Winding down with orc destruction

Day 390

I have spent the majority of today relaxing and playing Orcs Must Die! 2 with a friend of mine. I haven't made much progress on War of the Lions today but I don't feel any desire to rush. These are my first days off in awhile and I feel much less stressed in general lately. I still intend to make good progress on my backlog and hit my 30 game goal for the year, but taking a day or so off isn't going to hurt anything. Plus, I love Orcs Must Die and I relish the opportunity to share it with someone who hasn't played it before.

I'm sure I've discussed it before on this blog, but Orcs Must Die is a series of what are essentially tower defense games in which the player takes a much more active role. Strategy and tower/trap layout is still very important, but the player is able to assume the role of a war mage and assist in the defense as well. Traps make up a third of the resources available to the player, with weapons and spells/trinkets serving an important role as well. Orcs Must Die is at its core a game about surviving. For me, that part is simple. The real challenge comes from maximizing efficiency and getting higher scores.

There are many viable strategies for easily making one's way through an Orcs Must Die level. Finding a safe spot to amass an unreasonable number of archers will likely carry you through in many levels, but the real fun comes from finding the best choke points and layering traps together to build up multipliers that greatly increase the number of coins and points you receive. There's no tangible benefit to getting higher scores, but I find it immensely satisfying to climb higher up the leaderboards. I don't have any really high scores, but I'm in the 1000s on a few levels. This is no small feat for me because I'm not very competitive in any game I play.

The variety of traps and spells available in Orcs Must Die is what keeps me coming back. It also boasts a pretty large variety of different levels with a number of interesting layout featuring lava, acid, bottomless pits, destructible terrain, portals, and lots of hidden nooks with which to carefully place archers, grenadiers, and various other traps and armaments. Traps can be placed on floors and walls, whereas guardians can be placed anywhere the War Mage himself could stand--at the cost of being vulnerable to attack from enemy orcs. 

Orcs Must Die! 2 in particular is one of the most immensely replayable games I have had the fortune of experiencing, mostly because of its support for co-op. The developer (Robot Entertainment if I remember right) is working on a title by the name of Orcs Must Die! Unchained that inherits some traits from the MOBA genre. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but footage I've seen on YouTube seems to indicate it has been crafted with care. I'm ambivalent about the influence League of Legends and Dota 2 have had on PC gaming, but I can at least take comfort in the fact that Unchained still very much looks like an Orcs Must Die! title and features many (if not all) of the series' trademark traps.

My primary concern lies with the fact that strictly multiplayer games have an unfortunate tendency of dying out after a few years and I'm not often in the habit of playing games during the height of their popularity. This is part of the reason I prefer games that have a dedicated single-player component. Orcs Must Die! 2, despite its strong emphasis on cooperative play, still offers a tremendous amount of content for those who prefer to play alone. I'm reasonably certain that Unchained will not and that's why I can't endorse it wholeheartedly.

The aftermath

Day 389

How appropriate for today's entry that it's pouring rain outside! I would not feel comfortable calling it a storm per se, but we'll say it's close enough. For the most part, today was very stressful. I was concerned all day that I was not going to reach my quota--and for a long time it looked like it just wasn't going to happen. I got my first activation of the day at 3 PM and was scheduled to leave at 6 PM. We were not even remotely busy today and it's not common for me to get that many activations even on our busiest days.

But I did it. I met my quota. A customer came in at around 4:30 and got three phones on a new account. Somehow, impossibly, I met my quota. This means that I'll likely keep my job and become a full status employee. I'll be able to receive credit for commission and get a pay raise as well. I'm still somewhat afraid that something else will go wrong and for some strange reason I won't be eligible--but I'm choosing to be cautious optimistic. I'm relieved and I feel I'll have no issue enjoying my weekend. I can't imagine my time off would have been enjoyable had I not met my quota so I'm really glad I did.

I'm not going to focus too heavily on what this means for my future just yet because nothing is yet set in stone. I'm not going to really think about this issue until I get confirmation that I'm a full status employee from the district manager. There may well be issue behind the scenes that affect my eligibility. At the end of the day I would be reasonably satisfied with just keeping my job. A sizable commission check would of course go a long way toward heightening my spirits, but I'd be able to live with myself if I didn't get it. I'd be very disappointed, of course.

For now, I'm going to seriously investigate the possibility of finishing War of the Lions (or at least finishing the main storyline) and relaxing as much as possible. I'm coming off an immensely stressful week and I absurdly relieved that it's over. My next few entries will likely deal exclusively with video games because I won't feel the need to discuss my personal life again for awhile. In other words, things'll be getting back to normal.

The calm before the storm

Day 388

One more day left to work in this month. If I get four more activations, I will have met my quota--but I'm done worrying about it. If I don't meet my quota, I might still keep my job because I was close. I don't know that the precedent is for things like that, but I don't want to worry about it anymore. I want to do my best tomorrow and then relax because I have Sunday and Monday off. I want to just relax and use that time to play a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics. I imagine I'll be doing some of that tonight too, but for right now I'm catching up on the LCS matches I've missed.

I haven't played League of Legends in weeks, but I've still been trying to keep up with the competitive scene as much as I can because I still find it pretty interesting--and oddly enough, I'm sort of invested in the lives of these teenagers who play video games for a living. Maybe it's borne from a desire to live vicariously through them. I've never been a tremendously competitive gamer in the first place, but the idea of earning one's livelihood through gaming is of course very appealing to me.

I've always been the kind of gamer that responds more to the single player experience. The evidence of this is all over my blog and my Backloggery. RPGs comprise the overwhelming majority of the games I have played--but there are a few multiplayer games scattered here and there. League of Legends is one of the only competitive games I've ever played more than casually, though. I'm not sure what about it spoke to me so much. Maybe it was the friends I made while playing it. I cant say. I don't feel the need to play it every day or even every week like I used to, but I'd be lying if I said I couldn't just sit here and play it all night if the circumstances were right. Playing the game alone is no longer something I'm interested in, but I still find it an enjoyable game to play with friends.

I think it's a good thing that I've significantly toned down the amount I play it. Like World of Warcraft, it causes me to feel seriously unfulfilled when I spend that much time on it. I'm really glad that I've really buckled down this year and played a lot of games I've been putting off for ages. It only makes me wonder why I didn't do it sooner. So few of them ended up being games I regretted completing. Sure, some of them certainly couldn't be ranked among the best games I've played, but they've all given me a lot to talk about at the very least.

The War of the Lions endgame fantasy

Day 387

Man, the requirements for unlocking the Dark Knight class in War of the Lions are pretty ridiculous--and I imagine by the point I've done that I won't really need it. I could roll with my current setup for the rest of the game and I'd most likely be fine. Against certain opponents, Ramza is already hitting 500 damage per turn and attacks twice. Ninja with Brawler support ability is just as broken as ever, evidently. This is exactly why I always used to do certain themed playthroughs to increase challenge. The game's mechanics are very exploitable. Granted, I have been doing a lot of grinding.

