Spring Gaming
It's time for a gaming post!
I beat Lost Odyssey a few weeks ago. I really, really liked it; it felt more like a Final Fantasy than FFXII did to me. There were some genuinely emotional parts in the story, which I haven't gotten enough of in RPGs lately. The short story segments were especially good. My original intention was to unlock every achievement for it, because I loved the game so damn much, but in the end I settled for about 770/1000. I didn't care much for the backyard battle arena, and despite the fact that I had learned a whole crapton of skills, I didn't feel like stressing about collecting every single accessory to unlock the skill linker achievement. All in all, though, it was a friggin' excellent game.
I've been focusing most of my gaming time on Mana-Khemia lately. It may be a slightly low-budget RPG, and it still uses the same ol' Gust engine, but it fixes nearly everything I disliked about Atelier Iris 2/3 and Ar Tonelico. I particularly enjoy the character development system. It's sort of a cross between FFX's sphere grid and the item creation system of the Atelier Iris games. As you explore the various areas around the alchemy academy, you get recipes to create various items, such as healing potions and weapons/armor. When you successfully create an item, if that item is located on a character's "grow book", it is placed in the corresponding node and allows you to unlock an associated stat boost or ability. As a result, it gives the player incentive to constantly utilize alchemy, which ties in very nicely with the game's storyline. The characters are also quite likable, for the most part. I couldn't stand the English voices, though, so I switched to Japanese, and it feel like it fits them a lot better. It's pretty fucking cool that I've studied enough Japanese to understand a great deal of what they say.
I bought and completed The World Ends With You in about a week. Loved the music, character designs and story. I'm a sucker for nearly anything that Tetsuya Nomura has a hand in creating. My only complaint is that the game was a little short (it clocked in somewhere around 10-12 hours for me), but it was a DS game, after all.
Speaking of DS games, I picked up Rondo of Swords last week, and I'm not happy with it at all. At risk of sounding conceited, I can say with certainty that I can pick up games really quickly with almost no trouble whatsoever. I very, very rarely need to read instruction manuals or watch tutorials. I figured once I got used to moving through enemies to attack them rather than issuing an attack command, Rondo of Swords wouldn't be a problem to figure out. No problem, right? WRONG. I can't beat the very first mission, and I even died on some of the tutorial battles. What the fuck is that shit? Sorry, I don't think 3 friendlies vs 18 enemies is very fair for a first battle, considering that the enemies can take away nearly 1/2 of your HP with a single attack. I'm not giving up on it completely, but it doesn't look promising.
Have I mentioned that I love Xbox Live Arcade? Okay, well, I fuckin' love Xbox Live Arcade. I've got about 10 games, the most recent of which is N+. It's occasionally frustrating, but surprisingly addictive. I like that there's hardly any penalty for dying. If you screw up, you just press A to restart in less than a second's time. Some of the co-op missions are insanely difficult, though. amirite, Bryan?
Oh, and finally, Wii Fit comes out next week! Thank jeebus I've paid off $70 of it already. (I didn't really realize how expensive it was until I started paying it off little by little.) Hopefully it's as entertaining and/or effective as it's made out to be. I need a reason to get into shape.
I beat Lost Odyssey a few weeks ago. I really, really liked it; it felt more like a Final Fantasy than FFXII did to me. There were some genuinely emotional parts in the story, which I haven't gotten enough of in RPGs lately. The short story segments were especially good. My original intention was to unlock every achievement for it, because I loved the game so damn much, but in the end I settled for about 770/1000. I didn't care much for the backyard battle arena, and despite the fact that I had learned a whole crapton of skills, I didn't feel like stressing about collecting every single accessory to unlock the skill linker achievement. All in all, though, it was a friggin' excellent game.
I've been focusing most of my gaming time on Mana-Khemia lately. It may be a slightly low-budget RPG, and it still uses the same ol' Gust engine, but it fixes nearly everything I disliked about Atelier Iris 2/3 and Ar Tonelico. I particularly enjoy the character development system. It's sort of a cross between FFX's sphere grid and the item creation system of the Atelier Iris games. As you explore the various areas around the alchemy academy, you get recipes to create various items, such as healing potions and weapons/armor. When you successfully create an item, if that item is located on a character's "grow book", it is placed in the corresponding node and allows you to unlock an associated stat boost or ability. As a result, it gives the player incentive to constantly utilize alchemy, which ties in very nicely with the game's storyline. The characters are also quite likable, for the most part. I couldn't stand the English voices, though, so I switched to Japanese, and it feel like it fits them a lot better. It's pretty fucking cool that I've studied enough Japanese to understand a great deal of what they say.
I bought and completed The World Ends With You in about a week. Loved the music, character designs and story. I'm a sucker for nearly anything that Tetsuya Nomura has a hand in creating. My only complaint is that the game was a little short (it clocked in somewhere around 10-12 hours for me), but it was a DS game, after all.
Speaking of DS games, I picked up Rondo of Swords last week, and I'm not happy with it at all. At risk of sounding conceited, I can say with certainty that I can pick up games really quickly with almost no trouble whatsoever. I very, very rarely need to read instruction manuals or watch tutorials. I figured once I got used to moving through enemies to attack them rather than issuing an attack command, Rondo of Swords wouldn't be a problem to figure out. No problem, right? WRONG. I can't beat the very first mission, and I even died on some of the tutorial battles. What the fuck is that shit? Sorry, I don't think 3 friendlies vs 18 enemies is very fair for a first battle, considering that the enemies can take away nearly 1/2 of your HP with a single attack. I'm not giving up on it completely, but it doesn't look promising.
Have I mentioned that I love Xbox Live Arcade? Okay, well, I fuckin' love Xbox Live Arcade. I've got about 10 games, the most recent of which is N+. It's occasionally frustrating, but surprisingly addictive. I like that there's hardly any penalty for dying. If you screw up, you just press A to restart in less than a second's time. Some of the co-op missions are insanely difficult, though. amirite, Bryan?
Oh, and finally, Wii Fit comes out next week! Thank jeebus I've paid off $70 of it already. (I didn't really realize how expensive it was until I started paying it off little by little.) Hopefully it's as entertaining and/or effective as it's made out to be. I need a reason to get into shape.