Priority Shift: Finish Majora's Mask!

I'm hooked on Majora's Mask.

I'm in the middle of Persona 3 and I'm loving it. Right now I find myself with a little time. The kids are asleep and I can play whatever I want. So, what is the game that's occupying my mind the most? Zelda: Majora's Mask, of course!

Playing Majora's Mask and experiencing it for the first time reminds me of playing Ocarina of Time for the first time. It's such a delightful experience. And, back then, Ocarina of Time was groundbreaking.

The kids and I are playing Majora's Mask together, which makes me feel kinda guilty for wanting to play on my own tonight. Still, there's plenty of tedious stuff that the kids don't want to watch, maybe I could play through that. My daughter likes to be there for the important stuff, like visiting new places and fighting new bosses. We've finished the second dungeon and defeated Goht and I'm itching to go on to the next dungeon, but I think I can restrain myself.

Now, let's see if I can get another heart container tonight!

It's getting a little dull, but P3 is still great

Persona 3 is getting boring. The story is extraordinarily predictable and mind-numbingly repetitive. I'm at a point where I'm just about to complete my second set of exams at school. You're literally told about the exams twice a day for the entire week leading up to the exams. It feels like the game designers assume you're playing this game 1 hour a week and that you forget easily.

Also, every single thing they've revealed in the story has been completely obvious to me; such as the big shadow attacks occurring on full moons and members of SEES being related to participants in the Kirijo group experiments that blew up the school.

So predictable. So boring.

Honestly, I'm still very hopeful that the game will pick back up again. They've introduced the enemy Persona users, and that aspect of the game could go either way. And the change of pace was nice with the trip to the beach. I enjoyed Operation Babe Hunt, and I like the new character too, Aigis. Though, her introduction was, again, completely predictable as she is featured HEAVILY in the box art.

The combat system is what keeps me going as it is still the best aspect of the game. I'm starting to get the hang of Persona fusion. It's fun to experiment and see what skills can be transferred. My new tactic is to level-up my basic Personas, like Pixie and Orpheus, register their leveled up stats in the compendium, and fuse whatever I have to make the most powerful Personas that I can. The combat system and the dating aspect make me very hopeful. I'll keep playing, happily!

Gaming with a 4 & 6-year-old

Here's a bit of advice from thing's I've learned from video gaming with my small children. When you play games with children, you cannot care about the game. Period. Any value you attach to the game will be lost. Any time you have to spend with the kids will be squandered if you care about the game. Any save files you have for the game will be erased, corrupted, or overwritten, so DON'T CARE ABOUT THE GAME!

If you must, start a separate game for yourself where you can be as methodical as you like. Play at night when the kids are asleep. But, when you're playing with the kids, let them do whatever they want. Let them spend all your hard earned game-money. Let them use all the ammo for your bazooka. Let them erase your game! If you have any value attached to saved data, back it up, then your kids can go crazy with your super-leveled characters, your completely unlocked vehicles, the full world map and whatnot. Let them spend all your money, trade your rare items, and destroy everything you've built. It's just a game and, hey, you have a backup! Have fun, kids!

What? Majora's Mask on VC? BUY!

I finally got the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask yesterday, and for only $10 too! Where was I that I found such a rare gem at such a cheap price? My living room!

In case you missed it, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was released yesterday on the Virtual Console for Wii. I never played it; in fact, I was surprised when I learned that there WAS a direct sequel to one of the best games of all time. How did I miss it? Turns out it was released on the same day as the PlayStation 2. Nintendo...sheesh!

I snapped out my credit card, purchased points, and had the game installed on my Wii in a jiffy. And, as luck would have it, my 6-year-old daughter had just come in the door from playing outside, so we could enjoy it together.

Gaming bliss!

We're only a few hours in, but it's really fun so far.

