I'm an addict for SRPGs - I've had the game for about 3 weeks and I've racked up about 35 hours of play between Fallout3, class, and etc. I've not yet beat the game, however. I'm about halfway done with both the plot (Which is roughly 25 missions) and all the quests in the game (Which is 300). So... If that ratio of sidequest to mainquest seems off to you, I'd agree. Now, I think the big question about this game - Does it live up to the name Tactics or the name Tactics Advance? Well...
So, the game is much better than the original TA, I'll give it that. They fixed a lot of things that the original had wrong -- The lack of classes, the laws, how fucking annoying owning a territory was, all the random combat, the absurd easiness. However, it still gets a lot of things wrong.
First, Laws. No more RED CARD, shit, my character is now in jail. What replaces that system is a system where you pick a perk that helps you in the battle that goes away if you break the law. If you manage to not break the law in the fight, then you also get a few bonus items at the end of the fight. Also, if you break the law, you can't revive someone. A minor annoyance, but nothing terribly bad or good about the system. I almost prefer the first game's system, if only because the laws were more ... Hm. Made me switch things up more? I guess.
Second, the classes. In my opinion, the class scale for this game sorta does it wrong. Classes are broad, not deep, like in FFT/most SRPGs. I have 6 people ... And there's a bunch of classes that I don't use, as I don't have the right race or what have you. I really dislike their race and making classes based on those choice, but... I can see why they do it.
Now, as for level scaling/quests. There are too many quests or you level up too fast. No matter what you do, there will always be quests that the enemies are just 20 levels lower than you and you'll stomp on the enemies like it's nothing. If you rush through the plot, you'll have a bunch of sidequests you stomp. If you do a bunch of sidequests... You'll have a bunch of sidequests and plot you'll stomp. I appreciate things not scaling, as sometimes you just want to go "... :3" and beat faces in. However, there's a sidequest line, where you're supposed to be fighting the toughest guys from another continent. I'm 10 levels higher than their generals. The fights are pathetic. Those, at least, should scale to you. Always be a level or two higher than you, so you can't just destroy them. It'd be nice to worry about something, to think the fight wasn't in the bag at the beginning every time.
As to owning territory - Instead of fighting for it ... And fighting again every 20 days or however absurdly short the time span in FFTA was, you auction for territory. It works pretty well, actually. Once you own the world, you can use the auctions to get rare items. Neat.
Finally, the difficulty scaling. In FFTA, I thought the game was easy from roughly hour two. This game, at least, had me thinking it might be not too easy for the first 10 or so. I've at least... thought a fight might be hard. (Exception: When I fought a group of level 90 monsters. At level 45. Who automatically get 2 turns before your group to cast about 5 buffs on their entire group. And even then? I think I could take them in roughly 5-10 levels). So... This might just be that, compared to FFT being my first SRPG, I've played a good 30 of them since. Am I getting better, or is FFTA/FFTA2 easy? Good question.
Final summary: FFT > FFTA2 > FFTA. It's gotten better, but it's not astounding. I like it, it's a solid game, tho. But, again, grain of salt might be good, considering my love for all things SRPG.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
The problem with Ports/Remakes.
So, after buying 2 ports/remakes, playing them for a few hours, and then moving onto different games, I've realized something I've never really thought about before. While I love both Dragon Quest 4 and Final Fantasy 4 - Playing a port/remake, no matter how different, just doesn't have that ... new game feeling. Part of the excitement of owning a new game is that it is just that. There's some new game mechanic to learn, even if it's just that game's implementation of an already done system. That's what excites me most about playing new games, I think. Show me something new and innovative, that makes me have to think a bit, and I'll be drawn in. I suppose that might be one of the reasons I like SRPGs so much - They tend to have an insane amount of customization and depth. Starting a new SRPG means digging into a system and learning how it works. Growlanser Generations, I think, makes a great example of this. It's one of my favorite games mostly because nothing I've played is similar. When I started to play it, I was floord, and played through both games in the next few weels.
So... End mini-rant/ramblings, I suppose.
