tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89945042819662189462024-03-13T23:21:00.898-07:00The Adventures of JejunMy various adventures in RPGs, with liberal sprinklings of anime!Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-89950789233397892412012-12-09T01:08:00.004-08:002012-12-09T01:10:22.547-08:00Star Blazers: The Show that Got Me into Anime<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoHEM1YHy0XvTvK9eG_4W4b94yPNSK8El-VhvCLsL1XDbnbEwTEQ8A5Gzlxha4z5qKvjSpgifScZc7H-5TSQqWx0wE2gN6q_lj0P2ppONgHGdbsz1ozRC1JBzZ6bwE2A6w9O5vQ7n0azSp/s1600/star-blazers-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Crew of the Yamato as well as the ship" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoHEM1YHy0XvTvK9eG_4W4b94yPNSK8El-VhvCLsL1XDbnbEwTEQ8A5Gzlxha4z5qKvjSpgifScZc7H-5TSQqWx0wE2gN6q_lj0P2ppONgHGdbsz1ozRC1JBzZ6bwE2A6w9O5vQ7n0azSp/s1600/star-blazers-1.jpg" height="320" title="Star Blazers Characters" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>There were so many great characters in this<br />series.</b></td></tr>
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For plenty of people that are into anime, there's this or that show that really got them into this type of show. Whether it was One Piece, Naruto, Dragonball, or even something much more obscure. For me that show was Star Blazers, aka Space Battleship Yamato. I remember the show being on somewhere around 6AM in my area in the early 80s, and I'd sprint down the stairs each morning to watch it.<br />
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The show was totally different from anything that I had seen before. The only other anime airing at the time was old episodes of Astro Boy every Sunday morning, and I wasn't terribly keen on that show. Meanwhile, all of the Western made cartoons that I was watching had a very different, and as far as I was concerned, boring art style. Star Blazers was totally different. The art was very unique (though later I'd learn that Leiji Matsumoto's style was very unique unto itself), and the series' story followed a massive arch. I wasn't used to such long stories being told. I'd be lucky if the show I was watching at the time was a two parter, but something that went on for 26 episodes was amazing.</div>
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There was plenty of action either from the Argo / Yamato going toe-to-toe with enemy ships, especially blasting the Wave Motion Gun, or Wildstar hopping in his fighter plane for some dogfights. The characters were pretty good too. There was the whole relationship between Nova and Wildstar, and Captain Avatar was great as a patriarch in the cast.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8VVGuwnnXIBhP4_nH5nE8xs04xr1myNfbrqJ1CFD3PikVpdgVam9A0HKrfR4db-gIOAZ5HjsXBTw_GYmp3uFv1LCC4lHLgYp9sx2pFS0QCyWv9tar_03KVx9I3kv-DgmFIkpo3N0I9Ty/s1600/star-blazers-captain-avatar.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Captain Avatar" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8VVGuwnnXIBhP4_nH5nE8xs04xr1myNfbrqJ1CFD3PikVpdgVam9A0HKrfR4db-gIOAZ5HjsXBTw_GYmp3uFv1LCC4lHLgYp9sx2pFS0QCyWv9tar_03KVx9I3kv-DgmFIkpo3N0I9Ty/s1600/star-blazers-captain-avatar.jpeg" height="148" title="Star Blazers Image 2" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Captain Avatar is probably my<br />favorite character, probably even<br />more than Wildstar.</b></td></tr>
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Also, there were so many themes that Star Blazer visited that I'd never seen in a cartoon before. Seeing Nova and Wildstar's feelings for one another slowly blossom was nice. What really blew me away was when Captain Avatar died after seeing the Earth one last time. It was a really sad scene, and something that I'd never experienced watching all of the usual cartoons I'd come across at that time, so it sort of shocked me that a show would kill off such a big character.</div>
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After the series ran its course it was taken off the air, and I was very, very sad because I had to go back to my usual cartoons, all of which paled in comparison to Star Blazers. It wasn't until several years later, when Robotech came along that I'd get the chance to see some more anime. Nonetheless, my interest was peaked, and I knew I had to watch this stuff whenever the opportunity presented itself. In the 90s, I'd watch Dragonball and Sailor Moon whenever it was on, and when I finally got a part time job, I started buying videos of shows that looked interesting.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ahZc8uzgm2THI34z52DUNItgJ4wmyUj9-XyWxD71o65GR8wGxO2386WGJi22iLk7Yg0cxAkG4eabxbTqleii93V3SL0-t1jAEhvdBE6e3M5YU3ujDu8u7Kv4HskVzenV6J8uge7Y2FrO/s1600/star-blazers-wave-motion-gun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Argo firing its Wave Motion Gun." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ahZc8uzgm2THI34z52DUNItgJ4wmyUj9-XyWxD71o65GR8wGxO2386WGJi22iLk7Yg0cxAkG4eabxbTqleii93V3SL0-t1jAEhvdBE6e3M5YU3ujDu8u7Kv4HskVzenV6J8uge7Y2FrO/s1600/star-blazers-wave-motion-gun.jpg" height="340" title="Star Blazers Image 3" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Argo / Yamato firing its Wave Motion Gun.</b></td></tr>
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I even started to research more about Leiji Matsumoto and Star Blazers, searching out other similar series. With that, I discovered Captain Harlock, Queen Emeraldas, and Galaxy Express, all of which make up the core of my favorite anime series. Still, I have to look at Star Blazers as the most important of all the anime I've come across, at least to me, because without it who knows if I'd be as interested in the stuff as I am today.</div>
Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-21136087056864834142012-12-06T17:59:00.001-08:002012-12-06T18:01:49.656-08:00Vay - A Reminder of How Bad English Voice Acting Could Be in the 90s<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60kuM5T6NfcVNXV27R_xfJo2NJsH0sqParLsIl_yLdu50juMHfW03pZJV-J7VcP1ThmPJf8nbmZG0IUqXxhZ-22VJSGR4NuSJNsLQQckGabhONiShyFwlccqsLjSe17sypjjUUgKoRXgu/s1600/vay-sega-cd-7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Sandor, Pottel, and Rachel escape the volcano." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj60kuM5T6NfcVNXV27R_xfJo2NJsH0sqParLsIl_yLdu50juMHfW03pZJV-J7VcP1ThmPJf8nbmZG0IUqXxhZ-22VJSGR4NuSJNsLQQckGabhONiShyFwlccqsLjSe17sypjjUUgKoRXgu/s1600/vay-sega-cd-7.png" height="270" title="Vay Sega CD Screenshot" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>In cut scenes like this, there's plenty of terrible acting.</b></td></tr>
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I decided to replay a bit of Vay on the Sega CD over the last few days, and it's really reminding me how bad the voice acting could be in video games in the mid 90s. Granted this sort of thing was in its infancy during this period. On the console front, unless you had a CD-ROM add-on, you weren't going to be exposed to much of this, and as far as PCs were concerned it was still pretty pricey to get something that could play a lot of the big CD-based games of the day. So, unless you were well off yourself, or had super amazing parents with no qualms about forking out several hundred dollars for a TurboGrafx CD or Sega CD, let alone a couple thousand for a gaming PC, you weren't going to be exposed to games with voice acting, and as such the market was understandably small.<br />
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Nonetheless, wow, Vay's voice acting is really bad. The narrator sounds like someone jokingly impersonating his grandfather, and the forced emotion from every other character is terrible. Thankfully, cut scenes with actual spoken dialogue are far and few between, but when it comes along it's a sight to see.<br />
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I'm sure if I'd actually played the game when it first came out, I'd be a bit more impressed, but as it stands I'm not. Instead Vay reminds me of just how bad English voice acting was in gaming, as well as anime for that matter, during the mid 90s. It's come a really long way, especially as far as games are concerned. Put Vay up against Dragon Age or Final Fantasy XIII, and the difference is night and day.<br />
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Other than that, the game is reasonably enjoyable. I do like the translation liberties that Working Designs took while localizing it, adding some interesting humor to the mix. I'll probably try and see it through to the end. In a lot of ways, the game is very typical of JRPGs of the period, but it's actually challenging (largely thanks to unexpected difficulty spikes), and I kinda like that.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-61189109140182572832012-12-05T09:40:00.003-08:002012-12-05T22:30:34.875-08:00The Original Slayers Anime Is Pretty Good!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfZ3kVWUwB6IIuUL4mHuRRDv4OVRerI2N16wrY5dn0EGKsOiT22rfO62YubW8hZ4jSgzbch9UprSEFFjuGLTPBxr8Cd3TxCheAULMfOLYIOHkXTN2MS2ib3ulgV6Pqw2VeH5e1xFO4TmY/s1600/slayers-anime-original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Lina, Gourry, and the gang." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkfZ3kVWUwB6IIuUL4mHuRRDv4OVRerI2N16wrY5dn0EGKsOiT22rfO62YubW8hZ4jSgzbch9UprSEFFjuGLTPBxr8Cd3TxCheAULMfOLYIOHkXTN2MS2ib3ulgV6Pqw2VeH5e1xFO4TmY/s1600/slayers-anime-original.jpg" height="252" title="Slayers Anime Image" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Lina and company hanging out together.</b></td></tr>
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It's been over a decade since the last time I've sat down and watched some episodes from the Slayers anime. The show is one of my favorite series to run in the mid 90s, and it still holds up really well now. Slayers followed the adventures of Lina Inverse, a gifted sorceress, and her friends as they traveled around getting into all sorts of adventures. It's a good mix of action and comedy that stays consistently entertaining throughout the show. There have been plenty of follow-up seasons and stories in the Slayers universe, but it was fun to return to the very first season of the series.<br />
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I think my first exposure to the series was from an issue of Gamers Republic in the anime section that they'd have towards the back of the magazine. There was a small write up there discussing the show, and my interest was peaked. After that I started to see mentions of the show every now and then on message boards, so I finally got around to watching the series, on VHS no less!<br />
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One definitely needs to do a good job with their suspension of disbelief while watching the show, though, because there are some pretty convenient plot twists like Gourry just so happening to have the Sword of Light, or Lina having access to the Giga Slave spell all of a sudden. There's also stuff like the more or less meaningless deaths of Zolf and Rodimus, which seemed like a really contrived means of trying to make the audience a little bit sad. If you can look past stuff like that, then Slayers can be pretty entertaining.<br />
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What makes the show for me are the characters, as I really like Lina and Gourry. They have good chemistry together, and both of them can make me laugh. There are plenty of other interesting people to make appearances in the series as well, but these two are at its core, and make or break the show for me.<br />
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At some point, I really should make some time to check out all of the seasons that followed these original stories in the series, but for now I've been happy just to revisit Slayers.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-67203515802098939002012-11-28T09:43:00.002-08:002012-11-28T21:19:36.880-08:00Phantasy Star Zero: Some Early Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpcMPgKtWkthbcfRr9i0gKpRq0S_FOhlIVSPApbSpMUMrYoDhUS4NqbhG5LKgYuXLAfpNr8qPMRwFcJ2CsmmzMV3yVxqjqTTDT74dGh99WLzShX1lScDQngoXWv6m3F_eqQx5Kulxh-OBF/s1600/phantasy-star-zero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The box art without text over top" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpcMPgKtWkthbcfRr9i0gKpRq0S_FOhlIVSPApbSpMUMrYoDhUS4NqbhG5LKgYuXLAfpNr8qPMRwFcJ2CsmmzMV3yVxqjqTTDT74dGh99WLzShX1lScDQngoXWv6m3F_eqQx5Kulxh-OBF/s1600/phantasy-star-zero.jpg" height="295" title="Phantasy Star Zero Artwork" width="400" /></a></div>
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For the last week or so I've been playing some Phantasy Star Zero, and it's a pretty fun little distraction. It has plenty of loot to hunt down, mags to grow, interesting characters, and it's really good for some pick up and play action. About the only thing that I really don't like about it is that the camera is kind of blah. I'm also terrible at using spears, but that's more me than the game.<br />
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Anyway, after playing for about seven hours, so far so good. I'm playing as a Newman right now, and their story is pretty neat. It means I have to talk a fair bit with Sarisa because we're in cahoots as we investigate the humans, and complete our people's mission. It seems a straightforward story so far, but the characters bring a lot to the table. They're darn charming. I've spent most of my time adventuring with Kai and Sarisa, and like them quite a bit. Kai is very easy going, with only a very subtle bit of cockiness to him. He seems the sort that would be fun to hang out with. Meanwhile, Sarisa is very kind and just wants to do her best to contribute to the team. It's hard not to like her.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BGkVyBzr4wNc8P6XzfKaOT0QzWCVxwPq8fcNOcIHA4VUDUgIy7Tyl213TBl5AouH6elyW5BrZKj-5p4fx93Z3n3uwHqmWYbU5KL6e1-hydXD2Bw7vosC-gsFnY4g8ghJc_0ipipdVowV/s1600/phantasy-star-zero-ds-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Party running around the city" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BGkVyBzr4wNc8P6XzfKaOT0QzWCVxwPq8fcNOcIHA4VUDUgIy7Tyl213TBl5AouH6elyW5BrZKj-5p4fx93Z3n3uwHqmWYbU5KL6e1-hydXD2Bw7vosC-gsFnY4g8ghJc_0ipipdVowV/s1600/phantasy-star-zero-ds-1.jpg" height="150" title="Phantasy Star Zero Screenshot DS" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>It's actually pretty hard<br />to find decent screenshots<br />for this game. >_<</b></td></tr>