More Persoana 3, 'cuz it's fun

I had my first event-based boss battle while playing the other night. I fought a half-naked, giant, black and white, woman-shadow who sits in front of you with her legs spread waiting for you to.....uh.....attack her! It made me laugh out loud when I saw her; she's so blatantly sexual that I couldn't take the boss battle seriously. The icing on the cake: on one breast was the letter B and on the other was the letter J. BJ? Seriously? Awesome!

I can't make this stuff up!

Aside from that, I'm really enjoying the dating/relationship aspects of the game. The problem I'm having is that I can't decide which relationship to pursue. So far I've just been following the "whatever suits my fancy," strategy for dating. But, somehow I feel like you're supposed to be more deliberate. I was hoping to find the classic, anime stereotypes and then date either the crazy slacker or the motherly dim-wit (with big boobs). No such luck. I think I'm either going to go after the otaku or the team manager. I've been warned enough in the game that you shouldn't date two girls at the same time that I think I'll have to save that task for another playthrough of the game. Suddenly the lyrics to a Lovin' Spoonful song are going through my head. "Did you ever have to make up your mind?"

I went to fight the second boss in Tartarus and got my ass handed to me, so I've been grinding. And while I've been doing that I have also learned a bit more about the intricacies of fusing personas.

You can fuse personas by combining either two or three of them at a time. Depending on the stats, skills, and level of the personas you put in, you'll get different personas that come out. At first I was reluctant to fuse personas, but now a new options has been unlocked in the Velvet Room. I'm not sure exactly how it works but it seems that you can purchase any persona that you've ever let into your soul. And if that's the case then there's practically no risk in fusing personas.

While grinding I've managed to create a persona that has all but one of the skills that I commonly use in battle. I'm sure there's online guides about creating personas and how to get exactly the personas you want, but I'm having so much fun experimenting on my own that I don't want to spoil it with a guide. Before each session of grinding I go through all the new combinations of personas that are possible. First I try to create the ultimate persona that has all the skills I need. Then I just try to create new personas that I haven't created before. But all this talk about battle, dating, fusing personas, and ridiculous bosses makes me really want to get back to playing the game. What fun!

I'm famous!

They mentioned me on RPGcast. I'm famous now!

I was watching the RPGcast on Saturday and made a comment in the show thread and they read it aloud and chuckled. Don't believe me? See for yourself, Episode 83 at about 1 hour, 7 minutes and 30 seconds.

Dood! Famous!

Seriously, though, I love the RPGcast and if you're into console RPGs you should give it a listen.

Plug finished; back to gaming.

More Persona 3

Playing Persona 3 FES is turning out to be more fun that I thought it would be. My bad encounter with Persona 2 left me with a bad impression of the series. Persona 2 was the kind of non-scary scariness that just makes be want to find something else to do. I'll admit that Persona 3 relies on darkness and pools of blood too much, but at least the entire world isn't grey (unlike Persona 2).

But enough about what Persoan 3 isn't; let me mention what it is. Specifically, Persona 3 is fun combat. It's very refreshing to have a combat system that rewards you for finding new attacks and matching your attacks to your enemy. You're given a party to quest with. However, while you have a party, you don't directly control the actions of the other party members, you just set their general tactics (e.g. heal, attack, wait). And you have complete control over what members are in or out of your party.

In combat, well chosen attacks are rewarded with another turn. Your Personas have different abilities, and each turn you are allowed to attack with two Personas. It's confusing to explain, but it's not confusing when you play; it just makes a lot of sense and they guide you through the process.

Another aspect I'm liking is social links. You can fuse personas to create new ones; and each persona has a particular type called an arcana. You can form social links with others in the game, party members and NPCs alike, that will strengthen your ability to create personas of a certain arcana.

It all sounds like gibberish, but what it amounts to is this: you are rewarded in combat by the friends and relationships you make outside of combat. Befriending, impressing, hanging out with, and dating people in the game world will strengthen your level and enhance your ability to make new, more powerful Personas.

