Games aren’t that hard anymore, that’s an argument often thrown around these days by many gamers. “Well that’s why they put difficulty settings in!” – is often the retort.

I generally play a game the first time through on Normal, to get a feel of what the developers wanted the average player to see, when I find that it is in fact incredibly easy – I’ll replay it on a harder difficulty (especially when this results in a different ending or extra levels/bonus-dungeons.) Most of my reviews are on a game’s native, default, normal, medium settings of difficulty – because that’s what I expect the developers wanted the average person to play on and it generally seems to be what the average person starts out on (whether or not they finish up on harder ones is another issue all together.) (Such as this preview/review for Fire Emblem) (continue reading…)

There's the save point!

Save points have existed for a while in jRPGs, but what is their real purpose? I know it’s something we don’t see nowadays so much but there was a time where save points were existent many video games. Personally I though save points were one of the worst ideas ever, and now that we are able to save anywhere in most games, I’m not sure why some games decide to use them. There is something to be said about the level of suspense and success feeling when you come upon a save point but there’s more wrong with the idea, then there is right with the idea. The pros have already been stated: easier to code, adds some level of suspense, and surprise, but let’s weigh down the cons to it.

• Ruins the surprise of a big event

You know what I mean. You’re fighting your way through a massive dungeon and suddenly you see a savepoint, you know that something funky is about to go down. Either you know that you’re going to be facing some kind of boss, of you’re half way through the dungeon, which can be kind of depressing if the dungeon is fun. Though save points ensure you save before possibly getting your ass kicked, it ruins the surprise.

• Pressured to find a save point when playing for a while

This point is also a no-brainer, you’ve been playing for an hour or so and you’ve gotten far, the first thing you want to do is save your progress. Well what happens if you’re cut low on time? If for some reason you have to go somewhere and you don’t have time to find a save point? What then? Then you have to force yourself to continue playing or start again another time.

• Some save points disable the ability to backtrack

Now I never saw the appeal of doing this. Why would a developer not want you to backtrack to explore the game more? It’s like asking someone into your home then restraining them to the backyard, you have no good reason to do it unless you hate your consumer.

Dynamic saving (saving wherever you like) is the best option, it’s not baby-ing your consumer. It’s giving them the ability to save for themselves, so they can take the responsibility to save wherever needed. If you didn’t save for an hour and then you lose a boss fight, then too bad, it teaches you to save more frequently, and personally I like a game a lot better when I’m given as much freedom as possible.

Continuing with my vaguely vitriolic rantings that might interest perhaps a handful of people: Xenosaga.

For some reason I was incredibly excited when Xenosaga was announced. I was in high school at that time, going through that phase where yes, bizarre esoteric philosophy really is the bomb (I was a nerd if you couldn’t already tell). Looking back on this I’ll be damned if I can figure out why, because the spiritual forebearer to this game, Xenogears, was arguably the most convoluted game I have ever played, both game play- and story-wise.

But that’s not my point. My point is Xenosaga. Going into it I probably knew immediately something was amiss. Why is that? Well, allow me to answer my own question with a question. Successful stories tend to make sense, don’t they? Because it’s about two hours in and I STILL HAVE NO CLUE WHAT IS HAPPENING. All I know is people are saying words (most are made up, I later checked) about… Something. I guess it was supposed to sound like a bunch of scientists in the future talking about future-stuff, but all it accomplished was confusing the hell out of me.

That’s pretty much par for the course of the entire game, though. Lots and lots of references to the Zohar and stuff like that, which even one glance of the associated Wikipedia page can tell that it’s definitely not something I want to even hear from, really.
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“Good Games You Haven’t Played – And Why” provides gamers with insight to games that are rarely played gems among the many. This article’s game is Live-A-Live, a turn-based RPG for the SNES. These games are chosen from personal experience, and feedback would be much appreciated.

Live-A-Live

Live-A-Live is a game created by Squaresoft for the SNES in 1994. It was only released in Japan, due to several anatomical jokes that I’m sure if I mentioned would make the editor throw my article into the trash, let alone get past censors. It was a strange game with an odd sense of humor and a battle system unseen before.
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If you haven’t heard of the Fallout series then you’re really out of touch with the PC gaming world. Welcome to the present! Have an assault rifle. Anyhow, There’s been a lot of static about Fallout 3 since it was announced, most of it came from No Mutants Allowed, or NMA, which are a group of Fallout fanboys that were brought to tears upon hearing Bethesda was developing Fallout 3. NMA was afraid that Bethesda would tinker the formula that Black Isle (the original developers of the Fallout series) had made. To be clear, Fallout was an instant classic for it’s dark humor and dynamic gameplay and brought you different endings based on how you played. Does Bethesda live up to the previous Fallout games, and if it does, is it a good game? Let’s see. (continue reading…)

”Men cry not for themselves, but for their comrades”

Crisis Core : Final Fantasy VII is the first good FFVII spinoff. Instead of being a gigantic clusterfuck of fanservice that was Advent Children or plain old crap like the Dirge Of Cerberus game, this game is actually worth your time.

