Once again, from the ether

Good grief. Based on the last post I made, you can pretty much tell when the academic year started, along with my perhaps overzealous drive to try and understand things. In any case, thanks to several snow days, I've managed to progress enough with assignments to justify the time to write on the internet about my opinion on videogames. A worthwhile use of my free time, I'm sure you'll agree.

Recently, in the patches of time I have to waste, I've been getting into Dragon Quest IX. Obviously, I'm somewhat behind on talking about this, potentially just as well, now that my frothing rage over Jedward promoting it in the UK has settled. It's something of a radical change for the main series, which in itself is an oddity. For a series that seemingly prides itself on staying true to it's roots, it's quite a surprise to have it featuring mulitplayer and wifi features so heavily.

Thankfully, these are done well. A half-baked feature in a series as big as Dragon Quest would not go down particularly well. The multiplayer aspect in IX allows another player to replace one of your party members, and then you can play the entire game together, should you wish it. Having the entire game work in multiplayer is something that, from my experience, is generally limited to FPSs these days, such as Halo. Having that on a portable seemed like something of a step forward. Also, similar to DQIII, as you make your party members, there is nothing lost by replacing one with a friend's character. Again, similar to III, is the fact that you have control over party member's classes, and from the more recent editions, control over what skills they learn as they level up. It's a very good blend of old and new.

But, herein lies my only gripe with the game. After how well the characters in VIII were handled, it seems like a slight step back to have characters with no motivation whatsoever to join you on your quest. I do understand that it could have been something sacrificed to allow multiplayer to work properly, but considering how well character development has been done in the past, I'm not sure yet if I prefer it.

Regardless, so far, DQIX has easily been one of the best RPGs I've played lately. Although, considering the time I have for RPGs these days, "lately" consists of Dragon Age and Final Fantasy IV, the latter of which isn't even halfway completed. I'm hoping to have a real solid session with it over the Christmas break, and judging from the enjoyment I've had from my brief stints with it so far, that will be a very pleasurable experience indeed.

Counting sheep

If there's one RPG series I can claim to like, with little doubt, it's the Persona series. For some reason, an RPG set around a coming of age style story for a bunch of teens just held appeal for me. Especially when mixed in with the occult, to some pretty funky music. I honestly don't know why, as typing that could made me realise it sounds pretty damn awful. Almost like Buffy the Vampire Slayer really.

In any case, when I found that the Persona team was working on a more "adult" title, my interest was at least a little piqued. Having seen the trailer, I'm almost sold on the title already. Going by the name Catherine, the game is about a dream. For some reason, people in the dream look like sheep, and if they die in the dream, they die in real life. Taking the lead is Vincent, a salaryman with no drive in his life, who meets someone who claims to not have died in the dream, but to have killed in it. There's also some kind of seductress, who is most likely related to Vincent being continually caught in the dreams every night.

Design and music wise, it's quite clearly related to Persona. But as for the game itself, from the small glimpses of actual ingame footage shown in the trailer, it appears to be some form of platformer. I'm certainly intrigued. The trailer can be seen on the official site, here.

Fantasy-lite

Thanks to a housemate of mine recently picking up Final Fantasy XIII, I've recently been dabbling in it's delights, when previously I had no intention to do so. I was less than keen on VII's treatment as a "project" rather than just a game, partly due to that aspect of it being decided much further down the line. With XIII supposedly going to be a project that's double the size of VII, I decided I'd rather avoid getting involved entirely.

Despite that, seeing it in action did help. While it's rarely a strong selling point for me, the graphics and presentation are gorgeous, even though I'm currently limited to an aged SDTV, it still doesn't fail to impress. If I do enjoy it enough to see it through to the end, I could potentially return to it at a later date in HD, which is has clearly been made for, as shown by it's large borders and occasionally minuscule text.

While I don't intend to get too involved in talking about the storyline, I feel it's worth saying that it's actually rather good so far. It's told in a very disjointed pattern, with the game beginning near the end, and then sometimes hopping back in the timeline to fill in the blanks on character history and motivations. It helps that it's done well, some RPGs have tried this before and it just didn't really work that well. It's not quite as sparse as XII, and definitely not as compressed and simplified as X was. It's something close to a happy medium. It is very cutscene heavy though, moreso than usual, so it's less tedious than some games make it.

