Commander Shepard Likes Foreign Girls

Readers, however few there may yet be, would you go interspecial?

So, I know that I promised to talk about my progress into Wild Arms 2 a few days ago, but you see, the friend whose 360 I originally played Mass Effect on the other day actually told me that I could just take his 360 and play it until I beat Mass Effect 1 and 2. Needless to say, as a person who never gets to play most modern games, I put down Wild Arms 2 for am intermission of Xbox 360. I mean, it’s a cute game with one of the worst translations of all time, but right now I can go for some good writing.

Unfortunately, I still think you guys are bastards with your high definition, as I had said before. I get to play my Mass Effect on a very old TV. And let me say, I have learned something that has happened to the gaming industry due to games that were intended to be played in High Definition — modern consoles SUCK without a high definition, nice TV. And that’s great for the people that can afford it. I remember when all you needed was a power cable and a coaxial AV cable and it looked fine on any piece of shit TV I can find. Ah well. I suppose that is progress.

So I will get back to Wild Arms 2, for sure, as I was quite a ways into it, but I simply must take this opportunity to play the Mass Effect series. I know I do a lot of commentary on JRPGs, but I love WRPGs, too. It’s just that I don’t get to play that many of them. Since I never got a chance to, I’m eventually going to be giving Neverwinter Nights 2 a try. But for now, I have Mass Effect.

I’m playing a Soldier. He has a thing for alien girls, and is pursuing the asari, Liara T’Soni, as depicted above. It’s funny. I picked her over the human soldier chick. I like foreign girls in real life. Although, for the record, I don’t think I’d go interspecial. I mean, the model they based Liara on is cute, but another species? Sounds gross.

Mass Effect seems at times like one of the most linear WRPGs I’ve ever played. I can’t really tell if I actually have a choice in things or whether it just leads me to believe that I do. Then again, it tells a very interesting story in a very lush world that is fun to learn about. It’s a very good sci-fi story. I’m really into it.

The FPS-Hybrid genre is not my favorite, though I recognize that the genre does have quite a few good entries: Deus Ex is the first one I ever remember playing. I think Fallout 3 is pretty mediocre, but then you will find that I don’t like most sandbox games like the Elder Scrolls series and other Bethesda works. Mass Effect has the perfect balance of linearity and openness. There is a lot of side stuff to do, but there is a clear main path that is interesting to follow.

Anyway, I’m sure more thoughts will develop as I continue to play this game — if I can tear myself away from the game long enough to write about it.

Playing Games in High Definition — You Bastards

Today I played Mass Effect on a friend’s Xbox 360. I started a file and played it for a few hours while he relaxed and later slept. I was amazed by how disoriented I was.

If you didn’t know, I don’t own any thisgen consoles and don’t really play them often. When I do actually see one, 90% of the time someone is playing an FPS and so I’m not interested at all. In fact, the only reason this particular friend even had Mass Effect in his library is because of the interface of the game — taking cover, pointing triggers, shooting. Not only do I not have a thisgen console, but I have a PC with a graphics card integrated into my motherboard. The most modern things I’ve ran are like Knights of the Old Republic and Morrowind.

Mass Effect

I’m not used to playing games of this graphics quality. I mean, I was playing video games in HD — you bastards. I’m not used to playing games in this way. It’s so different. Games have changed so much. I mean, I played Deus Ex, back when RPG-FPS hybrids first came out. I realize Mass Effect is more 3rd person, but it’s the same idea, same subgenre. I’m curious to what has happened to JRPGs, if anything.

Granted, Mass Effect is the most linear WRPG I’ve probably ever played in my life, in the vein of Anachronox as far as that goes — not so much in anything else obviously. On a side note, I regret not being able to play Anachronox any further after it started getting buggy.

As for Mass Effect: It took me several hours to even be able to play the game. Frankly, I suck at the whole FPS thing, and I know it’s not an FPS, but it interfaces like one. I picked it up though after a while. At first I was like, “Where are they shooting me from? Why won’t he take cover?”

I will say that the story is very gripping, more gripping than most WRPG stories, specifically because it is a very linear experience. Because narratives are linear, a linear game will make for better stories.

I was impressed. I’m certainly not one of those gamers who thinks, “Oh, modern games are utter crap. I like my old school games.” No, that’s not the case at all. If I could have one such thisgen console, I would love to have that many more games available to me.

However, a lot of people act like after playing games like this, they can’t go back to playing older style games, that such a thing is outdated, archaic, and unthinkable. I frankly don’t understand them. I’m not discrediting a game like Mass Effect or any other modern game (Though I haven’t played most of them), nor saying that it was not good. I rather was interested in it. But I must say that I would never trade my old style games for games like these, JRPG or WRPG. There’s still a lot of old games I haven’t played yet, and I’m going to keep playing them regardless. I think old games and old gaming conventions are still great — at least many of them.

