When Life Gives You Lemons

Go murder a clown!


Things have been cooking along very well in Final Fantasy VI,  in fact well enough that I believe I've managed to surpass the overall power of any party in my previous playthroughs.  Some of it is making use of newer information (I can't do circle motions on a d-pad to save my life, finding out there's alternate command inputs was awesome; finding out you can still learn Ultima via the Paladin Shield, making the Ragnarok sword far more attractive than the Ragnarok Esper), buckling down and using the leveling mechanics as intended (OMG look at them stats), and brining a RPG veteran mindset into things.


Using the Esper bonuses has been the major difference.  The short version is that this game's magic system is based on Espers' essence (the local magic rocks of magicness), almost all your characters can equip an Esper's magicite, with the majority giving a small but significant stat boost when that character levels up.  These bonuses are permanent and persist even when you switch to another Esper, meaning a bit of basic XP management can result in huge dividends.  This results in even the wimpy characters turning into meat-mulching agri-combines of death, and with their powers combined THE HARVEST IS UNLEASHED and not much can get in the way.


I also decided that the open-ended gameplay of the World of Ruin is actually pretty fun, never really realizing that this was a very major departure from the JRPG tradition of linearity.  There are a few oddities; there are bits of gear exclusive to one particular character you can buy, but the process of re-recruiting that character also comes with far superior gear choices, plus using his special skills (he's the local the--I mean treasure hunter) can result in more unique but redundant stuff for him.  There's also some areas on the world map that have random encounters far more dangerous than what you get elsewhere, that you can't even claim as a player nudge or beef gate, since the major dungeon in the area has far more manageable enemies, even the bosses are less lethal than the mooks prowling around outside.


Things are starting to come to a close, with only two dungeons really left (there's a couple I've already cleared than I'll probably return to use as grinding spots) before the big showdown with Jack Hamill in his big trash tower of terror.  The Harvest Never Rests!

Always Wish To Catch A Fish

Well, things are cooking along pretty well on Final Fantasy VI.  I managed to get all the way through the Floating Continent without a whole of trouble (except for 'level acclimation' yay RPGs).  I even managed to wreck Atma Weapon's face on the first go-around pretty handily.  Though I came hilariously close to getting ganked by some mooks immediately afterwards.  Imagine the Harvest coming to such an ignominious end.  Things would have flung and then burned.


I've done some things I've wanted to do for some time; a decade or even more.  I've managed to pull off a handy victory over the dreaded Intangir.  For the uninitiated, Intangir is especially nasty pseudo-megaboss, found in an out-of-the-way area as a random encounter.  It starts off invisible (and therefore immune to physicals) and absorbs all elements (so no skills or magic either), has ridiculous heath and moves that completely crispify your dudes if you don't know what your doing.  And it only spawns in the first half, with all the really good moves and gear still locked out.  On the plus side, invisible enemies can be hit by magic of any type, and it is not immune to Stop.  Cast one Stop, then go to town whaling on the smug freak. 


I've also managed to complete the little fishing minigame successfully and save Cid.  It's much easier in the original SNES version, since the RNG is much more likely to give you the speedy little 'yummy fish' (that's what the game itself calls them).  I have reason to believe that the GBA was tweaked with a much more stingy RNG, likely since the bad ending of the minigame is much more dramatic overall.  Frankly, I'll take yummy fish over depressing melodrama any day.


And now I'm in the World of Ruin.  Everything's been wrecked, but now I can get the awesome stuff.  The lemons of life have been given, and soon that clown will face the beatdowns.  The Harvest Never Rests!

Boom Goes The Fireballs

Things are going along rather well in Final Fantasy VI.  There have been a few eye-openers thus far, mostly in dialog and combat patterns.


I didn't catch how the 'noble rebel leader' Banon was actually a blunt douchebag.  Way back when, even though I knew I got a better reward for refusing to help out (or simply hesitating) I used to always choose to help right off the bat.  Then comes my current playthrough, at least a decade after the last, where I talk to this guy, and the bozo starts barking at a conflicted young woman, mangling the myth of Pandora, and barks again so he can take a freakin' nap.  Way to impress your potential trump card, mister leader!  Needless to say, I went ahead and took the neutral choice and got the better goodies.  Watching him act similarly to other potential allies (Narshe) makes the unstoppable march of the Empire of Doom seem a good bit more believable.


