Worth Playing Pans Odin Sphere

Worth Playing recently gave the much lauded Odin Sphere a 6.8, and had this to say about the experience:

Many people accuse recent 3-D games of being all flash and no substance, and alas, Odin Sphere shows that 2-D games are not immune to the same syndrome. Odin Sphere is stunning. Rarely have games floored me with their animations and graphics as much as Odin Sphere did, but that is almost all that is worth recommending. The gameplay is dull and clunky and worst of all, repetitive. The characters are bland and boring, and the controls are a bit stiff and frustrating to wrangle with. I wanted to like Odin Sphere — no, I wanted to love Odin Sphere — but at best, I could tolerate it, and it was only the beautiful animations that kept me going. Don't misunderstand. While it has its flaws, Odin Sphere isn't unplayable or unworkably flawed; it just quickly grows tedious. The few elements that truly shine may be enough to justify purchasing this beautiful title, but be warned not to expect a gameplay experience as stunning as the graphics.

While Worth Playing probably isn't in my top five or even top ten review sources, it does give me pause, where I originally had no doubts about purchasing this game. Now I think I'll be waiting to see more reviews before I make my final decision.

Check out the full review to decide for yourself.

Why no Eternal Sonata love for America?

Riddle me this Microsoft: why would someone who was jonesing to play the Eternal Sonata demo be unable to download it? There's no punchline here, and I'm sorry if you were expecting one. This was something that was puzzling me yesterday whilst i was Googling "japan postal codes" (something that I never dreamt that I would Google, by the way). The game has been announced for an American release, so distribution licenses of something of that nature isn't the problem. The demo is entirely in English, so the language barrier isn't even a factor. The only reason I could imagine as to why someone would have to make a fake Japan-region Live account to get it was that there was no reason. Microsoft just decided that it would be Japan only, and that was that.

On the subject of the game itself, I'm still on the fence. Tri-Crescendo was involved with Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (admittedly, only on sound design, but still), which it still a sore spot for me. I hated Till the End of Time's battle system, and anything that makes me reminiscent of it is difficult for me to play. Fortunately for me, Eternal Sonata's battle system is just different enough. It's strongly influenced by position; every character can set two abilities for use. One of these abilities is a "light" ability, and can only be used the the "light" areas of the battlefield. The other ability is, coincidentally, a "dark" ability, and the reverse area restrictions apply. The timing is a mix of real-time and turn-based, and there are apparently different levels for the battle system that change the timing dynamics. There is also a defensive timing mechanism, similar to that of Paper Mario. However, this only works on attacks from the front and sides, further emphasizing the importance of positioning.

All-in-all I did enjoy the demo, and I think I will definitely be picking this one up later this year. I would recommend the demo to anyone who wants to go through the trouble of getting it. For the record: Japanese postal codes are in the form: XXX-XXXX. You're welcome.

Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer - 5.19.07

Dude, thank you for the awesomeness, that game looks sweet. I wish some more exciting PS3 titles were coming in this half of the year, but I guess beggars can't be choosers...

In other news, I have been officially accepted to the Guildhall for the July term (with the ability to defer to January if I so choose). I got a call from the Recruitment Director yesterday while I was at work and got the official email a few minutes later. There's still the decision to be made of July vs. January, but right now I am just so overjoyed at having gotten in I haven't even been thinking about it. It's the first real "success" since I started this journey and, I believe, worthy of much celebration. Probably in the form of gorging myself on Kingdom Hearts, LOTRO, and Halo 3 Beta.

w00t!

Gamer's Day Goodness

If you've been to any game-related sites over the past few days, it's been hard to avoid footage from Sony's Gamer's Day event. If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favor and check out the videos (particularly the developer walkthrough) for Folklore. It looks like the freakish love-child of God of War and Phantom Dust, with a dash of Lost Kingdoms. Is that a good thing? Hell yes. This just became my most anticipated PS3 game of the year. Sorry, Ratchet.

You know what? I'll just save you the trouble of searching for it and point you to the awesomeness. You can thank me later.

Nothing's tricksier than a hobbit...

except maybe a Spaniard.

That's it. Don't ask why I said it, just accept that I did and move on. There was never going to be a better time to drop that inside joke, and I had to seize the opportunity.

