Well, I'm still tearing my way through Final Fantasy XII. The difficulty curve is getting a bit more wonky, but overall things are still well in hand. I bumped in an unexpectedly unvoiced cutscene, and it was a shame since it was Balthier-focused and Gideon Emery is really good at the snark.
I also had a squicky bit of comedy come across my way. The gist is that I was rewarded for taking down a nasty undead boss, with a message of thanks because this boss's offal is good eats. That's right; somebody somewhere is cooking up lich poo and enjoying it. So many questions, so much effort to suppress the answers.
Things have heated up, and hopefully I'll wind up with even more places to tear around and plunder the countryside. I've realized that I'm not quite skilled enough to handle some of the extra areas without some serious grinding, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Oh, and Rogue One Mon Calamari look like this game's Toad family of monsters. It's clearly a trap. Regardless, The Harvest Never Rests!
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016
I'm On A Rampage!
Blarargh!
Hail once again to the spambots! It's been a productive day in Final Fantasy XII. I was foolish and forgot about the importance of preparation and paying attention to gear, and boy did I pay for it. Got my ass slowly munched by a giant mutant turtle of doom; then I realized that I had gear on almost everybody that rendered them against the ice spells it was flinging. I finally had to give up and reset. Sure enough, once I actually fiddled with the equipment like a proper nerd, the boss got pwned pretty good. The Harvest not be denied.
I've found myself a bit irritated that elemental weaponry has a tendency to be crap in this game, but things are compensated by having new variants of tradition FF goodies. The Blood Sword was a surprise, going from a crappy Drain spell on a stick to being a +10 Sword of Nasty DoT Ailments. Another surprise is that undead in this game are vulnerable to Poison and Sap (!) which can lead to some hilarity.
I've finally gotten to where the good soundtracks are playing, and now things are ever better. Few things can be compared to tearing about the countryside and wrecking freaks to a kickass tune, especially with all the enhanced loot drops and purloined goodies that my party is now enjoying. Bring me your shinies!
Hail once again to the spambots! It's been a productive day in Final Fantasy XII. I was foolish and forgot about the importance of preparation and paying attention to gear, and boy did I pay for it. Got my ass slowly munched by a giant mutant turtle of doom; then I realized that I had gear on almost everybody that rendered them against the ice spells it was flinging. I finally had to give up and reset. Sure enough, once I actually fiddled with the equipment like a proper nerd, the boss got pwned pretty good. The Harvest not be denied.
I've found myself a bit irritated that elemental weaponry has a tendency to be crap in this game, but things are compensated by having new variants of tradition FF goodies. The Blood Sword was a surprise, going from a crappy Drain spell on a stick to being a +10 Sword of Nasty DoT Ailments. Another surprise is that undead in this game are vulnerable to Poison and Sap (!) which can lead to some hilarity.
I've finally gotten to where the good soundtracks are playing, and now things are ever better. Few things can be compared to tearing about the countryside and wrecking freaks to a kickass tune, especially with all the enhanced loot drops and purloined goodies that my party is now enjoying. Bring me your shinies!
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
They Made Grinding Fun
You know, I've had a copy of Final Fantasy XII for quite some time. I forgot the details of the original provenance; suffice to say that at some point I wound up with one, then traded it to a friend for my old copy of VII back, then somehow got a second copy (both copies were the steelbox Collector's version even), and that second copy has been hiding among my gaming artifacts for years now. I had this notion that somehow XII was too different for me to be much fun, or had some abstruse mechanics that would require some head-on-wall action to take place before I found the secret to enjoying the game properly (post-SNES Square games are bad about that).
I was an idiot. Screw what the nostalgia-drunk fanboys have been braying; this game is frickin' awesome. Most JRPGs just pay homage to the tradition of grinding and farming as a necessary evil. Final Fantasy XII embraces grinding and made it enjoyable.
Yes, there is something of a learning curve, especially if you jump straight in from an 'old school' FF game, but nothing a bit of action RPG experience won't cover. Once I got over the initial hurdles and got my feet wet, things started clicking along pretty well, and now the Harvest has been properly unleashed upon Ivalice. The decision to update the combat to allow free-run and working area-of-effect mechanics, combined with a consistently challenging difficulty curve, adds a layer of strategy and tension to things, giving some much-needed emphasis on risk mitigation and resource management. On top of all that, stepping away from FF's long tradition of constant cash drops in favor of the material hunting/bazaar system gives a sense of purpose to all the random monster-mashing going on.
In most games, I tend to have a fairly impatient "plow through the story" mindset. Here I am actually fiddling around, eschewing direct plot progression and fast-travel in favor of wandering around and collecting all the goodies I can, and it's paid off splendidly so far. I can't claim I've over-leveled, but I feel that my plucky group of adventurers actually have the skillset, power, and experience to waltz in the next Evil Dungeon of Plot Progression and take on The Horrible Denizens That Guard The Important Relic without the distinct impression that I brought a rubber knife to a chainsaw duel. It's a powerful feeling for a gamer.
Oh, and I really like how the 'mine' zones give a whole visual reference to Vagrant Story's Lea Monde. That was a nice touch.
I was an idiot. Screw what the nostalgia-drunk fanboys have been braying; this game is frickin' awesome. Most JRPGs just pay homage to the tradition of grinding and farming as a necessary evil. Final Fantasy XII embraces grinding and made it enjoyable.
Yes, there is something of a learning curve, especially if you jump straight in from an 'old school' FF game, but nothing a bit of action RPG experience won't cover. Once I got over the initial hurdles and got my feet wet, things started clicking along pretty well, and now the Harvest has been properly unleashed upon Ivalice. The decision to update the combat to allow free-run and working area-of-effect mechanics, combined with a consistently challenging difficulty curve, adds a layer of strategy and tension to things, giving some much-needed emphasis on risk mitigation and resource management. On top of all that, stepping away from FF's long tradition of constant cash drops in favor of the material hunting/bazaar system gives a sense of purpose to all the random monster-mashing going on.
In most games, I tend to have a fairly impatient "plow through the story" mindset. Here I am actually fiddling around, eschewing direct plot progression and fast-travel in favor of wandering around and collecting all the goodies I can, and it's paid off splendidly so far. I can't claim I've over-leveled, but I feel that my plucky group of adventurers actually have the skillset, power, and experience to waltz in the next Evil Dungeon of Plot Progression and take on The Horrible Denizens That Guard The Important Relic without the distinct impression that I brought a rubber knife to a chainsaw duel. It's a powerful feeling for a gamer.
Oh, and I really like how the 'mine' zones give a whole visual reference to Vagrant Story's Lea Monde. That was a nice touch.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Mark It!
Well, Final Fantasy XII is letting the fun keep rolling. All sorts of elements are acting like curveballs, even when they're very much not curveballs. I've already sunk so much time into messing around with the hunts and farming for shinies that I keep feeling underpowered from a skills/spells standpoint. It's telling how much fun you can have in a Repeated Prolonged Grindfest and suddenly registering that the big story is hanging out in a corner and you still haven't unlocked the -ra series offensive spells yet.
It's also a refreshing surprise how much world-building and detail has gone into things. The windy trails are actually windy trails, with little switchbacks and gullies and dead ends. The items have wonderful little snippets of information; the equipment lists are about the only thing without any real details, which it kind of a letdown. But all the 'loot' materials have nice little flavor texts, and combined with the bestiary can give you the chance to glean useful information and add to the immersion.
The bazaar system is still a pleasant surprise. I've gotten used to direct, intricate, fiddly crafting systems, with indirect 'ordering' systems having a habit of being too damned obtuse to be fun (Tales of The Abyss is loads of fun, but the trade shop is horrible, as I've stated ad naseum), but this actually a lot of fun. It's rare that I get a feeling of contributing to an actual economy; that all the pelts and magic rocks, and freaky monster parts are actually filtering down to the craftsmen, who make all sorts of useful things for the city's trade, meanwhile offering my team of adventures special deals as a sort of thank you. The whole concept is very refreshing, and goes well with my material hunter mindset.
One more unexpectedly fun thing is the Mark system. Bounty-oriented sidequests can be a tough balancing act, and things can be exacerbated by JRPGs' habit of making things infuriatingly obscure, but so far so good. The idea is simple: Find a job at the bounty board, kill the offending critter, get goodies. There are little details that add to the immersion that I like, for example actually going out and meeting the client to seal the arrangements, and getting little snippets and clues about things. Like the bazaar, it can help make one fell like an actual adventurer getting to do adventurer things while making a positive contribution to things. Gripe all you want about Vaan being a glorified sidekick and not having much plot relevance; he's a perfect fit for all these little missions and errands that the hunts and bazaar revolve around.
Oh, and whoever made undead mooks vulnerable to Sap is freakin' awesome. The Harvest Never Rests!
It's also a refreshing surprise how much world-building and detail has gone into things. The windy trails are actually windy trails, with little switchbacks and gullies and dead ends. The items have wonderful little snippets of information; the equipment lists are about the only thing without any real details, which it kind of a letdown. But all the 'loot' materials have nice little flavor texts, and combined with the bestiary can give you the chance to glean useful information and add to the immersion.
The bazaar system is still a pleasant surprise. I've gotten used to direct, intricate, fiddly crafting systems, with indirect 'ordering' systems having a habit of being too damned obtuse to be fun (Tales of The Abyss is loads of fun, but the trade shop is horrible, as I've stated ad naseum), but this actually a lot of fun. It's rare that I get a feeling of contributing to an actual economy; that all the pelts and magic rocks, and freaky monster parts are actually filtering down to the craftsmen, who make all sorts of useful things for the city's trade, meanwhile offering my team of adventures special deals as a sort of thank you. The whole concept is very refreshing, and goes well with my material hunter mindset.
One more unexpectedly fun thing is the Mark system. Bounty-oriented sidequests can be a tough balancing act, and things can be exacerbated by JRPGs' habit of making things infuriatingly obscure, but so far so good. The idea is simple: Find a job at the bounty board, kill the offending critter, get goodies. There are little details that add to the immersion that I like, for example actually going out and meeting the client to seal the arrangements, and getting little snippets and clues about things. Like the bazaar, it can help make one fell like an actual adventurer getting to do adventurer things while making a positive contribution to things. Gripe all you want about Vaan being a glorified sidekick and not having much plot relevance; he's a perfect fit for all these little missions and errands that the hunts and bazaar revolve around.
Oh, and whoever made undead mooks vulnerable to Sap is freakin' awesome. The Harvest Never Rests!
Monday, November 28, 2016
Dude, You Liberated The Town!
I managed to do a bit of digging, and I wanted to talk about the 'lineage' of Final Fantasy XII. This game has some very interesting roots, and it shows. Yes, there is the obvious Final Fantasy and Ivalice Alliance, but I want to talk about the other, deeper line that started it all: Ogre Battle: March of The Black Queen.
Long ago (by gaming standards) a small studio under the leadership of one Yasumi Matsuno created one of the most unique video games ever encountered. It combined turn-based RPG mechanics with classic real-time strategy machanics against a gritty, medieval fantasy backdrop with links to astrology and tarot fortune-reading all over the place. Ogre Battle also has the interesting twist of letting your actions and tactics influence the story and ultimately the final destiny of you and your faction.
The actual gameplay can be best summed up like this: You lead an army composed of individual squads (much like RPG adventuring parties) that go forth from you base to liberate cities and temples. While you direct where these squads go, and what characters they contain, combat is primarily automated, with a simple list of preset tactics. Micromanagers might be turned off a bit, but there are plenty of things to do for the aspiring fantasy general here.
Fantasy RPG elements are very abundant. You've got classes like knights and wizards alongside things like ninjas and samurai. Interestingly enough, there's also paladins and black knights/evil ones (blackguards), and liches, and you can have them all in your army and even in the same unit! The big 'flavor' classes are the doll mages (casters that use mini-golems and acid clouds in battle), classic-style angels and devils, and the unexpectedly epic princess class. I'm not kidding; princesses are hard to come by, but are both high-end casters and can double their unit's attacks per battle.
You've also got plenty of storyline events and encounters, most of which are tied to the other big mechanic of the game, the reputation system. The short version is that you have an ongoing karma meter that tracks your reputation. High reputation enables heroic events and nets you the characters and items you need for the best ending, while low reputation enables stuff like bandits paying you tribute, evil creatures offering evil stuff, and being spurned by everybody else. There are all sorts of factors that play into the reputation, some random, some not, but the overall best way to maintain a high reputation is to keep liberating towns and temples with high-alignment characters, using your lower-alignment dudes to handle garrison and field combat. It's a bit more intricate than that, but the gist is there.
One other interesting aspect is the tarot card system. Whenever you liberate a location, you have the option to draw a tarot. It's a bit of a gamble, with each card having an effect, from giving little bonuses to the liberating unit, changing the time of day, or raising/lowering you reputation, etc. But even the 'bad' draws can be useful, because tarots also act as the 'summon' spells of the game. They can be very handy, especially in tight spots against bosses. This is one of the more interesting ideas I've seen presented in an sRPG, and I'd like to see it or something similar in other games.
Overall, Ogre Battle is one of the most unique and fun games I've encountered, and if you have the chance to try it, do so, especially if you can hunt down the slightly more common Playstation version, which has better production values, an tweaked script, and much better names for all the items and equipment. It also has the distinction of laying the foundation for Matsuno and company to bigger and better things, eventually resulting in the wonderful Final Fantasy Tactics games, Vagrant Story, and of course Final Fantasy XII. Fight it out!
Long ago (by gaming standards) a small studio under the leadership of one Yasumi Matsuno created one of the most unique video games ever encountered. It combined turn-based RPG mechanics with classic real-time strategy machanics against a gritty, medieval fantasy backdrop with links to astrology and tarot fortune-reading all over the place. Ogre Battle also has the interesting twist of letting your actions and tactics influence the story and ultimately the final destiny of you and your faction.
The actual gameplay can be best summed up like this: You lead an army composed of individual squads (much like RPG adventuring parties) that go forth from you base to liberate cities and temples. While you direct where these squads go, and what characters they contain, combat is primarily automated, with a simple list of preset tactics. Micromanagers might be turned off a bit, but there are plenty of things to do for the aspiring fantasy general here.
Fantasy RPG elements are very abundant. You've got classes like knights and wizards alongside things like ninjas and samurai. Interestingly enough, there's also paladins and black knights/evil ones (blackguards), and liches, and you can have them all in your army and even in the same unit! The big 'flavor' classes are the doll mages (casters that use mini-golems and acid clouds in battle), classic-style angels and devils, and the unexpectedly epic princess class. I'm not kidding; princesses are hard to come by, but are both high-end casters and can double their unit's attacks per battle.
You've also got plenty of storyline events and encounters, most of which are tied to the other big mechanic of the game, the reputation system. The short version is that you have an ongoing karma meter that tracks your reputation. High reputation enables heroic events and nets you the characters and items you need for the best ending, while low reputation enables stuff like bandits paying you tribute, evil creatures offering evil stuff, and being spurned by everybody else. There are all sorts of factors that play into the reputation, some random, some not, but the overall best way to maintain a high reputation is to keep liberating towns and temples with high-alignment characters, using your lower-alignment dudes to handle garrison and field combat. It's a bit more intricate than that, but the gist is there.
One other interesting aspect is the tarot card system. Whenever you liberate a location, you have the option to draw a tarot. It's a bit of a gamble, with each card having an effect, from giving little bonuses to the liberating unit, changing the time of day, or raising/lowering you reputation, etc. But even the 'bad' draws can be useful, because tarots also act as the 'summon' spells of the game. They can be very handy, especially in tight spots against bosses. This is one of the more interesting ideas I've seen presented in an sRPG, and I'd like to see it or something similar in other games.
Overall, Ogre Battle is one of the most unique and fun games I've encountered, and if you have the chance to try it, do so, especially if you can hunt down the slightly more common Playstation version, which has better production values, an tweaked script, and much better names for all the items and equipment. It also has the distinction of laying the foundation for Matsuno and company to bigger and better things, eventually resulting in the wonderful Final Fantasy Tactics games, Vagrant Story, and of course Final Fantasy XII. Fight it out!
Saturday, November 26, 2016
From Deep Within The Flow Of Time
Things are going about as well as can be expected. Final Fantasy XII has been proceeding apace when I have time and brainpower to devote to it, and it's still a blast.
When I have neither, however, I've been mostly thinking about how RPGs (especially JRPGs) have changed and evolved. I know the whole process has been beaten to death, subjected to Life2/Arise and then beaten again repeatedly, but the Dork Side demands incessant rehash and regurgitation before one can actually reflect on things like this.
I wandered about the internet, looking at old fansites and such about things like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI and gripes about 'ruinous' stuff that came along with the Playstation 2 forward. I've always accepted the axiom that maturity is for the weak among us nerds, but I rarely encounter such incessant, one-note whining outside of work. There is honest-yet-incisive criticism, and there is bitching. I keep encountering the latter.
I still find it, well, jarring that supposedly more 'casual' and 'bro-tard' fare produces intelligent (profane, troll-bait, but intelligent) discussions while 'hardcore, thinking' games provoke screeds upon screeds of mangled, vapid chat room yammering pretending to be wiki articles and FAQs. It's not that RPGs magically started sucking right before FFVIII hit shelves and have been in some sort of developmental stasis. It's more like the RPG fandom has inexplicably stopped aging at age 12-15 at or around the same time and has been slowly regressing ever since.
Damn, sorry about the soap box; it's made out of cheap pine so we can stand around and warm ourselves later. The point I was trying to make is that RPGs have always been flawed since the beginning, like everything else of mortal existence, but sometime around the aforementioned FFVIII release all we seem to acknowledge is the flaws.
