Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Getting Through 130 Hours of Gameplay Is An Odyssey in Itself
My initial clear of Assassin's Creed Odyssey clocked in at around 88 hours. This is after completing the main storyline and a fair chunk of optional content, although not everything was done. This is already a lot of time to devote to a video game, but because it is a game that has so much content, I really wanted to experience what else it has to offer. Now, with a game clock of about 130 hours, I've cleared just about everything there is. There's still more, but I've done everything I consider to be "of note."
This means that in addition to the aforementioned clearing of the main storyline, I've also vanquished all of the optional Cultists and done all of the major side quest story arcs, including the Arena and all mythical beasts. After all that was done, I was sitting at well over 100 hours--but there was still DLC to be done!
In a fit of madness, I decided when I was deeply engaged in the main storyline of Odyssey that I'd purchase the season pass for the game as well as the DLC for Assassin's Creed Origins, which my girlfriend was playing at the time and I have not yet played myself. Little did I know that I wouldn't be getting to that DLC for a pretty considerable length of time.
When I finally started Legacy of the First Blade, the first set of DLC for Odyssey, I'd already played so much of the game that I was starting to approach burnout status. Still, it was fun to have a new set of pseudo-cultists to assassinate and new weapons to toy around with. Of course, the arc of that story feels a little strange to me since it casts my character of choice, Kassandra, as a mother of a child, either through a desire to continue the bloodline or out of genuine love for her partner, who the game sticks you with regardless of the choices you make.
I'm sure much has been written about how little choice you have in Legacy of the First Blade, but it is a little disgruntling, after being at the helm of this character for 100 hours and then suddenly thrust into a relationship over which the player has no agency whatsoever. Sure, you can roleplay it in your mind as a means to an end, but I'd made choices with Kassandra over the course of Odyssey that characterized her as a free-roaming mercenary with more desire for money than family or relationships. To see that same character cooing maternally to her new baby, shackled to this idyllic, monogamous life--it's more than a little disconcerting.
On the other hand, the game's second set of DLC, The Fate of Atlantis, treats choice much differently. I've only played through it once, but it does seem like my choices made a big impact on how the story progressed.
Just for context, The Fate of Atlantis is much more explicitly mythical, whereas the bulk of the base game is rooted in historical realism. As with most Assassin's Creed games, there is always that nod to an ancient alien race and to the futuristic simulation technology that allows us to assume the roles of this historical figures in the first place--but the gameplay itself is at least reasonably realistic. The Fate of Atlantis has Kassandra (or Alexios) exploring the fields of Elysium, the portion of the Greek underworld reserved for fallen champions and those otherwise deserving of acclaim that have passed on.
In The Fate of Atlantis, Kassandra will find herself playing something of a double agent between Persephone, the queen of the underworld, and Adonis, the object of Persephone's affection that wants nothing more than to escape Elysium to be reunited with his true love, Aphrodite. The motivations involved are a little complicated, but it is really interesting to see where the narrative takes them and how it ties into Greek mythology. Your choices effect the scenes you see in interesting ways. I'd be curious to see how things might progress if I were to play it again--and there's a good possibility that will happen once the second episode releases.
It's also worth noting that Elysium is ridiculously beautiful and is distinctly different from the Greek world depicted in the main game. It's clear the development team worked very hard rendering that terrain. It's also much more substantial in terms of gameplay than Legacy of the First Blade, which takes place entirely within Greece in areas underused by the main game. While each of the three episodes of that DLC only took me a couple hours, the first Atlantis DLC chapter took me about ten hours to get through, not only because it has a lot of story cutscenes, but lots of optional objectives to explore, including uncovering new ability enhancements and sprawling camps full of exotic Elysian enemies.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed Atlantis a lot more than Legacy of the First Blade, but this is only the first episode of what I believe is a two-part DLC pack. Although the ending of this episode is intriguing, it was also very abrupt and ultimately unsatisfying when you consider how long we'll be waiting for another release, which I'm hoping takes place in some of the grimmer parts of Greek mythology's underworld.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
All Things Persona 5
I've talked a lot about Persona on this blog. I was so excited for the upcoming release of Persona 5 in 2017 that I embarked on a partial marathon of the series with plans to finish up right before the release. I played Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 4 Golden in succession, finishing just in time for the Persona 5 release date, which I then played nonstop for about 120 hours. Needless to say, I was pretty burned out on Persona at that point, even though I enjoyed the game a lot.
With the news that Persona 5 Royal is essentially an enhanced rerelease of the game, do I feel ready to embark on that 120+ hour journey again? Well, considering that the game doesn't come out in the US until next year, I think the answer to that is probably yes. It's been enough time. I'm perfectly ready to be stressed out by the planning needed to max out all confidants, especially since this version of the game will have at least two more of them than the original release. But that's okay, since it evidently contains an additional semester, just like Persona 4 Golden did.
It's clear at this point that the Atlus goal of branching out the Persona 5 brand into as many different revenue streams as possible is coming to fruition. First there was Persona 5 Dancing, which was surprisingly excellent. Next year will be Persona 5 Royal and announced just today was Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, a musou game in the tradition of Dynasty Warriors with an as-of-yet unannounced release date. Considering how fun Dragon Quest Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors were, I'm definitely on board for this Persona variety. I think there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with it as long as they retain the base game's sense of style and aesthetic.
What no one's really talking about at the moment is another Persona spin-off game coming up in just a couple months, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I loved the original Persona Q, which featured characters from both Persona 3 and 4 in an Etrian Odyssey dungeon-crawler mashup. I liked it enough that it sparked my interest in the Etrian Odyssey series in general. Here I am several years later, playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, having completed every main entry in the series up to that point. I'm really excited about Q2 because of course it adds Persona 5 characters but keeps all the old ones too. Sure, some might grumble about breaking out their old 3DSes again, but mine never really left the rotation in the first place.
With all of these new Persona 5 titles coming soon, it's not hard to see why Atlus decided to work with Nintendo to incorporate Joker into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially considering that Persona 5 Scramble will be releasing on Switch in addition to PS4. Sony seems to have a stranglehold on exclusivity for the main Persona titles, but Atlus is still giving Nintendo a lot of support in spin-off titles. Maybe one day we'll see Persona on Switch, but it seems at least for now that's not happening.
With the news that Persona 5 Royal is essentially an enhanced rerelease of the game, do I feel ready to embark on that 120+ hour journey again? Well, considering that the game doesn't come out in the US until next year, I think the answer to that is probably yes. It's been enough time. I'm perfectly ready to be stressed out by the planning needed to max out all confidants, especially since this version of the game will have at least two more of them than the original release. But that's okay, since it evidently contains an additional semester, just like Persona 4 Golden did.
It's clear at this point that the Atlus goal of branching out the Persona 5 brand into as many different revenue streams as possible is coming to fruition. First there was Persona 5 Dancing, which was surprisingly excellent. Next year will be Persona 5 Royal and announced just today was Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, a musou game in the tradition of Dynasty Warriors with an as-of-yet unannounced release date. Considering how fun Dragon Quest Heroes and Fire Emblem Warriors were, I'm definitely on board for this Persona variety. I think there's a lot of cool stuff they can do with it as long as they retain the base game's sense of style and aesthetic.
What no one's really talking about at the moment is another Persona spin-off game coming up in just a couple months, Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I loved the original Persona Q, which featured characters from both Persona 3 and 4 in an Etrian Odyssey dungeon-crawler mashup. I liked it enough that it sparked my interest in the Etrian Odyssey series in general. Here I am several years later, playing Etrian Odyssey Nexus, having completed every main entry in the series up to that point. I'm really excited about Q2 because of course it adds Persona 5 characters but keeps all the old ones too. Sure, some might grumble about breaking out their old 3DSes again, but mine never really left the rotation in the first place.
With all of these new Persona 5 titles coming soon, it's not hard to see why Atlus decided to work with Nintendo to incorporate Joker into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, especially considering that Persona 5 Scramble will be releasing on Switch in addition to PS4. Sony seems to have a stranglehold on exclusivity for the main Persona titles, but Atlus is still giving Nintendo a lot of support in spin-off titles. Maybe one day we'll see Persona on Switch, but it seems at least for now that's not happening.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Assaulting the Backlog
Let's talk about what's on the queue for me. I've finished up all main story content for Assassin's Creed Odyssey and I'm aiming for the plat, which shouldn't be too difficult since I've gotten the vast majority of the trophies already. For a little variety, I've decided to start up the game's first DLC, Legacy of the First Blade so I can play a good chunk of that in the meantime while I tidy up some of those trophies. I'm not sure how long that is, but the first release is broken up into three separate chapters so I imagine that'll take me some time.