It is a game that very much rewards it, however, so I can't even begin to fault it for that. I very much enjoy the ridiculous power level you can raise your characters to if you put in the effort to do so. It does make me wish that there was content available to warrant characters of that power level, though. A hard mode probably would have been nice, although it would make some of the early missions close to impossible. I've heard there are hacks out there that rebalance the game's difficulty and I've considered trying them. It might be something worth looking into once I've cleared through my backlog (in a few years time, likely).

Always dreaded this fight as a kid

I think if this happened to be my first time playing through this game, I'd be gushing over the intense diversity of character compositions and the broad variety of skills to experiment with. This is still true, but having a great deal of knowledge about the game tempers that enthusiasm somewhat. There are a great number of skills but if you were to attempt to maximize efficiency, there eventually become only so many abilities worth using. The vast majority of the Mystic or Orator skillsets are not really necessary at any point, for instance.

In the end, though, that is why Straight Character Class challenges exist. Each class in the game has its merits although may have decreased value when compared with other classes. There are a great variety of debuffs available through classes like the Mystic, Black Mage, and Geomancer, but they seldom seem necessary when so many ways to utterly destroy your opponents exist. Powerful abilities like Dual Wield, Doublehand, Brawler, and the shocking nature of Arithmeticks invalidate a lot of otherwise interesting strategies. It is up to the player in this case to choose to abstain from abusing these strategies in order to experience all the game has to offer.

I've played Final Fantasy Tactics a lot and despite the shiny new script and new content, War of the Lions is largely the game I know and love. For this particular playthrough, I have decided to field the most devastatingly powerful party composition I can think of. I wanted to be able to breeze through the latter stages of the game--and so far, this is definitely the case. Most enemies can be destroyed in a single shot, although my character are definitely not so durable themselves. My eventual goal is to unlock the new Dark Knight class, but considering the fact that it requires a mastery of not only the Knight class, but Black Mage as well, I might be waiting awhile.

On fears and work anxieties

Day 386

I've been cleared to work overtime this week in an effort to reach my quota for the month, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that's going to happen. I suppose there's a possibility the district manager will take pity on my and choose to keep me on regardless, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. This whole issue has certainly been stressing me out a lot lately--although I'm not trying not to dwell on it too much. Then I sit here trying to think of a topic for a blog entry that's not Final Fantasy Tactics and it's the first thing that comes to mind. Well, I guess it's inevitable to discuss it at some point.

I don't want to lose my job. I like this job pretty well! I feel like that's something I haven't been able to say for a long time. I'm not going to claim it's the job most suited for me or that my trajectory in life is exactly what I'd like for it to be, but things are better than they have been. I don't want to go back to that deep dark hole of being unemployed and unwilling to enter the outside world. It's a hard thing to drag yourself out of and I am loathe to repeat it. As much progress as I've made in the past months, I can just see myself falling back into the same old destructive patterns as before if I'm not careful.

What can I do to stop this from happening? I'm trying to be proactive. I'm trying to make as many sales as I can and keep a positive attitude. I went in yesterday even though it was my day off because a customer wanted to deal with my specifically. It helped, but it may not be enough. My best efforts may not be enough and if that ends up being the case, I'll have to deal with that. There are other jobs out there, but finding this one was so tough that I dread going through the process again--and I lucked out, too. There are a lot of jobs that just do not suit my personality or skill set. Sales, while not necessarily my strongest point, does suit me when it comes to electronics.

I'm long overdue on working on improving myself in other ways. I used to run just about every day and I felt great about it. It was tiring and sweaty and boring sometimes but seldom did I regret it after I was done. It's mostly the boredom, the loneliness, and the sheer time investment of running that I dread the most. The pain and the sweat I can endure. My tendency to procrastinate may well be another story. It's an excuse that I have often made and a crutch I really need to stop relying on.

I'm worried and I'm tense, but as usual I'm quashing all of my fears in an effort to remain content for the time being. It's a strategy that has helped me cope with dire situations over the years and I would assume it's not entirely healthy. I don't have anyone to seriously talk to about this, so this blog is about as good as I can reasonably expect. I can only hope things that will go well for me in the coming days.

War of mathematics

Day 385

This is an important week for me because it may well determine whether or not I keep my job. Whatever the outcome, I expect I'll be highly relieved once it's all over. Granted, getting a new job at this point is inevitably going to be a stressful experience, but the anticipation is what's killing me more than anything else. I really hope I do well and meet my quota, but if not, I'm going to try my best not  to get too down on myself. I have the skillset required to land myself another job--and I shouldn't give in to apathy and depression as I have in the past. It's highly unproductive!

The vast majority of my free time lately has of course been spent on Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. I'm in a stage of the game where I feel compelled to endlessly grind. It's not a matter of game difficulty by any means because I've found the game to be mostly straightforward so far--a testament to my experience with the game. I'm becoming impatient to form my ideal party composition so I'm hanging around and unlocking some of the classes I'm going to need. I think I might be overdoing it a bit, though. It would probably serve me better just to move on and level up through the storyline.

I'm planning on spending a great deal of time on War of the Lions because I'd like to unlock all of the new classes as well as experiment with any endgame content it might have to offer. I was vaguely aware of bonus dungeons available in the original version of the game but I'd never bothered with them all that much because I found playing through the main game to be significantly more compelling. By the time I reach that part of the game, I may well resume that way of thinking, but it's hard to say at this point.

One class I've taken great pains to unlock is the Arithmetician, a bizarre job that uses math to target opponents (and allies) with magic. This class has access to all of the major magic spells your character has learned (although not Geomancy or Summoning spells) and is capable of casting them on multiple targets based on mathematical criteria. For instance, you might cast a Fire spell on all targets at a height divisible by 5. All targets on heights 5, 10, 15, and so on will be afflicted by this Fire spell. With the proper preparation, it is possible to target a huge variety of opponents with very powerful spells.

Unlocking all the various abilities for this class can be an exercise in frustration, but considering the ridiculous power level, that's probably fair. The Arithmetician has a base speed of 3, less than half the average of other classes. This makes it almost impossible to function in combat without abusing Haste and the spell Tailwind, which boosts speed and can be repeated as many times as necessary. It doesn't seem all that viable to actually use the Arithmetician class in real story missions, but Arithmeticks is a fantastic secondary command for any spellcasting class.

War of the Lions, a game of variety

Day 384

I would have preferred to have had significantly more time with War of the Lions tonight before writing another entry, but an especially late night at work and a flurry of posting at Fool's Gold has prevented this from happening. As a result, I haven't played a lot of it since my long entry about the game yesterday. Still, I'm certain many things will occur to me the more I play it. It's a fantastic game and I have a lot to say about it.

