The 2015 Video Game Retrospective

I did a fun thing in 2014 where I briefly revisited all the games I'd finished that year--in the order I'd played them. It was a really fun writing exercise and I really enjoy the idea of looking back on it in the years to come. I knew even then that I wanted to do the same thing for 2015, but unfortunately I was unable to finish it in as timely a fashion as I might have preferred. Although I'd furiously typed out the bulk of this entry on December 31st, I'd done nothing in the way of graphics for the article. I could have just published it as-is, of course--but I wasn't satisfied with that. Despite illness and other pressing concerns, I did eventually manage to finish up the rest of the article, even if we are now deep into January 2016. Without further ado, I give you my 2015 Video Game Retrospective.

The majority of my total play time of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth took place in 2014, but I didn’t finish it until New Year’s Day, 2015. Despite criticism from both the Persona and Etrian Odyssey communities, I absolutely loved Persona Q, perhaps because it doled out a heavy serving of fanservice for those of us that really enjoyed both Persona 3 and Persona 4. I love crossovers in general, and while Persona Q could have gone further in delivering on that fantasy, I found it satisfied my craving well enough and introduced me to a type of gameplay to which I became quite addicted over the course of 2015—and invariably convinced me to soldier on through the entirety of the Etrian Odyssey series released thus far. I discussed it at length for my very first entry on this blog in 2015.

I couldn’t tell you exactly why I decided I wanted to play Illusion of Gaia, but it had something to do with an urge to revisit Terranigma, a game I’d played many years previous and abandoned due to a loss of save data. I decided to partner up with a friend and play through the Soul Blazer trilogy (without actually playing Soul Blazer for whatever reason) because it seemed like it might be a fun thing to do. As it turned out, it was! Illusion of Gaia is a sidescrolling action RPG with themes of world exploration and ancient history. It’s a little rough around the edges but overall quite fun.

Still, Terranigma was ultimately what I was interested in playing and it’s the superior of the two games—although the gameplay itself is very different. Terranigma is played from a top-down perspective quite reminiscent of Link to the Past and the combat is much more fluid and varied than its immediate predecessor. Themes of history and rebirth are again present in Terranigma, but the gameplay itself is much more polished and fun, even if spellcasting is somewhat less than satisfying. I found myself reminded of the awkward pauses while casting spells from Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3, which my co-op partner and I also completed the previous year.

I started Dragon Quest III right after finishing the Super Famicom compilation of the first two games of the series. I found myself absorbed in it pretty much immediately but for whatever reason I lost interest and moved on to other games. In an effort to clear out my backlog (and advance even further into the gargantuan Dragon Quest series), I decided to seriously tackle the third game and found I enjoyed it the most of the entries I’d played up to that point. It expanded the party size to four and introduced a fun new class mechanic while still featuring the classic combat and exploration mechanics from the previous two titles.

I became intrigued at some point in 2014 with the idea of marathoning RPG series. It’s a massive undertaking in many cases as RPGs are generally very lengthy and exhaustive experiences. I’m a fan of the Tales series, but the misery of the final segments of Tales of Destiny almost scared me away from the series entirely. I’m glad I decided to follow up, though, because Tales of Eternia ended up being one of the series’ better entries. It improved on Destiny in pretty much every way. This was also the first (of several) Tales games that I played with my co-op partner entirely. I assumed control of the martial artist Farah and he controlled the swordsman protagonist, Reid. Farah is still one of my favorite characters as far as gameplay goes, 3D Tales games included.

Before finding employment in 2014, I’d considered the idea of marathoning the entire Dragon Quest series. I’d never played any of the games before (save for Dragon Quest V via emulation, briefly) and felt it was a pretty important series to play to get a better perspective on the JRPG genre in general. After playing the first two games of the series, I found I quite enjoyed the formula, simple as it was. I was even more determined at that point to make my way through the series. After completing Dragon Quest III, I decided to order the DS versions of the next three games in the series. So far, Chapters of the Chosen is the only one I’ve actually purchased because they’re all quite expensive. Fortunately, it’s also my favorite! I’ve always really enjoyed games with large ensemble casts of characters that start out separated but come together in the end and DQIV is a really good example of that.

I’m a big fan of the Pokemon series and felt that X and Y were some of the best games yet. The jump to full 3D graphics after years and years of resolutely sticking to the 2D standard was a startling but welcome improvement over the usual formula. Additionally, the gameplay itself was quite fun and for the first time since the second generation many years ago, Game Freak elected to add a new type—the questionably named Fairy typing. While it might have made more sense to add Light (opposed to Dark) instead of Fairy, it was still an interesting wrinkle in a tried and true format. Alpha Sapphire is another remake in the vein of Fire Red/Leaf Green and Soul Silver/Heart Gold, but this time with the 3D graphics introduced with X and Y. Ruby/Sapphire was not my favorite generation to begin with and the enhanced remake doesn’t do it as many favors as one might imagine. Although a solid entry, it left me craving genuinely new content for the series.

It’s unclear why I decided to play Tales of Innocence while waist-deep in Tales of Vesperia. It’s a Japanese-only release for Nintendo DS that was graciously translated into English by a group of fans calling themselves Absolute Zero Translations—the same group responsible for the PSX Tales of Phantasia translation project. I’m not sure how I even heard about it, but I was considering playing Tales of Legendia at the time since I was craving more Tales in my off time after finishing Eternia. I was unable to acquire a copy so I looked to Innocence instead. Of course, my co-op partner and I started Vesperia around the same time so I very quickly became burnt out on the format—and switching between two slightly different control schemes was also a little disconcerting. Tales of Innocence is a slightly more bite-sized entry into the series and features only three characters in combat at a time. The Infinite Jam mechanic that allows you to string together complex combos by switching from character to character is probably the game’s highlight, but the long and tedious dungeons drag it down quite a few notches.

