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.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Initial Impressions of the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
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.
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.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Bitchery: Shining Force II
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."
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."
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Muramasa is Great, Backtracking without Purpose is Not
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Subtleties: Shining Force II
I would like to talk about subtleties today.
Video game narrative has not yet had Shakespearean-level storytelling. Nor has it had Citizen Kane-level visual metaphor or anything like that. As has been discussed elsewhere (more elegantly than I could, as well), video games are a medium still very much in their infancy. So until they have their big moment that we could point to and say, "This is why video games are art," we have to make do with tiny moments that hint at their potential.
And sometimes, you have to look pretty hard. There are the big moments, the ones that most of the internet will bring up when talking about this topic, like bringing down the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus, or perhaps the courtroom set piece scene in Chrono Trigger. And those are good examples! I don't have any quite that grand today, but what I do have is a subtle example of why I love video games and why they strike me as so different from traditional forms of media expression.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have been playing a lot of the old Genesis RPG, Shining Force II, lately. It is not a game known for its wholly original story - in fact, it is quite generic in that respect. Cliché, actually. And I am not going to be pulling any examples from the game about how its story deviates from the norm at all, because honestly, it really doesn't.
But within the cliché story, there are some subtleties that strike me as interesting, to say the least. I am near the end of the game at this point; maybe seven or eight battles from the final battle. My army just stole the ancient flying Nazca ship and flew over the ocean, and was shot down on Grans Island by the greater devil Geshp and his Prism Flowers. What strikes me as interesting is Geshp thought my army would die when we got shot down - so when we ran into him, he had to hastily assemble an army of devils to try to stop us. Every battle in the game up until this point has had my enemies strewn strategically around the map, while all of my characters start in a bunch in one place, because at the start of most battles, my characters are ambushed. But in this battle, I surprised my enemy - and, sure enough, they all start the battle in a big, disorganized bunch like I usually do.
This is an extremely small example of how videogames are subtle in the ways they present their narrative - and this example comes from an extremely clichéd narrative in a 1993 Sega Genesis RPG, as well! This is not an example someone would bring up to argue that videogames are "art," of course. This is just one of the ways I think video games are unique in their presentation when compared to other mediums. The battle system had always started one way in Shining Force II, then it is changed for this one battle to reflect the surprise of the enemy. It's subtle, but interesting when you notice it.
Of course, none of this matters to most people. I think when videogames have their own "Rosebud" moment, examples like this small one will become more commonplace and the medium will finally hit its stride. Until then, I will appreciate the subtleties.
Video game narrative has not yet had Shakespearean-level storytelling. Nor has it had Citizen Kane-level visual metaphor or anything like that. As has been discussed elsewhere (more elegantly than I could, as well), video games are a medium still very much in their infancy. So until they have their big moment that we could point to and say, "This is why video games are art," we have to make do with tiny moments that hint at their potential.
And sometimes, you have to look pretty hard. There are the big moments, the ones that most of the internet will bring up when talking about this topic, like bringing down the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus, or perhaps the courtroom set piece scene in Chrono Trigger. And those are good examples! I don't have any quite that grand today, but what I do have is a subtle example of why I love video games and why they strike me as so different from traditional forms of media expression.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have been playing a lot of the old Genesis RPG, Shining Force II, lately. It is not a game known for its wholly original story - in fact, it is quite generic in that respect. Cliché, actually. And I am not going to be pulling any examples from the game about how its story deviates from the norm at all, because honestly, it really doesn't.
But within the cliché story, there are some subtleties that strike me as interesting, to say the least. I am near the end of the game at this point; maybe seven or eight battles from the final battle. My army just stole the ancient flying Nazca ship and flew over the ocean, and was shot down on Grans Island by the greater devil Geshp and his Prism Flowers. What strikes me as interesting is Geshp thought my army would die when we got shot down - so when we ran into him, he had to hastily assemble an army of devils to try to stop us. Every battle in the game up until this point has had my enemies strewn strategically around the map, while all of my characters start in a bunch in one place, because at the start of most battles, my characters are ambushed. But in this battle, I surprised my enemy - and, sure enough, they all start the battle in a big, disorganized bunch like I usually do.