I'm particularly excited about unlocking the new classes available exclusively to War of the Lions. I've heard that Dark Knight in particular is overpowered, but I don't really mind. After playing Gungnir and a series of other difficult games, I'm content to play a well constructed but easily exploited game like Final Fantasy Tactics. I enjoy it because it affords the player the opportunity to become ridiculously powerful much in the same way as Final Fantasy V. Mixing and matching the best elements of various jobs together is supremely satisfying to do. For instance, I have recently trained all of my characters as Time Mages in an effort to give them all the Teleportation movement ability. This allows otherwise immobile classes to scurry around the map quite effectively, although attempting to travel too far will often fail.

One of my characters instead trained long enough to learn the Mana Shield reaction ability, which allows her to tank hits with her MP pool instead of her HP. This allows her to survive any hit so long as she has at least 1 MP left. Combine that with Manafont which allows her to regain MP every time she moves and you end up with a very sturdy unit regardless of her defensive stats. I plan on using her primarily as a Mystic because I really like the pole weapons they use. They deal pretty good damage and operate entirely off Magic Attack, meaning both her melee attacks and spells have the potential to be quite strong.

Eventually I'll be able to annihilate maps with relative ease. The kind of setup I want requires a significant amount of grinding or otherwise I'd complain the game is too easy. A player assuming a reasonable pace through the game should find it fairly challenging. Veteran players will invariably find myriad ways to boost the game's challenge in an effort to add variety. Straight Character Class Challenges are a good example of this. In such a challenge, only characters of a certain class (Knight for instance) can be used for the duration of the playthrough. No secondary command may be equipped, but Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities can be used provided they are from that one class. It's very restrictive to the gameplay, but can force veteran players to innovate new strategies.

Hopefully I'll have a more substantive entry prepared for tomorrow. For now I'd like to sit back and actually play the game! I've been eager to play it all day, but only now have I really settled down and gained the opportunity to do so.

On writing and richness of theme in War of the Lions

Day 383

Final Fantasy Tactics is unparalleled in its breadth of character development and customization even to this day. It was originally released in something like 1997 or thereabouts but it is still just as engaging today, despite some dated interface choices. It has a timeless graphical style and an excellent plot. Recently, I have been playing Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, the PSP port/update to the original PlayStation 1 title. I've completed the original on numerous occasions and still consider it one of my favorite games of all time--but for some reason I'd never finished the PSP version.

I could make the argument that it's because of the frequent animation slowdowns in combat, but after spending some time with the game, it's not difficult to become accustomed to that kind of thing. I'm pretty far into chapter 2 already, and although I still notice these slowdowns, they no longer bother me. The mechanics of the game are just so strong that I don't have it in me to nitpick about such a minor issue when instead I'd rather talk about the number of changes that have been made to the game's script.

Square-Enix wisely chose to leave the game's mechanics largely untouched. For an old fan like myself, this is much appreciated. There's not much in Final Fantasy Tactics' gameplay that I can find issue with, except perhaps for the design of a few of the game's jobs. Archers and Dragoons don't have particularly engaging skillsets, although they do feature excellent and fun reaction and support abilities. Still, the purpose of a remake is very rarely to redesign a game from the ground up, so I wouldn't have expected them to overhaul these classes that are still perfectly workable.

The largest and most noticeable change in War of the Lions is of course the dramatically reimagined script. I mentioned earlier that I felt Tactics' plot was excellent, and I still believe that to be true. However, the PS1 original certainly suffered from an amateurish and occasionally confusing translation, with such infamous mistranslations as "Defeat Dycedarg's Elder Brother!" and "Salty Rage." For the most part, though, the script was perfectly readable for the average player and conveyed the sense of the plot well. I would have expected names, both of places and persons, to be significantly tweaked in this remake to better adhere to the original Japanese. What I did not expect, however, was a complete rewriting of the entire game's script.

Don't get me wrong--the rewritten script perfectly communicates the sentiments of the original game, but the tone has changed significantly. The original localization, despite some translation errors, was written primarily in contemporary vernacular, whereas the War of the Lions translation is written entirely in (shockingly genuine) archaic language. A famous line form the first prologue mission has undergone a significant change, for instance. The original line was "Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God." I always thought this was a very straightforward and memorable line. The new version is "Tis your birth and faith that wrong you, not I." This communicates the same exact meaning but is written in much more flowery language. It's jarring at first, but I'm beginning to become accustomed to it.

What's so impressive about the script is that it adheres strictly to that ancient highborn linguistic style throughout the game. It never feels as if the writers slipped out of character for a moment. It really does add to the genuine medieval feel of the game, but it's certainly a change from the more direct writing from the original localization. I was initially put off by this overly verbose style but I have to admit that I like it more and more as I get further into the game.

Amnesia: On terror and procrastination

Day 382

I'm in danger of falling out of my routine if I don't start writing this right away! Unfortunately, it's 10:30 PM and I haven't yet thought of anything to write about. I wonder if maybe I could think of something while writing--just sort of on the fly. Alright, it's not working yet. I'm sure I'll get there.

Truth be told, a friend has come over tonight and it's prompted me to look into some of the games that are in my backlog at the moment. I've experimented with Amnesia: The Dark Descent as well as Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, both of which I've been putting off for a very long time for vastly different reasons. In the case of Amnesia, I find the game absolutely terrifying and I'm a bit of a wuss--although I greatly admire the craftmanship that's gone into the game, both on a technical and creative level.

Amnesia has excellent sound and art design that combine to perfectly create an eering and unsettling atmosphere. No matter how much I try to rationalize what's happening, when the deformed ghoul shuffles toward me, his guttural rasp echoing throughout the castle's hallways, I'm afraid for my very life. Rationally, I can tell myself that it's just a video game and none of this is real--but I've spent a better part of my life learning how to suspend my disbelief and become immersed in video games. It is for this reason that Amnesia is particularly effective on me.

I've heard a lot of folks say that Amnesia doesn't scare them. That's fine. I believe them and don't doubt they're far braver persons than I--but I'll be the first to say they're missing out. The ability to immerse yourself in a game significantly bolsters one's enjoyment of it, I feel, and particularly of a game like Amnesia. It's that sense of imagination and openness that makes a game like that so spellbinding for so many reasons. But it's also why I have so much trouble making progress on it. Every hallway is a harrowing trek through my own personal psychoses. Every time I finish playing, I feel like I need a therapy session.

I'm making a personal vow that I will one day finish Amnesia. It might not necessarily be soon, but I'm not going to cull it from my backlog by any means. It could very well be the last game I conquer, but I promise it will happen. Then I'll be in the perfect position to play Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

Or not.

Bittersweet nostalgia

Day 381

I have been positively overcome with nostalgia over the past few days due to a stunt I pulled on Facebook on Wednesday. I don't generally use Facebook a lot because the whole format of it annoys me. What I miss more than anything is the format of the traditional internet message board--a format that sadly seems to have gone by the wayside. I have an absolute ton of memories of posting at message boards over the years and in one in particular. It's a place called Fool's Gold and I've been registered there for eleven years and have over 15,000 posts. Granted, I've probably posted less and less as the years have worn on--and activity dwindled down to nothingness until all of those familiar faces disappeared.

