their thoughts, the password system is still pretty useful. There are some secret passwords built into the game that Atlus put there for some useful demons (I've actually had a Mara sitting in my PWD hopper at level 86 or something because its a freaking penis monster given to me by the company who made the game!

Anyway, so I'm in the Delphinus sector, the fourth sector in the game, which is basically a trash heap so far. I had stopped in Bootes, the second sector, because I couldn't stand damage floors (still can't, actually!). I beat the boss of that sector, and then flew through Carina, the third sector, yesterday. I'm going to try to slow down, because I think I need to level up quite a bit to continue any farther. And I need to fuse some of these damned demons away - fricking Hathor has been around forever!

I really like how the story is presented in this game, though. Maybe I'm just naive to how the military works, but the way your characters progress through the story is very military-like. You are given orders to go do whatever, and when you do whatever, you are given more orders. This means there is no teenage celebration about victory like in almost every other MegaTen game - not to say I always hate that, but it's nice to not have to encounter it EVERY TIME. Also, all the characters are adults - which is nice, too, because you don't see that too often in RPGs. In fact, the main character looks like he is in his early 30s, MAYBE late 20s. I wish more RPGs were this way.

I'll have more thoughts as I play through it. It is definitely a weird game... It's basically Etrian Odyssey: Shin Megami Tensei. Sounds good, doesn't it? I think it's a little early for me to judge, but I think it brings both the good and bad qualities of those two series to the table. I'll probably talk about that next time if I still feel that way.

Etrian Odyssey II: Complete

2010-09-08T20:05:00.002-04:00

I just beat Etrian Odyssey II. I'm glad I did, too, because that last Stratum was quite annoying. Stupid Beamedge's everywhere, annoying layouts, etc.

The last boss probably would have been very tough, had it not been for my RIDICULOUSLY POWERFUL duo of Ronins - Kaitlyn and Shiren were insane. Mideraba is easily my favorite skill in the game.

Before I get to that, though, I changed my party makeup for the last few floors. Once I realized that the level cap is 70 for first time adventurers, I wanted to level them up some more or at least change around their Skills. To do this, you have two options: Rest a character, to allow you to re-spend their Skill Points in exchange for knocking down their level by 5, or Retiring them, which knocks their level down by forty levels, but allows you to both re-spend their Skill Points and earn one more once they level up enough. My complaint about this is that it's only one - I embarked on Retirement for all five of my characters because I thought they'd be able to level up to 75, which would give them 5 more Skill Points total. I was wrong - each time you retire, you only get to level up one more level.

I got those fuckers up to 71, noticed they couldn't level up anymore, and I said screw this, I'm beating the last boss now.

The upside to doing that, though, was that I streamlined the crap out of their skills. I got rid of all the extraneous stuff (like Mining, Taking, and Chopping, which was useless now that I could get a ton of cash easily) and even changed some classes around.

One of the nice parts about Retiring is that you get a level 30 character with 40 initial Skill Points, but you aren't restricted to whatever class that character was. For example, I was sick of my now useless Survivalist (Icarus), so I changed him to Protector, and changed my Landschneckt(Shiren) to another Ronin(Kaitlyn remained a Ronin through the entire game). I bought Shiren another Youtou (the ridiculously expensive Katana Kaitlyn had been using for a while now) and I went back into the forest.

The Metroid Guild was here to kick some ass. And boy, did it.

The final boss went down quick. Icarus spammed Provoke (make the enemy target him more) and Parry (high chance of dodging any attack), Shiren and Kaitlyn spammed the hell out of Mideraba (multiple sword strike for huge damage), Raidou spammed Ricochet (multiple gunshots for good damage), and Yukiko alternated between healing duties and CPR (which allows characters to survive mortal blows with 1 HP like 80% of the time). I beat both forms quickly, with only like three people dying for the first form, and no one dying for the second.

Overall, Etrian Odyssey II is a mixed bag. I really like the interface improvements it brings after the original was lacking a bit - particularly the bigger variety of map icons you have, which makes navigating quite a bit easier. The Force skills aren't quite as useful, but that's okay. I did a few more of the optional Quests this time around, but not too many because once they begin to get really confusing I just give up because I don't feel like running around in circles in the dungeon trying to figure out what to do. I had a lot of fun playing EOII, and even before I broke the game with my two Ronins-o-death, I felt like it was pretty well-balanced. Some of those skills sure are useless, though.

Etrian Odyssey III comes out at the end of this month, and I have it pre-ordered, and the guy said I'd get an art book for the entire series with it, and I damned well better. I'm ready for III - I've heard it is much better than I and II.

Cave Story: Afterthoughts

2010-09-01T14:09:00.002-04:00

So on a whim, I downloaded Cave Story for the Wii two nights ago. I beat it last night, and while it wasn't what I expected, it was very, very good.

First of all, before I played it, I thought Cave Story was a regular platformer, with a focus on stomping on guys heads and stuff. But it's not! It's more like a cross of Mario and Gradius (which is odd, then, since I've been playing a few "shmups" lately - Castle of Shikigami III and M.U.S.H.A. in particular). You acquire guns, and then use them to kill whatever enemies stand in your way.

Okay, so it's more like Contra. Having never been particularly fond of Contra, there's a particular reason why I like Cave Story so much:

It's a Metroidvania.

You acquire new items and weapons, and then use them to get to new places. You can find health and missile powerups throughout the game, as well (I didn't find too many, though, but it's possible I missed areas).

Whenever you acquire a new gun, you have to power it up, by collecting the goofy little triangle things enemies drop when they are killed. Collect enough, and your weapon will level up - but be careful! If you take damage, your weapon level may drop. It doesn't take too long to level your gun back up, of course, but this may prove hard while fighting bosses who don't drop the triangle things.

Anyway, I really like this mechanic, and some of the subtleties in this game really blow me away as well. The game never, ever tells you this is possible, but a fully powered up Machine Gun will actually allow your little guy to float if you shoot it down towards the ground! It serves as a sort of jetpack way before you actually get one in the game, and really augments it when you do.

I had heard the story was pretty good before playing the game, and while it certainly wasn't crap, I wasn't that impressed by it. It was told sparingly, sure, so it wasn't like I had much to latch on to, but I never really cared about Sue or any of the other characters. I just wanted to shoot crap and get to the next boss fight.

And man, is that last boss ridiculous. Four fights in a row where you don't get to heal or save in between? It was as if I was playing a Final Fantasy game or something.

Anyway, I hope Pixel makes another game. He probably is, but I really think people should support him by buying Cave Story on Wii. It's one of the best WiiWare titles for sure (right up there with the likes of Mega Man 9!).

Playtime... is over!

2010-08-17T20:23:00.003-04:00

Well, I finally wrapped up Hard Mode in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair a few nights ago. Kyle and I, after dying a few times on Dracula, were able to utterly destroy him on our third try.

It was quite awesome, actually.

I've been thinking about this game on a sort of macro level, though. I mean, I may discuss it more specifically at a later time, but I had a thought I'd like to share.

This game is what the single player of Super Smash Bros. Brawl should have been like.

Think about it. You have all these great Castlevania enemies, with level designs (okay, well, graphics, anyway) pulled right out of earlier Castlevania games. You have remixed boss encounters, with some crazy abilities (could you imagine if Gergoth could hit you from anywhere in the castle in Dawn of Sorrow?!) that, due to the nature of the game, fit perfectly. You have all the abilities of these characters from past games (Soma can steal souls, Shanoa can use/inherit glyphs, etc.), so they all remain unique and play differently. You can play it with other people, or go solo.

Now read this old post of mine and tell me it doesn't seem as if they took all my complaints about Smash Bros. and made a multiplayer Castlevania out of them.

I mean, shit is almost uncanny. This quote in particular proves noteworthy: "...for Christsakes, use graphics from the old games (whether ripped right from them or redone)!" So what does this all prove?

Well, it may not have been for Smash Bros., but dammit, I was right. These basic elements form the basis for a really great, fun game. Now, admittedly, it's not as though I described Harmony of Despair 1:1, and I would never claim I did, but some pretty important points are in there. Konami, being actual game designers (and not some blogger writing to about 2 people) certainly made something much better and more interesting than the barebones structure I laid out.

I'm not going to turn this into a Smash Bros. post, so I won't go into any more detail than that. I know it's a bit of an odd juxtaposition, but it made a lot of sense to me when I thought of it.

Now back to grinding spells with Charlotte - which is very, very tedious, so we'll see how long it lasts.

I have no use for children. Be gone!

2010-08-12T21:58:00.003-04:00

It's Castlevania week over here, it seems. I recently picked up and started playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon today. I've put about 45 minutes in, and I've already noticed some things worth talking about:

Nathan Graves moves insanely fast. He drops really fast, and (when you get the dash item) runs pretty fast too. Playing Harmony of Despair as I have made CotM seem like it's on speed.

The music is much better than I remember. This was a Game Boy Advance launch title and while the music definitely sounds "Game Boy Advance-y," it still sounds really good. The early themes are awesome, such as Catacombs, the Abyss, etc.

I've fought two bosses so far, I believe they were called Cerberus and The Necromancer. Both were really easy, yet enjoyably challenging. I know the bosses ramp up in difficulty pretty fast in this game, but that's okay because I don't know if I'll play through all the way to the end.

Speaking of the end, I've still been playing Harmony of Despair. I'm on Level 3, The End of Chaos (woo segue) in Hard Mode. I'm sure if I really tried, I could beat it fairly handily. It's just that this level is absolutely terrible, and easily the worst in the game. Let's enumerate its flaws:

Most of the level is this giant empty hole in the middle in which the boss sits. But wait, you say, there are enemies and platforms in there that you have to traverse to at least get to the boss! Ah, but there is no point to them, because there certainly are not treasure chests in there, nor are there any unique enemies, or really any interesting level design. It's just a bunch of random blocks that are put there to be destroyed by the boss when he wakes up.

The level was clearly designed around the boss. It's as if Konami said "Let's put a huge boss that takes up like two or three full screens in Harmony of Despair! Put that screen real estate to use! But... how do we design a level around it?" And some other guy went "Eh, fuck it. Just make it a big giant hole, throw some enemies in there, and call it good. People will eat that shit right up!"

Well, Konami Dude #2, fuck you. Your level is stupid. You also saw fit to put in two treasure chests only Shanoa can get to without waking the boss, and they're purple - which indicates they contain rarer (thus, better) items. Now, I'm all for character diversity and even areas that are only accessible by certain characters, but two purple chests for Shanoa only? Really? Thank you for making one player on this level completely and utterly pointless if you aren't Shanoa(not to mention boring and time consuming because of the huge stupid boss).

But, the rest of the game has really good levels. In fact, I enjoy all of them besides #3. Thinking about it now, I only beat level 3 that one time on Normal, because its a stupid level.

Anyway, back to CotM. Possibly more about that game later, if I don't get frustrated with it.

This long slumber has given me strength...

2010-08-11T20:26:00.004-04:00

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair has been taking up a lot of my time this past week.

I have largely enjoyed it; I just gained the ability to play in Hard Mode last night. I've gotten to the second boss, and I can definitely beat him, but have been screwed over by circumstances the few times I've tried him (like when he moved to a iron maiden that was too far away for me to reach him in time to destroy the puppet). But that's another post entirely.

The game certainly has its ups and downs. The good part is that it is largely a blast to play - it really controls well, and Soma, the character I use, plays pretty much exactly like he did in Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, my two favorite Castlevania games. He can both acquire new weapons and armor, but also obtain souls for every single enemy in the game, like in his original games (that is, except the third boss, but whatever). You can even power his souls up by collecting 9 of each! I love this aspect of the game, and have now collected all the souls but a few of the bosses (the 4th boss, and Dracula, to be exact). Several souls are fully powered up, as well.

As far as the process one uses to "level up"... Well, it's honestly a mixed bag for me. I like that most people are around the same stat level unless they have the best weapons in the game, but I really don't like that stat boosts you get from food are not permanent. I understand that this would mean that people would just farm food points, but why not take out "food points" all together and make food a dropped item only? Then if people level their stats up that way, at least they earned it.

I mean, I don't know. In the end, it's probably best that stat boosts aren't permanent. The only other way to level up, though, is by getting better equipment. Which is fine, and of course, the best equipment is obtained by drops only. I'm okay with that - it's just what you're able to buy in the Shop is woefully inadequate when you're playing normal mode. Hard Mode does not give you much more, and certainly in the defense department it is sorely lacking. I get hit way too hard by enemies (30 damage from a ghost? ...Really?). But, I suppose that's why they call it Hard Mode.

I like that the bosses aren't pushovers, either - Dracula remains very difficult in Normal Mode, and the Puppet Master in Hard Mode requires perfection to beat, it seems.

