So.
The game has got its hooks in me deep. I have played nothing else in weeks and am still loving the game. A lot has changed since my last post, as well - chief among them being I now consider myself a White Mage first and foremost. It is even my highest leveled class, at level 44, and will likely be the class I complete the main story with.
I still like Archer/Bard, mind you, and that will likely be the second class I get to 50, but I will be going for endgame gear for my WHM first. I cannot stop gushing about how much I like to play WHM to people, and I'm sure my Free Company (basically FFXIV's version of guilds - collection of players that play together and have a private chatbox, basically) is sick of hearing me talk about it.
I've never felt the way I do while playing a videogame like I do when playing a WHM. When running a dungeon, I have a lot of responsibility - and since I'm playing with other players, I feel the social pressure of trying to keep everyone alive rather than thinking "eh, if the CPU dies, I'll just try again, who cares." I have to keep the tank healed, but if a DPS wanders into damage I have to heal them, too. And if the tank sucks? My job gets even harder. If the tank cannot keep aggro, I will be healing everyone a lot, running out of MP, then frantically casting Cure on whoever needs the heal the most when I have the MP - which gets pretty tense because when a battle goes belly up, people tend to forget their jobs, and DPS players start taking damage they shouldn't. All while dodging area of effect attacks!
Most of my dungeon runs have been good. I get a lot of player commendations, which I like (only 465 more until a golden Magitek Armor!), and feel pretty good getting through a dungeon without any deaths. When things go sour, though, I feel pretty bad. My first (and as of this post, only) run of Cutter's Cry was a nightmare. The tank died to a random mob early on, and though he said it was his fault, I don't think it was. I was running from an AoE attack, and since he had only a sliver of damage, I thought it was safe to do so. Once I got out of range and queued up a Cure, he was dead! Then it was up to the DPSs and I to finish off the enemies. Embarrassing! A DPS also died on the final boss, though he said it was because he was using a Limit Break and couldn't escape the AoE. I just assume they were being nice - I got zero player commendations for that run. I suppose it doesn't help that I had to be told I had Cleric Stance on when the dungeon started (this switches your INT and MIND stats, which allows you to do more damage which is great for soloing, but since it lowers your healing capability, is terrible for dungeons)!
I really need to level some other classes though, because I am using precisely zero skills/abilities from classes besides WHM. I suppose I should level Thaumaturge, but I'm spoiled by quick wait times in the Duty Finder, so I don't want to go back to DPS! I began leveling Gladiator yesterday, to speed Duty Finder times up even more when I get around to doing dungeons as a Tank, I suppose.
This game, though. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I've been addicted to a game so much. I think about it constantly. Work is just about to start as I type this post, and I cannot wait for stupid work to be over so I can go home and play it.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV Part 2
I basically played this all weekend. I probably put 15 hours into it, if I had to guess. Maybe one or two less. I'm at level 17 right now, still Archer. I've made it to the second major hub in the game, which is a pirate area. It's a bit confusing to navigate, and certain areas being referred to by characters as one name while the map refers to them as others made me want to throw my controller at the wall, but I eventually figured it out and it's not too bad.
Anyway, the main point of this post was to discuss Sastasha Seagrot, my first instanced dungeon in an MMO. I received the mission, put the word out that I was looking for a party, and then went and did other single player quests while a party formed. This one took twenty minutes to form, despite the game telling me it might take thirty, so that's good.
Sastasha Seagrot requires a "tank," two "DPSs," and a healer. Healer being self-explanatory, I'll explain the other two: a "tank" gets the enemies' attention and attacks and defends and basically acts as a damage sponge, and a DPS is a damage dealer - which is the category I fall into since I'm an archer. So once the game found me a party of people to play with, I delved into a dungeon with three other humans and played for roughly an hour.
It was a blast, I have to say. The dungeon was pretty straightforward, but like everywhere else in the game, was gorgeous. It was a sea cavern, with rivers and rivulets flowing through it, and I fought mostly clams, their weird magic casting spawn, and pirates. The boss of the area was a Sahagin, one of those classic Final Fantasy water enemies. My favorite touch of the dungeon was the classic victory battle music playing when the boss went down, followed by the four of us doing a sort of victory pose all lined up like a regular Final Fantasy game. Good stuff!
But it was pretty fun seeing the other classes at work. The healer buffed us, healed, and occasionally attacked, while the tank got all the enemies to focus on him, while the melee guy and I threw everything we had at the enemies. Archer fits me well; I sometimes find myself surprised when my HP gets low when soloing, so not having to worry about it for the most part was fun, while I really got to stretch all my abilities. They mesh pretty well, and being able to poison or bind the enemies occasionally helped the other guys quite a bit.
As we progressed through the dungeon, there were a few minor bosses who would drop stuff we could grab. The game puts up a pop up and lets people say if they want it - and as near as I can tell, you get it, so long as A. no one else wants it or B. if they do want it, they don't roll higher than you. The first four items were all useless to me, so I passed on all of them, but the armor the boss dropped was really good so I grabbed it. I don't think anyone else tried for it, so it didn't really matter what I rolled, but I got it and my character is wearing it as of this post.
I was thinking about Monster Hunter while I played today, though, and how that game doesn't scratch the itch I'm looking for. I want to get cool new gear that makes my character look different when I equip it (which FFXIV does) and level up my character, too, while customizing some skills and stats and such (FFXIV does this too, while MH does not). I have been wanting to play a game like this for a long time now, and it really does seem like the MMO for me. I don't want to play WoW and be damned to have to play with people at certain times - I want to initiate a quest, wait for other people to join, and go off and play a dungeon, then be done. This works so well because I'm pretty sure the game gives bonuses to higher level players who help out low level people like myself, so there's always a reason to run old dungeons.
Depending on how burnt out I get on the game (and how tolerant my fiancee is of me hogging the TV), I could see myself paying a few monthly fees. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the quality of FFXIV.
Anyway, the main point of this post was to discuss Sastasha Seagrot, my first instanced dungeon in an MMO. I received the mission, put the word out that I was looking for a party, and then went and did other single player quests while a party formed. This one took twenty minutes to form, despite the game telling me it might take thirty, so that's good.
Sastasha Seagrot requires a "tank," two "DPSs," and a healer. Healer being self-explanatory, I'll explain the other two: a "tank" gets the enemies' attention and attacks and defends and basically acts as a damage sponge, and a DPS is a damage dealer - which is the category I fall into since I'm an archer. So once the game found me a party of people to play with, I delved into a dungeon with three other humans and played for roughly an hour.
It was a blast, I have to say. The dungeon was pretty straightforward, but like everywhere else in the game, was gorgeous. It was a sea cavern, with rivers and rivulets flowing through it, and I fought mostly clams, their weird magic casting spawn, and pirates. The boss of the area was a Sahagin, one of those classic Final Fantasy water enemies. My favorite touch of the dungeon was the classic victory battle music playing when the boss went down, followed by the four of us doing a sort of victory pose all lined up like a regular Final Fantasy game. Good stuff!
But it was pretty fun seeing the other classes at work. The healer buffed us, healed, and occasionally attacked, while the tank got all the enemies to focus on him, while the melee guy and I threw everything we had at the enemies. Archer fits me well; I sometimes find myself surprised when my HP gets low when soloing, so not having to worry about it for the most part was fun, while I really got to stretch all my abilities. They mesh pretty well, and being able to poison or bind the enemies occasionally helped the other guys quite a bit.
As we progressed through the dungeon, there were a few minor bosses who would drop stuff we could grab. The game puts up a pop up and lets people say if they want it - and as near as I can tell, you get it, so long as A. no one else wants it or B. if they do want it, they don't roll higher than you. The first four items were all useless to me, so I passed on all of them, but the armor the boss dropped was really good so I grabbed it. I don't think anyone else tried for it, so it didn't really matter what I rolled, but I got it and my character is wearing it as of this post.
I was thinking about Monster Hunter while I played today, though, and how that game doesn't scratch the itch I'm looking for. I want to get cool new gear that makes my character look different when I equip it (which FFXIV does) and level up my character, too, while customizing some skills and stats and such (FFXIV does this too, while MH does not). I have been wanting to play a game like this for a long time now, and it really does seem like the MMO for me. I don't want to play WoW and be damned to have to play with people at certain times - I want to initiate a quest, wait for other people to join, and go off and play a dungeon, then be done. This works so well because I'm pretty sure the game gives bonuses to higher level players who help out low level people like myself, so there's always a reason to run old dungeons.
Depending on how burnt out I get on the game (and how tolerant my fiancee is of me hogging the TV), I could see myself paying a few monthly fees. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the quality of FFXIV.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Final Fantasy XIV
I don't know why, but I bought and started playing an MMO. I haven't played one since the Matrix Online, almost ten years ago. That one had issues, and it didn't help that my laptop at the time could barely run it. God forbid anyone else appeared on screen, because the game would slow to a crawl.
Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. It looks pretty nice and seems to run pretty well. I've been around plenty of other people and even had a battle involving some enemies and maybe ten other people or so, with no noticeable lag (though it did get a bit hectic, UI wise, though I can probably fix that in the settings). It's a very pretty game, which I wasn't expecting so much because the PS3 is the "least powerful" choice to play the game on. The music, so far, hasn't made much of an impression on me, though it isn't bad, just pretty generic.
...Which is a word I'd use to describe the story, so far. Other than the idea that the world was torn almost completely apart five years ago, it's been pretty generic Final Fantasy so far. Find the Crystals! Defeat whoever stands in your way! Etc.
I have to say I really like exploring and fighting stuff so far, though. It's an MMO - meaning you use abilities, and when a timer cools down, you can use them again. Run around, rinse, repeat, level up. I'm playing as an Archer and have leveled up that job to 9. What I like is that I'm not limited to that class - if I buy equipment another class uses and start killing stuff with it, I'll gain levels in that class. I'm thinking I might play as a Mage of some sort as well as the Archer. I like the powers I have as an archer so far, too, which are kind of a combo. If you use them in the right order, you get an attack boost and once the enemy's HP drops below 20%, you can use a finishing move. I like ranged attacks in these types of games.