We've forgetten that no game is perfect, and there is some merit to being able to look past problems in our toys and remember that they are toys. They are something to play around have fun with. Yes, a lot of them have some serious flaws, some of them very tragic flaws. Yes, most of the dedicated RPG fandom has aged out of the target demographic. But who the hell cares? The from 16-bit consoles to the PS2, RPGs enjoyed a golden age. Such an age will likely never come again, and we need to remember that, and actually enjoy the geeky bounty we were given. We are nerds, and it is time to actually be nerds for once. Celebrate these gems. Talk about them like we actually know what we're talking about. Update the articles and wikis and FAQs (but archive the old stuff, they're great sources of lulz and catharsis--betcha you never so those words in the same sentence). These are the games we've embraced, and we need to proclaim that again. And stop being so funereal about our favorites.
Okay, its out of my system now.
When I have neither, however, I've been mostly thinking about how RPGs (especially JRPGs) have changed and evolved. I know the whole process has been beaten to death, subjected to Life2/Arise and then beaten again repeatedly, but the Dork Side demands incessant rehash and regurgitation before one can actually reflect on things like this.
I wandered about the internet, looking at old fansites and such about things like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI and gripes about 'ruinous' stuff that came along with the Playstation 2 forward. I've always accepted the axiom that maturity is for the weak among us nerds, but I rarely encounter such incessant, one-note whining outside of work. There is honest-yet-incisive criticism, and there is bitching. I keep encountering the latter.
I still find it, well, jarring that supposedly more 'casual' and 'bro-tard' fare produces intelligent (profane, troll-bait, but intelligent) discussions while 'hardcore, thinking' games provoke screeds upon screeds of mangled, vapid chat room yammering pretending to be wiki articles and FAQs. It's not that RPGs magically started sucking right before FFVIII hit shelves and have been in some sort of developmental stasis. It's more like the RPG fandom has inexplicably stopped aging at age 12-15 at or around the same time and has been slowly regressing ever since.
Damn, sorry about the soap box; it's made out of cheap pine so we can stand around and warm ourselves later. The point I was trying to make is that RPGs have always been flawed since the beginning, like everything else of mortal existence, but sometime around the aforementioned FFVIII release all we seem to acknowledge is the flaws.
We've forgetten that no game is perfect, and there is some merit to being able to look past problems in our toys and remember that they are toys. They are something to play around have fun with. Yes, a lot of them have some serious flaws, some of them very tragic flaws. Yes, most of the dedicated RPG fandom has aged out of the target demographic. But who the hell cares? The from 16-bit consoles to the PS2, RPGs enjoyed a golden age. Such an age will likely never come again, and we need to remember that, and actually enjoy the geeky bounty we were given. We are nerds, and it is time to actually be nerds for once. Celebrate these gems. Talk about them like we actually know what we're talking about. Update the articles and wikis and FAQs (but archive the old stuff, they're great sources of lulz and catharsis--betcha you never so those words in the same sentence). These are the games we've embraced, and we need to proclaim that again. And stop being so funereal about our favorites.
Okay, its out of my system now.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Final Fantasy: The Harvest Edition
I won't mince words; Tales of Symphonia guttered out pretty quickly. It's clearly not a bad game, in fact I can tell Symphonia is a pretty good game overall. But I just couldn't keep playing; I wound up forcing myself just to play a few hours into the second world, and things flat out fizzled.
Maybe it's because I've been oversaturated with Tales-style story subversion and anti-nihilism (four Tales games in a year). Maybe real life events just got me too bummed out to play something in this pretty-but-grimdark style for a while. I know that this game has something of a victory in store for the heroes (hello Dawn of The New World) but somehow I'm tired of a pretty game populated by jackasses of one stripe or another.
After some traditional dithering, I pulled out something that I've put off for far too long: Final Fantasy XII. I've had a copy (Special Edition, no less) sitting in my stack for half of forever, and damn if putting this one off was a mistake. I fired this sucker up and realized that here is what I've been looking for. The opening cutscene can be pretty much summed up as Star Wars with airships and baroque mooks. I've been given to understand that the dev team for FFXII have disavowed any inspiration by/from Star Wars; the devs are full of crap.
Anyway. This sucker is actually pretty fun. This game follows Final Fantasy's trend of desperately avoiding traditional huge cash drops from monsters, and replaced it with the Loot/Bazaar system. You go out and wreck monsters for goods and materials, then sell them at various shops for you much needed cash. The other side of this is an indirect crafting system; after you sell certain amounts of certain loot items, the Bazaar produces items and equipment for you to buy (often at less than straight shop prices). This must be the system Tales of The Abyss took and horribly mangled.
The story is pretty interesting thus far, as well. I would expect nothing less from Ivalice Alliance and Matsuno himself. It takes the usual "empire shows up and wrecks faces for the evulz" and "plucky heroes take up arms for great justice" concepts and gives them gritty realpolitik overtones. While there are references to older Square games aplenty to go with them, and this is still very much Final Fantasy, there are also subtle hints and allusions to the game that made Ivalice Alliance in the first place: Ogre Battle. The biggest one I've pulled out so far is the main character Basch.
Basch is a heroic, high-ranking retainer that has been found guilty of assassinating his liege-lord and allowing the evil Archadians to take over the place, and executed for his crimes. But wait, not is he not a regicidal fanatic, he is alive and is being held by the baddos! Let me tell you about an early, named character in Ogre Battle. He was a heroic, high-ranking retainer found guilty of assassinating his liege-lord and letting the evil Zeteginians (I probably misspelled that) to take over the place, and executed for his crimes. But wait, he's not a regicidal fanatic, he's being kept captive by the baddos! This guy's name: Ash. Think about that for a bit. Then go play Ogre Battle. That game is plan fun. And so is this one.
Now I must go, and Unleash the Harvest upon Ivalice. Give me your shinies!
Maybe it's because I've been oversaturated with Tales-style story subversion and anti-nihilism (four Tales games in a year). Maybe real life events just got me too bummed out to play something in this pretty-but-grimdark style for a while. I know that this game has something of a victory in store for the heroes (hello Dawn of The New World) but somehow I'm tired of a pretty game populated by jackasses of one stripe or another.
After some traditional dithering, I pulled out something that I've put off for far too long: Final Fantasy XII. I've had a copy (Special Edition, no less) sitting in my stack for half of forever, and damn if putting this one off was a mistake. I fired this sucker up and realized that here is what I've been looking for. The opening cutscene can be pretty much summed up as Star Wars with airships and baroque mooks. I've been given to understand that the dev team for FFXII have disavowed any inspiration by/from Star Wars; the devs are full of crap.
Anyway. This sucker is actually pretty fun. This game follows Final Fantasy's trend of desperately avoiding traditional huge cash drops from monsters, and replaced it with the Loot/Bazaar system. You go out and wreck monsters for goods and materials, then sell them at various shops for you much needed cash. The other side of this is an indirect crafting system; after you sell certain amounts of certain loot items, the Bazaar produces items and equipment for you to buy (often at less than straight shop prices). This must be the system Tales of The Abyss took and horribly mangled.
The story is pretty interesting thus far, as well. I would expect nothing less from Ivalice Alliance and Matsuno himself. It takes the usual "empire shows up and wrecks faces for the evulz" and "plucky heroes take up arms for great justice" concepts and gives them gritty realpolitik overtones. While there are references to older Square games aplenty to go with them, and this is still very much Final Fantasy, there are also subtle hints and allusions to the game that made Ivalice Alliance in the first place: Ogre Battle. The biggest one I've pulled out so far is the main character Basch.
Basch is a heroic, high-ranking retainer that has been found guilty of assassinating his liege-lord and allowing the evil Archadians to take over the place, and executed for his crimes. But wait, not is he not a regicidal fanatic, he is alive and is being held by the baddos! Let me tell you about an early, named character in Ogre Battle. He was a heroic, high-ranking retainer found guilty of assassinating his liege-lord and letting the evil Zeteginians (I probably misspelled that) to take over the place, and executed for his crimes. But wait, he's not a regicidal fanatic, he's being kept captive by the baddos! This guy's name: Ash. Think about that for a bit. Then go play Ogre Battle. That game is plan fun. And so is this one.
Now I must go, and Unleash the Harvest upon Ivalice. Give me your shinies!
Monday, November 7, 2016
Regeneration Mechanic
Well, I'm still plodding along in Tales of Symphonia. I still can't claim to have great strides in the game so far. I finally laid the smackdown on the Asgard Human Ranch. Rather than a place for Skyrim vampires to hang out and do bad things to Nords, it's a place where half-elf supremacists hang out and turn people into Soul Stones/Magicite/Cupcakes. Just to make sure you know this place is over-the-top evil, the lunatic running the place (Kvar) is pretty much what you'd get if Grand Moff Tarkin decided to be a DBZ character. I'm not making this up.
I'm still very unclear on how the whole "World Regeneration" quest is supposed to get rid of all these freaks. Even (SPOILER!) with the whole world being split in twain deal going on, I don't see much evidence of regeneration even chasing them off to the other side (end SPOILER). The only thing that makes even the least bit of sense is that they're going to update to Fourth Edition D&D rules, so they're stockpiling grimdark power-ups to take on the hordes of Dragonborn CoDzillas that are about to along. Why play anime Tanis when you can be big badass dragonman?
Oh crap I just had a bad idea. Screw half-elf supremacists, I can do one better.
Kender supremacists! In a world where even JRPG logic gets drunk and passes out in a gutter (next to his buddy cop show logic), kender were merely an irritant. Then it got worse; a foolish group of magic users undertook the impossible task of making kender likable!
Their well-meaning but depraved rituals misfired. None now live that can show the truth of the matter; there are whispers of a potion known as 'Dew of the Mountain Original Formula,' a cartographer known as 'Dora,' and a conclave of dread beings named 'the Gwar.' Perhaps a friendly purple lizard-man, perhaps a collection of used gym socks soaked in bad soy sauce. It does not matter.
It does not matter! These changed kinder have now banded together, unleashing a tide of violence and oppression rarely seen outside of gaming fora. After toppling the seats of government (literally, they stole load-bearing members of relevant castles and suchlike), they subjected leaders and prominent figures to humiliating hoopak-whackings. Those who begged for mercy were named "Squeaky Toys" and herded into ramshackle arenas to fight bizarre plushie golems. The rest of the people are now subject to horrors like drivebys (being kender, just a wagon tearing down the street making racket with hoopaks) and rampant caffeine-driven kleptomania. Artisans and craftsman are now stuck in sweatshops where they are forced to make all manner of random objects. Those who will not or cannot comply are made Squeaky Toys.
Now, a group of brave adventurers must sally forth and infiltrate the kender's mighty treetop fortresses, where none have entered and returned alive with their pants still on. Kender like belt buckles. If these heroes should fail, the Five Grand Cockatiels will lead us all to fates dark and unpleasant, as decreed by the dread being known as Jar-Jar. Seriously, everyone will have embarrassing rashes and be flung into wading pools filled with tapioca.
The heroes will have help. A resistance group formed from disgruntled Firefly fans are seeking the Chosen One, who shall be granted the power of the Ultimate Splatbook, journey to the five remaining good Huddle Houses and gain the power to cover kender in Nyquil.
Are you a bad enough dude to tranq Jar-Jar, defeat the kender hordes, and save pockets and armoires everywhere?
I'm still very unclear on how the whole "World Regeneration" quest is supposed to get rid of all these freaks. Even (SPOILER!) with the whole world being split in twain deal going on, I don't see much evidence of regeneration even chasing them off to the other side (end SPOILER). The only thing that makes even the least bit of sense is that they're going to update to Fourth Edition D&D rules, so they're stockpiling grimdark power-ups to take on the hordes of Dragonborn CoDzillas that are about to along. Why play anime Tanis when you can be big badass dragonman?
Oh crap I just had a bad idea. Screw half-elf supremacists, I can do one better.
Kender supremacists! In a world where even JRPG logic gets drunk and passes out in a gutter (next to his buddy cop show logic), kender were merely an irritant. Then it got worse; a foolish group of magic users undertook the impossible task of making kender likable!
Their well-meaning but depraved rituals misfired. None now live that can show the truth of the matter; there are whispers of a potion known as 'Dew of the Mountain Original Formula,' a cartographer known as 'Dora,' and a conclave of dread beings named 'the Gwar.' Perhaps a friendly purple lizard-man, perhaps a collection of used gym socks soaked in bad soy sauce. It does not matter.
It does not matter! These changed kinder have now banded together, unleashing a tide of violence and oppression rarely seen outside of gaming fora. After toppling the seats of government (literally, they stole load-bearing members of relevant castles and suchlike), they subjected leaders and prominent figures to humiliating hoopak-whackings. Those who begged for mercy were named "Squeaky Toys" and herded into ramshackle arenas to fight bizarre plushie golems. The rest of the people are now subject to horrors like drivebys (being kender, just a wagon tearing down the street making racket with hoopaks) and rampant caffeine-driven kleptomania. Artisans and craftsman are now stuck in sweatshops where they are forced to make all manner of random objects. Those who will not or cannot comply are made Squeaky Toys.
Now, a group of brave adventurers must sally forth and infiltrate the kender's mighty treetop fortresses, where none have entered and returned alive with their pants still on. Kender like belt buckles. If these heroes should fail, the Five Grand Cockatiels will lead us all to fates dark and unpleasant, as decreed by the dread being known as Jar-Jar. Seriously, everyone will have embarrassing rashes and be flung into wading pools filled with tapioca.
The heroes will have help. A resistance group formed from disgruntled Firefly fans are seeking the Chosen One, who shall be granted the power of the Ultimate Splatbook, journey to the five remaining good Huddle Houses and gain the power to cover kender in Nyquil.
Are you a bad enough dude to tranq Jar-Jar, defeat the kender hordes, and save pockets and armoires everywhere?
Thursday, November 3, 2016
When in Doubt, Turbo Ginsu!
Despite some unexpected obstacles, I've managed to start tearing through Tales of Symphonia in earnest. The plot hasn't really thickened up yet, but there have been curveballs throw in here and there to spice things up.
Interestingly enough, Lloyd, the primary protagonist, has already managed to grow up a fair bit so far. The development has not been that drastic yet, but it's clear that the gears in his head are actually clanking along and setting the stage for bigger and better things. Most RPGs don't really get going this early; yet another bit of Tales-style RPG refreshment.
The combat system is also finally taking off. The Unison Attack system is actually fairly useful and flashy one I figured out what I was doing. Think a real-time version of Chrono Trigger's Dual/Triple Tech system, and you get the idea. To wit: you select techniques or spells, and certain combinations trigger a special combined attack with extra flash and bonus damage.
Crafting (including the traditional cooking mechanic) is straightforward and meaningful. An unusual side-note: Materials (at least in the early game so far) are easily farmed and sell for rather high amounts of cash. This is probably the first game I've played for a while where early drop farming is practical and highly profitable, avoiding a lot of the usual resource pitfalls of RPGs. Combined with the well-done combat mechanics and intelligent encounter designs, we have excellent cash flow going on here.
More ought to be forthcoming; The Harvest Never Rests!
Interestingly enough, Lloyd, the primary protagonist, has already managed to grow up a fair bit so far. The development has not been that drastic yet, but it's clear that the gears in his head are actually clanking along and setting the stage for bigger and better things. Most RPGs don't really get going this early; yet another bit of Tales-style RPG refreshment.
The combat system is also finally taking off. The Unison Attack system is actually fairly useful and flashy one I figured out what I was doing. Think a real-time version of Chrono Trigger's Dual/Triple Tech system, and you get the idea. To wit: you select techniques or spells, and certain combinations trigger a special combined attack with extra flash and bonus damage.
Crafting (including the traditional cooking mechanic) is straightforward and meaningful. An unusual side-note: Materials (at least in the early game so far) are easily farmed and sell for rather high amounts of cash. This is probably the first game I've played for a while where early drop farming is practical and highly profitable, avoiding a lot of the usual resource pitfalls of RPGs. Combined with the well-done combat mechanics and intelligent encounter designs, we have excellent cash flow going on here.
More ought to be forthcoming; The Harvest Never Rests!
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Symphonic Harvest
Wow, that title sounds totally metal actually.
Anyway, I've been tearing my way through Tales of Symphonia in fits and spurts. I am happy to report that this game follows (though establishes and codifies might be a better term) the glorious Tales tradition of giving you the feeling of being a walking arsenal of badass flashy moves right out of the gate. It can be quite refreshing sometimes.
The story so far is the same-old save the world formula, but this is Tales, so we know it's a obfuscating veneer, with just enough hints of plot subversion to let you know that the cozy, rosy quest is on the off-ramp to Crazytown. And that guy is totally his father. Duh. Things are probably about to break loose.
The puzzles are a bit of fresh air, too. It's been a while since I've seen a block puzzle that expects you beat the crap out of the blocks before you can...do block things with them. And zapping mooks to complete a circuit is pretty amusing, too. These are very early dungeons, so who knows what sort of insanity is in store? Bats that turn into shuriken to fling at exploding barrels that set off a chain reaction to move pillars around or something. That actually sounds fun, need to remember that.
It's time to move on, and hopefully I'll have something a bit more substantive to natter on about soon. The Harvest Never Rests!
Anyway, I've been tearing my way through Tales of Symphonia in fits and spurts. I am happy to report that this game follows (though establishes and codifies might be a better term) the glorious Tales tradition of giving you the feeling of being a walking arsenal of badass flashy moves right out of the gate. It can be quite refreshing sometimes.
