HaHA! The spambots are still not keeping me down!
Tales of the Abyss is now on my kill list. It's been a wild ride, I can tell you. I've decided to give some of my post-victory thoughts on things.
The Good
Abyss actually has some of the best battle mechanics I've seen, even considering I've played a fair few games that are a console generation or two ahead now. We get the usual big six elements, plus lots of special moves to keep things interesting. The monsters are fair bit more varied than I've usually seen, with a standout concept being golems powered by music. The critters do get repetitive after a while, but that's par for the course for an RPG anyway.
The characters are actually fairly interestingwith a standout being Jade Curtiss, the resident king of snark and the closest thing Japan has come to Raistlin McAwesomesauce yet. eh burninates monsters and doesn't afraid of anything! The rest have your usual mix of cliches, but with some interesting takes on them. The white mage chick is also a tough-fronted soldier, the best friend swore an oath to kill the main character out of revenge (and is secret buddies with the Big Bad Evil Guy), the kid is a foulmouthed gold-digger, the team critter is a punching bag, the fun goes on. The baddies are fairly interesting, too. And it was amazing how much mileage you got from the bad guy asking "Luke, join me!" for once. I'm not kidding.
The Bad
Unfortunately, Team Evil's characterizations are somewhat gimped near the end, with several of the God-Generals (the main minions) really dying pointlessly. The game does acknowledge the inherent futility for some, but a couple really come across as just plain dumb deaths. Dist, the resident mad kook, really just dies like a bitch for no reason at all. You wreck his latest mech, he decides to hit a self-destruct switch and whine at Jade, boom. Everybody else at least can be said to die for Van's cause and beliefs, but he just plain sissies out, when he could have just bailed and come back to plague us again later. URGH!
There really isn't much else to complain about, except for a glitch or two (found one that can freeze the game in the final battle today), which I've come to expect from PS2-era Namco. Nobody's perfect. There is a minor problem, which for a loot-aholic like me is fairly bad, though...
The Shiny
...The drop and crafting mechanics. I've already covered the weird ordering system in a previous post, but the drops are really plain annoying. Maybe half of the enemies in the game drop any items at all, and less drop trade goods. An infuriating frosting on the crap cake is that this game a very serviceable stealing mechanic, which is even more gimped at something close to a third or less of enemies having stealables. Fortunately, there are only two steal-exclusive items in the game, both of which are from bosses and have 1-in-2 success rates. Even more fortunately, this game come with 'search points' which are easy to farm, and with a few sidequests, can yield what you need to get all sorts of goodies.
The goodies themselves, hoo boy. An experienced player will find all sorts of shinies, especially with some focus farming and a bit of luck. I've found mentions of exploiting a glitch to get a late-game weapon, but why bother with bugs when you can nab even better stuff just a little bit later with some patience. You get your usual collection of weapons and armor, with helmets relegated to accessory status (one accessory per character, by the way), some of which can be quite interesting. Worth particular mention are the Fonic Catalysts, which seem like restyled variations on Soul Calibur and Soul Edge (the dark aligned ones have this creepy breathing animation), and the end-game Fonic gear, that presumably also run of the power of magic music. The Fonic sword is actually a sound-powered lightsaber! Another honorable mention is Ultimatus, a sword presumably related to the Fonic gear that is possessed by a kickass amalgam of Nightmare/Inferno from Soul Calibur and Final Fantasy's Gilgamesh. Put these suckers in a crossover against Elder Scrolls draugr for maximum metal!
Well, the campaign has drawn to a close, and it's almost time to chase the brightest star in the sky...
Showing posts with label tales of the abyss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tales of the abyss. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The Loot Also Gazes Into You
Such spambots, so writings.
The Abyssal Campaign is going fairly well for once. Character development has settled in all around, and now most everybody is tolerable at worst.
There are some funny things about here. We actually have sidequests that revolve around Luke, the main character, bumping into to people that have family property, and then going and getting money from dear old Mom like the little mooch he is. Mieu the Cheagle (cheagle is Japanese for Viking Care Bear by the way), is actually fairly fun to have around, at least within limits. That cutesy voice screaming "FIRE!" is still disturbingly humurous, and watching the little thing smash rocks the size of Mack trucks is almost as good. Colonel Jade McAwesomesnarks is still a bit of fresh air around all the stereotypical JRPG nuttiness going on. I've gotten him back up to his beginning stats and then some (the guy got nuked with the equivalent of say 15 Level Drains), and thanks to the miracles of Capacity Core goodness, he's pretty much Black Mage with a spear and morals now.
