Even though I take notes while I play through each Final Fantasy game, it surprises me how difficult these posts still continue to be to write. And none harder than this one, thanks to my torn opinion on the game. Final Fantasy V does many things right, much better than its predecessors, but still falters in areas that just cannot be ignored. This was going to be a short post, and should have been. But I'm a person who can't let certain problems go, as small as they may seem to others.
As usual, let me get the easy things out of the way first. Music is the one area that all of the Final Fantasy games so far have not disappointed. Library of the Ancients has an especially good track, and I also enjoyed the music that plays during Chocobo/Galuf/humorous scenes. Graphics are pretty good, but being as though every game I've played so far has been a remake, this PlayStation port is technically the oldest game in the series I've played. If there's one thing that stands out about the graphics, it's that there are a wide variety of textures and areas in dungeons and caves.
Speaking of graphics and music, Final Fantasy V is different from those that came before it, in that it really shows emotion. When a character is sad, they bow their heads. When Galuf laughs, the sprite throws it's head back in laughter. A surprised character, such as when falling through a trap, will show humorous bulging eyes. It reminds me of Chrono Trigger, which is no surprise being the same company. The music ties in perfectly with the scenes as well, especially during sad scenes, which have two very moving tracks. And there is no shortage of those in this game. I'll go much more into that in a bit. To cap it off, characters have accents, which help give them personalities to their emotions.
The story itself is pretty good, and is so far the second best out of the five, behind Final Fantasy IV. Unlike the previous game though, twists continue occurring throughout the game, both minor and major. I only have two complaints on the story. First, Square reused the same plot device for the third game in a row: team is beat by the final boss (this time by being sent to N-Zone, basically the void between worlds), and the spirits of other heroes come to the rescue by waking them up and urge them to continue fighting. I don't know how they got away with that for three games in a row. The second problem is that it's too long. I put 42 hours into the game, at least six of which were solely spent on grinding. By two-thirds of the way through, I wanted it to be done. Unlike the past games, it wasn't just the final dungeon, but the story itself. The pre-final dungeon quest did not help either. It basically felt like the end-game Wind Waker fetch quest. The player cannot reach the final dungeon until they collect four tablets, which in turn unlock the 12 legendary weapons. Supposedly these weapons sealed away ExDeath (bad guy) the first time, yet none are actually required to be used to beat the game. What awful writing.
Okay, I admit it, my frustration with the game's length may be my own fault. I used a guide for this game, as I have done for basically each game before it. I followed it very closely as well, meaning obtaining all optional summons and magic spells that I would have normally missed many of. Since Final Fantasy V has an awful map, I found a guide necessary for saving me time, from wandering around...aimlessly. Not to go off on a tangent, but how could Square not update the map in any way for this port? I'm grateful that there even is a map to pull up, and that it has blinking white dots to indicate a town or cave entrance. There are multiple problems I found with the map. If you're going to create a large map (which I prefer), include variety of landmasses, which in turn creates areas that stick out as reference points. Having multiple deserts and a plethora of forests, mountain ranges, rivers and lakes, ended up just confusing me. I would also recommend having distinguishable continents, and naming them. I didn't realize how important both of these ideas (variety of landmasses and named continents) were in the previous games until I played Final Fantasy V. What made the map worse, was that every time I was just getting to memorize it, it would change. This happened twice, and the third version of the map was by far the most confusing. I'm not even going into the underwater version of the second and third maps, which I avoided when possible. Imagine the opposite of the maps, but without any landmasses to base one's location off of.
Returning to my main complaint, the game is just too long. This is too bad, since the last few dungeons during the fetch-quest are actually very good and interesting. By that point I didn't care, and wanted to blow through them as quickly as possible.
Which leads me right to another complaint, random battles. In the five games I've played in this series, I have easily run from the most battles in Final Fantasy V. Maybe it's just me, but the frequency of random battles is at least double that of any of the previous installments. Every five to ten steps would be another battle. I wouldn't care so much if the game wasn't aggrivatingly slow. Loading a battle takes three to five seconds. Exiting a battle takes three to five seconds, and I would pray that the enemy does not drop anything (99.99% of the time would be a cheap item of which I was already carrying 99), adding another three or four seconds. For a port they did a shoddy job. Anyways, yes, random battles were frustrating. It was not uncommon for me to run from nearly all battles in a dungeon, and fight only the boss. A boss that while not easy, also did not require any grinding to defeat, and until late-game would be taken down on the first attempt. Before you start believing that this is an easy game, it is not. Hold onto that thought though, I need to talk about other things before delving into that.
The theme of a shoddy port should be something you're starting to notice. The most noticible problem with this game, which ultimately turns most people away from this particular rendition, is the save glitch. I encountered this glitch within the first 30 minutes of playing and literally said "wow, f that". Imagine going into the save screen from the menu, and seeing a fuzzy screen, which after a few seconds turns blue, with the deformed figures of the characters off to the left. There is no text on the screen, so saving seems impossible. I read online that most of the time you can still save normally, but I didn't want to risk playing 25 hours and then losing all my data. That would put this run on a long-term hiatus. Unfortunately over the next week, I couldn't find the GameBoy Advance port/remake of Final Fantasy V in the three local stores (yet found Final Fantasy VI Advance and multiple copies of Final Fantasy IV Advance and Dawn of Souls), and wasn't up for paying $25 on amazon for a used copy I couldn't physically look at first.
I did as much research online as I could, trying to find out my odds of losing my game data. Turns out, permanently losing game data is rare, and more often than not the worst problem with be the game glitching out (I'll explain soon) or freezing. The freezing, which thankfully I never encountered, occurs when backing out of the save screen. Oh, I should mention that yes, one can still save without problem even within a glitched save screen. Wait for the fuzziness to disappear, and the screen to turn blue. Tap down once (from temporary save state to save port 1). Next screen, hit X (first save slot). Then hit X once more (confirm yes, save in this slot), and hear the confirmation tone for completion. This is the spot where the freezing can occur. I have read that by backing out of save screen too quickly can be the cause. This honestly makes sense to me, because after the save tone dings, if the player listens closely, they'll hear the music slow down for a second or two. I believe the game is having trouble continuing to load, and will just break if the player tries to back out and load even more game data. The answer for avoidance is simple: wait three or four seconds between each O button press to back out. Timely, yes, but better than a frozen game.
Short story time. My game glitched out just once after saving, and to be totally honest, it was pretty cool. I had just saved after traversing a ship wreckage, with the save point being below deck in a piece of cabin. After backing out of the menu, the room was glitched and completely black with white stripes. I could still see my character, the save point, and make out the general room features and two exits. I knew I should just turn the game off and back on, but part of me feared that my save data was corrupt (but always had two saved games, just in case), so I wanted to try exploring first. I figured maybe it was only this room that was glitched. I walked out the south exit, and was then standing outside the last village I had visited. I just started laughing. Somehow I had warped from a ship wreckage out at sea, past an ocean, a long river, and across another ocean to the safety of this land. Being that the story had long moved past that village, I'm pretty sure I would have been stranded in that area. Although safe, I suppose. I reset, and the game was fine. Anyways, the point being, the save glitch is blown out of proportion. I only encountered one problem during my 42 hours of playing.
I want to get into the battle system, the meat of most discussions regarding this game, but I want to mention a few other good things that stood out to me while playing. Inventory, as far as I could tell, is unlimited. Inventory management was such a pain in Final Fantasy IV, so this was a huge relief. Float no longer dispells itself when moving from one floor to another in a dungeon or cave, like it did in Final Fantasy IV (I can't remember about previous games). And really, why should it go away? Finally, I think that Square did a great job with the ending cutscenes and credits. It wasn't just a "Yay, we won!- roll credits", but includes scenes to show what each character is up to, and really wraps up the entire story.
Okay, the battle system and jobs. This is what kept me playing the game. At the beginning of the game, when there are only a few jobs, the system seems confusing. I didn't understand really, how to use one job and equip another job class' ability. As I kept playing though, and more job classes opened up, I could see the potential of characters obtaining abilities between multiple jobs and using them together for different strategies. Each job has innate abilities and normal abilities. Innate abilities will all be "on" when as that class, though normal abilities must be equipped to be used. However, when as the Freelancer (Bare) or Mime job, all innate abilities from mastered jobs are transferred over, as well as the best stats of the best mastered job. Once I learned this, I understood that by the end of the game, each character needed certain jobs mastered so that all of the innate abilities would transfer over to the Freelancer job, and I could choose the best combination of normal abilities (of which Freelancer gets two ability slots instead of the normal one choice, and the Mime receives three slots, though in turn loses the Attack and Item commands- more on that later).
Before I go into how the job system can be gratifyingly game-breaking, I must, as usual, get my qualms out of the way first. The player has no idea what ability they are currently learning, or how many abilities the current job even has. Jobs range from four to seven abilities, from around 400 to 999 Ability Points required (not respective to the number of abilities). This would have been enormously frustrating without a guide. It is not uncommon for the final ability of a job to be lackluster, even though the large amount of Ability Points (ABP) required seems enticing. I would have been in a fit of rage had I spent hours gaining ABP just to learn "Equip Rods" or something similar. The only reason to learn a job's final ability is for the innate abilities to transfer to the Freelancer class (yet the job class which has this final ability, Time Mage, does not have any innate abilities to transfer, and the Freelancer job can already equip all items!). Spending hours to gain enough ABP is not an exaggeration either. The Player receives one or two ABP per battle at the beginning of the game, up to five to seven later in the game. When considering how slow each battle is to begin and end, acquiring hundreds of ABP takes way too long. Even with using a smart strategy, to kill multiple particular enemies in one Blue Spell hit to obtain four to eight ABP per battle, grinding still took multiple hours. Though the time spent was worth it, as the outcome resulted in some fun and nearly game-breaking battles.
I'll give one example, since this battle stands out in my mind, so much so that I took notes on my exact strategy to win. This was not a fun battle, but every Final Fantasy game has at least one of these. About halfway through the game, the player must fight against purely elemental bosses, in this case four identical crystals. Each crystal had a different element, each with 8,000 HP. The problem is that while they all have rather weak attacks, when their HP drops low enough (below half), they begin to cast powerful -aga level spells which hit the whole party. The goal is to kill one at a time, but unforunately the best attacks hit all enemies, and most of my team had counter-attack as an innate ability, so they would whittle down the HP of an enemy I didn't want to target.
