bri's GameLog

Valkyrie Profile (PS) - Fri, 13 Aug 2004 13:20:12

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 13:20:12 CDT

I came back to Valkyrie Profile a few times last winter and spring, mostly for the combo system. The combos and dungeon explore mechanics are probably my favorite aspects of the game. (Though I still love some of the catch phrases, maybe once a month.) For better or worse, these mechanics are available in other titles whose narratives have a tighter hold. Combos make up a significant part of a number of console RPGs (especially tactical ones), so I tend to reach for Breath of Fire IV to satisfy my combo cravings lately. Probably my favorite instance of the exploration mechanic appears in Xenosaga, where, like in VP, your exploring actions can give you an edge or hinder you in the combat. I haven't played VP further since April, mostly because I was playing my roommate's copy, and I moved out at the beginning of May. (Incidentally, it was to get out of the dorms, not to get away from that roommate.)

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2) - Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:52:15

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 01:52:15 CDT

Hard to believe my roomie and I were playing this for seven hours the other night. I haven't played a game for seven hours in ages.

Anyway, not trying to show disrespect to Diablo, but Dark Alliance really does a better job of fitting my notion of an action rpg... more action, less rpg. DA actually gets to where it's really more an action game with developing characters more than anything else. Numeric development and powergaming (as well as dramatic inter-character interactions) take a back seat to old fashioned troll killin'. It was quite a trip.

I'm kinda curious who modeled animated the barmaid that the inn where you go between missions while in Baldurs Gate though. She seems a bit... well.. oversexed. At times I'm not sure whether I'm reading in or crying wolf about something harmless, but she was a little too sexed up for my tastes. I mean, a little subtlety really wouldn't hurt.

But then, I played the "elf chick", so what do I know. (My roomie grabbed the dwarf first, and who wants to be the bow guy. I want some spellage!)

That said, one of the most fun bits was when we were both running around in scale armor... we looked like some kind of freaky twins. Stubby dwarf and tall elf running around in green and white pajamas fighting evil... with metal longjohns underneath. It was even funnier than when I was running around with a steel coif and worn leather everything else. Stupidest outfit ever!

So in the end, Dark Alliance has taught me one important thing about digital rpgs (or at least their related action game cousins). Be careful how you accessorize.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA) - Thu, 27 Nov 2003 16:05:59

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 16:05:59 CDT

Well.. the anxiety's long past. The game's much easier than I'd anticipated. Of course, that makes sense given that one of the complaints people had about FFTactics on the PlayStation was that it was too hard, and this one's specifically targeted at the generally more casual handheld market.

It's been a good time, though managing one's stable can e a challenge at times. Who do I send on that dispatch mission, how many second stringers do I put in to even out the team's experience?

I even managed to find a losing battle.. Too many second stringers in, and a "No Swords" law which kept out my fighter. Granted, I could have changed her to something else temporarily. The real problem was that my second string black mage does too little combat damage. He kept almost killing a pudding, after which the pudding would slink off by another character and cast an area lightning spell, zapping my guy and healing itself. Oh well.

Still having plenty of fun.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA) - Wed, 19 Nov 2003 06:02:25

Wed, 19 Nov 2003 06:02:25 CDT

Ooh the performance anxiety. The game's reasonably addictive, and having it in handheld form has helped me actually log a few hours of time on it. I think I've got the basic hang of combat, but I can see things getting tough in the near future, especially with rival clans showing up to cause trouble.

From what I hear, this FFT game is less complex than the original PSX game, but I still feel like I'm lost at sea here. So many classes, and I have no idea what most of them do. So many abilities, so little knowledge. So a perfectionist like myself either spends a bunch of time reading FAQs on the net or shelling out $15+ for a hint book (assuming it's not already out of print). I really need to do something about that perfectionism. I'd enjoy a lot more games if I were more willing to just stumble my way along. Of course, maybe this tendency comes from playing too many adventure games with puzzles that make no sense. (Yes, Sam & Max, I'm talking to you and your wad of cash stuck in the mousehole in "Hit the Road"!)