The story so far is the same-old save the world formula, but this is Tales, so we know it's a obfuscating veneer, with just enough hints of plot subversion to let you know that the cozy, rosy quest is on the off-ramp to Crazytown. And that guy is totally his father. Duh. Things are probably about to break loose.
The puzzles are a bit of fresh air, too. It's been a while since I've seen a block puzzle that expects you beat the crap out of the blocks before you can...do block things with them. And zapping mooks to complete a circuit is pretty amusing, too. These are very early dungeons, so who knows what sort of insanity is in store? Bats that turn into shuriken to fling at exploding barrels that set off a chain reaction to move pillars around or something. That actually sounds fun, need to remember that.
It's time to move on, and hopefully I'll have something a bit more substantive to natter on about soon. The Harvest Never Rests!
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Back To School
After a bit of dillydallying (I wonder if gamer's block is a thing), I went ahead and popped in my copy of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis.
The game is part of the Atelier series of RPGs. This one is a bit closer to the 'classic' lines than the Iris Trilogy, though so far it has a bit more mercy on the time management requirements than pre-Iris games, something that would come back in the Arland Trilogy with a vengeance (search stuff for Atelier Rorona for relevant blabbering). There seems to be a quiet debate on whether or not Khemia and its sequel count as main Atelier games, but my stance is quite simple; the game's credits refer to it as Project A9. Atelier Rorona was A11 (strongly implying no retcons or renumbering), so the devs treated this as a part of the overall main series not a gaiden game or spinoff. I don't see the point the debate anyway, since the series has multiple continuities anyway (not as bad as Tales or good old Final Fantasy, though).
My first foray into things have left a pretty positive impression. The whole game revolves around learning about alchemy at the eponymous Al-Revis Academy, which involves doing usual Atelier stuff like finding ingredients and making lots of shiny goodies to do stuff with. Practically everybody is some kind of JRPG cliché, which is fine as long as things are well done; they are thus far. Of course we get some Atelier style wackiness, plus a generous dose of awesome. The main character is Vayne (no not that Vayne), and his weapon is a cat that transforms into a magitek gauntlet/sword/punch dagger. It's a lot more badass than it sounds actually. The game hands you an assignment early on that translates to essentially "go kill freaks and loot the corpses." Screw Hogwarts, come to Al-Revis, where you learn to Unleash The Harvest upon monstrosities and produces kickass shinies from the remains. Oh, and this place is on a floating island, and comes complete with all sorts of dungeon-ey goodness to tear about in!
And I simply must mention the party member that uses alchemical Molotov cocktails for a basic attack. Come and rain death upon the hordes of wickedness! And this is the game's healer chick!
Well, the Harvest has been unleashed, and it looks to be one helluva ride this time around.
The game is part of the Atelier series of RPGs. This one is a bit closer to the 'classic' lines than the Iris Trilogy, though so far it has a bit more mercy on the time management requirements than pre-Iris games, something that would come back in the Arland Trilogy with a vengeance (search stuff for Atelier Rorona for relevant blabbering). There seems to be a quiet debate on whether or not Khemia and its sequel count as main Atelier games, but my stance is quite simple; the game's credits refer to it as Project A9. Atelier Rorona was A11 (strongly implying no retcons or renumbering), so the devs treated this as a part of the overall main series not a gaiden game or spinoff. I don't see the point the debate anyway, since the series has multiple continuities anyway (not as bad as Tales or good old Final Fantasy, though).
My first foray into things have left a pretty positive impression. The whole game revolves around learning about alchemy at the eponymous Al-Revis Academy, which involves doing usual Atelier stuff like finding ingredients and making lots of shiny goodies to do stuff with. Practically everybody is some kind of JRPG cliché, which is fine as long as things are well done; they are thus far. Of course we get some Atelier style wackiness, plus a generous dose of awesome. The main character is Vayne (no not that Vayne), and his weapon is a cat that transforms into a magitek gauntlet/sword/punch dagger. It's a lot more badass than it sounds actually. The game hands you an assignment early on that translates to essentially "go kill freaks and loot the corpses." Screw Hogwarts, come to Al-Revis, where you learn to Unleash The Harvest upon monstrosities and produces kickass shinies from the remains. Oh, and this place is on a floating island, and comes complete with all sorts of dungeon-ey goodness to tear about in!
And I simply must mention the party member that uses alchemical Molotov cocktails for a basic attack. Come and rain death upon the hordes of wickedness! And this is the game's healer chick!
Well, the Harvest has been unleashed, and it looks to be one helluva ride this time around.
Monday, October 24, 2016
A Graceful Ending
So, I went ahead and beat the main questline of Tales of Graces f. After a bit of dilly-dallying, I went ahead and decided to put the game down for the moment, leaving the extra chapter/post-game for another time.
It proved to be a pretty satisfying experience, overall. The combat was solid, with a few rough edges (though that could be partially attributed to a player not quite knowing what he was doing half the time). It got kinda button-mashey after a while; this could be a problem to some, but I really don't mind, plus I have some dexterity issues that negates some of the subtleties of combo-driven combat anyway. The story and characters wound up being fairly enjoyable, with some twists and subversions on the usual RPG clichés every player knows (Tales is good for that). I enjoyed all the little shout-outs and nods that were put in here and there. When it tried to be serious, it worked. When it tried to be funny, it usually worked. The sidequests and skits were a good source of zany antics in particular.
The crafting was fun, and a huge step in the right direction that the Tales series needed to go. Legendia was really just screwing around while making an Atelier reference that nobody got, Abyss had a system that was too obtuse to be enjoyable, and Vesperia...well, it was much better than the other two, but abtracted away a lot of questions (oh, and the lore for a lot of gear that half the craftables claimed they could be duplicated or copied, so yeah). Graces went for an "a plus b equals c" approach, and actually made a bit of logical sense most of the time. The tempering part was particularly welcome, allowing for customization and constant improvement for your gear, while also providing a steady supply of stat-boosting accessories. Throw in the Eleth Mixer, a mana-fueled Star Trek-style replicator, and you can have it rain goodies. The Harvest Has Triumphed, and rarely has it been handed showers of shiny, shiny materials to play with!
I'm still a bit undecided on what to play next. I've been doing a bit of a la carte Final Fantasy to see what pops up, but I'm also considering trying out my copy of Mana Khemia since I now have that crafting itch again. We shall see.
It proved to be a pretty satisfying experience, overall. The combat was solid, with a few rough edges (though that could be partially attributed to a player not quite knowing what he was doing half the time). It got kinda button-mashey after a while; this could be a problem to some, but I really don't mind, plus I have some dexterity issues that negates some of the subtleties of combo-driven combat anyway. The story and characters wound up being fairly enjoyable, with some twists and subversions on the usual RPG clichés every player knows (Tales is good for that). I enjoyed all the little shout-outs and nods that were put in here and there. When it tried to be serious, it worked. When it tried to be funny, it usually worked. The sidequests and skits were a good source of zany antics in particular.
The crafting was fun, and a huge step in the right direction that the Tales series needed to go. Legendia was really just screwing around while making an Atelier reference that nobody got, Abyss had a system that was too obtuse to be enjoyable, and Vesperia...well, it was much better than the other two, but abtracted away a lot of questions (oh, and the lore for a lot of gear that half the craftables claimed they could be duplicated or copied, so yeah). Graces went for an "a plus b equals c" approach, and actually made a bit of logical sense most of the time. The tempering part was particularly welcome, allowing for customization and constant improvement for your gear, while also providing a steady supply of stat-boosting accessories. Throw in the Eleth Mixer, a mana-fueled Star Trek-style replicator, and you can have it rain goodies. The Harvest Has Triumphed, and rarely has it been handed showers of shiny, shiny materials to play with!
I'm still a bit undecided on what to play next. I've been doing a bit of a la carte Final Fantasy to see what pops up, but I'm also considering trying out my copy of Mana Khemia since I now have that crafting itch again. We shall see.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Tales of Sidequestia
Wow. That's actually a lot of sidequests.
T
ales of Graces f is still going strong. I've encountered the part of the game that I both love and dread: the run up to the final boss (though it's not the actual final boss, which helps a bit), where you run around like mad doing sidequests and little errands for everybody. They've been mostly fun and harmless little things (no Final Fantasy style chicken races...I hope), that both serve to flesh out the game and give you extra bits of oomph for your combat needs. This game's version of the traditional Tales of titles system was integrated pretty well into it.
To wit: All your playable character have tons of titles to find and choose from. Traditionally, you get some for completing parts of the storyline, side missions, and performing certain actions or challenges. Also per tradition they give little bonuses or special effects; stat boosts, drop rate modifiers, costume changes are the most common ones, though you can see other things. Most of the 'good' titles have been linked to sidequests since time immemorial, and some have...vexatious...requirements. Graces f follows tradition, but takes things one step further by having each title hold sets of skills, which you acquire through skill points (think FF's ability points) and give you things like access to new artes, stat boosts, or other things like new costumes and such like. They've pretty much turned Titles into FF7's Materia on crack, since these skills are both permanent and cumulative upon being unlocked. There is a "master" level for each title that I haven't gotten to the bottom yet (I'm looking at you New Game Plus).
What this all does is encourage the player to tear around and root through everything for new titles (which is what a good RPG-er should do anyway). I have a hard time of it sometimes because I get too caught up in the storyline and saving the world, but them I remember my training and remember that the path to awesomeness lies in fiddling about and taking a break. You can literally gain power by doing things like give plushies to a little girl and hang out at a beach resort. Screw the Dark Side, join the Dork Side and channel the power of silliness!
Anyway, the gist of it is that they've managed to cram tons of sidequests, plus incentives to pursue them. And this is the base game, without going into DLC or NG+ stuff. That's scary, and kinda awesome. The Harvest Has Much To Do!
T
ales of Graces f is still going strong. I've encountered the part of the game that I both love and dread: the run up to the final boss (though it's not the actual final boss, which helps a bit), where you run around like mad doing sidequests and little errands for everybody. They've been mostly fun and harmless little things (no Final Fantasy style chicken races...I hope), that both serve to flesh out the game and give you extra bits of oomph for your combat needs. This game's version of the traditional Tales of titles system was integrated pretty well into it.
To wit: All your playable character have tons of titles to find and choose from. Traditionally, you get some for completing parts of the storyline, side missions, and performing certain actions or challenges. Also per tradition they give little bonuses or special effects; stat boosts, drop rate modifiers, costume changes are the most common ones, though you can see other things. Most of the 'good' titles have been linked to sidequests since time immemorial, and some have...vexatious...requirements. Graces f follows tradition, but takes things one step further by having each title hold sets of skills, which you acquire through skill points (think FF's ability points) and give you things like access to new artes, stat boosts, or other things like new costumes and such like. They've pretty much turned Titles into FF7's Materia on crack, since these skills are both permanent and cumulative upon being unlocked. There is a "master" level for each title that I haven't gotten to the bottom yet (I'm looking at you New Game Plus).
What this all does is encourage the player to tear around and root through everything for new titles (which is what a good RPG-er should do anyway). I have a hard time of it sometimes because I get too caught up in the storyline and saving the world, but them I remember my training and remember that the path to awesomeness lies in fiddling about and taking a break. You can literally gain power by doing things like give plushies to a little girl and hang out at a beach resort. Screw the Dark Side, join the Dork Side and channel the power of silliness!
Anyway, the gist of it is that they've managed to cram tons of sidequests, plus incentives to pursue them. And this is the base game, without going into DLC or NG+ stuff. That's scary, and kinda awesome. The Harvest Has Much To Do!
Sunday, October 9, 2016
A Backyard War
Well, it's been a while. I've managed to sink my teeth pretty well into Tales of Graces f, and I've come to some early conclusions.
First, this game still has one of the earlier thresholds before letting your characters look like total badasses in combat. As I've stated before, most RPGs make you slog through earning the right to cast a spell or using items and suchlike, maybe getting one flashy move or something for the first few hours (excluding dedicated grinding or other 'gamey' techniques). Graces f rewards a smart player with all sorts of sublime deadliness right out of the gate. I honestly haven't seen early-game moves this flashy--or effective--outside of Chrono Trigger (which still a while to get really going) or Chrono Cross (which has a bigger emphasis on flash compared to effectiveness). It's pretty much button mashing with a few layers of complexity, but dang those mooks really go whirr in the blender here.
Second, the crafting system is simple, but pretty deep. Tales games and The Harvest haven't really intersected all that well (especially Abyss, that system was crappy and obtuse), but here we've got ourselves a good bit of fun. What makes things interesting is that the system includes recipes for all sorts of 'cashable' items, effectively knick-knacks you make from monster bits and sell off for a profit. Another point is that there is a gradual improvement/tempering system for weapons and primary armor. You take special materials called 'shards' and add them to a piece of gear, then you temper the piece in combat, then you combine two similar pieces (weapon/weapon or armor/armor) which results in gem you can equip for various effects, and you can take the original equipment and improve them further. This can go on for about as long as you want, resulting in lots of special accessories and gear with stat-lines way above baseline. Add all the other parts and you've got an system truly worthy of the craft-geek.
Finally, this game is just so, well, pretty. I haven't really seen a game that showed off the PS3 compared to earlier--or even contemporary--platforms, and this game is a real gem. I know its a remake of a Wii game, but Namco but their chance to update and polish this game to good use. the backgrounds are lush, characters are agreeable to look at, and even the monsters are something to see. Tales has a tradition of monsters that try to put novelty over visual appeal, and here they finally reached a good balance that I haven't really seen since Tales of Legendia, home of such craziness like gigantic, man-eating beds and turtles with intrinsic, incorporated artillery pieces in their shells. I haven't found anything so wacky yet, but we shall see.
Why didn't they release a guide? Oh well, The Harvest Never Rests.
First, this game still has one of the earlier thresholds before letting your characters look like total badasses in combat. As I've stated before, most RPGs make you slog through earning the right to cast a spell or using items and suchlike, maybe getting one flashy move or something for the first few hours (excluding dedicated grinding or other 'gamey' techniques). Graces f rewards a smart player with all sorts of sublime deadliness right out of the gate. I honestly haven't seen early-game moves this flashy--or effective--outside of Chrono Trigger (which still a while to get really going) or Chrono Cross (which has a bigger emphasis on flash compared to effectiveness). It's pretty much button mashing with a few layers of complexity, but dang those mooks really go whirr in the blender here.
Second, the crafting system is simple, but pretty deep. Tales games and The Harvest haven't really intersected all that well (especially Abyss, that system was crappy and obtuse), but here we've got ourselves a good bit of fun. What makes things interesting is that the system includes recipes for all sorts of 'cashable' items, effectively knick-knacks you make from monster bits and sell off for a profit. Another point is that there is a gradual improvement/tempering system for weapons and primary armor. You take special materials called 'shards' and add them to a piece of gear, then you temper the piece in combat, then you combine two similar pieces (weapon/weapon or armor/armor) which results in gem you can equip for various effects, and you can take the original equipment and improve them further. This can go on for about as long as you want, resulting in lots of special accessories and gear with stat-lines way above baseline. Add all the other parts and you've got an system truly worthy of the craft-geek.
Finally, this game is just so, well, pretty. I haven't really seen a game that showed off the PS3 compared to earlier--or even contemporary--platforms, and this game is a real gem. I know its a remake of a Wii game, but Namco but their chance to update and polish this game to good use. the backgrounds are lush, characters are agreeable to look at, and even the monsters are something to see. Tales has a tradition of monsters that try to put novelty over visual appeal, and here they finally reached a good balance that I haven't really seen since Tales of Legendia, home of such craziness like gigantic, man-eating beds and turtles with intrinsic, incorporated artillery pieces in their shells. I haven't found anything so wacky yet, but we shall see.
Why didn't they release a guide? Oh well, The Harvest Never Rests.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Grace Under Fire
So, I finally had a chance to play Tales of Graces F. It's actually been pretty fun so far. I have to say that this game has the distinction of making the characters look like total badasses right out of the gate.
Most games, especially RPGs, have a tendency to make you slog through techniques like "Slash The Sword Once," "Slash Your Sword A Few Times," and "Chug A Potion" for a good five or ten hours before giving the flashy death moves out. Not so with Tales of Graces F! While most of the Tales series has a habit of giving you at least a few flashy--and useful--moves and spells early on, this one has decided to double down and hand you monster-mulchers even earlier, enough so that I'm a bit concerned to see what this game's idea of high-end power looks like.
The crafting system is a bit of a fresh air two. The system relies on two separate, but intimately linked, mechanics. The first is Dualize, which is a variation on the "Item A plus Item B equals Item C" crafting tradition, with the added wrinkle that there are quite a few combinations and recipe chains to be found, plus this is where the equipment customization that traditional Tales cooking lives. The second is the Eleth Mixer, which is effectively a magitek equivalent of a Star Trek replicator. You charge it Eleth (aka mana) and it randomly produces items. The more items the Mixer creates, the bigger a charge it can hold, and the more items you can program in at the same time. It's really useful for duplicating materials for Dualizing, and (making the Star Trek parallels even stronger) especially for popping out meals for instant healing and effects in mid-combat.
The only real gripe I have thus far is much less about the game itself than a related decision. Some luminous soul at Namco did not see fit to release--or license--an official strategy guide. It wouldn't be such a hassle if there wasn't just so many little bits and details everywhere to deal with, especially with the title system (which is where you get your abilities and moves) and crafting. I'm not much fond of playing an RPG completely blind (especially a modern JRPG), and I have the extra nerdy habit of reading them at work during break times. There always seem to be little tidbits to be found about the world-building and item lore in a good guide, and I miss that.
