For me, this is actually really moving along.
► - Joystiq's Naughty Bear review just makes me want to play the game even more now. Apparently you can make other bears commit suicide if you scare them enough. It sounds AWFUL. And yet ADORABLE. (God, what is wrong with me?)
► - Another game I really kind of want to see is American McGee's Little Red Riding Hood because I enjoyed his Alice so much and I'd really like to see this one, too. Though, hopefully as a console game this time instead of a PC one because I am terrible at PC games. Seriously, I eventually gave up on actually playing Alice and just went for a video walkthrough/movie thing, which was much less satisfying, but at least got the job done.
► - I'm not usually one for games with giant monsters, but Majin: The Fallen Realm looks kind of seriously stunning. Apparently, it's about solving puzzles and fighting enemies (the usual) and a;sdlkfja;lskjs god I hate those kinds of puzzles because I don't want to sit there and figure shit out, I WANT TO GO FIGHT THE ENEMIES. But maybe for something that pretty.....
► - Well, shit. Monado looks pretty, too (or Xenoblade, I guess) and asdl;fkjaslkj I guess there's a good chance it'll happen in 2010? And that it's likely for being ported over?
► - I finally got the motivation to pick up Fairy Tail again, though, I'm only in the mid-60s right now. However! THE REASON FOR THE NAME FAIRY TAIL HAS BEEN REVEALED! I dunno if this is a spoiler or not? It's a slight one, if it is. Just in case, though!
Oh, god, it's so beautiful. And can only be captured chat-style with darkeyedwolf:
BECKY: I'm reading Fairy Tail and asd;fkja;slkj Makarov (the little guy in charge of the guild) explains why he named it that. It's in a flashback with Natsu first joining and they're talking about having epic adventures and stuff, Makarov explains, well, who knows if fairies actually have tails? It's a mystery! An endless mystery of adventure! That's why I named it that! And I am kind of dying of lolz because it's the dumbest reason ever.
WOLFIE: lol That is SO STUPID. I love it XD
BECKY: The more I think about it, the funnier it gets. WHO KNOWS IF FAIRIES HAVE TAILS? IT'S AN ENDLESS ADVENTURE TO FIND OUT! Not that they're really going to seek fairies out, which only makes it funnier.
WOLFIE: I KNOW. It's like saying "DO YOU THINK DRAGONS HAVE AN ANUS? LET'S NAME OURSELVES DRAGON ANUS!"
BECKY: WHO KNOWS IF THEY REALLY POOP OR NOT? IT'S AN ENDLESS MYSTERY! WE ARE DRAGON ANUS! Crying.
WOLFIE: flsdjfljfksdlfjsd omg
► - I'm about 11 hours into Final Fantasy XIII now (so I'm in the middle of chapter 6) and, wow, I think I actually have kind of a ton to say about this game now that I'm getting the hang of it! I'm at the point where I can use the system better, my characters are better leveled, and I think I actually kind of see the reason they set the mechanics up the way they did.
While I'm still not entirely sold on it (I've played too many hours of FFXII and FFIV to not this of that as the default basic set-up... that's not very clear, but you know what I mean), I've learned to work it better and it's at least really interesting. Once you get a better grip on what they can do and get them to actually be useful, the characters become a lot more endearing as well!
Okay, vague SPOILERS for stuff up through chapter 6, but it's still setting stuff up at this point, so it's not like there are any HUGE surprises. But, still. Probably best to at least be to chapter 5 or so before reading this?
FFXIII CHARACTERS, PART TWO:
» Do you know what I love? That Lightning gets to be a tough character in her attitude, but also as a fighter. She is a freaking tank and any time I have her in my party, it doesn't matter who else is there, so long as they can support her with a little healing now and again, because she just mows through everything. I actually kind of loved the flashbacks with her/that mention her because, man, she is a force to be reckoned with.
But it's also in her dynamic with Snow. She tries to leave him behind because she doesn't want to deal with this right now and because he is slowing her down, but having Odin come at her gets her to rethink things and... it's about then that you can see her taking Hope under her wing. She can see the anger burning in him and knows that it needs an outlet. And she wants someone to protect as well, someone to do something good for, because she's tough, but she's reaching out, too. I really, really like her.