This is an extremely small example of how videogames are subtle in the ways they present their narrative - and this example comes from an extremely clichéd narrative in a 1993 Sega Genesis RPG, as well! This is not an example someone would bring up to argue that videogames are "art," of course. This is just one of the ways I think video games are unique in their presentation when compared to other mediums. The battle system had always started one way in Shining Force II, then it is changed for this one battle to reflect the surprise of the enemy. It's subtle, but interesting when you notice it.
Of course, none of this matters to most people. I think when videogames have their own "Rosebud" moment, examples like this small one will become more commonplace and the medium will finally hit its stride. Until then, I will appreciate the subtleties.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Pegasus Knights are Worth Waiting For
From the end of my last post on this blog: "Hopefully I don't let the blog be idle again for 4 months." Yeah... it's been over a year since then. So much for that.
Thing is, I really enjoyed doing it, and have been quite busy (read: school) since then, so I never had the chance to continue. (Well, I probably had the chance, but I kind of forgot about this blog until now.)
I have played a lot of games, though. In May and June of this year, I played two PS2 RPGs - Persona 3: FES and Persona 4.
Ladies and gentlemen, they were fantastic. Persona 4 is probably on my top ten list of favorite games - and that list has been fairly static since about 2000 when Majora's Mask first came out. Persona 4 is definitely my favorite PS2 game, at the very least.
But it has been a while since I've played those games. And I will likely play through them again in due time, and write more in depth about them when they are more fresh in my mind. For this post, I will talk about an old standby, another game definitely on my top ten list: the Genesis strategy RPG Shining Force II.
Shining Force II was my first RPG, so it is likely that I am fairly biased when it comes to discussing its quality. I can see why some people might say it's story could be considered weaker than the one in the original Shining Force, but I don't care, I still prefer it. There are a few typos in the game, which do annoy the holy hell out of me, though.
But the battle system in this game is exactly how I want my strategy RPGs to be: nice and light. The closest battle system to Shining Force II is the Fire Emblem series (for the most part - it is a little more complicated and deaths are permanent, so those games aren't as replayable to me). But SFII does not have the Tactics Ogre problem where you have to position your guys behind or to the side of the enemy in order to do more damage or anything stupid like that - you go up to the guy you want to fight, and you attack him or use magic on him or whatever. The strategy in the game comes from who you have fight who, and when and where - but not to ridiculous levels.
Anyway, I've beaten this game several times, but in the past, I always sort of beat it the same way, using the same characters, promoting them the same way, etc. This time, however, I decided to max out my characters as much as possible, and I discovered something about the character Chester: I prefer to let him wait to be promoted to a Pegasus Knight, because he is fantastic when he is overleveled.
Seriously.
I got him to level 28 unpromoted before I finally got to Pacalon and got the Pegasus Wing. When I promoted him, I replayed a battle a few times to level him up to everyone else's level, and now his stats are fairly ridiculous compared to everyone else. He doesn't have the highest attack power (strangely, Slade does, although I'm okay with that), nor does he have the highest defense (Jaha does, as usual). He does, however, have the highest agility on my team, so he always goes first, and his HP is very high as well. He is incredibly well rounded and I love using him, as a flying character is always good to have.
As far as everyone else goes, I got them all to level 23 before promoting them. I did this because I hated getting 1 EXP for every kill I got and didn't feel like playing battles over and over again to level them up. Chester was idle for quite a few battles before I promoted him to the awesomeness he is now.
So anyway, I'm heading to Moun right now, and am currently in the battle where you eventually get Jaro, who I also might use because Taya sucks and Kazin already is amazing. The fact that I've been playing this game since my childhood and still find new ways to get through it amazes me, and proves to me why it is so good.
Thing is, I really enjoyed doing it, and have been quite busy (read: school) since then, so I never had the chance to continue. (Well, I probably had the chance, but I kind of forgot about this blog until now.)
I have played a lot of games, though. In May and June of this year, I played two PS2 RPGs - Persona 3: FES and Persona 4.
