I'm pretty excited today because my order of Etrian Odyssey Nexus is waiting for me once I get off work today. Expect some initial impressions of that pretty soon. I'm a huge fan of this series and I can't wait to get engrossed in more mapmaking, party-building goodness.
In the meantime, though, let's talk about the games I missed talking about that I finished back in June of 2017. Now, this was a bit more of a crowded month. I played a lot of very long games during the first part of 2017 so I feel like I was craving more variety. I sought out games from different genres that were a bit shorter so I could actually get through more than a couple in the span of a month. I started with one last holdout from the group of longer RPGs called The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd, which is a mouthful of a title that had only recently been localized for PC by XSeed.
I really enjoyed the first two entries in the Trails in the Sky series and for that reason I happily played the two Trails of Cold Steel titles that are from the same overarching series. Trails is a very long and convoluted series of games that is rare in that all of its different entries are directly related and take place within the same world. Each of the sub-series follow a certain group of characters but you'll find that many characters will recur even if a certain group of games follows a separate group entirely. Trails in the Sky takes place in Liberl for instance and follows Estelle Bright and her foster-brother Joshua in their adventurers completing tasks for the Bracer Guild. Trails of Cold Steel follows Rean Schwarzer and a whole group of other folks as they complete their education at a military academy. These games take place in Erebonia, an entire separate country within the same world. There's even another subseries called Ao/Zero no Kiseki that was never officially localized and it follows a guy by the name of Lloyd Bannings who has recently enrolled in the police force for a country called Crossbell.
Now, I played Trails in the Sky the 3rd much later after having already completed both Trails of Cold Steel games, because at the point I played Cold Steel, 3rd was not yet available in English. After finally playing it for the first time, I kind of started to understand why a localization may not have been a huge priority for the series' developer, Falcom. Trails in the Sky is, judging by the first two entries, a series that is intensely focused on character development and story. It is about flavor and world-building and especially in the case of the first title, a little directionless. Things start to pick up considerably in the second of these games, but there is still very much a focus on following the arcs of these characters. Trails in the Sky the 3rd on the other hand could honestly be described as a dungeon-crawler with much more of an emphasis on combat. Character development and story still exist, but the way in which they're delivered is much more compartmentalized than before. There are a series of optional side-stories that flesh out some of the characters' stories but for the most part these chapters seem very. . .tangential, and not overly relevant or necessary to complete these characters' arcs.
At the same time, though, I'm sure these plot threads must be referenced in future Trails games and I'm glad I played it at the end of the day. In practice though, the game feels very grindy and repetitive--and the story that's there is distributed in such a way that it's almost a chore to experience. The balance between gameplay and story is much more elegant and interesting in the first two games of that series. Trails in the Sky the 3rd essentially focuses in on an element of the first two games that wasn't their strongest point and then makes a game all about that. It definitely wasn't my favorite direction they could have gone, but it was fun sailing past level 100 with all these characters I had come to know and love over the course of the 140+ hours I'd spent completing the first two games.
Okay, well, it looks like I did the same thing again and ended up talking about one game much more than I'd intended. That's okay, though. I'll pick back up on June 2017 next time.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Monday, February 4, 2019
May 2017 Catchup, Part 2
As I mentioned before, the first game I finished in May 2017 was Dragon Quest V, which prompted me to write a mini-summary of the games I'd played up until that point in the series. Pretty much right afterward, I finished Cosmic Star Heroine for PS4, a retro RPG that plays like a hybrid between Phantasy Star and Chrono Trigger. Just that description sounds incredible, but it doesn't quite live up to the lofty expectations one might have considering that pairing. Still, it's a really good game that totally eclipses the quality of the developer's other titles like Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, which were a couple of old-school turn-based RPGs more in the vein of Dragon Quest than anything else. Cosmic Star Heroine amps up the graphical style to the 16-bit era and features a much more creative battle system.
I really enjoyed several aspects of the game. The sci-fi setting is interesting, it features a lot of distinct characters with different stories and gameplay patterns, and the combat itself is pretty engaging and strategic. The game is turn-based, but the order in which characters use their abilities is important for a couple of reasons. There is no resource management for casting spells because all skills are gated by cooldowns. In fact, each ability in the game must be recharged by guarding. This creates a situation where the player must decide whether to wait until all available abilities are exhausted before refreshing cooldowns or to refresh at more key intervals. The other decision point comes from the use of Hyper Mode, which activates automatically on, say, every third turn of a given character. The pattern in which this mode is activated is totally dependent on the character in question. In Hyper Mode, any ability is drastically stronger than usual, which means you'll want to plan ahead to make sure the ability you plan on using is off cooldown when Hyper Mode comes into play.
