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!
Saturday, February 21, 2015
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.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Devil Survivor 2: First Complete Playthrough
I just wrapped up Daichi's ending of Devil Survivor 2. As the credits roll by, I want to reflect on the game, given how much I enjoyed the first one.
First, the differences. The first game has a much better overall story. I won't spoil either game, but suffice it to say DS2 is basically a traditional mainline Megaten story whereas DS1 is its own thing. Not that DS2s story was bad - it's just not as original as the first one. I also thought the enemy was far less interesting than the enemy in the first game.
The Fate system, though, is where I feel like the game sort of falls apart. I was excited for this mechanic when I first heard about the game because it takes one of my favorite aspects of Persona 3 and 4 - social links - and grafts them onto Devil Survivor's structure. I can see what the developers were going for but because the story doesn't make too much sense unless you already know what is happening, it falls apart.
You see, I used a guide for this game, and not for a single battle - not one! I used a guide when I got to the second day because the game does an extremely poor job of hinting which story events will advance your Fate level with a character, and which ones are largely pointless. The Nicaea website, which shows you a clip of someones death before it happens, can be difficult to decipher too, because you have to be in the right place at the right time or else the person you are trying to save will die (which is likely as intended - the characters don't know when/where these events happen either). In practice though, it's just frustrating and stressful. So, I used a FAQ to tell me which options to pick so I didn't lose anybody and so I could focus on my favorite part of the game, battles and demon fusion.
Both are improved over DS1. Gone is the weird magnetite system from DS1 that most players don't use much, and in its place is a system that will occasionally reward the player with items that will allow them to fuse demons differently. For example, when fusing, I can attach the "Fire Set" item to the new demon, which allows it to pick moves of the fire type that I've unlocked. This is great when I have a demon that is otherwise perfect, but weak to fire - slap the fire set on it, pick Null/Repel/Drain Fire, and fuse! There are other types, too, such as items that boost demon stats, remove moves the demon comes with you don't like, remove stat caps from the fusion ingredients, etc. etc. This is by far my favorite addition to the game.
They also added a few new demon powers as well as made some of them "evolve" and get stronger when you level up your demons enough. One of the evolutions allows the demons team to attack up to seven squares away for sacrificing some MP - this got heavy use from me at the end of the game. It made those types of demons actually useful for once, because I can stay out of range, still attack, but not have to worry about getting murdered since the enemy can't reach me!
They did some balancing, too. There are more useful physical moves in this game, as opposed to the Pierce/Deathbound in the first, although that is still extremely viable. Drain got nerfed a bit, but Holy Dance still hits hard. The game also gives you a fairly stable set of characters so you aren't stuck with a set that sucks.
It really is too bad the story is so boring, because given the gameplay enhancements in DS2, I could see it beating out DS1 as one of my absolute favorite games. DS2 is still really good, and I will probably do some New Game + stuff throughout the year, since I enjoyed that mode so much in the first game. I really could spend a decent amount of time picking out why the story feels so half assed, but there'd be plenty of spoilers and I'm sure it has been done elsewhere better than I could. I'd still recommend Devil Survivor: Overclocked over this one.
Here's looking forward to Devil Survivor 3, though. This series is a very close second to Persona 3 and 4 as my favorite sub-series of SMT for sure.
First, the differences. The first game has a much better overall story. I won't spoil either game, but suffice it to say DS2 is basically a traditional mainline Megaten story whereas DS1 is its own thing. Not that DS2s story was bad - it's just not as original as the first one. I also thought the enemy was far less interesting than the enemy in the first game.
The Fate system, though, is where I feel like the game sort of falls apart. I was excited for this mechanic when I first heard about the game because it takes one of my favorite aspects of Persona 3 and 4 - social links - and grafts them onto Devil Survivor's structure. I can see what the developers were going for but because the story doesn't make too much sense unless you already know what is happening, it falls apart.