Oh, well, Release The Harvest anyway!
Most games, especially RPGs, have a tendency to make you slog through techniques like "Slash The Sword Once," "Slash Your Sword A Few Times," and "Chug A Potion" for a good five or ten hours before giving the flashy death moves out. Not so with Tales of Graces F! While most of the Tales series has a habit of giving you at least a few flashy--and useful--moves and spells early on, this one has decided to double down and hand you monster-mulchers even earlier, enough so that I'm a bit concerned to see what this game's idea of high-end power looks like.
The crafting system is a bit of a fresh air two. The system relies on two separate, but intimately linked, mechanics. The first is Dualize, which is a variation on the "Item A plus Item B equals Item C" crafting tradition, with the added wrinkle that there are quite a few combinations and recipe chains to be found, plus this is where the equipment customization that traditional Tales cooking lives. The second is the Eleth Mixer, which is effectively a magitek equivalent of a Star Trek replicator. You charge it Eleth (aka mana) and it randomly produces items. The more items the Mixer creates, the bigger a charge it can hold, and the more items you can program in at the same time. It's really useful for duplicating materials for Dualizing, and (making the Star Trek parallels even stronger) especially for popping out meals for instant healing and effects in mid-combat.
The only real gripe I have thus far is much less about the game itself than a related decision. Some luminous soul at Namco did not see fit to release--or license--an official strategy guide. It wouldn't be such a hassle if there wasn't just so many little bits and details everywhere to deal with, especially with the title system (which is where you get your abilities and moves) and crafting. I'm not much fond of playing an RPG completely blind (especially a modern JRPG), and I have the extra nerdy habit of reading them at work during break times. There always seem to be little tidbits to be found about the world-building and item lore in a good guide, and I miss that.
Oh, well, Release The Harvest anyway!
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Bloodbath & Beyond
Well, put quite simply, I decided I needed a break from all the JRPG nuttiness that I've been tearing my way through for a couple of weeks or so. I started going through the PS3 edition of Tales of Symphonia, but I couldn't build up enough steam to actually go through my usual RamPaGe.
After a bit of dithering, I put in my old, banged up copy of Borderlands 2 again. It's funny; this is the only FPS I've ever really gotten obsessed over, which considering its pretty much FPS: The RPG, says a lot.
There's still plenty of shoot-and-loot awesomeness to be had. The baddies are still full of hilarity and sociopathy, like if they grabbed a pack of deranged forum-goers and dumped them on a planet with a multiple metric craptonnes of guns and ammo and functional immortality. It's one of those games you just have to experience, even without being a fan of any of the contributing genres and themes of the game. You literally can spend hours tearing around shooting Mad Max extras with a gun that shoots acid lasers (!) while they scream about meat bicycles and demanding their hitpoints back at the top of their lungs.
Ever wanted to play a game that has Ork Shoota guns? Welcome to the Torgue family, boys and girls! Want to get angry sharkfaced shotguns that shoot fire? Bandits can give you one! Burst-fire grenade launchers? Dahl has you covered! Elemental weapons that make the Covenant plasma family look like pea-shooters? Welcome to deadly elegance of Maliwan! Guns that get more accurate as you fire? Hyperion, baby! Old-school elephant guns capable of one-shotting the biggest monstrosity? Come on down and get you a Jakobs! Guns that turn into grenades? Tediore has a deal for you! More dakka? Vladof! Vladof! VLADOF!
And this is in the vanilla game. DLC gives you stuff like fighting a giant metal T-Rex on wheels, sniper rifles that rain elemental doom like flowers of death, throwing down with a giant snowman to a metal cover of Carol of The Bells, and guns that fire exploding swords!
Yeah, I'm a fan.
After a bit of dithering, I put in my old, banged up copy of Borderlands 2 again. It's funny; this is the only FPS I've ever really gotten obsessed over, which considering its pretty much FPS: The RPG, says a lot.
There's still plenty of shoot-and-loot awesomeness to be had. The baddies are still full of hilarity and sociopathy, like if they grabbed a pack of deranged forum-goers and dumped them on a planet with a multiple metric craptonnes of guns and ammo and functional immortality. It's one of those games you just have to experience, even without being a fan of any of the contributing genres and themes of the game. You literally can spend hours tearing around shooting Mad Max extras with a gun that shoots acid lasers (!) while they scream about meat bicycles and demanding their hitpoints back at the top of their lungs.
Ever wanted to play a game that has Ork Shoota guns? Welcome to the Torgue family, boys and girls! Want to get angry sharkfaced shotguns that shoot fire? Bandits can give you one! Burst-fire grenade launchers? Dahl has you covered! Elemental weapons that make the Covenant plasma family look like pea-shooters? Welcome to deadly elegance of Maliwan! Guns that get more accurate as you fire? Hyperion, baby! Old-school elephant guns capable of one-shotting the biggest monstrosity? Come on down and get you a Jakobs! Guns that turn into grenades? Tediore has a deal for you! More dakka? Vladof! Vladof! VLADOF!
And this is in the vanilla game. DLC gives you stuff like fighting a giant metal T-Rex on wheels, sniper rifles that rain elemental doom like flowers of death, throwing down with a giant snowman to a metal cover of Carol of The Bells, and guns that fire exploding swords!
Yeah, I'm a fan.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
An Ocean of Mud
So.
It took some time for me to digest things, but I managed to beat Wild ARMs 2 last Tuesday, and it's time for the final thoughts before I pick another game to take on.
The ending was actually pretty good, only marred by the age-old tradition of cutscenes overriding player input when it comes to text boxes. It came close to turning a fairly nice closing sequence (everything gets wrapped up fairly tightly, casualties are light and fairly deserved) into a boring set of static screens. An interesting thing is that except for the actual credits, everything was done using the in-game engine, which could be a turn-off to some but helped tie things nicely in my opinion.
SPOILERS: The final boss was an absolute blast, being the evil demon of doom Lord Blazer, that your main character Ashley channels for transformations Breath of Fire style (down to having blue hair). In a bit of plot escalation done right, he pops up right after you manage to wax the Kuiper Belt (AKA Lavos' granddaddy) and then Ashley channels the local anime Excalibur and, quite frankly, wrecks Blazer's face. It was a lot like final Power Rangers episode, and got further boosted by various other characters showing up to help fuel your best super move and say uplifting stuff. Eat your heart out, Final Fantasy IV! End Spoilers.
Anyway, it all works out in the end. I'm not particularly keen on trying out the local collection of superbosses, mostly because they require something like 5-10 hours of extra grinding that I flat don't have the patience for.
So, in conclusion, Wild ARMs 2 is a fun little game, and deserves attention from anybody looking to see what old-school Playstation RPG goodness was all about. It is a little rough around the edges (the graphics are overall fairly meh, the Wild West influences slowly dwindled to nil in only a few hours in favor of the usual JRPG clichés), but it works out pretty damned well. The puzzles were actually a nice touch, giving much-needed brain-stimulation to what usually amounts to monster mazes. the story actually made use of some tired elements in a fine way, giving them new life and taking them to new heights (a frickin' invading evil dimension, not just eldritch legions, a hostile alternate universe).
Yes, it was very enjoyable all around. The Harvest Has Triumphed!
It took some time for me to digest things, but I managed to beat Wild ARMs 2 last Tuesday, and it's time for the final thoughts before I pick another game to take on.
The ending was actually pretty good, only marred by the age-old tradition of cutscenes overriding player input when it comes to text boxes. It came close to turning a fairly nice closing sequence (everything gets wrapped up fairly tightly, casualties are light and fairly deserved) into a boring set of static screens. An interesting thing is that except for the actual credits, everything was done using the in-game engine, which could be a turn-off to some but helped tie things nicely in my opinion.
SPOILERS: The final boss was an absolute blast, being the evil demon of doom Lord Blazer, that your main character Ashley channels for transformations Breath of Fire style (down to having blue hair). In a bit of plot escalation done right, he pops up right after you manage to wax the Kuiper Belt (AKA Lavos' granddaddy) and then Ashley channels the local anime Excalibur and, quite frankly, wrecks Blazer's face. It was a lot like final Power Rangers episode, and got further boosted by various other characters showing up to help fuel your best super move and say uplifting stuff. Eat your heart out, Final Fantasy IV! End Spoilers.
Anyway, it all works out in the end. I'm not particularly keen on trying out the local collection of superbosses, mostly because they require something like 5-10 hours of extra grinding that I flat don't have the patience for.
So, in conclusion, Wild ARMs 2 is a fun little game, and deserves attention from anybody looking to see what old-school Playstation RPG goodness was all about. It is a little rough around the edges (the graphics are overall fairly meh, the Wild West influences slowly dwindled to nil in only a few hours in favor of the usual JRPG clichés), but it works out pretty damned well. The puzzles were actually a nice touch, giving much-needed brain-stimulation to what usually amounts to monster mazes. the story actually made use of some tired elements in a fine way, giving them new life and taking them to new heights (a frickin' invading evil dimension, not just eldritch legions, a hostile alternate universe).
Yes, it was very enjoyable all around. The Harvest Has Triumphed!
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Final Fantasy Sidequests Advance
Well, the end of Wild ARMs 2 is finally nigh, and I plan to pull off a victory sometime tomorrow. I've decided to take a bit of a break and pander to my reader.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It has been said that this was the herald of the end for Sqaure's golden goose and flagship series. That this was an abomination before gamers. Hell, this is the one game that I can recall triggering grown men in real life devolving into pissy internet fanboys over.
The nay-sayers are fools.
FFTA is just plain fun, and a fine example of handheld RPG goodness. It tossed out a lot of the annoyances and wonky mechanics that the original Final Fantasy Tactics, while keeping and polishing the better parts.
It gave us all sorts of new and improved jobs/classes. Granted, they're kind of samey after a while, but any game that hands us Paladins and Assassins without jumping through hoops is worthy of attention, much less things like good Archers and Gunners (at least in Final Fantasy, the ones in the Ogre Battle series are scary) and 'flavor' classes that are actually viable. Throw in the fact that you have four new races to play with, further stepping away from the 'homo sapiens only club' that Final Fantasy was known for, and your band of blood-crazed warrior mages just got even more awesome.
Alright, the law system is kinda crap, and the story tends to come across like a PBS producer horked down two bottles of Nyquil before an ill-fated attempt to write a Sesame Street/Final Fantasy crossover which through delirium-fueled evil magic made it to a desk at Square Enix. There does seem to be some scary logic to the whole setting, which I'll talk about below.
The game is pretty much Sidequest: The Game, and I'm alright with that, to be honest. I like it a lot, actually. You actually get to run a clan of adventurers about doing deeds of daring do, and wind up with all sorts of nifty goodies and abilities doing so. There is an 'implied' crafting system; basically you go and fetch materials in missions and then do missions where those materials are refined and then more missions where you make the goodies. Everything got little blurbs of lore, which warmed my little nerdy heart. I like finding actual details about my stuff outside of plain stats. All in all, it's loads of fun, wrapped up in nice bite-sized chunks.
Remember that in FFT, thieves sucked? How that to be even remotely effective in snatching equipment, you had to do something like five hours of prep, then get into battle and still rely on clunky mechanics and positive thinking? Advance did away with all that. Stealing is close to broken rights out of the box, and gets broken quickly thereafter. Remember how status effect spells retained their traditional uselessness (except for Seal Evil, that was fun)? Advance made them efficient and worthwhile. Combine the two and you how have a game that encourages you to literally rob people blind.
Considering how battlefield larceny is simple and lucrative, it's little wonder that this version of Ivalice is pretty much Saint's Row Final Fantasy Edition. While it's loads of fun to play in, we have an empire that has a veneer of tyrannical monarchy over what amounts of an ever shifting socio-economic landscape dominated by a patchwork of armed gangs engages in all sorts of brigandry. Seriously, its like what would happen if the Italian States were run by Jack Sparrow (granted, some of those guys were just as crazy and much much worse). Screw the philosophical arguments, anybody not a named character was having a crappy and likely short life. That said, it's an awful lot of fun to tear though, and at least it isn't Filgaia, Sanctuary, or any planet in 40k ever.
Oh, and you can build a Black Mage that dual-wields magic wands to beat things to death, without much effort. Fear the Muscle Wizard!
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It has been said that this was the herald of the end for Sqaure's golden goose and flagship series. That this was an abomination before gamers. Hell, this is the one game that I can recall triggering grown men in real life devolving into pissy internet fanboys over.
The nay-sayers are fools.
FFTA is just plain fun, and a fine example of handheld RPG goodness. It tossed out a lot of the annoyances and wonky mechanics that the original Final Fantasy Tactics, while keeping and polishing the better parts.
It gave us all sorts of new and improved jobs/classes. Granted, they're kind of samey after a while, but any game that hands us Paladins and Assassins without jumping through hoops is worthy of attention, much less things like good Archers and Gunners (at least in Final Fantasy, the ones in the Ogre Battle series are scary) and 'flavor' classes that are actually viable. Throw in the fact that you have four new races to play with, further stepping away from the 'homo sapiens only club' that Final Fantasy was known for, and your band of blood-crazed warrior mages just got even more awesome.
Alright, the law system is kinda crap, and the story tends to come across like a PBS producer horked down two bottles of Nyquil before an ill-fated attempt to write a Sesame Street/Final Fantasy crossover which through delirium-fueled evil magic made it to a desk at Square Enix. There does seem to be some scary logic to the whole setting, which I'll talk about below.
The game is pretty much Sidequest: The Game, and I'm alright with that, to be honest. I like it a lot, actually. You actually get to run a clan of adventurers about doing deeds of daring do, and wind up with all sorts of nifty goodies and abilities doing so. There is an 'implied' crafting system; basically you go and fetch materials in missions and then do missions where those materials are refined and then more missions where you make the goodies. Everything got little blurbs of lore, which warmed my little nerdy heart. I like finding actual details about my stuff outside of plain stats. All in all, it's loads of fun, wrapped up in nice bite-sized chunks.
Remember that in FFT, thieves sucked? How that to be even remotely effective in snatching equipment, you had to do something like five hours of prep, then get into battle and still rely on clunky mechanics and positive thinking? Advance did away with all that. Stealing is close to broken rights out of the box, and gets broken quickly thereafter. Remember how status effect spells retained their traditional uselessness (except for Seal Evil, that was fun)? Advance made them efficient and worthwhile. Combine the two and you how have a game that encourages you to literally rob people blind.
Considering how battlefield larceny is simple and lucrative, it's little wonder that this version of Ivalice is pretty much Saint's Row Final Fantasy Edition. While it's loads of fun to play in, we have an empire that has a veneer of tyrannical monarchy over what amounts of an ever shifting socio-economic landscape dominated by a patchwork of armed gangs engages in all sorts of brigandry. Seriously, its like what would happen if the Italian States were run by Jack Sparrow (granted, some of those guys were just as crazy and much much worse). Screw the philosophical arguments, anybody not a named character was having a crappy and likely short life. That said, it's an awful lot of fun to tear though, and at least it isn't Filgaia, Sanctuary, or any planet in 40k ever.
Oh, and you can build a Black Mage that dual-wields magic wands to beat things to death, without much effort. Fear the Muscle Wizard!
Friday, September 2, 2016
Boss Fight At High Noon
Or,y'know, not.
The Wild ARMs 2 campaign is going quite smoothly again. This game is something else; I find so much that I like, then it remembers its a PS1-era RPG and finds a way to remind me. A list of examples:
The Setting
We have a combination of Post-apocalypse rebuilding and Wild West aesthetics, giving us crazy awesome stuff like Texas Rangers that ride around in troop trucks and carry rifles that have huge, permanently attached bayonets, Rambo-esque desperados that use the kind of artillery rarely seen outside of bullet hells, and dusty clapboard mining towns that revolve around psycho-sensitive ore. We even get crazy awesome stuff like sentient transforming dragon mecha from another dimension. The primary threat? It's a damn world-eating alternate universe, as in an actual universe that devours worlds. Eat your heart out, Galactus.
Unfortunately, the whole Wild West thing takes a back seat to the usual legion of RPG stuff, like the standard wizard types that need care and feeding, the standard rival-but-not-really 'mysterious wanderer' party member, the standard loads of ancient ruins, and the gobs of Magitek goodies that the bad guys get. This game heads straight into the usual formulas way too often. But even then, its does it very well, and we have plenty of unique concepts and crazy awesome to play with.
The Gameplay
Holy crap, an RPG with good dungeon puzzles! Even the cliché puzzles are done interestingly, and sticking in Zelda-like tools like bombs and grappling hooks and wands is a stroke of genius. The combat portions are done very well. Its a little too easy for veteran RPG players, but giving us turn based combat that gives you sword-and-sorcery goodness and gun-toting explosive death at the same time is something special. The "Force Point" system is a very good take on the old mana meter. In short, this is fun stuff.
Unfortunately, there are minor but very annoying flaws. The game opted for both "stop at the edge" and "fall right off like a moron" when it comes to being at the edge of platforms. This makes some of the timing-centered puzzles infuriating, especially with the wonky old-school controls. The game's puzzles have garnered an somewhat evil reputation, but mostly undeserved. There are, however, a bit too many of the old "what the hell do I do to get to the next town/dungeon" problems. I don't need linear, spoon-fed questing, but leaving the player high and dry because you forgot about an incidental part of a dungeon you conquered twenty or more hours ago is unacceptable.
