New horizons
Splattack! from Splatoon
Hi all. It's been a pretty ordinary month...right up until the last few days. Last Friday, the 28th, I lost my job. o.o It wasn't because of any sudden event, it's just that my team hasn't been able to make much progress with the work we were assigned, the client wasn't happy with that, and my company had to make cuts. Such is life. Hopefully this will lead into a better job, like a game development one. Or at least one where I'm making new software from the ground up instead of poking about in an ancient system with little idea how it works. X)
All I can really report about Forgotten Gates this month is some work on the face image and battle sprites of the character Arumarg. Details on why in the MU stuff section.
The TF Slack group has been renamed to Zelda RPG, just to make it more likely that new folks will find us -- and of course we're no longer a MUCK. Doesn't matter much really. There was an incident in which stalfos attacked the Crimson Wolfos Inn, some larger ones that showed up late smashing through the wall to get in. At first I thought somebody (it was spoofed so I don't know who was writing it) was trying to destroy the Wolfos again, maybe for good this time, and usher in a plot period of the good guys being in hiding. In the end, though, whoever it was allowed the stalfos to be handily defeated by the friends of the Inn. There was also a scene about a newcomer named Rome coming through a new portal from Termina to the Spirit Temple, and being hustled to Gerudo Fortress for treatment of his wounds -- his full story hasn't come out yet.
I haven't said anything here about NMR in a few months, because frankly, it's gotten very idle. There are various reasons for this, the main one being that several of the players who were contributing most to plot and such have given most of their attention to a new MUSH called Naruto MUSH Legacy. I'm okay with that, in fact I've made a character there myself and taken the first steps to getting involved, but I'm still trying to revive NMR, particularly since the combat and growth system on NML seems even more complicated than NMR's. X) I had a conversation with some of the players still hanging around on NMR, and we've decided it's time for a reboot. New characters, new setting, most likely even a new combat system. 8o I'm aiming to instate the Conflict Resolution System I invented, a relatively simple system that features tactical decision in mid-encounter more than strategic choice about what stats and skills to purchase, empowerment of lower-level characters to contibute meaningfully in the same situations as higher-level ones, and generally increasing excitement as an encounter proceeds. This is why I haven't made much progress in FG this month, and probably won't for a little while.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:
I actually finished this on June 30th, but I didn't feel like banging out a mini-review to include in my post the next day. X) It was a long game, as I expected going into it. When I checked the timer on my save file after finishing, it said I'd put in 63 hours, and that doesn't include the time for failed attempts at missions since those involved reverting back to the last save. But then, it does include times when I've had the game running while doing something else that didn't demand constant attention, so maybe it balances out.
I'm going to assume you're familiar with the basic premise of the Fire Emblem series. The most interesting thing to note, as I see it, is the contrast between it and its sister series, Nintendo Wars (better known as Advance Wars here in the US). In Nintendo Wars, you produce (or occasionally just start with a limited troupe of) military units and send them out to conquer a map. Everything on the map typically takes action every turn, even if that action is just to head toward whatever their current objective is. You're rewarded for losing as few units as you can manage, but ultimately it's expected that there will be some casualties. Meanwhile, in Fire Emblem, every unit has a face and a name, and you're given new ones as the story progresses (sometimes requiring that you accomplish something during a mission). If a unit is beaten in combat, THEY ARE LOST FOREVER (there are a few exceptions for story purposes, but even if they live I don't think they're available for combat anymore; also, different titles in the series vary on this from what I hear). Hence, the game makes it feasible to avoid losing units at all.