The internet is a funny thing. People come and go and vanish in the blink of an eye. Despite my distaste for the site, Facebook has been tremendously helpful for at least keeping tabs on these people that I used to interact with on a daily basis. Still, when I posted a status update on Wednesday urging a great number of these people to return, even if only for a little while--I was overwhelmed by the response. A lot of people that I hadn't spoken to in years popped up and started posting again. At one point there were 500 posts in the span of 24 hours. It was great to see a lot of those guys again. It made me realize just how much I'd missed my internet social life.

I have never been a tremendously social person, partially because being in public makes me very uncomfortable! The internet has always been the perfect place for me to express myself though, and there, at least, I have always been extremely personable. I miss having that opportunity! Facebook is just not the same. It has such a "real life" vibe to it. It is tied up in relatives and family friends and things like that. It is not tied to a community of common interests. It is about relationships formed from proximity.

Message boards were great because they sprung up out of shared interests. In the case of Fool's Gold, it was sort of a meeting ground for people from a whole variety of different message boards. The prevailing common interest was of course gaming, but as people have gotten older and more mature (or cynical), that has become less true. I'm obviously still massively involved in gaming, but it's fine that some other folks are not. I'm still ecstatic to be able to talk with these people once again, even if it's only a short term thing. I'm merely happy to learn they're still around and that they are successful and happy.

I may never find the long term close friends that I'm really looking for, but I'm not going to let it get me down. I will continue to be as open and expressive as I possibly can be. I will savor what socialization I can get because you never know when you're going to lose that opportunity. I was living in a kind of golden age six or seven years ago where I was constantly surrounded by like minded people (on the internet) and I spoke with them daily. For the longest time, I've spent most of my days alone in contemplation! I have typed out giant swathes of text to be read by no one as a form of therapy and self expression. I want to put it all out there and share it with people I respect--but not everyone has time for that kind of thing. Not everyone has time for message boards.

Flying by the seat of my pants in Gungnir

Day 380

As I draw closer to the end of Gungnir, I'm struck with the realization that I've enjoyed it more and more as the game has gone into its later stages. I think this has a lot to do with investing more effort into understanding the game's mechanics and focusing more on strategy instead of mindlessly zerging the enemy. I've been in the mindset over the past year or so to rush through games as quickly as possible. Even though my goal is to write about a lot of these games in detail, I'm still ultimately cognizant of my desire to finish 30 games this year. It's a silly goal that doesn't really mean much of anything, but I know I'd be pretty satisfied with myself if I manged it. I still have plenty of time to do this. Depending on the games I play, I could easily go even higher than that.

I would most certainly enjoy Gungnir more on a replay. If I understood what was happening from the very beginning of the game, I'd waste a lot less money on experimentation and I would buy only the things I absolutely needed. Any time I lost an item, I'd restart a mission. It'd save me a lot of trouble in the long run. This is the kind of meticulous playstyle that I'd normally reserve for a Fire Emblem game. Killing off characters in that game is problematic not because you lose valuable items, but because you lose the character in question forever. However, Gungnir does feature many valuable items that can be lost. I'm still salty about losing that excellent accessory for Paulo.

Beyond that, I better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various classes and how best they can be used. I understand how Tactics Points work and how the Beat system works and what its restrictions are. Is it a fault of the game that these mechanics are not adequately explained? I'm not sure. I haven't seen the instruction manual--and to be honest, I did not do the research I should have. I have this habit of going into games blind so that I can give more of an unbiased opinion of them and for the most part I like this policy. Sometimes it does impede my enjoyment of these games, unfortunately.

In the case of Divinity: Original Sin, I did a lot of research before purchasing. As a result, I think I enjoyed it and understood it a lot more than I otherwise would have. The only reason this research was done was because my co-op partner and I always plan things before we start a game. That's just how his personality is and I typically go along with it. If left to my own devices, I'll dive in and figure things out as I go. In many cases, this works out just fine, but for Gungnir it was not a great choice.

For the next game I play, I'm going to plan out how I play the game. I'll probably discuss it here and I'll compare how differently I approach the game. I'm still flirting with the idea of playing Gungnir again, but in all honesty I'd like to just move on. The prospect of finally playing the PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics is extremely appealing to me. It's been some time since I've played it--and I've never even finished that particular version. I'll definitely plan out some things about my party composition beforehand.

Lufia II: On battles, dungeons, puzzles, and encounters

   Day 379

Famous last words

It seems a little premature to start seriously writing about Lufia II considering the fact that I've only put in about two hours so far. I was only able to play for about 45 minutes today due to my second Elizabethtown trip and now that I'm home I'll probably make a pretty serious effort to finish Gungnir. However, I've played quite a bit of Lufia II before and even though I'm not far in this current playthrough, I do have my fair share of opinions about the game.

Lufia II's combat system is fairly vanilla and not at all atypical for JRPGs of the era. You'll assemble a party of four and bash enemies to dust in turn-based fashion much as you would in any Dragon Quest game. The developer, 

Neverland made a very wise decision to ditch several worrisome elements from Lufia & the Fortress of Doom such as the inability to target specific units and the lack of auto-targeting in the event of an enemy's death before an attack connects. Magic spells are now purchased from shops instead of learned at specific levels. I am more or less indifferent to this change but I'm completely okay with it because it seems that different characters are capable of using different spells.

Another new feature in Lufia II's combat system is the Ikari Technique, a special ability tied to pieces of equipment. Each character has an IP gauge that fills as they take damage in combat. Portions of this bar can be used for these techniques, which run the gamut from damage to utility. These techniques are useful for conserving resources because they do not use any MP and are tied to a gauge that can easily be refilled. Tia gains access very early on to an Ikari Technique that heals a reasonable amount of HP as well.

In the end though, Lufia II's battle system is not its primary selling point. There is much more of an emphasis on puzzles this time around, which would normally frustrate me--but in this case they are generally designed well enough that I don't mind them at all and in many occasions I enjoy them quite a bit. I think a lot of my enjoyment comes from not having to deal with random encounters while solving these puzzles. It takes the pressure off and allows me to concentrate on the task at hand instead of losing track of what I'm doing because I'm repeatedly being mobbed by wild dogs.

I am endlessly appreciative of classic JRPGs that do not feature random encounters. It is such a rare trait that I feel I must highlight it. To be fair, Lufia II does feature random encounters on the overworld--a place where such a thing is not at all intrusive since you're just traveling from Point A to Point B. In dungeons, enemies can be entirely avoided if you so choose. A fired arrow will stun an approaching enemy--and they only move when you do, so it's not difficult to make this happen. With as many puzzles as Lufia II features, a traditional random encounter system would have led to an immensely frustrating game for a player like myself and I'm glad the developers chose to remove them.

Even more analysis on Gungnir's mechanics

Day 378

There is a wonderful game lurking beneath Gungnir's surface, but it takes a considerable effort to unearth that game. If I were to play Gungnir again (and that probably won't happen) I expect I'd enjoy it more the second time around now that I better understand the game's mechanics. I'll know not to stand near the edge of a map and always to make sure to loot a fallen ally's corpse lest I lose valuable items permanently. I'm not happy this feature exists in the first place, but my annoyance could have certainly been allayed somewhat if I'd known this was going to happen. It reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics where units could potentially be lost permanently if not revived in time. In this case, you only lose items, which seems less restrictive initially--but then you have to consider that Gungnir's battle system is built entirely around these items.