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I've spent a lot of my time just wandering around different zones as they're opened up, smacking around monsters and collecting loot. There have been a few useful items that I've found in my travels but most of them have either been used to feed my mag so it can grow big and strong, or sold off at the market for profit. It makes for a nice way to kill 15 or 20 minutes here and there while still being productive in the game. I can see this somewhat breaking the experience, though, because my character has leveled up quite a bit by doing this, and some of the recent bosses I've faced seemed a little on the easy side. I can't see this changing, though, unless I hold off on farming, but it's what I enjoy most about the game, so I'll need to somehow reconcile having easy bosses to accommodate the enjoyment I get from mindlessly smashing monsters.<br />
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In any case, I've enjoyed the game quite a bit up to this point. My character has a snazzy claw that she's using now to tear up monsters, and her mag is slowly getting stronger. I'll need to consult a guide to see how I want to go about evolving the thing, though. Right now it allows for a strong charge attack, but it looks like there a bunch of other interesting attacks available that could be worth exploring. In a lot of ways, it feels like I'm playing a portable PSO on the DS. Now if only the handheld supported WPA so that I could actually try the game online...Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-88028957762720291752012-11-26T22:27:00.000-08:002012-11-26T22:27:39.778-08:00Hurray! I Survived the Steam Sale!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-G0apv2Chqg8nUUeAGlZ5BoIE61uIW1XS6vv9PyRg8EvXrml2loYohobqC_oJ3dTK3qkuLygBL5_lpUyifuwj4P_U0h5iCnZDO-Qq3-6HVCh7xF6V9mEys-JpbTjxsM2VFmlRG_u8JVF/s1600/steam-logo-black.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-G0apv2Chqg8nUUeAGlZ5BoIE61uIW1XS6vv9PyRg8EvXrml2loYohobqC_oJ3dTK3qkuLygBL5_lpUyifuwj4P_U0h5iCnZDO-Qq3-6HVCh7xF6V9mEys-JpbTjxsM2VFmlRG_u8JVF/s1600/steam-logo-black.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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It may not be as insane as the summer and winter sales, but this year's autumn sale ran surprisingly long, or at least longer than I remember the thing going in years past, and had quite a few really tempting deals. Thankfully I behaved myself though, only getting Skyrim on this go around.<br />
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I'd been holding out on that one for ages because I don't like paying $60 for a game. They had it for half off, which doesn't happen often so I finally capitulated and picked it up. For now I'm going to skip on the Dawnguard stuff because after talking with friends and reading up on it some more, it sounds like it's a bit of a tough one to justify getting. Maybe if I was into all of the daedric stuff in a big way it might be worthwhile, but the expansion wasn't really winning me over, even at ten bucks.<br />
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Skyrim itself is a ton of fun so far. A lot has been tweaked for this game, but some of the stuff I like include how the combat feels a little smoother, and faster paced than previous games, the visuals are great, and haven't been giving me any problems like obnoxious draw-in (which I found Oblivion suffered from quite a bit), and, as always, there's tons to explore.<br />
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I'm not going to go into a full review of the game here, as I'm only about ten hours into it right now, but I did want to mention that I'm enjoying it. But yeah, really happy that I abstained from gorging myself on deals at this sale. Now I just have to do the same or better at the winter sale, which can't be too far off.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-41629070767568309252012-11-25T22:45:00.001-08:002012-11-25T22:45:33.164-08:00The Weekend Anime Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjkfur05Ss_jXxXiuFr-Nv_SprtmMfCNco3ydCe39pt0ngeCdzr0Dfhedh1fiPmb1KFrkDtH3glqxmlJ01fDy14QddmnwL3_LM8dojZ0N7QCaj6YanYLNTLvwCAhl9qpoa3QQnc3N4U3d/s1600/blast-tempest-characters.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Main Characters" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjkfur05Ss_jXxXiuFr-Nv_SprtmMfCNco3ydCe39pt0ngeCdzr0Dfhedh1fiPmb1KFrkDtH3glqxmlJ01fDy14QddmnwL3_LM8dojZ0N7QCaj6YanYLNTLvwCAhl9qpoa3QQnc3N4U3d/s1600/blast-tempest-characters.png" height="221" title="Blast of Tempest Image" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's still technically the weekend for me for another two hours, so I'm squeezing this in before it's too late! Just like the last couple of weeks, I've been keeping myself busy with a fair amount of shows. I finished off watching Gosick, and am keeping up to date on Say I Love You and My Little Monster with my wife. Also, I checked out a couple more episodes of Blast of Tempest. So, I'm going to hop right into things.<br />
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For Say I Love You, I'm still annoyed at Yamato because he obviously doesn't have a clue how his behavior is upsetting Mei. Aiko had a chat with him about it, and he apologized, but we'll see if he changes for the long term. Aiko and Asami are doing their best to help Mei through everything, but she's obviously having a tough time right now. It also looks like there's a new guy getting introduced into the mix named Kai who seems to be interested in Mei, or at least the little decoration for her mobile phone. Hopefully he'll be competition for Yamato.<br />
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My Little Monster was pretty good as the show took place during a school festival and Shizuku started to figure out that she's a bit too serious and cold to the point where she's upsetting her friends. She's also slowly starting to sort herself out with Haru, emphasis on the word "slowly". I figure it'll be quite a few episodes more before they're officially a couple at this rate. Also, I thought Natsume was cute when she was talking with Mii-chan about how Shizuku was so cold to her. She's quite the sensitive girl.<br />
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As far as Gosick goes, I'm glad that I finally finished the series. While the first half of it was a lot of relatively short stories with a Poirot-lite feel to them, the second half started to explain Victorique's origins more, as well as the plans her father had for her. The show did take some liberties with history, plunging things into war during the 1920s, as opposed to when World War II actually started, but I was willing to let it slide. Finding out what happened to Victorique's mother, as well as the true nature of Brian Roscoe was very interesting, and seeing Victorique and Kujo separated and eventually reunited was nice as well. (The part where they reunite, anyway, obviously the other part was kind of sad)<br />
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Finally, I watched a couple more episodes of Blast of Tempest, which I'm starting to like quite a bit. I've learned a little more about how Yoshino and Mahiro met, and Mahiro was a little brat as a kid, which would help explain his attitude now. Also, we're meeting more of the enemies the two will face, as well as seeing just what kind of power Hakaze actually has. (She destroyed a mountain!) For all her attempts to stop Samon, though, it looks like the guy may have a trick up his sleeve for dealing with the girl, and making sure she doesn't interfere with his plans.<br />
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Anyway, that about wraps things up for this week's anime. More in about seven days! ^_^Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-60702152553084928972012-11-23T01:00:00.000-08:002012-11-23T01:08:04.876-08:00Still No Dragon's Dogma for PC, Missed Opportunity?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIxeF3383IO-0TevM_M-2Sr3GfnBGfBjAScIqaevlkeSPIhRVLS4C0Fc7C1TySIUBFKzh21GPgWaTFRlKYkZIhtLi8n-SU5rV_82Dyo2cyIuFLEMh14Zce-IDpnl6IH5psGg1Dq2K_Dlt/s1600/dragons-dogma-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIxeF3383IO-0TevM_M-2Sr3GfnBGfBjAScIqaevlkeSPIhRVLS4C0Fc7C1TySIUBFKzh21GPgWaTFRlKYkZIhtLi8n-SU5rV_82Dyo2cyIuFLEMh14Zce-IDpnl6IH5psGg1Dq2K_Dlt/s1600/dragons-dogma-1.jpg" height="221" width="400" /></a></div>
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After a bit of a <b><a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-22-capcom-reconfirms-no-plans-for-dragons-dogma-pc-after-twitter-gaffe" target="_blank">Twitter mishap</a></b> Capcom's crack team of spin doctors have come out and emphasized that the company still has no plans for a PC version of Dragon's Dogma. This came about after someone tweeted them and asked if there would be to which they said yes, but immediately backpedaled on once they realized what they'd said.<br />
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Generally I lean towards PC and handheld for my current gen gaming, so I was disappointed by this news. I'm not really inclined to get the 360 version of the game in part because the price has barely budged on the thing since it came out, and also because I find it infinitely more comfy to lounge about with my laptop playing games than actually using a console now. However, this may change if I find it on the cheap, or I give up hope on a PC version, and just capitulate.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFXoWB5gBC4yjb1KKI9i_d4ombrWAbIBWISoYt-s1J5oDU4bC5_WTsDQVRSRb418gZK_HxpzuvONo8wTuCUc411qkSy5q4rNm4KzhRbLdAyDwvDkPEcCGbgtzD81l1Cg2Fu7eDDEajKxdX/s1600/dragons-dogma-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFXoWB5gBC4yjb1KKI9i_d4ombrWAbIBWISoYt-s1J5oDU4bC5_WTsDQVRSRb418gZK_HxpzuvONo8wTuCUc411qkSy5q4rNm4KzhRbLdAyDwvDkPEcCGbgtzD81l1Cg2Fu7eDDEajKxdX/s1600/dragons-dogma-2.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
Personal biases aside, it still seems a strange choice on the part of Capcom to neglect the PC with this particular game. Firstly it's very much in line with the sorts of RPGs that PC gamers tend to gravitate toward. Dragon's Dogma certainly gives off a bit of an Elder Scrolls / Two Worlds / Risen sort of vibe with its exploration-heavy third person RPG-ing. Second, it feels that Capcom's release choices on the PC are a tad arbitrary. Stuff like Devil May Cry, Lost Planet, and Resident Evil gets a PC port just fine. They even released some Bionic Commando stuff for it, yet no Dragon's Dogma.<br />
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An interesting idea I heard recently about PC ports of games is that it seems in some cases a game only gets the port if it under performed on the consoles. An example of this could be Rockstar Games. Everyone was clamoring for Red Dead Redemption to come to PC, but LA Noire was ported instead. What's the difference between the two? The former sold like gangbusters on consoles, the latter not so much. So, it wouldn't be surprising if LA Noire got ported real quick as a means of scraping a few more dollars in on the project. Would Dragon's Dogma need to suffer a similar fate in order to get a PC port?<br />
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The game has done alright for itself since releasing, clocking in at a little over <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_Dogma#Reception" target="_blank">one million sales</a></b> as of late June of this year. So perhaps Capcom is content with that. They've been pretty rigid about the game not only in terms of not porting it, but also refusing to drop the price on it. I usually see it in stores still at $60 and sales only see the thing come down to around $40. Maybe they see no reason to bother investing money in a port, and they are satisfied with how the game has done up until now.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgG3YrF2QTivfA5rLfbsorQ7U33y56f6Flo-Q7_Anc1-nQ5W0HMyn41LFP8vz3D00sTiEFgnCKoYnzoPX3c8vzDU-vTwpPMLDL5ahy39FZwkU4rDBBGJwYpRBRlkhY-yZ8-QRybqHDPaa/s1600/dragons-dogma-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCgG3YrF2QTivfA5rLfbsorQ7U33y56f6Flo-Q7_Anc1-nQ5W0HMyn41LFP8vz3D00sTiEFgnCKoYnzoPX3c8vzDU-vTwpPMLDL5ahy39FZwkU4rDBBGJwYpRBRlkhY-yZ8-QRybqHDPaa/s1600/dragons-dogma-3.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
Nonetheless, there are still a lot of people that have not yet picked up the game, and simply aren't interested in it until a PC port is made. The question here is if this is a vocal minority that would want the game. Moreover, could a port see a similar fate as Dark Souls did where many people railed for a PC version of the game, and when they finally got it people complained. Maybe Capcom saw this and decided against a PC version.<br />
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If there is genuine demand, though, it's hard to come to terms with Capcom not making a PC version of Dragon's Dogma. The game already has a good reputation, and it is a lot more similar to what PC gamers look for in an RPG than a lot of other JRPGs out there. With that, I just can't shake the thought that refusing to port the game is leaving money on the table.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-530549556602428352012-11-22T01:33:00.000-08:002012-11-22T01:33:19.198-08:00Random Thoughts on Random RPG News<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8a0iz8We4Vp8Id05uVNf02gDqWyrpO9OWxRaPRPVLau3_EbCIVXssxRUQvNZom1MxhATgIoAaqXvtlUeb3dAFWboEgalklBaxOMs8_bdp8e0eTtRF7Bwk-t2CMCL9QwLEAhiZZZ16jl4z/s1600/Etrian-Odyssey-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Characters group shot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8a0iz8We4Vp8Id05uVNf02gDqWyrpO9OWxRaPRPVLau3_EbCIVXssxRUQvNZom1MxhATgIoAaqXvtlUeb3dAFWboEgalklBaxOMs8_bdp8e0eTtRF7Bwk-t2CMCL9QwLEAhiZZZ16jl4z/s1600/Etrian-Odyssey-4.jpeg" height="201" title="Etrian Odyssey Artwork" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Etrian Odyssey 4 comes to North America on February 26, 2013. Hurray!</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There have been a few interesting tidbits to pop up regarding RPGs that I'm looking forward to over the course of the day, so I figured I'd make this post as a bit of a catch all where I talk / gush about this stuff. It's all related to handheld RPGs, but we only know that one of them will be seeing a western release, and that's a bit of the news right there.<br />