The trade system that stands in for crafting has grown on me some, mostly because it encourages me to go out there and farm like crazy. With a bit of know-how, the proper investment (there's a sidequest requiring 200 thousand Gald, which is a crapton of money in this game, but worth it), and just the right bit of character selection, you can start farming the high-tier shiny bits pretty damn quickly. Unfortunately, the ordering/trading system itself has too much going on 'under the hood' to really suit me, and figuring out which bits get you what item type without an FAQ can be a frustrating process. That said, you can wind up with mid-game and even late-game goodies very early if you can figure out what you're doing! And I also like it better than the token system put in place in Legendia.
The loot drops themselves...well I think they were trying to compensate the ridiculous item drops from Legendia, but they kinda took things a bit too far. It's not horrible, and I know that loot systems are very hard to balance properly, and they did a decent job keeping things from going into Monty Haul territory. The biggest complaint I really have is that they included a Final Fantasy-style stealing mechanic, which has two major flaws. The first is that stealing is linked to certain attacks through special accessories; a problem, since the attacks still hit full force, and you can very easily kill the target before you get something, assuming you actually connect. The second, and much worse, part is that relatively few monsters have anything to steal, and typically with abysmal success rates. Again, without a guide, you can't tell what monsters can be robbed without trial-and-error. This can lead to literally hours of playtime spent on smacking critters with nothing to steal without realizing there's nothing to steal. Oh, and there are plenty of monsters with neither stealables nor item drops. This is likely to compensate for both the last's game's loot showers, and this game's ordering system.
All the ranting about the relative scarcity of shinies aside, I do like how we get a nice bit of flavor text about all the items that you can get, and that we actually have a bit of variation on the usual fantastic ores, metals, and monster parts. I also like that this game actually plenty of interesting monsters and locations going for it. One can only eradicate so many goblins, zombies, and EA employees before it gets old. A fairly novel monster group is a family of golems that are actually music-powered robots. I wonder if the spiky ones are run off of metal...
Well, I need to go. Those shinies aren't going to loot themselves.
The Abyssal Campaign is going fairly well for once. Character development has settled in all around, and now most everybody is tolerable at worst.
There are some funny things about here. We actually have sidequests that revolve around Luke, the main character, bumping into to people that have family property, and then going and getting money from dear old Mom like the little mooch he is. Mieu the Cheagle (cheagle is Japanese for Viking Care Bear by the way), is actually fairly fun to have around, at least within limits. That cutesy voice screaming "FIRE!" is still disturbingly humurous, and watching the little thing smash rocks the size of Mack trucks is almost as good. Colonel Jade McAwesomesnarks is still a bit of fresh air around all the stereotypical JRPG nuttiness going on. I've gotten him back up to his beginning stats and then some (the guy got nuked with the equivalent of say 15 Level Drains), and thanks to the miracles of Capacity Core goodness, he's pretty much Black Mage with a spear and morals now.
The trade system that stands in for crafting has grown on me some, mostly because it encourages me to go out there and farm like crazy. With a bit of know-how, the proper investment (there's a sidequest requiring 200 thousand Gald, which is a crapton of money in this game, but worth it), and just the right bit of character selection, you can start farming the high-tier shiny bits pretty damn quickly. Unfortunately, the ordering/trading system itself has too much going on 'under the hood' to really suit me, and figuring out which bits get you what item type without an FAQ can be a frustrating process. That said, you can wind up with mid-game and even late-game goodies very early if you can figure out what you're doing! And I also like it better than the token system put in place in Legendia.
The loot drops themselves...well I think they were trying to compensate the ridiculous item drops from Legendia, but they kinda took things a bit too far. It's not horrible, and I know that loot systems are very hard to balance properly, and they did a decent job keeping things from going into Monty Haul territory. The biggest complaint I really have is that they included a Final Fantasy-style stealing mechanic, which has two major flaws. The first is that stealing is linked to certain attacks through special accessories; a problem, since the attacks still hit full force, and you can very easily kill the target before you get something, assuming you actually connect. The second, and much worse, part is that relatively few monsters have anything to steal, and typically with abysmal success rates. Again, without a guide, you can't tell what monsters can be robbed without trial-and-error. This can lead to literally hours of playtime spent on smacking critters with nothing to steal without realizing there's nothing to steal. Oh, and there are plenty of monsters with neither stealables nor item drops. This is likely to compensate for both the last's game's loot showers, and this game's ordering system.
All the ranting about the relative scarcity of shinies aside, I do like how we get a nice bit of flavor text about all the items that you can get, and that we actually have a bit of variation on the usual fantastic ores, metals, and monster parts. I also like that this game actually plenty of interesting monsters and locations going for it. One can only eradicate so many goblins, zombies, and EA employees before it gets old. A fairly novel monster group is a family of golems that are actually music-powered robots. I wonder if the spiky ones are run off of metal...