» When Hope decided to go after Lightning instead of going with Sazh and Vanille, that's when I started to turn around on his character. He got himself a (ha ha) focus as a character and started channelling all that fury into getting stronger and it's... it's not that I want to encourage him down the path of revenge, but at least it makes him interesting to watch now! Because he's moving forward and he's stopped whining and he's more of an active character now.
I love that it was sort of reflected in him taking the lead in the Gapra Whitewood. It was a clever little way to have the game make you play with him as the leader, but it actually did tie into the plot currently going on with Lightning starting to train Hope. While I usually prefer to be the character that does all the damage while the supporting characters heal/buff me, I didn't mind it here. You didn't stay that way for long and it was interesting to play support while watching Lightning just rip right through everything.
Also, once he becomes a halfway decent Ravager? Yeah, then I liked him a lot more.
» I still want Vanille's voice actress to cut the freaking constant cutesy "teehee!" baby talk out, but I do like her as a character. The Australian accent is kind of an odd choice, but I'm slowly getting used to it. But she's turning into a really kind of awesome Ravager and she's the only Sabateur I have, which I really miss when I'm forced to switch parties.
Since she's been partnered up with Sazh for pretty much the entire game, I'm getting used to their dynamics. I actually like the sort of friendship thing they have going on, because they're such an odd match and I like that there's this almost sort of parental thing going on with them. With Lightning and Hope, I've already been affected by the j-fanart that ships them (WHEN HE IS OLDER, OKAY), but I love that Sazh and Vanille don't have to go down that route, I love that the game can have something else besides shipping. I'm hoping Snow and Fang get to fight together for awhile so I can have another dynamic like that!
Anyway, I've grown really fond of Sazh + Vanille now that their Slash & Burn paradigm is properly leveled and just mows through shit. He's not in Lightning's league, but he's a solid Commando and she makes a really good Ravager, plus he's got guns that extend an enemy's Stagger period, so they're actually FUN TO PLAY NOW. I've been routinely getting 5 stars! (Except for when I have to go up against those giant Scalebeast fuckers, which I did because I AM A MASOCHIST. Also, I was curious about how I'd stack up. ALSO THERE WAS TREASURE, OKAY.) It's kind of amazing.
» Sazh is also growing on me. I think where I really started to turn around on Vanille as a character/this duo (versus liking her as a fighter/being intrigued by her character)/realized just how much I liked Sazh as a character was when she drew the line in the sand and said Sazh was not to cross it, okay! And he's like, "...." about it but, whatever, he's too tired for this shit, so just curls up well on the other side of it. Not too much later, he wakes up to her curled up right beside him, making noises in her sleep, and murmurs to himself, "....still just a kid afterall."
Oh, Sazh. I know your life is so hard, having to deal with all these annoying kids. The revelation about his own kid (which had been hinted about before this) was... well, it was a little over the top, but what ISN'T in this game? It was still touching. And I'm glad he's not just comedic relief, like I was fearing he was going to be.
» Snow has hardly gotten anything to do lately, except be totally smitten with Serah, but, well, I'm okay with that. He'll come back around again eventually. I-- I kind of want to see him in the same team as Lightning again, because they have this really awesome dynamic going on. He's so friendly and wants to call her sister! She is very much DO NOT WANT and will bust his face open! He's kind of scared of her! And yet not scared of her! She thinks he is far too friendly and arrogant! She kind of can't stand him! I LOVE IT. (I love even more that I don't want to ship it, I just want to see them be :D vs >:| at each other ALL DAY. While Serah tries to be the peacemaker between them!)
» Fang! I have to assume there's a lot more going on with her, but she's at least been an awesome character so far? I love how she just casually stomps Snow down whenever he tries to get out of control on them and just smirks at him. I'm reeeeeally curious to see how she plays as a character!
» AHAHAHA I HAVE MET CID. HOTTEST FF CID YET.
FFXIII MECHANICS/GAMEPLAY:
→ Holy shit, DIE IN A FIRE, ODIN. D:< Even knowing what he wanted to get his fucking Gestalt, it took me for-fucking-ever to a) not die and b) even get it halfway up and c) finally just restart about SEVEN DIFFERENT TIMES to retry the goddamned fight. I mean, eventually I got him (down to less than 100 seconds left on the Doom clock, too) and had to use him in battle, which was kind of awesome just for the graphics, but.