So... End mini-rant/ramblings, I suppose.
Friday, October 17, 2008
World of Goo
Alternately, the best game to come out so far this year.
It's ... hard to easily explain why this game is so amazing:
It's the simplicity - The game's closest analogy is probably Lemmings, your goal is to use goos of different types to achieve your goal of saving the rest. The game has an almost perfect learning curve, putting new things to you, but with hints on how to do things and never very hard at first. The game does get difficult toward the end, but the game provides you with a number of level skips you can use. If a level stumps you, you can just return later.
It's the amazing atmosphere - The game has an amazing art style and does a lot with it. When you first hit the fourth chapter, you'll be amazed. Also, the sound effects are used to great effect, making me think of Worms. The goos don't speak, really, but they do emote. They giggle, make noise, etc. It's incredibly cute, and you attach to them (... No pun intended.). And, ah, the music. The songs, while short, are great. Finally, the game's story/plot/symbolism. A puzzle game with plot, you say? Yes, I do. It's told via the signs and a few short cutscenes. It's amuzing, in a similar way to portal. It's nothing amazingly deep, but it's cool. Each chapter end level is something different and weird, not hard.
It's how great of a puzzle game it is. As I said, the difficulty curve is amazing, but you'll see levles that, at first, you have no clue how to do. It took me some messing around, but for all the levels I did and most of the levels I skipped (Skipped due to getting incredibly close to the end, having the goostructure collapse, and being out of timebugs), I didn't have to look up a solution to any of them. And for some of the levels, you'll feel like a right clever bastard after figuring out the solution and implementing it. Most of the levels have a great solution.
Really, my first line says it best. You owe it to yourself to play this game.
It's ... hard to easily explain why this game is so amazing:
It's the simplicity - The game's closest analogy is probably Lemmings, your goal is to use goos of different types to achieve your goal of saving the rest. The game has an almost perfect learning curve, putting new things to you, but with hints on how to do things and never very hard at first. The game does get difficult toward the end, but the game provides you with a number of level skips you can use. If a level stumps you, you can just return later.
It's the amazing atmosphere - The game has an amazing art style and does a lot with it. When you first hit the fourth chapter, you'll be amazed. Also, the sound effects are used to great effect, making me think of Worms. The goos don't speak, really, but they do emote. They giggle, make noise, etc. It's incredibly cute, and you attach to them (... No pun intended.). And, ah, the music. The songs, while short, are great. Finally, the game's story/plot/symbolism. A puzzle game with plot, you say? Yes, I do. It's told via the signs and a few short cutscenes. It's amuzing, in a similar way to portal. It's nothing amazingly deep, but it's cool. Each chapter end level is something different and weird, not hard.
It's how great of a puzzle game it is. As I said, the difficulty curve is amazing, but you'll see levles that, at first, you have no clue how to do. It took me some messing around, but for all the levels I did and most of the levels I skipped (Skipped due to getting incredibly close to the end, having the goostructure collapse, and being out of timebugs), I didn't have to look up a solution to any of them. And for some of the levels, you'll feel like a right clever bastard after figuring out the solution and implementing it. Most of the levels have a great solution.
Really, my first line says it best. You owe it to yourself to play this game.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Meritous
So, last year, I was telling a friend of mine about Roguelikes. He then said that it reminded him of a game that a friend of his wrote, called Meritous. Hm, ok, I went and downloaded it. And ... It's not really a roguelike. It makes me think of a combination between a Roguelike and a SHMUP (Scary idea, innit?). Everything's randomly generated and, on normal mode, you only get 3 lives. After that, save is gone. But the fighting involves you dodging enough bullets and lasers for the game to be called a bullet hell game. Don't fret, however, you get a shield. And a charge up attack that attacks the entire room.
The attacking mechanic is quite simple, but has a bit more depth than you'd think. You hold the spacebar down to charge, then release it to launch the attack. The longer you hold down the attack, the stronger it is. Also, though, the longer it takes for you to start charging up again. The attack also, if it's over a certain power, destroys bullets. So, it's a nice balance in offense and defense.