Even in 2010, Planescape: Torment is among the very top quality WRPGs that exist. If you haven't played it, put down the Bioware and Bethesda games.

I will admit, it is nice to play something more modern though. I’m not going to shun a different, newer kind of game just because I appreciate the past. It’s too bad I probably won’t really get to finish Mass Effect any time soon. 

So, it’s back to my PlayStation and Nintendo DS. I’m on hour 13 or so of Wild Arms 2nd Ignition. I will eagerly tell you about that sometime tomorrow. And one day, I will eagerly tell you about all the modern games of today that I never got to play when they were modern.

Where Sands of Destruction Really Delivers

Yes, Morte, it's over. And thank fucking God, too.

It is with great relief that I bring to you the following news: clocking in at around 18 hours, I have finished Sands of Destruction. Man, was that ever a race to the finish.

You might be saying, “Eighteen hours? That seems really short even for a handheld JRPG.” But you’re wrong. While Sands of Destruction is of mild interest and has a few things going for it, it is ultimately a disappointment. You may recall my last post regarding this little game here, in which I said that it was unfair for the masses to hold Sands of Destruction up against older, legendary JRPGs like Xenogears and Grandia just because of the designers who worked on them being on the Sands of Destruction team. And that is unfair. However, it is perfectly fair to judge that Sands of Destruction, based on its own flaws and merits, is a disappointing game on all accounts. If you read my last entry, you can tell that I got my hopes up on it. And I really did.

Somewhere around hour eight or ten, I was just like, “Wow, this game is so incredibly easy. All I do is mash the Y button. It comes with all these skills to upgrade, but I only use the ones that don’t suck.” And if you’re feeling that by hour eight or ten, the game should not go on much longer. This is where Sands of Destruction really delivers. Instead of padding you with hours and hours and hours of gameplay, the game just cuts it off at around 15-25 hours, depending on how fast you rush, how much you get stuck on, and what side content you complete. I know a lot of gamers want really long, epic games, but not me — not unless the game is actually worth playing for that long.

I do have to admit that I used Action Replay codes after dying on the last boss, after fighting for a good hour at least, to move from level 50 to level 90. I mean, I could have kept trying and beat it, but I just couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted it to be over, I wanted to see the ending, and I wanted to move on. So I did.

That said, by the end of most RPGs, I’m ready for them to be over. By then I’ll have other stuff that I want to do, but I won’t be able to move on because I’m curious about what is going to happen in the story, so I keep playing it.

I will close with saying a few things about this game: I liked some of the characters. I particularly liked Rhi’a and Taupy. Morte, however, I found to be absolutely insufferable, and I wished she was not the love interest of Kyrie — not that the love story is really very good anyway. Another good thing about this game is its dungeons; however, if you are the sort of gamer that does not like puzzling dungeons, mazes, and so forth, then you might not feel that way. However, the truly best part of this gameplay is navigating the dungeons and figuring them out. And trust me, that isn’t saying much. Also, if you’re the kind of gamer who plays games for their music, I actually really liked a lot of it. The game isn’t completely terrible, as in utterly unplayable, but it’s not very good either. 

So, sorry if anyone ran out and bought Sands of Destruction based on my other post, expecting it to be really great. You must admit, it does seem really good at first. Ah, who am I kidding? No one reads this yet.

So what’s next? I think we’re going to take a step back to the Playstation and go with Wild Arms 2. Most Wild Arms fans tell me it’s the best WA, so I’m going to take a looksy.

Dragon Quest: The Timeless Formula on DS

Original Dragon Quest V

One thing that I think hardcore Dragon Quest fans can be thankful for is the fact that the developers have not done a whole lot of messing around with the formula for a DQ game, whereas Final Fantasy fans are constantly giving up on the series as new fans emerge, and each era of Final Fantasy games changes drastically. Dragon Quest more or less has stayed with its roots though.

After taking a look at this screen from the original Dragon Quest V and then taking a look at the one below from the DS remake, you might feel like I’m a bit full of shit in saying that the game hasn’t changed much, but I feel like I can safely say that even with all the little changes and improvements, even with the graphical rehaul that makes it much easier on the eyes, the game is still true to itself. Playing it still feels very much like playing Dragon Quest V. It’s merely an improved experience of what is more or less the same thing.

The atmosphere of Dragon Quest remains intact in the game, much more than say, the atmosphere and essence of Final Fantasy IV SNES remains in the Final Fantasy IV DS remake. Let’s face it, FFIV DS looks like an ugly version of, “What if FFIV was released on the PSX?” for Final Fantasy fans nostalgic of that era. And yes, it could be said that the Dragon Quest remakes look to be somewhat like DQVII, too, but the difference is not only that they actually look good, but most importantly, they maintain the integrity of the original games despite graphical changes.