I DO NOT LIKE USING SUMMONS, GAME. I AM NOT A SUMMONER TYPE. WHY MUST YOU FORCE ME TO GET THEM? I mean, okay, it was pretty awesome to see Lightning ride around the battlefield on a horse and just destroy everything in her path, but I'm not sure it was really worth the effort.
On the other hand, I was kind of creeped out by the Shiva sisters transforming into a bike that Snow hopped on to ride. My eyebrows could not go any higher while I was watching that, Square.
→ You know what I'm growing to really love? The random comments made by the characters as you're running around an area. I got used to this in White Knight Chronicles and, if this is a trend with jrpgs lately, I FULLY SUPPORT IT. I mean, Tales have been doing something sort of similar for awhile with their face chats, but I really vastly prefer it when they DON'T STOP THE ACTION FOR IT. It makes running around these vast areas a little more interesting.
AND THEY ARE ALSO HILARIOUS.
"At least it's not a poison scorpion or a giant pile of garbage again!" lolololololol
→ I... am finding it difficult to summon the energy to complain about not being able to control my supporting characters' actions, because they've been really good to me so far. I'm getting really good at setting up my paradigms and flipping between them to get what I need from the other person (usually only a buff or a heal, but occasionally I need another Ravager to help me do some elemental damage) and they're good about understanding what I need. As soon as I have an enemy either with Libra or I've simply fought it enough to know, they always go for the right spell that the enemy is weak towards. They start healing immediately when I switch them over to a medic role. They start buffing me immediately if I put them into a Synergist role.
It's not necessarily what I'm used to, but I'm getting it to work pretty well by now. And I really like that you don't just try a few out for novelty then stick to two default paradigms. I'm switching between several of them constantly and I don't think that's going to stop. Have I developed patterns? Sure. But a lot of that is based on what kind of enemy I'm fighting at the time and what kind of characters I have. So far, the game has done well at keeping me on my toes with the paradigms.
Actually, my only real complaint is with the Crystarium and its level caps, basically. Look, Square, it should be my choice if I want to over level a character to ridiculous levels so that I don't have to deal with this strategy crap if I don't want to! Not to have you impose limits on me and probably giving me a final cap that's nowhere near what you usually get when you want to grind to level 99! Part of what extends a game's play for me is taking my faves all the way to level 99 so that I can go kill everything in the game!
Right now it's not such a problem, because the game has been pretty good about making sure that you can fight any enemy that comes along. Even the ones it warns you against (like the Scalebeasts in chapter 6, when you only have Vanille and Sazh--the game specifically points out that you can go around while you only have two people here), you can beat if you don't mind it taking awhile. (Setting aside the Eidolons, but they're meant to be hard fuckers.) The point of the game is to keep you moving forward, I know. And I went into this game knowing that the world wouldn't open up until about 30 hours into it.
(Man, it always makes me nervous when I'm on, like, chapter 6 of a 13 chapter game and it's only been 11 hours, despite that I know the chapters will start taking longer and longer to get through.)
But I still rankle at these forced level caps that I keep running into! Despite that I'm not actually really even trying to grind! I've been moving forward at a good clip (only occasionally going back to grind for some extra CP--I think I've done it maybe twice now?) and yet I'm still almost all the way through Sazh and Vanille's currently available levels!
→ I'm still not upgrading my weapons yet (much) mostly because I don't want to have to farm for materials later and I need to, like, study the listings of what weapon would be the best one to upgrade. WHY AM I SUCH A NERD ABOUT THIS KIND OF THING?
→ As pretty as it is, I kind of hated the second half of the Gapra Whitewood with the electronic fences. There was one sectioned off area that you (I assume) couldn't get into because you had to kill everything else in this giant area. But, by the time you finished killing off two or three groups of them, one of them would have respawned, so I could never get that goddamned fence to come down.
→ The Vile Peaks was... okay, there's this moment, after the two groups have split off and Lightning/Hope are traveling together, when he finds this giant machine that will mow through PSICOM troops. You do this for about five minutes' worth of travel and then it crashes.