I don't know why it's called Fate, but I really like the system. There will be special enemies that spawn here and there, and you go in and kill as many as you can. The more you help out (because everyone else will make a beeline for them) the more experience you get. The enemies tend to be a little stronger than the other enemies in the area, but with tons of people helping out they aren't too bad, from the 3 or so I've been in so far.
I'm not sure how hardcore the multiplayer gets (I'd imagine pretty hardcore) and I don't know how long I'll play. I have a 30 day free trial, and have enjoyed my four or five hours I've played so far. No idea if I'll end up paying the monthly fee or anything. I do intend to make the most out of my trial.
I'm enjoying an MMO. God help me...
Anyway, I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV on PS3. It looks pretty nice and seems to run pretty well. I've been around plenty of other people and even had a battle involving some enemies and maybe ten other people or so, with no noticeable lag (though it did get a bit hectic, UI wise, though I can probably fix that in the settings). It's a very pretty game, which I wasn't expecting so much because the PS3 is the "least powerful" choice to play the game on. The music, so far, hasn't made much of an impression on me, though it isn't bad, just pretty generic.
...Which is a word I'd use to describe the story, so far. Other than the idea that the world was torn almost completely apart five years ago, it's been pretty generic Final Fantasy so far. Find the Crystals! Defeat whoever stands in your way! Etc.
I have to say I really like exploring and fighting stuff so far, though. It's an MMO - meaning you use abilities, and when a timer cools down, you can use them again. Run around, rinse, repeat, level up. I'm playing as an Archer and have leveled up that job to 9. What I like is that I'm not limited to that class - if I buy equipment another class uses and start killing stuff with it, I'll gain levels in that class. I'm thinking I might play as a Mage of some sort as well as the Archer. I like the powers I have as an archer so far, too, which are kind of a combo. If you use them in the right order, you get an attack boost and once the enemy's HP drops below 20%, you can use a finishing move. I like ranged attacks in these types of games.
I don't know why it's called Fate, but I really like the system. There will be special enemies that spawn here and there, and you go in and kill as many as you can. The more you help out (because everyone else will make a beeline for them) the more experience you get. The enemies tend to be a little stronger than the other enemies in the area, but with tons of people helping out they aren't too bad, from the 3 or so I've been in so far.
I'm not sure how hardcore the multiplayer gets (I'd imagine pretty hardcore) and I don't know how long I'll play. I have a 30 day free trial, and have enjoyed my four or five hours I've played so far. No idea if I'll end up paying the monthly fee or anything. I do intend to make the most out of my trial.
I'm enjoying an MMO. God help me...
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Persona 1 PSP: I'm Calling it Beaten, I Don't Even Care
I'm at the true final boss of Persona 1, the SEBEC route, anyway, and I just can't take this game anymore. I did something I've never done before, for any game of any type - I just watched the ending on Youtube.
I'm putting this game in the beat column, and I'm not putting an asterisk next to it. The final boss is bullshit, I grinded a TON on BEGINNER to get to around level 60, and I'm not going to waste countless hours hoping she doesn't use her stupid ice attack twice in one turn which will kill my whole party guaranteed. She switches between two different forms at random - at any time, even in the middle of your turn - which changes her weaknesses. Which wouldn't be so bad if she DIDN'T ABSORB AND HEAL MY MAGIC ATTACKS (that I cast while she's in one form, because she's weak to magic in that form)! So yeah, hit her with physical attacks, you say? Well, it just so happens that my high level Personae that got me through the game are weak to ice, so I switch to lower level Personae that aren't and I plink her for single digit damage. She supposedly has several thousand hit points. Did I mention she can randomly just wipe your whole party if she happens to cast her ultimate attack twice in one turn? Fuck that, I'm not risking being wiped out after an hour, it'd give me a heart attack. And the first Persona is not worth dying over.
This game is quite possibly the most frustrating RPG I've ever played. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but this game has parts that have merit - I even enjoyed myself a bit! But when the game sucks, it sucks hard. I've tried to get through the game several times since it came out in 2009, and just couldn't get over its problems. I decided to finally force myself to play through it. After roughly thirty hours... I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever play the thing again.
The game is just flawed on a fundamental level. The thing that bugged me right away when I first played it five years ago still sucks - your characters gain experience proportionate to their participation in battle. This is a terrible, terrible idea. If you happen to wipe out the enemies before, say, your slowest character goes, they don't get any experience (or hardly any so as to not matter at all). So you have to spend time paying close attention to who is at what level and basically have some characters skip turns so the low level ones can get a chance to level up. You have to fight poorly, basically, to level up, which sucks because you're then more vulnerable because you're not killing the enemies as efficiently as you could etc. etc. etc.
Oh, and each of your five characters has an Experience Level and a Persona Level. Experience Level dictates your stats and which Personae you can negotiate with, while Persona Level dictates what level Personae you can equip once fused. Why they separated these levels I have no idea, but it's insane because I believe you get less Persona Level experience if you finish battles without using your Persona - so don't just use physical attacks, because that number will fall behind! Or something. I'm not clear how it works, quite frankly.
Since this game came out in 2009, I've played a few more SMT titles that have demon negotiation in them, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It's still pretty random, but because the enemy mobs are so frickin' dangerous in Persona 1, it's way more risky than usual. Your five party members all have different approaches to negotiation, and figuring out which demon likes which approach can be a pain, especially when the closer you are to a full moon, the more likely you are to just piss the demon off and give it a free turn. The upside to negotiation, though, is that when you've successfully convinced a demon to give you their "Spell Card," you can convince the same demon later on to leave the battle if you haven't used the card in fusion yet. This is pretty handy, especially when you come across some asshole demon way in the back row who absorbs all magic attacks and is weak only to physical attacks (which becomes more common the farther you get in the game). Get that guy's card and tell him to piss off every time you come across him going forward.
Another huge problem I have with the battle system is the stupid grid you fight on. You and your enemies are all arranged on two sides of a grid, and depending on where each character or demon is on that grid determines which attacks or spells can reach the other side. So it is possible to be unable to attack without wasting a turn shuffling your people around because for some reason, Maki's bow can't target people right in front of her so you have to move Mark over to hit somebody with an axe, but moving those two costs them both a turn. My most hated thing, though - like I sometimes would reset the game when I came across it while grinding - was when some shithead would be in the back row, reflecting magic attacks and being weak to only physical attacks. I can't reach him until I've wiped all the other demons out at which point the game moves him forward so I can finally reach him. The problem is, the other demons in the front row absorb physical attacks, so I have to spam my multi-target magic attacks to kill them, while the assholes in the back reflect some damage back to me! So freaking annoying. I have no regrets choosing "Beginner," either, at the beginning of the game, because it reduces enemy damage by 20% - nothing else. The story doesn't change or anything, just that. I barely got to the end of the game as it is on Beginner, I can't imagine playing this stupid game on Normal.
All of that said, though, I do quite like the story in Persona. Until you get near the end, it doesn't seem very "Persona-like," at least to me, as someone who played Persona 3 and 4 first. The story seems more like Final Fantasy or something, where some dude figures out a way to summon demons or something and tries to take over the world. The way in which he does it, though, which you don't find out until three quarters of the way through the game, is very definitely a Persona story. Persona 4, specifically, takes several of its main story cues from the first Persona (it's not a repeat, or anything, it just reinforces the very nature of what a Persona even is, something Persona 3 doesn't spend as much time on). Having not seen most of the story of the first Persona until this playthrough, I didn't see why Persona 3 and 4 should even be in the same series as the first game, but it is very clear now they should be.
Luckily, to enjoy Persona 3 and 4, you don't have to play Persona 1. That's the weird thing about the game - I respect it, it lays the narrative structure foundation for future games in the series, and you can certainly see the seeds of where Persona 3 and 4 would go (especially near the end). Playing it is an exercise in frustration, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Persona/SMT fans. Like I said, I'd be very surprised if I ever came back to it, even to play through the Snow Queen alternate quest. I just can't stand actually playing it.
So yeah, I'm calling it beat. I'm not going to throw myself at grinding for another ten plus hours to beat a boss that is just stupid and cheap to begin with. Persona 3's final boss could be cheap, but not unfair like this game. I've heard Persona 2 is better. I'm going to give it a try next, though if it's basically Persona 1 all over again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach it now. I've heard Hitler is in it, though... I want to see that!
I'm putting this game in the beat column, and I'm not putting an asterisk next to it. The final boss is bullshit, I grinded a TON on BEGINNER to get to around level 60, and I'm not going to waste countless hours hoping she doesn't use her stupid ice attack twice in one turn which will kill my whole party guaranteed. She switches between two different forms at random - at any time, even in the middle of your turn - which changes her weaknesses. Which wouldn't be so bad if she DIDN'T ABSORB AND HEAL MY MAGIC ATTACKS (that I cast while she's in one form, because she's weak to magic in that form)! So yeah, hit her with physical attacks, you say? Well, it just so happens that my high level Personae that got me through the game are weak to ice, so I switch to lower level Personae that aren't and I plink her for single digit damage. She supposedly has several thousand hit points. Did I mention she can randomly just wipe your whole party if she happens to cast her ultimate attack twice in one turn? Fuck that, I'm not risking being wiped out after an hour, it'd give me a heart attack. And the first Persona is not worth dying over.
This game is quite possibly the most frustrating RPG I've ever played. I'm sure there are worse ones out there, but this game has parts that have merit - I even enjoyed myself a bit! But when the game sucks, it sucks hard. I've tried to get through the game several times since it came out in 2009, and just couldn't get over its problems. I decided to finally force myself to play through it. After roughly thirty hours... I'm glad I did it, but I doubt I will ever play the thing again.
The game is just flawed on a fundamental level. The thing that bugged me right away when I first played it five years ago still sucks - your characters gain experience proportionate to their participation in battle. This is a terrible, terrible idea. If you happen to wipe out the enemies before, say, your slowest character goes, they don't get any experience (or hardly any so as to not matter at all). So you have to spend time paying close attention to who is at what level and basically have some characters skip turns so the low level ones can get a chance to level up. You have to fight poorly, basically, to level up, which sucks because you're then more vulnerable because you're not killing the enemies as efficiently as you could etc. etc. etc.
