Odin Sphere: Repitition in a great game, is still great gameplay

I played through as Gwendolyn, and that was fantastic; great story and gameplay. But the story was over after about 10 hours. I knew from the instruction booklet that I could control different characters so I guessed, correctly, that when I was done with the Gwendolyn story I would be in control of another character.

Cornelius was next, and the story, at first, was even more intriguing to me because it's begins before Gwendolyn's story and fills in some of the details. But, almost all the boss battles were the same bosses, who used the same tactics. And I only remember two levels that were different.

Now I'm on Mercedes' story. And the bosses are the same again.

I had intended to criticize the game when I began this post, but now that I've sat to think about it, I don't think I will. I was going to say that the repetition was getting old, and I do wish that they could throw in a few different bosses to fight. But, now that I think about it, how repetitive is Final Fantasy? The boss battles are unique, but everything else is just as repetitive, if not more so.

Aside from that, there are new recipes, but you can still use the recipes you collected before. Same goes for alchemy. You start fresh with each new character; they're at level 1 and they only have two bags for inventory, and they don't have access to the better ingredients you need to make the better recipes. Of course I won't know until I've finished more of the game (I'm at 20 hours and I don't think I'm even half way through) but it seems like they've come up with a unique way to force you to level all your characters. Instead of forming some kind of unlikely party they just tell the story of each character individually. And it works.

The latest character, Mercedes, is quite different in her combat style. She has a crossbow that controls more like at machine gun. It requires reloading, instead of recharging, and she can fly indefinitely. The first two characters controlled much the same, but Mercedes is quite different. Most enemies I kill are off screen; I rely on the radar much more.

And, best of all, the story continues to be engaging. It's taken a bit of a turn for the silly, with talking frogs and unicorn soldiers, but it's a refreshing break. The fairies are all very hot! They're all hips and legs, and they all wear bikini bottoms.

I hate for my first mention of the beauty of the artwork in this game to be a pervy one about how hot the fairies are, but there it is.

Hype Wagon

Games that aren't out yet, and I'm interested to see how they turn out:

Unresearched
- Beyond Good & Evil 2 (?)
- Brutal Legend (Xbox 360)
- Demon's Souls, PS3, Fall 2009, Dark RPG
- Uncharted 2 (PS3 only?)
- Tomb Raider Legend
- Um Jammer Lammy
- Parappa the Rapper
- Scribblenauts (DS? Unreleased?)
- Ghostbusters
- Sly Cooper
- Zack and Wiki
- Kain and Lynch
- Monkey Island
- Loom
- The Path
- Dark Sector
- Lunar silver star
- Lunar eternal blue
- Earthbound
- Robotrek
- Time gentlemen please
- Ben there Dan that
- Drop 7
- The Last Remnant
- Tales of Vesperia
- Puzzle Quest XBLA
- Portal DLC
- Pac Man Championship Edition


Researched
- Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Wii, coming 2009, by Vanillaware (Odin Sphere)
- Pikmin 2: New Play Control, Wii, coming 2009?
- Dragon Quest IX, DS, Q4 2009

Finished ICO....a long time ago

I finished ICO a long time ago, but I look back on it very fondly. It didn't sell well and that is a real shame because it is one of my favorite games! I loved it from start to finish; and when it was done I started playing it again from the beginning.

I won't go into much detail about the plot, because it doesn't matter. This game was built as an experience, not a story. You're not given any back story, you're just dropped into the game with the vague sense that you're being offered as a human sacrifice. All you're sure of is that you're in danger and that you must get out of the castle in which you've been imprisoned.

There's a powerful sense of being alone while playing the game. The castle is huge and filled with crumbling bridges and huge ledges that threaten to send you tumbling to your doom. The enemies are composed of nothing but black smoke and evil magic. When ICO faces them he is armed only with a wooden stick. A very real measure of bravery is required to face them every time they appear. But ICO must face them, not for his sake, but for hers.

