Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=434https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3204GAMEPLAY They still have those little item boxes. They’re not hidden in trees this time, but it certainly tests your button reflexes when you come upon a jump and it suddenly starts flashing ‘O’! And then you get the power-ups that make the screen lag a little as it tries to keep up with your speed, and yay. Some challenge is good, of course; I lost a few times to Knuckles, but it was fun, and only took one or two retries. But when it you fail five times in a row by half a second to Silver in the same damn race, I start to wonder if maybe Silver shouldn’t have been placed later in the game, when the player would have built up some ninja-skillz. Again, challenge is good, but you don’t put all your hard enemies at the beginning. DESIGN It’s a two-dimensional environment with three-dimensional graphics. Places have depth and camera angles move, but you can only go forward or back—much easier than trying to navigate a 3D space when the screen is flashing by. PSP graphics are quite pretty anyway, but it’s still rather exciting to see the original levels from the old Sega Genesis Sonic games done in glowing lights and flowing water. Which brings me to another point; because Sonic Rivals is a redux of the Sonic line, it wouldn’t have been right if there hadn’t been some of the same details and levels carried over from the first games. I was happy to see the Falls Zone and Knuckles, even though I never really went for Shadow and this Silver character is just irritating me. Such is the danger of introducing new characters to an old canon. Shadow is a bit iffy, but at least had some history on the Dreamcast; I don’t know where Silver came from, and the already shallow storyline doesn’t make his faked mysteriousness very entertaining in the least. And maybe I just missed something over the years, but wasn’t this ‘Dr. Eggman’ originally ‘Dr. Robotnik’? Why the change, Sega? As much as I complain about some of the stylistic choices, Sonic Rivals still has that thing that makes racing games so much fun—the variability of outcomes and the speed with which you have to react. You’re actively involved and competing not just against the computer but also the clock, so it’s almost a personal insult to lose. It plays well to one’s sense of competition. (Now if I can just convince one of my sisters to get a PSP, we can take sibling rivalry to a whole new level above Duck Hunt.)Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:48:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3204&iddiary=6032https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3204SUMMARY Dr. Eggman has turned Sonic’s friends into playing cards! Oh no! Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are now racing to be the first to defeat Dr. Eggman and save everyone! Pretty standard Sonic plot, actually, though since this is a racing game, perhaps that can be forgiven. GAMEPLAY I find it strange that there was no tutorial on things like in-place spinning (the move that lets you get a head-start, for lack of a better name or description), and I wouldn’t have known it if I hadn’t been such a Sonic junkie when I was little. About half of the explosions and traps I set off for my rival was entirely by accident, since the game essentially just throws you into the race and expects you to figure it out on your own. (Not that it’s particularly complicated or anything, but still, it’s frustrating to suddenly find myself running backwards or encased in ice with no idea how it happened.) I’m feeling ambivalent about the gameplay. It’s like other Sonic racing games, just with better graphics; a little like Mario-Kart but with spiffier moves. It’s satisfying as hell when you build up speed and zoom across platforms and loops with the ring-counter dinging away (oh, for the days of Game Genie, when codes like SCRA-BAXO would get you permanent running shoes or constant invincibility!) There’s a fair mix of different obstacles: having to push pillars over, jumping, random enemies, etc, so it isn’t like you just push the direction arrows and that’s it. Still, something feels missing, though I’m not sure yet what that could be.Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:37:55 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3204&iddiary=6031https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2850GAMEPLAY Frankly, I’m bored. I go the witch, who just keeps saying she wants her glass eye; I go to the pirates and they give me a ship after kicking their wussy asses; I go to Elfheim and get told that the witch can brew a potion to wake up their king. I feel like those characters in fairy tales that have to go on a treasure hunt that seems to infinitely regress because someone always wants something else in return. And it’s boring. Although, I was particularly entertained by the pirates telling me that I had cannon balls of steel. DESIGN I’ve seen the original graphics, and the PSP remake looks absolutely lovely in comparison. A nice touch are the cloud shadows that pass over the towns, as though there were read weather patterns; and if you wanted to get overly analytical about it, you could even claim it as a symbol of the growing darkness consuming the light of the land. I find it strange that the battle system seems to be in ‘rounds’ rather than individual turns. You choose the actions of all four party members at once, let them battle, let