Oh, and each of your five characters has an Experience Level and a Persona Level. Experience Level dictates your stats and which Personae you can negotiate with, while Persona Level dictates what level Personae you can equip once fused. Why they separated these levels I have no idea, but it's insane because I believe you get less Persona Level experience if you finish battles without using your Persona - so don't just use physical attacks, because that number will fall behind! Or something. I'm not clear how it works, quite frankly.
Since this game came out in 2009, I've played a few more SMT titles that have demon negotiation in them, and I go back and forth on whether I like it or not. It's still pretty random, but because the enemy mobs are so frickin' dangerous in Persona 1, it's way more risky than usual. Your five party members all have different approaches to negotiation, and figuring out which demon likes which approach can be a pain, especially when the closer you are to a full moon, the more likely you are to just piss the demon off and give it a free turn. The upside to negotiation, though, is that when you've successfully convinced a demon to give you their "Spell Card," you can convince the same demon later on to leave the battle if you haven't used the card in fusion yet. This is pretty handy, especially when you come across some asshole demon way in the back row who absorbs all magic attacks and is weak only to physical attacks (which becomes more common the farther you get in the game). Get that guy's card and tell him to piss off every time you come across him going forward.
Another huge problem I have with the battle system is the stupid grid you fight on. You and your enemies are all arranged on two sides of a grid, and depending on where each character or demon is on that grid determines which attacks or spells can reach the other side. So it is possible to be unable to attack without wasting a turn shuffling your people around because for some reason, Maki's bow can't target people right in front of her so you have to move Mark over to hit somebody with an axe, but moving those two costs them both a turn. My most hated thing, though - like I sometimes would reset the game when I came across it while grinding - was when some shithead would be in the back row, reflecting magic attacks and being weak to only physical attacks. I can't reach him until I've wiped all the other demons out at which point the game moves him forward so I can finally reach him. The problem is, the other demons in the front row absorb physical attacks, so I have to spam my multi-target magic attacks to kill them, while the assholes in the back reflect some damage back to me! So freaking annoying. I have no regrets choosing "Beginner," either, at the beginning of the game, because it reduces enemy damage by 20% - nothing else. The story doesn't change or anything, just that. I barely got to the end of the game as it is on Beginner, I can't imagine playing this stupid game on Normal.
All of that said, though, I do quite like the story in Persona. Until you get near the end, it doesn't seem very "Persona-like," at least to me, as someone who played Persona 3 and 4 first. The story seems more like Final Fantasy or something, where some dude figures out a way to summon demons or something and tries to take over the world. The way in which he does it, though, which you don't find out until three quarters of the way through the game, is very definitely a Persona story. Persona 4, specifically, takes several of its main story cues from the first Persona (it's not a repeat, or anything, it just reinforces the very nature of what a Persona even is, something Persona 3 doesn't spend as much time on). Having not seen most of the story of the first Persona until this playthrough, I didn't see why Persona 3 and 4 should even be in the same series as the first game, but it is very clear now they should be.
Luckily, to enjoy Persona 3 and 4, you don't have to play Persona 1. That's the weird thing about the game - I respect it, it lays the narrative structure foundation for future games in the series, and you can certainly see the seeds of where Persona 3 and 4 would go (especially near the end). Playing it is an exercise in frustration, and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but the hardest of hardcore Persona/SMT fans. Like I said, I'd be very surprised if I ever came back to it, even to play through the Snow Queen alternate quest. I just can't stand actually playing it.
So yeah, I'm calling it beat. I'm not going to throw myself at grinding for another ten plus hours to beat a boss that is just stupid and cheap to begin with. Persona 3's final boss could be cheap, but not unfair like this game. I've heard Persona 2 is better. I'm going to give it a try next, though if it's basically Persona 1 all over again, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach it now. I've heard Hitler is in it, though... I want to see that!
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Persona Q
I just wrapped up my first playthrough of the Persona/Etrian Odyssey hybrid game, Persona Q: Shadows of the Labyrinth. I liked it, overall, though it became more and more of a chore to play the farther I got.
It's obvious right from the get go, considering the nature of the game, that none of the characters involved would remember anything. That's ultimately what happens. But the journey is the point, not the destination, right? Well, the journey could have been better.
It's not that I didn't like playing the game. The battle system is well designed, and I love the Persona switching mechanic for the whole team. It's just so easily broken. Fairly early on, I figured out that nearly all the enemies in the game have a Light or Dark weakness. Since every Light/Dark spell in the Persona series are instakills, this meant I could take the multihit Hama/Mudo skills and wipe out almost any random battle. I mean not every enemy had a light or dark weakness, but enough of them did that, unlike in an Etrian Odyssey game, for example, random battles did not scare me after the first few floors of the game. That's a problem! Sure, you don't have to play the game this way, and for a while I tried going without, but I'm sure doing it that way would add another 40 hours of battling onto an already 50+ hour game (I finished the game in 60 hours). No thanks.
The bosses were fun, though, I have to say. The second boss, especially, was fun to figure out, and was hilarious, to boot (not something I thought I'd ever say about a Persona or Etrian Odyssey boss). I don't know if it was completely intended to be funny, but I read it that way and think it works.
Then there's the Persona fanservice. Some of it I like - seeing all these characters again is great, since I love them all (besides Ken - fuck you, Ken). Seeing them interact with the cast of both P3 and P4 is interesting, because prior to this, you get weirdo Persona Arena which is years later. The less said about the plot in that game, the better, quite frankly, interesting though it was.
But some of the fanservice is gross. There's WAY more innuendo from Teddie this time, which I found amusing at first, but as the game went on it was like "gee, dude, calm down, none of these girls are going to bone you." Quite frankly, it amazed me that he didn't get beat up by Mitsuru or Yukari every time he opened his mouth near the end of the game. It sucks, because I really like Teddie, actually. Maybe if I play through as the Persona 4 team, he gets some more non pervy lines?
I did choose the Persona 3 team, and actually went through the entire game with a P3 only team - P3MC, Akihiko, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis. We've gotten so much more Persona 4 content (which I love, to be clear!) that I wanted to spend more time with these characters, since other than weirdo Persona Arena, Persona 3 is all you get (yes, a few P3 characters are in Arena, but what they're up to is so off the wall and weird that I don't count it). It was nice to hang out with these guys again. Their voices did grate a bit in the last two labyrinths, though - my fiancee would roll her eyes and groan every time Junpei would say "Oh no! We've got an FOE breathing down our asses!" which was pretty much every five steps in those last two dungeons. And Akihiko - whenever I see a treasure box, I want to open it, which is what I've done every time we reach one. Why do you insist on asking me what I want to do with it every time? At least when Aigis points one out, she jokes about destroying it, which is at least amusing.
But yes, sadly, the game just does go on a bit long. The final labyrinth is ten floors high, with the first seven floors being little bit sized ones, but those last couple of floors in the last labyrinth are awful. Moving platforms, pistons that rise and fall between floors, goddamn Death chasing you around, annoying random battle enemies who have instakill and ailment spells (and are resistant to them, too, most of the time!), these stupid spider FOEs that you have to puzzle way around, and what is quite frankly the most elaborate two floor puzzle I have ever encountered in any dungeon crawler make for quite a rough few hours of exploring. I don't experience this in Etrian Odyssey - at least, most of the time - and it was pretty painful here. My favorite dungeons in these styles of games are just labyrinths that you wander around, mapping out, looking for treasure, maybe with the occasional damage tile, pitfall, or conveyor belt. Not the intricate puzzle monstrosities in Persona Q.
The third dungeon is the best example of this. For half the dungeon, there aren't even that many random battles - you're just trying to figure out how to proceed most of the time. The atmosphere of the dungeon is great - it's very creepy. The whole dungeon reminded me of Corpse Party, actually. But because getting through it is so complicated, the third dungeon is where I was when I put the game down for two months. This is the first time I've played a Persona game that I didn't devour as quickly as I possibly could. The dungeon isn't badly designed or anything, and I'm sure someone out there would love it, but it just isn't for me. I'd rather spend more time leveling my characters up and mastering battles, which this game didn't do as well as, say, Etrian Odyssey III, for example. The aforementioned toothless random battles combined with super complex dungeons just didn't scratch the itch I thought it was going to when I bought the game.
If this post seems very down on the game, I'm sorry. I did largely enjoy playing it! The things I didn't like about it just stand out so much more for me than the things I did. The music was fantastic, as always for the Persona series, throughout the game. The Velvet Room has some cool stuff in it, now, such as Extracting Skill Cards from Personae, allowing you to teach your main Personae new moves. You can choose which moves your new Persona gets when you fuse, but they've definitely limited which moves the result can learn. This is probably for the best, I suppose, since in Persona 4 Golden or SMTIV, you could create ridiculous demons that absorbed every element, healed both HP and SP when battle was over, and had a Megidolaon or Pierce or whatever to boot. Still, I had fun fusing demons, as always.
Overall, I don't know when I'll go back to Persona Q. Probably eventually, as I wouldn't mind seeing how the Persona 4 side of the story plays out (though it won't be TOO different from the P3 side, just certain scenes, especially in the first labyrinth before you meet the other team, will have different characters in them). Also, hearing the Persona 3 main character actually speak is going to be weird. It was weird hearing P4MC talk in Persona 4 Arena, and it's still kind of weird here.
Anyway, you could do worse for a shoehorned fanservicey game, but you certainly could do better, too. I'm ready for Persona 5, and I think I'd rather replay P3P or P4G before going back to PQ, sadly. Also, it is an absolute shame that they included Theodore from P3P, but not the female P3 main character. Dammit Atlus!
It's obvious right from the get go, considering the nature of the game, that none of the characters involved would remember anything. That's ultimately what happens. But the journey is the point, not the destination, right? Well, the journey could have been better.
