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.
Showing posts with label atelier iris: eternal mana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label atelier iris: eternal mana. Show all posts
Sunday, July 24, 2016
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!
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Sweet And Sour Alchemy
After some pondering and a bit of dubious flirtation, I decided to just put Kingdoms Of Amalur down for the time being. I may or may not break down and find some DLC (if it's still available) for it later, but right now I just something a bit more flavorful.
I went ahead and popped my copy of Vagrant Story in. It's just about what I envisioned; a strange blend of Diablo and menu-driven RPG. This one is far from bad, but it seems to require focused play for longer stretches than I can manage at the moment; real life keeps interrupting me, to the point where I was making very obvious noob mistakes. After some agonizing over dropping what could be a very rewarding campaign, I pulled it back out and put it on hold until I'm in the mood for another 'dark' game.
Then came a bizarre combination of depression and gamer's block. Honestly (and in danger of sounding like a boastful ass), my list of on-hand, unplayed games has reached critical mass; it took something akin to a will save to go ahead and pull another one out.
I think I picked the next outing very well. This time it's Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. Just watching the damn intro movie managed to bring a smile to my face. Like pretty much all Atelier games, the whole point of the gameplay is to tear around and collect materials to make into all sorts of goodies. There's a whole lot of traditional RPG plot and gameplay elements (much to the chagrin of hardcore Atelier fans I'm told), which thus far gives a fair bit of flavor to unleashing the Harvest upon the oppositional hordes.
There's a special nerdy joy to be found in tearing about the countryside and grabbing the absolutely absurd amount and variety of things you can use. Throw in some of the nicest backgrounds (especially the towns and more flavorful dungeons) and some of the most cartoonish mooks this side of World of Mana, and we've got a real winner here. Oh, and barrels actually hold stuff for you to use. Can't think of another game that gave me gears and giant logs from searching barrels so far.
Anyway, the hours grows late and it's time to get back into the real world. The Harvest Never Rests!
I went ahead and popped my copy of Vagrant Story in. It's just about what I envisioned; a strange blend of Diablo and menu-driven RPG. This one is far from bad, but it seems to require focused play for longer stretches than I can manage at the moment; real life keeps interrupting me, to the point where I was making very obvious noob mistakes. After some agonizing over dropping what could be a very rewarding campaign, I pulled it back out and put it on hold until I'm in the mood for another 'dark' game.
Then came a bizarre combination of depression and gamer's block. Honestly (and in danger of sounding like a boastful ass), my list of on-hand, unplayed games has reached critical mass; it took something akin to a will save to go ahead and pull another one out.
I think I picked the next outing very well. This time it's Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. Just watching the damn intro movie managed to bring a smile to my face. Like pretty much all Atelier games, the whole point of the gameplay is to tear around and collect materials to make into all sorts of goodies. There's a whole lot of traditional RPG plot and gameplay elements (much to the chagrin of hardcore Atelier fans I'm told), which thus far gives a fair bit of flavor to unleashing the Harvest upon the oppositional hordes.
There's a special nerdy joy to be found in tearing about the countryside and grabbing the absolutely absurd amount and variety of things you can use. Throw in some of the nicest backgrounds (especially the towns and more flavorful dungeons) and some of the most cartoonish mooks this side of World of Mana, and we've got a real winner here. Oh, and barrels actually hold stuff for you to use. Can't think of another game that gave me gears and giant logs from searching barrels so far.
Anyway, the hours grows late and it's time to get back into the real world. The Harvest Never Rests!
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