I'm loving it, and I can't stand to sit here and write about it anymore. I must play!

Ouch! Persona 3 just bit me!

I've heard this about Persona games. They lead you down the path for about an hour, and then kill you in a boss fight. That's exactly what just happened to me. It's very frustrating, only because I don't have another hour to dedicate to this game RIGHT NOW! And I want to!

Other than that, the game is top notch. I am really enjoying it. I got to 5 hours of playtime on easy level and wasn't feeling challenged, so I went back to play on normal. And I got wiped out for the first time. I'm both frustrated and pleased. I want the game to kick me in the ass when I try to bully through it.

I can't wait to play again tomorrow.

Odin Sphere is freaking wonderful

What's so freaking wonderful? The Story, the artwork, the music, and the gameplay. What else is there? In short, this game is oh, so good and I enjoyed every aspect of it.

At first the gameplay did not appeal to me. The game is somewhat of a cross between a 2D brawler and an RPG. I didn't like the 2D brawler feel of the game; it was too repetitive. Adding the RPG elements took this feeling away and I immediately fell in love with one key aspect of combat: Every battle is repeatable. If you fail to beat a group of enemies or a boss, you get an infinite number of chances. The game is automatically restored to the beginning of the battle; no saving, quick-saving, or thinking involved! I wish this was true of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. I think it would encourage more experimentation in battles if this was the case.



The story of Odin Sphere is what shocked and delighted me the most about playing. I wasn't aware at how forgiving I had become regarding tired plot lines in my games. The standard RPG plot goes something like this: A band of rebels teams up to save the world against all odds. The standard 2D brawler plot goes something like this: Those guys are bad; kill them. The mixture of the two genres has produced a storyline that is deeper than anything else I can remember. The characters are deep and have very real emotions.

The biggest failing of Odin Sphere is the repetition. You play as one of five characters in the game, not in a party, but as an individual with a unique story. All the characters inhabit the same world and travel down the same paths and explore the same maps and fight the same bosses. Every time you begin a new character you start at the ground level and have to work your way up. And the method for working up is exactly the same as it was before. There are five characters in the game, so you essentially play through the same game five times. They mix up the fighting mechanic, but nothing can cover up the fact that they really phoned it in when it comes to the number of levels and bosses.

However, the repetition CANNOT be too deep a criticism. Every single role playing game is repetitive; it practically defines the genre! I can't tell you how many wolves I killed in Final Fantasy XII, nor can I tell you how many slimes I killed in Dragon Quest VIII. Repetition is the name of the game. And the story of Odin Sphere pulls you through.

The artwork is beautiful. Everything has a hand-painted look to it, even the character designs and animations. This helps to create a fantastical world that becomes the perfect backdrop for the fairly-tale-like story. The outrageously huge king Odin is ridiculously masculine. The fairy kingdom is lit by fireflies and populated by gnomes, fairies and unicorns. The lava-filled fire realm glows with the light of bubbling lava and outlines the fiery vixens you must defeat. There are cities in the clouds inhabited by bird women, and cities underground inhabited by pooka. The world is so fantastical and rich that it really keeps you interested. I could spend an hour just watching the background pass; it's that beautiful. It's fun to get lost in the fantasy of this world.



There's another aspect of the artwork that appeals to me; let's call it fan-service. One of the characters, named Velvet, has a dark red riding-hood-like costume covering her head and not much else. She has dark stockings that come up to mid thigh, a revealing bikini-skirt, and a belly dancer's top, complete with gold ruffles. When she moves or changes direction, her chest jiggles. To top it off, her weapon of choice is a chain, that she holds wrapped around her wrists. The queen of the underworld has no flesh on her except on her face and gi-normous chest, which she keeps carassing. It's all fan service. It's so Japanese. I love it!

Bottom line, this game is fantastic. I can't imagine it keeping non-RPG fans happy, so it's not for them. But if you like the genre then you just might love this game, as I do.