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.

Everyone Else is Doing It

Ok, so I really am not into posting my own "best games of 2008" list, mostly because my best games are never anyone else's best games. Its all subjective, you know. I rarely am enthralled by any AAA games like the rest of the world. GTA4, MGS4, Fallout 3 - they don't do it for me. (There are exceptions, one of which I'll discuss in a bit.)

My favorite game experiences this year came, not on current generation systems, but on the PS2. Of course, I'm talking about the latest Persona games, most recently Persona 4. That is Japanese RPGs at its best right there, regardless of the console its on, that's the best of the best. Play Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 or you will never forgive yourself and will likely rot in gamer hell when you die.

That being said, my second favorite game of the year actually goes to one of those AAA titles that I spoke about earlier - Fable 2. Luckily I was able to get a 360 last month and I tore through Fable 2 - I couldn't put down the controller while playing through it (there's still a few things I want to do in the game, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming DLC, as well). Its unusual that a Western RPG takes one of the top spots in my mind for my favorite games of the year, but this year one does.

A few runners up that I feel the need to throw out here are the very much underrated Valkyria Chronicles, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and Prince of Persia. I would have to say Valkyria Chronicles joins the highly regarded ranks of games such as Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The World Ends with You as some of the best games that no one knows about. Its unfortunate that the AAA games of the holiday season of 2008 drowned out the awesomeness that is Valkyria Chronicles.

Crisis Core makes my list for a completely different reason. While I'm not as opposed to it as some game critics were, it makes my list of favorite games of the year for purely nostalgic purposes. Playing that game brought back memories of playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time all those years ago on a borrowed PlayStation console.

Prince of Persia makes my list because it is an action/platformer and that's not usually one of my favorite genres. Contrary to what many other reviewers stated, I actually liked the ease of play and the "no death" mechanics they had going on there. It allowed me to concentrate a lot more on the story, the dialog and the gorgeous visual presentation the game had to offer.

So, there you have it, the run-down of my favorite games of the year - all five of them. ;) Granted, there were other decent games I played throughout the year, but none struck a chord with me as much as these five games.

Lich King Will Steal My Soul

Here's my obligatory "zomg Wrath of the Lich King is coming out tonight and you won't see me post here for weeks" post. Well, hopefully it won't be that long, but I figured I'd take the weekend off from posting.

I wanted to post my review of Valkyria Chronicles early this week, but I don't feel I've played enough of the game to warrant a review, I'm only in chapter five. I'm currently playing some skirmishes on normal mode, trying out new things, seeing which tactics work best against the various baddies, etc. The review will be coming, but not this weekend, as I've dedicated the next four days to enjoying the new WoW expansion (assuming the launch goes smooth, of course, otherwise NERDRAGE!).

GameStop Oddities

Yesterday I picked up Valkyria Chronicles. I had intended to get the strategy guide, as well, but they didn't have it in stock. What's odd is GameStop's web site is selling it. I have never come across something they had on the site that I couldn't get in the store, besides a larger selection of used games, that is. Interestingly enough, I'm not sure the strategy guide is really needed. Its pretty easy to follow and the tutorials on battle situations are very well done during the course of the first few encounters.

I'll get into this deeper once I review the game after I've had a chance to play it more, but I really like the way the graphic artistry, story and music all come together to pull you in very early on. In fact, just during the prologue part of the story, which includes several cut scenes and one very easy starter battle, I was hooked and was immediately emotionally attached with the characters. A game hasn't done that for me in quite some time. More to come when I can review it at length.

Back to GameStop, another odd thing that occurred when I was in there yesterday. I wanted to pre-order Persona 4, which is set to come out the first week of December, and, according to them, they didn't have a date for it yet, so I couldn't pre-order. How does a game that comes out in a month not have a pre-order date set in their system yet? That's a bit odd and annoying.

Although, through it all, I did confirm that they were having a midnight release for Wrath of the Lich King next week, so I can strut my stuff and show the world how geeky I am by showing off my druid t-shirt.

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.

Valkyria Chronicles Hits Next Week

I posted recently about how different and fun I felt the demo for Valkyria Chronicles was. The game is set to hit stores next week and I think I'll be picking it up. Along with it, as you can see (or not, if you're using a feed reader to read this), I changed the site skin around a bit in honor of the game's release.

