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.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Ys Seven, part 1
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.
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.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Fallout New Vegas, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Buggy Bomb
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.
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.
Monday, March 7, 2011
I put a Pokemon in the chamber and I pull the fucking trigger. BLAM!
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.
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.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Dragon Quest VI and Radiant Historia
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.
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.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dragon Quest VI: Ten Hours In
I decided to buy Dragon Quest VI the day it came out, both to register it to get bonus coins on Club Nintendo, but also because Dragon Quest IV and especially V are very rare and pretty expensive these days. I also liked those games, despite never finishing V because I didn't feel like leveling my stupid kids when I got them.
I really like Realms of Revelation so far. The battle system is very speedy, and I like the characters a lot, too. I've made extensive use of the Party Speak function, and I must say, I'm amazed how detailed it is. When you talk to any NPC, and I mean damn near just about ANY, your compatriots all have some sort of reaction to them. They are well written, too, and fit the context of the situation. I really can't think of a game besides this series that does that this well. Sure would be nice in Fallout New Vegas, for example.
I just unlocked the job system, too. I rather enjoy this version of it - I haven't really messed around with job systems in Dragon Quest games in the past, so I may not be the best for context regarding this, but I digress. It really reminds me of Final Fantasy VI and IX, to tell the truth. You give a job to your guys, and then after fighting a certain number of battles (the battles can't be scrubs, either - they have to be monsters that are roughly around your experience level) you will learn a new technique.
I love this because Dragon Quest games typically take way to long for your characters to learn new spells, because as time goes on, level ups become more and more infrequent. This negates that, somewhat - your party will learn new spells and attacks so long as you keep training them in their jobs. And any person can learn any job, so far as I can tell. I mean sure, I'm not going to teach Carver to become a Mage, but whatever - I can if I want to.
Some of these battles, though. Wow. The game hasn't been too unfair thus far (as in, I haven't come across many bosses who throw party-damaging attacks twice in a row), but there have definitely been some tough battles. Also, the encounter rate seems just a bit to high for me, but that's pretty much always a complaint of mine. I suppose its kind of the point of Dragon Quest to fight a lot. Sure could use the cash anyway.
The graphics are really, really good in this game. The improvements over Dragon Quest IV and V are pretty subtle, but player characters are better animated this time around. The game has some fantastic sprite art, as well, and it looks good when the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot. The music is pretty good, as well.
Now if only my friend would pick up Dragon Quest IX when he's done beating every Castlevania...
I really like Realms of Revelation so far. The battle system is very speedy, and I like the characters a lot, too. I've made extensive use of the Party Speak function, and I must say, I'm amazed how detailed it is. When you talk to any NPC, and I mean damn near just about ANY, your compatriots all have some sort of reaction to them. They are well written, too, and fit the context of the situation. I really can't think of a game besides this series that does that this well. Sure would be nice in Fallout New Vegas, for example.
I just unlocked the job system, too. I rather enjoy this version of it - I haven't really messed around with job systems in Dragon Quest games in the past, so I may not be the best for context regarding this, but I digress. It really reminds me of Final Fantasy VI and IX, to tell the truth. You give a job to your guys, and then after fighting a certain number of battles (the battles can't be scrubs, either - they have to be monsters that are roughly around your experience level) you will learn a new technique.
I love this because Dragon Quest games typically take way to long for your characters to learn new spells, because as time goes on, level ups become more and more infrequent. This negates that, somewhat - your party will learn new spells and attacks so long as you keep training them in their jobs. And any person can learn any job, so far as I can tell. I mean sure, I'm not going to teach Carver to become a Mage, but whatever - I can if I want to.
Some of these battles, though. Wow. The game hasn't been too unfair thus far (as in, I haven't come across many bosses who throw party-damaging attacks twice in a row), but there have definitely been some tough battles. Also, the encounter rate seems just a bit to high for me, but that's pretty much always a complaint of mine. I suppose its kind of the point of Dragon Quest to fight a lot. Sure could use the cash anyway.
The graphics are really, really good in this game. The improvements over Dragon Quest IV and V are pretty subtle, but player characters are better animated this time around. The game has some fantastic sprite art, as well, and it looks good when the camera zooms out for a dramatic shot. The music is pretty good, as well.
