So... It's overall a fun game. There's really not too much to say about it, though. It's decently hard, even on normal. The QTEs are damned annoying, and I'm glad you can skip them the majority of the time. When you can't skip them, though, arg. They were a unique idea... for the first few times you did them. But, beyond that... Meh. The story is cool, killing everything in mythology and breaking standard mythology over your knee. And I did enjoy how you restored HP/MP, with the boxes letting you choose which one you got. The puzzles, too, were fun. Slightly challenging, but not ARG BASH HEAD INTO WALL CHECK THINGS ON GFAQS hard.
It was fun, but there was a lot of things that could have been done much better. The camera, especially, oh god. The camera killed me as many times as the enemies did. Overall... Fun, but I don't think I'll play through it again.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
FFTA2 pt 2
Yeah, part two. The game deserves a second entry now that I'm closer to the end. I might even write a third one when I beat the game.
But, I was thinking earlier. The game had so much potential - The story has all the elements of a good story. However, it ends up dumbed down or never developed. Let elaborate in a spoiley manner,but, don't worry. The plot is insipid and you aren't missing much if you read this.
There's an evil organization, Khamja, in the game. How do they show they're evil? They shoot one of the main characters. Twice. (He gets better. Twice.) and fail an assassination attempt. Also, they do something like insidier trading and poaching. Yeah. That's... about it.
Compare: How are people in FFT shown to be evil? They stab/poison people. They start/inflame wars. They sell their souls to demons. FFTA2, however, is rated E. Now, I don't have a problem with games being rated E, if they pull good things off. FFTA2 didn't.
Now, furthermore, the number of missions that deal with this group? Maybe 10 or 15. HAlf of those are "oh. Hay. It's Khamja. Let's beat them up." There is main plot integration, but not nearly enough. It's diappointing.
Another botch - The group that invades the continent you're on, Duelhorn. They end up fighting Khamja. Like the idiotic JRPG hero you are, you of course have to fight them both. I just started a mission where Duelhorn is attempting to destroy Khamja. What do you do? Stop them! ... what. Yeah... Doesn't make sense to me, either. But - Maybe let us choose how we go about things? Help one group or choose to not interfere in their war. Split the game, maybe. Of course not, that would be too much effort.
There's all the moral ambiguity of a brick in this game. Every time you do a quest, you have to follow the quest to the dot. There's been quests where you've done some stupid things, but the Hero just goes "Oh. Well. But the quest says we do this, so we do it!" ... No choices. Ever. Wait, sorry. There was one. --
The description for the quest: "I love someone whom I can never have. The very thought haunts me each moment I draw breath. It is more than I can bear. And so I wish to quit this mortal life. There is a substance known as zombie powder which may grant me the relief I so desperately seek. Please, find this and bring it to me. End my suffering."
You then go talk to a powerful witch, who tells you where to find the substance, and tells you about it. That the powder will turn the person into a zombie over a span of time, and their memories will fade away shortly after. As you arrive at the location of the enemies to kill to get zombie powder, you encounter an alchemist. He tells you about another potion, Lethean Draught that will make the person forget. You have the option to do either one to end the quest. But? Whichever you do? It doesn't actually change anything. There's no follow up on the quest. Great.
Sigh. FFT, why are your successors so terrible?
But, I was thinking earlier. The game had so much potential - The story has all the elements of a good story. However, it ends up dumbed down or never developed. Let elaborate in a spoiley manner,but, don't worry. The plot is insipid and you aren't missing much if you read this.
There's an evil organization, Khamja, in the game. How do they show they're evil? They shoot one of the main characters. Twice. (He gets better. Twice.) and fail an assassination attempt. Also, they do something like insidier trading and poaching. Yeah. That's... about it.
Compare: How are people in FFT shown to be evil? They stab/poison people. They start/inflame wars. They sell their souls to demons. FFTA2, however, is rated E. Now, I don't have a problem with games being rated E, if they pull good things off. FFTA2 didn't.
Now, furthermore, the number of missions that deal with this group? Maybe 10 or 15. HAlf of those are "oh. Hay. It's Khamja. Let's beat them up." There is main plot integration, but not nearly enough. It's diappointing.
Another botch - The group that invades the continent you're on, Duelhorn. They end up fighting Khamja. Like the idiotic JRPG hero you are, you of course have to fight them both. I just started a mission where Duelhorn is attempting to destroy Khamja. What do you do? Stop them! ... what. Yeah... Doesn't make sense to me, either. But - Maybe let us choose how we go about things? Help one group or choose to not interfere in their war. Split the game, maybe. Of course not, that would be too much effort.