The game, actually, has a bit of an RPG element. As you kill enemies, they drop increasing amounts of crystals which you can use to upgrade your Shield, Total Charge Power, and Charging Speed. Further, you also encounter bosses, find upgrades throughout the map, and find treasure chests that upgrade you after certain rooms.
I found it to be a very fun game, but not in large doses. An hour here, an hour there, etc. Probably took me 10 hours or so to beat the game all told, over months. My only psuedo-complaint is about the monsters... Which are really just semi-different looking blobs. The sound works great, portraying the atmosphere well. And one of the elements of the graphics is the color. The more danger you're in (The more monsters that are around), the more greyed out everything is. As you clear monsters out of an area, it turns a more lively blue. When you enter into mob encounter rooms (Sort of like Arenas in Roguelikes; a room with a buttload of monsters and little cover), it starts off deep red, then pales as you clear the room. It's a very well done mechanic and, frankly, it's awesome. It's a great effect that more games should do something similar to.
It's a great game for freeware.
The attacking mechanic is quite simple, but has a bit more depth than you'd think. You hold the spacebar down to charge, then release it to launch the attack. The longer you hold down the attack, the stronger it is. Also, though, the longer it takes for you to start charging up again. The attack also, if it's over a certain power, destroys bullets. So, it's a nice balance in offense and defense.
The game, actually, has a bit of an RPG element. As you kill enemies, they drop increasing amounts of crystals which you can use to upgrade your Shield, Total Charge Power, and Charging Speed. Further, you also encounter bosses, find upgrades throughout the map, and find treasure chests that upgrade you after certain rooms.
I found it to be a very fun game, but not in large doses. An hour here, an hour there, etc. Probably took me 10 hours or so to beat the game all told, over months. My only psuedo-complaint is about the monsters... Which are really just semi-different looking blobs. The sound works great, portraying the atmosphere well. And one of the elements of the graphics is the color. The more danger you're in (The more monsters that are around), the more greyed out everything is. As you clear monsters out of an area, it turns a more lively blue. When you enter into mob encounter rooms (Sort of like Arenas in Roguelikes; a room with a buttload of monsters and little cover), it starts off deep red, then pales as you clear the room. It's a very well done mechanic and, frankly, it's awesome. It's a great effect that more games should do something similar to.
It's a great game for freeware.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
I'm an unabashed Dragon Quest fanboy. I've played the series since I was a wee lad and my grandmother and I played 3 and 4 together. It's probably my favorite video game series of all time (No doubt partially due to nostalgia, but I really do love the games.). So, when I saw this game for $15 used, I had to pick it up.
It's a really simple game, on the whole. Go to areas, rescue your slime friends, be a kleptomaniac and steal everything that isn't bolted to the ground. However, it manages to be very fun in the different areas. However, the various tank fights get a bit ... old.
Wait, tank fights? you might ask. Yeah. The town that the game is centered around gets attacked and destroyed by a gang of monsters that attack with a massive, massive tank. You end up getting one of your own and fighting a bunch of them over the span of the game. I'd say about 30 or so. The sad thing, is that each fight runs exactly the same. Before you get a crew, you run back and forth between the ammo shoots and cannons. After you get a crew, you go to the enemy tank and attack their crew until your crew deals enough damage. None of the fights are really at all difficult, either, sadly.
The story, of course, is throwaway. However, there's a lot of neat references to other Squeenix games and a good bit of humor. Graphically and soundwise, pretty average.
Decent game, short (About 12-14 hours). If you see it on the cheap, go for it.
It's a really simple game, on the whole. Go to areas, rescue your slime friends, be a kleptomaniac and steal everything that isn't bolted to the ground. However, it manages to be very fun in the different areas. However, the various tank fights get a bit ... old.
Wait, tank fights? you might ask. Yeah. The town that the game is centered around gets attacked and destroyed by a gang of monsters that attack with a massive, massive tank. You end up getting one of your own and fighting a bunch of them over the span of the game. I'd say about 30 or so. The sad thing, is that each fight runs exactly the same. Before you get a crew, you run back and forth between the ammo shoots and cannons. After you get a crew, you go to the enemy tank and attack their crew until your crew deals enough damage. None of the fights are really at all difficult, either, sadly.
