(no subject)
Okay! Shotgun game impressions/rants. Putting my DS and PSP to good use. My Wii sees use, but it's mostly VC games and RE4 right now, which I've already played. The new controls are nice though.
Odin Sphere (PS2) is a very, very pretty 2D side-scrolling, brawler, RPG kind of - thing. It's hard to explain, but it is fun to play, though slightly repetitive. The story in interesting and entertaining, as are the wonderfully illustrated and large characters. As for gameplay, while being a side-scrolling brawler, it's amazingly done for what it is. Moves reward skill and strategy, and are challenging without being maddening. You not only have items you find and buy from merchants, there are item mixing, growing, and EXP gaining systems embedded in it. I really like it so far, but I kind of got stuck and haven't gotten back to it yet.
Megaman X8 (PS2) Okay okay, I know - no one likes Megaman X these days, and while I agree the story is cringe-inducing at best, I am a lifelong fan because I love the gameplay. Dash, grapple, slash, etc (I use mostly Zero, if you can't tell) is just fun for me to get good at, challenging, yet possible if you get proficient. Anyway, I was thrilled to see that model was brought back after X7 obliterated it. Except for a couple vehicle stages, it's as good as ever 2D play.
Shining Force EXA (PS2) You know how much I liked Shining Force, even though it remained essentially the same? And how much I hated Shining Force Neo because it was hack and slash but thought it was fun? Weeellll it turns out that hack and slash doesn't work well for the whole next-game-is-almost-the-same-thing formula. Seriously - Exaclty the same. If you want to try the whole SF hack and slash bit, buy Shining Force Neo, you'll have more fun, and spend less. Hmm? What? A different story? What story? Ohh, that's right, I guess they do have different stories, I was too busy desperately trying to block out both "plots" to notice.
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) An amazing game. Jagged as the PS2 is, the landscape is stunning and littered with interesting ruins and landforms. The premise is pretty simple: you enter a forbidden land in hopes of returning the life of a young girl sacrificed for some ritual or another, and have to defeat 16(#?) collosi to do it. So you set off wandering the land to defeat these creatures, who range from medium-sized to huge to utterly enormous. They are as fascinating as the landscape around them and is kind of a thrill to fight some of them. From giant , upright knights, to mile-long flying serpents and underwater eels, to lumbering beasts in caves, deserts and lake- bottoms. In the end, it was too short, and there was nothing much else in the game worth exploring the wonderful (but FULL of cliffs and gaps you need to go ALLL the way around >_< ) area for. But I had a lot of fun playing it, and would reccommend you try it if you can rent it (it only cost me $16 used anyway), but its certainly not for everyone.
Etrian Odyssey (DS) This is an odd game. You get a faceless (aka void of distinguishing features in different parts) 3-D maze littered with TOUGH, turn-based battles. Your Party? Whatever you want - you choose 5 party members from a list of classes and name them. So you don't get any real plot characters, or much plot, for that matter. As for said map, you DO get where you go mapped for you - at least the floor tiles. The rest? The doors, different path walls, etc you have to draw in. That's right, you make your own map - which is the plot - somehow. The whole plot is you want to explore and map the labyrinth - so all plot is situational beyond that. It's not BAD, but I prefer a plot and real character most of the time : /
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) isn't a bad game. Portrait of Ruin almost seems a step backwards in a sense ow that I've played this. As a fan of the first game, Aria of Sorrow, (this is its sequal) I was dissapointed to see the artwork in general take a dive fro the GBA original.
Luminous Arc (DS) A strategy RPG i the key of Final Fantasy tactics (although I didn't like that game myself and don't understand how it became such a launching-point for every SRPG) - Anyway, it turned out better then I expected - boss fights are cheap with far reaching and devastating special moves. As for the other fights, they are challenging and interesting, although the moves have almost NO elevation range, so if the terrain is hilly (almost always) you have to go around. Characters with a move-range of 3 get left behind too easily for all the having to go around everything. As for the story, it's fair , though cheesy and predictable, while the characters are well drawn for the most part. All in all it's not bad, I still haven;t finished it thanks to the as said cheap special moves of bosses..