ICO's companion on this journey is Yorda; a girl who has been imprisoned in the castle, just like ICO. The relationship between Yorda and ICO is what places this game near the top of my all time favorites list. There's very little said between the two; they don't even speak the same language. Yorda is frail and weak and must be guided and helped along the entire journey. I, as the player, started to become very protective of Yorda. Both she and ICO are in danger, but when the black shadows appear they go for her and try to take her with them. They drag her and pull her down into the shadows. They pick her up and fly away with her. The danger to her feels very real, and her patience and frailty are so endearing, that I was in love with her by the end of the game, and very protective.

The ending of the game is perfect, and it's one of the few times I've cried after playing a game. The story is truly touching, and just writing about it makes me want to play it again. I'm sure my kids wouldn't mind watching me play. Perhaps I'll start it again tomorrow.



P.S. I hate, HATE, the box art for this game. They got the look, feel, characters, sensibility, and EVERYTHING completely and totally WRONG! I'm actually angry when I see this cover. ICO is wrong. The windmill is wrong. Yorda is wrong. The logo is wrong. EVERYTHING IS WRONG. I debated whether or not I should include it in this post, but if you must see it then click below.

Time has not been kind

TimeSplitters 2:

It's not bad.

I played it for a couple hours, gave it a shot, and I didn't find it very compelling. Why?

I've played Halo.

I've played Halflife 2.

I've played Call of Duty 4.

I've played BioShock.

Those games were compelling. Why would I spend any more time on this game when I haven't finished Call of Duty 4 or BioShock?

'Nuff said.

Odin Sphere makes the hours fly

Purchased Odin Sphere on Friday and I've been playing it this weekend.

Hour 1: "Sure is pretty..."
Hour 2: "This controls like a fighter; I want an RPG."
Hour 3: "Normal is too hard. I'm moving to easy."
Hour 4: "More fighting, more fighting. This is a fighter. I want an RPG. I want to grind!"
Hour 5: "There, finally I can grind and level-up."
Hour 6: "Wow, what a story! I am shocked with the depth of this story."
Hour 7: "This game is awesome!"

My first impression was that I wouldn't like this game. Around hour 3 I was starting to look for the receipt so I could take it back. Now that I'm at hour 7 I'm not even thinking of taking it back. The battle system, which at first seemed like a 2D-brawler, is growing on me. I've have never felt bored in a battle yet; even when grinding! And, if you are defeated, you start that battle over again until you are successful. It's the best aspects of a 2D brawler with RPG aspects tacked onto it.

Suddenly at abour hour 6 a world of RPG-ness is opened up as well. By RPG-ness I mean things to do/collect/experience/defeat/master that I will put on a checklist and continue playing until I've checked off all the items on the list. There's recipes, alchemy, growing plants, hatching eggs, stomping mandragoras out of the ground, attack levels, magic levels, spells, etc. I'm sure I've left something out, but there's a ton of stuff to do. And, I've already created my first checklist: recipes.

At this point I'm thinking that my first impression was totally wrong. I'm loving the game. Aside from the depth of story and beautiful graphics you can choose the Japanese spoken language or English. That's a big plus, if you ask me! You can also change difficulty settings on the fly. It's a great game that was obviously loved by it's creators. I'm going to really enjoy playing it.

One thing I've noticed is that hour-and-a-half chunks of my life seem to escape while I'm playing this game. I'll start playing and think that about 20 minutes have gone by. Then, when I look at my game-save I'll notice that, in fact, an hour-and-a-half has gone by. It's that good, folks!

Confession, I didn't like Bioshock

I played Bioshock for 5+ hours, killed a few Bag Daddies, harvested some sisters, and didn't have much fun. After the newness of the experience wore off I found that the annoying aspects of the game made me lose interest. I'm not going to say something stupid like, "this game is crap," because it isn't! I WANT to like Bioshock. However, there came a point when I just stopped enjoying it and didn't feel sufficiently motivated to keep going.

When I first started playing the game, I immediately loved it. I loved the plane wreck sequence, I was scared to leave the initial elevator/pod that brings you to Rapture. I was confused, and intimidated, and loving every minute of it. There were ideas batted back and forth by the plot line that I liked thinking about. For instance, what would happen if a plastic surgeon got bored with making perfect faces and decided to make art? Or, what would happen if a closed society was engineered to be leaderless? Combine the intellectual curiosity of the plot with good first-person shooter combat, and excellent ambiance and you have an experience first-rate. I figured I was in for a real gaming treat.