Music wise, I'm very impressed. It's changed again from XII, which had Hitoshi Sakimoto doing the soundtrack. Having previously worked on titles like Ogre Battle and Odin Sphere, the grandeur his music offers was very well suited, but obviously with XIII being rather different, that wouldn't really fit. Instead, they've gone with Masashi Hamauzu, who I've only experienced before in Unlimited Saga. It's a not more contemporary and varied, something which lends itself very well to XIII. While it's always a shame to not have Uematsu on board, more variety like this is definitely something that Final Fantasy as a whole can benefit from.

The game's system and battle sequences have been drastically streamlined, with levelling and recovery being removed entirely. It seems like less of a solid RPG, and more like an extended cutscene with RPG elements in it. While I'm still in the early stages, character customisation seems to present itself as an illusory method of decision making. While you can develop a character as you progress with new abilities, it's very linear, meaning you can quite happily continue through the game with the required skills and statistics available to you. While I do often agree with the idea of cutting out needless complication in games, it seems a bit misleading to present the player with the idea that they're developing a character when really, that could also be done automatically. I've yet to encounter any difficulty spikes as it's all so linear at the moment.

That's not to say that I'm not enjoying it, however. One thing it does succeed with is offering an enjoyable experience. While I was quite happy to let this one pass me by, I've found myself hooked to some degree. I'm not sure yet if I'll consider it one of my favourites, but for the time being it's a nice little distraction. It just so happens that playing such a simple RPG, I'm finding myself even more eager to sink my teeth into something like Dragon Quest.

Farming Factor

Around the time I was introduced to emulation, I started playing Harvest Moon. To my knowledge, the SNES version wasn't released in Britain at the time, which is a bit odd, as you'd imagine a game about farming would have quite a market here. To this day, I still consider it one of the best titles in the series. As odd as the concept was to me, I found myself hooked, and ever since then I've maintained a passing interest, playing at least one of the many releases that each generation of consoles receives. Despite that, I never bothered with the somewhat recent spin-off series, Rune Factory. That is, until I picked up a Wii.

Perhaps it was because I really didn't like Harvest Moon on the Game Boy Color, but I shied away from Rune Factory, as it started on the DS, and has two sequels on said format. Perhaps I had some sort of preconception about the quality of portable Harvest Moons, but it never appealed enough for me to play it. For some reason though, I was quite eager to play the Wii version, Rune Factory Frontier.

While the other DS games are standalone sequels, Frontier features the hero and heroine from the first game, along with a few other characters who have come along for the ride. In a bizarre act of continuity, there are original characters who do and don't remember the hero, which I really can't seem to get my head around. Especially as he can marry most of those characters in the original game. It's as if the first game did and didn't occur. Minor gripes aside, I'm really rather keen on the game itself.

For those unaware, Rune Factory takes the basic concept of farming and relationship building from Harvest Moon, and adds dungeon exploration and combat. It might be because I'm already keen on going into dungeons and bothering dragons and their kin, but I've become hooked. Such a simple addition has almost reinvigorated the love that I had for the very first game. Another addition is my favourite aspect of Magical Melody, one of the Harvest Moon titles, which allows you to build friendship with any of the villagers, rather than just potential brides.

However, due to the story's progress being closely linked to how successful your dungeon exploration, villager relationships and crop growth, it's very slow moving. In one instance, I had to unlock a gate. To do so, I had to develop a friendship with a resident near to the gate. Doing so introduced a character who merely appeared, said nothing, and walked off. Upon following him, the following areas had a couple of substantial difficulty spikes, which I've yet to conquer. The problem is, to survive said spikes, I have to make my farm a lot more profitable in order to have access to better equipment. It's not a game that can be rushed.

That, however, is possibly what I find most appealing about both Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. While Rune Factory has added some degree of excitement to it with the dungeons, they are still essentially time sinks. Both series are perfect examples of how to reward effort, though. The more time and effort you're willing to put in, more variety and content becomes accessible. I find, though, that I enjoy the slow pace of the game. For a game that started off about daily life and building friendships, the ever so gradual development that exists in Rune Factory is perfectly suited to it. Provided I don't get too bored, I'm hopefully going to see this through to the end. After that? I might take the plunge and try one of the DS titles, portability be damned.