Well, that was a bit of a mouthful. I haven't reached a verdict just yet, though as it stands the campaign will be concluded in a week or two (hopefully sooner) and I'll likely fall on the positive side of the spectrum. I've already decided to put Wild ARMs 3 on my watch list, since it seems to be the closest we'll get to the Good, The Bad, and The Random Encounter RPG the series is known for. The Harvest Never Rests!
The Wild ARMs 2 campaign is going quite smoothly again. This game is something else; I find so much that I like, then it remembers its a PS1-era RPG and finds a way to remind me. A list of examples:
The Setting
We have a combination of Post-apocalypse rebuilding and Wild West aesthetics, giving us crazy awesome stuff like Texas Rangers that ride around in troop trucks and carry rifles that have huge, permanently attached bayonets, Rambo-esque desperados that use the kind of artillery rarely seen outside of bullet hells, and dusty clapboard mining towns that revolve around psycho-sensitive ore. We even get crazy awesome stuff like sentient transforming dragon mecha from another dimension. The primary threat? It's a damn world-eating alternate universe, as in an actual universe that devours worlds. Eat your heart out, Galactus.
Unfortunately, the whole Wild West thing takes a back seat to the usual legion of RPG stuff, like the standard wizard types that need care and feeding, the standard rival-but-not-really 'mysterious wanderer' party member, the standard loads of ancient ruins, and the gobs of Magitek goodies that the bad guys get. This game heads straight into the usual formulas way too often. But even then, its does it very well, and we have plenty of unique concepts and crazy awesome to play with.
The Gameplay
Holy crap, an RPG with good dungeon puzzles! Even the cliché puzzles are done interestingly, and sticking in Zelda-like tools like bombs and grappling hooks and wands is a stroke of genius. The combat portions are done very well. Its a little too easy for veteran RPG players, but giving us turn based combat that gives you sword-and-sorcery goodness and gun-toting explosive death at the same time is something special. The "Force Point" system is a very good take on the old mana meter. In short, this is fun stuff.
Unfortunately, there are minor but very annoying flaws. The game opted for both "stop at the edge" and "fall right off like a moron" when it comes to being at the edge of platforms. This makes some of the timing-centered puzzles infuriating, especially with the wonky old-school controls. The game's puzzles have garnered an somewhat evil reputation, but mostly undeserved. There are, however, a bit too many of the old "what the hell do I do to get to the next town/dungeon" problems. I don't need linear, spoon-fed questing, but leaving the player high and dry because you forgot about an incidental part of a dungeon you conquered twenty or more hours ago is unacceptable.
Well, that was a bit of a mouthful. I haven't reached a verdict just yet, though as it stands the campaign will be concluded in a week or two (hopefully sooner) and I'll likely fall on the positive side of the spectrum. I've already decided to put Wild ARMs 3 on my watch list, since it seems to be the closest we'll get to the Good, The Bad, and The Random Encounter RPG the series is known for. The Harvest Never Rests!
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Will You Defeat Them, Your Demons?
Well, the Wild ARMs 2 campaign is proceeding quite well. It's been a fun ride so far, and it still hasn't really let up yet.
The story has come fairly close to the climax, with the Big Bad Evil Guy and his minion now utterly crushed. But we've got plenty of disc space to fill, so we have a big nasty impeding nuclear holocaust to deal with. There was a fair bit of buildup, with the baddos making off with a forbidden nuclear weapon and the diplomatic scene going fairly berserk.
SPOILER ALERT: The 'nuclear weapon' isn't missile or bomb or even a rigged bit of fissile material. They went to great lengths to disguise it for the reveal, but my intel has uncovered that its a damn nuclear-breathing dragon, and it's gonna rampage and burninate the earth Godzilla-style. The extra crazy awesome is that there is a second nuclear dragon out there and you get to use as an air vehicle. That's right, the game that gives you a flying mansion as an airship decided to give you a frickin' nuclear-powered avatar of flashy death. I love this stuff. END SPOILERS
The main character has finally figured out that the whole having a demon inside you to give you powers is kinda messed up, and we'll see whether or not we get any angst. My money's on a big no, followed by more gunslinging antics and quasi-sentai transformations and theme overrides. We shall see. The Harvest Never Rests!
The story has come fairly close to the climax, with the Big Bad Evil Guy and his minion now utterly crushed. But we've got plenty of disc space to fill, so we have a big nasty impeding nuclear holocaust to deal with. There was a fair bit of buildup, with the baddos making off with a forbidden nuclear weapon and the diplomatic scene going fairly berserk.
SPOILER ALERT: The 'nuclear weapon' isn't missile or bomb or even a rigged bit of fissile material. They went to great lengths to disguise it for the reveal, but my intel has uncovered that its a damn nuclear-breathing dragon, and it's gonna rampage and burninate the earth Godzilla-style. The extra crazy awesome is that there is a second nuclear dragon out there and you get to use as an air vehicle. That's right, the game that gives you a flying mansion as an airship decided to give you a frickin' nuclear-powered avatar of flashy death. I love this stuff. END SPOILERS
The main character has finally figured out that the whole having a demon inside you to give you powers is kinda messed up, and we'll see whether or not we get any angst. My money's on a big no, followed by more gunslinging antics and quasi-sentai transformations and theme overrides. We shall see. The Harvest Never Rests!
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Pillars o' Doom
Finally, I've gotten back in the saddle and started to play Wild ARMs 2 again. It's a lot easier to pick up and play again that I first believed. Most RPGs (especially from the PS1 era) have a nasty habit of leaving you very confused if you try to put it down for more than a day or so. This game is an exception; the hint system in place is quite useful, and the maps are just busy enough to work through.
Overall, the game is going very well. There are some surprise difficulty spikes, but they actually serve to keep you on your toes more often than not. The titular ARMs mechanic is actually improving, giving you all sorts of firearm-based goodness to play around with and harvest the unworthy. The magic system is also pretty functional; the 'Crest' sub-set giving you limited-in-quantity but rewritable spells, while the 'Guardian' subset giving you unlockables based on how many monster kills your summoner-dude gets while equipped with given elemental Guardian. There is a third subset, but I haven't done the necessary steps to unleash it just yet. We shall see.
The whole Guardian concept is also worth noting. Your equipment is the usual weapon plus armor affair, with a slot for the usual accessories like status-immunity items, minor buffs, or even giving basic attacks elemental properties. Each character also has a Guardian slot, which acts much like Final Fantasy summon monsters. Each Guardian boots certain stats, and after a certain point in the storyline, is summonable for a large (but reasonable) cost in the game's take on MP. They're your usual flashy affair, and tend to be very cost-effective. The animations are also fairly nice, with the 'attack' summons being reminiscent of single portions of the fabled Knights of The Round, and a healing summon that looks like somebody took Secret of Mana's Flammie and turned it into a G4 pony. I'm not kidding.
The storyline is alright, being a twist on the usual RPG formula. That said, there are some unexpected moments here and there. Tim, your summoner, is to be used as some sort of sacrifice by his native village. Instead of telling him what an honor it is and how the gods think he's awesomesauce, they pretty much just press-gang him and then outright order him to die. He's all of ten years old by the way. Fortunately things are sorted out and he gets to be part of your flashy doom squad. Our villagers realize they're being assholes, which makes it a bit easier to swallow.
All in all, this is a worthy addition to the RPG specialist's collection, and I'm sorry that I never tried this series out before. I wound up with one game or another in the series a long time ago, and never touched it; not sure why, probably because I have to make up my mind to play a new game and get the jibblies when I don't have access to a guide. Yeah, I'm a total noob wuss like that sometimes.
Overall, the game is going very well. There are some surprise difficulty spikes, but they actually serve to keep you on your toes more often than not. The titular ARMs mechanic is actually improving, giving you all sorts of firearm-based goodness to play around with and harvest the unworthy. The magic system is also pretty functional; the 'Crest' sub-set giving you limited-in-quantity but rewritable spells, while the 'Guardian' subset giving you unlockables based on how many monster kills your summoner-dude gets while equipped with given elemental Guardian. There is a third subset, but I haven't done the necessary steps to unleash it just yet. We shall see.
The whole Guardian concept is also worth noting. Your equipment is the usual weapon plus armor affair, with a slot for the usual accessories like status-immunity items, minor buffs, or even giving basic attacks elemental properties. Each character also has a Guardian slot, which acts much like Final Fantasy summon monsters. Each Guardian boots certain stats, and after a certain point in the storyline, is summonable for a large (but reasonable) cost in the game's take on MP. They're your usual flashy affair, and tend to be very cost-effective. The animations are also fairly nice, with the 'attack' summons being reminiscent of single portions of the fabled Knights of The Round, and a healing summon that looks like somebody took Secret of Mana's Flammie and turned it into a G4 pony. I'm not kidding.
The storyline is alright, being a twist on the usual RPG formula. That said, there are some unexpected moments here and there. Tim, your summoner, is to be used as some sort of sacrifice by his native village. Instead of telling him what an honor it is and how the gods think he's awesomesauce, they pretty much just press-gang him and then outright order him to die. He's all of ten years old by the way. Fortunately things are sorted out and he gets to be part of your flashy doom squad. Our villagers realize they're being assholes, which makes it a bit easier to swallow.
All in all, this is a worthy addition to the RPG specialist's collection, and I'm sorry that I never tried this series out before. I wound up with one game or another in the series a long time ago, and never touched it; not sure why, probably because I have to make up my mind to play a new game and get the jibblies when I don't have access to a guide. Yeah, I'm a total noob wuss like that sometimes.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Fistful of Gella
Well, things seem to be moving apace in Wild ARMs 2. It's been a while since I've utterly torn through a PS1-era RPG, but that's what's happening apparently.
There's lots of good things in this game. The enemies are (mostly) pretty damned freakish, and while they are your standard polygonal garbage of the time, they actually are something to look at; even compared to big names like Final Fantasy VII, they hold their own quite well. Unfortunately, most spells and spell-like effects are pretty lackluster from a graphics standpoint, and this is exacerbated by technical hiccups and oddities (there seems to be a very short but noticeable loading time for each effect, multi-target attacks have a habit of staggered sequence instead of one 'big boom' effect, onscreen damage results are also staggered). The ARMs weapon concepts are realized fairy well, making for 'big gun' options and actually needing a bit of strategy to work properly.
The dungeons are mostly enjoyable to wander through. The puzzles tend to be straightforward without feeling dumbed down. There are a few here and there that are quite obtuse, with one in particular being both absurdly simple and maddeningly off-the-wall. SPOILER WARNING: There comes a point where the games wants you to listen to enemy communications, but doesn't tell you how (and neither does the official guide). The solution is to walk up to various locked doors and use the 'call' option from your menu. END SPOILERS. All I can really say is that old RPG problems are old, and even players like me that grew up with the older style and its inherent frustrations can smack into walls like this fairly easily.
Oh, and this game likes to use 'tools' (think Zelda-style gear, but with its own flair) for puzzles. Some of them are about what you'd think (Fire Rod, Freeze Rod, and Bombs do what you think they do), with a throwing knife and a familiar being fairly creative variations on things. Hilariously, one 'tool' is the ability to deliver a mighty kick. But even it pales compared to the item radar tool, the aptly named Booty Call. Yes, that's right, if you can't find something, it's time for a Booty Call!
On that note, it's time to go. The Harvest Never Rests!
There's lots of good things in this game. The enemies are (mostly) pretty damned freakish, and while they are your standard polygonal garbage of the time, they actually are something to look at; even compared to big names like Final Fantasy VII, they hold their own quite well. Unfortunately, most spells and spell-like effects are pretty lackluster from a graphics standpoint, and this is exacerbated by technical hiccups and oddities (there seems to be a very short but noticeable loading time for each effect, multi-target attacks have a habit of staggered sequence instead of one 'big boom' effect, onscreen damage results are also staggered). The ARMs weapon concepts are realized fairy well, making for 'big gun' options and actually needing a bit of strategy to work properly.
The dungeons are mostly enjoyable to wander through. The puzzles tend to be straightforward without feeling dumbed down. There are a few here and there that are quite obtuse, with one in particular being both absurdly simple and maddeningly off-the-wall. SPOILER WARNING: There comes a point where the games wants you to listen to enemy communications, but doesn't tell you how (and neither does the official guide). The solution is to walk up to various locked doors and use the 'call' option from your menu. END SPOILERS. All I can really say is that old RPG problems are old, and even players like me that grew up with the older style and its inherent frustrations can smack into walls like this fairly easily.
Oh, and this game likes to use 'tools' (think Zelda-style gear, but with its own flair) for puzzles. Some of them are about what you'd think (Fire Rod, Freeze Rod, and Bombs do what you think they do), with a throwing knife and a familiar being fairly creative variations on things. Hilariously, one 'tool' is the ability to deliver a mighty kick. But even it pales compared to the item radar tool, the aptly named Booty Call. Yes, that's right, if you can't find something, it's time for a Booty Call!
On that note, it's time to go. The Harvest Never Rests!
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
I Don't Feel Like Writing Anything
So have a picture of my plushie on top of a pile of awesomeness.
Maybe I should get a tumblr.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The Good, The Bad, And The ARMS
After a fair bit of dithering, I decided to take a break from FFVII and start working on my huge backlog of RPGs I have on hand. It was hilariously pathetic; it took something like channeling the spirit of the nerdy warrior to commit an act of will to pick the damn thing, too.
I popped in Wild ARMS: 2nd Ignition, a fairly offbeat PS1 roleplayer. Like a lot of good games (and good fictional media in general) the Wild ARMS series takes a ludicrous concept and makes it frickin' awesome. In this case, the concept is "Wild West nonsense meets JRPG nonsense, also the world went kablooie at some point." A signature example is a piece of artwork done for Wild ARMS 2, with a bunch of cowboy types trying to pull an anime'd up Sword in The Stone. I'll try to find it online for your edification at some point; it's something to see.
Anyway, you get to tear about the countryside and smash evil with the main character Ashley using the Wild West's answer to the Buster Sword, a rifle with the bayonet from hell bolted on. And just to keep things grim-yet-whacky (grimfarce?) he gets possessed by some sort of demon. The devs decided to stick in your standard clumsy female mage, and your standard big taciturn muscleman, but spiced things up by things like letting the girl lob fireballs right out of the gate, and giving Brad McPunchespeople a damn bazooka.
The combat is a variation on the standard turn-based format, with the twist of the eponymous ARMS. The ARMS are basically gun attacks, which consume ammo. You start out with fairly basic attacks, though Brad's "Lock On" is pretty damned powerful, effectively being a guaranteed direct bazooka hit, and actually being as awesome as advertised. Guns don't suck in Wild ARMS, friends!
The setting so far is about what'd you expect; you venture forth and wreck assorted freaks, then you wander into places like a big late-medieval chateau run by a rich nobleman, who sends you to an old mining town right out of old Westerns, where you then go forth from there to a tower that uses freaky ore to transmit telepathic messages like a radio tower. Yeah.
One of the odder but actually nice touches is that you get a little animated sequence everything you load up a save, plus a counterpart if you quite a game at a save point. It helps make you feel like you are actually playing an episode of a show, and I've been given to understand that these sequences actually change as you progress though the game. And this is a two-disc Playstation 1 game!
Well, time for a bit of rest, then its back to rustling up some evil to smite. The Harvest Never Rests!
I popped in Wild ARMS: 2nd Ignition, a fairly offbeat PS1 roleplayer. Like a lot of good games (and good fictional media in general) the Wild ARMS series takes a ludicrous concept and makes it frickin' awesome. In this case, the concept is "Wild West nonsense meets JRPG nonsense, also the world went kablooie at some point." A signature example is a piece of artwork done for Wild ARMS 2, with a bunch of cowboy types trying to pull an anime'd up Sword in The Stone. I'll try to find it online for your edification at some point; it's something to see.
Anyway, you get to tear about the countryside and smash evil with the main character Ashley using the Wild West's answer to the Buster Sword, a rifle with the bayonet from hell bolted on. And just to keep things grim-yet-whacky (grimfarce?) he gets possessed by some sort of demon. The devs decided to stick in your standard clumsy female mage, and your standard big taciturn muscleman, but spiced things up by things like letting the girl lob fireballs right out of the gate, and giving Brad McPunchespeople a damn bazooka.
The combat is a variation on the standard turn-based format, with the twist of the eponymous ARMS. The ARMS are basically gun attacks, which consume ammo. You start out with fairly basic attacks, though Brad's "Lock On" is pretty damned powerful, effectively being a guaranteed direct bazooka hit, and actually being as awesome as advertised. Guns don't suck in Wild ARMS, friends!
The setting so far is about what'd you expect; you venture forth and wreck assorted freaks, then you wander into places like a big late-medieval chateau run by a rich nobleman, who sends you to an old mining town right out of old Westerns, where you then go forth from there to a tower that uses freaky ore to transmit telepathic messages like a radio tower. Yeah.
One of the odder but actually nice touches is that you get a little animated sequence everything you load up a save, plus a counterpart if you quite a game at a save point. It helps make you feel like you are actually playing an episode of a show, and I've been given to understand that these sequences actually change as you progress though the game. And this is a two-disc Playstation 1 game!
Well, time for a bit of rest, then its back to rustling up some evil to smite. The Harvest Never Rests!
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Chicken Race
Well, after a bit of unexpected thrashing around, I decided to go ahead and break out my venerable copy of Final Fantasy VII and finish the playthrough.