Because I'm well over 100 hours into Odyssey now, I've started to really feel like I'm neglecting other games. In the meantime, new games are coming out all the time that I'd really like to check out. In the interest of chewing through my backlog (and also preserving my wallet), I want to abstain from buying anything new for awhile. This is despite the fact that Mortal Kombat 11 looks fun and so does the recently-released Katana Zero.
I've mentioned before that there are games I've purchased that I haven't really invested any time into at all. I typically don't even add them to my Backloggery unless I've invested enough effort into playing them that I feel confident I'd commit to finishing them. I guess this sort of defeats the purpose of clearing a backlog since it encourages the exact thing I'm trying to avoid: buying games that I don't play.
I think I have this dream of being able to play every new game that comes out so I can be part of the gaming zeitgeist. And that does sound fun, but let's be frank here, I'm not a games journalist and likely never will be. It's okay for me not to be in the know about every hot new release out there. I can still write about games that are older and appeal to me more directly and that's totally fine. I've bought a lot of mainstream games well after release for extremely discounted prices and it's never felt like I was really missing out. On the other hand, I've bought games for $60 that I didn't end up playing until much later, which doesn't feel great.
So, maybe what I'm saying here is that I'm going to commit to not buying any games until I've cleared my backlog. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that I have to complete every single unfinished game, because it's entirely possible I'll run into some I just legitimately do not care for. I'll still count that game as cleared if I've just taken enough steps to be able to fairly make that call. The other exception is that if a game comes out for a series that I really care about, I'm still going to buy it. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is still getting purchased on release day, for instance.
Do I own any games that I haven't played at all? I'm not sure I do, actually. There are games that I've played very little of, but I typically play everything shortly after I buy it, even if I'm not going to immediately commit to it. On my PS4, I have a folder of games sorted by current priority. Because it's the main game I'm playing right now, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is at the beginning of the list, followed by Bloodborne, Dishonored, and Yakuza 0. I really wanted to give Bloodborne another try after initially quitting out of frustration. I really want to understand that type of gameplay more because I've repeatedly attempted both Bloodborne and Dark Souls without much luck. I'm having a much better experience this time so far, so I'm going to try my best to stick with it.
Although I don't technically own Dishonored myself because it's linked to my girlfriend's PS4, I'm still counting it as part of my backlog because it's a game I've started and invested some time into. I wanted to try it initially because it came highly recommended from her and I knew it wasn't going to be yet another 100-hour open-world game. I also really like stealth and want to play more first-person games in general. I'm enjoying it so far and will commit to it full time once I finish Bloodorne. More likely, I'll finish it while playing Bloodborne during the breaks I take from that game due to its immensely frustrating difficulty.
Yakuza 0 is another in the long-running Japanese series of brawlers. I loved Yakuza Kiwami and reportedly 0 is even better. I dropped it initially because it was so similar to Kiwami in terms of gameplay that I wasn't ready to commit to it at the time. Some time has passed now and I really want to jump back in. There's every possibility this will take the place of Dishonored after I'm done with it when I'm taking those previously mentioned Bloodborne frustration breaks.
Those are my "short-term" plans, but I have a lot more games I still need to finish. I think my backlog is much more manageable than a lot of people because I do really prefer to finish the games I start, but because of that, the time investment needed to get through it does seem less surmountable. The first game that pops out at me is Tomb Raider, which I purchased around the same time I was playing Uncharted and The Last of Us. I've mentioned before that I make a lot of connections, so when I was playing Uncharted, I couldn't help but think that Tomb Raider's gameplay might feel similar. I also know that Horizon Zero Dawn was influenced in some ways by the rebooted series, so I wanted to experience that for the context.
There's also Nioh, which I purchased for full price around release day because previews had made it look incredible. I tried it and was floored by the game's preposterous difficulty and because I still hadn't accustomed myself to Souls style combat, I felt ill prepared to tackle it. If I can manage to clear Bloodborne, maybe I'll be in a better spot. Another game that I'm unsure even counts here is Nier Automata, which I have technically finished. However, I've only finished the game one time and received the first ending and I've been told by multiple people that the game only really crystallizes after you've played through the game a few times. The time investment and repetition inherent to that approach really turned me off so I haven't returned to it since.
In conclusion, games are fun and I'm excited to get back to some games that I've neglected. We'll see how well I stick to that goal.
Because I'm well over 100 hours into Odyssey now, I've started to really feel like I'm neglecting other games. In the meantime, new games are coming out all the time that I'd really like to check out. In the interest of chewing through my backlog (and also preserving my wallet), I want to abstain from buying anything new for awhile. This is despite the fact that Mortal Kombat 11 looks fun and so does the recently-released Katana Zero.
I've mentioned before that there are games I've purchased that I haven't really invested any time into at all. I typically don't even add them to my Backloggery unless I've invested enough effort into playing them that I feel confident I'd commit to finishing them. I guess this sort of defeats the purpose of clearing a backlog since it encourages the exact thing I'm trying to avoid: buying games that I don't play.
I think I have this dream of being able to play every new game that comes out so I can be part of the gaming zeitgeist. And that does sound fun, but let's be frank here, I'm not a games journalist and likely never will be. It's okay for me not to be in the know about every hot new release out there. I can still write about games that are older and appeal to me more directly and that's totally fine. I've bought a lot of mainstream games well after release for extremely discounted prices and it's never felt like I was really missing out. On the other hand, I've bought games for $60 that I didn't end up playing until much later, which doesn't feel great.
So, maybe what I'm saying here is that I'm going to commit to not buying any games until I've cleared my backlog. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that I have to complete every single unfinished game, because it's entirely possible I'll run into some I just legitimately do not care for. I'll still count that game as cleared if I've just taken enough steps to be able to fairly make that call. The other exception is that if a game comes out for a series that I really care about, I'm still going to buy it. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is still getting purchased on release day, for instance.
Do I own any games that I haven't played at all? I'm not sure I do, actually. There are games that I've played very little of, but I typically play everything shortly after I buy it, even if I'm not going to immediately commit to it. On my PS4, I have a folder of games sorted by current priority. Because it's the main game I'm playing right now, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is at the beginning of the list, followed by Bloodborne, Dishonored, and Yakuza 0. I really wanted to give Bloodborne another try after initially quitting out of frustration. I really want to understand that type of gameplay more because I've repeatedly attempted both Bloodborne and Dark Souls without much luck. I'm having a much better experience this time so far, so I'm going to try my best to stick with it.
Although I don't technically own Dishonored myself because it's linked to my girlfriend's PS4, I'm still counting it as part of my backlog because it's a game I've started and invested some time into. I wanted to try it initially because it came highly recommended from her and I knew it wasn't going to be yet another 100-hour open-world game. I also really like stealth and want to play more first-person games in general. I'm enjoying it so far and will commit to it full time once I finish Bloodorne. More likely, I'll finish it while playing Bloodborne during the breaks I take from that game due to its immensely frustrating difficulty.
Yakuza 0 is another in the long-running Japanese series of brawlers. I loved Yakuza Kiwami and reportedly 0 is even better. I dropped it initially because it was so similar to Kiwami in terms of gameplay that I wasn't ready to commit to it at the time. Some time has passed now and I really want to jump back in. There's every possibility this will take the place of Dishonored after I'm done with it when I'm taking those previously mentioned Bloodborne frustration breaks.
Those are my "short-term" plans, but I have a lot more games I still need to finish. I think my backlog is much more manageable than a lot of people because I do really prefer to finish the games I start, but because of that, the time investment needed to get through it does seem less surmountable. The first game that pops out at me is Tomb Raider, which I purchased around the same time I was playing Uncharted and The Last of Us. I've mentioned before that I make a lot of connections, so when I was playing Uncharted, I couldn't help but think that Tomb Raider's gameplay might feel similar. I also know that Horizon Zero Dawn was influenced in some ways by the rebooted series, so I wanted to experience that for the context.
There's also Nioh, which I purchased for full price around release day because previews had made it look incredible. I tried it and was floored by the game's preposterous difficulty and because I still hadn't accustomed myself to Souls style combat, I felt ill prepared to tackle it. If I can manage to clear Bloodborne, maybe I'll be in a better spot. Another game that I'm unsure even counts here is Nier Automata, which I have technically finished. However, I've only finished the game one time and received the first ending and I've been told by multiple people that the game only really crystallizes after you've played through the game a few times. The time investment and repetition inherent to that approach really turned me off so I haven't returned to it since.
In conclusion, games are fun and I'm excited to get back to some games that I've neglected. We'll see how well I stick to that goal.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
End of Year 2018 Catchup
I'd almost forgotten to do one of these for 2018. It's certainly not mandatory but it would tremendously hurt my sense of symmetry to do it for 2017 and not 2018. So here we go! I finished 38 games in 2018 but I devoted significant time to at least 44. What follows is the list of games I finished.
1. Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition (PS4) - January 10th
2. Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS) - January 17th
3. Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor (PS4) - January 18th
4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (NDS) - January 27th
5. Citizens of Earth (PS4) - February 11th
6. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (PS4) - February 26th
7. Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth (3DS) - March 12th
8. Kamiko (Switch) - April 17th
9. Mortal Kombat X (PS4) - April 21st
10. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4) - May 25th
11. Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch) - May 29th
12. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) - May 31st
13. Children of Zodiarcs (PS4) - June 20th
14. Celeste (PS4) - July 1st
15. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (NDS) - July 18th
16. Tales of Zestiria (PS4) - July 24th
17. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) - July 24th
18. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (PS4) - August 18th
19. Risk of Rain (PS4) - August 23rd
20. Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers (PS4) - September 16th
21. God of War: Ascension (PS3) - September 19th
22. Ratchet & Clank (PS4) - September 25th
23. God of War III: Remastered (PS4) - October 4th
24. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered (PS4) - October 15th
25. Secret of Mana (PS4) - October 19th
26. Metal Slug (PSN) - October 23rd
27. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS) - October 24th
28. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered (PS4) - October 24th
29. Mega Man 11 (PS4) - October 30th
30. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered (PS4) - November 1st
31. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) - November 11th
32. The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) - November 14th
33. Super Robot Wars A Portable (PSP) - November 27th
34. Romancing SaGa 2 (PS4) - November 28th
35. God of War (PS4) - December 5th
36. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4) - December 10th
37. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - December 18th
38. Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS4) - December 26th
Here are the games I devoted a reasonable amount of time to but did not ultimately finish.
1. Orcs Must Die! Unchained (PS4) - April
2. Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition (PS4) - April
3. Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire (PS4) - June
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch) - July (Finished in January 2019)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4) - July
6. Mega Man X (PS4) - October
I definitely did better in 2018 on finishing games that I started, but this doesn't include a list of games that I purchased and never started playing. That's a list I'm much less inclined to make at this point. The stats are also much more cut-and-dry this time in that I spent the vast majority of my time on one console.
Most Used Platforms
PS4: 26
Switch: 4
3DS: 3
Most Played Genres
RPG: 16 games
Action/Adventure: 12 games
Action/Platformer: 4 games
I feel like RPG is destined to always be on the top of these lists, but there definitely was a little bit more variety in 2018. I also played three rhythm games and three fighting games that just barely got edged out. A lot of genre differences are pretty nebulous, too. I classified Yakuza Kiwami as an action/adventure game, but it has enough RPG elements that I wouldn't feel uncomfortable classifying it that way. What modern open-world game doesn't feature RPG elements, for instance? I call Super Mario Odyssey a platformer, but is there an argument to be made that it's an action/adventure game? At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter too much; these are just silly stats.
1. Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition (PS4) - January 10th
2. Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS) - January 17th
3. Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor (PS4) - January 18th
4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (NDS) - January 27th
5. Citizens of Earth (PS4) - February 11th
6. Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (PS4) - February 26th
7. Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth (3DS) - March 12th
8. Kamiko (Switch) - April 17th
9. Mortal Kombat X (PS4) - April 21st
10. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4) - May 25th
11. Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch) - May 29th
12. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) - May 31st
13. Children of Zodiarcs (PS4) - June 20th
14. Celeste (PS4) - July 1st
15. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (NDS) - July 18th
16. Tales of Zestiria (PS4) - July 24th
17. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4) - July 24th
18. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance (PS4) - August 18th
19. Risk of Rain (PS4) - August 23rd
20. Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers (PS4) - September 16th
21. God of War: Ascension (PS3) - September 19th
22. Ratchet & Clank (PS4) - September 25th
23. God of War III: Remastered (PS4) - October 4th
24. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered (PS4) - October 15th
25. Secret of Mana (PS4) - October 19th
26. Metal Slug (PSN) - October 23rd
27. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS) - October 24th
28. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered (PS4) - October 24th
29. Mega Man 11 (PS4) - October 30th
30. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered (PS4) - November 1st
31. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) - November 11th
32. The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) - November 14th
33. Super Robot Wars A Portable (PSP) - November 27th
34. Romancing SaGa 2 (PS4) - November 28th
35. God of War (PS4) - December 5th
36. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4) - December 10th
37. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - December 18th
38. Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS4) - December 26th
Here are the games I devoted a reasonable amount of time to but did not ultimately finish.
1. Orcs Must Die! Unchained (PS4) - April
2. Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition (PS4) - April
3. Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire (PS4) - June
4. Octopath Traveler (Switch) - July (Finished in January 2019)
5. Tales of Berseria (PS4) - July
6. Mega Man X (PS4) - October
I definitely did better in 2018 on finishing games that I started, but this doesn't include a list of games that I purchased and never started playing. That's a list I'm much less inclined to make at this point. The stats are also much more cut-and-dry this time in that I spent the vast majority of my time on one console.
Most Used Platforms
PS4: 26
Switch: 4
3DS: 3
Most Played Genres
RPG: 16 games
Action/Adventure: 12 games
Action/Platformer: 4 games
I feel like RPG is destined to always be on the top of these lists, but there definitely was a little bit more variety in 2018. I also played three rhythm games and three fighting games that just barely got edged out. A lot of genre differences are pretty nebulous, too. I classified Yakuza Kiwami as an action/adventure game, but it has enough RPG elements that I wouldn't feel uncomfortable classifying it that way. What modern open-world game doesn't feature RPG elements, for instance? I call Super Mario Odyssey a platformer, but is there an argument to be made that it's an action/adventure game? At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter too much; these are just silly stats.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
December 2018 Catchup
Well, here we are, the last month of the two years of time I didn't touch this blog. Sort of. It's not a perfect cutoff point, but it's the span of time I chose to cover, and I'm sticking to it.
In December, I played a pretty oddball assortment of games. I alluded to it previously when I discussed playing God of War: Ascension and God of War III Remastered, but I finally decided to pick up the new God of War reboot for PS4 and finished it near the beginning of December. It is, in my mind, a true evolution of the series. While the previous God of War games are arcade-style action games with some light character progression and puzzle-solving, the new God of War is this fully-realized, open-world action RPG from an over-the-shoulder perspective.
It's easy to see how God of War stalwarts might have been turned off by the change in direction, but as someone who has played through all of these games (yes, even the PSP ones), I can't agree more with the direction Sony has decided to take the series. I mentioned previously that revisiting God of War III put a bad taste in my mouth because it was so garishly tackly, so much a celebration of gore and gratuitous sexuality. The new God of War is violent and dark, but it serves a purpose. It serves the narrative.
God of War moves past the series roots in Greek mythology and firmly lodges itself in the mythos of the Ancient Norse and its pantheon of gods. It's unclear how Kratos found his way to Scandinavia, but he is much older, more grizzled than before. His rage has been tempered, but he is no less terrifying in combat. He is also feared by his only son, Atreus, who, willingly or not, accompanies the storied warrior throughout the game.
I'd never been particularly compelled by the plots of previous God of War games, but this one really drew me in. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece, but it's very engaging. It's helpful that the combat itself is extraordinarily satisfying. Ditching the classic Blades of Chaos for a simple axe was probably about the best call Sony Santa Monica could have made. After wielding those blades for five different games, they'd started to feel quite dull. The enchanted axe Kratos wields in God of War feels powerful and impactful. There's not much more fun in video games than hurling it into a dark elf's face and then recalling it directly to your hand.
There's a lot more I could say about this game. I loved that when traveling by boat through the waters of Midgard, Kratos and Atreus would exchange stories. When you come ashore, they'd stop the story in the middle and promise to resume later. It's a small, relatively inconsequential thing, but I really appreciated how natural it felt in the context of the game. It's also so antithetical to how the previous game's functioned. God of War is about fatherhood, companionship, redemption, and yes, tremendous amounts of violence. It is a game with considerably more depth than its predecessors and I can't wait to see what else is to come for the series as a whole.
After finishing a lengthy AAA open-world action game, I decided to move on to a game that could be considered the polar opposite of that--Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight. And I loved it. Although I skipped the original release of the first Persona dancing game on PlayStation Vita, I couldn't help but be entranced by the idea of the Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection which compiled three different releases together containing music from three different Persona games. I like rhythm games in general and love Shoji Meguro's Persona soundtracks, so it sounded right up my alley.
P3D is unlike a lot of other rhythm games I've played in that it requires you to manage pressing buttons on both sides of the controller and also tracking notes that are heading to both the left and right sides of the screen simultaneously. I felt like I had to reprogram my brain a bit to understand exactly how to do that. As another layer of complexity, it features special Fever Rings that require you to move the analog stick to trigger. At higher difficulties, some of the songs are extremely difficult but a lot of fun.
Another big draw of the game is that it features the actual characters from Persona 3 and as you complete songs, not only do you get to see them dancing along, you unlock the ability to have conversations with them, not unlike the social links from the main series. There are also costumes, accessories, and other cosmetic effects that are neat, but not the main appeal of the game for me. The core gameplay is really strong and addictive.