Do you know how hard it is to find good header images for this game? Anyway, to keep the hype up, here's some recent in-game video, featuring the character Rosie.

Valkyria Chronicles Demo Impressions

I'm not really big into strategy RPG games, but the demo just released this week of Valkyria Chronicles really impressed me. Instead of having lengthy battles on a grid that last for ages, this tactical RPG throws those conventions out the window in favor of third-person movement and first-person attacks. You actually control the path your character takes from a third-person perspective on the battlefield. You can see what they would see and you can hide where they would hide, like you were actually...well...in the middle of the battlefield.

It impressed me the way things are handled in-game to provide a fresh take on the SRPG genre. This isn't even to mention the beautiful, cell-shaded visuals and, from the little I heard, decent voice acting and epic musical arrangements. I'll have to add this to the list of games to pick up this fall.

Niche JRPGs Coming to the PS3?

One of my favorite parts of the PS2 is all the niche JRPGs that hit the console - from the Tales series, to the Shin Megami Tensei games, on to more obscure titles like Ar Tonelico and Mana-Khemia. The PS2 pretty much was an RPG lover's dream console. Its successor, the PS3, hasn't been doing so hot, and its been out nearly two years already.

So far we have Enchanted Arms (a so-so 360 port) and Disgaea 3 (another niche title). That's it for JRPGs on the PS3. There are a couple more coming up, like Valkyria Chronicles and Eternal Sonata (which happens to be yet another 360 port). But, for the most part, and as I've been complaining about recently on this blog, there hasn't been much.

This is why its exciting to see games such as the aforementioned Disgaea 3 and this upcoming game - Cross Edge (XEdge). Its a collaboration of sorts between popular RPG developers in Japan (some not so well known here) - Capcom, Bandai Namco, Nippon Ichi Software, Gust, Idea Factory and Compile Heart. The game will feature characters from all of those developers' biggest games, some of which I mentioned earlier. Its set to be released in Japan soon and, hopefully, we'll see a stateside release in the future.

Valkyria Chronicles Preview

A week and a half ago I posted about Valkyria Chronicles, with its mix of SRPG and shooter elements. I'm still really looking forward to this game, mostly because my PS3 is starved for RPG attention.

Siliconera just posted a rather informative preview of the game, and discusses the hybrid combat and flow of the game in more detail. Its a good read.

Valkyria Chronicles Should Be Interesting

I would probably describe myself as a "JRPG purist", if you will. My favorite genre of games is traditional Japanese-style RPGs. Bring on the cliché stories, the turn-based battles and the spikey-haired, emo heroes.

However, once you start getting into the realm of strategy RPGs, I tend to lose interest rather quickly. The game play is usually incredibly different and, in my opinion, any complex stories that the writers endeavor to build get lost in the endless grind to level up your characters and their various classes which is, in many cases, required to advance.

This isn't to say I haven't enjoyed my fair share of SRPGs, such as last year's Jeanne d'Arc, which was a great game in which the story didn't get too bogged down in endless leveling. It was balanced, if you will. What turned me off of Final Fantasy Tactics almost right out of the gate was the fact that I actually had to stop and level my characters up for a battle that occurred after roughly 15 minutes of game play. In other words, right at the very beginning of the story, I had to drop everything and do random battles to level my characters up to progress. One of the most celebrated SRPGs of all time turned me off from the entire genre, with Jeanne d'Arc being the exception.

With all that being said, I'm actually rather interested in Valkyria Chronicles, which was recently released in Japan, exclusive to the PS3. For one, RPG fans who own a PS3 are rather starved for attention - the market is saturated with FPS titles and very, very few RPGs. That alone makes me interested in any form of RPG that will be hitting the console.

On top of that, however, its rather difficult to classify Valkyria Chronicles within the atmosphere of RPGs. Its a hybrid, no doubt. At its core its a Japanese-style strategy RPG, but it includes basic JRPG elements such as turn-based battles, as well as...first person shooting. Wait, what? Check out these in-game videos, especially the first two. How interesting does that look?

Needless to say, I'm keeping my eye on this one, which is looking to be released here in North America toward the end of this year.