I also remembered just how broken magic is compared to plain old physical attacks.  It makes some sense from a thematic view; magic is explicitly a very powerful force in this world, and very much one explicitly for high-intensity warfare.  Magic users are a major part of Final Fantasy, since the beginning, but VI is where magic users are on a whole different level of power compared to you usual combat troops.  I wouldn't see an in-universe gamechanger like this again until SaGa Frontier 2 where the opposite effect happens; steel weapons and armor completely smash the magic-user masses in-story, and actual in-game combat reflects that.


Well, it's time to go back to smacking freaks (and FF6 has extra gribbly looking freaks, I can tell you).  The Harvest Never Rests!

A Nerdy Little Secret

Well, it took some doing, but I managed another RPG double-kill last weekend:  Atelier Iris 2 and Secret of Mana.  Things got so hairy that I actually burned out and haven't even picked up the controller for a good few days.


Now that I've actually played my two favorite games from the Mana and Atelier fanchises, I still strongly suspect that Atelier (or at least the Iris subseries) borrowed a lot of elements from Mana.  I plan to natter about that later, after a bit more research and pondering.  Truth be told, I'm actually still burned out on both games for the moment, which is surprising considering neither claimed my free time and resources quite like the last few--hell, the last dozen--RPGs.


Anyway, I've decided on my next big endevour, and a bit of confession time. 


I've never actually beaten Final Fantasy VI. 


Way back in the day, I played the hell out of it, but for one reason or another, I never tackled the final dungeon.  Some of it was that I was playing a borrowed copy, so my savefiles tended to go poof.  Other reasons came along, some good, some stupid, and one very bad.  When I was an aspiring nerdling, I asked my friend if I could just beat the final boss on his already completed savefile.  My friend, being a wonderful dude (I was such a spoiled little prick, but he let me play with his SNES and his games anyway, without griping) let me do so, therefore giving me an excuse to say I beat the game.


I honestly think this is the moment that spark some really nerdy commitment issues, the ones where I pick an RPG, play it up to the last dungeon and just stop.  I've managed to get over it, at least for now.  So it comes to this.   It's foolish, it's childish, and it's frightfully nerdy, but it is long past time I've put this game on my finished list one and for all.


The Harvest Has Triumphed Twice Over!  And now it's time for that wonderful little saying:  When life gives you lemons, go murder a clown.

Killer Bunny Slippers

Time is like a river, and history repeats...


Anyway, after a bit of dithering, I went ahead and plugged my new copy of Secret of Mana into my new SNES.  The result has been amazingly therapeutic; a lot of my recent RPG forays have had highlights of one kind or another, but few have been able to rival the just plain fun that SoM has had to offer.


There's this dichotomy about the whole thing.  As the same time's it's serious and silly, finely-tuned and buggy, balanced and utterly broken.  This is a game where you fight for the fate of the world in the face of apocalyptic forces while bashing ridiculous enemies like animate bunny slippers with a rusty sword found in a riverbed.


A lot of stuff has already been stated and restated about SoM.  This is one of the big-time classic RPGs of the 16-bit era; gamers have been poking at it for over two decades now, and probably still poke at it for a very long time to come.  The story is fairly weighty.  A trio of plucky young adventurers set forth to seal special magical seeds and gather the support of elemental spirits to combat the forces of an evil empire under the sway of a very ancient and vile lich.  It was already a cliché when the game was released, but the whole thing was so well put-together that you really don't care and enjoy the ride. 


You've got the usual classical elements of fire, water, air, and earth, plus light and darkness.  Then you wind up with two oddballs, moon and tree/wood/leafyleafness.   All the weapons and spells have a fair bit of utility (up until the final battle anyway), and nothing really falls behind as you progress.  The monsters are a fairly diverse bunch, like the bunny slippers of doom, cartoony Thriller zombies, axe-toting goblins that skin the slippers and wear them like hats, killer floating tomato necromancers, duck soldiers, living pumpkin bombs, fish that shoot missiles, and freaky mime ghost things.  Yes, there's the usual palette swaps, but the line-up is already pretty crazy to begin with, and since this is an action-RPG with real-time combat, they had to animate the things so it's very understandable.