In practice, this is a really interesting mechanic to build an RPG combat system around and I had a lot of fun experimenting with it and finding unique builds to explore. It's also a game in which each encounter you come across is meaningful and requires strategy to conquer. This is really fun in boss battles, but maybe less so in general encounters along the way. Although the game itself is not long at all, spending as much time as I did on individual encounters got to be a little exhausting from time to time. Still, the combat is fun enough that I didn't mind so much and it was a lot of fun to experiment with different characters and abilities. I'd love if the devs would reuse the same system with an even more fleshed-out title at some point in the future but based on their tweets it doesn't seem this is very likely. It's a game I'd recommend if you're into retro RPGs at all, though!
I was really glad to come back to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice because it is a series that I care a lot about and it'd been a really long time since I'd played a game in that series. I really enjoyed Dual Destinies a couple years back and felt Spirit of Justice was a step up from that title. The Ace Attorney series is of course a series of investigative adventure games in which you assume the role of Phoenix Wright and other supporting characters like Athena Cykes and Apollo Justice to not only investigate crimes, but to represent a defendant in court cases. Sure, lawyers don't do their own investigative work in real life, but in video game form it somehow seems to make a lot of sense. Ace Attorney is wildly implausible and wacky in a lot of ways, but the characters are generally super charming, the dialogue is fun and interesting, and when things go well, the story (and mystery) ends up being incredibly gripping.
I keep hoping we'll hear about a new Ace Attorney title for Switch, but so far, it's an no-go aside from an announcement that the Ace Attorney trilogy is being ported to the platform. Here's hoping we'll hear more in the future!
The very last game I finished in May 2017 was a weird little PC game called Emily is Away. It is a game that could best be described as interactive fiction and takes place within the confines of what is AOL Instant Messenger in all but name. It even uses the same sound effects and UI elements, even though the name of the messenger is changed. It follows instant message conversations the player has with the titular Emily and a few other supporting characters over the course of a few years. You have the ability to make some minor choices along the way and the way in which these are structured is interesting. However, after playing through it for a bit, I found that the game was pretty lacking in depth even if the concept itself is pretty intriguing. It did fill me with some pretty intense nostalgia but at the end of the day it's not a game I can find myself wholeheartedly recommending.
Looking ahead, I can see that I played a lot more games in June, including the last game I ever wrote about on this blog before a lengthy break. I'll decide later on whether or not I break that into more than one entry!
I really enjoyed several aspects of the game. The sci-fi setting is interesting, it features a lot of distinct characters with different stories and gameplay patterns, and the combat itself is pretty engaging and strategic. The game is turn-based, but the order in which characters use their abilities is important for a couple of reasons. There is no resource management for casting spells because all skills are gated by cooldowns. In fact, each ability in the game must be recharged by guarding. This creates a situation where the player must decide whether to wait until all available abilities are exhausted before refreshing cooldowns or to refresh at more key intervals. The other decision point comes from the use of Hyper Mode, which activates automatically on, say, every third turn of a given character. The pattern in which this mode is activated is totally dependent on the character in question. In Hyper Mode, any ability is drastically stronger than usual, which means you'll want to plan ahead to make sure the ability you plan on using is off cooldown when Hyper Mode comes into play.
In practice, this is a really interesting mechanic to build an RPG combat system around and I had a lot of fun experimenting with it and finding unique builds to explore. It's also a game in which each encounter you come across is meaningful and requires strategy to conquer. This is really fun in boss battles, but maybe less so in general encounters along the way. Although the game itself is not long at all, spending as much time as I did on individual encounters got to be a little exhausting from time to time. Still, the combat is fun enough that I didn't mind so much and it was a lot of fun to experiment with different characters and abilities. I'd love if the devs would reuse the same system with an even more fleshed-out title at some point in the future but based on their tweets it doesn't seem this is very likely. It's a game I'd recommend if you're into retro RPGs at all, though!
I was really glad to come back to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice because it is a series that I care a lot about and it'd been a really long time since I'd played a game in that series. I really enjoyed Dual Destinies a couple years back and felt Spirit of Justice was a step up from that title. The Ace Attorney series is of course a series of investigative adventure games in which you assume the role of Phoenix Wright and other supporting characters like Athena Cykes and Apollo Justice to not only investigate crimes, but to represent a defendant in court cases. Sure, lawyers don't do their own investigative work in real life, but in video game form it somehow seems to make a lot of sense. Ace Attorney is wildly implausible and wacky in a lot of ways, but the characters are generally super charming, the dialogue is fun and interesting, and when things go well, the story (and mystery) ends up being incredibly gripping.
I keep hoping we'll hear about a new Ace Attorney title for Switch, but so far, it's an no-go aside from an announcement that the Ace Attorney trilogy is being ported to the platform. Here's hoping we'll hear more in the future!
The very last game I finished in May 2017 was a weird little PC game called Emily is Away. It is a game that could best be described as interactive fiction and takes place within the confines of what is AOL Instant Messenger in all but name. It even uses the same sound effects and UI elements, even though the name of the messenger is changed. It follows instant message conversations the player has with the titular Emily and a few other supporting characters over the course of a few years. You have the ability to make some minor choices along the way and the way in which these are structured is interesting. However, after playing through it for a bit, I found that the game was pretty lacking in depth even if the concept itself is pretty intriguing. It did fill me with some pretty intense nostalgia but at the end of the day it's not a game I can find myself wholeheartedly recommending.