You see, I used a guide for this game, and not for a single battle - not one! I used a guide when I got to the second day because the game does an extremely poor job of hinting which story events will advance your Fate level with a character, and which ones are largely pointless. The Nicaea website, which shows you a clip of someones death before it happens, can be difficult to decipher too, because you have to be in the right place at the right time or else the person you are trying to save will die (which is likely as intended - the characters don't know when/where these events happen either). In practice though, it's just frustrating and stressful. So, I used a FAQ to tell me which options to pick so I didn't lose anybody and so I could focus on my favorite part of the game, battles and demon fusion.
Both are improved over DS1. Gone is the weird magnetite system from DS1 that most players don't use much, and in its place is a system that will occasionally reward the player with items that will allow them to fuse demons differently. For example, when fusing, I can attach the "Fire Set" item to the new demon, which allows it to pick moves of the fire type that I've unlocked. This is great when I have a demon that is otherwise perfect, but weak to fire - slap the fire set on it, pick Null/Repel/Drain Fire, and fuse! There are other types, too, such as items that boost demon stats, remove moves the demon comes with you don't like, remove stat caps from the fusion ingredients, etc. etc. This is by far my favorite addition to the game.
They also added a few new demon powers as well as made some of them "evolve" and get stronger when you level up your demons enough. One of the evolutions allows the demons team to attack up to seven squares away for sacrificing some MP - this got heavy use from me at the end of the game. It made those types of demons actually useful for once, because I can stay out of range, still attack, but not have to worry about getting murdered since the enemy can't reach me!
They did some balancing, too. There are more useful physical moves in this game, as opposed to the Pierce/Deathbound in the first, although that is still extremely viable. Drain got nerfed a bit, but Holy Dance still hits hard. The game also gives you a fairly stable set of characters so you aren't stuck with a set that sucks.
It really is too bad the story is so boring, because given the gameplay enhancements in DS2, I could see it beating out DS1 as one of my absolute favorite games. DS2 is still really good, and I will probably do some New Game + stuff throughout the year, since I enjoyed that mode so much in the first game. I really could spend a decent amount of time picking out why the story feels so half assed, but there'd be plenty of spoilers and I'm sure it has been done elsewhere better than I could. I'd still recommend Devil Survivor: Overclocked over this one.
Here's looking forward to Devil Survivor 3, though. This series is a very close second to Persona 3 and 4 as my favorite sub-series of SMT for sure.
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Link Between Worlds
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is fantastic from start to finish.
Really, I could end the whole post there if I wanted. The game is just pure fun. It gets you right into the action right away - no boring tutorials, no awful villagers you need to talk to for hours before you get your sword, no learning how to pilot a boat/train/bird, it's just "Hey, here's your sword, go fight and explore."
My favorite thing about the game is how open it is. At anytime, you can go do whatever you want. I thought the item renting thing would be kind of a letdown at first, since you just have all the items for the most part right away, but I actually wasn't bothered by it at all. It allows the designers to just make the dungeons and overworld as they see fit, and not have, say, the hookshot be the key to get to this part of the world, the hammer be the key to this part, etc. The world switching thing is fantastic and is an excellent mechanic (Link being able to flatten himself onto a wall and then walk along it makes for some fun puzzles). Even the sidequests are fun!
I put a solid sixteen hours plus into the game, which includes beating the game and finding everything (and I mean everything). There are bonus treasure chests in every dungeon, and they all contain a power up for Link, which adds to the exploration aspect. There are 100 little things to find scattered throughout the overworld, and every ten you find allows you to upgrade an item of your choice - again, the game acknowledging that every player may like to use certain items to fight. I used the Hookshot quite a bit throughout the game, but many players swear by the Wind Rod thing. It was pretty useful for the very fun battle gauntlet, but that was really the only place I used it much.
The fighting mechanics are spot on, too. Swordplay is just as fun as in LttP, if not better, and the secondary items are fun to use too. I went through the battle gauntlet three times - three times! - in a row, with pleasure, to unlock everything you can get from it. I talked to all the NPCs (not that many of them have anything revelatory to say, but they often hint at secrets). I thought the story was pretty fun, if kind of basic.