Now if only my friend would pick up Dragon Quest IX when he's done beating every Castlevania...
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
A week ago, I wrote that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was my favorite Castlevania of all time. But since I just finished Konami's third DS Castlevania, Order of Ecclesia, I may rethink that position.
There's a lot to like about Ecclesia, especially in light of the complaints of the past few games in the series. Many people thought the Sorrow games were quite easy, and made easier when the player ground up their levels. This is true; the enemies aren't necessarily designed to kill Soma easily - they are instead designed to chip away at his health over a long time, as Soma makes his way from save point to save point. And while this still happens a bit in Ecclesia, Konami decided to make the game a bit harder. If you don't play skillfully, or you play carelessly, you will die. It is as simple as that. There are a few enemies in the game that I avoid at all costs, if I can - the Cave Troll, relatively harmless in other games in the series, can kill you if you get caught in its electric attack - you can't move and it drains 30 HP every half second for about five seconds. Three hundred health is just about how much you'll have when you first encounter these guys. In past games in the series, the only time I would die would be on bosses - here, I died all the time. But it was very rarely due to some cheap hits - the Blade Master enemy is incredibly cheap, in my opinion - it was almost always due to poor playing on my part.
In addition to skillful playing being a necessity, the player must take into account enemy typing. Gone are the days when the player need only use one type of weapon - you must constantly shuffle around your Glyphs to be equipped for the right situation. See a skeleton enemy? Get your mace glyphs ready, because your swords aren't going to do much damage to them. See a rock enemy? Get a hammer out! And so on. The game lets you switch between three sets of Glyphs on the fly, and I loved having to switch weapons twice in one room to defeat all the enemies. Makes every room count, really.
One of the things I didn't like about the game the first time I played it two years ago was how the map was split into different areas. There's a town, there's a Monastery, there's mountains, a Lighthouse, etc. I wanted them to put all of that in one map - and I suppose they could, but honestly I think what they did turned out better. Each map flows into the next, which means when you enter the swamp, it is a straight shot from one end to the other, fighting enemies in pools of fetid water the whole way. When you get to the other side of the swamp, you get to a new area. Once you've played through an area once and found a new exit, you don't have to go through that area every time - you just pick the place you want to go to from the map menu. You can always go back if you like. All of this makes the world seem natural because Konami wasn't restricted to forcing all their level designs into one big map.
As you play through the early game, you sometimes encounter villagers you can save. Once you save them, they go back to the village, and will hand out quests to you. Some are easier than others, of course, and many of them unlock more items to buy in the shop. They provide a nice diversion from the main quest, if you're inclined to do them. They also provide some respite from the tough boss fights, if you'd rather take a break from trying to beat them.
The boss fights are likely my favorite thing about Order of Ecclesia - they may be the best in the series. They are incredibly well designed, and almost none of them exploit cheap tactics. They all have patterns that the player can learn, and some sort of weapon weakness the player can try to exploit. I was never disheartened whenever I got to a boss, which is new for a Castlevania game for me - they are all beatable, all at whatever level you happen to stumble across them. Sure, if you have more levels, you can take a bit more damage and deal a bit more, but if you play smartly, you will beat the boss.
I won't spoil the Dracula fight, but I will say this: he will not let you jump over him in his first form. You cannot exploit that age old tactic of getting him to start his attack animation, jumping behind him, and wailing on his head until he teleports. He quickly slaps you down with his cape, and it does a bunch of damage. The first time he did that to me, I smiled. Dracula wasn't going to put up with my bullshit this time. Overall, it's a fairly challenging fight, but he, like all the other bosses in the game, is fair and beatable.
I'm really not sure whether I like Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia more. They both have their benefits... Ecclesia is very streamlined, tough, and largely a new experience for Castlevania, whereas Dawn takes the format of the Symphony of the Night type of game and almost perfects it. I definitely know that Dawn and Ecclesia are my two favorite games in the series, at least.
God, I love the DS.