Cat-eared Odyssey

Since having studied Japanese at university for a little under a year now, my proficiency with the language has developed somewhat. Rather thankfully, considering my interests, it has developed to the extent of me being able to blunder and stumble my way through Japanese language games more successfully. Obviously a great deal of the nuance is lost on me, but the fact I can work out what I'm doing without just assuming or consulting some kind of guide is a rather rewarding experience.

Now, while I've been steadily working my way through Chrono Trigger these past few weeks, I also picked up 7th Dragon, after it became part of a value range. I became interested in the game almost as soon as I'd heard of it. As you may have worked out from a few posts on here, I'm a solid fan of Etrian Odyssey, and some time after the second game came out, 7th Dragon appeared, with a some of the key team members behind it. The main difference that struck me was that the character designer was different, acceptably so. But the real hook for me was that Rieko Kodama was a part of the project, who was involved with a handful of favourites of mine. Most notably, Skies of Arcadia, which is often in steady contention with Chrono Trigger as my favourite RPG.

Plotwise, the events are a bit beyond me at this point, but as for the game itself, I'm very satisfied. The best way to describe it is as if they've taken the core mechanics of Etrian Odyssey and made it more of a JRPG, similar to the early Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. The concept of creating a guild and creating all of your party still exists, as does taking quests and developing every skill and ability of your party, but it now takes place with an overworld, towns, dungeons and a top down camera view.

Presentation wise, 7th Dragon is quite easily more impressive than Etrian Odyssey, which I can only assume is due to the budget available for a Sega game as opposed to an Atlus one. While in both games you were able to choose a class and appearance for each of your characters, 7th Dragon has overworld and battle sprites for each and every one, whereas Etrian just had a portrait. I can quite happily accept that that is part of Etrian's appeal, to provide a solid, no frills RPG, and it's perhaps a tad unfair to compare the two so directly, but it's hard not to be swayed by 7th Dragon's abundance of sprites dashing, gesturing and leaping across the screen as the battles play out.

I remember that before Etrian Odyssey 3 was revealed, I was concerned that 7th Dragon had marked the death of the series, as if the team had moved on to create a spiritual successor of sorts. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Despite that though, now that Etrian looks like it'll continue for some time still, 7th Dragon seems to have been a one off, with no release outside of Japan having been mentioned and, to my limited knowledge, no word of a sequel yet. It's a shame too, as while I'm in the early stages still, it seems as if it's going to be something I'll enjoy.

Pirates were always cooler

With the current generation of consoles, I've been something of a late adopter. With previous generations, I'd often be in some sort of frenzy, eager to get my grubby mitts on the latest pieces of hardware, and then experience a drought of good games for a lengthy duration, extended even further by the fact I had more than one console to provide for. It wasn't an ideal situation. The 360 has benefited from this, as I waited until the hardware was slightly more reliable, and there was a decent selection of games on offer.

For some reason, one particular game I was especially eager to play was Lost Planet. Everyone I knew advised against it, that it was a sluggish game that had very few saving graces, and an awful final boss. They were right. Despite that, I still enjoyed playing through it. I had left it a bit too long, as everyone on the multiplayer side of things knew every single little thing to do, and I essentially just logged in to die quite quickly and unspectacularly. Despite those gripes, I found myself looking forward to the sequel.

As access to the internet has become something of a rarity for me these days, I've taken longer than planned to actually talk about Lost Planet 2. But, as I've finished it during this time, I'm more well informed than I usually am on whatever I choose to write about.

The most notable thing about Lost Planet 2 is that it's definitely aimed at fans of the original, with very little having changed with how the game plays. It's simply moved onto a much larger scale. It also features online and splitscreen multiplayer, so that aspect involves slightly less death for me. Unfortunately, with the splitscreen, it suffers from the same thing that Resident Evil 5 did, in that it's clearly been made for large HD TVs, so there's no point trying it if you don't have access to one of those. Which is a bit odd, as the campaign mode has been made with multiplayer in mind, to the extent of having a lobby even if you're playing solo.