It's not that I didn't like playing the game. The battle system is well designed, and I love the Persona switching mechanic for the whole team. It's just so easily broken. Fairly early on, I figured out that nearly all the enemies in the game have a Light or Dark weakness. Since every Light/Dark spell in the Persona series are instakills, this meant I could take the multihit Hama/Mudo skills and wipe out almost any random battle. I mean not every enemy had a light or dark weakness, but enough of them did that, unlike in an Etrian Odyssey game, for example, random battles did not scare me after the first few floors of the game. That's a problem! Sure, you don't have to play the game this way, and for a while I tried going without, but I'm sure doing it that way would add another 40 hours of battling onto an already 50+ hour game (I finished the game in 60 hours). No thanks.
The bosses were fun, though, I have to say. The second boss, especially, was fun to figure out, and was hilarious, to boot (not something I thought I'd ever say about a Persona or Etrian Odyssey boss). I don't know if it was completely intended to be funny, but I read it that way and think it works.
Then there's the Persona fanservice. Some of it I like - seeing all these characters again is great, since I love them all (besides Ken - fuck you, Ken). Seeing them interact with the cast of both P3 and P4 is interesting, because prior to this, you get weirdo Persona Arena which is years later. The less said about the plot in that game, the better, quite frankly, interesting though it was.
But some of the fanservice is gross. There's WAY more innuendo from Teddie this time, which I found amusing at first, but as the game went on it was like "gee, dude, calm down, none of these girls are going to bone you." Quite frankly, it amazed me that he didn't get beat up by Mitsuru or Yukari every time he opened his mouth near the end of the game. It sucks, because I really like Teddie, actually. Maybe if I play through as the Persona 4 team, he gets some more non pervy lines?
I did choose the Persona 3 team, and actually went through the entire game with a P3 only team - P3MC, Akihiko, Junpei, Yukari, and Aigis. We've gotten so much more Persona 4 content (which I love, to be clear!) that I wanted to spend more time with these characters, since other than weirdo Persona Arena, Persona 3 is all you get (yes, a few P3 characters are in Arena, but what they're up to is so off the wall and weird that I don't count it). It was nice to hang out with these guys again. Their voices did grate a bit in the last two labyrinths, though - my fiancee would roll her eyes and groan every time Junpei would say "Oh no! We've got an FOE breathing down our asses!" which was pretty much every five steps in those last two dungeons. And Akihiko - whenever I see a treasure box, I want to open it, which is what I've done every time we reach one. Why do you insist on asking me what I want to do with it every time? At least when Aigis points one out, she jokes about destroying it, which is at least amusing.
But yes, sadly, the game just does go on a bit long. The final labyrinth is ten floors high, with the first seven floors being little bit sized ones, but those last couple of floors in the last labyrinth are awful. Moving platforms, pistons that rise and fall between floors, goddamn Death chasing you around, annoying random battle enemies who have instakill and ailment spells (and are resistant to them, too, most of the time!), these stupid spider FOEs that you have to puzzle way around, and what is quite frankly the most elaborate two floor puzzle I have ever encountered in any dungeon crawler make for quite a rough few hours of exploring. I don't experience this in Etrian Odyssey - at least, most of the time - and it was pretty painful here. My favorite dungeons in these styles of games are just labyrinths that you wander around, mapping out, looking for treasure, maybe with the occasional damage tile, pitfall, or conveyor belt. Not the intricate puzzle monstrosities in Persona Q.
The third dungeon is the best example of this. For half the dungeon, there aren't even that many random battles - you're just trying to figure out how to proceed most of the time. The atmosphere of the dungeon is great - it's very creepy. The whole dungeon reminded me of Corpse Party, actually. But because getting through it is so complicated, the third dungeon is where I was when I put the game down for two months. This is the first time I've played a Persona game that I didn't devour as quickly as I possibly could. The dungeon isn't badly designed or anything, and I'm sure someone out there would love it, but it just isn't for me. I'd rather spend more time leveling my characters up and mastering battles, which this game didn't do as well as, say, Etrian Odyssey III, for example. The aforementioned toothless random battles combined with super complex dungeons just didn't scratch the itch I thought it was going to when I bought the game.
If this post seems very down on the game, I'm sorry. I did largely enjoy playing it! The things I didn't like about it just stand out so much more for me than the things I did. The music was fantastic, as always for the Persona series, throughout the game. The Velvet Room has some cool stuff in it, now, such as Extracting Skill Cards from Personae, allowing you to teach your main Personae new moves. You can choose which moves your new Persona gets when you fuse, but they've definitely limited which moves the result can learn. This is probably for the best, I suppose, since in Persona 4 Golden or SMTIV, you could create ridiculous demons that absorbed every element, healed both HP and SP when battle was over, and had a Megidolaon or Pierce or whatever to boot. Still, I had fun fusing demons, as always.
Overall, I don't know when I'll go back to Persona Q. Probably eventually, as I wouldn't mind seeing how the Persona 4 side of the story plays out (though it won't be TOO different from the P3 side, just certain scenes, especially in the first labyrinth before you meet the other team, will have different characters in them). Also, hearing the Persona 3 main character actually speak is going to be weird. It was weird hearing P4MC talk in Persona 4 Arena, and it's still kind of weird here.
Anyway, you could do worse for a shoehorned fanservicey game, but you certainly could do better, too. I'm ready for Persona 5, and I think I'd rather replay P3P or P4G before going back to PQ, sadly. Also, it is an absolute shame that they included Theodore from P3P, but not the female P3 main character. Dammit Atlus!
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Majora's Mask 3D
So because I'm a giant nerd, I just beat Majora's Mask 3D two days after came out, with all masks and heart pieces (haven't caught all the fish, yet, and doubt I ever will. I may be missing a seventh bottle, as well, if the rumor I heard is true and such a thing exists). I have to get my initial impressions of the full game out now while they're still fresh.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite video game of all time. I think it is as close to perfect as a game can get as of this writing. If something better exists, I haven't played it yet. So when they announced the 3DS remake of the N64 game, I was thrilled. Finally, I can play MM portably! With better graphics! With, according to the announcement, "added content," whatever that means! Hooray!
Overall, I had a good time with the remake. I will certainly play it again, and parts of it are better than the original. However, they changed some things I didn't think needed changing. I'll get to those, because I'd like to praise the remake first.
The graphics have been updated and the game is gorgeous. They've added atmosphere to nearly every area in the game, primarily with extensive wall decorations, adding flavor to to whatever locale you find yourself in. My favorite example, which shows how far they went with this, is in the room you get the Mask of Scents. It's a room you'll only be in once in a playthrough - you have to follow the Deku Butler through this weird mini race reminiscent of the Dampe race from Ocarina of Time. You get to the very end, the Butler gives you the mask, and you warp out, never to return (there's no reason). You're there for all of, oh, twenty seconds. But as soon as I arrived I saw four giant Deku statues against the side walls. They took the time to render them in 3D, as well, so these statues that you see for all of twenty seconds have been lovingly crafted to do nothing but add flavor to a room that you're barely even in. That is how you upgrade an already impressively atmospheric game. I have nothing but praise for the visual upgrade they gave the game - from top to bottom, it is fantastic, including the 3D (which is no surprise, considering the Ocarina 3DS port was great in that department, as well).
Now for the world changes. They've actually changed the game up quite a bit, at least to someone like me who knows the game very well. Someone else on the internet no doubt already has an exhaustive list so I won't do that here. Notable things, though: the Owl Statues no longer create temporary saves, they're permanent. There are also save points in important places such as first rooms of dungeons - these don't act as warp points, too, but simply save points. I certainly used these, but mostly because I've beaten the original game countless times and feel like I'm not missing anything doing so. I do feel as though they make the game a bit more friendly to new players, which is all well and good, but considering how high I hold Majora's Mask as an experience, I'm a bit sad for them. Though it'll likely help people finish the game, now, so I suppose it's a net positive overall.
The Bomber's Notebook is really nice, now. It keeps track of basically every little thing you can do, and marks it as complete when you're finished, even if it's something like "complete a task, get some rupees." Though I feel similarly about this as I do the Owl Statues for new players, it too is a positive thing because it really encourages seeing everything the game has to offer. The Bombers themselves giving you hints - strictly optional, mind! - is very nice as well, especially for Majora's Mask veterans who sometimes can't keep what sidequests they've already completed straight. It also allowed me to get all the heart pieces fairly easily as well. This is one of those changes I liked a lot.
However, we have the bosses. According to the Iwata Asks interview, Eiji Aonuma wanted to change the bosses because he felt they were a bit too straightforward. This makes me sad, because now, two boss battles I liked have been changed for the worse. Poor Gyrog got it badly - though he certainly was the worst boss in the original version of the game, now they've gone and made his battle intolerable. Halfway through the battle, the platform sinks into the water and you're left fighting the fish as Zora Link. Spike bombs on chains sort of sprout from the ground, and the objective is to cut the chains right when Gyorg begins sucking you in. This causes him to eat the bombs, which exposes his weak spot for you to go slap around. This puts Gyorg in a category of boss battles that I hate in any genre of video game - the "wait around a likely intolerable amount of time for the boss to expose his weak spot, hit, repeat." Rather than be able to beat a boss quickly if you're really skilled, you're actually just sitting around waiting for the boss to deign to let you hit him. This is bad enough, but what they did to the Zora controls compounds the problem.
My biggest disappointment with the remake all have to do with Zora Link. One of my favorite things to do in the original Majora's Mask is zip around the Great Bay, leaping out of the water like a dolphin while going to whatever my destination is. It was a blast! While you can still do this, you better make sure you have magic power, because now to be able to go fast you have to hold R, which also activates the Zora shield thing. This sucks. You don't zip through the water unless holding R, you creep along almost at walking speed. Even when you're going fast, you have this annoying blue light effect surrounding you, which colors the surroundings a bit and obscures a little of what you can see. I discussed this a bit with someone on Talking Time, and they made the point that Zora Link moved too fast in the N64 version. While I disagree, if they wanted to slow him down or make him a bit more accessible, how about letting the player choose the speed without the magic penalty? How about giving the player both a slow and a fast option? The original game played just fine with the "fast only" option. They also fiddled with the "Dive" and "Float" buttons, making them a bit harder to activate, presumably to prevent accidental rising or falling. All they really did was make it harder to pull those off in high pressure situations - for example, the Gyorg fight.