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So, what am I all excited about? Well, first of all Atlus has finally announced a <b><a href="http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/21/etrian-odyssey-iv-legends-of-the-titan-hits-north-america-in-february/" target="_blank">firm release</a></b> day for Etrian Odyssey 4. Up until now we just knew it was coming to the west at some point in 2013, but we didn't know when. Now we have an answer to that question, or at least people in North America do, and that's February 26th. With that I say hurray because I've been quite excited about the game since it was announced, and it's nice to finally know exactly when it will be available. I've not spent anywhere near as much time as I would have liked with the previous games in the series, but I'm not going to make that same mistake with number four. It will be mine day one.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5EdbC0jM-y5D45sx0C0xy3oGfA94xyb6qCJetzHZQB8BhWPgp5Od9wl593zUkG8RE2tYtZOMdmslobG3tgk0FJHPHEIXshDQuzx3Gr9OmFBk145qhhznNzYyOBgvrQdsGLiRAcBn6HDS/s1600/7th-dragon-2020-ii-idol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A male idol at character select screen" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5EdbC0jM-y5D45sx0C0xy3oGfA94xyb6qCJetzHZQB8BhWPgp5Od9wl593zUkG8RE2tYtZOMdmslobG3tgk0FJHPHEIXshDQuzx3Gr9OmFBk145qhhznNzYyOBgvrQdsGLiRAcBn6HDS/s1600/7th-dragon-2020-ii-idol.jpg" height="114" title="7th Dragon 2020 II Idol" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Idols are coming to 7th Dragon 2020<br />Part II, and charisma is an important<br />stat for them.</b></td></tr>
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The other bit of news that caught my attention is that 7th Dragon 2020 Part II is in the works, again for the PSP. I sincerely doubt that this game will ever see a release outside of Japan given that the first two parts of the series were never localized. Nonetheless, there seems to be some <b><a href="http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/21/the-rpg-where-s-rank-charisma-is-your-most-powerful-parameter/" target="_blank">interesting tidbits</a></b> trickling out about the game like how there is a character class called an idol, and that its primary stat is charisma. Even without further details, I find that kinda neat. I always look at charisma as the stat for opening up extra conversation options, and that's about it. Hopefully it'll do a little more than that here.<br />
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Oh, I should also mention that Phantasy Star Online 2 has a release on the Vita <b><a href="http://gematsu.com/2012/11/phantasy-star-online-2-ps-vita-japanese-release-date-set" target="_blank">confirmed</a></b> for Japan next year. It'll be coming along as a free download as well as a special edition physical version that will run about 5300 yen. I'm happy to hear that this version of the game is still a thing, especially given how lackluster things have been on the software front for the Vita. Hopefully the game being free to play will help to generate some more interest in the handheld, and move some units. Obviously we should be realistic here. PSO2 is still a pretty niche game, and isn't going to single-handedly save the Vita, but it's still a quality title, and it would be nice if it could contribute to a healthy uptick in sales for the system.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd83Aqhd3WwPBESt4g1psX4vskXp_Jr3mTE1HwnW4dyoTSbARGrSjSUItWF9as9gCnlR5TX54HtIDzcJkO2PfFwFjuZ_7SDev9CFqS25IavTJwi8yh_RoCtaHJylmbg6MoolTLiO-6CUSF/s1600/pso2-wired-lance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Hunter using wired lance" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd83Aqhd3WwPBESt4g1psX4vskXp_Jr3mTE1HwnW4dyoTSbARGrSjSUItWF9as9gCnlR5TX54HtIDzcJkO2PfFwFjuZ_7SDev9CFqS25IavTJwi8yh_RoCtaHJylmbg6MoolTLiO-6CUSF/s1600/pso2-wired-lance.jpg" height="199" title="Phantasy Star Online 2" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Phantasy Star Online 2 is confirmed for Vita in Japan next<br />February. PS - Wired lances are pretty awesome.</b></td></tr>
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Anyway, just some random bits of RPG news that popped up over the last day or so that I thought was pretty interesting and / or exciting. It's nice to see this stuff, especially in the run-up to Christmas. I wonder if there will be any more interesting announcements before the end of the year.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-32701511059062193122012-11-21T02:00:00.000-08:002012-11-21T02:00:11.875-08:00Dungeon Siege 3: Final Thoughts<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxbkQ5Zf9srIb6wnVP-1ca3e8hX_rHWM7aSSahevQZAsPKpgd6MG2WHJnYyyFXCctWUCyLAu5DqQ4MjD44zUegahst1bMhGz4h9p088vhcveHbDdKwSr7aG_4Sq51TMyZU4j1OmFsx_4I/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-review-screen-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fighting in a dungeon" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxbkQ5Zf9srIb6wnVP-1ca3e8hX_rHWM7aSSahevQZAsPKpgd6MG2WHJnYyyFXCctWUCyLAu5DqQ4MjD44zUegahst1bMhGz4h9p088vhcveHbDdKwSr7aG_4Sq51TMyZU4j1OmFsx_4I/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-review-screen-1.jpg" height="223" title="Dungeon Siege 3 PC Screenshot 1" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Blasting stuff in the face with a rifle</b></td></tr>
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The other day I finally finished Dungeon Siege 3, so that's one more game out of my backlog. Hurray! Before completely closing the door on it, though, I did want to jot down some final thoughts on the game. Overall, I didn't find it hugely entertaining. A lot of the gameplay is common to the Diablo-alike sub-sub genre of action RPG except with nothing to really set it apart from the pack in a meaningful way. Moreover the game is pretty easy. About the only reason I bothered to play to the end of it is because I found the story mildly interesting, but then again it is a game from Obsidian, and they're usually pretty good at that sort of thing. Looking back on my time with the game, I'd have a really tough time recommending it to anyone, even if you get it for dirt cheap in a bargain bin, a Steam sale, or whatever.<br />
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The game takes place many years after a big uprising. A group that prides itself on protecting the land, the 10th Legion, is accused of killing the king, and the people, lead by his bastard daughter, Jeyne Kassynder, rise up and destroy this group. After this civil war breaks out as Jeyne tries to take over the kingdom while a royalist faction tries to maintain control. Fast forward to the present and this war is still going on, though things aren't looking great for the royalists. Where the player comes in is that there are a few descendants of the 10th Legion as well as survivors of the massacre, and players must pick one of four characters to restore the legion and bring an end to the war. Much of the story is typical fantasy fair with a bit of politics tossed in. It's not top tier storytelling or anything, but it did manage to keep me entertained. In fact, and as I said earlier, it's the one part of the game that kept me playing until the end.<br />
<br />
Of the four characters I chose Katarina, a gun-toting women with an Eastern European accent. I chose her because I wanted a ranged class for kiting, and generally shooting stuff from a distance. The other characters are a mage, a knight-ish paladin kind of guy, and fire spewing archon (kind of a demigod-like creature). Whoever you don't pick will accompany you on your journey anyway, so they're never too far away, but you can't control them. They just do their own thing, and only one can be out and about doing stuff at any given time. I found the guns to be fun to use. Katarina has a rifle for hard hitting long ranged attacks, and a pair of pistols for when enemies get too close, plus a bunch of special abilities. It's a nice mix of weapons.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZ0mEOjKAC0t91v09m_bN15PSxA8pIWe98NGKF00ID2oNYKBLLFnjztq8m8BuSfdS54fJ9Ytw4eqUi1a823nDi3qNb8WCSH2Nw-yiRy-JtdAKUkMcRcdybd01kN0wL2cU-mx38WlGF-gP/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-review-screen-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The final boss" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXZ0mEOjKAC0t91v09m_bN15PSxA8pIWe98NGKF00ID2oNYKBLLFnjztq8m8BuSfdS54fJ9Ytw4eqUi1a823nDi3qNb8WCSH2Nw-yiRy-JtdAKUkMcRcdybd01kN0wL2cU-mx38WlGF-gP/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-review-screen-2.jpg" height="179" title="Dungeon Siege 3 PC Screenshot 2" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Most bosses are pretty average in size, but this guy was<br />impressively huge</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Much of the time I found myself mowing down trash enemies from a distance with my rifle while I had my archon tanking them up close. It wasn't very challenging at all unless I was being hit by a large number of bad guys at once, and this rarely happened. Boss fights could get a little bit more exciting because there was a lot more to dodge, or other things that needed to be done besides wailing on the actual boss. However, difficulty in these cases was still mitigated by liberal amounts of dodging. So, challenge was weak during my playthrough on normal. I guess one would really need to crank up the difficulty if they want to be pushed hard by the game. Luckily there are a decent amount of settings to choose from in that regard.<br />
<br />
In terms of presentation, I liked the visuals. There's a good amount of detail to everything, and the game kept me moving forward so the environments stayed reasonably varied, not repeating themselves or anything. The characters looked nice, and there were some snazzy lighting effects, especially when spells were being blasted around. The one thing that really bugged me about the visuals was the camera because it can be a huge pain in the butt. It defaults to an auto-follow setting that makes the thing swing around in really inconvenient ways, and even if you turn it off the camera feels slow and unwieldy. Sometimes the thing will also decide to zoom in a whole bunch making it impossible to see enemies properly. The camera is very problematic.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImtMiCiUGRdzMWWKJsZXuhThZbOLnMRjUrEN2dhPgannj9iE6mkOAXoBqT-ODAmarNrzls2P936sEzv5-5xVI6uTU9eisbl8LSPd_DbzS-fDabXdyWbrDjW1rjGmK6hlWHyjtQ3DKP11V/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-review-screen-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Conversation at the end of the game" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjImtMiCiUGRdzMWWKJsZXuhThZbOLnMRjUrEN2dhPgannj9iE6mkOAXoBqT-ODAmarNrzls2P936sEzv5-5xVI6uTU9eisbl8LSPd_DbzS-fDabXdyWbrDjW1rjGmK6hlWHyjtQ3DKP11V/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-review-screen-3.jpg" height="111" title="Dungeon Siege 3 PC Screenshot 3" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>What to do with Jeyne now that she<br />is defeated</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I should also note that I was playing the PC version of the game, and it was obvious that the thing was a very quick, ho-hum port of the console game because it didn't feel like the game was optimized for the PC. The thing that bugged me the most was the save system because it's just save slots without the ability to actually name them myself. It would just display a time and the place where I performed a save when I'd go to load one up. The problem here is that there are some choices to be made in the game that will obviously change the course of the story to some degree, like choosing whether or not certain characters live. I would have liked to have been able to set the saves such that they could be easily pulled up if I wanted to explore multiple branching story paths. Instead I have to remember the time and place that I made a save before one of these events happens which is very inconvenient.<br />
<br />
In the end, I just didn't enjoy my time with Dungeon Siege 3 very much. The game is quite easy, and the camera intolerable. I didn't find the combat all that engaging, and then there are the more nuisance-y issues of the game, like its save system. I mostly soldiered through for the story, but I could see even this not being enough to hold some people's attention. Even if you find the game on the cheap at a Steam sale or something, you may be better off skipping it. The thing will still gobble up 20 hours of your time, and there are better action RPGs out there.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-57629447821802173762012-11-20T01:00:00.000-08:002012-11-20T01:00:01.598-08:007th Dragon: Will We Ever See It in the West?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZ57qOM59RWX9nGCCD9_NwrEyIpgaXQXaiwnNvkdA-F4PxMJMz0qG8wCaRFeXtNkmmstwIpie3kxyepnagBeX7BT1EG5HPTFEhWgORgl_BWOASvQar0EV4pv7XgmZ3tVWs3CNtfwlQ6vM/s1600/7th-Dragon-ds-box-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBZ57qOM59RWX9nGCCD9_NwrEyIpgaXQXaiwnNvkdA-F4PxMJMz0qG8wCaRFeXtNkmmstwIpie3kxyepnagBeX7BT1EG5HPTFEhWgORgl_BWOASvQar0EV4pv7XgmZ3tVWs3CNtfwlQ6vM/s1600/7th-Dragon-ds-box-art.jpg" height="180" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>I first saw this game during a trip</b><br />
<b>to Japan </b><b>a few years ago, and have</b><br />
<b>been </b><b>fascinated with it ever since.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sega is one of those companies that leaves a lot of people scratching their heads with some of the business decisions that it makes. I'm not going to start talking about all of them here because that would take a massive blog post unto itself, but I do want to look at some of their recent choices, or I guess lack of choices, in games that they've localized for the West. Really, I just want to rant a bit about how 7th Dragon has never seen a release outside of Japan because it seems like such a waste.<br />
<br />
I know it's a bit of a niche game, but it's not like companies such as Atlus, XSEED, and NIS America haven't found ways to turn a profit on such games. Why can't Sega find a way to do the same? From what I've read, some publishers seem to think that the game was too challenging for a Western market. This seems silly, and like an excuse one would have heard in the early 90s as to why a game wasn't coming out here. There are plenty of people who like tough games here, so I find it difficult to believe that challenge would be an issue. According to Hardcore Gaming 101, there may also have been tensions between Kazuya Niinou and Atlus, which prevented Atlus from localizing the game for the West, which is a shame if it's true.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAC3D1tnUYl0YvsXLIDAcjDDq_iIGQwLGl92i4dZanC4_edeiXPAr6HGIedIqO5r20RUBeO1eGF11-l4h8aGJ2FG6iAg4dCWfsER0K2MNu9Q45sdGdEvapr9wP2PvPpPthe01JkL1TZVlu/s1600/7th-Dragon-2020-psp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAC3D1tnUYl0YvsXLIDAcjDDq_iIGQwLGl92i4dZanC4_edeiXPAr6HGIedIqO5r20RUBeO1eGF11-l4h8aGJ2FG6iAg4dCWfsER0K2MNu9Q45sdGdEvapr9wP2PvPpPthe01JkL1TZVlu/s1600/7th-Dragon-2020-psp.jpg" height="222" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>There was a futuristic sequel on the PSP that we never got either.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm not going to describe the game in detail here, there's a decent Wikipedia page discussing it, and an absolutely <a href="http://hardcoregaming101.net/7thdragon/7thdragon.htm" target="_blank"><b>fantastic article</b></a> describing the RPG at Hardcore Gaming 101, so check those sites out if you want to learn more about the game. I'll just say that it's a really snazzy overhead RPG with a bit of a who's who of JRPG developers involved with it (Kazuya Niinou of Etrian Odyssey fame, Reiko Kodama of Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia, and composer Yuzo Koshiro).<br />
