Game Journal: Handhelds Are RPG Machines!

Just as a quick refresher, I've been playing a lot of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel and The Last Remnant lately. But, there are a couple handheld RPGs I'd like to check out. In fact one of them - Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - is on its way to my mailbox right now.

I often get tired of playing a game on my DS or PSP, I must admit. Sometimes its a strain on my eyes or my neck. I get to the point of just wanting to sit on my couch and play my Xbox or PS3. And that tends to be what I do. The only portable game in recent memory that I actually completed was Chrono Trigger for the DS a couple months ago. I have the bad habit of playing through a game until I get bored of it being on a handheld, then I go play something else. Note, I don't necessarily get bored of the game itself, its just something about handhelds that is an obstruction for me to finish games.

Anyway, I can't say these two incoming games will change that, but I definitely want to try them anyway. I should get used to the fact that many of the best JRPGs recently have been of the portable gaming variety - and that's not a bad thing!

I'll have to write my review of Sacred 2, but after that I'm going to be working through a couple portable games, the one I mentioned above and Crimson Gem Saga, the latest JRPG to hit the PSP.

Game Journal: Getting Past Technical Issues

I've been taking a bit of a break from console gaming (aside from a bit of Halo 3 with my brother) - I've been focusing mostly on playing Chrono Trigger (DS). However, I have a new game incoming from GameFly - The Last Remnant. The reviews weren't encouraging, but almost all of them focused on one aspect of the title - the technical issues. To me, that's a little dense and I'll tell you why. For starters, there are quite a few games in the past that received high praises where certain technical issues continually emerged. One that I can think of off the top of my head is Mass Effect. I loved the game, critics loved the game. What's the problem? The texture popping is out of this world, and it didn't get much better when I installed the game to the hard drive. Let's not even get me started on Fable II.

Now, I haven't played The Last Remnant yet, so it may be that the technical issues are too much to get past, but from what I hear, the extra polish that was applied to the PC version of the game actually makes it a very good game. My question is, why can't reviewers push past the technical issues and actually review the game play itself. Several reviews I read spent half of the review or more discussing the technical issues and not much time on the game play itself, the story or the innovations.

So, I'm actually looking forward to trying the game out, especially after hearing several people express their thoughts on the PC version and how well done the game is overall. If I can learn to tune out the texture issues in Mass Effect and the myriad bugs in Fable II and still really enjoy the games, I'm sure I can with The Last Remnant, as well.

Game Journal: Which Way is the Right Way?

I've been playing a lot of Chrono Trigger lately, it’s a nifty little game that I've overlooked up to this point. My biggest pet peeve about it? In many (way too many) areas it gives you little to no clue as to what to do or where to go next. At one point I wandered around for at least an hour of game time total looking for the next story trigger, I finally gave up and looked online and it was something I was completely not expecting, nor had been given from any NPC in the game besides the ones I was supposed to talk to to progress.

This, my friends, is yet another reason I enjoy using strategy guides. That hour I spent looking for where to go next is one hour of my life wasted, which I'll never get back. A strategy guide would have solved all my problems. For the most part, Chrono Trigger is an extremely simple game, with simple cut scenes that manage to tell the story amazingly well. But, perhaps its too simple. So simple that, in fact, the developers (either when the original game was made, or when they were porting it and cleaning up the dialog for the DS version) for some reason decided not to bother telling you where to go to get from point A to point B.

It’s a habit I'm glad most recent (as in, the last 10 years) RPGs have given up, thankfully. Let's hope Star Ocean: Second Evolution doesn't have the same in store for me.

Game Journal: Guiding My Way

I'm finding it harder and harder to play and enjoy games without a strategy guide these days. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, its happening. Why? First off, I use strategy guides in an attempt to get things right the first time, without spending countless "wasted" hours looking for stuff or perhaps figuring out where to go. Because I don't have the time (or patience, some might argue) to play a game multiple times like many people do (one time for the story and maybe a second time to find everything there is to find), I find myself almost glued to a strategy guide for many games. While I don't necessarily find them advisable for boss fights or basic exploration, in this day and age of achievement whoring it is nice to at least attempt to get as many things as I can on my one playthrough.