I'm a tricksy little hobbit

Don't you worry, Incognito, I haven't given up on KH just yet, it just hasn't quite grabbed me the way FFXII did at first glance. That may be do in part to my social situation being different than it was last October. Back then, I had just moved here, and I hadn't really assembled my core group of friends so I had all the time in the world and nothing better to do than play videogames until my eyes hurt. The reason I didn't play KH this last weekend was because Friday night I went out to a concert, Saturday I ended up playing Catan on the XBL with a couple friends all morning and then hung out with people the rest of the day, and Sunday I was mostly busy with errands I my newest gaming obsession, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have a checkered past with MMOs. I often get excited for them play them for a little while but ultimately discard them for one reason or another. I am not sure that LOTRO will be any exception, but I will say that my initial impressions have been fantastic. While the game doesn't do anything new that I am aware of (maybe the way it handles PvP) it does bring together some of the best elements from games like City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XI and many others. Add to that that it looks absolutely gorgeous (sorry WoW, you are starting to show your age) and that Middle Earth is a great place to play in and you've put together a very powerful MMO experience. I think I've played for around 10-12 hours so far and obviously haven't seen even a fraction of the content that is available. There are so many quests, deeds, and other things to do that I imagine this game could even keep the most hardcore MMO fan busy for quite some time.

I play as a hobbit burglar named Borbo, actually Borbo the Undefeated right now (the title system allows you to add various titles to your name, depending on deeds you've accomplished) and I occasionally run around with a Human Captain name Teoric (Sidious' avatar), so if you're every on the Windfola server keep an eye out for us. Until then I'll be busy making sure all the hobbits get their mail and pies in timely fashion. Ah, the life of a hobbit...

It's about time

Finally! Someone else makes a post!

Avenger, it would be a real shame if you got distracted from Kingdom Hearts. Unless, of course, you get distracted from it because you finally decided to go back and finish Shadow Hearts. You were on the precipice, but for some reason you refused to take that last step! Don't make the same mistake twice. Also, don't be such an Final Fantasy fanboy with your RPGs. If you can haul yourself though 70+ hours of FF XII, I think you can manage to make it though KH.

In short: don't be that guy, Domino.

My Return

Wow, I leave for a couple weeks and when I come back it's basically just Incognito yammering to himself about his RPGs. Well, somebody has to put a stop to that, so I guess that's going to be me...

So, first order of business, my application to the Guildhall is complete and submitted. The recruitment director informed me I should expect to hear something by the end of this week or early next week. Needless to say, I am a little nervous about the whole thing. This is what I consider my greatest opportunity, so a rejection here would cause me to seriously reconsider this whole game design thing as a career choice. Regardless, there's nothing to be done about it now so I have been using my newfound free time to go back to my most favored pastime of actually playing games, which brings me to my second point.

Typically, when I play I tend to meander between games and get easily distracted by new and shiny things (as this post will further reveal). Occasionally, however, I consciously or unconsciously decide to really pour myself into a game and just get totally absorbed in it's storyline and characters. As that hasn't really been a natural occurrence as of late, I decided to look into my substantial backlog of games (likely larger than even Incognito's, with perhaps fewer RPGs) and choose something to just blitz with whatever free time I had available.

This decision, much like Incognito's was not an easy one, and I had several options that I think could have provided excellent experiences: Metroid Prime, STALKER, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, Dragon Quest 8, Rogue Galaxy, Okami, among others. Instead of one of these I chose to try to re-engage with a game that didn't originally grab me, Kingdom Hearts.

The first time I tried to play Kingdom Hearts I think I mostly was turned off to it by the battle system. The story and characters seemed interesting (I like Disney), though the narrative moved a little too slowly for my taste, but the battle system just irritated me. Say what you will about FFXII and the gambit system, it beats the crap out of the downright stupid AI partners you get in KH. Donald and Goofy will in no uncertain terms run at the closest enemy and basically blow all of their MP as fast as possible, and then they will die. No attempt to evade attacks or at least minimize damage from bosses highly predictable special attacks. Nope, full-on right in the face and then dead.

This second time through I think I am enjoying things a bit more because I have just learned to accept it. You are on your own and your companions are more like set pieces than actual gameplay elements. I am about 7 hours in and I am heading back to Traverse Town after doing Tarzan world, Alice in Wonderland world, and Hercules world, so I know I have barely scratched the surface, but unfortunately I have yet again been distracted by something new and shiny, and worry that I may not complete it as planned...again.

I think this post is already long enough so I will leave the new game for my next post, but I'll give you a hint, it's a new MMO. Talk to you all later!