<br />
It's probably too late to hope for the DS game to come our way in anything other than a fan made English patch (probably the same for the PSP game), but with <a href="http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/18/is-segas-new-teaser-website-for-7th-dragon-2020-3rd-encount/" target="_blank"><b>recent news</b></a> that a new install is being shown in an upcoming Famitsu, it's gotten me thinking about the series again, and what a shame it is that it never came to the West. Sad Jejun is sad.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-62214815830928663432012-11-19T01:30:00.000-08:002012-11-19T01:30:03.064-08:00So, the Wii U is Out, How Are Things on the RPG Front?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVrSzPnFF5G8rcczGOHNJDwpTTc8svIviaecOGuyMIJl-Gpg6GfijuiDXHSJ6KLATEmTWFpnqaTRV0eEaG43GVbZzyoX2FDczs4Cj86dmF_gAXw-RFB5Wkw-NaI7DYmn3aM6OHu72TBRP/s1600/monster-hunter-3-ultimate-wiiu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An image of the Wii U version of the game" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVrSzPnFF5G8rcczGOHNJDwpTTc8svIviaecOGuyMIJl-Gpg6GfijuiDXHSJ6KLATEmTWFpnqaTRV0eEaG43GVbZzyoX2FDczs4Cj86dmF_gAXw-RFB5Wkw-NaI7DYmn3aM6OHu72TBRP/s1600/monster-hunter-3-ultimate-wiiu.jpg" height="243" title="Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Screenshot" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>While Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate looks nice, I'd much rather get the 3DS<br />version of it.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The day has finally come and gone, and the Wii U is now out in the wild. Nintendo super fans lined up for midnight releases, eBay profiteers are doing their thing, and the next week or so will be flooded with discussion of the new console. I don't really care about all that stuff though. My only concern is how the system will fair in terms of role-playing games, and already I'm not impressed.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifIPHKP6ZYZB8udeihkH3lPbF79qImjqFR-_tPjVzj29VseelGjjKn4Z6MbLCeXZpJpxu3e5jsdkPurYrtyW5wqCXBomGJNubmLW55dunj5OA2OrmgRjjxAkaQV3Oq0qtb_WSbU8b9LwsL/s1600/mass-effect-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Shephard laying down the law" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifIPHKP6ZYZB8udeihkH3lPbF79qImjqFR-_tPjVzj29VseelGjjKn4Z6MbLCeXZpJpxu3e5jsdkPurYrtyW5wqCXBomGJNubmLW55dunj5OA2OrmgRjjxAkaQV3Oq0qtb_WSbU8b9LwsL/s1600/mass-effect-3.jpg" height="112" title="Mass Effect 3 Screenshot" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mass Effect 3 is all over the place</b><br />
<b>already.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
About all we know of at the moment in terms of RPGs is that it will have Dragon Quest X, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, and Mass Effect 3. Really, none of these games interest me in a way that I feel it's worth plunking down the cash on a Wii U. Monster Hunter I've been planning to get on the 3DS from the start, as it's something I really want to play on the go, Mass Effect 3 can be played on my PC with far more powerful components, and with regard to Dragon Quest X I just don't have any interest in subscription-based MMOs anymore, so I don't see myself investing time in the game. After that it's really up in the air what we may see in terms of RPGs on the system.<br />
<br />
Granted, role-playing games take a lot longer to show up on new consoles than other genres. Their development process is usually longer and more involved than, say, a shooter or a platformer, so it's usually only a year or two after a new system is released that we see RPGs start to appear on it in a major way.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpNlJffoSYCABlnEbCmpzUvzvM7cfbcQhhE7Vj8TrXa-auX0Dr0r6saWU-gEuoCgz4iKsqIXxCz0pK5LUn1GMDqscKxMnbeUe_Es2fC3KdImoqeODd4QUNLvAlbzXAlo-Gp6bKLcaHw09y/s1600/dragon-quest-x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fighting some monsters" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpNlJffoSYCABlnEbCmpzUvzvM7cfbcQhhE7Vj8TrXa-auX0Dr0r6saWU-gEuoCgz4iKsqIXxCz0pK5LUn1GMDqscKxMnbeUe_Es2fC3KdImoqeODd4QUNLvAlbzXAlo-Gp6bKLcaHw09y/s1600/dragon-quest-x.jpg" height="180" title="Dragon Quest X Screenshot" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Dragon Quest X will head to the Wii U eventually, but</b><br />
<b>I'm not sure I want to go with something subscription-based.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I think my fear is that the Wii U could go the same way as its predecessor, and only have a sparse library of RPGs compared to other platforms. Granted what games the Wii did get were at times quite good, like Xenoblade, but after that the selection thins really fast. There's probably about 30 RPGs that came out for the system, and a lot of them were alright, but hardly something we'll be talking about ten years from now. This has been a pattern with Nintendo consoles since the N64. That system had a terrible library of RPGs. Then the Gamecube came along, and it was more like the Wii with a small, but decent collection of them. I'm not expecting a monolithic selection of role-playing games akin to what the PS2 or the DS saw, but it would be nice to see the choices for good RPGs on the Wii U be a little more robust than previous Nintendo consoles.<br />
<br />
There's really no reason to be too negative about the system just yet. It only came out a day ago, and it'll take time for the library to grow, but since RPGs are the games I care about most, it's a major determining factor on whether I'll get a Wii U or not. For now I can wait. Hopefully in a couple of years we'll see some interesting role-playing games come to it.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-61185301874657524402012-11-18T01:30:00.000-08:002012-11-18T01:30:01.577-08:00The Weekend Anime PostIt's been a bit of quiet week for anime viewing in my neck of the woods largely because I haven't done any marathon sessions through an entire series in a few days time. Still, there was a decent amount watched what with staying up to date on "Say I Love You" and "My Little Monster", also my wife is getting into Gosick, so we've watched about twelve episodes of that. On top of that, I've started watching Blast of Tempest. Okay, maybe it's not been all that quiet a week of anime, but it felt a little less hectic anyway.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Say I Love You</u></b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MTvek5D92N1p5m5D8nUAmufgQj12rleJe5KOHhcQW6_J3nk1oX8uswPtDreLKEGT2_FSuZYuXXNzIyWY7Xj3a1V4Rr5w1hsb6j9db7a0MKxlkSXLlknW0Iu0ufInPgYxj-QsXxy95o1o/s1600/say-i-love-you-anime-mega-tan.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Mega-tan is Mei's rival in the show" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MTvek5D92N1p5m5D8nUAmufgQj12rleJe5KOHhcQW6_J3nk1oX8uswPtDreLKEGT2_FSuZYuXXNzIyWY7Xj3a1V4Rr5w1hsb6j9db7a0MKxlkSXLlknW0Iu0ufInPgYxj-QsXxy95o1o/s1600/say-i-love-you-anime-mega-tan.png" height="99" title="Say I Love You Anime Image" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>I really don't like Mega-tan.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, the show has introduced a villain of sort, a girl named Megumi, referred to as Mega-tan, who is some super popular teenaged celebrity model that has started going to Mei's high school. She's a self-centered, manipulative twit who has her eyes on Yamato. At first he tells her to go away because he doesn't like her attitude, and he wants to hang out with Mei. However, Mega-tan manages to convince him to help with a photo shoot since her agency was having trouble wrangling up a male model for it, and he's a handsome chap that would be good to fill the spot.<br />
<br />
I find myself really hating Mega-tan, but I guess that makes her a good villain. She's totally taking advantage of Yamato's kindness to get closer to him, and muscle out Mei. Moreover, Yamato is completely oblivious to the fact his actions will hurt Mei. He's a nice guy, but pretty dense sometimes. If he screws this up, he totally deserves to lose Mei. I haven't any sympathy for him given the way he's behaving right now. Gah, so angry!<br />
<br />
<b><u>My Little Monster</u></b><br />
<br />
This week's episode was good for a few chuckles. Haru is finally learning that his odd behavior can be a bit off-putting to girls, as he tries to find a new way to win over Shizuku. For me it was mostly random gags that made the episode work, like showing how Haru has been bugging Shizuku, some of his conversation with Oshima, Haru trying to help his class get a good spot for the school festival, and Haru daydreaming about Shizuku at the end of the show after she said she was going home. (As you can see, it was a very Haru-centric episode!) Shizuku sorting out her feels is also interesting, and I wonder if she gets her driven personality from her mom, who has not yet appeared in the show since she's always working. Maybe we'll find out in time.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAsf8yNWZ-vhvEGiyfVKcXEVRdmah2q6ylIS6OL1VALLP-klu0jzmpf10GHmAqKn_sSesbC9goytSY9RAzjkN22NH86lYCeuvJz9McyMazEq7FH9vau5pTzEXtzmqLqrpg9b1BFOhDZwhK/s1600/my-little-monster-anime-cute-shizuku.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Shizuka according to Haru" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAsf8yNWZ-vhvEGiyfVKcXEVRdmah2q6ylIS6OL1VALLP-klu0jzmpf10GHmAqKn_sSesbC9goytSY9RAzjkN22NH86lYCeuvJz9McyMazEq7FH9vau5pTzEXtzmqLqrpg9b1BFOhDZwhK/s1600/my-little-monster-anime-cute-shizuku.png" height="197" title="My Little Monster Anime Image" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Haru's view of Shizuku does not necessarily coincide with reality.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Also, it looks like Kenji is getting interested in Shizuku, so Haru may have a rival for her affection in the not too distant future. In the end, though, this week's episode was largely lighthearted fun, but then again that's much more this series' strong point, and it makes a nice counterpoint to the heavier overtones in Say I Love You.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Gosick</u></b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfi-_LaUFWlvkTu9aCVSq5vMxhF3tj0kVZrKVahIUo3TDO5m4iViFHMKUb_KXADnLlc8h-vHiWuZzXM01ycv2sQpclpAQJT6DtdH9lZhGKL7xR3iaoxDV-D0GfmaIC3B1Mg_DyEUzkfcZg/s1600/gosick-anime-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Victorique receiving a sweet present" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfi-_LaUFWlvkTu9aCVSq5vMxhF3tj0kVZrKVahIUo3TDO5m4iViFHMKUb_KXADnLlc8h-vHiWuZzXM01ycv2sQpclpAQJT6DtdH9lZhGKL7xR3iaoxDV-D0GfmaIC3B1Mg_DyEUzkfcZg/s1600/gosick-anime-1.jpg" height="174" title="Gosick Anime Image" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>If you want to make Victorique happy, bring her sweets.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've watched the first twelve or so episodes in the series so far, which I actually saw when the series first aired. The missus hasn't seen the show before, so she's getting up to speed with it. It's good fun, though. We're both big fans of mysteries like Poirot and Miss Marple, so this series has a bit of a similar feel to it with all of the mysteries that need solving.<br />
<br />
Each case is condensed into two or three episodes, with interesting twists along the way. All the while we see the show's main characters, Kazuya and Victorique, slowly falling for each other. It's kind of bitter sweet though because Gosick takes place in the 1920s, and we know there's still a second world war to be fought that will tear the two apart since Kazuya is Japanese and Victorique is European. Even the show hints at this. So for now I watch them solve mysteries and enjoy their time together while they can because we all know it won't last, even if they always care about each other until the end.<br />
<br />
<b><u>Blast of Tempest</u></b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFLsg2RWmF4e3ChkVyzLm1V__mAcpA8pvHpSqxM8ocqfXqNl3EIdC132uwmC5wXsMLbcL-8JhVzdvnVkCgqzKYG8_MH4r5jgj6lJa1Rg72ILymm6t9f63Hmp7wEibTFgXvMHB2LgMmWPe/s1600/blast-of-tempest-anime-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Promotional image for the show" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFLsg2RWmF4e3ChkVyzLm1V__mAcpA8pvHpSqxM8ocqfXqNl3EIdC132uwmC5wXsMLbcL-8JhVzdvnVkCgqzKYG8_MH4r5jgj6lJa1Rg72ILymm6t9f63Hmp7wEibTFgXvMHB2LgMmWPe/s1600/blast-of-tempest-anime-1.jpg" height="320" title="Blast of Tempest Image" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>I like the way Blast of Tempest goes<br />about using magic.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So far I'm only three episodes into this series, but it seems pretty fun. I like the quality of the animation, and there's been a ton of action so far. The series is about a clan of mages in modern times that are trying to raise some weird being that will destroy the world. There are a pair of high school boys trying to stop them with the help of a princess mage stranded on a desert island. So far it's mostly been fast paced action with a bit of time spent explaining back stories, and who everyone is.<br />
<br />
The way the show goes about using magic is kind of neat. There aren't any fireballs or lightning bolts flying around everywhere. Instead magic is used for healing, protection, and defense, but can be construed for offensive purposes. So, mages will do stuff like build force fields around themselves and their weapons, and use magic to move faster. This causes them to become extremely deadly as their strikes now have tremendous impact.<br />
<br />
Where I'm at now, the show's protagonists have just escaped their first encounter with a real mage, and are off to their next destination. I'm enjoying the action so far, but wouldn't mind a little more explanation about the enemies besides them being a bunch of crazed fanatics.<br />
<br />