Then something happened. Near the first Big Daddy battle the game stopped being scary and just became startling. I was really intimidated by the mood struck in the beginning of the game. Hearing splicers (which are zombies okay...this is a zombie game) fighting with each other in the distance was very intimidating, especially if I heard gunshots or explosions. But, rather suddenly, the game turned away from that and began to favor empty hallways with zombies popping out of closets at you. In this way the game went from tension and intimidation to cheap, pop-out-at-you, bad horror film crap. That kind of cheap thrill does not draw me into the game, it pulls me out of it.

The intellectual level of the game changed. The genuinely scary ideas were abandoned in favor of lining the player up to be startled, BOO! The momentum of the story in the first part of the game revolved around the idea that you have to get out of there, and fast! Then, you find yourself looking at a man through the window on a door, and he refuses to open it until you go get some stuff for him. If they were going for a Super Nintendo RPG vibe, then that's the right way to achieve it.

The difficulty level of the first Big Daddy fight was ridiculous as well. I had only died in combat twice up until that point, but fighting Big Daddy killed me at least 15 times in a row. Then, when I finally got through the battle, what was the first thing I ran into on the next level? 3 Big Daddies! At that point I was ready to be done with Bioshock. I played a bit past that point. There was more cheap death and startles. I quit.

I wanted to like Bioshock, I still do. I want someone to tell me, "oh, that was the bad part of the game, just keep playing, it totally get's better." But, until such time as someone can convince me that the game isn't the cheap horror film that I'm think it is, then I'm done with it.

Wii Sports: More like a demo than a game

It's fun...for a few hours. After that, it's really not that fun. Even the kids don't ask to play it very often. They're far more interested in playing Mario and Zelda. Chips off the old block!

When I first got my Wii I practiced a little with Wii sports, thinking I would get better.

Nope.

If anything this game showed me the flaws with the Wii-remote; it's not the precise instrument that I once thought it might be.

Anyway, I don't want this to turn into a Wii bash-fest; the internet has enough of those. I love the Wii, but this is not one of my favorite games. I have better games to play.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy! Final Fantasy XII

Where can I start? How about, "I loved it!" I have a long history with the Final Fantasy series. I played the original Final Fantasy on the NES (and didn't think much of it). Final Fantasy III (aka VI) on the SNES piqued my interest. But, Final Fantasy VII was the first RPG to really keep me playing for a long time with 70+ hours. Final Fantasy VIII was less; like 60 hours. Final Fantasy IX I didn't finish (after probably around 10 hours of playing I quit). Then came Final Fantasy X, which set a new record of 120+ hours. Final Fantasy X-2 was okay, I finished it, but I couldn't tell you what happened in the end and I'm sure I didn't put much more than 30 hours into it. I skipped Final Fantasy XI, which brings me to Final Fantasy XII. My final save for Final Fantasy XII clocks in a 207 hours 51 minutes and 20 seconds. You may as well stop reading now because that says it all. You can't play a game for 200+ hours and then come away saying, "nah, it wasn't that great." I'm totally gah-gah for this game and it had me hooked from the very start.

FF12 presents a wonderfully realized 3D world. And, for the first time ever, I found myself wishing I could visit the locales in the game. Starting with Rabanastre, the very first city you encounter, it's just gorgeous. I'm stunned at the amount of detail they've been able to pack into the fully 3D rendered city. The buildings are beautiful and the colors are stunning. I literally spent so much time there that I have the city memorized.



Lowtown, which is supposed to be the dirty underbelly of the city, is beautiful too. I get the sense that it would be cool and damp under there; the kind of place I would hang out if I lived there. Rabanastre borders a desert and, by the looks of the clothing, it's quite hot there. I could see myself lurking below the city, selling my wares and fixing computers.