Ladies and gentlemen, they were fantastic. Persona 4 is probably on my top ten list of favorite games - and that list has been fairly static since about 2000 when Majora's Mask first came out. Persona 4 is definitely my favorite PS2 game, at the very least.
But it has been a while since I've played those games. And I will likely play through them again in due time, and write more in depth about them when they are more fresh in my mind. For this post, I will talk about an old standby, another game definitely on my top ten list: the Genesis strategy RPG Shining Force II.
Shining Force II was my first RPG, so it is likely that I am fairly biased when it comes to discussing its quality. I can see why some people might say it's story could be considered weaker than the one in the original Shining Force, but I don't care, I still prefer it. There are a few typos in the game, which do annoy the holy hell out of me, though.
But the battle system in this game is exactly how I want my strategy RPGs to be: nice and light. The closest battle system to Shining Force II is the Fire Emblem series (for the most part - it is a little more complicated and deaths are permanent, so those games aren't as replayable to me). But SFII does not have the Tactics Ogre problem where you have to position your guys behind or to the side of the enemy in order to do more damage or anything stupid like that - you go up to the guy you want to fight, and you attack him or use magic on him or whatever. The strategy in the game comes from who you have fight who, and when and where - but not to ridiculous levels.
Anyway, I've beaten this game several times, but in the past, I always sort of beat it the same way, using the same characters, promoting them the same way, etc. This time, however, I decided to max out my characters as much as possible, and I discovered something about the character Chester: I prefer to let him wait to be promoted to a Pegasus Knight, because he is fantastic when he is overleveled.
Seriously.
I got him to level 28 unpromoted before I finally got to Pacalon and got the Pegasus Wing. When I promoted him, I replayed a battle a few times to level him up to everyone else's level, and now his stats are fairly ridiculous compared to everyone else. He doesn't have the highest attack power (strangely, Slade does, although I'm okay with that), nor does he have the highest defense (Jaha does, as usual). He does, however, have the highest agility on my team, so he always goes first, and his HP is very high as well. He is incredibly well rounded and I love using him, as a flying character is always good to have.
As far as everyone else goes, I got them all to level 23 before promoting them. I did this because I hated getting 1 EXP for every kill I got and didn't feel like playing battles over and over again to level them up. Chester was idle for quite a few battles before I promoted him to the awesomeness he is now.
So anyway, I'm heading to Moun right now, and am currently in the battle where you eventually get Jaro, who I also might use because Taya sucks and Kazin already is amazing. The fact that I've been playing this game since my childhood and still find new ways to get through it amazes me, and proves to me why it is so good.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Always, Always Wait on the Floating Continent
Damn, it's been a while. I had originally planned on making as many posts on this blog as I could, but that broke down, and then I didn't have much to write about, then I forgot about it, etc. etc. Regardless, I still like the format of this site and I enjoy reading what I've written, so I will try to continue to do it when I can.
So I've played a few games since my last post. I never beat Shiren, as I got to a point where my weapons were so awesome that if I lost them, I would literally break my DS - that, and I got bored with it. Shadowrun remains uncompleted as well, since I got to a point where I had to grind levels to keep going, and it wasn't fun anymore.
Since my last post, I've played quite a few games. I downloaded and beat Mega Man 9 and Shining Force 2 on my Wii, both of which are some of my favorite games of all time (Mega Man 9 is without a doubt my favorite Mega Man game ever). I've picked up Smash Bros Brawl again because I've met a bunch of guys who play the crap out of it, and I can hang with them for the most part. I just picked up Wario Land: Shake It! as well, and I am enjoying that so far. I also own Guitar Hero 1, 2, and 3 for the PS2 and I can beat them all (save for a few songs on 3) on Hard and can do okay on Expert. I picked up Dragon Quest 4 and got to the third chapter and I stopped playing because I just can't get into it yet. And I also picked up Final Fantasy VI for my SNES (as I'm sure you're aware, it's called 3 on the cartridge itself).
I've been dying to play this game again for a couple years now. The first time I played through it, I let Shadow die, missed three characters (I never ONCE had Mog!), and missed a ton of espers (how I made it to Kefka and beat him without Ultima/Meteor/etc. I will never know). I'm going to try to complete it as best I can, and I am well on my way. I am in the World of Ruin, have all the characters - including Shadow! - and am now level grinding and teaching all the spells in the game to all the characters before I go take on Kefka. I've had a blast so far, and it's reminded me why VI is my favorite Final Fantasy.