The multiplayer is a blast, though. I've played both with random people, and one of my Xbox Live Friends or whatever stupid term you use for people you know. Konami didn't leave too much room to be a dick to random people in this game, either. Everyone shares treasure chests. When someone opens a chest, every player gets an item at random, so there is no possible way to bitch or fight over a chest. You cannot harm each other either, or affect each others movement, thus preventing you being knocked into spikes by some online douchebag.

As in every online game though, rage quitting/dropping out early has no penalty. Whatever items you got up to that point you keep, so people drop out all the time. For example, the first time I beat Dracula, I did so online - but as soon as I got to his room, the one player left quit on me, forcing me to fight Dracula alone, while he had health fit for two players. Suffice it to say, I was quite proud of myself for winning that fight, considering how much trouble I had been having with him.

Overall, I'm really enjoying the game. I want to at least beat Hard Mode, and maybe even make my Soma a ridiculous badass with awesome weapons. We'll see how that goes once I see how difficult Dracula is in Hard Mode. I hear he has the best weapon drops.

As an aside: Braid

2010-08-05T19:21:00.002-04:00

So, for whatever reason I do not know, I booted up Braid last night, and beat the last few puzzles I hadn't completed from like two years ago when I first got my Xbox.

I'm not sure what the deal was, but I was like in puzzle genius mode last night. Puzzles that I could not for the life of me figure out made sense all of a sudden, and I beat the game. This nets all the achievements, of course, besides the Time Attack one. I have no desire to get that one because I don't care about achievements, but yeah. Neat, I guess.

I really, really liked that last level, though. I had not read any spoilers about Braid, and (MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD)I really like what they did with it. The last world you play is called World 1, and it details what happened in the beginning of the tale; namely, when Tim had originally "met" the Princess. You play through the last level of the world backwards, all the way to the point where the Princess is sleeping - the level returns to normal time when Tim is perched outside the Princess' window. What this essentially means is that Tim is a freaking stalker and had been following the Princess ever since the beginning of the game, and became increasingly crazy and delusional as time went on.

Now, is this a critique of gamers? Certainly this is a video game about a guy who is madly in love with a woman from afar, and he creeps her out so bad a literal "knight in shining armor" takes her away. Could this be a metaphor for the lonely nerd? Well, maybe a lonely nerd who takes his feelings way too far, anyway.

The way Braid's story was told, though, is inherently, and irrevocably videogamey. That's what has struck me so much about its presentation. If it were a movie, it would be nonsensical and boring, really. The impact of the "ending" would be minimal surprise, at best. But as a game, as the player plays through these levels and reads the increasingly desperate text about this Tim guy, they become attached to this little avatar and hope he succeeds in finding his princess.

But when he does... The fact that you, the player, are a willing accomplice to this creepy bastard really hits home, and makes you feel as though you were a bad guy this whole time. It's an experience that cannot be duplicated in books or movies; the player has a role in the story of a game because they are actively involved, which isn't possible in those mediums.

Now, I sort of see why people point to Braid when they are asked if games are art. I don't know if Braid is proof they are, but I know it is at least a step in the right direction.

Etrian Odyssey II: I'm back!

2010-08-02T21:23:00.002-04:00

So I've discovered I don't have a huge impetus to play Shiren. Well, I'm not hopelessly addicted to it like I was with P3:Portable, anyway. So I popped in Etrian Odyssey II on a lark while I was tired a few nights ago, and I've put in another five hours or so, I believe.

I just reached the 20th floor before posting this, and am likely going to be facing the Strata boss soon, which will, like pretty much all the other Strata bosses, probably destroy me hard. Hopefully I can keep playing, because my guys are all level 55-59, just short of where I beat the last game. I'd like to finish the main story, to prep myself for Etrian Odyssey III, which I really need to pre-order so I get that awesome pre-order bonus art book.

Anyway. So I don't know what it is about EO that I love so much. It is not as though I ever played old-school PC RPGs when I was a kid (EO is like a love letter to those). The prospect of making my own map would have certainly made me vomit as a concept on its own. Endless grinding for loot and money never really appealed to me either, and I certainly don't like the goofy (and in a certain store in the original EO, outright disturbing) character designs, although the music is quite good.

It's hard to pinpoint, honestly. I guess EO is like the RPG genre distilled to its essence - a story that is both there, and virtually transparent, allowing you to fully customize your party any way you want. In fact, that's most likely it - the game is so ridiculously customizable that there is really no wrong way to do anything. There are just level-up paths that make your characters more powerful sooner than others, and I kind of like discovering that.

I mean come on - if you reach level 100 with your characters, the game allows you to "Retire" them and let you start over at level 1 with all your skill points, which means you can level them up all the way again and max out every skill and (probably, anyway, since I've sure as hell never done it) stat.

And I believe, like the last game, there is a bonus Strata after you beat the main storyline boss, which will allow you to really test your party's mettle.

I don't know why I'm so addicted to these hardcore RPGs these days. They're pretty much all I've been playing (with a short break for Super Mario Galaxy 2)! I hope I don't get RPG'ed out. Guess will see. Anyway, back to the grind.

Shiren the Wanderer, part 1

2010-07-30T19:33:00.002-04:00

I started up Shiren for Wii over again, this time on Easy difficulty, so I don't lose all my items when I die.

Now, why did I do this, you ask? Especially knowing I actually like that mechanic in Shiren DS?

Well, you see, Shiren for Wii is broken up into different dungeons, instead of one big one. This means that if I lose all my equipment, then I become severely under-equipped for whatever dungeon I'm currently in... So I would have to go back and grind equipment in earlier dungeons.

This could take hours.

And if I die again? I'd have to start the whole process over. I do not consider that prospect fun. So I'm playing it on easy, so I can enjoy the game.

Granted, now I'm flying through the dungeons, already up to Tengu's Castle, about halfway to the point I was at when I stopped last time (which took me like 14 hours, whereas I'm only three hours in this playthrough). So I don't know what to think. Certainly this game shouldn't be easy - and it won't be, once they start throwing the really ridiculous enemies at me - but so far it is.

Oh well. Anyway, the game is pretty good mindless fun. It is by no means perfect, and it isn't as good as the DS version of Shiren, but I still like it and will likely beat it eventually, unless the last few dungeons get ridiculous. I think I'll play the game more when I unlock the postgame stuff, like in the DS version that I still pick up from time to time.

What is it about these games that make them so appealing to me, anyway? It is definitely not the story, which is rudimentary at best. It's not the graphics, although they are certainly passable in this version. The music is pretty good, though.

As for the gameplay... I've watched someone else play a roguelike, and it is dull. It amounts to basically watching someone walk around, sometimes hitting stuff. Unless you're playing it yourself, it is unbearable. But when you are exploring the dungeons yourself, and you are vested in the experience, you are kind of on the edge of your seat at all times. If you make one or two mistakes, you could find yourself in trouble... And all your hard work could be lost in an instant.

In theory, that sounds so appealing. Here is a game where if you die, you lose everything - this gives the proceedings a sense of urgency like no other video game I'm aware of. Sure, if you die on a boss in Final Fantasy, you might lose an hour or two of grinding, but Shiren (the DS version, anyway, or the Wii version on Normal difficulty or above) can make you essentially lose everything you had been doing in the game up until that point. Besides, of course, whatever progress you made in the story - which amounts to very little even when you beat the game, in the long run.

I still think Shiren DS nails the balance perfectly between danger, difficulty, and fairness. The Pokemon roguelikes are too easy, and Izuna is a little to easy in some ways, and completely unfair and obtuse in others. Chocobo's Dungeon on Wii was fun as hell and had awesome music, but was a little too easy too... I don't know how a developer could effectively balance a multiple dungeon roguelike without letting you save items when you die or something. Or letting you keep your levels or whatever. It sounds too tough to do effectively.

I just wish someone would make another Shiren DS type of game and expand the town parts a little bit...

Persona 3 Portable, part 2

2010-07-29T19:00:00.003-04:00

Well, I beat the game last night. That last month really wore me out - I was able to complete both the Aeon and Magician S. Links - just barely. I finished the Aeon one on the last day possible.

I was grinding like crazy, though. I got my MC up to level 85 (like twenty two or twenty three levels over the level I was at when I beat P3:FES) before I had enough of it, with about 8 days to go in the month. I hadn't unlocked whatever weird dungeon you unlock for beating the Reaper because I had only tried him once (at level 80) and couldn't beat him.

It is fucking stupid how few Exp Bonus cards you get during Shuffle Time in the last block of Tartarus. I looked up the percentages online, and it's like 40% yen, 20% weapon, 30% blank, and 10% Exp. Why?! This is the best time to grind! It's not like I have any S. Links to do! The last boss is coming up! Give me some fucking Exp Bonus cards! I definitely would have had the will to get to level 99 had I been able to reliably get the bonus instead of getting like 400 exp each time. I even shrunk my party down to just me and one other person (so I could still perform All-Out Attacks) to boost my Exp, and it worked, but only a little because I still didn't get the cards. By the time I hit 85, I had had enough and just slept early every night until the boss.

So, my final S. Links:

Fool
Magician
Priestess
Hierophant
Chariot
Hermit
Strength
Hanged
Death
Temperance
Devil
Tower
Moon
Sun
Aeon
Judgment

16 out of 19 (I think)! I missed maxing Fortune, Justice, and Emperor. When I played through FES, I believe I maxed out Emperor, and it wasn't changed for P3: Portable, so I didn't really miss anything there.

I'm happy with my playthrough this time. I don't know when I'll start up a male MC playthrough - that last month really burned me out. I think right now I'm going to go fire up Shiren Wii again, and start a new game on Easy, so I won't lose my equipment when I die, which will mean I won't punch any lights in my apartment like I did last time.

Until next time, Mitsuru...

Persona 3 Portable, part 1

2010-07-26T21:06:00.002-04:00

I say part 1 up there, and I mean it. I'm 15 game days away from the last boss of the game, which means I can basically go beat him whenever I want because the last month of the game is pretty uneventful S. Link-wise because I have maxed out most of the ones that would be available at this time. Oh - if you're worried, I won't be spoiling any story elements here in the blog.

This will not be a completely maxed S. Link playthrough, although I'm fairly proud of how things have gone so far. I might be able to max Aeon and Magician, depending on their availability during this month, but even if I don't get either I'll still be satisfied. So far, I've maxed out these S. Links:

Fool
Priestess
Hierophant
Chariot
Hermit
Strength
Hanged
Death
Temperance
Devil
Tower
Moon
Sun
Judgment

So thirteen total maxed S. Links, only three of which are story related. Ten maxed S. Links is definitely a personal best for me in any Persona game, so that's good. I'm thinking for my next playthrough, I'm going to use a guide and max them all. Next, I'm going to play through as the dude. And I'm going to be a Genius right off the bat, due to the Academics/Charm/Courage stats carrying over into NG+.

Which means, Mitsuru, that you and I will be banging so hard. Or, you know, whatever happens during her S. Link events.

So! I've grinded my MC up to level 80, and plan on grinding at least a little more before I go on and beat the game. This means that I've earned quite a bit of money, which means I can afford to fuse a ton of Personae and re-purchase them as needed. So I've gotten some interesting Personae I've never gotten before, such as Satan, Scathach, Attis, Mara (I got Mara in P4 but the giant penis guy seems to be much stronger in P3), and a really sweet Abaddon (which produced 4 Tomes of the Void for me - which grants whoever equips them Null All Status Effects - very useful for the last boss!).

I'm going to try to fuse even more crazy Personae, but I worry I'll run out of patience. The enemies at the very tip top of Tartarus are all afraid of me because I'm such a high level, thus they don't give me much experience when I fight them so it'll take forever to level up. But man... some of those high-level Personae look so cool! I'll try my best, anyway.

I wonder if the ending for the girl will be any different compared to the guy's. I guess we'll find out soon enough...

Oh man... it's here...

2010-07-08T21:50:00.002-04:00

Before I get to what the blog title is referring to, I'll say this about Super Mario Galaxy 2: the first 120 stars you get are awesome. The second 120, the green stars, are... Well, I've only gotten one of them so far, but if that one is any indication, it will be awhile before I complete Super Mario Galaxy 2 100%. You have to search the levels for these stars, and the game gives you no clue as to where in the level they are other than a faint light in the sky, and a star sound when you are near them.

It's like a throwback to the days of N64 collect-a-thons, in a way. Like they injected some DK64 into the game. So, it will probably be a while before I get back to SMG2, although I enjoyed it while is lasted.

I picked up Persona 3 Portable a few days ago, and have put in about two hours so far. I went ahead and decided to play as the girl, and since I can't come up with names to save my life, I went with my girlfriend's full name. It's an interesting take, really! Since the main character is silent, I've been unwittingly projecting my girlfriend's personality on her. Besides the fact that the character looks nothing like my girlfriend, I have found myself answering Social Link questions and the like how I think she would. It's kind of fun, actually.