I spent countless hours on Super Smash Bros Melee as a kid and even spent a fair amount of time on Super Smash Bros Brawl a few years back--but this most recent iteration never caught on as much for me, despite the hype that's surrounded it. I'll be the first to admit that many of the recent new character announcements are pretty intriguing, but not enough to make me seriously consider returning to it after I got what I could out of it. It's probably not a failing of the game, exactly--it's just not what I'm looking for in games these days. I need a story mode--something that is tailored toward a single player or cooperative experience. Smash Bros is just not all that engaging as a single player.

My co-op partner and I made our first foray into 3D Tales with the Xbox 360’s Tales of Vesperia. I’d been meaning to play it for years since I’d heard about it, but of course for the longest time I’d only played Symphonia and Abyss, the latter of which I didn’t particularly care for. Vesperia shares a lot of the principal weaknesses of the Tales series, particularly when it comes to the 3D entries. It’s long-winded and frequently a little saccharine. The characters are solid, however, and the combat itself quite fun and satisfying. I spent most of my time controlling Judith or Karol while my co-op partner was responsible for Yuri or the strange knife-wielding dog, Repede.

I’d had plans ever since I finished Persona Q to tackle the main Etrian Odyssey series from the beginning. I ordered the first game of the series and was sent a copy of the second one instead—so I ordered the first one again and thankfully got the right game that time. It worked out in the end since I’d been planning to move right onto the second game afterward anyway. It was kind of a shock to play the first game of the EO series after playing Persona Q. It was pretty clear that a lot of advancements had been made over the years in interface, graphics, and balance. Still, the core gameplay of mapmaking, dungeon crawling, and character building remains intact, although I wonder just how much more I might have enjoyed the remake, Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl. I’ll have to try that one of these days.

I ended up enjoying Etrian Odyssey II a lot more, but it still had a lot of balance issues of which I gleefully took full advantage. I have to admit after the endless punishment of Etrian Odyssey, it felt pretty rewarding harnessing the destructive power of the Dark Hunter class with its insanely powerful counter attacks and binding skills. Heroes of Lagaard has my favorite implementation of the Boost Gauge mechanic in that each class has its own unique “super skill” that brings something unique to the table. In the first game, the Boost mechanic simply increased damage by 50% and in future titles each class chooses from a pool of shared skills for the Boost Gauge. In Etrian Odyssey II, each class only has one powerful skill, but they’re very flashy, game-altering abilities. The Dark Hunter has the ability to bind arms, legs, and head in one skill—and then follow up with the Ecstasy skill, which deals damage based on how many binds the enemy is currently afflicted with. This made short work of many bosses.

The only reason I finished two really long games in one day is because I was playing this in pretty long sessions with my longtime co-op partner at his house. Of course, Nocturne is not a cooperative game, but we still had a lot of fun trading off playing this. I’d definitely be interested in doing that kind of thing more often. We’d given the format a test run earlier in the year with Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma, but this was the first time we’d played a single player game cooperatively in person. It was a really positive experience—we were able to bounce ideas off each other as far as strategy and build decisions go. Nocturne is a fantastic game and one of my favorites I played in 2015. It is challenging and has satisfying gameplay depth and excellent atmosphere.

It was at this point that Etrian fatigue really began to kick in. I’d played the first three titles in quick succession (with quite a bit of Nocturne on the side, admittedly) and was becoming pretty burnt out on the format. Of course, I’d already ordered Etrian Odyssey IV for 3DS by this point (with Etrian Mystery Dungeon close behind) and was excited to try them out, but I knew instinctively that I needed to take a bit of a break before moving on. In a lot of ways, EOIII advanced the format to its best form yet, but I’ll admit to missing the super powerful class skills and devastating Hexer/Dark Hunter strategies from the previous title. Still, the new classes, subclassing, and sailing features were revitalizing inclusions to the format.

Hammerwatch was another cooperative title my co-op partner and I tackled and probably the shortest game I played all year. We finished it in a single day, but I still feel reasonably assured that it was worth the purchase on Steam. It's a pixelated action/dungeon crawler in the vein of the Gauntlet series featuring a handful of character classes, bullet hell influences, and hordes and hordes of enemies. It's actually pretty refreshing to play a fun game that doesn't take up 30+ hours of my time. Granted, I prefer RPGs, but games like Hammerwatch are a pleasant diversion in between role playing epics.

Somehow, while all of this was happening, I was still finding time to play Tales of Graces. I'd started playing it shortly after my co-op partner and I finished Tales of Vesperia. He'd decided that he was burned out on Tales for the time being (and it led to us playing Nocturne instead, which ended up being fantastic) but I still had a hunger to advance through the Tales series. Tales of Graces F is a PS3 port of a game originally released for Wii in Japan. Its graphics are even brighter and more colorful than is typical for the series--but most importantly, the battle system is faster-paced and more interesting than some of the other recent Tales titles. I would maybe even go so far as to say it's my favorite, but it's difficult to say since it still has so many of the series' hallmark frustrations--overly long exposition, volumes upon volumes of pointless dialogue, and--well, that's honestly about all the bad things I can say about it. The plot was more interesting than your average Tales title and the combat system was a blast.

I was still trying to find relatively short games to finish since I'd spent so much time on Etrian Odyssey, Nocturne, Tales, etc--and I settled on Crypt of the Necrodancer because I was in love with the idea of a roguelike with rhythm-based controls. I still love the idea and think the game's a ton of fun. It has enough content to last your average player many hours, but I think I spent perhaps a bit more time than was intended to finish it just because the last couple of levels are so hard. I don't get frustrated at games very often, but this game definitely did it to me. The soundtrack is brilliant and the gameplay innovative. I can't really say anything negative about it other than its difficulty level, but I can't honestly say the balance of the game was ever unfair.