It's just so damned refined. Everything works smoothly, from the battle load times to the snappy action contained within; if I want to summon an esper, it doesn't take a minute and a half to load the animation - it's quick! And while random battles can be tedious, they aren't so bad that they make the game unplayable. The story remains great, and I am definitely enjoying the World of Ruin quite a bit more now that I know where I should go to get characters, items, etc. And of course, the music remains fantastic.
Anyway, that's enough for now - hopefully I'll post again soon about Wario Land or FFVI. Here's hoping I don't let the blog be idle again for 4 months.
So I've played a few games since my last post. I never beat Shiren, as I got to a point where my weapons were so awesome that if I lost them, I would literally break my DS - that, and I got bored with it. Shadowrun remains uncompleted as well, since I got to a point where I had to grind levels to keep going, and it wasn't fun anymore.
Since my last post, I've played quite a few games. I downloaded and beat Mega Man 9 and Shining Force 2 on my Wii, both of which are some of my favorite games of all time (Mega Man 9 is without a doubt my favorite Mega Man game ever). I've picked up Smash Bros Brawl again because I've met a bunch of guys who play the crap out of it, and I can hang with them for the most part. I just picked up Wario Land: Shake It! as well, and I am enjoying that so far. I also own Guitar Hero 1, 2, and 3 for the PS2 and I can beat them all (save for a few songs on 3) on Hard and can do okay on Expert. I picked up Dragon Quest 4 and got to the third chapter and I stopped playing because I just can't get into it yet. And I also picked up Final Fantasy VI for my SNES (as I'm sure you're aware, it's called 3 on the cartridge itself).
I've been dying to play this game again for a couple years now. The first time I played through it, I let Shadow die, missed three characters (I never ONCE had Mog!), and missed a ton of espers (how I made it to Kefka and beat him without Ultima/Meteor/etc. I will never know). I'm going to try to complete it as best I can, and I am well on my way. I am in the World of Ruin, have all the characters - including Shadow! - and am now level grinding and teaching all the spells in the game to all the characters before I go take on Kefka. I've had a blast so far, and it's reminded me why VI is my favorite Final Fantasy.
It's just so damned refined. Everything works smoothly, from the battle load times to the snappy action contained within; if I want to summon an esper, it doesn't take a minute and a half to load the animation - it's quick! And while random battles can be tedious, they aren't so bad that they make the game unplayable. The story remains great, and I am definitely enjoying the World of Ruin quite a bit more now that I know where I should go to get characters, items, etc. And of course, the music remains fantastic.
Anyway, that's enough for now - hopefully I'll post again soon about Wario Land or FFVI. Here's hoping I don't let the blog be idle again for 4 months.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Roguelikes are Effing Awesome Part 2
So I have continued to play Shiren the Wanderer, and have discovered some interesting things. First, I reached floor 27, which had an enemy that could do something I hadn't experienced - it could knock off my equipped weapons and once knocked off, they couldn't be picked back up and used. This enemy is the worst enemy ever created. Thank god I wasn't using my newly upgraded Master Sword +60 (which is incapable of getting rusty, does extra damage to ghost enemies, and each attack is three squares wide) or Armor Ward +39 (which is incapable of getting rusty, slows my hunger down and prevents items and money from being stolen). Although, I'm wondering if that Armor Ward wouldn't protect against that particular enemy... if so, that would be great. (After looking up the enemy, I found out that it was because there was water to my back that I lost my items. Still, though - what a bastard.)
I should explain how my prized items came to be so enchanted. You see, after completing some side missions, a shop became available in Mountaintop Town (located between floors 7 and 8) that sold Jars. Once in a while, a Melding Jar becomes available there. The interesting thing about Melding Jars is that when you put a weapon inside, followed by another weapon, all of the attributes (good or bad) of the second weapon are melded onto the first. So, for example, to get my Master Sword to attack three squares wide, I placed my Master Sword and a Razor Wind in the Jar, so the Master Sword took on the Razor Wind's qualities. So I really enjoy that. It also will add any modifiers on as well, so that's how I upgraded both of those items so fast too.