Some people knock FF12 for its combat system, but it does so may things right that I can't really see any flaws. There are no random battles, yay! You can see all your enemies before you enter battle with them, giving you the option to avoid combat. Furthermore, the ridiculous repetition of combat is circumvented by the gambit system. This system allows you to choose a battle strategy the favors certain actions according to certain conditions. For instance, if I set a gambit to heal myself when my health is below 50%, then my character would do just that. I could also set a gambit to automatically attack the closest enemy. If I prioritize the healing gambit, then I'll attack the closest enemy until my health is below 50%, then I'll heal myself. And, using gambits, I've effectively made it so that I can enter any battle and win without pressing a button.

Of course, that's just a simple example of the gambit system. The myriad options available are mind numbing. Yet, I really appreciated this type of combat. It allowed me to think about battles in terms of strategy, rather than tactics. However, if I desired, I could disable all gambits and return to an active-time type of battle system similar to previous Final Fantasy games. It all depends on the level of control I want to use.

The story is inscrutable, as all Final Fantasy game stories are. Yet this time it's not a love story. In fact, the story may be the weak point of the game. But I'm not really motivated by cut-scenes anymore; the old Final Fantasy VIII days are over. Story rarely motivates me to continue playing in any game these days, so a lack luster story isn't something I'm going to cry about. I was sufficiently motivated to play for a huge amount of time, and I don't think any story could have kept me interested that long.

I don't want to ramble on forever, so I'll end here. There's plenty of spells, armor, gambits, items and everything else to keep you occupied for months with this game. It is truly a masterpiece!

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga Review

It's all about the red bricks, baby!

What did I love about this game so much? That's a I really can't answer. Certainly I loved it; I must have put at least 40 hours into it. I unlocked all the unlockables and got so very close to 100% completion that I'm willing to round up and say that I completely finished the game with a clear conscience.

The actual gameplay is so simple that I was at first turned off by it. The combat is terribly simple, and even boss battles could be won by a complete amateur. But, in a way, this is one of the game's successes. LEGO Star Wars, and all the LEGO games for that matter, are very simple, easy to pick up, and hard to put down. In the end, the game has the same appeal as casual games (not what video game journalists call casual games, but real casual games, like solitaire and bejeweled). The gameplay is simple, and terribly repetitive, and I usually play when I'm listening to something else, like a podcast or music or something.

LEGO Star Wars is just plain fun. Unlocking all the characters is fun. Assembling all the mini-kits is addicting. Trying out all the characters to see which one you like the best is fun too. I can't really give you a reason why I wasted so much time on this game, other than, "I was bored."

Finished Shadow of the Colossus

What an amazing experience! I can't say enough good things about it, so I won't even try.

Shadow of the Colossus was produced by the same design team that gave us ICO, another game that I loved. As I'm writing this, Team ICO is busy producing a new game that will undoubtedly be PlayStation 3 exclusive. I will need a PlayStation 3. I'd better start saving.

Finished Super Mario Galaxy

The review for Super Mario Galaxy is simple; this is the best game I've played on the Wii. It's Mario! And he's back to his former glory!

Like all Mario games, there's practically no story. The designers were too busy building fun and imaginative levels to be concerned with meaningless story elements. Make no mistake, it is the level designs that will keep you playing this game. There's a ton of levels to see and explore. They're extremely well thought-out and designed because they're meant to be played over and over again, if not to collect all 120 Stars, then just for the joy of playing them.

The music strikes a nice balance between the old themes that we all know and love, and some cute new themes. And all the music is appropriately repetitive; the themes will be burnt into your brain just like the themes of classic Mario games.

I'm so glad for this installment of Mario, because I had given up on the series. I've been so unimpressed with the latest installments. Mario 64 was awful, and almost unplayable. Mario Sunshine was a step up in controls, but the camera was so terrible that I threw down my controller in disgust after a few hours of play and I've never looked back. I had been worried that Nintendo would continue the trend, but this installment is excellent. (On a side note, we may have the Wii-mote to thank for Super Mario Galaxy. The Wii-mote is so simple and basic compared to the N64 and NGC controllers that the game designers were forced to keep the gameplay simple, which makes the game more playable and more fun!)

Super Mario Galaxy compelled me to play it. I wanted to find all the stars. I wanted to see all the levels. I wanted to experience everything that the game has to offer! I haven't felt so compelled to find everything in a Mario game since Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo...and that's saying a lot because it's one of my favorite games of all time.