I died five times before succeeding. A guide can only help so much when every player's team is going to consist of different jobs and abilities. My strategy ended as follows (I also post for myself to read this in the future). Battle starts, my Ninja casts Float (a Time Mage ability) on the entire party. My Ninja and Knight then held back and defended for the time being. I did not want them doing any damage just yet. My White Mage continually healed the small amount of damage taken. For three rounds, I had my Black Mage summon Titan (a Summoner ability) to do damage to three of the four crystals, with the fourth gaining HP (holding at full HP) with each attack. After the third summon, I had my White Mage use Gil Toss (a Samurai ability), dealing around 4,500 damage to each of the crystals. Unfortunately, their HP was not yet low enough to kill them off, which I then believed to be another death. One crystal used Fire3 (Firaga), killing my White Mage and leaving my others with precariously low HP. I was fortunate enough to summon Titan once more before the other two crystals with low HP were able to use their very damaging spells (Aero Rake and Aqua3, as I learned from previous failures). This killed those three off. The Gil Toss left the last crystal with low HP as well, so it started casting Earth Shaker. And this did nothing, thanks to the Float cast early on. My Knight then used Sshot (attack four times) and my Ninja attacked as normal, and the battle ended successfully. Really though, these battles are not fun, and while there are definitely more ways to win, it still shouldn't take this much strategy. There was a second elemental boss battle later in the game, which while I won on the first try, felt much worse. There were three boss enemies instead of four, but this time they continued to throw out moderate to heavy damage along with debilitating status effects. What's worse, is that they all had to be killed within a few seconds of each other, or the dead would revive. I prefer most other boss battles, which require little strategy other than figure out its resistance, its weakness, attack, and stay alive. Listen Square-Enix: elemental boss battles are not fun!
Enough ranting about bosses and raving about the job class system (which words still can't explain well enough). I have a beef with the Final Fantasy series for something else: death. Final Fantasy V got me thinking a lot about death in the series. Really, why does every Final Fantasy game have so much death? There are multiple staples of the series I have noticed: Cid, an airship rising from the ground/sand/water (Final Fantasy V continued this trend, again), Moogles, and death. There continues to be characters, whether in the party (FFII, FFIV, and FFV) or important NPCs (every FF game so far), who die off. Why does this need to be a plot point to drive the story forward? I'm not denying that it works. It makes the player more immersed with the story, and feel for certain characters who have attachment to those who die. For the most part, there are characters who sacrifice themselves in order for the party to accomplish the task at-hand, whether it be a minute fetch-quest or a large part of the overall quest. I just think that this type of plot device has become stale after five games, and hope the trend fades away, or is at least a rare surprise (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy VII). I will admit though, that Final Fantasy V has the saddest and most emotionally jarring scenes of the first five Final Fantasy games.
Speaking of death, let's talk about Pokemon for a moment. I've always thought that the idea of being KO'd in Pokemon games, with never any Pokemon actually dying, pretty funny. None ever die, but can be revived at a PokeCenter or within battle via certain items. In RPGs, especially the Final Fantasy series, characters can die in cutscenes. Yet for some bizzarre reason, cannot be raised with any items. These same characters can die hundreds of times in battles, and be raised with magic or items without any problem. The same magic and items, with characters that have plenty of these items and MP I should add, almost never come into play during these cutscenes. And the developers give zero reason as to why. I never really considered it (thought about it occasionally, but never really cared, being that it was a plot device) until a cutscene in Final Fantasy V where they actually try using Cure3 (Curaga), then Raise, and then a Phoenix Down, all to no avail. The text then reads, "... (omitted, spoilers) flame flickered out..." I like that for once, the developers, while not giving any explantion, showed that items and magic have no effect. My point is two-fold: Square-Enix and other developers/publishers need to give more effort into why characters cannot be brought back from the dead this one particular time, and that the Pokemon games no longer look so foolish. Nintendo and GameFreak, at least with the Pokemon series, avoided being involved in this discussion because Pokemon never die. Just something to think about.
I finished* Final Fantasy V. I'm disappointed in myself, because I couldn't bring myself to finish the game properly, however. I died on the final boss four times, each being a 20-30 minute battle, without cutscenes. Thankfully there's a save point 30 seconds away from the final boss, a first for the Final Fantasy series. But this boss is just plain tough. Two forms, the second being what I cannot beat, no matter my strategy. Unfortunately all the good strategies I've found online use different parties and abilities than what I have, and I don't feel like grinding for at least two more hours for Exp. and ABP. So I took the easy way out: had a Chemist combine a Maidens Kiss with a Holy Water, and used it on the first form. After defeat, the battle ended without transforming into the second form. Yes, I cheated, and I'm ashamed for it. I'm still debating returning to level up, because I don't want all of my hard work and planning for my jobs and abilities go to waste.
Yet, who can resist the allure of Final Fantasy VI...
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Quarterly Update!
I play quite a few games. There's no denying that. I may not put in as much time per game as others may (especially those who play online), but I have a problem with creating a backlog. A backlog of unfinished games. Sure, I create a blog post about what I played the past year, but are my thoughts really that clear? Are the highs and lows of each game well represented? Do I ultimately understand why I put down a certain game and started another one? These are questions that have lead me to thinking that a quarterly update on what I'm playing and finished may be a better idea. My end-of-year post won't go away, and not all games I've played recently will be included in quarterly updates. Ultimately, I just need to post more often, and not just about Final Fantasy.
Yes, I finished Final Fantasy V. This deserves its own post, which will be the next one coming. I have yet to get my thoughts in order though, since I'm torn on how I feel. It's a great game. But I've gotten to the point where comparing Final Fantasy games has become difficult.
I should mention that the blog post I mentioned in my 2013 Games Recap, regarding my opinion on the open-world genre, is still something I'd like to do. The most recent game I've been playing (outside of Final Fantasy V) is Saints Row IV. This is yet another game that shows what new ideas a developer can bring to the open-world genre, and I'm really enjoying it. It uses the same world from Saints Row: The Third, but due to another crazy plot, the player now has superpowers. This game feels like a mashup of Crackdown 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. However, it just feels unpolished when compared against Saints Row: The Third. This is likely due to Volition's previous parent company, THQ, going bankrupt and then being pickup up by Deep Silver (who is in turn owned by Koch Media), all in the midst of SRIV game development. Volition has a long ways towards catching up to Rockstar, but I believe they've become the biggest contender.
Changing subjects, Microsoft had some great sales on Xbox Live Arcade games from October through December this past year. I ended up buying thirteen games from those sales, not including two full Games on Demand games. Many I haven't even started, but I've given others a shot. None have had the lasting power of Spelunky though. Every few weeks I play it again, trying to get just a bit further. The game only has five worlds, each with four stages, but it is not an easy game. I have died a lot. Not on the scale of Super Meat Boy or even The Binding of Isaac, but it sure feels like a lot. Yet, it never phases me. Every time, I understand why I died, and know full-well that it was absolutely my fault. The game is programmed very well, and the controls are fluent and fit perfectly. Two things stand out to me as to why I enjoy the game so much. First, the levels are always random, including difficulty. Take the Jungle for example, the game's second world. Typically, stages start as normal, random levels. Sometimes, "The dead are restless", and are populated by zombies. Sometimes, "You hear water running", and the bottom of the stage, where the exit will be, is an ocean full of deadly piranha. Or worst of all, the level will be nearly pitch black, save for a torch which must be carried around to see. The game won't care if you just had a great or poor run, the levels and difficulty will be random. The player just needs to adjust and learn about how to avoid making any mistakes (health is very low, and spikes are instant death). This leads to my second enjoyment: the ghost. Take too long exploring a stage, and an invulnerable ghost will appear and slowly drift towards the player for a one-hit death. The player must move quickly through the stage, knowing the ghost appearing is absolute. It may take me years, but I will eventually beat Spelunky.
The other XBLA games are good, but not on the same level as Spelunky. I beat Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It's not as good as others have claimed, but it presented gameplay that I can't recall seeing throughout an entire game. The player controls both brothers, each with a controller stick. Their actions are initiate via the left and right triggers, respective to the character and also the controller sticks. Puzzles are simple, but revolve around treating each player's hand as one of the characters, and separating them. It can be hard to grasp at first, especially when the brothers cross paths, leaving the player's hands controlling opposite of what they see on the screen. The game was short and had a strange story, but was worth the few dollars I paid for the unique experience.
I've tried multiple times, but I just cannot get into Outland. The Metroidvania genre typically appeals greatly to me, but something about this game just doesn't "click". Maybe it's the feeling of the sparse and large areas, making it feel slower than it actually plays. It could be that the combat feels slow and clunky, when compared to its vastly superior fathers, the 2D Metroid and Castlevania games. I'm not sure but I'm disappointed with the game so far. Which is too bad, because the Ikaruga-esque color switching premise in a Metroidvania game still sounds awesome.
Dust: An Elysian Tale, on the other hand, is a Metroidvania game done right. At least for the most part. Dust is a complete 180 from Outland. The world has small stages, combat is quick and feels fresh every time, and the graphics are vibrant. Yet, why did I quit playing the game? It could have been that the game was too non-linear. The amount of side-quests was overwhelming, and I wasn't even sure if I was heading toward the story-progressing goal. The answer, is Spelunky. I returned to the more enticing game. I would rather take a beating and have my ass handed to me by a tiny bat or clearly visable spikes, than be drawn into the world of Dust.
Perhaps this is why I started playing Dark Souls a few weeks ago. I have been wanting to play this game for quite a long time, but every time I looked at the game sitting in my shelf, I could only think of the stories of rage. Rage and thrown controllers, of frustration of the game's difficulty. Players who had absolute hate for the game. Yet it was other stories, of perseverance and satisfaction that players would feel for continuing on and coming to terms with what the game holds, that made me want to play it. And I have, for about five hours. I have died six times, if I recall correctly. Not unlike Spelunky, every time I have died I knew that it was my fault, and what I probably should have done differently. I have yet to feel any rage during this game. Every enemy is its own battle, and while the lesser skeletons are one-hit kills, they are not to be toyed with or treated as fodder for souls. What I find interesting is that while both games sit together, known for their ruthless difficulty, they sit at opposite spectrums in terms of speed. Thanks to the ghost, Spelunky is about quick decisions and accuracy. Yet from my experience, Dark Souls pushes the player to slow down, and take time to ensure victory in each situation. I've considered the distance between fire pits (save points) in Dark Souls, and so far they're really not that far apart. When populated by smart enemies, possibly around any and every corner, the distance feels like an eternity in time.