The story, of course, is throwaway. However, there's a lot of neat references to other Squeenix games and a good bit of humor. Graphically and soundwise, pretty average.
Decent game, short (About 12-14 hours). If you see it on the cheap, go for it.
Zone of the Enders 2
Mm. Mech combat, cel shaded graphics, and great controls. Zone of the Enders 2 does a lot of things right. The controls will stick to you in 5 minutes, if not less, and the graphics will wow you the first time you see them in action. You'll feel like an utter badass the first time you destroy a huge mech swarm or use one enemy mech to bash another or any number of other amazing things you'll do over the course of the game.
However ... I find that the majority of the bossfights get sorta ... boring. Like, you do them once to find out what the trick is and how to avoid their attacks, and then a second time to actually beat them. There's a single trick to them and that's it. None of the subweapons really work against them and your ranged attacks do pitiful damage. This leaves your sword and picking up the random steel beam to hit them with. But, the thing is, you can't deviate from the designated trick to beat the boss. I wish the fights were less ... linear? I suppose.
That, and the final subweapon you get is the most terrible MacGuffin ever, and then isn't even that useful for the boss that would, supposedly, absolutely destroy you without it. Except I barely used it. And found the final boss fight to be easy enough to beat with my eyes closed. I could beat it on sound cues, as the first 75% doesn't even require my attention. Blah.
Another disappointment was that the translation and dialogue, while never a shining aspect of the game, go way downhill in the last couple of hours.
Overall, a solid game, but I recall the first being better.
However ... I find that the majority of the bossfights get sorta ... boring. Like, you do them once to find out what the trick is and how to avoid their attacks, and then a second time to actually beat them. There's a single trick to them and that's it. None of the subweapons really work against them and your ranged attacks do pitiful damage. This leaves your sword and picking up the random steel beam to hit them with. But, the thing is, you can't deviate from the designated trick to beat the boss. I wish the fights were less ... linear? I suppose.
That, and the final subweapon you get is the most terrible MacGuffin ever, and then isn't even that useful for the boss that would, supposedly, absolutely destroy you without it. Except I barely used it. And found the final boss fight to be easy enough to beat with my eyes closed. I could beat it on sound cues, as the first 75% doesn't even require my attention. Blah.
Another disappointment was that the translation and dialogue, while never a shining aspect of the game, go way downhill in the last couple of hours.
Overall, a solid game, but I recall the first being better.
Doom 1 and 2
Ok. I'm not a huge fan of FPSes. I'll play through them, but slowly, typically. I end up disliking how the games end up not feeling just like run and gun awesome action. They add in puzzles and stealth and ... Arg. Now, while I don't dislike those elements in other games, they tend to ruin FPSes for me.
Doom 1, however, is the perfect FPS, IMO. The entire game is you running around and killing the everloving crap out of everything. There's few things more satisfying than knocking around a Cacodemon with a rocket.
... Well, except for using the Super Shotgun. If Doom2 did one thing right, it was the addition of the Super Shotgun. The firing noise and reload noise of that gun is great. Also great is running circles around an Arachnotron and filling it full of shotgun. However, Doom2 ends up having platformingish aspects and a lot more of the whole 'Run around level, find key' aspect. A bit less fun than Doom1, but both are amazing games.
Doom 1, however, is the perfect FPS, IMO. The entire game is you running around and killing the everloving crap out of everything. There's few things more satisfying than knocking around a Cacodemon with a rocket.
... Well, except for using the Super Shotgun. If Doom2 did one thing right, it was the addition of the Super Shotgun. The firing noise and reload noise of that gun is great. Also great is running circles around an Arachnotron and filling it full of shotgun. However, Doom2 ends up having platformingish aspects and a lot more of the whole 'Run around level, find key' aspect. A bit less fun than Doom1, but both are amazing games.