With as much work as I've done to my weapons, they still aren't complete. I have yet to find a Pickaxe of any kind (even breakable ones) so I can't make my weapons dig yet. I would also like to add a few more enchantments to them, like the one that upgrades my evasion rate and lowers damage from explosions, etc. so I still have plenty of work to do, mostly to find the items I need to do that.
So, I've played for about 15 hours I believe, and that's actually quite a bit longer than I thought this game would take, seeing as how there's only 30 floors in the main dungeon. It's probably because I'm being as careful as I possibly can be, though. Either way, I'm having a blast so far.
I would also like to brag that I got a copy of Dragon Warrior II for the NES for 9 bucks with shipping two days ago on eBay. From what I gather, I got it for a steal. I am also seriously considering buying an FC Twin to play my NES games more reliably as well (Ironically enough, Dragon Warrior II is one of like 7 games that aren't playable on it - irony! No biggie though - I really just want to play Crytalis and some of the other games I've gotten at the resale shop on the cheap.)
I should explain how my prized items came to be so enchanted. You see, after completing some side missions, a shop became available in Mountaintop Town (located between floors 7 and 8) that sold Jars. Once in a while, a Melding Jar becomes available there. The interesting thing about Melding Jars is that when you put a weapon inside, followed by another weapon, all of the attributes (good or bad) of the second weapon are melded onto the first. So, for example, to get my Master Sword to attack three squares wide, I placed my Master Sword and a Razor Wind in the Jar, so the Master Sword took on the Razor Wind's qualities. So I really enjoy that. It also will add any modifiers on as well, so that's how I upgraded both of those items so fast too.
With as much work as I've done to my weapons, they still aren't complete. I have yet to find a Pickaxe of any kind (even breakable ones) so I can't make my weapons dig yet. I would also like to add a few more enchantments to them, like the one that upgrades my evasion rate and lowers damage from explosions, etc. so I still have plenty of work to do, mostly to find the items I need to do that.
So, I've played for about 15 hours I believe, and that's actually quite a bit longer than I thought this game would take, seeing as how there's only 30 floors in the main dungeon. It's probably because I'm being as careful as I possibly can be, though. Either way, I'm having a blast so far.
I would also like to brag that I got a copy of Dragon Warrior II for the NES for 9 bucks with shipping two days ago on eBay. From what I gather, I got it for a steal. I am also seriously considering buying an FC Twin to play my NES games more reliably as well (Ironically enough, Dragon Warrior II is one of like 7 games that aren't playable on it - irony! No biggie though - I really just want to play Crytalis and some of the other games I've gotten at the resale shop on the cheap.)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Crystal Chronicles and Mario Tennis
(Note: This post was typed in a text file on my laptop while the power was out last night, so it is incomplete in places, because I couldn't look up information on the Net to supplement it, but I've decided to post it here as is anyway.)
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon looks to be another fantastic mystery dungeon game, of which I will probably purchase when I get the cash. I played it with a friend today, who I also played Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for the first time with.
It is Crystal Chronicles that I'd like to take a look at today. It is an odd game, one which we probably may not see the likes of again – as you may be aware, to actually play this game multiplayer (really the only way to play it), you must have a Gamecube (or a Wii), a Game Boy Advance for every player, and a Gamecube to Game Boy Advance adapter for every player as well. That's quite expensive, really.
But it's worth it. It's an experience I've not quite been able to think of a comparison for. Phantasy Star Online was similar, but not quite as fun as Crystal Chronicles. Having your own menu for item management and whatnot is pretty fantastic. My character is a Black Mage, and while he is weird looking, he is fun as hell to play. We only played for maybe two hours or so (we have completed the first year and a mission from the second year) and since my power has been out since about ten minutes after we shut the game off, I have some questions about it that haven't been able to look up the answers to online.
For example: is there a way to keep a spell after a mission? My buddy's character can keep his weapons, but I can't keep my Fire/Blizzard/Thunder? I may just be misunderstanding how the game works, though.