Probably the best part about the game, though, is how it uses Link to the Past's world not only for level design but for putting nice twists on old areas for veterans of the old game. There was one particular item that I did not get until after I beat story mode - despite being able to get it almost right off the bat! This is because Link Between Worlds inverts an old puzzle from Link to the Past, so that I didn't think I could complete it until I found the item I'm referring to. I should have seen it coming!
The music is amazing, as well. Link to the Past really has good music, and this game remixes it to great effect. The Dark World theme in particular really shines as probably my favorite tune in the game, despite the Hyrule Forest music being present and as always, fantastic. Despite some people's complaints about the graphics, I found them fine. At no point did I stop and think to myself "Wow, this game is ugly," so people who say the graphics are terrible are exaggerating. Are they as gorgeous as LttP's spritework? No, but they also aren't bland, boring New Super Mario Bros-esque, either.
I absolutely loved the game, and alongside Animal Crossing which I remain addicted to, will likely go back and play Link to the Past. Link Between Worlds made me realize I have a lot of nostalgia for that old game, despite not beating it until highschool, ten or so years after it came out. Who knows if it'll hold up as well compared to the new game - a curiousity that surprises me, considering how good the old game is. Link Between Worlds is just that good.
Really, I could end the whole post there if I wanted. The game is just pure fun. It gets you right into the action right away - no boring tutorials, no awful villagers you need to talk to for hours before you get your sword, no learning how to pilot a boat/train/bird, it's just "Hey, here's your sword, go fight and explore."
My favorite thing about the game is how open it is. At anytime, you can go do whatever you want. I thought the item renting thing would be kind of a letdown at first, since you just have all the items for the most part right away, but I actually wasn't bothered by it at all. It allows the designers to just make the dungeons and overworld as they see fit, and not have, say, the hookshot be the key to get to this part of the world, the hammer be the key to this part, etc. The world switching thing is fantastic and is an excellent mechanic (Link being able to flatten himself onto a wall and then walk along it makes for some fun puzzles). Even the sidequests are fun!
I put a solid sixteen hours plus into the game, which includes beating the game and finding everything (and I mean everything). There are bonus treasure chests in every dungeon, and they all contain a power up for Link, which adds to the exploration aspect. There are 100 little things to find scattered throughout the overworld, and every ten you find allows you to upgrade an item of your choice - again, the game acknowledging that every player may like to use certain items to fight. I used the Hookshot quite a bit throughout the game, but many players swear by the Wind Rod thing. It was pretty useful for the very fun battle gauntlet, but that was really the only place I used it much.
The fighting mechanics are spot on, too. Swordplay is just as fun as in LttP, if not better, and the secondary items are fun to use too. I went through the battle gauntlet three times - three times! - in a row, with pleasure, to unlock everything you can get from it. I talked to all the NPCs (not that many of them have anything revelatory to say, but they often hint at secrets). I thought the story was pretty fun, if kind of basic.
Probably the best part about the game, though, is how it uses Link to the Past's world not only for level design but for putting nice twists on old areas for veterans of the old game. There was one particular item that I did not get until after I beat story mode - despite being able to get it almost right off the bat! This is because Link Between Worlds inverts an old puzzle from Link to the Past, so that I didn't think I could complete it until I found the item I'm referring to. I should have seen it coming!
The music is amazing, as well. Link to the Past really has good music, and this game remixes it to great effect. The Dark World theme in particular really shines as probably my favorite tune in the game, despite the Hyrule Forest music being present and as always, fantastic. Despite some people's complaints about the graphics, I found them fine. At no point did I stop and think to myself "Wow, this game is ugly," so people who say the graphics are terrible are exaggerating. Are they as gorgeous as LttP's spritework? No, but they also aren't bland, boring New Super Mario Bros-esque, either.
I absolutely loved the game, and alongside Animal Crossing which I remain addicted to, will likely go back and play Link to the Past. Link Between Worlds made me realize I have a lot of nostalgia for that old game, despite not beating it until highschool, ten or so years after it came out. Who knows if it'll hold up as well compared to the new game - a curiousity that surprises me, considering how good the old game is. Link Between Worlds is just that good.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
So after putting over 200 hours into Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I have come to the conclusion that it is the finest entry in the series and, here in January of 2014, one of my favorite games of all time.