But anyway - the other bosses were changed, as well, though not quite for the worse as Gyorg. Twinmold, the Stone Tower boss, turns into a sort of wrestling thing, since the Giant's Mask (which you get halfway through the battle, instead of before!) takes away Link's ability to use his sword, so now he just throws punches. Once you've punched the worm enough, you can grab his tail, which causes Link to swing him around and slam him, which eventually kills him. It's not bad nor does it play very poorly, it's just... kind of dumb. Thankfully, Odolwa and Goht haven't been changed too extensively, and are still fun to fight. Considering Goht is my favorite boss battle in the Zelda series, I'm very glad for that fact.
There were a few changes that I like a lot, actually. One is the reward for getting all the fairies in the first dungeon. Rather than getting the sword technique upgrade (which you now get from the second dungeon Fairy), you get the magic upgrade. This is very handy since Goron Link uses magic so much as he rolls around. The second is the placement of the Stone Mask. Rather than being in the area right before the Ikana Canyon, he's now hiding out right in the middle of the Pirate Fortress. Handy, because that's where it is most useful. I like the way they implemented it, too - Tatl suddenly asks you "Did you just call for me?" completely randomly. I, being stupid, thought "that's weird," and kept on, missing the mask the first time around. It wasn't until a Bomber suggested the soldier was in the Pirate Fortress that I went back and found it. Either way, though - excellent change.
I have mixed feelings about Majora's Mask 3D. I was hoping for a sort of definitive edition of the game, and I didn't get it, mostly due to the changes to the boss battles and Zora Link. I had a lot of fun playing it - I did 100% the thing in two and a half days, for gosh sakes - but I don't think this version has completely negated the N64 version like Ocarina of Time 3D did for its original game.
I did get a kickass Skull Kid statue out of the whole thing, though, which is really nice. I'm also quite fond of my 3DS home screen Majora's Mask theme, too, though that was an extra $2. Overall, I'll play the 3DS version again, no doubt, but I have to say I am a little disappointed.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is my favorite video game of all time. I think it is as close to perfect as a game can get as of this writing. If something better exists, I haven't played it yet. So when they announced the 3DS remake of the N64 game, I was thrilled. Finally, I can play MM portably! With better graphics! With, according to the announcement, "added content," whatever that means! Hooray!
Overall, I had a good time with the remake. I will certainly play it again, and parts of it are better than the original. However, they changed some things I didn't think needed changing. I'll get to those, because I'd like to praise the remake first.
The graphics have been updated and the game is gorgeous. They've added atmosphere to nearly every area in the game, primarily with extensive wall decorations, adding flavor to to whatever locale you find yourself in. My favorite example, which shows how far they went with this, is in the room you get the Mask of Scents. It's a room you'll only be in once in a playthrough - you have to follow the Deku Butler through this weird mini race reminiscent of the Dampe race from Ocarina of Time. You get to the very end, the Butler gives you the mask, and you warp out, never to return (there's no reason). You're there for all of, oh, twenty seconds. But as soon as I arrived I saw four giant Deku statues against the side walls. They took the time to render them in 3D, as well, so these statues that you see for all of twenty seconds have been lovingly crafted to do nothing but add flavor to a room that you're barely even in. That is how you upgrade an already impressively atmospheric game. I have nothing but praise for the visual upgrade they gave the game - from top to bottom, it is fantastic, including the 3D (which is no surprise, considering the Ocarina 3DS port was great in that department, as well).
Now for the world changes. They've actually changed the game up quite a bit, at least to someone like me who knows the game very well. Someone else on the internet no doubt already has an exhaustive list so I won't do that here. Notable things, though: the Owl Statues no longer create temporary saves, they're permanent. There are also save points in important places such as first rooms of dungeons - these don't act as warp points, too, but simply save points. I certainly used these, but mostly because I've beaten the original game countless times and feel like I'm not missing anything doing so. I do feel as though they make the game a bit more friendly to new players, which is all well and good, but considering how high I hold Majora's Mask as an experience, I'm a bit sad for them. Though it'll likely help people finish the game, now, so I suppose it's a net positive overall.
The Bomber's Notebook is really nice, now. It keeps track of basically every little thing you can do, and marks it as complete when you're finished, even if it's something like "complete a task, get some rupees." Though I feel similarly about this as I do the Owl Statues for new players, it too is a positive thing because it really encourages seeing everything the game has to offer. The Bombers themselves giving you hints - strictly optional, mind! - is very nice as well, especially for Majora's Mask veterans who sometimes can't keep what sidequests they've already completed straight. It also allowed me to get all the heart pieces fairly easily as well. This is one of those changes I liked a lot.
However, we have the bosses. According to the Iwata Asks interview, Eiji Aonuma wanted to change the bosses because he felt they were a bit too straightforward. This makes me sad, because now, two boss battles I liked have been changed for the worse. Poor Gyrog got it badly - though he certainly was the worst boss in the original version of the game, now they've gone and made his battle intolerable. Halfway through the battle, the platform sinks into the water and you're left fighting the fish as Zora Link. Spike bombs on chains sort of sprout from the ground, and the objective is to cut the chains right when Gyorg begins sucking you in. This causes him to eat the bombs, which exposes his weak spot for you to go slap around. This puts Gyorg in a category of boss battles that I hate in any genre of video game - the "wait around a likely intolerable amount of time for the boss to expose his weak spot, hit, repeat." Rather than be able to beat a boss quickly if you're really skilled, you're actually just sitting around waiting for the boss to deign to let you hit him. This is bad enough, but what they did to the Zora controls compounds the problem.
My biggest disappointment with the remake all have to do with Zora Link. One of my favorite things to do in the original Majora's Mask is zip around the Great Bay, leaping out of the water like a dolphin while going to whatever my destination is. It was a blast! While you can still do this, you better make sure you have magic power, because now to be able to go fast you have to hold R, which also activates the Zora shield thing. This sucks. You don't zip through the water unless holding R, you creep along almost at walking speed. Even when you're going fast, you have this annoying blue light effect surrounding you, which colors the surroundings a bit and obscures a little of what you can see. I discussed this a bit with someone on Talking Time, and they made the point that Zora Link moved too fast in the N64 version. While I disagree, if they wanted to slow him down or make him a bit more accessible, how about letting the player choose the speed without the magic penalty? How about giving the player both a slow and a fast option? The original game played just fine with the "fast only" option. They also fiddled with the "Dive" and "Float" buttons, making them a bit harder to activate, presumably to prevent accidental rising or falling. All they really did was make it harder to pull those off in high pressure situations - for example, the Gyorg fight.
But anyway - the other bosses were changed, as well, though not quite for the worse as Gyorg. Twinmold, the Stone Tower boss, turns into a sort of wrestling thing, since the Giant's Mask (which you get halfway through the battle, instead of before!) takes away Link's ability to use his sword, so now he just throws punches. Once you've punched the worm enough, you can grab his tail, which causes Link to swing him around and slam him, which eventually kills him. It's not bad nor does it play very poorly, it's just... kind of dumb. Thankfully, Odolwa and Goht haven't been changed too extensively, and are still fun to fight. Considering Goht is my favorite boss battle in the Zelda series, I'm very glad for that fact.
There were a few changes that I like a lot, actually. One is the reward for getting all the fairies in the first dungeon. Rather than getting the sword technique upgrade (which you now get from the second dungeon Fairy), you get the magic upgrade. This is very handy since Goron Link uses magic so much as he rolls around. The second is the placement of the Stone Mask. Rather than being in the area right before the Ikana Canyon, he's now hiding out right in the middle of the Pirate Fortress. Handy, because that's where it is most useful. I like the way they implemented it, too - Tatl suddenly asks you "Did you just call for me?" completely randomly. I, being stupid, thought "that's weird," and kept on, missing the mask the first time around. It wasn't until a Bomber suggested the soldier was in the Pirate Fortress that I went back and found it. Either way, though - excellent change.
I have mixed feelings about Majora's Mask 3D. I was hoping for a sort of definitive edition of the game, and I didn't get it, mostly due to the changes to the boss battles and Zora Link. I had a lot of fun playing it - I did 100% the thing in two and a half days, for gosh sakes - but I don't think this version has completely negated the N64 version like Ocarina of Time 3D did for its original game.
I did get a kickass Skull Kid statue out of the whole thing, though, which is really nice. I'm also quite fond of my 3DS home screen Majora's Mask theme, too, though that was an extra $2. Overall, I'll play the 3DS version again, no doubt, but I have to say I am a little disappointed.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
So Now I Kinda Like Vice City
I feel old.
I am playing through GTA: Vice City due to a PSN sale these past few days, and I have feelings of nostalgia which strikes me as ridiculous because I remember - quite clearly - when this game came out. I had already begun driving lessons! That was thirteen damn years ago now and it weirds me out.
It's funny, though. Not having played V yet, I truly think GTA was at it's best on the PS2. The games hit the right balance of story and action, but didn't bog you down with too much realism or whatever that IV suffered from. Vice City's problem, though, which got WAY worse in IV, is that you have a cellphone, and people call you and talk to you pointlessly, when they should just tell you whatever they were calling you about when you go start a mission. Though I suppose not being pestered to go play fucking pool with your fucking cousin all the damn time is way worse.
Anyway, I am having fun playing Vice City, which is new because I kind of strongly disliked it when it came out. For whatever reason, I was very anti-80s at the time, and the game is positively dripping with 80s flavor. I've since come around on most of the music of the era, so now I quite like the soundtrack. The splashes of pink and pastel 80s colors don't bother me as much, especially since most action games nowadays or just greys and browns for the most part (hello GTA frickin IV, for example).