GrimGrimoire
A console RTS. As a friend of mine said when I was describing the game to him, he said after I told him the genre that it sucked. Unequivocally, console RTSes suck. Until I played GrimGrimoire, I'd have agreed with him. It's not just a port of a PC game, but a game built around that it knows its own weaknesses. You can pause, for one. This makes up for how inferior a PS2 controller is compared to a mouse for RTSes. The controls really aren't perfect, but you get used to them quickly.
The AI has the standard hair-tugging aspect of any RTS - They micro-manage a bunch better than you, and there are spellcasters with very, very annoying spells. However, all of the fights are easily beatable on a second or third try if you put some thought into what you did wrong. The game throws a number of oddball scenarios at you, so later in the game I tended to suicide my first time playing a map so I could scout everything out.
The system is pretty neat, overall. There are 4 schools of summonings that you can use, each one having 3 runes, which are the buildings that you build units and upgrades at. Each group has a resource collector, base units, caster types, and so on. There's a summon type circle, where each one is weak to one and strong against another. There's another aspect, where some units are astral and can't be hit by some units. Thus, there tends to be multiple counters to things and multiple strategies to each map. It's a suprisingly deep game for a console RTS.
It's a game made by VanillaWare, the company responsible for Odin Sphere, so the graphics are 2D and absolutely great. Sprites that are huge, detailed, and gorgeous (Of course, I've always loved sprite graphics, so I might be a tad biased.). The music is ... there. There's only 1 battle music for 25 fights. I've heard it for a over 10 hours and I can't even recall it. =/
It's a bit of a short game, though. I beat it in about 15 hours (Of course, that doesn't include failed fights.), but I didn't do the extra missions, of which there are 25 more. Those would probably take at least the same amount of extra time to complete.
The story is pretty neat, too. It has a few nice twists, some implied lesbianism, and is overall well done. I'd say more, but it would be hard to without spoilers.
It's a good game. Pick it up if you like strategy.
The AI has the standard hair-tugging aspect of any RTS - They micro-manage a bunch better than you, and there are spellcasters with very, very annoying spells. However, all of the fights are easily beatable on a second or third try if you put some thought into what you did wrong. The game throws a number of oddball scenarios at you, so later in the game I tended to suicide my first time playing a map so I could scout everything out.
The system is pretty neat, overall. There are 4 schools of summonings that you can use, each one having 3 runes, which are the buildings that you build units and upgrades at. Each group has a resource collector, base units, caster types, and so on. There's a summon type circle, where each one is weak to one and strong against another. There's another aspect, where some units are astral and can't be hit by some units. Thus, there tends to be multiple counters to things and multiple strategies to each map. It's a suprisingly deep game for a console RTS.
It's a game made by VanillaWare, the company responsible for Odin Sphere, so the graphics are 2D and absolutely great. Sprites that are huge, detailed, and gorgeous (Of course, I've always loved sprite graphics, so I might be a tad biased.). The music is ... there. There's only 1 battle music for 25 fights. I've heard it for a over 10 hours and I can't even recall it. =/
It's a bit of a short game, though. I beat it in about 15 hours (Of course, that doesn't include failed fights.), but I didn't do the extra missions, of which there are 25 more. Those would probably take at least the same amount of extra time to complete.
The story is pretty neat, too. It has a few nice twists, some implied lesbianism, and is overall well done. I'd say more, but it would be hard to without spoilers.
It's a good game. Pick it up if you like strategy.
The World Ends With You
I loved it and hated it. Loved it because the game is damned fun and the story is neat. Hate because the AI sucks and so it can be oddly difficult at times. Let me explain - You have 2 characters in an Action RPG that share a health bar. You control both of them, but one can be AI controlled. The AI sucks, and you can't control both of them perfectly at once. So, I've died in fights because the AI can't dodge worth crap, but the character I'm controlling has never taken a hit. However, I was also level 1 the entire time - you can lower your levels to get higher drop rate - Which I sat at level 1 the entire time. This only cripples your max HP, however. When I had to, I jacked up my level or lowered the difficulty (which you can do on the fly - It changes what enemies drop.).