It's also perhaps worth noting that the plot, or excuse for one, is absolute nonsense. I spent the majority of the cutscenes, of which there are plenty, not really knowing what was going on. Action wise, they're impressive, but they mainly exist to justify whatever it is you're doing, if you actually do know what you're doing and why.

As mentioned previously though, it's only really been made for the fans, the people I knew who disliked the original still aren't especially keen on the sequel. But, this brings to mind something that I love about Capcom. If you enjoy one of their series, it seems a relatively safe bet that you'll enjoy the other games in the series, they don't seem to try and change too much of it to appeal to a different market, which is something that seems a waste of time regardless of the medium. While it could be argued that Resident Evil is the exception to this theory, having changed quite radically in recent years, it fits quite well for their other games. I'm a solid fan of Street Fighter, and know that I'll most likely, without a doubt, enjoy the others, while there are very few Megaman games I've enjoyed, and as they actually do seem the same for the most part, I don't approach that series often, if ever.

This style of development is somewhat rare I feel, with a lot of developers catering more towards wider market appeal. Granted, it's all part of business, so I can't and won't whine too much about how developers "should" do something. Obviously, Capcom have had a lot of time to accrue the sort of revenue required to take such risks, even for sequels of games that didn't do spectacularly, but it's nice all the same that a company will make games for their fans. And that is why I love Capcom. Lost Planet 2, on the other hand, I'm still gradually warming up to.

A late arrival to the Garden of Madness

Once again, I've left this blog in limbo. Not to say it had been forgotten, not at all. I simply had the wonderful world of study to contend with. Which sounds a bit better than laziness, which could have potentially played a big part. Regardless, summer holidays have arrived, as has a substantial amount of free time. As such, I now have things I can write about! I've no doubt you've been waiting in mild anticipation for this moment.

Unfortunately, I'm taking this moment to talk about a Wii game. An old Wii game. Having recently come into possession of one, I made sure to pick up No More Heroes shortly afterwards, and as I've now spent most of this week playing it, I'm feeling confident enough to ramble on about it.

The thing is, when you come as late to the party as I have, it's hard to actually say anything valuable about it that hasn't already been said before. Perhaps the most notable thing is that around the time of it's release, I saw a lot of criticism about how tedious and repetitive it is. It may say something about my gaming habits, but I've not actually found that to be the case. Maybe it's because I'm often playing retro games, where there's little to do aside from the core part of the game until the end credits roll, but the supposed tedium hasn't really struck me. There's also quite a strong retro vibe in the game, with score charts, 8-bit sound effects and at one point an old fashioned shmup. With that and the general feel that Suda51 games have, it's really been striking a chord with me.

And on the topic of chords being struck, Masafumi Takada, the game's composer, has really had some room to play around. There's a few soundtracks of his that I'm fond of, but this in particular is wonderful, to the extent that I'm tempted to stick the soundtrack on my mp3 player.

Something that I've not failed to notice however, is that Suda and Takada both seem to have referenced other works. There's a few references to Flower, Sun and Rain in the landscape, along with some other references in advertisements. Takada seems to have some riffs from God Hand in the soundtrack, which are more than welcome. It's odd, as neither game did particularly well sales wise, and neither did No More Heroes.

Impressions and theories aside, No More Heroes is something I've been getting some solid enjoyment from. While it's hardly one of the best games around, it does what it sets out to do, and as I've not finished it just at this moment, it may do more than that. I'm seriously considering picking the sequel up when I've finished with it, only I may already have a stockpile of games that I said I'd finish over summer. With any luck, I'll be making some posts about those in the near future. Or that's the plan, at least.

Hero to Zero

Surprising as it may seem, this blog is still active! Due to work commitments and so forth, I've had less time to play videogames and fawn over figures, and therefore, less to talk about on here. That has changed somewhat though! As I'm currently limited to handheld formats, I've been playing more games on those, and I've recently found that Phantasy Star Zero is ideally suited to short bursts of gametime.

I used to be a big fan of Phantasy Star Online, and it could easily be one of the contributors to me seriously becoming someone who loves Sega, as opposed to being a mere fan. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and eventually it was superseded by Phantasy Star Universe. It was an odd one, it may not have been a "bad" game per say, but nothing felt right about it to me. It seemed like a very different game, but still masqueraded as a Phantasy Star game. I wasn't keen, and didn't stick with it for long.