There's a lot to like about Ecclesia, especially in light of the complaints of the past few games in the series. Many people thought the Sorrow games were quite easy, and made easier when the player ground up their levels. This is true; the enemies aren't necessarily designed to kill Soma easily - they are instead designed to chip away at his health over a long time, as Soma makes his way from save point to save point. And while this still happens a bit in Ecclesia, Konami decided to make the game a bit harder. If you don't play skillfully, or you play carelessly, you will die. It is as simple as that. There are a few enemies in the game that I avoid at all costs, if I can - the Cave Troll, relatively harmless in other games in the series, can kill you if you get caught in its electric attack - you can't move and it drains 30 HP every half second for about five seconds. Three hundred health is just about how much you'll have when you first encounter these guys. In past games in the series, the only time I would die would be on bosses - here, I died all the time. But it was very rarely due to some cheap hits - the Blade Master enemy is incredibly cheap, in my opinion - it was almost always due to poor playing on my part.
In addition to skillful playing being a necessity, the player must take into account enemy typing. Gone are the days when the player need only use one type of weapon - you must constantly shuffle around your Glyphs to be equipped for the right situation. See a skeleton enemy? Get your mace glyphs ready, because your swords aren't going to do much damage to them. See a rock enemy? Get a hammer out! And so on. The game lets you switch between three sets of Glyphs on the fly, and I loved having to switch weapons twice in one room to defeat all the enemies. Makes every room count, really.
One of the things I didn't like about the game the first time I played it two years ago was how the map was split into different areas. There's a town, there's a Monastery, there's mountains, a Lighthouse, etc. I wanted them to put all of that in one map - and I suppose they could, but honestly I think what they did turned out better. Each map flows into the next, which means when you enter the swamp, it is a straight shot from one end to the other, fighting enemies in pools of fetid water the whole way. When you get to the other side of the swamp, you get to a new area. Once you've played through an area once and found a new exit, you don't have to go through that area every time - you just pick the place you want to go to from the map menu. You can always go back if you like. All of this makes the world seem natural because Konami wasn't restricted to forcing all their level designs into one big map.
As you play through the early game, you sometimes encounter villagers you can save. Once you save them, they go back to the village, and will hand out quests to you. Some are easier than others, of course, and many of them unlock more items to buy in the shop. They provide a nice diversion from the main quest, if you're inclined to do them. They also provide some respite from the tough boss fights, if you'd rather take a break from trying to beat them.
The boss fights are likely my favorite thing about Order of Ecclesia - they may be the best in the series. They are incredibly well designed, and almost none of them exploit cheap tactics. They all have patterns that the player can learn, and some sort of weapon weakness the player can try to exploit. I was never disheartened whenever I got to a boss, which is new for a Castlevania game for me - they are all beatable, all at whatever level you happen to stumble across them. Sure, if you have more levels, you can take a bit more damage and deal a bit more, but if you play smartly, you will beat the boss.
I won't spoil the Dracula fight, but I will say this: he will not let you jump over him in his first form. You cannot exploit that age old tactic of getting him to start his attack animation, jumping behind him, and wailing on his head until he teleports. He quickly slaps you down with his cape, and it does a bunch of damage. The first time he did that to me, I smiled. Dracula wasn't going to put up with my bullshit this time. Overall, it's a fairly challenging fight, but he, like all the other bosses in the game, is fair and beatable.
I'm really not sure whether I like Dawn of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia more. They both have their benefits... Ecclesia is very streamlined, tough, and largely a new experience for Castlevania, whereas Dawn takes the format of the Symphony of the Night type of game and almost perfects it. I definitely know that Dawn and Ecclesia are my two favorite games in the series, at least.
God, I love the DS.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Nintendo DS: Part Four
When Microsoft released their Xbox 360 at the tail end of 2005 (followed by Sony's Playstation 3 a year later), they ushered in the era of HD videogaming. These new HD systems were leaps and bounds better, at least in terms of graphical prowess, than their ancestors. However, the cost for developing games for these high end systems grew larger than ever before. So while a few publishers and developers reveled in their technical prowess and huge budgets, smaller developers couldn't afford to compete on the same level, and so they needed a way to put their "lower-end" skills to use.