Overall, Secret of Mana is still a very fun game, and worthy of a place in an RPG enthusiast's collection.  The Harvest Never Rests!

From The Ashes

This isn't quite the usual post.  Yes, I've been tearing my way through another RPG (Atelier Iris 2, again) and I've been having some fun.  But it's really just acting as a gaming palate cleanser, a bit of a romp through familiar territory before I decide on the next big campaign.


But one thing has been leading into another, and now I'm contemplating something a bit bigger.  Over the last few years, I've managed to rebuild my Playstation collection to its former glory, and with some lucky finds and the addition of a PS2 and PS3, actually a great deal better.  Finally buckling down and getting my hands on a Lunar 2 boxset has made good on some of my biggest gamer mistakes.  I know it's silly, but there's a whole thing behind this; not reliving the past, but actually doing one better and surpassing it, even in an incredibly nerdy way.


It's not something I talk about all that much.  My first big RPG collection, it was...tainted.  I did a lot of conniving and mooching and even outright theft to get it.  I've managed to make amends, and fess up to the friend I stole from.  It's kinda funny; everybody has a skeleton or two in their closet, and it's no bad thing to drag it out and be done with it.  This skeleton just happens to be really steeped in the Dork Side.  More proof of divine humor.


This collection is one that I managed to gain honestly, no theft, no mooching, and the only conniving was some shrewd--but honest and open--trades.  I've gotten just about all my Playstation goodies back, and more besides.  And then it hit me.


It hit me, indeed; there was another part to it, that I've been ignoring all this time, and for no actual reason.  I had a nifty SNES collection, too.  I think the time has finally arrived, the clarion call finding its way to my ears.  And this time, I will do it right.  No bullshit, just patience, resourcefulness, a bit of thrift, and a pixelated Harvest done right.

Dinosaur Lumberjacks

Well, the Dork Side has led me onto a new and interesting path.  For once I followed through on my gaming schedule, and after beating Tales of Vesperia again I went ahead and popped in Dragon Quest VIII for the Playstation 2.


Hoo boy; I've heard it said a few times that the PS2 is the JRPG console, and they weren't kidding.  I've tried out Dragon Quest I, II, and VI at random, and never really got hooked.  A guide for VII appeared in a lot I acquired a year or so ago, but I can't make myself get the game itself for some reason.  Then I stumbled upon VIII during a traipse through TV Tropes.  I tell you, it does not disappoint. 


I should hate the thing, it's a grindfest with only four playable characters (yes there's six the remake), a fairly linear storyline, combat is pretty by-the-book turn-based fare, saving your game requires going to a chapel or abbey, attrition can wreck your party in a hurry, it goes on.  And it's awesome.  It's like Squeenix just grabbed an 8- or 16-bit from their archive, and just updated the hell out of it without using the pervasive modern trends.  No freaky emo-warriors. The world does not suck to live in.  The tragic backstories are tastefully understated and don't overshadow the narrative.  Nobody's dressed like they went the Carousel Boutique while the proprietor was watching J-Pop videos and guzzling Nyquil.


And the monsters are fun, too!  They're mostly cartoony, goofy critters, like a bunch of background Muppets decided to get together and become medieval marauders.  And they're still pretty badass.  We've got stuff like angry anthro roosters that can slice the crap out of you, Jawa archers that can rain pointy doom, and freakin' firebreathing dinosaur lumberjacks!  FIREBREATHING DINOSAUR LUMBERJACKS!  And to sweeten the deal, you can recruit certain monsters for kickass arena battles.  And you can eventually let them loose to assist you in unleashing doom upon the forces of badness.


Throw in a nifty, understated crafting system, fun party members (all hail Yangus and his best frienemy King Trode), and a magic/skill system that actually makes you think tactically, and it's no surprise.  The Harvest Never Rests!

Second Star To The Right

And don't bother about morning.


Things have been going along rather well with Tales of Vesperia.  I've actually gotten to the point where I can actually do some dedicated material farming without tearing my hair out over leaving the plot dangling.