Looking ahead, I can see that I played a lot more games in June, including the last game I ever wrote about on this blog before a lengthy break. I'll decide later on whether or not I break that into more than one entry!
Sunday, February 3, 2019
May 2017 Catchup, Part 1 (AKA, Dragon Quest series Part 1)
I've been playing through the Dragon Quest series in order since March of 2014. It felt like a pretty ambitious project not only because I'd never played anything in the series before but because these are some pretty long games in a style that I haven't always particularly cared for. I wanted to really experience the series because it's absurdly popular in Japan and is sort of a counterpart to Final Fantasy which of course I'm extremely familiar with already. I think my original plan was to more or less play them back to back and I started out pretty strong by playing through Dragon Quest I and II pretty quickly but I stalled out in the middle of Dragon Quest III even though I actually liked it a lot more than the previous games.
I revisited DQIII early in 2015 and finished it up. I really dig job systems in RPGs in general and although that particular game was a very early implementation of such a system, I was a big fan of how the game handled it and liked that I was able to shift classes around for my characters over time. It had a slightly similar feel to Final Fantasy III but with Dragon Quest's very specific charms. The SNES version in particular looks really nice and I like that the enemies are very colorful and animated. This game in particular resonated with me a lot more than the previous two games because I had a lot more input over how I customized my characters. Combine that with mechanics I already enjoyed, like classic turn-based combat, dungeon crawling, and item collecting and you end up with a retro RPG that I enjoyed even with modern context.
I was feeling ambitious after having picked back up on Dragon Quest III, so I moved on to the Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest IV right afterward. I honestly prefer the classic 2D art style to the low-res 3D style of the DS games but the gameplay is of course super solid. What I really like about DQ IV is that it has a concept that really appeals to me and I cite frequently when discussing other games. It is an embodiment of the JRPG trope where adventurers embark on entirely separate quests through disparate gameplay chapters and then join together once you reach a certain point of the game. This is a concept Final Fantasy IV flirted with but of which perhaps Final Fantasy VI was the best, most popular example. Dragon Quest IV did it first, though, and more fully embraced the concept. I'm a big fan of how each of the characters has their own unique backstory and plays very differently from each other. I'm still tempted to call this my favorite of the series so far.
It wasn't until May of 2017 (which is where we're picking up on the roundup) that I finally played Dragon Quest V to completion. It is second in a trilogy of games that were remade for Nintendo DS and similarly features its own high concept. In this case, it tells the story of a character from birth to adulthood, chronicling his adventures along the way, including a marriage and the eventual birth of his children. What's really interesting about this is that you have three different choices for who your protagonist may marry, which will then determine the resulting traits inherited by the children. I really love the concept and the gameplay itself is as rock-solid traditional as ever. I have plenty of things to say about Dragon Quest's staunchly old-fashioned gameplay style but I may save that for another article entirely since my feelings are complicated. Regardless, Dragon Quest V was a game I liked a lot. At this point, I felt like I'd played three titles from the series in a row that I really enjoyed so I was feeling pretty great about Dragon Quest overall.
So, those are a lot of words about Dragon Quest that I maybe didn't intend to really go into. I've played even more Dragon Quest since that time so I'll continue to discuss these games on this blog, but in the meantime I want to talk a little more about the games I played in May 2017--but we'll come back to that next time!
I revisited DQIII early in 2015 and finished it up. I really dig job systems in RPGs in general and although that particular game was a very early implementation of such a system, I was a big fan of how the game handled it and liked that I was able to shift classes around for my characters over time. It had a slightly similar feel to Final Fantasy III but with Dragon Quest's very specific charms. The SNES version in particular looks really nice and I like that the enemies are very colorful and animated. This game in particular resonated with me a lot more than the previous two games because I had a lot more input over how I customized my characters. Combine that with mechanics I already enjoyed, like classic turn-based combat, dungeon crawling, and item collecting and you end up with a retro RPG that I enjoyed even with modern context.
I was feeling ambitious after having picked back up on Dragon Quest III, so I moved on to the Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest IV right afterward. I honestly prefer the classic 2D art style to the low-res 3D style of the DS games but the gameplay is of course super solid. What I really like about DQ IV is that it has a concept that really appeals to me and I cite frequently when discussing other games. It is an embodiment of the JRPG trope where adventurers embark on entirely separate quests through disparate gameplay chapters and then join together once you reach a certain point of the game. This is a concept Final Fantasy IV flirted with but of which perhaps Final Fantasy VI was the best, most popular example. Dragon Quest IV did it first, though, and more fully embraced the concept. I'm a big fan of how each of the characters has their own unique backstory and plays very differently from each other. I'm still tempted to call this my favorite of the series so far.
