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.