Wii-markable Timing

So, I was on the way out of BestBuy today, and as I'm approaching the exit, an employee passes me with what appear to be three shiny new Wiis. For a second, I just stood there staring; I was dumbstruck. When I snapped out of it, I asked if those happened to be for sale.

"Yep."

"Can I get one?"

"Sure, just get back in line."

And so, just a few weeks after I resigned myself to go without a Wii until the holiday season, one just falls into my lap. The only downside is that I leave town for the rest of the week tomorrow night, so I'll cherish it tonight while I can.

So, in short...

Who's got two thumbs and a Wii?! THIS GUY!!

I apologize for blurting that out. I just really wanted to work that into this post, but I couldn't manage to do so in any sort of clever fashion.

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Replacing Ar Tonelico

Before we get to the meat of this post, lets play some Jeopardy!

Answer: 4

Question: How many time would someone see the credits roll in Ar Tonelico if they completed the game and Shurelia's (spoiler) Cosmoshere?

This is a record that I don't expect to be broken any time soon.

Now that Ar Tonelico is finished, I've had the same problem that I often have in these situations: finding a new game to occupy myself with. Even with my extensive back log of games from which to choose, this proposition is not as easy as it sounds.

Since Persona 3 is on the horizon, the first game I though of was Persona 2. This lasted all of 2 hours. It's not that there is anything wrong with the story. On the contrary, the story started of strong. The problem was with the battle system. Well, sort of. You see, because of that huge backlog of games that I mentioned earlier, I can be very picky about which one I play. The big turn-off in Persona 2 was the ridiculous menu system in battle. The default battle system is an auto battle; you set actions for all you characters and they will automatically perform them until you say stop. But what if you don't want it to go progress automatically? Well, there is an option to do one round at a time, but to do that you have to wade through menu level after menu level. As you can imagine, this gets really cumbersome, really fast.

So I decided to put my time to better use that paging through battle menus, and I picked up Rogue Galaxy again. You might remember Rogue Galaxy from when Avenger raved about it back in the day. In short, I was less than thrilled. I first started it soon after it was released, but I put it down after an hour, largely due to my dislike of the points-based real time battle system (which I will discuss in a future website article). Admittedly, its biggest short-coming is all in my head. Rogue Galaxy was developed by Level 5, the same crew that is responsible for Dark Cloud 2. I loved Dark Cloud 2, and I had always imagined that Rogue Galaxy would be Dark Cloud 2 in space. Well, it's not. It's much more hack 'n slash, much more .hack than Dark Cloud. All I can think about while playing Rogue Galaxy is how much more I would like it if it was Dark Cloud 2: IN SPACE! As far as non-superficial grievances go, however, the comparative strength of physical attacks versus special abilities is laughable. Why would I bother even used my sword, and risk having one of the retarded AI-controlled characters die in 3 seconds, when I can kill every enemy in one hit with Desert Wind? Recharge drinks can be acquired on the cheap, so constantly using AP is no sweat. At about the 10 hour mark, I finally decided to put Rogue Galaxy down again.

So, what next? Coincidentally, I already mentioned it: .hack. .hack//G.U. to be precise. Yes, I am one of the people who enjoyed the original .hack series. And recently, I've had the strange desire to dive into The World again. And now that my first two attempts at replacing Ar Tonelico have failed, it's time to go out and add to The List again.

If anyone out in reader-land has an any comments/feedback on this series of posts (love it/hate it/change this/change that), please let me know.

Calling All Bullet Points

• Calling All Cars - It's here, finally. I gave it a whirl when I got home from work today. I tried one game offline, but the computer's perfect aim was driving me insane. So, online I went. It could be kind of difficult to find a game, since there is no way to sort the list that I could find, so you basically have to scroll down the list until you find a game that isn't in progress. Of course, you could join a game in progress, if you don't mind waiting a while and listening to some twelve-year-old in voice chat. The game play is fast and simple, and highly enjoyable. I'm sure it's even more enjoyable if you know how to use more than one of the weapons.
• Forza 2 - I tried out the demo last night. Naturally, it didn't seem as gorgeous as the trailers made it seem, but that doesn't mean it's not easy on the eyes. It's hard to get a feel for it since there is only one track, but the cars handle magnificently, and I'm excited to get my hands on the full version and get my tune on.
• Settlers of Catan - I have often felt like I was in the minority: nerds who have not played the original board game. Now, thanks to Big Huge Games, I can enjoy all the fun of the board game on my 360! Huzzah! As best as I can tell, it functions as a reasonable facsimile for the real thing.
  