It wasn't until May of 2017 (which is where we're picking up on the roundup) that I finally played Dragon Quest V to completion. It is second in a trilogy of games that were remade for Nintendo DS and similarly features its own high concept. In this case, it tells the story of a character from birth to adulthood, chronicling his adventures along the way, including a marriage and the eventual birth of his children. What's really interesting about this is that you have three different choices for who your protagonist may marry, which will then determine the resulting traits inherited by the children. I really love the concept and the gameplay itself is as rock-solid traditional as ever. I have plenty of things to say about Dragon Quest's staunchly old-fashioned gameplay style but I may save that for another article entirely since my feelings are complicated. Regardless, Dragon Quest V was a game I liked a lot. At this point, I felt like I'd played three titles from the series in a row that I really enjoyed so I was feeling pretty great about Dragon Quest overall.
So, those are a lot of words about Dragon Quest that I maybe didn't intend to really go into. I've played even more Dragon Quest since that time so I'll continue to discuss these games on this blog, but in the meantime I want to talk a little more about the games I played in May 2017--but we'll come back to that next time!
Saturday, February 2, 2019
April 2017 Catchup
I really came in under the wire on Persona 4 Golden, finishing it on April 2nd, just two days before the release of Persona 5. It was a game I was happy to replay but I will admit to a considerable amount of fatigue with Persona 4 in general. It is the entry in the series that Atlus has relentlessly promoted and spun-off and of course I have mindlessly gobbled up every bit of content they've put out, whether it be Persona 4 Arena, Persona Q, or even Persona 4 Dancing All Night, which features a shockingly terrible storyline. Still, Persona 4 Golden is the definitive version of the game because it adds a ton of additional content to a game that was already very long and involved.
I've always been a huge fan of social links in the Persona games because it adds a little extra layer of depth to the story. Many of the characters you interact with in these social links have no relevance to the overarching plot, but their own self-contained stories are interesting in their own right. Golden adds two additional social links, including one for the wacky Adachi which is very interesting and difficult to manage due to his odd schedule. I'm less a fan of Marie, but the extra content is appreciated even so. If there's anything I dislike about Golden compared to the original game it's that the combat seems a little easier than before. I don't know if the enemies were tweaked or if it's just because it's a little easier to fine-tune your characters to be stronger, but it was something I definitely noticed, especially after playing Persona 3 Portable which is a pretty tough game.
One of the main problems I had with Persona 4 the first time through was the game's glacial pace during the early stages. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I feel pretty confident in estimating that it takes about three hours before you hit your first actual bit of gameplay, which is just overwhelmingly silly. There should be a crash course on how the game works much earlier in than that in pretty much any case, no matter how interesting the storyline is. Combine this with the fact that I don't quite dig Persona 4's bright, sunny aesthetic and overall wackiness quite as much as Persona 3's grimmer, cooler atmosphere and it creates a game that isn't my favorite of the series, even though I do still like it quite a bit.
Persona 5 ditches the cheery vibe for a more retro, jazzy feel. In many ways it feels like a mishmash of elements from both Persona 3 and 4 with a few callbacks to entries from even earlier in the series. Some elements from earlier games like nuclear and psychic magic return, while the slice-of-life and daily management structure from 3 and 4 are retained. As always, the soundtrack is absurdly catchy and memorable and the turn-based gameplay is as tight as ever. There is, as always, a huge emphasis on style. Everything is cohesive and on-theme, from the menus and general UI to the art style, music, and clothing for the characters.
I mentioned before that I really dug the social elements of the Persona series. Persona 5 makes some really nice changes to the system. Social links are now called Confidants but follow a similar structure in that you progress across a series of levels by having conversations. However, each of these Confidants also grant you certain different abilities and benefits like increased experience or the ability to switch out party members in battle as you deepen your bond with them. This is really cool and makes the prospect of progressing in these relationships more interesting, beyond just unlocking more of their personal stories.
I really really enjoyed Persona 5 even if I still mostly prefer Persona 3 even just on aesthetics and soundtrack alone. It was still definitely one of the best games of 2017 and a game I'll happily replay if it gets an enhanced re-release in the vein of P3P or P4G. Of course, after 120 hours of that game and 80-90 hours of time on each of the three entries preceding it, I was pretty fatigued with Persona in general at about that time. Of course, now, two years later, I'm happy to get right back on that horse. I'm eager to hear exactly what the recently teased Persona 5 R is and will feverishly devour Persona Q2 as soon as it comes out.
I've always been a huge fan of social links in the Persona games because it adds a little extra layer of depth to the story. Many of the characters you interact with in these social links have no relevance to the overarching plot, but their own self-contained stories are interesting in their own right. Golden adds two additional social links, including one for the wacky Adachi which is very interesting and difficult to manage due to his odd schedule. I'm less a fan of Marie, but the extra content is appreciated even so. If there's anything I dislike about Golden compared to the original game it's that the combat seems a little easier than before. I don't know if the enemies were tweaked or if it's just because it's a little easier to fine-tune your characters to be stronger, but it was something I definitely noticed, especially after playing Persona 3 Portable which is a pretty tough game.