As far as what I think about the game itself so far, I am disappointed in one respect: the anime cutscenes from Persona 3:FES were removed! On the GameSpite boards, I was told that this was because they were "pretty bad" anyway. Well, I could care less! I thought they added a ton to the presentation. The first scene of the game, in which the main character travels from the train station to the dorm, is the scene that intrigued the crap out of me when I first saw it before I had ever played a MegaTen game. You could say that scene sent me on the spiral I've found myself in since then, having bought and owned almost every Shin Megami Tensei game released in America since then...

But I digress. That scene had the main character walking down a street, past bloody coffins just strewn everywhere, but all standing up erect. He seemed to sort of notice them, but just kept going, and then when he got to the dorm, this creepy little kid in striped pajamas told him to sign a book. It was weird and awkward and creepy all at once, and it hooked the shit out of me.

Persona 3 Portable uses a few lines of text to describe this scene, along with a few stills taken, I assume, from that cutscene. It still works to a certain extent, but I don't think it'd hook newcomers to the game like the anime would, "questionable quality" or not.

But anyway, that's all nerdy bitchery. I'm really enjoying the differences in the girl's campaign, even if I have already noticed a voice acting error (she just woke up in the hospital, Yukari! At least get her gender right!). I'm interested in seeing where the story goes once certain key characters are introduced, and I really like the design of the girl character as well. The male version was neat, but really, really weird looking. He would run with his hands in his pockets, which still sounds so weird to me.

Wow I'm all over the place today. I need to remember to start a paragraph and fucking finish the paragraph with that topic. Yeah. I'm going to stop for the night now. I hope I'll play more tomorrow, maybe I'll post again.

Mario's spaceship is shaped like his face... what hubris. (part 3)

2010-07-05T21:34:00.002-04:00

Just got to the sixth world in Super Mario Galaxy 2, and I'm at a nice even 90 stars so I figured it'd be a good time to post.

The last boss battle against Bowser Jr. was epic, if I may say such a thing. You have your Cloud Mario powerup, while Bowser Jr. is in this like six story tall tank that you have to climb by riding clouds (that you make!) up these wind drafts and then leap, if you can, to the tank and butt-stomp it. You have to do this twice, then all of a sudden the tank gets higher and sprouts wheels! You then have to chase the thing around while being like 150 feet in the air, while trying to score that final butt-stomp.

It felt so awesome when I did. The game doesn't then mess around, knowing how awesome that sequence was, and it just tosses Bowser Jr. the fuck off the screen with nary a word. You then collect the Grand Star and move on.

When I entered the sixth world, I encountered a level about three stars in where you have to use Rock Mario to roll your way over jumps and whatnot to a star at the very end.

I died like twelve times. Yet, I was not frustrated (even when the stupid "you suck at this game" fairy showed up - I, of course, ignored her, knowing I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let the computer get the star for me). That part, though tough, was fun as hell.

Here comes some fanboy gushing. Forgive me for this... But Nintendo knows how to make some goddamn video games. The amount of polish that went into both Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 show how fucking awesome they are at making good, playable games. Not only does Super Mario Galaxy 2 look great, but it plays even better. This game does not feel stale at all - and I played through Super Mario Galaxy last summer, so it's still fairly fresh in my mind. You'd think it would be only slightly iterative, but it is a completely new game. I am fucking thrilled to be playing it and am happy I was able to start it during a big lull in workdays (thank you America's birthday!).

The last time I was this addicted to a game was when I was playing through Devil Survivor, and you know what happened with that. I know it was only a few months ago, but before that it was Persona 3 and 4 last year. As much as I enjoyed New Super Mario Bros. Wii, this may even top it - so far. Hard to say, having heard the endgame can kinda suck. We'll see, as I'm getting there soon, I'd say...

Real quick...

2010-07-05T15:19:00.001-04:00

The Spring Mario powerup can go to hell.

To hell!

Mario's spaceship is shaped like his face... What hubris. (part 2)

2010-07-04T22:05:00.003-04:00

So I'm 55 stars into Super Mario Galaxy 2. Really enjoying it so far, still! We'll start this post off with my only complaint thus far:

The Bulb Berry powerup for Yoshi is no damn fun. It illuminates a circle around you, allowing you to see and step on invisible platforms - the catch is, these platforms only "exist" when you can see them, and the Bulb Berry's powers go away after a short time. It does so by gradually shrinking down the viewing area until it gets to none. I can see where the cleverness in design comes in with this powerup, but I'm hoping they don't use it much because I hate the levels.

As for what is good, I've really enjoyed the boss battles so far as well - there has not been much in the way of a retreading of ideas from Super Mario Galaxy 1, either, which I'm pretty impressed with. They've mostly been using the new powerups to create new boss battles, so that's good.

Another element that has returned are the Comet challenges from the first game. I've done mostly Speed Run levels, which were my favorite type of challenge from the first game, but I've also encountered one or two Daredevil Challenges (which are just regular levels, but with Mario only able to take one hit before death). These haven't been so bad, thus far, although I was lucky on the boss battle I fought. I almost got hit right near the very end, but dodged his foot somehow. Who knows! I was glad I did.

The levels continue to be amazing, as well. I just played through a level where everything is huge like in Mario 3, and it was great! Some of the levels have the same music as levels have had in the past, but I guess four worlds in I can't be surprised. And you know, whatever; it's all really good music, anyway.

That's all for now. I've noticed a few posts on Gamespite about the game where people complain about something called "green star mode" or somesuch, but I haven't reached there yet. Hopefully it's not a bunch of crap, because this game has been pure joy thus far.

Mario's spaceship is shaped like his face... What hubris. (part 1)

2010-07-03T22:28:00.007-04:00

I received Super Mario Galaxy 2 for my birthday from my mom a few days early since she likely wouldn't see me on the actual day itself, and I began playing it this evening.

I've got 16 stars so far, and I'm loving it. Most of my complaints about the first game have been addressed, such as the hub world - it's gone! When I want to, you know, play the game, I don't have to walk around this giant boring hub world to get to the room that has the galaxy that I want to go to in it. I just point to the World I want on the main map, then point to the level I want, and I'm there! So that's great.

Also, the levels have less stars in them to begin with. This is a good thing, because now I'm not wandering around the same levels over and over again looking for whatever clue I need to find a hidden star. I hated that in the first game. Although this could change, admittedly - I've only played the first world, and part of the second so far, and certainly haven't gotten all the stars in either.

As an aside, one of the things that amuses me about the way this game is structured is that the clusters of levels are called Worlds, but the individual levels themselves are called galaxies. This means galaxies are contained within worlds. I suppose the reason for that is just that "world" has always been a generic catch-all term within video games to describe a collection of levels. So, because the first Super Mario Galaxy called the levels galaxies, they had to stick with it for this one, causing this weird little idiosyncrasy. But, I digress.

Yoshi is really awesome! Although this is no revelation for anybody who has played the little green dinosaur thing, this is the first time in 3-D where he has actually changed gameplay enough to merit his presence. In Super Mario Sunshine, Yoshi was available to Mario, although his only real benefit was to vomit weird juice all over stuff and float a little bit. Here in Super Mario Galaxy 2, he can not only use the Wiimote pointer to lock onto enemies to eat them, he can use it to flip around sort of like Bionic Commando with his tongue! He also has a bunch of individual powers he can pick up which alter gameplay as well, although I haven't found too many of them yet.

Speaking of powers, the few new powers I've picked up as plain ol' Mario are pretty neat too! The cloud one lets you create three temporary platforms whenever you spin in mid-air, so that's pretty neat for exploring (and as a back-up), and the rock hat lets you turn into, well, basically, the Goron Mask from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, albeit for a limited time. It's pretty fun, although I've only used it once so far. I'm sure I'll use it again.

As for the story, Super Mario Galaxy 2 has stripped most of it away compared to the first game, and I'm thankful for it. Some people really enjoyed the story in Galaxy 1, and I can sort of see the appeal, but I always skipped by it after having viewed it the first time (I've beaten the first Mario Galaxy twice). Bowser has kidnapped the princess, and you have to save her. That's it! Yay! Onto the gameplay! Yes.

I'd also like to mention the music here does not disappoint. The first Galaxy had amazing orchestrated music, and the second does as well, with a slightly more quirky selection this time around (so far). There are some awesome remixes of old Mario music as well, which were amazing - such as the level that takes place on mostly creaky wooden bridges, with a remix of the Butter Bridge music from Super Mario World. It was as if they made that music for me.

So it turns out I like Super Mario Galaxy 2. Wow, what a surprise.

Catching Up - Crisis Core, Nostalgia, Neo Geo Pocket

2010-06-29T23:08:00.004-04:00

Well, it's been a month and a half since my last post. That's what happens when you get a grown up job where you work lots of 12 hour days, I suppose.

However! I have still been playing games. I never did finish Super Princess Peach, although I'd like to someday. Since then, I've played some weird stuff. I'll try to be brief for each of them.

I picked up Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII right before I started the new job (so like, late May?). I put in about ten hours, and I thought it was pretty neat! The combat system was getting a little repetitive, but I suppose that's because it reminds me a little bit of Kingdom Hearts. A little. There are differences, and I think Crisis Core is better, but it still boils down to mostly mashing X while healing every once in a while. The story seemed neat, though, so I'd like to go back to it sometime. I never did finish Final Fantasy VII, so it's kind of neat to see Sephiroth before he became all evil or whatever. I wish more game prequels had you traveling around with the ultimate bad guy of the original game. I think it's a neat narrative idea (one that has been admittedly played out in movies and books but not in videogames yet, outside maybe Bowser in the Mario RPG games).

I also started playing Nostalgia, a recently released RPG for the DS, published by Ignition Entertainment. I'm a huge fan of Shane Bettenhausen, who works for Ignition now, and he pimped Nostalgia on an episode of Active Time Babble a while back, and it sounded neat. I'm really glad I bought it, because it reminds me of a few old RPGs: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy X, and some random early PS1 RPG.

It is Final Fantasy IV in the sense that the story is ridiculous, dramatic, and over-the-top (and pretty dumb), but ultimately enjoyable. The battle system is like FFIV as well, without the ATB gauge. That, actually, is where the FFX influence comes in - there is a list of turns on the bottom screen that includes both player characters and enemy characters, and certain actions taken will change turn orders, dramatically altering battle, just like in FFX. The random early PS1 RPG element comes from the graphics, which are a crisp, smoothly displayed set which comes across like a mixture of FFVII's simple polygons and FFIX's more complex character designs.

I'll likely have more to say about Nostalgia! I really like it so far, have put about 11 hours into it, and will hopefully beat it soon.

But I'd like to talk now about this great little handheld system I picked up last weekend in East Lansing - the Neo Geo Pocket Color. I got it and Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure for $20 - a steal, considering on eBay the system alone sells for like $60. The guy gave me $10 off for not having a watch battery in it, but I picked two up for $5 and I'm all set now. It's a well designed little system - the joystick/d-pad thing is very comfortable and responsive. The ergonomics fit the hand very well. My only complaint is the A button is near the screen, while the B button is away - and A, like other systems, confirms selections, and B cancels them. Dammit. If this little thing had been backlit, it would have been better than the original GBA, in my opinion.

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, by the way, is the best portable Sonic game ever made. It is like a remix of Sonic 2 with music remixes of Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. It plays well, and baddies don't knock you off balance so quickly like in other Sonic games. You actually have a chance to react to them, because they move slowly at you at first when they first come on the screen. It's a little hard to explain but it works. The graphics look really nice too.

I have more NGPC games coming in the mail, too, as I got a really good deal on them in that always awesome Trading Time thread over at GameSpite, so I'll probably write about a few of those as well, hopefully soon, if I can find the time.

Thoughts on Super Princess Peach pt. 3

2010-05-15T18:54:00.002-04:00

Well, that ice world was a slog.

I just reached World 7, Giddy Sky, in Super Princess Peach, and it's a welcome change of pace from the last world. First of all, why does every platformer have to have some stupid ice world to traverse? It was old in Super Mario Bros. 2, and has not gotten any better since. I mean I understand the developers want to create some sort of tension between players and their comfort with the controls, but there has got to be a better way. "Woo, slippery!" Always fun when you see that. And Super Princess Peach put it's ice level near the end of the game, so they can put more difficult ice platforming in there than they could during the easier portions of the game.

At least the boss was a pushover so I could move on.

In terms of puzzles, they aren't getting much more difficult. I've found as time has gone on, it's become increasingly difficult to keep coming back to Super Princess Peach - I think this is due to the lack of interesting puzzles. You see, I could deal with mediocre platforming so long as the extra stuff, the puzzle parts, were interesting, but they really aren't. What few changes have been made over the course of the game are beaten into the player's skull that as soon as he sees the beginning of one type of puzzle, he can almost immediately solve it and move on.

Compare this to Warioland's puzzles, and you'll see a much better difficulty curve. They start out relatively easy, but by the end of the game (I'm speaking mostly of 2 and 3, here), you're practically pulling your hair out trying to figure out how to solve puzzles. This is good, though. I would much rather try to do that than to simply blow through some lame attempt at a puzzle easily.