As I write this retrospective on the last day of December, I can't help but feel envious of the breakneck pace at which I completed games earlier in 2015. I played Icewind Dale cooperatively with a different co-op partner than usual. I've always been a huge fan of the Infinity Engine games released in the mid 90s but somehow I'd never gotten around to playing IWD. The original version of the game struck me as a stripped down, virtually plotless Baldur's Gate, but the enhanced edition has a lot more options, culled from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal and from more recent D&D titles in general. The plot and atmosphere of IWD remains virtually unchanged, but the gameplay is much upgraded and polished compared to the original version. I found it to be an unexpected treat.

After playing Graces on my own, my co-op partner and I decided to get back to work on the series with Tales of Xillia. The fast-paced, resourceless combat of the previous game was gone, replaced again with something more akin to most mainline 3D Tales entries. It plays like a slightly faster-paced Vesperia, except with a return to the Chain Capacity/Assault Counter mechanic allowing characters to chain artes and attacks together in any order. Unlike Graces, Xillia returns to using TP (technical points) as a limiter on arte usage. Eliminating TP in Graces felt like a breath of fresh air, so I have to wonder why they didn't stay the course. Then again, the combat system in Graces was essentially superior in every way. Xillia's Link Attacks are interesting, but are honestly kind of a no-brainer mechanic in an action-based RPG battle system. The characters themselves are sometimes interesting, but not often especially. The original intent was for us to follow up with Tales of Xillia 2, but plans have a way of evaporating. . .

For most of this year, I've had a game I played at work on lunch breaks, a game I played with my co-op partner, and a game I played during whatever other free time I happened to have. Final Fantasy IV was my lunch break game, and one of the few games I've played for Android. It is one of many different versions of Final Fantasy IV I've played and pretty closely resembles the DS version. It's more or less a direct port with touch screen controls, but certain features were altered. The graphics are slightly improved, but still not terribly advanced. I enjoyed playing through the game again, but I didn't feel it brought anything new to the table compared to previous remakes. I mostly just played it in preparation for the "sequel," which I had not yet played.

Final Fantasy IV has always had a special place in my heart. It was the first Final Fantasy I played--and despite its flaws I still really enjoy it. It's why I continue to play its various iterations. I may invariably end up playing the PSP version of the game as well, which as of this writing is just about the only version of it I have not yet played. Regardless, I was fascinated as a kid at the thought of a direct sequel to FFIV. At the time, this kind of thing was unheard of. It wasn't until the tenth entry of the series that Square opted for a direct sequel to any main line Final Fantasy title. Square-Enix's track record with sequels has been somewhat less than stellar, however, and The After Years is unfortunately no exception. It is a game that strikes me as rather exploitative as a Final Fantasy IV fan. It pays heavy homage to the orginal title but does little to advance the format. The new combination attacks are interesting and I have to admit that bringing together all of the Final Fantasy IV characters once again satisfies a deeply rooted urge I'd had since I was a little kid--but it's ultimately a game with a weak premise and lots of reused content from the original game.

After playing the enhanced edition of Icewind Dale, I really felt the urge to try Beamdog's other Infinity Engine updates. The gameplay is essentially unchanged from the original title, but like IWD:EE, it features many of Baldur's Gate II's updates and enhancements, including a much more robust selection of character classes and subclasses. My co-op partner--who had accompanied me on titles like Secret of Mana, Divinity: Original Sin, and a good chunk of the Tales series--was not immediately convinced by Baldur's Gate's admittedly dated gameplay. I mostly enjoy it for the atmosphere, exploration, and plot. I feel the gameplay itself is more interesting in its sequel.

It was during this time that I was alternating between playing different Infinity Engine remakes with two different co-op partners. We'd decided to continue on after finishing the base Icewind Dale game by first tackling Trials of the Luremaster, an extremely expansive dungeon that comprised the bulk of the expansion. Densely packed with riddles, puzzles, and difficult encounters--Heart of Winter and Icewind Dale as a whole focus much more on combat and dungeon crawling than Baldur's Gate and Planescape:Torment. However, there is still much in the way of atmosphere and worldbuilding beneath the surface--they're just not as integral to the experience. I find Icewind Dale to be a more immediately engaging experience but ultimately not as rewarding as Baldur's Gate (particularly II).

Unlike Heart of Winter, Tales of the Sword Coast is relatively flimsy in terms of content for an expansion pack, boasting maybe 3-4 hours of content, the bulk of which takes place in Durlag's Tower, a booby-trapped labyrinth. Also on display are an ice maze, an island of werewolves, and the quest hub of Ulgoth's Beard. Tales of the Sword Coast is less plot-driven than the main game, principally because it serves as content to complement it rather than extend it.

I was determined to get some use out of tablet as a gaming platform. Although I'd enjoyed both Final Fantasy IV and The After Years both to some extent, I felt it might be more interesting to tackle a game designed specifically for tablets (and phones) instead of a reworked port. Dimensions is an original spin-off title in the Final Fantasy series that pays homage to many previous games, particularly Final Fantasy V, which its job system most closely resembles. The plot is almost completely ignorable, but the gameplay itself is solid, if not repetitive. Because its split into episodes (like The After Years), it feels overly long, and the job system heavily encourages grinding to succeed. It ends up feeling like quite the slog in the end, but I'm generally a fan of becoming incredibly powerful by the time you reach an RPGs endgame--and that's a fantasy on which Dimensions gleefully delivers.