I really can't say enough good things about Super Mario Galaxy. I love it. The kids love it too, of course! I could find some criticisms to throw at the game, but I don't want to. I love playing it so much that the criticisms would be shallow and I wouldn't really feel them. In the end I believe Super Mario Galaxy will stick in my mind as one of the best video gaming experiences I've ever had.

Okay, bored with fishing already

Okay, I'm bored fishing already. I have about 20 fish left, but I'm ready to move on. That's one thing I've found about Animal Crossing; I can't obsess about it properly. I don't get a special power-up if I collect all the fish. I don't get a dragon-sword if I pay-off my mortgage. All I get is a full aquarium and a paid-off house. I want to apply my RPG tendencies, but I'm not rewarded enough.

I know I'm playing it wrong; it's supposed to be a vacation-like break. But I want to experience the things that this game has to offer, and they haven't made it easy. I want to kick back and relax with this game, but I want to do it quickly and get it over with!

Maybe it's time for me to move to my next epic quest.

In search of fish...

I've probably played enough of Animal Crossing to give it a review, but the completionist in me wants MORE! I'm trying to find all the fish in the game. I'll probably give up short of them all, but it's fun to listen to podcasts and zone out while fishing.

Epic Quests of Yore

I played these games long ago; long enough to have forgotten exactly why I liked them. Nontheless, I played them.

• 
  
• Final Fantasy X-2
• Final Fantasy X
• Chrono Cross
• Suikoden II
• Metal Gear Solid II
• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Final Fantasy IX
• Ico
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

• Adventures of Lolo
• Adventures of Lolo 2
• Bubble Bobble
• Contra
• Double Dragon
• Double Dragon II: The Revenge
• Dr. Mario
  
• Duck Hunt
• Final Fantasy
• Ghosts 'n Goblins
• Jeopardy!
• Kid Icarus
  
• The Legend of Zelda
• Mega Man
• Mega Man 2
• Mega Man 3
  
• Metal Gear
• Metroid
• R.C. Pro-Am
• Rampage
• Spy Hunter
  
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Yoshi's Cookie
  
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
  

Commodore 64:

• 7 Cities of Gold
• Boulder Dash
• California Games
• Gauntlet
• Ghostbusters
• Gyruss
• Impossible Mission
• Lode Runner
• Marble Madness
• Paperboy
• Racing Destruction Set
• Winter Games
• World Games
  

Atari 2600:

• Barnstorming
• Battlezone
• Bowling
• Breakout
• Combat
• Demon Attack
• Dodge 'Em
• Dragster
• Golf
• Grand Prix
• Haunted House
• Pac-man
• Pitfall
• Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
• Popeye
• Space Invaders
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
• Video Chess
  

And that's it. My personal gaming history.

Future Quests

Here's my list of unplayed games. Some games I own, some games I've borrowed, some games I intend to rent, and some games I intend to buy. What's common to all these games is that I have not yet played them, and I want to.

Unplayed games I rented/borrowed/own:
Persona 3 FES (Shin Megami Tensei)
Beyond Good & Evil
God of War
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Mario Kart Wii
Okami
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Super Paper Mario
Boom Blox
Wario Land: Shake It
Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (retro-replay)

Gaming Limbo:
Left 4 Dead - rented, great, play again!
Lego Batman - borrowed, returned, needs review
Animal Crossing: City Folk - I think I'm done, needs review
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - I'm done, needs review
COD4 - played and abandoned
Portal - played, needs review




Unplayed games I don't have:

---- PS2 ----
Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Dark Cloud 2
Devil Summoner 2 (Shin Megami Tensei)
Digital Devil Saga 2 (Shin Megami Tensei)
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Dragon Quest V
God of War
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
GrimGrimoire
Jak 3
Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
Persona 4 (Shin Megami Tensei)
Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Rez
Rogue Galaxy
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of the Abyss
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Suikoden III
Suikoden V
Valkyrie Profile

---- Wii ----
de Blob
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
House of the Dead: Overkill
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
MySims
MySims Kingdom
Pikmin: New Play Control
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

---- WiiWare & VC ----
Ogre Battle
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Metroid
Tetris Party
World of Goo