The Animal Crossing series was good to begin with, back in the original English release on the Gamecube. It was a sideways take on the Sims, which had been released about a year earlier (the first version having come out in Japan only on the Nintendo 64 in 2001). In it, you played the (seemingly) only human character to move into a village of talking animals, and worked to build a bigger house, obtain more clothing and furniture, and make friends with the animals. It is now somewhat simplistic compared to the versions that have come out since - to visit another person's town, you inserted your town's memory card into the second slot on the Gamecube, after which your friend could go visit, all by their lonesome. There was no simultaneous multiplayer until the DS version, Wild World, which contained improvements such as new items and things to do.
City Folk, on Wii, wasn't too much of an improvement over Wild World, and to be honest, I barely touched it and thus don't remember too much of it other than thinking the town proper felt strangely empty because most of the shops had been moved to the downtown area to the north of the rest of the town.
New Leaf, released June 9th, 2013, is the first game to truly feel complete. I wonder where they could take the franchise from here - everything just seems so thought out and well designed. Take, for example, the fact that the downtown area from City Folk remains - but is completely fine because now, as mayor, the player can customize his town and make it seem not empty, but vibrant and - most importantly - his own. Never before have I felt as much attachment to my town then in New Leaf, and this is largely due to the fact that when you walk around my town, it is unmistakably mine. The tiny main street area I erected with sidewalks, street lights, and statues, fountains, and gardens does not exist in anyone else's town. Yet, when I visit other towns, I feel truly away from "home" - their towns are laid out differently and have very different features (I've seen tire benches and other unidentifiable buildings, some of which I want, some of which I think are very strange). Now, visiting someone else's town isn't just to see the layout and contents of their home, but their town, as well.
Having played during two seasons of New Leaf - summer and winter - I feel confident enough to say that Nintendo added a bunch of content to spruce up activities when in earlier games the player would get bored. There are season-exclusive furniture sets as well as some activities that aren't in other seasons. Winter in particular is better than I remember it, because even in addition to the Christmas set, there are two sets of furniture to get from snowmen as well as (as far as I'm aware) several items to win from playing bingo with the snowmen you build (unfortunately, when you start bingo, the player receives a bingo card that cannot be removed from their inventory until a bingo is obtained, which is dumb. The player should be able to leave the bingo card in their house, and go get it when they need it, not be screwed out of inventory slot for untold days until bingo is obtained).
I'm impressed with the mini games Nintendo added on the island as well. They are pretty simple, but all are fairly fun and all fit in the Animal Crossing engine pretty well. One of them tasks the player with entering a bunch of random houses and finding items for a scavenger hunt - something that seems so obvious to include in the series in retrospect. I do wish there were more exclusive items to get on the island, and that most of them weren't locked away on the multiplayer version of it (not too huge a problem, mind you, because you can earn medals alone for it, but sometimes actually connecting to the island takes forever and really kills your enthusiasm for it, especially when you get there and its just the cabana bookcase AGAIN).
Villager interaction is better, too. They've added several tasks the villagers request of the player, almost all of which are pretty simple and fun. One of my favorites is hide and seek, where three villagers hide around town and the player has to find them within the time limit. Long gone are the times when animals would just take items right out of a players inventory, although that was limited to the Gamecube version, if I recall. Now, if a villager wants an item, they ask to buy it or trade for it. Also, the villagers suggest new public works projects for the mayor to undertake, which actually makes the villagers important to the town since without them, the mayor would get nothing done.
Nintendo has also added what would otherwise be called achievements in the form of badges the player gets from a new character that shows up in town whenever they accomplish some hidden task. Most of them are things like "fish a lot," or "play the game a lot," but some of them encourage tasks as a subtle way of nudging the player to do certain things. Had I not seen one of my friends had gotten a badge for earning a ton of medals on the island, I'm not sure how much of that I would have explored. Sadly, I now want to collect all the badges, which will likely be an exercise in frustration because I'm sure plenty of them involve some crazy amounts of play time to get.