the enemies have their turn, and then your set up their next round of actions. It makes it difficult when you’re not sure what to expect from an enemy, and in deciding who needs or doesn’t need to be healed. Also, having to pay for spells rather than earning them in battle…I can’t help but see that as a cynical commentary on current economies. And yes, I’m being entirely serious about that, silly as it sounds. A pitfall for player frustration here is the constant random battles. IT’S ANNOYING, especially when the majority of the battles are against cannon fodder monsters that give you maybe 4 experience points and a couple gil. Because I have no sense of direction—I still don’t know my right from left—I get lost very easily on the World Map, and it’s a pain in the ass having to backtrack and go through all. Those. Useless. Monsters. ARGH. The lack of characterization is bothering me. I loved FFVII so much because the emo-ness of Cloud and Vincent made me want to hug them, but I still have no idea who I’m moving around the maps in FFI. The only indication of any humanity was a cutscene saying something along the lines of their feeling “overwhelmed at the great task that destiny has set before them.” Which really doesn’t tell me much. I know Final Fantasy is considered one of the most influential games in the RPG genre, and maybe it is; and perhaps it’s just my living in a time of video games constantly pushing the edge that I’m entirely unimpressed with this one. I imagine that if I ever do finish playing it, it’ll just be for the novelty of its reputation rather than sincere enjoyment.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:45:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2850&iddiary=5441https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2850SUMMARY The four prophesized Warriors of Light appear, each with one of the world’s elemental crystals; they must restore the light to the crystals and banish the darkness consuming the world forever. Dun dun dun. Classic action/adventure RPG storyline (which makes sense, considering just how influential this game has been in the genre.) GAMEPLAY First, I need to clarify that this is the version remade for PSP; according to Wikipedia, it remains largely unchanged save for higher-resolution 2D graphics and a few extra dungeons and whatnot. Plus an improved soundtrack. (And yes, I did get professorial permission to use this version for the Classics list.) So, I had an issue right in the beginning; due to my own impatience, I clicked through the conversation with the king too quickly and didn’t catch where I was supposed to go. I wandered around for a good while leveling up killing monsters, since the Menu didn’t have any sort of ‘journal’ saying ‘Rescue Princess Sara at the Temple!’ or anything else vaguely useful. I finally sucked it up and tracked down an online guide. It would have sucked to play this right when it came out nearly twenty years ago and not have had the Handy Dandy Internet to help out. Far too many random battles. Also, my black mage’s HP is about a third of that of my other party members; why isn’t it leveling up as fast? My white mage is doing pretty damn well, thank you very much. And the dialogue—like bad fantasy novels. I know, I know, I’ve been spoiled with the more recent games that have had the luxury of building off the mistakes of their predecessors, but seriously. So far, none of the characters have been addressed as individuals, not even among themselves. I find this weird and a little creepy, especially when RPGs are reputed to be more advanced than other game types in the characterization department. I kind of feel like I'm moving mannikins around the World Map.Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:16:02 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2850&iddiary=5307https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2566GAMEPLAY I like the mix of having a vaguely RPG-style battle menu with a hack-n-slash. More potential for interesting attack combos, skill variety, and even a form of Limit Breaks (more boringly called ‘reaction commands’). Sora’s ‘Drive’ form is like turning him into a Super Saiyan with all the associated destruction, and please ignore the middle-school-otaku-nerdiness there. It does get a little annoying, however, when you rack up the Equipped skills and they seem to cancel one another out, or be relatively useless when combined with the rest. (There are some hilariously suggestive scenes. I think Squeenix has a thing for spiky-headed boys being told to beg on their knees. And the villain’s name could be considered an anagram for the word ‘mansex.’) DESIGN From what I remember of the first Kingdom Hearts, there are several improvements. Camera angles are more malleable, and honestly I think KH2 has one of the better camera systems I’ve seen. The Gummi ship battles in the first were boring and tedious, but the second time around became something that will make me go through the same obstacle course two or three times just for the hell of it. Enemies are customized for every world you go to, making them feel ‘native’ rather than blatantly out-of-place, and a fair amount of detail went into making each world unique. There are a few non-battle obstacles besides the Gummi ships, like having to steer Aladdin’s carpet through a sandstorm while hitting certain attack combos, and other like puzzles that were obviously made for a slightly younger audience than myself *cough* but still keep a strict routine from settling in too comfortably. Nomura’s biggest mistake was putting in the world of the Little Mermaid. It’s mundane, utterly stupid, and irrelevant to the rest of the game. Personal preference says the same of a few other worlds, but Atlantica was BY FAR the worst. Also, the cameo appearances of characters like Cloud, Squall, and Sephiroth go unexplained and largely unneeded, which was a big disappointment for me. Some of the so-called ‘features’ of this game felt like they were just thrown in for novelty rather than any real purpose, a sort of SNL-style “Look what I can do!” thing.