Well, I need to go. Those shinies aren't going to loot themselves.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
The Abyssal Campaign
Aw, not even the spambots are read my blog any more...
Anyway, I've been busy with Tales of the Abyss. It's a bit different from what I expected, mostly since I picked the black sheep of the series to begin with. But we still have plenty of old-school JRPG goodness going on in here.
My first impressions thus far have been fairly favorable thus far. The main characters are memorable in one way or another. I especially like Jade. It's been a while since I bumped into a good Neutral Snarky aligned character, and making him the kickass mad scientist black mage of doom is also awesome. They also made this guy a colonel which warms my nerdy little heart for reasons I refuse to explain to anyone that has eyes. Luke, the protagonist, is a spoiled little wretch, but is slowly getting better, and for once being spoiled doesn't affect the ability to ship things you don't like Priority Mail to Stabbytown! There are plenty of others, some are kinda cliche but not actually bad. I'm not too fond of the obligatory Rebellious Princess Natalia thus far. Civic minded or not, she could use some time in a dragon's clutches right now.
The Also Obligatory Cute Thing is...well...sometimes I can't stand him, but other times he's hilarious. When you use his map abilities, he turns into some sort of pyromaniac hooligan, a lot like what would happen if somebody cooked up Viking Care Bears. Cutesy voices screaming about fire and attacks, smoke and doom and craters everywhere, why the hell hasn't anybody wrote that fanfic yet. Viking Care Bears needs to be a thing now. He also is on the receiving end of a great line: "Shut up and drown!"
The world-building magi-babble is actually fairly well thought out for once, though granted it's mostly your standard mana/alchemy/elements system with some sound-related concepts substitutes in for material science concepts. I'm also still on the fence on the way the loot is handled, and probably will not render judgment for a good while. The trading/ordering system that replaced traditional crafting still hasn't sold itself too well thus far, especially since it seems to be weighted toward repeat playthroughs. You can get access to higher-end equipment early on with some serious farming, but intelligence gleaned from elsewhere suggests that the real goodies aren't much use until late into the game (there are very powerful moves to be unlocked here) or in New Game Plus (arguably game-breaking moves unlocked then). The loot/baddie curve is still fairly low right now, which should start accelerating later.
In any case, I must be off. Another bit of uncertainty is whether there will be a Wreckonomics post made for this game. Legendia didn't merit one, since you get showered with cash and items, and the crafting system is kind of a joke. We'll see.
Anyway, I've been busy with Tales of the Abyss. It's a bit different from what I expected, mostly since I picked the black sheep of the series to begin with. But we still have plenty of old-school JRPG goodness going on in here.
My first impressions thus far have been fairly favorable thus far. The main characters are memorable in one way or another. I especially like Jade. It's been a while since I bumped into a good Neutral Snarky aligned character, and making him the kickass mad scientist black mage of doom is also awesome. They also made this guy a colonel which warms my nerdy little heart for reasons I refuse to explain to anyone that has eyes. Luke, the protagonist, is a spoiled little wretch, but is slowly getting better, and for once being spoiled doesn't affect the ability to ship things you don't like Priority Mail to Stabbytown! There are plenty of others, some are kinda cliche but not actually bad. I'm not too fond of the obligatory Rebellious Princess Natalia thus far. Civic minded or not, she could use some time in a dragon's clutches right now.
The Also Obligatory Cute Thing is...well...sometimes I can't stand him, but other times he's hilarious. When you use his map abilities, he turns into some sort of pyromaniac hooligan, a lot like what would happen if somebody cooked up Viking Care Bears. Cutesy voices screaming about fire and attacks, smoke and doom and craters everywhere, why the hell hasn't anybody wrote that fanfic yet. Viking Care Bears needs to be a thing now. He also is on the receiving end of a great line: "Shut up and drown!"
The world-building magi-babble is actually fairly well thought out for once, though granted it's mostly your standard mana/alchemy/elements system with some sound-related concepts substitutes in for material science concepts. I'm also still on the fence on the way the loot is handled, and probably will not render judgment for a good while. The trading/ordering system that replaced traditional crafting still hasn't sold itself too well thus far, especially since it seems to be weighted toward repeat playthroughs. You can get access to higher-end equipment early on with some serious farming, but intelligence gleaned from elsewhere suggests that the real goodies aren't much use until late into the game (there are very powerful moves to be unlocked here) or in New Game Plus (arguably game-breaking moves unlocked then). The loot/baddie curve is still fairly low right now, which should start accelerating later.
In any case, I must be off. Another bit of uncertainty is whether there will be a Wreckonomics post made for this game. Legendia didn't merit one, since you get showered with cash and items, and the crafting system is kind of a joke. We'll see.
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