Overall, I am extremely impressed with the game. I'm sure they'll think of something, but I am sincere when I say I don't know what they will add to the next one other than maybe refining some of the very few rough spots in this version. Unlike Wild World, where ultimately I decided I liked the original better, I can say with confidence that New Leaf is the best version of Animal Crossing to date by a landslide, NES games or no.
Friday, December 27, 2013
It's been a while...
So now that I have keyboard access again, I thought I'd write a blog about some of what I've been playing since May (7 months?!). A lot of it is a bit rusty upstairs so I'll write what I can.
The first game I got absolutely addicted to since Soul Hackers was Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which I played every day pretty much until August, after which I didn't pick it back up until December 5th. I've gotten re-addicted to it, though. That was kinda the idea when I bought the game digitally. Stupid as it may seem, I knew I wasn't going to remember to go grab the cart when I wasn't playing because I wouldn't remember to, meaning when I get addicted to a new game (like the next game I'll talk about) Animal Crossing probably would be done forever.
But I kept playing. What's nice about this Animal Crossing is it lets you customize the town as well as your house and clothes and all that. What this means is you can not only plant flowers and trees but also erect statues and buildings and illuminated arches and fountains etc. This is great because now, every time you visit someone elses town, there really is a lot of variety. When I go to a buddy's town, I may see some structures I'd never seen before and think "Wow, I would like one of those for myself!" This pretty much happened to me when, after I picked the game up again for the second time, a buddy of mine was randomly online and made me visit his town. He had played quite a bit since I had last played with him and his town was quite customized. I was jealous and wanted to make my town as good as his too. This has (apparently) happened to another buddy of mine after visiting my town, too. This is great because I would really like to complete the museum and paintings are SUPER hard to find and having mulitple friends play means more chances to exchange duplicate paintings.
Anyway, Zebes is chugging along just fine. I've put about 178 hours and 15 minutes into the game as of this post, which is an additional 45 or so hours since I stopped playing back in August. I'll probably easily crest over 200 hours in early January. I've been customizing my town pretty heavily since I redid my house and stuffed it full of custom furniture from Cyrus, another feature I've fallen in love with. The idea that there are several variations on the "modern" line of furniture, for example, is great because now my favorite furniture lines can become even more my own rather than seeing someone else's house and going "Oh, you have the modern set too... Yay."
I just realized I wrote a couple paragraphs about interior design, gardening, and architecture in a video game. I'm going to change subjects now before some jocks bust in the door and start beating the hell out of me.
Sometime in July, Shin Megami Tensei IV came out, and I alternated between it and Animal Crossing but mostly played SMT IV. The game grabbed me right at the beginning, with quite a high level of difficulty early on but with some pretty cool story hooks and the demon fusing I've come to love so much. I haven't played it since late July/early August so I'm a bit foggy on the details, but I remember really enjoying trying to trick out my demons. Like in Persona 4 Golden, you get to choose which abilities pass on to fused demons, meaning you don't have to reroll them every time hoping for a perfect combination like in Nocturne (that game would probably be one of the best games EVER if they made it so you could choose which moves to pass on). This meant that I quickly tried to create demons that couldn't even be touched by certain types of attacks, something that was pretty hard to do before you could choose which abilities to pass on. It resulted in several demons that couldn't be hit by anything besides debuffs and Almighty attacks, which can never be blocked anyway. Since the turn system meant that every time one of the enemies whiffed an attack they lost a turn, this quickly made most of the game a cakewalk, besides the occasional difficulty spike here or there. After you get to a certain point about ten, maybe twelve hours in, the game gets pretty easy, which is disappointing because it's still such an interesting setting and has a pretty cool story. I quite liked unlocking more and more demons, too, and tricking them out as much as I could, which is something I've really only done in SMTIV and a little in Persona 4 Golden.