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:58:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2566&iddiary=4885https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2566SUMMARY Set after Kingdom Hearts and KH: Chain of Memories, obviously. Kairi’s safe back at the Islands again, but Sora’s lost half his heart and Riku went missing again with King Mickey. And if that weren’t enough, Organization XIII is being led by Ansem’s Nobody and spreading oblivion across the worlds. “What, Lassie? Timmy fell down the well and the world is facing Impending Doom?” GAMEPLAY I’ve actually played this game before, when it came out a few years ago. (Ah, the memories.) And I thought, Hey, why not try it again? Epic drama or fast-paced action’s all well and good, but sometimes you just need to revisit some kid’s fun. The cartoony art style makes me smile, and there are moogles. (You know life’s good when there are moogles.) The beginning few hours bored the hell out of me—because I can play this thing forever and forget it’s for an assignment, hah—but the multidimensional arcade-style shmup thing that opens interspatial gates is worth all the tedium. Button-mashing to the extreme, and filling the screen with explosions is so damn satisfying. And wow, after playing several Final Fantasy titles, I’m falling in love with Sora all over again. He isn’t annoyingly bouncy, but he doesn’t ANGST, not like Nomura’s preceding character designs; he doesn’t make me feel like slitting my wrists. Not to mention his seiyuu did a wonderful voice-over (the kid from the movie ‘The Sixth Sense’ whose name I can never remember). I’ve missed this kind of laid-back playing.Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:58:03 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2566&iddiary=4884https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2220GAMEPLAY I’m having mixed feelings on these new ‘target lines’—long arches of colored light connecting you with another target that, depending on the color, indicate an enemy or friend. It’s great because it gives you fair warning of an attacker, or tells you when you’ve broken cover and been spotted, but in a melee-style conflict all those lines can be damn confusing. (You can select to turn them off, however.) I thought that relatively strong female characters in this series had died with Aeris. (Why are video games lacking so sorely in this area?) Thank god for Ashe, who has confidence, realism, and a much less annoying personality on her side. DESIGN The new battle design is tripping me out. It’s still turn-based, of course, and in real-time, but you can actively move around, which makes me nervous. I feel like I should be doing more than just running around and waiting for my turn—like, oh, killing. Nor does the screen change to a separate battleground, as in just about every other FF title; you can see the enemy coming (eliminating the randomness), and you fight right there in the ‘normal’ world. I’m not sure if I like this better or not. What I don’t like about the battle system is the automated thing they have going. Select [Attack], pick an enemy, and all you have to do from then on is keep an eye on your HP and use a potion if it gets too low. It feels like cheating in a not-satisfying way, and without much thought needed. There’s a ‘License Board’ that’s reminiscent of the Sphere system thing in FFX. I’ve heard some people complain about it, but I prefer having room for choice in how the character develops. I really liked the Sphere thing, and there’s even more freedom here. The environments are, in my humble opinion, AWESOME. They’re finely detailed, and the sheer height of the buildings gives a real sense of being in a heavily populated city. If the movie “The Fifth Element” could meet Star Wars, you’d get the city of Rabanastre, complete with non-human species and mercenary-like personalities. In FF7, you had the Germanic influence in Nibelheim, the Western style in Midgar, and the East Asian-like Wutai—here you have a desert, almost Arabic feel, and it’s definitely an interesting change. You can see a Greco-Roman influence in names like ‘Archadia’ and in the armor styles. (I’m sorry, but to me, this cultural thing is fascinating.) The use of rich color gives it the kind of brightly-lit, almost dreamlike atmosphere you’d expect in a fantasy world.