The story is kind of goofy, because Vice City really feels like I am playing a video game. What I mean by this is rather than a seamless progression of a narrative like we would later get in San Andreas, you get a bunch of disjointed missions given to you by just random people who don't seem to have much bearing on the overall story besides "is a crime-y type of person." The characters leap to conclusions between missions that don't make much sense. For example, when I found out the guy who owns the giant mansion that I was doing missions for organized the bum drug deal at the beginning of the game, I didn't really have any clue as to why it was him. Like Tommy Vercetti, the player character, was told this guy did it, with not really any proof, and so he bought it, killed the guy, took his house, and has now begun taking over Vice City. The only way I can reconcile this is if I skipped a mission somewhere that gives you a bit of background as to what is going on. Basically, I don't like the story of Vice City much at all - 3 didn't make a ton of sense either but at least it felt logical working for one guy and then the next. San Andreas, which has its problems (that game has TOO many missions, a lot of which are completely out of character for CJ, for example), presents its central narrative a lot better (IMO, the best of any GTA game, sans V, which again I haven't played yet). San Andreas also has the best gameplay, but that's a different post.
You can see Vice City as a successful improvement on the gameplay of 3, though. They added motorcycles and boats and helicopters, all of which are pretty fun to drive around and the helicopters, specifically, make getting around the world very fun. There's nothing like landing the helicopter in the middle of a busy intersection, doing whatever you came to do, then hopping in and flying off.
The helicopter really shows how small Vice City is, though. Like it feels tiny. Even driving from one end of the game map to the other doesn't take very long. I can't remember if it's any bigger than the city in 3, but it doesn't feel like it. I need to revisit San Andreas again soon because that game felt absolutely enormous despite having so much empty space out in the countryside. Vice City, by comparison, is made up of two pretty small islands and some water (25% of which is taken up by the airport, believe it or not. The place is HUGE!).
Not having played the Saints Row series, either, I have to say I think GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas hit the style of GTA game I want just right. From what I've heard of Saints Row, they take the goofy, jokey stuff too far and has a completely ridiculous story instead of just a kind of ridiculous story. Then you have GTAIV which tried to be a fucking New York in 2006 simulator with its cell phones and "realistic" gray ass graphics and weather and awful car controls and all the fun sucked right out of it. I know I'm too hard on IV but I just cannot get into the thing. It feels like a giant chore as soon as I start playing it, which the PS2 trilogy never felt like.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a GTA snob, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
I am playing through GTA: Vice City due to a PSN sale these past few days, and I have feelings of nostalgia which strikes me as ridiculous because I remember - quite clearly - when this game came out. I had already begun driving lessons! That was thirteen damn years ago now and it weirds me out.
It's funny, though. Not having played V yet, I truly think GTA was at it's best on the PS2. The games hit the right balance of story and action, but didn't bog you down with too much realism or whatever that IV suffered from. Vice City's problem, though, which got WAY worse in IV, is that you have a cellphone, and people call you and talk to you pointlessly, when they should just tell you whatever they were calling you about when you go start a mission. Though I suppose not being pestered to go play fucking pool with your fucking cousin all the damn time is way worse.
Anyway, I am having fun playing Vice City, which is new because I kind of strongly disliked it when it came out. For whatever reason, I was very anti-80s at the time, and the game is positively dripping with 80s flavor. I've since come around on most of the music of the era, so now I quite like the soundtrack. The splashes of pink and pastel 80s colors don't bother me as much, especially since most action games nowadays or just greys and browns for the most part (hello GTA frickin IV, for example).
The story is kind of goofy, because Vice City really feels like I am playing a video game. What I mean by this is rather than a seamless progression of a narrative like we would later get in San Andreas, you get a bunch of disjointed missions given to you by just random people who don't seem to have much bearing on the overall story besides "is a crime-y type of person." The characters leap to conclusions between missions that don't make much sense. For example, when I found out the guy who owns the giant mansion that I was doing missions for organized the bum drug deal at the beginning of the game, I didn't really have any clue as to why it was him. Like Tommy Vercetti, the player character, was told this guy did it, with not really any proof, and so he bought it, killed the guy, took his house, and has now begun taking over Vice City. The only way I can reconcile this is if I skipped a mission somewhere that gives you a bit of background as to what is going on. Basically, I don't like the story of Vice City much at all - 3 didn't make a ton of sense either but at least it felt logical working for one guy and then the next. San Andreas, which has its problems (that game has TOO many missions, a lot of which are completely out of character for CJ, for example), presents its central narrative a lot better (IMO, the best of any GTA game, sans V, which again I haven't played yet). San Andreas also has the best gameplay, but that's a different post.
You can see Vice City as a successful improvement on the gameplay of 3, though. They added motorcycles and boats and helicopters, all of which are pretty fun to drive around and the helicopters, specifically, make getting around the world very fun. There's nothing like landing the helicopter in the middle of a busy intersection, doing whatever you came to do, then hopping in and flying off.
The helicopter really shows how small Vice City is, though. Like it feels tiny. Even driving from one end of the game map to the other doesn't take very long. I can't remember if it's any bigger than the city in 3, but it doesn't feel like it. I need to revisit San Andreas again soon because that game felt absolutely enormous despite having so much empty space out in the countryside. Vice City, by comparison, is made up of two pretty small islands and some water (25% of which is taken up by the airport, believe it or not. The place is HUGE!).
Not having played the Saints Row series, either, I have to say I think GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas hit the style of GTA game I want just right. From what I've heard of Saints Row, they take the goofy, jokey stuff too far and has a completely ridiculous story instead of just a kind of ridiculous story. Then you have GTAIV which tried to be a fucking New York in 2006 simulator with its cell phones and "realistic" gray ass graphics and weather and awful car controls and all the fun sucked right out of it. I know I'm too hard on IV but I just cannot get into the thing. It feels like a giant chore as soon as I start playing it, which the PS2 trilogy never felt like.
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a GTA snob, but I'm pretty sure I am one.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon
Finally, I have beaten the first Shining Force!
I picked up the GBA remake again after having sold it years ago. I'm not sure what stopped me from playing it through back then; I had beaten Shining Force 2 several times and this time, I really enjoyed playing through the vast majority of the game. I'm going to break the game down as best I can.
First, this game probably has some of the most interesting maps in the series. The standouts are peppered through the game: the Laser Eye battle, Colossus, the battle against Chaos, and some others. The Colossus and Laser Eye are probably my two favorite fights in the game. For the Laser Eye fight, the enemy army has set up a Laser Eye on the far end of a narrow bridge the Shining Force must cross. The problem is, the Laser Eye can fire a laser every six turns that damages everything in front of it. It's range covers pretty much the entire lengthy bridge, so the player must plan carefully if he is to cross while not taking too much damage from the Laser Eye and avoiding other enemy attacks. It's a challenging battle made better by the turn limit the game sets that gives you a reward if you beat it in a certain number of turns.
I think adding in the turn limit was a great idea for this reason. The rewards don't break the game as far as I know, but they help a little bit and usually the weapon you get helps quite a bit in the next battle or two. They are totally optional and for those maps that just give you gold coins, you can safely skip them without worrying about missing anything important (gold coins are a pretty terrible reward anyway, since you get coins every time you defeat an enemy. Egressing back to town means you can just grind for coins if you absolutely need them).
As for the Colossus battle, I had a really good time because of how my choices affected the enemies. There is a very narrow bridge right at the beginning of the battle, and the whole battle has mostly flying enemies. Given the past few battles, I thought I could figure out where the flying enemies would go and sent most of my guys quickly across the bridge, leaving my hero Max, a healer, and a gladiator behind to deal with who I thought would be scragglers.
I was wrong.
The flying enemies all flew down the sides of the map and came after Max. The problem was, most of my units were engaged with enemies north of the bridge, and bringning them all back to Max would have dragged all the enemies they were fighting with them. So I sent one or two units down to Max to help out, and did my best to clean up the enemies to the north. Max came close to dying twice - a few lucky turn placements for my healer and and an inexplicable choice from an enemy Blue Dragon to attack my gladiator as opposed to Max helped. I ended up ekeing out a victory while only losing Tao, one of my mages.
Here's my problem with Shining Force, though: the game is very strangely balanced. The early game is pretty difficult, in that most characters can be killed fairly easily. Once your characters start getting close to level 10 and beyond, by that point in the game it would be tough for the player to lose a battle due to how much damage their units can take. Due to some advice I received on Talking Time, I decided to level up my characters to 15-18 and then promote, rather than promote at level 10 when the option first became available. I'm not upset with my decision, given how challenging the last few fights are, but I wish I could have promoted at 10 and still had the exact same difficulty at the end. As it was, once I leveled my characters to level 12 after promotion, the game was an absolute cakewalk. I barely used any strategy or gave much thought to unit placement until the final 3 battles, and even then, I didn't use a ton. Tao dying in the Colossus battle was the only character death I had from Balbazak (where I grinded out those levels) until the end! I've been told that the game is a little more challenging if you don't grind for most of the latter half of the game, and then quite difficult in the final few fights. I'm not sure which version I'd prefer to play. Frankly, I'd like a version that remains somewhat challenging throughout.
...Which is why I think I like Shining Force II better. The game doesn't have as many memorible fights in terms of map design, but it has a much smoother difficulty curve. The maps aren't as claustrophobic as in the first game which is to their detriment (Shining Force II has a lot of outdoor world map fights which are pretty boring, as are the few that are in the first Shining Force), but unit placement matters throughout the whole game because the enemies don't start doing 1 HP damage for most of the latter half of the game. The original Shining Force tries to counter the weirdly balanced DEF stat by having a bunch of enemies that either cast spells or who breathe ice or fire at the player in order to cause magic damage. That helps give the game a bit of challenge, somewhat, but giving the computer AI the option to either damage player units either this way or with a regular physical attack is dumb. A lot of times, the enemy would hit one of my units with a physical attack for 1 HP damage, when they could have done 15-30. Odd!
No need to go into the story, other than to say that I enjoy that there is time travel, robots, surprise family members, and a sacrifice or two along the way. More crazy stuff than in Shining Force II, though I consider that game to have a more well-handled story, if it is a little more cookie cutter.
Of course, it's a shame Sega no longer makes proper Shining Force games. One day I will beat Shining Force CD and III as well, though those games aren't going to be as enjoyable to get through as the first two, from what I've played.