Okay, so how about this for a transition: Dark Souls is likely the hardest RPG I've ever played. Paper Mario: Sticker Star, is likely one of the easiest. Somehow, it gives me the kind of frustration I should be feeling in Dark Souls. Not from the enemies, but from how long the game is. Sticker Star is what I played before starting Dark Souls (yes, I'd rather play Dark Souls than Sticker Star...think about that for a moment) while taking a break from Final Fantasy V, after I finished Alice: Madness Returns (more on that shortly). Sticker Star may be a ton of fun, but it just never feels like I'm making any progress. Experience points and leveling are gone, leaving the only reason to enter battles is to collect coins. Stickers are everywhere to fight with, and with the correct button timing, the most basic of stickers are pretty useful. I wouldn't care so much about coins if they didn't feel so necessary to beat bosses. More coins means more actions per turn in battles, thanks to the battle slot machine. Yes I'm just ranting, but I'm frustrated with the game. I quit for two reasons. I found out that each boss has a weakness to a particular single, special sticker. The player is given a very general hint on what it is, but won't know until they reach the boss. By then, if the player doesn't have it, it's game over and back to the save point (usually through the whole stage, a good 20-30 minutes). To further the frustration, these special stickers take up anywhere from four to nine spaces of normal stickers, so the player can't just lug them all around. The other reason I quit, which really drove me away, was finding out that I was only on the third world, and the game had at least seven. Gladly returned it to the backlog.
Okay, back down the rabbit hole. I finally finished Alice: Madness returns a few weeks ago, and boy that game did some things tremendously well...and other things not so well. As many reviewers have pointed out, the worlds are just beautiful. These are seriously some of the best worlds I have digitally stepped foot into. My only wishes are that they weren't so long, and along with that, were more of them. The game had just six worlds, or chapters. Each was one very long stage, with save points being random and automatic. Developers need to learn: unless the game is based around or built up around save points, they should either be manual or close together, or both. I understand save points intentionally being distant as a difficulty measure (see: most JRPGs or sidescrollers), but as I get older my time is more valuable and limited, so I need one of the two. This is what had me put the game away for months. The gameplay and combat brought be back though. I don't even know how to explain it, but it's a third-person action game done right. The only other games that have outdone it in the combat category would be Arkham Asylum/City (both amazing games, which reminds me that I need to finish Arkham City). Combat is very fast, weapons are varied, and chaining is fluent and fun. Another area which Alice excels at is platforming. This puts it in a very small group of 3D platformers I enjoy, along with Mario games and Banjo-Kazooie. Finally, the last reason I highly recommend Alice: Madness Returns, is its emotional plot. The original game, American McGee's Alice, was a take on the Alice in Wonderland story. This game, the direct sequel, has Alice returning to Wonderland in order to solve the mystery of her family's death from a house-fire, for which she is blamed. I won't spoil anything, but how the game plays out made me appreciate writers for games, for how well they can weave a twist throughout a story.
Last two games I want to talk about, both of which I got from those sales I mentioned. SSX and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. SSX is pretty fun. That's all I can think about for that game. It could be because THPS HD is both really cool and quite disappointing, so I have more thoughts on it. The good news: classic Tony Hawk is back, with small levels, multiple goals, and tight controls. The bad: only seven levels, tight controls are not as good as I remember, and over half of the music is new, which means 90% of what is in the game now stinks. To make matters worse, there is no option in the menu to change the set list (THPS 3 onwards had this option, c'mon!). Out of all of the games I've purchased during the sale, the $7.50 on this is the most regretted, beyond even the $4.00 on Outland.
So that's the majority of what I've been playing since my 2013 recap post. I've also put a decent amount of time into Fallout 3 again, to get the remaining seven achievements (now two). Other games I've played, but not enough to warrant expansion in this post: Miner Dig Deep (always relaxing and fun), The Bridge (not very far yet), Deadlight (not very far), and Sonic Generations (not very far, and I was never the biggest Sonic fan anyways).
Next post will be about Final Fantasy V. Hopefully I can get my thoughts together soon, because the sooner I do, the sooner I can start Final Fantasy VI.
Yes, I finished Final Fantasy V. This deserves its own post, which will be the next one coming. I have yet to get my thoughts in order though, since I'm torn on how I feel. It's a great game. But I've gotten to the point where comparing Final Fantasy games has become difficult.
I should mention that the blog post I mentioned in my 2013 Games Recap, regarding my opinion on the open-world genre, is still something I'd like to do. The most recent game I've been playing (outside of Final Fantasy V) is Saints Row IV. This is yet another game that shows what new ideas a developer can bring to the open-world genre, and I'm really enjoying it. It uses the same world from Saints Row: The Third, but due to another crazy plot, the player now has superpowers. This game feels like a mashup of Crackdown 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. However, it just feels unpolished when compared against Saints Row: The Third. This is likely due to Volition's previous parent company, THQ, going bankrupt and then being pickup up by Deep Silver (who is in turn owned by Koch Media), all in the midst of SRIV game development. Volition has a long ways towards catching up to Rockstar, but I believe they've become the biggest contender.
Changing subjects, Microsoft had some great sales on Xbox Live Arcade games from October through December this past year. I ended up buying thirteen games from those sales, not including two full Games on Demand games. Many I haven't even started, but I've given others a shot. None have had the lasting power of Spelunky though. Every few weeks I play it again, trying to get just a bit further. The game only has five worlds, each with four stages, but it is not an easy game. I have died a lot. Not on the scale of Super Meat Boy or even The Binding of Isaac, but it sure feels like a lot. Yet, it never phases me. Every time, I understand why I died, and know full-well that it was absolutely my fault. The game is programmed very well, and the controls are fluent and fit perfectly. Two things stand out to me as to why I enjoy the game so much. First, the levels are always random, including difficulty. Take the Jungle for example, the game's second world. Typically, stages start as normal, random levels. Sometimes, "The dead are restless", and are populated by zombies. Sometimes, "You hear water running", and the bottom of the stage, where the exit will be, is an ocean full of deadly piranha. Or worst of all, the level will be nearly pitch black, save for a torch which must be carried around to see. The game won't care if you just had a great or poor run, the levels and difficulty will be random. The player just needs to adjust and learn about how to avoid making any mistakes (health is very low, and spikes are instant death). This leads to my second enjoyment: the ghost. Take too long exploring a stage, and an invulnerable ghost will appear and slowly drift towards the player for a one-hit death. The player must move quickly through the stage, knowing the ghost appearing is absolute. It may take me years, but I will eventually beat Spelunky.
The other XBLA games are good, but not on the same level as Spelunky. I beat Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. It's not as good as others have claimed, but it presented gameplay that I can't recall seeing throughout an entire game. The player controls both brothers, each with a controller stick. Their actions are initiate via the left and right triggers, respective to the character and also the controller sticks. Puzzles are simple, but revolve around treating each player's hand as one of the characters, and separating them. It can be hard to grasp at first, especially when the brothers cross paths, leaving the player's hands controlling opposite of what they see on the screen. The game was short and had a strange story, but was worth the few dollars I paid for the unique experience.
I've tried multiple times, but I just cannot get into Outland. The Metroidvania genre typically appeals greatly to me, but something about this game just doesn't "click". Maybe it's the feeling of the sparse and large areas, making it feel slower than it actually plays. It could be that the combat feels slow and clunky, when compared to its vastly superior fathers, the 2D Metroid and Castlevania games. I'm not sure but I'm disappointed with the game so far. Which is too bad, because the Ikaruga-esque color switching premise in a Metroidvania game still sounds awesome.
Dust: An Elysian Tale, on the other hand, is a Metroidvania game done right. At least for the most part. Dust is a complete 180 from Outland. The world has small stages, combat is quick and feels fresh every time, and the graphics are vibrant. Yet, why did I quit playing the game? It could have been that the game was too non-linear. The amount of side-quests was overwhelming, and I wasn't even sure if I was heading toward the story-progressing goal. The answer, is Spelunky. I returned to the more enticing game. I would rather take a beating and have my ass handed to me by a tiny bat or clearly visable spikes, than be drawn into the world of Dust.
Perhaps this is why I started playing Dark Souls a few weeks ago. I have been wanting to play this game for quite a long time, but every time I looked at the game sitting in my shelf, I could only think of the stories of rage. Rage and thrown controllers, of frustration of the game's difficulty. Players who had absolute hate for the game. Yet it was other stories, of perseverance and satisfaction that players would feel for continuing on and coming to terms with what the game holds, that made me want to play it. And I have, for about five hours. I have died six times, if I recall correctly. Not unlike Spelunky, every time I have died I knew that it was my fault, and what I probably should have done differently. I have yet to feel any rage during this game. Every enemy is its own battle, and while the lesser skeletons are one-hit kills, they are not to be toyed with or treated as fodder for souls. What I find interesting is that while both games sit together, known for their ruthless difficulty, they sit at opposite spectrums in terms of speed. Thanks to the ghost, Spelunky is about quick decisions and accuracy. Yet from my experience, Dark Souls pushes the player to slow down, and take time to ensure victory in each situation. I've considered the distance between fire pits (save points) in Dark Souls, and so far they're really not that far apart. When populated by smart enemies, possibly around any and every corner, the distance feels like an eternity in time.
Okay, so how about this for a transition: Dark Souls is likely the hardest RPG I've ever played. Paper Mario: Sticker Star, is likely one of the easiest. Somehow, it gives me the kind of frustration I should be feeling in Dark Souls. Not from the enemies, but from how long the game is. Sticker Star is what I played before starting Dark Souls (yes, I'd rather play Dark Souls than Sticker Star...think about that for a moment) while taking a break from Final Fantasy V, after I finished Alice: Madness Returns (more on that shortly). Sticker Star may be a ton of fun, but it just never feels like I'm making any progress. Experience points and leveling are gone, leaving the only reason to enter battles is to collect coins. Stickers are everywhere to fight with, and with the correct button timing, the most basic of stickers are pretty useful. I wouldn't care so much about coins if they didn't feel so necessary to beat bosses. More coins means more actions per turn in battles, thanks to the battle slot machine. Yes I'm just ranting, but I'm frustrated with the game. I quit for two reasons. I found out that each boss has a weakness to a particular single, special sticker. The player is given a very general hint on what it is, but won't know until they reach the boss. By then, if the player doesn't have it, it's game over and back to the save point (usually through the whole stage, a good 20-30 minutes). To further the frustration, these special stickers take up anywhere from four to nine spaces of normal stickers, so the player can't just lug them all around. The other reason I quit, which really drove me away, was finding out that I was only on the third world, and the game had at least seven. Gladly returned it to the backlog.
