More Animal Crossing? Yes!

What is it about this stupid game that has me so hooked? I didn't know I was such a collector! I've collected a few furniture sets over the past week, and it's been really fun. Especially since I can play along with my daughter. We have the egg (Easter) series, the spooky (Halloween) series, and the mushroom series. We had the Jingle (Christmas) series, but I sold it because I have too much furniture already. And still I want more. I'd like to have the Blue series and the Gracie series as well, but I may give up on the Blue series. My house is only so big!

It's just fun and relaxing, and that's all I care about right now. I'll find an epic quest later.

So long, P3, and farewell.

Nope. I was right before. I'm done with Persona 3. I want to like it so badly, but I just can't play the game the way I want to play it. I want to explore the world: Can't. I want the freedom to concentrate my efforts on mini-games and side quests: Nope, you have to do other things because we say so. I want to be able to grind endlessly: Too bad, it'll make you sick. I want to have all the time in the world to do these things: Too bad, 'cuz the boss shows up, whether you're ready or not.

Gameplay elements like those above define the RPG genre, but they're missing from Persona 3. It's finally turned me off enough to say, "I'm done with it." I'll keep P3FES in the basement, unfinished, because it upsets me that I haven't beaten such a good game, but I don't know if I'll ever get back to it. It's just not my style.

Now, what epic RPG is next?! Ah! Just the thing: Animal Crossing!

Jak 3: Cheap Death Defined

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a "fetch quest," see Jak 3. If you're hankering for cheap death and bad controls, see Jak 3. If you like fighting the camera for a good view of the action, see Jak 3. If you're looking for a great action-platformer, see elsewhere.

To be fair, I understand how someone could like this kind of game. It's full of challenges, and satisfying when you finally complete a challenge. But the challenge is a bit too much for me. I had a bad feeling when I died no less than 10 times in the opening sequence of the game.

Maybe it just suffers from Guitar Hero 2 syndrome (where the hardcore fans complained that it was too easy, so they made the sequel punishingly hard). I'm not going to get rid of the game; I think I'll sit on it for a bit. Maybe I'll be in to mood for a challenge someday. Or, maybe I'll get one of the previous Jak games. Or, better yet, maybe I should just go buy another Ratchet & Clank game!

Links

Staple Links:
GameFaqs
RPGamer
RPGamer Forums
RPGamer Live Podcast
RPGFan
RPGFan Forums

Animal Crossing:
AC: Let's Go To The Wiki
GameFaqs

Fable II:
GameFaqs

Are you sure NiGHTS isn't a launch game?

Nights has the feel of a launch game: A classic game that people identify with, dressed up in a pretty bow and shoved out the door as quickly as possible. Little care was given to the game and little thought was given to it's status as a classic. And, as it stands now, having never played the original Nights, I have no interest in ever playing a Nights game again. BANG! One dead Intellectual Property. Good job, Sega.

One great thing that I've never seen in any other Wii game: You can change your controls at any time or place, so if you want to try with classic controller, just pop it in and the game will start accepting that input without skipping a beat. This allows you to experiment with the controls to see what fits you best. The problem is that nothing fits best. The controls in this game are a nightmare. Flying in the game should be fun, graceful, intuitive, and fast. But, while flying looks neat, it feels random and out of control. As an example, you're supposed to loop back onto your own comet-trail to perform a special move. The problem is that the clunky controls combined with the way they've positioned the camera makes looping back and performing the special move more guesswork than anything else.

The first thing you do when you enter the game is play as a human character who walks, throws, and jumps. The animations for all of these actions is so stiff and unnatural that it made me laugh.

Everything about it it awkward. I don't want to say that the character design is bad, because it isn't. However, that isn't to say that I think the characters look good. I really feel that the characters were implemented poorly. The opening pre-rendered cutscenes focus on the character design and the characters look beautiful. The CG in the beginning of the game is probably the best part of the game.

I've really wasted enough time writing about Nights. It's badly done, and not fun. Don't bother.

Yuko was still waiting for me...

I'm back to playing Persona 3 again. Yuko is still there, waiting for me, patiently, as I work through my issues with the game that she's part of. What a nice girl.

All that talk in my post saying that I was abandoning Persona 3 got me thinking about the game. It's really got it's good points. It got me thinking about how I played the game as well, and maybe I'm playing it too seriously. Maybe I'm trying to accomplish too much and level up too much on my first playthrough.

Besides, I never got to the "conclusion" of all those dates with Yuko!

So, I'm back on Persona 3, and enjoying it (reluctantly).

Okay, you wanna know the truth about it? Here's what happened: I had Star Ocean Till the End of Time in the basement and decided I would give that a try since P3FES wasn't doing it for me anymore. The graphics, characters, voice acting, setups, and setting of Star Ocean are ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE compared to P3FES. So much so that I don't think I can even give Star Ocean a fair shake until I get the delicious character design, fine voice acting, great translation, and fun gameplay of P3FES out of my system completely.

So, the moral of the story? If an RPG is starting to drag on you, go play a crappy one! You'll be back to your original RPG in no time!

Plants vs. Zombies has eaten my brains!

Plants vs. Zombies is sucking me away from the better things in life. I've been totally obsessed with it for the past couple days. I played it in my sleep last night. And, to top things off, I'm only NOT playing it now because my hand hurts from playing it so much. Seriously! I can barely type.

Having said that, I can tell that this isn't the deep and rich tower defense game that I'm craving. I loved Desktop Tower Defense to death, and this doesn't hold the same place in my heart. Still, PvZ is very addicting and fun, and very well made; I really liked it!

What can I say about it? It's great for what it is. You have to defend your hard by using your array of turrets, mines, walls, and other tools. The unique thing is that your turrets are plants that shoot seeds, your mines are potatoes, your walls are giant walnuts, and your other tools are plant-based weaponry as well. And, just as the name suggests, you have to use these plants to defend yourself from the approaching zombies.

There's a ton a different types of weapons. My favorite is the Doom-shroom that explodes in a mushroom cloud and leaves a crater in your lawn. Similarly, there are a ton of different types of zombies. My favorite is the dancing zombie (looking very similar to the late Michael Jackson) who dances with his zombie buddies, who keep respawing until you destroy the leader. And, by destroy, I really mean knock its head off, because that's how you kill zombies in this game.

There's also a ton of mini games and variations on the game as well. I could remain occupied for another day or two of this game, if it didn't make me feel so guilty. I swear, I've done nothing but play PvZ all day today. I have to stop.

On a side not, I bought the game for a substantially reduced price from Steam, the Valve owned game DRM client. The experience was very good. From what I've heard I could install the Steam client on other computers as well. Perhaps I should put it on the kid's computer; the kids seem to like watching me play.