The collection also included the original Persona 4: Dancing All Night, which I completed afterward and was surprised to learn was very different in that it features a full story mode. And it's... not a good story mode. It is surprisingly text-heavy and ludicrously boring, especially early on. It takes a good 30-45 minutes before you even get the opportunity to play your first song, which is ridiculous. I'm not sure why I was surprised, though, since the original Persona 4 features probably 2-3 hours of story scenes before you get actual gameplay. Unlike that game, though, the story in P4D is pretty silly and trite. Luckily, the gameplay itself is just as strong as the other dancing games, but the fact that it's locked behind hours of painful text-driven story sours the experience quite a bit.
The only other game I finished in December was Super Smash. Bros. Ultimate, which I actually have mixed feelings on. The fact that it contains every single Smash Bros. character ever is incredible and the gameplay is as strong as its ever been. It also features some great new characters like Ridley, King K. Rool, and the Inklings from Splatoon. I also really appreciate that there's a lengthy single-player mode to play through, because Smash 4 didn't really offer much for people who didn't care for multi-player. But it's still disappointing that there wasn't anything in the game like Brawl's Subspace Emissary, with all of its ridiculous cutscenes. I know I'm in an extreme minority, but I like fighting games to have significant single-player story content, and although the Spirits mode gives you plenty to do, it's repetitive and ultimately not terribly rewarding.
I did try to get in as much online multiplayer as I could so I could get the full experience of the game, but my experience with the series and the significant amount of practice I got from the Spirits mode was not even close to enough to prepare me for playing against other people. I lost probably dozens of times. It was enough to really sour me on the experience--and that's a recurring problem I have with multiplayer games in general.
That's it, though! That's two years worth of games. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll do one more post to wrap everything up and show some statistics for what I completed in 2018. As I'm looking over some early 2019 stuff, I can see there are still some games I never ended up writing about--but we'll see how that goes.
In December, I played a pretty oddball assortment of games. I alluded to it previously when I discussed playing God of War: Ascension and God of War III Remastered, but I finally decided to pick up the new God of War reboot for PS4 and finished it near the beginning of December. It is, in my mind, a true evolution of the series. While the previous God of War games are arcade-style action games with some light character progression and puzzle-solving, the new God of War is this fully-realized, open-world action RPG from an over-the-shoulder perspective.
It's easy to see how God of War stalwarts might have been turned off by the change in direction, but as someone who has played through all of these games (yes, even the PSP ones), I can't agree more with the direction Sony has decided to take the series. I mentioned previously that revisiting God of War III put a bad taste in my mouth because it was so garishly tackly, so much a celebration of gore and gratuitous sexuality. The new God of War is violent and dark, but it serves a purpose. It serves the narrative.
God of War moves past the series roots in Greek mythology and firmly lodges itself in the mythos of the Ancient Norse and its pantheon of gods. It's unclear how Kratos found his way to Scandinavia, but he is much older, more grizzled than before. His rage has been tempered, but he is no less terrifying in combat. He is also feared by his only son, Atreus, who, willingly or not, accompanies the storied warrior throughout the game.
I'd never been particularly compelled by the plots of previous God of War games, but this one really drew me in. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece, but it's very engaging. It's helpful that the combat itself is extraordinarily satisfying. Ditching the classic Blades of Chaos for a simple axe was probably about the best call Sony Santa Monica could have made. After wielding those blades for five different games, they'd started to feel quite dull. The enchanted axe Kratos wields in God of War feels powerful and impactful. There's not much more fun in video games than hurling it into a dark elf's face and then recalling it directly to your hand.
There's a lot more I could say about this game. I loved that when traveling by boat through the waters of Midgard, Kratos and Atreus would exchange stories. When you come ashore, they'd stop the story in the middle and promise to resume later. It's a small, relatively inconsequential thing, but I really appreciated how natural it felt in the context of the game. It's also so antithetical to how the previous game's functioned. God of War is about fatherhood, companionship, redemption, and yes, tremendous amounts of violence. It is a game with considerably more depth than its predecessors and I can't wait to see what else is to come for the series as a whole.
After finishing a lengthy AAA open-world action game, I decided to move on to a game that could be considered the polar opposite of that--Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight. And I loved it. Although I skipped the original release of the first Persona dancing game on PlayStation Vita, I couldn't help but be entranced by the idea of the Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection which compiled three different releases together containing music from three different Persona games. I like rhythm games in general and love Shoji Meguro's Persona soundtracks, so it sounded right up my alley.
P3D is unlike a lot of other rhythm games I've played in that it requires you to manage pressing buttons on both sides of the controller and also tracking notes that are heading to both the left and right sides of the screen simultaneously. I felt like I had to reprogram my brain a bit to understand exactly how to do that. As another layer of complexity, it features special Fever Rings that require you to move the analog stick to trigger. At higher difficulties, some of the songs are extremely difficult but a lot of fun.
Another big draw of the game is that it features the actual characters from Persona 3 and as you complete songs, not only do you get to see them dancing along, you unlock the ability to have conversations with them, not unlike the social links from the main series. There are also costumes, accessories, and other cosmetic effects that are neat, but not the main appeal of the game for me. The core gameplay is really strong and addictive.
The collection also included the original Persona 4: Dancing All Night, which I completed afterward and was surprised to learn was very different in that it features a full story mode. And it's... not a good story mode. It is surprisingly text-heavy and ludicrously boring, especially early on. It takes a good 30-45 minutes before you even get the opportunity to play your first song, which is ridiculous. I'm not sure why I was surprised, though, since the original Persona 4 features probably 2-3 hours of story scenes before you get actual gameplay. Unlike that game, though, the story in P4D is pretty silly and trite. Luckily, the gameplay itself is just as strong as the other dancing games, but the fact that it's locked behind hours of painful text-driven story sours the experience quite a bit.
The only other game I finished in December was Super Smash. Bros. Ultimate, which I actually have mixed feelings on. The fact that it contains every single Smash Bros. character ever is incredible and the gameplay is as strong as its ever been. It also features some great new characters like Ridley, King K. Rool, and the Inklings from Splatoon. I also really appreciate that there's a lengthy single-player mode to play through, because Smash 4 didn't really offer much for people who didn't care for multi-player. But it's still disappointing that there wasn't anything in the game like Brawl's Subspace Emissary, with all of its ridiculous cutscenes. I know I'm in an extreme minority, but I like fighting games to have significant single-player story content, and although the Spirits mode gives you plenty to do, it's repetitive and ultimately not terribly rewarding.
I did try to get in as much online multiplayer as I could so I could get the full experience of the game, but my experience with the series and the significant amount of practice I got from the Spirits mode was not even close to enough to prepare me for playing against other people. I lost probably dozens of times. It was enough to really sour me on the experience--and that's a recurring problem I have with multiplayer games in general.
That's it, though! That's two years worth of games. If I'm feeling up to it, I'll do one more post to wrap everything up and show some statistics for what I completed in 2018. As I'm looking over some early 2019 stuff, I can see there are still some games I never ended up writing about--but we'll see how that goes.
Friday, April 12, 2019
Nintendo: Old vs. New
A recent tweet by one of the people I follow on Twitter got my attention the other day.
As it stands now, the newer category is carried for me almost entirely by the DS and 3DS, which both outdo the GBA for me. I could probably count on one hand how many Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games I would consider very good. The Switch has a lot of potential and several good games already, but even it isn't there yet either.
Let's do some unfair comparisons and compare them side-by-side, starting with the NES and the GameCube. The NES is a very important and influential console in that it almost single-handedly birthed a resurgence in home console gaming, but the important question to consider is whether a lot of those games stand the test of time. For me, a lot of them don't. I'm very glad the console exists and was a great starting point for many fantastic series, but most of those series got a lot better by the time they hit the SNES. Even so, there are some great first-party games, particularly the Super Mario Bros games and Kirby's Adventure. My favorite titles are the third-party ones, though, like Mega Man (all six of them) and the SNK RPG Crystalis, which I played recently and still enjoyed.
The NES had a glut of decent games and a few really good ones. On the other hand, the GameCube suffered from having very few games in general. To this day, I only have a handful of them. I would feel pretty comfortable in giving the win to the NES here if I could take third-party games into account, but in the case of the GameCube, it has a handful of really great options like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Other great games that I didn't play when they actually came out would be titles like Wind Waker and Metroid Prime, which I still need to get around to. Even so, the three titles I mentioned alone give the win to the GameCube in my mind.
I don't have to do too much analysis to say that the Nintendo DS destroys the original Game Boy in terms of quality and quantity, even without discussing the huge number of high quality third-party titles it has. Sure, the Game Boy had the original Pokémon games and Kirby's Dream Land, but the DS has probably the most solid and consistent lineup of any platform out there. To this day there are still a ton of DS games I'd like to get to, but it has a few great Kirby games, a whole pile of Pokémon games, and a pair of great Mario & Luigi RPGs.