The continued nods to Super Mario World are keeping me entertained, though. The Mario World-styled Hammer Bros. are in it! This is sweet.

Going back and forth between Super Princess Peach and Fallout 3 is pretty jarring, to be honest, but I'm enjoying both overall. Anyway, my next Super Princess Peach post will likely be the last, since I'm a world and a half away from what I presume to be the end.

War. War never changes. (part 1)

2010-05-14T23:46:00.003-04:00

So I struck up a deal with Kyle. He plays through (and beats!) Persona 3, and I do the same with Fallout 3. As excited as I am for Kyle (he's going to love that game), I must say I'm enjoying Fallout so far.

The reason I'm enjoying the game right now is exactly the reason I thought I would - exploring. Since the game takes place in a post-nuclear apocalypse, the landscape has changed and humans must eke out a living in a very, very dangerous world. Exploring this world has brought me great joy - I've found a dog (who my character apparently names Dogmeat) and helped him survive, and he will help me find ammo or other items I'm looking for. Granted, there's not much to find out in the middle of nowhere, and the dog is incredible fragile so he's not worth taking into any dangerous areas, I just like finding stuff like that.

Scrounging around in this world is much, much more interesting than Oblivion, for me. I think the reason for that is items that I see are somewhat recognizable - I see fridges and cash registers and pop machines and cars, but they are all ruined and are worthless. I think it's a nice touch that bottlecaps are the currency of Fallout 3's world; you can find "Pre-War Money," but it's worth very little.

Where I'm struggling to like the game is the combat. I mean, I like it; the V.A.T.S. system allows me to eschew normal shooter gameplay most of the time, which is fantastic because I hate that crap. However, you get limited AP with which to use V.A.T.S., so sometimes you have to fall back on your shooting skills. Mine? Not so good. Which I know, says more about my skill than anything else, but I just don't like that kind of gameplay much.

So far, though, the world is drawing me in. And dammit, I'll at least beat the game so Kyle beats Persona 3, because that's something that needs evangelizing. And I want to talk about that game with someone in person rather than on the Internet, dang it.

So anyway, I just reached Level 4 in Fallout 3, and I gave myself the Comprehension perk, which gives me an extra 3 bonus points to apply towards my stats per level. I've beaten the first set of quests Moira gives you at Megaton, where you fill out the first chapter of her book - I beat all the extra optional stuff for them, too. I haven't started helping her with the second chapter yet, since I'm helping some kid rid some little town of Fire Ants - which are incredibly annoying because when you get close to them they spew very damaging fire at you.

Anyway, sorry for the abrupt end but I'm tired. More next time.

Thoughts on Super Princess Peach pt. 2

2010-05-10T20:21:00.002-04:00

Whoa! Two blogs in one day! Craziness!

But I'm loving this Super Princess Peach game, you see. Having gotten past the somewhat sexist parts of it, I've come to discover its charms.

I'm two levels into the third world, you see. The second world starting throwing some simple puzzles at me. It started when I noticed a waterwheel, unmoving, in a gushing waterfall in one of the early world 2 levels. I made Peach cry into it, and it starting spinning, which caused a pipe to appear elsewhere in the level, allowing me to find one of the Toads for that level (the "Level Collectable" in this game are captured Toads). The world put a few more twists on this theme, with a windmill one where I spun it to unlock doors, etc. One of the more interesting ones was where you make Peach cry, which causes her to not only spout water, but run extremely fast, allowing you to get across a quickly-collapsing bridge to find another Toad. I had to avoid Koopa Troopas while I did it, as well, which added a little (but not much) challenge to the game.

As an aside: Dry Bones are in this game. Yesssssssssssss

Having played the Wario Land games within the past two years (and chronicled them here!), I've noticed that Super Princess Peach plays a lot like a Warioland 5, for example. It's very, very easy so far, but if the difficulty ramped up and some harder puzzles appeared, it would seem as though this was just a Wario game where the Wario just wears a pink dress and cries from time to time (yeah, don't think about that). The different abilities of Peach coupled with her ability to, well, die if she loses enough health, really makes me think of the first Warioland, to be honest.

So I suppose what I'm saying is if this game gets harder soon, then it will make me very, very happy. Perhaps I'll float, allowing me to activate windmills...

Thoughts on Super Princess Peach pt. 1

2010-05-10T17:38:00.004-04:00

I was finally able to pick up Super Princess Peach today. I have wanted to play this game for quite a while now, but never wanted to spend $30+ on it - and I was able to trade my copy of No More Heroes (which, let's be honest, I was never going to play again) away to a kind fellow on Gamespite.net.

And I'm glad I did! The game is fairly breezy so far, and is pretty enjoyable. I just beat the boss of the first world, and I have no idea how long this game is, but I hope the puzzle difficulty starts to ramp up because I enjoy the mechanics so far.

Well, mechanically, I do.

You see (and this will come as no surprise to anyone who actually knows anything about this game), Princess Peach has some power-ups available to her at any time in this game, so long as her power up meter has some juice left in it.

What are her powers?

Menstruation.

I'm only half-kidding. You use her emotions to change her abilities; so when she is sad, she cries huge waterfalls of tears that allow her to fill things and water plants and such, and when she is angry? She bursts into a pillar of flame, allowing her to kill enemies instantly and burn down wooden things. When she is happy, she is able to float, and when she "calms down" (which is another power you have to activate!), her health slowly refills.

Now I am not Mr. Politically Correct. I could care less if people are offended if something is most likely good-natured and teasing; and this may very well be the case with Super Princess Peach! I haven't met the developers, of course. But since I haven't I can't help but feel like this game is pretty darned sexist.

Which isn't to say I'll be boycotting the game - far from it, actually. I'm enjoying it so far! It's not as if the game is a total comment on supposed "emotional instability of women" - the powers are used, and you move on. Some might even argue that the emotions are actually part of Princess Peach's character, but whatever. Moving on.

Despite the weird presentation, I think Super Princess Peach has a lot going for it. The controls work really well, the graphics evoke a sort of simpler Yoshi's Island type of look, and there are nods to other Mario games throughout the entire thing that aren't annoying overt. The puzzles, so far, seem simple yet entertaining, and that first boss fight actually had a little challenge to it. The music is, well, simply okay so far.

I suppose I'll end my thoughts here. I'll get more into the specifics in my next post, as I don't have much more to say yet.

What I've Been Playing These Days - May 2010

2010-05-09T18:04:00.001-04:00

So it has been quite a while since I've talked about what I've currently been playing here. Let's jump into it, shall we?

So I bought Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and despite my best efforts, I don't like it all that much. The main problem is the combat system: it plays like a modified version of Nocturne's system, which I liked, but with a few key differences. First, your attacks do bonus damage based on your alignment rather than spell type or demon type.

That drives me insane.

Here's why: My main guy? He's neutral right now. It takes a while to change alignments, and so the only way I can get bonus damage through using my MC's attacks is if my demons are also neutral.

Perhaps it's because I'm only in the first two floors of the second zone, but there are very very few neutral demons. My MC is the best character because I can change around his attacks more easily than my demons, yet I can't get bonus damage or whatnot because of the reasons I listed above.

So I gave up on the game for now. I might go back to it at some point, as it's possible I just prefer Etrian Odyssey to it and had gotten off a huge sting of playing that, but who knows.

I bought, played, and beat Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth since I last posted here, as well. Overall, I enjoyed it! I'm not sure if I prefer it or Apollo Justice - I certainly do like the improvements made to the mechanics of the series in this iteration, though. The game limits you to whatever screen you have to be investigating and will not let you leave until you've finished. So there is no more wandering back and forth between 5-6 areas clicking on everything multiple times looking for the next plot point! Considering that was my biggest complaint about the previous games, it's a pretty big deal they fixed it.

As far as the story goes, I thought it was pretty good for being largely self-contained, although I would have liked to see a cameo from Maya. I want to know what the hell that girl is doing now after having ditched Phoenix!

But anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it was funny as hell just like the previous games. I particularly enjoyed the one character who couldn't take anything Edgeworth did seriously and laughed at almost everything he said. It was pretty meta, and I liked it.

Pokemon Heartgold and I have reached an impasse. I beat the Elite Four and am in Kanto, but I don't feel like playing much any more. I think it's because I have to level up a little bit to start beating the Gym Leaders over here, but there is ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE TO DO SO. So eff it. I could just send my Pokemon over to Diamond and grind them fairly quickly there, but that's a pain so whatever. I'll come back and plow through the rest of it someday.

I bought Rune Factory: Frontier for Wii and I like it, but I'm just not in the mood for a hack'n'slash right now. It also doesn't help that the story and characters are ridiculous and stupid beyond belief. Why can't the writing of these Harvest Moon games ever be as good as Harvest Moon 64? I mean it ain't Shakespeare, Natsume!

Half-Minute Hero is fuggin' awesome and I will beat it eventually. I suspect once I have my PSP out regularly (read: once Persona 3 Portable comes out) I'll be popping it in and out quite a bit. But because it's pretty action-y, I'm not really in the mood for it.

I picked up Glory of Heracles on the cheap yesterday and have put about two hours into it, and it has already amazed me at how rough around the edges this game is. The battle system is pretty neat, but everything from the graphics to the dialog to the music all seems like it was made on a very light budget. I'm kind of surprised Nintendo published it - it seems below their standards for presentation. That said, the battle system shows promise so I'll put a little more time into it and get back to you.

Final Fantasy IV Advance still contains the "You spoony bard!" line from the SNES version and that's all you really need to know in regards to the game's quality. This will be my RPG snack - I'll play just a little bit of this for a while, I believe.

I finally opened my copy of Final Fantasy Tactics: Grimoire of the Rift today as well, and have already dumped two hours into it (boy, days off sure are nice). This game is going to be loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong but I'm liking it so far. The battles could move a little faster (I'm used to the speed of Devil Survivor, so I'm somewhat spoiled), and the job system seems a little opaque, but that might just be due to my unfamiliarity with the previous FFT games. I've been itching to play another one of these since I finished Devil Survivor, so I'll definitely be putting more time into this one.

I think I'm all caught up now. Within the next week or so, I'll be receiving two games I got great deals on for DS: Super Princess Peach (which I've wanted to play for quite a while now) and Infinite Space (which I bought primarily because I think it's going to get quite expensive soon). I'll probably write about those soon.

Why I Love Kraid's Lair

2010-04-12T20:30:00.000-04:00

There is a thread over at Talking Time in which members of the forum nominate some of their favorite songs, and then vote for them in pairs to see which one comes out on top. I nominated Kraid's Lair from the original Metroid as my pick without even really giving it any thought. It has been one of my favorite videogame music tracks for as long as I can remember, despite clocking in at approximately 45 seconds.

Today it is up for voting again, and it looks like it is going to win, which makes me happy, obviously. But I've been thinking about why I nominated it - you see, my girlfriend recently played through Katamari Damacy and the soundtrack to that game is one of my favorites in a long, long time, but I still would have gone with Kraid's Lair over, say, Que Sera Sera or Angel Flavor's Present. But... why?

I could start with how Metroid was the very first videogame I ever played. And that would probably be enough to convince me, if it weren't for the fact that until I beat the game for the first time in highschool, I've had an almost religious connection to the game.

You see, the first video game I ever played was my cousin Mikey's copy of Metroid. I was probably 2 or 3 at the time, and he was probably only 9 or 10. He let me start the game and I remember him laughing because I couldn't even get out of the first room. He took over, and proceeded to get the Long Beam, some Missiles, and then the bombs, and then he got to where he had been stuck.

Kraid's Lair.

I remember watching him wander in that labyrinth for what seemed like hours. He had no idea where to go. I remember him telling me how awesome the game was, and how he liked how his little Metroid "guy" was so brave by going into this scary place to try to fight all the "aliens."

And I remember the music. Oh, the music. That droning, oppressive, scary, otherworldy music that was coming out of the TV was so weird, it felt like I really was with "Metroid" in "his" little low-color world. I eventually got my own NES and my own copy of Metroid, and it seemed like my playthroughs would always end in Kraid's Lair for one reason or another - I was too young to fully grasp where to go and the game was so darned obtuse I couldn't figure it out.

So I moved on, and so did Mikey. We would occasionally go back to that weird NES game, but never could get through it and I think we eventually lost our patience with it.

A few years later, when he was 15, my cousin Mikey decided he wanted to get high by huffing some paint in his dad's shed. So he did. He passed out, and ended up choking to death while out cold. It messed our family up something fierce, because he was such a great guy and we all loved him so much and it was heartbreaking to have to see how badly it affected my aunt.

When my mom explained to me how Mikey died, I was still too young to comprehend what he did. To me, it was if he was there, and then all of a sudden for reasons that didn't make any sense to me, he was gone. I remember thinking about all my favorite memories I had with him, and most of them involved us puzzling through videogames.