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:44:50 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2220&iddiary=4233https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2220SUMMARY The world of Ivalice is being torn apart by two large warring kingdoms, leaving the smaller kingdoms to be swallowed up or destroyed. After the murder of the king of Dalmasca—one of the lesser nations—its citizens are displaced and the country taken under imperial rule. Vaan (the main character of dubious gender), the Dalmascan princess Ashe, and other motley characters band together to form a resistance against the imperialists. Kudos for thinly veiled political commentary. GAMEPLAY Although there’s more cutscene than actual gameplay in the beginning, I was engrossed only a few minutes into it, and not just because the graphics were absolutely beautiful. It was very effective on an emotional level, using techniques like seeing through the character’s eyes, mimicking the chaos of battle with jarring camera angles, etc; I was crushed when the Playable Character Of The Moment, Reks, dies. Though there was a fair amount of textual info-dumping, a lot of it was also presented through a sort of montage-style cutscene that made a potentially dry storyline more interesting. A drastic improvement in voice acting, especially when compared to the cringe-worthy FFX, made serious scenes actually somewhat touching and sincere. Also, with a greater focus on the characters than, say, FF Tactics, I didn’t feel like I was just nudging along a group of pixels for some vague idealistic purpose, but actively observing a more real person. (Vaan reminds me of a weird mix between angst-ridden Cloud and brash Tidus, with a healthy portion of Cloud’s Wall Market getup thrown in to make him look more feminine than Squall ever did. Fangirls, rejoice!) Otherwise, I’m getting a little bored and waiting for Something To Explode. This game already feels like it’s more for those people fascinated with political intrigue and tactics, which I’m…not.Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:07:26 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2220&iddiary=4210https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1839GAMEPLAY So this pretty much made the brain-deadness after my work shift go away, especially when my pistols got uploaded to a shotgun that makes even bigger splatters. I’m enjoying it a lot, and I think it’s due to two main things; the self-parodying humor, and the near-melee battles that force you to button-mash. Only it’s strategic, to a certain extent. After unloading a round into a wall, the resulting explosion collapsed the ground and dropped DJ into a whole underground cavern with sparkly useful things. It’s rockin’. DESIGN While the gloom definitely adds to the Halloween-style atmosphere, at times it also sacrifices visibility. The landscape itself is wonderfully varied, allowing you to use tipped-over cars or giant bones as cover, requiring some skill to balance across walls to reach treasures, or letting you trick demons into falling into the lava. Useful items are just common enough to keep you from dying of enemy-fireball-overload, but not to the point of making it too easy. The soul of every enemy you kill is automatically collected by DJ and then used to open supernatural doors — giving you some purpose for killing things rather than just because the bloodspots look pretty. Giving grades based on how you performed during the level for certain criteria (killings, combos, etc) isn’t exactly innovative, but here you receive it in the form of a report card. (Did I mention that DJ got sent to kiddies’ military school?) One of the categories is ‘Destruction.’ YES. As for things like artwork and music, both are quirky and cute in a dead-babies kind of way. Overall, a potentially silly plot for little kids is made awesome through morbid humor, violence, and just fun irreverence; except for a few irritating little things like camera angles, I’m loving it. Totally worth the ten bucks I paid for it down at Streetlight, and more. I’m thinking that it’s the games that don’t take themselves too seriously, and also force you to think on your feet, that are the most fun. Did I mention you can blow stuff up?Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:24:38 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1839&iddiary=3694https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1839SUMMARY Pandora was determined to open that box in the museum while on a school field trip, and being the good friend he is, DJ (Death Jr.) helped her out. Unfortunately, something Bad With Tentacles reached out, grabbed all his friends, and has now scattered bits of their souls in the shape of puzzle pieces. Whatever is a shrimpy, scythe-wielding Grim Reaper’s son to do? Kill things, naturally. And collect the soul pieces along the way, of course. GAMEPLAY So far, this game runs like a wonderful parody on the horror genre—a girl that bleeds from her hands when nervous, a fetus in a tank, and a dead guppy are a few of DJ’s other buddies. The dialogue isn’t particularly interesting, but the visual gags had me laughing, and the mood and music both remind me of Invader Zim with a bit of Tim Burton. At first it was awkward getting used to which buttons do what, but it doesn’t take long to learn how to switch quickly between long-range firearms and your close-range scythe. Pros: your bullets don’t run out, and you can focus on a specific target using [R]. Con: the camera angles suck, and you can’t control it when running and trying to dodge enemies’ fireballs. Once I got into it, however, then yes, I had a great time watching the blood spray — and this was just in training mode. The enemy demons were relatively difficult but not overwhelming, and made for a nice balance of making progress possible without compromising the fun and challenge.Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:45:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1839&iddiary=3625