Quested

You know, I never thought I'd use Jedward in one of my header images, but it's related to my feelings about Dragon Quest IX, and therefore is quite suitable.

Previously, I'd mentioned how I bought the game a second time, albeit in Japanese, with the aim of giving it a second chance. I did. It still doesn't do it for me. I'm really not sure what it is about it, but it just feels... weak. I guess it's a similar feeling to Final Fantasy IX, in that it's brought in multiplayer to a predominantly single player experience, and feels too light in most aspects aside from how much a timesink it is. I can accept that, I know it's silly to think that I would enjoy every game in a long running series simply for being part of that series, but I still feel a bit let down about it.

However, in my previous post I'd also mentioned plans to go to Dragon Quest's 25th Anniversary exhibition in Roppongi. I've since been, and it filled me with happy feelings. Which is, of course, what you want from a videogame.

The largest part involved a history gallery, with the walls covered from floor to ceiling in screen shots, with framed artwork dotted around. There were a few full size monster statues in the same section. Those were the only things you were allowed to take photos of, but it was busy enough for me to get away with a few photos of the artwork.

After that was a performance, with audience participation included, where a large animatronic dragon appeared midway, and had to be defeated by a few members of the audience being given replica weapons and the rest of the audience being encouraged to lend their energy. It was an interesting experience, but quite hard to summarise in words. It's a shame that most of it did not allow cameras.

Following that, and perhaps the most interesting of all, was a behind the scenes section, which had very, very early concept ideas and sketches. The vast majority of this had apparently not been shown to the public before, and therefore was the busiest part of the exhibit. I was amazed, quite oddly, at several filing cabinets containing folders that detailed every single bit of text in the entire series thus far. Not only were you not allowed to take pictures, but they'd even established a barrier to stop people getting close to it. After that was a shop, with some obscenely overpriced goods, most of which I fawned over but refused to allow myself to buy, as such a thing could destroy my wallet.

I'm sort of on the fence about Dragon Quest now. It's certainly a lot more popular worldwide, which is a good thing, but with the next one being a full online RPG, I really don't know if it'll be my sort of thing again. I suppose there are always remakes to look forward to, at least.

ReQuesting

There are not many occasions where I buy a game more than once. The amount of times I have done so could be counted on one hand, and the second edition bought usually has some form of additional content. I have not, however, bought a game just for being in another language. That has since changed.

For some reason, Dragon Quest IX never really clicked with me. I wanted to like it, tried to like it, played through to the end of the game, but then rather than continue on with the mass of post-game content and downloadable content, chose to shelve it instead. I'm not really sure why, but I mostly attribute it to the sudden lack of focus on party members that had made the previous titles so enthralling for me. I'm well aware that the original titles worked in this manner, but that just makes it feel like even more of a step back. There was also the poorly executed inclusion of downloadable content. Normally, I'm not someone who is opposed to such a thing. However, for DQIX, it was only possible to obtain some specific pieces, and some of the most interesting pieces, by attending a roadshow that was touring up and down the country. If you didn't attend, your chance was gone. I found this more frustrating upon learning that this content is already on the cartridge, you were simply obtaining data to unlock that content.

So, why then, considering my dislike, did I decide to try it again? The first reason, and perhaps most compelling, is finding it second hand for a mere 900 yen. Secondly, at the moment in Japan, there is an anniversary event in Roppongi. I've assumed, perhaps foolishly, that there will be some way to obtain previous downloadable content there. Finally, DQIX seems to be one of the few Japanese games that has furigana, which could simply be described as a reading guide, for all of the kanji in the game. It makes learning fun!

If in the end, this is a futile attempt, then at least I've given it an honest try. I just sincerely hope that with Dragon Quest X being an MMO, that the series hasn't changed drastically enough with IX for me to wish for the good old days.

Tokyo Game Show

Recently, I made a trip to the Tokyo Game Show. It's a yearly event, and open to the public on certain days. I've been eager to visit to many years, and as I'm in Japan for the time being, it seemed as good an oppurtunity as any, especially as there were a handful of games I wanted to check out.

Unfortunately, the actual amount of games I was able to play was a lot less than I'd have liked. Admittedly, the vast majority of these were all by Capcom, but with around an hour to wait for each game, I had to prioritise. As much as I'd have liked to play Dragon's Dogma, the queue for that dwarfed the one for Capcom's merchandise stall, which in turn dwarfed several of the ones are Square-Enix's booth. Kudos to Capcom, certainly, but I could only watch from the sidelines.

Of course, one of the games that I made absolute priority to play, regardless of wait, was Street Fighter X Tekken. Even before the release of Marvel vs Capcom 3, I'd been more hyped about SFxT, mainly because Yoshinori Ono was in charge. Almost purely because of my love for Street Fighter 4, I have a lot of faith in the man, and SFxT did not disappoint, thankfully. I did only get two matches, due to time constraints, but I was very pleased overall.

Other titles I tried were the latest Dragon Ball game, the Puyo Puyo Anniversary on 3DS, which is a console which I really dont like all that much and... that was possibly it. I think the main focus of the day was watching trailers and being impressed at booths.

If I ever get the chance to go again, I'll need to be a bit more focused!

Lording about

It's been a while! For some time now, I've had several articles in mind, across quite a few topics, but it seems a bit beyond that now. They're either not that relevant anymore, a bit long-winded, or have simply been covered better elsewhere. With that, and with the established reputation of Samurai Rocket being quiet for long periods of time, I'm simply going to get on with things.

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of trying Lord of Arcana on the PSP, which is mostly a Square-Enix attempt on Monster Hunter, with a fair bit more gore and a lot of guest designers, with Todd MacFarlane being one that comes to mind. It's a bit by the numbers as these sort of games go, with a few little extra features, and certainly better than some of the other attempts out there.

However, more importantly, and more interestingly, Lord of Arcana is a spin-off of an arcade game series, Lord of Vermillion, which I played today. LoV is an arcade based card game, which I admit I'm not exactly enamoured with, but having one in an arcade seemed enough of a novelty to give it a try. First impression is that it's very expensive. 500円 yen for a starter pack, which is required to play, and then 200円 for a game, with some places offering subsequent plays for 100円 after the first credit. With those places, that's generally considered the best method, as after each credit you receive a new card, and rather than one card for 200円, you can get two for 150円 each.

The game is quite simple, with the focus being on your placement of cards/units and which way they're facing, putting them into the best position that enables you to do a special attack. It's definitely something that will take some time getting used to, as there are a lot of things going on at once, but it's not like anything I've played before, so I'm still very interested in it.

All I'm going to need soon is a packet of card protectors... which saddens me greatly.