Post of the Day: 4.8.2009

Tales of Vesperia rage - only in Japan (or not?). Its a good thing I didn't buy this game (although I probably would buy it if I could, say, find it new for $20 somewhere). Now to decide if I should play the 360 version or wait for the enhanced PS3 version. Decisions, decisions...

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.

Breaking out the DS

My brother and I had an interesting discussion about RPGs this past weekend. He balked at some of my favorite RPGs and ordered me to go play some older ones that I missed - like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. I had planned to play Chrono Trigger on the DS when I could nab it, and I got it in from GameFly recently. I just started playing it a bit yesterday, although I can't see myself putting a lot of time into it until I'm done with Star Ocean.

I've recently found myself interested in revisiting some older RPGs with newer ports and, perhaps, trying more niche RPG fare, such as the games Atlus is bringing over to America this year. Granted, most of the games I play will be either remakes or ports of older titles - some have new, easier difficulty levels and the like - but still, at least I'll get to experience them. Why am I looking at these "older" games? Because the RPG forecast for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 looks weak this year. It’s a good thing I still have a couple of last year's non-handheld games to play, as well - The Last Remnant and Tales of Vesperia.

Star Ocean, Braid and The HotSpot, Oh My!

Star Ocean: The Last Hope came out yesterday, and I spent approximately nine hours playing it. The review scores so far have been a bit higher than I expected for a JRPG - 8/10 from IGN, 4/5 from X-Play. Those are not bad scores by any means. Considering the fact that I'm a fan of the genre, some of their cons would likely not even register with me. I'm sounding a bit reserved about this game, don't you think? I mean, it’s the Xbox 360 system-seller for me, its why I bought a 360 in the first place, it’s a game I've been looking forward to for quite a while. Why am I not gushing in joy about this latest Star Ocean?

Trust me, there will be plenty of time for gushing when I finish my review. I don't want to jump to conclusions or spoil that review by discussing things before hand. I'd like to play at least 30-40 hours before I finish things up and put the last polish on, even though I've started the review already. Its more than the bullet-point pros/cons list I've had in the past, and will hopefully be my new standard for game reviews here.

In other news, I wanted to buy Braid ever since I played the demo and this week is probably the best time to do so, since the game is being sold at a discounted price to Xbox Live Gold members. I bought it and played through the first level (which was on the demo, so I breezed through it). I likely won't continue until I'm done with Star Ocean, but I wanted to get it this week anyway, since its discounted by 33%.

What else do I have on deck after Star Ocean? Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride and Tales of Vesperia most likely. I can finally dust off my DS for some portable gaming action.

I also must say, I love The HotSpot, GameSpot's weekly podcast. Those guys crack me up. I used to listen to it all the time, but since I didn't have an iPod for a while, I wasn't able to listen to it at work and didn't have time at home. I can once again (new orange 16GB nano) and it is glorious!

I'm Looking Forward to Playing...

Its that time once again to throw out lists of what games I'd like to play in the coming months. I've poured through a lot of games on my list in the last three months since I purchased my Xbox 360, which is a good thing. I've found some great games that I would have missed out on otherwise (Mass Effect and Fable 2 being a couple).

Update (2/22/2009): Since I made this post, I've decided to make it a list (and be as comprehensive as possible) of games I want to play or finish and the systems I want to play them on. Some of these games, perhaps, I may have played before and just want to play them on a different system (examples: Prince of Persia, Oblivion) and some of these games I might have started but never finished (Persona 4, Mirror's Edge). Needless to say, its going to hopefully be an exhaustive list of the version of these games I want to play.

I'm probably looking at playing or finishing these games in the near future:

- Star Ocean: The Last Hope (360)
- Tales of Vesperia (360)
- The Last Remnant (360)
- X-Blades (360)
- Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (360)
- Halo Wars (360)
- Mirror's Edge (360)
- Fallout 3 (360)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360)
- Burnout Paradise (360)
- Prince of Persia (360)
- Braid (360 XBLA)
- Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
- Flower (PS3 PSN)
- Persona 4 (PS2)
- Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica (PS2)
- Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)
- Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)
- Chrono Trigger (DS)
- Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)
- My Japanese Coach (if you can really consider that a "game" - DS)

Post of the Day: 2.11.2009

I haven't played it yet, but its kinda cool that Tales of Vesperia is getting its own anime flick.

Biding My Time

I'll be quite blunt, the one game this year I would say I bought my Xbox 360 for is Star Ocean: The Last Hope, due out later this month (2/24 to be exact). I absolutely loved the previous game for the PS2, its one of my favorite RPGs ever.

But, in the meantime, and since I've finished all the games I really wanted to play (except Tales of Vesperia, which I might as well not even start now), I'm playing a few non-RPGs to pass my time and expand my gaming horizons.

I have Tomb Raider Underworld in from GameFly and I've played that a bit, I also have Midnight Club: Los Angeles, which I've played quite extensively the last few days. I have the 360 version of Bioshock sitting idly by waiting for some screen time, as well. As if that wasn't enough, finally decided to use some of my left over Microsoft spacebucks and buy Portal: Still Alive. I played Portal through once on the PS3 quite a while ago and loved it, now I'm ready for another, more in-depth play through.

So...hopefully I'll be done with all or most of that by the end of the month and can delve face-first into SO4. I'm sure that game will then consume my soul for the foreseeable future, assuming it lives up to expectations.

Game Status Update: Nov. 1, 2008

I'm considering doing one of these "status updates" every month, much like several other gaming blogs. Its basically a list of what I've tried, what I'm playing completely through, what I've decided I'm completely skipping, etc. Depending how things go, I may do this bi-weekly, but I've got a lot of games to play and Wrath of the Lich King coming out this month so...perhaps monthly is the way to go.

Games I've tried and will likely not finish for various reasons: Eternal Sonata, Metal Gear Solid 4 (yes, yes, cry me a river).

Games I'm currently playing and intend to finish: LittleBigPlanet ("finish" as in, at least clear the developer-made levels), Tales of the Abyss.

Games I don't intend to play for quite some time: Tomb Raider: Underworld, Fallout 3 (more tears, let me have them).

Games I intend to play through: Valkyria Chronicles, Star Ocean: First Departure, Rock Band 2, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Persona 4, Bioshock, Mirror's Edge.

Games I intend to try if/when I get a 360: Fable II, Tales of Vesperia, Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant, Mass Effect.

Game the will likely take up most of my play time and cause me to not get any of the above games finished: Wrath of the Lich King.

And, there you have it. If I had to put two games (besides WotLK) at the top of my list to play this holiday season, it would most likely be Valkyria Chronicles and Persona 4.

/Cry

Tales of Vesperia is hitting store shelves today, and I have no 360 to play it on. Alas, why has Sony forsaken the JRPG? The world may never know...

[Edit: And this write up about the game makes me /cry even more.]