Same thing with items: I have quite a few that I have no idea what to do with. Iron shards, Iron, etc. all seem to go towards making custom items at the Blacksmith in the town, but apparently I don't need the iron shards yet? I guess I don't have any items that require it yet.
Regardless, I had a blast playing it today. Hopefully I'll be able to play more of it soon. In the meantime, there's always Shiren, and another game I've had laying around for a couple weeks – Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color.
I forgot how good Mario Tennis was. I know I liked it quite a bit in like ninth grade (eight years ago – damn!), but I had somehow forgotten how deep the gameplay really goes. What you do in this game is actually create your own character and try to play your way through a tennis academy to become the top tennis player there, to eventually challenge the champions of the world (Mario and friends, of course). You do this by playing tennis matches against other players and leveling up your character (by choosing, at each level up, whether to upgrade Spin, Speed, Power, or Control). Since the power went out, I've been playing it for three hours now, and I'm halfway through the senior class, at like level 19 or so.
I also have Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color. And I'm having trouble putting. I can drive and chip fantastically, but I just can't read the goddamn greens in this game for shit, which of course kills my game. I haven't even made it through a course yet (mostly because I get six or seven holes into it before my shitty putting skills get me a double or triple bogey and I get pissed and shut the game off). If I could learn how to putt, I bet this game would be just as good as Mario Tennis.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Roguelikes Are Effing Awesome
Holy shit, it's been a month since I last posted here. I guess that's what I get for working a lot and not playing too many games.
I beat Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness, and for my birthday last week I got Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer for the DS. Since I didn't post anything about either game yet, I will compare and contrast them both.
I will start by saying this: I'm glad I played the Pokemon version first. I enjoyed it, quite a bit in fact, and will probably get Blue Rescue Team soon, but Shiren is better.
Anyway, so Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer are both RPGs based on the ancient computer based game called Rogue (which makes them roguelikes). When your character moves, your allies and everything else on the floor of the dungeon your on moves as well. In other words, its not necessarily real time because nothing else will act until you do. Basically, each time you move, attack, use an item, or cast a spell or whatever, you spend your turn, and then the enemies will all do the same: either they will move towards you, run away from you, attack, cast a spell, etc. and so on. And from what I gather on the ol' Internets, roguelikes aren't very popular here in America.
I can sort of see why not, because they are balls hard and sometimes can seem unfair. Shiren in particular is brutal, because when you die (which will happen, quite a bit), you lose all of your items, money, and (here's the kicker) experience points. That's right. All of them. Back to level 1 for you. However, you can store items and (in Pokemons case) money in warehouses in between dungeon runs.
I guess now is a good time to point out the differences between the two games, since I've already begun to. In Pokemon, when you die, you lose all your items and money, but retain your experience. In Shiren, you lose everything. In Pokemon, you can save money in between missions, but when you die in Shiren, you lose all of it, because you can't store it anywhere. In Pokemon, you can store hundreds of items (eventually) in your warehouse, but in Shiren, you can store probably no more than 15 items in each warehouse (they vary in size). In Pokemon, there are like 40 different dungeons with various numbers of floors in them (usually between 10 and 25), whereas Shiren's entire game is a single, 30ish floor dungeon. Did I mention that when you die in Shiren, you go all the way back to the town before the first floor? In Pokemon, when you die, you only need to restart the particular dungeon you were on over. Also, in Pokemon, you can keep earning extra carrying space for items (I had six pages worth of storage when I stopped playing, and I think you can get more), whereas in Shiren, you get two pages max. (Although the game has Jars, which let you pack more items inside them, so you aren't completely fucked). Also, in Shiren, you don't always know what item you pick up, because it could be anything from a Katana +5 to a cursed (which means you can't unequip it) Cudgel -7. Pokemon doesn't do that, however.