Vesperia is a bit odd; the whole 'sandbox' gets thrown at you fairly quickly, but the sand doesn't really fill in until something like 30 hours in, maybe 20 if you're good and rushing through the storyline.  The game's airship is actually pretty awesome, being a an actual sea vessel hooked up to a big flying magic whale/Esper, with the addition benefit of water landings and takeoffs.  With some minimal sidequesting, you can land just about anywhere that's even remotely flat.  The odd part is that there is a constantly shifting day/night and weather cycle, which affect monster encounters and town/dungeon condition (and encounters in those dungeons).  It sounds fairly standard, but there's lots of RNG shenanigans involved. 


I remember being very irritated in my first run-through, but I believe that my judgment was really clouded at the time, with personal problems leaving me really sour about nearly everything.  I'm actually relishing wandering over certain regions at nighttime and jumping out to slaughter giant killer ladybugs for glowing rocks and other monstrous ridiculousness.  Tales has a glorious tradition of having goofy monsters to beat on, (even sobersides Abyss threw angry tuning forks and knights with trumpet-bazookas at you) and Vesperia proudly carries it on.  I haven't encountered the glorious wackiness of gigantic demon canopy beds or fortress turtles, but there's a much better variety over all.  How about monsters like birds with actual bugle beaks or paper fan wings, bush-tortoise things trample you with fruit, bees with gun stingers (yes Sonic did it first, but these are organic gun bees), and starfish that attack you on land and sound like Teletubbies when you shank 'em?   That's just a sample of the crazy bestiary.  And they all drop worthwhile goodies, including materials to make awesome loot with.


Now why didn't I ever want to play this again?  Well, even in angst The Harvest Never Rests!

Devil's Lab

Yeah, seriously.  Those dudes that wandering up and down the internet saying Tales of Vesperia is inspired by Final Fantasy VII are idiots.  It's clearly inspired by Final Fantasy VI.  So there!


Anyway, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things.  The Vesperia campaign is still going along pretty well, helped by the fact that I'm not a angry little ball of angst this go-around.  Sometimes even escapism doesn't help you escape things.  I'm noticing a few more little details and nuances, and with the help of a decent FAQ or two I've figured out some the sidequests and extra events without having to save scum and tear my hair out.  Tales-style sidequesting can be mean.


I've finally have some semblance of aptitude for the combat system, thought I doubt I'll have anything like actual mastery.  Watching my main character zip around and unleash the turbo ginsu upon freakish hordes is pretty rewarding, and not whiffing every other attack makes things even sweeter.  Throwing in the mage-support that every good RPG should do and things start turning into a symphony of flashy doom.  The wonders of Tales-style New Game plus allowing for characters to retain the high-end skills and spells just amplifies things.


Repede the Ninja Dog of awesomeness is still very much a favorite for me, helping fetch all sorts of shinies--especially the much-needing crafting materials--with grace, aplomb, and without my supervision.  Vesperia has far and away the best stealing system in the series that I've encountered, with just about everything having something for Repede to grab, reasonable chances for the grab to work, and little worry about not grabbing that super-unique item or it's lost forever bullshit (I'm looking at you Tales of the Abyss); plus it's automated, so I don't have to sit there and manually spam a command instead of unleashing the Harvest properly.


About the closest thing to a major gripe I have so far...well it's an odd thing to say, but there's not the sense of otherworldly grandeur that I got from Legendia.  The graphics and sounds and overall tone is very, very good and a vast improvement over the dust-bowl depression of Abyss (especially in the graphics department) and there's some the same sense of discovery, mystery and plain fun going on.  I think that Legendia is really in a class of it's own there.  At least the monsters are fun too look at and more fun to fight.  We've got stuff like giant wasp-things with gun-stingers, 'mermen' that are really weresharks that beat you with boat anchors, and some other fun stuff.


Unfortunately, it's time to wander off, but The Harvest Never Rests!

Brightest Star in The Sky

Well, after a bit of dithering, I went ahead and shelved Dragon Age: Origins for a bit.  It's almost funny, how it demands that you play for something like half a day to accomplish anything.  It's not particularly difficult, especially after adapting to the game's quirks and almost old-school challenge level, just very time-consuming now; it has gone to the point where I have to put it down until I have some more dedicated free time for it.




I knuckled down a bit and put Tales of Vesperia in for a second playthrough.  It's amazing just one set of New Game Plus bonuses can do for a Tales series game; I managed to retain everybody's skills and artes (Tales-speak for spells and special moves), and enabled a boost to item drop rates.  Those two alone have given me the needed boost to actually go forth and unleash the Harvest that this game needed really badly.  Add the fact that most dungeons are fairly short and we have a recipe for all sorts of JRPG goodness.