Enter the Nintendo DS. While the system was more powerful than Nintendo's handhelds before it, it was no where near as expensive as developing for the new HD systems. Games developed for handheld units were historically cheaper than their console counterparts, true, but the gulf in development costs was now wider than ever before. Sony's PSP even had high development costs, due to having Playstation 2 quality graphics - which while not as expensive to create as, say, Playstation 3 graphics, were still more expensive than Nintendo 64 graphics, which the DS was roughly on par with. So smaller developers (and big developers who didn't want to spend a fortune on every game they made) flocked to the DS, and tried to eke out a niche there.
Take, for example, the small Japanese developer formerly known as Office Create. They released a low budget game for the DS in 2006 called Cooking Mama. The game was relatively simple: players used the unique functions of the DS to cook dishes, as instructed by the eponymous Mama. Majesco published the game, and it went to retail with little to no fanfare. The game sold fairly well, at first, although it did something unexpected - it never stopped selling. It was a reliable seller for a few years, so Majesco made a few sequels, and as of 2009, the series has sold over 8 million copies.
One publisher that has done very well for itself on the DS is Atlus. They have done very little work on the HD systems, purportedly due to the costs involved. Their first breakout hit was Trauma Center: Under the Knife, released in October of 2005 and spawning a sequel on DS, and a remake and two sequels on Wii. They also did very well with their Etrian Odyssey series, which saw its first release in America in 2007. Two sequels were then published for the DS in following years, and a new Etrian Odyssey has been announced for the upcoming 3DS. They were also able to capitalize on the success of the Playstation 2 game Persona 3 and release two "Shin Megami Tensei"-branded games on the DS - SMT: Devil Survivor and SMT: Strange Journey. These were wholly original games, while the PSP entries in the SMT franchise were remakes of Persona games previously released on the Playstation 1.
Another breakout hit came in the form of 2009's Scribblenauts, developed by 5th Cell, who had previously created moderately selling DS titles Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The game was incredibly ambitious. The player was tasked with solving puzzles by summoning items or characters into the game by typing in words. The hook was the player could type nearly anything, so long as it wasn't obscene or copyrighted, and that word would appear as a physical object in the game that could be interacted with. The game even won several "Best of E3" awards, making it the first handheld title to ever do so. The game sold very well, and a sequel was released in late 2010.
The DS had proven itself fertile ground for several developers and publishers, but, of course, the first party titles cannot be ignored. Nintendo followed up the mediocre Super Mario 64 DS with a steady stream of fantastic games for the DS, culminating in 2007 with the newest release of its flagship handheld series - Pokemon.
Enter the Nintendo DS. While the system was more powerful than Nintendo's handhelds before it, it was no where near as expensive as developing for the new HD systems. Games developed for handheld units were historically cheaper than their console counterparts, true, but the gulf in development costs was now wider than ever before. Sony's PSP even had high development costs, due to having Playstation 2 quality graphics - which while not as expensive to create as, say, Playstation 3 graphics, were still more expensive than Nintendo 64 graphics, which the DS was roughly on par with. So smaller developers (and big developers who didn't want to spend a fortune on every game they made) flocked to the DS, and tried to eke out a niche there.
Take, for example, the small Japanese developer formerly known as Office Create. They released a low budget game for the DS in 2006 called Cooking Mama. The game was relatively simple: players used the unique functions of the DS to cook dishes, as instructed by the eponymous Mama. Majesco published the game, and it went to retail with little to no fanfare. The game sold fairly well, at first, although it did something unexpected - it never stopped selling. It was a reliable seller for a few years, so Majesco made a few sequels, and as of 2009, the series has sold over 8 million copies.
One publisher that has done very well for itself on the DS is Atlus. They have done very little work on the HD systems, purportedly due to the costs involved. Their first breakout hit was Trauma Center: Under the Knife, released in October of 2005 and spawning a sequel on DS, and a remake and two sequels on Wii. They also did very well with their Etrian Odyssey series, which saw its first release in America in 2007. Two sequels were then published for the DS in following years, and a new Etrian Odyssey has been announced for the upcoming 3DS. They were also able to capitalize on the success of the Playstation 2 game Persona 3 and release two "Shin Megami Tensei"-branded games on the DS - SMT: Devil Survivor and SMT: Strange Journey. These were wholly original games, while the PSP entries in the SMT franchise were remakes of Persona games previously released on the Playstation 1.
