Such spambots, so writings.
The Abyssal Campaign is going fairly well for once. Character development has settled in all around, and now most everybody is tolerable at worst.
There are some funny things about here. We actually have sidequests that revolve around Luke, the main character, bumping into to people that have family property, and then going and getting money from dear old Mom like the little mooch he is. Mieu the Cheagle (cheagle is Japanese for Viking Care Bear by the way), is actually fairly fun to have around, at least within limits. That cutesy voice screaming "FIRE!" is still disturbingly humurous, and watching the little thing smash rocks the size of Mack trucks is almost as good. Colonel Jade McAwesomesnarks is still a bit of fresh air around all the stereotypical JRPG nuttiness going on. I've gotten him back up to his beginning stats and then some (the guy got nuked with the equivalent of say 15 Level Drains), and thanks to the miracles of Capacity Core goodness, he's pretty much Black Mage with a spear and morals now.
The trade system that stands in for crafting has grown on me some, mostly because it encourages me to go out there and farm like crazy. With a bit of know-how, the proper investment (there's a sidequest requiring 200 thousand Gald, which is a crapton of money in this game, but worth it), and just the right bit of character selection, you can start farming the high-tier shiny bits pretty damn quickly. Unfortunately, the ordering/trading system itself has too much going on 'under the hood' to really suit me, and figuring out which bits get you what item type without an FAQ can be a frustrating process. That said, you can wind up with mid-game and even late-game goodies very early if you can figure out what you're doing! And I also like it better than the token system put in place in Legendia.
The loot drops themselves...well I think they were trying to compensate the ridiculous item drops from Legendia, but they kinda took things a bit too far. It's not horrible, and I know that loot systems are very hard to balance properly, and they did a decent job keeping things from going into Monty Haul territory. The biggest complaint I really have is that they included a Final Fantasy-style stealing mechanic, which has two major flaws. The first is that stealing is linked to certain attacks through special accessories; a problem, since the attacks still hit full force, and you can very easily kill the target before you get something, assuming you actually connect. The second, and much worse, part is that relatively few monsters have anything to steal, and typically with abysmal success rates. Again, without a guide, you can't tell what monsters can be robbed without trial-and-error. This can lead to literally hours of playtime spent on smacking critters with nothing to steal without realizing there's nothing to steal. Oh, and there are plenty of monsters with neither stealables nor item drops. This is likely to compensate for both the last's game's loot showers, and this game's ordering system.
All the ranting about the relative scarcity of shinies aside, I do like how we get a nice bit of flavor text about all the items that you can get, and that we actually have a bit of variation on the usual fantastic ores, metals, and monster parts. I also like that this game actually plenty of interesting monsters and locations going for it. One can only eradicate so many goblins, zombies, and EA employees before it gets old. A fairly novel monster group is a family of golems that are actually music-powered robots. I wonder if the spiky ones are run off of metal...
Well, I need to go. Those shinies aren't going to loot themselves.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
The Abyssal Campaign
Aw, not even the spambots are read my blog any more...
Anyway, I've been busy with Tales of the Abyss. It's a bit different from what I expected, mostly since I picked the black sheep of the series to begin with. But we still have plenty of old-school JRPG goodness going on in here.
My first impressions thus far have been fairly favorable thus far. The main characters are memorable in one way or another. I especially like Jade. It's been a while since I bumped into a good Neutral Snarky aligned character, and making him the kickass mad scientist black mage of doom is also awesome. They also made this guy a colonel which warms my nerdy little heart for reasons I refuse to explain to anyone that has eyes. Luke, the protagonist, is a spoiled little wretch, but is slowly getting better, and for once being spoiled doesn't affect the ability to ship things you don't like Priority Mail to Stabbytown! There are plenty of others, some are kinda cliche but not actually bad. I'm not too fond of the obligatory Rebellious Princess Natalia thus far. Civic minded or not, she could use some time in a dragon's clutches right now.
The Also Obligatory Cute Thing is...well...sometimes I can't stand him, but other times he's hilarious. When you use his map abilities, he turns into some sort of pyromaniac hooligan, a lot like what would happen if somebody cooked up Viking Care Bears. Cutesy voices screaming about fire and attacks, smoke and doom and craters everywhere, why the hell hasn't anybody wrote that fanfic yet. Viking Care Bears needs to be a thing now. He also is on the receiving end of a great line: "Shut up and drown!"
The world-building magi-babble is actually fairly well thought out for once, though granted it's mostly your standard mana/alchemy/elements system with some sound-related concepts substitutes in for material science concepts. I'm also still on the fence on the way the loot is handled, and probably will not render judgment for a good while. The trading/ordering system that replaced traditional crafting still hasn't sold itself too well thus far, especially since it seems to be weighted toward repeat playthroughs. You can get access to higher-end equipment early on with some serious farming, but intelligence gleaned from elsewhere suggests that the real goodies aren't much use until late into the game (there are very powerful moves to be unlocked here) or in New Game Plus (arguably game-breaking moves unlocked then). The loot/baddie curve is still fairly low right now, which should start accelerating later.
In any case, I must be off. Another bit of uncertainty is whether there will be a Wreckonomics post made for this game. Legendia didn't merit one, since you get showered with cash and items, and the crafting system is kind of a joke. We'll see.
Anyway, I've been busy with Tales of the Abyss. It's a bit different from what I expected, mostly since I picked the black sheep of the series to begin with. But we still have plenty of old-school JRPG goodness going on in here.