Remake of Dragon Quest V for the DS

The Final Fantasy series on Super Nintendo is nothing like the Final Fantasy series on Playstation. If you take the Super Nintendo era Final Fantasy and give it the atmosphere of Playstation era Final Fantasy, it’s a totally changed thing. Don’t get me wrong, even though it looked terrible, I thought Final Fantasy IV DS could arguably be much better than the original in many ways. The point I’m trying to make is not that FFIV DS sucks, but rather that the Dragon Quest series sticks to its roots more than most series do, especially ones like Final Fantasy, which is always changing itself for the modern era of Final Fantasy fans.

Even the configrations and menus of Dragon Quest are almost as badly done on the DS as they were on the SNES. The characters still walk in place. A lot of it is the same. To be honest, I am not a hardcore DQ fan, and I have said this before. I could never get into the SNES Dragon Quest games much. I thought they were mindless, grindfesty bores, and I hated the battle system so much. I couldn’t play them, mainly because they were console games. 

I didn’t play much of DQVIII because my PS2 crapped out, but I played VII for a while, eventually getting tired of it. It’s way too long for what it is. Dragon Quest VII is perhaps the longest console RPG of all time. The main story can take 80 to 100 hours to complete, but the fact is that it’s not good enough to be that long. Sure, the PSX discs could hold a lot more space than the SNES cartridges ever could, but it’s absolutely unnecessary. 

So when I picked up the remake of Dragon Quest V for the DS, I don’t know what I was expecting, but everyone told me about how it was really good and that the story is exceptional (even though there is a silent protagonist, grrr). And for having a silent protagonist, the story is interesting. But more importantly, the game feels right for a handheld game. I don’t why anyone would have ever wanted to play this series on a console, because I certainly couldn’t finish one; but, now that its on DS, I wouldn’t mind seeing future, new DQ titles on the DS. I find that they’re much more playable in the handheld format.

…And aren’t I just some kind of prophet: Dragon Quest IX for the DS:

You had best believe I'm going to be playing this on release.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, a new title for the DS that was recently released in Japan, will be hitting North American shores this Summer in July. It seems like the developers completely agree with me after their work on the IV – VI remakes. Although, I believe there is word of Dragon Quest X actually being released on the Wii, I think putting the 9th installment on the DS was a wise decision. I think the DS is where the series should stay personally, but alas.

The DS is the perfect system for Dragon Quest, what should be a relatively short, charming game and nothing a second longer or more drawn out. DS RPGs tend towards about 20 to 30 hours, which is perfect for this series. There is no need to draw it out any longer, to make it tedious and unfinishable. I think anyone would rather sit through the tedious Dragon Quest battle system with the mobility of their DS than stuck in front of a  TV screen, mashing the same button over and over again. Playing the game handheld, when you look back down at your DS after emerging from random battles, you can return to the charm of Dragon Quest in all it’s glory.

Now the only question is, will Dragon Quest IX use the timeless formula or reinvent the series? I can’t say as I did not get to play the 8th game much, but perhaps there are some who feel like Dragon Quest VIII already reinvented the series.

An Army of Fanboys’ Expectations

My Party in Sands of Destruction

So I guess you’re all wondering, what with the start of this new blog and everything, what game I’m actually playing at the moment. And that’s going to be Sands of Destruction for the Nintendo DS.

Sands of Destruction is a game that suffered heavily due to the fact that it was hyped up severely because some key designers from games like Xenogears and Grandia were working on it. When it came out, I heard nothing but cries of disappointment all across the board that this game was a failure, to avoid it at all costs, and so forth as that. And for a long time, that’s pretty much what I did. I avoided it, played a lot of other games before it, etc.  

To be honest, most of the games I’ve been playing lately have been DS titles. The last RPG I finished was Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, which actually was very impressive. In fact, I have never been quite impressed with Dragon Quest games. I know, I know. Sue me. But that one was actually quite good.  

I digress… I mean to say that I have an ample supply of DS games to play, and I’ve mostly just been browsing though them, playing the first hour or so of each to see which is going to be the most interesting; if I come into contact with a DQV, I finish it.   

As I was saying, I was more or less avoiding Sands of Destruction based on what I’ve heard. However, about a week ago when I finally decided to load it up and see how bad it actually was, it suddenly became my most promising choice of game to play. I was so shocked. I loved the atmosphere, the focus on the story, and the intrigue of playing with a group of characters who want to destroy the world as opposed to saving it (Or at least that’s how it starts off). I’ve been wanting a game where the protagonist isn’t silent — I fucking hate that, by the way. I’ve been wanting a game with a focus on dialog, story, and characters. This game carries itself in a way that I miss. It makes me feel good to play a game like this.  