Because I felt I just didn't have quite enough handhelds, I purchased a PlayStation Vita. First on the list was a remake of a game I'd already finished on the Wii. I'm not certain why I elected to play so many remakes this year, but I guess that's just how things work out sometimes. Muramasa is a Vanillaware action game with a beautiful 2D art style with an aesthetic rooted in Japanese mythology and culture. The gameplay itself is a blast and light RPG elements keep things interesting for the game's duration. Momohime and Kisuke are the game's protagonists and the stars of their own storylines. Their control schemes are essentially identical but both have their own unique sets of katanas they unlock over the course of their campaigns, each of which control fairly distinctly and feature different special abilities. With its fluid controls, satisfying challenge, and beautiful art style, Muramasa is one of my favorite action games.

Finally, I thought, with assistance from my co-op partner, I could finally seriously play the expansion to Baldur's Gate II I'd been putting off completing for over ten years! That was in the back of my mind the whole time we were playing BGII, but I did find myself enjoying playing through a game I've completed literally dozens of times. Some of the first entries on this blog are about the non-enhanced version of thsi game. Of course, the "remake" in this case is less noticeable than those of Icewind Dale and the original Baldur's Gate title. I'm happy enough just to play a great game again with a friend, but unfortunately we found ourselves beset on all sides by annoying and game-altering bugs. They were frankly debilitating enough that we considered not finishing the game--but we soldiered on. I still enjoyed myself, but found the bugs definitely soured the experience--and to my despair, we never did finish Throne of Bhaal. I still haven't finished it.

It was at this point that I decided to completely switch gears to play a game that'd been in my backlog for years. I also realized I'd not played a strategy RPG in a year or more--which is interesting, since it's historically been my favorite video game genre. After I made a lot of progress on Knight of Lodis, I started getting ideas about continuing on to the PSP remake of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (since 2015 has evidently been the Year of Remakes for me anyway) but have so far not followed up on that idea. I'm still open to it, but as of now my foray into the Ogre series was a side path. Ogre Battle 64 is one of my favorite games ever. It seems strange to me that it was the only game from the series I'd completed for years. At least now I can add Knight of Lodis to that list.

There was a point at some time last year (or maybe even the end of the year before) that I was playing probably 12 hours of Path of Exile a day. It's an incredibly addictive RPG in the vein of Diablo but in my opinion it is far superior to it. The game's principal strength lies in its diversity of build options, which continue to grow and grow as more content patches are released for the game. I'd play more, but I don't want to get sucked into a rabbit hole that never ends! It's like League of Legends in that way. I enjoy both games, but I'd rather spend more time playing games that have an actual endpoint and narratives that feature a beginning, middle, and end. I feel those are more rewarding in the end. Still, if I can find an excuse to come back to those games and play them for a little while, then I will. Awakening added a final act to the main game and a lot of new content in general. If Grinding Gear Games relases another major expansion, I imagine I'll be back.

Well, it took me some time, but I finally returned to the Etrian series. Although the fourth entry is probably one of the shorter titles, I feel I spent more time on it than any of the first three. Maybe it's because I had less time to play games in general. Ican't be sure, but I'm glad I waited a long enough time to overcome my Etrian fatigue. Etrian IV makes the jump to full 3D graphics and completely separated major dungeons in the vein of Persona Q (or Persona 4, as a matter of fact), and incorprorates the sea maps from EOIII as airship maps. These are the principal form of travel from dungeon to dungeon, in fact, and lend more cohesion to the game compared to the sea maps that felt more like optional side missions. I liked Etrian Odyssey IV a lot, but I did find myself missing classes from the previous entry.

I'd heard rumblings about Trails in the Sky for PSP for some time and had always wanted to try it. Unfortunately, my PSP charger has been out of commission for a long time. For that reason, I elected to emulate various PSP games last year when I was trying to clear out some of my backlog. I've since ordered a replacement PSP charger, but I decided it was just as easy to download a copy of Trails in the Sky for my shiny new Vita instead. I'm really glad I did, because it ended up being one of my favorite games I played this year. It is a JRPG that reminds me mostly of a lot of PS1 classics like Lunar and Suikoden, with a pseudo tactical combat system. The primary strength of Trails lies in its characters and dialogue, however. I'm truly grateful to Xseed for undertaking the herculean task of localizing the game and translating its countless volumes of text. I've really grown attached to Estelle, the game's spunky female protagonist, and Joshua, and Kloe, Agate, Scherazard--none of the characters really lack in development, and are explored even further in the game's Second Chapter, which I finished just recently!

Because I'm a huge fan of parting with any money I might come into contact with, I decided foolishly to purchase a PlayStation 4 not long after purchasing a Vita. Realistically, I knew I'd eventually want one for such titles as Final Fantasy XV, Persona V, and Disgaea 5 (is there a theme here?), I didn't start out with much of a library on hand. Most PS4 owners grabbed Type 0 just for a chance to try the Final Fantasy XV demo, but I was genuinely interested in giving the game a shot. I'm somewhat obsessed with completing every Final Fantasy spin-off I come across within reason. Overall, Type 0 was one of the better ones, although the characters (and voice acting) were pretty darn questionable. The third-person action RPG combat system was interesting and not particularly like anything else I've played--but the game seemed to drag on for qute a bit too long. I can't say I'd necessarily recommend it, but I don't regret finishing it either.

Finally, I reached the end of my Etrian marathon. I'm pretty sure I'd heard about Etrian Mystery Dungeon before I played even a single Etrian Odyssey game--but I was interested in the idea since I'd already played Persona Q and liked roguelikes. The original plan was to play all the games in order and then follow it up with Mystery Dungeon. At the time, it seemed less a daunting obstacle than what it ended up being--but hey, it's exactly what I did. It just took me the better part of a year to do it, with a few breaks in between titles. Of course, after all that buildup, Etrian Mystery Dungeon was not exactly a perfect game--but I have discussed that quite recently on this blog. I'm still interested in trying the Etrian Odyssey Untold remakes of the first two titles, but I think I'll wait some time before giving them a try.

