TV and Games
NCIS:LA tonight cracked me up hard. And The Good Wife is simultaneously breaking my heart, and making me uncomfortable, and making me squee forever. Oh, Will. ....and THAT was interesting, right at the end. Yes. Hmmmm.
The local CBS station keeps running a news ad about "What you can do to improve your marriage." Bet you anything it's super obvious, like, you know, TALKING TO EACH OTHER.
*eye roll*
Anyway! Video game meme!
Day 3: An underrated game
Hmmm! I'm sort of tempted to say Magna Carta: Tears of Blood because I've recently been reminded of how exceptionally awesome that game is in terms of story, but the gameplay sort of drags it into the "unplayable" category. Which makes me DEEPLY SAD.
So instead I think I'm going to go with Lost Odyssey. I know there are a couple of people on my circle who love that game and rightfully so, but I get the impression it has managed to slide under the radar. Which is funny, because it is the game for which I bought the 360.
The main character is Kaim Argonar, who has lived a thousand years but for some reason remembers only the last thirty years of it. (...hi, so many of my kinks all in one sentence.) Besides sharing a voice actor with Basch from FF12 (and therefore being someone I'll listen to ALL DAMN DAY), he pretty much hits most of my character buttons in a tap-dancing kinda way. So anyway, we've established that the main character is totally my thing.
Lost Odyssey is a traditional, turn-based RPG, with a few tweaks. One is the trigger ring system, in which you pull the trigger button to get extra bonuses on an attack. The bonus depends on the ring you have equipped, so it might up your damage (either against certain types of enemies, or in general) or it might drain HP from the enemy, et cetera. It's like FF8's gunblade triggers, only it applies to everyone in the party. The battle lines are set up so that the front row explicitly protects the back row--there's a stat called "Wall" based on the front line's HP, and as long as the Wall is in effect (and there are skills to restore it), the rear line takes basically zero damage. Speed is only one factor in how quickly someone acts--the skill they are using can also have a big effect, as the most powerful spells are also the slowest to cast.
Skills were super interesting, too--not in the sense that they were unusual (they were not; this is, after all, a game designed by Sakaguchi and as such it displays many hallmarks of the FF series), but in the sense that learning them was unique. Only mortal characters learn skills by leveling up. Immortals have to "link" with mortals to learn their skills, and have to fight in battle with them in order for this to work. Which is kind of cool, as far as I'm concerned.
The story was pretty good, although it features your standard evil crazy genius, and I really enjoyed a lot of the characters. Uematsu did the music, so no complaints there. Basically I don't know why this game doesn't get more love! If you like what it promises on the tin--i.e. a traditional J-RPG experience--then it's awesome.
(p.s. dear Internet please make a bigger fandom for this game.)
The local CBS station keeps running a news ad about "What you can do to improve your marriage." Bet you anything it's super obvious, like, you know, TALKING TO EACH OTHER.
*eye roll*
Anyway! Video game meme!
Day 3: An underrated game
Hmmm! I'm sort of tempted to say Magna Carta: Tears of Blood because I've recently been reminded of how exceptionally awesome that game is in terms of story, but the gameplay sort of drags it into the "unplayable" category. Which makes me DEEPLY SAD.
So instead I think I'm going to go with Lost Odyssey. I know there are a couple of people on my circle who love that game and rightfully so, but I get the impression it has managed to slide under the radar. Which is funny, because it is the game for which I bought the 360.
The main character is Kaim Argonar, who has lived a thousand years but for some reason remembers only the last thirty years of it. (...hi, so many of my kinks all in one sentence.) Besides sharing a voice actor with Basch from FF12 (and therefore being someone I'll listen to ALL DAMN DAY), he pretty much hits most of my character buttons in a tap-dancing kinda way. So anyway, we've established that the main character is totally my thing.
Lost Odyssey is a traditional, turn-based RPG, with a few tweaks. One is the trigger ring system, in which you pull the trigger button to get extra bonuses on an attack. The bonus depends on the ring you have equipped, so it might up your damage (either against certain types of enemies, or in general) or it might drain HP from the enemy, et cetera. It's like FF8's gunblade triggers, only it applies to everyone in the party. The battle lines are set up so that the front row explicitly protects the back row--there's a stat called "Wall" based on the front line's HP, and as long as the Wall is in effect (and there are skills to restore it), the rear line takes basically zero damage. Speed is only one factor in how quickly someone acts--the skill they are using can also have a big effect, as the most powerful spells are also the slowest to cast.
Skills were super interesting, too--not in the sense that they were unusual (they were not; this is, after all, a game designed by Sakaguchi and as such it displays many hallmarks of the FF series), but in the sense that learning them was unique. Only mortal characters learn skills by leveling up. Immortals have to "link" with mortals to learn their skills, and have to fight in battle with them in order for this to work. Which is kind of cool, as far as I'm concerned.
The story was pretty good, although it features your standard evil crazy genius, and I really enjoyed a lot of the characters. Uematsu did the music, so no complaints there. Basically I don't know why this game doesn't get more love! If you like what it promises on the tin--i.e. a traditional J-RPG experience--then it's awesome.
(p.s. dear Internet please make a bigger fandom for this game.)