I’m curious about what I will learn about these characters — the small town, naive hero with ideals, the fucked up chick with twisted ideals of world destruction, and the bounty hunter teddy bear with a voice like a war veteran. Humans are oppresed by the beastmen, and fucked up chick is sure the solution for the world’s problems is to destroy it.  

But of course, we’re going to encounter a classic JRPG cliche. Even though there will be a force in the world insisting that it would be good for all of existence to exterminate itself, the heroes are going to insist to the villains that, “Humanity is worth fighting for, and even though some things about this world are bad, we believe in ourselves! And if you think ending humanity is the best thing, then we’re just going to stop you together!” Haha. You read this, thinking, “It sounds like he likes that cliche.” Well, you would be right. I love that cliche.

The only complaint I had with this game from the start is how slow the dialog moves during the voice overs. But I’ll give it the other flaws that it has, too. The battle system, once you get acustomed to it, is very plain, simple, and comes with few options in the guise of many options. Even though you have a lot of skills you can spend points on as you level up, most of the skills you barely have access to use and there is only one proper way to spend the points to make your party effective (focus on flurries). This by and large seems to be the accepted strategy on GameFAQs.  

However, though I’m still very early into playing this game (I’m about to collect the blue rose for the Beastlord on the ship you stowaway on), this game seems to be quite a worthwhile game if you are into playing games for story, characters, dialog, and atmosphere. Without holding it up to games like Xenogears, this game is very solid. It’s in fact not even fair that this game gets such criticsm for not living up to an army of fanboys’ expectations from the designers of Xenogears.  

I’ll let you know more of what I think about it as I progress through the game.

Welcome to +1 Blog

I had really been set on starting up my console, computer, and handheld RPG blog, simply calling it Plus One Blog, in so doing paying homage to magical and otherwise enhanced equipment in Dungeons and Dragons, the origin of all these video games we have mysteriously dubbed “role-playing games.” Unfortunately, all of the adequate URLs on both WordPress and BlogSpot are taken; and, let it be also known that, in addition to being taken, they are also not in use, most having never been posted on even once. Bastards — perhaps genius bastards, but bastards all the same.

That being the case, I came to ponder what twist I might place on the name of my upcoming blog, and so it occured to me that, without my giving any statement of preference, probably 7 out of 10 of all RPGs I play these days are of Japanese origin, as opposed to western origin. This led me to a Japanese twist on the original idea: Purasu Ichi Blog, or +1 Blog, or PIB. Hell, even Purasu Ichi Burogu would work.

As I may have implied, this is not because I like Japanese games better. I would go as far as to say that JRPGs (Japanese RPGs) and WRPGs (Western RPGs) are two utterly different genres at this point in gaming, and it’s easy for a lot of people to say, “I like one more than the other,” if not, “I like one, and in fact cannot stand the other.” For me it is not so simple. I guess I play the Japanese games more often because, at present, they are more available to me based on the specs of my PC and the available consoles and handheld devices I have access to. Both genres interest me, however, and I do play both.

Even though I have titled this blog Purasu Ichi Blog, it is not an exclusively Japanese media-oriented thing. It simply acknowledges that much of the content involved here does indeed come from good ole Japan, and that name was more available than the more western title I had originally conceptualized.

So… What is the purpose of PIB? Isn’t that a soft drink? No, it isn’t. That’s Mr. Pib. Make no mistake: Purasu Ichi Blog is neither a soft drink nor is it an adequate source for your RPG news. I mean, let’s get real. I am not a media giant. I’ve seen a few indie blogs try to run media coverage sites, but let’s face it. No one is leaking release information to me or to any of them. They’re always getting news second, so please, don’t come to me for news. I don’t have any, although I may comment on a particularly interesting piece of news that I find noteworthy.

This is a commentary, a feed of ideas from not just a gamer — but an RPG gamer. It is true that most of the games I play are RPGs and that very seldom do I find interest in other genres (although it occasionally happens). My interest in RPGs has led me to be something of an expert, having played almost every title (with definite exceptions) on SNES, PSX, NDS and a decent lot on PS2, GBA, PC, and other consoles. 

That said, I own neither a Playstation 3, nor an X-Box 360, nor a Nintendo Wii. My video card is integrated into my motherboard, for Christ’s sake. I am not against modern gaming, it’s just that I can’t do much of it at this point in my life. And to be honest, this doesn’t really bother me much. I genuinely like older games, and my outlook is simple: There are many, many, many games available for me to play, older games that I have never played before, and I still very much enjoy the atmosphere of those games. There are so many games for me to play that I don’t really need to focus too much on the latest releases.

With that said, you should know what this journal will cover as it gets underway and you should know if you’ll find any interest in the content here.

Welcome to Purasu Ichi.