Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (and other recent games)
Finally completed Ni No Kuni [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni_no_Kuni] tonight. I probably approached 60-something hours. Definitely didn't need that long to beat it, but I enjoyed hunting down rare creatures that'd give me crazy amounts of EXP, and then crafting together right items and such. End final boss was absurdly easy, considering the amount of leveling I had done. (I think I was getting close to level 80.)
All in all, a delightful game. Felt a bit too straightforward, although I think part of that might be because I didn't turn off the "Here's where you go next star marker" - it's on by default, and I suspect it might be more of a challenge if I turned it off. Still, it did make life a lot easier and definitely frustration free (no "ahhhhh, what do I do now?" problems.)
The story was happy. Standard Studio Ghibli fare. Minor plots twists, here and there, but very minor, nothing terribly surprising.
The art and music were both beautiful, as expected from Studio Ghibli. Contemplating playing the DS version, even though it's not translated, but from what I'm reading, the story and everything is generally the same, with slightly less awesomeness, since it's isometric and not real 3D. We'll see.
Also played Bastion [http://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/]. That was a much shorter, but harder game. Also rather beautiful. I loved the narrating. I actually wished Bastion was longer / had a stronger story. I wanted to learn more of what happened to that world.
Oh, and I beat the campaign for Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm sometime ago. Not too much to say there. I'm definitely still enjoying the story. Need to go back and beat it on brutal though.
All in all, a delightful game. Felt a bit too straightforward, although I think part of that might be because I didn't turn off the "Here's where you go next star marker" - it's on by default, and I suspect it might be more of a challenge if I turned it off. Still, it did make life a lot easier and definitely frustration free (no "ahhhhh, what do I do now?" problems.)
The story was happy. Standard Studio Ghibli fare. Minor plots twists, here and there, but very minor, nothing terribly surprising.
The art and music were both beautiful, as expected from Studio Ghibli. Contemplating playing the DS version, even though it's not translated, but from what I'm reading, the story and everything is generally the same, with slightly less awesomeness, since it's isometric and not real 3D. We'll see.
Also played Bastion [http://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/]. That was a much shorter, but harder game. Also rather beautiful. I loved the narrating. I actually wished Bastion was longer / had a stronger story. I wanted to learn more of what happened to that world.
Oh, and I beat the campaign for Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm sometime ago. Not too much to say there. I'm definitely still enjoying the story. Need to go back and beat it on brutal though.