---- N64 ----
Goldeneye 007

---- NGC ----
Eternal Darkness
Pikmin
Pikmin 2
Skies of Arcadia Legends
Tales of Symphonia

---- 360 ----
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
Assassin's Creed
Blue Dragon
Castle Crashers
Fable 2
Fallout 3
Far Cry 2
Gears of War 2
Lost Odyssey
Mass Effect
Mirror's Edge
Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV)
Saints Row 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Too Human

---- PS3 ----
Flower
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Valkyria Chronicles

---- DS ----
Knights in the Nightmare
Professor Layton
Suikoden Tierkreis
The World Ends with You

Red = Most Wanted

Finished Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

When I first started playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time I said, "Wow! This is amazing. It controls like a dream, why doesn't every adventure game control like this?" Literally, I said it out loud. I thought back to all the wasted time I spent falling off ledges in Tomb Raider simply because the controls were awful. But, thanks to the Dagger of Time, even falling off ledges presents no problem for Prince of Persia. The Dagger allows you to reverse time back to the point where you were standing firmly ON the ledge. Then you can take another crack at whatever you attempted that sent you to your death, or decide on another path. What a wonderful gameplay mechanic. But in the end, I was disappointed by the cheap tricks played by the game's designers to lengthen the game. What could have been a favorite game has been reduced to "yeah, I played that; it was okay."

The game's story is framed as if the player is listening to hero tell his tale. And, throughout the game the story teller helps to immerse the player by highlighting the hero's emotions, or pointing out interesting facts about the environment. An example that springs to mind is when the game leads you to a prison/torture chamber. The story teller explains that he knew that his father's castle had such places, but he had never seen them, and how the Sands of Time had reduced both guard and prisoner to equals. Little details like this immersed me in the world and gave depth to the characters and story.

Common gameplay elements are explained away using the story telling motif as well. Saving the game merely becomes a pause in the story, and after you've saved your game the story teller says, "Done, I'll start the story from here next time." Dying gets explained away by the story teller as well. When you die in the game the story teller cuts in and says, "No, no, no. That didn't happen." These mundane elements of gameplay, that otherwise would have drawn you out of the world, now neatly fit into the idea that we're being told the epic tale by the hero of the story.

Another aspect of the game that they really got right is the companion, Farah. It's truly a joy to watch the relationship develop between the hero an Farah. She's supportive of the hero, without losing her own identity or character. The relationship and its development is my favorite aspect of this game (which I consider a love story).

Here's my big complaint with the Sand of Time. As you progress through the story the battles, while fun, seem far too long. It seems as though the game designers added more and more combat simply to add time to the total gameplay. It's a dirty trick that drags down the gameplay and draws you, the player, out of the story. After all, if I'm thinking thoughts like, "Why did the game designers do this," then I'm no longer immersed in the story; suddenly I'm playing a game, not living a story.

Nearly all the game lengthening comes at the end. As an example, there's a part in the game where you have to guess the correct order of doors to enter, and if you get it wrong you go back to the beginning of the sequence.

Then the designers took away the Dagger of Time. I found myself cursing the game and it's designers and I completely lost all love for the story and its characters. I could understand the Dagger being taken away. I could see how that would add variety to the game. I could also see this as a way to shake things up and make you love the dagger even more once you got it back. But, the dagger is taken away for no apparent reason NEAR THE END OF THE GAME! I got pissed when they took away the dagger. I was too far through the story to quit now, and suddenly they made the game un-fun.

In the end I got very little satisfaction from finishing the game. The dirty tricks that the designers played got the better of the game, and I now regard Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as a mediocre title. I'm disappointed, because the game had potential. And, several gamers I respect, including Yahtzee and Ludwig Kietzmann, regard the game very highly.

I liked the game. I'm just disappointed because I thought I was going to love it. I was enjoying it so much....I feel sad...(sigh).

Dragon Quest VIII

I'm ashamed (as an avid console RPG fan) that Dragon Quest VIII is my first Dragon Quest game. Ever. And, as a DQ newbie I have no frame of reference to compare against past DQ games. The first thing that struck me was the shocking amount of polish in some aspects of the game, such as the character design, world design, music, and voice acting. The next thing that struck me was the shocking LACK of polish on other aspects of the game, like the battle system, saving system, and inventory system. But let me begin with the good...