Including Metroid. I know he never beat it; they had put their NES in the attic a few years before Mikey passed anyway. Shortly after I died, I found myself back in Kraid's Lair, trying to get through it, trying to find that boss and kill him, for Mikey.

I failed. And failed. And failed. I just couldn't figure it out. That whole time, the music played and even now, when I hear it, it still evokes memories of Mikey and I lost in that place, trying to make sense of the weird depths of Kraid's Lair.

When my videogame skills improved in high school, I was finally able to push past Kraid's Lair. The boss himself took a few tries, but I was able to beat him. I was a man on a mission - I had to beat the game now. I pressed on, unable to stop, even though Ridley's Lair gave me no quarter and beat me down so hard I almost gave up. But I pressed on, and finally beat Mother Brain, and escaped Tourian, seeing the end credits for the first time.

I was 15; I cried like a 8 year old when I beat it, alone in my basement, thinking about Mikey. Had he still been alive, he probably wouldn't have cared; but since he was gone, I had all these memories of this game that he couldn't beat, and he seemed like the master of games. Here I had solved the game years later, and I felt like I finally lifted some weird weight off my shoulders. I had beaten the game for Mikey; I hadn't enjoyed playing Metroid much since I was little, and did it because I missed my cousin and wanted to pay tribute to him the only way I could think of.

So when I hear Kraid's Lair today, I have such a strong mix of emotions that I can't help but love the track. It is the perfect atmospheric 8-bit piece, so oppressive and lonely, and I can't help but think of my poor old cousin Mikey whenever I hear it. It's largely a happy track for me, too, now, despite it's somewhat morbid theme throughout my early life; I think this is because it evokes happy memories of falling in love with videogames while watching my big cousin play through them.

So rest in piece, Mikey. I wouldn't have fallen in love with this dumb little pastime if it weren't for you. I couldn't thank you enough.

A Pokemon Retrospective

2010-03-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

The experience I had with Pokemon Gold in 2000 was revelatory, and is really the reason I keep playing the main series to this day. I want to try to recapture the fun I had while playing it back then.

What did it for me was how there were a very good balance of new and old Pokemon, and how the old ones that were in Johto were some of the better designs from the original games made me think that they were really trying to refine the experience from Red and Blue. And when I beat the Elite Four and found out I could go back to Kanto and beat the original 8 gyms again I was enthralled. There haven't been too many moments like that in videogames for me; realizing that I was only halfway through a game in which I would have been satisfied already was a great feeling.

Thus, I expected bigger and better things when Ruby and Sapphire came out in 2003 for Game Boy Advance. I wasn't really interested in any of the new Pokemon, really. I was interested in how they would change the main game, and I was thoroughly disappointed. They stripped out the additional 8 gyms - you only had the 8 new ones they introduced in Hoenn, the new region. What new Pokemon were there seemed to be repeats of old Pokemon, and really the only thing I liked about those versions were the fairly involved quests to get the legendary Pokemon - they had entire areas devoted to getting them.

I played the FireRed and LeafGreen remakes a few times after Ruby and Sapphire and liked them well enough, but have since largely forgotten them. There was quite a break for me in regards to Pokemon until I bought Diamond in 2007 and delved into that game. This post from 2008 about how much I still loved the game a year after it had been released is basically what I can say about how much I liked Diamond.

So fast forward to 2010. Remakes of my favorite Pokemon games have come out, and I have purchased HeartGold. I didn't think I would be, but the Pokewalker excites me. I don't know what it is - I suppose the fact that I am raising Pokemon while working or rollerblading or whatever really makes me happy or what, but I love that little thing. I already even know how to change the battery in case it dies! As far as the game itself goes, I've only beaten two gyms so far and am playing Etrian Odyssey II much more since I got it last week. I'm not sure why, but I think it's because I'm getting very tired of the core Pokemon game experience. I've just done this same quest so many times (and I mean not just in Johto - all the Kantos, Hoenns, and Sinnohs all bleed together to me) that I just don't really care about beating Gyms any more. At least not right now. I would like to murder Red on top of Mt. Silver, and I probably will. I just think I'm going to play through this Pokemon much slower than I've played through the games in the past.

Strange Journey comes out in three days, but I'm not sure if I'll play that right away or hold off and beat Etrian Odyssey II first, since I've already started it and the games are very similar. I think I might need a SMT break as well, so I'll probably beat EOII and the Edgeworth game before I break open Strange Journey. I guess we'll see! After Strange Journey, it will be a while before I feel the need to buy a game at full price brand new for a long while so that will be nice on my wallet!

SMT: Nocturne, part 1

2010-03-11T21:39:00.000-05:00

I am about ten hours into Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne right now, and I'm enjoying it so far. The combat system seems to me to be a mix of Persona 4 and Devil Survivor (which is interesting because both those games came out after this one). This is because you have one human, and the rest of your party is made up of demons as in Devil Survivor. It is not a strategy RPG, of course, though, and battles play out using the "Press Turn" battle system, which was seen in slightly altered form in the Persona games. It is turn based, and places heavy emphasis on enemy weaknesses, and battles can sway from easy to extremely difficult very quickly if you screw up.

Similarities aside, the game does have a few problems, at least so far. What I had heard of the game's story before I played it made it sound amazing and dark; and I suppose it is, but it is presented very simply with very little exposition. You are one of (apparently so far) three or four human survivors of the apocalypse, and the world is being rebooted and the creatures left have to figure out how it will turn out. Since the overwhelming majority of creatures left seem to be demons, who knows how things will turn out?

Sounds like a pretty decent setting for an RPG, right? By and large, it is, but the story is so bare-bones I find I'm not very interested. Right now, I only care about the battle system, and leveling up my main character and demons, which again, works a lot like Devil Survivor.

As an aside, I really like how the SMT series plays with its mechanics. What I mean is, they don't stay the same from game to game, but build upon each other in interesting ways. You've got your live-action Devil Summoner stuff, your strategy RPG Devil Survivor stuff, and your dating-sim-like Persona stuff, all with demon fusing (and a little negotiation) thrown in. It makes the series very cohesive, even if the stories aren't related.

Anyway. March is looking to be like a very busy videogame month. Strange Journey comes out in two weeks, and Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver will be out in just a few days. I'm skipping out on Final Fantasy XIII for now because of these games, and I just ordered Etrian Odyssey II and the Miles Edgeworth games as well, which should both be here next week. Hopefully then I can write about something non-SMT for once this year!

SMT: Devil Survivor - Fin

2010-02-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

Today, I got the last ending in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. I've gotten them all by now, and other than Yuzu's, I thought they were all pretty awesome. As far as which ending I prefer, I think I like Gin/Haru's or Atsuro's the best, because they seem to be what humans would do in that situation - make the best of things by themselves, without otherworldly interference. Or, at least, that's what I'd do.

One thing I'm disappointed in, though, is my inability to beat Lucifer. I probably could do it, but I never felt like grinding all my characters to 99 (including demons, which take much much longer to level up than humans) just to have a chance at beating him. The thing is a freaking BEAST (which I guess makes sense, seeing as how he's the devil and all) and Megidolaondyne is just unstoppable. Not to mention the fact that I would need a lot of luck to survive being raped by him anyway.

I was able to get all the demons, though, other than Lucifer of course, which is something I've never done in a SMT game. I also cracked all the skills other than Magic Yin, which doubles magic damage done (which would have been useful for Lucifer), but I don't feel like playing through the whole game again just to get that one skill. Maybe someday if I'm bored I'll play through it again but I think after five (!) playthroughs, I think I'm pretty much sick of the game at this point. Decent timing, too, because SMT: Strange Journey comes out in a few weeks, and I'm still fairly RPG hungry.

Oh, and after losing Keisuke during that first playthrough, I never let it happen again. Learned from that mistake, that's for sure! For my final playthrough, I ended with Nate at 99 with maxed Agility and Magic stats, Atsuro at level 99, Keisuke at level 99, and with the following demons at 99: Nyalathotep, Bishamon, Tao Tie, and Koumouku.

I suppose I don't have much else to say at this point about the game. It might be my favorite game of 2009, I'm not sure yet (New Super Mario Bros. Wii was fantastic, too, so who knows).

SMT: Devil Survivor, part 4

2010-02-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

I finished the game today. It was awesome. I had three choices by endgame: Yuzu's route, Naoya's route, and Gin/Haru's route. I went with the last choice. I couldn't bring myself to go the absolute evil route on my first playthrough, I guess, which is why I went the way I did. We'll see if I'm right, but I think I chose the "correct" route.

But anyway. I could not tell you the last time this has happened, but I am enthralled with this game. I just beat the game and I have not yet had my fill. I am going to play through the whole game again to get the other endings. Whether or not I get them all remains to be seen, but I started up a new game and it's pretty neat the way New Game + works in Devil Survivor.

From what I can gather, the demons I ended the game with are still mine for use - my level 65 Bishamon and Nyarlathotep are usable and are currently in my active party. It's comical, really - I used them in the first battle with my level 2 mains, and had the humans guard while the big demons cast Megido and Maragidyne and did like 10,000 damage to each demon. I'll probably fly through the first four or five days of this game as I am now, with just minimal leveling of the human characters to do.

And I can't wait. This game has easily become my favorite strategy RPG - above Shining Force II, believe it or not! That recommendation doesn't come easy from me, either, because even now I'll admit nostalgia blinds me for Shining Force II. Yet I know I like Devil Survivor more. It is a definite challenge, for one, and yet is breezy and fun to play.

And it has awesome freaking music, too. One of the best videogame soundtracks in a long time, I would argue - there is hardly two or three tracks I don't care for on the entire list, and even those are fairly decent. All on the little DS!

So anyway, I intend on playing through the game again and correcting the most glaring mistake I made during my first playthrough: Keisuke's death. I haven't decided which ending I'm going to go for yet (probably Naoya's, to be honest), but I don't care. Whatever I decide to do, I can't wait to get to the point where I'm fusing demons and trying to puzzle out how to demolish a battle again.

And I can't wait until Atsuro has Deathbound, Pierce, Phys Drain, Phys Jump, and Blitzkrieg again. That man is a freaking machine.

SMT: Devil Survivor, part 3

2010-01-22T03:37:00.000-05:00

God fucking dammit.

You know, for someone who claims to be able to notice subtlety in videogames, I certainly miss it at crucial times.

Here's the deal. It's Day 5. This guy Kaido wants to kill my former teammate Keisuke, but he can't find him. Around the same time, Keisuke and this woman Mari (Kaido's love interest!) are in danger. If Mari has this item in this bag you find, she is able to kill the demon threatening her. You find her bag, and are given a choice: give it to Mari, or keep it and give it to someone else.

The game had been telling me to create some sort of distraction for Kaido so he won't go off and kill Keisuke at 13:00. Stupid me didn't realize that the bag is the distraction! If you give it to Kaido, he'll run off and save Mari, and you'll be able to save Keisuke.

Guess what I did. I gave the bag to Mari because when I originally went to go find it, she told me she needed it to kill the demon. Seemed simple and harmless enough at the time. So I get the bag, get in the battle, save Mari as she kills the demon she wanted to kill, and I'm all "Okay, now to go save Keisuke," and I get there and then watch Kaido kill him.

Since I pretty much save before every battle and since this game has only one save file, I'm screwed if I want to save them both now unless I start over. Which is a stupid idea, I obviously won't. I'm going to ride my stupid decision out and see where it takes me. Maybe I'll go kill God after all, just to spite the freaking bag. Or something. I don't know.

SMT: Devil Survivor, part 2

2010-01-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

I am in Day 5 of Devil Survivor so far, and from what I gather on the GameSpite boards, I'm slightly overleveled. I'm okay with that though! I'm not doing it to break the game, I'm doing it because I'm having fun. I'm sure the game is slightly easier because of this, but oh well - so far, I feel like the difficulty is just right.

I can tell the game is getting tougher quickly, though. The enemies are starting to get some nasty powers such as Holy Dance (Almighty damage dealt randomly to different party members) and Makajamaon (high chance of Mute on all party members). That last one in particular has been giving me some headaches, that's for sure. It can actually turn the tide of a battle fairly quickly!

One of the things I'm guilty of in this game is not having a very large backup demon roster. I usually fuse the guys I want to use, then go into battle. So if one of them dies, and I summon another guy, he is usually level bullshit and gets demolished by a light breeze. I really need to remember to keep a stable of backup demons just in case. I've gotten screwed over a couple times because I forget, too.

One of the things I love about the SMT series is that now that I have played through a few games, when I see a new demon, I have an idea of what it is capable of. For example: I know when I see Thor to expect a badass thunder-wielding physical powerhouse (and I have gone out of my way to make sure I get him in each game)! This has given me a leg-up on some of the battles in Devil Survivor. Since I typically know what strengths and weaknesses certain demons have, battles are somewhat easier because I can exploit them better. The same goes for spell names, too - I knew what Makajamaon was going to do before it hit me that first time.