A year or so ago, Phantasy Star Zero came out for the DS. It sported an anime look this time, whereas Universe was more realistic. I never bothered with it though, Universe had done it's damage. However, I recently decided to give it a try, and I'm actually rather glad that I did.

While my time with it has been short, it seems as if Sega have taken what worked from Universe, added it to Online, and then simplified it. It works perfectly as a handheld version, and I'm looking forward to hopefully trying the multiplayer mode on it. It also isn't limited to local multiplayer only, as many portable games seem to be, so hopefully I'll get to experience that as well, if it's still being played by the masses at this point!

Saber rattling

It's been a while since I've made a post about figures, but it's probably time since I made a change from posting about videogames and nerded out in a different way. For a while now, I've been a fan of Type Moon, and by extension, Fate/Stay Night. While it was originally just a visual novel, it's branched out into a range of different media, such as anime series, manga, a few fighting games, books, and probably a few other things on the side.

I've usually maintained the view that you can judge a character's popularity by the amount of merchandise they have. With that in mind, it would easily be Saber, the main female lead of the series. I'm generally aware of this because I'm also a fan of the Figma range of figures, which Saber has a few of already.


The first ever Figma I saw was the standard look for Saber. At the time, I wasn't so sure about it. I was only just getting into poseable figures, but was limiting myself to the Revoltech range. It was modestly priced, but for some reason I didn't feel like going for it. Currently though, I'm quite strongly tempted to pick it up.


However, I really became tempted with Saber Lily, a very limited one that only came bundled with a limited print of the PS2 version of Fate/Unlimited Codes, a fighting game by Capcom. I think I've missed my chance with it now, as it's been out for some time, but I really like the look of Saber Lily. I've also not played Fate/Unlimited Codes, and as it's a Capcom fighter, I should probably rectify that. But despite missing out on that limited edition, there are others.


With the soon to be released Fate/Extra, there's a limited version that comes with yet another Saber, the imaginatively titled Red Saber. I've no idea what's the justification for her is, but generally it seems that if there's a new version of Fate, there's a new Saber to go with it. I'm actually quite tempted with Fate/Extra. Not only is it an alternate take on the original story, but it's also following Persona's current example and adopting a school life simulator. However, the limited edition is £100, and as nice as that figure is, I'm not sure I can justify it. I remember once hearing limited editions described as a trap, which seems very fitting in this example.


Perhaps the one I'm most tempted with out of the Figma Sabers though, is the newest, Saber Alter. Or Dark Saber, she seems to go by two names. I already have a Revoltech version of the character, but I've come to appreciate Figma more than Revoltech recently, due to the fact that they're generally better presented. I'm usually not keen on the "dark" versions of characters, but I've always been keen on this version of Saber. I could easily cave and add this to my ever growing collection. Of course, this may depend on how many other forms of Saber get the Figma treatment, I can easily see more being added, as long as she keeps getting different outfits.

Blogging about frontlogging

Last time I made an update, which was actually longer ago than I intended it to be, I talked about having to deal with a backlog. This time, I'll be talking about a frontlog! An esteemed friend of mine came up with the term. As a backlog is a collection of things you own and intend to complete, then a frontlog is essentially the same, with the only and important difference being that you don't own them yet. And you know what? I actually have one of those too. Although, for the sake of not writing this update forever, I'm going to only feature a sample.

Bayonetta

It irks me no end that I'm yet to play this. I'd been looking forward to it for some time, but due to circumstance, I've not been able to play it. My main reason has become one of intrigue, though. From the people I know who have played it, there seems to be an even split. The detractors have told me that it's just like Devil May Cry. Those who like it, tell me that it's just like Devil May Cry. I happen to be a fan of Devil May Cry, so if it's just like it, I'll be happy. Although, I'm more of a fan of DMC3 and 4 than the original, which I believe Hideki Kamiya was less involved in, yet he's the one who helmed Bayonetta. So, I'm almost after it just to find out how it plays. Odd feeling, that.