The story is still a bit on the meh side (especially for a Tales game), but the characters and setting help to make up a great deal.  There's lots of little sidequests and mini-events floating around here (the official guide covers maybe a third to just short of half of them, a shame after the Abyss guide) that help flesh the world out and keep you interested. 




The crafting is still fun and rewarding, and thanks to the aforementioned drop boost things are getting even better.  Anything that cuts down on forced farming is a definite plus.  I haven't managed anything game-breaking yet, but I never found much of a reason to do so yet. 




Oh, and Repede is still the best dog in video games so far, though DA:O's Dog is a close second.

Teetering On The Edge

Well, I found a brick wall, and that wall is named Kolgrim.


Things were cooking along nicely in Dragon Age: Origins.  There were some ups and downs, though even the bad stuff turned out to be positives in the long run.  I can't stress enough that this game is the first in a very long time to knock me right on my ass and question the power of the Dork Side.  This resulted in me bringing some old, half-forgotten habits and concepts back out to play. 


We're talking about things like saving after each mob, sneaking and inching into every room hoping the bad people don't show up and eat my dudes.  I'm normally a paranoid gamer when it comes to saves, but this time I might not be paranoid enough.


On the bright side, I've managed to get something of a grasp of this game's tactics, though there is a bit of a snag here and there keeping me from getting my ducks in a row.  Unfortunately, I've found a nasty boss (or maybe even sub-boss) encounter that invalidates practically any formation planning and even seems to erase buffs while dumping the party in the middle of a group of heavy hitters with ice mage support.  Getting randomly frozen is no fun.


But other than that, I'm having a blast so far.  I picked the Dwarf Noble origin, and had a good laugh at the default name.  I'm a warrior named Duran in a game with multiple possible starting stories.  That's a reference I thought would never see the light of day.  I've managed to tear my way through things, and thanks to some proper dungeon crawling I wound up with the Warden Commander armor set fairly quickly, plus a lucky break handing me Starfang very early.  So at least the gear side of things is getting squared away.  I'm going to break off from the main questline again (damn you, Kolgrim) and get some sidequests and more DLC stuff out of the way. 


Read.  Prepare.  Grind.  The Harvest Never Rests!

The Age of the Dragon

Holy crap.


I finally buckled down and decided to unleash the Harvest on Dragon Age: Origins, and I've found something pretty special.  First off, it is by and large the hardest RPG I've handled in a very long time, presenting a level of danger and challenge rivaling even some of the old-school nastiness I've encountered way back when.  It is no exaggeration that this game has already handed me more TPKs--in two days--than any other RPG I've played since I returned to the controller, and possibly any RPG I've played ever.  Things might get a bit less one-sided later on, but so far it has been a tale of desperate victories (or getting ganked) with lots of casualties and frantic potion-chugging. 


It's also pretty awesome so far, with all sorts of things to do and stuff to plunder.  I can't say I've played a game with multiple currency values (copper, silver, and gold) and actually requiring containers for crafting potions and poisons.  And your decisions have weight, beyond even relationship values, allowing your choices to make a discernible difference on outcomes.  They're not just cosmetic or cutscene differences either; what you do and who you decide to aid (or not) can put you down some very different roads, and while they all lead to the same final battle, the aftermath can and will be quite different.  The obvious 'good' choice may well not be the best choice, with the game's emphasis on themes of determination, pragmatism, and plain ruthlessness. 


There's just this whole air of actually stepping up and becoming a badass, and showing you the circumstances and consequences without being preachy or satire.  There's a stark bluntness about the whole affair, but it doesn't detract from the positive sides of heroism, idealism, and standing against evil.  It's good to know that even in grimdark games, there can still be heroes.


Oh, and you get a dog.  Granted, it's a big tough mastiff that can fight bears and abominations and demons and stuff, but for you and (most of) your companions, he's just a big puppy and acts like it.  It's hilarious.

Marooned On A Dead Planet

Buried alive, buried alive...