At first glance, SNES versus Wii is pretty one-sided too, but it's interesting to consider how the two consoles vary in trajectory. Both were overwhelming successes in terms of sales figures, but in the case of the SNES, it was a follow-up to another very successful console and ultimately did not reach the same sales numbers. The Wii was more a comeback story, in that it was developed as a response to the somewhat disappointing GameCube and then went on to become the best-selling console of all time.
But when I think back to the Wii, it's hard to remember games that actually stood out. It's a testament to the arc of that console, in that it defied expectations but then gradually fizzled out as it was deluged by dozens of mediocre third-party titles. Then again, this is a discussion of first-party titles only, which means that dramatically affects the position of the SNES in this argument, too. After all, the vast majority of games I loved on SNES were third-party titles, including games like Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI, as well as Breath of Fire, Dragon Quest, etc. That still leaves incredible titles like Earthbound, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario World, but it does make for a harder decision. The Wii has Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land. In many cases, these were not the best entries in these series, so for that reason I'd still give the win to SNES. If we take third-party titles into account, it's a landslide victory.
Once we reach the Game Boy Color, the comparison starts to break down a little bit. The Game Boy Color is mostly an extension to the Game Boy despite having games that are exclusive to it. Also, the Game Boy Advance doesn't really feel like an analogue to the Wii U in any way, but it would be difficult for the Wii U to win against any other console on the list. I would take the 3DS over both the GBC and GBA combined, because of three (technically five?) great Fire Emblem games, some solid Pokémon titles, and the excellent Super Mario 3D Land.
On the other hand, if we compare the Game Boy Advance to the Wii U, it's of course a pretty one-sided victory for the GBA. It has Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, the first and probably best Mario & Luigi game, and again, some great Kirby titles. The Wii U has maybe 3 or 4 games worth playing at all, and a couple of those are third-party. Super Smash Bros. 4 was great and an improvement to Brawl, but I definitely did not care for Super Mario Bros. U and wasn't as engaged with Super Mario 3D World as with Galaxy from the Wii. I missed games like Splatoon that might have colored my opinion a bit, but I still think I'd be pretty comfortable giving the win to the GBA.
I honestly think it's a little early to compare the N64 and Switch, but it's interesting to think about the arc of the N64. It had a slow start and never quite crystallized the way it needed to, whereas the Switch is really taking off already. The N64 was always a disappointment to me because it had very few RPGs, which has always been my favorite genre. Especially in those days, it was about the only kind of game I wanted to play. Even though I had very few N64 games, I really loved the ones I had and still feel they're very memorable to this day. Those games are Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, StarFox 64, and Super Smash. Bros. Kirby 64 gets an honorable mention as well.
The Switch is off to an amazing start with Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which some consider to be the best entries in their respective series. One of its biggest strengths is that it has curried a tremendous amount of third-party support, but in this discussion we can only take first-party into account. Even so, I'm tempted to give the win to Switch already, but it's close when you consider just how much time I spent with those N64 games back in the day. But there's more first-party support on the way and I still haven't even tried the Xenoblade series. Fire Emblem: Three Houses may comfortably push Switch over the top unless it's a huge disaster.
So, to recap, GameCube beat NES, DS beats Game Boy, SNES beats Wii, 3DS beats Game Boy Color, GBA destroys Wii U, and Switch is very likely to comfortably beat N64 soon. Despite the Switch's uncertain future, there's still a clear indicator that Nintendo is doing some things right, which is nice to see since the Wii U was a disaster. It'd be interesting to examine this same topic again when taking third-party titles into account, but I'm honestly not sure if that would necessarily change the result.
It's interesting to think about, because the first place my mind goes is the SNES. It has some of my favorite games of all time, but just how many are there? Are those games worth it enough to carry that first category on their own? How many more "recent" Nintendo games are good enough to be considered all-time classics?If you split the eras of Nintendo into two:— Stealth (@Stealth40k) April 10, 2019
- NES, GB, SNES, GBC, GBA, N64
- Gamecube, DS, Wii, 3DS, Wii U, Switch
What would you say is the better Nintendo era as far as 1st party publishing output goes? I honestly think I would take where we are now.
As it stands now, the newer category is carried for me almost entirely by the DS and 3DS, which both outdo the GBA for me. I could probably count on one hand how many Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U games I would consider very good. The Switch has a lot of potential and several good games already, but even it isn't there yet either.
Let's do some unfair comparisons and compare them side-by-side, starting with the NES and the GameCube. The NES is a very important and influential console in that it almost single-handedly birthed a resurgence in home console gaming, but the important question to consider is whether a lot of those games stand the test of time. For me, a lot of them don't. I'm very glad the console exists and was a great starting point for many fantastic series, but most of those series got a lot better by the time they hit the SNES. Even so, there are some great first-party games, particularly the Super Mario Bros games and Kirby's Adventure. My favorite titles are the third-party ones, though, like Mega Man (all six of them) and the SNK RPG Crystalis, which I played recently and still enjoyed.
The NES had a glut of decent games and a few really good ones. On the other hand, the GameCube suffered from having very few games in general. To this day, I only have a handful of them. I would feel pretty comfortable in giving the win to the NES here if I could take third-party games into account, but in the case of the GameCube, it has a handful of really great options like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Other great games that I didn't play when they actually came out would be titles like Wind Waker and Metroid Prime, which I still need to get around to. Even so, the three titles I mentioned alone give the win to the GameCube in my mind.
I don't have to do too much analysis to say that the Nintendo DS destroys the original Game Boy in terms of quality and quantity, even without discussing the huge number of high quality third-party titles it has. Sure, the Game Boy had the original Pokémon games and Kirby's Dream Land, but the DS has probably the most solid and consistent lineup of any platform out there. To this day there are still a ton of DS games I'd like to get to, but it has a few great Kirby games, a whole pile of Pokémon games, and a pair of great Mario & Luigi RPGs.
At first glance, SNES versus Wii is pretty one-sided too, but it's interesting to consider how the two consoles vary in trajectory. Both were overwhelming successes in terms of sales figures, but in the case of the SNES, it was a follow-up to another very successful console and ultimately did not reach the same sales numbers. The Wii was more a comeback story, in that it was developed as a response to the somewhat disappointing GameCube and then went on to become the best-selling console of all time.
But when I think back to the Wii, it's hard to remember games that actually stood out. It's a testament to the arc of that console, in that it defied expectations but then gradually fizzled out as it was deluged by dozens of mediocre third-party titles. Then again, this is a discussion of first-party titles only, which means that dramatically affects the position of the SNES in this argument, too. After all, the vast majority of games I loved on SNES were third-party titles, including games like Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI, as well as Breath of Fire, Dragon Quest, etc. That still leaves incredible titles like Earthbound, Donkey Kong Country, and Super Mario World, but it does make for a harder decision. The Wii has Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Kirby's Return to Dream Land. In many cases, these were not the best entries in these series, so for that reason I'd still give the win to SNES. If we take third-party titles into account, it's a landslide victory.
Once we reach the Game Boy Color, the comparison starts to break down a little bit. The Game Boy Color is mostly an extension to the Game Boy despite having games that are exclusive to it. Also, the Game Boy Advance doesn't really feel like an analogue to the Wii U in any way, but it would be difficult for the Wii U to win against any other console on the list. I would take the 3DS over both the GBC and GBA combined, because of three (technically five?) great Fire Emblem games, some solid Pokémon titles, and the excellent Super Mario 3D Land.
On the other hand, if we compare the Game Boy Advance to the Wii U, it's of course a pretty one-sided victory for the GBA. It has Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, the first and probably best Mario & Luigi game, and again, some great Kirby titles. The Wii U has maybe 3 or 4 games worth playing at all, and a couple of those are third-party. Super Smash Bros. 4 was great and an improvement to Brawl, but I definitely did not care for Super Mario Bros. U and wasn't as engaged with Super Mario 3D World as with Galaxy from the Wii. I missed games like Splatoon that might have colored my opinion a bit, but I still think I'd be pretty comfortable giving the win to the GBA.
I honestly think it's a little early to compare the N64 and Switch, but it's interesting to think about the arc of the N64. It had a slow start and never quite crystallized the way it needed to, whereas the Switch is really taking off already. The N64 was always a disappointment to me because it had very few RPGs, which has always been my favorite genre. Especially in those days, it was about the only kind of game I wanted to play. Even though I had very few N64 games, I really loved the ones I had and still feel they're very memorable to this day. Those games are Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, StarFox 64, and Super Smash. Bros. Kirby 64 gets an honorable mention as well.
