So... video games!
I recently played through a couple of games, and thought I'd let you know my thoughts on them. Remember: There are probably spoilers behind the cuts, so venture in there at your own risk!
After hearing so many good things about the villainous Kefka and the cast of characters in general, I decided to give the game a try. Now, most of you know that I am nowhere near a FF fangirl, so if you like most Final Fantasy games you have played, you might want to take this with a grain of salt.
The game started out promising, with an amnesiac female main character who inexplicably knows how to use magic despite it having been lost to the world. However, the pacing problems start soon into the game. Characters swear unwavering loyalty at the drop of a hat (see Locke in the beginning), situations that should be conflict-ridden are barely addressed (Edgar and Sabin)... you get a tiny bit of exposition while finding the characters in the World of Balance (the first part of the game), and a little bit more, but still not enough, when re-recruiting them in the World of Ruin. Most characters still ended up feeling somewhat generic.
As for Kefka, I found him to be underwhelming. Generic megalomaniac with face paint, whoopee. And no, I didn't think he was all that funny, either.
This may sound like I hated the game, which I most certainly did not. I kinda liked the Esper system and the fact that every character came with their own special move; gameplay-wise, it was fun. However, I don't think the story holds up to today's standards, and the gameplay isn't so much fun that it can make up for the lacking story.
After I got done with FFVI, I started playing "The World Ends With You". I thought the start of that one to be quite intriguing, since you don't know any of what's going on at first and kinda learn as you go. Combat is surprisingly fun, as long as you don't try to control both screens unless you absolutely have to. I have to admit that I was a little worried for my touch screen, considering the amount of violence you need to heap on it in order to keep up your combos, but it thankfully survived :D
Some problems I had with this games were as follows: 1) Until the very last day (the game takes place over a period of 3 weeks), you do not have access to all of Shibuya, which can be very annoying when you want something from a certain shop, which happens to be behind an impenetrable wall just then; 2) the fact that it was near-impossible to keep track of what stores carried what equipment, a circumstance only aggravated by the fact that the majority of stuff initially has their abilities locked. Take for example the second-hand store in Dogenzaka, where none of the available items has an unlocked ability and the vendor won't even unlock them if you buy all his shit! So yeah, the thread system sucked, and for the most part, you could pretty much go nekkid without any penalties.
But my biggest peeve with the game is the Harry Potter epilogue-esque ending. So it turns out Joshua is the Composer (WHU?!). Was all that running around with the phone trackers in the second week just for show then? What ultimately kept him from destroying Shibuya, as he had planned? Only Neku's trust in him (ohhh, how schmaltzy!)? Yeah right, considering Neku was his tool all along and he killed him without any remorse to begin with. And who or what is Mr. Hanekoma, really? After all, he's not a player, or he'd be fucked without a partner. He's not a reaper, or he wouldn't work with the players like he does. He's not a regular human being, either, considering that he can see dead people, he apparently was the one who designed the player pins (and was under suspicion to be the Composer for the longest time) and he can do things no one else can (like keeping Beat from vanishing after Rhyme got erased, putting Rhyme's essence into a pin AFTER she got erased, and working miracles like making the phones able to take pictures of the past).
But do you think any of this is addressed? FUCK NO. Instead, we get Neku, mysteriously come back to life instead of disposed of by Joshua, meeting at the statue of Hachiko with also-resurrected Beat, Rhyme and Shiki, in a still-intact Shibuya that was supposed to be wiped off the face of the earth. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!
So yeah, don't play this one for story, or you will be disappointed. As it is, it was a fun little romp, if not terribly long-lasting for an RPG, but don't pay more than 20 bucks for it, it's not worth any more, unless you are obsessive-compulsive and love games in which you collect things, like Pokemon - then the collection and mastering of pins alone will keep you busy long enough that it might keep you entertained for a little longer.
ETA: Apparently, if you collect five secret reports throughout the game, you are going to get a tiny bit of extra story after the end credits, according to the GameFAQs board. From what I read, it's not really explaining all that much, either. But the lame-o attempt to force people into searching all nooks and crannies of a game in order to get the whole story sucks. It pissed me off in Valkyrie Profile, it pisses me off here. One should not have to spend endless hours or have to consult a walkthrough in order to get every single bit of storytelling that's necessary to make sense of the game.