Part of the reason I was excited about having a PS4 was because I'd be able to play Disgaea 5 when it came out--but first I felt obligated to play Disgaea D2 first, because I'd been meaning to play it since it came out a couple years ago. Honestly--it wasn't a bad game, but it felt like a retread in a lot of ways. It returned to some mechanics that I feel might have been better left forgotten. Additionally, it seemed to lack content in comparison to mainline Disgaea titles. Much of the gameplay is identical to what you'd get from any other game in the series, but I didn't feel it brought a lot new to the table.

I hadn't originally intended for Shovel Knight to be my final game for the year, but that's just how it worked out. I figured throwing in such a short game at the end of the year would make it more likely that I'd hit 36 games and thus beat my record from last year--but alas I only ended up tying it. Still, I picked a really good game to end on, as Shovel Knight is an excellently designed retro platformer/action game that doesn't overstay its welcome. It made me wonder if I should play more games like it, because they serve as a really nice reprieve from the incredibly long JRPGs I usually play. I have a few games in mind (Ori and the Blind Forest, Freedom Planet) but who knows when I'll actually get to them. My preconceived notions about complexity and level of investment are frequently wrong, though. Crypt of the Necrodancer took a lot more time than I thought it might, and I've still barely managed to put a dent in Mega Man 9. Who knows what 2016 will bring? I've already finished Trails in the Sky Second Chapter so far this year (article coming up soon) but it's been slow going otherwise. Going full time at work combined with being sick for the better part of this year so far has made me have considerably less free time. This might not be the year to beat my record, but I intend to chronicle my efforts even so.

A Duller Darkness

There must be something that keeps me coming back to the Disgaea series, game after game. I've finished five of them now, and I must confess to a very real sense of weariness with the format, even as I gear up to start Disgaea 5. I think there is this core of quite addictive gameplay central to the series, but the focus on grinding and utterly tasteless and boring humor tends to detract from the experience. Of course, that is not to say that these elements are always bad. It's sometimes fun to level up your characters and unlock new skills and classes--and sometimes certain pieces of dialogue or descriptive text will make me laugh--but it can be difficult to remain invested in a game that is essentially a retread of previous titles. Disgaea D2 is fun, but it contains very few features that differentiate it from the first two games of the series.

Every class and every monster available in Disgaea D2 is a repeat of classes available in previous games, save for one or two. (Comparatively, Disgaea 5 evidently has about 12 more.) Similarly, many of the game's special skills are copied directly from the previous games in the series. Leveling up weapons and unlocking their unique skills is a large part of what makes the series interesting to me, but it's not so much fun when everything is so familiar. On top of all that, there are only three or four playable "hero" characters, principal of which are the returning characters from Disgaea: Hour of Darkness--Laharl, Etna, and Flonne. No mention is even made of Captain Gordon--the Defender of Earth--and his companions Jennifer and Thursday from the first game.

Disgaea has never been a series of games with a lot of focus on plot, but main series titles have frequently flown by on charm and a cutting sense of humor. D2's plot focuses primarily on Laharl proving himself as the Netherworld's Overlord while dealing with a criminally uninteresting estranged little sister named Sicily. Much of the early game consists of demonstrations of Laharl's leadership to unconvinced underlings until it is revealed that the game's primary conflict is that the Netherworld is being overrun by flowers from the angelic city of Celestia. Of course, the demons loyal to the previous Overlord (Laharl's father) jump to blame Laharl for these flowers, as they believe it to be retaliation from the angels due to the events in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.

I found myself supremely uninvested in the game's plot--but that's okay because the Disgaea series is mostly about gameplay. It is a solid entry in the series in that respect, but it introduces very little in the way of new content. Even as a direct sequel, I would expect more new gameplay elements, but it does nothing but introduce the disappointing Mounting mechanic. Riding Disgaea D2's various monsters around was a lot of fun--until I found out how it actually worked. In previous Disgaea titles, it is possible to transform monsters into weapons using the hilarious and fun Magichange mechanic. A flying moth might turn into a bow or a zombie into a bizarre, fleshy sword. Each of these transformations had unique skills associated with it. In this respect, mounting is very similar. However, no transformation takes place while mounting and only one skill is ever associated with the mechanic. I was hoping the monsters would eventually learn more, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Magichange combines the stats of both the monster and the humanoid character. For this reason, it's more worth it to have two characters on the field. In the case of mounting, the monster is treated more as a shield for the humanoid character. The monster takes the hits on the field but is incapable of attacking. The humanoid can attack and his or her stats are considered when doing so. In fact, the monster's stats don't matter at all. A level 1 zombie's special attack would be just as effective as a level 100 zombie's attack assuming he's being mounted by the same humanoid character. The only purpose the monster's stats serve in this case is to insure that it survives. For this reason, most monster characters I used over the course of Disgaea D2 had nothing but defensive items equipped. I very rarely felt the need to attack with them in an unmounted state.

Honestly, Disgaea D2 is a game in the series I could have comfortably skipped--and I only completed it out of sheer stubbornness. It's not a bad game by any means, but lacks the depth and progression of main series titles. It also brought back the honestly pretty dire Weapon Mastery mechanic, which requires you to grind endlessly to unlock new weapon skills--which, as mentioned previously, mostly consisted of skills with which I was already familiar. I very much preferred the systems adopted in Disgaea 3 and 4, which both enabled the purchase of new skills with mana. This meant that I could complete missions in whatever way I pleased, so long as I was defeating enemies (and therefore acquiring mana.) In the case of Disgaea D2, I frequently felt pigeonholed into attacking physically to even hope to unlock somewhat powerful skills. It was not a good system in the first two Disgaea games, so I'm not sure why they revisited it.

