Teh Gamer Rant!!!
Ello folks, I'm back from my few days stay at meine Schwesters Haus in the F-No, the valley, Fresno, whatever you feel like calling it. Spent most of the time playing with the kitten and sitting around playing videogames. I had access to a PS2, as Nick, Amy's boyfriend, has one, so I played that a lot. I feel like sharing some of my thoughts on Star Ocean and Devil May Cry (The first).
First off, Star Ocean. Spent a long time playing that game, and in esscence, my thoughts on it were "Meh." Spent some amount of time on it, probably around 20 hours, this is a guess, I forgot to check before leaving. I got to the point where I had just gotten Albel in my party, who is an awesome character in my opinion, and I was supposed to go capture the Marquis, a really big dragon. Mostly, the combat was kinda boring at times, a pain at other times, random battles started to take too long, yet the boss fights were waaaay too short-lived, with one side dying within a minute or two. It kinda bugs me that they're over so quick, I want to feel like the fight is important, difficult, intense, whatever, yet I run up, attack a couple of times, retreat to heal, gain fury, etc, and my party kills it before I can go back to the fight. Also, the combat tactics option was lacking, as nothing pertained to anything but physical attacks. If you offer commands to your party, you should be able to tell them to use more or less magic, conserve MP, focus on healing, stuff like that, not just Attack normally, less, or more.
Pertaining to the combat, the exp system bugged me a bit also. Preferably, one shouldn't fall behind in level and experience every dungeon or two so much that one minute you're fighting Dragon knights and winning owning, then 20 minutes later you get your ass handed to you by a couple of porcupines.
Lastly, sometimes I simply felt lost, unable to find the next plot point/quest. Maybe the synopsis from ToS spoiled me, but I felt like the dialogues/ cutscenes didn't make it clear where to go. That is to say, they tell you to go to X city, thanks, but where the hell is that?!? "Oh, in the general area of nearby *landmark in the middle of nowhere.*" Oh, you forgot to tell me its past the desert, past the swamp town, etc. You get the idea.
Now, all of this isn't to say its a bad game, per se, but it had its low points. It did sate my appetite for a long RPG, but other than that, I'd probably only play it for the storyline, to see how it went along.
Shorter rant, Devil May Cry was awesome, I loved the style and setting. Kinda short, but the genre isn't one made for length. PLayed a lot like ninja gaiden, and Viewtiful Joe was influenced by the game a LOT. Pretty much Viewtiful Joe has a character who is purely a reference to DMC. Also, I've decided Dante is both a badass and a slightly whiny, as well as slightly incestous. Come on, he saves the girl cause she looks like his mom...and he falls in love with her? Erm...no comment.
Thats about it for tonight, methinks. Since both Matt and Nick mentioned it already, I'll join them in chanting...TOOL CONCERT, TOOL CONCERT. WOOOOOOT. Alright, laters all.
-End Rant.
First off, Star Ocean. Spent a long time playing that game, and in esscence, my thoughts on it were "Meh." Spent some amount of time on it, probably around 20 hours, this is a guess, I forgot to check before leaving. I got to the point where I had just gotten Albel in my party, who is an awesome character in my opinion, and I was supposed to go capture the Marquis, a really big dragon. Mostly, the combat was kinda boring at times, a pain at other times, random battles started to take too long, yet the boss fights were waaaay too short-lived, with one side dying within a minute or two. It kinda bugs me that they're over so quick, I want to feel like the fight is important, difficult, intense, whatever, yet I run up, attack a couple of times, retreat to heal, gain fury, etc, and my party kills it before I can go back to the fight. Also, the combat tactics option was lacking, as nothing pertained to anything but physical attacks. If you offer commands to your party, you should be able to tell them to use more or less magic, conserve MP, focus on healing, stuff like that, not just Attack normally, less, or more.
Pertaining to the combat, the exp system bugged me a bit also. Preferably, one shouldn't fall behind in level and experience every dungeon or two so much that one minute you're fighting Dragon knights and winning owning, then 20 minutes later you get your ass handed to you by a couple of porcupines.
Lastly, sometimes I simply felt lost, unable to find the next plot point/quest. Maybe the synopsis from ToS spoiled me, but I felt like the dialogues/ cutscenes didn't make it clear where to go. That is to say, they tell you to go to X city, thanks, but where the hell is that?!? "Oh, in the general area of nearby *landmark in the middle of nowhere.*" Oh, you forgot to tell me its past the desert, past the swamp town, etc. You get the idea.
Now, all of this isn't to say its a bad game, per se, but it had its low points. It did sate my appetite for a long RPG, but other than that, I'd probably only play it for the storyline, to see how it went along.
Shorter rant, Devil May Cry was awesome, I loved the style and setting. Kinda short, but the genre isn't one made for length. PLayed a lot like ninja gaiden, and Viewtiful Joe was influenced by the game a LOT. Pretty much Viewtiful Joe has a character who is purely a reference to DMC. Also, I've decided Dante is both a badass and a slightly whiny, as well as slightly incestous. Come on, he saves the girl cause she looks like his mom...and he falls in love with her? Erm...no comment.
Thats about it for tonight, methinks. Since both Matt and Nick mentioned it already, I'll join them in chanting...TOOL CONCERT, TOOL CONCERT. WOOOOOOT. Alright, laters all.
-End Rant.