One of the main problems I had with Persona 4 the first time through was the game's glacial pace during the early stages. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I feel pretty confident in estimating that it takes about three hours before you hit your first actual bit of gameplay, which is just overwhelmingly silly. There should be a crash course on how the game works much earlier in than that in pretty much any case, no matter how interesting the storyline is. Combine this with the fact that I don't quite dig Persona 4's bright, sunny aesthetic and overall wackiness quite as much as Persona 3's grimmer, cooler atmosphere and it creates a game that isn't my favorite of the series, even though I do still like it quite a bit.
Persona 5 ditches the cheery vibe for a more retro, jazzy feel. In many ways it feels like a mishmash of elements from both Persona 3 and 4 with a few callbacks to entries from even earlier in the series. Some elements from earlier games like nuclear and psychic magic return, while the slice-of-life and daily management structure from 3 and 4 are retained. As always, the soundtrack is absurdly catchy and memorable and the turn-based gameplay is as tight as ever. There is, as always, a huge emphasis on style. Everything is cohesive and on-theme, from the menus and general UI to the art style, music, and clothing for the characters.
I mentioned before that I really dug the social elements of the Persona series. Persona 5 makes some really nice changes to the system. Social links are now called Confidants but follow a similar structure in that you progress across a series of levels by having conversations. However, each of these Confidants also grant you certain different abilities and benefits like increased experience or the ability to switch out party members in battle as you deepen your bond with them. This is really cool and makes the prospect of progressing in these relationships more interesting, beyond just unlocking more of their personal stories.
I really really enjoyed Persona 5 even if I still mostly prefer Persona 3 even just on aesthetics and soundtrack alone. It was still definitely one of the best games of 2017 and a game I'll happily replay if it gets an enhanced re-release in the vein of P3P or P4G. Of course, after 120 hours of that game and 80-90 hours of time on each of the three entries preceding it, I was pretty fatigued with Persona in general at about that time. Of course, now, two years later, I'm happy to get right back on that horse. I'm eager to hear exactly what the recently teased Persona 5 R is and will feverishly devour Persona Q2 as soon as it comes out.
Friday, February 1, 2019
March 2017 Catchup
As it turns out, I completely skipped that I happened to finish Mega Man ZX in early February. I'm not surprised I neglected to mention it because it was kind of a forgettable game overall and didn't really mesh cohesively with anything I was playing at the time. I tend to play Mega Man games in batches and in this particular case it was totally isolated. I played through the Mega Man Zero series in 2016 (and in fact it was the original inspiration for making YouTube videos) but never continued on to the Nintendo DS successors until much later. I was lukewarm enough on Mega Man ZX that I didn't play its particular sequel until several months later.
On the surface, ZX was pretty similar to the MMZ games that I liked a lot, but there was something about it that didn't really gel with me like those games did. I'm struggling to remember a lot of the details, but I remember not being a huge fan of much of the powers in the game and the art style seemed noticeably worse as well. There were a few things to like, particularly the dash-suit the main character could don to air-dash wildly around the screen, but a lot of the others suits/powers were pretty forgettable.
Now, what I actually spent the majority of March (and to be fair, a lot of February) on was Horizon Zero Dawn, a sprawling action RPG that I feel pretty comfortable calling the best game of 2017. This is impressive because it's a little outside my typically preferred genres. Sure, it's an RPG, but it's very open-world and mainstream. In a year which also contained Persona 5, it's telling of the quality of this game that I recognize it as the game of the year. I spent countless hours exploring its gorgeous post-apocalyptic reclaimed world, collecting artifacts, hunting dino robos, and taking on odd jobs for the game's tribal populace.
Horizon Zero Dawn is not perfect but because what it does is so exceptional, I'm happy to overlook shallow melee combat and an unexciting skill tree. Its exploration, visual style, and sheer joy of experimentation in combat more than make up for some minor missteps. There is such visceral satisfaction from systematically breaking down rampaging machines with carefully placed shots from a variety of different weaponry. The sound design is excellent as well, with high-pitched whines and whirs, thunderous crashes of metal against metal, and the rumbling cacophony of herds of animalistic machines trampling through verdant environments.
I also made a video review of the game after I finished it. It was one of the last ones I ever made and probably my best. I'm not sure I'll ever do that kind of thing again but it was a fun experience and I liked the creative aspect of putting it together. Those videos were very time-consuming and a surprising amount of work to create! I think it's important in any creative endeavor to consider the process its own reward, but at least in the case of creating videos, the amount of work required to get to that end goal never really paid off for me. I like to go back and watch these videos from time to time, but I'm always hesitant to ever try it again. If I do decide to make another video, it'll be because I have a unique new angle to explore. I doubt I'll ever do straight review videos again.