I just wish I was getting more powerful spells, though. I don't have access to any -dyne spells (the most powerful elemental spells end in -dyne, such as Agidyne, which is fire) yet and my Mazio, Mabufu, Maragi, and Mazan are getting a little weak (all multi-target spells start with Ma-). From what demons I know I'll be unlocking next, one of them has Agidyne - but it's Magic stat is way to low to be useful, really! Oh well. I'll fuse him with some other guys and spread that -dyne around as much as I can.

Storywise, I'm intrigued to see where this goes - supposedly, I have some big decision to make soon. From what I gather, it is basically do I want to: A. Become the King of the World and rule with my badass demons, B. Kill God and eliminate angels and demons from the world, or C. neutralize both angels and demons and banish the real bad guys from the world. Usually I would choose C in games like these because they are The Good Way, but that B looks mighty fine... I've never killed God in a videogame before. I don't mean, like, a God, either. I mean, GOD. Like Yahweh God.

And even if that means I turn into a heartless murderer, it would make for an awesome ending. And there's always New Game +, which will allow me to play through the game again with all the demons I already had unlocked (amongst other things)! So I can easily go get those other endings.

SMT: Devil Survivor, part 1

2010-01-19T03:22:00.000-05:00

Until I purchased Persona 3 last year on a whim after hearing about the series on a December 2008 podcast, I had never heard of the Shin Megami Tensei series. I wasn't even sure if I'd like it, as it had been a while since I had enjoyed a really tough RPG, and I had not played anything like Persona 3.

Fast forward to today. I now am on Atlus' e-mail list, something I typically despise, to follow as closely as I can when they release any games in this series. Every one I've played so far has been unique, interesting, and completely unlike any other games out there.

So after I had beat Persona 3 and had just gotten Persona 4, Atlus released a game called "Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor" for the DS. I picked it up, because I know how long Atlus games typically stay on shelves: not very long. The game is a strategy RPG, mostly in the vein of games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Shining Force. There is a few (okay, a lot) of twists, though. When a unit walks up to an enemy and engages it, you enter a separate screen and actually fight like in a Dragon Quest game. But you only get one (two if you fight well) rounds of attacks before the control goes back to the field as a whole.

Yeah, it's pretty weird. The game is split up into (as far as I can tell) 7 days. Your characters are trapped in a lockdown in Tokyo, and you have no idea why at first. You soon discover that your cousin has given you devices called COMPs, which can summon demons. You then set out to figure out what the hell is going on, and to survive the dangers you encounter.

When I first started playing the game, I got stuck in a late Day 2 battle where I had to protect a bunch of defenseless civilians from demons but also not let any demons leave the playing field through the northeast exit. This is a bitch and a half, and so far has been the most difficult battle for me. It doesn't help that the demons always target the civilians and the civilians always run around stupidly.

But anyway, I hated that battle and put the game down, only returning to it a few days ago because I was craving some difficult RPG action. I had started raising a new character in Etrian Odyssey to explore the last stratum that you find after the main story boss, but that was stupid and boring. So on a whim I decided to work hard on Devil Survivor.

And it has paid off. Rather than try to blow through the game without grinding (I read somewhere, likely on the GameSpite message boards, that you should never have to grind in a Shin Megami Tensei game. As it turns out, I am not an idiot savant like that guy), I have been slowing down and grinding when I need to. And, more importantly, I've shaken off a habit that I think I got from the Pokemon games: that is, I quickly get rid of old demons to upgrade to new ones that are more powerful, rather than try to raise my old ones. It took playing through both Persona games to learn that, and it still sometimes bothers me, but what are you going to do - the game is designed this way.

I'm now at somewhere around 14:00 in Day 3 and I'm loving it so far. I think I have a very tough battle coming at the end of the day, so who knows how frustrating that will be. I hope the game keeps these "protect so-and-so" battles to a minimum - they are annoying as hell and not fun at all.

I Feel Like Ranting

2010-01-15T01:24:00.000-05:00

There are several games that go for upwards of $100 on eBay, and have since the site's inception. I just have one question.

Why don't publishers port the games to current systems?!

It makes no sense to me, when games like Suikoden II are selling for almost $200 used and Konami isn't releasing it anywhere. Not even a downloadable port! This is a Playstation 1 game. How hard can it be to make the thing run on current systems?! Hell, I bought the first Suikoden when it was released on PSN for just $6 just because it didn't cost one million dollars. I would do the same for Suikoden II, Konami! Come on!

I can understand why games like Panzer Dragoon Saga aren't being ported, though - Saturn emulation is incredibly hard to do. That game will probably eternally cost upwards of $200 and only get more expensive as more and more people buy it and then let it sit on their shelves for eternity. Hopefully somebody can figure out how to emulate the freaking Saturn so I can play it!

Earthbound, though. Earthbound! How is it possible that Nintendo has this game just sitting around and they aren't even releasing it on Virtual Console?! I would buy a $35 remake for DS! Hell, I'd pay $50 for a Wii remake! Nintendo says it's just because the game didn't sell well when it was first released here for SNES. NEWSFLASH, Nintendo! RPGs hadn't really taken off in America at the time! And do you remember your ad campaign? You put scratch and sniff fart cards in magazines! I remember thinking as a kid, "Well this game looks stupid. It's about smelling farts and looks like an original Nintendo game!" I was like eight at the time! How can you not sell a game to an eight year old that has farts in it?! You bungled your marketing hardcore, that's how. So how about rereleasing it and giving it another chance? You have a Game Boy Advance sequel that you could release, too, say, as a WiiWare or DSiWare title, also! Can you do that for me?

Can you do that so I don't have to pay eighty stupid dollars for your SNES game on eBay? That could be your money, Nintendo!

"The After Years" and DLC. Also, Castlevania Post-mortem

2010-01-09T03:14:00.000-05:00

I've had the first part of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years downloaded to my Wii for quite a few months now. I think I might have even downloaded it on its day of release. I played it for a few hours, then promptly ignored it until a few days ago.

I'm not sure what it was that made me boot it up again. I think I wanted to listen to a podcast or something while playing a videogame, and was sick of Mario at the time (it took me forever to find a coin in a level in World 6 and I was pissed off about it) and so I just booted it up.

Well, that was costly.

I beat the game (well, the first part of it anyway) and have now downloaded the next four parts at three bucks a pop. Luckily, I had some points left over on the Shop Channel. Regardless, I now have beaten two of the four DLC things - Rydia's Tale and Yang's Tale. I'm now playing through Palom's Tale and am probably close to beating it, honestly. They are pretty quick jaunts, about an hour or so each.

And for the most part, I'm enjoying myself. The most glaring problem? The encounter rate is ridiculously high! So high that I sometimes cannot stand playing the game because there have been numerous times where I've moved two spaces and then have to fight another battle!

The other problem is that each chapter is wildly different from the last in terms of party makeup. I hated playing through Rydia's Tale because there's her and her goofy dwarf friend and neither one of them have any healing spells. So I have to grind for cash and then buy a bunch of potions to heal. Then there is the chapter I'm on now: I have two mages in my party, one who can use White Magic, while both can use Black - and that's great! Only problem is, battles take longer because I have to watch the stupid magic animation play out every time, because neither one of them can hit for any damage above like 10, when they're able to hit at all with their physical attacks. It's pretty annoying!

But I really like seeing what happened to all these characters after Final Fantasy IV. Meeting the sons and daughters of characters like Cecil and Rosa is pretty neat (even when they name their kid Ceodore - that has got to be a translation error or something. What a stupid name!). There are a few nice touches, too - when there is a flashback to Final Fantasy IV, the sprites of all the characters revert to the old SNES style - the exact sprites that game used. It's subtle, but appreciated. And the graphics that remain are decent! They remind me a lot of Final Fantasy V, actually - somewhere in between FFIV and FFVI in polish - with slightly larger character sprites. And the music is basically FFIV's soundtrack, which was good. Some remixes would have been nice, though.

At any rate, I'll finish it one of these days.

I also played through and beat Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth today too! Finally figured out how to beat that final form of Dracula. It wasn't that hard and I'm somewhat embarrassed that I died on him as many times as I did that first time. The game took me about an hour to beat, and I discovered that I now have a stage select! Which is great because I'm already sick of the first two stages. Not a whole lot to say about the game that hasn't already been said - it's a solid Castlevania game, one that I'm sure I'll revisit periodically.

What I've Been Playing

2010-01-05T01:23:00.000-05:00

So I got to the last boss in Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth the other day. I didn't beat him, because I died plenty of times on his final form (the third one) and I had stopped hurting him for some reason so I quit after like 20 tries.

This would have been fine if the game had a quicksave feature, so I could go right to Dracula and try again. It does not, though, so I haven't really played the game since. Someday, I will go back and actually beat it. Overall, it was definitely worth the ten bucks - a brand new Castlevania game in the old style with good level design? Yes please! Not much to say other than what already has been said, unfortunately.

I also beat New Super Mario Bros Wii tonight! That last level is epic. Probably my favorite moment in the game, and probably one of the best experiences I've had in a Mario game ever. I don't want to spoil too much, but it is intense and you have to put all your platforming skills to work. I had heard that the Bowser encounter was great, and it delivered. I would really like to try it with four people, though - would it even be possible?!

It would if you were badass.

Anyway, so now I'm going back through the levels and collecting all the Star Coins so I can play the secret levels. I already unlocked the first and second one, and played through the first, and it was pretty neat. Hopefully the secret levels get more awesome as I unlock more.

I'd also like to point out that certain elements of this game really resemble Yoshi's Island. I don't just mean Kamek messing around with the bosses, either. I mean many of the levels in World 8 seem like they would fit right in Yoshi's Island - from the rolling lava waves to the very tricky, precise, slow platforming found in many of the more difficult levels throughout the game really make the New Super Mario Bros. Wii seem like it builds a lot off of Yoshi's Island. And considering I had already said it builds off Super Mario World, it really has an amazing pedigree.

I have a feeling I'll be playing through this game much more often than New Super Mario Bros. DS. On to collect the Star Coins!

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is Amazing

2009-12-30T15:45:00.000-05:00

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is why I play videogames.

Well, I mean, you know. Not like, the only reason or anything. But I mean, this game is fantastic. This game capitalizes on everything New Super Mario Bros. DS did not and expands on it as well.

First of all, this game is no cakewalk. There is difficulty! And not cheap difficulty where stuff comes from offscreen and kills you - this game uses clever level design to trap you. The levels are usually built in such a way to utilize whatever the particular gimmick might be. The first two worlds basically introduce all the new power-ups - the Penguin Suit (a refined, more fun version of the blue turtle shell from NSMBDS), the Ice Flower (let's you freeze enemies, then either use them as platforms or pick them up and throw them), and the Propeller Suit(lets you have a huge boost to your jump once per jump). These power-ups are actually fun, too! Not boring and stupid like the Mega Mushroom from NSMBDS.

So I'm in World 5 right now, and the two levels before the mid-castle were tough. I died like ten times - which I'm fairly certain is more than I ever died in the DS game. And I was happy to do so! I'm glad Nintendo has finally relocated their collective testicles and made a game intended for a wide audience not be such a freaking cakewalk.

What's that? Wide audience, you say? Yeah, they intend for this game to be sold to a lot of people. There is a multiplayer component, you see, and it is not insubstantial. Anyone can play at any time in the main game - meaning your girlfriend or whoever can join in and be Luigi (or one of the Toads if you have more than one girlfriend, you dog, you) as you play!

Guys, guys - it works.

I've done it. Skill level is irrelevant here, too - my girlfriend is pretty good at videogames (and sure showed up my cousin at NSMBWii, as I tried multiplayer with him first), and didn't have too much trouble up until the second world, where there are these sand spout things you have to stand on to get by. She was slightly intimidated by them - so I said screw it, picked her up and carried her to the end of the level. Done! We resumed the next level and went on. You can do that at any time - if one player is better at a particular obstacle than another, they can just pick up the other guy and go for it. And if someone dies? They reappear in a bubble and can just pick up where they left off as long as everyone on the screen doesn't die. To be honest, I never thought multiplayer Mario would work. But it does, and it is so much fun.

And the fanservice! This game perfects the art. It isn't incredibly self-referential - there are plenty of new ideas here - but there are throwbacks to all sorts of awesome things. Yoshi is back - and he works just like he did in Super Mario World (although without being able to sport different powers if he eats different Koopa shells, unfortunately). The Koopa Kids have returned, as well. In fact, the game really feels like the true sequel to Super Mario World. There's no cape or anything, but I just get this general feeling like that is what they were going for. I'll probably elucidate further on that later, though.

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Initial Impressions

2009-12-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

So for Christmas, my mom got me a set of Scrubs DVDs that I had already seen, so I opted to take them back. I then decided to download Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth since I noticed it came out today and I had been looking forward to it.

And I'm impressed! The music sounds like it was programmed for the Genesis - and I mean programmed well. It isn't as tinny as you might expect, either. The song selection seems mostly new - I didn't recognize too many tunes, which is also unexpected - I guess I thought that they would just remix a bunch of old songs like they usually do.