Mass Effect 2

Yet another game that's been released, but I'm unable to play. Probably a huge surprise that it's featured on here to people who know me as well. This is the sort of game that I actually could lose a few days if not weeks to, so there's the possibility that I'm going to wait until summer until I can truly spare the time to focus on it. Again, it's another one I've been looking forward to for a while, only this time I know more or less what to expect, what I'm able to do and so on and so forth, but because I'm just a massive nerd for all things BioWare, I seriously crave this.

Ace Combat: Joint Assault

The only portable game in this update, and also the first one that isn't actually released yet. I find it hard not to be a fan of Ace Combat, it's one of the few games I know that I could honestly describe as epic. It's also one of the very few Namco games I don't get disappointed by. I've been playing through Skies of Deception lately, the first PSP one, and on a gameplay level, I'm pretty sure I prefer it to Fires of Liberation, the most recent console entry, which is obviously going to be superior on pretty much everything else. With Joint Assault though, Namco seem to be utilising the PSPs potential as a multiplayer system, like with how Monster Hunter works. Up to four players can play in a campaign this time, with everyone's performance effecting what the mission outlines are for the other players. It does seem like the sort of game that has to be played with others, which might be difficult for me, but I think I'm already sold on the idea.

Lost Planet 2

Out of the people I know, not many have played Lost Planet, and those who have weren't too keen on it. I really enjoyed it, apart from the multiplayer aspect of it. Lost Planet 2, however, has co-op added to it, rather than simply being limited to deathmatch. The main attraction though is the sheer size of Akrid this time, with the demo featuring one that you actually had to go inside of to kill, shooting up it's insides as you progress through to... other parts of it. And that was just for the demo! I've got to wonder what will feature later on. I'm pretty sure it's going to be more enjoyable than the original, so it should be a solid game at any rate.

Super Street Fighter 4

I'm not actually sure if I need to explain why I want to play this, or if I know how to put it into words. I'm a solid fan of the series, I've even got to the extent of preordering it, which is an all too rare thing for me. I believe the last game I preordered was Pokemon Red, in a Woolworths. While I don't think I'm that great at the game, I've always come back to it, and I've always enjoyed it. With the addition of Street Fighter 3 characters, I'm very interested in seeing how they adapt to the system in 4, especially as one of them was the main character I used in 3, and have already decided to use in 4, just because I like how the character plays so much. I could easily ramble for a considerable amount of time about this, and already feel like I'm reaching for excuses to justify it, but I simply cannot wait for this game.

Blogging about backlogging

Backlogs are quite a conundrum. I'm sure every gamer has them, or indeed most people with hobbies. Be they books, movies, comics, I'm sure everyone has bought something and then not given it the attention it deserves. But, I'm sure that every backlog also contains a mixture of things that people really want to finish off and then ones that they're really no longer bothered about anymore. I've recently been considering games that I've started, but have yet to complete, yet still have some sort of urge to finish off. I've no idea if I'll actually get around to doing that, because that's just the nature of a backlog in a sense, but there's only a handful really!

Trauma Center: Under the Knife

I've had this for several years now, uncompleted. But not without at least having tried to finish it off, which is a good sign in some regard. I remember being really hyped up for the first entry in the series, but the steady increase in difficulty throughout the game eventually proved too much for me. I'd really love to finish it off, and the later games on Wii and DS look really good, but I just can't bring myself to move onto those without having finished an earlier game in the series. Especially as I already own it! The worst part is, I know I'm near the end of the game. I think this is probably the only game in this list that I could theoretically finish off some time soon.

Mother 3

The only game in this list that I've had to resort to emulation to play. Which is part of the problem, actually. I would have loved to play this on an actual console, but as there's no official translation, I had to resort to the fan translation. Which I must mention, is a stellar job. Regardless, I find myself having less conviction to play a game fully when I've not bought it. The other issue? I was so hyped about playing this that when I finally got around to it, I played it solidly, and eventually reached saturation point. I really should finish this off because, again, I'm near the end, but it's just finding that motivation to do so.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

First one in this list that's the first entry in a series! And what a series it is, with a second trilogy having recently started in Japan and with a tie in movie to go along with it, it's quite the success story. I really am quite enamoured with Level 5, there's a lot of effort and detail put into their games from what I've experienced, which is just the sort of thing I like to see. However, I've never really been one for brain teasers, which this game consists of. The overall mystery and quirkiness of the characters are quite endearing however, so this will most likely be something that requires willpower to complete.