So Tales of Graces f is going along splendidly, actually.  The Tales version of New Game Plus can be a real boon, since you can enable some things to give you a leg up right out of the gate, especially the Herb Bonus (you keep the bonus stats gained by using special herbs) and keeping the titles from your previous playthrough (enabling special attacks very early compared to a first time run , plus TONS of bonus stats).  It isn't quite the brokenness of the Chrono Series NG+, but it works out rather well, since there's still plenty of challenge ahead.


I've finally worked out the battle system well enough to know what I'm doing.  It only took something like 50-60 hours of game-time.  But the pure undiluted badass that this game can deliver is something to behold.  Have you seen the crazy, glowy attacks of doom that most RPGs deliver one after another?  Well, Tales has a tradition of having them fire off simultaneously, creating a symphony of flashy monster-mulching, and Graces f is still one of the best to behold.


Oh, and it introduces you to the theoretical wonders of Indiscriminate Planetary Smackdown Machines.  I have no idea what they are, but I want one.  The Harvest never rests!

A Personal Loot Replicator

Well, things seem to be looking up so far in my impromptu Tales rampage.  I managed to tear my way through the last few bits of Legendia without a whole lot of bother.  I still find it hilariously awesome that you can craft a special move with the express purpose of throwing around a goddess of entropy and despair.


Overall, the experience worked out rather well, though there were some hiccups along the way, and inheriting the little 'skit' cutscenes turned out to be something of a mistake, making the characters' development seem a little more dry and contrived somehow.  It's a bit odd to feel like this, since I can't say I've seen anything quite like the skits outside of this series (except maybe the personal events in Star Ocean) but now that I know they're there, the absence is noticeable.  But all in all, good times were had by all and I put the game away on a very high note.


After working my way through the nerdiest fear of commitment ever, and waffling on the idea of a Rune Factory game (until I realized there were some dating sim mechanics, NO), I went ahead and popped in Tales of Graces f  for the Playstation 3.  Holy crap, New Game Plus is awesomeness here.  Thanks to inheriting titles, the Eleth Mixer (still the coolest item crafting helper this side of Atelier), and my herb bonuses (!) I wound up with a crew of badass li'l munchkins totally wrecking the monster's faces right out of the gate. 


But that was just the tip of the iceberg, since I went ahead and picked the enhancements for the Mixer and to inherit all the recipes I gained.  With the help of some luck, I started cranking out crafting goodies pretty quickly, I can only see things getting even better in the future.  For the uninitiated, the Eleth Mixer is pretty much a magical version of Star Trek's replicator, with consumes eleth (this game's word for mana) to produce just about any non-equipment item that has been in your inventory (like the replicator, it needs a pattern to work with) at random while you're wandering around outside of battle.  It can produce curatives and other consumables, but it's true strength lies in cooking meals in mid-battle (each meal has a specific effect and trigger) and producing crafting materials to use in the game's 'dualize' system.  It's fairly complex but also fairly straightforward.


Basically, what I'm trying to say is that New Game plus for Tales of Graces f can start you off with what you need to commence a crafting rampage rarely seen outside of open-world RPGs, and I enjoy it so.  The Harvest Has Triumphed, and Unleashed Once More.

Piledrive the Ocean!

As could be expected, matters are well in hand for Tales of Legendia.  I've handled the 'main' quest and now moved on to the 'character' questlines.  The final series of boss battles proved to be just plain mean this go-around, to the point that I believe that my party wound up underleveled somehow.  This wasn't that much of a problem, but thanks to the GRADE scoring system, I managed to get punished pretty good for daring to use healing items in combat, on top of being punished for succumbing to Final Boss Death Moves of Cheese.  But I got to throw and body slam the embodiment of the damn ocean, so it's all good.


The character quests...well, they're far from bad, but they feel like they've been tacked on more than anything else.  I've heard the reasoning.  They didn't have the budget to get everything polished just right.  They didn't think this was going to be primary plot material for a while.  They had deadlines.  Yadda yadda.  But what is comes down to that the character quests are by and large a series of sidequests, with attendant sidequest characteristics.  They're primarily unvoiced (outside of nice little animated cutscenes at the end of each).  They take you the all the same dungeons and locations you've already harvested your way through for often flimsy reasons.  While the final payoff is worth it, I can understand why a lot of player frustration comes from here. 