Linkin' and Thinkin'

First up, there is this article up that (eventually) gets to some info about Lost Odyssey game play. Really, it's not very insightful, other than giving an idea of how large to game is. No, what this is about is when they mention that the director of Legend of Mana is involved in the project. Yikes. Legend of Mana was a disaster. That was years ago, though, and hopefully whatever influences Legend of Mana has on Lost Odyssey are slight. Or better yet, non-existent.

Next, there is this press release for Shadowrun (via EvilAvatar). What bothers me is the second to last line, where they state the prices for the 360 and Windows version. Am I the only one confused as to why the prices aren't the same? I was under the impression that both versions were identical. Was I mistaken? Are there some fancy exclusives on the 360 version? If not, why is it $10 more? Can someone explain to me how this makes sense!? I mean, you're already shelling out the extra $50 a year for online multiplayer on XBL (which is available with the silver membership on Windows Live) with the 360, and now you're going to have to pay $10 more per cross-MS-platform title? Someone tell me why 360 owners should be OK with this! Jimmy, you have a degree in econ, maybe you can sort out this mess for me.

Almost like I dream about

There is going to be another Kingdom Hearts, but it's not going to be KH 3. No, instead it's much closer to what I fantasize about. While it's not exactly how I imagined it, it's close enough to get me all hot and bothered. If Riku is a playable character again... it's just too awesome to imagine. I think I need to go lie down for a minute.

Obviously, I'm very excited about this... unless it's PSP only. That would be a real downer. Of course, if there was one game that would force a PSP purchase from me, this is it.

Speechless

I'll let the video speak for itself. May 22 seems so far away.

Drat! Foiled again!

First, there was my confrontation with the DDR dance pad. Now, it the SIXAXIS that is screwing with me. Exactly how is it accomplishing this, you ask? By running out if power, of course. There I am, preparing for the final battles of Ar Tonelico, and up pops the "controller is low on power" message.

This was most frustrating, since the PS3 recharge cable is only 3 feet long. Of course, I don't sit within three feet of my PS3, so it was nuts to me finishing Ar Tonelico. I'm not sure what Sony was thinking when they decided on a length for the recharge cable. Looks like I'll have to make a trip to the BestBuy to buy a third-party cable of reasonable length.

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Taking It In Stride

Game du jour: more Ar Tonelico. Just some general notes and comments; today I'm keeping it light and fresh.

1. Phase 3 of Ar Tonelico can be described as very Xenogears-Disc-Two-esque. There is a lot of text, followed my more text, then maybe a battle or two, and then some more text (for a change of pace). This is mainly a result of the fact that I already got to the top of the tower. The entire world has pretty much been explored, evidenced by the fact that I've only seen one new area in the last 6 hours. The only up-side is that I finally got the last Reyvateil, which means I get to explore another cosmosphere, which is by far my favorite part of the game.

2. If you were walking through the personal library of the major villain in a game, and as you were reading his diaries you realized that at one time or another he manipulated and/or attempted to kill all but one of the member of your party, you'd expect some kind of reaction, right? You'd expect someone, anyone, to say something, wouldn't you? Well, if you were to expect that from the characters in Ar Tonelico, you'd be wrong. For all the talking in that game, you'd think that someone would mention something from those diaries sometime, but no. Ridiculous.

3. I have seen the credits roll twice, and I'm still not done the game! Speaking of rolling credits, there is an update on the fake-out ending from the last post. It really is an ending, if you want it to be. Or at least I assume so, since I picked the text option that I thought was least likely to end the game.

I know I said I would keep it "light and fresh," but I guess I got a little carried away.

I'm gonna go lie down now. This blog is heavy, and my shoulders are starting to ache from carrying it. **OH SNAP!!!**

Odin Sphere mania!

I'll assume that since you're reading this, you read Penny Arcade. And by extension, I'll assume that you've read the glowing praise they have heaped upon their review copy of Odin Sphere. For me, this could be a double-edged sword. On one hand, I'm thrilled that Odin Sphere apparently plays as fantastic as it looks. I've been in eager anticipation of this game since I first saw the trailer. I will never grow weary of 2-D sprites, and here is a game seems to take them to a new level.