Okay, back down the rabbit hole. I finally finished Alice: Madness returns a few weeks ago, and boy that game did some things tremendously well...and other things not so well. As many reviewers have pointed out, the worlds are just beautiful. These are seriously some of the best worlds I have digitally stepped foot into. My only wishes are that they weren't so long, and along with that, were more of them. The game had just six worlds, or chapters. Each was one very long stage, with save points being random and automatic. Developers need to learn: unless the game is based around or built up around save points, they should either be manual or close together, or both. I understand save points intentionally being distant as a difficulty measure (see: most JRPGs or sidescrollers), but as I get older my time is more valuable and limited, so I need one of the two. This is what had me put the game away for months. The gameplay and combat brought be back though. I don't even know how to explain it, but it's a third-person action game done right. The only other games that have outdone it in the combat category would be Arkham Asylum/City (both amazing games, which reminds me that I need to finish Arkham City). Combat is very fast, weapons are varied, and chaining is fluent and fun. Another area which Alice excels at is platforming. This puts it in a very small group of 3D platformers I enjoy, along with Mario games and Banjo-Kazooie. Finally, the last reason I highly recommend Alice: Madness Returns, is its emotional plot. The original game, American McGee's Alice, was a take on the Alice in Wonderland story. This game, the direct sequel, has Alice returning to Wonderland in order to solve the mystery of her family's death from a house-fire, for which she is blamed. I won't spoil anything, but how the game plays out made me appreciate writers for games, for how well they can weave a twist throughout a story.
Last two games I want to talk about, both of which I got from those sales I mentioned. SSX and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. SSX is pretty fun. That's all I can think about for that game. It could be because THPS HD is both really cool and quite disappointing, so I have more thoughts on it. The good news: classic Tony Hawk is back, with small levels, multiple goals, and tight controls. The bad: only seven levels, tight controls are not as good as I remember, and over half of the music is new, which means 90% of what is in the game now stinks. To make matters worse, there is no option in the menu to change the set list (THPS 3 onwards had this option, c'mon!). Out of all of the games I've purchased during the sale, the $7.50 on this is the most regretted, beyond even the $4.00 on Outland.
So that's the majority of what I've been playing since my 2013 recap post. I've also put a decent amount of time into Fallout 3 again, to get the remaining seven achievements (now two). Other games I've played, but not enough to warrant expansion in this post: Miner Dig Deep (always relaxing and fun), The Bridge (not very far yet), Deadlight (not very far), and Sonic Generations (not very far, and I was never the biggest Sonic fan anyways).
Next post will be about Final Fantasy V. Hopefully I can get my thoughts together soon, because the sooner I do, the sooner I can start Final Fantasy VI.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Final Fantasy IV
I’ll get this out of the way quick: Final Fantasy IV is much better than the first three games. I think I’ve finally reached the “good” Final Fantasy games. Almost everything in this game is done better than what the first three games did, and I can see why people think this is one of the best games in the series. Yet it’s far from perfect.
I got about three-quarters into the game, and thought that
this game is hitting all the right notes, without much to complain about. Any
gripes I had were minor, and soon once again forgotten by everything the game
did right. Unfortunately, it seems as though the developers still couldn’t figure out how to make an
end-game enjoyable.
I’m going to get all of the things the game did well first,
because they don’t really need explaining. I will point out that these are my
thoughts only on Final Fantasy IV,
and not Interlude or The After Years. While you will indeed find my thoughts on
those games below, each section was typed after each game’s conclusion, and
compiled later into one post. I did not want anything to change my opinion on
the original, but still wanted all thoughts in one post. Also, just like in the
past three games, I did not play the original version of the game, but on the
PSP as part of Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection. I really don’t know
what sort of differences there are, besides graphical updates, and difficulty
adjustments.
While the graphics are great, it’s likely an understatement
since I’ve been used to these graphics due to the Final Fantasy I and II
remakes. Still very nice to come back to the sprites after Final Fantasy III
DS, which really didn’t do it for me. The music, on the other hand, continues
to show where the developers excel. I might have been listening to the remixed
versions, but the three Final Fantasy games I’m comparing to were also remixes,
so it’s a fair statement. I loved the music diversity, and how it fit almost
all moments. If there’s any complaint, it’s that most of the final dungeon
music was not epic enough, and that the spaceship music was too upbeat and
cheerful for the scenes the player knew were coming.
The story, for me, is what sets this game apart from the
prior three games. Characters have unique personalities, show emotion, and
there’s an epic plot that never drags. Gone are the fetch-quests, the cheesy
lines, and “four heroes” storyline. The only previous game that comes remotely close to the story is Final
Fantasy II, but even with well personified characters, they can’t match those
in Final Fantasy IV (and the fetch-quests really brought down that plot). Also,
unlike the annoying character deaths in Final Fantasy II, characters dying and/or
leaving in Final Fantasy IV are more sad or moving than frustrating. It didn’t
matter if the characters returned, those dying/leaving fit into the story. I
look forward to playing Interlude and The After Years, because I want to see
what happens to all those characters, which is much more than I can say about
the other Final Fantasy games.
The last good thing I want to say about the game, is that I
enjoyed the hovercraft and Cid’s airship coming up out of the sand and ground,
respectively. I don’t care that this is a reoccurring idea in each of the Final
Fantasy games (and know it happens at least once more, in Final Fantasy X), I
enjoy it.
If there’s a reoccurring idea that I did not enjoy (SPOILERS
AHEAD FOR FINAL FANTASY III AND IV), it’s the last cutscene before the
final boss. Okay, so Fusoya and Golbez fight Zemus and lose, which also knocks
out the player’s party. Back on the Blue Planet, the rest of the characters and
important NPCs know something is amiss, and start praying. One by one, their
praying aids those on the Moon, reviving and healing them all, just in time to
fight the final boss. I wonder how many people out there know that this scene
was stolen from Final Fantasy III? Yes, that’s right, the exact same type of scene plays out in the previous game. The four
heroes of light (okay fine- Luneth, Arc, Refia and Ingus in the DS version) are
knocked out by the final boss. The important NPCs are gathered up by a
recently-deceased sage, who all come to the rescue by praying, which revives
the party just in time to stop the final boss. I cannot find anything online to
show that either scene was added to their respective game (mainly looking at
you Final Fantasy III, since you had character names/personalities added for
the DS version). This is more disappointing since they were back-to-back games,
and the better of the two stories “stole” the scene. END SPOILERS
Anyways, I have more complaints. But before continuing with other end-game frustrations, let me get
three others out of the way, which while minor, I kept seeing the entire game.
The first is that the “X” button is used to run. It sounds dumb, but it’s a bit
frustrating when the same button is used to interact with people and objects.
The problem is such: after opening a chest, the player must make sure to turn
away from the chest before holding down the button to run, or else interacting
with that chest again (or character, other object, etc.). Very frequently I
would interact with something again because I pressed the button too quickly.
The worst area was the spaceship, wasting a few seconds by interacting with the
controls. All I could find in the menu to change this was setting the character
to “always run”, which for some reason I don’t like. A small complaint, but one
I wanted to point out due to being easily avoided (there are two other
available face buttons on the PSP, Square Enix…).
Another minor complaint. When using some spells like Raise,
the cursor always starts on the upper-most character on the screen. In previous
Final Fantasy games that I played (Anniversary editions which came out before this one, I want to note), the
cursor would automatically jump to a character that needs said spell cast on
them. Honestly, why would I cast Raise on an alive character? Or use a Golden
Needle on a stoned character? I had the settings on “Wait” so taking my time
didn’t matter. But that fraction of a second might matter for a person playing
on “Active”. Just my thoughts.
The last minor complaint is in regards to the cutscenes,
with this version in particular with problems. This game has three types of
cutscenes: in-game cutscenes, rudimentary polygonal cutscenes, and nice updated
cutscenes. After watching the opening cutscene, with it’s pretty nice graphics,
watching the bizarre old, polygonal cutscenes during the game was painful. Any immersion I had in the game
was lost. They stuck out like nothing else in the game, and really make me
question why they didn’t try any sort
of in-game cutscenes instead.
As I mentioned before, my biggest complaints came apparent
during the last quarter of the game, mostly in the final dungeon actually. The
first is that unlike other dungeons, the player is well under-leveled to even
try attempting to trek through; not including the hilarity I imagine would
ensue if the player managed to reach the final boss. I grinded almost as much
for the final dungeon in Final Fantasy IV as I did for Final Fantasy III. Let
me repeat that. I grinded almost as much
for the final dungeon in Final Fantasy IV…as I did in Final Fantasy III.
That’s ridiculous, considering I used a guide for both games’ final dungeons
(only place I used a guide in Final Fantasy IV besides in the Sealed Cave to see which
monster doors to avoid), and the final dungeon(s) of Final Fantasy III are
supposed to be much longer (that’s actually debatable). Granted, Final Fantasy
III has way more grinding overall than Final Fantasy IV, but it at least gets
my point across. If this is supposed to be one of the best Final Fantasy games
in the series, and there was no mention of this grinding in any reviews, I’m
nervous that this is a continued trend in the later games.
So something that is definitely a reoccurring theme in the
Final Fantasy games: final dungeon enemies that become more feared than the
bosses themselves. Final Fantasy IV is no exception. I fled from about 90% of
the battles in the final dungeon, only less than Final Fantasy II (now those
final dungeon enemies were insane). Except unlike the last two games, it wasn’t
just due to difficult fights. It was thanks to about 60-70% of the battles
being back attacks. Early in the game, back attacks were a bit frustrating. But
when the majority of battles in the final dungeon are back attacks, I really
had to question what the programmers were thinking.
It only gets better (plenty of sarcasm here). I, like many
players I imagine, would flee these battles (along with most other battles in
the final dungeon). The further in the dungeon, the longer it takes to flee
from a battle. And of course each enemy gets at least one attack before the
player can actually get away, three to four hits further in. And, as they
should, the enemies get tougher further in as well. The combination of
boss-like enemies, with three to four attacks, and the party in the incorrect
formation, is a recipe for disaster. This forces the player to either use items
or MP to heal after every single battle, fled from or not, and using MP just
leads to more item usage later on (ethers, etc.). Major item conservation went on.