As bad of an idea as I know it is, I'll probably move on and play Disgaea 5 right away, so expect me to complain about it in about a month's time.

Glittering Prizes

Etrian Mystery Dungeon is the result of a collaboration between Atlus, responsible for the Etrian Odyssey series, and Chunsoft, developer of such titles as Shiren the Wanderer and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. It is a turn-based roguelike set in the Etrian Odyssey universe and features several classes lifted straight from main entries in the series. The skill tree system returns from Etrian Odyssey IV, but subclassing is noticeably absent, ostensibly for the sake of simplicity. 

Gameplay is not altogether too different from Etrian Odyssey, when it comes down to it. Players are tasked with plumbing the depths of various dungeons, acquiring gold, items, and experience as they do so. It is possible through repetitive journeys into these dungeons to progess further down where a boss will frequently await. Of course, conversely to the main Etrian Odyssey series, the dungeons in EMD are mostly randomized. Each trip will likely be very different from the last. There also isn't much in the way of puzzles or unique exploration mechanics. The ninja class can walk on water to subvert certain obstacles, but it's seldom necessary to think outside the box to progress.

Etrian Mystery Dungeon almost feels like an arcade game with heavy RPG elements. Each of the four characters in your party has a fatigue gauge that gradually drains as you walk around--but it can be replenished with food and by walking over some suspiciously-colored amber tiles scattered throughout the dungeons. These tiles also restore 1 TP apiece, meaning it is possible to sustain very long journeys into the labyrinths. This is good, because the series staple item Ariadne Thread--an item which allows instant return to town--is much more rare this time around. It is only infrequently available to purchase and drops seldom from slain monsters. Combine this issue with the fact that you'll lose all items upon death and you'll run into plenty of frustrating situations and lost progress.

The Etrian Odyssey series has always been punishingly diffcult, but Etrian Mystery Dungeon really ramps it up as far as penalties are concerned. Losing equipped items upon being vanquished is insanely frustrating, particularly when you have gear you've wasted precious armory scrolls on to upgrade. There's no way to restore a previous save to try again, either--because the game automatically saves your progress upon death. You can choose to call your party back and lose precious items, or send a rescue party (comprised of characters you'll also have to have leveled up prevously) to bring them back. Now, assuming your rescue fails, those party members will lose items too. I can't imagine why anyone thought this was a good gameplay concept.

The base game is actually pretty fun, even if the options for character building are thin in comparison to the third and fourth games of the series. The Protector class invalidates most other available strategies due to the game-warping power of Provoke--a taunt that works without fail and consistently protects party members from harm. I couldn't help but be reminded of the imbalanced power of the Protector and Medic classes from the original Etrian Odyssey. I wanted to try the ninja as my "tank"of choice instead, but it would have made the game a lot harder and by a certain point I just wanted to be done with it.

I have mixed feelings about Etrian Mystery Dungeon. I really enjoy the concept--and I do think Etrian Odyssey works in roguelike format--but I think the classes could have been a little more interesting and the dungeons themselves more inventive. I'd jump to try a more polished sequel, though.

The Etrian Countdown

Sometime early last year, I read an article previewing a game called Etrian Mystery Dungeon, a spin-off of Etrian Odyssey, a series of dungeon crawlers featuring random encounters, turn-based combat, and mapmaking. I'd already decided to tackle the EO series by this point after successfully completing (and greatly enjoying) Persona Q, another spin-off/crossover with Persona 3/4. I wrote about this game at length at the very beginning of the year. Sometime shortly after that, I started Etrian Odyssey, with the goal in mind to complete all four of the principal entries of the series and then follow with Etrian Mystery Dungeon. I had no idea what I was getting into.

I completed the first three games of the Etrian Odyssey series sequentially without really playing anything else in between. Each took me about a month to plow through due to their unparalleled difficulty and complexity. Although I found the games to be immensely frustrating, they were also quite rewarding. I was already familiar with the gameplay thanks to Persona Q, but found it somewhat difficult to adjust to the lack of frills by comparison. Persona Q had a wealth of Etrian Odyssey titles to draw on to streamline the experience--and unlike the main entries in the series, Persona Q featured no classes or complex skill trees to navigate. Most of that side of the gameplay came from the Persona series. Etran Odyssey is brutal and unforgiving by comparison, but I found it quite satisfying to conquer the game's challenges as I plumbed the depths of the games' respective labyrinths.

What I found compelling most of all about Etrian Odyssey has nothing to do with the dungeon design or mapmaking. To be honest, I mostly found these aspects pretty frustrating, especially in comparison with later entries in the series. What interests me most of all about each successive Etian Odyssey entry is the amount of gameplay to be found in putting an adventuring party together. There are a number of classes available in each of these games, all with a series of unique abilities with woefully vague descriptions. I found myself doing a ton of research on classes, builds, and party compositions as I played through these games--but I still derived a lot of satisfaction from exercising creativity in putting my party together.

The first two games in the series were host to several glaringly broken mechanics, most notably the ridiculous power of the Medic's Immunize in the first game, and the entire Dark Hunter class in the second. And you'd better believe I abused them both--because even with access to these powerful mechanics, these games are hard. When I got around to playing Etrian Odyssey III, I discovered there weren't very many especially powerful mechanics to abuse and so I felt I made slower progress. Fortunately, it was also the first game in the series to introduce dual-classing, a mechanic that vastly increased the complexity of the party composition process. Each character could effectively be two classes at once with surprisingly few restrictions. More restrictions were inevitably put in place by Etrian Odyssey IV--which I didn't end up playing until several months later.