I picked up the GBA remake again after having sold it years ago. I'm not sure what stopped me from playing it through back then; I had beaten Shining Force 2 several times and this time, I really enjoyed playing through the vast majority of the game. I'm going to break the game down as best I can.
First, this game probably has some of the most interesting maps in the series. The standouts are peppered through the game: the Laser Eye battle, Colossus, the battle against Chaos, and some others. The Colossus and Laser Eye are probably my two favorite fights in the game. For the Laser Eye fight, the enemy army has set up a Laser Eye on the far end of a narrow bridge the Shining Force must cross. The problem is, the Laser Eye can fire a laser every six turns that damages everything in front of it. It's range covers pretty much the entire lengthy bridge, so the player must plan carefully if he is to cross while not taking too much damage from the Laser Eye and avoiding other enemy attacks. It's a challenging battle made better by the turn limit the game sets that gives you a reward if you beat it in a certain number of turns.
I think adding in the turn limit was a great idea for this reason. The rewards don't break the game as far as I know, but they help a little bit and usually the weapon you get helps quite a bit in the next battle or two. They are totally optional and for those maps that just give you gold coins, you can safely skip them without worrying about missing anything important (gold coins are a pretty terrible reward anyway, since you get coins every time you defeat an enemy. Egressing back to town means you can just grind for coins if you absolutely need them).
As for the Colossus battle, I had a really good time because of how my choices affected the enemies. There is a very narrow bridge right at the beginning of the battle, and the whole battle has mostly flying enemies. Given the past few battles, I thought I could figure out where the flying enemies would go and sent most of my guys quickly across the bridge, leaving my hero Max, a healer, and a gladiator behind to deal with who I thought would be scragglers.
I was wrong.
The flying enemies all flew down the sides of the map and came after Max. The problem was, most of my units were engaged with enemies north of the bridge, and bringning them all back to Max would have dragged all the enemies they were fighting with them. So I sent one or two units down to Max to help out, and did my best to clean up the enemies to the north. Max came close to dying twice - a few lucky turn placements for my healer and and an inexplicable choice from an enemy Blue Dragon to attack my gladiator as opposed to Max helped. I ended up ekeing out a victory while only losing Tao, one of my mages.
Here's my problem with Shining Force, though: the game is very strangely balanced. The early game is pretty difficult, in that most characters can be killed fairly easily. Once your characters start getting close to level 10 and beyond, by that point in the game it would be tough for the player to lose a battle due to how much damage their units can take. Due to some advice I received on Talking Time, I decided to level up my characters to 15-18 and then promote, rather than promote at level 10 when the option first became available. I'm not upset with my decision, given how challenging the last few fights are, but I wish I could have promoted at 10 and still had the exact same difficulty at the end. As it was, once I leveled my characters to level 12 after promotion, the game was an absolute cakewalk. I barely used any strategy or gave much thought to unit placement until the final 3 battles, and even then, I didn't use a ton. Tao dying in the Colossus battle was the only character death I had from Balbazak (where I grinded out those levels) until the end! I've been told that the game is a little more challenging if you don't grind for most of the latter half of the game, and then quite difficult in the final few fights. I'm not sure which version I'd prefer to play. Frankly, I'd like a version that remains somewhat challenging throughout.
...Which is why I think I like Shining Force II better. The game doesn't have as many memorible fights in terms of map design, but it has a much smoother difficulty curve. The maps aren't as claustrophobic as in the first game which is to their detriment (Shining Force II has a lot of outdoor world map fights which are pretty boring, as are the few that are in the first Shining Force), but unit placement matters throughout the whole game because the enemies don't start doing 1 HP damage for most of the latter half of the game. The original Shining Force tries to counter the weirdly balanced DEF stat by having a bunch of enemies that either cast spells or who breathe ice or fire at the player in order to cause magic damage. That helps give the game a bit of challenge, somewhat, but giving the computer AI the option to either damage player units either this way or with a regular physical attack is dumb. A lot of times, the enemy would hit one of my units with a physical attack for 1 HP damage, when they could have done 15-30. Odd!
No need to go into the story, other than to say that I enjoy that there is time travel, robots, surprise family members, and a sacrifice or two along the way. More crazy stuff than in Shining Force II, though I consider that game to have a more well-handled story, if it is a little more cookie cutter.
Of course, it's a shame Sega no longer makes proper Shining Force games. One day I will beat Shining Force CD and III as well, though those games aren't going to be as enjoyable to get through as the first two, from what I've played.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X is in the top tier of the Final Fantasy series, in my opinion. I absolutely adore the battle system, and I even like the story, which is where most people seem to point when talking about the weaknesses of the game.
The story has its problems, sure. What happens to Tidus at the very end could have been foreshadowed better than it was. Also, explicitly saying what is going to happen to you right before it happens sort of hurts the dramatic tension, Tidus! Also Square shouldn't have let the player name Tidus. It would have been better had the characters referred to him by name rather than various pronouns or whatever.
But the overall story, Spira's story, is really good, in my opinion. The thousand year stalemate caused by Yevon is handled quite well, I think.
This playthrough was my third playthrough of the game total. Some things stand out this time, which I don't remember feeling at the time, but seem glaring now. For example, the game is one giant hallway. There is a path, there is an arrow telling you which way to go down the path, and it lasts the whole game. Not a whole lot of deviation, there. The Calm Lands are pretty open, but honestly there is still only one place to go. It would be interesting to play XIII again someday and compare it to this.
I love the graphics, though, especially in HD. The art produced for FFX still holds up, and taking all the bluriness out of it is nice. The characters are designed a little weird (Lulu is jut a pair of tits with a doll, Tidus wears lederhosen, etc.) but still aren't totally jarring just because they CAN be (see: FFXIII). I also don't mind the voice acting, although the laughing scene is still painful. I get what they were going for but the voice actors failed miserably at it.
As for the gameplay, I think this is Square's finest turn based battle system they've ever made. Note that doesn't include active time battle. But, I like how different moves affected your turns, and how you could think about what you wanted to do and how Square put some difficulty behind the battles!
...If you play on the regular sphere grid, that is. If you know the game somewhat well and use the expert grid, you may find yourself gliding through the game with no challenge, as I did this time around. I only died on two battles: Seymour III and Braska's Final Aeon, the last boss in the game. Seymour just required some HP grinding, while BFA requires a whole bunch just to be able to do enough damage before he just smashes you. As always, late game Final Fantasy sucks, because after you climb Mt. Gagazet, go through Zanarkand and beat Yunalesca, you get control of the airship and can enter Sin after you fight him and knock off his wings for some reason. Sin's innards aren't very interesting and make for a poor final dungeon. Also, the crappy minigame you have to play to even GET to the final battle is annoying. The camera rotates around and you can't control it, and it moves SLOWLY. You have to grab 10 items that appear and disappear, while dodging the icicle spears that cause battles when you touch them. Sucks if you get hit with a battle with a fiend that can cast Bad Breath!
The minigames throughout the game are pretty weird, too. You can tell Square was trying to repeat FFVII in that regard - they are many, and they are tough. I managed to beat the Chocobo race this time around, and didn't hate it too much. Dodging lightning bolts proved too annoying for me to keep at, after I dodged over 160 of them, then got hit, meaning I'd have to start over. At least that stuff is optional.
The music is phenomenal from start to finish. I do not understand why people don't like X's tracks but hold up the entirety of VII as excellent when half of VII's were boring one note songs. X's melodies are beautiful and the remixes in the HD version grew on me. The fact that they didn't touch Otherworld is good, though. That song works perfectly as is.
Well, on to X-2, a game I have never given a fair chance. I can play it with headphones now, so if I start to feel embarrased (and given the intro, I will!), I can pop them in and not worry about how awful it can be. Everybody says the battle system is really good, so let's hope so.
The story has its problems, sure. What happens to Tidus at the very end could have been foreshadowed better than it was. Also, explicitly saying what is going to happen to you right before it happens sort of hurts the dramatic tension, Tidus! Also Square shouldn't have let the player name Tidus. It would have been better had the characters referred to him by name rather than various pronouns or whatever.
But the overall story, Spira's story, is really good, in my opinion. The thousand year stalemate caused by Yevon is handled quite well, I think.
This playthrough was my third playthrough of the game total. Some things stand out this time, which I don't remember feeling at the time, but seem glaring now. For example, the game is one giant hallway. There is a path, there is an arrow telling you which way to go down the path, and it lasts the whole game. Not a whole lot of deviation, there. The Calm Lands are pretty open, but honestly there is still only one place to go. It would be interesting to play XIII again someday and compare it to this.
I love the graphics, though, especially in HD. The art produced for FFX still holds up, and taking all the bluriness out of it is nice. The characters are designed a little weird (Lulu is jut a pair of tits with a doll, Tidus wears lederhosen, etc.) but still aren't totally jarring just because they CAN be (see: FFXIII). I also don't mind the voice acting, although the laughing scene is still painful. I get what they were going for but the voice actors failed miserably at it.
As for the gameplay, I think this is Square's finest turn based battle system they've ever made. Note that doesn't include active time battle. But, I like how different moves affected your turns, and how you could think about what you wanted to do and how Square put some difficulty behind the battles!
...If you play on the regular sphere grid, that is. If you know the game somewhat well and use the expert grid, you may find yourself gliding through the game with no challenge, as I did this time around. I only died on two battles: Seymour III and Braska's Final Aeon, the last boss in the game. Seymour just required some HP grinding, while BFA requires a whole bunch just to be able to do enough damage before he just smashes you. As always, late game Final Fantasy sucks, because after you climb Mt. Gagazet, go through Zanarkand and beat Yunalesca, you get control of the airship and can enter Sin after you fight him and knock off his wings for some reason. Sin's innards aren't very interesting and make for a poor final dungeon. Also, the crappy minigame you have to play to even GET to the final battle is annoying. The camera rotates around and you can't control it, and it moves SLOWLY. You have to grab 10 items that appear and disappear, while dodging the icicle spears that cause battles when you touch them. Sucks if you get hit with a battle with a fiend that can cast Bad Breath!