This is incredibly ironic, seeing as how the player can
only carry 48 items. I got lucky that I brought a gysahl whistle into the final
dungeon, or I would have had to make some tough decisions on what to throw
away. I was not going to teleport
out, just to store some items I may or may not need (turns out I wouldn’t have
needed them anyways, but that doesn’t change how I felt at the time).
Honestly, even if I had teleported out, I only had so much
money to spend. I give a big thanks to those who decided it was a good idea to
have the player lose a ton of gil
almost every time the player flees a battle. I can see it as a slight penalty I
suppose, but it really doesn’t make sense. Is the money supposed to distract
the enemies? Or is the player paying off the enemies, and the monsters have hidden
monster-shops somewhere in which to use the gil? I mean, the developers tried
to be somewhat realistic by only being able to carry so many items (that failed
as well, seeing as how 48 different tiny items should weigh less than 99
identical swords…), yet there was no good reason behind this. It doesn’t matter
that I had around 400k gil near the end of the dungeon and wasn’t going to use
it, losing 16k each flee was just frustrating.
You know, maybe the monsters do need the gil. They clearly
are buying chests from somewhere, to hide in. And that shopkeeper is an awful
person. Monster chests are awful the whole game (first time in the series,
thanks developers, another “great” idea- one I know does not go away in future
games unfortunately), but none worse than in the final dungeon. This complaint
is the sole reason I used a guide for the game. The first time I fought a
Behemoth in a final dungeon monster chest, and got my ass kicked, I knew it was
time for a guide. I was not about to
continue losing time due to random enemies that cannot be escaped. Another idea
that makes no sense- monster chests are unescapable, even if they’re the same
as any other enemy.
Okay, end rant.
You get the point. I hated that final dungeon. I used a
guide for the final dungeon of all four Final Fantasy games so far, which is
disappointing. More disappointing is that the final dungeon in Final Fantasy IV
seemed worse than any of the other three. Yes, worse than Final Fantasy II’s
many dead-ends, or Final Fantasy III’s triple-final dungeon.
Yet Final Fantasy IV is still much better than the first
three games, hands down. Barring the final dungeon frustrations, the rest of
the game does everything else better. Current ratings are as follows:
1. Final Fantasy IV
2. Final Fantasy II
3. Final Fantasy
4. Final Fantasy III
Interlude
Well, that was…interesting. Completed in a little over two
hours, the Interlude really was an interlude. I don’t have much good to say
about Interlude, besides that it was neat to see the characters again, shortly
after the original game. And I suppose it sets up The After Years. I do,
however, have some complaints. This should not be a surprise at this point. But
only three and this will be brief.
First, the amount of random battles almost seems higher than
in the original Final Fantasy IV, and annoying or frustrating are both large
understatements. Really, ALL random battles in Interlude are completely unnecessary
and pointless. There is zero need to level up or fight random battles. The few
bosses in the game need no leveling to beat (though I thought I might have to
grind for one, but got lucky on my second attempt). And even if one did want to level up, they’d be grinding
for hours, since all characters are way over-leveled for the areas they are
stuck in. I understand that the random battles needed to be there, because it
wouldn’t make sense for there to be zero enemies in these old areas that once
had them. But the developers could have at least toned down the encounter rate.
Though I suppose the encounter rate didn’t matter in the
Sealed Cave, considering the player is forced to fight at least a few monster
doors. Yes Square Enix, that’s exactly
the place the player wants to revisit. Of all the dungeons to choose from, the
Sealed Cave was the worst choice (barring the lower floors of the final
dungeon). Not much else needs to be said. Those monster doors are awful.
Finally, I have a qualm with the player’s inventory. The
player controls different characters in different areas, possibly at different
moments in time. Yet they all share the same inventory. This is really dumb,
and does not make sense. It’s not like a character joins the party, then
leaves, and might have part of the inventory items. That never happens, and
therefore not a concern for the developers. I thought they wanted some realism
with the “48 item inventory limit”, yet this negates any sense of realism. I
hope The After Years is better in this sense.
The After Years
After about three and a half hours of playtime, I called it
quits in The After Years. This is quite disappointing, because I really wanted
to play this “game”. The overall plot of The After Years may or may not be as
interesting as the original Final Fantasy IV, but after having become invested
in all of these characters, I was curious to see how their lives have
played/will play out.
To give one an idea of how far I got, I finished the first
chapter, Ceodore’s Tale, in about two hours and forty-five minutes. I then got
stuck on the next chapter, Rydia’s Tale, and accepted the fact that grinding
would have been the only answer, and I was not in the mood to waste my time due
to a poor gameplay decision (in my opinion). I could have skipped that chapter
and played any of the other four chapters, but it didn’t feel right. I wanted
to play through The After Years as the developers intended, to see the story
revealed in the correct order. More on that shortly.
The pros of The After Years? The story seems interesting,
the characters are given depth again, and the 48 item inventory limit appears
to be gone. That’s all I could think of, which is really sad. I mean yeah, the
fantastic music and great sprite graphics are still in place, but after so many
years between the original and The After Years, I would hope something would
grab my attention.
I have pushed myself through some tough times in my quest to
play through every Final Fantasy game, whether it be Final Fantasy II’s final
dungeon, Final Fantasy III’s areas of grinding or fear-inducing final dungeon,
or even Final Fantasy IV’s need to grind in the final areas. But this area of
The After Years pushed me too far. I quit playing because of the Sealed Cave. I’m
not sure what went through the minds of the developers, but for some reason
they honestly thought that forcing the player through the Sealed Cave again
(for the third time- Final Fantasy IV, Interlude, and now at least once in The
After Years, possibly more) would be either fun or a good idea. There are zero
required monster doors to fight this time around, which obviously was the
developer finally realizing the player’s frustration with this dungeon. It’s
too bad they forgot to focus on who
they were bringing into this dungeon.
First I need to explain that what is great about The After
Years is that the story bounces back and forth between different characters, so
the player gets to see the different perspectives of the situation as a whole. I
liked this idea, and how the chapters are set up so that the focus is on one
character, and what they are focusing on during these new events. Without
giving away spoilers, Ceodore is trying to make his way back to his parents,
and Rydia is trying to find out why the Eidelons have disappeared. However,
thanks to a handful of other cutscenes given to the player (and through the
events of Interlude), we as the player know of other plots going on at this
time, and are curious to see how those are progressing. Occasionally characters’
paths cross, and timelines start to fall into place. The plots might not be all
that creative, but it’s a well written game when played out in this fashion.
The one major problem with giving character’s their own stories
is that it forces them to be split up, teaming up with maybe one other
important character. Ceodore spends most of his chapter working with the
mysterious Hooded Man. From what I played of Rydia’s chapter, she fights
alongside Luca, the daughter of the dwarven king Giott. I’ll let you in on a
secret: Luca is not a mage. So, if you look at this team, you’ll notice that
there are no white mage-type abilities. Ceodore at least had Cure and Cura at
his disposal, which I took advantage of and used often. The game forces the
player to make a choice near the beginning of Rydia’s chapter: spend what
little money the player has on items to heal, armor to better survive enemy
hits and pray to get to a save point, weapons to kill enemies before they can
do damage, or spend time grinding for money. I chose defense and items.
So now we get to where I quit. I rushed through the Sealed
Cave, and fled from every random battle, seeing as how I was underpowered and
also had no way to heal. This should have been the first sign of trouble, but I
had been through worse in these games, so I pushed on. The second sign was
enemies having two turns before I was able to flee. Yet I pushed on, all the
way to the last save point. By now I was low on health, had no healing items
left, and the two minor party members in my team besides Rydia and Luca were
dead. These were two characters just randomly given to me to fight with, yet it
was a slap in the face by the developers. They had 100 HP, did maybe 8 damage a
hit, and had close to 0 defense. I didn’t bother once they died, since they didn’t
help my team. The boss was a Demon Wall. Wow, what a surprise. Even Rydia makes
an offhand comment like “I had a feeling this would happen”. It’s the
developers laughing again at the player, for forcing them through one of the
worse dungeons they’ve created over four Final Fantasy games. Anyways, I was
demolished. It didn’t help that Rydia had no summons, thanks to the story at
hand. Yet I already knew well before this point that I needed to grind. I can
accept some grinding, but the amount needed to overcome this boss and potential
future areas was well beyond what I was willing to put up with. So that was
that.
I do have other frustrations I would like to point out. I mentioned
that I like how the game jumps between characters to show what is going on, and
I stand behind that. The one problem with this is that some of these scenes are
from different points in time, and it can be very difficult to tell when this
is taking place. This is especially true with Rydia, since not only does she
have different scenes with her at different ages, but time passes differently
in the Feymarch. I like the complexity behind what the developers were going
for, but at some point it become too much for me to handle.
Speaking of time, I have a gripe with the moon phases
changing automatically. Nowhere in the game is there a clock to show the player
how long until the moon changes phases. So while a player such as me may
put a strategy in place by using a certain amount of tents to force the moon
into an advantageous phase, knowing that it could change into a disadvantageous
phase in the middle of a dungeon is disheartening. The game pushes the player
to grind while in the dungeons, but the player may be more apt to rush through
to fight a boss on the moon phase they personally forced into place. I feel
this could have simply been avoided by removing the system of the moon able to
change phases automatically. Personally, I would rather they remove the moon
phases idea completely. It seems neat until one realizes how hard it could make
the later portions of the game.
Finally, the amount of character swapping during chapters is
annoying. Over the course of Ceodore’s chapter, he had Biggs and Wedge, two
soldiers, a white mage and black mage, and the Hooded Man with him in his party
(and maybe others I cannot recall). It just felt unnecessary and annoying to
have that many characters come and go in such a short period of time,
especially since most will not be returning later.
Monday, January 27, 2014
Final Fantasy III
I once thought that during my Final Fantasy series playthrough, that Final Fantasy II would be my roadblock. How wrong I was. Final Fantasy III (the real Final Fantasy III, not Final Fantasy VI) was so bad, that I put it down for almost a year before deciding to give it another shot. Yet here I am, less than a week after picking it back up and around twelve gameplay hours later, and it's done. To note: I finished the DS remake version, which has some differences (besides a graphical overhaul) from the Japanese-only original (but still supposedly harder than the more recent and almost identical iOS and PSP versions)
Writing about Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II was relatively easy, because I genuinely enjoyed both games. As you can guess from my twelve month "departure" from Final Fantasy III, I have mixed feelings about it. The game does some things rather well, and become staple features in later games (jobs/classes/etc.). Yet in other ways it takes a step backwards from its predecessors (my opinion based on the PSP Anniversary editions of FF & FFII). Get ready for another dry post based on facts and observations of my gameplay.