Primarily it does this by making the enemy units less aggressive. Most enemy units will just stand and wait until one of your units comes close (typically close enough that they can walk over and attack on the same turn). Hence, getting through the game is primarily a matter of carefully drawing the enemy into combat with your tanky-y fighters and not letting any single unit get overwhelmed by enemies (which they will do if there's an opportunity, especially against your squishier units). Generally this isn't very hard, especially if you don't try to spread experience across your entire army (about 20 units is good for a core group IMO, most missions don't allow you to take more than around 12 anyway). You'll soon find certain units are able to wipe out most enemy mooks without breaking a sweat, frequently dodging or just plain NOT BEING AFFECTED by their attacks and blowing them away with their own attacks. I've watched with glee while multiple mooks run up to a high-level unit one after the other, barely or not even making a scratch and being one-shotted by the automatic counter-attack. Yay, free progress and it's not even my turn! BREAK UPON ME, MUAHAHAHA! >D
But for all that, the game does sucker-punch you, especially in the later missions. You can easily spend half an hour grinding through a mission only to suddenly lose a unit and be faced with the choice of accepting the loss and moving on or reverting to the last save. I always chose the latter myself, just so I could say I got through without losses and see whatever little epilogue stuff they had for the characters, but here's a tip: go through to the end of the mission anyway, just to see what other nasty surprises the stage might have in store for you. Here's a great example: in one mission about a quarter of the way into the game, THE BLACK KNIGHT (a mysterious twinkhax-powerful enemy whom I suspect shows up in other games in the series and hence they can't let you kill him) walks out of a building partway through, either when a certain number of turns have passed or you reach a certain point on the map. As long as nobody wanders within his attack range (and his sword has a two-space reach, so that can surprise you), he'll just stand there. If, however, you have a hapless unit within range when he steps out -- and remember, you have no warning that this is coming or opportunity to flee once it does -- you can kiss that unit goodbye with certainty.
I'm not ashamed to say that I eventually used a Wii homebrew utility to copy my save files and thus circumvent the rule that saves in the middle of a mission are immediately erased upon loading. Originally I was just using it to backup my saves in case the Wii corrupted my GameCube memory card, which it has done in the past (although now I'm not sure if it was the Wii's fault or the card I was using at the time, apparently it's a type that's known to corrupt even when used in the original GameCube system). It's a bit of a pain to stop the game, boot up the utility, and copy the file in between turns, but believe me, it can save a lot of time in the long run.
Bottom line? I'm personally not planning to play any more Fire Emblem titles, although I did get some enjoyment out of this one. Play it if you're fond of tactical RPGs and don't mind the prospect of having to retry certain missions (quite possibly a DOZEN TIMES in worst-case scenario). Also, look into Wii homebrew.
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice:
Yay, another Ace Attorney title. n.n It's the usual mix of clever whodunnits and comical dialogue, don't suppose I need to go into that very much. Let's just talk about what this game has unique.
Half the cases in Spirit of Justice are set in the Kingdom of Khura'in, from which the spirit-channeling Fey family traces its roots. Visiting there, Phoenix winds up having to defend his tour guide from murder charges, and learns a few unique aspects of the country's legal system. Firstly, defense lawyers are generally despised in the country due to an incident many years ago involving the former queen's assassination. Secondly, a law was enacted at that time that anyone who defended a criminal would be considered guilty of the same crime -- in other words, if they go to the chopping block, so does the lawyer! Adds a bit of in-character drama, although of course to the player it hardly matters -- the game has always ended if you failed to defend your client. ;) Finally, being a country from which spirit mediums arose, the court uses a "divination seance" to reveal the final memories of the victim as evidence.
This last bit is where this title gets its mechanical uniqueness within the series. The divination seance shows the victim's final moments through their own eyes, and the other five senses are shown as well by words overlaying the scene. For example, the word "smoke" might show up if the victim smelled such, "footsteps" would appear if they heard such, and a big red "PAIN" often ends the sequence at the moment of murder. Accompanying this, the priestess performing the seance states her interpretation of the events, much like the testimony that is the series' bread and butter. You as the player must shift back and forth through the sequence to find a particular part that contradicts the interpretation.
About the only other thing I can think of to say without delving too deep is that one of the cases, which stars Athena Cykes with Simon Blackquill giving her a reluctant helping hand, has little to do with the overall plot and features only courtroom action, no investigation before or in between. That's typical for the first case in a particular game, which serves partly as a tutorial, but this is the first time it's happened in a later case. The courtroom parts are the most fun, so I don't mind too much, but I have to wonder if development on that case was cut short.