 As I've discussed before, each weapon in Gungnir, whether it be book, bow, or sword, features at least one unique attack. Some weapons are very rare and can easily be lost permanently if the player is not careful. I'm still irritated that I lost a valuable accessory that halves casting time from Paulo, who seems to die in just about every mission. I have thus far not found a replacement for this accessory, although other less powerful variants seem relatively easy to find.
What I like about Gungnir is that there's a huge variety of items and weapons, all of which have cool effects. Some items will provide boosts to attack power or utility during combos. There is a very good selection of armor available, all with different strengths and weaknesses. Many armors will absorb a certain element or have other unique effects like shortening Cast Time. It's really fun to level up new weapons and try out their abilities. This is the part of the game that I feel really works, so it's doubly disheartening that enemies in Gungnir seem so intent on stealing or breaking these hard-earned items. A certain boss broke just about every piece of gear on one of my characters; there are no words for how annoying this is.

Positioning is key to strategy in Gungnir. Positioning incorrectly will frequently put your fragile characters in the way of massive combo chains capable of one or two-shotting them. This is especially true in the case of long range classes like archers, throwers, and witches. These classes are also available to the player, but it's much more difficult to set up good combos because of how the player's turn order works so much differently than the opponent's. There have been so many times where I sat there, helpless, as the AI set up an endless chain of combos by systematically moving units into position and attacking consecutively. This does come at the expense of Tactics Points, but this too is one area where the AI frequently has an advantage. Capturing the flags that grant these points is much easier when you have 11 or 12 characters at your disposal, none of which are burdened with the penalty of having to share a turn.

Despite my frustration with Gungnir, I can't say I don't enjoy it in some ways. I enjoy unlocking new items and gear and successfully completing missions is satisfying--as long as I don't have to resort to cheese just to make it through. It is a game that is frequently challenging for the wrong reasons but it does sometimes hit the mark. I have to wonder how much better a game this might be with some tweaks.

Further analysis on Gungnir's mechanics

Day 377

Gungnir is a tremendously frustrating game packed full of promising ideas. It features a cute and colorful art style, a multitude of classic and innovative strategy RPG mechanics, and a solid plot and presentation. However, it is bogged down by clunky menus and a whole bag of questionable design decisions that go a long way toward significantly diluting the player's experience. I can't recall any game I've played recently that has soured my mood more than Gungnir. I am continuously surprised at how ludicrously poor some of the ideas that went into this game are.

Flashy animations will not dilute my rage

On the other hand, it's definitely possible my frustration comes from a poor understanding of the game's mechanics--but I'd still argue that these mechanics are not strong ones. One of these mechanics allows the player (or the AI) to net an instant kill by knocking a unit off the field of battle. Not only is this mechanic nonsensical, but it's also frequently very unsatisfying. Watching one of your units instantly die because you positioned it too close to the edge of the map is insanely frustrating--but it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment to do the same to an enemy--unless you end up knocking an enemy into the water so it drowns. That's actually pretty fun.

Many missions seem balanced around the idea that you'll be taking advantage of this ring out mechanic, essentially forcing the player to employ that strategy to be successful. It's certainly possible to avoid it altogether, but it makes things a lot more difficult in a very unsatisfying way. There was a particular mission in which your characters start a really high elevation against a whole group of very durable barbarian enemies. Each of these foes require six or seven hits to take out, so it makes a lot more sense just to knock them off the map with knockback skills. It's possible to bait them to stand on the edge of the map with some careful positioning, but I feel it'd be a lot more fun to just slaughter them. There doesn't seem to be a very effective way of doing that. Maybe I'm underleveled and undergeared?

But oh wait, knocking them off the map might not even be a sensible strategy. Once you advance farther onto the map, an annoying little flying enemy called a Wampyre appears and completely wrecks your world with an attack that charms your units in an AoE. Yeah, it's capable of bringing your own units over to the enemy side in multiples. It has a very high chance of activating and completely derails whatever strategy you might have had. I've never been a big fan of status ailments in RPGs that cause you to completely lose control of your characters--and charm is the pretty much the highest offender, right up there with confusion. It's not a fun mechanic even when it's weak--but when it's as strong and reliable as that, it's downright infuriating.

Surely the counterplay to such an annoying enemy is to make sure it dies before it even gets close to you? Normally I'd agree with that, but Gungnir is a game in which most enemies require multiple turns to defeat. I don't have anyone close to strong enough to be able to take down a foe in one hit. Even against weaker enemies, killing in two hits is rare--and even in that case it would require some well executed combos to pull off. Even if I did have the means to kill the creature quickly, I would have to make my way over to it somehow, which puts me in harm's way regardless.

Gungnir has an the unfortunate tendency of always giving the enemy a massive tactical advantage. The map I've been discussing for the better part of this post is a great example of that fact. Although the Charm-inducing Wampyrie is annoying enough, the developers saw fit to throw in some nigh-unreachable Undines in the water far below your initial position. These mermaid-like creatures are extremely long-range spellcasters capable of hitting from 8 panels away. These spells evidently completely ignore height, because they can hurl spells all day long from an extremely safe position. If my units are at all grouped up, they'll be destroyed within turns by the onslaught. Without constant healing or armor that absorbs a couple of different elements, it's very annoying to deal with.

The logical move in that situation would be to carefully move your units out of the way before the spells go off--and that works, to a certain point. The only problem is that Gungnir's turn selection system is also heavily weighted in favor of the opponent. Each unit in the enemy's control gets to take a turn like a standard strategy RPG. However, the player must decide on a single character to move each turn. If you only move a few panels, you might be afforded the oh-so-rare opportunity to move someone else within a short time frame. It's very seldom enough to move your party members out of the range of these deadly long range spells, however.

Sting, in their zeal to innovate new mechanics, has needlessly complicated a system that already has several tried and true iterations in place. Final Fantasy Tactics is a prime example of a game that had a charge-based turn system and it was executed extremely well. Each character took turns based on their speed stat and it was very simple to check when each character's turn was coming up. Everyone got to shine and you were never forced to make choices that made you feel bad. 

These entry is already turning into a giant, unreadable wall of text and I haven't even touched on a lot of the things about the game that I find frustrating. The next major annoyance I will touch on is the ability to lose unique items, but I'll talk about that tomorrow. With all the negative things I have to say about this game, it's a wonder why I keep playing it. It does have its redeeming features, but so far I feel the negatives far outweigh the positives. I'm so far in at this point that it seems unlikely I'm going to stop, though. I'm loyal to the Dept. Heaven series and I yearn for the game to somehow grow on me, but I don't see it happening. I know that if I were to ever play the game again, I'd definitely make different choices and play the game a lot differently--but I have to wonder if it would even be worth the frustration.