Let's just start with the graphics, and go from there. Being that I've so far only played remakes (and will likely only play ports up until Final Fantasy X or XII, Crisis Core withstanding), I can't really "compare" FFIII to FF & FFII. But I suppose I have to, because that's the point of all these posts. Honestly, FFIII was hard on the eyes when I first started. FF & FFII were beautiful, and I loved those updated sprite graphics. I really wish the developers would have done the same for FFIII. The polygonal graphics aren't too bad though I suppose, and actually looked decent when close up, though a bit jaggy. Graphics get a bit blurry when in motion though, unfortunately.
The other half to graphics, music, is still fantastic, to no surprise. If there's one thing that has stayed constant since the first game, is the quality of music. If I have any complaint in this area, it's that the dungeon soundtrack is basically the same for each, which can get a bit repetative. Just so my opinion is known, I think FF and FFII both have better soundtracks than FFIII (in the three versions I've played).
I'm going to head in a totally different direction now, because I really can't find a good way to segue to this point: FFIII treads new ground within party development, taking parts from both FF and FFII. I'll touch upon characters and plot in a moment, but let's dig into the stats. Gone is the total freedom to build a party however the player wants, from FFII. Returning from FF, are the individual classes with specific tailored abilities, magic, and equipable weapons and armor. Except, now the player can choose a party consisting of any of these jobs (as they come available), level them up to become more proficient, and change at will. A good overall change for the series, yet one of my two major gripes with this game.
During certain points in the game, the player is basically forced to take choose of two options to defeat a boss. Either switch one or more characters to a certain job which is effective against the boss, or grind their basic levels and job levels of the player's current party to be able to overcome the disparity. It in theory sounds like a neat game feature, to force the player to change up their party. It's like in Pokemon, coming across a gym which the current party is weak against. The problem is that, unlike in Pokemon, the player has no idea that this change is "required", and has to spend quite a bit of time grinding just to beat the boss, with whichever of the two options the player takes. Had the player switched a character or two to the job class well before the boss, knowing full-well they would need it (as Pokemon hints at before even arriving in the town), it would have taken far less grinding.
Having the option to choose jobs throughout the game, and change them up at will was a much-needed change from the original FF, where the party is stagnant and a poor party choice could make the game much harder. However, I don't understand why the developers decided to keep the same MP uses magic system from FF, while dropping the MP system from FFII. This was a big step backwards, and really did not fit with the first half of the game. The developer definitely promotes magic use throughout the game, but by using the FF system, the player does not have enough "uses" to effectively use magic in the first half of the game. This is seen early on, as the player must change their party to "mini" or "toad" form to pass through certain areas. Well, without the magic to use (eight uses- two for each character, to change into and then back), the player must buy items in order to change, which can be very costly.
The other big problem that I have with the jobs is the act of changing in itself. Every time a character changes jobs, they go through a downtime phase where their defense and attack stats are halved. The character must go through a couple battles before this phase is complete. This is especially frustrating if you want to change jobs mid-dungeon, where losing defense or attack stats can be deadly. You would logically think that this phase is basically the character becoming acclimated with their new abilities and weapons. No, the developers did not think this way. Instead, this phase is a "crystal sickness", being that the jobs are tied to the crystals themselves (more jobs unlock as crystals are saved). Good job Square, you made what should have been a short and logical explanation, something that makes no sense with no reasoning behind it. If you aren't going to have even a half-decent reason, why waste my time with this phase?
At least one nice feature about the job classes is that magic is a tangible item. Besides being able to use it as an item in battle (kind of neat), it can be un-learned from a character to put onto another character (or even sold). Even more user-friendly, all spells from one character can be switched all at once to another character (assuming they can use them). And thankfully there are only three spells per class (white versus black, summons not included), meaning a white/black mage doesn't have to choose three of four spells to use like in FF, and can use all of them (red mage and some others still have to choose, but that's the point of those classes). It's the small things that make these games better or worse than others, to me.
Such as something as small as a few seconds? Yes, my other gripe with the game is all about a few simple seconds. Except, it's not just a few seconds here and there, it's a few seconds before, during (many here, actually), and after every single battle. It's painful, honestly, having to wait while a battle loads, after the player chooses actions during battle, between animations during battle, and waiting for the "results" of the battle. The last part is a bit comical, seeing as how during FFII, the end-battle results scrolled way too fast, while this game is like giving results to a toddler. It's apparent in other parts of the game too, unfortunately. Bringing up the menu, loading between areas, zooming in to find hidden items, and especially cutscenes. For every five fights completed in FF or FFII, I could probably finish one in FFIII. Ironically, the one and only time I found this slowness to be of benefit was during the final battle, where I could use the second or two between each boss attack to think about how my strategy would need to change.
All this time really adds up, especially considering how much is spent grinding. Honestly, this game is hard. Yes, I understand that it's a JRPG, which typically means that if it's too hard the player can just grind for levels and make things easier. But when the player has to spend hours grinding for levels, it seems tough in comparison to other JRPGs. And grinding is a must in this game. I was not a fan of running fully through most dungeons multiple times, because the boss was much stronger than anything else in the dungeon in comparison, my party included. The overworld is a joke compared to FF and FFII, with no monsters I can recall to be afraid of. So the overworld is a no-go for grinding, needing to just jump from town-to-town and dungeon-to-dungeon.
Speaking of which, thanks to having weak overworld enemies, I had no idea where to go. In FF and FFII, very strong overworld enemies typically meant the wrong direction. FFIII had no direction, and the townspeople were of little help for the most part. I used a guide for most of the game, and have no regrets. It would have taken me hours to find some locations, hidden underwater or behind a mountain I was later able to "jump", only being told offhand that my airship could do so.
However, the developers did learn from their major dungeon mistakes from FFII. Gone are the monster closets, dead ends, and dungeons only traversable with knowledge of hidden walls (barely visable hidden walls still frustratingly exist, but now only for chests). I just wish "back-attacks" were gone. Happens much less often than in FF or FFII, but just as deadly because it leaves the party positions switched and the enemy gets a pre-emptive strike.
Yet even with these changes, the final dungeon was a doozy. Three dungeons in a row, with only one area to save at after the first. Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that saving anywhere in FF and FFII is gone, replaced with saving only on the overworld map. I shouldn't have relied too much on that luxury in those games, because it made FFIII that much harder. It also made me that much more cautious. As I traversed that final dungeon, I was more nervous than almost any game I've played. I was confident in my party, but nothing compares to fighting six end-game bosses in a row. It was nice that the game automatically restored HP and MP after each of these battles, although I was already set with the elixers and phoenix downs I didn't touch all game. I used one phoenix down in the final dungeon, and that was it besides the final boss, thanks to them not being purchasable in FFIII. And the only reason I used any during the final boss was because my Devout, who could cast Raise and Arise, was too busy casting Curaja every turn. Seriously, what an awful game design choice. "You can choose any combination of jobs for your party throughout the game!... Just remember that phoenix downs are limited, so you're probably going to need a healer in your party...but you still have a choice!" Back to my point, I'm very thankful that I beat all those bosses and the final boss, because that honestly would have been over an hour of lost time (even after having cleared out that dungeon of all chests, then going back and saving).
To wrap things up, I'm happy I finally finished this game, as much as a grind as it was. Not many people can claim having beat Final Fantasy III, compared to the rest of the series. And since I have, I believe I can rightfully give a valid opinion on which games are better than others, so far between the three I've finished (yes, being these versions and not the originals). Rankings so far, from best to worst:
1. Final Fantasy II
2. Final Fantasy
3. Final Fantasy III
Oh, and I enjoyed seeing Cid's airship rise up out of the sand, just like in the original Final Fantasy. I enjoy homages.
Writing about Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II was relatively easy, because I genuinely enjoyed both games. As you can guess from my twelve month "departure" from Final Fantasy III, I have mixed feelings about it. The game does some things rather well, and become staple features in later games (jobs/classes/etc.). Yet in other ways it takes a step backwards from its predecessors (my opinion based on the PSP Anniversary editions of FF & FFII). Get ready for another dry post based on facts and observations of my gameplay.
Let's just start with the graphics, and go from there. Being that I've so far only played remakes (and will likely only play ports up until Final Fantasy X or XII, Crisis Core withstanding), I can't really "compare" FFIII to FF & FFII. But I suppose I have to, because that's the point of all these posts. Honestly, FFIII was hard on the eyes when I first started. FF & FFII were beautiful, and I loved those updated sprite graphics. I really wish the developers would have done the same for FFIII. The polygonal graphics aren't too bad though I suppose, and actually looked decent when close up, though a bit jaggy. Graphics get a bit blurry when in motion though, unfortunately.
The other half to graphics, music, is still fantastic, to no surprise. If there's one thing that has stayed constant since the first game, is the quality of music. If I have any complaint in this area, it's that the dungeon soundtrack is basically the same for each, which can get a bit repetative. Just so my opinion is known, I think FF and FFII both have better soundtracks than FFIII (in the three versions I've played).
I'm going to head in a totally different direction now, because I really can't find a good way to segue to this point: FFIII treads new ground within party development, taking parts from both FF and FFII. I'll touch upon characters and plot in a moment, but let's dig into the stats. Gone is the total freedom to build a party however the player wants, from FFII. Returning from FF, are the individual classes with specific tailored abilities, magic, and equipable weapons and armor. Except, now the player can choose a party consisting of any of these jobs (as they come available), level them up to become more proficient, and change at will. A good overall change for the series, yet one of my two major gripes with this game.
During certain points in the game, the player is basically forced to take choose of two options to defeat a boss. Either switch one or more characters to a certain job which is effective against the boss, or grind their basic levels and job levels of the player's current party to be able to overcome the disparity. It in theory sounds like a neat game feature, to force the player to change up their party. It's like in Pokemon, coming across a gym which the current party is weak against. The problem is that, unlike in Pokemon, the player has no idea that this change is "required", and has to spend quite a bit of time grinding just to beat the boss, with whichever of the two options the player takes. Had the player switched a character or two to the job class well before the boss, knowing full-well they would need it (as Pokemon hints at before even arriving in the town), it would have taken far less grinding.