The Switch is off to an amazing start with Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which some consider to be the best entries in their respective series. One of its biggest strengths is that it has curried a tremendous amount of third-party support, but in this discussion we can only take first-party into account. Even so, I'm tempted to give the win to Switch already, but it's close when you consider just how much time I spent with those N64 games back in the day. But there's more first-party support on the way and I still haven't even tried the Xenoblade series. Fire Emblem: Three Houses may comfortably push Switch over the top unless it's a huge disaster.
So, to recap, GameCube beat NES, DS beats Game Boy, SNES beats Wii, 3DS beats Game Boy Color, GBA destroys Wii U, and Switch is very likely to comfortably beat N64 soon. Despite the Switch's uncertain future, there's still a clear indicator that Nintendo is doing some things right, which is nice to see since the Wii U was a disaster. It'd be interesting to examine this same topic again when taking third-party titles into account, but I'm honestly not sure if that would necessarily change the result.
Monday, April 8, 2019
November 2018 Catchup
November was an interesting month in video games for me because I played some pretty seminal mainstream releases I'd never played before followed by some extremely niche Japanese RPGs, perhaps in an effort to restore my "street cred."
Because, as we all know, one's credibility is determined almost entirely by the number of Japanese RPGs one has completed.
I'd purchased the Nathan Drake Collection in October on a whim because it was on sale and I wanted to try something different from the types of games I normally play. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I really ended up enjoying these games, and even when I came to Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception expecting to like it less due to feedback I'd heard over the years, I still loved it. Sure, it has its problems and weird pacing issues, but it's still a blast to play and features some really jaw-dropping set pieces. I mean, frantically scurrying through the ruins of a sinking ship alone was worth the price of admission for me, but that game has tons of sequences that are just as cool.
Because I liked the first three games so much, I didn't hesitate in picking up Uncharted 4: A Thief's End particularly since it had dropped in price quite a bit since release. Although it's hard to top the total package of Uncharted 2, the final entry in the series is a fantastic sendoff. It's much longer and more involved than previous entries but is always really exciting and engaging. I don't love the plot surrounding Nathan's erstwhile brother, but I do like the characterization surrounding him and that he's voiced by the inimitable Troy Baker.
A big chunk of that game involves exploring the ruins of this secret ancient pirate utopia and that's where the game worked best for me. The mystery and the spectacle of it was really exciting, and I tend to love that kind of exploratory gameplay. It reminded me a lot of something like Horizon Zero Dawn, where so much of the game was just gawking at these gorgeous visuals and just looking around for cool stuff and speculating on where it came from and how things broke down over time. It's a big part of why I enjoyed both of these games, even though they're very different in most other ways.
I'm the kind of person that tends to make a lot of connections in things that I do. If I listen to an album, I tend to like having context. If I really enjoy something, I want to go back and learn about its history. I might listen through other albums from the same artist that came before to see how their sound evolved over time. I apply that same philosophy to movies, books, and video games too. Because I'd just played through four different Naughty Dog games, I thought it was finally time to try The Last of Us, which is a tremendously well-regarded game that people have lots of Opinions about.
My opinion about The Last of Us is that it is good. I don't think it's a perfect game, though, and I think a lot of why I feel that way is colored not only by the ridiculous levels of acclaim it receives but also by my feelings about the game's genre. I feel invested in Joel and Ellie as characters and the plot is interesting, but is structured in a way that is well-worn. It's post-apocalyptic, it has zombies (of a sort), and is a Dad Simulator. I can see why that's very appealing but at the end of the day, it's not my favorite setting. I also don't particularly like the stealth gameplay. It's serviceable, but never as satisfying as I feel like it should be. The story alone carries the game and it's more than worth playing because of it, but even that is not beyond reproach. That's all I will say about it.
I finished out the month by finishing two Japanese games, one of which is significantly more Japanese than the other. The first and more Japanese of the two was Super Robot Wars A Portable, yet another in the list of games in this series that I've now finished. It's pretty clear that I love giant robots and I just hadn't had enough of them after finishing Moon Dwellers a couple months back. Of course, this particular title is a bit different in that it's older and was never officially translated to English. Fortunately, as with Alpha Gaiden and Super Robot Wars J, a fan translation of this game exists and is done extremely well by the fine folks at the Steel Soul team.
Unlike Moon Dwellers, A Portable is another entry "main" entry in the series in that it mashes up various different mecha anime series instead of original characters. The list of series in this one is even less familiar to me than others I've played and seems to skew towards older series overall. It's also dramatically more difficult than other games I've played, which started out very frustrating but ended up being pretty rewarding in the end once I had a better grasp of how to effectively strategize. It's definitely a game that taught me a lot about that series. It also made me want to check out a few of the anime series involved but I didn't actually follow through on that this time. Maybe when I play SRW V that'll actually happen.
The last game I finished in November was the PS4 remake/port of Romancing SaGa 2, an oddball RPG that was originally released for the Super Famicom and to my knowledge was never officially localized until this release. Although I've played a few SaGa games briefly, this was the first I've invested a lot of time into and although it's an undeniably flawed game, it's also an extremely fun and interesting one that I'm really glad I played.
In broad strokes, it's an RPG in which you play the king or queen and recruit a series of subjects to assist you in completing quests and various objectives. There are different classes and races that you have the opportunity to recruit. As you progress through the game and complete events, time passes until eventually the perspective switches to an heir that will inherit stats and abilities. This also happens if your entire party is wiped out in combat. You're always given the opportunity to choose from a list of different unlocked characters to choose as an heir, which is really interesting.
There's also a huge variety of different skills and abilities you have the capability of unlocking throughout the game. Each different class has different aptitudes with different weapons and because of this, the likelihood of learning these skills varies depending on the classes you have. Unlocking abilities is done through a process called "sparking," which is essentially just a random chance to learn a new ability when using certain weapons and skills. It seems very haphazard at times but it's always exciting when someone learns something new and it was fun to unravel exactly what methods worked best to spark new skills.
It's definitely not a perfect game. The difficulty is incredibly unbalanced, the combat is sometimes repetitive, and the plot itself is thin--but it has a couple of really cool ideas that make it more than worth playing, at least for me. One of these days I might play more entries in the SaGa series because there seems to be a recurring theme of oddball ideas in those games.
Well, we're almost caught up. Only one more month to go.
Because, as we all know, one's credibility is determined almost entirely by the number of Japanese RPGs one has completed.
I'd purchased the Nathan Drake Collection in October on a whim because it was on sale and I wanted to try something different from the types of games I normally play. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I really ended up enjoying these games, and even when I came to Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception expecting to like it less due to feedback I'd heard over the years, I still loved it. Sure, it has its problems and weird pacing issues, but it's still a blast to play and features some really jaw-dropping set pieces. I mean, frantically scurrying through the ruins of a sinking ship alone was worth the price of admission for me, but that game has tons of sequences that are just as cool.
Because I liked the first three games so much, I didn't hesitate in picking up Uncharted 4: A Thief's End particularly since it had dropped in price quite a bit since release. Although it's hard to top the total package of Uncharted 2, the final entry in the series is a fantastic sendoff. It's much longer and more involved than previous entries but is always really exciting and engaging. I don't love the plot surrounding Nathan's erstwhile brother, but I do like the characterization surrounding him and that he's voiced by the inimitable Troy Baker.
A big chunk of that game involves exploring the ruins of this secret ancient pirate utopia and that's where the game worked best for me. The mystery and the spectacle of it was really exciting, and I tend to love that kind of exploratory gameplay. It reminded me a lot of something like Horizon Zero Dawn, where so much of the game was just gawking at these gorgeous visuals and just looking around for cool stuff and speculating on where it came from and how things broke down over time. It's a big part of why I enjoyed both of these games, even though they're very different in most other ways.
I'm the kind of person that tends to make a lot of connections in things that I do. If I listen to an album, I tend to like having context. If I really enjoy something, I want to go back and learn about its history. I might listen through other albums from the same artist that came before to see how their sound evolved over time. I apply that same philosophy to movies, books, and video games too. Because I'd just played through four different Naughty Dog games, I thought it was finally time to try The Last of Us, which is a tremendously well-regarded game that people have lots of Opinions about.
My opinion about The Last of Us is that it is good. I don't think it's a perfect game, though, and I think a lot of why I feel that way is colored not only by the ridiculous levels of acclaim it receives but also by my feelings about the game's genre. I feel invested in Joel and Ellie as characters and the plot is interesting, but is structured in a way that is well-worn. It's post-apocalyptic, it has zombies (of a sort), and is a Dad Simulator. I can see why that's very appealing but at the end of the day, it's not my favorite setting. I also don't particularly like the stealth gameplay. It's serviceable, but never as satisfying as I feel like it should be. The story alone carries the game and it's more than worth playing because of it, but even that is not beyond reproach. That's all I will say about it.