The level design is really impressive as well. The difficulty curve is almost perfect. The first few levels aren't tough, and they teach you the mechanics very well. The enemies all have a very recognizable pattern - bosses included.

The game isn't perfect, of course. It is apparently pretty short - not a surprise, though, since this is a traditional level-based Castlevania game. It is meant to be replayed, as evidenced by the multiple paths through each level. Also, when you pick up a new subweapon, you are forced to get rid of your old one, regardless of whether you want to or not. Though they had the ability to pick up your old one in Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night (and several others), they don't have that here. It is very annoying when, say, you'd like to keep your boomerang but accidentally pick up a knife because you're jumping and happen to whip a candle and pick the item up unintentionally.

But boy - I've heard these other Konami ReBirth games have been received pretty well, and I must say, I'm very impressed with this one. Mega Man 9 really set the tone for all these companies, and I'm thankful for it - keep giving us new games in the old school style that don't suck, please!

Majora's Mask: Unapologetically Unsettling

2009-12-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

(As I've been pondering why Spirit Tracks isn't as good as previous Zeldas, I found this old blog post I wrote for my blog over on 1up earlier this year - March, to be precise. Why I posted it there and not on this blog I'm not sure. But I'm putting it here because I'm very proud of it. It's a long read though, and kind of pretentious. But who cares. Enjoy.)

This article contains HUGE SPOILERS about Majora's Mask – you have been warned!

It is evident immediately upon starting Majora’s Mask that this game is nothing like any other Zelda game. The previous Nintendo 64 Zelda, Ocarina of Time, opened with a calm horseback ride with pleasant music. Yet here, after the eponymous mask itself spins onscreen, the player is shown a curious character known as the Happy Mask Salesman holding the mask aloft much like Link would when he finds a treasure – but rather than play the familiar Find Item tune, you hear the man oddly chuckle. The introductory video to the game’s locale then begins with cheery music, showing a typical day in Clock Town, its residents going about their business. Once the time of day in the video changes to night, however, the player is shown the Skull Kid, the main enemy, wearing Majora’s Mask, and the music plays a snippet of the disturbing Skull Kid’s Theme while the camera pans out further to reveal a deranged looking moon. It is at this point that the game’s title appears, to drive the point home that this game is going to be a rather unsettling affair.

Once a file is created and the game proper is started, the opening video lays out the back story. Link has become a legend in Hyrule, and is in search of a “beloved and invaluable friend” – Navi, apparently, judging by the fairy sound that is heard immediately after that text appears on screen. Link is then shown for the first time, riding Epona through a foggy forest (the Lost Woods, perhaps? It is never made entirely clear). He appears to have been riding for a long time, as he is slumped in his saddle and generally looks tired. Epona stops and Link looks around, presumably to try and get his bearings, when two fairies startle Epona, who knocks Link off her back. The Skull Kid wearing Majora’s Mask then appears out of thin air and tells the fairies they did great, and wonders if Link “has anything good on him.” The Skull Kid then goes up to an unconscious Link and robs him of the Ocarina of Time, and attempts to play it. While he does that, the personality of the two fairies are first revealed. The purple fairy, Tael, has a personality very similar to Navi from Ocarina of Time – positive, curious, and nice, whereas Tatl seems to be the opposite – negative, impatient, and kind of a bitch. At this point, if the player tries to guess which of these fairies will be journeying with them, it is safe to think that most of them probably assume the upbeat Tael will be coming, because they are used to the personality of that fairy given the fairy they had during the last game. But as the player will soon discover, the nature of the game necessitates that it will of course be Tatl.

At this point, Link wakes up and attempts to catch the Skull Kid, but fails – the Skull Kid steals Epona and rides off, but Link is able to grab one of Epona’s legs. Link falls off as the Skull Kid rides into a door in a tree stump, and the player is given control of Link for the first time. Link follows the Skull Kid into the doorway, and falls down a deep dark hole. He lands on a pink flower, and the Skull Kid, along with the two fairies, is floating before him. It laughs, and tells Link that he got rid of his “stupid horse” – forcing the player to ask, “What happened to Epona?!” Then, he makes fun of Link (and by extension, the player) for being sad at this notion – “Aw, boo hoo – why the sad face? I just thought I’d have a little fun with you.” Then, the Skull Kid starts to do something to Link, and as he does so, it appears Link is in great pain. Then a very blurry sort of dream sequence is shown where Link is surrounded and chased by Deku scrubs. When Link comes to, he has been transformed into a morose-looking Deku scrub. This scene mirrors the scene in Ocarina of Time in which Link awakens after pulling the Master Sword out of its pedestal for the first time to find himself to be seven years older. But the difference this time (besides the end result of the transformation, of course) is the tone. In Ocarina of Time, when the player first discovers they have aged and are now an adult, the player is meant to feel empowered and excited to try out the older Link’s abilities – here, the player feels confusion and is likely put off by this transformation. This is a great example of the way Majora’s Mask subverts expectations. The Skull Kid leaves, and Tatl hits Link, preventing him from giving chase. The door slams shut, and Link and Tatl are left in the room. Tatl begins yelling at Link, blaming him for being separated from Tael and the Skull Kid, and tells Link to open the door for her.

Tatl is an important character to analyze. Remember, the beginning of Link’s journey was to find his upbeat fairy partner from Ocarina of Time, Navi. Link finds a fairy, but again, rather than the happy, energetic, nice one, he gets the opposite – a mean, impatient bitch of a partner, who berates everyone she talks through throughout the game (even her brother, the fairy Tael). One of the most famous lines of dialogue from the game is when she tells a NPC “Oh my. I pity you,” and offers no further comment on their plight. It’s interesting to note that Tatl and Midna from Twilight Princess share many personality quirks, although admittedly, Midna is much more fleshed out in her game (out of necessity, really – Midna is much more important to the story of her game than Tatl is to hers). Thus the dynamic Link shares with Tatl is completely opposite from the last fairy he partnered with.

So, after learning to fly using the pink Deku Flowers, Link goes through a twisty hallway similar to the one in the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time, and finds himself in Termina. Note the name; throw an L at the end and you’ve got Terminal – doesn’t imply a very cheery place, does it? Link starts out in Clock Town, named for the giant clock in its center. Once Link exits the clock tower, the ever-ticking clock is first shown at the bottom of the screen. This is the central conceit of the game: Link has three in-game days to complete his adventure, which translate to about a half hour of real time to a day of game time. If he doesn’t save Termina within the three day period, the giant moon shown in the game’s title screen crashes into Termina and, well, terminates it. Of course, since Link quickly gets his Ocarina of Time back, this means that every time he plays his the Song of Time, he goes back to the beginning of the first day – while only keeping key items he collected throughout that particular three-day period. All events revert to their original state when he goes back in time. This means that any sidequests he undertakes will reset, along with any dungeon progress he has made that doesn’t include getting the dungeon item or beating the dungeon boss (dungeon maps, compasses, small keys, and boss keys all disappear when the three day period starts over, and all unlocked doors become locked again, etc.).

Since Majora’s Mask was released for the Nintendo 64 two years after Ocarina of Time, Nintendo opted to reuse assets from Ocarina. At first glance, this would seem to be a lazy, cost-cutting measure on Nintendo’s part – and while it may be true that Nintendo was trying to save money, they certainly justify it in game. The NPCs from Hyrule are all in Termina, but they all play new roles here – none of the characters (except for, possibly, the Skull Kid) recognize Link from his last adventure. So the Cucco Lady from Kakariko is now the proprietor of the Stock Pot Inn, Talon is now the bartender at the Milk Bar in Clock Town, Koume and Kotake (who were actually bosses from Ocarina) now run businesses in the Southern Swamp, and there are plenty more. Of course, none of these characters are actually FROM Hyrule; they just look like the characters Link saw in his last adventure. So why bring this up? Because whenever the player sees a familiar character, they are usually doing something that they would not have been doing in Ocarina – like Koume selling potions to Link, for example – which is yet another way Majora's Mask unsettles it's players.

So what does Link have to do in this land called Termina? Well, to stop the moon from crashing, he has to go to the dungeons in the four cardinal directions and awaken the gods that are imprisoned in them. That’s right – there are only four dungeons in Majora’s Mask, and while they are fantastic dungeons, it should be noted that Majora's Mask isn’t a particularly long Zelda game. To get to all these dungeons, though, Link has to obtain different masks to transform into different races – he starts with the Deku Mask, and then gets the Goron Mask and the Zora Mask. Each of these races give Link different powers, and none of them use Link’s sword to attack. The Deku can shoot bubbles which can cause a little damage, and it can also spin attack to hit enemies, in addition to being able to fly when using a Deku Flower. Goron Link can roll into a ball and, using magic power, make spikes jut out from his body and start rolling at high speeds to crash into enemies and fly off jumps. Zora Link can swim at high speeds and generate an energy shield, while also being able to use two of his fins like boomerangs.

Obtaining these masks, however, is sad and unsettling every time. The Deku Mask is obtained when Link is transformed into a Deku at the beginning of the game, and it initially seems as though that’s it – but before he reaches Termina, Link goes past a very sad looking tree. During the ending credits, a character known as the Deku Butler is seen in front of this tree, crying – implying that this tree is his son, and that his son died so Link could transform into the Deku. When Link obtains the Goron mask, it is after hearing the sad tale of the dead Goron hero, Darmani, who died trying to save his people. Darmani was not able to stop Goron Village from freezing over, and his regrets carry over to his death – he ceases to be a ghost so Link can turn into him and hopefully put an end to his pain. Link finds a dying Zora floating in the Great Bay and pushes him to shore, where he tells Link his story, how he was trying to save his girlfriend’s Zora eggs, but couldn’t due to being unable to traverse the now extremely cloudy sea. Link watches him die after hearing his story. He receives the Zora mask, and then proceeds to (in what I’m sure is a series first and last) bury the dead body, and erect a rudimentary gravestone. It is surprising how morbid a Zelda game from the year 2000 on the Nintendo 64 can be, isn’t it?

Speaking of morbidity, the most involved sidequest in the game is particularly heart-wrenching. It takes Link the entirety of the three day cycle to complete it. This sidequest involves reuniting the lovers Kafei and Anju. It appears that the Skull Kid transformed Kafei into a child and later, a thief stole his wedding mask, and Kafei goes into hiding because he promised Anju he would meet her on the day of the carnival with the wedding mask in hand. Link first has to spend a day to locate Kafei for Anju, exchange letters and items between the two for a day, then follow Kafei to the thief’s hideout on the last day to complete a quick set of puzzles to obtain the lost mask for Kafei. Once this is done, there is literally six in-game hours (which translates to roughly six minutes in real time) before the moon crashes into Termina, and Link must go meet the two characters who finally reunite a mere hour before the moon comes crashing down. What is interesting about this sidequest is that while Link can play the Song of Time and escape certain death, Kafei and Anju cannot. They meet up just to be together when they both die. This is certainly touching, in a way, but again, fairly morbid for a Nintendo game.

As the game draws to a close and Link summons the four gods to stop the Skull Kid, the gods prevent the moon from crashing. But Majora’s Mask drops the Skull Kid’s body like a rag doll and enters the moon’s mouth. Link follows the mask into the moon and unexpectedly finds himself in a meadow. It is a huge, sunny, bright green field, populated by butterflies and bright green grass, with a giant tree in the middle on top of a slight hill. Around the tree are running four kids, each wearing one of the four masks Link obtained in the dungeons. When Link talks to them, they tell them they want to play hide and seek and teleport Link to a small dungeon with puzzles based on each of Link’s forms. When they have all been found, the last kid teleports Link to the last boss.

Majora’s Mask itself is fought in a flamboyant rainbow colored room. It has three forms – Majora’s Mask, Majora’s Incarnation, and Majora’s Wrath. Majora’s Mask floats around the room and tries to spin into Link. Majora’s Incarnation flamboyantly dances around the room while making strange, childlike noises. Majora’s Wrath tries to whip Link to death. Each form is fairly easy, both with the ultimate Fierce Deity Mask (obtained by finding all the other masks in the game) and without. When Link finishes off Majora’s Wrath, the game ends, and the fate of the Termina inhabitants is shown (depending, of course, on how many people the player helps and how many masks they got). For the most part, the fate of the characters of this game end up fairly positive, with the possible exception of two: the Deku Butler mentioned earlier, and Link himself.