The RPG goodness is laid on thick in this game. There's plenty of different weapons to choose, armor to equip, skills to level, and spells to learn. You're rarely locked out of any area in the game, which helps improve the sense that you're on an epic quest and exploring a vast world. I found myself thinking things like, "This area is great, but how do I get across this river?" "If only I had a boat I could get to that island over there." "It's nice that I can teleport to areas I've visited, but wouldn't it be nice if I could fly to areas I haven't visited?" Exploration is fun. The story and bosses are fun as well.

An aspect of the game that showed a lot of potential, but failed to live up to it, was alchemy. You can take some items in the game, combine them with other items in the alchemy pot, wait a while, and then you get a new item that's often more powerful than anything you can find otherwise. The has great potential and, indeed, most of the ultimate weapons are only available through alchemy. Throughout the game you find recipes for your alchemy pot. However, the recipes are rarely ever complete, and this is the aspect that I regard as broken. They should have given complete recipes. I'm not willing to sit and try to figure out which item I'm missing through trial and error, especially since the interface is so very, very clunky.

This brings me to the menu interface, the most broken aspect of the game. Let me illustrate the problem by discussing how you save the game. Problem 1, saving can only be done from churches that are scattered throughout the land; why can't I just save anywhere I want? Problem 2, you go through no less than 6 steps each and every time you want to save. You're also faced with 8 screens of useless and repetitive text that CANNOT BE SKIPPED! You are forced to watch the text scroll slowly across the screen until it's fills up the text box, then press the button to continue the process. Every time you save you're given the option to quit, a useless feature that just takes you back to the title menu (and not quickly either). The problems saving are echoed throughout all other aspects of the game. Alchemy is cumbersome. Shopping is annoying. The inventory system is such a pain that it's almost unusable. It feels to me like someone took the interface developers from the SNES era of RPG games, froze them in a cryogenic sleeping chamber, and then revived them to work on DQ8.

What could have saved the game is a deep battle system: a battle system that's unique, customizable and fun. The kind of battle system that forces you to think about strategy and tactics. Unfortunately, a deep and rewarding battle system is something that you WILL NOT find in this game. The first battle I encountered I groaned. Having just come from Final Fantasy XII, I had begun to think that random battles were a thing of the past; we don't need them anymore because our consoles are advanced enough to render the enemies before we encounter them. There's really no excuse for having so many, unskippable, random battles in this game. And, to make matters worse, combat is not fast. Every action is chosen before a turn begins, so if situations change you cannot correct the moves you've chosen mid-turn. I often found myself healing the same character twice, while failing to revive a character who was wiped out near the beginning of the turn. The only way to fix this problem is to use preset, automated battle tactics to guide your party member's actions. While this allows your characters to react intelligently to arising situations during the battle, it does create another problem: boredom. With automated tactics enabled each battle is won merely by pressing a couple buttons just to get the combat started. For the rest of the battle I found myself sitting around for five minutes while my characters slowly won the battle for me. For this reason I say that combat in Dragon Quest VIII is broken and it needs to be completely redone if I'm ever to play another Dragon Quest Game.

Why the low score? The annoyances got in the way. I could have really liked this game. I could have loved it! But the game's flaws got in the way of my enjoyment. I was more compelled to play than enjoying play, thus is the curse of the RPG enthusiast.

So, what kept me playing for 96 hours: The beautiful, colorful world, the interesting characters, new costumes for Jessica (Va-Va-Voom!), and the RPG bug that compels me to get the next best suit of armor, and the next best sword, and the full set of spells. All of these aspects combined into an experience that was enjoyable. In the end I was satisfied with Dragon Quest VIII. There's enough good here to outweigh the bad. Trudging through screen after screen of useless, repetitive text every time I want to save is something I was willing to forgive since I really wanted to continue the quest. However, another game without as much polish, great music, and graphical beauty (DQ9 on the DS, I'm talking to you!) might not hold my attention. The makers of Dragon Quest may not have converted me into a fan, but they have definitely piqued my interest. I'll keep an eye on their future releases and see what develops.