Wh... what was that point of that?? Just for funsies? Because the game wanted to show off a different kind of combat? Will this come up again at all? I kind of had to laugh because it was just so random and like the programmers had gotten bored. XD
► - Another game I really kind of want to see is American McGee's Little Red Riding Hood because I enjoyed his Alice so much and I'd really like to see this one, too. Though, hopefully as a console game this time instead of a PC one because I am terrible at PC games. Seriously, I eventually gave up on actually playing Alice and just went for a video walkthrough/movie thing, which was much less satisfying, but at least got the job done.
► - I'm not usually one for games with giant monsters, but Majin: The Fallen Realm looks kind of seriously stunning. Apparently, it's about solving puzzles and fighting enemies (the usual) and a;sdlkfja;lskjs god I hate those kinds of puzzles because I don't want to sit there and figure shit out, I WANT TO GO FIGHT THE ENEMIES. But maybe for something that pretty.....
► - Well, shit. Monado looks pretty, too (or Xenoblade, I guess) and asdl;fkjaslkj I guess there's a good chance it'll happen in 2010? And that it's likely for being ported over?
► - I finally got the motivation to pick up Fairy Tail again, though, I'm only in the mid-60s right now. However! THE REASON FOR THE NAME FAIRY TAIL HAS BEEN REVEALED! I dunno if this is a spoiler or not? It's a slight one, if it is. Just in case, though!
Oh, god, it's so beautiful. And can only be captured chat-style with darkeyedwolf:
BECKY: I'm reading Fairy Tail and asd;fkja;slkj Makarov (the little guy in charge of the guild) explains why he named it that. It's in a flashback with Natsu first joining and they're talking about having epic adventures and stuff, Makarov explains, well, who knows if fairies actually have tails? It's a mystery! An endless mystery of adventure! That's why I named it that! And I am kind of dying of lolz because it's the dumbest reason ever.
WOLFIE: lol That is SO STUPID. I love it XD
BECKY: The more I think about it, the funnier it gets. WHO KNOWS IF FAIRIES HAVE TAILS? IT'S AN ENDLESS ADVENTURE TO FIND OUT! Not that they're really going to seek fairies out, which only makes it funnier.
WOLFIE: I KNOW. It's like saying "DO YOU THINK DRAGONS HAVE AN ANUS? LET'S NAME OURSELVES DRAGON ANUS!"
BECKY: WHO KNOWS IF THEY REALLY POOP OR NOT? IT'S AN ENDLESS MYSTERY! WE ARE DRAGON ANUS! Crying.
WOLFIE: flsdjfljfksdlfjsd omg
► - I'm about 11 hours into Final Fantasy XIII now (so I'm in the middle of chapter 6) and, wow, I think I actually have kind of a ton to say about this game now that I'm getting the hang of it! I'm at the point where I can use the system better, my characters are better leveled, and I think I actually kind of see the reason they set the mechanics up the way they did.
While I'm still not entirely sold on it (I've played too many hours of FFXII and FFIV to not this of that as the default basic set-up... that's not very clear, but you know what I mean), I've learned to work it better and it's at least really interesting. Once you get a better grip on what they can do and get them to actually be useful, the characters become a lot more endearing as well!
Okay, vague SPOILERS for stuff up through chapter 6, but it's still setting stuff up at this point, so it's not like there are any HUGE surprises. But, still. Probably best to at least be to chapter 5 or so before reading this?
FFXIII CHARACTERS, PART TWO:
» Do you know what I love? That Lightning gets to be a tough character in her attitude, but also as a fighter. She is a freaking tank and any time I have her in my party, it doesn't matter who else is there, so long as they can support her with a little healing now and again, because she just mows through everything. I actually kind of loved the flashbacks with her/that mention her because, man, she is a force to be reckoned with.
But it's also in her dynamic with Snow. She tries to leave him behind because she doesn't want to deal with this right now and because he is slowing her down, but having Odin come at her gets her to rethink things and... it's about then that you can see her taking Hope under her wing. She can see the anger burning in him and knows that it needs an outlet. And she wants someone to protect as well, someone to do something good for, because she's tough, but she's reaching out, too. I really, really like her.