The game tells the story of Zack Fair, Soldier 2nd Class (later 1st Class) and follows his adventures until his eventual demise that leads (indirectly) in to the original Final Fantasy VII. The plot of the game is quite interesting with some new characters together with some old ones returning. I`m happy that the game only has two scenes of over exaggerated Advent Children action and both of which turn out to be virtual reality, the rest of the game is down to earth in terms of action by Final Fantasy standards.

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Release Date: February 28, 2008 (Japan), No US release scheduled.
Genre: Action RPG

(Names of sections stolen shamelessly from Gametrailers)

A game that has not yet graced the shores of the United States has recently graced my Nintendo DS which, before now, lay dormant on my shelf collecting a thin layer of dust.

It has only been a month or so since I was introduced to the world of ROM Hacking and ever since I sought to play this game. The folks over at GBA Temp are host to many fan-based translation efforts for both the GBA and DS platforms. Through the magic of various kinds of hex editors and a massive number of hours, fans of games help those not literate in Japanese or other foreign languages to enjoy the games in their native language.

The catch is you need to have a ROM of the game – and by the Fair Use clause of the United States Copyright Act of 1976, if you own a physical copy of the game you are entitled to own a single digital copy for archiving purposes. With the help of E-Bay I put my hands on a copy of this game and proceeded to download and patch the ROM.

You’ll need a flash card of whichever type you prefer to play the game, but putting that all aside I finally was able to enjoy the game I had heard about only through GBA Temp.

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There were a lot of amazing games on the N64, one of the greatest among them was Paper Mario. Paper Mario was one of the best RPGs released ever in my opinion, and that’s not nostalgia talking. A week ago I bought Paper Mario again for my N64 and replayed the bad boy, and it was more fun than  when I played it originally all those years ago because I understood the wit.

The story is the same as almost every Mario game, bad guy takes the girl, you’ve got to collect x amount of y to beat the bad guy. In Paper Mario’s case it’s Bowser (who else), but this time he’s got the Star Rod, you’re probably thinking “I’ma Mario, I’ma gonna win!”, the game lets you try to beat Bowser, but it’s impossible. So what do you do? Collect the 8 star spirits to gain the power to take him down.

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Disgaea : Afternoon of Darkness is the enchanced port of the PS2 Strategy RPG Disgaea : Hour Of Darkness. The original game was developed by Japanese developer Nippon Ichi Software, published in America by Atlus but the PSP version was published by NiS America. The European version is published by Koei. Now, I am aware that there was a recent DS port but as far as I know the PSP version still remains the best version, therefore I will be reviewing the PSP version.

Gameplay

Now, the gameplay in the game is standard SRPG gameplay, you play on a isometric map divided in to a square grid resembling a checkerboard. Your objective (which sadly, never changes) is to dispose of all enemies on the map. You have the standard RPG commands such as attack, use skills unique to your character`s weapon or the character himself or herself. You also have the option to throw enemies, allies or Geo Cubes. For most of the time you will forget that you have the ability to throw things but if used effectively you can use the throw to a great advantage, such as throwing a weakening Geo Cube in to the Panel type that the enemies are standing on or throw an ally further than he can move by himself. If you throw an enemy of the same kind on top of an enemy, these two enemies will combine and level up. This works great for grinding but this might get you screwed over by creating an enemy too powerful to take on.

This game is a giant grinding fest that demands you to donate tens to hundreds of your life to the game. Nippon Ichi is particulary famous for creating SRPGs that demand you to grind a lot. Sure, you can breeze past the first few chapters without that much grinding but not grinding will come back later and bite you in the ass. Somehow I have currently made it to chapter 12 but I constantly have my ass kicked, therefore that leaves me only one choice : grind some more. Grinding actually replaces strategy in this game, as no problem can`t be solved by grinding and you don`t really have to use your head that much, but hey, that`s a thing most SRPGs suffer from, Disgaea just suffers from it more than a regular SRPG.