It turns out Horizon was the only game I finished in March. 2017 was really front-loaded with a lot of long games. I tend to play a lot of those anyway, but that year in particular was an outlier, maybe primarily because I decided to prepare for Persona 5 by playing through part of the series. I know that I was already deep into Persona 4 Golden at this point but I didn't end up finishing it until the next month, just at the last minute before Persona 5 came out. More on that next time!
On the surface, ZX was pretty similar to the MMZ games that I liked a lot, but there was something about it that didn't really gel with me like those games did. I'm struggling to remember a lot of the details, but I remember not being a huge fan of much of the powers in the game and the art style seemed noticeably worse as well. There were a few things to like, particularly the dash-suit the main character could don to air-dash wildly around the screen, but a lot of the others suits/powers were pretty forgettable.
Now, what I actually spent the majority of March (and to be fair, a lot of February) on was Horizon Zero Dawn, a sprawling action RPG that I feel pretty comfortable calling the best game of 2017. This is impressive because it's a little outside my typically preferred genres. Sure, it's an RPG, but it's very open-world and mainstream. In a year which also contained Persona 5, it's telling of the quality of this game that I recognize it as the game of the year. I spent countless hours exploring its gorgeous post-apocalyptic reclaimed world, collecting artifacts, hunting dino robos, and taking on odd jobs for the game's tribal populace.
Horizon Zero Dawn is not perfect but because what it does is so exceptional, I'm happy to overlook shallow melee combat and an unexciting skill tree. Its exploration, visual style, and sheer joy of experimentation in combat more than make up for some minor missteps. There is such visceral satisfaction from systematically breaking down rampaging machines with carefully placed shots from a variety of different weaponry. The sound design is excellent as well, with high-pitched whines and whirs, thunderous crashes of metal against metal, and the rumbling cacophony of herds of animalistic machines trampling through verdant environments.
I also made a video review of the game after I finished it. It was one of the last ones I ever made and probably my best. I'm not sure I'll ever do that kind of thing again but it was a fun experience and I liked the creative aspect of putting it together. Those videos were very time-consuming and a surprising amount of work to create! I think it's important in any creative endeavor to consider the process its own reward, but at least in the case of creating videos, the amount of work required to get to that end goal never really paid off for me. I like to go back and watch these videos from time to time, but I'm always hesitant to ever try it again. If I do decide to make another video, it'll be because I have a unique new angle to explore. I doubt I'll ever do straight review videos again.
It turns out Horizon was the only game I finished in March. 2017 was really front-loaded with a lot of long games. I tend to play a lot of those anyway, but that year in particular was an outlier, maybe primarily because I decided to prepare for Persona 5 by playing through part of the series. I know that I was already deep into Persona 4 Golden at this point but I didn't end up finishing it until the next month, just at the last minute before Persona 5 came out. More on that next time!
Thursday, January 31, 2019
February 2017 Catchup
At the forefront of my thoughts during February was that I really wanted to make sure I finished the rest of my Persona marathon before P5's impending release date. I know it ended up coming out in early April, but I'm not sure at what point I learned that it was going to be delayed. I'm sure I must have known by this point, because if I'm not mistaken it was originally projected to come out that very month! I tend to play through games quickly, but even I wouldn't have been prepared to replay both Persona 3 and Persona 4 in just a few weeks. These are ridiculously long games, after all.
I ended up finishing my playthrough of Persona 3 Portable right at the beginning of February. I had previously played Persona 3 FES on PS2 several years back. It was my introduction to the series and still probably my favorite entry overall. It was just so different from anything else I'd played in that genre. I know it has its debts to other games both within its own overarching series and from other games as well, but there is something uniquely interesting about Persona that few other games duplicate for me. It is a nexus of slice-of-life, dungeon crawling, tough turn-based combat, and ludicrously catchy tunes that really make it memorable for me.
P3P fixed the primary issue I had with the original version of the game which always struck me as a pretty glaring oversight in the first place. For whatever reason, party members in the original P3 (and in FES) are entirely controlled by AI. This is the default setting for all Persona titles but starting from P4 it became fairly trivial to disable the setting. P3P mercifully implements this massive quality of life improvement and therefore makes the game a lot more fun to play and honestly less difficult overall since you have so much more control over how your characters participate in combat. I think this, combined with my familiarity with the game is what shaved about 20 hours off my playtime compared to my first time through.
Not all the changes to Portable are for the better, though. The ability to roam freely through the town in between story scenes and dungeon crawling was completely removed, replaced with a visual novel-style point-and-click interface to travel from place to place. I can't say this was a change that really bothered me that much at the end of the day especially since so much of the game is about creating a routine of visiting various different places on different days over and over. The act of physically walking to these areas was never a satisfying component of the gameplay in the first place. There were also some animated cutscenes removed from this PSP release, which is a bummer, but again, not crucial to the overall experience. I still definitely prefer this version of the game due to gameplay improvements and the wider variety of social links.