Next up, after messing around with getting a perfect game in Wario Land 3 which had come out on Virtual Console as well as the two Oracle Zelda games, I played Pokemon Y. This was the first Pokemon game since, well, Diamond to make me think I liked Pokemon again! I doubt there will ever be a situation where I catch them all again, unless they stop doing that crap where you have to live in Japan and go to certain events to get certain Pokemon, but oh well. The single player game itself was a breeze, the Exp Share spread experience between all the Pokemon, and if I were into competitive battling, the functions they added would have helped the awful grind that portion of the Pokemon experience has. Alas, I beat the one player game and moved on, not really looking back too hard because, well, meh to the competitive stuff.
I then started a new game in Fallout: New Vegas in Hardcore mode, and was able to finish it in that mode, getting the achievement (one of the rare times where an achievement actually made me want to play a game different, which only took them, what, 8 years? Grats, Microsoft!). I played as a primarily unarmed fighter, because I was going for the "Do 10,000 Points of Unarmed Damage" achievement as well, which I got. It made the hardcore mode of the game probably quite easier since I didn't have to worry about ammo or worry about the fact it had weight now. Really, managing the sleep/hydration/hunger meters wasn't too difficult, it was the fact that stimpaks and food didn't instantly heal me anymore - I couldn't just slam a bunch of needles into my arm anytime I was getting brutalized, meaning I had to play smarter. This was a good thing, since the game actually had challenge again, since all my previous playthroughs besides the first weren't too difficult since for the most part, I knew what was coming.
Fallout: New Vegas is definitely my favorite 360/PS3 game by a wide margin, that's for sure. All I have left achievement-wise is the stupid Caravan card game stuff, which I probably will never do, and some of the DLC ones, mostly in the later DLC that I kind of rushed through the one time I played it.
And finally, I just began playing Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which is hitting all my nostalgia nodules for Link to the Past pretty squarely. I just pulled the Master Sword out of the Lost Woods, and have quite enjoyed everything the game has thrown at me so far. I don't want to say too much about it yet, other than after you pull the Master Sword from the pedestal, when you re-enter the Lost Woods, the FANTASTIC MUSIC STAYS, which is one of the few complaints I have of LttP, because it's one of my favorite video game tunes of all time.
Whew, that was a lot. The keyboard performed pretty well throughout this update, so hopefully I'll write many more blogs in 2014 than I did this year. Glad I could pump out one more.
The first game I got absolutely addicted to since Soul Hackers was Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which I played every day pretty much until August, after which I didn't pick it back up until December 5th. I've gotten re-addicted to it, though. That was kinda the idea when I bought the game digitally. Stupid as it may seem, I knew I wasn't going to remember to go grab the cart when I wasn't playing because I wouldn't remember to, meaning when I get addicted to a new game (like the next game I'll talk about) Animal Crossing probably would be done forever.
But I kept playing. What's nice about this Animal Crossing is it lets you customize the town as well as your house and clothes and all that. What this means is you can not only plant flowers and trees but also erect statues and buildings and illuminated arches and fountains etc. This is great because now, every time you visit someone elses town, there really is a lot of variety. When I go to a buddy's town, I may see some structures I'd never seen before and think "Wow, I would like one of those for myself!" This pretty much happened to me when, after I picked the game up again for the second time, a buddy of mine was randomly online and made me visit his town. He had played quite a bit since I had last played with him and his town was quite customized. I was jealous and wanted to make my town as good as his too. This has (apparently) happened to another buddy of mine after visiting my town, too. This is great because I would really like to complete the museum and paintings are SUPER hard to find and having mulitple friends play means more chances to exchange duplicate paintings.
Anyway, Zebes is chugging along just fine. I've put about 178 hours and 15 minutes into the game as of this post, which is an additional 45 or so hours since I stopped playing back in August. I'll probably easily crest over 200 hours in early January. I've been customizing my town pretty heavily since I redid my house and stuffed it full of custom furniture from Cyrus, another feature I've fallen in love with. The idea that there are several variations on the "modern" line of furniture, for example, is great because now my favorite furniture lines can become even more my own rather than seeing someone else's house and going "Oh, you have the modern set too... Yay."