Anyway, that's all I have to discuss for the anime I've watched in the past week. What have you been watching?Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-9287888553792453992012-11-17T01:00:00.000-08:002012-11-17T01:00:02.848-08:00Happy 25th Anniversary Faxanadu!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtiwzs64delY0JQN1u38bRYuj5gj8rAHESmaf8CGTygjegdxSiTEdIJ7QScUzIk35_XvsrsqMToIDVfyPDeMBxuFDAQZRDNqdxoz3x7IqgsNj1azU9tH4VAXVqns2LeXE1DCL-cM__8IV/s1600/faxanadu-box-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Box Art for the North American version of Faxanadu" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLtiwzs64delY0JQN1u38bRYuj5gj8rAHESmaf8CGTygjegdxSiTEdIJ7QScUzIk35_XvsrsqMToIDVfyPDeMBxuFDAQZRDNqdxoz3x7IqgsNj1azU9tH4VAXVqns2LeXE1DCL-cM__8IV/s1600/faxanadu-box-art.jpg" height="320" title="Faxanadu NES Box Art" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>It's very simple, but this was all the<br />box art I needed to get interested in<br />Faxanadu as a kid.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Today marks 25 years since Faxanadu first came out on the Famicom. If you're not familiar with the game, it was a side-scrolling action RPG, and one of many installments in the popular Xanadu series from Falcom (though Hudson Soft had a hand in this particular game's development from what I understand). In fact, the name Faxanadu is derived from the word "Xanadu" combined with "Famicom" since this was the first time the series appeared on Nintendo's console, so yank of the "Fa" from Famicom, slap it on the front of Xanadu, and you've got Faxanadu. I'm not going to go into much more detail about the game, that's what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faxanadu" target="_blank"><b>Wikipedia</b></a> is for. Instead, I'd prefer to wax nostalgic about it.<br />
<br />
The game is actually pretty special to me because it's the first I ever got for the NES as a kid. I remember seeing it at a local Costco and being mesmerized by it. While my parents were shopping, I'd just stare at the thing wondering what it would be like to play it. I guess my folks took notice because it was the game that got with the system when my sister and I received it for Christmas one year. After that I proceeded to play that game religiously, maxing out my level, acquiring all of the armor and weapons I needed to face the final boss, and finally beating the game.<br />
<br />
Looking back at Faxanadu now, it's easy to see that there were a lot of archaic features in it that have long since gone the way of the dodo in RPGs. For instance, the game didn't have a save feature. Instead, you'd visit a cleric at a temple who would give you a password. When you wanted to continue the game, you'd need to enter the password in order to pick up where you left off. This was quite common in the late 80s. Even the original version of Dragon Quest had passwords when it debuted on the Famicom with a proper save feature not coming into the picture until its western release on the NES. So, I needed a pad of paper and a pen on hand while playing the game in order to maintain my progress. Like I said, it was the norm back then, but boy am I glad that isn't a thing anymore.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FkMgPw22wAugGZV4SMHmQjMhxvUnaT3dhg6LGf5ML2MlohnUVpvpFZKNMk7AgHQYXIi7hEUTzSgotxXQsfYnC7PU561sDMG_-0x7ELT7xv6gm6osxV1gwWtn0xqLda06ZrPxcQYXJ4Wz/s1600/faxanadu-screenshot-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Hero in best armor with excalibur" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8FkMgPw22wAugGZV4SMHmQjMhxvUnaT3dhg6LGf5ML2MlohnUVpvpFZKNMk7AgHQYXIi7hEUTzSgotxXQsfYnC7PU561sDMG_-0x7ELT7xv6gm6osxV1gwWtn0xqLda06ZrPxcQYXJ4Wz/s1600/faxanadu-screenshot-1.png" height="375" title="Faxanadu NES Screenshot 1" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Towards the end of the game your character looked pretty awesome in his<br />fancy armor.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Also, it's a fairly grindy game. Pretty much every time you reach a new village there will be a shop or two with various new weapons, items, and spells for sale that are obvious improvements over what you're currently wearing. So, it's a no-brainer to earn the gold needed in order to buy these things. What this results in is marching your hero just outside of town, and beating down the same monsters over and over again until you've earned enough to get all these delightful doodads. As a kid I was okay with this, as I had all the time in the world and, again, this was just the norm when it came to RPGs of the era, the emphasis on grinding, but nowadays this is probably the single biggest facet of the game that makes it difficult to come back to Faxanadu.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyYr-JXz69XXU6IYOXGrCebrBiKQ7_t7s6jhWrAP7H1Znt8WDiI0R9JMYlQ98sZ2iR3Ajg2gxhLHTSRKYP2WmIKr9bhwIgthpiiIyxtLqEAoi0Z7afeAhI94Alk4U6ukRi1ZTEyym1-rI/s1600/Faxanadu-illustration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An illustration from the instruction manual for Faxanadu on the NES." border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyyYr-JXz69XXU6IYOXGrCebrBiKQ7_t7s6jhWrAP7H1Znt8WDiI0R9JMYlQ98sZ2iR3Ajg2gxhLHTSRKYP2WmIKr9bhwIgthpiiIyxtLqEAoi0Z7afeAhI94Alk4U6ukRi1ZTEyym1-rI/s1600/Faxanadu-illustration.jpg" height="200" title="Faxanadu Manual Art" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>There was some cool art in the<br />game manual too.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Regardless of these old fashioned features, it was still a fun game for its time. I was impressed by the graphics as a kid, and there are some really memorable tunes in it. About the only area in the game I never liked was the mists about a third of the way up the tree. The area sort of dragged on, I was never fond of the gray-ish brown colors everywhere, and the song got on my nerves. After that, the areas were great. Lots of green, interesting dungeons, and some amazing bosses. Oddly, I have fonder memories of the second to last boss than I do of the last boss. This is because the second one guarded the sword I needed for my final armor set. I'd gotten the armor, and was looking pretty badass, but I still had this three pronged sword that looked more like an accessory for a barbecue than a tool for dispensing of monsters. Killing that boss would get me Excalibur, a nice big broadsword. It was actually really tough for me to beat the stupid boss too as a kid. I remember banging my head against him for a couple of days before finally downing him, and I was ecstatic about it. After that, killing the final boss and finishing the game almost felt anti-climatic.<br />
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Still, it was a lot of fun playing Faxanadu all those years ago, and since it was my earliest experience on the NES, it will always be a special game to me. So happy birthday to you, you fabulous game. It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years already!<br />
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Have you played Faxanadu? If so, share your thoughts in the comments section below. I'd love to hear what you think of the game! ^_^Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-66659366127081198402012-11-16T01:30:00.000-08:002012-11-16T01:30:02.096-08:00Guild Wars 2: Here Comes the Gear Grind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguEHzebTsqyhmRkbLxdwZVQTIL_bKMZjaZn4eHNnk7u_rCEeE947_1LD9iC5W9wExF_XZKGWYRQ27vKQiY-BCfzHZfHS1pHCT1Z29X1iIs1GZGy7JTKrp948NKp04BdXEvzbVqKV1fU0jf/s1600/guild-wars-2-ascended-gear.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Slightly better stats on gear" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguEHzebTsqyhmRkbLxdwZVQTIL_bKMZjaZn4eHNnk7u_rCEeE947_1LD9iC5W9wExF_XZKGWYRQ27vKQiY-BCfzHZfHS1pHCT1Z29X1iIs1GZGy7JTKrp948NKp04BdXEvzbVqKV1fU0jf/s1600/guild-wars-2-ascended-gear.png" height="220" title="Guild Wars 2 Ascended Gear" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of the things that I've really grown tired of as far as MMORPG gameplay conventions go is the gear grind. Your character hits max level, and it's time to smack around particularly powerful monsters again and again until you finally shake out that extra fancy piece of equipment that you've wanted for your character. Mission accomplished, Wizzy the Wizard is now +11 more intellect than she was this morning. All it took was killing the same boss 47 times before that Staff of the Undead Muffin Master finally dropped. By the way, is now a bad time to tell you that a new batch of dungeons is going live in three weeks with all new weapons and armor, rendering all of your current gear obsolete? Yeah, sorry about that!<br />
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The whole process quickly becomes an exercise in tedium, as players run the same dungeons over and over again to get all of the gear that they want. Much of the time it's not even that it's a challenge. After ten or so trips through these places, most of the people know the fights, and are just in it for the loot. Up until now Guild Wars 2 has been able to avoid this, and Arena.Net talked up how the game was not going to be grindy, but now it looks like this is going to change with the <a href="https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/" target="_blank">addition of ascended gear</a>.<br />
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It's been a way of getting players to keep playing a game by keeping a carrot with slightly better stats dangling in front of them, but the whole gear treadmill is getting tired. Sure, games need a way to keep certain subsets of their player base happy, usually those who plowed to level cap and are thinking, "What now?" but I'd hoped that maybe Arena.Net would at least try and do something different instead of the same old same old.<br />
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I'm not entirely sure what would be a good alternative to a gear grind, but it's not something I'm looking forward to in Guild Wars 2. In fact, I don't even see myself participating in it. I'll be taking my characters to level cap at my own pace, explore the world to my heart's content, maybe craft some stuff, and that will be that. I find myself gravitating back towards single-player RPGs of late if only because they have one feature that trumps anything an MMO can throw at you: a pause button. Seeing one of the few MMORPGs I've enjoyed of late tapping into one of my least liked facets of that genre is actually turning me away from the game, and it's a shame.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-18408498214561226002012-11-15T01:30:00.000-08:002012-11-15T01:30:02.532-08:00Record of Lodoss War: Some Nostalgic Fawning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8in268sDcUptyEIdN83cN6XvVoywUNZ5AXinl0uYkTZl6zb0UytX36O_7klOkW2H9sqgYBhiVkTH_uAdNefhc1MRJSBHGhFCsU0H_NPvPJZcTcFIxuqsXGVtURG_RLHEA3byv8rcRYehe/s1600/record-lodoss-war-box-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Box Art" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8in268sDcUptyEIdN83cN6XvVoywUNZ5AXinl0uYkTZl6zb0UytX36O_7klOkW2H9sqgYBhiVkTH_uAdNefhc1MRJSBHGhFCsU0H_NPvPJZcTcFIxuqsXGVtURG_RLHEA3byv8rcRYehe/s1600/record-lodoss-war-box-art.jpg" height="320" title="Record of Lodoss War Dreamcast Game" width="320" /></a></div>
After seeing the news over at <a href="http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/14/the-good-news-is-theres-a-new-record-of-lodoss-war-game/" target="_blank">Siliconera</a> about there being a new, browser-based card game in the world of Record of Lodoss War, it got me thinking about the old Dreamcast action RPG also set in that world. It was a Diablo clone, but it was very well put together, and a ton of fun. Also, did I mention it was set in Record of Lodoss War?<br />
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This was one of my favorite anime when I was younger. It was like watching an RPG in anime form! So, having a chance to actually interact in it in some way was a great opportunity. The game took place several years after the anime, but there were still a lot of familiar characters and people in it. The game managed to walk a line between the new and the familiar, which I quite liked, as opposed to outright regurgitating the anime plot.<br />
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The world was actually surprisingly big, and felt like it just went on and on, as my character got sent on a seemingly endless string of missions. The blacksmithing system was also pretty neat in how it worked to improve stats.<br />
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Looking back at the game now, it hasn't exactly aged well in terms of presentation. The graphics are pretty simplistic, with some very stiff animations. Just watching your character run around, he's stiff as a board, and the enemies movements aren't much better. Even the sound is not great with simple monster-like sounds coming from everything, ho-hum music, and times when things are just a little too quiet.<br />
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Nonetheless, the action is still top notch. I think what helps hold my attention is the constant streams of enemies. As you explore new areas, there are quite a lot of baddies that need to be dealt with, so you get that steady stream of stimulus and gratification as you mow down one large group of enemies after another.<br />
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If you like anime and Diablo-alike action RPGs, Record of Lodoss War is certainly a game worth spending some time with. You'll pretty much have to go the eBay route in order to find a copy, but from what I've seen prices aren't terrible there (usually between $20-$40). It's still quite a fun game, and a bit of a hidden gem in the Dreamcast library.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-12200682375608225262012-11-14T01:30:00.000-08:002012-11-14T01:30:01.356-08:00Final Fantasy XIV: So How About That New Trailer?<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/39j5v8jlndM" width="500"></iframe></div>
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I completely missed the boat on Final Fantasy XIV when it came out. I was busy playing World of Warcraft at the time, and the hype train was going full speed with the upcoming release of the Cataclysm expansion, so I wasn't really paying attention to the run up on Square-Enix's MMORPG. Moreover, when it finally did come out, there were a lot of complaints swirling around it, which convinced me not to bother with it.<br />
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Now after a year or so of heavy retooling the game is about to get rebooted with Final Fantasy XIV: A World Reborn. There was a big in-game event to commemorate it, and also a really snazzy trailer. I've not seen any of the festivities that took place on the various servers, but I did have a chance to check out the trailer, and it looked pretty good.<br />