Bottom line? Ace Attorney is always worth going for, and this one is no exception. :)
Click to viewHi all. It's been a pretty ordinary month...right up until the last few days. Last Friday, the 28th, I lost my job. o.o It wasn't because of any sudden event, it's just that my team hasn't been able to make much progress with the work we were assigned, the client wasn't happy with that, and my company had to make cuts. Such is life. Hopefully this will lead into a better job, like a game development one. Or at least one where I'm making new software from the ground up instead of poking about in an ancient system with little idea how it works. X)
All I can really report about Forgotten Gates this month is some work on the face image and battle sprites of the character Arumarg. Details on why in the MU stuff section.
The TF Slack group has been renamed to Zelda RPG, just to make it more likely that new folks will find us -- and of course we're no longer a MUCK. Doesn't matter much really. There was an incident in which stalfos attacked the Crimson Wolfos Inn, some larger ones that showed up late smashing through the wall to get in. At first I thought somebody (it was spoofed so I don't know who was writing it) was trying to destroy the Wolfos again, maybe for good this time, and usher in a plot period of the good guys being in hiding. In the end, though, whoever it was allowed the stalfos to be handily defeated by the friends of the Inn. There was also a scene about a newcomer named Rome coming through a new portal from Termina to the Spirit Temple, and being hustled to Gerudo Fortress for treatment of his wounds -- his full story hasn't come out yet.
I haven't said anything here about NMR in a few months, because frankly, it's gotten very idle. There are various reasons for this, the main one being that several of the players who were contributing most to plot and such have given most of their attention to a new MUSH called Naruto MUSH Legacy. I'm okay with that, in fact I've made a character there myself and taken the first steps to getting involved, but I'm still trying to revive NMR, particularly since the combat and growth system on NML seems even more complicated than NMR's. X) I had a conversation with some of the players still hanging around on NMR, and we've decided it's time for a reboot. New characters, new setting, most likely even a new combat system. 8o I'm aiming to instate the Conflict Resolution System I invented, a relatively simple system that features tactical decision in mid-encounter more than strategic choice about what stats and skills to purchase, empowerment of lower-level characters to contibute meaningfully in the same situations as higher-level ones, and generally increasing excitement as an encounter proceeds. This is why I haven't made much progress in FG this month, and probably won't for a little while.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:
I actually finished this on June 30th, but I didn't feel like banging out a mini-review to include in my post the next day. X) It was a long game, as I expected going into it. When I checked the timer on my save file after finishing, it said I'd put in 63 hours, and that doesn't include the time for failed attempts at missions since those involved reverting back to the last save. But then, it does include times when I've had the game running while doing something else that didn't demand constant attention, so maybe it balances out.
I'm going to assume you're familiar with the basic premise of the Fire Emblem series. The most interesting thing to note, as I see it, is the contrast between it and its sister series, Nintendo Wars (better known as Advance Wars here in the US). In Nintendo Wars, you produce (or occasionally just start with a limited troupe of) military units and send them out to conquer a map. Everything on the map typically takes action every turn, even if that action is just to head toward whatever their current objective is. You're rewarded for losing as few units as you can manage, but ultimately it's expected that there will be some casualties. Meanwhile, in Fire Emblem, every unit has a face and a name, and you're given new ones as the story progresses (sometimes requiring that you accomplish something during a mission). If a unit is beaten in combat, THEY ARE LOST FOREVER (there are a few exceptions for story purposes, but even if they live I don't think they're available for combat anymore; also, different titles in the series vary on this from what I hear). Hence, the game makes it feasible to avoid losing units at all.