There's all the moral ambiguity of a brick in this game. Every time you do a quest, you have to follow the quest to the dot. There's been quests where you've done some stupid things, but the Hero just goes "Oh. Well. But the quest says we do this, so we do it!" ... No choices. Ever. Wait, sorry. There was one. --
The description for the quest: "I love someone whom I can never have. The very thought haunts me each moment I draw breath. It is more than I can bear. And so I wish to quit this mortal life. There is a substance known as zombie powder which may grant me the relief I so desperately seek. Please, find this and bring it to me. End my suffering."
You then go talk to a powerful witch, who tells you where to find the substance, and tells you about it. That the powder will turn the person into a zombie over a span of time, and their memories will fade away shortly after. As you arrive at the location of the enemies to kill to get zombie powder, you encounter an alchemist. He tells you about another potion, Lethean Draught that will make the person forget. You have the option to do either one to end the quest. But? Whichever you do? It doesn't actually change anything. There's no follow up on the quest. Great.
Sigh. FFT, why are your successors so terrible?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Princess Maker 2
Ok, so... It's, on the whole, a Japaaaaaan! sort of game. You raise a daughter from 10 to 18 and how you raise her gives you a different ending, with the endings being how she lives the rest of her life. It's best described as Harvest Moon + RPG + Very minor Hgame elements. You can put your daughter into skimpy clothing and buy pills to increase her bust size. Yeaaaah. I skipped on that.
The game is divided up into months, and you schedule your daughter's activities each month. There's School, Work, Adventuring, and Time Off. School increases stats and skills the quickest, but the cost of each one is kinda prohibitively expensive. Work gets you money and increases stats/skills, but also tends to decrease another stat/skill. Time Off is how you lower your daughter's stress, which accumulates over time from working and school. If her stress raises too high, she'll slack off during work, spend your money without permission, and run away. This is bad.
Adventuring is the most fun element of the game, by far. Adventuring is what triggers all the special events. There are 4 places to adventure to, each with a different set of random encounters and triggerable events. You can play with fairies and elves, talk with the devil, and even kill the God of War and then talk to the God that created everything.
The game does have a few sexist/that's just wrong elements. Your daughter can work at a bar/sleazy bar/cabaret at various ages (IIRC, 14/15/16). She can be 'too fat' to fit into dresses/lingerie ... Where too fat to fit into a dress in my game was 105 lbs and 4'10. ... Wha? And then, finally, there are various spirits that will help you out if you're focusing in a single area of improvement. A spirit that embodies housework came to compliment my daughter on how well her housework was improving. My daughter says she's just doing what 'comes naturally', and the kitchen spirit said that 'not many girls do what comes naturally anymore.' ... Doing housework and cooking is what a girl is naturally supposed to do, eh? ... Riiiiiiiiiight.
It's a quick game to play through, only took me maybe 5 hours or so, and is readily available from Home of the Underdogs. Though, on XP, it has to be played with DOSBox. Pretty fun, if you discount the weirder elements.
Oh! My daughter, by the way, ended up being Commander of the Royal Guard. :3
The game is divided up into months, and you schedule your daughter's activities each month. There's School, Work, Adventuring, and Time Off. School increases stats and skills the quickest, but the cost of each one is kinda prohibitively expensive. Work gets you money and increases stats/skills, but also tends to decrease another stat/skill. Time Off is how you lower your daughter's stress, which accumulates over time from working and school. If her stress raises too high, she'll slack off during work, spend your money without permission, and run away. This is bad.
Adventuring is the most fun element of the game, by far. Adventuring is what triggers all the special events. There are 4 places to adventure to, each with a different set of random encounters and triggerable events. You can play with fairies and elves, talk with the devil, and even kill the God of War and then talk to the God that created everything.
The game does have a few sexist/that's just wrong elements. Your daughter can work at a bar/sleazy bar/cabaret at various ages (IIRC, 14/15/16). She can be 'too fat' to fit into dresses/lingerie ... Where too fat to fit into a dress in my game was 105 lbs and 4'10. ... Wha? And then, finally, there are various spirits that will help you out if you're focusing in a single area of improvement. A spirit that embodies housework came to compliment my daughter on how well her housework was improving. My daughter says she's just doing what 'comes naturally', and the kitchen spirit said that 'not many girls do what comes naturally anymore.' ... Doing housework and cooking is what a girl is naturally supposed to do, eh? ... Riiiiiiiiiight.
It's a quick game to play through, only took me maybe 5 hours or so, and is readily available from Home of the Underdogs. Though, on XP, it has to be played with DOSBox. Pretty fun, if you discount the weirder elements.
Oh! My daughter, by the way, ended up being Commander of the Royal Guard. :3
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