After playing three Etrian Odyssey games straight, I was beyond burnt out. I saw dungeons and maps in my dreams. I was intrigued by the pretty 3D graphics of Etrian Odyssey IV and curious about how it would take the sublcass mechanic and sailing mechanics from EOIII and expand on them--but I knew at the time that I just didn't have the heart for it. My original goal was to blaze through the EO series and be ready to play Etrian Mystery Dungeon around release day, but that certainly didn't happen. I finished the third game almost a month after EMD's release, so I left it to languish while I played a lot of other games. It wasn't until probably four months later that I finally did get around to it.

I found Etrian Odyssey IV pretty refreshing after a break from the series. The graphics were massively improved and the gameplay and interface significantly streamlined. Sailing became flying (with an airship) and was integrated more into the main gameplay instead of being separated into its own thing. The dungeons are separate and have distinct identities instead of being interconnected into one giant Tartarus-esque super labyrinth. The classes are interesting and distinct. It is probably the most solid entry into the series so far, even if there are certain aspects from Etrian Odyssey III that I prefer. I missed creative classes like Ninja and Wilder--but was pleased with new additions like the Imperial and Nightseeker. As with all Etrian Odyssey games, it did eventually become a bit of a chore what with the endless grinding and soul-crushing repetition of venturing ever deeper into the game's deepest dungeons--but I still felt immensely satisfied when I finally completed it.

At this point I decided to take another break. Earlier in the year it had been no big deal to play several Etrian games in succession, but I think that wore me down for good. I worked on other things for a month and then I finally started Etrian Mystery Dungeon, a full seven months after it was released. I finished it last night, but now that I've written so much about the events leading up to it, I think I'd rather talk about it in my next entry.

Saviors of Orience

I discussed at length the possibility of buying a PlayStation 4 several months back on this blog but I didn't follow through on those plans until relatively recently. Final Fantasy Type 0 HD was my only game purchase at the time, but I have since also acquired Disgaea 5. I've finished Type 0 (after a month of playing in short bursts) but won't be able to play Disgaea 5 until I've finished Disgaea D2 for the PS3. Of course, I've been a lot busier lately, so there's no telling just how long it's going to take me to work through my current round of games. I may be a bit burned out by the time Disgaea 5 comes into the rotation--and then of course there's Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5 on the horizon.

Of course, Type 0 is not a straight up PS4 game. It's an enhanced port of a game originally only released in Japanese on the PSP. In some cases, this is blindingly apparent. While the game's main cast of 14 playable characters received a massive graphical overhaul, the game's host of NPCs are noticeably blurry and indistinct on my 46" HD display. The graphical inconsistency isn't a dealbreaker of course, because the gameplay itself is quite fun. Unlike many main series Final Fantasy games, Type 0 is structured more like an action game, with an emphasis on controlling a single character at a time--although it is simple to quickly switch between different characters.

Each of Type 0's 14 playable characters have distinct gameplay from each other, although I definitely enjoyed some more than others. The characters, 12 of which feature numeral-themed names such as Ace, Cinque, and Seven, fall into a few loosely defined roles such as melee damage dealers, ranged attackers, and supports. Sice wields a scythe and gains power from slaying opponents without taking damage. Cater uses a chargeable magicite pistol capable of discharging elemental blasts. Deuce batters her opponents with bubbles emitted from a flute, of all things, and ends up being surprisingly powerful once she's acquired enough experience.

The game is story-driven, but broken up into missions separated by stretches of "free time," during which the player is afforded the opportunity to undergo some frankly pretty menial and pointless quests and acquire information about the game world. I found myself utterly bored by the game's lore and many of the characters, even if I did think a few of them were well designed. Nine's brash personality and voice acting are particularly questionable, but I did enjoy hearing from Matt Mercer (as Trey) and the newcomer providing the voice of the card-slinging Ace. Regardless, plot is not the game's strong point--I found myself glazing over in disinterest on multiple occasions as the game's text washed over me. Type 0's sole non-numeral playable characters, Machina and Rem, play a pivotal role in the trajectory of the plot but I couldn't begin to even summarize their importance.

Combat missions make up the bulk of Type 0's gameplay and in most cases these are really fun. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses. Queen has a strong aptitude for lightning magic, for instance, but this doesn't mean she's pigeonholed into using a particular type of lightning sgapell. In keeping with the game's decidedly military theme, most elemental spells mimic the function of weapons such as rockets, missiles, and rifles. Thunder-ROK allows the player to aim with a crosshair, for instance, and Fire-SG explodes out at close range. These elemental spells are available to all characters, but aptitude determines their strength. Of course, each character also has access to an array of unique skills and spells, such as Queen's wide-area life-draining spell and Sice's target-seeking whirlwind attack.

I did find myself having to grind for experience a pretty excessive amount in the game's latter half, and I found myself more and more disinterested at the trajectory of the plot. The final dungeon was fairly long and involved, but the final encounter itself disappointing. In fact, it seemed the game was playing itself more than anything. I wouldn't say that Type 0 is an essential entry into the Final Fantasy series, but I had fun with it an it tided me over until I could get another PS4 game. It also somewhat satisfies my completionist tendencies--it's one more Final Fantasy game stricken from the list. Now, if only I could finally get around to finishing Final Fantasy X. . . 

Little Infinities

I don't have a particularly good reason for not updating recently, but I do have a short list of flimsy excuses, including but not limited to being busy, being tired, and not feeling inspired. Of course, there's no shortage of things on which I could write and in fact I've been maintaining an informal list of topics to discuss. I feel these things fading from my memory even as I type this, unfortunately. I don't generally like to write blog entries that summarize the things I've been doing recently because I feel it really squanders a lot of the potential of some of the subjects about which I choose to write. I may be left with no other choice, however, since very few of these subjects are still fresh in my mind.