Jet Set Radio Future (XBX) - Wed, 12 Nov 2003 00:48:23

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 00:48:23 CDT

Just started today. JSRF feels a little faster than JSR, and I like the ability to speed up during grinds. It may not follow real world physics especially well.. but I'm playing a game.. I don't want accurate physics.. I want FUN physics. (Remind me to tell you a story about Obi Wan, game tuning, and a physics obsessed programmer.) I'm not sure I'll get the hang of the paint-boost anytime soon. I'm kinda missing the old school boost that didn't cost any paint. Sure, it wasn't nearly as big a boost and didn't have the cool visual effect, but it was free... I'm really stingy with paint. Last time I played JSRF I didn't really like Yoyo, but the kid's okay. I don't like Beat's new outfit much, and it seems silly to me that you have to earn Beat early in the game rather than starting with him. (Guess it's something like people's frustration at playing most of MGS2 as Raiden, though more easily remedied.) Anyway, I like the feel of this Xbox iteration of it, and Smilebit's one of the key factors that will get me to finally buy an Xbox one of these days. (Along with that copy of KotOR that I still haven't played.) I'm not all that big on Orta, but I'm quite the JSR/JSRF fanboy, and since it's not hard to find JSRF in the used bin at EB, I really ought to pick up a copy.

Final Fantasy X (PS2) - Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:08:10

Tue, 11 Nov 2003 23:08:10 CDT

Yikes.. log's getting dusty. Got Auron in the party now, and have had a few run ins with Maester freakyhair. (Hate him real good.) Even played out the battle where you get to use him through using Valefor... anything I could think of to try and show up Maester Seymour. To Marleigh's comment, Wakka's probably the coolest character in the game, but nobody's really good enough to hook up with him. (Granted, I have a soft spot for polynesians thanks to some good poly friends back in the undergrad days, so maybe I'm just mapping my high opinion of real people on him.) I'm still working out party balancing though. We seem to have too many fighters. I like being able to swap in Tidus, Khimari and Auron.. but Wakka and Lulu are pretty much always in the front line. Yuna's proven tough to put in just right, especially with my habit of using Haste for big battles and how conservative I tend to be about using Aeons. At times I bring in Yuna to heal folks, only to realize that it would have been handier to just use a potion. My inability to use the characters properly in combat aside, I still like Yuna. She comes off as very submissive, but I want to belive there's something more going on that we don't see. Granted, this is probably another case of me projecting things on the characters... but I can't get through Final Fantasy games without doing so or I'd hate all the characters.. especially the heroes. Though Ramza in FF Tactics seems just fine. (But I'll pass on Cloud, Squall, others. Still want that code where I can play as Barrett, hook up with Tifa and leave that whole Cloud and Aereth thing alone.)

Jet Set Radio (DC) - Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:34:25

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:34:25 CDT

Won't be playing this one again soon. The Dreamcast I've been playing on has given up the ghost, so no more JSR for bri. Fortunately, we've got a lab copy of JSRF, so there are alternatives. Pity though, I've managed to get hold of my own copy and all, just don't have the money necessary to get hold of another DC.

Tokimeki Memorial: Forever with you (PS) - Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:30:13

Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:30:13 CDT

It's been a couple weeks since I played Tokimeki. Time's got real short, and my thesis work is to where my time's better spent creating rather than playing games to see what's out there. I've enjoyed TokiMeki, though the language barrier still proves nearly impossible to break. Available FAQs in English have a bad habit of leaving out details of questions the girls ask you while you're out on a date together and my command of the language isn't such that I can make out what they're saying in less than ten minutes/line of text (if I understand it at all). Add to that how TokiMeki appears to present the responses in random order, and progress gets really slow. I plan to come back to it when there's time again, but who knows when that will be. I'll mark this as stopped due to frustration, but it's less a question of frustration with the game and more a question of getting tired of wading through language difficulties. In order to properly progress through the game you have to say the right things during dates, and I'm not linguistically equipped to handle it well enough to play through to the end with a reliable chance of winning over any of the characters.

Silent Hill (PS) - Tue, 30 Sep 2003 22:01:47

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 22:01:47 CDT

I watched Silent Hill 2 the other day and was amazed at how well they played on player expectations from other horror forms (movies, books, etc.). Since I don't have an Xbox of my own, (yes, I know, I could pick up the PS2 version, but the XBox one's prettier) and since I saw a lonely copy of the original at EB, I picked it up to give it a whirl. In some respects, I think SH2 makes better use of suspense and has creepier monster designs. (Monsters based on inanimate objects or vaguely humanoid things, rather than SH's more Parasite Eve style pterodactyl and caninoid beasts.) But I'm still only a few hours into the game, so I expect things will get significantly spookier.

Final Fantasy Tactics (PS) - Tue, 30 Sep 2003 21:44:27

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 21:44:27 CDT

Stuff I wrote the other day that doesn't really fit in the description:

Having heard many times that FFT is one of the best games available for PlayStation, I finally managed to pick up a copy on the cheap (yeah, I'm all about the cheap old stuff). I haven't got especially deep into the job system, which is one of the game's primary features, but hope to get into it soon. (Makes it hard when its outside any of my specific research areas.) I'm hoping to put a reasonable amount of time into it before getting into Tactics Advance so I have a solid basis from which to compare the two.