It actually took some doing; the place I stopped at is not itself a particular problem, but then I realized why I stopped. I had just started the big sidequest of the game, getting the Golden Chocobo. For the uninitiated, the Golden Chocobo is the ultimate, go-anywhere vehicle in the game. This alone warrants attention, but the real reward is using the Golden Chocobo to collect the ultimate summon, Knights of The Round. This particular summon is far and away the most powerful spell in the game, and can be combined with other Materia (the game's magic and customization options all rolled into shiny orbs of concentrated awesome) for some very broken stuff, up to and including wiping the final boss in one turn.
Anyway, this power has a commensurate price tag. The 'traditional' way to earn a Golden Chocobo is by racing and breeding certain common birds to get special birds (there is a second legit method, but that means fighting a nasty superboss) until you breed the Golden Chocobo. It sounds alright on paper, and is straightforward enough if you have a walkthrough (it can be done blind, but even with in-game hints its not all that intuitive), but in practice you have to drop the storyline and race six separate Chocobos to twelve victories each, stopping along to way to feed them start-boosting greens.
Not impressed? Well chocobo racing tends to come in two flavors: utter snoozefests where you sit at the finish line waiting for terrible AI racers to catch up, or frustrating traffic jams where you wind up stuck in dead last while the few competent AIs become impossible to catch. You can find a happy medium, where the races actually become challenging and tense without feeling grossly unfair, but it tends to be fairly rare. To add to all this confusion, there is a 'boss' racer running around in the higher ranks. Despite general wisdom, he's not impossible to beat, and might actually be one of the more pleasurable elements involved; races involving Teogh (whether that's supposed to be his name or a mangled translation of Joe, the only named jockey you're introduced to in the story) become tense and rewarding duels against a chocobo-riding Dale Earnhardt (the color scheme even fits).
Even then, doing this means you're doing a minimum of 72 races (and odds are very good you'll really need to do 100 or more, especially if you skimp on the greens) , during which you get a choice of two slightly different racetracks, making things even more repetitive. But it's not all bad news; leaving Knights of The Round out of the bargain, chocobo racing is far and way the most effective way to collect GP, the special currency for the Gold Saucer. And that's not all! Victories in the higher ranks can draw some really nifty rewards, including equipment and Materia that can only be gained through racing. Even the common prizes have some value, since forgoing them in how you get that wonderful GP generation.
Now if we could just find a way to do all this without watching a polygonal bird butt front-and-center for hours on end. The Harvest carries a fearsome price.
It actually took some doing; the place I stopped at is not itself a particular problem, but then I realized why I stopped. I had just started the big sidequest of the game, getting the Golden Chocobo. For the uninitiated, the Golden Chocobo is the ultimate, go-anywhere vehicle in the game. This alone warrants attention, but the real reward is using the Golden Chocobo to collect the ultimate summon, Knights of The Round. This particular summon is far and away the most powerful spell in the game, and can be combined with other Materia (the game's magic and customization options all rolled into shiny orbs of concentrated awesome) for some very broken stuff, up to and including wiping the final boss in one turn.
Anyway, this power has a commensurate price tag. The 'traditional' way to earn a Golden Chocobo is by racing and breeding certain common birds to get special birds (there is a second legit method, but that means fighting a nasty superboss) until you breed the Golden Chocobo. It sounds alright on paper, and is straightforward enough if you have a walkthrough (it can be done blind, but even with in-game hints its not all that intuitive), but in practice you have to drop the storyline and race six separate Chocobos to twelve victories each, stopping along to way to feed them start-boosting greens.
Not impressed? Well chocobo racing tends to come in two flavors: utter snoozefests where you sit at the finish line waiting for terrible AI racers to catch up, or frustrating traffic jams where you wind up stuck in dead last while the few competent AIs become impossible to catch. You can find a happy medium, where the races actually become challenging and tense without feeling grossly unfair, but it tends to be fairly rare. To add to all this confusion, there is a 'boss' racer running around in the higher ranks. Despite general wisdom, he's not impossible to beat, and might actually be one of the more pleasurable elements involved; races involving Teogh (whether that's supposed to be his name or a mangled translation of Joe, the only named jockey you're introduced to in the story) become tense and rewarding duels against a chocobo-riding Dale Earnhardt (the color scheme even fits).
Even then, doing this means you're doing a minimum of 72 races (and odds are very good you'll really need to do 100 or more, especially if you skimp on the greens) , during which you get a choice of two slightly different racetracks, making things even more repetitive. But it's not all bad news; leaving Knights of The Round out of the bargain, chocobo racing is far and way the most effective way to collect GP, the special currency for the Gold Saucer. And that's not all! Victories in the higher ranks can draw some really nifty rewards, including equipment and Materia that can only be gained through racing. Even the common prizes have some value, since forgoing them in how you get that wonderful GP generation.
Now if we could just find a way to do all this without watching a polygonal bird butt front-and-center for hours on end. The Harvest carries a fearsome price.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
ULTRA COMBO
So. I beat Kingdom Hearts Final Mix last night...
...And beat Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana a little more than 12 hours later. I'mma go take a nap now.
You still here? Okay.
Honestly, I didn't plan on this. I just randomly decided to plug Iris into the PS2 and see what happened. I though I was stuck for good; either I had encountered a nasty glitch or stumbled upon the bonus dungeon by mistake (or both, the extra dungeon is supposed to be inaccessible until you have a cleared game save). I thrashed around for half an hour, then finally gave up and looked it up on GameFAQs. I learned that the solution was both simple and obvious (remember to try all your abilities, kids), and that like most RPGs the FAQs are written by snotty 15 year-olds that can't be bothered to give complete information and pre-emptively complain about questions.
Anyway, the final boss Amalgam was both challenging and kinda fun, and came down to the wire. I barely pulled off a win before it pulped my surviving characters. That'll teach me to not bring lots of items and resources to a final boss in an crafting-centric game where items are a major part of the combat system. I admit that it actually enhanced things somewhat, giving some extra tension and actually making my decisions feel like genuine tactics and gambles instead of "whack for x damage, heal for y when the enemy responds" most turn-based systems devolve into.
The whole thing still feels unreal somehow; I didn't expect it to go as well as it did. A gaming debt is now paid, a near-failed campaign put to rest successfully. But where will the Harvest turn next? Stay tuned. Or not.
...And beat Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana a little more than 12 hours later. I'mma go take a nap now.
You still here? Okay.
Honestly, I didn't plan on this. I just randomly decided to plug Iris into the PS2 and see what happened. I though I was stuck for good; either I had encountered a nasty glitch or stumbled upon the bonus dungeon by mistake (or both, the extra dungeon is supposed to be inaccessible until you have a cleared game save). I thrashed around for half an hour, then finally gave up and looked it up on GameFAQs. I learned that the solution was both simple and obvious (remember to try all your abilities, kids), and that like most RPGs the FAQs are written by snotty 15 year-olds that can't be bothered to give complete information and pre-emptively complain about questions.
Anyway, the final boss Amalgam was both challenging and kinda fun, and came down to the wire. I barely pulled off a win before it pulped my surviving characters. That'll teach me to not bring lots of items and resources to a final boss in an crafting-centric game where items are a major part of the combat system. I admit that it actually enhanced things somewhat, giving some extra tension and actually making my decisions feel like genuine tactics and gambles instead of "whack for x damage, heal for y when the enemy responds" most turn-based systems devolve into.
The whole thing still feels unreal somehow; I didn't expect it to go as well as it did. A gaming debt is now paid, a near-failed campaign put to rest successfully. But where will the Harvest turn next? Stay tuned. Or not.
Let A Little Darkness Into Your Heart
And it'll clog your arteries!
So, another game goes into the list. It took a fair bit of doing, but Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is now a game that I've beaten. Ansem was quite a final boss, and even though I suspect I was over-leveled, it took a few tries and quite some time to put that set of battles away. It was just hard enough to keep me coming back for more.
Overall it was a helluva run. KHFM is just as fun as advertised, and I don't doubt it's old news to say that this game deserves a spot on the RPG enthusiast's shelf. The tone was wonderful, being very optimistic and cheerful without becoming saccharine, having just enough dark moments to remind you how high the stakes can really be. Going on a multidimensional tour of random Disney worlds to smack eldritch legions of stolen and corrupted hearts (with a giant damn key!) sounds friggin' stupid on paper, but it just works out so well. The latter third or so was the best part, full of freaky and memorable locations, challenging battles, and just crazy moments. It's a rare game that takes fairly predictable twists and turns and still actually can pull off some OMGWTFBBQ doing them. Hell an unexpected highlight was stumbling onto a bonus superboss and getting totally wrecked for my trouble; I won't spoil things completely, but I can't say I've gotten some laughs out of getting slaughtered by what amounts to a Square-style Sith Lord before. Welcome to Kingdom Hearts!
It's still not perfect (but perfect doesn't exist anyway). I do have some minor quibbles. The summon system just wasn't all that great; Square games typically used it as a once-per-battle supermove, with plenty of flash and occasionally game-changing effects. KHFM retains the once-per rule, but adds a few other restrictions that just doesn't let be all that fun. It's very telling that the only one really worth it is Tinker Bell which invokes an almost game-breaking health regeneration (almost, you'll want and need it in later boss fights). The coliseum fights are also a bit of a pain, mostly though a combination of no summons and no heath or mana pickups; that's a lot meaner that it sounds. The final gripe is that the designers traded depth for variety. The various worlds you visit have plenty of distinction and fun visuals, but they rarely feel like worlds. Neverland was especially bad, giving you unlimited flight...in an abbreviated series of claustrophobic halls and cabins, finally letting you loose on the deck for a boss fight and later hanging around Big Ben (by the way, you can only move something like 30-50 yards from the big clock before hitting an invisible wall).
Those are about it for the gripes, though, and there is plenty of good things to fanboy about. The battle system is overall simple but deep, and your AI partners will actually meaningfully contribute along the way. Traditional revival items and spells are forgone for a timed comeback mechanic, which both relieves the player from traditional AI babysitting and adds a fair bit of tension to tricky battles. That and listening to Donald Duck wig out and then fling arcane doom is hilarious. The guest star members do run the gamut, but Final Mix seems to have tweaked them to where none are actually useless. Beast is still far and away the best of the lot. Seriously, eh OHKO's Heartless and doesn't afraid of anything. They all seem to have a hidden extra luck mechanic as well; putting a world specific character in the battle lineup seems to make the drop rates skyrocket for some reason. One final thing, the production values are through the roof. This is a very fun game to look at and listen to. I'm running a relic of a CRT television which far from does justice to it, and I've still gotten lots of wow-inducing visuals and wonderful sound. Traverse Town's battle theme is just something special by the way. Oh, and Deep Jungle feels a lot less like a Disney world and more like somebody snuck in some World of Mana flavor with the visuals and especially the soundtrack. Yes I geek out at video game music, why do you ask?
In any case, all good things must come to an end, and it's time to decide what adventure to pop in next. We shall see.
So, another game goes into the list. It took a fair bit of doing, but Kingdom Hearts Final Mix is now a game that I've beaten. Ansem was quite a final boss, and even though I suspect I was over-leveled, it took a few tries and quite some time to put that set of battles away. It was just hard enough to keep me coming back for more.
Overall it was a helluva run. KHFM is just as fun as advertised, and I don't doubt it's old news to say that this game deserves a spot on the RPG enthusiast's shelf. The tone was wonderful, being very optimistic and cheerful without becoming saccharine, having just enough dark moments to remind you how high the stakes can really be. Going on a multidimensional tour of random Disney worlds to smack eldritch legions of stolen and corrupted hearts (with a giant damn key!) sounds friggin' stupid on paper, but it just works out so well. The latter third or so was the best part, full of freaky and memorable locations, challenging battles, and just crazy moments. It's a rare game that takes fairly predictable twists and turns and still actually can pull off some OMGWTFBBQ doing them. Hell an unexpected highlight was stumbling onto a bonus superboss and getting totally wrecked for my trouble; I won't spoil things completely, but I can't say I've gotten some laughs out of getting slaughtered by what amounts to a Square-style Sith Lord before. Welcome to Kingdom Hearts!
It's still not perfect (but perfect doesn't exist anyway). I do have some minor quibbles. The summon system just wasn't all that great; Square games typically used it as a once-per-battle supermove, with plenty of flash and occasionally game-changing effects. KHFM retains the once-per rule, but adds a few other restrictions that just doesn't let be all that fun. It's very telling that the only one really worth it is Tinker Bell which invokes an almost game-breaking health regeneration (almost, you'll want and need it in later boss fights). The coliseum fights are also a bit of a pain, mostly though a combination of no summons and no heath or mana pickups; that's a lot meaner that it sounds. The final gripe is that the designers traded depth for variety. The various worlds you visit have plenty of distinction and fun visuals, but they rarely feel like worlds. Neverland was especially bad, giving you unlimited flight...in an abbreviated series of claustrophobic halls and cabins, finally letting you loose on the deck for a boss fight and later hanging around Big Ben (by the way, you can only move something like 30-50 yards from the big clock before hitting an invisible wall).
Those are about it for the gripes, though, and there is plenty of good things to fanboy about. The battle system is overall simple but deep, and your AI partners will actually meaningfully contribute along the way. Traditional revival items and spells are forgone for a timed comeback mechanic, which both relieves the player from traditional AI babysitting and adds a fair bit of tension to tricky battles. That and listening to Donald Duck wig out and then fling arcane doom is hilarious. The guest star members do run the gamut, but Final Mix seems to have tweaked them to where none are actually useless. Beast is still far and away the best of the lot. Seriously, eh OHKO's Heartless and doesn't afraid of anything. They all seem to have a hidden extra luck mechanic as well; putting a world specific character in the battle lineup seems to make the drop rates skyrocket for some reason. One final thing, the production values are through the roof. This is a very fun game to look at and listen to. I'm running a relic of a CRT television which far from does justice to it, and I've still gotten lots of wow-inducing visuals and wonderful sound. Traverse Town's battle theme is just something special by the way. Oh, and Deep Jungle feels a lot less like a Disney world and more like somebody snuck in some World of Mana flavor with the visuals and especially the soundtrack. Yes I geek out at video game music, why do you ask?
In any case, all good things must come to an end, and it's time to decide what adventure to pop in next. We shall see.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
At The End
Well, here we are finally. I've taken my first steps into the final world of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the aptly named End of The World. It's an appropriately dark, unsetting place, full of impossible physics and eldritch creatures. It has the potential to be the best final level I've encountered in an RPG for a good while.
The ones I've played over the last few years have never quite gotten there. The three Tales games I've played were alright (and even downright brilliants in spots). Legendia's final level suffered from both ending fatigue and a much too high OMGWTFBBQ factor. Abyss has the wondrous Luke vs. Asch fight (and managed to trigger a bit of vicarious acrophobia) but was just too damn bright. Vesperia's final dungeon felt out of place, until the very last section, which came across as alien and disturbing somehow, and was evocative enough of Lovecraft to feel built and inhabited by Deep Ones or something; it actually scared me some.
But this one is different somehow. It's something of a pleasant surprise, since RPGs (even good ones) have a bad habit of screwing them up somehow. Most of them have length issues, being too much of a slog compared to the rest of the game (at least to me), or feel anticlimactic somehow. It's good to know that Square still knew what it was doing in the PS2 era.
Anyhow, things are going along pretty well, though some of that can be explained by some incidental grinding. I decided to go ahead and hunt down the last of the 101 Dalamations and get the final Aero upgrade. Things devolved fairly quickly, and the final set of puppies eluded me. I wound up tearing through Hollow Bastion for three hours, stopping and looking it up on GameFAQs, then futilely beating on it another hour. I thought I had managed to find a nasty glitch, and Googled it.
I didn't find a glitch. It had been moved the final set into a semi-secret area I had ignored (the hidden Lift Stop in the Library) thinking I has already thoroughly looted the place. Check Everywhere is the first rule of RPGs, and I forgot it! This was all compounded by the fact that the FAQs I consulted were copied and pasted from the original version to the Remix/Final Mix versions database without any corrections or new data. Frickin'. Lazy.
Anyway, I'm probably over-leveled now, but the monsters are still not pushovers at least. That's good, because we're down to the wire, and where the game needs to bring out the badasses. The Harvest Never Rests!
The ones I've played over the last few years have never quite gotten there. The three Tales games I've played were alright (and even downright brilliants in spots). Legendia's final level suffered from both ending fatigue and a much too high OMGWTFBBQ factor. Abyss has the wondrous Luke vs. Asch fight (and managed to trigger a bit of vicarious acrophobia) but was just too damn bright. Vesperia's final dungeon felt out of place, until the very last section, which came across as alien and disturbing somehow, and was evocative enough of Lovecraft to feel built and inhabited by Deep Ones or something; it actually scared me some.
But this one is different somehow. It's something of a pleasant surprise, since RPGs (even good ones) have a bad habit of screwing them up somehow. Most of them have length issues, being too much of a slog compared to the rest of the game (at least to me), or feel anticlimactic somehow. It's good to know that Square still knew what it was doing in the PS2 era.
Anyhow, things are going along pretty well, though some of that can be explained by some incidental grinding. I decided to go ahead and hunt down the last of the 101 Dalamations and get the final Aero upgrade. Things devolved fairly quickly, and the final set of puppies eluded me. I wound up tearing through Hollow Bastion for three hours, stopping and looking it up on GameFAQs, then futilely beating on it another hour. I thought I had managed to find a nasty glitch, and Googled it.
I didn't find a glitch. It had been moved the final set into a semi-secret area I had ignored (the hidden Lift Stop in the Library) thinking I has already thoroughly looted the place. Check Everywhere is the first rule of RPGs, and I forgot it! This was all compounded by the fact that the FAQs I consulted were copied and pasted from the original version to the Remix/Final Mix versions database without any corrections or new data. Frickin'. Lazy.