I finished out the month by finishing two Japanese games, one of which is significantly more Japanese than the other. The first and more Japanese of the two was Super Robot Wars A Portable, yet another in the list of games in this series that I've now finished. It's pretty clear that I love giant robots and I just hadn't had enough of them after finishing Moon Dwellers a couple months back. Of course, this particular title is a bit different in that it's older and was never officially translated to English. Fortunately, as with Alpha Gaiden and Super Robot Wars J, a fan translation of this game exists and is done extremely well by the fine folks at the Steel Soul team.
Unlike Moon Dwellers, A Portable is another entry "main" entry in the series in that it mashes up various different mecha anime series instead of original characters. The list of series in this one is even less familiar to me than others I've played and seems to skew towards older series overall. It's also dramatically more difficult than other games I've played, which started out very frustrating but ended up being pretty rewarding in the end once I had a better grasp of how to effectively strategize. It's definitely a game that taught me a lot about that series. It also made me want to check out a few of the anime series involved but I didn't actually follow through on that this time. Maybe when I play SRW V that'll actually happen.
The last game I finished in November was the PS4 remake/port of Romancing SaGa 2, an oddball RPG that was originally released for the Super Famicom and to my knowledge was never officially localized until this release. Although I've played a few SaGa games briefly, this was the first I've invested a lot of time into and although it's an undeniably flawed game, it's also an extremely fun and interesting one that I'm really glad I played.
In broad strokes, it's an RPG in which you play the king or queen and recruit a series of subjects to assist you in completing quests and various objectives. There are different classes and races that you have the opportunity to recruit. As you progress through the game and complete events, time passes until eventually the perspective switches to an heir that will inherit stats and abilities. This also happens if your entire party is wiped out in combat. You're always given the opportunity to choose from a list of different unlocked characters to choose as an heir, which is really interesting.
There's also a huge variety of different skills and abilities you have the capability of unlocking throughout the game. Each different class has different aptitudes with different weapons and because of this, the likelihood of learning these skills varies depending on the classes you have. Unlocking abilities is done through a process called "sparking," which is essentially just a random chance to learn a new ability when using certain weapons and skills. It seems very haphazard at times but it's always exciting when someone learns something new and it was fun to unravel exactly what methods worked best to spark new skills.
It's definitely not a perfect game. The difficulty is incredibly unbalanced, the combat is sometimes repetitive, and the plot itself is thin--but it has a couple of really cool ideas that make it more than worth playing, at least for me. One of these days I might play more entries in the SaGa series because there seems to be a recurring theme of oddball ideas in those games.
Well, we're almost caught up. Only one more month to go.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Learning to let things go in Assassin's Creed Odyssey
I spent a whole mess of hours over my weekend playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey and I can't help but continue coming to the same conclusion.
Man, this game is really good.
I had a lot of preconceived notions about Assassin's Creed before I jumped in but this game has comfortably defied all of them. I felt the game might feel sterile or callously AAA, might be overly repetitive, and the combat might not feel as involved as I'd prefer. None of these are true. It is a game with a tremendous amount of variety not only in play styles, but in content and sheer breadth of things to do. Having played a few massive open-world games, Odyssey easily tops them in sheer size and scale.
I think I really started to engage with Odyssey when I stopped trying to be completionist about it. I stopped trying to conquer every single optional objective. Going for that approach initially was a mistake, because there are hundreds upon hundreds of optional objectives in this game and many of them are entirely irrelevant. I came to learn, as I progressed further, that there were certain sidequests that simply weren't worth my time.
As you travel the many islands of Greece, you have the opportunity to take on a number of different types of quests. The main story quests of course advance the plot of Kassandra or Alexios as they search for their lost family members. You also have the ability to consult a message board posted in every major town that lists a series of mundane bounties and contracts that are totally optional. These quests are not unlike the type of tasks you would see in an MMO. They almost always involve killing a set number of enemies, sinking a set number of ships, or lowering a particular region's Nation Power. Attempting to complete many of these quests made the game initially seem very dull.
Another set of tasks available to you throughout the game involve conquering optional objectives that are available for certain areas. In the case of forts and bandit camps, these objectives might be to kill a captain or polemarch, maybe some guards, burn some war supplies, and loot some chests. Because I was enamored of the idea of seeing as many check marks as possible on my massive world map, I was initially on board with completing all of these objectives as I came across them. Again, this became a very dull and repetitive process.
When I started to ignore a lot of these optional objectives and only complete story- or character-driven quests, I started to really become engaged in what I was playing. The pacing felt so much better. I always felt much more motivated in accomplishing the tasks I set out to do. It wasn't about conquering a meaningless set of inconsequential objectives anymore. It was about discovering the whereabouts of a worried wife's erstwhile fisherman husband. It was about discovering the surprising truth about a resistance leader's biological father--and in what is by far my favorite series of quests so far, discovering how to unlock the door of an ancient labyrinth.
I would usually never deride a game for having too much content, but Odyssey could certainly do without those MMO-style quests. They don't really serve the game well, especially considering the fact that on top of the standard quests provided in the game, there's also a couple of subsystems on which you can spend your time. There's ship combat, and a hierarchy of mercenaries you can advance through, and a shadowy cult you must systematically eliminate. All of that is so much more exciting than those dull bounties.
There's so much to do in Odyssey that it seems silly those contracts are even there. Even now, there are huge swaths of area and whole islands I haven't uncovered and I'm only 10 levels away from the level cap. It could be they're a relic from previous games in the series, but because I have so little experience with the series as a whole, I can't really say. I plan on playing a lot more so I can have some context--and because, to be honest, this game has made me feel good about the prospect overall.
I'm glad that I took the time to dig a little deeper into the game, because I could have easily dismissed the game as being boring and repetitive had I continued at my doomed goal of systematically tearing down every fort and bandit camp I came across. There are just too many of them, and too much potential to spend a tremendous amount of time doing the same thing over and over. It would have given me the totally wrong impression of the game and I wouldn't have gotten to do all the stuff I've gotten to do. I've already spent 60-something hours on the game at this point and the end is not yet in sight. I'm excited to see what the game still has in store.
Man, this game is really good.
I had a lot of preconceived notions about Assassin's Creed before I jumped in but this game has comfortably defied all of them. I felt the game might feel sterile or callously AAA, might be overly repetitive, and the combat might not feel as involved as I'd prefer. None of these are true. It is a game with a tremendous amount of variety not only in play styles, but in content and sheer breadth of things to do. Having played a few massive open-world games, Odyssey easily tops them in sheer size and scale.
I think I really started to engage with Odyssey when I stopped trying to be completionist about it. I stopped trying to conquer every single optional objective. Going for that approach initially was a mistake, because there are hundreds upon hundreds of optional objectives in this game and many of them are entirely irrelevant. I came to learn, as I progressed further, that there were certain sidequests that simply weren't worth my time.
As you travel the many islands of Greece, you have the opportunity to take on a number of different types of quests. The main story quests of course advance the plot of Kassandra or Alexios as they search for their lost family members. You also have the ability to consult a message board posted in every major town that lists a series of mundane bounties and contracts that are totally optional. These quests are not unlike the type of tasks you would see in an MMO. They almost always involve killing a set number of enemies, sinking a set number of ships, or lowering a particular region's Nation Power. Attempting to complete many of these quests made the game initially seem very dull.
Another set of tasks available to you throughout the game involve conquering optional objectives that are available for certain areas. In the case of forts and bandit camps, these objectives might be to kill a captain or polemarch, maybe some guards, burn some war supplies, and loot some chests. Because I was enamored of the idea of seeing as many check marks as possible on my massive world map, I was initially on board with completing all of these objectives as I came across them. Again, this became a very dull and repetitive process.
When I started to ignore a lot of these optional objectives and only complete story- or character-driven quests, I started to really become engaged in what I was playing. The pacing felt so much better. I always felt much more motivated in accomplishing the tasks I set out to do. It wasn't about conquering a meaningless set of inconsequential objectives anymore. It was about discovering the whereabouts of a worried wife's erstwhile fisherman husband. It was about discovering the surprising truth about a resistance leader's biological father--and in what is by far my favorite series of quests so far, discovering how to unlock the door of an ancient labyrinth.
I would usually never deride a game for having too much content, but Odyssey could certainly do without those MMO-style quests. They don't really serve the game well, especially considering the fact that on top of the standard quests provided in the game, there's also a couple of subsystems on which you can spend your time. There's ship combat, and a hierarchy of mercenaries you can advance through, and a shadowy cult you must systematically eliminate. All of that is so much more exciting than those dull bounties.
There's so much to do in Odyssey that it seems silly those contracts are even there. Even now, there are huge swaths of area and whole islands I haven't uncovered and I'm only 10 levels away from the level cap. It could be they're a relic from previous games in the series, but because I have so little experience with the series as a whole, I can't really say. I plan on playing a lot more so I can have some context--and because, to be honest, this game has made me feel good about the prospect overall.