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I particularly liked the visuals, but that's always been a strong point of Square's. More importantly, the video was able to quickly give me the gist of what's going on in the game right now just through music and video. There wasn't even any annoying narration, which was nice. About the only things I didn't like about video was Bahamut going around torching everything (I know this is meant as a bit of badassery, but I was getting quite the Deathwing vibe from it what with being a giant dragon burning stuff), and the music was also kind of cheesy. I'm told that the music is related to a bunch of recent events in the game, so I guess it will have a greater impact on those familiar with it, but as an outsider looking it, I didn't much care for it.<br />
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Nonetheless, it looked pretty impressive. I'm still not sure if I'll ever give it a try, though. I'm just not a fan of subscription-based MMOs anymore. Not to mention that I'm pretty happy just playing Guild Wars 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2. How about you? Have you had a chance to check out the trailer? What did you think of it?Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-75671557482188678072012-11-13T00:30:00.000-08:002012-11-13T10:06:14.726-08:00Dungeon Siege III: A Reminder of What Bad Cameras Are Like<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhs-cQBHyIy8vHlUVkGwrHgpumESL20jhh-1oKAPv2NkVpax6jXBcZej7IxbbmzhgIA4OsD_4BjCLIngqmBUdK7O1xhFgzlVhNLrI-2vd1MFf6OlLn3R47FEhaGa2BZdi8E3l1ukNo4vNP/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Bad cameras" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhs-cQBHyIy8vHlUVkGwrHgpumESL20jhh-1oKAPv2NkVpax6jXBcZej7IxbbmzhgIA4OsD_4BjCLIngqmBUdK7O1xhFgzlVhNLrI-2vd1MFf6OlLn3R47FEhaGa2BZdi8E3l1ukNo4vNP/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-3.jpg" title="Dungeon Siege 3 Screenshot 1" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The camera is pretty useless at this angle</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_w6Wc4R2dZD_lRHw2UxG9GdVZISDn1HZw0o5XsQAexOPWt2dY1rOsGzOAxG5QqCB4ddD1haa5vbzgA_sqmXeFhV8Y71M1ZExMtj6NGKEY2rG11EO2Ti9bweiIdr7_j4KEZYQwbRnOnDT8/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>
Okay, a quick rant for today. Well, maybe not a rant, but a little bit of grumbling on my part. I've been muscling my way through Dungeon Siege III over the last few days so I can hopefully finish it, and add one more game to the list of ones I've actually managed to finish. It's an okay game. The story is keeping my attention, and the visuals are kind of nice. However, the camera is driving me nuts.<br />
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The thing isn't fixed so it moves as my character runs around and if for whatever reason, my pointer finds its way to the edge of the screen, it sends the camera spinning. I've been constantly wrestling with it, shoving the camera back into a position that is at least somewhat useful for me, but much of the time it becomes a constant battle because it likes to shift around again every time I move somewhere else. This is especially "fun" during battles or other heat of the moment situations where the mouse is being flung around the screen with wreckless abandon. Often it leads to even more frenzied twirling of the camera.<br />
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Only recently have I learned that I can disable this. However, then I have to manually move the camera around with the A and D keys. There's still no option for the trusty hold right mouse button and flick style of camera control that has worked so well in countless games before. Frankly, I wish auto camera wasn't an option in the first place. The other problem is that sometimes the camera will zoom in a ton so that it's right on my character making it so that I can't even see where the monsters are around my guy. It's far from helpful.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFUKymUN9NvTRetUM0T70nSClQnFnqir2OGRWDs5t2TWYKRLGNZCTdw0d72FFzuTRS7O-u2o1STVhoBxMcCNwHik2JoIqLWq_dwvIE5xTh0yMIF73rxNNRUfHEmnpYz5ldbmDw0XmMIj8/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Quick travel through another dimension" border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAFUKymUN9NvTRetUM0T70nSClQnFnqir2OGRWDs5t2TWYKRLGNZCTdw0d72FFzuTRS7O-u2o1STVhoBxMcCNwHik2JoIqLWq_dwvIE5xTh0yMIF73rxNNRUfHEmnpYz5ldbmDw0XmMIj8/s1600/dungeon-siege-3-2.jpg" title="Dungeon Siege III Screenshot 2" width="200" /></a></div>
I think I would have been happier with a fixed isometric view for the game. It's a bit more old school, but at least there wouldn't be that constant battle with the cameras. I'm over half way through the game, though, so I'll try to soldier through it. Like I said earlier, the story has been keeping me entertained, so I'd like to see how it ends. The combat itself is pretty fun. I'm playing as Katarina who uses a rifle and pistols, and she's a nice ranged class character. Still, it's hard to overlook the cameras. They're not the worst I've seen in a game, as there are plenty of PS2 titles in my library that are far more worthy candidates for "Worst Camera Evar!", but it's still tough to overlook the issue.<br />
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How about you? Are there any games out there that really stand out for you because they have bad cameras?Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-65192941897627643592012-11-12T01:30:00.000-08:002012-11-12T01:30:00.718-08:00So Many Games That I Still Want to Play<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlqYLWDdKhJAqTztQBiMwP6SpU4xBwHXuRyjdyK8Ai9lMgtkmgBIp_7w59WcdgxigmO9yGssKoe9GLseakTS50N9UeBYwHJ8YanNo_2AAVjeYGzkVQOf3MDXw6Zr49NERDeoj8zUpKkCQ/s1600/dungeon-siege-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fighting a big, scary monster" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQlqYLWDdKhJAqTztQBiMwP6SpU4xBwHXuRyjdyK8Ai9lMgtkmgBIp_7w59WcdgxigmO9yGssKoe9GLseakTS50N9UeBYwHJ8YanNo_2AAVjeYGzkVQOf3MDXw6Zr49NERDeoj8zUpKkCQ/s1600/dungeon-siege-3.jpg" title="Dungeon Siege III screenshot" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>I think the next game I'll try and finish is Dungeon Siege III. I'm already<br />seven hours in, and the game isn't that long, so I might as well. It's pretty fun too.</b></td></tr>
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For the longest time now I've seen my backlog of RPGs build and build. It's feeling like quite the daunting task to actually get around to finishing them, but I've finally decided to buckle down and put at least a dent in that backlog. A big reason it even exists is from all the years I pretty much just played nothing but World of Warcraft, and ignored everything else. When I finally pried myself away from that game I realized, "Hey! There are a bunch of really fun RPGs out there that I haven't played yet!" and from there I started loading up on them. I guess the nice thing about that was that these games were getting older by then, so they were really cheap. Mountains of games were picked up at Steam sales for $5-$10, then I got to thinking that I should collect all of the DS RPGs, and most of the worthwhile current gen JRPGs. That's when my backlog ballooned. Now I've probably got a good 40-50 RPGs I need to get through, and these things are pretty meaty, so I suspect it's going to take a while to complete them.<br />
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This has actually gotten me thinking about my consumption of games. For the longest time, I would watch release schedules and just get games as they came out. I think that this is a pretty normal thing for quite a lot of people, but now I'm more inclined to wait. It's not just because I have a mountain of games before me that really should get around to completing, but also because I'm just so much more aware of how quickly game prices drop if I wait. This is especially true on the PC where Steam has lead the charge in aggressive price points, but even on consoles it's much more worthwhile to wait. Why should I fork out $60 for a game at launch when I can wait six months, and more that likely get it for half that? Heck, some games can be had even cheaper if one is patient. I got both Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey for about $10 each, and that was a great deal.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRKytv2gdpjWYwGJl3amoQbBGpZJd6BQksiEKSiZV95K7JIB31Xovcv8_a7EyE5v0itcHN4ncNBSC98KFpzd5ArpC3VPD52OoLtADgARF9hyphenhypheno3WjPAFJqV147lw0hXLLV9KlwtM4Xgaea/s1600/phantasy-star-zero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Most of the characters from Phantasy Star Zero" border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtRKytv2gdpjWYwGJl3amoQbBGpZJd6BQksiEKSiZV95K7JIB31Xovcv8_a7EyE5v0itcHN4ncNBSC98KFpzd5ArpC3VPD52OoLtADgARF9hyphenhypheno3WjPAFJqV147lw0hXLLV9KlwtM4Xgaea/s1600/phantasy-star-zero.jpg" title="Phantasy Star Zero Box Art" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Phantasy Star Zero is another one<br />on the to-do list. I'm a sucker for<br />space cowboys.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Granted with some games, if I wait too long, they'll disappear, and be really tough to find later on. Thankfully these are easy to spot because it's mostly games from Atlus, XSEED, NIS America, and I guess Aksys that tend to have more limited print runs. So, if they're putting out a game that I'm interested in, and it's physical release only, then I know to give it a lot more thought about buying the thing quickly lest I have to pay a premium for it down the road because of scarcity.<br />
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Collecting and payment strategies aside, I've also realized that simply looking at all of the RPGs that have come out over the years up to this point that there are a massive, massive number of amazing games out there that I haven't played. I could pretty much stop buying new games now, focus on older ones, and be very well served for at least a decade, perhaps longer as I try and play through all of these games. There are still plenty of 8 and 16-bit games I haven't played, several on the PS1, the PS2 has an absolutely massive number of RPGs I still have yet to play, and just browsing through the stuff available at GoG.com, there are countless DOS RPGs that I know I would like to spend time with as well.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfjsGPQ_kuU5NVWZEA_TKdaMWxBCTifJz1_ilMJ8zJ9bpJSk1QElh82FeIiW-_9fpFqszdRoKgPLLWZfzNzWlueNhOIOHK8CFwQqDnvHW-cw4YZxxd39E5UAWS6cn1mJIcJ_DDgBKZCqv/s1600/rush-sykes-last-remnant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Rush Sykes can be really annoying." border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfjsGPQ_kuU5NVWZEA_TKdaMWxBCTifJz1_ilMJ8zJ9bpJSk1QElh82FeIiW-_9fpFqszdRoKgPLLWZfzNzWlueNhOIOHK8CFwQqDnvHW-cw4YZxxd39E5UAWS6cn1mJIcJ_DDgBKZCqv/s1600/rush-sykes-last-remnant.jpg" title="Rush Sykes art from Last Remnant" width="120" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Last Remnant is<br />another game in my<br />backlog. If only Rush<br />wasn't so annoying.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm not really swayed much by graphics, so I'm okay with visiting older games as well as newer ones, so I could see myself making an effort to play a lot more of these older RPGs going forward. I think the industry, thanks in no small part to marketing, has conditioned gamers to always move forward and consume the next big thing, ignoring older stuff, and leaving it in the past. I guess that sort of behavior is good for business, as it keeps people putting down money on recent projects, but I want to take time to enjoy my favorite genre in all of its eras to this point.<br />
<br />
There are just so many RPGs out there, and only a limited amount of time that I can put towards them. Now I want to take the time to check out all of the games that I missed during my time with WoW. It looks like I'm going to have a busy five or so years ahead of me getting through them all, but I'm up for the challenge. Thankfully we're heading into a relatively quiet period of RPG releases, so I do have some time to actually play these games without being interrupted by other releases. How about you all? Do you have a backlog of games that you want to get through, or do you actually complete each game before getting a new one?Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-78480097606072290202012-11-10T00:34:00.000-08:002012-11-10T00:48:12.364-08:00The Weekend Anime Post<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprXUdz5gcPIYGtxvuTTAcDVAeRTfWK11qrmVV0dfp5ZJKPMv0GSfIDjFTsFHFoC9bSme3YoEc3OB7z9-iN2BkpOAdycjJf6V9ROBUU-IWSQymwpieMK5cD1zlcmWzoNF-XvZEj2boX6zc/s1600/say-i-love-you-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Mei and Yamato" border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgprXUdz5gcPIYGtxvuTTAcDVAeRTfWK11qrmVV0dfp5ZJKPMv0GSfIDjFTsFHFoC9bSme3YoEc3OB7z9-iN2BkpOAdycjJf6V9ROBUU-IWSQymwpieMK5cD1zlcmWzoNF-XvZEj2boX6zc/s1600/say-i-love-you-1.jpg" title="Say I Love You Anime Image" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Mei is slowly learning about friendship with the help of<br />Yamato</b></td></tr>
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For the weekend I feel like changing it up, so instead of yacking about RPGs I'm going to yack about anime. What I've been watching recently to be exact. So I'll get right down to it.<br />
<br />