To mix things up a bit, the game also sports a mechanic called ”Geo Panels”. The squares on the map that glow in different colors are Geo Panels and if Geo Cubes are put on them, all panels of that color gain effects such as Invincibility or Bonus EXP or stat boosts. At the beginning these panels will mostly be to your advantage but later you will be cursing them for screwing you over so.

Anyway, by killing enemies you gain Mana which can be spent in the Dark Assembly to create more characters. The characters come in two types, Human Characters and Monsters. Human characters come in various classes such as Warrior, Mage, Monk, etc. and can use various weapon types, altough you should probably just stick with a weapon that is made for the specific class as Weapon Mastery rises faster with that type of weapon. For regular characters, their special moves are decided by their weapon type and mastery. As the mastery gets higher, the character learns new weapon-type specific special moves, which are the only moves regular characters learn and there is a wide variety of weapon types to chose from, such as swords, staffs, fists, guns, etc..  By defeating certain enemies for the first time, these enemy types become available in the Dark Assembly for creation. Monsters learn new, monster-specific special moves by leveling up.

There are also special characters such as Laharl, Etna, Flonne, etc. who join your party at certain plot points, usialy at the end of the chapter or by completing a bonus mission. Special characters learn both weapon-specific special moves and character specific moves by leveling up.

Plot, music, bonus content.

The plot of the game tells you the story of Laharl, the son of the deceased Overlord of the Netherworld and his servants as he goes on his quest to become the new Overlord and some other misadventures. The game is split in to seperate episodic chapters, most of the game`s chapters act as seperate scenarios but the final chapters of the game pulls everything together and connects everything. The game is humorous and charming. Most of the story is told trough portraits and dialouge boxes but there are some in-game cutscenes. There are multiple endings.

The soundtrack is solid but there are no truly memorable tracks. The English voicework is pretty bad but luckly you can change to the Japanese voice track which isn`t that bad. The PSP version has omitted the game`s themesong since Atlus holds the copyright to it.

The PSP version also has an extra story mode called Etna mode where Etna accedentaly kills Laharl and replaces him as the main character. Also the PSP version has multiplayer which comes in three modes, ”Defeat The Leader”, ”Battle” and ”Capture The Flag”. Also the PSP version is the only version to support widescreen.

Get this game if you like strategy RPGs, you won`t regret it.

9/10

To pretend to be someone one is not, or is unable to be in real life, has always been a favored process to release stress and forget about most life’s problems ever since the ancient Greeks created the Tragedy as a form of entertainment. Playing a role, a projection of one’s personality under ficticious/imagined circumstances, possibilizes the experience of feelings and situations that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
Generally seen as a healthy sublimation of one’s aggressive impulses, in a Freudian manner, role playing shows its dark side when sometimes the actors become consumed by their own characters, inverting the transfer process, which may result in severe personality conflicts within the actor’s mind.

Ever since the dawn of the gaming industry, developers have spent a lot of their time creating games based on magical fantasy worlds where knights, wizards, dragons and damsels in distress were more than mere possibilities. There was a will to interact with these stories in reaction to centuries of spectating them. After years of toying with the limitations of A.I scripting, the bread and butter of the RPG genre, the Internet finally provided the necessary tools to connect role players worldwide and make them mutually interact inside virtual dynamic worlds, huge online theaters where every actor played an independent and unique role while affecting others at the same time. Thus MMORPG genre was born from the RPG and proceeded to replace its predecessor gradually, while not completely, attracting a considerably larger and more diversed fanbase and spawning an unusual amount of success and response.

However, what game developers failed to predict was how seriously some people would take this form of entertainment. Even though an excess of dedication of a player over a video game is taken as a benefit for software companies, since it usually translates on a larger income, growing obsessive behaviors towards a video game can generate hazardous effects, both game and real life based that will consequentially damage both players and developers.

Over the last few years we have heard of people who ruined their lives, commited suicide and even murdered others over MMORPG-related issues. Now, it is absurd to think or claim that this game genre carries some kind of curse or that its a threat to public health, but these facts clearly illustrate that something is indeed wrong with the way some players face it. What was initially intended to be a way to relax people is becoming more of a new source of problems and worries for those who use it. Though this social phenomenon might be a shadow on the role video games have started to play in our society, it is quite a fact that the MMORPG genre, with its so called “freedom” and “social interaction” has given birth to some of the most controversial cases and situations ever spawned by the game industry.