Anyway, I'm probably over-leveled now, but the monsters are still not pushovers at least. That's good, because we're down to the wire, and where the game needs to bring out the badasses. The Harvest Never Rests!
Sunday, July 17, 2016
For The World Is Hollow
And I have smote some Heartless.
I've been dealing with even crazier stuff than normal IRL, but I'm managing to get some time into Kingdom Hearts. I'm finally nearing the endgame, and hopefully this one can be put to bed before my next big campaign can go into full swing. I'm still deciding on whether to go ahead and figure out the roadblock I encountered in Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, but as it stands right now I'm not going to waste perfectly good-off time on it.
In any case, KH is still loads of fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing how deep this rabbit hole actually goes. I've finally gotten to some of the more fun/amusing/inexplicably badass monsters and boss fights take place. One of my favorite mooks is the Battleship, a mini-airship fused with a pirate Heartless that tears around and lobs destruction all over the place, Another is the Drake, a little Heartless Bahamut-lookalike. It's not all that challenging (at least for now) but it's fun to fight.
I'm currently in Hollow Bastion, one of the more eldritch locations I've been in my vidya adventures. It's dark and creepy, and somehow the whole weirdness factor is amplified by how light and airy a lot of it can be. It's hard to describe; I fully expected this whole dark, dank, gothic-looking place, with lots of rubble and undead-analogues and baroque scenery everywhere. There's plenty of that to be had, but there's all this outside sky-and-clouds stuff to be had. It's got to be a deliberate design decision, and it's thematically appropriate with the whole juxtaposition of light and darkness that KH espouses.
I'm still kicking myself a little over not giving this series a fair chance back in the day, but at least I'm making up for lost time. The Harvest never rests!
I've been dealing with even crazier stuff than normal IRL, but I'm managing to get some time into Kingdom Hearts. I'm finally nearing the endgame, and hopefully this one can be put to bed before my next big campaign can go into full swing. I'm still deciding on whether to go ahead and figure out the roadblock I encountered in Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, but as it stands right now I'm not going to waste perfectly good-off time on it.
In any case, KH is still loads of fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing how deep this rabbit hole actually goes. I've finally gotten to some of the more fun/amusing/inexplicably badass monsters and boss fights take place. One of my favorite mooks is the Battleship, a mini-airship fused with a pirate Heartless that tears around and lobs destruction all over the place, Another is the Drake, a little Heartless Bahamut-lookalike. It's not all that challenging (at least for now) but it's fun to fight.
I'm currently in Hollow Bastion, one of the more eldritch locations I've been in my vidya adventures. It's dark and creepy, and somehow the whole weirdness factor is amplified by how light and airy a lot of it can be. It's hard to describe; I fully expected this whole dark, dank, gothic-looking place, with lots of rubble and undead-analogues and baroque scenery everywhere. There's plenty of that to be had, but there's all this outside sky-and-clouds stuff to be had. It's got to be a deliberate design decision, and it's thematically appropriate with the whole juxtaposition of light and darkness that KH espouses.
I'm still kicking myself a little over not giving this series a fair chance back in the day, but at least I'm making up for lost time. The Harvest never rests!
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Back To The Abbey
Wandering a bit off the beaten path for this one.
As all two of you know already, I usually natter on about this video game or that video game or some other damned video game. This entry is a bit different.
Today I'm talking about books.
Specifically the old Redwall series by Brian Jacques. You can go on and mock me if you like, call me immature or a furry (or furmature, the hell ever). But there's just something special about these things. I can go out there and follow a video game badass and how he's saving the world, or rampage about and save the universe, or even go out on a quest to preserve existence itself. But inevitably, inexorably, I wind up back with my nose in a book about woodland creatures hanging out and living idyllic lives (or earning a shot at idyllic lives, or reclaiming idyllic lives) in benign, homey places, fighting off various barbarous hordes.
I enjoy these things immensely, even with some of the flaws that the series shows (and in some cases embraces). And as time goes on, even when I start picking at it, I find more reasons to like it. They're strictly formula, with variations on a few literary themes and archetypes, which actually seems to enhance things somehow (time is like a river, and history repeats). The eponymous Redwall Abbey changes so much between books, that it comes across as a benign version of frickin' Castlevania (but instead of mysterious wall chickens, we have fractious roof sparrows--at least early on, dammit Mattimeo), but it works out quite well most of the time. The place started out as frickin' huge relative to the inhabitants; enough so that in the very first book, Redwall, none of the abbey dwellers had been on the main roof, or even the second floor rafters and attic above in living memory, and it's a major undertaking to get up there, akin to actual mountain climbing. What they do when the roof needs fixing is anybody's guess. Later on in the series, Redwall Abbey is much more reasonable in scale and feasible to explore (though still pretty blasted big).
There's plenty of swashbuckling adventure, but it is tempered with a good deal of reality and (for lack of a better term) human tragedy. The good guys typically kick asses and take names, but they bleed, they get shook up and shocked, they get scared and scarred, and they can and do die. The bad guys are usually fairly shallow; they're evil for evil's sake, strongly implied to born that way and beyond redemption (Outcast of Redwall), though as the series went on, they'd get a bit more rounded and a bit of different character traits. There were even sympathetic villains (mostly low-ranking horde minions) and even one or two redeemed villains here and there, to contrast with nominally good characters that are deeply flawed or outright reprehensible (Taggerung having two big examples, with an extreme child abuser that died 'offscreen' and a tribe that practices human sacrifice that fortunately ends with the heroes' arrival).
I find it funny that birds in this series are wild cards. It doesn't even matter if they're a typically predatory species or not; we have typically heroic hawks and falcons, with eagles that have to be impressed by a protagonist somehow before joining the ranks of good, ravens and crows that are pretty much orcs with wings, and owls that are all over the alignment chart.
Hell, I can just go on and on about the characters. I need to stop for now, but I'll probably make this a sub-series within the overall blog. The Harvest Never Rests, and don't ever mess with badgers.
As all two of you know already, I usually natter on about this video game or that video game or some other damned video game. This entry is a bit different.
Today I'm talking about books.
Specifically the old Redwall series by Brian Jacques. You can go on and mock me if you like, call me immature or a furry (or furmature, the hell ever). But there's just something special about these things. I can go out there and follow a video game badass and how he's saving the world, or rampage about and save the universe, or even go out on a quest to preserve existence itself. But inevitably, inexorably, I wind up back with my nose in a book about woodland creatures hanging out and living idyllic lives (or earning a shot at idyllic lives, or reclaiming idyllic lives) in benign, homey places, fighting off various barbarous hordes.
I enjoy these things immensely, even with some of the flaws that the series shows (and in some cases embraces). And as time goes on, even when I start picking at it, I find more reasons to like it. They're strictly formula, with variations on a few literary themes and archetypes, which actually seems to enhance things somehow (time is like a river, and history repeats). The eponymous Redwall Abbey changes so much between books, that it comes across as a benign version of frickin' Castlevania (but instead of mysterious wall chickens, we have fractious roof sparrows--at least early on, dammit Mattimeo), but it works out quite well most of the time. The place started out as frickin' huge relative to the inhabitants; enough so that in the very first book, Redwall, none of the abbey dwellers had been on the main roof, or even the second floor rafters and attic above in living memory, and it's a major undertaking to get up there, akin to actual mountain climbing. What they do when the roof needs fixing is anybody's guess. Later on in the series, Redwall Abbey is much more reasonable in scale and feasible to explore (though still pretty blasted big).
There's plenty of swashbuckling adventure, but it is tempered with a good deal of reality and (for lack of a better term) human tragedy. The good guys typically kick asses and take names, but they bleed, they get shook up and shocked, they get scared and scarred, and they can and do die. The bad guys are usually fairly shallow; they're evil for evil's sake, strongly implied to born that way and beyond redemption (Outcast of Redwall), though as the series went on, they'd get a bit more rounded and a bit of different character traits. There were even sympathetic villains (mostly low-ranking horde minions) and even one or two redeemed villains here and there, to contrast with nominally good characters that are deeply flawed or outright reprehensible (Taggerung having two big examples, with an extreme child abuser that died 'offscreen' and a tribe that practices human sacrifice that fortunately ends with the heroes' arrival).
I find it funny that birds in this series are wild cards. It doesn't even matter if they're a typically predatory species or not; we have typically heroic hawks and falcons, with eagles that have to be impressed by a protagonist somehow before joining the ranks of good, ravens and crows that are pretty much orcs with wings, and owls that are all over the alignment chart.
Hell, I can just go on and on about the characters. I need to stop for now, but I'll probably make this a sub-series within the overall blog. The Harvest Never Rests, and don't ever mess with badgers.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Ducks Make Hilarious Wizards
Seriously, watching Donald Duck wig out and then unleash arcane fury is a necessary gaming experience.
I'm about roughly halfway through Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and it's been a pretty fun ride thus far. I do have some fairly minor gripes. The most annoying one is traditional 3-D platforming camera screw; it's not the worst but it can be a pain. The other big one is just how small all the worlds you visit are. There's a lot of variety to be had, and we do have is great, with a good deal of little details here and there to help flesh things out. Everything just feels so hemmed in.
But other that all that (and -urgh- Gummi levels) it had been an absolute blast. The combat is fun and pretty fluid. Square was decidedly strutting their stuff here, and it shows. There's little signs here and there that this game has a pedigree including the kickass three-character combat of SNES-era Seiken Densetsu games, along with all the delicious kookiness Final Fantasy has brought us over the years. Toss in all the best parts of Disney's own brand of craziness (and the pedigree of quality Disney licensed games were known for back in the day) and voila, something that should have been a circus car trainwreck in the middle of an extra-baked Pink Floyd concert wound up just...well, special and actually pretty awesome.
I can see why this game elicited such a large and passionate fanbase, and can very much relate; it's a damn shame I skipped this jewel when it got released the first time (didn't have any excuses either, wound up with a copy from a buddy and wound up piffling it away for something or another).
Oh, and you can friggin' summon the Genie from Aladdin. That's the awesomesauce right there.
I'm about roughly halfway through Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and it's been a pretty fun ride thus far. I do have some fairly minor gripes. The most annoying one is traditional 3-D platforming camera screw; it's not the worst but it can be a pain. The other big one is just how small all the worlds you visit are. There's a lot of variety to be had, and we do have is great, with a good deal of little details here and there to help flesh things out. Everything just feels so hemmed in.
But other that all that (and -urgh- Gummi levels) it had been an absolute blast. The combat is fun and pretty fluid. Square was decidedly strutting their stuff here, and it shows. There's little signs here and there that this game has a pedigree including the kickass three-character combat of SNES-era Seiken Densetsu games, along with all the delicious kookiness Final Fantasy has brought us over the years. Toss in all the best parts of Disney's own brand of craziness (and the pedigree of quality Disney licensed games were known for back in the day) and voila, something that should have been a circus car trainwreck in the middle of an extra-baked Pink Floyd concert wound up just...well, special and actually pretty awesome.
I can see why this game elicited such a large and passionate fanbase, and can very much relate; it's a damn shame I skipped this jewel when it got released the first time (didn't have any excuses either, wound up with a copy from a buddy and wound up piffling it away for something or another).
Oh, and you can friggin' summon the Genie from Aladdin. That's the awesomesauce right there.
Thursday, June 30, 2016
I Got A Good Feeling!
Well, I decided that since I have to put the Final Mix campaign on hold for a little while, I'd take a break from rambling about slightly stale games to rambling about one that's old enough to drive.
Final Fantasy Tactics, that whackadoo game with weird translations, a gazillion ways to break the game (two gazillion with glitches) and a passive-aggressive grudge against chocobos.
Yes, I've beaten it. Yes, I got Cloud and opened up the Lighthouse (didn't beat the Lighthouse, though). And I found a way to beat Wiegraf without redonkulous setups or grinding (Protip: The Lancer sucks in group battles, but rules against Big Bad Bosses). So there!
Its still awesome. Square knew what it was doing when it snapped up Matsuno and friends to give a new spin on Final Fantasy, and it shows. Even now, there's something special about assembling a pack of generic types and tuning them into proper agents of the Harvest. You take them a-questing, make them smack the forces of badness and banditry and unlock all the abilities so you can make them into classes that smack them even harder, and then go and burninate the remains with all sorts of flashy doom.
That's really what SRPGs were lacking up to FFT, and didn't really get again until Disgaea. There's this whole layer of spectacle that actually helps keeps things fresh and interesting. A great deal of the cool-looking spells and abilities are impractical, but damn if they don't look cool, and sometimes the difficulty just adds spice to when you pull off that Fire 4 spell or manage to make the Cyclops summon actually hit things. A nice bonus was when the user belted out a line or two, like they're actually invoking things and not just doing glorified jumping jacks.
The story is overall pretty good, but gets bogged down in increasing layers of plot, then bombarded with increasingly bad and bizarre translation problems. The PSP remake supposedly fixed all that, but I don't own one so I might never know for sure. I can tell you that there were lots of grimdark political machinations (including an engineered succession crisis) by various self-important blueblood jerkwads, that wound up being manipulated by the local church (video games hate organized religion), and that was in turn being controlled by a pack of demons trying to resurrect their leader and other evil things. It's convoluted and fairly abstruse, but understandable if you beat at things and read all the little tidbits.
There is a faction within the fandom that feels the whole Lucavi (big nasty demons o' doom) concept was just tacked on to Matsuno's political grimfest, and while I understand how they feel, the signs actually point to the Lucavi being part of the story from the get-go. Personally, I feel that they should have been more subtle about how they were handled (imagine something more like multiple copies of the One Ring floating around and corrupting folk) then just big nasty generic freaks with just enough taste for the Byzantine, but really still have all the subtlety and stealth of a chainsaw to the face when the chips are down.
One last point, since this is already to damn wordy. Why the hell did they go out of their way to make chocobo riding suck from a mechanics standpoint. It would have worked out better to not have them included at all outside of cutscenes and background fluff. Wark!
Final Fantasy Tactics, that whackadoo game with weird translations, a gazillion ways to break the game (two gazillion with glitches) and a passive-aggressive grudge against chocobos.
Yes, I've beaten it. Yes, I got Cloud and opened up the Lighthouse (didn't beat the Lighthouse, though). And I found a way to beat Wiegraf without redonkulous setups or grinding (Protip: The Lancer sucks in group battles, but rules against Big Bad Bosses). So there!
Its still awesome. Square knew what it was doing when it snapped up Matsuno and friends to give a new spin on Final Fantasy, and it shows. Even now, there's something special about assembling a pack of generic types and tuning them into proper agents of the Harvest. You take them a-questing, make them smack the forces of badness and banditry and unlock all the abilities so you can make them into classes that smack them even harder, and then go and burninate the remains with all sorts of flashy doom.
That's really what SRPGs were lacking up to FFT, and didn't really get again until Disgaea. There's this whole layer of spectacle that actually helps keeps things fresh and interesting. A great deal of the cool-looking spells and abilities are impractical, but damn if they don't look cool, and sometimes the difficulty just adds spice to when you pull off that Fire 4 spell or manage to make the Cyclops summon actually hit things. A nice bonus was when the user belted out a line or two, like they're actually invoking things and not just doing glorified jumping jacks.
The story is overall pretty good, but gets bogged down in increasing layers of plot, then bombarded with increasingly bad and bizarre translation problems. The PSP remake supposedly fixed all that, but I don't own one so I might never know for sure. I can tell you that there were lots of grimdark political machinations (including an engineered succession crisis) by various self-important blueblood jerkwads, that wound up being manipulated by the local church (video games hate organized religion), and that was in turn being controlled by a pack of demons trying to resurrect their leader and other evil things. It's convoluted and fairly abstruse, but understandable if you beat at things and read all the little tidbits.
There is a faction within the fandom that feels the whole Lucavi (big nasty demons o' doom) concept was just tacked on to Matsuno's political grimfest, and while I understand how they feel, the signs actually point to the Lucavi being part of the story from the get-go. Personally, I feel that they should have been more subtle about how they were handled (imagine something more like multiple copies of the One Ring floating around and corrupting folk) then just big nasty generic freaks with just enough taste for the Byzantine, but really still have all the subtlety and stealth of a chainsaw to the face when the chips are down.
One last point, since this is already to damn wordy. Why the hell did they go out of their way to make chocobo riding suck from a mechanics standpoint. It would have worked out better to not have them included at all outside of cutscenes and background fluff. Wark!
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Smash Evil and Save Puppies
Well, after dealing with the lamest case of food poisoning ever (or a bizarre allergic reaction, I'm not sure), I managed to do a little more Kingdom Hearts.
There's just so much stuff here that I should either loathe or be too mature to even take seriously. The platforming is crap, the worlds are somehow shallow and confusing at the same time, the Gummi Ship shmup levels drive me crazy. There's characters running around from movies and games I haven't been able to look at with a straight face for a decade (or two). Pretty much every RPG cliché ever is cropping up, along with high-fructose Disney clichés. I might have taken this thing and tossed in a woodchipper while "Shot In The Dark" is blaring and so forth if I didn't know better.
But let's face it: This shit is awesome! You're tearing around the multiverse, wrecking the mindless hordes of badness, stopping along the way to smack the shit out of random cartoon villains and do various little tasks like make friends and rescue puppies. There's just something about come back to Traverse Town and hanging out with various badasses and then touring a house full of tiny Dalmatians just tearing about and being adorable. Then you can venture forth and watch Donald damn Duck unleash hell and gorram Goofy shield bash the shit out of evil, all while you unleash the Harvest upon random abominations and make them drop all sorts of shinies.