The minigames throughout the game are pretty weird, too. You can tell Square was trying to repeat FFVII in that regard - they are many, and they are tough. I managed to beat the Chocobo race this time around, and didn't hate it too much. Dodging lightning bolts proved too annoying for me to keep at, after I dodged over 160 of them, then got hit, meaning I'd have to start over. At least that stuff is optional.
The music is phenomenal from start to finish. I do not understand why people don't like X's tracks but hold up the entirety of VII as excellent when half of VII's were boring one note songs. X's melodies are beautiful and the remixes in the HD version grew on me. The fact that they didn't touch Otherworld is good, though. That song works perfectly as is.
Well, on to X-2, a game I have never given a fair chance. I can play it with headphones now, so if I start to feel embarrased (and given the intro, I will!), I can pop them in and not worry about how awful it can be. Everybody says the battle system is really good, so let's hope so.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Sonic Generations
It amazes me how attached I am to the Sonic series, considering there hasn't been a game I've absolutely loved since Sonic Adventure 2 Battle on the Gamecube back in 2002 (and that game only partially holds up as great now, mind). But playing through Sonic Generations was, for the most part, a blast.
The premise of the game is that some time monster is erasing time and now classic Sonic and new Sonic have to team up to stop it. That's all you need to know; like any Sonic game, the story is dumb and irrelevant. What it does is set up a reason for two different types of Sonics, alongside their own type of gameplay, to run through heavily remixed levels from the whole series.
Sega did a fantastic job on many aspects of this game. First of all, the music is 100% great from start to finish - not one complaint on any of the remixes. Hell, my least favorite level of the game (the only level I would argue is actually really BAD, but I'll get to that later) has awesome music. If I could, I would buy the soundtrack to this game, and that's only partially because of the remixes present - the stuff I hadn't heard before is great, too.
The level designs themselves are very well done, for the most part, as well. Anyone who has played the games the levels are from will appreciate the lengths Sega went to to both reference the original levels and put a twist on them. I won't spoil it, but 3D Sonic's Chemical Plant Zone level is worth the price I paid for the game alone ($10, admittedly, but I would recommend the game even at $20). It goes both ways, too - Classic Sonic's City Escape is probably my favorite level for him, mostly because of what they do with the truck from Sonic Adventure 2 throughout the whole level. Absolutely brilliant.
But, this IS a Sonic game, meaning it has faults. The bosses are pretty terrible, save the Silver the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic fights. As much as I like the game he's from, the Shadow fight is boring, lengthy, and stupid. And every one of the Robotnik/Eggman fights are slogs, too. The final boss is easy and boring. Now that I've beaten the game, I never have to play those fights again (at least, I don't think I will - if I go for 100%, I'll probably have to get S ranks on those stupid things too).
But, the most egregious level in the game comes from Sonic Colors (not even the Sonic Heroes level was the worst - who'd have thought?!). Planet Wisp has turned me off from playing either version of Sonic Colors because that level is so godawful it makes me cringe. I've never played Sonic Colors, but it seems to me from the level that Sonic collects little things called Wisps that grant him temporary powers he can use to traverse the level, such as a rocket which launches him very high vertically, or a spike ball thing that allows him to attach himself to walls and ceilings. These are the two wisps in the game, and Sega uses them to create puzzles the player must solve to advance in the level. I'm going to break it down by Sonic, here:
Classic Sonic:
The Wisp classic Sonic gets is the spiky ball one, which allows him to attach to certain surfaces and move gears and such. When you press Y, it uses the Wisp, and then Sonic has a limited time to solve whatever puzzle he's doing. First problem - there is no indication how much time Sonic has while using the Wisp. Hope you solve the puzzle before time runs out! Also, the controls in spike mode are very laggy (I'm not sure if that's by design or from poor programming, or both), and considering all the missiles and stupid crap the game throws at you, missing a jump will cost you. This is the only level in the game where Sonic has to solve puzzles like this, and unlike a Mario or Yoshi's Island or something it is not fun. It slows the pace down to slower than even a water level. Yes, I would rather play through Labyrinth Zone any day than play this monstrosity of a level again.
3D Sonic:
The level starts out good, then the back half of it is this awful slog running around using the rocket Wisp. It's not AS slow as Classic Sonic's version, but if you screw up on the last rocket puzzle and take too long, as near as I can tell, it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to beat. You have to die and try again. Long story short, Sonic has to grab the final rocket Wisp, get to the center of the area, and rocket up. My first time playing this section, I wasn't sure where to go, so I wandered around trying to figure that out. There is a ceiling coming down that destroys platforms if it gets to low, but it can be pushed back up using the rocket Wisp. Problem is, the platforms don't come back, making the center of the stage impossible to reach! If there was a way to do it, I couldn't find it, so I let the ceiling crush me and tried again. The game gave me no indication save me running around for boring minutes on end trying to figure out if I could proceed. Awful, just awful.
That aside, I enjoyed most of the game quite a bit. I would say it's definitely the first good Sonic since SA2:B, but I think I want to go back and grab Sonic Unleashed - I've heard mixed things (I don't want to be a stretchy Sonic werewolf, for example), but the level in Sonic Generations from that game is fantastic and the little clip they showed of it in the credits looked pretty good, too. Sonic Colors and Sonic 06 are not games I'll be looking into, though. And maybe I should try to beat Sonic Adventure 1 one of these days... Nah, I don't want to play crappy Dreamcast-era fishing minigames.
Anyway, I think I'm going to poke around doing some of the challenges in Sonic Generations before I shelve it. If I ever get a Wii U, I might look into Sonic Lost World, too - it looked like it would be pretty fun, though I don't know much about it.
Lord help me, I'm a Sonic fan.
The premise of the game is that some time monster is erasing time and now classic Sonic and new Sonic have to team up to stop it. That's all you need to know; like any Sonic game, the story is dumb and irrelevant. What it does is set up a reason for two different types of Sonics, alongside their own type of gameplay, to run through heavily remixed levels from the whole series.
Sega did a fantastic job on many aspects of this game. First of all, the music is 100% great from start to finish - not one complaint on any of the remixes. Hell, my least favorite level of the game (the only level I would argue is actually really BAD, but I'll get to that later) has awesome music. If I could, I would buy the soundtrack to this game, and that's only partially because of the remixes present - the stuff I hadn't heard before is great, too.
The level designs themselves are very well done, for the most part, as well. Anyone who has played the games the levels are from will appreciate the lengths Sega went to to both reference the original levels and put a twist on them. I won't spoil it, but 3D Sonic's Chemical Plant Zone level is worth the price I paid for the game alone ($10, admittedly, but I would recommend the game even at $20). It goes both ways, too - Classic Sonic's City Escape is probably my favorite level for him, mostly because of what they do with the truck from Sonic Adventure 2 throughout the whole level. Absolutely brilliant.
But, this IS a Sonic game, meaning it has faults. The bosses are pretty terrible, save the Silver the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic fights. As much as I like the game he's from, the Shadow fight is boring, lengthy, and stupid. And every one of the Robotnik/Eggman fights are slogs, too. The final boss is easy and boring. Now that I've beaten the game, I never have to play those fights again (at least, I don't think I will - if I go for 100%, I'll probably have to get S ranks on those stupid things too).
But, the most egregious level in the game comes from Sonic Colors (not even the Sonic Heroes level was the worst - who'd have thought?!). Planet Wisp has turned me off from playing either version of Sonic Colors because that level is so godawful it makes me cringe. I've never played Sonic Colors, but it seems to me from the level that Sonic collects little things called Wisps that grant him temporary powers he can use to traverse the level, such as a rocket which launches him very high vertically, or a spike ball thing that allows him to attach himself to walls and ceilings. These are the two wisps in the game, and Sega uses them to create puzzles the player must solve to advance in the level. I'm going to break it down by Sonic, here:
Classic Sonic:
The Wisp classic Sonic gets is the spiky ball one, which allows him to attach to certain surfaces and move gears and such. When you press Y, it uses the Wisp, and then Sonic has a limited time to solve whatever puzzle he's doing. First problem - there is no indication how much time Sonic has while using the Wisp. Hope you solve the puzzle before time runs out! Also, the controls in spike mode are very laggy (I'm not sure if that's by design or from poor programming, or both), and considering all the missiles and stupid crap the game throws at you, missing a jump will cost you. This is the only level in the game where Sonic has to solve puzzles like this, and unlike a Mario or Yoshi's Island or something it is not fun. It slows the pace down to slower than even a water level. Yes, I would rather play through Labyrinth Zone any day than play this monstrosity of a level again.
3D Sonic:
The level starts out good, then the back half of it is this awful slog running around using the rocket Wisp. It's not AS slow as Classic Sonic's version, but if you screw up on the last rocket puzzle and take too long, as near as I can tell, it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to beat. You have to die and try again. Long story short, Sonic has to grab the final rocket Wisp, get to the center of the area, and rocket up. My first time playing this section, I wasn't sure where to go, so I wandered around trying to figure that out. There is a ceiling coming down that destroys platforms if it gets to low, but it can be pushed back up using the rocket Wisp. Problem is, the platforms don't come back, making the center of the stage impossible to reach! If there was a way to do it, I couldn't find it, so I let the ceiling crush me and tried again. The game gave me no indication save me running around for boring minutes on end trying to figure out if I could proceed. Awful, just awful.
That aside, I enjoyed most of the game quite a bit. I would say it's definitely the first good Sonic since SA2:B, but I think I want to go back and grab Sonic Unleashed - I've heard mixed things (I don't want to be a stretchy Sonic werewolf, for example), but the level in Sonic Generations from that game is fantastic and the little clip they showed of it in the credits looked pretty good, too. Sonic Colors and Sonic 06 are not games I'll be looking into, though. And maybe I should try to beat Sonic Adventure 1 one of these days... Nah, I don't want to play crappy Dreamcast-era fishing minigames.
Anyway, I think I'm going to poke around doing some of the challenges in Sonic Generations before I shelve it. If I ever get a Wii U, I might look into Sonic Lost World, too - it looked like it would be pretty fun, though I don't know much about it.
Lord help me, I'm a Sonic fan.
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