Chosen of Asgard

Day 376

One feature of Gungnir that I haven't discussed at great length is the special ability of the titular weapon wielded by Giulio, the protagonist. According to Elise, a mysterious blue-haired women claiming to from Asgard, Giulio has been specially chosen by Gungnir to be its wielder. It's a very powerful weapon that is given to you from the very beginning of the game--and it only increases in power over time.

Gungnir's default attack targets the three panels directly in front of Giulio. It deals heavy damage and converts a percentage of that damage to HP. This ability has saved me in multiple missions. This is not Gungnir's only ability, however. It can also summon gods based on Norse mythology, all of which have varying effects. These summons require a great deal of Tactics Points and therefore cannot be used early on in a mission. Although the effects are extremely powerful and hit multiple targets, it seems the targets chosen are random, meaning you can easily harm allies as well. On top of that, these summons require an extremely long charge time, leaving Giulio quite vulnerable. It's more than a little irritating that these spells are so unreliable considering the hefty requirements inherent to casting them.

I've only used these summons a few times so far, mostly as a last resort when I have no other option. I used it recently to finish off a few stragglers when most of my party had already been taken out. I didn't have to worry about hitting allies because there was no one left to hit! This usage case isn't a very satisfying one and I can't imagine it was designed to be that way. It's possible the high power of these spells offsets the possible downsides, but so far I'm not convinced. I'll experiment with it more as I go.

In my last entry on Gungnir, I discussed casting times for spells. It's frequently unsatisfying to attempt to cast a spell on an opponent only to find that they'll be able to move long before the spell finishes casting. This is still frustrating, but I've learned that there are items that can reduce this charge time--mostly through accessories and other secondary items. I have one accessory equipped on a story character named Paulo that seems to cut his charging time in half. This is a welcome addition but I have to wonder what strategic depth this really adds to the gameplay--other than allowing some counterplay to the spells of opponents. 

 Another feature that I had not been making use of nearly enough beforehand was the Ace system. Each missions requires you to field at least one story character. Which characters are available to you vary based on the mission, but each of these characters have unique classes as well as a different set of units that they have synergy with. Well, the only real synergy is an added effect that reduces their delay after movement. It's a very good idea to use classes that synergize with the ace you've chosen so that you can move your units more frequently.

There are a lot of classes in Gungnir, but the only real thing that separates them is the kind of gear they can equip and their base statistics. This is fine though, because the weapons your characters equip determine the abilities they use in combat. Each weapon has at least one unique ability and there's no such thing as a standard attack in Gungnir. An axe might have a command called Earth Crush as it's primary attack and it will of course be earth elemental and might have an additional effect like lowering armor. As your character gains profiency with this weapon, they'll unlock other attacks this weapon has. A weapon could theoretically have four attacks, but I haven't seen anything with more than four just yet.

I think Gungnir is a game full of dense mechanics that I'm only just now beginning to understand. I've talked about it a lot and I still have not even begun to explain it in detail. I like the game, but I can't say I'm engrossed. It might end up being a situation where I only really come to love the game until I'm in the homestretch--but by that point it might be too late.

Rise of the Sinistrals

Day 375

Having put Fire Emblem behind me, I had to settle on a new game to play at work. It didn't take me long to choose Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, a classic SNES RPG that for some reason I have never completed. I have started it on numerous occasions but despite liking it and finding it interesting, I've never gotten more than probably a quarter of the way through the game. This is especially puzzling when one considers that I have completed the game's predecessor, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom--a game that is, by all accounts, a far inferior title.Although I haven't played enough of Lufia II to make a fair judgment, I can only assume this commonly held belief is true.

Lufia & the Fortress of Doom is not great and had an uncommon pitfall for games of that era. It drug on for far too long until the gameplay devolved into getting into random encounters while visiting a series of identical towns with swapped color palettes. It was a serviceable if dated JRPG until the point that it became apparent the game was winding down. I wouldn't consider 30 hours very long for an RPG, but when it's as needlessly stretched as Lufia was, I'd much rather it be concluded in half that amount of time. Still, I was determined to finish it--and when I did, my immediate thought was "Yeah! Now I can play Lufia II!"

But I didn't. At that point, I was all Lufia'd out and I just wanted to play something different. If I recall correctly, I ended up playing Suikoden and enjoyed it a lot. This was back when I started writing about games a lot. There are no words about Lufia on this blog but I wrote a considerable amount about it--and in fact, I kept a document chronicling my progress as I went. This is something I don't really do anymore because I update this blog every single day. I wonder though, if it's something I should consider doing once again? I very rarely do comprehensive entries once I've finished a game. I'll generally write about my impressions as I go and finally offer up some closing thoughts once I finish--over the course of several entries.

My point is that Lufia II seems like a really solid RPG and I should have finished it a long time ago. I should leave my criticisms of the first game behind me and approach this one with a fresh outlook. I'm sure it'll take me some time to get through if I'm mostly playing it at work, but at the very least it should be less trouble than Fire Emblem was. I'm playing it on my Android phone and the touch screen controls are surprisingly intuitive. New Mystery was occasionally a little awkward to control but if this works out, I might try to follow up Lufia II with Dragon Quest III, the only other SNES game left in my backlog. 

The Binding Shield

Day 374

Holy crap, I should really consider getting more sleep. Today was stressful enough without the added anxiety of exhaustion. Still, I stayed up late for a (good?) reason--to finish Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem. I wanted to be done with it and now I am! At just under 24 hours, it's far from the longest game I've played recently, but the number of times I had to restart missions would surely inflate that duration by a significant amount. Sadly, this extra time is not recorded.

Even after beating the game, I continue to regret my decision to play New Mystery on hard mode. Not until the very end of the game did any of my characters feel powerful. This is in small part due to lower stat growths and stat caps in New Mystery compared to later games of the series, but also due to the many many enemies that had competitive stats with my own characters. This is distressing because there's frequently ten times more of them than there are of me! Granted, I have strategy and a human brain on my side, but it's often not very much help.

The level of care I had to take in many of these missions sapped a lot of the fun out of it for me--and yeah, it's my fault. I shouldn't have played hard mode. I'm sure there still would have been a number of challenging missions regardless--and I would have had the opportunity to level somewhat weaker characters on easier chapters had I the desire. Because I was playing hard mode, I was unable to level characters like Norne, Elrean, and Merric. They started out too weak and simply could not survive.

I think the Fire Emblem series has gotten a lot better over the years at fielding a roster of likable characters that are all at least marginally useful in combat. New Mystery has a decently sized roster but so many of them are absolutely useless. Pre-promoted units have traditionally not been great in Fire Emblem, but the effect is worse still in this particular entry. There were some aesthetically pleasing characters that I really would have liked to use given the opportunity, but I just couldn't. They would not have survived. 