You can just tell that this was when Squeenix was bringing their A-game (none of that fal'Cie horseshit or Final Corridor XIII blandness). I just hope that I'm actually enjoying things later and not just experiencing a game though a fever filter. The Harvest Continues!
There's just so much stuff here that I should either loathe or be too mature to even take seriously. The platforming is crap, the worlds are somehow shallow and confusing at the same time, the Gummi Ship shmup levels drive me crazy. There's characters running around from movies and games I haven't been able to look at with a straight face for a decade (or two). Pretty much every RPG cliché ever is cropping up, along with high-fructose Disney clichés. I might have taken this thing and tossed in a woodchipper while "Shot In The Dark" is blaring and so forth if I didn't know better.
But let's face it: This shit is awesome! You're tearing around the multiverse, wrecking the mindless hordes of badness, stopping along the way to smack the shit out of random cartoon villains and do various little tasks like make friends and rescue puppies. There's just something about come back to Traverse Town and hanging out with various badasses and then touring a house full of tiny Dalmatians just tearing about and being adorable. Then you can venture forth and watch Donald damn Duck unleash hell and gorram Goofy shield bash the shit out of evil, all while you unleash the Harvest upon random abominations and make them drop all sorts of shinies.
You can just tell that this was when Squeenix was bringing their A-game (none of that fal'Cie horseshit or Final Corridor XIII blandness). I just hope that I'm actually enjoying things later and not just experiencing a game though a fever filter. The Harvest Continues!
Friday, June 24, 2016
Storming The Night's Castle
What a difference a couple of days and a different controller can make. After a bit of going back into my work routine (and just plain vacillating), I went ahead and popped Castlevania: Lament of Innocence back in and started hunting the night again.
This time, it was awesome. Once I actually began to get the hang of the platforming, I started to get that feel of badass that a good action game is supposed to give. I'm still not happy about the camera, but it does a lot better than some of the other 3D games I've been exposed to. The enemies are actually fairly flavorful, and just challenging enough to get things pumping and make you use the resources at your command.
One of the nice things that they came up with for this game is actual progression for your subweapons, and it's works out so well that it could make earlier games in the series feel a bit lacking. It also helps give you a sense of growth, going from a simple (simply badass) ex-crusader to a whirlwind of doom upon the wicked, fielding powers and moves worthy of a progenitor of a whole family of vampire hunters.
The castle is also plenty spooky, as tradition demands, with lots of little details and just enough weirdness to keep you on your toes. A good example is the thunderstorm brewing in and around a turret in an area otherwise in moonlit calm. While it does have some explanation (a thunder-elemental calls that turret home), its off-putting enough to remind you that you ain't in Kansas anymore.
It's interesting to note that while the experience system started by Symphony of the Night was dropped, they still kept the shop and random drop systems in place, allowing for one to get that special feeling when a particularly rare bit of loot or big sack of money appears. I wonder where all that cash lying around came from. Is Walter taking all the equipment and supplies other adventurers brought and quietly pawning it off (to the local shopkeeper or some semi-legal front that helps with more mundane needs) or has he found some other method to gather such a hoard? He clearly has some way of exerting his power away from his castle grounds.
Oh well, beloved of the night or not, the Harvest has come for him and his, and shall not rest any more here than in any other place.
This time, it was awesome. Once I actually began to get the hang of the platforming, I started to get that feel of badass that a good action game is supposed to give. I'm still not happy about the camera, but it does a lot better than some of the other 3D games I've been exposed to. The enemies are actually fairly flavorful, and just challenging enough to get things pumping and make you use the resources at your command.
One of the nice things that they came up with for this game is actual progression for your subweapons, and it's works out so well that it could make earlier games in the series feel a bit lacking. It also helps give you a sense of growth, going from a simple (simply badass) ex-crusader to a whirlwind of doom upon the wicked, fielding powers and moves worthy of a progenitor of a whole family of vampire hunters.
The castle is also plenty spooky, as tradition demands, with lots of little details and just enough weirdness to keep you on your toes. A good example is the thunderstorm brewing in and around a turret in an area otherwise in moonlit calm. While it does have some explanation (a thunder-elemental calls that turret home), its off-putting enough to remind you that you ain't in Kansas anymore.
It's interesting to note that while the experience system started by Symphony of the Night was dropped, they still kept the shop and random drop systems in place, allowing for one to get that special feeling when a particularly rare bit of loot or big sack of money appears. I wonder where all that cash lying around came from. Is Walter taking all the equipment and supplies other adventurers brought and quietly pawning it off (to the local shopkeeper or some semi-legal front that helps with more mundane needs) or has he found some other method to gather such a hoard? He clearly has some way of exerting his power away from his castle grounds.
Oh well, beloved of the night or not, the Harvest has come for him and his, and shall not rest any more here than in any other place.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Smashing Evil With A Key
Well.
I'm not going to mince words; Atelier Iris 1 finally gave out and wound up a disappointment. Then I wound up with a double whammy when my newly-arrived copy of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence proved to have some really frustrating platforming mechanics...right out of the gate. I got pretty damned upset; I can't recall when I had something in my nerd life go that south that quickly.
But all was not lost! After some dithering, I pulled out something I should have a long time ago: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Mix. Holy crap, I was impressed.
It's a strange thing. I wound up with a copy of the original Playstation 2 version way back when, played it for all of two hours, and put it back into the stack. I don't really remember why, either. The whole Disney/Square thing didn't turn me off or anything. Maybe it just too damned weird or something for me back then. Then a wild Playstation 3 appeared, and along with it came both KH Final Mix compilations.
And like an ass, I ignored the games I was gifted and wound up buying Amalur. You can see how that ended in earlier posts; repensem canicula est. One thing led to another, and now here I am, doing what I should damned well have to begin with (nerds have nerdy life lessons, I suppose) and popping in one of my gifts.
It was a wonder to behold. There I was, doing what should have been crappy early-game fetch quests and screwing up mini-games left and right, and enjoying every last second of it. I got stomped by Riku McAngst and laughed. I watched Black Mage Donald Duck give Guardsman Goofy a good jolt and laughed more. I even got a few giggles out of the subtle references to Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Cross (hell, I didn't know Squeenix was willing to acknowledge Chrono Cross).
Does anybody else remember when us gamers thought it was all a sick joke? When we thought that this whole crossover thing was going to be total crap and ruin Final Fantast forever? When we were all hoping it was just going to be a failed experiment and join the scrap heap with other bullshit marketing ideas? The joke was on us, and damn if isn't funny.
Granted, the storyline as it stands now is a trainwreck, and (before the Final Mix compilations) having to play random handheld episodes to get the whole story only makes sense in a evil corporation sort of way. But here I am, ready to fight the tides of evil and see where this goes.
All Hail Galactimouse and his herald, the Imperial Death Star!
I'm not going to mince words; Atelier Iris 1 finally gave out and wound up a disappointment. Then I wound up with a double whammy when my newly-arrived copy of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence proved to have some really frustrating platforming mechanics...right out of the gate. I got pretty damned upset; I can't recall when I had something in my nerd life go that south that quickly.
But all was not lost! After some dithering, I pulled out something I should have a long time ago: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Final Mix. Holy crap, I was impressed.
It's a strange thing. I wound up with a copy of the original Playstation 2 version way back when, played it for all of two hours, and put it back into the stack. I don't really remember why, either. The whole Disney/Square thing didn't turn me off or anything. Maybe it just too damned weird or something for me back then. Then a wild Playstation 3 appeared, and along with it came both KH Final Mix compilations.
And like an ass, I ignored the games I was gifted and wound up buying Amalur. You can see how that ended in earlier posts; repensem canicula est. One thing led to another, and now here I am, doing what I should damned well have to begin with (nerds have nerdy life lessons, I suppose) and popping in one of my gifts.
It was a wonder to behold. There I was, doing what should have been crappy early-game fetch quests and screwing up mini-games left and right, and enjoying every last second of it. I got stomped by Riku McAngst and laughed. I watched Black Mage Donald Duck give Guardsman Goofy a good jolt and laughed more. I even got a few giggles out of the subtle references to Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Cross (hell, I didn't know Squeenix was willing to acknowledge Chrono Cross).
Does anybody else remember when us gamers thought it was all a sick joke? When we thought that this whole crossover thing was going to be total crap and ruin Final Fantast forever? When we were all hoping it was just going to be a failed experiment and join the scrap heap with other bullshit marketing ideas? The joke was on us, and damn if isn't funny.
Granted, the storyline as it stands now is a trainwreck, and (before the Final Mix compilations) having to play random handheld episodes to get the whole story only makes sense in a evil corporation sort of way. But here I am, ready to fight the tides of evil and see where this goes.
All Hail Galactimouse and his herald, the Imperial Death Star!
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Lightly Sauteed in 10W30
Seriously, some of the recipes in Atelier Iris are just plain weird. Before you say anything, I'm not talking about things to make magic bombs or crystallized tears of the dead or stuff like that.
I'm talking about this game's cooking recipes. Most of them follow a semblance of logic and good taste (aside from rice-heavy dishes in a game that doesn't seem to have rice), but then you get things like Charred Fungo. It's literally mushrooms fried in machine oil, and this games machine oil is clearly a petroleum analogue. It's all black and nasty looking, and the final result makes the mushrooms deep friggin' blue. I don't know about you, I'm not going anywhere near mushies that have been cooked in Quaker State and possibly gun-blued.
On the other hand, most everything has some sort of actual culinary appeal, especially in-game (to be fair the characters think the blue shrooms of doom stuff is gross too) and serves some purpose. There are even somewhat hilarious concepts, like a cocktail made with freaky magical fruit that restores health and mana, or a dish so spicy that using it in combat leaves you unable to act. I wonder what magically-infused scotch bonnets would do to people in this universe.
There there's the magic tools/bombs shop. You wind up with all sorts of crazy consumables and random materials (and swimsuits for some reason), including items whose primary purpose is currency at a special store that sells extra shiny materials to feed your crafting madness.
This game (along with Atelier in general) just has this overall feel of whimsy and wackiness, and its really a shame that it really didn't get much attention outside of the hardcore RPG crowd. I personally blame the crappy dungeon designs and distinct lack of Flashbang Poe.
I'm talking about this game's cooking recipes. Most of them follow a semblance of logic and good taste (aside from rice-heavy dishes in a game that doesn't seem to have rice), but then you get things like Charred Fungo. It's literally mushrooms fried in machine oil, and this games machine oil is clearly a petroleum analogue. It's all black and nasty looking, and the final result makes the mushrooms deep friggin' blue. I don't know about you, I'm not going anywhere near mushies that have been cooked in Quaker State and possibly gun-blued.
On the other hand, most everything has some sort of actual culinary appeal, especially in-game (to be fair the characters think the blue shrooms of doom stuff is gross too) and serves some purpose. There are even somewhat hilarious concepts, like a cocktail made with freaky magical fruit that restores health and mana, or a dish so spicy that using it in combat leaves you unable to act. I wonder what magically-infused scotch bonnets would do to people in this universe.
There there's the magic tools/bombs shop. You wind up with all sorts of crazy consumables and random materials (and swimsuits for some reason), including items whose primary purpose is currency at a special store that sells extra shiny materials to feed your crafting madness.
This game (along with Atelier in general) just has this overall feel of whimsy and wackiness, and its really a shame that it really didn't get much attention outside of the hardcore RPG crowd. I personally blame the crappy dungeon designs and distinct lack of Flashbang Poe.
Monday, June 13, 2016
What Iris 1 Does Right
Okay, now that I got some of my frustrations aired out in my last post, I can talk about some of the good things going on in Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana.
The item variety is simply staggering. Few games have come close to the amount of different goodies that you can make or find here (not accounting for things like procedurally-created stuff i.e. Borderlands or Diablo). There were some missteps, but Gust wanted to make a 'traditional' RPG with their signature crafting and material hunting, and it works out pretty damned well. Even the 'trash' items actually have value for things like mass-production and mana extraction (Iris 2 really could've used that last part). The in-game economy is not nice, but it gives you an incentive to actually farm and craft and recycle your inventory.
And to top it all off, all these things wind up having some point in the end. Somebody at Gust was feeling mean when they worked out the combat system, then they compensated by adding in all sorts of curatives and useful offensive items. Then they upped the ante by giving you both direct creation of items via magical elements, and a second system that's much more in line with Atelier's "shop of wonders" tradition. I can see why the hardcore Atelier fans prefer this to 2. I don't completely agree with their opinion, but it's quite understandable.
Another nice touch is the Mana Love/Energy system. Simply put, you find and recruit elemental spirits (much like say, the World of Mana series) and using their powers drains from a finite pool, which is improved and replenish by giving them items. There's all sorts of variables, but it's fairly simple to find an item that a particular Mana really likes (though not always easy to hand over in quantity) so that you can get the most distance from your loot pile.
There's more to tell, but I'm actually a bit too spazzed to keep writing. Hopefully I'll get to expound and elucidate further soon. The Harvest Never Rests!
The item variety is simply staggering. Few games have come close to the amount of different goodies that you can make or find here (not accounting for things like procedurally-created stuff i.e. Borderlands or Diablo). There were some missteps, but Gust wanted to make a 'traditional' RPG with their signature crafting and material hunting, and it works out pretty damned well. Even the 'trash' items actually have value for things like mass-production and mana extraction (Iris 2 really could've used that last part). The in-game economy is not nice, but it gives you an incentive to actually farm and craft and recycle your inventory.
And to top it all off, all these things wind up having some point in the end. Somebody at Gust was feeling mean when they worked out the combat system, then they compensated by adding in all sorts of curatives and useful offensive items. Then they upped the ante by giving you both direct creation of items via magical elements, and a second system that's much more in line with Atelier's "shop of wonders" tradition. I can see why the hardcore Atelier fans prefer this to 2. I don't completely agree with their opinion, but it's quite understandable.
Another nice touch is the Mana Love/Energy system. Simply put, you find and recruit elemental spirits (much like say, the World of Mana series) and using their powers drains from a finite pool, which is improved and replenish by giving them items. There's all sorts of variables, but it's fairly simple to find an item that a particular Mana really likes (though not always easy to hand over in quantity) so that you can get the most distance from your loot pile.
There's more to tell, but I'm actually a bit too spazzed to keep writing. Hopefully I'll get to expound and elucidate further soon. The Harvest Never Rests!
Friday, June 10, 2016
Getting It Out Of My System
Yeesh. Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana is no joke, I can tell you that. The battles are overall a great deal more difficult than Iris 2.
A lot of it comes from a combination of having much harder monsters (especially in offensive stats and variety of special moves) combined with a party that just doesn't hit very hard, even with optimized gear. It gets better later on, but not all that much.
It tries to charm you with having loads and loads of all sorts of consumables for you to find and make, then you realize the awful truth: nine of each item, maximum. You had better be crafting several different curatives, or you stand a good chance of being stuck without a lot of resources very quickly.
The crafting system is overall fairly satisfying, with shop synthesis (where the meat is, both literally and figuratively) giving you fairly complex recipes early, allowing you to make all sorts of goodies from food to potions to bombs and more. The actual alchemy system is fairly workable as well, with the added advantage of whipping up items on the fly, including in battle. Unfortunately, both are really handicapped by the item cap. Smart play can feel counterproductive, resulting in having a constant glut of alchemy elements and basic materials, with even more being left on the field unused.
The developers included a couple of interesting ideas to compensate. The first is a gifting system, where you give items to elemental spirits to improve their energy and how they feel about you. It has some interesting quirks, and you can't give everybody the same crap and expect the same result. The second is an option to extract alchemy elements directly from items in your inventory, which was a very nifty idea, and actually gives an impression of the big cycle that alchemy is supposed to be a part of in the game world. Iris 2 really should have kept that.
Don't get me wrong; Iris 1 is a pretty good game, and I plan to finish it out, but there's so many things here that make me think that developers were trying to make a Playstation 2 game but were stubbornly holding to 16-bit sensibilities, which hampers the experience.
Oh, and this game needs 100% more Flashbang Poe!
A lot of it comes from a combination of having much harder monsters (especially in offensive stats and variety of special moves) combined with a party that just doesn't hit very hard, even with optimized gear. It gets better later on, but not all that much.
It tries to charm you with having loads and loads of all sorts of consumables for you to find and make, then you realize the awful truth: nine of each item, maximum. You had better be crafting several different curatives, or you stand a good chance of being stuck without a lot of resources very quickly.
The crafting system is overall fairly satisfying, with shop synthesis (where the meat is, both literally and figuratively) giving you fairly complex recipes early, allowing you to make all sorts of goodies from food to potions to bombs and more. The actual alchemy system is fairly workable as well, with the added advantage of whipping up items on the fly, including in battle. Unfortunately, both are really handicapped by the item cap. Smart play can feel counterproductive, resulting in having a constant glut of alchemy elements and basic materials, with even more being left on the field unused.
The developers included a couple of interesting ideas to compensate. The first is a gifting system, where you give items to elemental spirits to improve their energy and how they feel about you. It has some interesting quirks, and you can't give everybody the same crap and expect the same result. The second is an option to extract alchemy elements directly from items in your inventory, which was a very nifty idea, and actually gives an impression of the big cycle that alchemy is supposed to be a part of in the game world. Iris 2 really should have kept that.
Don't get me wrong; Iris 1 is a pretty good game, and I plan to finish it out, but there's so many things here that make me think that developers were trying to make a Playstation 2 game but were stubbornly holding to 16-bit sensibilities, which hampers the experience.
Oh, and this game needs 100% more Flashbang Poe!
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