First up I've got a couple of romances that I've been watching with the missus: Say I Love You and My Little Monster. They're both pretty good, and focus on people who are more socially reclusive. In the case of Say I Love You it's one character in particular that doesn't get on too well with others, a girl named Mei. However, when one of the handsomest boys in her high school takes a liking to her she slowly learns to come out her shell and trust people. Up to this point she's always strongly believed that other people can't be trusted because they'll always betray her in the end. Thanks to this lad (his name's Yamato by the way), and some of his friends, Mei is starting to become more social, and getting more comfortable doing stuff with others. Obviously there is a romance budding between her and Yamato as well, but it's also nice to see how she is growing as a person and becoming more social.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEice_wEvBtlSQZYFPkpgRBx42XoIEB95vL397jipWC1A2_vLXQ-yCurx6zQkHMsfcLhCyUv0B84Wu6ZajDVrcImWNoi3xGMu1rnALmLTaWx9Q9Um2rieQ0OVPT_QZ8ka_czYfLGWEcfiHwt/s1600/my-little-monster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Shizuku and Haru getting into a conversation" border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEice_wEvBtlSQZYFPkpgRBx42XoIEB95vL397jipWC1A2_vLXQ-yCurx6zQkHMsfcLhCyUv0B84Wu6ZajDVrcImWNoi3xGMu1rnALmLTaWx9Q9Um2rieQ0OVPT_QZ8ka_czYfLGWEcfiHwt/s1600/my-little-monster.jpg" title="My Little Monster Anime Image" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>There's a lot of comedy in My Little<br />Monster</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My Little Monster focuses on a group of kids, most of whom have difficulty making friends or outright don't care about having any. So far this one is a lot more lighthearted than Say I Love You. It has a nice comedic shtick to it, especially between the show's two main characters, Shizuku and Haru. I like Haru's amazing depths of social ineptness. Deep down he really would like to have friends, but he just doesn't know how to go about it. Shizuku, while cold on the outside, does have emotions, and it's interesting to watch as she comes to terms with her feelings for Haru. I'm also really liking the supporting cast. Natsume is cute, and helps keep the mood cheerful. Sasahara seems a nice enough guy, but I've not found myself becoming all that attached to him. Recently the show introduced Haru's older brother, and it doesn't sound like Haru has a good relationship with his family. I'm curious where this may lead as the series continues to unfold.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoXyDzFLJhDHMo24Id8HTBW-HLr0JqKPpgOCKsYO2GDbqpVqdFW-HO0-44T5esgO6PN_JWaWaHt-DImyNVp5IaEEryOrOpGqFYA7wARuYGQor0KZe0NNOgaKNpx8efVyL84BoC-hT16oZ/s1600/another-anime-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img alt="Mei, Koichi, Izumi, and Naoya together" border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoXyDzFLJhDHMo24Id8HTBW-HLr0JqKPpgOCKsYO2GDbqpVqdFW-HO0-44T5esgO6PN_JWaWaHt-DImyNVp5IaEEryOrOpGqFYA7wARuYGQor0KZe0NNOgaKNpx8efVyL84BoC-hT16oZ/s1600/another-anime-1.jpg" title="Another Anime Image" width="400" /></b></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>"Another" is pretty great. Sooooo many dead junior high students, though.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Lastly, I did a marathon session, watching the horror series Another. I really liked it. The show is about a cursed junior high school class, where everyone in that particular class is at risk of being part of a string of deaths that year. There are certain conditions that need to be met for it to happen, and when it does, it's guaranteed that a number of kids in that class and / or close relatives will meet grizzly ends that year. This series was a lot of fun with several tense moments where you just know someone is about to die, and you are telling them, "No! Don't do that!" "Run!" and so on. Of course they can't hear you, and they die, but it's one of those shows that draws in the viewer like that. There's also a mystery to solve as members of the class try to find a way to undo the curse. It turns out that one of the main reasons that some years the curse comes into effect is if there is one more person in the class there is supposed to be. It's a dead person that doesn't realize that they are dead, and the people in the class suffer from there memories being altered to accommodate that person. It was quite the interesting twist when the show revealed who this person was. I also liked quite a lot of the characters in the show, which made it all the harder when some of them died, and a lot of people die in it. The main characters, Koichi and Mei, are pretty great too. I really liked watching them get to know each other and grow closer over the course of the show.<br />
<br />
That's about all I had time for this week, and a lot of it was me getting up to speed on the shows, as I'd never seen My Little Monster before so I needed to catch up on that, and I got so drawn into Another that I got through the whole thing in a couple of evenings. I was hoping to watch some Gintama, but for the second week in a row Crunchyroll has "Classics" from the series re-airing. I guess the show is getting preempted by stuff in Japan right now or something, so there's nothing new going up. It's disappointing because I was glad that the Kintama arch was finally coming to an end, and hoping that we'd get to see the Shinsengumi again soon, but I suppose I'll have to wait a while longer.<br />
<br />
Anywho, that's what I've been watching over the past week. If you're into anime, what have you been watching?Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-9881423919473275352012-11-09T13:53:00.002-08:002012-11-09T13:53:38.407-08:00SWTOR Going Free to Play Next Week<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWeL57S9bY59elMFBy7lkC2OFLu4w2nZh7DR3yFeN-6rUBAEefcs_0juAD1uCrOmR4Pjcozkx7qv1Me_mc4bMcTPLr6pJQrn-t3TVXVXv4zMpDeH-xXItmM9jqNJXUjvNa4laCZVYwpjCp/s1600/star-wars-old-republic-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Scart sith warrior" border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWeL57S9bY59elMFBy7lkC2OFLu4w2nZh7DR3yFeN-6rUBAEefcs_0juAD1uCrOmR4Pjcozkx7qv1Me_mc4bMcTPLr6pJQrn-t3TVXVXv4zMpDeH-xXItmM9jqNJXUjvNa4laCZVYwpjCp/s1600/star-wars-old-republic-1.jpg" title="Star Wars The Old Republic Screenshot 1" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>If you don't play the game, this guy will come to your house</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It didn't take very long for Star Wars: The Old Republic to change its business model. A year ago at this time it was still being hyped up as the next big thing, and that it had a good chance of dethroning World of Warcraft as the dominant MMORPG in the market. Now here we are less than a week away from the game going free to play.<br />
<br />
The question is how many people will come and check it out now that they don't have to pay money to play it. If you go full on F2P in how you approach it, SWTOR will be a very limited experience, though, granted, a lot of games of that type can be described the same way. Players will only be able to enter a limited number of PvP matches, instances, and space battles per week, chat communication will be limited, and their characters will receive experience a lot slower than normal. So, it looks like the game is really trying to encourage people to fork out some cash to get the most out of the experience be it through purchases on the cash shop that is about to be implemented, or simply subscribing, which gives players access to all that the game has to offer right away.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpDecNQ5-xHMXa3RiE_-yXi7AoerNpD3ljVKsrr_gdgHLh32nv8YHL_aT2hyphenhyphen1JlVUTYMgvc4g6yeasrBHTukSAhfryGlZAqT1UQueuaYfRneNEXo6WQVQptKBN5Y6d179wTCJI-5CSosw/s1600/star-wars-old-republic-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A dual wielding jedi" border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpDecNQ5-xHMXa3RiE_-yXi7AoerNpD3ljVKsrr_gdgHLh32nv8YHL_aT2hyphenhyphen1JlVUTYMgvc4g6yeasrBHTukSAhfryGlZAqT1UQueuaYfRneNEXo6WQVQptKBN5Y6d179wTCJI-5CSosw/s1600/star-wars-old-republic-2.jpg" title="Star Wars The Old Republic Screenshot 2" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Jedi vs Machine</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I played SWTOR a fair bit when it first came out, but eventually got tired of it after a couple of months. A lot of the gameplay mechanics were too similar to WoW for me, especially coming off that game which I played pretty consistently for seven years. Instances and PvP had a very similar vibe to Blizzard's MMO juggernaut, and combat was pretty much hot keys and cooldowns. For all of the hype that SWTOR had saying it would make surpass WoW, I thought it was just too similar, and eventually gave up.<br />
<br />
Maybe now that it's free to play, I'll go and fiddle around in it now and then. I'd be taking a very, very casual approach to it. I have no interest in the PvP, the instances, or the space battles. I pretty much just want to enjoy the stories, and explore the game world. That's about all I would do in it, and at a very leisurely pace. So, maybe it could be worth it at some point. I'll need to clear a bunch of space on my hard drive first, but possibly one day I'll get to playing it again.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprQ6CWPCrKGmmtUST0IduUiYYOgd_Z4yd6NE3hMy5l_Bd5sqJzRrlNJni_DEwz4n1yssTtIb7z5dWLmdsnp1ZDraTuV3BthX8gEe-nT97W0fY9_v0HY1U7d46aKkkojiN2g2rU_LaEYYY/s1600/star-wars-old-republic-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jedi throw" border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiprQ6CWPCrKGmmtUST0IduUiYYOgd_Z4yd6NE3hMy5l_Bd5sqJzRrlNJni_DEwz4n1yssTtIb7z5dWLmdsnp1ZDraTuV3BthX8gEe-nT97W0fY9_v0HY1U7d46aKkkojiN2g2rU_LaEYYY/s1600/star-wars-old-republic-3.jpg" title="Star Wars The Old Republic Screenshot 3" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>When you fart, don't try to pass the<br />blame to a jedi. They don't like that.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's weird, though, because the only things I'm interested in about the game are ones that could just as well have been implemented into a single-player experience, and that's kind of what I would have preferred in the first place. I'd have liked it if Bioware hadn't made SWTOR, and just did KotOR 3 instead. Give it a big galaxy to explore, and maybe toss in some limited multiplayer in the same vein as Saints Row 3. That would have been pretty great, I think. For now, I'll just have to make due with a free to play SWTOR.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-3630197101839478662012-11-08T01:00:00.000-08:002012-11-08T01:00:07.494-08:00Guild Wars 2: Time for an Elementalist<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1qQxSvhV5R9OLP9wwZ4Z0-AEWN-AoN96SQPnc26eWFSfANFldCjoYGQx04GjGC8ZYyERMOxLLfsjJIFtigr9qEDKiNRAS4_S-R6iDca4fQArFOhhPCK6dt4EBrUhpn1izu6qmjh-JmEj/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Female sylvari elementalist" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii1qQxSvhV5R9OLP9wwZ4Z0-AEWN-AoN96SQPnc26eWFSfANFldCjoYGQx04GjGC8ZYyERMOxLLfsjJIFtigr9qEDKiNRAS4_S-R6iDca4fQArFOhhPCK6dt4EBrUhpn1izu6qmjh-JmEj/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-1.jpg" title="Guild Wars 2 Screenshot 1" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>'Tis my elementalist. She's rather easy on the eyes. ^_^</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
During my time with Guild Wars 2 I've mostly played characters that use the conventional weapons of fantasy gaming warfare. I've played a ranger who uses bows and arrows, and an engineer who burns and / or blows things up. However, I've not bothered with magic users yet so I've decided to do something about that and have went and made myself an elementalist. Now I'm setting off to burn, freeze, electrocute, and crush my way to a better tomorrow with her.<br />
<br />
First things first, I rolled a Sylvari this time since I've not tried that race yet. They're a sort of plant people all covered in leaves who live in a really big forest, but I still prefer to look at them as Guild War 2's equivalent to elves. Their behavior is extremely similar to those mythical creatures present in so many other fantasy RPGs. As you can probably tell from looking at my character as well as the one from my last post, I'm quite fond of the color blue. If I can work it into my character I most certainly will.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoAeH4kdIAmQiKoYEazz2nSBMYN_IEgTQyfBqTp1JiSPk5Dp7roe89maUfBsA8N7qbWjGouZ_-UUD3rY3t4x_XMuPMqK5_4HumcEo3Ov-ayDQOpGCkvt0Z7NNWgtpZSQGrMjKhg0gbaZX/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fighting some bandits" border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRoAeH4kdIAmQiKoYEazz2nSBMYN_IEgTQyfBqTp1JiSPk5Dp7roe89maUfBsA8N7qbWjGouZ_-UUD3rY3t4x_XMuPMqK5_4HumcEo3Ov-ayDQOpGCkvt0Z7NNWgtpZSQGrMjKhg0gbaZX/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-2.jpg" title="Guild Wars 2 Screenshot 2" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fried bandits. Add some plum sauce for extra flavor!</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anywho, questing time. Like every character in the game, the first little bit of time I spent with my elementalist was in an instanced starting area. In this case, a magical forest called The Dream. This is where Sylvari first gain consciousness before being born into the real world. The place has seen better days, though, because now it's being attacked by something called The Nightmare, so I had to go fight a bunch of its minions, mostly wolf-like things, and a giant tree dragon. It was very straightforward and didn't last very long, which I liked because some of those early areas when you roll a new character run a little too long for my taste.<br />
<br />
After finishing this area it was off to the regular game world where I've mostly been hopping around doing random quests. I started out in the area around the Sylvari capital but quickly got bored there, and have since been doing this and that here and there, making use of warp gates to get to other factions' capitals quickly, and do some quests in those parts of the world instead. I've headed to the realm of the Norns, enjoying the frozen mountain tops and viking-like motifs, as well as some quests in the human lands with all of their green, pleasant, rolling hills. I'm quite a bit more partial to those areas of the game world than the other races' areas.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSYA_VGzbTThyjyQmzQXDI-7BV7UR6fTzSRc5wsDxmqoppee2RL81m3EsF04FrGkBcz1bMJ6kCKcmFYjX6aj6g4hUaKhD8U0M-7i22C7o_DjSFrnHYbuslsVQwGaI9I3dKTTFA9h6AYn4A/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Running in a field" border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSYA_VGzbTThyjyQmzQXDI-7BV7UR6fTzSRc5wsDxmqoppee2RL81m3EsF04FrGkBcz1bMJ6kCKcmFYjX6aj6g4hUaKhD8U0M-7i22C7o_DjSFrnHYbuslsVQwGaI9I3dKTTFA9h6AYn4A/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-3.jpg" title="Guild Wars 2 Screenshot 3" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Human zones have a lot of pretty<br />fields in them.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've also dabbled a bit with the story quest for my character. These things can be pretty entertaining I've found. Usually I just tune out stories in an MMORPG, but Guild Wars 2 has been doing a decent job of their's to this point. About the only thing I don't like about the one I'm doing now is that it's introducing this big bad called "The Nightmare Court". After playing Kingdom of Amalur, I'm not really in the mood for yet more elven courts at war with each other, with me being dragged into the mess. It's getting very cliched very fast, but I guess game story writers think it sounds cool to have factions with "Court" in their name, so I may be stuck with it for the time being.<br />
<br />