The next game I finished in February was Freedom Planet, a cute little game one might be quick to dismiss as a straight-up Sonic clone. Yes, it does borrow heavily from that series, but I do feel it has its own identity, particularly with its cast of anthropomorphic playable characters. Each of these three have their own distinct gameplay styles and conquer the variety of different levels in different ways. I wouldn't mind revisiting this one because it was a fun take on the classic Sonic formula and I didn't spend enough time with it for it to really stick in my mind. This might be another game that I try out again on PS4 or Switch, assuming it's available on those platforms.
As it turns out, those two were the only games I finished in February! I tend to chew through games pretty quickly, so it's surprising I only managed to get through two in one month. Looking ahead a bit, though, it really starts to make sense. I had moved on to Persona 4 Golden right after finishing P3P, which of course is an astoundingly long game. Simultaneously, I was playing the recently released Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4, on which I also spent a considerable amount of time. I imagine I'll be discussing those quite soon.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
January 2017 Catchup
As I mentioned in a previous entry, I really wanted to go back and revisit a lot of (or all of?) the games I played over the past couple of years because I haven't discussed them at all on this blog! And that's a shame because I've built up a lot of thoughts over time. I'd say I definitely finished more games than typical during this period of time because I wasn't really taking any time off to write about them or to produce content in any way--but that just led to this sense of unease because I didn't have any outlet with which I could discuss them.
The first game I finished in 2017 was a game I'd been working on-and-off for a decent chunk of the latter end of 2016. I'd planned on starting a Persona marathon of sorts leading up to the release of Persona 5. The only entry in the series I hadn't played at that time was Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. I'd played the other half othat particular duology (Persona 2: Innocent Sin) quite awhile back because its PSP remake was fairly slick and well done. Unfortunately, Atlus elected not to localize the similar remake of Eternal Punishment, so I decided I might as well go back and play the PS1 version instead since it's likely it's the only version we'll ever get.
I think my reception of Eternal Punishment was really damaged by playing the PSP version of Innocent Sin first, even though that game is chronologically first of the two. It has so many quality-of-life improvements that really make the game a lot more fun that it felt incredibly glaring when I came back to Eternal Punishment. The plot is at least interesting and is a continuation of the wackiness from the first Persona 2 title, but the repetitive dungeon-crawling, tedious combat interface, muddy graphics, and refusal to explain basic gameplay mechanics really drags it down. It also takes forever to open the map (which I had to do frequently), the random encounter rate is stupidly high, pitfalls that drop you to the previous floor are extremely common, combat is very slow-paced even with animations turned off, and collecting essential items is extremely tedious and almost requires consulting a guide.
It's hard to say if the PS1 version of Innocent Sin had similar problems but at this point I feel confident that I've played the only version of that game that I need to play. If for some reason I ever have an opportunity to play the PSP remake of Eternal Punishment (whether it be through a fan-translation or some highly unlikely localized rerelease) then I definitely will, but this version of the game has aged extremely poorly. Although I did finish the game, I didn't particularly enjoy it at any point. Everything I admired about the game was also present in Innocent Sin. The only thing Eternal Punishment has going for it is a higher difficulty level, but it's difficult in such a frustrating way, I can't say that is much of a saving grace.
It was around this same time in early January that I played through a short adventure title on PC by the name of Oxenfree. Now, this one I really enjoyed because it felt really engaging and engrossing. The story itself, concerning a spooky visit to a place called Edwards Island, is interesting, but I found myself much more drawn in just by the interaction between the game's characters. The dialogue is really funny and well-written, and I like how it's delivered by the voice actors too. It really helped me to be invested in their outcomes and made the decisions I made feel more impactful. I'd really recommend it and I'd like to play it again, maybe on PS4 this time?
On literally that same day, I finished Evoland, a game I'd heard about for some time but never really pulled the trigger on. It's been awhile, but I think I decided to grab it because it was on sale and the concept seemed reasonable intriguing. It's essentially a hybrid RPG that moves through the various eras of game development. You'll start with a game that resembles the 8-bit Legend of Zelda titles and transition into 16-bit styles, flirt with turn-based RPGs, and eventually end up with full 3D graphics. It's a game that features a lot of callbacks to a lot of retro RPGs and I really dug that about it, but it tends to be a little awkward and hamfisted in its approach.
It also has kind of an unfortunate script that feels as if it were written by someone without a strong grasp on the English language. If i recall correctly it comes from a French developer so that may have something to do with it. It's a very short and unpolished game but I really adored the concept and felt it was worth playing for that alone. I liked it enough that I decided to check out the sequel, Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder.