» When Hope decided to go after Lightning instead of going with Sazh and Vanille, that's when I started to turn around on his character. He got himself a (ha ha) focus as a character and started channelling all that fury into getting stronger and it's... it's not that I want to encourage him down the path of revenge, but at least it makes him interesting to watch now! Because he's moving forward and he's stopped whining and he's more of an active character now.
I love that it was sort of reflected in him taking the lead in the Gapra Whitewood. It was a clever little way to have the game make you play with him as the leader, but it actually did tie into the plot currently going on with Lightning starting to train Hope. While I usually prefer to be the character that does all the damage while the supporting characters heal/buff me, I didn't mind it here. You didn't stay that way for long and it was interesting to play support while watching Lightning just rip right through everything.
Also, once he becomes a halfway decent Ravager? Yeah, then I liked him a lot more.
» I still want Vanille's voice actress to cut the freaking constant cutesy "teehee!" baby talk out, but I do like her as a character. The Australian accent is kind of an odd choice, but I'm slowly getting used to it. But she's turning into a really kind of awesome Ravager and she's the only Sabateur I have, which I really miss when I'm forced to switch parties.
Since she's been partnered up with Sazh for pretty much the entire game, I'm getting used to their dynamics. I actually like the sort of friendship thing they have going on, because they're such an odd match and I like that there's this almost sort of parental thing going on with them. With Lightning and Hope, I've already been affected by the j-fanart that ships them (WHEN HE IS OLDER, OKAY), but I love that Sazh and Vanille don't have to go down that route, I love that the game can have something else besides shipping. I'm hoping Snow and Fang get to fight together for awhile so I can have another dynamic like that!
Anyway, I've grown really fond of Sazh + Vanille now that their Slash & Burn paradigm is properly leveled and just mows through shit. He's not in Lightning's league, but he's a solid Commando and she makes a really good Ravager, plus he's got guns that extend an enemy's Stagger period, so they're actually FUN TO PLAY NOW. I've been routinely getting 5 stars! (Except for when I have to go up against those giant Scalebeast fuckers, which I did because I AM A MASOCHIST. Also, I was curious about how I'd stack up. ALSO THERE WAS TREASURE, OKAY.) It's kind of amazing.
» Sazh is also growing on me. I think where I really started to turn around on Vanille as a character/this duo (versus liking her as a fighter/being intrigued by her character)/realized just how much I liked Sazh as a character was when she drew the line in the sand and said Sazh was not to cross it, okay! And he's like, "...." about it but, whatever, he's too tired for this shit, so just curls up well on the other side of it. Not too much later, he wakes up to her curled up right beside him, making noises in her sleep, and murmurs to himself, "....still just a kid afterall."
Oh, Sazh. I know your life is so hard, having to deal with all these annoying kids. The revelation about his own kid (which had been hinted about before this) was... well, it was a little over the top, but what ISN'T in this game? It was still touching. And I'm glad he's not just comedic relief, like I was fearing he was going to be.
» Snow has hardly gotten anything to do lately, except be totally smitten with Serah, but, well, I'm okay with that. He'll come back around again eventually. I-- I kind of want to see him in the same team as Lightning again, because they have this really awesome dynamic going on. He's so friendly and wants to call her sister! She is very much DO NOT WANT and will bust his face open! He's kind of scared of her! And yet not scared of her! She thinks he is far too friendly and arrogant! She kind of can't stand him! I LOVE IT. (I love even more that I don't want to ship it, I just want to see them be :D vs >:| at each other ALL DAY. While Serah tries to be the peacemaker between them!)
» Fang! I have to assume there's a lot more going on with her, but she's at least been an awesome character so far? I love how she just casually stomps Snow down whenever he tries to get out of control on them and just smirks at him. I'm reeeeeally curious to see how she plays as a character!
» AHAHAHA I HAVE MET CID. HOTTEST FF CID YET.
FFXIII MECHANICS/GAMEPLAY:
→ Holy shit, DIE IN A FIRE, ODIN. D:< Even knowing what he wanted to get his fucking Gestalt, it took me for-fucking-ever to a) not die and b) even get it halfway up and c) finally just restart about SEVEN DIFFERENT TIMES to retry the goddamned fight. I mean, eventually I got him (down to less than 100 seconds left on the Doom clock, too) and had to use him in battle, which was kind of awesome just for the graphics, but.