On the other hand, who knows how many copies of this game will be shipped in the US? Probably not too many. Penny Arcade is an extraordinarily popular site that holds tremendous sway over its readers, and all of this positive publicity may entice people to run out and pick up Odin Sphere; people that may not have done so if that review copy had never been put in the tray.

Hopefully this won't end up with a Disgaea-esque situation, where the only way to get your hands on the game is to shell out $45 at Gamestop for a used version with no case or manual.

Incognito's RPG Impressions: Game Over

Much like Avenger's "Diary of an Aspiring Game Designer" posts, this will be sort of a recurring topic for me. The title still may be a work in progress, though.

I've played what could be described as a "healthy" number of RPGs. In all my gaming history, if seen a lot of stuff. That's pretty much what these posts will be about. When I see things I like, when I see things I don't like, or when I see things that blow me away, I'll post them here. And I'll do my absolute best to avoid spoilers. Look for whited out text where appropriate. So, let's get started with the game du jour: Ar(rrrrrr) Tonelico.

So, what happened in Ar Tonelico that was worth a post here? Well, they pulled some craziness that I have never seen before: the psych-out ending. Yes, that's right. A full-blown, 3-consecutive-boss-battles- followed-by-a-few-lines-of-text- then-roll-credits fake ending. Needless to say, I was pretty freaked out. I knew that there was supposed to be another phase, and I knew that I still hadn't controlled all the playable characters, but this is a game where there is some branching of the storyline. Was it possible that I screwed up hours ago and ended the game prematurely, a la Persona? Oh crap!

This and so much more was going through my head as I stared at the staff credits scrolling down my TV screen. Finally, those cruel credits came to an end, but just because the characters were back on screen, didn't mean that the game wasn't over. There is always the chance of some kind of epilogue. Mercifully, after a minute or two of dialogue, I was returned to the map screen. Phew!

I have to give Gust credit. I've played over 70 RPGs, and it's not often that I see something that is legitimately new. The fake ending was one of the more harrowing things I've seen in a game since Eternal Darkness. I hope I never have to see it again.

Emergency Release 1, Incognito 0

So, I feel like an idiot. Here I was thinking that my DDR pad was teh broken, when it was just one of Microsoft's little safety features getting the better of me. DDR was working fine for me last Friday, but when I tried to boot it up on Sunday afternoon, the light ring on the pad was flashing, but it wasn't making the connection to the 360. So my first thought was: oh crap. I've had this thing for less than two months, and I've already broken it.

When it didn't work again today, I was ready to take drastic action. I was online looking for warranty information, or maybe even *gasp* a third-party dance pad (which, for the record, are ex-pen-sive). As a last ditch effort, I went to the Xbox forums. That's how low I was: I went to a forums site. Anyway, after going through a few pages, I found a post from someone who was having the same problem as I was. The only suggested solution was to plug in the controller after the console was turned on. So, I go ahead an try it. Big surprise, it didn't work. So, in my frustration, I grab the cord and try to pull the plug out. *Pop!* The cord goes slack, but the plug is still in the 360. Wtf?! I go to investigate, and I find that there is a emergency release in the cord. So I reconnected it, and guess what? It worked perfectly. Apparently, it was plugged in just enough to get a few lights to blink, but not enough to work.

Damn you emergency release. I'll get you one day. I'll get you when you least expect it. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Ehem. Excuse me.

Now I can get back on my schedule of "trying to be less fat." Hooray for not being so fat!

Back in the saddle

Hoo-hah! The fundamentals exam is over, and I am ready to get back to gaming! W00t!

So, some brief points of interest:

1. I haven't even finished the first Ar Tonelico yet, but lo and behold, there is already proof of a sequel in the works. The interface seems to have received be a huge upgrade. That shiny new harmo gauge looks much better than the original. Sinusoids for the win.

2. Mass Effect has been announced as a September release. Everyone kept hoping for a June/July release date, but that unfortunately was not to be. Personally, I'm not too bummed. Yeah, I'll have to wait a little longer, but it will nicely fill that gap between Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

3. I say this every year around this time, but the rest of this year should be great for RPGs. With Atelier Iris 3, Odin Sphere, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Persona 3, Dawn of Mana, and (hopefully) Lost Odyssey all due to hit before the end of year, it should be a busy time for yours truly.

And who knows, maybe I'll have Ar Tonelico 2 to enjoy before the year's out, too.