Now, Evoland 2 is a whole different ballgame. While it shares some similarities with its predecessor, it really evolves on them and matures them in a lot of really exciting ways. Evoland 2 is not content to take us through different RPG genres but instead flirts with a wide variety of other genres as well, including fighting games, shmups, tactical RPGs, and even straight up puzzle games. The graphical style is also considerably more polished in all forms, from its slick 8-bit, 16-bit, and 3D styles. It also involves time travel, which while typically pretty difficult to pull off, is presented in some pretty fun ways here. The script is also massively improved and pretty interesting! I can't recommend this little-known game enough. It's worth completely skipping the first game just to try this one out if you don't have time for both. This is another game I'd happily replay. I only wish it were available on consoles instead of just PC and mobile.
I only beat four games in January, but I happen to remember I was deep into a playthrough of Persona 3 PSP in a continuation of my P5-prep marathon after finishing up Eternal Punishment. I'll talk about that one on my next entry as we get into February 2017!
The first game I finished in 2017 was a game I'd been working on-and-off for a decent chunk of the latter end of 2016. I'd planned on starting a Persona marathon of sorts leading up to the release of Persona 5. The only entry in the series I hadn't played at that time was Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. I'd played the other half othat particular duology (Persona 2: Innocent Sin) quite awhile back because its PSP remake was fairly slick and well done. Unfortunately, Atlus elected not to localize the similar remake of Eternal Punishment, so I decided I might as well go back and play the PS1 version instead since it's likely it's the only version we'll ever get.
I think my reception of Eternal Punishment was really damaged by playing the PSP version of Innocent Sin first, even though that game is chronologically first of the two. It has so many quality-of-life improvements that really make the game a lot more fun that it felt incredibly glaring when I came back to Eternal Punishment. The plot is at least interesting and is a continuation of the wackiness from the first Persona 2 title, but the repetitive dungeon-crawling, tedious combat interface, muddy graphics, and refusal to explain basic gameplay mechanics really drags it down. It also takes forever to open the map (which I had to do frequently), the random encounter rate is stupidly high, pitfalls that drop you to the previous floor are extremely common, combat is very slow-paced even with animations turned off, and collecting essential items is extremely tedious and almost requires consulting a guide.
It's hard to say if the PS1 version of Innocent Sin had similar problems but at this point I feel confident that I've played the only version of that game that I need to play. If for some reason I ever have an opportunity to play the PSP remake of Eternal Punishment (whether it be through a fan-translation or some highly unlikely localized rerelease) then I definitely will, but this version of the game has aged extremely poorly. Although I did finish the game, I didn't particularly enjoy it at any point. Everything I admired about the game was also present in Innocent Sin. The only thing Eternal Punishment has going for it is a higher difficulty level, but it's difficult in such a frustrating way, I can't say that is much of a saving grace.
It was around this same time in early January that I played through a short adventure title on PC by the name of Oxenfree. Now, this one I really enjoyed because it felt really engaging and engrossing. The story itself, concerning a spooky visit to a place called Edwards Island, is interesting, but I found myself much more drawn in just by the interaction between the game's characters. The dialogue is really funny and well-written, and I like how it's delivered by the voice actors too. It really helped me to be invested in their outcomes and made the decisions I made feel more impactful. I'd really recommend it and I'd like to play it again, maybe on PS4 this time?
On literally that same day, I finished Evoland, a game I'd heard about for some time but never really pulled the trigger on. It's been awhile, but I think I decided to grab it because it was on sale and the concept seemed reasonable intriguing. It's essentially a hybrid RPG that moves through the various eras of game development. You'll start with a game that resembles the 8-bit Legend of Zelda titles and transition into 16-bit styles, flirt with turn-based RPGs, and eventually end up with full 3D graphics. It's a game that features a lot of callbacks to a lot of retro RPGs and I really dug that about it, but it tends to be a little awkward and hamfisted in its approach.
It also has kind of an unfortunate script that feels as if it were written by someone without a strong grasp on the English language. If i recall correctly it comes from a French developer so that may have something to do with it. It's a very short and unpolished game but I really adored the concept and felt it was worth playing for that alone. I liked it enough that I decided to check out the sequel, Evoland 2: A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder.
Now, Evoland 2 is a whole different ballgame. While it shares some similarities with its predecessor, it really evolves on them and matures them in a lot of really exciting ways. Evoland 2 is not content to take us through different RPG genres but instead flirts with a wide variety of other genres as well, including fighting games, shmups, tactical RPGs, and even straight up puzzle games. The graphical style is also considerably more polished in all forms, from its slick 8-bit, 16-bit, and 3D styles. It also involves time travel, which while typically pretty difficult to pull off, is presented in some pretty fun ways here. The script is also massively improved and pretty interesting! I can't recommend this little-known game enough. It's worth completely skipping the first game just to try this one out if you don't have time for both. This is another game I'd happily replay. I only wish it were available on consoles instead of just PC and mobile.
I only beat four games in January, but I happen to remember I was deep into a playthrough of Persona 3 PSP in a continuation of my P5-prep marathon after finishing up Eternal Punishment. I'll talk about that one on my next entry as we get into February 2017!
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