Well, so much for that. I was really sick last night (probably a bout of food poisoning) and am therefore kinda tired today. I'll post about the new semester and other miscellany sometime later this week.
After hearing so many good things about the villainous Kefka and the cast of characters in general, I decided to give the game a try. Now, most of you know that I am nowhere near a FF fangirl, so if you like most Final Fantasy games you have played, you might want to take this with a grain of salt.
The game started out promising, with an amnesiac female main character who inexplicably knows how to use magic despite it having been lost to the world. However, the pacing problems start soon into the game. Characters swear unwavering loyalty at the drop of a hat (see Locke in the beginning), situations that should be conflict-ridden are barely addressed (Edgar and Sabin)... you get a tiny bit of exposition while finding the characters in the World of Balance (the first part of the game), and a little bit more, but still not enough, when re-recruiting them in the World of Ruin. Most characters still ended up feeling somewhat generic.
As for Kefka, I found him to be underwhelming. Generic megalomaniac with face paint, whoopee. And no, I didn't think he was all that funny, either.
This may sound like I hated the game, which I most certainly did not. I kinda liked the Esper system and the fact that every character came with their own special move; gameplay-wise, it was fun. However, I don't think the story holds up to today's standards, and the gameplay isn't so much fun that it can make up for the lacking story.
After I got done with FFVI, I started playing "The World Ends With You". I thought the start of that one to be quite intriguing, since you don't know any of what's going on at first and kinda learn as you go. Combat is surprisingly fun, as long as you don't try to control both screens unless you absolutely have to. I have to admit that I was a little worried for my touch screen, considering the amount of violence you need to heap on it in order to keep up your combos, but it thankfully survived :D
Some problems I had with this games were as follows: 1) Until the very last day (the game takes place over a period of 3 weeks), you do not have access to all of Shibuya, which can be very annoying when you want something from a certain shop, which happens to be behind an impenetrable wall just then; 2) the fact that it was near-impossible to keep track of what stores carried what equipment, a circumstance only aggravated by the fact that the majority of stuff initially has their abilities locked. Take for example the second-hand store in Dogenzaka, where none of the available items has an unlocked ability and the vendor won't even unlock them if you buy all his shit! So yeah, the thread system sucked, and for the most part, you could pretty much go nekkid without any penalties.
But my biggest peeve with the game is the Harry Potter epilogue-esque ending. So it turns out Joshua is the Composer (WHU?!). Was all that running around with the phone trackers in the second week just for show then? What ultimately kept him from destroying Shibuya, as he had planned? Only Neku's trust in him (ohhh, how schmaltzy!)? Yeah right, considering Neku was his tool all along and he killed him without any remorse to begin with. And who or what is Mr. Hanekoma, really? After all, he's not a player, or he'd be fucked without a partner. He's not a reaper, or he wouldn't work with the players like he does. He's not a regular human being, either, considering that he can see dead people, he apparently was the one who designed the player pins (and was under suspicion to be the Composer for the longest time) and he can do things no one else can (like keeping Beat from vanishing after Rhyme got erased, putting Rhyme's essence into a pin AFTER she got erased, and working miracles like making the phones able to take pictures of the past).
But do you think any of this is addressed? FUCK NO. Instead, we get Neku, mysteriously come back to life instead of disposed of by Joshua, meeting at the statue of Hachiko with also-resurrected Beat, Rhyme and Shiki, in a still-intact Shibuya that was supposed to be wiped off the face of the earth. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!
So yeah, don't play this one for story, or you will be disappointed. As it is, it was a fun little romp, if not terribly long-lasting for an RPG, but don't pay more than 20 bucks for it, it's not worth any more, unless you are obsessive-compulsive and love games in which you collect things, like Pokemon - then the collection and mastering of pins alone will keep you busy long enough that it might keep you entertained for a little longer.
ETA: Apparently, if you collect five secret reports throughout the game, you are going to get a tiny bit of extra story after the end credits, according to the GameFAQs board. From what I read, it's not really explaining all that much, either. But the lame-o attempt to force people into searching all nooks and crannies of a game in order to get the whole story sucks. It pissed me off in Valkyrie Profile, it pisses me off here. One should not have to spend endless hours or have to consult a walkthrough in order to get every single bit of storytelling that's necessary to make sense of the game.
Well, so much for that. I was really sick last night (probably a bout of food poisoning) and am therefore kinda tired today. I'll post about the new semester and other miscellany sometime later this week.