It takes a wonderful, quirky and thoughtful PS2 RPG and reduces it to a dungeon crawl from two or even three consoles generations prior with PS2 production values.  I happen to like old-school dungeon crawling, and I'm still getting my fun out of it, but I admit that it cheapens the experience somewhat.   At least I get all sorts of sweet shinies to play with and eventually get to beat the snot of out a goddess of despair.  The Harvest Never Rests!

That Bed Is Clearly Evil, Power Slam It!

Just a quick post this time.  After some minor shenanigans deciding on which game to unleash the Harvest upon, I went ahead and trotted out my copy of Tales of Legendia.


This game is a bit special to me since it helped kickstart my resurrected passion for RPGs and started the longest and most consistent string of video game victories, plus it introduced me to the wonders of the Tales series; a bit ironic since this supposedly one of the black sheep installments among fans.


Legendia is still proving to a blast to play.  The graphics and sound are absolutely gorgeous, using bright, almost toy-like pre-renders and some of the most serene and outright delicate scores I've ever encountered.  That's no to say there's no tunes to get your blood flowing; this game is home to In Pursuit/Pursuing Shirley, one of the funkiest pieces I've ever encountered (and the track seller, by the way), or locations that are awe-inspiring and crazy-awesome.


The combat is also still pretty fun, especially with a main character that actually tears around beat the snot out of the local freaks with martial arts.  The throw mechanics are especially amusing, leading to situations where you unleash the judo on things like dragons, whales, freaky battleship tortoise things, and giant maneating canopy beds.  That's not even going into the boss line-up, which includes the personification of a water-worlds entire freakin' ocean and a death goddess.  Yeah, welcome to Tales.  The Harvest Never Rests!

Rated G for Gnome Golf

Which is the only way to play golf properly.  You take a gnome, make a mace out of their own fate, and shoot for the moon!


Kingdoms of Amalur:  Reckoning is still going quite well this time around.  I've managed to branch out a bit and do some more sidequests here and there.  I've decided that the cliché elfy forests of Darentarth (the starting area) are just more fun to be around than the Plains of Erathell or dry desert Deteyre.  Somehow, it's just more fun to look and tear around in.  The other places have their merits, and it's wonderful to have a game that is both this big and with such a variety of terrain.


I managed to complete the Motus Mining sidequest chain , which resulted in a pretty nice house to hang out and craft goodies in.  But the real draw is now I own my own little mine.  It's not much, objectively; really just a small dungeon that you can loot, upgrade a bit and loot again, and provides a small but steady cash income, but just the idea is a pretty fun.


I've come to an unfortunate conclusion, however:  cities in Amalur are populated by jerks.  There are some decent people there to be sure, but I keep walking in to a city to handle adventuring business and wanting the hell back out really quickly.  I was kind of hoping that since this a second playthrough and like ten freakin' games ago now I'd get a different perspective.  I was wrong.  The countryside is full of monsters, bandits, bears and other assorted nasties, but the villages seem to be full of much more pleasant people.


I've also discovered Frost Traps.  They're effectively little ice mines that you can lay out and catch baddos with explosions of frigid death.  A bit of strategy and use of the Harpoon ability means that you can now be Scorpion and Sub-Zero at the same time.  Toasty!


The Harvest Never Rests!

Lunar Victory

What can I say?  Lunar Silver Star Story is now on my list of completed campaigns.  It was actually a very fun ride overall.  While it wasn't very long (especially by JRPG standards), clocking in at just over 25 hours with stops for grinding, it still turned out to a very full journey.


The final dungeon had just the right mix of interesting and infuriatingly dangerous, throwing in some of the most lethal mook fights I've encountered from the PS1 era.  Of particular note was the 'curse' section, leaving you with two or more party members out of action at the beginning of every encounter, combined with forced encounters.  It's a healthy reminder of just much of your party's resources can be yanked away with the loss of a character.  The actual final boss just reinforced the lesson, often leaving me with choosing between reviving party members or trying to keep the remainder alive.  This combined with a very nasty AI pattern made for what may well be the most infuriating RPG final boss I've battled in quite a long while.


It added spice to the whole thing, certainly, but Ghaleon mashed me flat a couple of times and threatened to leave me with a failed campaign, and that is not something I wanted to deal with.  Fortunately the dork side came to my aid and I eked out a win.  Protip: swap out status protection for regeneration and straight defensive stat-boosting accessories, and make sure everybody has resurrection and mana heals on tap before plunging in.