I guess I'm expecting too much out of a remake. Intelligent Systems wasn't looking to reinvent the wheel but instead update a classic and redistribute it to a new audience--and I'm appreciative of that. If not for their efforts I doubt I would have gotten the opportunity to play New Mystery. The folks at Heroes of Shadow also deserve recognition, because without them, I wouldn't have been able to play it in English! Sadly, they seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth. It'd be great to see them work on other games in the future.

The Dark Pontifex

Day 373

It's starting to look like I'm going to be behind schedule on finishing Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem. I fully intend to finish it tonight, but it could easily be well past midnight by the time I do. I do this mostly because I'd like to be done with the game. I love the series but New Mystery is definitely not a highlight, though I'd say it edges out Shadow Dragon in a few key areas. Above all else, I supremely regret my decision to play the game on hard mode. It has made the game so much longer than it had to be.

I'm going to go into more detail on what I liked and disliked about New Mystery tomorrow (or possibly some day soon after that) but tonight I'd like to discuss the units I used in this playthrough, much like I did for Super Robot Wars J and Alpha Gaiden.

 Like many games in the Fire Emblem series, randomness is a huge factor in developing your characters. I prefer the games in the series that add features that help to combat this randomness. In Path of Radiance on the GameCube for instance, it was possible to somewhat compensate for poor luck with stat growths by using Bonus XP accrued between chapters. Levels gained from this method would guarantee at least three stat ups. This is very much appreciated in a game in which certain characters will occasionally receive no benefit from leveling whatsoever. I've had more than a couple of these levels in this playthrough of New Mystery.

I was particularly screwed by RNG with the My Unit character I named Brea. I started her as a Myrmidon, an agile sword-wielding class. In most Fire Emblem titles, these units are glass cannons with extreme speed and offensive capabilities. However, they were somewhat protected by their high evasion due to a sky-high speed stat. I'm not sure how New Mystery's mechanics work, but despite capped speed, Brea's evasion is not spectacular. She'll dodge more than the average character, but it's not nearly enough to protect her from danger. Frequently, she'll be taken out in one or two hits. This is doubly concerning because her offense is frankly not that good either. I don't know if her growths are really just that poor or I have very bad luck but she still had about 12 strength well into her promotion. I've been forced to recall her to Paladin just to be at all relevant in combat. At the time of this writing, she still only has 17 strength when other characters like Palla and Catria hit their strength cap many many levels ago.

My star units have been my flyers Caeda, Palla, and Catria. Est seemed to show promise but she comes so late in the story that it's almost impossible to train her. Palla and Catria spent most of the game as Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders, but I was forced to reclass them to Generals to better deal with stronger enemies in the late game chapters. It turned out to be a good decision especially for Catria, who ended up capping four of her stats. Her resistance is still very low, but Generals have traditionally been very weak to magic in the series.

My two magic users are also very good. I had had plans at certain points of the game to attempt to use Merric and Elrean, two mages available starting from chapter 12. If I'd put more effort into it, I might have been able to get them to work--but they were very difficult to train and didn't seem to have very good stat growths anyway. That's one thing that's disappointing about New Mystery compared to other Fire Emblem titles. Many characters are comparatively very weak. When playing hard mode, I'm forced to use whatever I can get ahold of that's strong. It really does limit my choices. Linde and Malicia are both very good though, with Malicia surprisingly capping her magic stat at promoted level 15. Linde has been extremely useful at various stages of the game by tanking enemies with the absurdly useful Nosferatu spell that drains HP from enemies.

Barst is my only real dedicated axe user. I really wanted one on my team but Bord and Cord seemed mercilessly dull--and everyone else you encounter in the game is prepromoted with poor stat growths. Have I mentioned how irritating that is? The game gives you the illusion of choice. I guess it wouldn't matter in Normal, but I'm playing Hard here! Barst has absurdly high stats in pretty much every area but defense and resistance. Despite this, he's been pretty hard to train. Many of the game's missions are tough enough that you frequently can't rely on weaker units to get through.

My other units are unfortunately less impressive. Warren started out as a Hunter, which as far as I know is exclusive to this game and Shadow Dragon. Hunters are thematically no different from Archers, but they promote into Horsemen, which--you guessed it--are bow users who ride horses. They of course have excellent mobility but his stats are only average. Ranged units in general seem to be a tad underpowered in New Mystery. It seems better in most cases to rely on weapons like javelins and hand-axes--both of which can be wielded by classes with much higher stats. Like Warren, Cecille has been similarly unimpressive. None of the mounted units seemed noticeably strong, but Cecille in particular could not accrue many points in strength at all. Every time I bring her along, she seems like more of a liability than anything else.

My tone would indicate that I don't particularly enjoy this game. My tone is correct. It's not a terrible game per se, but it's definitely not a great Fire Emblem game. I'm only completing it as a measure of loyalty to the series--and after I'm done, it's bye-bye. I'd like to play the other games in the series that I haven't finished yet, but if this one is any indication of the quality of the others, then I may not be missing much.

A Not-So-Impressive Odyssey

Day 372

I briefly considered passing out before writing this entry but a surge of energy provided by funny cat pictures on Reddit has convinced me otherwise. I have returned from Elizabethtown and have driven somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 miles today. This is no small feat for me because I don't drive long distances. I drive to work and I drive home from work. Sometimes I will go to Walmart. Otherwise, I don't drive much of anywhere at all. There was a time in my life where I would drive to the houses of friends, but these still weren't very out of the way. These amounted to a few extra miles at most.

I realize that for most people driving to a town 63 miles away is not a big deal and I would be quick to agree that it's not a big deal for most people. I'm not most people though and I have a pretty serious driving phobia. I'm proud of what I've accomplished today, regardless of how mundane it might appear from the outside. Having said that, I'm stupidly exhausted because of how little sleep I got last night. At the very least I can say I abandoned the idea of pulling an all-nighter (thank goodness) but it's still very likely I got less than three hours of sleep total. It's not much, but it's surprising how much good just a little sleep can do compared to none at all.

Thankfully, I have tomorrow off. This should give me more than enough time to relax tonight and hopefully get some sleep. I'm determined to make some more progress on Gungnir tonight because I feel like I'm having a hard time advancing in that game. After playing Dissidia 012 and Divinity back to back, I'm hungry for a game that just yields to my demands. Gungnir may not be that game, to be honest. I'm having a hard time getting a hang of the mechanics and so far it's been a very challenging and punishing game. I've had to restart each of the missions I've played since returning to the game at least a couple times.

The only other two PSP titles left to complete after Gungnir are Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions. The latter should be child's play for me because I've played the original so many times before. Normally I think I'd do some kind of special playthrough to make the game more challenging, but I think in this particular instance I might just field the most ridiculously powerful team I can think of .I might even use Orlandu for once if I'm feeling particularly vengeful.

I'm not too sure about Innocent Sin. The first Persona remake on PSP was reasonably challenging, but not unreasonably so. I imagine the level of difficulty is probably about the same, but the Shin Megami Tensei games are generally fairly difficult, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if it ended up being quite the challenge in the latter stages of the game.