Link wakes up outside Clock Town, in Termina Field. He sees the Skull Kid, without Majora’s Mask, looking up at the giant gods. The Skull Kid realizes the gods hadn’t forgotten about him and begins crying out of shame for the acts he committed. He then asks Link to be his friend. The Happy Mask Salesman has gotten Majora’s Mask back, and apparently, the evil left it. He asks Link, “Shouldn’t you be heading home, too?” As he walks away, Tatl talks to Link. “Well, both of us have gotten what we were after… So this is where you and I part ways, isn’t it? You know… it was kind of fun. Well, it’s almost time for the carnival to begin… So, why don’t you just leave and go about your business? The rest of us have a carnival to go to.” Pretty cold, for what Link and Tatl have been through together. Link gets on Epona, takes one look at yet another fairy friend he must part with, and rides off. To herself, Tatl quietly thanks Link as he rides away. The carnival starts, and the fate of the rest of the Termina characters is shown. It should be noted that even Tatl notices how Link doesn't really belong in Termina - rather than want him to attend the carnival with everyone, she tells him to leave.

To end the game, the scene showing the Deku Butler crying in front of what is presumably his dead son’s body is shown. Then, the scene shifts back to Link. He is back on Epona, back in the forest he started the game in, and he looks tired again. He rides off, and a tree stump is shown with a drawing of Link, the Skull Kid, Tatl and Tael, and the four giants. “The End” appears on screen, along with a brief ocarina solo of Saria’s Song from Ocarina of Time – probably to imply that Link is lost again, as Saria’s Song is the song of the Lost Woods.

There are more examples to prove my point, but a pattern throughout this article should be apparent by now – that the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a game about subverting expectations. Not just about subverting the expectations of Zelda as a series, either, but of video games as a whole. Majora’s Mask is proof that video game sequels do not have to be more of the same. That what is familiar can easily become creepy and unsettling. That saving the world can be personal, too. Although they are enjoyable games in their own right, it’s too bad the Zelda games that have come out since Majora’s Mask haven’t dared to be as unsettling and interesting as Majora’s Mask.

Spirit Tracks, pt. 3 - General Bitchery

2009-12-20T15:38:00.000-05:00

I knew I would get sick of this stupid train eventually.

I've had this Zelda game for 11 days! There is absolutely no reason I why I should not have plowed through it at least a few days ago. Yet, there that train sits, the single reason why I can't bring myself to play the game for more than an hour or so at a time.

I ran into the same problem with Wind Waker and (especially!) Phantom Hourglass. The boats and trains and whatever Nintendo comes up with next to replace a traditional Zelda overworld simply do not work. They don't fit! Every time I think to myself "Oh man that dungeon was awesome, I can't wait to get to the next one" I have to ride the stupid train for twenty minutes. And it is boring as hell! I do not understand why Nintendo puts this crap in the games - just sick of creating a typical overworld? You do not have to pack the overworld with a bunch of crap you guys! Just let me run my ass across Hyrule field or whatever. Or let me run most of the time, and occasionally ride a train or occasionally ride a boat! That would be awesome.

But no, everyone. God forbid Nintendo give a full budget to their handheld teams. And I must say - the graphics of this Zelda are underwhelming, now that I've stared at them long enough. The textures are repetitive and boring - the grass pattern is basically just green with a few sprites of individual grass blades tossed here and there. I already bitched about the dungeon design, and when you view any of the 3-D models up close they look horrible. Final Fantasy III and IV for DS looked much better - the 3-D models were still a little janky, but at least the world design was much more interesting!

And other than a very few standouts (like two tracks), the music is underwhelming as well. I don't need a full orchestra by any means, but for god sakes just compose something interesting!

I want to like these games so much and I'm trying but dammit it is so hard to when they are so lazy with their design.

Click here for my second post about Spirit Tracks. Click here for the first one.

Spirit Tracks, pt. 2 - Regarding Cohesiveness

2009-12-11T17:56:00.000-05:00

I realized why the dungeons in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks feel somewhat off to me. Why they don't seem as sprawling or as cohesive as the dungeons in the older top down Zeldas.

When you entered a room in any of the non-3D Zelda games, the screen locked in such a way so you could not see any other rooms in the dungeon on the screen, no matter where you placed Link. In both Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, however, you can see any area of any room of any dungeon if Link can get up against the wall. I imagine that this was done out of necessity because of the controls - it would be harder to make Link move around if he was constantly on the very edge of the screen, with your hand covering most of the screen.

Yet, I'm unsatisfied with how I can see other rooms in the dungeon so easily. I know it sounds like I want the game to be more "realistic" and that isn't the case. I mean, this is a game that breaks the 4th wall unabashedly. It just bothers me that as I run around a dungeon, I can see so much else - I wonder if they would have blocked out other rooms with blank screen if I would have felt the same way.

Hard to say. Anyway, my progress thus far in Spirit Tracks - I just beat the second dungeon and int it I picked up the Boomerang, which controls just like it did in Phantom Hourglass - which is cool because it was fun in that game. One thing I've noticed so far in Spirit Tracks, though, is that you actually have to use items from other dungeons! I used the whirlwind thing several times in the second dungeon. In fact, it served as a propeller of sorts for when I was floating on a block in water! Sure, it isn't the first time that has been done in a Zelda game (the Deku Leaf in Wind Waker would be my guess for the first), it is still a good sign that Nintendo reeled in this Zelda and tried to really improve it over Phantom Hourglass.

Click here for my first Spirit Tracks post.

Initial Impressions of the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

2009-12-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is an enormous improvement over Phantom Hourglass. Rereading my previous posts about Phantom Hourglass and Minish Cap really point out why. That central temple that you have to go through multiple times with a timer counting down, while also spending most of your time dodging invincible enemies?

Well, they took that concept, and cut out all the crap. Most importantly, there is no more timer - you still go through a big dungeon, but so far, I have not had to play through the same part twice (For reference, I've played through two sections of the tower). There are still those big Phantom guys that are invincible, but once you collect enough "Spirit Tears" your sword powers up and you can attack them - and then Zelda can possess them. You then control two characters - you can seamlessly switch back and forth to solve puzzles, such as having Zelda's invincible Phantom character carry Link over lava to hit switches. Or to have Zelda's Phantom character converse with another Phantom so Link can sneak by - which I always find amusing.

I have not had too much experience with new items yet - the item you get in the first dungeon involves you blowing into the microphone to send a whirlwind flying in whatever direction you're aiming. It has had some fairly interesting, if not totally straightforward puzzles so far. I haven't yet encountered a puzzle as awesome as the one in Phantom Hourglass though where you have to copy a map from the top screen onto the bottom screen, and the only way to do it is to physically close your DS. But I'm not that far into the game yet, so who knows!

The item I think is awesome, though, is the Pan Flute in the game. You hold your stylus on the screen to bring the Flute up to Link's lips, then you blow into the mic to play a note - you play different notes by sliding the Flute around the bottom screen to blow into different holes. It is a spin on the Ocarina from the N64 games, and frankly it is a blast to play. (It helps that the first song you learn to play anywhere comes with one of the cutest - that's right, cutest - animations I've seen in any game ever.)

Some of the same complaints I had about Phantom Hourglass still exist here, unfortunately. For one, you still don't collect individual heart pieces like in other Zelda games - which would be fine, but there are too few to collect, making for a less expansive game, in my opinion. It doesn't help that a few of them are absolutely wasted because they were put up for sale in a freaking store!

I am still, as always, torn regarding the overworld travel. All these cel-shaded Zeldas have their own unique way of traveling about - Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass had their own spins on sailing, and Spirit Tracks has the train. The train seems more... focused, I guess, than the sailing from the other two games, but it still doesn't ring true to Zelda like a regular overworld and Epona would. It's not as if they couldn't fit an entire overworld on a DS cart anyway. The train is kind of fun, and since you are on rails, Nintendo is able to make each individual train ride seem more interesting and unique than the boat rides in Phantom Hourglass. In that game, you could take whatever route you wanted, so they just threw a squid at you every once in a while. So every time you'd sail (which was quite a bit) you'd sit there for like five minutes, shooting a squid every three.

Buckets of fun.

At least with the train, they have specific puzzles and stuff they can throw at you even during regular train rides taken not within the main narrative of the game. So, on one level, the train kind of sucks, but at the same time, at least it is worlds better than the sailboat.

Bitchery: Shining Force II

2009-12-05T02:53:00.000-05:00

There are 15 pieces of Mithril hidden in the entire world of Shining Force II. Finding most of them is ridiculously obtuse, because some of them are hidden in random mountain ranges on the main map, with nothing unique about them.

They are important to find, though, because if you want to pimp out your final party with the best weapons, well then you better have at least 12 pieces of Mithril because you have to have the Dwarven Blacksmith forge them for you.

Oh! But to get to the Dwarven Blacksmith, you need the Dry Stone, found in a nondescript fire pit halfway through the game! And it is not explained what it does. Ever. So to get to the blacksmith, you need to use this "Dry Stone" on a river, so that particular part of the river dries up and parts like the Red Sea (the game gives you no hint whatsoever to do this), and then you can enter his town.

Then, after all that, you have to give a piece of mithril to the blacksmith, and he will ask you who you would like him to make a weapon for, and you must also hand over 5000 gold.

The kicker? The little sonofabitch has the sack to make whatever weapon he wants, so long as the person hes making it for can equip it! There are Mithril weapons that are the best weapons in the game, and then there are Mithril weapons that aren't even as good as the ones you likely already have equipped!

Guess which weapons are rarer? If you guessed "the good ones," you were right! You are more likely to get a piece of crap weapon, after all that work you have done throughout the entire game than to get something halfway decent, much less the best weapon in the game. So, what do you do? You save the game, and keep resetting until you get the weapon you want.

That isn't too bad, right? Oh, but it is! The nearest save point is basically three screens away from the little dwarf bastard you need to talk to in order to get Mithril weapons, and once you hand over a piece of Mithril, you have to exit the town, re-enter, and walk your Hero ass all the way back to him! And sometimes, a NPC will walk right in your way, and you have to wait for that stupid asshole to move before you can keep going, and after all that, you get a Critical Sword, again! Now you get to start the whole process over because that is the worst sword the fucker can give you!

I think it would be fair to say that after I had found all those pieces of Mithril, the stupid Dry Stone, and how to use the stupid thing to get to the stupid town itself, I should be able to say to the little fuck "Hey, here is a piece of Mithril. Here's 5000 gold. Now make me a Gisarme, or I will burn you alive you little dwarf piece of shit! Don't want to burn alive? Oh, okay. You see this little phoenix guy here? Yeah, well he shoots tornadoes, you dick. Prefer something else? Okay, the rest of my guys here all have really sharp objects they like to poke people with. Sure, they may not be as sharp as ones you can make, you little prick, but I don't think you'd appreciate the distinction much when you are being crucified by twelve people at once! ...Oh! Thank you for the Gisarme! I didn't even have to go on a pointless walk for it! Now I can go about my business and finish the damn game without having to wander around this stupid place with the worst music in the game for fifteen hours to get a stupid sword that boosts my attack by like ten or whatever.

Fuck."

Muramasa is Great, Backtracking without Purpose is Not

2009-11-28T20:19:00.000-05:00

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is an interesting game. It elicits interesting responses from me. I usually don't stare at awe of how pretty graphics are - but this game makes me do that. I've found myself stopping several times to look at and appreciate the beautiful art and animation.

None of your "realistic" looking games have ever made me do that - I'm looking at you, Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc.

The battle system calls to mind a sort of 2-D Kingdom Hearts style, without the strange menu system. Of course, the game being 2-D avoids the main problem I and many others had with Kingdom Hearts - a crappy camera! Also, compared to Kingdom Hearts, the enemies in Muramasa are a treat - they are full of personality and animation. You know how many different kinds of enemies the great Castlevania games have? Muramasa seems to have as many as that, with the added bonus of being completely original.

So I'm slowly getting the hang of the combo system. There are a ton of different swords in this game, and although I am not very far, they all seem very different and seem to have unique combos. I tend to prefer the fast swords that let me dance all around the screen, so far, but we'll see how some of the more powerful slow swords turn out.

But my god, what is with the backtracking? As much as I love having the luxury of looking at the awesome background graphics in this game, it is damn tiring spending as much time as you do going back across all the ground you have already covered. It's hard for me to say, too, whether or not this would be helped if they include random battles - it probably wouldn't help very much, honestly. It'd probably frustrate me more. But there has to be a middle ground - how about a warp? Or the ability to let me go to the big map screen when I complete an area and sort of let me "warp" around? Every time I beat a boss, I have to put the game down because I know I'll have to spend like 10-15 minutes wandering through empty screens to get to the next area.

The story so far is confusing. I believe it is intentional, but regardless of whether or not the writers wanted me to be confused on purpose, I still don't enjoy it. Something about a soul, trying to get somewhere, or something, and like another soul is forced out of its body and it follows it around, and some girl with her boobs hanging out is helping you, I don't know. It all seems somewhat dumb. Plus, the voice acting is all in Japanese, which I'm told is for the weeaboo audience who prefer it that way - I'll never get that. Unless you speak Japanese, why favor that language for voice acting? You say its quality? But most people don't speak the language - how can you tell if it is quality or not?

Anyway, I'm only a few hours in at this point. I'm sure I'll have more to say about the game soon enough.