Combat with an elementalist is pretty neat. They can shift between four specialized auras: fire, air, water, and earth. The one you have up is the one that will dictate what kind of attacks you will have. This is compounded by the fact that different weapons also have different attacks, so a dagger would have different fire attacks than a stave would, for instance. So far I've only tried the stave, and a combination of scepter and focus (an off-hand weapon). Of the two setups, I much prefer the stave. It's abilities hit way harder than the scepter, and it has one really neat attack when using air aura that causes lightning to arch between multiple nearby targets for quite a bit of damage. It's pretty great for melting enemies while leveling. I'm actually surprised the game starts players off with the scepter, because it's not much fun at low levels, and left a bad taste in my mouth. I'd much rather have had a stave from the get go.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9gQSxFcLzRnobgnp9i4X2UUqbXeYCud7nJgf_AwEuebx1KxbBdNMmIp9ymzSAdyUvSLgLGXC-G4If7cZrCumG_j8pXd6Y7U5jIcCZNNc0psKq1Jg9C_ndKtpMLA8TLFXIxCcBEbtzc6G/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Admiring the view" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX9gQSxFcLzRnobgnp9i4X2UUqbXeYCud7nJgf_AwEuebx1KxbBdNMmIp9ymzSAdyUvSLgLGXC-G4If7cZrCumG_j8pXd6Y7U5jIcCZNNc0psKq1Jg9C_ndKtpMLA8TLFXIxCcBEbtzc6G/s1600/guild-wars-2-elementalist-4.jpg" title="Guild Wars 2 Screenshot 4" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Picturesque!</b></td></tr>
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All in all, I'm liking my elementalist so far. It's a pretty neat class, especially with how it can hop between so many different types of attacks. She's not as survivable as other classes, but I can manage. So far it's been enjoyable the time I've spent leveling her. I'll write more soon on the subject after I've leveled her up a fair bit more.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-74697262271512530242012-11-07T18:15:00.000-08:002012-11-07T18:46:50.631-08:00Final Fantasy: Waxing Nostalgic about my Favorite Cid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFOzU3CzJXw_vi1mh2bPIsROhumtnc4eTjjucJNzhA3x4V9HRVP4CpWmC5xIL9PrgfB_PEL2WpFc9gSwolJlUXGeBr8_ZRjKj_4L65pRuJLea8mXWXlDkMuVE-z5Nd77qZ4vCC2miszYA/s1600/Final-Fantasy-IV-Cid-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFOzU3CzJXw_vi1mh2bPIsROhumtnc4eTjjucJNzhA3x4V9HRVP4CpWmC5xIL9PrgfB_PEL2WpFc9gSwolJlUXGeBr8_ZRjKj_4L65pRuJLea8mXWXlDkMuVE-z5Nd77qZ4vCC2miszYA/s1600/Final-Fantasy-IV-Cid-1.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
There are plenty of little touchstones that one can find in the Final Fantasy series: chocobos, moogles, Gilgamesh, and so forth. The one that I find myself wondering about the most when I play one of these games is Cid. What will he look like? What kind of person will he be (besides an engineer-y scholar type)? I've always found him to be an interesting fellow, but there's one above all else that I'm particularly fond of and that's Cid Pollendina from Final Fantasy IV.<br />
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I think a big reason for this is because he was the first Cid I ever encountered. I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s, so when the Final Fantasy games came here (what few that did, that is), I was playing them before he got retconed into the first game, and the second and third games in the series didn't see a release in the West on the NES. After the first game debuted on the NES, the series just jumped right into part four on the SNES with the thing being renamed Final Fantasy II over here. So, I didn't even get to see the two previous incarnations of Cid in the second and third games in the series. As far as I was concerned at the time, this was the only Cid there was because I didn't know any better at the time.<br />
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But yeah, my first Cid, my favorite Cid.<br />
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He's certainly a likable guy, if a bit on the loud and exceptionally confident side. Cid fills the archetype of the middle aged master builder quite well. It's certainly a character type that we see a lot of in anime, like Hiraga Gengai from Gintama, for example. I like that he pushes himself so hard for the team, and has very concrete views of right and wrong. It's these attributes that make him so likable. Sure, some of the other Cids also exhibited these traits to varying degrees, but this Cid in particular really amplified them in just the right way to make me warm up to him far more than any of his counterparts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKthbBx8kyFH_B0Wx3-L1PS-FYBml6JkUoTFtJy2Dt0TycLM0jDnTOgsmARDSmzoC-AqJhCEdLUYGFd6C_mslHe_xwTcRSYN1z4QZdpd8riXgpBWtpe8Vc9UttrGxUqIVCyucEbqRBcuvT/s1600/Final-Fantasy-IV-Cid-2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKthbBx8kyFH_B0Wx3-L1PS-FYBml6JkUoTFtJy2Dt0TycLM0jDnTOgsmARDSmzoC-AqJhCEdLUYGFd6C_mslHe_xwTcRSYN1z4QZdpd8riXgpBWtpe8Vc9UttrGxUqIVCyucEbqRBcuvT/s1600/Final-Fantasy-IV-Cid-2.PNG" width="151" /></a></div>
It probably also helps that Final Fantasy IV is my favorite in the series, so I have overarching positive feelings toward the entire game that likely make me look at this Cid in an even more positive light than I might otherwise. The characters in the game, the world I explored, the story in general, they all resonated with me in a big way. Final Fantasy VI does this as well, but IV does it just a little better for me, edging the former out of top spot in my books. So, being particularly fond of the game in general probably makes my like of this Cid all the more.<br />
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Anyway, go Final Fantasy IV Cid! You'll always be my favorite, you ridiculously likable, hardworking engineer, you! Do you have a favorite Cid in the Final Fantasy series? If so, I'd love to know which one. Hop in the comments and share your own thoughts about the character.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-8838224122594201932012-11-06T10:09:00.000-08:002012-11-06T23:05:18.250-08:00Eden Eternal: Searching for a Cutesy Game to Fiddle Around In<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwi4xMmLTPDcXRsTIs2abgWybf822OSXyI_sAMyogRCzvcQv4-TGvgo-LzNbXM82l-QFB_EFZ5XMTMqeLHjkOvkEgz8rSqEDJQcfkR16WjJfyzRGYxQwXJm20zCN-O6qnxNsYm94rk1jh/s1600/Eternal-Eden-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Launching a fireball with my mage" border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdwi4xMmLTPDcXRsTIs2abgWybf822OSXyI_sAMyogRCzvcQv4-TGvgo-LzNbXM82l-QFB_EFZ5XMTMqeLHjkOvkEgz8rSqEDJQcfkR16WjJfyzRGYxQwXJm20zCN-O6qnxNsYm94rk1jh/s1600/Eternal-Eden-1.jpg" title="Eden Eternal Screenshot 1" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Fireball, goooooo!</b></td></tr>
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Usually when playing an MMO I go for something with fairly realistic graphics. Stuff like WoW, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings, and such have received the majority of my time. However, for the last little while I've had a hankering for something a lot more cartoon-y in the aesthetics department. The change of pace would be nice, I figure, as they seem to be such a carefree environment with a much more Saturday morning cartoon feel to them. So, I've gotten to fiddling around in Eden Eternal for a bit, as it does indeed seem rather cute, and they even let you play as this little mouse character, which is kind of adorable.<br />
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It looks like the game has some sort of job system similar to the Final Fantasy series where characters can switch classes as they please, but most of these get unlocked as your character reaches a new level. When starting out I only had two classes to choose from: warrior and mage. I chose to go mage because I like playing magic users in these sorts of games. There are also heroic traits that I had to chose from before starting that permanently augment my character's stats. You can only pick one of these, and from what I can tell they're permanent. They cannot be changed later like classes. I opted for one that would improve my character's intellect and magic critical chance.<br />
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So, with that I finished making my character and was plunged into the game world. It's certainly a colorful place with cheerful NPCs, and rather friendly-looking enemies. They're not such a friendly lot when they start hitting you, though (but still cute). The music is peppy, but extremely repetitive. It's just the same little ditty over and over again, and it started getting on my nerves after a while. The worst part is that the tunes started getting stuck in my head after a while. I recommend listening to your own music while playing.<br />
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Quests are extremely typical fair: kill ten of these, collect five of those, etc. and the game has an auto-pathing system to it so you don't even need to manually move your character to the next batch of baddies that you're supposed to smack around. Just right-click on their names on the little quest list thing to the right of the screen, and your on-screen alter ego will start running there by his / herself.<br />
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When your character gets where she's going, and it's time to start bonking monsters over the head, combat is also traditional with a series of hot keys and cooldowns. My mage just cycles between his fireball and lightning spell, occasionally tossing in an ice spell. I haven't had much use for other abilities that he's learned so far like area effect attacks. Maybe those will come in handy at higher levels, but I'll have to wait and see.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTZ2eAmbLnIy3yt618jcjv35DTCa2xxbYIHCAPPlGZ3TnuadrP9-rBPh6U6oz0MWvIBrqIV4rZE0aQI_Zov7W-0fN3iBM99iq4YWXLZQAddLyxmkTQ58knaPRyJ33gyln_TCrAoEM3kQZ/s1600/Eternal-Eden-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Wandering around town" border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrTZ2eAmbLnIy3yt618jcjv35DTCa2xxbYIHCAPPlGZ3TnuadrP9-rBPh6U6oz0MWvIBrqIV4rZE0aQI_Zov7W-0fN3iBM99iq4YWXLZQAddLyxmkTQ58knaPRyJ33gyln_TCrAoEM3kQZ/s1600/Eternal-Eden-2.jpg" title="Eden Eternal Screenshot 2" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The visuals are bright and colorful</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This has really been the pattern up to about level 10 for my character: gather up all of the available quests that I can find, run to each area, kill many monsters, then move on to the next to do it again. It's absolutely not a hugely innovative experience in that regard.<br />
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Character development seems pretty standard too. At each level-up I get a point to spend in a talent tree which helps to make my character a little more unique in terms of its abilities. So far I've focused on a talent that will reduce the cast time of spells, as well as one that increases magic crit rates. I've not seen a huge improvement from this, but my fireballs do seem to be launching a little quicker now. There's also points that can be spent on improving the level of spells that my character knows. I'm not sure why this is here, as I always seem to have enough points to max out all my spells at each new level. There doesn't seem to be any choices that need to be made in terms of having to choose specific ones that I want to focus on and make into my character's specialty. Maybe this is something that happens at higher levels.<br />
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I've yet to try changing classes yet, but my character does have the ability to turn into a priest now, so maybe I'll try that for a bit. I'm not sure if I'm able to carry over abilities from other classes during these changes, effectively making a hybrid class, so I'll need to check that as well. I do think I'll need to grind a lot on monsters in order to get my character's level up on the other classes, though, as I've already completed all the lowbie quests, and can see no other way of going about that.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PG5hnHoyqhei-xucr4UYHxHoUe9tNcV-oOaTrMGAzQPJpBVMZQF9Mo2T3JOKrkxTaQwwLmvjNE0thPucagz0TvR8x0mjC0C5D_7GxzoBR0X2wBATjPAPwIE0_7qzTGY7P9dIAhfiW3Bl/s1600/Eternal-Eden-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Hunting crabs by the water" border="0" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PG5hnHoyqhei-xucr4UYHxHoUe9tNcV-oOaTrMGAzQPJpBVMZQF9Mo2T3JOKrkxTaQwwLmvjNE0thPucagz0TvR8x0mjC0C5D_7GxzoBR0X2wBATjPAPwIE0_7qzTGY7P9dIAhfiW3Bl/s1600/Eternal-Eden-3.jpg" title="Eden Eternal Screenshot 3" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The second zone that I went to<br />
seems to have a seaside town</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyway, Eden Eternal certainly doesn't offer anything new from what I've seen, and I suspect some will find it a boring grind. For now I'll keep it on my computer, and try leveling up a bit more to see what there is to see. It's pretty relaxing, as I just keep it in windowed mode, and play it in the background while doing other stuff. Just set the auto-pathing for its next destination, then go back to reading the news or whatever, and come back after a bit to smack around some monsters, then repeat the process all over again. I'm not looking for a hardcore raiding or PvP experience here, just a cute, cartoon styled game to futz around in when I've got some free time, and so far this game is filling that want reasonably well.Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994504281966218946.post-90586780136586339242012-11-05T20:13:00.001-08:002012-11-05T20:13:29.074-08:00Howdy People and / or Web Bots!I guess most blogs start with an introductory post where the person(s) running it introduce themselves, and say why they're going through the trouble of creating a blog. So here we are! Why am I making a blog? Something to do, really. I like writing, so this seems as good an outlet as any for that sort of thing. I also like video games, so that's what I'll be writing about. Mostly MMOs because I think they're fun. Leveling up characters, getting fancy gear, exploring all these different worlds, there's good times to be had in them.<br />
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A lot of the time I bounce around between free ones, firstly because I don't have to pay for them, and secondly because there are so many of them out there that it makes for a good opportunity to explore all these different virtual worlds, and really, that's one of my favorite things to do in a game: explore.<br />
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So hello and welcome to anyone who reads this. I hope you enjoy your time here! (^_^)/Jejunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181384064575463529noreply@blogger.com0