Jeanne D'arc

Another title by Level 5, and a lesser known one to boot. Some time ago, I was really into strategy RPGs, which was almost entirely the fault of Fire Emblem. There are some obvious similarities between Fire Emblem and Jeanne D'arc, but D'arc seems to be somewhat deeper. I remember also being quite impressed with the production quality, it actually pains me to admit that I was initially interested due to the box art, as I'd never heard of it before. Worth noting though is that the attempts at French accents did grate a bit. I'm really not sure why I stopped playing this, but who knows, maybe this year I can finish it off!

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne

First title on the list that isn't on a portable system! How could I do an update on here without mentioning Shin Megami Tensei? Oh, I do love it so. But this one. This was too much for me. I'm well aware that SMT in general is a pretty tough series, but this one takes a lot of time and effort just to survive making it to a dungeon at some points. And then obviously you've got to retreat the way you came to recover. I think that this is probably the main game on this list that I've got the strongest urge to complete. I loved the setting, the music was fantastic, and I've always found Kaneko's character design has an odd charm to it. I've just got to see if I've got the spare time to commit to this. No doubt that if I do somehow finish it off, I'll develop an urge to get some of the alternate endings as well. Good times indeed.

Visitors

Now that the excitement has calmed down some, and by that I mean purely my own, it's time to say a bit more about Etrian Odyssey 3! Looking back on my previous post about it, I think I spoke about it a bit too soon, seeing as I hardly knew a thing about it. Just goes to show that this blog doesn't really work as one for up to date news, unless frenzied speculation counts as news.

Anyway, one thing I was correct about is that sailing is a big part of it! I admit I'm still not exactly sure how it works, but it seems as if you sail from island to island and map those out. I assume there's some degree of linearity to this, or that there's something that has to be found on each island, otherwise it could be fairly easy to sail to someplace you're not meant to be at by that point in the game and get wiped out but creatures way beyond your ability. Oddly, that's exactly the sort of thing that appeals to me, just the mere possibility that you could encounter things that you shouldn't be, maybe even succeeding and having a boost for a little while. I love what possibilities non-linearity can provide.

One thing I honestly wasn't expecting however, is that while this has a lot more content added for a sequel than EO1 did in comparison to EO2, I didn't expect for content to be removed. In that, I'm speaking purely about what's going on with classes, partly as I previously said they were additional. It seems that this time, all previous classes have been removed, and that the ones shown at the moment are the replacements. I can understand the reasoning for this, as there were a few classes that were rather similar, but it's a bit of a shame to be lacking the Paladin and Gunner classes, as they were almost acting as mascots for the series. I'm rather eager to see how they work though, obviously my traditional team won't work this time.

Having a look around the website though, it's a delight to hear new compositions by Yuzo Koshiro, which I admit was part of the reason I originally took a look at the first game. I don't know what it is, but something always grabs my attention with his music. I can only assume it's tied into the fact that I grew up with his music in the games I played as a child. Either that or it's just good music. I'm happy with either possibility. It's also pretty awesome to hear this combined with the new character designs by Yuji Himukai, who I've praised before, in the announcement trailer! While understanding the game in Japanese is beyond me at this point, I really feel like March can't come soon enough.

Most played 2009

Well hey, look at that! Second time I've made one of these entries! This blog can't be doing too badly! Or what's more likely is that I'm not bored yet of typing words into the ether on a vaguely regular basis. Regardless, it's the same deal as last time. I'm simply giving impressions of my most played games for the year, since I've never been too great at keeping up to date with new releases.

Ridge Racer 6

Which this title does a good job of proving. While Ridge 6 was a launch title for the 360 several years ago, I only got around to actually playing it last year. I've always been a fan of Ridge Racer, and while 5 was a bit poor, 6 is definitely back to how Ridge should be, awesome cars, fancy scenery and a great soundtrack. It's still not quite as good as Type 4, but it's a solid title nonetheless. Absolutely love the remix of the Galaga theme that's featured in this as well, but I've got a thing for retro remixes to begin with. Only downside is the amount of time and effort required to unlock everything, there's about five hundred races at least if you want to get all of the cars in it, and that's still not enough to finish the game! Obscene stuff really.