You are probably thinking that Shiren sounds extremely restrictive and difficult, while Pokemon is more balanced and easy, and you are partially correct. As you may recall from the beginning of this post, I said that Shiren is the better game. (Again, though, they are both fun as hell.) The main reason why is that when I finally do beat Shiren, I will feel like I accomplished something a hell of a lot more impressive then when I beat Pokemon, since Shiren is so much harder. I've read reviews of both games, and in a post on Jeremy Parish's website GameSpite, he put it perfectly: "...you never once feel like you've been screwed over by the game. When you die in Shiren, it's your own fault: you didn't play it right, you could have avoided failure. But no. You blew it." This is probably the truest statement about the game: every time I have ever died has been the result of me being too greedy, too ambitious, or just plain stupid. (The only possible exception to this rule is Monster Houses, which are basically rooms packed full of viciously powerful monsters, but really, you should be prepared for those with a Scroll of Sleep or Scroll of Confusion, anyway.)
In Pokemon, you get stronger by leveling your characters up, but you always have to worry about type advantages (like any good Pokemon game does). For example, my starting character was Torchic, a fire Pokemon. So anytime I saw a water Pokemon, I would let my partner, Bulbasaur (a grass type), take care of it, since he had type advantage over them. Conversely, when I saw grass type, bug type, or steel type Pokemon, I would send a quick Flamethrower their way, and watch as they died (usually) instantly.
In Shiren, you can level up by gaining experience, but since you can always lose that, you should level up your weapons. Right now, I am leveling up a Master Sword (no relation to Zelda, of course) and a Armor Ward. I found them both with no bonus attributes, and now, they are Master Sword +36 and Armor Ward +23, and also both cannot be rusted by enemies or traps (when a monster or trap tries to rust a weapon, it takes a couple of bonus attribute points off, and those are fucking precious, so I used a Plating Scroll on these weapons ASAP). They aren't complete yet, but boy, are they precious. If I died with these weapons, I would probably be pissed off for days.
...Thank god for a feature present in both games: the ability to rescue other Pokemon/Wanderers. Since Chunsoft made both games, they share the ability to let people go out and save other people who have died in dungeons who don't want to lose their precious items. I never used the feature in Pokemon, but I've used it once in Shiren, and although I had to wait a day and a half before someone finally rescued me, it was worth it: I was able to save my Happy Armband, which gives you experience points while simply walking (as you could guess, this is a pretty goddamn awesome item). So you better believe that if I die while toting my precious Master Sword +36 and Armor Ward +23, that I will be sending out a request and waiting as long as it takes to get those items back.
Shit. I should explain how you level up your weapons in Shiren. You can either pay a blacksmith 1000 gitans (the money in Shiren) to level up your weapon, or use items called Air Bless Scrolls and Earth Bless Scrolls, which level up weapons and shields, respectively. For my two items, I've used both. Both of my weapons are sitting in a warehouse in Mountaintop Town, though, so I don't risk losing them because I'm not paying attention or something.
Jesus, I'll have to cut this post off. I haven't even discussed half of the things I want to talk about yet, and it's already like ten pages long. More to come.
I beat Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness, and for my birthday last week I got Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer for the DS. Since I didn't post anything about either game yet, I will compare and contrast them both.
I will start by saying this: I'm glad I played the Pokemon version first. I enjoyed it, quite a bit in fact, and will probably get Blue Rescue Team soon, but Shiren is better.
Anyway, so Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Shiren the Wanderer are both RPGs based on the ancient computer based game called Rogue (which makes them roguelikes). When your character moves, your allies and everything else on the floor of the dungeon your on moves as well. In other words, its not necessarily real time because nothing else will act until you do. Basically, each time you move, attack, use an item, or cast a spell or whatever, you spend your turn, and then the enemies will all do the same: either they will move towards you, run away from you, attack, cast a spell, etc. and so on. And from what I gather on the ol' Internets, roguelikes aren't very popular here in America.
I can sort of see why not, because they are balls hard and sometimes can seem unfair. Shiren in particular is brutal, because when you die (which will happen, quite a bit), you lose all of your items, money, and (here's the kicker) experience points. That's right. All of them. Back to level 1 for you. However, you can store items and (in Pokemons case) money in warehouses in between dungeon runs.