Inferno of the Demon Lance

Day 371

Gungnir is an odd little strategy RPG from Sting, the developer that brought us games like Riviera: The Promised Land and Knights in the Nightmare, both of which are awesome for different reasons. Sting has always been a developer that loves to innovate. One could argue that their penchant for including never before seen features in their games often backfires on them--and I could see that being the case in some situations. Ygddra Union was an enjoyable game but it didn't quite live up to expectations set by their other titles. 

It is also an entry into the so-called Dept. Heaven series, a title for which I can derive no particular meaning. The games in this series share a few common elements, but for the most part they are very different from each other. They are all RPGs but feature wildly varying mechanics. Riviera is a Game Boy Advance title (later released for PSP) that features an almost traditional turn-based combat system centered primarily around the use of found weapons with limited durability--as well as some dating sim elements. Knights in the Nightmare is a strategy RPG/bullet hell bybrid which is just as crazy as it sounds and one of the most fun games I've played on a handheld.

Like Knights in the Nightmare and Yggdra Union, Gungnir is a strategy RPG that features nods to Norse mythology. The protagonist Giulio wields the demon lance Gungnir, capable of summoning the powers of gods. He has access to this very powerful weapon from the very beginning of the game, although you may choose to equip him with additional weapons if you wish. This is frequently a good idea because Gungnir's primary attack hits the three panels in front of Guilio--friend or foe. 

 On the surface, Gungnir is a traditional strategy RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics. It even resurrects the charging mechanic that you don't often see in other RPGs of that vein. Most spells will require the caster to charge for a certain period of time before the spell executes, meaning that it is important to keep track of when allies and enemies will get the opportunity to move. This is easy to do because of the handy listing at the bottom of the screen. However, it's not always obvious how long a spell will take to charge and after 10 hours of gameplay, I'm still not sure if there's a static charge time for spells or not--and what affects whether or not that charge time is reduced. I've seen the charge time being discounted on a few occasions, particularly when my healer casts Criss-Cross--but I have no clue why it happens.

Unlike Final Fantasy Tactics, your allied units are not treated as separate entities when it comes to the turn order. In that game, there was a speed stat that determined how often that character would be allowed to take action. In Gungnir, the player is allowed to move a unit any time it is the party's turn, indicated by a yellow square with the letter P at the bottom of the screen. The actions that unit takes during that turn will determine how long it takes before it is the party's turn once again. If the player chooses to move a unit one panel, it will likely become the party's turn very quickly afterward.

The format present in Gungnir is kind of strange, honestly. Every enemy unit is treated a single entity and all have their own turn. It feels like the player's party is at a disadvantage because it is only possible to move a single unit every once in awhile, whereas the enemy is constantly moving all units. It's not difficult to become overwhelmed and feel as if you have no recourse for dealing with it. It's certainly possible I don't understand the system well enough to exploit it. Only time will tell if I get a better handle on it.

Land of Discord

Day 370

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Confessions of the Creator must surely be considered optional content. I've just now completed it by taking out level 130 Feral Chaos (no small feat) but the reward for my efforts was little more than a simple message saying that I could continue to play and feel free to explore as I wished. I had already viewed the credits sequence countless gameplay hours before after completing the main story chapters. 

Was it a waste? No, I really enjoyed grinding my characters up to level 100 and tracking down the best gear I could get. A lot of the enemies near the end of the game became frustrating to square off against, however, with their staggeringly high HP totals and tendency to dodge every single attack. The majority of enemies in the final areas were level 125 or more, 25 full levels above the cap for human players. This gave the AI a pretty sigificant boost in damage and survivability, leading to countless resets. Just about every fight in the final areas required multiple attempts except of course for the ultimate encounter with Feral Chaos himself. It would have been a horrifying difficult fight that would have taken me weeks to conquer if not for the simple fact that the big bulky guy can't dodge Yuna's Mega Flare to save his life.

After devoting so many hours to feverishly playing the game over the past few days, I'm glad to be done with it. It's a fantastic game with a ton of content and plenty of enjoyable characters to develop. It makes me wish more than anything that Square-Enix would make a crossover Final Fantasy title that's more of a traditional RPG. I would totally dig into that level of fanservice, regardless of how well it would be handled. Dissidia is pretty awesome, but despite all of the statistics and equipment behind the scenes, it is at its core an action game. I like it a lot, but RPGs are always going to be my favorite.

Prishe is adorable

 I don't have a lot of insight into how popular the Dissidia games are, but I feel reasonably confident they're among the most popular for an admittedly overlooked handheld. The Final Fantasy theme of course makes them niche in other ways, but they're very polished and fun to play regardless of one's familiarity with that mythos. I've never played Final Fantasy XI for instance but Prishe is still one of my favorite characters. I also love Final Fantasy VI but can't stand Terra's playstyle--and that's unfortunate, because Terra's a really cool character.

I'm not sure what's next on the agenda, but I'm considering continuing to clear out my PSP backlog. I'm kind of glad I started with Dissidia 012 because it seems unlikely any other unfinished games would take me anywhere near as long to finish. It should be smooth sailing from now on. Of course, there's also Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem to be completed, but it doesn't really fit into my backlog marathon and I'm still mostly just playing it at work. My progress on that game has been stagnant for some time, but I've definitely not forgotten it.

You're Never Gonna Be On Time

Day 369

I have to drive to Elizabethtown for work on Wednesday. It's about 60 miles away and I've never been there before. I've been told by several people that it's not a big deal and the drive is mostly interstate the whole way, but this does little to allay my fears. I don't drive very often. I drive to work and I drive home--that's about it. Ever since I got my driver's license at the ripe old age of 19, I've never been completely comfortable with it. I have a great deal of anxiety even during routine drives. I second guess myself a lot and drive very defensively.

The point is that I'm very uncomfortable driving to new places. I lived in Austin for a few months and didn't have a car the whole time I was there. It was great because I could usually walk wherever I needed to go. Admittedly, there were a few occasions where having a car would have definitely helped, but for the most part I made it work. Hey, maybe if I'd stayed there longer I might have overcome my fear of public transportation. . .

It's clear that this is a fear I'll have to overcome. I'm 26 years old; it's more than a little ridiculous that something like this is still a pressing concern for me. I've been to the neighboring town of Bowling Green many times, but never once have I driven there myself. It's an odd thing to admit to people that live around here who have been driving there for years and don't think of it as a big deal. It's not a big deal, but I am uncommonly apprehensive about driving.

This is something I've been talking about for years and it's never really changed. I wonder why that is? I guess I just have never made it much of a priority to become a more confident driver. It's a pretty important part of becoming an adult and that's something in my life that I have been fighting against for a long time. I have definitely passed the point in my life where I can continue to hold the delusion that I'm a child--but I'm so apathetic about it that I'm not making a lot of steps to grow up. 

I've gotta get some things in order pretty soon. I can take it one step at a time but it's important that I don't just sit here and let the world pass me by. It's fine if I play a lot of video games. That's my passion and a big part of what fuels me creatively, but there are other things that are important too.