Overall, LSSC proved to a very pleasant experience, sometimes irreverent and quirky, sometimes fairy blunt and grim.  It all wound up on the uplifting side of things, and was a worthwhile game.  I still haven't decided on the next game, but for now, The Harvest Has Triumphed.

Save the World, Yadda Yadda

Well, things are still going very well in Lunar:  Silver Star Story Complete.  The storyline is still all cliché and silliness, but honestly it's okay. 


It took me a while to realize that I've been through (and probably still going through) what is most likely the most productive gaming period I have experienced.  I'm still working out why exactly my nerdy little wheels have decided to start churning out so many successive--and successful--campaigns thus far.  Some of it is pure escapism; I beat Tales of The Abyss the same day my mom's cancer diagnosis was confirmed, and buried myself in Tales of Vesperia that very night.  Some of it is pure bloodyminded, nerdy determination to sit down and beat some damn games instead of faffing about in open world wanderlust.


But what was the X factor, the catalyst that keeps me actually picking up the controller and seeing things to the credits?  I'm still not 100 percent sure, but I think that it's the fact that I'm spacing the 'serious' games out with 'mental palate cleansers' like Lunar. 


Objectively, this game should totally suck, especially stacked against some of the heavy fare I've been tearing my way through.  But!  The guys at Working Designs did a wonderful job of taking a cookie-cutter JRPG and making into something special.  They went so completely nuts on the jokes and references and double entendres that even the glorious kooks at Gearbox Software probably weep in envy.  Seriously, "I am the eggman, I am the walrus" is probably one of the tamer ones floating around in here.  Throw in references to movies and cartoons, plus things like a snippet yanked and slightly sanitized from a corny sex novel and we have a wonderful, wonderful medley of hoots left and right.


A lot of the actual gameplay is actually very fun and refreshing too.  The combat mechanics are fairly basic in theory, but have a level of intricacy and polish that RPGs two or even three generations ahead have a hard time matching.  It's turn-based, but with interesting twists like characters actually moving across the battlefield to smack enemies, higher-level characters being able to make multiple moves and attacks a turn making basic attack commands viable throughout the game, monsters have different attacks and animations acting as 'tells,' giving you a chance to anticipate and respond.  This is all in an early PS1 game that is a remake of a Sega CD game, mind you.


The dungeons are similar.  They look like something from the 16-bit era that's been slightly jazzed up (which is what they are), but there's this air of polish and craftsmanship to them.  The towns are even more fun; Lunar stands as that rare early JRPG where the towns actually feel like towns.  They're still pretty small, but they're chock-full of things to look at, people with interesting dialogue (a lot of the gags come from random townsfolk) and objects to find and poke (even more gags).  There's no real wonder that this game (and its sequel) have such an affectionate fanbase, and my only regret is not playing this the last time I had a copy on hand.  But now it's time to go, The Harvest Never Rests!

Wish Upon A Silver Star

Well, how does one say it?  Lunar:  Silver Star Story Complete is proceeding very well.  It has proven to be quite the palate cleanser after all the grim realpolitik and eldritch meddling going on in Final Fantasy XII. 


I should be bored and a bit horrified; Grandia was a signal lesson that just because something is old, widely praised, and well within my gaming specialty doesn't mean I'll actually like the thing enough to make into a complete campaign.  But Lunar just has that special spark.  It's probably the music and writing.  Yes, the dialog and random text blobs are hilarious.  Working Design went absolutely nuts with the humor and the references, to the point that I'm amazed that this got a T rating--in the nineties!--which goes to show that censorious prudes are complete idiots when it comes to games.


Wheaties, Austin Powers (both the first and second movies), Chrono Trigger (anybody that doesn't think Ghaleon isn't Magus 2.0 is a fool, ditto for Vane being Zeal 2.0), Titanic, Norman Greenbaum, the list goes on, and I'm only six hours in!  The Borderlands series' level of references ain't got nuthin' on Lunar, I tell you.  Combine that with a simple-but-pleasant storyline, a fun battle system, and SSSC is shaping up to be quite a fun little ride.


It's good to remember that even now that there are plenty of old gems out there to unearth and admire, and just because a game is predictable doesn't mean it isn't a lot of fun.  The Harvest Never Rests, and Needs A Good Laugh Anyway.