Another breakout hit came in the form of 2009's Scribblenauts, developed by 5th Cell, who had previously created moderately selling DS titles Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The game was incredibly ambitious. The player was tasked with solving puzzles by summoning items or characters into the game by typing in words. The hook was the player could type nearly anything, so long as it wasn't obscene or copyrighted, and that word would appear as a physical object in the game that could be interacted with. The game even won several "Best of E3" awards, making it the first handheld title to ever do so. The game sold very well, and a sequel was released in late 2010.
The DS had proven itself fertile ground for several developers and publishers, but, of course, the first party titles cannot be ignored. Nintendo followed up the mediocre Super Mario 64 DS with a steady stream of fantastic games for the DS, culminating in 2007 with the newest release of its flagship handheld series - Pokemon.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
The Nintendo DS: Part Three
Whenever video game hardware is released that has features not found on prior hardware, there are usually complaints that decry the new features as "gimmicks" that may take away from what many gamers call "hardcore" games. The reasons for this phenomenon vary for each new system, of course - the upcoming 3DS has people wondering what the 3D will bring to the table as far as gameplay enhancements go, for example. But since the original DS was such a wild departure in terms of hardware design, it follows that many people (myself included) were worried about all its seeming "extraneous" features detracting from the good, solid gameplay of the past.
The DS has two screens. This in itself is odd, when you think about it - what other video game was ever designed with two separate screens (arcades don't really count)? People were worried that developers wouldn't know what to put on each screen, or that there would be too much going on for a player to make sense of what was happening on each screen, etc. Some of these worries came to fruition in games like Yoshi's Island DS, in which there was a gap between the screens in which enemies could lurk, which severely hampered the playability of the game.
Then of course there is the touchscreen, which was an extremely new feature for a mainstream handheld videogame system such as the DS. Tiger's Game.com had a touchscreen, but it wasn't implemented very well and was underutilized, like most features on the system. There were of course Palm devices that had touchscreens, but no killer app games were ever developed for those. Nintendo was going into largely uncharted waters with this feature. Super Mario 64 DS had poor touchscreen functionality; Kirby: Canvas Curse, released by Nintendo in mid-2005, proved that the touchscreen really could allow for compelling gameplay. In this game, the player controlled Kirby with the stylus by drawing paths for him. These served as both roads and bridges, but if the player drew a vertical line, could stop Kirby in mid-roll. Canvas Curse was the game that fired the opening salvo for in-depth touchscreen gaming.
The lessons of Kirby: Canvas Curse weren't taken to heart right away, and many developers struggled to find a use for the touchscreen functionality of the DS. There were many titles that shoehorned the function in during the early days of the DS. One game that both shoehorned in some very underwhelming touchscreen functionality and also tried to solve the question of what to do with both screens was Konami's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, released October 4, 2005.
Konami had done very well for themselves on the Game Boy Advance, with a trio of Castlevania games released for that platform, each of which eclipsed the quality of the last. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was especially well received, due to a mechanic that was entirely new to the Castlevania series: the ability of the main character, Soma, to acquire the "souls" of his enemies, effectively giving him hundreds of powers. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria, and it carries over many of the features of its predecessor (along with a lot of reused assets, but that is something the Castlevania series is prone to anyway).
One of the things it did add was the "Magic Seal" function, which was how Konami determined the touchscreen would be implemented. When the player reduced the HP of a boss to zero, they had to draw a pattern on the screen to "seal" the boss (which really just meant actually finishing it off). The problem with this was that when many players beat a rather tough boss, they were forced to draw some pattern from memory, and if they failed, the boss would come back to life with a third of its health. In a series known for its brutal bosses, this feature alone was widely hated, and not implemented in any future installments of the series.
Konami did, however, use the dual screens fairly well. The top screen was used to display a map of the castle, which was very useful because the intricate design of Dracula's lair was easy to get lost in, and not having to pause the game to view the map really kept the pace going. The player could also display a detailed stat screen for Soma and the enemy he was currently fighting - displaying not only known info like HP, but what items an enemy could drop (if Soma had collected them before) or whether or not he had already collected that enemy's "Soul".