Having the option to choose jobs throughout the game, and change them up at will was a much-needed change from the original FF, where the party is stagnant and a poor party choice could make the game much harder. However, I don't understand why the developers decided to keep the same MP uses magic system from FF, while dropping the MP system from FFII. This was a big step backwards, and really did not fit with the first half of the game. The developer definitely promotes magic use throughout the game, but by using the FF system, the player does not have enough "uses" to effectively use magic in the first half of the game. This is seen early on, as the player must change their party to "mini" or "toad" form to pass through certain areas. Well, without the magic to use (eight uses- two for each character, to change into and then back), the player must buy items in order to change, which can be very costly.
The other big problem that I have with the jobs is the act of changing in itself. Every time a character changes jobs, they go through a downtime phase where their defense and attack stats are halved. The character must go through a couple battles before this phase is complete. This is especially frustrating if you want to change jobs mid-dungeon, where losing defense or attack stats can be deadly. You would logically think that this phase is basically the character becoming acclimated with their new abilities and weapons. No, the developers did not think this way. Instead, this phase is a "crystal sickness", being that the jobs are tied to the crystals themselves (more jobs unlock as crystals are saved). Good job Square, you made what should have been a short and logical explanation, something that makes no sense with no reasoning behind it. If you aren't going to have even a half-decent reason, why waste my time with this phase?
At least one nice feature about the job classes is that magic is a tangible item. Besides being able to use it as an item in battle (kind of neat), it can be un-learned from a character to put onto another character (or even sold). Even more user-friendly, all spells from one character can be switched all at once to another character (assuming they can use them). And thankfully there are only three spells per class (white versus black, summons not included), meaning a white/black mage doesn't have to choose three of four spells to use like in FF, and can use all of them (red mage and some others still have to choose, but that's the point of those classes). It's the small things that make these games better or worse than others, to me.
Such as something as small as a few seconds? Yes, my other gripe with the game is all about a few simple seconds. Except, it's not just a few seconds here and there, it's a few seconds before, during (many here, actually), and after every single battle. It's painful, honestly, having to wait while a battle loads, after the player chooses actions during battle, between animations during battle, and waiting for the "results" of the battle. The last part is a bit comical, seeing as how during FFII, the end-battle results scrolled way too fast, while this game is like giving results to a toddler. It's apparent in other parts of the game too, unfortunately. Bringing up the menu, loading between areas, zooming in to find hidden items, and especially cutscenes. For every five fights completed in FF or FFII, I could probably finish one in FFIII. Ironically, the one and only time I found this slowness to be of benefit was during the final battle, where I could use the second or two between each boss attack to think about how my strategy would need to change.
All this time really adds up, especially considering how much is spent grinding. Honestly, this game is hard. Yes, I understand that it's a JRPG, which typically means that if it's too hard the player can just grind for levels and make things easier. But when the player has to spend hours grinding for levels, it seems tough in comparison to other JRPGs. And grinding is a must in this game. I was not a fan of running fully through most dungeons multiple times, because the boss was much stronger than anything else in the dungeon in comparison, my party included. The overworld is a joke compared to FF and FFII, with no monsters I can recall to be afraid of. So the overworld is a no-go for grinding, needing to just jump from town-to-town and dungeon-to-dungeon.
Speaking of which, thanks to having weak overworld enemies, I had no idea where to go. In FF and FFII, very strong overworld enemies typically meant the wrong direction. FFIII had no direction, and the townspeople were of little help for the most part. I used a guide for most of the game, and have no regrets. It would have taken me hours to find some locations, hidden underwater or behind a mountain I was later able to "jump", only being told offhand that my airship could do so.
However, the developers did learn from their major dungeon mistakes from FFII. Gone are the monster closets, dead ends, and dungeons only traversable with knowledge of hidden walls (barely visable hidden walls still frustratingly exist, but now only for chests). I just wish "back-attacks" were gone. Happens much less often than in FF or FFII, but just as deadly because it leaves the party positions switched and the enemy gets a pre-emptive strike.
Yet even with these changes, the final dungeon was a doozy. Three dungeons in a row, with only one area to save at after the first. Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that saving anywhere in FF and FFII is gone, replaced with saving only on the overworld map. I shouldn't have relied too much on that luxury in those games, because it made FFIII that much harder. It also made me that much more cautious. As I traversed that final dungeon, I was more nervous than almost any game I've played. I was confident in my party, but nothing compares to fighting six end-game bosses in a row. It was nice that the game automatically restored HP and MP after each of these battles, although I was already set with the elixers and phoenix downs I didn't touch all game. I used one phoenix down in the final dungeon, and that was it besides the final boss, thanks to them not being purchasable in FFIII. And the only reason I used any during the final boss was because my Devout, who could cast Raise and Arise, was too busy casting Curaja every turn. Seriously, what an awful game design choice. "You can choose any combination of jobs for your party throughout the game!... Just remember that phoenix downs are limited, so you're probably going to need a healer in your party...but you still have a choice!" Back to my point, I'm very thankful that I beat all those bosses and the final boss, because that honestly would have been over an hour of lost time (even after having cleared out that dungeon of all chests, then going back and saving).
To wrap things up, I'm happy I finally finished this game, as much as a grind as it was. Not many people can claim having beat Final Fantasy III, compared to the rest of the series. And since I have, I believe I can rightfully give a valid opinion on which games are better than others, so far between the three I've finished (yes, being these versions and not the originals). Rankings so far, from best to worst:
1. Final Fantasy II
2. Final Fantasy
3. Final Fantasy III
Oh, and I enjoyed seeing Cid's airship rise up out of the sand, just like in the original Final Fantasy. I enjoy homages.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
2013 Games Recap
Okay, let's get back to business. My last post may be boring, but it was necessary. 2012 never really got explored, and I had to at least make note of what happened. Having entered 2014, 2013 needs to be on the books - let's recap.
*As usual, a note must be made about my "rules", which unsurprisingly have not changed: all games listed were played during 2013 (though does not necessarily mean started during 2013); all games were played for at least one hour; games in bold are those finished; those without endings are still listed; finished does not mean 100%, but those that meet such requirements will be noted with a * (being met within the game parameters or having all Xbox 360 achievements); finally, any games finished in a year prior - therefore not my first playthrough - are noted with a ^.
Nintendo DS: Played 4 - Beaten 0
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Crosswords DS
Final Fantasy III
Picross DS^
Nintendo 3DS: Played 7 - Beaten 1
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy^
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan
Heroes of Ruin
Pushmo
Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Pokemon X
GameBoy Advance: Played 1 - Beaten 0
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Wii: Played 1 - Beaten 0
Rhythm Heaven Fever
PlayStation Portable: Played 3 - Beaten 1
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
PC: Played 1 - Beaten 0
Stacking
Xbox 360: Played 22 - Beaten 11
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim^ (DLC)
Mass Effect^
Saints Row: The Third
Fez
Mass Effect 2
American McGee's Alice
Alice: Madness Returns
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Shadow Complex^
Left 4 Dead 2^
Batman: Arkham City
Terraria
Earth Defense Force 2017
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Grand Theft Auto V
The Walking Dead
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Tomb Raider
Trials HD
Spelunky
Total: Played 39 - Beaten 13
Well, my original theory that I may be finishing up more of my unfinished backlog before beginning new games turned out to be incorrect. On a good note, my ratio of played to beaten games is no worse than my 2011 year - about one game finished for every three played. Unfortunately, while not shown anywhere on my blog, my backlog bought ratio is probably along the lines of four games purchased for every one game finished, if that. The only good news is that looking at my list of "would like to own" games, there really aren't that many more games out there that I would like to own for playthrough purposes (games for collection purposes, while a very small list, is a different entity).
What I can take away from this list is that I preferred my Xbox 360 during 2013. This could possibly be due to not having to wear headphones anymore to play console games, thanks to having my own apartment again. I also see that my handheld systems are primarily used for RPGs, which is no surprise. Besides those, action and adventure games seem to be another genre I favored through the year. Overall, it's a pretty diverse list, which I'm happy to see.
I'd like to note a couple games and series on this list, as I'll likely post more in depth about them later. For example: I have two unfinished Castlevania games on this list (Dawn of Sorrow and Circle of the Moon). These are fantastic games, which I likely did not finish due to being pulled away for another great game. I will definitely be finishing both of these, and am still trying to find Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia for decent prices.
Grand Theft Auto V was a great game, and will likely see a post including it in the future. My plan is a very long post on the open-world genre of games, basically breaking down the pros and cons of different titles. These include but are not limited to: Grand Theft Auto V, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Saints Row: The Third, and Just Cause 2. These types of games are growing both in number and in vastness in-game, yet no one has perfected it. If I can get all my thoughts into a document, and arrange them into a worthy rant, this post will happen.
Most of the other unfinished games seen here are on my "to finish in 2014" list, most notably SMT: Persona 3 Portable. Letting this go unfinished into 2015 is not a good option at this point.
Finally I must touch upon the Final Fantasy series. I beat Final Fantasy (PSP anniversary version) in 2012. At the very beginning of 2013 (missed 2012 by a few days) I beat Final Fantasy II (PSP anniversary version). Yet Final Fantasy III (DS version) has been my brick wall, so much so that I broke my own rule and started Final Fantasy IV (Complete Collection version for PSP). I didn't get very far in IV before telling myself that I would not go any further, and that I really do want to beat them all in order. As it stands, FF III has held me back from progressing with this series. This is both good and bad. I know what lies past FF III, and it's almost nothing but good games, which is frustrating because of how bad I think FF III is. On the other hand, seeing all those excellent games in the future is that much more reason to push through this one. The problem isn't the difficulty. Yes, it's brutal, especially the final dungeon I keep reading about. But being a typical JRPG, grinding can solve that problem. My frustration is the tedium with the grinding, and a variety of other poor choices made by the developers, for both the original NES version and the upgraded DS port. I won't go into it just yet, but when I finish that game, I will have a lengthy and very opinionated post.
Those are my thoughts at the moment, and of my 2013 recap. For 2014, look to see more sequels if I post, as well as some older titles from what is now "last-gen" (Xbox 360, etc.).
*As usual, a note must be made about my "rules", which unsurprisingly have not changed: all games listed were played during 2013 (though does not necessarily mean started during 2013); all games were played for at least one hour; games in bold are those finished; those without endings are still listed; finished does not mean 100%, but those that meet such requirements will be noted with a * (being met within the game parameters or having all Xbox 360 achievements); finally, any games finished in a year prior - therefore not my first playthrough - are noted with a ^.