My first impressions thus far have been fairly favorable thus far. The main characters are memorable in one way or another. I especially like Jade. It's been a while since I bumped into a good Neutral Snarky aligned character, and making him the kickass mad scientist black mage of doom is also awesome. They also made this guy a colonel which warms my nerdy little heart for reasons I refuse to explain to anyone that has eyes. Luke, the protagonist, is a spoiled little wretch, but is slowly getting better, and for once being spoiled doesn't affect the ability to ship things you don't like Priority Mail to Stabbytown! There are plenty of others, some are kinda cliche but not actually bad. I'm not too fond of the obligatory Rebellious Princess Natalia thus far. Civic minded or not, she could use some time in a dragon's clutches right now.
The Also Obligatory Cute Thing is...well...sometimes I can't stand him, but other times he's hilarious. When you use his map abilities, he turns into some sort of pyromaniac hooligan, a lot like what would happen if somebody cooked up Viking Care Bears. Cutesy voices screaming about fire and attacks, smoke and doom and craters everywhere, why the hell hasn't anybody wrote that fanfic yet. Viking Care Bears needs to be a thing now. He also is on the receiving end of a great line: "Shut up and drown!"
The world-building magi-babble is actually fairly well thought out for once, though granted it's mostly your standard mana/alchemy/elements system with some sound-related concepts substitutes in for material science concepts. I'm also still on the fence on the way the loot is handled, and probably will not render judgment for a good while. The trading/ordering system that replaced traditional crafting still hasn't sold itself too well thus far, especially since it seems to be weighted toward repeat playthroughs. You can get access to higher-end equipment early on with some serious farming, but intelligence gleaned from elsewhere suggests that the real goodies aren't much use until late into the game (there are very powerful moves to be unlocked here) or in New Game Plus (arguably game-breaking moves unlocked then). The loot/baddie curve is still fairly low right now, which should start accelerating later.
In any case, I must be off. Another bit of uncertainty is whether there will be a Wreckonomics post made for this game. Legendia didn't merit one, since you get showered with cash and items, and the crafting system is kind of a joke. We'll see.
Friday, September 4, 2015
A Legendary Tale
The Interwebs are not rid of me yet, haHA!
It's been a wild ride in my personal life, but that IRL for you, eh?
In nerdy news, I managed to put Tales of Legendia on my kill list, adding another notch on the RPG belt. That was definitely a fun time. Four Stars, Would Smite Again. Hell, the ending (the actual ending, not the first one) actually got me all teary-eyed. It's been something like a decade since a game did that to me.
The combat was fun, giving me all the awesomeness of a 2D fighter while letting stats and tactics get a good role as opposed to just reflexes and fighting game skills (I suck at fighting games that aren't Soul Calibur 3), and was just fluid enough to keep me going. The story has some good twists, the characters were actually memorable (all hail Will Reynard the JRPG Muscle Wizard), the loot was plentiful, and the enemies were a hoot.
Unfortunately, the New Game Plus this game offered really didn't do much for immediate replay value, though I freely grant that later on it will be a fine catalyst for going back and thug-punching bears while Will The Awesome fries them with lightning and honking big hammer.
I was actually pleased that I found a new RPG series without having to sacrifice organs on the black market to get installments (dammit Suikoden) or live with playing less than half the series ever without controller flinging (dammit SaGa).
On a final note, there will not be a Wreckonomics post about Tales of Legendia. The cash is very plentiful, with the only notable sinks linked to the cooking system. The only real barrier is that you can only carry 15 of any given item (NG+ has options for 20 or 30 if you so choose), which is a mild inconvenience if you're like me and grab a wad of curatives when you can. I wound up having to leave full chests behind in dungeons since I had the maximum amount of Panacea Bottles very quickly, and rarely needed them to begin with.
Anyway, off to Tale of the Abyss!
It's been a wild ride in my personal life, but that IRL for you, eh?
In nerdy news, I managed to put Tales of Legendia on my kill list, adding another notch on the RPG belt. That was definitely a fun time. Four Stars, Would Smite Again. Hell, the ending (the actual ending, not the first one) actually got me all teary-eyed. It's been something like a decade since a game did that to me.
The combat was fun, giving me all the awesomeness of a 2D fighter while letting stats and tactics get a good role as opposed to just reflexes and fighting game skills (I suck at fighting games that aren't Soul Calibur 3), and was just fluid enough to keep me going. The story has some good twists, the characters were actually memorable (all hail Will Reynard the JRPG Muscle Wizard), the loot was plentiful, and the enemies were a hoot.
Unfortunately, the New Game Plus this game offered really didn't do much for immediate replay value, though I freely grant that later on it will be a fine catalyst for going back and thug-punching bears while Will The Awesome fries them with lightning and honking big hammer.
I was actually pleased that I found a new RPG series without having to sacrifice organs on the black market to get installments (dammit Suikoden) or live with playing less than half the series ever without controller flinging (dammit SaGa).
On a final note, there will not be a Wreckonomics post about Tales of Legendia. The cash is very plentiful, with the only notable sinks linked to the cooking system. The only real barrier is that you can only carry 15 of any given item (NG+ has options for 20 or 30 if you so choose), which is a mild inconvenience if you're like me and grab a wad of curatives when you can. I wound up having to leave full chests behind in dungeons since I had the maximum amount of Panacea Bottles very quickly, and rarely needed them to begin with.
Anyway, off to Tale of the Abyss!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)