But other than these new features, the game was an early example of what many would categorize as a "hardcore" game on a system that had a reputation at that time of having pretty tame games. The game was difficult and had an abundance of features, one of which was a very robust postgame quest that had a unique twist - Julius mode, in which the player played as a typical Belmont, armed only with a whip and the usual subweapons of old. The game also had a New Game + feature, which allowed players to carry over all their souls, levels, equipment, and items to a new file if they wanted.
Personally, I fell in love with this game. It is, to this day, the only game I have ever written a FAQ for, and is still my favorite Castlevania game. Despite its odd touchscreen functions and sprite reuse, it is one of the best DS games ever released, and is therefore a must-play.
The DS has two screens. This in itself is odd, when you think about it - what other video game was ever designed with two separate screens (arcades don't really count)? People were worried that developers wouldn't know what to put on each screen, or that there would be too much going on for a player to make sense of what was happening on each screen, etc. Some of these worries came to fruition in games like Yoshi's Island DS, in which there was a gap between the screens in which enemies could lurk, which severely hampered the playability of the game.
Then of course there is the touchscreen, which was an extremely new feature for a mainstream handheld videogame system such as the DS. Tiger's Game.com had a touchscreen, but it wasn't implemented very well and was underutilized, like most features on the system. There were of course Palm devices that had touchscreens, but no killer app games were ever developed for those. Nintendo was going into largely uncharted waters with this feature. Super Mario 64 DS had poor touchscreen functionality; Kirby: Canvas Curse, released by Nintendo in mid-2005, proved that the touchscreen really could allow for compelling gameplay. In this game, the player controlled Kirby with the stylus by drawing paths for him. These served as both roads and bridges, but if the player drew a vertical line, could stop Kirby in mid-roll. Canvas Curse was the game that fired the opening salvo for in-depth touchscreen gaming.
The lessons of Kirby: Canvas Curse weren't taken to heart right away, and many developers struggled to find a use for the touchscreen functionality of the DS. There were many titles that shoehorned the function in during the early days of the DS. One game that both shoehorned in some very underwhelming touchscreen functionality and also tried to solve the question of what to do with both screens was Konami's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, released October 4, 2005.
Konami had done very well for themselves on the Game Boy Advance, with a trio of Castlevania games released for that platform, each of which eclipsed the quality of the last. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was especially well received, due to a mechanic that was entirely new to the Castlevania series: the ability of the main character, Soma, to acquire the "souls" of his enemies, effectively giving him hundreds of powers. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria, and it carries over many of the features of its predecessor (along with a lot of reused assets, but that is something the Castlevania series is prone to anyway).
One of the things it did add was the "Magic Seal" function, which was how Konami determined the touchscreen would be implemented. When the player reduced the HP of a boss to zero, they had to draw a pattern on the screen to "seal" the boss (which really just meant actually finishing it off). The problem with this was that when many players beat a rather tough boss, they were forced to draw some pattern from memory, and if they failed, the boss would come back to life with a third of its health. In a series known for its brutal bosses, this feature alone was widely hated, and not implemented in any future installments of the series.
Konami did, however, use the dual screens fairly well. The top screen was used to display a map of the castle, which was very useful because the intricate design of Dracula's lair was easy to get lost in, and not having to pause the game to view the map really kept the pace going. The player could also display a detailed stat screen for Soma and the enemy he was currently fighting - displaying not only known info like HP, but what items an enemy could drop (if Soma had collected them before) or whether or not he had already collected that enemy's "Soul".
But other than these new features, the game was an early example of what many would categorize as a "hardcore" game on a system that had a reputation at that time of having pretty tame games. The game was difficult and had an abundance of features, one of which was a very robust postgame quest that had a unique twist - Julius mode, in which the player played as a typical Belmont, armed only with a whip and the usual subweapons of old. The game also had a New Game + feature, which allowed players to carry over all their souls, levels, equipment, and items to a new file if they wanted.
Personally, I fell in love with this game. It is, to this day, the only game I have ever written a FAQ for, and is still my favorite Castlevania game. Despite its odd touchscreen functions and sprite reuse, it is one of the best DS games ever released, and is therefore a must-play.
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