Posted

Jun 16th 2007

Music

BS Radio with improper genre playing...

California-

Right-o, goin' on a trip with my dad and sister to aunt's house in Florida for his birthday/father's day/I used a lot of preprositions in this sentence. So I won't be favoriting, scoring, or what-have-you (all without comments most likely) for a bit.

I'm actually playing FFXI a lot less now (thank goodness) and drawing...and playing games that I bought because they were cool but was too busy with FFXI to get into them...

(PS2) Odin Sphere - On a scale of 1 to 10, it gets a Purple. Very good game, yeah, it's not perfect (frame rate issues though it's old skoo appeal made me feel like I was playing Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, which was awesome, somewhat bland combat system and a lack of bosses after a while), but what it doesn't do right, it more than makes up for with great aesthetics (art, design, overall flow of gameplay) and intricate RPG stuffs (alchemy, how you level up, and that goodness).

If you like the super nintendo, if you like beat'm ups, if you like side scrolling, if you like action-rpgs, if you don't want cancer, you WILL play this game.

(PS2) Dawn of Mana - 4/10...bleh
Finally a true sequel to SD 3, probably the best action rpg ever...gets possibly the worse sequel...(the great downgrade from 3-4 is so great, it hurts). It really feels like they wanted to gain new audience with SD 4...which is probably why it fails so hard gameplay wise. You make new IPs if you want a new audience. You make sequels to suck as much money out of those that love the current set.

I can sum up graphics in one very annoying word:

BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The gameplay works like this, I waste my time with a poor implementation of the Havok engine (which guarantees bad physics) flingin' enemies and crap around (most likely bouncing myself around while I'm at it), trying to get coins that will level me up, running around on a featureless stage with a horrible map trying to guide me but ends up only telling me where the exit is but not how to get to the exit and trying to find a point in using my magic that does mostly...nothing. And then after all that, most action-rpgs give you the reward of having a stronger character, better stats, making it easier to take on the next wave of baddies...NOPE! You loose it all. You're back to square one and you have to gain all your abilities back, making progression for the sake of wondering what you can do at later levels (only a max of 4) pointless. So bam, you just lost like, half of the people that loved FFA-SoM (or SD-SD3). Good work Square Enix. You're retarded. (oh, did I mention everything's stage based? as in no more free-roaming like every SD game before it)

Fortunately the story's good and really explains a lot about the Mana world (it's a prequel to the entire series) and has some pretty nice voice acting. If you're a mana fan that loved the world and idea, then this is for rent...at best, because the gameplay is not there...can't even do some damn multiplayer...

(PSP) Armored Core Formula Front: Extreme Battle - 7/10
I love this game, but it's definately for the mechie kids. You don't want to actually control your mech...you'll probably do worse than a well programmed AI (as in, you program it!). It's a game that almost plays itself but you get to do what you always loved doing in the AC games. Making and fine tuning a mech. You get tons of parts from the start too, making it a lot of fun to tune and assemble each of your 5 mech team setting up different styles and gearing for different terrain and opponents. If only there was an online mode...I'd seriously give it a 8/10 if there was. I'm glad they finally went online with AC4...even though it isn't exactly perfect...

Well, that's enough of my garble, LATER *packs stuff*

-Dreamin'

Edit: Also, 3 watches while I wasn't looking!? Insane! (thanks!)