One game in recent memory that I played without a strategy guide is Persona 3, and in a way I didn't feel it needed one. Sure, most games don't need a strategy guide to follow the story straight through, its when you want to find all the nuances of the game that they really shine. Plus, it was a PS2 game with no achievements or trophies and few side quests.

Recently I've been playing Chrono Trigger on the DS…without a guide. I'm stuck. I can not figure out where I'm supposed to go next. Its driving me bonkers. And that's not the only thing. I keep thinking I'm missing things I could get or see by just following from point A to point B to point C in the story.

Some may argue that I can look up any info I want online. Sure, I could. That, however, is horribly inconvenient. I sit on my sofa to play my consoles, my PC is at a desk. If I'm using the TV, my wife is often on the PC doing her thing. Its not like I have all the information on the Interwebs at my fingertips 24/7. Its much more convenient to have a hardcopy of what I'm looking for, where I can find things quickly and easily.

In my playthrough of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, I used a strategy guide and had quite a bit more fun than I did, even with Persona 3 or Valkyria Chronicles (another game I didn't have a guide for). Perhaps having all that info at my fingertips in the form of a consolodated guide equates to my enjoyment of the game? I don't know for sure, but I do know it bugs me when I know I'm likely missing something that I could have experienced if I had a guide for the game.

I'm prepping to play Dragon Quest V and Tales of Vesperia (finally) before long, I will likely feel the need to pick up guides for them before I start playing. Maybe I'm strange.

Game Journal: Traveling Through Time

One of my favorite blogs to read, because it’s a gaming blog that doesn't focus on gaming news but on intelligent discussion about games, is The Brainy Gamer. For a while now they've been playing vintage games and discussing them. I've never really had the time to join in with them, even though it sounded like fun.

This time around, however, they're playing Chrono Trigger. This game has eluded me over the last 15 years or so. I never played the original SNES version - it was overshadowed by the Final Fantasy games of the time (and Secret of Mana, and Earthbound). I've had the new DS port/remake/whatchamacallit in from GameFly for a while now, as well, so I figured I would actually make the time to play through and discuss it with this group of gamers this time around. So, that's what I'm going to do.

I'm a bit farther ahead than they will be at the start, because I started playing the game a couple weeks ago, unaware that game would be chosen as the next game they would play through. I'm too lazy to start over, so I'll just rewind my mind to discuss those parts of the game that I've already completed. Still, I'm not too terribly far into the game. My road trip next week will also provide a decent opportunity to get caught up on this classic, so next time someone asks me if I've played Chrono Trigger, I can actually say that I have, instead of holding my head down in shame.

Game Journal: The Vast Star Ocean

I'm still thoroughly engrossed in Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I'm finding that the closer to the end of the game I get, the more there is to do. There isn't much I skipped in the first half of the game, but I have yet to step foot in the coliseum on Roak for anything other than continuing the story. There's also a handful of shop orders that I didn't finish on Roak and a metric crap-ton of quests and shop orders that I have to finish on En II. (None of that will make sense if you haven't played the game quite a bit.)

This isn't even beginning to mention the new quests and private actions that are now available on all the available planets, or the crafting I'd like to do to outfit my characters with the best weapons possible before the post-game dungeons. Its like an RPG overload, but I'm determined to work through it and at least have a crack at those uber-hard bosses and areas that are only available after you beat the main game.

At the same time, I'm poking around in Chrono Trigger (DS). I know it’s a sin among RPG fans, but I never played the game in any previous incarnation and am actually starting to believe a handheld platform is one of the best ways to experience some of these old-school RPGs via remakes and ports. I'll talk about this more in my review, but it lends itself very well to the whole idea of portable gaming, given the frequency of places you are allowed to save your progress (unlike some new handheld RPGs).

In addition to all that, my brother an I worked through a few levels on Braid the other day. That game hurts my head with its complex puzzles, I'm beginning to thing its too hardcore for my tastes. Perhaps hardcore isn't quite the word - too flat out confusing (although I'm sure my brother would disagree). While it introduces a new and often-praised mechanic, it seems to me that its just a different, slightly less annoying way to fit a "trial and error" system into the game. Instead of "start from the last checkpoint" its "rewind time and do it over until you figure it out". In fact, sometimes I think a "start from the last checkpoint" mechanic would have been quicker and less tedious. (Review inbound for this title, as well.)