I guess now is a good time to point out the differences between the two games, since I've already begun to. In Pokemon, when you die, you lose all your items and money, but retain your experience. In Shiren, you lose everything. In Pokemon, you can save money in between missions, but when you die in Shiren, you lose all of it, because you can't store it anywhere. In Pokemon, you can store hundreds of items (eventually) in your warehouse, but in Shiren, you can store probably no more than 15 items in each warehouse (they vary in size). In Pokemon, there are like 40 different dungeons with various numbers of floors in them (usually between 10 and 25), whereas Shiren's entire game is a single, 30ish floor dungeon. Did I mention that when you die in Shiren, you go all the way back to the town before the first floor? In Pokemon, when you die, you only need to restart the particular dungeon you were on over. Also, in Pokemon, you can keep earning extra carrying space for items (I had six pages worth of storage when I stopped playing, and I think you can get more), whereas in Shiren, you get two pages max. (Although the game has Jars, which let you pack more items inside them, so you aren't completely fucked). Also, in Shiren, you don't always know what item you pick up, because it could be anything from a Katana +5 to a cursed (which means you can't unequip it) Cudgel -7. Pokemon doesn't do that, however.
You are probably thinking that Shiren sounds extremely restrictive and difficult, while Pokemon is more balanced and easy, and you are partially correct. As you may recall from the beginning of this post, I said that Shiren is the better game. (Again, though, they are both fun as hell.) The main reason why is that when I finally do beat Shiren, I will feel like I accomplished something a hell of a lot more impressive then when I beat Pokemon, since Shiren is so much harder. I've read reviews of both games, and in a post on Jeremy Parish's website GameSpite, he put it perfectly: "...you never once feel like you've been screwed over by the game. When you die in Shiren, it's your own fault: you didn't play it right, you could have avoided failure. But no. You blew it." This is probably the truest statement about the game: every time I have ever died has been the result of me being too greedy, too ambitious, or just plain stupid. (The only possible exception to this rule is Monster Houses, which are basically rooms packed full of viciously powerful monsters, but really, you should be prepared for those with a Scroll of Sleep or Scroll of Confusion, anyway.)
In Pokemon, you get stronger by leveling your characters up, but you always have to worry about type advantages (like any good Pokemon game does). For example, my starting character was Torchic, a fire Pokemon. So anytime I saw a water Pokemon, I would let my partner, Bulbasaur (a grass type), take care of it, since he had type advantage over them. Conversely, when I saw grass type, bug type, or steel type Pokemon, I would send a quick Flamethrower their way, and watch as they died (usually) instantly.
In Shiren, you can level up by gaining experience, but since you can always lose that, you should level up your weapons. Right now, I am leveling up a Master Sword (no relation to Zelda, of course) and a Armor Ward. I found them both with no bonus attributes, and now, they are Master Sword +36 and Armor Ward +23, and also both cannot be rusted by enemies or traps (when a monster or trap tries to rust a weapon, it takes a couple of bonus attribute points off, and those are fucking precious, so I used a Plating Scroll on these weapons ASAP). They aren't complete yet, but boy, are they precious. If I died with these weapons, I would probably be pissed off for days.
...Thank god for a feature present in both games: the ability to rescue other Pokemon/Wanderers. Since Chunsoft made both games, they share the ability to let people go out and save other people who have died in dungeons who don't want to lose their precious items. I never used the feature in Pokemon, but I've used it once in Shiren, and although I had to wait a day and a half before someone finally rescued me, it was worth it: I was able to save my Happy Armband, which gives you experience points while simply walking (as you could guess, this is a pretty goddamn awesome item). So you better believe that if I die while toting my precious Master Sword +36 and Armor Ward +23, that I will be sending out a request and waiting as long as it takes to get those items back.
Shit. I should explain how you level up your weapons in Shiren. You can either pay a blacksmith 1000 gitans (the money in Shiren) to level up your weapon, or use items called Air Bless Scrolls and Earth Bless Scrolls, which level up weapons and shields, respectively. For my two items, I've used both. Both of my weapons are sitting in a warehouse in Mountaintop Town, though, so I don't risk losing them because I'm not paying attention or something.
Jesus, I'll have to cut this post off. I haven't even discussed half of the things I want to talk about yet, and it's already like ten pages long. More to come.
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