Nintendo DS: Played 4 - Beaten 0
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Crosswords DS
Final Fantasy III
Picross DS^
Nintendo 3DS: Played 7 - Beaten 1
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy^
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan
Heroes of Ruin
Pushmo
Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Pokemon X
GameBoy Advance: Played 1 - Beaten 0
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Wii: Played 1 - Beaten 0
Rhythm Heaven Fever
PlayStation Portable: Played 3 - Beaten 1
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable
PC: Played 1 - Beaten 0
Stacking
Xbox 360: Played 22 - Beaten 11
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim^ (DLC)
Mass Effect^
Saints Row: The Third
Fez
Mass Effect 2
American McGee's Alice
Alice: Madness Returns
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Shadow Complex^
Left 4 Dead 2^
Batman: Arkham City
Terraria
Earth Defense Force 2017
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Grand Theft Auto V
The Walking Dead
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Tomb Raider
Trials HD
Spelunky
Total: Played 39 - Beaten 13
Well, my original theory that I may be finishing up more of my unfinished backlog before beginning new games turned out to be incorrect. On a good note, my ratio of played to beaten games is no worse than my 2011 year - about one game finished for every three played. Unfortunately, while not shown anywhere on my blog, my backlog bought ratio is probably along the lines of four games purchased for every one game finished, if that. The only good news is that looking at my list of "would like to own" games, there really aren't that many more games out there that I would like to own for playthrough purposes (games for collection purposes, while a very small list, is a different entity).
What I can take away from this list is that I preferred my Xbox 360 during 2013. This could possibly be due to not having to wear headphones anymore to play console games, thanks to having my own apartment again. I also see that my handheld systems are primarily used for RPGs, which is no surprise. Besides those, action and adventure games seem to be another genre I favored through the year. Overall, it's a pretty diverse list, which I'm happy to see.
I'd like to note a couple games and series on this list, as I'll likely post more in depth about them later. For example: I have two unfinished Castlevania games on this list (Dawn of Sorrow and Circle of the Moon). These are fantastic games, which I likely did not finish due to being pulled away for another great game. I will definitely be finishing both of these, and am still trying to find Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia for decent prices.
Grand Theft Auto V was a great game, and will likely see a post including it in the future. My plan is a very long post on the open-world genre of games, basically breaking down the pros and cons of different titles. These include but are not limited to: Grand Theft Auto V, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Saints Row: The Third, and Just Cause 2. These types of games are growing both in number and in vastness in-game, yet no one has perfected it. If I can get all my thoughts into a document, and arrange them into a worthy rant, this post will happen.
Most of the other unfinished games seen here are on my "to finish in 2014" list, most notably SMT: Persona 3 Portable. Letting this go unfinished into 2015 is not a good option at this point.
Finally I must touch upon the Final Fantasy series. I beat Final Fantasy (PSP anniversary version) in 2012. At the very beginning of 2013 (missed 2012 by a few days) I beat Final Fantasy II (PSP anniversary version). Yet Final Fantasy III (DS version) has been my brick wall, so much so that I broke my own rule and started Final Fantasy IV (Complete Collection version for PSP). I didn't get very far in IV before telling myself that I would not go any further, and that I really do want to beat them all in order. As it stands, FF III has held me back from progressing with this series. This is both good and bad. I know what lies past FF III, and it's almost nothing but good games, which is frustrating because of how bad I think FF III is. On the other hand, seeing all those excellent games in the future is that much more reason to push through this one. The problem isn't the difficulty. Yes, it's brutal, especially the final dungeon I keep reading about. But being a typical JRPG, grinding can solve that problem. My frustration is the tedium with the grinding, and a variety of other poor choices made by the developers, for both the original NES version and the upgraded DS port. I won't go into it just yet, but when I finish that game, I will have a lengthy and very opinionated post.
Those are my thoughts at the moment, and of my 2013 recap. For 2014, look to see more sequels if I post, as well as some older titles from what is now "last-gen" (Xbox 360, etc.).
2012 Game Recap
So a year has passed (almost exactly to the day), and I haven't posted on here even once (disregarding the few "Currently playing/reading" updates on the sidebar). I feel like I have let down my two readers. However, a new year means a new start, and I really would like to post more often. I'm still playing games which means I still need a way to share my thoughts and opinions.
And with it being a new year, that means a recap of last year is in order. But, first things first. As I browsed my posting history of "year recaps", I see that 2011's recap post (of 2010 games played and beaten) really ended up being a half-assed puzzle for my readers to figure out which games were being referenced. A neat idea at the time, but without a follow-up post with actual explanations, left a list of incoherent statements of things "I did". Especially after looking at my 2011 recap (of 2010 games), which was much more organized. So before I continue with 2013, read on for my list of 2012 games played and beaten. This time, the order listed is not alphabetical, but in order played (only within each system though).
*Note - my "rules" for the first year still stand as follows: all games listed were played during 2012 (though does not mean started during 2012); all games were played for at least one hour; games in bold are those finished; those without endings are still listed; finished does not mean 100%, but those that meet such requirements will be noted with a * (being met within the game parameters or having all Xbox 360 achievements); finally, any games finished in a year prior - therefore not my first playthrough - are noted with a ^.
Nintendo DS: Played 6 - Beaten 3
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
Crosswords DS
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Etrian Odyssey
Nintendo 3DS: Played 12 - Beaten 4
Heroes of Ruin
Super Mario 3D Land
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX^
Donkey Kong '94
Mario's Picross
AlphaBounce
Mario Kart 7
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Art Academy: First Semester
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords^
Pilotwings Resort
Wii: Played 2 - Beaten 0
Cave Story
Fluidity
PlayStation Portable: Played 5 - Beaten 3
Final Fantasy
Wizorb
Rock Band Unplugged
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Xenogears
PC: Played 3 - Beaten 1
Terraria
The Binding of Isaac
Tribes: Ascend
Xbox 360: Played 12 - Beaten 8
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fable III
Assassin's Creed II
Eternal Sonata
Left 4 Dead 2^
Mass Effect^
L.A. Noire
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Saints Row: The Third
Shadow Complex^
Dead Island
Total: Played 40 - Beaten 19
While that year has long passed and I cannot remember as much detail as before, it looks like I had favored my Xbox 360 and 3DS/DS, while almost forgetting my Wii. RPGs seemed to be a popular genre for me during 2012, as well as sequels. Something that grad school also played a part in, is this list does not have any Xbox Live Arcade games that I did not already have, thanks to not having internet for my Xbox 360 until the very end of 2012. As a whole I played less games that 2010, however 2012 lead to an increase to almost half of the games beaten versus less than a third in 2010. Adding to that fact, that the 19 beaten games in 2012 almost equals the same amount of beaten games (21) in 2010. It may be possible that I'm finally sitting down to finish games, rather than jumping around through my ever-growing backlog? I hope so, but time will tell.
EDIT - I just noticed not long after posting this that I don't have a 2011 games recap post, and had to go back to change everything to reference my 2010 recap. I do have a list of all games finished in 2011, so maybe I'll add it into this list at a later time.
Final note: as a reference to which descriptions fit which games from the original post (minus Terraria since I didn't actually beat it) see below, in order.
Mario's Picross
Pilotwings Resort
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Mario Kart 7
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Dead Island
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Shadow Complex
Fable III
Batman: Arkham Asylum
The Binding of Isaac
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Left 4 Dead 2
Assassin's Creed II
Final Fantasy
And with it being a new year, that means a recap of last year is in order. But, first things first. As I browsed my posting history of "year recaps", I see that 2011's recap post (of 2010 games played and beaten) really ended up being a half-assed puzzle for my readers to figure out which games were being referenced. A neat idea at the time, but without a follow-up post with actual explanations, left a list of incoherent statements of things "I did". Especially after looking at my 2011 recap (of 2010 games), which was much more organized. So before I continue with 2013, read on for my list of 2012 games played and beaten. This time, the order listed is not alphabetical, but in order played (only within each system though).
*Note - my "rules" for the first year still stand as follows: all games listed were played during 2012 (though does not mean started during 2012); all games were played for at least one hour; games in bold are those finished; those without endings are still listed; finished does not mean 100%, but those that meet such requirements will be noted with a * (being met within the game parameters or having all Xbox 360 achievements); finally, any games finished in a year prior - therefore not my first playthrough - are noted with a ^.
Nintendo DS: Played 6 - Beaten 3
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
Crosswords DS
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Etrian Odyssey
Nintendo 3DS: Played 12 - Beaten 4
Heroes of Ruin
Super Mario 3D Land
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX^
Donkey Kong '94
Mario's Picross
AlphaBounce
Mario Kart 7
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Art Academy: First Semester
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords^
Pilotwings Resort
Wii: Played 2 - Beaten 0
Cave Story
Fluidity
PlayStation Portable: Played 5 - Beaten 3
Final Fantasy
Wizorb
Rock Band Unplugged
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Xenogears
PC: Played 3 - Beaten 1
Terraria
The Binding of Isaac
Tribes: Ascend
Xbox 360: Played 12 - Beaten 8
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fable III
Assassin's Creed II
Eternal Sonata
Left 4 Dead 2^
Mass Effect^
L.A. Noire
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Saints Row: The Third
Shadow Complex^
Dead Island
Total: Played 40 - Beaten 19
While that year has long passed and I cannot remember as much detail as before, it looks like I had favored my Xbox 360 and 3DS/DS, while almost forgetting my Wii. RPGs seemed to be a popular genre for me during 2012, as well as sequels. Something that grad school also played a part in, is this list does not have any Xbox Live Arcade games that I did not already have, thanks to not having internet for my Xbox 360 until the very end of 2012. As a whole I played less games that 2010, however 2012 lead to an increase to almost half of the games beaten versus less than a third in 2010. Adding to that fact, that the 19 beaten games in 2012 almost equals the same amount of beaten games (21) in 2010. It may be possible that I'm finally sitting down to finish games, rather than jumping around through my ever-growing backlog? I hope so, but time will tell.
EDIT - I just noticed not long after posting this that I don't have a 2011 games recap post, and had to go back to change everything to reference my 2010 recap. I do have a list of all games finished in 2011, so maybe I'll add it into this list at a later time.
Final note: as a reference to which descriptions fit which games from the original post (minus Terraria since I didn't actually beat it) see below, in order.
Mario's Picross
Pilotwings Resort
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Mario Kart 7
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Dead Island
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Shadow Complex
Fable III
Batman: Arkham Asylum
The Binding of Isaac
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Left 4 Dead 2
Assassin's Creed II
Final Fantasy
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