Some weeks ago, I attended a showing of The Martian, a science fiction film starring Matt Damon. I don't go to a lot of movies, but it's a fun thing to do if you have a special person to accompany you. The film seems to have received a lot of critical acclaim so I assumed I would enjoy it--and I did, to a point. I feel it really only explored the idea of being isolated on an uninhabitable planet on a very shallow level. The whole movie was a bit saccharine and overly feelgood in a Hollywood way, which  is not what I was expecting after reading reviews of the film. Maybe I'm cynical about this kind of thing, but I was really craving something a tad grittier--which is not to say that humor is entirely out of place, but it felt a little forced and unnecessary in the case of The Martian. I'll have to read the book sometime to see if the tone is similar. Even if that's the case, it still might be an interesting read, and after all, I have been reading a lot more recently.

Speaking of investigating a film's source material--I watched both the film version of The Fault in Our Stars and the book of the same name recently. Of course, I did this in what would probably be considered backwards order since I read the book after watching the movie, but it was interesting to note the differences between the two. It's definitely a book targeted towards young adults, but the material had more than enough depth to appeal to me. Although I enjoyed the film, I did feel it was a tad sentimental in tone--and this is a trait from which the book itself does not suffer. The Fault in Our Stars is a refreshingly straightforward glimpse into the life of a teenage girl by the name of Hazel Lancaster with terminal cancer and her relationship with Augustus Waters, a boy she meets in a support group who has recovered from a milder case of the life-threatening disease. Cancer did succeed in taking his leg, but not his life. For Hazel, her days are perpetually numbered, a fact that gives her a substantially different outlook on life than her former peers.

In my previous entry, I wrote about Norwegian Wood, a book I very much enjoyed. Before moving on to The Fault in Our Stars, I read a French children's story from the 1940s by the name of The Little Prince. Although short and relatively simplistic, it's a wonderful book packed to the brim with allusions and symbolism. The titular prince himself lives on an asteroid floating in space beyond the earth, tending to his best friend--a rose encased in glass. He maintains his miniature volcanoes--he rakes the coals--and wonders what lies beyond his home. On his journeys he meets other asteroid residents and eventually makes his way to the earth itself, where he meets an airplane pilot who has crashed his plane. Technically, it is through this pilot's eyes that the story is told. Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of Le Petit Prince, was a pilot himself and in fact lost his life flying shortly after the book was released. He left behind an impressive final work.

On Sundays I don't wind my spring.

Life has been pretty interesting lately; I've broken from a lot of my normal routines in some important ways. I've frequently lamented the fact that I never read anymore over the past couple of years even as I contributed volumes upon volumes of text to this blog. I felt myself improving as a writer just by turning it into a routine, but it's an accepted fact that reading the work of others is one of the best ways to improve. I'm not sure why I neglected that for so long or why I've had a number of false starts. My last honest attempt was Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, a book I very much enjoyed--until stopping about 3/4ths of the way through it for reasons I cannot articulate.

I think one of the more wonderful things about relationships is that they tend to encourage you to try new things and to broaden your horizons in order to make yourself into a better person. There is something beautiful about sharing those things that you're most passionate about with someone for whom you care for. I'm now more comfortable driving an hour away to the marginally bigger town neighboring mine, for instance--and I'm more comfortable doing it on a regular basis. I've spent a lot of time cleaning my house and scrubbing away the dust of neglect that has settled over my home like some implacable cloud. I've spent more time watching movies, of course, and as I hinted, I've started to more seriously make an effort to read, starting with another Murakami classic, Norwegian Wood, a book I happened to come across as Barnes & Noble. I remembered it being recommended to me sometime ago--and I already knew I enjoyed Murakami's writing, so I decided to give it a shot.

Norwegian Wood is evidently more straightforward and simply told than other books in Murakami's catalogue. What I read of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle certainly bordered on surreal, whereas Norwegian Wood strikes me more as a memoir of sorts, a tale of the protagonist's experiences throughout college, told through the voice of his older self, who remembers the events of those days with startling clarity. It is a story of love, of loss, of a stoic loner who has difficulty opening up to others but will listen intently to what they have to say. I was stunned by the effortless beauty and tragedy of many of these stories, particularly when it came to the stories of Naoko and Reiko, two principal characters with which the protagonist, Toru Watanabe, interacts.

Watanabe recounts his experiences with an anal roommate nicknamed Storm Trooper, whose rigid adherence to routine and cleanliness earned him the moniker. He is a source of laughter (and not a small amount of ridicule) for Watanabe and others with which he converses throughout the story, but he finds himself struggling with a dull emptiness when he disappears without a trace. Nagasawa is a charismatic womanizer who nonetheless finds himself drawn to classic literature like Watanabe himself and thus strikes up a friendship and drags him into his various hijinks. Norwegian Wood features several colorful characters like these that all have their own unique perspectives and connect with Watanabe in their own ways. I found myself identifying with him as an introvert, as he so frequently found himself in situations where he spent times with others in intimate one-on-one situations. It seemed clear that this is with what he found himself most comfortable--and always he is more content to listen and consider the words of others before contributing his own.

There is a tragic beauty to Norwegian Wood and how it handles issues of love and loss, and the depths it plumbs in discussing the sickness with which one's heart finds itself stricken when those one loves and cares for are taken from them. Murakami is frequently startlingly frank with his approach toward intimacy and sexuality--refreshingly so. I found myself affected with a not insignificant level of melancholy upon finishing the book, although not out of dissatisfaction. I found myself drawn to the struggles of Watanabe and Naoko, of their shared love and their conflicts, and how in some way they were never resolved. Just like real life, there is frequently never a solid and final answer for some problems--and even when things seem to be getting better, it is never certain things are going to work out. Watanabe and Naoko are connected by their love for a fallen friend, Kizuki, whose death reverberated through their lives in unpredictable ways. For Naoko, who loved Kizuki, it caused a wound that might never fully heal.