Resident Evil 5

It's weird, it actually feels like a really long time since I've played this, and it probably is. The thing is, I'd waited so long for this that I ended up blitzing through it about three times in one week. Then I moved onto the extra modes. After that, it became pretty hard to consider playing it again, I completely overdid it. I admit, it was partly for the achievements in it, but I honestly loved playing through for that one lone week. It was probably the joy of having the old gang back in the game. Now if only they'd get around to having Barry back in the series.

Left 4 Dead

It took me a little while to properly get into this, even though I bought it the previous year. It's hard to really say anything about it that hasn't been said already, I mean, in a sense there's not actually a great deal to it. But considering I'm mildly into FPSs, quite strongly into things featuring zombies, and enjoy what I've played by Valve, it's quite hard to go wrong with it. While the sequel is already out, I've got to admit that I don't feel any need to get it, I'm more than happy with the original at the moment. Once I started playing for achievements, I really got into it, it's not really the sort of game that's made for playing through in one sitting, it gets better the more it's played. Still haven't finished a campaign on expert either!

Persona 4

Probably not much of a surprise! Anyone who has read more than a couple of entries on here has probably worked out that I'm a big fan of the series. Took me a while to complete 4 for some reason, it was one of those RPGs that I took a break in during the middle. It drags a bit towards the end, and some plot twists reach a bit, but the ending made up for it, and it's easily got some of my favourite characters in a JRPG. Really tempted to play through it again at some point, there's still quite a few characters I never spent much time with in game, lots of stuff to discover!

Street Fighter 4

Absolutely no surprise this one, I've spent more time on it than I dare to even consider. I'm frequently finding myself learning new things on it, and occasionally I just decide to learn a new character and then discover even more things I didn't know about. Then there's the amount of time I spend online playing people, mostly people I know, but the occasional stranger. Thankfully I'm beyond the stage of getting incredibly irritated by the antics of some people, because it was a love/hate thing for a while. Expanded version out this year as well, so I imagine it will be appearing in the next update of this style as well!

Origins

As a "spritual successor" to Baldur's Gate, one of my favourite RPG series ever, I was hoping for a lot from Dragon Age. Usually that's something that leads to disappointment. I often try not to expect much from games just on the off chance I feel let down due to having such high expectations. I needn't have worried though, it's a fantastic game, and even though I've recently finished it off, I only feel like I've scratched the surface, content wise.

The sheer amount of possible outcomes from dialog is something I'm yet to experience from many other games. Usually when I play through a western RPG, I like to have a character personality to stick to, where I'll be playing with a different set of ideals and morals each time through. I guess in that sense, it really is a role playing game, and it's great that western RPGs actually allow for that concept to work for the most part. Often, I'm able to play through a western RPG a few times with a different character archetype, and feel that I've experienced pretty much all of it, with Mass Effect being the most recent example I can think of. However, the amount of choices in Dragon Age may mean that's something I'll struggle to feel I've accomplished! While I've played through once already, I'm considering at least three other playthroughs to try and experience more, and that won't even cover all the possible character origins.

Added to that is the addition of downloadable content, apparently a year's worth of it, and at least one retail expansion announced so far, it's really a massive game. Furthermore, there are at least two novels now, it's a safe assumption that there's even more to come. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a comic on the way at some point as well. It's a pity that something like this comes along when I've got some proper commitments to stick to! It's exactly the sort of thing that I could lose myself in for a substantial amount of time.

I must admit though, I really like that BioWare have fleshed out their own series to such a degree. Back when they were making licensed games, or something of their own like Jade Empire, it was either in a well established setting or in something that you just had a taster of. Now that Mass Effect and Dragon Age are around, they really seem to be expanding on these two settings. I'm yet to read the codex featured in Dragon Age, but I remember spending almost an entire afternoon on the Mass Effect one.

Problem is, whenever I type out something like this, and then read over what I've just said, I come to the conclusion that my hobbies require a massive commitment to get everything out of them. I may need to get out more, deary me.