Primarily it does this by making the enemy units less aggressive. Most enemy units will just stand and wait until one of your units comes close (typically close enough that they can walk over and attack on the same turn). Hence, getting through the game is primarily a matter of carefully drawing the enemy into combat with your tanky-y fighters and not letting any single unit get overwhelmed by enemies (which they will do if there's an opportunity, especially against your squishier units). Generally this isn't very hard, especially if you don't try to spread experience across your entire army (about 20 units is good for a core group IMO, most missions don't allow you to take more than around 12 anyway). You'll soon find certain units are able to wipe out most enemy mooks without breaking a sweat, frequently dodging or just plain NOT BEING AFFECTED by their attacks and blowing them away with their own attacks. I've watched with glee while multiple mooks run up to a high-level unit one after the other, barely or not even making a scratch and being one-shotted by the automatic counter-attack. Yay, free progress and it's not even my turn! BREAK UPON ME, MUAHAHAHA! >D
But for all that, the game does sucker-punch you, especially in the later missions. You can easily spend half an hour grinding through a mission only to suddenly lose a unit and be faced with the choice of accepting the loss and moving on or reverting to the last save. I always chose the latter myself, just so I could say I got through without losses and see whatever little epilogue stuff they had for the characters, but here's a tip: go through to the end of the mission anyway, just to see what other nasty surprises the stage might have in store for you. Here's a great example: in one mission about a quarter of the way into the game, THE BLACK KNIGHT (a mysterious twinkhax-powerful enemy whom I suspect shows up in other games in the series and hence they can't let you kill him) walks out of a building partway through, either when a certain number of turns have passed or you reach a certain point on the map. As long as nobody wanders within his attack range (and his sword has a two-space reach, so that can surprise you), he'll just stand there. If, however, you have a hapless unit within range when he steps out -- and remember, you have no warning that this is coming or opportunity to flee once it does -- you can kiss that unit goodbye with certainty.
I'm not ashamed to say that I eventually used a Wii homebrew utility to copy my save files and thus circumvent the rule that saves in the middle of a mission are immediately erased upon loading. Originally I was just using it to backup my saves in case the Wii corrupted my GameCube memory card, which it has done in the past (although now I'm not sure if it was the Wii's fault or the card I was using at the time, apparently it's a type that's known to corrupt even when used in the original GameCube system). It's a bit of a pain to stop the game, boot up the utility, and copy the file in between turns, but believe me, it can save a lot of time in the long run.
Bottom line? I'm personally not planning to play any more Fire Emblem titles, although I did get some enjoyment out of this one. Play it if you're fond of tactical RPGs and don't mind the prospect of having to retry certain missions (quite possibly a DOZEN TIMES in worst-case scenario). Also, look into Wii homebrew.
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice:
Yay, another Ace Attorney title. n.n It's the usual mix of clever whodunnits and comical dialogue, don't suppose I need to go into that very much. Let's just talk about what this game has unique.
Half the cases in Spirit of Justice are set in the Kingdom of Khura'in, from which the spirit-channeling Fey family traces its roots. Visiting there, Phoenix winds up having to defend his tour guide from murder charges, and learns a few unique aspects of the country's legal system. Firstly, defense lawyers are generally despised in the country due to an incident many years ago involving the former queen's assassination. Secondly, a law was enacted at that time that anyone who defended a criminal would be considered guilty of the same crime -- in other words, if they go to the chopping block, so does the lawyer! Adds a bit of in-character drama, although of course to the player it hardly matters -- the game has always ended if you failed to defend your client. ;) Finally, being a country from which spirit mediums arose, the court uses a "divination seance" to reveal the final memories of the victim as evidence.
This last bit is where this title gets its mechanical uniqueness within the series. The divination seance shows the victim's final moments through their own eyes, and the other five senses are shown as well by words overlaying the scene. For example, the word "smoke" might show up if the victim smelled such, "footsteps" would appear if they heard such, and a big red "PAIN" often ends the sequence at the moment of murder. Accompanying this, the priestess performing the seance states her interpretation of the events, much like the testimony that is the series' bread and butter. You as the player must shift back and forth through the sequence to find a particular part that contradicts the interpretation.
About the only other thing I can think of to say without delving too deep is that one of the cases, which stars Athena Cykes with Simon Blackquill giving her a reluctant helping hand, has little to do with the overall plot and features only courtroom action, no investigation before or in between. That's typical for the first case in a particular game, which serves partly as a tutorial, but this is the first time it's happened in a later case. The courtroom parts are the most fun, so I don't mind too much, but I have to wonder if development on that case was cut short.
Bottom line? Ace Attorney is always worth going for, and this one is no exception. :)