I just realized I wrote a couple paragraphs about interior design, gardening, and architecture in a video game. I'm going to change subjects now before some jocks bust in the door and start beating the hell out of me.
Sometime in July, Shin Megami Tensei IV came out, and I alternated between it and Animal Crossing but mostly played SMT IV. The game grabbed me right at the beginning, with quite a high level of difficulty early on but with some pretty cool story hooks and the demon fusing I've come to love so much. I haven't played it since late July/early August so I'm a bit foggy on the details, but I remember really enjoying trying to trick out my demons. Like in Persona 4 Golden, you get to choose which abilities pass on to fused demons, meaning you don't have to reroll them every time hoping for a perfect combination like in Nocturne (that game would probably be one of the best games EVER if they made it so you could choose which moves to pass on). This meant that I quickly tried to create demons that couldn't even be touched by certain types of attacks, something that was pretty hard to do before you could choose which abilities to pass on. It resulted in several demons that couldn't be hit by anything besides debuffs and Almighty attacks, which can never be blocked anyway. Since the turn system meant that every time one of the enemies whiffed an attack they lost a turn, this quickly made most of the game a cakewalk, besides the occasional difficulty spike here or there. After you get to a certain point about ten, maybe twelve hours in, the game gets pretty easy, which is disappointing because it's still such an interesting setting and has a pretty cool story. I quite liked unlocking more and more demons, too, and tricking them out as much as I could, which is something I've really only done in SMTIV and a little in Persona 4 Golden.
Next up, after messing around with getting a perfect game in Wario Land 3 which had come out on Virtual Console as well as the two Oracle Zelda games, I played Pokemon Y. This was the first Pokemon game since, well, Diamond to make me think I liked Pokemon again! I doubt there will ever be a situation where I catch them all again, unless they stop doing that crap where you have to live in Japan and go to certain events to get certain Pokemon, but oh well. The single player game itself was a breeze, the Exp Share spread experience between all the Pokemon, and if I were into competitive battling, the functions they added would have helped the awful grind that portion of the Pokemon experience has. Alas, I beat the one player game and moved on, not really looking back too hard because, well, meh to the competitive stuff.
I then started a new game in Fallout: New Vegas in Hardcore mode, and was able to finish it in that mode, getting the achievement (one of the rare times where an achievement actually made me want to play a game different, which only took them, what, 8 years? Grats, Microsoft!). I played as a primarily unarmed fighter, because I was going for the "Do 10,000 Points of Unarmed Damage" achievement as well, which I got. It made the hardcore mode of the game probably quite easier since I didn't have to worry about ammo or worry about the fact it had weight now. Really, managing the sleep/hydration/hunger meters wasn't too difficult, it was the fact that stimpaks and food didn't instantly heal me anymore - I couldn't just slam a bunch of needles into my arm anytime I was getting brutalized, meaning I had to play smarter. This was a good thing, since the game actually had challenge again, since all my previous playthroughs besides the first weren't too difficult since for the most part, I knew what was coming.
Fallout: New Vegas is definitely my favorite 360/PS3 game by a wide margin, that's for sure. All I have left achievement-wise is the stupid Caravan card game stuff, which I probably will never do, and some of the DLC ones, mostly in the later DLC that I kind of rushed through the one time I played it.
And finally, I just began playing Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which is hitting all my nostalgia nodules for Link to the Past pretty squarely. I just pulled the Master Sword out of the Lost Woods, and have quite enjoyed everything the game has thrown at me so far. I don't want to say too much about it yet, other than after you pull the Master Sword from the pedestal, when you re-enter the Lost Woods, the FANTASTIC MUSIC STAYS, which is one of the few complaints I have of LttP, because it's one of my favorite video game tunes of all time.
Whew, that was a lot. The keyboard performed pretty well throughout this update, so hopefully I'll write many more blogs in 2014 than I did this year. Glad I could pump out one more.
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