It's also got a great presentation for a DS game. The graphics were very good, had cutscenes, decent voicing, and great music with actual sung lyrics.
It's overall an awesome, awesome game. Would highly recommend it for anyone that likes RPGs. It's the game that gave me faith that RPGs on the DS can be really amazing.
It's also got a great presentation for a DS game. The graphics were very good, had cutscenes, decent voicing, and great music with actual sung lyrics.
It's overall an awesome, awesome game. Would highly recommend it for anyone that likes RPGs. It's the game that gave me faith that RPGs on the DS can be really amazing.
Dawn of War and expansions
So, since some friends of mine want to play Dawn of War multiplayer, I decided to beat the campaigns to get used to the system. The STORY of the DoW campaign is bloody amazing. However, the gameplay becomes... "Defend against initial attacks. Build up to squad cap in Marines or Terminators. Build up to Vehicle Cap in Dreadnoughts and Predators. Walk all over enemy like it's nothing." Which is incredibly boring, towards the end. =/
I'd still recommend a playthrough, however, as the game is incredibly different than the standard RTS. You don't build units, you build entire squads. You select a barracks, you build Space Marines, and ... Out pops 4 units instead of 1. However, these 4 units all act as one. You don't give orders to individual units, but to squads. Also, each squad can build more units within itself to a cap. Space Marines have a max of 8 marines per squad + Sargeant. One might think this was annoying, but it makes for much easier micromanagement. I suck at micro in every other game,ut I find myself actually getting decent at micro in DoW.
You can also add various levels of customization to each squad. The SMs can add a combination of 4 weapons to counter different things, from dealing with infantry to melee attackers to vehicles, making them incredibly versatile.
Another great innovation is that each squad has morale. If they take too much morale damage their accuracy goes to crap and they become less effective (But move faster.). There are ways to restore morale and ways to specifically damage morale. It adds a lot of depth when you can destroy an army stronger than yours by crippling their morale.
Now ... The expansions... Winter Assault is pretty bad. I beat the Order campaign. Mission 1, alright. Mission 2, suck. Mission 3, fun. Mission 4, annoying. Mission 5, fun. Overall, 2 missions actually worth playing.
Dark Crusade would be much, much better if the AI didn't cheat horribly. So would the entire SP, for that matter. I'd recommend passing on this, too.
Of course, the previous two expansions are great if you're into multiplayer, as they rebalance everything in a better way and add 3 more races and make the Chaos into a race of their own instead of being a Space Marine clone.
I'd still recommend a playthrough, however, as the game is incredibly different than the standard RTS. You don't build units, you build entire squads. You select a barracks, you build Space Marines, and ... Out pops 4 units instead of 1. However, these 4 units all act as one. You don't give orders to individual units, but to squads. Also, each squad can build more units within itself to a cap. Space Marines have a max of 8 marines per squad + Sargeant. One might think this was annoying, but it makes for much easier micromanagement. I suck at micro in every other game,ut I find myself actually getting decent at micro in DoW.
You can also add various levels of customization to each squad. The SMs can add a combination of 4 weapons to counter different things, from dealing with infantry to melee attackers to vehicles, making them incredibly versatile.
Another great innovation is that each squad has morale. If they take too much morale damage their accuracy goes to crap and they become less effective (But move faster.). There are ways to restore morale and ways to specifically damage morale. It adds a lot of depth when you can destroy an army stronger than yours by crippling their morale.
Now ... The expansions... Winter Assault is pretty bad. I beat the Order campaign. Mission 1, alright. Mission 2, suck. Mission 3, fun. Mission 4, annoying. Mission 5, fun. Overall, 2 missions actually worth playing.
Dark Crusade would be much, much better if the AI didn't cheat horribly. So would the entire SP, for that matter. I'd recommend passing on this, too.
Of course, the previous two expansions are great if you're into multiplayer, as they rebalance everything in a better way and add 3 more races and make the Chaos into a race of their own instead of being a Space Marine clone.
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