Odin Sphere (PS2) is a very, very pretty 2D side-scrolling, brawler, RPG kind of - thing. It's hard to explain, but it is fun to play, though slightly repetitive. The story in interesting and entertaining, as are the wonderfully illustrated and large characters. As for gameplay, while being a side-scrolling brawler, it's amazingly done for what it is. Moves reward skill and strategy, and are challenging without being maddening. You not only have items you find and buy from merchants, there are item mixing, growing, and EXP gaining systems embedded in it. I really like it so far, but I kind of got stuck and haven't gotten back to it yet.
Megaman X8 (PS2) Okay okay, I know - no one likes Megaman X these days, and while I agree the story is cringe-inducing at best, I am a lifelong fan because I love the gameplay. Dash, grapple, slash, etc (I use mostly Zero, if you can't tell) is just fun for me to get good at, challenging, yet possible if you get proficient. Anyway, I was thrilled to see that model was brought back after X7 obliterated it. Except for a couple vehicle stages, it's as good as ever 2D play.
Shining Force EXA (PS2) You know how much I liked Shining Force, even though it remained essentially the same? And how much I hated Shining Force Neo because it was hack and slash but thought it was fun? Weeellll it turns out that hack and slash doesn't work well for the whole next-game-is-almost-the-same-thing formula. Seriously - Exaclty the same. If you want to try the whole SF hack and slash bit, buy Shining Force Neo, you'll have more fun, and spend less. Hmm? What? A different story? What story? Ohh, that's right, I guess they do have different stories, I was too busy desperately trying to block out both "plots" to notice.
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) An amazing game. Jagged as the PS2 is, the landscape is stunning and littered with interesting ruins and landforms. The premise is pretty simple: you enter a forbidden land in hopes of returning the life of a young girl sacrificed for some ritual or another, and have to defeat 16(#?) collosi to do it. So you set off wandering the land to defeat these creatures, who range from medium-sized to huge to utterly enormous. They are as fascinating as the landscape around them and is kind of a thrill to fight some of them. From giant , upright knights, to mile-long flying serpents and underwater eels, to lumbering beasts in caves, deserts and lake- bottoms. In the end, it was too short, and there was nothing much else in the game worth exploring the wonderful (but FULL of cliffs and gaps you need to go ALLL the way around >_< ) area for. But I had a lot of fun playing it, and would reccommend you try it if you can rent it (it only cost me $16 used anyway), but its certainly not for everyone.
Etrian Odyssey (DS) This is an odd game. You get a faceless (aka void of distinguishing features in different parts) 3-D maze littered with TOUGH, turn-based battles. Your Party? Whatever you want - you choose 5 party members from a list of classes and name them. So you don't get any real plot characters, or much plot, for that matter. As for said map, you DO get where you go mapped for you - at least the floor tiles. The rest? The doors, different path walls, etc you have to draw in. That's right, you make your own map - which is the plot - somehow. The whole plot is you want to explore and map the labyrinth - so all plot is situational beyond that. It's not BAD, but I prefer a plot and real character most of the time : /
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) isn't a bad game. Portrait of Ruin almost seems a step backwards in a sense ow that I've played this. As a fan of the first game, Aria of Sorrow, (this is its sequal) I was dissapointed to see the artwork in general take a dive fro the GBA original.
Luminous Arc (DS) A strategy RPG i the key of Final Fantasy tactics (although I didn't like that game myself and don't understand how it became such a launching-point for every SRPG) - Anyway, it turned out better then I expected - boss fights are cheap with far reaching and devastating special moves. As for the other fights, they are challenging and interesting, although the moves have almost NO elevation range, so if the terrain is hilly (almost always) you have to go around. Characters with a move-range of 3 get left behind too easily for all the having to go around everything. As for the story, it's fair , though cheesy and predictable, while the characters are well drawn for the most part. All in all it's not bad, I still haven;t finished it thanks to the as said cheap special moves of bosses..