I'm glad that I took the time to dig a little deeper into the game, because I could have easily dismissed the game as being boring and repetitive had I continued at my doomed goal of systematically tearing down every fort and bandit camp I came across. There are just too many of them, and too much potential to spend a tremendous amount of time doing the same thing over and over. It would have given me the totally wrong impression of the game and I wouldn't have gotten to do all the stuff I've gotten to do. I've already spent 60-something hours on the game at this point and the end is not yet in sight. I'm excited to see what the game still has in store.
Monday, April 1, 2019
September (Part 2) and October 2018 Catchup
After I spent a pretty considerable amount of time on Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers, I went on a tear of playing through somewhat shorter games. I tend to do this from time to time when I'm overwhelmed by all the long RPGs I play. The only other game I finished in September was God of War: Ascension, which I played thanks to the game streaming service, PlayStation Now. I was still experimenting with what the service had to offer at the time and I knew I was eventually going to play the new God of War reboot and had never gotten around to playing that particular entry in the series anyway since I'd heard the reception to it was pretty mixed.
I actually thought it was a pretty decent game. It has its flaws for sure, but it also has some really great set pieces and puzzles that use some interesting mechanics. There's an artifact you can use in that game that allows you to turn back time to put broken bridges back together and turn gears and stuff like that that's really interesting and fun to play around with. The combat itself is pretty similar to the older games but their arcade action style combat always appealed to me, so it still resonated with me in Ascension.
On the other hand, when I returned to God of War III: Remastered, I liked it considerably less than when I played it upon initial release back in 2010. These games have always been these garish displays of hyperviolence and overt sexuality, but the third entry in the series really cranked it up a notch to the point that it was pretty uncomfortable. I don't think it really bothered me nine years ago, but maybe my age (and the current social climate) is starting to affect how I react to this stuff. Not only did I find a lot of the goriness and sexuality kind of gross, but I didn't love the gameplay that much either. Although the underlying combat mechanics are as solid as ever, the different weapons available were extremely lacking in variety. Although most would rank Ascension as the worst God of War, I feel pretty strongly that honor belongs to this game.
Because I was in the mood to play through some older games that I'd missed when they were new, I decided to pick up Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection when it was on sale on PSN. I'd played the PS3 version of Uncharted many years ago and had a really hard time getting into it, but perceptions certainly change with time, and I'm much more accustomed to games with heavy shooter elements these days. I played through Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered in just a few days and really enjoyed it, even though I felt it had some pacing issues. It's still a really pretty game to look at and it's great fun to explore this mysterious island and shoot at a bunch of bad guys.
I was really much more impressed with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered, though, since it has a ton more variety, amazing set pieces, and great pacing. That game is a blast to play through pretty much right from the beginning, except for one notable and frustrating exception. I was sold on the game pretty much right away as I assumed control of Nate frantically scrabbling up the side of a train that had derailed and was hanging precariously off the side of a snowy mountain. The moment to moment gameplay of jumping and climbing through so many diverse environments interspersed with fun gunplay segments and incredibly well-directed cinematic scenes creates a game that is very deserving of all the accolades it has received over the years.
I also finished the Secret of Mana PS4 remaster/remake in October, which was much less impressive. I'm a big fan of the original SNES Secret of Mana but it's a pretty well-known fact at this point that it hasn't aged extremely well. There was a lot of opportunity for a remake to address some of the issues the original game had and this particular take on the game doesn't do that at all. Sure, it overhauls the graphics and replaces them inoffensive low-poly 3D models, but doesn't change the gameplay even a little bit. It also introduced some really problematic issues with the soundtrack that results in some really bizarre, grating noises in some of the game's best tracks. I still enjoyed playing through it again, but it didn't feel transformative at all, and if anything, is an inferior version of the game.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is the most recent of the many Dragon Quest games I've played through over the years, and this one was a long time coming since I'd started it right after finishing DQ VI. I'll be honest, though--I didn't love this one. It has such an interesting premise in that you're restoring the world by traveling back in time to retrieve fragments of these ancient tablets. It even has the same job system as Dragon Quest VI, which I was initially pretty excited about. But in practice, it's a tremendously time-consuming and tedious grind to level your jobs, and although all of the disparate stories that comprise the game are interesting in some ways, they're generally kind of dull and the pacing in the game overall is plodding. It definitely made me reluctant to move on to Dragon Quest VIII, which I still haven't finished.
The last game I finished in October was Mega Man 11, which is just about what you would expect from a Mega Man game. The only thing really all that surprising about it is that it's a new Mega Man game! It's a reasonably well designed game, but the overall structure of it does feel pretty dated, since the core mechanic of this series hasn't changed since the series inception in the 80s. Having said that, it's a very fun game and I appreciated the one new mechanic it introduced that allows you to slow down time strategically. I don't know that I'll ever be able to look to the Mega Man series for innovation, but this game was good enough that I'd still happily play a Mega Man 12.
Phew. That was a lot of games and there's more to come in November.
I actually thought it was a pretty decent game. It has its flaws for sure, but it also has some really great set pieces and puzzles that use some interesting mechanics. There's an artifact you can use in that game that allows you to turn back time to put broken bridges back together and turn gears and stuff like that that's really interesting and fun to play around with. The combat itself is pretty similar to the older games but their arcade action style combat always appealed to me, so it still resonated with me in Ascension.
On the other hand, when I returned to God of War III: Remastered, I liked it considerably less than when I played it upon initial release back in 2010. These games have always been these garish displays of hyperviolence and overt sexuality, but the third entry in the series really cranked it up a notch to the point that it was pretty uncomfortable. I don't think it really bothered me nine years ago, but maybe my age (and the current social climate) is starting to affect how I react to this stuff. Not only did I find a lot of the goriness and sexuality kind of gross, but I didn't love the gameplay that much either. Although the underlying combat mechanics are as solid as ever, the different weapons available were extremely lacking in variety. Although most would rank Ascension as the worst God of War, I feel pretty strongly that honor belongs to this game.
Because I was in the mood to play through some older games that I'd missed when they were new, I decided to pick up Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection when it was on sale on PSN. I'd played the PS3 version of Uncharted many years ago and had a really hard time getting into it, but perceptions certainly change with time, and I'm much more accustomed to games with heavy shooter elements these days. I played through Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered in just a few days and really enjoyed it, even though I felt it had some pacing issues. It's still a really pretty game to look at and it's great fun to explore this mysterious island and shoot at a bunch of bad guys.
I was really much more impressed with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered, though, since it has a ton more variety, amazing set pieces, and great pacing. That game is a blast to play through pretty much right from the beginning, except for one notable and frustrating exception. I was sold on the game pretty much right away as I assumed control of Nate frantically scrabbling up the side of a train that had derailed and was hanging precariously off the side of a snowy mountain. The moment to moment gameplay of jumping and climbing through so many diverse environments interspersed with fun gunplay segments and incredibly well-directed cinematic scenes creates a game that is very deserving of all the accolades it has received over the years.
I also finished the Secret of Mana PS4 remaster/remake in October, which was much less impressive. I'm a big fan of the original SNES Secret of Mana but it's a pretty well-known fact at this point that it hasn't aged extremely well. There was a lot of opportunity for a remake to address some of the issues the original game had and this particular take on the game doesn't do that at all. Sure, it overhauls the graphics and replaces them inoffensive low-poly 3D models, but doesn't change the gameplay even a little bit. It also introduced some really problematic issues with the soundtrack that results in some really bizarre, grating noises in some of the game's best tracks. I still enjoyed playing through it again, but it didn't feel transformative at all, and if anything, is an inferior version of the game.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is the most recent of the many Dragon Quest games I've played through over the years, and this one was a long time coming since I'd started it right after finishing DQ VI. I'll be honest, though--I didn't love this one. It has such an interesting premise in that you're restoring the world by traveling back in time to retrieve fragments of these ancient tablets. It even has the same job system as Dragon Quest VI, which I was initially pretty excited about. But in practice, it's a tremendously time-consuming and tedious grind to level your jobs, and although all of the disparate stories that comprise the game are interesting in some ways, they're generally kind of dull and the pacing in the game overall is plodding. It definitely made me reluctant to move on to Dragon Quest VIII, which I still haven't finished.
The last game I finished in October was Mega Man 11, which is just about what you would expect from a Mega Man game. The only thing really all that surprising about it is that it's a new Mega Man game! It's a reasonably well designed game, but the overall structure of it does feel pretty dated, since the core mechanic of this series hasn't changed since the series inception in the 80s. Having said that, it's a very fun game and I appreciated the one new mechanic it introduced that allows you to slow down time strategically. I don't know that I'll ever be able to look to the Mega Man series for innovation, but this game was good enough that I'd still happily play a Mega Man 12.
Phew. That was a lot of games and there's more to come in November.
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