I DO NOT LIKE USING SUMMONS, GAME. I AM NOT A SUMMONER TYPE. WHY MUST YOU FORCE ME TO GET THEM? I mean, okay, it was pretty awesome to see Lightning ride around the battlefield on a horse and just destroy everything in her path, but I'm not sure it was really worth the effort.
On the other hand, I was kind of creeped out by the Shiva sisters transforming into a bike that Snow hopped on to ride. My eyebrows could not go any higher while I was watching that, Square.
→ You know what I'm growing to really love? The random comments made by the characters as you're running around an area. I got used to this in White Knight Chronicles and, if this is a trend with jrpgs lately, I FULLY SUPPORT IT. I mean, Tales have been doing something sort of similar for awhile with their face chats, but I really vastly prefer it when they DON'T STOP THE ACTION FOR IT. It makes running around these vast areas a little more interesting.
AND THEY ARE ALSO HILARIOUS.
"At least it's not a poison scorpion or a giant pile of garbage again!" lolololololol
→ I... am finding it difficult to summon the energy to complain about not being able to control my supporting characters' actions, because they've been really good to me so far. I'm getting really good at setting up my paradigms and flipping between them to get what I need from the other person (usually only a buff or a heal, but occasionally I need another Ravager to help me do some elemental damage) and they're good about understanding what I need. As soon as I have an enemy either with Libra or I've simply fought it enough to know, they always go for the right spell that the enemy is weak towards. They start healing immediately when I switch them over to a medic role. They start buffing me immediately if I put them into a Synergist role.
It's not necessarily what I'm used to, but I'm getting it to work pretty well by now. And I really like that you don't just try a few out for novelty then stick to two default paradigms. I'm switching between several of them constantly and I don't think that's going to stop. Have I developed patterns? Sure. But a lot of that is based on what kind of enemy I'm fighting at the time and what kind of characters I have. So far, the game has done well at keeping me on my toes with the paradigms.
Actually, my only real complaint is with the Crystarium and its level caps, basically. Look, Square, it should be my choice if I want to over level a character to ridiculous levels so that I don't have to deal with this strategy crap if I don't want to! Not to have you impose limits on me and probably giving me a final cap that's nowhere near what you usually get when you want to grind to level 99! Part of what extends a game's play for me is taking my faves all the way to level 99 so that I can go kill everything in the game!
Right now it's not such a problem, because the game has been pretty good about making sure that you can fight any enemy that comes along. Even the ones it warns you against (like the Scalebeasts in chapter 6, when you only have Vanille and Sazh--the game specifically points out that you can go around while you only have two people here), you can beat if you don't mind it taking awhile. (Setting aside the Eidolons, but they're meant to be hard fuckers.) The point of the game is to keep you moving forward, I know. And I went into this game knowing that the world wouldn't open up until about 30 hours into it.
(Man, it always makes me nervous when I'm on, like, chapter 6 of a 13 chapter game and it's only been 11 hours, despite that I know the chapters will start taking longer and longer to get through.)
But I still rankle at these forced level caps that I keep running into! Despite that I'm not actually really even trying to grind! I've been moving forward at a good clip (only occasionally going back to grind for some extra CP--I think I've done it maybe twice now?) and yet I'm still almost all the way through Sazh and Vanille's currently available levels!
→ I'm still not upgrading my weapons yet (much) mostly because I don't want to have to farm for materials later and I need to, like, study the listings of what weapon would be the best one to upgrade. WHY AM I SUCH A NERD ABOUT THIS KIND OF THING?
→ As pretty as it is, I kind of hated the second half of the Gapra Whitewood with the electronic fences. There was one sectioned off area that you (I assume) couldn't get into because you had to kill everything else in this giant area. But, by the time you finished killing off two or three groups of them, one of them would have respawned, so I could never get that goddamned fence to come down.
→ The Vile Peaks was... okay, there's this moment, after the two groups have split off and Lightning/Hope are traveling together, when he finds this giant machine that will mow through PSICOM troops. You do this for about five minutes' worth of travel and then it crashes.
Wh... what was that point of that?? Just for funsies? Because the game wanted to show off a different kind of combat? Will this come up again at all? I kind of had to laugh because it was just so random and like the programmers had gotten bored. XD